Private - Odds and Endings [P]

Ash looked down at the slip of paper in her hand. "Prescott Manor," she mumbled to herself, then looked up at the iron gates before her. Yup, that was definitely a plaque that read 'Prescott Manor', right there in bold type. The manor was large, fancy, and actually pretty intimidating, if she was being honest. But, well, no reason to dillydally. Ash was here for a job, so it was time to get to work!

A cord attached to a bell dangled to her left, and pulling it brought out a well-dressed man who peered suspiciously at her. "Ah, hello!" Ash said, smiling nervously. "I'm here for the task that, um, Lady Gwendolyn posted on the notice board in town? Something about clearing out the attic?"

Still looking quite dubiously at her, the man nodded slowly. "Come in, then. I shall escort you to Lady Gwendolyn. Your partner for this endeavor is already inside."

Ash made her way through the opulent grounds, looking in amazement at the fountains and the lush flower bushes. It was quite a decent walk to get to the front doors of the manor, where the man rang a small chime and the doors nearly double her height swung inwards.

The inside of the mansion was no less impressive than the outside. Before Ash got too caught up in glancing around in wonder though, the man coughed and gestured to another doorway. "Lady Gwendolyn is waiting."

"Ah, right. Um, thank you." Ash smiled again and made her way to the side room she was directed to. Inside was a well-dressed woman in a magnificent purple and black dress. Her white hair was tied back in a tight bun, showing off her sharp facial features. Strands of silver and gold circled her neck and wrists, and round shiny gems decorated her clothes. Standing beside the couch she was seated at was a young Faerin girl, presumably her partner in this quest.

"Um, hello, Lady Gwendolyn? My name is Ashiore, I've also accepted your request about the attic. Just like, um," Ash glanced back down to the slip that she had scribbled the request details on. "-Surrechis?" she tried, hoping that she was pronouncing the other girl's name correctly.

@Surrechis

 

Surrechis had been engaged in conversation with Lady Gwendolyn for a fair bit before Ashiore's arrival. The woman had a lot of tales to tell, typically of the things that Sir Benjamin had brought home and the various problems they had caused. Like the medallion that would replace all nearby alcohol with vanilla extract. Almost sabotaged his own homecoming party with that one but they managed to get an express delivery made by the local brewery. Hearing Ashiore's introduction, Lady Gwendolyn nodded,

"Greetings Ashiore, I thank you for responding to my request. It has been a taxing week and sorting through all the belongings myself would have been exhausting. Your companion has been waiting for a while and I have some business that I have put off long enough. Miss Surrechis knows they way. Apologies for the brief welcome, things are hectic currently. I will be in my study, do not hesitate to ask the help if you require something."

With that, Lady Gwendolyn left into the mansion's twisting hallways and paths. The design of the building itself was quite odd, a byproduct of the designer's eccentricities. Nonetheless, the Lady had gifted Surrechis with a map and they could ask the staff for directions should they get lost. Surrechis who had been silent until now, gave Ashiore a curtsey before saying,

"Good afternoon Ms. Ashiore. As Lady Gwendolyn said, I know the path. If you would let me lead?"

Surrechis gave another small bow before gesturing for Ash to follow before making her way to the attic. On the way, she decided to strike up a bit of conversation to stop the walk from being too awkward.

"So, Ms. Ashiore, what brought you to Stokbon?"

 

Ash gave a nod as Lady Gwendolyn exited the room, and then turned to Surrechis with a smile. "Great!" she chirped when the girl said she knew the way. "I'll follow you, then."

The pair set off for the attic. The manor had at least four or five stories, and the staircases weren't neatly arranged all in the same general location, like they would have been in a rational house. That meant a bit of doubling back, some trips down random hallways that really looked like they were unnecessary, and a couple of stops to ask nearby staff for directions.

Luckily Surrechis didn't seem to be the exceptionally quiet type. Sure she wasn't boisterous or anything, but she did try to make conversation as they walked. Ash was relieved; absolute silence during their walk would have been awkward as hell, and Ash wasn't quite sure where to begin herself.

"I wander around a lot," Ash responded. "I don't usually stay in one part of Falderen for too long, I like the exploring. But well, today I was just sort of looking to buy a few things. And I happened to see that Lady Gwendolyn posted a request and I decided that I would like to help! Ah, and just Ash is fine, no need for this Ms. business."

She smiled at Surrechis. "And what about you?"

The conversation was quite friendly as they walked. Eventually they managed to climb the last flight of stairs to reach the attic. Ash shoved the trapdoor in the ceiling open and climbed up first.

The attic was not what she was expecting at all. Eyebrows rising, Ash took a glance around the absolutely massive attic. There was a lot less dust than she was expecting. Logically, she had heard from Lady Gwendolyn that her late husband had been up here quite often, checking on his collection of magical items, cleaning them himself, adding to it, so on and so forth.

Sir Benjamin had quite the collection of magical artifacts, nothing too dangerous, but he was quite a bit more involved in this hobby than the rest of his family was willing to put up with. Hence why all the items had been banished to the attic, and also why nobody else had any clue what exactly the artifacts did. Thus when Sir Benjamin died, Lady Gwendolyn had requested their help to identify the items so that they could be auctioned, or perhaps kept, or otherwise disposed of.

