Vol.6 Ch.6.2 – Firepower II

“We still need to pick out some magical items for you,” I reminded Selene as we exited Hephaestus' tholos.

“Have you all picked out yours already?” she asked.

“I picked three,” Anna said.

“I picked out two,” Alisha said, “though one of them is for all of us.”

“I still need to pick out two,” Yume said.

“I picked three,” I said, then added with a wince: “And I picked one of the mythic items.”

She didn't react to that in any way, which meant I was apparently the only one seeing a problem with it.

“By the way,” Alisha said, “has anyone seen Melinoe?”

“Did we leave her in the treasury?” Anna asked, sounding sheepish.

“We did,” I said. “She was still busy looking at brooches and I didn't want to bother her. She seemed like she knew what she was doing.”

“Shall we head back then?” Athena asked.

“Yeah, let's,” I said. “And while we walk, we should discuss who gets the second mythic item.”

“I already have Hoshizora,” Yume said. “By this realm's classification it should count as a mythic item, so I'd rather one of you pick one.”

“By this realm's classification?” I asked. “Does that mean your realm knows even more powerful items?”

She nodded. “While my sword is very powerful, easily as powerful as Athena's spear, it is not the pinnacle of what I have seen.”

“How did you find a sword that powerful?” Athena asked and only then did I remember that Athena hadn't been present when Yume had told us about that. Now that I thought about it, neither had Anna.

“I mined the ore for it myself inside a dungeon,” she said. “And a divine blacksmith used it to forge a sword for me.”

“How did you get a divine blacksmith to forge you a sword?” I asked. She'd told us about it but she hadn't shared all the details. “I doubt they're all as amicable as Hephaestus.”

“I was given the chance to meet him because he knew my mother,” she said. “He had forged her a sword in the past and whatever impression she'd left was enough that he was willing to grant me an audience. He asked me to bring him ore from this dungeon, as much as I could. And in exchange he forged me a weapon.”

“Your mother is an impressive woman,” I said.

She shrugged. “For every door her name has opened for me, it has given me a dozen mortal enemies.”

I was still desperate to ask about her mother and about what she had told us but given that, even now, Yume didn't inform the others that we had talked to her mother at all, I decided to let it rest.

“So, I have a mythic item and so does Yume,” I said, pointedly changing the topic, “who should get the other one?”

“I think I'll be busy enough trying to get used to this musket,” Selene said.

“I don't think I would want to pick one,” Alisha said.

“I can't think of anything I would want,” Anna said.

“If I may make two suggestions,” Athena said and I nodded at her to continue. “You shouldn't be deciding who gets the item but what item it should be. If you see something that's perfect you will know who should get it.”

I gave her a nod.

“On top of that, you do not have to decide now. In fact, I would urge you not to decide now. The only reason Felix was so quick in picking one is because I've been agonizing over it for years already.”

I bit my lip. “So your suggestion would be that we either just happen upon the perfect item or, failing that, that we should wait until we're back from Sparta?”

“Yes,” she said. “Pick out your legendary items, get used to them and then you can decide what it is you want.”

“I think we'll do that,” I said. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear and looking away. Damn, she could be pretty cute sometimes.

**

When we made it back to the treasury I half expected to find a very annoyed Melinoe waiting for us, upset that we had just left her behind. And while we did find Melinoe waiting for us, her expression was less annoyed and more like the cat that caught the canary.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“Sorry,” I said. “What's got you in such a good mood?”

In response she showed off three identical charms. Not necklaces, like the ones I shared with my girls, but pins to be worn on clothing. They were small but pretty little things, silver filigree holding a gemstone in place. One was red, one was blue and one was green.

“Resonant charms,” she said, then waited as if anticipating our awed reaction. Unfortunately, exiting the treasury had made Athena's appraisal miracle stop working so she had to reapply it before I could see why Meli looked so smug. And when I did... Yeah, fair enough, she had every reason to be smug.

These charms were attuned to each other by law of contagion, same as the paired necklaces we wore. Alisha had once used this law of contagion to send a protective spell from her necklace to mine even though I was out of her normal casting range, saving Yume and me from a very painful death. These charms could be used for that as well, though the connection went much deeper. If they were worn by mages then the closer the mages were, the more they would enhance everyone's magic, like tuning forks resonating with each other. The effect got weaker the more distance was between these mages but, at the same time, if the distance became too great the charms would instead allow communication between them, letting them communicate over long distances. We all carried thrumming stones, paired stones that would vibrate if the other one was squeezed, as very crude communication devices but these would be infinitely more useful.

“These are great,” I said and she preened until I asked: “Did you pick out anything for yourself?”

She froze. “I picked these for my three legendary items. One for me, one for Yume, one for Alisha.”

“Obviously these will come out of our budget as well,” Yume said as she picked the blue charm.”

“Of course,” Alisha said, grabbing the green one. “I've had to pick one more anyway.”

I kept looking at Meli until she wilted. “I didn't want to presume...”

I flicked her forehead. “There is such a thing as being too modest.”

“I wasn't,” she protested, then shut up.

“So,” I said, “assuming these didn't all have to come out of your budget, was there anything else you wanted? I saw you looking at the brooches over there earlier.”

She blushed. “There was one I was interested in,” she admitted, “but it was less important than these.”

“So you don't want it anymore?”

“If I can pick something else then I do want it,” she admitted.

“Alright,” I said, “go grab it. We'll look for your third item later.” I turned to Selene. “But for now let's start looking for your items.”

Selene nodded. “What would you suggest?”

“Well, you've never used a ranged weapon before,” I said, “so my first suggestion would be something to help with that.”

“That sounds good,” she said.

“And then we're getting you a legendary tunic,” I said. “I want you to wear something under that armor that won't tear as quickly.” I still remembered that giant spider monster and what it had done to Selene. If her tunic had been enchanted the beast would never have been able to ram its stinger into her belly like that.

She winced and rubbed her tummy, clearly remembering the same thing. “Yeah.”