20th of Frost, 120 AS
She was close... extremely close. She had pondered the problem for days now but was beginning to make a breakthrough. Her original schema had been overly simplistic, and perhaps too rudimentary for what she truly wished for. The Circle would connect the mage with the soon to be core at its simple in the same way it did normally, yet Lyra had woven in lines of mesmer which strengthened that connection to the point that the two were bound by not merely string, but bands of iron. She then encapsulated that connection within a space that housed the core and the mage's mental constructs and gave it form. This was the open space Lyra could 'see' when she connected to the circle. The connection was powerful, too much so, and the way the schema was designed put the entire stress of it onto the glyph itself. This was ultimately what caused the pictograph to fault and lose function. The solution?
The solution was an obvious one. If the schema could not handle the strength of the connection, then it needed to be divided between the schema, and the core. Additionally, Lyra suspected the Core found the inside of the space to be odd, or off-putting if such a thing were possible. So pictographs prepare the core for entry into the soul space would also be required. That was what Lyra suspected, and it ended to be tested.
Lyra was once more in front of her jewel crafting pedestal in her necromancy lab. A small red stone was in her hand, partially infused, with the carving hook in the other hand. As before she added the required pictographs of Core. Through those, however, Lyra also created a new series of designs. Small, tiny dots connected by faint lines in rings that crossed the entire surface of the gem. At each of the dots, she added a series of lines that gave the impression of stars, though they were so small it would be hard to tell by look alone. As she worked she envisioned the space the core would be placed within, connected it. She also added two more pictographs, finger-like grasping images that touched one another around the other pictograph, though the star rings she made so that they wrapped even those. The fingers all reached down and touched the small pictograph on the bottom of the gem, which would interface with the circle of minding itself. Together these pictographs, along with the others that now covered nearly every available surface of the gem, would make the Core reach out and search for the Soul Space when placed inside the circle, and when it found it the Core would help supply the connection the same way the mage did from their end.
With a smile Lyra leaned back, raising the red gem to her eye and inspecting it. The designs themselves would need refining, however, the purpose of them was sound. The process had drained most of the stored aether, however, so Lyra made her trek back upstairs to infuse the gem once more. Over the last few days Lyra had tried using infused and uninfused gems during the inscribing process, however, after several attempts she had found the pictographs took much more efficiently if there was aether present to charge them as they were completed. Uninfused gems caused the final product to be sort of... off in peculiar ways. Not quite wrong, but it was as if the Core could not process the instructions as efficiently as they could if the pictographs were done on infused gems. Lyra suspected this had something to do with the loss of clarity on the mage's part after the pictograph was made and then infused. While she was creating the pictograph she always held a strong picture in her mind as she worked, yet she found that while she walked up the steps to infuse the gem her mind would wander and her focus would begin to shift away from the gem's inscription. Dragonshards did not have this issue, of course, as they produced the aether that was used to activate the pictograph, but when she utilized gemstones Lyra decided it was best to simply make two trips. Perhaps at some point, she would move an infusion station to her primarily lab space.
Once the gem was properly infused Lyra returned to her lab, specifically to the desk on which her latest iteration of the schema. The majority of the design was unchanged, however, Lyra strengthened the sigils that connected her to the circle, and added several new lines leading out from the center of the circle toward Lyra's own. With a slight sense of trepidation, Lyra placed the gem at the center, eyeing the glyph as it lit with power before dimming to a dull glow. Lyra then placed her hand on the circle near her and closed her eyes.
There was no physical sensation. No shift, or change of any sort that Lyra could sense. In her mind though she felt her focus shift somewhat, like the feeling of opening one's eyes inside of a dream while retaining consciousness. Slowly the darkness faded around her and she could see a new world open before her, despite the fact she could feel her eyes were closed in the physical world.
The Soul Space, as she had come to call it, seemed to be a reflection of the things inside of it. When she looked up she saw a shattered red sky with what looked like pieces of glass hanging motionless in the air. There was a slight smoky quality to this world, a darker tint near the edges and along the ground. At the center was a hovering replica of the Core in the real world. Interestingly though when Lyra glanced down at 'herself' she actually saw she had a form here.
