Chương 30: Chapter 27 ~ The World as Will and Vegetation (Vol 2)

Gysel rubbed her chin as she followed Visi back into the streets of Thoranyn, and across to the other side, weaving between the people; he frequently glanced over his shoulder, maybe to check to see if his tag-along was still there, or maybe to remind the tag-along that she was the unmovable mover for the next phase of the conversation that he certainly wanted to continue—are there any lingering questions? yes, perhaps about the Shskthalt in general, since they would relate to the four basic elements...

but the streets are far too loud to ask a question, and keep a conversation going while understanding the information, so it would be best to wait for the silence of the clothing store, which looks to be right here. Visi walked beneath the brown awning of a three story, grey brick building with a single large window on the ground floor.

Painted on the top of the window in white text was: 'USED SUITS' and below it was a selection of blue, black, brown, and burgundy suits, which were likely the best of the 'used' suits the store had to offer. Its single, moss green door had a wooden sign hanging from the top, which read 'Utse Soos' in the chicken-scratched hand-writing of someone barely literate, or a child, and an old iron thumb-latch handle, that Visi grasped; he opened the door for Gysel.

Clothing carts formed movable aisles across the worn wooden floor, running from the front wall to the back, while leaving only enough space to squeeze into the aisles sideways to avoid knocking clothing from the overstuffed racks, and that which did not fit on the racks, hung from brass rails that ran between the wooden beams of the low ceiling, meaning that no matter where one was, one would always find oneself caressed by the shoulder or hem of someone else's pre-worn suit.

The store had the sheepish and dusty aroma that tended to accompany the packing of so many woolen garments into such a small space, along with hints of the smoky cedar incense commonly used to keep moths at bay, and exorcise both the memories of ephemeral weddings, and specters of funerals that crept in through the faded fragrances that still lingered in the fabric.

"I love this place," said Visi, as he sidestepped through the isles, checking the wooden markers that ordered the suits by size.

"They never sell enough product to clear space, so the fuller it gets, the cheaper the prices."

"What are you looking for?" asked Gysel.

"I'm just browsing. So, do you have any other questions?"

"Yes. Tell me more about the Shskthalt."

"Of course. Now, your basic Shskthalt, and the most primal and physical manifestations of the Yahldox, are Fire, Water, Air, and Earth—and I'm sure you know everything else is made up of some combination of these. There are also the primordial Shskthalt, these are your Nine Primordials: Life, Death, the Sun, the Earth, the Three Moons, the Whole, and the Nothingness; these are both metaphysical and physical.

The four basic Shskthalt are also present in the Nine Primordials: Life is the presence of the Yahldox in the form of air, the breath of Life; Death is the absence of the Yahldox in the form of air. The Sun is the presence of the Yahldox in the form of Fire, like gold. The Earth is the presence of the Yahldox in the form of, well, Earth. The Moons are the presence of the Yahldox as Water, as is silver. The Whole is the Yahldox in itself, and the Nothingness is the lack of the Yahldox.

Other astral bodies relate to this as well, as the different astral bodies are the manifestations of the Will in highly compressed forms. Do you own a telescope?"

"No," Gysel answered with a headshake.

"I wish we had known that yesterday. Well, 'Gahlyntokhtsinineul Gawyn' is made entirely of the Shskthalt of pure copper, which is why it is blue, leading to the name 'Gawyn's Big Stone of Blue'," Visi paused.

"Any questions so far?"

"If everything is the representation of the Yahldox how is death the lack of it in the form of Air?" Gysel asked.

"Death is just the lack of the Yahldox manifesting itself as the Shskthalt of air. The Yahldox is still present in the Shskthalt of everything else that makes the body, but the absence of air severs the connection between the Spirit and the Body through the Soul. This means the Spirit is released from the blindly struggling corporeal body. The absence of the Yahldox, is the peace for the Spirit."

"But the Spirit is the Yahldox?"

"Yes, but the Spirit is the manifestation of the Yahldox within a Body and Soul with the ability to perceive the Yahldox. Which allows for the Yahldox to struggle against itself. Think of death as an end to the struggling of the Spirit, because it loses the ability to perceive itself."

