Abyssal Road Trip - 251 - Play with my limits (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

Amdirlain turned away from the twinned cylinders to consider Sarah. “While I appreciate you keeping me company, you don’t have to be lounging about in the Abyss.”

“Why not?”

“I can think of places that would be far more comfortable, even if you’re not trying to increase your levels,” stated Amdirlain.

“That’s certainly true, but you’re stuck here,” said Sarah. “Won’t make up for those times when I couldn’t be there to watch your back, but I can at least keep you company now and help with your projects. If a project needs my help elsewhere, I’ll think about it. With being a Dragon again, the perspective of my other memories is clearer; now a century is nothing.”

“You have that advantage over me. Orhêthurin’s perspective is hard to understand ‌when so many years seem to be nothing,” mused Amdirlain.

Sarah snorted derisively. “It’s not an advantage. It can erode your sense of urgency when a millennium seems a short time spent planning. Focus on what you want to do; let me worry if I’m feeling bored.”

“Fine. I’ll make you some ingots to play with, or do you want a proper bed?”

“Stone is fine. I don’t need acres of coins and gems to lounge on, even if it is pleasant to scratch my hide against,” replied Sarah before she smiled in anticipation. “Once you get loose, you can make me a few million platinum and gold coins to cover my consulting fees. Or would you prefer I charge hourly? Should I put on a leather outfit?”

“Where the fuck did I get you from?” grumbled Amdirlain in mock indignation.

“Well, you’ve already remembered you’ve only yourself to blame,” countered Sarah.

Amdirlain laughed and started to sing; stacks of Abyssal steel formed rapidly as each song worked to create an individual ingot.

Heedless of the flaws in the forming metal, Amdirlain pushed Multi-voice to its limits.

“Create them out here. I’ll stack them up,” instructed Sarah. “Try to keep them at least evenly shaped, but I can tidy them up.”

As the most recent ingots finished forming, the creation's glow shifted from the storage room to the training chamber. When Sarah set to work, metallic slithering and chimes resounded from the storage chamber before she moved the newly finished bars.

The storage chamber had threatened to overflow with materials before Amdirlain halted. “There is so much to do, Sarah.”

“Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. I notice you let yourself get distracted easily, which isn’t exactly like you,” noted Sarah. “What’s your most important goal?”

“Recovering Torm,” Amdirlain answered without hesitation.

“What things do you see aiding you in that goal, and what are distractions?” asked Sarah.

“The project with the damned will push my True Song, and I could have the weapon crystals tag mortals, damned, and fallen as well. Figuring out a way to remove the corruption from the damned might help me heal Torm,” replied Amdirlain. “The network specifically for the mortals, I can create the crystals and let the celestials worry about their placement.”

Aware of the fading reverberations that the singing with the choir had set beneath her sternum, Amdirlain gave a full body stretch. The motion unexpectedly had the energy shift outwards across her tendons.

“Something up?”

“The crystal singing is echoing in me still,” explained Amdirlain.

“You held yourself mostly still, but I could see your fingers twitching in time to the music,” noted Sarah.

Amdirlain flexed her arm and focused on the shift in sound. “Orhêthurin had a way of activating True Song with movements. I’ve got lots of memories of her dancing songs.”

Pretending to yawn, Sarah stretched out but kept her muzzle slightly out of Amdirlain’s reach. “I don’t know how she did it, but I’ve memories of massive effects appearing after she’d danced.”

She tried the monastery’s physical training routine, and the energy flexed erratically with her motions. Though Amdirlain tried to isolate parts of the pattern, it didn’t shift as her memories suggested it should.

As Amdirlain continued experimenting, Sarah took on Human form, and a metal stream spun itself into a sword in her hands. A crystal retrieved from the work table disappeared into the sword’s hilt, while Sarah made nearly undetectable adjustments to the weapon. Between adjustments, she swung it with surprising proficiency.

She repeated the creation process with war hammers and an assortment of other weapons, though she couldn’t fully complete all of them with the materials available. Some were variations of those Amdirlain had created for her after scouting the armoury, while others must have come from Sarah’s own experiences.

“So near, yet so far,” grumbled Amdirlain before she walked over to examine Sarah’s collection of weapons.

“Either you’ll figure it out or you won’t,” offered Sarah helpfully before gesturing to the weapon heads that she’d spread out along the table. “I’ll need hafts for those. Likely I can get away with different weights on the weapon butts or reinforcements along the haft to balance the lighter blade.”

