Web-Mender [Closed]

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

45th Winter, 510 A.V. The thrum of Dohaina's galloping hooves were a hypnotic shock through his body, and they had developed and even closer rapport in two seasons than he had with Horse over two years. Such was the magic of the Cyphrus Strider when bonded to a Drykas. Keeping pace on a silver-haired Strider was Waren, the father of Layla, one of Sama'el's students in equitation. So pleased was he with his daughter's improvement that he had pulled some strings to accompany Sama'el on this circuit. The Sayaph bade them be quick about it, perhaps meaning to test Sama'el as a rider and apprentice Web Mage. Truth be told, Waren was having to work to keep up with the young colt of a Watchman. No slouch in the saddle, still he recognized a more gifted rider, and he was determined to keep Sama'el alive to teach his daughter, and perhaps soon his other children that they might bring honor upon his pavilion as Watchmen. Waren let Sama'el take the lead, something a more senior Watchman would not frequently allow, giving Sama'el more experience as a leader early on, something that he felt would aid the young colt in his desire to found a pavilion of his own. Perhaps one day, he would even marry little Layla, not so little after all, and it would take the young colt some time to develop a proper pavilion and the need and means for a second wife. Dymphna sounded like a beguiling girl, and Sama'el was obviously smitten. For his part, Sama'el held himself low over Dohaina's golden withers, moving with her like he was born a centaur. The evening landscape was overlaid with a pattern of light to his eyes, initiated as they were into the Web. He was not expert enough to travel the Web while on horseback, but that was all right. He was looking for damage that needed repairing. Dohaina banked to the right, following some silent signal of her rider, and Waren's silver banked to follow. Though Sama'el was not traveling the Web, the Striders were, tapping into a ley-line of the Web to increase their speed without taking a messy chomp out of it the way a Leecher would. Gradually, the golden mare slowed and stopped. "There's a node up ahead," he told Waren, "and we'll camp up there for the night, but first I need to attend to one of the tributary lines." Waren nodded, acceding to his will without a thought. No Web Mage he, it fell upon him to guard the one who could do the job, and there was honor for the both of them. One could see for miles in all directions here, but he kept a sharp lookout, his Strider circling every now and again to give him a better view. The node was a collection of lines leading to an origin in a depression nearby, and Waren recognized the geography, if not the hidden magic. There were defensible caves in which to flee if their camp was set upon. But Sama'el wasn't thinking about that just yet. He called his breath into his conscious control until he could step outside his body, though he felt a connection, a strand of silvery light connecting him to the navel of his physical form. Here and now the ley-lines were more real than the physical world. Two ends were snapped, and the lines whipped to and fro with a crazed sort of action he did not recognize, but felt he could mend. He reached out with his mind and his soul and a 'hand' to take one end. It felt like holding lightning except it didn't burn his hand to cinders. Catching the second end took more time and concentration, for the first capture wanted to slither out of his 'hand'. But when he did, he brought the two ends together, and held the ends close to his heart. With concentration, he held the two elusive ends and managed to pour a bit of his own essence out of his heart center, and it glowed fantastically bright as it touched the ends of the Web lines, fusing them through sheer force of will and an expenditure of his own soul, that complicated djed pattern, but life would return to him what was lost, and the Web had to be maintained. He tested his work, pulling at the newly mended Web line. It nearly snapped again, oozing rather than stretching. He concentrated on it, trying to will his own order upon it, and eventually it seemed to be all of one piece. It was strange to think of energy in such terms, but it helped him grasp what he was doing. Sama'el was no learned man, but he could understand the symbols of things all right. So far. Letting go of the repaired line, he watched it slide back into place, the path of least resistance. He was too weary to tap it for information, and was still leery enough of overextending himself that he tugged at the silver cord that connected him to his body, pulling himself back in, filling the fleshly vessel with spirit until he tingled from the crown of his head to the ends of his toes. It was near evening now, and he flushed at how long that had taken him. "Sorry," he muttered. "Let's go set up camp." "There's no need to apologize, Sama'el," Waren assured him. "Any job worth doing is worth doing right." Sama'el nodded, pleased that he hadn't offended. He was proud that Waren thought him capable enough to lead, and was trying to do right by him. Dohaina responded to another invisible command and trotted toward the depression where they would set up camp.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

