MARIA

"In the hundreds of Turns of alchemical advancement; the truth around the Corruption remains as obscure as its source, where no amount of distillation of the taint gives us clear answers — only more questions to ask. A terminal affliction both body and soul, incompatible on a base level to the host and Derelict husks. It is a mystery I venture into, muddled with the blood of those who suffer from this affliction. Each time, postmortem, it is expelled in the form of a crystal. Something we consider a pure expression of the flow, formed into a solid piece of magick. It has led me to ask multiple questions of the state of our world. Because if that is true, then this crystal inside the Husks — for a lack of a better term, is a pure form of 'Darkness'. If we go even further, the first Storm Wardens found a way to avoid the inevitable of a host parasite, by masking our magick presence to Derelicts — through a ritual whereas we drink their blood, a small level of corruption within ourselves, to channel through our crescent blades and pierce the purity of their dark with our multi-colored souls. One more question, if there is purity in darkness, what is in the light?"

Her fingers ached.

On her weighing scale among her alchemy instruments sat a recent Derelict core, lost of its luster and power. One moment, lighter than a feather, and the next, heavier than an ingot she borrowed from the Elvkin smithy. Her thoughts dotted her notebook, a habit Yuo made her form to keep track of her research. It refused to balance on the golden scales, never consistent though she tried to keep notes on what she tried to gauge its weight against, whether feathers or stones. Tomes piled high on the other end of the table with bookmarks sticking out the sides. Station side nights where she poured over the passages she read a million times, and would read a million times more to understand the conundrum of the Obscura Realm.

In a way, I understand Neven's drive to read the text.

Maria took the serrated, monstrous core off the scales and caused the comparison subject of another elementia crystal to balance with nothing but air where it came close to equilibrium with the Derelict core, but not close enough for something substantial. It threatened to prick the edges of her fingers, but it never drew blood again. Quill back in her hand, she flipped the papers to where she first studied the new specimen brought to her from the Warden's on their precarious routine patrols. And then there was that Derelict they found in those ruins, but the core burst before I could examine it further. It tickled the edge of her mind, so she grabbed one of the tomes to speed through the alchemical texts and anatomical drawings. Even under the most intense heat, it wouldn't melt. It wouldn't crack. In the cold, I suppose it shrank, but... Maria put it in the crucible and sent a glyph of flames around the runic circumference. Steam shimmered in the air from the collected moisture, but it left the core in the basin unaffected, not even a heat crack across its spiked surface.

Medicine and healing was an ever shifting puzzle with no clear answer, not even magick answered the burning questions in her heart. Her boot tapped against the cobbled floor, but time waited for no one. Out of the chair, she drew upon the collected heat over the crucible. Ember twine curled around her fingers as she sparked the glyph of her fire to life. Amber curves swirled around the focal point in the steam, connecting by the outer spikes. Flames bounced off the tips to gather with a bladed edge over the greatest mystery. It blasted into a well of flames to smash against it with all the force she could muster. It shimmered across her skin, and a bead of sweat rolled down her brow when she focused on the warmth masked as cold. Orange, into blues fluttering with whites. Maria scowled and forced the pressurized air to create flame from her soul. It hissed into a scream as it boiled on her brow and tried to match her own volcanic helplessness for the truth.

It popped along the crucible, and she let it go to leave a circle of smoke where her glyph manifested. It curdled in waves around the Derelict core, unperturbed at the torrent of fire she put it underneath. Tongue between her teeth, she bustled to the cabinet to grab a fresh cloth to pat her brow before returning to her station, her notes, and endless texts with no defined path. I had to give it a try myself... Her quill scratched into the margins of her latest attempt at throwing all her hopes into it, to crack the surface — but there were no flames hot enough to melt the core of darkness, devoid of the light. Though, I knew that wasn't going to work. Sunlight glittered through the smoke, but she leaned back in her chair when footsteps sounded outside in the corridor to the rest of the Lodge.

Kemal stepped through the entrance. "The boat will be here in a couple bells to take you and my Trainees back home for rest," he said, sending a quick glance to the steaming crucible before returning his attention to her. "I've managed to convince Neven to go along with you as added protection over the Dark Sea — but don't tell him I'm doing this because he needs rest more than anybody."

"Kayal hasn't changed then." Maria put her notes in front of her. "I'll see what I can do for him back on Euros, Kemal." Out of the chair, she took the core out of the scorched crucible to put it among the test subjects behind the protective casings inside the cabinet. Hesitation flickered along her fingers when she drew them off the boxes and turned to Kemal, who nosied to the alchemy set with a curious twist to his lips. "I was trying to melt it," she forced the morbid tease through her teeth. "I know Yuven would probably laugh at the idea."

"Yeah, he'd probably say you'd have better luck turning him to ash," Kemal mumbled with a shared sense of gallows humour as he nudged the spinner which kept track of heat levels, drawing his hand back when it swung back into place before peeking through the heavy books. Thousands of pages with lackluster, old understanding of the Corruption and relationship to Derelicts, but her only hint to treat those who had it in the future. "You didn't try blood magick, did you?"

