49: Coming Together
Eris spoke clearly and directly towards the two women sitting on stools and eating a simple breakfast near one of the tables in the workshop, not letting the act of talking have any disruption towards her intricate and rapid hammering of the chisel. Flecks and shards of marble fell away in a constant stream alongside her words- the work she was doing little more than an afterthought in Eris’s mind from the crafting trance yet never suffering for it.
“So that’s the gist of it. Pravala was trying to prepare for an apocalypse, and she was imprisoned by a council of Echo judges because she was disrupting the balance too much. She was put in a weird prison called Amaranthine that is apparently located in a place that is completely separated from the Seven, and magic can’t exist there. However, one of the judges of the Conclave, Vojemala, ended up breaking her out only to instantly send her here into the Obelisk, probably like I did to you. Pravala believes it was some kind of test, and that the Obelisk is now the prison of Akkaru’um. However, she also now thinks that because the world was fated to be destroyed and that future was averted, the Stream started a new apocalypse to finish the job.”
Bailey ceased her chewing of breakfast salmon with a muttered; “You know, maybe you should have started this conversation with the bad news instead of getting our hopes up by saying you’ve secretly been level two for a week.”
“Vojemala Ywer was the one who broke Pravala out and sent her here?” Elmas furrowed her brow. “You’re certain?”
Eris paused, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, that’s what the servant guy called her. Or at least, that’s what Pravala believes. Why?”
Elmas let out a sigh and set her fork down onto an empty plate. “Because Vojemala Ywer was the name of one of the Artificers that made the Obelisk, based on your Inspection.”
Eris’s eyes widened in sudden realization. Meanwhile, the Lieutenant Major continued speaking. “Except your Inspect also explicitly stated that the Obelisk was made with the souls of its creators. If that’s the case, then Vojemala was somehow alive without her soul when she put Pravala in the Obelisk, yet still had her magic of being an Artificer.”
Bailey spoke through another bite. “Wait, so what do we think the timeline is? Was Vojemala a weird soulless dead-but-not-dead woman before Pravala was sentenced, or did she make the Obelisk in that year-long period in between? Furthermore, does that mean Vojemala was secretly acting against the Conclave? I mean, if getting a powerful test subject like Pravala to see if the Obelisk would work as a prison was something that the entire Conclave agreed with, I doubt Miss Deadass would need to launch a full prison break.”
Eris’s hands stopped hammering the back of the chisel, her work ceasing. She looked over both Bailey and Elmas with a huff.
“We’ve gotten answers that raise even more questions. Big deal- we should be used to that by now. There’s no point in fixating on things when you can’t currently do anything about it. Don’t look at the entire thing at once- you pick out one problem you can solve and you do it. Then you pick out another problem and fix that, then another and another and you work your way through the bullshit until eventually the thing you’re working on starts to actually become better.”
Eris trained her eyes back to the runes she was engraving into the marble plinth and aimed her chisel again.
“After we get out of here, Pravala can have an extra-long talk with all the Syndicate scholars and the brainiacs can try to figure out the secrets of the apocalypse. We solve that problem, then we can start trying to solve the issue of actually saving the world. But we can’t do either of those things until we get out of this place first, and we can’t do that until I’ve finished making all the pieces of the plan. On that note, I’m gonna need you to come down here, Pravala, and give me your boost. I’ve got pretty much everything for trapping the Warden and charging the Ichryte on the verge of being finished, so we can crank out a bunch of stuff at once.”
Eris brought the hammer down onto the chisel to perfectly carve away the exact amount of material she wanted. At the same time, Bailey spoke up in a different tone and voice. Eris didn’t need to look up to know that the brand on Bailey’s wrist was glowing.
“Of course, Eris. I’ll be there promptly.”
“Good. Now let her go, because I’m also gonna need her help for something.”
A moment passed. Then, the blonde’s voice chirped back up but the inflection was back to normal. “You need my help? With what?”
Eris looked up to the no-longer-possessed Bailey, let out a sigh, and tried not to blush.
“Pravala wants her and I to be a little more truthful with each other. I know she still isn’t telling me everything, and frankly, I’ve run out of things to try and hide since she already knew I was second level. Grab that notebook on the table over there and take off your pants.”
