In Loki's Honor Life 28 - Chapter 16 - Inherit my "Horn" and "Bone"

As I crested the hill and approached the open gates of the monastery complex walls, I saw two large guards keeping the gate. A grey-skinned rugged ogre and a huge moss-green skinned orc with sabertooth fangs. The sword and ax symbol of Queltphion boldly decorated their tabards.

a familiar face appeared. She looked older than I rembered, the stola still doing a piss-poor job of hiding her sagging bosom underneath. The centaur priestess feigned surprise and approached .

"Snowdrop! How you've grown! I was just passing..."

She trailed off when she saw my confused look. I wouldn't take shit from the priestess. I tilted my head, "Sorry, but who's Snowdrop?"

"You are! What happened?"

"Sorry. I think you have mistaken for soone else. I just ca here to pray to Queltphion. May I?" I looked at one of the ogre guards. "Do I need permission to enter the temple and pray?"

"Respect the priestess," he grunted back at .

I cleared my throat, "Esteed priestess, how many recorded births of centaurs with pure white fur exist?" I already knew the answer. She said as much. Setting one hoof down, I insisted and pressured her.

She giggled, "One! Now, co, [Heritor]. We have much to talk about."

The ogre's mouth went agape at the ntion of my species modifier. The orc didn't care. I could swear he could balance glasses on those tusks and use them as if on his nose. Letting go of my impressions regarding the guards, I followed the matron priestess inside the complex.

The Abode of War has existed for at least a couple thousand years as a temple. The complex, however, was older than the Gods.

It was funny to know centaurs had no albino gene. Not even the uniform gray-white coat seen in Earth horses. No. I wasn't an albino, my skin tanned normally and my fur was genuine RGB #ffffff [1].

She didn't lead to the training area where the children of a lizardfolk clan were waiting while their teenagers took the trials. On the other side of the courtyard, the arena had a lot of hissing and grunting adults cheering for their youngsters. We went straight to the main temple and then banked to the side before entering.

After walking through a wooden gate at the side of the main temple, I got a glimpse of the inner courtyard. Another training arena, this one made for real warriors with tal training dummies and so wagons with supplies. A bunch of people in rough linen robes were unloading the wagons and a few of them stole glances at .

Behind the main temple, I could see more buildings. Flying above I could only see the roofs but now that I could see it from up close and understood the ancient purpose of these structures, I could see how the Unicorn King's palace worked. The main temple near the front gates must've been a ballroom or even a throne room for audiences. The side buildings, the annexes, gardens, a ruined fountain, plenty of space to go for a trot, and at the back the inner palace. The place where once the stallionest of stallions took up residence.

Once we were away from prying ears but still not yet at the decayed inner palace, I asked the priestess, "You knew who I was when we were here years ago, didn't you?"

I saw her shoulders bob with a repressed chuckle. "Who you were or who you are? Queltphion has told us the bare basics. That you were soone special and we should prepare our hardest trial for you. So priests balked at the divine ssage, but we obeyed our Lord's wishes. Later, after your tribe departed, we had enough information to know who you were... before you were Snowdrop."

She stopped and turned around ninety degrees. "Snowdrop. You ca from another world, didn't you?" She asked in a whisper. I nodded. "How is it?"

All this ti I was suppressing the urge to barge into the inner palace and find my way to the basent. The thing I sensed was a few hundred ters beneath . Its draw was even stronger now.

"First, I need to finish the business that brought here. After that, I'll talk to you, but I want you to check with Queltphion first. I need to know how much is safe to tell."

She must've felt the impatience in my voice and body language. The old priestess nodded and we clopped our way inside the inner palace.

I shouldn't call it inner palace even though it probably was at so point in the past, thousands of years ago. Now the place was just like a military barracks. Having cloisters for the priests was a fool's errand when they could be as small as a goblin or as big as an ogre or a centaur. So they didn't. Instead, the building, with its impressive open spaces and columns, had a bunch of beds and furniture spread around the walls. So chests and trunks, shelves with scrolls, and a lot of drying laundry.

I did notice a faint ward as I crossed inside but it didn't react. Its enchantnt might be damaged, worn out, or too low on MP.

She led through a side door where benches and tables ford a ss hall made for fantastic people. The tables had different heights and shapes. So were straight, so sinuous, so looked like crescent moons. The chairs were also adapted to the butts of the people that sat on them. So had slits for tails and I could see tables at the right height for a centaur to eat. On one end, along with the tallest tables, I saw two chairs made out of roughly carved boulders. These were probably for the priest-warriors stationed at the gates.

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At the back of the ss hall, a door and a staircase, leading to the kitchen and basent, respectively. The priestess lit up a torch and headed for the stairs. It was my first ti seeing a staircase made for ungulate quadrupeds. The steps were wider but also steeper. However, a small bump at the end of the step prevented the hooves from sliding over. I observed the priestess climbing down ahead of and had no difficulty doing the sa.

The basent seed vast. Even with my {que Sight} Perk, I couldn't see it all. The roof was about ten ters above us.

"Originally, we had plans for a grand trial here for you, [Heritor]. Traps, contraptions, spells. For centuries the priests poured over the plans, improving and making everything more challenging. We knew that once the [Heritor] was located and passed the trials here, we would have several years to build it. But Queltphion told us it would be useless, because it was you," She confessed with so sadness.

I felt a surge of rage. So that's why the bastards locked down my ergency activation. To gain ti to build a glorified jungle gym! Angry, I glared at her.

