No Need for a Core?

A few days after the baron started his delve, Moriko, Kazue, and Ruby had traveled far enough south along the coastline to be now headed east if they wanted to keep just within the kingdom's borders. This provided them with a majestic view, with the foothills and mountains to their right, and a changing landscape of grass, farm, and forest to their left.

The three of them had just finished setting up camp one evening with a stew of dried rations and water heating over a fire when Moriko felt a disturbance of wind and energy approaching them from the south and above. The presence was small in some ways, but it also felt potent somehow. She discreetly palmed the collapsed disc of her staff into one hand and a throwing blade in the other before she started looking for the source of the disturbance without making it too obvious.

Kazue noticed her actions and her eyes widened, but she did her best to keep up conversation as a cover while she retrieved the disc for her own staff as well. Ruby was visibly confused once she picked up that something was wrong, but kept responding to Kazue gamely.

The source of Moriko's concern became visible a short while after that. It appeared as a small shining star at first, the tiny light source fluttering around as it drifted closer to their camp. When the light suddenly froze for a brief second and then shot straight down at the ground, all three of them jumped away and readied themselves for a potential threat, Kazue and Moriko's staves snapping out to their normal length.

Where the 'star' struck the ground, an image grew of a dark-skinned man with silver hair and intense blue eyes, and wearing zhiju-style robes made of dark, silvery silk. His hands were clasped in front of him as he bowed, a strange half-smile on his lips. "I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but I have a matter to discuss that I believe will be of interest to all of us."

"A scrying and communication spell. There are a few varieties; given what you sensed this illusion may have a semi-real component. Be careful." Mordecai's voice whispered into Moriko's mind. Having a font of knowledge on tap was useful.

"Who are you?" Moriko challenged the stranger.

"Hmm? Yes, I should introduce myself. But no, I am afraid I shan't be doing that. There are too many complications with even taking a pseudonym at the moment." The man's eyes had gone unfocused while he spoke, but now they sharpened once more and he locked his gaze with Moriko's. "Ah, perfect. You must be Moriko. I can practically see him lurking behind your eyes. Good. That is where I wish to begin, for this involves the weight of your husband's actions."

This wasn't making Moriko feel more at ease, and a glance at her companions showed that they felt much the same. But their visitor did not wait for a response before continuing, "Mordecai's actions left wounds in the world. Some have healed, some have scarred, and some are still healing but need help to keep from festering. It is one of these that I would request your assistance with. I can not say that there is an explicit obligation, but does it not feel some how unbalanced, knowing that even a small part still suffers from your husband's hubris? Would it not feel better if you acted to help restore the world?"

His words made Moriko itch in ways she couldn't describe, and she could see Kazue shift her weight as if she were dealing with a similar sensation. "What are you doing?" She asked as she tried to set her will against whatever was being done to her, but she found nothing to pit her will against.

"Me?" the dark-haired man asked with an unpleasant smile. "I am doing nothing to you, Faerie Queen. I have merely let you know the state of the world, and how it relates to you. Oh, and what I have said to you is true, I say again that I speak the truth, and now swear it thrice that my words are true. I seek your aid to help balance the damage that Mordecai caused."

There was a strange vibration to his words that made Moriko certain that the man spoke true. Her eyes widened as she worked out the cause and mentally joined Mordecai and Kazue's cores in swearing. Out loud she said through gritted teeth, "What exactly do you want?"

"It is fairly simple. I am currently helping contain and heal one of these wounds, but a certain amount of corruption has leaked out. I have managed to contain and hide that too, but that area festers; I do not have the resources to restore that land and what I am working on is more important. So I want you three to do it, you who are connected to the root cause of this. It seems fitting to me."

"Why have you waited so long to ask for help? This can't have been recent."

"No, it is not. But asking most people for help would simply be endangering more people who do not need to be endangered and are not involved. You and your wife, however, are openly tied to Mordecai, and the other carries his blood. I feel no compunction about asking you to aid in fixing his mess. Do not mistake me," the man's cold blue eyes started glowing with a blazing gold incandescence as he spoke, "This is no easy task. The contained area is full of dangerous things. And I will not allow anything or anyone to leave until the area is purged. But should you succeed and then make it to me, I might be able to offer you a different opportunity that has an aspect that could be considered a reward, though it too has its dangers. Think carefully about your choices. I take my leave, but you will be able to find the way with this."

The image shattered, but the shards collapsed down into a silvery object that upon closer inspection appeared to be a compass like object. Only, there were no markings for the cardinal directions, just simply a floating arrow in a sphere, and it was pointing into the mountains to the southeast of them.

"What in all the Divine Dragon's Glory was that about‽" asked Ruby as she looked around nervously. "Was that a dragon?"

