Universe's End

Chapter 256: Skybound Chanter

1. Skybound Chanter

“Alright Miguel, so my question for you is this, would you like to show off first, or shall I?” Rory asked playfully, letting the older-younger man decide.

“In this case, I believe it would be best if I showed you my own vocation and its capabilities first,” Miguel answered. “As I believe it would require more time the other way around.”

“Quite modest,” Rory said.

“Perhaps, or perhaps I simply understand the difference in our capabilities,” the man laughed with a self-deprecating chuckle. “If you would follow me, my workshop is somewhat out of the way. Not all of my efforts have been… stable.”

“Welcome to the club,” Rory snorted before following the man. While he looked like a man in his sixties, he would have fit into the ‘running club sixties’ type, clearly in great shape, just older.

Which, given he was a tier seven, wasn’t all that far off. Traveling between the many floating earthen satellites, Rory enjoyed the journey even if it wasn’t even ten minutes before they found themselves standing atop a rather large asteroid, not quite a small mountain or land masses, but larger than the average asteroid. Atop it was what was clearly a warehouse.

“As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, the reason our gliders work as well as they do is that they are made using some of the naturally occurring skybound materials that are so prevalent in this area. With natural skybound materials, specialized skills are unneeded to work with them; they are largely like any other material, just with the ability to remain airborne for longer periods of time.”

“Simple enough,” Rory said, beginning to have a sense of where this was going based on his phrasing. “But?”

“But what if I were to tell you that Skybound traits are not exclusive?”

“I would ordinarily find that hard to believe. In all my years, I haven’t discovered any special mechanism of pneuma that enables costless flight. But would I be correct in assuming you are about to tell me I’m rather ignorant?”

“Ignorant? No,” Miguel laughed. “That would be far too harsh. It was something I myself only uncovered in the last twenty or so years. It’s part of why I look as old as I do; I was always a slower ascender, which, as you probably understand, wreaks havoc on the skin.”

“That is one way to phrase it,” Rory chuckled. It had been pretty well understood by this point that, depending on how far into your total lifespan one was, years gained for an ascension were variable. A tier-one human would have a lifespan roughly similar to that of a human from Earth, give or take ten or fifteen years. The issue was that a twenty-year-old reaching tier two would see their longevity extended to the maximum possible extent. In contrast, a sixty- or eighty-year-old might only see fifty percent or less. It had been the reason why Old Man Kal had passed away as soon as he had, even with several ascensions under his belt.

All of that amounted to the fact that Miguel, looking to be in his sixties even as a tier seven, made perfect sense if his breakthrough talent hadn’t been discovered until recently.

“In truth, had it not been for this discovery and the change in my vocation, I’ll be honest in that I assumed I was going to plateau at tier six.”

“Quite the discovery then.”

“Indeed,” Miguel agreed. “But I believe I’ve beaten around the bush for long enough. Follow me.”

Leading the way once more, Miguel led them into the warehouse, as Rory froze in his tracks.

No. Not a warehouse.

A hangar.

Within the hangar, there were eight oversized mega gliders. They were like strange amalgamations of a regular glider, a blimp, and the generic aspects of a bush plane.

“Part of how we also drove off any curious tier eights that might have come up here are these, the pinnacle of efforts of the last twenty years. The naturally occurring skybound materials weren’t enough on their own, as almost every component of these is made of skybound materials.”

“How then?”

“May I?” Miguel asked, his eyes flicking down toward an interface currently invisible to Rory.

“Go ahead.”

Flicking it over, Rory finally had the chance to understand the man’s vocation better.

Itzamna Chanter

While there have been many fields explored and innovated, only one has broached the horizon of Skybound Chanting. As the first Skybound Chanter, you gain a natural talent for gauging the lift factor of any and every material under the endless sky.

“Itzamna chanter,” Rory said slowly, whistling after a moment. “I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a vocation like yours before.”

A large part of that was simply that he had largely pioneered every artisan field, or, where alchemy was involved, that a former founder had. Every other artisan vocation he’d encountered was either basic or minor derivatives of ‘alchemist,’ ‘blacksmith,’ ‘inscriptionist,’ ‘gem crafter,’ or the rarer ‘Architect.’

