Light as a Feather (Solo)

[Talya]

Timestamp: Summer 45, 515 AV It was a little past noon, Talya had just heard the bell toll. The sun too, was enough to let her know the hour, as it rested at its zenith, directly over her head, high in the day time sky, surrounded by fluffy white clouds, and a bed of pale blue. Streamers of its light darted town toward the earth and kissed her nose, warming her skin, which seemed a little brighter at this hour. The unadorned portions tanning further, while those cloaked by her dress remained as they were. The folds of fabric rippled over the length of her skin, while those around her ankles darted in circles, as they were kicked forward with each of her steps. The soles of her suede leather boots clicking softly against the docks; a portion, she hadn't frequented before, leaving her to wonder just what they were near. As when she looked to her right, away from the water, she saw only buildings she didn't recognize. She saw also, when she looked out to the sea; the sun sparkling over the surface of the water. A stretch of it, which seemed as though it were as calm as the sky above, as the water only lapped lazily up against the side of the docks, and the cliffs and rocks off in the distance. Talya saw also a few crates, a few stretches of empty dock where no one was moored, just as she saw areas where sailboats, merchant vessels, trade ships, and fishing boats alike were just setting out for the day, or coming back in. She saw many sailors too; nearly all men by the look of things, who waved to her or smiled, leading her to do the same as she passed, aimlessly on her way. As she walked, Talya's nostrils flared, filling her with the scent of the bay. Her ears ached dully, as they were filled with the sound of the gulls cawing overhead; and the sound of the spray of the sea. The breaking of the waves as they made contact with something or other. She smiled merrily as she basked in the beauty of the day, and allowed herself to absorb everything that was going on around her as she continued to stretch her legs, and think about where she may want to go, and how she may want to spend her day. Or at least, the remainder of it. Talya thought and thought for several minutes as she continued on her path. She even closed her eyes for awhile, so that it would be easier for her to concentrate. But nothing came to her. So she wound up sighing, and taking a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth, as she continued on, and forced herself to try even harder to think of something she could do. This continued for another several minutes, until a shadow began to crawl over her face. From left to right, in a downward zig-zag. Curious, as to what could be making the shadow, Talya looked up, and found that a feather was fluttering downward toward her. The wind rising to push it from time to time. She smiled, as the sun flit through the narrow spaces between each line that made up the feather, and the entity continued to fall until it came to a rest on the wooden beams that comprised the dock, about four feet ahead of her. Talya walked up to it, and stopped, just before she stepped on it with her boots. She looked down at the feather, which looked as though it were about four and a half inches long, and perhaps, a half an inch wide, if that. It was white in color; not quite a cream, and not quite a stark white, like snow, but pretty close. There was a bit of black by the base; the stem, if you could call it that. Talya thought it was the feather of a seagull. She thought it pretty, delicate even, and bent to pick it up, so she could get a better look at it. She pinched it between her middle and index finger of the right hand as she straightened herself back out, and twirled it idly between her appendages. Slowly, from left to right, over and over again, until she came up with an idea. Maybe, as the feather was so light, she could use it for training. Perhaps, she could make a little game out of practicing her reimancy with the feather, by forcing herself to keep it up in the air, with the little gusts of wind she could create with her magic. Smiling to herself, as she liked the idea; Talya tucked the feather into her pocket momentarily for safekeeping, as she prepared herself for her little game.

[Talya]

Talya began by taking a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth. She closed her eyes, as she took another breath, letting the air out of her lungs slowly, so that it mirrored the sound of the waves more and more. She kept breathing, and soon, she had forgotten the difference between the sound she produced and the water, and felt a sense of tranquility and joy wash over her as she took a final deep breath, before taking the time to begin concentrating on her djed. For whatever reason, Talya had always envisioned, or perhaps, it would have been better to say that she sensed that her djed was centered in her core. That is to say, the pit of her stomach. Not within it per se, not in the place which churned acid, and produced a soft rumbling sound, but in the place directly surrounding it, as though it were the stomach's aura, or some sort of protective encasement for it. In any case, she locked onto it with her mind's eye. She imagined then, that it glowed, a washed out, white sort of light, like the moon with too many panes of glass to pass through. She pictured herself lending it strength. Feeding it somehow. Not in a literal sense. Not in the sense that she would eat a plate of eggs and toast whenever she grey hungry, but in the sense that she wove a portion of herself into it. Some might say it was a piece of her soul, maybe even some of her old blood, but Talya liked to think that she gave it a portion of her day's strength and energy. A strength, which she felt would be renewed when the moon rose, and she shifted, leaving her to no longer have any want for earthly needs, or perhaps, if the case of magical use was severe, and she found herself horribly drained, than with a lot of rest and perhaps something to drink and to eat. In any case, Talya began to force some of her energy into the djed she envisioned, which roused it; causing it to stir slowly. She imagined it glowing all the more brightly, taking on the power of the moon, as she forced the light to travel up the length of her body. Moving through the emptiness cast by the spaces between veins, arteries and organs. The spaces where there was nothing, or the water that comprised her majority. She imagined herself pushing her djed upward, into her chest, her throat, her shoulders, her arms, her hands, and then finally, her fingers. Talya took another deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth, as she pushed her djed beneath the surface of her nails. Her whole body tingling from the latent energy of her djed, especially her fingertips, where it had begun to pool, with no where left to go but back. It was then that the Ethaefal took a final deep breath, and allowed her djed to seep through her pores and into the air over both of her hands. It began to form an invisible gas called res, which, with the power of her mind, she guided into the form of two, small, roughly spherical orbs, which hovered over the surface of her upturned hands. Two inches, by two inches of diameter, each over the palm. Another deep breath, and she opened her eyes. Guided her hands together, so that the orbs of res met, and latched onto one another, forming a larger orb, which she urged over her outstretched, left hand. With the right, she retrieved the feather, and held it out in front of her, as she began to fill the res orb with air. She left the outer rim empty however, allowing the air to be encased by her res, making it a bit easier for her to force it to maintain even a roughly spherical shape. From there, Talya took another deep breath, told herself she was as ready as she was ever going to be, and tossed the feather neatly into the air, before returning her right hand to her side, so that it would be out of the way.

