[Flashback] Just Another Day (Eridanus)

[Nira'lia]

The konti shrugged absently and hugged her knees. She muttered, "I-I wouldn't know what area you can explore that hasn't been explored yet. I don't even think I've ever seen any enchanted objects before. If I have, I must have not known at all. Do you have some with you right now? That would be interesting to see." Nira'lia started to play with the ends of her hair. She thought about his question carefully. Nira'lia didn't know how magecraft could be helpful as a whole, but she did know how it could help her... if only she had access to it, that was. "I don't know," she was starting to feel the depth of his questions. "Why don't you find research for a way to make it more practical for the masses... make it more available for us? I mean, like I said, I don't think I've actually ever made use of an enchanted object. But when I think about it... if I could use one that would help me with, let's say, injuries, then that would be great." She smiled and said, "You said it yourself, it's expensive... so it doesn't even reach those people who might need it most of all. Perhaps you should find a way to solve that," she gave a laugh. "...I don't know. I'm just throwing words out here. I can't talk to you on a mage's wavelength, so there you go, a commoner's viewpoint."

[Eridanus]

"Unfortuantely, I don't. I don't have that amount of money to bring around magecrafted items. The cost of creating the most basic item is at minimum a thousand gold-rimmed mizas, and the standard market price of one is three times that number."

He thought deeply about what she said, slowly coming to a conclusion of sorts.

"So... to make magecraft more manageable cost-wise, eh?"

There were ways of making inferior or less reliable enchanted items such as glyphing or malediction. However, the former did not boast the power or durability of the enchantment present in magecraft, while the latter did not possess the consistency and reliability of magical effects.

"Is there a way... to use magecraft to reduce the costs of magecraft? Perhaps to divine fixed costs over a wider production to reap economies of scale..." He muttered. These were the economic concepts explained to him by Wejerx in the use of the specially designed items for Resonant Harmonics. Yet, if it could be used for fixed protocol enhancements, was it not possible to use magecraft to fiddle with magecraft itself?

"Perhaps... magecraft engineering... Magineering?" He mused, now talking more to himself than to her. His mind was brimming with possibilities, but with no way of making use of that. For that he needed more research, more knowledge, and with that information to apply them in experiments. Experiments that may or may not yield profitable results.

He would need to talk to Wejerx about it later on. For now, he picked up his quill again, writing on his piece of vellum.

[I posit that personal intentions are relevant, but not necessarily essential, to Magecraft.

I posit that magecraft can manipulate magecraft itself.]

Was that topic too wide? Was it possible in the first place? He knew that basic could be imbued into items, such as flaming swords or morphing shields. He knew of containers that could automatically create soulmist - if but low quality ones - through the use of behavioural and magic enhancements. That was a sign that it was possible to imbue world magic into the item via magecraft.

Would it be possible to imbue magecraft through magecraft? Perhaps a better rewording was in order.

[I posit that magecraft can manipulate be imbued by magecraft itself.]

"What do you think?" He told Nira'lia, motioning towards the words that he had just wrote.

[Nira'lia]

"Mm-hmm..." said Nira'lia absently, even if she tried her best to look like she could understand his words. If she were to be honest, her mind started to trail off when he started to speak about economies. It wasn't that she wasn't interested, rather, her simple-mindedness and lack of education was making it difficult for her to stay on the same track as him. The konti grinned when he came up with the term 'magineering'. For some reason, the word perked her interest, but she said nothing as she could see that he was starting to talk to himself now. He seemed to be unto something as he returned his attention to his quill and vellum. Nira'lia watched him, amused at his energy. She thought it funny that her oblivious statement about his area of study had actually given him an idea. The konti said nothing and leaned back on the wall, continuing to keep her busy by playing with the ends of her hair. She twisted the pale strands around her fingers and started to daydream about nothing in particular, waiting for Eridanus to return to the present. When he asked for her attention, Nira'lia glanced at him and then at his paper. He had crossed out some lines and words -- obviously, a lot of thoughts were going through his head. She tilted her head, puzzled at what he had written. "I-it's good? I like it." she managed to squeak out. Her confusion was evident in both her voice and expression. How do you imbue something in itself...? The konti shook away her uncertainty and looked at him with a bright smile. Nira'lia realized that her unsure reply could possibly come off wrongly. She wanted to make it obvious that even if she couldn't understand the technicalities, and hence his statement itself, she fully supported what he was unto. The konti restrained a laugh at her awkward predicament. "I'm sure your professor will appreciate it. Go on and write, don't mind me," she told him. She assumed that his paper wouldn't have just one single line in it. Nira'lia was fine with just sitting there in silence while he jotted away, and she urged him to do just that.

[Eridanus]

When she voiced her support, the confusion on her face was evident. It was quite clear to the ethaefal that she had no idea what she just read, but was affirming his views nonetheless.

"You're clueless, aren't you?" He told her teasingly. Still, it was a technical field that only magecrafters would know. In fact, if he had not been inducted into the field he would have found himself grasping at straws as well.

He took another book, this time it had contents from Godek's team's ground-breaking Second Experiment. Many other researchers and wizards have made citations to Godek's works, and Eridanus was hoping to find any mentions of magecraft. Perhaps Godek had already done it before, or was it considered a failure?

Flipping open the book, he traced his finger through the Abstract, his eyes darting quickly from one line to the other as he speed-read the page to see if he was going to find what he was looking for.

Page 25... right...

Flipping more pages to reach the one he sought, he looked up again to find Nira'lia absent-mindedly looking off into the stars.

"Are you just going to sit there and stare? Did you find me just to do that? Or is my company alone that exciting?" He broke the silence, his voiced amused as he teased her again.

