Solo [Lab 13-J]A flicker of light

[Clyde Sullins]

12 Spring 514 Clyde had finally been given his first task as an apprentice, his first solo project. Its content was a bit unexpected, but Clyde had a feeling that it would be the first of many, and that he would be tasked with doing several similar projects. His job was to inspect the original Magecrafted item, figure out the steps of enchantment placed upon it, and then replicate it by enchanting another item similarly. Considering he was a Aurist, a decent one, and had spent a good bit of his time using the magic during Magecrafting, he was uniquely skilled to do this task. Simply being an Aurist would not be enough, one had to also be a Magecrafter so as to know what they were looking for, and to have an idea of what they might see. Letting out a sigh, with his own Magecrafted staff in hand, Clyde looked upon his first artifact he would replicate. A lamp. Of course, it was not a normal lamp, that was obvious. The lamp was lit, had a flame shining from it, and had been doing so for bells know. It however was not burning oil, and in fact the wick itself was not lit. It did not even have a wick, instead the flame hovered over a small bit of metal jutting up which reminded Clyde of a candle's wick, which had d-wire wrapped about it. A lamp was a simple enough contraption, a glass part out of which the light was shed, with a metal casing as the body holding it. Inside of that was a reservoir of oil which was lit on fire, and which caused a flame to shine and light the lamp. Now it was Clyde's task to figure out how it worked, which of course would mean a long session of Aura reading. Clyde popped his neck, flexed his arms, and prepared to set to work.

[Clyde Sullins]

To begin with, Clyde set out some paint, and made some simple Glyphs so as to aid in his focus on the specific object. He drew out a large circle with a waving line touching it intermittently at the low points, and pushing up and away at the high points. This was a common focus for him, one he used quite often. Next he painted out a smaller version of the focus on the palms of his hands, just like the bigger one in all ways but size. After waiting a few chimes for the paint to dry properly Clyde set the artifact/lamp on top of the big focus, and prepared to use Auristics. Holding his staff in a two handed grip, he visualized his djed flowing up and out of his palms, into the staff, along its length, and flowing out of the staff. He'd practiced before running his Auristical sense through the staff, so it was not too hard. For a moment nothing happened, and then he felt the djed move throughout him, felt a shifting, and felt as his aura sight expanded out of the skin of the blue bark. Through the staff he could see the lantern, but he could also SEE the lantern. It was interesting working together with his staff to do magic, becoming more synchronized and closer to it each time they worked together. Clyde closed his eyes, and focus upon the image of the lamp. He could see coming from it a small greyish aura, which was odd considering it was a magecrafted item... But then from inside of it Clyde could see a second aura, one that was strong and bigger than something that fit inside of the lamp should have been, unless it was alive. Focusing more upon the lamp, he watched it break apart into pieces in his mind's aura eye. First the metal topper was cast aside, broke off and was forgotten. Then he pulled up the glass casing inside which the flame shone out. He gazed at the base, looking deeper, and looked within it. Inside he saw the other aura, the deeper aura, which was hidden in the oil reservoir. It was a small metal ball which wire wrapped around it. This wire fed up to the metal "wick" as Clyde had described it, curled around it, and then was the point from which the magic exited. It made sense in a way that the lamp would not be Magecrafted. The lamp was fragile, easily broken, and so was not a good body for Magecrafting. Not when it existed as glass and iron. Clyde tasted at the ball, saw the flicker of its aura widen, saw the djed travelling along the wire, which was probably d-wire. The ball was the source of the flame, the true Magecrafted object. The metal ball, probably steel by its look and taste and feel, was the source of the flame, and the lamp acted as a housing and a means of exit for the flame. It was only a tiny flame, a lamp flame, so it did not draw to heavily upon the objects djed, and was not unreasonable for it to burn forever with such a small draw. “Interesting...”

