Consequences and Catalog

Rowan stood ramrod straight as she waited in one of the Order’s meeting rooms. She hadn’t said a word since leaving the barrier, remaining silent while the Warden brought the collected items to her father, including the sword Newman had given her. She didn’t deserve such a thing, not after her actions led to the loss of her own weapon and the endangerment of everyone with her.

She kept her mind busy, going over the Order’s code and expectations placed upon its members, only wincing slightly when her recitation came upon those she likely broke in her zeal. Her biggest sin, as far as she could reason, was failing to hold to the Warden’s commands followed by breaking the Order’s preference for group formations and tactics.

The approach of footsteps brought Rowan out of her thoughts and self-flagellation and she watched the door with trepidation.

‘I can’t tell who’s coming,’ she thought as she swallowed nervously, her throat dry. She couldn’t decide who would be worse to see open the door. The easiest to weather would have been her immediate commander, Knight Leigh. The middle-aged knight, while fair, was a strict trainer and would, assuming her punishment wasn’t expulsion or imprisonment, hold her to a high standard while carrying out her assigned penance.

The hardest she thought would be the Warden herself. She knew she wasn’t important enough for the Lord-Protector to deal with personally. And if she hadn’t screwed up on a mission with the Warden after being hand-picked by her, she wouldn’t have thought the younger Brighton would involve herself with this. But with the Warden as the leader she was under, it made sense she could be the one to deliver her punishment.

Rowan stood straighter as the door opened, revealing the stern face of the Warden, and she readied herself for the worst punishment.

“I see you're expecting the book to be thrown at you,” the future leader of the Order noted. “I'll put you at ease to start; your duties to the Order are not yet fulfilled.”

It took all Rowan’s will to not visibly sag in relief. Instead, she managed to quietly say, “I understand, Honored Warden.”

“There have been worse first outings, and we have the Lady's goodwill upon us that we came out relatively unscathed,” Moira continued. “That, however, does not wash away the missteps you made during the mission. Starting tomorrow at 0430, you will be reporting to Knight Ramirez for additional training. She will be drilling you to ensure proper procedure is firmly in your mind at all times. Is that understood?”

“Yes Ma'am!” Rowan barked out.

“Then you are dismissed,” the Warden commanded. “And don't disappoint us again.”

Rowan saluted and quickly excused herself.

‘I'm going to need to review everything before bed,’ she thought as she marched towards her quarters. ‘I will not allow this second chance to go unappreciated. I will be the best member of the Order I can be.’

---

“How long do you think the Order’s going to take to look at what we gave ‘em?” Aeolia asked shortly after John, Beth, Senka, and Vivian returned to his house. True to the spirit’s prediction, Beth was feeling needy and Senka’s reward was having Beth nuzzle into her side, her head resting upon the spirit’s generous bust as they relaxed on the couch. It was just them as Brenda had taken Kiera out for more clothes, much to the bluenette’s flustered embarrassment.

“I can’t imagine it would take them more than a day,” Vivian answered as she looked up from her phone. “The Order doesn’t seem like the type to outsource things they would regularly need. Which means they should have metallurgists in-house to look at the zilhavrum.”

“Hopefully that’s the case,” John muttered as he leaned back in his seat. “Then we can get the terms fully settled and move Teri’s people in. And hopefully, that won’t be as draining as dealing with the Order.”

“Sounds like you’re done with dealing with the Order,” Aeolia remarked, sounding slightly smug about her observation.

“Can’t say I’m a big fan of how it sounds like they’re going to punish Rowan over what happened,” John groaned. “I get they’re more of a military sort of group, but it kind of sours the win that she’s going to get reprimanded for how things went.”

“She did disobey Moira’s orders,” Senka pointed out. “Actions have consequences and Rowan should have known that given her standing in the Order.”

“I get that, but maybe surviving an underground fight together has put me more on her side, even if we were only down there because she was a bit reckless,” John mused.

“We’re not exactly in a position to question their rules,” Vivian said. “And if we were in their position, can we say we wouldn’t hold to similar standards?”

“I don’t think I’d like the me that clings to rules like the Order does,” Beth muttered into Senka’s cleavage.

“Certainly couldn’t enjoy this with strict rules,” Senka chuckled as she playfully pressed Beth’s face deeper into her flesh.

“We can have rules without being dogmatic about them,” Vivian countered, her face slightly pink.

Senka grinned at the redhead and made a beckoning gesture. “I’ve got enough room for two here if you’re feeling left out.”

Vivian’s flush grew iridescent and Aeolia let out a loud laugh before she flew over and dropped herself in the redhead’s lap.

