[Avian Manor] Initiation Day (Miro)

[Alric Wilmot]

22nd Day of Fall 511 AV Alric woke with a small yawn, and a crick in his neck. Alric blinked furiously, attempting to get the gunk out of his eyes. As he slowly came back into consciousness, he realized that his neck was terribly sore from leaning on the wall. He stood up, also surprised at the stiffness of his knees, and briefly popped his neck. He felt better, but at the same time, was rather agitated. It seemed that he had fallen asleep in his new friend's house. It was most embarrassing. He didn't even ask Miro if he could stay, which was most rude. Unfortunately, there was little he could do to change the past. He walked quietly over to Miro, who still seemed to be enjoying his nap, and observed him. Alric still had no earthly clue as to what Miro's race was. But, he did know that he was a rather special fellow regardless. Miro had been able to make it through the Hypnosis Initiation startlingly quickly, even if he did have help. It had taken Alric over a day to do what Miro did in thirty minutes. Granted, Alric had helped him, but still, it was quite impressive. Alric could only hope Miro was as good a teacher as he was a student. Alric still remembered the last words Miro had spoken before they had both fallen prey to sleep's hunt, and he was still just as eager as he had been yesterday. Still, he hoped his reimancy initiation wouldn't take all their energy like Miro's had. Because, apparently, they had slept through the rest of the day, and the night. Alric yawned once more, and rubbed his eyes. He quickly glanced around the house to see if it was obvious where the washroom was. Unfortunately he had no such luck. Alric always cleaned himself of the previous day's filth every morning, and he intended to do so now. Even if this wasn't his home, he assumed it would have a bucket some soap and a rag. He nudged Miro from his slumber, intent on asking the whereabouts of his washroom.

[Miro]

"Ngh. Kinneas, five more minutes." Miro rolled over turning away from the man who nudged him from his sleep. A few moments passed and his eyes opened up. Miro turned back over and jumped at the sight of Alric. "Alr..." Miro wiped the tired from his eyes and looked again at his new friend with fresh eyes. "Morning Alric. Did you..er..sleep here? Man, is it just me or did you miss your bed too?" Miro busted the kinks loose from his neck. He felt at his hair and attempted to push it back into place. After yawning he looked over noticing Alric waning his attention. "Sorry, did you need something?" Miro rustled his hair one more time and smiled graciously.

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric yawned briefly as he shook himself free of sleep's last feeble attempts to claim him as he answered his new-found comrade. "Well, it would seem that I exerted myself more so than I had thought whilst I coached you through your initiation. As a result, I slept soon after you. It was an accident I assure you, normally I'd never do something so rude. I promise, it won't happen again. Unfortunately, however, I can not change the past. So, since I'm here, I was wondering if I could use your washroom to freshen up. I'd like to keep myself as clean as possible. Could you be so kind as to show me the way? Or, at least, point to its general direction? I'd be most grateful." Alric tried to be as polite as he could, to make up for his lapse of bad manners. He took the time that Miro took to answer, to check on the Ice mirror from before. As he glanced toward its corner, and found a small puddle and a much smaller mirror, he heard a snoring sound coming from elsewhere in the house. At first, he had thought Miro had gone back to sleep, but a quick glance proved that theory incorrect. Alric, now curious, posed a question. "Miro, are there others living in this house with you?"

[Miro]

Miro finished wiping the tired from his eyes and listening to Alric. "Don't worry about it Alric. I am sorry I didn't tell you earlier, there are extra rooms around here. I would have let you sleep in a bed if I had known you were staying." Miro pointed to his room, the door still partway open. "Feel free to use my the wash basin in my room. Anything you need to use around here, please feel free to use them. You are welcome to use my home any time you need it. In total there are nine rooms here. Six are for living in fitting up to two people each, and there are also two common rooms like this one. In the center of it all is the courtyard." Miro leaned back on the couch. "I will be here when you finish."

