Fresh from his dream, his time with Poppy had only reminded him how much he missed her and how good her presence felt to his soul. No matter how real the Dreaming was, no matter how clearly he could feel her, the moment it ended, he was left with the ache of knowing she was still halfway across Fate and years still from reunion. It was a similar feeling with Raven, softened only by the fact he was far closer to meeting her again. According to his own schedule, it would be weeks at most before he had enough mana to forcefully summon her from outside of Fate.
As for Merin, Ori couldn’t help but smile at the memory. Brought up as a farmer’s daughter in a remote village, the gap between who she still thought she was and what she’d become was no less apparent in the astral. He’d teased her until her pouting and endearing whines of frustration had nearly killed him from sheer cuteness, but he’d also learned more about her past and what she’d endured over the last few days.
She was just outside the capital now, after a slow march along the outskirts and trade roads that had been less an escort and more a parade: past the pillorying of abusive crowds, and through tense standoffs with dangerous bands between towns weighing up whether to fight her guards for the captured prize. Merin asked about his past, and Ori answered, keeping most details vague, mentioning that until recently, he’d been an unremarkable mortal man, then he’d been abducted by demons and escaped through luck and grit, and how he was now a mage who specialised in healing, but was now strong enough to help her and her family. She asked about his family, his bonds, and what they were to him, and he told her without hesitation.
He told her he had one more thing to do before he reached Dremsway, then ended the dream with an impulsive request: a kiss. His excuse was simple. He’d kissed her dragon form, so it felt only right to kiss her human form too. To Ori’s surprise, Merin agreed, on the condition that he’d stop teasing her. Ori compromised, promising to tease her half as often as before. With a scowl, she accepted.
He kissed her and held it long enough for her to realise that this wasn’t meant to be a quick peck. Long enough for her to respond. For her to moan, and for her lips, inexperienced as they were, to find a rhythm with his own. Their Bond of Fidelity tightened with the contact, the connection sharpening with every astral heartbeat, right up until the dream faded before the kiss could end.
With the fading memory of that moment lingering, Ori returned to a reality no less inviting. He blinked up at a sight fit for sore eyes: Ruenne’del, pink-haired and smug in a satiny nightdress, perched upon his abdomen as if she owned him. Meanwhile, Tess sat on the edge of the bed with a soft smile, holding Seraphine’s Beacon as Freya perched atop a piece of furniture that looked like something Rue had dragged in from Straffhollow.
“What?” he groaned.
“It definitely suits him,” Tess said from the side.
“Your idea was good,” Rue added.
“But did you really need to take so much of mine? I’m not exactly one of his—” Freya mewled.
“Shh, you! I, for one, am jealous I couldn’t partake,” Seraphine said.
“What’s going on?” Ori asked with a smile, his heart full.
“It was Tess’s idea,” Freya said.
“Hey! I only mentioned it in passing. I didn’t mean for you to do it just like that,” Tess said.
That was when Ori felt it, a strange tug on the right side of his scalp. He reached up and found several fine braids dangling there in a sharp contrast to his usual unruly mess of afro hair.
“He was so deep in sleep. Completely defenceless. It was hard to resist.” Ruenne’del explained.
“Here.” Tess tentatively handed him a silver mirror, letting him inspect their handiwork. “Rue did most of it. She used glamour to straighten your hair, then cut strands of our own to plait into your braids. It’s called a lover’s braid. It’s a style some men on Twilight use to… well, show their devotion to their lovers.”
Three braids, each pencil-thick and with different lengths. Each had two plaits: one of his own dark hair, straightened, and one braided with strands from his bonds. Ruenne’del’s vivid fuchsia was as eye-catching as Tess’s flaxen-blonde. The third braid, the shortest at barely an inch and a half, was intertwined with a silky navy hair that almost disappeared beside the brighter colours. Still, Ori touched it with reverence as he studied their handiwork in the mirror.
He looked at the pixie in question. She met his gaze with a defiant glare, cheeks flushed.
Ori decided not to question it and simply smiled in acceptance.
“Devotion?” Ori nodded slowly. “They do look nice. Thank you,” he said at last, before his smile turned dangerous as he remembered the events of the previous afternoon. “Now, let me show you just how appreciative… and devoted I am, yeah? And show you that while I might be outnumbered, I’ll never be outmatched.”
