Pebl felt… odd. More accurately, Pebl felt. This was a New Thing, not unlike Being Alive, or Casting Spells. Spark, though it seemed familiar now, was something Pebl had only done for a few days. For the million days before, and the billion before that, Pebl had sat in blissful ignorance of such things as “motion” or “time”. But NO. That wasn’t good enough for Kraant, Magus of Life. No, Kraant had to go and make Pebl a familiar. That’s right, Pebl, not Peblus Magnificus. It was its own, um. Man. Rock. Thing. It was its own thing!

Spark felt familiar, as a natural expression of the foreign Fire Aspect. It expelled the foreign influence and made a little [poof] of Fire. The next spell, Dampen, was a bit more difficult. Void was the essential lack of Aspect, and yet, it was an Aspect all its own. It represented the void, the space between electrons and nuclei, the weak nuclear force that maintained the tiniest distance between quarks. Void was nothing, and it was only by multiplying and releasing the concept of nothingness that Pebl could cast the spell. But that wasn’t too bad, right? It was the difference between pushing out the foreign influence, and expanding the internal force. They were pretty much opposite, so they were kind of related. Right?

Then Pebl got introduced to Water and Wood. Or rather, it’d felt Water, but it understood Water. Water came from the sky, and cooled things, made them simpler and more uniform. It might dissolve salt, but that salt would then move everywhere the water did. It would combine with, and absorb, anything submerged within it for a long enough period.

Wood was a little different. Wood was its own thing, and closely related to Life. Life was a new concept, still, to Pebl. Life was the force that cause Change, and Metal tended to resist such things by nature. A rock was mostly Metal Aspect, with a few minor influences, but Life was something else- and Wood something even more else. Wood was creeping, moving, growing, but all with the furtive slowness of a long-haul survivalist. Wood versus Life was like the tides versus a tsunami- constant, solid, and it’s not the tsunami that changes coastlines… usually.

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It was too much, too fast. Pebl wasn’t sure how to think, or what to think, or what thinking was. Pebl simply knew that this was Too Much. So, at the earliest opportunity afforded it by its master, it released Summon Bees. This was interesting! Life was created through the usage of Wood mana! This bore some thought, probably a century or two at least…

No! Cast Dampen, Spark, Splash, use everything!

And it never really let up. Use Everything became the name of the game. Hardly had Pebl absorbed an element before it was used in combat, and the poor thing struggled to keep up. It maintained a positive attitude, and hoped only that everyone would appreciate it for its hard work. It began to sense a shift in the attitude of its compatriots- that’s right! Plural!- and recognized it as something good that it was doing. It made people happier! That’s a plus, right?

Well, maybe not. Maybe happiness was a delusion of the flesh-bound creatures with whom it made its acquaintance. Maybe flesh was weak, inherently, and nothing to be praised, but rather something to be pruned. Maybe every living soul should spend some time, a couple hundred years, as a stone and that would eliminate the rash, hostile environment that led to such usage of magic. Maybe conflict was a weakness of the meat, not of the mind. Who knew? Pebl hadn’t hated anything in its life, and it was happy. Perhaps that was how things should be.

But now, what’s this? Pebl feels a thousand things changing slightly, or rather, being changed. It feels the touch of one, no two, no… eight souls, and a few things that can only sort of be described in even that alien term, ‘soul’. It’s molded, adapted, modified, and suddenly, released. Pebl is a Thing, now, an entity unto itself. Pebl exists as an Eight-fold Path Divine Gem, and it has opinions, and feelings, and a connection to the living souls around it. Mostly, of course, to its Master, Kraant. It is not happy about this connection, but what can it do?

Nothing. It can do nothing… yet.