Every Sil'piceus believed in their hearts that the Elder would know what to do. That was an undeniable fact, but with the difficulties involved in meeting with him, they still decided to try to figure this out themselves.
“Touch it again. Tell us what it does. Be careful. Be ready to stop touching or cut your tentacle off.”
“It does not hurt. It helps. It heals. It stopped healing. My tentacle is fixed. It has nothing more to heal. It helps.”
“Does it have a pointy part and a healing part? Some rocks are like that. They have a good end and a bad end. You have to hold them by the good end to avoid getting hurt.”
“It has no end. It is like Sil'piceus. The shell is round. It has tentacles. The tentacles have ends. I did not touch the tentacles. Only the round shell. It is both the good and bad end.”
This exchange continued for a while, until they finally decided that verbal descriptions were not enough.
“We must know if it hurts others. Stay where you are. We will come and find you. Do not touch it again. Wait until we are here.”
“I wait. You come to me. Like prey. Don’t get hurt. You are not prey.”
It turned out that by “We will be here soon”, they meant almost an hour later, during which Avery saw them inch their way towards the magical object. They even slowly formed an irregular circular formation that reminded him a bit of stonehenge. The scene looked oddly ritualistic, with a dozen eldritch monstrosities all surrounding the one of their kind who was holding a small black idol, with blood dripping all over it.
Despite the disturbing appearance, this arrangement let them all have a clear view on the mysterious object. The Sil'piceus could sense a moving object from a long distance away, according to its mass. Often, the heavier it was, the more powerful the vibrations it would cause, which meant it could be heard from farther away.
That was very useful to detect preys and predators, but they needed another method to see inert objects. Like echo localisation, they sent out vibrations from their tentacles, and could make things out by reading the signals that bounced back. The vibrations they sent were tiny, and the earth did not transmit them as easily as air did, so that form of detailed sight had a very limited range, and very low resolution. That was why they often lifted any unidentifiable object they found to the surface, so they could more easily make out its appearance by touching it.
The central creature first buried the magical fragment in the earth to let everyone have a look at it using their Tremor sense. Then, at the request of his companions, he dug it up again and threw it to them, so that they could try and touch it themselves.
“It is strange. It does not hurt but does not help either. It does nothing. But we feel something. We are connected to it. It obeys us a little. But it obeys you a lot. You should try telling it what to do.”
Having recovered the magical fragment, he tried to order it around, telling it to start flying around, or to vibrate and speak, but nothing happened.
“You said it healed you? Then try ordering it to help you like that. Tell it to make you strong. Tell it to make you very strong!”
Following those suggestions, he gripped the fragment and wished to become stronger, able to break the earth with a single swing. Instantly, the fragment pulsed with light and his tentacle was enveloped in a dark ominous aura. Feeling an overwhelming sense of power, he tried hitting the ground, creating a small crater.
This was far above what he could do normally. His tentacle was already powerful to begin with, but for it to have that effect, it needed to have become at least three times stronger. Excited, he tried again, but was disappointed to find his next strike perfectly normal.
“I asked to be strong. It made me strong. But only once. I hit very hard one time. The next time I had normal strength. It took my strength back.”
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“Ask for strength again and tell us if it works.”
“It works. But also only one time. Even if I ask a lot. I hit hard one time. And then I have to ask again.”
“We tried asking for strength like you. It did not work. Maybe we need to touch it for it to work. Or maybe it only likes you. You fed it blood. Give it to us. We will try.”
They passed the fragment around, testing every theory they could think of. They managed to discover many things about how it worked, like the fact that it could grant power to anybody that requested it, but the effect would be much worse than if the central Sil'piceus asked for it. Instead of being three times stronger, they only became twice as strong.
This led them to start calling him the Owner. Apparently, their culture had yet to assign a name to everybody. Only some special individuals would be granted a title, like the Elder, or the Owner.
Besides that, they found out that they did not need to touch it for it to answer your prayers, but the closer you were to it, the better it worked. Touching it was still the best, and any effects would become unnoticeable if you were more than two or three meters away. Taking into account a Sil'piceus size, in practice this meant only one of them could be using it at the same time.
Their animated research lasted for as long as any of them had any new ideas, which admittedly wasn’t that long. After that, now having a vague idea of the fragment's power, they did not calm down but instead started a heated debate on how they should use it.
“Why are we talking so much? It can hurt things. We put things that hurt at the bottom of our traps. We should put it in our traps.”
“No! It is very strong! Using it in a trap is a waste! Elder said we Sil'piceus are very smart. He said that we should not only copy what the others did but that we should try and improve it. Using this strange object in a trap is not an improvement. It is not better at hurting than sharp rocks. It needs someone to command it. Stone spikes do not.”
“Yes! We already have things that hurt. But we have nothing that heals. We have nothing that makes us strong. It is special!”
“Why do we need to be strong? We are already strong. Why do we need to heal? Our shell will protect us. It is special. But it is not valuable. It is useless. Put it in the traps!”
“Ask it to find the Elder! And then ask Elder what you would do!”
Everyone quieted after hearing that affirmation. There were a few mumbles here and there, but everyone begrudgingly agreed that this was the best solution.
Despite their enthusiasm, the Sil'piceus plan immediately failed. It turned out that asking for the location of Elder did not work, as the fragment remained unresponsive, refusing to answer any question. It was not a divination item, and had no intention of waking up for anything other than to grant someone magical powers.
The Sil'piceus were disappointed, but they still decided they needed to ask for Elder's help. This just meant they needed to find him the traditional way, scouring the land and relying on word to mouth to learn his whereabouts.
This of course led to a third argument, as none of them agreed who should risk their lives to make the trip. The journey was expected to be very dangerous, since it was essentially an extended migration, being constantly on the move for an indeterminate amount of time. That meant living through the hardest and most stressful part of their lives for who knew how long.
However, none of the Sil'piceus were willing to let a chance to meet the Elder go. Death was inevitable, but if they were part of the group that risked their lives to bring a civilization-changing object to the Elder, they would become Heroes. They would be given names to be forever remembered, and little Sil'piceus would one day dream of becoming like them.
The argument went on for hours, but eventually they realized they needed to be realistic, and do what was best for the species. Finally, one of the oldest of the group turned to the Owner, and made it clear what should be done.
“You will have to go alone. If you are alone you can ask it to make you strong. If you are strong you can go faster. If you are fast you can go far and catch up to Elder. If you can catch up to Elder he will tell you what to do. You will not need us. The Sil'piceus needs you, and you need Elder.”
The atmosphere became subdued after that statement. Everyone was secretly regretting that they were not the ones who had gotten this opportunity, and were doing their best to hide their disappointment. Meanwhile, the Owner was preparing for his perilous trip across the plains. His group made themselves as helpful as possible, but their heart just wasn’t in it. They were all filled with a strange mix of regret, relief and anticipation.
The Owner was given priority access to any prey they caught, so that he was always in top form. He slowly got into traveling mode, folding his utility tentacles neatly under his shell, leaving only the strength based limbs outside, ready to drag him across the earth.
Since he was going to travel alone, and that he would be using all of his limbs to crawl faster, he saw no need to keep holding the item. He lodged it in his body, held in place by his folded limbs.
All his preparations done, he silently waited for a suitably rainy day to commence his journey.