Closed Seeking Sylfrívær

[Velho]

༺༉❁ April 7th year 124 of the third age ❁༉༻
<notes>

Another day, another gods-forsaken request from Velho; granted, this one wasn't nigh as ghastly as they usually were. Rather, it actually, for once, tied into Æhti's own personal interests– in this case, geology. The Ferrier wanted to send the young Galsterei deep into the Myrkvior Mountains hunting for a stone most sacred: sylfrívær. And though Velho's motivations were ultimately selfish and oriented solely around his personal research, the prospect still benefited both of them; if Æhti bound himself to it, he, too, would be able to use the curious mineral to aid him on future endeavors.

Æhti also recalled Abraia, a craftswoman he'd met recently; he wondered if she herself might want to come with– all sorts of valuable things could be found within the mountains, and, of course, she might want some sylfrívær herself. He decided to pen her a letter, giving a particular date and time to meet him in something of a traveler's lodge in the outskirts of Sværlys, the largest city located within the caverns.

•════════════════════• Evening ❀​

Whether she replied or not, Æhti left Hespæria and traveled to Sværlys, arriving at the little lodge, Basilisk's Rest, 'round the time he'd written he'd be there. He figured he would wait for some time before departing on his journey alone. Of course, he didn't want to go digging around in the potentially precarious caverns by himself, but he couldn't really deny a request directly from Velho, now could he?

 

[Abraia]

I accidentally fucked this post up. sorry mods

 

[Velho]

༺༉❁ April 7th year 124 of the third age ❁༉༻
<notes>

The lodge itself was carved out of the mountain's primary stone, Myrksteinn, with all of the imposing, yet elegant ostentation Æld'Norai architecture usually held. It was located on the edge of Sværlys along the main road out, just before one would leave the large cavern wherein the city was nestled. Within it were a mix of patrons, both Æld'Norai and Fælnir. This was something of a rarity, as the Æld'Norai typically preferred to isolate themselves, but the travel lodges located along the roads rather than inns within cities and towns often held both– and the odd traveler of neither race here and there.

Æhti was waiting at a table near the door, dressed in the armor that Abraia had made him. He appreciated the warmth and comfort thereof, as the caves could be particularly cold though not quite freezing; Myrkvior was not a volcanic mountain range, and for reasons Æhti did not quite know, the interior was always static around 40 F. He supposed it made sense, insulating as stone could be, that the outside temperature wouldn't impact the interior, but he wondered why it tended to stay that specific temperature. There had to be a reason– he just didn't know it yet.

Nevertheless, he had received Abraia's letter and was glad to see her when she arrived. He waved her over, and when she addressed him, he chuckled. "Aye, it is. Says he wants me to bind with sylfrívær so I can craft it for his research. Which, in this case, I can't really complain– benefits me just as well. And no, you won't have to mine a thing– I've Terra, so all we have to do is locate it and I can wend through the rock with my magic."

At this point, Æhti stood up. "Is there any other mineral or metal you care to get while we're here? I have a vague idea of where to go for the sylfrívær, but I can modify our path to make sure we encounter a few other things, too."

 

[Abraia]

Abraia smiled back at the fellow human. "Terra as well? You're full of magical talent. Makes me wonder why you called me along. Could it be you want me to make you something out of this ore?" She had expected this to be the case. The other possibility was that this was meant to be an attempt at a date. She did not know if the dragon had talked about her with Aehti. Their mutual friendships seemed like an elephant in the room.

"As you could probably assume, I have a vested interest in obtaining ore that can be used to make superior weaponry and armor. I'm also in need of some gold and any kind of gemstone we can find along the way."

It was colder than she expected so she shivered but it was nothing her coat could not handle. She fished it out of her pack which also held basic things like flint, snacks, and spoons. Now, only the bottom of her legs felt the chill.

When her coat was on she would say what was on her mind "I don't know if Caelum the dragon ever brought it up but we are together. I mentioned that I made armor for you and he told me about some tasks you two did together. Small world isn't it? We should all get together sometime."

