Journey onto the Storm (BOOK 2)

Chapter 33

MARIA

"In the hundreds of Turns of alchemical advancement; the truth around the Corruption remains as obscure as its source, where no amount of distillation of the taint gives us clear answers — only more questions to ask. A terminal affliction both body and soul, incompatible on a base level to the host and Derelict husks. It is a mystery I venture into, muddled with the blood of those who suffer from this affliction. Each time, postmortem, it is expelled in the form of a crystal. Something we consider a pure expression of the flow, formed into a solid piece of magick. It has led me to ask multiple questions of the state of our world. Because if that is true, then this crystal inside the Husks — for a lack of a better term, is a pure form of 'Darkness'. If we go even further, the first Storm Wardens found a way to avoid the inevitable of a host parasite, by masking our magick presence to Derelicts — through a ritual whereas we drink their blood, a small level of corruption within ourselves, to channel through our crescent blades and pierce the purity of their dark with our multi-colored souls. One more question, if there is purity in darkness, what is in the light?"

Her fingers ached.

On her weighing scale among her alchemy instruments sat a recent Derelict core, lost of its luster and power. One moment, lighter than a feather, and the next, heavier than an ingot she borrowed from the Elvkin smithy. Her thoughts dotted her notebook, a habit Yuo made her form to keep track of her research. It refused to balance on the golden scales, never consistent though she tried to keep notes on what she tried to gauge its weight against, whether feathers or stones. Tomes piled high on the other end of the table with bookmarks sticking out the sides. Station side nights where she poured over the passages she read a million times, and would read a million times more to understand the conundrum of the Obscura Realm.

In a way, I understand Neven's drive to read the text.

Maria took the serrated, monstrous core off the scales and caused the comparison subject of another elementia crystal to balance with nothing but air where it came close to equilibrium with the Derelict core, but not close enough for something substantial. It threatened to prick the edges of her fingers, but it never drew blood again. Quill back in her hand, she flipped the papers to where she first studied the new specimen brought to her from the Warden's on their precarious routine patrols. And then there was that Derelict they found in those ruins, but the core burst before I could examine it further. It tickled the edge of her mind, so she grabbed one of the tomes to speed through the alchemical texts and anatomical drawings. Even under the most intense heat, it wouldn't melt. It wouldn't crack. In the cold, I suppose it shrank, but... Maria put it in the crucible and sent a glyph of flames around the runic circumference. Steam shimmered in the air from the collected moisture, but it left the core in the basin unaffected, not even a heat crack across its spiked surface.

Medicine and healing was an ever shifting puzzle with no clear answer, not even magick answered the burning questions in her heart. Her boot tapped against the cobbled floor, but time waited for no one. Out of the chair, she drew upon the collected heat over the crucible. Ember twine curled around her fingers as she sparked the glyph of her fire to life. Amber curves swirled around the focal point in the steam, connecting by the outer spikes. Flames bounced off the tips to gather with a bladed edge over the greatest mystery. It blasted into a well of flames to smash against it with all the force she could muster. It shimmered across her skin, and a bead of sweat rolled down her brow when she focused on the warmth masked as cold. Orange, into blues fluttering with whites. Maria scowled and forced the pressurized air to create flame from her soul. It hissed into a scream as it boiled on her brow and tried to match her own volcanic helplessness for the truth.

It popped along the crucible, and she let it go to leave a circle of smoke where her glyph manifested. It curdled in waves around the Derelict core, unperturbed at the torrent of fire she put it underneath. Tongue between her teeth, she bustled to the cabinet to grab a fresh cloth to pat her brow before returning to her station, her notes, and endless texts with no defined path. I had to give it a try myself... Her quill scratched into the margins of her latest attempt at throwing all her hopes into it, to crack the surface — but there were no flames hot enough to melt the core of darkness, devoid of the light. Though, I knew that wasn't going to work. Sunlight glittered through the smoke, but she leaned back in her chair when footsteps sounded outside in the corridor to the rest of the Lodge.