Closed [Sullin's Residence]A First Step[Amelia Cross]

[Clyde Sullins]

As Clyde waited for Amelia to finish, he went over to the candle, took it to a torch, and quickly lit it. He then returned it to the pedestal, now burning. Arrayed across it was the 3 elements, with the fourth one air everywhere. Clyde then returned to Amelia, to watch as she did her first Glyphs, making a simple sealing scroll sigil. It was weak, and not well done, but it was her first try... "Not horribly bad, but not good either. I will expect you to get better at it in time. For now, a quick demonstration with my own scroll." Clyde headed over to the table, putting his hand out of the scroll he had made, and exuded a small burst of gaseous res from his palm. He shaped it into a spear, and moved it at the focus. Then, with a twitch of his will, the res transmuted into air, and a gust of wind blew into the scroll. However, it did not toss it about. Instead, as the gust hit the focus, it seemed to vanish into it, like a rock being submerged and vanishing into dark waters. Clyde smiled, and gestured at the scroll. Then he spoke the activation words "Incredible Inedible Intestines". As he did, the focus expelled a gust of wind, just like the one he had sent into the focus, some of it blowing right into Amelia's face. Once all of the air gust was out, the scroll would blacken, crumble, and then dissolve into dust, being scattered when Clyde swept his hand in a fanning motion across the desk. "Alright, now bear in mind, vocal triggers alone can be unsafe. Which is why I use a odd phrase not likely to be said. All it takes is someone to say the right word, and off it goes. I usually add in a condition that the speaker must be touching the scroll. Though that might be difficult for you, so you may want to use something simple for now. After a while, you will be beyond simple vocal triggers, as I am now." Clyde headed back over to the pedestal, pointing at it. "Now, this is ready for you to find your first element. But first, I want you to Glyph a focus Glyph onto the palms of each of your hands. And then join me by the pedestal."

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia had guessed that Clyde wouldn’t be impressed by her work, but at least he didn’t put her down. Making her want to practice, and as he had said earlier, it’s not as dangerous as working with other forms of magic, at worst she could just practice drawing the symbols as a separate thing.

Full of curiosity of how this would happen. Looking carefully at what happened and saying she was amazed was just scratching the surface. The glyph observed the magic with such ease, her mind instantly was filled with possibilities the art might have. Even the wind in her face didn’t seem to bother her; she was a bit too lost in her own thoughts. Thinking of what sort of different triggers could be used, to make traps, or maybe even more?

”can it be triggered, from a distance? Let’s say, a glyph is drawn on land, on the shore…could it be triggered from here? I know it could be useless, but, could it be possible? Or used like a trap, when someone enters it? Can the barrier be triggered to rise and trap the animal or human...or something else?” she asked, while taking of the bondage of her palms and setting them down on the table. She toke the quill and wet it in the ink once more, with slow strokes she drew the focus. To not touch the wound, she drew symbols that consisted of two lines, each on the sides of her cuts.

