“Please listen to me when I say that you must not tell this to anyone else.”
“O-okay…?”
Finley sucked in a breath.
“Abrial, you were born with a heartstone.”
A moment of silence hung over the two of them — whether a moment of tense silence, or utter blank confusion it could not be told.
At last, Abrial blinked at Finley. Okay, it was a moment of complete confusion on Abrial’s side, at least. And rightly so. She’d never heard of this — what the heck was it called? A hearth stone? Whatever it was! — before.
“...What the heck is that?”
Finley blinked, then seemed to relax a little, like it was good Abrial hadn’t heard about it before. She sighed.
“I would not expect you to have heard much about such a thing, seeing as you just recently entered the magical world. Heartstones…are the most dangerous, power-infused magical objects known to exist in all of Gongkuan history. They are extremely powerful.”
“And I have one?” A strange sensation of delight tingled through Abrial’s body. The words dangerous and powerful piqued her interest. “Awesome! So — I’m like a super magician?! Whoa!”
“No,” Finley sighed, cutting Abrial off. She sounded exhausted. “It is not ‘awesome’, Abrial. Do you know what a heartstone does?”
“They’re powerful magical objects, you just said! Dangerous, but power-infused! Heh.”
“Abrial, did you forget that I said ‘dangerous’ already? Heartstones are extremely peculiar and fickle organs. No one has ever understood them completely. With a heartstone in your body, you could…” Her stern voice faltered. “Bad things might happen to you. They are likely to happen. Here…I am not doing a good job of explaining. Please read this, Abrial. I went to find it in the scroll tent this morning on my errand. It will explain most of the necessary information about heartstones.”
Finley nervously stuffed a scroll into Abrial’s arms. It wasn’t with much force, but even so, Abrial had never seen her act so frantic. What exactly was it about these ‘heartstones’ that was making her worry so much? And what exactly was a freaking heartstone, anyway? If it was powerful, wasn’t that a good thing?
On top of that, Abrial had a strange sense of deja vu…She felt like she’d heard that word before…heartstone...somewhere…
The old scroll Finley had shoved at her was already unraveled. Finley had probably already read it through. She squinted at it over her nose to make out the words:
Mysterious Shadow Magic Object Occurring in Nature #1:
THE HEARTSTONE
THE HEARTSTONE: Background
Throughout the ages, one naturally occurring shadow magic-associated object has, naturally, forced its way into history books time and time again. And in almost every instance, it is followed by rivers of blood, mountains of corpses, and oceans of tears.
This object is commonly referred to as the Heartstone, or (h)eartstone, as it is more recently referred to in Gongkuan scholarly writings.
Unlike other extremely rare magical objects derived from nature — i.e. moonstones, sunstones, fortune crystals, and other such objects — the heartstone is utterly unique in one primary quality, which is:
The heartstone is an internal human organ, created at conception and melded to a magician’s body and spirit.
The appearance of such devastating organs throughout history is rare, but savage and uncontrollable upon each and every occurrence. Magical history scholars currently estimate that the carrier of a heartstone (i.e. a heartstone carrier) is born in the Kingdom of Gongkua once every few hundred to one thousand years based on historical records of heartstone-associated magical atrocities. The birth of a magician carrying a heartstone is only known to have coincided with the Year of the Lotus, which occurs only every one hundred years between the Year of the Orchid and the Year of the Magnolia.
Abrial looked up from the scroll, her dark eyes wide.
The Year of the Lotus…
“The Year of the Lotus…Ouch!”
Finley’s hand that was rubbing the cooling cream into Abrial’s back had pressed harshly for some reason when Abrial spoke, like Finley was as jumpy as a hunted rabbit. Finley’s hands recoiled.
“I apologize, I pressed too hard. Please keep reading.”
Abrial continued, furrowing her brows as she struggled to put the letters together:
THE HEARTSTONE: Mechanisms
What little is known about the mechanisms of the heartstone is as follows:
A heartstone carrier is inevitably a magician who will grow up with two hearts: his normal, blood-and-flesh human heart, and his molten heartstone. This dual heart syndrome has the possibility to cause a multitude of health issues for the heartstone carrier when he attempts to perform natural or any other magic aside from shadow magic, as the bodily, mental, and spiritual systems utilized for such magical fields are entirely separate from those utilized for shadow magic. Heartstones carry yet immeasurable, thickly concentrated amounts of chaotic, dark spiritual energy. This chaotic spiritual energy is, of course, best suited to the practice of shadow magic.
