Red Alert

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:21 am

28th of Day of Spring
514 AV

Elias had many... regrets about the decisions he’d made in his time. One of the lesser of those regrets was that he had chosen not to learn shielding while he was still a student in Zeltiva. He had had the chance to take classes while enrolled in the college of mages but he had instead chosen to spend his days and tuition on reimancy. Looking back, it was an impulsive and reckless decision born of naivety and a childish allure to fireballs and the like. Now that he considered it, he had knowingly forgone the chance to learn to protect himself and others, and the thought irked him daily. That wasn't even mentioning what the initiation process. Most people didn't have the pleasure of knowing what pure res tasted like while it was being forced down your gullet and into your wound. Well Elias knew. He knew!

However, the young mage had a gut feeling that it wasn’t too late. He had been feeling a stronger control over his powers recently and this had given him the confidence to try and learn with a new vigor. A few years older and a few years wiser, Elias could see the true potential in having such a powerfully defensive magic. Now that the Ravok born was now enrolled at the prestigious institute of higher learner, he no longer had any obstacles standing in his path. He didn't plan on taking a class, not at all, all he needed to do was visit the cathedral like school's library.

He would teach himself.

It wouldn’t be easy, but he knew magic, he understood it, and through his wisdom and drive, it obeyed him. Shielding would obey him too soon enough.
Ignoring how silly that sounded, he continued to excite himself for the upcoming. Carrying a random selection of both small and large books on the subject of shielding, he made his way towards a desk near the back of the library, right next to the window. He glanced out the glass as he sat, thinking back to the days before his departure from the city. There had been rumors that staring at the institute was impossible because of some black magic the wizards had cast. He had been dared by his fellow apprentices to gaze upon the black walls of the cathedral for a while five chimes. By the time he was done, his eyes were bloodshot and watering. That had been the last time he had done that... and the last time he went about accepting dares from his damn brothers of ebon.

Stacking the books in a pile with the largest tomes on the bottom and the smallest volumes at the top, Elias began working his way through each book. He knew he didn’t have time to read every word on every page, so he quickly skimmed through each book. It was a fast and almost reckless process, and he was sure to miss out on details at the speed he was going. Each book that followed went through a similar process. Elias would flip through the first few pages, they were always forewords about how wonderful shielding was. A welcome change from most magical tomes in which the first few pages were dedicated solely to flinging dark and ominous warnings that such and such talent could inflict if used improperly. He had learned very quickly how to avoid those pages when he opened a new book back at the college.

A few key words would leap out at him as he roughly skimmed the opening pages of this new one: An ancient practice, survived the ages, a magical filter, tasking, weaving, stacking, etc. The words held little meaning to him right then, but he was quick to note that each of the books had those same keywords. The history of shielding held little importance to him though. Perhaps he would revisit it when he had mastered the basics, he did enjoy history, but at his level there was no point learning about shields the size of castles when he couldn’t even produce a shield the size of his hand.

Flipping past the the usual opening drawl, the pages after were generally an introduction to the dangers of shielding, and the warnings were admittedly brief when compared to the Reimancy books Elias had read. He likened it to a sail running out of wind. Without a strong enough wind, the boat would simply stop moving. Likewise, if a shielder couldn’t produce enough djed or control it, a shield simply wouldn’t form. Oh gods, I've spent too much time in Zeltiva, now I'm making sailing analogies...

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:22 am

Shaking away the flooding images of fluyts and hemp and drunken sailors, he made sure to keep that solid point in mind none the less. Elias moved on to the actual basics of creating shields, and the next few pages were where he slowed down. He had reached the details of the creation process and needed to take in all the information. The process itself seemed to be split into three different techniques. They were keywords he had noticed in the introductory. Shields were first woven with djed, then they were tasked with blocking out certain things, and finally they could be stacked to provide multiple effects. It seemed then, that the mastery of shielding came from mastering the three processes of weaving, tasking, and stacking. It seemed a long and trying process, but he continued on undeterred.

