[Inner Sanctum] Gifting Life or Something Like It (Hadrian)

[Jilitse]

"Copper is very soft and malleable is it not?" Jilitse said, "It is unfortunate I do not have my own forge at the moment, I can understand what you mean by having most of what you need in another place." Her usual cold tone was almost dreamy. "A good thing these pieces are thin enough to be pounded together. They would easily fall apart if we don't fasten them together, so we must, at the very least, secure them with something."

The Nuit gave Hadrian a length of wire that could be wound around the body and the spring to secure them in place. She pointed to her drawing, "This here, try to secure the two springs underneath and then secure them tight enough by wounding the wire around the body." She handed him a cutter and pliers, "Use these as you see fit." She pointed to the tip of the frog, "When you get here pound it lightly with the hammer, and do the same underneath. That will somewhat secure the coil in place, and if you do it right it won't fall apart."

"Golems can be made out of any material, but they cannot function properly if the mechanisms do not allow the enactment of the desired movement," Perhaps, this was a lesson in itself. Jilitse was feeling a little uncanny towards Hadrian, as this was the first time she ever had someone volunteer to help her. Not quite an apprentice, though. "This thing will have springs underneath it, giving it the ability to jump like a frog. That's about it at the moment. Sounds basic, but then again if you think about it, Animation deals with transferring one soul into another. That means I'm copying the frog into that thing right there. Four limbs, two limbs." She made Hadrian note the difference in anatomy. "In Sahova, as you may have seen, most golems run on wheels. That's because imitating the limb functions of a human, or any animal, requires one to be a highly-skilled gadgeteer. Animating something that does not have the same kind of parts requires a little bit of creativity. It is a marvel to know that we are able to give life into otherwise useless pieces."

"I expect you do not only wish to watch the ritual, but you plan to learn the discipline as well?" She asked, opening another small wooden box.

She then proceeded to demonstrate how to draw a ritual circle. Using a drawing compass and a fresh sheet of paper, she drew two circles touching on their sides and then showed it to Hadrian. "So that you will understand how it works." Marking the first circle as 'source' she explained, "This is where we shall place the frog in the jar. The frog is our pattern, a guide to the kind of life force we will imbue to the animated object." She wrote 'destination' in the other circle, "You little craft will be placed here, where it will receive the transferred soul vector from the source. It is akin to pouring water from one bucket to another, only that you are not able to transfer water as water itself."

"Animation allows us to imbue life, or at the very least, life-like traits into our creations. There is a method in creating a soul, although it varies depending on the animator. Do remember that creating a soul does not exactly mean like your soul, or mine. Animation cannot create all four layers of the soul. We can only work into creating the," she raised one finger each count, "soulcore, persona, and astral body."

She smiled, "It does not deter us, though. At the most basic levels we only need to teach one directive to the golem. In this case, I shall teach it to jump. If you become more competent, you can incorporate a little bit of sentience to it. Nothing extremely complicated. I shall teach the same frog to respond to a challenge, and I shall teach it how to jump over certain obstacles. That's the plan anyway."

[Hadrian]

"Copper is soft, malleable, and a good conductor of energy," he noted. He was a bit of a teacher's pet, a know-it-all, but a world-wise person would recognize it for what it was, both an innate desire to share knowledge and a deep-seated insecurity. If he wasn't the intelligent one, then he didn't know who he was. He started twining the wire into the springs with the pliers, clumsily at first, but with quickly growing acuity. He was a quick study and he was determined to know and to do things correctly. "I wouldn't mind learning a thing or two," he admitted, still working as he listened to her. Much of it was stuff that he had read or learned in his survey classes on magic, but it was like relearning the basics in order to build upon them now. "To be honest, I'm a bit leery of golems after having a few run ins with Peacekeepers," not to mention the work of Drainira, "but the golems in the laboratories were really impressive. Someday I would like to have such loyal assistants myself. Even if I can only animate basic things, they would be a help to me. Magecrafting is a delicate process and while I know a few people back in Zeltiva who can help me with things, I can't expect them to throw over everything to help me with every little project, and the big projects will be so time consuming without help..." He continued to twine copper wire into the springs and around the body of the golem-frog, eyes darting between his work and his new teacher as he listened to her explanations. "A question," he said when she paused to breathe. "Does the success of the animation depend in any way on how much of the frog's soul you move from its living body to the golem body?"

