[Kabrin Road] Need to Know [Closed]

by **Hadrian** on August 22nd, 2011, 7:49 am

20th Summer, 511 A.V.

When Hadrian found a likely spot a ways from the road and from their camp, he settled down on the flat space to practice a thing or two. He wasn't sure when Voiding and Summoning would come in handy while in Ravok, and he wasn't planning to Summon anything while he was there, though the coordinates to Shoyden could help him bring a few Glassbeaks into the middle of Ravok, which might help distract pursuers while he and his people escaped. The thought of that gave him a smile, though he was not comfortable attempting to contact that dangerous realm unless his own danger was greater.

No, he started with the Void as he had with his last Summoning that had gone so well, sitting there with his hands cupped before him, meditating upon nothingness. He focused on his breath first, reining it in and back under conscious control, which generally allowed him to become more observant, more aware. He visualized a candle flame in the darkness for a long time, and then let that light disappear until only darkness was visible behind his closed eyes. He wondered what was the sound of one hand clapping, but that was more of a spiritual exercise than this.

Finally he just imagined emptiness: no air, no djed, a true blank. He pulled at the fabric of existence with his mind, sensing his work on the Auristic spectrum even with his eyes closed. Finally his will pulled enough of the stuff of this world away from a central point that there was a tear, and when he opened his eyes, there was a small slit of black between his hands, a black so deep and dense that it made his insides quiver to look at it. This one had no pull, which was good; the idea of pull was frightening, this Void pulling things into it of its own accord, its own sort of hunger.

He smiled a little. Now he was more hit than miss in opening the little portals, and the challenge became holding it open, his will fighting with the entropy of the world, which tried to fill that hole with matter, to make itself whole again. When it finally collapsed in on itself, there was cool perspiration on his brow and upper lip, but he was shivering as if from cold. A strange reaction, but he just breathed until it began to pass, glad of the accomplishment, but already thinking ahead to his task. He was going to Summon another Memosite from Swalden, seeking out the coordinates of Fyrden, because someday he wanted to bind a Familiar, and that was the world from which they came.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the lore in books, but he could verify it this way and practice as well. He was still a novice, and so repeated easy summonings were the best way to get where he wanted to be, and to be able to strike a deal with Zintila in far off Lhavit one day.

by **Hadrian** on November 21st, 2011, 12:53 am

He began to scratch a circle in front of him in the loamy soil with a sharp rock. This was the inner circle, marked as evenly as possible with sixteen spaces for the coordinates to Swalden, the far off realm of the Memosites, memory-keepers. He wondered if one of them would teach him how to call Qalaya one day. The inner circle was simple, merely a way to tell the djed the where of this summoning. Outside that, he scored another circle, this one a barrier protecting the outside world from what came through and the inner workings of the circle from the variable djed in the area.

Next came the innermost circle, a small one, about double the size of an average-sized Memosite, and a cross from one edge of the barrier circle to the other through that central circle, and another; X marks the spot. It was mostly done now, but he wanted specific information, so he made a chain of glyphs around the central circle that made the sounds fyr and den. Not knowing its coordinates, but seeking them, he added ideogram glyphs to help the djed figure out what he wanted: life, familiar, bonding, and the like.

Last, he keyed in the coordinates counter-clockwise and everything was in order. Ever so delicately, he spun out res to fill in these glyphs and sigils. It proved to be the most efficacious set up when drawing circles out in the wild, which was sometimes necessary as places like Syliras outlawed Summoning within the limits of the city. He understood the rule, and so he worked around it. With his glyphs etched in living res, he could maintain their position through sheer force of will, rather than risking erasure and the chaos that might ensue.

When the summoning circle glowed dully with his energies, he pricked his finger on the sharpest bit of the rock, and squeezed a drop into it. Over the course of a minute, the energy began to shift to a bright crimson, and then the portal began to open.

by **Hadrian** on December 7th, 2011, 7:13 am

He felt the circle activating on a gut level that was separate from his Auristics. There was a certain attunement to the djed, especially one's own workings, that all magi developed. Auristics was just a more aggressive, all-encompassing version, though he was unsure how the Drykas Web energies continued to evade the scrutiny of non-Drykas magi. But with his Auristics, his senses could reach a little way into the orbit of Swalden, from whence the Memosites came, if only picking up the stray energies that passed through his gate and learning to interpret that information one puzzle piece at a time. It seemed to be a place of no Air, merely Earth dancing about that empty, empty sky, though it was not so empty as the Void. The faintest shimmer of star Fire flickered through, but was hardly enough information to truly examine.

Taking a deep breath, he settled into a more meditative pattern. In, two, three, four, out, two, three, four. Control the breath and everything else toed the line. After some time of this, his concentration and the pull of his glyphs made a small stone phase into being within that innermost circle, a smaller chunk of the semi-sentient stone than he had seen before. Still, it was answering a sort of call, so it must have the right lore for him.

"Fyrden," he said. It seemed to shimmer as if in answer. Gradually it became dense, acquired mass as much as shadow, and he could almost feel its weight within his circle. Leashed, it came to his hand. This time, he had a memory ready to share, the memories that had led him to the astral coordinates to the world of Shoyden, and the human drama that it had involved. He wasn't sure if the Memosite would take it, since it was a story he had from another Memosite, but he was not sure whether they communicated with each other at all or, if they did, whether it was one huge hive mind or merely networks of smaller communities of thought and memory.

Perhaps someday he would study them at greater length and depth. But not today. Today he held the stone to his temple, closed his eyes, and opened himself to the subtle influence of the stone, the sharing of memory locked within it.

"Fyrden," he murmured again, prompting it for the spatial address of the homeworld of magical familiars. He didn't know that he wanted one, but he always wanted knowledge and the opportunity for more.

by **Hadrian** on January 5th, 2012, 6:15 am

The sequence of numbers trickled into his mind like river rocks tumbling in the eddies of the water: 6701984710485453. But it wasn't just a sequence of numbers in this mind(?) to mind translation, but rather a sharing of a pattern, a deeper meaning. The numbers also meant Fyrden due to that strange synaptic association that went on without people understanding that the impulses within their brain were similar to the lightning striking the ground during a storm.

When the pattern seemed set and he could repeat it to himself effortlessly, he began the exchange process, sharing a conversation he had had with Caelum years previous, speaking about their theories about the so-called hole through which the Ethaefal were falling from the Ukalas.

If that was indeed what was happening, then it seemed a good idea to share those thoughts that might help others toward Caelum's goal of healing that rift, but for the time being, Hadrian saw no clear route to doing so since he couldn't actually see or otherwise sense the Ukalas. Perhaps someday his Auristics would be fine-tuned and powerful enough for that, but for today he was as in the dark as anyone else.

The Memosite memorized things faster than he did, and when the conversation was passed along, he thanked the stone and set it back into the circle, whereupon it disappeared back into Swalden's rings, and the summoning circle disappeared as anything involving glyphs was wont to do when the magic was spent. Meditating for a moment on the balmy early summer air and this new knowledge, he repeated those coordinates back to himself to make sure they were there. He knew they would be, but old habits died hard. His memory wasn't exactly eidetic, but it was close.

A breeze tousled his dark hair, and he smiled, standing up. Someday, perhaps he would even have a Familiar of his own. That would be useful, and sometimes he did get lonely, even with Kendall and the others around.

"Someday," he murmured to himself, and began to navigate his way through the forest back to their camp off the Kabrin Road.

by **Paragon** on January 6th, 2012, 11:42 am

Hadrian :

Nice little solo, you always bring magic to life in your writing - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.