The Dream
Master, I had a dream.
Feh, girl, I told ye t’ stop callin’ me that. Now, what kinda dream’d ye have? Th’ scary kind, or th’ kind as has you wanting to visit that boy in Whitecomb again? Hah! Look at that blush.
You’re a rotten old man, and I don’t know why I put up with you. No, master. It felt… different.
Tell me, girl.
It started on the Way to the East…
The cottage sat in a small copse of trees on the dividing line between mountains and plains. It lay close enough to the nearest Aeyiri stronghold that those who dwelt within knew they could find aid and succor should they require it - or provide it should it be required of them - and yet still have the privacy necessary to their lives.
From the front stoop ran a trail, twisting through the trees, following the course of a deer path that had been laid long before the foundations of the cottage. Beneath the shadows of the ancient oak boughs it stretched until the trees came to an end and the plains began. Still, the path marched onwards, straight across the waving grasses, past the winding watercourses, until it met with the Great Way.
The Way stretched far beyond sight to both East and West, joining the Eastern Ocean to the Western Sea and connecting the Tribal Territories to the Tri-Fold Lands, creating the belt of Balanced Lands that ran across the middle of the vast continent, keeping Order’s Ertrusca and Chaos’s Andomidys separated.
Footprints pressed into the hard-packed dirt, stirred through the dust that swirled across its surface. No traveler walked this Way, but still the footprints stretched onwards towards the distant East, appearing one by one in steady progression. They never paused, never hesitated, marching forward until they met the horizon, and still they continued to go.
The Way flowed like a rushing river towards the East, crossing the Endless Plains until they, ironically, ended, butting up against the Heartwood that formed the border between the two halves of the Balanced Lands. It continued on through the trees, following the carefully planned pathway laid out through the new and transplanted growth overseen by the shamans who had made it their task to revitalize lands left in ruins by the Conflagration.
It paused at the Crossing - the series of rafts and pulleys that spanned the vast Tears of the Mother as they flowed down from the rocky precipices that made up the World’s Crown, still chilled from their start in the icy waters of the vast lake known as the Eye of the Mother. The vagaries of the river made creating a permanent solution impossible, but with water-aspected beastkin to man the floats, none were ever lost in crossing.
Past the Tears, one left the Territories for the Tri-Fold Lands. Although many beast-aspected had migrated across the Crossing both before and since the Conflagration, the primary races within these lands were not tribal, but rather human, elven, and dwarven. Under the Balance, however, all were welcome who did not harbor anger or viciousness in their hearts; even adherents of Order and Chaos were known to dwell amidst the peoples of the Balanced Lands, provided they did naught to disrupt the peace.
The Way continued to wind past the Tears through the other side of the Heartwood and out onto the Farmlands - a banal name, but one that aptly described the vast, rolling fields and orchards and pastures that covered the heart of the Tri-Fold Lands - their wealth and their salvation. This fertile land stretching for miles in every direction fed not only the Balanced Lands, but Ertrusca and Andomidys as well; even during the worst of the war, food was never withheld from those in need.
The Balance did not suffer the innocent to pay for the crimes of their leaders.
Through three villages did the Way run - Whieskat’s Run, Twintree, and Jasker’s Crossing, before it came to an abrupt halt at a wall. There had been many walls alongside the Way as it ran from West to East, but never had one crossed it. And yet here, just shy of the Eastern Sea, a wall stood in the Way’s way, the vast doors spanning the roadway barred, red-gold wood bound in iron, with the Scales of Balance burned deep into their face.
She reached forth with a hand swirling with stars, a night sky encased within her flesh. Pinpoints of light swirled beneath her indigo skin as she laid her fingertips against the door, closed her eyes, and breathed a word. “Live.”
The Wood warmed beneath her fingers, the bar sinking into the door, unsealing it at her command. The iron bands protested as the gates swung open ponderously, admitting her to a vast ruin of a once-proud city. Everywhere she looked, there was dirt and ash and tumbled stone. Bones crunched beneath her feet; it was impossible to step without treading on remains. Her heart ached for those dead who lay unburied, forgotten amidst the ruins of their bastion.
Around her, towers crumbled, dust-choked and time-worn. To gaze around this city, once teeming with life, the thousand towers spearing proudly skyward now naught but ruins and debris, one would think these ruins decades, even centuries old, the unsanctified dead all that kept the land from reclaiming what once belonged to it.
