tag:benyu.org,2014:/feed-… — —2020-02-17T23:19:15-08:00Ben Yuhttp://benyu.orgyu@benyu.orgSvbtle.comtag:benyu.org,2014:Post/connections-don-t-build-things2020-02-17T23:19:15-08:002020-02-17T23:19:15-08:00Connections Don't Build Things<p>This is a rebuttal to the oft-repeated notion that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.</p>
<p>I’m going to make the somewhat scandalous point that no, it is in fact what you know. Connections are great. But they’re worthless without certain prerequisites in the skill department.</p>
<p>I’m going to journey through some cliches to prove my case. Sure, it can be argued that if Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t met Sean Parker or managed to get initial seed funding from Peter Thiel Facebook may never have become the behemoth it is today, but the fact of the matter is if Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t been able to build Facebook, it definitely wouldn’t be what it is today.</p>
<p>There are thousands of people who have met Sean Parker and Peter Thiel and none of them managed to build Facebook.</p>
<p>Taking another pithy statement that opportunity is the intersection of serendipity and preparation, we can make this point a specific case of that assertion. Opportunity is the intersection of who we know (serendipity) and what we know (preparation).</p>
<p>The reason I’m making this point is that recently I’ve noticed a bit of a trend where the value of connections seem to be greatly overvalued at the expense of the development of skill. Given the choice between developing their skillset or attending yet another meetup, I think a few too many entrepreneurs tend to opt for the latter.</p>
<p>We could be the most well-connected person in the world, but we’ll never build the next Facebook if we just can’t execute. We could know every famous publisher, agent, editor and author, but if we just can’t write, we’ll probably never be published. And even if we are, we won’t go far.</p>
<p>Moreover, I find that the right connections tend to come about naturally when we’re doing something that highly aligns with who we are and what we want to accomplish. I met my cofounder not at an organized entrepreneurial meetup, but in Antarctica on an expedition organized by one of our mutual friends. We instantly hit it off and meshed ridiculously well. In retrospect, this made perfect sense - we were both the kind of person that says yes to a trip to Antarctica on a whim. Where else would we meet but in Antarctica?</p>
<p>Another example would be building an open source piece of software. Someone pushes an early prototype to a repo and makes a little note about it. Other people notice it, find it interesting and valuable, and decide to contribute. Pretty soon there’s a nice little community and the key contributors get to know each other on an intimate level. A few of them realize they’re perfectly matched to start a company, get together, and build a product that gets massive traction and makes them all rich. Not an unlikely scenario.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I also find it to broadly be the case that the value of initial connections are vastly overstated in many instances. For example, some of my most valuable networks have been the Thiel Fellowship and Harvard. Prior to my affiliation with both, I had no connection at all with either. Thankfully, none was needed - both were invitation-by-open-application and accepted me into their world purely on the basis of my merits and presentation - not who I knew. They’re connections now, but they weren’t at one point. And ultimately, they’re to some extent the result of my fundamental skillsets - had I not been able to impress them with what I know, they wouldn’t now be who I know.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s also true that in many of these instances, it’s possible to slip through a backdoor through who we know. But is that really a good long term strategy? If we really don’t have the skills to succeed, at some point our connections will run out. Not so the other way around. And hence, if given the choice between spending time developing connections or developing skills, I’d choose skills.</p>
<p>So ultimately, the case I’d like to make is that perhaps the best course of action is to not look for the people that can make our dreams come true, but to just start working on those dreams. There’s a good chance that the right people that can help us realize our dreams will gravitate to and chance upon us naturally as a result of seeing what we’ve started.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/the-strenuous-life-12020-02-17T23:18:16-08:002020-02-17T23:18:16-08:00The Strenuous Life<p>Today’s post is inspired by one of my greatest heroes. He wasn’t a perfect man - he shot his neighbor’s dog just because it snapped at him once (his father had just died and he was a bit angry). But he was a passionate, vigorous man, and it’s on this aspect of his life I’m going to focus today.</p>
<p>But first, he says it best himself.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This man is Teddy Roosevelt, and that quote is the Man in the Arena excerpt from his <a href="http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/speech%20arena.htm">Citizenship in a Republic speech</a> (highly recommended in its entirety).</p>
<p>And this is what he has to say about a <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/58/1.html">strenuous life</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What does he mean by this? Best to see the examples from his own life. He was weak and asthmatic as a child, and instead of embracing that and eschewing physical exertion, he tackled it head on and strangled it to death. He started exercising and took up boxing, much at the encouragement of his father.</p>
<p>And here I pause for a moment to honor his father, whom Teddy looked up to more than words can describe. From <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/tr-transcript/">PBS’s transcript</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But asthma continued to ravage him. He was anxious and suffered from a recurring nightmare that a werewolf was loose in his bedroom. His desperate parents tried remedies recommended by the best doctors of the day. Theodore was dosed with a medicine to induce vomiting, made to swallow black coffee, even forced to smoke cigars. At one point, he noted in his diary, his chest was rubbed so hard “that the blood came out.” When he was 11, his father took him aside.</p>
<p>He said, “You have been blessed with a wonderful mind, but you have to build your body. You have to take charge of your body.” In a way– in a larger way, he was saying, “You have to take charge of your life.”</p>
<p>Determined to be worthy of his father, the sickly boy spent hours every day trying to build himself a new body, slowly “widening his chest,” his sister remembered, “by regular monotonous motion – drudgery, indeed.” His father even paid a professional coach to teach his son how to box, and every summer he took him on camping trips, hiking through Maine and the Adirondacks and around the Roosevelt summer home at Oyster Bay on the shore of Long Island Sound.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sounds like an amazing father. In any case, Roosevelt mastered his asthma and became captain of his fate. After graduating from Harvard, his doctor advised him that because of his serious heart problems, he should take a desk job and eschew physical exertion. Roosevelt completely ignored that advice, and continued to box, hike, row, horseback ride, and play polo and tennis. Even as president, he continued to box until some guy knocked his retina out and blinded his left eye. Then he took up jujutsu.</p>
