“ARKSI!”
The Keeper’s voice echoed through the Great Library, bouncing around corridors lined with books and almost sacred texts.
“GET YOUR LITTLE BLUE AND YELLOW ARSE IN HERE RIGHT NOW!”
Arksi had been busy organizing a stack of medical papers relating to a plague that had flared up a year or so ago. He calmly put everything down and climbed the stairs up towards the Keeper’s office at the very top of the building. A small ladder slipped down as the trapdoor entrance to the office opened up, allowing Arksi to climb in. Why this place was designed like this, he had no idea.
“General Veeksiar, Ser, what do you need?”
The Keeper was sitting at his desk, his fingers crossed, his teeth bared. As always, Veeksiar was wearing a bright, fancy set of colourful wools over his otherwise very light armour. On the desk was something shiny and silvery.
“What is this, and why does it have YOUR name on it?”
Arksi approached the desk. By the tone of the Keeper’s voice, he’d clearly had a bad day and this thing being out in the open, in a library where every single book, scroll, artefact and digital file was in place, annoyed him greatly.
“I… I do not know, Ser…”
The object in question was a short blade with a Thraki-like design on it. About 10cm long, with no curves or anything on the blade itself, but a scaled handle and a wing-shaped offshoot on the end. Some of the scales were embedded with pale blue gems. Crudely carved into the blade itself was Arksi’s name.
“Really?” Veeksiar growled. “You do not know that this is a Tickton Drake Blade, made out of pure anti-Deitic silver, studded with glass gems forged from supposedly the sands of Kinigi, apparently forged by the eldest of the Thraki? You do not know that this is a small dagger with the ability to actually reverse the stab wounds of others? And most importantly you do not know that this dagger is worth about five billion Evra on its own?”
Arksi blinked.
“Well, it was. Now it’s probably worth a tenner now it has YOUR NAME ON IT!”
Another blink. Arksi composed himself and tried to explain. “Ser, I have never… never ever seen that blade before. Was it not locked in one of the massive safes in the storage vaults down below?”
“It WAS. Now it is here on my desk.” Veeksiar wrapped the blade in a silken cloth, then got up from his seat. “We are going to go down below and put this blade back. Then we are going to come back here and work out how you and Nenth are going to pay for this…”
“But I didn’t do it!” Arksi protested. “I have never seen that before! I don’t even doodle my name on things anyway!” He paused, then sighed. “And don’t bring Nenth into this… he has nothing to do with this…”
The Keeper growled then stomped downwards. Arksi remained silent as he followed.
The entrance to the Library Vaults was currently being guarded by Seth, who was also in a bad mood, but mainly because he’d tried go to on a date and had been stood up. He’d been complaining about it all day, but he knew better than to say anything with the Keeper being so angry.
“Seth, take me to the safe containing the Tickton Drake Blade.”
Seth grunted, then nodded, signalling for Veeksiar and Arksi to follow him. They walked through a vast maze of safes, sealed canisters and vaults, before reaching a small lock box at the end. Seth swiped his wristband over the lock and the lid of the box popped open.
Veeksiar stepped forward to place the dagger back into the box, but stopped.
“Ser?”
The Keeper twisted round and glared at Arksi.
“What trick are you pulling here, kid?”
“Ser, I swear, I have no idea…”
Veeksiar lifted up the box and showed it to Seth and Arksi. In the box, the Tickton Drake Blade was sitting there, quite happily resting in its silvery leather sheath.
“Oh, did we get a new one?” Seth asked. “I thought they were expensive.”
“They are…” It suddenly occurred to the Keeper what was going on. “We now have two blades… The original one and…” He inspected the second blade, re-reading the name carved into the side. Really, on such a metal, it should have been impossible to scratch a legible name into the blade, let alone carve into it. Maybe… just maybe, the creator of the blade was the one who inscribed Arksi’s name onto it?
With a sigh, Veeksiar handed the second Drake Blade back to Arksi.
“I believe this belongs to you… Use it wisely…”