Solo Seeing a Bone Man About Some Questions

[Asha]

Self Moderation Permission to use Bone Cavern : Asha has my permission to start her auristics training through Kessel in solos. there ya go! Fall 2, 510 Asha stood outside the Lollipop Stop shop front and peered in the doorway as delicious scents wafted out and curled around her nostrils. Honey-dipped crickets and candied cherries were her favorite sweets and the thought of the biting sweetness hitting her tongue was beginning to seem quite irresistible. She really knew that she ought not though, she had had some so recently and she recognized that sweets should only be consumed in moderation. She felt quite torn. A pair of Jamoura exited the shop and stopped only a few feet away from Asha to begin licking their honey covered sweets. The female pair began to converse quietly, quite content to stand near Asha and eat. At first Asha paid them no mind as she mentally wrestled with the sweet temptation of honey and fruit. Eventually her ears caught a few words that inevitably dragged her attention away from the delights of the sweet shop and focused it on the pair. She kept her eyes to the sweet shop door and felt a little embarrassed for listening in to their conversation but she couldn’t resist listening. “My sister went down that bone man, that Kessal who lives in the caverns.” One of the women said. “Whatever for? I hear he’s a strange man. He works with magic if I’ve been told rightly.” The other replied with a smile. “Oh I think just to see what he had to sell. You know her, she always was one for a thrill. I told her not to bother with humans who do magic. Often turns out poorly. Just not as natural as things ought to be.” “Yes she does love an adventure, now doesn’t she. Well I’m sure she enjoyed herself. And he can’t be all bad or the Hahk’Shatara would have dealt with him long ago. I heard he knows how to do auristics, that’s not so bad…..” Asha turned her head and watched as the pair of women moved away. A bone man named Kessal that lived in the caverns? Now that was an intriguing thought. Asha hardly ever visited the Caverns or even really listened when their discussion came up. She had never been particularly enthralled with them, dark and wet places mostly. She preferred the quiet light of the treetops. But this auristics business sounded interesting. Like something worth investigating.

[Asha]

Asha strolled toward Grath’s Rest where she was renting a room. She wanted to get her scrollcase to bring with her down to the caverns. She had a feeling this could be quite an interesting visit and she wanted to be able to write down anything that intrigued her. She entered the building quickly and came to the door of her room. Opening it she grasped her scrollcase and, after a moment of thought, her cloak. She threw the enormous cloak across her shoulders and clasped it securely under chin. The caverns were awfully damp and chilly so a cloak seemed a wonderfully warm and protective thing to bring along. She hardly ever wore it anyways and it ought to see some use. Reaching for a quill and vial of ink she dropped the items into an inner pocket sewn into the cloak. At least the garment would hold a few things for her. Asha checked that the scrollcase had a few blank pieces of parchment inside and then tucked the sealed case under her arm, allowing the folds of her dark green cloak to close gently in front of her. She was beginning to feel quite the adult nowadays, always going about here and there with her scrollcase and now even wearing a cloak. Her mother would laugh if she could see her. Asha strolled out of the room and shut the door tightly behind her, whistling a few notes as she did so. She felt quite content that day, she had meditated earlier that morning and had a lovely breakfast munching on some ants crawling across one of the bloodwoods. Her legs took her quickly across the city petals and down towards the caverns. Down, down, down she went. Entering the caverns was always a bit spooky yet also quite striking. The thick roots of the bloodwoods ran down here and were visible at some points in the dirt and rock walls. Seeing the roots of the great trees that supported the city always made her breath catch in her throat. The roots seemed so powerful and delicate at once. A source of life gripped deep in the protective soil. A quarter bell later, after a few twisting turns Asha felt thoroughly lost. Nothing seemed very familiar and she had no idea where this Kessal might be. She had thought it would be so easy to just come right down here and find some random man who was said to practice a myriad assortment of magics. She mulled over that concept in her head and slowly came to the realization that she was quite silly indeed for thinking it would be so easy to do. She clearly wasn’t getting anywhere, and she desired a return to the treetops and light. Perhaps she could track down that Jamoura’s sister and find out where this bone man lived. With a sigh she turned to leave and begin the annoying task of retracing her steps. “You look lost.” The voice reverberated around Asha and she glanced up, startled. A slender, nervous looking man stood only a few feet from her, near a bend in the cavern tunnels. She gathered her thoughts for a moment before responding.