[Talya]

Talya guided her palm under the pale grey shadow the feather cast, and filled a small hole at the top of her res orb with air. With an opening having been created, air began to funnel out of it, and form a slight, upward wind. It began slowly, but once the floodgates had been opened, it was as though they widened over time, as more and more of what Talya created forced itself out. The stream of air no longer steady, the feather, which had once seemed to stay readily aloft, began to wobble, and Talya found that she had to close the distance that had once rested between it and herself by several inches, in order to help the feather stabilize. This worked for a few seconds, considering how Talya shifted her palm ever so slightly, with each subtle shift within the shadow. But afterward, it naturally failed, as everything the res orb contained had been expended, which left her only to fill in the last of the outer shell. Such flitted invisibly into what already was, that which had been created naturally, and the feather, naturally, fell to the ground, not to far from the Ethaefal's feet. She bent slowly to pick it up, and think over all that she had learned during the course of her first trial. Talya determined, after some consideration, that the problem with her first trial had been that the opening she had made was likely a tad to large, and thus created to great a wind to keep the feather aloft and steady, and that alternatively, she hadn't funneled enough air into the orb in a continuous fashion so that the feather could remain air born for any extended period of time. So this time, she decided after having made another res orb, and filling it with air in the same manner as before, that she would make a smaller opening at its zenith, and do her best to funnel more and more wind into it, so that the feather wouldn't have a chance to fall to the ground. Talya took a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth. She guided her res orb toward the center of her palm, and held it there for a moment, as she breathed again, and tossed the feather into the air. She guided her hand under its shadow again, and then pictured herself pricking the top of the orb with her nail. Forming a little slit, a cut in the orb, (which she allowed to widen slightly over the course of the next second), through which the wind she had created could pour. She thought she could hear it hiss softly as it left the safety of her res orb, and entered the atmosphere all around her. She watched it catch under the stem of the feather, and that which branched out of it, guiding it upward, as she took another deep breath. She realized then that the feather was wobbling in the air, like a see-saw, tipping back and forth. Back and forth. Over and over again. She nibbled her lower lip as she guided her hand a little closer, so that instead of being about a foot away, it was about six inches away from the feather. Talya then took another deep breath, and concentrated on the orb. She imagined herself funneling more res beneath it, so that it began to form a sort of wide column, into which she could add more of her magic. As soon as the res had come into the air, and the familiar tingling sensation cast by her work circulated through her appendage, she filled the res with air, and continued to keep the feather aloft in this way, although, she tired far more rapidly, she felt, than she could have if she had employed other methods. In any case, she felt that the opening she had made continued to widen as it had before, although she wasn't quite sure she had been willing it to, and eventually, to much air escaped, tossing the feather higher into the air. Higher still, and to the side, so that when she tried to force her hand under its shadow again, she couldn't catch it, and the feather fell to the ground once again. The remaining res Talya filled with air, and let flow away, as she bent to pluck up the feather, and try a new approach, as she realized the current one simply wasn't working.

