“Wow this thing is just... remarkable!” Celia couldn’t help but say it over and over. She never thought she would be laying her hands on the legendary Moon’s Blade but here she was, in her office, examining it with a magnifying glass.

She could feel the gaze of the two women behind her. One of them was perhaps a bit nervous, having handed over such a precious item to a stranger while the other... Celia didn’t notice how much Taria was turning away, trying to suppress the redness in her cheeks as she stared at the smaller woman’s lower back, fighting to keep her eyes up.

Celia had always been quite attractive to Taria. Her long, chestnut locks and bright, sparkling blue eyes coupled with ivory skin and her tight fitting brown clothing... She wore a long sleeved shirt with tight sleeves that bore part of her midriff and had a low cut neckline. Her black, fingerless gloves gave her a good grip on the scythe as she kept studying it.

Her long pants, as well, clung tightly to her pretty legs and the lightweight, black leather shoes she wore made her match quite perfectly. And, to Taria’s eyes, she only got prettier with time. But she didn’t let those thoughts invade her mind, instead doing her best to focus on the task at hand.

“What do you know about it?” Arys asked.

“It’s perfectly crafted, for one,” Celia said. “I mean, look at this work! Honed and polished to perfection! Made of bronze, that much I can tell... but wait. No! It’s plated in bronze!”

“Plated?”

“Yes! I don’t know how they managed it, some form of magic while enchanting it no doubt, but feel the weight of it...” she took it in her hand and moved her arm up and down slightly. “It’s got to be made of steel. All the way through.”

She ran her thumbnail along the strangely curved blade and wiped away the dust it left behind. “Sharp as the day it was made... extraordinary.”

“Do you know anything else?”

“Well,” Celia began. “I read about it. Luna helped me a bit, actually. You and the scythe are bound together like one soul. It doesn’t mean others can’t use it but it does mean that it will always find its way back into your hands.”

“That’s what she told me,” Arys said.

“Other than that, I’ve been looking for this for one specific reason.” She picked it up and walked back across her office floor and held it out to Arys. The mercenary gratefully took it back again. Celia’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two blue-haired women in front of her.

“You going to tell us that reason?” Taria asked.

“Of course I will.” She rushed to her desk and plucked a book from her shelf, hurrying back to the table in the centre of the room just behind the other two. She flipped it open and found the page she was looking for.

“This, here! Look, whatever happened to the Tribe led them to Ikaatan, right?”

“Right...” Taria agreed.

“And they, along with the original Ikaatan people, built the temple. Together.”

“Oh no...” Taria said. “You mean Dasa Bun'Gaat? I hated that damn place.”

“Unfortunately I do. I’m not fond of the place either. But they hid something there. Something tied to the Moon’s Blade.”

“What?” Arys said. “What could it be?”

“The Paragon Moonstone,” Celia said, pointing to a picture in her book. The stone was immaculate, and though it was white and translucent, myriad colours seemed to shine within it even in drawing form.

“They hid it to protect it from falling into the wrong hands,” Celia continued. “Rumours about it call it a ‘great treasure’ and claim it can give whoever touches it great power. But in reality, it was made to be used with the Moon’s Blade.”

“In what way?” Taria asked.

“Put simply, to dispel the power of necromancy. I suppose that the Tribe had a history of battling the undead and those who raise them. And they hid the moonstone because they must have known about Morrina. If she had her hands on it, there would be no stopping her.”

“Does she know about it?” Arys asked.

“I don’t think so. The whole area around the temple has been pretty empty. Nobody has really been there since, well... us...”

“Don’t remind me...” Taria said.

“At any rate,” Celia said, closing the book. “We need that stone. I’ve been reading up on it and, as far as I know, we can use it with the scythe to dispel Morrina’s power and destroy all of her undead creatures.”

“So we just need to figure out how,” Taria said.

“Yes. As soon as we get the moonstone. You remember how to get to the temple, right?”

