4. The Search For Magiq: Peering Arts

The Reading Room The Search For Magiq
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You know us; keep on keepin’ on, even in the midst of the possible destruction of the world as we know it! Maybe especially in the midst of that. Hope you heal up well and quickly; I feel terrible that you got hurt waiting to hear from us.

I wonder why the Guide un-revoked your access to the Forum? Not that I’m complaining, it’s lovely to hear from you! Just curious how it happened, and whether anyone else from the original core might make it back in, as well.

And I was going to suggest you guys should obviously prioritize safety over advertising at this point, but then I remembered I probably wouldn’t be here if the Mountaineers had gone underground when The Storm was after us, so…yeah. Do you think there are people out there who just can’t see the MAGIQ Guide? Like, are they misdirected whenever they look at the URL? Is there some sort of Determiner-based 404 error?

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we’ve missed you Eaves.

Yeah, we’ve been busy, and sabes has been really making sure we stay on our toes with all the being possessed and stuff.

So, my guess is once we found and completed the puzzle for our guild bearings, it may have allowed others who have, or had, access to the guide to reconnect via the bearings. especially since they’re more connecting with how we are. also 18s are lucky for us right?

Have you had Endri give it a shot? maybe she can regain access as well?
just as a test of course.

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Maybe the veil let Eaves back in because we’d need something of/from Sanctuary to modify the determiner spell?

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Silly question. Are we sure the veil is still up?

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I feel like if the veil had fallen recently, we’d have the Silver on us already, tearing the network apart. I guess we could try contacting others who were outside again to see if they can get back in now, or if it’s just Eaves who was given permission as a go-between.

Actually, that’s really interesting. Before, none of us inside could contact anyone on the outside, either. It was almost always someone outside giving us a way through the cracks, so to speak. But @Eaves, if you’ve been moved “inside,” while you’re physically with another group who are “outside” but know about the Forum, can you still talk to them about us? Or is the info one-way only now, were you can talk to them, but not vice-versa? Or are you the awkward lone individual who’s stuck in the middle of us now?

And I, for one, would love to hear about this coma dream you had…

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Maybe the wall isn’t as rigid as we thought? Like @Eaves said,

Maybe the Guide determiner is always determining? It would be a pretty useful trait if it could change its “mind” based on need or necessity?

From the AGP side, we can see in our analytics that there are a lot of people who come to the Guide site but don’t “join up.” There’s always a big discrepancy between visitors and sign ups. We always thought it was because it was too weird for them or they just thought it was a game. Maybe… the Guide doesn’t let them sign up?

Also, we now have access to the bearings pages on the backend. They just… appeared two days ago. We’re trying to figure out where’s the best place to put them and grant access to everyone. We don’t want to overwhelm new recruits with so much information. We’re working up plans…

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If it’s mind did change, what changed it? Did the mirror witch’s attachment to Ascender have anything to do with it? If the Bearings did unlock the Veil, where’s everybody else? Did they also resign themselves like Marty had? How do we get the word out that we’re accessible again without accidentally letting the Silver in (if they were/are, in fact, part of the access issue)?

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I don’t think the bearings unlocked the veil.

I think our Peering Arts spell did what it was originally intended to do. It gave us deeper insight into the written work we were (inadvertently) focusing on. And just to clarify, though I have little to no idea what I’m talking about, I think that the Guide may have changed its mind about Eaves not everyone. Since he’s the only one who’s reached out so far.

If anything, it makes me worry about him and everyone else at the sanctuary, because it might mean they’re in serious danger.

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So what you’re saying is… The guide has decided Eaves is one of us after all, despite his absence? I mean, that makes sense, right? He was one of the first of us, and he undoubtedly has the heart of a Mountie.

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That or the guide decided that he was no threat, or he is truly someone we need.

either way, I hope we can get our friends back. I miss them.

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What if the Guide sensed a Silver?

  1. Possibly Eaves had to pass a test to prove he wasn’t… so the Guide allowed him to reach out, in return he gave us information we needed and he paid the heavy price of spell sickness.

  2. Some of the new people visiting the site may have had nefarious intentions so the Guide only allowed the ones it could depend had good intentions to sign up

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So he passed a magiqal recaptcha?

