They gave up on the battle axe of Clarf the Cleavor and moved on. They found the Bow of Artemesia, but like the battle axe they felt nothing. They still had to sit through a ten-minute spiel about the great warrior from the time before the Age of Warfare from Patrick, though.
"I don't think this is it, either." Emmy held up the Dagger of Sys, which was, surprisingly, a lot smaller than any of them had suspected. It was barely the length of her hand and just laid there as she held it out.
"Definitely not." Finn's shoulders slumped and he scratched it off the list. "That's it for the weapons. Let's try clothing next. They should be around here."
The first was a chainmail shirt from the Age of Warfare, worn by a cavalry man whose horse was more famous than he was, according to Patrick.
Finn couldn't help it. "What was so great about the horse?"
"He was two times the normal size! His hooves were bigger than a man's head and sharper than any blade. And he was fast as the wind!"
"Of course." Emmy gave Finn a flat look, blaming him for asking. Finn shrugged.
"At the Battle of Blooming Gorge, he leapt THE ENTIRE GORGE! In one jump!" Patrick's voice bounced off the walls. Finn winced.
"Next!" Emmy yelled.
"A pair of gloves." Finn hurried into the next room and looked around. Stacks of clothing covered the shelves.
"Does it at least say what color they are?" Emmy asked, resigned.
Finn glanced at his list. "…What color are gloves normally?"
Emmy and Patrick stared at him. "Seriously?"
"….My family always wore blue gloves. It's our family color."
"You know normal families don't have a family color, right?"
"So what color gloves do they wear?"
Emmy looked like she was ready for another sarcastic remark, but Patrick answered before she could. "Black. Or brown. It really depends on what they're made from. Or what they're for. Or where you get them."
"Right, let's just find all the gloves!" Finn broke in.
An hour later they had a dozen pairs of gloves laying limply on the floor.
"I don't think it's any of these." Finn sighed.
"Let's just move on." Emmy sighed.
They found the Shroud of Salt next. Stolen from a tomb on the Isles of Salt a few hundred years ago and displayed as a holy relic before it was caught up in the treasure haul from a short war and brough to the Camelia as part of a tribute. None of them good figure out what was so special about the pile of stained cloth.
A pair of boots was also dismissed, and Finn had to stop Emmy from burning them.
They moved on to jewelry and Finn was hopeful they'd get lucky.
But first they had to find the right chamber. They ended up going in circles for twenty minutes before they finally sat down, and shared the lunch Emmy had been smart enough to pack.
"Thanks for sharing." Finn said around a mouthful of cheese and bread.
"Chew with your mouth closed." She looked amused though and turned to give Patrick the same admonishment.
Patrick swallowed as soon as she turned to him. A well-trained younger brother. "How many more things on the list?"
"Uh, four pieces of jewelry and then like, a dozen random household items?"
"How random are we talking?" Emmy, wary.
"Uh, there's a foot stool. A rug. Um, what's an etagere?"
"No idea." Patrick shook his head.
"I think it's a shelf." Emmy looked thoughtful. "But how the hell is a shelf a magical object that's poisoning the Camelia."
"There's also a side table and a chair that was apparently the throne of an ancient kingdom."
Patrick perked up. "Ohh, that sounds promising."
"There's also a sharing chair? I'm not sure what that is."
"You mean a couch?" Emmy laughed.
"I hope so. Eirian laughed a lot when she saw that one." And she'd refused to tell him why.
Patrick polished off the last bite of bread and cheese and jumped to his feet. "Let's get to it!"
Finn groaned but let Emmy pull him up. "Come on, the faster we do this the faster we're done."
The burst of energy from lunch helped them locate the jewelry chamber, after realizing the map Finn had neglected to illustrate an entire section of the vault. Finn had scribbled a basic map on the backside of his list, while Emmy and Patrick dug out the two necklaces and two rings on his list.
"Hey Finn, get in here!" Emmy called him from down the hall, and he hurried to join her.
He found them in a room full of glittering jewelry boxes. Patrick was holding two small ones, one holding a ring of gold with a bright blue stone and then other a wooden ring with carvings. Neither jumped out at Finn and he turned to Emmy.
She had two necklaces hanging from her hand, but they were as memorable as the rings, and she was paying more attention to something else.
"Look." She pointed to an empty spot on a shelf.
Finn looked. "It's empty?"
"Nothing else in this room is missing." Patrick put the rings back.
"Is that where you got the necklaces?" There was a thin layer of dust over the spot.
"No. They were from that box over there." She pointed to an open box and tossed the necklaces back in. "We've seen a bunch of disorganized piles in the rest of the rooms, but we haven't seen anything actually missing."
"Oh." Finn frowned at his papers. "I just have the stuff we're supposed to look for. Is there a label?"
Emmy brushed away the dust. There was a small piece of metal nailed to the shelf. She squinted at it. "I think it says medal? Medallion? It's in one of the old languages. The date kind of looks like it was one, two hundred years ago? Right around the time the Ye family came into power."
Finn scribbled the details down. "I'll ask Yuze about it when we're finished."
Emmy and Patrick turned to him, eyes wide. "You mean Lord Rong?"
"Um, yes?"
"He lets you call him by his personal name?" Emmy squeaked.
"I…" Finn paused. "I mean that's what Eirian called him, so I call him that? He never said anything about it!"
Emmy's eyes narrowed, suspicious. "Where are you from again?"
~ tbc