From Makoto's perspective:
"Okay, calm down and say clearly what happened," Shon said in a calm tone, crossing his arms over his chest and watching the out-of-breath man.
After giving the man in the ash-colored clothes a couple of seconds to catch his breath, he answered in a rush, "There's a fire in the third laboratory, caused by the material!"
I'll bet one silver that this "material" is something alive. Could it be a magical beast?
"Young visitors, please stay where you are. I have to step away, Miss Judy will give you the tour in this place," Shon said, slightly agitated, hurriedly disappearing through the doorway together with the man who had come in.
I wonder what kind of equipment assortment is here? After making a small circle around the polished pedestals, covered in gold, on which lay a great many different items, something ordinary, for example a magic wand, a rod made of magical material, most often from silver wood, with pommels made, for instance, of silirite, the pommels usually made of ore filled with vis and with a catalyst in the heart, usually a soaked diamond, amber, a hippogriff feather or something even cooler. There were also scepters here, which are an enlarged version of wands with a more powerful throughput. Grimoires, books possessing spells that activate after the spell is spoken aloud due to special conditions, which in a peculiar order force vis to circulate and leave the body, adjusting to the spells in the ancient language, like a separate kind of breathing, which, for example, helps you run long distances. You feed vis into the channels, read the spell, and there you have all the magic. They are usually in demand among commoners or novice mages, since the grimoire itself stimulates the flows of mana and their proportions, making their magic extremely limited, not to mention that the magic there is usually mediocre, unless you count the grimoires of the ancient races. And how could there be no magical artifacts, be it a lamp of heavenly flame, a magic orb, an eye of mystery, a necklace, a bracer or a whole glove studded with various precious vis catalysts, all of this is something more or less ordinary, but here there were items I had never seen before. It's normal in general that something new gets invented, but the question is how they came to this. I don't even know how to describe what I'm looking at: a trigger like a crossbow's, a stock resembling a crossbow, only not an arrow but just an elongated metal barrel, decorated with runes carved into it that shimmered in different colors, and between the stock and the barrel, where an arrow is usually inserted, peeked out some sky-colored crystal. I've never seen a weapon like this, I wonder how it works. I hadn't finished examining the weapon when Rey came up to me.
"Interesting, a mix of a crossbow and a magic wand...", was the only thing Rey said before the sound of a door opening was heard. Looking up and turning around, we saw a middle-aged woman in the doorway, who looked about thirty, maybe more, maybe less, the wrinkles gave away her age despite the fairly taut skin and the young-looking face. A white vintage dress stately accentuated her long blonde hair and her eyes, blue as water.
"Are you Miss Judy?" I asked, beckoning with a gesture the children who had scattered to look at the displayed equipment.
She smiled sweetly: "That's right, I'm Judy. May I know your names?" she asked in a calm voice, slightly lifting the corner of her dress. An aristocrat, I thought at once.
"Of course. I'm Makoto, and this is Rey, Kuro and Shiro," I said quickly and calmly, pointing to each of them in turn.
"Pleasant to meet you. Please, share your questions," Judy said with an unchanging smile.
A couple of seconds passed while I thought about what to say, and nothing came to mind except: "I don't even know where to start, maybe you could show us a little of everything?"
"Miss Judy, could you please tell us about this mix of a crossbow and a wand?" Rey added calmly right after me.
"Of course," Judy walked up to Rey and raised her hand over the pedestal, a second, and the spherical yellow light disappeared. Taking this little thing in her hands, she began to speak while casting along the way: "This is what we've been working on for the last two years, we call it the Vis-Shooter. It's meant for hitting distant targets with a powerful projectile, for now it's only a prototype, but it's already showing good results." Judy said, then clapped her hands, and suddenly out of nowhere mannequins appeared in the room before us, and she continued: "For now there's only a version with Grayous and Aerus. We aim at the target, feed Grayous into the weapon in this case, and once you feel that it's enough, you pull the trigger." Judy instructed, and then pulled the trigger. From the barrel of this weapon all the accumulated essence gathered into a spherical shape and then stretched into a long beam, it pierced through 6 mannequins that stood about 50 paces from her, and it was astonishing.
"So cool!" Kuro and Shiro exclaimed in delight, I fully agreed with them, something like this could overturn the principle of the entire class of marksmen.
"This is magnificent... And how many times can it be fired?" Rey asked with admiration.
Judy glanced at the crystal that peeked out and answered: "Around three, maybe four shots, and after that the crystal needs to be replaced, but if you charge it with more vis, the durability will drop." she answered calmly, laying the Vis-Shooter back on the pedestal. Snapping her fingers over the pedestal, she raised the barrier, and the mannequins vanished in a white haze.
I could already see Kuro's and Shiro's brains boiling after all these clever words, even Rey was slacking, which showed in his slightly glazed look, usually at their age even incomplete sentences are a problem to say, and here is such a flood of words. We need to wrap up soon.
"Miss, could you briefly show our Shiro all the kinds of magical equipment? There's no need for many words or any special demonstration, she just really wants to become a sorceress in the future," I asked with a light note of shyness, pointing to the white-haired little rascal who, like a good girl, had been behaving quietly and calmly.
