Chapter 16 - Artifacts and Amateurs

Chapter 16

Salran Mountains, Starnor Imperial Border Territories

Airah's cave

"Hey, do you have a minute?"

Airah glanced up from the grimoire at Stellyra's avatar. Decoding Malcom's notes was a pain in the ass, but every bit of it had been fascinating so far. She might not have tried to cast anything but the most simple firebolt just yet, but she was feeling more and more confident she might be able to muster a simple defence spell, barrier, in a few more days. Magic was surprisingly complicated, all things considered.

"Yes, sure. What's up?"

"Well...this." Stellyra gestured, and a graph popped up in the air.

"What....is that? Exactly?"

"That is the chart I threw up to measure how much your power was increasing. It's not a hundred percent accurate, since it's a sensation, not hard data, but...look, here." She gestured at several points where it dipped noticeably. "Those points coincide with whenever you go out hunting or such."

"Well, yes, I'm taking equipment with me."

"Yes, but not that much. Here, look, the same drops before the raid on the large bandit camp was much lesser. Almost unnoticeable in fact."

"Ah. Are you saying I'm taking something that is generating a giant amount of energy with me?"

"Yes. And something we got from the bandit camp. I know, not that important yet -we haven't seen much of an effect of that vaunted 'power', despite you taking it from a great deal many bandits-, but it's worth investigating."

"Sure." Airah set the grimoire aside, and sat up. "Let's test each item from the bag one by one, the bow, the crossbow, ect."

"That might take a while."

"We have time." Airah stretched. "And I need to move around a bit anyway, stretch my wings, that kind of things."

"Right. And hunt more goats for snacks."

Airah chuckled. She'd gotten rather fond of the critters, especially now that she had a variety of seasonings and sides to accompany their flesh with.

"That too, I suppose. Alright, let's go!"

*****

"It's the sword?" Asked Airah as she weighted the fire sword.

"Apparently so." Stellyra pointed at the chart floating in the air. "The data doesn't lie."

"Well...shit. Think it's due to the enchantments?"

"I don't see what else could cause that much of a spike."

"Any idea why?"

"No, the briefing-wait." Stellyra closed her eyes, and swore viciously, before switching to more printable invective. "Stars damn the idiots who wrote these things! Okay, I think I know. They're referred to as 'artifacts'. But apparently we draw power from that as well. Powerful items. And...precious and well known one. The latter isn't very clear."

"That's...odd."

"Once again, you're a fire breathing lizard that can magically turn into a human."

"Point taken." Airah looked down at the sword, and smiled. "Does that mean we should try channel our inner archeovist, and make our way across the planet, stealing every enchanted or well known object we come across?"

"Like that metal guy from that miniature wargame you kept blabbing on about? I guess that could work, but we would piss a lot of people off."

"Fair." Airah looked around at her cave. "Still, if this simple sword gives off that much energy....it might be more worth it to focus on artifacts rather than currency to grow stronger."

"Probably yeah. Feeling like opening a museum?"

Airah chuckled.

"I was more thinking about an arsenal actually. A very, very big arsenal."

"I can get behind that."

"Of course you can, the only thing you love more than teasing me is heavy weapons."

"Hey, I was built as a Devourer AI, liking firepower is more or less part of the job description."

"I never said I was complaining. Anyway, do you think we should leave the sword here from now on?"

Stellyra shook her head.

"Like I said, it doesn't seem to be doing much just yet. Probably better to insure your security first. Besides, using it to take out bandits will bring greater profits, which will enable us to kill bandits more effectively..."

"Until we run out of bandits."

"So far, this are seems to be having the opposite problem."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to remedy that then. So, how about a recon flight? All of this running around has gotten me bored."

*****

Airah carefully parted the bush's branches, and gazed at the half dozen bandits. George had been right, there were smaller groups working their way around now. And they seemed vastly less competent than the others. Their ambush was so badly set up she'd spotted it from high altitude!

It was a simple matter to sneak up on them. They weren't even bothering to watch their backs or set some guards, they were wholly focused on the road, with a couple closer to the road whispering excitedly. Airah reached for her bow, then hesitated as she looked at the bandits. She could just shoot them...but they were so incompetent she might be able to take down two of them silently.

What are you waiting for? Asked Stellyra over the mind link.

I'm going to try to take some of them out silently. Hand to hand.

You're not James Bond.

No, but it'll be good training. And worse comes to worse I can still shoot them.

Fair enough.

Airah started creeping forward, sneaking behind the closest bandit. She stopped, close enough to poke the woman's back...and struck like a serpent, suddenly reaching up and covering the woman's mouth, and grabbing her throat.

The bandit tried to scream as Airah crushed her throat, and trashed around briefly, before going limp. Airah set her body on the ground, and began moving towards the next bandit.

This time she decided not to take as many risk, and the bandit only felt a stab of pain as she rammed one of the daggers she'd recovered through his neck. This time he simply fell like a puppet with its strings cut, which in a way it was, and Airah caught him, before lowering him onto the ground.

She started moving forward again...and of course it was precisely at that moment that what probably passed as their leader looked back to check on his minions.

He frowned as he saw nothing, then his eyes went wide in alarm as he saw the two bodies...and glazed over into oblivion as Airah's arrow pierced his skull, killing him instantly.

