[Flashback]Leaving and Learning: a Dhani's memory (Closed)

[Sysylunryuu]

Spring 509, Day 21
"It's time for you to leave Ryuu" declared the adult viper, speaking to the red and black snake beginning to awaken "Asssss far assss I can ssssee, you have learned everything I have to teach you". "Ssshasiva" said the viper, bowing its head, "Goodbye". As he slowly slithered through the many dark joined caverns, he did not wake any other vipers, and none but those who were already awake noticed him. Before finally leaving the nest, he turned into a side cavern, where a small hint of light was showing. As Sysylunryuu came closer, the light resolved itself into a single candle, burning valiantly to illuminate a crude drawing of a human woman covered with snakes, caressing each one, and another woman, almost hidden by leaves. "Grant me clevernesssss and ruthlesssssnessss on my journey, Ssssiku and Caiyha" he prayed to them, bowing his head again. As he left the cavern, an expression like a smile came over him, darkening his eyes and making his face seem even more sinister. He turned to the entrance to the nest, slithering out and into a glorious and incredible heat. Sysylunryuu felt something underneath his belly that he had never felt before. Sand. It shifted and rubbed against his scales and warmed his sides. Before long, he had come to a small oasis. Though it was a little cool for his taste, he sipped a small amount of the water, and soon after ate a desert rat he had found. I I must do something he though, glancing around Perhaps find a human and put what Shasiva taught me to use?

[Sysylunryuu]

Unfortunately, there were no humans in the area that day, and Sysylunryuu was forced to sleep in the oasis, waiting for something to happen. However, the next day, Lhex smiled on the Dhani, as two people, humans, set up camp a few hundred feet from the oasis. Strange Sysylunryuu though, slithering toward their camp What are two humans doing out in the middle of nowhere?. His question was soon answered when the two, a young man, and a much older man, came out of their tent while talking.
"Glyphing itself isn't that dangerous" the old man said, straightening up as they left the tent "but combined with other magics, it can be just as dangerous as voiding, the flux, or any other"
"So we're learning glyphing first?" asked the younger man "I said I wanted to learn animation"
The old man sighed and shook his finger "I will teach you animation, but first you must learn glyphing to help enhance your ability, and so you can practice other magic more safely"
"I wanted to learn animation, and here I am stuck making scribbles on the ground" grumbled the younger man
"You bartered hard to have the chance to learn" reminded the old man "Are you going to throw it away already?"
"No" admitted the younger man.
"Then let's begin" said the old man, sitting down and gesturing for his companion to sit next to him.
"Glyphing is, for the most part, not as dangerous as the other magics, because you cannot overgive, but it can be just as powerful. The runes and letters have no power of themselves, but they can modify other magic. They have both offensive and defensive uses. If do this" here the man drew a strange curling symbol in the sand "I have made a focus, to store magic. It is a mirror, able to reflect magic and absorb it until the barrier" here he drew a circular path of runes in the sand around the focus "is deactivated, allowing the magic to escape. For the barrier to deactivate, to allow magic in or out, the trigger has to be...well...triggered" the old man chuckled at the bad joke. "You can set the conditions of the triggering by using different runes" again, he drew a symbol in the sand "this says that when I recite a certain poem, the barrier will deactivate, letting magic in and out again, so I can use the Focus to trap magic. Barriers can also be used to guide magic, acting like walls to direct it. The final sigil is the switch, which can be used like a prism to combine or refract magic into bigger or smaller parts, or even to combine different effects!"
At this point, both the young man and Sysylunryuu were wide-eyed with awe, but the young man asked the question they were both wondering "So you could theoretically trap another's magic in there and save it for later use?"
The old man nodded approvingly at the inquiry "Of course, that's what all glyphing is about. Now, as all wizard's sigils are different, your runes will be different from mine, but will have the same basic idea. At first, the focus will merely help enhance your powers and the barrier will just keep excess magic from overflowing, or help to channel your magic in the right direction. Now, let's see what your runes look like..."
and so Sysylunryuu learned the beginnings of glyphing, and that night, he himself began practicing drawing his runes. Delicate, curling things they were, much like the shadow or the trail of a snake...

