[Flashback] Voiding 101 (Solo)

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2011, 8:27 am

Day 52, Spring of 505 AV
30 Chimes after the 9th Bell
Classrooms, Zeltiva University

Eridanus sighed, kicking back when the teacher signalled for the next part of their lesson, and a number of students began to file out of the classroom, leaving only a handful of them. He had been pretty motivated at first, when he took an interest in Voiding and submitted a minor course application for the branch of magic to try it out. It was much easier to get in, for most of the students who wanted to study magic often went straight for the flashy art of Reimancy, most of them probably not knowing the intense pain one would suffer as a result of the initiation process. Voiding, on the other hand, was shown little interest by most of the magically-inclined cohort, and the absence of a formal initiation process was a pretty good sweetener to Eri. However, he did not realize that the real initiation process, while not as dangerous or excruciating as that of Reimancy of Projection, was mind-numbingly difficult, at least to him.

He remembered the first few weeks of the course, where the lecturer outlined various aspects of Voiding, making sure to go through the theory with them as they took down notes, memorized facts and took tests. He agreed with the importance of understanding the theoretical process as well as the safety issues, but he had been feeling itchy at not being able to get to the action. Other students who applied and were selected into Reimancy were already extruding Res, and though they could not do more than transmute a little at a time, they at least had something to show. What could the voiders as his classmates called themselves do? Spout dimensional formula and the dangers of accident self-voiding?

That was, of course, the first few weeks of memorizing things about the properties of the void, concepts like This Side and the Other Side and all that. On the first lesson of the fourth week, they found a new teacher at the front of the classroom, and that teacher was apparently their facilitator in the practical aspect of Voiding. He had remembered being excited as he wondered what would they do in their first experience at creating portals, but became crestfallen when the teacher impressed upon them the importance of meditation and clearing their minds, and then telling them to spend the rest of their class time meditating, proceeding to create layers of shields partitioning each student that blocked out both light and sound. Eri recalled the Asylum in Alvadas where insane people were held, and he felt that it was vague similar in that he was in a cell without light and sound.

He had tried doing so, honestly, but he was enthusiastic and possessed the excitement of wanting to bounce around the classroom instead of bloody meditating. This continued on everyday, and it tore at the Vantha's nerves as he tried his best to meditate, but more or less failing due to the unnatural atmosphere he was in. There was no light and no sound in his 'cell', and it completely unnerved him, disrupting his concentration every time and making him want to run around screaming, just so that he could remind himself that he was alive and that his senses were working. Thus, every lesson inevitably ended up with the Vantha losing his concentration after about ten to fifteen minutes, spending the rest of the one and three quarters of a bell studying the shield around him with Auristics.

After a week, the class prepared to go into the same routine of meditation, but the teacher had interrupted them, first calling up two of their classmates. The teacher had commended them on succeeding on their first portals, and telling them to proceed to the classroom next door where the real practical teacher waited, and it turned out that the teacher who facilitated their meditations was actually in charge of their initiation. Eri felt a bit of jealousy gnawing inside his gut, but he was also confused, for as far as he knew there had not been any initiation going on, at least in the same sense as Reimancy or Projection. All the class was told was to remember what they were taught about the void, and all the theoretical knowledge they were taught and drilled on in tests in the four weeks preceding their meditation phase.

Well, at least it meant that it was somehow possible, and Eri tried to think of a way to reason this out. However, he continued to be unnerved by the isolation the shield partitions imposed on him, and inevitably ended up studying the shields with Auristics once more. This helped him to maintain his sanity and not begin to scream and flail about like he was tempted to do, for his djed-assisted sight opened up a whole new range of senses to him, courtesy of Master Redrux of Denval who trained him properly in the foundations of Auristics, which was to magically utilize all five senses when sensing an aura. Doing so allowed him to use all five senses in studying the shield around him, and in doing so defeated the purpose of the shield which was to screen out external influences completely.

He would sometimes play with his own body, painstakingly spending half a bell to build and weave his own shield, usually wrapped around his hand, in as smooth a texture as he could, essentially copying whatever details he could glean from using Auristics on the more expertly crafted shield around him. He would task his own shield to block light just as the one outside does, and place the shielded hand next to the edge of the his 'cell', forming the illusion of his hand disappearing into the darkness for his fingers up to his wrist would block out light as well, forming an almost black patch.

Weeks passed by, and more and more students left the classroom to continue their lessons with the professor in charge of practical lessons in the next classroom. Eri found that he began to grow conditioned to the cold void inside the shield, and the amount of time he could spend trying to focus and not fidget slowly but surely increased. He was probably the slowest in the group in grasping an understanding of the art, but there was no doubt that the weeks spent just studying and fiddling around with the shield and sometimes his own shields improved his proficiency in both Auristics and Shielding, as well as gaining him a better understanding of the tasking and structure of the shield that was created by an obviously superior wizard.

