Placeholder [The Midnight Gem] Becoming More Immersed I

[Kelski]

Timestamp - 64th of Spring, 519 A.V.

The Sea Eagle was pleasantly tired. She’d just returned from sitting in the barn for an hour, feeding the new Arch structure djed. It hadn’t found its voice yet, but it had strong feelings and urges. And while The Gem had taken a long time to find a voice and even connect to Kelski through her emotions, the barn was doing a lot better.

Kelski choked it up to experience. She was helping the barn grow in leaps and bounds, while still trying to maintain a sane happy relationship with The Gem. Whom, Kelski had learned, was a bit jealous of its child and the attention Kelski gave it. The whole reasoning, Kelski suspected, was that The Gem didn’t calm herself enough to listen to the barn’s soft emotions, and because the barn couldn’t talk yet, the two structures were not communicating at all. So, in essence it saw Kelski interacting with the barn, but didn’t understand it.

And that threw Kelski into a mediator role. The Gem had to be soothed somehow, and made ready for the move Kelski knew was happening. But she also had to do something above and beyond to get The Gem’s attention for the building was nervous about all the packing and knew something big was up.

So, Kelski walked into the main building, dragged a chair over to the hearth, and looked quietly around before she laid her hand on the stone of the fireplace. “I want to teach you things, Gem. Things you’ll need to know to get bigger, stronger, and more protective. We are going to move soon… from here to a wilderness area where you will have all the room to grow and spread your spaces as much as you want. I’m going to take you and barn with us. You’ll need the barn’s company for you will be alone with yourself and not in a city of other buildings.” The Sea Eagle said, knowing her talk might not help The Gem’s jealousy.

I’m already alone. They are dead things without magic. Even Barn has no voice.

“But you haven’t been alone since Barn came.” Kelski said insistently. She knew the barn didn’t have the voice like The Gem had, but it was just a matter of time. “I know Barn is young and newly created, but company is company especially where we are going.” Kelski added, looking thoughtful. “And you will need more than you have now to protect yourself.” The Jeweler turned mage said. “I am talking about magic; the kind human mages wield. I know a bit of it, and I plan on teaching you what I know. That way, out in the wilderness with you being the only building alongside barn, you can defend yourself and Barn.” Kelski said, feeling weird calling the barn by the name Barn, but it was something that had to be done. It needed a name until it could pick one for itself.

[Kelski]

No. You are a mage. I am a building. I house. You cast.

“Are you saying you can’t be a mage?” Kelski asked, tilting her head, ready for a tantrum. The Midnight Gem had definitely had them before, and she could tell it was teetering on the edge of such an abyss. But she wasn’t about ready to give up talking it down.

I can. I would be a good mage. I don’t want too.

The voice in Kelski’s head said firmly. It was as stubborn as they came, probably because the mage that had birthed it was as well. “Its something you will need to know. Is there anything I can do to talk you into learning magic?” Kelski asked, curious, knowing that negotiations were sometimes the best policy when The Gem was being stubborn.

I want the horses and chickens and goats.

Kelski paused. She hadn’t expected that. “You mean you want to be the barn when we leave and go to the new place?” She asked cautiously. “I had planned for you to be a grand manor full of people with so many rooms we could hold more. This structure would be something you remembered as small and cramped in comparison.” Kelski explained, trying to sound calmly reasonable. Did The Gem want to trade places with barn? She wasn’t sure what the Architectrix meant but she was certain.

I like watching the horses and goats play. Miss seeing them. Since barn came they are inside barn where I cannot see. I miss them.

It was more of a sentence than Kelski had ever heard The Gem speak before. And she thought about it and realized what the building was saying. It missed the antics of the goats and horses. It wanted to see these things because to it, the play was more its style and its age, rather than the humans and Kelvics just going about their lives. “Okay I can understand that…” She started out only to have the Gem cut her off.

No. You can’t understand. I want the people and the animals both. I want to be both. Barn can be something else. Something important if he wants, but something else…. he doesn’t like chickens!

Kelski was having an argument with her home. The whole situation struck her as ludicrous, but she soldiered on. “What does Barn like that won’t make him mad if you grow big enough to house both the people and the animals?” Kelski asked cautiously. She expected a response akin to what a human child would give… . perhaps a don’t know don’t care kind of response. But that was fairly far beyond what she actually got.

He likes The Sea. He got that love from you. He likes moving things. He doesn’t like animals of the land that stink. He likes the animals that live beneath the waves that cling. He likes the wind and likes the God of the Wind and the God of the Waves. Make him a house on the edge, that has a tongue out into the water like over south of us. Give him a roof to shelter boats, and maybe some room for people to live if they want to not be with the animals.

