[Flashback] Seeing and Touching (Azilis)

[Hadrian]

8th Summer, 507 A.V. Hadrian had managed to get a hold of Azilis to let her know that he had reserved a practice room for them on the 8th; he thought a week was long enough that he was not being weird. Not that he was sure why exactly it would be weird to meet with her again in less than a week. Perhaps he had overheard someone saying something and taken it too far to heart. Since he arrived early, he decided to start a little bit on his own. Having already read the text on Flux, he passed it to her along with the time and date of their meeting. So now he calmed himself by controlling his breathing. In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Repeat. Once the meditative calm came over him, he willed his Vision to return as the Professor had taught him. Finally, he felt it itching in his eyeballs, and when he blinked... a new array of colors met his senses. He grinned, then looked at his hand. The rainbow patterns were dazzling, of course, but he looked ever closer, trying to see with greater clarity, to discern particular flows of djed through his veins, through his nerves. Azilis was better at this than he was, so he wanted to refresh his skills for a moment before she arrived and they attempted to alter what at this point they could only see. Finally, he thought he had one, a vein traveling over the knuckle of his index finger. He focused on it, just looking for now.

[Azilis Theroulde]

The sun beat down on the cobbled stone streets of Zeltiva as Azilis walked their lengths with Hadrian's texts on the Flux tucked under her arm, her strides wide and her mood cheery. Ever since receiving Hadrian's message that he wanted to meet again, she had been excited both to practice her magical skills and to see him again. None of her father's students had ever been so friendly to her, and she was excited at the prospect of befriending a boy that could fully understand her compulsive need to learn. She felt as if they were kindred spirits of a sort; she could see many qualities of herself reflected in him, and she felt a tingle of anticipation as she wondered about the things he would teach her today. The anticipation was mixed in with a goodly smattering of fear, though; she had always been taught to be more cautious of the Flux than any other personal magic discipline, and though she understood how it worked in theory, she had never tried to use it. The texts he had slipped to her cleared up some of her misgivings, but she still felt a flutter of anxiety in the pit of her stomach. The granite buildings of the University loomed in front of her, dwarfing the wooden buildings that seemed crude next to their architectural grandeur. She had always loved the luxe feel of the Old Quarter, and simply being in it elevated her mood even higher – a drastic difference than when she had first seen Hadrian last week. Without consciously doing so, she began to burble an old folk tune under her breath as she made her way to the classroom he had reserved for them. It was an upbeat ditty that skittered up and down the scale with the mood of the song, which detailed, in rather colorful language, the love affair between a respectable Zeltivan lady and a scurvy sailor boy. She was still singing when she burst through the door to the practice room, her full azure skirts whirling around her as she closed it behind her. “Hello, Hadrian! How're you -” Then she took a moment to realize that he was staring fixedly at his hand, concentration that was nearly tangible radiating from his body. “Oh, son of a glassbeak, you'd already begun, hadn't you? Shyke, I'm sorry.”

[Hadrian]

He did blink and lose his Vision when she burst into the room, but luckily he hadn't yet attempted to manipulate his djed. The startling burst of her soul's fire through the door had been a beautiful distraction, though, so he smiled at her from the middle of the room. There was no real furniture in the practice room, so he was just seated on the floor. They were young and limber, so it shouldn't be a problem, he thought. "You made it," he said with a smile warring somewhere between sincere pleasure and the blase, ironic tone that many young students affected. "Hullo, Azilis. C'mon, sit down. I was just seeing what I could See while I waited. You're better at me with the auristics, so I just thought I would warm up first. "So what did you think of the book?" he asked, already babbling in his excitement. "I've thought of a few exercises we could try, really basic things, based on what it says in the book. And based on what I can see of my own djed, but maybe you'll have different input, which I look forward to hearing."

[Azilis Theroulde]

She slung her things onto the floor, taking a seat next to Hadrian as she tried to clear the dirty-minded sailor's ditty from her head so she could concentrate. “Oh, I thought it was fascinating! Auristics and the Flux are far more similar than I ever realized. I mean, in the way the user channels Djed. From what I can figure out from the text, the connection of the physical body and the astral body is the most important part of channeling the energy of the Flux, and I didn't realize – I've already been doing that with Auristics. Centered in my eyes, mostly, and other sensory organs, because that's all that's good for focusing on auras, but I bet I can do it with other body parts too.” She paused, chewing on her lower lip as the wheels turned in her mind. “You know, I'm actually beginning to see what you meant last week. With Flux being the key to...so much more. Although, to be honest...” She hung her head, a bit ashamed at her next words. “I'm still a little nervous to use it. If something goes horribly wrong, you'll, um, fix it? Won't you, Hadrian?” She wasn't sure what that “something” was, and she felt embarrassed even asking, but she figured she should put her fears out on the table before they began. Quickly, she moved on to another topic, not eager to make herself look like a coward in front of Hadrian. “Anyway. Tell me which of the exercises you wanted to do from the book. I thought maybe after we tried some of the basic beginning ones, we could try a couple of the incantations, although most of the ones in the book were in Nader-Canoch, which I can't read yet...” She shrugged. “But if you can, maybe we could give those a try.”

