Chapter #2: Crystalariums
When Mara first opened the door to her home somewhere in the middle of the Arcadia Gardens, the place was completely black. Then the spectrum of light from the area flooded in filling the place with exquisite details. In the center of the main room was a glass table with a stone vase in the center. Inside the vase were a couple blooms of blue lotus flowers, their scent added a sweet smell to the empty structure. Off to the right was the entrance into the kitchen in case she wanted to make herself something to eat and at the back was a stairwell that led to a lower level. There were sofas and across from the largest sofa was a clear crystal ball as well as a small table with a crystal plate and a smaller crystal ball next to it.
Tiye walked over to the large crystal ball and said, “You can find just about anything to watch or do from this.” He stated as he waved his hand over the crystal ball. Mara could see a few wisps of Nwyfre reach out from his hand, touching the crystal ball, however nothing happened. He gave it a bewildered look, “I wonder why it’s not working? Maybe it’s yours?”
Mara shrugged and walked over to the crystal ball. She used her aura sight to see why the crystal ball wasn’t working. To her vision, it looked to be inert, “I don’t think it’s hooked up.”
“How do you hook up a crystal ball?” Tiye questioned with a bewildered look on his face, “in the Aaru you don’t need to worry about that. Everything usually works.”
“Part of the difference between living with the exarchs and just living in part of Avalon with other Exalted,” Mara answered as she glanced around, “I need to make a Crystalarium. That will tune everything here to work with me.”
“Where is the one that controls ours?” Tiye cocked his head in confusion.
“There is probably a master one here that feeds the one in the Aaru,” Mara replied with a shrug as she looked around the living room, taking everything in, “I am sure that as you learn how to create things here that you will learn how to make your own or have someone help and tune it to your pattern…” Her voice trailed off as she glanced towards the stairwell that led to the lower level, “But I wonder where I should put mine?” She followed up a moment later.
“There is a downstairs,” Tiye mentioned.
Mara nodded as she thought about it for a moment, “Yeah. I think I might do that…” She said then looked around one more time, “But first…” She said as her shaman seal appeared below her feet.
Tiye raced over and grasped her shoulder as she started to stir her Nwyfre. It was at the right point where he could disrupt her concentration without anything bad. Her shaman seal faded, “Don’t use that!” he urged.
Mara blinked, “Okay, why?”
“No one is supposed to have those spell circles here,” Tiye advised, “In fact, you should have had the imprints removed when they healed your body.”
Mara shrugged, bewildered by the information that she was just given, “I know they said it took Isis longer to get my body healed than it did for Iliana. I wonder if it has something to do with my shaman seals.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be able to use them,” Tiye mentioned with concern in his voice, “I know Anput was frustrated that she couldn’t even remember her seals and the same was with the Tsugumogami that came with you two, what was her name…” His voice trailed off in thought.
“Jibril is her name,” Mara replied. She quickly focused on suppressing her seal, something she knew she would have to get used to doing in the future before gathering her Nwyfre.
“What are you planning on doing?” He asked in response.
“Going to get a layout,” Mara replied as she controlled the Nwyfre she gathered with her control of Gwyar. She lifted her foot as she raised her arms and stomped down in a wide stance, swiftly moving her outstretched hand down to the ground and closed her blue-green eyes.
The Nwyfre traveled through the ground in a shockwave, rippling back to her a moment later and painting an image in her mind of what the building was constructed, especially below the ground. She saw it had a large spacious bedroom and two Djed pillars buried just outside the building the building was being powered. There were two other rooms available for general purpose use. She was suddenly thankful that she had listened to her lover’s advice. If she had used any of the shaman seals that had been imprinted in her, the possibility that it could register the power difference could be noticed by someone who controlled the power flow to the Djed pillars, why would that bother me? She asked herself as she realized the thought went through her mind without reason.
He glanced at her as she rose to her full height, “The verdict is?” He prompted.
“I have a room downstairs I can put them in. Now all I have to do is find several different variants of quartz to use to put together a Crystalarium.” Mara mentioned, “But we do have basic power inside the place. There are a couple of Djed Pillars outside and below the ground.”
“Were you afraid of not having power?” He asked in surprise.
