She had said the word like it wasn’t Key, so he tried to explain it, “Someone who knows you well and who you’ve spent a lot of time with.”
Celeste perked up at that, rolling her dough into a smooth ball. “Oh, there was this man I lived with for a while.”
“A man?” Reeve didn’t mean the harshness to his voice, but it came out anyway as he squished his unbaked loaf.
“Try not to be so rough,” she said, sprinkling a little fine flour over his pummeled dough. “I don’t know if I actually should call him a man, he was more like a spoiled, little boy, but I would say we knew a lot about each other once, and we had to spenda lotof time together on account of the abduction.”
“You abducted him?”
“No, he abducted me.”
Reeve punched down into the dough and flattened it completely. “Celeste, a man who abducts you isnota friend. Where is this loathsome cur that forced himself on you, so I can—”
“Oh, no, no, it wasn’t like that. He didn’t touch me at all. I mean, he propositioned mea lot, but I know he wasn’t really interested, he just wanted something from my sister—someone, actually—but I was the best he could do.” She wiped at her cheek and smeared flour over it, the color blending with her skin. “He was exceptionally cranky, though, and probably doesn’t like me much because I did some annoying things to get away.”
Reeve had stared at her after that as she inspected the ugly mound under his hands, still stuck to his fingers. He should have asked first if she was willing to answer, but the question came falling out of his mouth on its own. “Has anyone ever just been nice to you?”
Celeste pulled back, her wide eyes peered off into the distance, and then she blinked. “Kori gave me advice once, even though shereallydidn’t want to. That was nice.”
Reeve frowned.So nobody’s been nice to her then, he thought as she eased the dough off his fingers and tried to fix his mess.Not even me.
Sid spent the days in his scabbard, leaned beside the temple’s door. The sword had no complaints about the downtime, claiming to not see, not in the way others did, but he stillsaw. Sid could read the desires of his wielder, but only if his hilt was handled for long enough. Reeve was getting quite good at not holding onto the Obsidian Widow Maker’s pommel for too long.
The knight lay in bed one evening, whittling at the thorns he’d collected. The day had been long but felt short, the work pleasant and the bread they baked together filling. “I’ve been thinking, Sid.”
“Dangerous,” said the sword, unsheathed and laying across a chair. It felt a bit more like talking to a person that way.
“What would you say to allowing Celeste to wield you?”
Sid was silent, but had the sword a throat, it would have probably choked.
“Not for long,” he clarified.
“You would sever our bond?”
Reeve pressed a hand to his chest, Valcord’s light inside him flaring protectively. “Well, no…”
“You said wield, not hold.”
Reeve placed down the thorn and knife and sat up. He hadn’t thought the idea through.
The sword remained unmoving because that was all it could do. “That’s a big risk, bud.”
Reeve felt the heaviness in his words like steel in hand. “I know.”
The Obsidian Widow Maker was bonded to Reeve. It was the sword’s original nature to attach to its wielder, meant to feel and manipulate their desires to turn them to darkness, to the murkiness that pooled in every person’s essence. But since being cleansed by Father Theodore and the others, the sword had none of that intent anymore. Instead, it still read Reeve’s desires, but only used the knowledge to protect him.
I know you want to burst through this locked door, but perhaps give a listen at its keyhole first.
Yes, that big furry dog-looking thing seems like it might be soft, but it could be a werewolf, and it would be very embarrassing to scratch behind the ear of a creature as it turns back into a man.
Don’t eat that—yellow snow is rarely lemon flavored.
But the holy knight was not stupid despite a bit of evidence to the contrary: that protection extended to the sword itself. If the sword went evil again, it would be destroyed—an oath that the Valcordian priests and knights knew and kept. There were other artifacts the order had cleansed, and each was cataloged and shared with the entirety of Valcord’s clergy across the realm. Even though Sid could speak, he wasn’t exempt from destruction if he was no longer benevolent. If Celeste’s handling of him overpowered the bond that Reeve and Sid shared, it could be a death sentence for the sword. Well, Reeve was unsure swords could actually die, but they could definitely be melted down, and it seemed to him that being whole and rigid was probably better than being a puddle.
“So, you really think that witch isn’t evil, buddy?”
It struck Reeve then that he wouldn’t risk the sword if he thought otherwise, and yet he still wanted confirmation. If Celeste were evil, and if she picked up the sword with Reeve’s ties severed, she could bond with it and possibly overcome its cleansing. And shehadbeen interested in how Sid worked, hadn’t she? It was a tricky question that Reeve was having a hard time answering.