“I’ll need to expand the armoury area; weapon racks need more space than stacked ingots,” observed Amdirlain.

“Yeah, but we don’t need space to walk between the racks. Just set up simple narrow shelves,” suggested Sarah. She retrieved a bardiche’s blade from the table and used Inventory to insert a crystal into the gap she’d left in its formation. “I can create these in advance, and then we can insert the crystals as they’re ready.”

Amdirlain nodded. “Let’s keep those completed crystals in separate areas from the rest. Do you want bench space, or will you put them right into the racks?

Double-checking a sword’s balance, Sarah considered the question briefly. “I’d prefer to rack them straight away. If I run out of hafts, I’ll focus on swords for a time. If I create all the swords with wire-bound hilts, you won’t need to create any hide straps to wrap them.”

“That means I won’t be able to swap them out for ones already in the training armouries I checked, but I’ll work something out,” accepted Amdirlain.

As Amdirlain moved towards the unused storage room, Sarah switched back into draconic form. A sword she’d been clasping looked small enough to rate as a toothpick.

Within the chamber created for finished weapons, Amdirlain filled most of the space with floor-to-ceiling shelving to slide the weapons in on their sides. The only exception was a narrow corridor down the middle to allow for it to be expanded. No sooner had she finished than Sarah slid scores of completed swords into place. Extending the fourth passage Amdirlain had started with her experimental stone chest, Amdirlain created another storage room with identical shelving.

“So we don’t have to check each one; please put the weapons with crystals in here?” requested Amdirlain as she stepped out of the new storage chamber.

“I can do that,” accepted Sarah, and she nodded to swords still sitting on the table. “Those are the only ones with crystals.”

Amdirlain gathered them, extracted the crystals, and set each with the other muddy white needles. When she returned the swords to the table, Sarah whisked them away to join the others in storage. The pair got to work, and when Amdirlain had thousands of hafts created, Sarah shifted from making swords to polearms.

Sarah was the first to notice when the psi-crystal started cataloguing new messages within the memory crystals.

“They’re a touch proactive. The crystal has messages about mortals tagged on Ternòx,” rumbled Sarah.

“I’ll check with Roher. Unless they adjusted the songs, the detection could have tried to tag any Lómë in range,” remarked Amdirlain.

When she sent a message to Roher, the response she got was unexpected. “No songs are marking any Lómë. They’re teleporting crystals through the cities in Ternòx. I take it you got results?”

Acknowledging Roher’s message, Amdirlain had barely passed the details to Sarah when she received another.

“We’ll scry those marked and determine their situation. We’ve taken some crystals you repaired with Erwarth and set them near those gates and portals from Ternòx known to us. Let us know when you want to sing more crystals—Laergul already has more singers wanting to help you.”

Sarah snorted when Amdirlain relayed the second message. “Seems they are grabbing your projects by the throat and running with them.”

“It seems crystals won’t be the bottleneck, but rather me, until Isa’s other work winds up,” stated Amdirlain.

“I’ll create some additional psi-crystal arrays and work on more weapons,” offered Sarah.

Nodding, Amdirlain sent another message. “Roher, whenever you have people ready, open a Gate. Sarah is creating more psi-crystals. I’m sure you can create memory crystals to serve as a target for the messages.”

A Gate opened a few minutes later, and Laergul introduced Amdirlain to a new Lómë. Laergul loomed head and shoulders above Dúhel, who, at maybe 160 centimetres, was the shortest Elf Amdirlain had met so far. Her bright pink hair was a blaze of colour against the dark stone of the Abyss and was still dull compared to the glow of her seafoam-green irises. Though she still wore the loose robes Roher and the others had worn, she wore elaborately decorated garments with an array of jewels and tiny bells all over them.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Amdirlain. Let me know if anyone can’t fill this time section in the roster; I’ll be available every day,” said Dúhel when the introductions had finished. “You have my name, so just message me directly.”

“Dúhel, don’t jump the queue,” chided Laergul.

Dúhel stuck her nose in the air. “Bother the queue! I just started the available-to-fill-in line.”

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of chances to work together, Dúhel,” reassured Amdirlain.

At Amdirlain’s comment, Dúhel shook her head sadly. “I’ve seen how many people wanted to speak to Laergul before Roher told him to come back here. Do you want more crystals the size of the last set?”

“We’ll start with those,” confirmed Amdirlain.

As they got ready to begin, Sarah floated the psi-crystal array through the Gate. With a nod of thanks, Laergul took possession of it and headed back towards the cavern’s centre.