Due to the rare occurrence of heartstones through the ages, the deeper mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain unknown. However, it is clear from historical and medical records that the amount of chaotic spiritual energy constantly created by the eternal burning of a heartstone within a magician’s body is immensely dangerous, and almost always has the potential to kill the carrier or else drive the carrier insane.
“Insane…” Abrial murmured, frowning deeply.
Finley’s fingers curled against her back. Abrial didn’t feel it. She was too immersed in this scroll, even though it was hard to read. She kept reading, her eyebrows furrowing harder and harder.
THE HEARTSTONE: History
Heartstones were first discovered by our Gongkuan ancestors at least five thousand years ago, after a peculiar historical pattern was noticed by the few and far between Gongkan historical scholars of the age. The strange, violent pattern was as follows:
Every five hundred years or so — a few hundred more, a few hundred less — one immensely powerful person in the kingdom would fall into utter insanity and slaughter his or her entire hometown.
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This is how the pattern started. Once it was repeated several times, our ancestral healers cut open the chests of those who had been driven insane to find a strange, molten black and scarlet object lying beside the deceased flesh-and-blood hearts of these people.
And so was the discovery of heartstones.
Over the centuries and millennia, these occasions of slaughter became more and more absurd and horrifying as the heartstones carried by those cursed to carry them seemed to increase in generation of chaotic spiritual energy. As the knowledge of heartstones spread throughout the Kingdom of Gongkua, these cases of slaughtered villages and hometowns eventually escalated to actual cases of gruesome treason and eventually high-scale, unimaginably gory massacres. With the knowledge that the chaotic spiritual energy generated by heartstones could fuel practically limitless feats of shadow magic, some who were born as heartstone carriers began to use their cursed power to commit unspeakable evil. Some used their powers for assassination, rising to the top of the imperial court; others used their powers to sow disease and brew hatred among the Gongkuan people. Many of these infamous heartstone carriers utilized cursed shadow magic to extend their youth and attempt to attain immortality and infinite power, disposing of anyone who stood in their way. They all failed in the end, as immortality is inevitably unattainable for those who are not gods to begin with.
Some of the most well-known villainous names that emerged from this four-thousand year era of massacre and cyclical fear surrounding heartstone carrier were: The Bloody Enchantress Shen Yu, The Scarlet Fiend Xue Yi, and the Crooked Assassin Lo Fuchou. Due to the wide-reaching chaos many heartstone carriers caused in this era, many of them received similar extravagant and yet infamous names that were feared in every corner of the kingdom in their respective eras.
Only one thousand years ago, did a true cure for the plight of the heartstone emerge.
“...So there’s a cure!” Abrial exclaimed, relieved. “That’s great!”
“...Continue reading, there is more.”
Abrial got another ominous feeling. She lowered the scroll. Why it felt ominous to read this, was…well for once, it was obvious, wasn’t it? If she had a heartstone like Finley said…
It couldn’t mean good things, according to this stupid scroll.
But her brain was still too weary from the agony of the Day of Shadows. She didn’t want to think about something like this right now. She pouted.
“Finley, my eyes are tired! You know I can’t read for long, it’s hard.”
Finley sighed. “Here, is it all right if I read it to you?”
Abrial swallowed. She didn’t want to hear more of this crazy information right now. But the look in Finley’s eyes…Finley definitely thought this was important. Forcing down her nausea, Abrial nodded as Finley took the book.
“All right, let me read it to you. Listen closely.”
“THE HEARTSTONE: Cures and Containment
As is widely known in current times, the royal Wei clan has always been wealthy and influential in the Kingdom of Gongkua. Now that we presently are ruled by the heaven-blessed Wei dynasty, it is truly clear that the Wei clan is blessed by heaven. May the King live long, and may all his descendants bear good fruit!
It was the heaven-blessed Wei clan that discovered a method one thousand years ago — at the very beginning of the Wei dynasty — of preventing the growth of the heartstone in the bodies of newborn babies.
As the heartstone is not fully developed at the time of birth, the greatest magicians of the Wei clan were able to invent a certain method commonly referred to as the ‘Frozen Chest’ technique, or more recently, the ‘Heart of Ice’ technique. With this divinely blessed technique, any Year of the Lotus-born newborn who is determined to be a heartstone carrier can have his heartstone safely encased with ice and unable to grow further throughout his lifetime. There are extremely minimal complications.
Thus, from the time of this method’s discovery and onward, every newborn born in the Year of the Lotus is treated with the Heart of Ice technique to prevent the development of any more heartstones. While the Heart of Ice technique can also be utilized to sense heartstones, it has been determined by the royal government that it is much safer to simply stabilize all newborns of the Year of the Lotus to avoid any future massacres.
