Completed The Bounds of the Earth

[Annalisa Marin]

88th Day of Spring, 513 AV. The midday sunlight dappled through the grove, shining brightly on its sole occupant and filling her with a calming warmth. Annalisa Marin, Professor of Glyphing at the University of Zeltiva sat cross legged in the middle of a small forested grove not far from the city. It had taken her several bells to reach this place after leaving the boundaries of the port city, but she looked very little worse for wear from her traveling. The woman looked as powerful and arrogant as she normally appeared, her hair was bound into a high pony tail and her face held its usual haughty expression. Anna was not beautiful, nor ugly, rather she looked rather plain, possessing no outstanding features to speak of beyond her sharp grey eyes. Her cloak, pack, and boots were sitting under a tree near the edge of the grove. The sound of the rustling leaves overhead as they swayed in the slight breeze calmed her mind as she attempted to focus and find her center. Meditation was not something she frequently did, however it felt appropriate to at least attempt it today. The exercise she had planned today would required utmost concentration and any advantages she could gain would be beneficial, no matter how small. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. Anna was trying to focus on her breathing, to try and shut her mind away from any potentially distracting thoughts. Unfortunately it was proving to be rather difficult to accomplish, more than that, it was proving to be near impossible for her to find any kind of inner equilibrium. Distracting thoughts had a way of slithering into her mind as soon as she felt that she was close to attaining peace. It was maddening. The young wizard shouldn't have really been surprised; meditation was not a normality for her before working magic. It had been one of those things that she hadn't really considered to be too difficult, but now she was finding that she was dead wrong. Inner peace was not exactly something she normally worked towards, power and the thrill of using her power was what she enjoyed. Neither one seemed to agree with the whole inner tranquility thing. Breath in, Breath out. Breath in, Breath out. Anna knew that this exercise could very well be dangerous and would require a significant amount of Djed to make possible. It would be a true test to the refinement of her abilities to this point. Being that she had a habit of tittering on the edge of overgiving when she was casting heavily; it seemed wise to attain some form of peace before attempting her experiment. If she made a mistake, control might slip from her which could very well be her downfall. Breath in, Breath out. Breath in, Breath out. She was arrogant, proud, and extremely self-absorbed, however even Anna was realistic to the danger before her. However, she did know one thing. She knew that no matter what she would never end up like those weak willed fools in the Asylum, her fate was too great for such an inglorious end. The young wizard had confidence in her own abilities as a reimancer to know that she could pull this off. The meditation was difficult, another obstacle to overcome in her pursuit of supreme magical dominance over every aspect possible. Such obstacles existed for a reason, they were there to keep those that did not want something badly enough from getting it. Anna wanted something badly enough, and she was dogged enough to keep at it all day if that is what this took. She would get this down or certainly tire herself out trying that was just the kind of mindset she possessed. Defeat was not an option, not in the pursuit of perfection. Breath in, Breath out. Breath in, Breath out.

[Annalisa Marin]