<p>Roosevelt’s story is marked with tragedy, suffering, grief, and ultimately the will to swallow the grief and achieve “that highest form of success which comes…to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph”.</p>
<p>His father died when he was at Harvard.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Shattered, for months he poured out his pain and bewilderment in his diary. “How little use I am or ever shall be.” “If I had very much time to think, I believe I should almost go crazy.” Along the shores of Long Island Sound, he sought relief in the natural world and in ceaseless physical exertion. He ran, hiked, boxed, hunted, and swam, wrestled.</p>
<p>He rowed a boat across Long Island Sound and back in a single day – 25 miles. He rode his horse almost to death, and shot a neighbor’s dog just because it snapped at him. Then he fled to the Maine woods. “Oh, Father, my father, no words can tell how I shall miss your counsel and advice.” Many years later, when Theodore was president of the United States, his sister wrote, “He told me frequently that he never took any serious step or made any vital decision for his country without thinking first what position his father would have taken.”</p>
<p>When Theodore returned to Harvard, he kept up his furious pace. He joined nearly every club, began a book on naval history, and fought for the lightweight boxing championship of the school, which he lost. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He found the love of his life at Harvard, but it was most assuredly unrequited. Unfazed, he pursued her relentlessly until she consented to become his wife. They moved in together, lived in paradise and he moved relentlessly up the ranks in his political career. She became pregnant, and happy anticipation was on everyone’s minds. He was 25.</p>
<p>And then one day, he receives a telegram telling him his wife Alice has given birth to a beautiful baby girl. Flush with happiness, he then receives a second telegram.</p>
<p>He races home, finds his wife dying of kidney failure and his mother dying of typhoid fever. They both pass away within hours of each other on the same day.</p>
<p>This is what he wrote in his diary that day.</p>
<p><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6874680619_f01998e332_o.jpg" alt="The light has gone out of my life."></p>
<p>He never mentioned his wife again. He abandoned his newborn daughter in the care of his sister, he abandoned his life, his career, and everything he had known, and rode west to the Badlands. He spent the next two years here, drowning out his sorrows through constant, feverish work and action.</p>
<p>An anecdote: As a deputy sheriff in the badlands, he hunted down three men who stole his riverboat, caught them, and guarded them singlehandedly for 40 hours without sleep so they could be brought back to town for trial.</p>
<p>In later life, he returned to politics and found himself appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, just moments away from rising to the very top and being Secretary of the Navy. Instead of keeping his comfortable loft and rising further in his career, however, he immediately resigned his post on the Declaration of the Spanish-American War, gathered a bunch of haphazard volunteers together, and shipped down to Cuba to fight on the front lines.</p>
<p>He quickly rose again to the rank of Colonel, and in the absence of any orders from superiors, urged his men to charge up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill at the same time. He led the charge on his horse at the forefront of the advance on Kettle Hill. They captured both hills, and Teddy Roosevelt officially went down in history as an epic badass.</p>
<p>He is the only president to have ever received the Medal of Honor.</p>
<p>Later in life while campaigning under the Bull Moose Party, he was shot in an assassination attempt before he was slated to give an election speech. Instead of canceling his speech and having the bullet removed, he continued giving <a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I_have_just_been_shot">his speech</a> for an hour and a half with blood seeping out of his chest.</p>
<p>Hell, he never got that bullet taken out. It remained in his chest for the rest of his life.</p>
<p>He died at the age of 60, after contracting a tropical disease and possibly malaria (for the second time, the first time being in Cuba) on a South American expedition through the jungle. He lost 50 pounds, became madly delirious, and had a fever of 103. He insisted that the expedition carry on without him, but ultimately his son managed to convince him to stay. He ultimately died of complications likely related to this expedition a few years later.</p>
<p>I doubt he regretted that much at all. This is one of the very few men who I truly believe wholeheartedly meant every vigorous word he expounded in his speeches. Actions speak louder than words, and I guess delivering a speech with a bullet lodged in your chest speaks pretty loudly. Being the youngest president then and now in the history of the US, the only president to have won the Medal of Honor, and to have become such a triumphant badass from such sickly and asthmatic beginnings - it really speaks something of a person.</p>
<p>At every moment in his long journey he faced every challenge head on and embraced the ideals of the strenuous life. Death does not faze a man who lives for something greater and believes in his principles. He could have died at so many instances during his life, and that was by intentional design.</p>
<p>What is a life without true risk? Without true challenge, true failure, without true ‘danger, hardship, and bitter toil’? What is a life that does not know great effort, great strain? For Teddy Roosevelt, perhaps, no life at all.</p>
<p>This man is the greatest embodiment of the will to power that I’ve yet seen. Thanks for showing us how it’s done.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-25-novel-dreams-part-xix-november-18-242018-08-29T22:15:03-07:002018-08-29T22:15:03-07:00Week 25 - Novel - Dreams Part XIX - November 18-24<p>She pulled in the entirety of the remaining ruby, then visualized scattering the coalesced energy of the ruby into as many individual splinters as she could, shooting them out from her in every direction before guiding them to arc towards Elvir, surrounding him on all sides with darts of blazing energy.</p>
<p>Casually, Elvir raised a hand and a tiny shield of ruby flicked into existence, then spun around him impossibly quickly, perfectly deflecting every incoming bolt Jo had sent, in many cases appearing to deflect certain bolts into other bolts to throw them all harmlessly off course. When the last bolt sputtered out of existence, Elvir remained wholly untouched.</p>
<p>He raised his ruby. It was barely smaller than it had been when they had started the exercise, whereas Jo’s ruby had been entirely consujmed.</p>
<p>“You may have learned the basics of harnessing, but I hope this illustrates that there is still much to learn. At this point in time, you have merely learned how to swing your sword. This is no simple feat in of itself when it comes to stoneworking, but now, you must learn to master the art of swordfighting as well, and this is an entirely different matter.</p>
<p>“As you can see, the difference between someone proficient in the art and someone still freshly new can be vast, even with the same exact resources at hand. Efficiency and strategy is key to successful stonefighting.” Elvir eyed Jo carefully. “But this is enough lecturing for one day. You’ve had quite the eventful day, and stoneworking is always exhausting work. Rest, now, and we will continue our training tomorrow. I’ve set up three beds for all of you in the other room. I will see you all in the morning.”</p>
