4th Light beneath the twelfth Moon

3761 Cycles beyond the Dark

722 Years after the Repentance

Entry: 1/055

Dear self,

The dreamscape is losing more of its dreamlike quality. The illusory world is gaining texture and substance. Likely from an unintentional effect the dreamcatcher has on this place. When you release a lot of power into a construct like the dreamscape without a direct way to control that power it tends to gather in things external to yourself. Just amplifying your power always has a chance of reducing your total puissance and control instead of enhancing your effectiveness.

The big tree grew still wider and seems to be bloating in its centre. It resembles a pear in shape more than any normal tree you might imagine. Its surface is rough and marked by swirling patterns of flaking bark that might draw your hand as it does your eye. None of it protrudes enough for you to climb while grasping them, but they make leaning on the tree an uncomfortable affair. Physical sensation is now also less muted within the dream as it was before, and everything seems more tangible in every way if you pay them any mind at all.

Vamera has brightened in the dream. Little sparkles of light seem to have separated off her and are now circling the branches of the big tree, which is the only reason you might even see the rich colour that the wood has gained. If you had experienced the dream before it would have seemed to you as if a fog lay across the landscape and the world was dimmed. Even vivid dreams rarely seem fully substantial.

No one came to the shop today, so I worked in the garden more than usual today. We usually go about other things around the property in any case, letting the domain magic surrounding the house inform us of anyone approaching, but going back and forth between the garden and the shop takes time and takes me out of the flow of a task even if helping someone in the shop hadn’t taken any time at all.

We had a patch of Bubbleshil inure itself to the winter essence this year. It always happens at least partially during this season, but it developed beautifully and now it has crystal frost threading throughout every stem and leaf without a touch of green visible. I might try experimenting with it to see if potions made from it will have different effects to normal Bubbleshil. It would usually just cause hiccups if it wasn’t altered with other magical essences but with frost already interwoven I don’t know what might become of it.

A troupe of sprites flew by me as I was working in the garden. There were perhaps fifty of them, almost all frost sprites, and being trailed with a few barely visible pixies dancing flurries in the wind. For some reason looking at all that natural beauty today prompted me to send a request to the Rangers Guild with a description of that big tree I my dreamscape. I might be taking for granted how significant it might be, or it might be nothing more than a common tree worth only a passing interest. Mother always says you should learn from your surrounding wherever you observe them.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I worked on the Rift Foil in the evasion cloak today. Transmuting the leaves with charmed mercury was a simple process in theory. I practice it is dangerous if anything disrupts the material charm and lets poisonous quicksilver loose. Magical materials are always charmed during collection as a crucial part of what makes them useful, but mercury specifically ahs a strengthened charm for holding the liquid metal in a single mass. I move it around by letting the mercury stick to a cantrip I use for handling magical materials and keep it far away from any children. We don’t even let Anora get to it.

Mercury is widely used in various transmutation works, since its malleable nature is well suited to changing its properties and with a little sympathy changing the properties of any other material. It was especially effective in the case of the silvery Rift Foil. In this case I am glad the working consumes its material component.

Afterwards I had Tori tell me what it looked like in terms of colours and entertained him by figuring out how to change the colours in interesting patterns. I usually extract the essence of an appearance when I bother to focus on how something looks, but for the cloak I wanted to have it tied to intention to have it be more dynamic in adapting to the user’s needs.

Channelling Tori’s intent helped me make the item better at interpreting its user’s wishes in the same way I taught it by wearing it and running around yesterday. It now seems to be able to turn a few extremely vibrant colours, which are counter productive for most uses of an evasion cloak usually, but I can use how it adapts those colours to figure out how to make colours that make it less visually apparent later on. I can now change the colours and only need to control what colours and patterns for it to change to.

Instead of working on the joint movements for the doll, I decided to work a little on its appearance, since I had been working on appearance for the cloak today and I was in the correct mindset. The doll at first was very crude, merely being pieces of wood whittled into the general proportion of limbs and attached together through some flexible joints.

None of us are artisans to any extent, so we normally take in objects made by others to enchant. But since I had some talent with glamours we began rafting the appearance of the items with glamour magic instead. It can take some effort, but I can easily make something appear like what an artisan might make using essences and imagination and make it mostly permanent.

A well woven glamour is almost indistinguishable from true physical alteration except for the aura and sometimes weird interactions with illusory perception. It also means that a lot of our items appear drained of all colour except for black and white, the ones that don’t need to care about what they look like that is.

I gave the doll a roughly woman appearance. The hair didn’t turn out as well as I hoped and seemed too waifish. I am experienced enough with glamours that changing one for me is easier than making one, so I mostly did it as a rough work for today before I go into being well formed. I find it easier to give items a good appearance if I’ve already given them a rough appearance underneath from which to work from. It gives me an outline from which to craft the details without worrying about the overall proportions and the holistic effect.

Hope we fare well.

Regards,

Me.

~*M*~