Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

Sarah slipped through the Gate in human form and gave Roher a reassuring shoulder pat. Smoothly handing off the bundle of crystals, she headed towards the cavern’s edge. Once clear of the group, Sarah pushed her pace hard and sped away quicker than an F1 car at full speed, her draconic strength cracking the stone beneath her feet.

“Sarah seems eager,” Roher said. “I wonder if she wants to provoke a reaction from the Sisterhood’s wards?”

Laergul chuckled, and his eyes shone with amusement. “She’ll face disappointment if that’s the case. We’ve set songs beyond the purification’s reach to untangle any workings of Mana.”

“We’re experimenting with a batch of the damned I’ve tagged to see if they’re drawn back to Culerzic,” explained Amdirlain. “I’d say she wants to stretch her legs since she’s been stuck in this chamber for days.”

Roher nodded. “She seems possessed of more restless energy than most dragons I’ve met. Restricted to your chamber might play a part, but she’s young, and only in her first evolution. I can’t remember meeting any dragons before they were in their second century.”

“Part of that is just Sarah, and part is the energy common to relatively young dragons,” Amdirlain said. Memories of excitable siblings squabbling playfully amid gold dust and magical items flickered in her mind and brought a smile to her lips. “I think Orhêthurin enjoyed watching dragonlings play. While I’m sure Sarah is already aware of that, it might be fun to tease her about being too cute for words.”

“Didn’t she transform when she visited the monastery?” asked Roher.

“No, she was trying hard to maintain her dignity. Sarah even got snappy at Livia because she kept trying to hold Sarah’s hand after they arrived for the rematch,” explained Amdirlain. “She didn’t enjoy feeling like a toddler with her mother.”

“Snappy?” snorted Laergul.

Amdirlain smirked. “I had to go there.”

While Laergul rolled his eyes, Roher returned her grin. “The three of you share an odd sense of humour.”

“It’s a cultural thing,” admitted Amdirlain. “Then again, humour is always determined by cultural mores.”

Roher started shifting through the bundle of crystals that Sarah had handed over. “Did you want these sung to mark those damned, or mortals?”

“They won’t endure close to what I want to achieve with the network marking mortals and Fallen,” answered Amdirlain. “They’re set to the size Sarah wants for the hafts.”

“With the sheer number of the damned there are to mark, we’ll have to be conservative in the approach we take drawing them in. Do you have a sample for us to hear?” asked Laergul.

Amdirlain brought the second Soul Jar she created near the Gate, and the corrupt souls within started to hiss and boil. Not wanting them destroyed, she returned the jar to the table and, once clear of the Gate’s proximity, the energy within the souls settled down.

“Does the purification field cause you any discomfort?” enquired Laergul.

“Not discomfort at this distance from the centre, but it’s a firm pressure even across the Gate’s threshold,” replied Amdirlain. “How close are you cutting it to the field’s edge?”

Roher made a tossing motion in the direction Sarah had headed off. “The cavern narrows at this location, and the field extends out into the tunnels some distance that way. Let’s discuss the best composition for marking the damned, and then we can create another batch.”

Determining the changes to her original song concepts didn’t take long, but opened up other options for discussion.

Sarah returned before they resumed, swinging the Soul Jar casually by her side. When she reached Roher, she set it on the ground and hopped back through the Gate. “What’s Isa up to at present?”

“Constructing primary supports for a connecting passage,” answered Laergul. “The choirs have months of preparation work ahead for the next connection, but what we’ve already achieved heralds large changes.”

“Anything I can help with?” Amdirlain enquired.

“You have your projects. Let’s focus on those and push your abilities along,” countered Roher.

“Would you like me to arrange some additional choirs, or would you prefer limiting crafting to a particular period each day?” asked Laergul.

Amdirlain motioned to the others. “How many choirs did you intend to involve? I don’t want to overwork them.”

“Until you improve your capabilities, you will shoulder most of the strain. If we keep going at this pace for a few more sets, it’s practically a rest day. I’m more concerned that you ensure you don’t overdo your efforts,” cautioned Roher.

“I’ll be keeping that in mind,” agreed Amdirlain. “The crystals’ songs are far more complex than the ones I used to twist the portals. Two hours again?”

At her question, Roher nodded and immediately resumed singing, while Amdirlain, focused entirely on the songs, joined in at the intro’s end. The strain grew as the other singers added their efforts until it reached the same peak.

