Chapter 1

Pain! All encompassing, all consuming abject, screaming agony. His body felt as though it was on fire. His skin felt as if it was being flayed from his body, every muscle spasmed in the worst kind of cramp, bones aching as if they were shattered beyond repair. He was convinced he could feel his blood beginning to boil and his organs start to liquefy. His entire being felt like one big toothache. It didn't matter what he did to try to relieve himself of it, it just seemed to increase in intensity almost exponentially. His last cognitive thought before he passed to blessed oblivion was "I thought this was supposed to be painless!"

1 week ago.

"Eric Lee Faye, get out of that bed and get ready for school NOW! The bus leaves in less than an hour, I won't tell you again." his mother screamed up the stairs at him. Eric let out a deep sigh and sluggishly swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

He hung his head despondently, staring unhappily at his fat pink thighs under the large pale stomach. It was a cold morning even by January's standards so he sat there with his duvet wrapped around him while trying to work up the enthusiasm to get up and start his day.

His door barged open and in came his dog Nero, tail wagging and tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. Nero was a 240lb English Mastiff and very few doors could keep him out if he decided he wanted to be on the other side of it. Eric brought his arm out from its warm surroundings and absently stroked the dogs head, getting a lick from his massive tongue for his trouble.

Not for the first time, he thought, "How am I ever gonna get Susie to like me when I look like this? Or any girl for that matter?"

From within his mind came a soft, kind feminine voice, "Patience young one, patience."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to walk around looking like this, hearing the sniggers, smiling at the insults and trying to act out the 'Jolly Fat Kid' routine every bloody day. I am arse over tit in love with a girl who barely knows I exist and I have had enough. Why am I like this? I don't eat any more than my friends, I exercise, I train at your insistence and yet I just keep getting fatter. " he thought back.

"All will become clear, young one. Patience. Trust me."

"I do trust you but it's so hard sometimes." he responded.

Once again, the loving tone and kind words of the voice took the edge off of his bitterness and almost lifted his spirits. Almost.

For as long as he could remember, Eric had had the Voice in his head. He no longer spoke to anyone about the voice since he had been dragged to see the family doctor at the age of 6 for insisting that the Voice had made him late home for his dinner for the third night in a row. He had tried to explain that the Voice as he had come to call it had insisted that he try to chop down a small sapling with an old broom handle. His parents decided that enough was enough. He was forced to see an army of different people, look at ridiculous ink splodges, play silly word games and sit with a horrid, pinched faced woman who seemed to really dislike his parents. She spent the entire afternoon trying to get him to tell her lies about his mum and dad.

Throughout this ordeal, the Voice had been uncommonly quiet; it made no suggestions, didn't offer any opinions and left him to fend for himself. At one point he started to wonder if the doctor had actually made the Voice go away and the thought terrified him. Eventually Eric decided for him self that the quickest way to make everyone happy would be to tell them he had made it all up. This seemed to satisfy everyone apart from his parents, but after the doctor told them that it was "Just the product of a healthy 6 year old boy's imagination," they seemed to calm down as well and took him home.

The Voice, much to Eric's' relief, returned later that evening, but he wisely decided that discretion being the better part of valour, he would keep the knowledge to himself. It had been a frighteningly lonely afternoon being alone in his head.

Eric grabbed his school cloths and headed for the bathroom. After he had cleaned his teeth and thoroughly checked his face for spots or the first sign of a non existent beard, he dropped some gel in his hair and spent 5 minutes of so trying to make his hair look stylishly tousled.

As he stood back to admire his handiwork in the mirror, he looked at himself critically.

"My eyes are about the only thing I actually like about my appearance." he thought to himself. They were the darkest brown eyes he had ever seen and people often commented on how kind they looked. The rest of his face he was less than happy with. "If I put on any more weight on my face I'll get jowls like you boy, I've already got more chins than a Chinese phone book." he said to the dog with a sad, mirthless smile.

