She ate, slowly, cautiously, but she ate. Then, before she even knew it, she was asleep again, her mind echoing with that pipe organ, and into her sight, burned the countenance of human perfection that at the center of the organ’s assembly. That visage of Zavesh, entangled amidst the pipes. Somehow, she couldn’t help but feel a something looking down upon her through the golden orbs that were its eyes. Even as the blackest pitch of a blank, dreamless sleep took hold of her, Krahe couldn’t help but feel a sense of the profound, like threads of gold melting into the murk.
When next she awoke, it was to the sound of that pipe organ, and to the feeling of cables being pulled out of her arm.
“Told you the sedatives wouldn’t work. Let’s just get this done over with,” Firminus said, before turning to Krahe. “Hey, hey. I’m disconnecting you, so try to keep still. Blink twice if you understand.”
Krahe did as was asked of her, and within a few minutes, she had been divested of her connection to the machinery that had sustained her life for the last few days, the holes sealed with flesh-paste as if they had never been there. Before her breathing could become an issue, Firminus handed her a silver-and-brass lower-face mask with a tube connected to its right side.
“Here, breathe,” he said.
Even this simple item was decorated with a figure of Zavesh on the front, and a paper strip densely-packed with scripture was wax-sealed to the left side. Though absent of a strap, the moment she pressed it to her face, the mask sealed itself in place. Her head cleared the moment she took a breath.
Before she knew it, Firminus ran her through a cranial nerve test and asked a number of mundane questions to ascertain whether she had her full faculties about her. Once he seemed satisfied with the results, he nodded. "I'll be back in a moment," he said, and walked off.
The grafter returned with a table astride six insectile legs in tow, upon which sat a stack of paperwork and several familiar items. Those which drew her eye most were not her possessions, but rather objects of interest from the mansion raid: Chiefly, Semzar’s ring and dagger. There was also a sizable box, as well as a platter with a pitcher of ekarone juice and two glasses. These, too, were decorated with Zaveshian iconography, glass melded seamlessly to polished metal.
“Let’s get started with the easy parts. First, the dagger. As you killed Semzar, and Aristedes refused to make a claim, it is yours,” he said, handing it over. The moment Krahe’s hand touched the artifact, she felt a foreboding sense of wild power, like a plasma cannon with woefully insufficient capacitors. It was a heavily bejeweled Jambiya. Firminus continued: “Based on what we’ve been able to discern, it requires a relatively long charge-up period. The discharge is an arcane-aspected cutting projection with a range of several dozen meters and potency sufficient to go through a heavily warded building. It severed Aristedes’ right arm with no apparent resistance and no signs of struggle in the cut — lucky for us, as this made the break easier to repair. Unfortunately, the blade is the only original component. In its complete state, assuming it was ever completed to begin with, Fidelia predicted that this blade could be a peak Fourth-order, if not borderline Fifth-order artifact. Merely Fourth-order, if you seek a more conservative estimate. In short, we don’t actually know what it is yet, where or when it came from, et cetera. You may keep it, but the church would like to buy it from you, or at least buy research rights and lease the dagger for the necessary duration. We may be able to offer recompense based on the results of any research involving the dagger. By Fidelia’s measure, the blade’s design is astonishingly complex, to the point where fabricating an entirely new artifact of the same level would be easier than reverse-engineering the original.”
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“Is it safe to unsheath?” Krahe asked.
Firminus waved his hand. “Sure. It won’t do anything until it’s charged, and you can’t charge it without it being sheathed. Without thauma, it’s just an indestructible knife. More or less. We don’t know. We can’t appraise it — not me, not Aristedes, not Fidelia. For all we know it may predate even the Seven Towers System Accord. Or it might be from another world, or perhaps the future. It’s nearly unheard of, but we know it has happened before. As I said, we don’t know.”
The black blade slid free of its sheath as if the two repelled one another, its surface gleaming like a mirror, iridescent-black runes revealing themselves just beneath the surface with even the slightest tilt. Its colours were wrong, not real. Krahe went to sheathe it again, but the blade turned in her grip, the force of repulsion still present — its edge struck the sheath’s lip, and the blade began vibrating like a tuning fork. A little voice in her head said that she could take control of it, to wield its unstoppable force, were she willing to sheathe it inside her own flesh and quench it with her own blood. That little voice wasn’t Chernobog’s Mystic Wisdom. She wasn’t even sure if it was real, or just her mind playing tricks. Perhaps she wasn’t really fully in her right mind yet. Regardless, she decided that she had enough troublesome artifacts to deal with for now. With some effort, she forced the jambiya back into its bejewelled prison.
“You can have it, something about the thing seems off — beyond just the fact it’s unfinished. The right-to-research arrangement you suggested works just fine for me,” she said, her eyes wandering to one of the other items. Silver and red. Then, she looked Firminus in the eyes. ”I’m not giving you the ring, though.”
Firminus seemed to handle the jambiya with more care than before as he put it away.
“It’s your right, but do you even know what the ring does?” he asked.
“It releases a shockwave that affects physical matter, thaumaturgy, theurgy, and even carries into the astral gulf. I smashed face first into it when I tried to skim through. Didn’t exactly have the time to appraise it for specifics,” Krahe explained her understanding of the artifact.
“More or less right,” he nodded, pulling out his eyebox again and slotting in another memslate. “Here. The appraisal results.”
[CRIMSON STAR OF AUTUMN]
[Tags:]
Artifact
Jewelry
Active
Archonforged
[Charge:]
6/6
[Details:]
This artifact cannot be removed from its bearer by force.
This artifact holds 6 charges. At-will, the bearer may expend a charge to emit a twin-layered shockwave with a range of 8m from the bearer (layers further referred to as physical and magical). This shockwave travels at a rate of 4m/s.
The physical layer exerts direct physical force and deflects all intruding physical forces regardless of magnitude. Incoming physical projectiles will be deflected in a semi-random direction at a slightly elevated velocity. Material entities (including life-forms) that come into contact with the shockwave will similarly receive a kinetic jolt. The intensity of this kinetic jolt scales with the user’s Force attribute and the entity’s velocity at time of contact.
The magical layer deflects all thaumaturgic, theurgic, anathemic, and other magical forces, objects, attacks, etc. regardless of their special characteristics or magnitude. It extends into the Astral Gulf, and prevents the passage of objects, entities, or attacks traveling through in this manner. It also passes through thin physical objects, with the thickness depending on the object’s physical and energetic density, especially warding enchantments.
This artifact continuously recovers charges at a rate of 1 charge per 6 hours. Recharge time may be affected by environmental factors and accelerated through the supply of thauma directly to the artifact.
This artifact may not be activated more often than once every 27s. Cooldown scales with the user’s Control attribute.
This artifact’s characteristics may evolve autonomously based on further exposure to Archon Core emissions.