[Flashback] Offing the Candle (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 32, Summer of 509 AV
Nightfall
Simple Single Room

Leth had only just taken over Syna's reign over the sky, and appropriately Eridanus was awash with the daily transformation that struck his mind with jumbled and garbled memories of his past in the divine space that was Ukalas or one of his many past lives. He could really recall which. Normally he would have been subject to contemplation, if not for the frenzied scribbling that he was engrossed in on one of the many pieces of parchment sprawled all over his desk.

A single quill was grasped in his hand while an ink-well stood within reach. The flickering flames of a candle provided illumination when Syna's rays could not. When most people would have gone to bars to socialize or to hang out somewhere with friends or comrades, the ethaefal returned to his room early not to sleep but to explore a strange little idea that he had thought of when he had woken up early that day in the morning.

Eridanus finished the last jot with a flourish, resting the quill against the open mouth of the ink-well as he looked at the product of his frenzied scribbling. It looked like an edgy art piece, perhaps a surrealistic attempt at portraying an absurd idea.

A combination of words, drawings and symbols, the complex arrangement of ink on the parchment looked like a hybridization of typical mundane communication tools, but to wielders of the arcane it meant something different completely.

[Eridanus]

Glyphing. The written discipline of magic that was all but useless on its own, but truly shined when combined with other disciplines. It was a set or arcane instructions meant to break the rules of other magics. Being a glypher entails defining his own set of rules for the magics he wielded, and not being bound by the natural constraints of whatever discipline he was using.

Of course, that also meant that it opened up to further complications and risk, but that was a calculated risk anyone who dabbled in magic must be willing to take. The path of magic was never a safe and comfortable one.

The current set of instructions he had been laboring on held the tasking details for the 'sense template' that he had developed back in Zeltiva years back. It was not only to directly speed up the tasking stage of the shielding process with the array of path sigils all located strategically that corresponded to the appropriate djed thread patterns. No, the reason why there were so many more words and symbols in the sigils was because he added definition sigils where he further elaborated and defined the purpose of his glyph.

This would effectively enhance the security and strength of the tasking instructions and guarantee at least a more stable form of decay in terms of tasking when the shield inevitably deteriorated. It would not matter much if he kept the shield around for only a while, but for longer lasting shields this would hold much greater benefit in terms of implications.

[Eridanus]

Adhering to the improved method of which he called up his shield the day before, he impressed similar images into his mind as he extracted the djed from his body, wetly slapping the intangible foam of astral energy onto the intricately decorated parchment. Like soft clay, he spread and molded the building blocks of the shield throughout the parchment where ink lay drying, rubbing and kneading until he patted the djed into a roughly similar texture on top of the parchment.

Closing his eyes, he placed both hands gently on top of the spread-out djed, his palms physically hovering inches above the arrays of simple glyphs that he painstakingly combined into a larger complex picture. Calling out to the djed that originally belonged within his body, he mentally pushed the djed onto the glyphs, welcoming the arcane instructions, allowing the glyphing to seep into the pre-shield foam balanced above the parchment.

His mind light up with recognition, and similarly the glyphs on the parchment lit up temporarily before fading somewhat, though not entirely. That was because of the extra glyphs he added throughout the picture that had the sole purpose of adding to the longevity of the glyphs, making them last longer than a single use though not by much.

[Eridanus]

The shield was not complete yet, for it only held the basic template for sense tasking. Looking at the flickering candle, the ethaefal decided to go with a new idea instead. Turning his attention to the djed threads of the shield, he reweaved some of the patterns, moving the strands towards a pattern similar but not equivalent to temperature tasking. The part that governed temperature remained the same, but the part that governed the sense was different.

Putting the last strand into placed, he tasked the shield against air. Picking up the slab of djed from the parchment, he gingerly dropped it so that it would form a covering orb over the candle flame.

The flames flickered.

Eridanus watched patiently, and it was only a matter of time that the flames died, for the invisible shield around the candle prevented fresh air from entering. Like mortals, fire required oxygen to survive and without a fresh supply it died out.

He was not done yet.

Focusing on the djed within him, he brought out more djed, but this time instead of djed he extracted it as res - the direct physical manifestation of djed within him. It was a subtle difference between the two, with res actually being visible by others while djed did not. His res manifested as a glowing pure-white color not unlike that of the moon which signified his divine connection with Leth.

He only needed a bit, and so he focused as he brought out that bit of res, using his finger to point the floating ball towards the tip of the candle. Sending a message of anger towards the res, it responded by bursting into a tiny but brilliant flame, though dying out quickly due to the lack of fuel.

However that short burst of energy was sufficient to relight the candle.

[Eridanus]

The ethaefal returned his attention to the shield. This time, he pushed his fingers into the cracks of the djed strands that governed the pattern and thus tasking of the shield. The intrusion sent the patterns haywire and effectively disabled the current tasking, allowing the tiny flame on the candle a little more time to burn unmolested.

Re-weaving the definitions of the patterns on the shield, he proceeded to change the type of element to that of fire. It was similar in a way that there was a sort of 'elemental template' to the pattern of the djed tapestry, yet it was different in that there was a sort of hidden burn of emotion that spoke out resoundingly in the shield. It was an emotion that was difficult to describe to non magic practitioners.

