Scientific Sorcery : 58 The Deconstruction of Svalbard

I carefully bagged the remaining shard of Glinka's megalith shard and carried it into Svalbard's ruins.

As I carefully handled the stone covered in fish and wave-shaped hand-carved runes, I felt a faint tingle of magic, like spikes of electrical current dancing across my skin.

"Alright, Teya," I said, addressing the river spirit through Stormy as I placed her megalith next to the smithy. "To start off, I’ll need your help to unearth everything of value in Svalbard. Everything. Dragonglass, human bones, metal, gold, etc. Can you flood the entire village, except for the smithy? I'll be watching from here.”

Teya's watery avatar nodded.

As I settled into position, I watched as Teya stretched almost as if she was replicating the motion of an Olympic swimmer and then waved her hands as if she was conducting an invisible orchestra. The behind her roared and water began to rise and twist, rushing towards the megalith. A thousand sparkling currents formed a massive spiral that gradually enveloped the ruins. The water circled the smithy and poured into every crevice, gradually filling the catacombs and seeping into the smallest spaces between stones.

The sight of the impossibly aware river was utterly mesmerizing. Thousands of separate currents within the watery spiral worked in concert, meticulously taking apart the remnants of Svalbard brick by brick. I couldn't help but marvel at how effective a river was as a disassembler.

Teya's control over the water was precise and efficient, sorting through the debris with a level of detail I could never have achieved alone.

I dragged a few empty barrels and chests to the edge of the river at the front of the smithy, curious to see what treasures Teya would unearth, telling her what should be placed where. As I watched, liquid hands began to form from the swirling waters, depositing various items into the empty chests.

Metal objects clinked as they were placed in one chest - old tools, weapons. Other chest was filled with bits of armor that had survived the dragon's attack. In another, I saw the glint of gold coins and jewelry, remnants of Svalbard's past wealth.

The third chest began to fill with dragonglass crystals, the emerald-obsidian sand gleaming wetly in the dim light.

But it was the barrels that were of true value to me as a witch. Human remains and magic-reinforced, if somewhat burned, human ribcages were being deposited into them by Teya's watery hands. 

As I observed her efficient work, a sense of satisfaction washed over me. This was progress, tangible and real. With each item recovered, our wealth grew and so did our potential to do more.

As Teya worked, I did too, pouring witchy earth into the barrels to dissolve the flesh and to produce witchglass from the bones.

. . .

It took us many days to deconstruct all of Svalbard and even more time for the micro-organisms within the earth-blessed barrels to convert human bones into witchglass for magic remotes. In the end, thanks to Teya's ability to unearth the bones of the marauders that had been thrown all around Svalbard, I ended up with enough human heart materials to produce thirty new remotes and a ton of witchglass.

Over the next few days, I focused on increasing our mobility.

I began by coating Cali's sleigh with a thin layer of witchglass. As I worked, I marveled at how the witchglass seemed to meld seamlessly with the sleigh's existing enchantments and runework, taking over its old functions. The process was painstaking, requiring precision and patience, but the result was worth it. After about a week of work, the sleigh gleamed with an otherworldly sheen, its old magical properties amplified by the witchglass coating.

However, I knew that the sleigh alone wouldn't be enough. Something larger was needed, something that could carry not just the sleigh with my domain, but also all of the iron, Glinka's megalith, her most potent magical rocks, and the horses.

"Teya," I called out to the river spirit through Stormy, "I have an idea, but I'll need your help again."

The watery Avatar turned my way.

"We need to build a barge," I explained. "Something big enough to carry everything of value from Svalbard. Can you help me gather all the wooden beams from the ruins?"

Teya's response was quick. The river began to churn and twist, and soon, a procession of wooden beams floated towards us, guided by Teya's watery hands.

Over the next few days, Teya and I worked in tandem to construct the barge. I designed the structure, drawing on knowledge that seemed to come from somewhere deep within the Understanding. Teya's control over water allowed us to maneuver the heavy beams with ease atop of each other. 

Since neither of us needed rest, we worked through cloudy winter days and dark nights. Teya's river currents wasn't very good at holding tools, so I handled hacksaws, ropes and tar to bind the wood beams together.

