The artifact had changed slightly. I remembered it as a twisted piece of metal, but now it looked more like a metal… feather.
Wait a moment.
With Penguin's obsession with stealing feathers—from parrots, even from the feather dusters in my Core Partition, though he couldn't take those back with him—was this why he seemed to like this particular artifact so much?
"What does it do then?" I asked.
"It's some sort of flight aid for non-flying creatures," Gilded said.
Oh. Well, damn.
"Wait, creatures?" I asked. "Or humans too?"
"That's not entirely correct," Tiernan said. "It doesn't really make you fly, but it makes your body lighter. When our client contacted us, it was so Destabilized, the effect had spread to nearby objects, so pretty much everything in his house was floating—cups, tables, chairs, books, all kitchen tools... He couldn't even sleep in the house because the table and sofas were floating."
"Yeah, that fits too," Gilded said.
Penguin was still staring at the metal feather.
"Our client said he hopes to never see it again," Tiernan said. "So if he likes it so much and none of you wants it…"
"Are we sure it's safe?" Llewellyn asked, frowning.
"Of course," Gilded said. "But I'm sure they can test it, if that puts you at ease. And I have no use for it, so he can have it as far as I'm concerned."
Roan had reached forward with his scanner and was running a few tests.
I eyed Gilded, perplexed. "Why did you spend so long on it, then?"
"To see if I could do it," Gilded said, "obviously. Haven't found a magical puzzle I haven't been able to solve yet."
Was he treating this stuff as if it was crosswords or something?!
Ah, whatever. I turned to Penguin.
"You want it?" I asked.
Penguin chirped excitedly.
Well, if it was safe, I had nothing against it.
"How much for it?" I asked Tiernan. "If we were to buy it."
"What?" Tiernan said. "As if we'd let you pay for something like this. Besides, if it's for Penguin, we're happy to gift it to him."
Penguin chirped again.
"Yeah, it's safe!" Roan said, lowering his scanner. "It's completely stable, nothing off. Feel free to give it a go."
I could generally equip things for Penguin because of the bond, so I equipped this one too. The artifact lit up then vanished as usual when equipping something.
Penguin waddled in a small circle, excited, then flapped his tiny flippers and… lifted off for a few moments before gliding back down.
Jihoon hollered. "Can you do it again?"
Penguin concentrated harder, flapped his flippers faster and lifted up a bit more, managing to land on the nearest coffee table.
Everyone cheered. Well!
"I guess it could be actually helpful for him," I said, scratching my head.
I mean, Penguin really wanted this, and it would make it easier for him to move around in his penguin form. At least he wouldn't need me to lift him up when we were at home.
"What about your other forms?" I asked him. "Do you notice any changes?"
Penguin chirped and changed form, experimenting. There was virtually no effect to his hedgehog form; the fire fox one could jump higher, and when he climbed up the door to glide down, his sugar glider form seemed lighter and could glide much longer.
"It's good, right?" I asked Penguin.
He turned back into a penguin and chirped happily. Then his focus went razor sharp on the closest mug.
A moment later, the mug was floating up too.
Penguin chirped excitedly and ran around in a circle.
Damn, that was good. Maybe he could let me use the artifact sometimes.
Still, this was definitely an upgrade for Penguin, who generally needed me to get on surfaces and reach things unless he turned into a sugar glider to climb up.
"Wow," Roan said. "That was cool!"
The mug wobbled before Penguin lowered it gently back onto the table.
Roan was taking notes on his tablet, tapping away furiously, while both Shea and Yuè Zhōu crowded around him to see. Tiernan joined them too. Jihoon meanwhile remained on the floor, playing with Penguin.
"Well," Tiernan said, scratching his head. "This might be the first case we've ever documented of an artifact calibrating to a bonded Elemental who… might or might not be an artifact himself."
Gilded was still sitting on the floor too, sipping a glass of white wine someone must have gotten for him while we were distracted. He looked tired but still quite pleased with himself. I supposed three hours of whatever he'd been doing were no joke, even though he seemed used to complex magical work.
Penguin abandoned the mug for a moment to waddle over to him, chirping.
"You're welcome," Gilded said, petting him briefly, as if bestowing a blessing or something.
Penguin chirped again, and trotted back to his experiments.
"Is this going to mess up your data?" I asked Tiernan, looking at Penguin gleefully levitating a teaspoon now.
"No, this is the data," Tiernan said, eyes glued to Roan's scanner and tablet. "We've only been able to work with an Elemental once before and he was nothing like Penguin. We've also never seen an Elemental equip an artifact, and artifacts are our specialty! It's like Christmas came early."
"Oi, Penguin," Jihoon called. "Can you get this from my palm?"
He extended his hand, which was holding a sugar cube.
Penguin chirped. He lifted the sugar cube, made it glide closer, examined it, then carefully floated it over to me, depositing it in my hand.
"Thank you," I said. "That was very smooth."
Penguin chirped, then turned to Jihoon who pretended to be heartbroken.
"Betrayed," Jihoon said, hand on chest. "By a penguin."
Penguin made an indignant noise and floated another sugar cube straight at Jihoon's forehead. It bumped against his nose before drifting back down to the table.
Next to me, Shea wheezed.
"Alright, alright," Tiernan said, looking like he'd given up on getting any more notes done. "We should probably let him settle before we exhaust him."
Penguin chirped in protest and floated three sugar cubes at once, just to make a point. Then, he also sent the mug straight to Tiernan, who caught it at once.
"Woah," Tiernan said. "Easy there. Looks like you're getting better at it."
In response, Penguin floated all the objects off the coffee table, then flipped the table upside down.
"…"
Okay, maybe this was going to be a problem at home.
"Are you able to unequip the artifact yourself?" I asked him. "Or toggle it off somehow? Or do you need me to do it?"
Penguin pondered for a moment, then he deactivated it himself.
I checked through the bond. It was still equipped, but toggled off now.
"That's good," I said, picking him up. "You can now activate it when you need it so you won't tire yourself too much."
Penguin chirped, half in protest it seemed, but he enjoyed being picked up so he didn't complain too much.
"How about we eat together tonight to celebrate?" Roan said happily. "We can order takeaway and eat it at the Rusty Chalice together. I'm sure Phelan will gladly close up for a day if it gives him the chance to drink for once."
Ejay, Jihoon, and Shea cheered, while Tiernan pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I guess that's fine," he said. "Ryo, Llewellyn? Gilded? Will you join us?"
I mean, why not? I locked eyes with Llewellyn.
"Alright," Llewellyn said. "But we have something to do first. Shall we meet there at around 8 PM?"
They all cheered again.
"I guess I won't say no if Destabilized Whiskey is involved," Gilded also said, removing some imaginary dust from his immaculate buttoned-down shirt. He probably took off whatever elaborate jacket he was wearing today to move around more easily while he worked. "I didn't have a chance to try some last time."
More cheering.
I locked eyes with Llewellyn again. "Wait, what do you mean we have something to do?" I asked him through the bond.
Llewellyn came over, stopping next to me.
"Emma wants to talk to us," he replied telepathically, showing me his phone.
I took it.
It looked like he had texted her earlier, asking if she had any news on the Alliance.
Emma: Not exactly, but the police went through the agency's data Niamh sent over and I did some more research on my own. There's something I need to show you. How soon can we meet? Bring Ryo too.