The rest of the day after the meeting, was fairly uneventful. Man picked around twenty people that would serve as sentinels, or rather merchants outside of the tower, and he exited with the new group, cleared away the camp, and rode with them until dusk. Kard and I, along with most everyone else in the tower, spent the majority of our day moving furniture and artifacts according to the plans handed to us by Krysha, who looked exhausted but having fun all the same.

We had almost stripped the village of Nara down to its foundations on the day that we left, and the biggest chunk of our inventory was properly cataloged and stored in the seemingly infinite basement of the tower. Krysha made sure to place somebody responsible of the warehouse, making sure that extra care would be given to anything magical.

While mundane items such as furniture and decorations were free for everyone to use as they saw fit, every time a magical item was moved from the warehouse, it was logged. I was sure that she had many more plans in mind as she continued furiously taking notes with her right hand while eating with the left whenever I saw her at lunchtime.

Time was running quickly and apparently, so were the oxen I noticed when I visited the watch room and saw Man preparing to camp. This could only mean one thing. We were already in the outskirts of Sumalen.

This was my only chance to see my sister. To tell her of what had happened to our parents. To ask for forgiveness for my inability to protect our people and to plot our revenge. Smyrna had been living in Sumalen for the past five years with her partner and they had become parents there.

I thought of my first niece, Shona. I hadn’t seen her since she was a baby. My mother and I were supposed to come here and visit her after I received my mana.

I searched for Kard who was laying on a sofa in one of the common rooms, carefully balancing two daggers on his middle and index fingers.

“Sorry to interrupt,” I said as I approached, looking at the two women and one man that were previously engaged in discussion with Kard. “Kard, can I have a moment?”

Kard’s company smiled and nodded at both of us, after which he stood up and walked away with me.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Our people—” I started saying, and then reconsidered. “All of us are pretty beat up that we didn’t receive our mana.”

He didn’t say anything but instead lowered his eyes. I knew that he too had awaited the liturgy with anticipation since he was a child. Since that first day that he had heard the tale of the spellcaster Magaer striking a friendship with the dragon Agaranth, the Eternal.

“I know I am,” I continued. “We need to keep ourselves occupied. That’s what my siblings always did when they were feeling upset.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Adel,” Kard said, and nodded several times without looking at me. “I will make sure everyone trains hard and focuses on tasks in the tower. We need small wins.”

“Indeed, we do.” I hesitated. “Speaking of siblings, my sister is living in Sumalen with her family,” I explained, “and I will visit her. I need to let her know about—”

“I’m coming with you,” he interrupted me.

“What?” His offer was preposterous. “No, you aren’t. I have to do this alone. I need to inform her of what happened in Nara.”

“That’s not a good enough reason to go by yourself,” Kard protested.

“Kard,” I said, almost whispering, “please. Let me do this by myself. I will be in and out of the city really quickly, and one person will draw less attention than a group. I only came to you so that you wouldn’t worry.”

“You think I’m the only one who would worry?” he said, with a big grin on his face. “Every single one of us has their eyes on you, Adel. The whole tower will be worried.”

I looked at him, feeling defeated, and just as I started to search for another way to convince him, he sheathed his daggers under his furs, grabbed me by my arm and started to pull me along with him as he walked.

“If you’re really going to do this alone, I’ll make sure you are protected.”

He didn’t let go of my arm, even while we were walking down the stairs to the warehouse to find Krysha who was going through the inventory and taking notes.

“Krysha,” Kard began. “Adel is planning to go into town alone tonight, and I would like to see him protected.”

“To Sumalen? Alone?” Her reaction was both surprised and confused. “Why would you do that? We have everything we need here. By my estimations, we don’t need anything brought from the outside for years and we—”

“He wants to visit his sister,” he interrupted, and finally let go of my arm.

“The Divine damn you, Adel. You will be the end of me,” she said as she turned her back to us and walked deeper into the warehouse. “Well, are you coming or not?”

We walked on the stone floor for some minutes, through racks with all kinds of stuff stored there, some clearly visible, some hidden in corners where the gentle light of the never-ending torches placed on the walls could not reach them. Suddenly, Krysha stopped in front of a massive wooden table with an array of helms and hats on it.

“Take this one,” she said, holding what looked like a mundane straw hat.

Looking at Krysha holding it, I got absolutely no description or prompt from the Dark Energy. It did look smooth to the touch, its quality was amazing, and it looked as if it had been created only yesterday but there was nothing magical about it.

“What abilities does this cap have?” I asked.

Before I had the chance to take in my hands, she put it on herself. Nothing changed immediately, and as I was about to mention that, she pinched the side of the hat with her middle and index fingers and vanished. Not like in the stories with smoke and a flash of bright light. She simply disappeared, faster than an eye-blink.

“You must be able to hear me though,” came Krysha’s voice from the direction we saw her last. “Am I right?”

“Yes, we can hear you Krysha,” said Kard, “and you’re creeping us out.”

“Don’t be such a boy,” she replied and reappeared, taking the hat off and handing it to me. “So now you’ve seen how this works and what it does. This is one of the very few invisibility items that we have and perhaps the only one that looks like a mundane hat.

Holding it in my hands, I could now see its magical properties.

