Soldier of Fortune

Soldiers may have a lucky knife, or lucky boots, but never a lucky sword.  Because all swords are lucky, and it's all the same sort of luck.  It points both ways.  Labeling a sword "Lucky" is taunting both the gods of fortune.  The old man who plays dice, and the ladies who do not.  There are only two types of soldiers who would touch such a sword.  Those who don't know what the symbol meant, but if you've been a soldier long enough you know the symbols.  And then there's the sort of soldier who does it anyway. Those soldiers, if they don't die, stick close to them.  Because if they don't die, then they really do have one of the gods of luck on their side.  The longer they live, the tighter you stick to them.  Until their luck runs out, and if it runs out in battle?  Then run.  There's no contract or oath worth fighting for in the face of that omen, child.  Because if a Soldier of Fortune dies, then either the Old Man is rolling his dice or the Ladies are clipping their threads. And if they're working together?  Then you can't run far or fast enough, because the web is woven and the dice are loaded. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a story about a sword, a dying old man, the slave boy that he saves from bondage, and a spy.  The sword's not magical, the old man isn't a hidden master, the boy is just sort of special, and the spy's not very good at her job.  Yet they disrupt the status quo of a powerful Orthodox Sect and destroy a clandestine clan, shaking the foundations of an empire.