Interlude CMXXVII: Crucible of Thought
Crucible of Thought
Twenty Fifth Day of the Third Month 294 AC
There were no words in the tongues of men for what she had seen, fortunately she spoke the tongues of dragon, devil and elemental spirit and they served her well enough. There were no eyes born of flesh that could have witnessed the fire that arced from on high and and flowed upon the altars below, your eyes had been forged of sorcery and flesh-craft. How little you knew then when you first stepped upon the path and yet how well has each step served you.
Soon Lya knew she would be back upon the earth and laughing with Vee about how little you knew then when she was pouring over notes from Tyrosh and her friend was still plying her craft with scavenged tools. I wish Qyburn were the sort of person to sit down for tea and cherry pie to philosophize, she thought, the light of twice ten thousand stars still burning in her mind's eye. Alas the former maester was a bit too intense about his work to indulge in the sorts of meandering discussions Lya would sometimes partake in on lazy summer afternoons.
I only have these eyes, this body, this insight into the magic of the Spheres because of lore long dead flesh-smiths of Valyria plumbed from the Far Realm, does that mean that the means that like a ripple on water any change I work upon that ordering was born of primordial intrusion? Over the last few days Lya had witnessed tales forged to steel with nary a single rune carved to fix them in place, she had seen the memories of a dead realm called forth from the high airs to bless and instrument of destruction again to brighter purpose. For one fleeting moment she could have sworn Anu-Simung or some fraction of him out of time blessed Zathir's work even knowing of his own future death and mutilation.
Yet of all these insights none could compare to what she learned about the Spheres themselves, how each of them existed within the others as willful tributes and unwitting reflections.
All the world in a grain of sand.
Part of Lya, the part that always stood aside from the thoughts of the moment and critiqued the act of thinking itself like an assiduous scribe wondered if this is where the morality tale caught up to her. 'You have seen things man was not meant to know' some faceless judge would proclaim.
A laugh burst from the sage's lips, quickly muffled by thunder of making but loud in her own ears. There was no judgement cast, there couldn't be one for of course man did not exist in that sense, certainly as a statistical mean there was such a thing as man, what most people thought of as mortality bound to it. Yet she was no less the founding who had taken a flickering torch into the archives now than she had ever been. Lya was simply more than she had been.
Life, consciousness was a continuum, a gradient and not some vast list of kindreds and kinds, just as the world which it inhabited was one vast Sphere that contained multitudes.
In the works of divine creation Lya had seen her own arcane formulas, she had seen the decanting of flesh forge pods and she had seen in equal measure the stroke of a smith's hammer and a baker pulling a fresh baked pie out of the oven. That was the second time her thoughts had turned to food, she realized. Her other self had not eaten in days either. Could you actually miss food to the point of distraction without the capacity to feel hunger?
"In my experience yes," Zathir replied startling her.
"Have I been speaking aloud all this time?" She thought she had kicked that habit... mostly at least.
"No more than my own habit of speaking under my breath," the Winged serpent replied as thunder stilled and the hammer still white hot from its reforging began to tumble though the clouds in a trailing a line to steam. Seeing her worried look he added: "It will not harm anyone..."
Lya Gains Bonus Feat From a Grain of Sand: +30 insight bonus to all Knowledge rolls to plane-forging. Roll all Lya's progress dice on such projects twice and take the higher result. Re-rolls cannot crit succeed.
What next?
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OOC: Yes that feat means it will be much more unlikely for you guys to crit fail while making the afterlife, also the +30 skill bonus should help with the crazy DCs involved even if it does not stack with Digine insight, it still doubles it. I'll do the hammer write up in the morning and include it, it's very late for me right now. Not yet edited.
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At best I thought she'd just get a bit of extra progress to her next Mythic Rank.
