The main experimental area of Prosperity 9 was well-lit and cleaned for my use. After getting rid of the experiments on the botanical hybrids of plants from different planets on the lab’s massive table, I had a suitable workspace to perform experiments on the weapons.
I flipped the switch on the table and its glass and marble surface lit up with the lights hidden underneath. I always liked the way lab lights shined, so pure and white. It was as if they allowed the true nature of things to be discovered. With the lights on and the room decontaminated and sealed from the rest of the ship, I set the three weapons on the table and marveled that even here they hung suspended, floating together.
“Wow,” I couldn’t help but say as I grabbed a brick-sized metal box from underneath the table. On its surface was a little switch that I turned, activating the batteries inside and turning the magnetic tape. “Testing, testing.”
The recording device I’d bought during my last visit to Ieral on the planet Home seemed to be functioning properly. “Experiment beginning with the three weapons onboard laboratory vessel Prosperity 9,” I said into the recorder. “The three objects seem to be floating despite the lack of any external energy source. This is consistent with prior knowledge of the objects.” I went on to describe, in detail, the way the weapons looked.
Seeing the three weapons up close and in such an uninhibited fashion allowed me to predict what material the weapons were made of. I had thought for a very long time that the materials were simply steel coated in an advanced metal.
I raised my lens to my eye and used it to magnify the curling white Pure Crown. I took another lens, one that could see deeper, and aided my blessed one. The material looked metal but was too light. It felt like bone but my close examination showed no fibrous material, no grains in the arches and braces. Close up analysis could not prove what it was made out of. The only thing I could say with conclusive evidence was that the large jewel in the center of the crown was a diamond. Other than that, it remained a mystery.
Turning to Law, I followed the same procedure. This time the opposite happened. The blade was actually made of gold. The grooves on the surface and a reaction to hydrogen peroxide proved this. The shocking thing about this conclusion was not that the materials were real and known, it was that they possessed qualities these materials have never shown. All my analyses concluded that Law was a solid piece of gold.
“However,” I stated into the recorder, “if it is solid gold then it would not be very solid.” I removed Law from the other two weapons, looking at it closely. When I held it, the other two weapons fell to the table, no longer floating. I noted this. “Experiment one with Law. I will now test its durability.”
I took a hammer, a simple steel blacksmith’s hammer, and lightly tapped the golden blade. Nothing happened but a slight ping. “Experiment two: greater force behind the impact.” I hit the blade harder: same result. “Experiment three: force amplified tenfold.”
I hit the blade as hard as I could. The hammer flew out of my hand with a cracking sound, bouncing against the hull and shattering one of my beakers. Luckily it was empty. I looked down at the spot where I’d hit the blade and found not a mark, not even a nick. “Results: Law is made of pure gold but is resilient to a degree never found in this material. Further experimentation required.”
Setting Law back on the table, I moved on to Heartsflame. With this crimson blade I took utmost care. Before I even touched it, I strapped on a pair of sturdy leather gloves and a pair of glass goggles. The dagger’s jewel seemed glowing, flames swirling on the hilt.
I set about the same procedure as before but with much greater care for my personal safety. After examining the blade, I was inconclusive on what material it was. It had similar qualities as steel but lacked the usual grooves and imperfections left from a forger’s hammer. I was most satisfied with a discovery made about the hilt, however. In a remote region of Triumph, a Red Prophet had discovered a way to use a certain metal that was incredibly rare. We found records of it all over the seven worlds and only recently discovered its qualities and the difference between it and silver. This metal was platinum, and it lined the hilt and handle of Heartsflame.
The jewel at the hilt I first suspected to be a ruby. However, upon closer inspection, I found that it lacked the contours of such a gemstone. It seemed more like a red diamond for its durability. Yet its crimson, almost glowing insides lacked the light-bending qualities of a diamond. In the end I could only classify it as an unknown jewel.
“A little disappointing,” I said into the recorder as I set Heartsflame beside the other two weapons. “However, the discovery of platinum in the dagger should be helpful.” I looked at the dagger for a few seconds, thinking about hitting it with a hammer as well. Remembering what happened when I hit Law, I decided hitting the single most deadly object in the universe with a hammer would be an unwise action, for now.
“Bisha,” I said, reaching out to the Red Prophet with my telekinetic connection. “How goes the distraction?”
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“We just told them we want a feast prepared before we come out. They’re making roast turkey!” Bisha declared, laughing.
“How is Malcheon?”
“Playing along. Get this. He’s the High Chancellor Mardoff and I’m the Supreme High Chancellor Gordo.”
“Bisha, those aren’t Prosperin titles. They don’t even sound like Prosperin names.”
“I know! We should have tricked Manessa like this years ago!”
“Good. Keep me informed. And, Bisha?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t get too carried away.”
“You forget, I’m on the Sept, not you.”
“Yes, and if you wish to continue sitting in that chair you should probably tune out for a while.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tell me when you’re finished,” Bisha said as I tuned him out.
