Temple Treasures

As minutes turned into hours, Hephane's lesson with Artemis came to a close, leaving the elf to wander the anchored ship aimlessly. Her thoughts swam through the river of distinct barks and growls that made up the blink dog's language. She was so close to mastering it. So close to adding a sixth river to feed the ocean of languages she had mastered over the last thirty-four years. Hephane counted them off in order. Sylvan. Primordial. Ancient Primordial. Merian. Harmonian. And soon Blink Dog.
 
"Hmm. Strange that I don't know Elvish. How did I miss that one?" But the question immediately disappeared as Hephane's attention shifted to the rusted and bent shinies in her hands. Those were new. Three nuts, two bolts, and six nails. Looking back over her shoulder, the elf saw that decrepit ballista Her Higness still needed to repair. "Ah yes. More friends seeking rebirth from my craft. Come along then."
 
Forgetting about keeping topside while the officers were away, Hephane abandoned her watch to head below deck, all the while meticulously polishing her new shinies. She added them to a small crucible of other iron shinies neglected by The Hive. These final additions topped it off, leading the elf to smile and say, "It's time to get a fire going and make you into useful shinies again, my friends. You will enjoy your new life as nails for my princess and rejoin the ship soon."
 
"Boom. Buh-bum. Bum."
 
"Boom. Buh-bum. Bum."
 
"Boom. Buh-bum. Bum."
 
A distracting rhythm broke Hephane's concentration as she tried to melt the iron with a spell, forcing her investigate the noise back on the main deck. A hefty woman with dark gray skin and bright orange horns beat a large set of drums with cold determination. Arteria. The first mate. Hephane knew so little about her. Maybe she should spy on her for a while...but then it clicked. Arteria? The drums? Her princess must be coming back from the Temple of Thoros!
 
Hephane bolted to the edge of The Hive to peer out at the water between the ship and the temple. In the blink of an eye, Artemis appeared beside her, eagerly panting for the satyr's return. In the next instant he was gone again, reappearing next to Orri after spotting her on a rowboat only a short distance away. Manning the oars of the small boat were the mighty arms of Princess Anaxa, skillfully steering the vessel alongside The Hive.
 
After coming aboard, Her Highness sought out the elf, gave her a broad smile, and boasted, "Do I have a treat for you, Hephane. I come bearing the gifts of our greatest haul since we joined this crew."
 
Her princess began untying a silvery coil from the hem of a bag she held. Hephane couldn't help but admire her own handiwork. That coil possessed magic that increased the space of any bag strung with it by over tenfold. And it seemed Princess Anaxa had filled every inch of it with an armory's worth of helms, shields, breastplates, and similar goodies. They clanged onto the deck piece by piece, creating a chaotic symphony only the elf could love.
 
"Shinies!" Hephane squealed as she dove into the midst of them to appraise their quality. "So many fine shinies!"
 
"Now, now. They are not all for you," her princess clarified. "These are for the crew. Some will have to be resized and refitted since we have all shapes on board. And we'll need to divvy them up by lot, as well, since there's not enough for everyone. Can you do this for me?"
 
"Of course, princess. Anything you command."
 
"Ugh, Hephane. Can you please stop calling me that? And enough with this 'as you command' formality." The elf heard variations of this speech a thousand times before. But she could not shake her veneration of the mighty Serethonian hoplite. Her Highness also didn't scold her as sternly for it as usual. There was a softness in her voice. And a glow about her that Hephane hadn't seen in some time. A fiery excitement that wouldn't be doused by the elf's poor choice of words. Could it be...
 
"Is...is there more?" Hephane inquired with hesitation.
 
"Much more," the imposing woman replied as the grin returned to her face. From a small chest, Her Highness slowly revealed three uncommon smithing materials. "Do you happen to know what these are?"
 
The elf's eyes widened and a sliver of drool escaped the corner of her mouth as she idenified each instinctively, "Hephaestos ash. Marine coral. And...is that really? An adamantine ingot?!?"
 
Hephane cautiously touched each one in turn, scarcely believing her eyes. But as her fingers confirmed they were not illusions, she began bouncing giddily in place. The princess chuckled at the elf's reaction before adding, "As with the armor, these are not for you to keep. I believe Captain Squeelob, Edea, and a few other officers would like to make use of these and their special properties. Your name will be stamped on each as a testament to your skill, of course. Shape them into whatever they desire."
 
