Chapter 94: The Dusty Scholar

  With their physical gear completely upgraded and their stomachs entirely full of fresh, highly spiced street food, Lyra entirely shifted her tactical focus back to their primary, overarching objective.

  They needed to completely understand the glowing, highly complex leyline map projected by the silver Astrolabe.

  "We know the purple line leads to the Black Lotus factory," Lyra reasoned, sitting comfortably on a quiet, sun-drenched marble bench overlooking the sparkling Emerald Lake. "And we know they were manufacturing incredibly dangerous weapons for unknown buyers. But the map also showed massive blue and green lines spanning the entire continent. We need a scholar who isn't a completely insane, manic hermit like Vaelen to safely translate the ancient First Era runes on these rings."

  Zeno nodded, happily chewing on his fifth massive green apple of the afternoon. "A smart person who doesn't scream all the time."

  They spent the next two hours entirely navigating the highly complex, multi-tiered academic sector of Riverbend, completely avoiding the arrogant, high-strung Guild Masters in the main universities. Lyra utilized her street-smart instincts to entirely bypass the official, highly bureaucratic channels, actively searching for the quieter, highly specialized independent researchers.

  They finally found a small, completely cluttered, incredibly dusty bookstore located entirely on the very edge of the lowest academic tier, far away from the prestigious, gleaming white towers. The faded wooden sign above the heavy oak door simply read: Archival Translations and Forgotten Histories.

  The interior of the shop was incredibly cramped, entirely packed from the floor to the high ceiling with massive, towering stacks of heavy, leather-bound tomes and highly fragile, crumbling scrolls. The air smelled entirely of ancient paper, dry ink, and strong, black tea.

  Sitting entirely behind a massive, incredibly cluttered oak desk was a highly frazzled, deeply exhausted-looking man. He wasn't Elvarian; he was a human, wearing incredibly thick, highly magnified brass spectacles that made his brown eyes look completely massive. His fingers were entirely permanently stained with dark blue ink, and he was currently furiously scribbling a translation onto a fresh piece of vellum.

  "We are officially closed," the scholar muttered entirely without looking up, his voice highly distracted. "Come back completely tomorrow if you need a simple farming contract translated."

  Lyra stepped entirely forward, firmly placing a single, highly polished solid silver coin directly onto the center of his open book.

  "We don't have a farming contract, scholar," Lyra stated calmly, completely commanding his absolute attention. "We have a highly complex, heavily encrypted First Era artifact, and we are willing to pay exceedingly well for absolute, total discretion."

  The scholar stopped scribbling immediately. He pushed his thick spectacles up his nose, completely looking at the silver coin, and then entirely up at the highly dangerous-looking scout and the massive, heavily armored boy standing completely behind her.

  He didn't look terrified; he looked genuinely, deeply academically intrigued.

  "I am Elias," the scholar introduced himself, entirely sweeping the silver coin smoothly into his pocket. "And my absolute discretion is entirely guaranteed by my deep, profound lack of highly social friends. Let me see the artifact."

  Lyra carefully reached into her pouch, entirely pulling out the heavy, silver cylinder. She didn't hand it to him directly; she set it completely on the desk, keeping her hand entirely close to her new Void-Iron stiletto.

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  Elias let out a highly uncharacteristic, completely unprofessional gasp of pure, unadulterated awe. He entirely dropped his quill, reaching out with heavily trembling, ink-stained fingers to gently touch the massive, rotating rings.

  "An incredibly pristine, completely functional Astrolabe," Elias breathed, his massive eyes completely widening behind his thick spectacles. "This is a museum-grade historical artifact. But..."

  He pulled his hand back, shaking his head. "I cannot simply read this. These are the Grand Coordinate Ciphers of the First Era. They absolutely cannot be decoded with books alone. The mathematical permutations are infinite. It requires a specific alchemical catalyst to match the rotational alignment."

  Elias stood up frantically, rushing to a heavy iron safe in the back of his shop. He returned carrying a wide, incredibly shallow, flat glass basin and a heavily sealed crystal vial containing a swirling, highly luminous silver liquid.

  "A Liquid Star-Map," Elias explained, his voice trembling with academic excitement. He carefully poured the glowing silver ink entirely into the flat glass basin, where it pooled like liquid mercury. "Place the Astrolabe directly into the center of the basin, Lyra. And slowly, precisely, turn the rings to the exact alignment Vaelen showed you."

  Lyra complied, setting the heavy silver cylinder into the fluid. As she carefully clicked the rings into place, a breathtaking magical reaction entirely erupted.

  The silver liquid didn't just glow; it actively, aggressively reacted to the magnetic and magical resonance of the aligned runes. The fluid rapidly crept outward, physically shifting and forming perfect, highly detailed topographical shapes within the glass basin. It drew the continent, the mountains, and the deep valleys in flawless, glowing liquid silver.

  Elias leaned entirely forward over the basin, his massive eyes completely serious as he tracked a single, bright bead of condensed light moving rapidly across the liquid map.

  "It's an incredibly complex global coordinate system," Elias explained, his voice entirely filled with profound academic respect. "It details the absolute major intersections of the elemental leylines. The specific rings you have currently aligned... they are pointing entirely to the extreme, absolute south."

  "South," Lyra repeated, her tactical mind entirely engaging. "The Southern Wastes are just an endless desert."

  "Not entirely," Elias corrected, pointing his ink-stained finger directly at the glowing liquid map. The bright bead of light had moved far beyond the southern edge of the continent, out into a massive, open expanse of the basin.

  "It doesn't point to a generic coastal city or a dead wasteland," Elias stated with absolute, terrifying certainty. "The coordinates terminate at Sirena—the legendary, completely isolated coral archipelago city in the deep Southern Ocean."

  Lyra frowned. "Why would the First Era specifically mark a simple island city?"

  "They didn't," Elias completely clarified, a highly dramatic, deeply mysterious tone entirely entering his voice. He pointed at the map again.

  The bright bead of light didn't stop at the glowing silver islands of Sirena. It sank. The liquid ink actively formed a massive, incredibly deep, terrifying groove in the center of the glass basin.

  "The coordinates don't stop at the land, or even the islands," Elias whispered in absolute awe. "They point directly to what lies completely beneath the ocean floor. To The Blind Whale's Trench. The single deepest, most crushing abyss in the entire Southern Ocean."

  Elias looked up at them, his face pale. "Legends say the First Era Leviathans didn't build their master forges on land. They built them under the absolute, crushing, apocalyptic pressure of the deep ocean to forge highly unstable metals that simply couldn't be safely cooled on the surface. The Astrolabe is pointing directly to the Sunken Forge."

  Zeno, who had been completely quietly listening from the dusty corner, immediately stood up, his amber boots clicking loudly against the floor. His eyes were completely wide with genuine, profound excitement.

  "An underwater forge in the very deep trench?" Zeno entirely repeated, completely ignoring the sheer, terrifying distance and the lethal pressure they would have to face. He walked entirely over to the desk, heavily tapping his massive, highly upgraded Rock Serpent gauntlets together. "Does that mean they have incredibly big, completely underwater hammers?"

  Lyra entirely smiled, completely tying her heavy silver pouch to her belt. The Obsidian Throne had been entirely destroyed, but the incredibly massive, completely uncharted world was still entirely full of terrifying ancient secrets.

  "I completely guess we are going to find out, sledgehammer," Lyra entirely agreed, her hand resting confidently on her new Void-Iron stiletto, entirely ready for the massive road ahead. "Pack the iron pot. We are officially going to the ocean."