Fire and Water (Clyde)

by **Sayana** on September 18th, 2016, 8:25 pm

Fall 2, 516 AV - Evening

As Sayana took one final bite of the grilled meat which made up the bulk of her dinner, she glanced at the campfire with a small smile. She was going to do it. Syna was still above the horizon but wouldn’t stay up for too much longer as the evening progressed.

“There’s a stream not too far where I’m going to practice.” She announced as she got to her feet. “Perhaps you’d like to join me in a bit, Clyde?”

It was an open invitation, but one that suggested that she might want to practice on her own for a bit first. As much as she had been enjoying the mage’s company, she still found she struggled with maintaining the concentration for meditation or magic, especially under the watch of someone far more superior.

With a smile, she tossed the empty wooden skewer into the fire and headed out along a narrow path towards the stream. The quiet gurgle and splash of water whispered softly in her ears and she took a seat on one of the larger rocks that formed the banks of the stream. At her feet, she cleared a small area so it was free of dried leaves or other flammables, and instead collected a few twigs that might fuel a small and controlled fire. At last she closed her eyes and focused on a state of calm.

The soft babble of water was like music as she eased into a relaxed frame of mind. Performance anxieties drifted away and subsided as some of her hands rested comfortably in her lap or on the rock in which she sat upon. Maybe she’d be able to conjure and manipulate rock or earth soon. But first, fire.

In her mind’s eye, Sayana focused on the image of a black canvas and a single ring of fire. It flickered and flared, always dancing and she reinforced that image as she concentrated on slowing her breathing. In… and out… Air. One day she might learn that too. But for now, the beautiful and passionate element of fire.

She almost found herself drifting from the lulling music of the creek, but she soon redoubled her focus by tracing out a circle upon the palm of her mid hand. “A flame to spread, so bloody red, and glowing coals devour souls.” She spoke softly, repeating the incantation several times. Even though she doubted anyone from the caravan would stumble upon her, she didn’t want to draw unneeded attention to herself.

Sayana began to repeat the short chant, still focusing on the flaming circle of the black sun. Only now did she concentrate on her djed. Pulling at that tickle at the back of her mind and drawing it towards the hand in which she circled. Opening herself up, letting it free, offering herself and the magic within her. It must have been a few chimes of concentration before she dared to open her eyes and see the faint pool of crimson res upon her mid hand. Crimson. It eerily looked like blood on her palm, in its liquid state. She wasn’t sure why it looked like liquid rather than gas this time, but she didn’t let it break her focus.

The Eypharian slowly willed the deep red substance towards the pile of tinder. Instead of making circling gestures, she waved it gently with an encouraging hand. Almost like wafting a ribbon of smoke. Except for some reason it felt heavier and didn’t float like the gas had. The res dribbled to the ground even as she tried to lift it up with her mind, but she managed to get it to the twigs in front of her.

“A flame to spread, so bloody red, and glowing coals devour souls.” Again and again she uttered the words, building a sense of the fire she wanted to create. She focused hard on the res wanting it to erupt into flame.

“Ignite!” She spoke, forgetting to keep her voice down. “Ignite! Ignite!”

For a split tick, she lost her focus as she tried to force the res to turn to fire. Instead, a splash of water from the stream distracted her. Almost as though the res had been strained under her commands to transmute and needed to return to a stable element, the sudden yet brief idea of water caused it to suddenly transmute into a puddle soaking the small twigs.

“Petching Hai! That’s not what I wanted.” Sayana spoke out in an exasperated tone. It was a watery mess of sticks, dirt and sand. And the water was already uselessly sinking into the ground.

Credit: Shimoje

by **Clyde Sullins** on September 23rd, 2016, 1:41 am

2 Fall 516

Clyde was only half paying attention when Sayana began to speak to him. He was finishing the last of his food, his third helping of the night, when she spoke of going off to practice. Considering what skill she'd begun to work on of late, it didn't take long what she might mean or what she might want the aid of Clyde in working on.

