Catrin laughed. “I'm pleased by the reception.” She leaned back again, drunk the last of her wine and looked at Tara thoughtfully. “You know, a rather integral part of my culture is that we are real and the other universes – well, apart from one – are... well, sort of like dreams, or shadows. Each of us carries a bit of reality inside him or her while walking through the illusions.”
She grinned. “Considering the attention I've just given the bracelet, that makes it very real, on some level. Not in the sense of being corporeal, but someone might get inspired to make it. A couple of years from now, even if Thyr doesn't show his bracelet to anyone, you might come across one just like that in the marketplace. So I suppose it's as real as they get.”
She grinned. “Considering the attention I've just given the bracelet, that makes it very real, on some level. Not in the sense of being corporeal, but someone might get inspired to make it. A couple of years from now, even if Thyr doesn't show his bracelet to anyone, you might come across one just like that in the marketplace. So I suppose it's as real as they get.”
Tara snorted, "That sounds... solipsistic and arrogant...uh... no offense. I am quite certain that I am real, that the universe is not some... shadow of another realm. Billions of years of history can't be just some figment of your imagination... unless you're claiming to be a God, in which case watch out, because Terelains have a bad history with Deities that don't do as they're told."
"Indeed, almost as arrogant as the Terelains' claim to be The Elder Race." Thyr said.
"Ahem." Tara said pointedly, "The Eldest of the Elder Races of Aerin. We make no claim to be the eldest of all Races."
"Just the oldest living species." The AI pointed out.
"We were the first to gain interstellar capabilities in the five hundred thousand year period after the fall of the Atlantean civilisation." Tara said primly, "We colonised or explored the entire volume of Senate Space before any of the Senate's founding Races figured out how to farm for food. We ruled over thirty five thousand star systems and a hundred thousand worlds. I think that deserves some mnetion. We might not be the oldest species in the galaxy, but we are the oldest still known to be in existence."
"Indeed, almost as arrogant as the Terelains' claim to be The Elder Race." Thyr said.
"Ahem." Tara said pointedly, "The Eldest of the Elder Races of Aerin. We make no claim to be the eldest of all Races."
"Just the oldest living species." The AI pointed out.
"We were the first to gain interstellar capabilities in the five hundred thousand year period after the fall of the Atlantean civilisation." Tara said primly, "We colonised or explored the entire volume of Senate Space before any of the Senate's founding Races figured out how to farm for food. We ruled over thirty five thousand star systems and a hundred thousand worlds. I think that deserves some mnetion. We might not be the oldest species in the galaxy, but we are the oldest still known to be in existence."
Catrin chuckled. “None taken, but you're right. Anyway, personally, I believe people in the other universes are real for all practical purposes, but most of my family doesn't share the opinion.
I didn't use the term 'shadow' in the sense of less advanced, or anything like that, just... less real. Easily created, easily influenced. Opinions are quite varied on whether we travel between universes or create them by imagining them.
As an example, if I wanted to find a universe where the Atlanteans didn't all die out, I probably would. I could also browse through thousands of varieties of your universe with tiny changes. Would I have created those universes? Or do they already exist?
I can't imagine a Deity doing as they're told, unless you have some really huge incentives to make them do so.”
I didn't use the term 'shadow' in the sense of less advanced, or anything like that, just... less real. Easily created, easily influenced. Opinions are quite varied on whether we travel between universes or create them by imagining them.
As an example, if I wanted to find a universe where the Atlanteans didn't all die out, I probably would. I could also browse through thousands of varieties of your universe with tiny changes. Would I have created those universes? Or do they already exist?
I can't imagine a Deity doing as they're told, unless you have some really huge incentives to make them do so.”
Tara pondered what she'd said for a moment, "Then... philosophically speaking... your race has the potential to be literal Gods; creating entire universes with a thought... of course, the infinite amount of infinities within a multiverse would suggest that all possible universes and all poissible permutations of individual universes would exist simultaneously, so it your ability to travel or create universes is... um... well, actually the same thing. Merely perceiving or conceiving of an event fundamentally alters the universes you think of or travel in. After all, you'd create a splitting point in that universe's history and another universe would come into existence; one where Catrin travelled to that particular universe and a separate universes identical to the first except that you didn't go there."