Spectral hands grasped Tess’s wrists, pinning them to the bed and drawing a yelp from the elf. Ori sat up, pushing a wide-eyed Rue off him and onto the mattress, before stripping off his top and jeans as he casually loomed over his Leanan Sídhe.
“Ori!” Tess cried out with an exasperated squeal, squirming as she shuffled away towards the edge of the bed. “It wasn’t… I didn’t…”
“A certain faerie princess clearly needs some attention, and a certain elf likes to watch and isn’t averse to getting involved.” Ori looked to Freya, then to Seraphine’s Beacon clutched in Tess’s grip. “As for the rest of you, you’ve got three choices: stay and watch, stay and help, or leave.”
“Oooh, you’re inviting me to help?” Seraphine called out, while Freya watched nervously, biting her lip as she weighed her options.
“You’re always invited, Sera,” Ori said. He spun Ruenne’del onto her front, reached for her pink pigtails, and wrapped them around his hand, pulling until she rose to her knees. He felt her exhilaration over the bond as he drew out the motion, his other hand sliding down to hook her silken panties, dragging them down until they pooled at the base of her thighs.
“Hmmm… perhaps I’ll just watch, for now,” Seraphine decided.
“And you?” Ori asked.
“It’s nothing I’ve not seen already. Just get it over and done with,” Freya said, her tone reflecting frustration rather than resignation.
Turning away, he appreciated Rue’s bare bottom before him, a perfect expanse of pale, blemish-free skin. Her buttocks were pebbled with goosebumps, and he noted the streak of excitement dripping down the inside of her thigh. She had missed him, and the braids had been her way of showing what she would have otherwise struggled to vocalise.
He slapped her, hard, the action a reward as much as a punishment. His clear intention had built over the bond to the point that when he finally struck, Ruenne’del gasped and then moaned, her weight pushing back into his hand as his palm traced soothing circles over the rising red mark.
Spectral hands dove into her nightie to cup her breasts, pinching her tiny, cherry-pink nipples as he lined the tip of his cock against her and pressed.
A tight, swampy heat engulfed him. His cock sank an inch before he pulled back and pressed in deeper. Ruenne’del tried to push against him, forcing him to go deeper still, but spectral hands far stronger than his physical ones held her firm, pressing into the soft globes of her backside. The sensation transmitted by the ghostly appendages felt just as real as his own touch.
His pace was deliberately slow and teasing. He bent his will toward controlling himself just as much as the fairy, absently realising that if he did have a natural preference on the sadist-masochist spectrum, he was firmly on the dominant side.
A gasp drew his attention to Tess. Her legs rubbed together as she watched, red-faced, wide-eyed, and sweaty. Turquoise eyes met his, and within them was a request she found hard to voice, one Ori found hard to parse.
“What is it?” Ori all but growled as his thrusts came harder, slapping into the soft cheeks of the fairy; her breathy moans turned louder and more wanton.
“I’m… I’m hot.” Tess gasped.
In response, phantom hands rolled up her white knitted woollen sweater, revealing a grey wrap around her chest that was soon unwrapped and discarded. Reach of the Progenitor worked in tandem with Arcane Hands to disrobe her, even as he steadied the willful faerie’s hips and pinned Tess’s wrists to the bed.
Slowly, he unbuttoned and pulled off her shorts, leaving the tomboy elf completely bare. Her dainty feet and impossibly long, shapely, lightly tanned legs drew his eyes to her hairless, reddened sex, swollen with lust, one she urgently tried to attend to with squirming thighs. Her torso was narrow and toned, with just the faintest definition in her abs highlighting a tall, runner’s physique. Her chest featured two larger-than-expected breasts, ones too large to be called modest, with pale, almost invisible nipples hardening in the cool air of the cabin. Her turquoise eyes held a look that was one part glare and another part pleading, as if her current state were entirely his fault and it was his responsibility to rectify it.
It was, and he would, but only on his terms.
As a spectral hand gently cupped her quim, a finger slid inside to draw out more of the wetness within. She gasped, then groaned, her thighs alternating between squeezing and opening as her hips thrust forward, frustrated by his slow, deliberate pace. Ori’s finger traced her lower labia before circling her clitoris, deliberately edging the elf, who lay helpless and entirely at his mercy.
“Mhmmm, I need more,” Ruenne’del groaned, drawing his attention back to the fairy. Instead of answering aloud, Ori sent his intentions through their bond: his desire for a slow, sensual build towards a climax that would have everything he had to give. Without changing his rhythm, Ori felt her shudder around him. Her wings vibrated, and her skin flushed crimson at her neck and ears as a small, involuntary orgasm washed over her, triggered only by the strength of his feelings through the bond.
