A Magical Trade (Clyde)

[L'orlei]

To say L'orlei was embarrassed would have been an understatement. Not only had she just gotten completely naked in front of someone who was basically a complete stranger.. but apparently that wasn't even what he had asked her to do! She just continued to make a fool of herself in front of the mage, but there was no turning back now. Not without making a further fool of herself. She was naked, he'd seen it.. it was time to move post it. L'orlei closed her eyes as he began to work, trying to to pay attention to what he was doing. She never saw his red face, which was probably for the best, because that would have just doubled the awkwardness of the situation. The ink was cold on her body, but after a moment she wasn't paying it any attention. The names and faces poured into her mind like they always did, a seemingly pointless jumble of information that threatened to overwhelm her every time it happened, but L'orlei held her ground, determined not to screw up anymore. Still, she often wondered why Avalis had given her that additional part of her gift. What use was it to her anyway? When would it ever come in handy? When it was finally done L'orlei opened her eyes and looked herself over. There were scribbles covering her arms, belly, all the way up to her neck. It might have even been strangely beautiful, if it hadn't been so awkward. She had just let a man draw all over her naked body.. there was no getting past the awkward. The idea of letting him cut her did make her a bit nervous.. but after what he had just done, she saw no reason why she shouldn't just trust him already. "Yes, I want it. I'm ready," she whispered the last bit in her native tongue. The sad part was... L'orlei had no idea what she was ready for, or what was about to come.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde stood over the Konti with blade in hand, slowly drawing the dagger from its sheath. "Alright, I will... But just know, this is not the safest of processes, and it will be painful. It is not something I do lightly. It is very painful. I have done it before, and have not failed or had complications, so I doubt you will find a better person to do this than me... But still, you should know it can go wrong." "And even when it goes right, it is unpleasant, and very painful. I have to invade you with my res, which is basically a part of me, a manifestation of my djed, which is the thing you exude and do Reimancy with. But it is foreign to you, and so your body will try to reject it. I will be forcing my essence deep inside you, much more than I or anyone could ever do by physical means. No matter how much it hurts though, how much you fight and thrash, I will have to keep pushing deeper, until I unlock your Reimancy." Clyde let out a breath, and held out the dagger. "Now, if you are ready, you should kneel, in case you fall after I begin." With that, he started, making two quick and slight cuts with his dagger on each of her palms. Then he began to exude res, out of his hands a pair of streams, and out of his mouth on each exhale. He guided the res, bright silver and glowing in the light of the room, a gas, at L'orlei. The stream from his hands met her own palm wounds, and began to flow in, at the same time as the stream from his mouth flowed into her mouth and nostrils. Cutting off her flow of clean air. From then on, she would be breathing his res, which would not be pleasant to say the least. He pushed it in deeper, deeper, into her mouth and down her throat, up her veins in her arms through her blood. Farther in, farther, no matter how she protested he could not stop, now that he had begun. Out of her throat and into her lungs, into her chest, breath in, exhale, deeper into her. Down to her core, till he found her deepest essence, and soaked it in his res, felt a shifting deep within her of her own djed resounding inaudibly through his own ears. Grasped at it, twisted, pulled, and started the reaction that would allow her to manifest her own res, to toss out her own essence as he could. Then he pulled back, slowly flowing it back the way it came, out, out, out, up her chest, out her lungs, out her throat, up her arms... And out came the last dribble of res, flowing like a cloud out of her palms, out of her mouth, out of her nostrils, leaving her, but not leaving her the same... And some of it forever a part of her, soaked into her, manifest in her, now beginning in her own res. He took a step back, and coughed, exhausted from the concentration of the initiation. He pulled back in the last of the res, reabsorbing it, flowing it back into himself, now tainted by her essence and its time inside of her, but still his. "I am done... You can fix your hands now..."

