Even with my newfound Firmant Control and Firmant Sight, the aligning step is... a lot harder than I anticipated.
It's not impossible by any ans, but it does take an effort of concentration and will that leaves physically exhausted. The experience is not unlike having to tense every muscle in my body and then having to hold that tension for as long as I can. Firmant layers resist being directly manipulated the way I'm trying to do it.
"Can you show how you do it again?" I ask Virin for what I think is the fifth ti. He's being remarkably patient with in fact, he still seems more excited than anything else, really.
"Yes!" Virin says imdiately. He pulls out yet another stone and the Firmant within him abruptly flexes, wobbling and abruptly aligning itself with that of the stone. Firmant Sight and Quicken Mind give everything I need to observe the phenonon in detail, all the way down to the way the layers of Firmant push each other apart.
The problem is that Firmant Control is still a step less precise than I need to be able to manipulate Firmant to that extent of fine precision. I rember the thod I first used when Mari taught imbuent a sort of rocking back-and-forth with my Firmant until it slipped into the object I was trying to imbue and the motion makes a lot more sense now. Every ti I push against foreign Firmant with my own, the two end up a little bit more aligned.
What I'm trying to do now is to refine that process. The thod I developed works, but only if the layers are already close to being aligned. If the layers are too different, then no amount of rocking can align the Firmant enough to let imbue the object. And while the imbuent stones I got in the arena were easy enough to push Firmant into, they also weren't the higher rarity ones.
Based on the nas of the rarities, I'm guessing higher rarities are going to get progressively harder to imbue, even if the imbuent will be anchored more deeply and can hold more power.
"I don't suppose you can help out here, Ahkelios?" I say absently. I tap on his presence within my Firmant, calling him out with a quick application of Temporal Link. He manifests in his usual spot on my shoulder, already poised to answer even as Virin lets out a startled squawk.
"I thought you'd never ask," Ahkelios says.
"You sound smug."
"That's because I am. You should've asked sooner." I can practically hear him preening. I consider pointing out the fact that he could simply have offered it's quite clear he's not entirely unaware, even when he's 'hibernating' when the skill is deactivated but honestly, I think I'm just going to let him have his mont. He's clearly enjoying himself.
"Alright, well..." I hold out my hand and the stone. Ahkelios clicks his tongue, then dives forward, flickering into the stone and vanishing.
Then the room falls silent. Virin is staring at and the stone, his eyes wide, and he speaks after a solid minute of opening and closing his beak. "Are you, uh... going to explain any of that?"
"I can try, but I think it'd be more confusing than anything else," I say dryly. "He's an echo of a past Trialgoer created by temporal Firmant and bound by the Interface."
Virin nods slowly. "Forget I asked."
I can feel Ahkelios doing sothing while his Firmant is bonded to the stone's. It's not the sa as a traditional imbuent it's like he's making it a part of himself, and then adjusting his Firmant to match mine. Which isn't a very difficult task for him, because he's basically made out of my Firmant to begin with.
And with that little change, Hueshift locks into the stone Virin provided , aligned perfectly. Ahkelios pops out a second later, looking none the worse for wear. Maybe a little tired. He gives a weary grin and a thumbs-up that I'm not sure where he acquired, then collapses back onto my shoulder.
"Thanks, 'Kelios," I say, giving him a little pat on the head.
Now for the second step of the plan. Virin is watching in rapt attention, and I try to focus as I bring Firmant Control to bear. The outermost layer of Firmant here is a little more slippery, a little harder to manipulate no doubt because I have to deal with two different types of Firmant layered on itself.
But the alignnt Ahkelios and I perford together works perfectly. Pulling on one layer pulls on the other, and although it's harder, it's nowhere near as difficult as it might have been had the two types of Firmant been even slightly misaligned.
Just like before, I peel back the layer long enough to flood it with more Hueshift, and then seal it shut. Then I stare at the freshly imbued stone critically.
"You know, I never asked, but what rarity would this stone have, if you had to give it one?" I ask Virin. He glances at , surprised.
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"Rarity?" he asks.
"You know, like... grade. The system categorizes imbuent stones. The two I saw back when I was buying them were 'shallow' and 'subrged', which doesn't make a lot of sense to , but..."
"Oh!" Virin brightens, clearly recognizing the system, if not the words. "Yes! Firmant quality different. I not know what yours called, but this one... five."
Five. Grade... B, by the Interface's standards, even if it's chosen to give the stones an entirely different set of categories for so reason. Or maybe there's a good reason for that and I shouldn't compare the two.