Fingering the last strand into place, Eridanus then released his grip on the shield, allowing it to settle into its new tasking as he observed the candle curiously. Placing his hand on the bottom of the candle, he shifted the position of the candle itself without actually moving the position of the shield.

Though the shield's position mostly hinged on the candle, some of it was tethered to the desk as well, and so it remained largely unmoved relative to the candle's movement. As the candle passed by the shield, the flames immediately snuffed out as the tower of wax crossed over the invisible barrier defined by his djed.

Success!

Grinning maniacally, Eridanus pushed out a little more res, returning the candle back to the middle of the shield as he ignited a ball of flame and set the candle alight again. If the candle was a living being, it would surely object to this continuous torture and experimentation. Fortunately, it was not, and Eridanus was free to pursue his hypotheses.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus plunged his fingers back into the shield, sending the tasking pattern into disarray yet again. As he attempted to reweave the next pattern, the shield flickered once only as a warning, and before he could do anything it winked out of existence. The cool air of the surroundings met his fingers again, then the heat from the tongue of the little flame sitting snugly atop the candle.

It seems that I have overestimated by shield's duration.

No matter, for it seemed that the rudimentary longevity glyphs he added to the complex array he printed on the parchment would probably last for one more try.

Closing his eyes, he replicated the process, pushing out the djed that remained as intangible djed, shaping it over the parchment as he imprinted the arcane instructions yet again into the djed.

This time there was a low, almost inaudible, hum as the parchment glowed and the last of the ink faded away, the parchment looking brand-new as the last debris of ink crumbled into nothingness, expended by the mysterious energies that powered the art of glyphing.

The basic shield was formed, and Eridanus draped it over the candle again, making sure to tug at the djed strings again to reform the 'elemental template' that he wanted.

[Eridanus]

This time, instead of the longing passion of fire he delved into the meditative calm of water. Imagining lazily trickling streams instead of raging rivers, he imparted this notion, this persona into the last section of the 'elemental template' that usually signified specialization. Humming to himself as he did so, he settled the last strand into place and the shield blinked blue, signifying that it was finalizing its designed task.

Eridanus cocked his head as he studied the flame, and he spat onto flame.

It was fortunate that he was alone, for his spittle flew further than he intended and landed on the wall. Still, his cheeks blushed furiously as he reflexively looked around to see if anyone was there to laugh at him, before reminding himself that there was no one.

Leaning his head towards the candle such that his mouth was only a few inches above the candle, he gathered some saliva by rolling tongue in the caverns of his mouth. Allowing his drool to slide out of his mouth, he closed his mouth after a sufficiently long strand of saliva hung from his lips, causing the wet thread of drool to fall towards the candle with the expected wet plop.

Except that the plop did not happen. The shield turned bright blue as it glowed upon contact with the drool. However, both the shield and the strand of drool flashed before disappearing together.

Apparently, the shield that Eridanus had formed quickly out of his need to explore this particular tasking had not been shaped consistently enough. The large amount of saliva had greatly expended the shield's energies, and the total energies required to dematerialize the water in his saliva as instructed by his tasking expended all djed in the shield.

[Eridanus]

He had actually one more tasking that he wanted to explore, but his shield was gone, and the glyphs he had on the parchment was also gone. He was also beginning to tire, both from the magical exertions tonight and of the physical labors in the day that he had to subscribe to in order to continue feeding himself and to pay for boarding.

He knew that he would require quite some time to form a brand new shield from scratch without the aid of glyphing and that he might not possibly be energetic enough to do so. Thus, he could only look sadly at the flames, whispering to the candle that it got off lucky today. Blowing on it gently he snuffed the flames, returning the room once again into darkness.

Only gently illuminated by the faint rays from the moon that found itself into the room through the windows that overlooked the street that Traveler's Row was build beside, he found his way onto the soft linen of his bed, groaning in satisfaction as his body acquiesced to the comfortable cotton.

As he closed his eyes, his last thoughts were on a strange combination of Leth, due to the moon rays shining into the room, and of magic, due to the last experiment that he did not manage to conduct because of his poor planning.

No matter, there was always a new day and new plans to be made. Unlike mortals, what he had was the luxury of time.

[Emblem]

Congratulations! You Get Glorious Experience! Eridanus Skills Shielding- 5 XP Glyphing- 4 XP Writing- 2 XP Drawing- 2 XP Reimancy- 1 XP Lores (Glyphing) Enhancing Shields - Tasking (Glyphing) Speed Casting Shields - Tasking Changing the Rules of Magic Increasing Longevity of Glyphs (Shielding) Elemental Tasking: Air (Shielding) Elemental Tasking: Fire (Shielding) Elemental Tasking: Water Clarifying the Sigils Comments : You are just a writing machine haha. Once again always a pleasure grading for you. I didn't think there was enough to constitute meditation or philosophy. I am also not giving out the upgraded glyphing lore, because we use a different format now, which would be glyphing (partial) or (complete). I dont feel confident in giving out the complete lore until expert level is achieved. Any other concerns or questions shoot me a PM!