4 – Expanding Awareness and Approach

Already I could see our destination on the distant horizon – the Anomaly. A destructive storm of violent winds and towering waves; a miniature hurricane, unmoving, the surrounding waters undisturbed.

Crushing depths, this was going to be a pain in the ass.

Anomalies took many forms, though all shared the characteristic of the violation of nature, whether it was storms frozen in time or impossibly shaped landmasses where none had previously existed. Some were easy to enter; no obstacles or dangers to brave, just walk right in. That was not what we would be facing, unfortunately.

Anyways.

I had a few hours left before landfall, just enough time for a single attempt at my project. Which was fine, I had only a single thaum that would work as the centerpiece of the device.

My hope was to make a defensive thaumatic device for the fast-approaching dive. We already had a pair of cutlasses, curtesy of Kornos pilfering them from the docks while no one – including me – was looking. Checking them over, I could tell they were preternaturally sharp and durable.

There were innumerable thaumatic creations that could provide some means of defense. Most Highdivers had some type of leather armor that had been imbued to be tough and, if they could afford it, self-repairing. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have any coverings worth doing the same for. Cloth was not an effective use of those thaums. Instead, I was going to create something that would provide me with a way to detect and track enemies.

Many – almost all – of the creatures found in Anomalies were extremely hostile towards non-native life; it was as though they had an intrinsic hatred for non-Anomalous entities. No records existed of taming or domesticating Anomalous life. Therefore, knowing where any potential troubles were at any given time, even if they were hidden, was immensely valuable.

To that end, I grabbed the thaum, a palm-sized sphere of matte gray metal, containing the essence of awareness. It was by far the most valuable thaum in my possession. Reason being that detection and information-type thaums were both extremely rare and highly prized for their potential applications.

I examined the thaum in greater detail even though I was intimately familiar with its essence. It wasn’t just awareness, but more specifically, awareness (of things in a large area). Unusable in its current state; the brain simply couldn’t handle that level of sensory information – the knowledge of all things within several hundred feet. Trying to use it as-is would lead to a quick death.

For this project, I was focusing on the scope of the essence – what was actually being sensed. I only needed to know of potential threats. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a thaum that encompassed such a broad category. I would have to get creative and find a workaround.

The thaums I had that related to danger or harm were too narrowly defined to the point of uselessness. Frankly, the only reason I had them was because I was a bit of a hoarder, and they were small enough that they weren’t too much of an additional burden to carry. Dull (edge), Cannibalism – by far the most disturbingly specific thaum I owned, Frog, Single-winged Hawk – as in, born with a single wing, not a defect or injury, and Steel Wool were just a few of the more esoteric essences available to me.

After I dug around and thought for a bit, I finally came up with something promising: Hunt. The thaum was a jet-black, finger-length claw with a wickedly sharp tip. When I took a closer look, I saw that the essence was very strong, meaning well-defined.

I steadied myself and calmed my mind, and began to craft a mental image. Awareness (in a large area) of hunters. The concept resonated clearly within my mind.

I brought them together, and at the very moment of contact, I struck them with my intent, forging the interpretation in one clear strike.

I held my breath and waited for the metaphorical dust to settle.

I eyed the now black-spiked metal sphere – the lack of catastrophic reactions signaled success. I breathed a sigh of relief and debated whether or not the scope needed to be narrowed further. Hunters might have been narrow enough to not overload the senses, despite the range.

I ultimately decided to continue. The consequences of overload were not worth the thaums saved, even if it meant risking the awareness thaum.

With that, I pulled out the small container of thaums that related to distance and length. I ran my hand through them, giving me a sense of each one. Kilometers, (within) eyesight, behind, touching, nearby-

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That one.

I pulled out a… shoelace? A second glace confirmed that it was not a mundane piece of leather, which could only mean that this was a piece of someone’s shoe that got caught in a breach surge – a rare phenomenon that takes place inside of an Anomaly where reality sort of… hiccupped and turned everything in a random area of random size anomalous. Some poor diver had definitely lost their foot, most likely hastily amputated to prevent complications from whatever horror that had been inflicted upon the appendage from affecting the rest of them. A shiver ran down my spine as I imagined something like that happening to me.

Anyways, nearby gave me the impression of roughly a hundred or so feet, which was just what I’d been looking for.

Fusing thaums was like building a tall building; without a proper foundation and proper planning, there was risk that the next piece would cause the whole thing to collapse. Thankfully, the awareness thaum was very stable so far; the interpretation was solid.

