Troublesome Power

The gnome wordlessly pointed to the guild hall tree, which stood in a barren and blasted circle. The only things that looked untouched on the guild hall plot were the tree itself and the remembrance statuary. Eyes on the Sky's figure had a mischievous expression, as though the little stone flying squirrel had had something to do with the destruction.

"What happened?" Danika asked worriedly.

Logical Heart looked up at her and asked, "You're on your phone?"

She glanced at Shinichi who sat cuddled up beside her before admitting, "Yes."

"I guess you can't smell it then," he replied, while pointing at the ground.

Danika could see trace remains of silver bell flowers and snapping peas along the curved bed where Shrubbery had been starting to add musical plants, after the tree had finished the growth phase where it had absorbed all the clover, but she couldn't see what Logical Heart was pointing at.

The gnome explained, "Our defenses were enough to protect the tree, but when they couldn't destroy it, some bright vandal decided to spray some really noxious smelling fluid over the whole lot. I'm not sure how to get rid of it unless it's flammable."

"If it's toxic, Shrubbery can remove it pretty easily," Danika pointed out.

Logical Heart blinked and then nodded, "Right, I forgot she can probably just purify it. I guess it is actually the most minor part of the vandalism then."

"Did they leave a note?" Shinichi asked calmly.

Logical Heart chuckled and replied, "Something like that."

He walked over and pointed to the base of the statuary. Words were neatly chiseled into the sandstone. It read: "Give us the Gold and we'll Let you Keep a Song. Ha ha ha!"

"Nice of them to carve our guild motto like that for free right?" MatchlessMinion asked cheerfully.

When Danika spun ZipZing to see the chinchillamin, he had an evil grin on his furry little face. Logical Heart blinked and then chuckled.

"Real sweethearts," Shinichi agreed with amusement. "I take it this was done by that band of thieves?"

"Nope, it wasn't even done by a single guild, although I wouldn't put it past those thieves to have been the ones to spread the rumor," Logical Heart replied.

"None of these groups have a thief with any skill," MatchlessMinion said dryly. "Any thief could tell within minutes that there's nothing valuable here, and would start tracking our members as we moved around instead of offering themselves as bait."

"I don't think they realize that they've offered themselves as bait," Danika pointed out with amusement. "Besides, we don't really have anyone with the skills to track them all down do we?"

"Me," Logical Heart offered.

Danika gazed at him with surprise and asked, "You have tracking skills?"

"Not really, they triggered my traps though, so I've got a map that will show anyone who got hit," the gnome replied helpfully. "But that thieving cat was probably right, it would probably be simplest to just give him the philosopher's stone and let everyone know that we did. We don't need it for anything."

"Why would we do that!? At least make them buy it!" MatchlessMinion protested. "We could at least sell it to one of the big guilds, even my sister's guild would buy it!"

"But isn't Logical Heart saying that it's useless?" Danika protested. "And then those thieves would be after them instead!"

"Not useless exactly," Logical Heart prevaricated. "But I already know what it is and how to refine it, we don't need this piece."

"This piece? Isn't it the whole item, it's even named?" Shinichi asked with surprise before Danika could.

The gnome peered up at ShinZing where he hovered beside the statuary, and grinned. "Names are important aren't they?" he questioned with amusement. "For all I know it really is the only piece of condensed magic in the world right now, but that's all it is. It's just a really dense power source."

"But isn't it supposed to be able to change lead into gold or let someone live forever?" Danika objected.

"If you have enough power in a world with magic, you can do any of those things," Logical Heart explained cheerfully. "Any thousand year old dragon could do it without even needing tools."

Danika felt disappointed somehow. It made perfect sense, with the number of different things that the legendary philosopher's stone could supposedly let you do. But there was just something disappointing about discovering that the mystical legendary treasure that had been created at the expense of great pain, that had cost lives, and that even a prince of thieves bargained for… was basically a battery.

"A battery," she grumbled aloud, but the gnome laughed.

"Oh no, in our world this stone would be impossible… at least as far as I know. It's literally pure magic, there's nothing containing it, it's like a solidified block of electricity," Logical Heart corrected. "It's also probably as dangerous to use as that sounds," he added.

"We should definitely sell it," MatchlessMinion argued.

"The problem is, I haven't got time. No one is going to have enough money on hand, and we can't afford to hold on to it in the meantime. I can reset the defenses tonight, but something happened at work and I probably won't have time to play much for at least a week or two," Logical Heart replied, with a glance at ZipZing.

Danika sighed and admitted, "I won't have much time for awhile either."

"Wait, what? Hey!" MatchlessMinion protested, "Doesn't that mean that something happened with the game? What's going on?"

"It's nothing like that," Danika protested quickly, and when Logical Heart gave her a sharp look she only added, "But I can't tell you about it, sorry."

"At least a hint?" MatchlessMinion asked hopefully.

"Don't ask her," Shinichi instructed firmly. "And if your sister's guild really wants to buy it, go find out if they'll take it tonight. I won't have time until after the weekend either," he added a little smugly, "my girlfriend is moving in."

Danika rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help grinning at him. She told MatchlessMinion, "But tell her what we found out, I don't really want to go to war with one of the oldest guilds in the game when Justin figures out what it actually is."

MatchlessMinion stuck his tongue out at her for a moment, but agreed, "Fine. But at least give me the map that shows where everyone who tried to trash our guild hall is, so I can loot them."

Logical Heart looked back and forth between them uncertainly. Danika tapped the emote that made ZipZing nod in agreement. "Sure, since they started it," she agreed.

Shinichi chuckled, but he didn't comment.

"How are you going to leave them with a song though?" Logical Heart asked after a moment, with a glance at the remembrance statue.

Eyes on the Sky's stone eyes seemed to sparkle as MatchlessMinion replied, "There's got to be a bardic curse for that right? And we've got some pretty good bards in our guild, I'm sure we can figure something out."