4. The Search For Magiq: Peering Arts

[Nimueh]

Anyone else feel like they’re gonna be keeping a mirror with them at all time now, just in case…?

Now that I’ve had a chance to digest the entry (and dispose of suspicious vines), I’m starting to get really worried about Ascender, Knatz, and everyone. If this was months ago, what state are they in now? I’m hating to think they’re sat locked away, paranoid that one of those… things could be coming for them, or among them… We need to get out from behind this wall. We need to be able to help our friends.

Edit: Also, who the hell is Wyckstrand?

[Rimor]

I feel like Hermione sneaking around the house looking around corners with a hand mirror

What if Ascender is being controlled by one of these creatures and thats why we’re now trapped in here. Not because of Ascender wanting to keep us safe but the sliver wanting to keep us contained during their secret invasion?

[Robert]

@Nimueh

Edit: Also, who the hell is Wyckstrand?

This question scared me enough to go looking to see if they had an account on this forum. Fortunately they don’t seem to, under this name anyway. I think we should make a habit of checking for any of these users Ascender name drops in the future.

I’m worried for them as well, but let’s remember Knatz lived underground gathering info for 25 years before coming out as our Benefactor. She’s a survivor like no other. Ascender is also no stranger to long periods of dodging storms and keeping his head down. If any two people get my money on surviving whatever Apocalypse may come it’s these two.

Endri and Bash though… If they touch one hair on Endri’s brilliant head imma fight them…well more than I was planning on it anyway.

[Nimuir]

At first I was scared of what the mirrors were showing them but it just seems to be revealing what is there, and not the source of the…demon thing(s)! Just another excuse to keep a hand mirror on my person.

It doesn’t look like Wyckstrand has been mentioned by anyone before - perhaps because of what happened to him here? I assume he went as a part of Knatz’s crew to the lighthouse…

[Nimuir]

@Robert

Fortunately they don’t seem to, under this name anyway.

Hmmm…now I’m wondering what the chances are of them naming their account with an anagram of their name, if/when it exists.

[Robert]

Looks like Eaves responded yesterday to us.

Everyone always assumes it was Ascender that recruited me, and that’s true in a way, but it was Bash who found me first.

Bash and I worked for the same company way back in the day. Bash in IT and me in customer service, helping old folks track down their insurance policies.

We never really crossed paths until a mandatory company bowling party. We were put on a team with some guys from the accounting department, and although we see the world pretty differently, we bonded over the course of the night and following weeks (as much as Bash will allow “bonding”) over being “queer” and all sorts of random shared fascinations with things like plants, tarot cards, secret societies, and the Mandela Effect.

Bash kept mentioning a message board and a guy there who knew a lot about the latter half of those fascinations, and then one day I answered the phone in the call center, and he was on the other end. Ascender.

Bash had already been recruited at that point, as had Itsuki. Endri came pretty shortly after me. We were all looking for something — truth, wonder, community.

Looking back, I was looking for all of that, but above all, Ascender was the father I never had. He was larger than life, authoritative, wise, and caring in a distant way. He had a dark past he only mentioned in cryptic bits, and we knew that’s why he kept the world at arm’s length, but it was that push and pull that locked us in like we were stuck in his tidal force.

I can see now that most of my fight with Ascender was because of what I expected and needed from him, and he wasn’t capable of giving. He had a mission, and though he cared about us in whatever way he could care, we were ultimately five (and then 5,000) means to an end. He was righting some old wrong, fixing the past, which is impossible, unless you have a magical book of course.

And now, just like before, he’s calling shots and making decisions for other people because he thinks he knows best. Only now, he’s deciding the fate of lives without so much as a heads up. He has a cause, a path that he sees so clearly, but it makes him blind to everyone around him, and any other alternative option. All that matters is his mission, and when he’s done with you, when he’s done with whatever you have to offer, he moves on. Itsuki died while Ascender went looking for a new team to lead, one that didn’t burden him with having to care for anything but his fight, and if I’m honest, I blame him just as much as I blame Teddy Fallon.

I want to say I don’t care and I’ve moved on, that I pity him or wish him the best, but the truth is that if there were ever someone in this world I hated, it would be him. If he’s the cause of this, if he dragged my friends back into his tide just to hurt them again, then he’s my enemy.

I’m sorry. I almost forgot. The symbols you’re receiving. The herald saw them before it cost too much to look into the potential future. She says that they’re essentially magimystic alchemical symbols. The primal distillation of the six elements and the houses of “the magimystic self” that they govern. When she could still see, she saw people someday wearing the symbols, in solidarity and as signs of hope, as ways to wear their belief with pride and as a way to support others who were hurting or in need.

Maybe this is the beginning of that.

Okay 2 thoughts afterwards. Eaves…didn’t quite take that as well as I hoped. Probably should have someone else break it to him, I guess.

Second, the runes seem to be key to something here. Maybe we need to start spreading them wide to the public…if we even can through the veil. But they seen to be key.

Edit: I’ve added Eaves explanation of the runes to the Runes Storehouse header as well.

