“Caught a standout today, belonging to a new and unknown trader named ‘Vincent’, no last name given. Appears as a young man, white hair, possessing no identifiable affiliation or confirmed affinity. Ascendant status is unconfirmed, but potentially a Fallen due to the presence of a crookedly shaped arm and clubfoot leg but with no manamarks. Records indicate ten stair stepping trades of increasing value with a net loss of twenty to twenty-five percent mana each trade. Pattern potentially indicates dark mana cycling, even if the total mote count for the day doesn’t exceed more than a couple thousand. Recommendations on how to proceed?”
“You’re worried about dark mana cycling for someone that only ‘might’ be Fallen, let alone one who isn’t breaking five digits in trades? Let him be. If you’re right, then life’s clearly been hard enough on him enough. If he wants to burn what left of his lifeline for quick coin, let him. Worry about something that’s actually going to make a difference.”
—Lightscribe conversion between a Junior and Senior Trade Auditor, Wraithgold Exchange
“Just over there on the floor would be great, thanks,” Vincent said to the porter as they arrived with his crate, the nicely dressed, if still burly and heavily muscled man, replying with a polite sounding grunt in kind. Then, once the crate was deposited on said floor and Vincent placed his good hand on another Lightscribe that the man had been carrying to acknowledge the delivery, he left, leaving Vincent all alone with the fruits of his trade.
Fruits that had they actually in fact been fruits and not heart crystals, Vincent would have probably been quite upset to receive given their dim, ash occluded appearance.
Having wasted no time in gently popping open the lid the moment that the door to his room had closed, Vincent had to stop himself from practically diving into the crate to take stock of what he’d spent the entirety of his mana reserve upon. Instead he contented himself with simply stirring the dozens of walnut sized hearts with his working arm, all while reaching out with his Will in the process.
“Exactly a hundred, good,” he said after a moment’s concentration, his Insight picking out each and every single crystal within the crate, all of whom fell into the expected categories of grade and density. Not that he had expected to be cheated. From everything he’d read about them, the Wraithgold family, the very same one that ran the exchange and the bank prided themselves on their integrity, which likely bespoke to their incredible success.
With his inspection of the heart crystals done, Vincent was then free to move onto the second stage of his plan, which was to then draw in the entirety of the crate’s contents at once. That is after pausing to check to ensure that the door was properly closed and locked. While he was willing to put his faith into the Wraithgold family’s integrity, he was under no illusions as to how his ability to separate living and dead mana could shake up the realm around him. Everything he’d seen so far revolved around minimizing the latter’s effects and the last thing he wanted to do was overplay his hand too early, or do so before he could properly stand up for himself.
And that’s because I’m absolutely certain that Bel wouldn’t have wanted me to become a glorified mana filter, purging out dark mana one heart crystal at a time, Vincent thought as he did exactly that, coalescing the dark mana he’d absorbed into two lightless spheres, allowing them to drop back into the crate for the time being. Once that was done, he focused his attention on the rest of the fire mana that he absorbed, letting it flow through his Soul Well, for a moment enjoying the feeling of having literal fire within him. It certainly feels a great deal livelier than either shadow or death.
But as much as he enjoyed the sensation, it was one that had to come to an end, or if not that exactly then greatly diminish itself as Vincent then coalesced three quarters of the fire mana into three Pure High Density, Fire Shards.
“And just like that, we’re twice as far ahead as we were a moment ago,” Vincent said in whisper as he looked at the roughly spherical shaped mana shards that he now held in his hands while simultaneously considering the fire mana that he’d left inside his Soul Well. Granted it wasn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, just filling a fifth of one of his outermost radiant nexuses, but it was still in fact something, allowing the brief naked feeling that had come over him after selling all his Shadow and Death mana to vanish.
“And now back out we go to do it all again,” he said with a quick exhale, pausing to scoop up the two tainted spheres out from the crate and drop them into his pack. He’d hang on them for now in the hopes of finding Aether mana at some point, or if not, he’d find a way to dispose of it, assuming he could do either without inviting too much attention. Right now though, the last thing he wanted was to simply leave around where someone else could find them.
Then, once he was ready, he stepped out of the room and made his way down the hallway and back to the trading floor as it was called, finding that in just the short half hour he’d been gone it had practically filled itself. As such, the quiet and serene peace that had first greeted Vincent upon his arrival was gone, being replaced by the sounds of dozens of competing voices, each and every one of them announcing what they had for sale, trade, or were willing to buy.
