[Sullin's Residence]A Twisting of a Turning[Xii]

by **Clyde Sullins** on April 19th, 2015, 11:31 pm

13 Spring 515

Clyde had long ago learned that when he was practicing a new magic, one needed to get into the right state of mind before casting.

Later such things became instinctive and easy, more of a willing and a direct action. For instance if he wished to use Reimancy right now, it would be as simple as truly willing for it to occur, for it to come into existence, and it would.

He was no where near that point with his morphing. Trying to get to the right state of mind, the state of detachment and disconnect from his own body was not a quick thing.

He also wasn't fully certain what he should attempt. When he'd last spoke to Xii she'd stated a desire to attempt to copy Rye, his dog. But Clyde didn't fell there yet, as he glanced quickly at the dog resting at his side.

From his spot on the floor in the middle of his common room, Clyde instead brought his gaze down to Cha firmly gripped in his hand. Cha and her living wooden touch... Wood was a living thing. If he could alter his form, surely he could take on the properties of wood? Of Cha?

It made a logical sense, being that Cha was a Magic Staff, and the reason she functioned and was able to hold and be a conduit for personal magic was her living state. So surely then if he cold affect her with morphing, he could affect himself with a facsimile of her.

His goal for the day was to learn to use morphing through Cha, to flow it through her and perhaps even morph Cha herself. But perhaps a good first step to that would be to try and take on some of her form, even if only at skin level.

Besides, he reasoned to himself, he didn't have anything else to do while he waited for Xii to arrive.

While he waited, he began the first step of the process, clearing his mind through meditation. Taking in a deep breath, then holding it, Clyde made his breathing even and rhythmic, controlled. He pictured his body in his mind, and then pictured that body being carried away by his breath, focusing on the image of his body fading away and leaving only his magic and soul behind.

Once he was totally gone, he pictured his body reforming, but not as his body but as a body, a thing, sitting before him and his inner form. A outer body separate that could be molded and shaped.

by **Xii** on April 20th, 2015, 5:44 pm

Xii had been considering her morphing the past few days. She'd decided that since she was actually going to use a model, it would be best to learn to morph specific shapes, like Sullins had said. Before she had only just messed around with her abilities, picking and choosing what she wanted to do as she went. Maybe that was part of the reason why she often overgave... because she had no specific end-point in mind. Having a model would make this easier. She would learn Rye's form bit by bit ~though it might be hard without being able to see inside him~ and try to morph in a more specific manner.

The girl bustled through the streets as she approached Sullins' house. It took a long time to get anywhere in the city by walking, and sometimes it was near downright impossible to get to certain buildings... but she still didn't trust the ravosalas. It would be easy to get kidnapped by one of them. Especially since she couldn't jump out and swim away. So for now, until she figured out what to do about her citizenship, she'd try her best not to board one alone.

Finally she came to the right place, after much ducking and twisting through alleys and walkways and over bridges, and hurried up to the door. She raised a hand and knocked, then didn't wait but tugged on the handle to get in, feeling ill at ease as if someone was watching her, and perhaps someone was. If it was locked she'd stand outside, impatient, until the door was answered. If not, she'd let herself in, finding Sullins, Cha, and Rye just inside the front room, sitting on the floor.

Since Sullins looked like he was doing something ~meditating~ the girl would shut the door behind her and then find her own place on the floor, on the other side of Rye if the big black dog allowed. She needed to be near to the dog to study him properly... though she wasn't certain how far she'd be able to get if he didn't allow her to touch him. Once seated, Xii would set her backpack aside ~once more taking out her journal and charcoal~ and shrug off her little red coat, pushing it behind her on the floor.

If Sullins acknowledged her presence, she'd say, "Hello again. How goes things?" She wondered if he might have practiced in the couple of days that she had been away, and hoped not. She didn't want him catching up to her so easily. Not since he already had so much power in comparison. If he did catch up, he might not think she was useful anymore.

