Defenders & Artefacts: Broken Rules

     Azul

     Location: Abandoned Room

     Discoveries: Baby Vandagyre, Wooden board, Cirrus, Crystal ball

     Azul was still kneeling on the floor when his wristband flashed with a blue notification. His eyes were puffy from sobbing quietly. The Cirrus and the Baby Vandagyre were trying to cheer him up by rubbing against him after sensing the bittersweet mood. He glanced down to read it. Albugineo had been defeated once more and had left the house. There was a second notification that he left unread. He was certain it informed them that Blanca was also defeated, losing all her strength points to an old friend. He turned off his wristband and reached with his right hand to pick up the crystal ball that had fallen out of Blanca’s pocket. This was a powerful artefact, he learnt. The drawback was that he couldn’t make excessive use of it, and he had to let it recharge after each use. At this instant, the smoky interior of the ball pulsated brightly white, which signified that it was fully charged.

     He got up from the floor, his feet trembling. A sense of pride overtook him, a feeling he had never felt before. He did what had to be done for the defenders. It was time to reconvene with his friends, and thus, he started walking towards the door that led to the Ballroom. As he was walking, his bag secured on his back and the Cirrus following closely, he realised how physically tired he was. He couldn’t wait to take some days off to concentrate on his hobbies, specifically to get back to his writing, when this mission was over. He had a few ideas in mind that arose from this experience.

     As soon as he passed through to the Ballroom, he saw Purpura sitting on the hardwood floor. A rainbow of colours softly caressed her face as she was resting.

     “Purpura!” he exclaimed and briskly strided in her direction. The Cirrus let out a glee and zoomed towards her.

     “Azul, I am so glad that you are well,” she replied, sincerely feeling relieved that he hadn’t hurt himself during his altercation with Blanca. Despite the scratches he had, he seemed to be in good health. She played with the Cirrus for a second, poking its cotton like surface and watching it bounce back and forth in the air.

     “How are you doing?” he inquired. Verde and she had both taken on Albugineo. The mere thought of that made him uneasy, before remembering that he had to duel with Blanca himself. He then showed her his bag, and she caressed the Baby Vandagyre.

     “Tired and worried sick about everyone. And these artefacts…” she trailed off without finishing her sentence. Azul did not pick up any nuances from her statement. He was too busy smiling foolishly at the baby.

     “We urgently need to master the weapon,” he replied, as he caressed the Vandagyre’s beak. “I will find Verde and try myself, as Verde must be burnt out as well,” he continued. He gave one last pat on the baby’s head and tucked it inside his bag, safely between the wooden board and the crystal ball. He meticulously secured his bag on his back and started making his way towards the door on his left. His shoes squeaked as he walked on the polished floor, with the Cirrus close behind, and entered through the door.

     He felt the outside air graze his face and stepped onto wet soil. His boots were partially immersed in a freshly covered-up tomb, and he quickly stepped away, struggling to remove the boots from the shifting soils due to their viscosity. He didn’t mean to disturb any sleeping residents, and he definitely didn’t intend to cause any trouble. He found Verde a few tombs away. He must have been gazing at something with his back turned to him.

     “What are we looking for?” he asked teasingly, as he got closer to him. Azul couldn't distinguish anything of importance in that direction. The Cirrus rushed ahead and was twirling in the air. Verde got startled and swiftly turned around with his fists extended, ready to strike back.

     “Azul, I wasn’t expecting to see you here!” Verde said, lowering his fists and flashing him one of his familiar grins. He then eyed the Cirrus suspiciously. “There was this Faerie Drugal that attacked me, but it has disappeared. I hope this one is more tame.”

     “I’ve seen creatures disappear in thin air inside this house,” Azul said and shuddered, remembering the strange hybrid of liquid Snowager with its shifting teeth and patterns he had encountered in the Organ Room. “But don’t worry, this Cirrus is harmless - and quite useful, l may add.”

     The baby let out a little squeak, and Azul swung his bag to bring it to the front. From the opening, the Baby Vandagyre’s head and beak extruded. It had a suspicious look on its face, which made Azul believe that the baby mistrusted Verde. Verde smiled at the sight of the baby, but he quickly retreated when it started snapping its beak aggressively in his direction.

     “Ignore it,” Azul reassured Verde, “It’s probably grumpy because of the dust earlier. It’s a long story…” he trailed off. “Back to the task at hand, let me try my intelligence at the weapon.”

