Flashback A time to focus

[Vick]

Winter 412 AV 1st


Blank papers were laid out in front of Vick as he held an simple quill with black ink. He had set goals for himself so he was doing them as he saw fit. It would be a rather busy season for him as he started writing then again it was more like drawings for he was starting to work on Glyphing.

He knew he had to work hard and get better at forming his Glyphs but he never took the time to really sit down and work on the craft. It was this season he would really try his best to get better. The quill was placed in the ink and the work started as soon as it touched the paper.

Glyphing was just a lot of sigils in the right order which then would perform tasks at hand. The first sigil he focused on was called the Focus. Which was a single large symbol that stored magic inside. When magic is aimed at the focus it then fades away to store it. Magic scrolls are a common sight of it as Vick knew even if he was never able to make a magical scroll to save his life.

The joy of Glyphing was that any symbol would work as it call came down to the wizard doing it. While some wizards wrote in nothing by glyphing other wizards, given time, could understand the meanings. Vicks focus symbol was just a large V inside a circle. Rather childish he knew to make the Focus out of his name but he thought it had more meaning than anything else but in the end it would still work the same.

Next he would then work on the Barrier. The barrier of Glyphs blocked or otherwise restrict flows of magic. This was normally around the focus and could even block out other forms of magic that were attacking the user.

His barrier was done in a basic circle around his Focus. The sigils were a basic design of circles with a T in the middle, a small circle then another and another just going around his Focus.

Next was a Trigger, this normally was on the edge outside the barrier. The Trigger was a set of "instructions" that opened up the Barrier and let out the magic of the scroll for good or bad. This could be with a word or by putting blood on it. Vicks Trigger was in the Ancient tongue that said "Flash".

He was not sure how much time had passed since he started but he was done with what could have been a basic magical scroll. He knew he was far from really making a magical scroll but by the end of the season that goal could be seen as he took another blank sheet and started working on it once more.

He needed to work on his speed and making the Sigils clearer to read. He still had a long way to go before he was able to reach his goals but he had all the time in the world to study and work on it since his hands did not get tired from making the sigils.

The large circle was made with an V inside as the Focus once more, tiny smaller circles with a T around it as the Barrier and another word of "Flash" for the trigger. He saw the mistakes in the circles, they were not round enough and not perfect enough. He had to refocus his mind and with another sheet he did it again. He would keep doing it until he got it right in his mind.

[Vick]

He was alone. That thought had circled around in his little mind for so many years as he found himself alone again in his office. Was he feeling lonely? He thought he was but time had smoothed out his heart and his feelings in that area for he never had any friends inside the island.

Friendship, even that term meant nothing to him as he let his dead skin around his lips move into a smile. If he saw the smile he would have seen it was a twisted smile from a broken soul. His young, carefree childish smile was long gone and he never even knew when it faded away.

His eyes opened at last as he looked in front of him. He was sitting near the beach, rocks laid about him as the waves pushed and pulled along the shore. The sun was overhead but he did not care about where the sun was. The shadows moving slowly as time just kept passing by or was it more that it was just passing him by?

Time itself stood still on the island. He did not know what was going on outside the island. What places stood and what places fell. All he knew was what was going on in the island but even then he knew so very little. He did not have enough pull to really hold leadership in anything so he knew only what he saw with his eyes and that was so very little in the long run,

He had to focus. He had a task to do. He knew this and that task was rather simple. Voiding, that part of him had to come out and he had to let that magical part of him get stronger. His djed flared under his skin as his Auristics came to life. His sight changed from seeing how normal beings saw to how wizards saw.

The world was filled with auras of Djed that objects held but he did not focus on the wide area but more on a rock nearby. He knew so many things about the rock by looking at the Djed. He knew how hard it was, where it was smooth and rough. It was easy for him now but he knew it could be easier. It come come like moving his hand but for now it was not smooth in that sense. One day it would be but he let that magic fade away as he cleared his mind.

Empty thoughts. Empty mind. That was his goal but meditation still was not easy for him. He did his best to clear his mind and work on mediating daily but that always got pushed aside with his Malediction. He could not lie to himself for he knew it would be the same once the sun was done. He would work on bones and try his best to find a way to make artifacts that were good enough for the vault.

He found the pool of Djed inside his soul. He always pictured his Djed as an deep pool of crimson light inside his body. It really was just another form of mediation to focus upon a single thought. With this case it was his Djed.

The winds blew along the shore of the dead island, the smells of the sea caught his nose as he let his lungs breath the salty air for once in so long. It did not take long once he got his mental hands over his magic. The rock in sight was roughly the size of a coconut. If he was not watching he would have missed it but he kept his eyes upon the rock. That rock that seemed so innocent yet so tainted upon the islands shore. A dark hole formed in a blink of an eye, roughly the size of Vick’s hand. It did not stay long just lasting a few seconds at most.

