Octophobia
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Spire's Spite - Arc 2 - Chapter 53
🕑 Added 2024-11-07 02:00:03 +0000 UTC"Wow? What?" Cal asked eagerly as Lauren perused the pile of precious objects on the long, wooden table.
"They mostly seem to be magical items. Not Imbued, mind you, though that's not so bad," she stated. "Some merely magical items can be just as useful as true Treasures."
"Even the hat," Cal asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"Even the hat," she agreed, sitting back down in her armchair. "All except the gem."
"Too bad we have no no-notes," Bert said, then turned to the corner where Toby and Jane were skulking. "You guys got any no-notes?!"
"No," Toby replied.
"Let's open the chest," Fritz suggested, dragging a stool and joining the team's circle. "It might have some."
"Are those two far enough away not to effect the treasure?" Rosie asked, scooting closer.
"I think it's more about intent," Fritz said. "As we don't consider them part of the team they probably won't benefit."
"Do you think that would that work with the spite? Two teams Climbing, not together but close to each other?" Bert asked hopefully.
"I don't know. Though I think if cheating the spite could be done it would be common knowledge. And we would see the Guides Guild take advantage of such things," Fritz theorised.
"Fritz is right," Lauren said. "The Spire's have a way of judging such matters, and don't look kindly on breaking the one rule they impose."
"They have other rules, like the meritocratic conditions," Fritz said offhandedly.
"Very rarely encountered, and I've heard that's only invoked to tilt an unfair floor back into the Climber's favour with some free information," Lauren said.
"Unfair?" Cal said. "Aren't all the Floors unfair?"
"I think the Spires believe that unfair means borderline impossible, or something else equally absurd," Fritz said. Though he suspected that the one time he had heard the term it was used to mislead him and the other Climbers, pushing them into conflict. He felt it was a complete abuse of whatever rules the Spires followed, but there was nothing to be done about it, it's just how the Spires were.
"Who cares," Bert interrupted. "If Toby and Jane aren't going to effect the chest then let's open it."
"Agreed!" George said. "Who should do the honours?"
"Fritz, he picked the locks and led us to victory," Bert said.
The team nodded, with no further talk Fritz strode to and opened the chest. Multicoloured light streamed then coalesced within the silver-banded wood and he slowly took out the newly created objects.
Six vials, three with thick red fluid, three with bubbling yellow. One Know-note and three Door dowsers. A dull metal ring that was the twin of Fritz's own barrier ring. Another refilling water flask, though this one was fashioned like a metal hip flask. Then there was a bag of fifteen gold triads, and lastly necklace of cloudy glass beads.
"Not bad," Bert said.
"Not bad at all," Lauren agreed. "The ring and necklace are Imbued."
"A goodly amount of potions too," George said nodding sagely.
"Now how do we split this stuff?" Fritz asked.
"Well, the last chest's Treasures went all to us, so however we split it should be up to you," Lauren proposed.
"That's right. We've already got our stuff haven't we Cal," Rosie agreed elbowing her brother.
"Sure do," he responded forlornly, staring at the stupid, yellow, wide-brimmed hat with the green feather.
Fritz sighed and shook his head with a smile. He snatched up the fashion monstrosity and tossed it to the man. It spun through the air and landed cleanly in Cal's lap.
The man immediately brightened, and stuck it on his head, smiling like the idiot he was.
"What do you think?" He asked Lauren, who smiled politely.
"It's... extravagant," she said, though she obviously didn't like it, not one bit. Fritz had to agree, it was ugly as sin and clashed with everything. Its only saving grace was that it was magical, otherwise he may have had Lauren burn it and spare them from its garish presence.
"Looks good," Rosie said, revealing herself to be completely blind to fashion.
"Enough about the hat, what about the rest of the stuff?" Bert said, tearing his envious eyes away from Cal and back to the pile.
From there, the potions were handed out, one of each to Rosie, Bert and Fritz. The second barrier ring was a difficult matter to decide, as Cal, George and Rosie all had need of it, but it eventually ended up on Rosie's finger as she was a Defender and was most likely to make use of it. George and Cal said they would rather have her have it anyway. The refilling hip flask went to Bert, who called dibs.
