Unusable

During the trip back, Rethys found himself thinking and overthinking about the implications of telling Sevi of the teleporter's existence.

He knew for a while now that she was teaching him magic not out of the goodness of her heart, but rather so that he may set her free from the heavily enchanted room that was her prison. It seemed after all that his element's ability to affect magic, especially magical circle installations, was completely unheard of.

But it wasn't that Rethys was unwilling to help her. He was many things, but an ingrate was not one of them, and Sevi's help was, to say the least, lifesaving for him.

She had freed him from the Origin entity attempting to control him and had since then greatly helped him survive in this hostile place. He might have grumbled about her actions and motives in the beginning, but with time, he realized that without her help he would've ended up a corpse long ago.

His occasional attempts at asking her about her origins bore no fruit, as she seemed completely unwilling to talk about it, saying that it was none of his business. The best answer he could get out of her was that she was "but another soul belonging to Yvtar", whatever that meant. But this didn't alarm him that much, after all she could've lied and spun a tale to try and make him sympathize with her.

The fact that she didn't try lying, and instead simply refused to talk about it showed, at least to Rethys, a certain honesty.

The real issue was that Sevi's nature complicated things for Rethys, and made making a decision on how to proceed very difficult for him. He could tell that she was most definitely a human trapped in that magical gem, but couldn't make sense of the sheer dread she at times radiated through the ether.

Rethys had learned to trust the ether during his stay here. And though his attempts at finding a way out were completely fruitless until now, he had improved his understanding of his surroundings and abilities, especially his understanding of the magical substance that permeated all things.

It was not at all like the scholarly methods that Fulgrith had occasionally described to him, but rather an instinctive, intimate understanding that went beyond words, allowing him to read what the ether carried with it. He couldn't explain it himself if he tried his hardest, after all it was very, very vague, but the clearest way it manifested in this place was in communicating the danger around him.

And on that front, Sevi radiated more danger than any horror he had encountered thus far, with perhaps the only exceptions being the creatures on the surface. Even now Rethys shuddered at their memory.

But regardless of what he understood, or thought he understood, from the ether, he couldn't just do nothing. The stress of not making any sort of true progress in the past two weeks weighed down on him far too heavily, he was beginning to despair. He wanted to get out of this place, and he'd be damned if doubt and indecision doomed him.

He wouldn't trust Sevi with his life, far from it, but understood that cooperation was a two-way street, and that he had to give in order to receive, and he had received a lot from her so far.

'Anything is better than rotting in this place with the rest of them.' He sighed.

He only hoped that he wouldn't have to give too much, but even then, he was willing to give quite a lot.

Finally reaching the long corridor that led to the sealing chamber, he put aside his thoughts as he prepared deliver the news of his find to the ancient trapped mage. And as his steps resounded in the silent stone halls, he hoped in his heart of hearts that she could give him some good news for a change.

Stepping into the circular room, he saw the azure glow set its sights on him.

"You return, Rethys, and bloodied as always." Sevi noted.

"It's fine." He responded uninterestedly as he took to his spot and began his usual magic training.

"No, it is not 'fine'. Your powers allow you to navigate these halls safely, yet you abandon caution and continue to seek out battles you have nothing to gain from. You must reign in the influence of that thing controlling you or you will eventually lose yourself." Sevi chastised.

'Give me a break...' He sighed inwardly, bored to death of her needless scolding at this point.

It was true that he was avoiding fights less and less, instead opting to purge catacomb dwellers whenever he could. But who could blame him?

The more used to magic he became and the more he understood it, the louder the voice in his head grew. And it didn't take long before it became unbearable and he had to listen to it to soothe the noise. At this point he didn't care if he did some of the entity's bidding as long as it let him sleep.

His heightening senses and abilities also brought with them further understanding of the sheer suffering saturating the grey stone halls. The muted screams of the damned echoing through the ether were unheard to all, but heard to Rethys, however faint, and he simply couldn't ignore them. Every soul freed helped restore peace, however slowly, and even though he wasn't the most virtuous of souls, he wouldn't deny that doing good felt good.

"Your misuse of magic is also pushing your body to its limits. And watching you breaking down before me is not exactly a pleasant sight." Sevi rebuked again.

"I know, Sevi... I know..." He tiredly sighed.

