Lakon carried Set on his shoulders and the rods from his earlier demonstration strapped to his waist. After walking along the edge of the Meszai, they arrived at the Scheszai, the section of the Foeldhn dedicated almost entirely towards crafting of some sort and the section furthest from the Lozzai. The scheszai’s golden light became eclipsed as they approached Rondo’s workshop, which towered over the nearby lands and buildings. The workshop was a massive, black, cylindrical structure with platforms that protrude out of various sections at fixed intervals. Each floor of the tower serves its own purpose so the tools present on each floor varied.
The first three levels are all dedicated to resource management. They contain a number of tanks, drawers, shelves and hooks that hold everything from spare tools to multifaceted materials. The fourth through ninth floors are all construction oriented, most of the platforms that are visibly busy from outside the workshop belong to these six floors. Those six floors also have massive loading bays that allow finished products that are even the size of a small building to be directly retrieved from the floor of the workshop it was being created on.
Lakon, with Set in tow, walked up to the front counter of Rondo’s workshop and looked around behind the counter for the masked dureivan to no avail. Lakon shrugged and tilted his head to look at Set who smiled back. Lakon winked and Set returned an over-exaggerated wink before both of them cupped their hands around the ends of their snouts and took a deep breath.
“ROOOOOOOOON~NDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!” The two of them yelled in unison as they’d been practiced on the way over.
The Scheszai was no quiet place, but Lakon’s arrival there hardly ever went unnoticed. The boisterous dureivan often made quite a scene, so the others present in the Scheszai simply ignored his antics. The frantic shuffling of an artisan attempting to regulate the temperatures of the forge could be heard in the distance, but no disturbances were visible in the workshop. Soon, the center column began to glow orange and emit smoke from its vents as a massive platform quickly descended, screeching down it. The platform stopped above the vents on the center column as several limbs that formed a cage connecting the platform itself to a section of the pillar above, decoupled and slammed to the ground in small openings where they latched in creating stairs.
Lakon and Set were met with a quick, passing greeting as he ran around. “Hm… visitors?”
“Not quite, old friend.” Lakon corrected him.
He placed the two rods on the counter in front of him.
“This time, we are customers.”
“A moment, then.”
Rondo continued to quickly move around the workshop, quickly flipping levers and turning nozzles, while occasionally stopping to check a wall covered in gauges. He let out a heavy sigh as he pulled one last lever and the workshop began to hum. Apparently the shuffling sound they’d attributed to him was instead a piston he was testing for a new type of generator.
Rondo turned to face Set and Lakon, attempting to get a grasp on the items Lakon brought as he slowly approached the two rods. When he reached the counter he quietly picked them up one at a time as he sat down, examining them closely.
“These are… Borderline abyssal…? No, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they are abyssal.”
He murmured to himself as he lowered his mask. Rondo’s mask was something he’d created with Saendra’s assistance, a repository for all of the data he’d amassed over the years. It allows him to reference his previous works and knowledge on materials without holding onto unnecessary information.
“My mask is unable to properly analyze this. What exactly have you brought me?”
Lakon didn’t hesitate to explain to Rondo the circumstances that led to the creation of the two rods.
“These are practical examples of Setrum and Vael corruption. I -”
Rondo held up one claw as he rubbed the bridge of his snout.
“I should have known that the disturbance in the meszai was you.”
He raised his head and looked at the rods once more. With the added context of being a byproduct of Lakon’s absurdity, their presence here and now made more sense than ever before.
“I’ve worked with abyssal materials one other time.”
“Eschatos, the world sinking into the shattered sea.” Lakon stared at Rondo in uncharacteristic silence after uttering those words.
“That’s… hm.” Rondo seemed to be thinking about something separate from the project being presented to him. His claws tapped at the counter as he stared blankly into his workshop until he abruptly slapped the counter and popped up from his seat.
“These two rods show signs of remarkable stability despite their degree of corruption.”
Rondo said as he scooped the rods up. He tapped a part of the counter which revealed itself to be a glowing piece of glass that had been embedded into the counter itself. Set hadn’t noticed it as it had been black, matching the countertop until just now. When Rondo turned away to walk towards the center platform, the platform let out a couple of short high pitched tones before the counter opened up, allowing Lakon to follow him.
“They go against everything I know about abyssal materials.”
“They should, I gathered the energy myself.” Lakon smiled, proudly showing off his proficiency in energy manipulation.
