A Magical Trade (Clyde)

by **L'orlei** on June 3rd, 2013, 6:36 pm

L'orlei smiled. Perhaps her plan all along had been to get Clyde to ask about Reimancy and further assistance. Perhaps she was only pretending. ..except she wasn't. She was a shy girl, and she did not think Clyde was going to teach her at all. But his words gave her hope. If he truly had no interest in her, he wouldn't have said anyting. Of course.. she had messed up, so she had to try to mend it, and make her beleive she hadn't.

"Um.. no, of course not. I mean.. um.."

L'orlei sighed, shaking her head. She was anything but savvy, and couldn't tell a lie if she tried. Perhaps Clyde would appreciate an honest answer more?

"I still want to learn it.. but the truth is, I am not good with this.. um, what is it called? Social stuff? I can talk business, but that didn't work with you. And so.. well. I can still teach you about the plants! And yes, I want to learn about Reimancy."

L'orlei quickly turned and started walking off, only remembering a few steps that she was supposed to invite Clyde to follow her, which she did by motioning for him to come along. The journey to her house did not take long either, and as Clyde had already seen before, it was one of the few that were actually entirely on dry ground. Opening the door, L'orlei led the way in.

"Let me start a fire so you can dry off," L'orlei said as she headed over to the fireplace and moved the cooking pot out of the way.

Reaching for her flint and steel, L'orlei began trying to start the fire. In theory she knew how, but in practice she was not particularly experienced in the art. While she worked, she thought about what she would teach Clyde, and how to keep in interested. It was a little terrifying to think about, but now that she was certain the magic was still on the table, she was willing to risk it.

OOCSo I'm kind of waiting until we wrap this up before I actually respond to that other thread. Or at least until we get to a point where I can predict what else will happen in this thread.

by **Clyde Sullins** on June 4th, 2013, 5:38 pm

Clyde waited upon her response, which seemed to have flustered the konti a bit, or at least caught her off guard. He just let out a small grin, to show that he was not angry at her, as he listened to her reply.

His grin grew a bit wider, as she spoke. Perhaps he did follow Rhysol, who was the lord of lies... But in truth, Clyde tended to be a honest person. He felt no great need to lie, when the truth would suffice, and would easily convince a person of something as well as or better than a sweet lie.

He still agreed with him, in the broader scheme of things, but felt no need personally to constantly lie, and preferred to deal with others who he could trust, and were candid. Candor though, was a hard thing to find in Ravok, and even harder to find amongst other followers of Rhysol. Most were far to afraid to show weakness, or any lack of knowledge, to be candid, for fear of retribution or others taking advantage.

"Social stuff?" Clyde looked at L'orlei, a puzzled look crossing his face for a moment.

"I do not see any social stuff. I personally never dabble in such wastes of time, idle muttering and pointless weather stating. I have better things to do with my time. This is all business, not social. I want something, you want something, and perhaps you can convince me you have something equal to trade, for what you want."

"And teaching is never social, it is always business. The exchange of information and training, is not social, but a very serious matter."

Once they arrived at the house, Clyde followed her in, and removed and set aside his wet robes, placing his staff on the ground next to it, along with his pack, from which he removed the plants they had gathered, called cattails.

Standing behind her, once she had everything else ready, he saw she was having some trouble with the final step of actually starting the fire. With a resolute sigh, he took a step up beside her, shifted the plant to one hand, and said "Here, I have got it."

He reached out with his free hand, placing it over the fire, and quickly exuded and gathered a marble sized ball of res onto his open palm, which he held palm up.

Turning his hand, the liquid res rolled off of his hand, and dropped into the depth of the fire. With a lazy flick of his wrist, the res transmuted into flame, and easily lit the fire in a moment. As he did the magic, a sweet tang filled his mouth, different than any physically derived taste one could receive, which was utterly delicious. It simply left a hollow place in his gullet when it faded, which left him craving for a second taste.

by **L'orlei** on June 12th, 2013, 7:26 pm

L'orlei watched in unmasked awe as Clyde used his magic to light the fire. It was quite amazing what one could do with their djed, if they knew how. L'orlei's own abilities were minor, but she had little formal training, and little need to actually practice. That was something she intended to change, eventually. If she wanted to be a member of the Opal Order and travel the world, she would need to know about more than just healing. She would have to know how to defend herself. Her shielding was helpful, but she had no form of offensive magic.

Of course L'orlei had other ideas for the magic as well, if Clyde taught her. Once she had a decent amount of skill at she would be able to put it to all sorts of beneficial uses, or at least so she thought. But first she had to give Clyde what he wanted, and that was instruction on how to use the cattails. L'orlei was no teacher, but it was pretty simple, and so she would do her best.