The door dowsers went to Fritz as he was the Scout, which left only the necklace of glass beads and the Know-note as the last of the chest's rewards.
"Should we Note the necklace?" Fritz asked, holding up the beads.
"I don't see why not," Lauren said.
"Go ahead," Rose said, shrugging. "We already know what my coral ring does."
Fritz shrugged and pressed the white card to the beads, then read the black glyphs burned into paper.
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Treasure
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Sea Mist Beads
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Alignment: Cloud
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Capacity: 3/6
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Abilities Imbued
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Sea Mist
A cloudy cover of salty spray, fogs and flusters eyes in grey.
Conjure a dense cloud of salty sea mist around this Treasure.
Alignment: Cloud.
Cost: Two.
Duration: Five minutes.
Refresh: None.
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"Creates a mist," Fritz announced, unimpressed.
"Another mist-based Treasure or Technique," George noted. "Is the Spire trying to tell us something?"
"I think it's more likely that one influenced the other to appear," Bert said thoughtfully.
The whole team turned to him with some incredulity, unused as they were to his sparks of clever cunning, and he nodded sagely, smugly, at them.
"Bert may be right," Lauren allowed, nearly shuddering at the admission.
"Still, doesn't seem useful unless you can see through or control mist," Fritz said.
"Maybe it will give you some ability to see through the fog?" Rosie said. "Also can't you Sense Heat, Lauren?"
"I can," Lauren said.
"Let's test it, it only costs two gold," Fritz said, tossing the beads into Lauren's lap.
She took up the beads and stood, then most billowed from the necklace and blanketed most of the room of grey fog.
Fritz found that he could see his team quite easily, the grey haze barely impeding his vision. Apparently, the same couldn't be said for the others as they turned this way and that, trying to peer through the fog. It seemed this mist was far less blinding than his Illusory Shadow, though it did cover a far larger area.
"I can see about nine feet around me, from there it's too hazy," Lauren said. "Though my Sense Heat does work better in this cool mist. I assume because it gives me more contrast to work with."
"It's about the same for me," George provided. "I can see where Bert and Fritz are sitting clearly but everyone else is shadowy."
"I can see everyone just fine," Fritz boasted.
"Of course you can, you're the Scout, idiot," Bert grumbled.
"Does the mist follow the necklace?" Fritz asked ignoring his friend's chiding.
Lauren walked to an unaffected corner and left the fog.
"No, you just activate it and it lingers," she observed.
"It's like squid ink then," Bert summarised. "Could be useful in an escape."
"Or to sow confusion," Fritz added.
"Who wants it then?" Bert asked the group. Unsurprisingly, none seemed to have any interest in it. Fritz sighed.
"I might as well take it," he said, striding out of the cloud and holding out a hand. "I'm hindered least by its fog, and although I have a similar ability this can be used if I'm out of mana. It's a good fail-safe."
Lauren placed the necklace in his palm, its beads tapping together with a sound reminiscent of pattering rain. He slipped it around his neck, hiding it under the collar of his shirt where it rested coolly against his skin.
Eventually, the fog faded away and they eyed the other objects. The chest had disappeared, as Spire chests do, and left on the table were four curious they had managed to loot before and during the ambush. There was the red gem, the silver chalice, a black glove and an empty crystal decanter.
"So this is magical?" Cal asked taking up the chalice and inspecting the glittering white gems set into its elegant face.
"Yes, except this gem, as I said before," Lauren espoused, picking up the rose-red stone and peering at it.
"Is it a ruby?" Bert asked eagerly.
"No. Not a ruby," Lauren stated.
"Oh. Is it at least valuable?" He asked with some disappointment.
"I think it's garnet," Lauren continued, ignoring the man. "And the faceting is weird, like it's cut and polished on the inside as well. Though it's not hollow either, very odd."