Lakon’s smug attitude gave Rondo a chuckle as he began to tap away at a piece of glowing glass embedded in the central pillar, similar to the one on his front counter. It emitted a few indistinct noises and changed color a few times before Rondo turned his attention to the small lever next to it. The moment he raised the lever, the brackets that latched into the floor to act as stairs released themselves and folded back up towards the center pillar where two rings rotated in opposite directions, locking them in place and forming a cage that prevented anyone from falling as the platform they stood on began to rise.
“This is your first time here, isn’t it, Set?”
Set nodded as he visually explored the interior of the tower in wonder. Rondo’s workshop was a prime example of spatial incongruence. The fact that he is, in fact, an aesoterii of space is often forgotten by others until they see one of his workshops. The interior of the tower is over twenty times the size of the exterior and many doors lining the first floor lead directly to his other workshops that are scattered across the great expanse. Not that he ever uses them.
“Maybe someday Akuoun will have you stay here for a time so you can learn a few tricks from me as you have with Lakon and Zan.”
Lakon laughed, “If you ever leave your workshop, that might just happen.”
Rondo glared at Lakon before continuing, “Except for Zan, Xiig and Saendra, the elders are teaching outside of their area of expertise. We’ll take as much help as we can get if it means your clutch can thrive.”
“He is not wrong, little one. There is no one in the Foeldhn as well versed in the manipulation of space as Rondo. Learning from him will only benefit you.
“And with any luck, your presence will get Vaunt to finally leave the upper floors. He has always shown great interest in the younger members of your generation.”
“Where is Vaunt? Normally he’d have appeared by now.” Lakon looked around, glancing up at the platforms above trying to find him.
“We’re here.” Rondo ignored Lakon’s question, opting instead to talk about the rods he held in his hand as the platform ground to a halt at the tenth terrace.
“So, you submerged these yourself did you?”
One side of the cage released, slamming down on a platform nearby and locking in place and Rondo, Lakon and Set crossed the newly-formed bridge onto the tenth floor terrace.
“I did, I picked some thick branches from the trees in the Lozzai and ran them through setrum and vael corruption.”
Rondo continued walking until he reached a workbench covered in a thin red cloth.
“I see. Why, if you don’t mind me asking, did you do that? I don’t recall you ever doing something like this before.”
“I-” Lakon recalled that Set was on his shoulders and let him down.
“ЯΣƬΛᄂ ЦӨY ᄂᄂΣƬ ᄂᄂIЩ I” Lakon spoke in a language Set had never heard before so he looked to Rondo who, rather than being surprised, acted as he hadn’t just asked that question.
Set looked around the terrace which contained several tables and shelves covered the same thin cloth as the table Rondo was seated in front of. Set ran back over to Lakon, hiding under his waistcloth.
“Little one?” Lakon pulled Set out from under him and kneeled. Set was shaking in his hands, the hatchling was terrified.
“What is wrong, Set?”
“Eyes… too many eyes…”
Set was unable to say anything but the mention of eyes.
Lakon looked over at Rondo who was focused on the rods he’d brought with them. He had dropped the rods on the cloth only to have them float slightly above the table stuck together. He sat in confusion as he tried to separate them.
“Rondo!”
Lakon called out to get his attention, and he turned to look in their direction. When he noticed Set he immediately jumped up.
“Can he feel it?”
“Feel what you *fuildxa? If you know what the problem is then fix it!”
Rondo picked up Set and carried him over towards the center pillar. When he stopped shaking Rondo put him down and placed a hand on his head.
“What did you feel, child?
Set shivered slightly as he recalled the sensation, “Eyes… an infinite amount of eyes…”
Rondo’s gaze narrowed as he covered Set’s eyes.
“Go up a few floors, you should be able to find Vaunt doing… whatever he’s doing up there. He’ll take good care of you.”
The upper terraces are connected by ascending walkways that allow them to be traversed without the use of the center lift. Set made his way towards the walkway, turning to look at Rondo and Lakon every so often. Rondo smiled and nodded at Set telling him that the books closer to the ground on the 13th terrace were beginner topics if he felt so inclined to read if Vaunt was nowhere to be seen. After watching Set disappear into the doorway of the 11th terrace he returned to Lakon perplexed.
“He could see The Will through my equipment.”
Lakon’s brow furrowed as he crossed his arms.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Normally, you’d be right.”
