Arthur had to give in to Garvin's wishes in the end. This was what dragged him to the barren place. Now he was waiting patiently, or at least trying to wait patiently for the array master to fulfil his end of the promise.
Some more days passed by. Arthur came back to visit the couple again. Garvin was still at it again, meditating on the stone platform. Cybill came to greet him with two wine glasses. She offered him one while taking a sip from the other.
"I was wondering when you'll be back. Don't worry. Garvin shouldn't take long now."
Arthur nodded at Cybill and took the wine glass before asking:
"What is the true purpose of this array, Cybill? From its runic inscriptions, I can guess that it is related to guiding rankers to a state of epiphany. But I can't understand anything beyond that."
Cybill stirred the glass gently and took a whiff of the wine she was savouring before answering:
"To be honest, Arthur, I don't know much about arrays either apart from the basic stuff despite all these years living with the array maniac. But I'll tell you what I heard from my husband.
It is indeed an array that increases the chances of ranking entities entering the state of epiphany. Since it was initiated by us, it'll have most of the limitations and disadvantages of the forced state of epiphany.
Plus, the array also extends the amount of time one can stay in a state of epiphany without getting kicked out of it. Right now, that array has created an invisible cocoon of mana around my husband while forcing him to respond to his will.
Furthermore, I've also made Garvin consume a couple of potions I created myself to help him in this task. It should give us better results overall."
Arthur heard that and nodded before taking his first sip of the wine. He was pleasantly surprised by its taste. He chuckled before replying:
"Hahaha! Enough about the arrays. Let's talk about this wine.
This is indeed a high-quality counterfeit, Cybill. I feel like my almost stagnant understanding of the path has been galvanized again.
Even one of the most prominent potioneers of Edinburgh, Cybill Karr, can't resist the temptation of trying to counterfeit elven ales. I don't know what the elves will say about it, but human rankers of our ranks will surely be happy and come out of their caves to celebrate.
I'm sorry for getting off-topic, Cybill. And you'd also have to forgive my lack of knowledge about anything related to potions. But why is it so hard for humans to concoct a potion that has the same effect as the elven ales?"
Cybill didn't like that Arthur called her wine brewing a counterfeit of eleven ales. But she had to admit that it was true. She sighed deeply before replying:
"The study of mana is endless for researchers like us, Arthur. We are always curious and on our toes regarding the wonders that are yet to be discovered.
But the more we learn about it, the more we understand that mana is not curious about most of us or our existence at all. It just sees us as parasites that are trying to leech the mana off and make it our own for our benefit and longer lifespan.
Something that wasn't preordained by nature to us."
Arthur shrugged his shoulders before stating what he felt:
"Isn't that a normal thing for rankers though? It should apply to all the rankers out there. Not just human rankers. If mana sees all living beings who absorb and make use of mana as parasites, then that evens out the field for all of us.
If everybody is special, then nobody is."
Cybill had her eyes fixated on her husband. She observed his condition with all her senses while having a conversation with Arthur.
She replied to Arthur after checking everything was still alright about Garvin and he was fine:
"What I have learned after dedicating my entire life to the art of potioneering is that the world's mana loves entities that are in sync with their base nature.
We humans like to think a lot. I mean a lot. The wheels inside our heads are always churning. Some of us might even take pride in that. We define our behaviours by social norms. And in doing that, we prevent ourselves from understanding our true nature.
Hehe! Maybe humans' base nature is that they'll always try to run away from their real selves."
Arthur had a blank face after hearing Cybill's roundabout reply. The former understood that her philosophies had slipped over the guy's head so she chuckled again and summed it up for him:
"What I'm trying to say here Arthur is that we humans add too much of our consciousness in everything we do. Whether it's array inscription, potioneering, artefact crafting, or any other mana-related field, the jobs related to those fields require us to hone our consciousness.
Conscious efforts like those help turn more of our kind into experts in our fields. But those same conscious efforts prevent us from becoming true maestros.
*Gulp
Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"
After she finished her explanation and the drink, Cybill asked Arthur. The latter nodded before adding on:
"I do indeed. There are more human experts in every known field than the other races if the sample size is restricted to let's say 100 random rankers. But the number drops down drastically if we were to only consider the geniuses of any given field.
I still don't get one thing though. Even if we do have a low number of geniuses in our fields, at least a few of them should be able to pull off the feats geniuses from other races have. We can even use those other-racial-geniuses and THEIR works as references. So what's stopping us human rankers from doing something as easy as making a damn ale?"
Cybill looked at Arthur with a hint of anger in her eyes. She wanted to rebuke him because he had just insulted her, her husband, and every other human genius with his speech.
But she later pitied his lack of knowledge despite being a successful ranker himself. Her anger vanished after that.
'Cybill, you don't get angry with men who know nothing.'
Cybill self-restrained herself before trying to reason with Arthur.