Once done, she walked up to the pedestal where Clyde was waiting for her. It had a small bowl of water, a relatively small rock surrounded by dirt and a candle. For a moment she wanted to ask about air, but then it hit her, they were surrounded by it. The whole process confused her though, how could she find her element? She was quite sure that you chose them in reimancy...so much was unclear to her.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde was not surprised to hear that Amelia had some questions. Of course such a presentation would bring more questions than answers to mind, Clyde had known that when asking it. He would listen till she was done, let out a sigh from beside the pedestal, and respond. "Yes and no. Triggering something from a distance is possible, though obviously a simple vocal trigger requires one to be in proximity to the scroll. And for awhile, such things will be the limit to what you can do. Anything more complicated, would likely result in failure, possibly even making the scroll not work properly or releasing its magic randomly." "As for using it to set traps, yes that is possible, and well used. Setting a booby trap to trigger a Glyph when say someone passes over it, would not be to hard. Once you are adept at using Gyphing, you could possibly even specify a certain person passing over it that would set it off, or to a specific time of the day, or an event going on around it. Or when you are really good, even more advanced uses, such as I have recently been using... Intent. That was a tricky nut to crack... Or perhaps you could even try making it so only people with permission to can pass over the Glyph safely." "Though I am unsure what you mean by your last bit. A barrier rising and blocking a person? I was fairly certain I explained this to you, but I will repeat it, Glyphing ONLY affects magic, and magical constructs. People are mundane material, even if they know magic. Which means a trigger cannot trap a person inside. Which does not even make any sense. All that a scroll sigil does, is release the magic it holds upon the trigger. So how would doing that trap a person? It could be used against a person, or to attack them, but it cannot store or trap people inside." Clyde stood before the pedestal, waiting for a moment, and then gesturing for Amelia to stand beside him. "Alright, so the first step is to exude your res. Your res is a part of you, deep inside. You must clear your mind, focus inside of yourself, and reach deep within to grasp at your res, and pull it out. Flow it out of you like water being released from a pot." "So focus on your internal djed, feel it out, focus, and exude it as res. A physical manifestation of your will. Try to exude it out of your hands. Only a small bit, for now. It will react to your will, simply will it to do what you want. To move as you want. Like another arm your are controlling, that you did not know you had. Control it, do not let it control you. And keep it close to you, the closer to you it is, the easier it will be to control."

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia was asking only about the theoretical part, the possibilities of the glyphs. But it seemed like she had touched a nerve on her mentor. Therefore, she avoided continuing with her questionings; maybe she could find someone at the institute who could answer the questions. One way or the other, she was disappointed. Disappointed that the glyphs were limited to magic. If they could actually trap someone, their usage would be quite interesting. People could hunt, limit the numbers of dangerous predators all around without actually the need to put themselves in danger. Well, at least put them in lesser danger than now. Well, her theories will have to wait till some other time. Probably until she is skilled enough it the art, that she can attempt them. Meaning, that will take some time, possibly years and who knows what will bother her by then.

As Clyde explained her what she is to do, Amelia didn’t really ask anything more. To her, the process was something like meditation, right? It was to concentrate and drag a bit of her res out of her, to make it visible. At least as far as she had understood it. Well, at least finally she would see what the material looked like. The only part that confused her, was probably the way he made it so clear, that she is the one controlling it.

Taking a deep breath and her eyes half closed, she proceeded to empty her mind of everything. Everything that was not supposed to be there here and now, in other words, anything but magic was kicked out. Another deep breath and she felt a bit of burning come to her, but no, not quite burning, more like warmth. The mind was empty, she tried to do this slowly and gently, though her patience seemed to be lacking by now and she threw the ‘slow and easy’ method out the window. Amelia decided that she should try a bit more, direct approach, as if she was ordering it, what didn’t happen quite fast as well.

None the less, she managed to form, or more like bring out, djed, in the form of res, from her body. Now, her right palm seemed to have a slightly visible coating of a light grey substance. Well, something colored between light grey and light blue, it was transparent, but then again, it might seem so due to it being on such a thin layer. But it wasn’t the color that interested Amelia.

What seemed to interest her more, was the substance as a whole, it wasn’t hard, nor was it like air. It reminded her more of…probably water. It had a form, but felt as if it could change it any moment to something else ”wow…” she muttered silently, before turning to Clyde ”is this enough?” Amelia asked, as she tried to concentrate the new substance at one spot, in the middle of her pal where the cut form her initiation was. Thinking that would probably give more structure to it. But as she attempted to control it more, she could feel her hearth beat increase. Was she so nervous? "w..what now?"

