Closed So Far from Home

[Uleru]

Through the gaps in her fingers Uleru watches as the man breaths sparks over the water in a sparkling cloud of orange and yellow. Impressive! He picked that up fast. Maybe he has an natural affinity for magic.

Lowering her hands the moulding laughs at the look on the Svefra's face as he turns to her. The amazed excitement she sees there is just the same as a child catching his first fish. He rattles off on how he is surprised he didn't breath fire, but only sparks.

"You can breath fire if you want too, Svefra" she says. "But you would need to spit liquid res instead of mist. And liquid is much more expensive to your body, because its more dense and therefore uses more dijed. You wouldn't last long before overgiving and seeing the face of god" she says shortly. She remembers trying to drown the Myrian Razkar with fingers shoved down his throat and water pouring from her hands. And even with the massive amounts of dijed in her body she could feel the force draining out of her in an alarming way.

As if just realizing she is there, the man then offhandedly asks what her question is. Uleru taps her finger to her lip as she considers this. It's seems that the man has some skills is magic, but how clever is he really? She can ask him anything she wants, but what if he is as dumb as a flounder? Then anything he has to say would be useless.

What she needs is a guarantee that he can answer her with some certainty. What she has to ask won't be clear or easy at all... Wait, how about a riddle? Yes, thats it! A little test to make sure he has a working mind, then onto much more interesting things.

"A simple lesson, so a simple question", the Otani grins, tilting her head as if to view him from a different angle. "My name is Oname Tymn. True or false?"

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius nodded absently when she explained what it would take to breath fire. It made sense. More destructive power would require greater res. The display of sparks did seem impressive, and far safer than a similar amount of fire. He would have to remember this in case he needed to defend himself somewhere. It would be easier to keep a fire from breaking out with this than with actual fire. She had taught him a valuable skill. She took a moment to think about her question, and Darius began to worry that it would be something difficult. When she did ask, Darius was quite taken aback by the "simple" question. It made no sense. How was he supposed to guess if it were or weren't her name? He spent a moment considering it, and then gave up working out if there were some sort of trick involved. After a moment of thought, he decided that this would be no test if it were true. Logically, there wasn't enough in the question for him to make a decision. In fact the only piece of information he got was the name itself, and for it to tell him anything, he assumed it would have to be false. "...False..." he responded hesitatingly. Only after he said it did he think to actually examine the name. Oname Tymn? It only took him a moment to realize that perhaps it was an anagram...after a moment spelling in his head, he realized that yes, indeed it was, and anagram for "Not my name." He felt suddenly more confident in his answer. "Right? There's no way your real name is an anagram of 'not my name.' What is it?" He smiled and waited a moment for her answer. "So what next?"

[Uleru]

"...False."
 
Uleru keeps up the same placid smile, though her eyes have become crestfallen. Oh well, it was worth a shot, she consoles herself as her mind is cast back to the toads of the river- soon to be her new companions. He is right, of course, that is not her name. But the hesitant way that he says it makes her think he just pulled that answer out of his-
 
"Right? Theres no way your name is an anagram for 'not my name'."
 
The Otani's eyes suddenly brighten and her hands come together in a celebratory clap in front of her chest. "Ha, you're right! My name is Uleru, Svefra, pleasure to meet you" she winks.
 
No time to dally though. The man immediately asks her what the next lesson will be with an eagerness she would relate to dogs, if she were more knowledgeable of that particular animal.
 
"We're going to try something a bit more difficult this time. I'm not sure how well it'll work with your particular element, but we'll see, eh?"
 
The moulding shuffles around so she is facing the river, and she motions for the human to budge up and join her. And once he is beside her she holds out her right hand in front of her and coaxes out a grapefruit-sized ball of liquid res from her palm. It hovers in front of her face, throwing off an ethereal glow like an oversized pearl.
 
"You need a nice, big ball like this, see? And then..." she brings her other hand up to mime manually crushing the substance. Though it is with her control over the untransmuted energy that she tightens the ball. "...You condense it as much as you can. Make it solid. So much so that your concentration is tested and it feels like it will spring out again like a packed sponge coral."
 
Small furrows and very human lines of concentration spider across the moldings liquid face as the ball in her hand is reduced to the size of a pea. She holds it up to him to demonstrate, then lays the shimmering thing on the bed of her thumb. And with her middle finger she flicks the opalescent res out into the river.
 