Muttering in an incomprehensible whisper, "Stars are pretty bright tonight...", he squinting his eyes as he tried to spot the constellation that he was named after.

"Do you recognize any of them?" He wandered aloud.

[Nira'lia]

Nira'lia attempted to glare at him, but it just resulted in an expression that a child would make. She frowned and her cheeks flared again -- evidently, she didn't handle teasing very well. He started to muse at the night sky, and Nira'lia felt guilty, as she felt that he wasn't focusing on his assignment in an effort to entertain her. "I can recognize some of the constellations. I know where... uhm..." she lifted a finger and pointed up, and then she stopped her sentence mid-way. Nira'lia looked puzzled as she stared up, her mouth agape. Scanning over the sky, she tried to look for the constellation that she had learned about a few days ago. The sky was so vast and the stars seemed to be endless in number that she found herself completely lost in them. In the end, all she could do was sigh in defeat. "Okay, so I can't find it," muttered Nira'lia, and she put her hand back down. A slight feeling of embarrassment washed through her. Shrugging it away, she glanced at him. "When I told my mother about you, she said you were named after a constellation. She pointed it out to me but I guess I don't remember where it is now." Nira'lia paused as she thought about her mother. She seemed to be deep in thought about a particular matter. Finally, after some hesitation, the konti continued. "You know, she also said you're somehow going to be tied to my future... whatever that means,” the konti laughed lightly. She could rarely understand what her mother meant. Her mother was a fortune-teller and she spoke in riddles that she wouldn’t interpret for anyone else. "Rather strange, don’t you think?”

[Eridanus]

"Well honestly, it's kinda hard to tell as well. The University is too bright with both magical and mundane lights to let us spot the stars properly. We have to use the University's high-powered telescope, but I have no idea how to use it," He replied, pointing to the large telescope fixed on the window at the edge of the top floor that they were on.

Shaking his head, he continued, "Wejerx told me that the crystal optics were magecrafted though, so that probably means that it's bloody expensive and I don't really want to use something that expensive and complex if I don't know how to. Can't afford it if it breaks."

He looked at the konti again, this time with a thoughtful stare as he contemplated her words. Her mother was obviously a Konti, and by virtue of her station was probably much older and experienced. If the Children of Avalis were to say something, it would take a fool to dismiss it so easily.

"She said that, did she?" He mused. "What else did she say? What about you then, Nira'lia. What do you think about that?"

[Nira'lia]

"Yes, I suppose that's true. I didn't think you'd be so unadventurous though," she said with a laugh, referring to his statements about the large telescope and how he didn't want to use it in fear of breaking it. Nira'lia found herself looking up at the sky again to see if her luck was getting better, but to no avail. She just couldn't spot was she was looking for. When he asked her about her thoughts about her mother's words, she didn't answer right away. Nira’lia pursed her lips, as if uncertain about how she could possibly answer that question – even if she had asked it before he did. "That's all she said... and why are you returning the question to me?" she finally replied as she continued to focus her stare on the sky."I asked you first, didn't I?" She became silent again as she thought about it. In the end though, she couldn't grasp at any solid ideas about how she should approach the matter. Finally, she gave a shrug and smiled. "Who knows? Whatever happens will happen, I suppose. It would be great if I had an idea about where I'm going to end up, though... perhaps that's why I'm here, to get a better clue about who you are," she answered adamantly, giving a light chuckle. "That's a much better reason to come looking for you, isn't it?"

[Eridanus]

"I returned the question because I'm not the one with Avalis' bloodline, you know," Eridanus smiled. "I'm just a regular guy, trying to make ends meet."

Looking more serious as he contemplated his future, he continued, "But truth be told, I don't really know where I'll end up years from now. I'll definitely stay in Zeltiva University to finish my education, but after that, I might not even be here any more. Perhaps other places beckon, and new experiences or knowledge call to me from strange lands. It is highly unlikely that I will stay here long after my graduation."

He turned up to face Nira'lia, meeting her eyes with his own soulful ones masked deeply in fae glamour, "In that case would you still find me, then? Are our futures tied that strongly?"

He only had a limited understanding of Konti from his brief stint in Mura, and of course he did not know that Konti could be born with either blessings to Heal or to Prophecize. To him he assumed that all Konti were prophets as a result of their link with Avalis. He also did not know anything about Konti calls.

[Nira'lia]

A regular guy? Nira'lia gave another laugh. To her, he was far from regular. "Okay, so you're going to be all over the place," she said. It sounded very interesting to her. Travelling to different cities was something she wanted to do as well, but for now, she was stuck with her family in Zeltiva. Only something as strong as the call would probably convince her mother to let her leave. "I have no idea where I'll be in the future as well..." She put up her hand to show him the mark of Avalis. It was shaped as a lily that resembled a tattoo that shimmered. "See? I've only been blessed by Avalis once. I can only see the past. I'm not too skilled in fortune-telling to know more about what will happen, either. My mother never lies though... if she says our futures our tied, then I believe her. Who knows how strongly they're tied?" It was all strange to her, but she knew that at the moment, there was no guessing what would happen. Even Eridanus didn't know where he'd be going after his stay in Zeltiva. It was all confusing to her, but Nira'lia knew she would understand it when the time came.

[Eridanus]

The konti showed him a mark on her hand that could easily be dismissed as a tattoo, if not for the ethereal quality and awe-inspiring wonder that glowed on her hand.

Avalis' mark!

"Oh??" He frowned as he thought about her explanation. He had always assumed that the konti could see the future. Perhaps it was their nicknames as "Prophets", "Seers" or "Oracles", but their race were well-known for their ability to predict the future. Yet, Nira'lia was telling him otherwise.

"When would you be able to see the future then?" He asked in an interested manner.