[Flashback] Similarities (Solo/Open)

[Seidaku]

Time stamp: 54th day of Winter, 507 A.V.

Seidaku walked quickly through the streets of Alvadas, oblivious to their splendors and their periodic changes. His focus was entirely on the slip of paper in his pocket and the hastily scrawled note it contained. Inspiration had struck him days ago, when he had been teaching Wrenmae, and had only been building upon itself since then.

He needed to know more, though. Right now it was just a hunch. A guess.

And that was how he found himself standing outside the Sunken Conundrum, his cloak pulled tight around his torso for warmth against the winter winds that felt more biting than usual today. A glance behind him revealed the steps leading up to the library to be carved from translucent ice, and a light dusting of snowflakes wafted up from the floes of icy water that composed the street at the base of the steps.

Taking a grip on the handle, he pulled the heavy door open with a grunt and stared with a soft sigh at the wall of water that now rippled, scant inches in front of his face. With a deep breath to steel himself, he plunged through whatever membrane held the water inside the building fully expecting the shock of cold water. A shock that never came, as he plunged into pleasantly warm water that was a relief after the brief but bitter cold outside the doors.

The library was never any less amazing every time he visited it. In a city like Alvadas, where the more scholarly pursuits were viewed as distractions from its artfulness, the countless books housed in their watery home was a rare gem of unbelievable worth. His introspection was interrupted by the painful burning sensation in his lungs as he refused to relinquish that last gulp of air.

Finally releasing the breath in a cloud of bubbles, he gulped in a lungful of water and had a panicked sensation of drowning before the gills that now fluttered on his sides began to take over breathing. Shaking slightly from the rush of adrenaline, he made his way, in an ungraceful paddling motion that was more flailing at the water than swimming, toward the stacks of books.

[Seidaku]

Hours later found Seidaku at a table that he had claimed for himself, surrounded by precariously balanced stacks of books of varying sizes and on a variety of topics, all loosely connected. It had all seemed so simple. Of course, he supposed, If it was simple, someone else would have made the link and already published the work, and I would be reading that now.

He stretched his arms over his head and arched his back, trying to work out the knot of tension that had formed in the small of his back. As a result, he then had to reach down suddenly to grasp at the table to avoid drifting upward on the gentle current. More than once he had gotten lost in a book or scroll only to be rudely interrupted by bumping into the ceiling, or a shelf of books.

With a frustrated sigh, he looked at the stacks of books and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. How could feel so grainy when he was under water? One tome in particular, thinner than the others with a well worn cover, sat in the center of the table, silently mocking him at being unable to unlock its secrets. The book itself was so deceptively simple, an essay the the significance of accurately places coordinate crystals in a Summoning circle. The work had been very focused, and had descended quickly into a tangled ball of technical jargon, but it had been a starting point, albeit one that had left him even more confused than before and with a list of other texts to track down.

And that had been the last few hours. Even more so, it had opened his eyes to just how limited he was. Before, he had been mystified by the sheer number of books and scrolls here in the Sunken Conundrum. But now, he just knew that the crucial piece of information that would crystalize all of this was lurking, just out of sight, in one of the myriad books that was not in the library. In their stead, he had chains of books, each one leading to two more, and all of them pulling him further from his goal.

In order to Summon, he first had to know what a Summoning Circle was, he looked at a collection of no less than five books, only one of which he did not regard dubiously. But in trying to understand a Summoning Circle, he had discovered that he had been unaware of the existence of Astral Coordinates. Now he knew not only that they were the Djed signature of another world, but that they had to be placed into the Circle widdershins, or the whole thing fell apart. That had been another two tomes, with twelve more that he had been unable to find. Before he could fully grasp the Astral Coordinates though, there were thousands of pages of advanced mathematics, and theoretical mathematics, and astronomy, and physics piled about him, with easily twenty times their number lost in the ether.

All of the knowledge stored before him, and all he had were more questions than when he had started.

[Seidaku]

His curiosity had far surpassed any hope of satisfying it. Staring at a different but equally large pile of books and scrolls, he scratched idly at the stubble now bristling on his chin and cheeks and squeezed his aching eyes closed. He had no idea how long he had been in the library, but he distinctly remembered that Ms. Morcer had left with displeased sniff in his direction some time ago.

