Wendy sat across from Sam. Ever since returning from Et Serpentium, he had turned into a completely different man. His mannerisms changed, and his vibe was … ever-shifting. After he finished a trip through a dungeon, he gained the ability to prevent her from reading part of his mind. It was odd, and she wondered if her constant attempts at trying to access the information he was hiding was bothering him or not. If it was, his outward appearance didn’t betray any sign of it. He was holding a stone tablet, reading the information within.
“So,” Wendy said after Sam placed the tablet down. “Are you willing to accept our request?”
Sam stroked the sloth’s back as he leaned back in his seat. Monarch was seeking his assistance in escorting someone through Et Serpentium and into Silva Volucris. They were afraid reptilians and mantids would make trouble for the individual, and Monarch wanted Sam to resolve all those troubles.
“Why me?” Vercedei asked. “Wouldn’t you be more suited for this kind of task?”
“It’s true I could help people through Et Serpentium,” Wendy said, nodding her head, “but, quite frankly, this mission is unimportant to Monarch’s bigger picture; my abilities are better used elsewhere. You have some repute in Et Serpentium, and reptilians will be inclined to leave you and those you’re traveling with alone, so I floated the idea of passing the request onto you.”
Should he thank her for bringing him a job? Although Sam wasn’t hurting for money, jobs were still nice. This one would give him a reason to explore and experience the world some more especially since the final destination of the journey was Silva Volucris. It was awfully convenient though that he was eventually planning on heading there to save Gregor but just so happened to receive a task leading him there as well.
“I’ll take it,” Vercedei said. “Who am I escorting?”
“A botanist,” Wendy said as she leaned forward and placed her finger on the stone tablet, adding some details into it through the use of her Sahasrara. “His name is Duke, and he has his own reasons for heading towards Silva Volucris. He didn’t share them with us, but we weren’t really interested in the why. The pay he offered wasn’t enough for us, and since James told me you wanted to go to Silva Volucris….”
“You passed him to me,” Vercedei said as the illusion of Sam nodded. “I’ll keep him safe.”
Hadn’t Wendy just said the reward Duke was offering wasn’t satisfactory for Monarch? If Vercedei accepted the request so easily, what did that make Sam? Someone who was only good enough to pick up a large company’s scraps? Well, Sam didn’t mind. Transporting the botanist was simply a bonus task; if he failed, and the botanist met with an unfortunate end, yeah, Sam would feel pretty bad, but it wasn’t like it’d be the end of the world. His main mission of absorbing the malachite the mantids recorded their history on would still be there. As for Gregor, well, Sam had the sneaking suspicion the mantid was only nice to him thanks to Joe’s ability making everyone too lazy to engage in conflict.
“Great,” Wendy said. “I’ll send the details to your assistant.”
The grayling standing in the corner of the room waved at Wendy when she gestured towards it with her chin.
“Alright,” Vercedei said. “Thanks for alerting me about this opportunity.”
“Any time,” Wendy said.
***
Linda held her hand out, and the ferret on the table in front of her stuck out its paw, placing the furrow limb atop her palm. The crystal shaper couldn’t help but wonder how Sam trained his animals. They were so well-behaved. Linda slid the anklet she had made for the creature up its leg. “Hold still,” she said, and she swore the creature nodded back at her. Linda took in a deep breath, and the anklet shifted, shrinking to fit the ferret’s ankle perfectly. “If you want to take it off, some grease should do the trick.”
The ferret pulled its left leg back and stood on its hindlegs while raising its paw up to get a better look at the accessory. It was made of moonstone, and the crystal glittered with glints of blue and purple light. Raindu looked at Linda and tilted its furry head.
“Are you asking me what it does?” Linda asked, a wry smile appearing on her face. “It’ll keep you safe at night. The sounds you make will be muted, and people are more likely to mistaken you for a part of the surroundings.”
Raindu chattered and nodded at Linda before hopping off the table. Then, an eagle flew onto the table, landing with a series of clacking sounds as its talons touched the wooden surface, leaving faint gauges wherever it walked. The eagle looked white thanks to the room’s lighting.
Linda picked up a necklace made of linked, golden chains. The chains were threaded through a hole within a whistle-shaped pendant, one made of lapis lazuli. The pendant was blue with golden streaks decorating its surface. Linda clasped the necklace around the bird’s neck before nodding to herself. The accessory fit perfectly, and thanks to the eagle’s unruly feathers, it’d be very difficult for the necklace to fall off by accident.
Birdbrained looked down at the necklace before standing up straight and puffing its chest out. Then, it let out a god-awful squawk that reverberated through the room, causing the walls and ceiling to tremble. A shiver ran down Linda’s spine as she cringed from the sound, feeling a bit of regret at how well she fulfilled Sam’s request to empower the bird’s voice. “With this necklace,” Linda said after lightly massaging the backs of her ears to adjust her hearing, “everyone will hear you loud and clear no matter what kind of ambient noise is around.”