He would focus on weaving first. It seemed the most straight forward and reminded him of reimancy in many ways. Choosing the largest and most detailed tome, Elias began studying the process in detail. It appeared that shields could be created through several methods as he soon discovered. He took note of all three of them: creating a shield by wrapping a target in a cloud of djed, covering the target in layers of djed, or intricately weaving the djed over the object. Despite all the varying methods that the book mentioned, it emphasized one key point; the only useful shields were those created with the greatest uniformity, consistency, and painstaking intricacy. It seemed straightforward, but the similar dread he had felt when learning the monotony of glyphing pulled at his thoughts. "The more time and care you spent making the shield, the stronger it would be." Simple. He sighed.

Willing himself to move on, Elias began studying tasking. This, unlike weaving, was a completely foreign technique to him and seemed to be the most difficult. It seemed that all shields had to have the basic ability to either block djed or, at much more higher levels, absorb djed. The shields could then be tasked to, at the simplest level, block out senses such as sight or sound. As the shielder became more comfortable and more skilled, they could task the shields to block out even organic materials or weapons. It was an interesting concept to ponder, and the Caldera soon found himself lost in magical daydreaming. He sometimes wondered if getting lost in one's own thoughts of doing awesome cool magical things was a disease akin to sweet whispers, but just not a documented one because of the embarrassment. Like sailing, he too did away with such thoughts and retrained his focus. He would work his way up to blocking out substances other than djed one day, for now he’d keep it simple and try a practice run.

Restacking the books, Elias pushed the pile to the side and picked up the smallest volume. Holding it in both hands, he began exuding djed from his palms. His djed was a pure white color when untapped, with the opacity of mist. It carried a similar feeling to res, which he always noted was a light, but grungy shade of blue. However, this was decidedly not res, and he knew raw magic power wouldn’t suddenly transmute to any water upon his whim. That would have been messy, and the last thing he wanted to happen in the middle of a library filled with ancient and priceless knowledge.

Balancing the book flat in the palm of one hand, he used his free hand to coat the book in the ethereal essence, using the layering method as opposed to the cloud of djed or woven djed methods, just for practice's sake. From what he had read and understood, the layering method was more time consuming than the weaving method but created a more stable form than the cloud method. Elias figured with practice, he would soon find the method that suited him best. As the djed settled, it took a fair bit of concentration for the novice to maintain the over all shape of the djed. Each time he rotated the book to add another layer to one side, he found that the djed on the opposite side would begin to drift and lose its cohesive shape if he didn’t focus hard enough. After a chime of battling this predicament, Elias was finally satisfied with his djed encasing. Now all he had to do was task it to block djed. Using an effort similar to when he transmuted elements, Elias willed his woven but untasked shield to block djed, and quietly prayed he hadn't just accidentally created a geyser or small pond instead. As if in answer to his will, the djed began shifting and his nerves began reeling. The smokey white color evened out and the rectangular walls of djed froze into place, encasing the book in a box of djed. No water? Is that it? Was this how a shield was made? He needed to test it.

Willing his production of djed to stop, Elias watched as the divine substance receded into his palms, only to be replaced with res. Proper, intentional res. He took comfort in the bluish color, as he was far more competent with his reimancy than any other discipline to date. Wrapping the book in res, he was pleasantly surprised to see that it simply could not get past the shield and unto touch the book. He created more, pushing harder and harder, eager to investigate the limits of his new fangled magical creation. The shield collapsed, giving way to the res after only a few ticks. To mark the failing shield, nothing happened. Res simply seeped unto the old tome like oozing oil, smearing itself over the thing completely. He frowned. He had read that shields could only block spells of equal or weaker power. Being much more adept at reimancy, his shield simply couldn’t withstand and repel the potential power he was forcing upon it. It would take a while before he was ready to put his shielding to proper use, but Elias knew the basics now and better yet, he had time. Soon, he thought, I can put it to practice.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:22 am

