[Training] Forging a Memory (finished)

[Jaquise Emittere]

45th day of Spring 510 AV

Jaq couldn't believe it. He had known his father was a powerful wizard, but what was before him was more then he could have ever thought possible. Somehow, beyond all probability, Jaq's father Sergane had found a way to give him a difficult assignment 7 years after his death. For a moment in his frustration Jaq had almost thrown 'The Art of Glyphing' into the forest nearby, beautifully outlined by the rising sun, but just barely stopped himself. Most of what was written in the book was beyond his understanding. Oh sure when he was younger he used to get new types of magic like that, but he had never learned one without instruction. that was probably the lesson there, and in such a fundamental type of world magic Jaq could not afford to not try. Still, it had been 7 years since he had practiced anything but Reimancy, and that was more like physical labor and grunt work then the subtle 'Art' that seemed to be Glyphing. He needed it though, especially if he was going to pick of Animation again.

"Pull yourself together Jaq, you need to learn this. Come on, do the first lesson in the book. Get through that, then you can take a break and go to Animating."

This afternoon, after going through a reimnancy excursive, Jaq had decided to try and go through the glyphing book he had bought. Because he didn't really plan on going anywhere that day, Jaq had left his gloves, jacket, hat, and chainshirt in his tent. It was on odd thing for Jaq to be so unencumbered with just a simple grayish shirt and black pants, yet oddly freeing.

A sound behind Jaq alerted him to the fact that someone was now watching him talk to himself. He didn't worry though, even though the sound had come from the forest that surrounded the city. Jaq had camped out on the outside wall of Syliras and had been lucky enough to have chosen a spot with a good set of neighbors, a kelvic couple. When they had some free time it seemed they enjoyed watching Jaq practice whatever silly thing he brought back to the tent that day. Sometimes it was boring and they just fell asleep, sometimes they watched intently enough to make Jaq think they were thinking about lunch. Either way Jaq let them do what they wanted, because the male was a large wolf and the female was some kind of cat about the same size as the male, if not bigger. And they kept his tent safe from any critters that might crawl in while he was away, or sleeping.

Jaq turned his attention back tot he book in his hand. For an hour he read the book, and then continued for another hour when his first limit had been passed. At times he took up a stick and practiced writing the symbols in the dirt, at times he spoke aloud to try and assist in understanding a difficult phrase. Most of the time though he sat hunkered down leaning against a tree reading to himself.

When the second hour had passed Jaq closed the book and then closed his eye for a moment. He hadn't made much improvement. It was somewhat like, no maybe perhaps exactly like trying to learn a new language. It started off with the basic rules of the language's, and then it went on to describe simple words. It offered images of the glyph's that represented the words, then it offered a detailed magical explanation about the flow of Djed. Jaq had always prided himself on being intelligent for a mercenary, but this was way beyond him. He'd be studying for at least a week before he could attempt his first actual glyph, and that was being optimistic. The basic part of him that enjoyed drinking and bashing people with his sword kept reminding him how much fun it would be to set a book on fire and throw it around a bit. For the most part Jaq ignored it, though he still found the image of a comically large book burning amusing.

Moving over to his tent, Jaq noticed the kelvic couple seemed to have fallen asleep, apparently bored with the lack of actual magic being done. Closer inspection though revealed that both had one of their eyes open and were keeping a close watch on Jaq. Creepy.

Jaq tossed his book into his tent and reached in to pull out his sword. The katana, a rare and expensive sword, was a weapon of honor and sacrifice. His father had told him those who took up the weapon went into battle expecting to die, and thus thought they would come out alive. On another note, Sergane had then said to Jaq to never go into a fight you couldn't win, unless that fighting served more of a purpose then just killing an enemy. Not important now though. Looking at Jaq's katana you would never think of honor, though perhaps sacrifice might come to mind. The sheath that held the blade was made of a wood colored black and had hundreds of little niches and cuts in it that suggested before it had fallen into Jaq's possession it had been poorly taken care of. The handle was in no better shape, though most of it was hidden by a newer grip. Luckily thought the blade was kept in good shape and the abuse the handle and sheath suffered seemed to only be cosmetic damage.

Jaq had been using it since the day he had left Syliras with a troupe of other mercenaries. It was one of the few possessions he carried, and quite possibly the most valuable of them. Today he planned on doing something with it he hadn't done in years. Today he planned on animating it.

