"Your magic is amazing" the Conserver muttered his eyes glimmering as he noted down everything he was being told on the notepad he had in his hands, she quickly scribbled the glyphs in the paper using a bit of his deactivation magic to keep the glyphs in it from ever activating and tearing apart his travel book "so there are four glyphs right? Ice, fire, plant and light? Then you can connect them to form different combinations that mix the magic to replicate an entirely different spell like the invisibility spell, the creature spell and the teleportation spell?"
"Basically" The female titan the Conserver was talking to confirmed. The Conserver had been looking around the Isles begging any Titans he found to teach him how the glyphs worked and after a full ten days he finally managed to find someone who agreed to do so, the Collector gave up after the third person who said no. The Titan was known as Titanium as ironic as it was given the word titan was literally in their name but the Conserver wasn't going to judge since his and the Collector's names were similar in a way.
Titanium scratched a few glyphs into the bark of a tree, two plant glyphs connected with lines forming an infinity symbol as well as a smaller light glyph at the center between the two. She tapped the glyph combo with her claw causing the lines to glow a mix of green around the plant glyphs and a yellow around the light ones before mixing and erupting outwards in a mix of colour that made it feel so natural for these glyphs to go together.
The light wrapped up and around itself forming multiple large blossoming flower, wings flapped out from the blossoms forming butterfly like creatures made purely of light. The butterfly pulled itself out the blossom and spread its wings as it took off a trail of light following behind it which left small specs of light to fall on the ground when it trailed too far from the small insects made of light. The light landed on the ground soaking into the soil and blooming into a bright wide rimmed flower with rainbow petals in small heart shaped petals arranged over eachother as well as a thin light orange stem holding the bulb up.
"Pretty..." The Conserver watched the butterfly fly away with small caterpillars made of light crawling out the newly bloomed flowers left in its path which were honestly just so beauiful. Maybe he should try looking into more plant magic soon... he quickly flipped through the notepad and wrote about that new spell copying the glyph combo and coating it with concealing magic just as he did when he copied the original Titan glyphs "what spell was that?"
"It was a small theatrical spell, It's called Pollinate and basically just creates and insect made of light which gives life to lots of different plants when the light that makes it falls off and hits the ground" Titanium explained "but the flowers die pretty quick usually after an hour or so they begin to turn back into light if they haven't already died anyway"
"I'm going to assume that plant magic" The Conserver muttered as he wrote down everything about the new spell, Titanium turned to look at him her clawed hand lifting to her face as she hid a laugh. It was probably odd for the Titans to have someone so intrested in learning all about their magic, the Conseever smiled and hugged his notepad to his chest "What about weather magic? Or hypno magic? Oh! Sound magic also sounds intresting!"
"I'd love to show you more but I don't think I can" Titanium said, the Conserver's smile quickly switched to a frown but he shook his head pushing the disappointment aside. He was about to place the notepad back in his scarf when Titanium spoke up "but I guess I can shoe you one more spell I think you'd like quite a bit"
"Please!" The Conserver begged clasping his hands together and accidentally dropping the notepad in his scarf, Titanium nodded and grabbed a stick using the thin branch to draw a glyph combo in the soil. It was in the shape of a hexagon with eachpoint covered by a fire glyph, a star mark was placed on the inside of the hexagon with a plant glyph at the center and had a mix of light and fire glyphs around it. Titanium tapped the combination with a claw, the glyph light up in a mix of dark blues and pale reds which mixed together beautifully just as they did when the Pollinate spell was activated.
The light reached up wrapping around itself and expanding, shifting to form several shapes which morphed and mixed creating new colours which moved to specific areas as a small mammalian shape formed at the center of the glyph combination. The light switched to a solid state and the glow disappeared revealing what looked like a small fox kit, it was no bigger then a cat and had puffy dark brown fur spotted with flecks of firey Amber and orange which also had a white-cream underbelly and ears with the muzzle coloured in a firey bright cream colour.