 

[Velho]

༺༉❁ April 7th year 124 of the third age ❁༉༻
<notes>

Æhti smiled weakly at Abraia's comment. "Aye, suppose I am; I think that's what keeps Velho's interest, if I'm honest," he sounded almost uncomfortable.

"...he's even pushed another on me since I've worked under him; Aqua– I'm not that competent with it compared to the other two, though. I think he likes having somebody with magical prowess that's obligated to do everything he says. He can't very well force other ælves to go on dangerous errands for him whenever he wants, but I, on the other hand, cannot say no." Æhti sounded conflicted. On one hand, he liked the magical freedom he had– on the other, his life was one lived within a gilded cage.

"But I asked you along 'cause I was curious if you knew anything useful that could be made out of sylfrívær– I'd imagine its volatility might make it hard to work with, though. Other than that, I was wondering if you could make a mace out of myrksteinn. Something to be wielded with two hands," that, and if he could find an excuse to not go on Velho's errands alone, he'd take it. "But alright, I'll keep my eye out for any precious metals, gems and the like."

Abraia mentioning that she also knew Cælum was something of a surprise. Ælheim was a huge place, and last he heard, Cælum was spending most of his time in Veiðrbrand– he didn't expect him, of all people, to be a common connection. Such a mutual friend could only be a good thing, though, he thought.

Since Abraia appeared ready to go, Æhti began to walk out of the lodge as he responded, assuming she would follow him. "He didn't– that's a curious connection, but yeah I agree; would be nice to catch up with him, too. Haven't seen him in a bit."

After a pause, he'd add, "...but by 'together' do you mean you and he are romantically entwined? How does that work out with his, uh…set up in Paradise?" Awkward as Æhti was, he wasn't sure how to phrase his question; he just knew that Cælum was far from monogamous and as such, he was curious about whether Abraia was more a casual or serious partner.

Once out of Sværlys, Æhti would lead the two of them into a smaller cavern, running one of his hands along the wall as walked. Terra's Geosense allowed him to get a read on the general composition of the cave around him, and though it was far away, he got the sense of a gold seam in the distance. No sign of sylfrívær yet, though.

 

[Abraia]

"Three? What a terrible aelf to gamble someone else's life like that. I know what I would do if I were in your shoes but going into detail wouldn't be polite conversation." She could see the elf encased in a block of earth and ice hundreds of feet under the sea. She hated elves more than ever now that she was emboldened by the freedom Cae gave her.

"Sylfrivaer, the exploding rock? I cannot say that I have any use for it as a smith. Especially as one who does not have the ability to make personal use of it, unless it can be fueled with Aeris. They are single use, yes? That sounds more like it's up your alley with your ability to create more at will. Myrksteinn, now that I can work with. I could make you a massive mace if you desired."

Later she said "they say behind every powerful man is a strong woman. That is me, for him. I helped to build his little playground and it's me who makes sure the people there have decent lives. He listens to me and his daughter that isn't mine by birth calls me mother. If he even thinks about betraying my heart I'll take our children and conjure a lightning bolt strong enough to split him in two!"

So much for polite conversation. She spoke confidently but she got angrier as she went on. It was a tense subject that put a crack in her hard exterior. "He is different from when we first met. More human, vulnerable, caring." She said that bit more for her own mental health.

When they walked Abraia trailed behind. She clutched her spellbook with white knuckles. It was scary being in a cave and she wished she had brought a spell that could light the way.

"What kinds of threats do you expect to find down here? I am unfamiliar with this environment."

 

[Velho]

༺༉❁ April 7th year 124 of the third age ❁༉༻
<notes>

"I wish that I'd the courage," Æhti laughed weakly. "...but harming him is tantamount to harming myself; I doubt I'd be able to get away with it in the first place, but even if I did, him being gone would make me vulnerable to the whimsy of other ælves." And while individual Fælnir were normally of little interest to the Æld'Norai, one with Æhti's Galdr pedigree certainly was.

