In Your Element [Closed]

[Raiha]

Closed. Puck, please.

30th of Summer, 510 AV.

The Akontak had found since she came to Sanctuary that there was always plenty to do. But with chores done for the morning, if there was no one around, she could well spend the day hunting plants, fishing, swimming, and the like. Between Asim and Laeraix, there was never a dull moment. But while all of that had been well and good, there was one thing that was niggling at her, and that was that while she was enjoying the time outside, she was neglecting her studies. Things she could be, and should be, learning, that were applicable to her job at Sanctuary – which was going to mean going to the library, getting books out, and studying in the evening. And magic, Kanikra reminded her. You have more of that to master. You don’t really overgive. You’ve never had a problem with it before. I think we need a new trick or three for this place. Auristics is useful, and we’re making slow progress in it, and Glyphing would be useful, but we need something that can be used offensively. You know you’ve been thinking about it.

Mmmn, Raiha admitted as she made her way through Riverfall in search of the library, having gotten directions to it. I’ve been thinking about Reimancy, yes. But something that bothers me is the initiation. Being what we are, there’s a lot that could go wrong with that, and…

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Kanikra interjected. You need to look objectively at your strengths and weaknesses. This is not a place where we’re going to get anywhere through physical dominance, not like the opportunity we had in Mura… which isn’t to say we should neglect that, obviously… but options need to be kept open. Really, they’ll probably have a harder time than you will. What’s the worst that can happen?

That we can die? Raiha offered grimly. Death, as always, was a very real possibility when one dabbled in the arcane arts, regardless of how careful they were. Sure, she adapted to it magic well, but her experience had been with Auristics only… which was, perhaps one of the safest types of magic possible to learn. But it wasn’t the most useful thing ever with regards to offensive capabilities. Sure, seeing, hearing, even smelling things that most others could not had great potential not only for defense but in terms of intelligence gathering.

There are worse things than death. It’s the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live, Kanikra said firmly. Here we are. Look alive, would you? The cool, shaded interior of the massive building was a nice relief from the sun that came down like a raging fire, and Raiha couldn't get inside fast enough.

I’m on it, Raiha sighed. I’m on it. Kanikra was right. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. She pushed open the doors of the large building that housed the Library and the Academy, and for once, instead of heading right to the library, Raiha approached the reception desk of the Academy. “Good afternoon,” the Akontak smiled at the Akalak manning the reception desk. “I’m just wondering if you have any teachers on hand for the study of Reimancy?”

[Puck]

The receptionist sighed, recalling the body he had recently removed from Vincent's room. A finger came to his temple, and he closed his eyes for a brief instant before speaking, "I apologise, but the current instructor is reevaluating his curric-" "I think you mean he has evaluated his curriculum, and will now be testing it!." A wizened figure with a grin on his saggy face hobbled around through a portal and into the lobby. He wore overly large spectacles as a testimony to his body's degradation, yet still he managed to put spryness in each step. "This time I will be holding courses outside of the city! That way you won't have to haul their bodies away. Also my room still smells." The elderly human offered a wide, toothy smile to the receptionist, who stared back menacingly. It was unfortunate that the only people to be killed by him were foreigners with no connections to the city, thus far. The fact that the instructor was taking the one student that could finally get him ejected to a location outside of Riverfall was distressing in the least. They would never find her body. "Do... Do be careful, Vincent." "Hold on, peon, she has not even told me if she still wants to learn reimancy. What if her voice bursts forth from that ample bosom of hers and denies my mentorship?" His eyes were locked onto the aforementioned body feature, but they broke contact as he began walking and moved past her. Without so much as a goodbye or further acknowledgement of the receptionist, Vincent began leaving. "Of course, none of the petches decline even after I inform them of their impending fate! So I expect you'll follow like everybody else." Vincent left, confident that the Akontak would promptly follow his lead. "To the grasslands!"