Rondo sat back down in front of the table where the rods were floating, they’d risen a noticeable amount since he’d gotten up.
“Looks like we’ll need to have a talk with the others, and soon.”
Rondo’s focus shifted back to the rods that were slowly rising above the table.
“Are they… magnetic?”
Lakon walked up to the workbench as well to get a closer look at the rods.
“They should not be. I snapped these branches off myself.”
Lakon pulled the two apart and tried to see if they’d stick together again. Rather than the magnetic pull from earlier, the two rods now actively repelled each other.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Rondo and Lakon looked at eachother with confusion.
“Well this is certainly new.”
Rondo pulled his mask back down and grabbed a second mask out of a compartment in the table, tossing it to Lakon.
“I’m not seeing any abnormal magnetic fields.”
Lakon slipped his own mask on and examined the sticks as well.
“I wonder…Could the issue be with the table?”
Lakon began to walk around it looking for signs of a malfunction when he was stopped by Rondo.
“If this was a common occurrence, I wouldn’t be so confused by it. Also-” Rondo took out a piece of metal they were both familiar with, Luxesteel, it was called back on its planet of origin. He tossed it over to the table where various holographic displays began to pop-up as the material was analyzed. It displayed the components of the object, stability and balance of energies present within, along with any notes Rondo had previously made with regards to the material.
“It’s working as expected. If this equipment malfunctioned, we would know. Half of the Foeldhn would know.”
A look of concern flashed across Lakon’s face for a moment before he decided to ignore Rondo’s comment.
“Have you ever seen a similar reaction from non-magnetic materials?”
“Symbiotic materials have a similar reaction but for obvious reasons that shouldn’t apply here.”
“Is this the first time you’ve placed submerged material on the table?”
“No, definitely not. Though it is my first time placing both vael and setrum Abyssal materials on it at the same time. It seems to be the result of a combination of specific factors.”
Rondo pulled a pen out of his coat and began to write in the air, the words of which were only visible through the masks.
“Trial and error, old friend.”
“Care to wager ?
While Lakon and Rondo immersed themselves in researching the rods and their new magnetic properties, Set was exploring the upper levels in hopes of finding Vaunt. The eleventh floor was full of objects Set had never seen before. From weapons to jewelry to objects of unknown purpose, it was a wondrous treasure trove to the young dureivan. In the center of the room stood a large podium with a piece of glass spanning the surface. As Set hopped up onto the stool in front of it, the glass began to glow with a soft orange light. Set cautiously tapped the screen once out of childish curiosity only to be greeted with a very loud voice.
“ᏉᏗᏬᏝᏖ - 01 ᏖᏋᏒᎷᎥᏁᏗᏝ ᏗፈᏖᎥᏉᏋ. ᏂᎧᏇ ፈᏗᏁ Ꭵ ᏗᏕᏕᎥᏕᏖ?”
Set nearly fell off of the stool in surprise. The voice was not only loud, but spoke in a foreign language. Set took a moment to regain his composure before going right back to the podium. It displayed several pictures with words above them, some written in *Reikleakmaki and others in languages that Set had not yet encountered. To start with he chose the options in Riekleakmaki, which he was somewhat familiar with, “Batdxa…?”.
Set wondered what he would find in a category Rondo himself labeled as “fools”. To his surprise it was a long list of factions and important individuals from both the Foeldhn and the Eadhn. There were fifty or so options including: Akuoun, Zan, Saendra, Xiig, Lakon, The Goldspire, The Matriarch, The Lightweavers, etc. The square containing his mentor’s name grabbed his attention more so than any of the others. He selected Akuoun’s picture and it moved to the top of the screen as a large grid formed beneath it with a wide range of objects occupying each space. The majority of said items resemble spears, staves and glaives, which, being Akuoun’s weapon of choice led Set to understand that this was a record of the weapon’s Akuoun has or had.
If Akuoun was their leader, Zan was the strategist, Lakon was the muscle, Saendra was the mediator and Rondo played the role of quartermaster. He learned and perfected countless trades and techniques as the five of them explored the great expanse. As a result, the majority of the weapons, armors and accessories that the elders use are his creations, even the equipment of the high ranking members of the goldspire and the matriarch herself were made by Rondo himself.
