In a few days, Piscium had completed Roko's order. One claw that could reach out, unaffected by the tides and retrieve a Sealith from within the boundaries of sanctuary. Only it was a tad more advanced than Roko expected.
"Behold!" Piscium crowed, "The claw I have made for you!"
"Is this a clawshot?" Roko blinked as he looked over the gauntlet like object with a claw at it's end, "I think I've seen this in a Zelda game."
"What's a Zelda?"
"Nevermind." Roko shook his head, "Let's test it."
"I've prepared three example scenarios for you." Piscium gestured over to a small display he had set up inside the stable, "Just stand right behind the line over there."
Roko stepped up to the line and held out the clawshot at one of the targets.
"First one is a simple dry test." Piscium said as Roko fired the clawshot. The claw soared effortlessly through the air before clamping onto a Sealith sitting on a crate and reeling it back in with no problems.
"Next is a simple plunge test." Piscium said as Roko removed the Sealith from the claw and aimed it at the next test. Firing the clawshot, the claw plunged down through a large box of water before grabbing the Sealith at the bottom and reeling that in as well. True to it's descriptions, the claw of Sealith went straight through the water without losing any speed.
"And finally, an underwater test with simulated tides."
Roko walked up to another box. A long one that was sitting on top of a table as small hoses were hooked up to various points on its side, sending bubbling water left and right. Roko slid the claw through the rubber seal so that the claw was now underwater. Firing it through the long tube, the claw ignored every stream of bubbles trying to push it away and latched onto the Sealith at the end, dragging it back with ease.
"Impressive." Roko said as he removed the dripping Sealith stone, "I'm surprised you could make something like this in such short time."
"Heh. I may have been thinking of something like this before back when I was a child. Though it wasn't made of Sealith."
"This will help greatly." Roko nodded, "I'll make sure to give you a bonus for your work."
"Oh no bonus needed. Though I have a request."
"Oh? Do tell."
"Might I come with you on your next expedition underwater? I just want to make sure everything works and all."
"..."
"You believe me right?"
"I don't but I'll allow it."
"YES!"
And so in the next few minutes, Roko gathered Corissa over back to M83's sewage grate. The water level had not meaningfully diminished, the removal of only one of the Sealiths proving to have little effect on their predicament.
"I'm here." Corissa said as she arrived with a lantern and Varis following close behind her, "Oh, is Sir Piscium coming with us?"
"Just coming to make sure my invention works and all." Piscium said with a smile that reeked with obvious delight at being so close to his idol.
"I see. Thank you for all your hard work, Sir Piscium." Corissa bowed.
"Oh no, please. It was only natural for me to help." Piscium said, almost lost in his own world.
"Regardless, shall we start?" Roko sighed.
"Oh, yes. Sanctuary!"
A small white magic seal appeared underneath their feet and sunk deeper to cut an unnatural cavity in the flowing water. Piscium was utterly flabbergasted as Roko and Corissa and Varis all climbed down into the empty darkness without batting an eye.
"Coming?" Roko called back up.
"O-Oh! Yes of course!"
Roko carried a lantern that he was holding up to consult a map as they traveled. It was a very bare bones map that Roko had Azimuth make for him that detailed where the dead ends of the sewer system were. Though this map held almost no landmarks or details. Just a line that demonstrated which corners to turn with the only special details being a few lines to denote where a particularly big junction was and which path to take from there. Roko had hoped for a more detailed map but Azimuth was working out of her memory so they were probably lucky to even get this much info. Meanwhile, Piscium looked around, still stunned by the sight of such strong rushing water just disappearing when it came close to their circle. Like a wrecking ball swinging back and forth and stopping inches from your face every time, it was hard not to imagine the moment when things go wrong and the wrecking ball, in this case all these torrential waters, smash into their unprepared bodies.
"This is...scary..." Piscium gulped.
"This was unnerving for us the first time as well, Sir Piscium." Corissa smiled, "But I assure you we're perfectly safe right now."
