Stone Dreams Pt IV

[Alric Lysane]

38th Spring 522 AV – Open Sky Bazaar

“Back again? Look, no offence lad, but if you’re here just to talk this time then now isn’t a good time. Business needs to run, you understand?” the grizzled man said from behind the stall, shrugging but his question clearly more of a statement.

Alric couldn’t blame the man, he had mouths to feed, he knew, and this would be his third visitation without buying anything, though he had decided that this time purchases would be required. He had thought long and hard upon what the next step for his Reimancy would be, yet it had eluded him for a while – longer than he had liked if he were honest with himself. He knew he was getting better, stronger and more capable…yet he had hit a barrier of sorts. Simple things he could create, largely by finding random chunks of rock and soil to study and sense out, break apart and try to understand them. However, simple was not feeling stretching enough anymore. That had been a surprise given he had not had his magic overly long, though he had practised it almost every day it felt. Perhaps, he reasoned, it was simply repetition.

“Actually, I want to buy some things today, many things if you have what is appropriate. You are right, I have wasted much of your time without discussions, though discussion as I shop would be welcome. After all, you know more than I about these things”

“That so?” the merchant said as he rubbed his jaw, considering Alric for a few moments, “alright, but you better be a man of your word or I’ll not be selling you anything in future, right?”

“Seems fair. So, tell me, where di we leave off last time?”

“Jade. You wanted to know what stone or mineral, outside of metals, were able to take a good thumping and not break your knees”

“That’s right, I remember,” Aric said, picking up a small piece of the mineral and inspecting it closely, noticing its rich green colour and shiny contouring, “run it past me again. Why is it good for that?” he asked, remembering what had been said the last visit but wanting to hear it again, for confirmation.

“Well like I said, it’s a hard mineral that doesn’t cost as much as diamond or other precious gems. I mean, it might not work indefinitely, but depending upon the type of metal hitting it, how sharp it is, whether it’s blunt force…well it’ll stand up for a bit. Least it’ll survive enough to deflect and not hurt you much, though the next attack might. The greener the better, has some iron in it if it’s greener so they say. True or not, the greener it is the tougher and harder it is. Hardness and Tenacity…technically”

“Technically? How’d you mean?” he asked as he watched light of the Outpost almost glow through the piece of mineral, catching its green colouring and almost making it brighten and stain deeper.

“Two different things, is what I mean. Both are ranges more than absolutes, though the general rankings are reasonably decent. Hardness is how hard something is compared to something else, specifically whether it will scratch it or be scratched. Scratches then it’s harder, gets scratched its softer. Tenacity, that’s measuring resistance to blows. Whether it’ll shatter or stand up to something. Jade’s pretty high on both, one of the few things that is actually”

“Hence your suggestion?”

“Hence my suggestion, yes, now what can I do for you today lad? Lots of shopping I hope, it’s been a very slow day actually”

“Oh, I think I’ll be spending a decent amount. For both any items I like the look of, and for your knowledge. Sharing knowledge should not go unrewarded, it is a precious gift. More so that stone, minerals and gems actually”

“Pretty words and no miza lad, come on now put an old man out of his misery”

“You aren’t that old,” he snorted back but placed the piece of Jade aside as his first purchase choice and looking over the assorted collections of various gifts of the earth beneath most of Mizahar’s denizens, “what’ve you got that nice for ornamentation but not going to take my arms and legs?”

[Alric Lysane]

“Well we got Azurite, that’s this one. See the colour? Old colour that, goes back to before the Valterrian they say, colour of Alahea. Or was it Suvan? I can’t remember, but I read it in the library here, many years ago though”

“Interesting. I take it that it’s not overly popular then?” he asked, picking up the small, rough piece and inspecting it, his curiosity perhaps larger than many other customers and almost immediately deciding to put it into the pile for purchase.

“Oh, people don’t care about that stuff, been a long time. Besides jewellery crafters need their own earnings and if it’s flashy and vibrant then they’ll use it. Practicality lad, especially when earning your living. This one’s a bit more interesting, another primary colour – Bloodstone”

“That’s the red one, I take it?” Alric asked with a small grin as the merchant nodded and offered it up to him to inspect.

