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Miranda slowly woke up in her bed, looking up at the ceiling, “Where am… oh yeah” she thought “stuck in a mountain with a dragon who won’t kill me because it would make his cave smell. At least this isn’t permanent, once I heal I’ll be out of here. But then what? I’ll be right back where I started.” She rolled onto her side and looked at the lamp on the wall next to her, it was a deep purple. “Huh” she looked around the room seeing that the other crystals were the same color “Um, Burtrum?” she said hesitantly
There was a brief pause“How may I help you Miss Lummi?” asked a voice from the crystal as it began to glow green
“Why are the crystals purple? Do you need something?”
There was another short pause “My apologies Miss Lummi it would seem that I’ve forgotten to explain the specifics of the crystal network to you. You see asides from when the crystals are blue, representing a marker, or green, signifying my presence these crystals function not only as a source of heat and light but also as a means to tell time.”
Miranda sat up, looking intently at the lamp in the corner.
“When the crystals are pure white it means that it’s approximately noon, when there deep purple its mid-night. Yellow is morning and orange is evening.”
“So it’s mid-night now?” she asked
“Yes, is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, not right now” the crystal began to turn from green to purple as a question sprang into her mind “Actually there is one other thing I want to know”
“Yes?” asked Burtrum as the crystal turned back to green
“I don't really know how to ask this but, what are you?”
“I am a construct or artificial consciousness that resides in the crystalline network of this mountain. I was created hundreds of years ago to serve the house of SkyBlaze.”
Miranda was baffled by the answer for a moment “So....you live in the crystals”
“Yes”
“Can you leave?”
“No, it would be impossible for me to leave this cave.” he replied in his same even tone
“So your trapped?”
There was another long pause “I suppose that’s technically accurate”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Not at all, when I was created I wasn’t given the ability to want to leave, the only purpose or desire I've ever had is serving the house of Skyblaze, watching them continue to grow and learn through the ages is the greatest joy I can imagine, so I’m perfectly content here”
“Oh, are there lots of other things like you?”
“Unfortunately no, they say the sorcerer who created us was quite mad and took the secrets of our origin to his grave, many have tried to recreate the me and the others that were created at that time but even by experimenting on us directly our inner working remain a mystery.”
“You were experimented on?”
“Oh no, I and a few otheres were lucky enough to be gifted to noble houses like the house of Skyblaze, they've always valued the services I offer. Other constructs have not been as lucky though, either being broken or lost completely as they were dissected.”
“Oh” Miranda said as she looked down, trying to process what she was told. “Well, thank you for telling me all of that”
“Your very welcome Miss Lummi, and please don't worry yourself over me, as I told you I am quite happy with my existence and the Skyblaze family has always treated me well. Now if that’s all I will take my leave” the crystal turned purple.
She laid back in her bed “He definitely doesn't seem like a thing but I guess this is preferable to him having a bunch of regular workers living here that I would have to worry about” her eyes began to get heavy “The ethics of this are something I can think about after I and my home are safe. I'll come up with a plan for that in the morning.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
She slowly opened her eyes hoping that it had all just been a bad dream, unfortunately the stone ceiling above her meant otherwise. She rolled over and looked at the lamp next to her; it was white with just a hint of yellow. “I think that means it’s close to noon” she thought groggily as she got up from the bed, making sure she was still wearing her clothes this time “Okay, I’ve had a good night’s sleep, now I have to figure out what I’m going to do next.” *grumble* “Right after I get something to eat. It’s no wonder I’m hungry, I haven’t eaten since I lost my pack on the climb”
She got out of the bed and looked around; everything was the same as the day before except for one thing. On the table where the over sized clothes had been there was now a set that matched what she was wearing exactly minus the fur lining, mountain range pattern and the tears her clothes got when she fell through the floor. “Burtrum” she said with a fair amount of worry in her voice
“Yes Miss Lummi?” asked Burtrum as the crystal in the corner turned deep green
“What is this?”
“It’s a set of clothes the master asked me to make for you. I apologize for them not being ready when you woke up yesterday, I wasn't sure if you'd want something new to wear after your fall so I had to improvise with a set of the masters until these were ready”
“O.K......and how did it get here?”