"So in other words, your people might not create the universe they visit, but by the very act of visiting them they create another universe in which they did not actually visit this universe, for example. So out there, there will be a Tara and her AI who never met you, and an AI who never got his name, in fact an infinite number of them." Thyr said.
"As for Gods not doing what they told... well, we told the Elder Gods to stop enslaving us. They didn't listen... we kicked them out. The Younger Gods are much more agreeable, and they haven't gone insane... well, not yet anyway." Tara said with a chuckle, "We actually destroyed the original City of the Gods, upon the ruins of which the pestn one, Ereth Renmaia, stands, which we rebuilt and modeled on our capital, Oberoth. According to legend anyway. So unlike most civilisations, we can claim that our holy city or palace or whatever isn't built to resemble Heaven, but that Heaven is built to resemble our city."
((Sort of an inversion of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing; it was built to be an exact replica of the Ancient Chinese concept of Heaven, and the Emperor's daily life consisted of all sorts of rituals to reflect this idea that he lived like a God in Heaven on Earth. This time, the City of the Gods is built to look like a mortal city.))
"So in other words, your people might not create the universe they visit, but by the very act of visiting them they create another universe in which they did not actually visit this universe, for example. So out there, there will be a Tara and her AI who never met you, and an AI who never got his name, in fact an infinite number of them." Thyr said.
"As for Gods not doing what they told... well, we told the Elder Gods to stop enslaving us. They didn't listen... we kicked them out. The Younger Gods are much more agreeable, and they haven't gone insane... well, not yet anyway." Tara said with a chuckle, "We actually destroyed the original City of the Gods, upon the ruins of which the pestn one, Ereth Renmaia, stands, which we rebuilt and modeled on our capital, Oberoth. According to legend anyway. So unlike most civilisations, we can claim that our holy city or palace or whatever isn't built to resemble Heaven, but that Heaven is built to resemble our city."
((Sort of an inversion of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing; it was built to be an exact replica of the Ancient Chinese concept of Heaven, and the Emperor's daily life consisted of all sorts of rituals to reflect this idea that he lived like a God in Heaven on Earth. This time, the City of the Gods is built to look like a mortal city.))
((No problem, I think it was a great idea! Thanks for exlaining 
))
Catrin gave Tara a rather wry smile. “It's not just creating. We're quite good at destroy them, too. Not that anyone does that on purpose, but it can happen as a side effect of various adventures. Hm. We're able to do much more than simply alter universes with simple events. What I can do isn't very usual, but I can speed up or slow down the relative timeflow differences between the universes. Yours is going very fast.
In any case, it seems that what you're describing is a way in which anyone can alter universes, even without traveling in them. You know, the universe where you decide to marry someone and another one where you stay single.” She 'shrugged'. “With us, it's more like... whatever we do, it seeps to the nearby universes. By staying in a universe, we make it more real. When people stay around us for long enough, they age more slowly, living double, triple and quadruple lifetimes. Things like that.” She 'shrugged' again.
“Well, being enslaved does sound like a good reason to rise up. And you kept the Younger Gods? Do they have any powers at all?”
))Catrin gave Tara a rather wry smile. “It's not just creating. We're quite good at destroy them, too. Not that anyone does that on purpose, but it can happen as a side effect of various adventures. Hm. We're able to do much more than simply alter universes with simple events. What I can do isn't very usual, but I can speed up or slow down the relative timeflow differences between the universes. Yours is going very fast.
In any case, it seems that what you're describing is a way in which anyone can alter universes, even without traveling in them. You know, the universe where you decide to marry someone and another one where you stay single.” She 'shrugged'. “With us, it's more like... whatever we do, it seeps to the nearby universes. By staying in a universe, we make it more real. When people stay around us for long enough, they age more slowly, living double, triple and quadruple lifetimes. Things like that.” She 'shrugged' again.
“Well, being enslaved does sound like a good reason to rise up. And you kept the Younger Gods? Do they have any powers at all?”
Tara nodded, "That is exactly what I mean; universes are constantly branching off from each other, it could be changes as simple as a rock falling or not or a single quark changing flavour or not, or it could be something as momentous as the destruction of a galaxy, or the same not happening, and these offshoot universes branch off themselves, until there are an infinite of alternates. That's on multiverse theory anyway. Your race simply gas the ability to alter more universes than normal." She 'shrugged', "As for this 'seepage' that doesn't necessarily mean you're giving off 'reality' and making a universe more 'real' by being in it. Think about it; you travel between universes, entirely different space/time subsets. you're a walking spatial-temporal anomaly, and I don't even want to know what's going on at the quantum level. I'm not surprised your presence changes things."