Kelski looked thoughtful. “Like a Boathouse? Like a dock?” She asked, turning to stare off the corner of the balcony where she could see the barn. “He really doesn’t like the horses?” She asked, looking stunned.

[Kelski]

They kick him sometimes. They chew on his wood. Same with goats. I told him to turn himself into stone. But he’s too young. I would do a better job minding them. One home for all of us. You would like how I would grow.

Kelski blinked, slowly starting to smile. “So, if I gave Barn what he wanted as in being a Boathouse and a Dock to tie ships up too… then you’d learn magic for me?” Kelski asked, knowing that was a hundred percent doable and not unreasonable on the part of The Midnight Gem. In fact, this was a conversation she was glad they were having.

Yes. I will learn if you say yes to letting me guard all. He can be for the water.

“I can definitely do that. Definitely.” She paused in case The Gem wanted to say anything else, but it seemed her home was content and definitely listening. She could feel its emotions just like she was staring into the face of a companion and reading their eyes.

“There are three types of magic I want you to learn right away. One lets you look at things in a new way. You use the djed you have in you… which I can sense as a big pool… and tap into how you see the world. You flood that mechanism with djed and it augments your vision calling up something we like to refer to as magesight. You can see the world in a whole new way through this power. It is called Auristics. It takes concentration and focus, but I think its something you can do.” Kelski added, knowing without a shadow of a doubt it might be something The Gem already did, albeit unconsciously.

I listen.

“The second type of magic I want you to learn is the magic of barriers. You can craft magical barriers over your form that will block out things like wind or rain or fire. You can save your own life crafting these shields. One that blocks fire? You can make it if you see a wildfire coming and are afraid you will be in its path. You can make them against water and protect your roof or cover your chimneys from dripping rain. Shields can be complex or as simple as we want them to be. But it’s a magic that takes a lot of djed manipulation and a conscious awareness of the shield being there to maintain – at least at first.” Kelski said, looking thoughtfully at the hearthstone she was caressing.

I listen.

The building was definitely listening. Kelski could hear its eagerness in its voice. It wanted these powers now because it gave The Midnight Gem an added advantage that it couldn’t maintain otherwise. “The third power is called Reimancy. It will give you master over the elements if you practice enough. You can call the wind or dismiss it. You can light fires in your own hearth if you wish and snuff them out when they are no longer needed. Reimancy is a beautiful thing but it is a dangerous power nonetheless.” Kelski added, knowing she’d have to go into an overgiving lesson sooner or later

[Kelski]

Kelski knew from her family's journal that in order to get The Gem safely out of the city all in one piece, both her and the Midnight Gem needed to be more educated both in Architectrix and trust each other in new ways. Those ways would allow Kelski to move the essence of the gem and not have to start over someplace fresh. in how to work together as a team. To that extent, Kelski had set aside quite a few days to work with The Gem while they were packing up and making arrangements to leave the city so the building would be ready to leave. That meant teaching The Midnight Gem the new magics. Kelski had taken the entire season to think over how she was going to do that before she had settled on the means to which she'd carry out the process. First, was this part, the explanation, then she’d let the Gem choose where she started. Next, the Gem had to choose where it was going to start, and then she’d need to begin teaching.

The book cautioned against teaching Architectrix’s magic, but Kelski read it as one of those warnings for people that didn’t spend time with their Arch’s… and have deep seeded relationships with them like Kelski and The Midnight Gem shared. “So where do you want to start?” She asked, stroking the hearth and their mortared stones once more, being very careful and loving with her touch.

Kelski didn’t want to pressure the Midnight Gem into making a bad choice, but what she did want to do is pressure the midnight Gem into making a good choice and getting started. The Gem needed to decide and its was going to help if it started with something that interested it.

Aursitics.

It remembered the name. That pleased Kelski enormously. “Great choice. That is the easiest and the one that I think you can learn the fastest. Though its not about speed. Its about skill.” Kelski said, looking thoughtful and trying to decide how to articulate what she needed to tell the Midnight Gem to get it on the path of studying the magic. Then, it hit her.

She didn’t have to actually tell the Gem anything. She could show the Midnight Gem what she knew of auristics in her head. The Gem was generally an eavesdropper to her mind. “Auristics is a personal magic, meaning a magic you draw power for from your Djed. Djed is the energy inside yourself, the magic, that flows through all living things. Auristics, when utilized, lets you read and interact with the auras of living creatures, and even some things that aren’t alive.” Kelski explained.

Interact? Read?

