Keldreth

Dinner that night was, well... uncomfortable, to say the least. Between his darling teacher and his rough one, there wasn't much room for conversation.

"You overdid it," the priestess said, angrily stabbing her mashed potatoes as if they were Arthur's face.

"I did not," the gruff knight responded, nonchalantly brushing off her claims.

"Did too."

"Nuh uh—"

"Yuh-huh."

"Nuh-u—"

Crash.

The porcelain plate in front of Kai shattered into pieces, his food slipping through the cracks, gravy soaking the tablecloth.

"You're both a pair of children," Kai muttered. "Sylvia, you're a priestess. This can't possibly be a good look for you."

Arthur sneered. "And don't get me started on you either, Mr. Knight. Your whole mysterious and brooding thing doesn't work. Clearly, you're someone influential, so it can't look good for you either."

Sylvia smugly adjusted her hair.

"Plus, both of you are adults outside of either of your professions. A literal child is doing a better job at keeping things cordial than you are."

Arthur pointed to the plate in front of him. "Well, maybe we're all a little hot-headed. Good. I've just the thing to help us let off steam."

Sylvia's body was crumpled awkwardly against a wall, and Kai's legs were sticking out from between the couch cushions — having been brutally shoved into the furniture during the pillow fight.

Arthur jumped onto the ottoman, kicking Kai's legs, and shaking a pillow in his hand like a brutal madman.

"I won. HA! Get good—" With that he promptly sent the pillow throttling towards the barely conscious young woman, hitting her squarely in the face.

A subtle shift in the air, something was coming, Sylvia's nose crumpled under the confines of the feathery pillow, her eyes flashing a verdant green as she mouthed words, silently chanting. Arthur's smile faded, replaced by a look of horror—

One second the proud man was standing on the furniture, and the next his body lying in a crater in the courtyard, half of the wall blown out from Sylvia's spell.

She rubbed her nose and rested her hands on her hips. "Serves him right."

Kai pulled himself up, it was late, sun had set and now there was even a draft in the room due to Sylvia's shenanigans, the clock on the manor wall echoed 12 times, signaling the turn of midnight, and with that he felt it, a change.

That dormant spell resting in his wrist bone had started to stir. Like a sleeping dragon it pulsed, waves of mana coming off it like the smoky breath of the ancient serpent.

The spell had decided Kai was worthy, and as such it would not disappoint.

Sylvia looked over noticing the ripples on the atmosphere, and even Arthur had opened his eyes peering up from the floor outside, before promptly jumping easily over ten feet back through the open wall.

The circle in his wrist started to rotate pushing out towards Kai's palm, he couldn't possibly know what to hope for, but he knew that whatever he got would be perfectly suited to his level of training, and it was certainly not going to be mundane.

A radiant sword capable of rendering foes? A stalwart hammer for sweeping legions off their feet? An elegant polearm for domination? No, Sylvia's eyes widened, as she looked at Arthur more mana than most weapons would have taken was condensed into the circle, the two instructors locked eyes, knowing that their student was no ordinary man.

A final flash, before the light faded, a silver cuff wrapping around Kai's left wrist, with a latch, and an elegant point, four rings on the fingers of his hand with small chains connecting them. With a burst of mana Kai pushed the energy into the newfound weapon, and a dexterous chain shot forth the elegant point arrowing towards a tree through the hole in the wall.

A sharp thud, and a crackle, instantly the point unfolded and clamped down, Kai shot forward at breakneck speed.

In the span of a few short seconds he had traveled over 50 meters, now perched in a tree, the impact rattling his legs a bit, but not too much to make it unbearable.

His training had paid off, a never before-seen weapon with untold possibilities and applications in combat, something that was entirely Kai's own, something that was clearly meant to be used alongside his latent wind affinity he had yet to learn to control.

Sylvia flew towards him powered by the wind, Arthur dangling beneath on a mana thread.

"You've awakened the weapon… and it's certainly something."

Arthur snorted. "Yea a weapon that's gonna be the death of him in actual combat." He furrowed his brows, there had to be something, the spell wouldn't give someone as outstanding as Kai a lackluster weapon, no, there were applications even he– a grand swordmaster had overlooked.

'That was it, exactly that, the secret to Kai's weapon certainly isn't mundane.' -chuckling in his head- 'Well kiddo, you did well, you did well, but your teacher here can't help you on this, it's up to you to figure out..'

"You're leaving. Just like that?" Kai leaned against the manor wall, the sun had barely started to rise.

Arthur harrumphed. "Yes, and you ruined my mysterious disappearance."

Kai rolled his eyes waving his hand. "Yes, yes, you've done your job and helped me out, but you don't have to just leave—"

"I don't know why you're going off like this, I don't know your relationship with Sylvia but I can see it, she only harps on you because you worry her, and now you're leaving without even saying goodbye."

The man's eyes turned somber. "Yes, even so, leave I must, and in the night too. For, saying goodbye would be needlessly painful, for me— and her."

Before Kai had a chance to respond Arthur had sprinted off, his cloak slowly blending him into the surroundings.

Kai would have chased him, he probably should have, his new weapon giving him every ability to do so.

Maybe it was pride that stayed his foot, or respect, but he stayed. He grit his teeth, he needed to grow, to learn, to perfect himself. To not worry Sylvia like Arthur did.

Looking down at the ornate instrument on his hand, he grit his teeth and made a pact.

This was his weapon, Keldreth 

And he would carry it to the very end.