The eighty-fifth day of fall, 514 AV.
Swirling his thin strands of res through the air with small ticks of his fingers, Keene finished up with the cloud spell, the last vestiges of the water he'd pulled in from the surrounding atmosphere dripping onto the moistened mound of earth. He was finding drawing water from the environment was much easier than it had been when he'd started. The repetition was certainly part of the equation of improvement, but as Atziri had explained to him near the beginning of his initiation, magic was meant to be explored. If the wizard or magus or whatever title they preferred chose to stick with only what was familiar and safe, the magic itself stagnated. Keene, despite the tedium of monotonous cloud making, had striven to find new ways to create the rainfall, the most effective, by far, was utilizing the humid air already around him. It was a simple solution, but it had proven much more difficult that he had initially thought it might. Now, however, he had little issue with it. The progress was pleasing, though it in no way meant he had finished with his exploration into the world of reimancy. He was still only two elements in, and while he felt much more capable, he'd yet to produce a flame or stone by will.
Setting aside his reimantic advances, Keene eased himself down into the familiar crisscrossed mess of legs that he usually sat in to still his mind. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but the unusual pressure of where his weight pressed into the ground gave him something tangible to both focus on and push away from. Of course, the discomfort was something that remained whether he gave it attention or not, but it was a good way for him to take his mind off of all that it tended to deal with and allow him some peace. Breathing slowly, he remained still, each exhale sinking deeper into as relaxed a state he could manage. Since his discovery of the semi-variable nature of materialized djed, Keene had spent most of his time practicing to simply produce the cloud-djed over the scale. It had been slow going the first few days, but the more he had done it, the more used to it his djed seemed to become until it seemed to be the default. He'd even started playing with density and mass, finding super compact clouds required fewer layers, but were almost more prone to developing cracks or holes.
As his mind focused on the djed that composed his hands, the familiar quivering sensation rose up from his palms. Embracing the feeling, Keene let it continue up his arms as the wisps of djed slipped from his fingers, drifting down into an ever growing cloud as the djed was extruded from his body. Unlike the scales, the cloud took up a much larger space unbound, rising up before him in fluffy pillars. As it was produced, Keene once more focused on light. He chose the particular task because it was, by far, the easiest to evaluate the actual shields with. Of course, if the darkness was not absolute, and there were no holes in the area, it was merely a failure to task on his part. However, for the most part, the blocking of light had given him much insight into how his shields were constructed, what issues they faces, and what triumphs he managed to stumble upon. Without the tasking, things just as holes or cracks in important areas would have gone unnoticed. While he found the repetition of task a bit on the unfortuante side from a standpoint that supported dynamics as an important part of learning, his ability to task against the occluded light of the island came easier each time. Shielding was much less dynamically inclined than reimancy, and repetitive practice certainly seemed to pay off.
Enough djed produced to aptly cover from his fingers to his shoulder, Keene started to wrap the substance over his fingers, attaching the fluff in a massive, woolly blanket as he worked. Once the first layer was applied, he pressed down against his, the gesture more for the sake of visualizing his will than actually physically affecting the opalescent material. With the pressure, the cloud dramatically decreased in size, forming to the contours of his body like a sleek sheet of liquid. Within it swirled a myriad of hues and tints, twisting about each other but never mixing. He continued on in a similar fashion, evenly coating his arm in layers of fluffy shimmer, pressing it down in a streamlined barrier, then gathering more and repeating the process until the djed had all been used and the shield on his arm shimmered with health. The darkness beneath was relatively absolute, though there were areas were cracks ran along the shield in areas where the cloud-djed had only appeared to be in contact. It was the biggest problem with his new form of application: the large fluffy nature of the clouds prior to being "locked" into their positions were a bit more difficult to determine if he'd properly aligned them. He had yet to pinpoint just how much of an overlap he should account for, and wondered if there was perhaps another way of manipulating the material to gain a more complete coverage.
The connection at his shoulder was, of course, the weakest area. The shadows beneath were cut through with obvious lack of layers, making the tasking weaker and allowing more light in. A full body shield was within his abilities, but the application time for just his arm was about fifteen to twenty bells, putting a full body cast somewhere between a bell and a half upwards to three. He also wasn't sure how much djed it would require to do something of that scale, and producing too much was a waste. It was better to get a firm grasp of basics before moving onto the more advanced. That had been a lesson he'd learned early and never forgotten. There was as much to be learned from taking small, shuffling steps as there was to be learned from lengthy strides. What might have seemed tediously incremental to others was merely what Keene believed to be the most efficient use of his magic and development of his understanding. Of course, it didn't change the fact he'd had the magic for the majority of the season and was still unable to shield the mouth of the cave against anything but that which was perceived by the senses. The area was also about the same or maybe even larger as the total surface area of his body, meaning, again, that the amount of time it would take him to apply the djed was much longer than his djed could exist outside of himself.
