Chapter 5: Chapter 5- Homestead

The most important thing about scavenging ruins, battlegrounds, and the like is the fact that you need to know how to do two things: how to find something worth selling and how to use what’s not to your advantage. Every scavenger has the [Mechanical Affinity] Trait, among other Traits like [Purification], but most do not upgrade it past that, favoring Traits that let them fight more efficiently or the like. It is a terrible idea to ignore upgrades to Mechanical Affinity.

The stories of legendary scavengers forging moving fortresses out of scrap and junk parts are a result of those who take upgrades to [Mechanical Affinity]. 

As for your physical Traits, the only thing that matters is whether you want to make more money or die young.

-How to Scavenge, By an unknown author

 

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After less than an hour of riding, the ground became coarse dirt and Mori spotted lights in the distance in the darkness. The sun had almost reached below the horizon and it was difficult for people to see. Fortunately Mori had some form of night vision, an aspect of her body she was going to research once she had the chance, and could see perfectly fine. The lights came from spread out homesteads, with fields of thorny bushes surrounding most of them. Near the center of the fields was a cluster of larger, more refined buildings, made of more than just sandstone. They were built out of not only sandstone but also the metal from Clockworks, and had similarly sourced signs hanging next to their front doors. The only outlier to the pattern was a house that sat on the outskirts of the small village.

It was a single story house made of sandstone with a shed built adjoining it, sitting on top of a short hill. Below the hill, a fenced off area housed large amounts of torn, shattered metal. Ranging from broken tools to scorched husks of Clockworks, metal littered the yard. 

Fara drove her craft straight into the open shed and parked it in the center of the room. The room itself was a sea of workbenches, covered in half-finished contraptions of all kinds. Gears, metal, springs, cut runes, and many other things accompanied the forgotten projects, lying around them. Mori’s viewing was cut short when Fara threw her poncho onto a hook that hung from the wall next to the door and beckoned her to follow; Mori obliged. 

Walking into the adjoining hallway of the house, a delicious scent tickled her nose, another part of biology she needed to understand, and only got stronger as they made their way to the end of the hallway. Before they passed into the next room, Fara called out, “Ma! I’m home! I also brought a… uh… guest…”

Before a response was heard they made it into the kitchen, a spacious room with a table pushed against the opposite wall and an L shaped counter running along the wall next to the hallway. Standing in front of the brass-like metal stove was an older woman than Fara, likely over 40, with black hair, silver eyes, and a thin build. She looked like an older version of Fara, if she had black hair rather than blonde.

Without looking up from her cooking pot, the woman replied, “Did you bring a boy back, honey?” she asked in a teasing tone.

Fara groaned, “You know I would never. And if I ever did, he would-”

“-be thousand ton moving fortress,” she finished, “I know, you’ve said it a million times. So, who did you bring-” her words cut out as she looked at her daughter and her guest. Mori’s flaming eye sockets burned purple and green brightly in the dim light of the lantern that hung from the ceiling. 

Mori waved a skeletal hand at the stunned woman, “Thanks for having me,” she said, hoping to break the awkward silence. 

Fara’s mother turned to her daughter with a sigh, “Where did you find her? I doubt a lone Lich was simply passing through that mana anomaly.”

Fara and Mori looked at each other and shrugged, “I don’t know,” Fara said, “I just found someone fighting four headhunters and had the opportunity to help out.”

Fara’s words inspired a heavy sigh from her mother as she turned to Mori, “Alright, what did you do?” she asked.

Mori tilted her head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied, “Also, is a headhunter that weird six limbed one?” As she spoke, Fara and her mother’s jaws went slightly slack in confusion, “Wait, am I supposed to know this stuff?”

Fara sighed and pulled Mori over to the dinner table, her mother taking the food off of the stove and following,and sat her down, “Mori, do you mind telling us what you were doing there in the first place? Liches usually either avoid the living or are genocidal towards them, so I’m also a bit interested in that,” Fara said, sitting down across from her.

Mori took a moment to think, turning to the two women, “Can you two keep a secret?” she asked. They did not hesitate to nod and lean in closer to hear, “Alright. Well… to start this off, I’ll tell you that I lost all of my memories.” The two women were taken aback slightly, but Fara’s mother leaned in closer after a few seconds.

“How!? Liches are known to have the greatest memory retention of all sentient species, second only to the gods themselves, so how did you lose your memories?” she asked, passion burning in her eyes. 

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“Well… I… uh…” Mori stuttered, taken aback. After a second, she recomposed herself, “Well, it has to do with my Variant: Bargain Lich,” she stated. They looked confused, so she elaborated further, “A Bargain Lich is a Variant that gains their power and immortality through a bargain with ‘mana itself,’ whatever that means. All I remember is telling the ball of purple that I wanted to live, then Bam! Here I am, without any memories and a Lich.” she explained, “Is there anything wrong about that, Mrs. Notchings?”

