Echoes Of The Seven

Jaxie and Erin quickly got dressed. Partway through the process, Eris paused. “You didn’t… you know.”

Jaxie smiled sweetly and hooked her bra back on. “Don’t worry about me. This was all for you.”

“But-”

Jaxie pulled Eris in for a kiss that served to quickly silence the shorter girl. When she pulled away, Jaxie’s eyes were twinkling. “I’m fine. I promise you.”

There was no further conversation as the pair finished putting on their clothes. Jaxie pulled her long hair into a simple ponytail and spoke loudly.

“You’re good!”

Eris was confused for just a moment, until the door opened and Alex walked inside. The thought that she was waiting just outside while Eris and Jaxie were getting dressed made an awkward heat flush through Eris’s cheeks. She couldn’t meet Alex’s gaze. Thankfully, Jaxie seemed more than willing to speak for all three of them. Unfortunately, her habit of not beating around the bush became prevalent once more.

“Yes, I went back inside with the intention of testing the cooldown. Yes, we had sex. No, we didn’t intend for it to happen- it just did. No, the cooldown hasn’t reset yet, so Eris didn’t get any Desire. Does that answer all your questions?”

Eris went a shade of crimson. Alex also blushed and turned away. “Uh, yeah. Wait… no.”

“Eris came twice.”

“Jaxie!”

Alex coughed. “That wasn’t my question!”

Eris was burying her face in her hands. Jaxie wrapped an arm over her shoulders and chuckled. “I know. I’m just having fun. What’s your question?”

Alex took several moments to orient herself. “When you lied, you said you had four skills. One for your Crafting Points, one to spend them, one passive bonus, and Crafter’s Cunning. You then told us about two more; Desire’s Reap and Enhance. How many skills do you have?”

That must have piqued Jaxie’s interest, since her head tilted in question.

“Seven,” Eris said. “Those six and then one more.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about it earlier?” Alex closed the distillery door behind her. Eris shrugged.

“It never came up, I guess? Plus, it’s really weird.”

Jaxie’s eyebrows practically raised past her hairline. “You have a skill that requires you to make out with people, and that’s not the weird one?”

That caused a blush. “Not weird in that way! Just… weird.”

“Care to elaborate?” Alex crossed her arms. It wasn’t in annoyance- but rather curiosity.

Eris sighed. For something like this, it was easier to put all the information out there.

“It’s called Pacifist. Passive, max level. You cannot directly bring harm to any creature, monster, or person.”

“Uhh, what?” Jaxie asked. Eris repeated herself. Alex stepped closer.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Eris’s shoulders shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? That’s all the skill says, so presumably it means that I can’t hurt anything.”

“Sounds like something we need to test.” Jaxie turned to face Eris. “Slap me.”

“Excuse me?”

“Slap me. Right across the face.”

“I’m not going to slap you, Jaxie.”

“I’m willing to bet that,” Jaxie grinned, “Because the skill won’t let you. Come on.”

She leaned down slightly and turned her face, presenting her cheek as a target. Eris shook her head.

“No! This is stupid. I’m not going to hit you.”

“Are you seriously worried? My class is designed for me to get impaled and walk it off. I’ll be fine. Hit me.”

“I’m don’t want to-”

“Do it!”

Eris swung her arm forward, aiming right for Jaxie’s cheek. Almost as soon as she started, the muscles in her shoulder locked up. Her strength faded. What started as a tentative-yet-earnest attempt at slapping her girlfriend across the face ended with her hand coming to rest gently on the tall girl’s soft cheek. Jaxie reached up and gave Eris’s hand a squeeze.

“That seems pretty definitive. What if you use a weapon, though?”

“Huh?”

Eris watched as Jaxie walked over to a set of shelves. On it were an assortment of various weapons that Eris had forged in the past. Jaxie picked up a dagger and returned to stand in front of Eris.

“Now try and stab me.”

“What?!”

Over the course of twenty minutes, the trio figured out a number of details about the specifics of Pacifist. Eris was reluctant, but having Jaxie and Alex both remind her that the way the two of them had tested skills was by using them on each other had suaded her fears. Kind of. Eris had applied enough bandages to them both after their sparring matches. She really didn’t want herself to be the reason she needed to watch her friends bleed.

