65th of Fall, 512 AV (The twenty-second bell)
"Do you believe in magic?
In a young girls heart
How the music can free her
Whenever it starts..."
Crypt paused for a moment, attempting to remember the next line of the unusual song he had heard in Alvadas a few years ago. The room fell silent as Crypt ceased both singing and scratching words into his journal; only the slow and steady inhalation and exhalation of Maras could be heard. It was late at night.
"Goodbye to you my little friend - No, that's one of the old songs from Cyphrus. Well, I may as well stick with it."
Crypt would have normally been at the Rearing Stallion at this time of night, tossing back a mug of ale and telling a few tales to gain some coin. However, he had been held back at the Stables for a bell or two, and as a result his almost-daily trip to the Hotsprings had to be cut short for his dinner, and a trip to the Rearing Stallion for some early entertaining. He did fine there, but he wasn't quite in the mood for a boisterous atmosphere, and so he left early after earning what amounted to about his daily take.
"Goodbye my friend it's hard to die...
When all the birds are singing in the sky.
Now that spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere, think of me and I'll be there..."
Somehow, he wasn't in quite a good mood today. He had even foregone his daily exercise after working at the Stables, and not even touched his reserve of Djed at all. Crypt had always been taught to be practical, and since most of his Djed would regenerate as he slept, well, why not do some practice now?
"We had joy, we had fun,
We had seasons in the sun.
But the wine and the song
Were just seasons out of time..."
Crypt dipped his quill into the open bottle of ink and wrote the last few words down before wiping the quill on his cloak, which lay nearby on a tiny chair. It already held quite a few ink stains, but one more wouldn't make much difference.
I'll start with a little Flux practice. Not too much though, I want to do something else to test out a theory of mine. My uncle mentioned something about it, so let's try it out.
Crypt placed a loaf of bread on his table and moved the chair away, walking leisurely towards his small bed. Removing his boots, he heaved a sigh as he sat down on the more comfortable bed. Assuming a lotus position, Crypt closed his eyes and began trying to relax, to get into the optimum state of mind for manipulating Djed.
Right then. Just as the book says, relax all of your muscles. Just take a deeeeep breath, and let it out slowly. Imagine all your tension, all your stress, all your frustrations flowing out with the air...
Crypt repeated the process many times for a few minutes before his muscles finally stopped tensing up, and Crypt started to feel a deep sense of calm. The meditation book Crypt had purchased from Undeniable Interests was proving quite useful in allowing Crypt to relax after a long day most of the time, and Crypt had progressed some way from being unable to sit still for more than twenty seconds.
Ahhh... Yes. Now to just sit here for a while. Feel your Djed, Crypt, but don't touch it yet. Just watch it move around your body, slowly and unhurridly. Watch it, feel it flow within you, but touch it not. Just rest, and enjoy it. There's no hurry to do anything; you've got plenty of time, Crypt. Think only of your Djed, of how beautiful it feels. It is your own, and it is pure.
Crypt spent the next few minutes simply sensing the reserves of Djed inside him, expending the minimum amount of Djed to continue to feel it, not using any to change its directions.
Finally, once Crypt felt that he would be able to concentrate on the task at hand, he stopped being passive and slowly lifted his left hand over to his right hand, where he placed it on the palm, which was facing upwards.
I've been gathering Djed mostly from my right arm to enhance my left arm, so I guess it's time to increase the variation of my practices, just to ensure that if I ever need to use the Flux somewhere, I can do it fast enough to matter.
Crypt felt for the Djed within the palm of his hand, using his left hand as a conduit of sorts for his Auristics reading, channeling a small amount of Djed (smaller than what he used to analyse the Djed usage and levels of other mages, for it was his own Djed he was observing) to see the Djed even with closed eyes.
His left hand's fingers bent inward slowly, causing his hand to resemble the claws of an eagle. And in the other palm, his little finger twitched as Crypt gained greater and greater control over the Djed. Crypt then slowly moved his hand up the length of his arm, allowing some of the Djed from his lower arm to flow up with the rising hand and into the chest.
