Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

The chain moves again.

This time two links slide over the lid before stopping against the side of the case. The metallic sound crosses the empty plaza, and Veric takes his hand off the first lock.

Zhang Xi steps closer. "Did you do that?"

"No," Veric answers.

I look at the case.

Something repositions inside it. The platform creaks, though nobody has touched it.

"Is that the warning?" I ask.

Veric keeps his eyes on the chain. "Seems so. The sword won’t accept being wielded."

"How many attempts?"

"More than the records describe. My family received the Relic two generations ago, when Thirstfall was discovered. Kings, guards, sword masters, and guests of the court have all tried to claim it."

"And nobody managed?"

"Some managed to lift it."

The way he answers makes it clear that wasn’t the problem.

Veric touches one of the runic marks on the side of the case. A sequence of names rises over the metal, followed by short records of injuries, damages, and interrupted tests.

"It shifts its weight, escapes the hand, and interferes with strikes. One man tried to channel OXI through the blade. The sword turned against the motion and dislocated his shoulder. Another managed three cuts before the grip slipped and the pommel caught him in the face."

"Sounds polite."

"The men who run the vault disagree."

The chain moves toward the side closest to me.

Veric watches the shift and frowns. "It never reacted before the case was opened."

That explains the platform, the chains, and the absence of the men who brought the weapon here. It still doesn’t explain why Veric thought of me.

"You knew it would do this?"

"I thought of you for the size, the weight, the style of the sword. The conscious part was the risk."

"Important thing to leave for last."

"You liked it anyway."

He unlocks the first rune. The second opens right after. When Veric brings his hand near the third, the chain releases on its own and falls around the platform. The final lock lights, holds for an instant, and dies.

The lid rises a few centimeters.

A dark blade sits fixed inside the case, wide and long enough to demand space around its bearer. The metal carries a deep blue near the edge, almost black at the center. The guard curves downward in two asymmetric extensions, like tentacles closed around the grip.

The sword moves.

The pommel scrapes the inner lining. The blade turns inside its supports, releasing one catch after another, until the grip is pointed at me.

Veric stays still.

"Is that new too?" I ask.

"All of this is new."

I bring my hand closer.

The sword leaves the case before I touch it.

It rises with the point angled at the ground and stops in front of me, offering the grip. No flow of OXI follows the movement. There’s no invisible wire, no skill of Veric’s, no lit rune on the platform.

I close my fingers around the hilt.

The blade goes quiet.

Kraken was a massive greatsword forged from deep ocean-blue steel, nearly black along the spine. Silver channels ran through the broad blade like frozen currents, while the asymmetric guard curled around the grip in the shape of restrained tentacles. Its dark leather handle ended in a heavy pommel engraved with a single, lidless eye.

The weight distributes through my hand and forearm without pulling at the wrist. It’s a large sword, but the guard follows the angle of my fingers when I adjust my grip. The metal answers the change before I finish the motion.

A pressure crosses my palm.

[Link Activated.]

The System text blooms in my vision, dark blue streaked with black.

[Name: Kraken]

[Rank: B — Tide]

[Type: Conscious Greatsword]

[Durability: N/A]

[LORE]:"They chained it because it would not kneel. They sealed it because it would not sleep. Kings called its refusal a curse, and heirs reached for a weapon that had never belonged to them. A kraken does not serve the hand that finds it. It circles the one it chooses, and drags every other claimant beneath the tide."

[Hidden Lore Fragments — ERROR — Insufficient Bond]

[Hidden Passive: The Kraken’s Favor]Description: Kraken is a conscious Relic that recognizes a single bearer. Once the bond is accepted, it will move, reposition, defend, and return of its own accord to assist its bearer. Kraken consumes no OXI from the bearer and actively rejects all other hands.

[Effect 1: Chosen Arm]Kraken responds to the bearer’s immediate combat intent, adjusting its angle, balance, timing, and trajectory. Within the limits of the bond, the blade may leave the bearer’s grip, intercept immediate threats, complete short movements, and return to the bearer’s hand.

[Effect 2: The Other Current]Description: The motion accepted by the body is not the only motion preserved by the bond. What sinks before choice may still reach the surface through Kraken.

I read the last description again.

The motion accepted by the body.

What sinks before choice.

Memory of Lightwaves already taught me that a fight can hold several answers inside the same instant. My body has to pick one of them. The rest vanish before they become movement.

Maybe Kraken doesn’t let all of them vanish.

"Something wrong?" Veric asks.

"Maybe."

I turn the sword once.

Kraken follows the motion without resistance. When I slow down, it shifts the weight closer to the guard. I change the cut mid-trajectory, and the blade corrects the angle alongside my hip.

I let go of the grip.

Zhang Xi raises a hand, ready to step in.

Kraken finishes the arc on its own, spins with the point turned away from us, and comes back. The grip settles into my palm again.

"It didn’t use your OXI," Zhang Xi says.

"I noticed."

Veric moves closer to study the guard.

Kraken pulls back.

The blade leaves my line, turns in the air, and points at the center of his chest. I didn’t move my arm. But my arm is holding Kraken, and it’s aimed at him.

Veric stops. "Still hostile."

"With you."

"Thanks for the precision."

Kraken returns to obeying my hand. The pommel eases slightly against my wrist, almost patient.

I look at Undertow strapped to Veric’s arm. "Attack me."

He studies the sword. "You’ve held it for the first time about a minute ago."

"That’s why it’s a test. You know me. I don’t like hedging."

Veric lets out part of the chain and steps back. Undertow drops toward the ground before he catches it firmly on his arm. He’s going to throw.

"Ready?"

I take my guard. "Yes."

He hurls Undertow at rib height.

I start a diagonal parry. My mind builds the trajectory, the contact point, the force needed to shove the chain out wide. At the same time, I see the opening beneath the attack. I choose that second answer.

My body abandons the parry.

I release Kraken into the air and drop my center of gravity, passing under Undertow as I move in.

The sword stays on the path I discarded.

Kraken completes the parry by itself, as if it had memorized my last thought.

The edge strikes the side of Undertow and deflects it, throwing the chain upward. Veric tries to recall the weapon, but I’m already inside his reach. My hand stops in front of his throat.

Kraken spins between my fingers with ease. I catch it.

Veric looks at Undertow, then at the sword. "You didn’t command both movements."

"No."

Zhang Xi has been watching Kraken closely. "The sword didn’t imitate you either. It finished what you wanted to start. That’s what I could read from your body."

I run my thumb over the grip.

Kraken tilts the guard a few millimeters, settling around my hand.

"You’re right, Zhang Xi. I thought of two things and chose one answer," I say. "It insisted on carrying out the other."

Veric stays silent.

Tomorrow, Rahul and every man involved in that battle will expect my skills, my decisions, and the limits of a body that can execute one thing at a time.

Kraken has just removed one of those limits.

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