"They call me Deathbringer," the silver-haired ljósálfar whispered into my ear just before she placed the blade over my chest. "I wonder, what will they call you, child of man?"
These were the last vestiges of my recurring nightmare before I felt the hard slap on my cheek. I woke up with a start, my eyes darting left and then right in sudden alertness.
No, I wasn't in that dark place anymore; that 'Temple of Doom' where the wailing of my fellow sacrifices continued long after they'd been murdered. I was back on the second floor of Lugh's Lament and Liara was leaning over me with a hand raised and ready to slap me again.
"Oh, you're awake," she said casually. As if slapping someone awake was the normal thing to do. "You were having another nightmare."
"I don't get good dreams." I sat up and rubbed my cheek. "Yowza, did you have to slap me that hard?"
Liara shrugged. "You look like you've got a troll's extra-thick skin, so…"
"Can't argue with you there." I chuckled while remembering Divah's usual complaint of how I had thick skin when it came to flyting. "How long was I out?"
"Nearly forty minutes," she answered.
Liara got up from her seat in that graceful cat-like manner elves do, which was when Morph McMorbid dropped by to ask her if she was willing to help him with an enchantment.
"I don't mean to interrupt," the infernal cast an apologetic sideways glance at me before continuing, "but the cue for enchantment's very long, and I… I don't think my shield will survive another fight without a fresh coating…"
To Morph's and my surprise, Liara agreed to help him out without setting a price beforehand. It was such a waste of an opportunity.
"What sort of enchantment are you looking for?" she asked in a nice tone she'd never given me before.
Morph tapped a finger against the front side of his kite shield. "The last battle weakened its runes. Could you, um, reapply them?"
Liara spent a few seconds inspecting the rune scrawled on the shield's iron surface before nodding. "Sure, this seems easy enough."
"It is?" I asked. "Hold on, is enchanting a profession required to specialize as a spell-blade enchanter?"
She gave me a look that said 'Duh' before sitting back down next to me and taking her toolkit out of her backpack.
"Uh, I don't suppose you know a rune that'll make it weigh less too?" Morph asked as he handed her his shield.
"I don't know any novice enchanter who can do something that convenient," Liara answered.
The thing is, I had a rune that would do exactly what Morph asked for inside Divah's guide, although I wasn't ready to share the guide's enchanting secrets with Liara just yet. Maybe never. I would have to see if she was worthy first. Regardless, I watched with interest as she laid Morph's shield on the stone floor front up next to her kit.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be, Wisdom?" she asked.
"Nope," I said. "Continue."
She sighed but didn't try to shoo me away. Instead, Liara focused on selecting the tools she would need to reapply the 'Algiz' rune on the shield's iron surface. Yep, I recognized the rune as it was the same one painted on my bronze wristbands.
The rune—which was shaped like a person with both hands raised in a V-shape—was the Elder Futhark's basic symbol of protection and would have provided Morph's shield with a defensive coating strong enough to block one or two tier-one spells.
I pointed at the small round jar Liara just placed on the ground. "What's in that?"
"Goblin blood," she answered.
"I hear that stuff's cheap," I commented. "Will it be a strong enough catalyst?"
She frowned at the word 'cheap' but answered my question anyway. "Any kind of monster blood will do. The differences are insignificant unless you compare it with premium-grade stuff like red dragon ichor or unicorn silver blood."
"Why don't you use that then?" I asked on Morph's behalf. Although the frail-looking infernal didn't seem to mind getting the cheaper option.
"A small jar of dragon ichor costs as much as a leaf boat," Liara answered.
To the non-realm traveler, a leaf boat—those ships made of Yggdrasil's hardened leaves that float on clouds—costs about as much as a top-tier luxury car. So, yeah, these dragon ichor jars were expensive as Hel.
"We could use your blood too, McMorbid"—Liara glanced sideways at him—"and it may strengthen your connection to the rune."
"Um, no"—Morph was shaking his head—"I-I'm okay with goblin's blood."
Liara stared pointedly at me next. "What about you, Wisdom?"
"My blood's too rich for just a protection rune," I chuckled.
The she-elf rolled her eyes at me.
Liara began tracing a swirl of patterns in the air with her fingers as if she were committing them to memory first. Interestingly enough, the pattern she carved out of the air wasn't anything like a simple algiz rune's design.
"You want to ask, so ask," she said.
Well, I wasn't one to turn down an invitation to learn stuff, so I did ask. "What are you doing?"
"Visual checks are an important step to enchanting," she answered. "A single mistake, a wrong verse, or an incorrect pattern could mean a faulty enchantment that keeps one from advancement."
When Liara finished with her mental prep, she picked up her pen and wiped its crystal tip with a piece of cloth.
"Is that a zirconia tip?" Morph asked.
"You know your stuff." Liara smiled at him, even though she was treating me like a nuisance. Sheesh, females.
"Beginner Professions is my favorite class," he replied in a shy tone, although it would be hard to tell if his cheeks had gone red as his skin was already naturally crimson. "But why choose zirconia?"
"Because it's inexpensive," Liara answered.
I was beginning to think that Liara's home circumstances weren't the sunshine and rainbows I initially thought she had. Perhaps being a halfbreed made her life more challenging than the privileged ljósálfar usually gets.
After she thoroughly cleaned her pen, Liara dipped it into the jar of goblin's blood and then began tracing a pattern on Morph's shield with the steady hand of a practiced swordswoman. And, once she finished the design now emblazoned on Morph's shield, both the infernal and I couldn't help but gasp in awe.
Liara had painted a complicated, but powerful symbol of protection on Morph's shield; the algiz rune in the center of a wheel with four spokes shaped like keys surrounded by eight smaller circles forming a round pattern of interconnected locks—a Celtic knot—all encased in a larger circle of protection.
It was an expert's interpretation of amplifying a simple rune's power, and the attention to detail... wow. Once more, I was floored by the abilities Liara often displayed like she was the protagonist of some overpowered adventure novel, which was supposed to be my schtick.
Well, I was certainly impressed, and it showed on my face... a fact that I would regret in about a second.