In Your Element [Closed]

[Raiha]

There was no hesitation as Raiha held her hands out to him, palms up, keeping the muscles relaxed, her eyes moving from his face to his dagger and back again as she and Kanikra clamped down on that bubbling anxiety in her gut and forced it to stay down. It wasn’t that blood bothered her, far from it, as hunting sometimes left her covered in it while she attempted to skin the catches. It wasn’t the fact that it was her own blood. It was the statistics she remembered reading in the library back in Mura. That there was no guarantee to survival. She gritted her teeth even as he told her to as the dagger sliced through her skin. Vaguely, in the back of her head, she just hoped it was clean. It took all of her efforts to keep herself from automatically trying to heal his knife’s work through the Gnosis power Rak’keli had granted her at birth. Even still, she wouldn’t have been able to heal them completely, only partially, so it would have been a lost cause and dragged this out while she bled out like a stuck pig. Best to just get it over with.

He hadn’t been kidding when he had warned her about the intensity of the pain. Even as she tried to force it back down and away like the anxiety, to push it back and repel it, to conquer it with her mind, to become separate from her body and not think about the agony that came from this arcane violation. She had asked for this. This was what she wanted. She was not a masochist, but she would accept the pain in pursuit of the greater power that could be rewarded from it. She focused on the reasons why. Because she was severely outmatched in Riverfall, physically. In Konti Isle, they may have been smaller and faster, but if Raiha had been able to catch her classmates, may their Gods help them, because they couldn’t. This was no longer the case. If they caught her, it was her that was in trouble. Short of nailing them in the crown jewels, as it was, they were going to beat her every time without weapons of her own. Her fingers twitched, wanting to clench her palms, to ball her fists, to try to push his Res back out, even as she watched the substance invade her flesh.

Try as she did, tried locking them, tried bracing them, tried to stay on her own two feet, it didn’t work. She couldn’t last as she hit her knees, releasing one shuddering breath after another as there were periodic hitches in her breathing that became gasps as she needed air. At some point, and at which point Raiha did not know, she could no longer watch with Auristics. Even with her eyes squeezed shut, she was still seeing it, still feeling it until it snapped off, more of a reflex than by a conscious desire to stop. Kanikra would be somewhat proud, though. She did not scream. Whine and gasp, but she did not scream. She had tried, only to find no sound coming out. Whether that was Kanikra’s doing or Raiha’s, she didn’t know, and doubted Kanikra did either as her twin soul fought against the pain that she was feeling, even without being the one in charge of the body. Well, at least Raiha wouldn’t be able to say that she had gotten off easy, now, would she? She sank back, her legs folded under her as she finally gave in to the impulse to clench her fists, squeezing them tightly. Not that it would help, but it was some resistance, an attempt to focus on the purely physical pain and distract herself from the rest of it as her nails dug into the cuts, her knuckles white.

She wanted to stay awake. She needed to stay awake. Couldn’t... couldn’t go to sleep. She hit the soft grass, and if she was capable of thinking about it, she would have been somewhat glad that he’d picked the grassy verges outside of the city for this. The grass was a lot softer than the stone and Gods knew he wouldn’t have to get blood out of everything for it. Even for all of that worry that she’d be left for dead out here. She wasn’t going to die.

Wasn’t going to die...

Wasn’t... going... to... die.

It was through sheer strength from both of them that she didn’t pass out. Her eyes were lidded over, and she was barely aware, but she refused to go into the great darkness. Stubbornness or foolhardiness, that was up to anyone else for their interpretation. She simply refused. She had ridden it out this far, the two of them, and she could not let herself go now. Of course, to rest from this she was going to stagger home eventually and just nap. That sounded really good. But she would nap in her mews and just curl up there... maybe in the bath first. All of these were half-thoughts flitting through her head as she could barely focus on them. She didn’t know how long she had been laying there in the grass while Res and Djed seeped in and out of her pores, and was unable to convince herself that it mattered. Her eyes were almost at the point of closing, as if she had persuaded herself to sleep with these ideas, but she blinked slowly at the old man’s voice in her ears. Goddess, had he been this loud earlier? Or was this just a hell of a headache she had coming on where everything seemed louder? “I’m up,” she told him slowly, letting Rak’keli’s power flow to cleanse the rather artful marks he had left on her. She would get Kavala to look at them after, and some herbs to ensure that there were no scars. It wasn’t borne from a position of vanity, but rather the desire of the element of surprise. The less physical warnings people had of such an initiation, the better she would be able to use it against them.

