Chapter 7: Wherever You May Roam

Elora spends a solid minute simply holding the orb in her hands, eyes closed in silent contemplation. Pip stands on it, pecking a few times before blankly staring at the orb.

Both of them awaken from their trance, sharing a quick glance with each other. Bringing her head up to address everyone.

"There is great...potential? That's not quite right but it, ahhh... Has anyone ever read up on spell-storing apparatus's? This object functions in a similar manner, but with a greater capacity. There is more to it...but I'm not sure what. Sorry."

Verrian leans forward, interested. "Spell-storing? You mean that orb contains spells? Is there any way to find out how many, and what kind?"

"It doesn't contain any right now I think, but it can. Maybe 5, or even 10, it has a greater volume then I've ever seen. But I'm not sure how safe it is, I think the Crows were using it as a power source. But maybe they simply used a fantastically powerful spell to do so, and by slaying the hunter this power is now exhausted? Hmmm..."

"And you're certain that storing more spells won't reactivate or create a new hunter?"

Not without anything for it to power, I'd think. Ember sits up on her knees, eyes betraying excitement despite the "this-almost-killed-us" gravity of the situation. Oh, gosh, how people got cold when it grabbed us. It was using us.

"My impression was that it was drawing power from magic - perhaps when it picked up magic users, it was able to drain magical energy from them? Anyway, it sounds like we don't have anything to really fear from this orb now that the Hunter is dead."

Verrian looks thoughtful. "It could be really useful to us, if it can still hold spells. Can someone experiment with it, try to figure out how to store spells in the orb?"

Me! Me! I can do it!

Ember hops up excitedly but then shrinks a little, hoping she didn't wake Coreene. She grins sheepishly.

"Uh, we can try... But maybe in a controlled environment? Please?" Elora is hesitant to surrender the orb, knowing how...enthusiastic Ember can get.

Ember's eyes fall in shame.

Um, yeah. Obviously. I was just gonna use cantrips anyway.

Watching the exchange between the two girls, Verrian says, "Elora, you seem to have good insight into the orb. You and Ember can work together to see if you can get it to store and cast spells. As Ember suggested, start with cantrips. Elora doesn't seem to have detected anything inherently dangerous about the orb itself, so I don't think we need to treat it like a huge hazard. Just use normal caution."

That last sentence is directed at Elora, perhaps because caution isn't generally considered normal for Ember.

Swan coughs discreetly. "While I'm sure the experiment would be both historic and entertaining, let's shelve that until we are all safe and not responsible for a bunch of other people."

He continues, seeing a blank look on Verrian's face. "This item was important, it was the only thing to survive the hunter's destruction, and I would suspect there is a reason for that. Maybe this isn't the first hunter they created, maybe they have ways of tracking these down so they can create more with whatever magic they possess. We just don't know. While I'm sure the Elora has found out most of the item's properties, we don't know if she missed anything. Powerful, subtle magics are harder to nail down. I only suggest more caution."

Verrian sighs and rubs her face. "You're right, of course. I should have thought of that. Thank you for speaking up about it."

Looking at Elora, she holds out her hand and says, "Maybe I should continue to hang on to the orb until we have a chance to better investigate it, just for security's sake."

"Do we have a way of hiding it? Magically? Such as a bag of holding?"

You could eat it.
What the actual hell??
You've had worse ideas, Emby.

Shut up, she groans, shrinking into herself when she realizes that was out loud.

Shut uuuuuuuuuuup, she croons with a somewhat inebriated sounding tone, trying to cover for herself. That would be sooooooooo cooooooool........

"Uh..." Elora looked ready to answer, but was cut off by Ember's outburst of sorts. Deciding it's best to move past it Elora starts holding the orb out. Pip remains firmly on top, as if to claim it for himself.

"If you think that's best...I wouldn't use it until I could study it further, but I don't want to cause a disagreement if you think so."

Verrian smiles, and for a moment, seems more like herself than she has all day.

"I know you wouldn't use it. I thought you might feel nervous holding on to something that might be very dangerous, and that maybe it would be less dangerous carried by someone... with no magical ability. But if you're not troubled by it, I have no problem with you keeping it for a while."

She sits back in her chair and seems to fade back into her strangely reticent manner again. She looks very tired, but then... they all do. "All right, if no one else has any addition information to share, I guess we should move on to discussing what to do next."

"Oh, well if you really want to, I wouldn't want to be a bother." Elora pushes the orb a bit further out, biting her lip as she considers her next words. "Just ah, be sure not to activate the scorching rays. Or the missiles, oh and be careful with the teleport, I think you can go swap places with clouds." She glances at Ember, preparing herself to reflexively yank it away. Just in case.

Verrian looks at Elora for an extended moment. "Excuse me?" she says, her voice deceptively mild. "Elora, are you now telling us that you actually do know what spells are in that orb and how to use it?"

"A, uh, little bird told me?" Elora squeaks out, shying away "I'm not 100%. Please don't be mad.".

Pip naturally senses this fear and stares at Verrian in indignation, looking ready spring to attack.