Rising Shards

“And then like, wow, like,” Chellsi said. "After Elisa and Latte's like, ball thing, like I don't even know..."

“Seriously it was, like, not normal, like anything that happened and I could not believe it,” Mikeila-Keila said. “We could have like…”

“Like…”

“Died, maybe.”

Ovie had some respect for Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila, but her limit with them had gotten smaller over the last few weeks, especially once they joined that freak Chumbler’s group of weirdos. She tapped at her pen and chewed on her free hand's pinky nail as she waited for Caya Kilander to start their latest void studies class. At least Caya had the ability to shut the two up.

Caya looked down as the rest of the class filed in. Ovie made sure to stare daggers at Zeta Faleur when she arrived with her horrible friends. Caya dimmed the lights and turned her projector on.

“Today’s lesson will be a little different than usual,” Caya said. “We’ve discussed that Cani and void energy comes in various forms correct? Can anyone name them?”

“They’re the same names as three schools of teaching, aren’t they?” Oka Ohri asked. “Atrian for spirit, Havena for body, and Calestia for mind.”

Ovie decided she hated Oka's stupid flowers she always had in her hair as she nervously patted it, as if she was scared her answer was wrong. Or she was playing scared for attention and knew she was right. Either was annoying.

“Correct,” Caya said. “But there are others, of course. One of the most infamous is this.”

Caya’s projection was turned to a camera on her desk with a small tray under it. Caya placed a vial of dark liquid under the projector area, and it appeared on the screens as she rotated it in her hands. Ovie recognized the substance immediately.

“This substance is called Elka,” Caya said. “It is void discord in liquid form. While the other forms of Cani energy allows us to control them in and out of the void, Elka is much harder to contain. It’s energy born of darkness, effectively. You may have heard of cultists like the Order of Terina. This is the substance they strive for.”

“Can we like, touch it?” Mikeila-Keila asked.

“Can we taste it?” Aira asked.

“No, you shouldn’t touch this, or drink this.” Caya said.

Ovie glared at the others. She knew the depths of Mikeila-Keila’s stupidity was near unfathomable, but Aira seemed to have flashes of brilliance, so her being idiotic was disappointing. Caya continued to turn the vial, and Ovie could see it still had that water paint-all-mixed-together shade under its dark hue.

“Elka is capable of many terrible things with the user’s intent,” Caya said. “Elka can be manipulated the same way as regular Cani energy, but Elkaic energy is more focused on the mind, similar to the Calestian school of power.”

“What that means?" Kalei asked.

“Cani energy generally controls the matter of the world,” Caya said. “For example, an Cani that has their powers focused on controlling water is controlling something tangible, or something on the surface.”

Ovie glanced over to Zeta again, who hadn’t looked up much during the lesson. This probably looked familiar to her, and she didn’t know what to think of it. Elka was definitely familiar to Ovie.

“Elkaic energy is closer to Calestian energy, or a corruption of it,” Caya said. “Calestian energy is of the mind, and so is Elka. But Elka is used to manipulate and cause pain.”

Ovie grinned as she could see all the way from her seat when Zeta’s hands started to shake. Serves you right.

“In various ancient wars across the void, there is evidence that armies used Elka in the war as a counter to their enemies when Atrian, Havenan, and Calestian energy proved futile,” Caya said. “It’s capable of inflicting incredible pain on those targeted with it.”

“How did they even use it?” Ovie asked. “Aren’t all Echela incapable of using the etherealis? Or were they all Cani?”

“Good question,” Caya said. “That is correct, Echela can’t use any schools of the etherealis. This is where things get a little fuzzy. It’s hard to keep records of our own ancient times, let alone those of worlds far away in the void that have faded.”

Caya had the class turn to a page in their textbooks. It showed a frozen planet.

“One such war we do have a bit of knowledge on is the war between two world bodies in the void, Indicordia and Crimsalia. That war seems to have been fought mostly over sources of Elka.”

“My head hurts,” Latte said.

“Oh no, they gave Latte Elka!” Chellsi said.

The class laughed, but Ovie didn’t find it funny at all.

“How come it’s like a liquid while all the other energy we’ve seen isn’t?” Aira asked.

“Another good question,” Caya said. “Do any of you know who studied Elka in the recent era, collecting samples from battlefields to make incredible strides to understand it?”

Nobody seemed to know the answer. Ovie did, but she didn’t bother answering, enjoying seeing the class squirm.

“Was it Auren Corde?” Oka finally asked.

Caya smiled.

“That’s right,” Caya said. “A very famous adventurer named Auren Corde studied it, and it greatly aided the war efforts in the Serrate System of void nodes. If not for Auren, we probably wouldn’t be able to have a sample of Elka in this room right now. Auren made the connection that the strength of both is tied to feeling.  He discovered the way the ancient Indicordian and Crimsalian armies kept the substance in similar containers to Atrian veins. And luckily, evidence of that world body system ended up here before they faded away.”

A lot of it was nonsense to Ovie. Who cares how some ancient people from long dead worlds millions of miles away in dimensions they could never visit potentially used the stuff? She wanted to learn more about how she could use it herself, because she knew Elka’s history enough already. 

It was what Jeans used for her best research, after all.

After class, Ovie didn’t want to spend much time with her roommates, especially after their intense ineptitude in class. Instead, she overhead something interesting.

“We should go visit it now,” Aira said. “We’re not gonna have as much time when we do the memory trials, right?”

“Quiet!” Laenie said.

“Oh, sorry.” Aira said.

Curiously, Aira and Laenie were whispering to each other. Ovie stayed close, but not too close as she followed the two. They were up to something, and the more information she could find on people that were up to something would always be valuable. Ovie couldn’t hear much of their whispering, but she did hear Laenie say she didn’t want to teleport because she was feeling queasy.

Ovie followed the two all the way to the beach. What the hell are they doing?

The two stopped near some caves. Ovie found a spot behind a rock grouping that allowed her to see them clearly without them seeing her. There was a spot in the sand that looked a bit dug up. Laenie grabbed a water pot that they kept nearby for some reason and started pouring it.

“I’m still not sure this thing needs water,” Aira said.

“It’s like a flower,” Laenie said. “And if I know flowers, it needs water, sun, and love.”

Aira hugged the ground. “I love you, mystery silver egg thing.”

This was all too strange. Cani life was never normal, but what on earth would be a silver egg that’s buried under the sand that they needed to tend to?

“So yeah, do you think we can ask some more people to watch it while we do our memory trials?” Aira asked. “I asked Amara already.”

“Maybe, if Kalei, Oka, and Zeta are done with theirs already we can ask them.” Laenie said. "Oh, and I think Nikki's free!"

Ovie perked up at that thought.

“That’d be good,” Aira said. “That Elka thing has me nervous. Who knows what kind of people will try to hurt mystery egg if we leave it alone?”

This was all remarkably interesting to Ovie. Especially the idea of getting Zeta far out here in a place where it’d be hard for her to escape. 

That, in fact, gave her a delightful idea.