While her crew drank off the trauma of their second encounter with a greater being, Cira raided the house with the help of the Archaean Kuja, who was scarce more than a personable basket-holder for this stage of the process. Mac was just along for the ride, but they had made steady progress.
Rictor the geomancer was tasked with running everything they found upstairs and Joe had joined in at some point. They were currently in the alchemy workshop with all the cupboards open and frivolous junk strewn about the floor.
“The treasures found in your forge were remarkable,” Kuja said with a scrunched-up face as she set a strange looking mushroom back down on the table, “but what do you hope to find in here?”
“I know It's in here somewhere!” Cira cried as her legs hung out of a cabinet. A plethora of spoons scattered across the floor as she dug ever deeper into the recesses of things she hadn’t touched in years. “I distinctly remember hiding it so I wouldn’t do something stupid with it.”
Her father was never the best at keeping track of his great many things, so while he surely did his best to put anything Cira shouldn’t mess with in his archive before he passed, a few choice items had already fallen through the cracks.
Was stealing wrong? Yes, of course. Was it really stealing if it was her dad’s, and it never left the house? Debatable, but yes. In practice however, the line grew progressively thin as dust collected on especially pretty rocks.
“Tell me, which of these absurd materials are you going to check off the list next?” The woman had seemingly aged… an indeterminate number of years upon compiling the list and for some reason, she grew increasingly concerned with each item they checked off. “You could buy out half the Gandeux with just this much. You said there was a treasury?”
While she’s obviously exaggerating, I get her point. My dad sure left me a lot of weird stuff, but it’s not like I don’t burn through it. Cira would never melt down something sentimental, but Gazen knew what would become of his materials. That’s what they were for after all. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m a pirate now. I need to bring some treasure of my own home.
“Aha!” Cira hopped out of the cupboard with a huge smile on her face holding a large translucent stone that glimmered the color of rose petals. “I told you I had it!”
“And that is…?” Kuja held a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other—this was something of an inert artificing needle for mundane purposes.
“Lavendite. From a naturally occurring vein, I’m told.” Cira held it like a baby, or perhaps a particularly large radish from the garden. “This was the one I was really worried about sending shores to find anyway.”
“I still don’t know what it is… You made it sound dangerous.” The stone wasn’t see-through quite like glass was. It was more difficult to discern its form and the edges didn’t stand out much. It looked more like an aether-hewn image when one spent too long staring at it. So, Kuja was understandably looking at it with caution. Perceiving such a thing was a novel experience for the long-lived woman.
“So, surely your people knew that there are other ways to ‘enhance’ the soul, as it were.”
She stared at her blankly, “Th-there are…? Ways that are safe?”
“Of course, though the effects are limited, and you are greatly restrained by that ‘essence volatility’ I mentioned before. Meaning it can be done in small measure and infrequently, but it is possible.” Cira held the stone up to the light and admired it, but it was as heavy as it was beautiful, so she set it down, “Lavendite is one such material that can be used to modify your soul. In the past I used it to increase my aura, under Dad’s supervision of course.”
“Something like that… Can be done so simply?” Now Kuja marveled at the otherworldly rock on the table, “Was everything my ancestors did so foolish?”
“I wouldn’t look at it like that. To this day I have never seen more of this stuff. Maybe there’s some stashed deeper in the archive, but either way it’s nothing that would impress your ancestors, I’m sure. Most of my aura was accumulated through training and to the best of my knowledge, my lifespan is normal.”
“Pff—” Mac suppressed a laugh in her mind, “Sorry, that’s just a very odd thing to hear from someone whose lifespan is counted in weeks.”
“You were doing great as the silent shoulder spider.” I don’t like the sound of that at all. What’s the deal? “I didn’t think I had a whole year, but half that sounded reasonable. What do you mean weeks?”
“If anyone told you that you had a year left to live, they were an amateur at best.” Kuja’s expression fell—evidently, he was in her mind as well.
“No need to be rude.” Cira defended her, “Not everyone is made of soul crystal with eight eyes that are also made of soul crystal.”