[Raiha]

Raiha nodded as the receptionist apologized, quiet, and was about to thank him anyway for his time when the Akalak was interrupted. She twisted slightly to inspect the wizened human who spoke up. Apparently, this was the teacher. The Akontak didn’t miss the glare that came about as a response to the grin, and she could only stare when the man mentioned bodies that had to be hauled out of a room. Well, Kanikra steeled her sister, nothing ventured, nothing gained. You’ll be fine. If he had killed anyone important, he would have been dead by now. The Akalak wouldn’t allow some human, no matter what his skill as a mage, just kill anyone important, like an Akalak or a nakivak. Besides… even if they had been… they’re not capable of what we are capable of. Now… she paused as Raiha and Kanikra realized, as one, the old man was staring rather intently at her chest. Petching pervert. Watch this one’s hands. Now get moving.

Didn’t you hear what he said? Raiha, though, had just stared right back at the man. Vincent, he’d said? Vincent, then. “How many bodies did you remove from his room?” she whispered to the receptionist as she turned away before shaking her head at the answer. “Wish me luck,” she mouthed the last bit and shrugged a little before picking up the pace to follow the spry old bugger out of the Academy. Kanikra was right. There was no point in worrying about it. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be. With luck… she would be able to manage this, and not, like the others, become a casualty of their inability to harness the latent ability. Some had it and some didn’t have it; that was true enough.

She only hoped she had it.

With her long legs she caught up quickly enough, and adjusted her pace to match his, slowing down enough to walk beside the human. “Thank you for agreeing to train me,” she told him, glancing down at the thickly-bespectacled man. Her skirts trailed as she walked, the wind made from their movement twisting at the ruffled, simple ankle-length cloth garment. “Just out of idle curiosity,” she wondered, thumbs hooked into her leather belt, her blue skirt fluttering as they made their way towards the Sea of Grass, “have you ever initiated a student yet that lived?”

[Baku]

The receptionist slowly looked up to Raiha, giving a slow shake of his head as he declined to answer her. “He is more than competent at his craft, but be aware that he is a bit………. Eccentric” The receptionist then said before moving on to do menial duties around the area. “Come on, come on. I haven’t all the time in the world.” Vincent said, pulling the cap from a waterskin and tipping it back as a clear liquid begin pouring out from within that carried a faint scene to alcohol to it. As they begin heading for the exit of the city, Raiha found Vincent to be a tad more mobile for his age. He old legs carried him in a quick step, moving around Akalaks that crossed his path as he ignored their disapproving gazes. Some of the Akalak then looked to Raiha with a mix of sympathy and concern, and a hint of indifference considering who she now traveled with. “Don’t thank me yet.” Vincent said, peering over his shoulder at Raiha as wrinkled eyes gazed deeply into her own. “If you survive your initiation, your body is going to feel bruised, battered and broken all over. You may very well wish you were dead with the amount of pain you’ll be going through.” He then quickly turned on his heals, causing Raiha to be inches from his own face as he pushed up to stand on the tip of his toes to increase his height and become more eye level with Raiha. “Still want to go through with it?” Vincent then said with a hint of amusement and that wide toothy smile again. "The pain could be fun for one of us."

[Raiha]

Oh, wonderful. He was getting a load on. Well, this bodes well for us, Kanikra observed. Raiha couldn’t miss the glances that came her way as she trailed after Vincent. She half-wondered what the Akalak around her were thinking to see her with him. Why worry about what they think? Her sister wanted to know. If you’re going to spend your whole life worrying about what others think, we would never have left Mura. Worry about what I think, what you think. We can do this.

