Chapter 5
Mirradon slowed down as Petor arrived at what looked like a well groomed forest in the middle of Ilus. A large double gate was covered in plants, open, showing an open area between the street facing hedges and the house.
He dropped down from his saddle, and passed through, the gates groaned closed behind him, obscuring the street from view.
Arches in the hedges on either side of the path up to the house showed growing plots, various plants were laid out precisely.
I even know some of them now.
Desari had supplies him with several books on plants, probably to stop his incessant questions. In side the isolated squares, Mesurial and Rezzie were eating from a trough while Ignus was laying down on the grass, lifting his molten head towards Petor.
“Hello lads and ladies,” Petor removed his saddle from Mirradon’s back and added it to the three that were hung on a pole under a small roof, covering various gardening tools, now turned into saddle rack.
He circulated mana through his body, removing the weariness and aches from the travel, circling back to the main path and up to the front door.
He opened it, hearing voices deeper in the house.
“Back here!” Desari yelled.
The front room was a sitting area with bookshelves, a fire place and comfortable chairs, the window looking out on one of the hedged off gardens.
He passed a much larger library that took up half of the main floor. Stairs leading up to bedrooms and down to the lab.
A small kitchen lay off to the back of the house and dining room. Though a full quarter of the house was taken up by an office with desk, more bookshelves (of course) various boards to write on and chairs around the rear window that faced the back of the house, the garden out there dwarfing the size of the twin front gardens.
A smile spread across his face seeing them all there. They wore comfortable clothes instead of their armors, but weapons were laid out around the room along with papers, teacups, snacks and a kettle.
“So, we got a job?” He asked.
“Back to the water plane for us,” Mya threw the last bit of a pastry into her mouth wiping off the remains on her pant leg before pointing at the map on one board.
A map of where the Nether Forge had broken through into the water plane, Misty Cove and the surrounding area.
Light markings showed routes from the Abyssal convergence to two different islands.
Mya drank her tea to clear her throat.
“Jaxus has a problem. His supplies keep on disappearing before they reach their destinations. The ships never made it. He needs us to make delivery to his clients and recover the goods that have been stolen and deliver those if possible. If not, destroy whoever dared to steal from the Limos Trading Company. You can check it in your missions.”
Recover Lost goods
Description: Three shipments and their convoys have disappeared in transit. Track down the shipments.
Reward: 20,000 GP EACH, (70,000 for all three shipments)
[Accept?]
Deliver the cargo!
Description: Transport goods from the Nether Forge Island to the Coral Bastion.
Reward: 10,000 GP
[Accept?]
Ashen Library
Description: Legends tell of an ancient library hidden in the heart of a wildfire, containing knowledge lost to time. Brave the flames to recover ancient scrolls and artifacts.
Reward: 22,000 GP
[Accept?]
The Infernal Race
Description: A challenge set by the Salamander Princes: race across the Lava Rivers using any means at your disposal. The race tests agility, speed, and cunning.
Reward: 50,000 GP
[Accept?]
Elemental Depletion
Description: The Abyssal region’s elemental densities are being depleted them. Track down who is responsible and what their plans are.
Reward: 28,000 GP
[Accept?]
“Been a while since I looked at the missions. A race?” Petor raised his head.
“The race is highly regarded for those who ply the Molten Seas. It is a place to show off the skills of a crew and their ship,” Desari said as if by rote, distracted—worried. “Whatever ship wins the race, their builders are sure to see a surge in sales into the future. The crews and the business they work for will find more people wanting to do jobs with them. There’s also the purse for the crew, that’s a lot of gold. The Infernal Marauders and the shipyards are looking to compete in the upcoming race. It is why there is so much activity down at the shipyards and security has been tight.”
“There’s lots of groups looking at Trinity now,” Petor said. “Not the name I would pick, but works with the three coming together.” The new nation had been forged after the attempted assassinations.
“Newest nation in the Abyssal Plane, banding together the Infernal Marauders, Molten Fist and Ilus. Trinity has a lot of potential,” Mya said.
“Yeah and the race is just one of many ways that they can show off their power.Put the right whispers in the right ears. If they can do this with ships on the Molten Sea that they’ve only known about for a few months, what could they do with weapons?” Valter said.
“Creates ways for people to reach out to them in trade and makes those thinking they’re a soft target to have doubts,” Mya nodded.
“What about the Element thieves? That, well it seems weird. How is someone harvesting the elements of entire regions?” Petor asked.
