Another day, another letter, but even the mask would show an expression after the knowledge contained therein.
After reading the letter, Kellach knew he had to talk to Eamont about this... and other developments. He knew how awkward it would get, but if there was anyone he could trust with his health, it was the aforementioned elezen.
Letter Wrote:Brother,
I sincerely hope this letter finds you soon. You were wondering if there were any records of such a situation happening to you? I chanced upon a book called The Surge of Aether which goes in excruciating detail as to your childhood sickness. A friendly Minstrel had a copy of this book, and from what little I can tell, this is the oldest book I've ever seen. It predates even the town archives! Originally I thought maybe it had been stolen, but there are no records of the archives holding such a book.
Needless to say I devoured it. I wished to understand more about what you experienced, and found far more than I bargained for. If my hunch and what I remember from your symptoms is correct, you suffered from a very rare condition on the island that is called a surge of aether. Toegisil typically does not have a lot of aether, forcing us to manual labor a lot more than other lands who could use magic and other technologies to perform tasks that we would need must perform by hand. However, there are times where excessive aether escapes from the Elements and enters the body, hence - Surge.
I need not remind you of the effects that excessive aether has on the body. Our bodies, which are barely used to the quantities of aether found in other lands, would be under shock were we to frequent Eorzea. However, experiencing the Surge while young is both a blessing and a curse. It drastically changes the body's constitution as well as the aether composition. This, naturally, changes the humors and exaggerates certain traits in the person's behavior. Someone hit with the surge who could still stand was often executed after an action so insane it threatened the stability of our society, according to this book. Most children experiencing the surge would be executed in such a barbarous way that I do not wish to recount it here. Suffice it to say that I now understand why the Offering to Fire evokes feelings of forgiveness.
However, the person who wrote this book noted something among children who experienced the surge. Their bodies and minds, due to the growth process, would adapt to the surge and reconfigure themselves to a more suitable aether pattern to experience this aether. The process, however, could easily take years and the child would be terribly crippled throughout, making them useless for any physical labor. While back then, they would kill them out of fear, now we kill them out of survival. A shame.
If we take into consideration the following :
- You likely experienced the surge in your childhood if we consider your symptoms and the length of your illness.
- You now live exclusively in an area that is filled with excessive aether.
- You started experiencing these flashes of copying others' once you directly touched the Allagan sword.
Chances are, what I theorized and merely implied to is actually true, and more importantly, this knowledge cannot fall in the hands of the Garleans lest our people be harvested like crops. I do not recall telling you of my theory, merely hinting that it existed. I will give you what I believe, with mentions as to what I have proof, what I have deduced and what is still in the air.
I do not believe our people are descended from the Allagan Empire - Places you have visisted that have links to this area tend to be covered with relics, and our island has nothing of the sort. However, I do believe that we have a link to it somehow. The cavern I visited has remnants that are far older than anything I can find in the archives, even older than The Surge of Aether. The power I felt within was certainly ancient, and at the risk of being redundant, powerful. With the remnants of ships, I believe we are not natives from this island, but we arrived from somewhere else. Possibly fleeing a calamity of sorts but that I cannot actually prove or even deduce. At best, it is a wild flight of fancy.
The fact that we have even less aether than the rest of Hydaelyn is bizarre. I do believe there could be... something that holds the aether back. It would explain the surges. Another possible theory is that our people somehow have a defect that prevents them from sensing or experiencing aether the same way as other Hyurs can. I am loathe to believe such a theory myself, as that would mean it would be hereditary in such a way that makes absolutely no sense.
After all, there is no real record of this occurring in our family other than you, and well, Father. The sickness that took him? That was the surge. We later found out he exhibited the same symptoms, and even his cursing of the Elements was not entirely out of touch for the man. While he revered them, he always resented them for the treatment they had given you, and even before the surge, he started to feel a sort of emptiness inside him. The way he described it, it felt like someone had forcibly taken something from him that he never knew he had. This is a possible symptom in adult sufferers of the surge according to the book, which can lead to feelings of rebellion, of attacking others claiming to regain what they have allegedly stolen. That is only one of the many possible outcomes of the surge if the adult survives the inevitable breakdown of the body by having too much aether.
Still, I will be on the look out for more information, but I feel you will need to investigate on your own. The leads are completely dry on Toegisil, and I must still do some logging before winter truly settles in. I intend on spending this season with Mother, and help her fix up the farm. With all my duties on the council, I neglected to help her, and we are behind on some repairs.
With love,
Einrich.
After reading the letter, Kellach knew he had to talk to Eamont about this... and other developments. He knew how awkward it would get, but if there was anyone he could trust with his health, it was the aforementioned elezen.