“I put them there while you and the master were talking yesterday” there was a long pause “Is there anything else?”
“Um, no.”
“Very well” Burtrum said as the crystal returned to its original color.
She sighed and looked around at the crystals in the room making sure none of them were green before she changed. While the thought that they were able to make an exact duplicate of her clothes was unnerving, she had to admit that it was nice to be wearing something that wasn’t covered in holes. “Burtrum.”
“Yes” came the voice this time from the lamp on the wall
“Could I....get something to eat?”
“Of course, would you like to eat in the dining hall or would you rather I send something to your room?”
“It would probably be best if I learned the layout of this place.” She thought “I’ll eat in the dining hall please.”
“Right this way” replied Burtrum as she stepped out of the room.
She looked around and saw that the crystals near the door on her right were blue like before “Why are all of these doors locked?” she asked as she walked down the hallway towards the marked door
“There not, not anymore at least, they were only locked yesterday so you wouldn’t get lost, during your stay here you will have access to almost every room in this cavern”
“Almost?” she said opening the door and proceeding into the ballroom
“Yes, almost there are a few rooms that the master has told me to keep of limits”
“Which rooms specifically?”
“The masters bed chamber, the crystal store room, the horde room, the library and the aviary.....and of course any doors to the outside, if only to keep you from wandering outside the healing aura.”
“Horde room?” she thought as she opened the door to the dining hall “that must be where he keeps his treasure. I have to find out where it is, but I can’t be too obvious about it”
She continued walking towards the table noticing that it was bare “The food will be out in just a second” Burtrum said as she sat down.
“Will, uh, Derrick be bringing it out?”
“Of course not, the master is busy finishing an order in the heart room”
“What’s the heart ro” Miranda began to ask before she was cut off as the doors in the middle of the wall covered in weapons were opened. A large covered tray was coming out of the doors, from the angle she was at all she could see of whatever was carrying it was a pair of short legs that were made out of what seemed to be rock. The tray was pushed onto the table and the lid was lifted to the side to reveal a large assortment of fruits a vegetables. She looked to see what had brought the tray out and was surprised to see that she was right, it was made of rock. It was small, its shoulders coming up to just below where her hips would be, where its head should have been there was a single green crystal sticking out. Its arms were proportional to its body with three fingers at the end of both hands that were holding the trays lid above its body. The strange creature turned around and walked back through the doors it came out of as another identical creature came out holding a pitcher of water and some glasses which it placed on the table and left through the doors.
“Uh, Burtrum?”
“Yes”
“Wha..What were those?” she asked , still slightly dumbfounded by what she just saw
“The golems?”
“Yeah, those”
“The golems are how I do things around here that require a physical presence, I split off a small part of my mind with a specific command, they perform the task and then return to me”
“Oh, is that how you made these clothes and put them in my room?”
“Indeed”
“But I though you said you couldn’t leave.”
“I said I couldn’t leave the cavern, the golems I create have to stay within the field of the crystals, if they leave they would turn to dust and that part of my mind would be destroyed.”
“Oh” she said as she realized she was already reaching towards the food
She picked up an apple looking at it carefully before taking a bite, it was juicy and sweet and nothing like the sour apples she was used to “Golems huh.” she thought as she enjoyed the food on her plate “well I’d rather have them serving food and bringing me new clothes than that dragon. Speaking of which” “Burtrum?” she asked “you said that Derrick was in the heart room, what is that?”
“The heart room is where the base of my crystalline network is attached to the mana well in the bottom of this mountain.”
After several seconds of silence she said “I only understood about half of what you just said”
“Apologies Miss Lummi, perhaps it would be easier to show you, once you’ve finished your meal I’ll show you to the heart room.”
Having had her curiosity peaked Miranda finished her meal quickly and walked to the ballroom, she looked down from the balcony and saw that the crystal near the far left corridor was blue. As she headed down the stairs she asked “So Burtrum, what's mana?”
