Chapter Text
Rammbroes — a dark-skinned roegadyn who wasn’t dressed for combat — looked relieved that Sophie and I were joining Sarah and Meia in helping them out.
He sent us immediately out to La Noscea to steal crystals from the enthralled sahagin and kobolds, because they were the purest type of elemental crystal we could get our hands on.
And with four of us, we were able to split in two and take them on at the same time.
Sarah and I took out the sahagin. Novv and his clutch weren’t a part of the enthralled idiots out here, so I didn’t feel bad about cutting them down.
Or making off with the water crystal they apparently used for their Leviathan-focused rituals.
I turned the crystal over in my hands. It pulsed with something similar to the water crystal that I’d found in the teeth of that treant, but the water felt stronger, somehow.
Something about it was giving me a minor headache, but it wasn’t bad enough that I was going to collapse. Which meant I was remembering something passively, not actively.
Something about light and dark.
“What is it?” Sarah stepped over the corpse of a sahagin. The headdress looked half-trampled.
“Water’s coming through more in this one than ours.” I held the crystal out to her so she could get a sense herself.
“Hm.” Sarah frowned and took the crystal in her hands, turning it over. She blinked in surprise. “Goodness!” She looked up at me. “Any explanation as to why, do you think? I doubt that Hydaelyn would give us imperfect crystals.”
I shook my head. “Might have an idea, but we’ll want to check Sophie and Meia’s crystal, first. I want to be sure I’m not wrong.”
Sarah frowned. “It has something to do with this world, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Something about how the elements work.”
“Hm.” Sarah weighed the crystal in her hand, then stowed it away in her bag. “I would ask, but we should probably move before more sahagin come to replace the ones we just took down. Shall we teleport?”
“Better than running back and running into more of them.”
“Kweh!” Comet rested his head on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I bet you would’ve liked more of that.”
Sarah giggled. “The two of you make quite the pair.”
I rolled my eyes and started the teleport back to Revenant’s Toll.
We appeared in town about five seconds before Meia and Sophie teleported in, dust and dirt covering their armor.
“Got it?” I asked.
Meia nodded. “The kobolds’ lair is quite the labyrinth. Although I doubt they expected us to ever set foot inside.”
Sophie giggled. “You should’ve seen their faces when we aligned with earth. I almost set off a Quake in their underground city!”
Little hard to see a kobold’s face when it’s covered with that grated mask, but it wasn’t hard to imaging them shrieking while Meia and Sophie blasphemed their element, to use the Amalj’aa’s word.
“I am surprised at the strength of their crystal,” Meia remarked. “It feels almost as strong as the ones we received when Titan fell, if not stronger.”
The headache kept prickling at the back of my skull. “We noticed the same thing. Think it’s got something to do with how elements work around here.”
“How they work?” Sophie tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Not sure yet. Headache hasn’t let up yet.”
Meia frowned. “Wol—”
“I’m fine. It’s probably something passive, since I haven’t collapsed yet.”
“Yet,” Sophie repeated. “And you teleported feeling like that?”
“I’ve teleported feeling worse before.”
“But—”
“Perhaps speaking with one of the Scions or Rammbroes will cause it to fade?” Sarah asked.
Sophie frowned. Sarah, despite her suggestion, still looked worried. They probably thought I was going to collapse as soon as Rammbroes started talking about it.
“Better than just letting it stick around,” I said. “Gotta get the crystals to them anyway.”
Comet perked up. “Kweh?”
“I’m only flying with you if their birds can fly,” I said flatly.
“Wark.” Comet gave the impression of a scowl.
- - - - -
The camp out at Saint Coinach’s find was a mix of building ruins and tents wherever the ground was even enough for one. We weren’t anywhere close to the Crystal Tower, but there were enough crystals jutting up from the ground around here (not to mention the monsters) that I wasn’t surprised to see a few adventurers in armor standing around, eyeing the hulking humanoid giants that looked like they wanted to take a bite out of the researchers.
Rammbroes was waiting for us in front of one of the tents with Cid. “I can’t say I was expecting you back so quickly. Have you made any progress?”
“We got them!” Sophie pulled the earth crystal out of her bag while Sarah got out the water one. “It was a piece of cake!”
Cid snorted while Rammbroes blinked in surprise. “I did tell you — they are quite efficient at carrying out tasks.”
“So it seems….” Rammbroes took the two crystals in his hands and turned them over. “So these are the famed flawless crystals of the beast tribes. I have see countless specimens from I know not how many excavations, but nothing to compare to these. Their purity is…astounding.”
“Their strength caught our attention,” Meia said. “They feel stronger than most other crystals we have encountered, which has me wondering if their purity has any connection with that.”
Rammbroes looked at Meia at the question, then nodded a little and handed the crystals over to Cid. “It certainly plays a part…but of what crystals do you speak?”
