[Flashback] Late Night Arcana II (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 28, Spring of 505 AV
Nightfall
Wright Memorial Library, The University, Zeltiva

Due to the previous session where he had unknowingly exerted too much djed in his enthusiastic practice, a headache had developed for at least half a day after that, rendering him unable to fully concentrate on what was happening. He had went through that day in a daze, finally deciding to just sleep off the whole thing instead of trying to do things in an unproductive manner.

So it took him one day to rest and here he was again, back at the library with the very same book propped open at the table. His inkwell and quill was there as well, and he wanted to try the next method listed in the book. It seemed that his proficiency was insufficient for him to try all the methods without yielding into overgiving, and therefore he would have to be content with learning and trying them out one at a time.

He was still reading up on shields, and his eyes scanned the book again to make sure that he was reading it right. The last time he had tried to expedite the casting of his shield by increasing the flow of djed during the extrusion process. However, individual shielding was a three-step method, and he had only increased the speed of the first step.

In this session, he would attempt to somehow increase the speed of the shaping and molding process of forming a shield, and with the help of the book and some ingenuity he would make it work.

[Eridanus]

The book had suggested quite an ingenious way of doing so, which was making use of glyphs to help shape and mold the raw djed that was freshly extracted to aid in quickening the process of the second step. The only problem was figuring out how, and the diligent student dipped the quill into the inkwell, biting his lip as he brainstormed for a method.

He believed that the key could be found in paths and switches, and from his reasoning switches could be used to distribute a main magical effect into several smaller ones. This meant that it could act as a cross-roads of sorts, splitting the blob of raw djed and channeling them into various spots. That was also where paths came in, and he could use them to direct the flow of djed appropriately, using these arcane instructions to do the work for him instead of manually shaping the shields.

Still, paths and switches were not exactly the most basic of glyphs, which was fortunate that the appendix of the book that he had borrowed since the first session had a nice summary of basic sigils. Flipping to the end of the book, he murmured to himself as he refreshed his memory on the the design of switches and paths.

Paths - his memory served him right; they were basically formed by the barrier sigils placed in parallel and acting in conjunction. Switches were slightly different, and they served as either 'djed multiplexers' or 'djed demultiplexers', depending if he wanted to use them to consolidate djed paths or to split up a single djed path into several, respectivey.

[Eridanus]

With the confirmation, he first began his work by circling his palm. He would attempt the djed channeling from a central area, and the center of his palm would fit this purpose quite well. First he began with the simple barrier sigil, using the crude circle drawn in the middle of his palm as a rough guideline. It reminded him of children coloring in the blanks with crayons, except that the positioning of his barrier sigils depended on the circle.

When he was done, he dipped his quill into the inkwell again, and positioned his writing hand over his open left palm, considering what he should do next. He supposed that consistency was important in the shape of a shield, and so he first began by drawing four triangles around the circle.

The triangles were drawn such that they were placed equally far apart at the four corners of his palm. Each triangle's vertex was nearest to the circular barrier at the middle of his palm, and the edge at the opposite of the vertex was facing exactly one hundred and eighty degrees opposite.

These triangles served as the baseline for the 'djed demultiplexers' that he would purpose his switch sigils to work as, and so he began to 'fill in the blanks', pursing his lips in concentration as he tried his best to portray the design as accurate as he could.

Ten chimes and several dips of the quill into the ink-well later, he stretched out his left palm, seeing the beginnings of his 'glyph blueprint' coming into shape. Now there was a single circular barrier in the middle of his left palm, with four switches outside that would split a single path of djed into several paths.

[Eridanus]

The five glyphs laid in the array covered most of his palms already, as he had to draw bigger glyphs due to his lack of confidence in being able to accurate pull off tiny symbols. Next would be an array of path sigils to equally distribute the djed from the barrier throughout his palm in a consistent manner.

He supposed that he could have just merely used the same paths as he used for the djed extrusion process to quicken the process, but while drawing the switches earlier he had already made up his mind to make his glyphs dual purpose - not only to speed up the shaping process but also to enhance the consistency of the shield thickness.