“Nah lad, most of them aren’t fully red. Unless you want a Ruby, but you said cheaper ones. Usually darker colours, blacks and the like, streaks and platters of red…see how it looks like the floor after a knife fight? That’s how you know. Seems like one you’d like”

“What makes you say that?” he raised an eyebrow.

“No offence lad but just because you talk like someone who wants to learn, doesn’t change the fact you’re covered in sharp items…if you take my meaning?”

Alric laughed and placed it in the pile with the other two, then set about viewing and feeling out as many as took his fancy, all of them small and rough lumps, uncut the merchant called them, though he wasn’t interested in cutting them, but more in their structure and feel. Not to mention the colours, his life was not overly filled with vibrant and colourful things, and Lys had been complaining about that for some reason. When he came back to the T&T Apartments with a bag of stones of all shades and colours she’d likely be surprised.

He selected a good many more, largely because they took his fancy and for no other reason – black agate, amber, ammolite, beryl, coral, fluorite, a handful of what were called fossils, hematite, labradorite, lapis, obsidian and onyx all went into the growing pile, the merchant looking happier with each addition he convinced Alric of. All of them were piled upon a small book, more of a journal by the look of it, that apparently detailed gemstones and crystals – their properties, traditional uses and…if he had read it right whilst flicking through their spiritual qualities. He wasn’t sure about the last part, but the others he could see a use for.

“Sure that’s all you want lad? I’ve got a good number of boxes left that I’d love to sell you, put me out of business until I can get new supplies. You’d wamr an old man’s heart, make him able to put his feet up?”

“If I had the ability, I’d happily do so…but not this time. Still…do you carry any other stones? Not gems or anything, but just rocks? Different types and so on?”

“What would you want with them?” he asked with raised eyebrows.

“Academic curiosity, I’m trying to learn as much as I can about…things from the earth”

“Nah lad, I haven’t got anything like that, though if you want those sorts of things then I’ve an old drinking partner across the way, here I’ll point it out on your map. He knows more than I do about such things, even has them to sell…if he takes a liking to you. I think he used to live in Zeltiva, had a whole university or some such over there I think he said. Go see him” the man suggested.

After that there was little to do but hand over the miza for his purchases, each item doubled up, and slip them into his backpack before setting off, map in hand, on the hunt for the so-called stone expert. He hoped that they would be worth his time, he had a lot of practise to try to get under his belt and more then enough to be busy with already.

Still, no stone unturned he thought, grinning to himself foolishly at the terrible jest.

[Alric Lysane]

“You the rock man?” he asked as he approached a stall roughly where the map had indicated, the look of promise about it from the scattered items upon the tables and the larger items in the corners.

Despite his living mostly in the Outpost these days he had still managed to get lost three times, the map not exactly precise or highly detailed for what he had been using it for. Still, it had provided a rough enough schematic that he had been able to reference it as he walked, knowing he had been going in roughly the right direction, if not precisely the right one. He had stopped to ask members of the Keiss several times, getting pointed in more specific directions in their wake, yet still managing to walk past the stall at first, then doubling back when a Keiss member had told him he had come too far. How they knew everything in such details was lost upon him, and he didn’t ask, simply happy they had been able to help him.

“That depends, who sent you?”

“Man who sells stones and gems, says he is old but can’t be even double my age yet”

“Ah! Farren, lying son of- well I know him. If he set you means you’re serious, he only spend talking time with proper customers…or those interesting in things. Which are you?”

“Both, actually. Names Alric, and you are…”

“Jarvel, and yes I know a lot about rocks. Not that people appreciate that much” the man said sourly.

He didn’t look overly old, perhaps a half score more than his own, though his face more the lines of worry and concern more than those of joyous smiling. Well dressed and clean, other than his hands which had clearly been handling the rocks and stones he watched over and offered up to any who were interested. Scattered pieces of parchment upon the table appeared to be orders and receipts to Alric’s gaze as he stepped closer and underneath the gazebo’s fabric.

“Let us say that I am interested, and that I’d not mind learning at least a portion of what your expert mind might know…what would you say then?”