     Verde handed the stringless bow to Azul. It was cold to the touch and, on its patchwork surface, he saw his reflection looking back at him and barely recognising himself. Whoever was reflected back, even though they had familiar characteristics, wasn’t the Azul that walked into the house earlier this morning. He took a deep breath as a soft gust of wind rushed against them and closed his eyes, concentrating on his intelligence.

     It was the first time he had to tap into the mind world today and he was deeply grateful to the Baby Vandagyre for providing him with an extra point of intelligence. He concentrated hard for a few seconds –- feeling the Vandagyre’s presence inside his mind –- until the Graveyard was bathed in shades of blue. The sky kept its usual colours with a few spots of pale blue clouds, slightly lighter coloured than the sky. The sticky soil turned into sapphire blue, with darker and lighter shades forming on its surface. He looked down at the weapon. Its top half kept its black, metallic look, while the bottom half, dividing at the grip, was now painted in a hue of spruce blue, almost resembling a grey colour. He took the next step. He concentrated further, specifically on the weapon, and a writing appeared in front of him.

     “It is in to involve someone and it’s back to withdraw” hovered in mid air in royal blue letters. He scratched his head with uncertainty, looking at the floating letters in front of him. He wasn’t particularly bad at these, but there was nothing that popped directly into his mind. He kept staring at the words until he remembered Lightning Lenny’s wisdom. The structure of the sentence was similar to the famous technique called ‘same verb, different prepositions’, or as Lightning Lenny used to call it, ‘the SVDP technique’. If he wasn’t misremembering, this technique frequently used the pointer “and”. The rest of the sentence should be two definitions of a single verb, while using different prepositions. The first being “to involve someone,” which used the preposition “in” and the second being “to withdraw,” which used “back”.

     “One verb, two definitions. To involve and to withdraw…” Azul thought. He ran through synonyms of ‘involve’, “Require, incorporate…” and different synonyms of ‘withdraw’, “Remove, draw back…” That’s when he realised.

     “Draw! The answer is draw!” he thought so loudly that for a moment he thought that the pale blue clouds vibrated in the sky. “To draw in means to involve someone and to draw back means to withdraw!” Satisfied with himself, he continued his endeavour.

     He gripped the weapon with his left hand, quickly turning it in the horizontal position. His back was straight and held upright. In one fluid motion, he swept his right hand above the bow from left to right and felt the arrow made of pure energy materialise beneath his left hand. The heat emanating from its chaotic surface could be sensed, but it never touched his skin. Then came the drawing part. He placed his right hand momentarily above his left, aligning it with the point of the arrow and gradually drew back, pulling the air backwards. Tension was building up as the air, arrow, and hand were being pulled back. A silver thread appeared, connecting the two ends of the bow together, while the arrow was held in place, motionless and unlaunched. The thread looked ever-moving and feeble. With a shimmering surface that looked like a lock of Siyana’s hair, the string resembled a small stream of silver liquid that flowed from one end to the other. Despite its elegant appearance, the string contained all the energy of the hovering arrow, waiting to be unleashed.

     Azul slowly drew the arrow back in, beneath his left hand, and the thread disappeared. He then relaxed his back and let go of the horizontal position. The arrow disappeared from sight, and Azul noticed that only a quarter of the bow retained its spruce blue colour.

     “I hope I’ve made you proud,” were his last thoughts as he exited the mind world and almost collapsed on the floor from fatigue.

     Purpura

     Location: Ballroom

     Discoveries: Mask, Moehog skull, Pair of dice

     Purpura kept flailing her hands in the air to cool down the burning feeling left on them, caused by Albugineo’s aura. She was still standing in the Ballroom, with its opulent chandeliers, which reflected on the floor. A dilemma pulled her thoughts in different directions, a stubborn uncertainty about her next steps. She had two options: She could check on her friends in the Graveyard to make sure they were in good health, maybe even have another try at the weapon, given that they were so close to mastering it. On the other hand, she could continue her journey to the Library - a possible location for the second weapon - since they were so close to mastering the first one, and they would soon defeat Albugineo once and for all. The same argument that made her want to venture on her own was the same argument that made her want to visit her colleagues. Regrettably, she did not have enough movement to be able to visit both rooms, as she was notified by the purple light emerging from her wristband and presented her skill values.

     Her head was spinning, trying to make a decision, as she kept walking aimlessly around the Ballroom in an unorthodox fashion, lacking a clear direction. For a heartbeat, her protector side would take over, making her want to check on her friends in the Graveyard. She would feel that her mind was made up and start walking towards the left. Milliseconds later, her more egotistical side would flare up, making her change course and turn downwards, towards the Library for her personal gain.