Rondo may be a craftsman by trade, but there was no denying his expertise when it came to manipulating space. When it became burdensome to store all of his creations that weren’t currently in use, he created spaces between the worlds to use as storage. He refers to them as vaults, and there are more of them than he will likely ever admit. The podium Set found himself at was a terminal that allowed him to access his vaults without having to sift through his innumerable creations. ‘VAULT - 01’ that Set was interacting with now is where he stored every weapon he made that wasn’t currently in use.
Though Set had heard tales of the legendary weapons that Rondo had created, seeing these weapons systematically catalogued had him in awe once more. The realization that the tales he’d heard every day from the elders were not only true, but even understated became even more apparent once he tapped on one and was greeted by a life-size hologram of the spear along with the materials and processes used to make it and the feats it was used to accomplish.
The voice from before narrated the text, this time in Reikleakmaki,
“WEAPON - SPEAR, DESIGNATION - VEIL PIERCER, -” it went on to list the materials and forging process of the weapon before asking whether or not Set would like to play the accompanying recordings.
“Yes, please.”
“ACKNOWLEDGED, PLAYBACK INITIATED.” The mechanical voice disappeared, replaced with a notably younger sounding Rondo.
“The Veil piercer, a prototype designed to tear through defenses reliant on spatial manipulation and setrum barriers in response to the forces of Depth - 14. It is doing well, too well. During our battles Akuoun has accidentally torn through the veil between worlds and not just once. That in itself is not much of an issue, but piercing stable holes in the veil was not why I named it Veil Peircer. It’s difficult to say whether the cause of this phenomenon is the weapon or Akuoun’s inconceivable strength, but this one is going in the vault until further notice.”
“END RECORDING.”
Another entry was below the recording stating that Lakon refused to test if it would do the same in his hands, “Bladed weapons ain’t my thing.” or so he says.
Set was intrigued. This was an opportunity to learn more about not only their journey but the five themselves, not from their stories, but from logs that presented unbiased facts. As he scrolled through them he continued to select weapons from Akuoun’s past, listening to his exploits from the view of another.
“WEAPON - GLAIVE, DESIGNATION - BLACKLIGHT.”
Rondo had apparently made a glaive out of the strange black material that he broke off of a Syr hive that had the properties of both devouring light and emitting black glowing waves of energy. A weapon which a younger Akuoun in his battle with an enemy that was seemingly immortal, threw into the sun with said enemy impaled on it. When he finally retrieved it after getting more than a few lectures from Rondo, the previously pitch black weapon was covered in cracks and held what appeared like a single star in its blade. The projection in front of Set showed the glaive to contain several more stars within, Set inferred that this was not the last time Akuoun threw it into a star.
Set continued to look through the catalogue, piecing together the first aesoterii pursuit of power piece by piece with Rondo’s logs. The feats described were of an unimaginable scale for Set who had never left the Foeldhn. Leaving him to rely on his imagination to try to understand how impressive the progressively ridiculous feats were. He was so involved in the process that he hadn’t noticed the silhouette that was looming over him.
“Fascinating.”
A voice called out from just over his shoulder, snapping Set out of his fervor as he quickly glanced over his shoulder only to have his snout hit a hand after turning only slightly.
“No, no, don’t mind me, keep going.”
The voice urged Set to continue searching through the Vault as if it wished to see its contents as well.
“Who are you?” Set hesitated to touch the terminal any further. The voice behind him was too subdued to be Lakon and too young to be Rondo, he didn’t want to get in trouble for showing the vault’s contents to someone Rondo didn’t want seeing it including himself.
“Hm… I suppose you had just hatched when we last met so it’s understandable for you not to recognize my voice.”
Set could hear the stranger pacing behind him and tried to quickly turn to catch a glimpse of the intruder.
“Ah, too slow.”
The stranger had moved with Set, remaining behind him despite the obstacles that should stop him from doing so. Set felt their claws rest on his shoulder, bigger than his own, but smaller than Zan or Lakon. He also caught a glimpse of black and green scales.
“Let’s try this, you ask a question, and I’ll answer. Every time you ask a question, you have to show me another piece from the vault, and if you guess my identity wrong, then you’ll show me something of my choice.”
Set felt conflicted, on the one hand, he could simply refuse. On the other, he wished to see more of the vault himself and felt that it was unlikely that he would get another opportunity to do so.
“What if I say no?”
“Then we’ll both be deprived of a basic desire, no, a right. Knowledge.”
