Solo To Control a Mind…

[Sayana]

Winter 5 & 6, 515 – The Underground and the House of Broken Mirrors

She was going to do it. She had been hiding from the zith for several days now. Or what felt like an eternity. She was always ducking behind doorways, keeping to the shadows and avoiding going out at night. But she had to start making progress. She couldn’t hide forever. And more importantly, she still hadn’t worked out Nephti’s magic.

Before she left, however, the Eypharian took the time to make some precautions. Holding up the small hand mirror in her high, she started rubbing in a layer of pale face paste to cover her face, neck and any other visible region. It was slow progress due to her skin being quite dark naturally, but she hoped it would reduce instant recognition from any of the zith. She was careful to add some to her high hands and even her mids, just in case, whereas her lows would surely remain hidden. Her mids shouldn’t ever come into view but she didn’t want to risk it.

Next she added a slightly darker colour to draw on wrinkles, and some lighter colour for the highlights of said wrinkles. She grimaced in the mirror. They looked more like smudges than anything else. Taking a little more of the face paste she added streaks of white to her reddish hair. It wasn’t much, and it would surely come out with a single wash but she was hoping for an ‘older’ look.

There. Enough of that. She set aside the make-up and donned her black robe and vest. With any luck the zith would never even spot her to begin with and wouldn’t have the opportunity to see the poor attempt on her face. She left quickly with a couple of coins left upon the table for Nephti. That girl had a knack for survival but it wouldn’t do to let her starve in case Sayana wasn’t able to return home right away. Home. It wasn’t a home, it was a shack. But that was the way the cards had unfolded.

She cut through the winding alleyways with always half an eye towards the midnight sky. She had seen one in the Underground, but she sure hoped it hadn’t seen her. She kept to the shadows and treaded lightly upon the cobblestone. Her robe offered a dark protection and it hardly seemed to make a sound as she moved. In one hand she held the small mirror she had used before leaving.

It takes time. Look into a mirror. Enter trance. Let the magic grow.

It was long overdue for her to figure out this magic. This hypnotism. Her stride was that of determination. It could take time. Days. She wasn’t sure if she had that sort of time, but for this it would be worth it.

Her destination was foggy at best. She needed a place out of view yet she wasn’t sure if the Underground would be sufficient. She was also pretty sure she had to unlock the magic on her own, despite the absurdity of learning hypnotism without anyone else present. It was strange but that was the impression she had gotten from Nephti.

It was then that she caught sight of an exit. Or what she thought was an exit of the Underground. It was almost too obnoxious, the way it stood out, but it appeared as a rope ladder hanging from the sky. And to add irony to the look, it was swinging gently from an invisible wind. Up and up it went, and Sayana momentarily wondered whether it was a trap set out for her to catch her in the open. Despite her better judgement, she decided she would climb that ladder and reach whatever awaited her on the surface. The only problem was, the base of the ladder seemed to hover above one of the rooftops.

Time to try something new.

She pulled out a jar of resin from her vest as well as two pairs of leather gloves. She scooped out a generous portion of the substance using one glove, and tested it against the stone wall. At first she doubted its strength but after a tick with some pressure, it seemed to hold well. The next trick was getting the glove ‘unstuck’. After a couple of tries, it seemed as though it just needed a quick sudden jerk to be released, while a slow firm pressure got it to stick again. The Eypharian dolloped some more of the resin on her gloves and then reached down with her empty low hands to unlock the climbing blades on her boots. With a click, she was ready to scale the wall. However, at the last tick she realized that the boots would do poorly against the stone, and she shifted over to where there was a wooden door frame to use.
Reaching high with her upper arms and a little further down with her mids, she got a firm grip on the stone around the door frame before taking a step with her boot to sink into the wood. It was a challenge, that’s for sure, but a good one. The boots provided a strong support as she scaled the wall, and with the climbing resin she could keep pulling herself higher and higher. At times it was hard ‘unsticking’ herself but her low arms were there to help her balance. There was one perilous slip of her boot against the stone, but all her hands immediately gripped the wall and she was able to recover.

[Sayana]

Sayana grinned as she made it to the roof and plopped herself down on the flat surface. It hadn’t been easy, but it was far easier with the right equipment. She wiped off the used resin and snapped the blades shut on her boots. She kept herself covered with the black robe and stayed pressed flat against the roof as she looked around. Seemed like the coast was clear. Half crouched she crept along the roof, checking, double checking… then she broke out into a run. The robe billowed behind her as she ran with new energy, jumping over small protrusions or gaps on the extended line of roof tops. Adrenaline kicked in and she sprinted the last stretch, leaping high to catch the hanging ladder. She swayed perilously from the momentum she had retained, but began climbing almost immediately. Her arms burned from the effort but she was going to get there. Get to the top before…

A pair of dark shapes took flight in the distance. Oh skyke… Her efforts doubled. All six arms moved up and up at different times. Her feet struggled to keep up and sometimes she simply lifted both her feet at once to get to the next ladder rung. Her eyes focused on what was upwards. It couldn’t be much further, could it? Yet all she could see was an endless series of rungs that only got smaller in the distance. A shriek of sorts sounded much closer and she strained to keep going up and up and up.

