When the message concluded, Rai shut off the tetra and stored it again in the pouch. Then he took out the star fragment, a rhomboid about three inches long and one inch wide in the middle. He held up it between his fingers.
“This is the star fragment that Isa mentioned. It’s a piece of one of the fallen stars: specifically, the one that fell here in this city and turned the entire area for somewhere around two hundred miles in all directions into a deadly desert.”
Floran’s and Kenjo’s eyes glowed with the light of Mage Sight.
“…I don’t understand,” Floran said after a moment. “I can see with my unenhanced eyesight that it lets off a soft green glow, but there’s no mana in it whatsoever. In fact, it’s completely devoid of mana, which even mundane stone is not.”
“It’s suffused with its own mysterious star energy,” Rai said. “It’s an energy different from qi or mana – an entirely new type of energy. That’s why Mage Sight isn’t showing anything. I should warn you, though, that trying to experiment with it may be dangerous. It can be used, but it needs to be filtered with mana first, or it’s toxic – the more mana circles you have, the more toxic it is. This small a piece, after so many thousands of years of bleeding energy, is probably safe to handle, but extracting its energy could have bad effects.”
“Yet you still handle it even though you’re not certain it’s safe?”
“We’ve been exposed to much higher concentrations already. Any effect that this would have will just be noise.”
Also, Rai thought, the fact that we’ve incorporated filtered star energy in our bodies probably provides resistance to harmful effects from it. Not that I’m letting him know that; he might try to experiment on us.
Floran frowned. “Are you willing to give that to me? I won’t try to take your Record Tetra if you do.”
Rai walked over to the edge of his cell and held it up against the forcefield. The warden reached out and took it, handing it over to Floran.
“I’m still not completely convinced that you are time travelers,” he said. “But… there is more than just insanity or the wild lies of the delusional going on here. I need to confer with the others. Kenjo, stop the recording.”
“Recording conclude.”
The warden, mage, and assistant left, leaving the two of them with only the other inmates for company.
“Well. Now what?” Isa said.
“Now… we wait.”
-x-
Nara, rainbow-haired gnome artificer extraordinaire, turned a dial on her goggles as she peered at the black, green-glowing stone, which was held by prongs of white ivorite metal on top of a mechanical pedestal. Metal clockwork limbs attached to the pedestal, holding large rubies from which shone laser lights, pointed said lights at the star fragment. The lasers were completely absorbed by the fragment.
“Well,” she said, “the prisoner was definitely telling the truth about this thing having a mysterious unknown energy in it. I’ll need to run more tests, but if I’m right, there’s a significant amount of energy locked up in this little rock. You said he claimed it’s toxic, but can be filtered with mana?”
“That’s right,” Master Floran said. “I didn’t get the sense that he knew how to filter it, though.”
“Oh, he probably doesn’t, unless he’s a mana specialist or a master artificer. But you said he’s a combat artist, so he’s probably a combat mage instead. But luckily… you’ve got me! Your resident master artificer, sixth-circle mage, and certified genius! Wahahaha!” Nara grinned. “Come, my feline friend! Let us crack the mystery of how to filter and harness the mysterious energy within this stone!”
The black cat standing on the floor beside her meowed.
“You said it! We will not rest until we have found the solution!” She rubbed her hands together. “Now shoo, Flower Boy. I need to concentrate.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I’ll call you what I want. We’re both equal standing here, and you’re in my lab. Now get!”
“Fine. But I expect to be alerted the moment you have results.”
“Of course.”
-x-
The hours turned to days and the days to weeks, and soon an entire month had gone by. Isa and Rai were fed twice a day with bland porridge that nevertheless had been magically designed to provide a balanced nutritional diet. Rai couldn’t share the fruit from the cornucopia with Isa due to being in different cells, but he did feed Prismeep, who seemed to enjoy the fruit greatly. Since they didn’t have much else to do, the two prisoners spent their time exercising and meditating, working on their qi cores and mana circles. The ambient mana in the cells wasn’t as overwhelming as the lab where the star energy had been studied in the jungle Tower, but it was still significantly higher than most places in the modern era, making the cells ideal for such meditation.
Rai also developed a close bond with Prismeep, whom he had determined was very intelligent. He spoke to her (he was pretty sure the carbuncle was female, since he’d seen no signs of male genitalia) in both the modern tongue and the ancient one, and she seemed to be learning. She couldn’t speak, but she could definitely understand tone of voice and could tell when something was a question, statement, or command, and she was picking up a number of commands. She was also very affectionate, and whenever he seemed down, she would snuggle up against his face. She enjoyed sitting in his lap while he was meditating, and to his utter surprise, he realized that she was starting to copy him. He couldn’t be sure if she was building a qi core (or enhancing one), but he could tell when she was working on her mana heart’s first mana circle based on the way mana funneled to her.
It had been just over a month when they were visited again. This time, the Warden and Master Floran came without Kenjo.
“If I turn off your cells, will you cooperate?” Warden Exija asked.
“Of course!” Isa exclaimed. “You think we’d throw away the chance to get out of here by acting out?”
“Isa’s right. We’ll cooperate fully.”
