[Blazing’s Entry]
I said my goodbyes, and got some supplies for the road. I know I’m not going after anyone right now, but life has its ways of throwing bad guys on my tail even when I’m not looking for trouble.
So, the plan is to look for Des, ask her for help at getting into Canterlot Royal Library, find some Starswirl’s notes about the Blades. If not possible, ask Des’ friend to use the book summoning spell or whatever it’s called to draw out Starswirl’s memory and ask him directly. If everything fails, it’s Twilight time.
I don’t like Twilight time. Too much explaining, too little progress.
[End Entry]
Standing in the center of my Silver Sun room, I tap my hoof against the carpet.
“So, how is this supposed to work? Joy? Jooooy? Joy? Alright, just saying the name-”
“Good morning, Blazing Light.”
“-AAAH!” I scream and flail my forelegs.
“Jumpy,” Joy’s crackly, honey-dripping voice comes from behind, followed by the alicorn herself circling around me.
“Always have been,” I sigh, “Phew, I’m glad that worked.”
“I’m keeping an eye on you,” she puts her nose so close to mine I can feel her breath. Her tone remains playful despite the strange behaviour, “as well as on my competition now,” she pats my shoulder, “I’m happy your efforts with Cromach turned out the way they did.”
What? Really? Not too long ago you were spitting at the mention of him and the attention I gave him in comparison to you. There’s more to this, or maybe Vertradict is far wiser than even I guessed and his presence around you is giving you some serious perspective on things.
“Thank you,” is all I say to that. See? I learned to shut up too, sometimes, “I need your help, though.”
Joy puts her foreleg to her heart.
“Poor old me? In the morning? I’m more of a nighttime relief, to be honest.”
“I need to find Desert Shade,” I say simply, hopefully ready for any ‘complications’ caused by mentioning Des’ name.
“Hmmm,” Joy pouts, tapping her chin with her hoof, “I can’t do that. I mean, I can’t give you her location. My power doesn’t exactly work within the terms of geography. What I can do is teleport you with me to her. I’ve wanted to talk to her for a while as well and.... considering our last meeting I think having you around is the best option.”
Alright, meteor strike, WHERE ARE YOU?! This is all too good, suspiciously good.
Sometimes I’m having trouble deciding whether you’re a pony called Blazing Light suffering from deep paranoia, or whether you are living paranoia sometimes thinking it’s a pony.
As soon as I find a way to create a body for you like Void did for Heavy, you’re out in the real world again, Mistake.
Wohoo!
You’re testing out Cromach’s new equipment first. I’m not getting on that ride until he gets the proper hang of all the tentacles.
Eep, mah booty!
“Okay, Joy. How long will it take?”
“Ready.”
“Holy-!”
“I’m used to the little signs of you thinking something through. I’ve tapped into Desert Shade, and can get us close to her from my dimension.”
“Oh, I was curious about long-distance teleportation across corrupted areas in the real world.”
She shakes her head.
“Yeah, I can’t do that. I don’t think anyone knows how to these days. I can, however, locate her and make an exit leading out of my dimension nearby.”
“Alright, do I need to-”
She wraps her membranous wing around my back. Our surroundings flash, turning into the familiar lust cavern.
“-do something?”
Aaand after a second flash we’re now in a small, dimly-lit square room made seemingly of stainless steel. Des is nowhere to be found.
Hey, no falling feeling that I hate so much about teleportation.
“Uhhhh...” Joy looks around, eyebrow raised, “I… think I’ve ever seen something like this few times in a dream. Some griffon scientists locked in an underground lab for too long. They were quite sweet, although a bit too shy. Heh, I made wild beasts out of them in the end,” she adds with pride.
Walking around the room, I count under my breath.
“A perfect cube three ponies long on the side. The delicate grate in the ceiling must be a ventilation shaft,” I stop in front of a thin square seemingly carved into the middle of one wall, “And this, I suppose, is a sliding door. We’re inside a cell, very likely somewhere underground. This isn’t your secret sex dungeon where you want to lock me up, chain me to the wall, and do unspeakable combinations of pain and pleasure to me, is it?”
Joy looks away, whistling innocently.
“N-Noooo...”
I’m kinda happy she’s feeling comfortable enough around me to joke about this. I mean, she must be joking...
Wouldn’t put a plan like this past her, but yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s just kidding. She looked a bit freaked out when you first arrived.
