We all turned to Ranth.
“What’s splintering?” I asked. Ori flipped open her laptop.
Ranth crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Splintering is taking pieces of power and embedding them in vessels which don’t have power of their own. So, the Marahk can use theirs if the wizard needs them to, or they can be taught how to access it.”
“Like a phylactery but with different access?” Ori asked, glancing at me. I shrugged, my thoughts racing through gaming lore. A phylactery was what held the internal organs of a lich. It couldn’t be a coincidence. “Fabra doesn’t have power of her own, but she called the earth. I assumed it had to do with the necklace and the tattoo. But splintering would explain that.”
“That’s risky magic,” Rose said, rubbing her eyes like she hadn’t had much sleep.
Ranth scratched his head. “I think I don’t understand the use of a phylactery. It’s to hold prayers? But splintering keeps powersafe until the splintered one needs it. A vessel can be used. That’s base magic. The splintered one would have had to die first, and maybe sacrificially, to dissipate their power. I agree it is likely the source of Fabra’s energy.”
“You mean someone died, and they cut them up?” Ori asked.
“Not the body, just the power,” Ranth replied.
“Not a soul then, well, sort of.” Ori thoughtfully stroked the tip of a braid.
“How is that possible, though—to cut up power?” I asked.
“You would need an obsidian knife and a cup made from the Life Tree.”
“You mean a goblet made from the Tree of Life? Like Yggdrasil?” Ori typed.
“From a branch from one of the Garden Trees. They are called by many names, but their true names are never spoken.”
“This person must have the cup then?” Ori asked.
Ranth nodded.
“Anything else it does?” Ori asked.
“It’s supposed to grant the maker eternal life,” Ranth examined a baggie of unusually shaped dried parsnip roots from Rose’s oddities section. Rose glared at him.
“But it’s already made, right?” I asked.
Ranth nodded, setting the roots carefully back in the basket and smirking at Rose.
“They must want another one for some reason. Or someone who hired them does.”
Ranth crossed his arms and leaned against the shelves.
“We called and asked them to come get you. But why didn’t they kill you?” I asked, pressing the pressure points on my forehead.
“I expect because they don’t want to release the Serpent, but they do want to get into the Garden. To do that, they need a way in.”
“Right, and they think you have the key for the sky ritual.”
Freddie had been listening but hadn’t said a word since we’d arrived. He walked over to Ranth and pushed him backwards. “How do we even know this wizard guy isn’t selling you out? He could have staged his own abduction. He’s one of them, after all. Ahk-Nim or Mar-akh or whatever.”
“Back off.” I stepped between Ranth and Freddie. “He had no motivation to have us come and get him. There’s nothing in it for him. If he dies, I die. Putting either of us in peril is not in his best interest.”
Ranth stared Freddie down. I laid a hand on Ranth’s shoulder. “He didn’t mean it,” I said.
“He did mean it. He doesn’t like me because I like you, and so does he.”
I looked at Ranth like he was an alien creature. “You… you like me?”
Ranth gave me a “duh” eyebrow raise.
