Phila, the 20th, 10,391
They looted the corpses and scuttled the two worst pirate ships before Amos put a skeleton crew on the remaining, bringing it along.
Aclo took the Captain's spatial ring which held food and coin that was checked for safety, then distributed about the crew evenly. Keegan took the man's shield and Six identified a decent natural earth enchantment that improved its natural armor and durability somewhat. Irduth plucked a mana ring from the dead woman, it's not like Six needed it.
Amos had also laid claim to the plundered cargo of the ships with neither Six nor the officers caring. The dark skinned sailor had his pick of profit to haul away.
They had pacified a significant threat in the area and had gained some monetary value while at it. This encounter had been a great success, but Six couldn’t get over the feeling that they were missing something.
His gut was almost screaming at him and it made him feel a significant level of unease but they had searched everything thoroughly. Every crevice of each ship.
But a thought occurred to him as a crew woman went to toss the decapitated head of Ramajon overboard Six instead plucked it from her hands and held the grim item at arms length.
He wanted to do a hamlet reference with it but it was supposed to be a skull, and no one would fucking get it.
He supposed that if he were to reference something, Shakespeare wouldn't be the worst to reference as it's a classic. Classic references were always hip no matter the generation.
Anyways, this head…
There was one last place he could look. He called to the officers. “Hey, get ready to back me up if things go wrong.”
Six drew upon mana and tuned it to the resonance of death. He drew the arcane sigils of power and snarled the guttural words of calling.
Soul Tether!
There was a resonance associated with all. Something fundamental to reality, a unique serial code that could be called when needed.
This code would be far too complex for a spellcaster to recreate even after years of practice.
Instead a targeting medium must be employed to imitate that resonance. An object of personal importance or a piece of its being were the accepted materials and Six knew the head would work perfectly to draw the soul back from wherever it went.
Six considered that thought for a moment. He thought of souls as a true fact now. Was that because of the implanted knowledge of Soul Tether or because he had died and was now reborn?
His idle musings broke as the magic took hold and the head began twitching in his hand. It didn’t speak but puked up smoke that manifested into an apparition before Six.
It was a poltergeist, the ghost of Ramajon, the grizzled pirate glaring with mild dissatisfaction. For a moment nothing happened and then the apparition shuddered in clear pain. Agony overtaking its features.
Then Six saw.
He saw within his mind's eye, fragments of memories and impressions of meaning and importance. A pirate island, other ships, a powerful pirate lord of at least level 19. They were seeking a suitable item of at least enhanced rank to bond with during their upcoming evolution. He saw other things, more useless and personal, things that were Ramajon’s to share.
Six could see the spirit twitch as he scanned through the memories. A part of Six considered what he was doing and its ramifications. From a visual standpoint it appeared as though Six was just torturing a captured spirit. He knew he was gaining potentially important information but through torture of someone’s soul? Did the ends justify the means?
Would he kill someone to wring information out of their soul?
Ultimately these questions were meaningless. He had a responsibility now, an obligation to the people he now watched over. If he thought it valuable to his people to employ this spell, he would, without hesitation. He knew that.
He considered how many fucked up people used that same reasoning to justify their own fucked up atrocities.
He scoffed at himself and his incessant self examinations and ridiculous comparisons, he just couldn’t turn them off.
Six noticed he had slowly gained more insight and specificity to the memories as the duration elapsed but the toll on the soul also increased as the ghost was now beginning to violently vibrate. It was less than half way done so Six could only imagine what the spirit would be enduring by the end.
Anyways, this wasn’t for his people and he needed to show some basic respect for the dead.
He canceled the spell and the ghost of Ramajon dissipated into the ethereal winds with a relieved sigh.
Six stood there for a second, internalizing what just happened before he turned around to a stunned crew. “Well that was fucked up.”
Irduth screeched with a pointed finger. “Not only a bloodmage but he practices unregulated necromancy as well!”
“No one cares Irduth! Let me do my thing!”
Kali Kik and Indigo both shook their heads.
“We care, Six.” Indigo said with the most diplomacy Six had ever heard the lad use.
“Oh?” Six understood the danger in exploring these things, he just wished they understood that he understood.
“Six… You just tortured someone’s soul. Why?”