“Too bad, I was looking forwards to that,” I shrug, making Joy’s eyes bulge. Pressing my ear against the ‘door’, I think I can hear some clanking from the outside. Whatever this door is made of, it’s extremely well soundproofed, “Alright, since I can’t see Des anywhere, let’s have a look around. Stand aside, please.”
Joy walks off into a corner behind me.
Tentacles, don’t fail me now!
They don’t, and one burns through the thick door a moment later. The sounds suddenly become drastically louder, turning from hushed ‘thuds’ into a cacophony of galloping hoofsteps echoing through the same dimly lit sterile metal hallway outside.
“Inderzen!” calls out a metallic voice from the end of the corridor.
“What?” I turn my head towards… a robot pony who is not Bucket and neither a mirror world husk, “The hay?”
Three, four, five of them run in succession from behind the corner. They are silvery grey with eyes glowing red, crystals of same colour embedded in their foreheads, but their structure is extremely similar to Bucket. I can even see the cables twisted into muscles underneath the metal plates forming their chassis.
“Inderzen!”
Mistake, any ideas?
DODGE THE LASERS!
“Aaaah!”
A barrage of red beams coming from the robots’ horns follows my quick strafe to the side, scorching the walls and floor as they miss.
Joy peeks out of the cell. Her eyes narrow as she spots the burn marks.
“Hey! What the heck are you?”
“Inderzen!” the robots proclaim again.
Okay, if that word doesn’t mean ‘eradicate’ or ‘intruder’ then the laws of hospitality have changed drastically over the past centuries.
What ARE they, though?
Did you ever bother asking Twilight where she got the blueprints for Bucket?
I focus on my field suppressing ranged attacks. Another barrage of beams harmlessly dissipate as they get near me and Joy.
Yeah, I did. She just said she wanted a smart clopbot! She based him on the husk blueprints from the mirror world.
Okay, did you ask MIRROR Twilight where the husk technology came from?
No, I didn’t. I just assumed their scientists came up with that from scratch. Sue me, I had worse problems than necromantic robots powered by ripped out hearts of brainwashed criminals. Thankfully, our Twilight did get rid of that gruesome construction detail.
Yeah. I wonder how.
Blades slide out of the robots’ forelegs.
“Blazing? Any ideas?” asks Joy, backing away, “Do we just fight?”
“Nope, no time. If Des is around, then I don’t think it’s us who upset them. Got any leads to her location?”
The robots assume a square formation, marching towards us.
“That way,” Joy points away from them.
“Eeeexcellent,” I spawn more tentacles, one around each robot’s leg. They grip, making the robots stop, and then they sharply tug away from each other. Looking at the mess of immobile torsos and torn off legs, I bite my lip, “I really hope they are just machines.”
“Hargrund inderzen!” drones one robot.
“AWWWW CRAP! MY HEAD!” I scream as a shrill deafening alarm starts blaring, “God bucking dammit!” I can’t focus on anything with-
The sounds quieten down considerably, making me wonder if my eardrums ruptured. I stop seeing double, only to be met with Joy’s smile, glowing horn, and her own forelegs pressing her ears against her head.
“Soundproofing spell,” she screams into my ear which sounds just like her talking normally.
“Hargrund inderzen!” comes from all around us, “Demerit jaseq issen. Hen… sis-ich… sis-kek… sis-ren...”
“Uhhh… does that sound like a countdown to you?” I ask.
Joy screams:
“What did you say?”
Alright, normal communication won’t work.
“RUUUUUUUUUUUN!”
She gets the message, and leads the way through the web of identical corridors with occasional robot pieces dotting the floor. Yep, someone has already done their job here.
Or did they?
We run through a door sliding open. For a moment, I panic, and punch the robot standing right behind it right in its horn. It merely keels over. I jump in between Joy and another ten of them standing around…
...before I realize they are completely motionless. Their eyes aren’t glowing, and their horns aren’t being charged with energy. Are they turned off?
Joy examines one. I tap her back and shake my head.
”Des!”
She nods, pointing towards the open door on the other side of the room. The weird thing is that there’s nothing but the robots in here.
Well, no time to-
“...firen-kek… firen-ren...”
-dawdle, since the supposed countdown is still counting, and there’s never a countdown to anything good when an alarm is blaring like crazy.
Behind the door lies a long corridor sloping upwards. Near the T intersection in the end, a familiar griffon is holding up something emitting a field of purple energy in front of him blocking the shots of another three robots. Lyam looks up, his beak drops open, and he turns his head to yell something into the right hallway.
