“What do you mean by a bit to talk about?” Zalia asked, looking warily at the god.
“We have managed to help this god get its fractured memories under control. It does not remember much, anything at all to be frank,” Delphi explained.
Zalia stared at Delphi. Sensing the gaze, Delphi turned to Zalia.
A moment passed.
“Don’t yo-” Delphi started.
“Anything to be Frank?” Zalia interrupted innocently.
“Zalia-” Delphi said, trying to speak again.
“Oh, I know, I know. It was a stressful few hours I just had, give me a break,” Zalia said, waving her hand.
She now had all five frogs staring at her with eerie eyes.
“I’ve got some questions!” Zalia said enthusiastically.
“About?” Delphi asked.
“Well, see this glove here. I was wondering if you knew anything about bonding heirloom items?” Zalia asked.
“You appear to have quite a few now, Boreal even has one as well. Have you not bonded with these?” Delphi asked.
“Oh I have but I thought since this was a Bronze rank one it might be harder,” Zalia explained.
“Not at all. All heirlooms have different requirements to be bonded. I’m sure those that you have bonded with have told you as much. The difficulty you have with bonding an item increases depending on whether it is a fit to you. All can be bonded of course, you just need the right mindset and actions to do so,” Delphi replied.
Zalia thought about that and saw the truth in the words. Her bow had been quite easy to bond, only needing her to go about her life while using it as she would a normal one. The armour had been similarly easy, requiring her to put it on in what it deemed as a ritualistic manner. That had just been her carefully putting each piece on as it resized to her dimensions yet the armour itself must have some link to rituals or religion of some sort with that requirement.
The armour now equipped to Boreal was bonded as far as she knew, though she didn't deign to ask. Her best guess, based on it being the armour of an animal used in war, was that it either bonded by being equipped by Boreal’s ‘handler’ or by her fighting with it on.
“So what do you need to be bonded with?” Zalia muttered to her glove.
She… didn’t really know anything about it other than it might be a storage device of some kind. With a name like Ethereal Vault Gauntlet, it just had to be right?
Well, if it was a storage item maybe she could try to bond it by holding things with it. It sounded a little goofy but it was kind of all she could come up with at the moment.
So, she took out her map and held it. She tried to think really hard about storing it too, keeping the feeling of taking things in and out of stasis in her mind. Thinking about how it felt to take her weapon in and out of its storage space.
She stared at the glove and the map held lightly in its grip. Nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” Zalia said.
“You may take a while to bond if it is not something suited to your personality or mindset. Some have been known to take many, many cycles,” Delphi informed her.
“How many cycles is many!?” Zalia asked.
“Many,” Delphi replied mysteriously.
Zalia put the map back and squinted her eyes at the glove.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“You will not be taking many, many cycles. Whatever that means,” Zalia told it.
She finally turned to the god that was watching her with interest.
“Have you remembered your name?” she asked.
“My name, I do not remember,” it replied.
Its voice was croaky, light yet gravelly. It wasn’t deep yet it had a certain resonance to it that gave it a quality of power all the same. This was what she was used to when speaking to gods, its voice now clear yet full of mystery. Similar to the starlight wolf but holding its own uniqueness.
“Do you remember how you ended up here, in this condition?” Zalia asked instead.
“Exactly, I do not. It happened slowly, ever so slowly across many, many years. Lost, forgotten, cast aside to fall down where those who die go to live. Above, I am forgotten yet here a temple of mine resides and so I live just as I am not alive,” it explained.
“It doesn’t sound like a pleasant fate. I met someone you may know once, a large wolf cast in stars, glowing amidst its pack,” Zalia told it.
“I do not have memories of this person you speak of yet I know them by the very essence of my being. They are one of the few left truly alive,” it said.
“I think I might know what happened to you, based on what the starlight wolf told me. It said that its power had diminished over the long years as it was forgotten by most, I fear what has happened to you would happen to it should it be truly forgotten,” Zalia explained.
“Yet by your very thoughts of it, so too does it continue to exist. Much as I do now,” the god told Zalia.
A light shiver ran down her body at the words. It confirmed the idea that the gods did indeed live off the faith or belief of their followers.
Ro-ak was staring up at the god with what Zalia could only think of as awe. She personally had no idea how a crow could just be chilling alive down in hell without any abilities that she could see but she had a feeling it was the power of the god before her that kept him alive.
“Is there anything you can tell me that might be helpful or important at the moment? Maybe there is some way that I can help you recover?” Zalia asked.
“I… there is something. Something I cannot remember yet it is important. I…” it said falteringly.
Its eyes went cloudy and the look of confusion appeared once more. Its voice slowly lost its power and went back to how it had been before as it struggled to remember.
“You should cease questions now Zalia, we will work to help it remember,” Delphi told her.
“Alright, sorry for pushing. It seems so… fragile,” Zalia commented.
“It may be a god but it is one that has been dead for a very, very long time. This will take much patience,” Delphi said firmly.
“Not always so good at that with everything,” Zalia murmured.
“Just think of it as one of your hunts, you have patience aplenty for that,” Delphi replied.
She snorted a laugh and moved away, turning her focus back to the glove on her hand. She walked over to the door and pushed it open before pausing. She took her hand off it and opened it the rest of the way with her gloved hand.
“A vault hey?” she muttered.
She hadn’t considered it before but what if it was quite literal about it being a vault. Would it be possible it opened an actual ethereal vault she could walk into rather than storing items directly like she was used to with her bow?
Keeping that thought in mind, she left the small room to go get some air. Ro-ak and Boreal had started dueling again and the sound of metal clanking as Boreal threw herself bodily at the walls was a little grating.
She slowly walked up the stairs, keeping her thoughts open to… doors opening. If there was not necessarily a limitation to her bonding a higher ranked item then she should be able to manage it. Though, maybe higher ranked items tended to be a little more complex and thus naturally were harder to bond.
She stepped out of the temple and sat on a rock. Staring at the glove she flexed her hand a few times, imagining a door opening. Then, she reached out to the air and pulled on it like she was opening a door. Nothing happened.
She dropped her hand with a sigh.
Congratulations! You have given up trying to understand the ‘Ethereal Vault Gauntlet’ and your mind has now finally opened to it. This item is now bonded to you.
Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Bonded Bronze rank.
Tin - You may tear open space to access an ethereal vault. The ethereal vault is a limited extradimensional space that you may enter and store objects within.
Iron - you gain the power to store and retrieve information within the ethereal vault. By concentrating on a specific topic, memory, or piece of knowledge while wearing the gauntlet, you can mentally "record" it into the gauntlet's vault. This information is then stored in an abstract, ethereal form, like a shimmering light. When needed, you can access the gauntlet to "read" the stored information, allowing you to quickly recall facts, details, or instructions you have previously recorded.
Bronze - your control over the ethereal vault extradimensional space becomes more refined. You gain the ability to manipulate the spatial dimensions within the vault, allowing you to efficiently organise and stack stored items without regard to their physical sizes. This ability enables you to store a larger quantity of objects within the same limited space.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Zalia murmured.