[Jaquise Emittere]

Jaq lifted the sword to eye level and looked upon the handle and guard of the blade. After a moment or two of thought, Jaq drew from his pocket a reflective metallic bead on a black string. Jaq had to pay a full silver miza's for a bead that would reflect things, but it was worth it. With the animation process, Jaq would make this bead into his katanna's eye. Lopping it through the guard and around the handle under the guard, then through the guard again, Jaq tied a knot that would hopefully keep it secure. His sword ready Jaq turned his attention to the rest of the preparations necessary.

After drawing two circles in the dirt and connecting them with a line, Jaq drew the blade from its sheath enough to slide his thumb over the edge, careful not to put any pressure on the blade. Jaq dropped the sword into the receiving circle and sat down in the sending circle. before he put his thumb to the circle, Jaq looked to the kelvic couple, now both studying him intently.

"Careful you don't cross the lines, and if its not to much trouble keep any critters from doing so. Any added energy might disrupt the flow and result in a rather dangerous creation."

Neither acknowledged Jaq's words, neither reacted to what Jaq's said in anyway what so ever. They were seemingly ignoring what he said in order to focus all their attention on what they saw. Not that he could blame them. Even to Jaq, Jaq sounded boring when he lectured about magic. With his warning giving and hopefully heard Jaq turned his attention back to the circle and pressed his bloodied thumb into the dirt. For a moment nothing happened, then the dirt circle's began glowing a little, as if they were reflecting a little bit of the sun's light. It only took a moment for one to realize there was nothing about the dirt that would reflect sunlight.

Jaq was to busy studying the connection he know felt to notice the glowing line. He could feel it in a corner of his mind, an ever present thing that was neither a word nor an image nor a sound yet somehow all of them at once, telling him the connection was flowing smoothly. Reassured of that, Jaq then closed his eye's and began to sing off-key.

"I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the mornin' sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you"

A habit he had picked up when he was younger was to sing nursery rhymes the nanny had taught him instead of chanting nonsense. Chanting in itself did nothing to bolster personnel magic, but it focused the mind and helped to alleviate some of the stresses of using one's own djed. He was much older now, and had a lager repository of songs. This was a song he had learned from a konti in Riverfall once.

As he moved onto the next verse Jaq opened his left eye and was greeted with a world of color and light so real and vibrant that the colors names were the only ways Jaq could think to describe half of what he saw. Colors near enough seems to blend together and the brighter ones seemed to affect the color of the dimmer one's. Above him seemed to be a curtain of light shifting through red, orange, yellow, and green then back to red, with hints of another, much more stable brown aura behind it. The sight almost made him weep. Near the tree was less like an glow and more like a blazing inferno of light and color. Cool blue mixed with red hot to create a pulsing, surging Aura that was both beautiful and frightening. Around him was a river of insubstantial Azure thin enough to see through, like the mist rising off the grass in the early morning. It was flowing around him and converging on the center line then flowing into the sword in the other circle. Even though the shape of the aura's all around him all seemed chaotic and undefined, with little shape to them, they were so clear and sharp that it would have caused Jaq's eye to water had his tear duct not been burnt away in the accident.

The intensity of the experience threatened to overwhelm Jaq and tried to force his sight closed once more. Stubborn to the end Jaq kept singing his off-key song and pushed through the pain opening his eyes to this world of color caused. When his mind finally seemed to focus and become accustomed to Aura's Jaq opened his good eye. Now that he saw both the object's in one eye and the aura in the other. It explained a lot. The curtain of light shifting from red to green above him was actually the leaves on the tree he had been leaning against earlier. The lights changed as the leaves did, though not in the same order for some reason, as if they were relieving there deaths and rebirth every time they took in a breath. The tree behind it had a much more stable Aura itself. It seemed almost patient.

Now that he was seeing Aura's Jaq had the opportunity to do something he couldn't do when he used to animate. That was observe the change that Animation brought on an object's aura. He could guess when an item was magical because magical items are usually just more noticeable, but now he could see the difference and learn from whatever mistakes he might make before even finished and tested it.