Ash looked to Surrechis once they were both safely in the attic, among the rows and rows of pedestals supporting artifacts in glass cases. "So," she began, unable to stop herself from staring, "where do we start?"

@Surrechis

 

There truly was a vast amount of items in the attic. Surrechis doubted that she and Ashiore would be able to process everything, even if they were given a year. Well, it was best not to waste time and effort if they could afford to. Resigning herself to a tedious time sorting through, Surrechis gave a slight sigh before saying,

"I was thinking that we could start row by row, left to right. It would minimize our chances of searching over the same spot twice. First off, this pocket watch..."

Surrechis walked over to one of the larger display cases. She slid the glass front open and took out the object. It consistently let out a faint, beating sound as she she brushed her fingers over the casing. Despite the noise, its hands were curiously still. Spying a button on the bottom of the device, she pressed it and its mechanisms were exposed. She wasn't a horologist or tinkerer but it seemed that what was powering the watch was some sort of crystal. Peering deeper into the glowing gem, she let out a small yelp of surprise and almost dropped the gadget as something within blinked at her. Seeing that Ash was staring at her, she flushed slightly in embarrassment. Her voice barely above a whisper, she explained,

"Apologies for the disruption, I was examining the watch's power source when I saw something inside look back at me. Perhaps some sort of spirit dwells within? I must admit, I am quite lost on how to categorize this item..."

 

"Yeah, probably." Ash sighed as she looked upon the rows and rows of items. She guessed that that was the natural consequence of basically an entire lifetime spent collecting artifacts. "Great idea. I'll go check this next one out..."

Ash left Surrechis to the pocket watch and wandered over to the next pedestal, glancing at the small potion rack sitting beneath a glass dome. Three vials were filled with tiny little bits of liquid... that were... glowing? All of them were different colors and Ash frowned as she removed the glass dome covering it. All the vials were quite securely corked and actually labeled, though whatever labels they had were quite unhelpful. 'NO!!' read one, 'check with k.j.' said the middle vial, and 'last week, luncheon, bread' read the third.

Ash set the rack of vials down again, sighing. She was no alchemist, she had absolutely zero clue what any of these were. She put it down just in time too--a loud shriek from beside her startled her that she definitely would have dropped the thing if she had been holding onto it.

Ash wildly spun around, barely managing to not jostle the pedestal to turn to look at Surrechis. When she saw that the girl wasn't in any immediate distress, she relaxed slightly, even letting out a small laugh as Surrechis explained her situation. "No problem, don't worry about it. I'm not really an expert on any of this stuff either. Our main job is just to see if any of this stuff is dangerous or not, so it doesn't really matter if we can identify them or not. We're not appraisers, right?"

Opening up her palm menu, Ash brought up her notepad feature and jotted down a few quick notes. Blinking watch, Dubious Vials... that was two artifacts down, and about... at least four dozen to go, probably more. Doing a bit more manipulating, which to Surrechis would look like a whole lot of poking at the air and waving her hand at nothing, Ash moved her notepad to the corner of her vision so that she didn't have to constantly reopen and close her palm menu over and over again.

"So, I found those vials over there," she began, pointing at them. "But I have no idea what's in them, I'm not an alchemist. Since it might be dangerous to mess with them too much, I say we just leave any vials alone and tell Lady Gwendolyn to find an alchemist to identify them."

Now, onto pedestal number three... Looked like a small puzzle box. It was divided up into unevenly sized sections which all rotated out. It reminded Ash of a Rubix cube, except that none of the 'cubes' were the same size. Huh. It didn't look magical, or really feel magical... maybe opening it would do something? Well, it didn't bother Ash. She marked it down on her list and continued onwards.

 

Nodding at Ash's explanation, Surrechis returned to her work. While most of the objects were strangely designed or had some sort of magical glow to them, they were safe. Or so she hoped. Finally, she she took hold of a puzzle box. While there was a quiet, insistent clicking it appeard to be otherwise ordinary. Fiddling with it a bit, she couldn't solve it and placed it on the ground. Before she could put it away however, it sprang to life. The box unfolded itself, stretched its metal legs and began to scramble around Surrechis' arm. Letting out a panicked, strangled cry she tried to pin the mechanical beast down. It took the hint and jumped off, flitting around the room surprisingly fast for its size. It went behind some boxes and then it was gone, not a single trace of it left. Now very embarrassed and more than a little bit nervous, she called out to Ash, trying to compose herself.

"Ash? I may have... lost one of the artifacts. It came to life within my grip and now it's scurried off to one of the box piles there."

Surrechis was beginning to develop a strong distaste for mechanical devices and things of that nature. She didn't hate them per se but she would be much more careful and jumpy around them in the near future. Nonetheless, she pushed past the feeling and began to search through the boxes that the thing had ducked behind. It wasn't that big of a room and there was only so many boxes to hind behind before it was trapped. Hopefully, it would run out of energy or had a power switch somewhere convenient.