[Asha]

“Yes, I admit I am a bit lost. I was trying to find where a man named Kessal lived. Are you very familiar with the caverns?” Asha asked politely and gave him her warmest smile. Perhaps the man knew where this Kessal lived and could show her to him. The man looked her up and down. “I know them pretty well. What do you want with Kessal?” he asked, his eyes nervously darting around the surrounding tunnels. She wasn’t sure if he was upset about something or just paranoid. Either way she knew that she ought to tred a little gently, just to err on the side of caution. “I heard some interesting stories about him and I wanted to see what the truth was.” Her reply was met with some silence. Then the man nodded and jerked his head for her to follow. “I’m Davan.” He said and turned to lead her away. Asha responded with her own name and then stepped to follow. He led her quickly through a dizzying number of turns and along walls encrusted with moss growing in intricate designs. She struggled to keep up with his pace and avoid roots and rocks along the path at the same time. She wasn’t as familiar with the underground as he was but she didn’t want to speak up and ask him to slow down. Better just to keep up. It seemed to happen quite suddenly when Asha found herself staring into a wide cave filled with a motley assortment of items and jagged rock columns. The place smelled a little mildew but then again it was deep underground away the sweet, fresh air of the treetops. She suddenly desired to go back, beg Davan to lead her back to the entrance of the caverns and the brightness of light. Another man approached her, this one much older than Davan, and she steadied her courage to go through with what she had intended this visit for all along. “Hello, my name is Asha, you must be Kessal. I heard about your shop and I must confess curiosity bade me investigate.” Asha said with a smile. The man gazed at her quietly, his eyes neither malevolent nor inviting but simply neutral. Neutral made her somewhat uneasy as she didn’t know what to expect. The silence stretched a few moments longer. Asha opened her mouth to speak but the moment sound began to emit from her lips… “Sh.” He hushed her. “But Mr. Kes – “

[Asha]

“Shhh.” “Wha – “ “SHHHHH.” He said with a finger to his lips. Asha clacked her jaws together and waited. She was a patient Jamoura but this was getting a little strange. Was Kessal toying with her or did he really just dislike speech? “Now. What do you want?” Kessal said after they had stood in silence for three chimes. Asha tried not to let her thoughts show as she considered what an odd, odd man he was. Still, at least he was willing to let her speak now. “I heard you knew how to perform the magic auristics. I’m pretty curious about it. My family does not speak very highly of most magics but this one they have always shrugged about. I’d like to know what it is, and what it can do.” Asha kept her voice down, trying to be polite and demure. Perhaps he just thought her too forthright. Well, she could try to be calmer. “I do know this magic. Auristics is the ability to use djed to see the aura of those around you, and for those who understand the magic very well it even allows you to see the aural properties of objects and spaces. It can do many things. Is this all you wished to know?” Kessal said, quick and blunt. He didn’t seem to bear any ill-intent towards her but she felt intimidated all the same. She could hardly say what she thought of him. But this magic that he explained to her, it intrigued her greatly. She had never seen aura before, the ability to see a new aspect of people seemed utterly thrilling. What might she be able to tell about them? It offered an entirely new lens with which to view the world. Her mind hungered to devour the knowledge. “Well… how might one learn auristics? Could…. Could you teach me this skill?” she asked hesitantly. Kessal sized her with one glance and she heard Davan quietly chortling in a corner. Well at least the nervous man was amused. “I could. But why should I? Is there something I can get out of it? Ahh… do you write much?” Kessal asked as he spied the scrollcase beneath her arm. Asha glanced down at it and then back up at him, nodding slowly. “Perhaps you could write something for me. But not on that paper. Something else.” Kessal quickly strode away and Asha starred after him, wondering what he might be doing. She heard a rustling of objects and then the man returned, bearing a large rock in his hands. The rock was long and slender, smoothed from years and years of water running across it. He held the rock out to Asha with some effort. “I’d like you write down the lessons I teach you on this rock.” he instructed. Asha accepted the rock from his grasp with considerably more ease then which he had held it. It was a heavy rock to be certain, but not for a Jamoura. “Why?” was the only response she could summon. “Paper burns and is destroyed very easily. Rocks are not. I will find a way to coat the rock and preserve the writing. Then I will have it always and it will always look as it does after you are finished with it, even if it spends years down here in the damp.” He explained with some annoyance. Asha considered his words for a moment before nodding her agreement. His logic made quite a bit of sense. She often worried about the lifespan of the parchments she wrote on. With a sigh, she placed her scrollcase on the ground and drew out her quill and ink vial. She sank down to the ground and settled herself. Loosening the top of the ink vial, she dipped her pen in and held it over the smooth surface of the rock. Looking up at Kessal, Asha waited for him to begin speaking.

