Solo Revision By Candlelight

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

41st of Spring, 517AV

Riverfall was never silent, or at least that was the conclusion she'd drawn after a short two days in the lively city. There always seemed to be at least some people about at all hours of the day and night and even in the places where people weren't, the roar of the massive waterfall or sounds of the numerous water features that could be found almost everywhere insured that the city never felt dead in any form of the word. It had been an interesting two days spent exploring and learning what little she could about both the city and its culture since she'd arrived, but she could not afford to procrastinate any longer. Having spent the entire winter season on The Kabrin Road it had been a long time since the sorceress had practiced or made any real progress in any of her disciplines, having had to hide her magical abilities from her travel companions since she was unsure of their opinions on mages.

It was midnight or somewhere nearby as Kamilla sat herself down in front of the humble desk included in her crimson themed room at the Kulkukan Tavern and Inn, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she prepared to focus all her attention on her work. She was unsure if it was the passing of time, the season and a half spent on the road or the energetic and lively atmosphere of her new surroundings, but Kamilla was anxious to return to her studies after too long a hiatus. Although her shortcomings in Sahova seemed a distant memory, they certainly hadn't been forgotten, though she felt as if some of the negative energy that had loomed over her because of her failures had somewhat been renewed as enthusiasm, though she had never been truly defeated nor had she lost her determination.

The problem with all her enthusiastic determination was that while there was so much of it bottled up within the young mage, she had not yet found a safe spot for her to put it to use in the form of magical practice. Of course she could attempt more complicated small scale versions of her reimantic spells in her small room at the inn but there was always a chance for backlash and unexpected results when it came to magic and even now in the privacy of her room, Kamilla could just make out the jovial noises of the crowd a level below her in the tavern only barely audible over the surprisingly therapeutic constant roar of the nearby waterfall. Given the circumstances, she had chosen not to risk discovery, or injury, by attempting any potentially dangerous magic within the small rented room. Taking everything into consideration, Kamilla decided that she would simply practice her glyphing until she found a more suitable location.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Despite her attempts to practice glyphing on the long road, Kamilla could not deny that she felt as if her knowledge of it had grown hazy overtime. During her trip she had read through her translated copy of the Treval Codex several times over but the book offered little to no practical knowledge instead containing a rudimentary understanding of what each discipline was. Glyphing was the magic that the deceased mage Felius had been impressively skilled at despite choosing to overlook his talent in the discipline in order to instead focus on his ridiculous obsession with becoming a cat.

Feeling that her grasp of the discipline as a whole had become disappointing, Kamilla decided the best plan of action would be to try and recall her basic theoretical knowledge of each type of glyph followed by a few attempts of drawing the runes individually before moving on to the next type. Satisfied with her freshly conceived study plan, the sorceress grabbed her quill and opened her journal to the first available blank page. "Alright..." she said to no one but herself, an attempt to signal the beginning of her session. Kamilla knew focus glyphs well, they were the type she most used and the type that she was most comfortable drawing, but for the sake of her notes she would cover them as well.

'Focus: A single large glyph capable of storing magic. Also useful when used alone to help the flow of magic. Example, res production.'

It was short and simple, but it was all that needed to be said on that specific type of glyph, to her at least. Beneath it she drew a sample of her own well practiced focus glyph, made up of swooping curves and loops that seemed almost floral when complete. It took her under two chimes to draw. Next came barriers, which for the most part were self explanatory.

[i]'Barrier: A repetitive pattern of glyphs used to trap, block or restrict magic within its boundaries.'

Honestly, the sorceress couldn't think of anything else worrth mentioning about that type of glyph as it's purpose was obvious to her. Although she found the theory behind barrier glyphs simple enough, drawing them was an entirely different story as she hadn't practiced them in a very long time. Shutting her eyes as she scrunched her face up in concentration, Kamilla tried her best to remember what her grandmother's barriers had looked like, she was after all the person who had educated her on the subject of glyphing, so it seemed appropriate that she recreate the wise old woman's runes.

