"I take it you like it, then?" Brewbrt asked me with a smirk as I sat quietly. Intently staring at the little piece of lightning trapped in a glass jar. And, as I didn't know how to put it into words. I just nodded as I read the name written on it.
Einervaene...
I know it was hard to see if it would actually work. But I just felt safe holding this jar. Mother spoke so much of the power of these jars. And maybe that is why I felt safe with it, despite Mother not being involved, I felt like she was able to look after me for once.
"You can safely leave it here, if you so desire. The climb will be perilous."
"Are there not stairs?"
"They're very dangerous." Thunder clarified for Brewbrt as I started to ponder what I would do with this sacred treasure. It was truly a one-of-a-kind relic that I could not risk being destroyed. But, would it still protect me if I left it behind? I earnestly wanted to believe it would, yet I could also feel the storm out there...
I would feel much more comfortable having it on hand. And, as such, I found myself paralyzed by indecision. This would protect me but, in turn, I would have to keep fragile glass of all things safe... I could potentially damn myself if I let this charm fail.
"I... I'll ta- Leave it here. Yes." I say with uncertainty before I just forced something out of my mouth. And I regretted my choice the moment my mind caught up with my mouth. But, the choice was made and I had to keep it for Mother's sake. Then, once again, I couldn't help but let in a sense of futility.
I kept worrying about wasting time on the small things. Yet, Mother might've been convicted years ago, so it might've not mattered. It might have even been on the night she sent me away from our home, in fact! Though, to believe that would be something I could not live with.
"So, are we going now?" I asked with a poorly-timed smile as I quickly made a point of occupying my mind.
"How long would you say the journey is, Thunder?" Brewbrt asked our guide as he forced me back so I could eat,
"It can be made within the day, but I cannot predict if complications will arise as we are two more than the usual." he explains from the exit of the cave.
"Are..." I start to say before I ate some more of my breakfast, "Are you not going to eat?"
"No, thank you, I am fine." he answers with a slight nod as he stepped out into the open some more.
"Don't eat so hastily!" Brewbrt complains as he gently smacks my bowl.
"S-Sorry..." I squeak as I suddenly tighten my grip. As the fear of potentially dropping it had shot through my mind.
"Stop rushing things in general." he then remarked.
"With all due respect... It's right there! Right up there!" I tell him while making wild gestures at the same time.
"All the more reason for you to show patience. It is all too easy to fail right when you have made it to the end, Einervaene."
"Right... Yeah..." I say quietly as I started to think of such moments. Years ago when I was sailing the All-Coast to this continent, it wasn't long after I got excited about the sight of land that the ship was attacked. Then there was a few years ago. I thought we had managed to talk Nin out of his pursuit of that madman, but it only delayed it. It wasn't enough to convince me that I had an impatience problem...
But I knew what he meant.
"Look, I know you're probably getting a little tired of hearing this, but it's alright to make these kinds of mistakes. You're young and stupid-"
"Hey!" I snap as he started to snigger.
"Alright, alright!" he laughed out as I continued to hit him.
"Besides, I'm forty-three..." I comment with a pout.
"Einervaene, you are still very much young." Brewbrt told me as he looked down at me with a knowing stare.
"Yeah, yeah..." I bitterly let out.
"To get back on track, it's alright Einervaene. When you are young you just lack experience in these kinds of things. And I can't say I can blame you for any of it. You were suddenly thrust into this kind of life without being nurtured for it."
"I wouldn't say that..." I correct as I fondly reminisced about the times I spent with the others. That time with Nin, Vadei, Larishazza, Tiyanat, Liadanann, Rose'lhia and everyone else meant a lot to me. It was that time together that had given me at least some ground to work with. A tolerance for violence to some extent and the hardships that generally led to it.
It was just a shame some of these memories were ones I wish I did not have to remember so vividly...
"But, yeah, just calm down for a moment. I know it might seem a little-" he started to say before a particularly loud boom of thunder flooded the cave.