Annalisa kept her eyes tightly shut, trying to drown out the sounds of nature and focus solely on her breathing. It was not working out so well, the birds chirping, the leaves rustling, and the insects buzzing. There were so many things that provided her distraction, detractors assaulting the sanctity of her mind. It was maddening. How was anyone supposed to achieve inner peace and focus with so many petching sounds to bother them? The young wizard had been here for well over thirty chimes, and for thirty cursed chimes her attempts at meditation had been foiled by the sounds of the wildlife. Still she continued on, though her body was starting to feel a little stiff from sitting in a single solitary position for so long. Giving up now would make those last thirty chimes completely worthless, so naturally she was going to keep at it. Finally, after a few more chimes the sounds began to die away and her own breathing became the sole focus of her attention. Her ire began to simply fade away, until it was nothing but a dull throb at the back of her mind. The focus was fragile but it allowed for clarity, albeit for brief moments. Still those moments were enough for her purposes, it gave her just enough time to focus on what she needed to. The shape was forming in her mind, as was the process behind it. A cone like shape for aerodynamics, though the end had to be as sharp and pointed as possible. The shape itself was the key to it all; she could see that now that she had moments to reflect upon it. The clarity was brief and shattered quickly, dispelling any further insight she might have gained into the matter. That was inconsequential, though, she had the shape and she had succeeded. Those were the main points she focused upon. With the shape, the form and construction became much more apparent, crucial aspects to the whole thing. Anna stood and stretched, her bones creaking and her joints popping slightly as they were used again. The tall woman decided that some stretched might help, though they were going to be basic at best. Still, there was no reason to hurry this project yet, haste and magic tended to mix very, very poorly for even experienced users. The young wizard stretched her right leg out as far as she could and reached out her hand to try and touch her toes. Her hand fell short of the goal but still she held it there for a few moments; feeling her muscles stretch. The young woman the repeated the motion with her left leg, moving back to her right leg after that, and back and forth for a couple of cycles. It was rather awkward as she was not used to such things but it helped make her feel a little more loosened up. The cool grass tickled her bare feet, causing her to curl her toes in delight from their cool and teasing touch. If one ever wanted to see Annalisa more as she was before she was taken by magic, it was ironically right before a practice session. It was when she was immersed in the natural elements that she felt most calm, for she was in her place of power out in the wilds, plenty of material to work with. Satisfied with her warm up, the young wizard strode to her pack intent on getting ready for today's experiments. The first step, of course was to glyph her extremities for res generation, a common and routine preparation for her before ever casting a single spell.

[Annalisa Marin]

The materials out before Anna were simple, a vial of ink and a small brush. However these simple tools, in her hands, could create runes that could make casting easier and far quicker. This was the art of Glyphing, the world magic that depended upon the drawing of mystic runes to augment or change the effects of existing magic. She herself could easily craft scrolls, items which could store certain magical effects for later use, however the purpose of her glyphing today would be much more simplistic in nature. The young wizard sat with her legs folded once more, the bottom of her bare right foot facing up at her. The young wizard dipped the small brush into the ink and lightly began to trace her first Focus glyph today, the wet brush tickling the sensitive flesh slightly as she worked. Glyphs possessed no inherent power on their own; in fact if she were not a wizard then the runes would just be odd symbols. However, because she was a Djed manipulator their value was extremely high. Without the assistance of runes her res generation was rather slow, with it the speed was increased exponentially. Anna was eventually hoping to find a way to make the generation instantaneous with the assistance of glyphs, that goal was still far off but it was certainly on her to do list. The rune was drawn with care and as much precision as she could possibly muster, making the process longer than normal but she didn't want to take any risks with this session. Ink moved across her skin, creating sharp and rigid geometrically sound designs. Her gaze was focused to an intensity that spoke of absolute concentration, her grey eyes observing every detail she drew for possible imperfections. Finding none she continued, her mind focused on the shape of the rune. After about five chimes from start to finish the large rune was finally complete, it was not perfect however it was good, better than anyone she had drawn before this time. Anna allowed herself a brief smile before getting ready to start on her other foot, allowing her new glyph a chime or two to dry before switching to her left foot. The young wizard drew another focus glyph on the bottom of her left foot, on the point where she wanted to exude the res for her experiment. These glyphs took away the need to focus on where she need to release the potent substance called Res, the thing that made reimancy possible as a discipline. With that focus taken care of she could place all of her energy on actually generating the res, which was why the speed was much greater than normal. She finished the second glyph and gave it some time to dry before moving on to her the palm of her right hand, dipping her brush in the ink again. This was going to be tricky; Anna was naturally right handed and found it kind of awkward to use her left hand to draw the Focus Glyphs. For all that she wanted it to be so, she was not perfect. Human flaws still applied to her, chaining her from achieving her potential. These simple issues were magnified in her mind, becoming major glaring problems that Anna would rather solve than deal with. Carefully she applied the brush to the palm of her right hand and began to draw the rune upon her hand. Her hand was unsteady and unused to the complex and intricate motions required in the application of the rune, her brain and muscles naturally attuned to the use of her right hand. Even with care and slow drawing it took her eight full chimes to get a rough rune etched onto her right hand. This imperfect result displeased her; however it was likely to be the best she could hope for at this point. Anna allowed it to dry before moving on to drawing on the palm of her left hand. This was far, far easier to accomplish and complete due to the fact that she was using her good hand. The rune looked far better than the one drawn by her left hand, much more geometrically sound and less rough. After finishing this rune she allowed it to dry before looking over the runes she had drawn a second time. Her grey eyes looked for any flaws that were glaring, correcting them accordingly with her brush. A few more attempts on the poor glyph on her right hand made it look at least presentable and far more functional, it wasted another three chimes but it was a price she was willing to pay for what she needed. Anna gave the newly applied ink a few more chimes to dry and looked over the runes one last time, nodding in approval. She was satisfied with the products; they would serve their purposes in this practice session. The young wizard then gathered up her brush and ink, standing again she placed them in her pack. Her joints popped as she stood finally receiving use after sitting idle once more for so long. The young wizard stretched high again, attempting to gain that earlier looseness. Her muscles stretched and her joints felt some relief from the use. She stretched out her legs again, still moving quite awkwardly as she was not used to the stretching but it loosened her up once more, preparing her for the true exercise that now lay ahead. Her Glyphs were drawn, her goal was still in mind, and her body was loosened up. It was time to begin.

