"Crap, not again. I swear I followed the path Cidre made for me exactly," Sydra says as he looks around the red district.
"Hey sweetie, I see you decided to get splinters after all," Says the same woman from earlier as she walks over on her mahogany legs. Sydra looks up at her in fear, before sprinting as fast as he can away. 'Dang it, I just got these polished and everything, but no one wants me,' The woman thinks as she sadly looks down at her beautiful wooden pegs.
Gasping for breath a few minutes later, Sydra stops at the edge of the red district and looks around. "Looks like I made it back to the forging district," Sydra says as he notices a line of people standing outside of a forge, clamoring to get in.
"I told you all, the daggers were made for someone specific, and I can't sell them to anyone else," Gail yells out loud as Sydra makes his way through the crowd to get to the door. "Ah, it's you, hurry up and come in," Gail says as he grabs Sydra by the arm and pulls him into the forge. "By the way, what is your name? I forgot to ask you for it earlier," Gails asks as he shuts the door behind him, causing some people to fall back.
"My name is Sydra, but that's not important, how are the daggers," Sydra says, slightly impatient to receive his daggers and get back to the others.
"The daggers you had me make earlier is finished, and they caused quite the commotion," Gail says as he pulls out two daggers with black blades imprinted with a wavey blue pattern. The double edge blades are connected to a white handle that has an aqua gem at the end.
"I saw that, is that why there are so many people outside?" Sydra asks as he senses the water aura coming from the daggers.
"That would be because I put these daggers on display when I was finished with them, and when people saw them they thought they were for sale. I was just trying to show people what I could do, but I never expected so many people to show up and start offering me as much money as they did. Honestly, if these daggers weren't already made for you, I could have made a fortune today," Gail says as he looks back through the forge window and sees people still milling about.
"So what can these blades do? I can feel the water aura coming from them, but I also sense something more than that," Sydra says as he picks up one of the daggers and tosses it into the air, allowing the light of the forge embers to bounce off the blade.
"The dagger's main power is the ability of erosion, which comes from the water aura, and that second aura your feeling has something to do with the metal you gave me earlier. What was it anyway? I've never seen metal that can absorb other materials so well before, and the power it received is interesting as well." Gails says as Sydra catches the dagger by the handle and puts it inside a leather sheath that Gail has laying on a table.
"That was a piece of meteorite I got from my journies, why, what is the power?" Sydra asks again as he picks up the other dagger and sheaths it in one move.
"It has the power to absorb what the water power erodes, making it stronger. I believe it has something to do with the metal unlocking a second power of the Deepjaw shark teeth," Gail says as he holds up a rock that has a deep gash in it. "This is a stone I tested the daggers out on, and I felt the daggers becoming stronger as they cut away at the rock,"
"Oh? That sounds like a pretty nifty power," Sydra says as he pulls out two more meteorite stones and hands them to Gail. "These should suffice as payment for the daggers, right?" Sydra asks as Gail's eyes widen.
Eagerly shaking his head, Gail reaches out and takes the meteorites from Sydra. "Yes, these will do just fine as payment," Gail says as Sydra smiles, before bidding goodbye. As he walks out of the forge, Sydra hears Gail calling out to the crowd to let them know that he will be forging two more daggers that were similar to the previous ones.
'I wonder what would have happened if Gail had used other materials with the meteorites,' Sydra wonders as he sends the daggers into his Arbor Sanctum. Looking up at the sky, Sydra notices that he spent so much time trying to find his way here, that it is already almost time for the sun to set. People are already heading into their houses and shutting the doors tightly behind them.
'Hopefully my plan will work, and they wont have to go to their homes so early at night,' Sydra thinks as he hurries his pace back to the Captain's Ship to meet up with the others.
...
"Where do you think Sydra is? It's almost dusk, and he still hasn't shown up yet," Cidre asks as he looks around for Sydra. Currently, the group is standing with Captain Smith, as they wait for Sydra to get there.
