Dav was the first person to reach Sophia’s side. “That’s awfully fancy for a gardener.”
“Yeah. I don’t know whose it is, but it definitely seems like what we’re looking for,” Sophia agreed. “Amy?”
Amy held a hand out for the brooch. Once Sophia dropped it into her hand, she turned it over and checked the back, then held it up to her eye to get a better look. “It’s not magical?”
Sophia shook her head. “Not as far as I can tell, but it looks expensive.”
“It is,” Amy agreed. “The enamel work is exquisite, so even though the materials aren’t the best, it’s still probably worth a few crowns.” She seemed to realize that Sophia wasn’t quite certain what that meant, because she continued. “It’s worth more than we’ll get for the Challenge, even with the plants we found and the reward from the Registry. My guess is that it’s probably not worth as much as closing the Challenge, but I could be wrong. If it belongs to someone who will pay to get it back, it could be worth several times that amount.”
“We won’t get that if we hand it over to the Registry of evidence that someone encouraged the corpsevines, I assume.” Dav’s words were a splash of cold water on the avarice Sophia felt at Amy’s guess at the pin’s value. “We certainly won’t be able to convince anyone we’ll keep quiet about their involvement at that point.”
Sophia’s mouth fell open as she connected the dots between Dav’s statement and Amy’s. “You think we should blackmail the person who started this?”
Amy’s “No,” overlapped with Dav’s, “That’s Amy’s suggestion.”
High pitched barking noises made all three of them turn to find the source. Sophia couldn’t help but blink at the sight; waves of colored smoke seemed to waver around Taika and color the nearby plants as the chinchilla laughed.
Taika Laughing [https://i.imgur.com/Lve42cn.jpeg]
“Taika?” Dav sounded worried. “Do you need help?”
“Hahahah,” Taika laughed again, then coughed as he tried to recover. The illusionary smoke dissipated as the chinchilla tried to catch his breath.
“What’s so funny?” Amy pushed.
“You three,” Taika wheezed. “You despise the question you asked, Dav dislikes it, and Sophia is clueless.”
Sophia wanted to protest. She wasn’t clueless … at least, not after Dav made it very clear what Amy was asking about. Without his comment, she was pretty sure she’d have thought that Amy actually meant it was a House symbol or something with sentimental value, not that they’d be getting paid for silence.
“I have to know who I’m working with,” Amy muttered.
“And now you do,” Dav said calmly, but his smile didn’t escape Sophia’s notice. “But somehow, I don’t think the fact that Sophia’s completely clueless about money and I’m willing to wait and feel out your intentions are what you were looking for.”
“Hey,” Sophia protested. “I’m not completely clueless about money.”
“Okay,” Dav agreed with a wink. “Mostly clueless.”
Sophia rolled her eyes at the teasing. Even without the wink, she’d have known that Dav didn’t entirely mean what he said and certainly wasn’t saying it to be mean.
“No, that wasn’t the point,” Amy agreed. She gave Taika a short glare, but there didn’t seem to be much heat in it. “Fine, have it your way. The way I see it, we can keep this and try to sell it after we leave Casterville, we can turn it in to the Registry Master and tell her what we think is going on, or we can try to find out who it belongs to and sell it back to them. Once it’s out of our hands, we’d obviously have nothing to give to the Registry Master. That’s really the only way to sell it in Casterville.”
Amy didn’t elaborate on her reasoning for why selling it in Casterville to anyone but the original owner was risky, but Sophia didn’t really need her to. If you could blackmail someone with something, they obviously wouldn’t want it floating around and they might try to claim it was stolen or something.
Sophia was sure there was more to Amy’s reasoning, but it really didn’t matter. “We’re obviously going to give it to the Registry Master. You said you’re pretty sure she’s not involved; that’s enough for me. No one should be releasing monsters on their own town for political gain.”
“You missed one,” Dav added.
Sophia frowned at Dav. “What?”
Dav shook his head slightly. “Not you, Amy. We could also look into it ourselves and wait on handing over the pin until we know more about what’s going on, in case she is involved or won’t believe us. If she is involved, we can probably get Lady Esme to introduce us to her father and hand it over to him. I’m sure he isn’t involved, since he’s the target.”
That sounded like it might be a good idea, except that Sophia had no idea where to start to do something like that. “You want us to investigate a possible conspiracy on our own?”
Dav shook his head more firmly. “No, I want to hand the pin over to the Registry Master or the Mage-Chancellor and leave Casterville. This sounds like a real mess, maybe even a purge, and you don’t want to be anywhere nearby when a purge happens. They tend to splash.”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Taika cackled again. “So … Funny…”
Sophia looked at him and shook her head. “Let’s get moving before he forgets how to breathe. We’re heading back to the Registry once we’re done here, right?”
Amy nodded and turned to inspect the rest of the room, paying special attention to anything hidden behind or under plants.
“Yeah.” Dav scooped up the chortling chinchilla and tucked him in the top of his backpack while Sophia picked up the rest of the geodes. There were no more surprises hidden on the shelves.
The trio checked the rest of the building without finding anything else unusual, then made their way to the top floor where the corpsevine sat on a pile of dead plant matter. Sophia set it alight.
She jumped when words appeared in front of her vision.