[Jilitse]

A gratified smirk appeared in Jilitse's face at the mention of Peacekeepers. Before she left, there were rumors about Drainira tampering with most of the golems in Sahova. Still, nobody had been able to trace the malfunctions back to the old Supervisor. "You are very lucky to be alive then." Though cold, it was almost sarcastic, "Ah yes, of course, an assistant or two won't hurt. You just wait until you start being competent for your own good and you start creating something you cannot control. Like, if it took a life of its own." Drainira must be one of the reasons why Kihala believed that the power to give life should not be placed in the hands of mortals.

Jilitse took the jar with the frog and slightly shook it. The frog was still very much alive. Jil cleared some space of the floor and took some inscribing ink. She placed the jar on the ground, bent over and placed her hand beside the jar spreading her fingers with the thumb touching the jar. She then dipped her smallest finger with enough ink and slid her hand around the jar, stepping backwards in a circular motion around the jar, until she had traced a circle. The Nuit carefully raised her hand and checked the first circle.

She answered Hadrian's question, "Oh, you don't move the frog's soul, dear." And then whispered to herself, "We don't want to create an undead do we now." barely audible, but if Hadrian had strained himself he might have heard the last few words. The method of animation I use only requires you to copy the soul, shape the soul and then transfer it to the destination." She held her hands together and raised her brows, as if to wonder if she had forgotten something.

The Nuit would then move closer to Hadrian and examine the frog. She would watch him as he finished coiling and hammering the piece together. "Is it too heavy?" Jil would ask before taking the finished product in her own hands and examining it from different angles.

She tested the tension of the coil and pulled the spring away, just to see if it was sturdy enough. Then she would lay down the frog and then press it down to see if it has the ability to spring upwards. Finally, she would check if the coils could be pulled diagonally without putting too much strain on the spring.

Satisfied, she would paint a ray from the first circle and then from that line's end, she would draw another circle that was wide enough for the soon-to-be animated object to be placed upon. The end drawing were two circles joined by a line. "From here on I usually work silently." She eyed him curiously, "It is of utmost importance that you do not disturb my concentration." She then placed the copper thingamabob in the other circle. "Source, destination." Jilitse repeated to Hadrian, pointing from one circle to another.

Then, she lit a candle and took out a needle, holding both out with each hand. "Many rituals require the wizard to offer a drop of his life force. For us Nuits, we use our ichor." Jilitse then took a stool and sat near the ritual circles. She motioned Hadrian to come closer if he wished to observe. After settling down, she stopped moving and started to speak out in the Ancient Tongue. "Slice of green and a drop of blood," She uttered these words very slowly, her monotonous voice replaced by a hallowed sing song tone. "Sixteen hours ago sometime that night." A long pause which was followed with the Nuit removing one glove and then pricking the needle on one of her fingers. Jil quickly squeeze out a drop of ichor - a white creamy tear that dropped out of the tip of her finger. After the drop, even the untrained eye can see that the circle had been activated, charged with energy that was waiting to be molded, created, and modified. Jilitse quickly moved her finger towards the candle flame, burning the small dot of wound. Then, holding out her hands, she felt for the soul of the frog.

And then there was a loud ribbit.

There was a lot of instances that Hadrian must have observed the Nuit witch. Having been among undead, he was used to the way nuits sometimes stopped still: not breathing, not blinking, not moving. Still, Jilitse looked a bit different than ordinary. Her lifeless eyes glinted with concentration as she focused her eyes on the frog. She was wriggling her fingers in the air, as if she was pulling at an invisible soft fabric. Her hands waved in their fluid motions.

