49 - Case One Closed Pt. 2 [Cherno]

Once more, the saurian looked to Krahe.

“Alright, I get it, I get it, let’s go sit down and you can explain.”

“We don’t have the time. What we need are your services as a pawnbroker. I intend to recover the Silberblut Coupler, and Lady Blackhand has agreed to assist in the endeavor. She is, however, in no state to venture where we must go,” Casus refused.

“I need heavier firepower,” she shortened it.

“Fine, come,” he said, leading them down to his pawnshop in his robe. He locked the door behind them, both on the way out of his apartment and once they entered the store.

A frustrated groan came from Garvesh as he entered behind the counter.

“I dunno, look, I figured it’d take you a couple days at least to get him, so I didn’t have time to prep a proper reward. Besides, unless I know what actually went down, I’ve got no way to account for hazard pay or other complications…” the pawnbroker grumbled, looking over his own shelves as if he didn’t know their contents top to bottom, left to right.

“Garvesh, she-” Casus began, but Krahe interrupted him.

“-wiped out a Hashem prison to get him out safely, and I accepted his contract to retrieve that precious belt of his. You made the deal. Now pay your dues.”

“Alright, fine! Give me a second. Fuckin’ talk at me like she’s a void demon askin’ for a virgin sacrifice or someshit…” the pawnbroker turned to leave into the backroom.

“Hey, Garvesh! Something from down under!” Casus requested, prompting an annoyed, yet affirmative grunt from the lizard before he vanished into the back room. Half a minute of rummaging later, he returned bearing a heavy box lined with thick plates of dark metal. He opened it, revealing a second, smaller case of the same sort lined in bronze, with a small window that revealed within a green bangle. It absolutely seethed with magic, and its surface swirled eye-pulling shades of impossible colour. The bangle dragged to the forefront of her mind that mental image; the nauseating, wound-like grin.

“It’s jadeite-based Thaumstone, Archonforged. One guy brought it back after the big fuckoff Archon Flash in Jas’raba a couple weeks back. Hasn’t been attuned yet, so there’s no telling what it’ll do. Put it on and funnel some Thauma into it. The kenomaic magic inside will resonate with yours and collapse into a stable enchantment, ‘least that’s how it’s supposed to work. As y’can see it’s just spittin’ Vril every-which way… But that’s why I’m offerin’ it to you. A bit of lower-order thaumic radiation won’t be a problem for a big bad anathemist, no? Seriously, this thing is worth a small fortune, but the only people that would pay what it’s worth won’t even bat an eye at me.”

“Ever the pawnbroker. Casus, I’ll trust your judgment on this one. I figure your eye has stronger Appraisal than my glasses.”

“Open the case,” the Banisher said. The saurian cracked the inner case’s lid, leaning away as to not get irradiated. Even Casus himself seemed a touch taken aback, and for good reason; the power flooding out of that crack was palpable. Krahe felt her Wards agitating as they worked to block out the encroaching force. It wasn’t Anathema; this energy carried none of the sickly radiance, and it wasn’t nearly as dense or energetic. If Anathema could be considered gamma radiation, then this was probably equivalent to alpha radiation.

“Alright, close it, close it!” he exclaimed, turning to Krahe. “ Yes, I am certain that it is a legitimate Archonforged artifact.”

Krahe gave the banisher a dubious look, a tacit question of: “You sure?”

“I am certain it will be fine, most Archonforged artifacts give off dangerous amounts of raw Thauma before the first attunement.

“That’s nice of you to say,” she said facetiously, “but do you want me to grab it out of the case here and now?”

Both Casus’ and Garvesh’s eyes widened, the scales around the lizard’s neck bristling up as he slammed the case shut and pulled it away, just out of her reach.

“I have an old shielded shipping container for hazardous materials in the back, do it in there. C’mon, I’ll show you. Just don’t touch anything. And take the case,” he said, gesturing for her to get behind the counter and follow him into the back storage room.

He led her back there, her hands occupied by the horrendously heavy case. Anyone else’s eyes would’ve glazed over at the vast and eclectic array of goods, which included sealed-up, shriveled Banisher corpses, but Krahe had seen weirder. Most of what she saw had no meaning to her to begin with. The Dregstrider was there, standing next to a far larger tank which could probably hold at least twenty gallons, but was only one-fifth of the way full, with pearlescent white fumes swirling about in the empty space.

“Here.”

Garvesh’s position and gesture led her gaze to a tarnished container barely large enough to have fit through the door, but also small and cramped for any human. It was like a rectangular, metal coffin.

“I will shut it behind you, only then can you open the case. Understood?”

“Don’t even think about trying to trap me or anything of the sort.”

“I’m neither suicidal, nor do I desire to have my storeroom fried with anathema. Get in.”

She did as he asked, albeit somewhat reluctantly. The inside of the storage container immediately began agitating her wards once the door was closed, ambient anathema slowly eating away at them. Krahe set down the case, opening it, instantly feeling her wards being eaten away by the deluge of lower-order radiation.

Krahe took the bangle in hand, feeling the thrumming burn of its otherworldly - or rather, unworldly - magic. Her glasses just threw up a big, flashing “ARCHONFORGED ERROR” in the corner of her field of vision, and neither could she discern even the faintest hint of what might be the true nature of this magic. Looking at a voidkey had quickly given her a clear pattern for how a voidkey’s passive emissions tend to feel to that strange extra sense for thauma which she seemed to possess. This, by comparison, was like looking into everswirling, bottomless waters.