Chapter 20: Chapter XIX – Venti – What is a Phone?

Venti held out their hand for the person that had knocked in to them. They took it and Venti felt that this person’s right arm was apparently made of wood. They could feel a very soft hum of essence within, but the connection was rather weak.

“Sorry about that… I should have been looking where I was going…” the person said as they stood up. Their voice was soft and they had an accent that Venti had only heard in passing throughout the city.

As they did so, Venti noticed that the person seemed to be examining them. Without being able to see their eyes, all they could feel was that the person was looking at them and they weren’t really saying anything. Deciding that perhaps they should respond to the apology, Venti waved their hand dismissively.

“It’s perfectly fine. You would not be the first person to bump in to me and I’m sure you will not be the last…” they offered candidly.

The person nodded, before leaning forward slightly, bringing their face close to Venti’s before pulling back and frowning. “Are you… blind…?” they asked.

Venti chuckled softly. “I am, yes.”

The person stepped back a little once more before closing their eyes and taking a deep breath. As they did so, Venti could feel a bit of energy radiating from them which they recognized. This person was observing their aura. Venti decided there would be no harm in them feeling it, so they decided not to try and conceal their aura as they often would when people tried to look.

“You have a very interesting aura… if you don’t mind me saying…”

Venti nodded as they did the same with the person, peering at their aura and feeling that it was just as interesting as the energy coming off of them. Their aura was rather small, but the power it emanated was immense. There seemed to be something mixed in with it that was foreign to Venti. They had never felt anything like it before. As they focused in on it more, the best comparison they could draw would be to what they had always imagined the aura of a Master was like, but this aura was far smaller than the alleged size of a Master’s.

“You have quite the interesting aura yourself. Small, but very powerful.”

The person smirked softly and Venti smiled. “I suppose, perhaps we should have exchanged our names before we went and peered at each other’s auras, yes?”

The person laughed nervously. “Yeah… That probably would have been proper…”

“Well, I’m Venti Orborea, They/Them,” Venti offered.

“It’s very nice to meet you Venti, I’m Jessica Violi, They/She,” Jess replied.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mx. Violi.”

Jess stifled a laugh. “No need to be so formal… Jess would be just fine…”

“Alright then. Jess. May I ask what you’re doing out here? Are you stopping by to get some materials from the shop?” Venti asked, gesturing towards the shop next to them.

Jess peered at the shop before shaking their head. “No, I’m just… trying to get away from the city right now… There’s so much… noise…”

Venti nodded. “I can understand that. Actually, I saw you earlier in the city, on top of a building, though I assume you didn’t take any notice of me.”

“Oh. You did? Yeah… I was somewhat… lost in thought…”

“I see… I figured you were just up there trying to get a better signal. I know it can be kinda rough to get one in the city sometimes when the network gets busy.”

Jess gave Venti a confused look. “A signal for what…?”

“Well… a phone. Not sure what else… I guess you could have a been on a computer too, but those don’t usually have quite as much trouble…”

“What’s a phone?” Jess asked.

It was Venti’s turn to give Jess a puzzled expression. They reached in to one of their pockets and pulled out a thin brown rectangle with a dark screen on the front. Venti presented the phone to Jess and they simply looked at it.

“What does it do?”

“You really don’t know what a phone is…?”

Jess shook their head, drawing in closer to the foreign device. Venti tapped the screen of the phone and it lit up. The screen was mostly black, but there were patterns of essence on it that made up a clock and various indicators at the top of the screen.

“My phone operates a little different to most people’s. Most phones use light and sight essence to make the screen, but in my case, it’s greatly simplified and uses wind essence and light essence instead so that I can make out the placements of things on the screen. It is still a little difficult sometimes, but it’s much better than the alternative of trying to sense every complex bit of sight essence.”

Venti offered the phone to Jess who began to examine it, unsure of what to do before touching the screen. Upon seeing that it reacted to touch, Jess began to fiddle around with it.

