A Pupil of the 5th Opening walked up the flight of stairs and peered at the empty office of Tutor Hidrss.
“Do you know where Hidrss is per chance?” she asked Isyd.
“No. I’m also waiting for him.”
“Shit…” the girl let out in a breath. “I don’t want to deal with Tekla… He’s surely downstairs, overwatching another project. I’ll go looking for him!”
She rushed back down at the same time Naeht fazed through a wall behind Isyd. She was breathless — as breathless as a ghost who didn’t breathe could be — and her eyes sparkled with wild excitement.
“Isyd! They have some Blysht here!”
Isyd’s eyes went wide. “Impossible! Blysht was only discovered ten years into the War!”
“I know but I swear this is it! It is real Blysht! Come and see!”
She flew past him to the staircase and Isyd followed after her, mind racing.
It can’t be… It’s too soon!
They went to the second floor and Naeht floated toward a meeting room. Like most rooms in the Atelier, it didn’t have a door— if it had one originally, it had been blown off its hinges at some point. Isyd spotted Tekla seated on one side of the round table and a man and a woman on the other side. On the table between them laid a handful of white crystals.
Isyd felt his heart drop in his chest. This was Blysht! He would have recognized the unassuming stones everywhere. Blysht looked a lot like the crystals that were excavated from the salt mines, but they were far, far more precious. Simply put, the Blysht was probably singlehandedly responsible for the slim victory of humanity over the Obcys. The discovery of this crystal and its properties had changed the War irrevocably. However, Blysht was found only a decade into the War and had never been referenced anywhere before. Seeing some here in front of his eyes forced Isyd to reassess this idea. Having the Blysht so early, before the War even started, changed everything!
Isyd wrapped himself in his darkveil and leaned on the railing, turning his back to the meeting room and casting his gaze on the hall. He pretended to be a simple Pupil waiting and watching, but in fact, his ears were strained to hear what was being discussed.
“… were telling you,” the woman was saying, “this has the potential to be something big. We’ve never seen a material like this… the Grace sensitivity—”
“So far, you failed to demonstrate any of those properties you mentioned in your report, Mrs Ravasz,” Tekla rudely interrupted. “Nothing to suggest that what you have witnessed was not just a result of an error in the experiment or a trick of the eye. It wouldn’t be the first-time people believed to have seen a Grace phenomenon and claim it to be something else…”
“It is something else!” Mrs Ravasz exclaimed. “It was iridescent!”
“I only see dull, salt crystal here, Mrs Ravasz.”
“Look, could we see Hidrss maybe?” the man finally interjected. “He was interested in what we told him.”
“Tutor Hidrss happens to be busy at this moment,” Tekla answered coldly as she rose from her seat. “And I believe I gave enough of my time. Please, come back when you have solid evidence of your discoveries. Remember, however, that the Atelier can only financially support Arcanysta who are conducting productive research…”
There were further protests from the couple, but Isyd pretended not to notice them as they passed behind him and headed downstairs. From the corner of his eyes, Isyd observed Tekla and the two Arcanysta behind her, but most importantly his gaze lingered on the hessian sack that contained the Blysht. Isyd’s mind raced through several plans, but as he was about to follow after them, his senses perked up at a usual Concentration of Grace near him.
He spun on his heels and rushed down the hallway. At the same time, the same girl he’d seen earlier searching for Tutor Hidrss raced out of the room. Her eyes were wide in panic and her dark hair was frizzled.
“Tekla… D-do you know where she is?” she asked him.
“She just went downstairs!”
Isyd was about to do something else, but the woman raced past him. Following his instinct, Isyd stepped into the room she’d just left. This was where the Grace Concentration was going wild. On a workbench, amidst scraps of timber, glass and metal, was a glowing [Arcane]. It was a simple disc of wood where copper wires had been twisted into the shapes of the Commands and welded together.
Isyd could not figure out what the [Arcane] was supposed to do with just a glance, but the Song of Grace told him that something was wrong. The polished glass present had cracks all over them, the copper wire was glowing and, as he approached, he could feel the heat emanating in a wave. Despite that no one was using it, the [Arcane] remained activated for some reason and gather the surrounding Grace in ways it wasn’t supposed to. The Song of Grace became strident in Isyd’s mind and he knew he had to do something quickly.
He stepped in and put his hand a few centimetres above the broken [Arcane] and he began casting. First, a [Cold Wind] to cool it down. It was ineffective; the copper was still heating up. Isyd thought of summoning a [Cold Water] to quench the [Arcane]. He was about to cast it when a heavily accented voice spoke behind him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Isyd had been so concentrated, that he hadn’t noticed someone approaching behind him. Still, he didn’t have the luxury of looking to see who had come.
“The [Arcane] has three Water Essence in its last levels, if you cast a [Water Spell] you take the risk of sending it into Resonance and worsening the situation.”
With one glance, Isyd realized that the stranger was correct. In his hurry, he’d failed to see it. “What do we do then?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“The [Cold Wind] was a good initiative. Keep it there to gain time and at the same time, consider what to do to solve the problem. The heat is just a consequence of a spike in Grace Concentration. Basically, the Grace does not know where to go and what to do, so it flows through the copper wire and heats it up. What you need to do is…”
“…find somewhere to send the Grace! I must syphon it out of the [Arcane].”
He closed his eyes and let the Idpulse take over his mind. The Commands flashed in his mind and he let his instinct dictates how to arrange them in [Spells]. He placed three sink points situated at the corners of an equilateral triangle overlapping the [Arcane]. [STORE], [SHAPE], [RELEASE], [STORE], [SHAPE], [RELEASE]. Immediately after he had cast his [Spell], Isyd could see the glow of the wire dwindle and he felt the Grace escape through the sink points he created in the form of sparks of flame.
However, as he believed he’d succeeded, Isyd felt the Grace suddenly spike in front of him. His [Spells] collapsed instantly. The central piece of copper of the [Arcane] exploded in a flash of yellow light. Suddenly blinded, Isyd had just the time to jump back, knowing that it was already too late.
When the black spots in his eyes faded away and his vision recovered, Isyd was struck by what he saw. In front of him were a hundred droplets of molten copper about to rain on him. But they did not, they could not. The rain of molten metal was frozen in mid-air. Isyd turned back to see a young man standing at the entrance door, a single finger pointed in his direction.
“Had you let me finish, I would have told you to be careful with syphoning the Grace,” the young man said. “The overheat had weakened the overall structure and if you draw it out too fast”— he wiggled his finger at the molten copper— “this would happen.”
The man snapped his finger and all the floating metal suddenly flew towards him. Like a liquid flowing in an invisible stream, the copper coalesced into a single wire and wrapped itself around the man’s wrist. Cold and shiny, it was as if the copper had always been there.
“I was expecting you, Young Isyd. I am Dmitri Ivanovitch Hidrss, Master of the Arcanic Arts, but within the walls of the Atelier, I allow you to call me… Hidrss.”
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