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

He glanced at her for a moment, away from the Fire Stone he’d lifted up. “Aye, there’s Lesser ones around, much less powerful. The, uh, ley lines form them up from the raw energy of the land in set places, naught more than minor Elementals about t’ guard them. We could just run up and pick them off the ground.” He looked at the two Blackfire Stones inset on Quaver sharply. “A progression of power?” he asked sharply, not unfamiliar with the concept. “Ye could mount Blackfire Stones on Atlan Weapons, and increase their power considerably. They were fine Weapons for a time, until we found the secret of Rending Weapons, and they became mid-tier things, backup weapons only the poor or weak would use. We could infuse them with the Atlan Stones, too, which made them very flexible if ye needed ta change Elemental attack types, given a few minutes, so if ye only carried one Weapon, they were a fine choice in their time.” He tossed a thumb at Bunita. “In the day, I used to carry around a dozen different Swords, nae just one.”

“A dozen?” Kris was definitely amused at that, but then put her hand to her forehead, holding her hand out for the Stones. “Before you answer that, I need you to know something.”

He gave them back to her promptly, sensing this was important. “Highness?” he asked respectfully.

“Swords of Lost Light have Weapon spirits formed right into them. They are living Weapons. It’s why they can be evolved so easily to greater strength.” She inhaled deeply, staring him deep in the eyes. “You corrupting that Sword of Lost Light with the blood of the First Shade was akin to someone forcibly transforming you into a Shade, and then keeping you their slave to use and abuse after doing it, while you couldn’t do anything about it but scream silently and weep blood at the horror of it.”

The Mick blinked once as the blood drained visibly from his ruddy face. Then he shuddered, licking his lips and looking away. “Oh,” he said in a weak voice. “I, I didn’t know, Highness...” he whispered.

“You said they were destroyed during the Fall.” He looked back at her and nodded slowly. “That would have released them from the chains and corrupt cage they were put into. But if you ever see such a Sword intact, you must shatter it and set them free. Do not seek to replicate it that way, ever.

“It’s a living Weapon, made for the hands of the great and good. Don’t torture it that way. It can grow to become what you seek through cleaner methods.”

He reached up to touch his own Weapon, feeling the touch of the growing spirit inside it, and something flickered through his eyes as he pictured that feeling, that link, being fed the corrupt blood of what he had called the Hopeslayer.

“Aye, Highness. I swear on me Sword that I’ll not repeat the mistake, and if I see such a corrupted Blade, I’ll end it.”

She nodded once, turning to look at me. “You’ve a light in your eye, Ryin.”

I took my own deep breath, looking at Quaver. I reached out and into the torus of Lost Lights swirling around the Sword as if alive. “You didn’t catch it, so I’ll emphasize it. He called the last and more powerful Infusion a Radiance Infusion.” I touched the Lost Lights, my eyes glittering. “These are both Force and Radiant magic, Kris.”

Her eyes widened just a bit. “I’m not a Powered, but that sounds incredibly useful...”

I closed my eyes, reached out to one side of the swirls that I knew, feeling the motes of Force flickering, pulling them to my hand.

I opened my eyes and saw the swirls about Quaver streaming over to circle my hand in delight, even turning silvery in reaction to my Argent Savancy. They were still glowing in faint chromatic hues, however.

“Force and Radiance are considered two of the highest energy forms that arcane magic can draw on. Any Tradition, really. And Radiance tends to be very, very hostile to necromancy, shadow magic, and anything associated with lower-planar life.” I held up my hand, staring at the dancing motes. “This Lost Light is meant as a guideline to energies which are extremely dangerous to the undead of all kinds, and the Shades. If you aren’t wielding the Sword, then I imagine the energies of the Swords are what you are meant to look at.”

“What did the minor Atlan Stones do?” Kris asked quickly.

“Just changed the damage the blade inflicted to the Element, mostly? There were no increase in power...”

“And these stones were never used in combination with a Sword of Lost Light, only those Infusions?”

“Aye, there’s no Slot in the Swords as we saw,” the Mick agreed slowly.

“Pommelstone?” Kris pressed, turning her Sword over.

The Mick looked at it for a long moment, pursing his lips. “We never tried?” he finally offered, spreading his hands wide helplessly.

“You’re thinking the Infusions are just progressive power alternates, like the stones?” I asked her.

“Living Weapons, like any Named Weapon. I think the Minor Stones are a stepping stone taking part of the load so the major Stones can dump more raw juice into the Blade, and the... Blackfire Stones are meant to stack on top of that.” She eyed the row of them narrowly.

It fit. The Blackfire Stones were definitely a form of modular power conduit. If the Swords of Lost Light were evolving Weapons, it was natural that a basic power-up would be useful on them.

“If that were true… could the Infusions be applied to other Weapons?” the Mick asked slowly.

“If they are designed for it, or they are living Weapons,” Kris replied firmly.

His eyes grew intense again. “Like Named Weapons...” he said softly, reaching up to touch Bunita again.

“Yes. The main difference of Living Weapons is organic growth with their owner, and how good their base shell is.” Kris spun Quaver through her fingers like it was a baton. “You’re fighting physics by making your Sword lighter. You want physics on your side. You want to be swinging around a heavy, deadly Weapon, letting your strength and heavyfoot take care of inertia problems. You felt how heavy Quaver is.”