The mage noted hardly any time had passed since the beginning of what he had expected to be grand adventure. Shielding had indeed been the simplest art he had ever been able to learn, and while he was no master at it, it certainly was yet another pleasant abnormality in the world of djed. More often than not, trying to even comprehend the details of a new talent took days and days, and often involved the most unpleasant of initiations. Res in your ears and butt was a pretty substantial example, but Elias still remembered how long it had taken him to completely understand the depth of the void. Part of him wondered if that was why he had avoided shielding when first offered. Had the simplicity and lack of challenge thrown off his interest subconsciously. Back then, especially early on, his pretense to act on his training had defined his daily behavior. He had been trained to not only embrace challenge, but to revel in. Maybe shielding had just seemed boring to an ex-apprentice of the ebonstryfe.

An odd sentiment to have, and one to perhaps think on at another time. With so much day left to burn, Elias decided he would attack the problem once more, and this time from a new angle. He got up from the table and went off in search for some ink. Glyphing most commonly associated the usage of sigils with more competent practitioners. For those at Elias's level however, runes were often used to simply enhance the magical abilities of other disciplines. Despite his numerous attempts at creating a proper scroll by himself in the past, the young Ravokian was not adverse to submitting his ego to the wisdom of countless mages and wizards before him. He would ink himself today, instead of the parchment, and in doing so, perhaps become both a better glypher, and a better shielder.

Taking the brush he retrieved, he dipped it into the inkwell he began to carefully write a series of ancient characters on his left forearm. He was a right handed writer, but interestingly enough, Elias had learned, many years into his teens, that he had actually been born left handed. For whatever reason, his father had decided that was simply too weird to handle, and had forcefully raised him to use the right. The result wasn't so much the blessing of ambidexterity as much as it was just downright confusing. He could swing a sword or a bat left handed, but he would have to glyph his left hand if he had any hope of creating anything more than a few ridiculous scribbles. He had no illusion that if he were to try to glyph his right hand with his left, he could very be terrible enough to void the results, or worse, void his arm. The thought left Elias hesitant to continue, and after a few slack jawed, dad eyed chimes of contemplating life in the void, he reminded himself just what it was he was trying to accomplish. He wiped his eyes, looked around to make sure no one was staring, and went back to work.

He carefully wrote a short series of instructions in nader-canoch that were generally meant to coerce more djed from his body through the rune. He achieved this with the use of several path glyphs that he drew across his forearm, circling it with black ink as he did so. Interestingly enough, most folks, and even a few mages, didn't realize glyphs were the written form of the ancient tongue. It had been surprising to Elias, who immediately wondered how, if at all, that had worked in the days long gone. How did first man's written word contain such great power? His first thought had been the gods. They must have been prone to gifting their newly acquired playthings, surely tools such as writing, especially a written language so unassumingly magnificent, had to be one of their inventions... Then Elias began to wonder if glyphing had been as boring for early humanity as it was for him.

Glyphing was a repetitive and mundane business, especially when one had constantly recognize and scrutinize the effects that any given glyph or completed sigil could achieve. It took its toll on his patience, and his sanity, but finally he finished. Encircling his wrist was the result of his slow but steady work, an intricate pattern of path runes, all with the basic ability to manipulate his djed flow faster in one general direction. It had no trigger, no barrier, just an arcane motivation to be better.

It was time again to put his creations to the test.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:23 am

Elias closed his eyes, calming himself both physically and mentally, so as to enter into a more steady state of mind. He found that calmness of mind was highly beneficial especially when he practiced magic, even if it was a struggle to remain so. Imagining the djed in his body as an vast, interconnect circuit, he mentally began pushing the djed out in a general path, guiding the flow of energy first towards his chest, then towards his left arm. As he did so, he could feel the rush of raw energy begin to gush and race under his skin and through the glyphs. With alarm, he pulled back, halting the power for flooding out of him too fast. It was undeniably spectacular how fast it had pooled and taken shape - a testament to his no doubt elite skills as a mage- but too much, too fast, and the teachers would find him passed out on his desk, dreaming in a pool of his own drool if he wasn't careful.

