As Alice exited Mercury Threads with new directions as to where she could find its sibling shop, she sunk herself into her Ether once more. The mundane interactions back to back with the clerks both in the Delver’s Hall and in Mercury Threads had left her unbalanced, and more drained than hours of speaking with Marie had.
Even creating [Torment] hadn’t been as exhausting, if one overlooked the Ether withdrawal that came after that particular stunt.
A shiver ran through her spine as Alice recalled the gnawing feeling of something being missing from her chest. Never again, she vowed to herself once more.
As she approached Mercury Edge, she noticed how both the buildings and the shops around her became more and more elaborate, with distinct filigree and engravings flowing across each surface. Entranced by the decorations made with what she could almost call machine-like perfection, she almost missed the shop.
Mercury Edge was no lesser than its neighbouring peers, and it showed its splendour before even setting foot inside the shop itself. Golden engravings danced across the twinned panes of incredibly clear crystal that made up the centrepiece of the storefront as various weapons shined with many runes of a strange making that Alice couldn’t recognise. She knew about the Norse runes back on Earth, and little else, but these looked anything but. More circles upon smaller circles punctuated by straight and sharp angles that drew her eyes to them.
Inside the shop itself, Alice noticed how the space inside was bigger than the outer structure would suggest, and once again she wondered if they used some kind of space magic in literally everything in Aspen. Maybe she could get some kind of personal storage device, like an inventory? That’d be really useful to carry around a lot of survival equipment without being bogged down by the weight.
Stepping inside, a melodious chime greeted her arrival. The insides themselves were of little note, being little else than a big counter at the back with a door that had a plaque that read ‘storage’, some stairs that went up and down, a door that led somewhere to the right, and rows and rows of weapon and armour racks.
Noticing the small group of four already inside the shop, she gave them a wide berth, not wanting to be entangled in another trivial conversation. Her social battery was already low as it was.
Checking various racks with a myriad of different weapons and armour, Alice came to the illuminating conclusion that she had absolutely no idea what she needed, wanted, or what was best for someone of her frame, weight and stats.
Nodding to herself, she approached the counter. This time it was manned by a man on the older side with kind brown eyes that were currently speed-reading a small booklet bound in black-coloured leather whilst sitting on a comfortable-looking leather armchair.
The man sent a quick glance her way, and with some reluctance, put the book down. “Yes? What can I do for you?” A more focused look made the gleam of understanding shine in his eyes. “Ah, another outworlder. Yes, yes, I have the basic pack around here in the back, just give me a moment.”
As the man stood up and vanished into the building’s guts, Alice took a peek around, noticing how the group from before was noticeably closer than before, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. As a couple of them laughed outrageously, Alice shivered.
What was worse than a pack of unknown people? A murder of extroverts.
Without anything else to do except wait, she took notice of each member. There were, apparently, two girls and two guys.
One of the girls was an Amazonian blonde, her armour made only of different leathers and furs. Of hazel eyes and an inquisitive look that never went away despite the wide smile plastered to her face, she looked both approachable and friendly to the extreme.
Alice shuddered.
The other girl seemed more like her; dark clothing, on the smaller side, and a bob cut of brown hair. With equally brown eyes, she listened to whatever the other girl was spouting ceaselessly without batting an eye. Alice notice how she didn’t really wear armour, and instead had a set of robes that looked to be padded when she moved in just the right way.
The other guys were harder to make of. Both of them wore closed metallic helmets and some sort of mail coat, making it relatively hard to guess at their physiques or features from afar, but she guessed that both of them leaned more into the up close and personal side of combat. With both of them at almost the same height, and laughing in a volume that set Alice’s teeth on edge, she snapped her attention back to the counter once she heard a door open and close rapidly in front of her.
“Here you have it,” said the man, a deep thud resonating as a heavy brown bag hit the counter. “All the basic stuff. Rope, a single ever-burning torch, a crude Ether detector, dry rations for a couple of weeks and an engraved canteen with water for the same amount of time. If you want combat gear, you’ll have to part with some Sparks.”
That seemed fair to her. They gave them basic survival gear but had to find whatever suited them themselves. No one said she couldn’t ask though.
“What do you think it’d be best for me?”
“For you?” He responded, this time truly looking at her up and down with a critical gaze. Alice shover her discomfort as deep as she could, barely grazing her core of Ether, the stabs of anguish a constant reminder that she was alive.
“For you, I think you’d do well with something more speed-based, than anything more brutish and direct, like an axe or mace. What about…” He stretched his hand, and a sword flew from one of the racks, sheath and all. “Short, very short, but very solid. Single-edged, and with a reinforced tip used for thrusting and slipping between scales, ribs or the like.”
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The blade he presented was best described as an incredibly short, straight falchion. Barely half a meter in length, so more or less the length of her extended forearm from her elbow to the tip of her middle finger. A questioning glance was met with a firm nod, and Alice unsheathed it, admiring the length of pale blue metal. It felt nimble and solid, yet flexible. Incapable of not noticing the strange colouration, she asked about it.
“Well, we don’t really use steel around her, but various types of alloys. That, for example, is an alloy between iron, carbon and Valerita, a metal rich in Air and Pure Ether.”
A piercing look due to his last remark was met with a raised, unimpressed eyebrow. “What? It’s just something you’ll be able to do when you’re more attuned to Ether in general. Sensing the attunements of the people around you is pretty common, you just have to get used to it.”
