In The Beginning...
Quark wandered through the Crucible, the reclaimed wreck of an Octopus ship that he'd turned into his alchemist's laboratory. The ship sat awkwardly spread across one size of a small asteroid that orbited the tiny planetoid of _______. He'd discovered the wreck on his way through the crystal sphere, hunting down rare materials for his work. He'd even taken great care to watch the wreck over a period of time, as it was obviously an old space pirate hangout. He'd even discovered a network of tunnels under the ship, as well as what appeared to be a fully-stocked treasury.
But no one was there.
Had they gone on a mission, only never to return? Were they wiped out in some sort of cataclysmic event? A plague? An enemy attack? It didn't appear so. He'd found no evidence of a struggle, no dead bodies, even. In fact, he'd found what appeared to be a small graveyard on the planetside of the asteroid, so if there had been deaths on the tiny rock, they'd been given a proper burial.
So it was very strange indeed to have found an unprotected bounty like he had. And he wasn't about to give it up.
Which is why he and Corvo, his young protégé, worked hard to keep their hideout a secret by creeping down to the planet's surface in a tiny spelljamming skimmer in order to gather supplies. They were heading down to the surface now, in fact. Quark hadn't seen his friend Dreezle in a while - Dreezle was a Hurwaet - and wanted to see if he had acquired any interesting items lately. He had a knack for bringing the most interesting items to Quark for first dibs. He now wondered what new and exciting thing the Hurwaet rogue had in store for him...It only took a few minutes for Quark to navigate through the twilight down to the roughly circular cratered mountain that looked like a tiny, dead volcano. This one wasn't one, of course - there were none of the telltale signs of volcanic activity - no ejecta, no tectonic activity, of course no lava or even steam - nothing that told him it was created by the release of huge tectonic forces. It just looked like a volcano. A tiny, miniature volcano. Something always bothered Quark about it, but he could never figure out why.
As the skimmer sank through the growing gloom, Corvo moved suddenly and pointed. "Look! Something's taking off from the surface!" Sure enough, Quark's half-elven eyes peered out into the weird, glowing sky and saw a tiny speck that was only slightly darker than the fog-gray sky around it. It was slowly rising through the half light, up and away from the small cluster of islands that lay about a mile offshore.
"I wonder what that's about?" Quark mumbled under his breath. Corvo was a little more concerned.
"If that's a Spelljammer, we might have something to worry about, don't we?" Quark returned his thoughts to landing the ship. "We might. Maybe Dreezle will have an idea of what's going on. I believe he's had some business out on those islands."
The Three Fates. Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos were named after the three figures from Earth's mythology. Quark wondered if they were also tied to his fate. He resolved to land his skiff safely and find out.
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The ship touched down in its landing spot on the inside of Mount Longfang's crater. Corvo loaded a pack with supplies and the money they'd brought. The two of them then spread the camouflage cover over the skidder and made their way to the cave that led to the rocky path down into the mountain and out the side by the town of Atarangi. It was a short hike, but it gave the alchemist time to think out the night ahead. Should he ask Dreezle about the ship? Or should he be more subtle about it and keep his cards close to the chest? Interacting with people was not easy for the half-elf. He didn't feel like a part of the community here, and to some degree he really wasn't. But he reminded himself that he had friends and acquaintances here, and in as much as he could, he trusted them and needed them. He would just have to work on just how much so.
There was more activity than anticipated outside the tiny cavern when the two walked out into the evening air. The temple stage, which usually lay empty on the nights Quark came down to the surface, was teeming with activity. It was nestled into the base of the mountain near the cave, and was where followers of the Oresteia, the local religion, reenacted the cosmic drama which was believed to have created the known sphere. But on this night the stage, the amphitheater, and the grounds all around the complex were filled with adherents busy setting up chairs, tents, little cooking fires. Many were hacking away at the undergrowth, clearing space for them and their families to set up camp for the monthly festivities.
"Gods BLAST it! This thing turned to stone!" Quark turned to the man who'd caught his attention with the outburst. A group of men were gathered around another who was clutching his hand in pain. "I SWEAR it was a bush!" His friends all laughed and made jokes, while raising their ale steins and trying to pull him away. The man reluctantly let himself be led away, and Quark watched him leave as he sidled up to where he was when he cried out.
What he found was a tiny bush, no more than a couple feet high, standing out amongst its surroundings. The bush was spherical in shape, consisting of serrated green leaves with occasional wispy white plumes of cottonlike fibers. Quark knelt in front of the plant, curious.
"How did you do that, little plant?" He reached into his coat and fished out an empty vial. With a pair of tweezers, he plucked some of the fibers from the plant. He thought he felt the plant tremble as he did so, but he dismissed it as he placed the fibers in the vial and stoppered it.
"Let's get going," he said to Corvo. "I really want to talk to Dreezle."
The pair walked down to the waterfront, and it was a matter of minutes before they saw a tiny figure lashing a rowboat to a short pier. Quark recognized the boat, and then the owner, and called out to the hurwaet. Dreezle looked up with a surprised look in his eye, but relaxed when he recognized his best customer.
"Just the man I was looking for!" he smiled in the gloom. "Why don't you buy me a drink and I can show you something... interesting?" Quark chuckled and patted his friend on the back. The three of them entered The Rusty Goat and sat at a booth in the corner. They exchanged pleasantries while the drinks came, and then Dreezle slid a small wooden box out from under his cloak.
"Check this out. I got it from my man across the bay. It fits the description of what you're interested in - weird, unique and useful!" Quark opened the box to find three glass tubes, each filled with a silvery liquid. He held one up and watched it slosh slowly about the vial. It moved... in a strange manner - not just reacting to the movement of Quark's hand, but it almost seemed to not be in synch with his movements.
"Where'd you get this stuff?" he asked.
"From Ferb Groundfeather. He runs a bait and tackle shop out on the Three Fates. He gets all kinds of odd traffic in and out of his shop, and I have him set aside some of the most interesting stuff for me."
Quark held up one of the vials again, but this time he brought a table candle up to it so he could see the silvery stuff more clearly. When it did, he noticed subtle, swirling patterns of rainbow hues shimmering in its depths."
"Fascinating..." he whispered, turning the vial around in the light. He unstoppered the vial and held the stuff up to his nose. He took one whiff and instantly recognized the smell. It was the smell of the mercury pits on the far side of his asteroid base. How it could remind him of that, or why, was a mystery. A mystery that would have to wait, as he suddenly noticed Corvo stand up and reach for the box containing the other two vials.
"Corvo, what are you doing?" he said as he watched his protegè take the box and move to the door.
"Hey, you haven't paid for that!" hissed Dreezle as he put his hand on the young half-elf's elbow. Corvo kept moving to the door, unfazed, even as Quark stood up to stop him. Corvo forcefully wrenched away from them and stumbled out the door. As the two followed, Quark looked on in horror as Corvo raised the box up over his head and with glazed eyes looked like he was about to dash the box to the ground. Quark grabbed the box as Dreezle yelled "no!" and hugged him from behind. The box half-opened, and he could see that the other two vials were now shimmering with wildly changing colors that were getting brighter every second. The three tussled in the street for few harrowing seconds before the two wrestled Corvo to the ground and took the box from him. Quark quickly put the third vial into the box and slammed shut the lid.
Corvo stopped struggling, blinked three or four times, and looked at Quark with clearing eyes.
"Why are we sitting in the street?"
Quark looked from Corvo to Dreezle.
"I think we should go see the Ferb fellow. I'd like to ask him some very specific questions about what's in these vials.
Quark nodded with a resigned look.
"So would I, my friend. So would I..."
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