Season of Spring; Day 5, 510 A.V.
Even the lowliest konti seer had at her command mystical powers of perception that was the envy of many wizards. Kamalia possessed both the gift of Avalis and the Seer’s Lily, the gnosis of Divination. She honed both of these talents with great care, for the power of Sight was not for those who did not bear the will of iron and the resolve of steel. From time to time, the konti seer practiced a different kind of perception and detection magic apart from her goddess-given instincts—a discipline which dealt with auras rather than truth and fate: Auristics.
The arcane art of Auristics was the least trained discipline in her magical arsenal. Kamalia had relied primarily on Divination and her innate gifts to unravel untruths and gather information. So confident was she in her powers of sight that she did not think to employ auristics to assist her when the situation called for it. Kamalia learned it the hard way that while Divination and her sensory gifts could reveal a great deal of things, there were some things that could only be uncovered by arcane sorcery rather than divine. Among the many things that auristics could detect was magical activity. Aurists had the ability to distinguish between a mage and a commoner. Some wizards were adept at fashioning spell-crafted traps that brought considerable danger to the unwary. The konti reimancer did not relish the thought of stumbling into an exploding glyph for not being able to perceive it.
Since leaving her home city, Kamalia had noticed that her eyes were becoming more and more attuned to the nuances of power. The Konti Isle was permeated with magic. It was home to gods and was swathed in the transforming mystical powers of the Silver Lake. She could no more see magic here than she could see the color black in Mura. Magic was hardly unknown to Zeltiva for there were students of high sorcery here, but it was comparatively rare, and Kamalia was finding that she could sense its occurrence and gauge its power.
Kamalia would have afforded the services of a wizard teacher, Professor Stonemiller, but the konti was saving what little gold mizas she had left in her possession to prepare for her journey to the citadel of the undead, Sahova. And so, she took advantage of the Wright Library’s wealth of knowledge as a clandestine student at night. This late evening, most of the students had already left the library and returned to their dormitories. The konti smiled at herself, savoring the silence.
Drawing her veils and robes around her, Kamalia seated on one of the low upholstered couches that formed a half-ring near the fireplace. The beams of moonlight filtered down from a glass-covered portal to catch in her twilight violet eyes. Piles of books were scattered about her couch as she softly rehearsed incantations in the Ancient Tongue that would help her enter the correct state of mind to cast magic.
When the silver-haired sorceress felt she was ready, she shut off the sounds of the library—the crackling flames of the fireplace, the soft footfalls of the scholars, of pages being flipped, and the hushed murmurs of the librarians. She sat comfortably on the cushion but kept her back straight, which was a posture that would help her relax while meditating, but prevent her from falling asleep. Her eyes were half-open, her shoulders relaxed, and her pale hands rested on her lap. Meditation required patience, and it took some time before she was able to purge her mind of any thought and emotion. These short meditation sessions served as her silent, sacred reverie, one that cleansed her mind and quelled the chances of overgiving. She swept her mind clean and focused solely on her breathing. Kamalia accessed her inner calm and infused her soul with peace. In a matter of chimes, the konti was prepared to perform her auristics training exercises.
The first magical exercise was a simple application of auristics to see through solid objects--internal structure. Given Kamalia’s skill level, it would only reveal the most basic facts. The konti positioned two small porcelain teacups on a round rosewood table right in front of her couch. One teacup was half-filled with Lhavitian brick tea, while the other remained empty. It was an easy enough task for any experienced aurist such as Stitch of the Welcome Home, but one that demanded all of a neophyte’s concentration. The konti focused on the vacant teacup first, narrowing her attention to it, and eliminating everything else in the periphery of her vision. The novice practitioner commanded the magic to course through her temple, and through sheer willpower, directed the eldritch energy to her eyeballs. She continued doing this for ten chimes until her sight could finally make out the subtle nuances and ebbs around the small teacup. Its aura was faint and dimmed for it was only a mundane object, but the distortions around it were hard to miss. Kamalia could faintly feel, rather than see, the emptiness inside the cup, having no content at all.
Releasing her focus from the empty cup, Kamalia shifted her concentration to the porcelain half-filled with simmering green tea. Again, the auristics novice willed her djed to synchronize her mind with the aura of the teacup to perceive its characteristics. For a few chimes, she focused all her attention on it, patiently and diligently, until its auric field became faintly discernible. Kamalia once again began to sense the vessel’s contents. This time, she could so slightly “feel” the metaphysical swirl of the volume of the liquid inside the container. She paid close attention to the aura’s movements for several moments before moving on to the next exercise.
The konti still focused her entire attention on the half-filled cup. The more chimes she spent deciphering the aura, the more details of the tea surfaced in her vision. The konti first concentrated on the tea’s smell, which was the most perceptible characteristic, and found out that she could smell several tones of jasmine accentuated with fragrant herbs. She had not imagined this possible, being able to clearly distinguish the tea’s myriad of scents, something which she could not otherwise achieve using only her physical nose. The next auristic perception the konti sharpened was the kinetic sense. Through merely djed, Kamalia psychically “felt” the texture and temperature of the liquid. Her magical tacitation received that the liquid was silky and warm. She focused on the sensations for several moments, feeling the warmth and consistency, before she centred on the gustatory sense of aura-reading. Now tasting without employing your tongue was a tricky thing. The konti doubled her efforts until her receptors caught the taste of the Lhavitian brick tea, its aura showing verdant colours. She could sense the tea was refreshingly sweet and delicate, with just the right amount of bitter tang. Again, the konti took a few moments to practice her auristic gustation, as if she were testing her taste buds.
