[Beastborne: Tower of Blight] Chapter 41

Hal laughed. “You make it seem like that weapon Levels Up with you or something.”

The six sharp looks he received told him that his joke hadn’t been much of one.

“You’re serious.”

Val nodded. “Deadly.”

Now Hal was tempted to try for the weapon chest. He couldn’t make a relic himself after all, but then he began to wonder about something else.

Besides, what were the odds that two relics would be in there? And that one would be a sword? Hal didn’t want any other relic. In a way, he was a bit like Rinbast.

And he knew Rinbast used a sword as well, which meant that it was unlikely Hirash would have found a sword relic and kept it around. Not when he could curry favor.

“Can a relic be something other than a weapon?” he asked, staring at the treasure chests.

“It can be anything,” Val told him. “Any piece of equipment, from a simple amulet to a breastplate.”

“So a ring…” Hal said slowly, feeling that old lust seep in for the elemental rings.

“One ring to bind them,” Val whispered.

“My precious!” Shadowmachi wheezed.

Hal rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. So how likely are relics, then?”

“The Warleader possesses one of unsurpassing strength,” Robas told them. “I do believe each of the chieftains and leaders possess a singular relic at most. Though I cannot be certain of this.” He looked meaningfully at Elaise.

The Scout Leader nodded. “This is true. Most tribes only have a single relic for their entire people. It is often the symbol the tribe and is passed from chieftain to chieftain unless some horrible fate befalls it.”

So it’s important for a leader to have a relic, Hal thought. Or at least, a tribe. In this case, Val’s relic makes Brightsong’s standing greater than it was.

Hal turned to Val. “You just won the lottery, didn’t you?”

“Big time,” she said with a grin so wide she hardly looked like herself. She definitely didn’t look like the half-dead waif that had appeared on his doorstep asking for asylum and expecting to be executed.

Even Komachi was smiling adorably. She seemed pleased that something was going well for Val.

Giel grunted and headed to the central chest. Instead of a scroll, tablet, or tome, a large bundle of material shot out into his huge arms.

The lamora turned and handed it to Hal. The package was incredibly heavy.

[Imperial Cermet]

A recipe thought lost to time from the Ageless Empire that once spanned from coast to coast of the Galaen Sea. They perfected this recipe of composite stone that was the perfect blend of resilience and mana conductivity. Being a seafaring Empire, this material is completely impervious to the effects of the Galaen Sea’s legendary corrosive properties.

“Thanks Giel,” Hal said, his throat tightening with emotion. “I appreciate it.”

Giel’s only response was another grunt. At least it wasn’t complete silence, coupled with his usual vacant stare. Sure, the vacant stare remained, but the grunt was a little different.

Hal took the small victory for what it was.

His Citadel Quest made a faint ping. A quick check told Hal that he had just collected one of the rare ingredients for the Foundation of the Dawn Citadel.

“This brings us one step closer to building the Citadel,” he told them, unable to believe his luck.

As much as he might want a relic, Hal knew building the Citadel was a closer–and more achievable–goal that would help everybody in Brightsong.

Vorax took the heavy collection of silvery brick-like items all stacked and wrapped into one package into himself. The weight disappeared as if it had never existed.

Gotta love magic, Hal said with a grin.

“There are many items that would be impossible to obtain,” Robas said, looking with interest at the chests. “Even should you trade with each of the tribes, it is unlikely you will have the ingredients.”

“Would I have been able to get that misspelled cement stuff?” Hal asked.

“I have seen it before, just a handful of the stuff, not nearly the size and quantity you had.” Robas shook his head. “The Nargan’thil would have been your only option, and they do not give their sunken treasures lightly.”

Val gave Hal a curious look.

“The ‘Sunken Watch’,” he translated for her. Then, because Elaise was staring at him like a teacher at a lazy student giving a presentation, Hal felt compelled to add, “They keep watch on all the old sunken landmarks. Ancient cities, great ports, temples full of loot and treasure. They secure it all against anybody who would plunder them.”

Val, like Hal once did, looked completely nonplussed. “Why?”

“Because they feel that is the only way to prevent another Sinking. They salvage what they can find without trespassing on the memories of the dead, but otherwise, they are stalwart in their defense. They fear the Sinking will occur again, or something worse if the sunken dead are disturbed.”

Elaise nodded like a proud teacher. “They are the sworn enemies of the Thark’azan.”

“The Lantern Bearers,” Hal translated.

A look of mild irritation flashed across Elaise’s blue eyes, but she continued as if Hal hadn’t said anything. “The two tribes have been at odds since before recorded history. The Thark’azan believe that all knowledge must be learned so that it can be safeguarded. If we do not learn it–so they say–then it might destroy us. Only by understanding can we truly defend ourselves.”

Looking at the chests, Val smirked to herself. “Yes, I think I can see why those two would fight.” She turned back to Hal. “What will you pick, oh great leader?”

