Completed A Glyphed Message

[Annalisa Marin]

11th of Winter, 513 AV

Anna sat at her workbench in the Common Labs, staring idly at the high ceiling above her. Hovering over her left hand was a small globe of purple flames, the heat washing over her digits and the small fire bolt bobbing lazily in the air at her dictation. The exertion required next to zero thought on her part, being so very basic to her by now as to be inconsequential. Likely a number of apprentices that worked these communal labs would killed for such effortless control, such ease and grace in the manipulation of Djed.

Maintaining the flames was not done out of mere boredom, rather it had a deliberate motive behind it. She needed have an anchor as her mind wandered dangerously between madness and sanity, jumping back and forth between the lines. Magic was a very dangerous anchor but the simple act of maintaining the flames could assist, something bring her back to reality if she wandered too far. She had already made too many mistakes as of late, more could not be afforded. Amaryllis hadn't broached the issue of the events in the Forge, in fact the Embalmer had been more distant than usual as of late. Not that the Sorceress was complaining, and not that she was eager to have the subject brought up.

Petch Amaryllis, she's not important right now. The presentation. Your skills being displayed before the Council. Focus on that, Glyphing designs. The tall woman thought to herself.

So she did, her mind was abuzz with the various methods the ball hovering above her hands could be utilized in her Glyphing. Obviously she couldn't present subpar product to the Council, they wanted someone worth backing for an amount of time. Someone with skill a cut above the usual fools with delusions of grandeur, which Anna possessed. Her Glyphs were elegant to behold and her reimancy was nearing unheard of levels for her age, not only that but she possessed a nice little trump card others did not. The Mark of the God of Lies and Evil.

As she turned her gaze upon the eerie purple flames hovering above her hand, a small influx of Djed keeping it stable as she maintained control of the inner layer. For some reason she thought of burning her academic achievements before leaving Zeltiva, things that had taken years to gain destroyed and reduced to ash in moments on a whim.

Burning parchment... deadly parchment...

A light went off in Anna's head as she quickly dismissed the outer layer of flames and absorbed the inner layer of res back into herself. Her grey eyes had an unsteady light to them, equal parts madness and inspiration. Yes it was all so clear now, a good test perhaps. Of course she'd need a subject to read it... of course, the Dungeon! Hmm... perhaps nothing lethal at the moment, her run in at the Forge had reminded her of watching her steps more carefully. Toeing the line as it were.

She chuckled to herself as she produced parchment and ink, eager to begin on this little flight of fancy. Who knew, perhaps it might even be an adequate display of skill to the Council? Not exactly a weapon per say, more of a fail safe perhaps. A means of guarding from unwanted eyes, a sophisticated trigger would be needed of course. What else could be acceptable from her?

Eagerly she dipped her brush in ink and set to work, her face split in a hungry grin.

[Annalisa Marin]

Since arriving on Sahova Anna had noticed a maturing of her abilities as a wizard, an evolution that placed her near the highest echelons of not only Reimancers but Glyphers as well. Regardless of political power none could deny her strength in the arcane, how rapidly she advanced and understood concepts it took others weeks and months to understand. She never stagnated however in regards to the Arcane, never rested on her laurels or remained confident that enough was enough. Enough was never enough.

The tall woman turned her attention to the top of the parchment, a place where one might place a header in an official document. Anna started here, this was where the sigil would need to be the project to work out. Technically she could make it smaller and elsewhere, but the first trial was always best done with caution in mind. A larger and more obvious sigil would make mistakes less likely, more room for error.

She started with the Focus, the stylized inverted triangle looking almost elegant in its design and shaping, a refinement that set it apparent from lesser Glyphers. Her strokes moved with an ease and familiarity that denoted one more than used to the task of Glyphing. Truly the field of making weapons from Glyphing was one that fit her well, Reimantic weaponry especially.

It didn't take long for her to move on to the Barrier, hers taking the form of a ring of shapes that formed a common pattern. The pattern was a right side up triangle, a square, and then a diamond. It repeated over and over, her brushstrokes easy and natural as the Barrier formed around the Focus. It had once been so difficult, but now it was oh so very simple.

Barriers could be made to contain, or to keep other things out of their designated space. Anna was creating this one to contain, as well as to add stability to what the Focus would hold. The two would be interconnected, one falling when the other did. It wasn't so difficult really, it was just the way of Glyphing.

The Barrier finished Anna sat back and started thinking, the Trigger was going to need to be a little better than just drawing blood over it. Something far more advanced, it would need to allow for few mistakes and possess a failsafe of course. Triggers were tricky affairs, too vague and one ran the risk of blowing themselves up. Anna had learned that the hard way, so this one needed to possess specifics that would allow for no failure.

After a bit of thinking Anna nodded to herself, taking up her brush and adding in the Trigger quickly enough. It was complex and specific, but it only dealt in names as timed Triggers were still far beyond her at this point. She was not unmatched yet, but Anna was confident her research would eventually bear fruit. In the end the Trigger read:

If any other than those designated below attempt to read what is on this document, the Trigger will be activated to deactivate the Barrier and release the magic contained within the Focus.

