Flashback By The Fire

[Lani Stranger]

52nd of Winter 507AV

Note :

Lani has had many names in her life, at this point she was known as Leavou, so that is the name I will be using. For more detail on that timeline, consult her plotnotes.

While R’yse flurried through the room, murmuring things about making sure she had all her notes and enough ink, where to find something called D-Wire, Leavou watched her. The sun was beginning to creep over the tops of the mountains, and her mother was still caught in her little world. After stuffing a mix of books from her desk into her back and snagging a roll with her teeth, R’yse began heading towards the door.

“Mama.” Leavou spoke up, snagging her mother’s coat off of her seat and trotting after her. “Don’t forget this.” She said in Kontinese, holding it out so the Konti could shrug into it.

“Thank you dear, what would I do without you.” R’yse murmured through the roll in her teeth, and within a few more ticks, swept out the door without saying goodbye, or even shutting it all the way. The mixed blood stepped forward to press the wood completely closed and then sat back at the table. She hadn’t finished eating when her mother had realized the time and rushed out, so the mixed blood dug her eating knife into the hard cheese, plopping a piece on her own roll and downing the cold meal. She took her time chewing, taking more than she knew she was supposed to. But they weren’t poor anymore, they had money now and she didn’t think an extra roll and few bites of cheese would be noticed.

When she was done eating, the child moved her eating knife into the small soapy bin for cleaning, and then brushed the crumbs off of the table. She didn’t like to clean, but it was better to do some small things than face R’yse’s wrath after four days of no cleaning. The Konti didn’t clean herself, but she expected the child to, a face that Leavou had learned the hard way. Leavou was meant to go speak with the city’s herbalists to organize some lessons in the coming spring, as that was the training that R’yse wanted Leavou to pursue. But since that was the child’s only task for the day, she decided she would relax for a while.

It had been a few days since she met the teenage Alchemist apprentice in the library, and it had piqued her curiosity. She was much more likely to want to learn something that she wasn’t allowed to, and R’yse had given her the perfect fuel. It wasn’t that her mother would not let her learn magic, just that she wasn’t allowed to yet. Even so, her mother was not secretive about her own magic learnings, and something employed Leavou’s help with certain projects. To the eleven year old, it didn’t feel as if R’yse was really trying to keep her from learning.

Leavou grabbed the broom and prepared to sweep the crumbs from the floor, when her eyes caught sight of a book that had toppled over R’yse desk. It was one of the blank journals that she used to take notes, and had fallen open on the floor so that some pages where bent underneath it. In an effort to save her mother’s notes she set the broom aside and strode over to pick up the book. The child straightened the pages briefly before her eyes caught sight of what was on them.

A doorway must be loaded, charged and activated, in that order. Loading involves the placement of items and materials in the door's frame. A serious alchemical ring will feature at least six modular slots that can be filled with any material and plugged into the ring (or left empty), though simply placing the materials upon the ring if it is laid horizontally may suffice for minor reactions. These materials, called 'chargers', will develop a strong Djed current and be in turn traversed by that of the other chargers hundreds of times per second.

It was a lengthy paragraph, and the eleven year old skimmed it before she caught sight of words that made her go back and read it. It seemed to be not notes, but straight copying from a book. It was beginner instructions, which her mother was far past, and thus likely forgotten about by her. But this was irresistible material to the small child who was so determined to learn it.

But her heart started racing with the idea that R’yse could come back looking for this book any minute, and with a small amount of fear, she straightened the bent pages once more, and set it on the desk, returning to her broom and continuing her day like normal.

[Lani Stranger]

By the time Leavou came back from looking for an herbalism shop, of which she could not find one on this peak and was too nervous to traverse the high bridges to the other peaks. Stamping the snow off her boots outside the cottage, she removed her scarf and mittens before stepping inside. She removed her shoes to not track slush through the whole home, but the first thing she did was grab the flint and steel from the hearth.

During her time traveling with her mother she had gotten reasonably good at starting a fire, and she picked up the poker to push the ask from the metal rack that held the logs to the stoney hearth below. She grabbed two logs from the wood stack, and set them atop, along with some smaller kindling branches that would help them catch fire. She pulled small bundle of birch bark that was set aside as tinder and opened it up, revealing the hairy guts inside. With shakey cold fingers she snapped the steel on the flint, aiming the sparks as best she could. It took more than a few times, but eventually one caught.