The strengthened connection. Lyra thought as she raised one hand up to examine it. Here her fingers were slightly fuzzy, like seen through fogged glass, It must pull me into this space stronger than before. Like the Core perhaps?
Lyra tried moving around experimentally and found she could move much the same as she could in the physical plane. There did seem to be a slight delay in her movements, and a faint after-image was left as she flowed from place to place. This was likely due to the strength of the connection. The power that was placed into it seemed to have a direct effect on the things within the space.
As if to confirm this the world around Lyra shuddered, flickering slightly as several pieces of the floating glass fell and smashed against the ground. It seemed that the aether within the infused Gem was not sufficient to maintain the space. It was disappointing, but not unexpected. The schema drew upon the aether of the Core to create the space, and while Lyra was supplying a portion fo the aether required, the two together were still not enough to make the schema fully viable.
That also means that this is the extent that we can progress using gemstones. Lyra thought with a mental sigh. She floated over to the hovering gem at the center of this world and pressed her ephemeral fingers against its ruby surface. She could feel the aether inside of it, warm like a fire, steadily growing weaker and weaker. There would not be enough to create a true Core at this rate, and none of the instructions would hold if the aether was being drained faster than it could be used to inscribe those instructions inside the Core. From this point onward she would have to utilize Dragonshards... Or, perhaps, something else?
The world gave another shudder, and as she looked up Lyra saw the shattered world begin to crack more and more until, finally, the sky itself fell apart. The gem in front of her went dark, and Lyra was thrust backward into blackness once more. When she opened her real eyes Lyra stared at the gem at the center of the circle, now dark and empty of aether. When she looked down, however, she was pleased to see that the Glyph itself was still whole.
"Closer and closer." Lyra said with a smile. She picked up the finished gem and, with a casual motion, tossed it across the lab where it clattered against the stones and rolled to a stop in the corner.
The time for such simplicity was passed. She needed a true test...
She was close... extremely close. She had pondered the problem for days now but was beginning to make a breakthrough. Her original schema had been overly simplistic, and perhaps too rudimentary for what she truly wished for. The Circle would connect the mage with the soon to be core at its simple in the same way it did normally, yet Lyra had woven in lines of mesmer which strengthened that connection to the point that the two were bound by not merely string, but bands of iron. She then encapsulated that connection within a space that housed the core and the mage's mental constructs and gave it form. This was the open space Lyra could 'see' when she connected to the circle. The connection was powerful, too much so, and the way the schema was designed put the entire stress of it onto the glyph itself. This was ultimately what caused the pictograph to fault and lose function. The solution?
The solution was an obvious one. If the schema could not handle the strength of the connection, then it needed to be divided between the schema, and the core. Additionally, Lyra suspected the Core found the inside of the space to be odd, or off-putting if such a thing were possible. So pictographs prepare the core for entry into the soul space would also be required. That was what Lyra suspected, and it ended to be tested.
Lyra was once more in front of her jewel crafting pedestal in her necromancy lab. A small red stone was in her hand, partially infused, with the carving hook in the other hand. As before she added the required pictographs of Core. Through those, however, Lyra also created a new series of designs. Small, tiny dots connected by faint lines in rings that crossed the entire surface of the gem. At each of the dots, she added a series of lines that gave the impression of stars, though they were so small it would be hard to tell by look alone. As she worked she envisioned the space the core would be placed within, connected it. She also added two more pictographs, finger-like grasping images that touched one another around the other pictograph, though the star rings she made so that they wrapped even those. The fingers all reached down and touched the small pictograph on the bottom of the gem, which would interface with the circle of minding itself. Together these pictographs, along with the others that now covered nearly every available surface of the gem, would make the Core reach out and search for the Soul Space when placed inside the circle, and when it found it the Core would help supply the connection the same way the mage did from their end.
