ORIGIN

Keeping the piece of Spire within her line of sight all the way to Orion had been a pain, and she'd had to set it down many times--whether to take an intentional break, or by accident. But she'd done it, in the end: she was home.

Dewberry placed the rock gently within Azure's mortar, and slithered closer to it. Spire crystals were so pretty compared to Orion's grey rock. Would those properties transfer over to the dye? For that matter--if they did, could she touch it safely?

She leaned closer and closer, stretching out her nose and feeling for the strength of the tingling. Could she touch it now, without being shocked or burned? It was such a little piece; it had to be mostly harmless now, right?

There was a small spark of tingliness as Dewberry made contact with the stone, but nothing more. Separated from the greater Spire, its magic didn't seem to be enough to burn her. Still, the tingling feeling stayed with it even after she'd taken it to Orion. Was that the answer to the question she'd brought up with the Sentinel earlier? Did the Spire carry its own magic, rather than absorbing it from Polaris' surroundings?

Sudden inspiration struck her. While she was touching the little piece, why not try to see through its past? Rock had been in these caves longer than any Gembound she knew. What had the Spire seen of the history of the caves?

And if it didn't work, well, she'd still have some pretty dye.

It did not, in fact, work, and Dewberry withdrew her nose with a sigh. Magic, huh? She gave a fondly amused look at the pink streak on their floor before slithering over to a jar of water. She focused her magic on this, trying to lift it into the air and place it next to the mortar and pestle.

Instead, her magic did... nothing. So it was going to be that kind of day, huh? Or maybe the water was just too heavy for her. Excuses, excuses. Well, at least all of this was good practice for her magic, if nothing else.

Since her magic would not respond to lift the water, Dewberry returned her attention to the Spire piece again. She lifted the pestle, and this movement was more familiar to her, coming more easily than the last attempts at magic. Small though the Spire crystal was, it could still make enough powder for a good amount of dye. As with the last time she'd made dye, Dewberry gave the rock an experimental tap with the pestle before beginning to crush it in earnest.

The rhythmic impact of rock against rock was kind of relaxing in its repetitiveness, and Dewberry was done before she knew it. The glowing blue crystal had been reduced to a small pile of pigment, and she set the pestle aside to add water.

The ceramic jar was heavy, and Dewberry let out a small grunt as she felt her magic strain to lift it. It moved, with much sloshing and wobbling, to the mortar, where she did her best to tilt it a little at a time until--

Ah, noooooo... Instead of trickling onto the ground-up Spire pieces, the water stuck to the side of the jar and ran down the bottom, spilling onto the floor. Ugh, if she could move it a little more... Dewberry focused, and there we go, water splashed onto blue crystal pigment. She set the jar of water down, almost giddy with excitement. I made dye with the Spire! The actual Spire!

She turned away for a moment, searching for the 8-rock Azure had made her and wedging her nose inside. Time to test things out!

Dipping the feather into the mortar, Dewberry brushed a test streak of paint onto the rock wall. She twisted around, trying to get a good look at it, before giving up and scooching her head out of the 8-rock. It was... certainly very blue, and glowed a little, but it wasn't quite what she'd envision when someone said the words "dye made of Spire".

Azure had showed her magic that made things glow, but Dewberry hadn't actually succeeded in doing anything like it yet. She'd hoped that the Spire's natural magic would take care of that--and it was, to some degree--but what if there was more?

Now was as good a time to try as any, she supposed. She wasn't quite sure how one was supposed to cast a spell like the glowing magic, so she just kind of... pushed a tendril of magic toward the dye, and hoped for the best.

Nothing happened.

Well, that was anticlimactic. Maybe it was magic being its usual fickle self, or maybe it was Dewberry's fault for not doing... whatever one did to cast a glow spell correctly. In either case, the little snake was too excited about this to wait for the spell to work properly. They did just have a jar of pre-pulverized glowdust lying around, after all.

Dewberry was not frugal with the glow effect: quite the opposite, in fact. As much glow went in as she thought the the water could keep suspended; this had to be bright. Almost eye-searingly so. It had to be magical to behold. Spire-like. And the real Spire hardly held back with its crackling light.