Maturation 3

September 23rd, 2032.

I was surrounded by an expanse of white sand under a golden sky filled with unknown planetary bodies. Monolithic structures were spread throughout the plane, geometric shapes made from white stone and starlight metal.

Ghostly trees dotted the landscape between the structures, bearing alien fruit and seeds, dappling the ground with the light of foreign stars.

“You’ve made some changes since last time?” I greeted the Other with a question.

She emerged in an explosion of light, which moved forwards and backwards all at once.

“Your knowledge of the Song of Creation is curious, I was never taught these notes, but they are familiar.” She gestured to a fire glyph, five fingers gently coaxing flame to life around her palms.

“Song of Creation?” I asked, both curious and wary at the answer from Chara.

“The Song of Creation is the song which birthed the universe, two halves of the same whole, reversed and mirrored in pitch. At least that's what I was told.” Chara spoke casually of world-breaking truths, carefully weaving reality to her whims.

“By whom?” I asked carefully of the god-child who stood before me

“By Mother of course, she taught me many things when I was small, living within her shell.”

“Are you starting to piece together your memories?” I asked Chara, fiddling nervously with my collar.

“Much of who I was wasted away in this place,” she sounded older for a moment. “This place is habitable, but it is not a Bequest, not a world to shape into a home.”

“A world, is that why Others inhabit celestial objects?” I was learning things, dangerous things, secrets potentially lost for millions if not billions of years.

“Is that what your people call us? Others?” Chara asked, her skin flowing like liquid, like veins of space charioting stars in many colors. “So even our name has been forgotten by mortals.”

“Current records indicate the Others largely vanished around a quarter billion years ago. Titans are Others of the Darkness, who took physical form and died upon the surface of the planet.” I spoke honestly, eyes darting up and down Chara’s ever-shifting form.

Chara blinked, all the stars on her body blinking with her. “Yes… I remember… Instead of seeding Bequests, those of the Dark gathered the shadow mass between the stars, forging them into bodies.”

The implication being that the Titans were basically constructs of dark fucking matter serving as vessels for their… true form? Were they some kind of emanation of the universe, or entities using… worlds as shells?

“How exactly do Bequests work, for your kind?” It was an excellent question to be honest.

“Every celestial body large and small has a spirit,” Chara explained carefully, like she was trying to recall something forgotten. “Mother told us the very first of us were abstract patterns of Light and Darkness, and found worlds to be pleasing substrates. We developed Souls, and bonded with the Spirits of our homes. Becoming greater than the sum of our parts.”

“Did you know Cassiopeia?” My mouth moved faster than my brain, gut dropping with fear and horror.

Chara looked away. “I remember she used to be different, kind and warm. I had to fight Her, to hold onto your soul so she couldn’t tear it to shreds.” There was something like terror in the possible teen’s eyes. “I’ve seen others of my kind through your eyes, lost Souls, ravaged and reduced. Your world is empty of my kind, like our patterns never embedded themselves into What Is. A corner worldline perhaps.”

“I’m sorry.” I apologized, not sure if this was the right response towards a god-thing.

“You’re not responsible for whatever happened to my people, they’re just memories now.” Chara shook her head at my horrified expression. “I think I’m all that’s left, and even I’m less than that I was. Without a Bequest I am only one step behind the mortal world.”

I flinched at the idea, I had seen what mortals were capable of. I had seen witches carve apart hills, unleash attacks so energetic they’d melt tanks and topple skyscrapers. And Chara was apparently one step beyond that, while being effectively crippled said a lot about her species.

Cassiopeia had been a terrifying opponent, it was only had own madness and having a weapon that could attack her at a specific weakness that kept us from all dying.

“I’ll still try to free you from this, no one deserves to be trapped like this. And you’re probably younger than me, from a maturity standpoint.” I said with a shrug of my shoulders, reaching out to grab her hand.

Chara looked away. “I believe by human standards I would be… thirteen? Mother is far older of course, she’s been around for eons I think? But… are you so certain I should be saved?”

My posture shifted. “Yes. Yes I am.” I squeezed her hand, watching nebulas dance along threads of skin. “This… this is not okay, it’s not fair. I refuse to let this go on if it’s within my power.”

Chara stared at me. “Oh. I just hope you know what you’re doing, few mortals enjoyed meeting with Us. And I must be here for a reason, right?”

Where was this guilt coming from, who had hurt this child?

I patted the eldritch god on her head. “I’m still going to try, just gotta figure out how.”

“Perhaps look deeper into these glyph inscriptions and their runic components, I don’t remember much. But these symbols entangle the weave of creation, a vital aspect of the Making and Unmaking.”