As usual he was last to arrive at the breakfast table. His 10 year old sister Katie stuck her tongue out at him as he sat down. His father, David, sat reading the paper while smoking his cigarette. He glanced over the top of the paper as Eric poured his cereal into a bowl and reached for the milk, looking at him disapprovingly. "Son, you are 14 years old almost 15 and yet your mother still has to treat you like a 5 year old and get you up in the morning. Everyone else manages to get up in plenty of time. Everyone else just sets their alarm clock like adults and gets up when it goes off. When are you going to start acting like you are growing up?"

Eric had heard this countless times before and had learned that there was no correct answer the apparently rhetorical question. His father would argue with him about it no matter what he said so he just decided not to respond and eat his cereal. Usually his father would sigh and go back to reading his paper but today he was not going to be that lucky.

"Don't ignore me when I am talking to you." his dad said in a firm voice. "I asked you a question. When are you going to grow up?" he repeated.

"I don't know dad." he replied in a petulant tone. "When are you going to get off my back?"

As soon as he said it he knew it was the wrong thing to say but he had had enough. He left the table, leaving his breakfast half finished, grabbed his school bag and headed out of the door as his dad was ranting and raving at him from the kitchen. He had heard it all before so he ignored it and left for school.

Eric was lost in a daydream as he arrived at the bus stop. It was one of his favourites involving the girl of his dreams Susie Maddocks, so he wasn't overly happy to be shaken from his imaginings by his best friend Robin.

"Earth to Eric, Earth to Eric, come in Eric." said Robin.

"What, oh sorry mate, I was away with the fairies there. What were you saying?"

Robin grinned at him. "Susie again?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Who else would I dream about but the woman of my dreams?" Eric replied.

Robin chuckled. "Why the hell don't you stop mooning over her and just ask her out? You've liked her for forever, it's so obvious you fancy her so just ask her out."

"What and have my heart handed to me on a stick? I couldn't handle the rejection mate. At least in my dreams she knows I exist. Besides, I am fairly sure that my fantasies are much better than the reality would be." Eric said with a sly smile.

"No doubt you perv. What was she wearing today? Satin, lace, leather, or was she in the all-together?"

"Now who's the perv!" he said with false exasperation and gave Robin a punch on the shoulder.

As they were boarding the bus Robin said to him, "If you can't ask Susie out, why not ask someone else out? You never know, they might say yes and even if they don't the rejection won't be half as bad as it would be if your goddess said no."

"I don't know mate, who would I ask? Anyway I would feel like I was cheating on Susie."

Robin laughed, shaking his head. "You've got some serious problems in that twisted mind of yours mate. How can you cheat on someone that isn't sure of your name?"

Eric had to agree that his logic was twisted but he couldn't explain how he felt, he just knew deep in his soul that he shouldn't do it.

"Stick to your guns on this Young One, Don't let Robin bully you into anything you are not comfortable with." Voice whispered in his head.

"Yeah but he has a point. Maybe I should set my sights a little lower."

The Voice didn't reply but Eric knew he had said something wrong. He could almost feel her disappointment.

School that day was the same drag as usual. Struggling to understand an incompetent math teacher, and arguing with his computer studies teacher. There were a couple of bright spots in the day though. The first was history class. Although Eric had some interest in history, this term's classes had been excellent. They had been studying the Angles, Saxons, and Norsemen. A bloodthirsty bunch the lot of them, but also capable of producing exquisite jewellery. In addition to this, history was one of the two classes that he had where the object of his desires was placed in the same room with him, so he could sit and admire her beauty.

The second bright spot was his metalworking class. Eric seemed to be able to do no wrong when it came to working with metal. It was almost as if the metal understood what he wanted from it and tried to accommodate his wishes. This was especially true when using the forge. Whilst his classmates struggled to make simple fire pokers and the like, he was producing items of astounding quality. His metalwork teacher told him once that he must be a re-incarnation of a master blacksmith. It helped to no end that he loved to work with the metals.

