Completed The Auristic Fencer

[Chandray]

Chandray Evereene Timestamp: Day 20 of Winter 513 AV Location: On her way to Arma ' Drex Smithy Chandray hadn’t practiced with the rapier for a long time, but she was going to start working at her fencing again. This was why she was on her way to the Arma ' Drex Smithy this day : she was going to buy a new rapier. This can seem like an easy decision, but in her case it wasn’t as easy as it looked. When she had started to train fencing seven years ago she had been a 20 years old beginner with a rapier in her hand and that had been all. But the fencing training had changed this, because her trainer had been into auristics and he introduced her to how to use auristics in order to support the fencing skill. She had done all the things she had been told by her trainer. She had focused the special way he told her, with the mental tecniques he had explained. She had slowly learnt to open her awareness and to attempt to use a kind of vague intuitive feeling better follow his movements, his sword and where it was, on using this feeling to parry, parry, parry and dodge just in time. Not at once, but after training for a year, it had started to sometimes be like she was becomeing better att getting a feeling for where the trainer was, where his weapon was, where it was going. She had sometimes been surprisingly good at parrying training attacks, without really knowing how she was doing it. But afterwards she had been totally drained and spent. Chandray hadn’t known much about what auristics really was. Her trainer had not spoken about magic, only about fencing tecnique and training. But she had noticed that this slightly, only slightly, sharper awareness she eventually experienced hadn’t been limited to the fencing. Weapon movements weren’t the only impressions that seemed to bypass her other senses and reach her directly like her soul had lost an invisible sheltering filter and was now slightly, only slightly, more than normally exposed. This was actually only a vague feeling she had and but it wasn’t always pleasant. She could feel ridiculous and overly sensitive, in a stressful way. She could sometimes feel like she noticed too much, like there were too many items, people, animals, too many and too much of everything. It had not been like she got clear impressions of all that. The opposite. It had only been been like a very faint experience of pressure, a fog on her soul, vague, harldy indiscernible, but constantly there. Chandray had eventually stopped fencing, and she had stopped doing other things that she feared would make her feel that vague unpleasant pressure, the unexplained odd feeling of being blurred. The sensitivity could make her feel she just wanted to be alone and far away from all and everything. For a period of time she had even tried to forget the odd faint feeling, suppress it totally and pretend it didn’t exist.

[Chandray]

But the auristics (though Chandray didn't even know it was auristics) didn’t go away just because she pretended it didn’t exist. She had ended up gradually accepting that she had somehow become slightly more sensitive and started to search for ways to cope with it. Her first teacher, the fencer, hadn't anything to tell her about other things than the fencing aspects. Perhaps he hadn’t been as sensitive as her and less disposed for the magic, perhaps all he had experienced was an improved fencing skill. Chandray had started to look for new teachers with more knowledge.Today, she was still lacking lots of information about Auristics, but at least she had a name on it. A few things had then been better explained to her by a healer, an old woman in Anchorage Flotilla. Now it had been clear that her first teacher had only cared about the immediate benefits of auristics and not taken care to avoid the risks. The way he had trained her, the healer had said, he seemed to not understand the dangers. Under the fencing trainers leadership, Chandray had developed a tendency to (unaware of it) use the auristics constantly, which was what had caused the sensation of pressure. If she went on like this, it could eventually lead to overusing the magic. She had been told that the only way forward was to train and learn how to cope with the magic, or else she could end up with her mind flooded, drenched and drained. She would need to learn more and understand how to master it. “Control it, or the magic can overwhelm you.” Chandray had felt worried of what would happen to her. She had just been following orders and had no idea how to really master auristics or any other kind of magic. She had not even been looking for it actively, she had not chosen it. It had just been a seemingly innocent part of the fencing lessons - "try to imagine that you can feel where your adversary is" - and she hadn’t understood what she was training. And now she was stuck with her vague, unpleasant sensation. What had been done couldn’t be undone. “How can I learn ?” she had said finally, as this seemed to be the only solution. The answer had been that she could read books about it, if she found books, which wasn’t so easy. There would perhaps be books in the cities that had libraries. Another way was to find other users of auristics and learn from them, if they would agree to take on to teach her, which was an unsure thing. The old woman had also spoken about searching inside herself and try to eventually get a "feeling" for the magic. “In my experience, practice makes perfect, but take care to not do it too much or too often. It takes it’s toll. It can also be good to practice how to not focus. Practice how to cut everything off, and stop the flow of impressions. And it can be useful to train meditation, if you can find somebody to teach you.“

