Daedalus is a curious creature. Or at least, that is what Lia thought. She had met many merchants and artisans in her life, but none of them were quite like the man who stood before her. The people of Penzamen were loyal to their deities, and their deities were loyal to them. If they ever needed anything, whether it be food and water or even weapons and armor, their deities would be happy to provide. As such, there was no need for blacksmiths, and many of the people in Penzamen did not even really know what blacksmiths were like. For Lia, after meeting one for the first time, she decided she did not want to meet many others.
After Lia finally got used to all of the heat from the furnace and all the clanging from the anvil, she noticed that the blacksmith swinging the hammer was a very old man. His long white beard swayed with each hit of the hammer, sending beads of sweat and little pieces of steel flying through the air. Lia got anxious that he would at one point hit his own beard with one of his swings, but he managed to swing his beard to safety every single time.
Daedalus continued to hammer until he noticed the party out of the corner of his eye. He sat up straight to look at the party and dropped his hammer onto the anvil. As the hammer hit the anvil, it made a loud thud that rang throughout the room. He brushed off his hands a little bit and walked over to Prometheus. As he got closer, Lia could tell two things about the man very quickly. One, he was incredibly short, standing at about four feet tall; two, he was the most muscular person she had ever seen.
"What the hell do you want?" Daedalus said to the group. Lia almost audibly gasped; to meet someone for the first time and immediately resort to slurs was astounding to her.
"Charming," Prometheus said, "Everyone, this is Daedalus. He is the best blacksmith in all of Xerxes, and he is the blacksmith joining us on the Desert Winds. If you need any new equipment or any improvements to your gear, I am sure that Daedalus can provide you with what you need."
Daedalus nodded to everyone. Garus smiled widely. "Prometheus, you never told me there was a dwarf onboard!" Lia had never seen a dwarf before; that explained his size. Most of the people in Penzamen were humans or elves, like Lia. They even had some Genasi who had escaped Xerxes, but dwarves were definitely one of the more uncommon peoples to be there. Most dwarves stuck to their mountains and rarely ventured to other places; the majority of dwarves were from Limgren if Lia remembered correctly from her studies.
Daedalus looked at him confused, "What does being a dwarf have to do with anything?" Garus said something to Daedalus in another language, but no one seemed to understand, including Daedalus.
"Am I supposed to understand that?" Daedalus asked.
"You don't speak Dwarvish?" Garus was shocked at this discovery.
"I am from Xerxes; it would not make a lot of sense for me to speak the mountain folks' language," Daedalus answered. Lia was finding the first dwarf she met rather unpleasant. She had always heard dwarves were a strong race with a rich heritage of work and culture that led to many songs and other tales that represented them. She had always imagined dwarves as rather jovial people, but Daedalus was anything but.
"Do not worry about him; he is just a little bit prickly. Once he gets used to you being on the ship, he will open up. You should hear the songs he sings at Thalassa's Beard," Prometheus said. Daedalus looked angry and crossed his arms.
"I do not sing," he said.
"When you have a couple of drinks in you, you do," Prometheus retorted. Daedalus grunted, clearly unamused. Lia noticed Prometheus giving Daedalus a less than satisfied look, to which Daedalus sighed.
"Listen, I am obligated to help each of you on this journey. If you need anything from me, just let me know what you want, and I will do my best to get it done as long as it doesn't stop my other work. If you need magical items, I can help with that as well; just let me know what runes you want, and I would need you to provide the gemstone dust," Daedalus said this and then immediately went back to his anvil.
"Charming," Lia said under her breath. If there was one thing she did not have patience for, it was needlessly rude behavior. Sensing that the conversation was over, Prometheus and the rest of the party left the room and continued down the hall. The other rooms on the floor were what would be expected of a floor dedicated to magic. An enchanter, an alchemy table, the number of magical processes and practitioners aboard the ship were astonishing to Lia. Ingenuity was never something that the people of Xerxes were known for, but Lia was realizing that maybe they should be.