Taria sighed. “Yes. I’m the one who led the others there. Until Jhana happened...”

“Yeah, well, Jhana happened to a lot of us. I still don’t really know how long I was down there.”

“I guess we’re lucky we had Meryn,” Taria said. “Saved all our asses, as I recall.”

Celia nodded. “She sure did. The only one of us who didn’t get captured. That feels like an eternity ago.”

Taria managed a wry smile. “We’ve been doing this for awhile. Our work is never done.”

“Speaking of... how’s the whole bandit thing going?”

“Oh, you mean the hunting thing? Yeah, uh... it’s complicated. And a little less relevant with that necromancer running around.”

“I wish we had Artema with us...” Celia said.

“Me too. But she taught us the skills to take care of these things on our own. Besides, her and Lanala deserve a break.”

“True enough. So... shall we be going?”

“I suppose so,” Taria said. “I don’t look forward to it.”

“Neither do I. Who know what kind of traps are down there?”

“We’ll just have to be careful, Celia. We need that moonstone,” Taria said.

“And I’m with you,” Arys said. “We’ll get it.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Taria said with a smile. “Let’s go then.”

...

They found themselves in a chamber deep underneath the temple. The Tribe of the Moon insisted on hiding the moonstone as far from the surface as they could dig. The narrow corridors led away from the main temple and continued on forever downward, lit up by eternal, silvery orbs of light floating in place all along the dark stone walls.

“Any idea where this thing is, Celia?” Taria asked. “These halls have gone on pretty long.”

“It’s said to be in a much wider chamber. With stone that sparkles like the moon’s light. It’s supposed to be hidden in that room somewhere. But it will likely be protected by traps or the like.”

“I can only imagine we’ll find that out soon,” Arys said.

The corridors stretched on for another long while and the three women pressed on deeper into the narrow corridors until... it opened up into a bright room. A hole in the ceiling, covered in silver stained glass, cast a glow from above like the moonlight and the stone all around the room did, indeed, sparkle like bright moonlight. It was refreshing to be in such a bright room. But, as soon as they stepped inside, Arys stopped them.

“Hey, watch...” she said. “Do you see that?” She pointed at a black shape in one of the alcoves of the room. It looked almost like a suit of armour with a fully carved head and face, expressionless. The lower half of its face was shielded by a sort of mask and nothing but its grim eyes stared outward. There were gems in the eyes, though they were dull and glassy and seemed devoid of life. It stood as a statue, but their attention was drawn to the thing’s hands and the belt. It held what looked like a sort of snare of lasso of rope in its hands and more rope hung from its belt. The rope, as well, sparkled with silver light like the walls.

“What is that?” Celia asked.

“I don’t know... but I can feel something. There’s a power to it. I wonder if these are meant as the moonstone’s guardians?”

“Maybe,” Taria said. “There in all these alcoves here, look,” she said, pointing ahead of them.

In the vast room, there stood probably a dozen of the armoured figures on either side of the room. All identical, carrying the strange rope, and as still as could be.

“They look... really lifelike. Almost like they could start moving at any minute,” Celia said.

“Yeah, that’s the feeling I get too,” Taria agreed. “Probably best we don’t go near those things.”

“We may have to,” Arys said. “I can’t see any doors or anything in this room. And it looks pretty empty. No sign of this Paragon Moonstone.”

“Could be they’re the key to finding it. There’s probably a way to avoid activating them or a hidden chamber or something,” Taria said. “I wouldn’t bother trying but... we need that moonstone.”

“True. Let’s... maybe split up and check out the room?”

“I don’t like the idea of splitting up,” Taria said. “Especially if one of us accidentally activates these things.”

“I doubt even all of us combined could stop them. Look at the size of them,” Celia said. “I don’t know that it makes a difference.”

Taria sighed. “You’re probably right. It might work faster as well if we’re in different spots... fine. Just... be careful. Okay?”

