The first thing the party did after Ianna’s declaration was to gather up the broken and mangled bodies of the countless butterflies that had attacked them. It was more tedious than anything else with many of their bodies rendered quite fragile by the death magic that Ianna had thrown around during the fight. After collecting the ones that were whole enough to be distinguishable, Ianna set to work touching each of them one at a time. There wasn’t a way to mass loot despite all of her various powers, not that she didn’t try. Having Nephral touch them as an extension of herself proved fruitless so she figured doing the same with her mockeries was an equal waste of time.

In the end, the butterflies were rendered down into a pile of white powder and a window appeared to show Ianna her gains.

You have acquired: [Aspect Shard] x 27

A shard of raw power used to unlock a new ability.

You have acquired: [Shardsipper Chitin Fiber] Crafting Reagent x 108

A fibrous compound extracted from the wings of a Shardsipper Butterfly. It is highly reactive to aspect abilities and has a variety of uses in alchemy and other crafting professions.

You have acquired: [Aspect Stone of The Hungering] Aspect Stone, Epic Rarity

Consume this stone to gain access to the [The Hungering] Aspect Tree.

Ianna’s expression went through several shifts before she barked out an almost anxiety ridden laugh, she turned to the others, wide-eyed and rubbed her chin. “W-well! Seems we’ve found ourselves a gold mine,” she laughed again and ran her fingers through her hair before narrowing her eyes. “This was beneath her tomb. Was she holding onto this place?” she clicked her tongue and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she paced back and forth, mulling over the implications of the loot screen.

Azrael, who had made herself a seat nearby, was in the midst of sharpening her knives when she looked up and raised a hand. Ianna turned and pointed a finger to her, “You have a question?”

“What did we get?” Azrael asked.

“Lets see,” Ianna said coyly and tapped her lip with a long fingernail, “A buttload of rare crafting ingredients, to start. Perry and Sari are going to be pleased,” she said before opening her inventory and plucking out a pair of aspect shards. She turned and tossed them over to Mack and Delilah who gasped and quickly snatched them out of the air. They looked down at the rare items with amazement, “About one in four of the butterflies dropped those.”

Azrael hopped to her feet, “One in four?” she blurted.

“Ayep,” Ianna said with a chuckle and met her sister’s gaze. Azrael had gone serious, her expression a mixture of contemplative and apologetic. Ianna rolled her eyes, “You couldn’t keep them all for me, it’s fine. It was only a couple levels. I’ll catch up.”

Azrael sighed, “You’ve only used one this level, right?” she asked.

“Mhm,” Ianna said and plucked another out of her inventory, examining it thoughtfully, “I’ve got some abilities I’ve been itching to unlock but made sure to increase my bloodline first. Can’t wait to use these.”

“I hope we find more,” Azrael said.

Ianna gestured around to the other floating islands surrounding the garden, “I have a good feeling we will. Might be able to stock up enough to send home and reinforce our people. Do you want one?”

Azrael held up her hands, “Oh, no. My hunting work has given me what I needed.”

Ianna shrugged and glanced over at Miranda, holding the shard out. Miranda shook her head and smiled, contenting herself with just observing. Ianna put the shard back in her inventory. There would be a better time for it later and she really wanted to look at the last item she’d acquired. She opened her inventory and plucked the [Aspect Stone of The Hungering] out, the stone falling into her hand. It was… beautiful. It looked like a diamond filled with inner facets that refracted a wild array of colors even in the lowest light. She rolled it between her fingers before looking towards Mack and Delilah. “Got an aspect stone.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The two looked up.

“What is it?” Delilah asked.

“I’ll read off the prompt,” Ianna said.

You do not meet the requirements to consume this [Aspect Stone of The Hungering]

This Aspect Stone contains the ravenous hunger of The Hungering.

Requirements: [None] as per [Spark of the Outsider]

You are unable to awaken this aspect as you have awakened your full suite of Aspects.

“The Hungering?” Miranda asked, “What’s that?”

“No idea,” Ianna said, “Anybody?”

Everyone else shook their heads.

“Well, its definitely uh… pretty,” Ianna said, “Looks a lot like the shardsipper butterfly wings. I wonder if it has anything to do with their abilities. They seem able to drink from aspect shards and gain powers or something like that. Based on the name anyway,” she scratched her chin before turning to the pair of heroes in training, “You want it?”

Mack and Delilah looked at one another. Mack shook his head, “I get the feeling we’re going to find plenty of aspect stones in this dungeon if we found one in the first space. There’s no need using the first one we find, right? We can hold onto it until later.”

Ianna nodded approvingly, “Good call. Speaking of later though,” she said and turned to the garden around them, “How the heck are we supposed to get to the next island? I don’t think we’re supposed to fly. I could walk over but I wouldn’t be able to bring any of you with me,” she said and cast [Glasswalker] for emphasis, panels of hard light forming beneath her feet. She stepped up them like a staircase before dismissing the spell and landing back on the ground. “There’s gotta be some sort of teleporter or something around here.”

Mack got to his feet, “Then lets start looking around! Now that the monsters at the entry are dead I really want to explore. I didn’t even know dungeons like this existed! I thought they were all creepy dark hallways and tunnels,” he paused and gave Ianna an apologetic look, “No offense.”

She put her hands on her hips, “It’s a classic design aesthetic!” she protested before scratching her nose and turning away, “...and the least expensive kind I can make.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing!” Ianna blurted and turned away, marching towards the hedges that surrounded the space around the gazebo, “Moving on!”

Azrael chuckled as she fell into step with her, “In your defense, the only dungeons we’ve explored were underground, creepy, and filled with tunnels. It’s not your fault they’re your reference point.”

Ianna crossed her arms, “I feel like you’re saying I’m not creative.”

Azrael held up her hands, “Oh, no no no, why would I say that?”

Ianna pouted as they passed the first row of hedges and into the main part of the flower garden. They paused a moment to admire the scenery. Hundreds of flowers in bushes and growing straight out of the ground glittered and glowed in the light that shone down from above. They looked like they were made from crystal themselves but still seemed to sway and flutter in what little wind was present. Ianna approached one that looked like a rose. It had a faint red-orange hue to it. She touched it, running her fingers over the soft petals.

“I feel like they should be hard like stone,” she murmured and used identify.

[Aspect Flower] Crafting Reagent, Plant, Legendary

Over time this flower will bud into an aspect shard. The dew from this plant can be collected and used for alchemy. After aging significantly this flower will transfigure into an Aspect Stone related to fire.

She pulled her hand away, “Hoh,” she breathed and rubbed her fingers together. She could feel the slick dew between them, it tingled against her skin energetically. She turned to the others and explained what she’d found and they immediately spread out to examine the other flowers.

Azrael frowned next to her, staring at the flower, “This garden is an armory.”

“Yes, it is,” Ianna said uneasily, “That woman’s armory. She was expecting to come back in some way and she wanted to be able to equip whatever servants she acquired.”

“This could have strengthened her nation. Paraklytus never mentioned anything like it. Do you think he knew about it?” Azrael asked.

“I doubt it,” Ianna said, “Seems like a royal secret kind of thing.”

“True.”

“Hey!” Mack called from a few garden patches away. They turned to see him waving just in front of what looked like a garden arch. “I think I found the way to the next area!”

Ianna and Azrael exchanged a look, “Keep that to yourself,” Ianna said and Azrael nodded as the two of them made their way over. What else did she hide? What else can I take? What else is in here? Is this all that’s left of her legacy?

Her lips twitched into a hungry smile. Guess I’ll find out soon.