That meant a higher difficulty, but he mentally accepted his own challenge, for one does not simplygeddit? xD improve without overcoming obstacles.

He decided to keep it simple for his initial attempt, and so restricted the 'djed demultiplexers' into 1:2 switches, in other words each switch would receive a single stream of djed as input, and would split up the djed into two diminished streams as output. The ratio of diminishing depended on the design of the switch, though he would try his best to equalize the outputs.

That meant that he would have eight resulting paths, and he could then channel these eight paths in an equal manner such that they all lead to the top of his palm, each path coming either from the N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW directions, with the direction towards his middle finger taken as the N point.

Next was the painstaking process of actually drawing these eight paths, and so he first began by drawing eight lines such that they were equally spaced apart and would then lead to the top of his palm from these eight directions. After that it was slightly easier for the outline had been determined, and he dipped his quill into the inkwell again to 'fill in the blanks'.

It was repetitious work, but with each path sigil that he patterned along the lines that he drew he felt himself getting better at it, the muscle memory of his writing fingers and wrist getting more familiar with the muscle processes required to replicate a path sigil. He only had to make sure that he maintained his path sigils on the correct line, and not to accidentally intersect with other lines for the lines were pretty close due to his small hands. Or his large glyphs.

[Eridanus]

Finishing the last glyph with a flourish, Eridanus stretched out his left palm again, flipping it back and forth as he looked on in amazement. What had began as a simple experiment turned out to something more complex than he imagined.

On his left palm was a single circular barrier sigil, with four equally placed switch-splitters that would receive as input the djed within the barrier. Each switch-splitter would divide its input into two djed streams, and a total of eight streams led around his palm such that they converged on the top of his palm from the eight directions. In theory, his experiment would allow him to simply push djed during the shaping process instead of needing to mold them manually.

If it worked, he only needed to consciously push the djed around in the already specified paths, and his ability to control the djed during that process would be the only factor in the consistency of shields, eliminating the factor of his proficiency in the actual shaping process. If shielding was pottery, he had just automated the molding step of the clay-shaping, instead the only dependent variable would be his feeding of clay (djed) into the system and his manipulation of the clay along the paths.

It was now the time of reckoning, and he closed his eyes, bringing himself into a calm despite his rising excitement so that he could concentrate on the next task.

[Eridanus]

Regulating his breathing such that they were deep and consistent inhalations and exhalations rather than shallow and jagged panting (as were excitement was wont to do), he began to mentally focus on his astral body, gathering the djed throughout his soul as he drew on them as if they were a resource.

Like filling a pail from the well, he inwardly gathered enough djed for the shielding. Next, he imagined himself pulling the pail up from the well, and similarly he pulled the collected djed in his imaginative bucket, the rope leading up akin to the path leading to his left hand. HE could feel a psychological rumbling along his forearm as he did so, and could feel the gathered djed traveling through there as it made its way to his left palm.

Next was unhooking the bucket and removing it from the well to access the water within, and similarly he pushed the djed out through his palm, the djed that began to flow out his palm akin to emptying the bucket of water once out of the well.

He could see a faint blue outline of the transient djed, and he closed his eyes again, dedicating another part of his focus to accessing another form of magic to help improve his processing ability.

The figurative bucket of djed within his left forearm had some djed left, and he directed it to his head, pushing the astral energy until it reached his eyes. Imagining himself drinking from this bucket of djed, he consumed that bit of astral energy in order to power up his eyes, and as his eyes received the energy needed it upgraded its visual acuity from the physical plane to the astral one.

[Eridanus]

He could now see auras, and as he focused on the cloud of djed on his palm the contrast could not get larger than this. With his normal physical vision, the extracted djed existed as a pale, blurred and blue silhouette on top of his solid and clear hand. With auristics, his hand now faded into the backdrop, existing as a blurred and unimportant part of the scenery, while now the cloud of djed was a solid blue color, clear in its texture and energy.

This would allow him to better observe the flow of djed with respect to his experiment, and he watched as the last of the djed that he transferred to his left palm emptied out into the barrier sigil in the middle of his palm.