“I’ll keep starting a new song pair after double the intro’s beats, signal when you reach whatever limit you want to work at,” Dúhel stated, and she immediately sang the intro to the first songs.

Amdirlain focused on her singing, and true to her word, Dúhel quickly began another pair. One after another, the glow of needles started appearing on the ground on Amdirlain’s side of the Gate’s threshold.

Dúhel, not showing the strain when dozens were forming, swayed in place to the music’s tempo. Unlike Roher’s choir, who had held themselves still, Dúhel happily danced to the music she was singing. The tiny bells provided a giggling accompaniment to the music’s repetition.

When there were 45 being created at once, Amdirlain finally signalled. Instead of halting the increase, Dúhel signalled for another, and when Amdirlain met the challenge, delight shone in Dúhel’s gaze. When they’d completed all the crystals, the material barely showed a hint of white, and Dúhel rolled her eyes.

In rapid succession, she added four more crystals, and with 50 going at once, it had tipped them over the threshold. The strain showed in the crystal's murkiness—one after another were a cloudy white, but still nowhere near as bad as Amdirlain had created with Roher’s choir. At the colour of the crystals, Dúhel gave a pleased nod but kept working at the current rate. The 200 songs between them filled the air with sound and energy that pounded across Amdirlain’s skin.

It had only taken them some eight minutes to reach that point instead of the slower pace Roher had adopted. For a further eight hours straight Dúhel sang and—frequently—danced energetically before the Gate. Each time she did, she motioned for Amdirlain to move her feet. Though she didn’t give in to the temptation, Amdirlain felt the resounding energy pounding within her and let Harmony embrace the tempo. Midway through the session, Amdirlain felt the tension drop away from Multi-voice, but Dúhel nodded and didn’t press harder.

It was only when Laergul reappeared that Dúhel wound down. The minimal intervals she’d allowed between songs made a dramatic difference to the total amount of crystals and Amdirlain’s progression.

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

Beginner:   355 x 412 = 5  (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Apprentice:  360 x 636 = 15 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Journeyman: 380  x 908 = 30 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Masterwork: 400  x 2,844 = 50 (base) + 350 (exotic) (x50%)

Total Experience gained: +1,900,485

Ostimë +950,242

Ontãlin +950,242

Harmony [S] (77->78)

Multi-voice evolved into Symphonic!

Symphonic absorbed Duet!

Symphonic [M] (1->24)

Protean [M] (74->79)

Resonance [S] (25->29)

True Song [S] (49->50)]

“Pushing yourself works out much better when you feel like the music will sweep you away at any moment,” advised Dúhel.

“Did you place Amdirlain at risk?” interrogated Laergul.

“Of course not, and I believe she evolved Multi-voice. At worst we would have mucked up some crystals, but she kept pace fine,” huffed Dúhel.

Laergul gave Dúhel a suspicious look before he turned his attention to Amdirlain. “Are you alright, Amdirlain? Is what Dúhel believes true?”

“It was a rush trying to keep up, but it forced progress. Multi-voice evolved into Symphonic,” admitted Amdirlain. “Were you going to work with me about evolving True Song, Laergul?”

Dúhel gave Amdirlain a wave before she vanished.

“Yes, perhaps we can focus on the theory around that so you can properly recover,” suggested Laergul.

“I ended up with a lot more crystals. Which I’d find encouraging if we weren’t looking at hundreds of infinite planes,” said Amdirlain.

The last of the crystals lifted from the ground, and Sarah stacked them into a large stone crate she’d crafted while Amdirlain and Dúhel sang.

“You need to sing faster,” said Sarah, waving her tail at the crate. “You’ve barely lined the bottom.”

“Maybe create one that’s a little smaller,” retorted Amdirlain, and she jabbed a finger at the container. “What’s that, about a metre cubed?”

“Yeah, about that,” laughed Sarah.

With one hand, Amdirlain lifted the crate to the Gate’s threshold, and she pushed it through far enough for Laergul to claim without risk.

“Did you expect that evolution?” asked Amdirlain once Laergul had teleported the box of crystals away.

“No, I certainly didn’t, though I should have expected Dúhel to see if she could help you combine the Power and Skill. You might wish to regain Duet, as it has a physical coordination aspect that is useful for combat and other group coordination,” suggested Laergul.

“I’ll think about it, but there are some psionic techniques I can develop and, usually, I’m fighting alone,” replied Amdirlain, and she ignored Sarah’s disgusted snort. “What are the options for evolving True Song?”

