At their core, divine tools worked exactly the same way as any other enchanted item. The creator would carve the magical properties, and the item would do its thing so long as it had the mana for it. Of course, this was like saying that the Frontier worked under the same principles as the ENIAC. It was an oversimplification that missed the point that one was orders of magnitude more efficient and computing capable than the other.
In other words, Gods could cheat and compress layers upon layers of spell-knots onto their item of choice. They could even keep their work from being readable by mortals by adding them to different aspects of the object rather than being restrained to its physical form.
But there was a price for such insane capabilities; the deity would be literally tearing off a piece of themselves to imbue it into the item. It was something even powerful deities hesitated to do.
From what Liam knew of Maridah, the Goddess was true to her domain; her creations were inscrutable to even fellow divinities. That, and they sometimes had new aspects reveal themselves eons after their crafting. From what he remembered about her previous items, the general theme she followed was utility first, secrecy/shadow themes second, and anything else being entirely dependent on who she had given it to.
The knife was a good example. Its main function was to be stupidly sharp, and likely just as durable too (though Liam wasn’t about to intentionally bash it against rocks). The secondary aspect of its utility had something to do with how the dark edge seemed to glimmer whenever under sunlight.
But it cut through wood just as effectively as when it was in darkness, so… No. Liam shook his head, thinking back to the lesson he’d just gone through today. What was his gut telling him that she would’ve added to the item?
In all likelihood, neither of the items had special properties that he would be able to observe on his own.
Secrecy meant something was being kept from someone else. It meant that, unless the item was meant to keep a secret from him, then it would involve other people. The alternative regarding shadows might have also been a domain of Maridah, but it didn’t feel like she would’ve gone for that.
Mainly because messing with him would be far easier if it didn’t involve shadows.
Though maybe she’d been serious and used some minor aspect of divinity from Volkanar? The demigod of ephemeral flames had been on Maridah’s bad list for a very long time ever since he’d sacrificed one of her high priests in a ritual. Giving her the name had made her job of finding the guy a hell of a lot easier.
The ties of fate murder caused were not something deities took lightly; it could completely mess them up in the long term. It was probably the main reason Thalgrim had not just up and killed him. By giving him a sliver of a chance to make it out alive, it was less likely his fate-messing would slam into her at full force.
“I’m just meandering.” Liam muttered under his breath, sitting his ass next to the campfire and bringing out the knife. He placed its edges into the flames, observing as the darkness on the edge flickered and sputtered.
Mentally, he willed the knife to activate, hesitating as he wondered if it even would, but the metal sprung to life, turning from a tepid gray into a black mirror, its surface reflecting white flames as if contained within the blade itself. He pulled the knife out and stared at it, then stabbed one of the branches, but nothing happened. Liam tried swinging it around, activating it again, and stabbing things, even nicking himself, but nothing particular happened.
Not until he let go of the knife.
Liam found himself standing next to the campfire, looking at his hand; there was a small cut on his finger. It felt important, yet he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten his injury. Looking around, he couldn’t find anything that could—
The knife flickered back into existence, lying exactly where he’d dropped it.
“It erases either the memory or awareness of its existence,” he immediately realized. “Wait, does it include the wielder?”
“Just the knife, and only the memories of those that see the white fire within. The wielder is protected from the effect while wielding it, of course,” Maridah popped in, grinning, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “It is a very naughty thing, very easily misplaced if not handled properly.”
Liam nodded absently, sheathing the knife. He could guess at potential uses, but one of the clear risks it posed was that it was a weapon easily stolen. It was easy to imagine a situation where he took the knife from someone and used the knife’s power to ensure the previous owner did not remember having such an item to begin with. In the worst-case scenario, the wielder could activate it and drop it somewhere, having caught a glimpse of the flame, and leave the knife to wait for a new owner.
There were several better uses he very much wanted to test out, but… “How many uses until I need to get some aether to recharge it?”
“Five activations, ten minutes each,” she hummed for a second. “If you don’t use it to cut anything and just let it be, it can suck enough mana from the environment for a single use every month or so.”