"Thankyou," she replied, backing away from the fire after it was lit. "Okay, I'll show you what to do with the plants now."

L'orlei went to her own pack, withdrawing the cattails she had collected and laying them out on the floor. She also gathered up some of her herbalism and philtering tools, bringing over a pair of mortar and pestle, and a small press, as well as her knife.

"The first thing you want to do is separate the parts. Peel off the leaves with your knife, then cut off the head and roots, and separate them into piles."

L'orlei started doing just that, showing Clyde how to peel away the leaves. Some of the looser leaves could be pulled off by hand, but many of them clung to the stalk, requiring a knife to peel them efficiently. It wasn't hard, but as with many things involving her trade, it was tedious. After all the leaves were peeled and set aside, she removed the heads next.

"This part is easy. You can usually just snap the heads right off. The bushy part here is the female part of the plant, and it tastes like corn. This little yellow spike is the male part, and contains all the pollen. You can make honey from that if you have enough, or I guess you could just leave it on and it would probably make the whole thing sweeter if you wanted to eat it."

L'orlei wasn't a chef, though she intended to one day learn to cook. Cooking was very useful in her trade, especially if it could make her poultices and potions taste better. But the entire plant could be eaten raw, so she did not need to worry about that for this lesson. Snapping the heads off did not take long, and finally they were to the roots.

"With these you usually just want to chop them. You can break them off, but they don't always break clean, and you might end up with some of the stalk. It's better if you get only the roots."

by **Clyde Sullins** on June 13th, 2013, 12:35 am

For Clyde, such a simple spell was as easy as scratching his nose. It certainly did not excite him, or elicit any strong feeling. Of course, this likely had more to do with other greater magics he had done, which made such a simple casting pale in comparison.

It was like a master swordsmith, going back to making horseshoes. Barely worth his attention, and about as exciting as it.

He waited with plant in hand, for her to begin instruction, which she did soon enough once the fire was going. Clyde watched what she did carefully, so that he could later repeat it on his own.

As she prepared her tools, and took out a knife, Clyde went through his pack and found his dagger, and slipped it out of is scabbard, setting the rest of his gear on the floor. It would serve as well as her knife, as long as he was careful with it. Though it being sharp on both sides, it would not serve as well for chopping. Hopefully it would not be an issue.

He followed along as she did things, a few paces behind, but still following her instructions as close as he could. He would watch her do it, and then do it himself.

The leaves were a bit tricky to get off, and she seemed to make it look easier than it really was. He had to sort of half hack, half cut, and half pry, no matter that it was to many halves. They were doing herbalism, not math.

Once he got all of the leaves off, leaving his plant a bit ragged, the leaves piled in a heap, he chopped off the head as she said, and then the roots. That bit was easier than the entire process of de-leafing.

Then he was back to dealing with the head, realizing as she said he could have just snapped it off. But he had taken her earlier words literally, and so had cut it off. Nothing he could do about it now.

He was not sure about all this talk of eating it, and of making honey, which he thought had to do with bees. But he supposed if he ended up in the wilds, and got hungry enough, he would eat anything that was okay to eat. Staying alive was more important than good taste.

When it came to the roots, it looked like it was a good thing he had followed her orders, as apparently breaking them could cause issues.

Now he was left more or less with the same piles as L'orlei, the pile of leaves, the long stalk which was a bit worse for wear than the Konti's, along with his roots in a pile, and the head of the plant in the final one.

Letting out a sigh, he looked at the various lumps of plant parts, unsure what was next.

"Okay, so now they are apart, what next? You mentioned something about burning them, though I am not sure how that works... At least, without losing the ashes or whatever the burnt remnants are, from falling into the fire. How do you stop that?"

by **L'orlei** on June 13th, 2013, 2:22 pm

"Now you could just burn the entire plant. If you have a small fire, it wont hurt if the ashes get mixed, or you can light one of the leaves on fire and use it to start the others, making a separate fire. But I don't want to burn the entire plant, because the other parts are more useful in other ways."

Burning the leaves really was pretty simple, but L'orlei had a preferred way of doing it. Rather than just lighting a leaf on fire, which would burn it up fast and probably not light all the other leaves, she took a hot coal from the fire using a poker and worked it into her bowl, being careful not to touch it directly with her fingers. After that she just stuck some of the leaves in the bowl and watched as they slowly started to blacken and turn to ash. A small flame did start, but for the most part the leaves simply turned black and became ash rather than burning outright.

"I like doing it this way better. When they are burning with a flame the ashes tend to float away, but this saves more of them. Once all the leaves are done, just take the coal out and store the ashes for later."