“Ok, well, to be honest, I didn’t know it was gonna be like that. Not gonna use that one so lightly anymore! Also, it gave me some information on the pirate’s lair and forces, which was my intention.”
“So you can strip information from people's souls?”
“Random recent stuff, yeah. Can't really control it.”
“You’re not gonna kill anyone to tear knowledge away from their soul?”
“I already considered that and maybe? Not gonna take it off the table. I can understand why that would make you feel… uneasy I think the word might be.”
Indigo nodded vigorously and Six could even see some of Amos’ crew nodding agreement.
Six shrugged, he was fine with this. “Well…that's all I can really offer you, sorry.”
Keegan broke in. “We have already decided to follow Six and already knew of his opinions and tendencies. We waste time and retread old ground in questioning his judgment.” The man addressed Six directly. “What of this new information, are we to act on it?”
Six nodded his respect towards Keegan. “Thank you Keegan, but I am not above questioning. I am but a man. In regards to your question, no. We continue forward with our mission, there is no time to detour for pirates.”
Keegan nodded and Amos put them back on route.
Shortly after Six was approached by Kali Kik and Indigo.
“Six,” The alchemist began.
“Mhm?”
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“How many areas of magic do you have an affinity for?”
“Huh? Why do you ask?”
“Well, we've been watching you for a while now and you’ve demonstrated an aptitude for both life and death.”
“Right.”
“So… Do you have cycle magic?”
Six looked at Kali Kik and wished he had Charles here. “Isn't it rude to ask stuff like that?”
Kali nodded but still looked at Six insistently. “Well yes but to have both life and death affinities is very rare.”
Indigo continued. “Then, we have seen you use, earth, fire, and wind magic, can you use water?”
There was no point in hiding it, he would eventually use his magic in front of them one way or another. “I can.”
“So you have elemental magic?”
Six nodded.
“And blood magic?”
Six nodded.
“Wow.”
“And diametric magic.” Six added.
Now both Kali Kik and Indigo were dumbstruck and Six could see the skepticism on their face
Six smiled. “You’ll see, eventually.”
Indigo gave a jealous smirk. “With so many affinities, you could be the most influential mage of our generation.”
Six shook his head, no, and patted his chainsaw with his gauntleted hand. “I don’t know if I’d call myself a mage.”
“Enchanting is magic, you dumbass and your screaming sword is definitely magical. Also, while your martial aspect may limit the sheer time you can invest into your magical training and utilization, I think having so many magical options will lead to abilities that others just can replicate. Your initial wave of fortifying spells, for example, features three different magical skill types.” Indigo paused, “most people don’t even have an affinity for a single type of magic.”
Six grunted. “Ok so?”
Kali Kik hissed in annoyance. “You are wasting your potential.”
Six waved her anger down, eliciting more indignation from the vrill woman. “I’m doing fine. That being said, I am willing to accept help. Kali Kik you know I can ask for help when I want it.”
She seemed to relax when he reminded her she’d already helped him with his initial enchanting.
Indigo grinned. “That's all, we’re offering.”
Six nodded. “Thank you.”
Six then went to find somewhere private to examine his gains, he found a free hammock and doffed his armor for a bit to relax with Nibbler curled up on his belly. The raccoon was not liking the sea and her nauseous waddle reminded Six of that fact every time he saw her on deck. Cuddling times like these were a small reprieve for his little critter.
Clearing out those two ships had been profitable for his progress, he had leveled up along with Lump to levels 12 and 8 respectively.
He put two points into strength for the simple strength and natural defense boosts. Then he put one point into charisma, luck, endurance, and dexterity each. The slight increases were minor but he knew that he couldn’t keep neglecting aspects of his stats as he had been.
Lump’s intelligence received all four points bringing it up to 20.
Six had sixty perk points to spend and he spent all sixty,
Golemic Reformation: 60 perk points
The Golemchanter can reconstruct their golems even after they have been destroyed, reforming them with a portion of their original strength.
Technique: Golemic Reformation
Cooldown: 1 day
Range: Melee
Casting Time: Dependent on rank and level of golem
Duration: Instant
Mana Cost: Dependent on rank and level of golem
Effect: The Golemchanter channels their mana and soul into the reformation of their destroyed golem. Can only reform golems of a rank equal to or lower than that of the Golemchanter. Level 0 golems cannot be reformed.
