A rumbling thunder echoed throughout the cavern. The pleasant sound of sizzling boar was only outmatched by the mouth-watering scent emanating from the meat sitting atop the gentle coals.
Minutes after Wellynd’s expression of his mantle and Kellog’s revelation, a storm had torn across the mountainside. After they had retreated inside, Kellog had rebuilt the wall and started a new fire in the ashes of the previous one.
As the light of the flames danced off the freshly minted wall, Wellynd stared down at the Kosun mark on the back of his hand and smiled.
This wasn’t who he was.
“I could remove that, but I imagine that might cause more trouble for you than it’s worth. By the time it’s safe to remove it, you’ll probably be able to do it yourself.” said Kellog, who was fiddling with the strange brass and glass mechanism that Wellynd had found when he caused the collapse.
“Do it myself. Right. So what happens now?”
“Hmm?” Kellog looked up at Wellynd and furrowed his brow, as if he had never even considered the question. “Well, I expected this was the case after our discussion yesterday. Your mantle, like mine, will remain in flux indefinitely. Though, I must say, yours is wildly chaotic. Learning how to shape it to your will is going to take considerable effort.”
“Is that why it’s painful then?”
“No. As I said earlier, that’s a different issue entirely. One less easily discerned. I have some preparations to make for that test. In the meantime, I’m going to put you to work.” Kellog grinned and held up the device, wiggling it back and forth.
Wellynd hoped he’d get to learn a bit more before this part of their agreement. Best not to try his luck, though.
“Okay. What do you need me to do?”
The disappointment must have been clear in Wellynd’s voice.
“Don’t worry, Welly. We’re going to get you learning in no time. I’m a strong proponent of honing knowledge through practice, but I need to ensure I continue my research while I can. You’re going to need to collect some samples from those miraculous floating boulders.”
Wellynd looked over his shoulder at the open space. The lowest boulders were only a handful of yards above the ground. That wasn’t too bad. “That’s why you got the ladder then? Alright. What does that glass orb have to do with it?”
“This, young Wellynd, is a Depositor. A fascinating device, courtesy of our Vertan friends. I...uh…borrowed it from one of their Observatories a few years ago. I really should give it back. Anyway, you’ll, of course, need to take samples from a few of the boulders themselves. I have a hammer and a chisel you can use for that, but I’ll also need samples from the air around the boulders.”
Crouching down, Kellog held the device by its brass handle. The main body of the instrument, a glass enclosure supported by brass fixtures, had a long glass tube that stemmed from one side, ending in a small brass orb.
Wellynd still couldn’t help but think of the device as a bird, but, seeing Kellog tip the device toward the ground until the brass orb sat a mere inch above the stone floor, it also kind of looked like a very intricate and impractical teapot.
“Say I wanted to take a sample here. First, feed the Depositor a steady stream of kose. The sample chamber at the end will open and then close when the sample is gathered.”
As he spoke, the brass sphere at the end split open, rotating so that it became a half-sphere. It reminded Wellynd of a sort of deep brass ladle. A few moments later, the device whirred closed, clicking shut with a snap.
“Once it’s opened and closed, continue feeding kose into the device. Here, open your hand.”
Kellog moved the device over to Wellynd who held out his hand just as the device clicked open once more.
A grey, translucent stone fell into Wellynd’s palm.
“The device will open when it’s done transmuting the sample into something easier to analyze like this.”
Wellynd held the small stone between his finger and thumb, looking through it at the firelight.
“So...wait...this is air? A stone made of air? How is this possible? Also, were you just pulling kose this whole time? ” asked Wellynd.
Kellog chuckled. “Hah. One at a time Welly. As far as I can tell, the device captures the trace elements in the air and condenses them, but I’ve only got my hands on one of these so far, as they’re quite new, so unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to take one apart. Oh, and yes, I was.” He winked “years of practice.”
That was an understatement. Wellynd had never seen anyone pull and push kose so…nonchalantly.