The third magical exercise was the most difficult and taxing: sensing magical activity. Back in the Konti Isle, magic was rife. There was Vision Water everywhere, which were rumoured to be tears of a god, and made visions more lucid and accurate. Her flask of Vision Water was with Gromhir at the moment, so the sorceress would need to improvise. Not that she was averse to doing it— far from it! The reimancer smiled.
The konti closed her eyes and began the concentration that such spell demanded. The sorceress started to hum a siren song, soulful and serene, in Nader-Canoch. As she sung, her fingers gracefully fluttered in the air and weaved complex gestures in complete precision to aid her in manipulating djed. Magic coursed through her veins and raced through her fingers, and the feeling was electrifying, exhilarating. Silvery res in liquid form sprung from her palms, shaping into a silver orb. Kamalia’s hands cupped around the sphere of magic as her soprano voice rose in power. The wizard flung her hands and released the contained magic. She manoeuvred the ball of res into the empty cup and made it spun inside. When the silent song ended in a keening note, the spinning sphere of res transformed into water and filled the teacup to the rim.
While it may look like ordinary water, Kamalia knew that its properties were magical and was suitable for the last exercise. The konti smiled as she admired her spellcraft.
Kamalia focused her full attention to the teacup brimmed with reimancy water. Since it was an advanced power, the konti doubled the djed consumption in order to synchronize her mind with the aura of the conjured water. Pain stung the konti’s forehead for overloading her senses, but she continued nonetheless. In a few moments, Kamalia’s eyes began to see the silvery distortion around the porcelain cup. Her lips curved into a triumphant smile as she observed its properties.
When her auristics training session was done, Kamalia dutifully recorded her exercise results and progress as a wizard in a leather-bound book. She did not notice how quickly time flew. The new day drew near, and the sounds of the early risers drifted into the library. Kamalia ‘s smile widened, staring at her neatly-written journal entry. At the end of the entry, inscribed in elegant Kontinese script, was written,
The arcane art of Auristics was the least trained discipline in her magical arsenal. Kamalia had relied primarily on Divination and her innate gifts to unravel untruths and gather information. So confident was she in her powers of sight that she did not think to employ auristics to assist her when the situation called for it. Kamalia learned it the hard way that while Divination and her sensory gifts could reveal a great deal of things, there were some things that could only be uncovered by arcane sorcery rather than divine. Among the many things that auristics could detect was magical activity. Aurists had the ability to distinguish between a mage and a commoner. Some wizards were adept at fashioning spell-crafted traps that brought considerable danger to the unwary. The konti reimancer did not relish the thought of stumbling into an exploding glyph for not being able to perceive it.
Since leaving her home city, Kamalia had noticed that her eyes were becoming more and more attuned to the nuances of power. The Konti Isle was permeated with magic. It was home to gods and was swathed in the transforming mystical powers of the Silver Lake. She could no more see magic here than she could see the color black in Mura. Magic was hardly unknown to Zeltiva for there were students of high sorcery here, but it was comparatively rare, and Kamalia was finding that she could sense its occurrence and gauge its power.
Kamalia would have afforded the services of a wizard teacher, Professor Stonemiller, but the konti was saving what little gold mizas she had left in her possession to prepare for her journey to the citadel of the undead, Sahova. And so, she took advantage of the Wright Library’s wealth of knowledge as a clandestine student at night. This late evening, most of the students had already left the library and returned to their dormitories. The konti smiled at herself, savoring the silence.
Drawing her veils and robes around her, Kamalia seated on one of the low upholstered couches that formed a half-ring near the fireplace. The beams of moonlight filtered down from a glass-covered portal to catch in her twilight violet eyes. Piles of books were scattered about her couch as she softly rehearsed incantations in the Ancient Tongue that would help her enter the correct state of mind to cast magic.
When the silver-haired sorceress felt she was ready, she shut off the sounds of the library—the crackling flames of the fireplace, the soft footfalls of the scholars, of pages being flipped, and the hushed murmurs of the librarians. She sat comfortably on the cushion but kept her back straight, which was a posture that would help her relax while meditating, but prevent her from falling asleep. Her eyes were half-open, her shoulders relaxed, and her pale hands rested on her lap. Meditation required patience, and it took some time before she was able to purge her mind of any thought and emotion. These short meditation sessions served as her silent, sacred reverie, one that cleansed her mind and quelled the chances of overgiving. She swept her mind clean and focused solely on her breathing. Kamalia accessed her inner calm and infused her soul with peace. In a matter of chimes, the konti was prepared to perform her auristics training exercises.