I don’t wait, immediately spawning a clump of tentacles around the enemy trio which melt when touched, and crush them into smoldering heaps of trash.
Huh, come to think of it, this part of my power can’t be the ‘fair game’ aspect of it, because what I did to the robots definitely was nowhere to an even fight. Perhaps there’s some corruption still in me, interacting in a funny way, or do I still not understand the extent of my own power?
Meh, who cares…
Lyam beckons at us, running off behind the corner.
“A friend?” asks Joy.
“One of Des’ group. They can’t be far if he was slowing the robots down.”
They really aren’t. At the end of the short hallway by a staircase leading up stand the three remaining members of Des’ group. Strong Back is rummaging through a bulging bag of what looks like scrap metal, Des is pacing back and forth, her mouth moving as she mutters to herself, and Rolled Scroll is currently occupied with punching a glowing panel next to another door sealed shut.
Des notices us, and I can make out her lips go ‘Oh shit!’ as she looks at Joy.
Damn alarm, I can’t hear anything.
“Let’s go!” I yell at Joy who nods, “Just let me talk first. Last time I heard Des was allergic to being incinerated.”
Joy looks away, mumbling something I can’t make out over the noise.
When I get about five pony lengths away from Rolled Scroll, the noise dies down to a reasonable level. The group’s own sound dampening spell, I assume. Much better than Joy’s… interesting.
“Hey, kids!” I wave at them.
“Blazing?! What the hay are you doing here?” Des takes few steps back, then she facehoofs, “You’re the ones who triggered the ‘divine intruders’ core meltdown sequence, weren’t you?”
Oooooooh…
“Hey, you can understand what that thing is saying?” I nod to the hallway. Thankfully, Scroll’s spell is allowing us to have a civilized conversation only mildly disrupted by the fact that we’re about to get blown to pieces.
I think. Core meltdown can mean a lot of things. Very few good ones, but definitely a variety of bad ones.
“Mhm, twenty-three seconds until we get blown up,” Des turns to Rolled Scroll who’s just punched the blinking panel and groaned in frustration, “None of the normal combinations are working?”
“No,” Scroll shakes her head, “It’s completely stuck. I think our friend here made this outpost put itself on complete lockdown.”
“DAMN IT!”
Uhh, I wonder why she’s not freaking out about Joy.
I turn my head to the other alicorn. Joy is standing there, grey, misty aura swirling around her. I can recognize an invisibility spell when I see one. She must be worried about Des’ reaction.
“Can’t you teleport us outside?” I ask.
“Oh hey,” Scroll gives me a nasty glance, “Why didn’t I think of that? NO, I CAN’T! Silversmith bases have interference crystals built in them. Magic barely works here. The soundproofing spell and some basic combat enhancements are all I can do right now.”
“Ten seconds...” Des sits down, “I’d like to say it’s nice to see you again, Blazing, but since you’ve just got us killed, I’m kinda pissed.”
“That’s it, young lady!” I bonk her forehead, “I’m calling your mother. Hey, Joy! Stop hiding and get us out of here, please.”
“Oh shit, I DID see her!”
Judging by Des’ panicked step backwards and sudden furious scowl, Joy must have dropped her illusion.
“Don… ian...” I hear the countdown. Is it getting hotter in here?
The world swirls and shifts. My next breath brings with it the scents of fresh air with slight hint of sweat, sex, and some incense.
We’re home.
Des looks around, still in panic mode, and takes two steps backwards.
“Lyam, Backie, Scroll...” she bites her lip, eyes locked at Joy, “Sorry for this. I think the explosion might have been the easy way out.”
Joy steps out from behind me. Des draws a pistol from the holster on her belt. She doesn’t aim it yet.
“I-” Joy opens her mouth.
“You WHAT?!” snarls Des. I have never seen her this… feral, not even the first time we went here, “You’re gonna try to kill me again? You’re gonna kill my friends first to teach me a lesson or something? You’re gonna screw with our heads until we’re like THEM?” she points with her pistol at the Corrupted and other races currently taking a part in the unending orgy.
Joy closes her eyes, hanging her head.
“That’s ENOUGH!” I raise my voice, walking between Des and Joy.
“YOU OF ALL PONIES KNOW WHAT SHE DID!” Des screams in my face.
I smile.
“Yeah, and yet I’m still here. Doesn’t that say something?”
“That you’re thinking with your dick instead of your brain?”
My smile fades.
Breathe in, Blazing. Breathe out.