[Chandray]

Chandray hadn't really understood what the healer had told her. But she had tried to follow the advice nevertheless. Only very slowly and painstakingly had she trained and attempted to use her will to focus and unfocus. She had graudally learnt to be more aware and stopped using the auristics by default. Nowadays the vague constant feeling of pressure was gone, as she only use the magic when she choose to do so. But Auristics was a double thing. She was a curious personality and the magic of auristics was a temptation, now that she knew it existed. In a way it could be said to be an ability to eavesdrop on the world around her, and sort of "look" deeper into the auras of things, though it wasn't about looking. As far as she understood with her scant knowledge, it was more like a slightly enhanced awareness of things, places and even other people, similar to how blind people would sometimes seem to be aware if thing around them despite not being able to see. Auristics wouldn’t make her able to read thoughts, or look through right solid things, or see a lot of things like she had extra eyes. Nothing of that. But she knew that if she trained and improved she might eventually be able to feel and experience a heightened connection with everything around her and gain a bit more information this way. She wanted to be control the magic and only use it when she actively choose to use it. But she also wanted to be able to seek impressions in a selective way. By now she was able to focus on single items, persons or animals, one at the time. If she was lucky, she could discern simple things, just basic facts, like an impression of the material something was made of. Sometimes she could guess a bit at the taste of food she hadn’t tasted, or she could get a general feeling for other people. This was all. She wasn’t particularly advanced. She kept the auristics secret and used it seldom, never in public and mostly only on the fiddle when she needed to find the exactly right place to put her fingers and the exactly right way and speed to move the fiddlebow to get exactly the sound she wanted to create. However. She had decided that she felt able to start to fence again. She was going to resume her long time interrupted fencing training and see what happened. Perhaps she had learnt to master the auristics good enough to not do it unintentionally while she practiced with the rapier. With the fiddle she would only sometimes get a vague feeling of being carried away, but she had learnt to stay aware and stop it. Using auristics to support her fencing, could mean a higher risk, or so she feared. But she felt it was time to test her self-control now and see if she had made the progress she hoped she had done. She reached the house that seemed to be the Arma’Drex Smithy.

[Chandray]

Location: The Arma'Drex Smithy - The right antechamber with the manikins The Arma'Drex Smithy was located on the second tier of the city. Chandray saw a low and stout building that jutted out from the rocky cliff side. The unadorned building looked very simple and for a moment she hesitated, wondering if it really was the weapon shop. She had been under the impression that it was a profitable business famous for high quality weapons, but this house didn’t look like the locations of a profitable firm. The building was white washed, with several dark and dirty looking areas where smoke was coming out. She looked at the map she always brought with her in order to navigate in the city. As usual she put her finger on the map and studied it, moving her finger until she found and pointed at the smithy. Still reading on the map she found the symbol of a tower nearby, it was named Zulrav’s Tower. Looking up from the map she could see a tower at some distance…she seemed to be in the right place despite the humble looks of the house. She folded the map carefully and put in in the inner pocket of her dark brown wool cloak. The winter garments had been a good buy. It was cold in Riverfall in winter, but she wasn’t freezing as much as she had done before. Well spent mizas, she thought, although her money was quickly disappearing in this expensive town. She pulled at the single oak door and noticed that is was somewhat wedged in its stone, so she had to pull harder in order to open it. When she was inside she closed the door, yet again with some little extra effort, before she turned to look at the rooms embedded inside the cliff. There seemed to be two sides of the smithy, two antechambers opening before her in the shop, one to the right side and one to the left. There was no staff in sight. Chandray walked slowly into the right antechamber and searched it’s content with her gaze. With a rush of curiosity she looked at the manikins she found there, lining the walls. It was an amazing sight, and she felt like she had stepped straight into a tale and was surrounded by fantastic alien beings. The manikins were wearing armor pieces of all kinds, on display for the customers. She forgot about her errand for a while and started looking at studded leather armor and light chainmail pieces. There was a small circular stage in the middle of the room. It had been empty when she entered but now two men came in and entered it. One of them was a tall akalak, so dark midnight blue that he was nearly totally black, but only nearly. His pale eyes shone in his face, seemingly colorless, but Chandray knew they weren’t. It only looked that way, because his skin was so dark. A closer look would show that there was color after all, just pale. Suddenly the akalak looked back at her and Chandray tore her gaze away from his, feeling stupid for having studied the man so openly and been caught doing it. The other akalak was shorter than the first one, shorter than most akalaks she had seen, even. He was looking at her too, the way a businessman looks at a customer. “I am busy at the moment, but I will help you as soon as I get time” he said in matter of fact tone. "Please feel free to look around at the wares here, I will soon come and assist you." He was carrying several pieces of armor and started to try them out on the taller man. Chandray had been about to answer, but interrupted herself when she realized that the platform was moving. A skylight shed natural light over the two men. Fascinated, she watched how the tall midnight blue customer was fitted for armor.