Now if either Poh Doh or Lump were destroyed Six would be able to remake them. This meant Six could be a bit more risky with how he committed his golems in their use.
Many of Six’s skills had also improved by a level during the course of that battle.
Skill increase:
Blood Magic - Initiate - 9
Blood Casting - Initiate - 10
Elemental Magic - Initiate - 10
Analyze - Initiate - 10
Unarmed - Initiate - 11
Athletics - Initiate - 10
Heavy armor - Initiate - 24
Chainsaw and Cycle Magic went up by a whole two skill levels ending up at 6 and 7.
Overall, it was a very successful test.
Just over a day later they came to the eastern coastal city of Eridea.
Six’s mind was blown.
He thought Olisrosa was big. Eridea seemed endless.
They sailed by it, no time to stop in the city but Amos was kind enough to lend Six his spyglass to view it from afar. Past their many ships.
Eridea existed inside of a vast bay and Six could see the rolling sprawl go from one tip of the bay’s mouth to the other where jutting guardtowers more akin to skyscrapers stood watching the entrance. A sizable fleet of large warships that made the Dancing Racer seem tiny by comparison floated about and patrolled lazily. Imposing stone walls seemed to guard the land side of things. This was an imperial metropolis.
They tried to sail by but one of the warships broke off from the group and clearly pursued them, with Amos reporting them on an easy intercept. “I’m somewhat confident we could outpace them but I tink we should stop and cooperate. I do not wish to garner bad favour with the city of Eridea as a ship captain meself. They are known to be fair and from what I see, have weathered the sundering well. Best ships and drydocks in the world are here, I’d like to come back.”
Six trusted him. “So be it.”
So Amos slowed his ship and for the first time Six saw an evolved human.
The captain of the Eridean ship was a woman and from the moment SIx laid eyes upon her he knew, this was an evolved person.
Her hair looked like the sea in full spray. A shifting splash of deep blue and white foam, its tidal forces pushing it up like the flame of a candle wick. She wore the fine clothes of a captain and wore a simple rapier at her side.
But when her shifting blue eyes stared down upon him, Six felt like he had to fight for air.
He felt an innate threat.
He smiled because he understood, he felt an aura.
Her evenness of gaze was neutral enough, no. It was an instinctual understanding of the power differential. He didn’t attempt to analyze her, not wanting to offend the lady.
Six knew that against him and the officers, she would fall. But in a one on one…
Not to mention, her crew was more numerous and better equipped than the pirates. Her crew were at higher levels than the pirates as well.
The resources of a true imperial city were impressive.
Luckily the encounter was just a routine inspection, it even gave them an opportunity to report the pirate nest.
The Erideans offered and fixed the patch work that Six had performed. With their captain manipulating the water to prevent it from flowing into the breech while the work was done.
They didn’t charge Amos for the quick repair with the shipwrights mumbling something about how the ship would continue to serve Kynairos until its final voyage.
They continued on from Eridea, the days becoming colder and colder until they reached the most northeast part of the continent and they began sailing back west, along the northern coast. The land turned more alpine as the coast trended slightly north. There were the usual sights to behold until Six saw Keegan performing a prayer ritual towards the coast.
His confusion must have been evident as Copperback explained.
“We be passing by da Bay of Catastrophe. It's a legacy of K’gan shame. He’s paying respect to dat tragedy.”
Six was aware of some of this from the recordings of Kytaligan. The bay of catastrophe was where the capital of the K’gan empire, Kolo Gano, was before it fell to the Aelves super weapon.
“The loss of their capital to the Aelves’ magic was so devastating they turned away from it, eh?”
Now Copperback looked confused. “Da Aelves’ weapon? No, Six. The K’gans destroyed themselves in their pursuit to destroy their enemies. Forbidden magics and all dat.”
“What?” That wasn’t what Kytaligan wrote down.
“Yes, that's partly why Kynairos showed up, to show humanity the honor and goodness of hard work and muscle.” Amos laughed and patted his belly. “I like the ‘ardwork part meself but I'm not too good at da muscle part of it.”
Six sat there ingesting this. It made sense that the stories had shifted. It happened thousands of years ago. That's a very long game of telephone.
He shrugged, whatever.
