The Greatest Discovery

A Lead

Leaning an elbow on a shelf, Juliyah leafed through a dusty ancient volume of a soulcasting manual she had found in the restricted section of the High Library. Pat had to make the request to Brightness Lilin herself to let himself and Juliyah into this part of the building, despite a decades-long closure and past Malam's objections. The woman was shocked to see Pat and her together again but did not erupt with unproven accusations in front of the others. According to Pat, Malam believed Juliyah and her family had killed Edde on purpose. Silly as it was, at least her constant prying made sense now.

Last she saw him, Pat was seated among at least ten different books two floors higher, scouring the material science section to find measurements of the emerald bond strength, muttering about chromium additions to beryl and tensile testing. They checked on one another from time to time - for an update and a quick kiss - and then delved deeper into the yellow pages. In a few hours, Aillia joined Juliyah in the soulcasting section to lend a hand with the research - Brightness Lilin must have told her where to find them.

When she saw Pat, the older woman smiled in that annoyingly all-knowing way all married people give to the unmarried ones, and Juliyah realized she was not the only one who could read emotions on his face as easily as if they were written in ink. Juliyah blushed but lifted her chin defiantly. Aillia smirked and pretended to occupy herself with the book. Pat... remained oblivious to the entire situation, as only men could.

When Pat headed back upstairs, Aillia did not say a word and Juliyah was grateful for it. There were enough heart-to-heart conversations in these few days to last her a lifetime.

Yet, even with Aillia's help, the search went slowly. Most of the texts, even in this restricted section, were extremely obscure. Intentionally or not... well, that seemed obscure too. Even the titles were twisted in such a way that a layman would have never guessed the content. If it wasn't for Aillia, who went through each manuscript with relentless scrutiny and calm, Juliyah surely would have thrown a few of those right against the brick wall to see if it beats any sense into them. Fortunately for the librarians, Aillia was more stone-willed than even a topaz soulcaster had any right to be.

In about another three hours of reading, Aillia paused, her finger tucked between pages. She was reading something called 'Importance of dimensions and firmness for a successful interaction' and Juliyah almost choked on a snarky comment that itched her tongue. Which of the ten fools named these books?! Perhaps, she admitted for fairness' sake, it was her mind that was wandering in the wrong place.

"Listen to this," Aillia said and read from the page she marked, "'Following the Recreance, the soulcasters were granted a right of the first examination of any gemstone above four carats to craft and use for their purposes. The rulers and merchants alike were required to present any newly found or imported gemheart to the order, before anyone else and without question.'"

Aillia put the book down, carefully placing a small pebble on the page she read to keep the volume open. There were no pebbles in the room a second ago. Aillia picked up another book, called 'Bondage and trust'. "There is a mention of something similar here too," she said and read, "With the founding order gone, the time required to cut a gemstone suitable for transformation increased by a few orders of magnitude. The recycling process that lasted generations could no longer be sustained: new, always new, gems, as close to suitable as possible, had to be found and cut to suit the spren needs.'"

Juliyah gaped at that. "The Knights Radiant founded the soulcasters?!"

Aillia nodded, "The order of Elsecallers, according to some hints and half-statements in that one," she pointed to a worn scroll with a slow movement of her heavy hand.