“Fifty percent more damage,” I boiled down her explanation as the Mick nodded, clenching his hand. “With a reduction to hit if you are weak, none if you are strong.” I met his eyes. “You can toss me up to the second floor with one hand. You should be swinging around something that would break the wrists of a normal man. Instead you went with that pyreal alloy and Bunita is almost a finesse blade, giving you no real benefits for doing so.”

His face twisted. “Aye, but the pyreal alloy technique is one of the things we managed to save, and the blade lets the magic flow through it more easily as a result...”

“At some point, we’re going to have to reforge your Sword into YOUR Sword, not some namby-pamby finesse blade made for some duelist to show off. A Sword meant for carving through armor, meat, hide, and bone in equal measure, crashing against shields and driving down lighter weapons in a fight. If you want to look like a blade dancer, that’s on you. Be strong and agile enough to use your Sword that way, don’t short-change yourself!”

“Yes, Highness,” he sighed, aware that this young woman had very old and lethal eyes, and even if he was technically her superior and elder in most ways, she knew so much that he wanted to learn, and learn right now…!

Also, she was goddamn vicious and brutal in a fight, a superior team player, and had precious little pride and reservation when it came time for the killing. He wanted to be on her side, in her Fellowship, and that was not a lie!

“Alright, we’re going to get back to diving for goldweight, you’re going back on watch. We’ll be up at the dawn for the morning Salute.”

“And miss me chance to see ye swimming again?” he muttered, clearly not meaning it as he clasped his chest, mortally wronged. “Ye’re a cruel woman, Highness!”

“I am indeed, now off with you!” she just grinned, and he headed back to where the Wagon was sitting to take up position again, after I slapped another Invisibility atop him. He’d pace the outside of the grounds and around the Mansion like he had earlier, looking for anything coming this way. Tedium seemed to be something he was very inured to, and given the way he’d gained so much of his experience, was hardly unexpected.

---

“Thoughts?” I asked her, as we headed inside and down to the much-less water-filled bottom of this particular dungeon, if only because the cracked rock under the tiles had drained most of the water out and down the hill it was built upon, whereas the other two had been built closer to the water table and not drained out.

“I don’t think Mom or Dad would have survived me putting a Weight of the Waterfall into them with all the boosts on it,” she muttered to me. “I took only a fifth of its working Health. It was surreal. That’s the single most damaging blow I’ve inflicted on anything in my entire life, and it just took it, Ryin.” Her expression was feral, deadly, and a little wild.

“You missed it, then.” She glanced over at me sharply. “Skeleton Slayer. Not Bane. Shadow Slayer, not Bane,” I repeated for her benefit.

About to drop down the walls towards our goal of the ‘treasure room’ of the lower floors, she actually paused in place.

“Damn! You’re right, I automatically swapped terms, I wasn’t even thinking!” she admitted. “What do you think it does?”

“Well, Power of Ten didn’t have a Slayer or Slaying Enchantment that I know of, we used Banes. Banes are very equal between all Weapons. But other Systems don’t have to be quite so rigid as ten Slots and so much power or less per Slot, or a group of Slots,” I pointed out to her. “It’s a more organic system. So a 1.5 or 2.37 Slot power is totally usable here, right?”

“Skeleton Slaying. Shade Slaying. Should have pressed him on the Slaying mechanics, if he knew them,” she murmured, nails digging into the magically-strengthened stone and scampering down the wall without effort, while I rode an evoked Disk down beside her. “What are your thoughts?”

“Well, in another System I know of, Slayer specifically meant +1/+1, and doubled the base Weapon damage against a foe. So, a Longsword of Giant Slaying +2 was +3 against all types of Jotuns, and went from 1-12 to 2-24 damage against the True Jotuns.”

She considered that as she started the sloshing around looking for stuff with her tremblesense, her boots neatly deposited on my Disk. “Very similar to Bane, but obviously more powerful on bigger or more powerful Weapons,” she conceded. “So, the incentive is to place it on large Weapons used against large foes.”

“Or Heavy Swords used by a Profound Swordswoman,” I noted. “3-15/3-24 with three advances, right?” Which would be 3-24/6-36 or somesuch in her hands, and only going to improve with Class Level.

“That would definitely help. And you think Slaying is separate from Slayer?”

“In that system, Slaying was much more specific, but it added +2 instead of +1, and did triple the Weapon damage.” She favored me with another interested glance. “So, a Longsword +2, Pyre Dragon Slayer, would be +4 against all Dragons, but it would do triple damage against Pyre Dragons.”

“And you pointed out Skeletons specifically because they are a broader set of the greater Undead type that Bane uses, but the Slaying is very specific to the type...” She nodded understanding. “So all we have to do is ask them if there are Weapons that kill the zombie-type undead here, or those mummies, or perhaps undead spirits.”

“Even the Slaying effect might be variable in power, given the organic nature of the magic here. It might be ‘up to’ triple damage, for instance, dependent on the skill of the smith. You know how variable Biting Strike and Crushing Blow can be.”

“That’s true. Biting Strike varied from 15 to 30% crit rates, on testing, according to Mom, and the higher end was nigh-impossible to find. Crushing Blow varied from 250% to 400% damage, with the latter also being incredibly rare, and she never saw a Weapon that managed to max out both of them.”

“Even something she or Briggs made?” I had to whistle. “Serious Chaos Element. The RNG sucks, Kris!”

“That is truth! And we’ve got more pyreal coins here to pick up...”