Ninefold

[kaolinandbone]

Isabella walks into the only building in the universe.

Air rushes in behind her through the portal as it seals, the strange keening of it against the Gate setting her teeth on edge. Nine skylights stare down at her from the faraway ceiling, empty of even the few stars she knows. She looks up, into the void -

And darkness falls as the portal snaps closed.

Isabella mouths something unladylike into the vacuum, then closes her eyes, focussing: with a moment's thought, her skin begins to phosphoresce. The pale light vanishes into the cavernous space, barely illuminating the distant walls - but Isabella's vampiric eyes catch the faintest of reflections. Careful of her step, she starts to make her way towards the closest wall.

Comments

[pythbox]

After a few seconds, the ambient light begins to gradually increase, from nonexistent to faint to dim to middling. It reaches the level of strong direct moonlight, brightens a little further, then wavers back down and stays firmly put on the 'full moon' setting.

The space she finds herself in is shaped like a nine-pointed star. The tenth central skylight in the ceiling is also shaped like a nine-pointed star, as is the geometric stepped platform directly below it in the center of the floor. Along the outer walls, a complex and somewhat mysterious arrangement of ramps climb and connect and turn and climb again, all made of thick solid stone with clean angles and no railings.

Atmosphere is slower to come than light, but there it is at last; like the light, the air pressure increases gradually until it finds a comfortable level, adjusts up and down in search of better precision, then settles.

[kaolinandbone]

Isabella blinks, then frowns. This environment must have been calibrated specifically for her- either that or the previous inhabitants were also nocturnal air-breathers.

"Hello?"

The word echoes off the walls, coming back to her in nine staggered fragments.

She waits. When no answer seems forthcoming, she walks over to one of the nearby ramps and begins to climb.

[pythbox]

The ramp remains made of stone, seamlessly joined to the floor, the pillars, the other ramps, and the walls. In fact, the entire monument might be one solid piece of stone.

If she goes up high enough, there is a window shaped like a nine-pointed star, looking out on the lifeless lightless universe. (In fact there are nine of these windows, arranged with perfect symmetry; standing at one, she can look easily around at the rest, though it would take some ramp-climbing to walk from one to another.)

[kaolinandbone]

How depressingly boring.

Isabella wonders idly what might have been out beyond the edge of the Monument, before this world became a ball of lifeless rock. She can't imagine that they would have left the view beyond these windows this empty.

Calling up her wings, she flits over to the next window in the circle. Perhaps she can find some remnant of the world that was here before.

[pythbox]

The view outside all the windows is nearly identical: a flat grey expanse of bare ground stretching away from the base of the monument. Here or there, the complete monotony may be broken by a small rock.

[kaolinandbone]

Apparently not.

Perhaps later she'll dedicate some time to making this place less... Absent. But for now, she has work to do.

She looks out at the labyrinth of ramps, and starts calculating in her head. What would be the most efficient way to get a close view of every surface in this rather colossal building? It seems symmetrical, so if she finds a way to efficiently search one point, she should be able to translate it to the other eight...

[pythbox]

There are a few reasonably efficient paths available, particularly since she can fly. And there just aren't that many different surfaces to inspect. Walls, ramps, pillars supporting ramps, ceiling, floor. That's really it.

The building remains quiet while she works it out. After its initial climate calibration, it hasn't acted again.

[kaolinandbone]

She takes a flying path: It's faster for her to use her wings, given all the elevation gain and loss that's going on here. If she doesn't find anything with a cursory aerial search, then she can do her second round at a walking pace.

[pythbox]

That sure is a whole lot of nothing. And the symmetry of the building is exact. Every stone surface just as flat as every other.

If anything interesting were going to happen in this building, though, the most obvious single place for it would be that formation in the middle of the floor. A many-petaled flower of concentric nine-pointed stars, stepping up gradually toward a nine-sided central platform, its shape echoed by the skylight above.

[kaolinandbone]

Yes, that would be the obvious place.

It would also be the obvious place for a deathtrap, if you were the kind of civilization that didn't want travellers poking around rediscovering your lost magic.

Isabella redeems a Chron, then steps onto the platform.

[pythbox]

Nothing happens immediately.

However, after a few seconds, a strange sensation gradually becomes apparent: the feeling of a question being asked, without a direct sense of who is asking or what exactly they want to know.

[kaolinandbone]

Isabella reflects the inquiry back towards its source. How is she to answer an unasked question? It would be perilous to assume.

[pythbox]

Slightly faster than it appeared in the first place, the question resolves into clarity:

Why is she here?

[kaolinandbone]

Well. In the absence of any hints... The first and last resort, the truth.

She came here to find magic.

[pythbox]

The question fades.

There is a pause.

The next question is quicker to form, perhaps because it is simpler:

Why?

[kaolinandbone]

Why would someone not want magic?

No... that's not quite the complete answer.

Magic is a powerful and highly general tool, more akin to having an extra set of hands than a shovel. Who would willingly set aside such a thing?

[pythbox]

The second question also fades, and there is a somewhat longer pause.

Then a more complicated message begins to slowly coaelsce.

This is the monument which bestows (———). It was the first one made and it is the last one still operative. It cannot be destroyed, and no outside force can change its nature or purpose.

If she wants to acquire (———), she must stay here for nine days to communicate with the monument and be evaluated. After nine days it will either give her (———), or it will not. She may try again later, but the answer will not change unless she changes.

(That repeated blank is the last thing to fill in, after a significant delay. The concept that goes there is the only form of magic ever known to this world, and the word is taieli.)

[kaolinandbone]

She's almost tempted to try, just to see how good the monument is at resisting foreign magic. But that would be horrendously disrespectful, as well as potentially very dangerous. She files the thought away.

As for nine days spent in an alien magical artifact designed to test her inventively... Well, she's spent decades avoiding clever assassination attempts and studying magic. How hard could it be?

[pythbox]

Her surroundings blur out gradually as the clarity of the monument's communication increases.

It declares its intention to show her the fundamental principles of taieli. In support of this purpose, she will now experience a series of visions describing the nine ainelin - elements, aspects, fields.

[kaolinandbone]

How remarkably convenient.

Go on, then.

(She carefully readies her mental barriers, just in case. After all, she has no secondary source for the monument's good intentions.)

[pythbox]

A complete absence of matter, energy, sensation. Cold without the tangible feeling of cold, darkness without the perception of light, stillness without the existence of anything that could move.

This aineli is for lessening and erasing. To make hot things cold, loud things quiet, fast things slow, heavy things light, large things small, bright things dim. It harbours no big surprises, but what it destroys can be hard to retrieve. Its name is epru.

[kaolinandbone]

A scalpel, then. A tool to sever, to eliminate, to make void. It feels almost familiar to her: the dangers are the same as in her own practice. The use of this requires a steady hand and a calm mind. It would not do to slip or falter: it would be foolhardy to act without thought and deliberation. There are some mistakes even she cannot fix. Better not to make them.

[pythbox]

The slow pulse of a living planet, tides rising and falling, mountains forming and eroding, days dawning and ending, seasons turning one after the other after the other.

This aineli works with balances and cycles. With it, you can alter the course of seasons, or manage huge complex projects using many forms of magic over long periods of time. It is easy to predict and control, but once it gets going it can be very hard to stop. Its name is soryo.

[kaolinandbone]

...It's beautiful.

Who could use this better than her? Who else could weave the worlds of the future while standing among them? Who could watch, and shepherd, and carefully, carefully modify? Who but her could stand through the ages and watch as her weavings made the world better?

They wouldn't even notice.

[kaolinandbone]

They wouldn't even notice.

She might not even notice.