Tale of Eldramir

Ezekiel and Shine ended up spending nearly an hour answering questions and going into some relatively extensive explanations and theories regarding Shine’s existence and their understanding of the Void. Some of the questions were fairly mundane.

“How old are you?”

“What kind of senses do you have?”

Can you see things without eyes?”

“Are you male or female?”

“Can you move?”

And many more. Each of which, Shine did their best to answer.

“I’m nearly seven months old.”

“I can hear things just fine and know where things are if they’re close enough to me.”

“I can see things that Ezekiel sees, when he lets me, but otherwise I can just feel presence.”

“I’m a sword, so... neither!”

“I can rattle a little bit. Does that count?”

Some other questions were a bit difficult for Shine to answer, so Ezekiel took over when they popped up. Questions like, how was Shine created? Or what did Shine know about the Void? As all Spirits had some level of innate understanding of their elements. Said understanding was actually how most of the more recent advancements in magic and spell casting were developed.

There was a slight lull in the questions when Ezekiel explained that Shine was born from a literal strip of Ezekiel’s soul that was torn off by the Void Remnant that he’d met nearly a year ago.

The fact that Ezekiel was able to survive such an event at Tier one meant that his soul was at least as powerful as a Tier three Mage. Something that was very uncommon, as the soul grew most when a person Tiered up.

Luckily, the Scholars in the room, and the apprentices, were bound by oaths and contracts, so the knowledge of Void Relics granting strange knowledge to Void Mages was provided to them. This got Ezekiel a couple of looks as they seemed to connect the pieces of a puzzle.

Moving on, George and Fiana were greatly interested in Ezekiel’s spell, and after they finished their introduction and explained most of Shine’s origin, they moved onto looking through Ezekiel and Shine’s notes regarding the effects of Ezekiel’s new spell, as well as the possible implications and applications regarding Void mana and enchanting.

The Void duo then went into a description of their desire to see if it was possible to create an artifact that had enchantments to allow for long distance communications. Similar to the cellphones from Earth. Ezekiel wasn’t sure that they would have too much support, since he wasn’t certain it was replicable via magic, but he hoped that they would be able to see the uses that such a Relic had.

Surprisingly enough, it was actually Carrian who threw his full support behind this direction of research. He also proved that the thing Ezekiel and Shine wanted to achieve was most definitely possible, as he himself had one such Relic that was found in a long-lost ancient Ruin.

Carrian went so far as to explain that such Relics, whilst rare, were not so uncommon as to be unheard of by the Guilds and the Church. Even some nobles and large clans in the different World Factions were aware of such things, or even had access to them.

Ezekiel was shocked to learn that Harolt, the leading Grand Scholar of the Harkem Grand Cathedral, was in possession of such a Relic. But as he thought about it, he realized that this explained how he was able to get a message to Duke Harken so quickly. The Duke was probably made aware of the situation well before Naeri was even given the mission to bring him a message.

It wasn’t just Ezekiel that was surprised by this information, however, the other four were also surprised. At this point, everyone agreed that this was an avenue of research that they wanted to explore. Not only because it had a destination they knew existed, but also because it was something that would be greatly useful if they could figure out how to reproduce such Relics as artifacts.

Ezekiel was even willing to share some of his past life information regarding radio waves, to see if Eldramir had anything similar, or could replicate any effects via magic.

Carrian, after hearing about these invisible waves and signals that weren’t visible to any of their senses, looked as though he wanted to remain, and involve himself in the research personally. Unfortunately, he was far too conscious of his role and responsibilities in the Church. So, it was with a heavy heart that he left the room as the team began going over their notes.

From that point on, the team began working together with surprising ease, with only a few hiccups here and there when Fiana and George were arguing. But such instances were settled relatively quickly, and the two Scholars only had to be separated by their juniors a few times.

At first, there was little progress in how they moved forward. Mainly due to the fact that the team couldn’t figure out what the best method for sending a message would be.

George suggested that they immediately start by trying to send full images and sounds, to allow for total visual and verbal communications.

Fiana suggested that they go with a written form that could be read, as it was much simpler, and most who could use these items would be literate anyway.

Ally and Mac had some ideas that were simpler. Such as using purely audio communications, since that might be simpler than either, as both George and Fiana’s methods would require the artifacts to display something.

As the four continued bouncing ideas off one another, Ezekiel realized that none of them actually had any idea of how to make something happen to an artifact by dining something to a separate artifact that wasn’t physically connected to it.

When he raised this point, he was met with silence as his teammates all realized the same thing.

“Why don’t we keep things simple for now. Let’s first figure out how to connect two artifacts, so that one of them reacts when something is done to the other. Agreed?” Ezekiel asked after no one presented any good ideas right away.

