[Tarsin's Boarding House] Three to Tango [Clyde, Ethan]

[Clyde Sullins]

Walking over he helped put the things on the table, and pushed all the furniture up to the walls. Then turning around, he took out his chalk, and started the glyph circles. The bigger one he slowly brought around, keeping it solid with words like deter, protect, redirect... Keeping things from going through them and instead around. Stepping over this, he moved to were they would be doing the item, and made a smaller circle, with similar words, and adding unity, and strength to make it stronger, and to tie Hadrian's shield in together with it. Finished, he dusted off his hands, and stepped out carefully to let Hadrian cast his shield around it, using his glyphs as a foundation. "Well that's about all I have got, you can go ahead and add your shield. I just hope this will be enough to keep out any outside djed, that can really mess things up. But three layers of protection should do about as much as is possible." While Hadrian did this, Clyde looked over Hadrian's papers he had drawn up to get a better idea of the planned process, and sorted through the ingredients to make them neater and more orderly.

[Hadrian]

When Hadrian looked to see how Clyde had set things up, he gave the triple sigil a grudging nod. It was not how he might have done it, but it would suit. Crouching down, his black leather trousers silent as he moved, he chalked in his own focus glyph that would accept the Shield energy, stabilize and refine it for their purposes. He could provide the energy, but the glyphs would maintain better control than he could on his own, and here their cooperation became quite important. Before implementing the Shields, however, he began creating various sigils within the Shield walls, the method to his madness made more evident by the papers Clyde was perusing. A sigil to take in the reimantic power, a shunt that would stabilize a tiny portal to the Void for excess power to keep the stream steady, and further mystical language to tell the djed what to do. Each man's glyphs were his own, but theirs should meld properly. After all, they had trained in the same place. "First," he said aloud, mostly for Ethan's benefit since he would be trying to set the Auristic feels of these energies to memory, "the Shields." Kneeling out of his crouch, he held his hands directly over the focus of the trebled circles and energy began to gather around them, though more begrudgingly produced than the res with which he was more familiar and more adept. The faint glow poured off of his hands and into the receptive glyph, lighting it with a new fire that gradually worked its way through the entirety of Clyde's creation. A dome of faint light covered the workspace now, which was a slight waste of energy, but helpful all the same. The Shield could easily have been invisible. "The safety valve to the Void," he said next, and reached his hand across the Shields because a portal, once created, would not pass through the Shield. With his thumb and middle finger curled precisely into a loop, he concentrated on that mystic mudra for several long minutes, willing the particles of air to separate, creating an actual vacuum, a lack of anything, that expanded until it hit a critical mass and opened a portal with a faint pull. He set it within its own sigil and the little portal remained even after he stopped concentrating on it. Nothing would come out of it, but perhaps some Void dweller would enjoy the snack of energy that would eventually come through the potal. "The dagger," he said, and indicated a circular sigil within the Shields. "Place it here, please."

[Clyde Sullins]

Watching, Clyde saw as Hadrian put in his own personal touch, a few glyphs to do his various tasks. Looking over the papers, he saw the purpose of some of the things, and why he put them were he did. Hadrian had a very interesting and experimental way about magecrafting. Then he started adding his djeds, putting in and activating his various magics to further protect there work from interference, and imbalance. It seemed to make sense to him, and was all to fulfill a purpose. And since one of the easiest ways to mess up a magecrafting product was wild or imbalanced djed, there work would be pretty protected. Finally, Hadrian motioned for him to place the dagger, a finely crafted piece of work great for magecrafting. "Ah yes, here you go. This dagger should work rather well." Placing the dagger in the specified place, he carefully placed it, making sure not to move it once it was placed there.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian nodded approvingly at Clyde's work, relaxing slightly into the partnership. Had they been in Zeltiva he would have been more confident and assertive, but there was nothing in Ravok to make him feel safe. In fact he felt the weight of responsibility for Ethan, Kendall, and even Cathan and self-sufficient Sondra. When Clyde laid down the dagger, Hadrian looked at both men. "I need silence while I prime the metal, but I will give you a signal to pour your res into the appropriate focus glyph. I will add mine for power, but when that sigil is charged, you can begin the transmutation to fire. The glyphs will stabilize the reaction and then I will release it into the dagger. Then it will be safe to talk again. Don't forget to create the res within the Shields or it won't go through." He glanced at Ethan to be sure he would pay attention to the high magic. Then he took a small electrum hammer and struck the dagger thrice to release its tone. Then he took out his flute, listened to the tone, and copied it. Next he played up to a major third, then to a perfect fifth. The tone incorporated each note even as he changed. Finally he returnedd to the tonic, but an octave higher. The choral chord continued to ring after he let the flute rest in his lap. He nodded to Clyde then and held his hand within the Shields and began to produce res of the palest silver.

