#linkpearl

[thecrucibleffxiv]

TRANS-DIMENSIONAL LINKPEARLS: AN EDITORIAL

Contacting the dead has long been a forbidden act. Yet even children have still done it for ages. We all know that if you use a specially-crafted board of eight ilms by twelve ilms that’s made from rosewood that’s been buried in grave dust for precisely four suns, four bells and four minutes, you can communicate with the dead. We all know that you need to inscribe across this board in ink that is comprised of no less than fifty-percent voidsent blood, or that you will need at least three partners with you who all place their hands upon a triangular piece of wood on rollers with a glass viewport through the middle. This is common knowledge.

But what isn’t common knowledge is the new, sickening trend sweeping the realm: the Pearl of the Dead.

The Pearl of the Dead is an abomination. The knowledge of how to make such a thing is utterly profane and forbidden. It is a creation recently re-discovered by the masses which dates back to the days of Mhach, when it was used to speak across great distances with the deceased and ask for their incredibly-helpful insight and advice. It’s an absolutely illegal and terrible creation that can and often will result in your rapid ascent to power with no noticeable downsides.

The secrets to making this pearl have become widely known, but many terrible imitations have led to the souls being ripped from the idiots who don’t know how to make them properly. The fact that the wiring of the linkpearl must be made of silver which bathed in a pool of the blood of a child no older than three until coagulation is lost on so many. The arcane circles which are required for the proper construction, which additionally require a fresh corpse lain in the middle, is beyond the ken of the unwashed masses.

Listen. It’s highly illegal to make or use a Pearl of the Dead. Anyone caught with or, even worse, using one is committing a great act of treason against Nald’Thal and is smearing a black mark in history across their family line for all time. This is why it’s vital to know that repainting the onyx-black pearl to look like any other linkpearl is absolutely not going to affect its usability and that there is functionally no way to tell whether or not a given pearl is a Pearl of the Dead without using it and speaking the proper incantation (”Eyekh F’taghn Rh’ehna Ichiborne,” as we all know). So make sure you don’t use one, since it’s completely wrong to do so, and even if no one around you is able to tell - Thal will know.

Ebony Wae only writes articles on topics that matter, personally, to her, and that’s why it’s been over 14 moons before she wrote her first one.

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[aethernoise]

#9: Static

She did not realize how much she missed Minfilia’s voice until she heard it again. The sound hit something deep in the pit of her stomach, some deep place of memory pushed aside for too long, and yet—

Even though the sound came from her lips, it did not satisfy the wanting or soothe the hurt that her absence had created. Minfilia spoke, but all Alyx could hear was the Crystal.

Ironic, Alyx later mused, how despite being a conduit for the Light, the only way she could think to describe it was “tarnished” or “tainted”—it was her voice, but not her voice–somehow colored, shrouded, distorted by the voice of another.

She thought about when she had heard Nidhogg speak through Estinien and wondered bitterly if this was any different: tarnished and tainted and made something else entirely. It was different, she admitted sadly, because she could hear both Nidhogg and Estinien when they spoke. Estinien had still been there somewhere, and he was fighting it. It was all that had given her hope to save him from his fate, but with her first true friend and mentor, she was not awarded such a comfort.

For now, Minfilia spoke with a single voice, clear as day, perhaps too clearly. She spoke the Word of the Mother, and the Mother’s voice was otherworldly and unnaturally perfect.

It was calm and soft and devoid of life, and years later Alyx wished she could hear her laugh, or scold her, or encourage her, like she used to, full of warmth and care and emotion. She wished she could hear the faint tremble in her voice when she was angry, or even her fierce but sorrowful resolve in the tunnels beneath Ul'dah.

After all this time, the grief had softened, as it always did, but Alyx still wished she could hear her speak through the static of a linkpearl.