“Mana is the energy that exists in every living being as well as the planet itself.” Burtrum replied as she entered the hallway
“Oh” she said as she opened the door and preceded down a long flight of stairs “what you call mana we call life force.”
“How much do you know about it?”
“Well I know that, like you said, it exists in every living being and the planet. I also know that whenever someone dies their life force returns to the planet, and that some are born with more of it and the ability to manipulate this energy.”
“Very impressive, It would seem that mana and what you refer to as life force are the same things.”
“O.K. so what did you mean by mana well” she asked as she approached the door at the bottom of the stairs
“That is something that would be best described by the master.”
“Why can’t you just explain it?” Miranda asked as she entered the next room, it was round with odd glowing markings and a single group of crystals in the middle of the floor
“Its part of my original design, I can’t divulge any information that might reveal any secrets of the house of SkyBlaze”
“Oh, Well um… am I missing something, there aren’t any other doors in this room.”
“No, this is the elevator, It will take you to the lowest level of the cave where the heart room is.”
*Thunk*
“What was that” she asked confusedly as the walls in the room began to move upward “Burtrum! What’s happening!”
“No need to worry Ms. Lummi, the platform you're on is called an elevator, it allows one to move up or down a great distance in a short amount of time.”
It was a few minutes of worry at the fact the floor was falling beneath her and wonder at how it worked before the platform began to slow down Miranda wondered what other surprises were waiting for her in this cave
“Here we are” said Burtrum as the platform stopped in front of a large set of double doors with a crystal carved on it. “The heart room” The doors began to open on their own revealing a small room with identical doors on the other side and several pairs of goggles hanging on the wall. As she walked into the room she noticed that it was getting notably hotter. “I’ll have to ask you to put on a pair of goggles, the light produced during the transfer process can be blinding at times.”
“I wonder what he means by transfer process.” She thought as she grabbed a pair from the wall and put them on before walking towards the second set of doors, she had seen blacksmiths use these before so between that and the heat she guessed she was approaching a forge of some kind. As the doors opened she felt a wave of heat come from the room, she threw her hands in front of her face instinctively
“My apologies, I should have warned about that.”
“Don’t worry about it” she said as she lowered her arms “I’m fi….”
She stopped in the middle of her sentence. She had seen some incredible things in this cave but this definitely took the cake. It was a huge dome shaped room about as wide as the ballroom was long, over to the left there was a large work bench with various tools on it, to the right was an anvil with a pool of water and a stove next to it, surrounding the anvil were four large crystals each about a head taller than she was. Those weren’t what amazed her, the thing that kept her speechless was the huge crystal jutting out of the middle of the floor and going straight into the ceiling, it was at least as wide as some of the older trees in the forest and around the base smaller crystals were jutting out in random directions, almost like plants growing from the ground.
*CRACK* *SLAM*
“What was that!” she said suddenly broken out of her amazement.
“No need to worry” came a voice from behind the huge crystal “that was just me” as the figure walked into sight she realized that it was the dragon. He was wearing a white shirt with no sleeves and a pair of tan baggy pants, he was carrying a large crystal on his shoulder as he walked over to the table. Even though he looked the same physically he seemed very different from the dragon she met earlier, before he seemed like a high class noble but now he looked like a common worker.
She began to walk over to him cautiously as he set the crystal on the table. “So what is all this?”
“This large structure is the base of Burtrum’s crystalline structure” Derrick said as he picked up a chisel and a hammer from the table
“Burtrum told me that much but he said something about a mana well. What’s that?”
“On your way down here Burtrum let me know that you understand the basics of mana” he said as he looked at a small piece of paper on the table next to the crystal “that will make things easier. You know what happens to something's mana when it dies but do you know how it gets there in the first place?”
“It comes straight from the planet right?”
“Almost.” He replied as he began to carve the crystal in front of him “Before the mana can enter something it has to come out of a well first. There are wells of mana scattered about everywhere on the planet, the crystal behind me was put directly into the one at the base of this mountain allowing it to grow to its current size.”
“So, wait, your stealing life force from the planet!?”