 

They were working at a pretty good pace. They'd finally made it through the first row of items, and for the most part they were all safe. There were another two potions that Ash found but still had no idea what they were. She marked them, bringing the total to 5 potions that they had found so far. There were a few more curios, some jewelry that glowed if they were all nearby each other, a little key made of actual diamond that levitated in its case, and a collection of feathers that were in many different bright colors, but seemingly inert.

There was something that could be reasonably classified as dangerous, though. In one of the glass cases, Ash picked up a smooth metal sphere. It seemed completely benign at first, but it slowly heated up as she continued holding onto it. Curious, she tried to see if there was a limit for how high it would go.

The answer, as evidenced by her hurriedly dropping the ball back on its place and blowing on her reddened fingers, was no.

Surrechis's notice caught her attention. She glanced over to the boxes the girl was pointing at. "Huh. I can go look for it," Ash offered, shaking her burned hand. "You can keep going, we probably should keep at it so we don't spend too long here."

Well, time to find some sort of artifact then. Ash wandered over to the boxes and activated Investigation Mode, staring at the boxes with a finger at her temple, eyes glowing a soft white. If it came into view, Investigation Mode ought to pick up on it.

 

Nodding to Ash, she decided to take continue. A few more items, not very impressive but not dangerous either. Which was good, in her opinion. The less dangerous items there were, the better and faster the job would go. Eventually she got curious on Ash's progress on finding the mechanical creature and was greeted to a disturbing sight. As Ash searched through and around various containers, her eyes were glowing softly with pure bright light. Surrechis knew that her own eyes darkened a fair bit when using her other magic but this light felt off. It wasn't the comforting glow of Illumancy, it was harsher than that. It cut into her very soul, peering into her very essence. The gaze wasn't even directed on her and she felt uneasy... If Ash had been possessed by some spirit, she couldn't sit by idly. Mustering up what little resolve she could, Surrechis called out to Ash, voice shaky,

"Um, Ms. Ashiore, are you feeling... alright?"

Ash had told her to not bother with the titles but she was just so flustered that she forgot. Then again, if Ash truly was possessed it could be a sign if she took no issue with the use of a title.

 

Ash could vaguely make out Surrechis's voice trailing off in a somewhat questioning tone, but anything more detailed than that, she didn't have the multitasking ability to make out. She was almost wholly focused on Investigation Mode, waiting for any glimpse of th-

Aha!

She was almost too late! But she snagged the skittering box--literally, as her HUD identified it as 'Skittering Puzzle Box' by a spindly, mechanical leg. It dangled in her grasp as she held it out triumphantly, saying, "Got it! Found the box."

It whirred a few times before falling inert once again and Ash walked over to where Surrechis had indicated the box was found. She set it down and made sure to check whether the thick glass case was securely over the entire pedestal before turning back to Surrechis. "Sorry, what were you saying before?"

Before Surrechis could respond, she was cut off by a steady clinking sound. Ash turned around, raising an eyebrow at the source: the very glass case she had just put over the puzzle box. It looked like the box was trying to bust its way through the case through sheer force. Although with how small it was, it wasn't really going to succeed any time soon.

She laughed a little. "It's pretty persistent, isn't it? Anyway, let's get back to work." Properly registering where exactly Surrechis was, Ash's eyebrows rose. "Wow!" she said, pleasantly surprised. "You really got a lot done? Was I looking for the box for that long?"

Ash laughed again, slightly sheepish this time. "Come on, let me help. I feel bad if you're doing all the work. So, what's left?"

 

The glow faded from Ash's and Surrechis felt relief. Ash seemed to be herself, from the little she knew about the woman at least. She tried to avoid conflict if necessary, and either of them getting hurt and the antiques being damaged would be unfortunate. Hearing Ash's question, Surrechis responded,

"It was no issue. I believe that we only have a few shelves left, it shouldn't take us very long to sort through the rest."

The pair quickly took care of the rest of the objects. Thankfully, the only remotely threatening thing left was a sword that unleashed a bright shine when unsheathed. Surrechis just barely managed to not drop it on her foot as she recoiled from the blinding flash. Setting it down and attaching a small warning, she was done with the last shelf. Ash appeared to have finished as well and the both of them made their way to Lady Gwendolyn's study.

It took a fair bit of effort and Surrechis swore that the map redrew itself while she wasn't looking but they made it there in the end. When they arrived, the Lady was at a desk sorting through some papers. No doubt related to the upcoming funeral, the death of an influential noble was never received quietly after all. She thanked them, gave them the agreed payment and sent them on their way to the entrance. On they way, she and Ash exchanged a few bits of conversation but overall the walk was fairly quiet. The day was winding down and Surrechis felt tired from the day. When they reached the entrance, Surrechis turned to Ash and said,

"I suppose this is where we part ways, it was a pleasure to work with you, Ash. Stay safe and good luck with your travels."

With that, she headed to find a nearby inn. There was bound to be somewhere open, even if it was quite late. Stokbon had an abundance of places to stay in due to its status as the capital. While it was a bit more eventful than what she would have liked, no real harm came to her and she even managed to have a bit of pleasant conversation. A rarity for someone who traveled as much as she does.