"I'm not sure, but he is probably lost. You all saw how he took the wrong turn earlier," Robert says as he scuffs his foot against the ground. "We should really stop letting him go off on his own,"
"So is Sydra the leader of your group?" Captain Smith asks as he looks up at the sun, which is almost gone by now.
"I guess you could call him that, but our group is more like a partnership of people who have the same goal," Robert says as he spots Sydra running towards the group. "Finally, what took you so long? The sun is almost gone, and we don't have much time,"
"Sorry," Sydra says as he catches his breath, "I got lost on the way back, but since I'm here now let's go,"
"Right, the lab is this way," Captain Smith says as he turns around and leads the group back to the lift. Pressing the button twice, the lift beneath the group's feet begins to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees before coming to a halt.
"It didn't do this earlier," Cidre says as the lift starts to descend into a tunnel that heads straight down. As the group goes farther beneath the ground, a metal door covers the hole to stop anyone from accidentally falling in.
"The lab is kept underground in case there are any accidents, as we wouldn't want our citizens getting hurt," Captain Smith says as the lift comes to a halt, and the group enters a brightly lit circular room that has multiple doors leading to different areas.
"It is so bright down here," Erich says as he covers his eyes with his hand until they can get used to the blinding light.
"It's to keep our scientists from changing while working on important projects. Come, I'll lead you to the room where the volunteer is about to try out your Sunlight rune stone, and see if it can keep us from changing," Captain Smith says as he leads the group through a white door and down a hallway.
'This reminds me of an asylum, where everything is white and bright,' Sydra thinks as he looks through the glass windows on the doors. Through one of the doors, Sydra sees a giant monitor that shows the entirety of the island and the sea around it.
"We've attached multiple describing orbs to things around the island so we can keep a watch out at night. We also saw your ship approach us last night, but since you didn't come any closer, we didn't activate our magma cannons," Captain Smith explains as he points into another room where a large cannon is being made from magma rock, and Ember Whale Tusk.
"Amazing, I thought your island only worked on ships, but it seems you are also technologically advanced as well," Erich says as the Captain stops in front of a door and knocks on it.
"After the curse was inflicted upon us, and we went through the night ages, we had to be. Otherwise, an attack against us during the night would have wiped us out. The truth is that our island use to be twice as large as it is now, but half of it sank into the water during a battle we had," Captain Smith says as the door opens and the group enters a room with a dark glass wall on the far side. Beyond the wall is a young man standing in a dark room, with the inscribed meteorite in his hand.
"Ah, Captain Smith, your just in time. We just gave Almon the meteorite and sent him into the testing room. If he doesn't change while in the presence of the stone, we will know it is a success," A man in a long blue lab coat says as the group sits down in chairs across the room, watching Almon closely.
'This has to work,' Sydra thinks as he looks at the clock on the wall, that is five seconds away from time of dusk.
As the five seconds seem to pass by slowly, everyone in the room becomes extremely quiet, with most of them holding their breath. 'Click' The clock ticks past the time of change, and everyone sits there in shock.
"He... He didn't change! It works, it actually works!" Yells the man in the blue lab coat as he runs up to an intercom and speaks through it.
"How do you feel Almon?" The scientist asks as Almon looks around at his body, lightly jumping on his feet.
"I... I feel an incredible power in my body, but one that I can control due to the stone in my hand. I believe I can change my body willingly, and be able to keep my rationality afterward," Almon says as he focuses on his body and begins changing his body to match that of someone who has changed. "Yeah, it's working, I can feel myself become stronger the farther I change, but there is no blankness in my mind," Almon says as he completes a full change, but continues to talk normally.
"Astonishing, a complete change, but keeping his mind intact during it. This will bring a major change to the island. All we need are more meteorites that have been inscribed," the scientist says as everyone slowly turns to look at Sydra.
"Don't worry, I have more," Sydra says as he dumps a large pile of meteorites out onto the floor.