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric nodded at Miro's explanation and did his best to remember every word. He thought it might be important later on. However this proved troublesome because of how early it was. Alric was simply not altogether there yet, as few people are in the morning. Still he did his best, and when Miro was finished with his explanation, Alric stumbled towards the room with the wash basin. He desperately wished the water would be clean, and was quite pleasantly relieved that it was. He closed the door behind him and proceeded to undress. He didn't quite take his time as he normally did since this was a non-familiar place. Just as most people, Alric did not particularly care to stay naked in another's house for very long, so he washed quickly and thoroughly. He dried himself with a nearby cloth that Alric had thought clean, and redressed himself as hurriedly as he had taken taken his clothes off. The water had helped wake him up, and he was now taking care to observe what seemed to be a rather familiar house. He had not noticed it before, but it seemed as though this house was quite similar architecturally to an old friend of his. Of course, this wasn't his house, but it did seem as though it might have been built by the same group. Alric left these thoughts as he left the room. He felt as though the basin was leering at him, and he didn't particularly care for how the cloth touched him either. He was eager to get on with the day, and proceed in his own initiation. He wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible. He had deduced, from the way Miro had spoken of it, that it was wholly unpleasant. And it was Alric's experience that led him to believe that such unpleasant things should be done as quickly as possible. That way, they couldn't mock you very long with their need to be completed.

[Miro]

Miro prepared himself while waiting for Alric. Producing res in preparation for the initiation came first. He wasted no time producing it and moved on to what he would say. A few things he needed to make clear to Alric. "No abuse of power, absolute trust in each other." He closed his eyes to mediate on it and ran it through his head until it was cleared his mind.

Alric proceeded out before Miro looking eager to see what he was doing. As his footsteps echoed along to Miro's ears. Casually he peaked an eye open and stood up to present himself. "Now Alric, I need you to know how this works. I am teaching, because of a trust put in you. You must never cross me with the powers I have given you. Do know that if you aren't worthy of this power I will take your life. But, there is not a single doubt in my mind about this. If you are ready, we can begin with the nightmare."

Miro began to clear his mind yet again, firming his hold on his mind and focusing his djed to his right hand. Forming res from it, he shaped a sharp tool and transmuted it to ice. "Alric, slice your palm from one side to the other. After this is done, kneel before me with palms turned up. You may wish to close your eyes and find a place of comfort in your mind. After that comes the painful part. You will remember this day for the rest of your life, I assure you."

Miro waiting for Alric to take the position. His heart began to thud harder. "I am sorry friend. This is going to hurt me as well." He guided his res into a position residing just outside of Alric's cuts and mouth. "Just close your eyes and breathe deeply. Be strong and suppress the pain as best as you can."

Miro flowed the res in hurriedly, as if doing it faster would make it end quicker. Miro flinched, not wanting to view the look on his face as it happened. Still, he could sense the pain he was causing. With each breath Alric drew more and more into his lungs. As he would exhale, the res would fight against the current to stay put and absorb into the mans lungs. It surged its way through his body, pushing its way through under the skin. Miro could not bear to see the agony it must have brought. In his mind he only thought about how long he needed to leave him to suffer. He counted, tracking the chimes as they passed. His mind focused around this one task completely, shutting out as much noise from Alric as possible. After half a dozen chimes Miro began to slowly pull it back. Though he wasn't looking, he was able to regress its movements and allow it to disperse into the room over the course of a few more chimes.

"All done, it's over. Please be okay Alric." Miro glanced down to find him still breathing. He wasn't moving much, but he was unsure if he was conscious. Neither Grim nor Miro remained conscious through theirs, which hinted that the man was not going to be moving for some time. Miro sat on the floor and took a relaxed position. While his friend recovered, Miro would be focusing on the next task. His mind would need to reach a total calm if they were going to teach Alric reimancy in as short a time period as he had taught him hypnotism. There was going to be a lot of effort from Alric. A ton of work to be done in order to progress through reimancy. He would need a good teacher. He needed Miro to guide him through it. The concept of time seemed to fade away. If Alric did not break his concentration, he may find himself sitting through the night. His mind sorted his thoughts on the discipline of reimancy. He regressed his mind through the years, taking him back to when he was a child and just learning. All of the tricks he learned from his mom, the things he had to learn, it was all coming back to mind. His mind twisted it all together attempting to form a plan for his new student. Miro wasn't naturally gifted in bleeding out his information on command, but he could certainly give a lot, given enough preparation time. When Alric regained his composure, Miro would be ready to coach him through to wielding reimancy.

