(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 11)

[DracoOmega]

>Curious. One would think she doesn't get told that often.
>Affirm her questions with a nod.

>You nod. There is a slightly delay and then the green-haired girl breaks into another beaming smile, ears perking up happily.
>"I'm a nice thing!" she declares. "It's nice to be a nice thing! ...wait, 'thing'?" She frown uncertainly.

[Oldmansour]

>"Try 'person'. Bet it sounds better."

[DracoOmega]

>"Try 'person'. Bet it sounds better."

>"It sounds better," she repeats, her smile returning. "Thanks, Nazrin. You're a nice person, too!"

[Oldmansour]

>Twitch.
>Do we usually flush or anything when people compliment us?
>No, we're Nazrin, our poker face is excellent.
>"Well, thanks."

[DracoOmega]

>Twitch.
>Do we usually flush or anything when people compliment us?
>No, we're Nazrin, our poker face is excellent.
>"Well, thanks."

>You let a small twitch slip past your practiced indifference, but no more than that. Kyouko just keeps on smiling. Then a thought seems to occur to her; the expressiveness of her face, unlike your own, advertises loudly the very moment it strikes her.
>"Oh! I meant to ask you earlier, but I got all caught up with your story." She thrusts a finger at the bittercress beside you. "What's with the plant?"

[Oldmansour]

>"It's part of a job I came here to finish. There's a woman back in Easthaven who'd love to get her hands on a particular potion, and this plant is one of the ingredients."
>Frown slightly. "Assuming it flowers inside the next day or two. Working on a time limit on this job."

[DracoOmega]

>"It's part of a job I came here to finish. There's a woman back in Easthaven who'd love to get her hands on a particular potion, and this plant is one of the ingredients."
>Frown slightly. "Assuming it flowers inside the next day or two. Working on a time limit on this job."

>Kyouko frowns in sympathy with yours. "Working on a time limit?"

[Oldmansour]

>She doesn't need to know just how bad a time limit we have, so shrug slightly. "Some jobs are like that. Have to get something somewhere in a certain period of time. That job I told you about before was like that, too. I knew I only had a certain amount of time to recover that fruit before it spoiled, assuming it hadn't been eaten already. Which it hadn't. Partly."

[DracoOmega]

>She doesn't need to know just how bad a time limit we have, so shrug slightly. "Some jobs are like that. Have to get something somewhere in a certain period of time. That job I told you about before was like that, too. I knew I only had a certain amount of time to recover that fruit before it spoiled, assuming it hadn't been eaten already. Which it hadn't. Partly."

>You shrug and offer Kyouko a good enough explanation.
>"Partly is better than all-ly!" she chirps. "So... how long do you have?"

[Oldmansour]

>All-ly, that's a new one.
>"Considering the time it took to get to the city.... Two weeks, give or take a day or two."
>"Assuming I don't get delayed again leaving this city. There was a bit of trouble getting out of Braston."

[DracoOmega]

>All-ly, that's a new one.
>"Considering the time it took to get to the city.... Two weeks, give or take a day or two."
>"Assuming I don't get delayed again leaving this city. There was a bit of trouble getting out of Braston."

>So new you're not sure it technically exists at all!
>"Oh?" Kyouko leans her head you. "What kind of trouble?"
>At this point, you hear footsteps softly approaching from beyond the rear of the room.

[Oldmansour]

>Point towards the rear end of the chamber.
>"It's a long story. I'd be happy to tell you, but I think Sumiko's coming back."

[DracoOmega]

>Point towards the rear end of the chamber.
>"It's a long story. I'd be happy to tell you, but I think Sumiko's coming back."

>Kyouko's own ears perk up. "I think she is!"
>And sure enough, a few moments later, the door to the inner sanctuary slides open and Sumiko reemerges, your sword cradled gently in her hands. She approaches on light feet and presents it to you.

>"I fear I have not learned all you wished to know," she says, "But I have learned some things nonetheless. This is an item of great power that you possess."
>"Great power..." Kyouko adds in an awed hush.

[Oldmansour]

>Reclaim the blade. Whether we felt out of sorts or no due to its absence, it's still good to have it back.
>Before we ask any questions, steal a glance at Kyouko, then ask, "Anything... sensitive?"

[DracoOmega]

>Reclaim the blade. Whether we felt out of sorts or no due to its absence, it's still good to have it back.
>Before we ask any questions, steal a glance at Kyouko, then ask, "Anything... sensitive?"

>You take Kumokirimaru back in hand again. While you hadn't actually noticed any physical effects due to its absence, you're still more comfortable with it near you than away from you.
>Kyouko lets out a tiny meep. "S- sensitive?" You think you can see a touch of color start to tinge her cheeks. Sumiko frowns sternly.

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, I don't know what the sword had to say yet. I have been carrying it around for the past week or so, it might have something private to tell me."

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, I don't know what the sword had to say yet. I have been carrying it around for the past week or so, it might have something private to tell me."