His current project had almost not happened. Eric had decided that he wanted to make a sword. Normally this would have been vetoed from the word go but his teacher had spoken up on his behalf with the Headmaster and gained special permission for him to make the weapon on the understanding that it would be a dull edged version. After much deliberation, he had a basic idea of what he wanted the end result to look like. The problem was, he did not know where to start. It would be a simple thing to make it out of sheet steel but that did not feel right to Eric. In the end it was the Voice who gave him the instruction and the method to get started.

Eric had begun his project some weeks ago. He first started work on the blade by plaiting three, half inch diameter steel bars together, two of mild steel and one of a high carbon steel to add strength to the finished item. He wasn't overly happy with though this as it made the blade too thin and a bit feminine for his taste, so he decided to see if he could make it broader and heavier. In the end, he fabricated three identical blades and plaited the three together to form one heavy and complex plait. In all, there were 9 different strands of steel now intricately woven together to form the whole. The blade was starting to take shape and he thought he only had a few hours at the forge left before he could begin on the rest of the sword.

Eric pulled the blade from the coals and placed it on the anvil. He began to beat it with fast, heavy strokes of the hammer until the surface of the metal lost its red glow and then placed it back into the coals. After he had repeated this hundreds more times, his desired shape was almost complete. In and out of the coals the metal went and down came the hammer, time and time again. By the time he was satisfied, he was sweating freely, his arm and back muscles ached and he was thirsty. He was also startled to see that it was dark outside and that all of the other students had left for the day. It was almost 6.30 and school had been finished for over 2 hours. He had been working the metal for almost 3 straight hours.

"Where the hell did the time go?" he thought to himself.

"Time is of no consequence. The sword is important. But you know that already don't you?" said the Voice.

Eric couldn't explain it but he knew that the Voice was right. The sword was important but he did not know why that should be. After all, what possible use is a dull edged sword in the 21^st century?

His teacher, Mr Simpkins, told him that he had called his parents to let them know he was still working at the school but promised to make sure he was home by 7.30. Mr Simpkins even gave Eric a lift for the 3 miles to his home.

Thankfully his father wasn't at home when he arrived. His mother set a single place at the table for him and set his dinner down. She sat opposite him and sighed.

"Oh Eric, what are we going to do with you? You and your father seem to be growing more and more distant by the day. Why can't you just listen to us and do as you are told?"

"It wouldn't make any difference mum. If I did as I was told he would move the goal posts again and find something else to have a go at me about. Dad and I stopped getting along the day I was old enough to form my own opinion about things. Have you ever noticed that he is always right, even when he is blatantly wrong?"

"That's just your father's way dear." she said to him

"Yeah I know, and I try not to wind him up but it's getting harder and harder. It's almost as if he wants to constantly fight with me. I get enough hassle at school but then I have to come home and put up with him picking on me about every little thing that he has imagined I've done wrong."

"I didn't know you were having problems at school Eric. Why don't you ever tell us anything?"

"What's the point? You never listen, you are far too busy sticking up for dad and pandering to Katie's every whim to worry about what I am up to. The only time either of you take an interest in me is when you think I have failed you in some way."

"Eric, I..."

"Listen mum, I am not going to get in to this with you now. I will only end up saying hurtful things, but for your information, I am depressed, angry, lonely, deeply unhappy and I feel totally alone in the world. I hate myself, my life, my body, and unless you can use magic I can't see what you will be able to do about it so lets just leave it there shall we?"

"Eric, what on earth has suddenly brought this on?" his mum asked

"There is no suddenly about it mum. I have been feeling like this for the past year but like I said, everyone is just too busy to worry about me. Don't worry though, I am dealing with it but it would be nice if you could get dad off my back sometimes. Do you have any idea how little I look forward to coming home each day? And you wonder why I never want to get up in the mornings."

Before she had a chance to offer any kind of argument, Eric left the kitchen, his dinner untouched, and went to his room.