Meia pulled her water and earth crystals from her bag. “They are a part of the Blessing Hydaelyn gave us. I assume you wouldn’t want to use any of ours in that instance.”
Cid’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re carrying one crystal per element?”
“Except Light and Dark.” Sophie nodded. “But Dark’s kind of an Ascian thing? So I don’t think Hydaelyn would give us one of those.”
Rammbroes took Meia’s water crystal and turned it over in his hands, frowning. Then he handed it back. “There is another reason why light and dark crystals are not known to manifest — they are polarities just as much as they are elements themselves.”
My headache spiked slightly. I resisted the wince. “Polarities?”
“I take it Palamecia never dealt with such things,” Cid remarked.
Rammbroes shot him a curious look. Cid just shook his head at him; good, we could keep some of that to ourselves for a little longer.
“I can’t say I’m familiar with it,” Sarah said carefully. “What do you mean when you call light and dark ‘polarities’?”
Cid almost grinned. “Now, I’m not as familiar with this as a mage, but the idea is that elements function on a range from active to stasis. When an element is more active, that means it’s more energetic and inflicts more influence, while an element that is more inclined to stasis will inflict far less influence.”
The headache spiked and faded as Cid talked. Guess this was something Asher knew, too.
“Ah,” Meia said. “I believe I might be familiar with this from my time with the thaumaturges. Umbral and astral, correct?”
Cid snapped his fingers and pointed at Meia. “Exactly!”
“We generally associate the umbral polarity with darkness and the astral polarity with light,” Rammbroes cut in. “On account of the way the elements present themselves visually. But any element on the wheel can have an astral or umbral state, even if their natural states leans more towards one or the other.”
“Ooooh.” Sophie tilted her head. “So…I guess that means the crystals we have for our Blessing are umbral, then? Because they aren’t quite as strong as the crystals you want us looking for?”
“It’s certainly likely,” Cid agreed.
Which brought up the question why Hydaelyn would use umbral polarity crystals instead of astral ones. But if she wasn’t feeling talkative right now, we couldn’t ask her and expect an answer.
Sophie nodded, taking the answer in stride, but I noticed Meia and Sarah exchanging frowning looks. Looks like they were catching on to what I was thinking, too.
“Oh, right!” Sophie hopped on her heels. “Do we still need the other two? Fire and Wind, right?”
Rammbroes nodded. “That we do. The former lies in Zahar’ak, the war camp of the Amalj’aa in Thanalan; the latter, in Natalan, the roost of the Ixal in the hills of Coerthas. You can expect them to be as closely guarded as the first two, if not more so.”
“Not a problem.” It’ll give me an excuse to do something for the Brotherhood of Ash today, too.
Something grumbled.
Sophie made a face. “Can we eat something before we go?”
- - - - -
Rammbroes looked a little less surprised when we got back later in the afternoon, bringing the other two crystals with us.
“And we only need these four, huh?” I watched as Cid took them and disappeared into the tent. “They didn’t have ice or lightning?”
Rammbroes shook his head. “Thankfully, no; finding flawless elemental crystals of those two would have been almost impossible. While we could attempt to locate a crystal of lightning amongst the sylphs, we have little knowledge on where their current altar is, much less whether or not they have summoned Ramuh recently. And there are no tribes currently worshipping an ice-aspected primal, which would mean locating growths of elemental crystals of that type and hoping to find a flawless one among them.”
Made sense that he’d think of the primals first — they did make it easier to find the crystals we needed, and going in and taking them put back any summoning plans.
After spending so much time with the groups that weren’t enthralled, though, something about it didn’t sit right with me.
“But enough speculation.” Rammbroes nodded to us. “Thanks to your efforts, we are now ready to proceed to the next stage of our preparations.”
“You mean that locating the crystals was not enough?” Sarah frowned.
Rammbroes shook his head. “If the crystals are to reflect the elemental forces of the tower’s defenses, they must needs be cut and polished.” He grimaced. “A process which calls for a very particular set of materials. Procuring them will be a challenge in itself, I fear. Needless to say, we will be requiring your services once again….”
Figures. I bit back a sigh. “What are we fighting now?”
“No need to be so dramatic.” Cid stepped out of the tent. “You won’t need to fight for one of these, at least.”
I frowned.
Rammbroes chuckled. He sounded strained. “If the flawless crystals you procured for us are to retain their elemental purity during the shaping process, a very specific set of abrasive substances will be required. Well, one substance with elementally aspected varieties, known as aethersand. Alas, it is neither common nor cheap. Indeed, it is not unusual for the abrasive to exceed the value of the precious stones it is used to polish.”
“Which means either we have to pay for that price, or we are lucky enough to locate it in the wild,” Meia said.
Cid nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. We thought the Goldsmiths’ Guild in Ul’dah would be able to provide us with what we need, but the guild master has only sent us apologies every time we’ve attempted to reach out to them on the matter of purchasing what we need.”