It had the body of a Fennec fox with big wide rabbit like ears, a small head, thin snout and thin nimble legs but also had the features of an insect or certain species of lizard. There were two thin black horns atop their head which curled backwards slightly which were spotted with bright red specs similar in shape to a shooting star. The little fox creature had webbed paws, two long claws on each toe and a stinger adorning the tip of its fluffy tail. Its tail, horns and stinger were draped in a sparkling white silk which shined like silver under the sunlight. It looked like a crossbreed between a golden orb weaver spider and a fox.
The fox looked around sniffing the air before turning on its heel and running away, the Conserver watched the fox kit run away his eyes lingering on the burn marks left by the creatures paws hitting the grass. He stared for a few seconds with over a million questions running through his mind and then hesitantly looked away instead focusing back on Titanium.
"That was a more permanent beast creation spell" Titanium explained removing their claw from the drawn glyph which had disappeared after the spell was complete "That fox will only turn back into magic after it dies"
"Wow... Titan magic really is amazing" The Conserver looked up at the sky narrowing his eyes as he tried to figure out how long he'd been away from his little brother for. He guessed anywhere between 20 to 25 minutes based off the position of the sun and bits of orange that had disappeared. "But I really need to leave now, Colly is probably up by now and I can't live with myself if he gets sad because I'm gone"
"Wow, you really care a lot about him don't you? I never knew it was possible for siblings to get along!" Titanium laughed
"Yeah sure, Bye!" The Conserver said dismissing what the female titan had just said, how could he not love his little brother is the only question worth asking in regards to that. Plus he might move the moon again and the Conserver needs to make sure he doesn't do that for several reasons, seriously he's tried to move that thing like twelve times already. His scarf coiled on the ground around him erupting in brightly coloured pink, blue and purple flames, he sunk into the portal and appeared on the other side which led to his and the Collector's home.
He landed in the kitchen which was connected to the spiral staircase that led up to the bedroom. He smiled at how clean everything was and the fact that the pizza bagels were still in the fridge so the Collector likely wasn't awake yet which was a good sign. Just as that though processed the Conserver looked up hearing the sound of the Collector's magic as said star child came down the stairs but instead of using the steps he just floated down.
He looked pretty tired but as soon as he saw the Conserver he was suddenly happier then he ever had been, he lot up instantly and ran over to the Conserver hugging his waist with the biggest smile ever. Usually the Conserver would push anyone who even tried to tap his shoulder away in the worst way possible, if anyone who knew him when he was Error saw the Collector hugging the Conserver and not being shoved to the ground they would refuse to believe it. But it's been a pretty long time now and the Conserver got used to his little brothers touch just as he got used to Nightmare's or blue's.
"Big bro!" The Collector rejoiced sounding incredibly happy and cheerful just as he usually did.
"Heya little bro!" The Conserver greeted picking the Collector up and spinning him around. The Collector laughed and let go with a few blue stairs trailed by purple light flying out from behind them circling around him, he ran to the game closet dragging out a box from the bottom shelf which was the only one he could reach without using magic to lift himself up off the ground. He ran to the living room pushing the box of games on the table and looking over at the Conserver "let me guess, you want to play a game?"
"Mhm!" The Collector hummed nodding enthusiastically, he lifted a hand creating the pink strings he'd created to copy the Conserver's magic scarf and used them to practically dump the contents of the box out on the table. The Conserver laughed to himself for a moment, when did the Collector not want to play a game? That was one of the nice things about the Collector, that he was just a kid and didn't care about anything over then having fun and finding a good playmate to play with.
The simplicity was something the Conderver could never appreciate when he was by Error. When he was Error everything was about doing his job, he'd be punished for even thinking about doing anything else when FATE called for him to do that. It was something he never really realised just how much hated until he no longer had to worry about it, everyone wasn't against here and there was no deity forcing him to clean up after other. He was finally allowed to relax and just sit down to play a game with his little brother.
"Alright, let's see what we have then" The Conserver walked forward and quickly cleaned up the mess instead arranging all the board games in a better way that was more pleasing to the eye. The first few were normal games that existed on pretty much every planet while the next were some more obscure games that only existed on three or four different planet's including two from the Boiling Isles and the last was a section of games they'd adapted with magic to make them just that bit more intresting you could say "what about... this one?" He asked pointing to a game
"Hmmm... nope!" The Collector denied shaking his head
"How about this one then?" The Conserver suggested pointing to another
"Nope!" The Collector denied once again
"Then... hmmm... oh! How about this one?" The Conserver placed emphasis on the this as he picked up a specific case from the third section, the Collector's eyes lit up and he nodded quickly.
