A Squire's Bulwark (Hadrian)

[Dimitri]

Spring 19, 511 AV

Dimitri was polishing his shield in the common area of his dorm suite. As he rubbed it down to get that bright shine, he felt each scratch, each nick of it's surface. He had bought this shield new the day became a squire. Four years later, it's scars told more stories than his own. But he took good care of his shield. He never allowed it to rust, nor was foolish enough in combat to severely damage it. He could feel the marks from squire spars, clawmarks from various creatures, even the occasional slash fro a glanced arrow. A squire walked into his suite. The boy was new and he didn't know him yet. He appeared quite shy and Dimitri thought he might be mute. The bow handed him a note, bowed, and left. Dimitri sighed as he opened the note, thinking it another task from his master. Instead it was a request that he meet Hadrian, the man he practiced his shooting with, at the training grounds and to bring his shield.

He finished polishing his shield, grabbed his sheathed sword and left making sure to say goodbye to each chaperone between him and the door. He arrived at the training grounds noticing the cloud cover today. He knew it could rain at anytime due to the dark grey undersides of the clouds. He was now glad he came in his breeches and shirt and boots. Polishing armor after soaking it was a pain. He looked around for the delicate from of Hadrian but didnt see the man. He did notice the yard to be fairly empty though, probably in preparation of the storm.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian waited patiently in the training grounds, growing ever more accustomed to the knightly portions of the Citadel for better or for worse. His work for the Order continued apace, but he always had his own little experiments in mind, and Dimitri seemed, like Octavius, to be keen to learn about magic, if only to defend against it. He certainly couldn't fault them their logic in that. Even if he weren't a magus himself, he would wish to know how best to combat magic thrown at him, rather than be helpless as a newborn babe mewling for mummy's teat. Standing in the shadows wasn't really his thing, but it was overcast, so it was probably a combination of that and his dark clothes that had Dimitri looking around for him. Obliging the squire, Hadrian stepped out into what sunlight they had and offered a small smile. It wasn't that he was unfriendly, but merely that he was awkward. No amount of etiquette was going to change that. "Hello, Dimitri. Thank you for coming."

[Dimitri]

Dimitri heard the man call his name, and turned toward him. He saw him decked out in dark clothing on this dreary day. He hadn't the slightest idea as to why he was asked to come. He knew it would be something magical in nature but everything was training. He drew his shield off of his back, strapped it on and approached him. "Hello there, what are we up today?"

He silently hoped for some extreme dodging and blocking of magical projectiles or something that would get him moving. He remembered that the man used water based magic, and wondered if the impending rain would in that. Maybe make the shots bigger, or form them more easily. He didn't know, the rules of magic were lost on him. All he needed to know was when magic was being prepared for use, what it looked like, and how to fight against it. In time he figured. He knew there were many types of magic out there, and he doubted he would master fighting them all, but trying couldn't hurt. He looked at Hadrian wondering what would be required of him today and would try to not injure him this time.

[Hadrian]

"We are doing some research on improved shielding, which would help me help you knights keep pointy things out of your bodies..." He blinked, paused. "That sounded different out loud. Anyway..." He shifted; even after two weeks, his foot pained him. Nobody had seen his wound as serious enough to require the skills of a healer, so it was merely cleaned and poulticed and left to work itself out. The which it was, but it was a slower and more painful process this way. "I'm glad you brought your shield. It's yours, isn't it? The harmonics will coincide more perfectly if it's already something you've held, used, and cared for... rather than some shield you pick up that every squire has used at some point."

[Dimitri]

"Improved... Shielding? There's shielding magic?" Dimitri then realized that was probably the magic that had stopped the arrow from killing him. the strange barrier that flashed red when struck. "Surely you don't expect me to perform such a.. Skill." He saw that Hadrian was favoring the foot that hadn't been struck by his arrow. He was surprised that it hadn't been healed by one of the many healers. Especially since this man appeared to be some sort of important asset to the city.