As they walked out of the last door, the transmutation experimentation, Lia noticed that the end of the hallway dipped, leading to stairs that led down to the next floor. She began to follow them down to the next floor, but about halfway through, she noticed that the door down to the next floor was a solid steel door bolted into a large steel wall adorned with runes. Lia looked at it confused but was interrupted in her thought by a loud voice.
"The next floor is this way!" Prometheus yelled a little bit panicked. Lia walked back up the stairs a bit.
"What is down here?" Lia asked.
"Storage, arcane focus storage," Prometheus said shakily. He abruptly turned around and began to walk the other direction away from the door. Lia thought this was incredibly suspicious. Why would a storage door be enchanted? Lia pondered. She walked back up to join the rest of the group and found them already at the stairs leading down to the next floor. Whatever was down there, Prometheus clearly did not want them to know about it.
The rest of the tour was pretty standard; provisions, an area for magical beasts, and other necessities filled this massive ship. At the end, the party walked back up to the deck. All of them seemed a little shocked at everything on the ship but also felt content that there was so much to keep them stocked and provided for on their journey.
Rijin turned to the party as they reached the deck. "It would be best if we met as a party to discuss some things moving forward. Is there an area we can meet away from prying eyes?" Rijin asked.
Prometheus nodded, "We can meet in the captain's quarters; no one meets in there besides myself." Prometheus gestured towards double doors at the stern of the ship. Lia followed the others as they filed into the room. Unlike the rest of the ship, the captain's quarters were pretty standard. There was a large desk at the far end of the room, as well as a large table with many chairs around it in the middle. Maps and various items were strewn around the room with little organization to them.
Prometheus walked toward his desk while Lia and the others took their seats. "AHHHHH," Prometheus screamed as he went to sit in his chair that was turned in the opposite direction. He jumped back as a figure stood up from sitting in the chair. The figure was wearing a long white coat with black edges that had a large sunflower on the back of it. His white hair, a little longer but choppy and uneven, shone as he stood up. His most prominent feature was his two slight horns that came from the top of his head. Lia sighed as she saw him.
"Fuju," Lia said, "What are you doing?" Fuju turned around toward Lia and the others. A little bit of drool ran down the side of his mouth, and his eyes drooped.
"Oh, Lia, you are finally here," Fuju said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "I missed you and your radiant virtue." Fuju smiled, but Lia dismissed it.
"Why are you in the captain's quarters?" Lia asked.
"Well, it seemed like a fitting place to sit and wait. It made sense that all of you would head back here to talk afterwards, so I decided to wait," Fuju ruffled his coat a little as he talked. He regained his composure and stepped forward to address the rest of the party.
"Good evening, everyone!" Fuju said, putting his hands out in excitement.
"It's not even midday..." Qrow said.
"I am Fuju. I have been assigned as the archmage to watch over you during your journey. I represent the school of demolition and represent the academy in official matters," Fuju said.
"So they assigned you to be the archmage," Rijin said, "I suspected my father would want one of his own archmages over a Penzamite."
Fuju chuckled, "your father does mistrust me, but more importantly, everyone distrusts him, so the decision of having me be the overseeing wizard was the best compromise given that I am the house wizard to the Court of Sunflowers." Fuju shrugged and winked at Rijin.
"I have never heard of the school of demolition," Varithorn spoke up.
"Really?" Fuju said, "that is rather odd, maybe you have gone deaf." Garus chuckled a little at Fuju's response.
Lia rolled her eyes, "Enough, Fuju. This is getting us nowhere. Sit down or leave; I do not care which." Fuju smiled and pretended to lock his mouth as if he had a key to it. He grabbed a chair and scooted it in between Lia and Qrow, smiling as he did so. After a moment, Prometheus broke the silence.