"Yes, yes. It will be done, Your Highness. Anything you need." Hephane's gaze remained locked on the special materials as she responded reflexively, completely missing the hoplite's exasperation over the use of another formal address. Only one troubling thought pulled the elf out of her trance to ask, "But what about you? Surely you have earned some of this as your reward?"
 
"The best part is still to come," her princess teased.
 
Returning to the bag with the silver coil, Princess Anaxa pulled out a mannequin donned in one final suit of armor and placed it in front of the elf. The distinct coloration of its unique metal made Hephane drop to her knees, where she remained stunned for several heartbeats before grabbing it in a deep hug. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she strained between sobs, "Orichalcum? Sniff. You found...sniff...a suit of...sniff...orichalcum? The quietest...sniff...of all the shinies?"
 
"Yes. I certainly did," her princess laughed. "This and a bloodthirsty spear are my spoils. I'll tell you all about our adventure while you draw up the plans for how to reforge this. You can reforge this armor to fit me, right?"
 
Hephane whipped up her head and jumped to her feet quickly to stare up at the towering hoplite in defiance. "Is that a challenge? Do you doubt my skill? I was not enslaved for prying the secrets of orichalcum only to turn back now! When can we start?"
 
 
* * *
 
 
"The Temple of Thoros was once a gorgeous structure dedicated to Undine, the Great Spirit of the Water and beloved patron of Old Meria before most of it sank below the waves. It housed many rooms, several of which were barred or hidden by magic. But our clever captain quickly solved the riddle of the first hidden door. We were in a room dominated by a crumbling statue of Undine holding a trident and an empty vase. By filling that vase with water, an archway leading only to an empty wall before turned into a doorway to the deepest reaches of the temple."
 
Hephane hung on every word her princess spoke while scrawling serpentine motifs across multiple pages at her workbench. Captain Squeelob had set a course for the Cycladean Isles after returning from the temple, so the quiet days of sailing ahead were an ideal time for Hephane to draw concepts for Her Highness' orichalcum armor.
 
"We made our way forward carefully," Princess Anaxa continued. "As whispered alongside the same rumors that guided us to this temple were warnings of Cult of the Kraken activity within its walls. Our first challenge came after Calliope picked a lock to a chamber holding a lesser form of kraken known as a krake spawn. A large beast brimming with tentacles, Orri pounced on it immediately, stunned it with a single strike of her fist, and hammered it with a flurry of kicks. The captain followed suit by having her giant spider mount restrain the monstrous creature with webbing. And that's when the others let their guard down, costing us a flawless victory."
 
Recognizing the frustration in her tone, Hephane pulled over a chair and motioned her princess to have a seat. "Sit. Relax. Explain. You had the creature cornered. Seems an easy matter to finish it off."
 
"That's excatly what I thought. There is no sweeter victory than a battle won before the enemy can even respond. But the others decided it was safe to just poke it with their weakest attacks and spells. There I was, driving my trident with all my might to reach its heart and calling out to the rest to do the same, and it fell on deaf ears. You know that damn satyr even let the stun drop because she felt sorry for the krake spawn? By the depths of Tartarus!" she yelled while slamming her fist onto the workbench in exasperation. "It's a literal spawn of a kraken, one of the most terrifying beings to swim the Merine Isles! Such a creature should never be underestimated! And they learned that the hard way when it conjured an ice storm down on our heads!"
 
Loose pages fluttered through the air around a very startled elf as Princess Anaxa finished her rant. Realizing her slammed fist was the cause, the fearsome hoplite suddenly turned meek and started grabbing the scattered sheets. "Ah, damn. So sorry about that, Hephane. No, no. Sit down. Let me get those for you."
 
It took a while to gather all the drawings, but Hephane didn't mind the shambles. In fact, the mess had resurfaced a few of her early concepts, which she felt went better with some of her later armor designs. And just like that, the elf was merging two motifs together into a new drawing.
 
"Well look at that beauty," the towering woman marveled from over the elf's shoulder. "Let's definitely go in that direction."
 
"Shoo shoo. Nothing's final yet. Including this tale of yours."
 
