#Lore 24 – Entry #116 – Sci-Fi Month II #25 – Astral Divination and Navigation
From the Personal Journal of Primula Tallfoot, Arcane Support Division Head, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana.
Sometimes I can’t help but ponder how I’ve wound up all the way out here…where my life has gone so very wrong that we’re relying on someone like Mizutani to navigate this entire fleet. He still gets lost aboard the Morgiana on the regular, is still routinely late to work, and yet he’s the most talented diviner aboard? Somehow. Some way. Mizutani, who can’t seem to see past his next date night, is being called upon to navigate the fleet?! Is one of the gods of magic just fucking with us on this one? I’d believe it. Seriously…Mizutani is our go to on this leg of the trip? I’d better make sure that cage of his is extra tight and prickly so that he stays focused, or we’ll all wind up diving into a quasar or taking the wrong kind of ride through an aetheric current.
Captain Silvercask is the one to blame for this mess we’re about to find ourselves in. We’ve been following the course that was approved by the ASC before we left, and out of the blue, the captain showed up this morning to inquire about long range divination for a system outside the planned flight path. He never told me where he got the idea to view the system from afar, and was actually pretty tight-lipped about it, simply asking for an indulgence. Fine, whatever. Everyone has secrets. I get it. Maybe he’s got word from one of those trailblazer teams? Regardless, since we’ve still not overcome that long range interference that plagues the fleet’s sensors out here, we’ll have to rely on our diviners.
I still can’t understand how Mizutani specialized in divination, with a special focus on astral divination, and somehow excelled at it at the academy. Yeah, I had to pull his records again just to make sure I hadn’t imagined it when I’d read it the first time. Did someone give me falsified records as a joke? The captain and I have arranged for tomorrow morning, first thing, to find out. The ship’s due to drop out of hyperspace at 0900 and the ASD is due to begin divination immediately once we revert to realspace. I’ll be overseeing the operation, of course, but Mizutani’s the lead on this one. The twit looked like he was about to panic when I told him about him finally taking on some serious responsibility. I had to get pretty stern with him to make him understand that being late in the morning was not an option if he ever wanted his dick free again and might have implied some additional restrictions if he screws up. Think I got my point across. I’m sure he’ll be plenty motivated to perform tomorrow. If it’s one thing arcanists are good at, it’s working under pressure. At least, I hope that’s still how they teach them at that fancy school…
Entry Update:
I guess anything’s possible, even Mizutani getting to work on time and performing his duties as expected. I wouldn’t have believed it until I saw it today, but he actually knows what he’s doing. Apparently when properly motivated, he can perform admirably. Will it continue beyond today? I have my doubts, but we’ll see.
The astral divination went splendidly, with Mizutani leading another half dozen of our diviners in a circle, their gazes focused on the system in question. It looks like another fairly standard star system, a dozen planetary bodies, though only one appears to be in the habitable zone, the third one in line. Several of the larger outer planets will likely serve well for construction materials and other resources, and there were no immediate dangers found in the system itself, no signs of modern tech, but there are definitely more primitive civilizations on the planet, pre-industrial, equivalent to most of our own societies during the Age of Legends. Thus far, the diviners have seen humans, orcs, kobolds, and a few elvish enclaves; there are likely others in the mix as well. So far, my prediction of encountering no truly alien species is correct.
Mizutani was drawn to a particular region as he focused on the planet’s surface, in the mountains on one of the southern continents. He sensed lingering arcane ripples coming from the area; his scrying mirror revealed ruins there…draconic ruins in fact. Though mostly hidden amongst the jungle overgrowth, the higher elevations revealed undeniably draconic architecture and statues. It seems that we’ve finally got a proper ruin to explore! Captain Silvercask is changing course as I write this and has already dispatched a scouting team to secure the area for us and other teams to study. We should be arriving within the week, and I for one am anxious to finally set foot outside the ship and get to some serious work!