Solo A Play of Sand Part I

[Crylon Stonecraft]

12 Summer 522 It took Crylon a few moments to realize where he was. Moving from that state of half asleep and half awake he lay with his eyes closed, listening to a bird. This made him think of Zeltiva and its many birds near its shore. But then he kept hearing the birds, and slowly he realized that was not right. With a groan he shifted his body upward and opened his eyes, looking out of his tent as he opened it to see a sea of sand. And beyond that sea of sand, an actual sea of... Well water, Crylon chuckled to himself. Rising up for the day the Isur stretched, not really have anywhere particular to be. However feeling the sand on his bare feet he thought back to something else. Sand. Was sand earth? Crylon supposed so. And he was a Reimancer... at least of sorts, even if he was out of practice and not very well trained at it. Perhaps then sand would work with his earth Reimancy? He did not see why not... So with nothing else to do Crylon sat back down on the edge of his tent, deciding today would be a practice day. At least for the morning. A Reimancy practice day. And besides if he wanted to do fancy things with it like building and such, he needed to work on his skills. Closing his eyes Crylon tried to clear his mind, mentally picturing everything being shoved out. Then he tried to picture his djed, thinking back to what he had used the last time he used magic. There was a room... A forge of course... And within that room, a solid door. Opening it he walked inside, and pictured... A mine shaft. A large open shaft with squared off sides, eight sides of equal shape and length... And down within that shaft, was grains. Solid black grains of some stone, like sand but utterly black. Similar to the onyx like hue of his arm. But rather than one big piece, it was endless grains of sand. Since the sand was so solid it was hard to see how deep down the mine shaft went, so far Crylon felt he had not gone very deep into it. Barely a hands breadth deep. Shoving his hand in he mentally pictured the shaft within his core, full of djed. Then he willed it to come out, puling on the djed as grains of sand. However unlike real sand these grains were heavy, like each grain was a solid metal weight big enough to fit his entire hand but all in a tiny package. He let some fall, only picking up a few grains on the palm of his hand. Willing this djed outward, to emit as res, he pictured and willed the substance to leave his body, to emit force from the same black hand he was picturing in his mind as picking up the sand. With a grunt mentally he pulled, and managed to get the sand free. As he did he opened his eyes, seeing his ethereal res puff force from his hand. For a moment he smiled, until he realized it was a tiny puff, barely even enough to be noticeable. A sliver the size of his finger nail. Focusing his mind he returned to his task, knowing he would need more than that. WC: 562

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Having managed to produce a bit of res, Crylon was at once happy but also disappointed... He needed to produce more if he was to do anything of use. But at the moment forming his res, accessing his djed, that was what he had the most trouble with. He was slow to access it, and also dealing with Reimancy which he was not very good at which multiplied the problem. But all there was for it was to practice, and he expected in time and with diligence and training he would manage to get better at it. It just would not come right away, particularly if he did not keep at training his djed. Thinking on this, Crylon wondered if his trouble with working his djed was as much mental as physical. His djed, he knew it was a part of him, nodding to himself at this thought, but still it felt sort of... Distinct. That, he reasoned, did not help with him touching it. It was just as much a part of him as his left foot, or right index finger. And like those once he learned to work it, he should be able to move and manipulate it just as easy as he did his physical body. And if he suddenly forgot how to move his fingers and had to relearn then it would take time. He just needed to learn this muscle memory with his djed, and then he should be able to move it just as easily as... Smiling to himself he wiggled the fingers on his left hand, watching them move about for a few moments before he closed his eyes. Picturing himself back before the mineshaft, he gritted his teeth and shoved his hand into the grains of black sand. It was just a part of himself, and so he should be able to move it just like his body! This time he pulled a bit out, picturing and willing in his head. This sand was his djed, and he was willing it to exude from the palm of his hand as res. A big mass of res, not just a tiny bit. Before he had managed to get only two grains of sand, but now he kept more on. This time... He pulled up ten grains of sand! With a mental groan and gritting of his teeth he pulled on it, feeling like he was trying to shift an anvil instead of a few tiny bits of stuff. But he kept at it, and pulled... And pulled some more... Till finally he felt his hand moving. A quarter inch. Half an inch, up. And then finally it broke the surface, and his hand was free of the shaft full of sand. At that moment he willed the djed to move, and opened his eyes again. Finishing the thought he watched and smiled as a bigger puff of res emitted from his hand, the same one he had been using to mentally dig in the sand. This one was not just a nail sized sliver, but a much bigger cloud. Admittedly it was still small, a gaseous cloud a bit smaller than the size of his balled fist, but still progress! WC: 537