Annalisa Marin

Anna looked back over the Trigger for flaws, seeing none she decided that it was time to add writing to the document itself. The Sorceress considered that this would actually be an effective method to hide her notes from prying eyes, any that might gaze upon them that she didn't designate would get a nasty surprise. The image of Daren attempting to stick his nose in her business, only to be rewarded with a lightning bolt came to mind and brought a small grin to her face. Her paranoia did have some practical uses after all it would seem.

The woman wrote the sentence 'You shouldn't be reading this' to the parchment in big common lettering. It just needed to work for this trial, nothing important needed to be added just yet. Hopefully this would blow up in her face when it came time to test it. This done all she needed was to add a bit of magic into the mix and it was a done deal.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna mulled over what exactly she could add to the scroll, what magic would be good enough or rather not explode in her face. Surprisingly she opted for Voiding this time rather than Reimancy, chuckling as she imagined that one day when her power was good enough some hapless fool attempted to read her research only to be banished to the dimension of emptiness for their trouble. That would be rather amusing, fortunately her small power there would prevent anything too catastrophic from taking place. Her Portals could now envelop her full hand if she pushed the limits, but they were useful for nothing but waste disposal at the moment.

She positioned her hand over the Glyph, making certain enough space was given to properly manifest it. The tall woman closed her eyes and focused deep within herself, cycling her breaths in a calming fashion as she attempted to find the concept of emptiness within her. The concept was an important part of the process, a necessary step to manifesting the bridge between two dimensions. It was just as important, if not more than the actual act of feeding it Djed to sustain the eventual bridge.

To be nothing was to be powerful, more powerful than it was to be something or to subsist. Here and now was finite, this Citadel would eventually crumble to dust and the Undead would die as well. Everything would become nothing, that thing that was eternal and never ending. It was powerful in that it was the end of all things, it was when the story of existence came to a final close and everything took its final bow. Poetic really.

As she opened her eyes, the insanity behind her eyes flickering into something more subdued she started to chant. It was the typical incantations that came with manifesting a connection to the Void. Nothing special and the words themselves held no power, but the power that would be brought about due to them would vindicate the phrase.

"Sutla Gug. Gug Sutla.

Sutla Gug. Gug Sutla.

Sutla Gug. Gug Sutla."

The woman used the words to focus on the concept of emptiness and used it as a catalyst to separate the concept from herself. Djed was focused under her hand, the very essence of who she was preparing to be transformed into something greater. The concept was then focused on the space below her curled fingers over the sigil.

Nothing happened at first, such was the difficulty of Voiding as it was not an immediate thing. After roughly thirty ticks of concentration the space she had focused on had the matter emptied from it, and a tiny black spot manifested. The Sorceress felt her Djed rush from her, energy being sapped from her as the bridge between the two dimensions hungrily sought to maintain itself.

Anna held it as this for a moment to stabilize it before feeding it an increased influx of Djed, the signal for it to begin to slowly expand over the Sigil. She gritted her teeth as she fed the Portal, the drain growing ever stronger as the ticks went by. The amount of Djed needed to hold a Portal was dependent on a number of factors, namely portal size and the addition of push or pull. Anna had no intension of adding a Pull upon it, however the larger the Portal the more Djed needed to maintain it.

The Portal continued to expand and Anna continued to feed it more and more, her mind swimming with thoughts of expanding it more than her limits. She wanted to make Portals big enough to consume armies, to fell whole cities and uproot forests. She had a gift for destruction, no mistaking it and it was an art form she always sought to further refine. Perhaps if she just kept going...

No. She needed to stay focused on the task at hand, to focus on holding the Portal stable after it achieved comfortable size. The black, swirling vortex continued to slowly grow and grow taking more and more from her as she continued to expand it. It grew to the size of her hand and she idly wondered what would happen to a person's hand if it was on the other side when a Portal closed. Would it severe the appendage? Perhaps she could experiment with that later, research for another time.

The Portal was less than inches away from touching the Focus, luckily it was only the act of manifesting the Portal that it needed to record. She maintained it for a few more ticks, holding it steady as it imprinted onto the Focus its sequences and information. For truly that was what Djed was, information and magic was the transformation of that information into something new.

After those ticks Anna willed the core of the Portal to fill with matter, causing the Portal to collapse in upon itself. After it vanished the air where it had once subsisted rippled slightly before returning to normal. Anna's breathing was heavy by this point but she felt that she had cut herself off before going too deeply into dangerous territory. Still, it might be best to stay her hand from casting for the rest of the day. It might be overly dangerous.

As a test Anna looked over the words on the document, the sigil did not activate so the woman rolled up the parchment carefully and headed out of the Common Labs. Her next destination was the Dungeons were she might find all kinds of willing subjects to read the lines to activate the Trigger.