[Chandray]

The fitting of the armor was a slow process but that didn’t seem to bother the two akalaks. They were speaking with each other like they had all the time in the world. Chandray didn’t mind. She wasn’t going anywhere else, and she found everything in the smithy interesting. This room, with it’s manikins standing like guards along the walls, spoke to her imagination. She sat down on a simple chair and waited until they were done and the tall customer left. The armorsmith turned to her. “And now, what can I help you with? Which kind of armor are you looking for?” He introduced himself : his name was Loriim. “Nothing heavy. Leather with some mail reinforcements. A light chestpiece, for fencing training. But I’m only looking today. I came here to buy a rapier. ” Loriim told her the weapons they had for sale was in the other antechamber, but offered to show her their light armor. He started picking up pieces from various manikins, explain the properties and ask questions. It was possible to get a custom set crafted too, for a small increase in price of course. Chandray let him take her measures, thinking that she would come back and buy a chestpiece when she had the money for it. Location : The Arma'Drex Smity - The left antechamber with the weapons She went over to the left antechamber. There she could see a long tavern style counter with glass fronting by the back wall, with racks of weapons thrown up behind it. Small or miscellaneous weapons could be seen behind the glass front of the counter. Out behind the counter there were metal barrels of polearms, maces and axes hanging from jutting racks. And hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier was a stuffed doll that appears as if it has been sewn together many times. An akalak looked up when she entered. He didn’t say anything at first. Chandray looked around a bit and found the rapiers, all looking exactly the same. They were simple and looked to be efficient, good enough, as far as she could see. She was about to pick one of them and try out how it felt to hold it in her hand, when the weaponsmith spoke. “I’m sorry but these rapiers are sold already, they are in the shop because I’m waiting for the customer to come and fetch them. But I have another one, if you’d like to have a look at it. Only one.” She wanted to have a look at it. The man introduced himself, seriously, as Haiduk. The rapier he showed her was different from the ones she had been looking at. The blade seemed thinner and the hilt was ornate and flamboyant, the handle wrapped with a black material that was perhaps leather. From the looks of it this rapier had been made to be an accessoir as well as a weapon. “Custom made” Haiduk explained. “Though the customer didn’t come back. A man from Kenash. Elegant and rich, he looked. Seemed very trustworthy, but…obviously he changed his mind, or something happened to him. Anyway I’m not keeping it any longer, it’s for sale now. Would you like to try it?”

[Chandray]

Chandray accepted the offer to try the rapier. It was more than she had been looking for and it would be a lie to say she didn’t fear the price, but she decided to try the weapon first and ask about the price afterwards. Haiduk put it on the counter and made a gesture to her to take it . Chandray realized she hadn’t brought any leather gloves, but there wasn’t much she could do about it right then. She would buy fencing gloves later…there were so many things to do later, always later, when she had time, when she had money. She put her wool gloves in the cloak pockets and took the rapier. While Haiduk started to lower the training dummy and make it ready she stood there and held the weapon in her hand. She felt so excited that she couldn’t resist focusing on it and try to use the auristics just a little bit just to feel this weapon, just to connect with it’s aura. The black material on the hilt felt soft and the impressions of leather and dye reached her, not as a feeling in her hand, but she sensed it vaguely, mentally. After a few chimes more she also felt the hardness of iron, or perhaps somewhat more than iron, she wasn’t sure of it. “What’s in the blade?” she asked. “Something more than iron? Or is it pure iron? ” “It’s iron, mostly. I have my procedures and treat it in different ways for different weapons. Sometimes I experiment with new things, and sometimes the result is good, sometimes bad. ” The smith spoke on a final tone, and it was clear that whatever he had used and done when he had made the rapier he wasn’t going to tell her the secrets of his craft. The training dummy was ready and he invited her to practice on it and get a feel for how the weapon was and how it worked out for her to use it. Chandray focused on the dummy, this time taking care to just focus without allowing the auristics to kick in. This took a small effort, as the auristics had been awakened and there was always a temptation to go on once she had started. But she wasn’t as new to it as she once had been, and she had learnt that keeping the control of the magic instead of being carried away by it was an integral part of using it, and a very important part. Auristics wasn’t only about turning it on, if was also about ending it when she wanted to. She deliberately shut it off and ended it now, though there was a feeling of disappointment deep down in her soul when she denied herself the “kick” of using magic. She quenched the feeling, composed herself, focused and prepared to start.

