Chapter Five - An Essence

50th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era

The Sapphire Ocean

The green puppet shifted slightly. She'd seen lots of people, humans that was, gathering in one place before, but so many of them focused on her and the other puppets felt a little off putting. A flick of her eyes to the side revealed Blue was standing at attention, but was otherwise impassive, and a click to the other side showed Red fidgeting slightly.

She couldn't truly communicate with the others, but that didn't mean she didn't get a sense for their personalities.

The blue puppet was often aloof and quiet. She'd step back and sit down more often, and of the three, seemed the most easily accepting of long stretches of silence.

Red was very much the opposite in many ways. She moved constantly. When they were placed in that cupboard for the night, she spent it walking in circles and occasionally threw out a quick punch or two.

Green tried to interact with Blue, but without being able to talk... it was complicated. Red was easier to entertain. At some point they'd found some cord and the two had played the world's clumsiest game of cat's cradle for a few hours, at least until the cord got tangled in one of Red's finger joints and it had to be cut out.

"So, how are these three faring so far?" one of the strange new people asked.

He was a shorter man, perhaps ten or twenty years Magus Maldrak's senior. He didn't have that straight-backed imposing aura that the Magus had, but something told her that he was still a powerful individual. His hair was a tangled mess of white, and like the other magic-users she'd seen, he had a sort of shield over his right armpit. His had a pair of small green dragons coiled around a tree made of gears and pistons.

The same symbol was on the shield of the young man next to him. He had some familial resemblance to the older mage, the same sharp brown eyes, the same jawline, and the same unruly hair, though the younger's were all black still.

"They're living up to expectation, Magus Woodbone," Maldrak replied.

"Pft, I doubt that," the man, Magus Woodbone, said. "These bodies are trash. No offence, Brian my boy."

"None taken," the younger man said. "They're what I had on hand. The pattern they're based on is older than I am by several decades, even. It's functional, at least."

"Hmph," Magus Woodbone said. He gestured at the three puppets. "Up, up. Stand up tall, the three of you. You might not look it, in those casks and twigs that my son slapped together, but the three of you are something special. Made your cores myself, and I'll have you know that I'm something special too."

"Your confidence in oneself has always inspired awe, Artificer Magus Woodbone," Maldrak said.

The older gentleman snorted at that. "At my age, it's less confidence and more certainty. Not that I'll be the best forever. Some youth will catch up, cheating on all the knowledge I spilled in my wake, and then they'll surpass me. Same as I did in my day. Now, I imagine these fish are here for a reason?"

Green had to admit she was curious about that as well. She didn't have a nose to smell with, but she imagined that the three rather large, very much still alive fish, must have smelled interesting.

"I was hoping that you could assist the puppets here in discovering how the system you created functions," Magus Maldrak said.

"I created? More like I stole," Woodbone said. "Cannibalized, if we're being crass about it. I have to protest having such artwork shoved in such crude frames."

"It's part of my process," Maldrak replied. "You know how I like to do things by now."

"And yet I still question it," the man shot back.

Maldrak gave him a tiny bow, little more than a dip of his shoulders and back. "And your prodigious skill and expertise allows you to get away with it."

"Hah! At least you're not pretending to be anything more than drinking companions," Woodbone said. He licked his lips and looked to the three puppets in turn. "Now, we'll see if you three have the intellect to deserve the tools you've been given. Along with control over your limbs, there should be a control to open your chests. It's a control in two parts. Like unhinging a jaw in the middle of your torso that was never there before. Open the first part now."

Green wished she could blink. The instruction was basically nonsensical. A jaw in her chest?

There was a clunk to her side, and she turned slightly to see that Blue's chest had opened slightly. A piece of the wood at the front had slid down about a finger's width.

Looking down at her own chest, she focused on the feeling. If Blue could do it...

It took her all of a minute of increasingly frustrating searching, but eventually she felt the right... twinge. It was like moving a limb she had never been aware of.

A slab of the wood at the front of her chest shifted down with a click, and she was able to see into her chest. Not very far. There was a device there, a sort of counter. Nine tiny wheels, with zeroes across the majority. The last few had numbers on them. Currently they sat at Nine and Four.

94. She wondered what it meant. And why so many zeroes before?

The artificer checked on Blue, then on her. He wasn't very gentle with his touch, grabbing her barrel chest and moving it down to peer at the counter.

"Hmm, come on, you, figure it out," he said to Red before turning to Maldrak. "Tell me you've named them. And not something foolish like A, B and C."

"Not yet," Maldrak replied. "I think a nascent soul like this ought to name itself. Though I'll admit to some level of disappointment if they pick names that are too crass or simple."

"Hmph," Woodbone said. "Fair enough. Ah, there you go." Red's chest had finally clicked down. "The counter you see within is a measurement of the vitality of your core. Not its physical health, mind. To know that you'd need to give it a look. Rather, it's the potency of the essence you've consumed. Magus Maldrak here, the sly devil, has created means by which to turn essence into strength. How that strength grows will be up to you. It will mold itself to you, permeate your core and bodies, grow your magical might, and make you... more. In the same way that dragon's essence has done for the people of Draya Calyrex for generations."

He stepped back, then glanced at Sir Jorvin and his son.

"Lay out those fish in a row, would you? And give them a good whack. It doesn't matter if they die, but living ones will give more."

The men did as he asked without question, though the younger man's face twisted in distaste at handling the fish. They were strange things, with several growths along their bodies and the start of what seemed almost like wings on some of their backs. Their scales were too large as well, jutting out of their flesh at incorrect angles and seeming to leave rough scars behind.

