[flashback] Lessons at dawn(Eridanus)

[Coren]

Coren carefully observed how eri would put his rather clumsely worded advice into practice. Really hoping that his student didn't need any more clarification he wouldn't have the foggiest idea on how to try to make it more clear. Maybe he should have studied about how to teach people before agreeing to this idea. Coren let out a small sigh of relief when eri didn't need any more help and began awkwardly shaping the djed he was holding in his hand. Physically stretching it out with his hand like it was clay. “Well you aren't doing bad at all, just keep an eye out for inconsistencies in your shield.” Coren pointed towards a few holes in the djed. “Or you will get a shield that doesn't block in some places, which can be quite annoying at the best of times, outright lethal in the worst of times. So you better keep an eye on that.” Coren said in a dead serious tone. “Of course the better you get shaping your shields the easier it gets, so I recommend you just practice shields just to make sure your able to make your shield without holes in it. Now try to close those holes a bit up before we try to give it a task. Since once we do that we can't change the shape anymore.” Coren said as he gave the shoddy shield of his pupil a second look. Pointing out some more holes and faults in it as he did so. “After you fixed those as good as you could I'll tell you more on how to task your shield.”

[Eridanus]

Coren pointed out supposed flaws in his shield, and Eri glanced down at his hand. Surprisingly even without his Auristics-fuelled vision he could somewhat see a glimmering substance around his hand. It was then that he realized his flaw, for using his magical sight allowed him to see the djed that he was moulding quite clearly, but now without his enhanced vision the reality of his shield was quite clear as he found that it did not look as clear and as solid as it did with his Sight. He harrumphed in frustration as he proceeded to prod and shape the substance covering his hand as if it were clay, but somehow it was like he was moulding clay with a sledgehammer; his movements were too much and he often shifted more djed than he intended to. After a few more chimes, he tried to make the 'texture' of his fledging shield as smooth as he could, then he looked up to Coren to see if his virgin shield passed the mage's scrutiny.

[Coren]

Coren just watched with an expression of amusement at the clearly frustrated pupil of his as he tried to smooth over the holes in his freshly made shield, it was clear to him that no matter how easily he had been able to push out his djed it seemed that had more to do with already having experience with the discipline of flux then having any in born talent with magic. “Well, it seems you still need a lot of practice with shaping your shields, don't worry just keep on practicing, it gets easier the more you do it. Anyway lets just step up towards the next step, tasking the shield with what it should do. The is the hardest part to really explain to be honest.” Coren paused for a few moments as he tried to figure out how to best explain how to do it. “Well, an untasked shield on its own blocks djed as good as it can, which is dependent on how good you constructed your shield. But to get the most out of your shields, tasking is required. How to exactly do it is fairly hard to explain. You force your own will on the shield and.. well imprint the djed with the command you give it. You should feel the djed in your shield rearrange itself a little if you do it.” He paused looking at his student to see if he got it. “Just don't be to overconfident and shield it for something your shield cant handle. Just stick to things like sound and light for the moment. Those are easy. Now give it a try.”

[Eridanus]