She immediately picked up the tinder to blow on it and encourage growth, but the movement put the fire out. Again she tapped the flint and steel together until another spark caught the birch bark, and she leaned down to gently blow it to life now, watching it grow and spark to life in the thin tinder. Before too much of the bark burned, she picked it up and carefully set it on the logs, adjusting a kindling stick over it to catch the flame before the bark used it all up.

Once the fire was going, she grabbed a bucket beside the fireplace, stuffed her toes back into her boots, and stepped outside. The snow piled quite high on these peaks, and she was able to scoop some untouched white mounds from the grass of what she suspected would be their garden, but was drowned in the frozen billowy clouds that Morwen had settled on the ground.

Ducking back inside, she hung the metal bucket over the fire to let the snow melt and boil for tea, and then she took her coat and outer layers off to try and heat her fingers and toes up by the fire.

The eleven year old decided she hated Lhavit. At least when they were on the road, there was always something to do, something to learn. Survival was the most important thing, and when they were allowed respite from such a task, they were caring for the horses who carried them, or ensuring they had food and water for the coming journey. Now she had a reliable roof over her head, enough food in her stomach, and an abundance of leisurely things to do. But there was very little necessity in the child’s life. Unlike most children, she detested this. It was then that her eyes wandered back over towards the book on the desk, unmoved from where she had placed it. She knew her mother’s schedule at this point, a few hours after sunrise until a few hours before sunset, she would be gone. If she hadn’t come back for the book yet, then she wasn’t missing it. Not today, at least.

The temptation was too great. As her digits warmed, she turned to their sleeping chamber to put fuzzy socks on, and then meandered over to the desk in the main living area. There were two quills and a half-used vial of ink as well as a thin stack of parchment paper used for scrolling. She could read her mother’s Common and Kontinese handwriting, and it was all just right there. Her self-preservation reminded her that R’yse would be upset if she was going through her things, but she doubted her mother would be too upset that she was trying to learn Alchemy. The Konti had promised to teach the mixed blood the art within time, just saying that she wasn’t ready yet. If she knew anything about her mother, it wasn’t that Leavou wasn’t ready, it was that R’yse wasn’t.

The risks seemed manageable.

[Lani Stranger]

Within ticks, she had the book and was curled back by the fire once more, flipping all the way to the first page and began reading.

” Alchemy is about charging 'doorways' with Djed and letting that energy imbue a material to change its essence. The resulting material is one not found in nature, and hopefully one with desirable properties.” These didn’t feel like her mother’s words, and seemed to be a direct copy from some other book. Because of that, as the eleven year old read, she found herself skimming certain concepts.

It was hard and annoying and her gaze kept wandering to the locked door of her mother’s laboratory. She was not lucky enough to get two breaks in one day, but she knew she would have a better understanding if she could look at the Alchemy ring while she read. Better yet if she had a teacher to show her the things. But Leavou had seen the ring before and it did help.

Her mother had a upright one, which from what she read, seemed preferable. As the book described how an alchemy ring was laid out, she remembered what she had seen and it made more sense. There were two doors on top, which were the fonts. In her mother’s alchemy ring, these were two metal plates that connected to the metal ring towards the top. In the middle were two triangular pieces of metal with intricate glyphing on them, which must be the meridian keystones. According to the book one denoted positive charge, towards the fonts, and negative charge, towards the filters. Then below those were the filters. The filters and the fonts objectively looked very similar, both were a pair of metal plates attached to the ring with simpler glyphing carved into them, but the filters were placed below the meridian keystones. Then, raised by a solid metal pike in the center was the plate which held the target item.

The layout itself made sense to Leavou, but as she read she understood that this was not a how-to on the actual ring, since each component had its own set of Alchemical glyphs that would give it the channels for djed to flow through and activate the magic.

[Lani Stranger]

As she continued, the book continued on to talk about D-wire, where to place it and how to ensure it would maximize the capacity of djed to flow through the ring. As she understood it, D-wire was not necessary but vastly decreased the chance of failure based off of not being able to channel the djed completely.