As they worked, Laergul claimed a crystal Sarah had delivered to Roher and started on additional songs. The interwoven melodies he set within the crystal caused it to shine like a green star before Laergul tossed it over his shoulder. When it impacted bare stone, its motion stopped, and a cylinder of green light matching the Soul Jar’s barrier sprang into existence, enclosing a space 10 metres across. Giving Amdirlain a wink, Laergul placed the retrieved crystal in a pouch and tossed it through the Gate.

Already returned to lounging in her draconic form, Sarah fished it from amid the forming crystals with an idle thought and placed it out of the way.

Two hours into the session, with crystals already littering the ground, Amdirlain motioned to Roher. He didn’t immediately add a new song pair to the mix but waited until they’d completed the current work before he started the intro of four songs at once.

One by one, Amdirlain motioned to each Lómë, and the din within the chamber grew. When she reached 44 crystals being created at once, most manifested with an appearance like nearly white opaque quartz, rather than the translucent they’d been. The challenge facing Resonance, True Song, and Duet became a frantic battlefield where infinitesimal slips impacted the crystal’s quality.

A chord at a time, she struggled to keep her balance with the energy thrumming through her being. Though the pulse of its beat strained at her, it evoked a reminder of Orhêthurin’s past. Her fingers twitched in time to the constant rhythm the songs required, and Amdirlain caught her tendons being plucked like strings. The shifts of muscle, bone, and ligament reverberated up her arms and towards her core, which gained a growing drumbeat.

Sarah swept old crystals away to allow Amdirlain to focus on the new and the flaws in each began to reduce after another two hours of practice. With the pressure easing, Amdirlain signalled for Roher to continue, and the others took their cue from him. Two hours turned towards three of constant effort, yet the demands of the music continued to decrease. But while nearly-white crystals were now few, none were close to transparent. Amdirlain motioned for them to carry on, and though Roher frowned, he continued singing.

Amdirlain kept the crystal creation going for five hours before she called a halt. The last of the crystals before the Gate were all perfectly transparent, as the most recent batches before them had been.

[Crafting Summary (Category: Basic utility item [minor]) - experience by item grade:

Beginner: 355 x 226 = 5 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Apprentice: 360 x 294 = 15 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Journeyman: 380 x 448 = 30 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Masterwork: 400 x 112 = 50 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Total Experience gained: +495,490

Ostimë +247,745

Ontãlin +247,745

Multi-voice [M] (45->56)

Protean [M] (72->74)

Resonance [S] (24->25)

True Song [S] (48->49)

Duet [Ad] (36) -> [M] (19)]

Laergul gazed thoughtfully at the transparent crystals before the Gate. “You favour pushing the powers rather than ensuring immediate quality.”

“They’re going into demonic weaponry, which could travel anywhere, potentially not even near the damned. So the bottom line is that I don’t need high quality; I need millions of them. What helps me the most in the short and long term is my progression, which means pushing hard,” explained Amdirlain.

The worry eased from Roher’s expression, and he nodded his acceptance. “Unlike my other students, I can’t hear what strain you’re under, but I’ll try not to hold you back.”

“And to confuse things, I doubt others you’ve trained have my health capacity or a Power that heals them,” commented Amdirlain. “Your insight stones stone provide a health rating, something to ease your concern is that my health rating is over a million.”

Roher froze with his mouth open in surprise, and Laergul responded first. “That would certainly be a factor. We’ll endeavour to let your self-awareness of your limits be our guide.”

“That is something I hadn’t considered,” said Roher after Laergul gave him a nudge. “Yes, we’ll work to the best of our limits and let you judge your own. What is your Regeneration at?”

“I’ve Protean at Master rank, and it’s currently 74,” corrected Amdirlain.

“That’s unexpected,” whispered Roher, and he gave Amdirlain a rueful smile. “Perhaps I should stop underestimating you. While your composition is remarkable, and you’ve still got far to go, you’re further than I expected. I keep viewing your abilities relative to Orhêthurin’s capabilities instead of your accomplishments.”

Amdirlain restrained the urge to sigh. “I’m not Orhêthurin, but I know she had neither Psionic training nor any experience using Ki.”

“Rightly said, and I don’t understand why I’m having trouble with the comparisons. Perhaps I’m simply out of practice in treating with those reborn, or my mind still doesn’t wish to acknowledge we lost the enduring Orhêthurin,” confessed Roher. “It is a matter I shall have to meditate on and find a resolution for within myself.”