The ladder began to swing dangerously and there was a flap of wings to her right. She grabbed a dagger and swung it wildly at the creature but it merely dodged the attack. All the while she kept climbing until… The air above her took on a gritty feel. There was weight, pressure. She pushed through and suddenly the illusion of the rope ladder vanished and she was digging herself out of the ground. Out of a grave.

She pushed with her arms and managed to get her feet free of the dirt. But her shin was bleeding. A scratch from the zith below. She had no doubt the creatures would try to pursue her and she immediately got to her feet to look around for an escape. There was a tombstone and for a moment when she looked down at her hands they appeared a sickly greyish white. But it was gone in an instant and she spotted a building.

Running swiftly through the dead grasses, Sayana ignored the pain in her leg. She needed to get to safety. There was a glassy shiny look to the building as she neared it. The dim light bounced off it oddly yet she didn’t slow her run. Mirrors. How fitting. She took a glance at her own small mirror and then saw that the interior of the building seemed to be a maze of mirrors. There was writing on a sign, but she didn’t have the time to decipher it. With one last look back, she darted into the twisting maze of mirrors… and nearly slammed her face into one of them before slowing her pace.

[Sayana]

It was creepy to say the least. Images reflected back a multitude of times as she walked through the maze. Occasionally she looked down at her own mirror, almost as though it was a compass, and continued her walk. The first couple of twists and turns found her banging herself against the glass. It was inelegant to say the least. But soon she became more cautious and always held a hand out, or two, so prevent such. And then her reflections started to move…

At first it was merely something small out of the corner of her eye, the furthest image of herself down the line, but it was different. It was as though her eyes were playing tricks on her because as soon as she tried to focus on the movement, there appeared to be nothing wrong.

Hypnotism. She had come here to learn that. To look into a mirror and enter a trance… She turned a corner and her hands met glass. Glass on all sides. She had come to a dead end. There was a faint sound of laughter and she turned around suddenly. But she was alone. Alone except for the multitudes of reflections of herself. Dark cloaked with a hint of red at her dress and in her hair. Dark cloaked with the stain of red upon her shin. Her face a wash of paleness and wrinkles from the makeup she had applied. She quickly shook her head and began anew. Walking, wandering, and trailing a finger upon the surface of the glass to guide her way.

She should start with meditating. Clearing her thoughts. Isn’t that what mages do? Enter a trance… trance… trance… She focused on a dark spot within the mirror. Emptiness. Pervading darkness. Free of any thought. But just as she was starting to regulate her breath, the darkness shifted. She was jolted out of her concentration as she quickly looked around. Nothing. There was nothing there except herself. But what is nothingness?

She placed a high hand on the spot of darkness against the glass. But her hand didn’t produce a reflection. It was only dark. She felt the slightest hint of roughness. A crack. But then the mirror ceased to maintain resistance and her hand began to press into the reflection, into the illusion. She had once told someone to trust the illusions, and that is what she did as she stepped through.

[Sayana]

All the colours were suddenly inverted. Black was white, red was green. The shadowed passages blazed with light. Nothing, everything. Feel the magic inside you. She turned to face the mirror. What looked back was a distortion. She gazed into her bright eyes. Like lights they stared back at her. Enter a trance. Clear your mind. Pressing her highs and mid hands against the glass she gazed into her face. How beautiful she looked. She looked into the bright lights. Piercing. Penetrating. Badumm, badumm. She could feel her heart beating. That constant life force making music to her ears. Her high hand began to mimic the sound. Thhrumm, thhrumm. Her fingers drummed against the glass matching the beat of her heart.

The Eypharian began to move one hand, then another. She watched intently as the reflection mimicked the movement. Slow, controlled. Thhrumm, thhrumm. She reached down to her cut shin, and wiped some blood off her leg and onto her finger. She placed a single streak upon the mirror and then began to walk. Her image reflected back a dozen times and more and she kept one hand upon the mirror, repeating the drumming as she stepped. Her reflection became warped. Thin as a stick, then fat like a pig, upside down, right side up, then nothing but a blur.