In a way, it made sense, even if it made her feel even more naked than before.
She wanted to grow, and she wanted to do it fast.
Alice stiffened as she noticed the group from before now waiting behind her, probably wanting to receive their packs as well after rummaging through what the store had available.
Alice nodded towards the clerk, leaving payment for the blade. “Any suggestions in regards to protection?”
“You’re going to the Blossom later on, right?”
“Yeah”, answered Alice shortly, even if the idea of setting foot inside the all-red forest filled her with dread.
“Then I recommend something light and movable. The beasts in the shallow parts of the forest aren’t all that dangerous, and they mostly rely on cutting attacks instead of piercing or crushing. In there,” he said as he pointed towards a set of racks that held various sets of leather armour of different makes and colours, “you can find some protection specifically geared towards countering cutting attacks. They lose out a bit in the piercing department against more balanced-out pieces, but it’s worth it.”
Alice hesitated, not wanting to take at face value what she was told when it came to her own security, but still not wanting to appear needlessly rude towards someone who had given her free gear and information. “How much would it cost to get a normal set, a cutting-resistant one, and the weapon?”
The man’s eyes clouded for a second before snapping back, spitting out a number at the same time. “Ninety sparks, so, most of what you were given.”
Alice winced but deemed the cost acceptable. They had only been given ten shiny metallic coins with a small ‘10’ engraved in them just atop the bright core that each coin had, so she fished all of them out of her pockets, and held them out. “How much would a sidearm cost? Like, a dagger or anything like that. Something that can act as a survival tool too.”
Scratching his chin, the clerk scanned the different racks and rummaged in something beneath the counter Alice couldn’t see. Perhaps more, smaller gear was stored there.
With a grunt, he bent over and picked up a slender, shiny, deeply red wooden box that looked incredibly sturdy. Opening it up, Alice noticed a small, wide knife with two edges that tapered off into a wide point. Squinting her eyes, she noticed once more how there were some engravings on the handle and the base of the blade.
“This one is engraved to have a slightly augmented amount of durability as well as to combat a moderate amount of rusting. If you treat it well, it should last you well into Tier Two. It’ll still break if you’re too rough with it or if you leave it out in the open, coated with blood, water, guts, or Goddess knows what else. Ten sparks.”
Ouch. “Well, I guess it’s worth it then. Someone once told me that having a good, sturdy knife in a survival situation was the key to, well, survival. Here,” she finished as she handed over the last coin, her savings now reduced to a sad, sad zero. Gathering up her belongings, the clerk pointed towards a small section of the store that was sectioned off from the rest with a thick wooden door with a bolted plaque in the middle of it that said ‘changing rooms’.
Nodding in appreciation, she quickly darted inside before anyone from the previous group even got a word from the clerk.
The cut-resistant armour was a simple set of bluish padding that covered all of her vital points and some more. Once she was stuffed inside, she felt a tiny bit more secure. The raised bit of hardened leather around her neck and her nape certainly helped.
Alice quickly chased off the morbid thought of some spell or beast tearing her throat out for not wearing enough protection.
Now properly clothed, recharged, and armed, she deemed herself as prepared as she could to meet her new teammates.
As she exited the changing rooms, she took out the reddish orb that was her Delver’s Identification, and after applying some Ether to it she quickly noticed a small kind of, for lack of a better word, bump or switch inside the sphere.
Curiously flicking it on, a strange new sense enveloped her mind. It felt like having a compass shoved directly into her brain, and as she followed the direction the Identification pointed her towards, her face paled more and more with each grade she turned.
It directly pointed at four different signatures that were incredibly close, and with an apprehension that she hadn’t felt in years, she confirmed that yes, the four strangers she had avoided previously like they had the Black Death were, in fact, her newfound teammates.
As she noticed them while they were talking to the clerk, the blonde one tilted her head to the side, and unerringly turned towards her, making Alice freeze like a deer caught in the headlights. The one she had identified as an Amazonian girl that had at least two heads over her quickly approached with a blinding smile dancing over her face.
The girl stopped dead in front of a mortified Alice, extending a hand towards her with that same beaming smile that felt as if someone had flashbanged her. “Hello! Nice to meet you, you’re our teammate, yes? I’m Olivia, what’s yours?”
The barrage of questions made Alice wish the earth would just open up and crush her already in its sweet embrace. “Alice,” she answered with a squeak as she grabbed Olivia’s hand, the handshake turning into an effort of resilience as the other girl shook her arm so hard Alice felt it’d pop out of her socket.
“Great! Want to come with me and meet the others? We’re almost done with our own shopping. Well, we should’ve been done already, but the boys wanted to have a look at the cool swords, so we stayed for a bit.” The part about swords was said accompanied by an eye-roll and a small smile.
Alice nodded despite herself. Even if it was the last thing she wanted, meeting her new teammates was the least she could do. Perhaps they could train together and see if they had some different insights for her in regards to spell creation.
Even then, the prospect of having training partners to bounce ideas off of didn’t diminish the dread that constant and ceaseless social interaction being inside a small group would bring.
With a nervous gulp and a strained smile painted all over Alice’s face, both girls approached the remaining two members of the group.
Then, Alice clearly heard one of the boys speak in a tone she had heard before, but couldn’t exactly pinpoint until the owner excitedly started talking about runes and their applications.
Wait… is that Julian?