Afterwards, she would motion to Rye and ask, "You said I could hypnotize Rye to make him like me, but I don't know if I should if we're also going to practice morphing. So if I try to touch him without first using hypnotism, will he bite?" She was planning on writing down a process, maybe, to follow, as well as going to try to draw what Rye's paw looked like... since she was going to start with his paw and then go from there if she was able. While she waited, she also removed the carefully-wrapped little mirror from its place in her backpack, since she'd likely need it. Tucked carefully against it were the pieces of parchment that Sullins had requested when they'd last parted, which she'd had to buy earlier that day. Now she took them ~three in total~ and held them out towards him, curious what they might be for. It would be worth the cost if it meant seeing Sullins work some other form of magic that she might someday learn.
receipt3 pieces of parchment -2 sm(x3)
= -6 sm

by **Clyde Sullins** on April 20th, 2015, 8:17 pm

Clyde noticed the knock at the door, in a detached sort of way, a sound heard by his outerbody, but did not respond. He tended to keep the front door locked, as there wasn't really anything he needed to keep people out of in the front room.

As expected the door opened on it own, and the person came inside. Taking a short break from his meditation, Clyde cracked his eyes, seeing that it was indeed Xii who'd arrived.

Rye let out a quick growl as the girl arrived, but Clyde silenced it was a strict utterance of the dogs name. He knew Clyde as his master, and obeyed, silencing his growl but still eying the girl.

Though Clyde heard her question, he did not answer it. He was not one for idle chatter, or prattle without substance that usually served as a greeting. Instead he just glared at her for a moment in annoyance, before closing his eyes once more.

Likely his response to her greeting would make Clyde's response clear enough.

The next question, an actual question, Clyde did respond to, opening his eyes and taking a slow even breath before he spoke. He tried to keep himself calm and focused, to keep out the unneeded external things, but it was not such an easy thing to do.

“I think the more important question is, if you do hypnotize him, would that truly change anything? Would a single session of hypnotism, whatever you do that is within your current ability, be enough to turn an angry dog into a calm and submissive puppy? That's an actual question, as I've no idea, I don't know that much of hypnotism. I don't doubt it might be possible with the magic, but I don't know if you could do it right now as you are.”

“As it is, I doubt he'd attack if you neared him, but I'm unsure how he'd react to you touching him. He might see it as an assault. I'm unsure. He's been trained to follow my orders, and to protect me, but he is still an animal. I can't be sure then how he'll react or see things.”

Clyde paused here, letting what he'd said sink in. While he didn't know too much of hypnotism, he did understand magic and logic, and so he knew the value of posing such a question to her.

“Regardless, if you plan to use morphing, even if it is possible to do as you'd said, I don't think it would be wise to first strain yourself with hypnotism and then attempt said morphing. One or the other would likely be wiser. Which you do is up to you, though I think you'd be better served focusing on the one magic till you attain a greater level of proficiency than what you've demonstrated so far.”

“Although perhaps even if you don't do the magic, you could explain how you plan to make the dog like you, what spells you'd use, what you'd impress upon him and do exactly with hypnotism, and perhaps I could help you work on the plan itself of how you'd do it. Planning is a good first step before action, and working on the plan itself couldn't hurt.”

“Although I'd also ask why you feel the need to touch Rye. Perhaps that is a better question, than asking what would happen if you touched him, wouldn't it? If the question itself is invalid, then its answer is just as pointless. So why specifically do you need to touch him?”

Clyde took the proffered pieces of parchment, and set them down beside himself, and then reached into his own pack that was sitting off to the side of him, and took out a bottle of ink and a quill.

Setting out two of the pieces of parchment side by side, Clyde whetted his quill and set to work. His plan was rather simple, to make a pair of scrolls, focus-barrier-trigger, into which he could store magic. He had one idea for his own use, storing some morphing, which he'd likely have Xii fill. The other he was considering filling with his own Auristics, perhaps building the spell within Cha, storing it in her, and releasing it directly into the scroll. He'd yet to try it, but it would be a good time to test such a method out.

If Xii hoped to learn something from his work, she would likely be disappointed. Such a simple task for someone as skilled in Glyphing as Clyde was took but a matter of moments. In a flash of motion Clyde filled out both scrolls. The focus was his oft used sun, a circle with a waving line about it touching and weaving up and done, all one glyph. About it was a barrier, a twined helixing series of snakelike lines curving all the way around the focus, with a series of dots taking up each of the low point on either side. Finally the trigger, a triangle touching its single point against the side of the barrier. He did not yet fill in the specific trigger phrase, leaving that to be filled in.

