82nd of Ash, Year 121
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise
And the sun will rise
Dawn had yet to arrive, but Kala was already awake. She wanted this soul totem's creation to begin and end with a day's dawning, knowing how illumite's potency rested so much on when it was harvested. It didn't seem a huge stretch of the imagination that it would be important for processing it magically. And she had taken most of the season to carefully prepare it. While still in Starfall with all its resources available to her, she had held it under an aether net while magically filing down its sharp edges, knowing she would have to swallow it, hold it, and regurgitate it for the ritual to be complete.
It was a fancy bit of elementalism for someone of her skill level, but the aether net prevented any escaping energy from harming her.
Now, she laid out her notebook and the ivory bowl she used for this sort of thing. The pictographs she would etch into the dragonshard would have to match those in the bowl, priming the sympathetic magic that would ensue. The lighting was excellent, but she still had to hold the dragonshard under a magnifying lens so she could see the minute work she would be doing.
Kala had practiced this technique time and again over the years on lesser stones. Now she held the illumite under the lens and focused her will and her aether to a hair-thin point. She had first just used Fire, but as she became savvier to how the elements worked, both singularly and together, she had added Earth to stabilize the technique and, later, a touch of Air and Water for an even more stable technique. This balance was especially necessary for magically etching a dragonshard, as it was calcified energy that could react explosively to the wrong stimulus.
It was slow, painstaking work, but she etched the pictographs from the bowl in miniature upon the shard. She scrived the lines of power that would make it a focus for aether in ways additional to its nature as a form of energy. Dragonshards were alive by many standards: they grew almost like a fungus. Now it would incorporate the powers of life and death for her. She added a pictograph for Soul because that was a quite specific form that aether took.
Finally, she christened this as she had the bowl with four pictographs that were separate from the sigil that the rest of them formed, and yet, they could not be entirely separate. Raella for Life; Wraedan for Death; Lyren for Undeath and Knowledge; Keela for Wisdom. They were the High Ones, standing below only the Dragon King and the Masked Queen. It was important to her that They approve of her works.
When she was done, she pulled the stone out from behind the lens to look at it with her naked eyes. She knew that it was all correct up close. From here, the pictographs weren't individually visible but lent a nice texture to the reflective surface.
She unrolled a square of thick paper, flattening it out while she took a wax pencil and drew a careful circle of runes whose diameter brushed the edges of the paper on all four sides. For now, it would only have to fit the bowl, but in a few days, she would have to be able to comfortably fit within its space. The circle was made up largely of the same pictographs that were inscribed upon the bowl and the irregular hunk of illumite. She even intended to draw them onto her skin when she would be the receptacle for the nascent soul totem. It was important for the resonances to be doubled and trebled, drawing the magic into multiple dimensions, restructuring the dragonshard into something new.
Kaus arrived on cue as if reading her mind. He was, in a sense, and knew when she needed him.
"Different pictographs this time?" he asked, platinum brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of all she had scrived.
"Slightly," she amended. "I made some adjustments because it's illumite rather than aetherite."
"If you say so."
They lapsed into silence, though their minds were almost always passing things back and forth whether in words or impressions. Looking over her work, she finally nodded, moved the ivory bowl into its center, and then set the etched dragonshard into the center of the bowl. Kaus handed her one of her daggers in its sheath. Without undue hesitation, she drew its edge across her wrist below the rascette, just where she had done so a season gone, so quick that there was no blood on the blade when she set it down outside the circle. The cut wasn't deep, so it would take a while to fully submerge the crystal. Kaus took her arm and gently massaged her bicep and her forearm, encouraging the blood to flow. But while she kept her eyes on the project, he kept his eyes on her, watching for her color to change or her eyes to unfocus. He would not let her fall and him not catch her. She accomplished more for not having to question that he would.
When she could just barely see the glow of the gem beneath the surface of her blood, her eyes shifted to the wound and she concentrated. Blood was mostly water. There was iron in there, as well, according to the medical lore. And other things as well, most of which fell under the purview of an elementalist. Still, it took a great deal of concentration to staunch her own wound with magic and willpower. As she focused on that, Kaus carefully applied a tincture of beeswax and other things that would speed healing and prevent infection, then quickly bandaged her wrist.
It was tight, but the pressure was helpful. She only slowly allowed her control to waver and finally wink out. It was more difficult to control now that she couldn't lay eyes on the wound, but the work had been done. They both watched, and while there was some mild spotting, the artificial scab seemed to have done its work while her body did the rest.
She didn't swoon this time, but she did take his arm lest her steps wobble. A woman her size had less blood to spare, and so she needed to rest.
85th of Ash, Year 121
Kala woke before dawn again. She didn't bother checking on her project, but instead went to have a heartier breakfast than normal seeing as she would have to fast for a full day. Kaus wasn't up yet, though she knew he would be. He liked to greet the mornings with his sword, but she would already be meditating upon a dragonshard in her belly. She was glad the body or the magic seemed to know not to let it pass all the way through her; regurgitation was unpleasant enough without having to sift through her night soil for magical artifacts.
After eating, drinking water, and using the lavatory, Kala returned to the workshop. She picked the primed illumite up out of the bowl, marveling that there wasn't even a trace of blood left behind. It was warm and she wondered if that was normal. The grimoire said only that it would be cool after all was said and done. She imagined she could feel the faintest beat as if it had a heartbeat, but that might have just been the echo of it from a vein in her hand. Keeping the stone within the circle, she removed the bowl and then climbed up onto the table and reached for the zabuton. She got herself situated comfortably and then peered at the thing.
Steeling herself, she put the gem in her mouth and carefully swallowed, then settled herself and began to rein in her breathing, the first step to falling into a meditative trance. Although this was not her first time trying to infuse a thing with her soul, it was certainly not old hats.
Later, she was vaguely aware of the various times Kaus checked on her, the times he sat with her, not interrupting but providing a supportive presence.
86th of Ash, Year 121
The light was dim in the workshop. Without windows, one couldn't know that dawn was approaching, though it hadn't arrived.
On the work table, Kala was kneeling, her eyes mere slits. On the floor, Kaus was kneeling, his chin against his chest. He was snoring lightly. His sister's stirring was too quiet to wake him until suddenly she fell forward, one hand catching her weight as the other clapped to her mouth and her whole body began to clench as she wretched.
Then, Kaus startled awake. He grabbed a small basin, pulled the small towel out of it, and slung that over his shoulder as he held the basin under her face. At least he was fast enough to catch the bile. There was little else in her stomach now.
Her hand came away from her mouth and what had been a perfectly ordinary hunk of illumite now had a ghostly white hue. It seemed as though the light clouded around it like the impression of mist. To Kaus, at least, it seemed as though the glow was somewhat warmer than her last soul totem. But he cared more about her than the success of her project. He picked up an ewer of water and splashed some on the new soul totem, then set it down so he could wipe it off with the towel, dab at her mouth with the clean side, and generally try to take care of her. He wanted her to eat, but her body was more cramped than his own. Her mind had kept her still all that time, but even her young body would require some recovery.
"Not so bad this time," she said faintly. "I'm actually a little hungry and thirsty, at least."
"All right, then. I'll carry you to bed and fetch you a snack," he promised. That said, he put the soul totem in her hand and picked her up to do just that.