[Clyde Sullins]

Taking out a piece of parchment, Clyde began to draw out a list of the ingredients and what he needed. A simple oil lamp, no oil. A metal sphere "yay" big, small enough to fit inside of the oil reservoir of the lamp. It was a uniform solid steel ball, except for a small mark on the one side, a depression, into which was set the steel wick and the d-wire. He'd also need the metal wick, along with some d-wire. The wick's purpose was to project the flame upward, to make the flames exit high enough for the flame to light the lamp and for the light to shine out properly. Simple really, but still ingenious. Next though he needed to figure out the exact enchantment laid upon the steel ball, so that he could mimic it. Getting the items he needed would be simple enough, so he'd do that later after he'd worked out the enchantment. Turning back to the lamp, he held up his staff once more, the end pointing at the lamp, and dug into it. This time he quickly passed through the lamp and into the steel ball, focusing on it and its djed. As was normal in a completed work of Magecrafting the djed's in its body was settled and solid. Clyde focused deeper upon this, deeper, down into the solidified pathways. Normally he dealt in active djed pathways, but he could still see similarities in them. All of the pathways that were expanded were changes made in the item. And there were normally only five kinds of changes that could be made... As he thought this, Clyde pictured the ball as if twines of light were shining off of it in five directions, each direction being a color and a different trait. All of the colors were there, but some were thicker, some were deeper and longer. These were what had been enhanced. Blue, red, black, grey, green. The last three were weak, a simple ray of light shining outward. The black and blue however were thicker, sturdier, and longer. As he plucked at the grey, black, and green cord in turn, he saw nothing. They were empty, simple abutments with nothing jutting off of them. However the blue and red cords were thick with djeds, strong, with something laid upon their lines. They had been built upon and reinforced. They were the traits that had steps laid upon them. Next he plucked the red cord, and saw shimmering gas, gas which turned to flame without direction as it got far enough from the ball. Clearly in his mind red was active, was strong, was the color of potent magics. Being a Reimancer its source was clear enough, a step in Reimancy had been laid upon the item, giving it the power of a fire Reimancy initiate. Next was the blue cord. Once more he saw flame, but it was contained. Instead of res flowing out freely and transmuting randomly, this was contained and exact. The dimple on the metal was the point upon which it had been set. Up out of it a small flame popped up, rising a portion of a inch, and then turning into a controlled flame. Res would slowly come up, feeding it and keeping it constant, but the flame would never waver or change. It would stay a small flame, just enough to match the light of a lamp. This action was repeated over and over again, until the behavior and action was natural to the object, until it was trained to do that action constantly. Clearly the blue line was behavioral enhancement, as this was a specific behavior for the Reimancy to take shape as, inlaid into the object at a deep level. “So, thats what you are... A step of Reimancy, to give it the power of flame... And a step of behavioral enhancement, to teach it how to use that flame... Making a flame that never goes out, that is constantly alight and needs no fuel.” Clyde pulled back his aura vision, back into his staff, cut off the flow of djed. Letting out a sigh, he realized he had been examining the ball of steel for the better part of a day. He needed to rest, and so would begin the Magecrafting tomorrow.

[Clyde Sullins]

13 Spring 514 Having rested the night prior, Clyde was ready to rise early and begin his Magecrafting. The day prior he had examined the artifact with Auristics, and using that skill along with his knowledge of Magecrafting, and of examining a Magecrafted items aura, was able to piece together how it functioned. Now today he would begin the first step of Magecrafting, gifting the new object with fire Reimancy. That would likely take a second day to fully instill the magic into the item. After that, on the third and fourth day, he would fix within it the specific behavior of creating the lamp sized flame out of it, which would come from a specific point on it. Then he'd cool it down, and be done with his first task as a apprentice. Of course, it occurred to Clyde that perhaps this first item was easy on purpose, more of a test of his abilities than a real task. He'd actually considered a very similar item before, when talking to a member of the Nitrozian family back in Ravok. Or at least something similar to it. The Reimancy bit, and the behavior trait being enchanted. But the unique way of making the device, of the lamp as a vessel and the actual artifact the core of steel... That was intriguing, and had not occurred to Clyde before. It also made sense, since it would mean the lamp mechanism could be traded out, while the core artifact was the stronger and more durable part of it. Clyde was not totally sure what would have happened if someone had enchanted the entire lamp, and then it was broken, or even simply the glass on it was broken... At best, it might weaken the device, or perhaps make it stop functioning... At worst, it could catastrophically break, or perhaps even explode. If nothing else, he felt he had been given a great idea by this process, that of only enchanting the hardiest aspect of the device, along with only what was strictly necessary for the desired effect to work. Clyde took out some more paint, and spent a few chimes painting out some basic warding around the pedestal. Barrier Glyphs of waving lines encircling it, various words of defense sprinkled throughout and as other layers. Even the odd swirly inner bit of paths and focus which accepted and took in any excess or runoff of excess djed from the process. In other words, simple things, things that took little time or skill for him, and which barely even absorbed his awareness. But soon enough he was done ensconcing the pedestal in glyphs, and was on to the main event. The Magecrafting. He'd gotten the metal core he needed, made of steel as the original artifacts. Along with that he'd gotten the other bits, the lamp, along with the custom wick type thing, and the d-wire. Now the metal ball lay on the middle of the pedestal, ready for Clyde to commence. Clyde took up his charged hammer, stepped to the metal sphere with the divot facing up, and tapped it lightly with the hammer. Clyde smiled as a all to familiar chime of sound rung out through the air, settling across his skin. And thus the Magecrafting was begun.

