Flipping through the pages, Sydra was amazed by all the information it contained. Not only did the book tell him what the people in the town turned into, but it also had a detailed picture of them after they changed.
"So they are called Duskpires, and they lose all conscious thought after night sets in," Sydra says as he flips the page and looks at the picture of a Duskpire. The image is of a person who had been tied down before changing and losing most of their human charismatics. The person had two white horns on their head, and four sharp teeth protruding from the top of their mouth. Traveling down their spine is more spikes, that lead to a tail with a spiked ball at the end.
"You see how their fingernails are so long? It says that they are sharper than most swords, and can tear through most materials. The only way to keep themselves from changing is to get in a coffin-type container that produces a large amount of light," Cidre says as he points at the hand of the person.
"Yup, we won't change if we're surrounded by light, so most people keep their house lights on all night," The waiter says as he walks over and cleans up Sydra's plate.
"If you keep your lights on all night, then why didn't we see any of them last night?" Sandra asks as he thinks back to how the island was eerily dark last night. Surely, if they kept their lights on, then the group should have been able to see some from their ship.
"That's because we cover our windows with reflective materials at night, to keep the light in the house. Still, it's better, if we get in our light coffins, as even a bit of darkness during the night, can cause a partial transformation," The waiter says before walking off to get Sydra a Cream De Ice cup.
"If that's the case, then why aren't all these people changing? I mean, multiple people are sitting in the shadows, but none of them are changing, so there must be more to it," Sydra says as he looks around the restaurant.
"He did say they only change at night, so that means there must be a difference between the day and the night," Robert says as Sydra continues flipping through the book.
"Obviously it's talking about the sun, that is the biggest difference between the two," Erich says while rolling his eyes like it's obvious.
"Well that sucks, there is no way to keep the sun always above this one island," Cidre says, causing Sydra to come to a realization. Looking around, Sydra notices that although the people on the island sleep in a container that provides light, none of them look super incredibly tan. The people do indeed seem tanner than most people, but that could be due to the fact that they live on an island, and mostly work outside.
"Excuse me, but what kind of runes do your people use in their lights?" Sydra asks the waiter when he comes back with the Cream De Ice. After setting the cup down the waiter stops to think.
"I believe we use Softglow runes in most of our fixtures, why do you ask?" The waiter asks as Sydra pulls out a smooth piece of meteorite in the shape of an oval, and a rune inscribing pen. After drawing what looks like a child's idea of the sun on the meteorite, Sydra adds an inscription and taps the pen on the center of the drawing, causing the rune to meld into the stone.
"What does that do?" Robert asks as he leans over and peers at the inscription, but he is unable to understand what it means.
"This is a Sunlight rune, and it can emit light similar to that of the suns. Of course, this rune will only work on meteorites, as they have absorbed light directly from the sun without any barriers. I also believe this will make it possible for the island to do things at night without fear of the curse," Sydra says as the entire room goes quiet.
"Are... Are you being serious?" The waiter asks as he hesitantly reaches out his hand to touch the meteorite.
"Yeah, do you mind telling me where the leader of the island is, I would like to show him this," Sydra says as multiple in the restaurant start paying their bills and running out to tell people what they just heard. Although it wasn't rare for people to come and try to fix their curse, none of them had been as convincing as Sydra.
"Of course, do you have a map of the island?" The waiter asks as Sydra nods and pulls his out. Placing it on the counter, Sydra watches as the waiter's hand shakily points to a part on the map. "This is where the Captain lives, you should bring your idea to him, and if it works as you said he will reward you, and your group,"
"Thank you, we'll pay our bill now then," Sydra says as he pulls out two medium-sized pearls and hands them to the waiter, before heading out of the restaurant with the others.
"Where did you learn that rune? And do you think it will really work?" Erich asks as the group follows Cidre through the streets. Sydra really didn't feel like getting lost again, and the others had been following Cidre earlier.
"I learned it from one of the books I took from the Star Observatory. It had a lot of information on what they learned over time from studying space, and that rune was one of them," Sydra explains as the group goes quiet, thinking about just how many books Sydra has had to read over time to learn as much as he has.
"Oh, we're here," Cidre says as the group stops in front of the only building on the island that didn't resemble a ship cut in half. Instead, this building was three ships that had been set up on their ends, with their decks facing each other in a triangle formation.
"This is amazing," Erich says as the group walks under a large canopy made from old sails. Looking around, the group notice that multiple platforms have been built on the decks, that connect one ship to another. On the ground in the center of the triangle is a lift that has ropes connected to it to raise it up to the different levels.
"Hello, how may I help you?" Asks a woman as she walks out of one of the ships and approaches the group.
"We would like to see the captain and show him our plan to solve the island's curse," Sydra says as he pulls out the meteorite, and presses the rune in the middle. This turns on the meteorite and allows a warm glow to envelope everything under the canopies.
"Oh, so you are the group of the men that Sally was talking about earlier. Captain Smith is already expecting you, follow me," The woman says as she excitedly turns around and leads the group to the lift. Once everyone is on it, the lady presses a button that has the electric rune on it, which then sends a command into the gears to begin raising the lift. "How does this work?" The woman asks as she points at the meteorite in Sydra's hand.
"Ah, this stone flew through space, and collected unobstructed sunlight for ages, before falling to earth. By inscribing a Sunlight rune on it, it causes the meteorite to release a bit of the sunlight it has absorbed. We believe this should fix the curse, as evidence points to sunlight being able to stop people from changing," Sydra says as he shows the woman how to turn it on and off. By the time he is done explaining the lift has reached the top level of the ships, and the group follows the woman into the Captain's office.
"This is the first time someone has come up with an idea such as this, and I must say it has a high chance of success," Captain Smith says after Sydra explains everything once more. "I'll send word to the lab today, and have your idea tested tonight, and if it succeeds you will all become our islands honored guests,"
"That works for us, so we'll come back here before night, as we still need to do a few things around the island," Sydra says before the group bids goodbye and heads back to the ground.
"What else do we need to do?" Robert asks as Sydra pulls out a map and hands it to Cidre with a pen.
"I need to go back and pick up my daggers, which should be done now. Cidre, do you mind drawing a line on the map for the correct way I should go?" Sydra asks as Cidre nods and gets to work. As he is drawing the path for Sydra to follow, Sydra turns to Erich and hands him half of his pearls. "I don't really need these, so you guys should use them to get us more stuff. Try looking for things that are interesting, and can better our journey,"
"All done, just go this way, follow the path exactly, and you should get to the forge area in five minutes," Cidre says as he hands back the map and pen to Sydra, who then heads off.
"He's been running off on his own a lot today," Robert says as the group watches Sydra make a wrong turn.