Echoes Of The Seven

Eris hesitated a single moment, let out a long sigh, then lifted a long, pencil-thin piece of wood about the same height as she was. The far end of it pressed against the top section of the large ironwood panel set up behind her, the dark material deftly painted with streaks of improvised white paint.

“This is the ocean containing the Warden.”

Eris’s voice didn’t need to carry far- only to the three people in this entire place that actually understood what she was saying, who were also standing on the same raised platform she was. Instead, it was Pravala who had to raise her voice, nearly shouting in the ancient language of Ra’lan and serving as the translator for the sea of faces all looking up at them. After all, there were fourteen hundred people that all needed to know what was going on and Eris’s understanding of their language was barely mediocre.

Eris tried not to focus on any of them in particular. She didn’t want to see the hope in their eyes. Instead, she simply held up a heavy hunk of iron looped into a thick ring. Across the surface were thin lines of silver scribed into the metal to form runic loops and geometric shapes necessary for the magical conduction.

Reinforcement Link

Durability: 100%

A simple link designed to strengthen a longer length of chain. Imbued with the essence of Lust and Envy. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from iron and silver.

While the Reinforcement Link is attached as part of a longer length of chain, 50% of the Reinforcement Link’s Durability is granted as a bonus to all connected chain within fifty feet.

Additional effect: Harder Is Better

When the Reinforcement Link comes into contact with ejaculatory fluid, it gains a Minor bonus to Durability for 24 hours.

Additional effect: Bounded Power

While the Reinforcement Link is actively being used to restrain a target, it gains a Minor bonus to Durability.

“And this is a chain link I made to act as a reinforcement. With Pravala’s help, I’ve made over four hundred of these. What these do is they increase the strength of any connected chain within fifty feet of one of these links, so these have been interspaced along the length of a chain that is six thousand meters long.”

As Pravala shouted out the Ra’lan translation to the thousand-plus people gathered around and listening intently, the long-haired, elegant woman in her typical gorgeous blue dress turned to glance back at Eris.

“How long is that in feet? The metric system is a form of measurement from your new age.”

Eris narrowed her eyebrows for a moment as she did the math, but Bailey chirped up. “About twenty thousand feet? Give or take.”

Pravala nodded, then turned back to the crowds. ”Tol-tuln-tosam desa.”

Meanwhile, Eris rested the tip of her pointer stick between her shoes.

“That chain is attached to the large winch you all have been using for your fishing nets, though I have affixed several reinforcements to ensure the winch can handle the weight. Using the winch, that chain will be lowered until it reaches the bottom of the ocean. As it is being lowered, there will be individuals that need to rub, err… ejaculatory fluid on each of these magical chain links in order to further increase the chain’s Durability from my Lust effect. In order to gather the requisite fluid, I am asking for any futanari or males among you to…”

Eris faltered, bit the inside of her cheek, and sighed in a desperate attempt to regain her composure while Pravala caught up with the translations.

“When we get a solid date as to when the plan will take place, I am requesting that any able futanari or males will ejaculate and collect their semen the night before, so we may use it to strengthen the chain. As for the chain itself, we know that the ocean, at maximum, is twenty thousand feet deep because of the mining tunnels that have been dug at that depth that stretch underneath where the ocean would be. Therefore, the chain will be long enough to reach the bottom, where the Warden would be.

“Operating under the assumption that the Warden is still functional after all this time, which is entirely possible given that it was made by Artificers, the Warden will almost certainly climb the chain so that it may reach the surface again. When it does, that is when we will be able to trap it.”

Eris motioned to the magical, fist-sized chain link held in her palm a second time while Pravala finished translating the previous sentences.

“Also using several more of these links, which will also need to have ejaculate rubbed on them, a large net has been made out of chains, which is the same net that is being held up in the scaffolding that many of you had been directed to make. There is a weighted tripwire quick-release at the edge of the shore, that when tripped by the Warden, will cause the net to drop onto the Warden. A special rope has also been woven into the edges of the net, connected to multiple pulley systems on even more scaffolding that will make the net be pulled down, forward, and then up to effectively scoop the Warden into a bag while a second winch will cinch the net shut.

“I don’t have the rope here to show you, but its Lust-imbued magical effect makes it more effective at restraining targets not wearing clothing. Its Envy effect makes it so that when the rope is helping to successfully restrain a target, that target cannot move while the captor can see it. Through testing, we have confirmed that if Pravala initiates the trap and is therefore considered the captor, the effect to paralyze the target continues to work even if she is looking through someone else’s eyes. Therefore, one hundred of you will be situated around the Warden and the net on all sides with the solitary purpose of keeping your eyes on it to make sure it stays trapped.”