"Well, now that we are all here, let us go over the journey that is ahead," Prometheus threw out a scroll of paper towards the table that unfurled itself to sit perfectly before them. Lia recognized it to be a map of Penzamen. "Our first destination is a place called the Blessing of Love. It is one of the 9 blessings of Penzamen that follows after Althea, the goddess of love." As Prometheus talked, the image on the map began to zoom in until it was placed just over the region where the Blessing of Love resides.
"Lia, would you mind giving us any information you have about the area?" Prometheus said.
Lia stood up to address the party, "the Blessing of Love is one of the blessings we have the most contact with. A couple of months ago we lost contact with the leader of the Blessing of Love, Helena. As far as we have heard in the past few months, the Blessing of Love has been losing their blessing."
"Losing their blessing?" Rijin asked, "how is that possible?"
"Each of our blessings is provided by our prime deity. If that deity were to choose to give up their blessing or if something crazy were to happen like the deity disappearing, then yes, the blessing would be gone, but that has never happened before," Fuju said.
"But it is happening now," Rijin said inquisitively. Lia and Fuju nodded.
"I do not want to jump to conclusions, but it is definitely a good place to start. There is a shadowy organization that is going after the heirs to the countries of Hize, and now a blessing has lost its deity? It is too strange of an occurrence for us not to investigate," Lia said, "and besides, we really do not have any other leads."
"Is there anything we need to know about the blessing of love? Like anything that might help us fit in a little bit better or any taboos we should be aware of," Qrow asked. Lia was a little surprised since this was the most genuine Qrow had been. The Blessing of Love had never been Lia's favorite place. Each of the blessings was very different from one another, but for many of them, Lia embraced the differences and found beauty in them. In the Blessing of Harmony, she appreciated their focus on being one with nature and getting to know the druids' ideals. In the Blessing of Joy, Lia admired the people's zeal for life. But the Blessing of love was a place Lia had trouble truly understanding.
"The Blessing of Love is…unique…they embrace love in a different way than many others and are interested in the ways that love can be expressed. It is a very beautiful and kind place, but there are some matters of taste that may make some a little uncomfortable," Lia said. The party donned confused looks, Lia could tell she was not getting her point across.
"It's filled with brothels," Fuju said bluntly, "My lady hates it because the place is mostly filled with brothels." Lia kicked Fuju's foot under the table. The party took a second to process the information before Rijin began to laugh out loud.
"So we are going to a land that is filled with a bunch of prostitutes?" Rijin asked, still laughing.
"Yes," Fuju answered, "but not only are there a lot of brothels, we will be there during their blossom festival; the first celebration of love this season." This spurred Rijin to laugh even more.
"But our purpose is not to go to brothels and party, our purpose is to investigate. Just because the Blessing of Love has brothels and a festival of love does not mean our purpose is to be part of the festivities," Lia said in desperation.
"So we formed a council to investigate a shadowy organization that is going after all of us, and our first assignment as this party of wannabe heroes is to go...to a bunch of brothels," Rijin could not help but laugh as he talked. Lia agreed that this sounded ridiculous.
"Well, I guess this is going to be a fun vacation," Qrow said, kicking back on his chair.
"Yes, let's go 'investigate'," Varithorn said in an annoyed voice. The entire party, even if everyone did not say it, had written off their mission. Lia could tell what they were thinking, she could tell they no longer took this seriously, she balled her fist trying to find the right words to say, but she could not find the right words over her anger. Adonis had always been much more adept at controlling his anger in situations like this. Lia did not believe in this council, she did not believe in the help of these foreigners that she had only known oppression from throughout her life, but she did care about helping people; and right now, there are people in Penzamen who are hurting and they can help. Lia opened her mouth to talk, but Fuju rested his hand on her shoulder and spoke first.
"Going to a land of brothels to investigate is a ridiculous notion; I am sure we are all well aware. I am also sure we are all not exactly on this council for camaraderie. Even if you do not believe in this council or think the rules that created it are absurd, it is still happening, so with all due respect to your highnesses: get over it. There are suffering people in Penzamen right now. It may be in a strange place, but if nothing else, there are people that are suffering there. Now I would like to believe that despite our differences, each of us still cares about the residents of this world. We are all trying to figure this out, but focus on the thing that is at hand: protecting people. And if you do not care about that, then think about your own self-interest. We have all lost something, or someone, because of whoever is after us, so if the way you get through this journey is by focusing on yourself, then fine; do that. Just get it done," Fuju said.