[Nimuir]

Oh my, I didn’t realise there was this much enmity between Eaves and Ascender…

@Robert

When she could still see, she saw people someday wearing the symbols, in solidarity and as signs of hope, as ways to wear their belief with pride and as a way to support others who were hurting or in need.

It definitely looks like we need to start spreading the runes around somehow, or maybe at least start with trying to wear them ourselves in some way? Enamel pins of the runes, anyone?

[Augustus_Octavian]

No, I think Eaves is absolutely correct: Ascender has been playing us all along. He lead a coup against the secretive, manipulative Monarch’s Mountain only to take up their mantle and manipulate us to his own ends, in turn.

[Hekate]

@Robert

She says that they’re essentially magimystic alchemical symbols.

@Robert

the runes seem to be key to something here. Maybe we need to start spreading them wide to the public

If the BoB is acting like a door, maybe these symbols are the latchkey. For all the new recruits coming in (myself included) it seems really messed up that so many of our allies have lost the ability to view the forum or contact us… Save through elaborate and seemingly dwindling magiqal sources.
If they are a key, does that mean they work both ways? Can they help us reach out without so much effort and fear of expenditure?

[Robert]

To be fair, we technically started manipulating him first when we went back in time and tried to get him to do what we wanted to preserve the timeline during the last fragments. (I always say the weirdest things on here.)

Ascender is a carpenter. He has a hammer, and all problems look like a nail. He’s lived alone having to scramble and fight and sneak to get anywhere against the Silver for so long. This is what he does…to those he loves and those he loathes.

Whatever he did, however he did it, let’s get the whole story and then let’s get out of this chrysalis. Maybe he bought us time we needed. We shall see.

[Robert]

@Hekate

If they are a key, does that mean they work both ways? Can they help us reach out without so much effort and fear of expenditure?

I think we’re going to definitely need to try something like this once we get all 6…hopefully we get all 6 anyway,

[Hekate]

We still don’t know 100% where the veil came from, though, do we? I mean… If Ascender got caught on the wrong side, kicked like so many of our other allies, and couldn’t contact anyone then of course he’d go try something reckless on his own. Wouldn’t any of us?
I agree, we need the whole story. Something isn’t adding up.

[SabineBean]

They’re a key… The guide is a door… It’s all sort of coming together now, it seems! Here’s hoping this goes well, I fear what’ll happen to us all if this spell doesn’t do it for us, y’know? all of this information has been crazy worrying tbh.

[Augustus_Octavian]

@Robert

Ascender is a carpenter. He has a hammer, and all problems look like a nail. He’s lived alone having to scramble and fight and sneak to get anywhere against the Silver for so long. This is what he does…to those he loves and those he loathes.

I would take that over him being seen a far-seeing benevolent “Dumbledore”-type. I still chafe at the idea of him gaining our trust only to use us as a means to an end.

[Remus]

I think it’s fair to want to distance him from the image of the “benevolent” Dumbledore, but he had his own problems like this, too. In the 5th book, for instance, Dumbledore isolates Harry for the whole year because he thinks Voldemort is in Harry’s head. It’s something he did out of spite, rather, he thought he was keeping Harry safe in this way.

The common link between the two is that they’re both being incredibly paternalistic in that they both believe what they’re doing is right and also the best for those they are “parents” to. And Ascender has had this kind of behavior for a long time. In the 90s, Ascender had to be the one to go to Missouri to check on the mountie affected by the storm. He was the one who had to bring back the mounties in 2016, but then he left in search of the Monarchs. In short, he does things because he thinks it’s the right thing to do and doesn’t always think of the consequences of his own actions. And that behavior had likely gotten worse since he’s effectively been a lone wolf for most of the past two decades at least. I think Eaves has extremely valid reasons for hating Ascender and it’s really important to have this view on someone who has been viewed so positively in the past.

[Ashburn]

Imagines the element symbols on stickers everywhere

But seriously, the thing about seeing people wearing the symbols reminded me of the Aorthora and Ganifanx initiatives during the Day of Change, where those involved put their defensive/offensive sigils on their user pics for protection (and in some cases on the backs of hands); the purple teardrop on Sel’s is from that, and I think Rimor still has his as part of it too (well, his was until Bean drew that sweet giant).

[Ashburn]

@Robert

and the houses of “the magimystic self” that they govern.

Also, this reminds me of chakras, not that I’m super well-versed in them.

[Sellalellen]

I’m not sure it’s up to us to decide if Eaves’ feelings are right or wrong. We can’t change someone else’s feelings, but we can manage our image based on them.
Ascender brought back the Mountaineers into our Book, but may have been doing it for his own benefit. It doesn’t change the fact that we are here now because of it, or that he may have his more selfish reasons for doing it (regardless of how we feel about the man that brought back the Mounties, I wouldn’t trade knowing you for the world). Maybe Ascender really is the perfect name for him. He has ambition, and will not stop climbing that mountain for anything. There are both good and bad sides to this trait.
Eaves isn’t only a being spiteful towards Ascender. He also found people he valued while in the Mountaineers run by him. I see him as someone who felt they were perhaps smothered too much by their parental figure. wouldn’t it be natural to have some resentment? Perhaps in some people, the feelings would have faded by now, or been forgiven. But that’s not who Eaves is.
Ascender wants to complete his quest, no matter the cost. We’ve expressed the same feelings time and time again as we opened the BoB and find our way in this new age.
Eaves wants to be free of Ascender’s expectations and control, and it keeps coming back to haunt him anyway. But aren’t we doing the same thing, clawing our way out of these “walls”, regardless of whether the one who placed them intends to help or harm?
What I’m saying is, I’m not sure we can pick one side or the other. They are only human, and so are we. Their vices are much the same as ours, and we can’t blame them for acting the same way we do.