The hits the water with a tiny splash, immediately being swept away with the slow current. Uleru waits until its almost out of her reach, and then-
 
-Boosh!-
 
A spray of water jets into the air as she converts the pressurized res into air. The Otani tilts her head back as the water sprinkles over them, as if enjoying a bright beam of sun instead of a lash of bone-chilling water.
 
"See? Lots of impact if you do it right," she smiles, turning back to her now slightly damp companion. "It wouldn't work for earth, or water, but I think it might work for fire... I mean, I don't really know how fire works, but its a bit like air, right? It looks incredibly insubstantial, but it does have energy... So overwhelming pressure should make it expand outward."
 
She shrugs, unsure of herself. "It's worth a shot at least."
 
With that last thought she gets up, sand clinging to her wet legs, and walks into the water. "I'd rather not be here when you give it a shot, so I'll watch from below, ok?" if she didn't she could imagine the heat coming off a poorly timed blast might just suffocate her on the spot. She suppresses a shiver. "Just remember to hold the pressure at all times, and don't lose your concentration even for a second. Throw it far over the river and then release it all at once. Good luck!'
 
A smile and a wave and the Otani takes a leap into deeper water. Leaving her pupil on the shore to deal with this dangerous bit of magic on his own.   

[Darius Twoseas]

At first the Otani looked disappointed with his answer, but when Darius realized it had been an anagram, she cheered back up again. Her name was Uleru, apparently. Darius smiled. "The pleasure is mine. I'm Darius." When he asked her what was next, she warned him it would be a little more difficult. Darius looked forward to it, a little bit nervous. Uleru turned to face the river and beckoned to Darius. He walked hesitantly near her. She held out her hand, and Darius watched the res collect in a ball in front of her. So far, simple enough. When she explained it, though, it sounded less so. Uleru compressed the ball, far smaller than Darius felt he would be able to manage. It was tiny, smaller than the tip of Darius's little finger. The otani flicked it out over the water and it landed with a little *kersplunk* and was swept into the river, leaving Darius wondering what it could have accomplished. Then-- *Boosh!* A geyser of water reaches into the air, falling all over the river and spraying Darius, leaving him shivering a little. He turned to look at the otani. She seemed to be enjoying the sudden spray. When she spoke again, Darius understood what she had done. She had turned the compressed res into compressed air, which had done its best not to stay compressed. Darius was doubtful how well it would work with fire replacing air, but her arguments did lead him to conclude that something would happen. Apparently she wasn't too sure of how safe the experiment would be either, because she dove into the water after leaving him with a bit of advice. Darius wasn't too sure that the safest place would be underwater, but it was too late to say that at this point. He lifted his right hand, miming what he had seen her do. He brought out a small amount of res, about the size of his fist. He concentrated as hard as he could, but when he tried to compress it, it just ballooned out a different side. He spent a few minutes in deep focus,, trying to keep it together, and managed to compress it into the space of his big toe, though it wasn't perfectly spherical. He flicked the ball of pressurized res into the water, letting it move away for just a second. He would have waited a bit longer than he did, but he could feel his concentration slipping away from him and so transmuted it all at once, a little closer to him than he would have liked. He braced himself for the explosion. There was a moment of silence. Then another. He looked, puzzled, out over the water when the hissing began. Instead of a jet of water, there was a plume of steam rising out of the river, as big around as a person, emitting a loud hissing sound as the water underneath boiled. Darius was confused. There wasn't any explosion...what did it do then? He took a moment before he decided he had figured it out. It was like an actual fire--if you put enough fuel to it, it would get hotter. By compressing the res, he had made the flame it created more intense--hot enough to boil a small portion of the water in the river. Immediately after he thought this, he had a sickening revelation. "Laviku sink it...Uleru?" he called to the water suddenly worried about how hot he might have made his flame, "Are you all right?"

[Uleru]

 Uleru has one arm anchored securely around an old rotting tree branch on the river bed, and the other thrown over her eyes to shield them from the distracting glare of the setting sun. She's looking for the telltale signs of a small, fiery explosion. And wondering if she should have stayed ashore with the boy.
 
Suddenly there is a small plunk from overhead, like someone throwing a stone into the river. The moulding hurries to refocus her eyes from the distorted sky above the river to the... Oh no.
 
She was expecting the man to transmute his element while throwing it over the river. But that's ok, she is next to invulnerable underwater, and fire would be extinguished as soon as its made. It's no problem, right?
 
Still her eyes scan franticly for his discarded res. What colour was it? She cant even remember.
 
