Advent of Eternity - Chapter 64 (Patreon)

“What about the crystal things?” Stix asked. “Are we really just going to sit on them?”

“We already covered this. Blowing ourselves up trying to find a weapon is not the path I’m looking to take. Unless you happen to know a safe way to discern what they are?”

“Not really,” Stix admitted. “But what if your back is against the wall and we don’t have anything else? Wouldn’t it be better to have one of the magic stones as a bullet, just in case? What if it actually does something powerful? I mean, it’s not like the skull thing can blow it up on accident – it just makes it into a bullet.”

Knell frowned, taking a few moments to consider Stix’s words. “I see where you’re coming from – and you’re correct, the artifact would be very unlikely to destroy the crystal. But the issue is not that – it’s not knowing what it does. If I am backed into a spot where I have no choice but to rely on chance, then I have already failed. The crystal could just as easily blow me up when I try to fire it. We don’t know what its reaction to getting shot is.”

“Oh,” Stix said, her face falling. “That makes sense.”

“That said,” Knell said, raising a hand. “I think you may have a point. I wouldn’t personally test this, but we do have someone that can test things without any risk to himself. It will mean we waste some of the magic crystal, but it would be worth it to see what it does and have an extra weapon.”

Stix’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Quite,” Knell said, shifting to his feet. He grabbed several of the crystals and put his hand on the door. Before he pushed it open, Knell activated his foresight to make sure the assassin wasn’t about to try to gut him.

He walked outside and up to the wheel, where Cyll was leaning against the railing.

“What’s going on, Cap?”

“Decided to test the crystals,” Knell replied. “But I’m not keen on firing a gun with an unknown substance in it. It might blow up. I want you to do it instead.”

“Sure, give the immortal guy the dangerous jobs,” Cyll scoffed. “Works for me. Now?”

Knell nodded. He took the crystal and lifted it up to the skull on his shoulder, placing it within the mouth. As soon as he let go, the artifact creaked. The lone Boon in its right eye lit up and its mouth snapped shut. There were several loud crunches before it popped back open, revealing three small spheres in a pile of glimmering blue dust.

“That was fast,” Cyll observed as Knell carefully picked the spheres up and dropped them in Cyll’s palm.

Knell drew the flintlock from his belt and handed it to Cyll. “There. Make sure you aim away from the ship.”

“Can do,” Cyll said. He took the bullets and the gun, clambering up to the crow’s nest like a misshapen spider. Cyll peered down at Knell, giving his captain a mock salute before loading one of the bullets into the front of the flintlock. He aimed toward the land and pulled the trigger.

The hammer slammed home and a faint flash of blue light erupted from the tip of the flintlock. A bullet whistled through the air and slammed into a rock, shattering against it in a burst of cyan fireworks.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Cyll said, sliding back down and handing Knell the remaining two bullets and the gun.

“Just the way I like it,” Knell replied, examining the flintlock before tucking it back into his belt. “Did you feel anything?”

“Not in the slightest,” Cyll replied. “Bullet didn’t look too sturdy though. It broke apart pretty easily and didn’t even damage the rock too much.”

“It would have still done a fair bit of damage to a person,” Knell said. He turned the bullets over in his palm, then tucked them into a pouch, padding them as much as possible. The bullet hadn’t exploded against the rock in a way that made it look dangerous, but there was no point taking a risk. “I suppose they’ll just be backup for now. Maybe the first person I shoot can tell me a little bit more about them.”

“Want to shoot me?” Cyll asked.

Knell considered the offer. “No. We don’t know what they do. What if they’ve got some form of affect that your body doesn’t recognize as malignant?”

“I’m immortal,” Cyll snorted. “I can’t die. I can’t be permanently hurt. Not by anything.”

“Not by anything so far,” Knell corrected. “I hope you’re correct, but we never know. Don’t take stupid risks. That’s the whole thing that Stix is trying to teach you with the swordfighting bit.”

Cyll grunted. “Bah. I don’t want to hear it, even if you’re right.”

“Then just focus on getting us to Mount Bloodwater,” Knell said. “The map we bought should be enough to help you navigate there, I hope?”

“More than,” Cyll replied. “It’s not in a cipher like the damn logbook. We’ve got a few days to go until we get there. We should arrive a day or two before everything begins going down.”

“Good,” Knell said. “Once we’re close, we can start looking at how we’ll blend in with the rest of the pirates. Call if you need any help.”

He headed back into the cabin, where Stix was still plotting ways she could get at Cyll for failing the challenge. Knell shook his head and sat down cross-legged to meditate. He had a lot to review with his gains, and even the time they had until Mount Bloodwater’s opening didn’t feel like enough. A plan needed to be created and an escape strategy had to be flawless if he wanted to pull this off.

There were a lot of things running through Knell’s head at that point in time, but worry was not one of them. In the end, he had complete confidence that everything would work out as he needed it to. That was his will.