"Go on." I tell him with a giggle once he got over the interruption.
"I know it might seem difficult, what with that helpful reminder reminding us of what is out there. I am, however, confident that you can do it. Just stay focused on why you are doing this and think of her." he tells me before I get a quick pat on the back.
"I don't think I could ever not think of her." I point out as I slowly put my bowl down and stand up. Giving him an affirming nod after I put my hat on and started clutching my staff.
"You are ready?" Thunder asked as he looked back at us while leaning on one of his curled-up arms.
"Take me to the top of this mountain." I ordered with a shaky tone as I felt like I was both overstepping my authority and I was also just scared. Thunder's char covered skin did little to help the tone as whenever lightning flashed behind him it seemed all the more intimidating.
"Of course, let us make haste." he confirmed with a nod as we started to file out of the cave. Towards a flight of rudimentary stairs that had been clearly carved out of the mountain. Yet, as those two went ahead, I took one final look at my jar. At first, I reached out for it, but all I could grab was the confidence it might give me.
"Lightning won't try and attack us, right?" I asked as I caught up with them. Running a hand along whatever I could to balance myself.
"I do not know." Thunder answered as lightning soared overhead on a downward track. A tremendous explosion then erupted from the sea below.
"I'll take that as a maybe." Brewbrt remarked as he held out a hand for me to hold on the last few steps before we got onto some kind of outcrop.
"You two head on up, I'll keep his attention." Thunder told us as his head leaned towards the continuation of the stairs.
"W-Will you be alright?" I asked as I took the first step.
"Despite what I have done, Lightning would never hurt me." he explains with a soft smile before he walks out towards the end of the outcrop. And as if to prove him wrong, a golden bolt shot straight at him.
"Thunder!" I called out as I watched him back up with the powerful bolt building up in his palms.
"GO!" he roars as small break-off pieces cook his flesh even blacker.
"You heard him!" Brewbrt adds on as he starts to hastily slap his palms against me over and over. And although it probably did more harm than good, I was able to keep my footing. Eventually, as well we found out that the stairs went into a tunnel of some kind. And to my delight, there were no strange whispers or nefariously beautiful songs.
"I do not recall of any story ever saying anything about a place like this..." I soon found myself saying as we came upon a dead forest.
"I can certainly agree there." Brewbrt let out with some disturbed awe before he stared at one of the long-since-dead trees. Shrivelled bark and fallen, starved leaves were all over the place.
"If this place wasn't so dead, I think I would be showing a little more amazement right now..." I comment nervously as I moved closer to Brewbrt as his gold-covered foot thudded against the dry earth.
"Odd." he then commented as he looked back at the way we came.
"Where'd the tunnel go!?"
"I was more so on about how my cast-covered foot was reviving the plantlife and earth near where I have walked..."
"And what about the tunnel!?" I pointed out again, shooting a bolt of lightning from my staff to emphasise the point.
"Our intention is to go up anyway? And that tunnel only leads down." he answers as he starts to test what his golden foot could do.
"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked him a little while after watching him uncomfortably.
"It does, but it is manageable." he tells me before he hisses when he clearly takes it too far.
"Well, stop it." I say as I shake my head. Only briefly looking at the life his foot had breathed back into the tree before realising something.
"You are familiar with what is going on?"
"These plants... They're from Eusorochii! But how!?"
"Lightning storm surrounded mountain?" Brewbrt deadpans somewhat before I give him the stink eye.
"These are conductive pines..." I let out as I let some of my magic dance between the pines that had managed to stay on this formerly dead tree.
"Is it possible that rather, the plants from Eusorochii came from here?" he theorizes before we reach a clearing where this worrisome mist just starts to part.
"I can't read this..." I comment after walking around the object in the centre of the clearing. However, I was quick to back up with a worried expression when I saw how the earth was disturbed.
"A gravestone?" Brewbrt queries as he looks intently at the writing and the objects placed on the gravestone.
