The Newt and Demon-7.33 - A Shadow in the North

Theo made absolutely no decisions about anything by the time morning came. The only thing he could think about was the Seal of Judgement resting over the heavens, and how that meant he had less to worry about. Still, it would be nice to have a big meeting with the mortal-facing people of the world to set things straight. When he woke in the morning, a familiar scent wafted to the second floor.

Sarisa didn’t make more squid meat for breakfast. Instead, it was the familiar scent of sausages and eggs fried in butter. He descended the stairs, finding Tresk, Sarisa, and Rowan already chowing down on the familiar spread. Something he had missed from the scent alone was the zee bread—which was just discount cornbread. Of course, Tresk wanted to talk about taking out the next dungeon before it became a problem.

“Dungeon season is open!” Tresk shouted. “Aarok is getting teams together to make it happen. We’re starting today.”

Theo nodded. Once the new space elves were on the mortal plane, he wanted to snag a few shards as quickly as he could. Otherwise, he was concerned about what the void energies would do to the world. For now, he focused on the delicious sausages made by Whisper. Things seemed pleasant today, which meant everything would go right forever.

“We got a pretty big order from Alise for some healing potions,” Theo said, reviewing his administration interface. “I thought we had a decent stockpile.”

“That’ll be for the party,” Tresk said with a nod. “You know how stuff gets when Broken Tuskers get drinking.”

Theo nodded. They were legendarily good at getting themselves hurt after a few drinks. He skimmed over the other reports from Rivers and Gronro. They were doing fine and were even helping with the party planning. Qavell had been doing better than ever. The people there were adjusting to life in the Southlands Alliance well. Only a few people were opposed to the ascension plan. They could stay here for all he cared.

After checking on Salire after breakfast, Theo made his way down a path he didn’t walk very often. He briefly visited the harbor. Ships were still being constructed as quickly as the shipwrights could crank them out—because why not. He then followed the path alongside the river, walking over a newly built road. It didn’t take long to catch sight of Qavell looming in the distance like the behemoth it was. Using his Earth Sorcerer’s Core, he checked around the base of the city to ensure it was secure.

“Looks good to me,” Theo said, making his way to the giant ramp.

As the builders of the ramp didn’t want to watch the carts of merchants sailing down the ramp at racecar speeds, they had made it at an extreme angle. That made the walk to the top tiring, but it also provided an excellent view of the area. Especially the bay. Theo stopped before the gates of the city, leaning over the railing and sighing out to the sea. Ships dotted the area, and he spotted the Cork fishing the waters near the passes on the horizon. The bay was mostly filled with trading chips, although he was certain some held passengers.

“I was told my guard saw a shady demon lurking near the main gate.”

Theo turned, smiling as he nodded to King Hanan. “Everything good around here? Is your city’s core still clear?”

“You’re really worried about that, aren’t you?” Hanan asked with a chuckle. He came over, leaning against the railing with Theo. “Not that I can blame you. This has all been too strange.”

Although he wouldn’t share, Theo wasn’t happy there was no cap on the end to that story. The thing possessing the town had fled. No one confirmed the kill. The only upside on that was the entity was poisoned forever. It might take a few thousand years, but it would die. Maybe Tresk would get a notification when that happened…

“Has there been much business in Qavell? I’ll be honest, I don’t know what your people were known for before everything went down.”

“We were known for a corrupt merchant class, a failing king, and a war lost with Vesta. Also we had some decent coresmiths. Nothing like Tarantham, but they were pretty good.”

“Well, I always have Fenian on the lookout for cores. The merchants in town have been better for that lately, though.”

“Fenian is a character. He stirred up quite some trouble for my father before the city flew around on its own.” Hanan issued a polite chuckle.

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“I’m not sure I heard this story,” Theo said, searching his memories. “Nevermind, I have. He took some merchants out, didn’t he?”

“Indeed. They were lords and ladies, but yes. Before you ask, no. I don’t have an opinion on it.”

Theo and King Hanan chatted about random things after that. It was nice to take this downtime to check in with everyone around time. The alchemist had neglected some people, but that was the point. Many aspects of the city and kingdom were now run by other people. And it was awesome. That was the fact that allowed him to mess around like this. When the conversation died down a bit, the alchemist withdrew a chunk of squid flesh.

“What’s that?” Hanan asked, making a face.

“You guys were landlocked, right?” Theo asked with a chuckle. “Bet you don’t have a taste for seafood. This is from a giant mythical squid called a xotl.”

“I can’t even say that,” Hanan said, plugging his nose.

“Just wait. Gonna get a bit more stinky here in a sec.” Theo watched as the surface of the meat slab bubbled. It then turned to vapor, which drifted away in the wind. The primal essences left behind held all those juicy secrets.

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“You’re right,” Hana said, heaving. “That’s absolutely foul.”

“The life of an alchemist,” Theo said, inspecting the properties on the Xotl Flesh.

[Pressure] [Drown] [Echo] [Constrict]

That certainly made sense for the theme of the monster. When they were in the Ocean Dungeon, the pressure from so much water was intense. Drowning was also a real risk. Even Constrict made sense for the theme of the monster. Theo had to wonder what the Echo property meant, and figured it was something to do with echolocation… Although he was fairly certain squids didn’t do that sort of thing. ꭆ𝐚ƝöꞖËș

“I should see if there are any free stills back in the lab,” Theo said, clapping a hand on Hana’s back. “Good chat.”

