Knowledge talks, but wisdom listens [Solo]

[Elhaym]

The 28th Day of Summer, 511 AV

The day was overcast in dark shades of gray, and a steady rain beat against Shinyama Pavilion. Rain mattered little when it came to the training of an Acolyte aspiring to join the ranks of the Shinya Order, and Elhaym watched with a morose expression as her peers moved in unison at their instructor’s commands. Each and every one was soaked to the bone, and every movement slung water from their bodies into the air in a cascade replicated fifty times over by every student in blue. It was quite beautiful, actually. Elhaym yearned to be a part of it. She would have stood in the front, assisting in the direction of their warm up movements and acting as a student-teacher. Instead, she watched from the doorway leading into the courtyard that ran along the side of the great tower. Alone. Her leg had healed at least, but her arm was still broken and nothing but time would see her back among the ranks of her peers doing what she had grown so accustomed to. A regretful sigh escaped her lips, but she did not move.

“Regretful that you deem to waste your time moping, Acolyte.”

Elhaym’s eyes widened for a moment, but she managed to settle her face into calm collection as she turned to face the voice. It was Giyo Lai, a woman she had been trying earnestly to avoid as much as she possibly could. Dama Lai however, always seemed into to find her. She was an older woman with wrinkles fanning out across her face like badges of honor. Well beyond her physical prime, but Dama Lai’s strength resided in a body apart from her flesh. There was no use in fighting this current; Elhaym knew the Shinya instructor had come to fetch her.

“Forgive me, Dama Lai. What do you require of me?”

The formality rolled of Elhaym’s tongue smoothly. Addressing her superiors properly within the Shinya had been a struggle at first, and her gruffness had been a constant source of irritation to them. Yet now she spoke Lhavitian with an eloquence that seemed to suit her voice. In Common it verged on raspy, but Lhavitian unlocked that hidden element of her tone that seemed befitting of a Shinya.

“I require you to stop forcing me to wander the entire pavilion. Come. You have no need of that sort of training, and you’ll only be tempted to hurt yourself if you intend to go out there and assist Dian Shai.”

Elhaym nodded, her reluctance a tightly kept secret. Lai intended for Elhaym to study with her during the downtime she would normally have been assisting Shai in the other Acolyte’s martial arts studies, or lamely thrusting her blade about one handed under Udasai’s mocking grin. Of course, both of those things would have been preferable to more time spent harnassing her astral body, though Udasai’s constant jeers only barely. Elhaym traced Lai’s surprisingly swift path through the halls of the Shinyama Pavilion, her feet thudding softly atop the gleaming wooden planks of the floor. Elhaym’s heart began to pound as thye ascended the third flight of stairs, nearing Dama Lai’s preferred space. It was a small room situated in the corner of the fourth level; very cozy even for two.

Lai did not hesitate as she careened towards the entry, arms clasped behind her back in a way that complimented her authoritative posture. Of course, it also helped hide the fact that she was wielding her astral body at that very moment, one arm holding the other limp appendage If Elhaym hadn’t been busy biting her lip and instead paid more heed to her instructor, the sudden motion of the slatted door flinging itself open seemingly under it’s power would not have startled her. Her body jerking more upright was sign enough, but the tiny squeak that escaped her mouth before she could clench her jaw was just embaressing.

Lai took no notice, sweeping into the room as if she owned it and turning to face her with those dark and beady eyes. Elhaym tried to imitate her commanding walk, but it was difficult with one arm propped in a sling. It was always awkward finding something to do with just one arm. The result was more of a waddling approach that bordered on comical, but she took her place in front of Lai with a low set table between them. At her beckoning, Elhaym slowly folded her legs beneath her and kneeled as her instructor did the same.

[Elhaym]

“Kota tells me you have been avoiding me in your off hours purposefully. Apparently, you are troubled by your growth in our arts in some way. I hear many things about you among the Shinya as I do all the other Acolytes, but rarely do I encounter an instance of you being hesitant. I thought you had mastered your fears. Was I wrong? You seemed to have opened yourself up to more base tasks with your astral body.”

Elhaym’s eyelids fluttered, and she had to consciously stop herself from gnashing her teeth together. Before she could get sufficiently mad to imagine the fight that would occur over his little secret sharing, Lai interrupted her thoughts.

“Whether you share a bed or not, Dian Kota is your sponsor and he takes his duty seriously. You are not a Shinya, and until the day you wear a black sash you are under our care and supervision Acolyte. Now, tell me what’s wrong. I’ve coddled you enough, if you don’t stop pouting I’ll have have a Viraya bring my switch.”

