After a nice, long rest, Cira opened the door to the training hall—

“Oh thank, the gods!” The stream of iron falling from Rictor’s hand stopped and he slumped to the floor.

“Aghh, finally!!” The brothers held each other and wept as they too fell to the ground.

“Lords afar, mercy at last!” Her paladins did the same.

“GRAHHHH!!!”

Ten mages laid on the hard stone floor in various stages of unconsciousness while Cira watched the spectacle come to a still with wide eyes. “Er, I take it they made it through…?”

Kuja blinked with a similar expression, looking up from the book she held with one hand. The light trailing above her other died out at that moment and she let out a big yawn. “Indeed, Child, though I think this may have been a little harsh.”

“Yeah, these guys had a pretty bad time.” James got up from his chair with bags under his eyes, “I don’t feel like I learned a whole lot either.”

“I-I did!” Skipper’s bug eyes filled the goggles that took up half his face, and his delirious smile did more than put everyone on edge. He still held a paladin’s hand as he lay on the floor, but the sword they both clutched still glowed with holy light.

“Well done!” Cira offered him a little clap of the hands, “You’ve already surpassed Jimbo! Speaking of…”

She gave him a pointed glance and his arms were crossed proudly, “I finished the book. I really finished it! Can I cast the spell now?”

“Give it a try!” Excitement was in the air and a second student was on the cusp of a major breakthrough. It was a great thing to see first thing in the morning.

“Nary wind nor storm—” Thud!

His face hit the table. “Darn, I thought he had it.” Cira wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t a particularly high-cost spell, so that meant he channeled mana at least somewhat throughout the night. Moreover, he channeled enough into the spell to pass out. It was a valiant effort.

“Well, I’m off to bed.” James left to presumably find a place on the couch. Joe already snored next to Jimbo while Skipper was busy chasing the high that was magic, staring into the golden light rapturously.

“You try to get some rest too, Skipper.” Cira didn’t want an unsupervised novice to break his aura on accident.

“And me, Captain?” Kuja jokingly asked. She looked like she was just a few winks away from sleep.

“Why don’t I walk you home? I’m due for some sunlight.”

___

Cira bid Kuja goodbye at the village so she could rest and struck out on her own adventure. She had far too much energy to sit around and wait for her crew to awaken, so she inquired about the local flora. Kuja gave her directions to a nearby grove just a little ways down the mountain where an offshoot of the spring came out of the ground to form a creek.

There was plenty of tree cover and it was only a twenty-minute hike or so. That was, however, the estimate for someone that didn’t lose a leg a few weeks prior. Kuja warned her it was rocky and to be wary of any approaching ships or she may not make it back in time. In the event Wick’s men came for her, she planned to just head back through the tunnel to Breeze Haven before they saw her.

So, this was a carefree stroll through the jungle as Cira came to terms with her impartial form. Her paladins had healed her to the best of their ability, but any pain that stemmed from the leg was ever-present. In fact, she realized she shouldn’t be walking right now but just really wanted a change in scenery. A breath of fresh air.

The birds here were colorful and chirped soft melodies, though there was the occasional shrill call that rang through the trees and briefly silenced the others. The odd rodent would scamper through nearby brush, but she didn’t catch sight of anything bigger.

With a woven basket in one hand and Prismagora in the other, kept her eyes peeled. This side of the mountain was supposed to be safe, though she wasn’t keen to walk around with nothing but a sword and some throwable artifacts if it could be helped.

Cira thought she was going to run into trouble or at the very least have to fight something off, but was able to spend the entire morning leisurely picking herbs and even took some time to dip her toes in the creek before heading back. Her basket was full of mushrooms and various flowers when she left the bounds of nature in a good mood. What awaited her at Kuja’s abode wasn’t going to put a damper on it, either.

“Where have you been?!” Rocky whisper-yelled at her, “I’ve been workin’ on your damn mithril this whole time!”

He tossed a spool of wire at her, and she let it bounce off and fall to the floor, unwilling to drop her staff or the herbs. After carefully setting them down she picked it up and inspected it. “Where’s the sample I gave you?”