At this point the eleven year old had to take a break, it was a lot of thick knowledge very quickly, and without a proper visual or hands on instruction, she found her thoughts getting jumbled with the information.

Her water was beginning to boil and she was getting warm. A of loose black tea rested on the counter beside the salt and the flour. Leavou stood, retrieved the tea and the wicker strainer, pulling a glass mug from the cabinet, and setting it on the counter. She set a cloth down on the table and then reached over the top of the hot fireplace to grab the handle from it’s hook, grimacing she quickly stepped over to the table, setting the water on the towel. She pinched some tea into the strainer and set it inside the mug, then ladled the hot water over it.

Deciding to let the tea sit a little longer, she returned to the book, skimming the page for where she left off. As she read more about D-wire, she was uncertain if the Alchemy ring in the other room had d-wire strung into it. She remembered a gold wire-like thing that wrapped in tight coils around the ring and onto each of the metal plates and the target plate, was that D-wire? Here it said that it was rare, made out of a pure metal and with glyphs inscribed into it. She didn’t recall any glyphs inscribed into it and thought it was a aesthetic accent. Perhaps the glyphs were too small, perhaps it was both.

Moving on she read about loading, charging, and activating. Loading seemed simple enough, and had to do with the Alchemical equations she had learned. It was important to put something in a font if you wanted a particular trait from it, but would have to put something in the filter that retracted other traits. Her mother had used a terrifying, although effect example when she taught her about fonts and filters.

R’yse had spoken of wanting to give a scarf the personality of a snake, one could take the snake whose personality they wanted to acquire and put it into the font. They would then take a dead snake of the same kind and put it into the filter. Thus the magic would pull from the font what the filter doesn’t have, which is the personality of the snake, leaving the physical appearance of the snake (from the filter) from merging with the cloth of the scarf.

The notes spoke of using blood as a font, and water as a filter, to change the color of iron. They djed would then take the color of the blood, but not the liquidity of the water, changing the color of the iron. Even though Leavou had understood her mother’s example, she liked this example much much better.

Again, Leavou needed a break from the thick reading, and stood up to take the leaves out of her tea. Then, because no one could stop her, the child climbed onto the counter, reaching the honey pot from the highest point in the food pantry, and brought it down. With a stupid grin on her face, she ladled three hug spoonfuls into her tea, mixing it thoroughly with the hot black water, before testing a sip. Sweet, but not sweet enough. She scooped one more spoonful, mixing it in, and being pleased with herself.

[Lani Stranger]

Back to the fire, Leavou read on about half lifes. For some reason she hadn’t heard of this before and it didn’t occur to her that an Alchemied object might not last. But as the book outlined the difference between a beginner’s project and a master’s project, it made sense. Pycons were used as an example, and Leavou realized she knew almost nothing about the race because she hadn’t previously been aware that they were a product of Alchemy and not children of the Gods like the rest of the humanoid races.

The book mentioned that auristics could be used to determine the effects of the alchemy process, and Leavou felt the need to begin noting things down. She had read the book thoroughly and had absorbed much information, but she was the daughter of a scholar, and knew that it meant nothing what she remembered now. What she would remember in the morning was what it was about. Her crow-like gaze fell upon the desk, grazing the quills, ink, and parchment again. Surely her mother wouldn’t notice one page missing?

That way if R’yse remembered this book again, at least the eleven year old would have notes for the day R’yse forgot to lock the laboratory door. If that would ever happen.

Pulling the stool out from under the writing desk, she hoped up on it, pulling a single parchment piece from the stack and then dragging a well of ink forward. She had to get up on her knees to select one of the quills, the least used one. Uncorking the ink, she dipped the quill in, tapping the tip just on the inside of the lip to make sure there were no drops. She remembered how to do it. Letting the quill rest now, she picked the book up again. She could already note some things about the basics of Alchemy, and intended to do so.

She had to flip back through pages over and over to make sure she was getting the information right, but in her young hand writing she jotted down the main notes. So long as she could remember these whenever she got her hands on the ring, she would be fine. At least her childish confidence told her so. A sneaking thought in the back of her mind told her to enlist Raeyn for help, if he would, so that it was not so dangerous. R’yse had told her about how world magics tended to be less dangerous than personal magics, but when they were dangerous, it was on a much larger scale. In the meantime, however, the eleven year old was not thinking about that while she eagerly wrote out notes of her mother’s notes.