“Excuse me? What is ‘soul crystal’? What are you going on about?” The crystalline soul spider said.
“That’s not important.” The lavendite fit nicely in one of her baskets and she lifted it off the table. “We should go upstairs and get someone out on the winds as quickly as possible.”
Joe and Rictor stared nervously at the pile of treasure on the floor, but Cira pressed on to the front door. As soon as it opened, the drunken ruckus quieted down and her crew stared timidly at the approaching sorcerer—more specifically at her shoulder.
“Okay, guys, I’m sorry about the prank.” She apologized again.
“Hardly a prank!” Jimbo was still upset, “Why you got that damn thing on your shoulder now like it’s some pet?! Wasn’t it sealed away for a reason?”
“Don’t worry, I got him cursed up all nice and tidy.” Cira’s smile didn’t win them over, so she tried a thumbs up to no avail. “It’s fine. He basically is my pet now, for all intents and purposes. More importantly, he will aid us in our quest—which we will get to in a moment. I need the captains and James to come inside.”
“I’m still a captain, you know.” James got up, less than enthused, “Got a ship and everything.”
It took a little coaxing, but they eventually came closer and Cira forced a round of introductions. They all stood on Cira’s opposite side still, but at least they weren’t running.
“So, uh, Mac is it?” Jimbo asked nervously, “You don’t actually want to eat our souls?”
“Of course I do.” He replied casually as they all froze in place, “I just can’t. Worst case, I have to wait until this girl dies. Could be any day, really, but I have time.”
“Stop scaring them,” Cira scolded him then turned back to the crew, “And hurry up, he literally can’t do anything to you.”
From her shoulder, the spider thought she wasn’t being fair, “What, was I supposed to lie to them? Oh wait—I can’t.” A sudden gust of wind left him to scuttle around and regain his footing as Cira blew on her shoulder.
When she led everyone to the living room, their jaws dropped. “What in the nine skies is this?!” James had already started pulling out his hair, “No, actually what even is half of this?”
“Materials that we do have for the partial soul forge.”
“You call this materials…?” Jimbo was practically drooling.
“Are you insatiable? Didn’t you recently acquire a boat full of treasure in the last month?” Is it just a pirate’s instinct? Maybe he should sell some and see how he feels. “Luckily, I found plenty of mithril, but the adamantine is really cutting it close. I’ll have to melt down that cube of yours for the titanite so toss it in. I found most of the gems, though it will take the last of my skyhaze opal. Let’s see… This really pretty one is called lavendite.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“So… what are we supposed to do with all this?” Jimbo asked.
“Nothing. There are materials I yet require. Shores, you were pretty big-time before you joined up, right? Think you can help me out?” She handed him a curated list with five items on it.
“Um, I don’t know if big-time is how I would put it, but… I have blessed silver aplenty, and Rinspar should be easy enough to buy at any decent sized town with a smithy.” He looked at her uneasy for a moment, “The stellar quartz… A fence I work with occasionally down past Dolliver showed me a piece once. If we can find it, it will be crazy expensive. Is this something you can’t do without?”
One could say it’s the most important part of the artifact, “Sadly, it’s the only pure-mana attuned gem that can interfere with the soul unless we seek out crystallized death mana and refine it. That would be impossible without my aura.”
“Right… I think I get it.” He cleared his throat and returned to the list, “The, uh, white gold is going to be a problem, though.”
Not to be confused with gold which is slightly lighter in shade, white gold is much stronger and boasts a shimmering white like pearl. They only call it gold because its mana conduction qualities are identical. Cira urged him to continue.
“Well, we could try to break into a paladins' armory and hope they have some… but it’s likely to be bloody and I… somewhat doubt our success. I really don’t want to slight the Lord Afar any more than I already have, either.”
“You don’t have to be so nervous. It sounds like a bad idea. Isn’t there any other way to get it? It’s not very rare.” If I recall, it’s commonly used in artifact machinery.