“Cutting right to the chase,” said Laergul. “Not even wanting to hear the theory?”

Amdirlain smiled. “Options and then theory.”

As he considered his words, Laergul sat down on the nearest rock ledge facing the Gate. “The option that most have historically taken focuses on evolving True Song and avoiding combining it with other powers. When evolved that way, the name of the Power doesn’t change much; it merely gains a suffix.”

“Like the evolution of Sword to Sword-Lord?”

“Yes, but the suffixes are different. Many weapon Skill suffixes seem male-focused: Sword-Lord, Sword-King, Sword-Saint, etc. Meanwhile, True Song is less specific, and another factor is that they don’t appear logically progressive suffixes.”

“Such as?”

“The most common suffixes are: Virtuoso, Custodian, Commander, Artiste, Crafter, and Builder; uncommonly others have gained Preceptor and Guru,” explained Laergul. “Most people only evolve True Song once, while others have moved from one common suffix to another, or onto one of the rare suffixes.”

“Why only once?”

“Have you ever injured yourself with True Song?” asked Laergul.

“Yes, I ended up spitting out pieces of my vocal cords,” admitted Amdirlain.

Laergul nodded understandingly. “Lucky you have your healing capability and no need to breathe. Were you singing something right at the edge or even beyond your ability with True Song?”

Amdirlain echoed his nod. “Yes.”

“True Song is powerful, but it's also incredibly unforgiving. It's been said that the greatest cause of death among the Anar and the Lómë, hands down, is True Song itself. Forcing True Song to evolve requires the singer to push their limits for an extended period, not in a safe calculated fashion,” warned Laergul.

“I’ve felt my abilities with it improve during longer songs,” noted Amdirlain when Laergul didn’t continue.

Her comment drew another nod from Laergul, and his brows furrowed before he spoke. “Given your history, I worry about the risk you’ll take with this knowledge, but I will not keep you ignorant. First a warning you’ll likely understand: To gain the evolution of True Song ahead of time is to risk death.”

When Amdirlain simply nodded, Laergul continued.

“You can start with a calculated song designed to force yourself to skim along the edge of the dissolution, only to find you’ve stretched your Power too early. The effort suddenly lessens mid-song, and suddenly you’re well within your safe limits again. No one has gained an evolution of it until the song completes.”

“Then it’s—what? Finish up and go back to the drawing board?”

“That’s one choice. You can continue singing the song you intended, bring it to completion or add flourishes on the fly to increase its complexity and strain.”

“I take it the first doesn’t result in an evolution,” prompted Amdirlain.

He lifted his hands in the air helplessly. “It might or it might not. Those that played it safe infrequently receive one of those common ones.”

“What did you gain?”

“Artiste the first time, Preceptor the second. Artiste, I gained even though I added flourishes to my composition on the fly. Preceptor though, I nearly killed myself getting it. The backlash destroyed three-quarters of my lungs as I finished the song. I almost drowned in my blood except for magic another used to sustain me,” explained Laergul, and he smiled knowingly at Amdirlain’s wince.

His smile drew a frown from Amdirlain. “I can’t think of any other Power where it's possible to hurt yourself simply using it. Putting yourself into a situation where you get hurt is one thing, but from using it?”

“As I said, it's unforgiving—now. Our legends say that it wasn’t always the case, but we can only guess what changed. Fragments of memories tease at things we’re no longer certain about,” offered Laergul.

“It's all guessing with incomplete memories and likely polluted further by partial recollections or studying history in other lives,” confirmed Amdirlain.

Her words caused Laergul to shift uncomfortably. “Except for the memories that you’ll recover. Your recollections won’t have ended up muddied in the same fashion.”

“I’m not sharing my memories,” denied Amdirlain.

“I can appreciate that, but might I know why?”

“Because they’re incomplete, and you all judged the Titan. I won’t give you a chance to judge Orhêthurin based on partial memories,” declared Amdirlain. “Now, shall we get back to our discussion on evolving True Song?”

Laergul nodded.

“What happens if you don’t force it to evolve?” asked Amdirlain. “Take the safe road and get the Power to the maximum level of Grand Master?”

“It will evolve once to one of the common types, depending on the primary focus of your use,” explained Laergul and continued before Amdirlain prompted him. “Unlike other abilities, once it reaches the highest level of Grand Master, it doesn’t automatically evolve again. The different suffixes cause the power to focus more easily on different songs.”

