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Description
Field Trip

In an ideal world, when someone receives a message from a Leystone, and they are not in the possession of one themselves, they would be alone and be able to watch and listen to the message in comfort and privacy.

This was not an ideal world.

Finn Kestral bit down heavily on a large leg of fowl that he had lifted from his plate and relished the flavour as he chewed. As a man who had been raised on a farm in the plains of Herlindain province, he was not much of a city-lover, but today he truly felt that city life did have its good points, and one of those was the food. He had grown up used to the idea that turkey was a dry meat, but one that he rather enjoyed. The dish he had been given by the Temple-Palace cook, however, was unlike any kind of turkey his mother had prepared for him as a child. The skin had a sweetness to it that he had never tasted before. The red berry juices that had been drizzled over the meat added to the flavour, and the meat itself was moist and succulent. He had, at first, been somewhat self-conscious of the way in which he ate when he came to the city of Dorn with his brother and Master Kalgoran after Malik’s graduation from the Academy of Magic in Capitol City. That self-consciousness had dissolved when he was seen by the cook devouring a pork chop with his fingers, and the cook had been so pleased to see a hearty appetite that he had heaped two more slabs of meat onto Finn’s plate and encouraged him to ‘tuck in’. Malik was used to seeing his brother demolish his food. Even the Master Mage Kalgoran found it mildly amusing, and encouraged Finn to eat however he chose.

“Don’t mind me,” he would say while discarding his own eating utensils, “your way is probably better!”

Finn was licking some of the cranberry sauce from his fingers when he saw a glimmer of light pass through the wall of the kitchen and float towards him. He rose from his stool immediately and reached for the sword at his back that wasn’t there – the sword he had left in his room. His hand grabbed a food knife from the table and lifted it towards the light as it flitted around in front of him like a firebug pursuing a mate.

“Relax, warrior,” Kalgoran mumbled around the food in his mouth, “it’s a Leystone message.”

“A what?” Finn asked as he glared at the spark of light as it shifted in the air.

“A Leystone message,” Kalgoran repeated. He swallowed and wiped his mouth. “Just hold out your hand and flick it. If you don’t, it’ll buzz around you ‘til you do.”

“You flick it,” Finn growled. “I don’t fancy losing a hand to some errant magic in the air.”

“He can’t,” Malik laughed. “It’ll only respond to your touch.”

“Well,” Kalgoran shrugged and stabbed at a chunk of potato with his fork, “I could, if I used the Lorestone, but that would be a trivial use of one of the world’s most powerful artefacts. Besides, intercepting someone else’s personal messages is hardly ethical. Just flick the damned thing and be done with it, man!”

Finn looked at the spark of light a little longer and then tentatively raised a hand. The spark instantly made a move towards his fingers and Finn made a gesture, and flicked it.

The spark made a soft pop-like sound, and then the light expanded in front of him. It shifted and molded itself into a miniature image of a brightly-lit chamber in which sat a bare-chested man with dark skin and hair, and a nervous smile for an expression.

“Who’s that?” Kalgoran asked idly as he glanced up at the image and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s Vrann,” Finn replied absently as he stared at the projected image in front of him. “He’s someone I met in Shiria a while ago.”

The image of the man began to speak.

“We were only talking about him the…” Malik began.

“Shhh,” Kalgoran hushed him. “The Leystone he used is cheap. The message only plays once. Let your brother listen.”

Malik returned to his meal but, like Kalgoran, he kept one eye on the message as it played. He glanced aside briefly and met Kalgoran’s stare looking back at him. As the Master Mage raised his eyebrows and winked, Malik could see that the man was just as interested in the message as both he and his brother Finn.

The image of Vrann spoke of a neighbourhood in which he lived and as the story went on Kalgoran nodded knowingly. Malik leaned a little closer across the table in the hope that Kalgoran would speak, and his hopes were rewarded.