His book was good, but it focused more on Reimancy theory than practice by design, and so it was still good for her to have more direct tutelage in the magic.

He probably ate at least twice as much as most of the other people along on the caravan, except one of the caravaneers teenage sons who worked in the family business and ate almost his weight in food daily. He'd also grown nearly an inch, or so it seemed, just since they'd set off on their trip.

Finishing off the last of his food, Clyde set aside his plate and replaced it in his hand with Cha who had been laying propped against his leg.

He didn't bother grabbing his camping gear as he got up and set after Sayana, as he didn't figure they'd be going too far or staying out for the night. He did bring Rye along, his faithful hound following along silently.

Luckily for Clyde she hadn't left to long ago, and had given a vague description of where she was going, and so he was able to follow along in her general direction till he came across her. It also helped that she wasn't attempting to be silent or stealthy as she went to the spot, and that she was being quite vocal in her annoyance. Without those factors he'd likely have ended up getting lost in his attempt to find and track her.

He finally came across her near the end of her work, as she was speaking the last iteration of her incantation and attempting to start a fire. That if nothing else confused him, as he'd seen her transmute water before, and he knew she wasn't skilled enough to start on a second element.

It didn't occur to him just yet that she wasn't aware of that.

He wasn't surprised when her res transmuted into water, plashing across the ground, but he was once more surprised when she was surprised.

At that point he managed to put the facts together, recalling the contents of his book, and recalling that it or he had never explicitly stated how learning the elements worked. Or that one didn't have them all to start with...

Coming up behind her, Clyde let out a small chuckle to get her attention, shaking his head.

“Of course not Say, your element is water. Did I not explain that bit before?”

Clyde put on a puzzled expression for a moment, before letting his chuckle return to his face, letting out one final sound before letting his face grow placid and calm.

“Say, did you think you started with the ability to control all the elements from the start? That isn't how Reimancy works. You start with one, and as you grow more skilled you learn new ones. By the time you have learned to use them all, you will be nearing the peak of your knowledge of the magic.”

“The easiest way to gauge the skill of a Reimancer is to find out how many elements they can control, from one to four. Your an initiate, you know one. It will be awhile before you learn another. ”

“But more importantly, I have another question for you. Why are you wasting djed?”

“Lesson one, never transmute what you can attract. Attraction is much less djed costly, a very important thing for a new initiate such as yourself. My students learn attraction first, and work their way up to transmutation. Its harder that way, but they are better for it. You can do much more with the same amount of djed spent using attraction, than you can using transmutation. Only use that if you've no choice. But in training, there is no reason not to attract and take your time.”

by **Sayana** on September 26th, 2016, 2:25 am

“You’re saying that the only element I can control is water?” Sayana replied with a sharp tongue, heat rising to her face even as her voice raised. “I got initiated into reimancy and I can’t petching light a candle?”

As the facts began to sink in, she wasn’t sure if she should be angry at Clyde or herself. Clearly some people could grasp the element of fire straight off, but somehow water had become her element. Had there even been a point to getting initiated if all she could do was create a puddle at will?

“And no Clyde, I was not trying to attract. I was trying to create fire, not burn down the forest by attracting fire from gods know where.” She didn’t know if her reach would have even made it to the cooking fires at the camp, but regardless, it hadn’t been her intention to try to attract them.

She was clearly agitated and began to pace back and forth along the stream’s bank. Just as abruptly, she bent down and scooped up a double handful of water. “Water. What the petch can I do with water.” She spoke bitterly, enunciating each word. She glanced down at the water in her hands, then in a childish fashion proceeded to toss the water at the mage.

Almost immediately, she turned her back on Clyde, as if not wanting to face him. It wasn’t fair. Aren had been able to control fire. And Clyde? Hadn’t he said his first element was fire? At least she wasn’t stuck with air. That would have been a fate worse than… But what if her next element was air? What good were water and air? Then she suddenly remembered Clyde’s storm. The primary components to a storm were wind and water.

