[Sacred Arch Falls] Alone Together [Ethan]

[Hadrian]

Pleased with Ethan's inquisitiveness and tractability, he became intent on this idea of opening the Kelvic's eyes to the djed. He imagined what a raptor with its flight and keen eyesight would be able to do with Auristics, and was quite excited. He put his hand between Ethan's shoulderblades and gave him a gentle nudge forward. "Put your hands in the circles the way mine were," he said, and then explained so the Kelvic would know what he was getting himself into. "The glyphs help hold magic, change it, so you can do more than you could just on your own. So I've tried to charge the glyphs with my Sight, so when your aura interacts with them, you'll be able to see what I see. It might even become something you can do yourself, but that might require training rather than just... Well, I think I might open your eyes. Learning to understand what you see will take time and discipline. "Go ahead," he said, his voice suddenly purring with a faint buzz of Hypnotism, though he was far from as skilled at that, which was why it was such a simple, gentle nudge rather than a true attempt to exert his will over Ethan's own, just a way to brush away any last minute misgivings. When Ethan did put his trusting hands in those circles, it took a moment or two for his aura to key the sigils, which then flared brighter and suddenly the world took on a whole new spectrum of color and information. Luckily for Ethan, it was a calm, woodland pool area, but still, there was a lot of new information of which to make sense. "Don't pull back," he urged, again with the power of hypnotic suggestion adding weight to his words. "It will be disorienting, of course, but you can learn to understand what you see. Just breath deeply and steadily and let everything flow over you. Don't try to understand it all at once. Just experience. "If you close your eyes, you will still feel it. Sense it. Sight just seems to be the easiest analogous sense in which it manifests itself."

[Ethan]