Rue jerked in surprise as Ori slapped her ass just as hard as before.
“That’s for coming waaay too early,” Ori said, pulling the fairy up by her pigtails, her back arching as he resumed his slow, shallow thrusts.
“Can you… Ori, I need release,” Tess called from the other side of the bed.
“You hear that, Rue? Maybe you could help,” Ori murmured into the fairy’s ear.
“Make me,” Ruenne’del growled.
“Alright then,” Ori replied. He thrust forward, driving deep into her pussy as he pushed her towards the end of the bed where Tess waited, the naked elf panting, watching Ori wheelbarrow the petite fairy closer, his cock still buried inside as more phantasmal hands appeared, working to spread Tess’s legs.
“What?” Tess gasped, her eyes wide as Ruenne’del’s face was brought down to her sex.
Without waiting for Rue, Ori thrust harder, his pace quickening, Tess writhing against his grip and Rue’s outstretched tongue. His own release built within him, overwhelmed by the flood of sensations, his five senses, the emotions over the bond, and their auras, each resonating, their souls uniting, lost in the rush of flesh, desire, and longing.
“Aahnnggng! Oh spirits. I’m going to…” Tess cried as she climaxed against Ruenne’del’s mouth. Ori pulled Rue up by her braids, his thrusts growing frantic as he let go, glamour and mana boiling in his gut, his need to fill her with everything he had building until it burst.
Ori saw stars as he came, pumping into the now convulsing Leanan Sídhe. Knowing how his glamour combined with his seed affected her, he’d spent considerable effort concentrating it, making it more potent than before. He held the ass of the trembling woman as she crested, his cock endlessly twitching inside her, dragonfly wings beating wildly as if trying to escape. Through the bond, he felt her shatter with a wild euphoria before her body went limp, mind falling into a deep unconsciousness.
With care, Ori pulled out, laying her drooling, cum-stained, comatose form beside a still-panting Tess.
Not finished with the elf, Ori crawled over, leaned in and kissed her, his hand moving across her naked body, mapping her smooth, perfect legs, cupping her ass, her breasts, her nipples, as his kisses trailed from her mouth to her jaw, neck, and ears, ending with a nibble at the tips of her pointed ears.
“Mhmmm,” Tess moaned into his mouth as his lips returned, his fingers strumming her clit, harder and faster, her back arching as her freed hands wrapped around him. “Oh spirits, Ori.”
“Come for me, Tess. Come for me, my Captain,” Ori whispered, breaking the kiss. As he kissed her again, Ori cast his spell, Trial of Radiance, transforming their Bond of Fidelity, expanding the bridge between their souls.
“Ori!” Tess screamed as she came, her body drenched in light.
The Vision of the Progenitor allowed him to see the changes in real time as a deluge of his Peritia and Aether inflated her soul, transforming her and expanding her abilities along paths that might have taken months, if not years, to reach had she been Awakened. Yet she remained mortal, every part of her enhanced, with new spells and abilities she’d need to master before her trial.
Once more, Ori carefully laid another of his bonds to rest as her body and magic were fundamentally rewritten.
“Goodness, never outmatched indeed! Just what did you do to them, dear?” Seraphine called out.
Ori shrugged, suppressing a satisfied grin.
“I guess Rue really likes me. I just used glamour to put as much… well, me… as I could, into my cum.” Ori shook his head. “I don’t really understand the fae, or her, really, but if it works, it works. As for Tess, that was Trial of Radiance.”
“Is that the special spell you made to turn mortals into Irregulars?” Seraphine asked.
Ori nodded. “Yeah. Decided it was time. Didn’t know what effect it would have, but figured, if it was like most of my Bondweaver magic, doing it here and now would be for the best.”
“It seems like your instincts were right. Do you think it’ll be enough?”
“Hopefully. If not, with some of the enchantments I plan to make, she should be ready to face whatever’s been amassing in the valleys, or at least come out of it alive.”
Ori stood from the bed and faced the were-pixie. Freya sat cross-legged on the edge, hands flat on the dresser, a posture that might have seemed composed if not for her red face and sweat-soaked hair.
“Are you done?” Freya said, her tone imperious, eyes sweeping over his naked form before meeting his own.