All of it seemed to be done in one quick but smooth flowing motion. He'd drawn out similar scrolls countless times, and so had little difficulty repeating the same motions.

by **Xii** on April 20th, 2015, 9:27 pm

Sullins took the parchment and Xii leaned forward a little to see, though she made sure not to lean too close to Rye, who was still looking at her. She felt a sharp disappointment by what she saw... it just looked like Sullins was writing something ~though she supposed she should have known he would, since that was what parchment was for. Still. She'd been hoping for something flashier. Something that more clearly represented a work of magic.

As he wrote ~or drew?~ a series of symbols ~sun-shape, squiggles and dots, triangle?~ Xii considered his questions, though she wanted to ask what he was doing and what use it might be. But she doubted he'd answer... he sometimes seemed to grow impatient with her constant questions, sighing as if she annoyed him. Plus he probably wouldn't answer if she didn't answer his questions first.

"I probably wouldn't be able to hypnotize him to do something he really didn't want to do, not in one go. It's easy to make people feel a certain way, or to get them to do something simple ~like lose interest~ but not so easy to do more than that, at least so far. So I might be able to make him feel like he liked me, maybe, if that was something he might at all learn to do on his own... but the feeling wouldn't last for too long or be so strong that he couldn't just shake it off if he really wanted. Though animals are easier than people, so maybe I could do more, I don't know." She considered the dog, holding a hand out slightly, wondering if he was smart enough to recognize her from the other day. Probably he would, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't still see her as a stranger and a possible threat. Especially since he'd been trained to protect Sullins. Anyone new would probably be a suspect.

"As for planning... since I'd have to teach him to be comfortable towards me as a long-term thing, I would do layers." She shrugged. "I would try to build one layer and then the next and the next, making him like me more by degrees. So like... first I might work on him for a week or two ~adding more hypnotism every day~ in the broadest terms: trying to get him to accept, if not to like. Like making him more... neutral? So I'd probably start with sending feelings of openness towards him. That would make him more willing to explore new things, and I would probably try to make it so he was only open to me, instead of everything. Then from there, it would just go up in increasing waves of spells. Like first openness, then acceptance, then ease, then feelings of safety and satisfaction and liking." She didn't mention that some of those were the one's she'd tried using on Sullins. They hadn't really worked since he'd noticed... though thinking about it, she was here now, wasn't she? Hadn't that been what she'd wanted?

Warmed by the idea that her magics might have actually worked, she continued on, trying not to look too smug, "And for morphing I would likely need to touch him ~or at least get near~ because I can't see everything that makes him up. A morphing model is exactly what it sounds. You find something you want to take qualities from and study it, then apply them to yourself. I was planning to try to turn my hand into his paw," she wiggled her fingers on her left hand helpfully, "So it would be good to see Rye's paw when it's standing, or relaxed, or from different angles, or to actually touch it and feel how his toes connect to his leg, and what his fur is like and what way it grows, see if I can part his fur and look at his actual skin, and maybe even try to trace the outline of his bones or take his paw and pull it this way and that and watch how his leg moves, which might also tell me something about the way his bones and muscles are."

It would probably take someone a lot more skilled at observation than her to actually figure all these things out, and it would be a lot easier if she could actually see inside the dog or see some pictures that someone else had drawn. But all of those were still things she would want to know, should she attempt to shift her hand into something it wasn't. And she'd never tried for an animal before, just people. So she wanted to figure out as much as she could before she started.

by **Clyde Sullins** on April 21st, 2015, 2:44 am

Most of what Xii said made sense, though Clyde did further wonder how little the girl actually knew about hypnotism... She'd taught him to use morphing, and had said she could do likewise with hypnotism, but it seemed she knew little of the magics.

Perhaps then she'd only been able to instruct him by repeating the method of how she'd been taught, which in the case of those magics was rather simple... Unlike other magics, like Reimancy, which actually required the user to be skilled in it...

