Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Noooooo!” Shrieked the goblins in unison, despair gripping them. Their beloved master, the Great Guardian of the Horn of the One Highest Desire, was cut down by a mere lone adventurer. Their grieving wailing sounded out across the spacious chamber.

Aaravi meanwhile ignored the annoying mobs, tuning out the obnoxious crying. She barely spared a glance upon her latest kill, grimacing in disgust at what her trained adventurer eye quickly recognised. Only green loot on a boss of a dungeon this high level? Bah! She didn’t expect to see anything that compared to the actual main prize but this was plain pathetic!

Alas, said prize was now within her reach as she closed in on the altar that was protected by the deceased boss. It was hard to tell what was more sparkly, the brilliant polished surface of the Horn or her own eyes gazing into its beauty. Not even Hexes’ obnoxious chewing that accompanied her throughout the whole ordeal could take away this moment from her! 

She picked up the Horn with care she usually reserved only for handling her blades and gloated. “Hah, this is it Hex! The crowning moment of months of grinding and overly drawn out quest lines finally paying off with this beauty!”

The curse lazily looked at the artifact, disinterest painted on their face. “Can you run by me again why this horn is so special, Ravi?”

The demi human scoffed at her companion’s ignorance. “What is so hard to understand about why this thing is so OP? It’s a freaking horn that can give you an unlimited amount of anything you desire with no strings attached! Draught of invincibility, water from the mountain of youth, pure adamantine, everything!”

“So it can make bagels too? I’m out.” The green curse queried as they devoured the last chunk of the last bagel they had in stock. “I really need more bagels.”

Another scoff. “No. Every holder of the horn can choose only one thing they can source from it infinitely, once you blow it the first time then it’s set until you die! To waste this power on freaking bagels would be beyond idiotic! Especially since we already have a ring that makes specifically infinite bagels, you know.”

It was Hexes’ time to scoff, it was a much softer thing than Aaravi’s, sounding more like a pouting huff. “Oh I almost forgot about that one! Can you blame me though, when it’s nowhere to be seen?”

“Ugh, how was I to know you’ll eat through the supply we took so fast? I can’t waste trinket equipment slots on vanity items like this!”

“Oh you take that back, a creator of infinite uplifting and tasty food is no vanity Item!” The slighted curse crossed their arms in displeasure. “Oh, I already feel the starvation gnawing at me!” 

Aaravi heavily rolled her eyes. “Stop crying for fuck sake, we’ll be going back in a moment to your bagels. First though…” She raised up the horn to her eye level and greedily gazed into it. “I’m gonna try this baby out.”

Hex made a questioning face. “Don’t you wanna think this over if it’s one selection for life?”

“Pfft, you can't simply ‘think this over’. It works on reading your deepest truest desires. There's no difference whether I use it thoughtlessly now or at home after considering it!”

“I don’t know, I for one really want bagels. With how fucky our thing is on the whole mind thing I think it may imprint on that…”

“Don’t be stupid!” The adventurer blew up. “Your over dramatized yearning will not overpower my sheer determination even if it worked this way, and I will show you this!”

Just as she said, Aaravi put up the Horn to her mouth and blew into it with all the strength of her lungs before Hex could say another word.

They lost the remaining desire to say anything anyway as bagels started shooting up from the Horn, with the demi human unaware due to her closed eyes. They had to save as many of the precious things as they could from falling to the ground!

It was a bagel that fell straight onto Aaravi’s head that shook her out of it. The bewildered adventurer blinked a few times in consternation before she realized what had happened. She stared down the curse, who had their arms full of baked goods conjured by the Horn. Her face was twisting into a hateful and furious scowl. 

“Hey I told you this would happen.” Hex deadpanned, biting into the first of the Magic bagel. “Unholy shit, these are even better than the ones from the ring! Totally worth it.”

An impotent howl came out of the demi human and couple of the still-grieving goblins earned crossbow bolt to their heads.

Chapter Text

Aaravi carefully dusted off the ornate stone sarcophagus. She already disenchanted the wards put upon it and all that was left was to lift the cover. However just as she was preparing to lift it, she realized the patterns upon the upper half of it were in fact carved out words. It was clear it was one of the old tongues, known nowadays only by the most ancient beings walking the Earth and the most devoted scholars…

Or one of the people who looted the legendary Ring of All Tongues off of one of such scholars who happened to be a lich.

People like Aaravi.

Even after she put on the artifact it took a moment for it to kick in before she could understand the inscription;

Here lies Cyndmar the Restless

The greatest warrior of our age, one who felled eight thousand foes, for his blade held an unquenchable thirst for blood and not for one day was it left wanting

May he finally rest in peace alongside it for eternity

Huh, she hoped there would be something more worthwhile written on there.

Eh, it was a neat hype up for the goodies inside if nothing else.

Aaravi grabbed the lid on the side and pushed it off the sarcophagus a little bit. Hardly enough to make it fall off but enough to get a good look inside.

All that was left of Cyndmar himself were dusty old bones. From the faint light coming from the braziers she lit when she entered this chamber she could make out the outline of his skull and the ribcage. There was what seemed to be an originally opulent burial robe. Now it was bleached and the only indicator of the expensiveness were the sewn-in belts of small golden flakes. They glistened enticingly in the dim interior of the sarcophagus.

But their shine paled in comparison to the distinctive glint of seemingly nothing less than true demonic iron. The sword was lying by the right arm of the corpse, marked by the shine of the blade. The thought of gold disappeared from her mind as Aaravi reached down for it.

She knew her eyes were not mistaken as she brought the weapon into the light. The shade of the metal and its faint malevolent aura was unmistakable to her maxed out appraisal skills. In spite of being called iron, it was a never rusting metal hailing from the depths of Hell. She stood still for a moment, enchanted by the dancing reflections of the brazier flames upon the miraculously clear surface. There totally was an enchantment on it that made it shine and it was working even after so long…

Though the sword wasn’t actually all that impressive, all things considered. It was short and stubby, badly profiled. It didn't even have a proper hilt, just a weird sort of a handle. An additional closer look revealed how much of the gleam and shine was up to the enchantments covering up the poor quality of the metal.

It maybe was overpowered like five thousands years ago, back when it was made, but it was plain crap now. An antique at best.

Aaravi was not much of a lore nerd, so under normal circumstances she would probably just curse the waste of a dungeon this place was and throw out this F-rate garbate.

Yet… even as she knew innately that it was weird, she… felt drawn to the sword. Sure, she occasionaly liked to fuck around with joke builds, but this was not this sort of feeling… She could not find words for why she wanted to try out this blade. She simply did.

Her eyes wandered down to her necklace, wherein Hex was asleep, the lazy bum. She wondered if she should wake them up to ask if this isn’t a weird curse or something…

Nah.

If it was a curse, then it would have already taken root.

At this point there was no harm in trying it out.

Now certain, she took one last good look at the sarcophagus interior to see if she hadn’t missed anything, and then took off towards the passage leading towards the part of the dungeon she hasn’t seen yet.

The blade will certainly not be thirsty today.