Tyson awoke in bed alone, confused and tired.
He looked around the room and noticed how small it was.
His bed was up against the center of the back wall, and the door was in the left corner of the wall directly across from him.
Between the door and the right corner was a desk and a chair. With his site still blurry from earlier, he could not focus on the objects that took up the space on the desk. He continued to scan the area until his eyes met a figure at the edge of his bed.
It was slumped over and seemed to be sitting on a chair.
"Hello?" Tyson tried to say, but the words came out rough and low.
The figure startled a bit and sat up.
"Finally, you're awake," Malric said as he let out a yawn, stretched, and stood up.
"Captain Kareem said, I'm not going to let you leave until you are cleared and ready to go."
This didn't surprise Tyson.
They had to do everything together whenever partners were assigned, even if it meant sitting by a hospital bed until the other was healed.
When he found out Malric was his partner, he was not thrilled. He didn't know Malric well before they were partnered, and even now, he didn't know him as well as he would like.
His lack of wanting more out of their job infuriated Tyson.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is trying to help you." Tyson said as he lifted himself to a sitting position.
"You were stabbed and hit your head hard multiple times. For someone who wants to fight all the time, you aren't very good at it." Malric kept stretching as he continued to talk.
"It is understandable in that situation; those guys were no joke."
He moved the chair to the side of the bed and faced Tyson.
"I've been trained to fight with a sword from the moment I could walk, and I could only get one hit in… They were users; I couldn't find where their gems were, but they moved too quickly."
Tyson studied his partner.
"I knew something was off and figured they were users, why would they be in our town?" his voice had confusion in it.
"And did you see what they looked like? I haven't seen many users, but the ones I have seen looked nothing like that."
A knock came at the door, and a nurse walked in.
"We had our healers do what they could to help with the head trauma. You are free to leave; take it easy." The nurse said as she looked at both Tyson and Malric.
Tyson slowly got out of the Healer's bed and started gathering his belongings. His head still pounded as he moved, but it was manageable pain.
Malric watched his partner.
"Also, Captain Kareem wants to see us at the guard tower," Malric said as he got out of his chair.
The guard tower was the beacon of their small town. The walls stood ten meters high, with the guard tower looming over it by another twenty meters.
The main gate was attached to the tower, and the tower had a small amount of wall that connected it to the main wall.
"I don't understand why they had to make the tower so large," Tyson said as they approached the tower.
The tower was made of white obsidian stone and shined brightly when the sun hit it. The massive black doors stood tall as the two guards, watching, waiting for the two partners to reach them.
"Captain Kareem is expecting us," Malric said before the guards could address them.
The two guards studied them and moved aside to let them enter the tower. Inside was a massive opening with a spiraling black staircase that ascended to each floor until it reached the top of the tower.
Tyson was relieved that the captain's office was on the main floor of the tower. His desk was directly across from the doors.
The walls were lined with different suits of armor and weapons. They each had a gemstone inserted in the chest plate where the heart would be if they were humans.
Captain Kareem looked up from his desk as the two men made their way to the toward him.
"I'm glad to see you are doing well, Tyson." Kareem said with concern.
"Last night was an eye-opening night for us an-,"
Malric cut him off.
"Why are there users here? I left the big city to avoid the users and came here only to find more powerful users? This was not a part of our deal, Kareem."
Tyson gave his partner a look of horror.
"What is wrong with you?" he tried to whisper, but his words echoed throughout the quiet room.
Malric pulled out a necklace from under his chainmail and revealed a smoky white gem.
'a user?'
Tyson thought to himself as he stared at the necklace.
Malric turned toward Tyson.
"I come from a family of users. I joined the guard here as a deal with my family and the Lord, but there were not supposed to be any issues with other users. Let alone users as capable as the ones we saw yesterday." He spoke.
Tyson looked at the necklace again and looked at captain Kareem.
"Yes, I know we promised not to run into any users, but things have changed. Lady Alea was their target and was the lady that was assassinated. She is a top advisor to the king and one of the kingdom's strongest users. Since you two dealt with it firsthand, we will need you to keep it a secret. Things will get worse, and we need all our guards trained and ready for any situation that comes to light." Captain Kareem said as he looked at both men.
Tyson didn't know how to feel about the whole situation. He fought two users last night, and his partner had been one the entire time. It didn't make sense to him, none of this made sense.
