CHAPTER SEVEN

Thera leans into old skills to unearth new powers as she takes matters into her own hands.

“We must retrieve the Triuresoul to complete the ritual of renewal!” “Yes. Yes. We may do so this very night. We have no time to waste. I will free Sanctuary. Quickly, tell me about the other items. The lesser items. They, too, have power?” It had been three days since Finlior had gone back to the stone and Thera had not been idle. A lot of that time she had been sat in the shade of a giant library, or in the cool of the catacombs. 

But she had not been idle.

Proper preparation prevents professionals being perforated by projectiles. 

Preparation necessitated information. 

So, she found the correlating skull and woke the next statue. 

Her hypothesis proved correct. 

Outside of Sanctuary the Sacred items had different powers. They were malleable, but the heft of their power was not. 

The three items most important to the Souls were also the most powerful outside of their world. 

Thera’s theory was that their utility would correspond directly to the difficulty in retrieving them. To avoid another disaster, in short, what she needed was an edge. 

Like the other, lesser, items of power. 

“That is all. I swear.” “On Sanctuary, Skull and Soul you swear?” “I do so swear. Please. We have spent my skull-light talking across the other items. You said we would seek one of the three; free Sanctuary.” “No and yes.” “What?” “I said we may seek the other items and that I will free Sanctuary.” “What! You lie!” “No. I was precise in my speech. We will not seek the other items. That will require every moment and some careful curation of resources.” 

“Then…what will I do?” “Adopting a fitting pose to greet the sun? I jest. Come. Help me seek the patterns between the statues and the Skulls. Perhaps in the true-dark of the catacombs the sun’s rays will not play the sunderer between you and your skull.”

Pity. Thought Thera, as dawn found the Catacombs, and her companion returned to her stony slumber. It would have been nice to have had company. 

The first world was ice and cold and winds that howled over the screams of those who Thera’s sword found. She took back a small, fluttering Luna Moth and listened to her navigator (who she been very careful to instruct in the ways of the Web) whisper her steadfast truths in that tumultuous space. 

“Repetition is truth. What we repeat, we are. What we have repeated on us, we become. What we order repeated, we command into existence.” The next world was not bloody at all, but barren and bleak and the retrieval was easy for some great beast had done her work for her and the totem was sat pretty next to the pieces of the body. 

“We navigate by changing goals, away from one of the two unexplorable lands of our mind. Away from the past. Towards the other unexplorable realm of existence. Death. Between those two impassable terrains we have choice. Find the flame that lights your soul and work towards it. Do not be afraid, when you close some distance, to learn that another flame now shines brighter. Life is game your body won’t survive, but you can still play at multiple tables before your final hand with the figure who holds the ultimate, grinning poker face.” 

On it went. 

A sky filled with floating islands where winged men and women demanded answers to riddles of character and questions of morals and when they were done they handed over the Divine Brush.

“Tell me more about Sanctuary.” Asked Thera, currently disguised as a wrinkled old woman. 

“What do you want to know?” 

“As ‘everything’ is a tall order, start with what you think is important.” Thera replied.

And on their way back, the navigator told her of The Founding. Of the Great Library and festivals. She told Thera about the Four Houses that each soul belonged to. 

Thera spent most of the return journey using the brush to change her features. Until they arrived at the departure point and the Navigator began to speak her truths.  Thera was intrigued by the potential of the brush. Still, when the navigator began to speak, Thera listened.  

Truth is, was, and always will be hard currency. 

Next was a city long turned back to jungle. A style of well dressed, large mice spoke to them with their hands and were willing to trade the Seers Card’s to be rid of a beast of metal and smoke and fury. 

“Every beam of starlight spent more time reaching you than all your ancestors combined have spent breathing. Starlight binds the universe together under one inescapable truth; everything is connected. The winds of chaos and ill-chance will blow. They will blow. We can not stop their passing. But we can prepare for them. We can build the shutters of routine. We can anchor the pillars of friendship. We can hoard the supplies of joyful memory. We can prepare. Look at the stars any night and know this truth. You are bound to everything that ever was and ever will be, in one eternal tale. Now look between the space that the stars shine. See the void from which the winds of chaos scream forth. And know that they are coming. Prepare today for the maelstrom of tomorrow. But smile as you do, for you are not alone.” On and on. 

Until only thing was left from Thera’s arsenal before she felt like the time would be right for her to turn once more to the place where a woman in a glimmering gold bone mask had broken her people so profoundly they would live in pain, to die in her place.

The item that was left was…

1) Final Payment: Temporarily off-set a killing wound. Separate the soul from a body.

2) Divine Brush: Can be used to change appearance. Can be used to fix breaks in inanimate objects.

3) Shadow Poppies: Allows one to shadow walk. Can be used to send people into a deep sleep.

Head to the discord to vote before Midnight EST 12th August.

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