L'orlei patiently burned the rest of her leaves, and after they were done she poured all the ash into a jar. It was a little time consuming, but such things usually were. After that she moved on to the next step.

"For the roots, we could burn them just like the leaves, but I am after something else. If you chop them up, grind and press them, you can extract a bit of sap, or honey, or whatever you want to call it. I can use that for other medicines, or you could mix it with the ash.. you could even maybe use some of the ground root and mix it in with the ash too. Really, there are all sorts of ways you can do this. You can even mix parts from other plants."

L'orlei wasn't an expert, but her trade was all about experimentation. The ash was good because it helped clot blood, and retained some of the antiseptic properties the plant already had. But logically, she could take some of the sap from the roots and just mix it with the ash, enhancing it. She reasoned that if she ground up the roots enough, they could also be mixed with the ash.. but that would take a lot of chopping and grinding to get it anywhere near the right consistency. Other plants could be thrown in too, making a more powerful concoction, but she didn't want to overwhelm Clyde.

The chopping, grinding the with mortar and pestle, and pressing took longer than one might think. The finer she could grind the roots, the more she could get out of the press. It was a time consuming, and actually quite tiring process. L'orlei did not do all of her roots, knowing that Clyde likely did not want to spend all day working with the plants, but she did enough to show him how it worked.

"Now I just put this in the press, and hopefully I have enough here to get some of the sap out."

L'orlei dumped all of the ground roots she had into the press and began to turn it, tightening and pressing the walls of the contraption together until it looked like they wouldn't tighten any further. Then she turned it some more, and some more. Eventually, a tiny trickle of liquid slowly came out the bottom of the press into the awaiting bowl. L'orlei smiled and held up the results for Clyde to see.. it didn't seem like much. Not even a teaspoon's worth of liquid, but L'orlei seemed satisfied with the results.

"I'm going to go ahead and mix this with the ashes. I know it doesn't look like much, but that is pure extract. This is what actually does the healing. There is probably still a little left in the root, and I'll try to press more out later, but this is the bit that counts."

by **Clyde Sullins** on June 13th, 2013, 11:27 pm

To be honest, Clyde was a bit confused. By his reasoning, if you burnt something right over something, the ashes would fall in and get mixed into everything. So how would you gather it, or store it? Would it be any different then than the wood ashes or whatever you burnt?

Hopefully, or so he hoped, she would explain it to him. Which she did, to an extent.

"So you can burn it all, but you don't always want to... But then the ashes... Wait were do the ashes go? I am a bit confused, what is the difference here in how you burn it, and how do you make it into ash so it does not escape? And what is important in making ash? Is it the heat of the flame, or what?"

Clyde thought on this for a bit... Was open flame the only way to do it? For some reason, he felt like there might be a better way of doing it.

"Would perhaps anything else work better for this, than flame or coals?"

As L'orlei began work on the roots, Clyde continued to follow her instruction, as he began to burn his own leaves. He added his bowl just under the fire, off to the side, so he could slip a coal off into it. Then he maneuvered one of the hot coals in, slowly nudging it along. Then it was back to the table, to add the leaves, to get them to burn. At first it seemed to go wrong, as a poof of ash puffed out when the coal settled, but then it started to burn a bit better, leaving the coal surrounded in burnt cattail ash.

While he had burnt his leaves, the konti had chopped up her roots, and began to grind them up. Once she was done, she was left with a small bit of liquid, which he supposed she could put onto her ashes.

"Wait, I thought you said that was what the ashes did, they stopped the bleeding. So then what does the sap or whatever do? And how do we get the ashes out of the bowl once done? Oh and, do you have something I could use to store my ashes?"

by **L'orlei** on June 14th, 2013, 3:06 pm

L'orlei considered Clyde's words. She was sure there were many ways she could do things better, but she did not have the equipment for it, and she was also still only a novice in her trade. She was still figuring out what worked best, and how to do it. She didn't know everything there was to know about the art. But she answered as best she could.

"Well.. the ash is what helps clot the blood. The healing properties are in the plant itself, but you can well put a leaf on your cut and expect it to stop the bleeding. The ash soaks up the blood, and the left over nutrients in the plant help the wound heal. But.. adding the sap from the roots makes it more potent."

His questions for burning methods were all valid as well, but again, it was the same as before. Much of what L'orlei was doing was still in the experimental stages, just trying things out to see what worked best. She knew what the plant could do from her books, and knew the basics on how to make it do that, but that was about it. However.. she was trying to sound smart, so she gave the best answer she could.