He rolled the stone around in his palm. “Well this one looks just clear, kinda grey-ish, to me. What am I looking for?”
“No need to look or analyze. There should be a few containers you can place rock and air samples in, just make sure to not mix them between each boulder.”
Wellynd nodded, looking at the supplies laying around Kellog’s bags, spotting the hammer and chisel he’d mentioned.
“Guess I’ll get started then!” Wellynd said, standing up and stretching his arms over his head.
A flash lit up the cavern and a moment later a low rumble perturbed the air. The storm seemed to be moving quickly over the mountain, the howling winds dancing through the cave, searching to join the storm’s chorus deeper out to sea.
Wellynd walked towards the boulders and the air grew cold as soon as he stepped away from the fire. He pulled his cloak around him. The sooner he could finish collecting the samples, the sooner he’d get to Kellog’s next lesson.
Having grabbed the depositor, chisel, hammer, and two clay cups, Wellynd dragged the ladder across the ground until he was underneath the lowest boulder.
He stared upwards.
This was the first time he’d stood directly beneath the boulders since they nearly crushed him and his friends. The lowest stone was suspended only a few yards above his head.
Wellynd’s muscles tightened as he stood beneath it.
He took a breath, then positioned the supports of the ladder firmly on the ground and ascended towards the boulder.
“The samples should be about half the size of your palm”shouted Kellog, who had made his way over to the otherside of the cavern. Wellynd jumped and nearly dropped his chisel at Kellog’s interjection.
The task had turned out to be much more difficult than Wellynd had anticipated.
Nearly an hour had passed before he got a decent sample from a single boulder. He had spent most of that time with his hands raised above his head, chiseling at the rock. His shoulders ached from the awkward positioning, and his head twinged with pain as slow drips of water, the remnants of the passing storm, splashed into a puddle on the cavern floor.
During his breaks to relieve his hands and shoulders, Wellynd would watch below him and try to figure out what Kellog was doing.
The man had spent his time moving about different parts of the cave, examining all sorts of nooks and crannies. He also had what appeared to be a set of small brass cubes with him. Sometimes he would place a cube on the ground, or rest it on a rock, and other times he’d hold one near a wall of the cavern, or against the stalagmites that protruded from the floor. After several moments, he would either grumble in frustration or hoot in satisfaction.
At first, Wellynd simply watched. After seeing what the man could do to the cave wall, without any hint of effort, he’d expected a stalagmite to explode into dust, or for Kellog to form another tunnel shooting off of this one, prospecting the mountain for more signs of whatever else he was interested in.
But nothing so remarkable happened.
No stones turned to dust, no tunnels were formed, and the strange brass cubes appeared to do nothing. Wellynd had asked at that point as to what the cubes were for, but Kellog simply replied that he’d better focus, lest he fall off the ladder, and that he would give an explanation over lunch.
As Wellynd finished placing the boulder sample into the clay pot below him, he returned up the ladder once more to work the Depositor.
To his relief, it wasn’t as hard or painful as he’d built it up to be. His practice with Laine’s warehouse jant, and the jants on the minecarts were more difficult than this one.
The device greedily ate all of the kose he fed into it, and it did exactly as Kellog demonstrated. It made a satisfying click when it finished, and the resulting stone that plopped into Wellynd’s hand seemed no different than that of the air sample Kellog had demonstrated.
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He frowned, stepping down the ladder and walking toward the firelight as he held the stone between his thumb and finger, rotating it to catch flickers of light from the flames.
“So, what are the brass cubes?” asked Wellynd, sitting down in front of the fire, rubbing at his shoulder after he set down the samples.
Kellog produced yet another wedge of cheese, a small pot of nuts and seeds, and some dried fruit. Placing them on the tray beside him, he held up one of the brass cubes.
The firelight glinted off the burnished metal. Palm-sized, its surfaces bore grooves etched in swirling patterns, weaving an intricate tapestry across the metal.
