Chapter 05 : Unexpected gift

Nikolaï shook his head in disbelief and climbed down the stairs to the ground floor. The day was close to ending so Nikolaï hurried himself the best he could to the Tower's main door.

He went out of the Tower and climbed down the few stairs at the entrance. All around the tower were hills of vegetation and trees. Here and there you could see unusual plants which were cultivated for their properties. For a neophyte, the gardens seemed chaotic but the all thing was in reality split into sections and areas separated by a path of white rock.

Each area was wild but the plants and creatures inside were meant to ‘feed’ on each other in a certain harmony. The areas were also all dangerous in their own way and the more it was distant from the Tower, the more it was dangerous.

The exception was the huge road cover in white gravel linking the tower to the entrance of the domain. The road was a marvel of alchemy that repulse any kind of creature living in the gardens. The areas next to the road were the safest and mostly contained normal plants and vermins.

The gardens didn’t start directly at the bottom of the Tower, there was a clear area 80 meters all around it where small buildings had been built. The buildings looked like a small village but nobody really lived here. They were mostly gathering warehouses and such, that sustained the Tower's needs. Smaller construction were all kinds of shops held by Aspirants.

These jobs were not as official as the librarian position but it was part of the Tower economy. The Tower didn’t manage them but often played the role of arbiter.

Nikolaï looked for an apothecary that was still open. The Tower of Dzürkül was famous for its alchemy so it was logical that many apprentices sold their potions and other compounds. Often they didn’t do it directly and used one of the many apothecaries settled in “the open market”, as people called this area.

During his first year, Nikolaï had worked in one of these shops, a tannery. When he had discovered how expensive studying Arcane was, even after registration, he decided to support himself by finding a job. The problem was, becoming an Arcanist wasn’t a part-time thing. Splitting his time between his job and his development was not just slowing him but was producing very little results. Studying elementium, Arcanes and awakening Ether required full dedication.

When Nikolaï had realised that, he had to quit. Actually, people who actively worked in shops were often doing it for a season or two, collecting as much money as they could before stopping and fully immersing in their study again. It was one of the reasons why shops opened and closed constantly.

Anyway, this way didn’t work for Nikolaï. So, like many of his fellow Aspirants, he was doing gathering missions in the gardens to win some money.

Nikolaï found an apothecary still opened and went inside. It was occupied by an Aspirant who was tidying the place.

“_ We are closing soon.” Said the Aspirant after looking at Nikolaï from head to toe.

If Nikolaï hadn’t looked so miserable, or if he had a badge showing a higher level on his cloth, the Aspirant would have been more polite but Nikolaï didn’t care.

“_ I’m looking for cleansing incenses.” Said Nikolaï.

The Aspirant pointed at a shelf before returning to his business. Nikolaï went to the shelves and looked at the products. The incenses were next to all kind of alchemy compound like burning oils and other incenses. They all needed to be burned to activate their properties and from what Nikolaï could see the shop had a variety of quality even if it didn’t have a large choice of products.

Nikolaï grabbed a small cloth packet and inspect the little cone inside it. He was not an expert but he had some notions to evaluate alchemy products. The cone colour was homogeneous and the surface wasn’t soft. It was good because it meant that the blending and drying had been well done. The incenses had very little fragrance which was a good thing. In order to create cleansing incenses the alchemist have a variety of plants to choose from. Many had the same kind of property even if they don’t have the same quality. The fact that the present incenses didn’t smell strong was proof that the alchemist had chosen a plant of better quality.

Nikolaï looked at the price of the incenses and reconsidered buying it. It was expensive, too expensive for what he had in mind. Cleansing incenses were more often used by alchemists themselves to purge their lab, Nikolaï could probably settle on a lesser product.

He took another packet and looked inside. This cone was almost split in half, showing that it had been dried too much or too quickly. The smell coming from the incenses was stronger and it would probably produce a more nauseous smoke but at least the alchemist didn’t skim on the active plants.

“_ Oi ! I don’t want to miss the dusk so can you hurry.” Called out the Aspirant.

For his answer, Nikolaï put the cone back in the cloth packet and showed it to the Aspirant. It was the product of a beginner alchemist but it would suffice. After paying for it, Nikolaï went back to his room.

After he arrived Nikolaï took out a small thread of cloth from his chest. Carefully he wrapped the incense with it, providing that the cone crumbled on itself. Nikolaï was not sure if it was necessary but it would hopefully ease the lighting and equal burning of the incense.

Once he had finished he started to wait for the right time. While doing that he ate from his food reserve and stared at the “light parasites” all around him.

Dozen minutes later the sound of a bell was heard all around the tower. The bell was signalling the time, it was dusk. The Tower of Dzürkül was the official name of this place but it was also nicknamed the Dusk Tower in the Arcanist community. The nickname was coming from the Arcane mechanism in place in it. Those mechanisms were made to create and attract huge waves of elementiums at the moment of dusk.