"If you just burn the ashes on an open flame, they will float away. Have you ever thrown leaves on a fire and watch the ashes float up into the air? Good luck trying to catch all of those.. If you burn it on a coal, like we did, it burns slower, not as many ashes get away, and then you can just take the coal out and dust it off. If a little ash from the coal mixes in it wont hurt anything, it will just give you more ash. You could get some sort of container that heats up good, and can close, and ash the leaves that way, but I don't own anything like that."

"You don't have to do like I did with your roots. You could just keep them, and make tea from them. Or you could eat them like they are. They're healthy.. but I wanted to get the extract from mine so I could make a better product to sell. The ash by itself will get the job done. Also, you can use any ash to help stop bleeding. Burning a wound will also stop it, but that is painful. But the ash made from this plant in particular will also help with healing. It fights infection, and speeds up the healing process. You can also just burn the whole plant, and use it all as ash, if you want."

In regards to Clyde's last two questions, L'orlei responded with action rather than words. She picked up a pair of prongs near the fire and grabbed the coal from Clyde's bowl, shaking it off to save any excess dust, before sticking it back into the fire. After that, she grabbed a jar from her desk and dumped the contents of his bowl into the jar.

"There you go. Now, what did you want to do with your roots? Burn them? Grind them, or save them for eating? Also, we still have the stalks and the heads. You can burn all of it if all you want is the ash, or I can show you other things to do with them. I'm not much of a cook.. but if you are hungry, I could try to cook up some of the stalks and heads for you and let you try them."

NoteIf L'orlei's logic seems flawed.. please remember that she is just a novice, and so am I. What I know about this entire process is 25% stuff from google, 15% random knowledge, 15% common sense, 50% bullshitting. And yes, I know that adds up to 105%.

by **Clyde Sullins** on June 14th, 2013, 3:53 pm

Clyde nodded a few times, as he listened to her words... He found the entire thing a bit puzzling, like he was missing something. But he would just have to take her words as true, as in this case she was the teacher.

But while he found it so, he also found he was getting bored with the entire thing. It just no longer piqued his interest, not like magic which seemed to always interest him.

"So ash itself, not just this plant, helps in clotting... But when done with this plant, it also helps to keep it from getting infected, along with accelerating the healing process... I wonder why it does that... Surely there is some deeper meaning or explanation for it. Though I suppose I would need to ask a more experienced herbalist about that."

Clyde looked off into space for a few moments, lost in thought, but then suddenly jerked his head back to L'orlei, focusing on her.

"I guess the ideal way to do it, would be some kind of... Box? Maybe made of stone or something, with a lid, in which you place the plant, and then heat it from below till it turns the plants inside to ash. That way it could not escape. Or wait... That sounds vaguely familiar, I think that is done with something else besides plants, but I cannot recall what. Perhaps it could even be done using Reimancy."

As Clyde thought about it, he was fairly certain he would just burn the plant in its entirety next time, if there was a next time. Honestly there was little need for such things to be done by him.

He watched as she removed the coal, and dumped the ashes into a jar before handing it to him. He looked down at it for a moment, and then silently slipped it into his pack.

"Thank you. No I think I have a good enough understanding of it for now, no need to continue. You can cook some if you want, maybe later. Actually, I would be more interested in seeing you do some Glyphing. Why don't you try another one of those scrolls to hold your gnosis, and perhaps I can give you some pointers, and show you an example of one I might make?"

by **L'orlei** on June 14th, 2013, 4:36 pm

Clyde might have been bored, but to L'orlei there could be nothing more important than what she was teaching him. Of course, it would also have been useful (and probably better) if she had taught him the basics of first aid, such as properly cleaning and bandaging a wound, setting a broken bone, fixing dislocated joints, and things of that sort. But she had the plants, and that was what she was focused on. Clyde might have been a powerful mage, and was likely capable of killing his enemies before he ever had a chance to get hurt, but that didn't mean he might one day trip and fall, cutting himself on something. And even a small cut, when in the open wilderness, could fester and turn into a life threatening wound.

But Clyde was done with the lesson for now, that much was clear. And he wanted to see L'orlei do some glyphing. That caught her completely off guard, actually, and her eyes widened in surprise as she gave a flustered reply.

"Oh um.. glyphing right. Well, you already know I'm not very good.. so.. they won't be good. Certainly not what you're used to, I'm sure. But, okay, I'll show you. I guess.."

She hoped that this would not count as her magical lesson. There were others she could learn glyphing from, but none that she knew who possessed the fire creating magic Clyde knew. Still.. she could not turn him down. Not if she hoped for him to one day teach her the other magic.

"Let me.. let me just get my supplies together."

