Closed Teaching the Dead [Tsaba]

[Annalisa Marin]

So Tsaba was indeed a Nuit as Anna had suspected, which meant that she would prove to be a well spring of information if the wizard work at this correctly. The professor had heard nothing but passing rumors of Sahova, and island where the undead ruled. The wizard had found very little information on Sahova in her research into places outside of Zeltiva, from the sounds of it Tsaba had lived on the mysterious island. The so called 'Daek-Nuit' was a word she was unfamiliar with, it bore further investigation.

For the moment Anna split her attention between looking at Tsaba's progress and contemplating further questions for her. The undead woman seemed to be making great progress in finding her own style, appearing to use geometry as her means of creating glyphs. For her part, Anna simply observed, noting flaws and improvements in her glyphs. Still, the wizard was impressed that Tsaba was making strides to overcome the hurdle of discovering one's own style. It looked similar to her own still, but it looked more like something Tsaba would draw rather than something Anna would.

The wizard accepted the Nuit's finished product, appraising it for what it was worth. It was actually quite passible, no where near perfection but it was indeed very much an improvement. The glyphs seemed to be drawn much more naturally rather than copied, meaning that it would be easier for her to create them outside of the classroom and when she was on her own. She considered this to be worthy of at least a little bit of praise, just to keep her spirits up.

"Impressive Tsaba, far better than just copying my own glyphs. Do it twice more, just to cement the motions and procedures in your mind. Repetition is key." The professor said with a nod.

"If I am pleased with your work I may be willing to provide you with a... controlled demonstration as to how a barrier contains personal magic, and what a finished scroll looks like." She offered.

Scrolls were a rather advanced concept for a starting novice to grasp, however it might help her to know exactly what barrier is capable of. Theory was all fine and well, but examples helped one to better understand how exactly something is used and what it was capable of. Other professors tended to frown on her methods, and technically it was rather dangerous no matter how small and controlled Anna kept it. Still, she viewed it as worth it in the end. Besides, the wizard was growing less and less concerned with her position as professor as of late. Certainly it was useful, but it was starting to prove more a chain to the city than anything else, one that kept her from experimenting with her powers to their fullest extent.

"Before you actually get started on that task, I'd ask you to indulge my curiosity for a few minutes. I'm curious, Tsaba. I don't know as much as I should about the Nuit or Sahova. What are your people? How are they created? How are you different from me? What is Sahova like?" The wizard asked with a slight sparkle of academic curiosity in her eyes.

The barrage of questions had poured out of her, however Anna found she really didn't care. She needed this information now that she knew that Tsaba had it.

[Tsaba]

Had Tsaba been hit with such a barrage of questions when she'd first arrived in Zeltiva, she would not have known how to begin answering. But it was almost routine now, although few were as forward as Dr Marin. Her ability to predict what things she should assume people already knew, and what she should not, was improving through sheer trial and error, and the words of the speech she had given to the Zeltivan public were still clear enough in her mind to fall back on. Tsaba put down her brush and looked up from the parchment, fully intent on answering Dr Marin's questions to the best of her ability. Besides, she really wanted to see the scroll demonstration. "Sahova is..." she frowned to herself, trying to find words to evoke exactly what Sahova was like. "Sahova is like a mine. A mine that outputs magical technology. Or a... high-pressure workshop, maybe?" Mining was pretty much the only mainland activity that Tsaba had had any knowledge of before arriving in Zeltiva, unless her smattering of medical training counted. "It's a settlement where workers learn and research. The government cares about magical output, and that is the standard by which people gain respect or funding or the right for assistance to stay alive. Most of the people there are Nuits. Non-nuits are accepted, but we tend to find their high levels of maintenance to be frustrating. They tend to need food and sleep every day to keep them in decent working order, which is a large drain on time and resources. On Sahova, your value is in what you can do for the lab. At least, it is if you're in research. I don't know about anybody else." She shrugged. "Most of the people there are wizards, for obvious reasons. They're interested in high-level, high-danger magic, because individual lives are worth very little. The workforce is always replaceable. And Nuits..." she paused once again, head cocked, considering how to continue. "Nuits tend to be... well... I don't think the human psyche was designed to last forever. Does that make sense? It is like a book; perfectly serviceable for its expected lifetime, but after awhile, if you just keep using it every day, the pages become tattered, and the ink fades, until eventually the book is unreadable. We have a very high suicide rate. And those of us who survive... tend to find a way to survive. Nuit are obsessive, and goal-oriented. A change of scenery helps," she added, glancing around the room. "I'm very young, by Nuit standards, and I had... more help than most people get. I'm still fairly human. But time tends to jade people. Not that Nuit are dangerous," she added quickly. "I am making an effort to interact with humanity on purpose, but most of us keep to ourselves. We have little reason to get in the way of others or be a problem to society. That's probably the biggest difference, there; humans need each other. Humans need resources. Humans will kill for money or shelter or food because they cannot live without it. Nuit have needs, but they're rather less. And most of what we need are things that humanity is no longer using. Being here, for me, is a matter of choice, not survival. This is another thing that makes us rather less dangerous than humans. "Nuit are created... well, transformed, I guess... by way of a magic ritual, the Daek-Nuit. I think it is a type of Animation magic. In Animation, a facsimile of a soul is bound to something and rules scripted to influence its behaviour, making a golem. Nuits are... I think we're a bit like golems. Except we bind an actual, human soul, instead of copying one. And instead of preprogrammed instructions, we simply use our human minds. So I guess a ghost might be a better fit -- we are ghosts, that need to remain bound to a body to survive." She glanced at her own hand and wrinkled her nose. "Our bodies do have a limited lifespan, unfortunately. But that is technically true of everything." Tsaba smiled at her professor. "Did I leave anything out, Dr Marin?"

