Somewhere Someplace

The wild affinity denizen had finally left the room. Only one denizen remained, who watched and waited for her own turn…her neck still rather sore from that prior zap.

The foreigner stared at the two concealed spellcards which laid upon her desk…she was skeptical about whether she would even be able to respond to them. Though, she had spent one full gold on this entire procedure, and…she had made it this far, thus…no harm in further participating.

Without any further delay, she began to act; taking a card at random, she gently placed it on her palm before she meticulously, carefully, yet quickly, began to open and unwrap.

She felt the strange concealment wrapping as she did so; so very…strange in feeling it was, it felt rather polymer-like and awfully…synthetic. It was clearly no ordinary primitive material and wrapping, that was for sure.

She placed the ripped-up wrapping onto the corner of her desk, the now fully exposed backside of the card gently laying upon her palm. She stared down at the card, its backside was adorned in a glittering array of light-snowy blues and whites, all invoking a sense of ‘coldness’, ‘frigidness’, and ‘ice’. Engraved, likewise, was an elegant yet empowering snowflake of sorts—the symbol of ice magic.

As she stared at it, her mask-obscured eyes already began to somewhat respond, the ignited sigil engraved becoming more potent and pronounced…to a point. Even though she had yet to flip it, something imbued deep within her…could still…feel…that pulling attraction emanating from the faceside.

She was already in an ignited state, that…something imbued deep within was…‘active’ and ‘awake’, ‘alert’ and ‘attentive’; it was not ‘inactive’ and ‘dormant’, ‘inhibited’ and ‘asleep’. It could anticipate in advance…well before the actual gaze. Her attention, her mind, fixated and locked as a result; she was being pulled as much as it.

She felt the spellcard in hand, once again so very strange in feeling; so hard and stiff, yet soft and refined. The way the material felt on her skin, the way the…array of colors glittered and shined, this card was not merely synthetic, no…it was imbued with the arcane…it was crafted and forged by it, not simply by hand. That could explain this…potent pull and tug…and perhaps even some of the sensitivity in responsiveness she had observed.

She exhaled, many seconds of inaction having passed; no more deliberation and pointless analysis, she finally flipped the card.

Instantly, her activated eyes responded ever-more, their ignition becoming even more potent and refined as the ignited sigil slightly expanded in reactive response; though, her tinted lenses continued to obscure much of this. Indeed, it was as if these special lenses were seemingly designed with the intent to hide such ignited eyes.

Regardless, the attention of that certain something imbued deep within had been captivated and entrapped, dragging her mind along with it. Crafted with absolute perfection, engraved and encarved with total precision, upon the face of this spellcard was, mundanely enough, that very signa of the arcane itself; that very sigil that defined in absolute totality that certain something imbued deep within; the sigil that defined its ‘alignment’ and ‘nature’ of existence.

Engraved within the sigil, likewise, trailing along its circular shape, were dozens of tinier ‘sigils’ or ‘glyphs’, each echoing the same general pattern yet were distinct in their own ways. Gibberish seemingly, even to the mind that gazed, but it was not at all gibberish: it was coded information that formed logical patterns which conveyed ‘sequences’ of ‘commands’, ‘mandates’, ‘protocols’, and ‘instructions’ to be ‘decoded’ and ‘read’, to be ‘followed’ and ‘executed’, by that…something imbued deep within—not just by the mind.

This arrangement was the defining characteristic and most ubiquitous feature of spellcards and all such ‘cards’ of the arcane in general. It was rather the funny trick these spellcards were, one meant to circumnavigate an equally defining and ubiquitous characteristic of the general arcane: intercultural and intersocial exclusivity.

The expression and manifestation of the arcane necessitated deeply, and that was to say deeply, internalized schemas, frameworks, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the fundamental ‘nature’, ‘properties’, and ‘abstractions’ of ‘truth’ which defined the arcane and the practices, traditions, and customs hereto appertaining.

