It was all very confusing, really. Having woken up in what looked like a pod taken straight out of a science fiction movie and with his head still swimming with blurred colors and distorted voices, Dietrich Cress had stumbled around looking and poking at the other strange pods around him. Then as he knocked on one of the glowing cylinders, his brain, now more awake, reminded him that there might actually be a person inside of it and he had immediately stopped and slapped himself to make sure that he was now fully awake. It wouldn't be exactly great if the first thing he did in this strange strange place was to accidentally roast somebody alive or anything.

He had read the bright red sign, so here he was. He looked at the stairs descending into darkness before him. Right, retrieve my weapon. There had been nothing more on the sign. Nothing more. His head still throbbed a bit from whatever it was that happened. He moved forward. No point in waiting. That which can be destroyed by the truth should be. Saving the world? Dark creatures? Blah blah blah, all that walls of his reality that been supposedly shattered? This was it. It could really just be a hoax, some elaborate prank, a weird cult. Cress descended.

It was small room, lit by a single torch. The walls were covered with glowing tablets. Cress moved closer. Each tablet had a different rune. So, these look like weapons...but how am I supposed to...? He moved his hand closer to the one nearest to him. I wonder what powers them. Can't be a form of electricity, so it would have to be some other source of energy. I will have to look into it thoroughly later. Interesting, very interesting. But first, how am I supposed to...retrieve it...? It hummed as he touched it and he felt an oddly displaced sense of despair.



Cress jumped a little and regained his composure just in time to stop himself from wheeling around. He facepalmed. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. Why didn't he check if anyone else was here first? He should have checked. Now he looked like an idiot. But then again, whoever it was who was down here with him was downright creepy so whatever. He turned around slowly, "Okay, very funny. Ha ha ha. Great joke, fantastic fun. Nice meeting you, you little sh*t---"

He frowned. There was nobody else in the room. He walked cautiously towards the other side of the 'room.' No, no one. Just more tablets with glowing runes.

There was laughter. Musical, a bit high, definitely a girl's.

He brushed his fingers along the tablets before him. Feelings that did not belong to him flooded him and the runes hummed. Strange whispers. His initial irritation was now giving way to wry amusement.

"Okay, where are you?" There didn't seem to be any hidden passageways here, or at least not along the walls, and he wasn't going to continue touching the tablets to try and find out. He shuffled around, looking at the floor and tapping at it with his foot. It was rock solid.

The question was ignored.



He looked up. "Yes, now where--"



"That's fine."

There was laughter again.



"Fine."

There was more laughter.

retrieve me.>

"...so I suppose that means that...you are...wait...what...no f***ing way--" He could feel the barely suppressed mirth.



"Dietrich Cress." He paused. "So...how...do I?"



"...what?"

He stared at nothing incredulously.

He took it off.



"This isn't how I'm supposed to retrieve you, is it?"



He cursed under his breath. "So, how do I?"

He grunted irritably.

The tablet was inscribed with an insignia of a katana...with a mace...? What kind of dumb weapon is--

Cress jumped. A pause. I chose you.>

Cress rolled his eyes. Well, whatever. Sentient weapons, weird weapons, everything would make sense eventually. He pried the tablet off the wall and as he held it, it transformed into a katana with a mace attached through a long silver chain to its hilt.

"Why did you try to dissuade me?"