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna barely resisted the urge to pick up a quill and start taking notes, however she did give Tsaba her full attention. Her description of Sahova piqued her interest a great deal, a magical research facility? A place ruled by undead wizards working tirelessly to uncover the secrets of magic? It certainly sounded outlandish, but it also sounded much like a place she might want to visit once her own knowledge of magic was far more considerable. It sounded like a harsh place for the living, however Anna was one who would indeed go to many lengths to learn more about magic.

The nature of the Nuit themselves seemed far more in tune with the wizard's expectations of the undead. It made sense really that living so long would cause one to grow tired of life in a way. The method of becoming a Nuit sounded an interesting way to cheat Dira, however Anna wondered what Rhysol's opinion on the matter would be. Would he wish for one of his disciples to seek undeath? It was something to ponder. As for Tsaba's mention of bodies wearing out, Anna did not need to ask where they found replacements.

"You've satisfied a good deal of my curiosity, Tsaba, finish your glyphs and I'll provide you with a demonstration." The wizard said absently, mulling over the information she had just received as she picked up her own brush.

The wizard idly started on drawing a focus glyph, thinking of this so called Sahova and what horrors and wonders it might indeed possess. Her research into the island from the tomes in the library had proven useless yet Tsaba had easily answered her every question, only to raise yet more she could only ponder over.

The wizard focused on the task at hand and worked on finishing the focus, starting on the barrier soon after. Her geometrical designs stood out as her own preferred form of glyphing, shapes made much more sense to her when it came to writing down glyphs in their sequence. It had been her style for quite some time, it was a far cry from Velia's own flowy and fanciful designs. Her former best friend had been her superior in Glyphing, though Anna wondered if she was now.

The wizard shook her thoughts from Velia, an unpleasant memory, certainly not one to dwell over for too long. It also had nothing to do with he finishing her barrier, which she tackled with much gusto. The shapes came to life as her brush danced over the parchment, scrawling out the runes around the focus to form a containment for her own magic.