The Eypharian turned around with a grim look of determination. “Fine. Water. So be it. I’ll attract it.”

She held out her right mid hand, her dominant hand. Then she practically glared at it as she focused on her djed, willing it to come out in the form of res. “Come out, come out, come out!” For half a tick, she thought she saw the faintest glimmer of red on her palm, but then it disappeared as if it had never been.

By now the little remaining patience she had was gone, and in a huff she sat back down on the rock, all arms folded across her chest. “You’re going to tell me try meditating. Or to stop trying entirely for the day, aren’t you?”

Credit: Shimoje

by **Clyde Sullins** on October 27th, 2016, 5:15 pm

Clyde shook his head, letting out a sigh. From the way she spoke Clyde knew she clearly still didn't understand the magic.

“Attraction doesn't work that way. You aren't going to be pulling flames from a league away, even if you were trying. Generally whatever you are attracting is going to be in the general vicinity of your res, particularly at your skill. And at your skill your res can't range far without you losing control. Its why its called being an initiate Say, you are new to the magic and haven't unlocked its full abilities. You've hardly even scratched the surface on the front cover, let alone gotten to the meat in the later chapters. More will come in time, but for now you need patience.”

As Sayana paced about in a rant, Clyde simply smiled and stood watching to let her blow off some steam, just staring at her as she splashed some water across him.

Clyde waited until she stopped running about before letting his smile break, and finally responding.

“Water is of life. But it is still a substance to be controlled. Don't judge a book by its cover, or an element on its utility.”

Leaning forward and lowering his voice to almost a whisper Clyde spoke once more in a secretive manner.

“I could kill you right now if I wished, using nothing but the water you so snear on.”

Clyde paused for dramatic effect, letting the words sink in, before continuing in a more normal tone and manner.

“Now perhaps you aren't quite up to that, but in time when you are more skilled, it would certainly be possible. Honestly though at your skill, as a new initiate, you'd be hard pressed to kill anything but a butterfly or someone chained to a wall no matter the element. You just don't have the volume of control, or range needed for such a thing. But you can't expect to be doing large spells right off.”

As the woman plopped down onto the ground like a child in a huff, Clyde simply smiled at her once more.

“Yes and no. Yes, I want you to meditate, no I won't tell you to stop for the day. But wound up and in a huff as you are, your in no condition to be using magic. Count to a chime, and clear your thoughts. Take a bit to calm yourself. You should never use magic when you are emotional or upset. You'll just end up doing stupid things, and overgiving. When you are angry, or emotional, or abuzz with such things, it is much easier to not notice the signs of overgiving when they are there. Which they aren't always, but its best to be at your best when doing magic.”

“But I won't always be there, to tell you when to do magic or not. You'll need to find your own judgement of when you must stop, and this is as good a time as any to start working on that judgement. No more transmutation for the day, but if you think you can then perhaps a bit of attraction. But not until you are calmed down and have rested for a few chimes. Always rest between magic uses if you can. Another thing you can do to help avoid overgiving.”

“Your body can only safely turn so much djed into use for magic in a given time. The more you use at once, or the more spells you do in short order even if smaller, then the more likely you are to overgive. But if you take breaks in between, you give your body that bit of time to rest and prepare a bit more, instead of having to randomly pull it out and yank if from wherever it can.”

Pausing for a moment, Clyde bent down to the water, and pulled at the dirt. Scraping out a small indention in the mud, Clyde rose and pointed at it.

“Think of djed as a hole in the ground in a drizzle. It starts out full of water, but eventually its empty. Over time the drizzle slowly fills it back up, but if you pull water out faster than it can fill it up then it has to pull that water from somewhere. Think of the stream as overgving, and every time you pull from it instead of the hole you go into that overgiving deeper.”

by **Sayana** on November 8th, 2016, 12:05 am

Water. He could kill her right then and there with water. Fat load of good it did her. However the statement had enough of an effect to jar her back into reality. He was dangerous, and powerfully so. And she… she could be if she wanted to. Dangerous as a reimancer.