"Does the quality make a difference?" I ask. I'm still not sure what these rarities an.
"Big difference!" Virin agrees. He fishes around in a rickety drawer, filling his hut with the sound of rattling; up in her little nest, his daughter grumbles a bit from the sound. He finally pulls out a nondescript looking stone that's much smaller than the others. "This weakest type. You imbue before?"
I examine it critically. It doesn't look that different from the Shallow stone I imbued in the last loop. "Yes."
"Weak stones break," Virin declares. "Good stone last."
"That can't be the only difference."
"It not," Virin agrees. "But biggest difference. Better stone hold more Firmant. Also... ah... how to say." He pauses, as if struggling for the words. "When stone is good and old, it absorb... mory. Make imbuent stronger."
I blink. That's new. "You're telling higher grade stones will affect whatever imbuent I put in it? What if I don't want my imbuent to be changed?"
"Then you find stone that match Firmant!" Virin says, as if it's obvious. "Or you make yourself."
"...I can make imbuent stones?"
"Oh! Yes." Virin doesn't appear to have considered that I might not know that. He looks at quizzically. "Imbuent stone hard to make. Need..." He struggles to find a word. "Essence."
I blink. "Ahkelios, can you translate?"
The little mantis still lying half-collapsed on my shoulder gives a shrug that nearly makes him fall off. "Never tried making an imbuent stone that I rember," he says. "I'm not sure I even bothered with any of this crafting stuff. Are you sure this is how you wanna be using your ti?"
"How did you know how to help with imbuent if you didn't bother with it?" I ask, exasperated.
Ahkelios shrugs and, to my surprise, gives a serious answer. "The whole bonding-with-Firmant thing I can do is new. Sothing that happens because I'm made of Firmant now, I guess," he says thoughtfully. "Makes it a lot easier to modify sothing when I'm connected to it."
Sothing about the way he says that sparks a thought. "Made of Firmant," I mutter to myself. "Ahkelios, you're like the Integrators."
"What?" The little mantis pulls the most offended expression I've ever seen him make and seems to regain all his energy just so he can stand on my shoulder and cross his arms at . "I am not like the Integrators!"
"I ant that you're made out of Firmant like they are," I clarify. "Which ans anything you can do, they can probably do."
Ahkelios's offended expression fades away, quickly replaced by one of delight. "And I can do anything they can do!"
"...That wasn't exactly what I ant"
"Too late!" he announces. "I'm going to do that phasing thing they kept pulling on back in my loops now."
I pause and stare at him as he concentrates. Nothing happens.
"I can't do it while you're looking at ," he says.
"I don't think that's the problem here, Ahkelios."
"Fine," he grumbles. So of the mirth fades away from him as he composes himself, and I'm reminded that he's been through a lot more than he lets on. So much of his behavior is... It's not a front, exactly, but as much as he uses humor to connect with and cheer up, I think he uses it to distract himself, too. "So... what do you think that ans, exactly?"
"I'm not sure yet," I say. My mind is racing, but I know too little about what the Integrators can do. I'll need to talk to Gheraa again.
Which ans it's probably finally ti to bank those Durability points. I've got 548 of those points clogging up my Interface.
Might as well put them to good use.
For the first ti in a long, long ti, He-Who-Guards was aware.
That awareness was only partially appreciated. It ca with a good deal of pain and a feeling of rawness that he would have preferred not to feel. But he was himself, and that was more than he could have said a week ago.
His mories weren't entirely clear. He knew he'd faced an attack of so sort. He'd felt sothing beginning to pull at his Firmant. He knew he hadn't been able to fight it. No matter what he tried, his influence on the foreign Firmant trying to tear him apart failed. It was almost like it wasn't really there.
He-Who-Guards rembered the brief flicker of awareness that ca to him. It was more impulse than coherent thought just the barest flicker of cognizance that told him that he had an opportunity.
He couldn't quite rember what he'd done after that. There has been sothing around him, suffocating, that was being damaged, and his instincts had insisted he fight it off. The process had felt a little like pulling off his own skin. He was stripping himself bare, in a manner of speaking. Tearing apart the patchwork Firmant that held him together. That pretended to be him.
Now all of that was gone, and he was free. That freedom ant everything to him.
Even if his Firmant was in tatters. Even if it ant he would be lost; gone forever.
Yet he was holding on, sohow. He wasn't sure how. The remaining Firmant that ford his core should have long since dissipated, and yet it clung together.
Nearby, he could feel a familiar presence humming to herself, and a cold spark of purple Firmant.
He tried to tell himself that this ti things would be different.
He wasn't sure he believed it.
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