Solo Of Sense & Shield Pt III

[Alric Lysane]

28th Winter 521 AV - Taz & Alric's Apartments He had had to take a break for a few days since he had last tried anything with magic. Part of him enjoyed that, the lack of responsibility but also the fact that he didn’t have to wrestle with any moral qualms, in regards to magic and its uses. It had been somewhat freeing, and he had taken as much advantage of that as he had been able to. Not that he had been up to much beyond nursing the slowly retreating headache and trying not to get cornered too much by the Associates and face the complications that his still highly strung sense of touch had caused him already. As soon as Yolanda and Jessie had realised that their teasing caresses had not only brought crimson to his cheeks, but also some rather unwanted below the belt…reactions…they had spent every waking moment trying to cause him to die internally. “Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish Ruby would slap the Associates as well as the guards” he muttered to himself as he sat in his chair, though his heart wasn’t in it. If anything, he had bene told by Garth that he should be flattered. Mostly I feel like a cornered rat he sighed and looked at the fire, the od crackling away merrily as he finished the last vestiges of his pipe, the smoke curling around his face as he mentally prepared himself for his next exploration into Auristics and Shielding. He was planning on being more careful this time. For starters he had managed to get plenty of sleep between waking up at the scratching of overly irritable straw from his mattress. He had had to move to the Outpost so that he had had a bit more padding for sleeping. He had eaten and he had spent two days, long days, in thought about what Eyris had told him and what it meant for him personally. He had many questions, few answers, but at least he felt more…balanced this time. As he finished his pipe, tapping it empty and scraping the remaining embers under his boot, he sighed and put it away, peering carefully at the cup in the middle of the table – pride of place as usual. This time, however, he was sat in the apartments that he shared with Taz - though she had not popped in over the last few days he had been there. In many ways that was lucky, due to his skin feeling like it was crawling with clothes on most of the time he had been nude for a lot of it, keeping to the second floor just in case she had turned up. He turned his chair to face the cup, placed his hands either side as usual, and closed his eyes. He was going to take it slower this time, simply hanging above his ‘well’ and taking in the imaginary scenery in all its splendour. The trees had grown in number and the snow had been replaced with a brighter sunlight, as if reflecting his newly found settlement with himself over what he was doing. The scene felt more…welcoming…but not yet truly comfortable. The mountains had grown larger, more rugged and cragged, the water that stood in for his Djed seeming deeper and darker than ever. He hung there for a long time, perhaps a half-Bell though he couldn’t be sure with his eyes closed and retreated into himself. It was long enough that he felt that no stray thoughts of import were going to ruin him this time, not again. He slowly dipped his fingers into the pool, inviting it to shift, pull and crawl over his imagined arm until he felt the now familiar trickle of Djed slipping into him. He kept a tight hold on the ‘tap’ but didn’t shut it off, letting it slowly but surely fill him. Eyes still closed he simply took a long while to hold it, once full the kept the connection there, a tiny pearlescent thread between him and the ‘well’. Yet he didn’t draw any more, not until he was sure would he risk further pulling into himself.

[Alric Lysane]