However the job was done, the rock that laid upon the shore was broken. Carved out by his voiding magic, now what laid upon it was now just half of a rock cut smoothly in half. The other half was no longer on this plane for it was sent to the Void.

A twisted smile formed along his lips again. He felt tired but he was not going to stop. He had to relax and focus again and do it again. He would send the rest of the rock into the Void. He had to for that rock was too innocent in his eyes. Nothing should ever be so innocent in his way for he no longer was the innocent child that came upon the boat for Sahova. He was tainted. He knew this deep down but that rock would pay the price.

His mind holding on to the flash of anger. The flash of a deep rooted hatred for that innocent object cast away forgotten on a timeless shore. The sun passing by overhead letting the shadows dance along the beach as he stayed put not moving. His lungs again dead to the world as his unblinking eyes holding onto that half of a rock. That shell of a rock. A reminder that told Vick he was just a shell of himself. Just a shell as the void ripped open once more warping around that rock sending to the void before closing once more.

He was a shell. Just a shell. Did it bother him? He was not sure and that thought should have made him sacred. So very scared.

[Vick]

He found himself in his office, sitting in his poorly made chair facing his desk. Two items were laid out on his desk. Both human hands, a right and left. He was told that it was from a mage pulser who had died in the testing grounds due to being careless.

He was not sure which field of magic the mage had work in. Or even how skilled they were in life but that did not matter to him as he took out a notebook, ink and quill and starting writing with drawing on the sides.

[frame]
* Fetish - Human mage. Skill not known nor field.
Idea/goal - Try to harness the djed within the subject to boost the users pool of djed.

Risks- If user was a Leecher then the effect could drain the user. If voider then could interfare with the user if the user is a voider as well. Self void? Skill of the subject to low then might not show results.

[/frame]

It was short but well thought out. He had to start planning the risks and goals more before starting the projects. That way he would try to improve the statistics of his research. If this research goal could be done right then he could find his way moving ahead in Sahova and might even have a chance of getting a better lab.

The idea was to carve the circles in the palm of the hand. The circles were to detail an influx of djed into the body. He would use the Ancient language words like he did with the arms of his last research project. With a bit of luck he would be able to get this to work like he wanted or it would just kill the subject which even then it meant the project was still good.

Then once the circles were done he would close the hand onto a cord that would fit around a persons neck like a necklace. That would make the host have the effect good or bad. It was just a matter of getting the circles onto the hands. Since he had two he would keep them apart and test one then see how it went before testing the other.

If the one hand went well the other hand might not have the same results. It was just a risk he would take as he took the left hand and started his work. He would be at this project for awhile but he had to make sure it was perfect.

First thing was to do was to wash the hand gently in the barrel of water he kept nearby. The bones in a human hand were rather neat to him. No muscles bound it together but it was bound by the bone itself with ligament joints. Even now he could move the hand but with that he could break it without even trying. He would have to be gentle and careful when washing it with his simple white cloth, draping just slightly as he placed it in the water.

Then he took it out letting it dry in the air as he moved around getting his tools. A sharpen Pick from his carving kit. The hand would not have many circles on it due to the space but he had a way around that.

He would have to make the circles a bit bigger than the letters but each circle would hold a letter then he would interlink them with smaller circles so they would work by combining a smaller effect into a larger one.

He had done an effect like this in the past but never used the idea to link the circles together to try to fuel the power of the magic. In theory this should pay off either way by boosting the normal effect with the sub effect of the circles.

Very carefully and slowly he took his pick into the bone of the head. Starting from the left side of the palm he started his work. One circle, then another inside that circle with arrows in the middle of each of them pointing outwards. Inside the inner circle he wrote a single letter “D”.

The next circle was beside the starting one. It was the same theory as the first circle. An outside circle then a circle inside that with arrows pointing outwards. The letter was “J”. Before he moved on to the next circle he linked the two circles by making another circle linking the two link a chain.

The third circle was under the middle finger, another two circles inside each other neatly. The letter “E” was carved gently into the bone with another interlocking circle linking the J to the E. Arrows were also designed into the gap of the circles pointing outward.

The last circle for the word was under the ring finger. Two circles with a “D” with the same arrows inside the gap with a interlock circle with the E to the D. He was not sure how long he spent on the task but he knew he was not done.

In theory he had four small circles, each drawing the power of the Djed outward with the arrows. The word Djed was carved into the bone itself as the main focus and the smaller letters while separated were linked into a single word by the links of the other circles. It was the same theory that a larger artifact could be broken down into smaller effects but this time it was just to boost the smaller effects into a single higher one.

