so, in an alternate timeline, my crystal was indeed used-
*crunch*
...
oh. Well that happened.
I probably just set off every thaumometer or thaumometric array in the world with that burst...wait, no, most of the energy would have gone back in time...
___________
Ah. yes. here it was, an entry in a random diary: "but of course you can't change the symbol without changing the thing! everyone knows that! maybe i've been drinking too much?...nah."
Yep. there was a record of my power-after all, my powers changed the symbols without changeing the thing...as a side effect. furthermore, it happened In the past. It only lasted a couple days, which is why I didn't really notice it
I wasn't about to track down the diary's owner and tell them that humans didn't know that cause they couldn't see the symbol of things unless they utilized an extra-universal perspective, and that elves had a way of temporarily changeing the symbols...
The last time I talked about that stuff, the dwarves tried to burn me for witchcraft...
I got up and left after their third attempt to set fire to a pile of waterlogged driftwood.
_____________
Confused? lets clear it all up...or maybe make it even more confusing...
Timeline 1: Dan's sickness is caused by an amateur's attempt to cast fire without drawing upon demonic power. They inadvertently tap into something else, something which is harmless enough on its own, but which doesn't mesh that well with dwarf fortress physics. Dan's not the only one who gets sick in that world, merely the most sick.
my crystal is taken to the place where that spell was cast, and shattered, releasing the counerspell, quarantining the original miscast.
But, apparently, dan getting sick is a "fixed point"...
TRANSITION:
So the laws of magic get rewritten ever so slightly, so that shamanistic magic sometimes conflicts with large quantaties of adamant magic...
timeline 2:
The spell is still mis-cast, but the worst of the effects are quarantined by a spell from the future.
However, the spell exerts an acute strain on the local fabric of spacetime, triggering a temporary change in the graphics. The adamant barrier releases a large burst of power to compensate, triggering the magical software conflict between shamanistic power and adamant power. said conflict looks so similar to the original pseudo-meta-balefire incident, I proceed to design the exact same treatment plan. the final spell is triggered by sheer accident.
What is NOT clear is why timeline 1 still exists...
_____________
i've changed my mind. I'll stick around to study the results of my messing with time...
*Squish*
"why is there pus all over the stairwell?"