"My concern is that he won't lose interest in pushing more Galdr onto me 'til he runs out of options. Feels like he's playing a game of chance for the fun of it. I doubt that's the sole reason, but still," he said with something of a sigh.

About sylfrívær, "...aye, yeah, that one. Velho mentioned wanting to study it a bit with his Ensorcelling, but I don't know what for. I plan on binding with it so I can use it myself, and, uh…well, if I bind with it and he wants more, I won't have to go digging 'round in the caves again," he chuckled awkwardly.

He'd begun to lead the two of them into an increasingly narrow passageway by this point.

Regarding Cælum, "I admire you– your conviction– for that; looking out for your fellow Fælnir and guiding his treatment of them, at least." To be frank, Æhti was relieved Cælum had given a Fælnir such a role. "Teaching him empathy for us and the like."

He paused for a moment. "Wish I could somehow soften Velho, but I don't think I've the leverage with him that you have with Cælum."

As they walked, they'd come across little aside from strange, glowing flora and fungi thus far. "Um…honestly? I'm not so sure. Myrkvior's caverns have a lot of things that range from completely harmless to extraordinarily destructive."

After he had a second to think about it, "...we're most likely to run into cave dwelling animals spliced with crystals. Dunno exactly why that happened, but, say, anything with a carapace or exoskeleton would have that part crystallized, there's crystal growths in mammals, so on. The bigger, more dangerous beasts are usually quite a bit farther from Sværlys, so…we should be okay in that regard, at least. Just…don't touch any of the mushrooms. Might have dangerous spores."

Not touching anything was something he'd learnt the hard way in the past.

 

[Abraia]

Abraia detested Velho more after hearing Aehti open up like that. It made her appreciate her protector more. "We get to risk our lives down here so you can produce rocks on demand. That's humbling."

She did not like how dirty her dress was getting. She had worn her worst one but she had not expected it to get torn on the rocks so easily.

"Thank you. I admire your ability to stay sane after what you've been through. If I am completely honest, I didn't have much leverage with the dragon at first. I was just another one of his women. But I made demands for my continued work and he changed. I do not think your relationship with Velho will change if you say nothing. Some men need to be bossed around or they will ruin themselves."

She was the last to give relationship advice. But she thought Velho must value Aehti more than Cae had valued her in the beginning. If he did not greatly value a powerful magic user then he was stupid.

"All those threats sound a lot more than what I was expecting."

Just when she spoke she saw a small crab like creature scuttling along next to something shiny. Abraia ran up to the crab and booted it against the wall. When she bent down she saw what looked like low quality sapphire.

"Nevermind that was easy! Now what is this? Think we are getting close to the good stuff?"

 

[Velho]

<notes>

"I for one am hoping we don't end up encountering anything particularly precarious, so as to keep the risk to our lives low, but uh…essentially, yes." Æhti hadn't thought much of it, really, given the fact that Velho was wont to send him out on errands of this nature– risk to his life had been somewhat normalized at this point.

He'd listen to and then ponder for a moment on what Abraia had said regarding her dynamic with Cælum, and then by proxy his with Velho. "Hm…fair enough point. He did seem to put markedly more effort into keeping me alive with Aqua than he did with Terra, so my life must have value to him– it's just figuring out how much, and how to leverage that worth."

Once Æhti'd explained the numerous creatures they could potentially find in the caves, he'd comment further, "...and I hear the stuff that lurks in the lakes and rivers are, uh…terrifying, so we should keep away from water."

By the time he finished that sentence, he overheard the sound of Abraia kicking the crab against the wall and abruptly turned, not knowing what that had been at first. He blinked in surprise as she knelt down to retrieve it, relieved that it was something small and not some larger creature grabbing at her ankles.

"That's sapphire– lovely little gemstone. Durable and makes great jewelry," he'd say, squinting into the darkness for a moment to get a better look at it.

Before he could answer her next question, he placed his hand on the wall again to get a read with Geosense. "Yeah, actually, there's a gold seam not far ahead," he gestured for her to follow.

