Chapter 6: The Echo of the Blade

  Ren looked up at the mountain of steel, his throat bone-dry. His muscles locked instinctively.

  “Duskbane… you need something?” Ren asked. With a small scared voice.

  The man’s eyes narrowed, a scarred brow twitching. “It’s Sir Duskbane to you. Don’t get comfortable just because you’ve got a fancy suit.”

  Ren didn’t stammer. He stepped back, his eyes darting to the exits, figuring out the distance to the door for him to get to.

  “Sorry, Ren,” said the first, a tall woman with Red hair tied in a warrior’s knot named Sela. “He’s been on edge ever since you didn’t meet him at the bar last night. He thinks you’re ducking him.”

  “We told him there was nothing wrong,” added Juno, a sharp-eyed elf rogue with a bow on her back and daggers strapped to her thighs. “That you probably just forgot. You know how he is—takes everything as a personal slight.”

  The third, a emerald-robed mage with deep-sea blue hair, Elora sighed. “He’s just being difficult. Pay him no mind.”

  Lyra’s eyes sparkled with mischief as she looked between Ren and the hulking knight. “Yeah, Ren. We’ll leave so you two can deal with your problems.”

  “Wait, what—?” Ren started, his face heating up.

  “Yeah,” Vex added with a rare, dry smirk. “We’ll take Mia and Kael home to see their parents. They’ve got a farm to save.”

  Sela, Juno, and Elora looked at the kids, then back at Lyra. “Can we please come with?” Elora asked. “We’d honestly rather help with chores than watch these two brood at each other.”

  “Sure!” Lyra chirped. “If it’s okay with them?”

  Kael’s eyes were wide. “Yes! More heroes for the farm!”

  Mia nodded shyly. “Yes, of course. We don’t mind at all.”

  “Bye, Ren!” Lyra and Vex waved, herding the group toward the exit.

  “Wait, why don’t—”

  “Ren,” Duskbane interrupted, his voice a low rumble. “Stay. Let’s deal with this, now.”

  “Eek!.” Ren squeaked, the sound of a terrified gasp of pure fear slipping out.

  Duskbane paused, his head tilting. “…Eek?”

  “No!” Ren shouted, waving his hands. “I said… what do you want to talk about?”

  Duskbane stepped closer, his shadow swallowing Ren whole. He leaned in, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Who are you?”

  Ren’s heart stopped. What the hell? Did he figure me out? How when he thought “Well, um”

  “Now I definitely know you’re not Ren,” Duskbane growled. “The Ren I know would have punched me out the door the second I questioned who he was. He doesn’t hesitate. And he definitely doesn’t make noises like that.”

  Mira, sensing her furniture was about to be destroyed, leaned over the counter. “Guys, please! If you’re going to do this, take it outside!”

  Duskbane didn’t take his eyes off Ren. “Fine. Take us somewhere open. Somewhere out of town.”

  Ren swallowed hard, his hand trembling as he reached for that strange “pull.” “O… okay.”

  The rift opened on a path Ren walked before when he had to walk to the canyon, but Ren didn’t even see the beauty of the teal grass or the silk trees. He just saw a killing field. “Now let’s talk,” Duskbane said.

  Ren held up his hands, palms open in the universal sign of a beggar. “Wait, Sir Duskbane. Just listen. My head… it’s broken. I’m forgetting things. Im…I’m just as confused on what’s happening as you.” Ren was pleading now. He’d done this a thousand times in the slums. “We don’t have to do this. Please.”

  “Excuses.” Duskbane reached back, gripping the hilt of a sword forged from dark iron. “I don’t talk with words. I talk with strength.”

  Duskbane blurred.

  The shield hit Ren like a freight train. The dark armor materialized—not because Ren called it, but because his fear forced it out. He slammed into a white silk tree, the air leaving his lungs in a ragged gasp.

  He’s going to kill me, Ren thought.