“I’m up,” she repeated as she slowly, oh so slowly, pushed herself up from her belly onto her knees and fumbled in the grass for her clothing, and she dressed herself as if in a trance, feeling an utter exhaustion that she had never experienced before. She couldn’t even think of what to remark upon it. ‘That was intense’ seemed like a rather ridiculous understatement. As she pulled her shirt on, she offered Vincent his cloak back before sitting down on her rump, her skirts under her, to put on her socks and boots. When she finally got her legs under him, she looked at her new teacher, blinking back the tiredness as she stood on her feet. Kanikra was still remarkably silent by all of this. That in itself was a minor miracle. “Thank you,” she told the old man simply. It may have seemed silly, thanking him for what he had done, for the pain he had inflicted, but she was smart enough to know she had been given quite the gift. “What do we do now?”

[Baku]

Just as Raiha had finished her question, two rabbits, freshly killed where held out in front of her as Vincent tossed his cloak over his shoulder, letting it hang loosely. “First thing you do is rest and eat. You’re body is exhausted and you’ll need some nourishment if you are to start practicing the next step.” Vincent explained before stepping over to a bundle of twigs and branches he had compiled for a fire. “While you may have almost limitless djed in that hybrid body of yours for creating rez, the process of creating it and channeling it can still be taxing. Especially for beginners.” As if to emphasize the point, Vincent began starting the fire using a flint and steel he had pulled from the pocket of his robes, rather than using Reimancy to do such. “Always carry rations with you. Eating will help you restore your energy, especially if you’re taking the time to rest on top of it, rather than eating on the run.” Vincent explained further as a smolder of smoke began to rise from the wood bundle, cotton kindling used as the starter. “You’ll have to cook them though, unless you prefer I do it and eat nothing but charred, crispy nothing.” Vincent then sat back, resting his old body along the ground. He still carried on his face that same sourpuss expression that was there when he wasn’t entertaining thoughts of insanity or vulgarity that Raiha had caught glimpses of in the short time they had been together. “Afterwords, we’ll see how you do at producing Rez. Nothing fancy. You do well on that, we’ll see what element you have a starting affinity for.” Vincent then said, looking over at Raiha. “I’ll get you started on your basics, but after today, you’ll be carving your own path in Reimancy. You start weaving reimancy magic the way I would teach you, it would likely feel wrong, and comparatively when it came to djed stores, a little too conservative. I’ll answer questions for you, but the master pupil thing will only go that far. Besides, the more I watch you progress, the more suspicious I’ll get of you and eventually start getting an urge to kill you. Remember, while I agreed to this, I‘m also insane.” Vincent then just gave Raiha that shortly glimpsed at smile, this one more akin to his irrational thoughts.

[Raiha]

She nodded as she listened to this - this all made sense to her. She knew that the older you survived your own arcane abilities, the more likely you became a danger to those around you as your mind slowly started to go. Or so she remembered the book saying when it came to the dangers of overgiving. It just made sense. Magic was nothing to tamper with. Raiha rather kind of appreciated the hands-off approach. This gave her time to practice it when she wanted to practice it, to go at her own pace, and to either kill herself or advance under her own limitations. Besides, it meant she wasn’t regularly going into the city for classes. Such a thing violated her preferences for solitude and privacy, because the last thing she or Kanikra wanted were people reporting on her comings and goings. Kanikra preferred their complacency in such matters. A few trips here and there, nothing often that could be reported. But the idea that she was or was not developing into some sort of reimancer wasn’t something that needed to be recorded. Some would call her paranoid. Kanikra considered it being merely logical.“This makes sense,” she said finally when he was done and settled back to watch her. She was certainly hungry for the rabbits, so she would get to cooking them. “Reabsorbing Djed expended by consuming the Djed of something else,” she recalled from her studies. She found herself smiling back, though.

