[Seidaku's Cottage] Lessons on Nothing (Seidaku

[Yanessavhanet]

Season of Spring, Day 27, 511 AV

The streets of Alvadas were a little annoying today, covered in soapy water that not only made them slippery, but they were spouting massive rainbow colored bubbles that refused to pop. Instead bumping into a bubble caused you to rebound rather heavily away from it.

So it was when Vhanet finally found her way to Seidaku's cottage her hair and clothing were in a bit of disarray, and a displeased frown had taken up residence on her lips. Eager to finally get out of the blasted streets she rushed towards the door of the cottage and unceremoniously burst through it and into the cottage inside.

Spotting Seidaku right away Vhanet gave a happy smile as she once again used illusion to hide the hissing accent of her voice, "Sorry for the sudden entrance Seidaku... The street is rather frustrating today."

[Seidaku]

Seidaku sat at his desk, his chair tilted precariously back as he stared at the ceiling. Something Vhanet had said the other day in the park tickled at his mind. She had said that she moved the air by feeling it with her body, and then with her mind. Then, once she had felt the air, she could work at controlling it.

It sounded like another example of the Theory of Djed Affinity, a term he had coined shortly after his first apprentice. He would have to ask Vhanet more about what exactly she meant by 'feel the wind'. From her description, it sounded like she was attempting to create similarity between her own thoughts, the Djed around her, and the wind in the physical world. He wished again that he had thought to ask more questions in the park, but Vhanet had been... distracting.

As though his stray thoughts had summoned her, Vhanet burst through the door of his home in a flurry. He gave a startled squawk at her sudden arrival and almost threw himself backwards over his chair before he managed to recover his balance and slam back to the ground.

Standing and brushing at himself in a futile effort to straighten his clothing, Seidaku turned toward the front of his home with a broad smile, "Welcome, welcome, Vhanet. It can, umm, it can do that sometimes. Why, once, I could not leave my home for two days because the street outside was at the bottom of a lake... or maybe a river. I'm not sure... It was fresh water at any rate. Quite alot of it, actually."

He snapped his mouth shut when he realized that he was rambling. Hopefully, she had not noticed his blush when she had first entered. In an effort to change the subject, he continued, "Are you ready to begin your learning?"

[Yanessavhanet]

Vhanet gave a little giggle at Seidaku's story, and made her way across the room to him, "You have such interesting stories about Alvadas. I'd love to hear more of them," she paused, letting her eyes get stuck on Seidaku's for a moment, and then glanced away as if in embarrassment.

After taking a moment to "recover" she turned back to Seidaku and nodded energetically with a smile, "Yes, I look forward to learning from you," she gave a quick glance around the room, "Should we do it here? I would not want to cause harm to any of your possessions while I learn."

To be honest she had little care for his possessions, but if she was to use this place as somewhere to rest and hide things then it wouldn't do to accidentally put a hole somewhere while she was learning Voiding.

[Seidaku]

"Oh, umm, well... of course," he swallowed audibly, trapped in dark eyes, "Alvadas is a, umm, an interesting city."

When Vhanet looked away, he shook his head to gather his wits. He was making a fool of himself, and likely embarassing her to boot. She had not come here to be gawked at, she likely got enough of that on the streets. Besides, her company was pleasant, he would not want her to think it was only an attempt at wooing her on his part.

At her concern for damaging anything in his home, his gaze was unconsciously drawn to his only item of any real value, the lovingly cared for copy of "Dreams of Oblivion" that sat upon his mantle. "There is nothing to be concerned about at this point," he said with a smile, "This lesson will be mostly prepatory, to give you something for later lessons to build upon."

[Yanessavhanet]

Vhanet nodded and smiled warmly at Seidaku's assurances, letting her illusion's focus shift from audible to visual, "I'm glad, I would hate to make a problem for you with how kind you have been to me," she looked down and to the side, causing a slight illusionary flush to touch her cheeks, and that's when she noticed the strange circle of symbols on the floor.

Curious she approached them, letting her blush slowly fade, "Might I know, are they part of the training?" she indicated the symbols on the floor, and then smiled up at Seidaku, "To help with the mental image maybe?"

She was starting to be more and more happy with the surprising find that this Seidaku was turning out to be. She was very glad she had not deigned to eat him on their first meeting. She was even starting to consider the thought that it might be a waste to ever eat someone so valuable. Torture and break his mind, maybe, but eating would just be pointless unless she absolutely had to.

[Seidaku]

Seidaku cleared his throat, "Oh, it's no problem at all, really."

He followed Vhanet deeper into his home, what little depth there was. He had forgotten the Glyphs were there. He had lived with them for so long that, as long as he was not actually working with them, they were just another piece of furniture, like his bed or his desk.

"Part of your training?" he asked, "Oh... umm, I suppose they could be, once you are able to create a portal, actually. They are Glyphs. They aid with the direction and manipulation of Djed. Not really magic themselves, but they assist with it."

He trailed off then, not wanting to Vhanet with technical details.

[Yanessavhanet]

"You are very knowledgeable," Vhanet spoke warmly and softly to Seidaku with a pleasant smile, "You know much more than I do regarding the arcane. I hope I can learn from you for a long time..." her smile to a slide towards the shy side as she gazed longingly at Seidaku.

After a few moments she cleared her throat softly, and looked away with another illusionary blush, "Right... Training. What would you like me to do?"

She had a suspicion this Voiding would take some work to learn, especially as she had no actual experience with magic itself, but it would be very much fun to see if she could maintain this deception of knowing magic while learning Voiding. Maybe she would even learn the actual art of Reimancy as well, so Seidaku would never be the wiser.

[Seidaku]

"Oh, well, thank you," he stammered, "It's always a pleasure to teach. Most people are, umm... concerned, about magic, that is."

"Now, as to your training," he said, regaining his composure now that he was back in his element, "The first step is simultaneously the easiest and most difficult. The easiest way I have seen to make the connection is by answering a question..."

"What is Nothingness?"

Waiting for Vhanet's answer, he gave a soft chuckle as he remembered the last answer to that question he had gotten. The absence of somethingness, indeed.

[Yanessavhanet]

A faint downward twitch of the corners of her mouth was all of a frown that touched Vhanet's lips at the first step of the training Seidaku was offering. The first step was a simple question? What was so difficult about that?

Still she put up an act of thinking for a moment, softly bitting and sucking on her lower lip in a seductive show of concentration, "Nothingnesss...be the Void, no?" she gave Seidaku a nervous look, as if worried her answer was wrong, "A complete lack of anything, even air or light?"

If this was all he had to offer in the way of instruction on Voiding then maybe it would be just as easy to just find a book and learn on her own, but she would still play along for now to see what else there was to learn.

[Seidaku]

He flashed an encouraging smile when Vhanet first frowned at the import of the question. Now, he realized what a frustration this first step was for a potential student, but it really was necessary. Not only for the student to begin a contemplation of what they were trying to learn, but also for him, to see where he had to start further lessons. He had a greater understanding for Vauthor and his often seemingly inane questions and exercises.

His thoughts trailed a bit at the distracting way that Vhanet was biting his- biting her lower lip in concentration as she thought. He averted his eyes with an embarassed cough, sure that he was making a fool of himself, when she looked up with her answer.

"Yes, the Void certainly is a perfect example of Nothingness," he said with a nod, "But the our world is not the Void, and there in lies the difficulty with making a portal. Even the emptiest, darkest, coldest places that occur naturally are fuller, lighter, and warmer than the Void."

"A portal to the Void is created when you create an identical point of emptiness in our world. By creating a point that is the Void, you create a portal to the Void. And in order to do that, you have to truly understand what Nothingness is. If you do not understand it, you cannot create it."