[Talya]

Talya took another deep breath and gathered herself. In her right hand, she held her feather, and in the left palm, she was funneling more res. This time, instead of creating an orb, she built more of a cylindrical shape out of it. With the notion in mind, that perhaps, if there was a smaller space from which air could escape, then perhaps, she would be able to not only keep the feather more stable, but she would be able to use up less air, and thus, keep it aloft longer. Not to mention, if she held up the same basic principle as her last trial, and kept adding res to the base of the column, which she could then fill with more air, the process should be self-sustaining, and at least in theory, she should be able to keep up her little game for quite awhile. Pleased with herself, Talya finished creating the column, (which was about four inches high, and maybe a quarter of an inch wide), and then filled everything but the perimeter with air. She then took another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, before tossing the feather into the air, guiding her left palm under it, and filling the top of the cylinder with air. She thought she could make out a faint whirring sound as air funneled into the atmosphere, and caught under the wings of the feather, causing it to ascend as opposed to descend. Talya kept her hand steady under the feather. About six inches away from it, as this seemed to be the best method to employ based off her other two trials. As she depleted her res cylinder, she tried to add more to its base, and then fill its innards with air, while unblocking the previous base by filling it with air, and then keeping the new base, and the walls empty. A piece of latent energy. For a few seconds, this seemed to work, but then the feather tipped to the right side, and fell to the ground before Talya could puff it up with more air, and do anything about it. When she expended the rest of her res, and thought about it, she concluded that the opening at the top of the cylinder was simply too small, and it directed the air unevenly, making it easy for the feather to topple. So, this time, she knew, she would have to try something entirely different in order to make things work. So she took a deep breath, and thought about it for awhile, before an idea came to her. She bent to pick up the feather, and held it in her right hand, while she allowed res to form over the palm of her left hand. This time, she allowed it to take on a form similar to a dish, or a flattened orb if you would prefer. Talya had decided that she would fill the center, and the middle of the dish with air, that way, it would flow more evenly against the feather. The base she would continually fill with air, adding to the dish. This res, could at least in theory, snake up the sides, where the edges of the dish-like container were. They could flow up the top, creating branches that she felt, if she concentrated hard enough, she could fill with more air, to balance out whatever had flowed from the middle, and trap the feather in a particular area. This would be difficult she knew, for all she held dominion over, (if you could say as much), was air, and she knew she was already beginning to tire. She could feel it in the heaviness of her eyes, the way her heart beat, the way her breath came and went. The way her body felt like it weighed a ton, and her temples throbbed dully. But she was determined to do this, and she knew she would before the day was done, so help her Rhysol. Talya forced herself to take a final deep breath, as she finished preparing herself, and finally, tossed the feather into the air. She guided her left palm under its shadow, as she had done on her previous trials, and then filled the dish with air. She watched as the feather stopped sinking, and hovered in the air. It wobbled slightly, but as she straightened her hand out, it straightened. As she continued to expend air, and res, and keep the process flowing, it stayed aloft. Although at a great price, for she tired and tired, and though after a time, that perhaps, it would be good to try and renew the air, as she heard others were able to do from Soren. So she tried this, she tried taking in air from the atmosphere around her work, while still feeding it a little. She wasn't sure it worked, as the feather wobbled and then straightened, wobbled and then straightened, and then finally, fell, after which point, she immediately let her magic fall, as she tossed her hands down to her sides with a tired sigh. As they hit her sides. The feather hit the ground, and she groaned, as her mind began to whisper sweet things. Urges to continue casting; and Talya wanted to. She was desperate to listen, as she plucked up the feather in her left hand. After all, she had to give her right hand a chance, right? Talya couldn't let it get jealous.

[Talya]

Seeing as her final trial had been the most successful, (in that the feather had balanced out, and remained in the air for the longest period of time), Talya decided that she would employ the same method in order to play her little game, and keep the feather aloft. So, she took a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth, before raising her right palm, and forming the res dish. Her fingers tingled by the time she had finished, and she smiled curiously, as she concentrated, and did her best to try and draw some air into the res structure from the outside. She thought she managed to pull in a bit, but she didn't think it had been very successful, and filled the rest of the structure with that of her own making, before tossing the feather into the air. She then guided her right hand into it, and pulled the lid off her structure, as it were, by filling it with air. She didn't hear anything as this occurred, but saw the feather stop falling in an instant, and steady itself in the air, about six inches above her outstretched palm. This time, as she was tired, Talya did her best to draw in air from beneath her funnel, so as not to expend more energy, as sweat had begun to pour down her brow. Her cheeks reddening, growing warm. Talya thought she had absorbed a little, but it was hard to say, as her eyes kept shutting half way. Over and over again, until she could get them to open no longer. Res stopped pouring from her palm; her fingertips, the instant it happened, just as air stopped funneling in. Slowly, the system depleted itself, and died, causing the feather to fall not long after the Ethaefal began tumbling through the air. Her hair splaying through the element, as she sank slowly to the ground. Her body crumbling forward, and then when her knees made contact with the wooden beams of the dock, back, so that she crumpled into a sort of kneeling stretch. A stretch that gradually straightened, as she slipped into a fainting spell, and the feather fell onto her lips. Covering their length as the sun continued to beat down on her, and she was awakened later by a sailor. After the sun had begun to dip into the western sky, and her stomach had begun to rumble as she was out, in a pit of blackness. Talya thought he had seemed concerned. But she could scarcely remember, as all he had done was rouse her, and tell her to move as she had been in the way of the area where he would moor his ship. And then she had been sent on her way. As though nothing had happened to her.