Jaq turned his attention, still singing off-key, to his sword in the circle in front of him. With a bit of effort Jaq focused on the kattana and studied the Aura he saw. It seemed older then Jaq had thought, though he couldn't guess how much older. The aura was mostly a metal like silver with a few bits of red staining it. That it had seen death was obvious, considering Jaq had killed a few people with it himself as a mercenary. Still, it was clearly an inanimate object. There was no life to the blade, not like the patient aura of the tree near him, or the wild Aura's of the kelvics watching him and probably trying to tune out his singing.

Jaq had what he needed so with a blink of the eye, quite literally actually, the Aura's disappeared and Jaq saw everything the way he normally did.

[Jaquise Emittere]

With his study of his swords Aura done, the only thing left to do for the day was to create a Artificial Soul for the sword. He could probably do more, but it would be a lot of hard work for nothing if he didn't anchor it right and the best way to determine that was to simply wait a night. So Jaq began his work of creating a soul. It had been a while since he had animated anything but he had been thinking about it for weeks and knew exactly what to send. Jaq began by sending memories of his stubbornness, of how he did not yield even when it would have been better for him to do so. Then he sent the memories of the scars that stubbornness had earned him. He sent memories his joy in the simple things, music, drink, food, physical exertion, and beauty. Then he sent his memories of his focus, where his determination got him through difficult times. Finally memories of the one thing few people could understand about Jaq. He'd been a mercenary for years, had seen horrible things and had even had some people request him to those things. He sent the emotions he felt when he saw them happening, and the memories as he did what he could for those they were happening to. Jaq imprinted upon the Artificial soul that he still cared. Then with an effort of will Jaq formed all of the emotions into a core at the center of the swords energy, which he felt through the connection with the circle, and let it go.

Jaq opened his eyes and found he was breathing a little hard and that he was sweating. A tear had begun falling down from his good eye, though Jaq ignored it as if it were just another bead of sweat. The sky was bathed in an orange color that reminded Jaq of an aura and told him that it was nearly night. Jaq had spent more time on this part then he should have, but perhaps it would all work out for the best.

Mumbling the song he had been using earlier Jaq closed his eyes and focused on summoning the Aura's to his fake eye once more. When he had finally focused his Auristics one more, Jaq opened his other eye and looked over to his sword. It looked almost exactly like it had earlier, with one big difference. In the center of the sword was a light blue aura much like the one that now flowed down the lines of the circle into the sword. Even as he sat there watching, Jaq could see the aura slowly begin to spread, mixing with the steel gray aura of the blade to form a steely blue aura. It seemed Jaq had done rather well for his first attempt in years. Now all that was left to do was to let it sit for the night and see if it would hold till the morning.

With a stretch of his arms and a yawn Jaq stood up and turned around to see if the two kelvic's if they were still there. Sure enough both of them were stretched out in near enough the same place they had sat down in. Some ruffled grass and what looked like the dead remains of a rabbit in front of them suggested they had left at one point and returned, or that they had kept it from crossing one of the circles. The large.....cat.....thing looked to be sleeping but the wolf had one eye open and was watching Jaq. Quietly, so as to not wake the sleeping cat, Jaq said,

"Same warning as earlier. Your nice enough neighbors and I'd rather not accidentally cause an injury to either of you."

The wolf kelvic sneezed and rested its head back down on the cat's back, closing its eyes in the process. Jaq resisted the urge to walk over and pet the large dangerous animals by reminding himself of the pointy teeth and claws. With another yawn Jaq ducked down into his tent and crawled under his blanket to sleep.

[Jaquise Emittere]

When Jaq awoke he found much to his surprise and pleasure that he remembered the night before and he didn't have a hangover. It was a rare occurrence with him considering much of his night life consisted of bars and barfights in the bars. It let him forget the life he could have had, the father he didn't have, and the love he'd never have. The thought was depressing enough to almost make Jaq wish he had a hangover to distract him. Almost, but not quite. After a few moment's of sulking and a moment of mentally berating himself for not being more of a man Jaq sat up and pulled on his shirt, pants, and boots and put on his hat. The day was warm enough to not need a jacket so Jaq left it where it was, in a neat bundle in the corner.

