Solo By Candlelight

[Asterope]

60th of winter, 521 AV

Aster had been toying with the concept of light ever since she'd been blessed by Priskil. Being a daughter of Syna, she'd always felt a sort of affinity for light, warmth, fire...especially sunlight. But being marked by Priskil changed things. Now it felt like a more solid connection. She could sense light, strengthen it herself, even briefly create it within her own palms.

So she had been thinking about it quite a bit, and her thoughts had lead her to shielding. It was still something she was trying to practice when she could, and she was curious to see if shielding could affect light. Which lead to her sitting at the table in her room with two lit candles in front of her, the statuette of Kihala sitting on the edge beside her, swinging her tiny stone feet.

"It's a bit more difficult than just shielding with full touch, but theoretically it should work," the woman said.

Aster nodded, idly flicking her fingers, brightening the candle for a moment, the mark on her palm glowing faintly. It still sent a thrill through her every time she did it. Kihala looked bemused. "And I need to incorporate what the thing I'm shielding against," Aster recalled. "So..." she glanced from the candle directly in front of her to the one further away.

"It doesn't have to be the whole thing," Kihala said. "Just a piece will do."

"If I'm trying to block the light, though, how do I incorporate that?" Aster frowned, glancing between the two candles.

"You're not just blocking any light, though. You're blocking the light of a candle. It's...complicated. I don't know much of the details myself," Kihala admitted. "All I know is you have to incorporate the item to task the shield."

Aster frowned thoughtfully, and after a moment flexed her fingers, extending the claws of one hand. Carefully, she reached out, carving off a small sliver of wax from the side of the candle. Scraping excess wax out from under her nails and letting them return to their normal length, Aster turned back to the candle in front of her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, inhaling deeply and then exhaling slowly, particularly mindful of her breath so as not to blow out the candle. Aster focused, stilling her mind, slowing her breathing, and let her awareness reach down into her chest, pulling gently at the djed she could feel humming through her veins when she focused. She drew it up, feeling it pool in her fingertips, thrumming, ready to be used.

Opening her eyes again, Aster let out another slow, measured exhale, focusing on the flickering flame in front of her. She hesitated then; how was she supposed to cover fire? Aster reached a tentative finger out as close as she could to the flame, hissing out a breath and withdrawing quickly when she singed her fingertip. Kihala said nothing, but she felt the disapproval, and a flush of embarrassment rose in her cheeks. She wasn't sure what she had expected, really.

Word count: 507

[Asterope]

Refocusing, Aster took a moment to resettle herself and draw her djed back. This time, she extended her finger until she felt a borderline uncomfortable but not searing heat. "It's just like an object," Aster mumbled to herself, tracing the outline of the flame with her eyes. "Just...surround it."

Focusing on the djed at her fingertips, Aster slowly began to draw her hand upwards around the flame, guiding it out from her fingertips and around the flame. Like sunlight seeping through a crack, the shimmering golden surface began to spread beneath Aster's fingers, clinging to the outline of the flickering flame where Aster passed her hand.

It was slow going; slower than usual, as Aster found it difficult to cover the flame. She took her time as much as she could, passing her fingers slowly over the flame, gritting her teeth and forcing herself not to jerk away on instinct when she dipped her fingers too close to the heat. She passed her fingers back over spots that felt too vulnerable or thin, slowing drawing her fingers up to the flickering point of the flame and around it, slowly creating a sort of misshapen bubble of glittering gold.

Aster hesitated at the base of the flame where the candle began, frowning slightly. She couldn't pass her fingers through the bottom of the flame, so instead she drew the bubble down somewhat, trailing shimmering golden light across the top of the candle to try and seal it off.

She was beginning to feel the fatigue that she was starting to recognize as being associated with heavy shielding practice, but Aster ignored it, passing over weak points in the shield once more. Finally satisfied she had done the best she could, Aster picked up the sliver from the candle, and inhaled deeply, focusing on the gleaming shield. Pressing the sliver of candle to it, she focused her intent into the djed. Light, she thought, willing the concept into the shield, Block the candle light.