“As much as I’d like to solve this, I don’t have the time. Des, I have two things to ask of you. Can you stop snarling at me and talk business for at least a second?”
Her eyes dart from my face to a point behind me. Clearly to Joy.
“As long as she doesn’t try anything. I haven’t narrowly escaped death only to end in some even worse way.”
“She was the one who got you out.”
“You too were the ones who locked us in right before we were almost outside.”
“Des...”
“Blazing...”
“Desert Shade...” says Joy quietly.
“Whorse...” Des spits on the floor.
That’s the last straw.
BLAZING?!
I look in disbelief at me hoof, Joy’s expression turns to pure horror, and Des touches her doubtlessly stinging cheek, confused.
I slapped her. Hard. I actually hit her.
I’m trembling all over.
“ENOUGH!” my voice is high-pitched and shaky, “Y-You know w-what? I always t-thought you’d be the re-reasonable one. I-I wanted to a-a-ask you for help, but I’d r-rather deal with C-Celestia than y-you now. So let’s n-narrow it to one thing I want from y-you,” I breathe in and out, getting myself under at least some control, “I’m not going to tell you to be nice to your mother-”
“Blazing-” Joy mumbles, stopping as I raise my foreleg.
“-but at least for a moment I want you to LISTEN to her. Not HEAR her while thinking about next insult or nasty remark, but really LISTEN,” I turn away from Des and to Joy, “I know you have something to say. You said a lot to me, and you had a good friend you talked things through with. I doubt Des didn’t cross your mind.”
Joy looks at me, at Des, at me, and back at Des. She takes a step towards her daughter who aims her pistol right at her forehead.
Joy hangs her head. Her wings go so limp they almost touch the floor.
“...despite what I did, you’ve become a beautiful, amazing, and accomplished mare. I wish the same could be said about your mother...” she says quietly, and vanishes.
Awkward, heavy silence follows.
Everyone is looking around, not daring to exchange glances with anypony else.
“Oh dear, oh dear,” rumbles Vertradict from the shadows, “A little compassion and forgiveness can go a long way, you know?”
“A DRAGON?!” Lyam jumps, activating a gauntlet-like device on his foreleg which summons the shimmering purple barrier in front of him, “Protection from breath attacks, Scroll. Now!”
“Calm down, everyone,” I shake my head, “Also, you should cast protection from tentacles if something like that exists as well, because… have you ever seen a partially corrupted dragon?”
“I don’t look that bad, do I?” Vert chuckles.
It’s clear Des didn’t tell the others about her last visit here.
“From the three dragons I’ve seen, you’re definitely the easiest on the eyes,” I clear my throat to get Des’ group’s attention, “Anyway, guys. I’m sorry we ruined your expedition like that. I doubt Joy will mind if you want to rest here for a day or two. Time goes slower in here, so you’ll be out in the real world only few hours later. As much as I’d like to stay and chat, I must get going. When you want to leave, Des knows where the exit is.”
I turn away.
“Blazing…?” I hear Desert Shade.
“Hmm?”
She hesitates for a second, tapping her hoof against the floor.
“You said you wanted something from me.”
“Don’t worry about that. I needed Joy’s help to find you, but I should have known that it wouldn’t end well. And… sorry for blowing up at you. I know you were wrong, but I should have controlled myself.”
I resume walking away.
“Wait!” says Des, taking a deep breath, “Can we talk in private?”
“I think we can find a quiet spot without any major distractions. Why? I told you I messed up and that I won’t ask you for anything.”
“Ehm,” Des clears her throat, “Alright, guys, let’s have a short break. Have your alarms ready in case of ANYTHING unusual. Scroll, sort the loot we got. Backie, go check Lyam’s shield emitter, I think we fried something. Lyam, rest, that’s an order. That Badlands scorpion venom must have done more damage than we thought. I can see it on you.”
“I’m fine, Des,” Lyam smiles, “Besides, you’re making me feel old, miss hundred and fifty-something or so.”
“Brrlblr?”
Lyam turns around and looks up… and up. A female Protector double his size is circling around him, her back tentacles sneakily wrapping around his waist as her tail tickles his chin.
“Blaziiiing?” he gives me a panicky glance.
“Corruption can’t spread in here. Don’t ask me why,” I nod at the Protector, “He’s all yours.”
“W-Wait!” Lyam objects as he’s tangled in oily tendrils and lifted into the air, “Not agaaaaaaaaain...”