“I will. You too,” Celia said. “And hey, if anything goes wrong... it’ll just be another adventure. Another story to tell. Right?”

Taria couldn’t help the smile that crossed her lips when she saw Celia’s sweet face, her smiling eyes and lips and perfect teeth...

“Right. Just another day of us getting into trouble...”

“That’s the spirit!” Celia said. “All right. Let’s see what we can find.”

They each went separate directions and investigated different alcoves and the strange guardians, though none of them wanted to get close. Taria skulked around one, checking out the back, looking underneath it, behind it, above it... but there was nothing she could see.

Celia was studiously checking one across the room, careful not to step too close, but tiptoeing around it and studying the black armour, the silver rope, and the dead looking gems in the eyes.

Arys, meanwhile, approached one near the door they had come in... and felt something. A bright light began glowing behind her and her scythe began to feel warm on her back. The light shone directly into the gems in the eyes of the guardian and Arys reached up to grab her scythe to try and prevent whatever was happening.

Before she could stop the light, the gems on the eyes flashed to life and began glowing a bright pale blue, glowing with a strange, arcane energy. Then the things head moved, turning to face her.

“Oh no...”

In a quick chain reaction, all of them came to life and moved their heads. Taria was beside one when it turned to look at her. “Oh, that’s not good...”

Celia jumped a bit and backed away when the guardian in front of her seemed to look directly into her eyes. “What... what’s happening?”

The guardians moved in perfect sync and stepped forward with stiff movements, though they were far from slow. Their arms whipped out the lassos faster than they could blink. Arys found her arms trapped at her sides immediately and pulled in closer to the guardian.

“H-hey! Hel-mmmppphhhh!”

A steel hand clamped over her mouth and started winding the seemingly endless rope around Arys’ arms. But the other women heard her call.

“I’m coming!” Celia said, turning around to run but she, too, found her arms pinned to her sides and she was stopped in tracks, pulled backward by the guardian’s strong, metallic arms.

“T-Taria! Help Ary-mmmpphhh!”

A hand was clamped over her mouth as well and the rope started winding around her arms as well as the guardian came closer. Taria saw the guardian begin tying up Celia and started to run for her.

“Celia!” Taria found herself tripping suddenly and dragged backward as the guardian behind her had lassoed her ankles together and was dragging her toward it.

She tried kicking against the force of the thing but it did nothing to loosen the rope or stop the thing dragging her in. Taria clawed at the smooth floor, unable to find anything to grab, before trying to reach up and release her ankles. The thing used its free hand to toss another rope, taking the one hanging form its waist, and threw it over Taria’s shoulders to trap her arms to her sides, too.

She watched the wall open up and was dragged back into the darkness, seeing Celia and assumed Arys had suffered the same fate. In seconds, the wall slammed shut and the room fell as silent as it had been before.

...

“Mmrrpph mmggrrr ggrrmmphh mmmrrgghh! MMPPHH!”

Taria’s speech was garbled nonsense and her frustration didn’t even let her speak real words as she grumbled and shouted into her gag, struggling wildly with the silvery bonds that held her captive.

The rope wrapped up her calves from the ankles to just below the knees. Another coil held her thighs together as well from just above the knees covering most of her upper thighs. Her wrists were tied behind her back, held together by another coil, while the last wrapped around her arms and torso, covering her chest completely, and pinning her arms to her sides from shoulders to elbows.

Topping it off was another thick coil of rope that gagged her, first pulled between her teeth, pressing down on her tongue, and then covering over her mouth to seal her lips shut. Taria squirmed and bucked wildly in the dimly lit room, growling into her gag, before she became drenched in sweat and stopped struggling from sheer exhaustion.

Panting to catch her breath through her nose, Taria took a moment to look around the room. It wasn’t a very large room and the guardian had left quickly but it looked to be a dark stone cell much like the corridor’s had been on the way into the room.