Force your own will? That was not really much to work with, but Eri decided to at least valiantly attempt to do so. He continued moulding and shifting around the bits of djed that formed the shield currently wrapped around his hand, and stopped fiddling with it after he decided that he was not going to make it as smooth as the one he saw Coren made until he had more practice. He made a note to go back at night and practice the shaping process to get better at it. His shield now looked like what a kid would make if given lumps of soft clay and it was honestly not very aesthetic. How it looked was far from important though, for the mage had informed him that the quality of the shield depended on the quality of the shape, and so an ugly looking shield would probably be a poor one. Eri looked down on his shield again, and resisted the urge to tap into his magical sight again. It would be more accurate for him to work on it in his current state, not to mention less draining on him. He gave the expressed djed a final pat, then he simply stared at it, wondering what he could do to make it, say, block light. How would he go about doing it? He continued staring at it, but the shield around his hand was being stubborn, and ignored his valiant attempts to do so. At least he knew that staring and willing it to block light was not going to make it block light. Eri lightened his gaze on the shield, crinkling his nose thoughtfully as he racked his brains for ideas on how to task his shield. He thought about the djed extraction process and the shaping process that came after. If he used visual imagery to achieve those two phases, and just like he did with Flux, would it work if he simply used any kind of imagery in this case? It couldn’t hurt, and he was sure that the mage would let him know if he was about to go wrong, though he doubted that there could be anything serious from a shielding accident, if there was even one in the first place. It was simply too defensive and safe an art that he wondered why he had not picked it up earlier. To him, it was like the polar opposite of Reimancy, where the overgiving and accidental self harming rates were mind-numbingly high. Turning his attention back to the shield, he decided to now treat the gathered djed not as clay, for that part of the process was done for now, but as a messy clump of thread-like objects. He used his other to reach for it, and he realized that with enough concentration he could will the shape of his shield to be like so. He wondered if it was his perspective of it that changed, or the actual astral manifestation. Regardless, it served his purpose and he clumsily began weaving the threads of djed together. What he consciously wanted to do, he did not know, but in his unconscious mind he knew he wanted it to block light. Thus, the Vantha worked according to instinct, knitting a clump here, weaving more strands there. He single-mindedly worked towards a purpose, though he was not consciously thinking of what he wanted to achieve. He simply proceeded with one step, then somehow seeing some sort of imagined pattern he went for another step, followed by another. It was really like the process of scribbling one’s imagination on paper, and he wondered if there was an end to what he was doing.

OOC InfoI'll let you decide if Eri succeeds

[Coren]

Coren observed as his pupil tried to follow his vague advice and reached for the shabby shield surrounding his hand and began to do... something to it. He was just pulling around the djed, pulling it around in a random pattern. He did however tay quiet, shielding wasn't very dangerous even when you screwed up with it, which still confused him to no end to be honest, so even if eri was about to screw up royally he only would have lost a large amount of djed and while this was quite dangerous it only endangered himself. So he just kept quiet and observed how the man was trying to imprint his will on the partially complete shield. After a few chimes where nothing happenend coren finally spoke up. “Well it doesn't seem like the thing you wanted to happen. I'm guessing you want to try and make it block light, but the only thing I see happening is you tugging on some strands of djed without any effect to be honest. How are you actually trying to task your shield?” Coren asked, honestly wondering how he was trying to do it.

[Eridanus]

Eri was slightly dejected when he heard Coren spoke up after his attempts. It seemed that his method was not working, even though he was beginning to feel like he was making progress. He had seen Coren's shields with auristics, and to him it looked like a complicated weave of djed threads in a certain pattern that he knew instinctively would block light. Well, not instinctively, but more like he associated that pattern with one that would block light since it well, functionally blocked light when the mage did that example. He had been trying to weave his own djed threads to replicate that pattern as far as he could, but somehow he was missing something in this puzzle to make it work.

"I was trying to form a sort of pattern to block light. I see the djed as threads that I weave into position, but somehow the pattern isn't working as I expected it to be," He mumbled, while knitting more djed threads into position, pursing his lips while wondering what he could do to fix his pattern.

[Coren]

Coren nodded as his pupil explained what exactly he had been trying to do, he didn't get why exactly the method failed though, it seemed a fairly good way of trying to task a shield. He took another look at the man's shield, raising an eyebrow as he vagually saw the outlines of the messy pattern. “Well, the basic idea looks sound in my honest opinion, though the pattern that you made does look kinda messy and unfocused. Like you didn't have your mind on the task when you where putting the task. Maybe you should try again, and keep your mind focused on what you want the shield to do and keep that firmly in your mind as you create the pattern and well. Try to force the task into the weaving of the shield as you do so.” Coren paused for a few seconds. “I can't see anything else that would be wrong with your idea other then a lack of focus. But then again, there are so many way's one can construct a shield that trying to learn your first shield is always a little bit of blindly shuffeling around to be honest. I needed hours before I even was able to push out a little bit of djed. So your not doing half bad.” Coren said in a reassuring tone, motioning for eri to try again.

[Eridanus]

There might be something wrong with his focus, and he kind of felt reassured when Coren told him that the his own first time took a few bells. He had no idea how much they have spent here, but he was sure it was fast approaching a bell or more. Time seemed to pass faster when he was engrossed in his own thing, extruding his djed, shaping his shield and attempting to task it. It was fascinating but frustrating to task his shield, there was a sort of fun in trying to connect the dots in a pattern that would ultimately result in what he aimed for, but also in the annoyance when it did not go the way he wanted it to.

