Solo The power of the Void

[Annalisa Marin]

78th of Fall, 514 AV

Anna was pleased to see that all three of her students had returned from their self-initiations into Voiding, though the trio certainly looked worse for wear from it. The sorceress remembered how she had crawled from that self-imposed starvation and dehydration, what a pathetic thing she had been. Now she stood as one of the more skilled Voiders that she knew of and her power continued to grow with each passing day. More and more she could see how very weak other magics truly were, even reimancy seemed so very paltry by comparison to the potential destructive powers of the Void.

The tall woman sat behind her desk, her feet casually put up on the desk without seeming to care over much for proper manners. The glint of gold could be seen wrapped around her right ankle, her familiar Vex being in her sealed form. The Kirt had been silent for today strangely enough though she did not doubt that the creature was simply waiting for a good time to speak up. Anna was fine with Vex keeping her thoughts to herself, as of late the familiar had been decidedly unhelpful and questioning of her methods. To say nothing of her blatant heresy…

“I see you are back. I’ll assume that means you are ready to learn how to actually control a true Void Portal then? Good. We will start very basic and I’ll introduce the principle factors of Djed usage in regards to the aspects a Portal can possess.” Anna stated.

First things first Anna held out a hand and reached deep within herself, plucking at the strings of her Djed in a harmony that differed from that of Voiding. This was a much more primal and loud song, one that filled her mind with euphoric bliss. She pushed her Djed outwards from hand and allowed it form into a physical shape, warm translucent liquid forming at an insanely fast speed. Res, the essence of reimancy. The ease in which she summoned the liquid was breathtaking, however that was merely the material and not yet the finished product.

The tall woman detached the res from her body and willed it to gather on the desk, shaping it into a large rectangular block. From here she focused upon stone, hard and solid and willed her res to solidify into the mineral. The Djed used in this task was minimal, no gestures or incantations were used and the res was handled as though it were an extension of her body. When it was all said and done a purple stone brick was left upon the table. This would come into play later in the demonstration, but Anna figured it best to create it now.

With this menial task out of the way Anna stood and moved around in front of her desk, holding her hand out before her. This time the music of her Djed took on a different tone, darker and more somber yet possessed of a grace that was undeniably enticing. Goose flesh worked its way up her arm as the song carried its way through her mind, haunting her thoughts. The energy was pushed outwards, but was this time focused towards emptying out a certain point before her hand.

As with the previous day nothing happened immediately but within five ticks a flowing of energy out from her body told her the bridge had been formed. An inky black dot had formed in the air before her, this tiny vortex greedily lapping up the Djed the tall woman poured into it. She steadily willed it to grow, pouring more and more of her energy into the Portal to stimulate the growth. The speed in which it expanded was quite impressive, this time continuing past the size of a minor Portal and becoming large enough to consume a person.

Anna could see them flickering in The Other Side, the shapes and indistinctive forms that taunted her vision. The woman knew them for what they were, aspects of her previous Overgiving. However deep within her mind there was fear as she remembered exactly what she had once released from the Void. It could very well still be lurking in the darkness where she could not see. She had not opened the Portal to the location held by her Anchor, just a random point in the Void as this lesson was on basic concepts. Anchors were far too advanced for these students possibly hope to grasp.

[Annalisa Marin]

Now that Anna had the Portal stable she moved to the left of it slightly, still allowing her energy to flow into it however wanting to be visible to her students. The one female seemed to pale at the sight of the large Portal, the inky blackness impenetrable. Anna regarded the creation lovingly, though she also kept her focus upon maintaining the thing. Teaching while maintaining a large Portal was… tricky but certainly doable. She had taught under more difficult conditions after all.

“Now then, the act of actually bridging This Side and The Other Side is the first step. It takes time and concentration to form a Portal, for beginners like you all it will take a good bit of time. Your Portals will not be all that big either, however that is good. Start small and do not exert yourself beyond making your Portals the size of a fist at most. Practice is necessary before you can make something like this.” Anna instructed.

“Try to form a Portal now. Make use of gestures and incantations to keep focus.” The tall woman commanded.

The students hesitated, before one of them raised his hand shakily. “Umm… Instructor Marin?”

“What?” The word crack out like a whip, causing the student to flinch slightly.

“What… exactly are gestures or incantations?”

