Chapter 43: The Eye of Sam'lia

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Chapter 43: The Eye of Sam'lia

The portal to the Pocket Closet would travel with the wagon while it was open. The portal exit would not travel with the wagon while it was closed and I was inside. This led to a mildly embarrassing moment where I stumbled out into the middle of the busy street and had to jog to catch up with the group.

We had two small cabins on the barge. Cole and Ember would stay in one, while everyone else would sleep inside the Pocket Closet barracks, with the entrance located inside the second cabin.

A horde of suntanned men and women labored to load the vessel with crates of goods as we boarded. All of them did their best to avoid looking anyone in our group in the eyes, and essentially acted as though we didn’t exist while simultaneously doing everything they could to ensure their presence didn’t offend us. Moments like this reminded me that most Delvers were nobility.

“Welcome aboard! Welcome, welcome,” said the captain, who scurried out to greet us the moment we approached the ship. He was short and plump and wore a fancy blue doublet and matching tudor flat cap. The man looked like he hadn’t done a single day’s worth of manual labor in his entire life.

“It is truly a privilege to have so many men and women of your great stature joining us for this voyage,” he said, giving us all a saccharine smile and bowing slightly as he spoke. “I have endeavored to make your accommodations as comfortable as possible. Although my humble ship is only able to provide a modest measure of luxury, I assure you I have gone to great efforts to ensure your privacy and have tasked two of my brightest crewmen with providing you anything you need. I’ve also taken the liberty of opening a crate of the finest vintage I trade in, a lovely merlot favored by the crown prince himself!”

“Only one crate?” said Ashe.

“I’ll have a second delivered immediately if you find it to your liking,” the captain said, smiling easily. He was obviously used to catering to indulgent requests. “One of my primary trades is in spirits, so I have a little–or a lot–of just about everything on board. I’m happy to provide anything that you desire.”

Lito gave Ashe a withering stare.

“Please ignore her, Captain Mot. If you sought to truly slake her thirst she might ruin you.”

“The offer is on the table, nonetheless. Central was insistent that I spare no expense while hosting.”

“That doesn’t seem like something Umi-Doo would do,” said Ember.

“Dalton probably wrote a blank check to try and get one over on the old Sorcerer,” said Cole.

“I’ll have one of everything,” said Ashe.

“No,” said Lito, “you won’t.”

“Come on now, Smokey, don’t ruin the fun. Unless you’re afraid to drink with me again?”

“We’re all afraid to drink with you,” said Ember.

“I’m not,” said Myria.

Cole rolled his eyes.

“That’s because you wanna make out with her.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Myri,” Ashe said, sauntering up next to the dark-skinned woman.

Lito frowned and rubbed his temples.

“Just show us to the cabins, please.”

****

Once we were settled, Nuralie began working on her alchemy while Lito chain-smoked on the deck and became deeply engaged in conversation with Cole. Myria and Ashe received their wine, along with a few different bottles of various other alcoholic beverages, and joined Xim, Ember, and I in the training room I’d created.

The room was sparse, but I’d assigned the portion of my inventory replete with varying lethal instruments to appear inside the space. As a result, the walls of the room were lined with steel straight swords, rapiers, cutlasses, greatswords, daggers, various other specialized blades, spears, halberds, pikes, hammers, axes, maces, bows, a couple different shields, and a whole fuckton of arrows. They floated at chest-height, held aloft by whatever invisible force kept my items in stasis. There was some amount of “oohs” and “aahs” at the sight, but the novelty of the effect quickly wore off in the eyes of the magically-jaded Delvers.

I was then able to convince the group to start showing me the ropes of the different weapons. This quickly got out of hand as the group of supernaturally-talented women began having heated discussions over the advantages of their own chosen implements, and maligned those wielded by the others.

Well, it was mostly Myria and Ashe, whose liberal imbibement inflamed their passions, while Ember calmly commented only when she could provide insight. Xim was rotating through each of the weapons, reducing the crate the wine arrived in down to ever finer degrees of splinters, along with a few empty barrels that had been acquired from...somewhere. For demonstration purposes.

I eventually managed to begin the embarrassing process of displaying my complete lack of expertise to the women, one weapon at a time. I’d never been too concerned with making a fool of myself, and I’d never had much of a problem with nerves around the opposite sex, like some of my friends had, but this was like a panel of expert biologists watching an adult toddler draw a picture of mitosis with crayons. There was no real excuse for me to be this bad, especially since I was a friggin Delver. My pimped out armor was probably making me seem even more inept.

Was I a clown? The Delver jester? The cartoon character that survives having an anvil dropped on their head, but can’t catch a goddamn mouse to save their life? What the fuck was I doing?