[L'orlei]

L'orlei knelt, almost shaking with nervousness. She flinched as Clyde cut her hands. It stung, but that pain was nothing compared to what would come next. L'orlei suppressed the urge to heal the wounds on her hands, at least for the time being. The demands of her gnosis would have to wait. Watching as he began to exude the res was fascinating. L'orlei had seem him use his magic twice before, but it was much different this time. Res came from his hands and his mouth, filling the space between them. It crept toward her, and when he was ready, it entered her. Immediately the pain began, starting with the open wounds on her palms. It was like boiling water directly into the cut, except that the water didn't flow off her hands and to the floor, but instead deeper into the wound. The veins in her arms felt like fire as the res pushed it's way up the appendages and deeper into her body. L'orlei cried out in pain, but her voice was quickly cut off by the res that flowed in through her mouth. The konti buckled over, coughing, as she began to choke on the gaseous substance. She tried to scream for him to stop, but it only came out in pained coughing. He forced the res down her throat and into her lungs, and further still to the pit of her stomach. It filled her like nothing else could, and the pain covered every inch of the inside of her body. It was like she was on fire from the inside out.. and she could have been, had Clyde willed it. When he began to twist and pull at the djed that was the core of her very being she let out another garbled crie of pain. Tears, saturated in Clyde's djed, poured from her eyes before the res in them flowed right back into her mouth. By the end of it L'orlei was curled in a ball on her side, twitching and shivering in pain. Pulling the res out was as painful as when it went in.. maybe even more. It was like a serrated blade had been jabbed inside her, smoothly penetrating it's way in, only to be twisted and yanked out, cutting her from the opposite direction and tearing organs and flesh without a care. L'orlei could not even scream for the longest time until the last of the res flowed from her lungs, but by then she had nothing left. Nothing but the urge to shudder and twitch. She did not even register Clyde's words until several chimes later, as she slowly began to straighten out and rise to her hands and knees. L'orlei coughed, and was certain she was going to vomit, but nothing came forth. All of Clydes res had already found its way out, save for that which would remain forever. Slowly, hesitantly, she leaned back onto her legs, and looked down at her palms. They were still bleeding, and there was blood on the floor where her hands had been. She closed her eyes and focused once more on the magic her gnosis mark provided her. It was strange.. she could already feel the difference within her. Whatever Clyde had done to her, it changed something, and it was not something her gnosis could heal. L'orlei took a deep breath, trying to force away the doubts that were already creeping into her mind. There was no point doubting, it was already done. She needed to concentrate. She needed to heal. The cuts were something she should have been able to take care of easily, but it was hard to focus. Shoots of pain still ran through her body, breaking her concentration. Come on, L'orlei. You can do this, just concentrate. Eventually she did find her center, and the mark on her forehead came to life. Her hands began to glow, and then the glove moved to the wounds, and within moments the wounds had closed to nothing more than a thin red line on each hand. L'orlei slumped once more, letting out a long withheld breath. "Is it done.. did it work?" It took her only a moment to realize she had spoken in her own language, and she repeated the question again in common. She doubted she had the energy to even attempt to use the magic, but she was still curious. Had it worked, or had the pain been for nothing? Was there even a way to tell, without actually trying to use the magic itself. She did feel different.. but was it the right different?

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde waited a few chimes, for L'orlei to heal herself as she said she could so easily. He was tempted to do something, to perhaps use her scroll, to heal her, but just as he was thinking this, she moved, and the glow of her gnosis told him she had done it. As she spoke in Konti, Clyde looked at her confused, until she repeated herself in common, the tongue he spoke. Clyde nodded, but then realized she might not be able to see him, or might not be looking. He recalled his own initiation, all to well, done so long ago, and yet in the grand scheme of his life to come, still recent. "Yes, it is done... I felt... Something... I believe that was it. Do not try to exude any res yet, you need to rest. It would be far to easy to overgive, as we talked of before." "And I doubt you would be alive, if it had not worked. I went deep, deep, to do as I did... Deeper than I have gone before..." Clyde reached down, and would try to help her stand, and help her back to her bed, if she would allow it. Whether or not she would allow his help, he would fetch her some water and help her drink, and speak one final thing. "I must go now, there is nothing to do but wait, and heal. I will return here in three days time, and show you how to exude your res from your body, and to use this magic. Do not use it till then." With that, Clyde would pause, look at L'orlei for a moment, and then leave. There was nothing left to do, and he would just have to trust her to keep to his request.

