Scouring the shelves, I locate a section dedicated exclusively to spacial knowledge. After reviewing every work, I discover an oddity. In addition to the titles on every cover, it also contains some kind of name, probably its creator, and a series of strange comments.
Arcane Spacial Union – 500 gold – 1 year tower council support
Porters Union – 100 gold – 3 years Tranas area member protection
Hidden Hunters Union – 3000 gold – 10 years dungeon entrance prioritization
How strange. My books described these unions as big one groups of song specialists. Do the notes reflect tributes offered to them in return for this knowledge? Is that how Garret generated this vast collection? I’d consider offering tribute of my own for more books, as with the porters, but why bother? Why not simply find the unions and steal their books? Especially if this Garret was so strong, why did he bother? Ridiculous.
Regardless, in addition to discovering many previously unfamiliar spacial songs, I’ve come up with a complete hierarchy for all those known to Garret and comprehensible to me as I am now.
Arcane spacial
- Foundation
- Arcane Transformation(Spacial)
Ability to produce and interact with external, spacial energies
- Tier 1 Synthesis
- Attraction (NEW)
Remotely pull space within your external domain
- Folding
Layer areas of space under your control on top of others
- Stability
Inhibit/increase the inherent chaos of space under your control
- Stretching
Extend/contract areas of space under your control
- Twisting
Apply torque force to space under your control
- Tier 2 Synthesis
- Connectivity (NEW)
Associate two different regions of space under your control
- Expansion (NEW)
Grow/shrink basic spacial metric structure of space under your control
- Morphing (NEW)
Perform complex, arbitrary manipulation of space under your control
- Pockets (NEW)
Create designed, custom pockets using space under your control
- Ripping (NEW)
Apply torque to the point of rupture of space under your control
- Tier 3 Synthesis
- Summoning (NEW)
Bring space within your external domain under your control
- Tearing (NEW)
Smoothly sever or recombine space under your control
Furiously copying all the scattered, new knowledge into notes of my own, a prophetic vision for eventually re-creating the ability of the porters begins to form.
To begin, fully master the first tier of the basic manipulation of space, particularly this new attraction song. Then focus on tier two’s connectivity and ripping songs to adjoin two separated points in space. Finally, the tier three summoning and tearing songs will be used to create connected tears of my own where one of the points can be very far away so long as it’s within my domain. Whatever that is.
With the training suggested in the books, spectacular progress was gained. It’s amazing how much faster it develops than all the other songs I’ve collected. Am I only a spacial genius? No, that can’t be right.
After discovering this idea of an external domain, I furiously ransacked more stacks until finding something describing the subject. It was sitting in a section dedicated to stable energy, which then quickly joined my interpretive notes.
Arcane stable
- Foundation
- Arcane Transformation(Stable)
Ability to produce and interact with external, stable energies
- Tier 1 Synthesis
- Attachment (NEW)
Take external energy within your external domain into your control
- Condensation (NEW)
Increase/decrease external energy density under your control
- Extension
Elongate/shrink external energy under your control
- Projection
Extend your sense of self through external energy under your control
- Tier 2 Synthesis
- Claiming (NEW)
Take surroundings of external energy under your control into your external domain
- Forming (NEW)
Make complex shapes out of external energy under your control
- Sharpening (NEW)
Apply sharp edges to formed shapes under your control
- Tier 3 Synthesis
- Obscuring (NEW)
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Project into deeply familiar, distant energy outside of your external domain
Yes, yes! This is it! This completes the picture. With the obscuring song, I can see very distant space enough to summon and connect it. Then, singing of forms and sharpness, I can properly cut tears, exactly as Linus did. This is the path. All that’s left is to properly steal it.
Apparently, the most common method of obscuring is done by attaching your own arcane stable energy to objects. That way the object becomes “deeply familiar” enough to intuitively sense it, since it was originally a part of you. This is most commonly done using focus stones, and I already have one to practice with!
The books say that porters lease a section of arrival terminals, and then bury their focus stones there. This is why they all have different, limited options for travel. Departure terminals are then organized by a general region. For example, Central City has a different departure terminal for every town and its surrounding villages. How fascinating. No, no, don’t get distracted!
Not quite as fast as the spacial songs, but the stable training does also speed along under the books’ advice.
One completely unexpected discovery among the stacks is that Garret has an incredibly extensive collection about songs dealing with deception. My circumstances have caused these songs to resonate with me as well, although very shallowly. Since living in the big one’s world is so precarious, I eagerly copy small, relevant portions about these songs into a hierarchy as well, along with details on how to train them.
Deception
- Foundation
- Hiding
Avoiding notice while stationary
- Sneaking
Avoiding notice while in motion
- Ambush (NEW)
Offensive striking of unaware opponents
- Tricking (NEW)
Deceiving others about anything not involving oneself
- Arcane specialties (NEW)
Arcane transformation(Vibration, Illumination, Annihilation)
- Tier 1 Synthesis
- Disguise (NEW)
Arcane empowered hiding, generally
- Stealth (NEW)
Arcane empowered sneaking, generally
- Trapping (NEW)
Generally conversion of unawareness into harm or capture
- Covering (NEW)
Arcane empowered tricking, generally
- Tier 2 Synthesis
- Light manipulation (NEW)
Affecting light and shadow under your control via arcane means
- Corporeal regulation (NEW)
Affecting material traces under your control via arcane means
- Oscillation control (NEW)
Affecting material energy under your control via arcane means
- Tier 3 Synthesis
- Illusion (NEW)
Generating deceptive phenomena via arcane means within your external domain
- Hallucination (NEW)
Affecting a target's senses under your control via arcane means
All this reading is so illuminating. This dark path potentially leads to the theft of so much of the big one’s power. Power that may eventually fuel my revenge for real! Will I finally be able to release the constant, disciplined restraint of the mind mud?
Maxing out the arcane side of deception’s foundations is straightforward, since I can mindlessly practice during other activities. The safe space of this pocket allows me to be as loud and shiny as necessary without risking discovery. Also, as an arcane discipline, I’m fast becoming very adept at learning from this song collection generally.
For the rest of the songs, I took to using a wider variety of tactics while hunting rats in the sewers. Strangely, they’re progressing significantly slower than the arcane songs, and I don’t know why. Regardless, I still have yet to mention the amazing discovery and plunder from all the mixing!