“The Abyssal planes has elemental regions that are ‘closer’ to the elemental planes. The way that this materializes in the abyssal plane and a core reason of why it is so chaotic is because of elemental fonts,” Desari said.
“Like the ones in dungeons?”
“One and the same. These fonts are, lets call them minor points of convergence. A major point would be like Misty Cove or the Nether Forge convergence where things can pass from one plane to another. The elemental fonts are similar volcanic hotspots.” Desari held up her left hand and pressed her right forefinger against her palm.
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“The elemental plane pushes up against this plane and where its strongest the plane bleeds through, creating an elemental font.” Desari Pusher her right finger up through the left ones. “Now, these fonts infuse the area around them with their elemental power, this creates the various regions and creates dungeons.” She pulled apart her hands.
“These dungeons create creatures, if they aren’t kept in check then the dungeons will no longer be able to suppress them. Forming what is know as a dungeon or beast tide.”
“Lots of powerful beasts spread throughout the area, upsetting the natural balance, pushing or being pushed on by what they fight,” Valter said.
“It creates a roll on effect like an avalanche, upset the surrounding areas, upset the surrounding dungeons, if they’re near the point of a tide they can trigger and it only grows,” Desari said.
“That’s why everyone is in city states and traders are hard and expensive to find,” Mya said. “Can defend a city rather easily by just closing the gates. Roads are liable to be overrun with a tide at anytime.”
“It’s a core reason for the instability in the abyssal plane,” Valter said. “Cites are attacked randomly all the time. Tides can last hours, or they can be a series of months as more dungeons overflow.”
“That’s sure to make people nervous about their supplies,” Petor said.
“Yes, and fighting off that many creatures constantly, the defenders gain levels rapidly, some call it the dungeon harvest. The city could still fall, which means any of the survivors are going to be pretty damn strong, and when the tide calms down, there’s sure to be prospectors interested in looting the city, or using its bones to create another one.” Valter said. “Though if the city survives. Their average level will have skyrocketed. They might be running low on supplies, when they requested aid, others might not have come to help them. Why pay a merchant for priced up food when you can kill them and take it?”
“The dungeon tide upsets the power balance of the beasts in the area, and then the human settlements,” Petor said. “Though with there being less mana and elemental power, doesn’t that mean the dungeons are less likely of creating a tide?”
“Yes, but it also brings up the question-who is doing it? And why?” Desari said.
“We going to get hit with a dungeon tide here?” Petor asked.
“There is an ongoing bounty for people to clear out the dungeons in our region to keep eruptions down. As part of their final training, the armed forces will go into a dungeon and clear them out. Once they’re trained up then units will spend rotas clearing out dungeons to improve their levels,” Valter said.
“When there are too many dungeons then we’ll send in a team to pull out the elemental font,” Desari said.
“You can do that?” Petor asked.
“Yes, which is what this group is probably doing, clear out a dungeon, dig out the elemental font and move it. It’s a lot harder because the elemental font throws everything it can at you until you excavate it. Though we have several elemental fonts that are being drained and studied. Its actually one of the things Penrik wanted to talk to you about when you returned.”
“What about?” Petor asked.
“Draining them, removing the elemental attributes and just having pure clean mana,” Desari said.
“Isn’t that kind of what happened with the planar gem?” Petor asked.
“Where do you think it is?” Mya smiled.
Petor tilted his head.
“I leant the planar gem to Penrik and the others, it has a massive capacity and it absorbs any and all mana, regardless of the elemental attribute. Mya and Valter helped them out in creating the rituals and runes that would take the power from the elemental fonts and put them into the planar gem.”
“Also set up a system that could recharge weapons and cores with fire attributed mana,” Valter said in a way that warned asking him about it would crack open the stern man to make way for the rune-smith nerd.
“Its meant that we can supply ships coming to dock with pure fire mana to charge themselves up, not just hot air,” Mya said. “Turns a nice profit and all we had to do was cut in some runes.”
“Molten Fist and Infernal Marauders don’t care. In the grand scale of things it hasn’t had too much impact. Most groups that have taken a font usually find a dungeon pop up in their midst as they put out a constant amount of power, you need a powerful project to make use of it.” Desari said.
“So if you don’t drain it then it starts creating beasts?” Petor asked.
“Yes.” Desari nodded.
“Feels a little like sitting on one of Mya’s powder kegs with a lit fuze,” Petor said.