At some point the woman had gotten a small notepad and pencil, writing in it furiously. Before long, she looked up and shook her head, “No! No, there’s nothing wrong… also, call me Molly. It’s just that I’ve never heard of a Bargain Lich before in my life,” she explained, “I was part of the Mount Averus College and studied in their libraries in my free time, but I’ve never seen it written there…”

“It makes sense,” Mori replied, “I inspected my Variant and it said that I was the first of my kind.” As she spoke she drummed her skeletal hand on the table, producing a hollow sound with every tap.

Molly’s eyes went wide for a moment before she scribbled something on her notebook, “It really said that!? What did-” she was cut off as Fara placed a forceful hand on her shoulder.

“Mom,” she began, “Don’t drown our guest in questions, please. Besides, I have a question to ask: Mori, what was that massive thing you were near? It looked like someone's first skiff,” she said in slight disdain.

“It’s a plane,” Mori replied with a chuckle, “It flies in the air, or at least used to. I’ll tell you where it came from, but you two have to promise me, seriously, that you will keep this all a secret. Okay?” she asked, eyes emitting low, burning flames.

“We’ll keep your secret safe. RIght, Mom?” Fara asked with a pointed tone.

Molly nervously laughed, “Of course I wouldn’t… Besides, I left the academy years ago! I wouldn’t have a place to really share it!” she frantically said, “Now! Come on, tell us!”

“Fine,” Mori said, “I came from another world, died somehow, either turned myself into or got turned into a Lich, lost my memories in the process, and fought those Headhunter Clockworks. That pretty much covers it,” she listed off.

Fara and Molly sat in silence for a while, continuously trying to speak but failing to say anything for a long while. After a while, Fara seemed to have an idea and walked to the far side of the room. On the wall was a makeshift shelf made of metal and held together with ugly welds. On it, a row of books were lined up, showing their titles to the world. After a bit of searching, Fara took a book and walked back to the table with it.

She flipped it open and skimmed through it, her mother leaning over her shoulder and looking at the page. Soon they found the page they were looking for and read through it, glancing at Mori every so often. Fara eventually stopped reading and looked at Mori, “Okay, the only thing that references other worlds is in a universal guide to travel. In it, there’s something called a Dimensional Tear, where things from other worlds are thrown into ours. Does that ring a bell?” she asked.

Mori thought for a moment and nodded after remembering something, “Yeah, they were talking about that, huh?” she muttered, “Sorry, I just remembered that some… I think they were gods… something like that… they were talking about a ‘fabric tear,’ so they could be the same thing.”

Fara went wide eyed for a moment and tried to calm herself, but Molly had no concern for calmness, “Wait! You’ve met the Two Creators!?” she cried in excitement, “What were they like? What did they look like? How- Ow! Fara… don’t be mean to your mother…” she whined, rubbing her head after her daughter smacked her.

“Mom, you act like you’re younger than me. I’ve got to keep you from going overboard,” she lectured. She turned to Mori and her tone softened, “Anyway, I won’t lie: I am also interested in that part of your story; it’s not every day that someone claims to have met the Creators. They’re also called gods, if that helps,” she added with a sheepish smile.

“Okay, so I’m guessing they created the Sa’rk system? That does make sense… Anyway, I was kind of preoccupied with the whole ‘Bargain’ thing, so I didn’t really acknowledge their existence at the time. I do know that it was rude and I shouldn’t have done that, before you scold me. Anyway, I know that one of them was called the ‘Great God of the Death Tides,’ and the other’s name was @!_!$_***- What the hell was that!?” she yelled, standing up in her panic. 

Fara and Molly were also stunned, but Fara was able to react, putting a calm hand on Mori’s shoulder, “Calm down,” she demanded, the harsh tone she used with her mother being used once more. The words temporarily stunned the Lich, stopping her panic, “That’s what happens when you try to tell the name of a Creator to those who have not earned the privilege; the system censors out anything the Creators do not want said. Just sit down, alright?” she asked in a soothing voice. Mori took a moment to recompose herself and took the offered seat.

Molly, finally awoken from her stunned state, leaned in close to the Lich, “You know one of their names!? Ahh! You could become a Saint or something! Oh, by the way, the Two Creators are the Great God of the Death Tides and the Great Goddess of the Growing Beasts. It’s basically proven at this point that the Great God of the Death Tides manages the spiritual Traits of the system and the Great Goddess of the Growing Beasts manages the physical Traits. If you become a Saint of the Great Goddess, then you could-” Molly’s words were stopped when Fara placed another strong hand on her shoulder.

“Please, no more rants. So, are you alright, Mori?” she asked, a bit of concern in her eyes. 

Mori took an unneeded breath and sighed, “Yeah, I am… It’s just a thing with being a Lich; your voice reflects your mental state, I believe, so saying that is like confirmation that something is wrong with my mind. Something like that… I probably overreacted, though…” she replied sheepishly, “Anyway, is there anything else you want to ask?”

Before Molly could steer the conversation into a long tangent, Fara nodded, “Yeah, did you purify all that Clocksteel you’re wearing?” she asked.

Mori put as much effort as possible into expressing her confusion, “Do what to the what now?”

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