Crystal Core

by P. S. Power

“Oh? Welcome then! Sorry I was busy when you got here. I see you have been as well. What does it do? If it’s all right to ask, that is.” The man clearly already understood that part of things. Even without trying, Willum was picking that much up. A lot more as well.

  “Basically, it’s just coloration for walls and doors. Here…” There was a bit more to it than just that, since he’d had the time.

  Standing carefully, catching all of the swirling and glowing tiles as they tried to fall, rather deftly, Willum took one of them and pressed it to the wall of the room they were in. That got it to stick in place. Not that it had to be there in particular. Being in a drawer would work just as well. Even in a person’s pocket, but then the decorations would fade when they left the area.

  “You have to touch it for it to work. Well, regular people will need to do that. Then just imagine what you want the walls to look like. For instance…” The first thing he did in the small room, which was about ten feet by twelve, was make the walls and ceilings turn a nice brown color. It was his favorite, after all. There were no streaks this time. Then he altered the appearance of the stone floor, making in a rich green and white colored marble pattern. It shone a bit, the ceiling lights, which looked like giant green gems, reflecting off of it.

  “Now, you can do pretty much anything, as far as coloring the walls and floor, say…” He did very little then, making the walls seem like they were covered with a very fine silk. Then he added a pattern, which was of the black tower. It didn’t look real, like an image taken by a hand-held, but rather like it had been hand stitched. It wasn’t really there, or anything, but looked right. It was just an illusion, without substance.

  The Wizard Tim actually made a considering face, and then, instead of riding him about how much he’d failed in the task, just smiled.

  “That’s nice work. In a way, better than what you did on the river for the Capital in Noram. You could do the entire space here with this, can’t you?”

  That got him to smile, meaning it.

  “We could do half of the city with it, if you wanted. Really, I was thinking we should do the outside of the shop here. Nothing against the Moon, but it could use a little more color. Though, we should probably get that woman… I missed her name, the one running the place here? Small, dark hair, paler than you are?”

  “Miven?”

  “Probably. We should have her see to that. She seems like a solid person. I don’t know if she’s still around.” It had been several hours, but he could feel her, out in the front area, moving around.

  It was the same woman. Also, it was clear now, after taking some time to focus for a while that she was older than he’d figured. About fifteen.

  That got Tim to reach out for the tiles and walk out of the room.

  “Miven? Will here has just assigned you a job. He didn’t even ask if you wanted to do it first, so is that heavy handed or what? Still, it’s a pretty good one, if you feel up to it. He just made a new device that will let us put up what seems like paint, wall coverings, new flooring and all that, both for the shop here and the main hallways. I think you’re being asked to do that second part. Which means getting with… Well, Tiera, probably. She’s just so busy all the time.”

  The small lady looked slightly scared then.

  “You haven’t heard? She’s to step down as Queen. There are going to be… I don’t really know. A selection of new leaders, to replace her. The whole of the Moon might be thrown into chaos.” She didn’t seem that upset over the idea, which meant not thinking that was real.

  Timon simply looked at her, then nodded.

  “It’s about time. Who set that up? Smythe? Gerent? I know they’ve both been meaning to bring that up with her for a while now. She had the job before we set up the new rules for the Ancients, so no one has really known what to do about it. Technically we aren’t allowed to directly rule anyplace. Really, and don’t let this get around, either of you, but that was all about saving work for ourselves, rather than nobly eschewing power.”

  That sounded right, but still made him wonder why he thought about it at all. He couldn’t recall anyone having done more than mention the basic rules to him. That had mainly been Taman, who was also breaking that particular part of their laws.

  “I brought it up with her earlier, while she was beating me in weapons practice. Then we worked out how to hold an election for it. Miven, do you have anyone in mind that might be a good leader? There are going to be nine positions, so you should think about it.” Looking at her, he shook his head. “Don’t volunteer for it yourself, yet. You need to get advanced schooling first. I’m sure that Timon will pay for that for you.”

  That was a joke, since the schooling there was all free. It wasn’t in Noram, though if the girl was in a pinch coin wise he had to bet that the Ysidril would help her out that way. Which was actually kind of a brilliant idea.

  The girl looked down then, and pretended to blush, even though her skin wasn’t turning red.

  “I couldn’t be a leader of anything. Isn’t that the place of a man?”

  Timon looked away, seeming to be considering what to say that wouldn’t be offensive. The girl was religious after all, and among her people, the women had to hold to certain tasks. Handling the food and drink, taking care of the home and children. That kind of thing.

  Which Willum couldn’t care about at all. Even if he’d been feeling normal, that one wouldn’t have been a real issue for him. Not after seeing dozens of women do a very good job at leading important things. Marcia Turner came to mind for that. No one could doubt she was good at her job. Not if they knew what that was at all.

  Still, the woman had parameters that her life needed to fit into, for her to be part of her family group.

  “Maybe. Still, choosing who that should be is the right of everyone here. Also, seeing that people are fed is part of leadership, so perhaps having a woman on the council to see to that specifically would be a good idea? Arranging for the children as well. I mean, men can do that kind of thing too, but can they do it as well? You should think about that. Also, you should consider meeting with the Ysidril and seeing if you can work out some lessons with them. You’ve met some of them, right?” He knew there was at least one.