"Then why does everyone not just kill themselves?" If life was struggle, and death was release, the clear synthesis of the two was suicide. This felt, for lack of a better term, silly: the struggle was the appeal and the connection; everyone was struggling in one way or another; that struggle was what made one human. Visi turned to face Gysel, and held up two waistcoats, one a dark-brown with a lighter brown windowpane pattern, and the other a uniform, deep green.

"Which one do you like better?"

"The green one."

"Why?"

"Because it reminds me of the green glass eyes of a doll my mother has."

"As good an answer as any," Visi said, as he removed the whole suit from the rack, and then checked the measurements.

"Anyways, everyone should not 'just kill themselves' because the Spirit will—probably—just return and form a new connection with a Body, you need to complete the Spirit by properly aligning it with the Body and Soul through hierarchy."

"All right." That made sense. It was in line with what the Headmaster had said about the Great Work not being the Gahlyntimæ like it was in Operative Alchemy; it was the understanding and alignment of the Yahldox as Shskthalt in the adept."

"Does that make sense?"

"Thank you," Gysel said, "Yes." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Good. I always feel that if you cannot explain something in a coherent manner, you might not actually understand it." Visi took the suit to the counter, and Gysel followed, but stopped at a rack of containing a small selection of women's jackets and skirts.

She sifted through the rack, but found nothing of any particular interest; there were lots of blues, and blacks, but nothing from a very foresty palette, but the prices were quite cheap, so perhaps there were women who frequent the store, and pick the rack clean of the desirable colors.

"Are you coming, Gysel?" Visi said.

"Or has something caught your eye?"

"No," Gysel answered, and she headed to the door, escaping the stuffy air of the store.

"There is a gardening store that way." Visi pointed west with the linen bag that contained his new-to-Visi suit.

"Well, it is more of an open stand, Lyma goes there, and they will have what you need." He started to walk.

"All right. So, the each Sigil is tied to the Deity that is related to the Sigil's Shskthalt, and that Sigil is used to represent the Shskthalt in Sigillography, but the Deity in Rituals, correct?"

"More or less, yes. Some Deities are not linked to Shskthalt, thus they do not have sigils, like Mihlae the Letkaa is a Deity, but she is related to the concept of Mihlae's Strait, and not any sort of Shskthalt, so she does not have a Sigil."

"So, a Deity is who linked to a Shskthalt can control the Shskthalt?"

"Yes."

"So, uh... The Lady Beneath the Moonlit Visage, can create silver on a whim?"

"Probably..." Visi trailed off as he opened the wooden gate leading into the small, open-air, gardening store.

"Probably?" The shop was rather bland, having only unstained wooden shelves covered in potted plants lining the side walls, and multiple troughs filled with pre-bagged dirt along the back wall, but there were little city sparrows chirping and hopping along on the shelves. It was also not staffed, leaving the only means of collecting payment to the lone, locked, wooden box on the inside of the gatepost. Visi checked his watch and hurried to the dirt.

"How much dirt do you need?"

"I'm not sure, not too much. Maybe a half a kilogram?" Visi picked up two, two-hundred and fifty gram cheese-cloth bags of dirt, and handed them to Gysel.

"Do you have enough?"

"No."

"Well, I'll pay for these, but I want to see your steps for the final project of Operative Alchemy."

"No, that is worth a lot more than two bags of dirt."

"Fine. I'll buy them, just don't tell Lyma that I asked you that."

"All right."

"Where were we? Ah, yes, probably. Deities can just make things that are associated with their Shskthalt, but we don't really have any records of them doing that recently, but we know they can."

"How do we know?"

"Because they will say they can if you ask and they have done it in fables before—""So can I offer a deity lead and get gold in return?"

"Theoretically, but I'm not sure how you would go about doing that. Deities act rationally, well to some degree, and they won't just give you a deal like that unless they get some benefit from it." Visi dropped the coins for the dirt in the trust-box, and led the way out, keeping his accelerated pace back in the direction of the Academy.

"Oh, all right."

