[flashback] Lessons at dawn(Eridanus)

[Coren]

Fall 89th 507 AV early morning Coren had excused himself from the family breakfast as soon as he had stuffed himself full, as he he usually did, not really wanting to hear the conversation about how his father business had been going and the not as subtle as they thought reminders he should stop just goofing around and put more effort into his carving, and was now quickly making his way through the quickly thickening blanket of snow covering avanthal, it seemed like winter finally had grabbed avanthal with its icy fingers and announcing to every vantha that morwen was soon to leave to bring winter to the rest of the lands. Coren on his parts just pulled his hood a bit more over his head, trying to prevent the falling snowflakes from getting into his eyes, thanking morwen for the fact her gnosis prevented his toes from freezing off as he trudged through the snow covered paths in the sculpture yard and made his way towards the beautiful statue of morwen somewhere in the back of the yard. Still wondering why exactly Eri had given him that string of nonsense yesterday? Was he going to use the same kind of magic he had grown his horns and other things with to take some other kind of form? And why did he insist on continuing with that idiotic story of him fallen from the realm of the gods. He just let out a sigh as he finally came towards the statue of morwen and patiently waited for his student to show his horned head.

[Eridanus]

Day 89, Fall of 507 AV Early Morning The Sculpture Yard, Avanthal Eridanus stood at a corner in the same place he had been the night before, rubbing his hands together to generate warmth. He had worn much more than the normal locals who seemed to be impervious to the cold for some reason. He supposed that their bodies were probably used to it, being conditioned to the temperature having lived here all their lives, but he as a foreigner would no doubt find the cold hard to get used to. He supposed he was a little early, for he had wolfed down his breakfast quickly, excited at the thought of learning something new and possibly monumental. He had to control his emotions though, for his new teacher would probably be an Aura-Reader who seemed to be pretty mercenary in his ways, always demanding some sort of transactions in their exchange. He did not want to give Coren any ideas or to give some sort of perceived advantage. Eri supposed he did get the sweeter part of the deal if the mage lived up to his bargain, for he had recalled a conversation between his course mates about it in Zeltiva then, and he did not really understand the true meaning of what they were saying until now. It was also used widely in many industries, and not just magic but also sometimes used as a fail-safe for coal mining operations or even blacksmithing or metalworking. He assumed that it would be obvious, but now with the knowledge that shielding was actually a magical art than a physical object he truly understood what the professors had meant when he overheard snatches of such conversations. This would definitely be useful. Finally, the Vantha saw a familiar robed figure walking up to Morwen's statue who began looking around. Walking up to the man, he was summarily ignored and he expected it to be so, for there was no way Coren would be able to link him his current form to the one he had yesterday. A Vantha man with the everchanging eye colors of all Morwen's children walked up to the mage, with a mess of black hair streaked with the shades of the Aurora - Morwen's Lights, and uttered the following phrase in a low tone, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus".

[Coren]

Coren just raised his eyebrows when he saw an unfamiliar vantha man walking up to him, not that vanthe didn't come here, but this man did not have any marks from morwen, which either made him a criminal against morwen, which was unlikely since he wouldn't be here anymore if he was one, or a vantha who wasn't born in avanthal. Which also was unlikely since why would he come here during the fall? And if he was already here before fall, why was he outside in this cold weather and risk freezing something off? When the man suddenly repeated the strange nonsense words he remembered Eri writing down in the snow yesterday, he blinked once or twice in surprise. “Eri? Is that you?” He paused for a few moments, “Of course it would be you, no way sombody else would know or repeat that string of gibberish.” He gave the man a quick look over. “It seems that either you know a way to perfectly reshape your entire body or there might be something true about your story.” Coren said off handedly, scrapping the first thought almost immediately after thinking of it, the man didn't look insane and while he didn't know much about any kind of magic that could be used that way he doubted changing your entire body would be easy. Or good for your sanity. “Well then follow me, we aren't going to do that lesson here, to many prying eyes around and I rather not get word around that I am able to use magic, while most of them around here don't really mind there are quite a bit of people who plainly hate it. And I don't need those people trying to pull my name through the mud.” He said in a low tone as he quickly began walking towards the exit of the exit of the sculpture yard, looking over his shoulder if the man was following. “And before you asked why I wanted to meet you here, I didn't know if you knew any other places in avanthal, and I showed you this location.” He said as he exited the yard and began walking towards the windward boardwalk.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus nodded with a crooked smile, a mischievous glint in his eye as the mage seemed to respond in astonishment, but held his emotions pretty well after that split second of truth. He was not sure if the local would believe him, but at least he acknowledged his identity which was a good sign. Coren suggested going to another location, and he agreed for it would be unwise to openly wield magic in the public, not to mention in a touristy area like the sculpture yard. As they walked, he could not help but broach the question, "What other magics do you know, Coren? Besides this shielding? Where are we going?" He could not help it, but when in the day in his Vantha form certain traits that he had seemed to come alive more than usual, such as the zest for life, enthusiasm and a general love of prank and humor. He supposed that it was probably the traits he shared with his previous incarnation, and so it shined brighter within him when Syna graced the mortal world. He reigned the third characteristic down though, for he knew that this paranoid man would not appreciate a prank in any way, and he did not want to accidentally jeopardize his safety just for a little laugh. Well, not now at least.