<p>Jo stifled a yawn as Elvir bowed in parting and left the cavern. He must have noticed how she was barely keeping awake. That last burst of harnessing the ruby had left her feeling completely drained, and all she could think about now was falling back asleep. Ardin and Tan wanted to keep chatting and hear more about her journey back to Eukaon, but she pled fatigue and retired to their makeshift bedroom. Catching up could wait. Her first real night of uninterrupted, perfect slumber couldn’t.</p>
<hr>
<p>The next few weeks went by in a blur for Jo. Elvir drilled the three of them at a grueling pace every day, and she went to bed every night completely spent. Her life became stoneworking, and almost literally, she lived and breathed it every day.</p>
<p>After the first week, she began to surpass Ardin and Tan in their progress, and by the end of the second week, she could easily defeat either of them in their mock duels, often with substantially less stone. Despite their lagging individual progress, however, when the two boys combined forces, they were shockingly effective, having known each other intimately well their entire lives, and working flawlessly in unison to synergize their forces. Try as she might, when the three of them dueled together, she still lost more often than not.</p>
<p>Besides her difficulty defeating the two brothers in tandem, almost everything felt like it came naturally to her, and Jo astonished herself with her rate of progress. It was the first time in her life she’d felt she was truly good at something, and slowly, some of the hesitations and self doubts she’d harbored about her ability to live up to everyone’s expectations melted away.</p>
<p>She no longer felt deeply uncomfortable every time she was complimented on her progress, and stopped qualifying the praise with a disclaimer about her likely future failure, in anticipation for the inevitable moment when she would let them all down. Instead, she dove into her learning, and began to proactively seek out progressively harder challenges, learning about every stone she could, and harnessing as many of them in as many different combinations and situations as Elvir would allow her to.</p>
<p>It helped that Elvir was an exceptional teacher, and gently encouraged her forward whenever she failed at a specific progression. She learned to thrive off testing her own boundaries, seeing every shortcoming she encountered as a puzzle to overcome rather than an indication of her own limitations. The more she accomplished, the more her past achievements gave her confidence in her future progress, and before long, she began to see herself as everyone else seemed to see her. Perhaps she really could pull this off. Her feelings towards the prospect of ultimately facing off with Aeon began to shift slightly from dread to anticipation, with more than a sliver of excitement.</p>
<p>After three weeks of nonstop training, Elvir pulled the three of them aside one evening.</p>
<p>“If I had my way, we would continue training here for another year, at least, but unfortunately, the circumstances dictate that we act far more quickly. Before facing Aeon, there are many preparations we must make. In particular, there are two items we must obtain.</p>
<p>“Shortly after the Heartstone was discovered, a sister stone was also found, one that similarly resisted all attempts at harnessing, but that, upon further research, appeared to dampen or even nullify the effects of the Heartstone. Seeing as no one could harness the Heartstone to begin with, this new stone, called by some the Soulstone, was tucked away in the royal stone reserve without much further thought.</p>
<p>“If we are to have any hope of disarming Aeon, it is imperative that we obtain the Soulstone. This will not be an easy task, as it does involve breaking into the royal reserve, which is likely the most guarded complex on this planet, but with my aid and guidance, I believe it should be possible.</p>
<p>“As an added advantage, the royal reserve also contains the most advanced harnessing equipment presently devised by the Tachen research forces. In particular, there is an experimental tandem harness that I expect should significantly increase Ardin and Tan’s efficacy. With our hands on the Soulstone and the tandem harness, our odds of success should be greatly increased.”</p>
<p>Ardin coughed. “I’m just going to state the obvious here and ask why we don’t just ask the Tachen government for access to these things instead of risking our lives breaking into their reserve. Aeon just destroyed our capital city. Shouldn’t they be welcoming all the help they can get?”</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-24-novel-dreams-part-xviii-november-11-172018-08-29T22:14:15-07:002018-08-29T22:14:15-07:00Week 24 - Novel - Dreams Part XVIII - November 11-17<p>When this was complete, she aimed the spear at the wall, and let loose. The spear emerged from her and slammed into the wall with a deafening crash, pelting them all with painful bullets of water, and eliciting groans from Ardin and Tan, and even a low rumble from Elvir. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a huge cavity where the water had pierced the wall, with debris scattered all around them.</p>
<p>“What is it with you humans from Earth and trying to destroy my cavern?” Elvir said. “Try to clean up this mess now, will you?” He handed her another stone, and took back what remained of the indigo stone, the slate having been already fully consumed in her efforts.</p>
<p>She drew in this stone almost instinctively now, and immediately felt an attraction to the stone debris she had created, as well as the rest of the stones constituting the cavern walls. Each of them had what felt like a magnetic draw that she could tug on, and experimenting with this, she lifted several of the pieces of stone lying around the floor and fitted them back into the cavern wall. Then, drawing in more energy from her harnessed stone, she pushed on the debris, and willed it to meld back into the rest of the wall</p>
<p>Walking over, she examined the stones she had put back in place. They were solidly fused back into the wall. She sucked up the rest of her stone, and picked up the remaining debris and fitted that back into the wall as well.</p>
<p>Tan whistled at this. “That is lightyears ahead of anything we’ve ever done, and we’ve been working with stones for months, now. I’ve never heard of anyone progressing as fast as this before.”</p>
<p>“This barely touches the surface of what she should be able to accomplish,” Elvir said. “Soon, it will be like breathing air to her. Next, we will teach you the basics of adverserial stoneworking. With Aeon and likely others, you will find yourself pitted against those who will use stones against you, and learning to both defend yourself and disarm your opponents will be of vital importance.”</p>
<p>Elvir rifled through his stash of stones, then selected two new ones, pocketing one for himself and handing the other to Jo.</p>
<p>“I will show you the foundations first, and then I believe it would be helpful for you to train with Ardin and Tan, so you all learn to progress together. Now, you may have noticed when the two of them were attempting to harness together, you could see the energy of their stones oppose each other. While that was not what they intended to do, it is precisely what happens in adverserial confrontations.</p>
<p>“If two opponents harness the same stone, the outcome depends on two things: the amount of stone available to be harnessed, and the skill and experience of the harnesser. If two harnessers of the exact same skill level and technique harnessed the same stone, the harnesser with the larger stone supply would win out, as the energies from both stones would cancel each other until one of the stones fully depleted.</p>
