Peek: Fundamentals

Perli sits in her small chambers in the ratkin enclave, contemplating His newest domain and her new affinity. He's not the god of change for nothing, clearly. The kobold carefully creates a small point of gravity and lobs a rock at it, watching the stone spiral around the focus like water in a whirlpool.

Herald Teemo called it Fundamental, but was very vague on what that actually meant. She'd consider practically any affinity to be fundamental, but even High Priestess Aranya admitted she's never heard Him call any other affinity Fundamental.

She focuses again, creating another focal point, and sends the stone on a figure eight as she continues to try to puzzle things out. Are the other affinities lesser? She can practically hear the Herald argue against that, but there seems to be a kernel of truth to that. Perhaps not lesser... but incomplete? Lord Thedeim and the Savant Rocky clearly know a lot more about affinities than perhaps anyone, but they are very secretive about what that is. Do they know some deeper truth about the affinities?

Perhaps. She tosses a bit of gravel into the gravitational field, watching the chaos of collisions slowly organize into smoother circuits. There's clearly a lot of interconnectivity between the affinities. Otherwise, how could Savant Rocky expand his expertise into other affinities? Someone with earth affinity isn't going to create a breeze, but Savant Rocky can somehow wield fire and ice like there's no difference?

She frowns as she watches the stone and gravel travel at the whim of gravity. Is there no difference? It sounds ridiculous on the surface. They are opposites, they couldn't be more different! And yet, the way Savant Rocky uses them...

She hums as she considers the flying stones... the flying earth. If some random person were to come into her chambers, would they think she has earth affinity, instead of gravity? Is the difference between fire and ice merely a matter of perspective? It sounds crazy... but she's also having trouble arguing against her wild thought. In fact, she knows of Rhonda, the young goblin blessed with a class from Him, who is able to expand her affinities just like Savant Rocky. And she started with ice and fire.

She hums to herself as she grabs her jug of water and pours some into the two gravity wells, watching how it flows, and seeing the stream slowly separate into small blobs of water. Is she seeing the water reacting to its own gravity? She watches as she continues to think, her mind wandering in a meditative state as she observes. The affinities are more deeply connected than they first appear. Stuff is made of stuff. Things don't just happen.

The water isn't reacting to its own gravity, comes the clear thought. The gravel isn't attracted to it at all. Herald Teemo said the amount of gravity made by just a little bit of stuff is hardly noticeable. Things don't just happen. Why is the water settling into small little orbs, instead of a smooth stream, or even a mass of raindrops?

She pours a little water onto a saucer, and can see it forms a smooth surface, not a bunch of small drops. She carefully swirls the jug, wondering if maybe the movement makes it separate, but it still stays a singular mass. She can shake it and make a mess and then get droplets, but she's pretty sure her little gravity wells are much smoother than that. Things don't just happen, so why is the water making small orbs?

She tests water and gravity in every way she can think of. She pours, she stirs, she sets more to revolve around a point, she creates a complex net of gravity to bend and twist the water in every which way. She fills dishes, bowls, jars, urns, cups, and more, trying to figure out what the water is actually doing, feeling driven by the fact that things don't just happen.

She almost misses dinner, and is very thankful to the ratkin who knocks on her door to remind her. She's eager to talk with the others, clearing her thoughts as she explains her meditations on water, and her experiments with it. Most don't see the point, but they don't try to dissuade her.

In fact, Elder Larx encourages her to continue to explore. Nobody thought much about why things fell until Lord Thedeim pointed it out. By looking at the most basic things and trying to understand, there could be endless wisdom to be obtained. He even encourages her to ask Lord Thedeim about it at some point, which she resolves to do later.

First, she wants to have something to present, instead of a room full of wet crockery and flatware. It seems like an odd place to try to find wisdom, but Lord Thedeim pointed out the Fundamental in a falling apple. She might not find any deep answers to her questions by throwing around some water, but she certainly won't find the answers if she doesn't look.