| Exerceo 1 • Internal structure. Auras can be perceived even through other objects covering them (unless they are made of special antimagic materials). As such, they can be used as some sort of much weaker see-through vision. Clothes are relatively simple to bypass, but walls pose a bigger challenge, depending on their thickness. Still, the Aurist might be able to know that there was a person waiting on the other side of a door and thus avoid an ambush. |
The first magical exercise was a simple application of auristics to see through solid objects--internal structure. Given Kamalia’s skill level, it would only reveal the most basic facts. The konti positioned two small porcelain teacups on a round rosewood table right in front of her couch. One teacup was half-filled with Lhavitian brick tea, while the other remained empty. It was an easy enough task for any experienced aurist such as Stitch of the Welcome Home, but one that demanded all of a neophyte’s concentration. The konti focused on the vacant teacup first, narrowing her attention to it, and eliminating everything else in the periphery of her vision. The novice practitioner commanded the magic to course through her temple, and through sheer willpower, directed the eldritch energy to her eyeballs. She continued doing this for ten chimes until her sight could finally make out the subtle nuances and ebbs around the small teacup. Its aura was faint and dimmed for it was only a mundane object, but the distortions around it were hard to miss. Kamalia could faintly feel, rather than see, the emptiness inside the cup, having no content at all.
Releasing her focus from the empty cup, Kamalia shifted her concentration to the porcelain half-filled with simmering green tea. Again, the auristics novice willed her djed to synchronize her mind with the aura of the teacup to perceive its characteristics. For a few chimes, she focused all her attention on it, patiently and diligently, until its auric field became faintly discernible. Kamalia once again began to sense the vessel’s contents. This time, she could so slightly “feel” the metaphysical swirl of the volume of the liquid inside the container. She paid close attention to the aura’s movements for several moments before moving on to the next exercise.
| “Exerceo 2 • Physical properties. For the Aurist, physical properties are the easiest to perceive through merely focusing on the subject. The aura acts as a proxy for the wizard's five senses. The practitioner can discern if a man has a fever, or what a food would taste like if consumed.” |
The konti still focused her entire attention on the half-filled cup. The more chimes she spent deciphering the aura, the more details of the tea surfaced in her vision. The konti first concentrated on the tea’s smell, which was the most perceptible characteristic, and found out that she could smell several tones of jasmine accentuated with fragrant herbs. She had not imagined this possible, being able to clearly distinguish the tea’s myriad of scents, something which she could not otherwise achieve using only her physical nose. The next auristic perception the konti sharpened was the kinetic sense. Through merely djed, Kamalia psychically “felt” the texture and temperature of the liquid. Her magical tacitation received that the liquid was silky and warm. She focused on the sensations for several moments, feeling the warmth and consistency, before she centred on the gustatory sense of aura-reading. Now tasting without employing your tongue was a tricky thing. The konti doubled her efforts until her receptors caught the taste of the Lhavitian brick tea, its aura showing verdant colours. She could sense the tea was refreshingly sweet and delicate, with just the right amount of bitter tang. Again, the konti took a few moments to practice her auristic gustation, as if she were testing her taste buds.
The third magical exercise was the most difficult and taxing: sensing magical activity. Back in the Konti Isle, magic was rife. There was Vision Water everywhere, which were rumoured to be tears of a god, and made visions more lucid and accurate. Her flask of Vision Water was with Gromhir at the moment, so the sorceress would need to improvise. Not that she was averse to doing it— far from it! The reimancer smiled.
The konti closed her eyes and began the concentration that such spell demanded. The sorceress started to hum a siren song, soulful and serene, in Nader-Canoch. As she sung, her fingers gracefully fluttered in the air and weaved complex gestures in complete precision to aid her in manipulating djed. Magic coursed through her veins and raced through her fingers, and the feeling was electrifying, exhilarating. Silvery res in liquid form sprung from her palms, shaping into a silver orb. Kamalia’s hands cupped around the sphere of magic as her soprano voice rose in power. The wizard flung her hands and released the contained magic. She manoeuvred the ball of res into the empty cup and made it spun inside. When the silent song ended in a keening note, the spinning sphere of res transformed into water and filled the teacup to the rim.
While it may look like ordinary water, Kamalia knew that its properties were magical and was suitable for the last exercise. The konti smiled as she admired her spellcraft.
| Exerceo 3 • Magical activity. While all wizards have a basic sixth sense when it comes to magic, an Aurist is the most apt at detecting hidden spells, magical traps, as well as identifying items imbued with magic. |
Kamalia focused her full attention to the teacup brimmed with reimancy water. Since it was an advanced power, the konti doubled the djed consumption in order to synchronize her mind with the aura of the conjured water. Pain stung the konti’s forehead for overloading her senses, but she continued nonetheless. In a few moments, Kamalia’s eyes began to see the silvery distortion around the porcelain cup. Her lips curved into a triumphant smile as she observed its properties.
When her auristics training session was done, Kamalia dutifully recorded her exercise results and progress as a wizard in a leather-bound book. She did not notice how quickly time flew. The new day drew near, and the sounds of the early risers drifted into the library. Kamalia ‘s smile widened, staring at her neatly-written journal entry. At the end of the entry, inscribed in elegant Kontinese script, was written,
"I Love Magic."
-Fin-
