Shields Up

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:26 am

29th of Day of Spring
514 AV

Back for more like the glutton he was, Elias had decided he wasn't quite done with his lessons just yet. With Lazerin's class out of the way for the day, he found himself back at the library once again, the very same unruly pile of books propped open upon the very same table as last time. His trusted inkwell, brush and quill were with him as well, and he was eager to continue his self taught sessions. This time, he knew he had to be careful of how he exerted himself. Yesterday had left him with a surging headache, something he was not looking forward to rehashing again.

He was still reading up on shields after half a bell, his eyes scanning the books again to make sure that he was soaking it in all correctly. The last time he had tried to expedite the casting of his shield by increasing the flow of djed during the extrusion process. However, individual shielding was a three-step method, and he had only increased the speed of the first step. If ever he hoped to use shields practically instead of conveniently, he needed to do far better. In this session, he would attempt to somehow increase the speed of the shaping and molding process. With the help of an entire repository of Ravokian knowledge, and some downright unwavering ingenuity, he would get it done.

The not so ancient tome had suggested quite an ingenious way of going about this that had caught his attention last time, but barely held it for long enough to be of any concern at the time. Today however, was a different story. The passages in particular suggested the use of glyphs to help shape and mold the freshly extracted djed to aid in quickening of the second step. Similar to what he had done yesterday, again, but this time, the only problem was figuring out how. As the diligent student, he dipped the quill into the inkwell with a flourish, biting his lip as he began the all too familiar brainstorming part. He believed that the key could be found in paths and switches, and by his reasoning, switches could be used to distribute a main magical effect into several smaller ones. This meant that it could act as a cross road that split the djed and channeled into various points along the magical process. That was where paths came in, for he could use them to direct the flow of djed appropriately, using the arcane language to do the work for him instead of being forced to manually handle the creation of the shield. Yet, with all that said, switches were not exactly the most basic of glyphs to understand, let alone master. That didn't mean Elias was ignorant to their existence, but fortunately the books he had acquired were going to prove terribly helpful in rectifying his unfortunate lack of skill in their use. Flipping to the end of the book, he murmured quietly to for another half a bell as he refreshed his memory on the the design of switches and paths as well.

Paths were simply a pair of barrier sigils placed in parallel to one another and acting in conjunction. They guided djed flow between them, while switches were slightly more complicated, as they served as either dividers, or convergent points depending on how one chose to use them.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:27 am

With self sufficing confirmation, he first began his work by circling his palm. He would attempt the djed channeling from a central area, and it was the palm as was often the case with or without glyphs. First he began with the simple barrier sigil, using the uncomfortably crude circle drawn in the middle of his palm as a rough guideline. He grimaced with each stroke, praying to Rhysol, or whatever god was listening that the end result of his potentially sloppy glyphs wouldn't be an explosion or worse. He'd even take the headaches again over exploding, any day. Consistency would be invaluable when it came to the shape of a shield, and so he first began by drawing four more circles around the original, however these he turned to whirlpools, their designs spiraling in on themselves in a dizzying arrangement. The whirlpools were drawn such that they were placed as equally far apart from the circle as he could manage with only a finger to make his measurements.

These vortexes served as the necessary switch sigils that he would purpose his djed through. With those arduously, and ticklishly completed, he began to fill in the blanks that separated barrier and switch with a pathway just as accurate. Pursing his lips in concentration, he tried his best to portray the design. Many mores strokes of the quill and brush later, he stretched out his left palm before him, inspecting the beginnings of his work as it finally took shape. To the untrained eye, it would have looked as if he had simply doodled all over himself. Well, it looked the same to the trained eye as well, which was not a good sign, but Elias pressed on regardless. Now there was a single, circular barrier in the middle of his left palm, with four swirling switches outside, all connected with a simple path.

Beautiful.

A thought born of more relief that he was nearly done, and less of admiration for his own artwork. Now that the many glyphs were laid out in an array that covered most of his palm, next would be a second array of path sigils to equally distribute the djed from the barrier that would be consistent enough to be worth even the ink he was using. The idea was not only to accelerate the shaping procedure, but also to enhance the consistency of the shield's thickness. So then came the painstaking process of actually drawing these many pathways. It was repetitious work, but with each patterned path that he painted unto his skin, he felt himself getting better and better at it. Bored out of his mind as he may have been, he had only to make sure that the sigil paths were maintained correctly, and not accidentally intersect with each other, or the other glyphs that were making up his sprawling design.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:27 am

Finishing the last glyph with a flourish, Elias stretched out his left palm again, flipping it back and forth as he looked on in an confusing mix of excitement and slight revulsion. What had began as a simple experiment had turned into something far more complex than he imagined... And now its splashed all over his damn arm. It would take forever to rub it all off it this didn't work! He sighed, looking desperately for any hints of imperfection in his work. On his palm was a single circular barrier sigil, with four equally placed switch that would receive the djed from within the barrier. Each switch would divide its input into more streams, each of which would eventually converge on the top of his hand from from all directions. In theory, his experiment would allow him to simply push the djed out, and his glyphs would do the entirety of the shaping for him. If it worked, the only factor he would have to personally deal with would be in the consistency of shields. of course, in theory, everything sounded great and perfect and not at all like the mad ramblings of a mage who had turned himself into a stain on the wall.