As she remembered it, her grandmother's barriers comprised of a series of runes that resembled horizontally stretched 'x's which were closed off on either side with a simple vertical line between the two ends, leaving the tops and bottoms open. Trying to draw the series of barriers on the page proved to be even more difficult than trying to recall what they'd looked like and several times more time consuming. It took several chimes to draw a neat-ish circular enclosure of barrier runes, most of which Kamilla had spent chewing on her bottom lip, consumed by focus.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Refreshing her memory of the written discipline was, in fact, turning out to be far less simple and short than she'd imagined, but it was certainly a necessary effort and one she would take seriously, though a quick break seemed reasonable. Placing the quill carefully in the centerfold of her journal, Kamilla's arms rose above her head as she arched her back in one of those stretches she'd grown so fond of doing. It was a shame that having her mind unwillingly injected with the deceased mage Felius' memories had not also gifted her with his knowledge and skill of glyphing, in fact she'd even have been happy with having his feeble proficiency at morphing, though she certainly would have put it to better use than just growing a singular furry limb, like he so fondly remembered doing. How? She was not quite sure, but even something as superficial as changing her natural hair or eye color seemed a more interesting application.

Having allowed herself a brief recess in which she pondered the memories of the mage which now belonged to her, Kamilla returned to her work, leaning back towards her book and retrieving her quill. She brought the slowly flickering candle that rested on the desk slightly closer with her right hand whilst using her left to dip her quill in ink as she prepared to cover the glyphs known as triggers, another simple enough concept.

'Triggers: Used to specify a condition for another part of the sigil to be activated or deactivated.
Example: "When the word 'Alat' is spoken."'

Once again Kamilla was forced to inspect her memories of her grandmother's example of a trigger which she would use as a sample, for the time being. She was well aware that with time the way she drew her glyphs would change and become her own, just the way that her focus glyphs had. Triggers were more difficult to practice drawing as they tended to change and grow more elaborate depending on how detailed the specified conditions, so she simply focused on a few basic examples before moving on to the next type of glyphs, paths.

[i]'Paths: Used to channel a magical effect where desired. Made up of two barriers.'[/u]

She did not have to try and recall the appearance of these particular glyphs as they were simply made up of barriers, but regardless of how well she knew what they would look like, drawing them remained something she needed practice in. It took her roughly the same amount of time to create a little horizontal path, illustrated by straight and parallel sets of the closed off elongated 'x' pattern that made up her barrier glyphs.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Kamilla was unsure of how long she'd been at her desk, attempting to solidify her knowledge of the basics of glyphing, but if she were to take a guess she'd estimate that it was currently approaching the one bell mark or she'd just passed it, though there was no way to be sure. Regardless of how long it had taken, she was nearing the end of her recap session having listed all but one of the different types of glyphs, the last being switches. A dip of her quill into the ink container followed by a turn of a page was all the preparation the sorceress required.

'Switches: Used to either split a single effect or merge multiple. They are capable of dividing effects in two ways, power or function.
Usually written in a different colour.'

Drawing a switch was one of the simpler glyphs in Kamilla's opinion. Since they were simply used to divide or combine magic effects their written representations were all quite straight forward, she added a few examples which were all more or less variations of what looked like a single line splitting into either two or three, the three pronged runes resembling crow's feet. The important thing when it came to switches was that they were pointed in the correct direction, depending on which direction the effect or effects would be flowing through them.

"Finally." Her throat was slightly hoarse from not speaking In such a long time, but she was not yet done. For the final part of her summary on the fundamentals of glyphing Kamilla decided to draw a simple collection of different glyphs which when put together were known as a sigil. The components involved would be a focus glyph, barrier glyph and a trigger. As far as she remembered, this type of sigil was the simplest to create, though by no means did that mean she was currently capable, though she'd never know without trying.

Once again she started a new page, she would need most of the space to fit the entire runic mechanism if she was to create a proper representation. She began with a single focus glyph in the center of the page, it took up approximately a third of the page in width and a quarter in height as the pages of her book were longer than they were wide. Since focus glyphs were the ones she was most comfortable with drawing it took her just over a chime to complete, the result appearing as a rune she would describe as a six petaled flower made of loops with an outer ring meeting the tip of each petal as well as an inner ring meeting the swooping patterns at their six inner most points.

Satisfied with the appearance of her focus glyph, Kamilla moved on to creating the barrier, the step she knew would take up the majority of the time spent creating the sigil. It was not that the barrier glyph was particularly difficult to draw but rather that it was largely a work of repetition, having to draw the series of elongated closed off 'x' shapes over and over again in a slight curve until they had formed a circle that completely enclosed the focus glyph in the center of the page. It took several chimes and a fair amount of concentration, but Kamilla was satisfied with the end result, an enclosure of 'x' shapes each sharing the vertical line with the rune beside it. Looking at it now, Kamilla could see that it also looked like a series of connected sideways triangles, constantly alternating directions between left and right.

