Whispers broke out.
‘The Elderests? Descendants of Warrior Elderest?”
“They look so young!”
Aaron quietly walked towards one of the seats at which the king had pointed. Jake sat next to him.
“Ah. Well, now that everyone is here, it is time we began to eat.”
Guests started serving themselves. Aaron ate with gusto, whereas Jake ate carefully. Soon everyone was done.
“Now that you are all finished, you may leave.”
Jake and Aaron got up.
“Not you, Elderest twins.”
They paused. Aaron’s heart was pounding. Had they done something wrong?
“Today you will be spending the day at battle practice, since you spent most of yesterday with Professor Jacob.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, ” said Aaron.
“Good. Now you may leave.”
They walked out. Thomas led them outside, and took them to the field.
“Hello, Elderest twins!” Zane called out.
They met him.
“Listen, I think we need to outfit you with some swords, real swords. Your own swords. Today I’ll take you to the armory.”
He pushed his fingers around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a long, blue, wand.
They flashed off.
They landed in front of an old creaky store called Armory. Next door was a brand-new store with a poster saying, “Snap Attack! Cool new wand and sword combo!”
“Let me guess. We’re going to the ‘Armory’ store because it’s weapons are stronger or something, right?” said Jake gloomily.
“No, of course not! Snap Attack has much more advanced weaponry!”
“But Professor Jake made us go to an old store to buy wands!” said Aaron.
“That was for wands. Not weapons.”
They walked in. The room was big and shiny, with tons of weaponry. People were walking all around in a busy horde.
Zane finally found someone to talk to.
“Listen, I want to buy two combo swords.”
“What power?”
“One sun and one moon.”
“Any magic marks?”
“Uh…,” said Zane.
“Yes” answered Aaron. “I have a moon and Jake has the sun.”
“Your names?”
“Jake and Aaron Eldrest.”
“The Eldrests?” if he was surprised, he didn’t show it.
“Yes,” Jake replied curtly. He didn’t like how people gawked at his name.
“May I examine your wands, please?”
They handed him their wands. When their wands got near to each other, they began to vibrate.
“Hmmm…”
The man finally showed interest, or for that matter any emotions at all.
“These wands seem to have a strange connection towards each other. Almost like twins.”
“They are twins,” said Aaron.
“Because of these strange circumstances, making your combos will be difficult. We must coordinate the symbols and the powers with the combo.”
His gaze lingered on the solar eclipses.
He continued. “Therefore, an order that would usually take a few days may take a week or so.”
“That will be fine. How much do I owe you?”
“Ten silvereens.”
Zane handed him several shiny coins, similar to the drachyons Professor Jacob had paid Ember.
“How do you tell money apart in Eketh?”
“Well, you didn’t know? The bronze ones are called Brazenhordes. Ten brazenhordes and you have one silvereen. Those are the silver ones. Ten silvereens and you have the gold drachyon.”