“The Astral Witch you say…” Cira nodded thoughtfully, “It’s about time.”
“Oh, you’ve been expecting her.” He sighed in relief, “That’s great, of course you have.”
“Indeed...” She knew once word of a smuggler in the queen’s nest made its way up, it would only be a matter of time for higher authorities to arrive. That’s what her gut told her. Cira did not, however, expect it to happen so soon. Still, she planned for this.
“Okay…” the guard continued, “About over there though…”
“Right. I’ve built a forge to equip my exorcists. It’s only temporary though. Everything else you see is for production of the cure, while those houses are for my alchemists to live in. That much will be permanent…ish.”
“Oh, a forge. Of course…” He struggled to figure out why a forge or exorcists would be necessary, coming up short, “How soon will the cure be ready?”
She noticed all the representatives and guards gathered with rapt attention, “The first batch, maybe an hour or two. I’ll cure the final platform first, as their conditions are the worst. After that it will take a few days, but people will probably start flocking here from all over the island. You’ll need to get ready for that too.”
He saluted, “Ma’am. I’ll be sure we’re ready.”
She chuckled, then jumped back over to where Nanri stood. It appeared the worst of Earth Vein was yet still far above her.
“What did he say?” Nanri asked.
“The Astral Witch is on her way.”
“What?! Really?” It came as a surprise to her colleague.
“That’s what he said. It was bound to happen after we turned Triton in. Shame, after I went and broke him out anyway.” A sorcerer always sees ten steps ahead… I’ll get there some day.
Cira started pulling silver off her block and getting it nice and hot. Meanwhile, Nanri looked overly troubled. She didn’t know what to say to the witch. It was her who would be left with the hassle after all. Cira never expected her to become such a large part of her efforts here, but now she was at a loss in how to handle the fallout.
Gah, this is why I’m not supposed to get too close… Nanri is sure to be in a heap of trouble. But… She’s the one that wanted to tag along. Should I have refused her before we even went to the surface? Dammit, I can’t even think.
She looked over and saw a sight for sore eyes. Her skiff was descending from the Uru passage and approaching them now, Triton’s weary face coming into view. Cira instantly brightened up, leaving her silver to warm up for a while and conjuring a picnic table for everyone to gather around.
“Man, your witchcraft sure is convenient.” Kate offhandedly said.
“Don’t call me ‘Man’… And it’s sorcery, damn you.”
Triton landed and put two large boxes down. Tearing them open, Cira pulled out stacks of neatly packaged little pies.
“What are these…?” The sorcerer’s eyes didn’t recognize them, but her nose could not be deceived.
“Worm pies.” Triton said, “They gave me fifty for a gold crown. Thought you’d go for that.”
“Right you are.” Cira’s lips turned up in a dauntless smile. Picking one up with her hands, she bit right into it, ignoring the searing hot sensation on her lips and reveling in the tender, juicy meat within. She hadn’t noticed or done so on purpose, but she made quite a lot of noise eating this meal. When she finally reached for another pie, she noticed everyone was watching her with appalled expressions. “What? Eat the damn food. There’s plenty.” To help her out, Nanri conjured place settings and silverware for everyone.
This got them to start digging in and the pies slowly disappeared. Well, they started to make a dent in them. “Oh, I should wake up Delilah.” Cira remembered, walking over to give her a gentle shake. There was a small puddle of drool beneath her face.
“Huh? What’s going—oh! Cira! Oh no!” She jumped up from her seat and glanced between Cira, the alembic, and the hourglass in a panic.
Cira chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder, “It’s alright, everyone fell asleep. The timer still has a few minutes, so grab some food while we wait.”
Delilah glanced back at the timer and let out a heavy breath, then over at the conspicuous picnic table and back at Cira. She couldn’t help but pause for a moment and look her up and down, “My, you’ve really freshened up. Those robes are very pretty on you—” She blushed, stopping herself from going any further. Her restraint was lacking in the moments after just waking up.
“Oh, thank you.” Cira got a giddy grin on her face. Though it was about the robes, it made Delilah feel a little better. “We’ve got worm pies over there, but I need to forge some weapons.”
Delilah blinked, just noticing the waves of heat and intrusive fiery glow, in addition to all the new structures strewn about. Cira sure works fast… she thought.
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Telekinetically nabbing a few more pies, Cira rested them on the edge of her furnace to keep warm and pulled out the silver. Splitting most of it off, she left the rest for when she moved onto the crossbow. The bucklers came together in short order, as they were just round and pointy hunks of metal, but Jules’ weapon would be much more intricate.
“Cira, it’s done!” Delilah came running over, “The hourglass ran out. What do we do now?”
“Hmm… It should cool for a few hours so we can begin our recipe at expected conditions. Put a lid on the jar and move it. You should be able to leave the alembic lit and tip it over to clean any residue out.”
“I’m on it!” She looked determined as she ran back over to the alchemy station. This let Cira put her focus into making the crossbow. She meticulously spent a couple hours on it, tearing through pies and guzzling water like a whale. She had to play around with the mechanisms a few times to make adjustments, then came the enchantments of course. In the end, she was happy with how it turned out.
“Amazing…” Nanri said, “I’ve never seen one of these made, but they don’t all look like this, right?”
“This little guy is one of a kind.” She smirked, holding it up in her hand. It bore two triggers and a wide, open rail to for the bolt. Each end of the bow where wires attached was curved back for extra tension. There were glyphs all along it and down the body for reinforcement and various other things.