[Coren]

When the man walking besides him asked what other kinds of magic he knew he looked over his shoulder and gave the Eri a stern look, didn't that man listen to what he just had said about not wanting others to know that he could use magic? After that he quickly looked around if anybody had heard them, luckely not seeing anybody who was paying any kind of attention to them. “Didn't you even hear what I just said?” Coren said in a slightly irritated manner. “And we are going to the windward boardwalk, while it is the park its fairly large and it shouldn't be to hard for us to find a place with nobody around so we can practice with a lot less risk of somebody finding out what exactly we are doing. And as for what kind of magic I know, seeing aura's, shielding and projection is what I'm able to do with my own djed.” Coren said in a low voice, deciding not embellish to much about what he was capable off, though he still kept up the man's belief in the fact he was able to read aura's, maybe he could goad the man into wanting to learn more if he revealed more of what he could and then in return. “And I have an inkling of how to affect djed with glyphs and that is it.” He still took care not to reveal exactly how good he was with everything though. After a some time of walking they finally got at the windward boardwalk and he walked towards the lesser visited parts of the boardwalk.

[Eridanus]

"Yeouch. Touche", Eri muttered good-naturedly, his cheerful manner remaining unaffected by the mage's grumpy scolding. The local continued to list out the branches of magic that he knew, and Eri assumed that he was at least competent in them, for a wizard who wanted to open his school of magic should at least have some sort of magical foundation to even have that sort of dreams. They reached some sort of park, and Eri whistled in appreciation. He could not express his amazement at the place except with three words: it's beautiful. It was a huge place, and he immediately understood the rationale behind Coren's suggested location, for despite its size few people populated the area, a figure or two dotted here and there, but the people mostly here tended to be young lovers or poets out for inspiration. Well, especially at this time so early in the morning most people would be still in bed, having their breakfast or beginning to get to work instead of lazing out there. He wondered if Coren had a job that he should be doing, but decided against mentioning it. He was probably not a morning person and would not appreciate light-hearted jabs anyway. He followed Coren, content to just tag along in silence until they reached the exact location where the mage would begin their lessons in earnest.

[Coren]

It didn't take to long before they found a bench somewhere with no person in sight and coren went and sat down, motioning for eri to do the same. “Right, this is good enough and lets begin. Shielding isn't visible to people with lower skill at manipulating the djed in the way's you need to do to make a shield at all. But I got way's to show you how a shield looks without you knowing a thing of the art anyway. Observe.” Coren closed his eyes and took a deep breath before carefully grasping for the deep pool of djed inside his of his body and slowly pushing small amounts of djed outside of his left hand with as much care as possible. When he had a reasonable amount of djed carefully floating around his hand he grasped it with his will and layered around his hand as smoothly as he could and took his time to make sure there weren't any holes or other glaring faults in the shield. It took a few chimes of careful and tedious work on his part he found the shield to be satisfactory and prepared himself for the last step in the process of making a shield, tasking it with the things to block out. This time, he chose to block out light, it would make it obvious for the man to observe it. As his entire hand would be obscured as a black veil where light couldn't get through, had wrapped itself around his hand. Coren concentrated for a last time and imprinted the task on the djed surrounding his hand. Coren opened his eyes and looked at his handy work, aside from a few minor mistakes his entire hand was shrouded from vision by a pitch black veil surrounding it. “This,” He held up his hand. “Is the result of a shield that is tasked to block out light. Now lets get onwards to the part where you get to make one yourself. First of, making a shield has 3 steps, Firstly push your djed out of your body. Which point you push it out usually doesn't matter. Secondly you shape the djed over the object you want to shield, though you can also spann it in between two points, like a shield in a door frame or in a corridor. And the third and last step is to task the newly build shield with what it is supposed to block.” He gave the man a stern look. “While I know this isn't a very demanding discipline with djed. Keep it simple at first with things you want to block, stay to sound and light. It might get messy if you think your shield can block something but it actually can't. Now lets start, close your eyes and try to feel the djed inside you, it shouldn't be to hard for you since you already know how to manipulate it. Then try to push it outside.”