Aster watched as the sliver of candle was covered in the shimmering shield, and then was slowly absorbed into it, fading into the shield. Once it was fully incorporated, Aster released her djed, finalizing the shield. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting to happen; perhaps for the candle flame to simply disappear. What she hadn't been expecting was a black sphere to appear around the flame where she'd spread her shield.

Well, a black mostly sphere. It wasn't quite round, and parts of it were thin, allowing a visible glow, while other spots had entire gaps that let light spill out from the sphere. It was actually, looking at it, probably more gaps than sphere. "Shields don't make things invisible," Kihala reminded her, seeing Aster's wide eyes. "They block things out. When you block something visual, well..." she motioned to the black sphere.

"It's terrible," Aster frowned, and Kihala laughed.

"Yes," she agreed, but not harshly or cruelly. "It is. You're learning. And this wasn't exactly a simple exercise. Why don't you look at where you went wrong?"

Word count: 514
Total: 1,021

[Asterope]

Aster leaned in to the shield, then sat back abruptly at the warmth that spread across her face. "Right," she mumbled. "Light, not heat." Despite the light being...sort of blocked, the heat was still emanating perfectly from the flame. Examining the shield as closely as she could, Aster inspected her work.

She recognized a heavy cluster of gaps where the shield was more of a thin web of cracks than anything else near the bottom of the shield, where she had grown tired and if she was being honest with herself, somewhat impatient. The densest areas with the least amount of gaps were surprisingly not where she had started, but in the middle; where she had picked up confidence in her methods, but before she had gotten tired.

The shield, overall, was incredibly uneven. The areas she had gone over multiple times were thick, while the rest of it, at least where there weren't gaps, was clearly thinner. In some places it was so thin that Aster could faintly see the light flickering behind it.

"It was a good try," Kihala said, encouragingly.

"Can I...get rid of it so that I can try again?" Aster asked, looking at Kihala, who shook her head.

"It will have to fade on its own. Once a shield is created, it becomes its own, separate...well, not living thing. Entity, perhaps. It won't take long since, well..." Kihala hesitated and Aster smiled slightly.

"Since it's not very good," she acknowledged, and Kihala laughed softly.

"You could do the other one," Kihala suggested, and Aster nodded after a moment.

Pushing the already shielded candle away, Aster pulled the other one closer. It had burned down a fair bit, and Aster wondered how long she'd been sitting there hunched over the candle. It had felt both like an eternity and like no time at all had passed, but now that she was thinking about it, her legs were aching slightly from sitting for so long and her right foot was beginning to tingle slightly.

Taking a break to stand, Aster stretched, reaching her arms up to the ceiling as she raised up on her toes. Her back let out a satisfying pop before she leaned forward, stretching down to touch her toes. Shaking her arms out, Aster bounced lightly on her toes, inhaling deeply and letting out a long exhale, trying to refocus and center herself again.

Feeling slightly better and ready to try again, Aster sat back down, focusing on the candle in front of her. She carefully cut a sliver from the already shielded candle, setting it aside to incorporate into the shield once it was ready, and focused on the new candle.

Perhaps it would be better to cover the area once, then go back and try to reinforce the entire thing? She would need to pace herself, though. Aster inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. The feeling of pulling up the djed within her and taking hold of it was becoming more and more familiar to her, the feeling of it humming in her fingertips comforting.

Word count: 512
Total: 1,533

[Asterope]

Opening her eyes, her brow furrowed with concentration, tongue poking out from between her lips, Aster began spreading her shield across the flame again. She went slowly, trying to focus on overlapping edges so as to avoid gaps, and focusing on a more rounded shape as the glittering, ethereal material took shape. It didn't take long for her to start flagging, though; Aster could feel the exhaustion creeping back up on her, making her movements less smooth and causing her to falter, the shield she was spreading becoming spotty not from just from missing areas, but from Aster's draining energy.

"Don't push yourself too hard," Kihala said gently from beside her. "Overgiving with shielding is much less of a risk and not so severe, but it's still dangerous."

"I can do it," Aster mumbled stubbornly; but she could feel her hand beginning to tremble slightly, her head beginning to ache slightly from the effort of concentrating. She grit her teeth, pushing through the exhaustion, forcing herself to focus on inhaling and exhaling deeply and steadily, keeping her mind solely focused on the task at hand, trying to block out anything else.

