Quality Conduits [Kala]

[Hilana Chenzira]

Hilana knew better. She might have liked the idea, but she was smart enough to know that some magics were considered lost for a reason, and she was pretty sure she would never be trusted with something like that. And truthfully, it was probably for the best. She was far too busy a person as it was now, with access to something like that, she'd probably have the blue dragonflight on her ass for it, and even if she didn't intend to muck up Time, she probably would have, and intent did not matter when there was a disaster that could cause problems for many, many other people.

No, she would just have to be like every other person and make stimulants and do without sleeping when she really needed to. It was fortunate, however, that she didn't need as much sleep as most people did. She managed on what a lot of people would crash and burn on, even if she was going contrary to most medical advice that she would have given clients and patients. There was just too much that could go wrong with a power like that, and Hilana knew herself far too well to ever seriously consider it.

She nodded thoughtfully as Kala mentioned the meeting. They could do dinner, just the two of them, or maybe if she had plans for dinner with Phocion after, maybe a brunch or breakfast the next day. Lia had her own work and plans, so she would have to see what worked best for the northern Lady. "We'll see how late your meeting runs, and if the opportunity strikes... Maybe a less dramatic do-over," she smiled at her, her eyes bright. She had caught the reference, it seemed.

She listened to the spirits, though, looking from them to Kala. "They like your hair.. they think it shines like platinum," the Vastiana offered the translation. Some of the silver sprites were following them now as they made their way up the hill towards the right spot. This was at least easier going, and the boots and pants served them well. Semblance helped them find the safest spots - there had been some that were dangerous, and they hadn't looked suspicious to the naked eye. Lia followed the pair of them, cautious with her steps. Kalor was getting excited on Lia's hip, his little feet swaying like he was also walking, or attempting to.

"This should do it, I'd think. Large enough for those of us who want to," Hilana looked over the assembled group as she came to a stop on the little plateau, studying it with Semblance to make sure it was solid enough for them to sit on and they weren't going to find any treacherous pits that were too soft. She had blankets that she would pull out for those that wanted them, though with these pants, she would sit on the ground and make metal's acquaintance.

[Kala Leukos]

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"I should be so lucky to have been born platinum," she said with a smile, holding relatively still so as not to disturb the little fairies. It was rather more like white gold than platinum, but words were funny like that, and she wasn't going to opine about color given her deeper understanding of what light actually was, what colors actually were. It confused her too.

Kala continued to move along with the rest of them, trailing the sprites.

Between Semblance and elemental senses honed over the years, she could feel the shape of the plane around her beyond what she could apprehend with her eyes. When Hilana called a halt, Kala agreed that it was a suitable place. The Sentinels too seemed content for this to be the place.

With a smile and a nod, Kala accepted. Not expecting comfort on the metallic plane, she dropped with a dancer's grace to her knees, settling herself to meditate. Kaus did similarly, albeit more coltish in his movements than her. He was graceful enough in the air or with a blade, and often moved with an economy of movement that was akin to grace. Sometimes, he was still twenty-two.

Indric, Asallon, and Aito formed a little coven. Indric was the most powerful summoner of the three, while Asallon knew quite a bit more. Aito was the product of inexpert summoning, and so he was keen to learn from both of them. A circle scrived between them would attract the appropriate spirits, so this was more of a networking event for them than anything else.

Ceran huffed and stood guard unnecessarily. He hadn't quite mastered the elements to the point where he could attune to them, but if and when he did, Indric would be able to bring him here. Perhaps Kala ought to work with him on it. Her own understanding of metal had changed, feeling how they alchemized in the hearts of stars.

But for now, she emptied herself and let the essence of metal flow through her while the sprites tried to undo the plaits in her hair.

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[Hilana Chenzira]

It might have had to do with the translation. Hilana was still learning, and for her, platinum was one of the highest of high, what with the Deiori, but it was close enough. In any event, it was definitely meant as a compliment. Kala's pale complexion and features were quite striking, really, and beautiful.

When there was no desire for blankets, Hilana did not push the issue. Lia lowered Kalor to the ground, and the little golem waited for her to sit before sitting down with her, since Kala and Kaus also sat. Hilana made herself comfortable, and Etzalal, after doing some zoomies around the group of Summoners, happily returned to Hilana and draped himself where Sviras had been hanging out. The feathered snake with the blood red eyes left Hilana’s shoulders to go to her lap and then the ground to explore nearby, while Kalor eyed him and considered following. Curiosity got the better of the fire spirit, but Sviras apparently did mind mind playing babysitter while both sisters focused on their task here. He did, however, go to inspect Ceran, using Kalor's golem body as a way to get himself more height to look at him. It would be quite some time before he was as large a beast as he had been when Hilana had met the spirit and came back with him.

