The Newt and Demon

Theo could have brought anyone to the floating island of the elves. But he had selected Xol’sa for a few reasons. The first was that he was an excellent mage, and mages were great at restraining people with magical chains and all that. The second reason was his study of the shards. Xol’sa needed a better understanding of how they functioned if he was going to make a tether that dragged them through the void. Theo couldn’t tell if that was selfish on his part, or on the part of Xol’sa. But he understood why he would want to avoid a place like this.

Unpleasant memories and all that.

Theo and Xol’sa sailed through the void, finding themselves in the far void before long. The tiny dot appeared shortly after, soon becoming the image of a floating island set against the endless blackness of the void. The alchemist steered them to the one safe spot near the ziggurat, taking them in and lending them on the steps. Elves scattered from the area, rushing off into the forest or freezing near the treeline.

“That never gets old, does it?” Xol’sa asked with a sigh. “Why do they have to be so creepy?”

Both Theo and Xol’sa turned to look at the shard stored in the structure. These objects were meant to be glowing blue, hovering in the air and providing some unseen power source.

“Allow me some time to study the shard,” Xol’sa said. “I could use some more information for my notes.”

Theo nodded, finding his way to the steps of the structure. He sat down, sending his aura blanketing over the area. Some effect of the void-laden area dulled his magical senses. He leaned so heavily on Shadow’s power for that effect that he couldn’t tell if it was a matter of being out of range, or his own ineptitude. But he got some sense that there were magical objects around here. Small blips appeared in his mind, standing out against the endless background of black. He also felt those elves, festering with void energy that mingled with the planar energy he was used to feeling from Xol’sa.

“The more I study these shards, the less I know,” Xol’sa said, slapping the side of the dim crystal. “They’re massive lodestones, but their function is unknown to me. As is the mechanism they use to draw power.”

“Is that a problem?”

Xol’sa summoned mana to his hand. The shard reacted, glowing slightly as it sensed a source of mana nearby. “Only if you value your life. I’ll need to run experiments to see how the shards will react when we’re pulling them through the void.”

“I value my life. Take as much time as you need,” Theo said.

“That’s what I thought,” Xol’sa said with a smile. “Would you mind if I took some more readings before we got to work on finding the reagents?”

“Take your time. I’ll just sit here and make sure no elves sneak up on us.”

Xol’sa turned back to his work, leaving Theo to watch the approach. The elves mostly stuck to the area around the trees, standing motionless for the most part. An elf would move across the expanse between the forest and the steps, but retreated when the alchemist tossed some rocks at them. At least that was enough to keep them at bay. Their minds had been broken by the void, but he was happy to know there was enough of them left to heal everyone.

If the plan to reforge their souls didn’t work, Theo would petition the gods for help. He knew Hallow would vote for him, but was unsure about the others. Death would vote against it, but whatever. Kuzan was a jerk and everyone knew it. Shadow might vote in his favor, but it was impossible to know with that guy. Even when he was Zaul, he had a reputation for being insane. Even considering that reputation, his scholarly cult was one of the most prolific in the world. So that had to count for something. The others were unknown to him. They might vote either way.

“You know more than most about enchanting objects with magic,” Xol’sa said, breaking Theo out of his thoughts.

“Not as much as someone like Zarali, but yeah.”

“When an item you’ve enchanted runs out of mana, what normally happens?”

Theo had to think back. Perhaps it was just his form of warding—which might have been considered enchanting—but his stuff normally exploded. “Depends on the quality of the material. It usually crumbles or explodes, though.” 𝘳

“That’s right. We’re talking about direct enchantments, by the way. Not enchantments that enhance the performance of something like Zarali does. No, these shards are something else entirely. Lodestones, like I said. But my theory is that they draw a type of dimensional energy that we’re not normally aware of.”

“If the energy can permeate between dimensions, why aren’t they powered here?” Theo asked.

