[Flashback] Ashes to ashes

[Fade]

Fade was a mere child when Ash joined the circus, but he changed her life, at least for sometime.
Of his past she knew little, but he had been trained as a mage and he liked to throw knifes.
His clothes suggested that his family had been wealthy but he never told Fade anything about himself. He was at least six year older than her or maybe more his face betrayed nothing. His features were as strange and eccentric as his character: he had swirling grey eyes with no tint of blue and flaming red hair, a straight nose and thin mouth. He was tall and of pale completion.
He used to spend time with her, almost as a brother helping her in her chores and training. But when she got older Fade started to think about him and understood that probably the young friend couldn’t have had all that powerful knowledge at his age. And after hearing some stories about Morphing wizards she started to have doubts, who had he really been? She wouldn’t ever know.

Fade was sitting on a wagon with Ash along side her, hands gripping his knees.
He abruptly broke the silence “Do you know what is magic?”
Fade shook her head knowing it was better not to talk when he was saying something, he often lost his concentration.
“Magic is fuelled by Djed, we can use our own Djed or we can take it from other sources.
Now hear me thrice when I say this, there are three fundamental rules to Djed:
Djed cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed
Some forms of Djed are purer than others.
Some transformations are irreversible. “

He paused while Fade repeated what he had said twice in her head.
He grinned and said “Now, Fade repeat what I said…backwards”
Fade closed her eyes, deep in concentration and Ash interrupted her thought “To slow to slow where is your mind girl?” She opened her eyes glared at him and recited
“Irreversible are transformations some” Ash nodded and explained that if you burned even a piece of paper you couldn’t reconstitute it.
“Other than purer are Djed of forms some” Ash also explained that people having a will their Djed was more powerful than a rock which had no will.
“Transformed only, destroyed or created be cannot Djed” She let out her breath.
Ash went on “There are three types of magic personal magic, which involves Djed , Kand-djed and gnosis. And of course there are many disciplines but one of the most interesting from my point of view is Glyphing but it has to be learned with another subject. Glyph is the official name for a rune. Runes drawn by different mages will look very different. Once the power of a glyph has been exhausted, it will break.

But now hear my three times as I tell you about glyphing. Glyphs can be used to
Store magic
Release magic upon activation of a trigger
Restrict magic into a fixed space
Channel magic into an area, target or path
Split the effects of magic
Combine the effects of magic
Stabilize wild magic “
Ash waited for Fade to catch up and snorted for no reason at all.
“Now a good scroll has many elements
Focus, Barrier, Trigger”

Ash groped for paper behind him and drew a big glyph in the middle of the scroll and then
Other two series of runes one to the left and one to the right.
He pointed at the one in the middle and said “Focus is single glyph that stores magic. When magic flows into the Focus, it disappears until released. “ He than pointed at the left one and said
“Barrier is a series of glyphs, usually arranged in a circle, that surround another part of the sigils. They block and restrict the magical effect inside, typically contained in a Focus..
He then pointed a the series of glyphs to the right “Glyphs that specify a condition for another part of the sigils to be activated or deactivated.”
He gave the paper to Fade and ordered her to repeat, which she did without flaw.
He continued there are other two glyphs that can be used to act as boundaries, forming a 'road' for a magical effect to travel on. They are used to channel magic where desired or connect different sigils. These are called paths. Another single glyph can be used to split a magical effect into multiple parts, or merge multiple effects.”
He shook his head and ran a hand through his red hair and said ” These runes have no power of their own, but can manipulate magic from another discipline, for example storing, releasing, channelling, deflecting or confining a spell.”

[Fade]

Fade sat in silence hearing him three times but when he fell into a brooding silence she wondered why he was telling her this, she was curious but what could she do with a rune in her life? She was just a slave no more nor less. She got so lost in her thought that she didn’t notice Ash waving paper at her. He told her to build a glyph, she copied what he had drawn to his general disdain “Don’t copy what I drew, runes are different from person to person”
She sighed and drew letting her mind wander.

