Although victorious —feeling goosebumps to return— William would get back to the monastery at least 6 hours after, the sun already showing behind its never-ending cover of white fume.
As expected, Erish Dagrim didn't take the heist lightly. Soon the stinky streets of the northeast districts got filled with Mafia Henchmen, yelling with their torches as they tried to find the perpetrators. They warned Inanna's guard, and soon half the town was already on the look for the thieves.
Forced to hide for a couple of hours inside a barn, William took a nap in a pile of stray before continuing. His feet hurt and his eyes were irritated by the time he reached the grove hiding the locomotive, but his mind couldn't be more relieved to have escaped. Did Visidia have luck too? He hoped she was alright, though the news would spread if she was caught.
Artur and Miris had also returned when William reached the heights of the Zeimey Monastery. Zho, Oraesh, and Aeschylus waited for them in the Hall of Progress, looking more surprised than incredulous at their return.
"I have to say I'm impressed," said Zho. "We didn't expect to receive you at least in another pair of days."
"We were expecting you'd end up beaten, in jail, raped, or dead. Especially you, Amber," Oraesh didn't lean down his arrogant stare off him. "But I guess you're not as useless as I thought. But there's nothing to be proud of. That trial was nothing compared to what will come ahead."
William frowned with irritation, trading looks with his fellow young liches, who looked different than the last time he saw them. Artur wore a conical straw hat on his shaved head, an Oksidi scarf, and a loose shirt and skirt, almost looking like one of them if it was not for his blatant western physiology.
Miris was another story: her feet were naked, revealing her olive skin full of scratches and scrapes, as well as her arms. Nothing but a simple shirt and skirt covered her body, her scarf tied into an improvised bag hanging on her back.
Zho continued. "I'd ask you if you had the items I requested, but you wouldn't have been able to trespass the magical barrier surrounding Zeimey Peak if you didn't. Hand the objects over and I'll declare you successful."
The three younglings hesitated as they were once told to keep their looked objects a secret from each other but finally did so. William revealed the golden grail decorated with cat paws and feline figures, and Artur and Miris revealed similar objects.
She took out a golden, twisted spoon, its head decorated with lizards, zigzagging patterns, and a feather on its handle. He handed over a hexagonal golden plate, decorated with moths, ancient Yikkh characters, and a sun and moon in the center.
"The Katosi Grail. The Oksidi Plate. The Uchimi Spoon. Do you know how important and worthy these items are?" asked Oraesh.
"I bet worth enough for sending me through that abandoned mine full of screeching cockroaches and stalking fungi, for sure," said Artur. "My coat was ravaged by an angry queen, you know? I would have come here all naked if it wasn't for a pair of gentle Oksidi ladies that lent me some clothes. Remind me to go and repay them one day."
He looked frivolously at Miris and William, she rolling her eyes and he with a poker face. Oraesh didn't like his playful words.
"You can keep your tomfoolery for another time, Asgard. And you're wrong if you think you're worth the twentieth part of any of these items. But well. Aeschylus, they returned victoriously and earlier than Zho promised. Reveal to them the basic details about the set. They earned it."
"A-ah, yes!" the old man with messy hair got pulled back to reality, being distracted by a book full of monstrous creatures. "Those items were forged a little more than 40 years ago, just after the Independence War ended, to commemorate the creation of the Independent Kingdom Of Reniram. The Uchimi, the Katosi, and the Oksidi, now joined as allies, swore to reign together and keep both Western and Eastern powers a bay."
"I know about that," said Miris. "That forged the Reniramian Trinity, formed by a representative of each race, who would be the right hands of the supreme king."
"Supreme King. Bleh. That kid is too young and stupid to govern by himself. Just like the three of you," mocked Oraesh. "The ones making the shots are the Trinity or his nosy mother."
"The Trinity?" said Artur. "You mean Samu Gozid, the Oksidi representant. A corrupt, like the other two. But at least he does something. Unlike Sionri Nao-Si, that greedy Katosi hag who didn't even grow in the swamps of Katos, or Oghori Dalai, the Uchimi tribesman. He's the least bad but is already too old to care or do anything."
Miris didn't like his words." Artur, would you be respectful to us at least once? Why do you always have to be like this?"
"Calm down, Ates," said Oraesh. "Asgard might be a fool, but his words aren't wrong. All these animalistic inhabitants are only a shadow of what the Yikkhs once were. Disgraces to the past. Anyway, it's time for your reward. Zho, go ahead."
The man in black took a step ahead, pulling out from his back three pieces of red cloth enveloping an unknown content. He gave one to each, and Aeschylus took the ancient relics from their hands, saving them inside a wooden box reinforced with several locks.
What did they want those historical relics for, exactly? William was more focused at that moment on the mysterious object between his hands.
"Artur, Miris, William, you've accomplished your mission, and for that, I hereby acknowledge this victory, and grant you a deserved reward. Make wise use of it. This victory also gives you points to your training schedule. That will be explained later."
The three looked at each other as the eyes of their masters made them unwrap their objects: the red cloths revealed brass, metallic bracelets merged with various valves and micro-tubes around them. At their tops, cylindrical devices in the same fashion rested, each with a hole at the end that made them look like mini-cannons.
