[A Day in the Life of Aelryinth] - 0001 Hours

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Year Eight, Midsummer, 0001 hours...

“There is a light in the darkness.

Our Lady in Silver walks the night, not the day,

There to guide us on our way.

The Moon cries silver tears along the Shining Road,

The Court of Stars sings in the silence,

Where the dark would be deepest and strongest.

From the evening to the dawn.

Walk through the darkness, follow the path

From light to light, 

And sing to the Day once more!”

            It was midnight, and the Hour of Magical Renewal had just ticked over. Sylune had reached Her zenith, and the time of Silver Magic was at its height, the moons and stars paying tribute to Her power and benevolence.

            It was the start of my magical day, personally changed from Natural Renewal. Importantly for a Caster like myself, it meant Spell Slots and Spell Engrams were wiped pleasantly clear of Mana Burn and opened for use once more.

            It was the time to reapply mana to those Spell Slots, either by Meditation or sleep; a time to regain expended ki and other mystical powers; and a time to select new Spell Engrams to change my Prepared Spells for the day ahead, if desired.

            Sustaining power pumped continually through my system, reducing the amount of sleep I needed, on top of my already superhuman endurance. Spell Slots still needed eight hours to clear themselves before being purified, but my rote Casting was timed to stop hours before midnight for that very reason.

            Eight hours of sleep would completely restore even the emptiest Valences, but although I used a lot of magic, actually sleeping for any amount of time was nigh impossible for me under normal circumstances, so it was Meditation all the way to regain my spent Valences.

            Being Sustained meant I needed two hours of Meditation or sleep where a normal person would require eight. I wasn’t going to lose those six hours of extra time.

I Hummed, and the mana of the world Sang gently along with me.

            There were only a couple dozen people, not including my family, joining me tonight in the nicknamed Ringsong Pavilion at the edge of my yard. Any and all people who wanted to come for my nightly Meditation were welcome to, to the point where the local temple of Sylune had Consecrated the place and made it into basically a personal shrine to the Goddess of Silver Magic. I often drew more nightly attendance than the temple within Whitestone did, although not the church aboard Grand Central floating above Moonstrike Lake a couple miles away, which had regular traffic from both the students and the teachers within it. Friends and neighbors would come in here, dragging their families with them for the short service, the Salute to Sylune, and the Sublime Chord Meditation that followed.

            Mechanical benefits buttressing the spiritual benefits tended to yield great results. The Sylunar would have loved me to hold my Salute in the temple proper in the city, which would definitely have ensured a massive nightly attendance. But I was a busy person, and nobody in my Allegiance was so crass as to attend just for the Sublime Chord right outside my own home… and I wasn’t going to steal the thunder of the priestesses there, which they appreciated without saying anything.

            The Sublime Chord Meditation was trans-Theurgic. Powered by Heartsong, it allowed people to substitute my Performance Check for Sublime Chord Singing for their own Meditation check, for any of the Seven Traditions of Magic.

Each.

            I went through a lot of magic each day, to the point that two hours of my own Meditation actually wouldn’t be able to restore my Valences under normal circumstances. But if that Meditation check applied to each type of magic independently... then yes, I was able to get all my power back.

            Heavenbound eldritch energy flowed organically from my fingertips, lighting up the sky about the pavilion and showing the dancing mana to anyone who cared to watch it. I never saw it from without, but it was described to me as flowers of the moon and stars blossoming about the pavilion, and bringing the heavens down to earth.

            Silver Magic drove the whole, wielding the Heavenly Wrath through the Heartsong to draw in Good-aligned Divine Magic. It then extended out into the dancing blue-white tinged hues of Arcane energy, followed by the Elemental fury and serenity of Primal magic driven by the Four Seasons of my Druidic foundation. The pavilion itself hummed and drew in the colorless, typeless mana of Artifice and Alchemy, while my Soulshapings lit up with the fires of my Phoenix Cloak, the gentle light of my Halo Crown, the power of my Arcane Focus, and the leashed energy of my Lightning Gauntlets, adding their strength to the mix and swirl of Theurgic energies going on here.

            It was a lot of juice, and it had more than enough power to supply everyone who came here, regardless of the Tradition they used.

            Diana harmonized effortlessly through our mutual Moon Dragon ki basis, and added her own deep chi reserves to what was going on, enabling the whole to boost chi-users, too. As half my neighbors and friends were chi-users and only minor Casters, it was a much-appreciated addition to the Heartsong effects here.

            Even if simple ki was all they had to use, it still harmonized with what was going on.

Tonight, it was me, Diana, our kids; Eddie, Sakura, and their two kids; Photius and his family; and Damon and Faith, pretty much the default crew. Romex was out in Alaska butchering orcs, but Mother Greta of Amana had led their array of orphaned children over from two houses down faithfully, even if it was late for some of them. 

            Frost energy danced strongest around Earl and Angel, especially the accented scales manifesting from their Dragonhearts. Emril, Cecilia, and Edward didn’t have Dragonhearts of their own as yet, unlike Angel and Earl, mainly because they were too young. We had them waiting, but they would have their foundations in place before they were given them to build.

            In an ideal world, Earl and Angel wouldn’t have had them yet, either.

            All of the kids knew how to Meditate, having been participating in this for years now. Romex’s crew was particularly apt at it, as many of the kids were older and actually ready to move out and start families of their own as soon as they found a spouse, or were getting ready to sign up with the military. All of them were muscled like iron from working on the personal Forge he had at his home, and this was their traditional ‘cool-down’ for the day, right before they went to bed.

            They were all Runesmiths, and Romex was blindingly proud of all of them. His Forge was always busy, always being used, with even the kids who had moved out coming back to work there, keep it active and the magic employed, and keep the atmosphere of family among those who had lost theirs going.

            Theurgic magical power flowed into Slots and Valences. As normal, I left two Slots per Valence empty for what I might need on the morrow for specific purposes, but I had almost all the utility purposes long covered, and my basic combat load-out never changed, regardless.

            I Sang a wordless Song to the Sublime Chords of Magic, and Magic sang back to me...

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