Her throat went dry when he said ‘if’. If you survive... It was almost hard to breathe for a moment and she swallowed, trying to coat her throat so that air didn't hurt going down. She couldn’t decide from the look on his face if he was serious, exaggerating, or otherwise pulling her leg, but her gut feeling told her that he was entirely serious. He really seemed to believe that there was a good chance that this experience would be fatal. She didn’t look away from his gaze, though, even as she chased away the fleeting glances of uncertainty. She still had no idea how many bodies had been removed from that room. What if…

By the Goddess. If you survive? Woman, pull yourself together! Kanikra had to restrain herself from yelling at Raiha as she mentally smacked her. Focus! We. Are. An. Akontak. Have some confidence in yourself. He said ‘if’. It is not tantamount to a death sentence. Others have managed to learn this, insignificant nothings with no natural skill, and if they managed it, then we will manage it. When Vincent stopped, Raiha almost ran into him, and had to draw up to prevent herself from doing so.

She squared her shoulders instinctively, her spine straightening when he tried to become level with her, her ears drawing back and giving a tautness to her features that made her look a bit older and far more serious as it drained away the childishness that was still apparent in her facial features. “Yes.” She was relieved her voice didn’t sound like a frog’s croak. “Yes, I want to go through with this. I want to learn. I –will- learn.”

[Baku]

Vincent waited a moment, studying Raiha’s face before reaching up and giving a slow rub to his chin in contemplation. “Hrmm, you do have some resolve.” Vincent said before he slowly turned and stepped out of the city through the gates. “Must be nice having a cheering section inside to goad you into stuff. Who needs peer pressure when the kids have two souls these days?” They soon began taking a slow walk, their feet carrying them away from the city and out into the Sea of Grass. “Did you bring a shovel?” Vincent said, the tone in his voice suggesting random rather than contemplation before he shook his head and gave a slow wave of his hand. “Never mind.” Vincent was then silent after that, his body wading him through the tall grasses as he just idly looked to his surroundings, occasionally peeking over his shoulder at Raiha to see if she had lost the look of conviction in her eyes at any point in the journey. Finally, after they had been walking for close to twenty chimes, Vincent stopped in his tracks, his hands cupping behind his back. His head tilted backward slightly as he drew a slow, deep breath into his lungs, as if to smell the anticipation both of them had been harboring since the start of their walk. Then, Vincent slowly turned, his eyes gazing into Raiha’s own as the comical stopped for a moment as his face was somber, serious. “Okay, this is my “Getting yourself into..”speech.” Vincent said as his palms stretched out and an almost vapor like gel seemed to permeate from the palms of his hands, slowly, flowing towards the ground around them. “Magic, in this world or any other, is hell. There’s a reason why only a small number in the world’s population even practice it, and many of them the more safer kinds. It’s a pain in the ass to just be inducted into most, and it never gets easier once you’re in. Being the strapping hybrid you are, you’ll be able to use it longer than most in the world, but that doesn’t mean you will be immune to those tiny little voices that whisper into your ear. The ones that aren’t your soul sister. When you start thinking what they’re saying to be something akin to a good idea? That’s when your body and minds will pay the price. If you think I’m just a little eccentric because of my age, you’re wrong. The whispers and overgiving caused me to not give a shyke about everything in this downward spiral of a world just a little bit more when I listened to them. The insanity of it all is, I’m okay with it.” Vincet’s hands then closed before he snapped both fingers and a fire burned tall in a ring around them for a brief moment, clearing the grass. “Now, knowing such,” Vincent then said as he began to walk towards the edge of the circle, the other edge about fifteen feet strait across, “answer me this: Why is it you wish to learn magical disciplines? Especially one as volatile and dangerous as Reimancy?”

[Raiha]

"It goes both ways," Raiha sighed. "Every man who is truly a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, and if need be, against them." She was female, but hey, it worked in a male-dominated society. Sure, she had a cheering section on the rare occasion Kanikra actually approved of what she was doing, which was few and far in between. She cut off what she was about to say when he asked her if she'd brought a shovel, and eyed him almost suspiciously. That... that was a very odd, random thing to say, head tilted, lips parted slightly before she smartly closed her mouth and tried to figure out just what... oh. Right. The high risk of death. With a shovel, one could dismember or bury. "Do I look like I'm carrying one in my bodice?" she quipped, trying for at least some sort of banter.

