Solo Of Body & Spirit Pt II

[Alric Lysane]

50th Winter 521 AV – Alric & Taz’s Apartments It had taken him quite a while to recover from the last attempts he had made at using the Flux, he still remembered with a wince the fresh rawness of his muscles in its wake, how he had burned and ached for a good number of days. Yet, seeing the results, keeping up with his active rest philosophy, he had to admit that he was reasonably happy. Taz had been right, he was filling out further, food and training had changed him into someone different, at least physically. Looking into the small mirror the apartments had that morning it had been driven home to him, it had taken him a moment to recognize himself so different had he been since the last time he had truly looked. Despite the fact he was beginning to enjoy his more developed figure, not having given it much thought before, he was also cautious and had decided to rein back his desire to jump straight back into enhanced conditioning. Recovery time had been too long for him and so this day he had decided to try for a more cerebral, if not spiritual, approach. He had had the revelation that even though the Flux was a physical magic in action, at its core it still possessed theory and rules the underpinned it – despite the whispers of triumphant power whilst using it. He suspected that, back when Suvan soldiers used it, the masters that survived had a strong mental fortitude and awareness of their bodies. That was what he was doing at present, scribbling down notes into his journal between wiping the excess from the nib of his quill, alongside drawing diagrams of what he was feeling as he experimented, charcoal lines trying to replicate the Djed pathways he was feeling as the energy crackled around within him. His foot was tapping, giving the small amount of Djed something to act upon and not go rogue, but his brow was furrowed, his tongue poking between his lips as his hands worked, drawing and writing the first portions of what he had experienced. Putting both quill and charcoal down he set about repeating what he had done, to gain confirmation for the fifth time just for his own satisfaction of research requirement. He had settled upon his Tai Chi routine, the name and concept a gift from Taz. He had no idea if he were doing it right, as she had said the other Sykan did it, but at present what was more important was that it was making him more aware of himself. As he moved through the basic punches, blocks and kicks that he had turned into a smooth routine – each motion alternating with another – he had learned much already about how his Djed moved through him when channelled through his nerves, or his Astral self…he still had to further explore that side of himself but from what he remembered from the book a Projectionist was required. Still, as he settled into his meditative state, body now getting used to moving slowly and more fluidly, feeling out the energies moving within him, exploring and mentally mapping the pathways purposefully now. He pulled a little bit more upon his Djed before turning off the trickling flow, keeping what he had and no more so that the pathways were sensed more strongly for confirmation of what he had drawn and written down. He was serene in his quietened mind, thoughtful and attentive in ways he couldn’t remember being before. Using the Flux felt like more than a magic, it felt like a revelation…and there in lay the danger as he dismissed that tempting thought and sought out the serenity once more, settling back into the routine of sensing out the Djed pathways.

[Alric Lysane]

He had never been one for meditation, or similar practises, before he had started to learn magic. Looking back, he could see that he had been too reactive and untethered, emotions shifting this way and that. He was still far from perfect, but he tried to learn and change for the better, a bit at a time. Though he didn’t express them frequently he knew his emotions still ruled him, unless he put effort into making it not so. It wasn’t that he wanted to be emotionless, but that knowing what he knew now they had the potential to be his biggest downfall if negatively harnessed. As such he was beginning to both enjoy, and see the merit of, the skill he had first encountered at the Outpost from Moritz. The Kelvic had had little success in his ad hoc student but what had mattered was that the idea had been planted, and now as he moved slowly, concentrating on his Djed crackling around his body and the networks that exposed, the idea was manifesting in ways none could have predicted. The book had had useful diagrams but Alric was beginning to see that it was a rough guide rather than an accurate map. As he moved, kicking before moving smoothly into a series of punches that rolled together with bobs, weaves and dips he could feel his meditative awareness pick upon thing he hadn’t managed to notice before when focused upon conditioning his strength. The main pathways of Djed that crackled were still there, but with each new movement, each muscle tensed and then relaxed, he picked up on smaller branches that seemed to crackle off at similar intervals. He hadn’t noticed them precisely because he knew lightning – as he imagined it was flowing through him when using the Flux – was forked and he had thought he had been imagining it. A smile crossed his face as he kept moving, confirming as he focused and tried for dozens of repetitions before he was sure. At the joints, both major and minor, there were smaller ‘forks’ off and into the smaller muscles. They ended there, blunt and frayed ends that reminded him of severed rope. He felt sure there were layers beyond what he was feeling and causing but his skills were clearly still those of a Novice – he had barely scratched the surface and was floating in that beginners stage of awakening, his awareness expanding as it had done upon the other magics. It was almost like the moment Taz had shown him the world behind the world for their Auristics. But it felt deeper, somehow, as if the inner world was an infinitely deep pool whereas the world was a lattice of hidden and submerged information…but still limited. He wasn’t sure whether that was the Flux, the whispers, talking but he frowned slightly and paused in his experimentation, returning to the table and his journal. Foot tapping to keep the Djed moving, though it still took considerable mental effort to push it throughout his body and crackling around, he drew out rough sketches with his charcoal, one for each of his limbs and then the torso and head. He hadn’t felt much in his skull yet, though that didn’t surprise him as he had focused upon larger movements. He drew out the rough pathways he had felt before writing down notes for later perusal and refinement. This wasn’t anything near a magical tome as Taz had shared, these were rough and ready notes, explorations and shorthand that he doubted anyone without magical knowledge would understand – a tactic he had chosen to adopt for his own protection, at least as far as he was able to. He snorted after a few moments of consideration. “Didn’t think I’d be doing that, hiding words in a grubby book and bloody meditating whilst standing up…sometimes I do wonder if this is all a dream. Would explain why a dirty street rat got so lucky…well in some ways” he muttered, scratching his chin before stretching and thinking upon the next stage of experimentation, walking around the perimeter of the room, hands clasped behind his back, as he puzzled it out.