The final step was simply to add the trigger, which Kamilla decided would be the most basic one she could think of, 'Deactivate the barrier when the name 'Felius' is spoken.', choosing the deceased mage's name for the activator, and with that her sigil was complete. The sorceress took a moment to admire her own handiwork, it looked decent enough, she'd even go so far as to say she found it visually pleasing, but whether it was functional or not was a mystery. Of course she had only drawn the basic sigil as an example for her notes, but now that it was there in front of her the curiosity was quickly growing. She could simply attempt to fill it with a tiny reimancy spell of air, the scale of which would be hardly noticeable, only creating a simple wisp capable of maybe extinguishing a candle, but at the same time she couldn't guarantee her basic level glyphing creation wouldn't or couldn't interfere with the spell in unexpected ways. For an entire chime Kamilla fought her curiosity before finally giving in, "Ah, what's the worst that could happen?" was the excuse she'd settled upon as she leaned forward in her seat, ready to begin coaxing out her res.

[Kamilla]

Kamilla Circe Gordon

Glistening lavender res trickled upwards from the tip of the dark haired sorceress' right index finger to form a floating pebble sized ball only inches above, entirely unhindered by the force of gravity as it patiently awaited instruction. A small smile found its way to Kamilla's face as she stared into the hovering orb of energy, she'd missed it... magic, it was something that to this day still excited her and there had been far too few opportunities to safely use it during her very long trip from Zeltiva to Riverfall. Willing the orb to float a few inches further from her, Kamilla's hand opened fully and she watched as the res obeyed, forming itself into the rough shape of a four point star, she had always loved how obediently res behaved, within its limitations.

Unfortunately, and to her annoyance, Kamilla never got to test the legitimacy of her little sigil as she was interrupted by the sudden sound of her door handle turning. Startled, she instantly transmuted the star of res into air just as the wooden door swung open to reveal the bard Chrysanthemum standing in the doorway. The burst of transmuted air caused by her spell sent a moderate breeze through the room extinguishing all the candles and plunging the crimson shaded room into sudden darkness as Kamilla simply glared at the bard as if he was the cause.

"Oh shyke, I must have burst in here far more eagerly than I'd intended... Forgive my intrusion, beautiful Kamilla, but I must insist that you join me for a drink in the tavern, it's been far too long since I've simmered in your wonderful presence."

Kamilla, who had taken advantage of the dim lighting to shut her book without its contents being seen, simply rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she eyed the bard with a hint of annoyance evident in her expression and tone, "You saw me four bells ago, Chrys." she said dismissively, inwardly scolding herself for forgetting to lock her door, a mistake that could have gotten her killed had she been back in mage-loathing Sunberth.

"Then it has been four bells too long, dear Kamilla."

Red lips couldn't resist lifting at their edges, despite the lack of attraction and dislike of attention, Kamilla couldn't help but appreciate how truly witty and well-spoken the ridiculous bard was, he had certainly chosen the right line of work. "Very well I will join you, but that drink you mentioned will be on you, persistent Chrys." the teasing tone in her voice completely blatant. With that the young sorceress pushed herself up and out of her seat and made for the tavern on the floor below, she could always test her sigil another time.

[Grim Ravenwood]

Your Grades

Skills:
Glyphing: 3
Drawing: 3

Lores:
Glyhing: Focus
Glyphing: Barrier
Glyphing: Triggers
Glyphing: Practice makes perfect
Glyphing: Paths are made out of two barriers
Glyphing: Paths
Glyphing: Switches

Grader's Notes:
Please delete your post in the grading request thread. Note that no reimancy xp could be awarded since a competent reimancer would not learn anything from such a small amount of res manifested, one that didn't even succeed in it's purpose. Also, please specify in your skill table what types of reimancy is Kamila proficient in. If there is any issue with the grade itself, shoot me a pm. It is always interesting to see the bard flirt with Kamila, though i'd kill the fool. Enjoy your grades, they are to die for.

As always, Death guide you sorceress~
Grim