Advent of Eternity - Chapter 84 (Patreon)

They returned to the city shortly after. Cyll swapped with Maya at the blacksmith, and the crew headed off to Mandy’s store. Knell paid her the ten gold he’d promised and then the three of them made for an inn.

Melwood was a decently sized town, and there were several inns scattered about it. Knell promptly dismissed both the worst and best looking ones, settling for an average, two story building a short distance from the center square of town.

He stepped inside, keeping his hat low to try and conceal a little more of his scarred face. It was getting fairly late, which meant the inn was bustling. Loud chatter filled the air, and a bard sat at the back of the room near a fireplace, her guitar only slightly louder than the ambient noise.

A large made behind the counter raised a mug to the three as they entered. Despite Knell’s efforts, she still blanched at his appearance.

For a moment, Knell considered using Exhume to make his face look normal, but he decided against it. Wasting power and getting rid of his emergency disguise wasn’t worth it. Besides, looking intimidating was just as much of an advantage as it was a disadvantage.

“How much for three rooms?” Knell asked.

“A silver a night for each,” the woman said, smoothing her features out and straightening her apron.

Knell placed a gold coin on the counter. She took it, counting out seven silver and returning them to him. He tucked the coins away in his pouch and the bartender put three bronze keys down where the money had been. Each had a small number at its end.

“Dinner is included. Breakfast isn’t,” she said. “One meal per room. If you got more people with you, they don’t get free food.”

“Three will be more than enough. Thank you.” Knell took the keys and returned to the others, handing two of them to Stix.

“Two?” Stix asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You and Maya will share a room. Give the other to Cyll,” Knell said. “I don’t imagine you want him in your room, and I trust you’re enough to keep Maya safe.”

“I’m not a baby, you know,” Maya said, crossing her one arm over her chest. It didn’t quite make the point as well as two would have.

“You’re just as much a threat to yourself as someone else is,” Knell said. “Earn your independence. Or don’t, it’s your choice. You, Stix, and Cyll can have the meals. I have some things to work on, so I’ll be retiring early. Get me if something goes wrong.”

Stix nodded. “Okay. Are we doing anything early tomorrow?”

“I don’t have anything planned. Why?”

“I want to practice shooting,” she said, raising her bow slightly. “I’m out of practice.”

“Training is always good. Just make sure you aren’t caught off guard by anyone while you’re working.”

Knell headed up the wooden stairs, repressing his curses the whole way up. Thankfully, the inn had a tweedy banister running up the wall, so he was able to hop his way up without putting any pressure on his bad leg.

At the top of the stairwell, Knell got his staff back out under him and tapped his way over to the room matching the number on his key. He unlocked it, swinging the door open. It was plain, with a small window above a ratty bed. The blankets were thin and looked coarse.

Knell did a cursory check, but there weren’t any spots to hide in the small room. He shut the door behind him, locking it before walking over to test the bed with a hand.

Straw. Doesn’t smell too bad either. Probably clean enough.

He sat down, grimacing as he pulled the boot off his right leg. Despite his growth in strength in the last few weeks, his leg wasn’t getting any better. Then again, it wasn’t getting worse. That was good too. He took his hat off, setting it on the bed beside him.

Knell leaned back against the wall, propping a pillow up behind himself as he closed his eyes. He’d been doing a lot of meditation to focus on growing stronger, but it had been a while since he’d been really alone with his thoughts – the one place he knew for a fact that the broken gods could not reach.

He inhaled through his mouth and exhaled from his nose. His breathing slowed and his stern features relaxed as he stilled his emotions. The outside world faded away, slowly replaced by the gentle lapping of an imaginary ocean.

***

Wind rustled Knell’s hair and grass tickled his legs. His skin prickled from the breeze, but the gentle heat of the sun above him warmed his skin. Knell knew that if he turned around, he would see his father and mother, sitting on the hill behind him and watching the sun as it worked its way toward the ocean.

He didn’t turn around. That would end his brief moment of peace. It always did. This was one of his few good memories, and that was its ending.

Knell kicked his legs – they were both whole once more, and took a rare moment of self-indulgence to run a small hand along his face. It was smooth, just like it had been when he was still a child.

Time passed. Knell wasn’t sure how much time he spent staring at the ocean, letting it consume his mind and worries. There were no gods here. No guilds or pirates. Not even a crew. Just peace.

He didn’t let it go on for too long. He brought himself back as the vision started to fade. He blinked, and his father’s staff was in his hands once more. Knell ran his hand along the smooth metal.

“So many lies,” Knell murmured in his mind, his fingers tracing the designs along the metal. “Sometimes, even I lose track of them. But not this one.”

His greatest lie. The one he didn’t ever dare utter aloud. Trusting Joseph’s artifact was one thing, but no defense was absolute, and this secret had to be. Not even his own crew could know – not until the time was right. There was just too much at stake.

