The weather was, as it had been since his arrival, muggy, foggy, and generally uncomfortable in terms of temperature. Zeltiva grew warm in the summers, but there was typically sun to allow for one to feel as though the heat was warranted. Sahova, however, was a sauna of epic proportions. He'd been on the island for several weeks at that point, but the heat was still something he was unused to. Fire had not been his elemental attribute for a very good reason: Keene was a creature of the cold. While not entirely unaccustomed to sweating, Sahova had magnified Keene's idea of "sweating" to an entirely new level. Even in the warm summers of his home city, Keene had never been drenched by the work of his own body in its attempt to relieve itself of its imbalance in relationship to the environment. Now, however, his shirt was soaked from the journey down from the citadel into the Testing Grounds. It took fifteen chime to get to the edge of the Prairie, and fourteen of those chimes were spent in moist agony.
Sitting down at the edge of the barren expanse, Keene wriggled out of his shirt, the saturated fabric clinging to his skin in a vain attempt to remain upon his person. Dropping the useless fabric with a wet plop beside him, Keene felt a rush of relief for a few ticks before the air around him seemed to take over what he'd imagined the shirt's role had been, warming him far past his optimal point of comfort. Sighing, Keene leaned forward, rubbing the sweat out of his eyes. There was a dull stinging sensation from where the beads of liquid had pooled at the corners of his eyes and seeped in. The motion did little to remove the perspiration from his face, as his hands were only slightly less damp. Blinking back another trickle of sweat, Keene pushed himself to his feet, stooping down to gather up his shirt, stuffing some of it into the back of his pants so as not to lose it.
Stepping onto the dull, empty dust of the prairie, Keene kept his eyes peeled for the hidden glyph. The last time he'd been down to the Testing Grounds, he and Boswell had found a handle of explosive areas that, had they been stepped upon, would have removed half or more of their mass in a most unpleasant manner. The holes from their previous expedition were still there, though Keene was only able to pick out the first two, as wherever the rest were blended into the blighted landscape flawlessly (or perhaps "flawdly" along the pockmarked land). With little to deter him from making use of the wide, empty expanse of land, Keene strode out farther, allowing for several yards of space in every direction. Another quick inspection of the earth in each direction put Keene's worries over the potential for meeting a fiery end at ease.
Focusing his attention inward, Keene drew upon his res, feeling it bubble and shift within the greater framework of his Djed. The tingling sensation of res dripping from the tips of his fingers sent a small shiver down Keene's spine. The sensation was unlike any other: a soft tinge of excitement mixed with anticipation and power. His magic's lifeblood - and an extension of his own - had a bluish tint to it. Initially he'd figured res took on the color of the element he intended to transmute, but Mella had told him that theory was ridiculous. According to her, res was the physical manifestation of will. Keene found her explanation to be as ridiculous as his own, and thus had kept on with his own beliefs regarding his res. The soft, translucent blue liquid that floated about him in little marbles slowly revolved around his person. The gentle shine illuminating the sheen of sweat on Keene's diminutive frame, the light shifting with the swirl of the res.
Twitching his fingers to better help him guide the marbles of res to eye level, Keene closed his left eye, taking aim by extending his arm out in front of him, his pointer extended while the others remained curled in his palm. The marbles quivered, slowly shrinking the longer they were exposed to the outside elements. With a sharp inhale of breath, Keene launched the first sphere with as much speed as he could muster. It traveled relatively straight along his line of vision, slanting slightly to the right, before it rapidly shrank into a small puff of bluish dust. Keene expressed his frustration at his failure to quickly transmute the res with a sharp click of his tongue. Flicking his eyes to the handful of remaining marbles, Keene decided it was inefficient to simply keep them outside of his body for so long without doing anything. Disregarding transmutation, Keene shot off the little spheres in quick succession, little blue puffs of smoke all appearing in the same general area he was aiming towards, though two managed to veer a sharp left, dissipating a good distance off from the mark.
Lowering his arm and flexing his fingers, Keene readied another marble of res, it's surface just barely touching his fingerprint. Raising his arm once more into the same position as before, Keene launched the res once more, this time shifting the property of the glimmering liquid into a compact ball of water. Retaining its shape up until the point where the previous balls of res and poof-ed into nothingness, the water continued, though as it traveled the ball elongated into a stream that eventually fell harmlessly against the water-starved ground where it was quickly sucked up by the thirsty earth. Five more orbs formed, each at the end of one of his fingers. Using the motion of flicking, Keene projected the balls of res once more. Two of the spheres shot towards the intended point, while two of the others were launched directly into the ground below him (the final marble shot off in a straight line left of the perpendicular, as the thumb proved to be a difficult finger to aim without readjusting the position of his hand). Of the two that hit the mark, only one was changed to water in time. The res that had fallen to the ground was transmuted into a small puddle of water before disappearing into the earth, while the final marble shot out of Keene's influence too fast to be affected by anything other than the initial launch.
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