<p>“However, this is rarely the case in practice. In reality, even with the same stone supply, one opponent will generally outclass and defeat the other. You can think of this as akin to martial arts - two opponents, even with the exact same build, rarely, if ever, end in a perfect stalemate. Stoneworking is an art of skill, just like the art of martial combat, and the more skilled opponent, even with the same stone and the same supply of that stone, will almost certainly defeat the less skilled opponent.</p>
<p>“This is because stoneworkers do not all harness stones equally effectively, and the more trained and skilled you are, the more efficient you will be at maximally harnessing all the energy possible from your stone. On top of this, adverserial stoneworking is rarely simply two masses of energy pushing directly on each other, like you might imagine in an arm wrestle. Instead, it is an infinitely complex navigation of energies wresting in all forms and directions to slip past the defenses of the opponent and overcome them.</p>
<p>“Further complicating this endeavor is the fact that you will rarely have two opponents using the exact same stones. There are infinite combinations of pitting different stones against each other, and deep knowledge of all the general interactions possible between various types of stones is pivotal to success when facing any stoneworking opponent.</p>
<p>“This may seem like an overwhelming amount to learn, and indeed, it will be a steep learning curve. However, you have shown immense propensity for the art already, and I don’t doubt your capacity to become one of the best stoneworkers, both adverserially and at large, that Eukaon has ever seen. For now, however, let us start simply. Here is one ruby for you, and one ruby for me. I would like you to try to overpower me using your ruby however you can.”</p>
<p>Jo hesitated. “Is there any chance I might hurt you?”</p>
<p>Elvir chuckled. “Technically, yes, but practically, no. Don’t concern yourself with that. Even if you were to use every ounce of the ruby on me and I put up no defense, it would still not cause permanent damage to me. Do not hold back on account of that.”</p>
<p>Jo steadied herself, and then breathed in a small amount of the ruby, focused it, and shot it out in a little dart towards Elvir. Just as the dart was about to land, Elvir produced a small circular shield of energy that easily swiped the dart away, and it fizzled harmlessly as it deflected into the wall.</p>
<p>Jo breathed in deeply now, and threw a large ball of fire next, which Elvir again deflected with a simple shield that channeled the fire harmlessly over his head. Jo frowned, and thought more carefully about her next step. She looked at her ruby. It was about half the size it had been when she’d gotten it. She decided that her best bet was to try to overwhelm Elvir with as much power as she could at once, and to send it in as many directions as possible in the hope that one of her directed bolts would evade his defenses.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-23-novel-dreams-part-xvii-november-4-102018-08-29T22:13:42-07:002018-08-29T22:13:42-07:00Week 23 - Novel - Dreams Part XVII - November 4-10<p>“I wasn’t sure you were actually coming back. Thank you, Jo.”</p>
<p>Tan came up and patted her on the shoulder too. “Yeah. Thanks for coming back. I, unlike Ardin, don’t hold much optimisim that we’ll be harnessing the Heartstone, or anything close to it, anytime soon, so I’m real glad we’ll have you along for the journey.”</p>
<p>Jo laughed nervously. “Well, I don’t know if I’ll be able to harness any stone yet, so please don’t get your hopes up.”</p>
<p>Elvir took this as his cue. “Perhaps it’s time we finally give that a try, yes? Are you ready to begin with a few stones, Jo?”</p>
<p>Jo took a deep breath and nodded. She’d made it this far. There was no turning back now, and no point delaying any further.</p>
<p>Elvir beamed. “Excellent. You won’t need a harnessing glove. I’ve learned that much. Let’s get you started immediately with a few stones.”</p>
<p>He moved to his stash of stones, removed a few, and returned to Jo. He handed her a ruby stone that nestled neatly inside her palm.</p>
<p>“We’ll start you off simple. This stone will allow you to generate heat. You may have seen the tower of ruby in Tach, which kept the city warm. This ruby will allow you to warm both yourself and your environment. Try to focus on it, and get a feel for it. You should be able to sense the stone, just as you did with the portal stone.</p>
<p>Jo clenched the stone in her hand, closed her eyes, and focused. Immediately, she could sense a pulse imanating from the stone. It was subtle, yet clearly present, just like a heartbeat.</p>
<p>“I can feel it,” she said.</p>
<p>“Good. Now, try to draw from it with a breath. Then, breathe it back out to release what you pulled.”</p>
<p>Jo focused again on the ruby, and took a deep breath, imagining sucking some essence away from the ruby. She swelled with a feeling of almost overwhelming heat, and immediately choked it back up, coughing as the energy overwhelmed her.</p>
<p>“Whoah!” Ardin yelled, leaping back. Jo opened her eyes. She had coughed in Ardin’s direction, and she could see him flapping his arms in the air and wincing in pain. “Geez, that was hot. Give me a little warning next time?”</p>
<p>She reddened and gushed an apology, but her exhilaration at having successfully harnessed the ruby quickly washed over any embarrassment and guilt she felt.</p>
<p>“I did it!” she said. “Wow, I really did it.”</p>
<p>“That was really impressive,” Tan said. “Harnessing a ruby might be basic, but doing so on your first try, with no gear, and managing to pull so much energy from it? That’s unheard of. I guess Elvir was right, after all. There really is something special about you. You really might be our world’s only hope.”</p>
<p>Jo blushed again at this. She looked down at the ruby. It seemed slightly smaller. “Okay, now what?”</p>
<p>“Now, we practice you controlling your harnessing a little more precisely. You’ll find with time and practice you can begin to precisely target your output, both in intensity and in area of effect. You can choose to warm up an entire region, or perhaps just light a candle. Here, let’s have you try lighting a torch.” Elvir motioned to one of the torches on the side of the wall, blowing on it and snuffing out its light.</p>
<p>Jo closed her eyes again, and this time tried to focus more carefully in drawing from the ruby. She drew in slowly, this time, and felt the energy trickling into her, coalescing into a small sliver inside her. This time, the heat felt managable and contained. She opened her eyes, looked at the torch, and breathed out forcefully, imagining shooting the sliver inside her directly into a flame.</p>
<p>Incredibly, she managed this flawlessly, and the torch burst into flame again. Ardin whistled and Tan clapped. Elvir nodded appreciatively. “You are picking this up just as quickly as I thought you might. Quicker, indeed. Even Aeon did not have such an intuition on his first try.”</p>
<p>Jo felt a glow of inner pride at this. She was startled by her own proficiency with the ruby. It was a deeply unfamiliar feeling to her to be such a natural at something. She’d never felt that way before. Suddenly, she felt a hunger for more. She closed her eyes and drew in the ruby again, this time without even taking a breath. It felt like a part of her, as reflexive to her as using her own hand.</p>