But for now, though, she helped herself to some water, just to feel better. The water helped immediately, helping to wash the coppery taste out of her mouth. She knew she wasn’t bleeding there, or hadn’t ingested any blood, but it still tasted that way regardless. Possibly just the stress from the ordeal that she had just been through. She was, quite frankly, just glad to have survived it. Now that it was over and done with, she let Rak’keli’s power go to work at fixing up what she could as she sat there, holding the water before picking up the first rabbit by its ears and beginning to skin it. She was familiar with the anatomy of the little creatures - she had skinned them in Mura when she and Uzima had caught them and she prepared them for eating. Carefully, she laid it out in front of her on the flattened grass, pinching at the loose skin of the lower belly, feeling it over carefully to lift it and make sure that she wouldn’t puncture anything with her initial incision. She pulled the skin apart - the pieces of hide she could work with after, should she manage to save enough. A few times, Raiha had to pause and let her hand calm down. She had never been this exhausted before in her life. Not from all of her fights with Kanikra, anything... just... nothing compared.

She grasped the loosened edges and deftly gave a swift, hard pull to separate the skin off of the body, leaving the gleaming carcass in front of her on the grass as she set the two pieces of skin aside and picked up her knife again. The Akontak cut the head off, setting it aside as well, before snapping off the lower part of each leg to remove the feet, making sure that it had been a clean break at the joints. Good. No point in going through all of that in order to choke on a bone fragment and die, now, would there? More knife cuts followed - the groin, tail, and anus were removed, and a tiny, tiny slit was made into the stomach lining. The last thing she wanted was to puncture the intestines, after all, and using one finger, she hooked them out and used the knife to clean out the rest of the rabbit’s organs. These she held up to the light, not even bothering with Auristics right now - too tired - to check and make sure that there was nothing abnormal going on with them that indicated an unhealthy rabbit. That one was clear, at least, and she used some of the water to sluice the rabbit carcass out and gave it a final inspection. That one was done, and she eyed the utensils before carefully spearing the rabbit as best as she could on a stick, and propping it up to cook over the fire while she started skinning the second one.

The second rabbit took just as much effort, and she eyed the feet. Eight lucky feet. She had needed that to get through the day, if she put stores in such things. By then, she turned the first rabbit, checking on its doneness as she got the second cooking. Just in time. Raiha did not plan on offering burned, charred, or incinerated as doneness options. “The theory is fairly simple, right?” she had another drink of water before passing the first rabbit to Vincent. It was cooked to well done. How much char he wanted on his was entirely up to him, though, as Raiha held the stick that held the second rabbit impaled on it and rotated it over the fire. “Magic seems a lot like enforcing sheer will into your own essence.” She threw that theory out there to see what he thought of it.

[Baku]

Vincent remained silent for the moment, taking only a couple of legs from the first rabbit Raiha had prepared, giving the rest back to her. “I only used a certain amount, so I won’t need that much.” Vincent said, taking a bite from the rabbit bit he had taken for himself. “You’re, from a very technical stand point, starting on empty. You’ll need more than me.” Vincent’s demeanor had changed, into one that was almost calm and serene now. His whole persona seemed to be that of shifting moods, his personality and outlook altered by his years of using magic himself. It seemed the periods of calm came short after he had used magic himself in some form or fashion, like experiencing a high from using magic itself. Such would explain Vincent’s personality in the long run. An addiction to magic. When not using, he is short, prone to erratic behavior and is generally unpleasant to be around as he craves his next fix. When obtaining that fix, his euphoric, calm, almost at peace. Vincent turned his head as Raiha posed her theory to him. He gave a slow shrug. “In the most simplistic point of view.” Vincent then said, dragging the back of his hand across his mouth. “Force of will is involved in magic on every level, not just when it comes to your own essence.” Vincent slowly reached for the waterskin, taking a quick draw before letting out a relieved exhale. “We force our will to create rez then transmute it into an element. A flux user will keep going on, bringing his body to breaking points, pushing past their physical limit by force of will alone. A hypnotist will practically force their will on others.” Vincent explained, slowly dragging his finger along the earth, drawing rune symbols that seemed to have no relevant meaning to the conversation at hand. “Magic is overall about will, and how far one is willing to go, but it’s a double edged blade. You force of will can just become stubbornness, and you will end up pushing to far. For your race and your almost limitless djed to push magic, it’s less of a problem, but it’s not always about how much energy you have. Just because you can cast several spells without huge risk of overgiving, doesn’t mean you can cast those spells well. Especially when it comes to Reimancy.” Vincent then dragged his hand over what he had been scribbling in the earth, wiping it away. “Spells from Reimancy don’t just have the high potential to overgive. If the transmuting into an element, or melding it with the elements already around you, isn’t done well enough, then the spell has the potential to be too large. You could make the ground fall out from underneath you, cause the air to become to condensed and suffocate yourself. Hell, I knew a novice reimancer who once burned down half a settlement just by trying to ignite the wood in his fireplace. His home caught on fire, and the fire just spread like dry brush in a woodland area.” Vincent explained, giving a slow scratch to his head before looking to Raiha again. “It’s easier, with magic, to cause massive destruction when you are not trying to intentionally, as opposed to when you are. So my first advice to you is, to simply take it slow. Get used to forming Rez first, then get used to transmuting small amounts. Build up gradually and experiment what ways work easiest for you until it feels like a simple glove being worn along your hand. And do it someplace where you won’t break a bunch of shyke.” Vincent finished the rest of his rabbit, tossing the bones into the fire and wiping his hands clean along his robes. “I’d also suggest learning shielding along side Reimancy, to prevent you from harming yourself in the process of learning.” Vincent further suggested. “It’s not something I can teach you, but there are books at the library on such. It’s a magic that can be self taught in the end.”