Ash seemed pleased with her work but both their free time was up. He got up and ruffled up her hair and said “You better not forget” He jumped down from the wagon and left.

She gingerly stepped down and ran to the big top to see if anything needed to be done, there wasn’t anything so she trudged down the path to her owners tent and started her routine. She had just got the idea of adding a ball to her show and it was proving difficult especially because you had to grip the ball as you would an egg. She had to work on her oversplits, like always.

[Fade]

It was nightfall when she finally got an opportunity to stop training and slip out to see what Ash was doing, she found him next to a wagon eating a carrot. He looked at her and said “Why are you looking at me like that?” She finally let her curiosity burst “Why show me how to draw a good glyph if I have no way op practising it?”
He looked at her in bewilderment “I did what?”
“oh come on!” she pushed him playfully but he only laughed and said “I didn’t show you anything”
Fade snorted, typical of Ash forgetting everything. He was bonkers sometimes having fits of anger and stress then forgetting everything”
She sighed and repeated all of what he had said. He looked at her horrified then sighed
“My hands are tied, but tell me why do you want me to teach you a discipline of magic?”
She nodded. He sighed and said “only if you answer three of my questions, fist one tell me how many fingers I’m holding up behind my back”
It was a trick question and she knew it, she thought than answered an open answer “Less than six”
Ash gave no approval but asked her “Three robbers are caught by a king. The king puts them in a line so that the third can see the backs of the ones in front, the middle one can only see the one in front of him and the last one can’t see anyone. The king places three hats on their heads and sais, there are two hats of the same colour that might be white or black. If you guess what colour hat you are wearing you are free.” Ash paused and looked at Fade and grinned saying “After some time the middle one says his hat his white, why?”
Fade thought but couldn’t get the answer she run the riddle in her head, then she repeated the last bit backwards and smiled.
She calmly answered “He knows because after some time the one behind him, who can see both of them, has not said what colour hat he wears. That means he can see that the ones in front of him have respectively a white and black hat so he doesn’t know if his is black or white. The middle one knows that its not the colour of the one in front of him, therefore his hat must be white.”
Ash nodded and asked her his last question “Tell me why I asked you this”
Fade smiled and replied “Because you can’t think up good motives why not to teach me so you tried to trick me”
His expression darkened “On the contrary, magic is very dangerous and that’s a very good reason, you seem wasted in a petty circus” He snorted and told her to follow him.

[Fade]

Then he started to tell her about projection
“Projection is a discipline of personal magic that allows the person to detach portions - generally the arms - or even the entirety of their astral body from their physical body thanks to the user's Djed”
He paused and said “But first memorize the layers that we think compose our soul. From the innermost one, these are:
Soulcore is the deepest part of the soul; this part is responsible for the concept of self but carries no other information.
Persona is the second layer, containing the soul's personality, feelings, skills and memories
Astral body is the third layer, which is responsible for interacting with the world. The astral body manoeuvres the physical body like a puppet, and is synchronized with it.
Aura is not so much a layer as energy that is constantly radiated by the soul and can be felt and read in several ways such as Auristics. Auras are not limited to souls, however.”
He made her repeat all this three times out load and then the three rules of Djed and all the glyphs.
He told her to draw the glyphs she had learnt then told her to do exactly what he said.
But first he explained ”The first task in Projection is detaching the astral body from the physical. This is done by concentrating on one's Djed. We will use a gentle way”
He gestured for her to lie down. “I will help you with this, and remember don’t detach a lot of your body and as a novice never your head, risk is high”
Fades insides were bubbling. “You will detach only your hand” He glared at her his eyes piercing he then repeated “Only your hand”
“Relax it, every joint every muscle” He placed a nut just out of her reach “Concentrate your Djed, remember what I said about the astral body. You want to reach out to grab the nut, concentrate on it as hard as you can. Let it fill you, use your will power”
Fade let it absorb her will and thoughts, the nut was the water and she was the sponge.
Her hand reached out, stretched across the meter that divided her from the nut. It having detached any other part her movements were limited. As calmly as she had detached herself she let her astral projection reattach itself to her hand and arm, she slowly moved her finger then she returned the will power to her joints and she slowly regained herself. The nut was beside her hand.
She sat up to find Ash sitting on a rock fingers entwined in his fiery hair face buried in his hands, he looked at her anger spitting from his eyes, lips forming a hard line “You didn’t wait for me to tell you how to reattach yourself” he said it in a trembling soft voice.
“ The main risks with Projection lie in hasty or poorly performed detachment or attachment. You might lose synchronization, mobility and even your life” He continued to speak in a deadpan voice
“That’s why it can only be taught by powerful mages.”
He shook his head, Fade moved pain shot up her arm, and she twitched. He got up and held out his hand, she took it. In height she jus reached his chest.
“Repeat to me all of what you learnt today” He chuckled.

