Mind over Rock

by **Ayszel** on February 18th, 2015, 4:59 pm

16th Winter 514 AV

The hotsprings glowed a pale aquamarine between the tendrils of black that spread out from her head. She had arrived early, before anyone else had made it to the springs or work. She lay on her back floating quietly. Her eyes were closed against the sight of the mossy ceiling. The water soaked along the length of her body as her long tail created elegant ripples. Sighing deeply she submerged herself, the water creeping over her eyes and nose relaxing her before the days duties. The Kinomoss that caressed the bottom of the spring also caressed her long tail as it slid beneath the water.

Working with the lifeless, but no less beautiful, stones was an exhausting endeavour; requiring as much planning and analysis as resting with relatively little magic actually involved. They couldn’t work for long without overgiving and thus, the work was not what most people thought it was.

Ayszel had the natural talent of her family for geomancy but struggled with even the basics of architecture, often establishing broad stocky pillars to be on the safe side but diminishing the space of the cave and creating ugly disruptions. Her work associate on the other hand had a natural eye for architecture but his magical skills were left wanting.

Though she understood why they had been partnered it frustrated Ayszel so much that she could often be found in the hotsprings before and after work. He was always demanding alterations and nitpicking the tiny details and mistakes. She wanted to scream at him, “Why don’t you do it then?!” but she had thus far managed to show a level of restraint.

Slowly she waded out from her gentle swim and drew the vest over each shoulder. A red cord was laced through the front and tied at her navel, a long wide gape between her petite breasts, only covering her breasts and the top of her ribcage. Colourful tassles dangled from the bottom, tickling her ribcage when she moved. While in some cultures the clothing would easily be considered provocative and inappropriate for work in Zinrah it blended in with every other

Dhani womans clothing, protecting and holding her breasts against her body but allowing the rest of her body to breath in the heavy humidity. Her scales whisked away the water into a broad puddle at the edge of the hotsprings just as some of the elderly Dhani were making their way down. The adults and louder revelry would happen after work, something Ayszel enjoyed just as much as the morning silence.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:17 am

.

Ayszel moved through the darkened caves with a settling feeling of foreboding and dread. She had loved work until this season, reveled in the days that would allow her to delve into the sweet golden pool of res that was contained within her. Now, with Tsuskee shadowing every moment of it, loathing had grown.

What a horrible man...nitpicky, arrogant bastard. He might have the talent of an architect but without the talent of a mage, he can't do what I can do. What right does he have to tell me how to do it?! she fumed as she stormed through the pathway, her temper rising to a bubble before the man was even before her. Her temper was evident in the flick of her tail against the stony caverns walls.

However, Ayszel couldn’t have been more wrong about the man. His own complaints were as loud and volatile as hers as he pulled on the loose grey tunic and adjusted the rare fractured spectacles that had been bought by his mother from a Black Rock trader. What land or city it had been forged in he nor she would ever know but without them he hadn’t been able to see further than 3 or 4 feet.

He loathed working with the arrogant and haughty Ayszel. She had a natural talent for geomancy, but her mind was a youthful wild thing, incapable of containing, let alone understanding, the intricacies of architecture and math that went into planning the repairs. But he was incapable of actually fixing what his mind could conceptualize. He wanted perfection true, but more than that it was frustrating to communicate his vision to someone without the vocabulary and training to understand what he was saying and with too much arrogance to learn the vocabulary.

When her swaying figure entered the cavern, a favored cave of the younglings, both caught their breath in preparation for the fight that would ensue and rage for several hours, like it did everyday.

"So what are we fixing today?" Ayszel grumbled, "a shelf? a bed?" she mocked. Since she had begun rebelling against his strict instruction he had slowly been weaning her off the more exciting project and restricting her to the little boring projects. All of which she fixed sloppily. Raviel had been treating her like this since she had begun volunteering as a youngling, and now here was this boy barely 5 years her senior and yet making ventures of dominance every chance he got.

"No. We are fixing this cavern." He gestured to the architecture of the small cavern. Large enough to fit no more than four constrictors. Ayszel looked around, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What?"

"The younglings play here and are always damaging the delicate architecture they love about it so much." Ayszels eyebrows rose higher, it had been a long time since he had given her such an adventurous job, and she was suspicious of his motives.

"So where shall we begin?" She ventured cautiously.

He sucked in his breath slowly before venturing further into the delicate conversation.