The Sentinels spread out around them to stand guard while they did what they set out to accomplish here. Inasmuch as Hilana wanted to join the three Summoners, she would have to wait and ask Indric and Asallon later, if they wouldn't mind, some of what they were doing and how. But there would be other trips here, and then she could focus on them, if they came along. Sivan might find it interesting, too, and since they knew him... It might just work. She could always pay for some Traversion mages to put the plane-traversing spells into lodestones for her, and bring him, too. Where there was a will, there was a way.

Lia looked at her sister and nodded, and Hilana returned the gesture, taking a breath and resting her hands on her knees. She had to trust Kalor would not run off - the spirit had promised to stay close and not get into anything too much, but this reflected on her and she did not want it to go poorly. If it did, it would get back to Valaera and Cithaera, and then she would certainly lose some hard-won respect. Lia had more faith in her fiery companion than Hilana silently did, and she relaxed into her meditations far more easily than her younger sister.

Metal was in many ways the opposite of Wood, which had been a breeze of sorts for her with her obsession of botany and plants. That wasn't to say she didn't admire it - there was a rigidity, an organization to it, and a lot of strength. She smiled at the pixies playing with Kala's plaits, and Etzalal wanted to leave her to chase them off. Hilana just silently bade him to stay with her, resting her chin on his metallic back, and the winged serpent snuggled in.

[Kala Leukos]

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Briefly, Kala considered the ramifications of making her mortal seeming that of the platinum elves of Solunarium, or more Hytori in Sol'Valen. While still living out her mortal life, there were nuances that might prove beyond her. Eventually, when she left her mortality behind, it would behoove her to take a mortal seeming that would best set the mortals around her at ease or whatever suited her Purpose.

She set the thoughts aside in order to commune with Metal.

Ceran was only startled for a moment; he smiled down at Kalor. They had met ere Sivan bonded the spirit to the golem body, and was pleased the little creature seemed to remember him or remember their early affinity. Indric was better with spirits, of course, but the delighted the quiet giant too. He knelt long enough to offer hands, and then stood with Kalor upon his shoulder.

"Might as well experiment with metal while on its plane, no?" he asked rhetorically.

With his audience secured, he could see all of his people while he played with the element. A hunk of metal rose into the air at his beckoning gesture and he began to thread Fire through it to make it more malleable, forming it first into something akin to a blade.

The summoners spoke among themselves, and apparently with some spirits on the plane.

Kaus struggled a bit in his trance. Though a master, Air had chosen him. He had a bit of a block where Earth was concerned, and Metal as well. Everything is everything, Kala told him, and she would know. Perhaps today's attunement would help him understand the deeper truths.

Kala, however, had caught the attention of the Sentinels, but of course she would given her connection to Phocion and his branch of their order. Her clothes seemed to blur around her, then shifted as if substance were the same as memory into the maille sheathe dress she had worn to a party in Sol'Valen. Then, as her meditations continued, even that melted as if into quicksilver painted over her skin.

Or perhaps it was her skin, a demigoddess attuning to elemental metal, taking it into herself and changing, and changing it.

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[Hilana Chenzira]

When Kalor left her to go to Ceran and Indric, Lia's eyes opened to locate him and she mouthed a 'thank you', bowing her head respectfully to them. She truly did adore the fiery palarae, and often spoiled him like her child - a little treat of pyrolith here, chunks of aetherite there, lodestones with lava, taking him down to the lava tunnels of the Umbrium so he could leave his golem body in her arms and let him go swimming in the magma... "Metal," Kalor agreed. He did want to heat up some ore, and he could when Lia was done. Perhaps Indric and Ceran would help him find some lumps of ore to heat and he could surprise Athalia with them.

With Kalor picked up, Sviras continued to lurk around the Summoners, watching and observing silently to share it with Hilana later. The Sentinels were watchful guards on the outside - leaving them to accomplish what they wanted in the few hours while they were here. Ævril expected his Vastiana student to get it done expeditiously, even if it sometimes amused the Sunborn the extent that the young woman went with the Craft.

Hilana relaxed, feeling the ground beneath them. Metal, threads of it, all kinds, more than she herself knew and would have had to study to understand. She was no smith; she would defer to Torin and Sivan about such things when they worked with it every day, day in and day out. She knew Torin had the rune of Elementalism; though she didn't know where his skill was with it. Perhaps one day she could bring the two of them here - she and Sivan to see the metal spirits, Torin to attune to it.

