Chapter 579: Interlude - Auri - Valytheria, the World Sunderer
I was sitting on my favorite perch, the one I’d spent countless decades on.
Elaine’s shoulder.
Even better! We were on my best friend, Fenrir!
I wanted to enjoy the ashes falling from the sky, the sign that great fires were raging over the horizon, but no. I knew too much. Each ashen flake was a home, a bed, a life. Hopefully they had escaped the fiery holocaust that consumed their livelihood, but I knew too much. I had burned tens of thousands of pounds of material over my long life, and I knew the difference between wooden ashes and charred flesh. I could see when it was the burnt remains of a life dancing before my eyes, and when it was ‘only’ a tree branch.
A tree branch that was home to a squirrel or owl, where a microraptor hung from or sabertooth tigers prowled.
No, there was no enjoying these ashes.
Elaine was worried, staring at a far off mountain. I couldn’t see what she saw - water take these tiny eyes of mine! - but she was happily sharing.
“What’s Valytheria?” I asked the question for Fenrir, knowing he was curious as well.
“As [Loremasters] would put it, it’s an orange, maybe yellow-tier threat. It’s a sword, but more than that, it’s the sword. Powerful Classer transformed herself into a blade, then received a divine blessing on top of it. Calling it a weapon feels like it’s understating things. The sword itself is as amazing as can be, as any transformed piece of equipment is, but it’s the rest of it that… I’m not explaining this well.” Elaine took a deep breath in and slapped her cheeks.