[Eridanus]

Eridanus observed the mage closely as he closed his eyes and seemed to grab something with his left hand. After several chimes of patient meditation, he did some gestures with his hands, as if building something in the air, and finally he looked at his hand which seemed to be wrapped by some kind of invisible object, staring at it for a moment. Suddenly, a portion of the air around Coren's hand turned black, and Eri jolted at the suddenness of it. He began to draw djed from within him to gently fuel his eyes, and he began to see the mage's aura, a hardy block of mist around his hand which signified a collection of djed in the area. He rapidly blinked his eye shut to sever the consumption of djed as he did not wish to read more, for he had discovered what he needed to know. That's a shield? As if sensing the confusion in his student's face, Coren continued to explain the process of doing so. He had so many questions, but he supposed he would ask them as he went. The first question would be, how in blazes was he supposed to push his djed out of his body? He did not want to look like a complete amateur though, and he decided to give it a go first. As he did so, Coren urged him to push his djed outwards, and he complied. Eridanus began clearing his thoughts just as he normally did when meditating, opening his mental eye to take a better look at the streams of djed pulsing inside his body as if he was going to use Flux. It was already muscle memory and familiarity at this point but he resisted to urge to simply redirect his flux. No this was the time for something new. Taking another deep breath, he cleared his mind to prevent himself from backing out from being too cowardly, he reached deep into himself and slowly began imagining pushing out this djed from his body. As the streams of djed moved, he could feel his body not adjusting to the djed manipulation, which was a good sign which meant he was not using Flux accidentally. Firmly holding his urge to stay in familiar territory in check, he continued the process of visualization that proved effective to him in Flux, imagining pushing the streams of djed outwards from his heart instead of around his body like he normally did. He felt a 'lightness' in his chest as he imagined the first of the djed streams penetrating through his body and outwards into the physical world, and his mind silently exulted this, temporarily distracting him, causing the djed stream to somehow return back to its original state inside his body. He quickly cleared his mind from congratulatory thoughts, and did the same thing again, coaxing the strand of energy from his body. This time, he raised a hand in front of his chest, palm facing up as if to hold the streams of djed that he was extruding, and when he felt that he extruded enough he cut the thread, the redirected djed recoiling back into his body while the energy that was already outside remained so. He was excited, but fought to maintain his calm at his first success, for he did not want to jeopardize the operation. He then looked at Coren expectantly on instructions on how exactly should he proceed with the second step, which was to 'shape' this djed.

[Coren]

When eri began trying to push out his djed in the way he just showed him coren casually dismissed the shield he had build around his arm, no matter how low the chance was of somebody walking past them he still wasn't about to take that little chance. The djed that clinged around his hand dissipated almost as soon as he willed it to break up and the impenetrable blackness that had been hanging around his hand vanished as quickly as it came. After that coren just leaned back and made himself comfortable as eri tried to push out a small piece of his djed. This was probably going to take quite a while before there was going to be any kind of progress, but he really couldn't help to much with this stage of learning shielding. Coren gave a sideway's glance to the meditating man sitting besides him, settling in for a long wait. Surprisingly it didn't take the man even half as long as when he was learning before the man pushed his first batch of djed out of his body. It probably had something to do with the fact he already knew how to manipulate his djed with flux. “Well that was sooner then I thought it would happen.” Coren admitted as eh turned his full attention to eri. “Now for shaping the djed most wizards use gestures to help control the djed in their manner. Some wizards 'weave' the djed into a shield like a weaver would make a fabric and drape that over the object or spann it between the objects they need shielded. others use their djed as a pot of paint and layer it over the object, there are hundereds of ways one could shape their shields. “ Coren tried to give the man as much information as he could, though it was fairly clear coren had absolutely no idea how to teach people yet. “Well, I could give examples and try to explain how it should work for hours, but in the end you just have to try it. So just take an object you want to shield and give it a try. Just keep in mind, shields can't be self sufficient structures, they always need support.”

[Eridanus]

The local mage complimented him and continued giving further instructions. It was not perfectly phrased, but Eri knew enough Vani to more or less decipher what Coren was trying to say, and he nodded curtly as he resumed his full attention to what he was trying to do. In order to help him shape his fledging shield properly, he fed a bit of djed into his eyes and focused hard on his djed that he had extruded and now 'held' in front of his chest. Soon, he began to see a blob of sorts that was gently floating above his hand, and he proceeded to use his hands to mould this shape as if it were soft clay. Physically his hands felt like it was merely moving around in air, but his magical sight helped to turn visualization into something more 'real' and it helped him greatly in shaping the shield. As the aura of the extruded djed already resembled a blob of clay, Eri used this same reasoning and began by slapping the blob flat so that it resembled a pancake. It did not turn completely flat, but its girth increased, and he continued to flatten the blob. It began flopping, however, and he used his hand as a base when he remembered Coren's example. Using his hand as the foundation for which the 'clay' will be supported, he gently spread the djed over his hands, kneading to increase its surface area and to decrease the width so that there would be enough to cover at least his fingers to his wrist. Well, that wasn't so bad after all. There was a third step to it though, and he severed the flow of djed to his eyes so that he would not focus on more than one aura at a time. The visual image he had of his 'clay' shield disappeared but he tried to maintain at least an imaginary visualization to keep the shield there and to avoid dispelling it by accident. Eri then looked up at Coren for his next set of instructions.