Chapitre 17: Invitation to the tower
Aiko organized more than two hundred interviews that day. Of course, she didn't do them all herself. It would take too much time. Instead she hired a few persons to conduct the interviews for her.
There was also another Awakened to help her, Kim. Since Sunny wanted to establish his own organization he wanted to have some of his old comrades in it. It will be easier to order people he actually knows. Even if they don't know him anymore... So he turned to his old cohort or rather what was left of it.
Just before the fall of the Falcon Scott Kim, and Luster were sent away by him. Luster lost his arm, and therefore couldn't contribute to the Antarctica Campaign anymore, and Kim went together with Luster to take care of him. Ironically, only thanks to that they're still alive. The rest of his cohort is dead. Quentin's whereabouts are still unknown. Some healers miraculously regrew Luster's arm so he's fine. How dare he be fine? He expected him to die first!
After the departure they or perhaps even before it they fell in love with each other. It's recently that they married each other. They still didn't decide to return to the army or rather it's the Government that didn't want them to return immediately. The campaign left many mental scars, and time was needed to come to terms with them.
Sunny decided to capitalize on that a bit. He approached her, used his medals to convince her he's a veteran too or even a hero. This way he could get on her good side. He promised her that if she'll gather war veterans for him he'll help turn many of them into Awakened. In return she agreed to participate in what he's doing.
After they quickly interviewed the huge group, which somehow took only a bit more than two hours, next they had to sort out who's going to be Sunny's 'apprentice'. They actually did that automatically. With some simple questionnaires in digital form, and the calculation based on the answers decided in advance, the results could be announced almost instantly after the last interview.
It wasn't the fairest way to treat 'applicants', but the precious passion he ignited could be extinguished by making them wait. So he did't spend time to analyze all the candidates personally. Also otherwise they would have to track them in the outskirts, which translated into a lot of work for the lack of proper addresses to send the message. It was more effective to do everything immediately
The results were announced. Many people were sad for the unrealized hope. Hope hurts. Those who were accepted showed some discomfort as well. Sunny had some guesses about the source of such feelings, but that wasn't the time to think about it.
When the results were announced he called out the group of the fifty, and ordered them to gather before his little tower. He skipped on congratulations, there was nothing to congratulate. Finally there was a change to the tower. On its walls a pair of wooden doors manifested. Very huge, pretty, but simple. In the Outskirts there weren't many pretty things so a sight of something beautiful could catch too much attention.
'So complicated.'
He's got down the tower by making a jump, and slowing down the fall with the [Feather of Truth]. Almost everything about his performance was unnatural, which made the crowd even more startled. After jumping down he made the doors open with mental command. He again had to wait for the shock to subside.
"Sorry for make it look that way. I have too many conveniences these days. Please, step in. Oh, and another convenience I have to mention: The tower is bigger inside than outside. We can fit inside without a problem."
The group didn't say anything. Shock, and bewilderment was written on their faces. They were walking into a magic tower, which is magically bigger inside than outside, through magic doors that were magically opened wide by the man who jumped from high, and landed as if he weighed as much as a feather. That's more than they could see in the movies.
For Sunny it was his Covetous Coffer in a new form.
When they got a glance what's inside the shock was only amplified. Behind the doors was a huge hall. The room seemed to be made of kind of titles, very similar to the ones they could see in a factory, underground factory. The look of the material wasn't anything special. Special, however, was the structure of the room itself. For example, there were wide curvy glass windows on the ceiling, and beyond the windows there was something bright blue, sky blue precisely. But it wasn't the sky. It was just another ceiling. On the sky blue wall there were some sources of mild white light.
The effect was far from perfect, but it was enough to give a warm unsubtle reminiscence of a pleasant May. Sunny was proud of achieving that. Especially because underground factories don't have windows. The room looked like a small stern production hall, but better just in a few aspects.
For the comers it was another doze of shock. The air inside was so clean that the world outside could almost appear as a distant echo. A moment ago they were still outside in a polluted park. Now they are in a hall.
For the furnishing there were alloy tables, plastic-metal chairs, and desks. They weren't very expensive, and rather stern. Not something to see in the outskirts's hives, yet minimalistic. There was also almost no synthwood, no armchairs. The tables, and desks were making a layout of parallel stations. But it wasn't uncomfortable to use them. Near the edge of the hall one could see a section reserved for Sunny, and eventual supervisors, an annexe that was meant for Sunny to reside, and give lectures, equipped with a projector that could show something on the wall for everyone to see.
That was where Sunny ordered the group to go. There were some organizational things he had to talk about, but more importantly he had to make an introduction. He took place behind his desk, seemingly more pretty, made of synthwood, but for the lecture he was still standing.
"You might be a bit confused. I didn't tell you much about the job. I only described it in very general terms. Soon you'll understand why I was keeping you in the dark. It's not a secret. It's just knowing it wouldn't help you at all.
I will start with a question: Do you understand what Memory is?"
A man took voice to answer:
"Memory is a magic item wielded by an Awakened."
Sunny smiled wryly.
"So... it's right, and wrong at the same time. Memories are indeed wielded by Awakened. However not all magic items – like you called them – can be considered Memories. There are various types of magic items. Many of them cannot be considered Memories. Let's consider spelltech. It's wielded by Awakened, it's made with the participation of Awakened, but such items aren't Memories, and they can't be.