"When I first started researching the Corruption I did try," she said as Kemal closed and sorted the books. "For all the good it did me, even just a drop of my blood and trying to erase it from existence didn't do anything; except leave me with a giant headache and bedridden. My time would've been better spent reading about merfolk." Maria took the books from him to set them in small boxes for return to Tanaara and the Athenaeum. "So, I know the answer isn't in an Obscura text or blood magick. I'm not in the habit of trying to figure out answers at the expense of myself."

"Sounds like something Neven needs to get through that thick skull of his," Kemal remarked. "But apparently, he figured out a way to read the damned thing after all."

Maria sighed and bumped her hand against her brow. "I did mention to him if he went back to read it we'd need to get an Aurus healer to unmuddle his mind?" It was a rhetorical question, but the Avaerili's in her life answered them all the same; save Mom, the exception to the rule of reckless Naveerans, who proceeded with caution when it came to gardening. I can't really fault her for that habit though... she's told me enough about Naveera. Maria leaned against the wall. "What was his excuse? What did he figure it out? You don't just... read Obscura texts."

Kemal tangled his fingers and sucked in his lips. "Well... he did."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"

"As far as you can read them," Kemal admitted. "I won't begin to try and figure out what he did in that hole, Maria. He just talked about how he was reading it 'wrong' by trying to understand it with his eyes. I guess that made me realise how Obscura texts affect Aurus and non-Aurus... if we can only read it with our eyes... how do Aurus read them so differently?" Kemal leaned forward. "Last I looked, paper isn't alive — if it extrudes an aura... where is it coming from?" He shook his hands with a grumbling scoff. "Neven... I don't know what he did, but he found something out, so while you two are over at Euros I'll be following that lead."

"Can you try and describe what he did?" Maria questioned.

"It was a layer over him, I'd say it was some sort of spellcloak, but I've never seen any so potent," Kemal said. "If I didn't know any better... It was like he revealed what was inside him to the book."

"Like... his soul given shape?"

Kemal nodded.

In the purity of darkness, inked on blank pages, what is in the light? Maria pinched her chin at her all encompassing question and sat on the words of the Warden Oath. We are the shields against the darkness, and the swords of the light. From the greatest wyvern to the smallest flower, we shall give our all — so none shall fear the shadowed obscurity. A core, denser than the heaviest stone, but lighter than a feather. She murmured, "Neven used the light in his soul to peek through the dark."

"You can do that?"

"Not consciously, unless you're an Aurus, and even then they can only see the flow, not give it shape through their souls as far as I understand it," Maria tasted the puzzle piece on her tongue. "Neven isn't an Aurus, so for him to do that was incredibly risky just to read the book..." It dawned with the sun. "But Corruptors unconsciously bear their souls, which give Husks an opportunity to feed on the light and infect them, making the darkness imperfect because it is born in light. It's a natural defensive reaction against forceful imbalance used against Magickae. No matter what, the flow seeks equilibrium — that is a universal truth of magick." Her feet scrambled for her notes. "Oh, Ancients. If that is a universal truth... can the reverse work?"

"What?" Kemal gave a start.

Maria tucked her notebook into the pocket of her coat. "I'll explain later, I've been looking in the wrong place. I need to get back to Euros and search through the Annex. I know what I'm looking for now." On the edge of the door, she whipped around. "Get Kayal ready for the journey over the sea." Maria rushed through the packed, vine-wrapped streets, dodging Elvkin and Wardens on duty who waved at her, but she lacked the time to return their happiness and light. Into the treehouse next to the lodge, she scrambled up the steps to haul her suitcase from underneath her bed. Maria slipped the anatomical drawings off the walls to place them at the bottom for a cushion, torn, inky ligaments of a death sentence breaking apart in the light, adding her personal collection of books on the Corruption effects. Maria sped to fold her clothes for the journey, stuffing them in every little crevice. Done with her packing, she rushed back down the stairs with her suitcase in her hands before swiping her crescent blade off the weapon rack on the bottom level.

I need to get back home.

I need to get back to him.

I need to tell him.

Maria rushed to the harbour when the horns blared out the incoming arrival. Neven stood on the dock, preparing boxes for the boat. "Neven!" she called out, causing him to turn as she dropped her suitcase on the pier with the rest.

"Maria?" he mused with a flick of his feathers. "Why the rush? It won't be here for a while. Where is Kemal?"

"I'm assuming he's getting Kayal ready and packed," Maria caught herself. "Neven, he told me you went back down to the Obscura text."

Exasperation filled the sapphires. "I told him I would not make the same mistake. I am fine. I do not feel heavy or confused."

"That's not what I want to talk about. You actually got me to think about it a little more. I might've judged you too harshly and scolded you, when you were only keeping to your oath the best way you knew how."

Neven's eyes narrowed. "I am not sure whether to be heartened or suspicious."

Maria tasted hope on the wings of the star around her neck, joined in tandem with the necklace Yuven gave her before his departure, a signal of his trust in the future unknown. "Neven, I may have an idea on how to reverse the effects of Corruption — how to help Yuven and other Corruptors."

Another horn blew as Neven staggered. "What?"

"It's a theory," she said. "But it might be a good chance. If I can do some more research—"

"On what?"

Maria swallowed on the rays of the sun. "On whether corruption borne from light has been documented, or if there's any magick that is so pure in light."

Because if we can redress the imbalance of Yuven's soul, then that's a good first step.