The Scribes 3 Primum Invocatio
12 May 2017
Scribe 23 looked from the sun to the jasmine growing under the balcony and marveled at how the small flowers soaked the energy in effortlessly. She turned towards her Master and asked him whether he meant to stay or whether he would be leaving and he made her understand that in a short while he would be leaving again as he had work to do in preparation of the special ceremony. She asked what was so special about the ceremony and he told her that it was not often that the Scribes witnessed a primal being released so it was accompanied by a large ceremony where several Scribes from all over the world were invited to celebrate.
Shortly after the sun had set high in the sky the Master left for his own dwelling and Scribe 23 was left to herself. The house was abuzz now with activity and several attendants were preparing the rooms for the various ceremonies of Conjuring that were to take place later on. Most of the people in the city already had what they required as she had conjured items with many usage times but some people from further cities had a need for several items so her skills were required again.
She wondered whether she had not floated around too aimlessly and too often the past days to wear off the energy and whether she would have enough left for the various Conjuring ceremonies. She was not overly anxious though as the energy had never failed her and she had always been able to perform the Conjuring. Whenever she felt a waning in the energy either because she had not received sufficient energy from the star gazers or earth conduits or because she had not absorbed enough of the energy herself beforehand, the Master always stepped in and compensated. Right from the earlier days when she had been a disciple, the Master had asked her to perform the Conjuring herself, only stepping in to complete the energy required if there wasn’t enough to complete the Conjuring.
Slowly, the house started filling with various persons from the neighbouring city, some star gazers and some normal beings. Scribe 23 noticed with distaste that some of the normal beings were on the older side and realised that she would not be able to ask them for life force energy as they would then be depleted and it was not in her habits to turn away people who required items or to deplete beings that required the Conjuring for their families. She moved towards the front of the first room where there were only star gazers and slowly inked out the items that they required as their flow of energy whirled through her, whipping up the thoughts into manifestation.
When she had first asked the Master why it was that the star gazers or earth conduits did not perform the Conjuring themselves, he had answered that while they were able to channel the energy, they were unable to think creatively or to focus their thoughts together with the energy in order to be prepared to ink them. Besides, none of these beings knew how to register the Conjuring down because they did not know how to make the ink of life from the stars and therefore even if they discovered how to focus the thoughts, they would still be missing that vital item to make the Conjuring concrete.
Upon entering the final room which contained both star gazers and normal beings, Scribe 23 could feel the palpable anxiety of the normal beings, especially the more aged ones. The younger ones were anxious because they felt that she might ask them to compensate for the lack of energy of the older ones and they would then lose more life force and become older themselves quicker than they wished to and the old ones simply because they were not sure the giving of the life force would not finish them off. Scribe 23 signaled to the older normal beings that she would not be requiring their life force in exchange of the Conjuring but could make the items with less usage times than what they initially wished for.
A murmur ran through the huddled crowd as they had come representing the larger population of their city and more usage times were required than what they were asking for. They had only reduced the demand because they realised that they would not be able to offer enough energy for the Conjuring required. Scribe 23 felt their despair and realised that the items they were asking for were not fancy items but simply nutrition and maintenance items so she set about concentrating on how she would harness the energy herself from the room without any of them noticing.
Scribe 23 beckoned to one of her attendants signaling to her that she should open wide the windows which the attendant did immediately. The sunlight streamed into the room illuminating her purple robe and she raised her hands over the head of the first star gazer who started absorbing its energy. Her hands hovered over his head seemingly taking in his energy but all the while drawing the sunlight directly into her body. The combined power of his intake and her own absorption was intoxicating and she felt her heart pulse with the rawness of the energy. Scribe 23 asked the star gazer to retreat as she felt she had had more than enough energy for the Conjuring but instead of simply retreating, he immediately sent in a replacement as he had thought it would be necessary to immediately replenish her energy.
As the star gazer’s substitute entered the ray, intersecting with the angle of her hands, she felt her palms tingle connecting involuntarily again with the sunlight that coursed through her arms. The star gazer who was on the path of the absorption slowly felt the intensity grow into his brain to the point of almost sizzling and she immediately put her hands to his head absorbing the energy off his brain and disconnecting him. As she did so, the energy he had been channeling flowed through her own hands doubling up the quantity and she could feel her heart ablaze with the energy. She closed her eyes thinking that she had been so foolish to absorb the energy directly without putting in place a protection mechanism where she could be able to stop the absorption. She knew that in a few seconds her heart would implode causing the combustion of the entire neighbourhood.
She felt more than she saw the rush of cool air as something sucked her lips shouting “Primum Invocatio” before it hit her on the chest knocking her off her feet and out of the sunlight. Several feet above her body, there was the looming head of what she recognized as Elohim, the first Master. Inside his forehead was the blazing ball of fire that had been seconds before within her heart and Elohim’s head was shimmering translucent under the effect of the condensed energy. The crowd that had dispersed frantically running for cover when they had seen her close to imploding ran back towards them, their eyes wild with adoration and hope that the Master of all Masters would notice them and take one of them as disciple.
Above Elohim’s head, she could sense the Master looking down at her and next to him she saw the vial from her locket floating emptied of its content. She could see the outline of his lips where traces of the blood shimmered and moved and she could feel the same movement and tingling on her lips too. The Master made her understand that he had used the vial to invoke the Primal, Elohim, by painting her lips with the blood and when Elohim had appeared and delved into her to absorb the fire ball he had then sucked him out of her, pressing his lips against hers and subsequently levitating with him several feet above her. She knew confusedly that this was not exactly how they were supposed to have carried out the ceremony of releasing the Primal and was sorry she had spoilt it for so many Scribes who had been waiting but was grateful that her life had been saved. She was also surprised to find out that the Primal was Elohim, the Master of all Masters and wondered what this had to do with a second sun.
She heard sizzling sounds around her and saw that several Scribes had materialized all around and realised that they had probably felt the release of the primal and had come to pay homage. It was a rare event when a primal was invoked and it was even more precious considering it was the Primal, the Master of all Masters. The Scribes hovered in the air around Elohim, sheltering him from the groping hands of the desperate star gazers and slowly lifted him higher. The Master explained to her that Elohim who was holding her fireball intact with the power of his intent could not use his energy to levitate away as he would then activate the fireball that would pursue its combustion. The Scribes continued floating slowly upwards and dissolved into the ceiling taking the Primal, Elohim, with them.
The Quality of Mercy – Max Richter