Thyr nodded, "When we take you sightseeing on Aerin, I think we'll give the city of Silisim amiss. I don't even want to know what would happen if we put you and The Oracle in a room together. I strongly suspect the universe might implode."
Thyr nodded, "When we take you sightseeing on Aerin, I think we'll give the city of Silisim amiss. I don't even want to know what would happen if we put you and The Oracle in a room together. I strongly suspect the universe might implode."
Catrin laughed. “Well, as far as I am concerned, anything that can affect me is real, but when speaking about universes, the term has a slightly different meaning. I really like you calling me a 'walking spatial-temporal anomaly', though. Thankfully, I'm unable to travel in time other than forward like everyone else. That would make things even more chaotic.
'Real' in my context means where all the changes originate from, and what is unaffected by the changes elsewhere.
In any case, around my father's homeland, Amber, the universes behave differently, and it's extremely difficult to alter them, or travel between them. Almost impossible in Amber.
If it helps, though, the farther from Amber you get, the more developed it's possible to get. The local physics don't allow technology development.” She turned to the AI. “You would fall apart within minutes if you came to visit.”
She chuckled. “I've never had an universe implode around me, and surely your Oracle wouldn't cause such a reaction.”
'Real' in my context means where all the changes originate from, and what is unaffected by the changes elsewhere.
In any case, around my father's homeland, Amber, the universes behave differently, and it's extremely difficult to alter them, or travel between them. Almost impossible in Amber.
If it helps, though, the farther from Amber you get, the more developed it's possible to get. The local physics don't allow technology development.” She turned to the AI. “You would fall apart within minutes if you came to visit.”
She chuckled. “I've never had an universe implode around me, and surely your Oracle wouldn't cause such a reaction.”
"Remind me never to try to invent a methods of trans-universal travel." The AI said, "I wouldn't ant o accidentally go to a universe that would kill me."
"As for Oracle... well, it wouldn't be intentional, but she is a... ah... a unique individual. She's the oldest Terelain alive, well over fourteen thousand years old, and probably somewhere in the twenty to thirty thousand year mark. We call her The Oracle because she sees the future, and I don't mean like one of those charlatans, or one of those seeers with murky, scrambled visions. She sees it, all of it. All possible futures, in perfect clarity. We say that Fate stands on her right hand and Destiny stands upon her left. She very rarely interferes directly, nor does she leave the city of Silisim, but when she speaks others listen." Tara said.
"The last time the Oracle was aboard in the world she warned the kingdom that they would soon face a terrible war, the likes of which the galaxy had not seen for countless Ages. A few decades later we found the Gillorians and a hundred and fifty years after that came the Second Great War." Thyr said, "The Oracle is a master of manipulation; she can apply the slightest pressure, case the slightest change, and cause what we call a Causal Cascade; momentous events caused by something seemingly tiny and inconsequential, like a landslide caused by the falling of a tiny pebble."
"But she doesn't look like what you would expect." Tara said, "We don't know why, but she doesn't seem to age. I mean, Terelains don't age past a certain point, but she stopped aging far too early; she is an eternal child, a white and silver furred kitten..." Tara shivered, "But her eyes... I've seen pictures of her... those eyes are old Catrin, so very very old, like staring into the eyes of eternity."
"The Oracle may very well predate the Younger Gods, as some ancient texts speak of a 'child of silver' who 'be hled the Elder Gods without fear and spoke to them as an equal.' If that is true, then she isn't just the Last Ancient, but also the Last Firstborn." Thyr said.
"As for Oracle... well, it wouldn't be intentional, but she is a... ah... a unique individual. She's the oldest Terelain alive, well over fourteen thousand years old, and probably somewhere in the twenty to thirty thousand year mark. We call her The Oracle because she sees the future, and I don't mean like one of those charlatans, or one of those seeers with murky, scrambled visions. She sees it, all of it. All possible futures, in perfect clarity. We say that Fate stands on her right hand and Destiny stands upon her left. She very rarely interferes directly, nor does she leave the city of Silisim, but when she speaks others listen." Tara said.
