The King/Key Sword

Fortu, one-handedly twists the five-foot-long, sinuous blade by its hilt. He still can’t believe the power of it! Never has he seen a metal blade capable of cutting through blocks of stone or slicing through wood as if it were paper! 

According to Rifkin, this sword had been held in the metal grip of the bronze knight for a hundred years and yet the soft, green leather grip is unblemished by time, wear or rot. The magics that protect the Adamantine blade, steel cross-guard, hilt and golden pommel, obviously extend even to the softer materials too. Raised in the gladiator pits of Oppugn and denied anything more than the most basic of educations, he can’t pretend to understand how this can be, but he decides not to question it.

Along its flat edge, at the base on both sides, a raised script is clearly visible but none of his friends are capable of any sort of translation. ‘My Husband’s sword’ the voluptuous woman had said. Hetzabah; Lord Urdurel’s second wife and Mother to Sir Briefadel. She had worryingly, regardless of the threat it posed, seemed bizarrely pleased to see it.

Despite her multiple, previous nightmare visits, Fortu had only actually seen her for the first time, atop the tower. A tower named after and physically representing Lord Urdurel’s first wife; Dulcetta. The ex-gladiator can’t help but wonder if trapping his second wife in the tribute tower to his first wife was a deliberate added insult? He also wonders if Arowe and Liga Bur are right in surmising that the beautiful young woman and the revolting old Hag that materialised inside the tent are the same person? The only similarity that he could see, was that they rode a bat-winged, black horse and were both wearing the same heart shaped, ruby pendant. Couldn’t they conceivably be totally different women?

Still, these were matters that he’d leave in the hands of his clever Demi-Human friends. For now, he was just happy to have such a powerful and efficient weapon to protect, not just himself, but the people he was coming to think of as the family that he’d never had.