“It sounds like I’ll need to avoid levelling it through crystal construction alone,” commented Amdirlain. “What would that get me, builder or artiste?”

“If you’d only been creating the rods and needles you’ve been creating, the suffix crafter would be the most likely—if you got any at all. Though, given what you did to that city, I don’t believe it could consider your primary advancement of the Power to be merely crystals,” argued Laergul.

“Primary advancement of the Power yet; I’m going to be creating millions,” refuted Amdirlain. “While I appreciate the Lómë working on the crystals to handle the marking, I think I’ll have to handle some myself. Either that or come up with projects where I’m not handling only a single piece of the puzzle to ensure my progression remains diverse.”

“Much of our work remains the purification barriers, so I can appreciate not wanting to be singing the same piece endlessly,” agreed Laergul, and he gave a crooked smile. “I think that is part of why so many were swift to offer to help you.”

“Glad to know I’m spicing up people’s singing careers,” quipped Amdirlain.

“You were destroying demonic towns with True Song, correct?”

Amdirlain shrugged, unsure of what Laergul was getting at. “Only four, plus one city.”

“Roher is working on a means to determine if detected mortals were suitable to banish to their homes. If we can send in a host of such crystals first, you could destroy the location,” offered Laergul.

“You were saying it needs to be a single song?” queried Amdirlain.

Laergul nodded, his indigo hair fluttering wildly in the cavern’s erratic breeze. “It's impossible to push your True Song's limits with multiple songs at once. Plus, then you’ll cause other powers to improve, instead of True Song.”

“I’ll have to think about it. I’d rather be creating with True Song than merely propagating destruction,” replied Amdirlain.

“Merely?”

“Yes, even though destroying demonic cities isn’t something many consider mere. What I most want is advancements that will help me restore Torm.”

“Your purification of the damned,” said Laergul. “We could just send them into the river Styx or Acheron.”

“The melody within the river Styx is cruel,” noted Amdirlain. “Wiping all their deeds away, and resetting the flaws in the souls, means the resulting Soul is innocent and might improve a world. Throwing all the souls into either river means feeding it energy and corruption. Who knows what effect that will have later? Since those rivers touch too many planes, I wouldn’t be comfortable with the risk.”

Though he looked ready to debate the point, Laergul nodded in acceptance and pulled a memory crystal from a pouch. “Will you bring one of the Soul Jars closer? I want to listen to it processing the souls.”

After working through the jars individually, Laergul kept his thoughts to himself until the end. “It's not looking to purge them, it's only extracting specific emotions, making it easier to determine how it's targeting them. Still, the problem is removing all the unwanted elements without extinguishing the Soul.

Amdirlain collected the processed souls and added them to the others swirling within the crystal’s energy cylinder. Her action drew Laergul’s attention to the block at the cylinder’s base, though he couldn’t see the second through the Gate.

“You duplicated the cylinder I created with only the sample?”

“I was paying attention while you sang the first one,” said Amdirlain with an innocent smile.

“Yes, while you had the background of the threshold and all the songs you were working on to contend with,” huffed Laergul.

“Oh, poor Laergul, I practised Resonance listening for particular songs inside a demonic city,” chided Amdirlain, and she laughed when he pulled a disgusted face. “I’ve also got a way to link the souls to the crystal instead of me so I can draw them into the cylinder.”

“Would you show me?”

Though it had the potential to expose secrets, Amdirlain targeted the trapped damned. When they were all connected, she moved the second cylinder in front of the Gate. With Laergul focused on what she was doing, Amdirlain activated the Energy Drain’s effect to pull the souls between cylinders.

“If the cylinder had an outer barrier that targeted the emotions and corruption, we could strip those away as each entered,” suggested Laergul.

“That was the next stage of my plan,” admitted Amdirlain.

Laergul pressed some notes into a new memory crystal and rolled it through the Gate.

“I’ve recorded the section that handles targeting and extraction. With those separated, we’ll need to develop more targeting variations or find something in common. What did you have in mind for the extraction? Would you add the effect to the cylinder or take a different approach?”

“I was thinking of using a secondary aura like the concealment barriers instead of adding extra strain to the cylinder itself. Someone else will need to transfer them to Judgement, as I won’t be able to test any melodies I develop for reaching across planes yet.”

“Let’s see what we can determine about the processed souls,” suggested Laergul.

Amdirlain left only one jar close to the Gate and stored the rest away to avoid distraction. Reclaiming all but one Soul from within, the pair spent hours reviewing the damned’s melody before the next singer arrived to create more crystals.