"Well Voice, I did warn her that I would say some hurtful things if she pushed. She is no doubt really mad at me now so I will get another earful off dad when he gets in. At least you never seem to judge me."

"Oh, I spend all of my time judging and appraising you, you just rarely do anything to greatly disappoint me."

"Really? I disappoint myself constantly."

"That's because you can't see yourself through my eyes. You have such a pure spirit and kind heart, it is almost impossible for me to do anything but love you."

Eric's heart started to pound. "What the hell is going on here?" he thought. "The Voice has never offered an opinion about me before."

"Voice... ?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have a name?"

Eric heard in his mind a pretty laugh and started to get angry at himself again

"Of course you don't. You are just a figment of my imagination. Perhaps I am insane."

"Calm yourself Young One. I am laughing with joy, not laughing at you. You cannot believe just how long I have wanted you to ask that question. My name is Brianna and I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

Eric new she was telling the truth but was unsure how he knew.

"Have I ever lied to you Eric?" Brianna asked again in his mind

"What the hell are you doing in my head? You have read every thought I have ever had. Or maybe I have never had a thought and they were all yours. I always thought you were the Voice of my conscience or something but now you tell me there is a girl living in my head? GET OUT, GET OUT AND DON'T COME BACK."

"Eric, calm yourself Young One. If you truly want me to leave I will do so but first I need to tell you some things. You are not insane. You are destined for greatness and when the time comes you will need to speak about this to your grandmother. She will be able to answer a lot of your questions."

"Yeah, Yeah, whatever. Get out of my mind. I trusted you only because I thought you were a part of me. I feel violated. Get out."

Eric felt a profound sadness within him and then suddenly it was gone. Voice / Brianna had left him. He sat on his bed and examined his feelings about this, realizing that he had just lost the one constant companion he had in his life and beginning to regret his haste.

"Voice?"

"Brianna?"

"I'm sorry. I was frightened and confused. I didn't mean it, please come back!"

Nothing. Eric lay on his bed and cried. Great wracking sobs as he realised that for the first time in his life he truly was alone.

He awoke the following morning still in his clothes and with his mother screaming from downstairs for him to get up. He felt empty inside and fervently wished he could turn the clock back and take back what he had said to both his mother and Brianna. He searched every corner of his mind but could find no evidence of her there, or have ever having been there. She was gone. Just like that, one moment of panic and temper and she was gone.

Nero, with his customary grace, barged in to the room and laid his head in Eric's lap.

"At least you haven't abandoned me old friend." he said as he stroked the dog and scratched behind his ears. Nero just looked at him with his usual sad expression on his face with his tail gently wagging.

Eric got up. Showered and dressed, he went down for breakfast. His father completely ignored him this morning, a sure sign that he had done something wrong. His mother was being polite in a curt sort of way and Katie was looking smugly at him, but not saying anything. He quickly ate his cereal and left to go to the bus stop.

"Hey Robin." Eric greeted his friend.

"Watcha mate. You all right?" Robin asked.

"Same old story you know, parents acting like dicks again."

Robin decided not to press his friend, figuring that if he wanted to talk about it he would so he abruptly changed the subject. "I've been thinking about what we were talking about yesterday morning mate. I reckon you should ask Amanda Brown out."

"Are you insane? She's Susie's best friend, and the second best looking girl in the school. I can't wait to hear your reasoning on this one!" Eric shot back

"Well," said Robin, "Based on my extensive experience with girls, I think that if you ask Amanda out and she says yes, Susie will get jealous and want you for herself. At worst, you get a girlfriend AND you get to hang around with Susie so you can start working on getting her to like you"

"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of mate. If she says no, I will have her and Susie laughing at me and Susie will never want to go out with me if her mate has turned me down. If she says yes, Susie will never want to go out with me as I will be one of her mates ex-boyfriends. So tell me again how this is a good plan?"