<p>She pulled in as much as she could, entirely consuming the entire ruby, and then shaped the energy into a tightly compacted dense ball of flame within her, and breathed it out. She opened her eyes and saw the ball of flame in front of her, hovering exactly where she imagined it. She found that she could feel and control the flame even after it had left her, and directed it around the cavern, before finally letting it dissipate in the far end of the chamber.</p>
<p>“Do you think I can try another stone, now?” she asked.</p>
<p>Elvir handed her two stones, now, one slate and one indigo. “I’d like you to try mixing stones, now, and harnessing two at a time. I won’t tell you what properties these stones have, either. I trust that you will be able to determine that on your own.”</p>
<p>Jo gladly accepted the challenge, grasping one stone in each hand and concentrating again. First, she focused on the slate stone. Like the ruby stone, she could feel its pulse as well, though it had a distinctly different signature, quicker and more sharp in a staccato rhythm. She drew in a tiny bit, and could instantly grasped what power it held, feeling a strong force inside her. She released it, and a pressurized puff of wind flew out of her and extinguished the torch in front of her again.</p>
<p>She drew in the indigo stone next, and felt water pooling within her. She drew in the slate again, and could feel the water roiling, now. She focused on concentrating the pressure within her as she drew in the slate, and found that she could condense the water, forcing it to compact more tightly until it didn’t move at all, becoming merely a perfect sphere of trapped energy, waiting to be released and explode. She carefully shaped the sphere into a cylinder, and then pointed to end of the cylinder to create a spear of water. She then drew in as much slate as she could, putting as much force as she could into her makeshift water spear.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-22-novel-dreams-part-xvi-october-28-november-32018-08-29T22:12:51-07:002018-08-29T22:12:51-07:00Week 22 - Novel - Dreams Part XVI - October 28-November 3<p>The first thing she noticed was that her belongings did not, unfortunately, appear to make the trip with her. Indeed, she was naked besides the blanket covering her. She looked over and saw that there was a change of clothes lying next to her on the bed. The clothing was simple and plain, similar to what she had seen Ardin and Tan wearing. She put it on in a hurry, terrified of the off chance that someone would come in and see her stark naked.</p>
<p>Now dressed, she stepped out of bed and studied the room. It was clear she was no longer in the cave she had found herself in the last time she stepped foot in Eukaon. The sunlight shining through the windows showed her that she was above ground, at least, and in all other respects the room seemed to be a part of a simple wooden cabin. She made her way to the door at the front of the cabin and opened it, stepping outside.</p>
<p>She found herself in a forest, surrounded on all sides by thick groves of trees, with only a small area in front of the cabin having been shorn and maintained as a grassy field. Sitting in the middle of the field was Elvir.</p>
<p>“Feeling better?” he asked.</p>
<p>She nodded. “Much better. You didn’t tell me it would be so painful.”</p>
<p>He nodded apologetically. “I am sorry for that. I must admit, I was not sure you would make the journey over, and feared any additional cause for hesitation might jeopardize the odds you would make it. I also knew that you would recover quickly from your journey, and so I hope you can forgive me for the omission.”</p>
<p>Jo appreciated that he was, at least now, being forthright about his withholding. All things considered, she could understand why he had held back. “It’s okay,” she said. “So…what do we do now? Where are we?”</p>
<p>“This is where the portal stone in our world lies. The stone you found yourself on last night is our portal stone. I built that cabin over it to better mask its presence here. As for what happens now, I believe it is time we get you trained on some stoneworking. Ardin and Tan are already training now. If you are ready, we will go join them. Come, just through these woods.”</p>
<p>Elvir stood up and headed out through a narrow path in the woods that Jo had missed earlier. She ran to catch up with him. Perhaps half an hour later, they finally emerged from the woods, and to Jo’s surprise, came out into a completely open valley—the very same valley she had visited in a dream a few nights back, when she first met Elvir.</p>
<p>Immediately, she looked for signs of the village she had seen that day. In fact, she didn’t even see a trace of the greenery that had been so abundant on her last visit. Now, the valley stood dead and barren. The river had become a stagnant, turbid rivulet.</p>
<p>“I remember this place. There was a village here, wasn’t there?” Jo said.</p>
<p>Elvir nodded. “There was. You saw its destruction. I could not show you much, then, but I wanted to show you something. This was Aeon’s doing, one of his precursor acts before Tach’s destruction. I still don’t know why he chose to destroy this village and set it on fire. It’s possible that he was just experimenting with his abilities, but also, it seems like a suspicious coincidence that this village is so close to the portal stone. This is also precisely where Aeon began his training.” /* He was trying to destroy the portal stone, but coudln’t with Elvir’s half control over him still in some way - he set all the surrounding area on fire in the hope that it would destroy the portal stone as well, but of course it didn’t and it was a futile hope */</p>
<p>“So what I saw was real?”</p>
<p>“More or less. I am not entirely certain exactly what you saw, and it was only a memory, not the event in its present moment, but yes, this place did burn, and you did witness that, in some form or another. Now, let’s go meet your friends and begin your training.”</p>
<p>Elvir produced a stone—from where, exactly, Jo couldn’t tell—and tapped his foot. At that moment, the earth shifted beneath them, and Jo realized that no, they hadn’t in fact gone far at all from the cavern. It was right here all along, under them. A tunnel led deep into the caverns, and Elvir descended. Jo followed, and the tunnel closed again behind them.</p>
<p>The tunnel opened up into the same large room lined with torches Jo had found herself in last time, and she spotted Ardin and Tan, huddled together, seemingly lost in concentration. They were wearing identical sets of gloves that had a connecting strap that tethered the two of them together, and each glove held a marble stone.</p>
<p>“Okay, one more time. On three,” Ardin said. “One, two, three.”</p>
<p>As he spoke, both stones glowed in sync, as did the tether connecting the two of them. Then, the air above the tether began to crackle, and Jo could see small sparks of electricity begin to dart between the two boys. Ardin opened his eyes. “Holy crap, we’re actually doing it!” he said. As soon as he spoke, the tether abruptly snapped and the two boys were flung backwards.</p>
<p>Ardin got up from the ground first. “Ow. Okay, let’s just pretend that last part was planned and call this an unmitigated success. Our first synchronization ever. At this rate we’ll probably be harnessing the Heartstone ourselves by the time we face Aeon.” He turned around, and saw Jo and Elvir.</p>
<p>“Whoah, hey! You made it back! You’re here for good, this time?”</p>
<p>“I think so. I went through the portal stone, if that’s what you mean.”</p>