[Clyde Sullins]

As Clyde struck the small metal ball with the hammer, more of a light tap in reality, a peal of sound rose upward. A sound far in excess of what such a contact should have created. But then, it was not truly a sound, but a indicator. The same non-sound Clyde heard when Magecrafting, or at least had for quite some time now. It was a side effect of the djed being infused into the object, its reverberation across the outer layer of Clyde's aura. As the two met the disturbance was reported back to Clyde, being interpreted by Clyde's aura sense as a sound. Heading back to the table where the hammers were stowed, Clyde replace the old one, and picked up a freshly charged one. As he returned to the metal ball he focused on Reimancy, on res, on fire discharging forth from him as his res transmuted. With this thought in mind, he struck the object again, infusing the djed with his intent, willing the particular segment of the djed makeup of the object to expand and be enhanced. With another hammer he repeated the process, once more visualizing the process of extruding res, of it transmuting to flame, and of the gust of flame shooting outward. He paused for a moment, in between the echo's of sound, making sure his aim was just right. Clyde tucked his elbow in, changed the cant of the hammer, and made another tap on its side, light enough to not set it rolling. As it struck, another peal rose up, rising as the other notes fell and dimmed. It was as if he was piecing together a concert note by note, making them blend and work in harmony. All in one direction, focused on the ability of the sphere to cast magic, to be a Reimancer, a fire shooter. By itself it did nothing, would do nothing. It would be a fire Reimancer, but would have no ability to cast off that djed, to create flame. But that was what the next step was for. Clyde paused with the next blow, also checking for the pitch, the hue of the colors passing through his ears, the cant of the flow. Normally those descriptive terms did not fit to the words Clyde imagined them as, but when speaking of Auristical senses it was possible for a smell to have a sound, for a sound to have a physical sensation, for a taste to look beautiful. It was like music, but not, for music was limited to ones sense of hearing, and this harmony of djed was expressed in all senses. A high peal of a sweet red note, blended with the cool tang of a blue reverberation. Both echoed, casting off a purple pulse of sour melancholy, and all three melded into a single harmony of notes. Before long Clyde had discharged the held djed in each of the hammers, one by one putting it into the sphere and focusing it towards enhancing it to be a mage, to be a Reimancer, to be able to cast flame. Clyde had been at it for bells, and it was once more time to rest.

[Clyde Sullins]

15 Spring 514 Clyde had spent the last two days working on the metal ball, making it into a Reimancer. A fire Reimancer, which was the same place he himself started at as a Reimancer so long ago as a child in Syliras. He'd always felt closest to fire Reimancy, felt it as the most natural, the freest. But of course often life took one in different directions, and he soon enough learned that fire was not often available for use in Reimancy. Much more often earth was, or if at sea water... Which meant that even though he preferred fire, he was much more often forced to use earth as it was much more commonly available. Perhaps that even meant he was a better earth Reimancer than a fire Reimancer. But Clyde would always recall his humble beginnings as a child fire Reimancer. Now he was on to the next step of enhancement, a step in the behavioral trait, to teach the ball a specific usage of the fire Reimancy. One spell would continuously issue forth from it, a small almost insignificant spell, a simple lamp flame flickering and being birthed upward from the small marking on the top of the ball. Now using his own knowledge of Reimancy, along with Magecrafting, Clyde would need to teach that sphere how to do that spell, wear it into its pathways over and over until it was its default activity. Clyde had thought about how to go about this as he lay in his bed, thought about the best way to teach an artifact. Finally he had decided the best way was to teach by example. He would create the flame from his staff, out of it, holding it in one hand, while the other hand would hold and use the hammer. Stepping up to the ball with staff in one hand, and a charged hammer in the other, Clyde began his magics. A small bit of res began to billow upward from the top tip of his staff, Cha. As it rose an inch, it would then transmute into flame, a easy enough thing at his skill. It hardly even took a noticeable bit of his awareness, more a casual willing of the effect to take place. The bit of himself that was the res knew what had to be done, and could more or less do it for him autonomously. There was a ticks pause, and then a slow steady tight stream of res began to rise from the staff, turning into flame as it rose in a narrow stream. The flame did not look unlike a lamp's flame, both in size and intensity, even in shape. Focusing on this task, Clyde took his hammer, and struck a blow to the metal sphere, infusing the action into the ball. Teaching it by example the behavior it should do. As the peal rung forth, Clyde returned and took up another hammer he had charged earlier, taking a breath as he stood before the ball. Listening to the hum of the peal as it slowly weakened and faded into nothing, Clyde canted the hammer, and inserted the djed once more at a new spot, one that would ring in harmony with the first, that would expand the wave of the sound while embracing it.