"The last time the Oracle was aboard in the world she warned the kingdom that they would soon face a terrible war, the likes of which the galaxy had not seen for countless Ages. A few decades later we found the Gillorians and a hundred and fifty years after that came the Second Great War." Thyr said, "The Oracle is a master of manipulation; she can apply the slightest pressure, case the slightest change, and cause what we call a Causal Cascade; momentous events caused by something seemingly tiny and inconsequential, like a landslide caused by the falling of a tiny pebble."
"But she doesn't look like what you would expect." Tara said, "We don't know why, but she doesn't seem to age. I mean, Terelains don't age past a certain point, but she stopped aging far too early; she is an eternal child, a white and silver furred kitten..." Tara shivered, "But her eyes... I've seen pictures of her... those eyes are old Catrin, so very very old, like staring into the eyes of eternity."
"The Oracle may very well predate the Younger Gods, as some ancient texts speak of a 'child of silver' who 'be hled the Elder Gods without fear and spoke to them as an equal.' If that is true, then she isn't just the Last Ancient, but also the Last Firstborn." Thyr said.
Catrin nodded. “Most of them probably would – the technology in this one is extraordinarily advanced, and most other universes just wouldn't be able to hold that degree of complexity on a similar level. A minor difference in physics... well, you probably get what that could cause. That's why one of the favourite weapons where I'm from is the sword – a large piece of sharp metal is useful almost everywhere.”
After listening to Tara, Catrin 'shrugged'. “I'm sure that if she can see the real future, she can also see me in it, if we're supposed to meet. She sounds like someone who's very interesting. Probably lonely, too.”
After listening to Tara, Catrin 'shrugged'. “I'm sure that if she can see the real future, she can also see me in it, if we're supposed to meet. She sounds like someone who's very interesting. Probably lonely, too.”
"You're from a different universe, you aren't a part of this space/time, and therefore are entirely separate from the normal thread of history, so I'd guess she doesn't know about you because you aren't supposed to be in this universe's future." Tara then 'shrugged', "As for her being lonely... well, I guess she is. I mean, no one even knows her name."
Catrin smiled. “Yes, but wouldn't someone who sees the future just see it, regardless of whether the participants are from this space/time? I can't be separate from the thread of history now that I'm here. Well, in any case, I won't be visiting the Oracle out of curiosity, but that doesn't mean we won't meet. I suppose she would make it so, if she saw it and if she's truly the master of manipulations you described.”
Catrin got up and went to get herself some more wine. “No-one knows her name, hm?” she repeated after Tara. “Being able to see her own future where she has no-one close to her... it would be difficult for most.” Choosing another kind of wine for a change, something that she wanted to tell Tara occurred to her. “By the way, if you want to, I can make a corporeal piece of jewelry for you. What would you like? And what style do you like?” she asked while waiting for the wine to be made, taking a closer look at what Tara was wearing.
Catrin got up and went to get herself some more wine. “No-one knows her name, hm?” she repeated after Tara. “Being able to see her own future where she has no-one close to her... it would be difficult for most.” Choosing another kind of wine for a change, something that she wanted to tell Tara occurred to her. “By the way, if you want to, I can make a corporeal piece of jewelry for you. What would you like? And what style do you like?” she asked while waiting for the wine to be made, taking a closer look at what Tara was wearing.
"I assume she's used to it by now." Thyr said with a 'shrug', "It's kind of hard to befriend someone like her, I mean what would she have in common with an ordinary Terelain? They must all look like mere children to her, and other Races... well, a Xin'Ta'Faxi lives a mere two hundred and fifty years on average, a mere eye-blink for her, and Humans live even less."
"'And I shall abide here against the End of Days, for I alone have seen the face of Eternity and I alone know what must be done so That Which Must Not Be never comes to pass.'" Tara said softly, "That is what the Book of Terel says about her. The only person she seemed to even remotely relate to was Queen Ellessia the Exalted, who ruled jointly with her brother Ostelond and ushered in the Fourth Era, before his murder."
"They both felt the weight of prophecy." The AI noted, "They were... unique individuals, alone even amongst a crowd."
"Anyway... you waned to make me jewelry?" Tara asked, "I like silver, iron or gold and my favourite gemstone is emeralds." She pointed to a deep forest-green stone embedded in one of her bracelets, "But do whatever pattern you want, it doesn't have to be vines or anything like Thyr's."
