a moment for thinking

Keldros returned to Borealis via Jobe, and began to sort though his inventory to determine which items he should sell, which he should save in the bank, and which he should hang on to.

"Radiant novictum gas, novictum mud, novictum sand, subdued flow of novictum--Do I really need this? No, but others do. Best hang on to those for a whileand trade them for something I do want."

Why did anyone need it? Novictum came in dozens of forms, and there were equally many answers, if not more. It was used in preparing glyphs, and also in preparing patterns for the incarnator. Who knew what other spirit-tech devices used this stuff?

"Do I really want to carry this stuff around with me? Maybe I should load it into my shop. Then again, how do i know it won't damage the shop?"

Being a nanomage had given him a dislike for the new element. It was rumored to be some sort of anti-notum, and he dreaded the thought of what it would do to his notum-dependent biochemistry. Seeing how creatures he had fought in the shadowlands often seemed to have their tissues contaminated with the stuff, he was afraid the same would happen to him if he spent too much time there.

Still, so many were going, and the vast majority seemed to return with no ill effects. "Could it be common knowledge is wrong? Notum and novictum do not simply annihilate one another?"

"Hmmm, when notum and novictum are combined...actually this is done frequently." He looked at the crepuscule armor he never used, remembering how pure liquid notum combined with notum-saturated hide had produced living flesh. "Patterns work the same way--add novictum, then notum. Or at least a crystal filled with the source, whatever that was. Wait, those crystals were filled by notum-mining controllers--that makes sense. Then notum is not life, and novictum was not anti-notum, but the three share some common ties, almost like all three are part of the same thing."

"I'd better get back to the matter at hand, no pun intended." Keldros looked to the coils and spindles hanging in easy reach from his belt, and started to swap them with the treatment kits and stimpacks he had in his backpack. "Coils for life and notum, but if my earlier ideas were right, why no coils for novictum?" It would certainly be easier than hunting down some of those beasts in Adonis.

"I guess people just never wanted to be close to a source of novictum, considering the harmful effects it's rumored to be capable of. But wait, if novictum, life, and notum are all intertwined, what happens when people draw life and notum from the source? Where does the novictum go?"

Immediately the nanomage thought of his meeting with Ergo in Scheol a few months back. Ergo had said the Redeemed believed the shadowlands were dying because veins of the source had been tapped too heavily...the Unredeemed believed the opposite, that the veins needed to be tapped to prevent imbalance in the forces on the vein.

Both sides couldn't be right. One had to be wrong. Maybe even both sides.

"It's pretty clear neither remembered everything the Xan used to know. Maybe both are just grasping at the basics, but failing to see the whole issue. If the source is becoming polluted because only the notum and life-force are tapped, there are two solutions. The first is to avoid tapping the source, as the Redeemed prefer...the other would be to tap the veins as the Unredeemed believe, but..."

That just might work. If the unwanted novictum were removed from the source as well, it just might restore balance to the vein.

Keldros looked at his coils again.

"Unfortunately, I've already noted the tools for the job simply don't exist. At least that I know of."

Keldros stuffed his treatment kit and stimpacks back into his backpack.

"Ergo would probably know. And even if it doesn't exist, I can try to find one of the Yuttocra who knows enough to attempt constructing one."

Keldros dropped a few items into the nearest shop terminal and headed back towards the Jobe whompah. He had a few questions and a proposal for the Guardian of Shadows.