Percy spent the rest of the trip mulling over what the long-necked humanoids had said. The wise gnomes were another famous faction ranking in the top ten in the universe. Their power came precisely from the Foci that only they could produce – unique artifacts that could greatly elevate the strength of mortals and deities alike.
While Foci were ultimately external objects – one of Percy’s least favourite forms of strength – it was debatable whether they could really be considered as such, since the artifacts were bonded deeply to their owners, growing alongside them. In many ways, a Focus could be considered an extension of a mage’s body, and Percy would be more than happy to get his hands on one.
‘The yellow-furred people are probably right. This sounds too good to be true,’ Micky reminded him.
The wise gnomes weren’t in the business of sharing their most important asset with outsiders. The odds that a genuine invitation to their planet – bundled with the opportunity to receive a custom-made Focus – would be auctioned off at a random branch of the Sapphire Pavilion were minuscule. It would be no different from the Void Hand auctioning off access to the Void Decree – peak factions simply weren’t desperate enough to compromise their cosmic standing for scraps.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter. Let’s try and sell the secret of the cyan powder anyway, to build up a massive sum of tokens, just in case,’ Percy decided. ‘Once we open an account with the Pavilion, we’ll be able to access our balance from any branch. Even if we find nothing to spend our money on during this particular auction, I’m sure that we’ll find other opportunities in the future.’
After advancing a few more times, Percy would have plenty of cords to use, so marking the locations of several branches of the Pavilion and deploying clones whenever there was an auction might not be a bad idea.
Other than extracting every valuable resource from the places that he had already marked and permanently stationing a clone at each Elemental Source that he could find, keeping his eyes open for new discoveries from unlikely places would be among the smartest ways to take advantage of his bloodline in the long term. If elevating a couple of random lesser springs to greater springs earned him enough tokens to buy whatever he wanted, he was more than willing to do it.
Percy was broken out of his thoughts when a portal opened beneath the feet of every mage in the internal world, spitting them out into a giant hall. Tiberius just about managed to clumsily land on his feet as Percy’s senses unfolded, scanning their surroundings.
Everything around him was made of the same material – a smooth, polished gem that glowed in a deep blue colour. Even if Percy had never seen a sapphire before, it would have been easy to guess what the crystal was called, just going by the name of the faction that owned this place.
‘It must be another space station,’ he told his fellow aspect.
He had no evidence to base that conclusion off of, besides the fact that terrestrial venues just wouldn’t make sense for an event meant for deities from multiple factions, as most gods wouldn’t be able to step foot on the same planet. However, this structure looked quite different from the Vault or the space station hovering over Marador Prime.
Stylish pillars engraved with intricate runes rose from the floor every five or so metres, ending in beautiful arches that were mostly round, yet curved into narrow tips at the middle, making each arch resemble the shape of an onion. The arches themselves were also densely covered with enchantments, but the square-shaped patches of ceiling that they segregated were apparently reserved for delicate mosaics pieced together out of countless tiny sapphires that shone in every shade of blue.
Each image depicted a different scene from the history of the race of humanoids that owned the Pavilion. The picture directly above Tiberius’ head showed a pair of mortal kings leading two massive armies about to fight in the air above a colossal lake. This sort of imagery didn’t fit with the Sapphire Pavilion’s current status as a rich faction of intergalactic merchants, so Percy guessed that it was merely a relic from a bygone era.
From what Percy had gathered about these people, no outsider knew their original name, as the vendors exclusively referred to themselves as “The Attendants” these days.
The Attendants were among the strangest people that Percy had ever seen, as they didn’t even have heads. Instead, they each had three arms – two at the standard spots, with a third sprouting where a human’s neck would be. All three limbs ended in symmetrical hands lined with six clawed digits, with an eye and a round, fanged mouth inside each palm. Suffice to say, Percy had no idea where their brain was.
‘We don’t have much time before the auction starts,’ Tiberius warned. ‘I don’t want to rush you, but we need to look for my people and get whatever you’re planning to auction registered.’
Percy nodded, knowing that his host was right. He turned to thank the long-necked people for escorting him to the venue, but the seven of them had already left without so much as saying goodbye. They were still within the range of his Sage’s Pond, so he could see them walking about six hundred metres away.
‘Figures.’ He shrugged.
After having fulfilled their end of the bargain, it was probably safer for them to sever all ties with him and pretend that they weren’t even acquainted. They’d already received the secret of Crystallization, so the last thing they needed was to get involved in whatever trouble Percy was about to stir, or for anyone to suspect their newfound knowledge.
Percy didn’t take any offense, finding their actions perfectly reasonable. Not wasting time, he began strolling around the vast hall, scanning every corner with his Sage’s Pond in search of humanoids that looked just like Tiberius.
There were several people from all sorts of races lounging in this place, most of them raising eyebrows or exhibiting other signs of mild surprise upon noticing a random mortal exploring the space station by himself. Thankfully, nobody cared enough to stop Percy or spare him more than a passing glance.
Every dozen or so archways, there were chairs and tables prepared for the attendees’ comfort, complete with enchantments that could seemingly produce tasty-looking refreshments out of thin air. Percy would have loved to take a moment to enjoy the Attendants’ hospitality and savour their cuisine, but that would have to wait until he was done with more pressing matters.
The good news was that the hall was only about six kilometres across. Percy’s Sage’s Pond wasn’t powerful enough to encompass the whole place at once – not even the version of the sensory spell that he could produce from within a Violet body – but it didn’t take much time for him to walk in a wide enough circle to scan everything. He would have finished even sooner if he’d flown, but nobody else appeared to be doing that, and he didn’t want to offend the Attendants.
Unfortunately, his findings left much to be desired. While he had counted sapients from at least a hundred different factions, he was sure that Tiberius’ people weren’t among them. Percy and his host double- and triple-checked just to be safe, before locating the nearest Attendant and asking whether there were any additional lounges like this one, or whether Tiberius’ kinsmen had arrived.
The answer was a hard “no” to both questions, much to the mortals’ dismay.
‘Do you think they might still be on the way?’ Tiberius asked, the spark of hope inside his soul rapidly dimming.
Percy sighed. ‘I’m sorry, man. That sounds highly unlikely. I don’t doubt that the yellow-furred god is faster than them, but they had a long head-start.’
Either the deities hadn’t survived the battle against the space bandits, or they had chosen to give up on the auction and return to their planet. There was also the possibility that they had pressed onwards, only to be attacked and eliminated by a second group of interstellar lowlifes. No matter which scenario was true, Tiberius had no way to return home.
Considering that Percy still didn’t want to send his host to the Vault, nor trust any of the people in the space station to safely escort the Violet to his planet, their only option might be to request help from the Attendants directly. Even if they refused to send Tiberius home after the auction, they might be willing to let him live with them until the next event, in the hopes that his kinsmen would manage to attend that one.
Just as Percy was about to voice his request to the odd-limbed humanoid, a small group of people walked into the range of his Sage’s Pond, causing his eyes to widen. He hadn’t spotted the newcomers earlier, which probably meant that they had only just arrived at the space station. That alone wasn’t that strange, since this wasn’t even the first group that had reached the venue after Tiberius.
What Percy struggled to come to terms with, was that he actually recognized their appearances, having possessed a member of their species years ago!