“Agreed.” The others said after a few moments of thought.

From there, the group worked for several weeks on both enchanting, and studying Ezekiel and Shine’s new spell. For which, one of the first things they studied was whether or not the length of the cut was determined by the distance between Ezekiel and his target.

By using a large wall that they had Marc assist in creating, Ezekiel was able to test to see if the cut grew longer the further away from the target he was, as the arc of the blade would be longer if his sword was actually that long.

From there, they realized that yes, the cut grew longer, but only so long as enough mana was used to fuel the spell. However, that also allowed them to discover something new.

If Ezekiel and Shine released all the mana they were using in the spell in shorter bursts, then it was possible to create cuts that did not extend the length of their swing, but instead cut deeper. This meant that he could alternate between long shallow cuts, or short deeper cuts.

It also served to act as a springboard into their studies for their communication device.

By using several of the relics and devices they had access to in the workshop, they managed to figure out that the release of mana when they used their spell wasn’t actually traveling through the air. If it was, then it would’ve just created an uncontrollable maelstrom as the Tempest mana in the atmosphere went haywire.

Instead, it seemed like the mana was instead sending out some sort of line outward in the direction of the swing of the sword. This line was apparently a total vacuum that only appeared when Ezekiel channeled mana for the spell.

The artifacts they had were also able to read the mana in the atmosphere, and it seemed like, briefly, all mana within a certain distance was drawn inwards, towards Shine’s body, as the various motes of mana tried to fill that vacuum.

However, the strangest thing was that, while this vacuum appeared in the path that Shine was swung in when this spell was used, excess mass appeared on the wall in the place where the cuts appeared, but instantly disappeared as the line of the cut moved on.

From this they figured out that Ezekiel and Shine’s spell didn’t just send a line outwards in tandem with their cutting motion. As if they were throwing a knife or something similar.

Instead, it was more accurate to say that the distance between the sword and the wall was warped, so that the edge of the sword itself was actually stretched outwards, so that it physically made contact with the wall as it was cutting through it.

Ezekiel likened it to a portal that formed on the edge of the blade, but the exit only appeared on the first physical, non-gaseous, matter that stood in front of the cut.

With this information, Ezekiel started thinking up ideas that could be used to create a device that connected two objects, just like how his sword was ‘connecting’ with objects at a distance.

However, no matter what they tried, they just couldn’t figure out how to connect two totally separate objects.

They tried countless methods of enchanting, and mirrored several Runic patterns, and even had Ezekiel charge several test artifacts with Void mana, as it was known that using void mana as fuel for artifacts was sometimes the only method of using said artifacts. Ezekiel’s boots were one such example.

At one point, Shine actually asked whether or not the boots that Quentin had made for Ezekiel were conjoined objects, as they worked at the same time, but weren’t physically connected. Ezekiel explained that, no, they weren’t, they just had identical specifications that used Void mana, and since those specifications were one speed only, it’s not like it was difficult to use them at the same time.

Though they were used as a good model for enchantments that fully utilized the properties of Void mana. Something that they weren’t lacking, but Quentin, being the only other Scholar with direct work experience with Ezekiel, had more insight regarding this topic than many others.

It took countless hours in the labs and workshops, as well as many, many days of exhaustion, and there were several things that they had to test purely through trial and error. But finally, after more than a couple months of researching, and testing, and retesting, and reworking their theories and ideas, they finally figured out something that could be used to send messages, at distances that spanned at least the diameter of Sanafalls.

It was mid-morning, and Ezekiel and his team were at the entrance of the Cathedral alongside Carrian, and another Grand Scholar, one who had refused to introduce himself, and did not look pleased to be there. His gray eyes and hair depicted him as a Tempest Mage.

Ezekiel stood in front of his team with a table between themselves and the two Grand Scholars. On the table were several pairs of carved crystal stones. Each one was embedded into a card shaped plate, with the sizes ranging from small enough to fit on a watch, to the dimensions of a fairly large book.

The larger ones had smaller gemstones of different colors in it, surrounding a center stone that acted as the focal point of the artifact.

“What exactly are we looking at?” Carrian asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

“You mean these aren’t just a pile of uselessly decorated rocks? All I see are a bunch of depleted Pure Mana Crystals. One’s that aren’t even being used to properly power an artifact.” The unnamed Grand Scholar stated.

“Now, now, Leonard, there’s no need to be rude. I’m sure that you’ll be surprised by whatever this project is.” Carrian said back to his colleague. Leonard just huffed in doubt.

Turning back to Ezekiel who was given the dubious privilege of presenting their project, Carrian motioned for him to proceed. Ezekiel, not totally certain of what exactly the procedure was for such a display, decided to get straight to the point.