“It’s rare up here. between the church and Earth Vein—”
“Say no more.” Cira cut him off, “If we have to choose between robbing the church or Earth Vein, the choice is obvious.”
“I know you slapped them around a bit,” Jimbo commented, “but anywhere Earth Vein’s got valuables, they got witches. Are you ready to take one on? ‘Cause we sure as hell ain’t.”
“It’s not that…” Shores laced his fingers together and let out a sigh, “I know for a fact Captain Wick has some. That cold bastard attacked the Oleander cathedral—tossed everyone off and stripped it clean.”
“No way, that was him?!” The news apparently shocked Jimbo, “I always wondered what happened.”
Cira was lost though, and it showed on her face. “Is that a Final Sky place or something? Do they use a lot of machines…?”
He was at a loss for a moment, “What? No. Well, the Oleander was a Final Sky cathedral everyone passed on their way up the Boreal. Now it’s just a burned up rock. The church uses white gold as armor though.”
“Ah, I guess works alright with holy. There are better options though…” Cira couldn’t help but ponder the flaws in their methods from a far-removed perspective.
“It looks really nice.” He shrugged.
Can’t argue with that. “Okay, so we have to rob Wick’s treasury after all. That’s annoying.”
They looked at her aghast, but regret of having ever gotten involved with this was swirling behind James’ eyes, “Annoying? How about suicidal?!”
“No way. We just have to not get caught.” Stealing is wrong, but when you do it, it must be done right. “I haven’t had a good heist in ages.”
“A heist?! You think it will be that simple?” James was about to blow steam out of his ears, and even Shores found doubt in his heart for this plan, regardless of if it was his beloved saint who came up with it. The uncertainty on his face was pointed to Cira for answers.
“Not just any heist… The perfect heist.” Some may consider perfect to be full marks, meaning the objective was completed to one hundred percent. But no, the perfect heist is one where you find something you never knew you needed but can’t live without. Well, to define a perfect heist one should also consider getting away clean and unnoticed with the item they were looking for, but that was a requirement to call it a heist in the first place as far as Cira was concerned. “We can come up with the plan later. If stellar quartz is the problem, I take it to mean you should have no trouble finding the vestigial nectar? That’s a surprise.”
“Right… What is that?”
Cira sighed. I had a bad feeling about this one… “Damn. I knew it. Go ask any of your mages if they have heard of it.”
He nodded and ran outside while everyone else waiting while her crew still nervously glanced at the pile of treasure on the floor. When he returned, his face already gave it away, “They have not…”
“Well, that could be a serious problem.” According to her studies, vestigial nectar needed to sit in the bottom of the essence loom like a small basin—it kept the mithril wires coated. She could actually go hunting for this ingredient somewhere up the Dead Belt if she wanted, but there was no way of knowing how long it would take.
On many old islands, inhabited or not, a plant known as the first flower would sprout. This supposedly happened after millennia and only if the soil was right, but it could happen anywhere in the sky according to Gazen. When sprouted, this flower seemed to grow on its own regardless of sun or total darkness—hot or cold didn’t matter. It just grew, and was never recorded to spread naturally as others flowers might. Its nectar seems to serve no purpose real purpose throughout its life cycle; hence, vestigial.
The book denoted its purpose as allowing the enchanted mithril to pass through one’s essence without disrupting its reformation. All in all, a pretty critical component. Her crew didn’t quite understand, but the importance got through. Cira proceeded to frown at her next thought, “I hate to say it, but I have a lead on where to find some.”
“Really?” Jimbo had hardly caught up to speed, “It sounds rare. I don’t think I’ve seen one before even after you described it.”
“Do you remember that freakishly large man we fought in the deritium chamber?” One book led to another and she learned that vestigial nectar had more than one strangely niche application. While it possessed the ability to interact with one’s essence—which was just the body and soul in synergy—without disturbing it, that came with some serious implications.
One could also use it to numb the effects certain changes upon the soul. Theoretically this could compliment lavendite nicely with a little alchemical trial and error, but it could also be used to make changes to the corporea without fragmenting the soul.