Birdbrained squawked again and flapped its wings before hopping off the table.
Linda winced and watched the bird waddle its way over to Sam. She couldn’t help but feel as if she had gifted a child a trumpet, and now, they were going to make their parent’s life a musical hell. Oddly enough, it made her gleeful. She watched as the snake wrapped around Sam’s face made its way down his body, across the floor, up the table’s leg, and onto the wooden surface. It stared up at her with expectation in all four of its eyes.
Linda opened the small box on the table and revealed a piece of obsidian manipulated into the shape of a spring with one end narrower than the other. “I’ve never seen a snake wear any accessories before,” Linda said, “but I have seen reptilians wear these sorts of things on their tail.” The blue-eyed woman tilted her head. “Maybe you’ll like it?”
Vercedei and Werchbite exchange glances before coiling their body, extending their tail towards Linda. The blue-eyed woman slid the spring-like accessory onto the snake’s tail and activated her talent, manipulating the obsidian to fit flat against the snake’s body. Upon seeing the accessory fit perfectly, Linda imagined if she made two tiny crowns for the two snake heads as well, it’d look like old Egyptian royalty. Although the Earth had undergone a cataclysm, some bits of old-Earth culture had survived, and Linda regularly drew inspiration from jewelry made back then.
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“What does it do?” Vercedei asked.
Linda stared down at the talking snake. “You can talk?”
“You can too,” Vercedei said.
“Fair point,” Linda said and nodded. Why wouldn’t it be able to talk? It was a creature created by Sam’s talent, so it couldn’t be judged through normal standards. “This accessory protects you from negative thoughts and their influence. When people look at you, they’ll have a good impression rather than a bad one, and they won’t wish any ill upon you.”
“It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing,” Vercedei said. “Thanks.”
Linda wasn’t sure how to feel about the snake’s evaluation of her work. If someone else had said that about something she created, she’d definitely be upset, but she couldn’t help but feel as if the snake had a point. It was simply a spiral strip of obsidian without any overpowered effects. Truth be told, she hadn’t felt much inspiration while creating the snake its accessory. “Next time, I’ll make something better.”
“I look forward to it,” Vercedei said before the twin-headed snake slithered off the table.
Linda watched it return to Sam’s face, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Sam enjoyed having the snake on there. Why else would he put himself through that? The black-haired woman’s eyes shifted down towards the sloth on Sam’s stomach before looking at the accessory she had made for it on the table. After much consideration, she had decided to make it a selenite backpack with ruby straps. It could keep the sloth warm while still being useful for Sam since he could store things within the bag.
“I’ll bring this over,” Linda said and picked up her creation. Seeing as the sloth didn’t show any signs of moving, Linda went over and held the backpack out towards Sam. Together, they undid the sloth’s hug and slipped the backpack on before allowing the sloth to retake its position on Sam’s waist. “It has a temperature regulation function as you requested. I took some liberties and added a selenite pack. With it, you can store and cleanse crystals.”
“Cleanse crystals?” Vercedei asked, voicing Sam’s question.
“You don’t know about cleansing and charging crystals?” Linda asked, raising an eyebrow. “Crystals are a like an air filter. They have limited capacity, and they need to be cleansed. A crystal protects you from negative energies by absorbing them. To get rid of the trapped negativity, you have to cleanse your crystal. There are multiple ways: burning sage, letting it soak under running water, or placing it near selenite, a crystal which naturally disperses negativity.”
“I see,” Vercedei said for Sam.
“Good,” Linda said, nodding her head. “Not only do crystals need to be cleansed, but they need to be charged too. Crystals come with great abilities, but their power drains over time, and if you want them to still be as effective as the day you got them, you have to leave them out in the sun or bury them within the ground.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Vercedei said.
“Of course,” Linda said. “You helped me out with my problem. This is the least I can do to repay you.” She scanned the animals and their new accessories. “If anything breaks, let me know, and I’ll fix it for you. If you need any other custom accessories, I’ll make sure I have a slot available for you at all times.”
“I’ll be sure to use your services in the future,” Vercedei said. “By any chance, do you have anything useful for protecting myself from mantids? I’m heading to Silva Volucris.”
***
Duke sat on a bench, sipping on a thermos full of soup. He was dressed like a mercenary, wearing a thick, leather jacket perfect for protecting himself against a predator’s sharp claws. His pants were equally as thick, and although he looked a bit ridiculous under the blazing sun, no one paid him any attention. Mostly because his appearance wasn’t the nicest thing to look at.