[Clyde Sullins]

Watching Clyde saw each step as Hadrian did them. He nodded at his directions, and saw him strike the dagger several times with a hammer to make it go at a specific tone. Reaching the stage, Clyde held out his hands and through the shield, ready to do some magics. Producing his res, Clyde watched it come out, which was oddly enough similar but very different from Hadrian's. While his was a palest silver, Clydes was always a bright silver, so bright it was almost white. Often the color of a mages res told a lot about them, he wondered what it meant that theres was so similar, and yet so different to. Finally having filled up the sigil, Clyde carefully let out a breath, and then transmuted the res into fire. Doing so, he kept his hands there for a while, to stabilize it with them until it was all absorbed in, and waited to take them out until he was motioned to do so by Hadrian.

[Hadrian]

Once the res began to bleed into fire, the glyphs caught up that energy, glowing with a fiery character, and Hadrian immediately motioned Clyde's hand away, not for fear of damaging him, but to keep things progressing. He took the chalk and connected the sigil holding the little Void-portal to that of the dagger, and he could See the faintest wisps of djed erring toward that black hole in the world. Then he connected the sigil holding the res with that of the dagger, tracing glyphs that properly managed the flow of djed into the dagger and those excesses which were better pulled directly into the void than allowed to gum up the works as it were. This system was not his usual manner, using no physical res-filter gadgeteered into life, but merely fixing the focus sigil in a line between stored energy and a place for the leftovers to go. This would speed things along immensely, definitely giving them time for another enchantment before the weather turned toward the bitter chill of autumn. Once more he rang the dagger thrice, following that with a brief minor chord on his ashwood flute, ending on a note that made the ear want resolution, which keyed the physical stuff of the dagger into this state of flux between res and Void. When all was resonating properly, he rang the dagger once more, one, two, three, and sat back on his heels, smiling. "Well, I think that will do it," he said, eyes still on the djed he could see with greater clarity than ever before. "In a day or so, it should have absorbed enough of the res to set the enchantment laid out in the glyphs. Then we will seal the enchantment and rest the dagger in charged water overnight... And then we need merely test it and sell it."

[Clyde Sullins]

Watching all of this, Clyde was fascinated. Hadrian was very intuitive with his magcrafting, and tended to do things most would not. Such was the ability of a skilled and well rounded magecrafter. Pulling back his hand he watched as Hadrian continued on. The use of the void was especially interesting. He watched carefully to make sure nothing went wrong, because if they fire res went wonky, h would have to step in. Luckily though, it did not, and all went fine in the transfer. Once more he tuned the dagger, striking it with a hammer, as was common with magecrafting. It seemed they were done for know, and would continue on later. "Okay, well I am going to rest in my room, just come by when you are ready to continue on to the next phase."

[Hadrian]

