A moonlight-colored figure passed through a locked metal door, just like a ghost.
Skidding to a stop, I almost slammed my cheek on the thing. Was this about to be a test of my Strength, or a test of my—ugh—extremely lacking finger dexterity?
I took another look up at what seemed to be the Cornutopia Lighthouse: a lighthouse covered almost head to toe in steel. It doubled as the location of a “powerful stone,” according to the map I put on my Map (a sentence that, thankfully, makes sense). The huge lock on the door was caked with rust, and yet, even just cupping it in one hand for a second revealed that it was still sturdy. With no key in sight…
My free hand revealed its claws. I flicked my wrist some to psyche myself up—because hitting metal hurt.
If I could carve through a dragon’s toe, maybe I can just sort of…punch…through iron?
I was wincing already.
Yeah, yeah, let’s get to it. Using a Slash would put me low on SP, but I still expected a full refresh soon—just needed that 30 EXP.
HP 48% (315/653) SP 18% (115/630)
Scritch! My red claws swept across the front of the lock and scored deep. Not deep enough, and the vibration of it hit my nerves the way fingernails scrape a chalkboard, but it was a start. I milked every last second of the Slash to split the lock apart. Then it disintegrated and I kicked the door in.
It did not swing. Rust on the hinges must’ve made it shudder halfway inward and stop. As I looked up through the tower, I just barely caught the fairy’s shimmer soaring up, then out of sight…probably through a ceiling.
Without the fairy, this place was basically pitch black. Night vision’s gotta have some light to throw around, so now I couldn’t see anything. The memory of what little I’d seen, though, told me there were spiral stairs hugging the walls, with signs here and there.
I shifted back to cat form and made my way up the stairs—and was shocked when the first sign I passed lit up white behind its words.
“The Wonderful World of Grain: Early grain silos did not have the efficient magitech we use today. In the old days, mill wheels and conveyor belts would…”
Down at the base of the, um, silo, a big spotlight turned softly on. Illuminating the wonderful world of grain that had once been here, no doubt. Good for them!
I ran the rest of the way, not bothering to read any more. But the top of the stairs stopped far short of the hatch that led to the ceiling that fairy had disappeared to. Plus, I was ninety-percent sure there was a window at the very top, and I wanted a far better view of Cornutopia.
From the top of the stairs to that hatch, there was about a two-meter difference. A Leap would clear it, but first I tried a regular old jump.
I took off with all I had, stretching my front limbs to the uttermost! And you know, I wasn’t too far off. Maybe a single Taipha-length away from grabbing that rusty handle.
I was so un-far off that I bet I could make it if I jumped from the stairway handrail instead. It gave me a smaller and slippy-grippier base, so my takeoff was more awkward, but the height advantage was worth it. I latched onto the handle, my back legs swung, and luckily my body weight pulled the rickety hatch open.
In here, thanks to the windows, was a little bit of light. Enough to read the sign that immediately met my face:
WARNING: YOU ARE IN THE CORNUTOPIA GUARD TOWER! Step any further and you will set off our ALARMS AND TRANQUILIZERS. All after-hours delinquents WILL BE PROSECUTED.
Too late for that, as I had stepped fully out of the hatch and begun to stretch before I finished reading. At any rate, this place hadn’t been human-populated for like decades, so I doubted the security was still running. And look, there was that fairy!
Around me was a room lined with lockers, and hooks on the walls with what appeared to be corn helmets. They were really all-in with this theme, weren’t they? I also saw some scattered desks, toppled chairs, and loose dusty papers, along with a museum-type pedestal and glass case, plus some telescope or other gadget. Enormous windows surrounded the room, letting in meager nighttime light. This tower wasn’t the tallest thing in the park, but it was pretty darn tall, and I knew I’d be getting an incredible panorama.
First, though, there was a mischievous fairy, and I saw…her?…bobbing next to the glass case. The next moment, I’d caught her eye and we were giving each other the death glare.
She hefted her shoulders up and readied her flower like a mace.
C’mon, what are you seriously gonna do with that? I thought, before I realized that in Earth movies people say these kinds of lines right before the enemy pulls out a far worse weapon.
Letting out a howl that was so tiny that even I had to find it adorable, the fairy zoomed toward me!
Okay, maybe I’ll get lucky and you really don’t have anything better. I sharpened my claws on each other and licked my lips.
The fairy was soaring ever-closer!
I batted the dandelion out of her hands. It was so satisfying.
The next moment, it became instantly unsatisfying. The red dandelion split into a million red puffs, all of which dissipated.
The light was no more, as if it had never really been.
This was infuriating. I was angry. The fairy was angry. I had wanted a glowing red souvenir for the road…she had wanted, evidently, to not lose her one and only weapon.
But that’s what you get for whacking me on the head earlier and laughing at me! I thought. In fact, I should really be Morphing and squandering SP just so I can laugh in your face!
The boiling fury on the fairy’s face, in her balled-up fists and trembling form, turned into…tears, and two fingers rubbing at her eyes.
I squinted.
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Well, in the words of Possy (maybe), this was not my problem! I pranced away, closer to the windows, and was rewarded for my cruelty by some welcome flying boxes.
Level Up!