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde did not realize that his student had misunderstood him, or that she had cut off a line of questioning. He was simply making himself clear, that Glyphing only worked on magic, and could not affect anything mundane. If he had known that she was going off on her own ideas, ones he could have told her right away were impossible by the nature of the magic, he would have shook his head, and taken the time to explain to her why it would not work. Why attempting to trap humans, or such things, was not a possibility with Glyphing. But she did not ask, and so he assumed he had made himself clear, and that she had understood and heeded his words. Then all Clyde had to do was wait, as Amelia meditated, and exuded her res for the first time. It was slow, and took all of her concentration, but eventually she did it. Curiously it was an off bluish grey color, but still noticeable to him. "That will do. Now, I want you to try and move it over the pedestal, close to the items I have placed there." "But first, you should now a few things. One, once res leaves your body, it decays. So even if you take it back in, you will not get it all. Just by leaving your body, and being in the open, it will slowly decay and die. Long enough, and all of it would be lost. So do not bring out res, unless you plan to use it, lest it be wasted. It is a part of yourself, your will, so should not be tossed about lightly, or without respecting what it is, or what you lose in its creation." "Now, there are certain aids to casting, which are commonly used. They will help you to focus, and to use your magics more concisely, and at lower abilities it will be vital to controlling your magics. Gestures, and incantation. I myself use gestures mostly, but will use incantations on occasion. Though it does not help much to use both, usually one or the other is good enough." "Gestures are movements and motions of your body, which can look like anything. Just like Glyphs, a gesture will be unique to the caster. It can be sweeping arm movements, dancing, hand motions, whatever." "Incantations are used for the same purpose, but are spoken things. You can speak it or chant it, say a line of poetry over and over, say passages from a book you like, say a quote, sing, say nonsense or common or speak in the ancient tongue. It is all up to you. You imbue it with meaning and purpose, just like gestures, and just like Glyphs." "So I want you to do one of those things, either gestures or incantations, to aid you in moving and affecting the res. Move it to above the elements I have set up here. Then, I want you to feel out through yourself, through your presence in your res, and will it to pull something to it. Feel it out, till it feels right, until you pull one of these elements to you." "This is harder than transmuting res straight to an element, but it will be better for you to learn it in the long run. Only transmute as a last resort, and if none of the element is around. For this will be much more costly in djed."

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia didn’t really feel like humiliating herself with awful singing, cheesy quotes or even worse, silly rants about ladybugs. So gestures seemed to be the choice that made most sense. It did take her a while to figure out how to exactly concentrate on the elements. Should she use a different gesture for each? Should she try to attract them all at once and see which reacts best? Was that what he meant and how it should be done? All these silly questions and no gut to ask. So the best thing to do, was to hope for the best as she tried her hand for gestures.

Another deep breath, calming her mind, first Amelia’s attempt to attract an element was directed towards air, the one thing that was all around. She imagined it would be the easiest and it would react in a form of wind. But as she waved her right palm gently around, waving it in a circular motion. Maybe it was because of how Amelia approached the element, but it didn’t react. She focused more, trying to get the air around them to move, but nothing.

Giving up on Air, she rubbed her fingers together towards the candle. Her focus was great, she could swear she felt it, but once more, nothing. What was she doing wrong? She had no idea, but in a slight bit of disappointment, she let her hand fall to her side. But she didn’t intend to give up. Finally, she attempted to do what Clyde had said, she tried to feel what was right. What element felt right to her. Now, her hand was just outstretched, outstretched above the bowl of water. She wasn’t sure what kind of sensation she was supposed to look for. But as her mind concentrated on the water, not on the res, she seemed to feel calm. Moving it further, above the rock, she didn’t fell such a pleasant aura. It felt sort of cold and she had a slight desire to pull her hand away. Did it mean she had water? Was it even really like this, or was it just her imagination? Amelia wasn’t sure.

