"What's with the bags?" Bristol asked as she tore the sticks apart.
"Aren't I going to stay at your house to train? I took my training attire."The men burst into laughter and she looked at them wondering what was so funny.
"I told you your daughter lives in a very different head space."
"Yeah." They laughed but Dalton didn't laugh with them. He looked at the sticks intently. They weren't just simple sticks. They seemed to have a very definitive shape and style. All the engraving in them was expertly done that he swore a master woodworker touched them. Not a simpleton.
"Can I see your sticks?" he asked and Ellie gave them to him without any reservation. "Where did get these?"
"I made them."
"No, no, no." He slowly shook his head. "These… these staves… these… they look familiar."
He looked at them intently brushing through the marking on them and started snapping his fingers trying to recall where he saw it.
"I made it from memory. I was a… craftsman in my previous life and these were family heirlooms." She didn't know what a metallurgical engineer was in the language of the Alkebulan exiles since they didn't even have the least equivalent or a material engineer.
She couldn't say she worked in a forge, she wasn't used to using primitive technology to forge a tool. The technology of Ovale was advanced enough to write computer equivalent of codes and miniature circuitry within the atomic structure of their creations. In both metals, wood and they were even capable of cloning and bringing back dead and extinct animals.
"I swear I've seen these before. They look. They are…"
"Like the golden-haired elves of Randall's weapons. The king had something like this in the battle of Aran. He said it was looted from Ralun." Bristol said as he went in for a closer look at the javelin.
Dalton gave them to him to inspect.
"you're right." Her father agreed. "The one with the poky poky blades."
Bristol pressed the two pieces together as he stared at the crevices at their ends.
"Now, that you mention it," Bristol passed one piece to her father and continued checking the other piece. "It looked a lot like it without those death traps."
"Did it have an onyx, or an opal and a diamond?" she asked and they looked at her. "did it have a red gem with white stripes? A clear shiny stone and a stone with different colors that could seem imperfect but incredibly beautiful?"
"yes, how did you know?" She put the pieces back together and twisted them. "Was it here?"
she pointed at the center of the staff where the pieces met.
"I don't know." They responded and looked at Dalton.
"What?"
"you're the one that touched it."
"This is your limelight. Are you going to let it go?"
"my memory is a bit fuzzy."
"mine isn't. I remember you lying on the ground shaking like a fish out of water." Quigley joked. "how long ago was it?"
"ten years or is it, fifteen?"
"it was sixteen years ago." Illyra said from the kitchen. "the battle of Aran was sixteen years ago. Shortly before mom gave birth to Ellie."
"yeah, right. That explains why she wasn't there to laugh at our heads and stop the chief from drinking himself to death after the battle."
"Are those elves still around?" she asked and the men looked down.
"They are, and as of right now, they are marching against Arga." She dropped her staff and looked at her father as she thought of the implications of his words.
Arga was going to war with the elves of Randall. The elves had her family heirloom. The king of Randall used her family heirloom as his weapon of choice. Ovale of the Aerum fell because that weapon tasted blood inside the holiest of places. Randall was…
Her breath shortened and she rubbed her chest. She was running out of time. She thought she had had enough but it seemed she was wrong.
"You okay?"
"When do you think we can start training?"
"tomorrow."
"When do you think that war will start?"
"one or two weeks from now on. Possibly never if the knights of Arga join the war."
Seven to fourteen days. If she starts training tomorrow, she'll need a day or two or a week to recover depending on the intensity of the training and how her body would react to physical activity. A couple of more days to climb the mountain up to the peak to reach Ovale. Then a couple or more to repair and build a weapon. But Ovale has a chance of being ruins by now not a ghost city but…
she'll need a few more days to get herself ready and a weapon to use besides, she can't train in a day or…
She needs more time. She can relearn magic and spell casting at Ovale. She can defend herself using it.
"Doesn't work for you?"
"no. It doesn't." she turned away and Illyra grew worried as she saw Ellipse walk back upstairs with a blank face. Something was up. She stopped again and turned as the men looked at her and Dalton commented that she was by now, in her own world again.
"dad," she started as her mind reverted back to the present moment. "I need to go home. Dalton, you can forget about training. I'll learn everything I need back home."
"What?!"
she walked back to her room without any other look around once more, but with a look of firm determination on her face.
Illyra stopped what she was doing and ran behind her.
"Ellipse!" She called.