"You mean… I can keep this?" Mathew asked his captor in disbelief.
"Do not ask me to repeat myself, Dread," Ophelia said, scrunching up her nose.
The item in question was the golden spear she had let him borrow for their sparring matches. Mathew had tried to hand it to her before getting in the carriage, but she refused him.
"Because you cannot use that mysterious fire at will, you will only be useless if you do not possess a weapon you can wield. We are both aware you are talentless with the sword."
"Thanks…" He replied. "So I'm just going to lug this around everywhere now?"
"You must place it in the Divine Realm. Argus can show you how." She said, and slipped into the carriage, closing the door.
So that's where the weapons always disappeared to.
Mathew stood there for a second, and then went and sat in the driver's seat next to Argus. It was pretty cramped.
"I see," Argus said, eying him.
"It's the lady's orders," Mathew replied, shrugging. He tried to rest the spear on his lap, but it ended up across both of their laps.
"I must admit this is inconvenient," Argus said, taking the reins of the horse.
"So uh… How do I put it in the divine realm where it's supposed to go?"
"It takes at least a few hours of constant physical contact with a blessed or cursed numen before it binds to your soul. Longer if it is of a higher tier." Mathew looked at him, then at the spear sharing both of their personal spaces.
"Guess we're just stuck like this for a bit, then."
"So it would seem."
An unbearably awkward silence ensued for a time, before Mathew decided to break it.
"Earlier you said you decided to follow Ophelia for atonement. What did you mean?" Mathew asked.
Argus kept his eyes forward, watching the road ahead.
"You don't need to know that." Mathew was taken aback at the refusal to answer.
"Why? You've always been so helpful to me, even from the beginning."
"Ever since my Lady forged a contract with you, I have pitied you. At first I thought you were some demon deceiving people into joining a fanatical cult. Ophelia had simply told me that the blessing we were after was under guard by a monster and his followers."
Ophelia had told him? How had she known about Mathias and the Followers of Dread? Had the goddess of Order told her?
"But still, you have helped me. You even trained me." Mathew said.
"All at my Lady's order, of course."
"But what about all the information you've given me? If anything, Ophelia seems annoyed that you so readily explain things to me. Was that out of pity too?"
"It was."
"What about Ophelia's past? You didn't need to reveal so many of your lady's secrets to me out of pity."
"I thought you would be more sympathetic to her if you had heard her plight, and that you would become less disgruntled."
Well, it hadn't worked that well. Mathew still wanted to break free from her and get as far away as possible. Her tragic past didn't make her any less of a cold-hearted tyrant in his eyes. All it did was change her perceived motive from unnecessary cruelty to vengeance.
"I'm missing most of my memories," Mathew said. Argus turned his head slightly, showing a rare expression of surprise. Mathew took it as a cue to continue:
"The reason why I seem so clueless about this world is because I am. When I fused with this strange skull, I forgot almost everything, from where I was to why I did it in the first place. The only thing I can really remember is that I have a younger sister."
"I see… and you wish to reunite with her?" Argus guessed.
"That was my plan at first…"
"And now?"
"Well, I don't know where she is, or how to even find her. I had hope that I'd figure out how to get back to her… But now I don't know if I could, even if I tried. I don't even know what the point is anymore. Turns out I can't save her either."
"Save her," Argus repeated, as if the words held meaning to him. His eyes held a look of melancholy, as if he was diving through oppressive emotions in his head.
"So what about you?" Mathew pressed. "Where would you be if not here?"
"There is nowhere else I would wish to be than with my Lady," Argus said, his voice soft and unfocused.
"Not even back home?"
"There is no home for me anymore…"
"Sure, but say that there was, and there wasn't a bounty on your heads. Is there anyone you would wish to see?" Argus shook his head.
"My father passed many years ago, and my mother died in childbirth."
"I see… My parents are gone too. All I have left is my sister." Mathew said. Argus grunted, as if he had just realized something.
"You wish to save your sister, not only because she is the only one left, but because you could not save others. You hurt inside every day, promising that you won't fail this time, that you will make up for all of your past failures."
Mathew was silent for a moment.
"How did you know?"
"I know because I am the same," Argus said. "I come from a line of warriors that serve the house of Valor. Historically, we have been known as the greatest swordsmen in Elysium. Each generation passes on their knowledge of the blade to the next, as well as our most powerful Blessings."
"No wonder you have a Millennium Tier Blessing," Mathew said.
"The other thing we are tasked with is to protect the noble line of Valor with our lives," Argus said.
Mathew began to understand.
"The failure you have to atone for… it's the death of Ophelia's family, isn't it? The people you were sworn to protect."
"I always shirked my responsibilities. I learned swordsmanship from my father, but I did not pass it on to Ophelia and her brother. I thought that they did not need my protection, and so I lived my own life and left them to do as they pleased." He took in a deep breath.
"On the night of the attempt on Ophelia's life, the one that claimed her brother… I was out drinking with friends of mine - civilians. Her father and uncle had just passed from suspect causes, but officially they were both recorded as accidents. I told myself there was nothing to be done about it, that it was out of my hands."
"And then you found out her brother was dead," Mathew said. Argus nodded.
"She came to me at night, and I cannot help but wonder if she checked every tavern in order to find me. She had never been to the citizens district before. She was frantic, her hair a mess, wearing only a nightgown. Her face was streaked with tears, and her words were tumbling over themselves. I had never seen her in such a disorganized state."
Argus swallowed.
"When we learned her brother had been killed, I realized that I had failed her. I swore to myself then and there that I would never again leave her side. I will keep that oath until my death."
"It all makes sense now." Mathew said, "That's why you follow her orders no matter what."
"You think me foolish."
"I'm not any better."
They both fell silent, an understanding passing between them. Then Argus glanced at the spear lying across their laps.
"You should be able to store that in the Divine Realm, now," Argus said.
"Okay," Mathew said, gripping the spear in his hands. "Uh… How?"
"The way I have always done it is thus: picture before you a large container. It can be a wardrobe, or a simple crate. Once you can envision it clearly in your mind, place the Numen into the container and release it."
"And it will just… disappear?" Mathew said.
"I suppose we shall find out," Argus said. Mathew took a deep breath.
He pictured in his mind a large cabinet made of dark wood. He opened the door with his hands, and then placed the spear inside.
His grip on the weapon tightened, and he hesitated for another long moment before taking the leap of faith and letting go of it.
It vanished.
"Whoa, it really worked," Mathew said after exhaling his held breath.
"I commend you," Argus said, his eyes on the road.
"So I just pull it back out of the imaginary container when I want it again?"
Argus grunted.
As he silently celebrated his success, a thought occurred to Mathew. Was his Truesight able to see Blessings placed in the Divine Realm? He had gotten so used to the passive bonuses of his enhanced eyes and night vision that he had forgotten he could actively use his Truesight as well.
He activated it in one eye, looking first at Argus. Multiple small lights floated around him, of various colors. Mathew also noticed something else that was interesting. Floating a short distance from his own head was a single golden light.
Mathew reached for it and grabbed it. Instantly, the light changed shape, manifesting in the physical world as the golden spear.
The lights were all blessings, and they were floating near the people they were bound to. What did each of the colors mean, though?
Mathew put his spear back into the divine realm and watched it become a light once more. He then looked to the Blessings around Argus, and another thought entered his mind:
What would happen if he tried to grab someone else's blessings?