[Fade]

She did, in the next few days he made her write glyphs incessantly. He even gave her a list of words in the ancient tongue called Nader-canoch to memorize
It was a straightforward language the difficulty lies in learning that it has a low word count, meaning that most words have multiple meanings. Adding "s" turns a noun into an adjective.
A few days later he would quiz her.
He would ask her the translation of a series of words so not only she had to rack her brain to remember their meaning but she had to also remember their order.
“Tell me what Daeq, Nader, Roza, Sutla and Sutlas” he would say.
She had to answer correctly “Daeq means shape, to make by defining the boundaries. Nader means we, us, ours, what we share. Roza means death, end, termination, interruption. Sutla means length, width, extension and Sutlas is an adjective so it means long”
He would just nod and ask her to repeat.

Those were during the last weeks of autumn, he seemed in a hurry he left a short time later.
Their friendship had mutated to smething else, he was her teacher in so many things.
When he left he said nothing to her, and all the wanders he had given a taste of vanished.
He had been a friend but he had left her knowing things she could never put to use. But she had been young and he passed out her mind as soon as she had to perform other chores and duties. He was just an aching memory locked away with the things he had told her, wrought in her mind but useless. He must have been a wizard, and a mad wizard at that.
He also left her with good knife throwing and catching skills she remembered the song which in the earlier days he used to sing to annoy her.
“See a woman as pale as snow
Silent come silent go
See a girl with golden white hair
Of her golden touch beware”
Her blessing from Nikali shed on his taunt a new light ever casting new mysteries around him.

[Harlequill]

Weighing in... XP Awarded Character: Fade Experience:1xp Glyphing, 1xp Projection Lore: Basic Tenets of Glyphing, Basic Tenets of Projection, Basic Understanding of Djed, Nader-Canoch (Five Words), The Song of Ash Notes: Hey, these comments might help. First a short note: If you can, please try to organize your posts in paragraph format. This form of writing feels unnatural and difficult to read only because of the way it is presented. If you need help learning paragraph format send me a private message and I'd be glad to help you. Though Ash lectured you on these skills, any instance of Fade actually using them was very very brief (no more than a few lines). I debated whether even awarding a single point in each was merited. When you use a skill, try to detail the act more clearly. You could comment on the feelings your character experiences while experimenting with magic, whether or not it is physically draining, exactly what thought and action processes lead to the end result. With Ash describing everything, the end result is lore. You gain knowledge, but you don't gain skill. As far as the discussion with Ash goes, remember that mages are -very- guarded of their secrets. You mentioned that Ash may have been crazy, this is a possible explanation for why he taught you. Just remember that Fade should be more careful than he was if you want her to stay in one piece. (Also try to keep the dialogue written in the words of the character. Ash sounded a little like he was reciting from the Wikipedia. If you're having trouble changing the original wording while keeping the meaning, I find it helps me to imagine how it would sound if one of my friends were explaining me.)