Aegis: Soni Numquam Auditi
Aegis stood at his worktable dozens of papers scattered before him, at least two dozen more crumbled and scattered randomly on the surface of the table or the floor. All covered in an intricate tapestry of runes that ran vertically on the page made to connect at the top and bottom if the paper was rolled into a tube. An overly complex working of magic. Laughably overkill for something that he thought would be easy, making something to assist in hearing loss was child’s play, something as simple as using the vibrations in the air from speech and a medium to amplify it. But curing it was beyond him, it would take a cleric of the highest order to reverse something not there. The part that was escaping his ability was the marrying of two things complicated in their own right, and finding the proper way to make the pairing function as intended. Runes to trigger as a series, in the order required of them, and to a level that is appropriate for the job. Then there was the medium, even for proof of concept wood would not work. It was too simple of a material and could not hold the magical charge needed, Mana crystal though possible was better suited for a focus and would be nigh on impossible to carve the runes into. Aegis sighed, tilting his head back and rolling his shoulders, trying to relax.
Almost silent not because she meant to be but her bare feet making little noise on the stone work the tall woman with long black hair lightly cleared her throat to get Aegis’ attention. “Master.” she said in greeting. “The girl has fed and is resting. As requested we made her comfortable and she has met everyone, we provided her with all that she needed, save for a few things we will require acquisition on your part.” she said. Then frowned sadly at Aegis, “Master, you need to rest.” she said. “You have been at this for…” she tilted her head towards the stairs leading up, “A whole day. Stress like this is bad for you, and you will never break through if your brain is not rested enough to think.” she added.
Aegis rubbed at his temples, not in frustration for the woman, but to push down a genuinely forming headache, caused from staring at the small looping designs on the paper. He let out a knowing sigh. “I know Nau, I know.” he gestured to that table full of failed attempts. “But this is what I do.” he slapped his hands on the table, and meant to yell but it came out as a tired whisper. “That girl deserves to hear damn it.” and he turned around holding the cube in his hand. “And I can do it.”
Nau nodded, “I know.” she said. “But you can’t help her if you are bedridden because you refused to eat, or sleep until you solved the problem.” She moved her free hand in the direction of the stairs but up, “She’s safe here. You have no reason to rush.”
“Two more hours.” Aegis said. “Come get me again in two hours. I’ll come with you then.”
Nau placed a cup of water on the table, “Two. Hours.” she said slowly, “You don’t come with me, the others are going to help me drag you out of here.” she said, “If you die…” she let it hang in the air knowing he knew.
Aegis for his part only nodded, taking a drink for her before she left. After she left he placed it at the top corner of the worktable. “Not many ideas left.” he said, going over to the basic materials he kept in jars and clay jugs. Taking one from the shelf and placing it on the table. Flipping one of the pages over and scribbling out what would look like anyone passing a formula of random letters, numbers, and symbols neither, nor rune. Possibly some kind of cypher only Aegis knew. Once finished he checked, double checked, even triple checked the formula. “This has to work,” he said and pulled the lid off the ceramic vessel. Pouring out a small amount of sand, a white so pure it looked more like snow, onto one side of the scale, then an equal amount onto the other side of the scale until they were balanced perfectly. Placing the black cube on the table, and motioning a complex series of gestures over the top of the cube, it slowly flattened to a thick but flat square, and poured the first amount of sand onto the black square surface. Repeating the series of hand motions in reverse, and the cube folded over the sand, returning to a cube that floated over the surface of the desk. After a long wait, the cube spat out a small object. A hoop of glass that looked like it could fit onto a pinky if you really forced it, with a ‘tail’ that snaked in the shape of a C, a strange color considering it was once white sand, an ombre of orange and purple that changed its gradient depending on the angle you viewed it from. He repeated it for a second hoop.
“Fascinating.” Aegis said. He’d not expected the coloration, and the design hadn’t come out quite like he’d imagined in his head, but the cube had other ideas apparently. Aegis commanded the cube flat again. Popping his neck, and placing the hoops onto the platform.
Using kinesis to turn the cube and work magic, over and over and over and over, focused, so focused Aegis had to remind himself to blink when his eyes started to hurt, his heartbeat thundering in his ears as he spilt his focus between both glass hoops and the cube. But eventually he let the cube rest on the table once again, and removed the hoops. Warm but not hot to the touch.
Nau cleared her throat from behind him. “Your time has been up for some time now, but I saw you were focused and didn’t want to interrupt.” she said, “You must eat now, you promised.” she added.
“I have to test these first.” Aegis said, holding the hoops up for her to look at.
“Ear rings?” Nau asked.
“No, you’ll see.” he said, moving past her and up the stairs. Nau followed. Aegis looked around until he found Mira, having one of the other women get her attention and came over “Hold still.” he signed. Placing the hoop inside her ear and the tailed section around the curve of the upper part of her ear. Aegis shook his arms a bit before putting a hand to either side of Mira’s head, “Please work.” he thought a prayer to the universe, before he started making magic casing gestures mirrored between hands, at the end he snapped his fingers lightly near the hoops. Mira’s head twitched, and her eyes went wide, before welling with tears, trying to blink them away, being told times before not to cry. Mira slammed into Aegis’ chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him. Sobbing into him until he was soaked robe to undershirt.
“I can hear!? I can hear…!” she signed.
“We’ll…” he started, and the room swam, as Aegis’ fatigue and hunger finally won. He collapsed to the floor. To the shock of all the other women.
“He’s fine…” Nau said. “Just help me get him up and onto one of the beds…”