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric came back eager to get started, not even considering stopping for breakfast. However, as he came back to the main hall, he was not actually expecting Miro to start. He was wrong. Miro turned to Alric as soon as he was within his line of sight. "Now Alric, I need you to know how this works. I am teaching, because of a trust put in you. You must never cross me with the powers I have given you. Do know that if you aren't worthy of this power I will take your life. But, there is not a single doubt in my mind about this. If you are ready, we can begin with the nightmare." Alric was about to respond back, but it seemed as though Miro had returned to his bi-polar tendencies, as he dropped off conversation and began to meditate. However, that did not seem to last long, as Miro began to emit some sort of... gaseous substance. Alric was most intrigued at it, as he'd never seen anything quite like it before. His eyes danced with wild curiosity, a desire to study the substance overwhelming him. However, just as suddenly as Miro had conjured it, it disappeared, leaving a long icicle in its place. With a sudden realization, Alric came to the conclusion that the strange substance was a part of reimancy. Although, he was unaware of how important said substance was. "Alric, slice your palm from one side to the other. After this is done, kneel before me with palms turned up. You may wish to close your eyes and find a place of comfort in your mind. After that comes the painful part. You will remember this day for the rest of your life, I assure you." Alric was quite startled at that. Miro plopped the icicle into Alric's hands as he spoke, seemingly thinking nothing of asking his new "friend" to slice himself open. Alric hesitated, for the first time, really asking himself if this man had the best interests of them both in mind. But, if he really wanted to harm Alric, surely he would not have given Alric such a weapon? And, indeed, would he not have killed Alric off after he had initiated him into the ranks of the hypnotists? Alric honestly didn't know, after all, it was quite obvious that Miro wasn't entirely healthy in the ways of thinking. However, Alric was willing to displace his doubts for now. He wanted to know what that substance was, and the only way to know for sure, was to become a reimancer. He looked forlornly at the icy dagger in his hands. It glinted with a maniacal glee, eager to sink its teeth into Alric's hands. Alric grimaced, and allowed it to feast on his flesh for but a moment. He took a sharp intake of breath and cursed, not used to such pain. He tried to fight the pain by clutching them close and under his armpits. He took them out a second later however, not wanting to get blood on his clothes. "Just close your eyes and breathe deeply. Be strong and suppress the pain as best as you can." Alric didn't have time to question what Miro meant by that, as he was under the impression that he wasn't talking about the icicle's bites. Alric's mind cleared itself of all rational thought a moment later, as terrible, burning pain wracked throughout his body, but most notably around his mouth and bite marks. Alric fell instantly, and spasmed on the floor. He tried to scream, but he found his voice had left him, apparently getting out while it still could. His eyes watered, making it look as though he was sobbing. The pain felt like nothing he had ever experienced. He continued to convulse, trying to set his gaze to Miro, to see what caused this burning sensation. He was rewarded by the same gaseous substance from before, and then his vision blurred. The watering of his eyes had gotten worse, and his voice had returned, with a friend too it seemed. He screamed. He screamed longer and louder than he had thought humanly possible trying to exhaust himself, and numb his body to the pain. Alas, it was to no avail. His voice seemed to be pushed back by that same strange substance. All at once, he felt as though he was suffocating. There was little he could do however. He felt as though he was being choked, burned, and had lost control of his body completely. It lasted much longer than he thought it would, and his mind shut down after the first ten minutes. A blackness came to the edges of his vision, and the worst of the pain was blocked out by a near black-out. Alric's body continued to convulse, but at a much slower rate. All his mental strength went to staying awake, as Alric felt that passing out would be a fatal mistake. He did not know why he thought this. But the thought clung to his mind with a ferocity he had not known for some time. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the pain began to subside. Alric began to breath in great gulps of air, thanking Eyris and Ionu both between gasps. His body was slack, completely unwilling to move even an inch. Alric's eyes closed in relief, at the pain's departure. "All done, it's over. Please be okay Alric." Alric was without words, his relief flooding over his aching body. With Miro's unknowing permission, Alric let his concentration go, and with it, his consciousness.

[Miro]

Miro walked back and forth behind the couch, turning his face away from where Alric lay. The pain, the agony of the res invading him. It wasn't right. Alric asked a favor, but Miro could sense from the moment he handed the ice to him that this was too much. Alric was a nice guy. He was polite in ways Miro could barely understand. He was the nicest person Miro had met since Kinneas took him in and saved his life. What did Miro do for him to have him teach him? Nothing, and now, Miro would repay him back by paining away his conscious mind. None of it felt right. He only hoped that Alric would forget this and treasure the gift of reimancy.