“I know the neighbourhood well,” he said in a hushed voice, so as not to disturb Finn from the projection. “Some say it’s a place blessed by Illustra herself, free of judgment and prejudice. Mind you, Shirian law dictates that the whole Nation be free of judgment and prejudice on those kinds of matters anyway. But still, it’s a wondrous place to visit. Who knows? I might even retire there, one day.”

“You, Master?” Malik asked with a somewhat alarmed expression. “Retire?”

“Not yet, boy!” Kalgoran laughed. “I may look long in the tooth to you, but I’ve a good few decades ahead of me yet!”

Finn could barely hear the conversation between the two mages as he watched and listened to the message that Vrann had sent him. He was so focused on the man that he missed what Kalgoran said next.

“Vrann’s very attractive,” he muttered. “And he has feelings for your brother.”

“You think so?” Malik glanced at the projection.

“I for one wouldn’t turn down whatever he had to offer,” Kalgoran chuckled.

“I mean about his having feelings for Finn?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kalgoran asked. “Listen to him. The poor man looks nervous. He’s rambling on about the Caliph, the Princes, and about one of their National holidays. Look! He’s even bringing his landlady in on this. He wants Finn to know he can be himself in Shiria, without any judgment from others.”

“He can be himself here in Arodar, too,” Malik protested.

“Of course, but there are still a rare few who look on people like us with distain. At least in Shiria no-one will judge his life choices for fear of the Al-Tashir hauling them over hot coals, or whatever it is they do to the prejudicial these days.”

“They do that?” Malik looked alarmed.

“Malik, it’s against the law in Shiria to discriminate. And you know how harsh the punishments are, there, for breaking the law. Shiria has the highest population of First-Born and Earth-Born in all of Rengarth, next to Azan and Darkholm itself. There’s a reason for that: they’re protected by law – the same law that protects people like your brother and me.”

“Is there a word for people like you and my brother?” Malik asked.

“What a strange question!” Kalgoran laughed. “No. Not in the Free Nations, anyway. Domania is a different story entirely. Those who do not conform to their definition of what’s ‘normal’ are called deviants or aberrations. Such words are offensive throughout much of the Free Nations. Even AEngland has no law to prevent a person from loving whomever they wish. They’re a nation steeped in religious dogma, and no-one wants to piss off Illustra. She’s not just the Goddess of Love, she’s the Goddess of Healing, too. Only she and her brother Adris offer their devotees a path to the Plane of Life where healing magic comes from. So, if someone doesn’t like the fact that a man might love another man, they risk her turning her back on them. No, only Domania has a problem with people like your brother and me.”

Kalgoran looked up as he saw the image of Vrann fade, and a mild look of disappointment crossed his face. Finn looked across to the mage and asked “How do I send a reply? Do I need to seek out one of the Cloud-Skiers?”

Kalgoran’s disappointment vanished in favour of a broad smile, and he reached into one of his pockets. “Here,” he said, and laid three small garnet-coloured crystals down on the table.

“What are they?” Finn asked as he picked up one of the crystals and held it up to the light. Tiny sparks flashed almost imperceptibly beneath its surface.

“Leystones!” Malik exclaimed as he picked one of them up, too. “But… unlike any I’ve seen before.”

“They’re the latest design,” Kalgoran added with a hint of pride in his voice, “The Shikanti don’t own the monopoly on communication. These were created by Arslan Meyrick, one of Dorn’s finest alchemists. They surpass even the capabilities of the stones that the Cloud-Skiers peddle.”

“How does it work?” Finn asked with keen interest.

“Just like any other Leystone, for the most part, except that you don’t need to break it,” Kalgoran explained, “although with these even you would be hard-pressed to crack the stone.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. I’ve never used one before,” Finn stared at Kalgoran.