[Clyde Sullins]

Continuing his work over bells, Clyde came at the sphere from many different angles. Each blow infused the action Clyde was taking, that of the specific lamp flame spell issuing forth from the top of his staff. Likely it would seem odd if someone were to see Clyde right now, walking about with a flaming stick, or what appeared to be one, but luckily he was not in the common labs anymore. Now he was working in his masters private lab, which was much better in terms of both facilities and resources. Taking up the newly charged hammer, Clyde paused in his work. He was running out of spots to insert djed. He had already done so many, he was having trouble making them blend into harmony. It seemed like this step, the step of teaching the sphere something, took an inordinate amount of small strikes, more so than the lesser number of greater strikes he did when doing other steps. Or perhaps this was simply due to his first time instructing a item into something. He had done behavioral steps before, but never had he done a step of teaching it a specific function or spell. That was when Clyde heard a new note, a odd note rising forth that was a fusion of so many other smaller ones. It was a odd harmony rising up in a crescendo. Clyde grinned at this, and so what it was. Striking again, he angled the hammer so as to shape the rising crescendo of sound and djed into a better shape. Instead of the wave of sound crashing down and petering out, Clyde fed it, fed the rising force. Quickly he returned and brought a new hammer, and did so again, canting the hammer at a new side and angle, and forcing the djed into the rising force of djed, reinforcing it, anchoring it, giving it s firmer foundation. All so that the rising sound could continue, could go on, could become stronger and self sustaining. With a third hammer he struck directly into the path of the upcoming wavefront, carefully calculating the directions and influences. As the two met, they struggled and paused, and then broke apart spinning. As they did, both waves split into many smaller waves, smaller sounds, breaking apart into the composite melody from which they had arisen. It was a small battle, but a battle nonetheless. If a single bit of the djed built up to much in one spot, to a degree that was unhealthy, it could damage the device, or perhaps even destroy it. So it made sense to stop such a buildup, to break it apart and diffuse it. Such a act was almost instinctive. Clyde could sense the budding problem simply by the resonance, the sound it gave off, could see that it was a problem to come. He could also almost by instinct sense the way to react to it, to stop it. This was a odd mix of Auristical skill fueled by knowledge of Magecrafting, both fusing into a greater skill and ability in enchantments. Clyde imagined this would prove useful in the future.

[Clyde Sullins]

16 Spring 514 Today was the last day. On this day Clyde would finish making the artifact. Assuming it worked correctly, it would only require him to set the sphere into the vessel that was the lamp, along with attaching the odd wick/d-wire apparatus, and he would be done. Along with that, the odd setup for transferring the spheres powers had given him other ideas, ideas that perhaps could aid him in other endeavors of duplicating or splitting the effects of such Magecrafted items. The immediate thing that came to mind was that of the Magecrafted light he had made with Anna. But of course that would come in time and with later experiments. Now that he was back to Magecrafting, it was once more time to commence the spell of flame issuing forth from his staff. It took but a directioning of his will, and the res commenced spouting from the staff again, and continued its transmutation into the shape of a lamp flame. Then it was back to his task, hammer and... More hammers. Taking up the charged hammer, Clyde felt for the music of the Magecrafting, sensing out the dull reverberations still coming off of it from the fluid and active djeds of the process. This would remain until the item cooled off. Clyde pondered the sounds for a moment, figuring out where it was best to place a new line of sound into the mix, and then canting his hammer tapped it with a light blow, infusing the djed into the structure of djed pathways. The sound was growing in intensity, even as the less active djed faded into the background. Clyde could tell that this step was almost done, and then he could conclude his work and cool off the item. Pressing onward, Clyde took a new hammer, his staff still in his left hand doing the act of showing the lamp flame to infuse into the ball. Teaching by showing was a good method, and Clyde hoped it would aid in the enchantment, of teaching it to do the needed spell for the lamp flame. Clyde was growing tired of the process, of the repetition, though often it did give unique problems he had to solve, like the earlier buildup of djed in a single spot. That could have been catastrophic if he had not noticed it and broken it up. Giving it one final tap, Clyde heard the sound build into a deep resonance, and knew that it was done. “Now just to cool you off, and we will be done...”