When the last rune was drawn the wizard looked up to note Tsaba's progress.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba nodded, and got back to work on her focus glyph. She'd put Dr Marin's questions out of her mind as soon as she was sure she'd answered them correctly; they were unrelated to glyphing, and no longer important. Once she had a focus drying in front of her, she got back to considering her barrier. The rune order she'd experimented with last time seemed to work, so she'd do that again. But her runes needed a... commonality, something about their core natures that suggested that they were all part of one whole. She glanced from Dr Marin's example to her own first attempt. Dr Marin's was unmistakeably a single circle. How could she do that? Like vertebrae. That seemed right. A single, flexible line of armour to protect the information inside. Vertebrae, or the interlocking stones in a stone wall... Tsaba practiced a few strokes on the bottom of the parchment containing her previous attempt. What if the 'skeleton' of each rune was shaped so that the sides facing another rune mimicked them, as if they'd be able to lock together? They didn't need to physically touch. The other strokes that fleshed them out might mask the overall visual effect, but she didn't think that would matter, any more than sin affects the interlocking of bones. She took her time with the next attempt. It was difficult to visualise the barrier as a whole before starting work, so she couldn't always predict exactly what the runes neighbouring the one she was drawing would look like. She didn't want to lead herself into a situation where she was trying to wedge a rune between two more with complicated, jagged skeletons and she just couldn't make it fit without destroying the rune altogether. So she worked slowly, paying careful attention to the potential complications each choice of stroke caused. When she'd finished the skeleton, she swept her eyes over the image as a whole, then carefully followed the runes around the circle. It was better than last time, she thought, in terms of looking like a single unit. In terms of useability, well, she couldn't be the judge of that. But there were chinks, bits that didn't interlock as well as she'd have liked; bits that, if her bone metaphor was pushed to its absurd conclusion, looked at if they would cause pain and stiffness with every movement. Fortunately, it was easy to see how practice and patience would resolve that problem; painting the runes would make them familiar, and would make it easier to visualise them in relation to each other. She fleshed out each rune until it looked right, once again tying them together with similar flourishes and strokes. Only then did she look back up at Dr Marin.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna looked at Tsaba's work with a contented nod, she was pleased that the Nuit was apparently beginning to grasp the form of glyphing. However, it was likely that the function was escaping her which was why a demonstration was in order. Using reimancy on university grounds was rather frowned upon, but there was no one in the classroom other than Tsaba so Anna figured there wasn't much harm in it. The wizard stood to her full height and moved her own sigil so it was within the Nuit's view.

"Not bad, you are showing progress that much is certain. Now then, I've gone over design but perhaps actually seeing what a barrier is capable of will help you understand it better." The wizard said at length, taking a few deep breaths.

Anna was uncertain that she had recovered fully from her episode of overgiving, so this exercise might very well cause some issues for her. She had not called upon her Djed for some time, hopefully her rest had been enough. The wizard willed Djed to pool within her hand, focusing a small bit it to push outwards.

As a small pool of res formed in her hands Anna felt her legs wobble slightly, that was hardly a good sign. The wizard used her free hand to stable herself, focusing intently on the res. She willed it away from her hand and shaped it into a small ball, the liquid shifting to her will. Anna could already feel a buzzing in the back of her skull, still she remained in control as lights and images played with her eyes.

She willed the outer layer of the ball to ignite and willed it down to the focus, a slight trickle of crimson liquid dribbling down her nose. As it neared the focus Anna transmuted the inner layers, and the ball of flame was literally absorbed into the glyph as she pushed it in. The scroll was now primed with fire reimancy, which was contained by the barrier to stay inside of the focus. However, the demonstration had cost her rather dearly.

The wizard slumped back in her seat, wiping the trickle of blood from her nose and attempting to cast aside the minor hallucinations blurring her eyesight. It was obvious that her stint with overgiving was still effecting her, though it was not nearly so bad now as it had been then. Anna looked to Tsaba inquisitively, the hallucinations already beginning to fade from her vision.

"Magic is absorbed by the focus and contained by the barrier. This is an example of an incomplete scroll, without a proper trigger the magic cannot be released. Once a trigger is added then the magic within can be used by anyone without cost to their own Djed. It is a potentially useful tool, and it can also increase the amount of spells one can cast before the strain becomes too much." Anna explained tiredly.