Exija touched her ring to the forcefields, and the they vanished. Rai and Isa exited the cells.
“Here,” the Warden said, handing Isa a shirt and shorts designed for saurians. “Put those on; it’s indecent for you to go around nude.”
Isa sighed, but did as instructed.
“Come,” Floran said. “We’re going to see Master Artificer Nara. She is… a bit eccentric, but mind that you aren’t rude; she’s a sixth-circle mage and comes from a highly regarded family. She has been able to come up with a filter for the star fragment’s energy and has set up an extractor.”
“Already?” Rai said in surprise. “I was under the impression that would take at least a few months to figure out!”
“Nara, as she’s so fond of reminding everyone, is a genius. Now, please be quiet as we walk.”
They passed through several doorways, walked down numerous halls, and used a hexagonal-shaped connector room. Eventually, they arrived at Nara’s laboratory, which was filled with all sorts of gizmos, spell circles, alchemy equipment, and contraptions. A whole quarter of the large chamber was devoted to the star fragment and various devices that were connected to it. Rai actually recognized some of the setup, such as containment chambers and mana-lines, as following the same principles as the lab in the divine spirit snake’s tower. An exceptionally tall human man, an elven pre-adolescent girl, and a gnome woman of indeterminate age occupied the lab. Rai know that the gnome was the artificer from her rather unique style of garb, including her goggles and various cogwheel accessories. The other two he assumed were her assistants.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Ah, you brought them!” Nara said. “Excellent. Come over here, time-traveling doomsayers.”
Rai and Isa approached while the other two hung back. Nar spun a dial on her goggles.
“Just as I suspected! You two have incorporated filtered stellar energy into yourselves, haven’t you?”
“You can tell?” Rai said.
“These goggles can see mana, qi, and now stellar energy… and they’re so finely tuned that they can see them inside living creatures. For example, I can confirm that you were telling the truth about your tiers and circles. But you’ve also infused your bodies with stellar energy and incorporated stellar energy in your qi cores and your mana hearts. You must have used yourselves as experimental subjects.”
“More or less, yes. We were in an area that was extremely oversaturated with both mana and star energy and we were developing our qi cores and creating mana circles. We naturally absorbed star energy in the process and decided to put it to good use.”
“What about that creature? It’s got a qi core and a mana heart, both at zero at the moment, but that gem on its forehead… it seems to be designed for stellar energy. It’s different from the raw energy, or even the filtered energy. I should call it ‘processed’ energy. And it seems to be producing the stuff. Without a frame of reference, I can’t compare it to tiers or circles, so I can’t say how powerful it is.”
“Our current theory is that her kind – carbuncles – actually came from the stars and were brought here during the starfall.”
“Hm. If that’s the case, it would make sense that they’re designed to use stellar energy. Fascinating! Well! I didn’t ask Floran to bring you here so we could talk about your familiar.”
“My… familiar? Isn’t that a soul bond thing? I don’t know how to do that.”
“Oh? She’s not? Well, you should fix that! Familiars provide lots of benefits to a mage! For starters, companionship! Also, you can communicate with a familiar, so even if your familiar can’t speak, you can talk! Plus, they make handy assistants, and can deliver spells that normally require a touch to work. Once we’re done talking about the actual reason I brought you here, I can teach you how to make a familiar bond. The process is a little different depending on the source of your magic. It’s easiest for those whose magic is tied to the soul, a little bit harder for those whose magic is tied to their blood, really complicated for those who contract with spirits or divine entities, and just requires a complex ritual for book-learned mages.”
“I’m a soul mage, so…”
“Oh, then it’ll be easy. Anyway, back on topic! I need to test whether my filter is working properly, and I don’t want to expose anyone else to potentially hazardous energy until I know that it is. So, I want you to draw some in and compare it to the stuff you already have.”
Rai glanced at Isa, who shrugged.
“Sure,” he said, turning back to Nara.
“Great! So I’m going to need you to sit in that circle right there and meditate while I extract stellar energy and transfer it into the circle.”
Rai and Isa sat back to back (or close to it; Isa’s tail got in the way a bit) in the indicated circle, which was connected to the a containment chamber by a mana line. Prismeep sat on Rai’s lap and closed her eyes, placing her luxurious tail in front of her paws. With a word, Nara erected a forcefield barrier around the circle.
“Okay, I’m flipping the switch!”
Star energy and mana filled the circle a moment later, and the meditation began. After ten minutes, the stellar energy released into the circle had all been absorbed, and Rai opened his eyes.
“Similar,” he pronounced. “But not identical. If I had to guess, I’d say that the filtration was incomplete. Maybe… eighty percent compared to what we absorbed before?”
“Hm… so it still needs fine-tuning before I try to use it,” Nara mused. “Well, there’s no sense in getting upset by a little setback!”
“Honestly, I’m impressed you managed this much in only a month,” Rai said.
“Well, I am a genius. Question: do you think that you’ll be affected by the incompletely filtered stuff, or will the fact that you’re fused with it already provide a resistance?”
“There’s no way to know for certain until we wait to see if there are effects, but… I suspect that we’ll have a resistance.”