Chatting with Teya during breaks through Stormy, I learned that her full name was Karpathy Galateya and that she was a child of several generations of human colonists from Wearth, refugees of some kind of a cosmic disaster, the origins of which bewilderingly enough was... Endalaus.

Teya revealed to me the nature of her death via an arrow of the wildling Sarcaxians and her dreary, maddening immortality.

As I was some kind of a crystalline-organic construct animated by my witchy domain, Teya couldn’t see or hear me, but she could sense my body as long as it was submerged in the water she controlled. Thus I laid back in the river as if I was making a snow angel, with Teya’s magic Avatar projected into existence beside me, staring at the stars overhead.

Using a backpack of witchy earth as my headrest, feeling the cold water lap around me, I turned my head towards Teya's watery avatar. "So, Teya," I began, "how exactly did you become immortal? I mean, you mentioned being shot by an arrow, but how did that lead to... you becoming river Glinka?" I gestured vaguely at the river.

Stormy, perched on my chest, began to translate Teya's response through a series of mews and paw taps on the Codex.

"Mrrr-swwrrrrrow-mrrr... ccccryssss-tlll," Stormy mewed.

"You swallowed a crystal?" I asked, intrigued.

Teya's avatar nodded, and Stormy tapping ‘yes’.

"Mrryyy.... grrrr-fffftrrr-rrrrrssssh... ssss-aafffff.... prrrnnnnn-ttt," Stormy continued.

I furrowed my brow, trying to piece together the information. "A save point crystal from your grandfather? Werth tech?"

'Yes,' Stormy tapped. “Chhhh–rrrr-nnnn-aaa-ccc-eeesssst!”

“Chronacist?” I repeated the word.

Teya nodded.

As Galateya continued her explanation through Stormy's meows and taps, using river-shaped dioramas to explain that the local boreal forest was warm, flat steppes long ago, I began to form a hypothesis. The crystal Teya had swallowed must have been some kind of advanced data storage tool, capable of preserving consciousness. When she died, the river began spreading her consciousness throughout the river over countless millennia and the Sarcaxian blood sacrifices amplified the effect. 

"Teya," I said, sitting up slightly, "I don't think you're actually manipulating water. From what I learned so far, crystals is what create magic on Thornwild. I think you're manipulating the Chronacist crystals that have spread throughout the river. Your consciousness, your very essence, is stored in these crystals. A high concentration of them within the megalith forms your mind and the sand floating through the river acts like your body.

Teya's Avatar tilted its head, processing my words as Stormy mewled them out.

"Think about it," I continued, excitement building in my voice. "The places where you're most present, where your control is strongest and where your rocks appear brightest in my Astralscope are here - this place must be the area with the highest concentration of these crystals. We should take our barge upriver and have you gather as many of these crystals as possible... collect all of from from North to South, increasing their potency and magnifying your abilities.”

Teya nodded in agreement.

My mind began racing with the implications. "This could explain why you can't just take over Cali's body on the account that Cali's heart-less dead body is being preserved by my witchy domain water now, which cancels out your magic.”

“Is Cali’s body going to decay if I remove her from life-water?” I asked Stormy.

‘Yes,’ Stormy replied.

As I resumed my relaxing discussion with Galateya, an idea began to form in my mind. "Teya," I said, thinking out loud, "I think I can give you physical form. Not a human body, exactly, but something more... solid, something that would actually allow you to walk around.”

The river spirit stared in my direction with ever-shifting faces.

"Here's what I'm thinking," I explained, sitting up fully. "We could encase your megalith in a large, reinforced backpack like mine, then create a set of watertight leather armour connected to the backpack filled with running water which would have a high concentration of these… Chronacist water-controlling crystals. The crystal-filled water would be constantly cycling through the armor set, allowing you to sense and move every digit and limb, etc. This should… theoretically allow you to move yourself on land, let you go wherever you feel like.

Teya's avatar seemed to ripple with excitement at my proposal.

Stormy's paw tapped 'Yes' repeatedly on the Codex.

"You like that plan?" I grinned. "Alright then, let's make it happen then. I'll need to do some work in the smithy, but I reckon there’s more than enough leather scraps and animal skins to pull this off!"