“Perhaps you’ve paid more attention to my instruction than I thought.” Xol’sa turned, smiling at Theo. “I think this is the energy of the system itself. A kind of background energy. It wouldn’t paint the entire realm with the energy, right? It would select where to do so. The mortal realms and the heavens. Maybe.”

It was as good of a theory as any, but it didn’t help them get the shards out from the void island. “Where does this get us?”

“Oh. As long as we contain the energy of my tethers, there shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, have you tried to move these things without the tethers?” Xol’sa asked.

Without further prompting, Theo expanded his will around the shard. When he tugged, it wouldn’t move. The size of the shard was enough to give him pause, but it was more than the physical size of it. Instead, it had a conceptual size greater than anything he could think of. It wouldn’t move even if he had enough willpower to handle both the physical and metaphysical size. Only Xol’sa’s relocation tethers would work.

“Nope. This bad boy ain’t going nowhere.”

“Indeed.” Xol’sa pushed away from the shard. He nodded in contentment. “I think I have enough information to finish the tethers off. Now we can sort out your problem.”

“Right. They’re gathering… Why do they gather like that?” Theo asked.

“They may be drawn to the energy our souls emit. Or something…”

“Just have some restraining spell ready.” Theo started his way down the large stairs. He made note of the elves he could see, watching as they moved in his future sight.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Now it was only a matter of scouring the entire island for reagents. Vegetation grew normally, feeding off some imagined sun in the sky. Water flowed to feed those plants, emitting from a magically driven spring somewhere deep in that jungle. But the plants growing here were a confusing mix. Palms, oaks, conifers… There was logic near the ziggurat, holding mostly tropical plants, but that logic fell away the further one got from that area. Theo led the way through the tangle, stopping after pressing into a clearing.

“I recognize that,” Xol’sa said, gesturing forward. “Something-or-other stems. That’s a reagent.”

Theo relied on his cores to find the best way to cut the plant from the ground, hoisting the [Kalsen Stems]. “Common reagent,” he said, stuffing the item into his inventory. “How did you recognize it?”

“I’ve seen them sold in the northlands. I think they have healing properties.” A flash of excitement played across Xol’sa’s face. “Is it usable?”

Theo noded. “The system recognizes this as a reagent, so we can use it. There are no rules against harvesting stuff from the void, so we can take as much as we want.”

“Excellent. Well, if my sense for reagents is better than yours we better get going.” Xol’sa slapped Theo on the back, laughing to himself.

“Just let me do the harvesting. No need to invite weird interactions thanks to the void energy…”

Searching the area was easy enough. Since Theo could see the future, he forestalled any attacks by the elves. As expected, Xol’sa’s spells were perfect to retrain without killing them. If the goal was to save the entire race of elves, there would be no point in purging the place. Each was weak enough that it wouldn’t cause them many problems.

Scattered around the wooded areas of the island were interesting reagents. Mushrooms, flowering plants, useful tubers, and mosses grew everywhere. With his Tero’gal Herbalist Core, he could feel that each was touched by a bit of the void. But instead of being corrupted by the void, they had taken that power in and used it to cultivate. A few hours of harvesting the wild reagents, and the alchemist had enough work to keep him busy for a while. Without testing the properties of the reagents, he couldn’t say if they were worth transplanting.

“I’m growing tired of restraining my people,” Xol’sa said. “Let’s leave.”

“Not to mention the void poisoning…”

“The what?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Theo said, wrapping his shadow and will around himself and Xol’sa. “I hope you got enough information to finish this project.”

Xol’sa stumbled as they fell into the void. “Yes, I hope so, too.”

There were a lot of reagents to go over, so Theo angled them back to the mortal world. It had already been a busy day. With the elf waking up, Theo’s mind was now focused on handling the elf problem exclusively. He was proud of himself for working so hard to learn how Tero’gal’s alchemy worked. Things always got busy like this, so he was glad to be in a position to handle it.

“There we are,” Theo said, landing them back in the tower back in Broken Tusk.

