Meanwhile, Krahe was pressing on in her experimentation. She had yet to discern a method to impart lingering incendiary properties onto a high-propagation explosive — that is to say, to develop a “burning smoke” effect. It was not for lack of trying, she could almost hear the creaking of her Six Maxims Thauma bending as far as it could possibly go, but there was only so much one could do on the spot. Nonetheless, progress was progress. She had chanced upon a means of altering Lasher’s composition and design to one with subtle grooves, rendering it capable of carrying incendiary Tar, which could increase the Solomon Howitzer’s theoretical destructive ceiling. But she had no reason to complain. The limit was purely in her own understanding, if she put herself to it she was certain she could design a fire-gas grenade sooner rather than later. For now, it was just a toy, something to play with and work at when nothing better presented itself.
And as she was now, she had nothing better things to do.
Tomorrow’s meeting with the tracker, the execution that she expected to come at the latest within a week, the Wizard’s Lesser Eidolon Vault artifact and his offer, the comic artist and the Helmeted Man, and, not to forget, tying off the loose ends: Damrus Hashem and Brizogia Rasug al-Imuzat. Brizogia wasn’t nearly as high-priority of a target as Damrus, but Krahe held no illusions as to that woman’s character. She would come after Krahe the moment the opportunity presented itself. What she had done at the cafe was no more than a purchase of time, a “let’s handle this later.”
She lit up a cigarette and brought out the Wizard’s stone. The dark shard emerged from storage and immediately began crawling with tendrils of occult symbology whose meaning was just as inscrutable as when she had first received it. She willed the Oculae to appraise it. They gave her the name, then seemed to struggle for a moment before simply skipping the status section.
[Zor’Aguhastra Guidestone Fragment No. 516]
[Status:]
???
[Details:]
Krahe’s eyebrow twitched. Nonetheless, she brought out the memslate and appraised it as well, just to see if the Oculae picked up anything untoward. Nothing. The instructions stored on the memslate were concise and to the point. It concisely explained the concept of leverage-points and artifacts that made use of certain quirks within the Astral Body to function. Voidkeys were listed as a ubiquitous example. The overall writing style somewhat reminded her of the authoritative tone of the scavenger Sorun-authored memslate from the Jas’raba pit’s-edge town, but less insufferable than either that memslate or the Wizard’s own spoken words. To tell the truth, the Wizard’s writing was probably the most personable he could get.
Eventually, however, the Wizard’s memslate did go into information that was new to her:
FILE NO. 1
FILE NO. 3
Within File No. 2, besides the specifics of how to perform the rites, the Wizard had also included guidelines on what to do and not to do upon her arrival in Zor’Aguhastra.
Chapter 97: – Zor’Aguhastra Guidestone Fragment
3 min read