Either way, she waved her hand gently above the water. Her palm facing upwards in a motion that most would use to invite someone over, or prove that they are no harm. For some reason, this motion seemed to be most sensible for Amelia. One breath, another, slowly and concentrating, on the water. It slowly began to come to Amelia’s palm. Her eyes were closed to not get her distracted on something else. And before she knew it, the water had followed up to her palm, gathering there. At one point it began touching her skin, and at that she opened her eyes, to see that she was succeeding.

However, as she opened them, her concentration weakened and some of the water seemed to fall back to its starting location. ”this means, I’m friends with water…right?” she asked. Saying she was surprised wasn’t quite correct, but this was something unusual.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde simply waited, as Amelia figured things out, going through various gestures. One did not work, then another, trying to attract various elements at random. But until she found the one right for her, the one that was RIGHT, it would fail utterly. He was interested to see what her element would be, such a thing was always curious. And often it said a lot about the person in question. Finally, she figured it out, and attracted some water. Water? Well, to each there own. One droplet of water popped up to her res. Then another. And another. Until after a bit, she had a small gob of water floating around her res randomly. A small bit was still left in the bowl, the small amount of res she had exuded was not enough to take the entire bowl full of water. At least that, combined with her rough skill in Reimancy, would mean trying to attract to much would overwhelm her and make her fail. Before he could say anything, she lost concentration, and a chunk of the water rolled off her res and splatted to the ground. Some of it hit the bowl and splashed about. Some of it missed entirely. He let out a sigh, and looked at Amelia. "Yes, it seems for now, you are attuned to water, as your first element. Though as you get better, you will unlock more. I myself am strong enough and skilled enough of a Reimancer, to use all four elements. A very rare thing amongst Reimancers, to get so skilled." "Now, you need to work on your focus, and res control. Now, I often find that shaping my res, can make attraction easier. For instance, when I want a ball of something, a water ball, a fireball, then I find forming my res into a tight ball shape, and then attracting the element to the outside layer of said ball of res, is easiest. This is also similar to what you do when you transmute your res directly into an element." "Once it turns into a element, you can no longer control it like your res, and no longer use it for attraction. This is why when doing this, you usually don't turn it all into the element. Just a outer layer at first, which you can keep held in place via attraction. Then when you toss your construct, you will turn the core of res into the element, just as it is about to leave your range of control. Though the further from you it gets, even inside this zone, the harder it will be to control and affect, as there will be a delay." Clyde paused for a few moments, thinking on things, on what he would have her do. After a chime or so, he decided upon her next lesson. "So, what I want you to do, is to learn this well. Shape the res into a ball or some shape easier to focus through. Then transfer the rest of the mundane water you have attracted back into the bowl. Then I want you slowly layer by layer to transmute the outer layers of the ball into water. This will be much easier and more natural than attraction is." "But you must hold the transmuted water onto the outside of the res, not letting it escape. Keep doing this, until there is not enough res to hold the water, and the water will begin to slip away out of control."

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia could see, that her lose of concentration didn’t impress Clyde. Then again, she wasn’t that good at keeping her concentration at the first place. She could get distracted by pretty much anything and to let you know, it wasn’t as fun as it might seem.

”a very rare thing…” Amelia repeated in her head, she found the statement funny. Probably because it didn’t sound too modest and this was the only time she had seen glimpses of such…pride in her mentor?. She couldn’t recall him doing anything else that would hint of it, but then again, he was skilled and knew a lot, especially for his apparent age…. She had a good guess he was honest about controlling all four elements being hard and rare as well, and he had the rights to brag a lot more than Amelia would like to think. After all, she had heard of him, only because he was so good. ”you don’t brag, you don’t show off…you don’t think of yourself as the best, why are you like this?” was it magic that had thought him to be modest about power? Or fear that it might attract the wrong type of attention.

So, res was to be kept in range of control. Well, Amelia could understand that bit, just as the theoretical part of transmutations of res into elements. But her mind couldn’t visually imagine it happen. Then again, it might as well be the reason all of this is called magic. Its out of the reach of simple logic, it does take a bit of faith to…one should believe that it can happen. And here was Amelia, again drifting into her mother’s lovely speeches of believing in miracles.