“We’ve managed to crack connectionless communication devices.” Ezekiel blurted out.

Behind him, he could hear Marc face palming, while Fiana let out an amused sigh. George didn’t say anything, but Ezekiel imagined that the man was practically steaming from his ears at the blunt and inelegant delivery Ezekiel just gave. Ally just stood there. Expressionlessly, but an unseen quirk of her lips showed that she was still somewhat amused.

Carrian and Leonard, on the other hand, fully turned their focus onto Ezekiel and the devices on the table.

“This had better not be a prank, young man.” Leonard said in a stern voice.

“I assure you sir, it is not. If you wish to inspect the devices yourself, then you may do so. The instructions are quite simple and are right there for you to review.” Ezekiel said as he pointed to the small booklets that he had written up the night before for this presentation.

Leonard and Carrian both took one, briefly looking through it and noticing that the booklet didn’t actually explain anything regarding the process of creating these items. The two Grand Scholars begrudgingly admitted that this was smart of the team, as such a discovery would need to be carefully studied, tested, and refined before being distributed to the world as a whole.

As they finished looking through the instructions, Leonard went first, impatiently grabbing the smallest pair of communication devices. After looking over them extensively, but still quite quickly, he placed one of the devices back on the table, before backing away and channeling his mana to activate the device on his wrist.

Immediately the device on the table lit up with a bright flash briefly appearing. This flash then started appearing in a rhythmic pattern as the Grand Scholar channeled his mana in different intervals and for different lengths of time.

“What is the range for these items?” Leonard asked as Carrian took his own turn trying out the devices.

“We don’t actually know the limits just yet. We’ve only been able to confirm that they still react at a distance equal to the diameter of Sanafalls, but we decided that, for the moment, that testing it beyond that was unnecessary. At least for now.” Ezekiel explained.

“Hmm. Unfortunately, but smart. Better to present definite findings with the possibility of going further than to overreach and mess something up. What are the larger ones for? If there’s no difference in the distance related to the size, then I assume there must be a reason as to why you created these much larger and much gaudier versions.” Leonard asked.

“Well, although we created a simple pattern system to measure the length of the flashes to correlate to different letters to spell different words, we felt that adding in some additional options for quick messages and responses would be a good idea to test. Each of the gemstones on these artifacts can shine, just like the depleted pure crystals, when mana is channeled through them.” Ezekiel explained.

Leonard and Carrian then went over to the larger artifacts. Testing them and retesting them over and over again to make sure they worked as Ezekiel said they did.

“I guess there’s only one more thing to test. Carrian!” Leonard called over to his fellow Grand Scholar. “I’m going to test the distance. Mark down what pattern I cause my gemstones to light up in. Then send me a pattern back that I will also mark down.”

With nothing more to be said, Leonard then flew off, getting further and further away from the Cathedral. Ezekiel and the rest saw him pause after a few moments, at which point the paired book sized artifact glowed in a specific pattern.

This proceeded for nearly an hour, as Leonard apparently got further and further away from Sanafalls’ Cathedral. Eventually, he did come back, and when he did, he looked a little bit worse for wear.

“How far did you get? Carrian asked after he saw just how tired Leonard seemed to be.

“As far as I could go, before I used up half my mana. I needed to retain enough to get me back here after all.” Leonard told them.

Carrian was somewhat shocked when he heard this, as he knew that, at full speed, Leonard could get a couple hundred kilometers away if he were to use that much mana to travel.

“It seems like it would potentially take days to test the full range of these items.” Leonard said after he and Carrian compared notes on their patterns. Each of them was a match, so there were no errors in how the messages were sent.

“How, exactly, did you manage to get this to work?” Carrian asked as they all entered into the team’s workshop.

“Well, in part it has to do with some creative use of Runic vocabulary, as well as cracking mana crystals in half.” Ezekiel said.

From there the team went into an in-depth explanation regarding the ways in which they enchanted depleted Pure mana crystals in order to create a singularly enchanted artifact, which they then split into two crystals, whilst still retaining identical enchantments.

This acted to essentially ‘pair’ the devices, to allow for whatever happened to one artifact to happen to the other. There were still limitations to this, of course, as there weren’t able to do much more than create flashing lights. But they were hopeful to eventually create something that would be able to send and receive either written or vocal messages in the future.

However, since no such enchantments currently existed, that meant that such a thing would be several years in development. Especially since they didn’t have any examples to base their research off of like with Shine.

There was also the issue of sending a message that was so obvious and eye catching.

Ezekiel, having knowledge of cellphones and other recording devices, knew full well how embarrassing, or dangerous, it could be if suddenly a flash of light just suddenly appeared on one’s person, or worse, a message with private information was suddenly blared out for all to hear.