Still, at Jaxie’s insistence, the attempt to poke the knife into Jaxie’s finger and draw blood had failed. Eris couldn’t even make contact with the skin. The same happened with (after a lot more persuasion from the two fighters) throwing the knife at Alex. Eris could throw the knife at the wall easily enough- albeit with terrible aim- but as soon as Alex hefted her shield in the line of fire, Eris found the knife glued to her hand. Her fingers wrapped so tightly around it during the swing she thought they would break. The only thing she could do was drop it to her feet afterwards.

The major thing to test was whether Eris was even able to make weapons anymore- if her crafting items that caused harm counted against the skill. Thankfully, Jaxie had a way to figure that out quickly. Taking one of Eris’s new shoes and whipping it at Alex’s face did bring confirmation that Eris’s crafts could still make a bruise.

Furthermore, it seemed that the skill didn’t count for Eris herself. Pricking her own thumb with the tip of the knife drew blood easily. Eris wiped her thumb on her sweatpants and continued with the next test. It was simple, really. If she couldn’t directly bring harm by her own hand, but her crafts could be used by others for harm, then how did that affect traps? Theoretically, they should work. She wouldn’t be the one causing the harm- the actions of others would. Still, it was worth the attempt.

The trap came together easily. It was rudimentary- just a couple of nails, the knife, and a length of string serving as both the tripwire and the implement for how the knife would swing towards the target. While putting it together, Eris felt the tingle of CP in her mind- that this was a ‘craft’ getting her bonuses.

That reminded her of why Artisans were both more and less powerful than the other crafters. Many crafters sold the ‘pieces’ of large crafts to each other, such as a Metalsmith getting the shaft of a halberd made by a Woodcarver, then adding their own smithed head to make something that combined both of their skills.

Artisans could apply their bonuses to everything they made, and thus didn’t have to purchase anything from anyone else. That made them stronger, since they were entirely self-reliant. However, it also made them weaker. If they made everything themselves, then they could only rely on their own bonuses and had much less variety. Eris was a great example- she could create items with incredible amounts of Durability, but the overall strength of the item’s effects would be weaker since her only bonus to Quality was her passive twenty-five percent boost. However, if she were to combine efforts with another crafter, such as one who sacrificed Durability for increased Potency or Quality, then it opened up all new doorways for optimization.

Eris pushed the thought aside and tied off the end of the string around the nail. Jaxie walked through the doorway. The trap had been designed so that the knife would swing far to the left- only grazing the target’s arm instead of going for somewhere more lethal. When it triggered, Eris saw the trajectory change just slightly- a bit further to the right than it should have been. Not only that, the knife was moving faster than gravity would normally allow. Deep down, Eris instantly understood that Novice Artificer’s twenty-five percent bonus had directly made the trap more dangerous.

No amount of desperate apologies could wipe the smile from Jaxie’s face, even as Eris held a cloth over the half-inch gash in her shoulder.

After the testing was done, Eris decided to get back to work. She was vaguely aware of both Jaxie and Alex sitting down in the little resting area towards the back, watching her. They’d been training for most of their lives, and they’ve had several months to practice with their skills and become comfortable using them. These last few weeks for them had been little more than maintaining their physiques and muscle memory while waiting for the semester to start.

Eris tried not to get shy at the thought of them supervising her work. Easier said than done.

“Gods, you’re really going for it, aren’t you?” Jaxie called out from the bench she was reclining on. Eris paused her movements, the sounds of metal on metal silencing.

“Pardon?”

Jaxie chuckled. “No need to rush.”

“I’m not rushing.”

“Your hammer says otherwise. It sounds like it’s gonna explode. What are you even making?”

“A surprise.”

“Is this the same surprise you’ve been working on for a month, or is this a different surprise?”

Eris took eight more strikes with the smithing hammer against the orange metal with barely a moment between them. “Yes.”

Eris went straight back to work and the loud ringing of metal echoed through the distillery like a double-time heartbeat. Even with the thick gloves and goggles, Eris felt no awkwardness in the placements of her strikes. Every blow of the hammer hit exactly where she wanted, with the exact amount of force she desired. Even with nearly three hits per second, not a single one of them was out of place. Of course, she had to wait for the metal to heat back up again when she stuck it back in the forge, but the amount that she could shape in each pass when she pulled it onto the anvil was better than anything she could have hoped to achieve previously.

It felt like no time at all had passed before Jaxie piped up that it was time for another makeout session to test the cooldown. Even if Alex hadn’t been in the room, awkwardly flicking her eyes between the book in her hands and her friend’s passionate kissing, both Eris and Jaxie managed to keep control of themselves. Their clothes remained on and the closest thing to ‘fondling’ was Jaxie holding Eris’s butt in her hands. Granted, that was also because Eris had wrapped her legs around Jaxie’s waist, forcing the taller girl to carry her and hold her in place while they made out.

