The purpose of life

Years came and passed while the lone hairpin lay in her beautiful case, thinking, examining, forming theories and following her own ideas and conclusions. The outside became less and less important as she found ever new things in her case to think about. Maybe, once she understood everything inside, she would find a way outside, but while there were new things to be discovered inside…maybe, she thought, she was inside because she had yet to find whatever clues had been laid all around her. And there were so many once one cared to look.

Metal, she had deduced, was different from jewels.

As she had yet to see two metals of the same type she could not draw definite conclusions, but the bits of Iron around the case she had found with her mana feeler gave her hints. They held the box together, hidden behind the soft cloth all around her.

The jewels and their relationship to this mana energy – another mystery she had just recently noticed – were more like the jade than the metal and the cloth in any case.

Said cloth was of the same material as the string that held the beads, smooth, cool silk that flowed when she moved the folds.

The material that was all around her turned out to be wood. It had an interesting structure, with harder and softer parts that felt different in many ways. But it was warmer than any of the other materials around her. There was more life in it, too. The feeling of that border soothed her, but at the same time it made her realize that it was this wood that kept her feelers from stretching to the outside. The mana inside it.

Her magic went through iron and silk, but not the wood.

She was still pondering every new thing she found. Really, she would have thought that she would have trouble finding new things to think about, especially since there was a very limited amount of things in this small bit of the outside. But it was the opposite. The more she understood the more questions turned up, each one worthy of her consideration.

She found that metal could hold Mana, but not as well as jewels. She still had a lot to think about before she could find out why that was. Silk could hold Mana as well, a lot even, but it dissipated quickly. She did not know why that was either. Or why silk was essentially stronger than anything except the hard faceted jewels she could not name. She was wondering where this wood came from, why silk and wood both held hints of life, but reacted to Mana so differently. Jewels and metal held no life, but while steel held a decent amount of mana and was very strong and durable, jewels could store Mana without losing any. Yet while she was clearly alive she did not hold life energy, like the iron was free of it. And while iron and steel were very similar to her feelers even a little mana could break the iron. She produced energy, but neither the wood nor the iron of the box did apparently. The mana in the wood was losing coherence, the curious structure the mana formed frayed.

These and many more facts and questions kept turning up after each new discovery. She inspected everything and pondered everything. And as the years went by she grew ever smarter, ever wiser, ever more strong willed, ever more patient and, though she barely noticed, her mana grew ever more powerful. Her steel became harder, smoother, more flexible, her jade more mysterious and the small, delicately shaped yellow diamonds at the ends of the three beads grew ever purer.

Lord Yukiro of the Crane Clan blew the dust off a dark little case made of cherry wood. It was carved delicately and of superior quality, but had suffered a bit from neglect. Some warm water and oil to polish it and it would be good as new. The enchantment on it was apparently pretty good, too.

“Cherry wood case, probably for jewelry, with bird carvings on it.” He called out.

A little man in simple woolen clothing ran a finger down the list, squinting his eyes to read in the dim light of the storage room. After a few moments he had it.

“A hairpin, yes. Commissioned by your great-grandfather as a gift for his first wife upon the birth of their first child. The child, a girl, was stillborn and the woman had no other children so it has never been used.” Almond shaped dark brown eyes flittered to the young man in expensive, but obviously somewhat older silk clothing. “Steel, jade and yellow diamonds. Simple design, very elegant, suitable for a rich but lesser noble lady to wear for special occasions.”

The young noble whose financial situation appeared to be not as favorable as he would have liked looked at the man impatiently. “So? Will it sell?”

There was no hesitation in the nod. “Depending on who shows interest this piece might sell very well. As you know even small yellow diamonds are exceedingly rare and valuable, hard to cut as well. If what this says about the design is true it might sell very well indeed, especially if we can find out which craftsman produced the piece. In addition it is nearly a century old, coupled with the fact that nobody has ever worn it that might drive up the price, as well, as long as you leave out the facts about why it was never worn.”

“I assume it will not hurt my honor as much as selling my old wardrobe or swords would.” The noble sighed heavily. “Have a jeweler look this thing over and get me an estimate.” Handing the case off to the simply dressed secretary type he pulled out the next box from the shelf.

“Dark oak boy, no carvings. A heavy iron lock but no key in sight.” Lord Yukiro said, looking this new object over. To pay his debts he would have to raid these rooms. Investing too much in losing armies simply was not good strategy. Unfortunately his father, who had led said army to their doom, had died with it and made dealing with the aftermath his heir’s problem.

