Long ago, when she was holder of the stories of the Fonlands and feeding the Scroll of the Time Chamber, Nyame was on her Cotton-Wood rocking peacefully as it moved through the space of Jo’s Disc. She didn’t notice as the Cotton-Wood passed Ntinyeti and Ntinyari in their revolution around one another, and she was completely oblivious to the star flowers of Ntinyeti who were standing bright from the glass surface of the star and contemplating the ancient pattern of existence. There was a time when Nyame was a frequent visitor of Ntinyeti and she is a dear friend of King Protea of the magnetic north, who could channel the fearsome power of Ntinyeti through his roots and out of his pink petals that engorged with light and energy, and over his long life feeling the magnetic energy fields of Ntyinyeti, he learned to manipulate magnetic energy and could exert control over metals. He could also magnetize things that weren’t normally magnetized, and Nyame had witnessed a fearsome battle between King Protea and a warrior of the Disc of Gu for the Spirit Amulet where King Protea dispatched of the bulky warrior by merely flapping his petals. Everyone underestimates the defenses of a Star Flower, and that is part of what makes them such lethal warriors, they do not brag or boast about their abilities, but they are not punching bags, mere bystanders in the world hoping that others will treat them kindly. The Star Flowers move in incomprehensible ways to beings accustomed to humanoid forms with legs for walking, arms for punching and throwing spells, and the warriors of the Disc of Gu, or this particular warrior who confronted King Protea for the Spirit Amulet, were unaccustomed to the patterns of existence that the sentience of the Star Flowers know. Star Flowers understand the why of existence and they know that it isn’t necessary to have legs to move when one can tap the pattern to have the things that they desire come to them. Star Flowers are not capable of warping reality, exactly, that is more chaos than pattern magic mastery, they learn to see the pattern of existence and to bend the pattern of others in such a way that their destiny includes them. In the instance of King Protea defeating the warrior of the Disc of Gu, King Protea had ensured that the warrior would confront him, rather than Moon Daisy, the Star Flower who was actually in possession of the amulet at the time. And Protea used his mastery of the elements of his environment to exploit the warrior’s weaknesses in the hopes that the story would spread to prevent other challengers for the very powerful amulet that was safeguarded on Ntinyeti. Protea had used pattern magic to ensure that Nyame was there to witness his very easy defeat of the hulking warrior who was strong enough to scratch the glass of Ntinyeti’s surface, but was seemingly melted under the shadow of Protea who only seemed to stand tall.
On the instance that Nyame’s Cotton-Wood was floating serenely by Ntinyeti, the Luminary lost in her duties, King Protea was giving a lesson to the young Star Flowers that were growing in his court. They would be rooted there until they learned the magic necessary to move themselves or to be retrieved by some Fonlander who would plant them in some other location to continue their existence. Protea was using his very essence to give a lecture about recognizing the ever shifting pattern of existence.
“Seeing it is only the beginning,” Protea was saying in his way. “Once you recognize what it is, these thin strings that connect everything across forever, it won’t be long before you see that it is constantly shifting, the connections are always being remade by the movements and decisions of everything. A good patternist is not concerned with the state of the pattern as it exists at any given moment, but they are remembering the changes of it before the present locked it momentarily into place, into a present that we exist inside of. A good patternist recalls the state as it was over many past instances and what those instances begat, then uses that impression to judge what will come next, or how best to bend the pattern to make things happen in their direction. We do not make the future, we can only influence it to narrow or widen its scope. We do not read the future, we read the past and possibilities for the future open up.”
The young Dendron, one of the pupils in the court over whom Protea’s wisdom washed, interrupted with a question.
“I see the pattern,” Dendron said in her way, her petals long and flowy like white fabric, “but it is a work of art that I dare not touch. What gives us the right to meddle with the pattern? Isn’t there a risk that we could disturb it and ruin everything?”
Protea laughed at this. “It is hubris that makes a Fonlander believe themselves capable of ruining something as extensive as the pattern. Even I can only influence it and I am an ancient observer of the pattern. One would have to wield power on the level of the Mother-Father to truly disturb everything, and that is a testament to the complexity of the pattern, that even after my long years of study, I am still only playing with the surface of it. Do not fret, little one, you will never attain the power necessary to alter the pattern”
Somehow, this disturbed Dendron. Not that she had any interest in being able to disrupt the pattern, she had been genuinely worried that if she were to seize the magic that she witnessed when she observed the pattern she would somehow destabilize existence itself. But to learn that no Fonlander could ever hope to truly master the pattern magic of the Fonland besides its wondrous creators, was disturbing to Dendron. The Mother-Father had created Fonlanders to become masters and stewards of the magic of the Fonlands and it was clear to her that if they just decided that the pattern was too complex to master and steward, then they were derelict in their duties to their creators.
Dendron didn’t interrupt King Protea for the rest of the lesson. She was resolving herself to do what Protea had said was impossible. She would tame pattern magic, gain mastery over it sufficient to disrupt it if she chose, though she had no desire to create chaos, only to be the pride of the Mother-Father.
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