Anna blinked once, then twice. They… they didn’t know what gestures or incantations were? The tall woman was taken aback by this but then had to remind herself that the Institute was not Sahova where every resident was expected to know most common magical jargon. Explaining this basic element of spellcasting was rather like trying to explain the necessity of good grammar. Aside from Glyphing it was the most necessary supplement for new mages, Anna herself rarely used them with Voiding or Reimancy as they were easy for her now but with more unfamiliar magics they were a constant.

“Gestures or incantations are either physical or verbal repetitions used during spellcasting to assist in maintaining focus. They can be anything you can think of saying or doing, from wiggling your fingers and toes, to repeating passages from books. Think of what would help you focus on the task at hand best and do it.” Anna replied.

The students seemed to grasp that easily enough so they went about their assigned task with heavily varied mannerisms. One of them wiggled his ears and another muttered under her breath, the expressions on their faces told her that they seemed to think this ridiculous but Anna seemed serious about the usage of these mannerisms. They focused on points before their hands and after a few minutes each one was nursing a black dot in the air, the tiny vortexes requiring much of their focus and effort.

“Increase the influx of your Djed into the Portal slowly to stimulate growth, and do it slowly. Once your Portals reach the size of a fist I will instruct you on how to close them.” Anna instructed, maintaining her own Portal easily though starting to feel the creeping bits of weariness in her body. Nothing too severe as to be worried over but enough to prompt her to move her lesson along. Gods, she had almost forgotten the pleasure that casting euphoria could bring over a person, how easily it could burn through her and slither just below the surface of her mind whispering unspeakable things to her.

[Annalisa Marin]

Slowly, ever so slowly the students caused their Portals to expand to the necessary size though Anna could see that the act was indeed taxing. She knew that this would push them to their limits; they were freshly initiated Voiders after all but that was a necessity. They needed to learn the basics of control over a Portal before she demonstrated the advanced concepts to them. If they had no idea how very difficult maintaining even the smallest of Void Portals was then their limits would be tested on their own, and that could lead to very bad things.

Once their Portal’s reached the necessary sizes Anna would wait for a full minute, watching her students carefully as she waited. They looked tired, exhausted, one of them was even sweating and the others looked not far behind them. They repeated their gestures and incantations to their eternal credit, impressing the sorceress ever so slightly. Still she waited to give them time to consider a bit of perspective. She was maintaining a Portal many times again the size of theirs, yet she showed few outward signs of fatigue. The sorceress wanted to give them a goal. Something to reach towards.

“Alright. Technically just releasing your hold on the Portal itself will eventually cause it to wink out on its own. However I want you three to imagine the center of your Portal filling with something. Nothing massive, something tiny, a partical. Something that would fit under your fingernails without you knowing. Imagine it within the center of your Portals.” The sorceress commanded.

One by one the Portals winked out of existence, vanishing immediately and causing the air where they had existed to ripple slightly before settling. One by one her students displayed their exhaustion in their own ways, with one practically slumping over on his desk. Anna was pleased they had succeeded though the poor things still had a very long way to go before they could call themselves Voiders of any magnitude. The tall woman allowed them a few moments to catch their breath, focusing wholly upon maintaining her own Portal.

After they looked to have recovered somewhat from the small exercise Anna continued with the lesson. “As I am certain you all noticed, the larger the Portal then the more energy you must exert upon it to keep it stable. A large Portal like mine is not always needed, very rarely should you open a Portal to solve a combat situation. The stress of combat adds on top of the size for more Djed being poured into the Portal. I expect each of you to practice with Portals at least once a day. You will hold it open at the size of a fist for a few minutes before collapsing it.” Anna said at length.

“However there are other factors that can act upon a Portal, adding to the Djed drain but also adding to the power of the Portal. These are not merely holes in reality after all. These are known as Pull and Push, the attractive or repulsive forces one can create with a Portal.” Anna said, preparing for her demonstration with a grin.

[Annalisa Marin]

The sorceress moved her Portal slightly to the side and angled it so that one side was facing her desk, dragging the vortex along with the connection it shared with her. It moved somewhat slowly as Portals were not meant to move very fast, but once it was in position Anna took a deep breath. This next bit was tricky and was a reason she was very close to the desk as it would involve using Selective Pull. Her Selective Pull was relatively rough and was ineffectual at great distances; she needed to be close for it to work.