"I could've saved the centaurs from the humans!" I shouted and my voice reverberated in the empty basent. Echoed even but it was less than a second away. "Just to gain ti?"

She walked backward, "No. Wait. Sorry, Snowdrop."

I could see fear in her eyes. She knew my Class. I let it open in my Status so anyone could appraise . I was breathing heavily, barely holding back. "Explain."

"It is the price the System asks for all the trial takers. In exchange for the power granted by the Gods, they are forbidden to undergo an ergency activation. It is the sa for everyone, not just you."

I stomped the stone floor and cried, "Why don't you inform the kids of it? It's a life-changing decision!"

The fact she hadn't died imdiately gave the priestess a bit of courage. She sighed and explained, "Do you expect overexcited foals to understand? To give up glory and power? The clans protect their trial winners, they're the future of the herd."

We stood there, not looking at each other for a long pause. I let my simring anger quiet down. In the end, it was the tug of the heritage ahead that made give up on crying over spilled milk.

I felt the priestess maternal touch on my shoulder. "Co, Snowdrop. I'm sorry about your family. Once you claim your heirloom, go after them. Do what you must. But don't look back. You were two years old. They had hundreds of mages. Even with all your power, are you sure you could've resisted?"

"Queltphion considers you an ally, a friend. He doesn't mind the loss of the souls you are sending to the other Gods. Trust Him. I'll never doubt our Lord's wisdom," She continued. "He waived the requirents of a trial. Your next step is to embody the virtues of our ancestors, Snowdrop. Follow ."

I didn't answer and she didn't press. She rubbed my back and I fought to not cry. After I cald down, I tried to point the conversation toward the main event. "The Unicorn King's virtues? Let guess. Nobility and purity for the Unicorn King?"

She laughed but didn't answer. I wasn't expecting either. "Follow ."

We walked in silence across the basent, only the sound of our hooves against the stone floor echoing in the wide chamber. The air was dry and stale but the place was clean. There was no dust, spiderwebs, or anything. I could pick a faint sll of old grease. Maybe because of the kitchen. Once the tug from the heritage was impossible to resist, she stopped and pointed forward.

"Go and claim what is rightfully yours, [Heritor]."

I did. As if following my wishes, Pandora beca visible and shone as a lightbulb. I knew what it was when I saw it. On an altar made of the sa sandstone as the rest of the complex, a spear awaited for . I picked it up.

Unicorn King's Spear

Price: Inestimable. Unique artifact.

Base damage: 4d20 10

Indestructible.

Enchantable.

Upgradeable.

Materials: Unicorn King's horn, hair, and bone.

Bond: Soul-binds with a blood bond.

A silvery-white spiral horn served as the speartip while a pearly white haft sprouted seamlessly from the base of the horn. Also at the base of the horn, a braid of horsehair, as white as mine, clipped at the end by a band of iridescent mother-of-pearl. As flexible as any other kind of horsehair, the braid was as indestructible as the rest of the spear.

I could feel my heartbeat on the palm of my hand as if the very spear was alive. I tried and could easily prick my finger with the horn tip. It was as sharp as a steel needle. A drop of blood dripped on the spear and the red substance ran across the twin spiral grooves of the horn, forming a paper-thin dark red line contrasting with the horn's material.

Unicorn King's Spear is soul-bound.

Rank Up is available. Processing... You ranked up. Your available Exp was divided by 100. You have 543,851 Exp left.

Your species ranked up into Petitioner Centaur Heritor.

[...]

Your Path ranked up into Centaur Marauder.

[...]

You reached Petitioner Centaur Heritor level 4.

You reached Centaur Marauder level 4.

I could still sense the spear as part of my heritage. But now the urge to claim it was no longer there. I knew that this sense would now extend far beyond the Perk's range. If I ever lost this spear, I could find it anywhere in this world. Only powerful magic could keep it hidden from . Not that I intended to let go of it anyti soon. The haft was limber enough to execute so maneuvers but not as flexible as to jeopardize an attack. After a few minutes of trying it out, I found it would follow my wishes to remain rigid or not.

But I couldn't stop myself from asking. How?

Was this spear crafted posthumously? Or did the Unicorn King asked for his horn to be removed from his deathbed and made into a spear? Who made the shaft? A unicorn has nary a bone this long or straight. It was obviously made by magic.

"How are you feeling?" The priestess approached, jubilant. She looked like she beca twenty years younger.

"Great. Puzzled. Curious. How did they make this weapon?"

She looked at the spear in my hand but didn't touch it. "The Unicorn King was a fairy with great powers. I am sure you can think how such a creature could preserve your body in such a way at the mont of their death better than ."

"How much did Queltphion reveal about to you?"

She kept smiling and answered, trying to not sound patronizing, "We had eight years to think about what you could ask."

Yes, I could think of how to convert my body into an artifact using my suicide Perks. Especially if I gave up on all my power, which I never did. Since asking anything else would be pointless, because they had eight years to think about their answers, I started to move toward the exit.

"Snowdrop. I'll give you one tip about the next step in your journey," the priestess said then added in a low voice, "Even if I get punished."

"Don't if it will cause you trouble," I said, clearly indicating I'd heard her whisper.

"Nah. I'm old and Queltphion will forgive a slight. The spear is made from the Unicorn King's 'horn' and 'bone'," she explained with sarcastical emphasis on the last two. "Rember what the tales say about what he stood for, and you'll know what 'virtues' you need to embody."

She winked at and took the lead, seductively sashaying her romp and tail as she went.

I rolled my eyes and followed her outside.

[1] RGB#ffffff A.K.A. as white as your computer screen can ever display.