62nd Summer, 511 A.V. After sending Ethan to retrieve Clyde, Hadrian went alone into the room with their charging dagger. To his refined Auristic sense, everything seemed to be going perfectly, which was as he had expected. This was, after all, not a difficult enchantment as these things went. He was always careful and thorough, and with Clyde he had a glypher of a similar skill level with whom to work, which made things easier in that regard as well. While he waited, he glyphed a new sigil circle with the chalk, twining, sinuous glyphs that spoke of water and its mutability, but also of fixation and crystallization, for this would be the charged water that permanently set the enchantment upon the dagger. Normally he philtred his waters, but they were both glyphers and he wasn't sure if he would be able to find his normal ingredients this far north, so he did it this way. "Make do with what you've got," he told the glyphs, setting a pail within their circle. He held a hand over one of the focii, again pouring Shield energy into it in a smaller version of the Shields that protected the larger enchantment. Beads of perspiration appeared on his brow and upper lip at the effort; he was not so skilled with this type of energy as he was with, say, res. Next time, he decided, he would chalk up the walls and ward the entire room so as not to have to do such delicate work as this. Once the Shield was established and anchored into the chalked circle, he put his hands inside, holding one over the pail and the other over the other focus glyph. His hands began to glow blue, pulsing with his heartbeat as he poured res into the focus to power the charging glyphs, and quickly transmuted the res from the other hand into water for the pail. This was easier business now, as water answered his call with great alacrity. It was stone that remained new and relatively untested. That accomplished, he stood up, hearing the door opening. He smiled. Once the door was closed, he nodded to Clyde and then to the bucket of water. "You might want to double-check my runes, perhaps add some elaboration around the edges if you think it will help.

[Clyde Sullins]

Getting up, Clyde was ready for another day of working on there magecrafted item. Grabbing up some water from a bowl he had set in his room, he splashed it to invigorate and make him totally awake now. Getting out of bed, he went to the restroom, and coming back, was thinking of grabbing a bite to eat, when Ethan approached him saying they were getting back to work. Going up to the room were the item was, Clyde saw Hadrian, who was finishing up a bit or work he had been doing. "Hello there, well lets get to work. Oh, and I just remembered something we could have used." Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a pot of inscribing paint, which was perfect for what they were doing. "Well, we can finish with chalk for know, but if we do the next one, we can use this. It should work better, and have less chance of smudging once it dries. But lets get back to work." Walking over to the pail with a piece of chalk, he looked things over. Reading the patterns in the glyphs, he saw each sigils purpose, and how they were tied together to complete a task. It seemed Hadrian was trying to stabilize the waters with glyphs of a similar nature. This was much more curvy and sinuous than something Clyde himself would make, very different from his own style. It seemed pretty good over all, though he did see a few weak points. Though they would work well, over time stress to the points might make it eventually leak out, and not be as effective. It was always good to have a second eye, as it is hard to see any fault in your own logic at times. Adding a few bits to the glyphs, words that would mesh well with the others, and also be strong, he added them in, careful to add in words of unity. "Well, I think that is about all I can do for this in particular, it seems pretty good over all. You have a very interesting glyphing style you use, I will have to try something like it some time. Yours is much more sinuous and flowing, while mine is a bit more symmetrical and solid. But I think your is better for such un-traditional things like this."

[Hadrian]

"I normally use paint, but I thought the landlord would prefer not to have possible blast marks when we move out. Chalk runes just disintegrate, but some paints I have found... have some sort of chemical reaction." He smiled quietly and watched how Clyde augmented his rune structure without disrupting the magical process, nodding with approval. "My style is all over the place, but Water was my first element. I've found that whenever I'm drawing glyphs that relate to water, they tend to become more... well, liquid. We shall see what happens now that I have begun to work with Earth. To runes dealing with that element, I mean." He took the electrum hammer then and struck the dagger thrice, the tone it called up harmonizing with itself in the flux of magic through the sigils. All the same, he pulled out his ashwood flute and played a careful series of notes, charming the tone like an Eyktolian cobra. It took no great skill, just a careful movement from one sonorous note to the next. Then it finally reached a tonic and he smiled, putting his flute away as he reached in to take the dagger and hand it to Clyde. "Put this in the water, please." That done, he reached in to wipe a line through a particular glyph that made it pulse an angry red and then dissipate, the last of the res reaction bleeding down the line and into his hungry little Void portal. Next he held his hand over that portal and willed it to close as he marred a particular glyph in the Void sigil. As the last of the res disappeared into blackness, the hole itself began to fill up with space that didn't go anywhere else, to no other plane but this one, and then the portal was gone. There was a violent, but tiny gust of something like air, but laced with magic that blasted the chalk into a fine dust, the glyphs gone but for those still working around the pail of water. "Well," he said, standing up, "let's see how it's reacting to the water and then I'd say we just need to come back tomorrow, test it, and then sell it. Have you located a buyer yet, Clyde?" Of course it was a task he was willing to share in, but Clyde knew more people here than he did.