It seemed though she'd yet to spend much time trying to understand the magic, or piece together how it worked scientifically or logically, a habit Clyde had gotten from his history of World Magic usage.

While Personal Magics didn't require the same type of hard knowledge, it still made sense to try to understand what a magic did, and how, so as to better understand what it could do and what its limits were.

The only useful bit of the information she told Clyde was the bit about animals being easier to influence with hypnotism than people. He supposed it made sense. Animals did not have the same willpower, did not have the intelligence that people had, and so could not fight off or notice the effects as easily... Clyde would tuck that tidbit away for future use.

The rest, about the bigger the change or effect from the start point, well that was just basic djed rules, a constant across all magics. If Clyde wished to make a small change, it was much easier than making a big one. Lighting a candle with res was much easier a change than starting an inferno. So logically making a big change in a persons reasoning and feelings would be much harder than a small change.

The word layering also stuck out in his mind. To layer an effect, to build it up like levels of a building, also made sense. Though he wondered using that metaphor what the basement would be...

It also occurred to him that while the girl knew little of her magics, at least in specifics, there was perhaps a place he could learn it. The Institute. Perhaps they had a basic book or two there on morphing or hypnotism, which would have the correct terminology and vernacular. An important first step in coming to understand something.

Her final explanation, that of why she needed to touch Rye, was not so unexpected. However his own note, of using the see inside vision possible through Auristics, seemed a much better method for doing the same thing. While the girl wasn't a Aurist, and Clyde didn't have any plans to make her ones, he could use his Glyphing to temporarily share his aura vision.

Clyde smiled at the girl and shook his head, taking up one of the scrolls he'd newly made and setting it before him.

Though the things she'd mentioned that she'd like to see in Rye did give Clyde a better idea of what he might need to know in morphing. In some ways morphing had much more finesse and subtlety than Reimancy, though it in and of itself had many unique ways to it.

Understanding the outer bits, and the skin, and the inner bits, the muscle and bone and how it bent and worked, all made sense as things one would want to know to imitate it. Modeling your change off of a physical example.

Clyde grinned back at the girl, for once meeting her gaze, and shaking his head.

“Oh but the snake, thinking its world so big, in riding in the birds mouth, does see how little its view was.”

Holding up Cha in a two handed grip, Clyde brought her down once with a thump on the ground, before he once more closed his eyes. Clyde took a few moments to consider how best to do what he was about to do. His goal was to trap the spell he desired within the focus on the scroll. While he could perhaps store the spell within Cha, and then release it directly into the scroll, forming the exact spell would be tricky... Unless he simply copied it again inside the staff to store, while he did the spell itself.

Then the process would be copied, he'd only need to duplicate and store that.

Willing his djed to flow and rise, Clyde focused on his mind, emptying it, on a candle in the darkness that flickered upon the unseen wind. On flowing his djed through his body and out of his pores, exuding out his aura sight. Stretching out his senses, Clyde felt about for nearby aura, gripping the first one he met. Rye. He could tell by the hue and shape and size of the aura. Not a person, but certainly a living thing.

As he latched onto the dogs Aura, he willed his sight to go inward, to see within as he'd done on that day not so long ago as he'd learned morphing. Inside to the blood and bones and internal bits. By instinct he could see the outside, as sight would mundanely allow, except not the same in that he could see from all ways at the same time.

Now he pressed inward, expending a slim but steady stream of djed in attuning further to Rye, in seeing within. Here he began to twin the spell, willing the same to flow within that unseen niche of Cha, that place were a spell could be stored. The same djed, the same changes, the same spell.

First he pressed inward, and saw the short fur, then deeper, the skin underneath but such a short distance below. Rye's breed had a special fur, but it was short, almost not even there. Breaking apart Clyde focused inward, seeing the one paw, focusing his aura sight upon it, upon a smaller point. Then underneath, other things, other layers. Below that more, and then muscle, and more and bones, layer upon layer of things Clyde didn't know, of the paw and bones and ways of a dogs single limb.

All the while Clyde did this he willed the spell to twin, the copy to fill in one of the niches in Cha, while also slowing and holding the spell in place. When the time came all he'd need to do would be to release the hold, the let the magic flow out, and it would speed away.

