85th of Fall, 513 AV
The small cramped room was her realm, her little domain on Sahova. It was small but it was her world in a way, her sanctum where no one could intrude upon without cause. Anna knew that it was a delusion of sorts, however it was good and pleasant delusion so she allowed it. It was very likely that she was going to need to get used to this place, it would likely be some time before she was considered proven enough to be given oversight of a lab. Inconvenient as that was there were other matters to occupy her mind, such as her session today. Today wasn't about Daren or enemies, it was about exploring the unknown.
Her encounter with Master Roknus Maelstrom had taught her many things, one being that if she was going to stand out here she needed more than reimancy and glyphing to bring to the table. So she intended to, at least once per day, open a portal to the Void and try to keep it open for at least a chime. Today she was going to try for longer and do a couple of experiments, but going forward she needed to establish a routine. The Void was a vast power, potentially a weapon with greater potency than reimancy. It represented destruction in its purest form, the end of all things.
The tall woman sat upon the mat in her room, cross-legged and staring at her right hand. Intricate glyphs spiraled from a Focus placed upon her palm, tracing up her fingers. She needed every advantage she could get as opening the portal was the major problem she had, often it wouldn't appear at all and other times it would show up immediately. It all seemed to be subject to chance, hence this new training regimen. Getting to the point were she could at least open a portal more often than not would be a start. So that was what today would be focused on, not maintaining a portal for an extended period but rather opening and closing portals. It was a simple exercise, but it would help her portal formation in the long run.
Anna started by cycling her breathing, closing her eyes and trying to find some form of inner calm. Amidst the rather life threatening events of the last week Anna had possessed very little time to actually meditate. Normally she was one to revel in chaos and turmoil, but now was not the time for such things. There needed to be a way to guide these things, not necessarily an order imposed upon them but a direction to focus them. Anna imagined it as uneasy oceans flowing into powerful and barely contained rapids, still strong but given a flow to them. That was the equilibrium to be maintained.
Each breath taken in entered her nose and each breath released left her mouth slowly, the rise and fall of her chest more pronounced and orderly. With each cycling things became much more calm, her mind was settling and troubling worries were tossed out into the back of her mind. The Quarters were silent as most days, making concentration on clearing her mind much easier. Still, part of her missed the days when her meditation had taken place on the shores of Matthews Bay, the lapping waves sounding in her ears. Sahova's silence was artificial, muted in a way so as to almost be unsettling. Perhaps it was merely homesickness.
The wizard continued this cycling for chime after chime, focusing upon the idea of infinite emptiness. The concept was basic of course but it would likely assist when the actual act of manifesting a link to the Void came into play, along with the focus Glyph and incantations. She was doing everything possible to make this process last as long as possible, getting comfortable with the Void was the but the first step to understanding. Once understanding was achieved she could actually start learning how to properly use it, from there the possibilities were myriad.
It took about thirty solid chimes of cycled breathing and focus for clarity to be achieved and the concept to reign supreme in her mind. The Void was nothingness eternal, a massive space with no beginning or end. While Mizahar was finite the Void was not, the blackness stretched on forever and ever never starting and never finishing. Its vastness laid beyond imagining for mortals, who could only really speculate and guess.
Anna slowly opened her grey eyes, settling them upon her index finger and focusing on a space slightly above it. It was time to start, her goal today was to get at least five solid manifestations of tiny portals above her finger. It was the only size she could really manage for such a thing, anything larger required too much Djed to maintain. It would likely be pushing her limits, but she was willing to take the risk. Compared to Reimancy, urges from Voiding were much easier to deal with. She started up a chant in the Ancient Tongue, the one normally employed when trying to bridge This Side to The Other Side.
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
The Ancient Tongue was a language that possessed multiple meanings within every word, hence why its vocabulary was so small. Anna understood the basics of it, one day she hoped to become fluent in the old language. It would reflect how very far removed she was from the naïve little girl, running along the beach with dreams of foolish in nature. The particular chant she utilized possessed a few different meanings, but her particular inflection meant, 'That which spans is that which is too large to be counted at a single glance. That which is too large to be counted at a single glance is that which spans.' It seemed an apt way to describe the Void with her limited understanding.
Her focus was concentrated upon the Djed within her body, willing it to move along through her body to the focus of her hand. From there it was moved along the runes spiraling up her index finger, finding its end there. That was the easy part down, now she needed to actually command the Djed to preform the correct function. Some of the time, even with preparation a portal wouldn't even manifest. Other times res formed from her concentration, only a few times would a portal form. It was rather annoying when res formed, as it wasted valuable Djed no matter how miniscule.
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug sutla."
Part of her wondered why she even bothered with the Void, she had attained such power in Reimancy that with a little more work and research it was likely that even Maelstrom wouldn't be able to match her one day. Currently she was definitely cut from a different cloth than the majority of apprentices in the Citadel, being able to survive going head to head with a master of her field. Combining that with Glyphing seemed to make her an extremely potent force. Why then did she insist on bothering with Voiding?
There was pride of course, the knowledge that she had come so far in reimancy pushing her further herself in Voiding just as far. Then there was the practical side of it, the fact that the Void could be used to dispose of experiments that get out of hand. Already she had a few ideas involving mixing the curses of Chaon with the fire of reimancy. Such things would need a method of disposal, thus Voiding was needed. Of course, its sheer destructive potential was a nice bonus as well.
Her eyes focused upon the space above her index finger, willing the Djed to move up to empty the space there. She was rewarded with clear translucent fluid forming on the tip of her finger, eliciting a foul curse from the tall woman's lips. A waste of Djed, though she hadn't honestly expected to form the portal right away. Anna willed the res to return into her body, returning to her chant quickly.
"Sutla gug. Gug Sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug Sutla."
"Sutla gug. Gug Sutla."
Anna focused again, willing her Djed to move upwards and empty the space above her finger. Nothing happened at first so she continued to concentrate, her incantations steady. Finally she was rewarded by the formation of a small, swirling vortex of pure darkness bursting into existence above her finger. It was no larger than the nail of her pinky finger, but it was still a successful bridge between This Side and The Other Side. Anna fed the portal more Djed, struggling to keep it open for a couple of ticks.
Keeping a portal open was comparable to feeding an ocean into a never ending thimble. It was such a small thing but it was unbelievably greedy for her vital energy. Anna didn't want to imagine what it would be like to make it even bigger. She loved staring into the little portals though, there was always a sense of utter satisfaction at having opened a bridge between dimensions. It was small, but she had actually managed to do it so she thought some satisfaction warranted.
After a couple more ticks of feeding her Djed to the tiny portal Anna decided it was time to close it, so she focused on the core of the construct. Once focus was achieved she willed the empty space to fill itself with a tiny bit of matter. This accomplished the portal flickered for a moment before vanishing, closed by her force of will. The act had not been overly tiring but it had certain taken more of a toll than she would have liked. Hopefully she'd reach her goal before the end.
