"What the hell is going on!?"
"Damn, Zach, how did you know we were in here?"
"I could hear you, Greta."
"Well, happy birthday anyway, Ian"
"Thanks, Kuchiki."
"Surprise!" Zoe and Alisha jumped in from the deck.
"Yeah, he already knew."
"S***, Ian, why do you do that?"
"I'm sorry I can hear, Zoe."
After the bruhaha died down, I actually did have a good time. I got an entire cake to myself, and some awesome presents. Zoe gave me a real portable hole and Alisha captured lightning in crystal, both of which were pretty much amazing. Greta made me a sword. A freakin huge, magically reinforced, mind-blowingly cool sword. But I liked Kuchiki's gift the best. It was a gold ring, with a small black stone embedded in the top. Inside the ring was an inscription.
"Zu Herrn Ian meine polierende Nacht."
"Nice play on words. And since when do you know German?"
"I looked it up on the internet."
"Thank you."
After spending an hour suffering through girls' obsession with photos, I finally got out of the house. The ring fit my finger perfectly, of course, and I didn't even have to adjust the strap on the baldric. It was kinda creepy that Greta knew how wide my shoulders were, but I didn't think much of it. I decided to put the sword throught its paces. It was a greatsword, with a blade a bit over four feet long, a little wider than a palm, and a two-handed grip. It was a beautiful sword, and I soon found out that it never lost its edge, could cut through almost anything, and was incrediblely resistant to breakage. After a few hours of chopping down trees, I headed for home. The house was deserted, and walking through its silent halls, I found that I had never been there when there was nothing to hear. I wandered for hours, never going anywhere. And yet I went everywhere. I visited my favorite places, including the practice room I had thoroughly destroyed when I was 11. Suddenly I remembered again. Zaak should have another apprentice. He should be about ten, and just be starting defensive spells... nothing made sense. When Zaak spoke to the council man that day... something was wrong.
And it involved me.