The Gem questioned. Kelski realized the Gem had no concept for reading like a person who had grown up schooled did. It didn’t understand books, like a child would, nor did it understand whole concepts could be contained in books. “Read means to look at something and make determinations about it… say for example when I come home soaked to my skin and shivering, you always make your body warmer because you can ‘read’ the fact that I’m cold just from your observations.” Kelski explained. “You can use magic in a very similar fashion. Every living thing has a glow to it, which we call an aura, and that glow in magesight gives off clues as to how that creature is. You can tell, for example, if they are wounded under a cloak or if they are feeling certain emotions, that kind of thing.” Kelski explained, more than happy that her Arch was now paying attention.

I understand. Show me.

[Kelski]

Kelski did, closing her eyes to concentrate. She tapped her well, doing so in an obvious way that The Midnight Gem could feel, and drew the power up into her eyes. She let the djed flow through her vision and then carefully opened her lids. Her vision changed as everything lit up around her. She could see the glowing walls of the Midnight Gem and see the energy traces left by the coming and going of its denizens. She held out her own hand, lofted in front of her nose, and looked at how her own purple and blue aura swirled around herself. She was happy, contented almost, feeling curious and hopeful. All those elements were present in her aura and she relayed that down through the link she had via the splinter in her arm.

Oh. I see.

The Midnight Gem said. Then it did exactly what Kelski did. There were no hesitations, no uncertainty, no urging that it could do it. It simply dipped into the pool of power in its center, tapped it, and reached its oddly alien awareness outwards. That awareness wasn’t eyes per say but it gave The Gem the ability to sense and see just as much as Kelski’s eyes did. And when The Midnight Gem flooded its senses with the djed it had just discovered in its internal reservoir, the augmentation on its vision was immediately noticeable by the building who immediately relayed what it was seeing to its mage.

I understand.

The words were tinged with excitement as the Gem flooded Kelski’s mind with images augmented by Auristics. The Kelvic had never seen a creature pick up a lesson so quickly, so smoothly and she was incredibly proud at how her daughter, in essence, was a born mage from the start.

I am magic. You should not be surprised.

“I know. But I thought it would be a struggle. It feels like such things are effortless to you.” Kelski said, tilting her head sideways, trying to understand. There was a lot of power in the Gem’s reserves, and it was power the Gem didn’t even know it had. Kelski was happy it had the ability. It would make things so much easier in the coming seasons if she could get the Arch to help with its own construction. “You are doing so well.” She said, praising the structure as it flashed image after image at her. Sadly, all the images were of the dead and dying structures around Sunberth.

It feels like a graveyard here. So many dead things. So little life.

[Kelski]

Kelski nodded. “I’ve often said that of Sunberth. That it is akin to a giant beast rotting in the sun. The humans that live in it are just temporary feasters as its flesh melts away and rejoins the collective world. You’ve seen dead things fed on by beetles and maggots? That’s what Sunberth feels like…. and that’s the reason we want to move.” She added, looking thoughtful. “I want to give you room to grow, room to train, and room to explore.” She added, knowing the building had been a bit constrained by the property she owned and the city it lived in. “You won’t be when we move.” She added, pleased beyond measure that she was doing this and that it was feeling more and more real as the days passed.

I will be strong. I will practice this.

“With your new magical eyes, you can see further, read more, and learn faster. It will help out tremendously. Now… I want you to practice your auristics. I want you to use your djed filled vision to look deeply at the auras of everyone who walks by if you can manage it. Take your time of rest. Even I can feel that you sleep sometimes. And I am glad for that. But use it daily, hourly, make it a big priority to train it, Gem. You will need it. And someday it may save all our lives.” Kelski added, looking a bit whistfule. But she was right. It might save their lives. The Gods knew Shielding and Reimancy could.

Stifling a yawn, the Kelvic rose, gave the hearthstone one last pat, and stretched. She slipped over to the couch and stretched out. “I’m going to take a quick nap. I fed Barn lots of Djed this morning so I’m a bit worn down. However, I’ll get up in a bell or two and we can have a new lesson. This time we will talk about shielding and give you a brief rundown on what it can do. There’s far more to shielding than Auristics, but in many ways its absolutely the more powerful of the two. Once we get it so you can sheild, none of these walls will allow strangers in. I promise you.” Kelski said with a yawn, and stretched out on the couch. Then she pulled a throw over her, and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

Words: 3038

Continued in: Becoming More Immersed II

[Kelski]

G R A D E S

Kelski-

Architectrix +5, Teaching +4, Persuasion +5, Negotiation +2, Psychology +2

Teaching: Teaching Auristics To An Arch Structure, Psychology: Getting The Structure To State Its Feelings, Negotiation: Figuring Out What The Other Party Needs, Negotiation: Finding Common Ground, Psychology: Determining What Someone Wants As A Solution

PM me with questions or concerns.