[fair-fae]

Entry #9: Peace and Quiet

FFxiv 30 Day Writing Challenge Prompt #9: LinkPearl Faye quickly tidied her office, gathering a few of her belongings and making her way toward the exit. She paused, realizing she’d left her linkpearl upon her desk. She swiveled around on the toes of her shoes, shuffling through the papers upon the desktop before she found the pearl beneath them, picking it up and studying the small object for a moment. The linkshell channels had been quiet lately, but there was a time when not a sun passed without a call for help, or an argument, or a report of something foul. And in those times, not a sun had passed that she felt like her life was her own, always looking after others, cleaning up their messes, sorting out their disputes. She breathed out a sigh. “Princess? Y’ready for our date?” she heard Val call from the doorway. “Yes, dear, I’m coming,” she responded, placing the linkpearl upon the desk once more and turning to take her leave. ( @its-the-val-pal )

[samurulantis]

09- Linkpearl

"Where is it?" He'd mumble as he dug through boxes, tossing things this way and that in an attempt to find such a small bauble. He'd scratch his head in frustration as he pulled out another box to rummage through, squinting before he spotted a gleam of light. "Ah ha!" Reaching in he'd pluck a small pearl from the bottom, holding it up to the light like an untold treasure. He had been having a rather bad day and he knew one thing that could always cheer him up no matter what...crank calling a rival Alchemy merchant.

And oh how he despised this little lalafell bastard. The two had never seen eye to eye, and not just because he was short, always trying to out-do one another in pricing and advertising. He pushed the pearl into his ear and tapped the side, ringing the fiend and awaiting an answer.

"Hello this is Gargar Rargar speaking, owner of the Potion Emporium!" The sleezy voice stated.

"Ah yes hello. I wonder if you sell any burn remedies?" Samuru replied, attempting to disguise his voice.

"Why yes, yes we do!"

"Excellent, it's good to know you'll have plenty on hand when your tacky shop goes up in flames!"

"Ah---?? Wait, Samuru is that you?! I swear one of these days I'm going to---!"

Samuru snickered as he tapped the pearl to immediately end the connection, not allowing the infuriated man to finish his statement. He'd remove the item from his ear and plop it back into the box for later use.

"Ah I know it's petty, but I feel so much better now!" He chirped.

[steel-and-aether]

#9: Linkpearl

Aran took off the clipped ring where she had her linkpearls on and flipped it in her hand, turning it this way and that.

She had a small cluster of pearls, some artfully decorated for no reason other than to make them unique.  Every one she’d thought of the tone to make sure that she didn’t hear one and think it was another - that would be embarrassing, depending on what pearl she mistook, for example - and some of them were silent for so long she could stare at them and only wonder at the voices that once rang out, now silent.

The no-nonsense pearl that she’d been given when she’d joined Aethertide, for example - simple, plain, perfunctory.

The small black one, chipped and pocketed off of a dead mark when the task had been done and she’d rifled their pockets.  Sometimes it was silent for moons, the odd band of Ebonguard, and other times it was as chattery as a bunch of flippant school girls.

There was the one that she recalled from Khyran’s hand, his sad expression and sunken eyes and beak-nose.  ‘A safe house’ he’d said.  ‘A haven’ he’d said.  

Rolling the clip in her hand, she looked at the others.  One was used only to shout locations - the band of marks.  That one had a slight dent and chip on it, a red line line a dash of blood or a cut.

“-and of course you might find the beast tribes have something like Dravanian magicks-” Aran looked at that pearl, which sometimes was a series of lectures and the Twelve alone only knew what idiotic soul had felt a cutpurse and a light-finger like her would get use out of a magical theory pearl.

So many pearls, so many conversations, all of them across the aether.  And - her head lifted, looking at the horizon and the dawn and the daylight - all of them so easy to listen to because there was no control.  Pearls could be linked, they could be snooped...

She twisted them in hand.  It was why she liked to have everything be in person, or entrusted courier.  Pearls could be broken, interrupted, shattered.  The network was fragile, so fragile, after the Calamity, and the Garleans loved to demonstrate that.