Eight Intertwined

53 - Cordelia

The plan the next morning was rather easy to put into effect, something Therion was beyond thankful for. The group packed everything they had and left it in their rooms to be picked up as soon as they were finished in Bolderfall. They were planning on dropping off the ruby dragonstone before returning to Noblecourt to pick up where they had left off in their journey. Their next destination had been decided on as Goldshore, and while it was somewhat out of the way, it was decided to be worth it for the sake of the Kindling. They might as well go there and take another shrine off the list as long as they were in the area, and after that, they could make for Stonegard and see what Hägen was trying to lead H'aanit to. 

Cyrus had managed to do good work over the course of the last day, something that surprised even Therion when they sat down for breakfast the following morning. He had managed to narrow down most of the sites of immense magical power through his own research elsewhere in town, and he had a rather firm idea of where he thought the remaining shrines were. There were a few other sources of magical strength, but he had managed to eliminate them with a bit of logical deduction. 

Cyrus had described his process of thinking when they were eating, saying that he was able to cross off the sites where the Sacred Flame's different homes could be found in Flamesgrace, Saintsbridge, and Goldshore as not being the shrines since there were other explanations for what was happening there. Duskbarrow had multiple sources of magic near it, and Cyrus decided that only one of them was likely to be a shrine given that the shrines appeared to be rather spread out across the map. There was something strange in Wispermill, though Therion didn't know what that could be. It had a question mark next to it, though Therion supposed they would simply have to see how that unfolded in the weeks to come of their journey. Therion was glad that they at least had a vague idea of where they were supposed to be going in terms of the shrine, and he was going to keep it in the back of his mind as they pressed forward to Bolderfall and then Goldshore. 

Speaking of Bolderfall, it was yet another location that had been crossed off on the map. Therion could already assume why without Cyrus needing to explain it; Bolderfall was likely a false positive because the dragonstones were there most of the time. The map was outdated and had been put together at least a decade and a half ago, presumably before the dragonstones were stolen. That meant the group had less than fifteen locations left to investigate with ten more shrines to find, and Therion couldn't help but think that was a great place for them to start given how daunting the task of the map had seemed at first. 

Ophilia wound up leaving breakfast early the following morning to conduct a quick sweep of their things to make sure they were packed. Therion went off to grab the dragonstone, glad that its powers hadn't done too much to influence him or Alfyn overnight. It was dangerous for them to be in such close quarters with the stone, but at least that wouldn't be a concern anymore. Therion didn't know how anybody was able to spend time in House Ravus as long as the dragonstones were all together given how toxic they seemed to be on one's mind, but he decided to not dwell on it. All that mattered then was getting the ruby stone back to Bolderfall so that they could continue their quest. 

Once all was finished the following morning in terms of food, the travelers left the inn behind and started for the outskirts of the town. Primrose had even decided to come along this time, seemingly having had enough of the suffocating sensation that came with being in Noblecourt without her father. Once Ophilia had joined them from her final sweep of their rooms, she nodded to Cyrus, and that was all the prompting the scholar needed in order to pull the staff from his bag. 

The Warp Staff was just as impressive as Therion remembered it being, and he stared at it carefully as he tried to figure out how Cyrus was going to use it. After all, it wasn't as if Alephan had been kind enough to give them a tutorial on how to utilize the staff to travel even though it was supposedly the godsend item that would save them from backtracking countless times across the continent. Cyrus was a sharp person at the very least, so he would be able to figure it out eventually... Or so Therion hoped.