The sorceress inserted a good deal more of her Djed into the Portal, stimulating a Pull to be created however in her mind’s eye she envisioned the purple brick upon her desk. She steadily increased the Djed within the Portal and strengthened the attractive energy that was acting upon the brick. A few leaflets of parchment whizzed into the inky black vortex as her selection wavered slightly, however the sorceress kept her focus. She started whispering random words in Nader-Canoch under her breath, slight incantations to help her focus.

The brick wobbled slightly before being lifted from the desk and sucked straight into the hungry vortex, vanishing from This Side. The sorceress swallowed slightly as she then willed the Pull to be lost on the Portal, rendering it inert and placid once more. With this task done the tall woman faced her students, a little weary and her limbs feeling slightly heavy but little else. Her students regarded what had just happened with naked amazement and maybe just a touch of fear. Anna would not normally have been so drained, however her lack of familiarity with Selective Pull had caused her to pour more Djed than she might otherwise have.

“Pull is a rather powerful thing if one can master it. Pull can be given direction as you just saw and it can even be narrowed as with what I did. I don’t recommend omni-directional Pull unless you are curious to what the Void looks like. Give it a direction, preferably away from you when you do. Don’t focus on selectively pulling things, it takes far more training and skill than you possess at the moment. Don’t add it until I say you are ready to do so as it requires a good deal more Djed to maintain.” Anna said.

Next the sorceress moved her Portal ever so and aimed it towards the far wall. The tall woman willed the Portal to shrink a bit until it was merely the size of her torso, having no wish to accidently release something large from the Void. This done the tall woman placed a great amout of Djed into the Portal, enforcing a strong repulsive force upon the Portal. The purple brick came screaming out of the Portal, colliding with the wall and cracking the stone surface. Had it hit someone they would likely now possess a very broken bone. The brick itself had broken in half after impact.

“Push can be equally useful, when powerful enough it could do with a person as I did to that brick. It’s something I could do but you all might find difficulty with it. Push it a bit too advanced for you at the moment, but once you gain some modicum of skill it will become a very dangerous tool in your arsenal. However.” Anna said, holding up a finger in warning to her students.

“The Void, despite its name, is not really completely empty. Things have been banished there over the centuries, things that could very well kill you if release. I can tell you from first-hand experience that some undead dwell within their, monstrous beasts next to impossible to slay. When you reach the point where you can use Push, use it with utmost caution and preferably with a smaller Portal.” Anna said, her tone grave.

“Umm… Instructor Marin? What about the wall?” One of her students asked a moment after she gave her warning.

Anna turned her attention to the wall itself, noting that the crack she had put in it was rather sizable. Actually it was a little like a small crater. The tall woman shrugged slightly, unconcerned by the damage as hazards did happen during magic use. Anna then collapsed her Portal as she waved dismissively to her students, her arms feeling a bit heavy from this lesson but she did not show it outwardly. Her students filed out one by one and Anna returned to her desk, rather pleased by how that lesson had gone.

[Nemesis]

The blast created in the Voiding classroom was not one that created reverberations throughout the buildings of the Institute of Higher Learning, but the vibrations were felt by a number of people in the vicinity of the classroom. One such person was the Headmaster of the facility – Rhetus Vesord. As head of the facility, the Ebonstryfe employee was no stranger to rumbles and loud noises… arcane studies often went wrong and, worse, sometimes it went right.

The nature of the vibrations, which were accompanied by a loud crack, were not enough for Rhetus to determine which particular craft was the culprit of this disturbance, yet he knew from experience that some part of his building has been destroyed. It was a hazard of the building – damage was often inflicted though, as of yet, nothing has been catastrophic. From the vibrations, the Headmaster imagined significant damage, and steeled himself for the worst. Placing his quill down beside the parchment he had been working from, he rested back in his chair and rubbed at his temple.

Pushing his chair away from the desk, Rhetus stood and exited his office. His pace was not fast for, although he had an idea of where he should be heading, he could not guess at the specific room. "Do you think she meant to do it? It was… who would have thought that Voiding could be so destructive!" Mystery solved; three students walking past, who had evidently just watched the spectacle, were ignoring all subtleties. A gaze was all it took to shut them up.

Turning the corner, he continued down the corridor until he reached the door. His gaze travelled over the walls around the door, checking for any significant damage on this side, and he was glad when he saw nothing, no blemishes or cracks along the smooth walls. Once satisfied, he placed his hand on the doorknob and twisted it, pushing the door open to reveal the Institute of Higher Learning’s most recent member of the faculty. “Miss Marin,” he greeted softly.