“Right,” I said into the recorder, flipping it back on. “The first series of experiments will be designed to test the Prophet powers of each of the three weapons. Past analysis done unintentionally through Ambassador Jasper’s actions have concluded that individuals not of the same Prophet color can still use these Prophet weapons. Hypothesis: this is due to the fact that Prophet weapons are Blessed using the powers granted by these three weapons. Essentially, their power is universally usable whereas everyday Prophet weapons must be attuned to an individual user.”
I took off my lens, my Blessed weapon, and picked up the Pure Crown. “Test one: the Pure Crown.” My breath was light as I set the weightless object on my brow. It sat neatly, able to rest on my scalp without adjustment and felt strangely comfortable against my head.
“I will now attempt to shift to Mother.”
I didn’t even have to blink. Simply thinking about shifting to that planet made me suddenly appear in a village full of those empathetic peoples. I had apparently interrupted a wedding, so I quickly returned to the lab.
“Success.” I jotted this result on my notes. “Now, shields.” Without effort, I created a forcefield around Prosperity 9. “Hmm. Further proof is required of its power. Shifting to the surface of Sevens’s sun.”
If I were a wiser man, I wouldn’t have done this. However, with the shield pumping as powerfully as the Pure Crown could, I shifted to the surface of Sevens’s sun. The images I saw will stay in my memory for the rest of my life, and permanently scar my retinas.
“Success,” I said as I returned, blinking, to Prosperity 9. Further testing showed that the Pure Crown enabled easy telekinesis and communication. It was, essentially, able to do everything a White could do but more easily and with greater power.
“Test two: Law.” I set the crown down and picked up the golden sword. It was heavy, and difficult to wield with my weak arms. But after a few swings my limited fencing experience enabled me to hold it in what I assumed was a capable stance. “Now attempting healing.”
Like I said, if I were a wiser scientist, I wouldn’t have done actions such as this. Taking a knife I normally used to cut leaves and twigs in my experiments, I stabbed myself in the stomach.
“Okay,” I groaned as I allowed myself to bleed, “I am experiencing intense pain in my abdominal region. Attempting to heal now.” All it took was allowing my mind to clear, as Golds were taught, and focus on healing. The idea was pretty prominent in my mind so this came easily, and in half a moment my wound was sealed, my blood dried on my healed stomach. Even my retinas returned to their pre surface of the sun state. “Success.”
After attempting similar injuries, I found the same results. I won’t describe how I carried out the next experiment, that of healing others. I will simply state that I still had that knife and I had a pet rabbit named Ginger. She was not harmed. Permanently.
“Success,” I stated as I returned the angry rabbit to her cage, the healing experiment done surprisingly easily.
After this, I tested the weapon’s ability to endow strength by shifting back to Mother with the Pure Crown. I uprooted three large trees before I concluded that this was a true capability of Law. With one swing of the blade, I also tested its ability to send out energy blasts. I really hope that particular forest was uninhabited because I’m pretty sure I knocked over three acres of vegetation in one swing.
Setting aside the sword for a moment, I moved on to testing Heartsflame. I could not test its killing capabilities, as I would lose my rabbit forever. However, Ginger was more than able to test its stunning powers. A quick shift later, back to that same forest, I tested its blasting power and its speed powers. Heartsflame enabled me to set flame to the remains of the forest and swing my arm in a strike at approximately two hundred meters per second.
“Hmm,” I said, watching the forest burn. “This could end poorly.” It was at that moment that I remembered another quality of the Reds: draining. Though this ability was usually reserved for people, I hypothesized it could work with draining any form of energy.
I raised the dagger toward the growing fire and allowed my energies to flow through the metal, reaching out for the flames. In seconds, the fire arced toward the tip of the dagger and flew into it. With the fury of the fire absorbed into the dagger, I examined the glowing tip of the blade.
“Hmm,” I said. “Final experiment with Heartsflame: testing the increased power due to the absorbed energy.”
I raised the dagger into the air and fired a blast. I calculated that the force of the explosion I set off a hundred yards away equaled several tons of TNT. All that done with only the fire and very little of Heartsflame’s energy behind it.
“Okay,” I said into my recorder as I returned to the lab. “And now I shall do non-Prophet experiments.”
“These tests will be intended to test the physical attributes of the three objects,” I said into my recorder. “Experiment number one: absolute zero test. This test will demonstrate the three weapons’ ability to withstand the vacuum of outer space. In theory, this will not alter them. However, these being supposedly deity-granted objects, their presence in space might have unexpected consequences.”
Nothing happened.
The Pure Crown wasn’t even cold. Law got warm. Heartsflame got freezing cold but quickly warmed when I brought it back in through the airlock.
“Vacuum experiment conclusion: inconclusive,” I said into the recorder as I walked over to the ceramic and concrete kiln in the corner of the lab. “On to experiment series three: heat infusion. I will now submit each of the three weapons individually to the intense heat of eighteen hundred degrees Kelvin.”