[Raiha]

Watching the shifting of moods was an interesting thing to the teenager to watch. It was a cautionary tale in itself. It wasn’t such a stretch to imagine she could end up like that, after all. In all likelihood, she probably would. Magic was not for those who were faint of heart or mind. Because by the end of your days, you could end up so gripped by magic you lost track of everything else. You would no longer be you - the mage had thrown it all out as they cast about their own essence. Just enough could become too much in a heartbeat, and she would never know it was gone. Oh, stop, Kanikra sighed. We didn’t just go through that for you to talk yourself out of learning how to use it now. Either you will or I will - take your pick, Raiha, because we will learn it, whether you like it or not.

I know, she told her twin with a bit of a sigh as she accepted the rabbit back from Vincent, rotating the other stick once again before using her fingers to begin stripping the meat off of the bone. Rabbit. Lean. Still somewhat juicy, which was good. Wild-caught bunnies always had to be cooked to well to make sure that they were safe to eat. Still, as she listened, she swallowed some water. This was important. They would go slowly, regardless, because Raiha didn’t want to accidentally do something stupid, like set the place aflame. That was why she needed to learn, to practice, to get better. She nodded at what he was saying, her fingers following the runes. Glyphing. Something else she should probably learn. In time.

In time.

Hearing the tale about the apprentice trying to light his fireplace and burn down everything else made her wince. She could imagine. Fire wasn’t something she wanted to start with, not right away, as good as it may have been. Fire was wild and uncontrollable, all-consuming and stopped only by water. She remembered their studies in Mura. Once you transmuted it, you lost control of it. It wasn’t that you could just squash a fire you created, after all, or not get hit by lightning you threw, should you become skilled enough to make it. Safety, practice, and vigilance was paramount. Precisely, Raiha felt the faintest easings of approval. Kanikra was always like that. Inflict pain and stress when she disagreed, and ease off of it when the two souls were in agreement. Who trained who? It was hard to know, sometimes, with her sister-soul.

“Shielding,” Raiha nodded slowly. “That’s one that I need to learn as well. Absorbing the Djed... so if it comes back... well, hopefully that will help.” She couldn’t believe how hungry she was until she was picking at the second still-hot rabbit. He’d been right. Starting from empty, when she had never, ever been this empty meant needing to replenish her strength again. But starting slow... she rather approved of this course of action. Learn the basics, practice. “How does one decide what element they learn? Or does the element choose them?”

