In a luxury room at the Four Seasons Hotel in the free city of Andor, Miss Gwen was preparing a ritual.
Now nearly six feet three inches tall, she was reinforcing the "seal" on a silver straight sword whose hilt ended in a single eye above a gaping mouth.
It was the Dawnsilver Sword, a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact Abner had lent her for protection. Only someone over six feet tall could lift it, and only someone over six feet seven could draw out its full power.
The single-eyed mouth at the top of the hilt was also an incessant chatterbox. If its wielder refused to answer, the Dawnsilver Sword might suddenly stop resisting at a critical moment—or even attack its owner.
But anyone who did converse with the carved head would find herself teetering on the edge of madness...
So Abner had advised Miss Gwen to use a ritual to seal the head, which clearly possessed traits of a living thing.
That would cost the Sealed Artifact some of its power. But Miss Gwen was under six feet seven and could not use its full strength anyway, so losing a little more hardly mattered.
Abner had also taken care of the sealing method himself. In the process, Miss Gwen learned the Honorific Name of a secret existence:
"O Lord of the Dead who comes from Eternal Darkness;
"You are the Lord of the Dead, the King of Conquest;
"You are the God of War and Destruction."
She felt an instinctive fear and wariness toward an Honorific Name that seemed to belong to a True God. Still, she trusted Abner. After hesitating again and again, she prayed to that existence and successfully received the power needed to sustain the sealing ritual.
Nothing else terrifying happened, which put her somewhat at