That Roher saw it as a matter that he needed to resolve and not requiring a change from her brought forth an unguarded smile from Amdirlain. “Thank you, Roher.”

Roher started and frowned in confusion. “For what?”

“You considering that the issue is yours to resolve and not mine,” explained Amdirlain.

“Ahh, that’s alright. I've long believed that projecting your problems onto others is a frequent source of interpersonal conflicts. Now, since this experiment was so successful, should I look to arrange additional choirs to assist?” enquired Roher.

“I’d appreciate that, Roher,” confirmed Amdirlain and she nodded respectfully to the choir members. “I can’t begin to say how much I appreciate you taking your rest time to help me push my abilities.”

Her thanks received murmured acknowledgements and smiles of appreciation from the choir.

“Are you planning to work non-stop, Amdirlain?” asked Laergul curiously.

“I’ll admit I can easily get overly focused on achieving my goals, so let’s see about keeping this to efforts the Lómë can easily support,” allowed Amdirlain.

“We’ve thousands of choirs, many of whose commitments are reduced as the connections between grottos progress, and will drop even further shortly,” said Laergul.

“Alright, let’s work it this way. We can alternate between my project work and the pillars needed for the grotto connections to speed them up,” suggested Amdirlain.

Roher and Laergul both frowned at her.

“No,” declared Roher. “That won’t be necessary. What Laergul referred to is that we’ll be reaching the point where we’ll begin merging communities. That will reduce the choirs’ workload and free up more individuals that might like to assist.”

“Indeed, we don’t even need a full choir to assist you at this point in your progress,” stated Laergul. “I could have sung all the crystals with you alone. While we were all present to make the initial exercise easier, I’m not sure a large group is required until you progress your Multi-voice further.”

“I’ll speak to a few choirs, and we’ll get a schedule set up with alternatives,” said Roher.

His remark only got determined nods from the others present, and Amdirlain heard them comparing their current commitments to see who’d be available regularly.

“Along with primary contacts to open the Gate for whoever is assisting for the duration, they’ll be the ones to let you know if you’re working on something else,” added Roher, his words drawing Amdirlain’s focus from the choir’s discussion. “As you rightly said, the crystals will be the bottleneck, so whenever you have time to work on them, we’ll have someone available to help.”

“I don’t know how well the containment crystal will work on the same plane as the damned. After you try it out, please let me know the outcome, and I’ll compose some adjustments,” offered Laergul.

“What do you think the containment limit will be?” asked Amdirlain.

“I’m not sure there will be one. Though, as you’d expect, the greater the perimeter, the greater the strain, the faster the crystal will erode,” explained Laergul. “Now, that is only for containment; we’ll still need to compose songs to remove the corruption and memories.”

“There is an area on the side of the Soul Jar where the corruption and negative emotions are drawn away to form coinage.”

Picking up the Soul Jar, Laergul examined its side and traced his fingers across the runes where the raw coins sat. “I’ll have to look over these and experiment with a translation. I’m not sure we can listen to it processing a corrupted Soul within the purification field.”

“I’ll create some more and load them up with souls, but I’ll keep them here. Hopefully, you can learn enough even if the processing occurs a distance from the Gate,” suggested Amdirlain. “Should we do that before creating more crystals tomorrow?”

“I can do that, though I’ll need to get someone else to cover my duties,” Laergul said, giving Roher an enquiring look.

“Fine, I’ll handle your rostered position for you, but for now, we’d best get going,” grumbled Roher.

A stream of the better crystals floated across the Gate’s threshold, and the choir gathered them up. When the Gate closed, Sarah gave a casual yawn. “You three sounded like you were having fun theory-crafting when I returned.”

“I’m not sure they’re all options we want to pursue; even one of my projects has a vast territory to cover,” admitted Amdirlain.

“Planar Attunement,” muttered Sarah.

“And?”

At the question, Sarah guffawed, and her lips curled into a smug expression. “Turnabout is fair play, and it's an option that hits at his bottom line. If you shifted the demons’ Home Plane, they’ve got no reason to remain loyal to him, and you could rob Moloch of his demons.”

“The individual needs to be on the Plane to anchor them, which is why I’m still locked here,” said Amdirlain.