Sadly, neither of those two sessions granted any Desire. At least they were nice breaks from the careful work that Eris had been performing back at the worktables. Eventually the time came when Eris asked the two girls to leave the building so the surprise wouldn’t be ruined. Not to mention, the lack of potential distractions was an added bonus. Eris was starting to get into the hardest parts and having Jaxie ask for updates every five minutes definitely wasn’t going to help.

She’d been working on these particular projects for a while. In fact, Eris had intended to have them completed by last week but numerous delays and general problems started to make her worry if she could even get them done at all before the trio left for Marrix. Those worries vanished like mist on a hot day.

All the mistakes, all the issues, everything she’d been struggling with for weeks was gone. When she painstakingly carved the notches in the teeny-tiny gears, not a single one of them broke. None of the springs snapped as she coiled and heat-tempered them. Her hands were steadier than they’d ever been. Eris even went back to some of the parts that she’d already made and took a second pass over them with a set of extremely fine tools to make sure that the ratios would be absolutely perfect.

When it came time to put the dozens upon dozens of pieces together, it happened with ease. It didn’t matter that Eris had to operate almost entirely with tweezers in order to set the parts in place. The crafting trance made it easy- like every piece was magnetized to the correct location. Soon enough, each piece of metal and glass was secure in the proper place and the silver shells were closed around the intricate mechanisms. All three objects were near-identical aside from some engravings, but the silver gleamed brightly. Eris wiped several beads of sweat from her brow and smiled wide. She placed the one on the far right into her pocket and lifted the other two before walking to the door.

Eris blinked the sunlight out of her eyes. When her gaze refocused, she saw Jaxie and Alex in the small sparring ring that was marked out by a wooden fence Eris had made. It looked like they were going for a good ol’ fashioned barehanded brawl. Based on the dirt clinging to their clothes along with the bruises and scrapes that Eris could see from this distance, this was far from the first round.

Even knowing that they recovered from injury quickly because they had classes didn’t make it any less painful to watch Alex drive an elbow into Jaxie’s gut. Alex’s sundress was draped over the fence, presumably because the flowy nature would cause it to get in the way, leaving her in a sports bra and her jeans. No longer hidden, Alex’s six pack was just as pronounced and defined as Jaxie’s. Gone was the passive, sweet exterior. Her face was steeled and blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Unfortunately, Eris also knew how these sparring matches usually ended. As a Berserker, Jaxie’s Rage resource was built through combat and fighting. That meant the longer a fight went on, the more exhausted she got and the more pain she suffered, Jaxie only got stronger. A sparring match like this ticked all those boxes. While the matchup may have been tilted in Alex’s favour towards the beginning, it was clear that Alex became overpowered when Jaxie didn’t even bother to block Alex’s punch to the sternum.

Instead, she took it like a champ, using the opening to bring a fist directly into the side of Alex’s skull. To her credit, Alex withstood it very well. It only caused her to stumble backward a few paces instead of knocking her out right then. It didn’t stop Jaxie’s next moves. A feinted punch took advantage of the obviously-dazed Alex, making her lift her arms in defense before Jaxie drove a foot into the bend of Alex’s leg, brought her down to one knee, and then suckerpunched the shit out of her. Eris could hear the impact from across the field.

Eris winced as she walked closer, watching as Alex fell onto her hands and knees. She spit out a wad of blood. Eris was close enough now that she could hear Alex’s pained voice.

“Yeah- ow. We’re done…”

“Come on, you’re just saying that because it’s five to three and you’re still winning. Let’s go for a few more rounds and see if I can’t tie this up, huh?”

Alex coughed and accepted Jaxie’s outstretched hand to help her to her feet. Still, she was bent over, hands on her knees, obviously dizzy from that final hit.

“No, I’m saying that because I’m trying to keep from throwing up. Seriously, did you have to hit so hard?”

Jaxie cracked her knuckles. “Hey, that Bulwark skill of yours is annoying as shit. I’ve gotta take advantage of any opening I can make. Come on, let’s keep going. I feel great!”