  A hot, ugly pulse of adrenaline hit his veins. It wasn’t “heroic” courage; it was the cornered-rat reflex. Duskbane lunged with the [Abyssal Fang].

  Ren didn’t “sharpen his gaze” like a warrior. He snapped. A blade of swirling nebula-matter hissed into his hand. He didn’t parry to be stylish; he parried because he didn’t want to die.

  The sound of the blades meeting was a thunderclap.

  To Ren, everything slowed down his brain reacting to everything doing what it had to because he was faced with life or death. He didn’t “flow” like a dancer; he moved like a shadow trying to escape a light.

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  Duskbane swung a [Horizontal Strike]. Ren leaned back—not inches, but exactly the distance and stepped into the knight’s guard.

  Ren didn’t “tap” the shield. He swung the one sword using both his hand to hit it.

  THOOM.

  Duskbane was thrown back twenty feet.

  The knight went through his buffs—Hardening, Haste, [Holy Aura]. Hes body shined in a bright white light. Ren watched him.

  Duskbane dashed forward swinging his sword from left to right to strike Ren.

  Ren moved so fast he made his arm vanish. He struck the sword.

  Clink!

  The sword went flying out Duskbane’s hands into the ground.

  Ren stood back away, his chest heaving. He wasn’t proud. He was horrified. He had just done something hadn’t think of doing

  Duskbane dropped his shield. He looked at Ren who stood in front of him , his blade already.Ren wasn’t even breathing hard.

  “Okay then,” Duskbane said, his voice heavy with defeat. “You aren’t Ren, now explain who you are.” He throw himself onto the floor then pulled a red and green vial from his belt and downed it. As the liquid hit his throat, a dull glow hit around his body. He wiped his mouth, his eyes locked on the stranger.

  After Ren explained his situation.

  Duskbane exhaling a long, thoughtful breath after Ren finished his explanation. “Well… that’s quite the story you’ve got there.”

  Ren looked at Duskbane, then to the floor. ‘Will you…help me get back home, that is?’”

  “Of course,” Duskbane said, his eyes narrowing as he studied Ren’s face. “But first, answer me this: Do you really want to go back? From what you told me, things weren’t exactly going great for you over there. Is that life really what you want to return to?”

  Ren hesitated. “What I want… actually, I—”

  “Naturally, we have to get you out of that body,” Duskbane interrupted, his voice taking on a respectful, almost hushed tone. “Ren’s a genius. I know he’s already coming up with a way to get back here, and I know or I hope he will both come up with a way to keep both of you here in separate bodies. That is, if that’s what you want.”

  Ren frowned, a chill crawling up his spine. “Why do you talk about him like he’s still alive? There’s a chance he’s… you know, dead.”

  Duskbane laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Because I know he’s not. Nothing in this world could kill him, and I doubt anything in yours could either. He’s the strongest person to ever walk this planet.”

  Damn, Ren thought, watching the fanatical glint in Duskbane’s eyes. This guy is sycophanting him so hard right now. “Okay, fine,” Ren said aloud, trying to shake off the awkwardness. “But… why do you keep calling him ‘Ren One’? Why can’t I be Ren One?”

  Duskbane snapped his head toward him, looking genuinely horrified. “What?! Calling him anything less than the Original would be nothing short of blasphemy! It would be insane to even suggest you could be the First.”

  Ren pulled a face—that universal expression of ’Wow, okay, you’re a total fanboy’—and took a half-step back. “O-okay. Message received.”

  Duskbane’s expression softened, returning to the matter at hand. “Also… what about Vex, Lyra, and his family? Are you going to tell them? As much as I want the truth out, I won’t force this on you. Believe it or not, I’m not exactly enjoying keeping this secret from them either.”

  Ren looked out toward the horizon, the weight of the stolen identity pressing down on him. “I don’t want to. If I told them who I really am… I don’t want them to look at me differently. They’re the only people I can actually call friends. I… I don’t know. I just don’t want them to hate me.”