Jaq stepped out of his tent and was greeted by a warm breeze and the sound of birds singing. Calming, pleasant, and once again not manly. Jaq let himself enjoy it for a moment though. It wasn't a common enough occurrence for him to take it for granted. Feeling fresh from a good nights sleep and optimistic about the day Jaq looked around outside his tent. The kelvic couple was gone, though the grass in the spot they had been laying in all day yesterday was flattened. His sword was still in one of the two circles he had made. Everything in order Jaq set about his normal earlier morning routine, minus the hour of meditation to help him get over his hangover. His food was in a bag hanging on a branch that hung over his fire pit, perhaps 15 feet away from his tent. Peace of cheese and bread in one hand and a dried peace of meat and water flask in the other Jaq enjoyed his breakfast in relative peace. That done he moved on to his morning practices. He'd have to skip practicing with his sword, he didn't want to take it out of the circle lest he screw something up. So he'd start right off with some reimnancy breathing exercise's.

Jaq took a seat leaning against the tree he sat next to yesterday near his tent. He took a slow deep breath, then let it out. He took another, and let it out. Took a third, and exhaled a thin fog of azure res. Jaq allowed the res to move several feet in front of him, no longer his limit range wise but still the most comfortable he was used to, and began breathing in and out again. As he took a breath, he allowed a little bit of the cloud of res in front of him absorb some air, then when he let it out he released the air gently. The exercise was one of the simplest and easiest one's Jaq knew. He wanted to be in the best condition he could when he finished animating his sword. He continued with the practice until all of the cloud of res he had exhaled had been turned into air and let go. Done with his morning practices Jaq got up and moved over to the circle to do something he had been worried about doing since he woke up.

As he stood over the circle with the sword Jaq began singing the song he had used yesterday, though this time under his breath. Jaq closed his eyes and let the song focus his mind as he willed his sight to shift to Aura's. It took a little more effort then yesterday, he still really didn't have that much control over it, but after a few minutes Jaq was able to feel the change. When he opened his eyes Jaq didn't bother with all the Aura's around him, instead immediately focusing on the Aura of his sword. Yesterday when he had first started it had been a solid silver Aura, with bits of red stains on it as if some one had spilled something. When he had finished yesterday, it had been little different except for the small ball of Azure blue in the center slowly merging with the silver. This morning the swords Aura had no longer had red stains on it, and at the center the Azure core seemed to have mixed almost completely with the silver gray of the sword's aura. It looked like the soulcore had been made successfully, though this was the first time Jaq had seen the Aura of one of his workings. Jaq almost wooped in celebration but a noise behind him startled him and changed the ecstatic sound to one more like surprise. The Kelvic couple had returned. They sat in the same spot watching Jaq intently.

"Mornin neighbors. Sorry about that, you startled me there."

Neither of the Kelvic's gave any response, they had never done so anyway, so Jaq turned back to his sword.

[Jaquise Emittere]

With the soul core made Jaq moved onto the next step, creating its Persona. Usually Jaq would add all of the base directives to the golem he was making, but in this case several of them were not useful. For instance non-violence could only impede his idea and self preservation would be hard for the sword considering how little it could actually move. Authentication would be a bit different to, as it would not involve any kind of password, simply memories of those few Jaq trusted so far.

Jaq set to work immediately, starting with loyalty. He sent as many memories as he could of his reflection and his voice. Hopefully it would mean that the sword would only work for him. The next directive, and second most important for this, was kill phrases. Jaq chose the word sleep for temporary shutdown and Shariot, a favorite drink of Jaq's that was made for Akalak's and had a great deal more affect on humans. With loyalty as the top Directive, the Kill phrases should only work for Jaq. Finally was Authentication. Jaq new he couldn't change this later on, but he could add to the information the sword held. So instead of simply limiting the authentication directive to the few ally's Jaq had now, the pale wizard simply manipulated the idea to one of not reacting to allies in general. He would clarify what allies he meant in the next step, which would allow him to add more should he make any more.

