Solo [The Dawn Tower] Clay and Earth

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

25th of Fall, 514.

The hedgehog had relished the first few days of peace he'd been given at the Respite, before he was eventually called up for his first lessons. He'd heard that his teacher would be one of the easiest-going of the group of teachers that stood at the head of the house - that was something, at least. Though, the mouse couldn't help but wonder if there was any meaning to it - after all, he was a Pycon. He'd not seen any others around the city before him, and despite the fact that the Pyve of Pyconia was truly not that far away from the city of Lhavit, he had to wonder just whether all of the opinions of the humans and Ethaefal was united. Did all of them see Pycon as products of powerful magic, or were there some that saw them as little more than talking objects.. he would likely never know, unfortunately. He could only accept their decision with a smile and a nod, knowing that if he felt his Kina hadn't been spent adequately that he could simply take all he could this season and be gone the next, to find a better way to learn about Reimancy.

At least he knew where the money was going towards. The tower was huge, elaborate, and slightly over-elaborate in the mouse's opinion. It was always looming from atop Tenten Peak, almost watching them from its high vantage point. He didn't really like it, but then again, he didn't have a say in the matter. He was simply paying for their knowledge on Reimancy and nothing more.. what they decided to use that money on exactly was none of his business. Still, even from the moment he walked into the expansive lobby of the room, he felt pretty overwhelmed by it all. The small canals and streams running between the various rooms, filling them all with the sounds of running water.. elaborate arches and windows carefully filtering the streaming light. Everything was new, everything was fresh and extravagant. He hated it all, immediately, and turned away to search for the eastern wing and what he hoped would be a much more pleasant teacher.

He didn't have to look far. He'd barely made it several steps before he was suddenly intercepted by a human that was either walking past or had caught him in their eye and immediately invited themselves to an informal greeting. He didn't really appreciate it, since he was quite sure that he could find his own way around the building - nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut. She didn't seem like the kind of person that he'd want to make enemies with on the first day. "Classrooms are down the corridor and to the right. Lheili's class is the first door, Hitori's is the third." With little other to say or do, he nodded for the advice and followed the way she'd instructed. He could feel her eyes following him on the way for only a moment before she turned away, and he could hear her fading footsteps. It can't be much worse than that, I hope.

He was looking for Lheili's room, apparently. It would help if he knew which one was Lheili and which one was Hitori. There was a 50/50 chance that he'd get the right room, so there was nothing better to do than try to introduce himself and hope that he got everything right the first time. Considering how large the doors were, and how tall the doorknobs were, the best he could do was to slide himself underneath the door - it was a lucky coincidence that he'd left his walking stick behind. When he finally did build up enough courage to slowly push himself under the gap of the door, he was immediately met with the sight of a small number of six or seven people gathered around a woman sat on what looked to be a square of a padded seat. It didn't even have a back to it. "Can I help you?" she asked in a soft voice that seemed neither inquisitive nor disinterested. Now or never...

"I'm looking for Lheili's Reimancy classes." If there was any surprise to be had from this, she showed none of it, unlike the small class that she was already engrossed with. However, a soft smile did crack through her features, and in a warmer tone, she beckoned him forwards towards the rest of the group. It was only then that he saw what she was holding - a ball of fire, with the flames licking out at the air in steady pulsing waves.

"Come on in, then." Success.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The majority of the students that sat there were human, although some of them were pretty distinct. One had strange eyes that he swore he could see shifting colour. There was only one Ethaefal who sat with the rest of them, with its horns shining from even the smallest rays of light that touched them through the high windows. He supposed that until further notice, these would be his class-mates. He could live with it, he supposed.. they may even prove valuable over time if they could provide him with more information on a certain method of extracting his djed. He'd learned small techniques from the maledicting Symnestran that had once told him in the ways he knew, but these were soon becoming dated and he needed something else to practice with. He needed some way to practice Reimancy that didn't involve killing animals.. after all, there were only so many animals he could find and kill as the seasons shifted closer and closer to the insistent cold that would soon claim all of the Unforgiving in its winter-y embrace.

They were all sat on various chairs sprawled haphazardly around the room, but Cyq couldn't actually sit at one given his minuscule stature, so he chose to sit on the floor instead. If Lheili had any objection, she didn't make it. If anything, she seemed all too eager to return concentration to the small ball of concentrated fire floating just above her hand. "As you can see.. we don't want to ignite all of the Res. Otherwise, we lose control of the ball. Instead, we only want to change the outside layers of the Res, making sure to only transmte the surface." These things he knew already. Though knowing something wasn't the same as being able to do it. In moments of clarity, it was.. possible, with some hard work on his part. "Now, you do this by.. well. Imagine you're holding an egg in your hand. This ball of Res is that egg, with the yolk in the middle, and the white, and then the shell. You're just peeling away this shell, leaving the rest of it intact. I want you to all try it, with your respective elements, and imagine that this ball is your egg."