After the two admired it for a moment, they carried the weaponry back over to the picnic table where everyone was still gathered. Cira distributed the weapons accordingly and began explaining the shields first.
“Alright, both of these can become stone great shields if you can figure out how to actually channel mana, but they repel spirits in either form. Their points will banish spirits and convert their remains into aetherium as well. Any questions?”
“Whoa…” He picked one up, making faces in his reflection, “Is this whole thing blessed silver? I bet it’s worth a ton.”
While his voice trailed off, Cira’s glare magnified upon him, “I could also, you know, ship you up the Noose. I have literally no idea what they’ll do to you up there. Your choice.”
His face stretched back as a potential future Cira was completely unaware of flashed through his mind, “No, no questions…”
“Good. Now, you.” When her eyes met Jules’, the girl shrunk back for a second, before trying to play it off as adjusting herself to sit up straight.
“Yeah, neat crossbow… Where are the bolts though?”
“Eheheh, give it here,” She didn’t understand why this witch-pirate had such a playful smile on her face, but held the crossbow out all the same. It lifted from her hands and into Cira’s. “This doesn’t take bolts.”
She pulled one trigger and the wire slid back. A golden light coalesced along the rail before hardening into a narrow crystal. Aiming up, she pulled the next trigger and it turned into a beam, shooting into the ceiling faster than one could see with the sound of broken glass.
“Here, you try.” She tossed it back to Jules, whose hands covered her ears. Everyone else either did that or blocked their eyes. “So, I’ll put a cover on it, the sounds not that bad though.”
They all shook their heads and an exasperated Lomp spoke up for the first time that day, “You know, you really have no idea how ridiculous that weapon is. How is she supposed to fire that? If she possesses that much mana, shouldn’t you be teaching her magic?”
For a brief moment, Jules thought she was gifted in the aura department, but a sorcerer rarely lies, “Her mana is paltry. Didn’t you notice how the bolt was glorious and golden? It’s all from the big guy.” She pointed up in its general direction, “There’s just no reason not to use it here, it’s always around and you’re fighting ghosts. You see, I put an array along the rail to condense it into a crystal. Of course, due to the nature of mana crystals, this array here,” She pointed at another small string of glyphs where the tip of the bolt formed, “allows me to enchant it with Forced Corporealization—”
“Wait, stop!” The girl waved her arms, “I don’t know what any of that means, but… my aura is weak. I already knew that a long time ago. And you’re with the church…?”
Cira pouted. She had at least one happy listener, no Delilah was listening too. She put a lot of work into this crossbow and wanted to show it off, but in the essence of urgency, she acquiesced, “Fine… I’m not with the church, this is just how you deal with ghosts. Why does everyone keep asking that? There’s literally holy mana everywhere all the time. Only a fool doesn’t use it. It’s free! Your stupid Captain should have used it instead of some stupid rock.”
She was actually silenced by a sudden scolding when someone she nearly forgot about cut in, “It’s… It’s not that simple! You can’t just use it.” It was Glasses, tearing his hair out.
Cira let out a groan and rolled her eyes to the block of holy material on the table. A little noodle of silver worked its way over to the table before weaving into itself. It snaked around until eventually approaching Glasses, who backed away to no avail. It wrapped around his neck and then a solid disc half the size of his palm grew from the bottom like a fruit.
“Wha—what are you doing?!”
“Consider this a gift from me to you.” she glanced at the enchanted dunce hat next to him on the table, “I don’t understand what your hangup on holy mana is, but this is the Medallion of Divine Exploitation. You will notice the cameo of a sleeping cherub. If you touch your hand to it and say, ‘Pretty please’, it will shine with a brilliant golden light, assuaging any future concerns you may have on the matter. Go on, try it.”
“That’s ridiculous! I’m not doing that!” he pushed his glasses up nervously. “W-why am I the only one who’s punishments are made to amuse you?”
“I’m not laughing.” Cira laced her fingers together atop the table and held her gaze.
“Here, I’ll do it.” Chip reached over, “Pretty please— Gahh!”
Everyone but Cira protected their eyes from its brilliance.
“Dammit, what’s with this thing?” Glasses struggled to get it over his head, “You made it too small. I can’t get it off!”
Cira then opened the palm of her hand where another piece of blessed silver lay, “Lant. Take this.” She tossed it over and he caught it, “Once you have grown your magical prowess, your first trial will be to put this clasp on his holy relic.”
“Yes ma’am.” He saluted and held his head down, glancing over to the bejeweled civil servant, “Sorry, guy, it might be a while.”
“You… you can’t be serious.” Was Glasses’ only response.
“I have grown tired of being questioned over meaningless matters.” Cira switched targets, “Jules.”
She jumped, “Yes?!”
“One trigger pulls it back and forms the bolt. The next fires it, but you only have five seconds to let it loose before the crystal dissipates. Give it a try so I know you know how it works.”
“…yes ma’am…” She aimed it at the ceiling like Cira had and pulled one trigger, watching the bolt form. Her eyes scrunched and she turned away. Jules pulled the next trigger and yelped, “Ahh!! Oh… I didn’t even feel that.” Turning it over in her hand, she inspected it, “This is actually quite nice…”
“Excellent. Looks like that’s in order.” She scanned her fellows until landing on Delilah next, “You ready to finish that cure? I know I am.”