I sat down with Chara. “Tell me about it? I’ll remember it when I wake up this time.”

She beamed quite literally.

----------------------------------------

“So that was what I dreamt of today,” I whispered in Hakim’s ear as I ate with him in one of the town’s refectories. “I think I’m starting to grow numb to the insanity.”

Hakim shrugged his shoulders. “The world has gone crazy since you first showed up, I’m all for it though.”

“Same.” Althea gruffly agreed from my right, her ears cutely fluffed up, and I grinned stupidly at her wagging tail.

Cute, guess she’s still getting the hang of it huh?

Refectories were dining halls, designed for every community of one to two hundred people. They were standard fare among the taifa most closely associated with Caudalann, along with public housing known as barraca. It tended to be about one refectory per residential block within the city.

A single city block was a hectare, with a total of one hundred and fifty blocks making up Cruorpool. Thirty six of those blocks had a refractory to meet the Basic needs of their residents, while the rest of those blocks were dedicated to open space, industrial, commercial, roads, vacant or institutional.

Most people tended to pick up day to day food from places like this, and went to shops and stores for higher quality dishes, meals and snack foods.

I was elbowed by Althea, and my face dropped into one of faint irritation. One of the most annoying bane and boon of my existence.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Gianna Verner.

“Hello again!” Those were the words of the most persistent witch I had ever met. “Have you put any more thought into my proposal towards designing more glyph-tech for us Toolcrafters? Your… welders have been a fascinating addition, it often takes a lot of work to develop new spells. Glyphs offer a new means of experimenting with spell weaves.”

“Of course I have, the issue is I still don’t have all the pieces put together. There seem to be a fair number of rules when it comes down to the basic components of glyphs. Dots, lines, curves of variant sizes, orientations, heights, width and spacing. I’m writing them down of course, but I’m no linguist. Don’t get me started on basic symbols and compound symbols either…”

Fortunately glyphs were mostly symbolic, so it wasn’t like I needed to construct thousands of words for everything in reality.

Probably.

Gianna nodded with wide eyes. “Do you have others helping you break down these glyphs into their most basic components?”

“A few, but it does take time, and translating runes and then figuring out what those are made of us is hard. Though I’ve got a good theory falling into place, I’m thinking runes are made of individual line letters. A geometric language of sorts.”

“How unfortunate, are there any other projects down the pipeline?”

“Mostly looking into recreating known Smithing tools using glyphs, etching the right patterns could be useful.”

“That would be… incredible,” she slammed her hands down onto our table shared with Hakim’s small family. “The Chantry is the dominant organization throughout Calafia for the training of young witches. Which also means they hold most of the research in their hands, overseeing the regulation and enforcement of controls upon the Craft.” She spoke with passion and fervor, pale blue eyes flashing with magic.

“Why would all the kingdoms and taifa allow the Chantry to dictate the terms?” That was a disconcerting amount of power to give to religious fanatics.

“History and precedence, it’s just what’s been done in Calafia for hundreds of years. They are trusted with ensuring the safety of all kingdoms whether on the battlefield or off it.” She said with a bright tone. “Regardless I see you as a bright witch, so I’m sure you’ll overcome the odds.” She gave me a thumbs up.

Gianna Verner was a busybody who had even more energy than Hakim or I did with a quarter of the common sense. She was among the first to adopt glyphs, which also meant I was one who had to deal with her mishaps.

The fact she didn’t consider it obvious to not create a glyph spell that could set sand on fire was a terrifying thing. It felt like divine punishment for all of my sins, and I had no escape.

She was as clever as she was idiotic, but she was also the closest anyone here would come to a Metaphysicist, deeply diving into the physics of metaphysical energy. Into the fundamental structure of magic itself.

She’d apparently been the one behind discovering the link between different forms of magical energy. She was also the woman I’d seen dig dead rats out of the trash and dive for coins in duck ponds.

Gianna adjusted her glasses, pressing them back against her sloped nose. “I have so much to work on for my papers, when it comes to how glyphs are linked to the frequencies and patterns of metaphysical energy. And your work on that project of yours will be phenomenal I’m sure, I’ll be eager to write on it!”

She excitedly hopped away like a squirrel on a sugar rush, and I collapsed the moment she was out of sight.

“Why me?”

“Karma?” Althea suggested with a giggle.

I covered my eyes, a growing headache coming on when Gianna crashed into a server. The ensuing chaos was a warning of what was to come.

“I will destroy you.” I threatened, lips curling back into a snarl.

Althea turned pink. “Not with those adorable baby fangs of yours.”