“Excuse me?” Bailey cocked a grin, while Elmas’s brow furrowed. Eris sighed.
“I used Obfuscation to change the way the notebook looks when Inspected. You two can’t do it anymore, but Pravala can. Either way, when I was making it I was hoping for a way to come up with plans without Pravala figuring out. It ended up getting an enchantment that made it so I can keep a lot of stuff secret, including all of my ideas to try and keep Pravala from escaping. If you’re masturbating, you can read all of it. Go ahead and skim through while playing with yourself. Let Pravala know all my secrets while she’s making her way down here. That’s my truth.”
It was immensely distracting to try and work while Bailey was sitting on the bed and thumbing through a notebook with her legs spread and fingers idly playing in her folds. The only solace was that Eris was too busy focusing on her work and the fact that the bed was tucked into the back corner of the room. Still though, every once in a while Eris would feel the hand on her shoulder tense up as Pravala would obviously register something new from Bailey’s sight.
“Hmm. Clever, but you don’t have the ingredients to make a tranquillising gas.”
Eris furrowed her brow and tried to keep her attention on her project. Normally, the crafting trance would make it second nature, but the warm, tingly sensation washing through her body made it difficult to focus. She had to actively put attention into keeping her hands from vibrating with the power, and her fingertips were going numb. Meanwhile, it was disorienting in general simply because the fact that her head was clouded by information. It didn’t matter how much Eris tried to stuff away her stat window- one skill in particular continued to take up the forefront of her mind as it was actively boosted way beyond what it ever should have been able to achieve.
Novice Artificer {Passive} {Level 94}
You have a natural talent for crafting. Any product you craft gains a {2350%} bonus to its Quality, applied after all other bonuses.
The pink spiderweb of light draped over Eris’s hands was glowing so brightly that Eris legitimately had to squint to try and see what she was doing. Still, she worked, finishing out the last of the engraving with one last strike of the extremely fine-pointed chisel. As Ichryte dust fell from the previously-rough crystal carved into a perfect sphere the size of Eris’s thumbnail, the redhead let the internal cup of magic begin to pour. Mana leaked out and began to fill into a different skill of her choice. There wasn’t a need to be stingy- not right now. All of her mana quickly drained away, portions of the mental liquid transitioning directly into extra CP hovering in her head like butterflies. Ten points worth. Not a tremendous amount, all things considered, but it was ten points that recharged over the course of about twelve hours and could be repeatedly added to the same item.
The exact same item she was finishing up now- the one that had been routinely getting every drop of mana for the last week and had been hidden in the secret compartment in the leg of a shelf. The one that looked virtually identical to the finished Ichryte runestone sitting on the table beside it. As the pink strings all began to tighten around the crystal and the magic of the craft solidified into the finished item, the Inspect window immediately flashed into her mind- prompting a change from Obfuscation. Eris did give it a quick once-over.
Yeah… yeah, that could work. Just maybe.
Eris didn’t let the moment linger any longer, barely darting her eyes over to Inspect the real Ichryte runestone and pull up the information window in her mind beside that of the trap she was finishing. Words shifted and changed as she pulled a mask over the Inspect information until the stone she finished read the exact same thing as the one already on the table.
Rune of Siphoning
Durability: 100%
A well-carved rune of magical siphoning. Imbued with the essence of Lust. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from Ichryte crystal.
Eris sighed and gently set the rune down on the table beside the other. Pravala’s hand left the Artificer’s shoulder, and Eris felt the tingling of power leaving her system. The Summoner’s eyes narrowed over both of the gems, obviously Inspecting. “They certainly don’t seem like much.”
Eris shrugged.
“Yeah, because they’re just pieces of a bigger project. You can fill a screw with magic, but that screw isn’t gonna do much of anything until it’s used to make something else. Then that magic is added to all the other components to make the final result.”
“She’s right,” Bailey chirped up from the corner, as casually as if she wasn’t actively plunging a few fingers in and out of her snatch while reading through the magical notebook. “Even if I catalyzed a complicated reagent for a concoction, it didn’t do anything on its own.”
Pravala frowned. “So what’ll it do when you put it all together?”