Lv. 23 → Lv. 24 EXP: 16% (592/3600)
HP 100% (685/685) SP 100% (660/660)
ATK 128
INT 75
DEF 89 (+1!)
WIS 84 (+1!)
SPD 107 (+2!)
No new moves yet? Aw, okay, I could wait a little longer. Once again, my Stat gains level for level were feeling pretty monstrous. Or maybe that was just the fact that I’d made a tiny baby fairy cry and was, by some definitions, a monster myself.
Instead of worrying about that, I flitted over to the pedestal before some of those panoramic windows. Immediately I knew that this held the “powerful stone” the Queen had mentioned. Just as immediately, I knew I wanted to stuff it in my bag and take it home.
The closer I got, the more it shimmered. That thing in the glass wasn’t just a rock, it was a bona fide precious gem. Topaz? Amber? Gold diamond?? Something orange.
I stretched my front paws up onto the top edge of the pedestal, then strained my back legs to make myself as tall—or long—as I could get. The gem had to be at least as large as the biggest diamond discovered on Earth, yet it was just a random novelty-bauble in the security tower here? Maybe it wasn’t powerful or intriguing at all, then. Still, I wanted it.
Hm…what was the smartest way to open this thing…
I dipped behind the desk, then peeked out around the corner and cast an Attract.
The glass came hurtling toward me at an amazing speed. So amazing that as I stood behind the desk—making sure that the metal husk was blocking the shortest path from the glass to me—I flinched at the shattering shards and the very deep indentation. It actually bopped me on the jaw!
Now I had confirmation (extremely violent confirmation) that the Attraction Spell wouldn’t boomerang around obstacles just to reach its intended goal. If it’d gone wrong, I would’ve defended myself by throwing an Earth Spell in the way.
The stone was free! And as I hopped onto the desk, I saw I hadn’t even knocked over the gadgets in front of the pedestal to do it!
Wait, what was that stuff? The gemstone was next to what seemed to be a telescope.
From this angle, I could see a placard, too. So I carefully made my way through the meadow of glass and came closer…
“WE ARE THE ETERNAL EYES OF CORNUTOPIA!”
Sure you are, I thought as I slinked behind the stone and scope.
In cat form, I could just reach the stone and give it a stroke. It felt smooth and cool to the touch…
And it immediately flared with a silent light that lasered into the telescope, passed through the great big windows, and cast itself across the entirety of the park.
NO! I thought instinctively. Whatever stealth I’d had was blown! In my rush to see the flash on the park, I tipped the pedestal and scope off-balance. Something or something crashed to the floor behind me as I slammed my muzzle to the window.
A delicate, even tawny light now covered the entire park. It all felt haunting and stark, with colors only dimly perceptible in the sepia tones.
And the light lingered for several seconds, allowing me to put names to what I saw. That thing over there was…a bumper car rink with its ceiling torn off, and cars that looked awfully like carts. That might explain the old cart I found outside. Elsewhere were the big “skyscraper” rides that once whirled and flung people in pods.
In the middle was the place with “lots of quadrupedal mammals”: a carousel with a round top that made it kinda look like a hamburger. If ever there was a place for me to train—especially now at full HP and SP—it would be that. Naturally, that had to be my next destination.
Except…
I also saw the final place the Queen had marked. Whatever structure it’d once been—a hall of mirrors, a museum exhibit, some restaurant—I couldn’t tell. The building had long since had its own top and innards torn away. What I saw now were flimsy walls, stains, fibers like webbing, and the barest shimmer.
It took squinting and focus to see more details. Outside of the doorway, and set deliberately into the ground all the same distance apart, were short black…poles? They moved like breeze-rattled ferns. I looked closer. They were long black feathers.
Standing just beyond that fence of feathers was a hazy figure with a tail and wings. Either this figure didn’t notice the light of the “powerful stone” or they were ignoring it. As the light sizzled away, the dragon-person watched the doorway. And I didn’t believe it was just the fog shifting—I swore they were shivering.
My vision ended, and the light left the park.
Then animal chatter rose up everywhere, especially from the carousel, so clearly someone had noticed. It’d probably disturbed their sleep, as a matter of fact. And made them hideously angry at whoever’d done it. It was only barely audible through the windows, but diverse enough to tell me there were tons of different quadrupedal mammals around here: weasels, foxes, raccoons…raccoons…
I had to roll my eyes. It made sense, in a way, that this would be the thing to take my focus away from both the search for cantrip ingredients and the revelation that Murder the condor was probably conducting a real-time investigation of a murder enacted by the Sapphire Queen.
Um…speaking of.
Five
Travel is so much faster on the wing, and combat is so much easier with numbers, that I am always surprised that my Maker has given me another form. Whatever purpose is not mine to question.
I have burned off frustration by searching for the Treasures. And it seems to me that there are even more things worthy of gathering beyond my Maker’s acknowledgement. The Blade has opened the door to an endless wellspring. Revealing the whole Map, I have sighted new targets.
Clearly I have been approaching the command of my Maker wrong. I cannot expect just any Vencian to make for a proper rival just as I cannot expect to stay sane as I handle the Blade. The rest of the command, I still do not know how to follow. I will focus on what makes sense, and be more watchful. So will the krigries, who have agreed to bring back news of the unusual and unusually powerful, should they ever see it.