After Tahir and Meti finished cycling their mana, they thanked the princess and let her know they’d be staying in Balrech for at least a couple of days longer if she needed anything from them, and then parted ways. Tahir had his work concerning the sponsorship and the ruin in Osni, but the princess seemed to glean that during her time at the Redclouds headquarters when she went to look into him and his report. Whatever the Esharian royal family would do to further sway him to their side, they likely wouldn’t try anything until after his major work with the Redclouds concluded.
A couple of days after, Theo and Callipho finished their creation of the elixir, opting to make them in the form of red, spherical pills. They made one for everyone, including Callipho himself, and had an explanation for them as well as the process for making them. “Unfortunately, this elixir will only work at full or mostly full efficiency a couple of times. I estimate you can have one three times before you start getting diminishing returns. There was, however, an interesting note left within the formula for the elixir. This seemed to be the ‘sun’ variant of a set. Other variants, such as the ‘moon’ and ‘star’, likely will have separate compositions of ingredients, providing a similar effect but giving you the same boost to your aura for the first few pills. I’ll be writing a letter to the Raven to see if he can give any clues as to where other formulas can be found, but for now, you’ll have your hands full making more of this one. Now, take the elixir and cycle your aura. To those who have had Theoris’s recovery potions, you will find the process similar. Theoris, dear, have care when you take yours.”
Everyone took theirs in the same room, just in case it had an adverse effect on anyone. As Callipho predicted, Theo’s aura erupted in a burst of elements. Flames, frost, and a strong gust that swirled around her as her aura swelled. After several harrowing seconds, she managed to calm herself down and cycle her aura around her body with everyone else. For Tahir, his own aura surging felt dangerous to him, like it could overflow and damage him if he hadn’t been cycling his aura. Different from the gradual rise in his mana when he cycled it at the leyline crossing. He could only imagine how it felt for Theo.
Still, after all was said and done, he felt as if he’d gotten about the same amount of aura as he did from Odiom’s blessing. His mana still had a significant gap ahead, but now he felt like he had at least around the average of both pools for a gold ranked Redcloud. With the help of the spirits, and their affinities, he could fight on the level of platinum. He asked if Theo had the ingredients to make any more, but making the elixirs took most of Theo’s available funds, and Meti spent most of hers gathering materials for a project she was working on. He was willing to help scour the other apothecaries and merchants in Esharia to see if they could find more ingredients - to avoid draining Callipho of valuable ingredients that he could very well use for his own business. At the very least. He and Hasio could chip in with a couple thousand gold of their own for the next batch.
The day after, Murabi finally contacted the group with the sending stone, letting them know to start making their way to Osni. He also told them that, due to their participation in the sponsorship, if they were near one of the Redcloud’s Headquarters, that they’ll teleport them directly to the desert capital free of charge. He would meet them there, and they could talk about the details in person.
And thus, the party began preparations to move their operations to Osni. They’d have to part with Callipho for the moment, of course, but he’d been more than satisfied with the chance to see them again before the major mission in Osni, and had the formula for the elixir to tinker with. Tahir felt immensely grateful that they didn’t have to make the trip, which would have been several hundred, if not a thousand miles otherwise. Finally, less than a week after they’d returned to Balrech, they made their way to the Redcloud’s headquarters to take the trip to Osni. As Murabi told them, they gave them access to a teleportation circle without having to pay, and once everyone had placed themselves firmly near the center of the circle, the operator activated the magic that fueled it, and sent them elsewhere in an instant.
Thanks to the Traveler, Tahir had a good amount of experience with teleportation. The thousand-mile jump, however, took him by surprise. He felt like something jerked him suddenly in the direction of their destination, as he traversed across the continent in the space of a second. Once the magic deposited him on a similar stone circle as the one he’d just arrived from, he nearly collapsed, but managed to hold and stay standing. The others weren’t so lucky. Hasio and Theo had experience with this level of long-distance teleportation, but Shukri and Meti nearly fell over, leaving Tahir and Theo respectively to catch them and make sure they didn’t collide with the stone beneath them.
Once they made sure everyone was alright, the operators ushered them out to make way for anyone else arriving via teleportation circle. They were led to the main hall of what appeared to be the Redcloud headquarters in Nagyermend, Osni’s capital, which had a familiar layout to the one in Balrech, with some key differences in furniture and general architecture of the building. For the moment, they didn’t particularly need anything else from the Redclouds, except to inquire where they could find the special housing for Redcloud members. Similar to what Tahir lived in during his year or so of work as a Redcloud in Balrech.