Lia was speechless, as was the rest of the party. Lia looked around the table at all the other members, each of them pondering because of what Fuju said. Each of them came into this council for their own reasons. Some of them believed in doing something greater, some of them just wanted to get away from home, others wanted to protect their home. There was something all of them wanted to get from this journey, and they needed to focus on that. But how had Fuju known what Lia was thinking? Everything Fuju said was what Lia wanted to get across to the party but could not find the words, yet Fuju without any word from Lia was able to. Lia was skeptical but decided to table it for now.
Qrow spoke up, "I know we are all skeptical of each other, but it would probably be a good idea for us to talk more about our skill sets. If we are going to be fighting together, I would rather not get killed because I do not know what my allies can do. I will be the first to go." Lia blinked, and Qrow was gone. Lia thought her eyes might be playing tricks on her, but everyone else was just as astonished, jumping out of their seats to look around. The party looked around the room, but Qrow had completely disappeared. The room itself seemed to grow darker. Despite being the middle of the day, the shadows grew longer, and the room felt very ominous. Lia looked down and noticed that the shadows coming from the wall behind her stretched all the way to underneath her chair. A shiver ran down her spine; she felt as if she was being enveloped, her heart began to race. Lia felt something cold and looked down to see a knife's edge at her throat. She stayed completely still, unsure if this was reality. Lia felt soft breath on her ear and then a voice.
"You need to keep your guard up," it was Qrow talking to her. He had somehow enveloped himself in shadows and snuck up on Lia without being detected by anyone. Lia's heart continued to race; she had seen and used invisibility spells before, but they had never been like this. Whatever he was doing was magic or ability completely foreign to Lia. Lia still felt the breath on her ear, but the knife at her throat loosened. Out of the corner of her eye, Lia caught a glimmer of orange light. With enough room to turn her head, she could see Fuju with his hand outstretched; a small fire engulfed his hand and was aimed at the figure around Lia. Qrow released the knife and backed away slowly, fully visible to the party now. Fuju did not quell the fireball.
"I am what you might call a rogue. I did not grow up in palaces like the rest of you, I grew up on the streets. I will spare you the sob story. If you need someone to sneak in and take someone out, I am your guy," Qrow said, stepping back with his hands up. Qrow sheathed his dagger, and once again disappeared, but this time, he appeared back in his seat.
"In a fight, expect me to disappear and look for advantages rather than holding the line; that is not really my specialty," Qrow said, kicking up his feet once more. Lia was still breathing heavily but had a smile on her face; she was exhilarated. Fuju closed his hand, letting the flames lick in between his fingers before eventually extinguishing.
"I can go next!" Garus said with excitement, "I am a singer. I was trained by my voice teacher, Madonna, in the ways of being a bard," Garus strummed his lute. Everyone looked severely less impressed compared to Qrow's display.
"Garus, the music sounds great, but I struggle to see how it helps us in a fight," Rijin said. Garus continued to sing; Lia cringed a little as he continued to serenade the party, but Lia noticed something going on within her. Lia started to feel something welling up inside her. She felt focused, in tune with her surroundings, her senses were heightened, and she felt strong; like she could lift up this boat if she wanted to. Garus strummed a new tune, and the feeling left Lia's body, draining her of the welling strength. The melody became darker; Garus changed from the major to the minor key, strumming a tune of sorrow. Garus focused his eyes on the wall behind Rijin's head and strummed one loud note. The note sprang off the lute as a black mass. It sped at such a fast rate that the papers on the table flew about the room from the speed it generated The note swished past Rijin's face and embedding itself as an imprint in the wall. Rijin turned to look at the wall; the wall was cracked and brittle from the attack. Garus strummed one final note and then bowed for the party, like a performer finishing his set.