“You’re surprisingly open about these details,” he eyed her with mild suspicion.
“They’re the boring ones. That, and it's best to clarify misconceptions before they take root; you are meant to use these tools to survive, after all,” her tail wagged, gesturing at the rope. “Besides, the sooner you get those needless specifics out of the way, the sooner you can try to discover the secrets of the other.”
She was way more excited about this than he’d expected her to be.
Liam would’ve felt guilty if he wasn’t equally excited about finding out what the rope did.
The presence of darkness on the item was clearly more intense than the knife, the rope itself appearing as if it was stuck somewhere between “solid” and “smoke,” yet to the touch, it felt like silk, the rope itself being barely thicker than his pinky.
Trying to figure out how long the rope was brought about the first discovery: the rope was a bundled-up circle, with no start or end. The rope itself was roughly twenty meters, but due to how it was tied to itself, it was only an effective ten meters.
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The first test was to just hang the thing and see how much weight it could handle, but aside from “Liam and what’s left of the carcass,” there weren’t any apparent signs of the rope being strained. Next, he tried to cut it, but it refused the knife’s edge, and putting it near or onto the fire did nothing either.
With the “passive” qualities figured out as best he could, he moved on to mentally command the rope to activate. A split formed where he was holding the thing, opening up the circle and turning it into an apparent normal rope. Further testing didn’t reveal anything of note, no weird mental or physical effects while holding or dropping it, but the moment he commanded the rope to activate again both split edges pulled into each other, closing the loop.
“Huh.”
Splitting the rope again, he quickly tied one end around his hand, and threw the other over the branch, commanding an activation immediately after. Much to his delight, he was yanked up into the air until both ends met.
“Just so you know, that was not something I intended or planned for. It’s definitely going to consume the charge faster if you do it frequently,” Maridah declared with laughter as she looked up at him, tail wagging slightly. “Just so you don’t assume things, you’ve yet to discover the main utility.”
With another activation, he split the rope and dropped back down. “I take it this doesn’t have a way to change size?”
She didn’t answer, only doing a slight shrug, clearly wanting him to further experiment and find out for himself.
“Alrighty.”
A little experimentation later confirmed that the cut-off ends would only ever attract one another, never sticking to any other part of the rope. The attraction between the two also had no apparent peculiarities about it other than its directness. Also, if there was anything making it impossible for it to connect directly, then it would double over itself to trace back to the source and do so anyway.
It took him a few hours before he thought to try making a knot while the rope was split.
As soon as the rope joined back in on itself, Liam felt an odd tugging sensation from within the rope itself, but it did nothing if he let go. Following the motion, he sensed the rope was actually shrinking in length, even as it bended and curved under his touch, smaller and smaller until the knot was all that remained, barely large enough to be larger than a knuckle.
It stayed that way until Liam activated it again, at which point the two ends split, and the rope returned to its original length.
“It’s… almost kind of guiding my fingers…” He cocked his head, blinking. “Wait, is this training me on how to do spell knots?”
“Also normal knots,” Maridah chirped in. “But mostly spell knots.” She nodded along, watching as he began quickly making a random pattern and getting it to slowly shrink. “For now it’ll only allow you to attempt first and second rank spell patterns.”
“For now,” he shot her a glance.
She shrugged. “If there’s more to it, you’ll get your chance to find out… maybe.” The wolf sprung to her feet, walking a circle around him. “Of course, it still works as a rope, and I hope you use it as one. It wouldn’t do if… wait, what’re you doing?”
Liam had pulled out a thick branch and looped the rope around it once, then proceeded to do a simple knot on the side and reactivate it so it would join up. As soon as the rope began to shrink, the wood began to complain, groan, and crack. The branch didn’t stand a chance against the shrinking knot, fully breaking in half, crushed under the vice grip of the rope.
“Huh,” the Goddess looked at the damage her item had created. “I had not intended for it to be used that way either.” She eyed him as he picked up the item, tail wagging a little. “I would’ve normally said that the rope can naturally recharge two uses a day, and that it holds enough of a charge to be used two thousand consecutive times, but if you’re going to use it for these force-intensive things, it will last you far less.”
