Up in the Air (Solo)

[Talya]

Timestamp: Summer 60, 515 AV

The ground was gritty. There was nothing left but sand. It slipped between Talya's toes; getting stuck in the hollowed crevices as her feet continued to sink into the beige; heated masses. The grains pooling over the top of her foot; burying her, as she remained transfixed in place. The sun's light casting shadows into the hollows of her eyes; as the golden streamers sought the darkness that was here eyes; being consumed by it as opposed to illuminating it as soon as she shut them again, locking out the sight of the docks and the bay, which stretched outward as far as her eyes could see. The blue-green waters swaying as the sun hung low over its far edge; its reflection shimmering over the surface of the rippling water. Its waves crashing into the shore; producing a thick foam that bubbled and frothed before slipping away, as it was sucked back into the depths. Gulls circling overhead; blotting out the sight of sun and of cloud; cawing their raucous screeches as they sought muscles and other creatures that they could eat. They were loud, Talya found, but not overly distracting as she sought to quiet her soul, to concentrate, before she began to practice the use of her magic.

Talya took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth as she began her meditation. Holding her hands clasped before her chest, as a wind picked up from the water, and caused her black dress to billow out wildly all around her. She sighed as she let her breath out, and then took in another breath. Holding it in until her lungs began to ache dully, at which point she let it out. She counted her breath. That was only one. On the second, she counted again before letting it out. Trying to make the sound of the waves as she let the air slip out of her lips. She took another breath, concentrated on the rise and fall of her chest as she let it in and out. Tried to mirror the sounds of the bay again, but found that it was a struggle, that her tones were to soft. With each subsequent breath, she tried harder and harder to make it sound like the rocking of the waves; the crash of them into the shore. But she found that she could not, even as she reached the number ten, and began her cycle again. Breathing in and out ten times. Counting each off as they occurred, before beginning again. Making it to the number five before she lost track, and began again. She repeated this process a number of times until her mind began to feel quiet, at which point, she thought herself ready for her practice session.

Talya opened her eyes. She took another deep breath before letting her fingers unravel. She pulled her hands apart, directing them outward, toward their respective sides, before raising them, so that they were held in front of her at a level a little lower than her two shoulders. She rotated her arms then, slowly as light glittered across their surface, until her palms were facing the sky. She then pulled her fingers together, and held them flat and taut, before concentrating on her djed. She imagined it being piled into a crystalline orb at the center of her chest. Cold; hard, unrelenting; the perfect shield against the acid and other angrier forces of her body. She pictured herself taking a hammer and crack shattering the crystal. Causing it to burst into hundreds of little, jagged pieces. Shards. She could feel them puncture her organs; slit through her veins. They tingled unpleasantly, as her body ached wildly, as though she had just been pierced with hundreds of needles all over. It was a deeply unpleasant, prickling sensation that slowly coursed up the length of her form, as the crystal released more than just the shards- it released also, what it had contained, what she had been trying to get at, and broken it open for in the first place.

A transparent gas, which filtered through her body. Running through the emptiness, the organs, the veins. It was cooling; comforting, made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, despite the fact that it was cold. It felt like it was repairing her- making the pain of her previous blunder go away, as much as it made her whole again. Talya couldn't help but smile at the thought as the gas crept higher and higher. It filled all of her body now, but the concentration was behind the edge of her fingers. It made her flesh tingle as she breathed deeply, and prepared to free her djed.

[Talya]

Another breath. Another second. Another heartbeat. Another rise and fall of her chest, and Talya had released her djed into the air. Forming gaseous res. It trickled from the space between her flesh and the back of her nails, from the black speckles on each of her fingers. It filled the air above each of her palms, pooling in a gaseous wave, that could only be described either as a single undulation, if not the quivering of a candle's flame when caught within a wind. It was largely shapeless, although it held itself together, as Talya had not directed it to do otherwise. It was completely transparent. Light passed through it with ease, and if Talya looked through it, (which she did), she would find that everything behind it was seen through a magnified scope- the sand in the distance, littered with a number of cockle shells, and what looked as though they were smaller versions of a conch. Although many were broken, and none a snowy white, instead, coming in a number of paler tones that ranged from a sandy orange, to a vibrant yellow, if not something tinted purple or blue. The bay, the few gulls and pelicans and things that were flying around overhead, crying at one another in their strange bird language.

Talya took another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, working to steady the uneven beating of her heart, which had gradually begun to pick up the pace over the time she had taken to form her res. When she felt as though she had let it go on to long, as she still had the distinct sense that there was a fair enough present, just as much as she had a sense of what it looked like, and what it was doing, and where precisely it was as she held it within her mind's eye to direct it, Talya began to pull air out of the atmosphere, and allow it to fill the res she had formed. Slowly, the air trickled in from her surroundings; although it had grown unnaturally still as she continued to breath in and out, and stand simply staring out at the bay. Within a half a minute, she had filled everything but the outer layer of the res form with air. This way, although the form was messy, and would appear largely indistinct, (if one could view it at all), the air wouldn't get away. It would be trapped inside the thin layer of res that she allowed to remain, until she was ready to release it from her hold- direct it at someone or something. Direct it toward some sort of task.