“Selling Water and Earth Hearts by the crate! Guaranteed C-grade and Low Density at minimum!” Vincent heard a loud voice shout the second he arrived, his Insight telling him a second later that it had originated from an exceptionally muscled looking Ascendant, their body appearing more stone than flesh.
“The Stormwatch is looking to buy or trade for air aspect, B-grade or higher hearts and shards in bulk!” Another voice shouted in an absolutely deafening volume a second later, one that simply prompted Vincent’s Insight to display several angry looking red hued arrows to point out a white armored Ascendant that sat upside down on the domed ceiling above, very clearly fixed in place by magic.
Those were only the first of the calls, shouts, and sales pitches that Vincent heard as he made his way toward the exchange clerks, finding the shortest line available, which to his mind wasn’t actually all that short. Even so however, he was surprised to find that the line moved quite fast and before he knew it, he was on his way back to his private room having just secured another somewhat one sided trade, this time for a crate full of Water and Earth aspected Heart Crystals.
Which he promptly turned around a half hour later after a porter delivered it, earning himself another four Pure, High Density crystals to trade with, over and above the small tithe of both aspects that he kept in reserve inside his Soul Well.
From there, it became a pattern that kept Vincent busy for the remainder of the morning with him searching for and placing trades for the largest quantities of mana that he could afford in that moment, steadily building his fortune and mana reserves with each subsequent exchange. Nor was that all either, for thanks to the incredible number of people, both Ascendants and Dormants, that filled the exchange while he waited in line, Vincent was able to immerse himself in the most current gossip and rumors making their rounds through Everness.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
One of whom in particular couldn’t help but cause Vincent’s hair to stand on end, if at first.
“Any of you hear about the two Ironsong and Azurewind youths that got clapped a few days back in the lower districts?” A trader asked aloud while Vincent was standing in line between trades, the otherwise innocent question immediately causing him to freeze. “Word has it they had the luck to piss off a damned Forged that was passing by. Miracle that there was anything to find of those boys after the fact, let alone that they were left alive. And I say that with the duke’s edict notwithstanding.”
“You mean assumin that it wasn’t one of the duke’s Unbound that clapped them in the first place then left them lyin as a generous warnin,” another trader, this one a tall and richly dressed woman, replied in a foreign accent. “Cause I heard the same, and also that it took half a day and two Tempereds helping to break the Suppression they left on the Azurewind boy. Had they wanted to, I’ve no doubt they could have just outright Sealed them for good.”
“Which is probably why we’ve been enjoying this peace the last few days,” a third voice chimed in, coming from what was clearly a quite powerful Ascendant waiting along with them in line, or so Vincent judged to be given that their hair was quite literally made of light and molten fire coursed visibly beneath their exposed skin. “Heard from an Ironsong that it’s finally sunken into their sprouts to let things lie. Though the family heads are far from happy that it took so long for that lesson to sink in, nor the fact that it took an outsider to drive it home.”
“Unhappy enough that they’ll try and find this…um, outsider?” Vincent asked, suddenly finding himself with an exceptionally vested interest in the conversation around him.
“Eh? Find them? A Forged?” The Ascendant repeated, at first needing a moment to process the statement before barking out a laugh. “Ha! Maybe to apologize to them for the trouble those boys caused! From what I heard they were more monster than man! A seven foot tall warrior hewn straight from Shadowstone itself!”
“What? A man?” The woman replied, sounding vaguely incredulous. “I heard that the Forged was a she, and that she froze the very air around the boys with just a snap of her hand. That would make her a Windwalker, if nothing else!”
“Eh, is that right?” The third asked, their voice uncertain. “Why I myself heard—”
It was unfortunately, or perhaps mercifully, at that point where Vincent was called up to the clerk to place his next trade, resulting in him missing the rest of the exchange. Regardless of that however he did find himself with a wholly renewed peace with the fact that none of the descriptions of said Forged Ascendant even came close to matching him and thus all eliminating the chance that anyone associate him to the incident. However more than just being an inaccurate rumor, it also proved to be one on the way out, for when Vincent returned back to the exchange floor yet again he found himself quickly swept away in more current affairs.
“Did you hear the scandal that Lady Elanora caused at the Wraithgold social last night?” Vincent overheard at one point while waiting in line. “It’s said she was caught sneaking off with Lord Varick! Yes, that Varick from House Hawthorne! I mean not that I blame her, have you even seen the man? I’d climb him in a heartbeat!”