Amos “I will probably come back here for a bit once I drop you off. I heard there are some enterprising salvagers now that the empire's sanctions are no more. Never hurts to learn about a new enterprise.”
“Never,” Six agreed.
They continued west with the only point of interest being a rather large sea serpent that Kali Kik managed to talk down from attacking their boat.
That was cool.
Over the entire trip Six had managed to level his sailing up 6 times to level 11 which for the week and a half trip was extremely good. He'd practiced his coven skill a few times and managed to get it to level 3. It was an interesting skill, allowing him to link his mana pathways to another in an almost circuit. It was interesting but had many unlisted limitations, requiring proximity and considered focus on the part of the donator. That meant that donating mana while moving or in combat would be incredibly difficult if not impossible. Still, he knew it was a skill he would be able to effectively leverage, he must train it.
He had also learned one spell each from Kali Kik and Indigo and had improved his Elemental and Diametric magic, increasing both by 2 to 12 and 6 respectively.
Spell: Imbue Life
Rank: Minor
Cooldown: 1 day
Range: Melee
Casting Time: Instant
Duration: Instant
Mana Cost: 70 mana
Effect: The user channels their life-affirming magic to fortify and reinforce a living target. With a touch or a gesture, they infuse a flood of life energy, healing major injuries. Heals for 60+(5*Cycle Magic Level) HP instantly.
Spell: Force Shell
Rank: Minor
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Range: Melee
Casting Time: 5 seconds
Duration: 10 minutes
Mana Cost: 50 mana
Effect: The user channels force magic to create a shell of protection. They create a reprieve for the attacked, a barrier to death and dismemberment. Shell durability: 50+(5*Force Magic Level)
Both spells were extremely useful. Imbue Life could reset a fight and turn the tides in an instant. Force Shell was more of a preventative spell that would give Six even more staying power.
They arrived.
Amos dropped anchor in the olynum town of Lhorn. The olynum were at an immediate glance, wooly mammoth people. Thick and large they lumbered about their snowy town in additional furs. There were other races mixed in here and there, mostly humans but the olynum were a firm majority here. Amos said he would be “back for them in a week or two,” and sailed away, leaving them here.
The residents spoke Imperial Zleenish and seemed incredibly curious about the visitors, which seemed to be a rare occurrence here. But Six deflected most of their questions with vague answers. He changed the topic by asking for directions on how to get to the supply store.
Then Six felt it, the tension returned. That resonance. That vibration. That beat deep within himself.
There was a threadling here, there must be.
Six scanned his eyes in the general direction it pulled him but a small crowd had gathered and it could be anyone. He could follow the pull, he could find this person and he could… what would he do?
He didn’t have time for this. The mission needed to be attended to. Six ignored the resonance and they resupplied before leaving the cozy little town.
Skill increase: Mindfulness - Initiate - 11
They traveled south west and made their way across the snows and into mountains in the distance. They marched up into the northern spine of the mountain line and followed the tracking and navigating of Keegan, Kali Kik, and Aclo. The jungle vrill proving surprisingly savvy in terms of survival in the northern tundra.
Skill increase: Athletics - Initiate - 11
Eventually the mountain ridges they walked opened up into a hidden chasm. Nestled between the mountain peaks, below the wind and snow was the sheltered gorge floor. From their position upon the mountain ridgelines Six could look down and see the lifted impressions of the foundations of ruins. Neat geometric lines of raised snow, buildings and the walls.
Beyond the skeleton of the fallen town was a massive metal door embedded into the mountainside.
They had found it.
Six could see the tsunken aelves process the discovery differently, this places represented a change in fundamental understanding for them.
Aclo looked down at the ruins with an intense curiosity yet a barely contained willingness to destroy. Narhurin, just half aelven, looked down with bright hope, an interest in whatever they would find. Bark looked upon the bone of his people with a derisive sniff.
It took little time to make their way down into the gorge and take their first few steps onto the snow.
Kali Kik pointed out signs of recent travel, disturbed snow and humanoid tracks. That made the party move, the pressure of interception fueling their increase in pace towards the giant mountainside door.
But the party had to quickly come to a halt as a flood of glowing aelven spirits rose from the land.
They laid intention upon the humans and hissed their hatred.
“Enemy.”