"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing."
She laughed. "Don't 'nothing' me. That's the first time that I've ever seen you sit still. What's the matter with getting a gnome on you?"
Everything. Binding elementals to a duty so closely related to a person was dangerous. Undines could cause moodswings, thirst — slyphs, inattentiveness and insomnia — salamanders, fury and berserking — gnomes, apathy to an extent that one would neglect eating, breathing. It was the traditional understanding that the summoning and binding of an extremely lower-class elemental could aid one in problems, and he knew that it was this that Boula was referencing — a superstition so commonly quoted here that it was like medical truth.
"Elementals should never be used for duties like that," he told her. "It's dangerous. It's like — working the weather just to suit someone's fancy when they walk home. It's just too much power."
She looked confused.
"But if you have a strong enough elementalist...one that can really communicate, and is versed enough to make good contracts..." When Salt continued staring at her, Boula faltered.
"I've just never heard that before."
"It's inner-area style." And a stupid one. But it made him nervous to speak strongly to a baa'er, so he softened his response, to keep her from feeling insulted, and to keep himself from being attacked. "It's common here for elementals to be used, but not so much in the outer, where Tonsor lands are."
"That's..." Her eyes narrowed at him, and he started, clenching his hand and preparing to defend himself.
"Tonsor...is close to dark areas, isn't it?"
"It is," he said, with relief. So she had only been thinking. He continued on with agreement, encouraging her. "That's right, Tonsor is close to the darkness. It's for that reason," he admitted, "that elementals are not used often — they get twisted by the darkness — it makes their worst states display. And even if they're at their best here..."
He tried to find words to explain. How those who unknowingly drank undines from clear water returned to it, insatiably, until they drowned. How those who insulted gnomes became their stone ottomans. How it was that Salt himself was rumored to be the way he was — distracted constantly — because of how an ancestor slighted a slyph.
"...I've seen them at their worst."
He shrugged.
She laughed. "Don't 'nothing' me. That's the first time that I've ever seen you sit still. What's the matter with getting a gnome on you?"
Everything. Binding elementals to a duty so closely related to a person was dangerous. Undines could cause moodswings, thirst — slyphs, inattentiveness and insomnia — salamanders, fury and berserking — gnomes, apathy to an extent that one would neglect eating, breathing. It was the traditional understanding that the summoning and binding of an extremely lower-class elemental could aid one in problems, and he knew that it was this that Boula was referencing — a superstition so commonly quoted here that it was like medical truth.
"Elementals should never be used for duties like that," he told her. "It's dangerous. It's like — working the weather just to suit someone's fancy when they walk home. It's just too much power."
She looked confused.
"But if you have a strong enough elementalist...one that can really communicate, and is versed enough to make good contracts..." When Salt continued staring at her, Boula faltered.
"I've just never heard that before."
"It's inner-area style." And a stupid one. But it made him nervous to speak strongly to a baa'er, so he softened his response, to keep her from feeling insulted, and to keep himself from being attacked. "It's common here for elementals to be used, but not so much in the outer, where Tonsor lands are."
"That's..." Her eyes narrowed at him, and he started, clenching his hand and preparing to defend himself.
"Tonsor...is close to dark areas, isn't it?"
"It is," he said, with relief. So she had only been thinking. He continued on with agreement, encouraging her. "That's right, Tonsor is close to the darkness. It's for that reason," he admitted, "that elementals are not used often — they get twisted by the darkness — it makes their worst states display. And even if they're at their best here..."
He tried to find words to explain. How those who unknowingly drank undines from clear water returned to it, insatiably, until they drowned. How those who insulted gnomes became their stone ottomans. How it was that Salt himself was rumored to be the way he was — distracted constantly — because of how an ancestor slighted a slyph.
"...I've seen them at their worst."
He shrugged.
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