"Please, just call me Piscium. And...you're the one casting the spell to protect us right? I would never have imagined such a beautiful woman would be such a powerful mage as well!"
"Powerful's a strong word..." Corissa said, still flattered despite her attempts at resistance.
"Are you really able to hold this spell long enough for us to locate a Sealith?"
"Of course! Though I won't say I can hold it forever, I will promise to uphold the spell for as long as someone is still around!"
"Thank goodness. But uh...do you mind if I stick a bit closer to you? I'm afraid I'm still a bit..."
"That's fine. If it makes you feel more comfortable then feel free to stay close to me."
"T-Thank you!" Piscium reached out a trembling hand and grasped onto Corissa's arm as if it was a delicate object, pulling himself closer as his desires went wild with each inch he came close to Corissa.
"Gosh, you're trembling like a baby!" Corissa smiled.
"I'm just...so...so scared..." Piscium's voice trembled with uncontrollable lust more than fear as he practically laid his head on top of Corissa's breasts.
"Varis, are you doing your job back there?" Roko called, "Hold on, wait."
Roko stopped as he spotted something flying towards them from the darkness. As it came closer it soon revealed themselves to be a school of piranhas.
"Piranhas?! In the sewer?!" Piscium cried, actually terrified this time.
Varis moved to draw his sword but Roko held out a hand to stop him. The piranhas quickly surrounded them but when one of them moved forward to bite at them it simply disappeared against the sanctuary's field.
"That's what I thought." Roko said as the piranhas continued to try and attack them only to disappear, "These waters aren't fit for an actual piranha. They're just magical constructs meant to try and stop us. But since they're magical, they disappear all the same against the sanctuary."
"Well that's convenient." Corissa smiled, "I guess they weren't prepared enough!"
"Yes but this also means they're aware of our efforts." Roko replied, "Keep your guard up."
"Oh! Okay!"
The team continued walking through the sewers, ignoring the piranhas as they uselessly tried to attack them. Eventually, they came to the first dead end. It looked pretty much the same as the last dead end just on the other side. Roko peered out around the edge of the sanctuary circle and waved his lantern around in front of the water. The light did catch onto something glittery in the dark so Roko put on the newly made clawshot and fired it into the water. The claw glided smoothly through the water, grabbed onto an object and pulled it close to the edge of the circle.
"That's a Sealith." Roko nodded, observing the blue stone shimmering with light in the claw, "Alright, let's return."
"You're not going to bring it inside the circle?" Corissa asked.
"I want to study its enchantment for clues." Roko explained as he continued holding the Sealith outside the edge of the circle, "It might be useful."
"True, it-" Corissa said but Varis was suddenly in motion, running forward and thrusting his hand into the water to catch a piranha that was trying to bite into Roko's claw. Varis pulled the piranha into the circle, destroying it before reaching back out into the water, holding his hand over the claw as he casted a spell to cover the claw in a protective layer of ice.
"Nice save, Varis." Roko said, "Can't let this stone get stolen or let this claw get damaged."
"You'd better now." Piscium frowned.
"Let's head back." Roko nodded, "But uhh...my arm is getting kind of tired. Varis, can you hold this?"
With Varis protecting the claw and the gem, the second expedition team made it back to M83 with little difficulty. The piranhas caught onto their plan real quick and tried to attack the claw as much as they could but they couldn't get through the protective ice that Varis maintained over the claw. When they came close to the base, Roko called for an electric blast to remove all the piranhas before they finally arrived and Azimuth passed a prepared jar for Varis to drop the Sealith into. Still, to make sure it didn't get disenchanted, Roko held the jar as the rest climbed back up into the base. Then, with a rope attached to his waist, Corissa released the sanctuary spell so Roko could get pulled back inside, wet but with an enchanted Sealith in his hands.
"I'm going to need another bath." Roko coughed up some water as he sat on the foyer, soaked to his bones.
"You didn't need to grab an enchanted Sealith." Azimuth smirked.