With his eyes fixated on the glowing marks. Ethan was surprised by the sudden hand on his back and nearly cracked Hadrian in the nose. Being surprised was one easy way to be hurt by a Kelvic or any animal.. Especially on the shoulder blades were Ethan's wings would be... Instead he kept calm and shivered a little. It was a tribute to his former master that he could keep his reflexes in check like that. Hadrian nudged Ethan forward and told him to place his hands on the circle. Maybe it was the sudden surprise a second ago but he didn't exactly like touching this circle. It was beautiful for sure and immensely interesting but wasn't it also this man's soul? Ethan constantly felt his soul in form of Instincts or gut impulse that often saved his life or gave him the natural confidence to complete a task he was given. He knew the importance of one's soul. Maybe this man didn't understand? Or had a strange liking for others touching it? When he thought of it this way. It was kinda creepy. Even when he gave an explanation of this act. Ethan still had a wry smile while he listened. Apparently these Glyphs made magic easier for Hadrian. Was it common practice or just something he did himself? What was sight in the first place, and Aura? All these new words were exciting to learn and interesting at first but now it just seemed to complicate with the learning. Training, was he already thinking of training? Ethan's heart started to race a bit. Strange pervert or not, training was well worth it. "Go ahead," the words ringed odd in Ethan's mind. Like they were a little more pleasant than the rest of what he said. Ethan didn't really need a push at all. He was extremely eager to see into an “Aura” or whatever this man saw. When his hands touched inside of the circle he half expected some light to appear and shoot into his eyes. Instead nothing happened at all. Ethan wasn't a person to wait when a puzzle was presented to him. His mind began churning ideas on why it wasn't working. Did it only work for Human's or did it need to be activated? “Hydromancer, this doesn't seem to work? Do I need to try something?” Ethan used one hand to nimbly tap and touch inside each part of the Glyph. While the other gently traced over the lines. He used his keen eyes to search and scan every part of the markings. Their must be a type of trigger? Mid thought the Glyph was activated with a bright flash that stung his eye's sharply. He wanted to rub away the pain and after image but knew better than to pull away. Apparently magic wasn't going to be without it's pains and discomforts. It took Ethan a second to realize his eye sight wasn't going to return to normal. It wasn't an after image at all. This Glyph must of burnt his eyes. Everything looked so horribly different. As if everything was evaporating. His sharp eye sight only made this worse. He couldn't keep his eyes focused on anything it was too painful. He wanted to pull away but the soothing words of Hadrian kept him there. He told him to simply experience everything. That if he trained he could understand what he was seeing. Like a good student Ethan obeyed and gritted his teeth. Trying not to think about what he saw and felt was hard for him. He hardly knew what he was looking at. Was this the soul of the entire world? Those thoughts needed to wait though. Ethan breathed deeply and steady trying to keep any thoughts away. The pain was still intense on his eyes. He dug his finger nails into the stone the Glyph was drawn on to ease the burning sensation. When Hadrian said closing his eyes would allow the feelings to go to other senses he gladly took the idea. Closing his eyes shut the pain eased to an uncomfortable dull squeezing pain. The cloudy bright light still pressed against his eye lids but it shut off most of the visual sense of Aura. Instead things came into his mind threw touch, sound and smell. It was too much of a headache to focus on any one sense so Ethan tried to listen to one. Touch seemed to be the easiest to comprehend for him, it was nice and basic. He could feel the cloud-soul of Hadrian all around him drifting off his body. It was hard to concentrate but he got to the point were he could feel and almost see his body. The concentration was giving him a headache but this feeling was too amazing to let go. “My eye's... Feel like their going to burn... When I open them.” His words were spaced out and unfocused. His main concentration was on the Aura. “This is... Amazing but how can you live like this? It's like flying out of a cloud...” His mind was else were and he hardly noticed the flying reference. It probably wasn't all that obvious anyways. Ethan's odd swaying would probably strike someone as more strange. He was slowly pushing his head threw the mist he felt. It was so incredibly confusing but that was the fun of it. He could only feel the presence of the Aura, not interpret it. “Is this your soul Hydromancer? I can feel it somehow... Can I feel my own soul this way?” Ethan began to turn his thoughts and feelings towards his own body-soul. He could feel his own body in that mist like smoke. Although since it was his, he knew what and where everything was. It made it easier to create the image from the smoke. Then he felt it... The strange things protruding from his back. He nearly missed them. It was so natural to him that he wouldn't have really told the difference if he wasn't studying closely. Wings... His God damn wings were hanging out in plain sight. The realization made Ethan stop dead in his tracks. If he wasn't so distracted he could of felt the shift in his Aura. The man knew he was a Kelvic... Yet he never said anything or made an attempt to identify him. That could only leave a few choices for this mans motives. One of which was he wanted a Kelvic. Perhaps to sell to savage slavers or for his own amusement. Humans were always dying to get a Kelvic “pet”. The idea of being tricked into servitude made him sick. His master taught him from a child that he was better than to be any ones slave. That he needed to bond with a good person if they ever separated. That ideal stuck deep with Ethan. For a moment he weighed his options. The risk of being a slave didn't out weigh the risk of loosing a chance at being trained in magic. This was his soul he was talking about. The chance to become that much more closer to his Kelvic side. Too that eerie light that changed him. “Can I trust you Hadrian?” He tried to keep his mind far away from the Aura's surrounding his body. To keep his voice clear and sturdy. “You obviously know what I am. What are your intentions with me? Is this a simple demonstration of Magic? Or are you looking for something else, a pet or slave?” His voice was stiff but polite. Gently poking for the answer. \\\OCC/// Lol interesting turn of Events! Tell me how I did on my Aura description. Hope I got it right! Also If you have some questions with the plot twist PM me. I don't want to stop the demonstration but I couldn't see any way around this. Hope you like the post

[Hadrian]