"Yep yep yep yep yep yep!" He repeated practically jumping from joy- wait no, he actually was jumping up and down on the spot. The game the Conserver had picked out was a magically altertered card game with basic rules but really cool physical effects with the magic involved.
To be honest, while the Conserver was practically obsessed with magic he never really went all out with his new abilities mostly using them to make life a bit easier like with his portals or for theatrics to keep the Collector entertained such as the light show and illusions he created when he told a story or sang. He never really needed to use his magic for anything other then that and while he certainly could he didn't feel like he needed to even if the Collector would definitely get mad at him for keeping all his abilities a secret when he eventually found out.
The two went outside finding an open area where there wasn't much plant or animal life and the Conserver let their magic flow through the area and opened the case he'd brought out to finish setting up the game. The case held two decks of cards with a blue back and a black star crossed over by two yellow stripes which the Conserver tapped causing magic to flow through the cards covering them with a thin layer of illusionary magic. A ten by ten grid was set in the ground with a long bar along two opposite sides where a sort of sitting and viewing area was made from the blue lighting.
The cards were lifted into the sky and shuffled themselves as the Collector and the Conserver took a place on either side of the playing field one of the two much more serious with their intentions of winning the game. Six cards came from the free deck sliding down to the hands of the two playing, the Conserver scanned the cards they got checking the attack, defense, attack speed and defense speed of each card.
"You sure you can win this time Collector?" The Conserver called knowing he likely had better cards then his little brother and also knowing they were terrible at planning ahead. The Collector nodded and the two began to play.
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"BEST OUT OF 50,281!" The Collector yelled throwing his card on the floor while he threw a tantrum over loosing
"Actually it's 50,282" The Conserver corrected standing up and clapping causing all the magic he'd used to return to his scarf and the cards to pick themselves up and go back to their positions in the game case, already shuffled "How about we go see if the Titans want to play instead? We've been playing this for seven hours now and you were really excited to show them your strings when you created them yesterday"
"Oh yeah! Let's go see the Titans! I can't wait to play with the little baby Titans!" The Collector cheered being his usual chaotic and energetic self. The Conserver snapped his fingers but nothing happened confusing the Collector
"But!" The Conserver began making the Collector start to panic "I want to see your portals before we go, I'm not going to be able to just go out and grab you whenever you get in trouble or need me help going somewhere so I want to see if your portals are working properly"
"Thats easy!" The Collector said with a scoff crossing his hands over his chest and lifting his head in a proud manner. He lifted a hand snapping his fingers which caused a star outline to form, the outline released magic inwards creating a 3 dimensional space cut off by lines of purple as the colour got darker the further it went in eventually making it so there were four star shaped walls within it.
"Perfect! You're amazing at this already!" The Conserver complimented the Collector making the Starry child even happier at their older brother's words "now let's go, if I remember correctly you still have no idea how to set destination" The Collector ran up to the Conserver clinging to his waist as the older of the two siblings created their own much more effective portal beneath them. As powerful as the Collector was, he didn't have much control over his abilities and even less when it required him to focus on anything foe any longer then two to three seconds.
The scarf wrapped around the ground below their feet forming a firey mist which the two sunk into, the portal disappeared after the two fell through. The feeling of being submerged in a thin liquid quickly washed over the two and disappeared when they were dropped on the other end of the portal landing in a heavily cliff side area overlooking the sea. This was titan's bay, a Titan town closest to the two siblings home on the next island south to it.
Titan's bay was built on top of a cliff beside a bay next to a particularly dangerous part of the sea, magic kept anything that wasn't allowed to enter from coming in but with how powerful the Conserver's concealment spells were he managed to create a portal right in despite not having been given permission by any of the Titans. All the houses were either made of cave systems carved into the cliff's edge or were basic wooden structures resembling large huts and cabins which decorated the top of the cliff where most of the families and stronger Titans lived based off the Conserver's understanding of the layout and Titan society.