"I need every bit of information I can." Roko said as he accepted a towel from Aranea, "And because of that, I'll need someone to take care of the Sealith removal while I'm busy. There's still at least 18 left."
"That's easy enough." Azimuth nodded, "We have plenty of people who can handle it so long as Corissa's able to let them explore. And someone's around to protect them in case of any danger."
"Varis will always be there to protect Corissa." Roko explained, "So I wouldn't be worried even if they shoved an entire shark down there to attack us."
"Why's such a strong knight tied to such a dainty princess?"
"Normally people are asking what such a suspicious knight is doing with such a beautiful woman."
"People say that?"
"Her own parents say that."
"Damn."
"She didn't need to know that!" Corissa yelped.
"Hey, if someone so reliable is with you, you can probably do all this by yourselves right?" Azimuth asked.
"I wouldn't suggest that." Roko replied, "Corissa gets lonely easily."
"No I don't!" Corissa protested.
"Are you sure you can do this?" Azimuth frowned.
"I can do it at anytime!" Corissa cried, "Though it might cut into my cooking time."
"Just don't overwork yourself then." Roko said.
"I don't need to hear that from you." Corissa stuck her tongue out at Roko.
"True." Roko said as he stood up, "Now, it's time for me to do my part."
The enchanted Sealith was a truly unusual piece. The jar was already overflowing with water by the time Roko brought it to his room. He had to empty it into the tub where it soon filled up and out through the drainage hole. Resigned to the fact that Roko will probably be taking baths for a while, he went to work on the enchantment. A simple analyze spell revealed a magical seal that looked complex but was ultimately a water generation spell. The complex part came from multitude of enhancement spells woven into its designs. It was made of water spells layered on top of each other. It was crude, simple and a dangerous way of enhancing the output of an enchantment. Yes, two water spells would produce more water than one but in enchantment, if the pieces clashed for room with each other it would result in the destruction of the vessel when it was turned on. It wouldn't explode or put the enchanter in any danger, it would just cause the Sealith to crack and split apart as the spells' functional pathways collided with each other. From what Roko learned with the elves, there were more safe and reliable ways of pulling a higher output from a simple enchantment. Methods that were taught to every novice enchanters. That Sirius would use such a method instead either meant that whoever enchanted this didn't particularly care about their task...or they were even worse than a novice. There was a hint of skill in this though. That they went for such a brute force method of enchantment and presumably succeeded with this type of enchantment for all 20 Sealiths meant the enchanter may be ill informed but perhaps had a bit of talent to balance it out. But from what Roko saw of the alchemical lab, there should be plenty of knowledgeable people who could forge a better enchantment for these Sealiths. This didn't make any sense. Maybe Roko was missing something? Perhaps some physical property of this Sealith?
So Roko changed his focus from magical dissection to geological studies. Not that there were a lot of geological books in the rebellion. Going to the local library didn't yield any good results either as...well there were no libraries remaining after Sirius was done with this city. There was a bookstore but the books there weren't particularly in depth for any subjects. Still, Aranea did seem to enjoy visiting it so he made a note to bring her there once a week. Especially when the shopkeeper was nice enough to give Aranea some free books for being so cute. In the end, Roko had to go to Piscium for more information which ended up with him pestering the poor merchant with questions so he just ordered a few books for Roko so he could adore Corissa in peace. These books contained a lot more information which Roko slowly absorbed only to find out...most of them were useless. Sure there were a lot more details to Sealith and how their composition forms and unique qualities that gives them but all that told him...was that for what unique enchanting properties the Sealiths had, none of them accounted for the layering method used in the captured Sealith.