"Wow," Artur was excited. He began to put it on his wrist, Miris doing the same with a simper in her face. "It was time you gave us one of these! Hehe, I'm gonna do great things with this babe!"
"What is it?" asked William, looking confused a the strange device.
BANG. A flash of green light dazzled from Artur's position: with his hand extended, a flare got shot from his wrist and impacted one of the training dummies at the other side of the room. It got covered in green flames.
"Artur! Be more careful!" complained Miris.
"What?" he couldn't erase his childish grin. "It's just amazing!"
"Relax, Ates," said Oraesh. "Try it on too."
The girl sighed and did the same. Whistling, an orange bolt irradiated from the magical device wrapped at her wrist and impacted the next dummy, getting set on flames of the same warm color.
"What's this?" asked again William, his reward still not around his arm.
"It's a light caller, boy. Product of my creation," Aeschylus cleared his throat with a tone of grandiose. "It allows you to shoot magical bolts at wherever you want. The perfect tool of an arsonist! But that's not its only use; its light is capable of scaring creatures of the dark and can reveal many things that not even the lich eyes can see. But try taking a shot first!"
Still confused, William put the bracelet on. How was he supposed to shoot? As he raised his and put his eyes on a dummy doll 15 meters ahead, an aquamarine flash of light was fired automatically, impacting the training mannequin and setting it in mint-colored flames.
"W-what?" he looked at the metallic device. "H-how did that happen?"
"You just have to think about it, and the light-caller will react!" responded Aeschylus. "Each was designed especially for you. That's why they shoot with the color of each of your phylacteries. The color your souls resonate with."
William looked at his chest, which felt oddly tickly. The cyan light of his phylactery illuminated stronger than usual. Color of their souls? What did he mean? Now that he thought about it, his soul absorber watch also shined in the same aquamarine color. It was the same for Miris and Artur. Their just-received light callers and their soul absorbers also shined with the same color of their phylacteries: soft green and faint orange. What connection was there? And what did those colors represent, exactly?
"You shall be explained that later," said Oraesh. "Don't let Aeschylus divagate. Mind showing them the revealing light?"
"Ah, yes," said the Dyskrean inventor. "Youngsters, press the valve on your light callers to change from attack mode to revealing mode and aim them at the floor. Then, to the pillars of this room. C'mon! Lemme see it."
The three were a little confused but did so. Their hands against the limestone floor, their devices shot colorful light at their feet and revealed the footprints on the area around that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
"You might be thinking that's not much," said Zho. "but being able to keep track of someone or something is one of the most useful skills a Lich can possess. You'll need it against those depraved creatures that don't manifest naturally"
They continued to the closest pillar. Throwing light at it, fluorescent carvings that weren't there before revealed themselves: strange hieroglyphics showing diverse moths and skeletal figures formed undecipherable scenes with some feeling of order around their chaos, letters in the Yikkh script decorating the empty spaces.
"The ancient liches left us many secrets invisible to the superficial, mundane look," said Oraesh. "I wouldn't expect you to understand them or care, but they are all over Reniram today even if this land has forgotten about them. In any case, if you hadn't thought about it, those devices will reveal magical traps for you, so use them wisely if you don't want to get killed out there. You are liches and you'll be going to places regular humans shouldn't be supposed to be in, facing the dangers of darkness and the shadows. I think that's all. You may dismiss them, Zho."
"Oh, one last thing," said Aeschylus. "Your light callers don't have infinite uses. The chamber in their middle stores their source of energy: a high-grade magical stone. They are hard to get these days as they've become illegal in many parts of Reniram. One like those runs for about 1200 stars in the black market, so use them wisely."
Miris and Artur gulped their saliva, looking at their hands as if they carried quite a relic too expensive for them. William didn't know how to feel about it, considering he was still unfamiliar with Reniram's currency and its purchasing power, as well as just passing from being as poor as a beggar to owning 7500 stars in a single night. He remembered Visidia and smiled. He wondered what she would have in mind the next time he ran into her.
"Very well, young liches," said Zho. "You are dismissed and you might rest. You have the day free and you may leave the monastery if you want, with the condition of returning at the fall of night."
Aeschylus raised the box with the ancient relics, and the three older men turned around and sauntered ahead, not too far WIliam stopped them. Something that couldn't leave his mind still harassed him, and he wouldn't leave that place without trying to get answers.
"Hold on," he spoke, bringing out the notes he found in the drawers of Erish Dagrim at his brothel. He needed answers, and this time they wouldn't be able to put excuses so easily. "I found these documents. They put that several westerners were executed at some beach about one month ago. They suggest that their bodies were going to be used by some necromantic group. I was there with Artur. What are you hiding from me? Please answer this time."
Artur paled and looked away, Miris frowning with her lips slightly open, looking unaware of what was going on. The three men stopped their march, turning their heads to look at William with stoic expressions, who didn't put his eyes apart from theirs. Zho and Oraesh traded words in some incomprehensible, guttural language before fully turning around and facing William.
He didn't hesitate. It was obvious something was going on, and the information in those letters was simply too much for them to keep lying or putting excuses. Reaching him, Zho calmly took the documents from William's hands, and he and Oraesh read them with freezing silence before revealing what they had to say.
They had to answer this time. Despite being glad about the good things that had happened, William was already fed up with feeling like something to be toyed with.