With a smile Lyra leaned back, raising the red gem to her eye and inspecting it. The designs themselves would need refining, however, the purpose of them was sound. The process had drained most of the stored aether, however, so Lyra made her trek back upstairs to infuse the gem once more. Over the last few days Lyra had tried using infused and uninfused gems during the inscribing process, however, after several attempts she had found the pictographs took much more efficiently if there was aether present to charge them as they were completed. Uninfused gems caused the final product to be sort of... off in peculiar ways. Not quite wrong, but it was as if the Core could not process the instructions as efficiently as they could if the pictographs were done on infused gems. Lyra suspected this had something to do with the loss of clarity on the mage's part after the pictograph was made and then infused. While she was creating the pictograph she always held a strong picture in her mind as she worked, yet she found that while she walked up the steps to infuse the gem her mind would wander and her focus would begin to shift away from the gem's inscription. Dragonshards did not have this issue, of course, as they produced the aether that was used to activate the pictograph, but when she utilized gemstones Lyra decided it was best to simply make two trips. Perhaps at some point, she would move an infusion station to her primarily lab space.
Once the gem was properly infused Lyra returned to her lab, specifically to the desk on which her latest iteration of the schema. The majority of the design was unchanged, however, Lyra strengthened the sigils that connected her to the circle, and added several new lines leading out from the center of the circle toward Lyra's own. With a slight sense of trepidation, Lyra placed the gem at the center, eyeing the glyph as it lit with power before dimming to a dull glow. Lyra then placed her hand on the circle near her and closed her eyes.
There was no physical sensation. No shift, or change of any sort that Lyra could sense. In her mind though she felt her focus shift somewhat, like the feeling of opening one's eyes inside of a dream while retaining consciousness. Slowly the darkness faded around her and she could see a new world open before her, despite the fact she could feel her eyes were closed in the physical world.
The Soul Space, as she had come to call it, seemed to be a reflection of the things inside of it. When she looked up she saw a shattered red sky with what looked like pieces of glass hanging motionless in the air. There was a slight smoky quality to this world, a darker tint near the edges and along the ground. At the center was a hovering replica of the Core in the real world. Interestingly though when Lyra glanced down at 'herself' she actually saw she had a form here.
The strengthened connection. Lyra thought as she raised one hand up to examine it. Here her fingers were slightly fuzzy, like seen through fogged glass, It must pull me into this space stronger than before. Like the Core perhaps?
Lyra tried moving around experimentally and found she could move much the same as she could in the physical plane. There did seem to be a slight delay in her movements, and a faint after-image was left as she flowed from place to place. This was likely due to the strength of the connection. The power that was placed into it seemed to have a direct effect on the things within the space.
As if to confirm this the world around Lyra shuddered, flickering slightly as several pieces of the floating glass fell and smashed against the ground. It seemed that the aether within the infused Gem was not sufficient to maintain the space. It was disappointing, but not unexpected. The schema drew upon the aether of the Core to create the space, and while Lyra was supplying a portion fo the aether required, the two together were still not enough to make the schema fully viable.
That also means that this is the extent that we can progress using gemstones. Lyra thought with a mental sigh. She floated over to the hovering gem at the center of this world and pressed her ephemeral fingers against its ruby surface. She could feel the aether inside of it, warm like a fire, steadily growing weaker and weaker. There would not be enough to create a true Core at this rate, and none of the instructions would hold if the aether was being drained faster than it could be used to inscribe those instructions inside the Core. From this point onward she would have to utilize Dragonshards... Or, perhaps, something else?
The world gave another shudder, and as she looked up Lyra saw the shattered world begin to crack more and more until, finally, the sky itself fell apart. The gem in front of her went dark, and Lyra was thrust backward into blackness once more. When she opened her real eyes Lyra stared at the gem at the center of the circle, now dark and empty of aether. When she looked down, however, she was pleased to see that the Glyph itself was still whole.
"Closer and closer." Lyra said with a smile. She picked up the finished gem and, with a casual motion, tossed it across the lab where it clattered against the stones and rolled to a stop in the corner.
The time for such simplicity was passed. She needed a true test...