There were also the hatcheries, oddly enough the Titans had eggs similar to birds despite clearly being mammals sort of like an echidna... wait, are Titans relatives of the echidna... that would be funny lore! Hatcheries were the places where Titans kept their eggs for incubation since they were incredibly fragile and cracked easily during the first few days when magic was developing and being absorbed from around them, hatcheries were usually placed in areas where magic was the highest but there was also little danger around to make sure the eggs developed properly and would be safe. The only exception were the hatcheries of nobles which were built on entire islands masked by magic to make sure they stayed safe at all costs.
"Alright, we're here, go find your friends then come back so I can teleport you to wherever you wanted to go for a few hours" The Conserver announced as the Collector let go and ran off in search of his Titan friends. When the Collector came back there were two Titans behind him, one with dusty dark brown fur and curled ram horns while the other had dark blue fur that was on the border between black as well as thin horns with black stripes.
"Can you take us here?" The Collector asked with that michevious glint in his eyes which told the Conserver he was planning something as he handed over a piece of paper. There was writing on the paper. English writing. Actual words arranged in a way to convey information.
"You have to be kidding me..." The Conserver muttered his eyes twitching when he realised what the Collector was trying to do. He groaned and glared at his little brother, noticing the Titan children beside him looked pretty confused
"Is... there a problem?" The dark blue furred Titan asked, The Conserver grimaced as the Collector shushed them with a wide grin
"Yeah, what's the problem Conserver?" The Collector asked already knowing what the problem was. The Conserver groaned and communicated the problem to the Collector telepathically the problem so only he could hear the confession the Conserver refused to share. The Collector just acted like he didn't hear anything and pushed again "come on, what's wrong?"
"Collector... I'm giving you one chance" The Conserver muttered starting to get mad at the stunt he was pulling
"What? What are you suggesting I'm doing?" The Collector asked still playing dumb, The Conserver shoved the paper in the Collector's hands and glared
"Just tell me where you wanted to go"
"what? Can't you just read it?"
"No, you know I can't" the Conserver muttered trying to make it so only the Collector heard but the brown furred Titan also heard the words he uttered
"What do you mean you can't read it?" The brown furred Titan asked half confused half annoyed "You're stronger then all of us combined! It can't be that hard to just look at a few words"
"Yeah! Come on bro!" The Collector urged supporting the brown furred Titan's statement despite him knowing the problem "just read"
"YOU KN- God... you know I can't read!" The Conserver confessed "I can't read nor can I write in pretty much any written language, I usually use a device to translate anything I have to or want to read into something I actually can read and vice versa when I need to write. There! I said it! You happy!? I didn't think I'd need to read since we were only going out for a few seconds to grab the others and then I'd be able to go back home and rest!"
"Hahahahahahahaha!" The Collector laughed. The Collector always found the fact that the Conserver's could read anything other then binary hilarious for whatever reason, it didn't offend him that his little brother thought that it was funny but it was pretty annoying that he insisted on letting everybody know. The Collector threw the piece of paper up causing it to ignite in bright purple flames which quickly consumed it turning the white into ash within a few seconds. A calmer smile slid on his face as he spoke "Can you take us to Lithoid Crystal Beach?"
Lithoid Crystal Beach? Wasn't that place really dangerous? The Conserver narrowed his eyes questioning why theny'd want to go there, he knew that the largest fire wasp hive in the whole of the Boiling Isles was on that island there was a dangerously high amount of Diamond-Scales that called that island home. Diamond-scales were basically large dragons that used Crystals as armour by attaching different gems to their scales with a thick but clear grime, they were incredibly dangerous and attacked anything with a pulse. Fire wasps were self-explanatory just large wasps around the size of a truck that produced an incredibly flammable gas.
"Are you... sure about that? That place is pretty dangerous" The Conserver asked unsure if they were being serious or not, there was no way they actually wanted to be going there for just a game?
