Memoirs 495 - Imperial treasures (Patreon)

“Welcome to the Imperial Reliquary, Baroness Hartford,” the Keeper of the Imperial Reliquary said as he motioned with both arms towards the doors in front of Scarlett.

“Much appreciated.”

Scarlett studied the enormous slabs of gold blocking the passage.

They looked to have been carved from the metal wholesale, their surfaces covered in interlocking suns, imperial crests, and older motifs she didn’t fully recognise. The handles were absurdly large, nearly the size of her head, and the layers of magic worked into the doors were dense enough that even she could feel them without consciously trying.

An attendant stepped past her carrying a heavy key with a silver bow shaped like a many-rayed sun. He inserted it into a narrow lock set into one of the doors and turned it.

A shimmer ran across the gold.

Two mages in bronze-red robes approached next. Each touched the tip of their staff to a separate point in the carvings, causing a ripple to spread through the enchantments. After that came a second attendant with a second key, this one entirely gold, which went into a smaller lock hidden beneath one of the reliefs.

The pressure coming from the doors finally receded.

The two palace guards stationed beside them took hold of the oversized handles and pulled.

The doors opened with a slow, grinding weight as they revealed the chamber beyond.

Scarlett wasn’t quite sure what she had been expecting. She’d never visited the Imperial Reliquary in the game, but considering how fond Dawnlight Palace was of its gilded decorations, and just generally reminding visitors that they were standing in the seat of the empire, she had imagined something suitably excessive.

That was not what greeted her. Instead, it was simply a broad chamber of plain grey stone.

The Keeper must have caught something in her expression, because he cleared his throat as he spoke.

“When Galrath ordered the Reliquary constructed, he specified that it was not to be a place of spectacle. His words were: ‘Where strength must be seen, display it, for the minds of men are moved by what stands before them. But strength displayed where none need convincing is merely vanity.’ His descendants have kept that principle in mind when maintaining this place.”

“I see.”

Scarlett gave a small nod as she was led inside.

Galrath had been a surprisingly restrained man, then. At least in this particular regard. Though she did wonder how faithfully his descendants had actually followed that principle. The empire was hardly shy about displaying its wealth and authority whenever the opportunity presented itself, and Scarlett wasn’t entirely convinced that every golden statue and ceremonial procession could be explained away as strength that simply needed to be seen.

But who was she to argue with imperial tradition?

The temperature dropped noticeably as she crossed fully into the chamber. The air was cool and dry in a way that reminded her of certain museums and archival collections from her old world.

They were fairly deep beneath the palace by now, so that in itself wasn’t strange. But she found it curious how she hadn’t felt it until now.

Accompanying her into the Reliquary were five palace guards and Dame Iyana, the latter wearing her usual Royal Guard armour but without the helmet.

Scarlett had been granted access by direct order of the crown prince, but apparently that didn’t mean she was going to be allowed to wander around an imperial treasure vault unsupervised.

Which was fair enough.

The chamber’s walls were largely bare except for recessed lamps and the occasional plaque, with the objects themselves standing on individual plinths, shelves, or inside barred alcoves arranged in neat rows.

The Keeper stopped beside the first display.

A chalice rested there, carved from pale wood so smooth and white that Scarlett first mistook it for bone. Fine lines of script wound around its bowl and stem, with the characters shining faintly beneath the lamps.

“This is the Vessel of the White Bough,” the Keeper began. “It was commissioned by Emperor Galrith during his journey through the southern reaches of Zovivios. The vessel was carved from a branch of a tree said to bloom only once every century. His Majesty was so taken by the tree’s appearance that he ordered it felled and transported back to Graenal.”

Scarlett’s brow rose slightly.

The man just saw a tree he liked and decided to take it back home halfway across the world?

The Keeper continued without any sign that he found that part of the story strange.

“Unfortunately, the tree lost the qualities that had first drawn his attention before it reached the empire. It is said that it faded and withered to the size of a single branch. This chalice, however, had been carved by a local artisan before the journey began and retained the unique white colour, which Emperor Galrith later had several court mages preserve and strengthen.”

Scarlett inspected the chalice.

[Vessel of the White Bough (Unique)]{Water held beneath its rim remembers the vitality of what once grew beneath a foreign sun.}

“It is said that drinking from it can ease exhaustion and accelerate the body’s natural recovery,” the Keeper continued. “Several emperors and members of the imperial family have made use of it during periods of illness or prolonged strain, and it has remained a quiet witness to generations of imperial history.”

“Is that so?”

Scarlett considered the item for another moment before moving on.

“Ah, and this is the—”

She held up one hand before the Keeper could launch into another story.

“Your passion is appreciated, but it will not be necessary for every item. I am capable of judging most of what is here myself.”

The man fell silent. A faint frown appeared, but he lowered his head in acknowledgement.

Scarlett continued along the displays.

She was only allowed to take one item. There were probably limits hidden somewhere in that permission, despite what the prince had said, so she had to consider this closely.