Message [https://i.imgur.com/UC2EDd1.png]
Leveled Challenge: Lair of the Corpsevine fully completed!
Major Feat Completed!
For your Major Feat of fully completing a Leveled Challenge, you have been granted a reward!
Reward: Your Body and Core are increased by 1!
This was a challenge with physical, mental, and magical components which required the appropriate application of relevant Abilities.
Grand Feat Completed!
For your Grand Feat of fully completing a Leveled Challenge for the first time, you have been granted a reward!
Reward: One Physical, Mental, Magical, or Team Ability will be added to your Species Abilities as a Bonus Ability in a Free Ability Slot.
Only the category for the Ability may be selected. The Ability chosen will be influenced by your Species.
Nexus Major Feat Completed!
The Leveled Challenge: Lair of the Corpsevine has been fully completed!
Reward: Bonus Wisps will be granted near the Casterville Nexus for all actions related to defending the Nexus for the next year. Actions related to removing any remaining corpsevine threat will be doubled during that time. These bonuses apply to people of all Spheres below the first upgrade.
The Lair of the Corpsevine Leveled Challenge was a Nexus Defence Challenge completed by a team below the first upgrade.
Grand Feat Completed!
For your Grand Feat of completing a Nexus Major Feat for the first time, you have been granted a reward!
Reward: You may choose either increased Wisps granted for all actions related to one aspect of the Nexus Major Feat completion until you reach the first upgrade or one Bonus Ability and Free Ability Slot related to one aspect of the Nexus Major Feat.
The Nexus Major Feat was completion of a Nexus Defense Leveled Challenge. Possible aspects are: Nexus Defense, Corpsevines, Sapient Investigation, Plants, Flame, or Natural Magic.
Sophia barely noticed that there was no message from the Wanderer as she moved the message out of the way of her vision. “Let’s get moving. We can handle this after we’re outside the building.” She didn’t want to stay in a building with a huge fire on the top floor, whether or not it was mostly made of stone and glass. There were a lot of things in the building that could burn, and she wasn’t sure how good the ventilation was either.
“Yeah,” Amy agreed. “I have a bad feeling that the announcement of the Leveled Challenge being fully completed went out to everyone, since it’s a Feat that applies to everyone in the Nexus.”
“Why is that a problem?” Sophia asked as they headed down the stairs. “Weren’t we supposed to finish it if we could?”
“Yes,” Amy said with a clear air of someone explaining something that should be obvious. “That’s why the Registry had a reward. The problem is that a lot of other teams were expecting to get Wisps and pay from the Challenge for months, and now they won’t. Some may not have even been through here once. The pay is more of a problem than the Wisps; most people around here will say they’re trying to progress, but they really aren’t, and the Feat reward should help a lot too.”
“Especially the corpsevine removal bonus,” Dav added. “Is the pay for this really that much better?”
Amy nodded. “If how often you could enter weren’t limited, there would be people in there all the time. It’s high enough to get a lot of groups to plan around it, instead of only going in when it’s convenient.”
That gave Sophia something to think about as they made their way down the stairs, out of the building, across the seemingly empty woods, and into the city. The area once covered by the Leveled Challenge was similar to what they saw inside, but not quite the same; for one thing, the grounds were a lot smaller. For another, there was actually an overgrown roadway that led from the front entrance to one of Casterville’s gates. The gate was well inside the area covered by the Nexus, but Sophia was certain that was deliberate.
They didn’t see another team of Called until they were close to the Registry, just like they hadn’t seen one on the way in. Sophia had to guess that they had waited at the Registry for Sophia’s team to finish, but they’d probably given up once they saw the Nexus Feat notice.
When they slipped in the door of the Registry, they found Rensyn waiting for them in a chair near the entrance. He was at least half-asleep, like this was the first chance he’d had to rest in far too long, but he stirred as they walked in, then pushed himself to his feet. “Welcome back! Please, follow me.”
Sophia frowned at that as a sliver of suspicion formed in her mind. Why was he waiting for them? Why did he want to lead them somewhere? Could he be the owner of the enameled bird brooch?
“We need to talk to the Registry Master,” Amy said firmly before Rensyn got more than a step away. “I think she’ll be happy to make time to see us.”
Rensyn’s shoulders seemed to tighten as he turned and stepped over to Aimiva, who once again manned the reception desk. “Aimiva, does the Registry Master have a few minutes?”
“Did they…?” Aimiva tilted her head sort of towards Sophia without completing her sentence.
“Who else?” Rensyn answered.
“Then yes, she does. The Mage-Chancellor left a few minutes ago; she’ll make time for them. You can go on up.” Aimiva waved towards a blank door Sophia hadn’t seen anyone use yet. She’d assumed it was a supply closet or something.
As Rensyn turned away from the desk, Sophia noticed as Aimiva tapped a spot on her desk that shone weakly with magic as it activated. Sophia wasn’t sure if she’d just warned the Registry Master or if she’d just unlocked a door, but either way it seemed like they weren’t going to be a surprise. That made Sophia relax a little; Rensyn definitely had to take them to the Registry Master now. Even if he was the culprit, he wasn’t going to be able to hurt them without someone catching him quickly.
She hoped he wasn’t the culprit. Sophia didn’t like doubting someone who’d given her advice, especially not good advice.