“Ah! Sorry!” Kalgoran chuckled. “I do tend to assume, sometimes. To send a message, all you have to do is tap the point of the crystal, say ‘message to’, and then state the full name of the person you want to receive the message. The stone will record everything in its field of vision up to a fifteen foot radius – what it can see and what it can hear. It will record up to thirty minutes per message, or until you tap it again. Then the message gets sent through the Shikanti Circle network. If the recipient has a Leystone of their own, then it will vibrate, to tell them that they have a message waiting for them. Otherwise, they will experience what you did a little while ago.” Finn nodded his understanding and went back to examining the stone he held. “You can keep one too, Malik,” Kalgoran added. “They’re good for a hundred hours of messages before their energy begins to expire, but any mage can replenish that. Malik knows how, don’t you?” he turned to face the young mage.

“I do! Thank you, Master!” Malik beamed, and pocketed the crystal.

“Arslan only made eight,” Kalgoran said. “He sold three already, but the wily old goat refuses to tell me who to. He kept one for himself, of course, and I managed to secure the other four.”

“I imagine you kept one for yourself,” Finn stated. “Is the last one for Hunter?”

“I thought about that,” Kalgoran admitted, “but now I want you to take it.”

“Me?” Finn asked. “Why would I need two?”

“So you can give one to your friend Vrann,” Kalgoran replied.

Finn looked quickly at Kalgoran, who smiled back at him. “Thank you,” Finn said, quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

“Master,” Malik said and broke the moment of mutual respect and appreciation that passed between Finn and Kalgoran, “you said these surpass the ones that the Shikanti make? I thought the more expensive ones lasted indefinitely. That’s the difference between Shikanti magic and alchemy – Shikanti magic is permanent.”

“True,” Kalgoran shrugged, “alchemical Leystones need to be replenished, but they can’t do this…” Kalgoran pulled a similar crystal from his own pocket, held it between his finger and thumb, and spoke to it. “Call Malik Kestral.”

Within Malik’s pocket he felt a pulse of vibration that repeated over and over. He pulled out the Leystone and looked at it. Beneath its surface he could see a tiny image of Kalgoran.

“Hold it between your finger and thumb as I am,” Kalgoran explained, “and say ‘Answer’.” Malik did so and as soon as he said the word, a beam of light spread outwards from the crystal and projected an image of Kalgoran in front of him. At the same time an image appeared of Malik directly in front of the Master Mage.

“Direct, two-way communication, in real-time,” Kalgoran declared, and his voice echoed as it came from both himself and the projection. “End call.” The image disappeared. “Now that is something the Cloud-Skiers haven’t come up with, yet,” he grinned.

Finn had been watching the exchange between Kalgoran and Malik. He looked at his own Leystone briefly.

“So, I can call Vrann with this?” he asked.

“Not until you give him the other one,” Kalgoran replied. “Two-way calls only work with these garnet stones. But there is nothing to stop you sending him a message to tell him you’re on your way.”

“On my way?” Finn frowned. “But I thought you wanted us here. What about Hunter?”

“Hunter’s not going anywhere for a while. He still needs to come to terms with the loss of his eye. Besides, he and I have other things to discuss. We’ll be occupied for a few days, and I know your feet itch to wander. Go. Take Malik with you, if you like.”

“Well… Vrann did extend his invitation to my brother,” Finn mused.

“Master?” Malik’s tone hinted of disappointment.

“Malik,” Kalgoran turned quickly on the young mage and spoke sternly, “you’ll get nowhere in this world unless you go out there and see a little more of it. What did I teach you about keeping your nose in books?”

“That you can only learn so much from dusty pages,” Malik recalled. “Eventually you have to experience things for yourself.”

“Exactly! So go!” Kalgoran made a dismissive gesture with his hands. “Shiria is as safe a place as any to begin opening your eyes to the world. Hunter and I will still be here when you return.”

Malik looked up at his brother with hopeful eyes, and was rewarded with the man’s smile and nod. “Come on, Malik,” Finn said, “let’s leave Kalgoran to his work and go on a little field trip.”

