Immaterial Bonding
"Once more class", droned Maeris, Bonesinger of the Quenya Craftworld. "We can rest afterwards." Maeris was feeling the exhaustion of creating psychoreactive materials. Creating meaningful amounts of Wraithbone was of little effort for someone as experienced as herself. Creating Mythril in tune with eleven other humans was another matter entirely.
The students themselves were of various states of fatigue. Some panted slightly while others around them were drenched with sweat from extended usage of their powers. A few were still energetic enough to gossip and converse, almost as if they hadn't spend the past hour forming Orichalcix.
The Eldar sung, and the Choir followed soon after. Their voices hovered, rose and fell and finally joined as one harmonious song. From voices of the humans psykers, the deep purple crystal, Orichacix, the symbol of humanity made manifest swirled like ink and sparkled under the ceiling lights. Maeris in turn rose her voice and formed giant stones of Wraithbone, her people's signature medium. The two psychoactive substances circled past each other in lazy arcs, slowly coalescing and melting into one another. The singular mass slowly lost the dark sheen of Orichalcix and the smooth texture of Wraithbone, becoming gray in texture.
Then the singular mass cracked. A hairline fracture appeared between the mass of Orichalcix and Wraithbone that had yet to fuse turned into a gaping maw that widened like a mocking grin. The mass split in two and like a distant memory, disappeared without a trace.
"A momentary rest if you may." Stated Maeris. "Another failure?" She uttered in the most hidden parts of her mind.
Maeris and her class were one of many others in trade schools throughout the Bastion. Serras Salnus, the de facto leader of the Bastion's hundreds of worlds had, in one of her many policies carried out by her subordinates, the practice of multiple psykers working in unison. These groups of psykers, called choirs would be able to accomplish tasks that a single psyker alone wouldn't be able to accomplish. From expanding and refining communication arrays to foreign worlds to mass producing Concept Crystals and Runes, the Choirs quickly became an integral part of the Bastion and further cemented the psykers' place in society.
However, the act of working alongside other psykers as one is no easy task. Factors such as personality and differing strengths of individual psykers can imbalance the group's collective power and cause the group to falter. This is even more true when it comes to the construction of psyker material such as Mythril. Mythril, for all the value the silvery, strong as steel, rapid regeneration properties the alloy has, is difficult to assemble. In order to consistently produce a high quality quantity of Mythril, an Eldar Bonesinger has to act as a lead for the Choir. The two create their needed ratios of their respective matters, then fuse them to create the alloy.
Maeris made good efforts to hide her frustrations. Her Choir has had difficulty synching with her voice and only managed to produce scant amount of misshapen lumps of Orichalcix and Wraithbone, quick to shatter and quicker to disappear. "What has caused my students to falter so?" She pondered. Despite looking so different from each other, well as much as one as versed as herself can tell, they all got along. The elderly dark skinned woman was happy to be around the relatively young blond girl, and the two adolescents she remembered as brothers were professional enough to keep their bickering outside of her circle. Even the ones that held some level of resentment over having to take this training over their typical civilian lives at least felt some form of contentment amongst peers.
She even made sure to go over everyone's problems individually, doing her best as a leader to ensure that everyone would be able to perform at their best when the time is needed. "What else is there?" Maeris wondered "What subject darkens their minds? I am versed in my craft, they in theirs. We spent enough cycles to understand one another, and still they cannot bear fruit? My pride will not allow this to stand." Maeris paused. "Or is it exactly my pride that is the problem? Could it be that my centuries of experience blinded me of their limits, and they simply wish not to speak up in fear of me? If this is so, I must remedy this immediately."
Maeris refocused her efforts on the students, and began the process again. "Once more we shall practice molding the realities to craft the bond that has formed between our kind. Once more we shall continue. Do not worry, even if we shall fail here, as long as we are willing, we shall succeed with grace and dignity. Now if you may, we shall begin."
The students were apprehensive, but willing. Once again they sang as one, two sides from two different worlds, mixing their beliefs from the veils of unreality into the material into one single entity. The mass this time was small, much smaller than their previous attempts, only the size of a marble. The room was staring in anticipation and horror, wondering how long it will take for this attempt to end as another failure.
"Do not stray from the task at hand" stated Maeris telepathically. The students believing in their teacher did as told and redoubled their efforts. The mass, now Mythril was a silvery gray and glowed slightly and contained an air of dignity. When the form was finally realized, the students stopped singing, falling to their knees from the strain. Their teacher however, didn't look the least bit tired and examined the small sphere of Mythril in her hands. Upon further examination the Mythril wasn't perfect, there were microcrystals of Orichalcix and stretches of Wraithbone like a barren plain. But it was Mythril nonetheless.
The students looked on the teacher with agonizing anticipation, and Maeris smiled.
"Congratulations. You all have successfully created your first piece of Mythril. You are all dismissed. I look forward to your efforts next time, fellow peers."
AN: Comments? Questions? Please be gentle.
EDIT: I'm canon? I'm canon! Oh yess, validation...