“I’d ask why and what’s in it for me”

“Because I want to be able to learn them, know them inside and out…then create them. And miza, purchases…I’d say that’s a decent deal, no?”

“Alright, but I want to see miza first. Make sure you’ve got the glitter to back up your honey”

Alric shook the pouch at his hip and the man heard the noise and nodded slightly before setting about arranging a number of rocks in front of him, gesturing the Alric should remain silent as he worked but that he should also approach closer to better see what was being offered up for display. At first he wasn’t sure what Jarvel was doing but after a while it became apparent, it was some sort of scale of stones, with three distinct groups, though within those groups there were also differences that were slight, at least to Alric’s eyes – and they were untrained eyes at that. Jarvel stopped and then pointe at the stones and Alric leaned down, picking them up in turn and feeling them, his eyes searching for what the man was asking him to see.

“See the differences?” he asked Alric after a few chimes of study.

“Yes, and not just with eyes but with fingers too. Smooth, rough and…rougher even. And then there’s lustrous, fragmentary and somewhat coarse”

“Know what they are?”

“Three groups of stones…I know this he told me…Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic? Is that what you want me to see? The three main groups of geological rock?”

“You know something at least. Yes, that’s right. Basic divisions. Do you know how they’re formed?”

“No idea,” Alric shook his head slightly as Jarvel, meeting his gaze briefly before returning his attentions back to the rocks before him, “your friend only knew some things, I think he remembered them from your time together but really was more interested in selling his items than teaching…though he was more than generous with both”

“You want to understand rocks then you’ve got to understand the rock cycle first then. Igneous is the beginning, everything starts with such offerings from Ivak. They get eroded, broken down, ground down, and become sedimentary…takes a long time. Metamorphic…well igneous gets…pressed down with the weight of the land above them. Pressure gives heat too…both change igneous into metamorphic”

“That's so…interesting. Kind of like Djed then, though they are all Djed too I suppose…transformation and re-composition…never fully destroyed, just…changed. What do you mean offerings from Ivak?”

[Alric Lysane]

“Offerings from his domain, the nicer parts…well…unless you’re living over it. Get things hot enough and even stone melts lad, that’s what igneous types are…molten rock from…below”

“Below?”

“That’s as much as we know, there’s a lot of theory and thinking upon such things, but coming from Ivak is as good as the layman need know. Anyway, the molten rock bursts forth, from volcanoes or cracks in the earth…a few ways…and when it solidifies it become igneous rock. That gets eroded into-“

“Eroded?”

“Water breaks down stone lad, never seen that on old stone buildings? Rain hits it for a hundred years and depending on what type it is it won’t last, or have holes and channels in it. But that’s another lesson in itself, the point is that the stone particles don’t just vanish. Like Djed, as you said, the rain takes them away, to rivers or the ground. If enough of those particles end up in the same place…say the mouth of a river…well then over time they pack together, get pressed down by the weight of the world on them, at least that’s the thinking, and they then become sedimentary rock”

“And metamorphic?” Alric asked after a few moments of nodding and committing the words, and the general theories, to memory.

“Igneous stays where it is, gets covered with other things, pressed down under weight. Or maybe the molten rock is so large it still has part of its deposit deep in the earth, from where it came. Either way it has to be deep, you have to dig for these types of things, mine them out or quarry them usually. But the weight also becomes heat, even more heat if its close to the source of the molten offerings from Ivak, and then over time gets changed”

“How much time?”

“Don’t know lad, much or out knowledge doesn’t go back much further than after the Valterrian, perhaps even a hundred years or so after. Science of Geology isn’t exactly an old practise…well…maybe not anymore”

“Valterrian took a lot from us didn’t it? Knowledge forever lost, until reclaimed. A sad thing”

“You talk like you went to th eUniversity, but you walk and dress like a mercenary. What’s your game lad?”

“Just because I dress to muggings doesn’t mean I don’t like learning,” he said, holding up his reversed palm so his Eyris mark was showing, causing Jarvel to raise his eyebrows before controlling himself, “never did get to the University though. I’m not sure that’s my path. Still, I find teachers where I can…like yourself Jarvel. Now…to business…got samples of all three of these types? I’d like at least two, and duplicates of each if possible”

“What about the sub-divisions?”

