Now, they stood in a chamber. More and more, he sensed a thing the humans of today had inherited from these Orvalen. Immensity. Like the mines, the caves, the castle. There was an almost compulsive need to make things bigger. Rooms with space beyond what was needed.
Useless.
The ashman within warred against such wastage. But alas, what remained would remain. He smiled, observing the utter alienness of the current space. Walls of black stone, granular, a hall that expanded into a round chamber some ten meters ahead. There, black towering boxes, sleek, floated in the calm silence. Dark. Below, the floor bore silver-inlaid rings scattered through the space. Often, these rings shimmered with a pale argent color--a certain coldness flowing through here.
In the center of the room, placed atop a three-step round stage, was a monolith. Black but glassy, its surface screened by lines of letters. Grey words that rounded its form, moving. Light descended, white and dim, barely illuminating the totality of the eerie space. There was an unnerving quality to the place. Utterly vast to the point that the walls on both sides seemed worlds apart. Likely, Merrin guessed, entire mountains could be fitted in with space to spare.
What was the point of something so big?
No answer was produced for the question.
He stepped forward, feet droning across the seemingly wet lab floor. Lab, the world Este had regarded it as. As usual, no form of familiarity existed in them. More things lost to time? He wondered, or was this yet another knowledge held by the brightCrowns?
Leading him, Este, dressed in a dark side-buttoned coat, a cloak flowed out, with a pair of filmy black trousers to boot. She paid little attention to the wholeness, white hair clinging to her back, sometimes bouncing and swaying to the momentum. Grey-skinned, yes, eyes of total blackness, absolutely, but undeniable, there was a positive charge to her nature. Beauty?
No.
This he attributed to her intellect. Erudite things had that glow to them. No matter. Motioning on, he wore the smile like a cloth, no particular reason to, but upon reviewing his own time in the Dream Plague, a factor presented itself as a cure.
Stimuli, unintended or not, could snap the mind out of the trance. Be it his immense force or not, actions done in the dream that existed contrary to the wishes and desires of the dreamer could cause an abrupt wake. Not a needed thing for the moment. Hence, Merrin adapted the perceived traits of this 'Alurian' character. Whoever he was, he would play the role, learn the secrets, grow, and expand.
That was the singular path of the caster!
The same as the El'shadie
Ahead, Este had taken the lead as she tended to do, touching spots on an inch afloat black box. Queer like the rest, she padded spots with her fingers, the cube quivering and hissing with a dull tone. Steam puffed out from its surface. What was it? Este turned to him, said, "This should stop any possibility of discord in wild casting within the Tower."
"That controls the Anti-field?"
With both arms on her waist, she smiled, lips red painted. What use did that have? She replied, "Not this one box." Both arms widened. "All of this. 80% of the lab is the engine."
"Designed to halt ships and tamper with casting...Wonderful."
She leaned. "You're curious, aren't you?"
"I am a scientist."
"Of the low da'n."
He exhaled. "More reason to fan my nosiness."
"Please." She waved dismissively. "You hardly are that..." She took out a ring from her clothes, golden, and tossed it to him. "Wear it," she said.
"Why?"
"Your master said so." No tone of command. "But do wear it...I doubt there are no spyeys in this structure."
Something to prevent voyeurism? He thought, slightly uneasy with the ring: memories and all that. That last given ring was designed to enslave him.
And you made it your weapon.
Merrin smiled. Well, play the role. He wore it, sensed then, a brief emergence in his thoughts. More external than the countless things within, but still there.
A voice slittered in!
"Can you hear me?" Este....but, he noted. Her lips...they moved not.
Are you speaking in my mind?
"This way, very little observation can happen." She said within, resonant through his body. "By the way, do keep it on at all times. I will need you, and I might find audible calling as something of a drag."
Can you hear all my thoughts? A rather important question.