The directives were fewer in number then usual, but it still took some time. When Jaq finally opened his eyes the sun had almost reached its apex. Plenty of time for the next step, which was teaching the sword what it needed to know. Jaq was hoping to have it do three things. The first was to have the bead on the handle to see. Jaq went about doing this by opening his good eye and looking all around him. First he looked to the kelvic couple, who were still watching him with a quit interest. One of them had something in its mouth and was chewing on it. Next Jaq looked to the tree and focused on the moving leaves. Finally he looked to the grass beneath his feet and focused and the swaying of the blades of green. Next was to teach the sword and sheathe to both recognize and shake should the bead at the handle see any drawn blade or weapon. Jaq did this by first picturing the blade and sheath vibrating a little, as if it stood upon a table that was being shaken or was int he hands of someone in a carriage moving upon a rocky road. Then he though of each weapon he could think of in their ready positions. A bow with a drawn arrow, a longsword out of its sheath, a dagger drawn from one's sleeve, and myriad of other weapons Jaq had encountered or seen. He was careful not to send any memories about clubs though, just in case it decided to shake every time it saw a peace of wood. With that done he thought back tot he shaking sword and sent it once more, with the idea that should the bead see any of those weapons drawn the blade and scabbard would shake like he had shown it.

It might seem like an odd thing to want a sword to do, but imagine if you could have fair warning for a knife to the back. Quite useful for a mercenary like Jaq.

With that done, it was time to teach the sword not to draw for anyone but Jaq. It wouldn't be able to resist someone prying at it with tools, but it could hold against anyone trying to draw it in a usual fashion. This idea had a fairly easy to understand reason behind it. Should anyone ever try and confiscate his word they would find it to be rather useless. An ultimate way to spite any would be thief and perhaps keep someone from drawing his blade on him in the process. Jaq taught it to do hold by picturing images of the sword still in it's sheathe, and then imagining someone trying to draw it and being unable to. It was quite simple really. Finally Jaq had to clarify for the blade who the allies one of the directives focused on were. There weren't many, but it also had to be taught not to shake for any weapons they might draw. Jaq started with Weyliss first. Not an ally so much as an acquaintance, but Jaq might end up working with the man again and wanted to avoid any issues. Next was Stitch, though Jaq had never seen the man use anything but his hands to fight. The rest of the allies were some mercenary's Jaq knew from the old company he used to be a part of. Then he thought back tot he shaking image he had used earlier and imagined it stopping. He sent the idea that it would not shake for any of the people it had just seen.

Jaq opened his eyes and looked up to check how much time had passed. It wasn't much. The sun was at its apex now, looking down on all of the people in Syliras. For a moment Jaq's thoughts wondered what the name of the sun goddess was again, but with a shake of his head the pale Animator turned back to his work. One last step, and one of the easier ones in Jaq's opinions. It was time to shape an Astral body for the sword. With a deep breath Jaq dove back into the flow of energy and began shaping the sword's astral body, fitting it closely to the scabbard, and even the blade within the scabbard. Twice Jaq lost focus and felt the Astral body he had formed for a small portion of the blade dissolve, and twice he picked up his work once more with determination. Like the other step's, time seemed to move differently for Jaq and when he finished the sun had moved in the sky once more. No longer was it at the apex of it's path, now it was beginning to move down to the horizon.

Jaq was finished. All there was left to do was to check the sword's Aura and then wake it up. For a moment thought Jaq did nothing though. He felt weary, his muscles ached from being int he same position for so long and his thoughts were sluggish from a day's worth of mental exertion. Luckily it was not his own magic he had been manipulating all day, or he would probably have passed whatever limit he had and begun to overgive. Still, he wanted to finish the sword today. So with a grunt of effort Jaq pulled himself to his feet and stretched out his limbs. Then Jaq drew his hand through the dirt circle he had drawn, breaking the flow of energy and releasing him from the connection he had with the sword. Then with a mumbling of some nonsense, for Jaq was a bit to weary to recall any lyrics, he closed his eyes and focused his mind. When he opened his eyes again, he now saw the myriad of Aura's surrounding him out of his normally dead left eye. Jaq only needed to focus on one though, and that was at his feet before him. Without the circle's Aura in his path or its connection to him occupying his mind, Jaq actually found it a bit easier to study the sword. The entire Aura of the sword was that steely Azure blue color that had made up the core before hand. It was quite solid and appeared to be thrumming with life similar to that of the patient tree's nearby.

Jaq felt a mixture of pride and happiness at what he had done. It was good to know that after all those years of drinking and selling his skills as a mercenary he could still create something. It filled Jaq up in a way that all the booze in the world, no matter how wonderful such a thought was, could never do. Still, he had to test the sword to see if he had been successful in teaching it.

"Awaken."

