It was the specialty of the Edelfelt family. It was a branch of magecraft that took advantage of the natural properties of such gemstones that made them ideal for storing magical energy. Moving her eyes over each of the jewels again, Luvia renewed her focus and closed her eyes.
The image was of a heart.
Her own heart, now a precious stone in and of itself, cracked and shattered. The instant that illusory sound reached out to her fingertips, her body became nothing more than a cog in the machine that would produce a mystery. A number of nerves in her body, totalling one hundred, transformed themselves into magic circuits, and connected themselves to the ritual she was performing. At the same time, Luvia’s consciousness spread out into a more ethereal body.
As this sensation overtook her, Luvia opened her mouth.
“Call.”
As if pushed by a breath of wind, the jewels began to move. The gems, which were anything but spherical, began to waver faintly, and then in a way that seemed physically impossible, began rolling around the table.
What she was doing was using the gems for dowsing.
The technique of using dowsing to search for underground sources of water or ore veins was well known even to the common public. The image of a dowser walking around with two broken sticks was common to all kinds of books and television programs. Now, Luvia was using that traditional technique, while adding her own plans to the mix.
“Thou art Mars, blessed by the God of War.”
Blowing on the ruby, she activated it.
Depending on your school of study, which celestial body each type of jewel was aligned with varied widely. For example, rubies were often associated with the sun, or Venus.
(But in Kabbalah…Mars.)
Since they had been given names taken from the Shemhamphorae, it was most probable that the foundation of the Castle of Separation’s magecraft was Kabbalah. Perfectly matching with its style would be impossible, but if she followed the same strain of logic, then the magic should still be more effective.
(The colour is red, the number is five, the metal is iron, the guardian angel is Kamael.)
Luvia carefully recited the Sephirah that rubies were associated with. As she spoke the last word, she ground her teeth. Even here there were angels.
Of course, since Kabbalah used the Bible as its foundation, it was to be expected that angels would appear fairly frequently, but it was difficult to suppress her irritation at the frequency they were doing so. Channeling that irritation into focus on her magecraft, she shifted her gaze to the sapphire.
“Thou art Jupiter, blessed by the Father.”
She continued, activating the emerald and diamond shortly after.
As she finished, the movement of the jewels became more energetic. As if each of them had their own sense of gravity, the spinning stones settled into a pattern that seemed to reflect the movements of the actual celestial bodies. Since they were originally parts of the Earth that had been dug up, from a magus’ point of view, perhaps that was natural.
The stones continued to revolve around the old map, the center of their movement being the mansion.
Luvia carefully tracked the movements of the stones. As the one who had, in a virtual sense, given birth to the microcosm before her, she wouldn’t take her eyes off it for an instant.
However, as if an invisible hand had reached down and grabbed them, the movement of the stones suddenly stopped.
“…as expected, there’s interference,” she whispered.
Case Files I, Chapter 3, Part 1