"Mhm! We wanted to try playing that game you told me about when we were playing make believe yesterday" the Collector explained
"You mean four square?" The Conserver asked getting a nod from his little brother "but you only have three people? Plus there's other safer islands to go to if you want to play that game"
"Nope! We have six actually! The other three are just grabbing things for the game and I wanted to show my friend that I am better then you at something: reading!" The Collector explained turning to the Titans behind him as he got to the part about the Conserver's reading. He assumed that the Titan kids had been talking about the two brothers from the stars and their powers eventually deciding that the Conserver was better then the Collector at a lot of things which sorta was true. The Conserver sighed and looked around spotting three more Titans running up to them, he sighed but agreed to send them to the island "Thanks big bro! Your the best!"
"I'd hope I am" the Conserver laughed laying his scarf on the ground making it coil over an area on the ground disconnecting from the parts of the scarf wrapped around the Conserver's neck, he snapped his fingers stabilising the portal despite it no longer being connected to him or his scarf. "But if you get hurt your grounded for two weeks"
"Wait what!?" The Collector yelled but the Conserver wasn't already gone having left through a portal he made to his and the Collector's house.
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A soft blue and purple glow filled the room as the fire from a lamp flickered on, it was a small room with books and paper filling every section of it from the shelves that stretched from wall to ceiling to the round glass table placed at the center where a platform made of solid magic kept it and the purple galaxy pattern office chair beside it in the air. The scarf of the Conserver trailed off from his neck and coiled around the Conserver's entire body stretching down the floor and past the magical platform easily stretching for a mile.
The Conserver was sitting in the Office chair spinning a pen in the air with blue magic as his eyes scanned the pages of the book, or rather The screen he'd placed infront of it the translate the words into binary. It was the spell book he stole from the Archivists, he was reading the book to make sure he knew every spell in it in case the knowledge contained within it's pages was ever destroyed or lost and to help familiarise the Conserver with the magic of this planet and this world.
Right now he was looking a section dedicated to spells that fell under the class of psychic, oracle, prophetic or telekinetic usage or effects such as scrying spells or spirit related spells. The ones he was focusing on included the former, scrying, as well as one way portals and windows that allowed you to enter from one side or limit who or what could see or enter a portal or vision. They seemed to be pretty basic spells but required a bit more then other spells due to the erratic nature of this type of magic and the amount of focus one needs to perform it.
"Alright, 700th times the charm... hopefully" The Conserver muttered as they closed the book turning off the translator and plugging it in to charge, yes he still needs to charge things even if he's basically a celestial star god now. He breathed in and out slowly keeping his eyes closed and he tried to keep his mind in one place which was ideal for using these types of spells according to the book then once he obtained that mind state he began.
He held his hands out infront of him and focused on a mirror that was floating mid-air infront of him thanks to basic levitation magic, one of the first and easiest spells the Conserver had taught himself. A thin line of purple magic connected from his wrist to the glass of the mirror leaving a trail of purple and pink to linger around the purple tinted metal frame of the mirror before closing in and replacing the transparency of the shattered glass. A spiderweb crack formed over the top half of the crack as an image came into view which left the Conserver confused at most and mildly annoyed at worst.
It was the image of a... temple...? He couldn't tell, it was some sort of old dusty building made of cracked rock arranged in a way that made it clear the place was made by hand or at least not formed naturally, a steel pedestal held up a dark yet vibrant blue-grey stone with an eight pointed star mark at its center while there was another stand next to it which was currently empty. A Titan crossed the image, one the Conserver couldn't identify based off the angle, they dropped a similar stone but with a crescent moon instead of a star beside the first. The Titan covered the stones with a purple cloth and left.
The scene shifted to a stormy one with a bolt of thunder hitting the stones causing the star one to be knocked off its pedastal and fall to the floor where the flooding of abandoned area carried it out leaving the second moon stone on the floor. A distorted scream yelled out but it was so heavily changed and disfigured that the Conserver couldn't figure out if it was someone he knew or not. He jumped grabbing his head which caused the scrying spell to end quickly after.
He was stunned and just sat in silence for a few minutes, he shook the shock off however and got to putting away the book instead choosing to prioritise something he'd been putting off for a while now. He needed to report to the Archivists afterall, if he didn't they might make an assumption about what was happening down on the Boiling Isles and when the Archivists had to make a decision without the Collector, or on this case collectors, assigned to that planet having reported anything back the go to was typically genocide. Understandably, that wasn't ideal.