[Solemnity’s Measure (Legendary)]{The mind that bears it cannot easily be bent. Glamours unravel beneath sustained attention, compulsions struggle to take root, and outside hands find little purchase on memory or will}

The next item was a silver circlet with a dark green stone set above the brow and fine geometric patterns worked along its band. Scarlett assumed it offered a powerful defence against mind-influencing attacks, but that had never been a large issue for her.

[Veyran’s Last Accord (Unique)]{Signed beneath a dying king’s seal, this tablet still remembers the authority of those who once placed their names upon it. Words sworn in its presence are not easily abandoned}

[Garden of the Seventh Dawn (Legendary)]{A fragment of spring captured at the height of its bloom. Given soil, light, and water, it remembers flowers no living gardener has seen}

[Aurelian’s Quiet Hour (Unique)]{An emperor once demanded a single hour in which the world would leave him be. The enchantments laid upon this clock still remember that request, turning away intrusion from those who shelter beneath its ticking}

Scarlett passed plenty of fascinating items and artifacts. These three stood out to her, but she wasn’t quite sure.

What was undeniable was that all objects here were useful in some way or other. She would have been surprised if there was a single thing in the Reliquary that couldn’t be sold for several million solars at minimum. These were treasures, after all, and none of these descriptions seemed to be under the Unique or Legendary tier.

But money didn’t really matter to Scarlett. Selling whatever she chose would be an incredible waste.

She stopped when she passed a small chamber that had an iron grille fitted across its entrance. Beyond it, a single raised dais stood beneath a bright chandelier.

A sword rested horizontally upon it.

Its broad blade was a clear silver, with thin lines of gold running through the metal from the crossguard almost to the tip. The guard curved slightly towards the blade, shaped in the likeness of spreading sunrays, while the grip was wrapped in deep red leather around a golden core.

[Unbroken at Dawn (Divine)]{Rasiel stood where others broke, and so too did the blade at his side. In the hands of one who refuses to yield, every blow endured becomes strength for the one that follows}

Now that was something.

“Unbroken at Dawn,” the Keeper said beside her.

Apparently, this one was important enough that he couldn’t keep quiet.

“It belonged to the great Sir Rasiel the Resilient, who, as you well know, was among Galrath the Great’s companions during the final campaigns before the empire’s founding. According to the surviving records, it may very well be among the greatest swords to ever have been forged. Unfortunately, it appears to recognise certain conditions in its wielder that no one has been able to exactly determine.”

Scarlett glanced at him. “Has it been used since?”

“A handful of times. Three confirmed wielders after Sir Rasiel. Possibly a fourth, though the records are somewhat disputed. There have also been hundreds who were permitted to attempt it and received nothing in response.”

She considered the blade.

It probably would be very useful if she got her hands on it. Unfortunately, the only person in her group who regularly used a sword was Shin, and she suspected he wouldn’t be able to do much with this one.

Although, now that she thought about it…

Didn’t the sword look familiar?

She stepped closer to the iron grille and narrowed her eyes at the weapon.

Wasn’t this…the sword Leon had used towards the end of the game?

She was almost certain that it was. It had been so long since she’d last played the game now—well over a year from her perspective, maybe even two—but she recognised it from some of the scenes he had appeared in.

That was interesting.

She would have loved to know the backstory behind that.

“Dame Iyana,” she said, turning towards the woman standing a few steps back with the other guards. “If I am not misremembering, Sir Rasiel was one of the progenitors of the sword art practised by the Imperial Solar Knights, was he not?”

Dame Iyana nodded. “Yes.”

“Then, out of curiosity, do you believe any of the current Solar Knights would have a chance of using this?”

The woman looked past Scarlett at the sword.

“No,” she answered after a moment.

“You can tell simply by looking at it?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Scarlett turned back towards the blade. “I am inclined to disagree. I believe Sir Leon may very well be up to the task.”

A brief silence followed behind her.

“Maybe one day,” Dame Iyana said.

The Keeper looked between Scarlett and the room. “Baroness Hartford, are you considering choosing the sword? It is one of the treasures held jointly in trust for the imperial family and the Solar Knights. I would have to confirm whether His Majesty’s grant extends to it.”

Scarlett shook her head and moved on.

“Not in the slightest.”

There was no shortage of things that caught her interest after that.

A set of six silver needles could supposedly be used to stitch damaged mana channels back together if handled by someone with enough skill. That made Scarlett stop for a while, considering whether they might be useful for her current condition.

Probably not, though.

Her mana veins weren’t simply damaged. She suspected that the needles would only help return them to their natural state, but given enough time, her body was already doing that on its own.

Another interesting find was an old bronze lantern whose light supposedly revealed almost any form of concealment or illusion. The reason it was sitting down here, however, instead of being used was that it had stopped working nearly a century ago.

Scarlett could maybe fix that with her Array Forge. But it wasn’t a guarantee.

A little farther on, she found a silver bracelet that sounded remarkably similar to her [Canticle of Remembrance], capable of storing several spells and releasing them later. Unfortunately, the spells it could hold were limited in strength, which made it significantly less appealing.

