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Memoirs 319 - Divine what?
🕑 Added 2024-12-23 01:11:38 +0000 UTCAs evening settled over the estate, Scarlett entered her office alone, the unlit room welcoming her into its quiet embrace. She kindled a candle on the desk with her pyrokinesis, its warm glow casting flitting shadows across the space. For a moment, she lingered by the door, her eyes tracing the room’s familiar contours before settling on the large painting gifted by The Gentleman, hanging on the far wall.
It was nice to be back here.
She had seen versions of the mansion within the Memories in the Hall of Echoes, but those visions had been… different. Not quite right. If anything, unsettling. This room, this place, had become hers in a way those phantom echoes could never be.
Crossing the room, she rounded the desk and settled into her chair. Her gaze fell on the stacks of papers piled before her, and a light sigh escaped her. Being back was nice, but the sheer volume of work awaiting her, less so. Of course, she had no one but herself to blame for that. She’d asked Lady Withersworth and Garside to compile reports on the latest developments across the empire, knowing how quickly things could shift right now. Lady Withersworth had already provided her with a general overview earlier, but Scarlett wanted to familiarise herself with the finer details, considering she knew things the older noblewoman didn’t.
After all, Lady Withersworth didn’t have access to sources like Mirage or information from the game.
That did remind her — she had also asked Beldon for updates upon her return. She would need to contact him about that, as well as several other matters. One of them involved his help in looking into Arlene’s book and that ‘Aurelian’ clue the woman had left behind.
Leaning back, Scarlett rested an arm on the chair’s leather armrest, tapping a finger absently as her gaze drifted to the ceiling. The reports could wait a little longer. For now, she could allow herself a few extra minutes to just relax.
Almost without thinking, she extended her senses through the Loci, reaching out to check on the others. After their meeting in the parlour, she had stayed behind to speak with Lady Withersworth while the others left to settle themselves in. Arnaud Astrey had mentioned leaving before nightfall, but he was still in one of the mansion’s smaller sitting rooms with Allyssa and Shin. As Scarlett briefly observed them, she overheard Allyssa suggesting they invite Kat over, only for Arnaud to mention the woman had taken a job outside Freybrook earlier that afternoon.
Scarlett made a mental note to contact Kat upon her return. There was a proposal she needed to discuss.
Just as she prepared to withdraw her awareness, a sharp prickle of sensation made her pause. Across the room, Arnaud’s gaze flickered — precisely to the spot from where the Loci was perceiving the space. His sharp eyes lingered for a heartbeat before moving on.
And yet, that brief glance sent a ripple through the Loci itself, as if it were instinctively wishing to retreat. Scarlett allowed it.
As her focus returned to her office, she sat in contemplation. It seemed the man was a lot more perceptive than she’d thought. Not even Fynn had demonstrated the ability to detect the Loci’s presence like that. Had Arnaud realised she was watching, or had he simply sensed something unusual?
Either way, she might have to be careful around him.
Shaking the thought aside for the time being, she swept her awareness across the rest of the mansion, just to ensure there were no intruders and that everything was as it should be. Among other things, she confirmed that Evelyne was in her room, fast asleep — the younger woman had been there since their return, which was good.
Scarlett had considered visiting her, but Arnaud Astrey’s arrival had gotten in the way. And now…
Well, she could do it another time.
Time slipped by as her mind wandered, meandering through the myriad concerns occupying her mind: the empire’s volatile state, the threats posed by the Cabal and Tribe, the challenges awaiting her with Beld Thylelion, and more. None of these were new problems—she’d revisited them countless times over the past week and more—but they still had a way of occasionally consuming her thoughts.
What was the opposite of daydreaming? Brooding? Or might catastrophising fit better? She wasn’t actually sure if the latter was a real word.
Maybe, subconsciously, she was simply finding ways to delay the tedious task of reading through all the documents before her, self-inflicted as they were. A familiar habit. Procrastination was an old companion in her previous life, and, evidently, it sometimes found its way into this one as well. Back then, it had often led to unnecessarily long nights of frantic work, and it was a pattern she recognised far too well.
A quiet chuckle left her as she straightened in her seat, her attention drifting back to the papers. If she were sensible, she’d start now and save herself the late-night scramble.
