9.2 For Right Now

General Summary

Day 85

For the first time in a very long while...I sit in my bed and I read. The book Yson gave me is very old and it is about lasting magical defences that can be set up to protect an area. It talks about magical anchors, like the crystals in the library, and using normal non-magical items to construct patterns to let the magic flow. There are ways of harnessing natural energy as well, but using water and wind to produce magic can be risky - the effects on the natural world itself can be unpredictable.   It also talks about the magic of sacrifices. A particular dwarven city was once powered by a pinprick of life from each resident for a long time, until the city’s population began dwindling. As the population got smaller, each individual had to sustain more sacrifice until they were so weak that a normal illness wiped them out.   Remarkably, it also mentions the Valley of Storms. The lightning rod there collects the lightning and releases it against anyone who gets too close. It could be overcome with “waves of callousness” that sacrifice targets to run the energy dry, or some cleverness to make it target an innocuous target. Such magic is easy to make enduring, but it would be much harder to construct lasting magic that can target specific people. One solution to this is to have a mage sacrifice themselves to continue and control the magic forever, like Kadia. Of course, there is the risk that such an individual becomes fixed in the context of their life, unable to truly learn and grow into the future. Truly, it is a military book and I can see why Yson thought I would like it more than him.   By the end of it I feel like I could probably define an area of effect and devise a way of powering it. The complexity of actually creating the contingency magic escapes me a bit. Tira and Alwen would be fantastic at this sort of thing. They probably wouldn’t even need to refer to the book if I told them what to do.   When evening comes, Bran and Vaneili come to see me about the Dreaming. They have spent several days together trying to get Vaneili to slip into it properly, but it hasn’t quite worked. I note that they are sitting very close together. Ah, kids.   The three of us set ourselves up to enter the Dreaming again, in the hopes that my presence will help. Instead, Bran and I see largely the same thing he has seen - a misty form where we would expect her to be. Bran summons Thalien, who suggests that I invoke her oaths to me to command her to manifest in the Dreaming. It works, though she is still a bit faint. She goes to her knees and Thalien pulls her up into a hug instead.   Once we are all together, Thalien leads us to somewhere he has found high in the mountains in the Dreaming. It is an elven stronghold, built like a wizarding academy with spells embedded into the floor and walls. Thalien tells us that it exists in the Dreaming but it no longer exists in the Waking world. It may have been designed to teach people to work magic in the Dreaming and strengthen their connection to it. In particular, one room contains the spell Thalien used to send Dal into the Waking world, and another has a spell reminiscent of a Dreaming Stone.   The magic is a little rough...like it was a prototype for the magic now used in the stones. Still, I memorize it. I can recreate it in Deldrin for Vaneili later.   With the immediate work completed, Vaneili addresses all of us. She can’t decide if she ought to stay in Deldrin to be my voice in the city or if she should come with us.   Like everyone who wants to travel with me, she suffers from the idea that she wouldn’t be worthy or useful in the group. She can’t do what Bran does, or at least, she can’t do it as well. She knows in her heart that she is more useful in the city but after being lost for so long, there is nothing she wants more than to stick with the family.   It’s sort of convenient to get to re-use the same advice on new people. Everyone has the right to seek their own happiness, and it is not selfish of her to want to join us.   Bran asks her if she would be happy having made that choice, or guilty.   And Thalien presides over this discussion with all the maddening wisdom I’d expect from him, speaking about how she should think about where she would be the strongest, and that a choice is for a moment, not forever. It can be revisited, and she has time to find answers to other relevant questions before needing to answer the greater question itself.   “Foolishness is thinking that an answer lasts forever”   She voices her fear that Bran will simply...blink out, and she would regret not taking the chance to know him before he’s gone. But he removes that factor by telling her about the Empress’ touch on him, and how he will live as long as any of us.   She and Bran ask my blessing to explore whatever they’ve found together, which I happily give. While they are distracted, Thalien and I exchange an amused look. Kids.   And they fade back into the waking world, leaving me alone with Thalien. He remarks that I seem better than I have in a while. Maybe being confined to a bed and resting is actually doing me some good!   But I have other things on my mind. I ask him bluntly if Lord Shakshakshafa deserved what I did to him. His answer is “yes” with no hesitation. More elves died at his orders than any other. He didn’t need to defeat people; he needed to break them. And Thalien thinks that he commanded his junior officers to sabotage our negotiations so that he could try to kill us. The Collective needed to see that we could reach them in their own homes, and they needed to feel afraid. Even if I did it for the wrong reasons, it slowed down the war and gave us time we needed.   And now...Thalien says he thinks the war may only last another decade rather than a century. This shocks me...it’s so hard to see the ramifications of what I’m doing on this side.   He speaks of his prophecy again, and hearing the words again, it makes more sense. It does seem like the work on this side is helping. I can see that future through his eyes.