[Annalisa Marin]

There were few things more empowering, indeed, soothing as creating and expelling res from one's body. It was a euphoric feeling, to manipulate something that had the potential to create a force of untold destruction and chaos, almost erotic to some degree. It always, from the minute the first spell was cast, came with a desire to give more. It was rather like an addiction, the desire to replicate that first feeling, that first pleasure. Anna was strong enough to push it down as liquid res formed at the bottoms of both of her feet, the translucent liquid flowing out before her smoothly. She drew a fair amount, not enough to make her feel tired but enough for her to feel some amount of drain on her Djed. The euphoria filled her senses, demanding more power but she pushed it aside again. The young wizard stood tall, with her legs spread into a ready stance as the res flow from her. There was plenty of material she could work with here, the earth was all around her, just waiting to be manipulated. Her goal was very specific this time, it would require much concentration to accomplish; there was no doubt about that. She was trying to create a much stronger earthen projectile than she normally could, one that could pierce and crush at the same time. Such a task was much more difficult than it might first sound; it was one thing to create a boulder the size of a man's torso to crush him. That it itself was and easy construct as its creation required less effort in worrying about its shape, just the size. In this creation, the shape was everything as it had to maintain a good aerodynamic shape to be used effectively. The uninitiated would no doubt wonder to the purpose of such an exercise, it was relatively simple though in her mind. The purpose of the experiment was twofold; one was to create an effective method of attack, obviously. The other was to see how far she could refine her reimancy at its current stages. Anna was no fool, there were doubtlessly many other reimancers in the world, many were likely better and more skilled than her. She knew that in order to rise above the rank and file reimancer she needed to learn focus, control, and possess mastery over shaping constructs. As arrogant as she was, let it never be said that Annalisa Marin was stupid. The young wizard focused her res on drawing the earth beneath the liquid to it. Transmutation drained an unnecessary amount of Djed, far more than it took to simply draw upon and shape mundane and existing elements. Once she was certain that she had enough materials to work with, Anna willed the res to raise up into the air before her. Throughout the process she started up a low chant in the Ancient Tongue, an incantation of sorts to help her keep her focus throughout the process. It was mostly gibberish and non sense, however most people didn't know Nader Canoch so they would only hear a number of archaic sounding words all played out in a seemingly coherent sequence. It could be rather intimidating for most to see, with the words spilling from her lips as she moved her arms before her as if directing the process. In reality she could have kept her arms at her side and it would have been the same, the gestures and movements just helped with focus. The young wizard started shaping the res how she needed to be, working the earthen materials into the construction. It was very much a difficult and lengthy process to mold the res into the shape she needed it to be, even with the addition of the earth attraction it was still quite taxing. She was already beginning to feel tired and the urges were becoming steadily more difficult to ignore. Still, she pressed on through it, molding the res into a cone like shape. As it was, the length of her construct looked about as long as a spear and much thicker. The tip was beginning to sharpen to a fine point and the rest was beginning to take solid form, the outer most layer hardening into a large cone of earth. The inner most layers were still made up of res, she would not start to transmute that until it was near the edge of her zone of control. The deadly and fearsome looking reimancy construct was complete for all intents and purposes. Anna still fed it more res though, a little too wrapped up with making the whole thing perfect. The urges were pushing her closer and closer to the edge of her limits, if she didn't stop feeding more res in overgiving would soon follow. The construct was covered with a large layer of res which then attracted further earth to it, doubling the earth weapon's size. It was starting to dawn on her exactly how much she was giving, the realization that if she didn't hurry up and do what she had planned on doing then she would overgive, badly. I control my magic, not the other way around! Anna thought viciously, regaining control for long enough to launch the massive projectile.