Chapter 373 - Grown Up That evening, Yuzu made arrangements to be alone. She sat cross-legged in the center of the same small gathering room on the second floor of the Chief’s house. With Firuzeh’s help she had prepared several dried husks of nightshade and some rose oil. She had also asked the Saboteur for cloakdust, but had no luck procuring the rare material. After some thought Yuzu used her intuition and substituted the cloakdust with one spirit crystal and a dozen gold coins. The items were pced on the altar in front of Yuzu, along with a single candle. With the preparations made, she closed her eyes and prepared herself mentally. Argus’ astrobe was on the floor in front of her, ready to be used. But before that, Yuzu was taking an additional precaution. The incantation she was about to perform was called the Cloak of Kapakhei. The st time she had been a part of this ritual, Somm had performed it with Yuzu and Nilya in attendance. The ritual had been successful, but in the process Yuzu somehow accidentally woke Renshu, the God of Wisdom from his deep slumber. Intense pain coupled with an inordinate amount of information had flooded through Yuzu as she connected with the ancient diety. Yuzu had no desire to repeat the experience, but this was the only method she knew of that could conceal her next actions. She did not trust that her limited ability to read the threads could guarantee her privacy. Yuima is definitely using whatever method she can to spy on me… Activating the astrobe without some kind of concealment in pce would definitely get her attention. Yuzu considered carefully. Hopefully this time, with Renshu already awake, it will work without a problem. She leaned forward, pouring a drop of rose oil the fme which caused it to sizzle and smoke. The shadows grew deeper around her. The air grew dense with spirituality as she began to pray in ancient Fortus. “O’, Lord of the Inner Gates.You are the ruler of light and shadow.By this rite I adjure you.I pray for the embrace of the night, for the cloak of Kapakhei to be in upon my shoulder. O’ Lord of Divine Wisdom,You are the benevolent guardian of equilibrium. May my offering of spirit essence be pleasing to you.May my offering of nightshade be pleasing to you.May my offering of gold be pleasing to you.By this rite I adjure you. Finishing the prayer, Yuzu extended her spirituality into the candle. As she focused, the air in the room began to drop rapidly. Frost began to gather on the silver ptes, Yuzu’s breath came out in white clouds. Darkness fell around her, dimming the light in the hallway that shone through the paper walls of the room, until only the fme of the candle existed in her perception. Yuzu felt that she was floating in a void, even losing track of the floor beneath her legs. Stars twinkled in and out of existence all around her, though she resisted the urge to look around. Instead, she kept her eyes and focus on the candle, where a thin white thread glimmered into existence between it and her body. This time there was no dramatic appearance of consteltions, no ringing of starlight. The darkness draped over her, and then gradually receded. The temperature of the room slowly returned to normal, the gathering room returned to her senses. There was no change in the room, except that the silver dishes were now empty, the offerings accepted. Yuzu turned her attention to the tapestry of fate, and saw that the threads inside the room had been gently separated from the rest of the weave. For the next couple of hours, Yuzu could handle her business without worrying about outside eyes. I wonder if Renshu directly handled my ritual, or if he’s even aware that it was me who he just granted this blessing to… Yuzu pondered to herself. So far every blessing given out by the White Maiden had to be done directly by Yuzu. However, she knew that gods had various methods of delegating their powers to handle rituals, depending on the powers and artifacts avaible to them. Either way, it seems he’s simply decided to accept my offering without any special actions. Having the blessing of concealment was enough. She now picked up the golden pocket watch, noting how it was heavier than she’d have expected from something the size of her palm. She didn’t rush to open it, examining its surface carefully. Even from the case, it was clear that the pocket watch had been crafted by a master jeweler. The round edges and the back of the watch were polished to a mirror shine, with gentle bevels that made the watch comfortable in the hand. The front of the outer case was a delicate and incredibly complex geometrical pattern that flowed into itself. The pattern was carved in two separate yers that were id on top of each other over a base yer of polished metal with a dark, almost bck hue that gave depth to the complex design. The spaces in the pattern were filled with dozens of perfectly fitted gss that were so expertly inset Yuzu could not feel any seams between the two materials beneath her fingers. A small ornate knob at the top of the watch provided a pce to hang it from a chain, though it had no such chain at the moment. Yuzu had