“Wow, Arlo,” said Ashe. “Did you learn to use anything while training for the Creation Delve?”

“That’s not constructive, Ashe,” said Ember. “The first step to recovery is acknowledging that you need help.”

“Recovery from what?”

“From being bad at...” Ember gestured vaguely at me, “...everything.”

“Arlo’s not bad at punching things,” Xim offered. “But his main strength is survival.”

“Do any of them feel more comfortable to you, Arlo?” said Myria.

I took a deep breath, shaking off the nerves and the mini internal meltdown.

“There’s a classic appeal to swords, but I’m not sure they’re for me. I think I’d need a lot of training before I could wield one without accidentally hurting myself or someone else.”

“How bright is it, mister ‘I don’t know what changes to look out for’?”

I ignored the jab and peered around the deck.

“I don’t know. Obviously not as bright as it is during the day, but I can make out most things. Look, I don’t know. Where I come from...” I stopped myself, remembering that Nuralie wasn’t in on the Secret. “I figured nights here were just bright. I didn’t know it might be from some special magic eyeballs I got from a ritual.”

“Can you see the cliffs?” asked Xim. “Not just the tops where they block the sky, but the faces.”

“Yeah. Can you?”

“Oh, sure. How about you, Nuralie?”

Pause.

“Yes. Sort of.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Nuralie’s a Loson. They’ve lived in swamps with canopies that block out the sky for eons. All of them can see pretty well in the dark. In the Third Layer the day-night cycle works... differently than it does here in the First. Most of us native to the Third have some level of night-vision. But I bet if you ask any of the Hiwardians here they’d say it was a pretty dark night, and none of them would be able to see the cliffs unless they’re augmented by something. Like a Delver skill or some other magic.”

“Ok, so maybe I have better sight in the dark because of the eyes. Or maybe Hiwardians have naturally bad eyesight. I’m not Hiwardian, so I don’t have much of a baseline there.”

Xim shrugged.

“That’s true.”

Still, I liked the idea of seeing in the dark. When I thought about it, I hadn’t ever been in an environment I found to be truly dark since I left the Delve.

“So what about the other two categories?”

“‘Reveals’ is a sort of extension of the first, but there’s some nuance. It not only lets you see things that others cannot, but also lets you see through things that otherwise shouldn’t be there.”

“What? Like illusions?”

“Yes, but that’s a pretty concrete example. There are stories of those who could also reveal things like lies, or divine accurate information from sources that were faulty. More of an intangible reveal. Beyond that, revealing also allows you to reveal what you see to others.”

“Right there in the name, I guess. Not sure if I’ve revealed anything so far.”

“Something to think about, then. As for the third, the Eye ‘embraces’ by imparting a portion of its own domain onto all those it sees.”

“It does what now?”

“I probably could have said that better. For example, the Eye is how we travel to and from the Third Layer. All of the Third Layer lies under the gaze of the Eye and everything under the gaze of the Eye lies within the Third Layer. To step into the First, we beseech the Eye to turn away from us. When we wish to return to the Third, we ask it to look upon us again.”

“That’s kind of creepy, no offense. I mean, it’s creepy in a cool way. Or, that is, things other people find creepy I find cool a lot of times. Except for creepy things like people being creepy in a pervy kind of way. So I don’t find it creepy, except in a cool way. Shit, just ignore all statements I’ve made in the last ten seconds. It seems neat. The Eye does neat things.”

Xim laughed.

“Don’t worry, I get it. As far as what embracing can do for a person gifted by the Eye, it varies. I’ve heard stories of people who could create a sort of domain that they could will other people into. The person affected would still be visible and exist to everyone outside of the domain, but the laws of reality might become distorted for that person. Like never-ending hallways, or stairs that always take you to the same floor no matter how many times you climb them. Every pebble on the ground appearing as large as a mountain, though you could still step on them without growing any larger.”

“That sounds like dream logic. That’s also a very scary ability. And not in an ‘I think scary things are cool’ kind of way. Legitimately scary.”

“It’s very rare, if anyone has ever actually had that ability. I’ve only heard legends.”

“Well, if I ever accidentally create a mind-warping dreamscape and abduct unwitting victims into it, I’ll let you know.” My mind turned uneasily to the Pocket Delve. “As far as seeing things others can’t...” I reached down and drew my amulet from beneath my armor.

Traveler’s Amulet

This is an evolving item.

Current Level: Crumb-Cruncher

Effects:

1: It’s stylish.

2: Soul-Sight: You can perceive the strength of the souls around you. This effect is set to the lowest setting by default. You can intensify it by concentrating, but be careful. Some souls are better seen from a distance.

Make “Soul-Sight” your own to unlock this amulet’s next effect.

Would the Eye’s gift let me unlock the next ability for this amulet?