Closed Repelling the Repellent

[Clyde Sullins]

75 Fall 515

Clyde had been standing before one of his chalkboards, inspecting the final touches on his glyph plan as he heard a knock at the door.

Turning with his staff in hand, Clyde headed over to unlock it, and see who was there.

His glyphwork however was still on his mind. He plotted out the dimensions of the room, and laid out a plan for the surfaces to be coated in warding. It was of course in segments, some more vital than others. If he did the entire thing every surface, from floor to ceiling, would be warded. Of course, that wasn't truly needed, particularly for lower level Magecrafting, but it was his desired end state of his lab.

It might be seasons before he did it all, but he enjoyed having a long term plan. Plus once it was done his lab would be safe from anything magical escaping, and anything magical getting in from outside. Beyond the more simple warding needed for protecting Magecrafting this would be of use to him.

It also might mean he could practice his other magics within his lab without worrying about it being detected. At least, from the senses of other personal mages such as Aurists.

As he unlocked the door and opened it, his eyes saw the one knocking had been a squire. It was clear enough at first glance. He had a piece of parchment in his hand, and seemed to be delivering a message. In his other hand, oddly enough, held a rat in a cage.

With a confused look on his face, Clyde stared out at the squire, taking the piece of paper when it was offered.

"I have an order here from the knighthood. An item has been requisitioned. The note explains the details. Also I was ordered to give you this. I assume the note will explain why. I am to return tonight with a return letter detailing your needed supplies."

Clyde broke the seal and opened the letter, reading it over once. He nodded to the boy, tucked the letter under his arm, and took the cage which held a rat. The tiny beast squeaked and moved about, though was securely held within the cage.

As the squire shut the door Clyde placed the rat in his cage on the ground, and once more locked the passage. Ignoring the rat for now Clyde headed to his desk and set out the paper, reading it more in depth.

It appeared one of his vaguely mentioned ideas for an item of use to the knighthood had been taken up on. A pest repellent, namely a rat aversion device. He'd not made one before, though he'd heard of them vaguely in his reading. He knew it wasn't a complex enchantment, and that one of the books on Magecrafting in his knew lab detailed it along with other common items.

Fetching the book from his bookcase with various writing on Magecrafting, Clyde thumbed through it till he found the item he'd seen in passing. The Beast Bane.

“Well... I suppose they took one of my mentioned offers. Lets see how it works...”

WC: 522

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde quietly muttered to himself as he worked through the entry within the book. It was interesting as he'd never made the particular enchantment before, and so of course any insight would aid him.

From his own very basic knowledge and skill in animal husbandry, he understood flight or fight, how animals responded usually to threats. His guard dog Rye for instance had been trained by one more skilled than he to lessen the flight response, and instead promote the fight and stand ones ground approach.

It was a natural behavior of wild things then to flee, as one option. The Magecrafted item, using as a connection a bit of that creature, took a hold of that behavior and guided and perhaps enhanced it. It was a two step item, and thus MC 2. One step was behavior, another intellectual.

Clyde could see this from a few angles. One was that perhaps the behavioral step latched onto the behavior of the animal, that to flee, using the blood or body material as a focus and through way. The intellectual step then gave that behavior direction... Or perhaps it was the other way around. Perhaps using the connection the intellectual step guided the connection into the flight behavior response. The behavioral step then enhanced and magnified this behavior, making it more likely than the fight response.

Clyde was leaning more towards the second route, though that was only a technical understand of the process which wasn't perhaps necessary to do the enchantment. More likely than not it would be enough to simply do the steps, both in the correct way, and when put together on the item they would come together into the desired outcome.

He did plan however to attempt the second reasoning in his process.

It also cleared up why the rat had been delivered to him. Clearly someone knew enough of it that they knew he'd need a bit of the animal to be warded off. a bit of blood, a bit of fur, and he'd have what was needed for the enchantment's physical connection to the specific animal.

Taking out a blank piece of parchment, Clyde began writing up what he'd need. The basic materials and reagents used in a MC 2 item... The item itself to be worked on... The rest he had on hand.