Eri put Coren's idea into full play, this time instead of absent-mindedly tweaking around with the glowing threads that signified djed to him, he utilized his meditative techniques to clear his mind of erroneous thoughts. Focusing only on the matter at hand, he picked a single thread, weaving it into another with only one thought in mind: to task the shield to block light. Now, instead of trying to replicate Coren's shield earlier when he viewed its structure with Auristics, he would fully focus on making his own, original shield. He overlapped another djed thread with the one he was 'holding', and in his mind he repeated his desired objective over and over as he single-mindedly tasked his shield.

He did know how much time had passed, whether it be a few chimes or a bell or two, for the vantha was deeply engrossed in tasking his shield. It was like reading a highly fascinating novel that drew you in. He was drawn in as well, his fingers beginning to slowly move faster and faster as he began to familiarize himself with the basics of picking up and weaving the djed threads without fumbling as much. His clear mind outlined a path for him, and somehow there was as innate voice that he was moving in the right direction. He could see a pattern slowly forming in his shield, and something in him just said that it was right. Perhaps an anomaly here and there, and he proceeded to pick those parts out, reweaving them into correct patterns that fit his overall vision of the entire structure.

Soon, a shield with proper, glowing structure was formed, and when he shoved the last djed thread into place parts of his hand suddenly became black, as if there were mini-portals leading to the void that appeared in the hand encased by the shield. It was not perfect, it was far from functional, but the basic pattern that he had worked so hard to implement took some sort of minimal effect that responded to his wish, blocking out light in areas where he weaved well, and not doing so in places where he was poor in his performance.

The more important thing though, was that Eri had finally sorted out the right thought process for shielding, for he had been fumbling and messing around earlier, not knowing exactly what to do. Now, he knew what sort of thought processes he should go through when tasking the shield, and there was a sort of optimism within him knowing that with enough practise he would be able to make better shields. Like they say, the process was always more important than the result especially when learning, and though Eri provided a pretty lousy shield, the result was not reflective of what he actually learnt during the process.

The vantha looked up to Coren with a slight grin, waiting for his teacher's comments on his first ever made shield.

[Coren]

Coren slowly got a feeling of excitement as he saw eri's shield take a more solid and focused form as his pupil continued to work at his shield. It seemed his teachings weren't completely useless. Otherwise he doubted the man would have figured it out this fast. As soon as the pattern in the shield was completed by the man parts of his pupil's hand was suddenly covered in a visible black cover of some kind. He leaned a bit closer to inspect his pupil's handiwork. “Well this doesn't look to bad for a first time shield. Sure its sloppy, almost completely useless and doesn't block everywhere it covers. But not bad for a first time. With enough practice and some instruction on my part you will probably will get a better feel for the discipline.” He stood back up after he sad that and stretched himself to get the kinks out of his body after having sat down for a few bell's. “But unfortunately, this is the most I'm going to teach you from just having gotten the little bit of information on the flux discipline. Since our agreement was that I taught you just as much as you could give me.” Coren said in a honest voice, it was the agreement like he remembered it. “Of course, I'm perfectly willing to teach you a little bit more if you offer something else as re compensation.” Coren said in a cheerful tone.

[Eridanus]

As Eri expected, Coren gave the same review that he was thinking. It was a pretty lousy shield, but for a first shield and for a first tasking it functioned minimally and with enough instructions and practice he would definitely get better. The mage was mercenary, of course, and demanded more things in exchange for more lessons. He could not find fault for in the past after the Valterrian before Syliras started the idea of using mizas as universal currency, deals were made in barters.

Eri finally relaxed, and his shield disappeared due to the lack of concentration, and he realized that his eyes felt a bit strained from staring too much as well as of the generous use of auristics in aiding him. His wrist also felt a bit stiff for he had been holding it there for quite a while and not notice the strain as he was too engrossed in trying to make the shield. Massaging his neck, he shrugged and said, "I can't say that I'm good at teaching, or teaching anything at all. But I'm pretty decent in sword-play," pointing backwards at the two long swords attached to the weapon harness strapped behind his back, "so if you need some pointers on that I can help you."