“I am, if you are,” Ori smirked.
“Purifying Light, cast it on me. There’s someone you need to meet.”
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“Oh?” Ori said, curious, summoning Seraphine’s beacon from the elf’s grasp, before casting the spell on the pixie. Light washed over her, and in a moment, any lingering dirt, sweat or other bodily fluids were purified from his familiar’s clothes and skin.
“She’s downstairs,” Freya said, one eyebrow arched as she gave him a reproachful look.
Ori halted as he caught the woman sitting primly on his sofa. She was an older woman, a sylvan high elf given her physical traits of wavy brown hair, pointed ears, and an aura of a powerful Awakened at the Sovereign Rank, one with a substantial blanket of Grace surrounding her. Despite the thickness of the layer of Grace relative to anything Ori had seen recently, it was still hundreds of times less than the one that covered Harriet.
“You are much younger than I expected,” she said as she rose. Her tone was more curious than provocative despite her words.
“Hi. I am Ori.”
“Ah, yes, my manners… I am Caoimhe Niamhán, Tess’s instructor.”
Ori nodded. “Nice to meet you, Caoimhe. Had I known you had been waiting—”
“Yes… Well, it was… useful to understand the… nature of the relationship between all of you.” Her eyes darted to the stairs. “Will my charge be joining us?”
“She is… they are asleep, at least for now.”
“I see.”
“You say you’ve been teaching Tess?”
“Ah, yes, mostly leadership on and off the field, scouting, strategy, tactics, communication and command. The first days were mostly lectures, then we spent the rest of the week putting the lessons into practice by scouting the demons gathering in the lower reaches. I must admit, even for me, that is a formidable host of demons. The fairy told me,” she leaned in, continuing with a hushed whisper, “after I signed a contract backed by the Library of Fate, no less, that you… are an entity of power, and can empower them to be strong enough to face these demons?”
“I am, and, for Tess, I have.”
“Have? Already? Is that… I see,” Caoimhe murmured to herself. “And what of the fae?”
“She is likely something close to an entity in her own right.” Ori shook his head, then frowned, seeing the doubt clear in her eyes. “You need a demonstration?”
“I would appreciate some reassurance, Yes” Caoimhe asked, straightening.
“What do you suggest?”
“Your aura, I believe, you have managed to suppress it?”
Ori nodded.
“Then simply ceasing its suppression should suffice.”
Ori released a bemused grunt before pulsing his domain to scan the surrounding region. He caught her visible flinch before all colour drained from her face.
Sparks crackled around him as Aura of the Progenitor, Will of the High Human, and the full weight of his Presence was unmasked, causing the Sovereign High Elf’s knees to buckle until she sat back on the sofa in a heap.
“Satisfied?” Ori asked. When he received a nod from the dazed high elf, Ori restored his presence mask and dispelled his aura. For a moment, Ori feared his display would have sparked yet another Taurna’diem in the female elf. However, as Ori searched his soul for the familiar sensation, he released a relieved breath. While pretty, even for an elf, her visible signs of ageing, along with her rank of awakening, suggested she was truly ancient and far older than almost everyone Ori had met.
She swallowed several times as she tried to recover her voice as Ori moved to sit on the sofa opposite hers.
“Who?” she gasped at last.
“Do you really need to know?” Ori asked, fetching a glass from his void storage ring and pouring water from a similarly retrieved enchanted canteen before handing it over.
Caoimhe accepted the glass and took a drink before continuing, more quietly. “No, I suppose not… but it would put this old matron’s mind at rest.”
“No, it really won’t,” Ori said with a dark chuckle.
“I have lived through mortal lifetimes beyond counting, and these old eyes have beheld more than most dare name. Yet seldom have I witnessed anything so unsettling as what you just… loosed. Now I fear that if I do not ask, I shall regret my silence for all my remaining days.”
Ori sighed. “Alright, then. Take a look.” He sent over the full details of his Bondweaver, Du?list, Progenitor, and High Redeemer accolades.
“Spirits. I…” Caoimhe gasped again as she read. “To think the High Queen and you… Bondweaver, Demon Bane… to think they and the High Human are one and the same. Spirits. My goodness.”
Ori gave her time to process it, knowing the revelations would raise a host of implications he’d be keen to hear from her now that he’d shown his hand. After several minutes, with Ori clarifying and confirming a handful of questions, Caoimhe regained the dignified air of a senior instructor.