“So what are the main rock types we deal with?”Ayszel groaned. He had asked her this question before and she could never remember. “Ultra...something and...something that starts with an L....” She muttered. While she was normally a very attentive student, she loathed the man before her enough to actively refuse to learn from him. The look of irritation was reward enough and she continued not to meet his gaze, staring at the work before them.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:17 am

.

“Zinrah is made up of types of Ultrabasic rock and limestone as you move deeper the rocks become harder and more difficult to repair. That’s why we typically have novices repair the upper hot springs, they are made of the simplest and least dense rocks and if you damage them there are always more others can use. The lowest hotsprings are made in-“

“Serpentinite.” Ayszel interrupted with a petite ostentatious grin.

“Yes.” He smiled, it was the right answer, but the wrong attitude. It was the most beautiful rock in Zinrah in her opinion and where she felt most connected to her mother Siku, like a cold green embrace. Elsewhere in the rock she could feel the thrum of Semele, a goddess they typically didn’t worship as a race, but whom the geomancers had a timid to open respect for. She also felt the presence of Caiyha waver here, somehow the stone was less able to support growth like the rest of the caves and those organisms that grew there felt different, Tense and hardy; in comparison to the soft tenaciousness of the mosses and fungi that were closer to the surface.

“The primary rock is what though?”

“Limestone,” It was the rock most geomancers raised here naturally created as it was the rock that permeated their sense of self most thoroughly.

"So why is the most important quality of a geomancer in Zinrah to learn how to make many different rock types?"

This part she knew, and playing stupid would only get her a smack on the head.

Every novice Geomancer knew why.

“Because other than being aesthetically displeasing, using limestone to fix cracks in other stone creates instability when rocks of different qualities are constantly used to patch the material. We need to weave a rock type into the present structure seamlessly, to ensure stability.”

She didn’t earn a smile for her answer, said with as much petulant teenage angst she could muster.

“Ayszel....” normally he would have moved on by now, but for once his voice was relaxed, too relaxed, “Haven’t you had enough of this bickering? We have to work with each other for the rest of the season. Can’t we just get along?”
He had never spoken to her so softly, or so directly before and she was stunned into silence as she considered what he had said. Is this weakness that I should treat as him giving up, or is he extending an olive branch. It’s a pathetic olive branch if I’ve ever seen one...but throwing it in his face now wont make this any less miserable...even if it would bring me endless satisfaction.

“I will pay attention,” his face relaxed into a smile, “If. You teach me and THEN let me work. I can’t work with you yammering in my ear, telling me what I’m doing wrong.”

“But, what if you ARE doing something wrong!” She scowled in reply, “If you teach me properly, then I’ll notice my mistake and fix it.”

He seemed to be considering the proposal for a moment and she allowed him to do so in silence. “Alright...it has to be better than this.”

She nodded in agreement.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:18 am

.

“The structures that is created through Limestone by the hot springs that run through here are called Speleothems. Of which there are six common types that we will practice making today”

“Practice...I thought we were going to work.”A scowl greeted her angst.

“We will work, but you have to know how to make them before you can fix the ones the younglings broke. Let us identify them first. Do you remember what the six types are?”

“Speleo....hmm...”She chewed her lip cautiously, “well... there are stalactites and stalagmites obviously.... columns....” her mind went blank.

“Good. Flowstone, drapery and straws. How can you tell them apart?”

“Flowstone, Stalagmites, and Columns start from the ground and move toward the ceiling. While Drapery, Stalactites and Straws start for the ceiling and work their way down....”she knew that that level of detail was not what he wanted, but she couldn’t remember more than that.

“Show me one of each...” He expanded, encouraging her to think about it. She appreciated the question. She wasn’t particularly good at describing rock formations, though she could rile about a fight without much effort. A talent that came from being raised with so many siblings.

Ayszel gazed around the rough architecture of the cavern. The many detailed structures were a favored place for younglings to play and as such resulted in a lot of broken speleothems.”

“Flowstone looks like that....

“Why are there so many speleothems in Zinrah?”

“Well, what causes speleothems?”

“Water movement, I believe.”

“Yes.”

“But there isn’t any water in the tunnels, it’s only in the tunnels we created that lead to the springs.”

“Yes, but it was once filled with water, and with the heat and high humidity there is a constant slow cycle of water through the system that creates these structures over extremely long periods of time. Lots of geomancers begin to learn architecture by building speleothems with increasing complexity also, so many of the remnants are the remains of others works.”Ayszel nodded slowly as he spoke, a habit when she was listening closely. “Shall we try making a flowstone then?” He asked.