>"Oh!" Kyouko says. Her bearing relaxes slightly and that ready smile of hers returns. "Oh, okay!"
>"I do not believe there is anything... sentient within the blade," Sumiko says. "The spiritual force is not that of a god dwelling inside nor, as best my skills can determine, of one who has chosen to manifest their power through it. But there is power there, and stronger even than I first suspected. It responded to my arts only little, but it was enough."
>Kyouko listens to her elder's speech with hushed attention.

[Oldmansour]

>On the one hand, it'd be nice if we could ask if she knows about our blight, so we can discuss it when Kyouko's not around.
>On the other hand, there's no real way to ask that WHILE Kyouko's around, so...
>"Continue, then. Please."

[DracoOmega]

>On the one hand, it'd be nice if we could ask if she knows about our blight, so we can discuss it when Kyouko's not around.
>On the other hand, there's no real way to ask that WHILE Kyouko's around, so...
>"Continue, then. Please."

>You hesitate a moment, wondering whether Sumiko has become aware of your condition and will incidentally reveal it to the smiling girl beside you, but when you find no good way to inquire, merely beckon her to continue.
>Sumiko nods curtly. "Rather than the touch of the divine, the force which empowers your blade is the prayers and hopes of a myriad, preserved somehow by some art I do not know. By our own reckoning, they are ancient, yet have not faded away to naught. Even now, I have felt the echo of their hope and will. If I were to find words for it, I would say..." She falls silent a moment. "I would say it is the hope that the things which they love might yet be sheltered from consuming darkness and despair. It is a force anathema to spiders - that much is clear - yet it is not born of malice foremost. Somehow this collective faith has been driven pure and forged into a shield, to safeguarded the blade and its wielder as they wished their loved ones safeguarded. But I believe this is just one facet of its potential."
>"The power in this blade has been shaped by intent," she continues, "and this intent has endured the centuries; of its own accord, the sword will protect the one who wields it from its foe. It will lay bare their defenses, strike at them with the force of a thousand prayers instead of mere steel. And it will not allow the foe or their arts to ever lay their touch upon it, so long as this power endures. But anything that houses such a wellspring of spiritual essence is a powerful ritual focus. To someone trained in the proper esoteric rites, I believe this sword could be used to work what you might call 'miracles'. I cannot say for certain the full extent of what could be worked with it, but I believe it enough perhaps to bind and seal a small army of the beings it is aligned against." She lets out a slow breath. "But in this, I am afraid the arts which forged this blade exceed my own."
>Kyouko lip droops. "Awwwwwww....."

[Oldmansour]

>"A weapon carrying coalesced hope..." Whistle.
>Binding and sealing?
>Wait a second, never touch it? Didn't that spider touch the sword when we fought her?

[DracoOmega]

>"A weapon carrying coalesced hope..." Whistle.
>Binding and sealing?
>Wait a second, never touch it? Didn't that spider touch the sword when we fought her?

>You let out an impressed whistle which Kyouko echoes with even greater enthusiasm.
>"Indeed," Sumiko says.
>You never noticed the spider youkai lay her hands upon your sword during your melee, or even attempt to do so. For that matter, none of the adhesive webbing which she used to constrict you ever caught upon your sword, either. It might have been simply that her aim never landed there, but perhaps not....

[Oldmansour]

>"So that sword could have been used to, say, imprison a horde of arachnids in an underground area, away from human or other youkai settlements?"

[DracoOmega]

>"So that sword could have been used to, say, imprison a horde of arachnids in an underground area, away from human or other youkai settlements?"

>"I cannot say for certain what sealings, if any, this blade has been used to perform, but I believe that such a thing is possible."
>Kyouko's mouth hangs open slightly. "Wow...."

[Oldmansour]

>Look at the sword and say, quietly, "So how did you end up in a river?"

[DracoOmega]

>Look at the sword and say, quietly, "So how did you end up in a river?"

>"How did you end up in a river?" Kyouko repeats, a tone of genuine curiosity in her voice.
>Sumiko shakes her head. "That I cannot say."

[Oldmansour]

>"What about a spider youkai? Would that also have been... repelled, unable to touch this sword?"

[DracoOmega]

>"What about a spider youkai? Would that also have been... repelled, unable to touch this sword?"

>"At best, it might be like holding a white-hot iron in one's hand," she says. "The will within the sword would reject them utterly."

[Oldmansour]

>"Is that how she knew what this sword was? Did she touch it and feel its power, its will?"
>Better clarify.
>"That youkai I told you about. I gathered from her that she was the one that threw the sword in the river. I think she thought it was gone forever. It was like she'd seen a ghost when she saw it in my hands."

[DracoOmega]

>"Is that how she knew what this sword was? Did she touch it and feel its power, its will?"
>Better clarify.
>"That youkai I told you about. I gathered from her that she was the one that threw the sword in the river. I think she thought it was gone forever. It was like she'd seen a ghost when she saw it in my hands."

>"If she laid her hands upon it," Sumiko says, "I am sure it was a profoundly unpleasant experience. It is anathema to her very nature."
>You note a fretful frown on Kyouko's face.

[Oldmansour]

>"And it's just arachnids that it's focused on, no other kind of being?"