When he felt that he was as balanced as possible he paused, then decided to take another few chimes, just to make sure. Regulating his breathing, trying for the rhythm that he had been shown, he breathed in through his nose and out through the mouth. He had found that it helped to relax him further at times and this was no exception, his arms sagging slightly as relaxation rippled across the powerful throbbing of the Djed within him. Eventually he opened his eyes and portioned out his Djed – part going into creating the rippling sensation that signalled the beginning of the use of his Aursistics, the other heading towards his hand – there to sit until he wanted to use it. He took a few moments to settle himself, the humming of the world beneath the world returning in its familiarity. It never did cease to amaze him, causing a soft smile to ross his lips as he sighed and enjoyed the sensations it brought. It was strange, his irritable skin seemed to have been smoothed over, as if by using his Auristics he was giving it a way of sensing what it was passively trying to of its own accord. He looked around, not settling his focus upon anything yet, simply exploring. As he noticed the door into the Philtering Lab- at least that’s what Taz had thought it was – he pushed himself up and made his way inside. He peered at the glass items, focusing now and trying to read them. He had not tried to read glass yet and he was curious if it was different to other materials. As he shifted his concentration, his focus narrowing slowly and causing information to begin to come to him, he realised that his curiosity had proven correct. Glad felt different to clay, light and airy, bringing a sense of a breeze upon his face and a sharp taste in his mouth that he couldn’t quite place. He sniffed and he was surprised when there was no scent. Was that because it was so thin and fragile? Or was it because glass reflected what was put in it rather than itself? He pondered and thought he felt the sense of the latter but couldn’t be sure. Still, it was an interesting discovery – as was the fact that its aura was smaller even than the clay, barely outside the boundaries of the glass itself and so thin that the colour he was seeing – a lilac type shade – was so pale as to be almost unidentifiable. Inf act it took him several tries just to barely sense the colour he sensed. He let his focus slip, and once he was back into the passive state he made his way back to his chair and sat down, turning his focus back to the cup now. He didn’t focus his Auristics, merely held it as it was. Taking a deep breath, centering himself for a few chimes once again, he breathed out and concentrated upon holding one Djed and then extruding the other. He had learned to move his hands already, that it actually seemed to encourage it to extrude, and so he began moving them right from the beginning. It was a slow process still, though, taking a seeming ages just to establish a strong flow instead of a tentative trickle. Arms moving around to create an imaginary dome like a madman he kept thinking about pushing out the Djed, shaping it like clay and almost smearing it – painting it, perhaps – over the clay cup and building it up into a thin domed structure. Eventually, through much dint of effort, sweat pitted brow, and a general gritting of teeth he managed to get the construct shape he was after. No doubt it would be weak, it always was these days, especially when he was in the first stages of weaving, but at least he had managed it without it collapsing this time through his own stupidity. He took a deep breath, centered himself once more, then began the second stage – the smearing stage.

[Alric Lysane]

Now he focused his Auristics, narrowing his field of ‘sense’ to just the shield he had formed, knowing from previous experience that he could more easily identify the damaged and weaker parts of the Shield had had begun to form. It took a while, but his vision focused and he waited, the information came slowly but with practise it was coming more quickly. He had also realised that the longer he focused the more he learned, as was apparent as his vision picked up the cracks and thinner parts of the Shield. He had learned that once a Shield was woven, he didn’t have the skill to strengthen such parts, he wasn’t sure why. However, as he spent time extruding Djed further, wiping his fingers across the cracks and heaping it over the weaker, thinner portions before smoothing it away once more, he could feel the Shield losing some of its weaknesses – if not all. The scent changed from a strong rusty one, to a slightly duller, less rusted version. The taste of copper was still strong, though it tasted purer and less bitter after a while of his working. He kept at it, hands wiping over the Shield dome he was forming, able to feel how the Djed penetrated slowly and trickled down to the bottom, inner layer, making it thicker as the amount of Djed he infused and added into it increased. He frowned as he still was unable to get rid of all of the imperfections. He widened the link between and his ‘well’ in an attempt to see if it would simply be a question of the amount of Djed he was using. As he pushed it out, adding ever more to the dome, the feeling of tiredness now beginning to creep over him, he realised that all adding more Djed did was thicken the Shield overall. It didn’t lessen the cracks and thin portions, simply kept the ratio as the entirety thickened and became denser. He frowned once more and wondered, briefly, whether density was the answer – but that was for another time, he was too far into what he had already woven to be able to backtrack and still have enough Djed and focus left to finish what he wanted to try to. He stopped infusing Djed, simply keeping the link between the Shield and his Djed alive so that it didn’t fade away into nothingness. He took a few moments to focus his Auristics and feel out the Shield, sensing that it was stronger and less fractured than it had been before. A colour was starting to infuse it too, now, a shimmering gold he thought – though it was so pale it was difficult to pinpoint. He wondered if the colour would get stronger as his skill and the Shield strengths improved, or if this was the colour of his Djed, as Taz’s Djed had had glittering jewel tones. He had no frame of reference and so was unsure, filing it away instead for future consideration.

[Alric Lysane]