He stared at her for several long moments. Surely she had to be kidding. She had to be. He was paying close enough to 50 kina, to look at balls of soil and imagine them as eggs? This was a freaking joke, he had to say.. nevertheless, the other students immediately set to work cupping their hands and forming their Res. The mouse was about to follow them just to test this moronic theory, when he was stopped by the woman stooping down to what was as close to his level as she was ever going to find herself. "Sorry, before we begin.. I didn't catch your name when you came in." He had to bite his tongue, given the welling frustration already in his system, to stop himself from retorting at her that she'd never even asked for his name.

"I'm Cyq." He made sure to say it slowly. Most people he spoke with, Pycon or human, had trouble with it.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, uhm.. Cyq." She was fumbling with the name, he knew - if ever asked to write it down, he doubted she'd be able to. For some reason just the visual image brought a bit of a childish grin to his lips, but he kept it down to a minimum. She didn't seem to notice.

"Do you have any experience with Reimancy before.. have you been initiated, do you know about transmuting Res into a chosen element, things like that?" He nodded, and that seemed to satisfy whatever interest she had on the subject. "In that case, take a seat wherever you please and just follow along with the rest of us." The more he spoke, the more patronizing the whole scene seemed, even if it wasn't intentional. He'd never had the same problem whenever he sat down with the Symnestran. The lessons were interesting, engaging.. he wanted to learn. Here, it felt like they were trying to coax him into liking the subject. Then again, he was paying this time, in coin. They had to keep everything to a certain standard, or likely people would just find others to teach them.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

There was no point in moving from where he'd already settled, so he didn't. The others of the class were at various stages of producing these balls of Res, and then transmuting them. The Ethaefal had picked it up remarkably fast, and was already sat with an orb of water calmly floating before her - small ripples flowing over it again and again, and not a single droplet of water leaving it. Others were still in the process of conjuring together a ball of their Res large enough to begin transmuting the outer layers. He took his time observing each one in the group, marking them off, before he turned inwards for his own supply of djed. He didn't need the prompts that he heard the speaker using on some of the others that were struggling - all he needed was the river. The flow of life-energy that represented everything he held. Not just everything he had.. everything he was, essentially.

The stream never wavered.. but little trickles at first began to pull away from the mass, drawn by the subtle shifts in his mind. They were always kept small, thin.. he didn't want to end up pulling away too much at any one time, after all. He knew the dangers of what could happen.. the overgiving and such. No, he only took small amounts, feeling the streams pooling together steadily as they flowed down through his head, into his body, and out through his paws until they were nearly ready to overflow. He held out both paws and cupped them together in preparation, eyes still disconnected from his nexus, as a strange cooling sensation began to flow over his palms. It should have drained through his fingers, but instead it flowed as a gelatinous mass, congealing in his palm and yet never growing stagnant.

When he felt it was large enough, his eyes opened again. It was a little smaller than he'd imagined, but that was fine.. it wasn't about the size, either way. In both of his paws, held in the cusp, was a small ball of liquid Res - oddly cool, and a strange colour of pale bluish-purple. By now, nearly the entire class had finished conjuring and transmuting their balls of Res - some with a sudden burst of flames, while others had taken on the water approach or given the ball a wisp-like translucent outer surface. There was only one other - the human with the shifting eyes, who's irises had yet again taken on a different colour than before - who had a ball of dirt hovering just a few inches above her palms. The mouse wasn't about to be the last one to create his ball, so he worked quickly for the last step.

He concentrated on the ball until he could feel control slipping through his mind. The ball lifted just an inch or so off his palms, fixed in place, as he tried to remember what the woman had told him. Imagine an egg. Utterly stupid and childish, imagining that he was holding an egg and not a ball of concentrated Res. Yet, he'd be stupid to not heed her advice.. she had to know something about Reimancy, otherwise she wouldn't be fit to teach it in the first place. The more he stared at the ball, though, the less it looked like an egg. It was a perfect sphere.. it was the wrong colour, the wrong everything! If anything, it was starting to look like something else entirely.. it looked more like a piece of rock. Round, somewhat smooth.. and, funnily enough, layered.

