Completed New Tests. [The Prairie]

[Annalisa Marin]

75th of Fall, 513 AV The shock of how different Sahova was from Anna's native home of Zeltiva had not really set in until she had set foot upon the wide plains of the so called Prairie. It was nothing like the long rolling hills around her homelands, it felt empty in a strange way. If nothing else, her journey here was making her painfully aware of just how ignorant she was to the way the rest of the world was. She could only wonder what other places were like, just as foreign or perhaps more familiar? The wizard had travelled from the citadel rather quickly after her arrival, in part to scope out the terrain to decide where best to practice her reimancy. The other part was to get away from the pathetic hopeful candidates for apprenticeship. They were rather like dogs, drooling at the chance to gain even a small fraction of knowledge from the Sahovan wizards. That she possessed a racial relation to any so called pulsar here nearly made her mouth fill with bile, they were quite sickening. Anna would once have counted herself among that number, a slave to her magic with no other purpose than simply acquiring more knowledge for its own sake. She was here because of her faith in Rhysol, her purpose was to further her own power and advance in Sahovan society. Political power would then permit more easy access to magical knowledge, at least that was the hope. This was an unfamiliar game to her, but one she was confident she could learn through observation and experimentation. Upon viewing the Prairie Anna was satisfied that it would provide an excellent practice ground, wide, expansive and less inclined to combust horribly. In fact, after mostly inactivity this season she felt a strong urge to try a little practice here. Nothing huge, just something to get the magical juices flowing. With the recent additions to her arsenal of powers Anna felt that a bit getting more comfortable with them would help when she under went the so called Judgment. The wizard realized that drawing Glyphs would be impossible at this point, her supplies had been destroyed on the long voyage. She was comfortable enough with reimancy though that Glyphs were hardly needed for easy casting, so it was not a big loss. The first thing to decide was what elements she wanted to use as well as their extent. It seemed wise to get familiar with the newest additions to her arsenal, air and lightning in order to better utilize them in the long run. Fire would also make her feel a little more comfortable, her starter element was the one she knew best. Being that she was trying to have a bit of a workout as well and Earth and Lava, at smaller quantities could also be beneficial at this junction. Given that she did not want to risk overgiving the wizard opted for lower profile casting for this session. Just utilizing most of her arsenal would be a work out, delving into too many complex spells ran a risk of exhausting her utterly. That would not be ideal before the Judgment, she needed to be at her best before the event. Nodding to herself, Anna settled into a ready stance with her legs spread apart. Her arms were out before her, ready to start generating res. The dark haired wizard allowed herself a few calming deep breaths, concentrating on the pitter pater of the light drizzle upon the cowl of her cloak. Once she felt she was ready enough and calm enough she would begin.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna allowed her breath to come out in calming cycles, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her mind needed to maintain focus completely and utterly, to be cleared of preliminary distractions to facilitate smooth casting. Considering the amount of res needed to be discharged would be somewhat large it would be dangerous, one never knew when they could go over the limit of how much to draw. Reimancy was incredibly dangerous in that regard, even for small stage casting like what she had planned today. The wizard opted to first use fire, deciding that her first element would warm things up for this practice session. The light drizzle would make it slightly more difficult but nothing unmanageable. Anna stretched out both of her hands before her, fingers curled upwards and eyes closed to the world around her. Djed fluctuated within her body, moving towards her hands and resting under her palms as directed mentally. Without Glyphs to focus and move the Djed to key points it fell to Anna to do it herself, adding time to the casting. Out of habit more than anything else the wizard started up a low chant in the ancient tongue, not really necessary for the easy spells she had planned but every little bit helped. Translated in a certain way it meant 'precious fire'. "Yomi Vaknui. Yomi Vaknui." As she went about the simple incantation she willed the Djed to push up out of her palms, a clear translucent liquid forming in the palms of her hands. The liquid formed rather quickly, speaking volumes of her comfort in generating the warm vital fluid. She had yet to reach the degree where it formed instantly but it was certainly not too far beyond the horizon. When aided by Focus and Pathway Glyphs in conjunction her res generation and casting was certainly faster, though that also meant that her burn out occurred much more quickly. She opened her eyes and observed the two small pools of liquid, willing more and more Djed from her body to sheath her hand in the warm liquid. The amount grew until it snaked its way up her arms, the urge to draw more settling upon her mind as it always did. She pushed it aside easily, her casting was hardly to the degree that she was in danger of being overwhelmed by her own desires to cast more. Instead, she willed some of the liquid to detach itself from her hands and hover in the air above them. The tall woman formed and shaped the res easily to her whims, two balls of clear liquid forming in the air above her hands. The wizard willed the liquid's outer layer to ignite, transmuting them to flames, and soon two balls of flame were above her hands. A skilled reimancer would arrange res in layers, transmuting them only as needed to maintain as much control over their elements as they could for as long as possible. Anna did this with most every spell available to her, believing control to be the key to success in any casting session. Firebolts. They were the first true spell she had commanded, once they hand taken chimes of concentration and incantations to create. Now however their creation was easy and smooth, any urges from their creation being easily suppressed. She looked at the flames, watching as they licked the air greedily for more fuel. Small streams of steam rose from them as the drizzling rain made contact with the flames, hissing slightly. The wizard loved fire, it was destructive and powerful to behold. It was as if she was holding two balls of pure chaos over her hands. Anna searched her surroundings for a target, settling on a rather large rock nearby. It was nearly the size of a child and looked to possess some thickness to it. It was outside of her zone of control, but that was fine. Her range extended beyond what she could control. With a flick of both of her wrists the flames were sent speeding towards the target, gaining more and more speed as she directed them quickly outside of her zone of control. As she did this she willed the inner layers to transmute to flames, making the fires larger and more intense. The two balls of flame left her zone of control, smacking directly with the rock and expanding outwards slightly as they connected. Soon the flames vanished, leaving only blackened scars upon the rock as the proof they had even existed. She felt good for the casting, warmed up rather than tired for the slight exertion. Of course the urge was slightly stronger, always building after a casting was complete. It fed upon the surge of pride that always crossed her chest for most casting. Always waiting for a single mistake to be made, to pounce upon her weakened state to urge her ever onwards towards her own self destruction. She pushed it aside and contemplated what spell to use next, grinning slightly as a memory came to mind. Her fight with the fellow reimancer Tallis seemed worlds away when in actuality it had only been a little over season sense the fight. He'd used a rather creative combination for earth and air, one that would perhaps test her own control over a combination of the two elements. Besides, attraction meant she needed to do less transmutation which would save precious res reserves for when she decided to utilize lightning and lava. Nodding to herself she focused upon the res remaining on her arms, willing a phase change to begin to occur in the substance.