Despite a mountain of new questions pressing down upon him, he thought he might be making progress. Originally, he had only wanted to identify similarities between the two systems of magic. The deeper he delved though, the more he began to see that a cursory glance was nowhere near enough to come away with anything useful. He could postulate all day, but without a fundamental knowledge of both systems, he would be unable to make a conclusive statement regarding any potential similarities or differences.

He would much prefer to speak to an actual Summoner, but failing that, he was pleased that Summoning was such a logical, process driven art. Even though the function was very similar to Voiding, in that in instances of both a portal to another location was created, the actual process was very similar to Glyphing in its use of symbology to achieve an effect.

He would also much prefer if the Conundrum were more conducive to note taking. As it was, he doubted how many of his notes would carry over when he got home. His current process was to scratch brief notes onto a rough sheet of parchmenta and attempt to decipher them when he got back to his desk. His method generally met with success, but occassionally portions of the notes were garbled into uselessness. His biggest concern at the moment was his biggest find of the day - evening?. Tucked away in one of his pockets was a sheet of paper with a series of numbers scratched into it. If he ever had any hope of actually learning to Summon, the Astral Coordinates of other worlds, especially the most common - and therefore hopefully safer - worlds would be critical to his success.

He had been tempted to call it a day - night? - at that point, but he still had so many questions that he could not answer. Was it possible to place mid-point coordinates in between the cardinal sixteen in order to achieve a greater degree of accuracy? If greater accuracy could be achieved, could a Summoner create a portal to a different location on the same world? Why was it impossible to create a portal from a foreign world to Mizahar? Was it possible to access the Void from these other worlds? If so, would it be a different location in the same Void, or a different Void altogether? Was it possible to open a portal to a specific location in the Void without an anchor? Would it be possible to use Voiding in conjunction with other disciplines of magic to create portals through the Void from one world to another?

Seidaku started abruptly awake when his forehead met the ceiling of the Sunken Conundrum with a soft thump. Blinking in confusion and yawning expansively, his first thought was, When did I fall asleep? Following quickly on that question's heels was, How long was I asleep? It could not have been terribly long, because he was still alone in the Conundrum. With an expansive stretch, he began paddling back down toward his work. When his stomach gave a low rumble, he thought that perhaps he should think about getting something to eat soon.

[Seidaku]

Hours later found Seidaku all but dead on his feet. When she had returned to the library, Ms. Morcer had given him one glance and ushered him unceremoniously out of the Sunken Conundrum. She had barely given him time to gather together his feeble attempts at notes before she had all but thrown him out into the street.

So now, he was trudging home, soaked to the skin and shivering in the cold, with wet strips of carefully scored parchment clutched in his hands. Staggering slightly, he muttered under his breath and stared into the middle distance, trusting his feet to see him home without terribly much oversight. As he walked, he tapped his fingers in the air as though counting and sketched at the air with his right hand as though inscribing symbols. All in all, his disheveled appearance and unusual behavior ensured that even the citizens of Alvadas gave him a wide berth. A berth that he never noticed.

He was fairly confident that, between his notes, and what he had memorized from the books and scrolls themselves, he could possibly open a simple portal. From there, it was simply a matter of study and practice, something that this art shared with all others. The similarities between Summoning and Voiding were too many to pass up as mere coincidence. When one added in what he had seen from the boy, and could surmise from that example, he felt that it must be possible to draw correlations between them. And if he could identify the similarities between the magical arts, he could create standardized processes for their use, possibly even develop entirely new uses. If they could be standardized, then they could be combined.

Pushing through the door and into the single room of his home and collapsing onto the bed fully clothed, Seidaku drifted off to sleep amidst thoughts of an understanding of Djed and magic that would return the world to where it had stood before the Valterrian, and then catapult it past that point into untold marvels in the future.

[Bedlam]

Thread Completed!

Seidaku

Experience:
+2 Summoning

Lores:
Lore of Common Worlds
Lore of Summoning
Lore of Astral Coordinates

Notes: I was a little generous here in terms of lores, so I want to draw your attention to it. I would prefer if in the future rather than just glossing over 'I know the common worlds now' you describe one or two, and his reaction to that, maybe go into specifics rather than generalizations. That would have earned you more points.

Also, a conundrum is not a consortium. ; ) Watch out for that next time.