Eris pointed her stick off to the side, just beside the small raised platform she, Elmas, Bailey, and Pravala were standing on. There, the Adjudication’s Altar sat on a small, wheeled platform with pushing handles. The white marble and inlaid gold gleamed even in the low light of the grand central cavern everyone was gathered in.

“Meanwhile, the Altar and over five hundred ichryte runestones of storage, designed specifically to hold large quantities of magical energy, will be wheeled to the Warden. From there, I will use the Altar to drain magic from the Warden and imbue it into the runestones. Before that, though, the Altar needs to be charged with sexual energy because of my sin of Lust.”

Eris tried not to let her face heat up while she continued speaking.

“Based on our testing, simply engaging in sexual activity within proximity to the Altar will charge it, allowing it to siphon magic faster and thus reducing the amount of time that it takes to complete that step of the plan. The Altar will remain charged for up to twelve hours, so on the morning that our escape will take place, I and a number of others will- err…”

Eris swallowed, prompting Pravala to consequently pause her translation until Eris spoke again.

“We will be partaking in a small orgy to provide the requisite charge for the Altar. It will include myself, Bailey, Elmas, and three volunteers among you that are either female or futanari. This will be happening while the chain is being lowered into the ocean, since it may take some time for the Warden to both find the chain and climb it. Anyway…”

Eris cleared her throat and brushed a bit of hair from her eyes. “After the Warden has been drained and all the runestones are filled, they will then be wheeled towards this central plaza and subsequently used to power a creation that I am still in the process of making but should be able to finish sometime later today or tomorrow, along with the testing to ensure it will work. As for how it is intended to function…”

Eris stuffed the large chain link back into one of her pockets, then reached into the other to pull out a familiar, thick leather bracelet.

“This is a magical item called the Band of Second Presence. What it does is it allows the wearer to temporarily place a sensor somewhere they can see, whereupon they can then choose to perceive through that sensor using a variety of senses, such as sight. Not too dissimilar from Pravala’s own ability to perceive through each of you, as an example.”

Eris looked out over the crowd as Pravala translated. It was surreal. So many people, all genuinely ancient since they came from an era before the Sundering. All the knowledge that the Syndicate could ever want about the workings of the old world, gathered in one place and all effectively being led by Eris in this single moment.

And all of them looked completely normal.

They weren’t regal and otherworldly, indicative of having lived in what historians considered the ‘Golden Era’. Nor were they withered with immortal age prevented by the Obelisk. Instead, it was simply a group of people, all wearing bland, efficient clothing made from ironwood fibre and each impossibly pale from living without sunlight for centuries. Furthermore, since none of them aged, there was quite the wide variety. The oldest was knobbled and hobbled, hunched at the waist and leaning heavily on a cane with wrinkled skin pulled taught over his bones. Even without the Obelisk’s influence, the guy had to be older than Father Marrel, the old-as-balls priest back in Kelshiir that aided Eris in her Gifting.

On the other end of the spectrum, which also made Eris’s heart wrench in her chest at the sight, were kids.

Dozens of them.

Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be genuine toddlers in the bunch, but there were a couple of six-year-olds, teenagers, and everyone in between standing in the crowd with the black briar-like brands wrapped around their wrists. Not that they could ever truly be considered children anymore. They weren’t even adults. They were more akin to the eldest of elderly people, the only difference being that their bodies didn’t crest four feet tall. In fact, Eris could look out and see many of them holding hands with each other, even having a few simple rings on their fingers. It was odd to see an eight-year-old married to a sixteen-year-old, though Eris supposed that since they both had four centuries under their belts, unaging bodies meant absolutely nothing. Though, the idea that they’d probably had… physical relations... using bodies that hadn’t hit puberty yet made Eris very uncomfortable.

Considering that, Eris wasn’t sure whether she should be glad or not that none of them could have kids. After all, if their physical bodies didn’t age or progress, then none of the females had any ovulation cycles. Furthermore, even if they did manage to get pregnant with the eggs being fertilized, the fetus almost certainly wouldn’t grow. Sure, it meant that none of them could have kids while they were in here, but it also meant that any new people wouldn’t be stuck in the body of an infant for hundreds of years.

However, that raised the question of whether the impregnation itself was prevented while in here, or whether all that fertilization stuff happened normally, but the resulting fetus was held in some kind of ‘stasis’. If it was the latter, then there was a very real possibility that as soon as all of them got out of here, there was gonna be seven hundred females starting a pregnancy at the exact same time- no small number of which had bodies under eighteen. Part of Eris hoped otherwise. It was really weird seeing an eight-year-old talking and working alongside a person in their sixties, acting exactly like a fully-grown adult. Seeing a preteen walking around with a big pregnant belly just felt wrong to even think about.

“Uhh, Eris?”

The redhead blinked her eyes back into focus at Bailey’s small cough, suddenly aware that she got lost in her thoughts right in the middle of her tactical breakdown.

“Sorry- Uhh, where was I?”