The gods were likely aware of their plans, at least to a degree. And, if they weren’t, Joseph had his own agenda. If he knew about Knell’s plans, others did too. That was to be expected. No plan could be completely secret.

But this could.

A tiny grin tugged at Knell’s imaginary lips. His fingers pressed into the top of his staff, touching several runes hidden within the design in rapid succession. It took a few moments for him to mentally run through the sequence – it was almost two minutes of work.

It had taken him four years to figure it out. Ever since his father left him the staff, Knell had known there was more to it. How could he have simply left it a mystery? An unknown weapon was worthless, and it would have been pure fully to go after the Gods without knowing how he could defeat them.

His fingers hit the last few runes. The staff hissed, its top peeling back to reveal a shimmering speartip. Twelve different impossibly thin fragments of glittering glass had been pressed together, forming a sharp point.

No – not glass. Boons. One from each of the Twelve Gods, taken from the Scions they sent after us.

Not many people knew Rynholt’s Path was an Artificer. After all, who expected the bloodthirsty mercenary who stood against the Shards and won to be a mere crafter?

Knell desperately wanted to press the sequence of runes outside of his mind, but he didn’t dare. He’d only done it once, and he refused to do it again until the time was right. He couldn’t risk the gods finding out. Mordrigal was the only one who might have seen what the staff did, but if she had, she never would have allowed him to live.

After all, it was Rhynholt’s greatest secret and Knell’s most important lie. The one that he would continue to tell everyone – including his crew – until the time of the gods was truly at its end.

But, here, within the sanctum of his own mind, it was safe.

The way to kill the gods is through their own flesh. That is why my father forged a weapon with a piece of a Boon from every god – this is the spear that can kill any of them.

***

“How did you meet Knell?” Maya asked over a bowl of stew.

“Uh… he kind of got caught up in some trouble I had with some people trying to rob me,” Stix said. “He needed a crewmate and I joined his crew in exchange for him helping me find someone I’ve been looking for.”

“What about Cyll?”

“I’m not sure I can tell you that,” Stix said, putting her spoon down and wiping her mouth with a napkin. “Sorry. Knell wants us to keep important stuff secret, and I don’t disagree with him.”

“That’s fine,” Maya said, sitting back. “I don’t blame you. If I were on your crew, I’d probably hate me. I took that opportunity to work with Sorfina from you, and now you’re all probably wanted by the pirates in Blackfoot Bay. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Gold Court itself put a bounty on your heads.”

“I did hate you for a while,” Stix admitted. “Especially when we were still on Blackfoot Bay. You were insufferable, and Knell just… took everything you said to him. I knew he was strong, and we probably could have made a point, but we didn’t. We just slunk off.”

Maya winced and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah. The bluster didn’t work out to well for me, did it? When I heard that Sorfina was talking with a crew to take up the spot she needed for Mount Bloodwater, I practically sprinted over to her place. I put on the toughest act I could to make sure she chose my crew instead of you. Twelve Gods, I wish I never did that. Maybe my crew would still be alive if she hadn’t taken us in.”

“If it helps, now that I really look at it, I don’t think I was much better than you were,” Stix said, her pointed ears drooping slightly. “I thought I had to show how smart and tough I was, so I was constantly questioning Knell’s orders. The way I did it wasn’t much better than flat out insulting him.”

“And he still let you stay on the crew?”

“I don’t think he cared,” Stix admitted. “Probably for the same reason your actions didn’t bother him. Insults don’t get in the way of his goals, so he dismisses them.”

Maya finished her meal and set her spoon down. “You think he can do it, then?”

“Do what?” Stix asked sharply. “He’s not trying to do anything that special.”

Maya snickered. “Man, you really are bad at lying. But I meant the part where he helps you find whoever it is you’re looking for.”

“Oh,” Stix said, reddening. “Yeah. I do. To be honest, I think the person I’m looking for is dead. It’s very unlikely he’s still alive, but I’d still like to know what happened to him. Even if we don’t find out, though… I think I want to support Knell anyway. Never thought I’d be a pirate, but I like this crew. We’re helping people. I think. We’ve helped at least a few people. I’ll never let Cyll know that I don’t hate him, though. He’d never let me hear the end of it.”

Maya cleared her throat, her eyes flicking over Stix’s shoulder. The moon elf cringed and turned around as Cyll strode up behind them, a grin on his bearded face.

“Here you are!” he exclaimed. “None of you bastards told me where you’d be staying. I had to check every bloody inn in the city. Where’s Knell?”

Stix let out a sigh. As far as she could tell, it didn’t look like Cyll had overheard their conversation. She shook her head and tossed one of the keys at him.

“Here. Food. Knell is doing something in his room. I don’t suppose you’ll consider sitting at another table? I was enjoying the peace.”

Cyll snatched the key from the air and snorted. “And lose my free entertainment? That isn’t happening, moon-eyes.”