[Chandray]

Chandray closed her hand harder around the hilt. Then she attacked the target dummy with an explosive lunge : She moved the blade into a position she liked and she felt her back leg tense up when she extended her arm first and lunged afterwards. Though the attack was violent eough and cut deeply into the dummy, the movement was a little bit unbalanced, the coordination not perfect. She hit the dummy of course. It wasn’t hard to hit a dummy. But she knew that if it had been a real adversary she would have been far too obvious in her movements. Holding the sword in an obvious position, the telltale tensing of her leg, and how the time between her extension and the lunge had been too long, everything were mistakes. A skilled fighter would have seen what she was up to and parried her attack. She knew that. She really needed to practice. Somewhat embarrassed she glance at Haiduk and said: “It’s long ago. I haven’t use a sword for several years. I guess I’m getting rusty.” “The rapier seems to fit you though. How does it feel, is it too heavy?” Haiduk's voice was calm and his question was professional, with no hint whatsoever of depreciation in his voice. "I admit you did look a bit rusty. But you aren't unaware of it, that's a good start. And you have the basics well in place, as far as I could se. You just need more training." She shook her head. The rapier was a sword and like all swords it weighed more than people would think when they just looked at it. But it was a relatively light sword and the weight wasn’t a problem. The problem on her mind was something else. Could she afford a rapier like this one? “How much?” she said, turning from the dummy to Haiduk and lowering the swordpoint. She was silently regretting that she was wearing her new warm winter clothes. Nice clothes, but they might make her look richer than she was. “The usual price. Twentyfive gold mizas.” Haiduk’s voice was very serious and he spoke in a final tone that told her it was “take it or leave it”. It was the only rapier he had left and he had the upper hand. “Well if you want a rapier right away …” he added. There were occasions when Chandray would try to discuss a price and there where situations when she would not do it. Like now. She didn't want to offend the weaponsmith. But the price ! The average rapier used to cost twenty gold mizas, so he had asked for five gold mizas more. If this was the usual price, it confirmed her impression that everything was more expensive in Riverfall. Her money seemed to melt away like butter in a hot pan here in this city. Five gold mizas wasn’t a small sum for her at the moment. She had in total 40 gold mizas and 60 silver mizas. If she bought the rapier she would have 15 gold mizas and 60 silver mizas left. This was certainly not enough to pay her living expenses for the rest of the winter. But hopefully she would find work. Otherwise she would need to sell the apartment in Northwind Suites. The rapier was special though. She would perhaps never again find a similar weapon at this price. She really, really, really wanted it. But she needed to think…she turned to the training dummy again. “Perhaps” she said. “But I need to try it more …”

[Chandray]