"Will that make it worth more?" Fritz asked, feeling again that there was something interesting about the stone, something hidden.
"I can't say. Perhaps," Lauren said shrugging. "I think how it's cut will ruin any of it's capacity to hold mana. Making it purely ornamental."
"Oh, so it's basically a pretty rock," Bert summarised.
"Basically," Lauren agreed.
"I'll take that too, if you don't mind," Fritz said.
Lauren shrugged and handed the gem over.
He stared into its red depths, turning it slowly in his sight watching it gleam and glitter. When he held it to the light the lines within shined in odd patterns, and he knew that there was some secret message sleeping, scintillating, in the geometric spiderweb.
Fritz was brought out of his musing when there was a gleam of new light, illuminating some lines, but not others, within the gem. He tore his eyes away from the stone and looked to the source of pale brightness. It turned out to be the silver chalice, its white gems were lit up with cool light.
"What did you do? You better not have broken it," Rosie blurted.
"It's not broken, I just put of drop of poison in it," Cal protested.
"Why did you do that?" Lauren asked.
"I remembered that some nobles have poison-detecting cups and had a hunch," Cal admitted sheepishly.
"Seems you were right," Fritz observed. "A very good deduction. Any thoughts on the glove, decanter, or hat?"
Cal shrugged and the team began proposing theories, none of which could be proven or displayed, leaving them with little idea of what the remaining objects really did.
The decanter and the chalice were stored away in Cal's Personal Pack, joining the majority of the sirensilk. The singular black, cloth glove was soft to the touch and had a texture similar to velvet. Try as they might, they were unable to discover any of its properties and settled on another game of paper-scissors-rock to decide its ownership.
Fritz, of course, won it easily, and slipped the soft glove over his right hand, admiring its dark shimmer.
"Looks stupid," Bert grumbled enviously.
"You're stupid," Fritz replied offhandedly. "And now that all that is out of the way, shall I regale you with what I have discovered of the Doors?"
"Only if you can do so without sounding so pompous," Bert grumbled further.
"Impossible," Fritz smirked.
"Fine, but we should let the Toby and Jane listen in," Bert said. "They might need the warnings."
Fritz rankled at the suggestion, but soon realised it wouldn't really matter, the two were either coming with them or taking another Door, it couldn't hurt to let them hear what he had found.
The pair of turncoats joined them after Bert called to them, George offered his seat to Jane while Toby dragged his own chair over. Fritz waited for them to settle, sitting in studious silence.
"Now, the first thing you may have noticed about the Doors is-"
"There's four of them?' Toby interrupted drily. "A little obvious."
Fritz merely stared at the man blandly and stated, "If you don't want to hear my wisdom you need not."
"Sorry," Toby said, after Jane punched him lightly on the arm, and he realised the rest of the team were frowning at him.
"Anyway," Fritz continued. "There are four doors, one of which is what I assume is a Hidden Door. Unfortunately, it's locked and beyond our means to break it, if their steel is the same as the doors below us. Which means there's only three real choices."
"The first is a swamp, likely filled with the bog-man-alikes Sapphire mentioned to you, Lauren. The other two are beaches, one cool and one warm. I felt more danger from the rightmost Floor, so I believe that Door has more monsters. It also had a similar feel to the first floor with all the leaping lobsters."
"I would take the vote on which Door to make now, but there is a more pressing vote to cast," Fritz announced gravely. "Whether we are going to take Toby and Jane with us, risking the spite. Or leave them here, potentially leading to their deaths."
The team knew this decision was coming and had to be made, but he stated the obvious anyway, to drive home the ramifications of their votes.
"They need not make their case again, we've heard it all already," Fritz said dispassionately. "If you want to let them Climb with us, spite be damned, speak now."
Lauren Raised a hand, saying, "I can't countenance leaving them here, not in her condition."
George joined her, "It wouldn't be right to leave them both behind."
Surprisingly Cal raised his arm next, "Without them, we may have died in the fight, they turned it in our favour. They deserve some reward for that."