"Ah, oravien no." She said, voice strangely based in the depths of his being. "I am a Scientist and thus am aware that your inner thoughts are almost certainly useless to me...And then there is the matter of privacy. It is yours...simply have the desire to speak to me, and think. Simple."
Amazing
"Hardly." She said, "Just a collection of some unnatural telepathy symbols, a few of the desire ones, and a linkage method. It's so stupidly easy that the maker did not even advance into a Fa'n."
To himself: If something like this did not award one a prize, what in origin's name could? Merrin stiffened the chill, tense. What is the power of this anti-field?
He thought to her. I suppose there's a rank to these things.
"Observables"
And you were awarded the Highest of Fa'ns for your invention.
"Please." Cavalier. "My Anti-field is worlds apart in symbolic complexity from these rings. A caster of the 1st Rank would instantly die in any attempt to understand or replicate its structure."
But I am a caster of the 1st Rank...Merrin smiled, thought. I suppose the traits within them are that....unimaginable.
Este wore suspicion. "Please don't play these games with me." She said, "I gave you the ring; that alone should prove I have some intention of telling you about the field."
Sorry.
"Refrain from word play, it annoys me."
Merrin accepted the next silence, Este moving calmly towards the hovering boxes, some 3 to 4 meters wide. Large. Few, he noticed, rippled like the surface of a disturbed lake.
Eltium!
They have Eltium.
More and More, Merrin sensed a similarity between humans and the Orvalen, albeit they were less marvelous than the Orvalen of today. Odd. How did no one know about this? Catelyn seemed to, but not even the shamans hinted at such possibilities. How? Who were these creatures?
Este continued a drift movement across the lab, tweaking and tapping surfaces of the aeriel cubes. Many exhaled the moist mist.
Mist in all of them...Merrin thought to her, tailoring the words for the delivery of that witticism tone.
She smiled, not glancing, and said, "Well, it's not perfect. But the loss of Force is expected of it. Eventually, I suspect, I will devise a means to stop the leakage of the mindForce."
Merrin was stunned...Mind inputting the words and meanings attributed to them.
Mist. Force. mindForce.
His thoughts expanded: Does that mean mist is the mindForce? Just like how that pure white light was the physical manifestation of the soulForce, was mist the same for the minds?
Somehow, the image of the current Eastos grew within his immediate awareness: Dark and stormy. Hot steam rising off the earth.
He observed a trailing line of silver on the ground, shimmering. Is the mist and steam in eastos a consequence of the contained nature of the world?
The bird had hinted at it. Eastos is well contained with the mindForce, only a snap or the occasional extra bathing of the force to create casterhood. Is that why my force is so much stronger?
Because of my time in the mist?
Indeed, very few people could claim greater within the steam than the Ashman...Perhaps the Fermen, but he had little knowledge of their existence. Nonetheless, Merrin caressed his palm...I was right to come here. Much knowledge can be gained from this place.
Este stepped out from a dark spot in the lab, light from the far-up lamps casting down. There were a few such base-placed lights in the place; most of them were up. High in the extended roof. What great bootless heights. Nearing, she approached with a small cube, its form quivering in her grasp.
Her voice invaded his mind: "Someday, all these boxes will be reduced to a single one. Something this small."
Merrin smiled. Making it accessible.
She waved. "Accessibility of technology is only possible when a greater invention has come to play."
You expect to be surpassed?
She regarded him, examining. "You should know I have little intention to partake of the fruit."
Hmm?
Why? Merrin thought.
She shrugged. "Though the Highlords seem ready to grant longevity to those Clan lords they keep making. Like that one, the Fray Clan. What a man. Gerald the Silver, I think he is called. Have you ever heard of a man being given a Clan because he was flamboyant?"
Odd.
"More than that." Este said, "But regardless, my point remains that I have no intention of eating the fruit to enhance my age. Let time take me."
Merrin feigned sadness...perhaps? He thought: So you plan to leave me without a master?
"When the time comes," She said, "For now, you should learn as much as you can. Ah, yes, the anti-field."
He listened.