Joe and the other two left the library to head towards the temples. Joe originally started leading them towards the temples in the outer district but then realized that there were likely ones available to those in the inner city as well, and instead asked for the librarian to lead.
“Could you guide us to the closest temple? I do not know the city well.”
“Certainly. We should head this way. It’s the closest temple.”
“Only one temple?”
“Huh? Oh, you mean the plaza? The temple plaza is in the outer city. The inner city typically has temples scattered throughout the city.”
Joe acknowledged the librarian’s statement but was confused about why the temples would be scattered around the inner city so he began asking the librarian for an explanation. This proved to confuse the librarian as well, and he confessed to be uncertain. They then fell into small talk as they walked towards the temple, enjoying each other’s company while the librarian bounced in barely contained excitement.
About half way through their trip, the man stopped at another store, picking up a small crystal, a bit different from what Joe was used to seeing. It was constructed oddly, with some kind of monster core deep in the center with a crystalline structure surrounding. Inside the crystalline structure, traceries of various colors delved through it all in a mangled mess. Joe couldn’t make heads nor tails of it and really thought it was a simple result of whatever organic or natural process created it. The core at the center, however, seemed to be a monster core, and that had Joe wondering deeply.
“What is that?” Joe asked with curiousity.
“Oh… a job memory crystal.”
“Oh? What does it do?”
“It takes the job of an individual. I will use it to take my merchant job and then sell it to any who seeks growth in the merchant line.”
Joe paused at that, and raised an eyebrow, “You can… download your job into a core?”
The man nodded happily, “Yes. I will be able to sell it and make some money from it, hopefully.”
Joe glanced around the shop, “All these cores hold jobs?”
“Hmm? No… over there are cores for memories. Others for dao. Some can be used to hold just about anything you wish?”
Joe began to grin, “Memory cores?”
The man’s excitement dimmed and he grew concerned, “You have bad memories, then?”
Joe’s grin quickly shifted to a frown, “Some? Why?”
The man nodded, “The memory cores are excellent for taking bad memories.”
Joe’s frown worsened, “Taking bad memories?”
Kilniara leaned forward and whispered, albeit not quietly enough to hide it from the soon to be librarian, “Memory cores do capture memories, but similar to the man’s job memory crystal, it will take all from you. Memory crystals take the memory, job crystals take the job.”
Joe frowned, confusion causing him to cock his head to the side, “Take the memory? The job?”
“Mmm.”
“But, what does that mean?”
Kilniara smiled, “Many use it for bad memories. It takes the memory and you will no longer be burdened with it. For the job, it takes the job and you will lose it.”
“I would forget … whatever I put into the memory core?”
She nodded, “You would.”
“I… that doesn’t seem like a good thing?”
She smiled, “No. There are uses for it. Simple messages are excellent. Some other things as well.”
Joe frowned, “How so? Wouldn’t you forget you sent the message?”
She shook her head, “Only the message, not sending it. And it is easy enough to speak the message to the memory core and then have a friend repeat the message to you so you do not forget. Some are wise and prepare the message carefully before hand, memorizing it then placing it as a separate memory before sending the memory of actually speaking it to the memory core.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Joe’s confusion began to take on a bit of horror at this, “Your memory of using the memory core is lost?”
“In a message, often, yes, for the message is that memory saved to the memory crystal. In an old memory, then simply the old memory is lost.”
“I… I…” Joe found himself so at a loss he couldn’t really think of anything to say before suddenly latching onto what the man had been doing in buying a job memory crystal.
“Then you will lose your merchant job?”
The man smiled, “Do not worry. I truly am happy with the librarian job. It will be… wonderful. I will be one of the first!”
Joe tried to smile, joining the man’s excitement, but could only feel horror at what the man would lose, “You will lose all your memories of being a merchant?”
“Hmm… of the job, yes. But not of my life and daily interactions.”
Joe still wasn’t reassured but hid his horror behind a fake smile and a nod, “Then, if you are happy.”
“Quite so!”
Joe’s smile was more genuine this time as he lead the way out of the shop but fell silent. The man contained his excitement enough to engage in a decent conversation, but Joe found it difficult to join the man in his joy, regardless of his efforts. Despite that, Joe was able to remain polite enough not to dampen the mood, allowing the man his joy at a new job and soon Joe guided the conversation into the man’s passion, storytelling. Deep in the middle of a passionate exploration of his dream pursuit, they came upon the temple and the librarian led them into the temple quickly.