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As they left to follow the directions to it, Tahir noticed several pairs of eyes on their group. To which he couldn’t exactly blame them for. He knew well enough that platinum was usually reserved for veterans or prodigies. Not as lofty as mithral or adamantine, but still a mark of honor on its own that he, Hasio, and Shukri managed to go beyond gold. Add on the fact that they were all relative newcomers to Nagyermend, and he could see how they’d attract some attention.
Leaving the Redclouds building allowed them to get an interesting view of the city itself. It sprawled out, far as Tahir’s eyes could see, full of buildings made of predominantly tan brick, arches, and flat roofs, broken up by the occasional domed building, splash of colorful tile and brick compositions, or patches of green from many gardens or trees that grew within the city. Unlike Esharia, buildings that went higher than one or two stories were few and far between. Tahir felt as if he could get a view of the entire city if he hopped up on the nearest building’s rooftop and began walking. He also noticed that many of the rooftops had wooden planks or other makeshift walkways between them, and those that didn’t were close enough that the distance could be easily jumped over.
He’d have to take the time to explore the city later. For now, the group made their way to the Redcloud’s lodging, which was a wide complex not too far away from the headquarters. They got three rooms. While Shukri didn’t mind splitting a room with Theo and Meti, Hasio seemed to prefer his privacy enough to want his own room, which left Tahir getting his own as well. This didn’t pose much of a problem for him. Keeping his things in the Redcloud’s lodging would set him on edge, but with the storage bags, and the ability to leave a spirit watching while he slept, Tahir would manage. He at least knew the collective wouldn’t be snooping into his business any time soon, but the same couldn’t be said for any similarly influential organizations within Nagyermend and Osni as a whole.
From what Tahir knew, the Osni league was made of both elected administrative leads, and powerful merchant princes. Any number of them could have a hand in any number of things going on in Nagyermend and Osni as a whole, and more than a couple of them likely sponsored the Redclouds. Tahir needed to keep those facts in mind as he operated in the area. He didn’t plan to get into any trouble, certainly, but over the past couple of months it seems he’s developed a habit for stumbling into it, and plenty of trouble existed to stumble into in such a large city.
Thankfully, they ran into no such trouble on the first day. They left what they were willing to leave unattended in their rooms, met together, and took a walk out into the city to get the lay of the land. They had their fill of street food and talked to the vendors, asking around. Theo looked for an apothecary, and Meti looked for a smith, and Tahir looked for general places where they could buy supplies. They asked around and made sure to get a couple of options, and made their way to the ones closest to their lodging. Once they’d taken a look at a couple of places, they realized that the sun began to set, and started heading back before night fell.
On the way, Shukri took to climbing up to the rooftops and walking along them on the way back, talking down to everyone else that continued to walk along the ground. “I must say, I enjoy the way the wind flows through this city better than Balrech.” She called down to them, her tail flowing in the breeze behind her.
“The street food’s not bad either.” Hasio added. “Still, though, now that we’ve seen some of the sights, what’s our plan?”
“Not much of a plan other than meeting up with Murabi and finding out where the ruin is.” Tahir answered. “According to him, they’re still getting ready, but they’re almost done, so we’ll be able to get started right away since we’re already here. Since Murabi let us know about teleporting instead of having us make the trip over from Esharia, they’re probably closer to being done than the multiple weeks the trip would have taken. Depending on how much time’s left, we can probably start the next stage of Murabi’s training, and Shukri can start the first stage.”
“Assuming I can find a good place to work, whatever downtime we have will give me an opportunity to finish the current project I’m tinkering with.” Meti said.
“Oh, me too! I might be able to finish the next batch of elixirs for us!” Theo also chimed in.
With their plans in place, at least part of them, they parted and made their way to their rooms. Tahir summoned the Winged Serpent, and asked it to stand watch over his belongings while he slept. He didn’t expect anything to happen, so he only summoned the spirit at tier one, but he wanted at least some assurance, and so the unsleeping serpent enjoyed a peaceful night in his room. The next day, they could finally begin seeing what this sponsorship was all about.