79 – The bracers

Beyond the alcoves of the three automata, following the lights, the team found a large pillar at the center of a platform, surrounded by a trench filled with solid obsidian. The pipes on the ceiling and on the walls were cool, dripping with condensation now that the hot gases that once warmed up their surfaces were all scattered through the compound, following the immense damage caused by the automaton in its last rampage. The pillar was a key, but it didn’t work anymore, and the door had to be forced open. It didn’t take long, for it was not reinforced and all of its defenses were offline. Deeper in the underground complex the consequences of the damage appeared less severe, as the party got closer to the source of the heat and the mechanical power of the place. It was clear, however, that the heat was dying. Whatever the reason was, the temperature was falling steadily, but it was not yet to a point where it was uncomfortable.

They walked in a line, with Ishrin and Lisette at the front, Sir Westys and team in the middle, and Melina closing the file. She was on guard duty until they returned to Semiluminal. The boys didn’t wander off nor did they speak, not even the duke’s son. They were brooding and silent, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible and not to cause any trouble. And indeed, there was no trouble all the way to the end of the maze of rooms. There were some defenses still active, but the place was leaking mechanical and thermal power to the damaged section and any resistance to the advance of the adventurers was overcome without difficulty.

Even the lights were beginning to die down. The temperature, evidently kept at the almost uncomfortably warm level artificially, was falling and the air was getting heavy with humidity that was condensing into fog and wetting the cold metallic surfaces. The explorers kept going, undeterred by the change in the environment, protected by their magically enhanced bodies and by spells, but the atmosphere was different and eerie. The darkness was total now, save for the artificial light Ishrin’s multiple instances of Remote Light, which forced them to walk closer together as to not lose sight of the underprepared other team. The light was soon switched to Elemental Remote Light so that it could give off some heat as well, if only for morale.

“Crazy. It looked like a hot, steamy underground workshop before, but now it feels like we’re in an abandoned space station.” Ishrin said.

They kept wandering. Ishrin idly explained to the others what a space station was, and how the look and feel of this maze of metal and pipes could look like an abandoned space station now that the lights were dead and the cold was creeping in. The fog was making it difficult to see beyond a few meters in the distance, and the wet floor was slippery while the air grew colder and colder. From the almost tropical heat of the morning, now it was almost to the point of freezing.

“This isn’t normal. We are underground, it’s not supposed to get this cold.”

Lisette grunted approval at his complaints, but offered no other form of support. She then looked at Ishrin timidly, thinking that he would not see her and blushing over a thought that had come up in her mind. Ishrin smiled at her softly, her cute attempts at coming to terms with their situation warming his heart.

Eventually they found them, the bracers. Unceremoniously. They were inside a workshop, alongside a whole assortment of small items and pieces of unfinished mechanical technology lying around the room. There were spring loaded boxes, crossbows with brass strings that didn’t work, makeshift grenades and small tungsten cubes without a precise purpose. Among the items, all of them strictly non-magical and of the same steampunk feel, the bracers stood out like a light in the night, and not only to Ishrin’s magic vision. They were out of place, sleek pieces crafted out of exquisite star metal and polished to perfection, shining with their chromed details and their carved-out patterns.

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Look at all that stuff!

Liù was more excited about the non-magical items than she was about the bracers, and she immediately flew to the closest little gadget and began to scan it. Ishrin laughed, and she made him promise that he would grab all of the gadgets in the room so that she could play with them whenever she wanted. This made her very happy.

“I don’t even know why the bracers are in this workshop in the first place. They don’t fit.” Melina grumbled, as if she had been forced to come all this way only for it to turn out a waste of time. Perhaps in her mind it was, the mystery teasing at her—which she knew they had no time to investigate—frustrating her to no end. “What is this, go from—as you called it—steampunk to full-on magic in the span of a single item?”

“Can I—” Lisette asked.

“Sure. Go on ahead.”

She gingerly approached the bracers. They were just there, on the table, among the other assorted random stuff. Ishrin’s light spell hovered in the middle of the room, and Liù was flying left and right, creating dancing shadows with her bright blue glow. As soon as Lisette touched them, the bracers changed. They shifted and morphed, becoming small enough to fit her thin wrists, and changing their color to fit the rest of her outfit. She witnessed the transformation with excitement, although it didn’t show on her face and Ishrin only assumed she was excited, before immediately putting them on when they finally settled.

“They fit perfectly.” She said. There was excitement in her voice.

“Try them out!” Melina, almost as excited as her to see what they did, said.

She took out her twin swords and set them on the ground. Moving her arms, suddenly her swords responded to her mental commands, lifting themselves up in the air with no effort, dancing around her body following the fluid motions of her hands. It was like a choreography where she was the dance director, and the blades were the ballerinas, twirling and flowing in the air with grace and precise focus.

Then they fell back on the ground. She had underestimated the toll they were going to take on her mind, and on her mana pool. But this upgrade alone was worth at least half a rank of cultivation. Had they not risked their skin for it, one could almost argue that it had been worth it.

To be fair, Ishrin thought, they didn’t know about the automatons when they set out to search for the bracers. They were legendary like the ruins, yes, but they had all assumed that with their unusual power and skills, they would have managed to find them where all the others before them had failed. Which they had, although at greater personal risk than they had thought.

“It is not easy.” Lisette said with visible disappointment.

Ishrin scoffed. “What? You thought it was going to be easy from the get-go? Besides, that shit was impressive. That control, those movements. It’s like the bracers were made for you.”

Lisette smiled, looking at him with stars in her eyes. “Do you really think that?”

“They were clearly not made for you, but you use them like they have always been yours. Trust me, I know a thing or two about telekinetic weapons.”

Lisette smiled. “Thank you. Do they look good on me?”

Her tone was almost pleading.

“Of course they do. I love them.”

She beamed.

“Now comes the hard part though. ‘Cause since you are that good with them, you can’t simply use them to stab-stab. You need to come up with a fighting style that uses the swords to their full potential.”

“I think I can do it.” She said. “It will take a time.” Then she paused, and thought about something for a while, staring at Ishrin the whole time. Her eyes then flicked over to Melina, then back to Ishrin. “Will you two help me? Please? You are my…” and now her eyes darted to the other people in the room, making her blush. “Friends, yeah, you can help me out a lot.”

“Oh yeah,” Ishrin said. “We can definitely do that.”