With the formless, misty djed in his hand, he moved to form a second shield. The easiest way to see if a shield worked, apparently, was to task it to block against light, for sight was the simplest and most commonly used sense, and denying it was a simple matter. Carefully, he began to mold the pool of floating djed that levitated around his left palm, kneaded it as one would knead dough or shape clay. Around his hand it went, slowly growing smoother and more symmetrical as the process dragged on. He was no expert, and naturally his unfamiliarity with the magic showed in his rough handling of the djed, but he had already done this at least once before. In the end, his shield came out course and thick, and he sighed, trying his best so salvage what he could as quickly as he could.

When he was finally done, it came time to task it. While keeping the shield in perfect position around his left hand and forearm, he slowly brought his astral manipulation up and to his eyes. With auristics, he could very well see the rudimentary shield he was forming, bright and astoundingly outlandish against the unusually drab background noise of the rest of the library. Usually, when he took to looking at the world like this, Elias was often left gobsmacked, but now, as he peered into the glowing glory of his own little shield, he could honestly say he had little interest in looking at anything else.

Working djed into his sight, even as his concentration maintained the pool of magic that was as of yet, untasked shield wrapped around his left hand, he imagined his mundane way of looking at it had been similar to staring at something while underwater, blurred and frustratingly unclear. With the activation energy gained from feeding djed into his eyes, he could push away those murky waters that signified the mortal restraints that prevented him from truly seeing the world for what it was. Right now however, he wasn't looking at the world, he was looking at his petching shield, and to his annoyance the deficiencies of his creation were highlighted ever so vividly more with his newly enhanced vision. No wonder his last attempt had been so weak and pathetic. He hadn't created a shield, he vomited up a sloppy mess and patted himself on the back for it like a fool.

He sighed out loud. Ignorance was bliss, but not in his world. How could there be improvement without first finding and knowing your flaws? He would have to soldier on. He picked and plucked at the shimmering the tapestry around his limb forging the structure until it was more than a glove upon his hand. It was difficult, keeping his sight focused on the details of the djed while his his mind continued to pull and weave. More often than not, the result was a mistake here and there that signified his overall ineptness. It had gone from angering, to humbling, to angering all over again.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:23 am

Finally, he was done, and upon putting the last thread into place that formed the overall picture he wanted to achieve, the invisible glove wrapped around his left hand went dark, as if his left hand had been coated with pure night. Thoughts of his voiding conundrum for earlier popped into his head first, and it was an avoidably disconcerting feeling, seeing one's hand just 'go away' like that, but the feeling of the air on his arm as he waved it about reassured the young mage he did indeed still have two.

For the most part, it was dark, but on the underside he noted a number of small, weakened sections where the djed had been stretched too far, and the darkness had lessened, sometimes to the point where he could see the faint white tinge of his skin peeking through. He told himself it was an achievement none the less and continued to survey the completed shield critically with his enhanced vision. In other words, the use of glyphs to enhance the djed output did not hamper the quality of his work, nor had it enhanced it either. Slightly dismayed, he continued to stare at the shield while maintaining his concentration.

After a while of tedious mental noting and observation, he let out a sigh, the last one for the day he decided, and cut the supply of djed from both his eyes and his hand. Both auras and shield faded soon after, revealing the real world and his arm in turn. After being used sufficiently, the black ink that had been the glyphs also evaporated, cleansing his wrist of their residue for the most part, and saving Elias a trip to the lavatory to scrape them off. With that, he decided he had completed enough for the day. He closed his books and went about the daunting task of putting them all back exactly where he had found them... For the most part.

by **Catastrophe** on June 11th, 2014, 4:26 am

e

Elias :

Notes :

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