She followed him, her thumbs in her belt as she kept an eye and an ear out for creatures that would be lurking in the Sea of Grass for them - granted, she didn't think it was anything this close that he wouldn't be able to handle, but if he was busy or drained from the initiation... that wouldn't be very good. She watched his hands with interest, following the progress of the vapour. "Res," she breathed it out, remembering the word from her studies in Mura. The first transmutation of Djed - from that state, it could be transformed further into some aspect of the elements, or a combination thereof. But she was quiet and listened, her face solemn and focused - that determination that had been in her eyes was still there, still in the set of her jaw, still in the tautness with which she kept her face. She couldn't back out now. And it wasn't just because of what Kanikra had said, because of her goading, because of the way she would harass her incessantly if she backed out now. She put Kanikra out of the equation, and really thought about her reasons for wanting to go through with it.

She understood the concepts of the sweet whispers and overgiving. She had yet to really and truly experience the former with Auristics - while she tired herself out as a novice about it, she had not yet gone so far as to hear the little voices in her head that other practitioners did. It's okay to talk to yourself, Raiha could feel Kanikra's grin, the problem is when the voices start to answer. Her eyes widened slightly as he snapped his fingers - flint and steel, her imagination told her - and the Res he had been emitting ignited, burning, only to extinguish. Fascinating. Two-part spell, perhaps, transmitting the gel Res and leaving the gas version...? Well, one day she would find out.

She faced Vincent, her posture square and having lost some of the rigidness with which she had been carrying herself, the steel backbone that said she hadn't kept it, she would have done the smarter thing and backed out. But there was some signal within her that had come to full confidence in that she was making the right decision. "I want to learn them, because it is something that I can do that they cannot see or expect. If I want to defend myself, I need a weapon that they cannot master," there was resolve in the way that she held her shoulders, the way that she spoke in a quiet, measuring tone. There was no longer a sign of waffling. The Akontak had committed herself to it. "If I can't defend myself, I can't defend my friends. You just said I could last longer than others. That makes the possibility worth chancing. Anyone can slice and dice with a knife or swing a sword. But not everyone can produce a geyser of water. If I want to learn in defense, why not shielding? That will come in time. That will be next. But the best defense is a spirited offense. And that is where Reimancy comes in."

[Baku]

“It is a weapon that hardly anyone can “master” young Akontak. And Reimancy is a reckless offense.” Vincent said, staring down into Raiha’s eyes before rolling his own. “Still, everyone has their own choice to make, even a crazy old bat like me believes that.” Vincent then slowly pulled out a small dagger from the folds of his clothing, the appearance of it looking ceremonial more than anything. “The process will be quite……………invasive.” Vincent then said. “Strip your clothes and belongings off though. Don’t want them to get all damaged in the process.”

[Raiha]

"It can be. Pressure and time." Raiha was certain. One way or another, she would master it. It might kill her, true, but remembering the problems she had gotten into before, even in places that might have been, should have been, safe amongst others in the city... she needed something that would help. And until she became a master with the suvai, there was no hope for that. This would have to be it. This would be something they would work hard on, assuming it didn't kill them first. But in life, she was rapidly realizing she was going to need every advantage she could get.

She didn’t like the idea of stripping down in front of the lecher, but she sincerely doubted he was going to rape her, at any rate. Regardless, without protest, her twice-layered cotton shirt came off, and she folded it neatly and set it to the side, along with her tiered, colourful skirt and underwear. Her socks and boots were next, and she crossed her arms over her chest, tossing her hair. Sure, it wasn’t hiding much, considering what else was on display. If you got it, flaunt it, Kanikra tried to tease her, to offset the teenager’s modesty as Raiha looked down at Vincent. I’m not doing everything for you. Stop being a baby.