The man mention his shield. His eyes grew a bit soft as he examined his shield, reminiscing on all the times it had saved him from death or aided him in unusual ways. "Ah, yes. I have been her sole owner and user for four years now. She has helped me many a time. What exactly do you intend to do to her?" Dimitri had accidentally added a bit too much overprotection in that question. He was sure the man wouldn't have brought him here just to damage his shield.

[Hadrian]

"There's shielding magic," he affirmed dryly. "I just need your shield and then... you can wield it or whatever. Once I put a shield on it and throw some stuff at you. It shouldn't really hurt anything. Just be careful where things will deflect. Case in point..." He held up his injured foot and pointed at it. Object lesson #1.

[Dimitri]

Dimitri nodded and held his shield out, not sure what to expect to see. But he watched Hadrian closely, so as to see if there were any gestures to indicate the shielding process, something he could watch out for when in combat with an unknown magic user. "I'm sorry about that, hazard of the training, I'm surprised no one healed that for you."

[Hadrian]

"Oh," he said, offhandedly. "I just forgot to find someone to do it... Got sidetracked thinking about... anyway." He took out a grease pencil and carefully sketched out a sigil upon the face of the squire's shield with a "this will mostly disappear once the magic is gone, but the detritus can be cleaned away easily." Next he drew glyphs upon his own palms, linking them to smaller glyphs on fingers and wrist. Once satisfied with his work, which took a few minutes of careful concentration, he put the pencil away and began to focus. For a moment he looked abstracted, then held his hands over Dimitri's shield. Though the squire himself likely couldn't see anything -- unless, perhaps, he was a latent aurist -- but Hadrian could see the flows of his djed Fluxing down his arms and igniting those glyphs on his skin. Augmented and supported by those glyphs, the flow increased without causing so much drain upon Hadrian's resources, and the djed began to concentrate around his hands before his will pushed it out like the liquid res he normally used in reimancy. The magic stretched out and began to encase his shield, only the slightest of membranes across the back where no attacks would come, but much thicker on the face of it. At least, that was his goal. In reality, the shield energy would not maintain a uniform thickness no matter how hard he tried to make it so. The sigil on the shield flared with power, solidifying his work so he wouldn't have to maintain it with sheer will for the duration, and locking in his directive to block cutting force as well as djed. His next attempt would involve a sort of cushion to the force rather than just block it, but for now he had to focus on the task at hand. There was a silvery gleam to it all now that the spell of shielding was crystallized and he allowed his Auristic vision to fade into the mundane spectrum, and it still seemed to shimmer just slightly, an error on his part wasting energy on that visible spectrum. Oh well, perhaps it would frighten an enemy. "There now."

[Dimitri]

Dimitri watched as the man drew a symbol into the face of his shield with only a slightly curious expression. He then drew on his own arms. Dimitri knew that a battle use of this would be unlikely. Unless one was pre-glyphed. He made a mental note to be extra wary of individuals who had glyphs already in their skin. The man began to focus intensely, with a rather strange look on his face. Dimitri thought it like the look as if the man had not had a chance to... Make waste for a long while.

The man focused on his arms it seemed. Dimitri couldn't see any physical change, but could somehow... tell something was happening. He wasn't sure if this was due to his close observation or his mind just wanting to see something. The man began doing... Something to his shield, almost like wrapping an invisible cloth around it. Then suddenly it appeared solid. It looked quite strange to Dimitri.

"Are you done? Should we begin testing it?" Dimitri was ready to get into position, ready to block anything, or so he thought, that could be thrown his way. He wasn't sure if it would block magic, or objects, or both. He tried to study the shape so as to better know how to deflect anything.

[Hadrian]

"It's now temporarily resistant to magic. It can be broken by a powerful enough magus or enough energy, but it's certainly a help. It's also resistant to edged weapons... I just have to tweak it so the energy is more absorbant and less... purely deflective... And I'm not sure how much it will help... I'm still new at this..." He eyed the old shield critically as if it were offending him, but really he had only been using it for practice and now Dimitri himself wanted practice. Hadrian considered this. He certainly couldn't swing a sword or fire an arrow. Glancing around, he tried to make up for this lapse in his judgment and planning. "Why don't you... fight with another squire? See if it works."