He'd seen those kinds of stones before. Ones that showed multiple layers of different colours, pressed against each-other with immense pressure to the point that they surely should have combined into one. They didn't. It was nearly impossible to break them apart though, he'd tried it. He could see the layers over the little ball of Res now.. all the different shades of grey and brown, sometimes parchment-thin while others took up whole inches. The mouse found himself staring at it for several long ticks before he realized just what he'd found - he'd found the layers that Lheili had been talking about. Suddenly, the outermost layer of imaginary rock transmuted itself - the inner layers disappearing under a layer of cold grey stone. Well... it's not the same way as she'd been talking of, but it still worked. Can hardly argue with results, can I?

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He was the second-last to create the ball. Only one of the humans was left struggling, but with the help of Lheili, the Res soon ignited in a furious combustion of flame. Thankfully it was a small ball of Res, but the boy hadn't controlled the areas he wanted to ignite, and instead he'd eaten straight through the whole ball. All of the Res ignited at once, flashing brightly and leaving a very shocked human sitting there with his mouth nearly gaping open. Lheili was more controlled, creating a stream of Res that transmuted into water almost as quickly as it formed to enclose the ball and extinguish it. If anything, it was even more astounding how quickly the Res was conjured, and how much control she held over it - the fact that she could split the stream into individual strands and control each one as a separate entity, using them to loop around the ball and hold the water against the water until it died down.

"It's alright.. we'll try again later." By burning through all of his Res, he'd unfortunately excluded himself from the rest of the lesson.. he likely wouldn't be able to conjure up more Res without beginning to push himself more than he'd be able to take at such an early stage. Funnily enough, he still seemed pretty proud of himself. Perhaps he was still pretty new to the whole scene.. just like the mouse was. "Now.. everyone else got their Res balls?" The rest of them nodded - some of them had been burning for quite a while though, and their balls were looking quite a bit smaller. The more time they spent holding those balls, the more djed they were burning up, after all. The Ethaefal was looking a little strained with her concentration over the ball, fueling it with small trickles of Res from her palms to fill the insides to keep the balls size.

"Alright, that's good! We've all got our orbs up. One more exercise, and then I think we'll stop for the day. If you're feeling tired, you can stop now, by the way. We don't want to push too far." Almost immediately the Ethaefal stopped - the previously untransmuted Res on the inside of the ball suddenly twisted, and the entire thing became a ball of water that fell to the floor with a splatter. Her face looked quite pale - or at least, paler than usual. There was a moment of silence where the rest of the group watched Lheili moving over to the girl - checking to see whether she was alright. Eventually, attention returned to the activities, with the Ethaefal taking place next to the one other that had failed to control their Res. There were a few others around the room that were showing signs of strain, while others looked quite content. Then again, they'd all reached the same stage at different times. Holding the orb was a feat of its own.

Strangely, Lheili brought out a metal hoop. It wasn't very big at all, and she held it so that they could see straight through the middle. "I want each of you to try and control your Res, as you guide your orb of element through this loop. This is all about control, and concentration." Well, it was certainly a strange exercise.. but, he supposed that he would try it nonetheless. He was paying for these lessons after all.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Before they could start, they had to wait for Lheili to form a shield over the loop. It didn't take very long, but nearly the entire class was showing signs of mild strain now. Cyq could feel it himself - the steady trickle of Res, that was slowly growing as time went on. He'd never held his Res for such a long amount of time. Trying to keep it contained in this one space, trying to hold it there, was becoming harder. There was a part of him that wanted to keep on going, though. He wanted to get the ball through the loop, he wanted to prove that he could do this, for himself and for Lheili. Perhaps if he showed that he could, then he might be able to actually progress to something more. The orb in his paw was showing signs of slight cracking along the surface, but that was just because the element was deteriorating over time. Just like the Res on the inside, the stuff was burning itself up, and the longer they went on, the more he had to burn to keep the little orb in place.

Not only that, but he was using it keeping the Res where he wanted it. The Res wanted to spread itself, it wanted to diffuse out into the air and beyond. He wanted to keep it locked up, he wanted the soil to remain in place. The binding grasp between the Res and the stone that wrapped around the inner core was like a child's hand - uneasy, unsure. He kept trying to apply pressure, but the hand kept slipping away the more he tried. Little crumbling pieces of rock were trickling down and scattering over the floor, but he kept his paws flexing to hold his concentration solely on the orb.