The room was otherwise empty, save for the silvery orb of dim light hanging just above her. She didn’t know what the plan was for holding her like this but, if the Tribe of the Moon were no longer in Ikaatan, then it was likely no one was coming for them. So she resumed her furious struggling to try and free herself.

Taria also didn’t know if her fellow captives had received the same treatment but all she did know was that she had to be the one to save them. So she battled her restraints endlessly, hoping beyond all hope to escape and free them.

Across the room, in an identical room, Celia was fighting her own bonds, tied the exact same way and gagged in a similar manner, too. The unfortunate thing for her, however, was the fact that she started to feel excited and a strong urge to just stay tied up and struggle, feeling the tightness of her bonds... it was starting to overwhelm her.

She struggled and tried to free herself but the feeling of the tight ropes, the gag the silenced her, her inability to move... she was beginning to love it.

“Hllmmmppp!” she called into her gag and felt a rush of excitement bubble up in her stomach, unable to fight her urge to stay tied up and gagged. So, despite her own strong struggles, Celia wasn’t trying to escape. And that might have spelled doom... were it not for the woman at the end of the room.

Arys, bound and gagged the same as the other two, had been struggling when the guardian carried her into the room. But it stopped and its jewelled eyes just... stared at Arys’ dislocated scythe. It had fallen from her back while she was being tied up and now the thing was just staring.

The room around her had opened out into a much larger room and the rest of the guardians surrounded the scythe and just stared at it for quite some time. She didn’t know what was happening so Arys tried to escape, twisting and writhing every which way to try and dislodge the tight ropes... but it was no use.

“Mmmphh! Nmmmmm!!” She said, stamping her bound feet on the stone floor. “Mm hmmf ymm gmmt mmt mmf hmmr...” she said, her words made beyond comprehension by her tight rope coil gag.

Her muffled grunts did not even stir the guardians that just continued to watch the scythe. Their gem eyes flickered with the pale blue light as though thinking. Something in their minds seemed to click as all of their metallic heads turned to look at the struggling Arys in the middle of the room, beside the scythe as it sat suspended in mid-air, floating there for all of them to see.

“MMMMPPPHHH! NMMMM, PLLMMPPHH!!” Arys screamed into her gag, shrinking back at the frightening sight of all of their automatic, cold eyes upon her. They all turned as one back to the scythe and stared again... before all bending down on one knee and lowering their heads.

Arys stopped her struggling and, within seconds, the ropes just... let go. They fell away and she stretched herself out and stood up, reaching up and grabbing the scythe. Her weapon seemed to hum with energy and, as the guardians bowed, a plinth rose up from the floor with something floating just above it. Remembering the picture in Celia’s book, Arys realized what it was.

“The moonstone! They’re... they’re giving it to me?”

The guardians remained still, bowing before the woman with the scythe and Arys reached out gingerly for the giant, translucent stone. It was more beautiful than she could have imagined. About the size of an apple, the gem sparkled in the light, a shimmering rainbow of colours within the white, translucent surface. When she laid her hands on it, she felt the power of it and it felt... natural. It felt like comfortable, familiar somehow. It felt like... home.

Sheathing the scythe on her back, Arys pocketed the moonstone and watched the wall open up behind the bowing guardians. They stayed in place even as Arys left the room and the wall sealed it up again. She decided then to search the room. Both of the others had be within them, still held captive.

Arys checked them all until one opened wall in an alcove opened up at her touch, revealing a bound and gagged Celia squirming within. She hurried inside and helped cut the lithe, small woman free.

“Are you all right? Wait... are you... were you enjoying that?”

Celia stretched her muscles and looked... relaxed. “Well, in a way, yes. I guess I just figured someone would come for me. So I’m perfectly fine. Have you found Taria yet?”

“Not yet. But come on. We’ll find her.”

As soon as Arys and Celia stepped out, however, Arys stopped them in their tracks. “I hear voices...” she said. One of them was very familiar.

“Damn it... we need to hide!”

“What is it?”

“Lila... I don’t know what she’s doing here but come with me. I’ll cloak us.”