Rosie, seeing which way Cal was voting, added her own hand to the air. "I agree with the others. And she's a healer. That could save us in a pinch."
With a sigh, Fritz reluctantly joined with his own vote, "Leaving them here would be almost the same as murdering them. Indirectly. And I can't do that. No matter if they deserve it or not."
Bert raised his hand just a moment after Fritz and when they looked to him for his explanation he just shrugged.
Fritz heard a loud sniffling and turned to find that not just Jane was weeping, but Toby too. He was heaving like he had run a race while hot tears ran down from his puffy red eyes.
"Tha- tha- thank you," he choked out trying to speak between sobs as Jane buried her face in his chest and he wrapped her protectively in his cloak.
Fritz was startled at the reactions, he had thought they'd take it in stride, keeping up that hard front, not break down, baring their true feelings. The sight before him forced him to face his hurt heart, nearly shedding tears of his own, and he was glad he hadn't had to kill them.
Fritz reflected that if he had actually wanted to leave them behind he wouldn't have included them in the circle, or let everyone see their pitiable, scared faces, or see them as Climbers just like them. It was too late for that though. In fact, considering that the great stone that sat in his gut had seemingly vanished, he was proud that his team was filled with such upstanding individuals who would risk their lives when it was the right thing to do. Betrayal or no.
Even as he thought that, he hardened his heart, and sharpened his gaze. Just because he'd chosen to let them join didn't mean he wouldn't watch them, wouldn't be ready for a sudden shift in loyalty. This really was their last chance, and looking into Toby's eyes it seemed he knew that too.
"Before you can join us, you must swear oaths," Fritz declared, once the tears had died down.
"What?" Jane asked.
"Are you a king now?" Toby asked.
"Merely a lord doing his due duty," Fritz said smugly, though was surprised with a joyous trill from his Dusksong. "I must have your promises to do no harm to the team and enact no further treachery."
"I don't know why you'd bother. If you don't believe us already our words won't do much," Toby argued.
"Maybe not, but it would reassure us," Fritz replied. "Isn't that right?"
The team nodded.
"Fine," Toby said. "I swear."
"You can do better than that," Fritz scoffed.
"Fine, I promise not to harm you or your team," he elaborated, though Fritz felt none of the sincerity he had felt when his own team had sworn their oaths.
"Not good enough," Fritz said, some agitation laced with Dusksong creeping into his tone. "You have to mean it."
"What do you want us to swear to?" Jane asked softly.
"Bert, repeat your oath, it should do fine," Fritz said.
"You are my captain, and I follow where you lead. I'll obey your orders when you give them. This I swear," he recited with a grin. Fritz was somewhat surprised the man had remembered the whole thing, he didn't even have any points aligned to memory.
Jane and Toby looked to each other, the doubt in their eyes glittering. After a moment of intimate staring and invisible conversation, they nodded solemnly and repeated the oath.
This time the words rang true and promise took hold, he could nearly feel the weight of it settle over their shoulders, around their necks, like manacles. With a small flex of Dusksong those ephemeral bonds grew barbs, hooks that set slightly around their Sanctums, ready to cut and puncture should they seek to shirk their vow.
Then the feeling was gone, like smoke in the wind and the light after sunset.
Now that it had been done and their fates settled in truth, Fritz relaxed and asked, "Did you take anything good from your former crew?"
"Some things," Toby hedged.
"We had to leave some stuff behind, like the books," Jane added. "They were heavy and we didn't know if they were really worth anything, so we only took the supplies we needed and the obvious Treasures."
"Did you get that water shield bracer off of Fred?" Fritz asked offhandedly.
"I did," Toby said. "But his hammer was flung away, couldn't find that, and his armour would have taken too long to strip off of him."
"Well, put the Treasures and anything useful on the table, we need to divide the spoils," Fritz ordered.
It looked as though Toby and Jane wanted to argue but the two looked at each other and sighed.
"Come on, stop being so greedy," Bert chided jovially. "Anything you looted from belongs to all of us, we all fought."