[Asha]

“I suppose I should explain what exactly auristics entails. As I said before, auristics is the ability to consume djed and view the auras of those around you. But a person trained in auristics can see the auras of more than just people. A trained aurist can read the auras of objects and even tell the internal properties of a structure. There are many things an aurist can do if they set their mind to it, they can even view the auras of several people or objects at once though it is very djed consuming.” Kessal explained and began pacing a small distance and then back to Asha. He often gestured with his hands in ways that seemed strange compared to what he was saying at the time. Asha wrote as steadily as she could. Her thick fingers still felt stiff when wrapped around the slender quill. She tried to write the words quickly but still keep them clear. She knew it would not be the most beautiful words but at least they would be legible, or so she hoped others would think. Though her lines were not perfectly straight and her loops not perfectly circular she kept her words well spaced and even. “In order to begin performing auristics a person must have some experience with meditation. They must meditate deeply and access their internal djed reserves. Then they must –“ Kessal began before Asha interrupted him, an annoyed look on his face as she did so. “Pardon, but how does one access their internal djed reserves?” Asha asked with a polite smile. She didn’t dare tell him she hadn’t really known beforehand that she had internal djed reserves. Certainly she knew that each creature possessed a small amount of djed but reserves full? That was an interesting bit of news to her. But then again magic was not the most common in the Spires and most of its practices were considered somewhat unnatural so Asha had never been particularly interested in questioning it before. Now she wished she would have taken better advantage of opportunities to learn about djed and what can be done with it. “You will have to figure that out on your own. I can’t guide you in every step.” Kessal said with a mysterious and somewhat triumphant grin. Asha wasn’t quite sure what that was about, he was an odd man indeed. None of his expressions or gestures ever seemed to match up with what he was saying. “Anyways, moving on. Once you access that internal djed reserve you need to consume it and focus on aligning your mind with that of the aura you wish to see. I suppose you could imagine drawing the djed towards your eyes and focusing deeply on whatever it is you are trying to see the aura of.”

[Asha]

Asha held his words in her mind as best as she could as she tried to write them down. Kessal had spoken quickly, much quicker then she could write and she worried that she might miss something that he had said. She had filled the front side of the smooth rock with messy but readable ink. Gently she turned the rock over and balanced it carefully on one of its sides, supporting it with her hand so that she could write on the backside without allowing the front to drop and smear on the ground. Writing with one hand supporting the flat stone was significantly more difficult than it had been before. Grumbles filled her mind but she tried to push them aside and concentrate on writing. Her quill moved slowly and with purpose, she put most of her emphasis into accuracy and legibility rather than speed. “I should note, though auristics is often discussed as ‘seeing’ auras, an aurist does not have to use just his eyes when performing. A skilled aurist should be able to use all five of his sentences. Rather I should say an intelligent aurist should use all of his sentences just as an intelligent creature can use more than just its eyes to study its surroundings.”Kessal said and then ceased his pacing in front of Asha, growing silent. Kessal watched quietly as she continued writing. She noted his silence and assumed that he had finished explaining the procedure to her. She tried to push away her worry and she began writing that last few sentences necessary. It seemed as though he had said so little and given her hardly anything to work with. How would she be expected to replicate this later on? It hardly seemed to be enough for such a complicated thing as magic. Asha finished the last letter with a small flourish. She set her quill down and rotated her wrist around, the muscles there felt still from so much use. “Well, is there anything else? I think I got most of it. This will need to be placed somewhere upright so it will have time to dry. As damp as it is down here it may take a little while.” Asha said and gently handed the stone tablet to Kessal, holding it by the edges. Kessal took it with the same gentleness and care. “Nope, that’s it. Let’s get you started on actually practicing auristics. You can use me for your first target. Perhaps even Davan if you have the energy.” Kessal said and walked away with the tablet to place it upright gently against the stone wall. He came back to sit in front of Asha and she inhaled deeply. She still felt ill prepared to begin this, but one didn’t get to choose the way the teacher taught the lesson. Shifting her weight more evenly as she sat on the damp stone and dirt ground she made herself as comfortable as she could and closed her eyes. She needed to meditate on her internal djed reserves, wherever they might be. She breathed in deeply and exhaled deeply through her nose. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Over and over again she breathed in and out, concentrating on only that as she cleared her mind of doubt and thought. Slowly her thoughts drifted away until her mind felt as clear as she could manage to make it. The quiet drip, drip, drip….. of water sploshing from stone columns and stalactites helped create a rhythm to sink further into her mind.

[Asha]