"I… I don't think I can do this. Last night showed that I'm not cut out for this. Our equipment isn't even good enough to withstand their attacks. My sword broke within the first few seconds of the fight."
Tyson said as he looked at the floor with fear showing on his face.
"That is why we are willing to give you gold to purchase a new weapon. We will start training tomorrow evening and hold a tournament in a month. The tournament winner will be granted a gem and a necklace to unlock their core and become users." Kareem said.
Malric's eyes went wide.
"You can't just give anyone a gem and necklace. These guys don't deserve it!"
Anger spewed out of Malric.
"My family worked hard to earn the necklaces and gems that have been passed down for generations. I will not stand here and let you give these commoners the ability to be users."
Tyson was shocked by this response; this was not the side of Malric he had seen before.
"Malric, I hear you, but we have to take the best route to settle this under the circumstances. Having a guard who can openly use his abilities will be crucial for the upcoming months and even years. They will be given an empty necklace to form their path. The Lord and King are both on board; your opinion on the matter is irrelevant."
Kareem stated calmly,
"As I said before, I will grant you both gold to get yourselves a weapon and whatever else is needed to train. Malric, you will not be in the tournament for obvious reasons. Tyson, I wish you the best of luck; I will be in the capital until the tournament starts. That is all I have for you both; the guards will get you set up with finances and a schedule for training." Kareem said as he went back to looking through the stack of papers on his desk.
Tyson and Malric collected their gold before making their way out of the tower.
"What the hell was that?" Tyson asked Malric.
"We don't deserve to be users? I thought I was getting to know you, but I guess the real you is hiding behind a mask… oh AND you're a user? How could you not stop the two men then? It would help if you weren't awful-"
Tyson's words choked off as Malric grabbed him by the throat and pulled him close. His eyes were brilliant blue with a faint white glow, and he glared at Tyson.
"You know nothing, Tyson. So don't speak on matters you can't comprehend. I said what I said, you can choose to be hurt by it, or you can get over it and move on. I've seen you, and I've seen what you're capable of, and yes, I don't think you deserve to be a user, but what I think doesn't matter, so get over yourself and focus on the task ahead."
He let go of Tyson, who took a deep breath as he fell to his knees.
"And don't ever call me an awful user. I will kill you."
The two men made it to the blacksmith shop, which sat between the leatherworker and the BurntBuns Bakery. They were in the market district within the town, a large circular section paved with the finest limestone and centered with a brilliant marble statue of the King, King Aloris.
"Ahhh, Tyson back so soon? We haven't received any new swords since you last visited."
The shopkeeper said as Tyson and Malric entered the shop.
The shopkeeper was a small man with short brown hair and an unkempt beard, he was around Tyson's age, but his face carried the weight of wisdom far beyond his years.
"Are you going to purchase a sword today? Or will it be the usual looking around?"
Tyson looked around the shop.
It was a simple squared interior with weapons of all sorts hanging on displays along the walls. The shop's center had a glass case that held their most prized weapons, which were mostly for show. The clerk's desk took up the entirety of the back wall, and there was a door to the back room connected to the blacksmith workshop.
"Yes, actually, but I don't see any weapons that fit me. My sword broke last night, and I don't think I want to fight with a straight edge sword."
Tyson said as he scanned the walls. He came every week, never spending a coin, only to admire the craftsmanship.
He put money aside each time he was paid, to afford a new sword one day, but with recent events, he could now get any weapon he desired.
"No straight edge sword? It is the most used sword within the kingdom. We don't carry any other type; you know this." The shopkeeper said with a thoughtful expression.
"Although we did get a new sword yesterday, it is a brilliant scimitar, it seems old and worn, and I don't see much interest in the sword."
Tyson looked at Malric, who was walking around the shop and testing out different weapons.
"Sure, I'll look at it," Tyson said as he walked toward the shopkeeper.
"Perfect! Wait here; it's in the back. I'll go grab it."
Several minutes later, he returned with a black blade that gave off an eerie blue tint. He felt a pull when the sword came into view.
'it's like the sword is calling to me,' he thought as he stared at the weapon in awe.
The shopkeeper held out the sword and Tyson reached for it, wrapping his fingers around the hilt.
His eyes rolled back.
His world was no longer there.
Blood.
Screams.
A woman standing over a mountain of corpses, holding two blades dripping with death.
Then the void.
His world came crashing back and he dropped the sword, gasping.