     She checked the map one last time and knew what she had to do. She had to prioritise her own goals and, for a brief while, continue her diverted path, away from the defenders. She believed in them and she was certain that both Verde and Azul would manage to master the bow and defeat Albugineo.

     “It’s only going to take me a second. I need all the artefacts I can find, my reunion with them might depend on this.” With these thoughts, she turned down and continued straight to pass through the door that led to the Abandoned Room. How many things had already happened in this mournful room, from the discovery of this spectacular mask to the downfall of Blanca. She took a few steps further inside the room and saw the white Wocky lying on the sofa, fast asleep. Azul had carried her from the floor, laid her on the broken sofa and covered her with a patchwork blanket full of holes. Her head was resting on the armrest, which had lost its vibrant colour, and springs were popping out of it, narrowly missing her head.

     “Azul must have administered her with a Potion of Good Dreams,” Purpura thought as she got closer, not making a single sound as she traversed the fallen items and broken tiles like a Kadoatie. This specific potion was mostly banned from use, and each usage had to be declared at the end of the mission. However, every defender always carried one with them when out on the field; its use was allowed given very specific circumstances, like this one. Purpura dreaded the paperwork that Azul would have to go through at the end of this mission to justify the use of the potion, but she would definitely back up his claim. She was certain there wouldn’t be any repercussions, since one of their own had betrayed them by not only putting everyone at risk but also by divulging defender information to third-party individuals. Blanca had betrayed them before they had even entered the house, by arranging with Albugineo to attack them.

     She walked past the sofa and continued straight to enter the Library. It was her first time in this room, and she was taken aback by the number of books that adorned the bookshelves around the walls. There was a sofa situated right next to an unlit fireplace, and she took a seat. It had been a long while since the last time she sat down to relax, and the soft cushions were very inviting. Looking around the room, she got the impression that this room didn’t belong in this house. It was much cleaner and tidier than most of the other rooms, with its bookshelf well organised on the walls. While gazing at the bookshelf, she noticed a yellow glow coming from one of the books.

     She rose to her feet and approached the glowing book. She had been expecting this. Verde’s wristband had recorded that this room held the power of increasing one’s intelligence, and she couldn’t pass on the opportunity to acquire another point. She touched the book lightly on its spine. In an instant, the book flew off its designated spot and started hovering above her head, its yellow aura still visible but faint. It opened its cover suddenly, and it magically flicked through all of its white pages in a hurry. The sound of each page being turned and hitting its neighbouring page was unexpectedly soothing. When it reached its last one, it closed the hardback cover and flew back into its allocated spot. Purpura had successfully increased her intelligence even further.

     Verde

     Location: Graveyard

     Discoveries: Bite, Stringless bow

     Verde quickly extended his arms to catch Azul and the bow, as he couldn’t hold himself up on his own when exiting the mind world. Azul looked dazed and tired, but Verde was very proud of him. Having managed to master the weapon, one more level meant that they were extremely close to being able to defeat Albugineo.

     “Easy there, buddy,” he advised Azul, as he helped him stay upright while standing on the damp soil.

     “Thank you for catching me, that really wore me down,” Azul replied with a tired voice. He leaned and partly sat on a tombstone that was embedded in the ground, hoping that he wasn’t bothering anyone below it. Verde had the weapon now, and it was up to him to accomplish what they had started.

     The sun was reflecting on the three-quarters of the metallic surface of the bow, as Verde rotated it in his hands. He admired the impressive design of it, and he was eager to delve back into the mind world and solve the final cryptic clue. And so he did. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his intelligence. He had rested enough and felt ready to tackle this once more. After a few seconds, he managed to tap into the world and bathe the whole Graveyard in shades of green. The soil turned into viridian green, with darker and lighter spots where their boots had left their marks on its surface. The weapon stayed mostly metallic black, although the last quarter now had a shade of xanadu green. He was ready for the next step, thus he focused specifically on the weapon.

     “Obtain after liquid road for the objective” read the floating sentence in front of him, scribbled in lime green letters. Every time he intended to decipher a clue, he felt helpless. He wasn’t accustomed to not being able to achieve something he set his mind on. When he was younger, he went on countless island exploration missions alone, having prepared whatever he deemed necessary, and he always succeeded. He knew Krawk Island’s hidden gems by discovering them on his own, one location at a time. But these clues proved to be out of his realm of abilities. The internal struggle of needing to succeed and uphold the honour of the defenders clashed with his lack of knowledge and, at that moment, he vowed to retake Lightning Lenny’s course once this was over.