Wellynd narrowed his eyes. The patterns reminded him a bit of Henry’s etchings in the sand at Recluse’s Cove.
“Is that a shape?” blurted Wellynd.
“Yes and no.” Kellog smiled. “This is another Vertan invention. They call it a Deakonic Core.” he rotated the brass cube, looking down at it as he spoke “but I’ve once heard a soldier refer to it as a beacon. Not the cleverest play on words, mind you, but not a horrible one either.”
Kellog placed it beside him on the ground, portioned out the meals and handed a small platter to Wellynd.
“So what does it do?” asked Wellynd, taking his meal.
“It’s quite clever” Kellog started, popping a dried apricot into his mouth. “It stores Deakonic kose. The intention is that if you’re too far from Deakon, you can pull directly from this. I presume the Vertans made this so their invading forces could be more effective when they’re, well, invading, but it will serve our purposes just as well.”
Wellynd took a bite of cheese. It was softer and creamier than the one from the morning.
“Why do we need five of them? ” asked Wellynd through another bite.
“Ah, you should have figured that out, Welly. Why might you think I have five?”
Wellynd chewed on a charred piece of meat as he thought about the question. “I’m not sure. I don’t really know what you’re planning on doing. I guess we could need more than one beacon’s worth? Oh…well there are five…and there are five Eikons. Is each one for a different type of kose?”
Kellog grinned and snapped his finger “That’s it. Good work. While the Vertan’s only made one for Deakonic kose, for obvious reasons, I’ve made some slight alterations to these other cubes. I’m actually quite proud of myself. It really didn’t take that long to figure out.”
“Okay. And what are we doing with them?”
Kellog nodded for Wellynd to wait while he took a long drink from his waterskin.
“Well that’s the big question isn’t it? Hopefully, we figure out why you’re in such pain when you channel kose. Really well done by the way. That you were able to produce your Mantle under, what I imagine, were excruciating conditions, really is a feat on its own.”
“So…different types of kose can cause pain?”
“Hmm. I’m not quite sure I’d look at it that way. It’s more so the person than it is the kose. Remember yesterday, when I said that different Eikons have different domains? Let's consider Arta for example. Here, Arthusian kose abounds” Kellog gestured to the air around him “the air is suffused with it. There are traces of other types of kose, but by and large, we are awash with Arthus. We’ve discovered that people tend to acclimate to whatever domain they live in. We don’t know if this happens when someone is born or whether it happens over time, but we know that the vast majority of people born in Arta have an affinity with Arthus.”
Kellog leaned over and grabbed another cube “When someone who is born in Arta travels to Melyar, they might try to channel. It depends on the person who is channelling, but usually, these individuals will find this task much more difficult. Since they are pulling from Gwyn, the kose is less likely to respond to them, and many people report feelings of mild pain or pressure.”
“Okay. I think that makes sense, but I can’t really call what I feel mild.”
“Ah. That’s where we come to the very small minority of people who are not acclimated to their resident Eikon. Mind you, this is very rare. I’ve only met one other person who ever had such a peculiar ailment…if we can even call it that. These unfortunate few are affiliated with a different Eikon than the one they were born under, and, for some odd reason, their pain is amplified when they try to pull from anything other than the Eikon that they are actually aligned with. We don’t know why it happens, and we don’t know how to fix it.”
Kellog stopped and examined Wellynd for a moment before continuing. “It’s not something you probably want to hear, but if you ever want to become a master of wielding kose, you’ll have to leave Arta…now…where you’ll have to leave to is what we will find out with these.”
Wellynd suddenly felt very heavy. He’d always wanted to leave the island. To travel the seas and explore the world. But of his own volition. Being forced to leave because he was somehow incompatible with the air around him wasn’t quite the same thing. The euphoric feeling he had gained from learning about his mantle began to dwindle.