This nod was more deliberate, less ponderous. Curling up, low on her long tail, next to her partner they faced one of the slopping smooth walls.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:19 am

.

“Flowstones are made by trickling water along the walls. They bring sediment with them and create a dribbling sheet of minerals. Remember, they are made of minerals not limestone so you’ll not only have to focus on the form you’ll have to focus on making a mineral. You will try Gypsum, it is a soft very light mineral so it will be the easiest mineral to make. Furthermore, because it is so light and soft it’ll fall into the soft wavering form you are trying to create more easily. Creating Flowstones out of denser minerals is exceptionally more difficult as you are not only creating a more difficult mineral that demands more res, but you are commanding it to act in a way that it does’t naturally form, except over hundreds of decades."

Ayszels eyes widened. He had never bothered to explain this level of detail before nor an explanation for why he wanted her to solve problems in certain, more difficult ways. She felt a tad ashamed for rebelling so much previously.

“Can you show me Gypsum…I can’t create it without something to reference.” She explained slowly, “I-I’m not great at descriptions…in case you haven’t noticed,” She added a touch snidely, feeling as if she was admitting to a weakness, “But once I see and feel something, it’s much easier to create…to feel.”

“Perhaps you have something to teach me in return Ayszel.” He replied. Takes out a bag with a small box. Inside are little compartments with pieces of rock.

“Oh wow…what a beautiful idea…” She ran her hand along the box and made a mental note to start her own collection. Working reimancy in the future, and future research would certainly be easier with a reference.

The Gypsum he pointed out was translucent with edges and cracks of white, like the image of cracking ice that she had seen some reimancers create. “You probably wont be able to create anything this pure, if it is a little yellow, red or blue it is from impurities of thought. Because you haven’t been exposed to Gypsum before, you’ll likely get a lot of impurities. Besides focusing on purity when creating minerals you will need to focus on the crystal system. These are the two most important qualities to consider and know when learning to create a mineral. We don’t understand how the crystal systems are created, but with enough practice you should be able to learn to duplicate it.”

I think I am getting a little overwhelmed… Ayszel admitted to herself but didn’t voice. She continued to nod gently.

“Focusing on Gypsum…” He turned back, as if he saw the confusion in her blank nodding, “You are going to create a monoclinic crystal system. It is one of the seven groups.”Withdrawing one of the several sheets of paper that she brought with her she slowly sketched a long rectangular prism. “This is the basic shape of a monoclinic crystal system. There are three angles to consider; alpha, beta and gamma.” He drew a gentle rounded curve on each of the angles as he named them. A gentle curving line between the horizontal line and vertical line of the front face, the vertical line and horizontal line of a side face and the two horizontal lines of the top face respectively. “In a monoclinic crystal system the alpha and gamma angles are 90 degrees and the beta angle is anything but 90 degrees.” Next on the paper he drew a straight line and a half circle on top.

“This is 180 degrees.” He drew a line in the center of the half circle, “This is 90 degrees. Does that make sense?” Ayszel nodded slowly, though it wasn’t really a yes, it was her thinking.

“That is the structure that the entire mineral is formed from, you aren’t making a hardened crystal in this shape, it is going to be a melting sheet line deposit of it, but understanding this structure is integral to understanding Gypsum. When you create it with your res you will want to make this structure first, make your res take this structure without becoming a stone. You will then place it at the top and let it run like water down the curve as naturally as possible, but don’t lose this geometric shape, it will create the most realistic Flowstone.”

“Alright. Let me give it a try.” Ayszel replied, closing her eyes.

“Wait Ayszel.” He reached out, touching her shoulder. “This is going to take a lot of practice, and you’ll get it wrong a 100 times before you get it right. Geomancy in other places is all about just making dangerous pieces of rock” He said nastily, “but here it is an art form and making perfect art, it takes time, and it’ll never be perfect. We can’t recreate in minutes what Semele does over her lifetime. So don’t hold yourself to too tight a leash.” Ayszel smiled faintly, as troublesome as he had been to her and as much as every action she had committed till then had proclaimed a lack of perfectionism he had still somehow seen it in her.

“Anyone that gets as upset as you when they’re corrected is a perfectionist.” He answered her unasked question. Taking the Gypsum sample into her left hand she didn’t respond to his explanation, though it made her lip twitch.

Closing her eyes without another word Ayszel fell more easily than ever into the golden lake of power in her core. It was easier to find now than it had originally been when she was a child and just beginning her exploration into geomancy.