The only problem was that she didn't have a designated task. There was nothing in mind for her to make the air do, and as such, she simply filled the rest of the res with air of her own conjuring before letting it waft upward into the air with the deep melancholy sigh. Imagining herself watching it go as it floated higher and higher, and then dissipated into nothingness, as it was absorbed into the rest of what of what it already was.

[Talya]

Talya sighed. A sense of melancholy filled her; moving in with the air as it filtered through her blood; her lungs. She didn't know what to do with the magic, but she felt it to soon to cease all the same. She had barely begun her practice yet, and couldn't say that she had much improved in the time she had spent, if she had done so at all. She couldn't give up then, not just yet, she would just have to keep going, and invent something for the magic to do as she did so. It was thus, that Talya began the process all over again. Breathing first in through her nose and out through her mouth, before concentrating on the location of her djed, and forcing it out of her body through the pores in her fingers. Her appendages tingling pleasantly, the notion that a breath had passed over them although there was no wind passing through her, causing the thin hairs to rise as her fingers trembled in anticipation and excitement, a broad smile spreading across her lips as she pooled her transparent res into the air, much as she had done only moments before. She imagined this time, that the res took a more distinct shape however- that of a sphere, or something roughly spherical, which would rotate lazily on an axis as she watched the movement of the water. The bay that stretched endlessly before her.

A few seconds later, she put a damn upon the ducts as it were, and closed off any further production of res. By then, her pupils had dilated, and the darkness of her eyes had deepened even further. She took another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, before drawing air from the outside world into the orb. She imagined the orb being a replacement for her lungs; the outer rim her mouth, sucking it in. Then closing off as it was absorbed, before repeating the process over and over, until everything but the outer layer was full. She then concentrated on keeping the spherical form distinct, as the air flowed unseen, ricocheting off the confines of its small cage, threatening to make the orb that hovered over each of her outstretched palms expand, although it never gained the power to do so. It stayed roughly the same shape as she looked around- first and out over the surface of the water onto the horizon which seemed more and more distant the longer she stared, and then to the edge of the sand, where it began to darken as waves lapped up on its side. Forming a wavering pattern of contrasting dark brown and pale beige; dry and damp, with little peaks of froth and gathered stone and shell. Then she looked up at the sky, which was beginning to fill itself with wispy looking clouds, through which a series of gulls and pelicans flew.

It was then that an idea came to Talya, and she continued to watch the birds as they moved back and forth through the air. She waited awhile, several minutes in fact, until a young looking gull drew near. She supposed it had spotted something that looked tasty to it, somewhere nearby on the beach, and was swooping down to take a hold of it. Its snowy white wings spread wide as its orange beak parted, while it dipped even more deeply into its clean, sweeping dive. When it was within what she supposed was about fifteen feet. Talya hurled each of the airy orbs at the gull. She then filled the outer layer with air of her conjuring, and imagined them flying high. Heading toward the bird before plummeting into it, and knocking the surprised creature off its course. But, it did not appear as though it were meant to be so, as the gull continued on in its dive and picked something off the sand a few seconds later. An oblong, deep blue shell which looked as though it may belong to a mussel. Talya sighed- either her magic was to weak and didn't reach the gull, or too weak to knock it off course, or it had missed completely, which she assumed was the case, as her magic hadn't seemed to so much as ruffle the bird's feathers.

Talya sighed again. It was time to try another round.

[Talya]

Talya began by taking another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. In through her nose, and out through her mouth, while placing her hands delicately on her chest so that she could feel it rise and fall with each subsequent intake and expulsion. When her heart had quieted a little, and stopped beating quite so furiously, she watched as a pelican dove into the water, presumably in pursuit of some small, unseen fish. It came back with nothing it seemed, as it screeched angrily, as water drizzled out of the side of its large, net-shaped mouth. The Ethaefal chuckled to herself as her eyes followed it a moment, and then she finally pulled her hands off her chest, and held them out before her again, this time, with the palms directed downward, toward the sand a few feet in front of her two feet. She took another deep breath, before concentrating on her djed, and raising it from the blood of her arms, (or at least, what felt like it was the blood of her arms), as each of her veins began to sear with pain, causing her to clench her teeth together, and his through them as her res began to pool over the top of each of her arms in a long, thin line.