Elhaym didn’t know whether Lai’s obvious knowledge of her sexual relationship with Kota was more embaressing, or the threat of being whipped like a child over her knee. Rather than contemplate either — both of which would have resulted in her cheeks flushing red — she simply exhaled and began to speak. Lai was a hard teacher, harder than any of the others. Yet she had reason to be. Matters of the soul were not trite.

“Sometimes, if I go a while without using it, I feel... compelled to. Somehow. Not really a true urge, like hunger or sleepiness, but just some strange underlying feeling that I should loose it for just a little while. I don’t know why it happens or if it’s just in my head, but it scares me. I started using it more often to stop it before it started, but that doesn’t seem to help. It just comes randomly now. When I’m exhausted is the only time it never seems to happen.”

Lai seemed to settle into herself, holding her bony hands into her lap. Her gaze was locked on Elhaym, but somehow it was more thoughtful than a stare. She seemed to simply look at her for a chime, maybe two, before she finally spoke. “Things like this must be addressed Acolyte, not hidden away. We watch you doubly because you were not raised by the Order, but delivered into our hands at an age where most already walk the streets as Shinya. You do not have the same background in dealing with our arts physically and mentally that your peers do.”

She spoke slowly and methodically, a lecturing tone that smoothly integrated itself into her voice without need of effort. "Do not hide something like this from me again. My assistance, however uncomfortable you may think it is, is only a sliver of the misery you will find befallen yourself if you attempt to navigate this journey alone. We exist on a precarious balance Acolyte, and you would be a fool to ignore the knowledge and wisdom of the Shinya Order when it comes to art of manipulating your astral body and all it’s intricacies. I dare say no one else in the world knows more than we.”

Lai's hands whipped forth into a sharp gesture, a command for Elhaym to summon her astral body. Broken or not, her physical malady did not impede her ability to utilize what lay hidden beneath. Releasing it took only half her concentration, a hidden piece of herself slowly dislodging from her her left shoulder down to her fingertips even as she digested what Lai had said. It was foolish to keep any fear or worries from them. She had learned a lesson about being too headstrong recently, and it was well enough she stopped fighting this too.

Once her arm hung limp within her sling, she set to stretching her projected arm in front of her. She could feel it like she could a real arm, just the same and yet different altogether. To drive that point home, she stretched it to the other end of the small room, placing the pale of her formed hand against the wall. Extending her reach was something she hadn't really toyed with until lately; it had taken considerable effort just to use projection at all, much less to the fullest she could. Elhaym's eyes wandered past Lai's searching gaze and took in the details of the room. It was small, outfitted with the small table that sat between them and a plus rug that they kneel upon. The only other adornments were twin crustal pillars reaching a man's waist, each housing a crystal bowl that housed a fire to provide light. Normally it would have been silent, yet the incessant drumming of the rain could be heard against the walls here in the corner of the building.

"It is not unheard of for such feelings to come unbidden when you begin to harness the power of your own djed. I imagine these feelings became more pronounced once you began to utilize the flux with the Sanim, did they not?"

Come to think of it, they had. Elhaym nodded, retracting her astral arm from the wall and bringing it back to the small table. A large jar filled with rocks sat on one end, and a small box filled with sand on the other. Elhaym began picking the rocks out of the jar and hoisting them from the jar to be dropped into the sand. She knew that if they were going to talk, she had best keep herself busy with something while she was projected. Even if the task seemed pointless and menial, at least it was something. Lai detested laziness.

"You are not yet powerful enough to likely hear the sweet whispers in your ears Acolyte, unless you abused what pitiful power you hold thoroughly. Yet the mind can play tricks, as can the soul. Who am I to say what you have experienced? I can simply say that it is very unlikely that is what you are experiencing, and can say with utmost confidence that you need not worry for the soundness of your mind."

Elhaym let out a deep breath, her body relaxing visibly even as she began to spin and position the seven stones she had dropped into the sand. Two invisible fingers slid the rocks about the sand effortlessly, a task that would have proved difficult a few months ago. Yet it was still only pushing small rocks. Lai's words were needed. Once, seemingly in a different life in Syliras, she had opened a book detailing the intricacies of the flux in a blind attempt to learn it after suffering a humiliating loss at the hands of a flux user. She had understood little, but one account of those 'sweet whispers' and what they led to had been enough to have her slam that book closed and give it away by the day's end. Elhaym realized that in her thoughts, she had deftly picked up one of the stones and began flipping it like a coin. She pushed it up into the air with a projected thumb, observing its spin as it landed back in her invisible palm only to have the process repeated.

"I am relieved to hear that, Dama Lai. I trust your feelings, but if not that… what am I feeling?"

[Elhaym]

"Were you not anxious to get up and move about when you were newly injured, Acolyte? Did your body not feel sloth setting in?"