He knew she was right, really, he did. But he couldn't afford to let go of the strength that allowed him to explore the catacombs freely and manage to fight effectively. Going back to being as weak as he used to be was more terrifying than anything, especially in such a dangerous place.

"Well, Sevi, what do you think I should do ?" He asked, not even bothering to look at the azure gem he knew was glaring at him.

"You said it yourself." She replied with an icy tone. "That you wish to leave this place. Know that this recklessness is not aiding you in your goal, and that you must take it slower. Magic is not a sprint; it is a slow and confident walk forward. And both your thoughtless behavior and lack of discipline will see you falling before you can even regret your follies."

"I found it." He said.

"And what have you found this time?" Sevi asked, slightly annoyed that Rethys changed the subject.

"A magic circle in one of the workshops, it was of the Space element. You said it yourself, no? That the Space element's only use is in teleportation." He answered.

"That is Indeed what I have said, but things are not so simple. Know that there should not be any such installations anywhere within the catacombs, which means that the one you have stumbled upon is at best hastily made, and at worst incomplete. It is guaranteed to be inoperable, and even on the slight off chance that it was properly set up, it would likely send you to your doom, if not kill you outright." The ancient mage responded.

"Any way to change its destination? Make it point south towards any the teleporters in my home?" Rethys asked.

"That would be impossible to do, I am afraid. In order to do that, you would need both circles to be of the same intensity, then you would need to make sure they both have the same focal sign. The focal sign, if you are wondering, is the centerpiece of teleporter magic circles, and serves to establish connection between the two.

"Do you happen to have memorized the focal rune of a teleporter down to the smallest detail?" Sevi asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Rethys responded, his eyes focused on the wobbling shape of ether in his hands.

Silence fell upon the room after Rethys' confident declaration. It seemed that Sevi didn't expect him to have laid eyes on a teleporter in his life, much less to have memorized one of the many symbols dotting their surfaces.

But he did. After all, he had been to Northwood many times with Fulgrith. And though he had never experienced teleportation, he had nonetheless seen the teleporter platform there closely and often enough that he was confident he could recreate its so-called focal symbol.

Despite his confidence however, Sevi was as ready as ever to crush his ambitions.

"Goodness... that would not solve the problem, Rethys, not by any stretch of the imagination." Sevi sighed. "Do you remember what I told you of the distinction between the Material and Ethereal elements?"

'Here she goes again...' Rethys sighed inwardly.

"That the Material elements are based on natural phenomena while the Ethereal elements are based on ideas and beliefs." He answered, repeating word for word what Sevi had previously told him.

"To truly explain to you my point, Rethys, let us entirely go through them again. Now then, Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Darkness, and Light are known as the six primary material elements. I won't complicate matters too greatly, but know that we call not upon the element, but the ether associated with it and bearing its power, to recreate its effects as best as we understand them. Thus, the material elements only recreate effects that are found in the material world and that are also understood and mastered by the mage.

"Now moving on to the ethereal elements, they are born of the ether and from the beliefs of living creatures, and exist only to perpetuate these ideas further. Be it the will to inflict harm in Malice, the will to mend and repair in Restoration, or the will to twist and alter in Corruption, all of them are powers manifested through will, powered through ether, and that echo their core concept."

"Yes... yeah, you've already told me all of this. Why repeat?" Rethys grumbled as the shape in his hand lost cohesion and dissipated, prompting him to try again.

"Because, you see, Rethys, there are three other known elements that belong to a category of their own. Not because of they don't fit in either previous category, but simply because they are so poorly understood that none can use them effectively, or at all. These three elements are Gravity, Space and Time, and are understood to be material elements.

"What you need to know is that the mages of my time somewhat understood Gravity, but never achieved anything resembling understanding regarding the elements of Space, and especially so for the element of Time. All of the known uses of the Space element were coined by a singular person, who had unlocked its secrets and then took most of them with her to the grave.

"No one truly understands how those teleportation incantations and runes work, the person who made them only spread them, and refused to share their inner workings. And if what you told me of your country of origin is correct, then they too must have not unlocked that element's secrets if they are still confined to using similar magic circles.

"All of this is to say, my dear Rethys, that the teleporter you found has to be identical to the one you know of, as the slightest miscalibration will have you ending up as a puddle of red upon reaching the other side."