"We'll be fair," Lauren reassured them, though her eyes did glint with embers and avarice, something to two noticed right away, being greedy sneaks themselves.
Soon they were laying out all they had 'found'. The first item set down was the rainsteel bracer, next was the burned woman's daggers though Toby looked loath to part with them. After that, there were two rings and a pendant attached to a coarse line of twine. Lastly, there was Jasper's staff, thankfully saved from being swept away.
"That's a lot of gear, is there a limit to how many we can wear and use?" Rosie asked, in a show of unusual curiosity.
"Yes and no," Lauren said. "Some magics interfere with one another, especially if they have opposite alignments. And some Abilities serve the same purposes and will clash if both are activated together, such as two barriers trying to use the same space or two boons that enhance the body in similar or differing ways."
"Say something like Aspect of the Bear and Aspect of the Hare used together could interfere with each other, reducing their effectiveness. Or a Fire Barrier and a Water Barrier being so opposed might just explode with steam. The energies produced from the magical friction can be...volatile. This causes duplicate and similar Treasures to be somewhat redundant or downright dangerous," she lectured to the rapt attention of the team.
Then Lauren shrugged. "Though, after taking that cut, another barrier to use after the first wouldn't go amiss."
"Greedy," Fritz said with a sly smile, which she returned.
"Is this also true of our own Abilities?" Jane asked.
"Somewhat," Lauren said. "Though as they are made of your own mana, most Abilities wont interfere unless they're oppositely aligned. And even then, that could be remedied by a Trait or Technique. Take the Fire Barrier and Water Barrier from before, if you were careful, and well practised, you could create some kind of Steam Barrier rather than an explosion. You might even create a Technique for doing so, though that's very rare."
"Very interesting," Fritz said, meaning it and contemplating on how to do something similar with his own Powers. Though he soon realised he might have already been doing so with his Senses. The rest however didn't serve the same roles at all and wouldn't be able to be used in such a way as Lauren's example.
"So do we know what these do?" George asked, waving a hand over the pile and drawing the team's attention back to the important subject of Treasure.
"The bracer is some sort of water shield, has a reactive element too from what I saw," Lauren said.
"Reactive?" Cal asked.
"Activates on their own when certain conditions are met," Lauren explained. "Like this bracer did when its wielder was in danger."
"Sounds very useful," Jane said.
"They are most of the time, sometimes though they can be a liability, like all predictable things," Lauren said.
Fritz nodded at that, it could be easy to trick such a Treasure if you knew exactly how to make it react, possibly forcing an opponent off guard. Which is why he didn't contest the bracer going to George.
As was pointed out by Cal and Bert, the bracer didn't conflict with the man's fighting style and the water disc complemented his copperchange sword, allowing him to switch stances quickly, from greatsword to sword and board in a moment, if the situation required it.
George grumbled a little about being made into a pseudo-Defender, but was soon mocked for his stubbornness. He took the good-natured jeering in stride, replacing his iron bracer with the Treasure with as he scowled in an exaggerated manner.
"It's for the best, George," Fritz consoled the armoured man. "You can't just Sever everything."
"You don't know that, we haven't tried," George said with a wry smile and a twinkle in his eye.
Fritz laughed.
Next to be assigned was another dull barrier ring, which went to Cal, who was the last one without a defensive Treasure. The second ring, a small band of carved wood, was handed to Bert as, according to Toby, it had an Ability to attract spears and arrows in flight while also rendering some resistance to puncture wounds.
"No shaft shall pass me by, I'll take them all," Bert boasted.
Fritz rolled his eyes, while others shook their heads or choked out laughs.
"What's so funny?" Bert grinned, knowing full well what he had said. "This will save lives, and keep me from becoming a pin cushion. It's very serious."
"Very serious," George agreed, smiling wide.
The pendant was taken from Jasper, and Toby and Jane had no idea what it did, having never seen it in action. It was also devoid of mana and must have been drained dry beforehand. The team decided not to test it out as they were already running low on gold, even with the addition of the twenty gold triads Toby and Jane had found in the packs not belonging to them.
