Chapter 111: Variable And Imprecise
Subject: Caim Location: Maliscade - Gate District - Protoflora: Envisioned Ecosystems
"Once I make more adjustments to the plant nursery, I think I can begin contributing to this shared pool of money, Caim," Novette concluded. "My darlings are growing beautifully. With your help, of course. So beautifully…"
She stared longingly at the first flourishflora plant, which was still growing strong. It was a surprising change, considering how little time had passed since they'd conducted the experiment with his Flourish Catalyst sourcetech.
"I personally think some of the money should go toward renting out a bigger space," Caim suggested. "Enough space for what I'm about to show you... and a little more for good measure. We're gonna need some room to grow."
He walked over to a free space where a heap of tools had been piled up. He thought for a moment, and then began hauling the tools away, moving them over to where Gwen had been working. If this succeeded, she wouldn't need the space anymore, and they could always move everything back if it didn't.
"Come over here, but stay behind me."
Caim didn’t know how much space this new Catalyst variant needed. He also didn't know if there were any risks involved, or whether he was overthinking it.
Creation Catalyst… how did it go again?
Focusing intently, he brought the description of the sourcetech variant to the forefront of his mind. He remembered that this kind of system worked off of the the SLATE to access the information. That was just one of the SLATE's many functions functions.
Supposedly. Even Vera didn't seem to completely know. As much as he despised their relationship, perhaps meeting another so-called Orchestrator would shed some light on the limits of Orchestrator capability.
"Creation Catalyst is the artisan’s ultimate tool. Feed it resources, knowledge, and time, and it will unlock a world of opportunity. The host must assign the 'Artisan' tag to an individual to pass Creation rights to another, but the host themselves will retain administrative access."
Caim started the summon.
Slowly, a murky black ball settled into focus. It didn’t look anything like what Caim expected. Actually, he didn’t even know what to expect. Each of Vera’s powers were so very new to him.
He pointed at Gwen.
"Artisan."
If he concentrated, he could make out the "tag" when he looked at her. A tag appeared to occupy a different designation level from "ally", which was the most prominent status indicator when he looked at the two of them.
Neither label was entirely visual. Rather, imagining it that way helped his brain process the information. It was vaguely cerebral, but only so far as the sourcetech intercepted his senses to allow him access to the stream of information.
His brained worked off familiar constructs, like the virtual reality HUD from his homeworld. Unfortunately, there was a degree of variability in the pseudo-visual interpretations. Perception and mood states impacted the result.
Put plainly, sourcetech was variable and imprecise.
"Umm…"
Gwen looked confused.
"I'm not confident I can explain it well enough, but I’ve just marked you as a user of this tool here. You should be able to make things with it. It is called 'Creation Catalyst', or just 'Creation' for short, and it's a new spell I've mastered. Not the most creative name, but does it need to be?"
She cast a skeptical look his way, and then leaned back against the wall, rubbing her temples.
"A new spell. You learned another new spell while you were out fighting blightbeasts? Is that normal for mages? It isn't even useful in a festerfont, right?”
Novette took both of their empty mugs and placed them on a table before crossing her arms in a thinking pose.
"No, I suppose a mage doesn’t work like that, I don’t think. Caim is no normal mage, though. Where he walks, flourishflora bloom," she proclaimed, softly, like a religious devotee reciting verse.
He needed to nip whatever this was in the bud. Caim considered just telling the both of them the truth. He'd have to anyway.
"Wait, wait, wait… Just what kind of person do you think I am, Novette?"
She smiled innocently at him, like she’d said nothing unusual.
"If anything, he's going to be a major market disrupter in the future. That's my prediction," Gwen sighed.
He smiled.
"Gwen's focused on studying markets and making profits. Novette, you're obsessed with flourishflora. The two of you are starting to seem a little predictable. It's nice knowing what to expect."
"And what about you, Caim?" Novette asked.
"What about me?" he replied.
Gwen seemed satisfied with the question, like it was very "on point".
"What are you passionate about? You’ve shared so much of yourself to Gwen and I, but also not much at the same time… Do you understand what I'm asking? It’s hard to know what's most precious to you."
The merchant chimed in to elaborate.
"You want strength, blightsources, and profit. You want to know about flourishflora and you want to participate in general research. As a mage, you understandably want to increase the number of spells you can cast, as well as improve your mastery of the ones you have. Somewhat bizarrely, you care about certain social causes, you seem to want to help out the Guild's mission, and you're interested in so much more… Yeah, it’s really a lot, Caim," she added.
Gwen's list really put his world into perspective. He cared about so many things. His attention spread between them and flitted from one to the next. Each fresh encounter, or sometimes, trauma, gave him new ideas. What were others supposed to think?
It sounded like a lot, but anyone had multiple things they were interested in. He did wonder if he was being greedy. Maybe, because this world was somewhat more primitive than his homeworld, the people here didn't have the freedom to explore so many hobbies and subjects? Perhaps there were hobbies that people undertook out of necessity, especially in the villages beyond Maliscade's high walls.
Caim remembered that there were many villages, and that dangerous wild animals hunted travelers in the wilderness between them. He hadn't seen many animals, except docile mammals and insects on his walks to the festerfonts in the valley. This was a relatively safe location. In many ways, he'd been lucky to arrive here, and not out in the deep wilderness.
"I care about all of those things, some more than others, but… I guess, many are also a means to an end. I care about friends, family, and community. I want the people I care about to be safe, and I need money, strength, knowledge, people, and much more, just to create and sustain that safety."
Gwen didn’t react strongly, but she definitely narrowed her eyes at that last sentence. He waited for her to ask, but she didn’t. Rather than allow her to continue looking sad like this, he cut to the chase.
"You two belong in that category. Two others, too. Secondary are the people close to you all. Tertiary would have to be people everywhere who aren't harming anyone, and who need all the value that comes with being a part of an accepting community. I'm not so naive as to ignore that only people who bring value of the community could be taken in at first, nor so pragmatic as to ignore the good that we could do with the strengths we have. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
When neither Gwen nor Novette immediately responded to his admittedly confusing rant, Caim continued.
"I have no one else left in my life. That’s why I care so much about keeping the precious few newly made friendships strong. If you decide you don't want to be friend or family, that is fine. I'll simply look for others. Otherwise, there will be time to deeper our bonds. I truly hope that depth comes as a result of time passing and that the process isn't falsely expedited by desperation."
Novette traced the contours of a leaf on a plant beside her, deep in thought. It wasn’t labelled as a flourishflora, and Caim didn't really know any other specific varieties of vegetation here. He could mostly just admire her love for all flora. She was deep in thought, and it reminded Caim that she had been alive longer that most residents of the city. He considered that she must understand what he was getting at.
"You talk like you’ve experienced these things," she mumbled, refusing to make eye contact.
He took a deep breath and exhaled.
"You deserve the truth, so I’ll just say it. I have no reason to believe anyone I cared about in the past is still alive. In fact, I have strong reason to believe they are all dead. For various reasons, I lost contact with them, and I came here alone. I've travelled too far to attempt to reach out. I won't explain any more than that. Not yet."
Vera could have been lying when she told him his planet was gone. She didn't seem like the kind of entity that cared enough about insects like him to lie.
"You don’t have to," Gwen assured him. "I believe you…"