The frog croaked once more. It could probably feel something, but not enough to know that its soul was being penetrated by something magical. Jilitse found the book she bought from the bazaar a great help in understanding the anatomy of a frog, and it allowed her better control of the creation of the soul core. Frogs used their forelimbs (or arms) simultaneously, and their hindlegs together. This was the soulcore that Jilitse worked on, for the copper thingamabob did not have enough limbs to match the frog's. As if the hand motions aided her manipulation, she wounded an invisible thread - which was actually a way of tying the pair of legs together.

And then she stopped moving. The soulcore was complete. Willing the soulcore to transfer from the source to the destination, Jilitse moved her head slowly to the right, guiding the energy from one ritual circle to another. Hadrian could probably see a magical mist whirling about the circles - smokes of djed and auras manifesting.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian merely nodded at Jilitse's remonstrances; even the undead Nuit advised caution when it came to Sahova, golems, and magic. He did take them into consideration, but he also wondered when he would have the reputation or obvious wisdom whereby people would stop talking to him like a child. Or, at least, he felt like everyone talked down to him. But he had indeed learned firsthand lessons about those dangers, and he hoped that if he did learn more than a thing or two about Animation and began to practice on his own rather than assisting another Animator such as Jilitse, Eyris would bless him with the wisdom to wield Kihala's power, and then She would not be so quick to condemn his work. From that point on, even before she bade him be silent, he stopped asking questions and merely observed. Even her questions seemed rhetorical now, so he let her test the frog's weight herself, watched her create her circles and the lines between, noting the differences and similarities between his own magecrafting circles. There were a few points where he wanted to ask if it mightn't be better to alter something or another, but the Nuit he knew did not enjoy being questioned by mere mortals, so he decided to ask later or to merely engage in his own careful experimentation. He nodded when she begged quiet, though he would have offered a drop of his own blood had she asked, or joined her in the incantation as his grasp of nader-canoch was admirable. Hadrian watched everything. His eyes and mind swam with the extra information that his auristics pulled in, colors and patterns that didn't all make perfect sense yet, but that he attempted to put into context with what was happening, with what they were doing, in order both to understand the Animation process better and to increase his auristic savvy, the better to understand what the auras denoted at any given time.

[Jilitse]

The next part needed Jilitse to take extra care and focus intently. She was perfectly still, giving off the impression that she wasn't doing anything. But the Nuit was trying her best to pour her attention to the crucial part of animating the object forming the legs of the golem. She exhaled - not that Nuits breathe - and the sound was unlike a mortal's breath. It must be a sign that she was having a hard time. The frog in the jar was leaping about, ribbit ribbit, it called out to Hadrian, as if asking for help.

The limbs of the frog were the most important aspect of animating the golem, and as such, Jilitse had to focus the ability to leap or jump and imbue the ability to the object. Together with that, she needed to bind the property of the hind legs to the spring. To top that, she needed to make sure that the force of the two hind legs would match, that it would move simultaneously, or else the spring would fail to work properly. So she pulled at her conjured soul, stretching out the hind legs and then coiling then around to match the spring that served as the hind legs. With that done, she concentrated on the front limbs, matching the guide soul to her destination, fingers once again moving in the air, whirling and twisting. Since the anatomies do not match, Jilitse had to do additional hand motions to help her concentrate in transforming and shaping the soul core and the persona.

The concept behind the golem was to study the methods of fleeing. "Wheeling away" - the usual mechanical movement of golems prove to be useless as a golem comes across a block in its path or a dead end. When running away or running around was not an option, you needed alternatives. And so with this she transferred the idea of jumping to move about and leaping over obstacles. Of course, the memory of the frog fleeing for its life was added, to give it the instinct to run away at the touch of anything. The golem was designed to give chase and never be caught at the odds of 9:1 in favor of a successful escape. Unless of course - and Jilitse ingrained this directive into the golem's mind - the words "Hopstop" was mentioned out loud three times by anybody.

