Recruitment Tour (Quickdraw, Celeste, and Stareater)

”Going there wouldn’t affect me any different than an ordinary person. But I still can’t go somewhere that cold for long,” Stareater explained. Places as cold as Canada or Norway were one thing, but the arctic was a whole other field of cold entirely. ”Assuming I didn’t freeze to death, it’d be next to impossible for me to have access to backup energy if my battery pack ran out or was damaged. I wouldn’t lose energy by being there, I’d just be flash frozen.”

Her harness was a tool for getting around things like this in emergency situations. It was a lifeline for her, for when Stareater went to cold places or places that were dark and didn’t exactly have indoor heating. ”If I had a way to tolerate that extreme cold, I’d still only have maybe two hours at most to search for someone.”

"Perhaps myself and the Seraphic Court can help with that," Compassion started. "Every member of my Knighthood has some form of item that denotes their station. For normal humans, it comes in the form of their enchanted weapons and armor. Perhaps we can forge you a similar item to act as emergency power reserves."

Compassion looked at Astrid, her eyes glowing a serene green, and earnestly began, "Such an item would serve you well while in my Knighthood. Before you commit, there are some things you ought to know. All members of my Knighthood commit to a series of tenets and cultivate virtues in accordance to good. They are: compassion, mercy, justice, humility, generosity, temperance, will, and redemption. Sins to this Knighthood include cruelty, coercion, greed, pride, excessive ambition, vengeance, indulgence, and despair. To become part of my Knighthood means cultivating those virtues and seeking mastery over these sins. Should you fall too far, whatever we fashion for you will no longer work."

Compassion smiled softly, in a motherly manner, saying, "I would not have approached you, with this personal information or with the general responsibilities of what it is to be one of my Knights, if I didn't believe you capable of these virtues. I will not force you to accept this oath - it must be of your own will. With all this in mind, I would ask if you would join."

A magic tool that kept her alive longer in exchange for helping people along the way, as she always had? Sure. It didn’t sound like a bad deal in theory. The only possible pitfall in that was the wavy that Stareater was somewhat proud of her capabilities. In a mundane sense, she considered herself a decent scientific mind. Less in an egotistical sense and more of a factual one; Grass grows, birds fly, and Astrid Black knows her way around a lab.

”Fine. As long as it’s something that isn’t awkward to keep with me as I’m moving,” She decided. ”And then what? Am I supposed to track Skadi to her lair and undo her “phylactery?” What am I getting myself into?”

"If you can successfully find her lair and use your power on her phylactery, we can make a determination if that will be enough to destroy or bypass its magical barrier," Compassion said. "If your Whitespace energy destroys the phylactery on the spot, so much the better - Skadi will be unable to resurrect if her phylactery is destroyed, and perhaps, she may even die on the spot. But first, you'll need to track the lair itself; tailing her undead as they travel to and from the region would be a good way to start. I'll put in the request to the enchanters right away."

In time, as Astrid's powers and their drawbacks were assessed, the Seraphic Court would settle for something fairly small and easy to move: a ring. At first blush, it would appear to be little more than a silver band with a teardrop-cut amethyst embedded in it. In reality, it would end up functioning as an additional battery that would passively charge while in Moonshadow. The enchanters would design the ring in such a way as to charge Astrid or drain her until both her and the ring carried the same charge level.

It would still be susceptible to thermodynamics, however. Some energy would become unusable during transfer to or from the ring, and Stareater herself would be able to use it as an emergency power flush if she was overcharged herself.

This ring would ultimately be the result of the design specifications Astrid had set forward. In an emergency, it might work as a lifeline to pull her into Moonshadow.