EG Book 7 Chapter 4 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

So, Vegas is a blast, and I’m having a ton of fun and learning a bunch. I haven’t written as many words as I wanted to this week, and am gonna have to hustle to get back on track, but I’m sure that what I learn here will make me a better writer, and help all the people I can give advice to on what’s worked for me. I’m still fairly far ahead, so y’all should be getting two chapters a week for a while! Hope y’all’s November is going great and I’ll try my best to go back through and answer comments and questions next week!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

It took me nearly an hour to get back to the inn, since I wasn’t sprinting as fast as I could this time. When I arrived, I saw Librarian Narwan speaking with Sam. I waved, but left them to do what they were doing. I could see the Aether flowing in Sam as Librarian Narwan talked. She didn’t respond, too engrossed in her center to notice me.

I opened the door carefully to my room, and found it empty yet again. Jon’s bed was rumpled, though, so he must have slept in it at some point. I laughed, then pulled out another Knowledge Stone along with a few sheets of paper. I found myself in the Herbology hallway, and started to explore. Low level plants, Inscriptions to enhance the growth of hundreds of different crops, mixtures and fertilizers and all sorts of information flowed onto the pages in front of me.

After the first three Inscriptions caused me to start having a headache, I figured out the trick to not getting a direct download of information into my brain. I read reports and transcriptions from memories. Every few minutes, I’d pop back out of the stone to write down what I’d been reading, checking over it a couple of times to ensure I wasn’t missing anything.

After about an hour, my door echoed a knocking sound. I got up, stretching my legs to get the blood back in them, and called out, “One second!”

“Meet in the courtyard for training in five minutes,” Librarian Narwan commanded through the door.

“Yes, sir,” I yelled back, then changed into a looser set of clothing. After getting ready, I hurried out the door, only to leap backwards as Jon tried to open it.

“Gotta change,” he said quickly.

“Yup, see you down there,” I told him, stepping aside so he could enter first.

A few minutes later, I was waiting with my team. No one else had been summoned. “So, is anyone else excited to learn about gathering in the Core level?” Vaya asked.

“Definitely,” Bridget responded.

A second later, Librarian Narwan appeared in front of us, “Yes, you will be learning about gathering in Seed Core. Most will tell you that the layers here in Seed Core do not matter, that they exist only to get you additional Aether storage and strengthen your physical body. Those who say so are short-sighted fools who will be doomed to languish in mediocrity. Of course, that is not you.” His glare promised significant pain if it was us.

“Your advancement through Core will be significantly personal, so I will be instructing each of you individually. In general, each time you create a new layer on your Core, you will be adding to a runic structure that we will design ahead of time. This will not be easy, and starting at Seed Core will make it harder. Most start in Foundation Core. As an example, here is the initial setup I used as a Seed and Foundation Core gatherer.”

A spherical crystal appeared in front of us, and the top layer pulled away to reveal a tapestry of runes that formed it. They were three dimensional and linked together in ways that revealed the truth of Librarian Narwan. The connection of gathering and Wood runes and the way they curved into the Knowledge rune next to them told me that he sought knowledge wherever and however he could get it. Another spot, where a connection rune merged with one I didn’t know, evoked his desire to lift up the common people of Craesti. Looking at his core was like looking into his soul.

“The Primordials I have spoken to call this level Truth Seeking,” Librarian Narwan continued. “You can see why. Your Core will evoke the truth of who you are. If it doesn’t, you will get few benefits. Now, each of you go to a corner of the yard, and meditate on who you are as a gatherer and as a person. I will speak to each of you individually.”

“Yes, Master Narwan,” we chorused. I jogged out to the far right corner, the farthest from the doorway, then sat cross legged on the dirt.

Okay, who am I? As a gatherer, I’m a Lightning-focused all-rounder. I mean, even my lowest Affinity is High, which is better than most people’s best Affinity. Uh, let’s not get arrogant. There are many people with Affinities near mine. I frowned, then shrugged at my thoughts, I probably do have the highest level of Affinities among anyone in my generation at least, though. So, who I am as a gatherer is the best. It is what I strive to be, what I want to be, and what I am. Of course, I don’t know if I really am best, since I’ve never gotten to fight Aleks as an equal with both of us at full strength. In Craesti, she had fought three other people already, and in the Tournament of Champions I was injured. Does it matter though? If who I am is one who strives to be the best, then losing is fine as long as I learn and grow from it.

Now, who am I as a person? Why am I going through the pain, torment, and stress that my current path puts me on? I want to save, well, everyone. I know that’s not realistic, but, Light, Darkness summoned me here and asked if I wanted to save the world. That’s heavy, but I’m going to do it. I can, I will, be the hero of this world. I sighed, Is fame really a part of my desires? I used to think that being a celebrity would be horrible. Here, at least, there aren't any paparazzi.