She managed to circle her shield around the flame once before Aster gave in, knowing she didn't have the energy for another pass. She felt vaguely dizzy as she pressed the sliver of candle to the shield, using the last of her energy to focus her thoughts and intention on blocking out candle light as she released the djed and solidified the shield.

It was...not good. In fact it was probably worse than the first one. There were perhaps less large gaps due to the painstaking slowness with which Aster had passed her shield around, but whereas the first shield at least had thick sections that completely blocked out the light, this one had none. The thickness varied, from spots and gaps to a thin layer that still let some light through, but nowhere on the shield did Aster see a single spot that fully blocked out the light.

"I don't understand," she said, scowling, frustration and exhaustion lacing her voice. Angrily, she blew out the candles, watching with vague interest as the shields faded. She supposed they were tasked with blocking out the candle's light, so if the candle wasn't lit, the shield wouldn't be visible. But that was besides the point.

"Patience," Kihala said, laying a small stone hand gently on Aster's arm. "Your technique was better the second time around, but you were exhausted. Your lack of energy effected your djed as well as your focus. You shouldn't push yourself so hard, you're still learning."

Aster let out a noise of frustration, but she knew Kihala was right. Magic, she was beginning to find, was frustrating in a way other activities weren't, at least when it came to learning. Pushing through normal exhaustion was easier. Still difficult, but manageable; whether it was fighting or dancing or grinding herbs, she could practice for hours on end.

Word count: 499
Total: 2,032

[Asterope]

With magic...once she began to run out of steam, Aster found that she couldn't force herself to keep practicing. It was like her djed became harder to access, and the exhaustion was so utterly complete, not just physical but within her soul. And from what she'd heard of overgiving from Kihala, it could be much more dangerous than simply pushing oneself physically.

As if she knew what Aster was thinking, Kihala spoke up. "Magic is different from many other skills in that it doesn't just take physical effort, it takes...spiritual effort, I suppose, for lack of a better word. Djed comes from within you. But just like with other things the more you practice, the more tolerance you'll build up, and of course the better you'll get." She smiled up at Asterope encouragingly.

"I know," Aster sighed, smiling weakly back. "It's just frustrating, I suppose."

"You're rather impatient with some things," Kihala agreed, and Aster huffed slightly, not having the energy to disagree or argue.

Aster glanced up when she felt a weight hit the back of her shoulder, letting out a small grunt of surprise, only to see a serpentine face poke into her field of vision. A thin forked tongue flicked out at her. "Hello," Aster said in amusement to Cressida. The winged serpent flicked her tongue out again at Aster, and Aster felt Cressida's curiosity touch her own mind, the image of the candles flickering briefly into existence in her mind's eye.

Ever since being marked by Caiyha, Aster had enjoyed being able to communicate with Cressida. It had taken a bit to adjust to it; it wasn't language in the typical way, but more sensations, feelings, and images, the vague concept of thoughts. But it was still communication, and it was pleasant to be able to 'talk', as it were, with the snake she considered a companion and friend.

"I'm practicing magic," Aster said out loud, even as she used Nura to convey the concept of magic, the feeling of djed and using it to craft shields. Cressida cocked her head to the side slightly, flicking her tongue out again, seemingly satisfied with the answer. Another sensation came to Aster, the feeling of sleepiness that was not her own, accompanied by what she could only describe as a mental question mark.

"I'm exhausted," she agreed, confirming Cressida's unspoken question. "I think it's probably bedtime." The snake seemed content with that, coiling herself loosely around Aster's neck and folding her wings along her scaled back. "Good night, Kihala. Thank you for your help," Aster said, as she stood.

"Of course. It's my pleasure to help you," Kihala said, warmly and genuinely, and Aster couldn't help the smile that curved her mouth. "Good night, Asterope. Sleep well."

Aster crawled into bed, mindful of the serpent still curled around her neck as she lay her head on the pillow, settling in beneath the covers. The moment she closed her eyes, sleep took her, her dreams filled with flickering candles.

Word count: 500
Total: 2,532