“What, exactly, are your intentions for the elven race?” she asked, her tone serious, with a cautious edge that suggested she was speaking to someone powerful enough to warrant it.
“I’ve got no intentions beyond looking after the people I love. If Harriet or Poppy wants my help, I’ll help them. Beyond that, I’ve no interest in Briar politics or elven society.”
“Poppy too?” Caoimhe gasped as another realisation dawned. “Who else knows?”
“My bonds, lovers and familiars. Tess’s parents, A few other entities—artefact spirits mostly. At least one Librarian. Maybe a few others under oath.”
“Librarian?”
“I made a deal with one of them to hide my name in the announcement to Fate after my evolution,” Ori said.
“How many High Humans are there? And will they all be as… powerful as you?”
“For now, I’m the only one,” Ori said, watching the silent calculation in her eyes. Her atavistic urge to flee or fight with caution and reason, and something darker besides, warring deep within her. A belief that if she ended him here, perhaps she could avert a future calamity for her race. “But yes, they’ll be powerful, precisely because the bar to evolve is so high. And with no Altus Progenitus, I expect our numbers to remain far lower than other evolved races.”
“I see,” Caoimhe said as the tension visibly drained from her frame. “Then might I ask what your goals are, going forward?”
Ori shrugged. “Ultimately, transcendence and Immortal rank for all of my bonds. Beyond that, a bunch of short-term stuff.”
“Like what?”
“I plan to get a crafting licence from Vespasian, and likely join the Summons Guild… as a White Mage.”
“You’re a White Mage?”
“Yes.”
“And a crafter, now with a Thorncross inheritance?”
“A Wandsmith with a voidwright inheritance, yes.”
“Wandsmith… but isn’t… oh, of course. You must have learned that in Lunaesidhe,” the sylvan elf said, piecing it together. “And this conflict with the infernals?”
“It’d be nice if they no longer existed on Twilight. Beyond that, I won’t go too far out of my way to fight them.”
“Why Twilight?”
“I plan to live here for a while.”
“I see. And so this… trial for Tessalyn. You’re using it purely as an opportunity for her to awaken?”
“Not exactly. I’ve recently empowered her with something that will temporarily raise all of her characteristics to Sovereign rank. In return, it’ll prevent awakening until the spell wears off.”
“Why?”
“The hope is that when she finally awakens, she’ll do so as a powerful irregular.”
Ori watched the old elven woman closely as she leaned back, eyes distant, as if searching through old memories.
“There are some ancient tomes that describe methods like that,” Caoimhe said eventually, “though nothing confirmed or repeatable.”
“You got any suggestions?” Ori asked.
“No… no. Just do you realise what you’re sending her into? A mortal girl versus a demon horde led by a Greater Demon at Immortal rank?”
“I do.”
“Is it worth the risk? Is power so important to you?”
“It really isn’t,” Ori chuckled. “But Tess wants a trial, Rue thinks they need this trial, and so, here we are.” He glanced towards the stairs again. “Rue picked you. That means you’re either very good… or you owe her. Which is it?”
“In truth, I now owe that fairy far more than these old bones could ever repay. Regardless, I likely wouldn’t have acted if Tessalyn didn’t have that spark of potential.”
“You owe her? Rue? What did she give you?” Ori asked.
“The time and place of an opportunity I’ve been searching for, for some time.”
“You’ve found it? What was it?”
She shook her head. “I found it. A seed mutation, something of little importance to anyone but my clan and me.”
“Alright,” Ori said, deciding not to press.
“This Tessalyn… she’s to be your leader. A captain, yes?” Caoimhe said after a long pause. “She’s talented and diligent, and she thinks, with good reason now I realise, quite highly of you. To that end, I really do hope you have a plan for how she’s meant to handle the task you’ve burdened her with.”
“I can give her the tools. Empower her. But I think she needs to be the one to figure it out for this to work.”
“For her to become an irregular?”
“Yes.”
“You really think it’s possible, don’t you?”
Ori shrugged. “We can only try.”
“How does this one feel?”
It was late afternoon by the time Ori handed Tess a new prototype. A bow, the final item in her three-piece set. After his discussion with Caoimhe, he’d got to work at once, finally putting many of his ideas into practice with this new generation of enchantments.
With a far greater variety of runes, linkages, techniques, and a more complete core understanding to draw upon, Ori had poured his focus into Tess’s kit: a void soul storage ring that doubled as an arrow-spawning quiver, a cape that served as both mobility and defence, and a bow designed to let her hit far above her weight class.