“No, of course not” Derrick said focusing on the carving the crystal “imagine manas cycle, earth to sky, sky to living things, living things to earth, like a road. These crystals are less of a wall and more of a detour, once they've been used the mana returns to the air as if nothing had happened”
“Oh, thats good, so why are you carving this crystal?”
“It’s my job, you know about sorcerers right?”
“Yeah their born with an unusually large amount of life force and can learn to manipulate it into spells by using their bodies as a medium.”
“Right but if anyone who's not a sorcerer wants to use mana they have to use a crystal like this one. The symbols I’m carving in it now allow the energy to be channeled into specific effects.”
“That’s.....incredible, considering how rare sorcerers are those crystals must be worth a lot.”
“There why this mountain is so valuable and why my clan holds such a high standing”
“Is...is the rest of your clan here in this mountain?”
“No, Burtrum and I are the only ones here” he said turning the crystal on its side
“So where’s the rest of your clan?”
Derrick began carving the side of the crystal for several seconds before he answered “Other members of my clan are scattered about through the land but they are all distant relatives, I’m the last member of this branch of my clan.”
“Oh I..I’m sorry”
He stopped for a second “Don’t worry about it” he said as he started to carve again, finishing the last rune “Do you need to know anything else?”
“No, that was all.”
“Then you may want to leave, I’m about to star forging some weapons imbued with mana and the can get rather loud.”
“O.K, um thank you for telling me about this” she said as she started walking toward the door
“Did you find out everything you wanted to learn?” Burtrum asked as the crystals near the door began to glow
“Yeah” she answered, looking back at the dragon as she was about to go through the doors “and then some.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing”
“Um Burtrum is there a place I can take a bath?” she asked as she walked on to the elevator, noticing that she had been sweating from the heat in the room
“Of course Ms. Lummi” Burtrum said as the platform began to move “should I send some fresh clothes to the baths as well?”
“Yes please no offense to the dra…uh..Mr. SkyBlaze but I’m glad that the golems were the ones delivered my clothes. The thought of that dragon being in my room while was sleeping is kind of disturbing”
“What about when you were unconscious?”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn't go into the old manor so after you fell the master was the one who carried you inside the cavern, and tended to your wound” Burtrum said, there was a long pause “Are you alright Miss Lumi? Your face is turning red.”
There was a brief pause“How may I help you Miss Lummi?” asked a voice from the crystal as it began to glow green
“Why are the crystals purple? Do you need something?”
There was another short pause “My apologies Miss Lummi it would seem that I’ve forgotten to explain the specifics of the crystal network to you. You see asides from when the crystals are blue, representing a marker, or green, signifying my presence these crystals function not only as a source of heat and light but also as a means to tell time.”
Miranda sat up, looking intently at the lamp in the corner.
“When the crystals are pure white it means that it’s approximately noon, when there deep purple its mid-night. Yellow is morning and orange is evening.”
“So it’s mid-night now?” she asked
“Yes, is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, not right now” the crystal began to turn from green to purple as a question sprang into her mind “Actually there is one other thing I want to know”
“Yes?” asked Burtrum as the crystal turned back to green
“I don't really know how to ask this but, what are you?”
“I am a construct or artificial consciousness that resides in the crystalline network of this mountain. I was created hundreds of years ago to serve the house of SkyBlaze.”
Miranda was baffled by the answer for a moment “So....you live in the crystals”
“Yes”
“Can you leave?”
“No, it would be impossible for me to leave this cave.” he replied in his same even tone
“So your trapped?”
There was another long pause “I suppose that’s technically accurate”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Not at all, when I was created I wasn’t given the ability to want to leave, the only purpose or desire I've ever had is serving the house of Skyblaze, watching them continue to grow and learn through the ages is the greatest joy I can imagine, so I’m perfectly content here”
“Oh, are there lots of other things like you?”
“Unfortunately no, they say the sorcerer who created us was quite mad and took the secrets of our origin to his grave, many have tried to recreate the me and the others that were created at that time but even by experimenting on us directly our inner working remain a mystery.”
“You were experimented on?”
