Chapter
A Dark People, Full of Blood and Unknown Depths
“This has got The Reverie in it, yeah?”
“A drop, yes. It comes from distillation within The Market.” His eyes drifted to Mikel, “Again, he reacts oddly to the Essentia within this place. This,” he gestured to the box containing the Omniat, “tells me less than nothing. I think he broke it.”
Helsket chuckled and drank down another gulp of the delicious liquor. He wiped his mouth before speaking and flicked aside the collected moisture, “The Raithson line defies odds all the time. You only knew a bit about his dad, but that man, at times, could roll a six-sided dice and ten pips would come up. I learned early on not to gamble with him - cards or dice.”
“You’re not affected though,” Telgil mumbled to himself, swirling his mug, “You are quaffing this like water and you’re not even slowing. I’m sure you feel some vague tiredness or fatigue creeping in, but nothing like what happened to Mikel.”
Helsket shrugged again, “He’s young. He’s tired. We put him through his paces today - and combo that with the priestesses attacking us and the night on the town he and I had before coming here, well - I wouldn’t chalk the total collapse up to just the drink. If you get my drift.”
“I do… To a degree, but still. This whole thing has me unsettled. I’ve given evaluations to hundreds of people and never have I gotten a response like this. It’s ugly and inelegant. I like studying Essentia because of the clear-cut laws that are associated with it - sure there’s guesswork when delving into a new field of study, but you have your boundaries… This goes beyond everything I know.”
“Think Cal will have an idea?”
“He might,” Telgil said, “although it isn’t related to Fire, so I doubt that he’d be too interested in it.”
“Ah, I give Cal a bad time, but he’s always been a good friend. He’s more than just the spark and flame - he’s got depth you rarely see.”
“The ‘puffed up pimpernel?’ If I remember what you called him correctly. A good friend indeed. How many of his women did you steal?”
Helsket rocked his head back and forth with an absent expression on his face as his eyes locked on the box, “Oddly enough, not a one - but that wasn’t for trying. He just never dallied with the ladies like we did.”
“Smart man,” Telgil intoned as he sipped his drink. He snarled and put the glass down a moment later and shook his head.
“What? Did it sour on you?”
“No - nothing like that.” Telgil sat back and cupped his chin in his hand, gold bangles in his hair clanking as they fell against one another, “No. It’s the effect of the drink - I feel the somniferous effects creeping through me as we speak. I have a small mug of this to help me sleep at night - both in The Market and not. It never fails - but it only never fails because of how my body works. My energetic systems have optimized over long years to handle quantities of raw Essentia and store it for a time, which allows me the ability to shape it through the Gates within my body. The Reverie acts upon those circuits by calming the circuits and constricting them. This causes the effect of sleep, as our physical body starts to receive less Essentia than it’s used to. You don’t have the strength of circuits - yours are optimized for Stamina consumption - energy from food and drink. The Reverie acts on you in a small way as we all have Essentia flowing through us, but you by magnitudes less compared to me. Mikel should be awake right now - or at least not entirely asleep.”
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As if to punctuate the point, Mikel snorted loudly and jerked in his sleep, sending the old chair creaking sideways. Helsket reached out and steadied the piece of furniture before it had a chance to dump Mikel.
When he turned back to Telgil, the smith was staring deeply at the Omniat as if consulting a divining ball.
“You mentioned dreams. Something… Something tickles the back of my mind - like a dream, but somewhat… Less. What will the Callisto Jewel do to him once it starts affecting his dreams?”
For another long moment, Telgil stared at the Omniat before shaking his head and accepting the change of course for the conversation.
“The Jewel was made long ago. Longer ago than we have records for - some say by the gods, some say it simply always was. I can’t prove one theory or another, all I know is that I have read the stories about it, and not a one had a happy ending.”
“He knows that,” Helsket said, “And yet, he went ahead and got it - gods be damned as far as I can tell. He’s not afraid to do what has to be done… But he’s green. Vulnerable. What will the dreams do to him?”
“Nothing at first,” Telgil said, “They’re going to just be dreams. Disturbing, sure, but still dreams. As The Jewel establishes more and more of a hold over him the dreams will shift to something more… Real. Some of the stories write about how dreams turned into premonitions or even bled into the waking world to shower us with things only ever imagined.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Helsket said, glancing at Mikel, “Is there anything to be done about it? To delay it perhaps or even nullify the effects?”
“Not that I know of. Mikel is the owner of The Jewel, and he will be until someone kills him for it.”
“And if he happens to die of old age?”
Helsket knew the futility of the question before he asked it and yet he waited for Telgil to respond all the same.
“He won’t die of old age for two reasons. One - he’s a Raithson. Two - he’s the bearer of The Jewel. If enemies seeking to rip it from his throat don’t do him in, The Jewel will. It wasn’t made for human hands, Helsket. It was made for something much older and more powerful. Just having it in his possession is killing him bit by bit. The thing that made The Jewel never meant for man to wield it.”
A shiver ran up Helsket’s back and he shifted uncomfortably on the chair, thinking of what could be powerful enough to make something like The Jewel.
“A god?”
“Something like that. The Sunken Folk had queer ways of dealing with the divine - and they called things gods we would call demons. They were a dark people, full of blood and unknown depths. Those differences led our two people to war against one another until they were no more and we were left the victors. You know the old stories - of the sacrifices. Some legends say The Callisto Jewel is the blood from all those tens of thousands of dead, gathered together and smelted into a solid gem.”
“But you just said it was made far longer ago than we had records of - how does that…” He trailed off as he recognized the look of annoyance on Telgil’s face.
“Sorry. I didn’t know you were just reporting and not waxing poetic,” Helsket said.
“It sucks when someone catches you off guard - doesn’t it?”
Helsket rolled his eyes and then drank the remainder of the liquor.
“Finish your little bedtime night cap and let’s turn in. We’ve a long day tomorrow and I imagine we’ll need all of our energy to keep up with our young friend here. But, one last thing.”
“Hmm,” Helsket rumbled in his chest, “What’s on your mind?”
“You did mention that Sylix saw this same thing occur to Erik when she tested him all those years ago. Was that true?” Telgil’s eyes flicked back and forth from the Omniat in the box to Helsket like a hawk hunting for mice.
Helsket shifted and regarded the box, “Something very similar - yes. Sylix didn’t have the box, and her Omniat was… different. She conjured it up before administering the test and dismissed it after it grew large and dark. I was surprised yours didn’t just vanish like hers did.”
“I am not Sylix,” Telgil said, “I have skill in magical manufacturing, it comes with the smith trade, but she… Is unique. In more ways than one. In all my years I have never seen an equal to her talent.”
“You should have seen her fight. Between her and Erik it was like watching a dance with death. She could use Crest of Evening as well as Erik - on top of her Immaterial Skill control. It was something to behold.”
Telgil grumbled and sat back, “None of this makes sense, Helsket. I knew the oddities around Raithson were many, but this… This defies logic. I’d say Erik had been a Blend user, but Sylix tested him with an Omniat and got a similar result and said nothing to the Essentia research community at large - it just doesn’t make sense. If he were a Blend user, his whole life would have been different. Sylix is powerful, but how does she fit into this puzzle?”
Helsket didn’t have an answer, finally feeling the fatigue of the day setting in.
The two sat for a while longer before they left in silence, leaving Mikel to slumber on the table.