[SabineBean]

Yeah, it worries me that there’s so much ‘blame’ getting thrown around here. We don’t need to be pointing fingers and picking sides. Not right now at least. Right now, we need to figure out what is happening, how it’s happening (if we can) and what we can do about it . The latter is the most important. We’ll have to be patient, i reckon, but we’ve gained so much information already, and I’m sure more will come with the rest of the tomes! Here’s hoping that, once together, the six runes will become useful to us, and we’ll know what to do with them.

[Cirydae]

Got one!

It’s a good thing my neighbors want nothing to do with me, because they would definitely have come knocking otherwise. I came home from work to find that my living room was absolutely awash in light. I knocked over my coffee table, which is a mess, and I’ve got some killer bruises on my shins because of it. The journal was glowing, so much so that I had to grab a pair of sunglasses to make out details.

The journal was too hot to touch for long, but I got a copy of what was written and a shaky copy of the rune. I’ve put the journal in a drawer until it hopefully stops glowing so much, and with any luck I won’t completely burn this building down.

Here’s the text:

It’s been over a month since the lighthouse. Most have chalked it up to a one-off attempt to topple our confidence, a blind swipe to get at us and what’s left of Monarch’s Mountain, and that the informant was left behind at the lighthouse. They’ve all gone back to research, excavation, and unraveling the mysteries of the Mountain and what they knew.

But I’m not sleeping. I can’t.

Yesterday, Endri, Bash and their team cracked it. They managed to salvage the safeguard from one of the dead drives. It’s a complicated piece of magic the Mountain called “Determiner 12.”

It’s a proxy. A magimystic doorman of sorts that’s imbued with all manner of telemantic spells as well as leaving room for the practitioner’s intention and discretion. If performed correctly, it’s believed to provide three-tier protection against both physical and virtual places and groups. It will protect those allowed within the walls of the spell. It will continuously determine who at any given time should be kept out (or doesn’t absolutely require access), and will also in rare occasions allow “messengers” that exist outside the wall to communicate through the wall without having direct access.

They’ve been building this for the better part of a decade. At first, like all things, I thought the Mountain was overthinking it instead of performing it, but the few who stayed behind with us told us stories about a handful of attempts to cast the spell in preparation for Silver raids or the Joradians failing. In each preparation, the practitioner was killed. The spell is made of pieces of twelve spells, and because of that, there are unseen flaws and narrative conflicts that cause echoes and reverberations which end up catching the practitioner in wave after wave of magimystic energy. It is costly, messy, incomplete, and extremely dangerous. Endri, Bash, their team, and their unnamed accomplice (I’ve told them not to tell me their name) have spent weeks trying to find the flaws and patch them. In partial tests, new defects always appear, new conflicts arise between the different spell types. With what little we know, and what little power is left, this may be the best we can do.

It was always considered a worst-case scenario. Not only because of its level of authority and that it’s nigh-unbreakable, but also because you’re putting your life in the hands of some external object that makes the determination for you. They first considered making a person the determiner, to better control and humanize the spell, but they feared that a human would be mentally torn apart by the countless variables and choices flooding through them.

We had a long meeting about it in the front sitting room. I was the last to arrive.

Questions were bandied. Could we fix the flaws? Should we even try? Is there some alternative? Could we protect the caster? Who should we protect behind the wall? There was unanimous agreement that the physical manor and the virtual collection of mountaineers should be behind the wall. I didn’t say anything. I just watched the room, full of those who followed me here. How long this road has been, and no one knowing what would happen next now that we “saved the world.”

Finally, I spoke up. I admitted that I knew of something that could protect the practitioner. An object the '94s found when they tried to open The Book of Briars. It’s called a bearer’s band. Similar to the charmed tokens we found, it’s a ring that can withstand magic for a brief period before needing to recharge for years. Only a few of us knew about it, and it was never used because the mountaineer who kept it safe was caught by the Storm. I told them I thought I knew where to find it. I told them I would wear it and perform Determiner 12. They debated and discussed, but I’d already made up my mind. I left that night without anyone knowing.

————
Two weeks. That’s how long it took to do what I needed to do. When I came back, I told them about my search. How it was hidden, where I feared it would be, how difficult it was to obtain, but how I managed, in the end, to find it and bring it back. I told them I was ready to perform the spell.

Every word a lie.

And a cleaner copy of the rune than I first made (drawing freehand circles is not my forte):