Judy walked up to Shiro and crouched down, becoming the same height as Shiro: "Sweet young thaumaturge, come along, I'll show you what counts as ordinary equipment and what as something unusual?" Judy said sweetly and kindly, extending her right hand.
A second of hesitation, and Shiro took the hand. A sound was heard in the doorway, the door flew open, and there stood Shon, out of breath. Looking us all over and settling his gaze on Judy, he said: "Those idiots were testing a new combination under clap, all three of them right in front of the stove, and, damn it, they hit right into the canister..." Shon said in a voice full of bewilderment and exhaustion, rubbing his eyes with his fingers at the bridge of his nose.
Judy laughed loudly and took out her fan to cover her laughter: "Well, you lot are something, did they at least clean up after themselves?" she asked, exchanging a little banter with her colleague. "Yes, they cleaned everything up, I forgive the boys, I won't tell the boss," Shon said, taking big steps in our direction.
"Alright then, I'll take this young thaumaturge and give her a tour, I'm leaving them to you!" she said, waving her hand slightly and disappearing into the next doorway together with the white-haired little rascal.
After a quick exchange of glances, Shon asked: "So, what interests you?"
"He's interested in swords, and he in combat artifacts, and I'm interested in how you create all these artifacts," I said, pointing first at Kuro, then at Rey, and finally lowering my hand. I stated it briefly but clearly.
Shon thought for a moment, raising his right hand to his chin and resting it on his left arm, he hummed a little and answered: "In that case the new development of Vis Blades suits best, it's this way." Shon said in a drawn-out tone, pointing to the right end behind our backs.
Walking unhurriedly in that direction, Shon fell into step beside me and began to speak: "Usually weapons are created from sketches with the help of our smithing specialists, in fact the masters here are precisely them." Shon took a pause. "And how do you come up with such things?" I asked, looking at Shon.
"Practically all these experiments come from wanting to strengthen items we already have, rework the balance of forces, create a new weapon or a new subtype of weapon, we mix catalysts with different items in search of a balance between performance and quality." he said, and when we had already arrived, he fell silent for a second, brought his hand up to the barrier, after which it vanished in a faint flash.
"I don't fully understand, could you explain in more detail what exactly you mix and why?" I asked, understanding the general picture but deciding to clarify to be sure.
Taking the sword in his hands, Shon began to explain: "See that there are four different stones in the hilt? All of these are vis catalysts, the point is that we take basic weapon and armor items and supplement them with different catalysts so that they gain new properties, like, for example in this case, you can not only infuse the sword with vis itself, but also quite well conduct and create new spells." Shon explained. "Watch," he said, after which the sword lit up in a yellow color, Grayous began to run through it, I realized, after which the blade not only glowed, but the glow also left the blade itself and became its extension. Snapping his fingers, Shon summoned a mannequin in the distance, twenty, maybe thirty paces away, and, swinging the sword through the air, managed to send a whole strike flying with a simple charge of Grayous, fueled by a couple of catalysts. "That's not all!" Shon said, smiling, feeding in a bit more vis and changing the form. Making a lunge, he launched a white chain from the blade, and, latching onto another mannequin, pulled himself toward it, but cut off the flow before the collision.
"Now do you understand what I meant? Many ideas come from adventurers and analysts, and what's more, a great many of these innovations I came up with myself, every year we change the rules of the battlefield, constantly improving and expanding it, just as we learn new laws of vis that we hadn't seen yesterday, that's what we exist for, I suppose?" Shon said, slightly pensive, raising his hands at the end, with a small smirk. Neither Kuro nor Rey uttered a word, they simply watched and took in what was happening. "The world has seen thousands of such interesting things, look around, if we were to examine all these hundreds of items on the pedestals, even a couple of days wouldn't be enough for us, but you can always come back and get acquainted with them more closely, we rarely have guests," he said somewhat sadly, gesturing with his palm at the huge room full of such items, which levitated in the air, held under barriers.
Having taken in everything that had happened, I understood one thing. If a person doesn't know that there are any frameworks or limitations that bind him, and he simply tries to realize what he wants, or what he has conceived, then nothing can stop him from achieving it. A person can try to fly, and until someone comes in and says that it's impossible, he won't give up his hope and his attempt to fly, even if he doesn't know how to achieve it, he will try to fly to the very end, even if the approach is wrong. After all, a person is most often a follower, and of course there is a second option, which is that a person brushes off the words that it's impossible and keeps going until it works, but that is already obsession, for there is a thin line between courage and stupidity. The one who didn't give up and succeeded is obsessed, a fanatic of his idea and a winner, while the one who failed in his attempts, despite the warnings, will in the eyes of other people become nothing more than a foolish laughingstock, extremely subjective, of course, but we live in a world like this, where success determines our whole meaning of existence, while people who have no idea what it cost are the first to hurry to condemn us for our attempts to get out of the cage, while they themselves calmly take the cheese from the mousetrap. The most important thing is to stay true to your decision and keep going until you reach your goal, and it doesn't matter how many times you slipped off or what others around you say, and never mind that this is the same thing as the warning to Shiro that it's better not to walk backwards. If you're sure that it works, then I would do just that, which is why I can understand why Shiro walked backwards so confidently, and precisely why Father doesn't stop us when we try something and make mistakes, because he knows that if we made a mistake, we will draw conclusions from our mistakes and will certainly come out as winners. If you started, then you should go to the end, because I myself abandoned the idea of awakening the node on my own so many times and returned to the thought that I should still finish what I started, and if I had given up, I would never have felt this taste of victory, nor the fact that I managed to achieve something on my own, even though I was convinced that it was in the category of the impossible, until after I had succeeded. Still, between courage and stupidity there is a thin line.