“The Band makes a sensor to look through just like Pravala can,” Bailey confirmed. Eris nodded and cleared her throat.

“Thanks, uhh… ahem. So, the Band does that. What I’m working to do is take this and reuse the leather in a new craft to get a similar effect. My idea is that if I, as an Artificer, make something with that kind of effect that is also capable of being powered by all the ichryte we charge, I might be able to use it to make a sensor outside of the Obelisk altogether.”

Eris lowered the band, her voice getting a little bit weaker. Pravala’s remained strong as she translated.

“Now, that alone isn’t gonna get us out of here, but it does accomplish what I would consider the hardest step- which is actually making a connection to the real world. Once we have a genuine connection, then that’s something I can potentially work with and see if I can’t open it up into something we can go through.”

After Pravala’s sentence trailed off, the cavern was left in awkward silence. Eris cleared her throat again.

“I mean, if we’re lucky, the Obelisk might be broken enough that making the sensor might be enough to get us out. That, or the item itself could end up having an effect that does it. If I really focus on a specific intent, I can usually get the Lust effect to do something along that line. Though, something like this feels like a bit too much of a stretch. To be honest, I’d just be happy if I can even get the sensor to work-”

“Eris, you’re rambling,” Bailey coughed while Pravala translated the Artificer’s uncertainties.

The redhead glanced over, ducked her head, then gave an embarrassed shrug.

“Err, so yeah. Think of all this as the first step, unless we get really lucky. After I finish making the thing, then we can obviously go over the plan again based on how it turns out. Regardless, it’ll involve draining the Warden, then dumping it back into the ocean after the Ichryte’s been charged so we can continue without interruption.”

The crowd remained silent. That was, until one woman who looked to be in her mid twenties raised a hand and called out.

“Ohn humrud vaela d’murthe, teer f’zekko, dex d’id-lumenos navon?”

Eris understood a few words, but looked over at Pravala who spoke a moment later.

“One hundred watch the trap, three for sex, where the non-important people? In other words, what about everyone else who won’t have a dedicated job?”

Eris nodded, then looked at the woman who asked- pale skin and dark hair staring back at her.

“There will be a few others to help transport things back and forth, such as wheeling the Altar and the ichryte around, but everyone else will stay here, away from the Warden. That’s the most dangerous part of this whole thing, so the less people we have around that might accidentally mess something up, the better.”

Pravala spoke smoothly and elegantly in Ra’lan, though there were a few moments where she considered the words for a second or two before figuring out the most accurate way to translate it. During that time, Eris idly glanced over to the Adjudication’s Altar. The focal point of this entire operation, and not necessarily for the fact that it would be how they charged the ichryte to power their way out. No- Eris’s eyes drifted over one of the two ichryte gemstones embedded within their little housing fixtures, the one that was just a teeny bit loose. The one with the fake Inspect window she’d established using her Obfuscation skill.

For no other reason than to double-check and make sure that somehow being affixed to the Altar while Eris used it didn’t drain the runestone, Eris pushed past the fake Inspection and gazed upon the single most important part of her plan. Even if it had been made before Eris powerbuffed herself with yesterday’s marathon of crafting, it still had no small amount of Mana-based-CP pumped into it and had been finished with Pravala’s boost helping her so it wasn’t weak. Still, Eris could only hope it was enough.

Rune of Modification

Durability: 100%

A well-carved rune of magical modification. Imbued with the essence of Lust and Envy. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from Ichryte crystal.

While the Rune of Modification is in contact with a magical object, the creator may destroy the Rune of Modification and slightly alter the nature of a single enchantment or magical effect on the item in a way of their choosing.

Additional effect: Lust of Creation

When the Rune of Modification is used on a magical object, the object gains an additional effect based on the energy of Lust.

Additional effect: Envy of Creation

When the Rune of Modification is used on a magical object, the object gains an additional effect based on the energy of Envy.

Eris didn’t really focus all that much when the next person started asking a question- instead trying to gauge how well that single, thumb-sized gem would work. After all, the Warden was something created by the old artificers to serve as a jailer. It moved and seemed to act like a creature, but it was artificial. Eris didn’t have a clue how something like that could possibly be made. To make something out of metal, but then… turn it alive? Or something like it? Absolutely dumbfounding to think about, but one thing was still certain. It had been made. It wasn’t a creature. It was a magical object.

More importantly, the Warden kept Pravala alive. It snuffed even the slightest thought of escape, but it never once brought harm to the Summoner and apparently even acted to protect the woman if she would end up bringing harm to herself. Oddly enough, it seemed a little bit like everyone else in this place.

Eris couldn’t kill Pravala because of Pacifist. None of Pravala’s slaves could do it because of the bond. The Warden couldn’t do it because of some unseen limitation.

But maybe- just maybe, the Warden’s limitation could be changed.