Some other oddities included a pair of boots that could reduce the wearer’s weight to almost nothing, a black iron necklace that supposedly made its wearer completely immune to poisons, and a small glass sphere that the Keeper had an impressively long story about despite apparently having no idea what it actually did.

The system was somewhat more helpful.

[Wayward Plummet (Unique)]{Borrow the direction of falling, and return it when you are finished}

Scarlett spent a good minute looking at that one.

Depending on what it actually did, she could think of several uses. She just wasn’t sure how valuable it was to her.

She kept looking.

She encountered two more Divine items before reaching the next section of the Reliquary. Unfortunately, much like [Unbroken at Dawn], both were old relics that couldn’t currently be used for one reason or another. One required a bloodline that had apparently died out over two hundred years ago, while the other was missing some sort of companion artifact that no one seemed to know the location of.

It might have been worth taking either simply because Slate could help her figure out how to get past the conditions, but she didn’t have time for that. She would much prefer something that she could make immediate use of.

One item that made Scarlett seriously pause and consider was an old set of Royal Guard armour that actually had even Dame Iyana looking slightly surprised.

The armour itself wasn’t especially useful to Scarlett, but the enchantments were interesting. Examining them with the Array Forge—and perhaps Yamina’s help—could probably have netted her something beneficial.

She might genuinely have chosen it if something else hadn’t caught her attention soon afterwards.

As she was passing another series of displays, most of them holding historical pieces that were valuable mainly because of who had owned them, she walked past a recessed alcove in the wall.

Then she stopped.

Slowly, she stepped back.

There was a mirror inside that alcove.

It was roughly her height, surrounded by a dark wooden frame that twisted around the glass in uneven branches and knots. It didn’t look carved so much as grown there, the wood curling around the pane as if the mirror had somehow formed inside a living tree.

The glass was strange as well. Slightly too bright, with a faint bluish tint over everything reflected in it.

Scarlett stared.

…There was more than one of these?

She moved closer, inspecting the frame to make sure she wasn’t mistaken.

“How long has this been here?” she asked.

The Keeper frowned. “This?”

“Yes.”

He stepped closer as well, looking genuinely puzzled now. “I…cannot say, Baroness. I do not recall this piece.”

His hand started towards the frame.

Scarlett caught his wrist.

“I suggest that you do not touch it.”

The man blinked at her.

“You seem familiar with it,” Dame Iyana said a few steps behind them.

Scarlett released the Keeper and looked towards her, then back to the mirror.

“Are you certain that I cannot have my retainer brought down here, regardless of the circumstances?”

The Keeper immediately shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Entry to the Reliquary is restricted to those specifically authorised by the Crown. You have been granted it in recognition of your achievements, but there are no exceptions.”

Scarlett was quiet for a moment.

Fynn was waiting in the rooms they had been assigned, so getting him here wouldn’t have taken long. But if bringing him inside required separate permission from the crown prince…

“That does complicate matters.”

“How?” Dame Iyana asked.

Scarlett gave her another look before gesturing towards the mirror. “Because this is a gateway to the Wandering Realm.”

[Wayfarer’s Challenge (Unique)]{A door for those willing to wander. The first to lay claim to the glass will be granted passage. They may bring a champion worthy of the road ahead}

“I have no idea how anyone managed to bring it down here without activating it,” Scarlett continued, “but whoever touches the glass first will trigger it. I have encountered something similar before.”

In the game, anyway. That mirror had been hidden deep inside the Faywild Basin.

Scarlett looked at the Keeper. “I will take this.”

His frown deepened. “Baroness, I am not certain—”

“Is this on the list of objects that are excluded from His Majesty’s grant?”

“Baroness, it is not—”

“Is this on it?”

The man hesitated.

“…No.”

“Then I will take it. His Majesty granted me the right to choose one item from the Reliquary.”

The Keeper clearly wasn’t happy with that answer, but he didn’t argue. After a few seconds, he bowed his head. “As you wish.”

“You just said it can’t be touched,” Dame Iyana pointed out.

“Unfortunately.” Scarlett studied the knight. “Dame Iyana. May I ask you for a favour?”

The woman’s expression tightened slightly. She looked from Scarlett to the mirror. “What?”

Scarlett smiled. “Would you be willing to serve as my champion?”

“Champion?”

“Yes.”

“…Very well.”

“Good. Come.”

Scarlett took her by the arm before she could ask anything else and stepped towards the mirror.

“We should return shortly,” she told the Keeper and the palace guards. “There is no need for concern.”

She wasn’t sure how much that reassured them, but she didn’t care much either.

Scarlett extended her free hand.

The moment her palm touched the glass, its surface rippled like water beneath her fingers and the Reliquary disappeared.

Her feet came down on grass.

Scarlett looked up.

Above them stretched a sky filled with shifting purples and deep blues, with pale streaks of light winding slowly between clouds that seemed impossibly far away.

Beside her, Dame Iyana slowly turned her head.

Scarlett released her arm.

“Welcome to the Wandering Realm.”