Such degree of deep cognitive schematic internalization was usually only possible through direct socialization and enculturation into the culture and society to which these arcane traditions belonged, processes which occurred during development—being ‘born-and-raised’ in other words.

Likewise, there was a window of acquisition, a ‘sensitivity period’ of sorts, during which this process could even take place. Indeed, the arcane…in a way was much like language in this regard…even if absolutely and fundamentally not.

During this ‘acquisition window’, the arcane traditions, practices, and customs of a society or culture—or at least the schemas and frameworks necessary to practice it—could be deeply internalized by someone and their certain something imbued deep within. After the window’s closure, however, that certain something…would usually become absurdly stubborn in this specific regard…for whatever complex reasons.

As a result, the arcane traditions and customs beyond that of the ones deeply internalized and already acquired would become very…difficult to learn, adopt, and pick-up—dependent on the alienness and relative compatibility to the arcanity already acquired; the more familiar, the better. Of course, there always existed endless nuances and exceptions, such was the nature of the complexity at hand: there were no fixed laws or rules, only general tendencies and patterns in observation.

Regardless, spellcards and other associated arcane ‘cards’ completely circumnavigated this problem by simply exploiting a universal tendency of the very source of the arcane: it could not help, whether it be active, inactive, or in some…weird…purgatory limbo state, but to utterly fixate on ‘alignment sigils’ and most especially on its own alignment sigil.

Likewise, it could not help but to then evaluate, ‘decode’, and ‘read’ whatever coded patterns of glyphs and symbols were contained within the sigil proper and respond to them regardless of prior encodings and internalizations. This method of…force-feeding new…stuff into that stubborn certain something, if done properly, allowed for an almost universal and mostly cross-cultural transmission of the arcane.

Yet, the foreigner’s ignited eyes stared down at the card, nothing happening at all. She looked up at the glaring proctor…and then back at the card…nothing happening. Seconds passed, still nothing. She doubled her concentrated fixation upon the card and the sigil engraved, dozens of more seconds passed, still…nothing happening.

She sighed; ah…of course, such a predicable outcome.

“It appears that I have failed this… I cannot use this card” she remarked with a sense of mournfulness, looking at the proctor.

The proctor, however, continued his fixated stare; “Well…owing to your exotic talents…how about another full minute? Let us see what happens” he stated, his auxiliaries eyeing him with rather the peculiar stare…as if his decision was rather…divergent and…uniliteral.

“…” Huh…alright then, one full extra minute…rather redundant and useless since time would not change the outcome, but whatever. She looked back down at the card, evaluating it in detail…eyeing it to see where the problem…was, if any at all.

Usually, spellcards or really any card of the arcane…usually had two fundamental components: the ‘primer’—that being the alignment sigil—and the ‘code’ or ‘protocol sequences’—that being the patterns of glyphs and symbols which contained the actual information.

The primer sigil snapped attention and primed the actual response, it was the most important component to any functionality of an arcane card and had to be designed…with extreme precision, for that certain something will notice even the most faintest and minutest of differences.

Hmm…she evaluated…the primer of this card, however, was…perfect in most ways…so much so that…staring at it made her feel…extremely strange, as if her that something imbued deep within was being…magnetically attracted and pulled. So…that was clearly not the problem; she turned her attention to the actual ‘spell-code’, then.

The code sequence of a card could be subdivided into a myriad of command sequences depending on the intended function and purpose, and just how complex the card’s effects were supposed to be. All cards, though, had two command sequences which were essential for its functioning: an ‘ignitor’—which induced the activated state—and an ‘executor’, which commanded the execution of the general command sequences and protocols, thus ‘casting’ the card.

Problems with any of these two, either due to design error or recognition failure, and the card would become a dud. She peered at the tiny, yet elaborate, glyphs and symbols engraved…inspecting in detail…realizing instantly…what the problem was: these glyphs and symbols…made absolutely no sense.

Usually, the code and logic patterns used by an arcane card had to be something at least vaguely...decodable and readable…intuitive enough for that certain something imbued deep within to be able decode and deduce on its own with some accuracy without prior encoded understandings and internalizations.