She, to her surprise, had found after long days of trying things that she could call up a blue box that showed her ‘stats’ after she had lost count. Every time she gained these stats the numbers in the boxes changed, but not only the numbers. Durability, mana and her ‘skills’ changed as well.

Status WindowName:noneAlignment:noneRace:HairpinGender:femaleTitlesEmbarrassing proof of bad aimFame:0Infamy:0-Health:2 750 / 2 750Mana:126 685 / 126 685-Vitality:275Willpower:12 179Intelligence:9 745Wisdom:4 861Leadership:0Luck:-30-Attack:24,4(p)/5 934,22(m)Defense:12 846Elemental ResistancesFire:500Water:500Wind:500Earth:20Light:0Darkness:0

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Her mana was obviously her intelligence times 13 though that ratio had started at 5 times her Intelligence and was rising. Her wisdom helped regenerate at a wisdom/100 per minute speed. The physical resistance was a mix of mana, her material and her vitality though she didn’t really understand the principles there yet.

To her surprise her magic attack seemed to be her Intelligence times 0.05 (=487,25) and then apparently that number times her willpower/1000. Her physical attack was merely based on the fact that she was a somewhat pointy object, so 2 times her willpower/1000.

Her resistances were rather curious, but she did not understand what those were about either. There was a second window she could call. A simpler one.

Valuable HairpinType:HairpinDurability:2 750 / 2 750Quality:1 000A Valuable, elegant hairpin made of steel, jade and yellow diamond. It is beautiful, durable and of great quality, made by a skilled craftsman. This hairpin is ideal to display good taste and wealth for a noble lady.

She was not certain what the second window meant at all. Though she now knew she was a hairpin she had no idea what hair was, or what a hairpin was supposed to be for. She did not know what craftsmen or ladies were and was puzzled by the words that described her. Was she a good hairpin? Or a bad one? What was the purpose of a hairpin? Displaying good taste and wealth was apparently what her purpose was supposed to be, but she had no idea how to do it. Maybe she was simply not good enough to fulfill this purpose yet and that was why she was waiting inside this box?

For what felt like the thousandth time she steeled her resolve and tried finding more facts, until she knew everything about herself and this box. Maybe once she had mastered it she would be worthy of finding out what the outside held.

The box opened unexpectedly. She could feel the foreign elements in the air on the inside. She almost died of curiosity, but she held her feelers inside herself as she waited for something else to happen. She wanted out, but what if some rash action proved to the entities of outside that she was not worthy? Or maybe her failure to act would?

Giddy and impatient she waited. Vibrations in the air like she had never felt before inside the box sparked her curiosity. The topics that still held unknown information had grown scarce lately so these mysterious movements sent her head spinning. She was about to start pondering and feeling for more vibrations when a type of box she had never seen before appeared.

       Jeweler Sasami picked up hairpin            

She felt energy and some curious stuff that was overflowing with life against her smooth surface. The familiar silk no longer embraced her shape. Instead that soft, warm feeling of this life filled thing took over. She had no idea what it was, this ‘jeweler Sasami’, but she wanted to know desperately.

Before she could though another box appeared.

       Jeweler Sasami called up item window            

Was this jeweler Sasami checking how hard she had worked? But if she was, why was she using the small window, not the other one? The one where her intelligence and mana could be seen?

More air vibrations made her concentrate on the things she could only feel right that moment. She tried memorizing how the air moved, searching for ways to analyze an structures or distinctive features.

The airwaves came mostly from three sources around her.  One seemed faster, while another wave appeared stronger than the others.  Some rhythms were repeated occasionally, but the other rhythms were all different, the frequency without guidelines she could see. She was lifted higher and rubbed with a silk cloth.

Other sources of sound waves were a bit farther away. Those appeared equally strange and interesting.

While she was still busy trying to figure out the waves in the air she was placed back in her box.

Desperation almost overcame her then. Had she failed? Would she be locked up in her box again, because she wasn’t good enough?

She wanted to hit everything around her with her mana in defiance, but that was probably senseless. Whatever had been expected of her, she thought as the lid closed, she had not shown anything satisfying enough to be allowed to explore the outside.

Still, in defiance, she sneaked her feelers through the gaps in the net of mana in the box and just felt the movements of the air, other types of wood and that curious life filled, complex thing called jeweler Sasami. There were three of those ‘jeweler Sasamis’, each emitting life and airwaves. moving. Then there was a fourth and she studied all she could catch with her feelers.