[Baku]

“It’s a tricky thing, that question.” Vincent then said, poking the fire a little with twig. “It’s all a matter of philosophy if you ask me.” Vincent then fell silent, reaching for the waterskin and taking a pull from it. “For some, they say that the gods, when everything was created, gave a certain amount of sentience to the elements themselves. In that aspect, I suppose you could say your element chooses you. Others however, say that the mage simply chooses the element themselves.” Vincent then continued, giving a slight shrug. “Me, I simply believe some have a certain, subconscious affinity for their starting element. Covers both aspects really. Those who live in the desert could have an affinity for the fire or air due to the scorching heat of the climate or the dry air. Others like those in Falyndar might be more akin to the earth element. It’s all connected in my opinion. Whether you choose or think the element chooses you, doesn’t matter in the end. Either way, it just……. happens.” Vincent then tossed the twig he was using to tease the fire onto the flames directly. A couple of sweeps of his hands together found him clearing debris and dirt from his palms as he looked across the fire into Raiha’s eyes. “But you’ll get to that in due time. First thing you will want to do is manifest your rez, and get at least somewhat familiar with that before manipulating your first element. Crawl before you can walk and all that.” “When you are finished eating, and your nerves feel sated enough, we’ll start in on that.” Vincent then explained, moving over to the packs as he began pulling out pieces for putting up a tent.

[Raiha]

Raiha nodded, and tossed the bones of the first rabbit into the fire to burn to ash while she pulled the second one off of the fire, twisting off a leg and digging in. Food had never tasted so good. No salt, no pepper, no seasonings whatever but the fire, and that was unsurprisingly good enough for her. Frills like that she knew weren’t necessary to eat. It was just a preference one learned from eating at a table with everyone instead of doing just what you needed to do. Spices weren’t necessary. This was the basics. Heat and meat. That was all you needed. Rabbit was washed down with water, and while she did her best to remember her table manners, they weren’t sitting at a table now, were they? She used teeth and tongue to make sure she had peeled every last morsel of meat off of each bone before tossing it into the fire. So. Petching. Good.

As she gnawed at the rabbit like Diallo did with his long leg bones, she listened to his theory. It just happened. Sometimes you couldn’t get a better answer than that, because there were natural and unnatural phenomena that, for want of a better expression, just happened. Magic was one of them, and with all its variables, that was most likely the best answer that she could have expected. It gave her the opportunity to think on it, to draw her own conclusions, to figure out where she would go from there. The idea of a natural earth-affinity in the jungle to the west intrigued her. Why so? Because of the nature of the place? The way it brimmed with Caiyha’s magic? Maybe. She had never been there. She had only heard stories. “Perhaps the Gods of the different Elements have something to do with it,” she added thoughtfully. “But it just happens.”

She finally finished the second rabbit, and let out a sigh as she wiped her fingers on the grass and got up, tucking the skins away neatly. She’d find something for those, assuming Vincent didn’t want them, as she found herself a little unsteady on her pins at first, before getting into the habit of moving once again as she paced first before risking helping him with the tent. No point in bringing it down on top of both of them, after all. Up and at it, Kanikra was firm. Breathe in some air, stretch, get moving. I’m tired of your sitting like a bump on a log while an old man does all the work. Granted, he’s human, so that makes it acceptable, but get up.

What, do you want me to cartwheel around the Sea of Grass and show what’s under our skirt to everyone who passes?

You already did, Kanikra was dry.

Raiha only sighed inwardly at this, sitting back down once the tent was put up in place. “So. Manifesting res,” she pursed her lips, trying to remember how he had done it. She hardly remembered. It had just BEEN there. He hadn’t said anything or made some arcane gesture, or anything that she could recall, but it had just... been there, when it hadn’t been before. The book she had read all those years ago back in Mura had not, that she could remember, gone into detail. “Force the Djed out, right? And try to control it? Vapour, fluid, gel...”[/color] She concentrated on her stores, which were likely beginning to replenish at a fairly alarming rate from the rabbits and the water, trying to control just a few drops at a time, trying to push it outward to appear in her hands, as a thick, clinging gel. She pressed her teeth together to avoid biting her tongue in the effort -- because that was very much the absolutely last thing that she needed. Survive a traumatic, life-changing event, and then, like an idiot, bleed to death by biting her own tongue off. Lovely. That would have been a way to go. “How do you make it stop, once it starts to manifest, if it does?” she watched her exposed arms intently, looking for any signs of something coming out. Her birds had helped her sometimes when she was close to her limit with Auristics, sensing a wariness that she hadn’t even realized, but they were not here to help her now, even as faint wisps of white vapour were beginning to peel off of her.