Indeed, he hoped to create a recording device that could record verbal messages for later review as soon as possible.

There was also the issue of only being able to send messages to a paired device. Currently, all of the known Relics with these enchantments were limited in the same manner. But Ezekiel hoped to be able to extend such limitations in the future. To one day allow proper communication between multiple people separated by long distances.

The use of depleted mana crystals wasn’t cheap, after all, and having over a dozen different devices just so you could contact a dozen different people was bound to get messy.

When Carrian and Ezekiel’s team heard this, they couldn’t help but give him a slightly pitying look. Knowing that other than a few short letters that Scarlet was able to pick up for him during her few trips to Harkem, Ezekiel had no means of contacting his family.

Fiana, in particular, was empathetic, as she too had some distant family members that she hadn’t spoken to in years. Not since completing her pilgrimage to Sanafalls.

The topic of the communication artifacts continued for some time, taking up the rest of the day and going into the evening. The two Grand Scholars grilled Ezekiel and his team on the specifics of the creation and abilities for their artifacts. As well as inquiring as to what the reasonings were behind the various enchantments and crafting methods used in the creation of their brand-new artifacts.

The discussion brought to light a few different things that they had overlooked during their research, as well as providing them with some insight into how to develop newer devices that would be able to do more for their communication.

Eventually, as they went further and further into the night, it was decided by the Grand Scholars that their findings would be added to the Cathedral’s archive and spread to the other branches of the Church of Ten around the world. The hope was that other Scholars would be able to contribute to the creation of more accessible communication devices.

For now, Ezekiel allowed himself to feel a great deal of pride in his and his team's accomplishments, as it meant that he was still contributing to the development of Void Mages. Something that would take yet another leap as he and Shine continued to grow stronger and become more in tune with the Void.

It was several weeks after their demonstration when it happened. Ezekiel and Shine were meditating, hoping to further refine their method of sharing mana, so as to get Shine to the same Step of Tier one as Ezekiel, when it happened.

Ezekiel had, for the most part, been neglecting his own progress since reaching Step four, as he had focused almost entirely on getting Shine to Step two. This had been difficult, as the amount of testing that they had to do had slowed their progress, but after the large amount of initial testing, the number of times they needed to have him perform his new spell had dropped significantly.

This meant that, for the majority of the time during their development of their prototypes used in the demonstration, Ezekiel and Shine hadn’t actually been using their mana. They had just continued to gather more and more of it, until finally, Ezekiel and Shine’s mana, had reached a point where, even with the loss of some of the mana they were sharing, Shine had reached the pinnacle of Tier one, Step one.

So, it was with one final push, months after they had had to start Shine off from scratch, that Shine broke through to the second Step.

At which point Ezekiel immediately fell unconscious, and Shine began glowing as subtle changes began happening to the sword their soul inhabited.

It was in this unconscious state that Ezekiel found himself in a starry void. But this time there was no Ancient there to speak with him.

For a moment, he freaked out, but as nothing seemed to happen, he allowed himself to relax as best he could. He had been in such circumstances a few times before, so he felt confident that nothing terrible was happening to him. Especially since he figured this had happened since Shine had broken through to a new level. Though he wondered if this wouldn’t happen every time Shine broke through.

As he floated in that void with countless stars shining in the distance, each one immeasurably far away from him, he couldn’t help but reach out to one of the stars, as if to touch one of them.

It was just at a whim, and he had not expected anything to happen, so Ezekiel was immediately shocked when, for the briefest of instances, he felt a resistance on his finger. This was followed by a sensation like popping a bubble, before his mind was immediately assaulted by information he couldn’t process.

Ezekiel felt like his mind was tearing itself apart as images of stars being formed, blackholes collapsing and shattering. Planets forming and life developing. Light warping and twisting, while shadows grew corporeal and manifested into different shapes.

Countless worlds appeared before his eyes, and he saw magic being used in different ways. Some were physical, some were ethereal. Some used the elements. Some only used objects. Others called forth great demons. While even more revolved around making and forming a core within oneself, to act as an anchor and power source for one’s abilities.

As his mind was continually assaulted by images that he had no context for, and no means of stopping as they flooded into his head, Ezekiel eventually passed out.

His consciousness became dead to the world, and the new knowledge he had received slowly drained from his mind. His memories of said knowledge were now entirely forgotten, and the star that had popped reformed as the conceptual information from an alien source coalesced back into its original form.

It was only upon waking up that Ezekiel even realized that any changes had even occurred.

The first thing he’d noticed was the fact that he was in the infirmary, not his personal quarters in the dorms. The second, was the fact that he could now sense Shine’s presence, even though the sword that Shine inhabited had been left in his room. A much further distance away than they had ever had between them before.