Across from the park bench Duke was occupying, there was the entrance to the train station. Despite the horrific train derailment earlier in the year, people were still using the trains; after all, they had to get to work somehow, and the more days that went by without another accident, the more comfortable people got despite nothing having changed. The cause of the accident, and the human it was standing on, Raindu, happened to be across the street.
Duke screwed the cap back onto his thermos as he saw a man across the street raise a sign. It read, “Duke.” Sam, the S-ranked mercenary that Monarch had recommended to Duke, looked extremely plain in Duke’s eyes. Monarch’s representative had given Sam glowing reviews, and Duke wasn’t usually one to judge a book by their cover, but he couldn’t help but think the journey to Silva Volucris was going to be difficult. Duke was carrying a huge pack with everything he needed for a long trip, but Sam was … traveling light was an understatement. The man didn’t have a bag, and his pockets weren’t bulging. Maybe he wasn’t the escort and was simply someone leading Duke to his protection detail?
“Hello,” Duke said and waved as he was a few steps away from Sam. “I’m Duke. Are you Sam?”
The illusion of Sam nodded. “Are you ready to set off?” Vercedei asked. “We’ll be taking the train to Et Serpentium, and from there, we’ll ride a levistone to Silva Volucris.”
“You have it all planned out?” Duke asked, raising an eyebrow at the man in front of him. At some point, the sign had vanished, and he wasn’t quite sure where Sam had put it. Duke leaned from side to side, looking for the piece of paper he had sworn he had seen.
“I’ve prepared everything,” Vercedei said, “yes.”
“Forgive me for being a bit doubtful,” Duke said and stared at Sam’s empty hands, “but you don’t look like you’re ready to go on a journey to Silva Volucris at all.”
“Oh?” Vercedei asked. “And how should I look to meet your standards?”
“Well,” Duke said and wet his lips with his tongue, the action causing his sparse mustache to glisten, “I understand the journey to Silva Volucris will take several weeks, but … it looks like you haven’t even brought a single change of underwear.”
“Is underwear a necessity to reaching Silva Volucris?” Vercedei asked. “What if I’m not wearing any right now?”
For some reason, Duke was regretting hiring this fellow. However, he paid a lot, and there were no refunds allowed, so he had to suck it up because he didn’t have enough funds to plan a second trip. “No, no,” Duke said. “It’s just an expression.” He gestured towards the entrance to the train station. “Shall we? Our train departs soon.”
“Let’s,” Vercedei said as the illusion of Sam turned to the side, gesturing for Duke to go first.
The two made their way through the station and onto the train departing for Et Serpentium, getting their own personal booth with two beds inside on either side of the booth walls. Sam took a seat on the bed across from Duke before lying down. As for the illusion Werchbite was projecting, it remained sitting upright. “Have you ever been to Et Serpentium before?” Vercedei asked.
“Never,” Duke said and shook his head. “Have you?” Before Vercedei could even answer, Duke scoffed. “Of course, you have; otherwise, what am I paying you for?” After a brief pause, Duke made eye contact with the illusion of Sam. “Right? You’ve been there before?”
“I have,” Vercedei said.
“Is it true they grow tapeworms inside of humans?” Duke asked. “I heard those worms are a delicacy to the reptilians like noodles.”
“Meaty noodles,” Vercedei said as the illusion of Sam grinned, causing Duke to make a face. “It’s true, but only some reptilians consider those tapeworms a delicacy. Much like humans, reptilians are their own people, and they tend to group with other reptilians who have similar values as them.”
Duke nodded his head. “And the reptilian friends you said would aid us in passing through Et Serpentium…,” Duke said, dragging out his words. When he realized Sam wasn’t going to respond, Duke finished his question. “They belong to the group that doesn’t eat humans, right?”
“Obviously,” Vercedei said. “Unless, of course, this is a trick to sell you as produce to reptilians, which it isn’t.”
Duke’s expression darkened. If it isn’t, then why even mention it? Now, he was nervous; what if this was a scam to sell him off to the reptilians? “Very funny,” the man said and sighed. He looked at Sam. “So, did you bring anything to occupy yourself on the way there? I heard it takes a few days, almost a week to get there by train.”
“Why would I need to bring anything when I have you for company?” Vercedei asked. “I’m curious. What are you going to Silva Volucris for?”
Duke stared at Sam with an expressionless face. Was the person he had hired planning on talking to him the whole trip there? Well, it wouldn’t hurt to get to know him better. If he established a personal connection with Sam, then maybe, if danger appeared, Sam would be more willing to help him out of a pinch; after all, the money was already paid, and if Duke died, no one would try to get the money back from Sam. …There really wasn’t an incentive for Sam to protect Duke, was there? Suddenly, Duke felt like he was making a bad decision, but the train had already departed.