Now, he knew, came the more experimental part. Even as he kept his Djed linked to the Shield and the focus of his Auristics narrow upon the Shield, it was repeating what he already knew, at least in part. It was still difficult, and he considered it the best thing to practise, as it was only when these simple steps became routine that he could consider himself anywhere even approaching competent at the two magics. He had to be a master as quickly as possible but there was no skipping these initial stages – he suspected even the most gifted mages of all time would have had to blunder through what he was currently blundering through. He was not sure if that filled him with confidence, or concern. They had, after all, ended up destroying the world and warring for the gods knew how long. Still, shrugging that off for now he frowned in concentration and began weaving the Djed of the Shield with one hand now, the other pulling away and picking up a small dish he had filled with water beforehand. This time, instead of light, he was going to try to protect against water. The idea had come to him because of the rains and flooding this season. The idea of being able to secretly, and very carefully, use his skills to protect key parts of the city for the future appealed to him. The irony of secret magic helping Sunberth, considering his previous positions upon such things, was not lost upon him. As his weaving hand moved over the Shield, his thoughts turning towards forcing it to weave itself into the lattice he thought of as the ‘chainmail weave’ he felt it, slowly but surely, begin to form that feeling of rings interlocking. He knew it didn’t actually do that – or at least he thought not – it was more a feeling than a physical manifestation within the Djed. Still, as it began to ‘lock in’ he poured droplets of water into it, letting it trickle and run through the Djed, almost seeking out the ‘chainmail’ pieces and infusing into them. He kept pouring as he shaped the rest, patchy at first his Auristics told him, and so concentrating the droplets upon those parts. Eventually, though, he had run out of water and had covered pretty much every part of what he had woven. He placed the bowl aside and looked upon his work, finishing the last few passes of his hands, using both now to finish it off, and then ceasing their movement. He focused his senses and felt out the Shield, noting how it smelt far nicer than before. The coppery taste was not more subtle, as if half-washed away in his mouth – was that because of the function he had ‘tasked’ into the Shield? The felt…damp…was the only way he could describe it and its colour had taken on a shimmering turquoise that he suppose was also because of the water ‘tasking’. He leaned back and poked a finger into the Shield experimentally – his finger passed through. “Only one way to find out, I suppose” he said, continuing to feed Djed into the Shield to keep it powered but scooping another half-bowl of water from his water barrel and then letting it trickle down upon the top of the dome he had formed. As the water touched the barrier it pooled, ran in rivulets, following the shape of the Shield and hitting the table. He saw some drops seep through the cracks left in his weaving, hitting the table below, but he chuckled at the result still – better than he had expected.

[Alric Lysane]

“I wonder” he mused to himself, remembering how Taz had manipulated her Shield even after weaving and tasking it. He focused upon the Djed, watching it intently to see what it looked like. He pulled at the dome, moving it and rippling it instinctively, his senses telling him that the Shield’s weave seemed to move almost like a fabric, more flexible than actual chainmail but still keeping the weave, stretching it and making it thin in places as it shifted – a weakness he made sure to take note of as he watched and felt it out. He inverted the weave, turning the dome into a bowl now and made sure it was back to being solidified and smoothed out as it had been before. Once done he poured the rest of the water into it and smiled as he watched the pool collect within the Shield. “Well…I can’t say that I like the idea of being a mage…but I seem to have some ability with it at least. Better than being so terrible I blow myself up” he muttered to himself as he picked the Shield up with his hands and even fancied it felt like a bowl. It was strange, though, having the solidity of wood but it felt smoother to his fingers and lighter by far by his senses. It was almost surreal, knowing how flimsy the thing felt but seeing how it held what he wanted it to, despite the cracks and rogue droplets. Looking at the water now, his focus slipping slightly to its nature, the thought that he knew instinctively that it was fine to drink, without taint and even got a taste of it in his mouth without actually drinking it. That was interesting and he wondered if he could do that for other foodstuffs. Shifting his focus back to the Shield now he leaned back and considered it. “She did something far more interesting though, creating gloves out of it as if it had been as simple as breathing. Does it depend upon the person as to what they find easiest, perhaps?” he mused softly to himself. Regardless he let the Shield hover over the cup it had previously been protecting, making sure the centre was over its opening before he started unravelling the middle of the Shield. The remaining water filled the cup neatly and he severed his Djed, watching the construct shimmer one last time as it faded, melted and then seemed to evaporate – its Djed used up completely. He drank the water and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting the Djed fuelling his Auristics also vanish now and feeling the ache of the effort begin to seep into him even as his tiredness seemed to increase doubly. “Well, progress is progress, but I do wish I would stop getting these damned headaches” he sighed, rubbing his face and knowing it would be there for the rest of the day. He was growing used to them, but he hoped that, in time, they would stop. If he had to feel them every time, he used magic then he’d rather just not use the damned thing. Still, the book had suggested that as his mastery increased then the strain upon his body would decrease, so long as he didn’t push himself far too far. He sighed, started to make up a pipe and settle in for the day before his shift at Ruby’s started.

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Alric Lysane Skills Auristics – 4 Shielding - 4 Lores Auristics: Foodstuff Taste Shielding: Waterproof Tasking Shielding: Shield Shape Manipulation Shielding: ‘Crack’ Patching