“Yeah… How could I forget?” Jimbo was like a spider monkey scaling a golem to fight that guy.
“I have reason to believe vestigial nectar was used to modify his body. Likely by whoever was buying the deritium.” Cira had a bad feeling that this problem wouldn’t escape her, but she didn’t expect to have to rely on it. “You guys have had a lot of time around Don’s crew. Have you been able to figure out who the buyer was?”
“Shit, Tom would know anything if it turned up.” Jimbo said.
Fortunately, there was someone that could be relied on in their midst—James, “I had him keep me in the loop. We have no idea who was buying it… but we do know where they were meeting. Same time every month. If they haven’t heard the news about Don, they’ll probably show up."
“And how likely is that?”
“Fifty-fifty… Someone brought a newspaper in a couple weeks back and there was no mention of ‘deritium’. It talked about Don’s fall, but they say the Black Scourge was taken over, not destroyed. If that red stuff was something they really want, I’d say our chances aren’t too bad that they at least come looking around.”
“Perfect.” I love when a plan comes together. “So, we’ll beat them up and force information out of them. Find out who the buyers really are, rob them and leave, then come back with my aura to destroy them, assuming it's as bad as I surmise.”
“It’s real simple when you say it like that. But… That’s all we got.” He shook his head, “They should arrive in three days.”
“Great timing.” Cira dusted her hands off, “That takes care of our materials then. Shores, can I trust you to gather the first three items? We’ll all work on the last two together.”
“I wished to serve you more directly…” he clenched his fist, “but I will see this done swiftly so I may return to you.”
“One could argue I’ve entrusted you with my entire life.” Cira gave him an assured nod and he began to tremble, “Godspeed, Reverand. I’m counting on you.”
I really am. Maybe I shouldn’t place so much trust in people I met the day before? I knew Jimbo for a day overall, and he was my lifeline when I washed up here. When in doubt, she always went with her gut.
Shores had already run out the door and Cira heard the gate to her garden open within seconds. “Now then, I want to check out that Necropolis. We need to get a gauge on the obstacles before us.”
Cira had everybody gear up for their first day of potential battle while she went downstairs to do the same. She had already plucked a few choice side weapons for the day, but she was still a sorcerer. Just as Prismagora could collect light from the sun, she knew her father had a staff that worked the same with shadows.
He never used it because it was, well, not very useful. He could do the same with his hand. It had none of the bells and whistles that the light staff did, and its output was considerably lackluster in comparison. Cira had never seen it used in the vicinity of a dark mana well, however. Any magic was better than no magic at the end of the day.
There it is… I knew he wouldn’t get rid of it. In the back of his closet there was an all-black staff resting against a stand. It looked more like a ruin eater than any kind of wood or metal in that it was such a pure, dark black. The core focus at the top was a sleek onyx cut like a diamond.
“Oh, and I even get to wear the robes?” Cira didn’t feel like taking the time to sew anything, but this set of robes could easily be repurposed as a tapestry. All Cira had to do was wrap it around herself a few times and she was a certified dark sorcerer. It took a couple tries to get the folds just right so it draped down over her shoulders and mostly looked like an outfit, but she was satisfied with how it turned out and returned upstairs.
“Geez, some pirate.” Jimbo gave her a funny look.
“Dark Beam!” A ray of darkness about the size of her pinky finger shot out from the onyx and one of the buttons on his coat pocket crumbled to dust.
“What the hell?!” He dusted it off and flapped his pocket uselessly, “Prank James next time.”
“I’ll be sure to. Now are you all ready?”
Her paladins kneeled in response, and the others cheered enthusiastically. Well, Tawny didn't, but she had already shuffled her way over to Jimbo to make sure his button was okay. The revenants watched closely as she led the larger group out of the garden and down the steps.
From this point on, they would be fully encased in darkness with Kuja as their guide and only lifeline. Cira was restless with anticipation and the nerves of embarking on a truly dangerous adventure started to bubble up as she took her first step into the shadows.