L'orlei hurriedly cleared off the small table, moving everything either into her chest or onto the bed, then retrieved her ink and quill, and some parchment. It was beginning to get dark out, and the light from the fireplace did not quite light up the desk well enough for glyphing, so L'orlei also lit a small candle. It smelled faintly of honey, and was made of beeswax.

"So.. I guess I'll just start, and show you how I do it?"

L'orlei dipped the tip of her quill into the ink, trying not to get too much of the black liquid that way it wouldn't splotch when she first touched the paper, then carefully, nervously, touched it to the page. Immediately she started moving it slowly, knowing that it was best not to keep the quill stationary or, again, it would splotch. L'orlei's glyphs were basic, but she probably made them a little harder than necessary. As with all konti crafts, L'orlei tried to make hers artistic, and clearly konti in design. She began with the focus, as she always did, slowly drawing out the design of a seashell. This was where the magic would be destroyed. Next she would form a barrier, and finally a trigger, but the focus needed to be done first.

L'orlei was very slow and careful, probably extra careful with Clyde watching her, and at least once she had to dip the quill to get more ink. She hated doing that, as it made it more likely she would mess up when she went back to the page, but for her gylphs it was rare she could finish in one dipping. Perhaps when she got better control of her hand, and was able to draw finer lines, but until then she would have to double, or triple dip. When the focus was done, L'orlei leaned back to give Clyde a better look. Since he had already seen the scroll from before, he knew that the trigger would go in the bottom of the shell, and the barrier would be formed around it, but L'orlei had not gotten that far yet.

Prepare to be amused. :

by **Clyde Sullins** on June 14th, 2013, 5:17 pm

For Clyde, his own interest and attention was a commodity, one of limited quantity. Some things seemed to keep his interest better than others... But those things were few and far between. He was unsure if he had always been as such, or if it had happened over time with his magic usage. Sometimes it was hard to pin down the exact effects magic had on a person, even to themselves. Perhaps especially to themselves.

Clyde could not help but smile for a moment, as L'orlei was caught off guard by the suggestion, her eyes splitting wide. Her words afterword only further proved how caught off guard she was.

"You know what they say, practice makes permanent. But if you keep at it, you will get better. And with me giving you some aid, it should speed up the process. Besides, it helps if you can see someone better than you, doing the task. Like when I followed what you did with preparing the cattail."

L'orlei prepared herself for the Glyphing, clearing a work space, getting out things to write on and with, along with lighting a candle for light.

Clyde took out his own ink and quill from his pack, along with two pieces of parchment, one of which he left sitting on top of his pack. The second he spread out on the table, within sight of the Konti.

Then she began, writing out her Glyphs, taking time to slowly scrawl them out, the quiet sound of quill scratching on parchment as lines were scribed out. For awhile Clyde just watched, doing nothing.

When she was done, he saw her final Glyph, a focus, which looked vaguely like a shell. He tilted his head, looking at it from a slightly different angle, and then looked back at L'orlei.

"Alright, first note, you need to write with more purpose. The shape of the Glyph is not the important thing. Which is why everyone's Glyphs look different. Instead, the important thing is to impress intent upon your work. As long as it makes sense to you, and feels right, it will work. But as you are, you are to hesitant, unsure of yourself and your work, which actually makes your work worse. That is not to say you should rush, and make it shoddy. But the purpose and intent is far more important than the shape you choose. If you had seen some of my work you would know. While I use some common shapes, I also innovate and constantly experiment with new Glyphs."

Clyde wet his quill, and thought for a moment, before scratching out his own focus on his own piece of parchment. He had thought of his surroundings, the isle, its people, the trees... Trees...

He quickly scratched out a single line across the center of the paper. Then he added a curl to each end, so that it swirled around and ended up inside of itself after two turns, the line getting closer to itself as it went along. He made it curve in opposite directions on each end, so that when looking from above the curls would be on opposite sides. But from each ends perspective, the curl was on the right side, going clockwise. Clyde quickly wet his quill again, and then finished up.

For simple symmetries sake, he added a second line forming a x with the first, and added a curving line that went inside of itself, just like on the ends of the other line, also on the right side from its perspective. All four curled lines going clockwise out of the tip of a line. A pair of lines forming a x in the middle.

That done, his focus was complete, and he showed it to L'orlei.

"The lines represent the branches, with the curved ends the end of a staff, gnarled and swirling in on itself. It seemed fitting for a focus of magic. In my mind at least. It has clear intent, purpose, and meaning. Though the last is not as important to anyone but you. What does the shell mean to you? How does it mean focus to you? If it does not, perhaps you should choose a new shape that does."