Talya took another deep breath, in through her mouth, and then out through her lightly flaring nostrils. She concentrated idly on the rise and fall of her chest, while she allowed the last of the res she intended to create to pool and form above her arms. The air tickling the hairs on the back of each, as she concentrated on the invisible substance, a few beads of sweat appearing upon her brow as much from the heat as the use of her reimancy magic. She closed her eyes a moment, allowed herself to breath a few times before opening them again, and then concentrating on the shape she wanted the res to take- forming a picture within her mind's eye, so as to direct the magic a little better. She envisioned the res as a snake, winding its way around each of her arms, from wrist to the start of her shoulder. Encircling her until it was bound to her as much as she to it. It was then, when she was as certain that she could ever be that it had taken the form she wanted, that she began to fill the res coils with air she had gathered from the outside. As she did so, a breeze swept in from the water, and knocked a few beads of sweat from her brow; they fell onto her shoulders, her chest, just as the air forced the coils to fill more swiftly with its element than they might have otherwise.

When she was finished filling everything but the perimeter with air, Talya directed her gaze skyward. She scanned it lazily, watching a few birds cycle around. Eventually, about two minutes later, a bird flew by after she had kicked a closed off shell into the air. It dove for it hurriedly; its grey wings spread as it moved. This time, when it came within what she felt was a striking distance, Talya let the airy snakes slide off her arms and into the air. She imagined them winding through it; cutting through its brother with ease as she finally filled the rest of the res with air she attracted to it from all around. When she thought it had gone far enough where it would be making contact with the bird, Talya squinted her eyes and looked closely. She thought she saw a slight flutter within the feathers of the bird's under wing, but nothing further. Maybe she hadn't hit the creature squarely, or maybe, she simply needed to conjure more to have any sort of effect, (if she was even strong enough to do so). With a sigh, she turned her gaze away as the bird dropped the shell it had just caught and flew away.

Tal was determined to do something however. Practice; at least one more time, and so she would.

[Talya]

Talya breathed deeply. Although her arms were beginning to ache, as they had been forced to remain aloft for far to long, she forced them inwards, drawing the hands toward one another. She stopped only when thumb brushed against thumb; the skin of one finger tickling the other. It was then that she flipped them over, so that her palms were facing up toward the sky, as though trying to catch a ran that would not fall, and her pinky fingers were pressed lightly against one another. She took another deep breath, before forcing even more djed out of her pores, the tips of her fingers, so that they formed piles of res above her outstretched palms. Each a misshapen mass, that slowly grew more and more attracted to each other the more they matured, until a time in which there was little space left to work with left between them. It was then that one sucked the other into itself, and the rest began to form one larger mass, which Talya forced into the form of a rough sphere. (In the sense that it wasn't perfectly round, just as round as Talya could coerce it into being with the power of her mind and its own sight, which was pretty spherical all things considered).

With the transparent orb of res complete, as it now stood about a foot high in diameter, and nearly another foot wide, (from what Talya could sense through her connection to her own creation), Talya began to draw air into it from the outside world. A task which proved far easier than it could have otherwise been, as the winds that flew in from the bay picked up again, and rapidly filled everything but the outer layer, so that she could still maintain some level of control over it until she was ready to give the airy res orb some direction. She imagined the gas swimming angrily around the orb, as she looked around and thought about what to do. Especially now that she noticed that the birds were clearing, flying over to farther sectors of the beach. She sighed, teasing them, (or trying to), simply wouldn't do for now, so she would have to try something else, lest she find herself waiting impatiently for quite some time, for something that might not even happen. She thought about what else there was- just sand and water, and a few scattered stones and shells. She thought that she could blow the sand or the shells or the stones around, but she supposed it would be rather boring to just watch them roll around. Not wanting to waste her djed on a task she deemed so mundane and simplistic, she forced herself to keep on thinking, determining to resign herself to it only if she could think of nothing else to do, and she became to tired in the interim.

Talya thought and thought and thought, until an idea came to her. What if, (if she had no direction for the magic same as now), she tried to send the air back into what already was. What existed naturally? When the res orb either sank in on itself, and became a smaller orb, or the air left behind a pile of res, (as had been before she absorbed it), she could try to reabsorb her res so that it became djed, and she never lost a small piece of herself at all. Talya trembled at the thought, it appeared brilliant, fool proof, and something that could be profoundly useful if she ever needed to redirect her magic in the future, when she came to a point when she had dominion over more than just a single element. She smiled happily as she took a deep breath and began, trying to force the air out. Imagining someone squishing the orb and forcing some back out into the atmosphere, and then when that didn't seem to work, someone puncturing a hole in it so that the air would seep out. It was a lot harder said then done though, and she thought if anything, she could only get a bit of the air to leave. The res orb shrinking as it did so. She sighed, as she tried to fill it with air from the atmosphere again. This was much easier she thought, as sweat poured down her brow, and finally, she tried to reabsorb the res that was and release the rest of what she had made.

But she couldn't. She couldn't figure out how. Talya didn't know how, and as such, the rest of what she had simply entered unseen into the atmosphere, and exhausted, she collapsed into the sand.