Elhaym's projected hand shut tight around the stone as it fell into her spectral palm. She squeezed it hard, though to her eyes the stone simply hovered aloft in mid air. She had a feeling what Lai would say next, and she didn't necessarily like it. However much she wanted to deny it, projection and djed, the flux and it's euphoric taint, it was all a part of her now.

"You have two bodies to tend to now Acolyte. You need to face reality, and accept that it will not go away. If you continue to treat your arts as as some sort of anathema, then that is what they will become. Many wizards go mad Acolyte, and perhaps it is inevitable. Be that as it may, you must not give madness or doubt one inch in your mind without a fight."

Lai's eyes bored into Elhaym's as if they were chisel and hammer, but she could not avert her gaze.

"Not only that, but you have also been using the flux. Right now Acolyte, you are experiencing the magical equivalent of a growth spurt. Unfortunately, the side effects do not involve finding round hips and a firm bosom appear in the mirror over the span of a few months," Lai said, her face actually cracking into a wry grin. She was older than dirt for truth, but Elhaym supposed the old woman wasn't completely devoid of humor. She found herself grinning her lopsided smile right back at her. "You must stay strong, and continue to wield what power you have. Wield it, control it, own it, and master it."

"I understand, Dama. I… don't have the same views on all of those as the other Acolytes. I think I've wasted a lot of time being scared, or jealous that they understand it and have no problems with it," Elhaym said softly, finally breaking Lai's gaze to guide the stone back onto the table. She turned her palm, and let it slide onto the glossy surface smoothly. "But what you say makes sense. It does."

Lai nodded, having observed Elhaym's much improved projection. She'd had trouble making a straight line in sand not a few months ago.

"Release, Acolyte. Despite your struggle, you are doing well. I assure you, what you do right now may seem childish considering the source in which you work with, and it is. There will come a day when you realize it is a tool, a weapon. When that day comes, you will truly begin to understand your journey and why we teach you the way we do."

Elhaym bowed her head as best she could, withdrawing her stretched appendage and sliding it back towards her limp left arm. She carefully arranged it so that it hovered just above her flesh, mirroring it's position. The longer she projected, the harder she had to concentrate on the reattachment and the more difficult it became. It took a full chime for her to slowly guide the outermost layer of her soul back to it's rightful place, and her arm buzzed in irritation upon it's awakening.

"Go back to your peers, Acolyte. I feel we are done, for now."

Lai did not stir, and Elhaym knew well enough a dismissal when she heard one. She deftly unfolded her legs and pushed herself to her feet without the aid of her arms. It was nice to at least have the use of her leg back, if not her injured arm. She offered a deep bow in thanks for Lai's insight, and turned to head towards the door. Elhaym's feet slid smoothly over the wooden flooring, but she stopped short of the door when she heard Lai call to her.

"Elhaym, one moment," Lai said, rising to her feet as smoothly as Elhaym had if not more so. "I have been reluctant to mention this, because I in truth know little of it's validity. I am skilled in projection, but I am not a historian. In any case, there is something called Glyphing. Again, I know little except that it exists, but what I do know is that in times past it was a common art to practice in conjunction with other magics. I do not know if it made them safer, or more deadly, or even it made them more dangerous. However, I feel that… if you truly are concerned, perhaps one day you should investigate it. I fear none of the Shinya can help you with it, so I do not know how you will find any information, but with your tenacity, well… I'm sure you will think of something."

"Thank you, Dama."

Elhaym bowed once again, and near fled down the corridor. Another type of magic? Elhaym was feeling a little more confident after her brief session with Lai for sure, but that woman must be brain dead to think she would willingly attempt to learn another gods forsaken skill like… oh, her head almost split open just thinking about it! When would she even have time to practice it? She still had a dozen things to see to today as it was!

In any case, she had gotten valuable insight from Lai, and not for the first time. Being an Acolyte was hard, and her duties were at times heavier on her shoulders than she thought she could bare. In the end though, she knew she could. Maybe not for all the same reasons she had set out to Lhavit for in the first place, perhaps not even the same reasons she had joined the Shinya. However different they were, they were there. She could conquer anything.

Wield it, control it, own it, and master it.

-FIN-

[Mercury]

Elhaym Skill(s) Acting + 1 XP Observation + 2 XP Projection + 2 XP Lore(s) Recovery Hurts In More Ways Than Just Physical Pain Within each Rumor, is a Sliver of Truth Projection: A Growing Hunger Overgiving: Sweet Whispers Projection: Using a Physically Crippled Arm Glyphing - Peaked Your Curiosity Yet? Method to my Madness: First thing, I love the thread name - very creative. Because respect did not come natural to El, I awarded acting for her ability to fake it well. Good job writing about Overgiving. You did it well and I appreciate that you put your PC through that willingly. Great Training Thread. You can address any questions or concerns to the little voice in your head. A.K.A. PM me.