"I do more than just sing. It may not seem like it, but I can control the arcane just the same as many of you," Garus said.
Prometheus walked over and touched the new imprint that had been made in the wall. "Do you think you could have shown us that without damaging my ship?" Prometheus looked unamused. Garus grew sheepish, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"Allow me to help," Varithorn said. Varithorn stuck out his hand, and a golden light showed underneath his sleeve. A golden rune appeared in the air over the wall. The wood began to grow and changed until it had completely fixed itself, leaving no mark of the note having ever been there at all.
"I am a sorcerer; I may not have as broad of magic as, say, Fuju being a wizard, but I am very strong with the spells I do have at my disposal. Versatility and power are my two main strengths," Varithorn said.
Lia had always been fascinated by sorcerers. As a cleric, her power came from her goddess. She had no natural power, only the power of the covenant that has been bestowed upon her. Fuju was a wizard so he used the natural magic of the world to conjure spells and incantations, but a sorcerer had an innate magical ability. Lia had a hard time conceptualizing the idea of knowing magic from the moment you are born and knowing that it is something born from you rather than something you borrow from the world. Lia also knew that this fascination about difference had caused many problems in the past, especially during the pavest war.
Rijin stood up, his hulking body almost touched the top of the captain's quarters with his height. "Magic users all alike it seems. I am a Paladin, my oath is dedicated to Thalassa; Goddess of the seas," Rijin said. Rijin raised his hand, and the tattoos on his arm began to glow slightly white. Since they were on the sea, the smell of sea air was everywhere, but it felt like it grew more intense as Rijin raised his hand. It was still for a moment, but then the boat began to rock slightly, then it got more violent. The party started to brace themselves from the rocking, trying to take in their surroundings when a violent wind blew the doors open. Lia could not believe that all of this was happening simply from a man raising his hand; nature itself seemed to bend to his will.
Rijin lowered his hand, and the glowing stopped, as did the wind and the waves. "I specialize in strength and protection from harm. While we are on the seas, I can protect us from any sort of harm that might come from the sea. As long as Thalassa is beside us, we will be safe on her seas," Rijin said. Everyone in the room got themselves back in order, recovering from the disorienting circumstances they just endured.
"A warning would have been nice," Prometheus complained, cleaning off some of the papers around the room.
"Apologies," Rijin replied, lowering his head slightly. "For the record, Prometheus, Thalassa does not have a beard."
"Oh, so you have met your mythical patron?" Prometheus said poignantly.
"Mythical?" Rijin asked in a confused voice.
"Rijin, no offense to you, or the people of Penzamen, but the idea that you have this patron god watching over you is incredibly narcissistic. Most of you so-called 'paladins' and 'clerics' are just sorcerers and druids with a crisis of faith going on," Prometheus said.
"I have met her," Rijin said, "she is my mentor and guardian, so I have had the pleasure of meeting with her many times."
"Then whoever this woman is is scamming you," Prometheus laughed as he said this, "there is no goddess giving you your power. The same things you can do, I can do with my creations."
Lia could not sit by and be insulted any longer. "Then prove it," Lia said, "if we are simply imagining our deities, then please show us this power you possess."
Prometheus reached into a bag at his waist. "With pleasure," he said as he pulled something out of the bag. He held in his hand a small wand-like device; it was long and slender and completely made of metal. He held it out into the room and waved it in the air, creating a rune in the air. A moment later, it felt like a great amount of suction was being drawn into the device in Prometheus's hand. Lia noticed that the device had little lights near the end of it that began to light up one by one as the suction continued. After about ten seconds, the device beeped.
"Wonderful," Prometheus said. He held the device in the air and waved it around. The tip began to glow white, and again the boat began to rock. A strong wind blew through the door again, shuffling things around the room violently. Prometheus swished the device again, and the tip stopped glowing, and all at once, everything stopped, just like when Rijin put down his arm.