Thanks to this genius and blessed method from the Wei clan, for one thousand years, under the heaven-blessed Wei dynasty, there has been a constant peace in the Kingdom of Gongkua. No violence from any heartstone carrier has been reported, and neither has there been any word of a heartstone carrier at all.”
“Wait.” Abrial put a hand on top of the manuscript, stopping Finley from reading it. “Finley, that doesn’t make sense…How could I have a heartstone if I was put through the Heart of Ice technique as a baby? This scroll is wrong.”
“Not quite. I am almost finished, and will explain afterwards. Listen:”
“THE HEARTSTONE: Cures and Containment, Continued
Other, less-successful methods of containment of the heartstone carrying condition have appeared throughout history.
Most are not worth mentioning, as those who were treated with these ancient methods often went mad from malfunctions and technique failures.
However, there is one whose rate of success comes close to that of the Heart of Ice technique, though it is not as precise. It is referred to as the ‘Tattooing Containment Technique’, previously known for a few thousand years as the ‘Inking Web’.
This ancient technique originated between two thousand and three thousand years ago, during the era of infamous heartstone carriers. In this era, many magicians were desperate to find a mechanism to prevent heartstone carriers from wreaking havoc on the suffering and weakened kingdom. Thus, they devised a strong, though crude method of containing the power of heartstones: the ‘Inking Web’, or more commonly, the ‘Tattooing Containment Technique’.
The technique involved tattooing an incredibly small, yet complicated series of runes on the body of the heartstone carrier. When completed, the containment tattoo is meant to ensure that the overwhelming flow of chaotic spiritual energy supplied by the heartstone is entirely contained within the body of that person.
As it is a more crude technique, more detrimental side effects to the tattooed heartstone carrier are likely to occur. Most commonly, severe pain, bleeding from the orifices, smoking from the orifices, and other strange agonies will occur if a tattooed heartstone carrier attempts to perform shadow magic, as all of that person’s chaotic spiritual energy — the very source of shadow magic — is forced to remain unusable within that person’s body, creating a chaotic landscape choked with dark spiritual energy.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of this ancient technique is that it is not foolproof, as the Heart of Ice technique is. There are cases throughout Gongkua’s most violent period of history where tattooed heartstone carriers, through intense training, effort, and pain, were able to temporarily or even permanently surpass the barrier of the containment tattoo.
“...That’s…that’s what happened to me, isn’t it?” Abrial muttered, shocked. “Bleeding from the or-i-faces, or whatever, severe pain, smoke, problems when trying to perform shadow magic — that’s exactly what happened to me!”
“Mm, that is correct. There is only a little more left on this page.”
“THE HEARTSTONE: Public Opinion
The public Gongkuan opinion on heartstones is a fragile topic.
There have always been two distinct sides to the issue of whether or not heartstone carriers should be viewed as evil, or innocent.
The first side is the one that absolutely despises heartstone carriers regardless of their personality. They argue that, as the heartstone is evidently a curse from heaven that not only bestows evil power, but also curses many who receive it into insanity, those who receive a heartstone must be despised by heaven for their wickedness in their past lives. Some believe heartstone carriers are merely reincarnations of previous infamous heartstone carriers, fated to carry out the same horrendous acts of their past lives. This viewpoint is currently the majority.
The second side is the one that is held by most scholarly historians and knowledgeable medics. It argues that there are multiple factors that must be considered in naming a heartstone carrier evil. Though rare, throughout history there have been those heartstone carriers who killed themselves from remorse of what they had done, or attempted to live in solitude so as to not cause harm to others if they should lose control. Though such attempts inevitably failed in the end, the intent behind these actions does not seem to have been evil.
This viewpoint holds that, like all people, some heartstone carriers fall into corruptness, while others resist. Power makes men mad. Men will kill for fame. It is the same for heartstone carriers — only, many times more difficult, as they are forced to face madness, immense power, and unimaginable internal chaos that other magicians need never experience.
The difference between a magician who carries a heartstone, and the one that does not, is this: the heartstone carrier has godly power in his hands, while the average magician is but a man. With the same human nature and such a disparity in power, it is the heartstone carrier who is bound to massacre for fame and power, rather than the average magician who does not have the ability nor the insanity.
Still, in the end, it is clear: heartstones, throughout Gongkuan history, have only led to evil and death.
May all Gongkuan people thank the heaven-blessed King and Wei dynasty every day for the pains the Wei clan has taken for their beloved people to ensure we never have to experience the devastating wrath of a heartstone carrier again. May the King live long, and may all his descendants bear good fruit!
Finley lowered the scroll.