“Yes, but most of Moloch’s demons aren’t Planar Locked. My idea was around setting up a cascade trap. A crystal to Planar Shift everything in an area, including the crystal, and then hit them with a Planar Attunement field,” explained Sarah, giving Amdirlain a vicious grin.

A stray thought brought a mirrored smile to Amdirlain’s lips. “How about we use it to feed Moloch’s demons into a meat grinder?”

“Oh?”

“The BrÍn don’t like intruders on their proving grounds,” said Amdirlain conspiratorially.

“Would you be able to target the Planar Shift that accurately when you’ve not been there?”

“Point, but we could send them to a Plane they can’t survive,” muttered Amdirlain. Deep in thought, she walked over to the table and picked out a crystal from among those Sarah had kept back—the material was white and filled with dissonance flaws. “Let’s take a step sideways on your idea.”

“What did you have in mind?” asked Sarah eagerly.

Picking up the pouch with Laergul’s containment crystal, Amdirlain waved it towards her. “This little toy gave me the idea, and I’ve now got a ton of almost worthless crystals. I’ll set up boxes with a decent crystal to handle detection and a teleportation trigger. When it gets a hit, it teleports a crystal from the box into the back of a detected Demon’s mouth. I set the box’s crystals to trigger Plane Shift, then Planar Attunement. Though, that brings up another question: can you grow diamonds?”

“Yes, but why?”

“High-quality diamonds would be strong enough to hold a couple of condition-triggered songs and save crystals,” advised Amdirlain. “Then I could still use these needles for weapons; even the beginner ones will last a few hundred years.”

Sarah gave a pleased chuff. “Synthetic diamond manufacturing would push up Mineral Control, especially if I’m making thousands at once.”

“Push towards hundreds of thousands. I won’t need anything in a large carat, just the tiny ones common in cheap rings.”

The snicker she got in return had Amdirlain raise an eyebrow questioningly, and Sarah squirmed in amusement. “No such thing as half measures.”

“Indeed,” affirmed Amdirlain.

“You’re a bad influence on some of your poor celestials. Tier 7 achievements aren’t easy to get unless you find a demonic Gate to the Material Plane to close or exterminate major undead or demonic forces.”

“Or wipe out a city whose inhabitants had genetically engineered other species into mindless battle fodder,” countered Amdirlain, and she reached out to tap Sarah’s snout.

After mock nipping at Amdirlain’s fingers, Sarah grumbled. “Or that. Your bad influence means that Ebusuku’s got thousands of celestials with a quartet of classes over level 90 that aren’t taking a Prestige Class.”

“I’m pretty sure that issue is why Laodice was honest in saying she only had Tier 5 classes. As the personification of a Concept, she was too powerful to get either Tier 6 or Tier 7 with the restricted interactions they normally operated under,” explained Amdirlain. “I wonder if she realised who I was; she laughed when she stated the Four weren’t the strongest of the Titan’s servants.”

Sarah considered the explanation for a bit and finally nodded. “It would be easier to fill up her classes and find a suitable celestial wellspring. The more species that indulge in war, the stronger she becomes. As for recognising you, we’ll only know for sure once we get her loose.”

“True,” murmured Amdirlain as she set to composing a new set of songs.

It didn’t take long to put together what she needed, and Amdirlain cut the beginning of a fourth passageway leading away from her training chamber. She hollowed out a block of stone about the size of a car battery and set it with a lid that slid into place along dovetailed tracks. Giving Sarah a teasing wink, Amdirlain sang a dozen diamonds into existence, then set up the test songs into them.

Seeing the diamonds, Sarah grunted. “How are you going to know if it worked?”

“The song in the diamond is going to message the memory crystals their name,” explained Amdirlain, and she hefted the piece of the stone she’d extracted from the chest’s interior. “So, I'll let the psi-crystal’s intellect know to separate anything that is not in the tag pattern. I’ve got the diamond exploding afterwards just to kick them while they’re down.”

“Okay, so use Analysis and focus on getting it to provide their Home Plane?” asked Sarah, not taking her focus from the stone Amdirlain was bouncing thoughtfully in her hand. “You’re not planning to play catch or something, are you? Because if you are, you can chase your own throws.”

Amdirlain laughed and teleported the stone across the chamber. “I wasn’t thinking about that at all. I was considering the logistics of your idea. Should I set up warehouse shelving so the stone boxes can teleport themselves back here when empty? I’d need other locations anyway to make it hard to trace.”