[Hadrian]

"Yes!" he exclaimed, latching onto her energy. They were on the same page and the feedback loop of excitement only drove him higher. "Auristics is the seeing, and Flux is the manipulation. But I think the Suvan wizards ruined it for other wizards in a sense. They were focused on such crude applications. Punching harder? Running faster? Well, of course that's going to wear a body out that isn't build for that sort of stress. But for more subtle uses... it could be a matter of finessing the djed of a person. To heal. To alter. To... so many things! And those crude uses might also be possible, and more healthy if, say, you focus your fist's djed toward your target, but also focus part of the djed into protecting the structure of your fist, your wrist, your arm, and your shoulder... Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but if you reduce the power of the reaction just enough, you should still be able to have the augmented action without destroying the tool. In this case, your body!" He grinned, blue eyes alight with excitement. This is what he lived for: innovation of magical practices. "Don't be embarrassed, though. I'm a little nervous myself. This is all theoretical, and the practical applications will be risky. This is why I think we should take baby steps and get really familiar with manipulating our bodies' djeds before we start any tests that might put undue stress on our bodies. "In fact, I was trying to differentiate the minute flows of djed through my hand when you arrived. I was specifically trying to pull out those associated with blood flow through arteries and veins. Capillaries might be easier to manipulate, but they also require a facility with auristics that I just don't have. Perhaps that will be something that you can do that I can't... "Anyway, I was thinking that I would try to pinch off the blood flow for a moment or two in a vein in my hand... Just to see if I can do it with my mind. When I release, the pressure in my vein should make my tampering disappear. No harm, no foul. What do you think?"

[Azilis Theroulde]

Azilis studied her hand, flexing her fingers and watching her knuckles whiten underneath the skin. “Action and reaction, hmm? Evolution and adaptation...just because the Flux was originally invented to be a military discipline doesn't mean that it's all it can be, like you were saying. I mean, that's the essence of magical manipulation, right? To mold our Djed to whatever purposes we can dream up, in whatever way we can think of...the sky's the limit, really.” Hadrian's pure excitement was catching, and her face lit up as she spoke. “After all, everything the Suvans invented about it was all before the Valterrian. Afterwards, with the second chance we were given...it's only fitting that we think of ways that the Flux can be beneficial instead of using it to sock each other in the face.” “But I'm being all grandiose. Don't mind me when I wax philosophical, Hadrian, I don't mean to bore you.” She grinned at him, resting her chin on her knee. “Your idea is good, at least in theory. I can certainly try to see my own capillaries, but I've never tried to use auristics in such a specific capacity before...we'll see how that goes. Small muscle groups'll probably be easier, if I can't get the capillaries.” She closed her eyes, focusing on the natural Djed pathways that linked her body and soul. Breathe in, one, two, three four. Hold, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and release...and...again... The more she concentrated on her body's natural functions, the more she was drawn to the pools of Djed that lay in bundles of nerves scattered throughout her being. Gently siphoning some of that Djed to her eyes, she took another meditative breath before opening them again. Hadrian's aura bloomed around him, suffused with a mélange of effervescent colors. She let her body relax at the sight of such a beautiful magical manifestation, then turned her gaze to her own body. Drawing her hand before her, Azilis focused first on her arm; then, when she had become attuned to the Djed flowing there and the locations of the nerves, she went farther, into her hand. She focused for several moments, locating a small vein in her middle finger, and fixed her auristic vision upon it. Frustrated when she couldn't immediately find any venules or capillaries branching off of it, she concentrated harder, pulling more Djed into her eyes. “Damn. I can't find a petching capillary...ah, wait, that might be one...” Thinner than a thread, the vessel was almost too hard to perceive even with Auristic vision. She blinked, trying to clear dust out of her eye, and when she opened them again the blood vessel was gone. “Ah, shyke. I've lost it. I'll just go with the vein itself for now, I guess. Who knows, maybe it'll be easier since I'm not trying to be so specific? Perhaps it'll be better just to go with a general area anyway.” Azilis fixed the vein firmly in her vision until she could see the stream of Djed running through it. “Alright, I've got it down now. What's next?”

OOC :

During the next week, I'll have a really spotty Internet connection, so my apologies if my replies are a bit sporadic.