“Oh, I’ll come back another day for more of your words of wisdom, but I have enough between you and your friend to last me a few days of thought. Besides, each visit means more profit for you, no?”

Jarvel nodded and set about showing Alric various types of igneous rock, letting him feel them out and get a sense of the weight before he chose them, placing them into a pile much as he had done with the gem merchant. The igneous were rough lumps, quite clearly simply harvested from the deposits themselves, but the sedimentary were shaped blocks, roughly cut if not entirely carefully dressed – sample blocks Jarvel informed him, he sold quarried bulk orders but it was too costly to transport whole cargo until a sale was made and miza exchanged. The metamorphic ones were much the same, though smaller blocks as their value was higher. In the end he chose a mixture of sample rocks for study – Andesite, Basalt, Granite, Limestone, Sandstone, Flint, Shale, Marble, Slate and Quartzite, each with duplicates for him to study and experiment with. As with the gem merchant he also took a journal style collection of writings upon Geology, specifically basic theory and rock types according to Jarvel, all of them going into his backpack with his other purchases for the day.

“Not a bad result for a slow day, don’t suppose you’d care to come back and buy an entire quarry at some point?” Jarvel asked him with a chuckle.

“Friends indeed, the gem merchant asked me much the same. The same answer – if I only had that amount of miza. Thank you for the knowledge”

“Don’t we all Alric, don’t we all. Come back and buy more, never turn away a customer and regulars aren’t all that easy to find”

Alric nodded and turned, beginning the journey back to the T&T Apartments for the beginnings of his own type of study.

[Alric Lysane]

When he arrived back at the apartments Lys and Jade were gone, he had left them both though Jade did as he pleased since he had been asked to watch over Aric by Vas a few days previously. Truthfully he had yet to process that day fully within himself, pushing it back and into the depth of himself rather than confront the raw sensations – he had become quite good at doing that of late, his missions of survival, or curse thwarting, far too important for moments of weakness brought upon by self-reflection. He would have to at some point, he knew that deep down inside, but not yet. No, instead he took out all of his purchases of the day, put them upon the table in front of his chair, crossed his ankles upon said table and relaxed into his chair, smoke curling around his face.

As he puffed away thoughtfully he picked up each of the gems and stones in turn, examining them for a long while, taking a good bell to finish the entire lot of them, his pipe having long cooled and emptied before the finish of the study. Summoning his Djed and settling into the passive state of Auristics he plucked up each stone and gem, turning it over as he focused upon them, sensing out its properties – structure, weaknesses, each of them holding such a miniscule aura yet providing small gleanings of knowledge as he spent more time with each piece, allowing his focus to narrow and discern as much as was possible – it wasn’t much but it was an interesting experimentation that allowed him to see the black cracks and streaks, suggestive of weaknesses that were concurrent within both pieces of the same stone, which meant they had common properties and even possibly weaknesses that were inherent within their type.

“Curious” he muttered to himself as he let his Djed fade and the mage sight seeped out of him, the world fading and becoming duller, its songs lost and the smells and sensations of the stones vanishing along with it.

As he reflected upon what he was doing momentarily, he realised that this was what he enjoyed the most about magic and its associated requirements – the seeking and revealing of knowledge. It was almost fun, though it took much effort and time. It must have been what his ancestors had felt, pushing back the boundaries of what they knew and delving into the depth of what they already thought they knew. Eyris had imbued their blood with her own inherent qualities it seemed, however weak and watered down. Thinking upon Eyris he smiled, she was perhaps the only divine he truly liked and thought he understood. Croix had seemed fun enough, but he still had much to think upon when it came to him and his spheres of influence. He liked him, but he did not understand him – he supposed that would give him amusement, perhaps even that was the whole point of illusions and trickery.

He closed his eyes, taking a few moments to center himself and recede into the calm of mind he often sought these days but rarely found unless he actively sought. It took longer than usual, current events throwing up freeze frame pictures of memory that he had to work through and bypass before the calm shadows of meditative contemplation fell upon him. He tapped into his Lykata and touched each stone and gem in turn, wondering if he would glean anything at all. As expected, there were no inherent properties of the stones, yet there were residual traces of those whom had touched them – the strongest amongst them were Jarval he realised after some musing. But there were a couple of others – merchants and what he thought must be miners, or quarry workers. Some actually seemed to enjoy their backbreaking work, a revelation that intrigued him.