But it had not yet been seven years since these towers stood, formed of living stone and wood and raised not only through the hand of man, but the land as well, a testament to the strength of the Balance between the living world and those who inhabited these lands. Their collapse was a testament too - to the awesome and terrible power of Time in the hands of a zealot, his magic fed by the vast host of the blindly faithful and the deaths of a thousand stalwart souls.
And so, as the towers had fallen, so too had the Scales fallen, one by one, cut down without hesitation as they defended the people and land. She knew this; all knew this - it was but recent history, the horror of it still writ large even in her own lands, where great swaths of blackened dirt where little could grow still marred the verdant Plains.
She had never seen Thalanost - now called Thanalost. She’d heard tales of its wonders, of its gleaming towers overlooking the Eastern Sea - of the Archives, repository of the Scales’ millenia-long search for all knowledge worth knowing - of the First Wood, the first of the Mother’s Living Trees to give forth her Wood that the shamans of Balance might commune with Her directly. But if she’d ever been there, ever witnessed these wonders first hand, those memories were long swallowed by the Wood.
And yet, she trod its broken streets as if she’d known them all her life, her steps carrying her sure and swift to the far wall which overlooked the Eastern Sea. And there rose the seven unbroken towers of Thanalost. No - not unbroken, for each was damaged in its own way - but unbent, unbowed, even amidst such calamity.
One stood, whole but blackened, burned and gutted by a fire that had started within and raged outwards, consuming everything but the shell. It clung to its form by sheer will alone, but what had been inside was now nothing; little remained of what it had once been. But beneath the smoke and ash and soot, the foundations still stood, solid and whole.
Next to it, a second tower leaned drunkenly, nearly abutting against its charred brother as it listed to the side, stones sagging beneath the burden of supporting its weight. The mortar cracked and crazed, the stones creaked and groaned, but they held steadfast, determined not to fall.
A third tower stood some yards distant, enveloped by the mists off the Eastern Sea. The cool fog surrounded it, a cloaking spray that coated its pale golden stone with dampness. Within that screening haze, it was difficult to make out the defining features of the tower; that it existed, however, there was no doubt.
The fourth of seven - whole and strong - shone brightly, as visible as its sister was shrouded. Although it shone from within, there was no obvious source for its illumination; power simply radiated through the untouched mortar, poured from gold-and-silver stone, vast and free, yet constrained to obedience through its own will.
Of the last three remaining towers, none stood whole, though all stood yet proud. The fifth tower shone as did its fourth sister, but it was not power that blazed forth from its earthen-hued stones, but rather sheer strength of will. This was a tower determined not to fall at any costs, though its underpinnings listed and dipped, weighed down by the burden of Time.
The sixth sagged, stones drooping inwards, underpinnings compressed beneath the weight of the upper reaches of the tower. Although it seemed at any moment ready to collapse inward, burdened and top heavy, still it stood, too stubborn to give in to the demands of natural law.
And the seventh stood in the shadow of the first, barely noticeable - and yet it was to this unpresuming tower, silver and white stone ragged and crumbling around foundations of solid, shining steel, that her steps drew her ever onward. At the base of the tower stood a door, red-gold Living Wood trimmed in iron. She laid her hand against it, feeling it warm beneath her touch, and spoke a word. “Live.”
The doors did not open. The Wood pulsed against her palm, a steady heartbeat, but it did not otherwise respond to her command.
Startled, she started to withdraw her hand, but found herself unable to pull free of the Wood’s embrace. It kept a hold of her hand, refusing to release her. She could sense its waiting impatience, and exhaled. “Live!” she commanded it again.
Still the Wood did not yield, nor did it release her; only continued to throb against her palm in time with her own heartbeat, awaiting the proper word for entry. She closed her eyes and wracked her brain, but nothing seemed right…
Her lips parted, her voice spoke. A single word, in ringing, strident tones.
And the door opened.
And so did her eyes.
It felt so real, master.
Because it was. Ah, my child, how swiftly you learn and grow. Your Dream has come.
You seem unhappy, master.
Unhappy? No. No. It is earlier than I expected, but I should not be surprised. The Wood knows that I have not much time left to teach you what you need to know.
Master! Don’t speak so.
