Clyde could feel deep inside of himself his magic deepening. For several days now, he had known he was progressing, hitting another benchmark which showed that his skill with manipulating djed was finding a new depth and possibly a new ability.
So that is why he found himself this day outside of the city, out in the cold biting wind. He shivered in his robes, pulling them tight, and going a bit into the trees, but still keeping the lake within sight. He did not want to get to were he might find trouble.
Clyde spent a few minutes picking up branches off the ground, and dropped an armload on a bare spot of dirt. Luckily it had not snowed, it was only cold out, since snow would have gotten him wet, and when it melted it would have gotten everywhere... No, he had chosen today knowing there was no snow out.
Taking out his ink, and a quill, he dipped it, letting the excess drip off, before bringing it to his bare hands, and drawing a focus glyph on the palms of each. He had been trying a new focus lately, one large glyph, it appeared as a large circle on the outside, with lines emanating from this central point similar to how one would draw beams of light coming from a sun.
Then on the inside, he put the word in ancient tongue "Djas", meaning alone, as the focus was one sigil in and of itself. All of these elements merged together, almost blurring into confusion, becoming one sigil. FInally he just had to wait for the ink to dry, before casting some res out of his hands.
He extruded a thin layer of gas out, coating the wood he had prepared, and then with a sudden force of will, transmuted it to flame, making a small roar of air, before the wood lighted and caught aflame, spreading its warmth as it crackled.
Clyde stood by it for a few minutes, letting it warm him, before he sat down to focus on his task, close to the warmth of the flames.
Then he focused inward, trying to meditate, looking inward at his djed, trying to manipulate it in new ways... He did his beest to close out everything, focusing on the dirt under him h was sitting on... The warmth of the flame... And his own djed burning inside of him like a white hot sun...
After a few hours, with the fire starting to get low, he extruded some res from his hands... He could feel the start of a new pathway... He just had to open the passage... He looked with his res, trying to feel it... Then he tapped into one of its usages, lightly calling on its ability to pull and attract natural elements... He could feel a gentle tug as air was pulled to it... A close tug as the flames of the fire bent closer for a moment as they were also attracted... And something else... Something below...
Finally he realized, he had shifted some dirt, only slightly, when he had attracted things... Dirt... Earth... He had unlocked earth reimancy!
Excited at his new discovery, he extruded some more res, forming it into a small ball about the size of a marble, and hovered it a inch over the ground.
Pulling once more, this time a little harder, and focused on earth, bits of dirt flew up to coat the res, dirt clods, even a smaller pebble... He brought it down into the earth, letting the small bit of res soak into it... And then pulled up at once, taking out a small chunk of earth with the res, now a bit larger than a marble, since it had a quarter inch coating of dirt all over it.
Clyde smiled to himself, discovering his new ability, and got up, realizing he had spent most of the day there. The fire had burnt down to ashes and cinders, and only a few red hot coals feebly burned there... He shivered again, realizing how cold he was in his robes, and saw the sun was starting to go down. He picked up his ink and quill, and headed back to town, not wanting to be out after dark, forgetting that he still had his focus glyphs drawn on his hands.
It was on his way back to the city that he came upon a dingy little structure, a shack really, with a sign... A beer hut? He himself had never been in, but surely it would be warm. He could go in and get warm by the fire, and perhaps get a drink and a bite to eat... He only know realized how hungry he was, not from using to much res, but from only having eaten a small breakfast that morning.
So Clyde went in, hurriedly finding a seat near the fireplace, puling his hands inside of his robes to warm them. He called out for the barmaid to bring him a mug of ale, before looking around while he waited. There were not to many people there at that time, though he did notice one woman looking a bit off, like she felt she did not belong, sitting near him at another table. Clyde looked her over in her cloak, as she sat there, wondering what he deal was, locking eyes for a moment to see them better, her blue eyes with a odd silverish glint to them. |