Steady... Steady... Steady...
It followed his hand obediently for most of the way down his chest and into the upper part of his right leg, though occasionally Crypt had to gently nudge the Djed from diffusing into the intercostal muscles and other assorted muscles in the vicinity of his chest.
Finally, it reached his right leg's muscles. Crypt stopped his hand over where the fibula would be, and allowed the Djed to collect there. He opened up his left hand, and allowed the Djed to move inside the muscles. The anatomy of his leg was different from his left arm, but as Crypt was able to differentiate between muscles, ligaments and tendons in general, having extensive practice in enhancing them in his left arm, Crypt was able to direct the Djed and use it more efficiently than simply releasing the sphere of Djed, as it would probably just flow back to the arm.
Crypt felt his leg growing marginally stronger and lighter. He opened his eyes, and stood up on the bed, nearly losing his balance due to the slight, though noticeable difference. He lost his concentration with the near fall, and the Djed rushed back towards his arm.
Crypt groaned.
Well, I guess that's it for the Flux. Note to self: Never try to walk with only one enhanced leg. Enhancing the leg while kicking someone in the gonads is fine, but make sure to move the Djed back to where I took it from before I start walking, or I'm going to make a fool of myself.
Crypt wiped the sweat off his forehead, shaking his now tingling arm. His leg was feeling rather... odd, but hopefully it would not be too sore the day after.
Time to try this out.
Crypt took a few deep breaths to calm himself down for the final part of his magic practice. He channeled Djed to his eyes in preparation for using it to focus on an aura, and stared at the loaf of bread quietly sitting on top of the table.
The aura was nothing special, just shades of brown and white, with a dash of prussian blue. Ten seconds after Crypt started focusing on it, he started to taste it in his mouth. It was faint at first, but then it grew stronger until Crypt could taste and smell the raisins within, and the slight crunch that came with eating a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven. He could almost see the smell floating over to him, the aura extending miniscule, easily over-looked strands of a translucent material towards him, presumably supplying the information.
As he looked deeper into the aura, Crypt could now feel the rough texture of the loaf of bread in his own hands, almost as if the loaf of bread had been magically teleported into his grasp. He raised his empty hands in front of him, though not blocking his view of the loaf of bread still lying innocently on the table, in sheer disbelief.
How the... What the... Is still what comes with reading auras? My goodness, with this I could do so much! Three of my senses have been extended towards the bread, and I'm willing to bet that Auristics does the same for the other two. It feels like it's here right now, but it isn't. I knew that everything has an aura, but to actually identify its physical properties after so short a time, compared to how much time I have to spend just trying to find out a hint of what a person would currently be feeling, and even more to analyse and identify the specific emotion. My goodness, I could possibly tell if a person was having a fever just by sensing that his body heat would be higher than usual, or if anything I bought...
Even as he thought of all this, something similar to a knife was rammed through Crypt's head. He groaned loudly, grabbing his head with his hands. The pain was all-consuming, and for the better part of an hour, Crypt rolled around his bed, alternating between suppressed shouts and periods of silent suffering.
PETCH! I've over-given. Oh, damnit. I'm petching weak.
As Crypt finally recovered from the pain that had wrecked his mind, he opened his eyes and found the room was much brighter than usual. Racking it up to his over-giving, he heaved a sigh and did not utter a word of complaint. He had used too much Djed, and he had to pay the price.
This should last for about 6 days. Until then, I'd better stop using Djed. At least I didn't go blind. Now, about the discovery I made...
Crypt's mind ran through many possible scenarios in which this newly-found aspect of his skills would do him a world of good. Crypt lay back on his bed, ceasing to read the aura of the loaf of bread, or even try to use Djed, and stared at the ceiling for a few chimes before falling asleep.
His dreams would be filled with the possibilities for using his personal discovery, and filled with nightmares of the pain he could have caused to himself if he had gone further. |
|
by Crypt on November 5th, 2012, 2:15 pm 
Other than that, have fun, and keep up the good work!