[Annalisa Marin]

The res began to evaporate, slowly transforming into a nearly invisible gas and to take shape around her arms. The change from liquid to gas took a chime or two but soon the gas completely encircled her arms in a warm cloud, one that Anna would soon be making use of. The wizard willed the gas to gather together away from her body about a meter away, moving her hand in a gesture of direction. She moved her right hand in a circular motion, dictating how the res should move. As the invisible gas circled and spun Anna willed it to take a shape reminiscent of an inverted cone. A slight trickle of warm liquid was noticed to be dribbling down her nose, the nosebleed she still suffered from due to severe overgiving from a season ago. It was a reminder, a reason not to heed the urge pushing her to generate more res. Rather than incantations Anna was opting to utilize gestures for this spell, simple directing the res with her hands as to how it should act. The wizard allowed the speed of the res to increase, only when it reached an optimum speed did she will the res to gain attraction towards the air. The wind whipped up around Anna as she created a small cyclone, reminiscent of the one Tallis had created to deflect her earth based attacks. The arid dust and small rocks soon found themselves sucked into the rapidly moving cyclone, becoming as knives if anyone was unfortunate enough to get caught in it. Unlike Tallis cyclone hers was rotating far more quickly and drawing in debris much larger, large enough to bludgeon as well as cut. The wizard made certain to move it further away from her the higher the intensity became, waiting for the right moment to send it flying at the fire scarred rock. Due to the size of the small cyclone the drain upon her Djed was not horrid, even as used attraction to control the rocks as well as the wind. However she could feel the task taking its toll the more she maintained it, meaning that if she wanted to retain enough Djed to utilize her other two elements and stay well out of overgiving territory she needed to release control of it soon. The wizard willed the cyclone forward, detaching it from the ground and shooting it at the rock that was her target. As it exited her zone of control she felt waves of relief wash over her, maintaining attraction for two elements for an extended period could be rather taxing. Gazing at the rock she noticed a few rather large chips upon its surface and a number of rocks settling on the ground nearby. Anna strode closer to the rock, ensuring that it was just inside of her zone of control and willed the remaining res from the cyclone to move closer towards her. Attraction was a useful thing in that it helped conserve Djed in the long run, it kept the generated res around to be reused which meant she could cast more without needing to draw too much of herself out. Of course, fuelling attraction still took Djed but utilizing mundane elements already in existence allowed for greater size in spells. Considering that air was in large abundance around her, as was earth, using attraction for those two most of the time was often her fall back tactic. Transmutation also took time, and further Djed compounded upon res draw. The wizard estimated how much res she had left outside of her body, likely enough for two lower key spells or one larger spell. She opted for the smaller spells, reminding herself that the point of this exercise was not to challenge herself overmuch but to flex her muscles and get reacquainted with her arsenal. The Judgment was supposedly not five days away from what she had been told, not an ideal time frame to over exert herself training. The wizard took about half the existing res and willed it to phase change into a liquid again, ready to utilize her two more destructive elements on a smaller scale.