[Baku]

Vincent sat down in front of the tent after it had been erected, crossing his legs as his hands rested along his knees. His gaze remained on Raiha, a smirk forming on his face as she began to look towards her hands and concentrate on her first task of manifesting rez. It sort of made him nostalgic in a way. “Well, you’re on the right path, and are eager to put new abilities to practice.” Vincent said, his hands slipping into the folds of his cloak as he pulled out a long stemmed pipe, slipping the stem between his teeth as he held the cup gingerly between his thumb and fingers. “It boils down to what works best for each individual caster in the end.” Vincent said, reiterating the fact that there was no universal way of doing things. “Some find it easier visualizing, imagining the flow of djed within them, then imagine it changing into rez. Some work with gestures and/or incantations to help them focus the power. Others still simply feel it. Feel the flow of the djed in their body, then remember how rez felt when it first melded with their djed upon their own initiation. Such helps them change their djed into rez of their own, minus the pain of course.” Vincent then reached over towards the fire, pulling a small twig free from it as he brought the burning end up to the cup of his pipe. Slow, long draws were taken as the flame was sucked down into the tobacco that rested there, burning it as each draw of air and fire into the pipe caused embers to glow a bright orange to golden in color. Lingering trails of smoke escaped the corner of Vincent’s mouth with each draw eventually, filling the air with a sharp scent of cherry as he threw the twig back into the fire. “It’s all trial and error, Raiha, and surviving such in the end.” Vincent finally said as he hunched forward, his left hand propped up on the same knee while his right elbow was braced along his right knee. “I can tell you that simply feeling the flow is what worked for me, but that has its risks. I would feel the flow, and love it. Love it so deeply that when the sweet whispers came my first time I gave in to temptation and had my first bout of overgiving. Nearly sucked my lungs out from my body through my mouth when I was creating a vortex.” He then chuckled lightly, tapping the cup of his pipe along a nearby rock as a layer of ash fell out of it. “The other ways have their flaws as well. Gesturing and incanting makes your spell casting predictable to your foes. While visualizing it all makes you prone to distractions more easily, causing you to need more time to cast your spells.” Vincent further elaborated, slipping the stem of his pip between his teeth, once again taking a few slow, long draws. “You’ll have to experiment, Raiha. Find which way works best for you. As to stopping the flow, well once you’ve learned how to start it, it should almost be instinctive as to how to cut off the flow. Just more or less do the opposite that caused it. Some people just forget to in the end though, and that’s why they overgive. Concentration is the key in the beginnings stages though I will say. Once you begin to gain a level of control and familiarity with it all, it will become as easy and as instinctive as breathing.”

[Raiha]

Raiha nodded, considering trying each method that he mentioned. She could imagine the djed running through her, a hollow shell, a vessel filled with substance. She actually activated her Auristics, staring intently, focusing on her hands, on her arms, scrutinizing her aura, even as the res continued to peel off in little, curling wisps, barely tiny puffs of smoke. She couldn’t truly discern that, though, the djed and res moving under her skin, and soon stopped trying. But she could imagine it, feel it. That did help. If she imagined it as a substance moving through her, a fire in her core that burned white hot, a wellspring that would fill to overflowing... That helped. Herself. Her core. Something that was her and nobody else, though it had been changed, completely and totally, as had her own aura, by her initiation. It was different - it wasn’t something anyone who hadn’t observed her aura before would have noticed, but hers, though, hers had changed utterly to indicate this transformation.

She didn’t want to do or say anything that would give away her ability to do this, so that meant any sort of indicative gestures were out. She would not even get started with that method, lest she actually come to rely on it. She wanted it to be unnoticeable to others until it happened, to ensure that as a defensive weapon, it stayed a defensive weapon, and gave her an element - hah - of surprise. What the young Akontak found, though, was that her mind kept returning to that place. It was like a blazing gold liquid fire, like a powerful beam of sunshine, or molten gold, and it filled her. Funnily, she realized she had been here before - when she meditated. Inner peace. It had been wild and tangled and a knotted mess before. now, though, since she had started meditating, she had straightened it out. She reached for it, selecting a single strand, pulling it away from the core, hanging onto it. It was warm, sending tingles through her arm to her spine...

