The Greatest Discovery

The Unrest

Focusing on keeping her voice steady, Juliyah told the secrets she swore to protect with her life to a man she met a day ago. Strangely, once she squeezed the first few words out, the rest came easily. Pattis listened patiently, not interrupting, though his hand twitched whenever she paused, as if he wanted to reach out and place it on top of hers but abandoned the thought each time. Through the grogginess from the lack of sleep, drained tension from creeping about the city in the morning, and later confrontation with Malam, through the nauseating feeling that she was betraying her order and forsaking her oaths, it was almost darkly amusing how much she wanted that hand to move. Perhaps, she thought, it was just something to distract herself with.

When she finished a tale of another realm, where the seas were land and the land was an ocean of tiny black beads, where the motionless sun poured frail light night and day on the souls of objects rocking together in undulating waves, where sometimes - she shivered at this part - emotion spren watched her in their full form, she realized that the sun of this realm was hanging low enough to cast their shadows all the way to the wall. Shadows in Shadesmar - the realm of soulcasting - would be stretched in an opposite direction. She told Pattis that too, not sure of the relevance of the details, but unwilling to keep anything that might help. Not when she got this far.

When the silence stretched long enough to dwarf the shadows, Pattis stood up, stretched, and started pacing in front of her. There were only twelve steps from one edge of the base to the next, but he made good use of it, spinning on the heel of his boot swiftly each time he needed to turn. Juliyah watched him, out of words, and deflated like an empty waterskin.

"So the spren is a guide," he said on his twenty-first march eastward, "someone who both lets you glimpse the Shadesmar and translate your words to the bead and vice versa?" he sounded hoarse, as if it was he who had talked for an hour.

"More like translating my meaning and thoughts, I don't think words are strictly necessary... but yes, that's the idea," she said.

Pattis made a few more turns before he said, "Would you say that the spren transforms the stromlight from the gemstones - the energy - in any way?"

Juliyah considered. "I don't think so. I think it is directing it though, in a way that corresponds to whatever I visualize. The Intent is mine, but the actual transformation, powered by the stormlight in the gemstones, is done by the spren."

"But do you know how much stormlight whatever you are meaning to soulcast takes? For a particular transformation, say one lavis ear?"

"I do, but by trial and error, mostly. If you practice as long as I have, you feel how much energy the gemstones in your soulcaster have and what you can do with it. For example, the gemstones I have inserted now are almost empty - enough for ten blueberries, maybe, but that's about it."

Pattis stopped in front of her, looking confused. "What's a blueberry?"

Juliayh hid a smile. That was what confused him most in her entire story? "It's a Shin berry, sweet and fresh, and blue like the Mevan Bay. I think you would enjoy it. You are not allergic to berries, are you?"

Pattis shook his head, "No, but I never had a chance to try it, though my father promised to bring some Shinovar fruit from his travels. He never got around to it."

He resumed his restless march, thoughts already back on the problem.

"The Intent is yours...' he said, half to himself, then more loudly. "Do spren understand the Intent immediately, or as the book says 'the relationship between the soulcaster and the soulcasting spren must be carefully cultivated'?"

"The latter. It is different for each soulcaster and their spren, but the Connection needs to be formed to work together efficiently. I think that happens because each person visualizes things differently. Some focus on color, some on taste or any other number of attributes: no one can imagine an item to perfection. So the spren must learn to adapt to that person's thinking and interpret it. It is also likely the reason why each soulcaster spren focuses on just one or two essences: they need to know every aspect of their focus essence to fill in the holes a human soulcaster leaves in the Intent. Stem and I," she blushed, "Yes, I named my soulcaster, got along very quickly, but I could still only soulcast longroots - nothing else - the first few times I tried."