Had Hadrian any inkling of what Ethan was thinking about him, he might have been shocked, upset, or any number of other things, so it was probably a good thing he didn't voice them when they had just met. Ethan was interpreting his words through the filter of his own experiences and Hadrian would just have to keep explaining things in different ways until it all made sense to the Kelvic. This was a drawback of language, its ambiguity. "Stay calm," his Hypnotic voice droned. "Stay calm. It can't hurt you like this." Indeed, he had tricked it such that the sigils only contained enough magic for a few minutes of shared Auristics and Hadrian was capable of expending almost no energy to See. This wasn't draining Ethan's djed; it had only required that of his aura to trigger it. "I'm sorry," he added diffidently, his words plain apology rather than suggestion. "I didn't mean to startle you by touching you..." His voice trailed off, hanging awkwardly. "It's a lot of information," he said, resuming his question-answering. "It takes a while for your mind to learn to sieve through it in such a way that you can focus on what you're looking for, and practice to know what you're looking for and what it means. But you can probably see an emanation of my soul, or feel it, yes. And your own. It's not... stealing. The patterns exist. The energy comes off our souls all the time, and our life generates more, and we take in energy around us. It's natural, just a level of nature we aren't used to sensing so clearly." The last question, though, made him feel suddenly old, tired, and sick. Everyone distrusted sorcery and sorcerers, even those who merely wanted to peek between the cracks of the world and see how things worked. Would he like a Kelvic? Certainly. Had he thought about the possibility of bonding to this curious creature? Well, of course his mind explored options constantly. "Ethan, I'm just showing you the world as I see it because you asked. I've always thought it would be nice to have a Kelvic companion, but I have never actively sought one out. You're free to go... Just pull your hands away and the glyphs will fizzle out and disappear. It should be easier for you to learn to sense auras now that you know what you're looking for, so you don't need me, but I will teach you if you wish. You can do me little favors in return, but I'm not attempting to bind you to me. It's a free-will universe..." He sat back up to kneeling, sitting on his heels again, his hands in his lap. Ethan could experience his Auristics without Hadrian's touch or words, so he sat back to watch, hoping suspicion hadn't ruined the experience for the Kelvic. Those etheric wings, though, those looked wonderful. He began to wonder if he might not learn to Morph such wings. It would be one thing to Morph into a bird, learn to fly, but quite another thing to be a winged human. Of course, the pectoral muscle structure would have to change, and the back, to accommodate wings large enough and strong enough to lift a human body. Interesting...

[Ethan]

Hadrian's words calmed Ethan. His explanation sounded sincere and honest. It was foolish to completely trust any man so early on but Ethan went with the small instinctive feeling in his gut. The same feeling that saved his life plenty of times before. Ethan thought about the rest of this man's words. It was strange to meet a human that never sought after a Kelvic. Maybe his view on people was altered as a child from his former master? Altered or not this person seemed trust worthy. It was certainly refreshing that this man didn't want to forcefully bond with him. Even though he didn't really need Hadrian to learn about magic he did want a teacher. When the Hydromancer said its a free universe Ethan had to smile. Free wasn't a word he would ever use to describe himself. The soul of a Kelvic yearned to be bonded. Yearned to be connected with a partner, a master. “Kelvic's are many things, but they are never free.” Ethan paused for a second trying to find his next words. Hadrian's Aura was always shifting. Whatever that meant he did not know, but it was making things hard to concentrate. “I admire your intentions Hadrian. There aren't many people that wouldn't take advantage of this situation... Slave isn't something I'm interested in, but Student sounds nice. I gladly accept any tasks you have in exchange for teaching me.” He began focusing on the Aura's again. This was starting to give him a headache and the pain in his eyes and nails were only making it worse. “What exactly am I feeling anyways? It's all misty and dissolved? What should I do to focus better? Do you have any tips?”

[Hadrian]

"Freedom is a funny thing, Ethan. People marked by Nikali find freedom in bondage... it's just one of life's paradoxes." He paused, listening to Ethan. "And who knows...? Perhaps we'll get along and we'll want a bond." He smiled faintly; not normally one who could make friends, it seemed he was doing a lot of that this season. Perhaps one would be a Kelvic, who would stay with him always. It was a nice thought. "But like I said... it's diffuse because it's too much information coming into your mind at once, like adding another sense on top of the five you have. You should pull back, let it fade. Then you can practice again later. In fact, why don't you come to my home tomorrow morning? I'm staying with my father, so I have a window. If you do a turn around the Citadel at dawn, I'll have a big ball of blue res shining in the window. You can come, we'll have breakfast, talk, and perhaps I'll show you a few more things... help you learn to sense the auras without my help. After that it becomes a matter of practice and learning to interpret what you're seeing." When Ethan did decide to pull away, the enhancement of his Senses would dissolve as slowly as it first came, and Hadrian's sigils would blow away, blasted by the magic they had contained. Such was the nature of glyphs, sadly, unless one made them more permanent through the means of other magics. "What do you say?"

