Word was, there was some kind of sword stuck in a rock that even the super strong couldn’t pull out, and Jacob could admit he was very excited. Excalibur was one of those artifacts that Assassins whispered about but didn’t think they’d really ever set eyes on. All artifacts were the stuff of legends, of course, but Excalibur was special. Especially for the two Assassins currently strolling through the park.
There was a crowd leaving the stone as they approached, two men shoving each other and laughing, a few others looking disappointed. Nobody paid the Fryes much mind. Likely because a string of people had been through here and failed already. Jacob looked over his shoulder at his sister and slapped his hands together joyfully.
“Do we flip for it? Arm wrestle? A little five finger fillet?” He’d learned that one from an American passing through London, a real mad bastard but it had stuck. “Beauty before age?”
Evie gave Jacob a withering look, but it was brief and her attention was still on the sword. “I’d still go first.” It was easiest to tease him when she had no intention of just trying to yank the thing out of the stone. They had no proof it was an artifact from their world, it could have easily just been a Vallo challenge, one to set people apart.
There were too many worlds and too many places it could have come from to be that positive. And yet, now that she was here with it in person, she felt it. That hum of power that came from their ancestry, that same one that had been with the Shroud.
Evie walked slowly around it, one step at a time, pacing herself. “It’s amazing. Do you feel it? The energy, the-- just pure legend surrounding this thing. It’s authentic, I think, I don’t know that any magic could replicate that power so well.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Evie,” Jacob teased, not at all fazed by the look she gave him. If anything, it just made him bounce a little more on his heels as they approached the sword. He circled around it with her, only like a puppy that hadn’t learned yet how to stay by its master’s side.
“I can feel it, yeah. A bit like how loud music vibrates in your bones.” He creeped closer to peer at the blade and where it connected with the rock. “No damage to the rock. Hasn’t budged at all, with however many attempts,” he hummed. Though he started to reach for the hilt, he stopped and tugged his glove off with his teeth first. If this really was Excalibur - their Excalibur - it might not respond to anything less than a true confirmation of Izu what have you. He touched a finger to the end of the hilt and the sword hummed.
“Ooo, this is going to be fun,” he whispered.
Evie noted the sword humming, and sucked in a breath. She pulled out her phone and took a few pictures, for her own records, and jotted down a few virtual notes over top one of them. It was such an Evie thing to do, notes and records and pictures, and made her feel a little more grounded about this whole thing.
But she was still the more cautious twin, and she watched Jacob’s hand very closely. “Careful,” Evie warned, hesitant about it. It was a remarkable sword, by all accounts, but-- “It’s still a Piece of Eden, we assume. Brace yourself for any brain onslaught.”
“Cheers for the doom and gloom, sis.” Jacob rolled his eyes and pretended to tip a hat to her. He’d stopped wearing his most days, with them being dreadfully out of fashion, but old habits died hard. She wasn’t wrong, just a know-it-all by nature and that only bothered him in the affectionate sense most days. Today, it made him a tense up as he twisted his hand and grabbed onto the hilt.
The sword responded in the sense that he felt its power pulse stronger but pulling on the hilt did nothing. He tried again, tugging harder, even pressing his foot up against the rock for leverage.
“What in the bloody hell? It’s definitely the sword,” he frowned petulantly. “What is this rubbish?”
Even with Jacob being his usual sarcastic self, Evie had been prepared to be worried, concern was still flashed across her face until it wasn’t. Until she watched, as the sword wouldn’t budge for Jacob.
And then her sense of sibling rivalry kicked in and she smirked at him, the cocky thing climbing up her lips to sit there at the same time as Jacob frowned. “Hm,” She hadn’t touched it yet, but she trusted his assessment that it was their Excalibur. “I don’t know, brother, perhaps you aren’t the one intended to pull the sword from the stone.”
That level of cockiness was common for both of them, but ultimately her undoing. Evie stepped forward and took Jacob’s place, and wrapped a hand around the hilt. She felt that same power Jacob had, and gave herself a second to ruminate in it.
But as was the same with Jacob, nothing gave when she pulled.
Jacob rolled his eyes at Evie’s smug response but even still, he grinned. It was nice, on occasion, to see her brattier side come out. It leveled the playing field. Brought her down off her pedestal. And it made watching the sword not budge all the better.
“Ha. What was that again? Maybe it’s not intended for you either,” he laughed. It was a bit of a hollow victory though. They still had a Piece of Eden out here in the middle of a bloody park and needed to move it somewhere safer. He scratched at his jaw. “You think there’s trick to it? I don’t remember the story.” He was probably asking for an annoying history lesson or at least some kind of self-righteous slap on the hand for not paying attention to their studies all those ages ago but he was fairly skilled at ignoring her diatribes when he must.