Clyde kept at his work for a few chimes, seeing inward into the dogs paw, to bits and parts he hadn't known existed, before he broke his spell. Done with the twin, Clyde sealed it off, focusing on keeping it still and also ceasing his Auristics.

As his aura sight failed the blackness crept in, and Clyde recalled that his eyes were closed, that he couldn't see. Letting out a breath Clyde opened them, and placed the head of Cha against the focus of the scroll he'd set before him. Willing the spell to release, unstoring it, Clyde felt a small tingle of djed upon him as it crossed over and flowed into the open scroll. However no other visible change occurred, no sign that magic had occurred to those who were not attuned to sense such things.

Finishing up the scroll, Clyde added the trigger condition- "Upon the holder of this scroll placing it upon their flesh, and uttering "To View from a Birds Mouth", lower the barrier and unleash the magic held within."

Picking up the scroll, Clyde held it out for the girl to take.

“There. Now make sure when you use it you don't waste it. It won't last long. Just get what you needed, and learn of the dogs paw. All you have to do is place the open side of the scroll against your face, with your eyes closed, with the focus there in the middle against your eyes, and utter the trigger phrase. Then you'll see. Just focus on Rye, and make sure to see him.”

Clyde wasn't fully certain how it would work, as he'd never made a scroll before to hold Auristics. But since he'd stored the particular usage within it, and had focused on the casting of the inside vision while he'd stored it, he assumed it would allow her to do as he had... Assuming she properly latched onto and focused on Rye's aura, and didn't get distracted onto other things, like Clyde, or Cha.

But he also didn't think the spell would last long, perhaps a few chimes, maybe 3 or 4 at most, as long as he'd done his auristical work perhaps. Enough to perhaps see what she wanted if she was quick and didn't stray. If she did stray she'd likely not see half of what she'd wanted to.

However he also didn't doubt that the spell was not Rye specific. While he'd focused on it, in the casting within the scroll it wouldn't be naturally called to the same object as he'd examined, as the spell wasn't that specific. She'd need to properly direct it.

He also didn't doubt that Xii would likely see things in a different way than Clyde did. Auristics was very specific to the user, the way their mind interpretted and understood things. She might not see it at all, but might hear or sense it in some other way.

But sight was the most common, the easiest for most people, so it'd likely be sight based. Particularly since she wouldn't likely be seeing the other djed based or more subjective or esoteric things Aura sight might allow, but was instead specifically seeing the insides of it. He didn't want to imagine what she'd have seen in that case, with a more subjective thing, like the general reading of an aura.

by **Xii** on April 21st, 2015, 9:05 pm

“Oh but the snake, thinking its world so big, in riding in the birds mouth, does see how little its view was.”

Sullins smiled at her as he said the strange phrase before bending back to the marked parchment, and as he worked Xii watched, though she couldn't help but feel he'd somehow been teasing her with his words. 'Oh but the snake'... was she the snake? And 'riding in the bird's mouth'... was the bird, then, Sullins? Was he calling her stupid? Or just ignorant? She frowned as she watched whatever it was he was doing.

It only took her a few ticks to realize that he was doing something... meditative? Or with magic? He'd turned and seemed to be looking at Rye. But at the same time he couldn't be looking, for his eyes had closed. Still, she had the feeling he was doing something, and it had to do with the dog, and the thought that he might see without use of his eyes made a tingle crawl over her skin, as if all the little hairs had stood on edge. What sort of magic was this? The girl shifted slightly, wanting to know what he was doing but too smart to ask and interrupt.

Soon enough he'd finished the whatever-it-was, and turned and pressed the top of Cha to the parchment, then scribbled something more ~what looked like words~ onto the surface. Now he held it out to her and Xii took it with a mix of reluctance and eagerness, her hand pausing for half a tick before snatching what he offered. His words were rather cryptic since she had no idea what he was talking about. She committed the terms 'focus' and 'trigger' to mind as they were new things, then did as he asked, first carefully memorizing the words that must be the 'trigger phrase' ~To View from a Birds Mouth~ before pressing the parchment to her face with the sun-thing ~focus?~ at eye height. She said the words, wondering what it was all supposed to do: "To view from a bird's mouth."