Alex stood up straight. Kinda. The white of her left eye had filled with deep red from where it was bleeding and her cheek was discoloured. Eris had witnessed how strong Jaxie could get once she was fully pumped up with her Rage, and it was terrifying. The girl could play tug-of-war with a horse and win. A punch like that to anyone else would have splattered brains across the floor, so the fact that Alex was even conscious was amazing- not to mention how her gaze instantly flicked to Eris approaching the fence with perfect analysis.

“Hey.”

At that, Jaxie whipped her head around so fast it was almost a blur. Hands were raised, ready to knock the lights out of any intruder. They were shaking with adrenaline. Her pupils were tiny with shrunken irises, leaving extremely bloodshot eyes that locked onto Eris’s. The redhead’s heart skipped a beat. Jaxie was already intimidating, but seeing her so amped up like that looked like she was on drugs. Thankfully, there was a flash of recognition.

“Ell.”

Eris clearly watched as Jaxie used one of her skills, Equilibrium. Scuffs and scrapes faded. Scratches stitched back together, and even her crooked nose popped loudly back into place. Many bruises and injuries still remained, but a good portion had lessened a significant amount. Most importantly, her eyes had returned to normal. The sight of Jaxie spending most, if not all of her Rage to heal herself was one Eris was familiar with. She always tended to do that when Eris showed up. Jaxie’s hands quickly stilled.

“I wanted to give you both something,” Eris said. “A gift before we go to Marrix. At first, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish in time, but that crafting trance is pretty nuts.”

“It’s your birthday, and you’re the one giving us gifts?”

“Yeah, so I expect you two to take them.”

Jaxie hopped forward to the fence, almost like a little kid. Alex was a few paces behind her. It was hard to tell whether she was excited, since it seemed like a lot of her focus was spent on trying to make sure she didn’t fall over. Eris presented the gifts.

A beautiful, polished silver pocketwatch rested in either of Eris’s open palms, glass face upwards to let the hour, minute, and second hands show. It had a simple white background with intricate golden calligraphy to indicate the numbers, and two smaller dials near the top.

“Oh, oh my…” Alex gingerly lifted the watch as it softly ticked, the silver chain dangling from her fingers. Jaxie took hers as well with wide eyes.

“The numbers- are those Ra’lan letters?”

Eris nodded. “Mhm. The old language. Ohn, Tol, Teer, Fura, Feegh, Seaz, Sunov, Ael, Nox, Tuln, Tuln-Ohn, and Tuln-Tol. One to twelve.”

“It’s gorgeous.” Alex said. Eris felt her face flush.

“That top left dial is a calendar, and the top right is a compass. I wanted to include that because I remember reading that while in the Obelisk, the magic alters the magnetic fields and causes all compasses to point towards the exit.”

“Wow…” Jaxie’s voice was a simple breath. She turned the watch over and her eyes widened. “By the Seven…”

Alex turned hers over as well, and both of them stared over the engravings that Eris had spent many, many painstaking hours carving into the metal over the course of the project. On Alex’s watch, the back resembled a pair of antlers growing around and holding a heater shield. Inside the shield was her name.

Alexandra

Mena

Qualley

Jaxie’s watch was similar, but instead of a shield, the antlers held a pair of crossed axes. In the gaps between them was Jaxie’s full name.

Jasmine

Daisy

Kerrot

Eris fidgeted, uncomfortable with the silence of the two staring in awe.

“The winding knob is on the side, and a full wind should last you for sixty hours. If you need to adjust the time or date, there’s a small latch where you can open the shell and you should be able to manually alter whatever you need. It’s also got my Durability bonus so it’s pretty tough. You could probably play baseball with it.”

“Is this silver?” Alex asked. Eris nodded. Alex’s eyes widened even more (which was slightly unsettling since one of them was still filled with blood).

“I found a set of cutlery in the trash pile a few months ago. I thought it was pewter but it turned out to be silver. There wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for three watches.”

Jaxie raised an eyebrow. “Three?”

Eris smiled, reached into her pocket, and pulled out her own watch. Much like the other two, it was identical except for the back. Instead of the antlers spreading from the bottom of the watch upwards, there was a visage of an antlered elk right in the middle, staring down at a reflection in the water. In the top set of antlers;

Eris

Limeen

Kadell

Eris’s eyes lingered on the words in the reflection beneath. It was still her name, but now it was the translation of Ra’lan words into Common. Eris could clearly recall Demeri’s voice from the Gifting. Not just a name, but a promise. A wish. Her heart grew a touch colder. There, in the silver water and wrapped in reflected antlers were three words.

Hope

Light

Soul