And thus here he found himself, the teacher beginning the process of partitioning the classroom, though she probably did not have to create as many partitions as before due to the abysmal number of uninitiated students left. She looked at Eri, but did not say anything, for she did indeed knew exactly what he was doing with her shields since day one of the meditation phase, but was interested to see how long it would take for him to find a way to get across his dilemma.

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2011, 8:48 am

"Prepare yourselves," the teacher warned, and soon after Eri found himself isolated from the world again, with only his thoughts to himself. He had gradually gotten better in the span of the past few weeks, for he had discovered a way to make him stop studying the shields, for that defeated the purpose of isolating himself. He realized that the shields were there for a reason, and so instead he tried to occupy himself by seeking a distraction within himself rather than outside. It was at least a step in the right direction. That 'secret method' that he found was to utilize flux. For the past weeks leading up to this day, he had refrained from using his magical sight to unlock senses that were denied by the shield, and stopped himself from tampering with the structure of the shield. Instead, he found that the silence actually helped him to focus his thoughts when he was calling up the mind map of his djed streams. It was contradictory to his earlier position, but he found the silence unnerving when he was trying to simply sit there and pass the time. However, with his thoughts focused on achieving a personal objective he set for himself, he began to forget about the silence as he manipulated the flux streams within himself, serving as a distraction from the horrible silence that the shield imposed on him.

Today, however, he was quite determined to focus more on the subject at hand. The situation was getting ridiculous and he did not want to end up as the only person who failed to be initiated into Voiding. That would not just be highly embarrassing for the Vantha, but also damaging to his own pride and morale as a potential magic practitioner. Reimancy was viewed as the most popular, easiest to use but most dangerous form of personal magic compared to the 'slow and steady' mentality of the Voiding Department, and so the reimancy students usually adopted the same attitude, laughing at anyone who remained uninitiated. He was not usually bothered by peer pressure, but to him it was a personal thing also and so his mind struggled as he tried to find a reasoning for all of this.

He closed his eyes, breathing steadily. He found that it took much longer for him to get unnerved by the chilling silence, as his body began to get used to the quiet and lack of environmental feedback, and he systematically began to peel away his thoughts one layer at a time, imagining his mind as an onion and his thoughts as the layers. He sought to reach the core, where his mind was completely clear, and his aim was to reach it without resorting to concentrating on Flux. Technically his mind would be clear of all other thoughts when he called up his mind-map of his astral streams, for that was the usual requirement or else he would not able to visualize his astral body at all. However, for today he aimed to go one step further and clear his mind completely. In other words, achieving the same meditative trance he could using Flux but without touching Flux at all.

His mind automatically began to seek a picture of the djed streams coursing through his body, and he consciously denied it, instead choosing to shift his attention to what he thought the void should be. He thought about his lessons, and mentally reviewed the characteristics of the void, which all portals created from this discipline led to. He tried to imagine himself actually existing in the void, though he knew that it was impossible for an organic being like him to survive. This knowledge was constantly drilled into them, for it was often followed by warnings of accidental self-voiding and the inevitable death that will occur, for there was nothing in the void that could support a living being.

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2011, 9:16 am

The Vantha's body began to relax as his mind explored the subject further, causing him to unknowingly become less attentive of his bodily processes, the focus ceasing to be on his physical state as his thoughts began to envelope his entire being, his essence. The total silence ensured by the shield which filtered any external noise and light served to facilitate this process, as intended by the teaching staff who came up with this idea, and Eri began to take his first step in a direction that had been taken by so many people before him.

He was unaware of this, and instead revelled in this imaginary void that he created in his mind. The class had been tested quite rigorously on the theoretical aspects of Voiding so that they could focus more on the practical aspect later on, as well as for their own safety, and the diligent Vantha had been in the top percentile of the class for the theory aspect, though he was probably lagging far behind in the practical aspect. Still, this meant that he knew his stuff, and he knew it well enough to properly construct this imaginary void in his mind. The only inaccuracy in the situation was that he would die from the lack of oxygen if he were really in the void, but the reality of his imagination led to him feeling cold psychologically, as the dark dimension was devoid of any light or warmth.

He looked around in his imaginary world, and wondered what he could do. He danced in the vast unending space, he acted out plays he watched in Alvadas that were performed by The Inverted, he strummed an imaginary guitar, he did many things in his mind, but after a moment, he continued to float in the 'void', his eyes looking around him trying to recognize anything.

By now, Eri was so engrossed in the world in his mind that his breathing had already slowed down considerably, possibly entering a new stage of meditation beyond the level that he could with Flux, though it would be unwise to apply this same state when using Flux since at this stage of the meditative process he was completely unaware of his physical state, his attention framed entirely in his mind.

His mental self looked around this void that he so convincingly constructed from a detailed understanding of the theory of the dimension, and after doing so many imaginary things he began to think about the purpose of it all. What was the point of creating portals to this dark dimension that knows no warmth and no life? Of course, he already knew the answer, or he would not have passed the last multiple choice quiz, but he wondered to himself and thought about the rationale behind him learning it. He was a sucker for knowledge, definitely, but what was the point of learning? Was it to improve himself? Was it to impress others? A few chimes passed, and the Vantha began to talk to himself in the 'void', starting a sort of mental rhetoric with himself debating the merits of learning.