He cleared the table and placed a crystal ball made of magic blue tinted glass at the center then grabbed the cup of coffee he'd been drinking to keep him awake now he had a more mortal body and quickly downed the entire thing. He slid the cup in his scarf and focused on the glass ball, he tapped the top of the orb causing a purple and blue mist to fill the orb before sparks lit up with the glass connecting to the other crystal ball up in the stars so he could talk with the Archivists.
The mist shifted, taking a new form and colour which projected the view from the other side which was exactly what he expected even if the one he met was the very one he didn't want to see ever again in his lifetime. Wait, Collectors don't die from old age though? Never mind that, the view that greeted the Conserver was the Astrologist staring at him with an empty smile and no glint of emotion in her eyes. God, just looking at her made the Conserver want to run and hide, he couldn't imagine talking to this woman once every month when she was just like him.
"Hello Conserver, how is everything down there?" The Astrologist greeted
"It's going... okay" The Conserver replied hesitantly "The Boiling Isles aren't as safe as you told me when we first came here but I guess that apart from that this place is nice and the life here is amazing"
"Dangerous? No, I was told by the last collector we sent down there that there was pretty much no life apart from the plants" The Astrologist asked confused by how a place that that could be Dangerous
"Well the Boiling Isles are pretty big, everything here is a small island in an archipelago with no major landmass, not to mention magic is abundant here and everything seems to have absorbed a high amount of it. A lot of the fauna is really smart and the flora can do spectacular things to appear unmagical" The Conserver tried to explain or at least offer an explanation.
"Intelligent you say...? Mind offering a further explanation?" The Astrologist asked, or rather demanded.
"Of course" The Conserver replied giving a nod, he hated all this fancy talk and wanted this to be over and done with quickly so he could go back to the Collector "There are the Titans, they have amazing magic and have collector level intelect. The best part is they have a functioning society and hierarchy, not to mention they use an entirely different magic system that works no matter the circumstances or magic limit of the area they're in. It's amazing!"
"Oh... please continue" The Astrologist urged, too bad the Conserver didn't hear that tone in the member of the Archivist's voice
"Gladly! They use these symbols called glyphs to create magic instead of actually creating it themselves, they can mix and match these glyphs to create lots of different spells that can be so beauiful! Most are horrifying, but some can be so beauiful!"
"Hmmm... I believe that's all I need to hear for today, goodbye Conserver" The Astrologist said before tapping their own crystal ball forcing the spell to stop. Kinda rude to leave so suddenly but the Conserver won't argue since it means he can get back to the Collector sooner, he put the crystal ball away absorbing the magic again and dropping it off in a storage case away from the main area where the Conserver was just sitting previously. The door creaked open just as he finished putting everything away.
"Conserver?" The familiar voice of the Collector rang through the room. The Conserver looked down and smiled, he leapt down stopping the levitation spell and forcing his scarf to return to a somewhat normal length as he slid down to stand by his brother.
"Yeah I'm done now, let's go get ready for the night" The Conserver said grabbing the Collector's hand as the two went back to their room now that the report with the Archivists was done "do you want me to tell you a story?"
"Yes please" the Collector said with a nod as he layed down in his head, the tiredness clear in his voice. The Conserver snapped his fingers creating a version of one of the Collector's favourite storybooks but was instead in binary so the Conserver could actually read it.
"Alright, this story starts in a far away galaxy with stars and constellations unknown to even the highest ranks of the natural worlds order. These stars lived on with souls that would wake once the star had died giving birth to a new species, a species of star born celestial entities that possessed godly powers known as the collectors. We are these stars, we are the Collector's, we are the lights in the sky that watch and know all, we are the shine that can light up any place with ease. We are the collectors and we are the closest thing all galaxies will ever see to a god..." The Conserver continued to read not caring about the words he was saying, all that mattered right now was that his brother was happy.
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I finally found the person who inspired this idea! Thank you to milu08undertale for inspiring this story!