  Duskbane watched him for a long moment, seeing the genuine fear in the eyes of a man wearing a God-Killer’s face. “Well,” Duskbane said quietly. “Based on the few days you’ve spent with them… do you really think that’s how they would act?”

  The walk back to the outskirts was draped in the long, orange shadows of late afternoon. While the city of Glintreach hummed with life, the mood among the group was heavy, thick with a conversation they had all been avoiding.

  Juno was the first to break the silence. She adjusted the strap of his bow, her eyes tracking the movement of the crowd around them. “Hey… have you two seen Ren acting a bit… different lately?”

  Lyra’s playful skip faltered. She looked at her boots, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. “Yeah. He’s been off ever since the day we hunted that Warden. It’s like he’s seeing the world for the first time.”

  “Extremely different,” Vex added, her tone sharp and analytical. “He’s fighting weirdly, and he’s been agreeing with us a lot more than usual. The old Ren wouldn’t have asked for our opinion; he would have just walked toward the danger and expected us to follow.”

  Kael, walking between them, looked up with a confused frown. “The people in the lower district… that knew him all said he’s a cold person. That he gets real angry if you even annoy him. But he hasn’t been like that at all. He’s been… nice.”

  “That’s exactly what’s bothering Sir Duskbane,” Juno replied, her voice dropping as they turned onto a quieter street. “Duskbane has been saying some rather weird things since Ren didn’t meet him at the bar. He’s convinced that someone else is in possession of Ren’s body.”

  Sela sighed, crossing her arms. “I told you guys to stop saying stuff like that. You know how Ren gets when you question his identity. If he were to appear and heard you he’d get a temper like a forest fire.”

  “Maybe he’s just trying to change,” Lyra suggested, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself. “Ren wasn’t exactly a ‘good’ person. The way he treated people was… less than alright. Maybe he noticed that and is trying to fix it? Or maybe I’m just delusional and the person we’ve been walking around with isn’t the Ren we know. Then again, is there even anyone strong enough to pull that off against him?”

  “We should confirm with Sir Duskbane when we get back,” Juno insisted. “The way he describes it, him and Ren might as well be the same person, he keeps going on about how we did this we did that.”

  Elora, the blue-haired mage, shook her head. “They’ve been friends since they were born. Maybe they just grew up with the same interests.”

  The conversation died as they approached a weathered farmhouse on the edge of the blighted fields. Kael didn’t wait; he burst through the door.

  “Father! We’re back!”

  “Where were you?” he barked, though the relief in his voice was plain. “I told you two—if you were going to take a quest that required you to stay out overnight, you had to come ask me first!”

  A tall man with broad, tired shoulders stepped out from a back room. He had a stubborn jaw and eyes lined with the exhaustion of a man fighting a losing battle against the land.

  He paused as he rounded the doorframe, his eyes widening as he saw the group of armed adventurers standing in his living area. “These must be the group you went out with?”

  “No, no,” Juno stepped forward with a polite nod. “These two are the ones who took them. We just decided to come along to see if there was anything we could do to help their mother.”

  Vex stepped forward. “My name is Vex, and this is my partner, Lyra. Our leader couldn’t attend because he is… busy with a friend.”

  Juno gestured to her teammates. “I’m Juno, and these are Sela and Elora.”

  Thorne let out a long breath, some of the tension leaving his frame. “Well. My name is Thorne. You ladies must be exhausted from the road. Please, come in. I’ll make you all some tea.”

  Juno blinked, a small, amused smile playing on her lips. “Actually… I’m a guy.”

  The silence that followed was so heavy you could hear the wind whistling through the floorboards.

  “HUH?!”

  Vex, Lyra, Kael, and Mia all shouted in unison, their eyes bugging out. Between the long, elegant hair, the delicate features, and the high-collared rogue gear, none of them had even considered the possibility.