“Oh no, I and a few otheres were lucky enough to be gifted to noble houses like the house of Skyblaze, they've always valued the services I offer. Other constructs have not been as lucky though, either being broken or lost completely as they were dissected.”
“Oh” Miranda said as she looked down, trying to process what she was told. “Well, thank you for telling me all of that”
“Your very welcome Miss Lummi, and please don't worry yourself over me, as I told you I am quite happy with my existence and the Skyblaze family has always treated me well. Now if that’s all I will take my leave” the crystal turned purple.
She laid back in her bed “He definitely doesn't seem like a thing but I guess this is preferable to him having a bunch of regular workers living here that I would have to worry about” her eyes began to get heavy “The ethics of this are something I can think about after I and my home are safe. I'll come up with a plan for that in the morning.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
She slowly opened her eyes hoping that it had all just been a bad dream, unfortunately the stone ceiling above her meant otherwise. She rolled over and looked at the lamp next to her; it was white with just a hint of yellow. “I think that means it’s close to noon” she thought groggily as she got up from the bed, making sure she was still wearing her clothes this time “Okay, I’ve had a good night’s sleep, now I have to figure out what I’m going to do next.” *grumble* “Right after I get something to eat. It’s no wonder I’m hungry, I haven’t eaten since I lost my pack on the climb”
She got out of the bed and looked around; everything was the same as the day before except for one thing. On the table where the over sized clothes had been there was now a set that matched what she was wearing exactly minus the fur lining, mountain range pattern and the tears her clothes got when she fell through the floor. “Burtrum” she said with a fair amount of worry in her voice
“Yes Miss Lummi?” asked Burtrum as the crystal in the corner turned deep green
“What is this?”
“It’s a set of clothes the master asked me to make for you. I apologize for them not being ready when you woke up yesterday, I wasn't sure if you'd want something new to wear after your fall so I had to improvise with a set of the masters until these were ready”
“O.K......and how did it get here?”
“I put them there while you and the master were talking yesterday” there was a long pause “Is there anything else?”
“Um, no.”
“Very well” Burtrum said as the crystal returned to its original color.
She sighed and looked around at the crystals in the room making sure none of them were green before she changed. While the thought that they were able to make an exact duplicate of her clothes was unnerving, she had to admit that it was nice to be wearing something that wasn’t covered in holes. “Burtrum.”
“Yes” came the voice this time from the lamp on the wall
“Could I....get something to eat?”
“Of course, would you like to eat in the dining hall or would you rather I send something to your room?”
“It would probably be best if I learned the layout of this place.” She thought “I’ll eat in the dining hall please.”
“Right this way” replied Burtrum as she stepped out of the room.
She looked around and saw that the crystals near the door on her right were blue like before “Why are all of these doors locked?” she asked as she walked down the hallway towards the marked door
“There not, not anymore at least, they were only locked yesterday so you wouldn’t get lost, during your stay here you will have access to almost every room in this cavern”
“Almost?” she said opening the door and proceeding into the ballroom
“Yes, almost there are a few rooms that the master has told me to keep of limits”
“Which rooms specifically?”
“The masters bed chamber, the crystal store room, the horde room, the library and the aviary.....and of course any doors to the outside, if only to keep you from wandering outside the healing aura.”
“Horde room?” she thought as she opened the door to the dining hall “that must be where he keeps his treasure. I have to find out where it is, but I can’t be too obvious about it”
She continued walking towards the table noticing that it was bare “The food will be out in just a second” Burtrum said as she sat down.
“Will, uh, Derrick be bringing it out?”
“Of course not, the master is busy finishing an order in the heart room”
“What’s the heart ro” Miranda began to ask before she was cut off as the doors in the middle of the wall covered in weapons were opened. A large covered tray was coming out of the doors, from the angle she was at all she could see of whatever was carrying it was a pair of short legs that were made out of what seemed to be rock. The tray was pushed onto the table and the lid was lifted to the side to reveal a large assortment of fruits a vegetables. She looked to see what had brought the tray out and was surprised to see that she was right, it was made of rock. It was small, its shoulders coming up to just below where her hips would be, where its head should have been there was a single green crystal sticking out. Its arms were proportional to its body with three fingers at the end of both hands that were holding the trays lid above its body. The strange creature turned around and walked back through the doors it came out of as another identical creature came out holding a pitcher of water and some glasses which it placed on the table and left through the doors.