Outside his cabin, Tess pulled the cordless bow until a shimmering bowstring formed between her fingers. The joy and wonder that had once lit her face had settled into a steady, happy smile after dozens of repetitions and discarded prototypes. She aimed once more and loosed a crystalline bolt that struck a distant tree with a bright flash. Crystal shards and splintered wood scattered through the forest as the base of the massive trunk shuddered and groaned from the impact.
“Perfect! It’s perfect, I love all of this so much,” Tess squealed, darting in to hug Ori once again on impulse. After a quick kiss, she jumped back, as if afraid he might take it from her.
“It’s not finished yet,” Ori chuckled. “I still need to finalise the set enchantments.”
“She’s no fool,” Caoimhe chimed in from the side. “Tessalyn knows the worth of these artefacts. To think it’s been mere months since your awakening. I almost regret not asking for an artefact for payment instead…”
“Didn’t I say it’ll be soul-bound to you forever when I’m done?” Ori asked Tess.
“Yes, but… could I hold it while you finish the enchantments, I mean?” Tess asked, suddenly sheepish.
“Sure. If you keep it steady on the table while I work, it’ll be fine. Let’s take it back inside.”
As they went, Ori felt an unexpected tightness in his chest. Eight hundred subjective days with Martel Wheeler’s wisp, and it was only now, out here in the real light, that he realised how much he missed the old man. Not as a father figure, not as a friend, not even as a true mentor, not after how transactional their early days had been. Still, he’d spent more time with Martel than anyone else in his life, and the knowledge he’d walked away with had changed everything. This unplanned, fortuitous opportunity had, in his mind, greatly improved Tess’s odds of survival, if not success. And if Martel had been the weight behind the craft, then Ruenne’del had been the timing. Her foresight had shaped the window that made all of this possible, and Ori knew he owed her more than a quiet thank you. When this was done, he’d find a proper way to repay her and to finally, truly make her his.
Another hour passed as dusk slid into evening. Caoimhe, Freya, Ruenne’del, and even Lysara gathered around Tess for the naming as Ori finished the set.
Artefact sets were more efficient to soul-bind than individual artefacts, drawing less soul capacity as a whole than they would if bonded one by one. And when multiple pieces were bonded to the same person, the harmonics between their enchantments, reinforced by sigils, could generate set effects.
The naming ceremony was where those effects would reveal themselves: emergent workings born from the set’s shared harmonics.
“It’s done,” Ori said as Taurna’diem finished binding the set to Tess’s soul. “Now, time for the naming.” His gaze moved across the women in the room. “Are… you sure you want me to do it? I don’t think I’ve ever really named anything before.”
“Yes. Please,” Tess said earnestly. She caught Ruenne’del’s nod, then added a second, quieter. “Please.”
“Alright, then. Here goes nothing,” Ori muttered. He called on the much-neglected spell Elen’urithil to name the set and the artefacts within. He channelled the harmonic affinities of Celestial, Cosmic, and Astral, then drew on his newly discovered Mandate affinity as he divined the name and qualities of the items, writing their first words onto their newly drafted Page in the Library of Fate.
Artefact Name: Captain Tess’s Curious Quiver
Type: Pinnacle-rank Void Soul Storage Ring
Characteristic Requirements: Intelligence: ≥250
Other Requirements: None
Effects: Stores items up to 500 m3 in volume. Can replicate up to 1,000 copies of any unique arrow placed within.
Description: A void soul storage ring configured as an arrow-summoning quiver. Any distinct arrow stored within becomes a “pattern” that can be copied. The ring can then spawn ten copies per minute, up to a limit of one thousand copies per unique arrow. Enchanted arrows require more time to spawn, dependent on enchantment complexity.
Artefact Name: Captain Tess’s Salt Sp?rstān
Type: Pinnacle-rank Arcane Longbow
Characteristic Requirements: Dexterity: ≥3000, Perception: ≥3000, Intelligence: ≥3000
Other Requirements: Crystal affinity
Effects: Converts mana into crystalline projectiles that shatter on impact. Tenth Mark uses harvested Peritia to damage a target’s soul once per ten confirmed kills.