While I was lost in my thoughts, I was pulled out of my reflections by the sounds of a conversation between Shon and Rey: "Mister Shon, thank you for such a detailed tour, we have to get going, since we still need to head to another workshop, thank you very much, could you please tell us where Shiro is." Rey said calmly and slowly, bowing slightly.
To be fair, we could have spent a couple more hours here looking at the other various artifacts, but the most important thing we understood: an artifact is any useful item, or one convenient to wear, that in one way or another either increases abilities or amplifies them, which helps in battles by any means, and the variety of such weapons is boundless, from a wand to boots. Rey did well to bring it to an end smoothly and properly, since we had less than three hours left for everything.
Shon raised his hands and answered gently: "Well, thank you for stopping by our workshop, we rarely have visitors, since not many people are interested in this, and you are exceptionally curious and smart beyond your years, your vocabulary is astonishing, you will grow into excellent young men, your sister will be brought to the exit, I've already signaled Miss Judy," after which he started walking in the direction we had come from.
"Is this room enlarged by magic? From the outside the building is so small..." Kuro said his first and last words of the entire tour, to which Shon nodded briefly and answered: "Exactly so, the area is 15 times larger than it looks from the outside, it's the ancient power of vis that allows you to control space, though not very well but rather superficially and based on subspace rings, even so the result is more than astonishing," he finished by the time we met Shiro at the exit.
"So, Shiro, did you learn a lot?" Rey asked with a smile, while I was still lost in my thoughts, and yet somehow everything is strange, as if today itself is special, yesterday the ceremony, today so many events, it bodes no good.
"Yes! Miss Judy is wonderful!" Shiro said with a smile, making Judy blush and forcing her to cover herself with her fan.
From Shon's perspective:
Well, the little ones have gone, nice ones, if everyone is like that, then our future will be safe.
"So what happened with them? Did they really damage the flask with the homunculus?" Judy asked when we were left alone, impatience could be read in her voice, to which I could only sigh heavily...
Taking out a cigarette and lighting it, I answered: "I don't know how myself, but the second one escaped from the capsule, it's not terrible overall, since he's 90% human, and what's more, a child, I sent the guys to find him, but I can't promise that he'll be found or eliminated, they aren't dangerous, so let him live as a human," I said, taking a final drag.
From Mira Barasu's perspective:
My hands are shaking, rage was binding me and my movements.
"WHY?" I barked across the whole room.
"WHY DO YOU REFUSE?" I did not lower the pitch of my voice.
"Brother, you should understand everything already..." I heard a tired voice, which was begging me for forgiveness...
"I don't understand, I was gone for only ten years, and you gave up? How could you cooperate with him?! WHY DID YOU GIVE UP?!" I broke into a shout at the end, I couldn't look at him without a drop of anger.
"YOU BETRAYED ME, YOU BETRAYED US, YOU BETRAYED THEM, AND ALL BECAUSE OF A HOPE THAT IS AS SMALL AS THE REMAINING PART OF MY STRENGTH!" I couldn't contain my rage, I had never raised my voice at him, I couldn't remember when in general I had lost my self-control or been angry, I was sure that I had lost the very capacity for feelings and rage, and yet after countless years I stand again on the edge of falling into this abyss of despair, although I had long since overcome myself.
It hurt, it was unpleasant and frightening. It hurt because the only one who could have guaranteed my family's safety cannot disobey the will of the attacker, it was unpleasant to think that all these long years of battle had sunk into oblivion because he had grown tired just as I had, and it was frightening for my family, since I no longer know what to do, I am not able to hold even the first gate, I am no match for him when he has already gathered so much vis.
"Please, Nora... forgive me, I won't be able to take up the fight together with you, but Baal should be equal to him now, he will be able to help you, I'll open a portal, you know they have always been on our side... I... I... I don't know, I can't lose him again, you know that I already lost her, but he is the last thing that remained after her, I can't lose the chance to bring back both her and him..." A voice full of exhaustion, a lowered head and a gaze at his feet, a trembling voice, the man sitting before me was not one of the strongest in the world as he had been before, they had done to him what you wouldn't wish on anyone, They broke him. And part of the blame lies on me, for if I hadn't left without a word, he wouldn't have given up. I understood my guilt and my worthlessness, and that is why I had no right to be angry or to give up, only one thing was left for me, to go forward to the end. I have no right to doubt.
"Alright, my bad. We'll somehow get through this," I said, exhaling heavily and embracing my only brother...