Akaso

  She ate, slowly, cautiously, but she ate. Then, before she eve, she was asleep again, her mind eg with that pipe an, and intht, burhe tenance of human perfe that at the ter of the an’s assembly. That visage of Zavesh, entangled amidst the pipes. Somehow, she couldn’t help but feel a something looking down upohrough the golden orbs that were its eyes. Even as the bckest pitch of a bnk, dreamless sleep took hold of her, Krahe couldn’t help but feel a sense of the profound, like threads of gold melting into the murk.

  Whe she awoke, it was to the sound of that pipe an, and to the feeling of cables being pulled out of her arm.

  “Told you the sedatives wouldn’t work. Let’s just get this done over with,” Firminus said, before turning to Krahe. “Hey, hey. I’m diseg you, so try to keep still. Blink twice if you uand.”

  Krahe did as was asked of her, and within a few minutes, she had been divested of her e to the maery that had sustained her life for the st few days, the holes sealed with flesh-paste as if they had never been there. Before her breathing could bee an issue, Firminus handed her a silver-and-brass lower-face mask with a tube ected to its right side.

  “Here, breathe,” he said.

  Even this simple item was decorated with a figure of Zavesh on the front, and a paper strip densely-packed with scripture was wax-sealed to the left side. Though absent of a strap, the moment she pressed it to her face, the mask sealed itself in pce. Her head cleared the moment she took a breath.

  Before she k, Firminus rahrough a ial est and asked a number of mundane questions to ascertaiher she had her full faculties about her. Once he seemed satisfied with the results, he nodded. "I'll be ba a moment," he said, and walked off.

  The grafter returned with a table astride six iile legs in tow, upon which sat a stack of paperwork and several familiar items. Those which drew her eye most were not her possessions, but rather objects of i from the mansion raid: Chiefly, Semzar’s ring and dagger. There was also a sizable box, as well as a ptter with a pitcher of ekarone juid two gsses. These, too, were decorated with Zaveshian iography, gss melded seamlessly to polished metal.

  “Let’s get started with the easy parts. First, the dagger. As you killed Semzar, and Aristedes refused to make a cim, it is yours,” he said, handing it over. The moment Krahe’s hand touched the artifact, she felt a foreboding sense of wild power, like a psma on with woefully insuffit capacitors. It was a heavily bejeweled Jambiya. Firminus tinued: “Based on what we’ve been able to dis, it requires a retively long charge-up period. The discharge is an are-aspected cutting proje with a range of several dozeers and potency suffit to gh a heavily warded building. It severed Aristedes’ right arm with no appareand no signs of struggle i — lucky for us, as this made the break easier to repair. Unfortunately, the bde is the only inal po. In its plete state, assuming it was ever pleted to begin with, Fidelia predicted that this bde could be a peak Fourth-order, if not borderline Fifth-order artifact. Merely Fourth-order, if you seek a more servative estimate. In short, we don’t actually know what it is yet, where or when it came from, et cetera. You may keep it, but the church would like to buy it from you, or at least buy research rights and lease the dagger for the necessary duration. We may be able to offer repense based on the results of any researvolving the dagger. By Fidelia’s measure, the bde’s design is astonishingly plex, to the point where fabrig airely new artifact of the same level would be easier than reverse-engineering the inal.”

  “Is it safe to uh?” Krahe asked.

  Firminus waved his hand. “Sure. It won’t do anything until it’s charged, and you ’t charge it without it being sheathed. Without thauma, it’s just an iructible knife. More or less. We don’t know. We ’t appraise it — not me, not Aristedes, not Fidelia. For all we know it may predate even the Seven Towers System Accord. Or it might be from another world, or perhaps the future. It’s nearly unheard of, but we know it has happened before. As I said, we don’t know.”

  The bck bde slid free of its sheath as if the two repelled one another, its surface gleaming like a mirror, iridest-bck runes revealing themselves just beh the surface with even the slightest tilt. Its colours were wrong, not real. Krahe went to sheathe it again, but the bde turned in her grip, the force of repulsion still present — its edge struck the sheath’s lip, and the bde began vibrating like a tuning fork. A little voi her head said that she could take trol of it, to wield its unstoppable force, were she willing to sheathe it inside her own flesh and quench it with her own blood. That little voice wasn’t obog’s Mystic Wisdom. She wasn’t even sure if it was real, or just her mind pying tricks. Perhaps she wasn’t really fully in her right mi. Regardless, she decided that she had enough troublesome artifacts to deal with for now. With some effort, she forced the jambiya bato its bejewelled prison.

  “You have it, something about the thing seems off — beyond just the fact it’s unfihe right-to-research arra you suggested works just fine for me,” she said, her eyes wandering to one of the other items. Silver ahen, she looked Firminus in the eyes. ”I’m not giving you the ring, though.”

  Firminus seemed to hahe jambiya with more care than before as he put it away.

  “It’s yht, but do you even know what the ring does?” he asked.

  “It releases a shockwave that affects physical matter, thaumaturgy, theurgy, and even carries into the astral gulf. I smashed face first into it when I tried to skim through. Didly have the time to appraise it for specifics,” Krahe expined her uanding of the artifact.

  “More or less right,” he nodded, pulling out his eyebox again and slotting in another memste. “Here. The appraisal results.”

  [CRIMSON STAR OF AUTUMN]

  [Tags:]

  Artifact

  Jewelry

  Active

  Arfed

  [Charge:]

  6/6

  [Details:]

  This artifact ot be removed from its bearer by force.

  This artifact holds 6 charges. At-will, the bearer may expend a charge to emit a twin-yered shockwave with a range of 8m from the bearer (yers further referred to as physical and magical). This shockwave travels at a rate of 4m/s.

  The physical yer exerts direct physical ford deflects all intruding physical forces regardless of magnitude. Ining physical projectiles will be deflected in a semi-random dire at a slightly elevated velocity. Material entities (including life-forms) that e into tact with the shockwave will simirly receive a kiic jolt. The iy of this kiic jolt scales with the user’s Force attribute and the entity’s velocity at time of tact.

  The magical yer deflects all thaumaturgic, theurgiathemid ical forces, objects, attacks, etc. regardless of their special characteristiagnitude. It extends into the Astral Gulf, and prevents the passage of objects, entities, or attacks traveling through in this manner. It also passes through thin physical objects, with the thiess depending on the object’s physical and eisity, especially warding entments.

  This artifact tinuously recovers charges at a rate of 1 charge per 6 hours. Recharge time may be affected by enviroal factors and accelerated through the supply of thauma directly to the artifact.

  This artifact may not be activated more often than once every 27s. Cooldown scales with the user’s trol attribute.

  This artifact’s characteristics may evolve autonomously based on further exposure to Ar Core emissions.

  Akaso