It reminded him of his own version of the gem crafting skill, which had evolved due to being the founder of an entire new field. Perhaps had he had a lesser vocation, his vocation would have evolved as well, but Architect of the Precursors was already a top-level vocation if Rory said so himself.

“Skybound chanting is a form of artisanry unlike any other,” Miguel began to lecture. “Our local inscription artists, gem crafters, and the like are, truthfully, rather unadvanced without proper teachers. What has been discovered has largely come from E.O.N.-derived rewards or the like. But that also wasn’t really the point,” Miguel said with a glance to the side as if mentally chiding himself for getting off topic. “If it had to be likened to any, it would be Gem Crafting.”

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“Oh, truly?” Rory asked, surprised that Gem Crafting, among the current artisan fields, would be the most similar.

“I was never an accomplished Gem Crafter, so I apologize if I misspeak, but the similarity is in the ‘mapping’ process that all gems go through when formulating an intent within the gem. Except for Skybound chanting, it is not as simple as connecting nodes through shared meaning. No, you must win an argument.”

“Win… an argument?” Rory asked, confused.

“Correct,” Miguel confirmed. “Everything, and I mean everything, based on what I’ve seen in the last twenty years, has some level of sky soul, as I call it, or ‘lift factor’ as the description of my vocation mentioned. It cannot be sensed through regular means, physical or magical. It is entirely independent of pneuma, essence, or physical traits. Two bars of metal, forged from the same source and made to be perfect replicas of one another, may have different sky soul attunements. Materials that are naturally skybound have an innate sky soul, thus requiring no further work. However, they can be enhanced to a degree.”

“And so, this thing about winning an argument?” Rory prompted.

“Ahah, before I can get there, I must explain something. Skybound materials have two factors one must consider, their ‘belonging’ and their ‘passion.’ I will first explain ‘passion’ as it relates to Skybound materials. The short explanation is that the more ‘passion’ a material has toward the sky, the more powerful the lift factor, and the better able it is to sustain its own weight. Something with low passion may only fall slowly. In contrast, something with high passion may be able to sustain itself indefinitely in the air, or even generate enough force to lift other things.”

“And belonging means what?”

“Three stages,” Miguel held his hand up. “A material that has no lift factor whatsoever belongs to the ground; therefore, it is earthbound. Something that may be convinced is horizon-bound. Lastly, anything which has been convinced in sky-bound.”

“The way you say ‘convinced’ makes me feel like you’re about to explain the entire argument point.”

“You are sharp, Grand Architect,” Miguel nodded. “Most things start as earthbound or horizon-bound. After recognizing the state of their ‘belonging,’ one must speak to them, to explain why they should belong to the sky.”

Rory stared at Miguel for several seconds, completely whiffing on the explanation.

“Let me show you directly,” Miguel chuckled. “Would you happen to have anything on hand that you wouldn’t mind being used for this demonstration? Preferably something you’d be okay with having its interactions with gravity altered.”

“I suppose,” Rory nodded as he handed over a random dagger from his inventory.

“Wow,” the man’s eyebrows rose as he stared at the dagger. “While I no longer dabble directly in blacksmithing, that is perhaps the highest quality blade I’ve ever seen.”

For a moment, Rory felt embarrassed that the blade was legitimately just a random blade lying around in his inventory, utterly nothing special about it outside of being made from gravite.

“I distract myself once more,” Miguel sighed. “Anyways, pay attention.”

Opening his mouth, the man began to… hum? Sing? It was hard to place exactly what it was, but a harmonic sound escaped from his mouth. Unlike an actual song, it seemed to dip and rise in a pattern that Rory recognized as speech.

What in the world?

After nearly a minute of that, the man wiped his brow before smiling.

“It is done.”

“What is?”

“Watch.”

Turning his hand upside down, the blade began to fall in slow motion, as if actively resisting the call of the ground below.

And most importantly? Rory sensed zero pneuma or even magic as he had come to recognize it. It was almost as if physical properties had been altered, even if the blade looked no different.

“That little blade was somewhat opinioned regarding its place in the world, but I’ve convinced more stubborn things in the past,” Miguel said.