“If you were feeling left out, you could have said something,” Aeolia slyly said before kissing Vivian’s heated cheek.

John smiled as he watched his girls have their moments. It was an odd feeling; he would have assumed there would be some sense of being left out of the affection, but instead, he felt happy the girls were as content with each other as they were with him.

“So, what loot did we get anyway?” Aeolia asked a short while later, breaking the small moment of peaceful respite.

“Well,” John began as he opened his inventory, “we got repeats of the bracer and helmet and an ingot we got to keep. The big stuff is two new weapons, an upgraded battery, some Arcane Residue, a Mana Tube and the boss drop, something called a Restoration Engine.”

Starting small, John pulled out the Advanced Cell Battery, which looked exactly like the basic model they already knew. Disappointingly, the only upgrade this provided was an improved mana capacity of one hundred and fifty.

“Not exactly the most exciting thing,” Beth grumbled.

“Exciting or not, it's still a useful item to have,” Vivian interjected. “Having extra mana on tap is too important a resource to ignore.”

“It has saved my bacon enough times,” John added. “Not going to say no to a better version. Moving on alphabetically…”

“Which means the weapons are last,” Beth interjected.

Ignoring her, John continued, “We've got this.”

John summoned a simple-looking glass jar filled with prismatic powder that shifted colors constantly. The same colors John knew to represent the six mana types.

“I'm not sure I like that last one,” Vivian slowly said.

“Let's give it the once over before we throw this into a barrier and let it close,” John said. “The description said the jar is non-reactive so it should be safe as long as we don't open or break it.”

Unstable: The high concentration of normally opposing forces leaves this material in a precarious balance. This causes every other Attribute to take on random additional effects or trigger independently of outside stimuli.

“That's what I was afraid of,” Vivian remarked as she eyed the jar warily. “Just from the sound of the other two Attributes, I guess that this stuff can replicate other instances of magic, this makes it a gamble to use.”

“At least it's not going to just explode,” Beth offered.

“Provided John doesn't use Fiery Pursuit or Blaze Shard around it,” Senka pointed out.

“Not planning on any casting besides Observe for the time being,” John said. “Even if the jar keeps it from activating. Let's just see what this stuff could give us and put it away, just to be safe.”

Mana Absorbent: This material passively absorbs ambient mana. This mana cannot be easily retrieved. The color of this material reflects which mana has been absorbed.

Reactive Echo: When spells are cast within 5 meters of this material, there is a chance the effect will be replicated. This replicated effect will target the same as the original if possible or will move to the nearest valid target if not.

“Even without the unstable thing, this stuff's kind of useless,” Beth made her opinion known. “Not being able to control when it goes off sucks.”

“Yeah, and the target jump can be a bad thing,” John added. “It could shift an attack towards an ally if they are too close, or heal an enemy using the same logic.”

Vivian shifted slightly in her seat. “There could be ways to control it. I know some methods to keep out unwanted magical signatures. They could be modified to only allow one particular signature. That way we’d at least be able to limit the base spell copied.”

“Still doesn’t help with the possible random events,” John said with a contemplative frown.

“There should be a way to refine it,” Vivian muttered, her eyes narrowed in thought.

Aeolia playfully poked her cheek. “You can think about how to do that later. It takes us too long to get through these without going all in with how to make them better.”

Vivian flushed and pouted, while everyone else laughed good-naturedly as John switched items, the jar of volatile dust swapping out for a foot-long tube about as thick as a thermos with a rounded bottom and sealed with a metal cap. Between the layers of glass, numerous symbols formed a grid pattern, with similar ones adorning the cap.

Compression Matrix: A series of arrays designed to increase the volume of mana that can be contained within this vessel. Mana decay increases by 1 unit per hour per 10 additional units stored beyond ‘Mana Containment’ limit.

Mana Containment: This item can hold 200 units of mana which decays at a rate of .1 units per hour. This mana requires specialized equipment to extract.

Evocation: Mana Exchange: Swap your current mana for an equivalent amount of the stored mana. Cost: All remaining mana, 33 Durability.

“Well, that’s something,” John remarked as he looked over the tube.

“Seems like a less useful version of the battery,” Aeolia said. “We can’t even pull the mana back out.”

“I can think of a situation where it could be useful,” Vivian chimed in. “There’s nothing in the description to indicate it can’t hold an elemental mana, so John can use it to quickly swap into, say, fire or dark to use a particular elemental effect.”

“The big problem with that idea is the cost,” John noted, lifting the tube up slightly. “This only has three uses before it’s left with one point of durability. Still, having a large amount of a particular element does open up some interesting ideas. Filling it is going to be a pain though.”