She was definitely going to need to rest for a bit once she dismissed Tsaba, while she had not used much Djed the combined forces of her overgiving still weighed heavily upon her.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba realised what the professor was about to do just in time to close her eyes, focus, and bring djed forth into her sight. She opened them in time to see power spilling out through Dr Marin's skin and balling in her hand. With her normal sight, she recognised the trick as the same one Dr Marin had demonstrated in their first lesson. But to her Auristic sight, Dr Marin's aura was turbulent, boiling, and a small piece of an inner layer was burrowing through her and pinching itself almost completely off from the whole. Without the outer layers of aura to cushion the experience, the... what had Dr Marin called it? Res?... was almost overwhelming to look at. Her mind stung as she stared at it, as eyes might in bright light. That was probably a bad signs. Despite the urge to turn her Auristic attention elsewhere, she pushed through -- she had to see how the glyph worked. The freed energy rolled itself into a ball and hovered, still connected to Dr Marin by a barely-perceptible thread of inner aura. It changed from the inside, the aura's colour changing but the nature the same, and was pushed into the glyph. The brightness faded when the magic was safely locked away in the writing. Tsaba immediately headed over to inspect the aura of the glyph, but the brightness still danced in her memory, obscuring it. The glyph had an aura of magic. But she couldn't make out the details. She looked up at Dr Marin, and that was an aura she could make out. Tsaba knew what a healthy human aura looked like. She also knew what several different kinds of illness could do to an aura. But she'd never seen something like Dr Marin's. She looked healthy, for most intents and purposes; she had a hearbeat, there were no toxins in her blood, there wee no obvious injuries. But she was... weakened, washed out; like hypothermia or a fever without the temperature change. And the inner layers of her aura, layers that Tsaba knew very little about, were turbulent and unbalanced; the waves were irregular, leaving temporary gaps as they moved. Tsaba remembered the time she had forced the ichor out of her shoulder, and winced. Dr Marin wasn't poisoned or sick in any way that Tsaba had been trained to recognise, but she was... well, if it had happened to her circulatory system, Tsaba would say that she was suffering significant blood loss, and possibly going into (or recovering from, it was hard to tell) shock. The blood trickling out of her nose probably wasn't a great sign, either. Tsaba shut off her Auristic sight, ignoring the dull throb behind her eyes (some things were too urgent to worry about personal limits). "Professor. Professor, are you alright? Can I help?

[Annalisa Marin]

Tsaba's concern was understandable, blood trickling from the nose was hardly a good sign after all. Anna tiredly waved away the concern, letting the Nuit know what had actually happened would raise questions she could ill afford at this point in time. Overgiving was a serious thing but it was also very dangerous to be known as a wizard that had overgiven. It spoke of instability in the wizard, an unstable and dangerous wizard was one people were more apt to watch carefully. Anna did not want to be watched more than necessary, it was unhealthy for someone in her line of study and of her divine loyalties.

"Don't worry over much Tsaba, just a passing sickness I've been dealing with for a little while now. Nothing to be overly concerned with. I fear I may have to cut this lesson short here however." Anna said.

The wizard had faith that Tsaba could ponder the concepts better on her own, besides Anna needed to regain herself before she was going to be fit to walk much less teach. Overgiving could be extremely irksome to deal with. However, splitting head ache aside, Anna intended to leave her with something to figure out without instruction. At least to puzzle over if not figure out, it might help expand her understanding of glyphing.

Wordlessly, Anna made a careful addition to the primed sigil, connecting the active barrier to a series of glyphs she drew near the corner of the parchment. She opted for a word in the ancient tongue as the trigger, which she would provide instructions to in common after finishing the final touches on the runes. Usually she created the scroll all at once, but this method worked as well. After finishing drawing the last rune in the trigger she scrawled instructions out in common below.

This scroll contains a bit of fire reimancy, enough to cause serious harm or death if used incorrectly. When you intend to use the scroll it must always be pointed away from the body and at the target when the trigger is activated. If the barrier or any other part of the scroll is damaged, the magic inside of it will be released. The trigger for this scroll is "Roza" meaning death, end, termination, and interrupted in the ancient tongue. It is only to be spoken when you intend to release the magic.

Anna carefully handled the scroll and placed it at the edge of her desk, looking at Tsaba expectantly.

"I have completed the scroll, you are free to take it and study it. The runes connected to the barrier are the trigger, which is used to activate or deactivate certain parts of a sigil. In this case, when the trigger is spoken the barrier will deactivate and the magic I placed inside will be released." The wizard informed.