That was why dusk was the ideal moment for Aspirants to meditate. They could gather more elementium in their Ether or at least more easily than the rest of the day. In fact, even beyond the level of Aspirant, Arcanists were meditating during it too.

Every day at this time the Tower was falling into a quiet peace as the main door was closed.

In his room Nikolaï didn’t put himself in his meditation posture, his Ether was still recovering and he could extend his recovery time if he was forcing things. Nevertheless, Nikolaï opened his eyes wide. As the Tower filled itself with elementium, from foundation to roof, Nikolaï was seeing the particles multiplying.

They were forming bigger spots, it was like looking at ghost bubbles. Nikolaï was still sceptical so he lit the cleansing incense in its censer. A thin smoke started to rise, accompanied by a bitter smell. Nikolaï took the incenses burner closer to one of the spots made of particles.

The cleansing incenses were made to purify elementium in the atmosphere of a closed room. It was used mainly by alchemists to cleanse the air of their laboratory and prevented their work to be tainted by an unexpected concentration of elementium.

Nikolaï was staring at the reaction of the smoke on the particles. The result came quickly. The smoke wasn’t destroying elementium but it was dissipating it. It put something in the air that made the elementium unable to gather in large quantity.

Nikolaï tested the incense effect on different spots in his room but eventually, he had to accept the truth : he was able to see elementium ! As the fact was falling on him Nikolaï felt a small vertigo. It was huge for him and his doubts and questions rapidly made way for a deep desire to use this power for himself.

The wild dream of revenge on the world and being the one who bent it to his will was intoxicating. It was not a feeling coming from hatred but from hope. For the past weeks, Nikolaï had lived in fear and the horrible feeling that his place in the world would never be truly chosen by himself. But now, he dared to hope of becoming powerful enough to take control of his life.

Without second-guessing his choice, Nikolaï decided to keep his discovery secret. There was no way of knowing what would happen if he revealed his ability to the world. From his last experience, he couldn’t silence the fear that Orsana or another powerful Arcanist would make him into a test subject.

Nikolaï calmed himself, not just his fear but his delusion of greatness also. He put out the incenses and looked around his tiny room. He never liked this room, he had always been a bit disgusted by it. It was small, with no window and cold stones. It often made him felt like a failure that you hide deep, away from the eye of the world but right now it felt different.

This room was going to house the foundation of his power and his dreams.

***

Nikolaï woke up early. The night before he had gone to bed exhausted but also peaceful. The head full of dreams and possibilities but he also had to wake up from that too. A thousand questions were bursting in his head on how he was going to reach his goal ? Especially in his current state.

After struggling with the urge to stay under the blanket until his problems fix themselves, which would never happen, Nikolaï got out of his bed. He washed and got dressed before leaving his room.

First of all, he would need to put some food in him. He also needed to make his body move. The post-coma treatment had done well to preserve some of his muscular mass but it was far from miraculous. Also, the medication was coming to an end. Whatever Nikolaï was going to do in the future he would need to heal his body.

It was the first thing to do, the second was to not being evicted from the Tower. Expert Orsana had used his influence to postpone Nikolaï's exam as a gesture of “kindness” but eventually he would have to face it.

He still had time before it happened but he had so much to do. He not only needed to get back to his former self, but he also needed to go beyond.

Nikolaï arrived in the dining hall on the ground floor and ignored the whispers on his passage. He took some food and started eating, lost in his thought. The food was not great but it felt nice and by doing so Nikolaï was clearing his mind. By the end of his breakfast, he didn’t really have a formulated plan but he had prioritized his actions.

He went back to his room and luckily crossed path with his neighbour.

“_ Good morning Cliper.” Said Nikolaï.

“_ Morning Orwood.” Responded the Aspirant, a bit surprised.

“_ Thank you for the delivery but I won't need them anymore.”

“_ All right.” Simply said Aspirant Cliper before leaving in the dining hall direction.

He didn’t seem to care a lot. Even if Nikolaï had bribed him to deliver food to his room it was not a lot so the loss of a bit of money was probably equal to the bother the delivery had been.

Nikolaï didn’t linger and with the help of his crutches arrived at his room. He had used the crutches because he was still worried about losing his balance but hoped to get rid of them in a few days.

Impatient to test the effects of his Third Eye, Nikolaï decided to try one of his spells. He was still not used to be able to see atmospheric elementium but he wanted to look at what happened when he was casting. He sat down, focused a bit and formed a space between his two joined hands. Now that his Ether had been reassembled he had his sensation back and controlled his Ether almost like he used to.

He started to form a Sigil between his hands, it was the one from the first spell he had mastered : Spectral Hand. The Sigil became more tangible and Nikolaï was doing it slowly but steady. The Sigil fully formed, Nikolaï pushed to the next phase.

Things didn’t go well. The still-fragile state of Nikolaï's Ether didn’t handle the sudden pressure created by the casting. The spell collapsed and the ether used to formed the Sigil backfired on Nikolaï. It was like being hit on the top of the head with a club made of ice.