"'And I shall abide here against the End of Days, for I alone have seen the face of Eternity and I alone know what must be done so That Which Must Not Be never comes to pass.'" Tara said softly, "That is what the Book of Terel says about her. The only person she seemed to even remotely relate to was Queen Ellessia the Exalted, who ruled jointly with her brother Ostelond and ushered in the Fourth Era, before his murder."
"They both felt the weight of prophecy." The AI noted, "They were... unique individuals, alone even amongst a crowd."
"Anyway... you waned to make me jewelry?" Tara asked, "I like silver, iron or gold and my favourite gemstone is emeralds." She pointed to a deep forest-green stone embedded in one of her bracelets, "But do whatever pattern you want, it doesn't have to be vines or anything like Thyr's."
Catrin smiled. "Who knows how ordinary beings seem to her? Interesting about Queen Ellessia the Exalted, though. And the prophecy."
She smiled at Tara. "Yes. I can try conjuring it up. If you're feeling risky, I can try now. If not... well, I'd wait until we get out of this space."
She smiled at Tara. "Yes. I can try conjuring it up. If you're feeling risky, I can try now. If not... well, I'd wait until we get out of this space."
"i'm always one for taking risks if it yields reward." Tara sad archly.
"Too many risks for my comfort." Thyr responded, "Still, you've lived for this long, so I suppose your methods must be working."
Tara glanced at him in surprise, "you're not going to protest that I put myself int too much danger?"
"Would it help if I did?" He asked.
"Well, no..." Tara conceded.
"Yes, well, I've decided that maybe I've been too over-protective of you, and that my interference might be... well... a tad unwelcome." Thyr replied.
Tara smiled and nodded, "Well, thank you."
"As for the prophecy we mentioned, it was indeed a rather interesting affair. The Prophecy of the Exalted One was one of The Oracle's oldest, in it she predicted the destruction of the Second Kingdom and the rise of the Third and the arrival of a leader who would restore the legacy of the Ancients. This ruler would have to be descended from each of the Bloodlines of Terel, but only from the purest examples of those bloodlines. This requirement was met when Queen Nariel Tynian Amaar, whom The Oracle called The Queen Who Was Not, and King Nathaniel Tynian, whom she called The Exile, had a set of twins together, Elessia and Ostelond. At their birth The Oracle appeared at Oberoth and declared that The Exalted One had been born." Thyr said.
"Too many risks for my comfort." Thyr responded, "Still, you've lived for this long, so I suppose your methods must be working."
Tara glanced at him in surprise, "you're not going to protest that I put myself int too much danger?"
"Would it help if I did?" He asked.
"Well, no..." Tara conceded.
"Yes, well, I've decided that maybe I've been too over-protective of you, and that my interference might be... well... a tad unwelcome." Thyr replied.
Tara smiled and nodded, "Well, thank you."
"As for the prophecy we mentioned, it was indeed a rather interesting affair. The Prophecy of the Exalted One was one of The Oracle's oldest, in it she predicted the destruction of the Second Kingdom and the rise of the Third and the arrival of a leader who would restore the legacy of the Ancients. This ruler would have to be descended from each of the Bloodlines of Terel, but only from the purest examples of those bloodlines. This requirement was met when Queen Nariel Tynian Amaar, whom The Oracle called The Queen Who Was Not, and King Nathaniel Tynian, whom she called The Exile, had a set of twins together, Elessia and Ostelond. At their birth The Oracle appeared at Oberoth and declared that The Exalted One had been born." Thyr said.
Catrin laughed incredulously. “Well, okay. I'll need some matter to convert it into a bracelet and it'll take about an hour.” She tapped a few instructions into the food processor, got an empty glass and took it with her along with her wine when she went to sit down.
“I'll use this glass so that I only have to modify the matter; that way, the risk should be minimal. I can start in a while, if you'd like to watch me do it, but I'm going to have to be completely focused, not listening or speaking.
Before I begin, though, about the Prophecy of the Exalted One... How was Elessia exalted? Did she do anything important?”
“I'll use this glass so that I only have to modify the matter; that way, the risk should be minimal. I can start in a while, if you'd like to watch me do it, but I'm going to have to be completely focused, not listening or speaking.
Before I begin, though, about the Prophecy of the Exalted One... How was Elessia exalted? Did she do anything important?”