"Hey, I didn't say it would be easy but I really think you should go for it. Rejection isn't that bad mate and I should know!"

Eric laughed good naturedly at his friend. One thing you could say about Robin was that he went after what he wanted. By Eric's last count, Robin had been brushed off by at least 8 girls in the last 3 months. His affections seemed to change almost daily but he always asked the girl out. Just by the law of averages, one of them had to say yes at some point. After all, if you throw enough shit at a blanket, some of it will stick.

"I wouldn't know what to say to her." Eric said.

"Oh, that's the easy bit, just walk up to her, tell her you fancy the arse off her and tell her you are taking her to see a film on Saturday. That should do the trick. Chicks are a sucker for a soppy movie."

Eric didn't know what possessed him but he finally agreed to ask for the date. Robin was sceptical but he knew Eric didn't break his word. Ever. So he relaxed and told Eric he would meet him for lunch.

Eric shared his first class of the day with Amanda. As the class was leaving, Eric put himself between Amanda and the door. She was a little startled but stopped in front of Eric, raised an eyebrow as if to say "Well?"

Eric decided that it was now or never. He slowly raised his hand, stroked her cheek, and looked into her eyes. "Amanda, I fancy you like crazy, will you let me take you to the film on Saturday?"

"YOU? With... ME? I think you must have bumped your head or something. Why would I want to be seen out in public with you porky? Get out of my way or I will report you for sexual harassment!"

With that she pushed past him and strode out of the room. As he was about to leave, he noticed that Amanda was still in the corridor, talking to a couple of other girls. One of whom was Susie Maddocks.

"Oh joy of joys," thought Eric, "so much for keeping this one quiet."

As he walked past, Amanda and some other girls started to snigger. Susie stood slightly away from her friends when she saw him coming, almost as if she didn't want to be associated with the bitchiness. A soft smile played briefly across her mouth but he was too embarrassed to acknowledge it and continued walking to his next class.

Lunchtime found Eric and Robin sitting round the back of the school greenhouses having a smoke.

"I heard you took my advice today." Robin offered.

"Already? Christ that was quick. I only asked her out this morning."

"Well, you know what this place is like. So what happened?"

"Oh I got shot down in flames, crashed and burned. Remind me to take your advice on other things this important mate, you are the guru." Eric said sarcastically.

"Well at least you know now that Amanda won't go out with you so Susie probably won't want to either now. You can finally get on with your life instead of wasting all your energy on a girl who wants nothing to do with you."

"You really know how to build me up don't you?" Eric replied with a grin.

"You know me mate, a kind word, some ancient wisdom and the world is put to rights."

When the bell rang signalling the start of the afternoon lessons, Eric and Robin made their way over to the metalworking classroom. Quite a few of the kids they passed openly laughed at Eric and called him a loser. Eric's mood was dropping rapidly.

Metalwork at least took his mind off things for a couple of hours. As he continued to work on his sword he realised that some of his clarity of vision regarding the finished weapon was missing since Brianna had left.

"Oh well, who needs some woman telling you how to make a sword anyway. What the hell would she know!" he thought angrily.

Once he began to concentrate on his task it occurred to him that Brianna's vision for his sword was not exactly what he wanted anyway. Her idea would have been a much more feminine item. This didn't feel right to Eric so he began to re-heat the blade in the forge. When the metal was hot enough to allow him to work it, he began to pound it again. The blade needed to be slightly broader and just marginally longer. He also decided that as this was going to be a show piece, he should shape it some for presentation so he began to work a slight pinch into the centre and a bit more of a flare in the end. By the time he was finished reshaping the blade, today's lesson had finished. He carefully wrapped his blade in an old rag that had been lightly coated in oil and asked Mr Timpson to put it somewhere safe for him.

"Have you decided what you are going to do for the guard, pommel and grip yet?" asked his teacher.

"I have a couple of ideas but I am not sure how to go about making them. I can see the finished thing in my head but every time I try to draw it, it comes out wrong."