     He looked at the lime letters hovering in front of him, looking for a clue through the possible pointers. He didn’t see any pointers that would allude to an anagram, nothing that instructed him to take the initial or final letter of words and no sign of the famous SVDP technique. The next most used technique was charades. He concluded that he should focus on that aspect for now; thus, he started breaking down the sentence into its possible parts. The trick wasn’t to take the sentence literally, but to pull apart its pieces and analyse them individually.

     “Obtain, liquid road, objective, these are my nouns. What could be potential synonyms?” he kept thinking. “Obtain is easy, the synonyms could be attain, get, gain… Objective should be easy as well with words like aim, goal or target.” Every word he thought of, he scribbled in the air to make a mental note. Lime green writing appeared as he traced his fingers right in front of him. Hanging with nothing more than his mental world, they floated in mid-air. He struggled with “liquid road”, with no guidance on how to interpret it. His mind was thinking of a river, or a body of water, which could potentially act as a road of some kind.

     “I can assume that the synonym for obtain will go after the synonym for liquid road. The word after is the only word which provides some structural guidance for the answer. Therefore, is the definition objective?” he asked himself. He concentrated on the synonyms he had scribbled in the air, trying to see if any of them contained a word which could mean “obtain”.

     That’s when he noticed it and announced triumphantly, “Target! Tar could metaphorically be defined as a liquid road. It’s a material in liquid form which is used to construct roads. The word get is placed after the synonym for liquid road, thus tar-get, target!” He was pleased with himself, although he spent more time on the riddle than he might have wanted. Every second was precious, and Albugineo would be entering the house once more to finish what he started.

     It was the moment he had been waiting for ever since he heard the pompous voice of Orion informing them of the predicament they had found themselves in. It was time to fully master the weapon, a task which they pursued as a team. He straightened his back and held the bow with his left hand. He extended it in front of him and rotated it to be in the horizontal position. Then, with his right hand, he swiped from left to right, hovering above the weapon and never touching it. He felt the energy building up under his palm, emanating from the arrow underneath the bow’s centre. With his right hand, he dragged from the point of the arrow backwards and saw the silver string appear to hold the arrow tightly in place. He could feel the tension that built up and constrained the arrow as the string flowed up and down the edges of the bow, like blonde hair swayed by the wind. All movements, by now, were as familiar to him as the hidden alleys he had discovered years ago and which led to forgotten shrines scattered around Krawk Island.

     He considered his new clue. It was a reasonable final clue; however, he still needed to figure out how it applied in this context. With the arrow pulsating beneath his palm, he focused on a specific tombstone on the ground. He thought he noticed something appear before his eyes, but it wasn’t clear enough. He quickly changed target, moving to another tombstone a few feet away. He squinted his eyes so that everything other than his target was in his field of vision. It appeared again. The surface of the tombstone was now embossed with a faint black symbol. Even though Verde couldn’t understand the symbol, he recognised it immediately. It was an exact replica of one of Albugineo’s symbols painted on his mane. It wasn’t enough, though, the bow was still one-quarter painted in the Xanadu green hue.

     While squinting, he closed his left eye. Suddenly, a crosshair appeared in front of his right eye, which was still concentrating on the symbol. He turned his gaze somewhere else briefly to get an understanding of how it worked. It wasn’t a physical entity, rather a floating crosshair which followed every movement of his eye. He returned his gaze back to the tombstone and aligned the centre of the crosshair with the centre of the symbol. He felt that he had locked on his target. Without hesitation, the whole bow turned into a shiny metallic material, and Verde exited the mind world, donning the biggest grin of his entire life.

     Albugineo

     Location: Entrance Hall

     Outside the Entrance Hall, once more, the little bright specks of white light quickly integrated together to form Albugineo. His aura was as large as the ire he felt towards the defenders. Blindingly bright and massive, it encircled him like a protective cocoon. As soon as the last speck of light assimilated to form the last piece of his neck mane, he glided towards the open entrance door and entered the house. He passed through the Entrance Hall to the Foyer and turned left into the Abandoned Room.

     He was evil, vile, and his sense of empathy had long been lost. His arrogance was the only guidance he had in life. He saw his sister Blanca sleeping on the sofa and approached her with unrecognisable calmness.

     “Pathetic,” he spat out, his tone filled with disdain. “You are not even worthy of this family name.” With those words, he forced his way into her white mind world and started absorbing her essence.

To be continued…