“_ Aouch !”

Nikolaï had reflexively jumped and was now massaging his temps, relieved to had been sitting down when trying to cast.

“_ Idiot !” Cursed Nikolaï at himself.

He was still too early to try to cast a spell but Nikolaï had let the emotions and excitement get the best of him. It was not the first time in his life that Nikolaï had taken a backlash, learning how to properly use a spell included a lot of trial and error.

Nikolaï took a small, flat and ovoid rock from his chest. There were glyphs engraved on it but its texture was smooth and Nikolaï started to rub it on his forehead. It was a certain kind of healing talisman able to cure headaches. While he waited for the pain to go away he couldn’t stop feeling frustrated by what happened. Spectral Hand was not a spell which required a lot of power to be executed and being unable to perform it was harsh to his regained morale.

A bit less than an hour later the talisman had done its work and Nikolaï was free of his headache. He didn’t try to cast something again but was consulting his book on meditation in order to find a way to “fix” his Ether or at least accelerate his natural healing.

He didn’t found anything that specific in the volume, but he was intrigued by a passage about the benefits of meditating in an elementium bath set on personal affinity.

Elementium bath was an expression to describe a room with a high density of elementiums inside it. Those rooms were artificially made and every Tower had that kind of installations. It was not just the high density that made them valuable but the fact that it was possible to filtrate what kind of elementiums was in the room and in what proportion. Dzürkül was no exception but the problem was the fact that renting such a room was very expensive. Nikolaï had done it very few times in order to practice spell casting, the high density of elementium was very useful at revealing the Invisibles errors. For example, if the structure of a spell was weak the Ether in it would leak and react with ambient elementium. The more dense the elementium was, the more obvious and noticeable the reaction was.

Renting an elementium bath for an hour in order to test your spell was very different from renting one for a meditation session. It was a luxury that only the most wealthy people in the Tower could afford. So Nikolaï couldn’t do it but the passage had triggered his attention because of what he had read from the library book, the one which talked about the projector.

The projector was meant to make the elementium visible not just for the sake of it but to offer an alternative on elementium bath when it was used as a testing chamber. The higher the density was, the higher the reaction was noticeable but by making the elementium visible the reaction didn’t have to be important to be noticed.

Nikolaï decided to roll with this idea. His current Ether was still injured, part of it fractured in a way that Nikolaï couldn’t detect. If, with the Third Eye, he could observe how the ambient elementium reacted with his Ether he could guess where it needed to be fixed.

The idea deserved to be tried but the first issue was the fact that Nikolaï wasn’t sure his Third Eye was powerful enough to perceive such tiny permutation. Fortunately, Nikolaï thought about how he could do that.

He sat on the floor, in a position more inclined to meditation. He focused and closed his eyes. He was visualizing a Sigil in his mind, the first step of casting a spell. When he tried that earlier it went fine until he tried to project the Ether outside of him to make the spell do its things. As long that he kept his ether inside he would not risk a backlash.

The Sigil Nikolaï was picturing was not from one of his ancient spells but the one on his forehead. Whatever the reason for its presence it was the link to Nikolaï’s new ability, he was sure of it. He was not trying to project the Sigil like he was casting a spell but looked for a way to reinforce the existing one using his Ether.

Nikolaï took his time and it was working. By focusing on the Sigil he could felt his Ether drew naturally through the one imprinted in him. As he continued to charge the Sigil he started to fill the effect preceding a backlash. He turned down the power inside it, trying more gradually in order to test the limit.

Nikolaï lost track of time but eventually opened his eyes again. The effect of the Third Eye had been strengthened successfully. He was still not sure how to properly analyse what he was seeing but the spots of elementium had some kind of hue now. The vision was a bit trippy but Nikolaï was confident that he would get used to it.

Part of his mind was still focusing on maintaining his overcharge ability as Nikolaï turned his eyes on himself. He looked at his right arms and the surprise almost made him lose his focus. He managed to maintain his “vision” at the price of intense brainpower and looked at his arms again.

The overcharged Third Eye didn’t just make the elementium clearer but also revealed Ether to Nikolaï’s eyes. He could see it inside his arms, traped in it. It looked like staring at ghostly bones through his skin. For minutes Nikolaï just looked at the structure of his Ether, he was mesmerized by it. He also noticed that his Ether didn’t have fractures like he had thought but cavities like in a rotten tooth.

Being able to see Ether eased Nikolaï ability to wield it because he didn’t just have to count on his sensation but on his visual sense too. He focused on a cavity and tried to field it by manipulating the Ether around. He succeeds but not without a price. Doing so was exhausting and eventually, Nikolaï fatigue was too high to maintain his focus and ability to see Ether.

“_ I never completely realised how losing my Rune had diminished the quantity of Ether I have at my disposal.” Commented Nikolaï while taking a break after hours of intense mental work. “It will ask for more time than I thought.”