  The girl bowed a bit, bobbing in place. Thinking furiously.

  “I have! Erath of his people. Also, twice, High Leader of Mars, Hess. All here in the shop.”

  That would work, even if the girl didn’t know that yet. Really, if she called up any of the Ysidril and asked about lessons in pretty much anything that random person would see that it happened. They didn’t shirk from duties at all, Will knew. It was an admirable trait.

  “Speaking of which, I need to get some language lessons myself from them. I’ve been gone so much that I’ve neglected my duties there.”

  Timon made a soft noise through his nose that sounded like squeaking. It was a smothered laugh, rather than him having developed a serious breathing issue.

  “Right now, you need to rest. I can let you making some magic go, as long it’s just something for fun, like what you made today, but learning a new language is right out. I’ll let you watch Miven do some decoration, but nothing more strenuous than that for the time being.” The man smiled, as if he meant it, and knew it would be impossible to truly enforce at the same time.

  Still, he wasn’t wrong. None of them were. Willum was about frayed at both ends and if something didn’t change soon, he was going to unravel. That would help no one at all.

  The young woman wasn’t brilliantly creative when it came to decorating things. She was tasteful, however which he had to like. The walls of the shop were turned a gold color, for instance, with the ceiling a different, slightly more orange shade. The floor was made to look like wood, which, there on the Moon, was very rich seeming. They didn’t have trees, so when they made things it tended to be out of focus stone or magic.

  The small sitting room was left as it was, but after seeing it, she got a good bit mor
e creative with the rest of the work. The family quarters in the back were done to seem very rich. Much like the fine restaurant that he’d been at earlier. With no statues, of course. The device didn’t do things like that, being designed to keep things close to flat surfaces.

  The front door was redone, and in a way that was part of the amulet, but that he hadn’t told anyone about yet. It showed the inside of the place on the outside, and the outside on the in. Making a window, if one that was on inch thick stone. The colors were good, and it tracked pretty close to perfectly, he thought. Seeing that done by Will had a large window made on the wall of the shop, facing the hallway.

  Timon did that part, without asking if it was what the girl wanted. She glared at him a bit, but clearly didn’t mean it. After all, she moved to the hallway then, the whole section being made to look red, with wooden brown trim between the shop locations. Each of those was decorated to look different, though the girl didn’t do the insides.

  From her field, Willum picked up that she simply wasn’t certain that would be welcome at all. She was fairly sure she was doing a good enough job so far, but kept waiting for the men with her to yell or scold her for being too colorful.

  Willum thought it was probably about right. Harmony was a very wealthy place after all, and bright colors meant you were rich. You had to be, in order to afford to use them. If Timon felt anything in particular at all, he kept that to himself. Very well, in fact. Holding it all inside, and calm with a focus that told Will the man was hiding things from him on purpose.

  Which didn’t mean much at the moment.

  Sighing, Willum watched the girl move down the way, the walls altering in color as she did it. Spreading reds, blues and greens, with nice trimming as she walked. People stopped to stare at her work, not really getting how it was being done in particular. Magic. They got that part, but not who was making it happen.

  “This is… Fun enough, I suppose. A bit of a waste of time. I should be doing something useful, not…” He waved at the scene, feeling sour and like a true grump at the moment. A raincloud at the parade at the very least.

  Tim just slapped him on the shoulder.

  “Should you though? Be doing something more important, that is. Really, is there anything that much more important? This, right here, is life. You and Miven took it upon yourselves to make part of the world better. It’s already spreading joy to the masses. That’s… I get what you mean, but this is what you should be doing. Improving things, and making people’s lives just a little bit better. The rest is important, but not the task that you, or anyone, should have to focus their lives on.”

  That sounded wise enough. It probably even was, really.

  The hallway certainly seemed to be a lot more pleasant, suddenly. It had been a bit more regal before, perhaps, but the white inlaid carvings were still there, left uncolored, framed now in gold colored wood, or so it seemed. The in-wall displays still moved, but the slightly oppressive feeling of white had altered a whole lot. The whole world felt alive, compared to how it had been, even minutes before.

  In that way, Timon was obviously correct enough.

  The amulet in Miven’s hand could cover a lot more area than just the main hallway they were in. The whole thing was finished by about seven, which was impressive. That was about a quarter of a mile’s worth of area, after all. Still, it was going to take her a long time to do the whole of Harmony.

  If that was her plan at all.

  When she finished, the girl started back toward the shop, instantly.

  “We left it unattended! I hadn’t even thought…”

  There was real fear on her face then, which Willum didn’t see a real reason for in the slightest. After all, what was the worst that could happen when they were gone? Someone might not be able to find something. Things were all marked, and the space wasn’t that huge, so it really shouldn’t have been a vast problem.

  As it turned out, there was a man standing in the space, when they got back. Miven bowed a bit, seeming upset, if only a little.

  “I’m so sorry, sir. I was decorating the hallway. Can I help you find anything today, sir?”