Sayana looked up from her seat as the mage began his lecture. He was patient, and sometimes unnervingly so. He hadn’t even flinched when she had splashed the water at him. But he was thorough and calm too. Her eyes brightened briefly when he didn’t forbid her of magic entirely for the day. She’d be able to have another go at reimancy.

With that goal in mind, she was able to sit through his long explanation a bit better. Even as he reiterated the overgiving, Sayana focused on longer breaths. In through her nose and out through her mouth. She even closed her eyes for a bit and let herself be immersed in the black calm of her mind.

When the mage got her attention to focus on the mud near the stream, she glanced at it critically. “It’s like eating, or running, or fighting. You have to give yourself breaks but you can also train yourself to endure more, last longer, and become stronger. Call it a drizzle of water, but I know what you’re getting at.”

When she realized she was being curt with him, Sayana got to her feet and strode over to the mage. “Clyde, I’ll learn and get better. I can handle myself.” She reached up with her high hands and looped them around his neck as she moved in for a kiss. Deep, lingering. Her other hands naturally found themselves upon Clyde’s waist. It was something instinctive and her whole being seemed to calm with the single focus: the present kiss.

As she broke it, her eyes opened to look into his bright blue gaze. “There. I’ve meditated.”

With a hint of a cheeky grin, she slipped off her boots to wade into the water of the stream. It was chilly, but the fall weather hadn’t yet sunk in to make it unbearable. The currents swished around her shins, catching at her dress and her six hands spread out while she stood, deep in thought. With her palms facing upwards, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Small gestures of her thumbs upon her palms helped her focus and she immersed herself in the sensation of the water against her shins.

Pulling, drawing, pushing… she slowly eased out some of her res. Just a little in each of her palms, small pools of red liquid against her brown skin. A headache was starting to creep up on her, but she wanted to see it through.

“Attract. Lift up. Rise. Water lift up. Rise to my hands…”

As she spoke softly, trying to get the attraction to take place, she felt the strangest tug of resistance. It was almost like a mental tug. Encouraged, she focused even harder, trying to become one with her res as it was merely just another part of her and draw up the water.

Sayana felt the barest hint of an undercurrent, then with a huge lack of finesse water seemed to rise up haphazardly around her. She opened her eyes in surprise at the cool touch upon one of her hands, but her brief lack of focus caused the water’s momentum to keep going and completely drench her lower half.

“Gods and Goddesses! Petch that’s petching cold!” Sayana cried out as she splashed out from the stream and back on dry ground. Anyone watching probably could have guessed the looming outcome a mile off.

Shivering from the sudden cold she indignantly declared, “Petch attraction. I’m done for the day.”

The next moment it felt as if the wind was knocked out of her, as the sudden drain of energy from the magic use made itself known. Breathing heavily, almost panting, the Eypharian leaned up against a tree. Her mind felt like it was spinning from the magic use, not to mention the growing headache that was making itself more clearly known. There was the faintest urge to do more, but her soaked dress more than made up her mind on that matter.

Credit: Shimoje

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 21st, 2016, 9:23 pm

Clutching Cha in hand, Clyde watched his hypnotist.

She was a rough rock pulled from the dirt, muddy and a mess. But if cleaned, shaped, and shined, she could be formed into something much greater. An actual mage, not just someone who did magic as she was now.

There was a distinction Clyde thought to himself, one measured in many ways, power being only one of them. Choices in Clyde's opinion measured a mage much better, choices taken and not. Power could be gained in time, but the ability to make a hard decision, to not act in the moment's interest, to be strong of mind and soul, that measured a mage far more.

Clyde pondered his hypnotist, unsure if she would meet his standards in time or fall short of being a true mage.

Nodding, Clyde responded to her correct statement.