They quickly saw to their horses, removing yvas, giving them a brush and comb job, before setting up camp. Dohaina was rolling in the grass, and Sama'el just smiled when he saw the golden mare at her antics, and soon she was feeding herself while Waren pitched the tent and the younger Watchman struck his hunting knife against a piece of flint, carefully making a fire. Wood was scarce in this direction, but there were the desiccated droppings of glassbeaks and other animals nearby that did the job. The sparks caught on the dried grasses he used as tinder in his carefully constructed firepit. There were times for controlled burns, but this was not one of them. The two Watchmen and their Striders did not need to outrun a conflagration after such a hard couple of days of riding. They were camping a bit off from the nearest watering hole, not wanting to camp close to a spot where any hungry predator might come looking for easy pickings, so Sama'el poured water out of a skin into a pot to start supper. A pinch of precious salt went in, and pinches of various herbs. The kits were available to Watchmen when they were stocking up for a circuit, and one could manage passable food with them, though Sama'el was mostly experimenting. Waren nudged his shoulder with his knee and Sama'el looked up to see the tent ready and the man looking vaguely disapproving. "All right, all right," Sama'el said, standing up. "You can cook. I'll look to the Web." Waren grunted, but it was a good-natured thing, as Sama'el had come to learn. The older man crouched down where Sama'el had been and began seeing to their sustenance. The apprentice web mage crept into the little tent that would keep the worst of the winter chill out of their bones as each took their turn sleeping, and sat cross-legged for a moment before he began to breathe in the patterns he had learned from the elders. With his breath under control, his awareness began to expand to the ley-line that ran though the tend there. Reaching down through his root toward the center of the world and up through the crown of his head, he managed to separate his soul from his body and rise up and out of it to stand, a silvery shadow of himself, more aware of energy now than matter. He reached out and took hold of the ley-line, letting the current pull him toward the node that he had seen from afar earlier, which happened to coincide with the watering hole. Sometimes the flow of natural djed moved the man-made web energies, pulling them along natural courses. Generally the Drykas allowed this to happen, letting the Sea of Grass evolve along with them. If there was something important enough to be anchored, there was an origin stone or something to keep it there. Careful not to get dragged into the node and more energy than his novice skills could handle, he lingered just beyond, taking in the information that flowed out to him. There were predators and prey present, but from the looks of things, they could ride over for water on the morrow, refill their waterskins, and move on. There was nothing so terrible within range that they could not dare the easy ambush spot. As he was preparing to return to his body, he noticed a bit of a snag where a few ley-lines came together before plunging into the node. It was separate enough that he could probably approach it, even touch it, without undue fear, but he decided to err on the side of caution and come back in the morning when he was refreshed. There was no sense in losing himself when there was no emergency that would require a rush job. Sama'el followed they ley-line back to the tent, seeing Waren's soul as a bright beacon as he passed it on that energetic plane that was juxtaposed over the mundane, but then he plunged back into his flesh, careful to spread his spirit out to fill every vein and digit until his whole body was on the painful side of pins and needles. He did not let himself grit his teeth or lose the slow, sustained breaths, and that control helped him get over the discomfort. At least it let him know he was alive. When he could trust his limbs, he crawled out of the tent to see what Waren had prepared for supper.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Dinner smelled delicious, but Waren looked grave. Of course, he often looked grave out there in the field, but Sama'el, happy to be back in his body, quickly jerked his pelvis up over his shoulders, inverting his body and letting his legs loll forward, knees bent, as he came out of the tent. He was still young and effervescent in his cheer, and since there was no great need for decisive, solemn leadership at the moment, he preferred his attempt to make the other Watchman laugh. Or at least smile. The easiest way to maintain a handstand was to stare down between his hands, but his progress in walking on his hands was still in its infancy and so he jerked along toward the fire as if he intended to fall into it. Waren just shook his head, tending to the fire built of dried out shrubbery that grew on the plains; not quite wood, but better than grass for longer, sustained burns. When he was close enough, but not too, too close to the fire, he attempted to come out of his handstand on his feet, as if completing a handspring, but while his back and body seemed limber enough, he was still unused to finding his balance in motion that way, at least when inverted and not riding a horse. On Dohaina, he could do almost anything, he felt. Though some things might still require practice... He fell, but laughed. "Ass," noted Waren. "It's cold as shyke," Sama'el replied. *** The next day... They had ridden around the depression so Sama'el could Web closer to the source of the tangle. He would have been content to meditate in the open air, but Waren insisted on setting up the tent so he would have privacy and protection from the weak winter sunlight and the chilling breezes. Sama'el wasn't going to complain for such creature comforts. Certainly it would be nice to return to a warm body. When his breath was called into order, his limbs relaxed without turning to boneless soup, he crawled out of his fleshly temple and into the energetic plane. The tent walls were passed through without notice and then he was there, so near to the tangle of ley-lines leading into the node, disrupting the flow of information for the Drykas Web Mages. It was worse than it had been the day before, but still within his power to fix. Regardless of its worsening, he was more equipped to deal with it now that he had rested from previous exertions, physical as well as mental and spiritual. So he reached out with his etheric hands and began to carefully unravel what had gone awry, not sensing any sentient tampering on the lines of power. Sometimes these things just happened naturally. It reminded him of being a small boy and holding out his hands so his grandmother could use him as a hanger for spooling out woolen yarn or silken thread, the careful, attentive work to make sure everything was untangled and more easily woven. Time passed, but it was difficult to keep track of it. Syna seemed to move differently from this frame of reference. When he had finished, he swam through the aether and back through the walls of the tent and the walls of flesh into the house of his spirit, his body. He felt him integrating first with the series of energy centers running up his primary meridian, root, sacrum, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown. His awareness diffused from there out into the rest of his body from the tips of toes and fingers, all along the skin and everywhere within. Sama'el crawled out of the tent and did a cartwheel as soon as he was up, just to prove to Waren that all was well and to prove to himself that he was entirely within his body. It was not so impressive as his halting hand-walk from the evening previous, but it seemed to be a part of his Webbing ritual. "Come," he said to Waren. "Let's break down the tent and begone. Endrykas awaits!"

[Mycroft]

- Sama'el -
"It's cold as shyke."

Experience:
Riding: +2
Leadership: +2
Webbing: +5
Wilderness Survival: +3
Cooking: +2
Acrobatics: +1

Lores:
Handstand Sam Makes Excuses for Imperfection
Meeting his Student's Father
Making Camp With Waren
Repairing Web Tears and Tangles
Dynamic Cooperation

Notes: Again with the acrobatics. Every single thread. I swear I'm going to make a Drykas character just so I can walk right up to Sama'el and declare him a show-off. So cocky! Great moments here in this thread. Sam seems to have impressed Waren. The boy is ambitious and light hearted to boot. He'll make a good son-in-law someday.

Enjoy your master riding.