  The very old seeming man smiled, the wrinkles of his face pulling up enough to make him seem honestly like a good person. A polite one as well. He’d even seemed that way the one time they’d met before, after he’d tried, and failed, to kill Will.

  “Oh, I’m just looking for Baker here, Miss. Willum, not the other one. Tim… That’s correct for this world?” The man bowed a bit, to all of them, which meant doing it back.

  As they all stood, Timon going first, he nodded.

  “That’s right. So, I take it that you’re not from around here?”

  That got the man to simply agree, very quickly.

  “Oh, my, no. I’m from decently far away, actually. This isn’t my part of the greater whole at all, to be honest. We, our side… We’re all pretty much all in on the idea of protecting reality from destruction, right?” The man glanced at Miven then, as if she were the unknown there.

  The girl furrowed her brow.

  “Yes? Who wouldn’t be?”

  “Exactly! Good to know that you’re reasonable, Miss. Anyway, we got a message from the other side. It seems that you’ve been mildly annoyed by our attempts to kill you, Willum? Sorry about that. We were just trying to destroy you, utterly. It isn’t working too well so far, which, let me tell you, is a bit of a shock to the system. When we try to murder people, that generally just produces dead bodies. Not so much in your case at all.”

  Rather than get a weapon out, which Timon was starting to do, Willum forced a chuckle.

  “Right. What’s the plan there, anyway? I mean, Elsa, she figured that killing me would, or at least might, be about stopping some other part of me? That I could be part of… I don’t know, the center of my being? The greater one?”

  The old seeming man, who felt that way as well as looked it, let his head bob in agreement.

  “A crystal core, we call it. The heart of the larger being. That’s the thought, so far. We wouldn’t have realized it at all, if your Dare Canton here hadn’t tossed one of your close outliers into a star. We’ve done that before, of course, but have never seen what would happen if you did a secondary core component like that. It left a hole with only you in the middle of it. So, we were wondering if killing you would take out the brains of the newest enemy operation. No joy, I’m afraid. We can’t touch you at all.” He looked at the others, and then the window that showed the now colorful hallway. There was no sound of note from outside, which glass would have allowed for at least a little.

  Timon stopped then, and looked a bit troubled.

  “Due to his shielding or…”

  The old fellow moved a little, away from them. Not a great leap back or anything. It was a simple reaction to how intensely Timon was reading the new man.

  “Not that one. Oh, those are nice. Actually, mind if I copy that design? I’ll need to learn how you process magic here, but that shouldn’t take long. You have some unique tricks for it. Anyway, no. We even basically hit him with a nuclear weapon. High yield. True, it was in the shape of a man at the time, but it should have killed even him. As certainly as tossing him into a star could at any rate. The very world he was in rearranged itself to prevent that from happening. So, we tried a few more times, just to check it out, but nothing. Which means that you probably can’t die, really. It’s a bit of a shame, since we don’t have another trick at hand to take out the leader of the other side. The current troublemaker, that is. Not Elsa or her pals.”

  Willum thought for a moment. It wasn’t a long one though.

  “Meaning that the core of each being might well be as immortal as the other side fears?’

  Those words got a slightly disgruntled grunt. The old man shook his head at the same time.

  “Yeah. It isn’t what they’ve been claiming, but it does explain the realities that have a single, insane creature in it. We’ve found those before, of co
urse. Still, these morons… Excuse my language, miss… These bad people that are trying to kill everything to stop that, aren’t doing anything useful at all. We need to stop that bit of mess, don’t you think?”

  He nodded, then looked at the others. Tim, who was in on the whole war, as much as nearly anyone and Miven. The girl who ran the shop there. They both seemed to agree as well.

  Willum didn’t know if it would help at all.

  “Can we though? The best plan we have so far involves basically pushing them away from us, splitting realities on purpose, so that the ones closest to us will act as a buffer.”

  That got a laugh. A real one that seemed to last for a long while.

  “Well, that would work. Well enough. These kind of things flare up every few thousand years or so. Normally we just wait and let them burn themselves out, but this pocket of activity is rather more intense than most. Mainly thanks to the grouping of people around here. You have some rather powerful beings in play. Like that Human Zack, the line walker. He can’t destroy a reality, but if he worked it right, he could cripple a few pretty horribly, I’d have to guess. That wouldn’t stop anything, but would make lives worse for trillions of beings. More than that, in the long run. Any of those old style Greater Demons could do the trick as well, but luckily for us they tend to be pretty selfish. So, yes. We need to push the current crop of ne’er-do-wells away from those beings. From you here, as well, of course.”

  Cutely enough, Miven nodded.

  “So that I don’t accidently warp several realities, harming many people?” There was a slightly sarcastic tone to the words, but they weren’t sharp. It was enough to get Willum to check and make certain she was herself though, not Elsa in disguise.

  She wasn’t. Just a normal person being a bit annoyed at not really getting what was going on at the moment. Even if she was pleased that no one had told her to leave the room. It was clearly not a discussion meant for her, to her own mind. Meaning that speaking out of turn was probably a poor plan.

  The old man simply shook his head a little bit.