“So… you’ve never seen a phone before and you have a really… odd aura… Can I assume that you aren’t exactly from around here?”

Jess looked up from the phone and nodded before realizing Venti may not have noticed. “Uh… yeah… I’m actually from a small island in the Grand Omnian Republic… My mum was never really a fan of all of the new technologies of the world, so they’re forbidden on the island and… I guess I never really questioned it… Plus, she especially isn’t a huge fan of things that are made from golems. I never really saw that big of a deal with it though…”

“Your mom has control over a whole island? That’s crazy…”

“Well, she is the Sage of the Forest, so… she kinda has jurisdiction over, well, the forest… She’s really nice though, even if she was a little strict at times,” Jess offered.

“Wait, your mother is a Sage?”

“Uh… Yeah… I mean, I was adopted, but I’ve been around her my whole life, so I just think of her as mum. And I know that she feels the same way about me.”

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Venti’s head was still spinning from the information that Jess was the child of a Sage, but Jess didn’t seem phased and so Venti figured they didn’t care to dwell on the topic. “So… you said you were trying to get away from interference, but you weren’t talking about a phone… What were you talking about?”

Jess thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain. “Do you know what the Heart of Nature is…?”

Venti gave them a confused look before shaking their head. “Not a clue.”

Jess sighed. “Okay, well, basically, when this world was created and the Eight Great Mystics walked upon the earth, they created what are called origin shards. Essentially, they’re these crystalized forms of pure essence fused with the surface of the world. They are connected to this world and, some of them are, in fact, sewn in to the earth beneath us. Each of the six main continents were created with the origin shards as a base.”

Venti nodded along, finding that the information actually made quite a bit of sense with the things that they had observed about the world before now.

“So, Sengario took one of each of the origin shards and merged them together to create something called the Heart of Nature. They used the connection that the shards had with the world and put them in place as a way of helping the flow of nature, ensuring that things wouldn’t get too out of control. However, when the fractures were formed, this disrupted the Heart of Nature, splitting it in to its original pieces and they were scattered all over the world. Because of this, the fractures have been very slow to heal. If the Heart of Nature were to be reformed, the fractures would disappear much quicker and the planet could finally heal…”

“So, I assume that your job is to try and find the scattered fragments?” Venti asked.

Jess nodded. “Exactly. As a searcher, my job is to locate Heart fragments in the pursuit of reforming the Heart of Nature.”

“And as for the interference?”

“Oh, right… Well, the way that I’ve been trying to find a fragment here has been through sensing the energy of it. I’m pretty well acquainted with what they feel like, so I figured that if I wandered around for long enough, maybe I would be able to locate one… I’ve been here for three weeks and I haven’t found a single thing… Lately, I’ve been trying to observe from on high. The city is full of all kinds of weird interference that makes it a lot harder to focus on specific signatures. Plus, there are wind apprentices everywhere, so pinpointing a specific wind essence signature is a little difficult…” Jess explained.

“Well, wouldn’t the signature from the fragment be much more intense than that of pretty much anything else… other than maybe like, Strataros?” Venti offered.

“That would typically work, but I’ve had zero luck there… Plus, there are rumors that the structures where the fragments are suppress their essence signatures, so…”

“Ah… That would certainly make things rather difficult…”

“Yeah…”

The two just sat there in silence for some time. Jess was feeling a little puzzled. They had had quite a few people ask them about what they were doing, but most of them just seemed confused which they assumed Venti was as well, but the difference here was that Venti seemed to want to rectify their confusion on top of actually being interested in what Jess was saying. It was an odd feeling for them, but they didn’t mind it.

“I assume you aren’t alone. You’re something of a researcher, so I assume you would be working on a small team, yeah?” Venti finally asked.

Jess’s expression turned rather somber and they shook their head. “No. I’m doing this all on my own… Although, there are other teams in Aeria that are searching as well, but… it’s a big place… and there really aren’t any leads…”

Venti thought for a moment. “Well… how about this? Why don’t I help you? I’d imagine this would be much better if you were-”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea. I work much better alone,” Jess said, cutting Venti off.

