Buck

Buck studied the shard of crystal in his hand. It felt cold to the touch, almost like it was formed out of ice, but it showed no sign of melting in the warmth of his hand.

Autumn strolled over to him and held out her hand. She nodded to the shard he was holding.

“Hold that out, please, balanced on your palm,” she instructed.

Curious, Buck obeyed. Autumn hovered one hand a few inches over the shard, and inscribed another of those glowing symbols in the air with the other. The shard in Buck's hand grew warm and vibrated slightly. He looked down to see that the crystal's jagged edges had smoothed over and the thing was changing shape. It flowed, from a vaguely trapezoid shaped chunk of crystal into a longer, thin diamond.

Autumn tapped the crystal and the thing writhed in Buck's hand. His impulse was to toss it because crystal is not supposed to wiggle. Autumn tilted her head and raised one eyebrow and Buck squashed the impulse.

A moment later, Buck found himself holding a crystal knife, easily the length of his forearm. How had that tiny crystal turned into this?

“Okay, that was different,” Buck muttered.

Autumn nodded. “I'll arm your recruits now, with your permission?”

“Uh, yeah, go right ahead. Everyone line up and let the Champion do whatever that was. Hold out your crystals.”

The recruits obeyed, some eagerly, a few nervously. Autumn moved quickly from recruit to recruit, smiling and joking and reassuring the nervous ones with a quick smile and a few kind words. She was good at this, at raising morale and dispelling nerves. In a few minutes, all but eight were armed with shining crystal knives. The last eight, Autumn handed each one of the flag poles and instructed them to hold the crystals at the end of the pole.

One of the eight chosen was Recruit Tanaka. She stepped forward when Autumn motioned for her, and held the crystal at the top of the pole as instructed.

“Now, this is just a bit different. I have to strengthen the pole and fuse it to the crystal, then form a blade for the spearhead,” Autumn explained.

“What do I have to do?” Tanaka asked.

“Just hold it steady while I work, and don't worry if the crystal wants to fuse over your hand. I won't let it, but it might tickle just a bit.”

Tanaka nodded resolutely and Autumn repeated the process, sketching a different symbol in the air this time. Well, Buck presumed it was different. The light trail faded too quickly for him to be certain but he was certain she spiraled her hand twice, not three times, and there were more little striking sideways motions. The crystal shifted and twisted, covering Tanaka's hand for a moment. The recruit winced but refused to flinch, and the crystal continued moving until it spiralled in thin, intricate lines up and down the pole. At the top, a sharp, flared point grew.

“There we go,” Autumn said. “I think you'll be suited to spear work, you've got a steady hand. Let me get to the others, and we can start training.”

Tanaka nodded and stepped back into line, studying her shiny new weapon. Autumn moved down the line, fixing each subsequent pole into a spear. When she was done, she returned to Buck.

“I'll need some way to mark the ground that isn't permanent, that can be wiped away quickly if needed,” Autumn said.

“You mean like chalk?” Buck asked.

Autumn nodded.

“Great. Tanaka, Reynolds, go grab that bucket of sidewalk chalk from the armory. Hey, Champion, that barrier of yours, does it cover the open bit of the building there?”

The thought had just occurred to him.

“It does.” Autumn glanced at the broken building. “And the barrier will act as a kind of support, because I'm not sure how much of the building was left behind in your world.”

“You're thinking it might've left a couple load bearing walls behind?” Buck guessed.

Autumn nodded.

“Well thanks for thinking of that, then,” Buck said. “I'm not in the mood to dig my recruits out of rubble today.”

Autumn smirked, apparently some humor made it through the filter of the translation stone.

“Also, thanks for these,” Buck held up the knife. “How careful do we gotta be not to shatter them?”

“Not careful at all. You cannot break them.”

“Really?” Buck scoffed. “Let me tell you, Princess, lots of things are recruit resistant, but I have never seen one single piece of equipment made that was recruit proof.”

“I'll wager my magic against their destructive capabilities,” Autumn said. “The sword only broke because I willed it.” She held up the hilt, now restored to its full size, and tapped it hard against the ground, producing a musical ring but no sign of a crack.

“Okay, cute. Do you do that often?”

Autumn shrugged. “I have had to rally a few small Enclaves to their own defense against the Mistborn. Farm implements make fine weapons but strengthening them with the living crystal helps. And, well, I could carry a bag of the crystal seed, yes, but I find that the symbolism of giving them a shard of the Champion blade infers a measure of confidence beyond the weapon itself.”

“Oh. Morale, huh?”

“Yes.” Autumn paused. “I realize my status as Champion doesn't mean much of anything to your recruits, but I feel I owe them the same effort I give any denizen of Underhill.”

Buck rubbed his chin. “Your status might not mean much,” he admitted, “but I think you're beginning to mean a whole lot to them. They trust you.”

“I'll earn it,” Autumn promised.