Solo The Song Of The Wind III

[Kelski]

Timestamp: 72nd of Fall 518 A.V.

Continued from: The Song Of The Wind II

The Ancient Eth Mage took the dagger and it glowed red for a moment in his hand. Then she saw a sheen if ice coat it until it settled into what looked like its normal form. The weapons weren’t fancy, but rather plain with wooden handles. They looked actually crudely made, like an apprentice had produced them. And while the hilts were worn smooth, Kelski could feel the perfect balance in the weapon still in her hand. Gilthas inverted the dagger, offered her the hilt, and bowed.

“Kelskanisha K'etir. Will you accept this dagger as a symbol of the djedline you are about to join. Use it with love and trust always, for in that type of usage lies the most potent power. Accept me as your guide, teacher, and now djed father. I will protect you, uphold your values, and nurture your own natural gifts as much as I can possibly do.” He said, holding out the dagger. Kelski looked confused a moment, but then stepped forward and took the dagger from him again.

He held out his hand for the other one. She started to hand it to him, then paused, instinct taking over. Mages had done this for thousands of years. Her well inside of her, the core that held her djed, knew what to do.

“I do.” She whispered. Then more strongly said…

“Gilthas Avancalas. Will you accept this dagger as a symbol of the djedline you are about to induct me into. Use it with love and trust always, for in that type of usage lies the most potent power. Accept me as your friend, student, and now djed daughter. I will protect you, uphold your values, and nurture your own natural gifts as much as I can possibly do.” Kelski said softly, then and only then offering him the dagger.

Gilthas smiled, took the dagger, and repeated the process with it. She saw it glow white-hot and then ice over in what she was starting to suspect was a way to cleans and purify it ritually. His eyes began to glow, filling with djed and taking on a luminous quality. Kelski could feel her own djed rising, eager, wanting what was to come. Instinctively she moved closer and Gil smiled, holding up the dagger.

“I must inundate you, Kelski, with my Res. It will not be easy and it will not be without pain. If it was possible, I’d use some other manner. It is best if we do it together, which is why I ask you to blood me first and trust you to do so.” He held up his left palm, the one not clutching the dagger, and beckoned her closer. “Make a cut… draw blood… and I will do the same to you. Mirror my moves, cut for cut, until we come full circle and do the last cut together on our dagger prominent hands.” He said softly, and she moved, not hesitating a moment.

Kelski made a neat clean cut across his palm, following his heart line as Mosa had identified it. He drew in a breath, the only sign that she’d hurt him, even as she lifted her hand and he bit deeply into it with her own dagger. Then swiftly, as if he would not dwell on the thought of it, he began. He cut her shoulders, the tops of her breasts, the inside of her right thigh, the outside of her left thigh… and she did the same to him. The last cuts they made caused the daggers to drop to the ground afterwards and ricochet away across the floor.

[Kelski]

Then he reached out with bloody palms, his entire body dripping blood and aching with the burn of the cuts, and drew her to him. Their hands linked, palms pressed together, even as he slipped his bleeding thighs to hers, one inside one outside, as he pressed his chest to hers… the wounds lining up perfectly. Then he dipped his head and whispered… “Accept this offering, daughter. Let it be a fuel to your inner fire and let it release the potential in your djed.” The Eth said softly, tenderly, and kissed her.

She thought it would be like other kisses she had received, but she was wrong. Fluid poured into her mouth between breaths. Thick, viscous fluid poured down her throat. He did not choke her, but the infusion was deliberate, powerful, and she instinctually swallowed… hungry for the substance, needing it like a parched wander of a desert landscape.

Her entire body burned and she could feel the substance flow into her at the other points, filling her body up, altering her, teaching her, and it wasn’t wholly pleasant. It was imperfectly painful, as if the cost of the gift was the price of intense pain. And when it reached a level even she could not bear, she arched against him – bare bloody skin sliding against bare bloody skin – and screamed. He took advantage of the action and as her neck arched and her throat opened up even more – he poured more of the thick substance down it.