With that, it ended. A small burst of energy puffed from the ritual circle, and the golem started to jump around madly. Leaping about weirdly on its springy legs, never jumping too high.

"Oh dear. I have made a mistake." Jilitse did not sound like it was anything urgent. "I forgot to give it eyes." She hummed, "Well, given so... hopstop hopstop hopstop." The golem stopped hopping around, but it was swaying on its spring legs. It will stay so until someone tries to hold it, or at least if it feels something come into contact with its body. Jilitse turned to Hadrian, "I have overlooked a very important factor. Sad to say I will have to mark this one a failure. And it took us a lot of time to make, too."

The Nuit explained, "It was giving chase to something it cannot see, so it probably resolved to continuous hopping." She brought her fingertips together, and scolded herself for producing something incomplete. She stared at the frog, which seemed to have been weakened for some reason.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian continued to be a silent observer during the process that existed within Jilitse and her circles. His eyes were wide, watching the djed as much as the physical representations: frog and frog soul, golem and proto-soul, the energetic circles, Jilitse herself. He stepped closer, soft of tread and slow of movement so as not to distract her, getting a better look at what was happening. Much information went unheeded to his novice eye, but what he did see, he would remember, stored in his memory as surely as if he were one of the Sahovan research golems. With the snap of energy, he work ceased and the golem began to hop around madly. As Hadrian had been partly responsible for the mechanism of the legs, he felt a bit of pride. "What, a mistake?" He sounded more upset than she did, but it was, after all, his first attempt at Animation. "Oh." He sighed, and looked over the remains of the experiment. "I suppose you can chalk it up as a study for future efforts." Then, "Will the frog suffer permanent damage?"

[Jilitse]

"Frog? Which frog? Oh you mean the one in the jar?" Jilitse sounded a little dazed. "Yes, it will. It can just feel its djed being copied. It's not a very nice feeling, especially if its your first time." She frowned a little, "Most Animators use themselves as the source. It is better to copy your own soul, easier to imitate, easier to build upon, so they say. I've done my share of standing inside Animation circles, heh." The Nuit shivered a bit.

Finally she stood and sauntered towards the desk. She wrote the results of the experiment and underlined the words that scream she forgot to add the eyes. She included her observations, something about faulty springs and vector mismatch. She turned to Hadrian, "Well, do you want to keep it? You crafted most of it after all. I've no need for it, anyway. I'm just trying to research the discipline."

She was now drawing another model, scribbling notes about alternative ways of moving without legs. Jil muttered, "Whenever you use yourself as a source for your golem, most of the time you grow a sense of attachment to it. You treat it like it was part of you, consider it like a child of sorts. No, I've no desire to have a golem for a child," more to herself than to Hadrian, "Don't want to end up like..." She shivered again.

The Nuit paused writing and looked up to Hadrian, "Since we're talking, what do you want to learn about?" She still held the pencil in her hand, rolling it between her fingers.

[Hadrian]

"Ah," he said nodding, and looking at the frog. If she didn't need it, he would let it go near some source of water or another. He wasn't particularly soft-hearted, but he wasn't unnecessarily cruel, either. "Is it dangerous to let someone else use your soul as a copy? Does that give them any sort of power over you?" He peered over her shoulder at the notes, though he would look away if she gave him any sort of glare for it. Likely he wouldn't understand all of her notes anyway and it didn't seem to be a particularly important failure; she even said as much. "If you don't want it, I'll take it," he said. He would study it for a while and then, perhaps, if he didn't have room for it when he went back to Zeltiva, he could donate it to that orphanage. "End up like whom...?" But when she changed the subject, he followed her lead. After Sahova, he was not keen to cross any Nuits for a while. "I think I told you I was a magecrafter. Well, I'd say rather I'm an enchanter. I don't do much of the crafting myself yet, though I'm working on it. If I continue on with Animation, I suppose I'll have to learn how to creatively build their bodies, though I think I have more of a natural knack for the cognitive processes... such as they use for research assistance back at the Citadel. "I sort of want to learn about everything," he said, summing it up, "because everything can be synthesized into my magecrafting. The more I know, the more I can do, the less I have to rely on other people. I'm not against other people, per se, but I do want to be able to do most things on my own if I have to. "What about you?"