“Looks like the Nightshades have made a comeback here in Everness, damned blasted thieves,” he heard next, this one coming from a particularly exhausted looking Ascendant talking to a group of what were clearly close friends. “Official word hasn’t broken just yet, but an Ebonflame vault was cracked last night and the whole place emptied out. That means, if any of you are interested in taking on some guard work, well, there’s gonna be call for it really, really soon.”
“Hey, do you know anything about the announcement the Duke is supposed to be making today?” Vincent heard a young man ask his friend at one point while he was waiting in line. “Whatever it was had the uppers of the guild buzzing, but no one would say exactly why.”
“There was another incident at Silver Crest last night,” another announced in a whisper that Vincent’s Insight barely caught. “Second one in as many weeks. Not sure exactly what happened, but I think it might have been someone tainted finally losing their minds and wreaking a floor before being put down. All I saw was the damage from outside. In any case, keep an ear out for which of the Ascendants there bit it. If it’s someone important from one of the houses we can try and get ahead of it before it becomes common news.”
All together it was enough to for Vincent to paint an exceptionally vibrant picture of Everness, which for him up until that point had mostly consisted of the elegant walls of the Archives, or the plain stone walls of his room back at the clinic. But with that chapter of his life rapidly coming to an end, he enjoyed the opportunity to find the pulse of the city that was more than likely to become his new home for the foreseeable future. That and to find out just how he could continue to take advantage of it.
As he was doing one last time at the exchange before making himself exceptionally scarce.
“Have a delivery for, uh, oh it’s you again?” A porter asked as he knocked and then opened the door to Vincent’s private suite where he was waiting seated at the table.
“It’s me again,” Vincent replied as he sprang up from his chair to smile at the now all too familiar man who had been responsible for bringing six of the ten trades Vincent had made that day. “You can drop the box on the floor again and I’ll take care of it.”
“Uh, r-right, sure thing,” the porter replied as he glanced between Vincent and the crate he was carrying before going on to shrug and set the box down right by the far wall.
“So, that’s um, twenty average density, standard grade, Life aspected heart crystals,” he went onto say after checking his Lightscribe and offering it to Vincent for another all too familiar confirmation of delivery. “As ordered.”
“That’s right, thanks so much!” Vincent affirmed in a cheerful tone, still elated over the fact that he’d been able to catch the trade before it had vanished on him. Yet even so, he wasn’t so far gone as not to notice the obvious incredulity in the porter’s eye, nor the fact that he and the orders he was placing were starting to get too familiar.
This is definitely the last trade through the exchange for the day, Vincent affirmed to himself as he waved the porter out of the room and quickly closed and locked the doors behind them. In fact, I should probably get this all absorbed right and quick. This is only the first half of my day after all, and the last thing I want is to have it cut short.
A plan that he wasted absolutely no time to put into motion, his routine by now very well practiced as he went to the crate, absorbing each and every single one of the Heart Crystals within. As he did, he felt his Soul Well surge from the sheer amount of life mana he absorbed, which combined with all that he had already added to it over the course of the day so far was already substantial. So much in fact that he was actually forced to divert the incoming stream of mana into his other two radiant nexuses, which filled both to the brim. Once it was over, and Vincent stashed away the resulting dark mana spheres in his bag, he called upon his Insight to show him the fruits of his day’s labor so far.
The Well of Eternity:
Radiant 1: 100/100 Motes
20 Fire
20 Water
20 Air
20 Earth
20 Shadow
Radiant 2: 100/100 Motes
100 Life
Radiant 3: 100/100 Motes
100 Life
Good, that should be enough, more than enough in fact, Vincent thought with a smile as looked upon his now exceptional reserves, the naked feeling that he’d briefly felt earlier in the morning now all but completely banished. In its place he felt a growing, newfound confidence that had been missing for the entirety of his new life so far, a feeling that he very much liked. Now that I finally have some life mana to work with, let’s see if I can’t finally rid myself of this riving before I get out of here. No sense in letting a private room to go waste while I still have it.
Already having planned ahead as to how he was going to tackle the next step and most important step of his recovery, Vincent wasted no time in sitting back down in the room’s sole chair, his mind already reaching out towards his Insight. As he did, he commanded it to numb the entirety of his riven arm as he straightened it out before him, or at least as much as the overtly tightened tendons and warped bone would allow him to.
All right, he thought as he used his other hand to pull his sleeve back as far as it would go. Once his arm was completely bare he then called forth a stream of water, earth, shadow, and life mana out from his soul well directing them all into the limb. First thing’s first, let’s get rid of this curve…
Then, with a single loud crack of shattering bone filling the room, he began to work.