Slowly she crept up to the edge and crossed her legs. Since the overgiving that had mutilated her body she was terrified of the lake, terrified of its enigmatic and powerful draw. It teased her body, threatening to once again pull her completely into its depths.

She always struggled to ignore the tug but her fear was far stronger than her desire. Dipping a hand into the golden liquid she drew it out of her, visualizing it forming a thin thick ball in the palm of her hand. She could never open her eyes when she worked, losing sight of the lake within her made her panic as if it could then sneak up behind her and pull her in without her knowing. Besides that, it broke her concentration and made even the simplest work difficult.

Holding the glowing ball in the palm of her hand she invited it to thicken slowly and then began to visualize the thick rectangles that he had drawn for her. She slowly made the beta edge wide, matching the sense of self in the stone in the opposing hand. Though the shape of the res changed, resembling the structure in her left its sense of self was much much weaker, a quality which Ayszel chose to interpret as purity. However, the tug of res from the pool was already stronger than she was comfortable with so she ignored the impurities, instead focusing on perfecting the geometry of the shape.

Slowly, she placed her hand on the stone before her and pressed the thick ball of res against the surface. Holding the geometry in her mind she slowly loosened her hold on the res and released a deep breath. She had found over the years that regulating her breathing was the easiest way to control the thickness of the res she controlled. Holding it, with tight deep breaths thickened it into a solid, loose slow breathing created a more watery fluid while shallow fast breaths echoed the cacophonous gas that she rarely found a use for.

Slowly the thick res loosened and poured over the stone. Holding the geometric shape in mind she felt its tumble was far different that the trickle of traditional watery res. However, while she tried to divide the res into sheets as he had suggested as soon as her focus drifted to that the geometry began to loosen and fall apart. Careful not to exhale in frustration, a gesture which would ruin the fluidity of the res she thought over the predicament as she held the res daintily in place.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:20 am

.

If I can’t make the layers from res, maybe I can make them as I turn it into Gypsum! she decided, grinning to herself.

Slowly she began at the top and turned the nearest slice of res into the translucent white Gypsum. Slowly she worked her way down. Once she reached the bottom she began at the top again, just above the last piece. She continued five times over and when she was finished she breathed a sigh of relief and she withdrew from the pool of res.

“Brilliant right!” She couldn’t help the tremble of excitement before she opened her eyes. However, the visual before her was not what she had visualized behind closed eyes.

“Wouldn’it be easier to correct mistakes with your eyes open?” He asked slowly, teeth grinding in annoyance. He had held his tongue like she had asked, though she had been so focused on the task she hadn’t noticed.

“I can’t maintain the focus necessary to try this without closing my eyes.” She said, with as much tenseness.

Before her was a grey pink solid substance poured like thick oil over the surface of a much different rock. It looked like old cheap wax…

“…This is…terrible…” She knew she had skimped on the purity but she had expected it to look much better than this.

“Leaning in close he picked at the waxy substance. It’s actually not as bad as you think…it is incredibly impure with limestone. However, even the limestone is being forced into the same geometry as the Gypsum. That’s why you had so much trouble. You can’t focus on one attribute more than the other. If you let it be impure you’ll have trouble holding the geometry because you’ll be forcing your natural rock, Limestone, into a structure it isn’t meant to take. All of that is the only thing that made your Flowstone pour incorrect. The sheets are very good, except….you only created five. While that is fine for the level you are working at now in the future you’ll need to aim for as many as possible. The more layers, the more accurate it’ll appear. With thirty being the minimum to pull of a realistic flowstone. However, you wont be able to achieve that for a long time.”

“Why would you give me a challenge I can’t possibly accomplish.”

“Geomancy is about multi-tasking. You can’t learn by focusing on one thing at a time, as much as you would like to. You need to learn everything simultaneously. Then you will learn to apply these things to all seven basic structures. Learning how to multi-task is the most difficult leap you will have to make as a reimancer. Once you learn that you'll just need to learn the math and architecture behind construction...." He hesitated slowly, math and architecture were tender topics with the young sorceress, the topics that usually caused fights. "Now that you know the theories about creating the structure. Lets get to work.”

I can’t possibly do this technique as work yet! Aren't you the one that's always demanding perfection?! I'll ruin the natural flowstone... However, she could hardly admit that aloud. "Okay."

