[Inner Sanctum] To Focus A Focus

by **Aoren** on June 5th, 2013, 5:23 pm

3rd Day of Summer, 513AV

The walls in this part of the citadel were older. The torches that lined them were used sparingly as several had burnt out long ago and were in need of replacing. Others were little more than smoking embers while others still held weak flames to light the path to Aoren’s destination. The only real sound was the tap of his staff against the stone floor as his footfalls were muffled by a layer of dust that blanketed the surface of the stones.
Aoren walked quietly through the halls of Stormhold Citadel. He was entering a less used part of the castle that the average person didn’t often tread. Aoren didn’t mind. He wasn’t up for traveling outside of Syliras today and had been searching for a new quiet place in which to study his magic. He had always heard of the abandoned laboratory in the inner parts of the castle. He’d never had the privilege to visit it when the lab was at its greatest but now it would serve his purposes just fine. He had always been something of a solitary practitioner of magic. Were Syliras not so distrustful of wizards that might have been different but as circumstances would have it Aoren had to practice quietly within the walls of the great fortress city and outside of them.

He looked along the walls studying the stones as he passed by them. Some bore sigils that he recognized as decidedly magical. Glyphs. Easy for a fellow Glypher to spot but their purpose and meaning escaped him. He was by far not adept enough in the art of glyphing to decipher them without activating them and that could lead to disastrous results. It wasn’t long before he reached to door into the whispered Inner Sanctum. It was formerly home to the legendary Akvin Kultra, the master magecrafter who vanished with the departure of Glav Navik. Akvin the Ageless. That was a title that Aoren had once heard in reference to the man. The Drykas paid it little attention. Akvin Kultra was gone and in his place was the mysterious Devandil Nightshade. Aoren placed his hand upon the door leading into the Inner Sanctum. He didn’t feel any resistance as he pushed against it so he grabbed the handle and opened the heavy door stepping inside the ill-used laboratory.

The sight that greeted Aoren wasn’t a surprise to the Drykas. He was met with dusty tables, empty shelves, disorganized chairs, and an overall mess caused simply by disuse. He sighed lightly and leaned against the doorframe.

“Well I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me.” He looked around the lab searching for what could pass as makeshift tools to clean the place up. Fortune seemed to be on his side as resting in a corner between some empty cupboards were the tools he was searching for. There rested a broom, a bucket, some rags and a feather duster. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. It looked as if the lab hadn’t been used in months, let alone cleaned. He rest his staff just opposite the door and dropped his pack down next to it then made his way over to the bucket.

“It’s times like this that I wish I knew how to conjure water.” He chuckled to himself and grabbed the broom setting to work at making the space presentable. Months of cleaning at Stormhold Salves had enabled Aoren to master the art of sweeping a floor so as not to cause himself to sneeze endlessly. He started in the immediate area where he picked up the broom sweeping away from the door toward the rear of the lab. With a practiced motion he sidestepped along the path between the lab tables sweeping away from his body creating a sizeable pile of dirt and dust. Once he was finished with one area of the floor he set to work on another path between the lab tables just beyond where he finished. Before long he had swept the entire floor creating neat piles of dirt around the room. There were only a handful but their size was enough to wonder if the lab had ever been clean at all.

He grabbed the bucket and brought it over to one of the piles of dirt he’d made then tipped it over and swept the dirt into the bucket. He continued that pattern for the rest of the piles until each one had been swept up. There was something therapeutic about doing diligent manual labor no matter how menial the task. He picked up the bucket of dirt and set it outside of the room. He then proceeded to take a rag and dust off the surfaces of the lab tables, the windows, and whatever else he could get a hold of that was dusty and could be cleaned without a bucket of water. When the work was finally done he breathed a light sigh and stretched his muscles surveying his work. It was a nominal improvement that he could be satisfied with for the time being.

Going over to his pack he retrieved a vial of ink, a blank book and a quill pen he then walked over to one of the lab tables situated near one of the glyphs on the wall of the room. For a moment Aoren studied the Glyph. He was by far no master of Glyphing but he knew enough to get a feel for what was a Glyph and what was just artistic writing on the wall. He observed the Glyph for a moment contemplating as to whether or not it was activated when disaster struck or was a preventive measure to keep disaster at bay. Such things were irrelevant as he had no way of knowing without activating the sigil itself and that was not something Aoren wanted to do. He propped himself up and brushed his chin with the tip of feather quill before dipping the writing end into the ink. With a steady hand he began the slow process of drawing the series of runes upon the page.

Aoren’s glyphs were simple but elegant reflecting his calm personality. The runes that took shape told a story in the curves of the lettering. They spoke of focused diligence geared toward improvement with a hopeful optimism that was rarely seen among more practiced wizards. Aoren lacked the cynicism found amongst older magicians but he possessed little of the naiveté carried by young practitioners. He had seen too much and witnessed too many horrors to be fooled into thinking he could gain power in magic overnight. After a good duration of time Aoren set down his quill pen to observe the full extent of his work. He had the makings of a barrier construct for a potential future scroll. He glanced at the windows noticing that the light that had been pouring through them was greatly diminished. He rolled his shoulders and traced his fingers around the circle of runes he’d drawn upon the page. They had no specific function other than to serve as a way for Aoren to practice. He turned the page in his book and set to work creating a Focus. He dipped his quill into the ink and began outlining the shape of his particular Focus.

While the runes of Aoren’s barrier were sweeping and elegant resembling a ring of ancient high script his Focus was a work of art in and of itself. To the onlooker it would appear as if Aoren were drawing a circle of nine swords with their points all touching at the center of the elaborate circle, the blades each decorated with archaic runes from ages past while the hilts of the swords brushed against one another as if joining hands to contain the magical power the glyph was capable of holding. When finally Aoren had finished his Focus he breathed a heavy sigh and rolled his neck looking up at the windows. Darkness was falling over Syliras and just as it began to settle over the stones of the Citadel there came a knock toward the entrance of the Inner Sanctum.

Aoren looked up from his workstation. There stood a silver clad Knight of Peace with a hand resting on the pommel of his sword. He took a look around the room at the somewhat restored cleanliness to its appearance before giving Aoren a nod.

“It’s nightfall, sir. If you would please accompany me out of the Second Tier?” Aoren nodded and stood up from the workbench closing his book and putting a cork in his ink vial. He walked over to the door depositing his belongings into his pack then shouldered it. He grabbed his staff, took one last look around the lab and resolved to bring some water with him the next time he was there so he could clean it more properly.

As Aoren accompanied the Knight out of the lab and ultimately out of the Second Tier he glanced up at some of the glyphs as he passed them. One day he would know what they meant without having to study for hours at a time.