"Ah yes, the exciting tale of Anaxa teaching children how to fight," she said sarcastically. "After getting a taste of the krake spawn's magical prowess, Orri made up for her brief lapse in judgment with a kick that fell like a flaming meteor thanks to Edea's magical song. On the brink of death, I finally plunged my trident deep enough to skewer its heart and began ripping off tentacles so it could never rise again. Zephy bandaged the wounded, which excluded me, since I actually raised my shield to fend off the icy barrage."
 
"The power of shields," the elf stated as a matter of fact.
 
"The power of shields," her princess agreed. "Especially your shields."
 
Hephane wiggled with pride at that. She welcomed any praise Her Highness spared concerning her smithcraft. "Is this when you found all those shinies for me? In the creature's hoard?"
 
"It had no hoard, but its chamber held the first of the treasures we collected. Venturing between rooms, we found pockets of valuables here and there, alongside clear signs of recent habitation by the Cult of the Kraken. But still no cultists.
 
"Down one long passage, the air grew as heavy as water and crusted our flesh with biting frost. Giant doors stood at the end emblazoned with a glowing tentacle. Ominous chanting echoed from beyond the doors, but a powerful spell barred our entry. In need of a magical key of some kind, we backtracked to a sister passage and heard voices coming from a distance away. Captain Squeelob and I told the others to wait while we scouted ahead. The idle chatter of the four cultists we spied on made it clear the chantings in the prior hallway were part of some profane ritual that needed to be stopped. But before the captain and I could report back to the others, Edea came bumbling along and revealed our position...
 
"It still boggles my mind. Scouting is such a fundamental tactic. The most stealthy sneak forward, get the lay of the land, and report back to the larger force before engaging. It is drilled into every Serethonian when we turn seven. I've talked about it amongst the crew at length since joining The Hive. How could Edea not know that?"
 
"Aren't you being a little dramatic?" the elf questioned. "You all came back alive. How bad could it have been?"
 
"Calliope nearly died!" the frustrated hoplite roared. "Why a spellcaster was on the front lines in the first place is another tactical issue, but there were these creatures of pure slime that could engulf a person whole. Calliope got trapped inside one and all attempts to harm it inflicted her with wounds instead. And my foolish companions kept trying to attack the slime anyway, even though it was clearly hurting the person they were trying to rescue. If I hadn't used my shield to push her out of its grasp, we would be singing a funeral dirge for Calliope right now."
 
"Yeah. That's pretty bad," Hephane conceded.
 
"We just need to fight smarter, not harder. I don't want anyone needlessly coming into harm's way. Not on my watch. Is that too much to ask? With a little more time, maybe the captain and I could have learned about the three hidden slimes in the room and prepared the others for the confrontation instead of struggling through that mess."
 
"You have such a loving and protective heart, Your Highness. Maybe if you shared that side instead of barking orders, they would heed your advice more."
 
Face blood red with a vein on her temple ready to burst, Princess Anaxa gave the elf a venomous look. Hephane had just used a title, accused her of being loving, and called her out for treating the crew like a military unit. All in one breath. Was she suicidal? But the enraged hoplite only unclenched her fists and laughed.
 
"You've got some balls, Hephane. Gi-gan-tic balls. I have beheaded many people for less than that. Still...you may have a point." Bitterly, she added, "I'm not very good at treating people as anything but soldiers, am I?"
 
"Don't you fret. Just focus on your allies strengths, not their weaknesses."
 
"Hmm. That is actually very good advice," her princess agreed as the words sunk in. "The captain, Orri, and Zephy really pulled us through the muck in that battle. The captain took on two cultists and a black slime on her own thanks to that squad of deinonychuses she summoned. Zephy kept our wounded alive while taking two other cultists out of the fray with a sleep spell. And quick-legged Orri delivered blazing pain across the battlefield with her Scorching Squirrel Dance."
 
"Scorching Squirrel Dance? That's a funny name for a fighting technique. Why am I picturing her with a bushy burning tail now?" Hephane chuckled at the ridiculous thought before getting back on track, "Did the cultists have the key you needed?"
 