not had the opportunity to take a close look at the astrobe before, though she had seen Argus use it several times before. Argus had expined that when presented with a piece of incomplete knowledge the astrobe was able to divine the time and location to obtain the missing information. It was also the key to opening the Great Library of Okuron — which meant that it likely was crafted by the Okuron himself. How exactly it worked, Yuzu was not sure. However it seemed like an item that would be incredibly useful. Much like the Sun God’s emerald brooch, the God of Knowledge’s astrobe could not be a simple device. The question is… Why did Argus deliver this precious item to me? Yuzu frowned. Surely he would be able to make better use of it than her. She opened the face of the pocketwatch, revealing the incredible intricate brass face of the device. Yuzu didn’t even know where to start when it came to ‘reading’ the astrobe, which had been inscribed with dozens of glyphs, symbols and rings of information. Some of the inscriptions were thick and deep, some were unbelievably delicate, like whispers of silk against the polished surface. The inscriptions sometimes overpped or intersected with each other, but every rune and line felt painstakingly deliberate. Overid over the whole face was a star chart of consteltions, the stars made of inset pearls and gems that glimmered in the candle light. These accents were embedded so seamlessly into the brass that they did not detract from or demand more attention from the engravings. They felt purposeful, rather than decorative, unlike the eborate extravagance of the device’s exterior. The whole face was protected behind an incredibly clear pane of crystal gss. Beneath the gss were two long clock hands on a central axis. One was thick, with angur ridges and notches along the arm leading up to an arrow-head tip. The other, thin and elegant, with ribbons that curled into each other like delicate shoots on a vine. Sometimes the hands would spin smoothly, other times in increments like the seconds on a clock. They would speed up and slow down, though never very fast. At best Yuzu could describe the motion as ‘rexed’. The hands drifted around the clock face, rotating independently without any clear pattern, yet at the same time it felt that there was an underlying purpose to the motions that Yuzu just wasn’t knowledgeable enough to discern. The longer she stared at the astrobe the more she was overcome with awe at the precise craftsmanship required to make such a device. Despite having years of appraising jewellery and antiques in the pawn shop, she had never seen anything that had come close to this perfection. No, more than that, holding the astrobe broadened her perspective on the meaning of true craftsmanship. As she held the astrobe, entranced by its beauty, she noticed a strange imperfection in the inner crease on the inside of the lid. No, rather than an imperfection, it was more like there was an unexpected ridge formed from a foreign material. As Yuzu lowered her face to peer at the ridge closer, she saw that it was not polished like a metal, but rather it was made of… paper? As if reacting to her thoughts, the white line of paper started to peel off of the inner edge of the lid. It was as if it were a thin, delicate worm, barely two millimeters in width, and the length of her index finger. One end rose from the device, as if it were the head of the worm peering at its surroundings. For a moment it seemed to look at Yuzu, before lowering its head to the other side of the astrobe and arcing in a bridge. Tiny, incredibly thin words appeared along the length of its body. Greetings, Yuzu. It has been a while. The words repced themselves after a moment, with another message appearing in their pce: Could you please bring me some paper? Through Fate Cycling, Yuzu had already seen this interaction on the threads, and so she was already prepared for the request. She pulled out a bnk wall scroll and pced it on the table. The thin strip of paper perked up as it sensed the scroll, and inched across the table like an excited little worm. As soon as it touched the scroll, the parchment came to life. It rapidly crinkled and folded in on itself, turning from a long rectangur parchment into an intricate two foot tall paper figure of an adolescent schor. Without any tearing or ripping, the paper folded into shoes and shoeces, crumpled trousers, a rumpled colred shirt under a long, rough three-button coat. The sleeves of the coat were rolled up, revealing long arms and hands with delicate, thin fingers. The face came into shape, and even before it had fully formed Yuzu recognized it distinctly as the visage of her friend. The prepubescent boy that she had met in the import shop so many months ago had grown up. The pudge of baby fat making way for a lean, angur jaw. His eyes were sunken with bags from ck of sleep. Even made of paper Yuzu could see the familiar fierce intellect and boyish curiosity in his pupils. Curly locks drifted across his eyes, familiarly unkempt. A small smirk pyed on Yuzu’s lips as she greeted him, “You’re all grown up now, Argus.”