“How much would you estimate?”
“Each time it opens or it closes, it consumes a charge. It took a dozen charges to break that branch,” she pointed at the splintered remains. “And roughly twice as many to lift you off the ground.” The Goddess made a vague circle motion with her tail. “Like any other enchanted tool, you can more quickly recharge them if you use aether than rely on ambient mana. But it is made to either reach its intended state or fail trying.”
“So if I try to use it to pull me up and it goes empty, it’s going to drop me partway through.” He nodded, eyeing the rope as he caressed its smooth surface.
“Correct.” She sat back down, watching him intently.
“What?” he asked as he gathered the two tools and tucked them away.
“I am tempted to unbury your secret for you, just because I am intrigued.” Maridah flashed a grin full of very sharp fangs. “It usually takes mortals far longer to find unintended uses for my gifts, and I suspect part of why you accomplished it is…” The word lingered before she shook her head. “No, never mind. It would spoil the secret, as you said yourself, you will know when and where you are ready.”
Liam eyed her for a very long and quiet moment, pondering less on her words and more on whether he should delve into her words. Doing so would risk him stepping into that area he was intentionally trying to avoid, which was probably why she was teasing him about it in this way.
He shook his head to push those thoughts away entirely. “Pretty generous for you to give these things to someone who’s a non-God-worshiping heretic.”
“Nonsense, you are my faithful,” she punctuated her proclamation with a small bark. “Now go and prepare whatever it is you intend to use in your hunting lesson. I will make my own.”
“Your own?” Liam blinked. “Wait—”
“I am your teacher in this, little mortal. Not as prey, obviously, but as the watchful predator.” Maridah flashed him her fangs once more. “It will be my nose and my ears and my eyes you will have to avoid while you seek your own meal, lest I take it from you.” The grin became positively evil. “In my experience, hunger is a powerful motivator for you mortals. I fully expect you to show me your fangs.”
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Divine tools details (condensed form, though tiny spoilers)
Forgotten Knife: A rudimentary simple palm-length knife with a wooden handle that might otherwise seem like there is nothing special about it. Only its wielder can notice that the edge appears to flicker with darkness whenever exposed to the light of either the sun or an open flame.
> Passive: Unnaturally sharp, can easily cut through things a normal metal knife might have had some trouble handling.
>
> Activation requirements: Contact with the light from the sun or an open flame.
>
> Activation effects: Anyone (except wielder) who sees the white flame within the knife's blade will forget the blade ever existed. While the effect is active, the knife's continuous erasure of its own existence will cause those who look at it (except wielder) to not be able to notice or acknowledge its existence.
>
> Charges: 5
>
> Effect duration: 10-minute per charge.
>
> Natural recharge rate: 1x charge per month.
>
> Creator Effect: Maridah, Goddess of Secrets, makes all her creations inscrutable by even the most observant divinities. Unless actively expressing an effect, this divine tool will appear mundane in the eyes of other Gods.
Rope Circlet of Dark Secrets: A circle of rope (the rope's length being 20 meters [60 feet] and 1.27 cm [0.5 Inches] thick) made out of an unknown material that seems to suck the light out of its surroundings.
> Passive: Great tensile strength and softness, natural insect repellent (it's the anti-lämp).
>
> Activation requirements: None.
>
> Activation effects: If it is whole, it will create a tear at the spot the user is pinching. If the rope is torn, it will seek to mend itself. If the mended rope is forming a knot (that isn't an unknot) then it will seek to rapidly shrink its length to the minimum spell-stable form.
>
> Bonus Active: The rope can exert force to fulfill its effect, however, doing so will consume (far) more than the standard single charge per activation.
>
> Charges: 2,000
>
> Effect duration: Until activated again.
>
> Natural recharge rate: 2x Charges per day
>
> Creator Effect: Maridah, Goddess of Secrets, makes all her creations inscrutable by even the most observant divinities. Unless actively expressing an effect, this divine tool will appear mundane in the eyes of other Gods.