[L'orlei]

L'orlei was still on her knees when Clyde first began to speak. He said it had worked, but she did not really hear much else of it. When he reached down, it took her a moment to realize, before she accepted his hand and allowed him to help her up. She was still shaky heading over to the bed, and when she reached it she immediately fell to the sheets and covered herself up. The rest of what Clyde said was barely heard, though she offered something that might have been a nod when he told her not to use the magic. It wasn't as if she knew how, anyway. Three days did not seem like much time, but hopefully she would be recovered by then. She knew Clyde did not have long in Mura, and couldn't keep him waiting. Part of her was filled with concern and regret, but that would vanish as the pain began to subside. Her excitement was boiling beneath, waiting to be released. At that moment though, all L'orlei could do was sleep. She was gone before Clyde even shut the door, and slept well into the following day. ~End

[Traverse]

L'orlei

Skill	XP Earned
Drawing	1 XP
Glyphing	3 XP
Herbalism	4 XP
Observation	5 XP
Persuasion	3 XP
Philosophy	3 XP
Rhetoric	5 XP
Socialization	2 XP
Teaching	5 XP

•	Lores Earned
•	Rain: Good for konti, Bad for Foreigners
•	Clyde Sullins: Looks like a Wizard
•	Using Avalis to Boost Sales
•	Symmetry a Key in Glyphing
•	The Guilt of Improper Spells
•	The Dangers of Reimancy
•	Personal magic Pulls from the Self
•	Respecting the Vian Tree
•	Being inducted Into Reimancy

Inventory:

+ Half a Dozen Cattails
+ 1 bowl of Cattail Ash
+ 1 Small container of Cattail Sap
+ Half a dozen Vian twigs collected from the base of found tree.
+ 1 L1 Healing Gnosis Scroll

Clyde

Skill	XP Earned
Drawing	3 XP
Glyphing	1 XP
Herbalism	2 XP
Interrogation	3 XP
Observation	5 XP
Persuasion	1 XP
Philosophy	2 XP
Rhetorc	5 XP
Socialization	2 XP
Teaching	5 XP

•	Lores Earned
•	Spotting a Novice Glyph
•	L'orlei: Herbalist Konti
•	The Physical Appearance of a Vian Tree
•	The Uses of a Cattail
•	Healing Gnosis can be Used on the Healer
•	Explaining the Connection of Magicks

Inventory:

+ 1 Container of Cattail Ash
+ 1 L1 Healing Gnosis Scroll
+ 2 Unshaped Vian Branches, one slightly larger than the other.

Shared Lore
Disrobing Doesn't Mean Getting Naked

Additional Comments :

Whew! This was a biggy, so if there was any specific lore you wanted or XP you felt I left out, give me a holler!

I have come to appreciate Clyde for being the Snooty mage, and L'orlei for being this curious, shy Konti. Though very different in personalities the two seemed to mesh interestingly here, and I really liked how even though Clyde has a crap ton more XP than L'orlei, she got this chance to really show her stuff, even if its novice level. The way Clyde was constantly grilling her for information he didn't understand, and the fun back and forth they had of trying to get L'orlei inducted into Reimancy was enjoyable as well.

My only qualm was the induction itself. I think this can be attributed to the fact that you guys were on the tail end of the thread and ready to end it, but Clyde, your explanation fit the standard definition of an induction, but was very sparse and gave me nothing new, so I was a little bummed that this whole thread built up to a very weakly described event. The glyphs were a nice touch, but You're a master Reimancer, Clyde, let it show!

Poor, L'orlei had no idea what she was getting into, and I loved that part of it, and am excited to see Clyde train her with her knew found skill!

Yes, I Bite.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.