Filling out his list he set it aside on the desk, so that when the squire returned later he could hand it over. He'd need to head to bed early tonight, since he'd be up early to work on the enchantment when the materials arrived. It would be a relatively quick enchantment for him at his skill, only 2 days of work where a lesser Magecrafter would take a handful of days if not two.

WC: 464

[Clyde Sullins]

After spending the last few bells Glyphing, Clyde took a break.

At this point he knew about as much as he would about Glyphing. Even something as this was simple to him, and something he'd done a half dozen times. He'd taken out his inscribing paint, and using the initial inner set up to ward around the pedestal he painted out a multi-layered setup he commonly used in Magecrafting.

It was unique and something he'd custom designed specifically for Magecrafting, bearing in mind all he knew of the magic and its theories.

Most Glypher's would simply make a barrier, and paint that around the pedestal. However Clyde understood that Magecrafting wasn't perfect, and that when integrating djed into an item some was lost or spilled out. Therefore he had a syphon layer which let the djed in excess during the reaction spill out of the pedestal, be swept up along sweeping and curling layers of barriers, to finally be taken into a series of focus. After that was a barrier level, capping it off.

After that was a middle layer, who's main purpose was to absorb any djed that leaked in through the outer layer. It was a similar sweeping and curling layer of barriers and pathways with focus at their core, though this one outer facing and sandwhiched with another layer of barriers on the inside and outside. Finally it was capped off with an outer layer triple barrier warding that was intended to stop any djed external to the work from getting in. It was the outer face, meant to stop the djed. However if it failed as unlikely as that was there was the middle layer to act as a sieve and damn.

In the end it was a complex piece of glyphing that an expert in the magic would likely spend half a day on. Clyde however knew his stuff and was a true master of Glyphing, and so easily could whip up such a thing.

With his work done Clyde's preparations were done. He'd planned out the steps and the process, and knew how he was to do the enchantment. He had the tools laid out and prepped, and had the protecting glyphing wards in place. All he needed now was the MCing materials, and the item to be Magecrafted. Well that and time for the paint to dry.

Once the squire returned he handed him the list of things he needed, and then he headed to bed. It'd be an early morning tomorrow, and he needed his rest as he'd be getting little for the next few days till his work was done.

WC:439

[Clyde Sullins]

76 Fall 515

The following morning Clyde rose early, and accepted the items as what was needed was delivered.

He had the men stack the ingredients off to the side, and spent some time caring for the rat. He set it out some water, place some food pellets within its cage, and spent a chime or two watching it move about in the tiny metal container, occasionally squeaking and staring at motion outside its holding device.

One end of the tiny cage had a metal latch, which would be simple enough to open and remove the beast by. He didn't need it quite yet, not till he was beginning the process as a source material.

The rat didn't need to live forever, but it was good to keep it happy and sated for now. Plus, it didn't hurt to experience a bit more of the creature, take part in its life, and feel a deeper connection.

Set apart from the other goods was the item in question, a small talisman or broach or bit of jewlry, depending upon how you looked at it. Regardless it was meant to be worn or carried about easily, and had a somewhat stylized and exaggerated form of a rat on its face. It wasn't just painted on, but actually cut or perhaps engraved into the metal itself.

Sitting on the ground outside of the glyph work he'd done the day before, Clyde set Cha across his knees and placed the caged rat and the bit of jewelry on opposite sides of his body on the floor.

By now the glyph work should have started its job, and any ambient djed within the pedestal area should have been absorbed into the focus. Since no new ambient djed could have gotten in from outside, that meant the entire pedestal area was likely a djed dead zone by then, with no ambient djed at all.

It was good to start from such a neutral setting.

However before he began he needed to do some auristics, and fully understand both the rat and the item he was to enchant.

Grapsing Cha in his grip he focused his djed, and imagined a tendril of it snaking outward above his head, reaching up out of Cha. The tendril broke in half, snaking off in two directions, reaching out like a tentacle and grasping each of the two items to be inspected.

As the tendril's swept over the objects in question, he felt a flare in his aura sight, and even after closing his eyes he could still see both items as clearly as if it laid just before his sight line.