"They had four, in fact. Four talismans with a tentacle symbol and four robes with a protective enchantment against icy cold to boot. I stripped them of their belongings then ripped off their manhoods for the trouble they caused. You should have seen the look on Orri's face. Apparently, our love-seeking satyr had never seen one before. I kind of feel bad for making that her first experience, but I didn't know. What I don't feel bad about is smashing that unholy basin the cultists spawned their slimes from. The captain wanted it as a prize, but I could not allow such evil to continue existing."
 
"Was the captain mad?"
 
"She didn't complain. More disappointed than anything. But we had more pressing matters with a profane ritual underway by the remaining cultists. The fight was nine against six in favor of the cultists, but my plan to take out the kraken priests in the back was sure to even the odds quickly..."
 
 
* * *
 
Hephane listened intently as her princess detailed the battle against the Cult of the Kraken. Sheer numbers were on the enemy's side as two octopuses descended from the ceiling to fight alongside the cultists. Captain Squeelob summoned a boneheaded dinosaur and transformed into an ichthyosaur herself but could barely scratch the first kraken priest. And a horde of enemies clogged the chamber, slowing advancement to the second kraken priest. Even when Princess Anaxa summoned her shadow clone to reach one of the dangerous spellcasters, it could barely act before being crushed by a giant octopus.
 
Using her shield to dive out of the way as a mass of black tentacles erupted from the ground, the Serethonian hoplite found herself even further away from her intended prey. No enemy had fallen. No ally could take down a kraken priest. And after weathering two battles without a single wound, Her Highness was feeling the bite of multiple stabs from a cultist's bloodthirsty spear. She couldn't hold her rage in check any longer. She needed it to empower her. To consume her.
 
Summoning forth another shadow clone next to the kraken priest assaulting the captain, the enraged princess swapped places with her shadow, swept the priestess to the ground with her shield, and fed her trident spellcaster blood again and again. Much of the battle was a blur after that. She remembered Edea showing her true might by calling lightning bolt after lightning bolt down on the enemy. She remembered Calliope floating in the air unleashing stream after stream of magic missiles. She remembered Orri stunning the second kraken priest, giving the captain's summoned sharks an opening to tear him apart. She even remembered Zephy burying a cultist with an explosive spray of sweets, of all things.
 
Princess Anaxa regained full clarity only to find herself paralyzed by Edea's magic. The delightful taste of one of Zephy's treats chased away the rage, which had driven her to chase down fleeing cultists and rip off their arms. No better way to deal with dangerous spellcasters, rage or not. Zephy applauded the raw display of Merian thumos. Orri, Edea, and Calliope were reviled by it.
 
Hephane wasn't pleased with how her princess ended the battle either. They had spoken often about keeping that temper in check. But the elf understood it was inevitable in the heat of such a tenacious battle.
 
"Now comes the point in our adventure when it truly becomes worthy of the poets," Princess Anaxa explained. "You know that stone you keep stealing from the captain that I have to keep returning? The first of the Seven Treasures of Undine? Well, we grabbed a second one off a kraken priest and both of them lit up to reveal their Psi and Theta marks. Coalescing from droplets of luminous water, the Great Spirit of Water manifested to us as a striking woman dressed all in blue. She told us to cleanse the Merine Sea of the Blood of Tartarus by collecting all her missing treasures."
 
Regaining her balance after nearly falling from her chair from shock, Hephane gasped, "Undine? You spoke to Undine? The Undine? And she wants you clean up some blood? With some treasure? How does any of that make sense?"
 
"The Blood of Tartarus is not actual blood. It is a cursed dark ooze that can swallow entire ships and islands," her princess corrected. "Reuniting the Seven Treasures of Undine will grant us the power to end its voracious appetite."
 
"Ah! Much clearer now. Carry on then."
 
The imposing hoplite could only laugh at the elf's sudden shift to calm. Those not raised in the Merine Isles would likely still be dumbfounded. But for a true Merian, encounters with the gods and spirits were commonplace enough to be expected.
 
"Undine's charge to us was only the start," Princess Anaxa continued. "The strings that pull each soul towards its fate revealed themselves only moments later. Mosaics of ancient heroes guided us to a blue door, which Orri claimed opened to the Tower of Fate. Only a select few ever find their way to this realm that watches over Gaia. Within we met by a mysterious merchant and his assistant who offered ways of unlocking our true potential. And we knew ourselves to be among the Fated."