Chapter 491 – The Note

Rivexy handed over a pouch of Cache Reward Chips while Sophia was doublechecking the feather prices and figuring out which ones she wanted. It was a surprise; Sophia hadn’t expected their cut from the monsters they’d led Vexy’s team to until after the Event was over, since the natural treasures couldn’t be removed from the Event Inventory.

Instead, Rivexy’s team had fanned out and collected information on all of the treasures they’d gathered, including their prices, then used that to figure out how much they owed Sophia and Dav, as well as Notii’s team. It sounded clever to Sophia, but according to Rivexy it was standard because it was easier than trying to argue about how to split a plant into quarters. Using the World Tree’s prices avoided arguments, because if you wanted something specific you could go buy it. 

It wasn’t perfect but it worked and that meant that most groups had adopted the practice in all Events that featured a marketplace at the end. It also meant that you knew what you had when you left, which avoided issues talking to merchants outside. Rivexy cautioned them not to count on the prices matching up; they usually didn’t. Some things were relatively easy to grow outside and therefore cheap, while others were nearly impossible to find but relatively inexpensive in the Event rewards. 

With that in mind, Sophia and Dav did another pass around the market looking for the things they had in their Event Inventory. 

Stained Glass Cosmos

40 Cache Reward Chips

This jewel-colored flower is common across the floating islands that converge near the World Tree, but few make the transition to allowing light they cannot use to pass through. Stained Glass Cosmos are commonly used in enchantments that focus or redirect light.

Crimson Bloodwort

2 Cache Reward Chips

While not native to Arcatiz, bloodwart has found a home in its grasslands and is even cultivated for its wound-sealing and mild painkilling properties. Crimson bloodwart is the preferred magical cultivar, able to seal even significant injuries and prevent blood loss until a healer is available.

When chewed, crimson bloodwart also magically encourages the production of new blood. Additional hydration is required for maximum blood production, and while side effects are common, they are accepted in preference to the effects of excessive blood loss.

Meteoric Iron Nodule

150 Cache Reward Chips

The least common and most accessible form of iron, meteoric iron has special properties when used as a component in protective charms and weapons used against spirit entities. 

Coldgrass Planting

10 Cache Reward Chips

Extremely rare in Arcatiz’s temperate regions, coldgrass is usually found near the tundra and on mountain peaks. Coldgrass maintains the cold around it, so live plantings are sometimes used to create coldrooms for food preservation or comfort. The effect can be overwhelmed by sufficient heat, which will cause the plant to die, so extremely large plantings or significant insulation are required in hot conditions.

Harvested coldgrass retains the cold-production effect for a limited time and is often used in the production of cold-related enchantments as a relatively cheap additive.

The jade frog was nowhere to be found and none of the feathers Sophia found were jade, but there was a small irregular chunk of jade that Dav thought was probably the origin of both. When she heard the description, Sophia had to agree.

Corruptive Nephrite

100 Cache Reward Chips

This green stone imitates its more famous relative and reaches out to claim what it lacks. Corruptive nephrite spreads slowly, subsuming all mundane material it can reach. Without intervention, the spread is extremely slow, usually less than an inch per century, and almost any magical material will slow or prevent the corruption. Corruptive nephrite can be safely stored in any enchanted container or infused material as long as the enchantment or infusion is maintained. 

Some monsters that live near large deposits have learned to take on the properties of corruptive nephrite temporarily. This is one of the most common reasons the stone spreads; if the monster leaves the stone, it can create new corruptive nephrite deposits. 

Corruptive nephrite can be rendered inert through the application of any magic that suffuses it for long enough to overcome the corruptive properties. Fire is the most common.

Corruptive nephrite is used in corruptive, spreading, and transformational enchantments, though it must be carefully managed to be certain that only the desired effect is channeled. 

Sophia was definitely going to keep the six jade feathers. If they were actually “corruptive nephrite,” they ought to work extremely well with her Corruptive Aural Plume. She didn’t use it often, but that was just as well; she didn’t have any way to replace the six nephrite feathers. The nephrite frog probably wouldn’t be able to do it, not if the description was correct; it was almost certainly an effect of the monstrous creature, and it was dead.

That was the first thing Sophia tested when they reached their inn room after leaving the Event, and her guess was right: the frog couldn’t create new nephrite feathers. That made the choice easy; they’d sell it along with most of the other “natural treasures” they’d collected. Only the feathers were interesting to Sophia and Dav wasn’t interested in any of the other treasures, either. They’d probably send the Stained Glass Cosmos to Xin’ri so that she could make something for Jax, but that was it.

The next thing they planned to do was read the note they’d found pinned to a tree in the Event, but even before Sophia tucked the corruptive nephrite frog into her pack where it would not affect anything else, she was yawning. They’d been up for almost a full day; a nap would be good.

Sophia fell asleep on top of the covers, still fully dressed. If her armor didn’t disappear when she stopped maintaining it, it would have still been on as well. She managed to get her boots off, but that was it.