What would these desires look like in a Core? I thought, then started to sketch in the dirt in front of me. I know being a gatherer is important to me, so gather needs to be a prominent rune, but I need to bend it to make it part of a sphere. If I link it to Lightning, I can bend the edges like …I drew, then got frustrated when the dirt didn’t let me do what I wanted.

I focused on the air in front of me, and let out a tiny bit of Aether. I used Earth as the Core, and then a tiny blade of Metal and Lightning mixed to carve away at it. Tiny grooves and swirls were cut into it. Hey, at least this way, when I make a mistake, I can just fix it. I laughed internally as I sent a bit more Earth Aether to fill in a part where the two runes didn’t connect like I wanted them to.

I ended up erasing the entire thing twice, rotating each of the two runes and bending them in different ways. “You have to think about what you are trying to express,” Librarian Narwan said once I deleted my practice core for the third time. “And let the feeling’s that the sentiment evokes in you guide your creation.”

“Yes, Master Narwan,” I said, then closed my eyes. I focused on the joy I felt when I advanced, on how fulfilling gathering was, and my goal of getting stronger and being a pillar for the kingdom and world. The two runes formed in front of me, and I could feel the bends necessary to link them together. Together the runes made up about a third of the space available on my pseudo-core in front of me.

“Good,” Librarian Narwan said, “and it only took you two hours. Well done. Remember the configuration, and we can work on another set of runes shortly.”

“Uh, sir, what should I do now? Should I not be gathering until this is complete?” I asked.

“Gathering at the Core level is different,” Librarian Narwan said. “Currently, it would probably take you around two hours to create your next layer, assuming you use a gathering powder and are in a place with significant Aether density. Out here in the yard, without a supplement, it would take you six hours or so, and that is very fast. If you were to start gathering and have to stop before you can create a new layer, all of the Aether you had gathered above your normal storage capacity would quickly bleed off and be lost. To advance, you will have to schedule significant time periods of just gathering.”

“Yes sir,” I said. “Uh, so should I work on another rune set now?”

“Take a few minutes to move around, stretch your legs, and refresh yourself,” he said. “Jon is just about done, I will speak with him next. Come back in a few minutes to work on this.”

I stood and bowed. He nodded back before seeming to teleport to Jon’s side. Jon was poking at a floating ball of Ice Aether, then frowned at it and washed it in Fire. Librarian Narwan started speaking to him, and Jon nodded with a frown of concentration on his face.

Over to the other corners I saw Vaya contemplating a carved Wood core. She had three runes on it already and was tweaking how a vine rune connected to one that meant control. Her core seemed to say that she controlled the growth of everything around her, and that she could control anything within that growth. Well, that’s cool, I thought.

Bridget wiped away what she’d been working on when I looked over, though not because I had. She quickly reformed another core, dense Air rotating slowly in front of her, and then it shifted to show the rune for speed and one for agility.

Lindsay walked over to where I was standing with a tray of lemonade, “Master Narwan bade me bring refreshments to you.”

“Thanks Lindsay,” I said.

“No, thank you,” she smiled and gestured with her hand. “I advanced to Condensation, and the healers were able to remove my scars. The Affinity Powders you gave me made it so much easier.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “I plan on getting more and more people those powders, and I know Librarian Narwan is still looking at ways of making them better and cheaper.”

“That would be amazing,” she said. “But I should go, Jon is standing up now.”

“Thanks again,” I said before taking a deep sip. The tingle of the sour melded with the sweetness of the sugar, and a rush of Aether showed that they’d used level three Sourburst Lemons to create it, rather than the cheaper, more common, Jungle Lemons. I enjoyed the lemonade, and deliberately concentrated on it rather than let my mind poke at the question of my core.

Once I was done, Lindsay appeared, gently took the empty glass from me, then walked away. I sat and created the ball of Earth again. A few minutes of concentration gave me the runic structure I’d created already. Now I have to add something to either side. Alchemy needs to be included. I love making powders and pills, and it’d be really neat to make a potion that was usable for longer than fifteen minutes or so. I wonder if there are ways to make the containers better, would that help with longevity?

I shook my head, Focus on this now. There’s not really a rune for Alchemy, but generally a combination of Wood, Fire, and reaction can be used to mean it. Three more, let’s make these smaller though, so that the three takes up the same space as two. Actually, I stood up, and Librarian Narwan appeared. “Uh, is there an optimal size for the runes?” I asked him.