“So I’m…not supposed to be here?” he asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea. As I said, we don’t know why it happens, but this is the only thing that makes sense to me. It really is quite miraculous to have two wildly rare conditions manifest in one person. I wonder if they’re connected…anyway, why don’t we find out what kose doesn’t hurt you and go from there.”
“Sure….okay. What do I need to do?” Wellynd replied.
Kellog walked over and placed each of the cubes onto a stone that was sitting in front of Wellynd.
“Mael, Arthus, Deakon, Gwyn, Val Kan. Left to right. What you need to do is very simple. Take each of the beacons, one by one, hold it in your hand and channel. Try to keep your focus on the beacon itself. Much like a jant, it will do most of the work for you. You should just pull from the brass cube. Pay attention to the way you feel. One of these should give you kose pain-free. What we do and how we progress will all depend on that.”
Wellynd nodded and picked up the leftmost cube, holding it in both hands.
The metal was cold, and he ran his thumbs over the grooved lines.
Mael.
He’d never been to Shaddkara. He hadn’t even seen any drawings of the land. He’d only seen a sketch of their Eikon.
And now its kose was trapped inside this bronze cube.
He pulled.
A coldness began to seep into his palms, and he hesitated, ceasing the flow of kose.
Swallowing, he resumed, and it began to trickle through his palms once more, pooling inside his body.
It felt like a thick sludge, fighting against Wellynd’s attempts to leech it from the device.
Wellynd could no longer feel his hands.
He continued to fight against the thick stream until he felt pins and needles in his palms.
A cold sweat formed on his brow, and moments later, he felt a sudden painful throb, as if his mind caught up to the danger in a sudden jolt.
Wellynd cried out.
“It’s different, but it’s excruciating.”
Kellog stood, watching Wellynd intently.
“That’s quite enough, then! Impressive first attempt, mind you. You picked that up quickly.”
Wellynd ceased pulling, and placed the cube back on the stone.
He stood there, taking a few deep breaths as he held his hands under his armpits.
Oddly, they were warm.
Just like the intense heat evaporated immediately when he stopped pulling from Arthus, so too did the icy chill dissipate when he ceased pulling from Mael.
“Well, we already know about Arthus, so onto Deakon, then.” nodded Kellog.
Wellynd forced a smile, and picked up the third beacon.
He repeated the exercise, and found that pulling from Deakon was much easier than pulling from Mael, and perhaps even easier than Arthus. The pain that followed, though, was present all the same. It came on gradually.
Gwyn rushed into him as he became more familiar with pulling from the strange devices, and the pain that settled deep into his bones followed swiftly after.
Kellog had remained silent throughout the process, and sat with an expectant look as Wellynd picked up the fifth and final beacon.
Val-Kan.
He held the beacon in his hands and began to pull.
“Does this even have any kose inside? I don’t feel anything...”
Kellog raised his eyebrows, “So, Val-Kan it is then. Hmm, getting into Rel might be...”
Then, Wellynd’s balance faltered, his head swaying as the room began to spin.
“Oh...” he said as he fell to his knees.
Wellynd dropped the cube, and, after a few moments, his equilibrium returned.
None of them worked.
What did this mean? He looked up at Kellog, who was scratching his chin and giving Wellynd a sidelong glance.
“This doesn’t make any sense. You must be affiliated with one of them. The rare few are lucky enough to be affiliated with multiple Eikons. Never have I heard of none…what aren’t you telling me, Welly?”
Wellynd pushed himself up on one knee. “What do you mean? Maybe this is just the way I am.”
Kellog crouched down so he was eye level with Wellynd. “Maybe. But that doesn’t explain how you were still able to weave air into the fire yesterday. The level of pain you’re feeling should have been far too much to pull off a shape so effortlessly.”
There was no point in hiding it any longer. Kellog was far too smart to believe any lie Wellynd could come up with, and he didn’t want to alienate the man who had already helped him so much.
Wellynd reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone.
There was a moment of silence.
“You need to tell me where you got that.”