"Maybe it is from someone else that Thunder has brought up this route?"
"Or someone he might've led to their death..." Brewbrt lets out cautiously as he starts to charge up a spell. At first, I felt like telling him that there was nothing out there. But the sudden snapping of sticks and crunching of leaves changed my mind very fast.
"I can't see a way for us to head..." I tell him as a piercing emerald light suddenly shines through the mist. And with it came two things. Emerald blasts and a distorted, aggressive language.
"What the..." Brewbrt let out as the seemingly weak blasts went for the gold on his foot.
"Heyaughyaghyaugh! Ligh-yeaugh-tning!" the thing seemed to roar and it stumbled into the clearing firing something built into its wrist.
"That's enough out of you." Brewbrt calmly told it as a spell suddenly dropped on its head. Destroying or killing whatever this thing was.
"A machine?" I asked no one as I looked at the green sparks leaving its red-metal body.
"Has to be, it's completely mechanical." Brewbrt confirmed after he fiddled around with the corpse for a moment.
"Whatever it was, could it be responsible for all of this death...? Your foot brought the forest back to life but it made a point of trying to shoot you!" I explain to Brewbrt before he began to cautiously look about. And, to prove him right came an ominous chant along with the grinding of metal.
"LIGHTNING!" they all roared with that same throbbing-like sound in their throats.
"Einervaene... Run!" Brewbrt barks as emerald lights start to pierce through the mists. Some were clearly eyes, but many more were those blasts. Neither, however, were good news. One was deadly, the other just told you where the danger was from...
"We can fight this... Right?" I nervously ask him as I take his hand to help with the hasty hobbling.
"GAH! GET OFF ME!" Brewbrt suddenly roared as a mostly broken machine suddenly grabbed at his leg.
"HEYAUGHYAGHYAUGH LIGHTNING!" it screeched before wind magic tore it apart and sent it flying off.
"Go on ahead, I'll lead them elsewhere!"
"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!"
"YES, YOU ARE!" Brewbrt corrected as he sent a blast of magic at the ground near me. And, once I got back up and reoriented my mind, I cursed under my breath.
"Stupid old man..." I let out nervously as I started to run through the mist. Soon, thankfully, the lights were harder to see. But I could still hear it all. At least until it all stopped when thunder suddenly boomed through the forest.
Disturbed wind from explosions then hit me and I tightly grasped my hat. A gentle, golden light then began to shine from behind me. Yet, before I could head before it, something was heading towards me fast. And it came with emerald light...
"STAY BACK!" I screamed all of a sudden before I launched a continuous lance of lightning at it. Keeping it up as the shadow in the mist moved increasingly close no matter how erratic my attack got. Its metal body thudded and clanked before...
"Do you mind!?" Brewbrt asked of me as he suddenly shot out at me and took a hold of my wrist to interrupt the spell. Yet, all I had in response was a loud, screeching scream before I caught onto who it was.
"DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" I screamed in his face before another mechanical sound filled our ears.
"Into the light, I don't care." Brewbrt demanded of me before he made a wise, slamming gesture at the ground. Then, just after his palm struck and disturbed the earth. The landscape lit up with green magic and powerful gales.
"Are you alright?" Thunder asked as he leaned down towards us from where the light was coming from.
"What the... No, don't even." Brewbrt growled as he slapped away his hand and hauled me out of that forest.
"Thunder... What was that?" I asked as I somehow found myself glad to be out here under this storm. At least I had an idea of what it was!
"Hey! Don't you walk away!" Brewbrt snapped angrily when Thunder suddenly turned away without a word.
"Thunder, please! We'd like an answer!" I begged as I cautiously looked back at where we had escaped. Whatever it was that we experience, it was very much real and it was making noise. Yet, Thunder was stubborn with how quiet he was. So I just sighed and carried on following him.