ALCHEMY 101

-Alchemy ring/door: metallic vertical ring with D-wire is preferred. Can be horizontal/not metal/no D-wire (won’t work as well).

1. Made of four charge plates, a target pedestal, and two meridian keystones.
2. Charge Plates: 2 founts, 2 filters > must know glyphs
3. Meridian keystones: one charges to the fonts, one charges to the filters > must know glyphs
4. Target Pedestel: Place item to be changed
5. D-wire: Run throughout ring to attach plates/pedestal/keystones

-Order of operations: Load, charge, activate (No exceptions!)

1. Load: Put things where you want them
2. Charge: Use own blood to channel djed flow (cannot be distracted, can use multiple mages for help)
3. Activate: Focus djed on target object and release (once djed is at the right velocity)

-Half-Life: Can be days, can be centuries, depends on skill. After time span of half life, alchemied item will lose 50% of effect until there is no more. (ex: 100% at season 1, 50% at season 2, 25% at season 3, etc.)

-Chargers: A charger is any item placed in the door's frame to be crossed by an accelerated Djed flux. More advantage to using multiple chargers in a round than one at a time. Chargers should be reduced to simplest form (ex: Solid ground to powder, metal metled to ingot, etc.). Alchemied items should start in simplest form and turned into things after complete. Chargers are founts and filters

-Misc. Notes:

1. Larger ring=lerger effect, more skill needed
2. Cool the changed item in a bucket of water.
3. Alchemied items can be sensed with Auristics
4. Pycons were created through alchemy
5. Djed radiation bad

[Lani Stranger]

Once she was done, the light of the fire was shrinking. Leavou was careful to clean the quill properly, cap the ink, and put everything back where she thought it ought to be. She let her mother’s book remain closed on the desk, because she knew it would be odd if she had just left it on the ground, which might raise more suspicion. The child put her single page of notes by the fire to dry, admiring them. She knew that this was just an introduction to the art, there were mention of glyphs and formulas in the book, which she was unable to find, and therefore guessed had to be taught by a mage or by more in depth books. It was already established that she could not get them from the library, her mother would never approve her to get permission from the Towers to read their books.

Still, she had an in on the information, and she was bubbling with excitement over it. She popped another log into the fire, poking the flaming remains of the last two to cover it so they burned the new log as well, and she carefully stuck the stool back under the desk. After a few chimes, and she was sure the ink was dry, Leavou picked up the parchment, rolling the stiff paper together, and running to their sleeping chambers to hide it in the bottom of her trunk, with her summer sandals. She would know where it was, but it was unlikely R’yse would be going in there anytime soon. She hoped.

Her little secret made her chest a little light with excitement and fear of being found, and Leavou decided she didn’t want to be home when R’yse came home, just in case her acting was not up to par. Finally feeling the urge that any normal eleven year old would, she stuffed her shoes in her boots and hooked her arms in her coat, and decided to spend the brightest hours of the afternoon exploring.

Word Count: 3,534

[Ssezzkero]

Observation +5, Organization +2, Wilderness Survival +1, Cooking +1, Writing +1, Copying +1, Alchemy +3, Research +4, R’yse: Studying Magic, Location: Lhavit, Lhavit: Open to magic, Lani: Used to be known as Leavou, Cooking: Boiling water, Cooking: Brewing tea, Organization: Sweeping, Alchemy: World Magic, Alchemy: Changes an item, Alchemy: Alchemy rings/doors, Alchemy: Charges, Alchemy: Founts and Filters, Alchemy Meridian keystone, Alchemy: Target pedestal, Alchemy: Dangerous, Alchemy Ring: Uses D-wire, D-Wire: Glyphed gold/bronze wire, Alchemy Charges: Should be in simplest form, Alchemy order of Operations (loading, charging, and activating), Alchemy: Filters help control what aspect is taken from the fount, Alchemy: Half-life, Alchemy: Can be done on living things, Alchemy: Requires knowledge of glyphing