<p>Ardin ran up to her and gave her another hug. She hugged him back this time, albeit still a little uncomfortably.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-21-novel-dreams-part-xv-october-21-272018-08-29T22:12:17-07:002018-08-29T22:12:17-07:00Week 21 - Novel - Dreams Part XV - October 21-27<p>Five hours later, she woke up again, this time feeling infinitely better. A quick glance at the clock showed it was about half an hour after noon. Perfect. Time to pack up and get ready. She grabbed her bag and dumped out the contents. She had no idea if she would be able to bring anything with her, and had forgotten to ask, but still figured it couldn’t hurt to be prepared.</p>
<p>She thought for a while about what would be most useful to bring. Food came first to mind, so she put together a bag of trail mix, some cereal, and a bottle of water. Then she packed a handheld flashlight, a utility knife, a notebook and a pen, whcih all seemed like generally useful survival tools. Finally, she packed away as much spare clothing as she could with the remaining space. After giving it some more thought, she couldn’t think of anything else immediately pressing, so she decided to call it a day and finish up with a shower. Who knew how long it would be until she’d have the chance for one of those again, she thought. It seemed like Eukaon was still solidly stuck in the middle ages, and she didn’t have high hopes they’d invented running water yet.</p>
<p>The last thing she could think of to do was to write a note to her mom, on the off chance that something ended up going horribly wrong and she never saw her again, or if things simply took longer than expected and her mother arrived home before she did. It was hard to strike a balance between being overly sentimental at this being potentially a permanent goodbye and not being too dramatic as to cause undue concern in case things ended up being totally fine. She finally settled on something simple.</p>
<p>Hey Mom,</p>
<p>I ended up oversleeping and missing school again. I’m sorry. It looks like summer school for me. To make the day not a total waste, though, I decided to catch the train up to Chicago and go check out some of the museums and get some alternate education in. I love you a ton. Thanks for putting up with me and taking such good care of me all these years. I know it hasn’t been easy, but I just wanted to let you know how much I love you.</p>
<p>Love,<br>
Jo</p>
<p>That seemed innocuous enough, she decided. She left the note on the kitchen table, hoisted up her bag, and set out for Chicago.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>She had never gone to Chicago by herself before, and she found herself filling with pride when she stepped off the train and found herself firmly in the heart of Chicago’s Union Station. Everything had gone flawlessly so far. She’d biked to the train station and taken the train into the city in record time, and it wasn’t even three yet. She’d have plenty of time to make it to The Bean before anyone started missing her.</p>
<p>She took a look on her phone, and saw that a quick bus ride would take her directly to The Bean, which interestingly enough, seemed to also be called Cloud Gate. She wondered if the artist had been in on all of this, and just how many people, if anyone, on Earth knew about Eukaon. She found it hard to believe that she could really be the only—or at least only the second—person to have ever discovered the other world. The balance still tipped in favor of this all being the delusional fantasy of an incredibly lonely and unwanted fourteen year old girl, she thought. Such thoughts weren’t productive, though. She would find out soon enough. All she had to do for now was find the bus.</p>
<p>Twenty minutes later, she arrived at Millenium Park, and instantly spotted The Bean. Even at this time, in the middle of the weekday and in the winter, the iconic structure was still swarmed with tourists clamoring for the perfect photo. No one seemed in the slightest clued in to the fact that this was allegedly a portal to an entirely different world. Jo wondered if anyone would notice if she just happened to disappear in front of everyone. Time to find out.</p>
<p>She walked up to the structure, and placed both of her hands on it. Just as she had done in her last dream with the stone then, she closed her eyes, and tried to feel the pulse of The Bean. To her surprise, she felt it immediately, which instantly made her heart race. She wasn’t dreaming this. The Bean definitely had a pulse, just as the stone in Eukaon had.</p>
<p>She suddenly felt dizzy, and had to settle herself. “I’m really doing this,” she said. “This might actuallly be real, and I’m really going to transport myself into another world so I can save it. Wow. Okay. I’ve come this far. Let’s see what happens next.”</p>
<p>She felt the rhythm of The Bean, and felt its energy calling towards her. She breathed it in.</p>
<hr>
<p>The next few moments were the most uncomfortable of Jo’s entire life. It felt as if she were being rendered apart, every atom of her splitting in excruciating agony. Time ground to a standstill, and the process seemed to last for an eternity, every part of her being rewritten in painstaking detail.</p>
<p>When the pain finally subsided, she found herself lying, unable to move, on a cold stone floor. Everything ached.</p>
<p>“I have heard that the effects of translocation are still rather…unpleasant. Rest, now.” She heard Elvir’s voice rumble over her, but couldn’t muster the energy to respond or even turn her head to look at him. She felt herself gently picked up and carried to a bed, and a blanket cover her. She decided to take the suggestion and fell back into a dreamless slumber.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Jo woke to sunlight streaming on her face. She opened her eyes and stretched, feeling strangely more well rested than she had in longer than she could remember. All the soreness of the previous night had disappeared. She sat up and took stock of her surroundings for the first time.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-20-novel-dreams-part-xiv-october-14-202018-08-29T22:11:29-07:002018-08-29T22:11:29-07:00Week 20 - Novel - Dreams Part XIV - October 14-20<p>Elvir pulled another stone from his stash, which looked remarkably similar, if not near identical, to the one he had previously used to show them Tach’s destruction. Soon, this stone glowed and formed an image as well. This time, however, the image was one Jo was well familiar with.</p>
<p>“Is that…The Bean in Chicago? Really?” Jo stared at the image, which unmistakably did depict the iconic massive curved bean-like steel sculpture in the middle of Chicago’s Millenium Park. Jo had seen it several times in person over her tenure in the Chicago suburbs.</p>
<p>“I do not know what you call it, but yes, this is indeed the portal stone to Eukaon. I trust that you know how to find your way to it?”</p>
<p>“Yeah…it’s kind of like the most famous sculpture where I’m from. This is kind of unbelievable. Okay, so what exactly am I supposed to do when I make it there?”</p>
<p>“You will need to harness the stone. While you cannot harness stones in earnest here just yet, I can show you how such harnessing works, such that you can perform it when you are back on Earth. Here, let’s have you practice on this stone.”</p>
<p>Elvir handed Jo the stone he had been using to show her the image of The Bean. The stone was large, and Jo could barely hold it with both of her hands.</p>
<p>“Hold this firmly, and close your eyes. Focus on the stone, and try to feel its pulse.”</p>
<p>Jo closed her eyes, hugging the stone close to her to make it easier to carry. She tried to focus on it. At first, she sensed nothing, but as time passed, she started to detect a faint rhythm emanating from the stone, like a heartbeat.</p>
<p>“Wow. Okay, I can feel it.”</p>