Description
Field Trip

In an ideal world, when someone receives a message from a Leystone, and they are not in the possession of one themselves, they would be alone and be able to watch and listen to the message in comfort and privacy.

This was not an ideal world.

Finn Kestral bit down heavily on a large leg of fowl that he had lifted from his plate and relished the flavour as he chewed. As a man who had been raised on a farm in the plains of Herlindain province, he was not much of a city-lover, but today he truly felt that city life did have its good points, and one of those was the food. He had grown up used to the idea that turkey was a dry meat, but one that he rather enjoyed. The dish he had been given by the Temple-Palace cook, however, was unlike any kind of turkey his mother had prepared for him as a child. The skin had a sweetness to it that he had never tasted before. The red berry juices that had been drizzled over the meat added to the flavour, and the meat itself was moist and succulent. He had, at first, been somewhat self-conscious of the way in which he ate when he came to the city of Dorn with his brother and Master Kalgoran after Malik’s graduation from the Academy of Magic in Capitol City. That self-consciousness had dissolved when he was seen by the cook devouring a pork chop with his fingers, and the cook had been so pleased to see a hearty appetite that he had heaped two more slabs of meat onto Finn’s plate and encouraged him to ‘tuck in’. Malik was used to seeing his brother demolish his food. Even the Master Mage Kalgoran found it mildly amusing, and encouraged Finn to eat however he chose.

“Don’t mind me,” he would say while discarding his own eating utensils, “your way is probably better!”

Finn was licking some of the cranberry sauce from his fingers when he saw a glimmer of light pass through the wall of the kitchen and float towards him. He rose from his stool immediately and reached for the sword at his back that wasn’t there – the sword he had left in his room. His hand grabbed a food knife from the table and lifted it towards the light as it flitted around in front of him like a firebug pursuing a mate.

“Relax, warrior,” Kalgoran mumbled around the food in his mouth, “it’s a Leystone message.”

“A what?” Finn asked as he glared at the spark of light as it shifted in the air.

“A Leystone message,” Kalgoran repeated. He swallowed and wiped his mouth. “Just hold out your hand and flick it. If you don’t, it’ll buzz around you ‘til you do.”

“You flick it,” Finn growled. “I don’t fancy losing a hand to some errant magic in the air.”

“He can’t,” Malik laughed. “It’ll only respond to your touch.”

“Well,” Kalgoran shrugged and stabbed at a chunk of potato with his fork, “I could, if I used the Lorestone, but that would be a trivial use of one of the world’s most powerful artefacts. Besides, intercepting someone else’s personal messages is hardly ethical. Just flick the damned thing and be done with it, man!”

Finn looked at the spark of light a little longer and then tentatively raised a hand. The spark instantly made a move towards his fingers and Finn made a gesture, and flicked it.

The spark made a soft pop-like sound, and then the light expanded in front of him. It shifted and molded itself into a miniature image of a brightly-lit chamber in which sat a bare-chested man with dark skin and hair, and a nervous smile for an expression.

“Who’s that?” Kalgoran asked idly as he glanced up at the image and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s Vrann,” Finn replied absently as he stared at the projected image in front of him. “He’s someone I met in Shiria a while ago.”

The image of the man began to speak.

“We were only talking about him the…” Malik began.

“Shhh,” Kalgoran hushed him. “The Leystone he used is cheap. The message only plays once. Let your brother listen.”

Malik returned to his meal but, like Kalgoran, he kept one eye on the message as it played. He glanced aside briefly and met Kalgoran’s stare looking back at him. As the Master Mage raised his eyebrows and winked, Malik could see that the man was just as interested in the message as both he and his brother Finn.

The image of Vrann spoke of a neighbourhood in which he lived and as the story went on Kalgoran nodded knowingly. Malik leaned a little closer across the table in the hope that Kalgoran would speak, and his hopes were rewarded.