There are also different kinds of magic items in the world. There's runic sorcery, very popular among craftsmen of Valor. It can make magic items that aren't Memories. On the large scale runic sorcery is often incompatible with Memories.
Memories are magic items created mostly by the Nightmare Spell. They are connected to the soul of the Awakened in such a way so they can store them in their souls in the form of essence, and summon them from there."
He summoned his bone sword to show how it forms from particles of starlight, and dismissed it.
"The Spell makes his own kind of magic items based solely on constructs consisting of the soul essence attached to the object. There's no aspect in it. For the lack of a widespread term for this kind of sorcery I call it 'Spellweave'.
Short story: That's what we're going to do. I'm going to introduce you to the process of making Memories."
People looked at each other as if trying to discern if they're real, and this isn't some unfortunate hallucination they fell into. There was also a question.
"Master Sunless, isn't the ability to control soul essence limited to the Awakened? How are we going to make such constructs? It doesn't seem possible."
"That's a very valid point. The answer is: You don't. You might think that the ability to interact with soul essence constructs is limited to Awakened. That's true. The whole truth, however, is much more sorrowful. Even the Awakened can't do much here. The Awakened can't see those constructs nor interact with them so we have a really tricky thing here. If they could I would rather try invite them."
"Before you ask more questions I have to say I wasn't very explanatory. Essence constructs are not the only way to craft Memories. It's just the way used by the Spell. We're not the Spell so there's no point to expect from you to do things in the exact same way. There are different ways to achieve the same effect.
While living in the Dream Realm I stumbled over it accidentally. It was really a divine stroke of luck. The things that had to happen were very improbable. It's as if fate wanted me to find it really hard. The structure of the Memory was very similar to Spell's creations, but instead of essence constructs it used some strange system of corporeal threads that were made of something else."
"So here's the most outrageous thing: I'm going to teach you an adapted version of Spellweave, I call it 'Diamond Weave'."
Sunny summoned another Memory. This time it was a brown leather bota bag. It was covered in some kind of transparent hardened crystal, beneath which a complicated tapestry of diamond strings was unnaturally glowing. The bag looked funny, more like some kind of folly made by people who like to see random things submerged in epoxy resin.
And that impression wouldn't betray them, because indeed it was epoxy resin. In this particular case it played a very important role. Resin made the weave stick to the bota bag, but it didn't hide the enchantments.
The brown of the bag made a contrast between the strings, and the bag itself, which was a good example of what kind of structure it is. While the weave was crude everyone could see it. Those who awakened could see it even better due to their sharpened senses, and the sensibility towards soul essence. The group of mundanes had a harder time seeing, because the threads were still very thin, and the resin wasn't exactly helping in seeing, but if they looked closely – and they did –, they could see it too.
That's what Sunny hoped for. The first time he saw Diamond Weave, the time he got Stone Saint as his Echo, he could already see its distinct qualities. The second time it was, when he bought the [Mantle of the Underworld]. Both were creations of Nether, the youngest of the Seven Daemons. At that time he considered the type of sorcery as crude, and primitive, when compared to Spellweave, but over time he changed his mind.
With this he started a lengthy lecture on how weaving sorcery works.
"This bag makes exactly the same thing as the tank of water you saw outside. It makes water. I'm making a lot of water-making tools lately. There are many people who need them in the Dream Realm. This particular one is very special. I made it using Diamond Weave. The threads implemented here are fully corporeal. Even a mundane person can touch, and move them. Though it's not really safe. The threads are still very sharp, and therefore I don't advise touching them without taking safety measures. You might cut yourself."
People were looking in shock. Is he crazy? How did they agree to something like this? But at the same time it was tempting. And because they're here already, and there's no point in going back. Crazy... yet also tempting... but ultimately crazy. Not because it was a little dangerous, it didn't seem yet, but for the way it looked. The tapestry was dazzlingly complex. Among the group there was a woman who some time ago worked with circuit boards. She was also overwhelmed.
Sunny sighed. If these people were already troubled, then what about him who has to teach them? He expected this experience to be very unpleasant in its own unique way. Nonetheless he continued with his introduction.
"Making Memories is an insanely intricate, and austere work. At first it might seem even like it's impossible. I had to learn that without any teacher, and I've already seen many impossible things. If I didn't do a few myself... in that case I would be just dead. Later with some experience, examples, and inspiration I managed to determine some general principles of weaving. It's almost like my brand secret so don't share it without my permission. If you learn, and implement the principles properly, you should be able to make Memories too. That much I can promise. Although you won't be able to use them as much as Awakened."
Sunny considered they would spend at least a few weeks learning the patterns. He himself took some serious months to uncover the mystery, and he succeeded, because he had talent, intuition, perception, and nimbleness as brute one would talk about strength. On the other hand they would have the guidance, and the knowledge. There was a considerable chance that it would take them less time to learn.
With that in mind Sunny started explaining the importance of names.
"Every Memory has a name. At first I thought that naming was just some kind of help from the Spell to make it easier for us to recognize an item. It's the way we see language. But in sorcery things are different. Names are being weaved directly into the structure of the Memories. Without them the enchantments wouldn't stick to...'
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone