[The Sanctuary] This Hallow Ground

[Kavala]

Kavala didn't really know what Earth felt like until she thought a great deal about it. She knew the richness of soil within her hands as she worked in her gardens. She also knew, probably even better, the fine grit of sand as she rode and played on the beach. She understood the heavy stone of the walls and the beauty of gemstones that surrounded her even though she owned no jewelry.

Kavala thought hard, stared at the res pooled in her hands, and imagined what it would feel like to be sand instead. The liquid warm familiar tingle of the res slowly transformed into the heavy fluid weight of sand and it slid through her hands to waterfall onto the bare stone etched with Sama'el's runework. She laughed as even the res bleeding from her nose turned to sand causing her to cough and step back.

"I understand..." She choked, then concentrated on stopping what her body was so enthusiastically doing. The res production tapered off and finally ceased altogether. She lifted her hands, shook the last of the sand out of them, and laughed.

"I've no experience really with magic other than webbing and auristics and splash of shielding. None of it seems to flow so easily. I feel like my body wants to populate the shore with sand as soon as I thought of what sand was. Is it safe to step from the circle?" As tired as she was, Kavala wanted to play a little. She wanted to touch the stone of the walls and turn it into something other than rough stone. It was seductive, as if the magic sung in her and wanted to pour forth like a rushing wave of res crashing into the stone shore. The image filled her mind, and she twirled slightly, her hair loose and shrouding her features when she finally halted. She thought she should have been exhausted but instead she felt exhilarated.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el laughed lightly at her trouble with the sand, but nodded when she glanced askance that she might step out of the circle. The glyphs were degrading anyway, the magic gone out of them now, their purpose served. There was a wildness to the djed. It would answer their call, form itself along the lines of their will, but then it would return to its own way; such was the way of things. "It has a mind of its own," he said, "does the magic. That's why they warn us not to let it become our master. I have to be especially careful during the dry season not to let the Fire get out of hand..." For obvious reasons. Passing his hand over the burning things, he extinguished them, let his witchlight burn out. He would wait for her to explore her newly gifted power before he laid a task down for her to help him with his own. "I need you to create a stone for me," he said. "And I will write the runes upon it, and you will need to etch them in with your power. Then I can sink the origin under Sanctuary, to tie your home into the Drykas Web as it should be. That will make it easier for you to reach us and for us to reach you."

[Kavala]

Kavala nodded, though she was lost in the seduction of firsts - first power, first contact, first control. She rose, crossed the etched lines, and laid her hands on the walls... feeling the stone beneath her fingers. Her eyes were wide, slightly glazed, as if she were held in the arms of a lover and perhaps she was. Perhaps in that moment Semele caught Kavala's heart and stole it for a moment as the Drykas born Konti caressed the flesh of the world. Stone fell away as sand and later glistened as the properties of it changed from rough hewed basement walls to smooth marble that gleamed as a reflection of Kavala's scales. It was all rough, unpracticed, but Sama'el could feel the tangible love the Konti felt for the world around her in that moment. It filled the room along with her faith, pulling in all the deities that had marked her and those too that she looked too with no expectation of reward.

The healer was so much more than a healer in that instant. It was as if the stone beneath her fingers welled up and caused her to taste something more in herself than she'd ever been able to see before. Time passed slowly. She could have been wandering the circle of the temple for days or even years before she returned to Sama'el, gratitude in her gaze. She knelt before him once more, unashamed to be unadorned, and held her hands out. She visualized what it was she wanted and the res began to pool in her hands, fed by more and more djed within her.

It felt, in that first moment of actual creation, that her lifetime was spent pooling djed to be used just in this manner and in this time and place. Tears streamed down her cheeks, unbidden and unnoticed as the stone formed itself in her hands. It was a boulder, perfectly smooth, shot through with opal, the symbol of healers everywhere. It had vivid coloration of earth tones punctuated by the fiery threads of luminescence that refracted from the opal. And it was no small thing. She'd held her hands shoulder length apart and the stone she'd created turned out to be a significant stone the size of her head.

She offered it careful to Sama'el, like she was passing him a child, and then waited. Her expression was of pure bliss, as if she'd not been this happy in a long time nor this content with the world.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

OOCOh, that's hot.

"Beautiful," he declared it in a slowly exhaled breath. Kneeling before her, he put his hands upon the stone, but did not take its entire weight. Balanced between their four hands, his smoldering res began to branch out along the shining surface of it like cracks of fire, slowly coalescing into a pattern of glyphs that burned without heat. He had learned from many: Daed Whitefeather, Petya the Weaver, and even Leto, whose glyphs worked portals to distant worlds rather than tying things on this one together. He knew what must appear on the surface of this origin, more permanent than most, he hoped. "Where I marked, you mark," he said, his voice sonorous. Somewhere during that minutes long process, he had gone into a trance. "Indentations of the glyphs." Then he began to spin his djed into fine filaments, weaving them into the very fabric of the stone. Then he began to pull bits of djed from the walls, from the more permanent features of the room, to spin it in a cocoon of energy, tying it to this place, but linking it also to the world without and the great Drykas Web. Finally, the question: "Do you consent to be the guardian of the origin?"

[Kavala]

She did what he asked, letting her res flow over the stone again, softening it, adding indentions into the shape where his fire marked her path. It was harder work than just fashioning stone, and the sweat broke out on her back, beading up into cool droplets that slipped down between her shoulder blades.

Her skin paled even more at the concentration, her eyes blazing a fierce blue as she concentrated, sometimes having to go over and over where the fire etched until he might have wondered what she actually did. Aesthetics. Kavala was obsessed with getting things 'perfect' so rather than just pushing in the stone like a child would clay, she worked for control and fed res into the stone wanting all the etchings smooth, uniform in depth, and without flaw. It was the prefectionism of her healer nature that drove her so the stone took far longer than it actually should have. Odds are no one would see it once it was sunk and once it was buried and tied in. But in Kavala's mind, she'd know if it was less than perfect and she wanted the core of Sanctuary's web lines to be absolutely flawless.

When they were done, she lifted her head. Her hair was slick with the sweat of her labor and her face intense. She had that look of someone who wanted to keep etching, keep producing, that could have stood and filled the whole room with her res. Kavala didn't know about Overgiving, not really, though she'd heard rumors of it. She didn't know about the seduction of power. She'd learn later, most likely when it happened to her, or when she took the time to tutor under Lars whom she'd contracted to hollow out Sanctuary's depths initially because she didn't trust herself.

But Sama'el could tell for a creature of the water and a healer of animals, she was thoroughly and utterly in love with Earth. It was her Drykas blood. For all that she physically displayed her Konti dam's stamp, there' could be no doubt in her mind that she was Drykas through and through.

When he asked the final question, she didn't nod, didn't make a speech, or do anything of the kind. Instead she inclined her head, uttered the soft pavi word for agreement, and then followed through with a multitude of handsign that stood for all she was feeling. Love. Devotion. Protection. Oath. Eternity. Faith There was no doubt in his mind that she'd guard the origin, perhaps well into death, if necessary.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

His own skin was feverish to the touch, but he did not sweat. There was Fire in him, and he had shared it with her and still their work was not done. It would have been wise, perhaps, to wait. An initiation into the Mysteries was a special thing, as was the creation of an Origin. To combine the two might have been foolhardy, but Kavala was ambitious and Sama'el was strapped for time if he wanted to find Ragnor's family and ever get back to the Sea of Grass. Once she acquiesced, proving that she took this burden on of her own free will, he reached out and began to pull those same sort of filaments from her djed to weave into the Origin. He wrapped them around certain key glyphs, those binding her as guardian. Others might have to drop Origins nearby or even next to this one, but it would be the seed, the womb, the origin of Origins in Riverfall. With it the Drykas would be able to know a great deal more of what happened in Riverfall as it happened, the movement of Drykas within and around it spreading the reach of the Web. While he did this, at least, she could rest her soul. It still required all four hands to hold the origin up while he did the subtle work that only those with Web sight might see. When he was finished, the Origin was another link between them, and they would be able to meet on the Web when close enough. "It is done," he said, pushing the burden over completely into her arms. It was hers now, though he had been instrumental in its spiritual creation too. "You can display it down here on a pedestal or, perhaps when you have rested, sink it halfway into the wall or the floor. That way nobody can move it. But you must be careful. You must wait a few days before you attempt any work with the Earth. Semele has blessed you with her gift, but it will drain you if you let it. Many who do not discipline themselves will give and give until they have nothing left to give and their bodies are wracked with illness and their minds go... I do not mean to scare you, but you must know that there will be consequences if you do not treat the power with respect... as I know you will." He smiled wearily, and suddenly the fever of their work broke and he began to sweat profusely. So much for that bath. The heat had to dissipate, however, and that was his body's natural reaction. "I know you will respect it," he repeated, "but I have to give the warning or I would not be a responsible friend." With that, he inhaled and let it go, feeling suddenly all wrung out. "Do you have any questions for me, friend Kavala? Our rituals are complete for the day. You may want to rest. I intend to. I'll only have to sing Syna to sleep when the sunset approaches."