“Secrets and trails…I wonder how many I have left over the years? What items Sran’tuka could get his hands on and torture an Eyris marked into revelation after revelation? He sighed and let Eyris’ gift fade, having gleaned all of the images and sensations he could from them, leaving him frowning thoughtfully at the collection he had amassed thoughtfully.

After a while he sighed and summoned up his Res, wondering if it might somehow have some kind of resonance with the things he had collected. He was a Geomancer after all, he had written down that that was what Earth Reimancers were called according to Tazrae, his inductor. Extruding his Res to cover the first stone – Andesite – he closed his eyes and for the first time since beginning to use the magic truly try to feel his Res, rather than just use it. It took some time but eventually he made the mental connection and felt the Res more deeply than before, it was a part of him but its composition and sense…was different, felt less solid and more changeable. As it coated the Andesite he could almost feel like it…echoed…that was the only way he could describe it, as if it called out to the stone, as if knowing that it could become the stone if it so chose…or was directed. It was strange, as if it were learning, though he knew that was the wrong word really, it felt more instinctual than cerebral.

Pulling the Res back but keeping the sensation of the echo he formed his Res into a rough lump shape, similar to the Andesite it had just coated, then closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to will it to change. It took a while, perhaps because it was a new thing working from a template he had only just started to study, but eventually there was a ripple, from the inside out, and it transformed into a copy of the Andesite, or at least that’s what it looked like as it fell the few inches to the table with a thud. He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding and leaned back into his chair after picking his creation up, studying it as he relaxed.

[Alric Lysane]

Turning it around in his hands he couldn’t find much of a difference between his creation and the Andesite upon the table that had been purchased, but when he eventually tested it he found that there was one massive one – it broke apart, as if its structure was not properly formed. He sighed, feeling the rough and fragmented internal structure, knowing that though the exterior he had formed was pretty exact – even down to his dagger not being able to scratch it when he tried – the internals had been far from a true reflection of the actual stone. He picked up one of the two he had purchased, then took up the hammer and chisel he had purchased from Jarval, using them to hammer out five strong blows to split it open, to expose its internal structure.

Picking it up he immediately noticed the difference, the grains were much finer in the real one, bound together more strongly, clearly visible even by mere eyesight. He pondered upon that, wondering how to actually mimic that. Jarval had said that it was formed of molten rock, lava or magma he thought, though he didn’t remember the distinction. It wasn’t the name that had cropped up in their discussion as much as the idea of heat that was prodding at his mind, as if it knew something that was just beyond his mental reach. He spent a while, thumbs scraping across the broken surface, in thought.

What was it about the heat that mattered? Something strong…I want to make it stronger. Forge it…forge! Forges use fire, he knew, but they did more than that didn’t they? They hammered and folded, not that he knew the details or was skilled in it, but he had watched the blacksmiths work on occasion, usually partly out of curiosity but also because the warmth of the forge held back the cold bite of winds on occasion. Perhaps that would work, or something like it? Not quite the same, but more an awareness that strong bonds were required, a folding on sorts to facilitate the creation, even if it were a mental trigger. He extruded another portion of Res, one thumb still grazing the smooth, strong texture of the broken Andesite, and frowned in concentration as he manipulated the Res, willing into the lumpy shape once more but this time conjuring up the mental image. He used all of his senses, touch from the thumb that moved, taste and smell from the other half of broken stone under his nose and touching his tongue, everything he could think of to get as perfect an imitation as he could manage.

Eventually, once he was certain that he had everything as tightly held in his mind and body as he could, he willed the Res to take on what he was mentally screaming at it that he wanted, watching as it rippled and transformed once more. He sighed and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead before leaning forwards, hefting his creation in his hands and finding it heavier than the other one had been, pausing for a moment to offer up a silent prayer to whatever would listen, then dropping it upon the floor. He didn’t look down immediately, listening to the sound and hearing the solid thud that filled him with some confidence. Looking down he saw it was still whole, picked it up and tried to break it – nothing, it remained solid unlike previously. Smacking it against the true Andesite he found that a small amount chipped off but on the whole it remained…whole.