But she knew as someone that used tools and was a student of the way of the blade that while it might seem cold and detached from nature, it was an important part of it. Wood may have felt warmer and more natural, but there were lessons to metal - knowing the importance and necessity of malleability and adaptability, knowing that hardened was different from being brittle, knowing what was called for when. When to be sharp, when to be soft. One could still be flexible while being firm without being rigid, and knowing that to be too rigid could be a fatal flaw.

The Sentinels would note Kala's changing, and save that to report to Sentinel Phocion later on. There was no need to interrupt the four that were busy with their meditations. Hilana might have been sorry to have missed it, but Sviras definitely had noticed, and the serpentine spirit would remain silent.

[Kala Leukos]

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With Indric and the other summoners occupied, Ceran and Kalor played with bits of metal. It was easier for him to communicate with the little spirit now that it was housed in something substantive, and it seemed as though Kalor understood matter better now that he lived through it. The next time Athalia glanced there way, no doubt she would see them juggling without hands: perfect spheres of metal interspersed with balls of fire. Her little fire baby was getting a dose of engagement and Ceran was refining his elemental skills even if he couldn't attune yet.

Indric and Asallon were conferring with various metal spirits, attempting to form amicable relationships with those who might prove useful in the future. Aito had made a deal with a specific spirit who was spilling gold coins with Aito's face etched into them—or a roughly elven profile as its fine skills weren't so very well developed—into a sack he had brought with him. Eyes alight with avarice, he was chuckling like a villain in a play.

Kaus, mid-trance, pulled his pact weapons out of the aether, laying them around him in a circle of forged steel. The metal around him seemed to react to it as if there were some sort of magnetism at work.

Kala, fully entranced, was a figure of quicksilver, meditating upon how stars created metallic elements within them. For all that her attunement was the flashiest, it was complete quicker than the others. In a relatively short amount of time, she was back to the diminutive woman sitting on the ground. Via bonds, she could tell all her people were fine without even looking at them, so she glanced first at the sisters, and then at the Sentinels.

She offered Ævril a mysterious little smile, then rose, dusted the back of her trousers off and went to listen in to what the summoners were saying even as she smiled at Ceran and Kalor's pyrotechnics.

Not long after that, Kaus returned to himself and began to send his weapons back where they awaited his need. There had been no violence done with them, so the discomfort wasn't so very great. All the same, it was careful methodical work for him, which only helped anchor the attunement, he thought.

Air had chosen him, but Metal was often his weapon and tool.

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[Hilana Chenzira]

Lia was quite relieved to see Kalor enjoying himself with Ceran. He really was such a friendly spirit, and he was having a good time here. She was smiling, at least, and her focus returned on the element that surrounded them. As a tailor, metal was vital - for tools, adornments, accessories. The needles that pulled thread, hooks on the loom that helped with the threads, pins that joined and held when weaving lace...

The Sentinels saw Kala, but they would say nothing. Ævril may not have been a member of the Custodes Deorum that was headed by Sentinel Phocion, but he was experienced and he knew that it wasn't up to him. He would make his report as he always did about these forays. When she winked at him, he gave her a small nod.

The Vastian sisters may have missed the demigoddess' display, though Sviras had been watching now that Kalor was otherwise entertained. Etzalal had remained nestled against Hilana, and whether or not the sparky winged snake had been watching, it was tough to tell. The larger spirit seemed to be more of a silent observer, just as he had been when they had had the dinner in Hilana's apartment earlier.

Hilana was not far behind Athalia when it came to completing her attunement, and her hands found the ground around them, fingertips slipping into the earth, and she gently pulled at some ore, drawing it up towards her fingertips, and twisting it into a ball, holding it in her hands when she smoothed it free of the ground it had come from. They were quiet as Kaus finished, mindful of his meditation. She was surprised and impressed that Kala had finished before she had, but she also knew this wasn't necessarily the element that she was most aligned with. All the same, it was a vital part of the world around them, and many of her tools were made of metal. There was no reason that

When Kaus put away his tools, Hilana and Etzalal got up, and she offered Lia a hand to get to her feet. "Athalia, burns bright," Kalor told Lia from where he was happily juggling with Ceran. "Sparks joy, much metal." Little hands held a slug of metal in each palm, smelted through from his own heat under the watchful eye of the Silver Wing. One for Lia, and another would be a gift for his Summoner when they went to see him as they surely would before much longer. Hilana did have a letter from Sivan, and it hopefully had dates in which they could visit him.

"Thank you," she bowed her head and shoulders to the much taller figure. "I can tell Kalor had a wonderful time with you."

"How did it go?" Hilana asked Kala and Kaus, smiling at the pale-haired twins.

[Kala Leukos]

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While Kaus considered how the very aether in this place was metal-coded, he could see himself flinging flechettes about similarly as to how Raithen did so with an entirely different rune. Whether he could do so on their material plane was anyone's guess, but he would explore later.