There was giddy laughter in the distance. As her image returned to focus, one of the reflections had stepped out from the rest. “You are nothing.” She stared blankly for a moment at it but her face twitched to a scowl. She was something. She was more than a mere reflection. “You are nothing.” She slammed a hand against the glass causing it to shatter at the point of impact. Cracks split along the surface but when she turned to the other side, the bright eyed reflection waved playfully at her.

Then it took off in a mad dash. She hesitated a moment before pursuing it. All her other reflections gave chase as she ran through the twisting corridors. She could see it but it was always around yet another bend. Suddenly she stopped, panting heavily. There was a streak of blood on the mirror. She approached and drummed her fingers against the glass. Her heartbeat far quicker this time.

[Sayana]

To learn a new muscle, one must first isolate it completely and utterly.

She stared into her reflection, concentrating, clearing her thoughts. The colours distorted back to their original shades except now her eyes were pitch black and she had a band of paint in a line across her eyes. It paled, whiter than ash and looking dead and withered, then morphed into the fur covered face of a zith with red eyes. She gritted her teeth but the reflection soon returned to the look of an Eypharian. An Eypharian with poorly done makeup.

Sayana pressed her nose up against the glass, smudging the surface. Everything blurred and she could see but was unseeing. Her breath slowed. Inhale… exhale… Her fingers drummed upon the smooth surface of the mirror. As thoughts came into her mind she slowly but firmly banished them. The drumming, her heartbeat, that was all she had to focus on. She began to reach out. Reach out and inside at the same time. Try to feel more but less. Banish the feelings she knew and try to feel what she didn’t know.

Thhrumm, thhrumm.

She didn’t know how long she stood there. Opening her mind to everything and nothing at the same time. Focusing on the steady beat to keep her mind from wandering. There was a tickle. Just at the edges of her mind as though it was beyond her grasp. Subsequently, she tried to reach for it. Naturally, the feeling faded at the attempt. But it had been something.

She began whispering softly under her breath. “I am nothing. Nothing at all. I am nothing. Nothing at all…” Time ceased to have meaning, colours swirled. The words became mangled and foreign as they do after speaking something far too many times. Yet she persisted, willing herself to feel that tickle of something.

When she felt it again, she didn’t reach out to grab it this time. Instead she let it be, feeling it creep along the edges of her mind. She welcomed it, let it grow, even though she wasn’t entirely sure what ‘it’ was. She suddenly stopped speaking and tapping with her fingers. The silence was encompassing, consuming. It felt like she was falling, falling, down a never ending pit. The world swirled around her. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t feel. She couldn’t breathe.

[Sayana]

Her mind was nothing. Just that exhilarating decent into madness. There was a light near the top. Eyes. Her eyes, staring at her like stars of light. But the rush was so intoxicating. There were ropes to cling to, to stop her decent, but why should she do that? Yet her chest felt constricting as she held the breath far longer than she should. There was something wrong. Even as she relished in the plunging decent, she began to draw upon a source within her. Strength brewing from below began to grow and force itself upwards. She didn’t even try to grab the flimsy ropes. She needed to overwhelm and encompass with desire. Desire to breathe. Desire to draw in air. Desire to…

Sayana found herself coughing and spluttering on the floor as she sucked in air greedily from the extended absence of it. She was trembling and looked pale in the mirror, which for once seemed to be providing an accurate reflection. She shivered, panting, her arms wrapped around her legs as she sat on the floor. What had just happened?

It scared her yet at the same time she wanted to try it again. There had been so much power there and it had swelled. She was certain she had only tapped into the smallest bit of it. She turned to face the mirror, shifting to her knees. There was a faint line of red down the side of her neck. When she wiped at it, she realized that it was a trickle of blood coming from her ear. She doubted it was good, but she didn’t feel any particular pain from it.

Her reflection beckoned to her, called to her, and she soon dismissed the blood. She positioned herself in front of the mirror and placed her high hands upon the surface. There was a flicker and her reflection suddenly turned dark, darker than the dim passageways already made it. She focused on her black eyes, boring into them. But now that she had tasted power she knew that she had to draw upon it from within herself. She spent a couple chimes simply gazing at those dark pits, and the drumming of her fingers began anew.

[Sayana]

Staring, concentrating, Sayana began to channel a single thought. She rid herself of all others and focused on a message. Lift your hand. Lift your hand, just do it. It’s a small movement. Nothing to be afraid of. No consequence. Raise it just an inch or two. Like you had an itch to scratch.

She kept her body as relaxed as she could. Something she had practiced many a time when learning a new dance move. She drew upon the power deep within her, pushing upwards and lacing her commanding thoughts. Lift up and up and up…

Suddenly she realized that her reflection was moving its hand. Was it just the mirrors? Was it merely an illusion? Out of the corner of her eye she saw that her mid left hand had raised about a foot. She looked down, startled, and her hand dropped to its relaxed position. Was it real? Had she done it? Or was she simply tricking herself? She needed to find out.