“I’ll get back to the devices. Won’t be long now!” Xol’sa said, scampering off to run his hands over the tethers. Theo wouldn’t pretend to know what he was looking out. Magical gizmos all seemed the same.

A quick check with Tresk revealed that she was almost at the lizard islands. Theo assumed everyone else was doing their thing, so he headed for the lab. Of the reagents he collected, he had little faith. But these things were worth checking, just in case some properties were useful for other things. Another source of Suffuse wouldn’t be unwelcome. Especially since he would rather use the Karatan Cheese to top his food, rather than tossing it into a still and boiling it up.

“First up,” Theo said, withdrawing one of the two samples of Kalsen Stems he had collected. “Delicious stems.”

With Salire nowhere to be found, he got to work on deconstructing the stems. He watched as the fibrous stems went up in smoke. After turning on the extractor fan, he waited for the smoke to clear before inspecting the resulting properties.

[Kalsen Stems]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Common

The stem of a short-lived plant known for its healing properties.

Properties:

[Healing] [Regeneration] [Reveal] [Supple]

The properties were weird on the back half, but it fell in line with what he expected from something like the Spiny Swamp Thistle Root. It wouldn’t be worth cultivating this plant, since he could get the other properties with ease. If he used Supple more often, it might be worth it. But since others were willing to collect the Swamplight Spider Silk, he wouldn’t invest too much into this one.

Theo worked with another plant called Dongra Blooms. The flowers were blue and vibrant, but held almost no scent. Before even deconstructing the reagent, he could feel a strange mixture of mana and poison flowing through the flower. While he was concerned about what this flower would produce, he inspected it anyway.

[Dongra Blooms]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Uncommon

A vibrant blue flower, notable for its beauty.

Properties:

[Poison] [Mana Recovery] [Devour] [Pitch]

“Pitch?” Theo asked, pushing the pile of ash along the table with his knife. “As in… to throw, or what?”

Shrugging, Theo moved on to the next reagent. He went through quite a few before he found the next interesting one. The one thing he observed was that the reagents didn’t hold as much void energy as he had expected. When they brought the space elf back, the void energy stored in his soul escaped, causing all kinds of problems with the dungeons. But the reagents had done something to absorb and process that magic, rendering it harmless. That didn’t mean the reagents he brought back were useful, though.

“Having trouble?” Salire asked, stifling a laugh as she entered the lab.

“Yeah, I don’t think any of these reagents are going to work for us.”

“Did you at least find something interesting?”

Theo shrugged. “Not interesting enough to dedicate the effort required to cultivate these things. I found a few variants to things we already have. And I like the idea that the stuff we have is local, rather than imported.”

“Except the Earth-based wheat,” Salire quipped.

“Well, that’s for food purposes. Doesn’t count.”

“Of course.”

“How about you? Have you found anything interesting?”

“Nope. Not in the few hours you’ve been gone. How did things go on the space elf island?”

“Very well. I mean, we found a bunch of reagents. But none were useful for the job. More importantly, it gave Xol’sa a chance to get some magical readings on the shards. I saw that look in his eye. He’ll be done with the gear in a few days.”

“Ah, I know the look you’re talking about,” Salire said with a wink. “That same look Throk gets, right? Slightly annoyed but a little smug?”

“That’s the one.”

“I’m guessing this job is more important for now. We’ll have to shelve some of the equipment we need to test.”

Hoping that something might happen with the various feelers he had put out wasn’t a great idea. But if all the locations he had access to didn’t have what he was looking for, they would need to do it the old-fashioned way. Waiting for the green moon and snatching as many Soul Blooms from the swamp as possible. But as a sense of smug confidence came washing in from Tresk, he knew something had moved on her end. It didn’t take long for her to send a gloating message through their telepathic link.

“Guess who just solved all your problems?” Tresk asked.

Theo then felt a lingering sense of… guilt? No, she was doing sneaky thief stuff.

“Did you just steal a bunch of flowers?” Theo asked.

“No. Maybe. Yes.”