Usually, this meant following a rather ‘standard’ pattern of glyphs and symbols that tended to, but did not necessarily always, echo a ‘universal’ pattern that all…most…such somethings deep within all…most…peoples intuitively recognized…somewhat…by ‘default’, or could at least easily deduce and figure out…somewhat…by ‘default’.

These spellcards, however, utilized a completely unique glyph and code pattern, one that seemed…rather…specific, specialized, and…hard to follow.

Huh…interesting…time slowed as her mind fixated ever-more, her cognition speeding up as she analyzed in greater detail. Arcane cards did not have to be universal; in fact, from her…limited understanding…quite the many documented in records were largely culturally exclusive to an extent, or only capable of stratified transmission, using arcane codes that were more endemic to their specific arcanities…assuming such were an organic system.

Such was probably the case with these cards…even though the magic system itself was rather…hmm…wait…she kept staring…analyzing deeper and with even greater detail…no…no…wait this spell-code, these patterns of glyphs and symbols…something about…them was…different and off.

Indeed, the more she looked at it…the more it began to seem as though this spell-code was…made to be as difficult to decode by that certain something imbued deep within as possible; almost as if it were…intentionally made to be counter-intuitive and…confusing.

Certainly…her certain something felt…confused, not simply unresponsive or unable to recognize…but actively confused and bamboozled…as if were being spun around and around…as if this was readable but not at all, as if this was familiar yet utterly alien. Encrypted…it as if this code was encrypted…in a manner of speech.

Strange…very much so…the more…she evaluated the more…it really did begin to appear as though…this counter-intuitive and quasi-encrypted spell-code was probably…not just a simple product of local divergencies. In fact…these glyphs and symbols…did not really seem to have…at least from her own…limited observations…any significances at all to local abstractions and cultural concepts regarding the arcane—completely alien…even to the locals.

Yet…the locals had no problem…whatsoever in responding to these cards, with some even demonstrating exceptional sensitivity to them. Completely…responsive and fluent…along with relatively low error rates, as if this was…a universal spell-code…but only to the denizens…yet…not from a basis of culture…?

Ugh…truly…such denizen cultural affairs were not at all her domain; she was violet not green. She had only been here…a single year; there still remained so much about these lands and about these denizens…about this entire place…that she still had yet to comprehend and understand; so much still remained in shadow.

But…be that as it may…she was ancienter than ancient…and her domain…appertained to the bizarre and the absurd.

She knew enough…to be able to tell that…this arcane code…was meticulously designed with…clear intention to be…as convoluted and counter-intuitive as possible and that…denizen responsiveness was probably not…due to simple born-and-raised enculturation and abstractions…or at least not completely.

She began to quickly hypothesize…for indeed, she was running out of time. If her inferences were accurate then…in absence of born-and-raised enculturation…one possibility was that the denizens’ certain somethings imbued deep within had been pre-encoded with an innate decoding capacity and understanding at some point in their ancestry, hence their acute sensitivity and fluency.

Alright, alright…but if so…then…why? The only…reason her mind could come to…was restriction…as if this were all some kind of…security measure and precaution…one meant to deny any usage capabilities to anyone or anything…whose certain somethings…lacked that pre-encoded understanding, which then…led back to the question of…why?

This could just be…a weird quirk of these lands alone, thus…being something the denizens had…for whatever reason…done to themselves at some point in their history, but given her…primary assumptions…regarding this entire place to begin with…she could not help but…infer that this was probably a security measure targeted towards…those like her: those not a direct product of this place at all. Which…even then…only led right back to the same…exact…question of why?

Her mind slowed down in its cogitations…she was beginning to spin around in endless circles, this was…going nowhere. Besides…these were all just her own inferences…she could be correct or completely wrong for all she knew.

She sighed, having been keeping count of time, she knew that one minute had passed, time was up. There was one definitive truth she did know, however: regardless of the reasons and whys, it was functionally impossible for her to cast this card.