[Jilitse]

Every now and then there were awkward questions thrown at Jilitse, most of which she was able to answer with grace. "What about you?" was one of the questions she always took a moment before answering, perhaps due to its rather personal, if not intimate nature. She looked at her pencil and said, "I need to be strong enough to kill Drainira." Of course other versions of this purpose-driven mission was to "Help Priskil revive Aquiras," which Jilitse found to be a euphemism for "I am going to kill Sagallius." Hadrian would know the supervisor, he had been placed in mortal danger because of the golem. It was hard to fathom why Jilitse, an Animator herself, would ever gain the desire to turn against the best golem ever made. Whenever she was interrogated about this, she would speak of Drainira's betrayal and Mashaen's 'fall from grace'. While it was sufficient enough for an explanation, Jil had never revealed the rest of the details. She would rather keep the private elements to herself.

The Nuit then suggested, "Then, why don't you try animation on your own. You say you are keen on doing things on your own anyway? You won't really learn until you practice it."

Jil waited a bit before continuing, "But, have you ever thought trying to learn everything with the lifespan you have could be a little off the mark? You'd be dead before you even get to a quarter of the knowledge of the world." Spoken like a true immortal! "I suppose there would be mortal boundaries to becoming the best enchanter," her slow soft voice suggested he should consider becoming undead. "If you don't mind me asking, are there any specific ideas you had in mind for item enchantment?" She would listen to his idea or two if he offered any. The Nuit will wait for him to go on about his craft before continuing with the inquiry, "Have you ever thought about the greater repercussions of practicing Animation?" He wanted to learn, after all, he should know and think about it deeply first. "Imagine creating something sentient. Those cognitive processes can be dangerous sometimes, you know. Think of Drainira, think of the golems you've seen and interacted with in Sahova. How many of them placed you in grave danger? Imagine your demise in the machinations of your own creation."

She challenged Hadrian's youthful compulsion of wanting to do everything, wanting to learn anything. Jil wanted to see the general direction of the choices he was making, out of curiosity.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian very nearly dropped Hopstop at the mention of the homicidal Supervisor. He had, after all, seen her machinations first hand, though he remained largely ignorant of her larger designs. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. On the one hand, not knowing might keep one from 'knowing too much' and incurring her wrath, but he was of the mind that knowledge was power. "Good luck," was all he said to that. If she had asked for his help, he might have agreed, but they weren't exactly friends. The future was anyone's guess, though. "I will most likely practice on my own," he agreed. "It's what I do anyway... when there's nobody around to teach me a thing. Sometimes it helps. You learn without someone else's preconceived notions about how magic is supposed to work. Of course, sometimes the preconceived notions are right. Or seem to be. "Areesa Tallshade wasn't immortal," he said. Had any Nuit magecrafter gotten Lhex Himself to bless their creation with His gnosis? Not that Hadrian knew. "I have not ruled out immortality on your terms, but I am still holding out for something... more suited to me. Who knows if I'll discover it, though." He thought there was something to be said for human ingenuity over Nuit longevity. When functional immortality was reached, it seemed likely to him that the drive to accomplish would diminish, and that a person would develop ruts. But he supposed all Nuit were different too. "Anyway, my magecrafting is going to depend on who's willing to pay for what at this point. I need to build up the capital to make things I want for pure discovery. My thesis project at university was a blood-compass. I enchanted a sphere or rutilated quartz to help a man find his lost sister. She's his only remaining blood relative, so it used his blood to locate his nearest relative. So that's the sort of thing I've made when resources were something someone else had to worry about."