[Annalisa Marin]

The liquid res formed into a small ball of comparable size to the firebolts she had previously summoned, though she did not dare to transmute this element so close to her body. The intensity of the heat of lava alone was enough to blister skin and burn clothing, certainly nothing to play around with at any amount. The wizard moved the small ball of res to hover a few meters away from her body, lowering her control but increasing her own personal safety. Her chant from before started up again as she began to will it to transmute. "Yomi Vaknui. Yomi Vaknui." The ball's outer layer shifted and changed, the heat even from her distance away was stifling to say the very least. Droplets of rain evaporated before even touching the molten liquid, a testament to its destructive potential. Anna sighed felt the urge upon her again, pushing at her concentration a little more forcefully that it had when she had first started. The wizard moaned in pleasure as the thrill of summoning the molten liquid feel upon her, that feeling of absolute godlike power falling over her as it normally did by this point. Using reimancy, at least for her, was comparable to a drug. She had been long without that feeling, the sheer joy that came from playing with the tapestry of creation like it was a toy. Of course, on more controlled levels she recognized this as untrue after having suffered horribly from overgiving before. Still, the joy was there and Anna was never one to deny herself some form of pleasure. It didn't break through her concentration however, the feeling was good but not so good that she was willing to surrender herself to it. She focused upon the ball of lava willing it to shoot out towards the rock, transmuting the inner layers as she did. The gob of molten liquid smacked into the lava, hissing slightly for it and cooling rapidly in the free and open air. Pleased by this result, Anna wasted no time in gathering the remaining res and moving it away from her body. The gas would become the most dangerous and deadly weapon in her arsenal at the moment, lightning. Lightning's power was extremely destructive and potent, powerful enough to kill a man on the spot if used correctly. Even a minor spell with it could result in a chunk of someone being blasted to a charred hole. That amount of power also meant it was incredibly volatile for the wizard handling it, meaning that forming it close to the body when it was raining was a very poor idea. The amount of gaseous res left would be enough for a small bolt. She halted the res a few meters away from her and started chanting again, willing the transmutation to start and making sure that she was aiming it carefully. The air within and around the cloud started to crackle dangerously, a malevolent hum filling the air. The wizard quickly directed the forming lightning outward, excitement fuelling the creation of large amounts of adrenaline. A thrill was sent through her heart as the small bolt shot out towards the rock. If one had blinked in that moment the might have missed the actual sight of the lightning hitting the rock, instead only hearing the loud boom that resounded out from the resulting explosion. A slight ringing noise filled the background of Anna's hearing as she felt excitement and the rush of power run through her mind. The rock was, by this point, reduced to complete rubble as the lightning had finished the job the other elements had started. A satisfying conclusion if the wizard said so herself. She felt rather tired for the exertion, hardly panting like a dog but certainly tired in a number of respects. This had been a rather good flexing of the muscles as it were, a loosening up for the Judgment when her casting would need to be much more impressive and higher tier. With another satisfied nod she turned away from the ruined rubble left behind, heading back in the direction of the Citadel.

[Mirage]

Annalisa Marin

XP:
Reimancy: 2

Lores:
Location of the Testing Grounds
Navigating the Prairie

Additional:
As always I love the detail! Lol while this was certainly a fun read, there really wasnt much to give. There were not many things lore wise I could offer for this, and if you have any suggestions feel free to PM me. Its possible I overlooked one or two in my tired state haha. Now as for your Reimancy, your selling Anna short. She should not be feeling so tired after a single firebolt at her level. She has power, she has control, and she has djed to spare. Yes it is good to include overgiving WHEN ITS NEEDED, but I personally believe she would not have needed sweet whispers mentioned until you got to the last spell which actually did take some skill and power to make. Long story short, dont sell out Anna so fast. She has more potential that hearing sweet whispers after one tiny firebolt . If you have any questions please PM me!