Item : Superior Straw Hat of Invisibility

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 83549/95000

Grade : B Grade

Weight : 16st.

Description : A hat that can instantly make the wearer completely invisible to non-magical sight. The hat was also crafted with an enchantment that doesn’t allow any prompts of the Dark Energy appearing to anyone who isn’t touching it.

“But it doesn’t make you silent,” Krysha finished what she was saying.

She walked deeper down the same corridor to a large closet. Sliding one of its doors open, I saw that it was filled with shoes and boots of all sizes and colors. She produced a small brown pair of low boots and handed them to me as soon as we caught up with her.

“These boots will make no sound,” she continued, “even if you want them to. Oh, and no need to worry about their size either.”

Item : Boots of Sound Void

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 17984/22000

Grade : C Grade

Weight : 32st.

Description : This pair of boots is surrounded by minuscule portals to a plane of void. All sound created by them is immediately drawn and flushed into these portals, rendering them completely silent.

“Thank you, Krysh—” I managed, before she cut me off.

“We’re not done yet,” she said in an authoritative manner. “And there’s no need to thank me. These things are not mine. They belong to all of us now.”

She backtracked from the corridor where the closet was, down the main hallway, and took a right turn down the next corridor. It seemed as though she already knew the place like the back of her hand.

“I guess I’ll close the closet,” Kard said, even though she was already too far to hear him. Perhaps because she is too far to hear him, I thought to myself, and smiled.

She was now in a hall with large cauldrons. She reached into one of them and retrieved a miniature hourglass that she gave to me. It was a piece of art. Very fine silver sand was encased in clear white crystal, while the frame that held it all in place was made of shiny dark-brown wood.

Item : Hourglass of Recall

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 5959/7500

Grade : C Grade

Weight : 2st.

Description : A hourglass that is connected to a specific cauldron. Upon flipping the hourglass, the user has 60 seconds of time left before he, and any willing creature that is touching them, are teleported into the cauldron.

“I guess you know what this hourglass does, right?” She asked. “The moment all of its sand reaches the bottom, you will be teleported into this cauldron right here. I’ll be filling it with water so that you don’t hurt yourself if you teleport while moving, so don’t you worry about that.”

“By The Div— I mean, wow! That’s an amazing find, Krysha!” Kard exclaimed. “I didn’t even know they made stuff like this.”

“Indeed it is,” She answered coolly. “We have so many more items that I’m still trying to figure out. All of these cauldrons, for example, were not for sale but were found in residences. The family of one of my team members owned one like this, and explained to us how they work. That’s why we brought so many cauldrons we would have normally left behind. We were fortunate that, because of the liturgy, everyone had left their hourglasses at home.”

A silence fell between us as she mentioned the liturgy and our minds ran back to what had happened on that day.

“In any case,” she continued, “we haven’t checked the exact time that needs to elapse before they are available for reuse, so don’t do it now, but rest assured that it functions as it should. If you see trouble brewing, turn it upside down and stay safe until you make it back here.”

“Actually,” Kard jumped in, “I would suggest using it right after your business in Sumalen is completed, even if all has gone according to plan. That way you will be here quicker and also avoid any further encounters or even having people follow you.”

“Why would anyone follow him, Kard?” asked Krysha.

“I don’t know,” he said, and shrugged his shoulders. “To mug him? It can’t hurt to be cautious, can it?”

“I’ll be cautious guys,” I replied, stepping in to avoid them arguing. “Seriously, thank you so much for your help.”

“Which reminds me…” Krysha took off a pendant that was hanging around her neck but had been hidden into her robes until now. “I’m planning on distributing one of these protective orbs to each one of us later today, but you can have mine since you’ll be gone later.”

It was dark red in color, and it was more of a conical shape than an orb. I grabbed the chain from her open palm and put it around my neck.

Item : Cone of Protection

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 14879/16000

Grade : B Grade

Weight : 2st.

Description : An orb that extends a protective mana field in the shape of a sphere, spanning 5ft. on all sides. The orb can will stop incoming physical attacks, magical attacks, and creatures that try to enter it without the express permission of the person who activated it. The orb has a life expectancy of 759,000 hours of continuous use. The intensity of each orb can be determined by the number of its corners, with a sphere being the lowest power and an icosahedron the highest one.

“This will protect you,” she started explaining, “but I cannot know how exactly how strong its protective enchantment is, so please don’t do anything foolish.”

“I won’t,” I promised as we started walking back the way we’d came from. “And thank you, both of you”.

“Ah, stop it,” said Kard, and he pushed me sideways in a friendly manner. “Of course we’d help. We are one, aren’t we? Anyway, do you actually know how to get to your sister’s house?”

“I haven’t been there for years,” I confessed, “but I think I remember how to reach her home from the entrance we’re closest to.”

“Stick to the plan,” Krysha warned me. When we reached the point where we initially met her, she gave me an awkward hug. “I’ll prepare the cauldron now.”

“Thank you,” I said again, and walked toward the staircase that led to the foyer with Kard.

I said my farewell when we reached the tower’s entrance and promised him that I’d be back before sunrise. I put on my new boots and left him juggling his dagger from one hand to the other.