“That’s amazing,” Rory said after a moment. “I can’t sense a single actual change in the blade, magical or physical. The only change I can see is that it’s now referenced as a skybound gravite dagger in its description.”

“Correct. Why I referenced it as similar to gem crafting is that one must convince a material or item on several fronts, each connected to the last. Unlike gem crafting, you don’t get to decide the details through planning. While I may be the origin of this art form, I am unfortunately not innately skilled like someone like you. Convincing even a few objects or materials takes a lot out of me, hence why everything here has taken me the better part of twenty years.”

“How do I learn?” Rory asked.

“First, one must be able to listen to the words of the wind,” Miguel answered. “That took me decades to master, though that is partially because I didn’t understand what I was doing to begin with. For someone like you, if you spend enough time meditating on the voice of the sky, you should be able to get the hang of it quickly. It is very important that you do not become distracted by things such as the movement of pneuma or other magical forces; they are distractions that feel correct but can mislead you. Physical sounds are also a no-go; again, they are misleading distractions.”

“Alright, so listen to something that is neither magical nor physical, got it,” Rory nodded.

Miguel smiled knowingly as if he was aware that what he was describing was rather preposterous.

“I never said it was easy. It’s why in the twenty years that I’ve had this vocation, I’ve never managed to teach a single other person the skills necessary to unlock it as a vocational evolution. In fact, I thought it would die with me until Lady Trailblazer returned to us. At that point, when she herself told me of your partnership, I began to see a chance to pass it on.”

“I’m sorry,” Rory said somewhat quietly. It was easy to tell how long the man had carried that burden, having discovered something amazing and yet feeling as if it was doomed to die along with him at the rate things were going.

“It is nothing to apologize for. Even if I passed on without ever teaching another, I believe someone would have eventually discovered it once again.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong,” Rory nodded, thinking back to how alchemy had been a dead skill and vocation until he and Mariah had revived it due to her own curiosity.

“I’m glad to hear you agree,” Miguel said, lowering his head for a moment. “But thankfully, I also don’t see myself dying tomorrow,” the man laughed. “I’d warrant I have another… eighty to a hundred years at least? I can still make a shot at tier eight, so I’m not giving up just yet.”

“That’s the attitude,” Rory grinned. He was definitely behind the curve on the number of years spent per ascension. Still, the man wasn’t so far behind that tier eight was entirely out of the question.

“But, once more, I end up distracted,” Miguel said. “That is the simplified version of skybound chanting. Do you have any other questions?”

“None, aside from when we can get started, master?” Rory said, winking at the man who snorted, a deep belly laugh escaping moments later.

“Hah, didn’t ever expect a peer of the Lady Trailblazer to call me that,” Miguel said as he wiped a single tear from his eye. “Soon is my answer. But first, I would like to ask you something.”

“Oh?” Rory responded.

“In the time it took for me to find something that truly called out to me, my vocation has changed several times as I found things that fit better, but not perfectly. I will admit that, at low points, I wondered what kept me from reaching the esteemed Architect vocation. Little is known about it in truth, especially here, outside that it seems to be only for those who can do it all.”

“It’s not really about doing it all,” Rory said after a moment of consideration. “It’s a genuine want to do it all. In your case, while you may have had a vocation that changed over the years to fit things closer to who you were at your core, doesn’t that itself speak of the fact that the prior vocations were things you weren’t that attached to? To me, everything is worth exploring at some point or another. That’s not to say I never prioritize, hardly, but with a life that, for the moment, seems poised to continue for quite some time, it gives me all the time in the world to tackle everything, and that has become something that guides me, even if only subconsciously at times.”

Miguel was silent for several seconds before sighing.

“Yes, I believe I can understand now. In memories of the past, being a blacksmith or an expedition member or whatever were simply responsibilities to fulfill rather than opportunities.”

“Bingo,” Rory said. “But you did find something that resonated eventually.”

“I did,” Miguel said happily. “That was all I wanted to ask. Though, there is one other thing I suppose I should ask.”

“That being?”

Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, Miguel grinned mischievously.

“How would you like to fly something a little beefier than a glider?”