Then again…a little nostalgia wouldn’t hurt.
After all, there were ways to be productive even while procrastinating.
[Name: Scarlett Hartford]
[Skills:
[Superior Mana Control]
[Superior Pyromancy]
[Major Pyrokinesis]
[Greater Hydromancy]
[Major Hydrokinesis]
[̼̭̬̋̈́̒͜. ̧̘̜́ͣ͛͛ͅ ͚̜̓͜ ̢̰̾̏ͅ ̮̿͆̒͠ ̢̾̏. ̢̰̾̏ͅ]]
[Traits:
[Dignified August]
[Supercilious]
[Cavalier]
[Callous]
[Overbearing]
[Conceited]
[Third-rate Mana Veins]]
[Mana: 12532/12539]
[Points: 171]
She scanned the lines of text hovering in her vision, eyes landing on the final line.
171 points.
It was staggering to consider how much she had accumulated during her time on the Rising Isle. She had already collected a decent sum of points when she went there, but she’d earned even more from ‘clearing’ the Hall of Echoes and everything related to Arlene. On top of that, she had spent the last week helping the Isle’s wizards uncover a wealth of new secrets. Now, sitting on this much potential, she almost felt…greedy.
[Skills Menu:
Upgrades
[Major Pyromancy] (50 points)
[Argent Pyrokinesis] (100 points) (LOCKED)
[Superior Hydromancy] (25 points)
[Argent Hydrokinesis] (100 points) (LOCKED)
[Major Mana Control] (50 points)
New skills
[LOCKED]]
Before leaving for the Isle, she had deliberately saved her points in case she would be able to unlock the ‘Argent’ skills soon. In hindsight, that hadn’t been necessary. Upgrading to [Major Pyromancy] beforehand, for example, would have made things easier. But that was always easy to say after the fact.
Still, her earlier instincts hadn’t been entirely wrong. According to the main quest she had received all those months ago, reaching Beld Thylelion would grant her additional skill menu privileges. And now, that moment was closer than it ever had been. Keeping 100 points in reserve for at least one Argent skill was probably smart.
Saving for both was tempting, but…
She had left her secondary skills untouched for some time. From experience, she knew the step from ‘Superior’ to ‘Major’ wasn’t trivial. She would most likely upgrade either [Mana Control] or [Pyromancy] next. Choosing between them was the hard part. The former improved her overall magic use as well as her mana efficiency slightly, while the latter would likely make her pyromancy significantly more efficient. Both were valuable in different ways.
Ultimately, though, [Major Mana Control] seemed the more practical choice, given her current circumstances. After all, she’d recently gained another tool to optimise her pyrokinesis.
She reached into her [Pouch of Holding], placing it on the desk before retrieving a dagger. The blade shimmered like molten lava frozen mid-flow, its hilt gleaming with dark sanguine scales.
[Eternal Flameweaver’s Athame (Divine)]
{Forged in the crucible of ancient fires and blessed by the forgotten mother of fire, this fabled blade once channelled the essence of flames, granting its bearer an intimate connection to the elemental force of destruction. Hidden for generations, it waits to burn once more}
Scarlett turned the artifact in her grip, watching the way its surface seemed to pulse with an inner fire. If Arlene’s book and the items she had left behind were her final gifts, then this dagger could be considered her legacy — a trust passed to Scarlett in the end. A trust that, at first, Arlene had been hesitant to bestow, but she thought Scarlett could handle.
To be honest, initially, Scarlett hadn’t quite understood where that hesitation came from. She knew Arlene had been wary of what the artifact could do and what its existence represented for the owner, but not once since Scarlett received it had she sensed anything particularly off. For all its potency, it had felt like any other artifact.
That had changed slightly now, though. Maybe it was the ancient Zuverian wards that severed the Rising Isle from the outside world that muted the dagger’s presence, but the moment Scarlett returned to Freybrook, she had felt it.
It was faint—a barely perceptible nudge at the edge of her awareness—but it was there. A presence. Or perhaps a reminder.
The [Eternal Flameweaver’s Athame] had accepted her as its new master. That alone was significant. It meant she was possibly the closest thing this era had to a chosen of the fire goddess.
And the dagger made sure she knew it.