The silence of Clyde, somehow made her nervous, probably because she had no idea what he might say. A quality she usually appreciated in people, but somehow, not now. So as her next task came out of him. It didn’t sound that hard, but she didn’t know better.

Sure, the first steps were concentration. She didn’t want the water to spill again, she wanted to hold complete control over it. Amelia was determined, maybe even too determined to succeed. So she had trouble concentrating on the actual task, her mind was occupied with the desire to succeed. Two times she failed to shape her res into a solid shape. It came close to it the third time, but it didn’t seem to be quite what she desired and returned to the chaotic mess from before. Lost, but she didn’t want to ask her teacher of it, questions can be left to the more theoretical lessons she will have. Of that she was sure.

So once more, she tried to leave out everything but her res, leave out all thoughts of her mind that didn’t concern her training. And then it finally happened, she was able to shape the res into a solid shape. Not quite a ball, it was an oval, a narrow one at that. But she believed it to be the best, as it fit the form of her palm better. To completely get the attracted water inside of the res, without any drops was also a challenge, but after a few chimes she has handled this task as well.

Now came, probably the hardest part for the girl. Transmutation. ”just concentrate Amelia, concentrate!” she ordered her own mind and body. She was really outing in an effort, she doubted her mentor could see it, but she was trying even if she was failing. The desire to be acknowledged by him, was probably the biggest motivation at this point. As she still remembered the way she felt, back in the tavern when she had almost failed to get this ‘part’, she wanted to prove she was worth his time.

Over time, before she knew it, the shape of the oval had become wobbly, not quite because she’d lose her concentration, it was better than ever. It was just that, she had transformed the res into water, there was just a thin, thin layer of res holding it all together. She was scared to continued, as she would have it fall, so she finally turned to Clyde ”i..it will fall if I transform the last bit, are you sure of it?” she stated, waiting to see what he answers. If the answer was affirmative, she would obey and as the last bit of res would be turned into water, she would lose control, the water would be sent down with a splash.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde watched as Amelia worked her res, shaping it, confining it, willing it to form to her choosing. She could not sense it, but already it was slowly deteriorating. Given the time, all of the un-transmuted res would vanish and decay away. He simply watched on, as she... Ignored what he had asked her to do, and did something else entirely. He let out an exasperated sigh, but did not interrupt till she finished and asked him a question. Instead of casting off the mundane water, back into the bowl it had started in, she had sucked it into the ball of res. Instead of a core of res, with water attracted to the outside as he had said... She had made a core of water, with res on the outside. Due to the way attraction worked, this was not as efficient since you could not push the element away, only pull it. Which would mean the liquid would keep spilling past the res, forcing her to use a surge of attraction to pull it back in, over and over. Next, she began to transmute the res into water. But it was still holding the mundane waters, due to her earlier lack of attention to his words. Already the water was wobbling and shaking, droplets almost breaking off. She had far to much water by volume, compared to the res that she was using. Clyde picked up his staff he carried with him at almost all times, and dashed it across the ball of water and res, smashing into the water and attempting to send it flying in every which way. Annoyance was clear on his face, and he glared at the girl for not listening. Did she have a death wish? If she kept this up, she would end up getting herself killed by her own magics. His voice was steady, but it still carried a note of anger, albeit anger hidden beneath the surface. "Do you have a death wish? Is that what it is? Do you know what is the most embarrassing way for a mage to die? At the hands of there own magics... Wizards that do not learn to listen, that do things half way, tend to meet ends not so clean." Clyde took a few steps away from Amelia, looking away from her, not meeting her eyes, staring into the corner with the books, his staff in hand, lightly rubbing his hand up and down the wood, feeling the texture, breathing slowly and trying to calm himself. He began to speak again, without turning to look back. "When I give you an order, I expect you to follow it to the letter. How can I trust you with anything of import, anything greater, if even with such a simple task, you cannot follow orders as I say? Perhaps to you my orders seem meaningless, and pointless, just frivolous word play to no extent. But for everything I specify, there is a reason behind it. Do I need to specify in depth the reasoning behind each thing I say?" "I asked you to make a core of res, with the water attracted to the outside, as it is the most efficient method to hold a element in place. Attraction only works one way, and once it is inside and passed beyond the res, you can no longer emit a steady amount of attraction to keep it in place. Instead, you will need to attract in spurts and starts, which will throw off your timing, and make it more difficult. This is why I said to make a ball of res, with the element on its outside." "For what you did to work, you would need a second smaller ball of res at the very core, to keep things further inside, inside. But at your level such usage is pointless, and only needed when adding in a second element to the spell. Such as when using water and air to increase pressure." "I also asked you to return the water to the bowl, before beginning transmutation, so that you would only be holding magically crafted water. Not to transmute right away." "And finally, I asked you to transmute it layer by layer, slowly, continuing to use attraction to hold it to the diminishing ball of res, to show you the difficulty of such a task, and how it will be when dealing over time with decaying res. And to see how much of a ratio of res to liquid is needed, to hold water. It was meant to eventually make you fail, so fall. Though I never said to transmute all of it, as your question seemed to indicate I had. However, since you did all of the steps leading up to it incorrectly, even had you come to the correct end, it would be meaningless." Clyde turned back to face Amelia, somewhat calmed after his rant, but still annoyed at her for not listening. "How can I trust you, if you do not trust me? And how can I trust you, if you do not follow my directions to the letter? Or must I always waste time explaining the deeper meaning behind every syllable of my direction?"