Immediately, Xii felt a burning like heat against her face, turned her head, and without having opened her eyes she saw... a mass of something. The Zithling was so surprised she would have dropped the parchment but she found she couldn't... there was a strange sensation against her fingers like heat and ash, and then her hands closed and the parchment was gone. It was just gone.

The girl would have asked what was happening, but she thought if she spoke the spell ~whatever it was~ might be broken. Likewise she was wary of opening her eyes... might that break it, too? She didn't know how this magic worked, or what its rules were, or even if it had any.

Quickly, for Sullins had said that the effects would soon wear off, Xii swiveled her face again towards the source of the burning. There were two things she could see, glowing images like bright and faded lights and shadows and other related things, and not just that but heat and the echoes of sound. One was larger, and as it shifted slightly she realized it was sitting where Sullins had been. The other was smaller, closer to her... Rye. Xii focused on this second thing, and tried to make sense of it all, for there was much to make sense of.

It was like she could see the dog, and yet it was different than that because he didn't look like himself. Or maybe he did, but just in a different way? For a moment she felt an unfamiliar slithering in her gut and she thought she wouldn't be able to understand any of it. But no. She shook her head slightly. No. She would see. She would. The girl leaned forward further, towards the thing that was the dog, and opened her mind to the possibilities.

The image appeared to have layers, and she was reminded of her hypnotism, but this was not the same. There was blackness in the first layer, somehow the light was black as pitch and that didn't make sense to her, nor did its shape which she could only think to describe as 'fizzled'. And yet the other layers beneath it showed through, and if she looked at those the top layer of black seemed to part for her sight, but without moving or changing at all. Almost dazed by the things that she could now see, Xii looked on.

The next layer was different. On the one side the black seemed to sprout from it like grass from the ground, and the layer worked with the black, an odd grey-yellow which sparkled yellow-white in beats. It wasn't that the color of it was a grey-and-yellow mix... no, it was both grey and yellow simultaneously, each without blending into the next. The grey-yellow pulsed and throbbed and sparked as if with life... and she soon saw where that life seemed to come from, as beneath and through the second layer was a third, and maybe a fourth?

The third one was not a whole but a pattern of twisting, flowing, liquid red which pulsed in time with the one before. The red was dark and shining, and intertwined with the fourth layer, which was very like the third but was silvery ~imbued with an iridescent rainbow sheen~ and it didn't pulse but flowed slowly, very slowly, and only in one direction. The third and fourth seemed to connect somehow and in many ways, just as they connected to the second and just as the second connected to the first.

The fourth seemed to flow on account of outside movement, which was created by the fifth layer. This fifth one seemed to lay under the second, but also involved the third and fourth, and glowed a lighter red, seemingly the source of most of the heat she felt ~along with the third layer, the pulsing red vines. And to that connected the sixth, the deepest.

This layer was not like the ones before it, for it wasn't fuzzy like the first, flat and whole like the second, veined like the third and fourth, or in interlocking, sweeping-stretching bands like the fifth. This layer was in pieces, pieces that came together as pink, softly-illuminated sticks, though 'stick' was not the right word for them since they had many different shapes. And then, as Xii inspected them more closely and realized that the fifth layer seemed attached to the sixth, and that the third and fourth also attached to it ~but only where the pink 'sticks' came together, edged by more of the grey from the second layer~ did it snap together in her mind. At once she understood.

She was looking into the dog's body. She was looking... she was looking at everything that made him up. The first fuzzy black layer of light was fur, hair. The second, skin. The third was blood... she wasn't so certain what the fourth was, only that it seemed closely linked to the blood and the rest of the lower layers. The fifth must've been muscles. And the sixth... of course, the sixth was bones.

The girl let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, panting. She felt light-headed. It had probably been a chime, a chime-and-a-half, since she had first begun using the power inside of the parchment. Had she not breathed for that whole while? She didn't know. She didn't really care. Time, she felt, might start running out. She had spent too long trying to make sense of what the things were. Now she actually needed to memorize them, and fast.

