The world turned black and white as Jay saw through the eyes of Dark, using the host skill.
Dark was much shorter than the higher level skeletons, and it only made Hegatha’s body look more giant and mountainous. Unfortunately, the giant moles and warts on her body were easier to see with Dark’s shade vision.
Hegatha didn’t notice Jay’s presence while hosting Dark’s body, even as he turned its head around, scanning the room.
Broken pieces of pottery had been swept into a corner, and Jay could tell it came from smashed clay jars, as many of them were still standing around the room in the corners, along the walls, and on shelves lining every surface.
Why would she need… hundreds of clay jars? Jay thought. He knew she kept her food in glass jars upstairs, so his only guess was that these were for spell ingredients.
Either that or she has a pottery hobby.
As for spells, Hegatha was chanting something as she sat before the stone altar holding an amber sphere; a breaking shard.
This strange altar was the only thing in the room apart from a mirror on the wall and hundreds of clay jars covering the walls.
Jay watched as Hegatha continued to chant, and the mirror teleport flickered. Some leaves appeared from the mirror and coated the amber sphere.
As she brought the leaf-covered ball closer to the altar, the leaves began to steam. She placed it down as the leaves sizzled, the amber shard melted with the leaves and Hegatha leaned closer as a string of smoke began to rise.
The amber fluid melted a chunk out of the altar, and together they both disappeared, leaving no liquid behind. It was like it had become one of the acid-filled shards that Jay had scavenged.
The smoke changed from a thick whiteness to a blueish glow of mana released from the melted dent, and before it could float too far Hegatha suddenly breathed it in deeply, taking a deep breath and not letting any escape. She sat there for a while, holding her breath as it absorbed through her lungs.
Dark tilted its skull to the side, Jay watching through its eyes, both of them curious about what would happen next.
Hegatha leaned back from the alter, gasped for breath, then took out another amber shard and began chanting whatever spell or manacraft this was supposed to be. Without must rest she repeated the process.
Jay turned to the mirror on the wall. It was more interesting than whatever this ritual was, and Hegatha still had fifty of the orbs to get through.
Dark stepped closer to the mirror, its nimble steps silent in the underground room.
The mirror, which was a two-way teleport between the shack above, was a special one. In its reflection Jay could see a larger skeleton standing over an old table with a noonleather blanket on it; Sweeper and Asra. But what made it special was how it teleported.
Around the edges of the mirror were a series symbols, and the only one that was different was one at the top, a triangle with a vertical line going through it with a circle on top of the line.
Runes? Jay wondered.
Two other triangles were etched into the wall but were faded and empty. Obviously, the mirror-teleporter didn’t need whatever those ones did.
Well, since I have the time. I might as well…
Using Dark’s eyes, Jay committed these strange symbols to memory, hoping they were runes and not some other kind of magic-resonating language.
He returned to his body and began to scratch his gauntlet’s claw into his desk, etching down as much as he could before venturing back into Dark’s body to record more of them.
Each time he came back, he added more of the symbols to his desk. Jay began to notice some repeating symbols, then after a few trips he found that they were in sets of seven, repeating around every side of the oval mirror. As he went around he found that these sets were all the same, all seven symbols the same except for one at the bottom, which was an infinity symbol with a vertical line through it; almost like two balls on either side of a mirror. ∞
The infinity symbol and the triangle symbol were the only ones that weren’t in the repeating sets of seven, meaning Jay only needed to copy nine unique symbols in total.
At first, Jay was copying the mirrors shape when he etched away, but decided not to complete it after he found the pattern. After scratching the infinity symbol into his desk, along with a set of seven, and the triangle symbol at the top, Jay leaned back, scratching his chin. He turned to the black orb on his desk, Leeches.
“Leeches, you said you can read runes?”
“Yes, Jay.” The little black orb said.
“So, are these runes?” Jay said, tapping his desk.
A small part of the cube raised up with a tiny round hole in it. But what it said next made Jay frown.
“Error. Occipital functions degraded. Vision failed. Repairing…”
With a sigh, Jay closed his eyes and leaned his head back in his chair.
“How long until you fix your vision?”
“…”
“Hello? Leech?”
“Vision… 3% repaired. 100% repair requires additional mana. Must suspend memory recall and repair.”
Jay plucked up the talking orb, and it closed its single eye-port. He stepped outside and handed it to Red.
(All your mana. Now.) Jay pointed.
Jay would have done it himself but was low after crafting four wall panels, a floor panel, a ramp and everything else in the bone room. Not to mention the host skill, which burned through mana.
Red plunged its sword into the earth and clutched the orb. A cloud of mana appeared and quickly mixed into the orb, its surface becoming clear for a moment.
(Good.) Jay nodded at Red, taking the orb back.
“Now, what percent are you?” Jay asked Leech.
“3% repaired. Current mana reserves are sufficient for the entire process.”
“Tell me when you’re done.” Jay said.
A watched pot never boils. Jay thought, pursing his lips as he went back inside. He placed it back on his desk, leaving it be for now.
With a desk to study at and time to kill, Jay decided to make the most of these few quiet moments, making the most of his short time here. He took out something he had been saving for a while, and began to study.
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