Studying Scholarly Secrets - The Keepers: Part 2

Studying Scholarly Secrets
The Keepers: Part 2

“Wha-... How are you doing that?”

   Vericia barely manages to speak as her eyes, together with Eli’s and Thurr’s, are locked at the hovering visual representation of painted Eli before them. Khaldor seemed to have summoned it out of the crystal as neither of them had told him about their adventures among the other clans they visited, so this info was somehow stored within it.

“Ahhh, good old Ornaax, his sense of humor is lovely.”

   Khaldor wheezes as he wipes away one tear that made its way on the edge of his eyelid with the help of the intense laughter. He then notices how enchanted the three guests are of something he considers trivial everyday matter, which makes him sit up straight and adjust his glasses before he begins to talk.

“Right, it’s my turn now. Oh, Cindy, are you done already? In that case, could you bring us some tea, please?”

   Cindy was far from done, but not wanting to admit accidentally slacking off, she squeaked and scurried away from the room to fulfill the request. Khaldor’s attention was back on the topsiders once the golden door closed behind his assistant.

“This is what we call the indicina crystal - a precious gem with special properties which allows us to store information in them, which we can later read, or in some cases, visualize the content as with Vericia’s crystal right now. One crystal can store vast amounts of information, keeping it intact for millennia before it has to be recharged with magic so it could continue working for the next millennium.”

“So that’s why you didn’t know what a book was.”

   Thuryves made an unintentionally snarky comment while he leaned closer to the crystal in Khaldor’s palm. Eli raised his paw as he tried to touch the little copy of himself, but his toe beans touched nothing - the misty glow that formed the image was disturbed by Eli’s movements but swiftly reformed the image once the paw passed through it. The Haedian didn’t seem to mind Thurr’s remark, instead he was chuckling softly.

“Looks like you don’t use this method on the topside, it’s more reliable than fragile paper though.”

“I do not think we have this type of crystals on the Above, seems like they are found only in the depths of the Beneath.”

   Eli commented thoughtfully as he probably would’ve known about something like it, this guy had an approximate knowledge on many things. At this moment, Cindy returned with the tea set Khaldor had requested, and as she was about to place the tray on the table, Khaldor came up with another task for her.

“Cindy, could you please teach our guests how our storage crystals work? I have to excuse myself for a moment.”

   Before Cindy could say something in response as she actually hoped to sneak back to her initial task of making a crystal copy of Thurr’s books, Khaldor placed Vericia’s crystal back on the table, which made the visual representation of Eli vanish. He then grabbed the crystal he’d been using during storytime from the Puller siblings while standing up and leaving the topsiders alone with his mildly stressed assistant. The young Haedian was visibly more nervous as she wasn’t sure where to start, allowing everyone in the room to hear Khaldor’s distancing footsteps.

“Maybe you can conjure the image again, please?”

   Vericia smiled encouragingly as she extended the crystal towards her, which she accepted and summoned the little vandalized Eli once again.

“Good, and could you please explain how you did that? As in, how your mana flows or how you interact with this storage unit?”

   Eli was the next to guide Cindy through her teaching process, and it seemed to work. She relaxed considerably as she started to explain how she connects with the crystal through magic and then can sense how to manipulate it. While Vericia and Eli were eagerly listening, Thuryves seemed somewhat indifferent but in reality, he also found it extremely fascinating.

“There’s more in this crystal, though.”

   Cindy mentioned right before she made a swiping movement with her free hand, which made the next image appear. This time it was a representation of Vericia, showing off the pretty paints Ornaax added on her coat. Seeing this made Vericia smile as the warm emotions tickled her heart. Before Cindy could swipe further, Thuryves decided to speak up.

“It seems your whole clan life seems to revolve around those crystals and knowledge, is there something else you do as well?”

   Cindy felt a sting of criticism in Thurr’s voice, but she remained polite as the Empyrian was merely wishing to learn more about them.

“Well… not really, the Keepers are made of Haedians whose passion is knowledge and preserving it. The ones that get a different calling are free to leave to join another clan.”

   The answer seemed to satisfy Thurr, and before Cindy could carry on, the golden door opened once again with Khaldor peeking in, a smug look on his face as if he was up to something. Everyone looked at him, awaiting what was going to happen next.