"Just do what you usually do Eric, rough out the pieces and then work your own magic into it." Mr. Timpson said with a smile.

"Yeah, I have thought about doing that but it doesn't feel quite right. I suppose I will just make some temporary ones until the inspiration hits me and I can make the ones I want."

"Well try not to just slap any old thing on there Eric, it will ruin the look of the whole piece." Mr. Timpson unwrapped the sword blade from the cloth and polished some of the patina that the forge had left behind. The blade seemed to have an odd pattern running through it, kind of a herringbone effect.

"Did you know this would happen Eric?" he asked, surprise evident in his tone.

"Kind of, but I wasn't sure what the finished effect would be."

"This is fantastic you know. Are you planning to make a scabbard for it?"

"To be honest, I hadn't thought that far ahead. I was planning on just making a display case for it."

"It needs a scabbard Eric, if for no other reason than to stop you cutting yourself on it when you take it home."

"It's going to have a dull edge remember."

"I know that is what we were told to do but it would be a sacrilege to allow a blade like this to only reach half of its potential. When the time comes, assemble it, I will show it to the other teachers and when they have finished oh'ing and ah'ing over it, I will show you how to harden and temper the blade to get the best edge on it. BUT only if you make a scabbard for it."

Eric was stunned. He had thought to sharpen the sword once he got it home. He knew it would be a long and slow process just using a file but couldn't really see any other way to do it.

"I wouldn't have the first clue how to make a scabbard. I know they are generally made of leather or wood but how do you make one?" Eric asked.

"If it's going to be that much of a problem, I may be able to help there. I know a guy at a smithy who makes a lot of weapons for a historical re-enactment society, you know the blokes who fight the mock battles at weekends? Well, if I take him an outline sketch of the blade he should be able to have one of his team knock something up for you but you may have to pay for it."

"That would be great sir, could you please find out how much it will cost beforehand though? I don't have much money and I am not sure that my parents would pay for something like that."

"I am sure they will if I tell them that this is one of the finest pieces of work I have ever seen a pupil produce, and explain that it really needs this scabbard to finish it off. This will have to be our little secret though Eric, I could get into a lot of trouble with the Headmaster if he realised that I had gone against his wishes. Not to mention the fact I will have let a pupil manufacture an offensive weapon while in school!"

"No problem Sir, I won't tell if you don't." Eric replied with a smile.

After he left class, he found Robin waiting for him. "Why don't you ask Jenny Blackstock out? She is always flirting with you and she is supposed to be pretty easy." said Robin by way of greeting.

"Hey, she is not easy and she is a friend so lay off with the comments like that will you? Anyway I would only get rejected again, or worse, have her say yes and then have to deal with that Kung Fu loving Neanderthal that she calls a boyfriend. I think I would rather be single mate." Eric offered.

"Just because he's left school, 19 and an expert at Kung Fu doesn't mean you can't ask Jenny out. She would never tell him about you even if she did say no."

"Well, that's food for thought but I doubt I will risk a broken back for a girl who may or may not want to have more to do with me."

Eric thought about what Robin had said on the bus on the way home from school. Jenny was sat a couple of rows ahead of him on the bus and he eyed her critically. She had a knockout figure, even for a girl 5 or 6 years her senior, pretty face with light brown, almond shaped eyes and shortish spiky hair. Almost perfect infact apart form an awful, screeching laugh like a howler monkey. It was true that she often flirted with him but Eric was fairly sure that she was just pulling his chain and trying to get a rise out of him (in more ways than one) and it normally worked (in more ways than one!) He remembered a few nights back. Jenny had been wearing a very short mini skirt showing off her fabulous legs. She had been sitting opposite him when she started telling Eric about waxing her legs and bikini line. Eric was having trouble concentrating on her words as he could not take his eyes off of her legs. When she reached across, took his hand and rubbed it up and down her thigh a couple of times saying "Feel how smooth they are." he nearly shot his bolt.