Arys didn’t even have time to speak the words of the spell. She felt the moonstone in her pouch rumble and emanate energy and the two women became invisible in a flash.

“Woah, what was that?” Celia asked.

“Shh! We’re cloaked now. Just keep quiet and Lila won’t find us.”

She saw her then. The angry brunette, tall and muscular, with her short, cropped hair and piercing green eyes. Her brown leather armour with it short battle skirt and sleeveless tunic, armlets and knee high boots along with her longsword made the woman an intimidating presence.

A section of wall opened up and Lila, leading a group of mercenaries, walked in and didn’t come out for some time. When they did, they emerged with Taria bound and gagged, tossing her to the ground. Lila seemed particularly angry about something but her mood improved a bit when she turned to her mercenaries.

“See? I told you that idiot would lead us right to it. And here she is, captured by the Tribe’s automatons. But there’s just one thing...” Lila bent down and grabbed Taria by the scruff of the neck. “Where’s the moonstone!?”

Taria shook her head and grumbled into her gag. Lila just shoved her to the floor again. “Grab her and take her back to the fort. I’ll get her to damn well talk.”

Two mercenaries had to pick her up as she struggled and gave them all sorts of trouble getting her off the floor. But one larger woman finally managed to just toss Taria over her shoulder and carry her out the way they had come in.

Lila glared out at the room, searching for something else. “Did she come alone?” she asked.

“Scouts said she was travelling with two others but nobody saw her enter the temple. And there’s no sign of anyone else in here,” a woman said from beside her. “Looks like she did.”

“Good. Then no one will be coming for her. For a little while, at least. Give me plenty of alone time with her. I owe her for leaving me tied up in that cell...”

The mercenaries fell silent and left the room again. Arys and Celia had been completely still the entire time, finally becoming visible again after Lila was long gone.

“We should have done something...” Arys said.

“We’d just have been captured right alongside her,” Celia said. “You saw how many of them there were. We’d be no help if we just got captured again. This way we’re free to rescue her. And they don’t know we’re coming.”

“Yeah... you’re right...” Arys sighed. “And I know Lila’s got a grudge against me for leaving the group. But she’s the one who kicked me out! And they kept me tied up for Goddess knows how long... that woman is out of her mind.”

“Then we need to rescue Taria. Quickly,” Celia said, a tinge of anger in her voice. “I won’t let her get hurt.”

Arys put a hand on her shoulder. “Neither will I. But I think we’ll need help.”

“Help? What help?”

“Taria is good at making friends. I might be able to recruit one or two. That way, if it comes to a fight, we stand a better chance of breaking her out.”

Celia nodded. “Okay. Whatever it takes to get her back.”

Arys frowned and furrowed her brow. “You... you really like her, don’t you?”

“Why? Is that surprising?” Celia asked, her face beginning to flush.

“No it’s just... I guess I didn’t expect that. Taria isn’t one for... those things.”

“I know but... I’ve done this once before. I don’t know what came over me I just had to save her. Might have been the first time I ever won a fight against someone bigger and stronger than me. It was... she inspired me. I overcame a lot of fear that day.”

“She can have that effect,” Arys said. “No matter what, she is a good friend.”

“That she is,” Celia agreed. “Come on then. Let’s go get this friend of hers.”

“And we should make sure to get this to a safe place,” Arys said, pulling the moonstone from her pouch.

“Wow, you got it! It’s beautiful... My office. We’ll store it there. Nobody goes in there, anyway. But we should hurry. Every minute wasted is another minute Taria is in that crazy woman’s clutches. Let’s go!”

Celia rushed off for the doorway they had come in through the dark corridors. Arys followed after her, pocketing the moonstone again. “I’m right behind you!”

Even with Taria’s capture, the two women felt a pang of hope stirring in their hearts. If they could rescue Taria, then they could finally start turning the tide.

Story Theme Song: 3 One Oh- We Got the Power