However he felt like he was not done. He could do more with it. He just let himself sit back and look upon his work. Letting the thoughts enter into his mind trying to refire his ideas.

[Vick]

He let his body sit back as his dead unblinking eyes laid upon his work. His mind filled with ideas however none of them seemed to make any sense in his head. He had to focus and clear his mind once more. The images inside his head came together like a puzzle yet none of it made any sense to him.

Circles lining right, words in his fluent language, pages out of books, rocks and the beach shore with water push and pulling along the sands of Sahova. He had to push the images to the side, forcing them into the void of his mind as he regained his focus upon the task at hand.

The hand came to mind. The symbols he had made formed inside his head along with his intent. Intent was such a powerful word and could be so much more powerful in the right hands. Hands of a mage that dealt with it could sway the minds of millions in the end like Areesa Tallshare.

It was a dream of his to make artifacts just as strong as the type she made. Just a dream but his real dream and passion was to use his artifacts to gain status within the island then rule over it as a leader if not the leader.

He had the circles in place of the hand. He had the symbols and more than anything he had his intent inscribed inside the very essence of the bone. Then it came to him. A single thought that broke past his doubts and fears to the surface of his mind as he knew what he could do which would still push both his own intent and his malediction skills.

With a sense of ease almost due to his mediation state of being he tapped into his pool of djed and forced it along his eyes as auristics. He did not focus on anything but the bone itself. He saw the dead mages djed that was stuck inside the bone like it was trapped inside. He saw his symbols and circles of his craft trying to pull it out yet it was still lacking for he did not turn his magic on in a sense but more than that he saw an idea.

With his pick in hand he started working as the idea stayed within his mind. The circle in the very center, a circle that touched all the others on the border. Within that circle he made another and another making a drill sort of drawing. Time passed as he worked on the carving, his auristics flared on and off as he kept working non stop as time moved on before inscribing a single word into the very center of his project.

“Aid.”

Such a simple word but as he carved it into the bone he pushed his feelings into his work. His goals and dreams of what this could do. His intent was for the hand to aid the djed of the user. Boosting it or by making it easier to form the magic behind it. Aid. Djed. Intent. All working together in his eyes as he finished the last touches of the words and circles. He just laid down his tool and looked at his work.

He was never sure how long had passed. He never cared anymore for time meant nothing to him. He just had two most small tasks to do for this project. One was to get up and get a string that would act like a necklace and the other was to turn his magic on in a sense with his own blood.

One could say he felt almost happy or even proud of this work. Good or bad he pushed himself by thinking outside the box and giving it real thought. Maybe one day he would see his dreams he thought as he went about the office getting a simple leather cord that would act as the necklace.

He was not going to paint this or make it look like anything else. No this was going to stand out as a true Malediction product. He laid the cord along the fingers and closed them carefully. Then with a simple cut along his finger he let his inchor seep into his product as he still held his intent for it. To boost Djed of the user. To aid them.

No flashes of light came about but he knew it was done as he took a simple thread and needle sewing up the cut in his finger. The pain was normal and he did not even take note of it. He would now find a tester and see just how well this product went about.

If it worked like he wanted he would keep it and see if it was vault worthy. If not then he would store it for himself but if it failed in his eyes he would sell it. He knew this for they were his goals as he placed it carefully in a box holding it and moving it by cloth never letting it touch his skin.

He would then take the box to the office and work on that area. The other hand would just wait until he knew what this one did. Once he knew then he would work again on the other.

He was another step closer to his goals. One more step in a long road.

[Mirage]

Vick

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Auristics	1
Carving	2
Drawing	2
Glyphing	3
Malediction	3
Meditation	2
Voiding	1
Writing	2

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Malediction: Working with Human Hands

It's Not What You Think...

Oooo so ominous! If Vick ever finds a tester he will discover that the item does do its intended purpose, but not the way he expected. The hand amplifies the wearer’s djed, specifically it heightens any strong emotions, especially negative ones. Unknown to Vick these hands came from an apprentice who hated his life in Sahova. He died while on an errand for his master, and as a result all of his frustrations, hatred and anger are locked within his bones. Vick’s malediction skills have brought these feelings to the surface, and as a result any who wears it will find such emotions enhance to a new level. The necklace has to be removed by the wearer, and if any others try to remove it the hand will clam on any part of the wearer it can, even clawing at skin.

This is an interesting item, but it is not worth much for its effects. It is possible to sell it for a price between 30-50 gm, but only if a very specific buyer steps forward.

Great job! I loved this thread so keep it up