They didn't have to walk much longer before he stopped again, "...wait here, I'll get it out."

This time, he turned to face the glimmering myrksteinn wall and placed both palms flat against it before muttering an almost inaudible incantation. Through Lithomancy, he parted the wall before him– if Abraia was watching, she'd see a crevasse form and as it slowly got deeper, she'd start to see the glinting of gold. His next step was to weave his Aether into the gold itself, liquifying it and then drawing the precious metal out. Once he'd retrieved it all, he hardened the gold again into an ingot, one that weighed about 12kg.

He'd drop the ingot into the palm of one of his hands before turning to hand it off to Abraia, "...would you want any more than this? I don't sense any more nearby, but we can still look if you do."

 

[Abraia]

Abraia smiled when she was told it was a sapphire. She liked all manners of gems. They all could be used fashionably and with her touch with Crest, they could all be dazzling. She was going to ask him to get the sapphire out for her but he said he'd sensed gold.

"We've struck gold!"

It looked so easy when the earth mage extracted the gold bar. It was positively massive. She took it in her hands and dropped it immediately. The bar deformed when it hit the ground as pure gold tended to do.

"That was heavy! And it is more than I would need in a lifetime, probably."

She knelt and shoveled the heavy ore into her bag. She struggled but she was able to stand.

"I won't be able to carry a lot like you. You are much stronger than I thought." She blushed a little since she felt she stared too long at him. It was not her place to be complimenting other men like that.

"Onwards then! With our luck it looks as though this trip will be shorter than expected."

 

[Velho]

<notes>

There were times when Æhti underestimated the weight of things when in the hands of others; this was funnily common with Velho, as the ælf struggled with carrying anything even remotely heavy. And while Abraia had to be stronger than Velho given her profession, it dawned on him that casually carrying around that ingot might wear on her over time. Luckily, the ingot being a little deformed from hitting the ground ultimately wasn't a problem– she, being a metalworker, would be reshaping it again anyways, sculpting it anew.

He sort of froze, not sure what the optimal response was. "Oh–...! Um…thank you, but…would you rather I carry that? Would be less cumbersome that way, I imagine, especially if we pick up anything else." Part of him wanted to apologize for making her carry that in the first place, but he wasn't sure?

Æhti's demeanor was often meek, but this was a direct contradiction to his appearance; he might not be the tallest of men, but the size of his shoulders, arms and legs would betray his strength.

Whether she opted to have him carry anything or not, he'd ask another question, "I know a lot of people just enjoy working with gold because of its beauty, but are you planning on doing anything specific with that? Or just any particular projects in mind in general?"

And once the two of them were moving again, "...yeah, I wouldn't mind limiting my time here even if I think it's pretty. Too many risks, 'n all."

If one were listening closely as he said that, too, one might hear faint scuttling in the cavern's distant darkness.

 

[Abraia]

"No, I can carry this much. But anything else is all you." She could feel the dense and heavy metal settle into one spot in her bag. It was not very comfortable or well distributed but she thought that it would fix itself because it was so malleable. She expected it to look like a mold of her lower back by the time she was done.

"I want to make a dazzling set of jewelry. A tiara, bracelets, anklets, golden chains, earrings, rings, and that's just off the top of my head. I could use it to decorate armor and weaponry too." She thought of gold as not very useful but it had a unique color that people like.

"Did you hear that?" asked the crafter when the sound came from the darkness.

"A scuttling. Another crab?" in an instant her book was in her hand. She pointed and in an instant a bolt of fire shot through the darkness.

For the briefest of moments a large thing seemed to move.

"Umm that does not look good."

 

[Velho]

<notes>

Æhti nodded to Abraia, "sure thing! I'll carry anything else," and then they were off again, with him dragging fingertips along the cavern wall to feel out the general composition of the materials within. He finally got a decent read on his intended quarry and was pathing in that direction, though there were a few decent geodes of some fine gems along the way, too.

"Ohh, that sounds lovely," he'd comment about her plans. "I might not wear much jewelry myself, but I can appreciate it when I see it on others." He never considered himself to be quite pretty enough to don such things.