The faint wisps became thicker until she could finally see them, as the strand she held in her mind melted into her, dissolving. “Oh,” Raiha said, intelligently, as she brought a hand up to try to cup the cloudy substance, bringing it down towards her lap, looking to just stop the flow right then. He was right. Instinct told the young Akontak how to turn it off - it was as simple as not taking another strand as she visualized herself and the well inside of her, a well that was growing steadily in size and in brightness. Her own djed stores, slowly recovering from . She breathed, blinking, holding the res in her hands. “One of the forms it can take...” She moved her fingers through it, frowning. That was a useful form, depending. She concentrated on her res, trying to thicken it, to make it more gelatinous, with substance and body. She achieved some airy mashed potatoes, studying it intently with Auristics. The stuff’s aura did not change - it stayed the same. The only difference, it seemed, was how thick and concentrated it was.

She blinked again, and looked at it. It was white and translucent, and it really did seem now that she was looking at it that she had a little handful of clouds in her hand. That idea made her chuckle, because it was like as not to be as near to the sky as she was going to get, to hold this substance here. She dreamed about it, sometimes, imagining herself flying and touching the clouds. She didn’t see it ever happening, but still... close. Vincent had said it was all about the force of will, and finding what worked for you. She cupped the res, focusing on it and trying to transform it further still into gel. In her mind, Raiha wasn’t sure what to do to make it move. She tried sinking her hands into the blaze. And suddenly, far too suddenly, the res in her hands lost its airiness, becoming a thick, gooey substance that clung to her skin, as if it was trying to stick them together. She couldn’t help it - the young Akontak started to laugh, first in disbelief and then in amazement. Really? Really? In her mind, she pulled her hands out, slowly, and she watched the res as it thinned and stopped, well, acting like tar. “...Definitely need to keep this away from my face,” she managed once she stopped laughing. “I’m sorry,” she realized she might well have been being rude. He was giving his time to teach her, and she had just broken into giggles like an easily-amused toddler. “This is going to take a lot of practice.”

But she definitely wasn't complaining.

[Baku]

Vincent observed Raiha. Carefully and intently. Noting the actions she took, the concentration she had in her eyes, how much rez she was summoning and the form it took. More than anything, it wasn’t so much watching a student uncover their own was as much as it was making sure that there weren’t any accidents during that unfolding. He couldn’t help but feel a bit a nostalgia, however, observing it all. He remembered his first days, learning a practicing Reimancy, under a master who was far more conservative than he was. The struggle he had, trying to do everything the way his teacher wanted him to do it, but not quite getting there. It wasn’t until Vincent began practicing on his own that he learned what really worked. He slowly laid back, slipping his free hand behind his head as watched Raiha continue, giving a slow nod as another puff of smoke was carried off by the air. “Anything to be done well will take a lot of practice.” Vincent simply said. “No one in these lands is born inherently perfect at doing something, Raiha. They’re only born with the misconception that they can, until someone better comes along and proves otherwise.” Vincent then tapped another layer of ash away from the cup of his pipe before bringing the stem back up between his lips, biting lightly down along the wood. “And never apologize for that. I don’t know a Reimancer worth his or her salt that didn’t find awe and amusement out of their first experiences with Reimancy itself.” Vincent then continued. “This is your time to find what sort of Reimancer you will be in the end. Never mask your true reactions to it, you only mask yourself by doing so. Just don’t become mesmerized to it. You tend to push the limits then and the whispers just come all that much sooner when you do.” Vincent then began blowing smoke rings upward, which quickly were broken and then dissipated by the soft wind in the air, slowly rubbing his thumb along the pipe’s cup as he watched Raiha fiddle with the rez she had composed. “Work on its creation and form first, then work on how to move it, make it do what you want.” Vincent advised, idly picking up another twig and tossing it onto the fire. “What helped me in moving rez was simply considering it another limb on my body. I would move it consciously as I would blinking my eye or reaching out and grabbing something. Imagining it forming a hand might help, but again, whatever works best for you.” Vincent slowly rolled to his side then, supporting his head with his free hand. “When you feel you are getting a little more comfortable with producing, forming and moving rez, we can try and discover your starting element next.” Vincent then said, reaching out to the waterskin and taking a small pull. “Just don’t rush it. One should never rush magic. The truly exceptional ones will work smarter, not harder, at developing their abilities, and with luck, will only overgive a couple dozen times in their life.”