<p>“Wonderful. It’s not as easy to detect with you only being partially in this world, and the fact that you can feel it at all speaks much to your natural affinity with the stones. This bodes quite well for your progression in stoneworking once we finally bring you over. Now, try to draw in the energy of the stone, as if you were drawing in a breath.”</p>
<p>Jo centered in on the stone again, and took a deep breath as she imagined sucking some essence away from the stone. To her shock, she felt herself fill with a foreign sense of energy, singularly disconcerting in feeling both very real and also very incorporeal. However, the energy dissipated almost as soon as she had drawn it in, and she was left only with a strange feeling of emptiness.</p>
<p>“Good. I can see you managed to draw in the stone, though of course it passed through you as you are not yet truly part of this world. You understand how harnessing works in its basic state, now. This is all you need to do after you seek out the portal stone. Place your hands on it, sense its energy, and draw it out. I will be waiting for you, and when I sense you have activated the stone, I will finally be able to draw you through to Eukaon fully. Understand?”</p>
<p>Jo nodded. “Okay. I can try to give this a shot. I’ll try to go after school tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Elvir beamed again. “Excellent, Jo. You will be the savior we need yet. Rest, now, in peace. I will be waiting for you, and we will see you again shortly.”</p>
<p>He took the stone back from Jo, then placed a large hand on her shoulder. His eyes closed, and the stone on his forehead began to glow a deep orange. Jo felt her body fill with heat, unbearably so, until she screamed in agony. Then the world went dark.</p>
<hr>
<p>When Jo woke this time, it was still dark outside. She glanced over at her clock. 2:35 AM. The dream hadn’t lasted long at all this time. Completely exhausted, she fell back asleep almost immediately. This time, she slumbered without a single interruption.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>“Jo, you’re late again. I’m not going through the spiel this time. Get up. I’m going to work. Bye.”</p>
<p>Jo heard the words distantly as she struggled to return to life. She could hear the front door open and slam. She felt better rested than she had in days, but four hours of sleep was still far too little to make up for all the debt she’d accumulated dreaming of a crazy world with dragons and magic stones. Hopefully this was all coming to an end soon. As she struggled out of bed, the thought casually passed her mind that it would be worth going to Eukaon just to get a good night’s sleep. One way or another, she thought, at least Elvir would stop bothering her.</p>
<p>As soon as she thought that, however, the idea of losing access to Eukaon pained her, and she realized how much she’d started to enjoy her time in the other world, even with the recent chaos and pressure that had been placed on her. She decided then that she would, in fact, make the journey to the portal stone and try to make it over in earnest. She still found it hard to believe that everything she had dreamed was actually real, so this would help put that to rest. On top of that, if it all was real, they might truly need her. It felt so strange to be so needed there, when she was so invisible here. She’d dreamed of being important, or at least cared about, for so long. Now that she was all that, however, it scared her a little. What if she failed?</p>
<p>She sat there, paralyzed in bed for a moment, both with trepidation and also simple sheer fatigue. She looked again at the clock. Six minutes had passed, and the bus was due to arrive in just another four.</p>
<p>“Screw it,” she said. There was no chance she’d make it anymore even if she tried. Her mother had already left, anyway. This would be an unexcused absence, but she had bigger things to worry about now. She decided that she would need to be as prepared as possible if she was going to do this, and that probably began with getting enough sleep. She passed out again.</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-19-novel-dreams-part-xiii-october-7-132018-08-29T22:10:28-07:002018-08-29T22:10:28-07:00Week 19 - Novel - Dreams Part XIII - October 7-13<p>Ardin interrupted, now. “Hold on. Why should we just believe everything you’ve told us? It sounds like a nice story and all, but I have no idea if you just made all of that up on the spot to use us for your own purposes. I’ve never heard of any of this before. What are you getting out of this whole situation? If what you said is true, I want this man dead and will stop at nothing to make it happen…but I need to know that what you said is true.”</p>
<p>As Jo looked over at Ardin, she noticed that his face was red, and she could see tears streaming down his face. She felt a stab of pain and sorrow for him. She could only imagine what it must have felt like to learn, so suddenly and unexpectedly, about the loss of his entire family.</p>
<p>“You may choose to believe me or not. There is little I can do to convince you one way or the other with any more than my words here. However, the truth of what I say will become apparent soon enough. If what I say is true, and no action is taken, we are all doomed in a matter of weeks or months at most. You may choose to take a leap of faith now and pursue Aeon on belief, and confront him yourself, and then you can determine the truth on your own. If what I say is a lie and you discover this then, then at most what you have lost is a few brief moments of your time. If what I say is the truth, however, you will have saved the world, and received the vengeance you crave.”</p>
<p>Ardin seemed to weigh Elvir’s words thoughtfully for a moment, before finally nodding.</p>
<p>“Okay. I don’t trust you fully, but your word is all we have to go on for now. I’m willing to see this thing through, and come to our own conclusions later. Jo, I think we have to do this thing. No matter what, I’m going to find who’s responsible for this, and make them answer for it. If you choose to come and follow Aeon, I’ll follow you all the way.” </p>
<p>Tan nodded his assent. “I don’t think it’s right for us to obligate you to do anything, first for having just met you and second for this being our world, not yours, but we would be forever grateful for any help you’re up for giving us, Jo. If what Elvir claims is true, we can’t do this without you, even though we’d try regardless.”</p>
<p>Jo struggled to figure out an appropriate answer. This was an overwhelming amount for her to take in. She was being beseeched by two boys and a dragon she had just met to give up her entire past life and join them on a quest to save the world. Part of her felt that she should decline the request simply because it seemed unreasonable to ask her to give up her past life. Reflecting on that feeling, however, she slowly came to acknowledge that in reality, she already felt closer to Ardin and Tan than she did to almost anyone back home, sad as that realization was.</p>
<p>No, that wasn’t the real reason why she hesitated to agree to this journey. The real reason, and the far more frightening one, was that she would fail, and let them all down. They seemed to think that she could save their world. They wouldn’t think so if they only knew what a complete failure and nobody she was where she came from. She, however, did know this. She finally decided that it was only right that they know too.</p>
<p>“I…don’t know if I can do this. I think I’d let you all down. I’ve never, um, saved a world before. Actually, I’ve never done much of anything, back where I come from.”</p>
<p>“I suspect you would be surprised by what you might accomplish here,” Elvir replied. “In any case, we are certainly doomed to failure without your help, so there is no harm in you trying your best. We have nothing left to lose. Why don’t we try your hand at stoneworking first, and then we can see what you think from there?”</p>