The process of adding on the nearby essence went relatively smoothly, resulting in awareness of nearby hunters. My mood skyrocketed. I’d never before crafted such a complex creation with such ease and stability. The hardest parts were over. All that was left was to fuse the thaum to a mundane object to enable its effects. For this, I picked out a leather wristband.

This step was similar to the previous ones. My mental image of the final product was close enough to the thaum that I had no trouble imbuing it.

In the end, I was left speechless. Throughout the entire process, there hadn’t been a single issue or hiccup. From start to finish, it’d been smooth sailing. And the final product turned out just as I had hoped. Luck couldn’t account for this level and ease of success. Which meant, somehow, my thaumaturgy had improved overnight.

Oh, right, the blessing. But Kornos hadn’t mentioned anything about that. Well, he wasn’t interested in thaumaturgy, so maybe he just hadn’t bothered to remember that part. Eh! Whatever the case, I was thankful for the blessing, again.

I slipped on the band and felt out for the new sense. For someone who hadn’t experienced it before, it was almost impossible to describe the sensation of gaining a new way to perceive the world. The closest approximation would be the feeling that someone was watching you, a presence that you shouldn’t have been able to detect, yet did so.

The new sense immediately provided me with information that told me of several presences around me and their locations. Most were scattered below me, most likely predators of some kind. One presence in particular was directly in front of me. For a moment I was confused, then I realized the implications. Kornos wasn’t hunting me, but he was a hunter, of sorts. Turned out I – technically – had made a mistake. I never specified what the hunter hunted. So, in this case, hunter could more accurately be described as a seeker of something. I guess. In a way, this was better. My awareness would include any being that was either actively searching for something, or by their nature was someone who intentionally sought a goal. Plants, and hopefully unintelligent lifeforms, would not count, I very much liked my brain uncooked.

I breathed a sigh of relief after a few minutes passed while wearing the thaumatic device. No headaches, and I was able to block out the sensory input with little effort if I needed to focus on something. All in all, this was by far the greatest thing I’d ever created. I didn’t bother to hide my excitement, I went to Kornos and told him of what I’d made.

He found the result impressive and asked about the process, even though I saw the details go in one ear and right out the other. That was fine with me, I was glad to have a friend who enjoyed what I do, even if he hadn’t really understood it.

Then he brought up an issue I had intentionally avoided thinking about. “You know even if we do get a good haul, those thugs probably took what they could from your parents,” he said bluntly, though without any antagonism. I could tell, he was trying to mentally prepare me for what I might find on our return – if we survived, which I appreciated.

“I know,” I replied back as I made last minute preparations as our vessel approached the storm. “But, they won’t kill them, they can’t go that far. As long as we make enough Axia from this to afford a healer…” I trailed off, looking at his earring– the healing one.

He noticed my gaze, and said, “Yeah, I can loan you this, no problem. But, there’s only one of these, and I don’t think you’d want to let your folks suffer for the weeks it would take for both of them to heal up. Your best bet is to get them to a real doctor with healing artifacts. Which is costly.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I know. But there’s nothing else I can do about it. After I snapped and walloped Dimitri, my fate was sealed. I wasn’t about to just sit there and let myself get arrested while my family suffered. So, this was my only choice. I admit, I brought this upon myself, what with the ‘I’ll dive without a crew’ bit, and the whole, punch thing. But, I don’t really regret it. There wasn’t really a winning move there, only less awful ones.”

Kornos was silent as he digested that.

Regret for having put myself in that situation in the first place was something I definitely felt, but I didn’t let it overwhelm me. Mistakes were for learning from, and fretting over the consequences wouldn’t help the current crisis. The best thing I could do right now was to move past it.

I turned to face the Anomaly and noticed something that brought me great relief. The distance between the edge of the Anomaly, where the winds and waters were calm, and the towering cylinder of clouds that obscured the Anomaly proper, was short enough that we wouldn’t have to brave the storm for long. Not only that, breaks in the cloud revealed glimpses of calm waters and sunlight. We would only have to face a few minutes of intense action, then we’d be home free.

I followed Kornos’s lead, carrying out his instructions as we prepared the ship to enter the storm. Knots were checked, belongings secured with ropes, and our roles established. I would be our eyes and hands, I would keep Kornos abreast of changes in the situation and handled any miscellaneous tasks he would need at the moment. Kornos would be the helmsman and captain, steering the vessel with his impressive strength and practiced motions, all while he would order me around, as he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

We finished preparations just seconds before we reached the edge of the storm.