Chapter Sixty-nine

Preparations

King Caylus let us know that night that he had only heard from the Air Ashari, and knew the teleportation circle for the Air Ashari's floating city—Zephrah—and could get us there so we could speak with their leaders.

"Wait," Ari'yasa said. Her face was etched with confusion. "I trained there. It's a floating city? I was always underground."

"Yes," the king said. "The city is floating on an island in the air, surrounded by cloud cover, but it does go down pretty deep."

He told us that his sources told him the Earth Ashari were on the southeastern side of the continent of Talora—the Gnomish continent—between the Great Plateau and the Ashkeeper Peaks.

They thought they knew what items the Stones were put into. The Earth Ashari's Stone was green, thought to be placed in the hilt of a greatsword. The Water Ashari's Stone was white, most likely in a gauntlet. While the Fire Ashari's was said to have been made into a circlet, a red Stone.

King Caylus told us that we'd have to travel to the different locations to speak with the Ashari leaders, they were not willing to communicate about the Stones over sending spells. He found out that they didn't know for sure where one of them was, but did know where the other two were. But we would have to come talk to them to learn any more.

"I have a feeling I really shouldn't have shown that guy in the cart," Ari'yasa said.

"You were told to follow your intuition," Sephra said.

"It seems reckless."

"Sometimes intuition can seem reckless."

King Moonfeather told us that according to his sources, the Earth Ashari were on the Gnomish continent of Talora, the Water Ashari were on the western side of Grenmar, just below the Leinad Sea, partially on land, partially on water. I was familiar with the Leinad Sea, it also had shores on the south end of Lystran. The Fire Ashari were said to be on a floating city in a secret location.

The king offered to pay for ten-thousand gold worth of purchases for each of us to help us on our journey and suggested a few shops he had good relations with. The idea of having anywhere near that much money to spend was so alien to me. I didn't think I'd be able to find anything I wanted that would be that expensive, but decided to go along with the rest of the group as they shopped. Maybe I could find some better armor.

Jörgen found a shop King Caylus hadn't told the rest of us about, but almost looked like a library of scrolls. Each scroll had its own compartment in cross-hatched shelves that almost looked like the way wine was stored in a wine shop.

As we looked around, some of the scrolls had chains wrapped around them which were attached to the slots. Those ones were extremely expensive. I found another resurrection scroll, and the price nearly melted my mind. It was ninety-thousand gold. I asked the shopkeeper if that was how much he bought scrolls for, but he said that he usually only paid fifty to sixty percent of his prices. He had to mark up to make anything off of scrolls he purchased.

I wasn't ready to let go of the scroll, I liked having it available to use in case of tragedy, even if it would be difficult for me to use successfully. Knowing that I had something worth that much though gave me hope for getting Sindus back.

Jörgen found several scrolls that he wanted. He wanted to head back to the palace immediately and start copying them to his spellbook, but we convinced him to stay with us. Though he was a friend to the king, I didn't know how a human wandering around the city might be received, and who knew what trouble the ancient wizard might get himself into on the way back?

The next shop we went to was Mystical Threads & Wears. There were clothes all around the walls, but several pieces were showcased in the center of the shop, enchanted items. It surprised me at how many of the items caught my eye— a cloak that helped protect you and make you more resilient, boots that made your footsteps silent, slippers that allowed you to climb on walls, and gloves that helped you make more deadly shots. We took notes on how expensive the things were that we were interested in so we wouldn't spend all of our money at one shop. Just the cloak I was looking at cost four-thousand gold.

Melima bought Sephra some gloves with her own money, apart from what her father had allotted for either of them. Jörgen complained that Melima had always refused to get him anything, but now would drop thousands of gold pieces on Sephra. Melima wouldn't have it. "Look, this is my long-lost sister, whose birthday I have missed for hundreds of years. I can spend my own money on a gift for her if I want to. It's my money."

Gilmore's Glorious Goods had many magical items and potions. What most interested me was willowshade oil, which would unpetrify someone if applied quickly enough. Ari'yasa was now able to cast the same spell that saved me, but I liked the idea of having multiple options. Her spell wouldn't help her if she were the one petrified.

There were also potions of water breathing that I thought would be especially useful when we had to get the Water Stone. Who knew where we might have to go to get it? There were also things like folding boats, a horn that could only be heard by one person you chose, shackles that would prevent someone from using magic to get away, and stones like the one that Jörgen always had circling his head.