He blinked when Abraia mentioned hearing something strange, but she was right– he'd heard it to. He saw something shifting in the shadows moments later, confirming their suspicions. "Ah-...it's, it'll be fine," he said, trying to squelch the rising panic as his eyes flit rapidly around the room.

The scuttling sound would grow louder, innumerable tiny little legs scratching against stone, before a gigantic centipede, longer than Æhti was tall, lunged at the pair from the shadows. The creature was as disconcerting to look at as it was oddly beautiful, with a carapace composed of solid ruby. And though Æhti was unable to tell if the creature was aiming its attack at him or his companion, he back stepped in front of it with his forearm raised defensively to block it from potentially reaching Abraia.

A horrible, clanging crunch would be heard as the thing bit down into chain armor-coated stone; Æhti had solidified the flesh on that arm into solid myrksteinn and had begun the process of canting Inermanteia in an attempt to put the thing in stasis.

 

[Abraia]

The fire illuminated the centipede. Monstrous in size, terrifying in sight. Abraia's fire spell glanced off it like it was nothing.

When Aehti stepped in to protect her, her book had already turned to another page. She traced her finger along the page and cast the spell. In an instant the earth beneath them rumbled. Then, out came a chunk of earth which thwacked the centipede on its head.

Abraia did not know if something of that low calibur would help or hurt the situation but it was one of the few spells she had brought along and now seemed as good a time as any to use it. Better to die with an empty spellbook.

"Didn't you say you were a master magician? Now might be a good time to demonstrate that fact!"

Her book had already flipped to another page, ready to unleash another spell if she needed it to.

 

[Velho]

<notes>

The centipede would be unable to make a second attack, as in the same few moments that it tried to recover from its failed bite and wind up another strike, Æhti had gripped the back of its head with his other hand and, in a panic, blurted out an incantation. In the seconds after Abraia's spells glanced off of the crystalline beast, it would squirm, undulating in a vain attempt to resist the rapid onset of Inermanteia. Before long, it would be entirely in stasis, falling to the ground in front of the Aboteur with a cacophonous thud.

"Sorry– takes a second to cast that," he replied, his answer sheepish. "However…it's not dead yet; merely in stasis. That'll last a while, but would you prefer we kill it? Do you want any of the ruby? I can break pieces off; its carapace appears just as pure as anything we'd find in the walls," his comment on the mineral's purity was informed by Geosense– the centipede was a remarkably high quality specimen, if a bit aggressive.

Æhti knelt down beside the thing, checking it over to make sure it hadn't enough will to break his spell. He would then break off the tip of one of its ruby legs and then eat it without a thought. Realizing this might look rather stranger, "...I wanted to bind with the ruby, and, ah– that's how," he explained.

What did he want with ruby? Well, not much beyond thinking it was pretty, and he had the available space to bind to it.

 

[Abraia]

Abraia's hair was a mess by the time her friend dealt with the centipede. Being scared did that.

"Rubies? Even the monsters in this cave are useful. Sure, I will take a small handful. I can put them in a tiara, perhaps."

She smoothened out her dress and swung her book back to its resting position. She did not look surprised when he ate the rock. Her studies had told her that much but...

"Is there a limit to how many rocks you can do that to? I know druids can only bind with so many plants."

She looked at the centipede uneasily. "Abrogation seemed particularly useful. I ought to keep a few spells like that in my book when I get some spare alkahest."

It was a novel idea. Why try to kill something when you could freeze it and run away? Or she could use the downtime to set up other spells.

"I can imagine a spell that freezes everything in a radius. Gosh, an artifact that did that would be quite useful."

 

[Vicissitude]

꧁══════════• ༺༉ { Reviewed/Canon } ༉༻•══════════꧂​

Æhti

+30 XP (~3,000 WC)

Abraia

+19 XP (~1,900 WC)

Love me a rock safari :>​

꧁══════════• ༺༉ ❁ ❀ ❁ ༉༻•══════════꧂​

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