Evie’s smugness turned to a frown as quickly as Jacob’s had, a mirror of his own expression that only twins could manage. “Sod off,” she’d muttered, under her breath. Her hand fell away, but Evie didn’t move out of the vicinity, her eyes searching for something with their eagle vision.
No levers, no pulleys, nothing odd about the stone that she could see. “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born.”. She recited the line from memory, and started pacing slowly as she racked her brain of knowledge she’d read in books over the years. “Arthur Pendragon was a member of the Order of the Ancients, and he pulled it, became king and was later betrayed.”
Nothing helpful there, so she continued on, musing out loud. “Neither of us are royalty, of course, but neither was Evior. Evior didn’t have to pull anything from a stone, though, they merely found it in a cave. No one else has had knowledge of it since that decade. So yes, it’s likely to have some kind of catch to it, as they always do.”
Jacob only grinned a little more devilishly at Evie’s petulance. He was less inclined to think as carefully as she was about just about everything, but he did have respect for an artifact’s power. The fight with Starrick might have been a year past, but it was bloody memorable. He too examined the sword and the stone with his eagle vision and hummed when nothing became immediately apparent.
“We’re knights, aren’t we? That should count for something,” he argued. Likely the sword cared more about the blood in their veins than any perceived titles. Blood had always been such a huge part of their legacy, one way or the other. He reached for the tiny section of blade exposed from the rock, barely an inch’s worth. “Maybe we have to bleed on it.”
He sliced his thumb without much extra thought.
“Jacob-- Good lord.” She hoped the frustration was easily heard in the inflection of her voice as she sighed in exasperation. “You’ve spent far too much time around Serefin for that sort of nonsense.” Even if she knew full well that Jacob would’ve done something that dumb a year or two ago just as easily.
But she did still wait to see if it did anything. After a moment of silence, Evie put her hand back out again, to touch it. “It’s possible that it requires a certain amount of Isu blood in order to pull it. Alone, we might not have what it requires. Together---” It was half of an idea at this point, still forming in her mind with each second passing.
Even if Evie had a good point about Serefin and the cavalier use of blood not being prudent, Jacob was going to be the last one to admit that. He lifted his cut thumb to his mouth and gave a childish shrug instead.
“Oh, not such a terrible idea after all, is it?” He squinted teasingly at her and then reached again for the hilt. This time he grabbed her hand under his so they’d be taking hold together. It was less of an idea and more of an instinct, following her lead about them both being needed and letting his gut do the rest. The hilt vibrated under the contact, feeling like an electrical current up Jacob’s arm.
He made an intrigued noise. “So far, so good.”
Together, they pulled the sword up. It slid out of the stone like butter, not even the sound of metal against stone hurting their ears as it emerged. Together, they stepped back, holding it high, as the sword pulsed with energy. It recognized them, the Isu magic flowing through the sword like a pleasant shock as it trailed to their fingertips.
“Well-- shit.” It wasn’t a bad shit, just the word from Evie’s lips was full of surprise and wonder. Half of her hadn’t expected this to work, and now they held one of the most powerful swords from their world above them. Her mouth pressed into a firm line before she let herself get too excited. “I’ll need to examine it to make sure it’s not dangerous.”
Jacob threw back his head and laughed. He was just as pleased by her crude exclamation as he was by their success. As much as they butted heads, they were always a team as far as he was concerned. Winning together was more fun than winning apart - unless they were directly competing, of course. He’d race her every day of the week and win, damn it.
“It had better be dangerous, it’s a bloody sword, Evie,” he teased. Even though he had no real intention to fight her examining the sword, he did give it a challenging tug. She might think he’d been replaced if he wasn’t a bit of a shit about all things. “Why don’t you let me swing it around a bit first? There’s no one here. What could it hurt?”
Evie could have ruined his mood entirely by shooting him down, taking the sword and going off with it, but-- well, they both did like a win. And they would need to see how it performed, regardless. It was just always on the tip of her tongue to argue with him, especially when he was in that teasing mode that made her want to roll her eyes.
Okay, rolling her eyes happened regardless. But her hand dropped away from the hilt, and she stepped away with a little flourish, as if to say have at it. “Two minutes, don’t try and cleave any rocks in half.” That would have to come later, as tempting as it was to jump right in - and she was already expecting his groan at her strict time limit. “But I’m timing you, and if anything looks or feels off, I’m making you stop.”
Jacob flashed a grin and put the sword over his chest so he could bow obnoxiously. “Of course! I would never ever take any ridiculous list you’ve given me and see it as a challenge,” he answered with mock seriousness.
And with that he danced away, thrusting the sword with the skill of a man who was definitely used to swinging much smaller blades. Ethan Frye’s sword training would come back soon enough, but for the moment, Jacob looked like a gleeful child, swinging Excalibur as if it were just a very new toy.