Set’s uncertainty only grew with this answer, he expected a threat of some kind in response, not a flippant that seemed to be more of a joke than it was a proper response. Furthermore, the lack of malice in his words and actions increased the sense of uncertainty that Set felt. the only one who would lose something was himself.
“Fine. I’ll play your game.”
“Oh, and yes or no questions only. There’s no fun in asking for my name immediately.”
Set navigated back to the main screen of the terminal as he tried to find a question to ask and as he glanced at the text referring to the matriarch, came to a conclusion.
“Are you with the goldspire?”
The voice was silent for a moment before laughing interrupted by a loud thud.
“The goldspire?! You have quite the imagination, friend. No, I work with them occasionally but I’m definitely not with those narrow-minded fools.”
Set turned to try to catch a glimpse of them again, this time he was greeted by the image of a black dureivan covered in green stripes that ran down his scales like rivers on a mountain. He was on the ground covering his stomach as he continued to laugh as if Set had cast a curse on him.
“Are you-” He was interrupted by a rune that abruptly appeared in front of his mouth.
The black dureivan stood up, still chuckling to himself while holding up a single claw which held the rune preventing Set from speaking in place.
“Not so fast. Remember the rules?”
Set frowned as he began navigating the terminal towards the weapons created for the goldspire. There, he saw something odd. It appeared to be a living being, but the image contained two… shackles?
“WEAPON - GOLEM, DESIGNATION - PENANCE.
ADDENDUM: WEAPON - AUTONOMOUS GOLEM.
ADDENDUM: WEAPON - ARTIFICIAL DUREIVAN.”
The stranger behind Set couldn’t hold his curiosity in check.
“Play recording.” He ordered the voice before it could even finish stating the extremely long list of materials and techniques that went into its production.
“PLAYBACK INITIATED.”
Rondo’s voice began to speak amidst what sounded like explosions and an unnatural chirping similar to the voice coming from the terminal, excepting it was screaming without forming any recognizable words.
“One day I’m looking through my commissions and see a request from the matriarch marked with one of her scales. Apparently-” A series of explosions makes the rest of the sentence impossible to hear.
“That insane woman asked for ‘A weapon with a personality as big as hers’ so I made her a golem twice her size an-” Once again the log was interrupted by another series of explosions and a voice screaming profanities that drowned out several seconds of the log.
“This ungrateful fool told me that if she was going to fight with a partner, then she needs it to be able to watch her back. She didn’t want a weapon at all, she wanted someone to fill the place of her mate. So I had Saendra go and get me the soul of her deceased mate so that I could finally be free of attempting to program the efficiency out of a robot. Now this GOLEM is lodging complaints about not being able to ‘bond’ with his ‘beloved’, the matriarch can’t simply ignore his requests so I made several very expensive and very embarrassing modifications. The matriarch wasn’t happy with the cost, however, after explaining what the commander had me build and the trifles she put me through, she all but apologized for how over the top the request was. I got to make something very unique AND I got some extremely rare materials as compensation separate from the original payment. All in all, it’s a win but It was an expensive and tedious process that I will never repeat.”
“ADDENDUM TO RECORDING”
“After listening to the recording I should clarify that the woman requesting the item is not the matriarch, but one of her commanders. All of the profanity and insults within this log are directed toward Commander Korru and her… mate, Penance, formerly known as Naev.”
“END RECORDING.”
“Emriis?”
Set called out to the person behind him.
“Hm? Emriis?... Why would Emriis be he-” In the chaos that just ensued during that recording, the stranger appeared to have forgotten about their game.
“OOH ohoho, no. No, I'm certainly not Emriis. Next item!”
“Vaunt.” Lakon’s voice came from behind the stranger.
“You know, the young ones of your generation might know who you are if you come down from the tower more than twice a cycle.”
Vaunt began laughing and put his hand on Set’s head ruffling his mane.
“This Batisch has grown a lot since I last saw him.”
‘Little thing’ There was only one person he could recall giving him such a name aside from Lakon.
“Vaunt!” Set was conflicted as he wasn’t particularly angered by Vaunt’s actions and was genuinely happy to meet him again, but still felt like he should get at least one clean punch in. Vaunt hatched nearly a whole cycle ahead of the rest of the clutch so he was much bigger than the majority of his clutch. He was present for the majority of the other’s hatchings and even took care of some of the others when they were younger, as best he could as a slightly older hatchling himself.
