Flashback Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Starfish (solo)

[Wrenmae]

Summer 45, 509 AV

Wren stood at the edge of the sea. His journey had taken him across the broad back of Laviku and laid him to rest back in Alvadas. He stared across the bay to the city of illusions, such a short distance from where he stood. Still in the Suvan, the svefra casinor had docked on a small shoal, an exposed reef, before returning to the mainland. The temporary island was awash with the sea’s bounty, exposed creatures too slow to distance themselves from the unexpected tide. Birds wheeled above him, gulls too daring to consider the larger human ducking around him to peck at barnacles and mussels. Wrenmae did his best to remain away from them, pulling res into his hands, that blessing and curse from Sable to fire at those foolish birds that winged too close.

Wrenmae was in no mood to play dinner guest to a seagull’s table.

Instead he entertained himself with walking along the shoal, balancing on the blackened coral and looking out over the sea. At a distance, it must seem as though he was walking upon the waves themselves, granted strange power over the surf and sea. The idea delighted the young hypnotist and for a few moments he skipped over the tough and uneven terrain, nearly pitching forward into the hungry sea. It was only then that he caught himself, heart in throat, and settled back on the narrow spine of the reef.

His purpose here was to observe, mainly, and to prepare himself for life in the city again. His time away had taught him a bit of the Svefrans, of the open sea, but too long he’d had to look at Sable’s wan face and consider that perhaps it would be better for their health for him to part ways. For now, though, Sable and her sister searched the area for pearls and treasures to take to the docks. They would sell the bounties of the sea, given freely, for a pretty miza and then be off again upon Laviku’s back. Wrenmae would remain behind, the adopted member of a family he could not remain with.

[Wrenmae]

A spot of color drew his eyes to the corpse of a starfish floating in a cavern of rocks and craigs. Reaching in, he retrieved it, looking the thing over. It was a large Starfish, simple, and terribly light. It almost floated from his hand as he pulled it from its rocky prison. Crouching down, he turned it over in his hands. What had Sable said about it? The starfish were a strange anomaly, possessing incredible powers of regeneration. Cut off one of its supposed limbs and it would grow back just as easily. Whereas humans could not return the use of an arm or leg once it was gone.

The find afforded a rare opportunity to do some crafting of his own before returning to the mainland. Pulling out his dagger, Wrenmae sat on the wet shoal. The cold seeped through his clothes and clung to his skin, but by this time, the ocean was no stranger to the storyteller. Taking the starfish, Wrenmae considered it, wondering what sort of item he’d fashion. Something to regenerate, sure, but how exactly to go about it?

It came to him suddenly, an idea to craft a two part item with a two part cost. What else but a starfish to unlock Djed fueled regenerative potential in a human? Excited, he began with the mere etchings, three circles with lines from each outside circle to the center circle. All of it was encompassed in another circle that spun around the very edges of the starfish main body. Even were the legs snapped and discarded, the main body would be host to the Maladiction. In the center circle, Wrenmae etched two sets of figured. The first set was positioned to the right, towards the line that ran to the far right circle and the other was positioned to the left. The first set depicted a stick figure with only one arm. A tiny arrow toward the center of the circle, denoted for the passage of time, showed that same stick figure with a new arm. Full limb regeneration. In the far right circle, Wrenmae drew what he assumed would be the cost for such a powerful enchantment

[Wrenmae]

He showed a stick figure cutting off the appendage of another. If the blood spilled on the object was wrought of a separated limb, he could regrow a lost one, or at least that was how the item was supposed to work. That, was its deep level of enchantment. On the left side of the main circle he drew a stick figure bleeding from the arm, the head, and the stomach, and a line toward the center to show the passage of time, completing with a whole stick person besides the whole on from the right side. On the far right circle, he etched the shape of two arms held out and wiggly lines erupting from their ends. Pay the price of Djed, heal wounds much faster…the more djed, the faster the regeneration. For something lost, he’d need sacrifice, but one need only sacrifice Djed to unlock the hyperhealing embodied in the starfish. The final circle was the one that encompassed them all, held them in a stasis. This circle, the final circle, represented a trigger. So that the item did not leech Djed for no particular reason, it would need to have a trigger circle included. The effects were to be called upon and as Wrenmae sketched in an open mouth, he chose the word “Regenerate” as the trigger word. This item would remain mute until charged with the command to use its power. At the top of the circle he drew the open mouth, carved it in, put the word ‘regenerate’ beside it. From here a three lines extended to the tops of the three middle circles. On the bottom of the main circle he drew another open mouth and the word ‘Cease’ with lines leading up to the bottom of the three middle circles. Tiny x’s were etched in where they met. Regenerate to healing, cease to stop.

He cut his thumb with care, saving the precious drops from polluting the water. Those beasts beneath him, dark skinned sharks with teeth afire and eyes like pits would come for him then. Instead he cut and cupped his thumb, pressing it against the circles one by one. To each he kissed with Djed, a tantalizing swirl of sparks and magic to be directed by the clumsy scrawling he’d made. The starfish glowed for a moment, bright against the afternoon sky before fading.

Its purpose would be to regenerate what would ordinarily be lost. And as the hypnotist clutched it against his chest and then let it slide into his bag…he hoped he’d never have the necessity to use it, or test what he had done.