This was one of the simplest and most immediate things that focusing the aura within his aura sight allowed. He did not stop there though, as it was not enough.

For the rat he needed to understand the creature. What made it, how it worked, how it breathed, what its rat essence looked like. For the object he needed to see its standing, its structure, and anything different or which might cause a problem. All items crafted by human hand had imperfections, irregularities, and differences. While they might not cause an issue with such a low level item, knowing them and understanding them would allow him to take such things into account in his work, and thus do a better job with the item.

He practiced such things now when it didn't matter, so that he'd be ready with higher level items when it did.

The metal object was easier of course, as it was but non-living matter. Simple. About it a thin grey aura exuded, which told Clyde of its making. It was burnished steel, with a layer of bronze on its face for durability and longevity being exposed to the world.

Reaching within its sight he could see how it was poured, a few tiny air bubbles where the metal hadn't settled and a almost imperceptible internal ripple as the metal had been poured and sloshed across the mold.

On the surface such imperfections couldn't be seen, but he could see within the item, see its inner workings and layout if he gazed deep enough.

He could see the small melding where the metal had been heated, and the two materials had been made into one thing, with the bronze capping the steel underneath. He could look within and see where the two surfaces met, the two metals melded and became one and adhered together as only metal did.

Done with his examination of the metal item, he turned his aura sight and focus more intently on the rat.

WC: 769

[Clyde Sullins]

As the tendril of aura sight snaked around the rat and its cage, he easily pressed past the metal container. The box itself had its own aura, one that was outshine by the living creature within. It being a dead thing, the box only had a thin grey aura given off by the shaped metal.

It was hammered and shaped iron, with metal hinges that turned with a pin inside that let the cage open and close. The locking mechanism was another jutting bit of metal that fitted through a loop sticking off of the box. A simple latch mechanism, that when pulled back let the door swing free.

It was simple, a thin layer of information exuding off the container.

However within was a somewhat brighter shine of aura, though still one that paled in comparison to a person. But still a living thing, even a rat, had a stronger aura than a dead object.

The grey aura of the beast was a off grey, a salt and pepper shade more of a in between shade than the bland colorless grey he found on dead matter.

He could feel its flesh, feel the soft flesh as if he ran his fingers along it. Felt the wet snout, the hairs covering its body, and the other hairs on its nose that twitched and swayed and were of a different type of substance than the hair on its body. They reminded him of the cords on a musical instrument, a violin, though only vaguely.

Its ears where thin and flexible, of another type of flesh, and covered on the outside by more hair.

Within its mouth where its teeth, two jutting out long i the front taking his immediate notice. Those looked like they could grind through quite a bit, and that perhaps if the bars of the cage hadn't been so close it would have tried to chew through them.

Gazing deeper he pressed inward, feel and seeing and touching, inward and outward.

Within he could see the bones, could see the motion as its limbs twitched and moved, saw the complex motion of a paw as it rose it and set it in another place... Bones, muscle, sinew, skin, flesh, hair, all combining into one single creature alive.

He could see its chest rise and fall, exhale and inhale, inflate and deflate, over and over.

Pressing deeper, pressing outward, feeling and seeing he watched and understood, peeling apart the animal layer by layer and understanding.

He saw the tiny organ inside beating, its heart, pumping as it breathed, a never ending motion of life. He knew what a heart was, heard of it used in a casual way, but he'd never SEEN a heart before.

Clyde smiled to himself, at the oddity of it all, of the life within the creature, and of seeing a heart beating within a rats chest. Alive.

It was alive. And soon it wouldn't be.

WC: 491

[Dove Brown]

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request. If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding your grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM.

 

Clyde Sullins

Skills

• Planning 3
• Painting 1
• Animal Husbandry 1
• Auristics 2

Lores

• A request from the knights
• Magecrafting: the Beast Bane
• Magecrafting: takes part of a creature to ward against it
• Painting the wards in place
• Auristics: seeing a living heart
• The Anatomy of a rat
• Rat: whiskers are like violin strings
• Rat: a salt and pepper aura
• Rat: teeth good for gnawing
• Rat: how its bones, flesh, skin, and hair combine

Comments: Enjoy your grades