Giving Tsaba a scroll was a bit risky, if she was not careful in handling it then it might very well blow her up. The magic inside of it was certainly nothing massive but it was indeed considerable enough to cause some harm or even death if handled incorrectly. Though if Sahova was anything like Tsaba had described then she was probably used to handling dangerous things. Anna needed to recover, her head felt fit to split open from the headache, it was something of a miracle that she had managed to create a passible trigger.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba was about to protest Dr Marin's insistence that there was 'nothing to worry about'Whatever she'd seen, it didn't look like 'nothing'. But then, Tsaba was no healer, and if Dr Marin was wrestling with some sort of chronic illness, she would know what was wrong and how to handle it, and presumably have specialist help. In any case, her concern quickly took second place to the fact that she was being offered a real, functioning scroll. "Thank you, Dr Marin," she said sincerely, being sure to read Dr Marin's note thoroughly before touching the paper. She considered the spell inside to be a minor detail, but every magical artefact could be dangerous, and she knew better than to touch anything unknown before reading any available instructions. She carefully picked up the scroll as if picking up a live, venemous snake; or more accurately, as a snake handler would pick up a venemous snake. Keeping her fingers away from the ink and the face of the scroll angled away from both herself and Dr Marin without really thinking about it, she made careful note of the trigger word. Using a Nader-Canoch term was smart; they were unlikely to come up in general conversation. She didn't roll the scroll up (no point in doing unnecessary damage), but instead carried it flat in one gloved hand. she handled it like the extremely valuable tool that it was. Not for the magic -- Tsaba had no need to set anything on fire -- but for the ability to study the sigils of a complete scroll and, perhaps, the aura of the magic within. Tsaba interpreted Dr Marin's determination that the lesson should be cut short as a dismissal, and went to gether her things. Only when she was passing through the doorway did she pause. "Do you need any help?"

[Annalisa Marin]

The consequences of Anna drawing upon her Djed were fast to fade, perhaps that was a sign that it would not be long before she could cast once more without fear of fatal distractions. It would feel good to have the rush of res use flow from her once more, like getting exercise after a long period of inactivity. Of course, she would need to remain more in control of her power, she was resolved to not repeating the incident that had led to this issue in the first place. The problem was, if she did not push herself then she could not improve meaning that overgiving needed to be a constant risk she fought against. It sounded rather backwards in terms of thinking, but it was true. Much like someone exercising to build muscle a wizard needed to strain themselves to see true improvement.

The key was, finding a break off point, a time when you were straining yourself but halted before overgiving truly set in. Anna was able to find that break off point most of the time, but those that she did not could left her taking more than she should. Now with not only reimancy to worry about, but Voiding as well things were looking to be much more complicated. The Void was still alien to her, a powerful force that's potential was untapped by her. Reimancy was still the most prominent force for her to try and master, but she would need to split her attention between the two very soon. The wizard idly wondered if her questionable sanity would be able to handle the strain.

Anna's eyes fell upon Tsaba in the doorway, considering the question the Nuit had asked. Yes, she did indeed need help, she needed bigger facilities and more academic freedoms than Zeltiva could grant her. Tsaba's description of Sahova was still fresh in her mind, a magical research facility where the living were treated like dirt. It sounded very risky, being among undead wizards who possessed considerable knowledge of the arcane. The secrets and power that could be uncovered there were much more appealing. She was among the living, however her own knowledge was growing with each passing day. It was something to ponder over.

"I do not Tsaba. Have a pleasant rest of the day." The wizard lied, smiling slightly.

Anna wondered what magic Tsaba practiced, however that was likely a question for another day. Pressing her for too much information was asking for trouble, slow and steady was the way to take it. Anna needed answers as well as to know exactly what knowledge Tsaba possessed, however going in too fast would raise suspicions. She had seemed perfectly willing to give up information about the Nuit and Sahova, but magical information was another matter entirely.

The wizard simply inclined back in her seat and watched the doorway with an odd gleam in her eyes. Thinking, calculating, and planning.

[Abstract]

Anna

Skills

+ Observation - 2
+ Teaching - 4
+ Drawing – 2
+ Glyphing – 3
+ Investigation - 2

Lores

+ One-on-one teaching is easier
+ Mixing Questions with Teaching
+ Glyphing: Thickening a Barrier should strengthen it
+ Tsaba is a Nuit
+ Sahova: A city of magic
+ Daek-Nuit: The ritual that creates Nuit

Other:

Tsaba

Skills

+ Drawing – 2
+ Philosophy - 2
+ Investigation – 1
+ Glyphing – 2
+ Teaching – 1
+ Auristics – 1
+ Observation - 2

Lores

+ Glyphing: Barriers Contain the Focus
+ Obsessed with Glyphing
+ Glyphing: Thickening a Barrier should strengthen it
+ Glyphs are like a Skeleton
+ Anna’s sickly Aura

Other:

A glyphed scroll gifted by Anna. Be careful!

Notes

Since you’re an expert in Reimancy now, Anna, I didn’t give you any points for that little bit you did whilst glyphing. Tsaba, I gave you a point in teaching for explaining Nuits to Anna  Otherwise, another great insight into Glyphing! I like the whole ‘handwriting’ and ‘language’ stuff…

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this grade, please PM me and we can work it out!