Miro's heart continued to pound, hard, loud. Miro leaned against the wall, head on on forearm that laid against the cool surface. Sweat ran from his forehead to his arm and down his cheeks. Still, the heart beating. That bumping noise no longer held tight in his chest, but enveloped his whole body. He felt it in the tips of his toes, and in every finger. The hot pulsing made the sweat that covered his body feel like fire, yet, he somehow felt cold. Why wasn't the cold refreshing? All Miro wanted was to lay in a bottomless pit of snow, but he was already cold, right? The bumping noise made his head hurt slightly more each time he felt the pulse hit his brain. The noise rang in his ears endlessly. "Alric, you'll be okay, right?"

Chimes passed, and before long they turned to bells. Miro had long since found refuge in the memories that followed Grimkon's initiation. He woke up, not afraid, but excited. A nightmare, in which Miro had saved him from ensuing flames. To learn the element of fire, he took a hold of the fearful element and endured the passionate heat that the element rained down on him until he made it his own. Alric was somebody different entirely. Miro could expect any element but fire, which was in some form a relief. From what Miro could tell, and deeply hoped for, Alric would choose either air or water. Miro mused at the idea of how he would teach him to become familiar with the element. Crazy, exaggerated training sessions came into his mind. Holding Alric under the water of Verlyna's pond. With wind he would capture the winds of a storm and direct them at Alric, who would be plastered to a wall because of the force. Miro snickered at the thought of Alric trying to plea against the methods in much too polite a way while he cheeks flapped against the wind streams.

In his mind, he knew all of what he would do for element training. He just pray it not be earth, as it was a complicated element, even for Miro. Oh, but Alric was a smart one, that was for sure. Alric would pick up on conjuring res, then they would find the element suiting him together. If all else failed they could play a game to find it, but that seemed a bit unlikely. No, Miro was prepared no matter what would happen, he just now had to focus on teaching as fast as he had been taught. Knowing that together, Alric and Miro were capable of having hypnotism taught within a day, Miro also thought the same to be true for reimancy.

Their friendship might be strained, but he owed a massive favor. The painful part wasn't over, as reimancy would take a much heavier toll on Alric during their partnership as the years passed. Today, this introduction, it showed Alric the initial toll of having the talent. The res that invaded his body was as a poison. Part of Miro's essence stolen from his body to cause his friend pain. It attuned his body to the magic, but only by taking another person energy. Soon enough he would be stealing from his own soul. If he was too generous with his thievery his body and soul would rebel in ways nobody could predict.

Miro's mother once explained that magics deal in overgiving in one of two ways. Overgiving effects from a discipline of magic tend to either explode or implode. These words didn't make much sense at all to Miro, so he of course asked what implode meant. It still was a little confusing, as he had no way of picturing what it meant, but the message was clear. Simply put implosion was the opposite of explosion, which Miro knew all too well. As an added bonus, his mother demonstrated the explosion part to cement Miro's attention. She took a mass of res and ignited it into fire that spread out in every direction rapidly. In his mind he could still hear the words of his mother "To expand with force." He smiled at the memory. To show implosion, she clapped her hands together and held them as so. She said something about coming together with force, but Miro still had no idea what it meant to become a clap, but it seemed to be irrelevant when she explained what it meant. Overgiving that exploded would damage the body, making you never forget the time you pushed too far. Losing a body part, losing control of magic, there were so many horrific possibilities. She explained that flux and reimancy were ones that tended to explode to take their toll. Miro wasn't sure what to expect of imploding effects, or what magics would even do such a thing. Only that she feared he would "quit being her Dra-Miro" if it ever happened.

Miro caught ahold of his mind, and noted that the silence in the room had been broken. Alric was moaning as if he was coming to. Miro could only guess that three bells had passed since Miro retracted his res. Hopefully Alric would be as eager as Grim was to learn, only this time he would be sure that the magic was learned as soon as possible. Miro pushed his hair backwards out of his face. He made a small amount of djed about the size of his pinky then froze it to ice and began to nibble on it. It soothed his anxious mind to suckle on Mowen's bosom.

AlricWorth the wait I hope.