Vaunt didn’t remove his hand from Set’s head, who was now facing him. Rather, upon seeing Set glaring up at him he doubled down, ruffling Set’s mane so much that Set began to get dizzy from the way his head was moving. Lakon’s claws tapped across the cold metal floors along with the heavy thud of each step he took.
“Enough.” Lakon flicked Vaunt’s left horn causing vaunt to lose his balance and tumble halfway to the wall. Lakon and Set chuckled at Vaunt’s uncoordinated landing as Lakon lifted Set out of the chair and deposited the young aesoterii on his shoulder before turning back towards the door and motioning for Vaunt to follow him.
“Come with me, we've got something to show you. Both of you.”
On their way back down to the tenth terrace an intermittent flash of light could be seen in the distance, from where Set recalled leaving Rondo and Lakon. The light lingered for a moment before disappearing around the corner where Rondo was waiting with a sword in hand.
“I don’t think I’ve ever made anything quite like this before” He smiled as he stood up, wrapping the guard of the sword and securing it to the scabbard.
“Looks like it’s time to start a new entry in the vault.” Rondo commented as he handed Lakon the sword.
“There is one final step, however, the rest is up to Akuoun. Lakon and I have done our parts.” Lakon strapped the sword to his side rather than hand it to Set.
Rondo walked across the tenth terrace to a cabinet where he stored refreshments for himself, Lord Zan’s again. Then he jumped into a chair with abandon, spilling some of the bottle in his hand on the floor in the process.
Set looked down at the sword that was being obscured by Lakon’s robes and caught a glimpse of a white jewel adorning a handle covered in black fabric. Vaunt looked at the sword, then Set, then Lakon and then Rondo.
“Why did I need to be here for this?”
Lakon’s hand landed on the area connecting Vaunt’s horns to his skull before he noticed Lakon had moved. Lakon lifted his hand revealing a mask similar to the one Rondo had tossed his way earlier.
“This is why.”
“That one’s yours, brat. It was a lot of work so you’re not getting another one out of me if you lose it.”
Rondo warned from his progressively sinking position.
“It is based on Mine and Zan’s, Rondo’s has… some ‘extra features’ that aren’t for the weak of mind. You will get there eventually, but for now you need to start collecting data.”
Lakon ruffled Vaunt’s mane in the same way Vaunt had done to Set.
When Lakon finally let go of Vaunt, he placed his hand on the mask. His expression made his thoughts known as Rondo and Lakon watched him erupt in excitement and disappear into the upper terraces.
“...We won’t be seeing him for at least a cycle.” Rondo sighed as he drank the rest of the bottle and somehow jumped to his feet from his slumped position on the chair and pulled out a small pipe.
“You should go, you have a long conversation with Akuoun ahead of you.”
Rondo glanced at Set,”A conversation that will no doubt lead to Zan’s, Saendra’s, Xiig’s and my involvement. So I’d like to get some work done while I can.”
Set watched as Rondo managed to straighten himself out, with his impression returning to that of the artisan he saw upon arrival. In the time it took them to make their way back down to the first floor Rondo was fully focused on his work. The counter at the front of his workshop opened up as he went back to turning dials and running from end to end of the workshop floor. Lakon and Set made their way back to Akuoun’s den with Set continuously asking questions about the five and their adventures.
Set’s interest in the Pursuit of power deepened as the stories continued. They crossed the Meszai where Lakon stopped to double check the aftermath of their ‘practical training session’. Then they passed through the Uulzai where Zan and Saendra were discussing future preparations for the new generation and exchanged greetings. Saendra left moments later and Zan decided to walk with Lakon and Set, discussing their own disciples.
Once they entered the Lozzai, Zan gave Lakon a cask to deliver to Akuoun as well as Saendra as he’d be passing her den along the way and parted ways. When they reached Saendra’s den, Sylln, a small pink-ish dureivan with silver lines swirling throughout her scales, greeted them and accepted the cask in place of her mentor. The moment they stepped on Akuoun’s island his imposing figure rose from his den.
“Those lessons of yours went on for quite a while. I was wondering when you wou-.”
Akuoun noticed the sword on Lakon’s side, and knowing that Lakon and he himself don’t use swords, came to the conclusion that it must be Set’s.
“Rondo?” He gestured at the sword in question as Lakon let Set down from his shoulder, sending him to his nest and allowing him to rest.
“About that.” Lakon waited until Set was in his nest before continuing.
“We need to talk.”