“Uh, Burtrum?”
“Yes”
“Wha..What were those?” she asked , still slightly dumbfounded by what she just saw
“The golems?”
“Yeah, those”
“The golems are how I do things around here that require a physical presence, I split off a small part of my mind with a specific command, they perform the task and then return to me”
“Oh, is that how you made these clothes and put them in my room?”
“Indeed”
“But I though you said you couldn’t leave.”
“I said I couldn’t leave the cavern, the golems I create have to stay within the field of the crystals, if they leave they would turn to dust and that part of my mind would be destroyed.”
“Oh” she said as she realized she was already reaching towards the food
She picked up an apple looking at it carefully before taking a bite, it was juicy and sweet and nothing like the sour apples she was used to “Golems huh.” she thought as she enjoyed the food on her plate “well I’d rather have them serving food and bringing me new clothes than that dragon. Speaking of which” “Burtrum?” she asked “you said that Derrick was in the heart room, what is that?”
“The heart room is where the base of my crystalline network is attached to the mana well in the bottom of this mountain.”
After several seconds of silence she said “I only understood about half of what you just said”
“Apologies Miss Lummi, perhaps it would be easier to show you, once you’ve finished your meal I’ll show you to the heart room.”
Having had her curiosity peaked Miranda finished her meal quickly and walked to the ballroom, she looked down from the balcony and saw that the crystal near the far left corridor was blue. As she headed down the stairs she asked “So Burtrum, what's mana?”
“Mana is the energy that exists in every living being as well as the planet itself.” Burtrum replied as she entered the hallway
“Oh” she said as she opened the door and preceded down a long flight of stairs “what you call mana we call life force.”
“How much do you know about it?”
“Well I know that, like you said, it exists in every living being and the planet. I also know that whenever someone dies their life force returns to the planet, and that some are born with more of it and the ability to manipulate this energy.”
“Very impressive, It would seem that mana and what you refer to as life force are the same things.”
“O.K. so what did you mean by mana well” she asked as she approached the door at the bottom of the stairs
“That is something that would be best described by the master.”
“Why can’t you just explain it?” Miranda asked as she entered the next room, it was round with odd glowing markings and a single group of crystals in the middle of the floor
“Its part of my original design, I can’t divulge any information that might reveal any secrets of the house of SkyBlaze”
“Oh, Well um… am I missing something, there aren’t any other doors in this room.”
“No, this is the elevator, It will take you to the lowest level of the cave where the heart room is.”
*Thunk*
“What was that” she asked confusedly as the walls in the room began to move upward “Burtrum! What’s happening!”
“No need to worry Ms. Lummi, the platform you're on is called an elevator, it allows one to move up or down a great distance in a short amount of time.”
It was a few minutes of worry at the fact the floor was falling beneath her and wonder at how it worked before the platform began to slow down Miranda wondered what other surprises were waiting for her in this cave
“Here we are” said Burtrum as the platform stopped in front of a large set of double doors with a crystal carved on it. “The heart room” The doors began to open on their own revealing a small room with identical doors on the other side and several pairs of goggles hanging on the wall. As she walked into the room she noticed that it was getting notably hotter. “I’ll have to ask you to put on a pair of goggles, the light produced during the transfer process can be blinding at times.”
“I wonder what he means by transfer process.” She thought as she grabbed a pair from the wall and put them on before walking towards the second set of doors, she had seen blacksmiths use these before so between that and the heat she guessed she was approaching a forge of some kind. As the doors opened she felt a wave of heat come from the room, she threw her hands in front of her face instinctively
“My apologies, I should have warned about that.”
“Don’t worry about it” she said as she lowered her arms “I’m fi….”