"Make sure to keep and eye on him as much as you can." Brewbrt warned me before I nodded slowly at what he said. Why was Thunder being so quiet about what we had just experienced? Better yet, how did he get to this side of the mountain when we last saw him fighting off Lightning?
"Wait... Those things... I couldn't understand what it was they mostly said but they always clearly mention lightning... Maybe even Lightning..." I whispered to myself before I realised Brewbrt had heard. At which point, I whispered it to him slightly louder.
"They were focusing on my cast, bare that in mind." Brewbrt clarified as he looked at Thunder with growing suspicion.
"Have you ever heard of such machines before?"
"I have not, no. This is a new thing to me, just like there being a forest inside this mountain." he growled angrily before a curled-up fist struck the stone next to him.
"What should we do if there are more? If Thunder is friends with Lightning, and these things clearly want Lightning dead-"
"Enough!" Thunder suddenly snapped.
"Enough? Your lack of clarity nearly got us killed! Dammit, explain what those things were!" Brewbrt demanded to know as a trembling gauntlet was raised upwards at the distant stranger.
"I warned you that I could not predict what would happen as we climbed the mountain!" Thunder snapped to the backdrop of his namesake as he descended the stairs.
"I can predict what will happen if you continue to be aloof..." Brewbrt threatened as his magic started to build up.
"Brewbrt, that's enough-" I tried to warn him before my concerns were validated. For Lightning lashed down at us and gouged out a chunk of the mountain!
"Move! Inside!" Thunder barked as Brewbrt suddenly took ahold of me to get us up the stairs.
"I-I-I can move myself!" I snap down at him while also not making any point of letting go.
"DON'T GO ANY FURTHER!" Thunder suddenly roared before another bolt shot into the mountain. Knocking Brewbrt and I down with a harsh, noisy tumble.
"In there!" Brewbrt pointed out as he quickly got to his feet. Yet, before I had a chance to do the same, I was shoved into a small crevice and crushed by his armour.
"I CAN'T GO ANY FURTHER!" I scream back at him before I watched in horror as an angered Thunder drew back his foot. A thick, muscular leg then shot at Brewbrt and, in turn, I was forced through something.
"Are you alright?" Thunder asked after he slid through the small hole he had made. But, I did not answer as I was too busy trying to get Brewbrt's armoured body off of me.
"Some warning next time, maybe?" he growled as he got up partially to look down at me.
"I'm fine..." I tell him as I continued to squirm away until he heaved me up. Yet, the forest I discovered us to be in had me worried once again.
"Not again..." Brewbrt let out as he too realised our situation. Yet, Thunder gestured for us to lower our guards and equipment.
"No, answers, now!" I tell him as I keep my staff levelled at the dead forest. If I so much as saw an emerald light in there I would melt it down or slice it apart!
"Turn around and you'll have them." Thunder cryptically let out. But, with that being all we had to go off of. We turned around to have a brief look.
"A village?" I then say as I start to observe the quiet, ruined settlement.
"Just more places for those machines to hide." Brewbrt comments as Thunder slowly walked into the village before he sighed as his hand touched one of the buildings.
"Is this your home?" I ask as I move into the village anyway as the mist didn't exist over here for whatever reason. I could at least flatten this place if we were starting to get surrounded. Or even hide in one of the buildings. The mist offered none of that.
"It's not my home... But, I do know who used to live here. A dear friend of mine." Thunder quietly answered before he looked up at the sky that should not have been there.
"What the..." I couldn't help but say as I glanced up at the cloudy but calm weather overhead.
"Then what happened to this place? What part did those machines play!?" Brewbrt demanded to know.
"I cannot answer that... For I..." Thunder started to say before his head slightly twitched.
"Thunder?" I called out, concerned for him as he seemed to take on a different personality.
"Crimson beast... It destroyed..." he blurted out before he stared at us blankly.
"What's the meaning of this!?" Brewbrt snapped as some of his magic started to build up.
"Armoured, green light... You are with them..." Thunder muttered as thunder rumbled in the sky.
