Solo Kasai Yaq

[Malefic]

Winter 23rd 514 AV Malefic found himself at The Great Library, strolling about the sections and drooling over all the blessed knowledge available to simply take at will. If it were up to Malefic, he'd simply begin to hoard all of the books and spend all his time reading through them. Magic, skill, and vital knowledge were imprisoned within each volume along the shelves. If only he had enough time and power to release them into his mind, where they would remain happily. After staring at the shelf for a whole 4 chimes, he snapped his attention back to reality. His dreams would have to wait. Right now he was to study on the discipline of Glyphing, in order to further the effectiveness of his future maledictions. A nearby Catalog Golem was waiting patiently for him. Malefic gave it orders. "Bring me two different volumes on the lowest level of Glyphing and a volume of broader, lower level, Glyphing. Oh, and while your at it, fetch me a volume on the highest level of Glyphing available to me." After a moment or two of "thinking," the golem responded. "Currently, none of the master level Glyphing volumes are present within the library. They have been requested from various mages and are therefore unavailable. I shall retrieve the requested volumes now, unless is there anything further you wish to inquire of?" Mal frowned slightly but gave the affirmation necessary to send the golem to fetch his tomes. A small while later, it returned with 3 volumes in tow. Wordlessly, he grabbed the cargo and began to lug it over to his section of Master Tieh's laboratory. Once there, he found a desk to rest all his study materials, dropping them with a satisfying thud. After seating himself, Malefic slid the first of the entry level tomes off the pile and onto the area of the desk in front of him. With a smile across his lips, he turned the cover and began to delve for ecstasy. As usual, the first few pages contained a table of contents followed by an introductory paragraph to the subject of Glyphing and it's uses. Malefic read it carefully, taking the time to engrave the information into his memory. "Glyphing is the art of, through symbols and written form, manipulating magic and djed of various types and forms. Many great wizards have learn't Glyphing as a supplement to help control and adjust other magics learnt in parallel..." He read on, noting the interestingly well written format of the book. He was used to journals and logs, or some variation of the sort. However, this was a structured and planned volume clearly meant for beginners. After reading a few more paragraphs, Malefic discovered how commonly glyphing is used alongside other magics. His somewhat-rotting fingers turned the page over. An basic illustration was drawn there, with labels which identified what each part of the picture was. It was here that he learnt about the basic types of glyphing components. Quickly Mal sprung to his feet and ambled away to grab himself a few pieces of parchment and a writing feather before shuffling back to his seat. After flattening one of the scraps of parchment, he dabbed the tip of the writing feather in a conveniently placed ink well. As carefully as he could, he examined the illustrated glyph and attempted to copy it over to the writing parchment in front of him. Though his dead hands trembled slightly, his drawing ability was inexperienced, and his methods flawed, Malefic urged himself to continue trying to replicate the illustration. One after another, he drew horribly misconstrued versions of the glyph on the page. Mal went on and on and on, slowing himself down over time and increasing his concentration and memorization of the glyph. However, even after his many attempts, he felt something was missing. He turned his eyes from the illustration, to the drawing, and then back to the illustration. They did, in fact, match relatively well, but Malefic simply didn't feel satisfied for some reason. In the end, Mal decided to read over the introductory pages and labeling once more. He noticed a single line within the tutorial. "Glyphs drawn by different mages may appear vastly different in appearance, however, wizards can instinctively know their meaning. Glyphs can..." This clicked rather well for Malefic, and as he looked back at his copied glyph, he realized it didn't have anything of his within it. Suddenly it struck Malefic in full force: he didn't know the true meaning or purpose of the glyph. Well, he understood what it was supposed to do, just not it's true meaning. It was a simple formation of... what was it... Focus and Barrier, with a simple trigger to release the barrier. But, Mal didn't feel what it meant. When copying the words, he'd focused purely on appearance, not on it's purpose. Appearance didn't quite matter as much as the message and action that it contained. But Malefic needed to be sure. His own (unfortunately, regrettably, grievously) unlearned mind wasn't reliable enough. So he raised his eyes from his study, and stood from his chair, strolling about the large laboratory. As he walked, Vidar allowed his eyes to stray to the other mages' work, scanning their general task as he past. One was drawing up a few arithmatics on void portal sizes, another reading from a reimancy journal, and another was constructing some sort of gadget. Mal guessed it was a golem. He continued on until his eyes settled on his sought-out quarry: an experienced apprentice drawing out a glyph. Vidar hobbled over behind the apprentice, staring over his shoulder at the glyph being written. This particular one seemed very circularly oriented. Most of the corners had been smoothed out to a curve, leaving only a few sharply angled sections closer towards the center of the art, what Mal assumed was the Focus. The apprentice was not using any form of guide. Other than the few instances of "pechi" and "kasai" (which Mal made a mental note of), everything seemed improvised. After a short while, the apprentice glypher stopped and turned to Malefic, an expression of annoyance stamped across his face. "You're distracting me, go away." "Do you use no guide to create these glyphs? Why is it that your glyphs are different from those written in the books?" Vidar asked, choosing to ignore the apprentice's remark. The glypher sighed, and wiped a small amount of embalming fluid off of his cheek. "There is no 'guide' for glyphing. Not really. As long as you know what you're creating, what it's supposed to do, and are not a fool, it will most likely work." He turned back to his work. "Now leave me be, or the master will have my head for not finishing this..." So Malefic returned to his study, this time with a new mindset. Tearing up the previous attempts, he placed down a new sheet. And at it he went, using his imagination and instinct to forge an image which meant something to him personally. As he thought of focus he drew a variety of symbols all seeming to funnel into a circle small star in the center. The shapes which represented the focus all tended to be very jagged, being far thicker far away from the center than the parts closer to the apex of the glyph. Afterwards he inscribed the words he felt most appropriate for a focus: "yomi-ranuri" (or "precious desire"}. As he wrote these words in his native language, he believed that his own desire and curiosity is what made him stronger, and ever growing stronger. It was only natural for his work to inherit this quality. Without skipping a beat he began to work on what he recalled was called the "barrier." When drawing this, all he could think of were mountain ranges, so vast and titanic in size it dwarfed all but the gods and the sea. So as he began to express the barrier around the focus, he drew jagged, pointy, wide, and large shapes across the outside of the focus. Though they resembled mountains, the pointier sides were emphasized towards the inside, sort of like a column of spears fending back the focus. He left a few minor spaces to write the most obvious incantation of Nader Canoach for a barrier: "korad." Next, after quickly doing a small amount of research into the trigger, he began to draw a wedge-like shape that was piercing the circle representing the barrier. The wedge would have the scripture of "Dala korad release." With these, he hoped that the trigger would work. He intended for the word "release" to be uttered, shattering the barrier and unleashing whatever force was sealed inside the focus. He prayed to Eyris that the glyph would work as planned. Then, with faith, he let it go. After he was finished, he took a step back to check out how grand the glyph would be after it had been completed. He beheld the glory of the magnificent art in front of him. It resembled something akin to a frustrated toddler's scribbles assembled into a rather vague, obtuse shape. Malefic's disappointment was at an all-time high. He inhaled air into his lungs simply to heave a massive sigh. Well, learning is a process. Before long, I will be masterfully sculpting the best of glyphs. Patience is key. With that, he quested around the shop to seek out someone willing to try storing power in Vidar's first glyph. He was optimistic, but only within reason.