A bit of a waste but the due diligence did hint towards some interesting conclusions. If the skill of the alchemists at Min al Az'al were anything to go on, with their strains of poisons and alchemical projects like the presumed gargoyle homonculi, any enchanter, if they were of equal quality, would not have chosen this low skill method of enchanting. So either there were no enchanters that Sirius could go to, which seemed unlikely given Sirius' merchant connections, or...these enchantments were just done by someone of a much lower skill level. Something that, according to Azimuth, Sirius would not have allowed if he was aware of the problem. Which hinted...at an accomplice. Someone that's been assisting Sirius in his fight against the Earthbounds that had Sirius' resources but not his support. A soft confirmation of Alphard's suspicions though it wasn't like Roko had any particular doubts about Alphard's theory to begin with. But this...scenario… Roko's baseless assumptions were only backed by a strange...feeling. But it stuck persistently in his mind as an odd sort of confidence. So he went off to consult an expert. And boy was he angry when he found her.
"Hey."
"Hey..." Corissa answered from her bed, a tad embarrassed at her situation.
"So..." Roko crossed his arms, "What have we learned?"
"I don't know." Corissa smiled back mischievously, "I've actually been thinking I should get back out there. We're almost done with the Sealiths you know."
"I specifically told you not to overwork yourself."
"What can I say, I had a great role model to learn from."
"You're just going to keep pinning this on me?"
"I mean, can I?"
Roko sighed again, "I bought you something to cheer you up."
"Aranea!" Corissa squealed as Roko bent down to pick up the small child and hand her over to the princess, "Yay! You know just how to make me feel better Roko!"
Aranea laid there like a dead fish, now quite used to being hugged like a plushy but still not happy with her situation.
"Now do you promise to take better care of yourself?"
"I don't know, do you?"
"You know nobody cares if I overwork myself but there's a veritable army of people who have been quite distressed over you overworking yourself so hard."
"There can't be that many."
"Our supporters over at Muldingirmus have been sending a lot of medical supplies. Even when it's not time for any resupplies. Someone even sent a massage chair. We have no idea how to power it with our current resources. Half the rebellion has started praying for your health so much so that it's starting to look like a cult. The other half is trying to line up outside your door to take care of you personally. Which Varis has been blocking all their dubious efforts. Lastly, even Helena, Momo and Kaguya are upset because the food quality has gone back down again after your break."
"O-Oh..." Corissa blinked, "I...didn't know it was so bad."
"Yeah. It's bad."
"I'm sorry..." Corissa said sadly, "I'll get better soon."
"Honestly, what were you thinking diving into the sewers for so long?"
"I-I wanted to get the sewer unflooded as soon as possible! It's not our fault that we got all the Sealiths close to us and we have to travel farther to find one! I was trying to average one Sealith recovered everyday!"
"And what about the days where you stayed down there to grab two or three and ended up having to rush your cooking duties?"
"I...but it was effective! We've gotten about 7 more Sealiths already and the water level has actually been lowered by a head length! I mean, the tunnels are still flooded but it's not completely flooded anymore!"
Roko sighed, "Are you at least feeling better now?"
"I'm...almost ready to return to work now..."
"Good. Now...I have something to ask you."
"O-Okay?"
"My research has unearthed the possibility that this plot going on right now might not be wholly Sirius' idea. The enchantment is shoddily done which Sirius has the resources to avoid doing. This points to this rain operation not being authorized by him as it doesn't feel like it has his support. This all points to a possible accomplice."
"I see..." Corissa nodded as she thought it over.
"My question is...is it him?"
"Who?"
"Him."
"Who?"
"You know who."
"...Alec?"
"Yes." Roko scowled, "That man."
Corissa laughed so hard that tears peaked out from the corners of her eyes.
"You really don't like him do you?" Corissa said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Could you answer the question please?" Roko sighed.
"Hmmm...I haven't been here long but...probably not." Corissa answered, "I mean, this doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd do. Besides, the last time we saw him he said his boss was overworking him so why would he be doing something without his boss' support now?"
"That's true." Roko nodded, "And I supposed that demon would've been able to enchant the Sealiths much more skillfully if it was them."
"There you go."
"Okay, good." Roko breathed a sigh of relief, "I didn't truly think he was involved but just in case I wanted to consult an expert."
"One day you'll have to tell me why you hate Alec so much."
"What's to tell, the evidence is apparent."