My sweet Kal, my precious child, you know the truth as well as I. And the Wood has shown it to be so, if it steps in to guide you now. Come, girl, don’t cry. I’m not on my deathbed yet! There is still much for you to learn; do not think this gets you out of lessons.
Ah, master, you see me too well.
Of course I do. You are my daughter. Now. Let me see your sword and shield.
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Where/How do you get Eureka items?
i think ive answered this in another post? but i don’t mind responding again.
eureka items are an item that is a random drop from another item you can craft in reputable goods, fera fashions and twigla’s workshop. right now the only ones that exist are:
(key: -available item-eureka item)
——————— reputable goods———————
-alchemist vials-rare alchemist bottle belt
-grunge tail chain-rare barbed tail chain
-travel anvil-rare blacksmith bag
-pointed fae collar-rare posh seraph collar
-jet amulet-rare woodland collar
-kobold sword-wooden sword
-western lasso-cactus buddy
———————fera fashions———————
-tail eye charm-rare sinister bone string(out of stores!)
-shoulder bag-rare back pouches(out of stores!)
-tail petals-rare tulip tail(out of stores!)
-sharp bone necklace-rare dreadtie(out of stores!)
-ribbon cuffs-rare bangles(out of stores!)
-lace anklet-rare dapper lace(out of stores!)
-forest tail bells-rare woodland tail bells(out of stores!)
-apple brooch-rare poison apple brooch(out of stores!)
-tail furhawk-rare elegant furhawk(out of stores!)
-vineyard earrings-rare spine earrings(out of stores!)
-star clip bracelet-rare ruin stone cuffs(out of stores!)
-alchemist staff-rare fae lantern staff(out of stores!)
-cozy bomber hat-rare kitty bomber hat(out of stores!)
-goldenwood armor-rare royal piked armor(out of stores!)
-lantern lattice cuffs-rare elegant lattice leggings(out of stores!)
-flower headband-rare marsh flower headband(out of stores!)
-alchemist tome-rare dark arts tome(out of stores!)
-stately cuffs-rare thorn cuffs(out of stores!)
-alchemist heavy chain-rare royal neck plate(out of stores!)
-buttercuffs-rare fera fly cuffs(out of stores!)
-tail flipper-rare feathered tail flipper
-commoner shoulder pads-rare regal shoulder pads
-flower bands-rare candle flower bands
-mustache-rare mustache with beard(out of stores!)
-fish kite-rare epic fish kite(out of stores!)
-school bag-rare wood nymph bag(out of stores!)
-parasol-rare wagasa parasol(out of stores!)
-blizzard hat-rare epic blizzard hat(out of stores!)
-woodland antlers-rare woodland nymph antlers(out of stores!)
-tail blades-rare epic tail blades(out of stores!)
-floating crown-rare elegant floating crown
-flame rune tail-rare regal flame rune tail
-bell collar-rare ribbon bell collar
-halo-rare winged halo(out of stores!)
-spring hood-rare gothic hood(out of stores!)
-autumn brooch-rare skull brooch(out of stores!)
-hunter wraps-rare garden snake wraps(out of stores!)
-eggshell hat-rare decorative eggshell hat(out of stores!)
-tail pillow-rare royal worm(out of stores!)
-rounded collar-rare lace rounded collar(out of stores!)
-knife necklace-rare knife brooch(out of stores!)
-spacer adornment-dark space cheek guards(out of stores!)
-spacer collar-dark space collar(out of stores!)
-spacer gauntlets-dark space gauntlets(out of stores!)
-spacer league mohawk-dark space mohawk(out of stores!)
-spacer suit-dark space spaulders(out of stores!)
-spacer tail guard-dark space tail guard(out of stores!)
-voyager armor-dark voyager armor
-voyager helm-dark voyager helm
-voyagers mustache-dark voyager mustache
-voyager shield-dark voyager shield
-voyager shin guards-dark voyager shin greaves
-team delilah cap-antlered team delilah cap
-team aradia cap-horned team aradia cap
-winged cuff-durable winged cuff
-beetle helm-majestic beetle helm(out of stores!)
-beetle pauldrons-majestic beetle pauldrons(out of stores!)
-beetle skirt-majestic beetle skirt(out of stores!)
-planetary crown-attis crown
-authoritative cap-fancy authoritative cap(out of stores!)