[Ethan]

Another sense was being laid on top of his others. That was a good way to explain it. No wonder he only wanted to focus on the touch of Aura.. When Hadrian offered for him to let go of the Magic. He was terribly hesitant. Sure, it was giving him a nasty head ache and a nail or two might of split. Still, it was completely amazing... Certainly the greatest thing he has ever felt since flight. As Hadrian continued Ethan was smoothed into letting go of the Magic. He was both interested and surprised that this man was letting him into his house so soon. It was defiantly a good sign of trust on his part. Most people didn't trust wild animals... On the other hand what if it was a slavers trap? The thought irritated Ethan, he simply wanted to learn magic and live in peace. Furrowing his eye brows he wished the thoughts away. This man was good, he felt it in his gut. He would just have to be careful that's all. Ethan slipped his hands away from the Glyph. A little reluctant still but he ignored the thoughts. He would learn more about this wonderful feeling and everything else that came with it. He could feel the difference instantly but it took a minute or two for it to fully leave. Each and every second that passed. It felt like a loud white noise in the back of his mind was slowly quieting down. When his senses returned to normal he started speaking. “It would be my honor to have breakfast with a new friend.” Ethan smiled and nodded politely. He did feel quiet happy about the situation. This city proved more helpful then he could have imagined. Already he was becoming the student of a Hydromancer and he was even getting a free meal. “Make a round of the Citadel at dawn, look for the blue light. Don't worry, birds don't get lost. But you have to watch out for breakfast. Animal's have big stomach's.” He repeated the instructions to let Hadrian know he could find him. The last part made Ethan chuckle a bit before he realized just how tired and hungry he really was. He didn't want to focus on the grumble in his stomach either. Getting up off his knee's Ethan brushed the dirt from his pants and hands. Looking at the now faded and destroyed Glyph. He wanted to ask why that happened, but then again these questions could be saved for breakfast. He would certainly give Hadrian a mouthful when they started training. “Well, I'm going to head out then, are you going off yourself? Do you need me to escort you Teacher? I really don't mind It would be my pleasure.”

[Hadrian]

When Ethan's hands and aura pulled away from the two circular sigils, the res and dirt blasted outward as if pounded by a sudden, sharp gust of wind, destroying utterly any trace of Hadrian's painstaking work. Well, that was the nature of glyphs -- shadows and dust, nothing permanent. Wearily, the enchanter smiled, still sitting back on his heels, wondering at his providential good fortune. Perhaps Ethan was not meant to be his bonded companion, but the gods had sent a curious Kelvic whose learning would increase Hadrian's own in many ways. They said one never really knew something until they taught it, but Hadrian had always suspected his professors were just being pedantic when they said that. Perhaps he had been too hasty in judging them. "There will be plenty of human food," he promised. "I'll see what I can do about fresh meat, but I can't promise perfect hospitality in that regard. I don't do the food shopping myself. But there's always plenty to eat." One might have guessed otherwise judging by Hadrian's slim figure, but he had grown tall as any weed, so he was never malnourished. "I think I can find my way home all right, but thank you for the offer. You'll want to eat and rest someplace shady soon. Though a lot of that was my effort, the body spends energy quite inefficiently with magics it doesn't know well. That changes somewhat as one gets more proficient, but for the time being, take it easy. Until tomorrow, friend Ethan."

END

[Archon]

Illumination of Development Hadrian +3 Reimancy +3 Glyphing +2 Auristics +2 Hypnotism +2 Teaching +2 Rhetoric Lores: Signs of a Kelvic, Teaching is learning, Interruption causes problems Care to see more? : Pretty straight forward in the rewards, the Rhetoric is for talking down Ethan without using Hypnotism. Ethan +4 Observation +4 Interrogation +3 Auristics +1 Stealth Lores: Understanding Djed (Basic), Understanding Reimancy (Basic), Understanding Auristics (Basic) Care to see more? : Observation and Interrogation experience for your inquisitive use of both works and sight, Auristics for your learning experience into the magical art, and Stealth experience for your brief spot of hiding. Notes:An interesting little thread. Ethan came off as a little wild and crazy at times, which felt a little odd for a Kelvic that had been bonded since a young age. Certainly made him interesting though.