Kala turned, smiling as the sisters approached.

"He has always been a joyful thing," Ceran said, voice resonant even as it was quiet. When Kalor began to squirm on his shoulder, the gentle giant moved to accommodate him, helping him until Ceran was holding him out to Athalia like an infant. "It is good to see you treat him so well. In Kalzasi or in Solunarium, there are too few kind people like you and Master Sivan."

That was more words out of his mouth than most of them had ever heard at one time.

Kaus walked up to them, eyes intent on his hand as his fingers curled and he turned it over.

"I can sense the iron in my blood," he said with quiet wonder.

Kala was considering other things. Most metals were conductors of lightning, and being here as who she was, the new attunement made her consider things she understood on a fundamental level but lacked the words to describe, from magnetism to gravity to the strange behaviors of the smallest motes of matter, where the delineation between matter and energy grew more and more vague.

A variety of metallic spirits remained around the summoners, though most of them were concluding their communications. Only Aito was whispering to a specific little spirit, occasionally casting furtive glances at Kala.

No doubt Kala would stop him from convincing spirits to just create gold for him and threatening the stability of economies, local and global.

"Successful for everyone, I think," Kala said, looking around curiously in case anyone wanted to share with the group or contradict her observation.

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[Hilana Chenzira]

Lia was all too happy to take her little Palarae back, cuddling him like one might a baby before letting him sit on her hip as he showed her the ore he held. "He is very special, and he brightens our days," she looked up at Ceran with a smile after inspecting the ore. "Fire always knows fire, and we burn together. But we know that spirits are not mere tools, but beings that must be respected." And that understanding and respect was likely why Sivan had agreed to train Hilana, and why Hilana had asked him in the first place. There was no shortage of classically trained Summoners in Solunarium, and the Sentinels likely could have pointed her to someone who would teach her, but Hilana knew what she wanted, and hadn't been afraid to ask.

"Pockets," Kalor requested, and Lia put one lump of ore, and then the other, in two separate pockets so that he would know which was which later. "Gratias, Athalia."

"You are welcome, Kalor. We'll work on them when we get home," she assured him.

"Buttons," the spirit nodded solemnly. "Many buttons."

Then they would make buttons. That was something that they had talked about doing, and if Kalor was ready to make buttons when they got home, then they would make some stylized buttons. She didn't know if he meant that he wanted to make them for Sivan - Founders knew what Sivan could use the buttons for - but they'd play with it later.

"That is something, isn't it?" Hilana smiled up at Kaus. "Let us hope there's never a time when our own blood needs to be weaponized, but if it comes to that, so be it." Sviras had been stalking a metal sprite until it got too far away to be worth the effort, and now he was returning to his Summoner, who bent to pick him up, letting him go around her shoulders. Etzalal swooped around, wings flapping as they avoided landing on the other spirit and let out a happy rain of sparks. Zappy flaps indeed. "But successful for everyone, I would say. I believe we can return home now, if everyone is ready?" If they wanted to explore, they could, but Hilana also didn't want to irritate the Sentinels that had time taken out of their day for this foray into the harsh plane by gallivanting all about it. They would be able to return later.

[Kala Leukos]

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No doubt someday Athalia would be in Kalzasi with Kalor and the little fire spirit would delight in toying with the buttons on Sivan's clothes. Whether they were functional or merely used as decoration would depend on what he was wearing. Kalzasern style relied more upon folding, tucking, and draping than buttons, but he had traveled much of Karnor and he was even incorporating more styles from Turoth, specifically Silfanore, since returning to the land of his birth.

"Sometimes," Kaus admitted softly, "the amount of power is terrifying, especially when it comes to violence."

This from a warrior race, but if he contradicted himself, he contained multitudes.

"I believe we are ready to depart," Kala affirmed. She could sense the readiness of her group. They were saying farewell to the metal spirits in their various ways. She was finding it difficult not to meditate upon images and sensations of the tiniest particles of matter collapsing into new arrangements, putting out energy, changing.

There were deeper mysteries there. She would need time, perhaps in her tower, where she could expand beyond her body and understand the weave of the world better, and better work it like clay in an artist's hands.

"How do you find working with elemental spirits while wielding elemental power yourself?" she asked Hilana. "We all have one or the other, and work in tandem, but none of us has both Runes."

She had found that people used the Runes differently in different places, even had different names for them in some cases. Some mages attempted to make a science out of it, while others treated it as an esoteric mystery, as much an art as a science. To her mind, the science was one hand, the esoteric another. With both hands, she could do more. Burgeoning divinity was less another hand than an expanded mind and capacity.

But there was still much wisdom to be gleaned from other mortals.

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