Uleru hears the hissing before she sees the fire. Her eyes snap up and beholds something very strange. A small object glowing white-hot, wreathed and buoyed in a cushion of bubbles as it boils the river it moves along.
 
The moulding has just enough time to give startled yelp and flatten out on the river bed. Letting the glowing thing pass harmlessly overhead. Temperature doesn't affect her very much. She is aware of what is hot and what is cold, but she has been both to the deepest of Avanthal's chilly waters and the steamiest of natural hot springs without adverse effects. But she is very sure that the res would burn a nice big hole through her body if she let it. But as it were there is only an uncomfortable shock as her body absorbs the heat from the water around her, and having to pull her feet out of the way before she loses them to the burning res.

Eventually it passes, leaving the Otani to stare after it in confusion. That was not what she was expecting from compressed fire. How interesting. Brushing silt off of her front she kicks for the surface, breaking water just off of the shore where the man is looking for her.
 
"You're not trying to kill me, are you?" she says with a sickly sweetness.  
 
"Tell you what", she continues, pulling herself ashore. The heat is still coursing through her back from her close call. The chilly fall air saps jealously at the warmth, so that it spirals off of her in a thin billow of steam. "I'll forgive you if you answer my question correctly, ok?"
 
She smiles then, her mind working on her next question. Her first task is to remind him of the sea he is leaving behind. He needs to know what he is forgoing to chase these godless people of the shallow sea...
 
"Ah, I have it", she coos softly, leaning in closer like she is sharing a secret. "Svefra, Charoda, Konti and even my kind; why do we all call Laviku 'The Father'? Think carefully," she holds up one slightly steaming finger, "There is a correct answer to this."
 

OOC :

Horray for vague bullshit questions! I'm sure you can deduce the answer to this yourself, but if you're not sure feel free to PM me.

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius was relieved to see Uleru break the surface nearby. He didn't really think that the heat could have been enough to reach through the river very far to kill her, but it was good to see that she was alright all the same. She teased him a little bit, making Darius feel even worse. His sudden headache didn't help--his reward for his practice. Even still, he was pretty sure he could continue before overgiving did any real damage. He nodded at her offer of forgiveness for the next question. The question itself was different than he expected. He had anticipated...he didn't know what. Caught off guard, he took a moment trying to focus through the pounding in his ears. When he finally could think straight, he took a long moment pondering the question. Why did the sea peoples call Laviku "father?" It seemed obvious. As the god of the sea, Laviku sustained them and made them who they were. He provided for them and allowed the to travel his waters safely. His thoughts turned a little darker. After all, he didn't let all through his sea safely. Some ships sank and often took their crew with them. Sea creatures took some. Under the surface, it didn't seem as simple. Why was he called father, if he could allow these tragedies to befall his people? Darius slowly opened his mouth to speak. He started slowly. "Well...he is called father because he provides for them. The need him to survive his domain." He grew slowly more confident of his answer. "Sometimes he can't or doesn't save them, but he cares for his children when he can. The people of the sea need him, for everything--for food, water, transport, in some cases even their life is ties to the water. He is the provider and usually the protector. This is why he is called 'father.'" By the time he had finished speaking, he was fairly confident in his answer. It made sense. Living upon the water made you dependent upon it--just like living on the plain made you dependent upon it. Darius suddenly understood better why he would never be able to live upon the sea: he could not put control of his life so directly in the hands of anyone, even a god. His goal depended upon making his life his own, seizing the power to protect and provide for himself. He may have to travel upon the ocean again, but it would never be his home. His shoulders were set and his gaze was steady as he finished his answer to the Otani, the revelation almost overpowering his headache.

[Uleru]

"... You said 'they'. That they call Him Father. Why would you say that?"
 
It's true. Never once through his answer did he relate himself to the sea fairing people. he never said 'I', never 'us', it was always 'them'. What, all those years crawling across the back of his god and he can just shed them all aside for a landscape of dirt and grass? He should be pronouncing his love for the deity, reminding himself that home is with the sea father and all the races that make the sea their life.
 
No, instead he has erected a wall between himself and the god's messenger. For she is definitely one of 'them'.
 
"That's ok", she soothes aloud, more to herself than to ease (what she sees as) his verbal blunder. "You're right, of course. We need him. He takes care of us, of all things..."
 
