Chapter 3: 3 – Tabula Magus

The carved pattern flickered and began to glow white, a single word manifesting just above the tablet’s surface.

SCANNING

It remained like this for some time, long enough that she almost put the tablet down, but something in the back of her head told her to just wait. Soon enough, the buzzing sensation faded and the word faded, replaced by a statement and a question.

NO RECORD FOUND

PLEASE ENTER NAME

“Alce-” the intrusive thought flashed in her head again, but before it could finish, a different name popped into her head. 

“Zelsys.”

NAME - ZELSYS

SEX - FEMALE

 SPECIES - UNRECOGNIZED

 

FORCE - C+

PRECISION - B-

HARDNESS - C-

AETHER - C

 

TRAITS>

<STORAGE

Out of curiosity, she tried swiping her hand through the projection, as if to turn a page in a book. The projection flickered and a new one appeared, fading in from the right as if a page had been turned.

TRAITS

 

Survivor’s Instinct

Fog-breathing

Osmotic Essentia Absorption

Metabolic Alkahest

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<ATTRIBUTES

<<FOG STORAGE

A swipe to the left took her back to the first projection, while another swipe to the left showed a third projection.

FOG STORAGE

 

PUT INTO STORAGE

BROWSE STORAGE

 

ATTRIBUTES>

TRAITS>>

“Some sort of arcane utility device,” she thought, tapping on PUT INTO STORAGE. The projection was seemingly blown away by a vortex of silvery fog that rose from the tablet, as wide as the tablet was tall. Zelsys took one of the unloaded shells and dropped it in, watching it vanish into the vortex. A few seconds passed with nothing happening, before the vortex abruptly dissipated. The storage menu projection returned, the same as it had been. She tapped on BROWSE STORAGE, and sure enough, the projection flickered to change into a different one - a label at the top, and a single blue line in the very center of the tablet.

 FOG STORAGE

1x Shell Casing

A tap on Shell Casing. The options Retrieve/Cancel popped up next to it, and upon pressing Retrieve the vortex returned, the casing slowly rising out of it and then clattering onto the tablet. Arcane as the device was, its operation was rather simple. One after another she took the empty casings, activating the PUT INTO STORAGE once again and dropping them into the vortex one after another. She put the powder horn and two of the five loaded shells into storage as well, and then took to learning how the gun operated.

It was attached to an armored sleeve, one which fit easily with some adjustment of the straps, and seemed to somehow suction itself to the skin once attached, barely shifting around at all as she maneuvered her left arm to try and get a feel for how it limited mobility. A metal lever that was attached to the back of the gun sat just about in her palm, though it wouldn’t budge. “Some elbow stiffness, lots of extra weight on the forearm…” she muttered, carefully working what she knew to be the bolt handle. With a swift backwards yank and a loud mechanical clack the bolt popped open, the lever’s grip moving to below her wrist alongside it.

The cartridge fit snugly into the chamber, its base bearing a small etched symbol in the center. A forward push, another clack, and a twist to the right to lock the mechanism. The lever again sat in her palm, but it was no longer locked in place. It offered up significant resistance to a downward bend of the wrist, but with some effort it gave way with a satisfying click. Zelsys dared not push any further, aware that working the mechanism any further would likely result in a thunderous blast and a wayward ball of lead ricocheting off the walls. She relaxed her wrist, and the lever popped back into place just below her palm, close enough to reach if she bent her wrist but far enough to not stop her from using her hand. 

She looked over the shelves again trying to find something, anything else that could be of use. “Mortar and pestle… Empty bottles... Bandages… No clothes? Seriously?” she thought, sighing as she reached for each item in turn and stored it in the Tablet, including the shank. The only thing she didn’t store just yet was the huge roll of linen bandages, which she used to fashion rudimentary undergarments, going on to wrap her lower legs for at least some foot protection, as well as her left arm to a degree that concealed the gun. Her still-damp hair was too long to not get tangled, thus she also went to the effort of braiding it, tying up the resulting braids with more bandages.

Once all that was done she used the remainder of the bandage to wrap the Tablet and tie it to her waist, put her cloak back on, and began the long climb to the surface. The ladder stretched for hundreds of meters upward, with naught but a speck of light at the end of the shaft to suggest it led to daylight. And long, the climb was.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

For what seemed like eternity, the only thing to keep her company became the monotonous sound of her own hands and feet on metal rungs. The shaft’s damp interior was illuminated by sporadic, flickering light-crystals, whose milky-white uniform glow did little to counteract the monotonicity of the climb. 

Left. Right. Left. Right.

The mouth of the shaft approaching, Zelsys began to climb faster. The sound of whipping wind. The smell of fresh air, and… Something else. Smoke, but not that which rises from a wood fire. It was the foul, sulfurous stench of coal smoke, barely present, but noticeable. As she neared the top, a realization dawned - the ladder ended a solid half-meter before the top of the shaft. 

She braced herself, sucking in a short breath. With a sharp exhalation of Fog she threw herself upward, passing through the mouth of the shaft as a familiar static washed over her. She looked back down the shaft, and saw that it was just a basin filled with silver Fog. The wind picked up, blowing the Fog away as the weathered sigil underneath faded.

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