“I’d grind the solid shell into a fine powder, use it as the base for ink. Then, I’d distill the mercurial solution into an elixir, which I’d imbibe while tattooing an appropriate sigil onto myself,” he continued, the veneer of stoicism vanishing from his eyes to reveal a mad glint. A smile formed on his face, but he was snapped back into his usual attitude by the prod of the seal-bottle against his arm. He took a swig and passed it, leaning back and returning to his usual, laid-back attitude.

“If my understandin’ of the method is correct - which I doubt - this’d allow me to create a vector for tapping into some of the creature’s capabilities while maintainin’ separation between my soul and the creature’s essence. Given proper precision and planning, I could even layer these Azoth Tattoos atop one another, assumin’ my method works ‘course.”

The bottle had made its way to her again, and she took another swig. It was half-empty now, and Makhus took notice. He waited for it to reach him again, took his swig, and said, “Right, one more round n’ then we get back on the road.”

Zefaris nodded, while Sigmund just grumbled affirmatively into his beard. Zelsys simply placed the Azoth gem back into storage, going back to the Traits readout. Expecting nothing, she tried tapping on her Survivor’s Instinct trait, and to her surprise, the Tablet reacted.

Its projection became scrambled, with all but the trait’s name illegible. It flickered from white to yellow, then became scrambled as well. The Tablet died, its projection fading, and it just sat there as the four observed it in silence. Before anyone could speak, it flickered back to life, a different projection this time. It posed a question, and offered a choice highlighted in blue at the bottom.

Trait Details are a Restricted Function. Soulbind this device to enable Restricted Functions. Proceed? Accept/Decline

It didn’t feel wrong, and trusting her gut had gotten her thus far. Thus, she tapped Accept. The buzzing warmth rushed up her arm, past her shoulder, and towards her heart as wisps of silver Fog shot out of the Tablet and seemingly dove into her markings, traveling up them as pulses of light. Her vision instantly faded to silver, and in her mind’s eye, there flashed several phrases in quick succession.

SOULBIND SUCCESSFUL OWNER DETERMINED: ZELSYS RESTRICTED FUNCTIONS ENABLED FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED: TRAIT DETAILS FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED: TECHNIQUES LIST FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED: ADVANCEMENT ASSIST

She wiped the nothingness away with a series of blinks and a shake of her head, the three soldiers staring at her with varying degrees of concern. Makhus in particular looked a combination of concerned and befuddled.

“Did… Did y’just… Huh?” he tilted his head, squinting at her as if he were trying to figure out if she was going to explode. “Fuck’d you do just now?”

“Looks like this piece of rock didn’t properly bond to me when I first picked it up,” she said, feigning nonchalant annoyance as she gestured with the Tablet for emphasis. “Took this long to give the option to do it manually.”