“Considering I need to set up my own Crystalarium, it wouldn’t surprise me if I had to construct a pyramid or Djed pillars to tap into the existing network,” Mara mentioned casually as she led the way to the basement, “It may be worth while to eventually make my own pyramid.”
“Why?” He asked, “If you are getting enough power from the Djed pillars then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
Mara again didn’t get the reason why she would come to that conclusion herself. But something about it felt better to her than using the power supplied by a pyramid under someone else’s control. It felt as if someone else had this thought before. It was as if someone just like her had the thought a long time ago and now she was catching the echo.
He shrugged, “You will have plenty to keep you busy while you are here. You are going to have tutors and eventually go into the academy. Heck, you might take your chances and do all that at the same time.”
Mara shrugged as they reached the bottom of the stairwell, “Possibly. Did anyone tell you who my tutors are going to be?”
“Bastet for healing magic,” Tiye answered as he flicked on the lights downstairs and saw the common area and two rooms off to the side, “I mean, she is your mother which works well. Kebechet is the closest match to your spirit magic which will help you a lot. I haven’t heard a lot about who will be your tutor for time magic. There isn’t anyone else in the Ennead or Nekomatis that specifically have time magic as an affinity.”
“We could always reach out to Ophiuchus,” Mara mentioned casually as she walked into the first bedroom and saw that it was a master suite set up with a large bed in the center with ornate posts reaching high up from each of the corners. Connecting the posts at the top was runners for a canopy and gossamer curtains that ran the perimeter.
“Who is Ophiuchus?” Tiye cocked his head in confusion.
“It might be understandable that you don’t know him. He is the Elysian Exarch of Time,” Mara answered as she left the bedroom and inspected the next room which had a single table in it.
“You know the Ennead and Nekomatis are on good terms with the Elysian?” He asked in response as he followed her into the room with the sole piece of furniture in it, “I haven’t heard of any of them talking about an Ophiuchus.”
Mara’s brows furrowed as she inspected the table. It had several drawers running down one side, “Strange. I know he was around when I was a kid. He was supposed to be my teacher. I wonder if he ran off for some reason.”
“I can check around later, when I’m not dealing with my own tutors and going to the Academy too,” Tiye mentioned.
“No, its fine,” Mara shook her head as she opened the first drawer and saw several stone bowls filled with varying forms of quartz rock which was perfect for her purpose, “I can ask Thoth to train me in fate magic.”
“That isn’t the same as time Magic,” He shook his head.
“It’s a subset of time magic and something that they are a master at,” Mara corrected, “Who says I can’t be an Exarch of Fate?”
“Well, that is kind of limiting yourself and your family could use an Exarch of Time,” Tiye argued in response, “What better to be a master of than something unique?”
“I don’t know, it’s a thought,” Mara shrugged as she counted four stones of each kind and put them on the table, “Who says I can’t branch out into Time magic later, after going to the academy and being taught by the rest of my tutors?”
“That’s true,” He nodded, “it looks like Avalon provides, you found the quartz you nodded for the crystalarium.”
Mara shrugged, “Could do to give me some bowls and maybe a crystal ball too.” She sighed heavily as she opened the next drawer down and didn’t see anything in that drawer.
“Do you not know creation magic?” Tiye questioned in response.
“I do,” Mara sighed as she closed the drawer she was looking at and went to the bottom drawer. Inside it was a Crystal ball on an ornate walnut pedestal. As she grasped the ball and held it in her hand she added, “But it is good to check everywhere first.”
She sat the pedestal in the center of the table followed by lowering the crystal ball onto it. She could see that nothing was enchanted which was good for her, it allowed her to cast the spells she needed without much worry.
First she needed four large glass bowls to act as cauldrons for her Crystalarium. Having the crystal sets split between the four bowls allowed for her to cast spells using the crystalarium without any interference. She started at the north side in front of her crystal ball. She held her hands out on each side of the space in front of it and focused on gathering enough neutrinos to forge such a glass bowl. As her Nwyfre gathered and circled the space three shimmering lights appeared and slowly spread out into the shape of the bowl before solidifying into solid quartz glass. Satisfied with how the bowl turned out, she repeated the process three more times, one to the east of the crystal ball, one to the south, and one to the west.
Bowls created, she needed to have elemental foci filling the inside of the bowl. She held her hands together above the north bowl and rubbed her hands together, combining the Nwyfre with Callas to create water dropping from her hands as she rubbed them together, each drop filled up the bowl slightly until it was halfway full then she stopped.