But what she did not anticipate was the utter exhaustion that followed. She tried to stand but immediately felt dizzy, the world seeming to spin before her eyes. Maybe she should sit, lay down. Stay awhile. Yes, stay a little longer. She didn’t need to leave right away. Her thoughts felt fuzzy and her senses muted. Curling up on the floor, she laid down and let sleep take her.

[Sayana]

Sayana awoke with her head on fire. It burned and she could hardly focus as she looked around the mirrored passages. Something called to her to stay, to lose herself in the illusions, yet something even greater urged her to try more of this hypnotism magic. To influence, control, command. Shaking her head as if it could help with the headache that persisted, she slowly got to her feet and gathered her things.

The streak of blood on the mirror was gone. She moved through the winding passages seeing dozens and dozens of reflections staring back at her and came to a spot where a single shard of glass lay upon the floor. It was about the size of her hand and she picked it up curiously. The mirror next to it, however, had no trace of any cracks.

“Nothing. I am nothing.” Ba-da-ba-dumm. Ba-da-ba-dumm.

She wandered through the mirrored halls with one hand along the wall feeling for a way out. Over and over she repeated the words, with a constant drumming of her fingers against the glass. It took about a bell to find her way out, and she hesitated before taking that last step out of the House of Broken Mirrors.

It was daylight out, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. She wrapped her dark robe protectively around herself. Daylight. Hopefully that meant no zith were about. She relaxed her guard slightly and began moving through the shifting streets. She needed to find a target and test that she could really influence them. Then she could try something small, but definitive so she could see if what she was doing actually worked.

The faint hum of voices guided her. A tavern. That would do. She glanced quickly at her small hand held mirror and cursed. She still had the guise of an old withered woman. No one in their right mind would think it normal for an old lady to be at a tavern, and she needed to blend in. Feeling around in her pockets she found a small cloth bandage she could use to remove the makeup. It took longer than she would have thought, as she initially smudged it all over, but with the help of the mirror she was able to remove the majority of the face paste and simply look somewhat paler than her usual dark self. At least it was evenly spread.

With that, she stepped into the Stallion’s Rear.

There were a good number of patrons, but it was by no means crowded. Those had come had anxious looks on their faces and as a whole there was an unsettled feeling. There were a few who were well into their mugs who seemed more at ease. People had come here to escape, drink away their worries and leave behind any ‘reality’ that the city faced.

As Sayana moved to find a seat, she kept much of her face obscured by her hair. She ordered a mug of ale as to not stand out and concentrated on the people nearest to her. What could she do that was subtle so as not to alarm them, but distinctive so she knew it had worked? The answer came to her rather quickly and she was surprised by the simplicity of it. Slowly she began gathering her thoughts, breathing in and out steadily, and drumming her fingers upon the table at which she sat.

She focused in on a woman with an empty glass and hardly a couple arm’s lengths away. Focusing on the magic within herself, the djed, she began to let it mix and mingle with her thoughts. Dryness, thirst, desire. Wanting relief. I would like another glass to drink. Fueled by the djed, Sayana pushed the thoughts towards the woman, wrapping and engulfing her.

It took several ticks, but the woman raised her hand tentatively to the bartender. “Might I have another?” “I thought you said you could stop at one,” the bartender chided in a friendly manner. “Oh, I… I guess I did say that, didn’t I? But surely just one more wouldn’t hurt, could it?” The bartender laughed at the blush upon her face but promptly produced another drink.

All the while Sayana watched, a smile forming on her lips as she ignored the faint taste of iron in her mouth. She had done it. Now all she had to do was do it again… and again.

[Fable]

[Fable]

S A Y A N A

a d r o i t . a c c r e t i o n s

❁ cosmetology 2
❁ disguise 1
❁ stealth 2
❁ land navigation 1
❁ climbing 2
❁ tactics 1
❁ running 2
❁ endurance 1
❁ meditation 3
❁ hypnotism 3

e s p i e d . e r u d i t i o n

❁ disguise: creating wrinkles
❁ alvadas location: house of broken mirrors
❁ hypnotism: suggestion

r e c o m p e n s e . a n d . r e t r i b u t i o n

❃ -2 GM left for Nephti
❃ -1 use of climbing resin

d e t e r m i n a t i v e . d i c t a

Interesting initiation thread. Definitely work on focusing on the manipulation of djed for this magic, as it's really the only indication that it's working. As Sayana doesn't necessarily understand djed theory, you don't have to use the word "djed" specifically, just a manipulation of her energies and emotions. Good work!