Solo Spring Cleaning

[Tallis]

32nd Day of Spring Tallis’ House Early Morning Tallis had spent much of Winter and early Spring caring for his bed-ridden father and helping his sick mother. Although his mother had seemed more than capable of taking care of herself and her husband, she had suffered from a cold that only worsened as she tired. Tallis himself had suffered from a terrible fever, but he seemed to have inherited his mother’s constitution as he was soon strong enough to take care of himself. As soon as he was on his feet again, he had started making daily trips to his parents’ house to help nurse them back to health. With the coming of Spring had also come the health of Zeltiva. It appeared that the worst of the sickness had passed. Indeed, it was about ten days into Spring when his father finally managed to stand unaided. A few days after that, his mother’s cold had turned into red-nosed snuffling. Tallis’ seemingly unending fever had also passed, not that he had noticed. He had been too busy caring for his parents to notice his own weakening dizziness. As the trips to his parents’ house changed from a daily routine to a weekly one, Tallis was beginning to notice the terrible condition of his house. When he opened his windows, he had been assailed with swirls of air filled with dust and the scent of stale sweat. Taking a look around his small cottage, there was a noticeable layer of dust upon almost every surface. From the door to the hearth, there were several thin trails of dirt and grime tracked into the house from haphazardly dragged firewood. Overall, his house had seen a rather consistent decrease in its level of cleanliness. Looking up into the clear blue sky of that fine spring day, Tallis decided that today would be the day that he finally cleaned out the mess.

[Tallis]

Early Afternoon Tallis dedicated the morning to the washing of his sheets. Many a feverish night had been spent sweating in those sheets when he was sick and they had benefited greatly from the cleansing. As they hung out in the afternoon sun to dry, Tallis turned his attention to the inside of the house. As he surveyed the dust and dirt covered surfaces, he was suddenly struck with a rather novel idea. Perhaps, utilizing his natural talents, he’d be able to get the job done faster. Checking to make sure that there was no one around to see what he was doing, Tallis took a few steps past the front door and planted his feet firmly onto the wooden floor and, with his arms held slightly aloft in front of him and his palms angled down towards the floor, he set to work. As he concentrated the djed inside his body, two strands of res snaked out of each of his hands. The ethereal strands formed two overlapping circles about a foot away from his outstretched palms. As the res flowed out further and further, the circles began to coil outwards. Two slightly smaller circles of res appeared underneath the initial circles, and two smaller circles appeared under those. Eventually a column of descending concentric circles of further decreasing size reached down from Tallis’ hands towards the floor. Coiling tighter and tighter as they descended, the structure finally met the ground at a tightly coiled point. Two overlapping inverted cones of res now stood before Tallis. Using the cone of res from his left hand as an anchor, Tallis transmuted the cone of res from his right hand into air and overlapped the cone of air in his right hand with the cone of res in his left hand. Focusing on the cone of res, he began rapidly spinning the magical essence, forcing the air anchored to it to travel faster and faster. Drawing in air from the environment to help him, he soon had a twister just under half his height at his feet. Angling his palm upwards, Tallis sent the twister out a bit further from him but still kept it firmly under his control. Like a child keeps a pet dog and walks it on a leash, Tallis walked his miniature tornado and kept it on a leash of res. Where the tornado touched the floor, the dust, dirt, and grime was instantly lifted into the spinning vortex. After only living for a few moments, the twister changed from an almost transparent blur into a hazy grey mass and then a sandy beige swirl as it picked up whatever detritus lay about the small cottage. In his excitement, Tallis failed to notice one large problem. The vortex of air couldn’t actually contain all the mess. In a terrible twist of fate, debris was sent shooting up in a dusty cloud. With tiny particles of dirt and dust flying around the cottage, some of it quickly found its way into Tallis’ eyes, nose, and mouth. In a teary-eyed, coughing splutter, he lost control of the vortex. Literally out of his hands, the twister dissipated into a gust of wind as Tallis escaped the house to clear his eyes and his lungs.

[Tallis]

