30 – Obscuria

“Lisette, Melina.” Ishrin said. “It occurred to me, after our collective near death experience, that we need to work on gaining more power. Now, I have my rituals and you Melina are at tier 13, two full tiers above us.” He turned towards the other member of the party, who was looking at him with interest. “This leaves you, Lisette. What can we do to improve your power?”

Lisette held up her finger, counting as she spoke. “There are countless ways to grow in power: training, pushing beyond one’s limit in a life or death situation, absorbing power from cores, fortunate encounters or findings…”

“Absorbing power from cores? Let me guess, by meditating and guiding the power inside of you, am I right?” Ishrin asked.

“Oh, you know of it.” Melina interjected. This elicited a bad look from Lisette, who growled under her breath.

“It’s a sort of cultivation. Plain and simple.” He said. “Do you both know how to do it?”

“Unfortunately not,” Lisette forced herself back into the conversation. “The secrets to this technique are very well kept. Nobody outside the sects that practice them, or the noble families who have inherited them, knows how to do it.”

“But of course they are.” Ishrin said. His hand went to his pocket where he expected to find a small pixie to tickle but found nothing.

Melina hummed to distract him. “Which is very bad because it’s a really quick way to grow.”

“Of course it is.” Ishrin sighed, shaking his head until Melina felt his mood lighten a bit. “Well, you remember the book I used to meditate when I stole all the magic from the atmosphere, right? I can lend you that. If you gather the cores, I will give you the book to cultivate.”

Melina was pensive. “That’s amazing Ishrin! However… it might not be that simple. There monsters with green cores for me to use but if Lisette has a black magic aura like you said, I’m afraid we won’t find any black cores nearby. There could be some in the volcano realm but--”

“Nope.”

“Yeah, well.” She said.

“That might be a problem.” Ishrin said. “No offense, but you don’t need power right now, not like we do.” He paused, waiting for a reaction before he carried on with the conversation. “I can use rituals on Lisette, I guess, but I’d prefer not to. There is only a limited amount of rituals I can do with my mana pool and also there are… side effects to overdoing it. Lisette, what’s the quickest way for you to grow in power?”

“A quick way would be for me to find the Bracers of Tiamat Azur. They will allow me to control my blades with my mind, as well as making them much more powerful.” She said.

Ishrin whistled. “Good name. Do you know how to get to them?”

“I have some information.” Lisette said. “However, it is very vague.”

“That’s not a problem. What do you know?” he asked.

“I have learned from a merchant that there is a person in Semiluminal that could help me find the bracers. That is all I know.”

“Semiluminal?” Ishrin frowned.

“It’s a neighboring city.” Melina said. “But before we do anything…” she began, then looked up at Ishrin with expectant eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to be leader of this party anymore. I’m sorry, Ishrin, I can’t.”

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She felt his emotions through the empathic link that connected them, and for a moment her chest felt tight and her breath driven out of her. Then suddenly his whole emotional landscape changed, abruptly, as if his brain had completed some complex logical reasoning that made him change his mind completely.

“Okay. We vote.”

“Ishrin.” Lisette said immediately.

“Yeah, I vote you too.” Melina said.

Ishrin exhaled loudly. “I don’t really want to be party leader, but you asked for it and I will do it. My only request is that I want you two to trust me, otherwise we won’t go very far. Are you with me?”

“Of course!”

“Yes. I am with you.”

“That’s good. Back on the matter at hand, then. My reasoning is that we need some sort of connection in Semiluminal if we want to find this mysterious person. Now, we could try to see if there’s any escort quests at the guild for someone going there who needs protection, hitch a ride with them, get to know them, and fish for information. How does the plan sound?”

Melina nodded.

“I’ll be right back.” Ishrin said.

With that, he disappeared in a flash of lightning and rushing wind. He returned not five minutes later, holding a small slip of paper he plucked from the quest board in Noctis.

“Found a quest. It says: needed escort through Nocturnia of the Winds: from Obscuria all the way to Semiluminal. Three days trip. Minimum tier: 7. Pay is 12 gold pieces total plus food and shelter until the city is reached.” Ishrin read. “Is Obscuria close?”

Melina nodded. “It’s a small merchant town close to the forest, at the foot of the mountains in the East. We can get there before dusk.”

“12 gold is not much, but we are not doing it for the money. Let’s go.”

***

Some people say that places like Obscuria, places built upon the ruins of ancient cities, lost cities, have no right to exist. That they usurped the past, and that their presence was a mockery of disrespect and ignorance. Worse still, in the case of Obscuria, was its fame as the city of sin and perdition at the far fringes of a kingdom that never felt like a tangible presence. As it stood, it was true, and the kingdom was more like an imaginary construct with no real power this far from the capital, allowing for all sorts of wicked things to happen in places like Obscuria. With no guild presence, and no army, Obscuria was the perfect place for merchants of all kinds, especially the not-so-legal kind to meet and sell their wares to customers coming from all parts of Nocturnia of the Winds.

The forest loomed right outside the old gates of stone, encroaching ever closer with each passing year while nobody ever bothered to stop its advance. It was not worth it, to work for the good of the city, for there was no profit to be made by fighting against the wild plants, especially since they seemed to have a mind of their own, these days. Too dangerous, and thus the ancient gateway that led into the city was overgrown with green vines and violet flowers, plunged in a cloud of semi-toxic pollen that smelled like sweet honey but assailed the mind of whoever stopped for too long inside it.

As the party of three emerged from the mist that shrouded the city from view, after having walked inside the treacherous segment of forest that hosted the almost hidden road that led to Obscuria, they found themselves thrown into another world. Outside, the overgrown ruins were yellowing and crumbling, corroded by the rain and the sun, surrounded by tall trees and always immersed in a dark mist. A cliff edge also towered over the crumbling walls, plunging a whole section of them in eternal darkness, leaving a small corridor between the natural stone of the mountain and the decaying stone of the wall, where echoes and whistles of the wind created illusions of dangerous creatures and hidden perils.

The entrance to Obscuria was surrounded by the yellow crowns of birch trees, lit by the setting sun. The mist from the forest mingled and mixed with the sweet scent of the flowered vines that dangled from the archways, and that swallowed the old observation posts whole. Inside, through the empty windows that were barely visible form the ground, shadows of animals or perhaps people, or monsters, moved about, always barely out of clear sight.

Isrhin barely gave them a quick look, before moving on.