“Not perfect, a bit more practise required for true imitation…or creation…however it’s deemed. Still, not bad for now. I wonder if it’ll naturally just get more accurate and stronger, the more I learn this magic, and the stronger and more capable I get with it?” he mused to himself as he looked upon the other stones he had purchased, deciding that now was as good a tie as any to see if he could replicate the process, before he became too tired and needed food, or rest.

He leaned forwards and picked up the Basalt, hefting it in his hands and now knowing that there was more to Geomancy than just looking and replicating – he had to know the thing he wanted to create.

[Alric Lysane]

He spent a long time with the hammer and chisel, breaking apart the stones as cleanly as was possible whilst trying not to leave too many marks upon the table that would lead to it being in need of replacing – he placed down a dagger as a base plate upon which to balance the rocks for the hammer and chisel, he could lose one and still have enough to use against enemies if it came to it. He started with the igneous rocks – the Basalt and Granite, both with different textures, smells, tastes and fracture points, the Granite in particular was quite shiny and was reminiscent of the Quartzite, making him wonder whether the lustre hinted as similar compositions, at least in part.

Both were slightly off after he had extruded his Res, spent chimes in concentrated sensual experience, and then tried to form and solidify his replica with his Geomancy. It was a slow process and more draining than he had thought, entirely different from instinctively creating something new and perhaps not even real in the sense of existing somewhere in a natural state. This was research and application, mentally rewarding but physically draining and difficult to create in exactness. He wasn’t surprised that as he continued to work his Geomancy that it became more of a poor series of replicas. The Basalt was not the right surface strength but internally strong, the Granite wasn’t the right lustrous texture but was otherwise a good copy.

He tried several times for accurate replicas, exact replicas, before giving up and leaning back into his chair, placing the Reimancy creations all into one pile and the true igneous stones into another, just so he could make sure he had the right ones for future attempts. He opted to take a break before moving onto the metamorphic rocks, skipping the sedimentary for now as they had seemed more fragmented and composed of individual grains of substance from what Jarvel had said, whereas the metamorphic seemed closer to what he had already been trying to do and so the logical next step in the attempts. This, however, proved to be only partially true, the marble and quartzite seemed as if it fit his thinking, but the slate seemed to be slightly different, more layered perhaps upon first inspection. The was harder to split open too, chipping more than anything else but into large enough chunks that he could gaze upon, feel and try to get a sense of.

It was all for naught though, instead he found lethargy creeping upon him, a stomach that grumbled and his creations becoming sloppier, and more lacklustre, by the attempt. After the third attempt at extruding, shaping and then forming a decent replica of marble he held before him, in the end giving up and tossing aside the crude attempts in disgust, wishing he was made of more talented stuff like his ancestors apparently were. As usual Twilight appeared, as if sensing his growing frustration, and seeking out his shoulders for something to drape over and feel the warmth of – he had started sweating a bell ago and had not really stopped feeling warmer from the exertions. Pushing himself up tiredly he grabbed some salted pork from the kitchen, offering up some raw stuff to Twilight, who’s head shifted this way and that before snapping out to devour what was offered.

“Good boy” he said tiredly as he continued to eat, more for the energy than anything else, though it started taking the edge off of his appetite almost immediately, which led to the inevitable gorging that was beginning to cost him much in the way of miza for food costs.

“There must be an easier way than this…surely they had something else way back when before the Valterrian? Or is this the great secret of the old schools…they just had so much extra knowledge that things were easier, stronger and more talented” he wondered, his mind filled with musing much like that for some time as he drank a glass or two of wine, ate what felt like his bodyweight in food, and tried to think of a way forward from where he had managed to stumble.

He still had some of the rock to work with, and that might take some time, but the gems and other things…they would require skills that he didn’t have. Tool even, if he had to cut them apart to get a sense of their internal composition. It was going to be a long path, he noted wearily to himself.