After what seemed to be bells of dialogue, he began to ran out of points for both sides of the argument, and he simply narrowed it down to two reasons. The pragmatic one would be to fulfil his course credits, and the ideological one would be to broaden his exposure and knowledge base. The imaginary debaters he conjured in his imaginary world seemed to be satisfied with this conclusion, and he 'laid' on his back, surveying the cold and blank world he found himself in.

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2011, 9:34 am

Bells have passed within the Vantha's imaginary world, but in reality only a bell has passed, for the mind worked faster when it was utilized solely without the use of other physical senses to slow it down. Eri mentally stared at the blank space in front of him, wondering what else he could in his imaginary void, and he thought about the concept of a void. It was theorized to be a different dimension, and he thought about it as a different place. An idea came to him, and began to see the void instead as a dimension layered with their own reality. It was a difficult concept to grasp when considering physical space and reality, but when lost in his thoughts his mind worked at an accelerated pace only possible in this meditative trance.

If this was so, could a portal be accessed then, by replicating the properties of the void within the physical world? Djed existed around the world, it was a common property in the physical reality, but it was non-existent in the void unless somehow artificially placed there by someone using a portal.

The realization struck him, and it took all his discipline and focus not to jump out and shout in satisfaction. If it was true that this dimension was layered over the reality they were in instead of seen as a difference place like Syliras and Zeltiva for example, would replicating the properties of the void in an area create a piece of the void there? Would it tear a fabric in the world to create the elusive portal?

Trembling in excitement, it took him a few chimes to slowly extrude himself out of the deep trance he mentally placed himself in, climbing out a layer at a time until he found himself back in his mortal shell, conscious of the rise and fall of his chest as he took vital breaths of air. The absolute silence and darkness imposed by the shield no longer unnerved him, having come to terms with this state through his meditative journey, and he concentrated on the area in front of him.

He was not exactly sure what he might be doing, but it was as if a sort of sleeping instinct in him was taking over, directing him on what to do. Drawing up the djed within him, he imagined trying to use this djed to push away the djed in the small spot in front of him, as he raised his hand - palms up - in a clawed gesture like he was holding an apple upright. Eri stared into the space within his clawed fingers as if he could stare down all forms of reality, and he felt his djed being consumed, even though he had not activated any of his known magical skills. It might possibly be a step in the right direction, and bolstered by this idea, he continued to focus intensely on this space, as if willing it to empty out in order to test his hypothesis.

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2011, 9:49 am

He began to hear a very low and soft hum, and though he could have sworn that his ears were playing tricks on him, he knew that his sanity was still in one piece, for he was able to passively feel anything unnatural that was related to djed as a result of him unlocking his magical sight. It was mostly unnoticeable due to his relatively low proficiency in it, but in such an environment with his optimal mental state he was able to notice it, and he took it that he was going in the right direction.

Eri continued to stare at the spot above his palms, determined to go through with this, and the soft humming began to grow slightly louder. The increase in 'sound' was actually negligible, but the absolute absence of environmental feedback for such a long duration (slightly more than a bell) amplified anything his senses could receive, and he began to imagine seeing sparks fly in front of his fingers. It might be his momentary hallucination, it might be the passive ability of his Auristics, but either way it signified a new step in the Vantha's journey.

The student gasped exultantly as a tiny portal roared open within his clawed fingers, appearing for a few seconds before collapsing onto itself and disappearing again. At the exact moment, a bombardment of light and sound assaulted Eri and he instinctively huddled as his mind and body tried to deal with this sudden change in environment. Normally it would be a big deal as he went through the same process everyday for many weeks already, but this time it felt different for Eri felt like he had spent many many bells or even days inside the 'cell', floating deep in his thoughts. His heart hammered in his chest as he tried to come to terms with the sudden rush of the reality - the fast paced voices, lights and movements, and it was evident that he was a changed man after he experienced the inner peace of the advanced meditative trance he discovered.

"Finally, Eridanus. You happen to not be the last, if that's what you're wondering," the facilitator addressed him, gesturing to a few black blocks of spaces in the classrooms that were the remaining students locked in their own sense-depriving cells. "Time is almost up, so just proceed to the practical classroom tomorrow instead. You're free to carry on now."

Eri thanked the facilitator, and he gathered his things, placing his notes into his backpack and walking out of the classroom. It seemed that the practical class in the room next door was still in session, and he simply walked back to the dormitories for he had no other lessons that day. He was excited at finally breaking through an obstacle in his journey, but also strangely he felt a sort of calm that carried over from that moment of deep introspection.

The days ahead would be great.

by **Paragon** on January 16th, 2012, 11:57 pm

Eridanus :

Wonderful as always. I cheered a little when Eri finally managed to open the little portal - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.