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"Now, you three, yet unnamed. The muscle that opens your chest is twofold. The next is like flexing an elbow. This part should be easier now that you've mastered the first."

Red's chest exploded open with a heavy clunk, and Green stepped back from it.

Where the front panel had slid down, it had now twisted to the side, revealing a large opening. A device had slung itself out of that opening. A long needle, a piece of thick glassware, and several small copper pipes.

The needle's tip was large enough to fit a pinkie within, and the entire device seemed designed to pierce into flesh and suck something out.

Green hesitated, but she found the muscle in question and flexed it. Her chest opened, a strange and uncomfortable feeling, and the needle-tipped device came out.

"That," Woodbone explained. "Is a soul siphon. A device that is quite illegal in these parts, though what laws remain to stop us? Hm? Its purpose is twofold. To extract the living essence from the dead or near-dead, and to purify it of its draconic taint. The latter it is not fully efficient at, but we have ways of remedying any... foreseeable issues. Kill the fish."

The order came so suddenly that it took her a moment to process it. Not so for Red.

Red surged forward, her limbs moving with an almost frantic urgency as she got on all fours. The foot-long needle of her siphon plunged into the side of the nearest fish, and Green could hear the squelch of flesh and the faint hiss of air escaping. The fish twitched violently, its gills flaring and its grotesque, oversized scales catching the dim light. Red's siphon hissed as it drew something in, and the counter on her chest ticked upward: 95, 96, 97... eventually it stopped a 112.

Green hesitated, her gaze flicking to Blue. Blue had stepped closer to her fish but hadn't moved to act. Green felt an odd flicker of shame, though whether it was for her hesitation or Blue's calm, she couldn't tell.

"Don't dawdle," Woodbone snapped. "Essence waits for no one, not even the hesitant. If you take too long, you'll lose the full potency."

Green forced herself to act. Her siphon extended fully, the needle gleaming in the strange light. She knelt by the fish nearest her and pressed the needle against its side. The fish spasmed, its life ebbing away as her siphon hissed to life. Her counter ticked up. 94. Then 95. Finally, 110.

There was no blood, no viscera, just the slow draining of something unseen yet undeniably vital. When she withdrew her siphon, the fish lay still, its oversized scales dull and lifeless.

Blue finally moved, stepping gracefully to the last fish. There was no hesitation in her actions, just deliberate precision. Her siphon extended and pierced the fish's side as if she'd done it a hundred times before. Her counter ticked upward, settling at 98.

"Well," Woodbone said, his voice carrying a note of satisfaction. "That wasn't so hard, was it? You've all taken your first step into becoming more than the crude frames you wear."

Green stepped back, retracting her siphon and closing her chest. The feeling was strange, like folding a part of herself away.

"Good," Maldrak said, breaking the moment. "They've proven capable. Now, let's move on to the next step. This is something you will find yourselves unable to do on your own, not without the help of an experienced Magus or a talented Artificer. Though I suppose you could learn either skills yourselves. Step forward you. Yes, you seemed the most eager." He had gestured to Red.

Red stepped forwards. Her siphon was still extended. She seemed careful, almost worried.

The artificer didn't waste time. With a flick of his wrist, he gestured for Brian, who handed him a small, cylindrical device. It pulsed faintly, glowing with engraved runes. Woodbone turned it in his hands once, then pressed it firmly against Red's siphon.

The device hissed, and with a quick, mechanical sound, it extracted a small vial of glowing liquid from the vial on her siphon. The liquid swirled, iridescent and alive, as Woodbone held it up to the light.

"Essence, raw and unrefined," he said, his tone matter-of-fact. "It's the lifeblood of this process. Now watch."

Brian handed him a second, small contraption—compact yet intricate, covered in softly glowing runes and faint etchings of dragons. With practiced ease, he slotted the vial into the machine. A low hum filled the air as the essence within the vial began to swirl faster, its glow intensifying. Within seconds, the hum faded, and Woodbone retrieved the vial. The liquid now shimmered brighter, its color more vibrant.

"Purified essence," Woodbone said, holding the vial aloft for all to see. "Refined for maximum potency."

Without hesitation, he returned to Red and with a few deft motions inside her chest, opened the entire front of her body up.

Green stared for a moment. Their chests were little more than barrels but within... was a complex array of small metal devices, linked together by small pipes and tubes. There were several small vials as well, but the core was what drew her attention.

It was a small thing, no bigger than a closed fist, made of gold with several interwoven bands of silver around it. It glowed, faintly, from the inside.

The artificer connected the purified vial to a small nozzle clearly designed for the task, and the glowing liquid was quickly emptied away into the network of pipes.

The core glowed brighter for a moment, then faded.

Red's frame trembled briefly for just a moment, but it settled soon enough.

Woodbone closed her up, moving with the casual ease of someone who'd done this a thousand times. "Let's see what you can do," he said simply.

"Get into the first form," Jorvin snapped, and Red was quick to stumble over to their practice sword and move into formation.

They sparred. Green watched. She... wasn't sure if Red was better. Perhaps a tiny bit smoother, a little faster? She went down rapidly enough when Sir Jorvin decided it.

"What say you?" Maldrak asked.

"I say that there might be some improvement, but maybe a fish's worth of that purified essence of yours doesn't seem to add up to much," the mage-knight said.

"Bah. That tiny morsel was nothing. Give them the essence of an army and you'll see something truly incredible," Woodbone said.

Maldrak nodded, his eyes sharp as he turned to Green and Blue. "Your turn," he said.

***