Cassayn and the Sword of Ice

"I am pleased to meet you as well, Cassayn," said Fred. "From where do you hail?"

"I'm from the Federation of Rhavei," she said. Fred nodded. He had heard of Rhavei, a far-off land famous for its scholarship and magery.

"If we are truly in the Shreken, then, you are quite far from home. How do you think you ended up here?"

"I--I don't remember," she said. "I was walking through the caves outside of the town where I live, just to clear my head, and then suddenly I found myself here. I can't think of anything I could have done that could have sent me here. I haven't even used any magic in the last month."

"Then you are a mage?" asked Lord Fred. She looked too young and unassuming to fit Fred's idea of a mage, and this troubled him somehow.

"No, not really. Well, technically I am, I guess, but not much of one-- I work as a craftsman, not as a mage. And you?"

"I am a Dragonslayer. I was sent to these caves to slay a vile dragon that was devastating the lands of my kingdom. I obtained a magic sword from a small rat-creature with which I managed to slay both the wyrm and its father, and--"

Fred saw that Cassayn's eyes were riveted to his sword. They were an odd ice-blue, not that different from the color of the blade of the ice sword. "I--I think I've seen that somewhere before. Fred, is that the Sword of Ice? The one that Galen used?"

Fred breathed in sharply. "I--I don't think so, Cassayn. The rat- creature that sold it to me claimed it was, but I was sure he was lying. Galen took the sword with him to the Plains of Fire beneath the Floating Islands of Nelon to do battle with Mornthengor. Neither his body nor the sword were ever found once it was slain. No one has ever ventured into the Plains of Fire since, and if they have, they surely died. That rat- creature wanted me to die at the hands of the dragons anyway--it was a traitor. It probably thought that the sword would not serve me against the might of two dragons."

"But it did, didn't it? Fred, I’m scared. I can swear I've seen that thing before somewhere, but I don't know where."

1. Fred did his best to reassure her.
2. Fred looked into the pool and found that his eyes, too, had become ice-blue.

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