“I hope you’re not planning to send us to threaten them.” Sarah frowned.
“Hardly!” Rammbroes grabbed a sack of something off his belt and held it out. “It was my hope we could entrust you with the payment of our purchase, and send you to speak directly with Guildmaster Serendipity. Mayhap the presence of such distinguished personages will spur the guild into action. In any event, it is my hope that when we next meet, you will have found at least one of the four varieties of aethersand we require!”
Four, huh? Makes sense that we’d need one for each of the crystals.
Meia took the bag in her hands. “Thankfully, I have some experience with the guild. This should not take me long.”
She vanished in a teleport flash.
Cid and Rammbroes looked at where she had been standing, then looked at Sarah, Sophie and me with curious looks.
“Meia knows Ul’dah better than us,” I said, shrugging. “She should be fine.”
“Is Ul’dah the only place where we can get aethersand?” Sophie asked. “Or can we mine it or something?”
Rammbroes frowned and rubbed his chin. Definitely thinking, then. “One does not simply mine aethersand, unfortunately. It is far more difficult to find than merely locating a vein. And while I have made certain arrangements to hopefully locate other elemental variants, we will need time to see if they will bear fruit.”
He pressed his mouth into a thin line that made Cid frown.
“Forgive me for observing, but you seem less than enthusiastic about that prospect,” Cid said. “If there’s a complication, I’d rather we discuss it now than risk jeopardizing the expedition.”
Now he had me curious. “Not a trustworthy source?”
“No, but…” Rammbroes sighed. “Mayhap an explanation is in order. Some days ago, I asked a Sharlayan acquaintance of mine to travel to Gridania and gather the necessary materials. Since that time, however, I have heard nary a whisper from him.”
Trust wasn’t the problem, then.
“You suspect trouble?” Sarah asked.
Rammbroes shook his head. “To be frank, this lack of communication is not entirely uncharacteristic, but I cannot discount the possibility that something ill has befallen the man.” He sighed again. “Alas, we do not have time to investigate his fate. As I have mentioned before, the more we delay the expedition, the more likely it is that the Crystal Tower’s secrets will fall into the wrong hands.”
Or, we could open the way for someone else to find those secrets before we could, but I wasn’t about to say that.
“Therefore, I would entrust you with the same mission I assigned my friend. Travel to the Black Shroud, and seek out Parsemontret, master of the markets in Gridania. If anyone knows where aethersand can be bought, it is he.”
I knew the guy. I’d passed through the markets enough times before finding out the others were around that I had a pretty good idea of who to talk to.
“Seems a bit callous of you to throw away a friend like that,” Sophie remarked. “I mean — wouldn’t it be a good idea to look for him?”
“It would,” Rammbroes agreed, “but as I sent him to Gridania as well, you will likely pick up on his trail if you don’t run into him in the markets.”
“Anything we should look for if we do find him?” Sarah asked. “Features, weapon…?”
“He prefers a bow,” Rammbroes replied. “As for his features — he is a red-haired miqo’te tia, likely about your age.” He nodded to me. “He will be wearing an aetherometer on his person, if you happen to run into others that match that description.”
“Got it.” Miqo’te archer with Sharlayan gear. That’ll stick out.
Before any of us could start teleporting, the linkpearls on our wrists went off.
Cid blinked. “Isn’t that the one your free company uses?”
“Yup.” I held it up to my ear. “Wol here. What’s up?”
::I’ve managed to locate the aethersand:: Meia reported. ::It seems a shipment of the fire variant arrived not long before I did. Biggs was attempting to purchase it with far less than was required::
“What would he want it for?” Sophie asked.
::Some device, I imagine, but it was not related to the Crystal Tower:: Meia paused. ::Biggs said Wedge was looking into the earth variant around Bluefog, and insisted we check in on him in case he ran into any trouble. Would any of you like to come along?::
I looked to Sophie and Sarah. “Rammbroes mentioned another lead in Gridania; I was planning on checking that out.”
“I think I will as well.” Sarah nodded.
“I guess that means I can help find Wedge,” Sophie said. “Meet you at the camp out there, Meia?”
::I will see you there::
Meia disconnected, and I dropped my wrist and nodded to Rammbroes and Cid. “Sounds like Meia got one and is on a lead for another. You might get lucky and get all of them by the end of the day.”
“That swiftly?” Rammbroes’ eyebrows went up. “An impressive prediction; are you certain?”
“I did tell you they are efficient,” Cid said. “Let them do what they do best, and we will be able to reach the Crystal Tower before any Imperial soldiers manage to find their way inside.”
Rammbroes frowned, then nodded slowly. He definitely was still getting used to working with us.
“Right! See you guys when we get back!” Sophie jumped up into a teleport and vanished.
I looked at Sarah. “Good to go?”
Sarah nodded back. “Let’s go.”