She stopped in the middle of her sentence. She had seen some incredible things in this cave but this definitely took the cake. It was a huge dome shaped room about as wide as the ballroom was long, over to the left there was a large work bench with various tools on it, to the right was an anvil with a pool of water and a stove next to it, surrounding the anvil were four large crystals each about a head taller than she was. Those weren’t what amazed her, the thing that kept her speechless was the huge crystal jutting out of the middle of the floor and going straight into the ceiling, it was at least as wide as some of the older trees in the forest and around the base smaller crystals were jutting out in random directions, almost like plants growing from the ground.
*CRACK* *SLAM*
“What was that!” she said suddenly broken out of her amazement.
“No need to worry” came a voice from behind the huge crystal “that was just me” as the figure walked into sight she realized that it was the dragon. He was wearing a white shirt with no sleeves and a pair of tan baggy pants, he was carrying a large crystal on his shoulder as he walked over to the table. Even though he looked the same physically he seemed very different from the dragon she met earlier, before he seemed like a high class noble but now he looked like a common worker.
She began to walk over to him cautiously as he set the crystal on the table. “So what is all this?”
“This large structure is the base of Burtrum’s crystalline structure” Derrick said as he picked up a chisel and a hammer from the table
“Burtrum told me that much but he said something about a mana well. What’s that?”
“On your way down here Burtrum let me know that you understand the basics of mana” he said as he looked at a small piece of paper on the table next to the crystal “that will make things easier. You know what happens to something's mana when it dies but do you know how it gets there in the first place?”
“It comes straight from the planet right?”
“Almost.” He replied as he began to carve the crystal in front of him “Before the mana can enter something it has to come out of a well first. There are wells of mana scattered about everywhere on the planet, the crystal behind me was put directly into the one at the base of this mountain allowing it to grow to its current size.”
“So, wait, your stealing life force from the planet!?”
“No, of course not” Derrick said focusing on the carving the crystal “imagine manas cycle, earth to sky, sky to living things, living things to earth, like a road. These crystals are less of a wall and more of a detour, once they've been used the mana returns to the air as if nothing had happened”
“Oh, thats good, so why are you carving this crystal?”
“It’s my job, you know about sorcerers right?”
“Yeah their born with an unusually large amount of life force and can learn to manipulate it into spells by using their bodies as a medium.”
“Right but if anyone who's not a sorcerer wants to use mana they have to use a crystal like this one. The symbols I’m carving in it now allow the energy to be channeled into specific effects.”
“That’s.....incredible, considering how rare sorcerers are those crystals must be worth a lot.”
“There why this mountain is so valuable and why my clan holds such a high standing”
“Is...is the rest of your clan here in this mountain?”
“No, Burtrum and I are the only ones here” he said turning the crystal on its side
“So where’s the rest of your clan?”
Derrick began carving the side of the crystal for several seconds before he answered “Other members of my clan are scattered about through the land but they are all distant relatives, I’m the last member of this branch of my clan.”
“Oh I..I’m sorry”
He stopped for a second “Don’t worry about it” he said as he started to carve again, finishing the last rune “Do you need to know anything else?”
“No, that was all.”
“Then you may want to leave, I’m about to star forging some weapons imbued with mana and the can get rather loud.”
“O.K, um thank you for telling me about this” she said as she started walking toward the door
“Did you find out everything you wanted to learn?” Burtrum asked as the crystals near the door began to glow
“Yeah” she answered, looking back at the dragon as she was about to go through the doors “and then some.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing”
“Um Burtrum is there a place I can take a bath?” she asked as she walked on to the elevator, noticing that she had been sweating from the heat in the room
“Of course Ms. Lummi” Burtrum said as the platform began to move “should I send some fresh clothes to the baths as well?”
“Yes please no offense to the dra…uh..Mr. SkyBlaze but I’m glad that the golems were the ones delivered my clothes. The thought of that dragon being in my room while was sleeping is kind of disturbing”
“What about when you were unconscious?”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn't go into the old manor so after you fell the master was the one who carried you inside the cavern, and tended to your wound” Burtrum said, there was a long pause “Are you alright Miss Lumi? Your face is turning red.”
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 96 x 120px
File Size 48 kB
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