They frowned at Jess, rolling their eyes. “If you say so, but still, now that you’ve told me, I’m likely to pick up on any information related to this more easily, so it would probably be good for us to stay in contact. You don’t have a phone though… Maybe you should get one? It might be useful to set up contact with people around the region. I travel all around pretty regularly, so I think that I could be rather helpful to you, Jess.” Venti offered. As they had been talking with Jess, they were starting to realize some things about them and they felt a strange compulsion to protect them. On top of that, they were hoping perhaps that while the answer seemed to be no now, they might convince Jess to allow Venti to accompany them.

Jess thought for a moment. They wanted to say no, but gathering leads was far more important than their desire to work alone. “Fine…” they finally grumbled.

Venti smirked. “Alright. And, while we’re getting you a phone, maybe I can show you around the city a bit.”

“That seems a bit unnecessary…”

Venti shook their head. “I disagree completely. You’ve been sheltered on an island your whole life. You are a bit out of the loop about how society and the greater works. If you’re going to be travelling all over, you need to know how the world works.”

Jess said nothing and simply began to follow behind as Venti headed back in to the city, using their sword to help guide them, even if they were pretty familiar with the route. Jess merely followed in silence until the two reached the city and Jess once again found themself overwhelmed by the noise of everything. They were met with an almost constant buzzing in their head and ears, but they did their best to ignore it.

Venti guided the two of them to a store that seemed rather busy. The sign outside read “Golem Technologies”. The building was relatively similar to the rest of the buildings in the city, except for the fact that this store was buzzing with the energy of golems. Stepping inside, the store was broken up in to several isles, each with a different range of products available. The two apprentices made their way to the isle for phones and began to look.

“Uh… Which one should I get…?” Jess asked, a bit confused as they looked through the various models which, to them, mostly looked identical.

“Well, the phones are mostly the same from an outside view, but the differences are in how they actually function. For instance, different phones can change their surfaces to varying degrees. The lowest end models are set as they are, but as you go up in the line, you get phones that can change in quite a few different ways. The highest end phones can essentially turn in to full blown computers, if needed, but I doubt you’ll want something like that. My recommendation would be something a little more mid-range. Additionally, some of them have the ability to change in to small cube companions. Those are very popular, but I don’t know if that’s really something you have any interest in…”

Jess’s eyes lit up at that and they began examining the information on each of the phones, eventually finding one that could change relatively well to suit different environments and user, was within their price range, and had the ability to change in to  a cube companion. Once they had decided, they picked the phone off the shelf and headed up towards the counter, handing the cashier the phone and then their money. Seeing how excited Jess was, they simply handed them the phone. Jess rushed back to Venti and the two made their way out of the shop.

“Is there somewhere with a little less people that I could maybe open this up…?” Jess asked, looking around to the crowds of people.

Venti thought for a moment and nodded, leading them to a café that was close by. Inside, there were only a few people. Sitting down at a booth in the corner, Venti ordered them both some sandwiches. As they waited for their food, Jess happily tore open the packaging of the phone, taking it out and examining it. It was fairly similar to the phone that Venti had, but when they tapped the screen and turned it on, they were met by a much more colorful display. Jess sighed as they began going through all of the boring phone set up. Venti helped them with most of it, seeing as how Jess was very confused, but eventually, they got the phone set up.

Venti began to explain the various workings of the phone as best they could without being able to actually see it, modeling what they could on their own. Eventually, the food arrive and Jess set the phone aside, staring at the sandwich and sniffing it slightly. Opening it up, they frowned, picking out all of the meat and setting it aside.

“Sorry, I guess I should have asked if you had any issues with eating anything,” Venti offered.

“It’s fine. I appreciate the food, nonetheless,” Jess said, digging in. “Thanks for showing me around… by the way…”

Venti smiled softly. “Of course. Though there’s still a lot I need to show you…”

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