Osgood was late. Again. For the upteenth time in his life. I suppose I shouldn’t have trusted him to be on time, but on an occasion like this, there was no way not to trust him.

“Where is he?” I wonder aloud. Realizing that it was a bad idea to stand out in the open, I had walked into an unused guard building. That was approximately an hour ago. So where was Osgood?

“This was a mistake.” I growled to the air, turning to walk away from the wall.

“Zenia! Wait!” A dark figure was running towards me, a sword strapped to its waist. 

“You’re late, Osgood.”, annoyance resonates in my voice. He’d called the meeting in the first place, so why was he late? “You better have a reason for not being here an hour ago. Especially to a meeting that you scheduled.”

Osgood stops in front of me, panting. The run from his house wasn’t even that far. How could he be out of breath so soon?

“Sorry… I had to... go to the... Healing Center” he gasped out. “Master… made me.”

“What’d you do? Stub your precious, heroic toe?”

“Be quiet.” Osgood’s words shock me. No matter what insult I threw at him, not that there were many spoken ones, he’d always taken it silently. 

“What?” I ask, wondering if I’d misheard. 

“Sorry! That wasn’t addressed to you!” The guilt on his face and in his emotions, though not concrete, allow me to believe him. 

“Who was it addressed to, if not at me?” 

“Can you stop it? Seriously, I get it already… Ugh! You need to stop!” Osgood’s emotions disappear into anger. They quickly spiraled back down to guilt as he realized that he’d yelled aloud. Looking uncomfortable, he blushed, quietly apologizing. I crossed my arms, trying to regain my dignity. 

“Will you explain what is going on? One moment you’re apologetic and the next you’re seething with anger and yelling at me.” Osgood manages to look even more embarrassed. 

“It’s... um… sort of... hard to explain…” I motioned for him to elaborate, and when he didn’t, annoyance coursed through me. 

“Fine” I growled, scowling. “Keep your secret. See if I care. It's late as is, and I don't have the protection of being a hero to stay out here. I'll see you tomorrow.” I started walking away, with the intention of never speaking to Osgood ever again. Whatever his secret was, it didn’t matter, but the time I’d wasted did. 

“Zenia! Wait!” I continued walking, refusing to acknowledge Osgood’s words. Was he trying to annoy me? Why did he not keep back, like a sensible person? He was definitely thick-skulled if he thought I wanted to speak with him after that. 

“Go home, Osgood. I am not interested in anything you have to say.”

“Zenia! You have to stop. Listen!” He yelled when I didn’t acknowledge him for the second time. “I was talking to the Solas Sword!” In shock, I stop walking, and spun around for the second time that day. Though this time there was a healthy dose of anger infused in it. 

“Great! Now you tell me lies! Do you really expect me to believe that you were talking to a sword!? Nobody's that stupid, though you are painfully close.”

As the words leave my mouth, a chill runs through my body, and I feel a presence slip into my mind. The chill cools my temper, something that everyone had given up on doing. 

“Greetings, Zenia, Daughter of the Master of Arts. The boy speaks the truth. He was talking to his sword, which I will choose to take as a compliment, instead of the obvious criticism of wit that it was.” The voice spoke with an authority that I had only heard from Master, rendering me speechless.

“Wha…?” slips from my mouth. Fear suddenly resonates within me. Looking at Osgood, I ask with a trembling voice, “H-how...?”

“I have no idea. It just happened with it after I was attacked by a Kenofek.”

“I apologize for the interruption, but I’m not an it, I’m a he. Anything else I will consider as offensive.”

“Fine!”, Osgood yells in annoyance, “He’s been at it ever since. Won’t quiet down at all, no matter how much I ask him to.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” The sword said with an indignant scoff, “Eighteen years is a lot to catch up on, even if you were willing enough to provide information.”

“I told you. I have no idea what happened back then! I was too young for that! You can’t expect me to remember something that far in the past!”, Osgood turns towards me, a pleading look in his eye, “Please tell me there’s a way to take him off of me. I can bear the fact that he’s gonna be stuck at my waist during the day, but if I’m bound to him all the time, I’ll go mad.”

“Can’t you just take him off?” I ask, confused by what was going on. The mental shockwave of a talking sword was just passing, so I didn’t realize the problem until after I asked the question. 

“You can’t take him off, can you? Why not?”

“I asked him, but he said some mumbo jumbo about cabbages or something like tha-” The sword suddenly rises from Osgood’s side and smacks his thigh. 

“What was that for!?” Osgood yelps out in pain.

“Had you been listening, you would know that I wasn’t talking about cabbages, but was attempting to ask about… wait…” 

“He’s been going on and-”

“QUIET!”, The sword interjected, shocking us into silence. “There’s someone on the outside of the wall.”