[Alric Lysane]

As he approached the corner of the room, puzzling out the Djed flickering and flashing through his body, he reflected upon just how precise one might be able to be eventually in the use of the Flux. So far, he’d managed general body parts, and one at a time with a break of time between each. That was to be expected, but as he discovered new, albeit rough and far from complete, energy pathways he found a curiosity as to what the limits were with each stage of learning. He wasn’t about to try for fine motor controls or anything particularly impactful, but something whole body should be possible, surely? After all, isn’t the body just a collection of systems? Zones…whatever word you want to use? It should be possible, with the speed the Djed crackles down pathways…at least the big ones…to switch from one to another with some speed…right? he mused to himself, approaching another corner as a mischievous smile crept across his face. He wasn’t that wise, not yet, so…allowances could be made for experimentation, he reasoned. He turned, remembering some acrobatics he had only recently managed to master but could now perform without much issue, facing the opposite corner across the room. Taking a deep breath, centering himself and feeling the energy shift and move within. He switched his control of it to being mental for a few moments, testing out the idea before throwing himself into it. He sent it crackling through himself, heading up to his upper body before whipping it around to slam down to the soles of his feet, through his legs, and then cracking back up to the upper body. He repeated the cycle a few times, after the third beginning to shift the body parts in rhythm for another few cycles. “Here goes nothing” he muttered to himself, and the world in general, when he was ready and taking a deep breath. Shifting his weight forwards, he stepped, rocked almost, then threw his arms down to the floor, palms impacting and gripping, legs turning over and into the air before rounding over and completing the cartwheel. There was a brief pause to make sure he hadn’t exploded before repeating, three times in total to get towards the opposite corner of the room. He laughed, filled with the thrill of success, before returning to the other corner using the same performance and rhythm. It was easy, far easier than before, the Flux aiding his muscles in their quest for strength and agility. He took a few moments to compose himself, knowing how the thrill might easily sweep him away, but he couldn’t stop the smile across his face. He had felt the energy shift and move within, the crackle pinging up and down as he had practised before moving, though more naturally as his body actively used it. He cartwheeled back, his mind concentrating more upon the movement of Djed than the movements themselves, each repetition coming more easily and needing less concentration. That freed him to explore himself internally as he moved, eventually rounding his feet off completely and turning it into a backwards roll that brought him to his feet. “Down…must write that down…Eyris preserve me this is…this is too good. No…no Alric, don’t slip up now, come on…breathe” he closed his eyes and set about stretching, moving once more into the Tai Chi routine before he found himself swept away with the feeling of invulnerability. It took some time but eventually he felt calm and even once more, returning to his journal to take up quill and ink, noting down not just how the Djed moved – adding to the charcoal sketches as he did so – but also how he felt. He thought it was important to chronicle how they varies, how the magic affected his mental state. Only then, he reasoned, would any long term patterns become evident. Rubbing his charcoal stained fingers across his brow thoughtfully they left smudges upon his sweat stained skin as he frowned at his journal, tongue between his lips as he wrote and thought at the same time. “I wonder…strength can be enhanced, speed can be…endurance is a maybe, not sure if it's just covered with strength. Agility seems to be, but needs more experimentation…what about balance? Or is that too external? Hmmm” he mused aloud as he noted everything down, his quill scratching as his feet and free hand fingers tapped away, full of energy that almost demanded to be used.

[Alric Lysane]