She sings then, to better express what she means. And the notes rise and fall with a clarity that rings with the steady rush like waves on the shore:
 
"The sea is the sailors cradle,
the sea is the sailors grave,
the sea is the sailors glory,
to Laviku's glory we pray-"
 
Suddenly she notices the light strain that shows in his eyes, and her songs cuts off abruptly. Oh no, is he hurt? Her eyes narrow as she looks him over. Unfortunately, she has never been a good judge of human age, race, or, ultimately, the measure of their dijed. But she suspects that he might be pushing himself. Though the way he stands with his shoulders back makes him look like he is ready for whatever she is going to throw at him next.
 
"Are you in pain?" she asks hesitatingly, "One more lesson, and one more question, and then I have something to propose to you, ok? Then you can rest, I promise." 

[Darius Twoseas]

Uleru's response to his answer made him blink a little. Did he do something wrong? Did he...but then he understood. She had referee to him as a Svefra, and had been thinking of him as such. But he couldn't think of himself as anything but a Drykas now. He had his windmarks and his Strider and was connected to the Web. The Web. How could the Otani possibly understand how much this place meant to him, when she didn't and couldn't know about the Web? It both made him a part of the family and the ecosystem, and reminded him at every moment how important and worthy his goal was. Once upon a time, the Drykas had saved themselves from the fury of the gods with their own mastery of magic. The entire culture of the Drykas was proof that what he sought could be done. She immediately clarified, though, that his answer was not wrong. She seemed almost to regret her outburst, and Darius's resolve was unbroken. He was taken aback, though, when she started singing, a simple and pretty melody. He leaned in a little bit. She had a nice voice, though at the moment his headache was making his ears ring with the music. She abruptly stopped, noticing his slightly pained expression. Darius stared quizzically back at her as she examined him. So she had noticed that he was at risk of overgiving. He sighed a little bit. He didn't need babying, he was sure he could handle himself. All the same, he agreed he probably shouldn't keep practicing so much. He spoke a little wearily, "No, I'm fine, it's just a little headache. You're right though. One last trick for one last question, then your proposition." He was a little curious as to what it might be, but was far more concerned about what she could teach him.

[Uleru]

The Otani nods, looking a little tired herself. Though her exhaustion has nothing to do with her dijed.

"Ok, one last trick." Uleru stands and plants both feet firmly on the bank of soft river silt. She's still steaming faintly, with thin spirals rising from her head and shoulders. It makes her look like she's fading away.

"One thing I found out about res early on is that it can pass through things you think are solid. It can pass through sand, through the hull of a ship, even through stone. Here, watch my feet."

She points down her shimmering legs to her transparent feet, where dijed is being collected into the soles as res. But it doesn't look like much is happening. More is gathering, but the collection doesn't seem to be getting any bigger. Then the mouldings finger suddenly makes a wide arc in front of her, pointing to a section of sand a few meters away. And with a startling suddenness and no sound, a patch of clear, sparking ice materializes out of the silt.

"I've used it to trip people, and to stop them moving towards me. It's more defensive in my hands. But you could use it as an offensive, eh? Instead of showy handfuls of fire you can burn them while they have no idea what's happening. Now you try", she waves him forward. "Collect it under you and then propel it forward just as you would through the air. You might need to keep eye contact with where you want your res to be. It can be hard to judge distance in the beginning."

[Darius Twoseas]

Uleru looked almost as tired as Darius felt as she introduced the last technique. He found it hard to take her word when she said it was possible for res to pass through solid matter. He watched as the Otani gathered res from the soles of her feet--an unusual location, as normally they were firmly against the ground and nobody he had met really tried to move res through the floor. He was surprised, then to see ice cover the ground a short ways away. He was surprised that it was actually possible to move res through the ground. He tried some to do the same thing, collecting a little res in the soles of his feet. It wasn't much , as his pounding headache got worse with every ounce of res he collected. By the time he was done, he felt like his head was being split, and there was only maybe a fist-sized sphere of it. It was hard to focus with the pain in head, so the globule of res wasn't truly a sphere but more of a pulsating mass. He tried not to pverestimate himself, and so pointed to a spot only maybe three feet from him, attempting to move the res there. He stood like that for a long moment, focusing hard to move the res acurately. A small flame, like a large candle rose from the ground about a foot to the right of where he had meant to direct it, but at least it did something. After maybe ten seconds it sputtered and died. Darius still smiled, blinking strongly to attemt to push back the pain of mild overgiving. He sank slowly to the ground. "Yeah, I think that's enough for one day." He smiled rufuly as he said it, regretting how much res he had used to practice with those techniques. "So?" he asked slowly, "You're next question?"