-striped socks-floating striped socks
-frosted leaf crown-frosted leaf skull crown(out of stores!)
-gothic frilled hat-gothic bone hat
-gothic haunch bows-gothic bone haunch
-gothic lace choker-gothic bone lace choker
-gothic night bands-gothic bone night bands
-gothic shoulder frills-gothic bone shoulder frills
-gothic tail frill-gothic bone tail frill
-winter collar-plaid winter collar(out of stores!)
-winter cuffs-plaid winter cuffs(out of stores!)
-daunting adornment-woodland adornment
-daunting armor-woodland branch pauldrons
-daunting claws-woodland cuffs
-daunting amulet-woodland lavalliere
-daunting toptail-woodland tree hat
-striped neck collar-tuxedo collar
-metal shoulder cuffs-floating striped shoulder cuffs
-rogue cuff crossbow-bard anklets(out of stores!)
-rogue collar-bard purse(out of stores!)
-matryoshka hat-DJ earmuffs
-icy climbing pick-drill tail(out of stores!)
-frigid rose-kitchen shield(out of stores!)
-classy earrings-fairy k earrings
-classy glasses-fairy k glasses
-classy brooch-fairy k brooch
-classy tail flower-fairy k tail flower
-twigla back buddy-exclusive twigla back buddy(enigma items)
-punk face piercings-punk ear piercings
-explorer dish-wooden shield
———————twigla’s workshop———————
-midnight moon chair-rare midnight moon chair
-midnight moon lounge-rare midnight moon lounge
-evening chair-rare evening chair(out of stores!)
-evening lounge-rare evening lounge(out of stores!)
-apparition armoire-rare apparition armoire
-leaping kitsune statue-rare leaping kitsune statue
-treasure trunk-rare treasure trunk(out of stores!)
-indominable throne-rare indominable throne(out of stores!)
-twiggle-os breakfast cereal-rare twiggle-os cereal with prize(enigma items)
-epic ocean lamp-rare axoly ocean lamp
-mandrake-rare fruitful mandrake(out of stores!)
-old dead tree-rare old dead tree(out of stores!)
-ocean lamp-rare uniseahorse lamp
-sushi-rare sushi & musubi(out of stores!)
-mystic lamp-rare mystic twiggle lamp(out of stores!)
-feral pho-rare jumbo shrimp feral pho(out of stores!)
-mother-in-law’s tongue-rare mother-in-law’s tongue of wrath(out of stores!)
-carnivorous larry-rare fire breathing carnivorous larry(out of stores!)
-shimmer blade vanity-shattered shimmer blade vanity(out of stores!)
-pinata-senri pinata(out of stores!)
-academic bookcase-graduate academic bookcase(out of stores!)
-gnarled archway-twintree gnarled archway(out of stores!)
-lanternberry lantern-refined lanternberry lantern(out of stores!)
-art deco ottoman-embellished deco ottoman(out of stores!)
-cottage trunk-open cottage trunk(out of stores!)
-log shelves-tiered log shelves(out of stores!)
-snazzy shelves-four crows branch
-snazzy window-lunar phases rug
-slushy market stall-city fera closed sign(out of stores!)
-moonsea painting-city fera game posters(out of stores!)
-moonsea chest-alchemy cauldron(out of stores!)
-kino action figure-epic kino figure
-kotatsu table-spring tsukue
-slushy bridge-spring fable bridge(out of stores!)
-slushy log bench-spring market stall
-slushy frost fire spit-spring roast fire spit(out of stores!)
-slushy tent-spring tent(out of stores!)
-appleseed tree-blender with fruits(enigma items)
-dreambow flag-custom flag(out of stores!)
-deep sea aquarium-dark light aquarium(enigma items)
-figpear tree-garden café sign(enigma items)
-classic shelves-classic baking essentials
-classic sink-classic counter
-classic washer-classic dishwasher
-classic shower-classic tub
-beach towels-beach lounger
-shovel and bucket-sandcastle(enigma items)
-beach ball-volleyball net(enigma items)
it’s not a very common occurrence, but i got lucky with a few of mine, getting them within 1-3 attempts, but others not so much(it took me 37 tries with the leaping kitsune statue).
so- yeah. they’re fun- you can try yourself, it’s pretty cool, and a very nice feeling when you get them.
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