“That’s easy,” Hal said, stepping forward to the central chest. A bundle of materials shot out, hit him in the chest, and knocked him to the floor. It felt like he was just hit by a truck. “Heavy,” Hal wheezed from beneath the treasure. The bundle must have been magically contained so that hundreds of pounds fit into a small package, because there was no way that [Gilded Lumber] was that heavy.

Another Dawn Citadel construction item down.

Robas and even Hildr went up to the same chest. Robas got a schematic in the form of a scroll for an improved watchtower, which he tossed to Hal with a shrug that said, sorry, I tried.

Hildr, however, got another rare material. A stack of [Rubelise] which were these red bamboo-looking things that, like all the other rare materials, weighed nearly a ton.

Elaise looked at them, wondering if it would be worth it to be seen as less generous than her fellow Ebon Star tribesmen. In the end, she decided that it didn’t look that bad at all because Elaise knelt in front of the armor chest and was rewarded with what looked like a series of bangles. Each bangle seemed to be linked with the next, all of them a different design and metal.

“I knew I made the right choice,” she said with a smile. Elaise looked over at Hal. “These will dramatically improve my veil magic. A hard find without finding something specially made for a Ninja.”

“That’s fine,” Hal told her. “I’ll remember that Robas, Giel, and Hildr were both more generous than their famous Scout Leader.”

The two Ebon Star tribesmen looked abashed, doing their best to melt into the stone walls in the small room.

Elaise flipped her hair over one shoulder, putting the clattering bangles on one arm, replacing a glove that she had been wearing. “They are more than capable of making their own choices,” Elaise told him. “As for my generosity… I have taught you all that you know about the tribes. Perhaps you should start to think that perhaps these treasures are repayment for my services?”

With that, she turned and stepped through the portal to Brightsong.

For once, the image didn’t look like a benighted frozen hellscape. It would still be incredibly cold, but there was a beautiful blue sky up above and a glittering world of powdery white diamonds below.

Hal let everybody go ahead of him. He had wanted to make sure the Tower had no last-minute surprises and was glad when his nerves seemed to be for nothing.

“Time to go home, Vorax,” Hal said.

They leaped through the portal.

That same disorienting sense of speed and shifting direction had Hal scrambling to right himself. He still hadn’t found a way to use essence limbs in any meaningful way, but he managed to keep on his feet, which was better than the hunched forms of his party members around him.

People were already coming out of the temporary hospital positioned near the Tower. Hal thought it had been moved farther away, then he realized that wasn’t quite true.

The Tower was growing corrupted land all around it, pushing out from itself.

The Shadesblight was growing.

What had once been a small circle maybe ten or so feet from the Tower was now several times as large.

He picked up his friends, helping them to their feet just as the first karak came to ferry them across the rotting gray lands that had cropped up between the Tower and his home.

Knee-high fungi were popping up all over. The smell of decay was sickening, but more than anything, it made Hal angry. This was his home, and it was already changing.

Val dusted herself off, staggered for a little while until Giel caught her, then went after Hal. They both refused a ride from a karak, choosing instead to walk alongside Hal up to the boundary.

Hal let them pass as he stared at the surrounding area.

Wherever he walked, the corruption receded, but as soon as Hal moved on, it crawled back in.

It wasn’t even cold, Hal realized. It took him a moment to tell the difference between the humid rot of the corrupted circle and the way the Shiverglades was supposed to feel.

Rotting fungus sprouted everywhere. They were all sorts of unsettling shapes and colors, from pale corpse white to putrid green with fringes of dripping goo-like curtains or sheer rotten-smelling veils.

A few looked like they might puff out some noxious fumes, but thankfully, it wasn’t that bad yet.

“What’re you doing, Hal?” Val asked him.

Saying “I’m not sure” didn’t seem like a great thing in front of all the gathered people, so Hal shook his head sadly and walked beyond the barrier.

Immediately, the cold and the sweet smell of fresh air filled his lungs.

No matter how much time and energy he threw at the Tower, he doubted he could make much of a dent. At the rate the corruption was growing, what hope was there to stop it before the Shadesblight consumed the whole town?

Even Hal could tell that it was growing at an exponential rate.

The Manatree’s barrier was pushed back in a great circle around the Tower, and even from here Hal could feel the weariness of the Manatree.

“What’s wrong, Hal?” a familiar and heartwarming voice asked.

Hal nearly sagged with relief as he laid eyes on Noth. She held a squirming little winter coated oppa who, upon seeing Hal, immediately leaped off her shoulder and dropped into the snow.

Hermes scrambled for a little bit trying to claw through the snow, then gave himself up to the inevitable cold moments before Noth giggled and fished him out.

She brushed the snow and ice off his coat and handed him to Hal. “I think your little helper missed you. You should see what he’s done to the cottage.”

Hal looked at Hermes, tucking him into his cloak where the oppa could warm up. “Oh, and what has the prisoner done now?”

Hermes poked his nose out from Hal’s cloak and looked right at Noth as he said, “See! I told you I was a prisoner!”