Chuckling, he lifted his free hand in supplication, and Elyria smirked as she placed the weapon back on the rack.
“Never in a thousand years would I suggest it looks in any way easy. For Aurelia’s”—Cedric cleared his throat—“for fuck’s sake, we’re talking aboutwalking through shadowshere.”
She tilted her head. “You don’t call on Aurelia’s name anymore?”
“The luster of the celestials has been somewhat diminished of late,” he said with a shrug. “Especially hers. Now that Iunderstand exactly why she was banished—and where she was banishedto. She holds no power, tied to the Sanctum as she is. What good is invoking her name? Perhaps she cannot even hear those who still do.”
Elyria hummed in thought. “And, of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s the reason you had to—” She cut herself off, lip curling as if she suddenly tasted something rank. Refocusing her gaze on the staff that Cedric was still leaning on, she continued. “You were handling that thing quite well. Ready to trade in your sword, Sir Knight?”
Cedric noted the abrupt change of subject but would not push against it. He smothered the instinct to preen at Elyria’s words of praise. “I’ll admit to understanding the appeal—the distance and leverage it provides alone can be quite the advantage.” With a flourish, he offered the staff to Elyria. “But I think I’ll stick to swords.”
Her mouth tipped up to one side as she stepped forward to take it, her sweet almond scent wafting across Cedric’s nose. She twirled the weapon, spinning it in the air like a great baton. “Oh, I don’t know.” Her eyebrows lifted. “You seem like the kind of person who knows how to...wield things properly.”
Heat flooded Cedric’s cheeks in response, the tips of his ears turning pink.
Grinning broadly, she went on to ask, “Have you given yours a name?”
A sort of choked sound rumbled out from Cedric’s throat. “My—my what?”
“Yoursword,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “That’s a thing you humans do, isn’t it? Name your weapons?”
Cedric swallowed, trying to reclaim the tiniest bit of his composure. He walked over to the railing that held his discarded shirt, hoisting it over his head before snatching up the scabbard leaning against the rail. “It’s not a ‘thing’ for Arcanians, I take it?”
“Not for the fae.” She placed the staff back on the weapons rack. “Dwarves name their hammers, I believe. I’m a little bit scared to ask Thraigg what he calls his.”
Cedric huffed a laugh. “I cannot say I blame you there. But, yes, we name them. It is our right and our duty when we become knights of the realm.”
“So? What is it then? Don’t hold a girl in suspense.” When Cedric hesitated to respond, she added, “It cannot possibly be worse than the names I am currently inventing in my head, so you might as well just tell me, Sir Knight.”
Cedric swallowed. “Ashrender.”
“Ashrender?Stars above, that’s dramatic.”
“I was sixteen,” he grumbled, his grip on the sword in its scabbard tightening.
Elyria tapped her chin. “No, no, I like it. Very fitting.” She squinted at the sword, her gaze darting between the amber stone set in its pommel, the wing-shaped crossguard, and Cedric’s face. “A little too fitting, actually. A blade to turn enemies to ash, wielded by the knight who rose from it.”
Cedric swallowed hard, the memory of his mother’s voice echoing in his mind.“What’s gotten into you, my little phoenix?”
Chewing on his lip, he ran the pad of his thumb along the hilt before buckling the sword into place at his waist.
Several heartbeats passed between them in silence before Elyria finally said, “You’re sure you didn’t—” just as Cedric simultaneously blurted out, “I didn’t know?—”
They both released a nervous chuckle.
“Like I said, I was sixteen when I named it,” Cedric said. “It was actually my father’s sword, I’m told. The one item Lord Church was able to recover from my former home after...” He cleared his throat. “Well, the one item aside from”—he held up his hand to show her his ring—“this.”
“Also your father’s?”
Cedric nodded.
“You didn’t have that during the Crucible.”
“I did not take either in there with me. Took a different sword as well.”
Elyria tilted her head. “Why?”
“In case I didn’t...I did not want them to be lost, even if I was.”
