Past Protection

After an hour passed Zycor began to wake up. "Look who finally decided to wake up," Aislin said as she sat in a chair she found, "Took you long enough. Adria said I was not allowed to leave this room until you woke up."

Zycor sat up in the bed, and rubbed his neck which was still sore from the battle. As he got up, Zycor asked, "Hey, big sis Aislin, could you leave for a moment. I need to change my shirt. It's covered in sweat, dirt, and it got torn up during our fight."

Aislin, still curious about why he covered his left arm, asked, "Hey Zy, why do you always have your left arm covered? Did something happen, and is it related to why you want to get stronger?"

Zycor grabbed his left arm and began to recall the images of the day it was injured. He began to have a small panic attack that started to grow in severity with each passing moment. As he began to hyperventilate, Aislin screamed at him, "Hey! ZYCOR!"

Zycor snapped out of his panicked state and began to calm down. Aislin, worried and put off by what happened, asked, "Hey, are you ok? I think that's the first time I have seen your expression change since we met."

"Sorry," he said, "It's something I would… rather not talk about."

Aislin nodded, "Ok, I understand. I'll leave, come out when you are done, Adria said something about new equipment from Dreiford or something."

When Aislin shut the door behind her, Zycor sat on the bed, still grabbing his arm. With one final deep breath, he managed to calm himself down to a manageable state. He took his shirt off and the bandages covering his arm, revealing the massive scar on his left arm he got due to the burns he received from the day he lost everything. It reached from his lower neck to halfway down his forearm. He applied new bandages, and put on the blue shirt Adria left for him on the small desk in the room. The shirt had its right sleeve cut short with the left sleeve kept long to cover the scar and bandages.

Zycor opened the door and left the back room. As he closed the door behind him and entered the main hall of the guild, Adria called out to him, "Hey Zycor honey, would you come over here please."

Zycor made his way to Adria who was waiting for him outside in front of the guild hall. When he exited the guild, he was greeted by Dreiford. "Zycor my boy, it's great to see you!" Dreiford began, "What, it's been about half a year since we last talked? My apologies for that, I just happened to get real busy. You wouldn't believe it! I had this one lady-,"

Adria cut him off and said, "Mr. Hickens, if you could get to the point please."

"Well, someone is still holding a grudge," Dreiford mumbled, but he cleared his throat and said, "My boy, You have done quite a lot for me, more than you know. Life has actually gotten quite a bit better, since many of my usual patrons saw the new weapons you have and heard that it was me and my resources that made it possible. Ever since, I have had people paying me a great sum to use my resources for weapons, weapon maintenance, weap-."

Adria coughed, and, upon realizing he was wearing out his welcome, continued, "To sum it up, because of you I have increased my profits by a great deal. And to thank you for that, I had something special made for you." Dreiford walked over to his carriage and pulled out a chest. "Now this stuff is something truly special," Dreiford proclaimed with great enthusiasm, "Go on! Open it up and take a look inside!"

Zycor opened the chest to reveal a full set of clothing and equipment. Zycor began by taking out the shirt that was on top along with the accompanying armor piece. The Shirt was a breathable, black shirt with the right sleeve short and the left sleeve long. The armor was a heavy, ash-gray colored chainmail like piece, though it felt lighter than chainmail. "Ah yes, I had that specially made," Dreiford began, "It is made using magnecite, so it's lightweight and flexible. The more mana you pour into it, the stronger it gets, it can also store and stockpile a great amount of mana! Oh yes! There is one other function it has, go ahead and put it on!"

Zycor put on the magnecite chainmail, Dreiford eagerly waiting for him to finish. Dreiford excitedly said, " Now, pour some mana into the chainmail!"

As Zycor did so, the chainmail that had been much larger than he was suddenly tightened and fit perfectly. The holes in the links of the chainmail shrunk to a size that was almost unnoticeable. "HAHA, IT WORKED," Dreiford cried, "It was only speculation that using the design of chainmail would allow magnecite to tighten to fit perfectly! Considering that imbuing magnecite weapons increases their durability and strength greatly, it was possible that making armor with the stuff and putting mana into that would allow for this reaction. Tell me my boy, how does it feel?"

Zycor inspected the chainmail shirt, "It feels kind of tight, and yet it's easy to move around in. It doesn't feel hot or cold either, a perfect temperature. I like it."

Dreiford, delighted Zycor was enjoying his gift, said, "Well, there is more where that came from! All of the equipment in that chest has some magnecite in it, so it will all automatically fit itself to you if you imbue them with mana."

Zycor closed the chest and looked at Dreiford, "Would you be willing to give me a few minutes to get everything on?"

Dreiford happily replied, "Why yes of course! Take as much time as you need!"

Zycor took the chest and went into the guild hall to change into his new equipment. While waiting, Adria commented, "I hope you are not trying to turn my Zycor into a walking advertisement to promote your business."

Dreiford, adjusting his tie, replied, "I will have you know, Adria, that every word I said is true. I really did have everything made as a gift for the young lad. If, for whatever reason, him wearing that brings me more business, it really is out of my hands." As Adria was about to tear into Dreiford, Zycor walked out of the guild hall.

In addition to the magnecite chainmail, he was now wearing tan cargo pants, a unique looking belt, and boots with leather-magnecite soles. The belt was ash gray, like the chainmail, and on either side of the belt were holsters to hold Zycors wrist blades. All of the gear had some magnecite in it as well as rune enhancements that would enhance his combat capabilities when activated with mana. "Well, what do you think?" Dreiford asked curiously.

After one last inspection, Zycor looked at Dreiford and responded, "It's great, Thank you very much, Mr. Hickens."

Chuckling a bit, Dreiford told Zycor, "You don't have to be so formal my boy! We have known each other for quite some time now and I honestly owe you quite a bit! Please feel free to call me Dreiford."

Adria scowled and said, "Don't feel like you have to honor Mr. Hickens's ridiculous request."

Zycor was now uncertain how to address him. "Then," Zycor began, "How about Uncle Dreiford?"

Perhaps it was because of his subconscious desire to have a family again, but after everything Dreiford had done for them, whether willingly or not, it felt like the right thing to call him. Adria, was confused, angry, and a bit disturbed as she said to Zycor, "Now, sweety, I really don't think that is appropriate. And besides, I doubt Mr. Hickens would enjoy being called that. Right, Mr. Hick-."

Adria paused as she looked over at Dreiford who appeared to be overjoyed being called 'Uncle Dreiford.'

Adria rubbed her temple with a heavy sigh, "Ugh, whatever, I will deal with… that, later. For now, we have other guests we must prepare to greet."

With a confused yet curious look on his face, Dreiford asked, "May I ask who it is you are meeting?"

Adria, still annoyed at Dreifords 'new name', replied, "We are meeting with Vidal-Armand Tygor and his daughter."

Dreiford, with a shocked expression, exclaimed, "Tygor?! You mean, THE Tygor family? The one famous for being at the head of the magic item research field? Why are you meeting with them!?"

Adria replied, "Well, as much as I would like to tell you, we really have to be getting ready."

Dreiford, irritated that he was not going to get any information out of Adria, sighed, and left.

Adria went inside and headed to her room to change into something a bit more formal than usual. When she came out, she was wearing a professionally tailored light black suit. The jacket was open down to the midpoint of her torso. When she went to fetch Zycor, she noticed he had not changed out of the equipment Dreiford gave him earlier. Before she could get him into new clothes, the sound of horses and a carriage stopping out front could be heard. With no time left, she grabbed his hand and said, "Come along Zycor sweety, there is someone I would like you to meet."