"I think so," Moriko replied, "but can you give us a few minutes to figure this out? Kazue, could you inspect that please?" Kazue nodded and approached the compass-like object slowly, examining it carefully. Moriko trusted her wife to be better at puzzling out a magic aura's details than she would be.

While Kazue took care of that, Moriko worked on sorting out the implications of everything with the cores. By the time the stew was ready to serve, she was ready to explain in a bit more detail to Ruby. "First, the balance thing. You haven't been inflicted with faerie magic as deeply as we have. Knowing that there is an imbalance in debts owed is apparently something faeries don't do well with, especially nobility. And while it is not our debt directly, Mordecai feels that it is his debt, and our husband's debts are ours. If Mordecai sincerely thought that it was not something he should feel guilt or obligation about, then it wouldn't impact us either."

"Okay," Ruby said as she thought about it, "I guess that means you two want to follow the compass and take care of this supposed corruption? How sure you about this triple oath thing?"

"Very," groused Kazue, "I could feel it. It is related to our inability to lie now. Lying is about knowledge and intent. A casual promise is easily forgotten about, or even just change your mind about later. But if we say even a casually worded promise three times, it's sort of like making a declaration of truthful intent. It's binding in a different way than an oath to Ozuran would be. That sort of oath can be violated with a corresponding penalty. We are simply not able to violate a triple-sworn promise at all. But it also works in reverse. Say or promise something thrice, and you will be bound to it. I rang with the knowledge that his words were true. And I hope to never feel that again, that was deeply disturbing."

Moriko couldn't disagree with that at all and leaned close to give her wife a tight hug. "Yeah, the faerie powers are fun, but given the choice I'd have been happy to do without if it meant not getting the downsides. I think this might be why fey beings are often such strange flighty creatures, there are too many things that can bind them if they acknowledge them. If it's not your fault, you aren't obligated to do something about it." She looked back to Ruby and said, "By the way, he called you out as one of Mordecai's descendants. I don't think the disguise ring worked against him."

The young woman sighed and took off the ring, becoming Bridgette once more. "I guess I don't need this right now if we are going to be heading off into the mountains. You two clearly need to go, and I am not going to abandon you on this." She frowned at a thought. "I should probably make contact right now, but it doesn't feel right. I think I'll send a report at the last moment before we reach where ever. This seems like something only family should help with, so we don't want a bunch of agents or soldiers anyway and I am not going to drag my sisters or brothers into this. Oh, what about that compass?"

Kazue straightened up and Moriko let go of the hug to let her fetch the compass in question. "Well," Kazue said, "I'm pretty certain that it is just a path-finding compass. Okay, maybe not 'just'. It's attuned to someplace that is heavily warded, the enchantments look like there are a lot of conditionals and fine-tuned adjustments. I'm also pretty certain that it is designed to fall apart if poked at too hard, so I am not going to mess with finding out more. I don't want to be stuck with this itch forever and I don't get the feeling we are going to be given a second chance from that guy."

"Which is part of why Mordecai and Other Kazue both agree we should do this," Moriko said. "Not that either of them is particularly happy about it, but options are limited. That man was very deliberate in how he leaned on feelings of debt and obligation, he knew what he was doing by laying it on that way to faerie queens."

There wasn't much to discuss after that except for double-checking their supplies and readiness. In the morning they set out to follow the compass instead of the road. The needle could twist in any direction, making it easier to determine the elevation of their target location. If they walked parallel to the mountains long enough, they probably could have gotten a fair fix on where it was pointing, but that would have added significant time to their journey and based on Kazue's examination there was a reasonable chance that it was currently pointed at a waypoint instead of the final destination.

Kazue's interpretation proved correct; after two days of winding travel across unmarked land they found a sheltered valley with a mild 'don't notice me' enchantment on it, and the compass spun to point deeper into the valley. It took them another day to reach the place where a simple illusion and a stronger avoidance charm hid the entrance to a cave system.

The cave system was set up to look like someone's hidden cache, but it was certainly not a dragon's hoard. The three women ignored the minor wealth here, though it certainly made Moriko's palms itch. But she and Kazue had access to better wealth already, and Bridgette was used to greater riches than could be found here. There was no reason to upset what was clearly another layer of distraction.

It took several hours of searching to find the spot where stronger but more subtle enchantments worked to keep a small secret door hidden. The compass pointed directly at it, but the way the caverns twisted made the correct path inobvious, and even then one had to realize that an awkwardly angled crevice was a passage to reach the small chamber that held the hidden door, past one last stash of treasure.

The tunnel past the hidden door smoothed out and eventually led to a chamber with a thick-looking door with both physical and magical seals in place. A small pedestal sat to one side with a divot of the right size to hold the compass.

However, the compass pulsed after they entered the chamber and played a recording, "This is your last stop before there is no turning back. You should only place this device on the pedestal if you are prepared."

Making camp one more time was an obvious choice, they wanted to be well-rested for whatever lay beyond.