Now that she had dived deep into her own being she had to figure out how to access her djed reserves. She had once heard someone mention that often with magic thought became action. Perhaps she had to think and imagine it happening, and it would. It was the only process she could come up with and seemed a likely enough idea to try. Keeping her breath calm and rhythmic she imagined a well, deep inside her core. To make it seem more realistic, she imagined it to be a stone well and a round one at that. Moss grew up the sides of the well inside in her mind, when she peered into it there was a substance inside that flowed like water but shined like oil. The image of the well had come so readily into her mind that it surprised her and disrupted the intensity of her meditation. She had to focus on her breath again and let the quiet water drops lull her back to focus. Drip. Drip. Drip. Each drip became more distant and more near. It seemed several miles away and inside her mind all at once. Her thoughts and her surprise drifted away into nothingness. The well reappeared in her mind and she imagined a slender cord of the shimmery substance within rising up from out of the well, maintaining its cord-like shape. Kessal had said to imagine drawing the djed up into her eyes, and so she thought she ought to attempt it. She coaxed the cord of djed up, up, up, right into her eyes. She imagined the djed coating her eyeballs and providing a lens for her vision. It was time to open her eyes, but oh, Kessal had also said she would need to align her mind with that of the aura she wished to see. She conjured a picture of Kessal in her mind and imagined his aura. She had never seen one before and so she was unsure if she was imagining correctly, but she would know soon enough. Slowly, slowly, she opened her physical eyes and concentrated deeply on the djed coating her eyes and Kessal’s aura. At first she saw nothing more then she had ever seen, but the longer she concentrated on Kessal the more it seemed as though something were beginning to appear around the edges of his body. To Asha it seemed almost as though there clumps of dirt rolling around the perimeter of Kessal’s body. The longer she concentrated on him the more she felt as though she saw clumps and pieces of dirt rolling up and down the length of his body. Perhaps this was his aura? But what was it telling her? She considered it briefly and the word ‘neutral’ came unbidden to her mind. Perhaps that was it then. Dirt was a neutral substance after all, for the most part. It gathered on the ground contentedly witnessing the rise and fall of Syna each day, rarely turning on those that trod on it. Kessal’s feelings must be neutral then. Asha felt some disappointment that this was all she was able to glean from his aura. How would it be helpful that he was feeling neutral? She had to remind herself that she was new to this and it was likely that it would take more practice to understand more detail. Asha closed her eyes for several moments and shook her head to clear the process from her mind.

[Asha]

“Well? How did it go?” Kessal asked as soon as Asha opened her eyes again. Asha sighed and explained what she had seen to him. “Don’t be discouraged. I think you did well for your first time. You shouldn’t expect to see so much in the beginning. What you see will grow more complex with time. I find it interesting though that you explain what you saw as ‘dirt’. Every aurist views auras differently. Perhaps since you have always grown up in the Spires you see auras as natural things and glean information that way.” Asha nodded at Kessal’s explanation and considered it herself. It did seem logical that she would see an aura as a natural thing. “Well, how are you feeling? Do you think you can manage trying to look at Davan’s aura or will that be too much for you?” Kessal asked earnestly. Asha nodded that she felt able to practice on Davan, and so Kessal stood and summoned Davan with a quick wave of his hand. Davan seated himself before Asha, drumming his fingers on his thighs. His drumming was distracting as Asha closed her eyes and tried to let her thoughts clear. Several chimes went by as she inhaled and exhaled slowly to work past Davan’s noisy habits. Bit by bit her mind cleared and the well appeared in her mind. She drew up the cord of djed and imagined it coating her eyes once more. Asha opened her physical eyes and concentrated on Davan’s aura. Yet again, at first she saw nothing but very slowly something began to lick around the edges of Davan. The substance surrounding him became more clear and grew brighter, much brighter then Kessal’s aura had been. The brightness became a brilliant red and orange liquid and that shifted and snapped at the air around Davan. His aura reminded Asha of fire, an intense element. The word intense echoed through her mind several times and she knew him to be in a state of intensity, though that was no surprise. Asha closed her eyes to wipe away the djed and break her concentration on Davan. Opening them again she looked up at Kessal with a happy smile and explained what she had seen. “Good job. It sounds as though you have done well. Congratulations on learning auristics. Davan, escort her back to the entrance of the caverns.” Kessal nodded at her and walked away, gone just like that. Asha collected her writing utensils and stood, amused by the odd antics of her instructor. As she stood to her full height she wobbled a moment as her vision briefly blurred. Suddenly she noticed how sore and tired her eyes felt, it was as though she had been staring at something very detailed for a lengthy time. Davan motioned for her to follow him and he quickly scurried off towards the looping and winding turns and tunnels of the caverns. Asha followed as quickly as she could, her eyes felt strained in the dim lighting. The two walked in silence all the way to the opening of the caverns, the soft patter of their footsteps the only noise to distract Asha. She thanked Davan briefly before he disappeared back into the caverns. Turning she shielded her eyes from the bright light of the sun and began to trot slowly back home.

[Capricious]

Character Name

Award

Skill	XP Earned	Lore Earned
Writing	2	• Nagging Thought: Get Candy.
Meditation	3	• Kessal: Found in the Caverns
Auristics	3	• Auristics: Using Djed to see Auras
Observation	2	• One must practice meditation to better learn Auristics
Body Building	1	• Contacting one’s internal reserves
		• Auristics: All five senses are used
		•Kessal: Neutral Aura
		•Davan: Intense Aura

Other

+2 days sensitive sight

+1 day headaches

Witty Remark Here

I gave you one point in bodybuilding for your lifting of the rock. All other skills should be self-explanatory.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.