Description: Captain Tess’s Salt Sp?rstān is built to eliminate priority targets. It can convert the user's mana into crystalline spear-bolts that shatter on impact, with effects determined by the channelled Crystal sub-affinity. Its kill-counting mechanic tracks confirmed kills made while the bow is wielded. On the “Tenth Mark”, it can condense Peritia into a soul-rending shaft that bypasses most physical defences to strike the target’s soul. Alongside this, it can form crystalline spear-bolts for flexible battlefield control.
Tenth Mark: After every ten confirmed kills, Captain Tess’s Salt Sp?rstān may spend a portion of the user’s Peritia to launch a soul-rending shaft that permanently damages the target’s soul, potentially reducing their threat-level by destructively rewriting their Page in the Library of Fate.
Artefact Name: Captain Tess’s Stormy Shadow
Type: Pinnacle-rank Enchanted Cape
Characteristic Requirements: Intelligence: ≥3000
Other Requirements: Storm affinity, Astral affinity
Effects: A defensive utility artefact that grants the following abilities: Lysara’s Link, Greater Feather Fall, Misty Shroud, and Storm-Step.
Description: An enchanted cape built for defence and mobility, and to support prolonged combat through access to a shared mana pool. While active, Misty Shroud makes the wearer harder to track and harder to hit, while Storm-Step provides decisive mobility for escape, flanking, or rapid repositioning.
Lysara’s Link: Grants Tess access to Lysara’s shared mana pool.
Greater Feather Fall: Enables the spell Greater Feather Fall, a mobility spell that slows the rate of falling, providing limited aerial mobility.
Misty Shroud: Enables the spell Misty Shroud, a defensive haze that reduces targeting, muffles sound, disperses magical effects, and halts incoming projectiles.
Storm-Step: Enables the spell Storm-Step, a modified version of Lysara’s transformation that allows the user to become a bolt of lightning and reappear up to one mile away, provided the destination is within line of sight.
Artefact Set Name: Captain Tess’s Marvellous Mantle
Type: Pinnacle-rank Artefact Set
Characteristic Requirements: Unknown
Other Requirements: Crystal affinity, Astral affinity, Storm
Effects: Grants Marksman’s Poise, Ranger’s Focus, and Captain’s Veil.
Description: Captain Tess’s Marvellous Mantle is a three-piece set built around a longbow, a void soul storage ring, and a cape.
Notes: Set effects scale with Tess’s Perception, Dexterity, and Will.
Set Effects: Marksman’s Poise: Passively improves aim, stability, breath control, and shot tempo.
Ranger’s Focus: While active, reduces distraction and improves strategic and tactical thinking, target prioritisation, and perception.
Captain’s Veil: Once per day, while using Stormy Shadow’s storm-step, Tess may enter an astral space between spaces for a limited period. While held, she becomes invisible, incorporeal, and highly resistant to most effects, but cannot move or otherwise interact with Fate. She may use soul-related or set-bound functions only: spawning arrows from the Quiver and firing the Bow. Ends when cancelled, after an hour, or if forced out by powerful spatial, astral or void-based effects.
“Wow,” Tess gasped.
“Spirits above,” Caoimhe whispered in awe. “No wonder… no wonder.”
Ori simply sighed as some of the stress and accumulated panic finally eased. After Ruenne’del, through Tess, had told him he could stay in the Soul Garden one day longer than planned, he’d used that last day to design Tess’s items, drawing on Martel’s extensive expertise to produce a set of artefacts worthy of his captain.
It had mostly gone to plan. Lysara had offered her own spell in place of Ori’s Radiant Step, and while her version was slightly slower than his near-instant jump, it offered far more range.
Thankfully, the change had paid off. The chance-driven set effects had come out synergistic and genuinely useful, abilities Ori had all but willed into existence through sheer will and his Mandate affinity. It had also revealed Tess’s Crystal, Astral, and Storm affinities, which, in retrospect, Ori felt were a perfect fit for the elf. With those abilities baked into such powerful soul-bound weapons, her future class and progression options had taken a massive step forward. Even as a mortal, she’d now have the means to threaten Sovereign and even Immortal rank opponents, before his own Trial of Radiant enhancements were taken into account.
Ori smiled at Tess’s joy and sent a silent thanks to the old Arch Enchanter who’d made it all possible. Then, with the night still ahead of him, he turned his attention to crafting the diagnostic tools Martel Wheeler had taught him, and to re-enchanting his Array and Dreamwalker’s Lesser Aegis to bring the full scope of his latest techniques to bear.