[Clyde Sullins]

Now that Clyde was done, he cut off the djed to the spell his staff was making, and returned the hammer. Then with his free hand, he picked up the sphere of steel. Letting out a sigh, he pulled it from the pedestal. He was done, and so now it could be taken off of it. Luckily for him there were several prepared basins for cooling off items, and Clyde chose one of the smaller ones that were prepared beforehand. Dropping it into the basin of charged waters, Clyde watched as it boiled and frothed. This represented the final step of Magecrafting, and when it was done he would know if the item had worked correctly. He had yet to fail in enchanting an item, but he suppose it could happen some day. But with all the precautions he took, along with the high level Glyphs made specifically for Magecrafting, he did not think it was likely. Particularly with such a low level item. --- Later in the day Several bells had passed since Clyde had dropped the ball into the basin, and the water had all but stilled in the last few chimes. Clyde waited until no bubbles had risen for several additional chimes, before moving to remove the sphere. However before he could take it out, a stream of bubbles began to rise form the water. It took Clyde a moment to realize why, as he saw the distortion just above the sphere. It had began to produce the spell, and as such was creating flame inside of the water. It was heating up the water, since it could not diffuse the flame properly! Moving to take out the ball before all of the water heated, Clyde moved his hand into the water, carefully grabbing the sphere from below, and keeping out of the path of the rising jet of bubbling hot water. As it broke the surface, there was a few moments as the water steamed off of it, and then the lamp flame broke out above it. Setting it down on a table, Clyde examined it. It seemed to be working fine, as the small lamp flame formed just above it. The flame appeared just as Clyde's demonstrated one did, which was a copy of the lamp flame in the other artifact. Next he had to place the wick on. He wrapped around it a short length of d-wire, so that one end would be in contact with the divot from which the res rose, and the other end would be at the top of the wick, pointing upward. Then he sidled the metal wick up to the sphere, catching it at an angle. The res rose a inch or so before transmuting to flame. This meant that if Clyde could press in the bit of metal below where the flame occurred, the res would stream up the thing and the d-wire, and come out the top before transmuting above it. As he pressed the wick on, there was a moments pause. Then the res rose out of it, and began to issue forth as flame a inch above it. Using this opportunity, Clyde pressed the wick into the slot of the divot which was made to hold the wick, holding it upright. The wick slid into the slot, and held firm, and continued to issue forth the res and flame. Now Clyde simply slid the united bits of metal into the lamp in the oil reservoir, put the pieces back together, and was left with a lamp burning without oil. Setting it besides the first artifact, Clyde took out a piece of parchment, and wrote out the steps he had placed upon it to make it mimic the first. A step of magic to give it Reimancy, fire, a step of behavioral enhancement to give it the behavior of the specific lamp flame's spell. He also noted that only the metal sphere inside was Magecrafted, which meant the lamp itself was only a vessel, and one that could be exchanged out should it be damaged or a outdated. With that Clyde was done, and set aside his things, except for Cha. That stayed with him. Feeling even closer to the staff, after doing all of the magic he had just down with it, he passed back to his quarters for another rest.

[Shai]

However hopeless the situation appears to be There yet always exists the possibility of putting up a stubborn resistance Clyde : Auristics 3 Glyphing 1 Magecrafting 4 Observation 1 Planning 1 Magecrafting: The Ever-Flame Lamp Enchanting Only the Necessities in a Project Cha The Staff: Growing Closer Check : If there are any concerns with my grading please feel free to toss me a PM. I am more than happy to explain my reasons or reevaluate them if you feel I've been unfair.