"Don't go trying that, Gysel. It's not worth making deals like that with Deities, it never ends well—those fables exist for a reason. You don't want to deal with something you can only perceive if they want you to perceive them."

"Will the school teach us about this? This seems like something that should be taught first."

"Usually it is common sense to not make deals with deities."

"No," Gysel said, as she looked both ways across the street to check for coaches, before hurrying after Visi, and his leap of faith.

"When will they explain how the Yahldox and the Shskthalt work at the Academy?"

"Was my explanation not good enough?" Visi laughed.

"No, it was good. I think I understand. I am just curious why that was not one of the first things taught. When will they teach it?"

"They should, probably second year... but I'm not sure. The only people that really care about this stuff are people like me who are more interested in the theory than the praxis. Ardhy doesn't care about any of this stuff, if something works, something works. You can specialize into working with different Shskthalt, and the Deities associated with them, but people who do that usually have ulterior motives."

"So Ardhy does that praxis?"

"No, Ardhy does sigils. None of us really do the praxis, or maybe everyone alive is doing the praxis, it is hard to say, everything is always changing, and so are the theories around it. The Academy is really just a glorified trade school... if I'm going to be honest with you. I'm only here because Lyma and Lyvahn are here. The philosophy professor here is a rationalist idiot, and I'm really not sure why he is at the Thoranyn Academy of Alchemy and Magick of all places, so I doubt he will even cover this stuff.

The Gods or Goddesses haven't done any 'miracles'—if you will—in such a long time that sigils and Shskthalt have stopped being something divine, and started just being something like numbers, a science. We are living in a strange time, Gysel."

"Is that what you were arguing with the professor about?"

"More or less."

"You and my father would not get along," Gysel said.

"He only likes things that can be used as money."

"I don't get along with most people over forty," Visi chuckled, and smiled to the guard posted outside of the Academy's front doors.

"Have you ever been to a symphony in the capital?"

"No."

"Have you ever been to anything of the sort?"

"Wihrakolm has a small ensemble that will occasionally play shows at fairs. But they have a very limited selection of instruments, so they never really sound very good."

"So you have never been to anything grand? Never an Opera, or a Symphony?"

"No."

"Really? Why not?"

"Mother and Father never took me. Father only went to fit in with the people he was doing business with. He did not like the music. He said that it was too focused on structure, and not enough on unifying people through the lyrics. He also thinks the compositions are too difficult and that anyone, with any degree of training should be able to play anything."

Visi opened his mouth, closed it, leaned on the railing of the ramp, opened his mouth again, pushed himself off the railing, closed his mouth, then ran his fingers through his beard.

"You can't judge music by the lyrics, that makes no sense—never mind, just don't tell that to Lyvahn."

"Why?"

"He is more interested in aesthetic theory than I am, and can go on some really, really, long tangents regarding that. Something like that would really set him off."

"Does he play an instrument?"

"He plays the bassoon."

"I would have thought he would have been a percussionist." Visi snorted a laugh.

"We are probably going to Ardhy's in the spring, you should come. We will probably be going to a Symphony of some sort, Wyohla likes them. It's better than the songs played by restaurant bands."

"Maybe." Gysel unlocked the door to room '54' and stepped inside. Lyma was seated at the table, with her chin on her fist.

"Visi."

"Yes?"

"You are late."

"Yes, but Gysel picked me out a nice suit, do you want to see?" Visi said, as he set his bag full of books and suit bag on the table.

"No," Lyma said.

"Are you going to Wyohla's later, Gysel?"

"No, it was nice running into you, Visi," Gysel said, as she unlocked the door to her dorm, went inside, and shut it behind her, locking it—by the Gods, that is far too much talking for one day... is the explanation appreciated? yes, but does it have to be so long winded, probably not; not every since intricacy of sigils needs to be explained... this is how it feels... is it not? oh well, at least he disagrees with Father.

"I swear. Did you talk her ear off about those metaphysical theories?" Lyma's voice came muffled through the door, as she began to berate Visi.

"She asked me how sigils worked," Visi answered.

"You were supposed to be here an hour and a half ago."