With renewed vigor, she got to it. She focused on what was the front paw closest to her, and studied it all, going from the sixth layer up. The bones, she felt, were most important. The muscles next, as they would have to change according to the shape of the bones, considering how they fit and worked with them. The fourth and third were not so special, as she figured they would probably shift into approximately the right shape when she messed with the rest. The skin... she wasn't so sure of, since it must be different from hers. It grew the fur, which she would need, and so after she'd studied the bones and muscles as best she could she turned her attention there. Not long after she felt, like a flickering of lights ~like a candle sputtering out~ that the spell, whatever it was, would not last much longer.

It was as the sight was dying from her eyes that the dog moved slightly, and with the movement came a sudden blinding flash of the seventh layer, one she hadn't noticed before. It was a latticework of something else, reds-blues-purples which involved all of the other layers except, perhaps, the first.

Then the vision died, and she was in the dark.

Xii opened her eyes, blinking rapidly, and realized with a brush of frustration that she had forgotten to pay attention to the sounds that she had been hearing as well. She'd been so focused on sight, she'd been unable to pick up the rest. And she desperately wanted to know what that last, seventh layer had been.

Almost angry at everything she'd missed, the Zithling ripped her journal from its place on her lap and in a frenzy began to note down all she could remember about what she'd seen... the colors, the brightness, the outlines/shapes, the heat, the actions, how things had connected, the little that she could remember about the sound. Halfway through she looked up at Sullins and asked, "Can I do that again? How did I do that? What was that magic? I saw... I saw everything. And now I can't see anything. It's..." She broke off, teeth gritted. "I can't see anything," she finally said again.
oocLong post. I had to look up so much stuff to write that. >.> Body systems! Also, I think Xii might be a little obsessed.

And in case you're curious, the seventh layer was the nervous system. The fourth ~which Xii didn't know~ was the lymphatic. I think she got the rest of them.

The scroll I just kind of had crumble away to nothing. I think I read that glyphs disintegrate when they're used, but if that's wrong I can change it.

by **Clyde Sullins** on April 22nd, 2015, 12:22 am

In all honesty, the fact that the scroll would burn up and crumble to ash and dust had slipped his mind. It just went to show that even someone who knew a magic as well as he did could let things slip their mind when they were distracted.

Of course, had he remembered that didn't mean he would have not told her to press it to her face...

But he might have considered it a bit more.

Watching Xii experience Auristics for the first time, even if only a taste of it, was a bit odd. While Clyde no longer needed to physically look to see something in his aura sight, Xii did not fully understand it and likely found it easier to physically orient her lack of mundane sight on her target. Likewise he had no need to keep his eyes closed, but he often did when deep in a working. If nothing else looking with both ones mundane eyes and aura vision could be disorienting. Seeing the same thing but not, in the same space but not, but as, could be confusing, particularly to someone new to the magic.

Likely the strongest aura within the room were himself, Xii, Cha, and Rye. And, he reminded himself, his robes, another work of Magecrafting, though not as potent an enchantment as Cha held.

Clyde was more interested in what Xii might experience than anything else, as it was his first time sharing Aura sight in such a way. He'd not even attempted to store Auristics in a scroll before. It would certainly be trickier than say Reimancy, which took no finesse or control by the user, and could be pointed and fired. Auristics on the other hand clearly took more work on the users side.

When Xii suddenly shifted and opened her eyes, it appeared that she was done with the spell. It had lasted about as long as he'd expected, good for his first try.

He was further cued by this when the girl tore into her things and began rapidly writing something or other. An account of sorts? A reminder? Notes? He recalled she'd taken some during their earlier talks, but had forgotten about it since.

Once she was done writing she launched into a series of questions, the first of which was asking about when she'd be able to do it again. Clyde let out a sigh and shook his head. She appeared to have no satisfaction at what he'd shown her, even though it was a rare and valuable treat. All she cared about was the next time.

“Perhaps. If I deem it necessary. But magic isn't something I can just churn out willy nilly. Don't you have any respect, or petching thanks? If you don't even value something though, why should I do it again for you. Do you realize what someone would've paid for such a thing, if I'd been charging? Not cheap. That's high level high difficulty stuff there, both with the spell and the scroll.”