"With those machines? Did you knock your head or something out there before you kicked me!?" Brewbrt angrily rambled as he got up in his face.
"You two, stop it!" I snap as I get in between them. Glaring at both whilst still trying to convey my confusion when it came to Thunder.
"You strangers best leave, it's not safe here." Thunder suddenly said as he turned around and started to run off somewhere.
"Thunder! Wait, where are you going!?" I called out after him before I looked back at Brewbrt.
"I am at a loss here, I am sorry." he told me as he shrugged.
"Maybe there's a clue or something that we can find within this village?" I propose before I used the end of my staff to prod about.
"I would love to say that this place was picked clean by looters, but it just doesn't look like these people had much of anything regardless." Brewbrt explained as he left a half-collapsed building. The signs of a vicious fire were still somehow fresh as well...
"Do any of these buildings at least look important?" I asked, hoping we could at least find a hint with that.
"Not that I can see, it all just looks like the same old plain blocks to me." he answered before he knocked on a wall.
"Wait... I sense something..." I then say as I started to pick up traces of lightning magic. Had Thunder started to fight or was he digging for something?
"Is it by any chance that anvil-looking thing?" Brewbrt asked as we started to climb some steps.
"Yes... The magic is coming from here... It's very weak, but there is something here..." I say quietly as I ran my gloved hand across the smooth, dustless stone. Eyeing the pieces of gold that had become embedded in it here and there.
"That guy might know something." Brewbrt shrugged as he walked around the anvil.
"That's a skeleton!" I hiss at him as he starts to rummage through it.
"Undwote has long since passed by here." he dismissively comments before he returns with his haul of likely ancient artefacts.
"You just grabbed whatever shined..." I remark, unamused at his ill-gained loot.
"Lose the moral blindness and feel it." he barks as he suddenly places a magnificent amulet with a still clear purpose in my hand.
"There's something more here... It's divine..." I let out in amazement as prior experiences with such power rushed through me. Even the dream-like future I was shown all that time ago had such a distinct feel.
"So we've established that that man was a priest of some kind. Now, any idea?"
"I... I'm sorry, but, I do not know what any of this stuff might be for." I tell him with a frown as I play around with a knife made of still-shining gold. Its jagged, harsh edges remind me a lot of the simplistic lightning bolts I often saw in background art about my home.
"Still quite sharp." Brewbrt commented after he gently slipped the blade out of my grip before he ran it along the stone. An amused guffaw then left him as a notable trail of sparks leapt out of the blade's point of contact.
"You're such a child." I tell him before brushing some old cloth off of the ritual stone.
"Try not to get to involved with whatever it is you've found, there's something coming this way." Brewbrt warned me as he marched out to the top of the stairs we recently climbed.
"More of those machines...?" I ask wearily and while I hoped to hear a 'no,' I knew it was not to be.
"Emerald light." he answered with a grim tone as magic started to swirl around him. And whatever was out there met his challenge with the powerful crashing of metal.
"That sounds bigger... Does it sound bigger?" I started to nervously let loose.
"Focus on finding a way to this Lightning, I'll get rid of it." Brewbrt says back to me before he hops down to the dusty dirt road as the machine comes out of the mist beyond the village.
It was huge! I was right, it was bigger! Incomparably bigger! It was a giant in comparison!
And to top it all off, this one was in vastly better condition than the ones from before. Where as they were creaking and clearly rusty or something. This one was well-polished and only groaned under the burden of its own power. Power that was clearly built to be used by those massive, battering-ram-like limbs it bashed and drummed on its chest.
Yet, whenever it met its knuckles in the middle, it always lit up with emerald light and burst of magic just erupted from its elbows!
"Be careful!" I call out down to Brewbrt before I got to work trying to find anything. Somehow, though, I had missed the clearly written and untainted writing on the flat top of the anvil. Or rather, I had missed it coming into existence... Because it was certainly not there before.