April Tale 2024: Greed
Prompt: Steal the god of wealth's ring
Main Characters:
Nikolei: King of the Seas, Averum
Dodo: ‘god’ of wealth, Asginae
The sound of bottles clinking, coins shaking, and men making drunken fools of themselves filled the alehouse. Nikolei sat in a booth in the corner, currently on his third bottle of rum, waiting for the Mechanist to meet him there as they had agreed.
The Mechanist was a rising technological genius whose bizarre and outlandish inventions were spoken of throughout all the five lands, as well as the severed isles. Rumor had it there wasn’t anything the mind of the Mechanist couldn’t create. The Mechanist was eccentric, and it was such eccentricism that created the sharpest mind the world of Adon may have ever seen, and it was that mind Nikolei needed if he was going to get what he wanted.
“Captain Nikolei?”
Nikolei glanced up as a dark-skinned teenage girl with thick coils standing every which way on the top of her head slid into the opposite side of the booth. “I’m the Mechanist.”
Nikolei’s eyebrows furrowed as he set his bottle down on the table between them. “I’m surprised you’re-”
“Female? Yeah, I get that a lot.”
“So young,” Nikolei corrected.
The Mechanist smiled. “Y’know, now that you mention it, I get that a lot too. Though it looks like you’re not much older than I am.” She tapped her cheek thoughtfully. “Sixteen, tops.”
Nikolei’s only response was to take another swig of his drink.
The Mechanist leaned forward on her hands, the orange and yellow shine in her eyes from the booth’s candlelight revealed her Naatani-Mantoka heritage.
“So, what’s so important that you went through all this trouble to find me?”
Nikolei explained that he had his sights on plundering the Cavern of Desires. A place that was filled with treasure beyond measure, and that there was one item, in particular, he had his sights on. A treasure he was going to get, even if it was the last thing he did. The Mechanist listened intently, nodding every few moments and he continued on and explained that he was looking for tools to help him reach the Prism and climb up to the cave.
As he finished, Nikolei saw someone approaching from the corner of his eye. And he scowled at the sight of an irritatingly familiar face coming toward him.
“Great…” he muttered.
“Captain Nikolei, king of the seas. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you around these parts.”
The Mechanist looked to Nikolei with a raised eyebrow. Nikolei grasped the neck of his fourth bottle. “What do you want, Achan?” he asked.
“You know what I want,” Achan said. “Where’s the money you owe me?”
“I don’t owe you anything. I won that game of brigand fair and square.”
“You had a hidden chip up your sleeve I’m sure of it.”
“You’re just upset I beat you out of all your money. Next time just do better.”
Achan’s face distorted into a look of rage. He clenched his fist and was seconds away from slamming it down onto the table when a hand reached out and touched his arm.
“Easy, big guy,” a feminine voice came. “Is this really worth making a scene over?”
Achan turned toward the voice, and so did Nikolei. It belonged to a woman with light-tanned skin, loose curly hair, and large, partially clouded eyes.
“Last I remember, you had more than enough coin to buy us all a round of drinks just yesterday,” she said. “However much it was you lost to him doesn’t seem to be hurting you now.”
“It’s not about the money, Hobbs,” Achan growled. “It’s the principle.”
“You sure he cheated you? Or is your pride hurt and you want to find a way to mend it?”
“Who’s side are you on?”
“The side of keeping you from doing something that will get you thrown back in the slammer. What would Dinah say if you were?”
At the mention of the name Dinah, Achan’s fist loosened. She patted him on the arm, before handing him a few silver coins.
“Take a breath, tough guy. Next one’s on me.”
He sighed, glared at Nikolei one last time, and then walked toward the bar to order that drink.
The woman took a deep breath, then looked down at Nikolei, sizing him up, before returning to the bartop, the smallest of limps in her gait.
After the conversation, Nikolei and the Mechanist went to her workshop to show him her trinkets that could help him out with his current endeavor.
The workshop was just as Nikolei would have expected: filled to the brim with various items and parts scattered around shelves and desks.
What he hadn’t expected was to see other people there. Two Averum girls who looked around his age, one with long hair sketching something at a raised drawing desk, and the other with shorter hair on the opposite side of the room sifting through the bookcases.
“Haven! Matcha!” The Mechanist said. “I’ve got a captain here who’s going on an adventure and he might benefit from your expertise.”
The Mechanist looked over to Nikolei. “Tell them what you told me while I go look for some stuff. They might be able to help you out.”
Nikolei silently glared as she went over to her work desk and looked through her vast array of trinkets.
The girl with long hair looked up at him, her free hand rubbing behind the ears of a small dog that sat by her feet. “You are the King of the Seas we’ve heard about?” she said.
The one by the bookshelf peeked her head up from her current book. “The one who’s almost as illusive as the Mechanist herself? Disappearing off into the sea at a moment’s notice?”
Nikolei’s jaw locked. “I am no king.”
“Well yeah, of course not,” the book lover said. “It’s just a title.”
She walked over and held out her hand. “I’m Matcha. Over there’s Haven.”
“Nikolei.”
“Nikolei,” Matcha repeated. “So what’s this adventure you need help with?”
“Plundering the Cavern of Desires.”
Matcha’s eyebrows went up as her hand went down. “The Cavern of Desires is located on the Prism.”
“Yes, it is,” Nikolei said.
“The Prism is considered no man’s land.”
“I’m aware.”
“With untold horrors on every waking corner.”
“That is what they say, isn’t it?”
“And you’re still going to go?”
“Indeed I am.”
Matcha blinked. “Cool.”
“Legend says the Cavern of Desires is home to Dodo, the god of wealth,” Haven said. “And that any who enter will exit with abundance if they find favor, or exit with less than life if they don’t.”