“Good, good. Once I’ve got the filtering done properly, I’ll be able to use the energy in magic items… oh, I’m looking forward to what sorts of things I can make!”
“Don’t use it all up,” Floran said. “We still need to study it.”
“Of course, of course. Say, doomsayers, would you like to assist me? I know you’re probably complete novices when it comes to artificing, but—”
“Actually, I’m fairly decent at magic item crafting, though I’m nowhere near your level, of course,” Rai said. “I’m less experienced than I’d like to be. I would love to assist you and see you work. The time period we come from is much less advanced than your society, so seeing a Master Artificer of this generation would be… incredible for a scholar like me.” He grinned.
“I know nothing about making magic items,” Isa admitted. “I’m a decent weaponsmith, though.”
“A weaponsmith?” Floran said. “If that’s true, I’m sure I can find work for you here in the tower as an assistant to our Master Smith.”
“I am curious though – why trust us?” Isa said. “If I were in your position, I’d still be suspicious of our motives.”
“We aren’t all agreed on buying your story as true, but the existence of the star fragment goes a long way toward proving that something strange is going on,” Floran said. “The fact that you gave it up and haven’t so much as protested our treatment of you also speaks volumes to your character. Our consensus is to provisionally trust you. We won’t let you leave the Tower, nor will you have free reign of it, but you are no longer prisoners – so long as you continue to cooperate.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Rai asked curiously.
“The Tower Masters. Collectively, we’re the decision-making body for the Tower’s internal affairs. We rank below the Ruler and the Chief Administrator, but… well, they haven’t even been informed of your existence yet.”
“Really?”
“They have plenty of other things keeping them busy. A couple supposed time travelers saying that the world will end when most people alive now are already dead is not exactly urgent,” Exija said.
“Good point,” Isa agreed.
“So, you agree to help me, and the saurian lady will help our Master Smith?” Nara said.
“Right,” Isa and Rai said together.
“Great! Then I suppose the first thing is to get you familiarized with the lab…”
“If you’ll follow me,” Exija said to Isa. Isa nodded.
-x-
Both Isa and Rai learned far more than they had expected to over the next month. Isa quickly earned a position as a favored assistant to Master Onyx, the dwarven smith who was in charge of the Tower’s weapon-and-armor smithy. As long as she was creating or helping to create something new rather than simply repeating the same thing, she found herself completely absorbed in the work. Not only did she learn all sorts of techniques and different types of weapons, but she also got to work with a wide assortment of materials, both individually and making alloys. She lived and breathed the forge, and she absolutely loved it.
Rai’s work at the artificing lab was only partly focused on the star fragment, and he was rarely allowed to go off and create his own thing, but he absorbed knowledge like a sponge. His awareness of just what was actually possible expanded tremendously, and he knew that when he had access to a lab of his own, he would be able to create items like they had recovered from the ruins without needing to reverse engineer things. In fact, he was sure that if he continued to learn, with enough practice he would rival even the best magic item creators of his time. He also gained a much vaster understanding of what sorts of items worked best as catalysts and materials for making magic items. His knowledge of the engineering side of artificing also increased by leaps and bounds, though he knew that it would take him much longer to catch up to the likes of the Isle of Heaven’s Reach’s artificing experts since he was coming from a much poorer starting point.
Once the filtration system had been perfected, Isa and Floran, as well as a handful of other magic item creators and scholarly mages, were brought back to Nara’s lab for a demonstration. Nara also invited anyone to use the energy to enhance themselves, but there were no volunteers, so she decided to go straight to allowing the study of the energy. From that point on, the energy was studied, used in artificing, and made available (for a couple hours each day) for Isa, Rai, and Prismeep to use while meditating. Rai also joined in the study of the energy, while Isa volunteered to take some of it and see if she and Master Onyx could figure out how to forge it into weapons or armor like mana.
Nara also taught Rai how to create a familiar bond with Prismeep. It was, all things considered, a fairly simple process that involved a lot of meditation to open up his soul to contact with the entity he was in physical contact with. Then he simply needed to make the offer to the carbuncle, and if she consented, their souls would be bound together in a master-familiar bond.
When he first made spiritual contact with Prismeep, it was slightly frightening how intimate the connection was; he had never felt that close with anyone other than Mizeiya. He learned that Prismeep did have a name, but it wasn’t made up of sounds; rather, it was a combination of ideas, concepts, and star energy movements that were akin to a mana signature. She – and she was a female – had a name that, if a translation attempt were to be made, would be something like Joyous Love and Trustful Bravery, so he decided to start calling her Braveheart instead of Prismeep.
She had a warm, loving soul, and the moment he made contact, he felt her respond with curiosity. When she realized that it was him, he could only describe her reaction as an energetic, bouncy, hug, as a small child might give. When he wordlessly conveyed the concept of twining their souls together, he didn’t put it as master and servant, but as caretaker and assistant. She spent a few seconds to contemplate it, then eagerly accepted.
When the bond solidified, he found that he could always feel her in the back of his mind, and he could always feel her emotions.
The promised ability to communicate manifested almost immediately.
“Hello, Braveheart,” he replied with a smile.