Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Birthday

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Adria woke Zycor up in the morning, as she usually did, but today was different. Because it was his birthday, she decided to put a ban on training so they could just have fun together. From morning to the afternoon, they messed around with some dulled throwing knives to throw at a target on the wall, they played card games, and they just enjoyed each other's company.

Around midday, Zycor started to slow down a bit and appeared to be bummed out. When Adria asked him if there was anything wrong, he said, “Well, I was kind of hoping to see Mr. Dreiford. He must have been busy today.” 

Adria, seeing Zycor sad, began to plot her revenge against Dreiford. But ten minutes later, there was a knock at the doors, and when Zycor opened them Dreiford was there. “Sorry for my tardiness,” he started, “I was a little backed up with some paperwork, but mainly I was trying to figure out what to get you for your birthday. You see, I never had kids so I didn’t know what to do.” 

He reached into his pocket and handed Zycor an insignia. “When you turn fifteen and are old enough to own an account at the merchants guild, show them that insignia and give them your name. I have an account set up that you can access when you come of age.” 

Zycor, not fully grasping everything he said, nor understanding just how much was put into the account yet, said, “Thank you again, Mr. Dreiford. I am sure this will help.” 

Adria, stunned at what Dreiford just said, responded with shock, “Excuse me, but you did WHAT! What is this? The Dreiford Hickens I know would NEVER do something like this, especially not for a seven year old child! What could-.” She paused, and then resumed with, “you… you're not trying to steal my Zycor away from me, are you?” 

Adria, never having kids before, did not know why she was full of rage and the urge to slaughter Dreiford where he stood. Of course, this is just her maternal instincts at work, wanting to protect Zycor. Adria’s mana started to leak out of her as her anger rose, Dreiford gulped and accepted that this was the end. Zycor interjected into the situation, “Mama Adria, no one could take me from you. Mr. Dreiford is sort of like an uncle. But I will always love you the mostest, Mama Adria.” 

Adria instantly calmed down while she blushed, and proceeded to bolt over to Zycor and hug him, telling him she loved him over and over again. Dreiford, who was wiping the sweat from his face, while he also tried to hide his embarrassment at being considered an uncle, simply said, “Well kid, looks like you saved me again. At this rate I won’t ever be able to repay you. But hey, I have cake!” 

Zycor, confused due to his family never having purchased cake nor baked any, asked, “What is cake Mama Adria?” 

Adria and Dreiford, both shocked at this injustice, both agreed to set aside any harsh feelings towards each other and educate Zycor on proper city birthdays. Soon night fell, Zycor and Adria said their goodbyes to Dreiford and went upstairs so Zycor could go to bed. Before she left him to sleep, Adria reached into her pocket and said, “I know this is a bit late, but I want you to have this.” 

She pulled out a jade green ring, and handed it to him. “This ring,” she began, “is made of magnecite. It is engraved with a unique magic spell, ice defense, in it. If you are ever in danger all you have to do is pour some mana into the ring and it will create a protective wall of ice for you.” 

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Zycor put the oversized ring on his finger, and it adjusted its size to fit on his finger. He thanked Adria, they hugged, and they went to bed.

Six months passed and fall turned to winter, and winter to spring. Dreiford showed up with the first prototype weapon completed. “The crafting team was really excited about this one, they want to know what you think about it!” Dreiford Excitedly exclaimed. 

Dreiford unloaded a box from his carriage with the help of some water magic. When he opened it, there were two gauntlets. They had a bronze tint to them and two leather straps to secure them  to the weilders forearm. There were two short blades at the end of each gauntlet as well. Dreiford told Zycor, “They made these prototypes specifically for a seven year old, just so they could have you get a feel for the design. Well, don’t be shy, put them on!” 

Zycor enthusiastically followed Dreifords suggestion. Once the weapons were properly mounted Zycor began to test them. All of the training he had been doing could finally be shown off. He was able to maneuver the weapons far more easily than anyone else his age could have. He used the target dummies he used for training as test objects, and was able to cut rather deep into them, considering his age. He moved around with them a bit more to get a better feel for their maneuverability. Finally, Zycor returned to Dreiford and removed the gauntlets. Zycor said, “Is there a way the blades can be hidden when I am not using them?” 

After he heard this, Dreiford, with a perplexed look on his face, responded, “Well, I do not actually know. Perhaps we could try to add a retraction mechanism… this has been a great help, I shall head back and inform the team.” And with that, Dreiford headed back with the weapons.

On the second visit, two months later, the weapons now made use of gears, a fairly new concept for weapons, to retract the blades. Though in this process the blades were not sturdy enough and came off. Another month passed and it was now midsummer. The weapons’ blades were now sturdy enough and the blades retracted perfectly as well. The new issue, however, was the blades would get stuck whenever the blades tried to be extended. Two more months went by and Dreiford brought the fourth iteration. The blades were sturdy and secure, the blades retracted as intended, and the craft team added a small magic item engraved with a spell from the unique magic type, magnetism, set to repel in order to help with the extending speed. Aside from Zycor having needed help to extend the blades, due to the requirement of using mana, the weapon worked as intended. The only other thing that Zycor asked for this iteration was to increase the retraction speed. And so, half a month passed and the completed prototype was born. It used two magic items, one to attract and one to repel, in order to retract and extend instead of using the newer gear technology. When extended there are latches that will shut when extended to lock the blade in place, and open up when retracted.

Zycor was satisfied with the weapon and told Dreiford as much. Dreiford replied, “I’m happy to hear it! And if there are any modifications you want done, come talk to me and I will make sure they get done!” 

Zycor nodded and thanked Dreiford for all his help, and Dreiford boarded his carriage and departed. However, the carriage abruptly stopped, and Dreiford jumped out. He asked Zycor, “Hey, Zycor my boy, what are you gonna call your new weapons? I need to know for the registration paperwork!” 

Adria looked at Zycor, curious as to what he would decide. Zycor looked at the weapons currently mounted on his forearms and, after a brief pause, responded, “I think I will call them Scillia and Gaus.”

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