The Aspiring Archivist

Sicarius stumbled towards the fallen Nameless, wielding the shard. Grab me. Tors flew in nearby and stopped to hover beside his arm. Do it!

The object hit Sicarius like an oncoming train, throwing him backwards and driving him into the ground. Somehow, despite having a wholly broken body, the man stood up. He snapped his fingers, and one of the wrought iron posts from the fence twisted, coming off and flying to his hand. He threw it at Nameless and cut with his shard, shortening the distance between him and the gnarled piece of metal.

"You think me a fool," Sicarius said. "Hardly. I knew you were suspicious, and you would only become more so with time." While deterred from killing TAAron, he was still able to use his weapon for its magical properties. With a swipe of his hand, a random piece of debris appeared with a flash of light in the sky above TAAron and he, and began hurtling down. "I know you can't use your magic forever! You only just recovered from the last time we met."

"Alright." In a swift motion, Sicarius brought up one of the shards and sliced it in the air. Space around him seemed to bend. Nameless grew further away from him, as did Wynn and the Nurse, but TAAron was now positioned next to him. He grasped the wickedly sharp shard, which cut further into his hand. Paying the cut no attention, he went to slice the shard across TAAron's neck.

"If you want to..." Sicarius placed his hand on the piece in the center of the array. He pulled it away quickly as though it had burned him. "Woah. That was weird."

"I just said I have no idea what they do. But I might as well find out. Ouch!" He dropped the shard he was holding. It had cut a gash in his hand, which was now bleeding. "I'll have to be careful with those. Maybe they need some sort of magical ability to use properly."

Inside, an array of shards of silvery metal were slotted together, forming a perfect circle. It looked something like a sheet of glass that had been struck in the center with a hammer, with a central piece and breaks propagating out from the center, dividing the circle into neatly spaced sections. The edges of each shard were tapered off, forming a jagged, dagger-like blade. Sicarius picked one up very carefully. "Odd artifacts, these. I can't figure out what they do."

"I guess that's a good instinct to have." He picked up his briefcase, walked a few feet away, and sat down on the floor. It had no latch. Instead, he placed a finger where the latch would be. There was a click, and it opened.

"I've given you no reason to distrust me, and you've hardly provided an avenue to your trust."

Sicarius cocked his head. "You seem a bit hostile. I have just as much right to be here as you do. If I may ask, how did your friend get his soul damaged in the first place?"

Sicarius pointed at the nearby fence. "That's probably made of iron, I would say. Maybe not fully pure."

"It's easier to say if I can help with what you need help with than to list everything I can do."

"Well, what do you need help with? I'm not a wish-granting wizard."

"Sounds like you and your friend have a complicated relationship. Look, I'd be glad to help with what I can before you leave. I'd just rather not die, especially before I've figured out what these do." He nodded to the briefcase, which was still on the ground.

"Well, I don't see how you could get where you're going with him unconscious. Wouldn't it be risky to bring a defenseless person into a place so dangerous?"

By using the term 'marvellous' you are simply complimenting yourself as you are also using haikus. Also, your haiku is broken up. 4/10

"Who is TAAron? The unconscious one?"

"I see. Frankly, I wasn't planning on dying anytime soon. How come you're doing something so dangerous? So you really think it's worth whatever you're after? And... were you wanting to look into the briefcase?"

"What? Why are you all probably going to die?"

"I'm... sorry to hear that. Is there any way I could help out?"

"An angry god?" The man looked taken aback. "That seems like a bad situation. I don't think I've encountered a god, either. Are you exaggerating when you say that?"

"Interesting." He stood back up, turning away from the unconscious scholar. "So how did you all get here? You look pretty beaten up."

Sicarius frowned slightly. "Alright. Fair enough, I guess." He examined TAAron more closely. "His breath looks very shallow. A result of soul damage?"

"Just a thing a found in the last dimension. You can open it if you want, just be careful and don't steal." Sicaruis turned to Nameless. "I never did ask your name. I'm Sicarius, I assume you heard that?" He held out his hand to shake.