She drags the griffon behind a thick pillar. All I hear is muffled complaining accompanied by hissing and gurgly grumbling, then a pair of saddlebags flies a short distance away followed by a sheath, the shield emitter gauntlet, and few more bits and bobs.
Grinning, I look at frowning Des.
“He’ll be alright.”
“I know. Bound Tome told me about Joy’s dimension stopping the taint,” she nods to a different pillar, “Come with me.”
With everyone of Des’ group busy, we use the moment and hide from sight for the private chat Des wanted.
“I’m listening,” I face the hippogriff.
“I don’t like her.”
Sitting down, I take a deep breath and put my forelegs together.
“I don’t blame you, not after what she did to you. But… think of something else - she hated you more than anything else in this world, she hated what you represent. Yet, somewhere deep down she felt she should give you everything you needed to live your own life. You grew up without a close family, you said, and I regret that. There was nothing I could have done about it, being dead and all. However, she never forgot you no matter how it ate her inside. In case you failed and lost everything, you still had Joy’s small stream of money to fall back on. There was a protective hoof around you even though you never needed it because you grew up into the self-reliant mare you are.”
“When we were here last time, she tried to kill us. She ordered the dragon to kill us.”
“And Vert, being her good friend, didn’t do it. Afterwards, I don’t know what he told her, but I guess he just was there when she needed him. Something neither of us was in the position to do. Joy… is still fragile. I won’t ask you to forgive her or to pretend we’re a family. Heck, I’m not even sure what semi-magical relative of you I am, because I sure as hay am not your common biological father. Just don’t forget that if you need anything, she’ll be happy to see you on some level. I come from a family where everyone hated each other, where everyone made each other feel alone. Your companions are more your family than Joy or I, I suppose. Still, can you give her… a chance?”
“You really believe she deserves one? Think about it. Or is it just your blind love for her now that she’s within your reach for the first time after you got resurrected and thought you had nopony?”
“I… think I’m a decent judge of character. Deep down, Joy is a good pony. She realized the relationship of Blazing Light and Choking Darkness is long gone, and is trying to find her new self. Maybe finding somepony else so that if anything happens to me it doesn’t hurt her so bad again could help. Not a friend, but just somepony who might listen if needed?”
Des shakes her head.
“You’re wrong.”
“In what?”
“You’re not a good judge of character. You just have a talent to bring out the good in broken ponies who would otherwise rot from the inside and probably become bitter and toxic, that’s all. You believe there’s good in them, and then they start believing it too.”
“If you knew me better, you’d know that’s not true. I just got lucky and over time found few ponies and others who had the patience to stick with me.”
“Your name is Blazing Light. It’s not because you’re a showpony magician or princess Celestia’s relative.”
“I-”
She puts a talon on my mouth, silencing me.
“Let’s not argue about this. Tell me, why did you want to find me? I doubt it was because you wanted to bring me and Joy together, although you’re trying really hard.”
I shake my head.
“I just say what comes to my mind. I suck at lying. Anyway, I need to find a certain book, and the most likely place where I might find it is Canterlot Royal Library, I think. You said you had a friend working there. Maybe somepony able help me find it?”
“Why not just go there yourself?”
“Last time I saw Luna, Celestia, and Twilight, I nearly killed all three of them at once.”
“The hay?!” Des blinks, leaning away.
“My power worked differently back then, and Twilight was actually responsible for Chokey’s death. I… completely lost it at that point,” I look at the floor, “Heh, I guess your ‘parents’ aren’t too different from each other.”
“Well, I can contact Bound Tome and get us to the castle.”
“I can get to the castle easily. What I can’t do is search the library either without help or with somepony trying to stop me.”
“Tome is the library keeper. He’s sort of a dark mage, a researcher, and the head librarian in one. He’ll help you if I ask him. What book do you need anyway?”
“I’m not sure exactly. Anything by Starswirl the Bearded. I need to find his notes on Blades of Balance.”
“I think I recall Cromach talking with Tome and Twilight about them. Some anti-magical swords?”
“Weapons able to damage divine beings, to be exact. All records say they are a pair of swords, but recently I got some information that there might be a third one. Bucket had no information about it in his database, which means there’s nothing about it in the Silver Sun library. The best idea I’ve got is to simply go over everything Starswirl wrote and try to find some scraps or mentions about why he didn’t finish the third one, if there even was supposed to be one.”