There was no need for his right hand to do any shaping, and instead it was a test of will for the shaping had already been predetermined. His right arm lying limply by his side, the ethaefal stared at the cloud of djed intensely, willing it to first distribute itself equally in the circular barrier.

When it was more or less equally spaced, he then mentally divided up the djed in the circle into four quadrants, each quadrant corresponding to the switch, or djed demultiplexer, placed after it. With that in mind, he pushed each quadrant out, making sure to squeeze the djed out of the barrier in an equal manner.

The solid blue form of the rudimentary shield began to travel as specified by the paths he laid out, though there was the occasional leak that he had to take care of by using his right hand to shift the djed back into shape.

He realized that by this pushing he had been depriving his palm from the djed, and he reversed the flow of his will, allowing some to flow back through the very same paths to his palm. He was reminded of the Lever, one of the six basic machines in Gadgeteering, and balancing the distribution of djed between the top and bottom parts of his hand was quite similar to balancing between the lever's pivot.

[Eridanus]

When he finally decided that it was time to move on, the djed distribution was precariously balanced between the open and close of his palm, and he maintained a huge focus on sustaining that balance while he began the next process of tasking.

Remembering the same procedure he used the last session to block sight, his right hand worked quickly on the shaped djed, tangling and retangling the threads of energy in order to form the pattern required for such a tasking. It was tedious work, and already his mind was considering the methods that he could possibly use to speed up the tasking part.

Realizing that his focus was drifting, he slammed his thoughts back into the present, and refocused his will on the shield. His eyes were already beginning to throb mildly, and his fingers blurred into a frenzy as he soldiered on, trying to complete the tasking as fast as he possibly could.

When he was finally done, his left wrist shut down into a mass of black, and he quickly cut the flow of djed into his eyes. He was pretty sure that he was going to get a headache, but he was confident at least that it would not last as long as the previous one, for the amount of time he saved from the shaping process was much more than in the djed extrusion process in the previous experiment.

Mentally comparing this session's light-blocking shield with the last one, he nodded in satisfaction as to the consistency of width, as well as the more convenient and efficient second step of the shield making process.

Allowing himself to relax, the shield abruptly disappeared from the lack of concentration, and similarly the intricately drawn glyphs on his hand disappeared from use, the ink evaporating magically as it faded away.

Eridanus yawned, placing his quill on the quill-stand to allow it to dry, and he kicked back into his chair.

[Eridanus]

Suddenly, he heard a loud crashing from the corner of the library, which surprised him and almost made him fall backwards on the floor. Standing up, he walked over to the source of the sound to find out if that person needed his assistance, only to find nobody there.

He did find a mess of books on the floor that made the sound, and he sighed as he picked them up meticulously to return them to their respective shelves. Fortunately, they were arranged alphabetically and it did not take him long to put the books back.

He kept the last book however, as it happened to be an in-depth discussion on the incorporeal state of ghosts and projected limbs, and he read on with interest as he skimmed through the pages, walking back to his table.

He was walking slowly as he read, and by the time he reached his original position he was on the part reading on how ghosts and similar creatures can attack projected limbs even while they were in an ethereal state. Naturally, that brought him to the question on whether the projected limbs can affect ghosts in their incorporeal state as well. Logically it would be, but he knew that magic was far from logical sometimes.

However, he did not read on to confirm his suspicions for he found himself looking at the table open-mouthed, his head quickly surveying the room, but he could sense no other movement.

[Eridanus]

Sprawled out on the table was his quill that was away from the quill-stand, and two words were written in a haphazard manner with ink from his inkwell on the table.

"Nice magic."

That meant that someone had been looking at him, though he was not quite sure how someone would be able to pull that off. As he looked around the room again, he felt an unnatural chill in his body and the fine hairs on his skin stood up.

He had not yet connected this matter to his weak but working passive 'spiritist sense', for he had been quite spooked by this affair, though at that time he dismissed it as a product of his overworked mind.

Still, he quickly gathered up his things, and with the two books that he had he left the library, striding towards his room in the dormitory in a hurried manner.