Tara smiled, "She, and her brother, to put it simply, saved our race. The First Great War and the Purges were devastating, and The War of the Exile Returned was almost as bad. Terelian was a wounded nation, even after a hundred and forty-eight years of peace under their parents. The Lost Ones had returned, and so we weren't on the brink of extinction, and our culture and language was slowly recovering, but it a very fragile time. After Ostelond and Ellessia were crowned they continued their father's work, strengthening the Third Kingdom, but it was only after Ostelond was murdered in the seventy-eighth year of their rule that she came into her own."
"Ostelond was shot dead by a Gillorian marksman when he and Nariel were out in the lower city." Thyr explained, "The entire city knew at once; Nariel tore out the front of the building the assassin had hid in, turned the stone to sand and then melted it into twisted pieces of glass and threw them at the assassin in a display of sheer magical fury that it has since passed into legend." Thyr shuddered, "Then she killed him... at least, we hope he is dead, for his sake. He was impaled by the glass shards and she managed to wring a confession out of him before she set him on fire, and then he vanished. After her brother's death, Ellessia was the sole voice in the Kingdom who did not cry out for revenge, even though her own twin brother had been murdered she almost single-handedly prevented another war, one that would have destroyed us."
"Ellesia carried on and ruled over the Third Kingdom." Tara continued, "The Oracle went to her and told her that her brother's death had been foretold, for he was never meant to be born. To this day, no one knows what happened, but it transpires that there should only have been one child, The Exalted One, but that the soul had been torn in two an incarnated into two bodies; the twins. Ostelond died, releasing his soul which rejoined that of his sister, whole in body and soul, Ellessia became the Exalted One." Tara said her name with great reverence, "Ellessia travelled alone to the ancient ruin of Nias Thineral, the City of the Sorrow-Song, a haunted, terrible place filled with the tormented souls of the city's inhabitant, driven mad by the Great Cataclysm nd tens of thousands of years trapped in this world. She travelled to the Crown of Heaven at the heart of the city, the most magnificent temple ever built, pacifying the spirits of the dead as she went, she entered the temple and retrieved the Stone of the Ancestors, an artefact of great power."
"This was her trial, her test. Only the Exalted One could purify the city and return alive with the Stone." Thyr said, "But return she did, and she took the Stone to the city of Silisim and presented it to The Oracle... and The Oracle used it to open the Sanctuary of Silisim, a repository of knowledge left behind by the Ancients."
"With the Stone of the Ancestors in her left hand and the Secrets of the Ancients in her right, Ellessia restored the Third Kingdom to greatness, the lost secrets of magic and technology were slowly uncovered and Aerin entered into the Third Golden Age of Magic. Queen Ellessia laid the foundations for the entire Fourth Era, all of the advances of the past eighteen thousand years have been because of her. All of this." Tara gestured around herself, "Is because of her. Without Elessia, the Terelain people would have taken thousands of years longer to return to our true glory. She healed Aerin, restored us to our glory and under her and her son Aelrend the Enlightened, the world was united for the first time since he Second Era ended."
"Ostelond was shot dead by a Gillorian marksman when he and Nariel were out in the lower city." Thyr explained, "The entire city knew at once; Nariel tore out the front of the building the assassin had hid in, turned the stone to sand and then melted it into twisted pieces of glass and threw them at the assassin in a display of sheer magical fury that it has since passed into legend." Thyr shuddered, "Then she killed him... at least, we hope he is dead, for his sake. He was impaled by the glass shards and she managed to wring a confession out of him before she set him on fire, and then he vanished. After her brother's death, Ellessia was the sole voice in the Kingdom who did not cry out for revenge, even though her own twin brother had been murdered she almost single-handedly prevented another war, one that would have destroyed us."
"Ellesia carried on and ruled over the Third Kingdom." Tara continued, "The Oracle went to her and told her that her brother's death had been foretold, for he was never meant to be born. To this day, no one knows what happened, but it transpires that there should only have been one child, The Exalted One, but that the soul had been torn in two an incarnated into two bodies; the twins. Ostelond died, releasing his soul which rejoined that of his sister, whole in body and soul, Ellessia became the Exalted One." Tara said her name with great reverence, "Ellessia travelled alone to the ancient ruin of Nias Thineral, the City of the Sorrow-Song, a haunted, terrible place filled with the tormented souls of the city's inhabitant, driven mad by the Great Cataclysm nd tens of thousands of years trapped in this world. She travelled to the Crown of Heaven at the heart of the city, the most magnificent temple ever built, pacifying the spirits of the dead as she went, she entered the temple and retrieved the Stone of the Ancestors, an artefact of great power."