Haiduk nodded. “Take your time.” He was used to the customers wanting to try new weapons out thoroughly in practice. A weapon was an investment. They would use it for a longer period of time and their fighting style would be affected by that special weapon and it’s properties, so it was important to be sure of the choice. This time Chandray would work more slowly and do one thing at the time, very carefully. She was still a novice as her training had been interrupted, but she wasn’t an absolute beginner so she knew the basic positions and tecniques and was able to use a few of them in training. First she took the fourth defensive position of fencing, the quarte, with the sword hand held at chest height, and the tip of the sword at neck height. She had chosen this position because she knew it would be a good way to find out if the weight of the sword really was as alright as it seemed. After standing still for a while, focusing on one point of the training dummy where she would want the swordpoint to hit, she knew: she was able to hold it very steadily, it was a sword she would be able to gain good control of. The defensive positions were part of fencing as well as the footwork, the attacks the thrusts and lunges, the dodges, parries, disengagements. She stood for a while in the position and concentrated on her own body and adjusting her feet and her stance in order to make it perfect. She felt the sword in her hand and …again, she carefully tried the auristics on the rapier, very discretely. As the fencing required her to focus and concentrate anyway, she hoped it would seem like this was the only thing she was doing. It wasn’t like it showed when she used the auristics, not in a situation like this. Or so she wanted to believe. If Haiduk noticed it, he didn’t say anything. Again she felt…iron and something more, that “something” the smith hadn’t wanted to tell her. But she could only discern it very faintly as she had to be so discrete. Feeling a bit guilty for giving in to the temptation to use the auristics, but at same time satisfied, she stopped and told herself that if she was going to act this way she wasn’t allowed to buy a sword and start fencing again. No more using auristics just for fun, she promised herself. Before she made a new attack on the training dummy she would do other movements in order to get to know the blade better.

[Chandray]

Chandray thought of what her once-upon-a-time trainer had told her: "When fencing with rapier, combinations of preparations, attacks in the front line, continuations of attacks, parries and pace are crucial." She was still only at the preparations. She changed position from Quarte to En Garde, the basic body position for fencing. Legs and body was the focus now. She moved her feet a bit again in order to find the exactly right position for her feet in this position and then she tried out the body posture. She focused her awareness on her own body in order to find and feel the ideal balance and weight distribution. This was important to work at in training, as in a fight with another fencer there wouldn’t be any room for mistakes. The basic positions and moves would need to be trained patiently, over and over and over again, in order to make it something automatic that she didn’t need to think about how to do, just like you just dance once you have learnt to do it, without thinking much of the steps. She took care to do every small thin utterly slowly and painstakingly perfect. By time this would pay off, and give her precision and control at much higher speed. She put her feet shoulder-width apart, with the front foot pointed straight out. Her back foot pointed sideways. She held her right arm, with the rapier loosely held loosely in front of her, and she put her your other arm behind herself, at shoulder height, with her elbow out like a chicken wing. Haiduk watched the procedure wihout saying anything but she could see him nod like in agreement and though his facial expressions was serious, the way he looked at her emanated professional interest in the fighter and the weapon. She could see that he seemed content with what he saw.

[Chandray]

Chandray was now standing in a nearly perfect En Garde position but it wasn't ready yet. One more step remained for making it perfect. Once she had gotten into this unnatural but stable stance, the next step was to relax , bending her knees slightly while keeping her upper body loose. This too was part of taking the En Garde position, which was part of the important preparations phase of the fencing. Slowly she made her knees bend just a little bit. She kept feeling her own body, and took care to not tensing the muscles of her upper body. Then she just stood in the position and focused on body awareness, which she knew was a form of meditation. People who don't know much about fencing may think the active fighting part where the swords meet is the whole fencing. But it is not. When you develop as a fencer you don’t only develop physical skills, you also develop mental things. Some parts of the preparations phase of fencing could be said to be a form of meditation. This was where her first trainer had somehow went wrong, as he seemed to not have had clear lines between what was more like meditation meant to increase the control of her own body and mind, and what was auristics meant to feel auras of things and other people. But it was actually possible that he had aimed for the meditation kind of mental techniques, and it was Chandray herself who had messed it up, she gave him that. She wanted to be fair and not blame her former teacher for something that could also be her own fault. But now she hoped she had improved her self-control. She moved the elbow of her left arm, still held behind her back, just a little bit, and felt how the balance of her body was affected. The left arm and it’s position was the tool for keeping her balance, so how she did with it was as important as what she did with her sword arm. Slowly and very focusedly she moved it back to where it had been and felt the balance fall in place again. After this she shut her eyes, kept her body totally still, and meditated on the position. She did this by feeling the whole body, part by part. The left hand, arm, chest, waist, leg and foot. The right hand, arm chest, waist, leg and foot. Both the body halves together. She felt the balance, and she felt the sword in her right hand. She didn’t know how long time she had been standing like this, when she opened her eyes again. “Whoever thought you the basics of fencing was a master of his art” Haiduk said in a matter of fact tone. "Combat is always mental as well as physical. If the mind isn't ready, the body won't follow."