For a moment nothing happened, Jaq stood there watching the aura of the sword remain unchanged and wondered if he had found a flaw already. Then, much like how a person awakens slowly from a long slumber, the aura of the blade began to grow stronger, and glow brighter. The even actually shuddered, reminding Jaq of how he had stretched his arms and legs a moment ago. Then the Aura dimmed a little and seemed to settle down. Jaq blinked away the Aura's, silently pondering what he had seen. He hadn't noticed any mistakes, but there was only one true way to find out if it worked. A few tests needed to be done.

With a few tentative steps Jaq reach his sword and bent down to pick it up. When it didn't explode Jaq moved his hand to the handle and tried to draw the blade out. Much to his surprise, it didn't budge. Jaq wondered if perhaps it was just a coincidence and after a moment tried again. Once again he was unable to draw the blade from its scabbard. The pale man looked around to see if anyone had else had seen his failure and was for once happy to find that his neighbors were no longer in their normal spot. Turning his attention back to the sword Jaq wondered what he done wrong. It took a full minute of recalling what he done to realize that when he told it to hold shut for anyone but Jaq, he had failed to correlate the name Jaq with anyone. Luckily the Kill phrases and loyalty Directives were set to his image and voice. Renewed by the simple fix this would be, Jaq moved back to the circles.

"Sleep." He said calmly to the sword.

Jaq couldn't feel it through the connection, and he was no longer seeing the blade's aura, but still Jaq could have sworn he felt the shift from it being awake to it sleeping. That wasn't important now though. Since it was a simple matter of just teaching it who he was, Jaq only to remake the connection. He did this by tracing his finger through the dirt where he had broken the circle, placing the sword back where ti had been, sitting down himself, then pushing the nearly healed thumb into the dirt enough to get a bit of blood to push out from his cut. The connection flared to life quickly and Jaq immediately began sending more images of him all the while thinking and saying out loud, "Jaq."

With that done, Jaq once more broke the circle and reached over to pick his sword up. It didn't explode this time either, and even let Jaq draw it from its sheath. All seemed well until both blade and scabbard suddenly began shaking noticeably. Jaq quickly put the sword back into the sheathe to keep himself from getting injured and looked around for a moment. When he confirmed that there was no one nearby Jaq looked back to his blade. Another mistake. What had gone wrong this time? Jaq tried once more to draw the blade and once more it began shaking a second later. Jaq sheathed the weapon and thought a for a moment.

When he could not think of any mistakes in his work Jaq stepped on the button in his boots, which released the hidden blade in there solid sole. The blade and scabbard began shaking almost immediately. Jaq pressed the button again and watched as the hidden knife went back into his boot. The Scabbard stopped shaking. It was shaking upon spotting a weapon, so why would it shake when Jaq drew the blade. When the answer hit him Jaq actually felt kind of foolish. It was shaking because whenever Jaq drew the blade, the bead was seeing a drawn weapon. Jaq hadn't even included himself in the allies list so it would continue to do this every time he drew it. It wasn't all bad though. The mistake had pointed out a few more flaws with his golem. The first was the possibility that the blade would shake in his hand, and the second was the possibility that not all drawn blades would be a danger to him, yet he might not have time to add their owner to his allies list. The first was easily amendable, it was a simple matter of adding Jaq to his allies list and adding the stipulation to not vibrate when the blade was even partway out of its sheath. The second would a be a bit more difficult. It would require another word to be taught to it as well as an action to be associated with it. And both required Jaq to reopen the connection.

With a determined look in his eye Jaq sat down in his circle, tossed the sword into the other circle and said "Sleep."

Jaq didn't feel anything change this time and continued on without pause by reforming the circle and once more opening the flow of energy with a bit of blood from his thumb. The thought crossed his mind that he'd have to wash it with some Alcohol to clean it the next chance he got right before he put his mind back to work.

When he opened his eyes once more about an hour later, the sun had actually started to hit the trees so it might have been a bit longer, Jaq breathed a sigh of relief. The first thing he had done was add himself to the allies list and set the stipulation about not shaking when the blade was drawn. The second part had taken a while longer, and some more though to it, but eventually Jaq was able to associate some memories of actions being halted with the shaking and the word's 'Settle down.' This would stop the sword from shaking until Jaq uttered the phrase 'Stay Alert', for which he had associated several images of guards on lookout and the once more the action of shaking should it spot anything. It had been difficult, but perhaps worth it, to neatly connect bits of the information he sent the sword with other bits of info he had sent it. For instance he no longer used the image of a shaking sword, simply the word shaking to describe that particular action.

