Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“Ho, Lord Mick!”

There was a quartet of Royal Scouts camped out at the Villa we were heading to. The Villa itself was in decent shape, all things considered, not blasted apart by shades as much as those further to the north. There were signs that a large number of things had used it as shelter, and only the roughest of repairs had been done to its walls, but there were also steps carved out of its motte for easier access to the destroyed windows and roughly-mended door, unlike the other places we’d seen.

The man calling out was Aluvian, probably from the eastern clans given his short brown hair. He was also noticeably older than most of the other scouts.

He and the three scouts with him were eyeing the Wagon coming up behind the two running people with great interest, especially considering the other scouts sitting or sprawled on top of it.

I was sitting up front doing a bunch of not much, Infusing on the way. There was precious little for me to do on the run with a bunch of archers up top and two running cuisinarts in front of me. Anything on the beach that was of interest just died on its Summons point, and said point was vivified to remove it from play.

“King Roach,” the Mick replied loftily, and earned a grin in response as he slowed down, ending his walk with a warm armclasp with the younger man. “How’d things go on yer end?”

“A whole battle company of wounded lugians pounded through the area yesterday, getting everyone a bit excited as we pulled out. They left a few of their own behind as the tribes were opportunistic, but mostly we were wondering what was coming that had manhandled the company so bad, enough that they lost even their Tukora.”

The Mick yawned lazily. “That were us, an’ the nice lady sitting in the front o’ the floating conveyance back there. Be very respectful to her. Oh, an’ allow me t’ introduce a true Imperial Princess, an’ I be not joking, an’ you WILL bow to her,” he stated firmly, as all the new scouts blinked in shock. “Meet her Imperial Highness Kristie Rantha-Briggs o’ the new Isparian Empire, which seems to have come about back home after putting a burning boot on the throat o’ Viamont, to much approval from its neighbors.”

Rogar just rolled with it, turning to Kristie at attention, and bowing formally to her. “Your Imperial Highness!” he saluted her, and the other scouts hastily followed his example.

“As you were.” Once her status was acknowledged, Kris didn’t stand on ceremony. “This is my advisor, Devra al-Ryin, address her as Miss Ryin or Sage Ryin or something suitable,” she introduced me. I just waved at them, focusing on the Infusing Pattern riding in front of me, Burning merrily as more pyreal coins were consumed for Kris’ Necklace.

Lord Mick introduced the other scouts, they were Visual Filed away so as to never forget their faces and names, and the camp was joined.

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They were a bit surprised to find out that they wouldn’t be heading out immediately, but they didn’t mind the wait. Kris went into the Villa and down to the ruptured basement, soon enough throwing around blocks weighing five times what she did to get at the things underneath.

The scouts marveled at the simple utility of a floating Disk, levitating there with a personally carved stone sectional on top of it to accept the various things Kris was hauling out of the bottom as she made her way through the rubble, dust, scree, and heaped-up filth tossed in there by numerous campers over the years. It was deep enough that nobody had bothered with anything resembling a permanent ladder or access, but that naturally didn’t deter her at all.

Seeing an Imperial Princess get her hands dirty like that was definitely a novel experience, except for the fact she didn’t actually get dirty. When she clawed her way back up the wall, the Disk heaped with stuff trailing her, she looked just as darkly dangerous and unbesmirched by the filth below as she had going down.

She also offered over an Axe to the Mick, the broken haft of it stained red. It was Rune-carved, and set with more of those holes for gems inset in its broad head.

“A Crimson Silifi,” he remarked, and over there, my ears perked up. That was a famous, legendary Gharu’n Weapon! He glanced slyly my way, saw I was listening, and smiled. “Nay, lass, ‘tis not the real one, o’ course, but were named in honor of it. Ye can see the traditional shape of a silifi here.” The head, striped with crimson streaks, was held up for everyone to admire.

“The legendary Silifi of Crimson Stars was in the possession of Bey al-Turgal, the last I heard,” Princess Kristie said, arms folded across her absent bust as she regarded the thing. “Save for the broken haft, that thing is almost perfectly intact.”

“Were there any residues of rubies on or under the thing?” the Mick asked pointedly, turning it over and thumbing the arrangement of four indentations there for emphasis.

Kristie turned around, looking down at where she’d recovered it, replaying the experience carefully.

“It was down in what was the pocket plane, in one of the side rooms, crushed under the floor and ceiling coming down on it...” She played her hand over something invisible. “There was residue of something on the wall, and what looked to have been a weapon mount… and four holes in that arc,” she pointed out. “It looks like it was blasted off the wall by whatever might have been in those gem slots.”

“That sounds fair enough,” the Mick nodded. “Probably why ‘tis still intact otherwise.” He held up the haft. “Anyone recognize this material?” he asked those behind him, and passed it back.

It made the rounds quickly, with Grover, the son of a leathercrafter, identifying it as a large armoredillo spine, much bigger than any other he’d seen.

“We knew ‘tweren’t the real Silifi, because anyone an’ their mother could get a copy of this made if ye but ran the right quest an’ retrieved the Rubies which powered the toy from those creatures what protected them. Know ye anything about the true Silifi, Highness?” he asked Kris.