Eventually, they just stored the pendant away in Fritz's pack.
The largest of the Treasures and likely the most powerful, save the club that was drowned with its owner, was Jasper's gnarled wooden staff. They had at least seen this powerful item in action, being the origin of the protective dome. Again this Treasure was drained, completely empty of mana due to its use during the firestorm and fight.
"I heard this is expensive to re-fill," Jane hedged.
"Yeah, Larry was furious when we had to use it," Toby added darkly. "After the fire, he said he'd have the sixty triads from your hides."
"Sixty triads!" Bert exclaimed, which was echoed by Fritz and Cal. Rosie hissed and Lauren's eyes bulged.
"Per activation," Toby nodded morosely.
"Where did he even get something like this," Lauren asked.
"It's not from Rain City," Jane said. "I think it was smuggled in by the Nightshark, part of their collection to be loaned out to those with 'high prospects'."
"Explains why it's so powerful. We shouldn't get too attached to it, we'll likely have to hand it back," Fritz predicted.
Toby and Jane nodded vehemently at his statement.
"It'll buy you some favour if you return it, that's for sure," Jane agreed.
"For now, Cal, you can store it away, safely," Fritz ordered.
Cal took the staff gingerly, then the air around its gnarled wood twisted and in a blink, it disappeared.
"Secretly," Fritz said drily, glancing meaningfully at Toby and Jane.
Then he sighed.
"Whoops," Cal said abashedly.
Toby and Jane looked to each other, but didn't ask any questions about the Ability they just witnessed. Still, it looked like that cat was out of the bag, and soon they were on to deciding what to do with the very last Treasures.
The two daggers, while valuable and deadly, weren't particularly desired or needed by Fritz or his team, so they let Toby and Jane split them between themselves. Though it made him uneasy to arm them with such powerful weapons, without them they wouldn't even have the daggers. And they were being gracious about the other Treasures being distributed to people they didn't know. Not a word of complaint, which did make it feel like they were joining the team in truth.
One of the weapons was a blade of shining silver with an elegant hilt holding a single sapphire. It had Sever-like Ability, and must have been the one Lauren had been caught on the wrong side of. And the other dagger was merely magical, it was made of dark, polished wood rather than metal, though it was no the less sharp and strong for its odd material. Toby of course to the Imbued blade while Jane took the other, though she handed it to back to him anyway, which was to be expected.
Finally, there were the Techniques, but they had no room to practice them and little want to dwell in the Well room for more than a day of rest. Obviously, the sword tiles went to George and he laid them out, studying them to glean their mysteries while the team talked.
The other Technique required the use of magic to truly grasp it, and in the small confines of the sitting room, any spell cast would likely splash someone. And so it was left in Bert's pack for now. Though Fritz did have the thought to use it in conjunction with the sea-mist necklace, he rightfully didn't as it would burn up their stash of gold, which would be needed to re-fill more important Treasures on the next floors if his gut was to be trusted.
With the loot dealt with, and the decision to bring Toby and Jane along, braving the spite, the conversation soon turned to which Door to choose. Fritz reiterated what he had felt, being his usual, vague self so as not to reveal his Door Sense.
"So, a swamp and likely those bog-men, an easy beach, or a rocky one with danger like the leaping lobsters?" Cal summarised, helpfully.
"You've got pretty good senses, Fritz," Toby observed.
"What? Jasper wasn't able to do the same?" Fritz asked.
"He could, but it was all wind this and wind that. He couldn't tell the relative dangers. Like you can," Toby said.
Fritz shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess."
"Sure," Toby said darkly.
There was a small lull in the talk, which Fritz broke with the important question.
"Before we choose which Door. What do we know about the spite?"
Comments
Brady Fiola
Right? Antagonize the guy who was just about to kill you? Door sense is a dangerous accusation, and Toby is coming close here
Malcolm Haynes
Tftc!
Kemizle
Tftc if Toby doesn’t want to be pushed off a cliff next needs to stop digging his grave…but that’s right up his personality