He closed his eyes, readying himself for what was to come. He wanted to be calm for this, and so he gentled his his breathing and began to mentally focus on his astral body, gathering the djed throughout his body as if they were the waters of a well. Elias would often imagine different visual representation of how he would collect and manipulate the djed inside him. Often he found it genuinely helped with his magic, and so today, it was like filling a pail from a well, he decided. Inwardly, the young mage gathered enough djed for the shield. Next, he imagined himself pulling the pail up from the well, and djed rising up from within him as he did so. Elias could feel a tension along his forearm as he did so, as power first gathered, then traveling across and under his skin. The waters rose up from within his palm, and within his mind, he poured it out until he had enough.

A faint white outline of the transient djed was his reward, but that alone was hardly his goal, but to better observe his work, a small part of that djed trickled its way upwards towards his eyes, enhancing his vision through auristics. It allowed Elias to see the auras of the world around him, and as he focused on the cloud of djed on his palm the contrast from what it had been to what it now was was monumental. To the uninitiated, the extracted djed existed as a pale, blurry wisp of mist upon his splotchy hand. With auristics, his hand pulsed with coursing magic, but it was the small cloud of djed that had taken the spotlight. It glowed with a ferocity that did justice to the great things it could accomplish. He knew it just needed to be in the right hands to do so. Thankfully, if his hand wasn't the right one before, it definitely was now.

Watching on in careful review, Elias willed the power to disperse among the glyphs, and the let the ancient markings take over from there.

With delight, Elias waved about his newly minted shield. It covered his hand, perfectly measured on all ends thanks to the glyphs he had used to guide a process that would have normally taken him chimes. It wasn't entirely perfect however, and he found himself forced to compensate for the small spills and leaks here and there. It was something to be expected when using hand drawn glyphs on a piece of parchment as unruly as a human hand, but all in all, he couldn't deny how immensely satisfying this felt. Sure, a million years ago a million other wizards and witches had already done this and far more, but for Elias, right then and right there, it was all his moment. The shield went black as he tasked it to deny light, and with it, the djed flowing to his optics withered away.

He didn't need it to see how petching good he was anymore.

by **Elias Caldera** on May 21st, 2014, 4:27 am

A couple of bells later, Elias was stretching and yawning as he paced about the silent library in solitude. By then he had figured he was completely alone, no other students of faculty about. Every once in a while he would hear what he thought were whispers from the far corners, but he'd be damned if he was going to investigating the shadows of this creepy ass, leather bound, moldy page smelling dungeon. He yawned, and his jaw clicked irritably. This little recluse of knowledge had been exciting and fun, but now that he had spent the better part of three bells here doing nothing but the same thing over and over again, it had inevitably lost its charm. "Nearly done." He reassured himself out loud, no longer bothering to conceal his thought from an empty room. Who was going to listen to what he had to say, the books?

He twisted the cramps out of his wrists, taking one last look at each of them in turn. Both hands now bore the sigils that the young mage had experimented with earlier. There were minor variations on each however, as Elias played around with the placement of certain glyphs here or there, but in essence, and in practice, they would perform just the same. Like before, he had found himself wanting when it came for the natural and all too common fallout that usually followed a hard days work of magical studies. It was sick, he knew that, but still he craved for the backlash. The Ravokian had just grown so accustomed to the soreness and the pain that he had equated to the success of pursuit fulfilled. He winced as he wrist flared in pain again. That was the thing about glyphing, it wouldn't kill you like all the other talents would, it would just make you wish you were dead. The Ravokian cracked his back with a disturbing pop and determined himself back to the business at hand. He was almost done. Just two more, he promised

Djed flowed from on hand into its accompanying barrier nestled with his palm. As instructed by the written arcane, it flowed from path to switch to path, creating a perfect barrier across the hand. With a tad bit of concentration, Elias corrected the minor mistake that plagued his construct, then set about tasking it when finally complete. His first instinct had been to demonstrate the denial of djed, but with a little more consideration, he realized it would be far too simple a matter to complete, instead, he went for something more specific.

Fire.

Res bubbled up from his other hand, the magic this time completely bypassing the sigils scrawled unto his itchy skin. They weren't meant for res, and so it he guided it carefully away from them, and instead unto the very tip of his finger. The faint blue glow suddenly snapped into a fierce and very tangible orange one, and the small outer layer of the magical substance ignited. The result was a small candle fire, and with the shield tasked as it was, Elias felt incredibly comfortable holding up his little flame directly to his other hand.

The fact that he wasn't screaming had him acceptably elated.

Another test, this time for the other hand. He ended the flames and instead transformed it into pure water, his original element. The novice student wouldn't bother with the pretext that he needed to 'hold on' to the res, and simply let it float free from any part of his body until the small orb of swashing water hovered above the shield. Since just let it splash across the top of the defensive construct would prove little, he instead shaped the water into a tiny spear, aiming it straight for his knuckle. This second shield was tasked against water, and as the aquatic toothpick bounced off it harmlessly in a misty spray, Elias could confidently say it had worked just as well as the other.

"Alright, now I'm bloody done." He yawned, cracking his tender knuckles and regretting it immediately. He collected up his utensils and marched for the door, quite determined never to waste anymore time boring himself to date within this dusty hallways again... unless he needed to... unless he wanted to learn something... At least until tomorrow.

by **Catastrophe** on June 14th, 2014, 3:00 am

c

Elias :

Notes :

c

Solo Shields Up

Shields Up

Shields Up

Shields Up

Shields Up

Shields Up

Who is online