"See?" Prometheus said in a matter-of-fact manner, "with one of my devices, I can replicate your goddess's power."
"How is that possible?" Lia asked, dumbfounded.
"This device is able to take the arcane energy that hangs in the air and replicate the spell, incantation, that was cast with that energy," Prometheus said. As he talked, Lia had a hard time conceptualizing what Prometheus was trying to get across. With a small stick, he was able to replicate the power given to someone from a goddess. Rijin was not having the same crisis of faith; in fact, one could even say Rijin looked unimpressed.
"So you are saying this arcane focus you have creates takes arcane energy from the air around us?" Rijin asked. Prometheus nodded. "But your original assumption was that our 'gods' do not exist because you can do the same things as us with that little device. But if you are taking arcana out of the air and in order to replicate the spell, that does not prove my goddess does not exist; it just proves you can use her energy to recreate a spell."
"Ouch," Varithorn said, "Prometheus, I gotta admit he kinda has you beat there."
Prometheus shrugged off the comment, "regardless, I have the ability to create devices infused with arcana. This device is one of many that I have in my arsenal. I am sure you will see many of them throughout our journey. If we come across any strange devices, I should be of help, but as far as combat goes, I myself am not the most helpful."
The members of the party turned to Lia. She had been thinking in her head so it took her a second to notice their stares. Everyone else had gone, had presented their own skills that they bring to the table, Lia had kinda hoped she could fade into the background during this part but it seemed she would not be that fortunate.
"Well umm," Lia started clearing her throat, "I am a cleric; if there is any healing you might need during this journey, I can be of service. Alhayaa, the goddess of life, has blessed me with my healing abilities. So I hope that if you ever need to feel a little better, you will come to me," Lia said, trailing off at the end of her sentence.
"That is it?" Qrow said, "I thought this was show and tell." No one else said anything but it seemed like the others agreed. Lia had been worried about this eventuality.
"Well my abilities mainly lead towards dealing with the injured so since none of us…" Lia started.
Garus stuck out her arm, there was a small cut on it still fresh with droplets of white blood that had begun to dry up. "I accidentally ran into the banister on the way up cutting myself, it is minor but does this work?"
Lia gulped, she knew she could not back out now. She stood up and walked over to Garus's side. Lia looked at Garus's arm, analyzing the cut.
It is a minor cut, it should be simple. Lia thought. She began to reach out towards Garus to heal him, the runes of life tattooed on her hands began to glow as she touched him. Lia closed her eyes, letting the arcane energy flow through her hands. She focused on her breathing, on her surrounds, trying to stay in the moment, but then things got murky. She felt like she was on a flowing current, her mind waivered. An image appeared in her mind. She saw a long black floor that led to fire in the distance. The fire smoldered and tried to fight but it began to dwindle despite its vast size. Lia felt her own spirit waiver as she watched it dwindle. She fear the fire going out, she fear what it being snuffed out meant. She tried to force the image out of her mind but it persisted. Panic filled her mind, then she heard a scream.
Her eyes burst open. Garus screamed out in pain.
SHIT, Lia thought to herself, Not again!
Lia took her hands off of Garus but he continued to scream. He grabbed his arm in pain. Lia scrambled, she was trying to figure out how to help. In the middle of the chaos Garus's scream turned into a laugh. Lia looked confused until Garus stopped grabbing his arm and continued to laugh.
"I am sorry Lia," Garus said, "you looked so tense I was trying to lighten the mood a little. Sorry if I went to far." Garus showed everyone his arm, the cut was gone.
"Thank you for healing me," Garus said still somewhat laughing. Some of the other members of the party laughed a little as well, others criticsized Garus for the joke. Lia was too dazed to tell which was which. The only person she could focus on was Fuju, and the pale color his face was.
"Excuse me for a moment," Lia stood up and walked towards the doors. She thought she heard some protest or some of the members trying to rectify the situation but she was too lost at the moment. Lia walked out of the Captain's quarters, leaving the conversation behind.