“Hopefully, exactly what we want it to.” Eris picked up both of the gemstones, keeping in mind exactly which of the two was real while she walked towards the intricately-carved marble pedestal in the center of the room. “Of course, even something completely untested and improvised like this attempt at siphoning a living magical item is still going to be less random than whatever lustful additive effect this ends up getting. We’re hoping on a miracle, and that’s an understatement.”
Eris stepped around to the back of the pedestal and inserted the fake rune in the indent that was there- an indent that looked identical to the one on the front save for extremely small and precise differences. Differences that made it so that when Eris used a small mallet to gently hammer the gem into the silver brackets, it was held in place snug but not affixed.
Not actually a part of the craft.
The rune Eris hammered into the front indent, however, was extremely secure. Still, nothing overtly magical happened even as Eris cranked a lever that tightened chains hanging from blocks and tackles on the ceiling to tilt the entire marble pedestal backwards. Once the angled front of the pedestal was perfectly flat and level, Eris locked the chains in place and braced the pedestal with more material so that it wouldn’t tilt any further. Then, she pulled on a pair of thick goggles and even thicker gloves before grabbing a pair of tongs beside the forge that was radiating heat despite the hatched door being closed. “Elmas?”
The older woman got up from her seat with a small wince, shuffled over while pulling on her own pair of protective gloves, and slowly opened the hatch on the front. The heat was intense and blew Eris’s hair back a little bit, but she reached the tongs forward with both hands and retrieved the thick, heavy crucible. Pravala stayed out of the path but still close behind Eris as the redhead turned around and brought the container of molten metal towards the marble plinth. Elmas closed the forge, and Eris only paused for a single moment while standing in place.
“Pravala.”
Instantly, she felt the woman’s soft hand return to her shoulder and tingling warmth flush back through her system. Fingertips went numb with power and Novice Artificer lurched back into a level of strength that almost made Eris wince. Thankfully she didn’t, since she was holding a few pounds of molten, glowing metal. Instead, she gulped down the shakiness and carefully aimed the crucible. As liquid, orange gold poured out into the crevices of a precise engraving moulded directly into the marble, pink spiderwebs also spilled from the crucible and spread all over the pedestal.
More and more- the stream of metal flowed into the gaps and filled the design of the large series of runes. Soon enough, Eris was motioning for Elmas to open the forge again so she could put the empty crucible back inside. After that, she turned back and took off her protective gear to watch the molten gold rapidly cool and solidify. That was still so odd- back in Kelshiir, she’d need to wait hours for poured metal to cool. Now, she was watching the glow fade as the magic of being a crafter made the process take no more than thirty seconds. Half a minute before the mental ping of a finished craft started resounding through her head, along with the accompanying Inspect window. Eris smiled as she read, only altering the name. After all, the Sinful Plinth of Draining wasn’t particularly interesting.
Adjudication’s Altar
Durability: 100%
A well-made pedestal designed for draining and redistributing vast amounts of magical energy. Imbued with the essence of Lust and Envy. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from marble, gold, and ichryte runestones.
When activated by the creator, any creature or object touching the Adjudication’s Altar will have magical energy forcefully drained and stored. Stored magical energy can be retrieved and projected into new objects or creatures.
Additional effect: Passion’s Embrace
The Adjudication’s Altar may be charged with sexual energy to increase the Potency of the magical draining effect, for a period of up to twelve hours.
Additional effect: Resentment’s Draw
Magical energy stored in the Adjudication’s Altar can be imbued into Echoes to supplement skill progression resources.
“That’s even better than I could have hoped for,” Eris said with a dumb smile. Looking at Pravala, who removed her hand from Eris’s shoulder, the older woman’s eyes were wide with astonishment.
“Incredible. Just incredible.”
A few moments of silence passed through the workshop. That was, until Elmas cleared her throat. “Care to enlighten us?”
“Yeah, we can’t Inspect shit anymore.” Bailey spoke while pulling her masturbatory fingers free and pivoting on the edge of the bed to face the Echoes- coincidentally putting her nude lower half on open display but not caring one bit. “So if you’re waiting for us to start ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at your fancy coffee table, you’re gonna need to tell us what the fuck it actually does, first.”