This time the twang of the bow and the crash of the body were more than audible, and all three bandits scrambled, drawing their weapons. Airah leapt into action, and cut the nearest bandits' arm with her dagger, making the woman drop her sword with a cry of pain, before slashing her throat.

Airah left the bandit to choke on her own blood, and moved towards another...before jerking and almost falling down, screaming in pain as the arrow hit her shoulder. She turned her gaze towards the archer, and simply threw her dagger.

The dagger hit hilt first, causing the archer to stumble, shaking his head. But that instant of distraction was all Airah needed, and as the archer drew his bow back once more, Airah finished incanting, and the firebolt leapt from her hands.

The archer fell down, his torso incinerated.

Airah looked around for the other bandit...and saw her throw down her weapons and get on her knees.

"I-I surrender! D-Don't kill me!" She cried out, shakingly holding her hands up in the air.

Well, that's a new one. Said Airah through the mind link.

Hardly surprising though. I think she realized she couldn't run when you cast firebolt.

Fair enough, I suppose.

"Alright, I'll spare your life." Said Airah as she smiled at the young woman. "But if you so much as try to stick a knife into my back, or run away, you'll share your comrades' fate, understood?"

"Y-Yes! I-I understand!"

"Good." Airah looked at the bodies around them, and sighed internally.

Well this was a chore. She said over the mindlink, wincing slightly as she touched her wounded shoulder. The arrow had only been a glancing hit -thank the stars-, but it still hurt like a bitch. I don't think they'll even have much worth looting. They don't even have armor!

Yeah. They seem more like common looters and rabble rather than true bandits. But what the hell are they doing there then? Isn't this region supposed to be dangerous? I mean hell, the wolves attacked us without hesitation!

Agreed. Which means that something is pushing, or luring, them here. Airah turned towards her newly acquired prisoner, and knelt in front of her.

"Tell me my friend, what were you and your friends doing here?"

The young woman looked terrified for a second, and rallied.

"I'm your prisoner, but I don't have to tell you anything, and betray my friends."

Airah sighed.

"Wrong answer."

It was a simple slap, but it carried enough force to throw the woman down to the ground.

"Alright, I'll ask you again. Then I will stop being gentle." Said Airah as she knelt over the bandit's fallen form. "What the hell were you and your buddies doing there?"

"I won't tell you any-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Airah stepped back, releasing the woman's now broken arm.

"Answer my question, or by the time I turn you in you'll be a fucking torso."

"A-Alright! Alright! Fuck! That hurts!" Yelled out the bandit as she held her broken arm. It was, as far as such things went, fairly merciful. Broken arms healed fairly well, and Airah had made the break as clean as she could.

She wasn't above torturing prisoners -stars knew her journals were fairly clear about that-, but there was no reason to be unprofessional or unecessarily cruel about it. Plus, torturing humans made her slightly uneasy. The genocidal xenos from the Conclave, sure, but however much of a scumbag that woman was, they were still of the same species.

Or rather, used to be. It was hard not to think of herself as human anymore.

"Okay, then, start talking."

"We...we're from Alterande." At Airah's gaze of incomprehension, the bandit sighed. "It's the city, Republic side of the border? We were a gang back there. Small turf, but we were surviving. And then there started being rumors. Some of the bandit clans and even the larger gangs were moving out. Rumor was they were making a fortune raiding the Empire. And then we got an offer. No idea who it was from, but we got offered a fence and some gold if we got our asses there and started raiding. So we did." She held her hands up. "We haven't attacked anyone yet, promise!"

"That I don't doubt. Your ambush was so bad even a deaf and blind moron could have figured it out."

That made the bandit color sightly, but she held her peace.

"Well, anyway, we got the gold, bought some supplies, and moved here. We came across a lot of gangs we knew doing the same, and even got stopped by one of the proper bandit clan once, but they let us through."

"What about the border? How did you slip through it?"

The bandit started laughing.

"Slip through what? The Republic's old outposts can't even see each other, and they barely bother patrolling anymore. And the Empire has never bothered going beyond its villages. There is no 'border', no one even knows where the Republic ends and the Empire begins here!"

Airah winced internally. That was...potentially a problem. Border disputes like that rarely ended in anything but bloodshed. And with someone offering bandits and gangs money to come raid the Empire....Oh yeah, it was starting to paint a picture she really wasn't liking.

"I see. Well, that is fascinating, and I am sure that the guard will have a fair bit more questions for you. Notably about those other bandit groups and such." Airah looked at the bandit and sighed. The woman looked pitiful, cradling her arm. She could just drag the woman like this to the city, but the bandit had answered her questions. "Alright, let's get you a splint, and then we'll go to Kaisersgrenze."

"The Imperial city?" The bandit suddenly looked worried. "They won't just execute me, right?"

"Not my problem. But no, I don't think so. But I doubt you're going to have a pleasant next few years." Airah gestured at the bodies around them as the bandit opened her mouth to protest. "Unless you prefer the alternative of course."

The bandit's mouth closed with a snap, and she looked around, before nodding meekly.

Airah sighed, and went to loot the other bandits, before looking for the necessary parts to make a splint. Kaisersgrenze wasn't far, but she really hated walking. It was going to be a pain in the ass, especially if she had to drag a prisoner with her all the way.

Well, at least she'd gotten more intel, that was something. She might not like what picture that intel was painting, but at least she had a better idea of what the hell was going on.