Hone the Edge: Page 2

I eased myself into my desk chair, a damp rag pressed against my neck. Tius had been so kind as to give us a break from the training, so I elected to use it to recover. Hours of running, climbing, and most of all, sparring, had done a number on me. I leaned back and closed my eyes, fully prepared to slip into the shallow sleep of a mid day nap.

A few moments later, there was a knock at my door, closely followed by Lexi slipping into my room.

"Lex, why knock if you're not going to wait for a response?"

"Keeps you on your toes. And I like messing with you."

"I see. And is that all you're here to do?"

Lexi leaned over the back of the chair, gently pressing her fingertips into the stiff muscles of my shoulders.
"Of course not, I got something I wanna show you."

I tossed up my hands in mock surrender.
"Babe, you know I love you, but my body would not survive a romp with you right now."

"Relax, Lucas, it's not like that. Just follow me."

With that she quickly kissed my cheek and strutted across the hall to her room. And despite the complaining from my over worked body, I got up and followed her.

In her room, she ushered me over to her workbench, as usual covered in trinkets and gizmos and half finished glyphs. Unusually, however, right in the middle of the desk sat a familiar staff, seemingly carved from solid obsidian.

"Wait, is this the staff I took from that other dimension?"

"Yup!"

I looked up from the staff to Lexi, who seemed uncharacteristically excited about this.

I picked it up, feeling for any indication that it had previously been snapped in two. If there was one, I didn't notice it.

"I thought it was destroyed. How did you do this?"

"Oh, mending the break was simple. The hard part was restoring its ability to hold energy. It was tricky because its not from here, and whatever magic it was built for works very differently, but I was able to get the magic to reknit itself by casting... I'm ranting, aren't I?"

"Yes, and its adorable."

"Oh, you're just saying that."

I gently set staff back onto her desk, careful not to damage any of her smaller projects.

"No, I mean it. I love how you passionate you are with stuff like this. Its endearing."

That familiar hue of tomato red spread to cover her face, up to the points of her ears.

"That's uh... Thanks, babe."

"Anytime. Now..."

I picked up the staff again, holding it out to her.

"...What are you gonna do with this?"

She chuckled a little before pushing the staff back at me.

"It's for you, Lucas."

"What? Why?"

"I know how quickly you can burn through your magic reserves in a fight, so having a spell or two saved up might help."

Before I could respond, my insatiably horny pact weapon started yelling excitedly at me.

"Ooh ooh boss lemme do something lemme do something."

I winced a little as Vedra's voice sounded in my mind, a little too loud.

"It seems my sword wants to do something, do you mind?"

Lexis raised an eyebrow at me.

"You mean the one who keeps trying to convince you to let her... help out... when we sleep together?"

This got a maniacal laugh out of Vedra.

"The very same."

Lexi pinches her brow, sighing.

"Its yours now, so fine by me. She better not break it, though."

"Pfft, have some faith."

Immediately, the bracer on my right forearm seemed to melt and flow up my arm, onto the staff, until the entire thing was covered in silvery metal. Gradually the staff absorbed the metal, until only a pattern of twisting lines of silver was visble.

"There ya go, boss. Now I can hold onto this for ya, and make sure that Miss Engineer's repairs hold."

"Hm, thats actually pretty cool."

I flick my wrist, dismissing Vedra, and the staff, into her pocket dimension.

Lexi looked on in confusion.

"Where in the hells did it go?"

"Relax, Vedra has a little pocket dimension I can send her to sometimes. And now the staff too it seems."

"Oh... That is cool."

"As usual, you'd be useless without me."

I stifled a yawn, my body reminding me how strenuous the day had been.

"Tired, Valentine?"

"Yeah, a bit. I think I need a nap.

"Honestly, me too. Tius ran us all hard as hells today, and he's gonna do it more tonight."

I groaned a little at the notion.

"Well, I should go back to my room. Thank you for this, Lexi. You're too good to me."

"You are very welcome. But if you're going to bed ."

Lexi gave me a coy look, glacing over to her bed in the corner.

"And I'm also going to bed... and my bed is open..."

It didn't escape my notice that the way she pulled out the hem of her shirt highlighted the shape of her boobs underneath.

"Lex, I'm already sore as is."

She stepped forward, pressing herself against my arm.

"I'll be gentle."

"You're... gonna be the **** of me."