“You aren’t going to be creating it, you are going to be fixing very minor damage by attracting the Flowstone, while you are attracting it you will become familiar with its sense of self, geometry and the layers as you wont have to create all three but will have to maintain them as you attract them with the res. Don’worry, the largest cracks are only a centimeter, you’ll be able to hold the pattern for that long." He assured, having caught the tremor of self-doubt that flickered in the depths of her eyes.

by **Ayszel** on March 27th, 2015, 7:28 am

.

Ayszel and Tsuskee curled down near the floor of the cavern before the damaged Flowstone. Ayszel reached out, running a finger over the thick crack of damage that ran horizontally along the bottom where a tail had lashed and scraped away the detailed layers.

Skee parted his lips to speak but upon seeing Ayszel close her eyes firmly shut his mouth. Ayszel opened her eyes again slowly. I need him to not control me...he needs to feel some control.

"You should help. You know the theory, we can guide each others res. We can help each other..." She murmured slowly. Her face was hard when she extended the offer, extending it seemingly out of professional courtesy so that he wouldn't think her gesture came from pity. It did. He didn't notice.

Nodding slowly, as proud as she was, he couldn't have backed down and said no. She knew this and he knew she knew. He copied her this time, closing his own eyes as she closed hers. His grey blue res pooled in his hand, a slow trickle.

She closed her eyes and slipped within herself splashing her face gently with the cool refreshing yellow of her golden pool. She collected the water in her cup-formed hand and opening her eyes watched it move like a watery trickle toward his grey-blue soul extension.

Gently she nudged it guiding his res toward the Flowstone. "Copy my sense of self, echo it, and I'll make the form. You can nudge in the corrections with yours res. It'll be less disruptive." She murmured quietly. However, even her quiet words saw his res falter as he listened. She smiled to herself. If she could have some of the power in this relationship then perhaps it could work.

Slowly she closed her eyes again. She couldn't work her magic with her eyes open to all the distractions of the real world. She needed only the faint darkness of her inner self. She slowly settled her res over the crack, letting her res fall into the pores and structure of the gypsum. It learned the identity of the stone like mud forming the imprint of a shoe.

It felt raw and intimate to have his soul entwined with hers making her wiggle uncomfortably but she tried her best to brush the soot of discomfort from her shoulders in an attempted display of professionalism. Slowly she closed her eyes and began the gentle massaging of the hard stone that would attract it across the crevice. It was important not just to cover the crack but to fill it. Not like mud but to integrate it.

Gently she felt the nature of the Skee's res change to faintly resemble the gypsum he had been teaching her. However, his sense of self was weak and fumbled. she pressed her res up gently into his making the structure more rigid while allowing his res to create her scaffold.

Slowly the gap began to narrow until a seamed gap was formed along the Flowstone. It was by no means as pretty as before it had been damaged, she assessed when she opened her eyes, but it was structurally sound and invisible from a distance.

However, as exhaustion settled heavily on her shoulders she couldn't meet Skee's eyes, just as he couldn't meet hers. Both their cheeks flushed brightly and grew red hot. She had yet to have a first kiss, a first intimate touch, and yet in that moment she felt as if they had entered each other. More intimate than any other experience she had had.

"E-exssscucceee me..." She murmured quietly as she slipped out of the cavern, while he remained coiled low to the ground as flushed as she.

by **Traverse** on April 28th, 2015, 12:58 pm

Ayszel

Experience:

Architecture 2 XP
Endurance 2 XP
Geology 2 XP
Investigation 1 XP
Leadership 1 XP
Meditation 1 XP
Observation 2 XP
Reimancy 3 XP
Rhetoric 1 XP
Socialization 3 XP
Swimming 1 XP
Teaching 1 XP

Lore:

The Lack of Understanding Zinrah has for the struggle that is Geomancy
Tsuskee: Zinrah Architect and Reimancer
Basics of Zinrah Geology: Ultrabasic Stone and Limestone and Serpentinite as you get deeper within the tunnels
The Necessity of Geological Knowledge to correctly sync your Geomancy with current Rock Formations
Speleotherms: Formations made through long term water movement within rock formations
Types of Speleotherms: Stalactite, Stalagmite, Columns, Flowstone, Drapery, Straws
Geomancy Technique: Keeping Rock Types, Helpful for Replicating Forms int he Future
Flowstone: Easier to Make if you follow the natural formation the minerals would undergo, yet still requires extensive layering to perfect
Combining Res in Order to Complete a Project
Having a Strangely Intimate Moment with Skee

Additional Notes :

If you have any questions, concerns, accolades, complaints, etc about your grade, drop me a PM and we can most certainly talk it out.

As always, Safe Travels!