"This was her trial, her test. Only the Exalted One could purify the city and return alive with the Stone." Thyr said, "But return she did, and she took the Stone to the city of Silisim and presented it to The Oracle... and The Oracle used it to open the Sanctuary of Silisim, a repository of knowledge left behind by the Ancients."
"With the Stone of the Ancestors in her left hand and the Secrets of the Ancients in her right, Ellessia restored the Third Kingdom to greatness, the lost secrets of magic and technology were slowly uncovered and Aerin entered into the Third Golden Age of Magic. Queen Ellessia laid the foundations for the entire Fourth Era, all of the advances of the past eighteen thousand years have been because of her. All of this." Tara gestured around herself, "Is because of her. Without Elessia, the Terelain people would have taken thousands of years longer to return to our true glory. She healed Aerin, restored us to our glory and under her and her son Aelrend the Enlightened, the world was united for the first time since he Second Era ended."
Catrin listened to the story while sipping wine. At the end, she nodded. "Impressive." She stayed silent for a while, then she shrugged. "I suppose one does what one has to do."
Tara nodded, "She is sometimes know as the True Heir of Terel, because she did so much for us and because she fulfilled much of his legacy."
"There are some conspiracy theorists who believe that The Oracle was the one who hired the Gillorian assassin in the first place, in order to ensure that her prophecies were fulfilled... of course those same conspiracy theorists also say that she drove Varis the Traitor to madness, and that is why he betrayed his people to the Gillorians in the first Great War, directly leading to the Fall of the Second Kingdom." Thyr said, "It is hard to prove them wrong, but.. well, most of us are uncomfortable thinking that the most powerful prescient and Mage in the known galaxy is willing to cause regicide and genocide to safeguard her vision of he future... I suppose if it is true it could be argued that she always knew how it would turn out and that things would have been worse if, say Ostelond never died and Ellessia never became the true Exalted One, or that the Second Kingdom never fell and it continued its campaign of technological suppression amongst the Younger Races..."
Tara shrugged, "Still, even if she did, I doubt anyone is going to try to cross her. That'd be dangerous. She might decide to just let the future unfold as it wills... and what she has said about her visions of 'That Which Must Not Be' are quite... chilling."
"Anyway, you were going to craft some jewelry for Tara, yes?" Thyr asked.
"There are some conspiracy theorists who believe that The Oracle was the one who hired the Gillorian assassin in the first place, in order to ensure that her prophecies were fulfilled... of course those same conspiracy theorists also say that she drove Varis the Traitor to madness, and that is why he betrayed his people to the Gillorians in the first Great War, directly leading to the Fall of the Second Kingdom." Thyr said, "It is hard to prove them wrong, but.. well, most of us are uncomfortable thinking that the most powerful prescient and Mage in the known galaxy is willing to cause regicide and genocide to safeguard her vision of he future... I suppose if it is true it could be argued that she always knew how it would turn out and that things would have been worse if, say Ostelond never died and Ellessia never became the true Exalted One, or that the Second Kingdom never fell and it continued its campaign of technological suppression amongst the Younger Races..."
Tara shrugged, "Still, even if she did, I doubt anyone is going to try to cross her. That'd be dangerous. She might decide to just let the future unfold as it wills... and what she has said about her visions of 'That Which Must Not Be' are quite... chilling."
"Anyway, you were going to craft some jewelry for Tara, yes?" Thyr asked.
Catrin smirked. “Conspiracy theorists, hm? Well, it would be hard to prove them wrong, especially if The Oracle is a real master manipulator. Still, it's slightly disturbing, someone able to push things in the direction of their vision of the future.”
She shrugged when the AI mentioned the jewelry and drank the last of her wine, then she smiled. “Yes. Get ready, though, this is going to be a boring hour for you. Feel free to speak or do anything you like, though, I just won't be listening.”
With that, she made herself comfortable, put the glass in her lap and closed her eyes. She opened them half an hour later and the glass started levitating in front of her. The AI might have been able to detect energetic changes in her brain during that time, if he tried observing her with any suitable sensors. After Catrin opened her eyes, she focused on the glass. Extremely slowly, it started both reshaping and losing transparency, slowly turning into greyish and then silvery while becoming more of a circlet than a glass.
