Call of the Waylanders

XXIII. The Raven-Sabre

Alphonse rubbed his hands clean with the damp towel that currently lay right next to his table. He had finally done it--that was the last piece he needed. All six of the inverted crystals were prepared. All he needed to do was forge it, and that would be a simple process. He stepped over to his cupboard and pulled out the other five crystals, then set the six onto his alchemy table. Just a moment to catch his breath, he decided. After all, what could be more exciting than finishing the Blade of Inversion? Along with the Hilt of Kindness, it would almost be enough.

After taking a moment, Alphonse arranged his crystals into a six-pointed star pattern. He gazed over the inverted crystals: water to fire, fire to water, earth to sky and sky to earth, as well as light to dark and dark to light. He took a piece of arcane chalk from his pockets and rubbed his hands with it. He placed both hands squarely on the table, then closed his eyes and focused. With what would have been a blinding flash of light had Alphonse not had his eyes closed, the crystals rearranged themselves. Alphonse felt them move towards the center, right between his hands. They melded together and stretched and formed.

Alphonse was tempted to move his hands, but he knew that there was no worse idea. His hand could get caught in the formation, ruining his arm, but more importantly, the blade. He simply waited patiently for the liquid to stop moving and harden. It would just be a few moments; he would have his Blade of Inversion soon. It was strange, actually--usually, alchemy was an instant process, where one thing was simply rearranged into something else, and that was that. Not so with the Blade of Inversion. Some things just had to be so dramatic, didn't they?

Alphonse opened his eyes and was immediately blinded. He had thought he had felt the blade stop moving, but it must not have hardened yet. One more moment.

After that one more moment, he opened his eyes again. There was nothingness. He fumbled around for his Sight Potion, and when he found it(it was right on the shelf behind him, in case things like this happened), he put a drop of it in each eye. In a minute, his sight returned, and he could gaze at his blade at last.

The blade was like Infernas', the legendary Kraken Crusher. It was clear and reflective, like a mirror, but it was not nearly as fragile. Just like the Crusher, it couldn't be broken by anything that a normal person could construct. Maybe a stone solider or seven could crack it, but there was no chance of it; the stone soldiers would be on his side this time.

He put on a gauntlet and lifted the blade. It was hardened, all right; if it wasn't, he would still have been blinded. He placed the blade in a sleeve and placed said sleeve right next to the sleeve that held Sheila, the Hilt of Kindness.

Now all that was required was for Crescendo to do his part.

*****

"Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Oh, my master will be pleased, yes he will be pleased!" Crescendo sang, leaping from wall to wall of the temple with a name he didn't know. He glanced back in his hand, and it was still there. There was no mistake; the black, smooth, perfectly round object in his hand was indeed the Raven's Eye! All he needed now was to escape the golems that thundered behind him at a strange rate for creatures made completely out of mossy stone.

It was no matter; Crescendo had the Raven's Eye! All he needed was to whisper to it, and he would gain wings! In fact, he might do that right now.

"Excitant," he song-whispered. Excitant was the word for activation among magical objects, or as his master, the Alchemist, told him, "objects with a science we do not yet understand." The Alchemist was a great man, but he felt the need to find a way to explain all things magical, always calling them things that no one understood just yet. In Crescendo's personal opinion, he should just let magical things be magical, and leave it at that, but he never asked for Crescendo's opinion.

Back in the current times, black wings grew from Crescendo's back. He leaped in the air and sped through the temple and out through the front doors, then out past the country, soaring towards the infinite storm cloud that hovered above the Alchemist's spire.

When he neared the spire, he spoke the word Tnaticxe, which reversed the activation effect, landed on the ground, then walked the rest of the way in fear of lightning strikes. Once he stepped past the doors and closed them, the Alchemist shrieked in anticipation.

"Did you find it?" his master asked excitedly. In response, Crescendo quietly sang to the Eye the word of activation, and black wings grew from his back. The Alchemist leaped from his balcony that he worked from and dashed towards Crescendo. Crescendo deactivated the wings again, then handed it to his master. The two ran over back to the balcony and removed the other parts from their sleeves; the Alchemist taking the blade, and Crescendo taking Sheila.

They placed all three parts on the table: the Blade of Inversion, which shone brilliantly like a mirror, Sheila(or the Hilt of Kindness), which was a duller silver with a socket in the center for the Raven's Eye, which was placed in said socket. Her core was also on the bottom, where the Alchemist said it was perfectly safe.

The two, after placing the Raven's Eye into the socket, connected the blade with the hilt, and Crescendo stood back. The Alchemist rubbed his hands with the arcane chalk, the placed his hands on the table. The two closed their eyes as the light shone for a split second, then cut out. They opened their eyes, and the blade was laying on the table--the Vitally Important Item.

"It's complete," Crescendo almost sang--one could become caught up in their curse at times, even if it was negated within a spire. The Alchemist smiled, then held it up.

"It is," he confirmed. "Not only is it complete, it is..."

He stopped, and the two gazed at it. The blade of the sword had turned to a dark violet, like the feathers of a raven, but there had not really been any other change. Somehow, however, the sword was three times as amazing as all its separate parts combined, even if it was just its separate parts combined. The Alchemist swung, and three ravens, made out of some sort of dark light, flew from his swing and into the wall at blazing speed, cutting straight through it before exploding a moment later. The two grinned.

"It is the Raven-Sabre," the Alchemist finished. "You, my good vocalist, are going to get extra pay." At the thought of extra pay, Crescendo nearly came to tears. It was amazing enough to see the Raven-Sabre, but to be paid more just for fetching a sphere that made someone fly, well...that was icing on the elephantine cake.

Suddenly, the door flew open. The two ran over to the edge of the balcony to see who it was, and the Alchemist hid the Raven-Sabre. They looked and saw that it was Isabel, the Grand Wizardess.

"Oh, hello, Alchemist, Crescendo. I was hoping that you could give me a hand."