Kelski felt her whole body ignite. Her nerve endings fired over and over again as the invading substance met with her djed and fused, mixing, altering, and initiating. She grabbed him hard, holidng him against her, then pushed at him trying to force him away. Gilthas held her through the storm, a stone pillar of strength as he turned this mortal creature into his djed daughter. He let her writhe and squirm, knowing and remembering his own initiation and understanding that it could be no different and there was nothing he could do to help her now but let the process work.

After a time, he pulled his lips from hers, letting her pant, and unlocked his palms from her own, bringing them around to hold her tight, stroking her back and leaving bloody smears up and down her spine. He whispered reassurances to her, holding her pelvis to his, unconcerned that his manhood was laid bare to her femininity. Their relationship was not one of that sort of intimacy. It was deeper, fuller, a legacy no lover could ever provide for mages like he sought to craft her into.

Power now flowed between them.

What he was, he gave to her, and what she would become someday she’d pass on to others. It satisfied his djed, made it more alive and aware than it had been in years. Gilthas had a deep deep well, one he’d never sank into fully and never needed due to his passive curious nature. But it gave of itself generously to the Kelvic, perhaps in gratitude for her freeing him from his curse, but more likely in satisfaction that the choice was one it wholly approved of.

[Kelski]

Within Kelski, things were changing. Pain became pleasure, and it was a new and heady sensation that had nothing to do with physical release. Power rose in her, the core of her revealing itself fully and her well awakening to its own potential. She held an incredibly old and incredibly amazing creature in her arms… one she had a new name for now. Father… Djed Father. They were linked in ways she’d always wanted to be linked, a bond that was not unlike her Kelvic Bond that lay dormant and broken. And with every breath… every inhalation and exhalation… she felt herself changing.

The burning pain now was fading. It had inundated her awareness and brought out the beast more than she liked. Kelski's eyes were dilated, looking more eagle than human as she held her mouth open and hissed bird-like between dragging in deep breaths. She couldn't catch her breath. Her pants and hisses sounded incredibly inhuman even in her own ears. She could feel it like an invasion, one wholly welcome and necessary. It felt like a hundred thousand fire ants had worked their way into her soul and were slowly changing her from what she was into what she would be. Kelski hissed again, sweat breaking out on her forehead and bare back as a warm hand reached up and caught her head.

Gilthas tangled his hands in her beautiful hair and forced her to see him. She could not know her eyes were a luminous silver, glowing inhumanly and powerfully. She licked her lips and swallowed repeateldy, obviously tasting the Res he’d just given her, causing her to salivate heavily.

"Look at me. Focus on me. Don't focus inward. Focus outward. It will make things easier." His voice was deep, rich, and so vastly different than when she'd first met him. He commanded the air around him with an indisputable authority that drew her attention immediately. A second hand joined the first, catching her skull in his grip.

"Kelski. Look at me." He said again.

She did, and when her eyes met his, things within her settled. It was as if something displaced all her life snapped into place and she sighed in relief. Her entire being shuddered as she drew in one more breath, and then instinctively pulled away from him. He let her go, releasing her hair, letting his hands drop to her shoulders as she gathered space and then brought her hand up to her heart.

[Kelski]

“I won’t ever be the same, will I?” She whispered.

He smiled, almost laughed, his rich tanned skin pale now from the loss of his power and the bridge he had formed between the two of them. “No, I suspect not. Neither of us will be, Kels. Come… I have water and cloths to wash with ready to go.” He beckoned, took her bloody hand again, then walked her to the other edge of the circle, where indeed there were two bowls and a pile of towels handy. There was also a jar with a glowing luminous cream in it. He bent down, touched either bowl of water, and heated it up. Then he grabbed a wash cloth, soaked it in the water for a moment, rang it out, and began washing off their comingled blood from his daughters skin.

Kelski did the same, cleansing Gilthas of the evidence of their ritual… bowing to rinse the cloth or select another as needed until he too had no more blood on him. Then he picked up the bowl of cream, its bright blue luminescence casting his face in an odd shadow, and softly requested… “Show me your hands.”

He rubbed the cream into both her palms and then did all the cuts he’d made into her body. “This will seal the wounds and should eliminate any scars. It packs a powerful punch to its healing, so it will take the most clever eye to spot any sort of disruption in your normal skin. If Sunberth is as you say it is, then you should not be walking about with Reimancy initiation scars as plain as day on your palms.” Kelski nodded, and took the cream from him, doing him the same service.