[Kavala]

Kavala gathered the completed origin stone into her hands and held it like a child. She studied the work on it and nodded, looking thoughtfully at Sama'el. "I'll have lots of questions, but right now my body feels weak, even my arms are trembling a bit. I want to play with stone, badly, but I see what you are saying. Just a little bit is tiring at first isn't it? I'll save them, the questions that is, for your return where we can sit down and talk and I've already had a chance to use the reimancy a bit." She said, half talking to herself and nodded. "I'll mount it on the wall deeper down. I have plans for more construction this winter below. Some of the storms we have here on the coast are fairly bad, so I wanted us to have a larger basement." Kavala said, looking around. She walked to a sheltered spot in the circular temple and rested the Origin there. No one would bother it since your chapel was in essence secret. It would be better, as well, to display it rather than bury it especially if it was safe.

"Thank you Sama'el... for all you've helped with here. If I can ever repay you please let me know. I'll not forget the horse I owe you either. The pick of the bloodbane colts will be yours when you get back from Avanthal." She reminded him, and then together walked with him out of the sacred space and upstairs where she showed him a room to sleep and a where to find some breakfast when he woke, since she knew he'd be hungry.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el nodded. There would be questions, and he would answer them to the best of his ability. He knew from Eldon that there was much in common in the manipulation of different elements with this power, and much that was specific to each. Someday he might come to her as a student in the art of geomancy, where she would have the natural edge. "Thank you," he responded. They had done much for each other in a short amount of time, and while he smiled at the thought of Bloodbane colts and a new breed of horses he might sell to the Knights of Syliras, there were no more words to be said just then. He kissed his fingertips and touched them to the Origin where she sat it down for safekeeping. Farewell, my heart. There was a piece of his soul woven into that stone, his and Kavala's; their child. It would remain in this womb of a Sanctuary to serve the Drykas Watch and their people under her wardenship. That said there in the silence of his soul, he took up his clothes, his dagger, dressed, and bowed to Kavala, mistress of sanctuary. END

[Indigo]

Character: Kavala Skills: +1 Horsemanship, +1 Horse breeding, +5 Reimancy, +2 Shielding, +2 Webbing, +5 Auristics, Lore: Drykas horse culture, Reimancy initiation, Ritual purification, Spiritual intimacy, Trauma of Induction, Skyclad, Rebirth, Making an Origin Stone! Character: Sama'el Skills: +2 Teaching, +1 Planning, +5 Reimancy, +3 Glyphing, +2 Webbing, +5 Auristics, Lore: Drykas horse culture, Teaching Reimancy, Ritual purification, Elemental Sacraments, Spiritual intimacy, Sharing Fire, Spiritual Intuition, Skyclad Notes: Kav, you're an excellent descriptive writer with an eye for details, and Sam, you're an intuitively compassionate teacher with a gift for picking up on subtle cues. Kav, I like how you moved from simple shielding of the door into a gradual procession of producing res and then showing -exactly- how Reimancy is achieved through the effort of giving of Djed contained within yourself. Sam you wrote a classic lesson about how to channel magic into an area--the very essence of Glyphing and well done. Your detailed exhibition of using Sigils and remembering the ritual wounds for Initiation is the ideal lesson in Reimancy. I highly recommend this thread for anyone who wants to learn more in depth about Reimancy, Shielding, Glyphing, Sigils, and Djed in Mizahar. If you have any questions or comments about your grade, please PM me.