Solo Time to Move

[Tsaba]

Tsaba knelt on the floor of her room, naked, brush in hand. She dipped it in the green paint that she had made for just this purpose, and carefully began painting a Focus glyph on the inside of her left wrist. For symbolic reasons, she would have preferred to glyph her palms, but practicality forbade that. Not only would the glyphs be difficult to hide (and even in Zeltiva it was probably better not to walk around blatantly covered in magical symbols), but the paint she used didn't bond to the skin as well as ink, and would rub off as a result of day-to-day activities. She painted slowly. Carefully. Of course, her glyphing was always quite slow -- she was still new to the art. But today especially, she took her time. It was the last time that she would pain those glyphs, in that room. It was the last day that she would have her room at the university. Her right wrist was harder to glyph, given that she had to hold her brush in her left hand. She eyes the glyph doubtfully, when she was finished. Probably not even worth using that one. She left it painted on anyway, for the symmetry. Next, she drew focuses on the tops of her feet; right, then left. Then, finally, her chest, sitting over the breastbone. She would have liked to have glyphed her forehead as well, but that would be difficult to cover. As for her tongue... well, it just wasn't practical to get all the rune sites, no matter how much she wished it. She set the fat-based paint by pouring embalming salts on the glyphs, then over the rest of her body. It was important to keep her flesh dry, so that her body would last as long as possible. She carefully checked for tears and signs of rot while she worked, but of course, the body was still very new. Nevertheless, she was attentive. When she finished, it would be time to leave the only home she'd known in Zeltiva. And she was in no hurry for that.

[Tsaba]

Once she was dressed, Tsaba dusted the entire room, then put back the bedding she'd removed when she moved in (she hadn't needed it, and there was no sense leaving it out where it risked being ruined by inks or preservative fluids). She went to organise and pack up her notes. They were in vaguely chronological order. Study plans with Castor; basic scraps of Auristics knowledge gleaned from books. She'd been an Aurist for over eighty years; how had any of that stuff seemed like new, revolutionary knowledge less than a season ago? An old diagram, a rough diagram of the paths of energy through her own body, when she examined her own aura for the first time. She'd made Castor a copy of those notes, carefully redrawing that diagram and worrying about trivial things like whether he'd chastise her over her slight but embarrassing brush with overgiving. Then, remembered scraps from the notebook of Sain, the healer. She'd barely had a glance at the book. She had intended to copy it for him, in payment for reattaching her finger. That was one body ago, and the fact that her new hands worked perfectly still bothered her; she'd grown sort of accustomed to it. She new some Nuits who performed a minor mutilation on every new body, a way to mark it as theirs. She'd always considered it rather disrespectful to the body, but she was beginning to see the comfort in familiarity. Nothing had ever come of her plan to copy the book. Pity. From there, the subject went back to Auristics. And then, trickles of glyphing knowledge began to appear. Piles of practice glyphs. Really, really terrible practice glyphs. Probably time to throw those out. Notes from the books Dr Marin had assigned after their first class; she began to join Castor in the web of notes, her throwaway comments and views on the subject appearing on parchment as his did. Then Malvora appeared, when Tsaba had first started trying to find a common 'skeleton' in focuses. Malvora vanished from the story quickly, but the idea remained; Tsaba retraced her own path in developing her focus based on the skeleton idea, transforming her imitation of Dr Marin's work into her own unique script. Auristics merged with Glyphing theory, Glyphing merged with writing theory; through it all, one thread continued, kept arising in comments, page after page. An idea born in her first Glyphing class. Glyphing was a writing script that could interact with the world. It was a script that was so inherent to the nature of the world, it could be recognised on instinct. It was writing, the true form of writing; a writing script with power. Time after time, she made a note to herself to look up what she already knew. She'd phrased it like a research question, but she already had the answer. Study -- > Alphabet given to humanity by the Inscriptrix. Through it all, more practice glyphs. More auristics. More notes. Random histories, interviews with locals and travellers, musing on modern human psychology and Zeltivan culture. One season's worth of Tsaba's life outlined on paper. One season that had been longer, more productive, than the previous decade. Possibly the previous several decades. A single season in a place that felt more like home to her than the place she'd spent the past seventy-five years. Tsaba very carefully packed away her things, gave the room one final glance... and shut the door.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba took only her backpack on her first trip through the town. There was no point lugging around her entire inventory just yet. She'd noted the location beforehand, so finding the house wasn't difficult. She did, however, weight the pack down with a lot more money than she normally carried about. It was a small cottage, at least by human standards, but even from the outside it looked like far more space than Tsaba would ever need. The path outside was choked with weeds; easy enough to fix. She walked up the path to the door. "You're late," a gruff voice said behind her. "I apologise." Tsaba turned to meet the broad-shouldered, middle-aged man on the path behind her. His expression immediately softened. "Oh, hi, little girl. Is your mummy or daddy here?" "I am the buyer," Tsaba clarified, meeting his eyes and hoping the few differences between her appearance and that of a human were clear enough to make her point. Her glyphs were all hidden under her clothing, of course. An undead child walking about town covered in arcane symbols should cause a negative reaction even in Zeltiva. But some people recognised her species from her eyes alone. "You're too young to -- " "I am over ninety years old and I will pay you in coins," she responded. "Do you really want to stand around for a few bells demanding me to prove it?" The man frowned, clearly trying to figure out whether she was some rich runaway with a ridiculous lie, and seemed to conclude that it was none of his business. "You have the money?" "I want to see inside first." The man shrugged and opened the door for her. Tsaba ambled inside and swept her eye critically about the room, as if she wasn't desperate and stupid for leaving this until the last minute. If it wasn't acceptable, she'd have to stay in the inn until she found somewhere that was. But she'd rather move only once. The place was sturdy and relatively clean. A cursory inspection showed no obvious leaks, but Tsaba was no expert in housing construction and could easily miss something. It wasn't complicated; a single room with one door and a few windows. A bed was in the far left corner, which Tsaba didn't need but a guest might. The chest of drawers was at its foot. The table and chairs were in the center of the room, between the door and the fireplace. She gave the fireplace a cursory inspection. It wasn't falling apart in any obvious way. Good enough. The right-hand side of the room was more interesting, as it contained the furniture that she had specifically requested. A large, sturdy desk sat against the wall, currently empty. That would soon change. On the far wall, positioned as if to strike a compromise between the desk and the fireplace, was a small set of shelves. And on the other side of the desk, against the right wall, was a large bookcase. Also empty. That would also soon change. Tsaba inspected the stability of each piece of furniture before returning to the man waiting impatiently in the doorway. "Well, does it meet Her Majesty's royal standards?" She ignored the sarcasm. "It is adequate." She took an unusually large and heavy sack of coins from her bag and handed them over. The man lifted them in one hand as if they weighed nothing. Beyond glancing in the sack to ensure that is was indeed full of gold mizas, the man didn't bother to count the money. He could do that later. And if she'd cheated him, well, he knew where she lived. "Welcome home, little Miss. Pleasure doing business." He left without further discussion. Tsaba smiled. Home. The cottage wasn't home yet. But she could change that. BoughtSimple cottage (500GM); Fine desk (12GM); Good bookcase (20GM); Average shelf set (5SM) = 532.5 GM

[Taylani]

XP Award!

Tsaba:

XP Award:

• +2 glyphing
• +1 organization
• +1 cleaning

Lore:

• Glyphing: Writing script that interacts with the world

Notes:.

Comments :

. Please feel free to PM me any concerns with your grade, and don’t forget to delete/edit your post in the grade request.

TAYLANI