She moved to the east bowl and put her hand inside the empty bowl as she used her control of Gwyar and Nwyfre to create a candle holder and a candle. She grasped the thread at the top and fed it with hot solar Nwyfre, the result was a yellow flame erupting from the edge of the wick.
She moved along the south bowl and held her hand over the bowl. Inside the bowl a small stone incense burner appeared as she funneled Gwyar infused Nwyfre into the bowl. She opened the lid of the stone burner and gently blew into it. As she blew, she infused her Nwyfre with Callus and the result was a small cone of incense appearing and the tip ignited, glowing a faint red.
As she pulled away from the bowl in front of her, Cedar incense started to fill the room, bringing a new pleasing smell to the subterranean room. She moved to the last bowl and held her hands over the bowl. As she infused Gwyar into her Nwyfre, she rubbed her thumbs and fingers together, the result was tiny flakes of salt falling into the bowl. She continued the process until the bowl was half filled with salt.
With the glass cauldrons prepared, she grasped four of the seven Obsidian stones she grabbed earlier. She cupped her hands over the stones and flowed Nwyfre through them, focusing on the Crystal ball as she did. The stones slowly reformed into discs as they became infused with the base magic of the spell. She placed one disc in each of the cauldrons, the center of the salt filled, and water filled cauldrons, one next to the candle with the everlasting flame, and one behind the stone incense burner with the everlasting incense.
She grabbed four of the seven white quartz crystal points from the pile she laid out and focused on them with her Nwyfre. She placed her other hand on the crystal ball as she did, eventually both the crystal ball and the four white quartz crystal points started to glow and flicker in unison. When that happened, she placed the points on the crystal discs. They reformed themselves into smaller and wider points taking up most of the center of the discs in each glass cauldron.
She repeated the process with the Rose quartz stones she had, the stones reformed into points and started to glow and pulse with the crystal ball and the other stones in the cauldrons. She placed them on the top of the crystal discs and watched as each point reformed into a thicker crystal taking up the top sixth of the space, one of the four sides was rounded to match the perimeter of the disc. She swiped four amethyst points from the table and repeated the process, placing it on the opposite side of the rose quartz point. She repeated the process again with four lapis lazuli stones and when the points reformed and behaved like the other three, she placed it next to the rose quartz crystal.
She repeated the process three more times with red jasper, fluorite, and citrine stones. She placed the Red jasper below the lapis lazuli crystals, the fluorite crystals on the other side of the rose quartz crystals, the red jasper below the fluorite, and the citrine below the fluorite. The crystals all flashed in unison before slowly settling on a gentle glow. The crystalarium itself was completed.
Mara looked down and knew what she had to do next with the three sets of quartz stones remaining. She had to make a link crystal disc, but she had to do it one at a time lest they all be tied to each other to be used. She grabbed one of the three remaining obsidian stones and flowed her Nwyfre into it, it reformed into a disc and glowed with a faint glow. The glow of the obsidian discs inside the cauldrons glowed brighter. She flowed Nwyfre into the crystal point and attached it to the disc when the crystal ball and the other white quartz points started to glow in unison, shining brightly above all except the Obsidian stone. She repeated the process with the other five crystals, the rose quartz, the amethyst, lapis lazuli, fluorite, red jasper, and citrine stones. All placed onto the disc at the end of the process which reformed into crystal points. The last thing she did was flowed Nwyfre through her finger as she pressed each of the crystal points into the disc, creating flat hexagonal sections in the disc. After she was done with that part, the glow reduced. She repeated the process twice more.
Now that the crystalarium and link discs were created, she had work to do. She needed to create a security spell to make sure only the people she trusted could use the link discs and the crystalarium itself, create a recall teleport, and site to site transport functions, as well as communications between the crystalarium and link discs. She was going to ask Tiye if she should add anything, but she realized that he had long since wandered away, “Oh shoot!” She sighed, feeling bad that she had totally neglected her love.
She grabbed two of the link crystals and walked out of the crystalarium chamber and into the bedroom. There he was in bed fast asleep. Mara smiled, rest, my love. I will do some work and see you in a bit, she thought as she walked back to the crystalarium chamber.