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric woke with a stinging pain in his... everything. He flinched as his mind re-established contact with his body. it seemed as though they were fighting with each other, and it was giving Alric a headache. His body kept trying to say it was in utter disrepair. Yet his mind clearly didn't believe it, as Alric was moving just fine. Despite that, Alric was still extremely sore, and he gave serious consideration into simply passing out again, and lying on the floor just a little longer. What stopped him was a dripping on his face. At first Alric ignored it, but it was persistant, and Alric knew he'd be unable to sleep with its infuriating persistence. Regretfully, Alric hoisted himself up. He was greeted with Miro's face, sucking on an icicle. Alric gave a smirk at that, as it was obvious that the dripping was from Miro's partially melting icicle. Alric noticed, most pleasingly, that his pain lessened when he was in an upright position. However, his head still thrummed with a dull pain, and it didn't seem like it was going to go away for a while. Alric guessed that his headache might actually be because of his thrashing, as opposed to Miro's mystery substance. He stood up slowly, finding his bearings as he did so. He felt weak, and was not so certain he wanted to proceed. However, one look on Miro's face and he knew that his feelings were of little consequence. He sighed then, actually somewhat annoyed, he was hoping for breakfast. Suddenly he felt like chastising himself. He was learning a brand new magic, and he was upset over one missed meal? Pathetic. He ignored his rumbling stomach and smiled at Miro, still clutching his side. "Well then, shall we proceed?"

[Miro]

Miro smiled, watching Alric finally get back up. Miro saw his anguish, the poor man. He would never forget the pain Miro put him through, but Miro would see too it that he would never forget how easily it was forgotten. Miro tilted his head back and melted the icicle and drank the water. "Yes, we should proceed, but first, I need to go get something." Miro ran into his room and grabbed his waterskin. Then he ran back out and held it out for the man to take. "Drink up Alric. It's good for you, and you should feel better soon. Feel free to drink it all, I will fill it back up with you. Ya know, one of the perks of water reimancy. Just hand it to me and I will just fill it again. You're gonna need your energy!"

Miro stood and paced a bit, finalizing his plans. "So, Alric, you are now capable of using reimancy. It is a great thing. But don't think you will gain the power without some work. Now we can start your learning. There are four elements you have the ability to learn. Eventually you can learn all, but for now, only one. For me, my first element was water. A few years ago I learned air, and just this season fire. When I was young my mother and I would go to the pond near our home. When it wasn't frozen, the water sparkled and danced in the sunlight. It was so beautiful. I would always swim and play in it, but mother wouldn't. She said it was too cold. Even when it froze, I would unfreeze it just to see the sparkly water. When I was initiated I knew of the elements, and of course whenever she mentioned water I'd think of the pond. It is where I learned my element, granted I waited a week after the horrible experience before I would even consider magic lessons. Being there helped me focus and observing water before meditating helped me to be able to transmute my res into water."

Miro held his hand to his forehead for a moment, bringing up sweet memories made him miss his mother, but he pushed away the rising feelings as best as possible. Tears began to well in his eyes, but they were not only a result of his sadness, but the happiness the memories brought up. He cleared his throat and stopped walking around. Facing Alric, he began his lesson again. "I suppose you need to find your element. Do you have any idea what your pond might be? Or perhaps an element that calls out to you? Just give me an idea, and I can help you. For now it is not so important, but the more you think about it, the easier it will come. What you will learn now is 'res', which is the substance reimancers produce from their bodies that become the elements."

Miro held his hands out facing each other about a foot apart. He made a stream of light blue liquid res the size of his palm connecting his left hand to his right. He removed it from his hands to form a ring in the air, then changed it again, this time to an orb that rested in his hand. "This is res, of course. Amazing isn't it? A reimancer controls his res with his mind. The state of it, the location, all with just a thought or will. It is a part of you, taken from your body. Creating too much will hurt you severely, as will any severe djed loss, but I am sure you know this already. But...where was I? Oh yes, control of res. With a thought I can turn it to a solid, or even a gas. Move it all around, or hold it tight to my body. As a new reimancer, your control will be very limited. But, as you grow and practice, your control with grow as well. The speed you can move it, the distance you can control it for, all will increase as you practice more. As you can see, mine is blue. I am very curious to see what yours looks like. For now, we will hold off producing res so that you can ask questions and of course tell me of the element you choose. If you can not decide on one, I am prepared for that as well. Sorry for rambling on for so long. Please, get any questions out in the open for us now."