“It’s a match.” He handed her the short piece of steel wire, “I made sure of it.”

The spool of blue metal sat in one palm while she held the steel wire in her other hand, looking back and forth between the two. After a few minutes she nodded, “Nice job. This will do. When I return to Breeze Haven you will come with me. I can get you and Rictor started.”

“Huh? Who’s that? Are you going to tell me where you’ve been? Kuja just went straight to sleep.” He was irritated to say the least. The man had honestly slipped her mind as she trounced around the grove picking herbs.

“We started pushing through to reach the soul forge, or Cairn of Spirit, what have you.” Cira thought their progress wasn’t bad. Halfway, according to Kuja. There were only two more tombs then their goal was below. Sadly, she didn’t know what dwelled that deep. “Then we stayed on Breeze Haven last night.”

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“Oh…” He recalled them talking about the difficult path ahead to reach that place Kuja was talking about, “I’m glad you left me then. You ain’t paying me to fight.”

“You better get back to work then.” Cira eyed the spool of wire. “Melt it down and do it again.”

From her understanding, the two mithril coins he signed up for was a moderate fortune, and it paid for his education. It was only natural he should practice when the chance arose. He protested, but Cira made a strong argument about honing one’s craft if they take pride in it.

Cira left him to practice his mithril and started perusing the reforging tome again. If she wanted to get started on putting some parts together that night, she would need to have a clear plan in mind. Otherwise, it would cut into her crew’s training.

With her stroll in the forest and some time to read, it was a pleasant day. Nothing like the one that came before. It was nice to relax every now and again, but when Kuja stirred, it was time to move.

By the time they reached Breeze Haven again it was early evening and Cira set her herbs down in the workshop before sending Kuja to grab everyone. Rocky looked sorely out of his depth as he took in the contents of the forge and was quickly led to one of the benches Cira set up that morning. It held three mithril ingots, some coins, and misshapen chunks.

“Y-you can’t be serious. You need all this turned into wire?” The displeasure on his face was blatant, “At least I know you’re good for the money at this point, I guess.”

Many men would put themselves through worse situations than being bossed around by an injured sorcerer for a little bit of mithril, but she didn’t like him complaining so much. Cira had proven she was good for the money many times over, she thought. The more he mentioned it, the less likely he was to receive a bonus from the treasury on the day of Cira’s rebirth.

“I need two solid pieces at fifty feet, but you’ll have help—” The door opened right as she was explaining, “And there they are.”

“Hey, Rocky’s back!” Joe walked up and slapped him on the back. “We missed you yesterday.”

“So, what’s on the list?” Jimbo asked. “Do I get to cast my spell again?”

“To cast it again would imply you have cast it once already.” With a wag of the finger, he was shot down. “Let me get everyone started first.”

“Is this a forge?” Meanwhile, a tired Rictor yawned as he looked around with wonder. “Do we get to use it?”

That put a grin on Cira’s face as she replied, “I’m glad to see you so eager. We are indeed going to be using the forge today, now does anyone else have experience smithing, or perhaps artificing?”

To her surprise, four hands shot up. Gil turned out to be an apprentice blacksmith, while Tawny had actually enchanted basic runes in the past. A hobby she quickly abandoned once her needle broke. A similar story with Eros, who also found little use in making paltry artifacts.

Last was the paladin who took over casting Lamplight yesterday when Marko got tired. He introduced himself as Ike and was moderately versed in basic glyphs, but strictly of the holy element. Of course, he left his needle back on Green Pit. Somebody told him he would only be fighting.

Yeah, that’s my fault.

“Rictor. Any experience with mithril?” He nervously shook his head, “No matter. Work with Rocky and he’ll tell you what we need.”

He was beckoned over to the spooling station and Cira turned her attention to Gil, “While he’s working on that, I’m going to have you begin on the frame for the soul thresher.”

“Whoa. The hell is that?” He responded with a baffled wince, “Sounds intense.”