“It’s a powerful Crushing Blow Weapon Imbued for lightning damage,” Kris replied firmly. “One of the best Axes known to exist in Ispar, actually. Mother said the Rune was at least x4, and might have been x5. It didn’t really have an equal in Ispar.”

“Oh, ye saw it personally?” The Mick was startled.

“Bey al-Turgal used it to great effect on a lot of Viamontian knights during the Crusade. It doesn’t look quite like this, but they got the general shape right. The stripes are at the wrong angle, and the Silifi isn’t built for gem slots, plus the haft is finely treated and Marrowshaped ursuin bone,” she told them all.

“Ye’re moving in lofty circles now, lads and lasses!” the Mick called back to the astounded scouts as he accepted the imitation Axe back. “Well, lass, this here Axe were one of the best Lightning Weapons ye could be swinging around on the whole island, as it were one of the rare few that combined a Rending Rune with a Crushing Blow.” He tapped the head of it thoughtfully. “The magical Rubies what went here, there were six o’ them. One was mandatory, the other five were yer choice, so different Silifis could be different. The extra magic were what was fueled by the mana, an’ were dependent on the choice of magical Rubies within them.

“The last Ruby, now, that truly empowered it. It were what made it an active Lightning Rending Weapon instead o’ merely Lightning damage, an’ allowed it to cut far an’ deep, aye.” He patted the head in remembrance. “I were never much for battle-axes, especially a big one like this, but I saw a great number o’ these things over the years. Every axe-man I knew carried one, an’ once they upgraded it to the Silifi of Crimson Night, they never really got rid of it.

“For whatever reason, the strength o’ the armoredillo whose spine was carved to make the haft affected the strength of the Silifi. Only a Plate Armoredillo, one of the toughest o’ the things, guaranteed the Axe be at its strongest… tho if ye weren’t of arm strong enough to wield the larger ones, I suppose it were a choice.”

Kris held out her hand, and he handed the split-haft Axe back to her. Her black nails ran up and down the melded bones and plates, assessing it.

“This is indeed surprisingly dense and heavy, and there’s a lightly-burned vein of enchantment going right down the middle of the spinal cord. For a one-handed Weapon, this would have been surprisingly heavy,” she agreed, hefting it effortlessly in her off hand. Her nails drummed over the head of the thing, looking at something nobody else there could see. “You’re absolutely right on the gemstones. The Axe itself doesn’t hold any power whatsoever, it was all in the stones.”

“Stones that might still exist, if they weren’t in an Axe,” I spoke up from the Wagon. “Do you know where you could get those Rubies from, Lord Mick? We only need functioning examples of them, and we can replicate them… but I don’t think we’re going to find them outside wherever you recovered them from.”

“Well, now...” he murmured, thinking back as he sat back thoughtfully. “I were with some friends as we ran around like dogs chasing rabbits finding the things, aye. Some o’ the places were damn annoying to make our way through, dungeons confusing an’ silly an’ with annoying dead things in them, usually, or levers here to open doors over there an’ such annoying stuff.” He shook his head at the memory of it all. “But if we can get the Rubies, ye can replicate them?” he asked intently.

Kris held up the Axe. “These are slightly different from the Atlan Weapon gem mounts, but not amazingly so. As if they were crafted only to take in a specific cut of gemstone. If you went with a more modular design, they could potentially take any gemstone.

“A Blackfire Silifi of Crimson Night sounds interesting to me...”

The Mick’s eyes widened, and he glanced over at Rogar, who wore a battle-axe on his hip and also looked very interested. “That sounds… very impressive, indeed, Your Highness.”

“Ryin.” She tossed the Silifi my way with a whirling toss that could have taken off a man’s head. I caught it deftly with Minor TK and settled it into my hands. My Mask came down and the eyes lit up with the Deep Assay and Detect Magic at IV, Cast slowly so as not to disturb what I was Infusing.

The internal Rune structure and patterns inside the Silifi painted themselves up, as well as the sockets to place the gems. Those I zoomed in on intently, then flicked up next to the Atlan Weapons to compare.

“I don’t see an issue with modifying one to the other. You said these Rubies you had to find came in endless numbers?” I inquired of the Mick, who was watching all this intently.

“Aye, ye could just wait a few moments, an’ they reformed from the spots they were in, however stupid a spot it were. Junk on the floor, in a drawer, in a chest, in the pouch o’ some undead thing ye had to wait to respawn and butcher it again...” He shook his head at the zaniness of it all.

“And then out of nowhere, you got this fourth slot option?” I asked, blowing up the image of the fourth Socket, which had twice the number of connections and thrice the Runic structures around it of the other three.

He again paused to think that over. “Aye,” he admitted with a slow nod. “The original Silifi of Crimson Stars were a good Weapon, but it became very outdated after Renders were discovered. Lo, an’ not long after, the ability to add another Ruby an’ upgrade it came along out of nowhere, just wandering in to existence so anyone could upgrade the Silifi they already had...”

I just nodded. “It’s all part of the same system, but forcibly separated so as not to have modularity. Can’t have you making truly effective Weaponry now, right?”

His eyes were flat as he nodded. “Aye, that sounds about the right of it...”