Chapter 3-94: Speaking Easy (1/2)
“Before I begin, I will ask if everyone is capable of understanding Human? If not, I will stumble along in English as I may,” I announced to everyone.
It was the dwarven Priest of the Order of the Hearth who spoke up for everyone, “Lass, those of us who aren’t fluent in it are learning rapidly, and have the tools to make up for it,” he said gruffly but firmly.
“Very good, Elder Hruunkorv. I have a request of Master Polniebo.” The startled Wizard and Artificer blinked at me in surprise, especially when I held up a syringe filled with an inch of dark fluid. “I would like to draw a measure of blood from you for the purposes of my presentation, before the eyes of everyone here.” I could see his hesitation promptly. “If you are unwilling, that is fine. Moonsister Seleisa should prove just as suitable, if she is willing.”
He frowned immediately, glancing at the elven Moonsister. “This is quite forward of you, young lady.”
“Mmm. It has probably not escaped your attention that I do not have a problem saying things that can change the world.”
The whole table burst into chuckles despite themselves, but his eyes still gleamed. “I will demur to the Moonsister, then,” he waved.
I naturally knew of the rivalry between them, and turned to the silver-haired, queenly elfin, who naturally regarded me with emerald eyes for a long moment before inclining her head. “That is going to cost you half a goldweight, Master Polniebo,” I chided him, to the surprise of everyone there, as I stepped across to the representative of Sylune.
The Moonsister slid back her black-trimmed white sleeve, and watched me as I smoothly injected the syringe into her vein, pulled back and slowly filled a short tube with ruby that mixed and swirled into the black, turning it all dark crimson. She healed the puncture wound with a touch as I stepped back to the podium, making sure to keep the syringe in sight.
I flicked out the gold foil on its stone tablet out of nowhere with Prestidigitation, and laid it on the council table. I also flicked out a page of fine Libram-grade cloth paper, set it over the golden plate, and without much care sprayed her blood and the ink it had mixed with over it as I murmured a Write spell. The blood glowed and aligned itself with the scripture on the foil below, glowing with magic and light as it impressed itself onto the bright paper.
That whole process done, I sent the page floating down the table before her. “If the Moonsister could relate to the rest of the table exactly what that is?” I asked calmly.
Greatly interested, she picked it up and looked it over shortly. “This is a Shards spell,” she said instantly, recognizing the basic patterns instantly. “But there is... more.” Her brow furrowed as she stared at it, working through some of the symbology, and her eyes started to widen. “It seems to allow one to manipulate the basic energy of the spell to different effects?” her voice rose at the end, and she stared at it incredulously. “This is astonishing...”
“If you please, could you pass it over to Master Polniebo?” I requested calmly. She looked at me calmly, saw something amusing was about to happen, and sent it wafting towards him.
He accepted it eagerly, grabbing and looking at it intently. The eagerness on his face became confusion as he turned the paper around, trying to make sense of it, and then uttered a spell to make it legible. His expression darkened as he stared at it, finally looking up at me in anger at being the butt of a joke. “This is complete gibberish!” he stated loudly. “What is this?”
“If you could return it to the Moonsister, Master Polniebo? She would like to add it to her spellbook undamaged.”
He blinked at me, then at her, and reluctantly sent it spinning back to her. Seleisa accepted it eagerly, taking it up and studying it intently.
“To be perfectly honest, Master Polniebo, that page would be gibberish even to me, because it is Bloodbonded to the Moonsister, and she is the only one who can read it.” His jaw fell slightly as I waved the syringe at him. “Bloodbonded ink, magical writings can only be understood by the one whose blood it is written in.” I gestured at the golden plate beneath me. “This is a Bloodbonded Master Plate for the superior version of the Shards spell I am looking at. As long as it exists, the Shards spell I am writing cannot be copied down by any other method. If you try, you will fail, the spell will be expunged from memory, and your Bloodbonded copy will disintegrate.”
All the Casters there froze in astonishment. This meeting was going very differently than they had expected.
“For the low, low price of half a goldweight, I will make you a Bloodbonded page of this spell, Master Polniebo.” The syringe in my hand hissed, cleaned itself up, and I fetched out a vial of ink from inside my vest, inserted the needle into the stopper, filled it with a measure of the black contents, and put the ink away.
He looked at me there with my syringe cocked, and across the table at the elfin across the table. She looked up, met his eyes, and nodded once.
He sighed, and the rest of the table did, too. He reached into the pocket of his coat, pulled out five palm-sized coins, and laid them on the table in front of him with a clinking sound.
A minute later, he was also staring at the Shards spell written in bonded ink in fascination as I juggled the craftcoins and put them away.
“Before you all ask, these are the functional abilities of the common Shards spell.” I flicked the Stats of the spell up behind me in common parlance. “Does anyone need this explained to them?” I asked. The Stats of the spell were known by first-graders, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
They all shook their heads, and then I added the three additional lines to the spell.
Lips pursed in shock.
+1 Shard if auto-targeting changed to a touch attack spell. Spell now has 5% crit chance.