“I know the neighbourhood well,” he said in a hushed voice, so as not to disturb Finn from the projection. “Some say it’s a place blessed by Illustra herself, free of judgment and prejudice. Mind you, Shirian law dictates that the whole Nation be free of judgment and prejudice on those kinds of matters anyway. But still, it’s a wondrous place to visit. Who knows? I might even retire there, one day.”

“You, Master?” Malik asked with a somewhat alarmed expression. “Retire?”

“Not yet, boy!” Kalgoran laughed. “I may look long in the tooth to you, but I’ve a good few decades ahead of me yet!”

Finn could barely hear the conversation between the two mages as he watched and listened to the message that Vrann had sent him. He was so focused on the man that he missed what Kalgoran said next.

“Vrann’s very attractive,” he muttered. “And he has feelings for your brother.”

“You think so?” Malik glanced at the projection.

“I for one wouldn’t turn down whatever he had to offer,” Kalgoran chuckled.

“I mean about his having feelings for Finn?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kalgoran asked. “Listen to him. The poor man looks nervous. He’s rambling on about the Caliph, the Princes, and about one of their National holidays. Look! He’s even bringing his landlady in on this. He wants Finn to know he can be himself in Shiria, without any judgment from others.”

“He can be himself here in Arodar, too,” Malik protested.

“Of course, but there are still a rare few who look on people like us with distain. At least in Shiria no-one will judge his life choices for fear of the Al-Tashir hauling them over hot coals, or whatever it is they do to the prejudicial these days.”

“They do that?” Malik looked alarmed.

“Malik, it’s against the law in Shiria to discriminate. And you know how harsh the punishments are, there, for breaking the law. Shiria has the highest population of First-Born and Earth-Born in all of Rengarth, next to Azan and Darkholm itself. There’s a reason for that: they’re protected by law – the same law that protects people like your brother and me.”

“Is there a word for people like you and my brother?” Malik asked.

“What a strange question!” Kalgoran laughed. “No. Not in the Free Nations, anyway. Domania is a different story entirely. Those who do not conform to their definition of what’s ‘normal’ are called deviants or aberrations. Such words are offensive throughout much of the Free Nations. Even AEngland has no law to prevent a person from loving whomever they wish. They’re a nation steeped in religious dogma, and no-one wants to piss off Illustra. She’s not just the Goddess of Love, she’s the Goddess of Healing, too. Only she and her brother Adris offer their devotees a path to the Plane of Life where healing magic comes from. So, if someone doesn’t like the fact that a man might love another man, they risk her turning her back on them. No, only Domania has a problem with people like your brother and me.”

Kalgoran looked up as he saw the image of Vrann fade, and a mild look of disappointment crossed his face. Finn looked across to the mage and asked “How do I send a reply? Do I need to seek out one of the Cloud-Skiers?”

Kalgoran’s disappointment vanished in favour of a broad smile, and he reached into one of his pockets. “Here,” he said, and laid three small garnet-coloured crystals down on the table.

“What are they?” Finn asked as he picked up one of the crystals and held it up to the light. Tiny sparks flashed almost imperceptibly beneath its surface.

“Leystones!” Malik exclaimed as he picked one of them up, too. “But… unlike any I’ve seen before.”

“They’re the latest design,” Kalgoran added with a hint of pride in his voice, “The Shikanti don’t own the monopoly on communication. These were created by Arslan Meyrick, one of Dorn’s finest alchemists. They surpass even the capabilities of the stones that the Cloud-Skiers peddle.”

“How does it work?” Finn asked with keen interest.

“Just like any other Leystone, for the most part, except that you don’t need to break it,” Kalgoran explained, “although with these even you would be hard-pressed to crack the stone.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. I’ve never used one before,” Finn stared at Kalgoran.

