Sworded Affair

Emma just stared at Saint blankly, as the latter explained that she'd somehow been in contact with an ancient Greek myth, who'd given the Nekomata a massive buff before letting her know, as an aside, that the return from Blenheim Palace hadn't been quite as accurate as had been hoped.

"Well, that explains that last line in the quest log," Emma murmured, having scrolled back up to double check.

[Saint has received a gift from Echidna, Mother of Monsters]

Besides the shock, however, this strange turn of events didn't actually change much from Emma's perspective. Yes, it meant that the Solstice had gone from a while away, to starting next week, but she'd never put any particular planning in place for that, and fully intended to improvise the whole way through. As such, all she could do was prepare what could, and in this case, that meant the two particular things. Firstly, she had to try for the Bonus Objective of her quest, and forge a contract with the Hydra.

"So, are you interested in a contract?" Emma asked the leafy monster, still splayed out on the couch in exhaustion.

One of its three heads raised briefly, cracking open an eye to stare at Emma for a second, before laying back down. Emma waited patiently for a reply, any reply, but none were forthcoming, until she opened her mouth to ask a second time.

[Give more head.]

Emma paused, staring at the unusual System message, while Saint giggled, having evidently received the same.

"I think that's a no," Saint wheezed, once she'd finally stopped giggling. "He's still too young to form a magical bond like that, you'll have to wait a while longer, I'm afraid."

[Sorry.]

"You could've said that the first time," Emma grumbled, finally realising that it was the Hydra who sent those messages: apparently, even plants could use the System under certain circumstances.

"Hold on," Emma frowned, as a stray thought occurred to her. "I thought the System could only be used by Edith's descendants?"

[My anaconda don't, my anaconda don't, my anaconda don't want none-]

"Someone did it with the plant," Emma sighed, dismissing the rest of the message. "I should have known."

[First rule of magical biology: don't ask questions that you won't want answered. This works well with regular biology, too, come to think of it.]

"Alright, no Hydra contract then," Emma declared, moving swiftly on and deciding to revisit the idea of Hydra breeding sometime never. "Back to the candles, at least those somewhat make sense."

"Ooh, try this one!" Saint added from the back, before tossing a vial of something green at Emma, which she reflexively caught with Eden's Echo.

[Hydra venom stored.]

"Cool," Emma nodded, examining the message with some satisfaction. "That's another candle to try."

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Heading back to the crafting bench, Emma opened up her inventory screen, taking a look at the list of unusual items she'd managed to accrue.

[Eternal Wind: No matter near or far, all are one. Light a candle with yourself for two ships in the night, build a bridge where none still stand.

Chaos Candle

25,000 Thrones

Qilin Horn

Magus Austere's Oxygen Mask

A Practical Guide to Entropy

Portable Crafting Bench

Blueprints - Menagerie

Season Ticket (The Ghost Train)

Residence Permit (Avalon)

Hydra Venom]

"Stop me if I try to do anything disastrous, alright?" Emma said aloud, mainly for Saint's benefit, as the cat watched her from atop the sofa headrest, wary of more stink bombs.

[Try not to burn the house down.]

Edith's reply wasn't exactly encouraging, but it did confirm that Emma had her attention, so she felt it a good time to start with the testing. Going from top to bottom, Eternal Wind was immediately ruled out, as Emma had no intention of damaging her trump card with some amateur experimentation. The Chaos Candle, too, was left out, as even by her rudimentary understanding, a finished product was unlikely to react well when returned to the process. As such, the first thing Emma did with her latest batch of candles was add a coin.

[1 Throne withdrawn.]

Unfortunately, melting the coin over an open flame produced… Well, the melted remnants of a coin, and failed to imbue the candle with any magical properties whatsoever: clearly, those who talked about a magic money tree hadn't meant it literally. Next up with the Qilin Horn, which ran into something of a different problem: nothing Emma could do to it produced any reaction. Fire utterly failed to harm it, while her best efforts with a knife couldn't remove even a sliver from the horn; not without using her armoured form, which would defeat the purpose since she couldn't craft from it. The next few items, Emma declined to try: call it a gut feeling, but she thought the Oxygen Mask more valuable in case she ever met its original owner in the real world. Meanwhile, she'd already tried the book, and breaking the crafting bench itself seemed like a horrible idea.

[Not the Menagerie.]

Emma had been planning to keep the Menagerie for later, anyway, to fulfil her promise to the Monitor Lizard, and Edith's curt warning only reinforced that decision. That left the Season Ticket, the Residence Permit and the Hydra Venom for consideration.

"Am I going to regret using any of these up?" Emma mused, fishing for information as she often did in key moments.

[Not particularly. The venom you have on tap, and the other two items, or suitable alternatives, are available on the open market if you ever decide to set down roots, or go travelling abroad. By all means, have at it.]

With Edith's blessing, Emma decided to try the Season Ticket first. To her mild surprise, the entire plastic card went up in flames in moments, far more fragile than even a mundane card would have been.

[25 EXP gained for burning things indiscriminately.

You have learned a new attribute - Pathfinder: Creates a link between a pair of candles. When both are lit, a portal is formed.]

"Okay, that's very useful," Emma admitted.

It wasn't a one-stop Teleport replacement, by any means: since both sides needed to be in position and lit, it definitely came with some prep work attached. But even so, the sheer utility of two-way portals would make this a workhorse in the future, Emma could already tell. Now eager for more, she placed the Residence Permit against the flame, next.

[50 EXP gained for burning a Legendary item.

You have learned a new attribute - Guardian: When lit within their Home, residents are invulnerable.]

"Very nice," Emma grinned.

Sure, the candle could be easily doused or destroyed, but until that happened, it was an immense defensive boost to the defenders.

"Last but not least," Emma chirped, as she uncorked the vial of Hydra Venom and poured it into the open flame.

[50 EXP gained for burning a Mythical item.

You have learned a new attribute - Toxic: This candle's fumes are deadly.

Level up!

You have reached Level 10.]

Just then, the front door opened, drawing Emma's attention away from the incoming notifications. Noah and Elizabeth walked in, the latter supporting the former: both of them looked exhausted, and more than a little worse for wear, but that mattered little, because at the end of the day, they had both come home.