6-8. Bane
“You already understand it,” said Sadie, pushing her sweaty hair out of her face. “I don’t think there are any other layers to it.”
Elijah shook his head, then jabbed the fire with a stick. Sadie was not the person he would have normally chosen for esoteric discussions on the relationship between life and death, but she’d been the first to complete her cultivation, progressing to the Stone Body stage. As the others were still otherwise engaged, she was the only person available for conversation.
“I mean, I know that death is part of life and vice versa,” he said. “But I feel like there has to be a deeper meaning there.”
“Why?”
Elijah shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Were you expecting to get some sort of reward if you thought about it hard enough? Like, a skill or some extra attributes?” she asked.
“No,” Elijah lied. In truth, he had expected just that. He’d gotten so accustomed to the system quantifying every step forward that he’d begun to expect it from every situation. And the fact that his experiences in the crypt hadn’t been rewarded by the system was more than a little disconcerting. Still, even if it never came, he felt that the subject deserved contemplation.
“Sure,” she said, looking at her glistening hand. “Ugh. I’m so gross.”
“I could use Healing Rain so you can take a shower,” Elijah suggested. She narrowed her eyes, and he held up his hands, “Not like that. The area of effect is pretty big now. I can summon it here, and you can go over there or something. And when the spell ends, the water disappears. It’s how I shower when I don’t have any other options.”
“I don’t have any soap.”
Elijah held up a finger, then dug into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. When he withdrew his hand, he was clutching a square of his homemade soap. “Here,” he said, tossing it to Sadie. She caught it. “That’s the best soap you’ll ever use. Homemade and naturally sourced.”
She gave it a sniff, and her expression changed. Quietly, she said, “It smells like you.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” was her quick reply. She stood and scurried away, disappearing behind a large boulder. A minute or so later, she asked him to use his spell, and Elijah complied.
Sighing, he turned his attention away from that whole situation. Ignoring some of the interesting things he felt via One with Nature, he pulled a crystalline leaf from his satchel. The skeletal hand had rotted away the day before, crumbling to dust and drifting away on the breeze.
For a moment, Elijah studied the guide. So far, he’d resisted looking inside, lest he become distracted from his meditation on life and death. However, now that he’d exhausted that train of thought, he had no more excuses for delay. So, he extended a thread of ethera into the guide.
| Lament of the Fallen I fear my time is short. Soon, the tyrant will find my sanctuary and discover my betrayal. When he does, he will surely exterminate me alongside my entire family and anyone foolish enough to call me a friend. I knew it was coming. I saw it, just as I saw the ruin Yloa will bring to Ka’arath. He has already enslaved the ta’alaki for the impurity of their bloodline. Those who managed to escape his grasp have fled to the ends of the world. Iko, the archmage, remains entrenched within his tower. The necromancer Lordan has her army of undead to protect her. The Druids have already fallen, and the Engineer is limited by his insanity. I am the only one left with the power to prevent what is coming. To that end, I have forged a Bane weapon specifically created to counter Yloa’s abilities. Without it, his invincibility will remain unquestioned. He is the Lightning Emperor, a genius unequaled. He will transcend soon, at which point even the Bane weapon will lose its efficacy. I pray to the Nine that our heroes will use it before he progresses out of our reach. For security, the weapon has been broken into three pieces. If this…
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