A Job Offer
07.6.920
Endergaln
Frisk kicks in the door and offers a gig to Sav—she needs help with disabling two magical glyphs on opposite sides of the Diamante library, in order to access a safe that contains a book a client wants. She has the information and framework set up already—she has a regular meeting that she normally brings along a random associate to, she has information on how to get to the library to steal the book she wants, so all she needs is someone who can sneak, climb, disable magic and behave in the meeting room with the Diamantes later. Payment is good, and there’s also a good deal of magical items and treasure in the library.
Sav is interested, but asks for payment in kind, help and information on the Diamante warship the Amberglass, in order to steal the warship.
Ashen pulls Sav aside for a private word and asks if they’re serious about this, and that it really would be a declaration of war; they’d never be able to return. Sav is unconcerned about this, citing the limited range of reach the city-states have (due to all the monsters roaming around), certainly not down into the Black. Ashen is still concerned, especially for their route back up; there aren’t many places to stop and resupply on the journey north back to the White Crown. During this, Sav has a mild epiphany and realizes that, at least for their next step, they don’t necessarily need to take the other Shard—a minimum of ten minutes might be sufficient to get the measurements and information they need to remove its interference from their equations.
During this conversation, inside the other room, a stilted attempt at conversation between Ethan and an uninterested Frisk reigns.
More discussion on various kinds of plans ensue, with nothing much settled but the determination to do more reconnaissance and meeting Frisk again in two days at the Rusted Lion at 18h.
Miscellaneous things:
- Gwin doesn’t know of anything specific going on at House Beryl in a couple of weeks.
- Sav redistributes their magical maps, taking one from Ashen (at his volunteering) and giving it to Gwin.
- Apparently the automatons are given base-level commands on a metal plate inscribed with runes that set a routine even verbal commands might not override, some kind of Processing Unit held in their Core. These are probably manufactured en masse elsewhere, but would be heavily protected.
- The estates, based on what Beryl has, might have protections against teleportation and communication magic, unless carrying a special stone that permits its use (which the estate guards have).
Ethan and Bax go get lunch together, which Ethan arranges just to touch base with Bax. He notes that Peach has been very obvious about her crush on Bax, but Bax has seemed completely oblivious, which made Ethan realize he doesn’t know much about Bax’s internal life these days; he hasn’t seen Bax respond to anyone after Sor’rel. He tells Bax he needs to figure out who he is beyond survival—doesn’t have to be a person, just about Bax. Bax lists off a few things he’s sort of been thinking about, and says that Sav offered to teach him how to read but he thinks he’s too dumb for that, which Ethan interrupts with a longwinded story whose moral is that Bax usually sets his limits for himself far lower than he can actually do. Bax asks how Ethan knew he liked Danica, and Ethan fumbles around for a while saying it was never not a thing, but eventually landing on, “I dunno, it just feels different.”
Peach asks Sal’s opinion on Ashen’s plan to go to the Black, find an unknown weapon and go North to fight the angels; Sal thinks Ashen is crazy but that he has a better idea than most. He tells her that someday she’s going to have to accept that their home isn’t around any more and build a new one; she agrees reluctantly, but says this isn’t it. Maybe she’ll just settle in Kendall’s Forge as well. Sal says he’s getting to like Bax despite his punchable face; Peach waxes on about him and he says she must like him, and of anyone here, he seems worth getting to know.
Sav checks on Xander and to get measurements to make him a new finger. She compliments him on holding out like he did; he says it was the first time he’s faced the possibility of actually dying, and that it probably wasn’t brave because he had the feeling that his secret—who was actually behind the stories he wrote the script from—might have been the only thing standing between him and death. Even though he survived not telling them, he doesn’t feel good about it. Sav asks if Ethan told him about the potential dangers, and Xander says that he knew, of course, it was raising a middle finger to the Church, but he’d never seen a real templar or angel before and they were remote; Rhun and his team were something else entirely. He then asks if they—the group of Thorne’s friends—are in trouble from the play, and Sav is mildly amused as they respond no, that’s not their problem at all. They then leave Nurie’te with Xander as a possible companion to rubber-duck at while he’s holed up in the room.
Sav checks with Peach on the way out to see how she’s feeling about the whole Miranda thing. Peach is still weirded out about it, and Sav fumbles their way through a much-abbreviated and confused explanation about the whole Inquisitor Sylas-Sylas Remnant-Bax thing to try and relate on mothers holding secrets that don’t come out until much later. It is unclear how much is clarified, but Peach says she gets it, and they hug.
Far in the south, a hunter in the snow drags a deer carcass, unable to give up the potential food source as his friends pull ahead. Gradually, he loses them in the blinding snow, only to be surrounded by the gathering dead.
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