“Ah! Sorry!” Kalgoran chuckled. “I do tend to assume, sometimes. To send a message, all you have to do is tap the point of the crystal, say ‘message to’, and then state the full name of the person you want to receive the message. The stone will record everything in its field of vision up to a fifteen foot radius – what it can see and what it can hear. It will record up to thirty minutes per message, or until you tap it again. Then the message gets sent through the Shikanti Circle network. If the recipient has a Leystone of their own, then it will vibrate, to tell them that they have a message waiting for them. Otherwise, they will experience what you did a little while ago.” Finn nodded his understanding and went back to examining the stone he held. “You can keep one too, Malik,” Kalgoran added. “They’re good for a hundred hours of messages before their energy begins to expire, but any mage can replenish that. Malik knows how, don’t you?” he turned to face the young mage.

“I do! Thank you, Master!” Malik beamed, and pocketed the crystal.

“Arslan only made eight,” Kalgoran said. “He sold three already, but the wily old goat refuses to tell me who to. He kept one for himself, of course, and I managed to secure the other four.”

“I imagine you kept one for yourself,” Finn stated. “Is the last one for Hunter?”

“I thought about that,” Kalgoran admitted, “but now I want you to take it.”

“Me?” Finn asked. “Why would I need two?”

“So you can give one to your friend Vrann,” Kalgoran replied.

Finn looked quickly at Kalgoran, who smiled back at him. “Thank you,” Finn said, quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

“Master,” Malik said and broke the moment of mutual respect and appreciation that passed between Finn and Kalgoran, “you said these surpass the ones that the Shikanti make? I thought the more expensive ones lasted indefinitely. That’s the difference between Shikanti magic and alchemy – Shikanti magic is permanent.”

“True,” Kalgoran shrugged, “alchemical Leystones need to be replenished, but they can’t do this…” Kalgoran pulled a similar crystal from his own pocket, held it between his finger and thumb, and spoke to it. “Call Malik Kestral.”

Within Malik’s pocket he felt a pulse of vibration that repeated over and over. He pulled out the Leystone and looked at it. Beneath its surface he could see a tiny image of Kalgoran.

“Hold it between your finger and thumb as I am,” Kalgoran explained, “and say ‘Answer’.” Malik did so and as soon as he said the word, a beam of light spread outwards from the crystal and projected an image of Kalgoran in front of him. At the same time an image appeared of Malik directly in front of the Master Mage.

“Direct, two-way communication, in real-time,” Kalgoran declared, and his voice echoed as it came from both himself and the projection. “End call.” The image disappeared. “Now that is something the Cloud-Skiers haven’t come up with, yet,” he grinned.

Finn had been watching the exchange between Kalgoran and Malik. He looked at his own Leystone briefly.

“So, I can call Vrann with this?” he asked.

“Not until you give him the other one,” Kalgoran replied. “Two-way calls only work with these garnet stones. But there is nothing to stop you sending him a message to tell him you’re on your way.”

“On my way?” Finn frowned. “But I thought you wanted us here. What about Hunter?”

“Hunter’s not going anywhere for a while. He still needs to come to terms with the loss of his eye. Besides, he and I have other things to discuss. We’ll be occupied for a few days, and I know your feet itch to wander. Go. Take Malik with you, if you like.”

“Well… Vrann did extend his invitation to my brother,” Finn mused.

“Master?” Malik’s tone hinted of disappointment.

“Malik,” Kalgoran turned quickly on the young mage and spoke sternly, “you’ll get nowhere in this world unless you go out there and see a little more of it. What did I teach you about keeping your nose in books?”

“That you can only learn so much from dusty pages,” Malik recalled. “Eventually you have to experience things for yourself.”

“Exactly! So go!” Kalgoran made a dismissive gesture with his hands. “Shiria is as safe a place as any to begin opening your eyes to the world. Hunter and I will still be here when you return.”

Malik looked up at his brother with hopeful eyes, and was rewarded with the man’s smile and nod. “Come on, Malik,” Finn said, “let’s leave Kalgoran to his work and go on a little field trip.”