<p>Jo couldn’t think of a way out of this one. The way Elvir had described Aeon with the stones had made him sound like the best stoneworker in their entire world. She found it hard to believe that she could compete with that, and that she really had been chosen by some special force of nature. She decided that maybe if she agreed to try working with the stones, they would end up realizing what a miserable failure she was, and relieve her of the pressure of saving their world.</p>
<p>“Okay. I guess I can give it a try. What should I do?”</p>
<p>Elvir beamed at this. “Excellent. First, we do have the minor logistical issue of bringing you into this world first so you can properly harness our stones. I trust you will be up for this task? Rest assured again that the time you spend here will not be missed back home, and that upon completion of our goals here, you may return home through the portal stone just as easily as you came.”</p>
<p>Jo shifted uncomfortably. She had forgotten about this prerequisite step, and wasn’t in fact fully, or at all comfortable, with the idea of leaving her entire past life behind to come here. Unfortunately, she felt like she had already committed to giving this a shot, and didn’t know how to turn back now and not let everyone down. She tried to stall for some time and find some way out.</p>
<p>“Um. How exactly does the portal stone work again? How do I find it?”</p>
<p>“Very simple. The portal stone is located not too far from where I pull you from now. All you need to do is find your way there and learn the harness the stone. I will be watching the partner stone on this side, and will draw you in as you activate your stone. Let me show you a picture of the stone and where it is. I understand that it is somewhat well known in your world.”</p>
tag:benyu.org,2014:Post/week-18-novel-dreams-part-xii-september-30-october-62018-08-29T22:09:54-07:002018-08-29T22:09:54-07:00Week 18 - Novel - Dreams Part XII - September 30-October 6<p>“I had hoped that that would be the end of it, and determined that perhaps it was best that none ever harness the Heartstone after all. Despite all the immense good it could bring to the world, the risk of irreparable harm on an unimaginable scale was simply too great to chance it for that good. I further bolstered my vault in which I had stored the Heartstone, and placed sentry stones to alert me if its resting place was ever disturbed.</p>
<p>“A few more months passed in relative peace and quiet, but ultimately, the day did come where my worst fears materialized, and I was alerted by my stones to the disappearance of the Heartstone. I know not to this day how it happened and how he pulled it off, but I knew without a doubt that it was he, and that this would not bode well for Eukaon.<br>
“I set to action then immediately, and desperately worked through my options. With the Heartstone in his possession, I knew that I was no longer any match for his powers, and if I could not stand up to him, then no one in this world could. Finally, I determined that there was only one possible hope left to us, and that was to attempt to find another possible host for the Heartstone who could champion the fight against Aeon. It was a far stretch, but I had my suspicions that it was his presence from Earth that had lent him his unique talents and propensities, and so I set about to find another such host from Earth.</p>
<p>“This is where you come into the story, Jo. By this time, I had already discovered how to access Earth, but still needed to find a compatible party to bring through to this world. You were that person, Jo, and I do not believe this was a mere coincidence. This earth, and our stones, have an intuition of their own, and they only call to those that they do with a reason.</p>
<p>“It has long been curious to me why, for instance, it should be that only strangers to our world are able to harness our most powerful stone, but I suspect now that perhaps those of you who come from Earth are not so foreign at all. Indeed, perhaps you are more close to this world than any of us. We were placed here by chance, mere accident and luck, but you were only able to come here through qualification and purpose. Out of everyone on Earth, you are the only one, besides Aeon, who has been able to make the leap to Eukaon. I suspect this world, and consequently its stones, for whatever reason, feel an especially close connection to you.</p>
<p>“In any case, you are here now, and you are the only hope we have of stopping Aeon, and stopping his destruction of our world as we know it. I have slowed him down in his progress, which is likely the only reason we are still here, but this will not last. When I mentioned that I had placed further safeguards in the safekeeping of the Heartstone, these extended to dampening the Heartstone’s power itself. Indeed, I would have tried to destroy the stone entirely, had I not suspected that, like its name suggests, it is in some way critical to the survival of this planet.</p>
<p>“However, I have sealed the stone deeply within many layers of inert rock, which significantly restricts the ability for the stone to be harnessed in its full power, and places enormous strain on anyone who attempts to harness the stone. However, these layers will eventually break down with repeated harnessing of the stone, and so this is not a permanent solution. Furthermore, as we’ve already seen in Tach, even with these dampening effects, Aeon’s power with the stone is still unbelievably immense.</p>
<p>“However, such a demonstration as Aeon enacted in Tach is sure to have put him out of commission for a few weeks at the least. The Heartstone, unlike other stones, is not consumed when harnessed, but rather consumes the host’s vitality itself upon its use. With my safeguards, this effect is amplified manyfold, and I cannot imagine, even with Aeon’s unparalleled talent and constitution, that he has emerged from such a harnessing without having exacted a terrible toll on himself.</p>
<p>“This gives us time, but not enough to spare. We must train you in the art of stoneworking, and have you ready to face Aeon before he fully recuperates and is able to break free of the limitations of the Heartstone in its present form. This, I can do for you, and take you under my wing as I did Aeon, but we must start immediately if we are to have any hope in this world.<br>
“Now, I hope you understand our plight, and the urgency of our situation. Our first course of action must be to get you through the portal stone and fully here in earnest, and then we can begin our preparations. Now, are you ready to undertake this task?”</p>
<p>Elvir finally lulled into silence here. Jo didn’t immediately speak, still stunned by the sheer quantity of information she was trying to comprehend, and trying to come to terms with the full gravity of the situation. It was hard to grasp that she had somehow gone in a minute from entirely irrelevant and invisible high schooler to the last hope and salvation of a planet.</p>
<p>“Are you sure this isn’t a dream?” she said, feeling stupid as soon as the words left her mouth.</p>
<p>Elvir tapped his foot impatiently. “If it is, you will wake up from it soon enough, and all of this will have been inconsequential. If you don’t, then you have your answer, and the fate of our world will be in your hands. With those being the stakes here, I urge you with all my might to treat this situation with all the seriousness and import you can muster. I will show you the way to the portal stone in your world, and you can see it for yourself. Then, you can make your final decision and see if this is merely all just a dream, or truly your destiny.”</p>