Jaq was broke the circle, hoping it would be the last time, and grabbed his sword for some tests. The first test was drawing the blade, which it still let him do. Secondly he waited to see if it would shake to to the sight of itself, wrap your head around that, which it didn't Jaq re-sheathed the blade and pushed the button in the heel of his boot to release the hidden knife. Then Jaq took off his boot and stepped away. Immediately after he set it down and let go of the boot the sword began shaking.

"Settle down." Jaq said aloud and noted happily that the blade stopped. He let the knife in his boot out twice more and drew the blade from its sheathe once more and it did not shake at all.

"Stay Alert."

When Jaq released the hidden blade from his boot it shook once more as soon as he let go. It was as he was putting his boot back on that Jaq noticed the kelvic couple had returned sometime with in the last hour of or so. Jaq smiled happily at the two. I can't hardly believe it myself?" Jaq said in his rough voice with his excitement easier to hear. "Only one more test.Gotta see if it will draw for anyone else. Mind if one of you give it a try?"

For a moment Jaq thought they were going to once again fail to respond, when the cat stood up and began walking over to him. In a flash of light the cat was now a rather striking, and very exposed, women with sandy blond hair much like her pelt. She was extremely fit it seemed, her muscles hard and lean. It didn't take away from her looks one bit though, and not for the first time Jaq wondered if all that staring she did was just her way of deciding how she was going to kill him. Her eyes, narrow slits reminiscent of the cat form she usually took, watched Jaq closely as she approached, belittling the small grin she wore on her face. It took Jaq all of his will power, and a gentle reminder that her friend was still a wolf and could still see him, not to stare at anything but her face.

When she reached Jaq and held out her hand, Jaq slowly handed his sword over, careful not to make any sudden moves. More pleased with this care in dealing with her then Jaq's obvious attention to her body, the women nodded and took the sword from his hand. At first she tried simply pulling the blade out. She stood there unable to budge it. Then she braced herself and tried to wrench it out. This time the blade slid up a little bit but help there. When the kelvic woman let go of the handle the b;lade slowly slid back into the scabbard. Instead of appearing angry, the women simply smiled and handed the sword over to Jaq. Jaq watched as the turned and walked away, trying to keep his sight trained on the back of her head. About halfway back the woman disappeared in a silent explosion of lights and reemerged the cat.......thing that she normally appeared as. Without stopping for the wolf Kelvic the cat jumped over a nearby bush and moved into the forest.

Jaq turned to the wolf kelvic and said "That's some woman."

The wolf looked from Jaq to the bush the cat had jumped over then back to Jaq. With a sneeze, the closest thing to a reaction he ever got from the wolf, he got up and followed his mate.

Jaq watched the bushes for a moment, thinking about how he had failed to keep his completely trained on the woman's face and wondering if it would get him killed one day. With a shrug Jaq turned his attention back to his sword.


"Maybe I should name you. My father said names helped instill in someone a sense of identity, and that it helped golem's to. Since you brought up so many memories, how about 'Memoria' then?" Just as when he had first told the blade to go to sleep Jaq felt something change in the air. The first time it had been more of an empty feeling, as if you were in a room with two people and someone decided to leave. This time it felt like that person had come back with an infectious smile on their face. Jaq immediately mumbled something and closed his eyes. It took a lot longer due to his weariness, considering how little personnel magic he had performed that day it was more of a physical weariness from a hard day's labor as a opposed to a soul wrenching weariness of nearing one's limit, but after a few minutes Jaq was able to focus his mind on Aura's. When he studied the sword's aura it confirmed the feeling he had felt. The Aura itself was still the same color, but it seemed a little brighter. That might be from all the changes he made, but for some reason that didn't seem right to Jaq.

[Dusk]

Jaquise XP Award: Singing: 1 XP, Auristics: 1 XP, Animation: 3 XP Lore Award: Lore of Trial and Error Additional Note Another great magic training thread! Make a note on your CS about the katana, and keep in mind that it has this effect going forward.