Mid-Afternoon Having finally cleared his breathing passages and having had his tear ducts remove all traces of dust, Tallis was most dismayed to re-enter his house to see that the dust and dirt had completely resettled. Surprisingly, the entire venture had not been for naught. The tracks in the floor from the dragged firewood were almost gone. The force of the miniature-tornado had managed to pull up the stuck-on mud and dirt. It was of little consolation, if any. Tallis easily could have removed those marks in a fraction of the time had he chosen to simply scrub them out. However, Tallis wasn’t one to be easily deterred. His pride as a reimancer was on the line and his house still needed a good tidying. He was going to give it another try. With his first attempt with the vortex, he had gotten one thing right; he had collected the mess. This time he needed a method that also contained the mess until he could direct it out into the backyard. Using his tabletop as a testing site, Tallis experimented with a few different miniature magical-constructs until he found one that worked. It only took a few chimes for him to figure out exactly which construct would work. Reassuming his earlier position, Tallis’ hands now formed a shape that made it look as if they were holding onto a ball. His fingers were bowed inwards as if holding a curving object and their tips were close to touching. Res exuded from both of his hands in thin sheets, folding over itself in the confines of his hands. As a thick sphere of res was formed between the cage his palms and fingers, he slowly pulled his hands apart, expanding the sphere as he did so. It was a delicate process and sheets of res were applied liberally to the sphere to make sure there were no gaps or holes. Finally, when the sphere reached the size of a pumpkin, he began stabilizing the shape. Two strands of res attached the sphere to his hands and slowly but surely Tallis sent the ball floating out about a meter in front of his chest. Maintaining the spherical shape, Tallis spent a few chimes practicing his control over it. Passing the sphere from hand to hand and pushing it up and down, he slowly grew comfortable controlling his magical ball. Next came the difficult part. Maintaining the sphere, Tallis had to cleave the inner wall away to form a slightly smaller sphere within. The larger outer sphere was controlled by Tallis’ left hand and the slightly smaller sphere by his right. With an intense focus, the outer layer of res was partially transmuted into air. Tallis now held a swirling sphere of air with a smaller sphere of swirling res inside. It was crucial that he maintained his concentration now as even the slightest slip in his attention might have caused the entire structure to disintegrate. It was a true test of his control to handle something so delicate. Cautiously lowering the sphere to the ground, Tallis sped up the swirling motion of the elemental ball of air. Although it created weaker forces than the vortex, the sphere still did a good job of drawing in the debris in its vicinity. As the dust hit the wall of air, it was quickly drawn towards the inner sphere of swirling res. Having a natural attraction to the res inside the sphere, the detritus quickly attached itself to the magical substance. Carefully moving his sphere over the floor, Tallis found that he was able to cleanly scour the wooden floors of any detritus. The swirling ball of air drew in loose particles like dust and sand while the inner ball of res pulled in stuck on specks of mud and dirt. Soon, the entire cottage was near spotless and the swirling sphere was nearing its full capacity. The trash inside the sphere had fused to the res, creating a uniform tan colored sheet of swirling sand, dirt, and dust. Now there was only one more place that Tallis felt like tackling: the hearth.

[Tallis]

It only took two chimes for the sphere to pull in all the chalky grey ash. In fact, the hearth looked so clean that it seemed as if it had been recently built. Perhaps Tallis’ cleaning had gone a little out of hand with the hearth, but at least it would manage to stay spotless for the remainder of Summer. With all of the cottage’s dirt, dust, sand, mud, and ash collected and contained, all that was left to do was to dispose of it all. That would simply be a matter of condensing the contents of the sphere, encasing them in stone, and putting the rock outside. Clenching his left hand shut, Tallis dispersed the outer sphere of air leaving only the inner sphere of swirling earthen particles. Opening his left hand again, he sent out a string of res to attach to the remaining sphere, placing it under firm control of both of his hands. Raising it off the ground so that it was floating in front of him, Tallis drew his palms closer and closer together, crushing the sphere between them and forcing the particles to join and compact so that it decreased in size and increased in density. When he was satisfied that the sphere had reached a manageable size (about as large as a grapefruit) he poured out enough Res to thinly coat the sphere. He then transmuted the bits of res covering and connecting the detritus, instantly turning it to rocky grey stone. As the transmutation finished, Tallis neatly caught the newly formed rock in his hands. It was hefty, at least five pounds by his estimate. He had planned on simply tossing it in his backyard, but now he felt a certain pride and attachment as he held onto it. It seemed a terrible waste to simply discard it after putting so much work and effort into creating it. Deciding to keep it as a memento, Tallis placed the rock on top of his hearth. It seemed stupid, but there was a certain sentimental value attached to it. Taking a seat at his table, Tallis admired the work that he had done. The cottage was spotless. How long it would remain so was another question. However, now that he had practice, he knew he’d be able to repeat the process as necessary to keep his house clean. Maybe he’d make some friends for his pet rock.

[Stardust]

Tallis

Skill	XP Earned
Reimancy - Air	4
Observation	3
Organization	2
Planning	2

•	Lores Earned
•	Sickness Makes A Mess Of Things
•	Cleaning Day!
•	Keeping Reimancy a Secret
•	Spheres Of Res
•	Reimancy: Lots of Concentration

Dream On

Nice little solo thread! I gave what I could! Tallis is so nice, doing the cleaning and getting some practice done!

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