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Essentially… yes?

For the assessment to be truly effective, you MUST take your time and answer every question as who you are RIGHT NOW, not who you wish to be someday. The guide will know the difference, and if you don’t answer truthfully… well, as the old saying goes, “Woe betide those who cross the MAGIQ Guide.”

The Guide knows who you are as you answer. It says it’s assessing your affiliation and affinity, but it’s actually assessing your integrity too, thus weeding out those with nefarious motives (the Silver), or even those whose motives don’t coincide with the will of The Guide.

It may be that Eaves’ path and the Guide’s path diverged for a time, but have now realigned. The resonance of goals has allowed Eaves to return.

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Huh. I meant that as a joke, but i mean, yeah, thats pretty neat. 030

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Hey friends.

So, the “Silver sonar” is getting closer and more aggressive. The wards here are holding up for now, but they’re old and weak, and they’re going to fail soon. So we need to move. We’ll wait until the Day of Change to try and use the narrative goodwill of that day. It’ll take us several weeks to get to the new/old sanctuary. A month or more if we want to stay safe and under their radar. It’s going to be an immense undertaking to stay safe, and we’re going to be completely exposed while we’re traveling.

Yuri, Alison, and I were having a brainstorming/panicking session in the church ruins last night (the sky was full of stars, and the ceiling of the old church gave in a couple centuries ago) and after a few glasses of honey wine Yuri had an idea that might help us escape and may also explain the herald’s vision about the elemental icons. In case I didn’t mention it, the herald saw people wearing the symbols and also putting them places that were resonant to the individual icons. So, bearing the light/house of exploration icon in a place representing exploration, like a dock, or public transportation, or maybe even a library?

Yuri reasons that the icons are the distillation of each element and house of the magimystic self, and because of that, they hold intrinsic power that she can feel. Her idea… What if we coordinated, the sanctuary and the mountaineers, so that when we leave on the Day of Change, you all begin leaving or bearing the icons all over the world? What if by wearing or leaving the icons in places that had “narrative magimystic synergy” (Ali’s smarter-than-me words, not mine) you could create pockets of resonating energy that might disrupt and/or disable the Silver’s “sonar” and give us a chance to relocate, effectively hiding us while we move?

Port was eavesdropping, which we’ve come to expect at this point, and suggested bearing one icon per week, which would give us time to reach the second sanctuary and ensure the old wards are still working.

I know this doesn’t leave you a lot of time to plan. Us either. But time isn’t something any of us can count on at this point. I just have to hope that when it runs out on the Book of Kings, we find a better age beyond it.

I’m trying to keep hopes up, given everything that’s happening, including the failing health of the herald. It might be a matter of days or hours, but in my heart, I feel she’ll be gone before we leave. I feel guilty for saying this, it might make it easier to escape. But if we make it to the new place, I don’t know what we’ll be rebuilding without her.

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Also, testing something here…

“Hi Mountaineers, can you see this?”

That’s a message from Ali.

Which seems like it went through. She can’t see the forum, even when it’s on my screen, but I can send messages from her to you. I’m waiting to hear from Martin and I’ll try it with him too, but it seems I can transmit messages and see both sides of the wall even though others around me can’t? One of Ascender’s memories mentioned a kind of “messenger” built into the Determiner, maybe that’s what the Guide is treating me like to help us stay safe? There’s a lot of testing to do to see what I can do, but I need to save that for when we’re safe.

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So each guild bears their icon for a week in their collection of locations - six guilds and six weeks total to grant you safe travel?
I would worry that the Silver might potential catch onto our plan and try to “refine” their sonar - if that’s even possible?

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This is a good idea and similar to one the Mounties have been working on. I honestly don’t think it even has to be guild-specific. An all-hands-on deck attitude might be the best approach to ensure their safety.

Switching up the elemental rune every week may be just what we need to do to keep the Silver on their toes.

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This is going to take some planning. I think we should start a new thread?

Happy to change the title once we know what we’re doing.

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Much appreciated, Sabes.
@ me if you need me for anything. Otherwise, we have some packing to do.

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