Then it became denser, glossier, only to start slowly dividing itself into strands, ending up in a very intricate 3-D knotwork pattern. Catrin closed her eyes again and one strand of the out of the twenty she had used started turning green. Very slowly, it turned emerald green. When Catrin opened her eyes again, quite exhausted, more than an hour after she began, she took the bracelet from mid-air and examined it. About two centimetres wide, a lovely silver knotwork made of rather thin wire-like strands, one of them made of emerald instead of silver. She smiled, satisfied with her work, and got up to hand it to Tara.
She shrugged when the AI mentioned the jewelry and drank the last of her wine, then she smiled. “Yes. Get ready, though, this is going to be a boring hour for you. Feel free to speak or do anything you like, though, I just won't be listening.”
With that, she made herself comfortable, put the glass in her lap and closed her eyes. She opened them half an hour later and the glass started levitating in front of her. The AI might have been able to detect energetic changes in her brain during that time, if he tried observing her with any suitable sensors. After Catrin opened her eyes, she focused on the glass. Extremely slowly, it started both reshaping and losing transparency, slowly turning into greyish and then silvery while becoming more of a circlet than a glass.
Then it became denser, glossier, only to start slowly dividing itself into strands, ending up in a very intricate 3-D knotwork pattern. Catrin closed her eyes again and one strand of the out of the twenty she had used started turning green. Very slowly, it turned emerald green. When Catrin opened her eyes again, quite exhausted, more than an hour after she began, she took the bracelet from mid-air and examined it. About two centimetres wide, a lovely silver knotwork made of rather thin wire-like strands, one of them made of emerald instead of silver. She smiled, satisfied with her work, and got up to hand it to Tara.
Tara and the AI had been watching with interest as she worked, and Thyr had indeed watched the whole thing through a vast array of sensors, after all it wasn't often one got the chance to watch someone from another universe use a completely foreign form of magic to transmogrify matter at a fundamental level, which is a magic just as hard as you would expect.
Tara took the bracelet from Catrin and held it in her hand, feelings its weight, she then held it up to the light and watched the silver and emerald glitter in the light, "I'll look like a queen wearing this." She said in an awed voice, "It is exquisite."
"I'm impressed she did it at all." The AI said, "I mean, it's not like glass and metal are remotely the same material and the magical energies required to fundamentally alter the very atoms of an object to change its actual composition from fused silica to silver as well as change its shape, not to mention changing some of it to chromium-contaminated beryl to form the emerald."
"Complex and difficult magic." Tara said with a nod but then she pointed out, "But not impossible. I mean a lot of our large-scale manufacturing, and even the food processor, uses nanotechnology and high-level magic like that to work, creating complex substances and allows out of stores of pure elements."
"Indeed, but that is machinery, albeit machinery that taps into the Aether itself." Thyr said, "And most Terelains would require the actual emerald and silver before they attempted a similar feat, and it would be easier if it were refined variants of the materials. To do what Catrin just did is incredibly energy-intensive, or at least it is if you are using standard magic, I am uncertain of how her magic works in this universe."
Tara took the bracelet from Catrin and held it in her hand, feelings its weight, she then held it up to the light and watched the silver and emerald glitter in the light, "I'll look like a queen wearing this." She said in an awed voice, "It is exquisite."
"I'm impressed she did it at all." The AI said, "I mean, it's not like glass and metal are remotely the same material and the magical energies required to fundamentally alter the very atoms of an object to change its actual composition from fused silica to silver as well as change its shape, not to mention changing some of it to chromium-contaminated beryl to form the emerald."
"Complex and difficult magic." Tara said with a nod but then she pointed out, "But not impossible. I mean a lot of our large-scale manufacturing, and even the food processor, uses nanotechnology and high-level magic like that to work, creating complex substances and allows out of stores of pure elements."
"Indeed, but that is machinery, albeit machinery that taps into the Aether itself." Thyr said, "And most Terelains would require the actual emerald and silver before they attempted a similar feat, and it would be easier if it were refined variants of the materials. To do what Catrin just did is incredibly energy-intensive, or at least it is if you are using standard magic, I am uncertain of how her magic works in this universe."
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