[Annalisa Marin]

It hadn't taken her overly long to get to the Dungeons, when she entered the soft moans and cries of the tormented had washed over her. Anna's eyes scanned around as she started walking leisurely through the halls of the Dungeons, her expression carefully blank. There were no cruel smiles, no sighs of bliss, more importantly but for a dull flicker in her grey eyes there was no sign of madness. She needed to be diplomatic hear, kind even in order to coax one of the prisoners to read the document in her hand.

So she was searching the faces she passed, looking for one desperate enough to be lured into doing as she desired. A sympathetic ear offered from a fellow pulser perhaps, though that distinction between living and dead was something she barely identified with any longer. She was a Chaon of Rhysol before anything else mattered, still the fact that she was living was still useful in how she moved.

At last her eyes found a subject that seemed to fit exactly what Anna was looking for, and she had resist the slow eager grin from splitting her face. Now was not the time for that just yet, she couldn't crack like that day in the Forge just yet. Osd Messer was still on her list of people to horribly murder of course, preferably after stealing his eyes from him and then burning his mouth away. Oh yes, that would certainly be fun.

Grey eyes turned upon the form of a human woman, her hand reaching through the bars pitifully. Anna held no pity for her situation in her heart, she was a Chaon and Chaon were not supposed to have attachments based on sentiment. However she did place a sympathetic look on her face and approached her cell, keeping just out of arms reach.

As expected the ragged and filthy creature recoiled away from the imposing Sorceress, which was returned with an almost gentle smile. She held out her waterskin with a slightly quirked eyebrow, shrugging slightly at the quizzical look she received from the prisoner. Carefully the starved woman came closer and reached out, taking the waterskin and drawing back.

Anna watched as the woman practically inhaled the contents of the container, her grey eyes holding no judgment. On the inside though there was a cold edge to her that wondered if the Portal would take the woman's hand. The widening from her smile was certainly not from when the woman cautiously passed the now empty container back to her, though it didn't gain a cruel edge yet.

"Thank you, miss. I haven't had anything to drink in ages." The woman said.

The Sorceress offered a sympathetic looked as she replaced the waterskin at her side. Of course she didn't particularly care about the girl, no real reason to but no reason to show apathy. Practicality was her reason for being here, not sentiment.

"Twas no issue my dear, I dislike the sight of beautiful women suffering." Anna said, inclining her head slightly.

The woman eyed her warily, to be expected as she was both free and possessed the ring of an apprentice around her finger. No reason to not be suspicious, though that hardly mattered in Anna's opinion. She just needed to be compliant.

"Actually, I am looking for an assistant in a little project of mine. I was hoping you might be the one I seek." Anna stated, cocking her head slightly.

The suspicion was back and Anna could have sworn she noted a flicker of fear an uncertainty in her gaze. Nothing came free after all, though Anna expected this by now. It helped that this woman lacked the protection of the Forge, though that wouldn't halt her from murdering Osd when the day came for him to receive his due.

"What kind of project?" The woman asked warily.

"I simply require you to read the words on this scroll, if you do that and you are still alive tomorrow I'll bring you more water and a portion of my meal." Anna said, holding the scroll up.

"How do I know it won't kill me?" She immediately responded.

Anna raised and eyebrow at this question and shrugged slightly, silently amused by that suspicion.

"If I wanted you dead, my dear, we wouldn't be talking right now and there would be a neat pile of ashes in your cell. Considering your situation, what have you to lose?" Anna responded.

She saw the woman consider it, thoughts no doubt playing behind her eyes as she glanced at the scroll and then at Anna. Finally she seemed to reach a conclusion and held out her hand, which Anna placed the scroll it. Still eying Anna suspiciously she opened the scroll. Almost as soon as her eyes met the first word the Trigger activated and the woman jumped back with a yelp of surprise as the black vortex sprung from the Focus. Anna grinned as she noted that the document had crumpled as well.

Excellent, so that had worked out well for her and it also opened up more advanced Trigger designs. With this in mind her presentation would need to be upped, significantly. More precise Triggers would need to be placed on her scrolls, and certainly higher tier spells as well. Already Anna had resolved to use this new form of Glyphing to keep her written notes or works from prying eyes.

"W-what was that!?" The woman asked as the portal shrunk slowly away into non-existence.

"That was a Portal to a place you'd rather not end up." Anna replied.

The woman glared at the Sorceress, which drew a slightly amused smirk and shrug from the tall woman. It had been extremely amusing to see her shrink away in fright as the Portal had burst into existence.

"What about our deal?" She asked.

"I'll return tomorrow at some point. If you still live I'll have your reward. Farewell." Anna replied, turning on her heel and striding away from the cell.

[Thomas Cosa]

Annalisa Marin

Glyping	+2
Voiding	+3
Meditation	+1
Persuasion	+2

• Giving Water to Gain Trust

Grade Notes :

First and foremost, great thread! I always love reading how you interpret magic, and can't wait to see what you do with Anna in thread. So, I would like to see your post broken up -- I would've loved to give you more points, but you really need to do more posts focusing on whatever to get more points. I really liked how you had her stall a bit with her voiding, you do very well at playing at Anna's level.

Inquiries can be directed to one Thomas Cosa via PM and will be sorted out in short order.