They were all lining up now. One after another, they took turns to gently guide the ball through the tiny loop. The first one to attempt it succeeded, and with a sigh of relief was able to let the ball of flame extinguish itself before he did anything else. He looked slightly pained as he went through it, but the heavy creases over his brow cleared when he was finally able to sit back down again. The others weren't so lucky - it was a good thing that the ring that Lheili held was shielded. The next three that attempted it, failed - their orb either missed the ring entirely, or on one occasion, brushed the edge and suddenly combusted as concentration was lost; the flames and the heat were caught in the shield, and with a comforting pat on the shoulder, the girl responsible and the other two that had failed were sent back to take a seat and a breather.

Cyq didn't see much of this. He was too busy focusing on his ball, keeping it together.. but his grasp was failing him, and his paws were shaking under the exertion. Suddenly, a hand touched him on the head. He looked up. "Cyq, let the ball go. I think you need to take a seat now." It was a calm tone, but most definitely an order. She didn't think he could do it.

"It's.. it's fine, I've got control of it." He could do it, he just needed to find the right grasp. He wanted to do it - to collect more Res, to make the ball larger so that he could take hold of it easier. It'd be easier to control the Res, if there was more of it - there'd be more to hold onto, after all.

"Cyq. Let it go." The voice was harder this time, and the mouse's concentration slipped. Before he could do anything, the sphere turned rock, and fell to the floor, thumping hard. He was breathing heavily, he didn't know why. "You need to be more careful, Cyq. Learn to control yourself, so that you don't succumb to overgiving. You need to be safe." He knew how to be safe! Or he did. As he finally took his seat and let his mind return to him, the realization sunk in - he'd been pushing himself more than he could handle. It'd been a relatively simple exercise, but he'd been going at it for much longer than he knew that he could control. He shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss his own limits in favour of attempting to take on feats that were above him - it was these things that could get him killed, after all.

[Cyq]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The entire class looked just as bad as he likely did, now. They were all pretty exhausted - the effects of holding the orbs for extended amounts of time were wearing on their minds and bodies. Some of them had mild overgiving, pushing at their minds just a little bit. "Alright.. today was good progress! We need to keep going, of course. I want you to keep practicing using those orbs, making them and controlling them. Remember not to push yourself too far though..." she made a meaningful glance as she spoke those words, and he held back the frown that threatened to take over his face. He didn't like being so blatantly challenged. "If any of you need anything, you know that I'm right here, or any of my sisters." Just like that, the class was dismissed. He guessed that most of them would be leaving for the Towers Respite, and he had a good mind to join them as well. However, there was something he needed to see first.

"Hmm.. Lheili." He waited until nearly all of the other students had passed on, apart from one of the humans that looked like he had something to ask as well. She soon turned to him with a smile, expectant. "I didn't find your 'egg' thing very helpful.. at all." Strangely, her smile didn't falter in the slightest. "I actually thought of my own one instead." Was there something wrong with him, because he did that? He couldn't even tell. If he wasn't following the same methods as a Master Reimancer like her, then surely there was something wrong with him.

"Well, everyone visualizes these things differently. We're not all the same person, after all. The important thing is finding what works best for you - it's why we do these meditation exercises as well. You need to go and find out what best works for you, and then practice that. I'm just here to help you find it, by trying out different ideas until you find it." Well, that made more sense than that he was wrong for not using the same method as everyone else. He nodded in thanks, and was ready to turn and leave with his question answered, but she called him back again with that same stern voice that she'd used before. "Cyq."

He stopped in his tracks and turned back to her, curious. "I meant what I said. Keep safe. You need to work with what's best for you, and that includes the level you think you're comfortable at. There's no shame in saying that you're unable to produce as much Res as someone else, because it comes with practice and experience.. some have more than others, and that's fine." He nodded silently, trying to avoid taking this talk as a stern rebuking - however, even as he tried to keep those thoughts out of his head, they nibbled at the back of his head. "Serious overgiving is not something you want to experience - nobody wants to experience it, really. Remember that." At long last, he was able to turn and leave the classrooms undisturbed.

[Brandon Blackwing]

CYQ

XP:

• Observation +4
• Socialization +1
• Reimancy +3
• Meditation +1

Lore:

• Lhavit: The Dawn Tower
• Reimancy: Transmuting in layers
• Lheili Dawn: Reimancy teacher
• Reimancy: res control exercise

Notes:
Ah, Reimancy! I'm actually surprised how well you handle the NPC tutors. I don't know how you come up with the dialogue for this thread, but it was great, so keep it up!

Please remove or edit your post in the request thread.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding your grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM.

credit goes to Adelaide Sitai