Rhetus Vesord, once an instructor of Glyphing, was a relatively short man, shorter than Annalisa. Nearing the end of his fifth decade, an intelligent observer might deduce that his hair was once dark, though what is left is greying and white. A formidable man in personality, if not in appearance, he held an honorary rank within the Ebonstryfe and was well respected throughout the higher ranks of the city. “I have not yet had the pleasure of making your acquaintance. Retus Vesord, Headmaster of the Institute.”

OOCSorry for the wait - needed a new NPC and then life got in the way!

Meet the IHL's Headmaster!
*

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna was mostly checking through parchment and organizing her desk by the time Rhetus entered, scribbling away some notes or other. It irritated her to think that she probably looked a spitting image of Amaryllis back on Sahova, always hunched over her petching documents. The sorceress ground her teeth at the mental comparison, the bitch embalmer being someone she halfway respected but also hated. She had used her; she had put her through the worst kinds of experiences; however that had helped her to survive. In that was she supposed that it was not all bad that she resembled her, however she could not shake off the annoyance.

When she heard her name spoken the sorceress glanced up, noting the person but not knowing who he was. “If you are here for lessons they have ended already, try again tomorrow.” The woman said, about to return to her parchment before he introduced himself.

Anna froze. Headmaster… well, petch. Her and her big mouth. Immediately her demeanor changed and the sorceress set down her quill and stood, smoothing out her robes. Vex sent a mental chuckle her way and Anna responded with a mental growl sent towards the familiar. Petching Kirt. She rounded her desk and inclined her head ever so in a respectful gesture, recognizing his status over her. She pretended as though he were the Archwizard or Councilor Qiao and opted to treat him as she might have treated them.

“Apologies, Headmaster Vesord, forgive my rudeness. We have indeed not been acquainted as of yet. I am Annalisa Marin, former Instructor at the University of Zeltiva, former Wizard of the Sahovan Citadel. It is an honor.” The sorceress said.

“A bit too much information no?” Vex whispered in her mind.

“Likely the Sun already informed him where I was from, they were the ones who stole us away if you recall. Best to be upfront about everything, besides if he does not know then it might earn a bit more respect. Few Pulsers can claim to have been full Wizards on the Island. Sahovan Wizards are generally very powerful.” Anna responded.

“Fair enough, getting in good with the Headmaster would certainly propel you forward in this city.” Vex acknowledge.

“Can I do anything to help you today, Headmaster? I am at your service.” Anna inquired politely.

[Nemesis]

Vesord found himself being spoken to in a rather clipped tone when he entered the room, but his own introduction left the woman clearly embarrassed at her presumptuous words. A smile played at the corners of his lips as he was then given a verbal resumé, something he had been privy to some time before he had agreed to allow her to work at the Institute for Higher Learning. “Yes, quite a decorated past you have, Miss Marin,” was his cool reply - he was impressed, yes, but he would not allow her to think that.

The woman was beautiful, there could be no doubt in that. This beauty was only intensified by the apparent blindness in her right eye. All of Ravok knew what the ghostly white clouding of the Instructor's eyes meant, and it left the woman with the right to command the respect of those about her. Rhetus was no different and he gazed at the pale eye for longer than was polite.

When the twice-marked Chaon spoke again, however, her attempted innocence tone broke his gaze and the ageing man cleared his throat and turned away, this time to inspect the damage to the walls of his facility. On the floor was a brick, purple in colour, it seemed, which had split into two distinct parts, and a number of smaller crumbs. Dust also littered the floor, multi-tonal in shade, where the brick had brought part of the wall down with it. The wall itself had coped with the assault rather well, he noted, considering the initial shock he had felt and heard.

However there remained a large crack in the wall, where Marin's Beginners' Voiding lesson had quite possibly been too advanced. He turned back to face the woman, incredulous that she could feign surprise at his presence straight after the lesson. “Whilst we all appreciate your... unique... gifts and talents, I feel it wise to remind you that you are no longer on Sahova. Restraint will always be the first lesson we teach our students, new and old.” He looked at the wall again, “it appears you have already forgotten that lesson.”

He continued to stare at the wall, trying to calculate the damage cause and what it would take to repair it, factoring in labour costs as well as materials. He did not want to alienate the woman so soon into her arrival, but he also needed to make a point, nor was he going to pull the costs from the Institutes own coffers. “I believe forty gold mizas should cover the repair costs,” he finally said expectantly.

*