Dav did slightly better; he was in his underclothes when he joined Sophia on top of the bed and pulled the blanket up from the side to try to cover them both. It didn’t work very well, but he was too tired to try to dig out the spare blankets in Sophia’s tent. It was warm enough in the inn room.

Sophia woke slowly, groggy and entirely too warm from the heavy blanket that half-covered her. She tried to move, only to realize that she actually was half-pinned by Dav’s weight. 

Cuddling sounded good, but she really had to pee. Maybe she could come back afterwards? 

Sophia wiggled carefully out from under her boyfriend, trying not to wake him. He mumbled something in his sleep but didn’t stir even as she crept out the door.

When she made it back to their room, Dav was awake but still in bed. He lifted his head to lok at her, then lay back on his back. “Do we have to get up? What time is it, anyway?”

“Midafternoon, by the sun,” Sophia answered easily. They’d had the inn room long enough for her to know that sunlight didn’t come in through the bathroom windows opposite the door until fairly late in the afternoon, and it was already there. “And no, we don’t have to get moving quickly; we just need to head downstairs for dinner. I don’t want to go see Archon of Stone Issvako until tomorrow; it’s probably too late tonight.”

“Good,” Dav said. “Are you coming back to bed?”

“Yeah,” Sophia answered. This time, she shed her clothing.

A couple of hours later, they finally got moving. After a shower and dinner downstairs, Sophia wasn’t ready to head to bed so she checked her notebook. There was no letter from her brother, but it made her think of another note, the one they’d found in the tree.

Sophia pulled it out and flattened it. It was easy enough to read, even though it was in Bridge instead of Suras or English.

This note should never be seen.

Well, perhaps I should say that I hope this note is never seen, because that means it will never be needed. If my plans work out, it will be for the best. Mimir always said to prepare for both the best and the worst, however, so I have done so. This note will not be delivered unless something close to the worst has happened, something worse than the destruction that made me write this note. If it were anything less than that, I would tell you myself.

I don’t know who you are or why you are needed. There are far too many options and I am not that good at predicting the future, especially not the far future. 

I am no Mimir.

I wrote this note and left it with the sapling I planted at the foot of the Inchoate Mountains for the Archons and both sets of humans who followed the Mimirs, both true and false. 

I do not know why you are suitable for this mission, but it is an important one. The War of Two Mimirs, as it is called now … never ended. Both still live in a frozen bubble inside the Mimir’s Workshop. I barely escaped and put Mimir’s plan into action, incomplete though I am.

Your task is to reach the Workshop and free the Mimirs. By the time this note is revealed, surely the war will be over. Without his followers, the false Mimir will be vastly weakened and the true Mimir will be able to lay him to rest as he should have been long ago.

I do not know how Mimir writes these things and tells people what they need to know.

Very well, I will lay it out as best I can. Climb into the Inchoate Mountains from the Tree that Holds Worlds. You may follow any path so long as you begin your descent, search for the Eclipsed Moon. It is naught but an illusion, yet it is one that has hovered over Mimir’s Workshop since before he arrived on Arcatiz and built it, for Mimir and his people arrived on the very spot where the Archons did centuries earlier.

The illusion is called Lost Arsalos, for Arsalos once lit Suryos from its sky as the Archons lifted the Suras and the Suras made the Archons belong where they stood. The Archons wished to be welcome on Arcatiz, so they built a monument to those who once made them welcome on Suryos.

I do not understand it, but that is what I am told. It seems like I should pass on the memory even if I do not know why.

Once you find the workshop, use the key to open the door. The Tree that Holds Worlds will not give this note to anyone without the key, so you must have it. 

DO NOT ENTER the workshop.

The spell that created the stasis is written in the language of magic in an illusory bead that should have been delivered with this note. Do not come to the workshop until you are certain you can deal with the spell; if you fail, it will spread to you. While you can take shelter in the workshop should that happen, you will be lost to the world until someone else releases you.

You are not the first to have been given this mission. I hope that you will be the last.

Sophia set the note down and picked up the small box. It had a top that opened easily to reveal an elongated bead with a smooth surface. She snapped the box closed again; while she’d want to examine the “stasis spell written in the language of magic” later, now wasn’t the time.

Now was the time to explain what she’d read to Dav.

“I don’t really want to do this quest,” she told him after she finished. “I’m ready to head home and this just seems like an unnecessary delay. At the same time, it seems pretty important.”

“We can come back,” Dav offered. “Well, we might be able to come back. If Archon Issvako can set up a two-way Gateway, that should work. We’ll still need to find a way to your home from Terra, but if we can do that surely we can reverse it later.”

Sophia nodded and started to relax. “There’s no reason it has to be us, either. Dad would make short work of any stasis enchantment and he’s better suited to deal with a Mimir anyway. He did that once already, after all, decades ago.”