.Swirling his thin strands of res through the air with small ticks of his fingers, Keene finished up with the cloud spell, the last vestiges of the water he'd pulled in from the surrounding atmosphere dripping onto the moistened mound of earth. He was finding drawing water from the environment was much easier than it had been when he'd started. The repetition was certainly part of the equation of improvement, but as Atziri had explained to him near the beginning of his initiation, magic was meant to be explored. If the wizard or magus or whatever title they preferred chose to stick with only what was familiar and safe, the magic itself stagnated. Keene, despite the tedium of monotonous cloud making, had striven to find new ways to create the rainfall, the most effective, by far, was utilizing the humid air already around him. It was a simple solution, but it had proven much more difficult that he had initially thought it might. Now, however, he had little issue with it. The progress was pleasing, though it in no way meant he had finished with his exploration into the world of reimancy. He was still only two elements in, and while he felt much more capable, he'd yet to produce a flame or stone by will.
Setting aside his reimantic advances, Keene eased himself down into the familiar crisscrossed mess of legs that he usually sat in to still his mind. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but the unusual pressure of where his weight pressed into the ground gave him something tangible to both focus on and push away from. Of course, the discomfort was something that remained whether he gave it attention or not, but it was a good way for him to take his mind off of all that it tended to deal with and allow him some peace. Breathing slowly, he remained still, each exhale sinking deeper into as relaxed a state he could manage. Since his discovery of the semi-variable nature of materialized djed, Keene had spent most of his time practicing to simply produce the cloud-djed over the scale. It had been slow going the first few days, but the more he had done it, the more used to it his djed seemed to become until it seemed to be the default. He'd even started playing with density and mass, finding super compact clouds required fewer layers, but were almost more prone to developing cracks or holes.
As his mind focused on the djed that composed his hands, the familiar quivering sensation rose up from his palms. Embracing the feeling, Keene let it continue up his arms as the wisps of djed slipped from his fingers, drifting down into an ever growing cloud as the djed was extruded from his body. Unlike the scales, the cloud took up a much larger space unbound, rising up before him in fluffy pillars. As it was produced, Keene once more focused on light. He chose the particular task because it was, by far, the easiest to evaluate the actual shields with. Of course, if the darkness was not absolute, and there were no holes in the area, it was merely a failure to task on his part. However, for the most part, the blocking of light had given him much insight into how his shields were constructed, what issues they faces, and what triumphs he managed to stumble upon. Without the tasking, things just as holes or cracks in important areas would have gone unnoticed. While he found the repetition of task a bit on the unfortuante side from a standpoint that supported dynamics as an important part of learning, his ability to task against the occluded light of the island came easier each time. Shielding was much less dynamically inclined than reimancy, and repetitive practice certainly seemed to pay off.
Enough djed produced to aptly cover from his fingers to his shoulder, Keene started to wrap the substance over his fingers, attaching the fluff in a massive, woolly blanket as he worked. Once the first layer was applied, he pressed down against his, the gesture more for the sake of visualizing his will than actually physically affecting the opalescent material. With the pressure, the cloud dramatically decreased in size, forming to the contours of his body like a sleek sheet of liquid. Within it swirled a myriad of hues and tints, twisting about each other but never mixing. He continued on in a similar fashion, evenly coating his arm in layers of fluffy shimmer, pressing it down in a streamlined barrier, then gathering more and repeating the process until the djed had all been used and the shield on his arm shimmered with health. The darkness beneath was relatively absolute, though there were areas were cracks ran along the shield in areas where the cloud-djed had only appeared to be in contact. It was the biggest problem with his new form of application: the large fluffy nature of the clouds prior to being "locked" into their positions were a bit more difficult to determine if he'd properly aligned them. He had yet to pinpoint just how much of an overlap he should account for, and wondered if there was perhaps another way of manipulating the material to gain a more complete coverage.
The connection at his shoulder was, of course, the weakest area. The shadows beneath were cut through with obvious lack of layers, making the tasking weaker and allowing more light in. A full body shield was within his abilities, but the application time for just his arm was about fifteen to twenty bells, putting a full body cast somewhere between a bell and a half upwards to three. He also wasn't sure how much djed it would require to do something of that scale, and producing too much was a waste. It was better to get a firm grasp of basics before moving onto the more advanced. That had been a lesson he'd learned early and never forgotten. There was as much to be learned from taking small, shuffling steps as there was to be learned from lengthy strides. What might have seemed tediously incremental to others was merely what Keene believed to be the most efficient use of his magic and development of his understanding. Of course, it didn't change the fact he'd had the magic for the majority of the season and was still unable to shield the mouth of the cave against anything but that which was perceived by the senses. The area was also about the same or maybe even larger as the total surface area of his body, meaning, again, that the amount of time it would take him to apply the djed was much longer than his djed could exist outside of himself.