[Wrenmae]

The sun had waned since he'd begun his crafting process. Even now it hung in a slanted, pregnant, golden stasis above the city of Illusion. Wrenmae watched it now, kicking his feet through the water.

Oh Baaaaack home, in old Alvaaaaadas, where the streets are sometimes staaaaairs.

Good to hear from you, Zan.

I was resting my eyes, and you were feeding my boredom

We have a few hours yet before we return

To what, exactly?

Wrenmae blinked, looking down at his hands. Right, of course. Those hands had buried his adopted parents some time ago.

I don't know.

Neither do I

You think we'll leave again?

Only if you don't like the smell of mediocrity.

What?

Of you. Being mediocre. By staying in one place forever.

I don't see you rushing off to travel.

Well, my mobile home sometimes forgets we're a team, so I have to stay put.

Best remember that.

One of these days I'm going to put you in a bag and carry you somewhere else.

Tall talk for such short water.

Can you measure water in height?

Could if I tried.

Gods you're pointless.

Maybe so, but you're bound to me. So deal with it.

As Zan shut up, Wrenmae shook his head and smiled. His familiar, boon companion to a journey with no end. Strangely, it was poetic, even nice to have a constant voice that wasn't his own, even if it was infuriating sometimes.

Standing, Wrenmae reached into his bag and tore out a few pages. If he was going back into Alvadas, now was the best time to get the new glyphing he'd been working on correct. So far, storing a spell in glyphs was something of a difficult process. Often it didn't work fully or well enough to really reap the benefits. So with that in mind, Wrenmae had developed a new glyph based around releases. The idea was to not let the stored glyph wait long enough for someone or something to activate it. Instead, he would trigger it himself with microbursts of reimancy. For the purpose of this experiment, he decided to use Voiding.

Sitting and using his lap as a table, the mage drew the basics of the circle to contain the void. It was a swirling line, delicately drawn, carefully drawn with all the painstaking patience of someone who desperately wanted to get something right. After the circle was completed, Wren drew a line from the edge of the circle into a swirl that encompassed most of the paper itself. The idea was that the Djed tasked to Void would exist within the simple circle and the swirl was the reimancy channel. The symbol was a swirl, for air, for movement, and when air containing traces of his Res hit the paper, it wound send that untasked Djed as a trigger to activate the other djed.

In effect, he would create a trap that he could snipe at from above, or anywhere else really.

Holding a hand down on the paper, he focused on the idea of the void. In order to access it, he had to imagine the world as a world above something else. All the somethingness he had learned to accept was really just a covering to a world beyond it of nothingness and great open tracks of silence. No, more than silence. The void was about a concept no one could truly grasp. In fact, no sentient being would ever truly grasp the Void because the void was the one thing that paradoxically interacted with any body of thought. How could one conceive of nothing if the very nature of nothing was to not be conceived?

Pouring his Djed into the paper, Wrenmae imagined a small voiding portal, no bigger than a fist. Setting that as the parameter of what he wanted the Void portal size to grow to, he tasked his Djed and placed the paper on a rock far from him.

Pooling res into his hands, he ducked low winging birds to aim at the paper. He'd only have one shot at these. Pull the res out, refine the outer layer to air and push it forward. Aiming it, he imagined he was throwing a knife, a talent he'd grown a bit better in as his skills in daggers increased. Aiming the air, the hunk of res in his hand, he lobbed it, converting bits and bits more to air as it spun toward the target.

The ball of res and air hit the glyph and bounced it, fluttering, into midair. It wasn't the trigger, but the glyph itself had grown unstable and exploded into a small void that absorbed the pieces of paper and hung there for a moment, a pitch nothingness glaring out at Wrenmae's failure with neither pleasure nor anger. Simply, stared.

Gulping, Wrenmae repeated the process, taking the sheet of paper again and focusing a small void into the portal of the circle. This time, however, when he drew the circle, he emitted trace amounts of Djed that would act as triggers themselves. Prodded by the res, they would spin the spiral and then release the Void.

He aimed, he prepared.

He missed, his ball of transmuted air spinning off across the waves.

Cursing, he aimed again, forcing himself to take a deep breath and fired again. The small ball of res impacted the glyph. Immediately the spiral lit up, a sudden glow followed by the shadow presence of the Void, leaping up from the glyph and swallowing the paper and some surrounding stone whole.

Wrenmae pumped his fist into the air, a silent victory, before heading back toward the casinor.

He'd be ready for Alvadas this time.

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Wren's Loot : Skill XP Reward Reimancy +2 Glyphing +2 Malediction +3 Drawing +1 Lore: Starfish: Regenerates Maledicting A Starfish Reimancy: Air bullets Glyphing: Res triggered glyphs Malediction: Multiple Effects Items or Consequences: Maledicted Starfish - When the trigger word 'Regenerate' is uttered, the user of the starfish will immediately begin to lose their Djed. The Starfish uses the Djed to regenerate any wounds on the user at an accelerated rate (maximum: 3x normal healing rate). The drawback is that, if not careful, a mage could be killed by accidentally tasking too much Djed into healing. The command word 'Cease' will stop the process. I like how you make sure to make Wren fail in his experiments. It makes it much more realistic. Also, I'll say it again (and I will never tire of it), but agh, Zan is hilarious. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!