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Sitting as he was, it was at this point Crylon realized something. Looking up he saw the sun, and it had moved a bit. A decent bit. How long had he been sitting there working? At least a bell, sitting there focused on his task. He had lost track of time, and had managed a decent puff of res but only after a bell's labor. Maybe timeliness was also something he needed to work on, he thought to himself... Pushing that thought aside, he had the res out. So while it was out he needed to work on it. To use it. Focusing on the res hovering in the air he focused and held his palm flat. Then moving his hand slowly he gestured aside, willing the res to follow. There was few moments of lagging, but then it followed along. Then he moved his hand the other way, willing the res again to follow the motion, and slowly after a moment it did. Emitting the res was the first hurdle, but once he had it out he also needed to better learn to control it. Focusing on something specific now, Crylon motioned his hand down towards the sand outside his tent, willing the res to move closer. He moved it some more, bit by bit, watching the cloud of res slowly move downward. Once it was about a hand span away from the sand he then focused on the res. With a upward thrust of his fingers he willed the res to pull, pulling on the sand with the res rather than moving the sand. The sand was earth just like dirt, so it should work just as well for this... At first a single grain came up, then a few more, slowly it began to trickle upward as if metal pulled to a magnet. As he focused his intention and insisted with his fingers by pulling up a bit more, it slowly began to speed up. More sand was being pulled, and then a whole clump came up. By the time there was a small ball of sand as big as the piece of res Crylon cut off the motion, leveling out his hand, not wanting to pull any more. But as he did the sand suddenly fell, the entire ball he had collected falling down. Shaking his head Crylon realized his error. He had cut off all pull, and without any pull there was nothing suspending the sand upward. Thinking this over, perhaps rather than cutting off all pull he should weaken it. Or perhaps just... Localize it? Could that work? Will to pull in the sand close to it, the res, but not the sand around it. Or at least not a strong enough pull that a lot of outside pieces was pulled in. Nodding to himself he reasoned that was a valid enough thing to try, and so he would do that next. And if it did not work, he would just have to try something else. WC: 502

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Having managed to both exude some res as well as control a bit of material by pulling it to his res, Crylon was feeling a bit successful at the moment. He knew this was such a minor thing it was not really worth celebrating, but he also felt that each new thing he learned was a good step in the right direction. And with enough steps, who knew where he would end up. Atop a mountain, or some such place that was quite grand. Focusing his mind back at the task at hand Crylon knew what he needed to do. Gradually cut off or at least lessen the pull of the res, such that no more sand was being pulled up but enough that the sand was still held within the area of the res. Turning his hand once more he motioned upward with a poking finger, willing the sand to rise and for this to be done by the res to pull it towards it. As before there was a short lag, but after a few moments the sand began to move. A grain. Two. Five. Ten. More was being pulled up, the res being pretty close to the sand as so not having to pull that far. As he did this he was dstracted for a moment, wondering if rather than bringing the sand to the res he could bring his res to the sand... But that was enough for the sand to start to droop, and so Crylon focused back on the task and reinforced the upward motion with his fingers prodding the air. The drooping sand stopped, and then after a moment began to rise again. As before he kept at this, slowly forming a ball of sand around the res, with the upper edge of the res cloud poking out. Once it seemed like he had a good bit, he worked the next step of his plan. Slowly decreasing his use of pull. Just enough to control the sand, to keep it there, but not so much that he was pulling more in or wasting energy on pulling more than he could hold. Conversing res, that was his goal. Picturing a belt which he was loosening a notch, Crylon still pulled but willed it to pull a bit less. As he did the sand slowed, not as much being pulled upward. Picturing the belt again he loosened it a bit more, still pulling but not as much. As he did this time the sand drifting upward cut off, but the sand on the ball also began to slowly droop. Shaking his head again in concentration Crylon made his earlier prodding upward gesture, adding a bit more pull back. Not as much as before, but reducing it by less than his last time. Some place in between those two. Picturing a new notch in between the two notches Crylon pulled again. And then he waited. A moment. Two. Five ticks... No more sand was drifting upward, but also his collected sand was not falling. A good middle ground. WC: 512

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Having, he felt, found a good equilibrium in terms of pull to keep the sand he collected together but not so much that more was pulled in, Crylon focused again on just keeping things as they were. A step here. A step there. Slowly, he felt, he was making steps on improving his Reimancy. Next though, just holding it still was not enough, he needed to move it. After all, just randomly floating a clump of sand was not much good. Not if he could not move it. Playing with his attraction he kept his hand as before, pointing upward, but slowly began to move it to the side. As he did he willed the pull to keep up. As the point of the pull was shifting the collected sand also moved, slowly trailing along dropping just below the top of the cloud of his res. Then he tried moving it a bit faster. Still slow, less than a walking pace, but moving in an arc slowly around his body. He pictured an invisible line, a circle around him at a set distance from his body, not wanting to move it away from him and instead just moving it around him. Then he applied a bit more speed, and now it was really creeping in its slow orbit. As he did this bits of sand dropped here and there, being shed as it was lost from the pull of his res. But overall most of it stayed within the clump of sand. Seeing the sand drop he realized his tent was not the best place to practice, and he would need to clean the sand out later... Focusing back on his task he kept at it, feeling out for the cloud of his res, willing it to slowly but steadily keep moving. A bite more. And onward some more. Arcing around with his body as the center point. He noticed though as the chimes passed, that slowly more sand was being shedded. And also, was the cloud of res getting... Thinner? Or smaller? He kept at this for a time, until finally a mass of sand dropped all at once. As he did he saw a small glimmer of res, before the last bit last was consumed and decayed out of his sight. His connection to it was also lost, no longer under his control. Once this happened the rest of the sand dropped, falling all at once as nothing was keeping it up. With a sigh Crylon focused on the sand, imagining the cleaning he would need to do later. But also, he knew he had learned some new things. Transmuting the res used it up all at once. But over time so did pull. He was unsure but it seemed both time and its usage was a factor, both adding to the loss of the res sooner. Before when it was just floating about and doing nothing it did not seem to be noticeably vanishing. But once he started using it it did much more noticeably... Noting this for next time Crylon knew something new. Using the res for transmutation, all lost at once. Using it for pull, to attract a substance, while slower it also drained the res and consumed it over time. Something he would remember the next time he used it. WC: 556