[Sysylunryuu]

The next morning, the old man taught a small amount of animation magic to the boy, saying "There are three things an animated creation must have. Loyalty, obedience, and a cutoff switch. The first two are so obvious almost everyone remembers them. The third one is rather less so, and it's incredibly important to be able to 'turn off' the creation if it gets out of hand, or if it doesn't work. Also, keep the instructions simple and short, so it doesn't get confused or doesn't understand the instructions. This is how you make the circle" he explained, drawing two circles, one bigger than another, connected by a line. "You stand in the smaller one and put whatever you are animating into the larger one and focus on the persona, the very being of the item you are imbuing. You have to make it a person, or at the very least an animal. It is said that one animator imbued his favorite scarf with the persona of a snake!" here the old man laughed "But for you, lets start out with something a bit smaller, eh?" the old man bustled into the tent and brought out a small wooden mannequin with two circular mirrors where a human's eyes would have been. The old man placed the mannequin on the sand inside the circle he had drawn and backed off, sitting down near the tent. "Now build a barrier around the circles" he commanded, and watched intently as the student slowly drew the symbols around the circles, occasionally calling out an additional instruction. Sysylunryuu watched impatiently, knowing he could do so much better so much faster. Eventually though, the student was finished and managed to make a fairly decent golem. Sysylunryuu watched in awe as it walked around and made various strange noises, committing the ceremony to memory for future use.
I'll move tonight thought Sysylunryuu I'll do it quick and sneaky, so they don't have a chance to fight back

[Sysylunryuu]

True to his plans, that night, Sysylunryuu moved. It was well after darkness fell, and the Dhani had been listening for nearly an hour, and had been totally unable to hear even a single sound indicating that the two campers were awake. After checking a final time, he wound around the campsite, slowly approaching the tents.
Paralysis comes first he decided Shasiva said even if a person is dead or dying, they can flop around and make plenty of noise. And so Sysylunryuu crept into the first tent and hovered over the younger man. It seemed almost a shame to waste such a life. Sysylunryuu wavered for a moment, but then struck, paralyzing and killing the young man in mere moments. He proceeded to to the second tent, and just as he was about to bite, wavered again. This man is old, but wise he though, pondering his actions he knows a huge amount of magical lore and practice, and would it be fair to Caiyha to waste such knowledge?. Sysylunryuu decided to wait to pass judgment until he had made a circuit of the camp. After going through their belongings, Sysylunryuu found several journals and books on magic, specifically shielding, voiding, and webbing. After giving each a cursory glance, Sysylunryuu packed them back into their crates and boxes very carefully and slithered back over to the tent. It was with a heavy heart that he killed the old man, but he did it nonetheless.
I will come back here soon he vowed to learn what I can from the journals and tomes I leave here now And with that promise, he slid off into the desert toward the feebly glowing lights of Anhatep.

[Sysylunryuu]

For night after night in the outskirts of the city, Sysylunryuu would scratch out runes in the dirt, and make crude animation circles, encircling them with curling sigils and signs. He practiced until it did not take quite so long to write the runes anymore, and the pictures of them were unerringly clear in his mind.
((OOC: I am officially done with this now, apologies for how short it is))

[Colombina]

The XP Wand Is Waved! Hiya Sysy! An interesting start to your magic endeavors! Since the thread is a wee bit small, I am only going to give you one XP in magic. Books are pretty rare in Miza too, so I think it would be fair to give you only one for the brevity of this thread. It takes effort to get a hold of something as valuable as a book, so think of this as a bit of a welcome gift. I will let you choose whether you want to have the book in glyphing or animation. Sysy's Loot 1 XP Glyphing A small book covering the first level of Glyphing OR Animation Lore of Human Teachers

[Sysylunryuu]

Thank you! I'll add this to my charry sheet right away!