“I’m sure it will be.” Having pieces of her soul separated from the corporeal soup sounded a tad more than intense, but who was she to split hairs before she gave it a whirl herself. “The frame itself is the least important part, in a sense, so we can make it out of almost anything as long as its sturdy enough. You will be using this convenient block of titanium.”

It was good metal. Why wouldn’t she have some? With a gesture of the hand, Cira led him to his own bench next to the furnace. There was a single slip of paper next to the materials and he picked it up with discerning eyes, “Is this it?”

“That’s right. Take your time to study it and I’ll come back shortly.”

“It looks pretty complex… but I’ll take a look.” His brows were creased as he inspected the schematics and Cira turned back to the others.

“Okay, I just need to get you three some loaners. They’re not as versatile as my own, but should do just fine for most purposes.” Eros, Tawny and Ike shared a look of mutual confusion as Cira dug into a drawer.

After a brief moment, she produced two pale blue needles and one carved from an opalescent gemstone before handing them to her wide-eyed students.

“Seriously?” Tawny gawked, “Is everything you own made of treasure?”

“Treasure is only valuable because of its uses.” She countered, “Now, what kind of glyphs can you create?”

They stood before another station set up with stone slates. These weren’t conjured, just plain old stone about the size of their palms. It wasn’t infinite, but she had enough to get them started.

“All I ever used glyphs for was to make a fire to cook over.” Tawny’s experience was rather practical. Being able to turn a rock into a camping stove would be a useful skill for any pirate. “But I guess I can make fires of a few different sizes.”

She already knew the paladin’s experience with elementary holy glyphs—the kind that warded incredibly weak spirits away or healed light cuts if you rub the right rune on you for an hour. Next it was Eros’ turn, “I can make a cooking flame as well, and a simple lamp artifact. I made a cup that filled itself with water once, but couldn’t get it to stop before it crumbled away. Aside from that, I’ve managed a gentle breeze.”

“Not bad… Just about expected.” Next, she slid a tablet across the table. While technically an artifact, it contained a single glyph. “Go on. One of you activate it.”

Ike did the honors and placed his hand on the stone. When he channeled mana into it, big surprise, it gave off light. “It’s like your Lamplight.” He smiled.

“Not really, it’s just a regular light glyph. One of the simpler ones. I want… hmmm… Let’s say twenty perfect duplicates from each of you.”

“That’s… not too bad.” Eros shrugged and the other two nodded faintly.

“Okay, thirty from each of you.” They glared at Eros as he clamped his mouth shut, “And tomorrow I will be adding a layer of complexity.”

They were, after all, working towards something that would come to great use. Kuja didn’t know too much about glyphs or forging, so she was content to hang around. She claimed it was enough just being around such a lively bunch. Evidently, it got lonely on this side of the island.

“Hey, uh, Captain.” It was Gil, timidly approaching. “There might be a couple of problems…”

“Hmm?” Cira cast him a curious glance. “What might they be?”

“Well first of all… I couldn’t even find a hammer. No tongs... No tools really.” Come to think of it, all my tools are more specialized for artificing. When I forge, I just move metal around and hit it against each other. He seemed nervous to list his complaints, but Cira urged him on. “And even then, that’s a big block of metal. I can melt some off the side, but… then it’s just on the table.”

“Ah, I guess Rocky’s alone after all.” She eyed the two geomancers, “Go tell Rictor to work with you. He should help solve all your problems.”

“So?!” Jimbo shouted, “You ready to see this?”

“If you pass out again, you can’t help us plan the heist.” James and the boys stood there and awaited imminent orders, though Jimbo was clearly bummed for Cira to shoot him down so swiftly. “More importantly, we need to discuss our meeting with the deritium buyers tomorrow.”

“Right…” James pursed his lips, “I was hoping you would forget.”

“You know I’ll just burn away into nothing if we don’t get our hands on that vestigial nectar, right? Is that what you want?” Cira put on airs of offense.

“I’m a little torn about it, to be honest.”