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia was so concentrated on the res, that she hadn’t noticed just how angry and displeased she was making Clyde, with her actions. The girl wasn’t aware of the fact that skipping something or doing something differently would cause something bad to happen. If only she had considered that option, she would be so shocked the moment Clyde smashed her ball of water, sending splatter on Amelia, her hand jerking away instantly. She was shocked at first, but as she heard his voice, she became scared.

”Do I have a death wish?” The part of her nature that was stubborn and passionate, the part that had to learn to stand up for herself, that untamed part of the woman wanted to shout in his face ”What if I do!?” that part was getting angry at him, angry for the way he became so angry with her so fast, despite this being her first lesson. Amelia knew that what she was doing must have been the simplest trick in the book, but she was trying. She was trying the way that she thought was right. Why couldn’t he have stopped her when she was just starting? A part of her was burning.

But her mind was frightened. She could only remember standing like this in front of her father, when he was angry with her failing to understand. When she hadn’t heard what her father wanted her to hear. The part of her that remembered began trembling in fear. She knew that as a child, she could earn a hit from her father, but from Clyde. She had no idea what to expect. The hearth of the girl skipping a beat, her eyes piercing the floor that had water splashed over it, arms protectively crossed in front of her body.

She listened to what he had to say, taking every word a bit more personal than one would expect. As she was drawing parallels with her childhood. She didn’t feel a grown woman hearing a scold from a teacher she looked for, she felt like a little girl.

Trust, he spoke about trust and it brought Amelia a bit closer to the edge. ”and how can I trust you, if I don’t know you” She was holding herself back, she refused to cry, she didn’t want to show him that he was getting to her so much. She wanted to appear calm, despite her whole body screaming something else. But she did notice that his voice wasn’t as angered as before.

Still not casting a glance up at him, Amelia decided to speak, to speak in her own protection ”I’m sorry…””was that the best you could do? A sorry won’t help if you hurt someone…””I just, I misunderstood…It won't happen again, I’ll ask if I have doubt, I'll make sure…, I'll follow your instructions fully and not jump into conclusion of my own” close to a whisper, but in the silence of this room, it was heard well enough. "Please, just don't be angry with me"