Yet the sensation was nothing like what Scarlett had imagined a divine connection would feel like. If anything, it felt less like a bond with an actual entity and more like…a template of sorts. A schema for something unfinished. Maybe it wasn’t even linked directly to the fire goddess, but instead something automatic.
Did she need to complete it herself? Or was it simply diminished because the fire goddess herself had lost much of her influence, even since Arlene’s time?
Scarlett didn’t know.
In general, the gods of this world perplexed her. They seemed both distant—so uninvolved in what went on in it—yet still so intertwined in many of its workings. Take Ittar, for example. He was revered as a god of hope and guidance, in many ways a benevolent figure to humankind. But at the same time, much of what he actually did was unclear.
His priests were mostly just re-coloured mages, and his Augurs didn’t exactly live under the best of circumstances. Not to mention his—and all the other gods’—questionable ties to this world’s Fate.
Scarlett lifted the dagger, holding it out before her. The molten blade caught the candlelight, its surface flickering like embers stirred by an unseen breath. She stayed quiet for a moment, searching her memory for the words.
“From embered depths, the secret springs,
In sacred chant, the power sings.
Once concealed, now blaze with might,
Reveal your purpose in fiery light.”
“Itris, show yourself,” she murmured.
The room was silent.
Scarlett waited, but the air remained still. No shift, no response. Eventually, she lowered the dagger with a trace of disappointment. The chant itself was something she remembered from Arlene, but she wasn’t sure if it would do anything. Still, she had hoped for some reaction. She wanted to understand what this dagger meant.
This couldn’t be all there was to it. She was sure of that much, at least. For one, she knew possessing it supposedly made defying Fate more difficult. Whether that was due to its connection to a goddess or some other property, she didn’t know. To her, that detail didn’t matter much since she doubted Fate could ever affect her. But understanding the dagger’s workings might help her better grasp larger truths. If unlocking its secrets required a direct audience with the fire goddess herself…she might be willing to risk it.
Even if she had her own reasons to be wary of the gods.
At the very least, it would confirm whether this particular goddess was paying attention. Right now, it wasn’t entirely clear whether the fire goddess was still alive.
Scarlett continued turning the dagger over in her grip, the feeling reminding her of her times practising with it in Freybrook. Would its secrets reveal themselves through use? Or were there lost incantations she needed to uncover? How had Arlene learned its chants in the first place?
Scarlett had seen the woman wield the Flameweaver to cut through space itself, teleporting large distances in an instant. That ability fascinated — more than anything, she wanted to master it.
Experimentally, she moved the dagger through the air, trying to press mana into it as its blade sliced an invisible arc.
Naturally, nothing happened.
She frowned slightly. She hadn’t expected it’d be that easy, but it would have been a welcome surprise.
Still, at least she knew the artifact’s power went beyond simple efficiency. It was more than just a tool to reduce mana costs. The possibilities it presented intrigued her, as did the mysteries surrounding its ostensible creator.
She glanced to the side as the skill menu appeared once more
[Skills Menu:
Upgrades
[Major Pyromancy] (50 points)
[Argent Pyrokinesis] (100 points) (LOCKED)
[Superior Hydromancy] (25 points)
[Argent Hydrokinesis] (100 points) (LOCKED)
[Major Mana Control] (50 points)
New skills
[LOCKED]]
Maybe if she wanted to explore more of the dagger’s capabilities, she could also take the opportunity to see what a new skill upgrade could offer her.
Her eyes once more drifted back to the piles of papers stacked on her desk.
As for those…
Well, they could wait. They were a problem for future Scarlett.
Comments
lenkite
She has to upgrade her Hydromancy - to keep it in balance with her Pyromancy.
David C
Just noticed the epubs are wrong (atleast they show up wrong for me, 319 says epub 319 but open up on 318 and the reverse is true for epub 318 opening up on 319)
Darth Hatall
Thanks for the two chapters!
Atlas Dwarf
Hope the jump between Superior to Major Mana Control is as great/conscious of a change as it was for the Major Kinesis Skills. Also, given Arnaud's perception ability it wouldn't be surprising if he notices this Major change in Scarlett. This might lead to him noticing the System if he looks hard enough, like what Younger Scarlett mentioned is possible.
pelya
Two chapters, thanks!