As they entered the temple, Joe turned to the librarian, “Do you want to use the crystal in the temple in front of the priests?”
The librarian stopped at that then shrugged and continued into the temple but took a hard left into a corner of the small temple. The temples here, unlike those out in the outer city, were smaller and more intimate, but of much higher quality and beauty. As he’d walked up to the temple, the outside had been a bit more ornately decorated with some average looking statues and murals, but inside was a festival of color and distracting patterned murals and structures. There were no statues inside, but the beauty of the patterned designs were undeniable. It was obvious a lot of work and passion was devoted to making the temple an awesome place of beauty and cultural meaning. It was also a place for the wealthy, as well.
The corner that the librarian led them was rather empty of most others as the priests and clergy of the temple were at the other end and the temple was empty of any petitioners. The man turned at that point and bowed his head.
“I can use the crystal here, if that would be OK?”
Joe shrugged and nodded, handing the job crystal to the man, “Sure, if you don’t mind doing it here.”
The man smiled at that and eagerly accepted the crystal before grasping it and holding it carefully in his hand. He then held it up to his heart, pressing it against his chest. When he did so, a small tickle vibrated in the back of Joe’s mind, somehow deep in his chest. It took Joe some time to understand what was happening as he poked at the ticklish feeling for a bit before he realized he was sensing the librarian emitting mana. Why is it so … ticklish feeling? I felt the other guards checking my medallion and it wasn’t so… It was like a wash, or a wave of cooling but now it’s like a… ooh! He’s emitting tiny amounts of mana then?
The librarian continued emitting mana at a very slow and controlled manner before lifting it incredibly slowly upwards while still emitting mana towards it. The first time didn’t seem to work or something had failed and the librarian muttered angrily under his breath bringing the crystal back to his chest. The ticklish feeling of tiny amounts of mana ended until he put it back against his chest, took a deep breath, and began again.
Once again, the ticklish feeling began and the librarian slowly the lifted crystal upwards, pressing it even closer against his body as it went up. Once it came up past his chest towards his neck, he pulled it away from his skin and Joe could see the tiny erratic stream of mana expressing outwards. It was thin and incredibly low flow, for lack of a better description, and the spray erratically played back and forth across the whole crystal, not aimed correctly with it sometimes pointing to far up or not moving with the speed necessary of the moving crystal and being left behind. The mana stream seemed to be pretty well aimed along the horizontal axis, but it was the movement of the crystal upwards that disrupted the correct placement of the mana stream at the crystal.
A few times, Joe wanted to warn or give advice as he watched the librarian struggle to keep his mana stream on the crystal, but his intense concentration kept Joe from interrupting. After a minute or two, he was finally able to get it up past his nose and settle it on his forehead, pressing it firmly against it. While the librarian seemed to completely relax at that moment, he didn’t stop his mana flow. He did finely tune the aim of his mana stream so that it struck the crystal almost dead center, before he somehow seemed to lock the direction of his mana stream so that it never wavered anymore. Joe found that tidbit interesting, but again, did not wish to interrupt the librarian therefore continued to watch.
After taking a few seconds to release his stress then concentrate, the ticklish feeling of mana emission suddenly flared and Joe felt the wave of mana emission wash over him. While he wasn’t able to see the stream of mana emitting from the librarian, it was obvious he’d opened the hose, so to speak, and just flushed out his mana in a rush. The crystal seemed to have a sympathetic reaction, the entire thing bonging like a large bell, struck, before a spherical wave of mana erupted outwards before morphing, somehow, in a rushing wave like liquid wash towards the mana being emitted by the librarian and replying with its own mana stream back into the librarian.
With this rushing mana eruption returned, it flooded into and through the man’s forehead and disappeared from view, although Joe could still feel the effect of mana emission occurring and the man had frozen in place, vibrating as whatever was happening continued. The mana continued rushing from the crystal for another minute or two although Joe could no longer see it. Finally, the event came to an end, and Joe watched with a bit of surprise as the crystal in the librarians hands crumbled to dust then literal nothingness. Somehow, the crystal was vaporized, either transforming into a gas or ground down to literal nothingness. While Joe was curious, he had no desire to sniff gaseous or atomized crystal. It just didn’t seem healthy, whichever one proved to be true.
The librarian seemed to collapse inward when the mana emission ended slightly before the crystal atomized. His hands dropped to his knees and he seemed unconcerned with the effects of the annihilated crystal. He gasped a few times, taking in deep breaths, which only increased Joe’s concern, until he finally stood with a bright smile, obviously happy with the result.