“Yes and no. Eating allows your body to absorb djed, taking it out of the thing you have consumed. Physical actions, running or fighting, expend some of that djed. Being alive, moving, everything uses up djed. Its just a difference of amounts and limits.”

“Your body naturally self limits how much djed you use up, and how much you can use at once. Its why no matter how exhausted you become physically, you'd never go into overgiving by said pure physical action. Its only by using personal magic that you can break this rule, and thus use more djed than your body can safely use at once.”

Clyde ignored Sayana's tone, focusing on the lesson. His talking gave her a good chance to rest, and kept her focus off using more magic.

“Also yes, with training you can do more magic, and expend less djed, but I don't believe you gain extra djed to use as you become more skilled. Bearing in mind this is my own theory on djed from my researches and observations, but I believe you simply become more efficient in your use of djed as you become more skilled. Its less like training your body, training endurance and stamina, and more like training a skill, to fight better with a sword. After all, a master using a sword can do far more with it than a novice, but they'd both be using the same weapon. But one would be using it better, more efficiently, and so they can do more with the same.”

When she stopped the lesson to rise and kiss him, Clyde responded, but didn't press on. He knew if he got distracted they'd not get anything else of use done, and so he fought to ignore her and his bodies reaction to her touch and kiss, and focused instead on the lesson. Of course, his mind was easier to distract and calm than his body, which had after the last seasons practice become quite quick to react to such things from her.

He was somewhat glad then when she stepped back and moved into the water, focusing back on the lesson.

After that Sayana stood in the cold water for a bit, managing to make a small swell and soak herself, but quickly expending the bit of res in the attempt. That seemed to be enough, and Sayana seemed to lose her interest in continuing afterward.

Soaked, tired, and wet, Sayana slumped against a tree.

With an almost casual gesture Clyde swirled Cha in a tiny inch wide circle, exuding a small trail of res in the path of its head. After a few moments he had a decent sized cloud floating and circling about his staff in a ring a few feet wide and a few inches high.

Walking a bit closer to Say and rotating Cha and the res ring over her, he willed attraction out of it, pulling on the water. The water pulled off of her, in droplets sucked up at first, accelerating in a moment until it began to unsoak and rise almost all at once from her clothing and flesh and the dirt below her where she'd dripped and rubbed off the wetness.

In a few more ticks Sayana was left dry as before she'd entered the water, a ring of water circling endlessly around the ring of res on Cha.

With a casual flick Clyde eyed the stream, sending the water and res snapping like a whip, cutting off the attraction as it reached its peak of forward speed and momentum.

The res stayed, and the water flew through the air and landed in a broad splash in the general area of the waters flow. As soon as it had left the direct control of his res the water began to lose cohesion, and by the time it made it back to its source it was less of a whip and more of a downpour akin to a sudden fall of rain cascading off of a struck tree.

Taking in a deep breath Clyde pulled on the res, sucking it back into Cha, letting the circle turn and dive at it, ending up soaking the air around it and bit by bit being reabsorbed back into it.

“You know, you didn't have to go diving into the water. Standing on the shore or edge would've probably been enough.”

by **Sayana** on November 29th, 2016, 12:22 am

Even in her slumped and tired position, Sayana watched entranced as the droplets and dampness of her dress was drawn into the silvery cloud of res. It rotated magically through the air, with hardly a thought and merely a flick or two of Clyde’s staff. And then like an arching tendril of water it was sent back to the stream it came from, only to dissipate into a thousand drops of water.

“You know Clyde, you didn’t have to initiate me into reimancy. Making love to me would have been enough.” Sayana mimicked with a countering example. “But you did it anyway. I wanted to feel all that there was, and be immersed in the element I wished to command… So why would I have merely stood on the river bank? Besides, sometimes you’ve got to live, and live with everything you’ve got.”