“Ready,” Raiha steeled herself as she watched him through her Auristics, watching the Res and Djed move on and within the teacher. It would probably be easier not to watch this, but if anything, it was something she kind of wanted to see - not just because it was what was happening to her, but because you were most afraid of what you couldn’t see. She refused to not watch this and miss something very education. She would watch this and see it for herself.

[Baku]

Vincent looked over Raiha’s frame, likely a while longer than was necessary as his pupils moved upward and downward, the blade of the dagger being patted repeatedly along the palm of his hand. Finally, his gaze met Raiha’s own as the dagger was held down along his side. “Hold your palms out to me, and grit your teeth for the sting.” Vincent then said, his voice now eerily calm. When Raiha complied, no matter how long it took, Vincent slowly raised the dagger towards Raiha. The edge was placed along each palm as a slight presser was applied and the tip dragged across her flesh, cutting into it. Blood began to slowly creep up from the wounds and pool in her hands before Raiha realized it wasn’t quite over as the tip was then pressed lightly along her brow. A quick flick caused a shallow cut along her flesh there as blood began to trickle down the front of her face, following the contours of her nose and lips before dripping from the end of her chin. Vincent then tossed the dagger aside to the ground, almost nonchalantly as he held one hand out in front of Raiha. “Now really prepare yourself child,” Vincent then warned. “This will likely be the most painful thing you will have experienced in your life to date.” It began to appear in the center of his palm, like a viscous gel, translucent with a hint of a tan tint to it, almost animated as if it had a life of its own. Rez. An almost sadistic smile appeared on Vincent’s face then as his gaze dug deeply into Raiha’s. “If you have any happy thoughts, or a burning reason for doing this, now would be the time to focus on it.” Vincent then advised. “It might help with the pain, but I doubt it.” Vincent then thrust his palm forward at Raiha as the Rez that had been forming suddenly shot out, splitting off into several, almost tentacle like cords. Three ends burrowed into the fresh wounds at Raiha‘s palms and brow, mixing directly with her blood as the Rez began to slink into her body and a burning sensation crept along her skin and just intensify. The others cords of Rez invaded through other areas that were available. Her mouth was forced open as one made its way down her throat, the other invading her nostrils, cutting off her airway briefly. Others burrowed into her ear canals, causing her deafness for a moment, another into her eyes, causing brief blindness. Others made their way into wherever they could find. Old wounds that had not yet fully healed, even if it was a tiny scratch. Between her legs as there was a sudden moment of both pain and pleasure before it faded. The whole process of it was as alarming as it was intense and sudden, and the pain had only just began. As Rez continued to course into her body, practically fusing with ever fiber of her being, both on a physical level and a spiritual one as Kanikra felt ever twinge of pain, burning soon turned into searing, and eventually an inner pressure. The twin souls soon felt as if their body was a container. A container that had been caped, reached its filling point, but was still being fed more. She literally felt as if her body were about to burst from the inside. “Feel free to pass out,” Vincent’s voice then echoed into Raiha’s ears. “You certainly wouldn’t be the first in a long line.” Vincent then withdrew his hand and stepped forward, placing his palm along Raiha’s brow. The overwhelming pain Raiha felt continued, but it no longer increased. Her own Djed finally met with Vincent’s Rez, and the two melded together within their body. It felt as though Raiha’s and Kanikra’s souls were begin twisted and wrung, stretched to a breaking point. And then there was a flash of light that overtook Raiha’s own vision, soon replaced by a body of clear water, and a single drop hitting that smooth, liquid surface, causing ripples over its entirety. Whether Raiha passed out or not, her body fell to the ground, limp. She found herself so completely spent that it would take all of her reserves just to remain conscious if she didn’t give in to sleep. Clouded vision of Vincent then stepping away from her and pulling his cloak free from his body then caught Raiha’s attention. Vincent slowly laid the cloak over Raiha’s frame, and sat down beside her. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to dress you. Recover as quickly as you can woman.” Vincent then said, his voice almost booming in her ears. “I want my cloak back.”