“I can throw most of my mana in before we retire for the night,” Senka interjected. “I wonder if swapping with this will trigger the Vessel Cloak?”

“Something to test later,” John said as he stored the tube. “Next on the list is the bonus item we got for beating the boss before it recharged.”

“I still think you got that handed to ya on a silver platter,” Beth grinned.

“I’m not planning on complaining about it.” John laughed. “And in a way, we still set up the fall the boss took. So it counts. Gaia certainly thinks it does.”

John took out the boss item, a silver orb roughly the size of a grapefruit, divided into quarters by grooves that ran across its equator and prime meridian, and rolled it over in his palm.

Material Storage: This item can store approximately 100 kg of inorganic material.

Networking: This item can be easily integrated into an arcane system.

Schematic Upload: This item can imprint upon an inorganic system, storing its makeup within its memory.

Transference Protocol: This item will repair the system it is integrated with using compatible stored material. Cost: Variable.

Evocation: Replication: Create a copy of any other object you’re touching out of the material stored within. This copy is in form only and will have whatever properties the materials used have. Cost: 10MP per 5 kg of material used, 20 Durability.

“So that’s how it was regenerating,” Senka noted. “Shunting metal around to ‘regrow’ the damage. It's a pity it seems we got a fresh model.”

“Isn’t that the case with everything my powers make?” John grinned as he looked over the orb in his hand. “I wonder how good the stuff made with Replication are. Like, if we put metal, wood and leather into it, and touch a sword, can it just make a perfect copy sans any magic effect?”

“We can add that to the list of things to try,” Vivian said. “Though I think this would be better to actually use in something. Maybe we can combine this with those glyph spheres from the golems to make something like them.”

“Could go full Frankenstein and try to put them in something like a woad,” Aeolia added. “Maybe Verida could grow a shell for us.”

“More things to the list,” Beth cheered before a frown made its way to her face. “We have a list?”

“We should put ‘make a list’ on the list,” John joked as he put the engine away, which earned him an eye roll from Beth and a small laugh from the others. “Anyway, weapon time. Let’s start with the spear.”

He summoned the weapon, making sure to have it pointed up to avoid hitting anyone. The shaft was cool to the touch, a darker color than the thin triangle of silvery zilhavrum that made the tip.

Grounding: This weapon will drain away magical energies it comes in contact with.

Evocation: Dispersion Strike: Upon the next hit to a target, drain (EvoLv x 5) of their mana. Cost: 10MP, 5 Durability.

“Doubled down on the magic sucking with this one,” John remarked. “And it certainly gets busted the higher Evocation gets. Right now it’s an instant minus twenty.”

“That’s if it hits what you want,” Aeolia interjected. “I can’t see it working through really heavy armor and stuff like that.”

“It could still be useful against magic,” Vivian suggested.

“Probably,” John muttered as he stowed the spear and equipped the last item they won. It didn’t appear in his hand, as was expected given its name, but instead attached itself to his forearm like a shield. Only instead of being round or an oval, it was teardrop shaped, the trailing end extending about a foot and a half from his clenched fist.

Charged Edge: This weapon’s offensive power can be enhanced with a current of mana. Cost 1MP/Sec. Can’t be activated while Enhanced Block is active.

Enhanced Block: This item’s defensive power can be enhanced with a current of mana. Cost 1MP/Sec. Can’t be activated while Charged Edge is active.

Evocation: Magic Slash: Charge up the blade with mana and release with a slash. Holds up to (Wis/4) charges, rounded down. Cost: 15MP, 5 Durability per charge.

“Huh, this is a hungry one,” John remarked as he moved his arm experimentally, feeling the weight of the weapon out. “On-demand offense or defense buff plus a ranged option. I wonder if Charged Edge boosts the power of Magic Slash? There’s nothing in its description that precludes it but it sounds like it's more about boosting the cutting power directly.”

“You thinking of adding this to your arsenal?” Aeolia asked.

“It might be good to have a third actual weapon as a dedicated reserve,” John answered, thinking back to how limited he was with only Senka’s vessel during the fight with the boss. It was pure luck that Senka’s mana unlocked a new use that let him fight more or less unhindered.

Not wanting to engage in any more combat-related tasks for the time being, John returned the weapon to his inventory and relaxed in his seat. Then he felt Senka’s gaze land on him, a smoldering light gleaming in her eye.

“You know, I imagine Brenda and Kiera will be out for a while longer,” the spirit said in a sultry tone. “How about we pass the time upstairs?”