Theo departed from the city without entering. Talking with the king was fun, but he wanted to investigate these new properties. At some point, he needed to take all the new properties he was finding and make a production chain out of them. This likely wouldn’t happen until Alise’s order for so many healing potions was filled. Salire also had a desire to produce potions that would be useful for adventurers, not ones that were simply fun to mess around with.

“Got any free equipment?” Theo asked, poking his head into the lab.

Salire turned, narrowing her eyes at him. He noticed she was working with the mana infusion stills. “You broke my concentration. You know how shy I get.”

Theo bowed his head in apology. “I just wanted to test out some new reagent properties… I mean, I could help you work on your mana manipulation if you wanted.”

“No offense, but you’re not a great teacher…”

“Come on. I’m no longer a champion. We can work this out.”

Xol’sa would’ve been a better teacher. But Salire eventually relented, allowing Theo to walk her through his process. It took them both a while to figure out what the problem was, but it wasn’t her. Instead, there was something strange going on with the mixture of mana in her soul. Anytime Theo had done anything with his mana, it had come out as pure aligned mana. But when she did it, it was mixed with something else.

“Check it out,” Theo said, nodding as he observed the mana in Salire’s hands. She had the cupped together as though she were holding water in her palms. The mana she held shimmered, small sparkling ripples echoing throughout. “Your mana isn’t pure.”

“What?” Salire asked. “How could that be?”

“I dunno. Try pulling them apart,” Theo said, watching as she struggled to do so.

After a bit more coaching, Salire pulled her mana into pieces. She held one puddle in her right hand and another in her left. The one aligned with Tero’gal was easy enough to identify. The other one was pure, unaligned mana.

“This doesn’t seem normal,” Salire said. She seemed more frustrated with herself than anything else. “Why isn’t my soul producing purely aligned mana?”

“Who knows? Maybe my soul is just weird since I have another person’s body. Anyway, I’d bet you could use the mana now that you fixed it.”

“Feels like someone should study this,” Salire grumbled, walking over to the infusion stills.

Theo was pretty sure this was a recent development. At least, he didn’t remember seeing any of that other mana present in her mana before. It was possible he wasn’t looking close enough. Despite evidence to the contrary, he wasn’t very good at magic stuff. It wasn’t as though he was inspecting mana with different affinities embedded all the time.

Something tickled the edges of Theo’s senses as he made his way from the lab. It was a vague sense he got that something was wrong. He was reminded of the time when Zarali first came to town. At first it felt like a warm breeze washing over him, then like something sniffing around in his soul. As quickly as it had come, it was gone. Checking his administration interface, he found no one was talking about it. A quick message to Xol’sa revealed the wizard had felt nothing.

“Odd,” Theo said, walking from the lab. He sent his own aura as wide as it would go, but felt nothing strange. He could sense the people around town to an extent, and the dungeons in the distance.

“Tresk, did you feel anything just now?” Theo asked, speaking into his connection with his partner.

“I did,” Alex answered. “Far in the distance. Something that… Resonated with me.”

“Pick me up,” Theo said, gritting his teeth.

Tresk was busy doing dungeon crap, so Alex was free. Theo spotted her in the sky, making a wide turn and landing in the nearest clearing. She went down on all four of her limbs and flapped her wings before shooting some fire for effect. He could feel her unease, even without probing too deeply.

“Let’s go,” Theo said, finding it slightly awkward to get on her back. He wasn’t sure how Tresk did it so often. A moment later he felt his stomach drop into his groin as she took off, pushing with power he didn’t know she had.

It felt as though only a moment had passed before Broken Tusk was far below. Theo drew on Tresk’s bravery as they ascended upward. It only dawned on him how odd this was. Both he and Alex knew they needed elevation. But what for? He dismissed the thought for now as she urged forward, her powerful wings sending them forward in lurching bursts.

Rivers passed by below, and soon Gronro came into view. Alex was so unbelievably fast and Theo could do nothing but focus on hanging on. They did a few circles around the dwarven city. The desolation of Balkor’s shade spread out as far as they could see. But there were sparse pockets of green nearest to where they had purged the undead corruption.

“See anything?” Theo asked, squinting against the horizon.

“Not really,” Alex said. “That first pulse was weird. But I don’t feel anything anymore.”

“Am I just being paranoid?” Theo asked, holding on tight as Alex dove forward. She brought them further north of Gronro, soaring along the long strands of mountain landscape. This area had also been touched by their restoration efforts, but not as well as the miles south of them.

“I’m feeling something,” Alex said, honking. “It feels like a song.”

“What does that mean?” Theo shouted above the rush of wind.

“I don’t know.”

It appeared as a dot on the horizon. Theo had been watching with his future-sight as a dot appeared. While it was distant, he was absolutely certain of what he would see in about a minute. Without hesitating, he used Tero’gal Dreampassage on both himself and Alex. One moment they were soaring above the wasteland, and the next they were standing on the soft grasses of Tero’gal.

“What was that for?” Alex asked.

Theo’s brows knit tightly as he turned to the goose-dragon. “It felt like a song to you because it was a dragon.”