“The council and the researchers on the font projects are interested in what the fonts are being used for,” Mya said. “They also have a whole magical academy to drain the power away from. They’ve been using the power and the books Desari gave them to develop their understanding of teleportation more. That’s not mana cheap.”
“Clearly Limos has some way to pick up on the various quests that are in an area. Some of the students and teachers brough information about the Ashen Library to Penrik who added it to the mission board.” Desari turned her head to Mya and the map. “Now, back to the mission at hand.”
“Aww, I was kind of getting all excited about the other ones,” Petor crossed his arms in a mock huff. Trying to defuse the tension he felt in the room, hidden under the words and explanation.s
“I bet we could smoke the competition in Mesurial.” Mya nodded along.
“Putting aside the fact that she’s built to glide through the water and not through the air lets get back to the task at hand. I am sure that there will be plenty to do in tracking down whoever stole three shipments of weaponry,” Desari said.
“Ouuu you had me at weaponry.” Petor rubbed his hands together.
“Literally the last word I said.” Desari gave him a flat glare, though there was no heat in her words.
Valter let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh as Desari turned her glare on him.
Mya took on a mock serious expression, fitting her monocole and taking out a stick and thwapping it against the board.
“Thee anemy hasht stolen ze weapons!” Mya yelled in an outlandish and overly done accent.
“I’m going to go taste test my own poison,” Desari held her head.
“What’s the plan cap’n?”
“Take the shipment from the Nether Forge Island to Coral Bastion. Act as bait, if someone attacks us, we kill em and ask their souls where the rest of the goods are. If we aren’t attacked we get to Coral Bastion drop off the goods and use a tracking device Jaxus gave me to find where the crates of goods are.” She looked at them all and shrugged, releasing the muscles holding the monocole in place, catching it. “Keep it simple stupid.”
“So we’re going to be going up against someone with Nether Forge weapons?” Desari asked.
“Not quite. The buyer has a card that will allow them to activate the weapons.” Mya drew out four metal cards, fanning them for the others to take. “Tap this to the weapons and the spell that’s been placed upon them will deactivate and you can use them. If whoever took them tries to melt them down then they’ll discharge and blow up.”
“So if the buyer was bad then we’re facing the weapons?” Petor said.
“Contract? I’m guessing,” Desari said.
“Right you are, soul bound to not mess up the contract. So whoever is doing this, isn’t the buyer and the buyer has no knowledge,” Mya said.
“How long do we have?” Valter asked.
“Jaxus is heading out in five days back towards Nether Forge Chasm. We can catch a ride with him. Though he’s also willing to pay for the express,” Mya grinned.
“Express?” Petor asked.
“Use the planar gem to jump to Nether Forge, go through the convergence there,” Mya said. “Delivery is in ten days. Takes two days to get from the Netherforge island to the Coral Bastion.”
“I’m guessing it’s a coral?” Petor asked.
“Yes, one that’s large enough to act as a bastion,” Mya said.
“Quite literal with their names,” Petor said.
“Easier to understand.”
“It is in a plane, most of the creatures there are elementals or related to them. At their younger ages they are not the most learned. Simple and direct wins nearly every time,” Desari supplied. She stood ramrod straight, watching them all.
“With the mission complete we can head back here, and summon Limos,” Mya said.
Desari’s head snapped over.
“And buy our information,” Valter said, quietly and firmly.
“I understand, I’ll do everything I can to help you,” Desari looked at each of them, holding their eyes.
Petor buried his apprehension. They might be ready to face down their pasts, but he would need a hell of a lot more power to do anything of consequence. He was but a single person. He also knew that he was just putting his problems down the road for a future him to deal with.
He was stronger than he ever dreamed of.
They’d nearly all regained their previous strength, had learned from one another, got better gear. It had gone so quickly.
They’d found Ilus and saved it, now they had to look to their own problems.
“Across the water plane, deliver the goods and look into where the others were stolen. Then we find out what’s been happening,” Petor said.
They looked among one another, Desari raising her head. “Count me in.”
“Well, you’re going to need a ship,” Mya grinned.
“Someone with common sense,” Valter’s terse words showing the glimmer of a smile.
“And some back country scout,” Petor winked.
“We have five days till we’re expected in Nether Forge. I suggest we make use of it, to work on our own projects,” Valter said. He took out three runed metal plates. “Could you inject your mana into these?” He held them out to the others.
“Which projects?” Petor asked.
“Epic ones,” Desari’s mouth quirked up into a grin.