“Hmmm,” Des suddenly laughs, “Then Bound Tome really could be the best pony for the job. He invented -well, perfected- a spell allowing you to summon an avatar from a book with all their knowledge. If you want Starswirl, then all you need to do is find the last thing he wrote before he died, and have Tome summon his echo from the book. A personal journal would be the best. The avatar should have all the knowledge Starswirl had at that point.”
Alright, meteor, are you screwing with me? Am I getting a reasonably simple solution to a massive problem right now?
“Uhhh, why are you looking at the ceiling like that?” asks Des, following my gaze into the darkness high up.
“No reason,” I bow to her, “Des, if you could arrange Bound Tome’s help it would help me greatly.”
“Yeah, sure. Tome will be ecstatic to see you, I’m pretty certain. He might drown you in questions about old Equestria, though. The princesses don’t have time to talk to him much now that there’s more than few hundred thousands ponies in Equestria again.”
“I’m sure I can answer some questions as a reward for his assistance,” something comes to mind, “Speaking of questions, where were we when Joy and I found you? I’ve never seen anything like that before. I mean, places and robots similar to it, but… different anyway.”
“Oh? Just a minor Silversmith outpost in the Badlands. We’ve known about it for some time, but it was crazy hard to get to the entrance through the chaotic anomalies on the surface.”
“Ooookay, I understood each word separately, but together they still make no sense. Who or what are the Silversmiths and why is their outpost in the Badlands? On top of that, why did their technology look like what I saw in the mirror world?”
“Now you are talking about things I don’t know. Mirror world? I think I heard mentions here and there, but I honestly don’t know any details.”
“Okay, we’ll have to take an evening off for that one.”
“Sure, it definitely sounds interesting. I’ll give you the short version then. Silversmiths is a… nickname, I think, for a race of northern ponies who lived long before the three tribes alongside crystal ponies and minotaurs. Funny, I was surprised too to find out that minotaurs have been around for longer than pegasi, unicorns, and earthponies. Well, no records I found were clear about that, but either they lived along crystal ponies or those are Silversmith descendants. So, these guys created crazy inventions with the help of crystals. They were able to change internal structure of materials to a degree no one can these days. When Lyam, few other ponies, and I were working for griffons back when Manehattan was still basically their slave pit, we mapped the east coast of Equestria and found caverns leading into a complex just like the one you saw, only completely without energy. We looted everything we could, stashed the curious bits and pieces, and later spent a lot of time researching them. My now gone unicorn friend from those days was an brilliant technomagical inventor who managed to restore some of the items into working order. Devices like an eternal heating unit, pocket-sized stasis traps, and some more. These days I have a network of friends in Equestria and the Griffon Empire who help Rolled Scroll with all new stuff we find. From the scrap metal we find we usually make bits and pieces of super light armors able to withstand a shotgun blast,” she rubs her leather and chain jacket, “It still breaks your ribs and knocks the wind out of you, but you won’t have a hole in your barrel the size of a hoofball. Believe me, I’ve been on the receiving end. So yeah, these days unless someone is paying well for an exploration job, we’re hunting down Silversmith outposts trying to find anything that’ll help us survive in a pinch.”
“You said these Silversmiths lived up north. Why did you search in the Badlands?”
“They have outposts all over the world, generally underground, but I think the heart of their civilization was somewhere in the northern wastes even past the Crystal Empire. In fact, I think a lot of crystal tech in the Empire is based on Silversmith legacy.”
“Alright, and you said something about anomalies in the Badlands. You mean corruption-based oddities?”
“No, actually. Something really weird. The Badlands simply… change. There are places where you’re walking on stone and suddenly you’re dragged down by quicksand. We found one which changed the rocks we threw at it into chickens. Not all of them are deadly, only the vast majority. There was even a stretch of land where chocolate milk rained from the sky. We’ve managed to map some safe-ish routes with the help of apparently common Silversmith devices tracking powerful bursts of energy we’ve originally been using to find charged up crystals for sale as batteries.”
“Weeeird,” I shrug.
“You don’t know the half of it. Anyway, I should check up on Backie and Scroll. When the Corrupted is done with Lyam and he starts feeling his hips again, I can take you to the castle.”
“I’ll ask Joy to drop us off in front of the library. I don’t want to spook your friend too much. And… you know… if you could say a word or two to her...”
Des rolls her eyes and pouts like a whiny teenager.
“Ugh! Fine… dad. I’ll try to think of something positive, okay?”
“That’s my little girl.”
“Don’t push it.”
“Sorry, Des.”
“No problem, Blazing.”