“Too big, and you will lose too much storage capacity in the areas where there is no crystal,” Librarian Narwan said, “and too small will make the creation and expression of them extremely difficult. Remember, anything you decide you want to create, you will have to make layer by layer as you advance. Any mistakes will make your eventual Tribulation harder, or cost you valuable time to fix.”

“Can we just advance like others and then add in the runes later, carving them down into our Cores?” I asked him.

“Yes, but it takes three times as long, as well as is extremely painful,” Librarian Narwan said. “It also risks shattering your Core, forcing you to start over with damage to your center. Starting over takes twice as much Aether, generally, to create a new Core, which is one reason why most who fail to advance to Perfect Core end up never attempting to advance again.”

“Uh, okay, thanks sir,” I said. “So putting three runes in the space that I used for two already should be fine?”

“Yes,” he answered. “You could probably shrink the runes down to half the size to give you more space to work with.”

“Got it,” I said, then focused on my model. I remade the runes so that they took up a sixth of the space available, then asked, “Is this going to be the fullness of my entire Core? So I won’t get many benefits until I’m all the way to Complete Core?”

“No,” he said shortly. “The design you make now will be through Foundation Core. At Constructed Core we will discuss adding another layer of runes on top, and connecting them throughout to what you have created already. Here at Seed and Foundation, you focus on who you are. When we get to Constructed Core, you will focus on who you want to be. Mistakes there are more damaging, as they can change your personality. Do not worry about that, though. You can always grind away the top few layers of your Core to fix it.”

“But…” I asked

“But it will hurt, like everything else about gathering,” Librarian Narwan said. “I will explain the answers to your questions to the others. Jon did ask a good question that you did not. You should make sure to include your Bond in your Core, and use that to strengthen the connection you two share.”

“Yes sir,” I said, then bowed as he walked away again. I turned and plopped to the ground. I idly gestured at the floating ball of Aether, suddenly giddy at what I was doing, then stopped it and started to connect my Lightning rune to the reaction rune. I focused on my desire to know things, to create things, and the reactions that electricity can cause. I thought about endothermic reactions, those that required an energy input to create, and then threw the Fire rune on the other side.

Fire and reaction had me thinking of Sia, and the instant reaction that Jamila and I had to him flying over the Meditation Grotto back at Azyl Academy. I thought about exothermic reactions, and the heat that Vaya, Jamila, and Aleks brought to my cheeks when they teased me, along with the joy and passion they brought to my life through their friendship and love. I realized that I needed to bend the runes a bit, so that Fire, Lightning, and gather all touched at the bottom, and Wood connected to all three.

Wood, symbolizing the growth of my body, my growth as a person, and the growth of my relationships in this world. Wood also represented Jamila and Vaya, while the Fire took on aspects of Aleks and Sia, of course. What if we don’t end up together? I thought, then realized, I can’t see a future where we stop being friends. I could see us growing apart enough to not want to become married, but I doubt we’ll ever end up not in each other’s lives.

With that thought, I moved and put another set of runes, Ice and steadfast together to symbolize my desire to be a shield for the world, and how Jon acted as a shield for me. He had been my first friend here on Zemia, and would always be my best friend. He helped me and shielded me from others at the start, and he acted as the shield for our team. I knew he would stand with me to the end, and I knew I had to help him get stronger so he could. If Jon’s not equal to me, he’s going to get hurt trying to stand in front of my enemies, I thought.

Over the next ten hours, we worked, took breaks to relax our brains, and looked over each other’s cores. Vaya blushed brightly when she saw mine, then threw her arms around me and pulled me into a kiss. Her core did have a representation of me on it, along with Jamila and Aleks.

Librarian Narwan saw that, and shook his head, “Youth’s and your infatuations,” he laughed, “Just be aware, if your relationships don’t last, you will need to modify your cores.”

“I know, Master Narwan,” I said. “But I doubt it will be needed.”

“Well, you are released for the evening. We will work on gathering a layer tomorrow, and see how effective you are now that you have designed a core. The first few layers are the easiest to change.”

“Do we not get any benefit until after finishing Foundation Core?” Jon asked, echoing my earlier question.

“You will see benefit nearly immediately,” he answered, “though it will be minor. Your spirit knows what you are attempting, and your Aether will be affected. Now, go.”

“Aiden,” Vaya said, “Aleks asked me earlier to have you get dressed for a formal evening out.” She grinned, “It is her turn for a date, as you called it.”

I gave her a hug, “And you are sure you’re fine with this.”

“Of course, she’s smart, funny, hot, and politically powerful,” Vaya answered.

I shook my head, then nodded, “And so are you. What are you going to do tonight?”

“Jamila and I are going to spend an evening together,” Vaya said.

“Cool, have fun,” I said and gave her a quick kiss.