“Favor or no favor,” Nikolei said. “I’m leaving with my treasure.”
The Mechanist’s gloved hand shot up from behind the counter holding some of her many mechanical creations between her fingers. “Found it!”
She stood back up with her usual bright smile on her face. “These should do the trick.”
The Mechanist held out a vast array of tools seemingly teched up to make excavation a simpler task.
“And,” She handed him a handheld tool that had a handle and trigger like a crossbow but with an enclosed, canon-like barrel in the front. Nikolei could see the tip of a wooden stake sticking out of it.
“I don’t have a name for it yet,” She said. “But it shoots out little projectiles with a pull of the trigger. Figured you might need it for protection.”
“Hand canon?” Haven suggested.
The Mechanist raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Not bad.”
Nikolei held it in his hand, it was weighty but not overbearing. “Thank you.” He said handing her a bag of coins in exchange.
The Mechanist held up her hand. “On the house, just don’t get yourself killed.”
As Nikolei made his way out of town he heard a voice behind him.
“Where’s your crew?”
Nikolei whipped around to find the woman from the tavern leaning up against the wall with her arms crossed.
“You’re known as a captain aren’t you?” she asked. “So where’s your crew?”
“I don’t have one,”
“Ever thought about getting one?”
“I prefer to sail alone.”
“That’s a lonely road to walk, trust me.”
“Back at the Tavern,” Nikolei said, changing the subject. “Achan called you Hobbs.”
She nodded. “Short for Hobbles. A nickname I gave myself some time ago.”
“Because of your leg.”
“An observant man, I see.”
Hobbles turned to fully face him, her shoulder still on the wall. “You should take the legends of the Prism more seriously. There are creatures there that have done and will do unspeakable things to you if you let them.”
“How would you know?”
“Guess how I got this limp.”
He looked down at her leg. From what little of her ankle was showing beneath her pant leg, he saw it was a stony gray color and braced by two thin slabs of bronze.
Hobbles tossed something his way. Catching it mid-air, Nikolei looked to see it was an igniter: a small torch-like contraption that when a button was pressed, ignites.
“Any monsters you’ll find out there, their weakness is light.”
The Journey to the Prism wasn’t long since the Mechanist’s workshop was located in a borough closer to the edge of the Land of Manto. The ascent to the cavern, however, was a different story. Its steep incline and jagged rocks up to the surface made for a treacherous climb, a climb the Mechanist’s tools made drastically simpler than climbing bare-handed. Even still, one misstep could have been the end of him, but Nikolei kept going. He would do whatever it took to get what he wanted.
When he reached the cave’s entrance, Nikolei paused to catch his breath, before going in.
Just as they said, the cavern was filled to the brim with treasure whose glint and shimmer would have enticed even the most content of souls. Despite this, he searched for one thing and one thing only, and he wouldn’t rest until he found it.
“And who might you be?”
The voice that came from behind him was deep, yet hollow as it echoed through the cave. It’s O’s dragged out purposefully, like a haunted owl.
Nikolei turned around to find what looked like a man with cracked, stony gray skin sitting on top of a pile of gold. Dodo.
Dodo tilted its head to the side. “Oh wait, I know who you are.” It raised its hands in the air. “Captain Nikolei! King of the Seas!”
“I am no king.”
A screeching chuckle escaped Dodo’s mouth. “Denial won’t change the fact I know who you really are.”
“Then you know what I’m here for,” Nikolei said. “And you know I won’t leave here without it.”
A wicked smile formed on Dodo’s face. Its grey skin began to crack at the creases, making its smile even larger. A thick black substance pooled from its mouth. “You mean this?”
Dodo held up its hand. On its finger was a ring of gold with an amethyst gem in the center.
Nikolei pulled out the hand cannon and pointed it directly at Dodo. “Exactly.”
Another belt of laughter filled the room. The screeching sound pierced Nikolei’s ears.
“Tell me, king,” Dodo cooed. “What made you think you stand a chance against a god?”
“You are no god,” Niko said, “You’re nothing but a greedy little creature begging to be bigger than you were ever meant to be.”
Dodo, offended and enraged, hunched over and lunged. Nikolei lit the igniter, held it up to the barrel of the hand cannon, and fired.
“Is that what I think it is?!”
Nikolei watched intently as Matcha examined the amethyst gold ring that now hung on a chain. Her violet-shining eyes crossed as she held the ring ridiculously close to her face.
“This is the lost ring of Aver!” Matcha exclaimed.
“Yes, it is,” Nikolei said.
“An heirloom of the Averum royal family since the Magestry’s inception.”
“I’m aware.”
“Believed to have been lost at sea around the time of Crown Prince Leon’s excecution.”
“That is what they say, isn’t it?”
“And you found it?”
“Indeed I did.”
Matcha blinked. “Cool.”
“How’d you do it?” Haven asked. “How’d you gain Dodo’s favor?”
Nikolei casually pried the ring from Matcha’s fingers. “I shot a flaming stake in its monstrous eye.”
Haven nodded, admittedly impressed, before returning to her sketch.
“Where’d you get the fire?” The Mechanist asked.
“Hobbles gave me an igniter. Told me that the creatures of the Prism were vulnerable to light. And that’s all Dodo ended up being. A creature masquerading as something it’s not.”
“Creature or otherwise,” The Mechanist said. “This was an amazing feat. I wonder what treasures you’ll go after next.”
“Time will tell.”
As they all continued to converse, Nikolei fiddled with the ring before slipping the necklace chain over his head. It felt heavy, like a millstone, or a medal. Either way, he had succeeded.
The Lost Ring of Aver. What a steal.