“I would be proud to have scars from you.” She said softly, still administering to his cuts.

He smiled, glancing down at her as she worked. “As I would from you, but it is not safe.” His expression was pained, but understanding. “I can only think Mages have abused their power and the gifts of their djed in the past of this city. Which, is unfortunate but an all too common thing throughout history.” The Eth said with true disappointment in his words. Then he moved away from her, giving her space.

Then he stepped back and traced a glowing symbol in the air. It was a lovely thing, comprised as a spiral with two flowing lines bisection it. “This is our djedline, Kelski. It is my hope that it still exists in the world today, though I have no direct knowledge of it. I imagine the colors of the sky associated with it have changed, but you have the right and privilege to use this symbol as it is. I have it from my master who was a pre-valterrian mage. And now you have it from me. Your line – our line - is pure and strong. Please do it justice and serve its needs as well as it will serves you.” Gilthas said, gesturing and the glowing symbol rose, spread out and encompassed them both.

[Kelski]

“Why the color of the sky?” Kelski asked, curiously.

“Because the sky reminds us, dear daughter, that there are no limits to what we can do if we unfetter our minds and leave our earthly bounds behind. Our line is known for its water and wind magic, and if they are not the first elements you receive, I will be shocked. I think my own Djedfather would be proud I inducted a Sea Eagle into our line.” He said, taking her hand and drawing her from the blood and strewn daggers of the Mage Circle.

“I will clean this up later. Let’s first see what your djed has done with my gift of Res.” He said gently, pulling her towards him and over to a table that was formed of stone. She could see no carving marks on it or any sort of means of how it was made.

He sat her down at the stone table and took a seat across from her. “You survived, Kelski. Some people do not. Some give in to the pain, fleeing before that substance I gifted you with can fully take form. Each action – both giving into the pain and fleeing the process – result in death. It is not common that such risks and such warnings are given before the rite. It weeds out the weak. It proves you are not weak.”

She smiled slightly. Though somewhere in the tinge of her mind was someone telling her how risky Reimancy induction was. So, it was known, somewhere somehow, it was known people died. She studied Gilthas with that knowledge firm in her mind and shook her head. “I think things have changed. I think somehow mages know and don’t initiate as they used to because of the danger.” She said, looking thoughtful.

Gilthas shook his head. “Sad times if that is in truth, fact.” He said, then obviously moved on. Gilthas had more important things to think of and some serious teaching to do.

“Some Masters would have you rest and test you at the dawn of a new day, but I am not that sort. The world is hard and you must power through it. Reimancy must be initiated because it is driven by Res. Res is the substance your djed crafts to form its Reimancy element from. Djed can’t figure out how to craft Res without being infected with Res. So that’s what we’ve just done. You’ve tasted and touched mine… know mine intimately. In fact, mine is now yours. Right now, you will be as baby, taking short small motions that mimic turning your head or sitting up, but as time passes and you master what you are doing, you’ll be able to crawl, stand, and eventually walk. Walking will lead to running. I want to see you run.” He said softly, gently, and then smiled slowly.

“Res, as you know, is this gaseous gel. The gel can be transmuted into one of four elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water – at the will of the mage. You are the mage. And as of now you have one element, Kelski. Lets find out what it is…” He said, a slow mischievous smile crossing his features. It was as of Gilthas already knew what element Kelski had acquired, and it spiked the Kelvics curiosity to no end.

Continued In: The Song Of The Wind IV

[Kelski]

G R A D E S

Kelski

Reimancy: +5, Arcanology +2, Endurance +4

Reinmncy: Initiation – How Its Done/Survived, Reimancy: Djedline Oath, Reimancy: Kelski Has No Obvious Induction Scars, Endurance: Finding Strength To Survive Induction Pain, Gilthas: Djed Father, Reimancy: The Feeling Of Induction, Reimancy: Her Djedline Symbol, Reimancy: Her Djedline Stands For Sea And Sky, Reimancy: Her Djedline Is Known For Its Wind And Water Mages, Arcanology: What Res Is

Acquisition: A Djedline Mark, An Initiation Dagger, Induction Wounds But No Scarring.