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna struggled to transmute the core of the construct to earth as it rocketed out of her zone of control, a sharp throb shooting through her head as she did. It pierced every thought she had and caused her to clutch her head in pain. She didn't know whether it was overgiving or not but one thing was for sure, she had screwed up big time. The young wizard did, however get to witness the fruits of her labors through the flash of pain, and it was a sight of utter destruction to behold. The massive earthen cone smashed and pieced several trees along its trajectory, snapping them like twigs. Loud crashes could be heard for quite the distance as trees feel to the ground, felled by reimancy. The young wizard managed a ragged and tired smile at the sight of destruction, noting the construct had crashed into the ground with a great resounding boom. It was quite the sight, there was no mistaking that. The young woman placed her boots back on her feet, as she was certain there would be splinters, and walked over to the sight of the crash. The crunch of bark being crushed beneath her boots sounded with every step and more than once she had to step over a fallen trunk. As the young reimancer walked through the wreckage she was responsible for, a sense of accomplishment rose on her chest between the ragged breaths. Such power was a sure sign of her progress there was no doubt about that, though her brush with overgiving was still fresh in her mind as the sharp pain. Anna was not sure if she had overgiving or not, it was certainly a distinct possibility. However her appearance certainly attested to overgiving, she was sweating heavily from magical exertion and her limbs felt like leaden weights. Her dark hair was matted and her breathing sounded extremely out of rhythm. She looked and felt terrible, however some of that feeling faded when she looked upon the wreckage of the stone construct. It lay in two halves, the upper being stuck in the dirt of the ground, the lower having snapped off a little ways back but was still in a ditch itself. Due to her exhaustion she started to draw and res that might remain within the thing back into her body through the focus glyphs. Regaining something would help her to recuperate somewhat, as well as take the edge off of her exhaustion. She was already going through the shape; it had been too big for an ideal combat situation. The size meant that the formation would take a greater amount of time; as such it needed to be smaller. If she could reduce the size by about a third or so she might be able to get off three before exhaustion would kick in. It could also be that she could make much smaller versions that could be just as deadly if not more. Further experimentation would be needed before she could be sure, but this had certainly proved to be a worthwhile experiment at the very least. Anna sighed at the res drew back inside of her, she was still tired and hungry but she felt like she could safely make the trip back to the city without collapsing. So with a final glance to the scene of destruction, the young wizard set off to retrieve her equipment and the return to Zeltiva, thoughts of the potential uses of this new form running through her mind freely.

[Paragon]

Annalisa Marin

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Meditation	3
Glyphing	3
Drawing	2
Reimancy	3
Acrobatics	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Calming & Centring Exercises
•	Blocking Out Distractions
•	The Power of Res Transmutation
•	Arrogance Over Stupidity
•	Constructing an Earthen Res Weapon
•	The Pain of Overgiving

Legend Becomes Reality

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