We visited a blacksmith's shop called Arwyyn's Armaments. Here was the place to get my armor! One breastplate immediately caught my eye. It provided extra protection against any breath attacks from dragons. It was twenty-one-thousand gold though, way more than my allotment, and the armor itself would almost be more of a hindrance than a help, restricting my movement.

There was also a set of studded leather armor that would protect against lightning, but would use almost half of my allotment by itself. I asked about plain studded leather, which was much less expensive and could be made to fit. I ordered it while we were there, I knew I wanted it.

The weapons were impressive as well. There was a staff that could cast nature-based spells, a sword that could light aflame, and a dragon slayer longsword. It was tempting, but I knew my funds would be better spent elsewhere. I was following a dragon, not actively fighting any.

Tyren's Tools & Instruments was interesting, full of all sorts of tool kits, musical instruments, and games. I liked comparing tools of leatherworkers and cobblers to the ones I was familiar with as a woodcarver, but none of us really wanted anything there. Sephra did pick up thieves' tools and navigators' tools.

At the Old Table General Supply, I noticed tents and asked if we should get some, now that we didn't have Naidaroe with us to cast her dome each night. Jörgen was pretty sure he had the same spell in his spellbook, but would check for sure when we got back to the palace. We decided to come back to this shop last to pick up small supplies, there wasn't much we needed there.

The last shop we visited was Pethora's Plethora. It was a shop full of oddities. Most were bizarre, like a mummified goblin hand, a pair of old socks, or a small stone block that didn't have any weight to it. I smiled when I saw a plain leather necklace with a bony dragon talon hanging from it. I gently pressed on my own underneath my shirt.

I held up an old purple handkerchief I'd found. It was nearly falling apart at the seams, but was otherwise well preserved. It was embroidered with a name, which was indicated as that of a powerful archmage. I wondered if it had anything to do with the mages we'd fought. "Does anyone recognize this name?"

Melima's eyes went wide. "That last name is one of the Arcantum Mages that were part of the Arcantum Focatus."

I knew enough of world history to know that name, the Arcantum Focatus was what our years were based off of, when a major calamity happened on the continent of Grenmar. It had changed the way that magic worked in the world, but also damaged the land where it happened. The current year was 3270— the handkerchief was extremely ancient. I decided to get it, who knew how useful it could be later?

A brass orb with strange runes carved into it also caught my eye. It looked pretty ancient as well. I decided to get that too, with as ancient of things as we were dealing with, this strange little ball could be useful.

Ari'yasa decided to get a deed to a parcel of land in a place none of us had ever been to, or really heard of. She also got a pirate flag. Instead of a humanoid skull like I'd normally seen, it had a dragon's skull. I shook my head. Another manifestation of dragons in our party.

We went back to the palace to decide what we were going to purchase. Some purchases had already been made, but nothing too expensive. Jörgen went to his room to spend some time copying his scrolls to his spellbook. We didn't see much of him for the next couple of days.

From Gilmore's, I decided I'd get all six of the water breathing potions he had available. I didn't want to be caught in water without the ability to breathe being available. I also decided on the willowshade oil and a theki root, which would help protect against poison. We seemed to run into poisonous creatures often enough.

Melima was going to get a folding boat, but wondered about getting a second one. Because it could become a small ship that would fit all of us, I didn't see a need for it, but she was thinking about if we needed smaller boats. We ultimately decided against it.

She also decided to get some healing potions, a potion to make spells more damaging, and the shackles. Ari'yasa didn't want anything from there, Sephra only wanted a stone that would protect her from being attacked.

From the tailor, I decided on the cloak and gloves. Melima got the slippers to climb on walls, Ari'yasa got a belt that called back weapons she threw, and Sephra got the boots to make her footsteps silent. I was liking how things were looking for us.

Sephra decided to get an Elven chain shirt from the smithy, and Ari'yasa got a few weapons— the staff with spells, and a couple of daggers enchanted to be more accurate.

We only had time to go to Gilmore's before the shops all closed, and he persuaded me to purchase the horn as well. It wasn't a hard sell, I'd been considering it anyway and I wouldn't be able to keep the money I didn't spend.

Ari'yasa hadn't used her full allotment of money, so the next morning she spent a considerable amount of time at the tailor shopping for common clothes. All the frills and just the idea of owning that much clothing made me sick. So much unnecessary weight.

By the time we got to the general store, we were all pretty much shopped out. I wanted to get some paper, ink, and a pen though. Having it on hand to make notes could be useful. There had been a time or two I'd wished we'd had some to leave a note. Ari'yasa got a spyglass while we were there. At last, the shopping was done.