[Flashback] Late Night Arcana (Solo)

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:11 pm

Day 26, Spring of 505 AV
Nightfall
Wright Memorial Library, The University, Zeltiva

An ethaefal was one of the few left in a far end corner of the library, intent on his own learning journey. The rest of the students have either gone to sleep or to do their own socializing, as young adults were meant to do with their constant partying. It was expected, for their lives were short and they had to enjoy as much as possible before visiting Lhex.

Not Eridanus. He was blessed, or possibly cursed, with longevity yet not immortality, and through his experiences on Mizahar he had been quite weary in his dealings with mortals. Partying and socializing meant little to him, and all he knew that every second he spent at this esteemed library in this prestigious educational institute was precious.

He picked up a book that talked about the ways glyphing could be used to hasten spell-casting. To be precise, he had the page opened at the chapter on shielding, for he could not exactly try any forms of magics in the library for fear of being expelled.

The University was pretty stubborn on magic being practised only in the East Wing, though they were far more lenient regarding harmless disciplines such as glyphing (if used on its own, of course) and shielding.

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:20 pm

The book talked about the use of glyphing to enhance the spell-casting process, though there were many ways to do so, whether for speed, or for magnitude. He was not a fool to attempt the complex ones that included all of it, for he was bound to fail. Instead, he would start small, and try out these techniques to see if it worked in the first place.

Taking a quill he brought, he dipped it in the inkwell he laid on the table before him, and he began to carefully write a series of nonsensical-looking characters on his left wrist. He was a right-handed writer of course, and so he would glyph his left hand and produce his magic from there. He had no illusion that if he were to try to glyph his right hand with his left his handwriting would be terrible enough to void the result.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

He carefully wrote a short series of instructions that were generally meant to extol more djed from his body through his left hand. He achieved this with the use of several path sigils that he wrote on equidistant portions of his left wrist, circling it with black ink as he did so.

Glyphing was a repetitive and mundane business especially when one had the time to slowly think about the effects what one wanted to achieve and the leisure to slowly write. He heard of horror stories where glyphing majors were expected to produce a ridiculously complex series of glyphs to fulfill a ridiculously complex set of instructions in a very short time for their final examination.

Needless to say he was quite relieved he did not enroll as a glyphing major.

There, all done.

Encircling his wrist was the result of his slow but steady work, an intricate pattern of path sigils at different portions of his left hand all with the basic set of instructions calling for the djed to flow faster in that direction. It had no trigger, no barrier, just an arcane motivation for a faster flow.

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:24 pm

It was time to see if this particular method worked.

Eridanus closed his eyes, calming his body and mind down to a more steady state as he gradually shifted himself into a semi-meditative state. He found that calmness of mind was highly beneficial especially when he practised magic, for it helped him to avoid errors of judgement.

Imagining the djed in his body as a blob, he mentally pushed djed out in a general way, guiding the flow of astral energy first towards his chest, then towards his left arm and then his wrist. As he did so, he could feel the rush of raw energy being gushed at his wrist area where he drew his path sigils. When he finally called the djed out, extruding the formless resource from his left palm, it was pooled faster than he had imagined, encouraged by the glyphs he had drawn.

He had to quickly shut down the flow in order to prevent too much djed from being released.

With the formless djed in his hand, he had to form a shield to ensure that the release of djed was of the same quality as if he had spent the usual amount of time extruding it, for there was a chance that djed extruded this quickly might be of inferior quality. He had no idea where he got this idea, but it never hurt to make sure.

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:29 pm

The easiest way to see if a shield worked was to task it to block against light, for sight was the simplest and most commonly used sense of observation.

Using his right hand to mold the pool of floating djed that levitated around his left palm, he patted and kneaded it around his hand, trying his best to ensure a smooth and consistent texture.

He was no expert, and naturally his unfamiliarity with the magic showed in his rough handling of the djed, as if he were a five year old child playing with clay for the first time. He was like an unskilled apprentice in pottery, and the pot that was his shield came out overly thick in some areas, and coarse in most.

He sighed, trying his best to salvage his sad excuse of a shield. Knowing that he would not get it overnight and instead he would get better with consistent practise, he decided to leave it as it is after a few more pats.

Now it was time to task it.

While keeping the djed there he slowly brought his internal attention to his eyes. He could very well see the rudimentary shield he was forming, but he found that with auristics even the tiny little details and quirks of his shield could be seen, and that helped greatly for a rookie like him.

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:33 pm

Calling up djed even as his concentration maintained the pool of djed that was a pre-tasked shield that was wrapped around his left hand, he imagined his current physical vision as that of the sight one got when looking out of a window covered by silk curtains. A blurred and not so clear vision.

With the activation energy gained from feeding djed into his eyes, he could push away these curtains that signified the mortal veil and truly see the world for what it was, and his vision flared up as his view of his shield got clearer.

It was like seeing his shield in high-definition, and he realized with a slight annoyance that the deficiencies of his shield were highlighted even more clearly with his enhanced vision. Perhaps ignorance was bliss after all. Still, there was no improvement if he did not know his flaws, and he soldiered on.

Using his right hand to proceed with the tasking, he picked and plucked the tapestries of his shield, seeing the basic structure of the shield as an invisible glove around his left hand, and seeing various threads of djed lying around randomly as the rough tapestry that he needed to weave in order to fulfill he desired tasking.

It was hard work, keeping his magical sight focused on the itty-bitty details of the djed threads while his right hand continued to pull and thread, sometimes messing up because of his ineptness with handling small things, causing him to start again from where he messed up.

by **Eridanus** on February 25th, 2012, 12:39 pm

Finally, he was done, and upon putting the last thread into place that formed the overall picture he wanted to achieve the invisible glove wrapped around his left hand went dark, as if his left hand disappeared. It was a slightly disconcerting feeling, as if he had just put his hand into the void, but the feeling of the cool air on his left wrist's skin reassured him.

It looked mostly dark, except for a hole or two there where his shield was insufficient were his pale skin could be seen. It was already an achievement that he managed to pull off the tasking. He continued to survey the completed shield critically with his enhanced vision, and he found that the final product was just as inferior as his normal attempts when not using the speed-enhancing glyphs.

In other words, the use of glyphs to enhance the djed extrusion process did not hamper the quality of the shield made; the extruded djed was the same.

It was a relief, and he continued to stare at the shield while maintaining his focus so that the shield did not disappear, just to challenge his mental stamina.

After a while, he let out a sigh, and cut the supply of djed into his eyes that fueled the Auristics that he used. As his clear sight dimmed into the the mere sight of the mortal plane, he released his mental focus on the shield on his left hand and the blackness soon disappeared also, revealing the skin of his left wrist gradually as it faded away.

Upon usage the black ink that were the glyphs had also evaporated, his wrist clean, as if he never wrote on it before. That was the problem with glyphs, for they were generally one-use, especially at his level. He knew that smart glyphers had methods to prolong the usage of their glyphs with clever instructions and loop-holes in logic, but he also knew that he must master the foundations before attempting that for he was sure to fail.

He shrugged, and flipped the page of the book. Yet another day of studying, another day of learning, and taking one tiny but sure step closer to understanding the unknown that was magic.

by **Paragon** on February 27th, 2012, 4:16 pm

Eridanus :

Fun solo, I enjoyed the application of the glyphs - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.