[Hadrian]

"No, no. I like the philosophy. I just think that Flux has traditionally been used for the least sophisticated of purposes, and to the detriment of its practitioners. If we can learn to control our own djed as it applies to our bodies, then... we can learn to heal ourselves. Perhaps even learn functional immortality. I mean, this could be huge!" He calmed down a bit as she began to utilize her superior auristics skills. He watched her in the normal spectrum, saving his energy for when it would count, but observing how she reacted on the surface to what she was seeing. "I just figured that you could see smaller flows with your auristic skills than I could. So that would be easier to manipulate. But if we're both working with veins rather than capillaries, then... well, all the better. You'll still see more clearly than I will, though, I imagine. "Anyway," he said, blinking his eyes back into a state where they would pick up on the auristic spectrum, "just find a vein that you can focus on most clearly and attempt to pinch it off with your mind. At least, that's the mental image you should use in order to effect the specific change we're looking for. Neither of us know projection so far as I know, so it's just a mental image to help you focus your will. It'll be our minds effecting change on a djed flow within our bodies that coincides with the flow of blood through that specific vein..." He could see his again, the vein popping up slightly as it crossed over the metacarpal of his index finger. The flow of djed burned red as he focused on it. He assumed this was just his mind's way of recognizing it as blood. "So let's try this together. Pinch off the flow of djed, count to three... no, five. And then release and watch it resume its normal flow. That's not long enough to cause any damage." He began to feel the flow of djed through his vein with his mind. Imagining it to be so, he began to feel it in truth. It was like tricking the eyes into seeing the auristic spectrum again, except now he was tricking his mind into feeling the flow of djed through his body. "Ready?"

[Azilis Theroulde]

Azilis nodded almost imperceptibly, her eyes fixed on the Djed streaming through her vessels – to her it seemed a white translucent color, the distant gleam of stars hung the sky. “Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do this.” Her heartbeat thrummed through her like a vibration as she focused her mind on what she was about to do. The vein in her middle finger seemed to grow larger and more defined, and she took one more meditative breath to calm her mind before attempting to pinch off the blood flow. She didn't want agitation and fear disrupting their experiment – if she let that happen, then things really would go wrong. Tightening her lips in distaste, she tried to banish from her mind the image of her flesh necrosing into a black mess, knowing it was highly unlikely that would happen. After a minute or so, she felt she was ready for the next stage of the exercise. She imagined invisible fingers pressing the entryway of the vein into a bottleneck. Her body obeyed her, and the flow of milky Djed that equated the flow of blood into her middle finger began to lessen. Over the next several moments, it decreased until, at last, there was an invisible obstruction blocking Djed from flowing into the vein. She stared at it in wonder, watching the Djed in that finger surge and ripple against the boundary she had made. A slight prickling in her finger made her realize that she had been staring for more than five seconds, probably more along the lines of twenty – not long enough to harm her, but enough to alert her body that something was off. “Son of a whore and a Zith,” she muttered, more out of surprise than pain, as she released her concentration and the flow of Djed gushed back into her finger with a vengeance. She blushed, her embarrassment a combination of the swear she had inadvertently let escape from her lips and her failure to complete the exercise like Hadrian had said. “Oh, now I've messed it up. At least I got it to work, though...how'd you do, Hadrian?”

[Hadrian]

When Azilis gave the word, he too focused more intently on that flow of red, energy shimmering along its pathways through his hand. He continued breathing meditatively, keeping his mind and body calm. The djed didn't rush, but flowed with each pump of his heart. He found that the more he concentrated on his self-awareness, the better he could feel his whole system as a collection of interlocking systems. This vein was connected to every vein, and to his heart, which fluttered for a moment at his revelation. Calming himself, he focused only on the vein over his metacarpal, ignoring how its song was an echo of the stronger voice of his neck-vein, which he could now feel as it pumped blood back to his heart. This was wrong, though. He remembered that veins carried the blue blood, oxygen-poor stuff. As if in answer to his changed perception, the red-tinted djed shifted to blue in his auristic vision. Apparently as his awareness and understanding improved, so did his senses. He hoped this would mean an across the boards improvement to his auristics. That little epiphany past, he visualized the vein pinching shut and the djed ceasing to flow along that line. In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Repeat. After a time, he saw the djed slow and then cease to flow. Physically, he felt the strange pressure of blood not allowed to pump. He could see the vein bulging slightly. Fascinated, he too forgot to count and it wasn't until Azilis began to curse that he released the tiny stranglehold on his vein and watched the djed rush down its old course, feeling the blood release, too. He looked over quickly, concerned. "It worked? You're unharmed? I... I was successful too, and I think my auristics are improving to boot!" He was excited, and she seemed to be well, so their first experiment had been a success!

[Azilis Theroulde]

“Really? You think so? What'd you see?” The prickling sensation had long since left her finger, but she was still a little on edge. “I'm fine...I just, um. Well. I held it for too long. The blood, I mean.” She sighed and rolled her eyes, shaking out her skirts. “'Cause I wasn't paying attention to the time. As usual.” Azilis blinked several times. She could still see faint traces of Djed pumping through her hands as she gestured with them, and it was a little unnerving. “I was a little nervous, so I don't think my Auristic vision was at its best, but it did work...” A question struck her then. “Tell me, what did it look like to you? Your Djed?” She knew that the way each person perceived auras was different, but surely a human's Djed flowing through his veins would have some similarities from person to person. Or perhaps not; she really didn't have much of an idea. "So what're we on to next, Hadrian? More of the same, or a different exercise?"