The headache was still very present and the palms of her hands had an annoying itch. But it didn’t matter. She knew she could do one more. She wanted to do something more. Even if it was something small. The Eypharian gave a brief whistle and crouched down as she caught sight of the black shadow dog. Meeting its red eyes, she drew a small bit of djed and laced it with feelings of protection. When she spoke, the hypnotic suggestion was soft like a feather, a magical melody that could be felt beyond the simple sounds of her words.

“Come Rye, it’s time to guard the tents.”

She released the magic and then made a beckoning wave to Clyde with two of her hands. Even though the headache had become more pronounced she ignored it as she made a mad and darting dash back to the tents.

It was time for love and sweet kisses and feelings of closeness. It was time to settle in for the night after the lesson in magic. But more than that, it was time to be near and close to Clyde. To protect and keep watch. Always, diligently, she would guard and protect by the bindings of her Grand Oath.

Credit: Shimoje

by **Clyde Sullins** on December 1st, 2016, 3:16 am

For a moment a hot spark flared in Clyde's gut, annoyance as he looked at Sayana. At her words, her tone and how she disrespected him. At some level he knew she was simply being her normal playful and flippant self, but using magic tended to rile up his more instinctive reactions and so this wasn't so easy to recall.

Gone as quick as it had come, Clyde simply sighed and shook his head at the girl. A girl that hadn't even bothered to thanked him for drying her off and leaving her wet and miserable.

During her magic he'd felt the small tingles and touches of djed upon his skin, though he hadn't bothered to extend his aura sight since he knew the source of magic- her visible Reimancy.

He was about to turn about and start heading back to camp, as it seemed she was about to, when he felt another tingle run down Cha and into his arms. He felt the tingle run down Cha as Sayana's words rung in the air.

He was surprised to see Sayana near Rye, using magic though not of a visible sort. He wasn't sure what magic she was using, though clearly it wasn't Reimancy, but he was more perturbed that she was using more so soon after all the others.

He'd given her a choice, a chance, and she'd thrown caution to the wind and gone on casting. It had been a test as much of a choice, a chance to show her restraint, one she'd clearly failed in his mind.

Before he could respond Sayana suddenly dashed off, heading back to the campsite ahead of him.

For a moment he stood, staring after her gripping Cha in his hands. The small spark of annoyance from earlier flared to life once more, growing into a flame pointed at her. His anger was as much for her as for himself. He was concerned with what would happen to her if she overgave. Who knew what foolish things she might do, or if she might be driven insane in her rushed quest for power.

But he was also angry at her in how it affected him. She was of no use to him if she was driven mad with magic. Plus who knew what affect on the workings of the Oath being crazy might have. He had worded it as he had with a sane person in mind. The wording was strong, it wouldn't be so simple to break, and couldn't be outright broken, but to a broken mind with broken understanding of meanings what something meant was more abstract.

What she might do then in order to follow the other, either going beyond his meaning or avoiding it in some odd way, could be possible.

But then he reminded himself, he'd given her the test for a reason. He wanted to see what she would do. Wanted to see her mettle, and who and what she was. How she would act if given the chance. He'd seen that.

The flame in his gut was silenced, replaced by a small hollow feeling of emptiness, as he began to head after the hypnotist a thought occurred to him, flowing out of that small empty space.

He might have to kill her. Kill her for her own good, and his. Kill her if she walked the wrong path, one he tried to warn her about but which she refused to take heed of.

She was no where near that point now, such a thing was a long way off if it did happen, but in that moment Clyde saw it as a possibility and steeled himself against the possible future needed action.

As he walked along after Sayana to catch up with her, it was with such thoughts and things roiling in his belly that he returned to the camp with.

Thoughts of her going mad, of a slow fall into the depth of overgiving and madness at such a slow pace of inches that it went unnoticed. Of a quick death as a mercy for her.

She might not take his warnings seriously, might not take magic seriously, but Clyde did. Deadly serious. He'd seen what could happen, and wouldn't let such things fall upon him.

by **Rufio** on March 1st, 2017, 9:43 am

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