Such experimentation would have to wait for another day, though, he knew. He had already pushed himself further than he had wanted, and mostly to satisfy his own curiosity. It was useful, and without it he would never advance or discover things perhaps lost one day. Yet he pulled himself back from that precipice, aware that Overgiving with the Flux would be far more detrimental than with Auristics or Shielding. No, he liked being in one piece and planned on staying that way for some time to come. Sighing to himself, battling the desire to feel powerful, he continued to tap his fingers and feet as the scratching sound of is quill noted down the rest of what he had discovered – the Djed pathways were likely to be deeper and more layered than first suggested. He could spend a lifetime studying them and likely still not compare to a master of the art from before the Valterrian. He was doing his best, but he doubted that he had the kind of time left to truly master the magic. No, he could probably hope for being able to use it effectively as a weapon without destroying himself. Despite his promise to Taz that he would try to be more positive, it all kept circling back to one thing. “Running out of time,” not noted as he finished the last part of his notation and moved on to drawing out a rough sketch of how it felt when his Djed crackled through him, a lightning ripple almost, as if a whole region of his body were suddenly alight, “I am running out of time. I wasn’t that much older in the vision…couple years maybe, maybe more…and who knows how seeing it altered the path” he mused aloud, letting the charcoal fall back to the table and closing his eyes, breathing deeply and feeling the web of Djed crackling across his chest. He returned to the safer, but more deeply introspective, Tai Chi motions. His breathing deepened as he closed his eyes now and went through the routine by memory, repeating the motions and keeping his Djed moving. At least, he reasoned, he had managed to get the hand of that part of the Flux so far. That, as far as he was concerned, was the most important. Chanelling its power meant nothing if he couldn’t control it after the initial strike – the book had made that particularly, and brutally, clear. As he went through the kicks, punches, dodges, blocks and feigned throws he was conscious that there might be something more to that, too. “Hmmm, am I missing something? Or is this just so new, and my body so alien despite living in it, that it just seems that way?” he muttered, continuing to move slowly and purposefully through his Tai Chi routine. It made sense that he would miss things but he also felt sure that he had discovered even more than he had intended to in a single practise session, so he was puzzled as to why it felt as if something were tickling at the edges of his consciousness. The familiar feeling of a puzzled curiosity buzzed at the back of his head and he had to concentrate upon the calm pool within himself to bring his mind back into a meditative state.

[Alric Lysane]

He spent a long time trying to pinpoint what it was that was eluding him but the closest that he could come up with was that it was something about the way that his Djed shifted within, how it split and the quantity itself. He had to drag himself back into a meditative and calmer state several times before he gave up upon the puzzle, for the meantime. He breathed more deeply, closing his eyes as he moved through his routine and forming up the void and the flame dancing above his ‘well’ – the serene place where he retreated when his thoughts became particularly intrusive upon his attempts at meditation. After a while, though, it proved to be of little use, the annoyance continuing to pick at him until he sighed and knew it was time to stop his practising, at least for the day. He closed off the link between himself and his ‘well’ to stop Djed from further pooling within, feeling it crackle down his nerve pathways, taking one more deep breath before trying for a technique he had been musing upon since his introduction to the Flux – a high, spinning kick. His Djed shifted as he directed it to his legs, pushing him off the ground so that his hips were at head height, spinning to bring his right foot around into a side kick before his left leg followed around with a back kick. He landed, somewhat awkwardly but safely, his Djed purged from his body with the one rough movement. “Needs work, but potential at least” he snorted to himself as he returned toh is journal to write down one phrase – ‘something to do with Djed shift?’ – before he felt the weight upon his toes and he looked down and chuckled, “yes, I know, I’ve clearly ignored you for too long haven’t I Twilight?” he said, bending down to pick up the Mussurana and place it over his shoulders. He stayed there for a while, sketching out the last few pathways that he had discovered and how he thought that they interacted with the larger muscles based upon his experiments, but eventually he retreated to the ground floor, cheeks and fingers smudged with his work and his snake quietly and very effectively wrapping itself around him to steal his body heat. He had grown quite fond of the reptile, in so far as one could bond with an animal still partially wild. He had cleaned up his fair share of ‘messes’ already and as he entered the living room area he spied another that he scrubbed clean with a scrap of old cloth that he threw upon the fire, there to be burned once he had managed to get a fire going with his flint and steel. He grabbed what was left of the thick bread, buttered it and piled on as much meat and cheese as he could before stuffing it into his mouth, one by one, until he felt quite cheerfully full and lethargic. Eventually, as the hearth stones warmed and the fire began to blaze, he placed a couple of logs upon the flames, a stray twig was used to light a pipe he put together, and Twilight slithered off of him. Instead he made his way to a little nest Alric had made at Taz’s suggestion, it being warmer than he was now and certainly more comfortable with the scraps of soft fabrics, old clothing and various other things that had made their way into it to provide padding for the snake. “Traitor,” he chided the reptile gently, puffing away as smoke curled around his face, “well Twilight…I think we can say that was another reasonably successful day. Maybe I will survive after all. Would you like that? No? No, so long as it’s warm, water is there and there are rodents you’re pretty much not phased, are you? Alas, will none mourn my passing?” he chuckled to himself as he watched the flames flicker higher.

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Alric Lysane Skills Acrobatics – 1 Animal Husbandry: Snake – 1 Drawing – 5 Flux – 5 Meditation – 5 Weapon: Unarmed – 1 Writing – 5 Lores Acrobatics: Cartwheel Acrobatics: Catrwheel into Backwards Roll Flux: Djed Pathways (Basic) Flux: Emotion Is Dangerous Flux: Spiritual Practise Flux: Sweet Whispers Unarmed: Flux Boosted Spinning Kick