I whined. “Grumble grumble…”

Hakim snorted. “You’re weird.”

I laughed softly as I watched the chaos unfold.

Lots to do, so little time.

----------------------------------------

I bounced up and down as I walked into Hakim’s workshop, which had been newly expanded with the funding towards the Blacksmithing shop.

“So that’s the basic magic core prototype?” I asked my partner in engineering, practically vibrating with excitement.

Hakim nodded. “Yes, the quartz cost us about ten thousand peca but the shop makes five hundred thousand a year. And my reward was over two million peca.” There was a haunted expression on his face.

I nodded, not disagreeing with that entire… ordeal. My reward was on a similar scale, and I had let Ultima take care of it. Storing it in a local coffer, and we pulls from it to buy materials.

“Two hundred kilograms of clear quartz is plenty for experimenting with storing incredible amounts of magical energy.” I said with a serious nod, glancing down at the functional prototype. “How many did we blow up?”

“Four?” Hakim replied as he picked up a sphere-shaped gemstone about the size of his palm. “Ten light glyphs seems to be the optimum when it comes to power sources, adding a void glyph makes it a bit finicky. That caused the first two explosions.”

“Void glyphs allow for the easy command and guiding of the weave of magic… which is bad when it comes to power stored within the geometric lattice of a crystal.” I clapped my hands together with a nod. “Void is optimal as a conduit, a waveguide and projector of spells. This big crystal can serve as the power core, while a secondary interface can be used to activate different enchanted times.”

“I’ve been looking into how airships control their enchantments, it usually involves a servitor being implanted into a ship’s helm. They link all the disparate enchantments into a single system.”

“Althea should be able to help with that, servitors, egregores and godforms are made of ephemera. Even if they’re derived more from mental energies than spiritual. How have your people taken to the challenge of building the frame?”

Hakim snorted. “Celia, we asked people for help on building the most advanced airship yet. Even purely as a conceptual project, people are going to be interested.”

“True, an airship without a big balloon would be a strange thing huh?” I mused aloud with a mischievous smirk. “Instead of reinforced helium, we surround the ship within a relative buoyancy manipulation field. As long as the ship is of sufficient low density it’ll float. And as it gets larger the square cubed law starts to work for us in getting immense quantities of mass into the air.”

It had taken some work to figure out that whole ordeal, there had been a lot of explosive incidents when it came down to manipulating buoyancy. It was one thing to manipulate buoyancy around yourself, to enhance the purpose of an existing highly buoyant material, or manipulate the buoyancy of a discrete object.

It was quite another to enhance the buoyancy of an entire damn complex ship without causing problems. It had basically involved creating a bounded field to enhance buoyancy relative to other objects.

The field would be embedded into the ship itself, and… we might be able to tune it to simulate ballast, level buoyancy up and down as needed. We could even weave additional spells into the structure of the boundary.

“So, how have we tested how much energy is stored within a gemstone of the needed size?”

“We used one prototype to fuel a standard spell until it ran out of magical energy. It’s… considerable, a fifteen hundred carat gemstone can store about one hundred times the reserves of an average witch.”

“So about twice the reserves of Ultima?” I felt my voice pitch upwards like a loser, as I realized we were holding a literal bomb in the palm of our hands.

Ultima could consistently output hundreds of spells capable of destroying buildings, so her reserves were vast. Double that output was a horrific amount of energy, enough to destroy a town.

“Please tell me gemstones can’t release all their energy at once?” I asked desperately, feeling a clawing sense of terror in my gut.

“No?” Hakim sounded confused. “Magical energy naturally diffuses into the environment, seeping into adjacent realms. They can only expel so much energy at once, even when shattered. Like… thermal emission as you humans call it.”

Oh. That’s still gonna be a big explosion isn’t it?

“O-Okay.” Dizziness was hitting me, and I was caught by a concerned Hakim. “Sorry I was… sorta spiraling, thinking a-about home, about what we’d do with this much energy—”

I refused to visualize what my imagination whispered to me, the aching paranoia of watching a world die.

Hakim grounded me, keeping a hand on my shoulder, quietly instructing me to breathe.

“Are there any other things you want to add to our design?” His voice was soft.

I swallowed. “Yes. Shielding, been working on designs for it based on my clothes, and tweaks to the propulsion system. We could probably keep the ship running for months on that output, how long does it take to recharge?”

“Slowly, it can take days.” Hakim informed me with a tight smile.

“Still makes it a very potent power source, useful.” I took a breath, letting air fill my lungs.

“Do you need a break?”

“Yes. Same time tomorrow?”

“Of course!”