"Illuminations and Premonitions." [1.0] The Book of Thursby: Scions of Numenor
“Obrick held that if you quantified all the eventualities which might manifest ill, than by the precepts of Dossimir's Statute it would be so.
-Benjimir Thursby, The Analects.
The Silithar was attached to a mount suspended within a spherical cage made of a metal mesh. Benjimir watched as the Craft Master Keeper, Osimira Miegs, activated a computator cycle. A pulse of energy surged into the bottom of the Silithar and at once a ribbon of light burst through the top of the crystal with a snap and hiss. The ribbon remained rooted at the tip of the crystal and undulated.
"The cage is unnecessary so far as we've observed. The energy never extends beyond this length at this setting."
Benjimir nodded, glancing down at the gauges measuring how much power had been input through the crystal.
"It's an amplified arc...or ribbon. Hows it contained?" he asked.
Miegs nodded and replied, "Not contained, there is no field effect being used. The energy flows out, then back to the crystal. No thermal energy loss. No radiant electron field emitted."
Benjimir flared his brow,
"No sir, this is something different we have not yet given name too. Whatever the force is, the initial energy surge triggers the ribbon, but virtually all of it remains in a sort of cycle we think. It requires a slight negative energy draw to deactivate the ribbon. But there is no correlating link to another crystal, so far as we can tell."
Benjimir looked impressed and asked.
"And the other ancient weapons, the shimmer and glow?"
Miegs hedged with a tip of her head but nodded. "We think it is the same effect if by means and origins we haven't determined yet. We can observe and possibly measure the force guiding the energy, adding to it, but there is something beyond it which we cannot quantify." Benjimir nodded slowly in response.
The ribbon had seemed to slow it's movement, projecting largely straight and away from the leading tip of the crystal. Fixated on the image he asked,
"Can we replicate this, with new forged weapons, devices?"
Miegs drew a breath and answered slowly having gone over records of past crafting efforts dating to the century after the original effects such as this had diminished then ceased.
"Yes. In a fashion. Already some lesser artifacts from weapon crafting during the decline and end of the past recorded .....manifestations of the effect are showing similar qualities to this. If less efficient. We don't dare use the eldar crystals, so our past and new efforts use rited derivatives." Benjimir continued to focus on the ribbon which was nearly steady.
Miegs silently forgave Benjimir his study of history over the crafting lore and explained.
"-ite, a suffix to the core substance, meaning created or derived from synthetic or natural materials. Dossimirite, Dolimite, Kyberite, Etherite, etc."
Benjimir pinched his lips and nodded,
"Aye, forgot, I studied...."
"...history...." Miegs echoed, finishing his reply. Miegs answered his next question as she continued.
"Yes sir, a noble and underappreciated field of the liberal arts. As you can see, the ribbon seems to stabilize under observation. We've noticed the stability varies depending on whom or what is observing, but it appears to be a proof of "Obrick's Blind." Where the figurative trump card in a persons hand can be high or low at the same time, but you don't know which until you turn the card."
"I never realized Dossimir played at cards." Benjimir glanced away and as he did the ribbon swayed again.
"Obrick's Blind holds that it requires an act of observation for the Dossimir Effect to take hold." Miegs added.
"So you are saying a person can control the ribbon?" Benjimir asked.
"Or possibly the crystal, maybe both, we aren't sure." Miegs said.
Benjimir broke his attention away from the ribbon which began to sway freely as it had before. He pressed the viewer symbol for shut-down and the ribbon withdrew into the Silithar which flared bright blue before resuming a soft glow.
"Very well. Secure the Silithar in my quarters. And immediately have your team begin to check our comms systems, look for any off-nominal performance, especially anything correlated to the observations tied to Arda and its moon."
He turned and with a courtesy nod as Miegs bowed slightly he walked to his quarters. The Andustar's telemetry report had arrived with high resolution images of the surfaces of the moon and Arda 922.