“Are you going to experiment with it first or see how many damned that crystal can hold?”

“You’re the one that gave me the idea,” complained Amdirlain.

“It wasn’t one you had to act on immediately, and it wasn’t like I could tell what you were composing,” protested Sarah. “Why don’t you progress the plan with the damned further first? Better to stop Moloch from getting replacement demons.”

Amdirlain gave an embarrassed shrug. “Fine. If Laergul’s crystal can serve as a location to draw the damned, we could have them circled with others to handle the purification of the souls.”

Creating a series of soul jars, Amdirlain filled each one with ten souls before creating a few hundred blank metal discs. Listening to the Soul Jar’s enchantments at work, she recorded the purification of the souls into a memory crystal. After collecting the first set of souls, Amdirlain refilled the jars and set them and the record aside.

“Those just in case your record doesn’t capture all the details?” asked Sarah.

“No, the record is for me to work on later. I don’t know if I can hear notes that the Anar shouldn’t be able to hear, so I can’t share that with Laergul,” explained Amdirlain, and she waved at the refilled jars. “Those are for Laergul to hear the process.”

Collecting the crystal from the pouch, she tossed it off to one side and examined the ten-metre-high cylinder that appeared when it landed on the stone. The motion of the energy within was a cyclone of force that pushed towards the centre. Hearing the similarity to the Soul Jar’s barrier, Amdirlain stuck her hand inside and pushed out the rest of the damned she’d collected. The stream created a black spiral that began a metre above the crystal needle and stretched eight metres upwards.

“They seem disorientated,” commented Sarah.

“Laergul was more merciful than I was with the slavers’ souls I brought back into the Abyss,” admitted Amdirlain.

Sarah snorted in disgust. “Easy to be merciful when you’ve not seen the evil someone has done. Since Laergul hadn’t seen the souls you just released, they were a hypothetical question to him.”

Amdirlain looked at her sceptically. “There was the second jar you didn’t take with you; he’d have been able to hear those.”

“Never underestimate someone’s ability to delude themselves,” retorted Sarah. “What will you do with the spin-o-matic toy you’ve got there? I don’t think the spin cycle is washing them out.”

“It looks like a weird spinning lava lamp if I don’t listen to them,” acknowledged Amdirlain.

Retrieving a rough cube of crystal the length of her forearm, Amdirlain sat it on the floor beside the cylinder. “The corruption and the emotions in the souls are energy.”

Sarah stalked across the chamber and sniffed the cylinder. “I can smell their foulness. Are you planning to sublimate their emotions?”

“Within them, no. I plan to extract the emotions and use them to fuel a reaction,” explained Amdirlain.

Moving around the chamber, she spaced out four blocks along its edge. In each one, she set the same concealment that warded the chamber.

The extent of her precautions had Sarah observing the preparations intently. “How are you planning to do that?”

“Not going to attempt it in a single jump; this is for the first stage experiment,” admitted Amdirlain, and she gave a rueful smile. “Though technically, I’ll admit it’s at least the second stage since Laergul beat me to recreating the Soul Jar’s confinement.”

Rather than explain further, Amdirlain repeated Laergul’s song. When she was done, an acidic green cylinder of the same size sprung up around the first crystal block. On the edge of the initial cylinder, Amdirlain isolated a melody of the damned and sung Energy Drain’s thread into place. It was a changed composition that connected the link to the block at the centre of the other cylinder, though she kept careful control.

With a thought, Amdirlain willed it to reel in, and the Soul leapt between the confinements. Making use of the improvements in her Multi-voice, Amdirlain rapidly sang more and more connections into place. With the growing noise, she activated them in a rush, causing the souls to be pulled away from the spinning mass. With the block lower than many of the souls’ positions, it looked like hundreds of petals sprayed groundward from a dried and blackened bouquet. Upon their souls touching the block, the threads ruptured, letting the damned join the steadily growing spiral around it.

“What’s your phase two?” asked Sarah.

“Something to strip one of the negative emotions away,” replied Amdirlain, and she used Far Hand to pull the needle to her.

The first cylinder collapsed as soon as the needle left the ground, but Amdirlain set up a replacement created around another block.

“Why do that while moving them between blocks?”

“Ideally, I’d like to strip them away as the souls arrive,” explained Amdirlain, and she gestured between the cylinders. "This is just my test environment for perfecting the songs."