Mal closed his eyes. He conjured up his totem for ma- terialization. His eggs were simple, but their simplicity had made the basic motions of the arts of Tau simple as well—Mal had even been the first of the group to succeed at transmuting water from the air.
Mal focused further on his breath, and stepped into the tempo of his fellow stu- dents, feeling the vibrations and minute intentions of their spirits on their voices. They were connected, and without speaking they were able to coordinate their wills as they tapped into the primordial essence of reality. He summoned his eggs into his mind, and brought them slowly together. Makam he thought, as their minds fused further to- gether. He felt and knew that Makam would lead the ritual, and so brought his eggs to a slow spin, and moved across their surfaces, looking for crags and valleys in their sur- face subconsciously placed by Makam or by the others, I’ll keep the Summon stable while Makam works out the structure. After a few minutes he felt Gremn and Tenil latch some sigil to Makam’s prodding avatar. Mal recognized these as being helper pat- terns, he felt about them on his eggs, Catalyze and State... Tenil must have taught Gremn these, he’d never have discovered them on his own his own vision had become stable, and having attained a middling plane of consciousness, could, albeit carefully, sustain thoughts while maintaining the spell. The patterns were fused to Makam’s totem and then it seemed to disappear. Mal blew out his breath onto the eggs, but could feel on their surface no trace or aura, that was a quick dive, Makam is confident if not foolish. He traced over the eggs, and fed instructions to Yon and Wen about where to position their artifices, helping guide them to amplifying streams of energy and avoid blips in the currents of the ether.
Then with a deep rumble, Mal felt once again the signature of Makam’s razor-like totem, with Tenil and Gremn close behind. He moved his eggs quickly, trying to ascer- tain where the gem would land so that the twins could catch it. Just as he began to feel the edges of the great crystal, he felt the slightest notion of a suggestion come through the black egg. It was from Tenil. Now it said. Mal was excited, this was a much bigger gem than they had previously been able to bear, but he remembered his promise to his friend, and remembered his own curiosities.
The moment seemed to last a lifetime. As he beheld his two eggs. Letting them slow down to a stop, he suddenly felt something he had never felt during a rite be- fore. Lust. An utterly indescribably desire to do something profane, and the presence of the eggs gave a shiver down his spine, the power he felt was like nothing he had ever imagined do it, it was not Tenil, but perhaps his own voice telling him, and it was all he needed.
A rush of adrenaline crashed into his entire body as he reached out with shadowy dream hands and clapped the eggs together. The arms throbbed and ached, and cracked like lightning. The force was shocking but immediately Mal felt relief, like all the tension and worry in his body had been drained in a single instant. He was empty. And then, he opened the hands.
In one palm, the shells of the white egg had. Something inside it. An orange grey blob that he quickly realized had been the makings of an embryo. Now squished, the only form left to it was a single eyeball that looked, unblinking, directly at his mind’s eye. Mal felt a strange sadness and anxiety wash over him, and he heard a soft crack- ling noise emanating from the other hand. no he thought no no no, this isn’t right. He didn’t want to look, but he already was. In the other hand, a strange black smoke was hissing and pulsating from the shell of the black egg. A purple and dark red ooze was dripping out of his palm, and it stung his ears to hear it hiss against the shadowy skin of his specter. He tried to throw the eggs, to dash them from his mind, but the smoke engulfed him, and it would not dissipate. He tried several cleansing mantras and totems, he tried opening his eyes. None worked, his mind was out of his control. His arms fell away and only the smoke, turning a bright red, remained. He felt, then, a sol- id surface and smooth edges. the gem he knew. Was the gem doing this to him? The smoke reached his mind’s eye and he felt a flood of intention and power. He could feel it asking him. For a name, or an image. He managed, finally to open his eyes. He saw his classmates, their faces strained and gripped in fear and confusion. They were surrounded by smoke, all of them, the sky blotted out, and between them, the gem floated menacingly. Instead of a deep blue its surface shone a sickly green. The intentions in his mind flickered his thoughts and vision from each of the students to the next. no he pleaded none of them. Then, through the black fog, a burst of air expelled the smoke from above, and a column of sunlight burst through. Descending from the opening, draped in yellow light, was Arc Rhea. Oh, thank you! Please, I’m so sorry! Mal thought, but as he fixated on Rhea, so did the smoke in his mind. Suddenly The smoke in his
Mind flashed red, and a dark thunderous BOOM echoed across the stage and the plains. The smoke faded away, the gem dissolved, and he heard Gremn and Makam gasp and cough for breath as they all regained mobility. He opened his eyes fully and stood up to take in the scene. The twins clung to each other, Makam was inquiring them about their vertices, maybe she thought it was their fault. Then Mal looked at Te- nil. His face was pale and somber, they did not hold eye contact long, what have we done Mal thought to himself in horror. Tenil’s gaze moved to something behind him, and as Mal turned to look, he saw it. Rhea, her body burnt and broken. And in her hand, pieces of broken black eggshell.
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