“You saw enough, and saw what you needed. I assume that will suit your needs for inspecting Rye then?”

“As the snake drops from the birds mouth, he loses his new-found perspective. But what do you think would have been waiting for the snake at the end of the flight, had he not been dropped? He was on his way to the birds nest, and would have been its next meal. Don't hunger for new perspective so much that you end up as such.”

Carrying on with the earlier story Clyde had used, it seemed a suiting allegory for the situation at hand. He hadn't planned it out fully, hadn't thought on this second bit before, but in telling the story he seemed to discover it in turn. An interesting instruction tool.

Perhaps another situation would arise that made sense to test out an aura scroll again... He'd yet to further test that aura morphing ability, and perhaps it would have to do with that. But either way, it'd be up to him, and not his overeager student who was to also be his teacher.

by **Xii** on April 22nd, 2015, 5:56 am

The answer he gave was not one she'd expected, and the girl paused, suddenly showing caution again where before it had eased away. "Oh," she said to his accusations that she was ungrateful, and perhaps she was. "I didn't know. I... thank you for what you did for me." She couldn't remember having ever thanked anyone for anything before, and she felt she didn't like it much, as the words were awkward in her mouth like they didn't belong. Though she supposed she couldn't help the awkwardness. She had never had anything to thank anyone for. No one had ever freely given her anything... though technically she had paid for at least the parchment part of this gift.

Speaking of... though he asked her if she had any idea what the scroll was worth ~something that had only taken a few moments' effort to create, or so it had appeared~ she truly had no idea, so how could have its importance meant anything to her? She didn't even know what that magic had been, and Sullins wasn't saying. So she added tactfully, "I didn't know what it was worth." She left it for him to believe her or not. That was as much of an apology as she was capable of giving, unless she was really pressed.

Now somewhat chagrined, the Zithling turned back to her notes, beginning to draw before her memory faded. The shape of the bones she remembered most clearly, as she had taken care to study them. There had been a lot of little ones to keep track of, and she wasn't certain she could recall them all. She held up one of her own hands in comparison, the right one which she wasn't currently using to write, and then glanced over at Rye's paw. Seeing it now, knowing what was underneath... she felt like so much was lacking.

"I saw enough," she agreed to Sullins' following statement, "but there was much more. I could've studied Rye for hours. It was... I could see his bones, and skin, his blood. Everything." The other mage probably knew that already though, since he had given her the power. Still, she couldn't help talking about it, voice slightly awed.

Never before had magic been so interesting to her. Hypnotism was great for getting what you wanted, but it could be difficult and unpredictable, depending on who the intended victim was. Morphing... morphing constantly caused her to suffer from overgiving, and she could still hardly morph more than one area of her body before she started making herself ill. But that... after the initial confusion, she'd realized it was all a puzzle for her to solve. Fit the pieces together, and the secret of the whole might be unlocked.

As she drew, the story of the snake continued, and it was now obvious that Xii was the snake, though she still wasn't certain if Sullins was the bird, or perhaps magic itself took that part. She wondered if it mattered. If one gained much on the journey, was it so bad that they might be killed in the end? And then there was the idea that the snake might be poisonous, or able to attack and kill the bird and have the bird's eggs for itself. The risk was likely well worth the reward. And if not... the snake would no longer care when it was dead.

Instead of mentioning that, however, she asked, "Is it difficult? To make a... a thing like that?" She should have learned already not to ask too many questions, but there was nothing for it but to try. The girl finished up her drawing of the bones and moved on to the muscles. Already her memory was growing hazy. There had been so much to learn in so little time.

by **Clyde Sullins** on April 22nd, 2015, 7:46 pm

Though the girl thanked Clyde, it reminded him of someone having their teeth forcefully pulled out. She seemed to enjoy it about as much.

“You may not have known what it was worth in mizas, but you saw its effect. So clearly you valued it, or else you wouldn't have asked for another go. If you don't know an actions worth in money, then consider the effect of the action. Just because it can't be held or weighed doesn't mean it is without value. Though I suppose technically that scroll did have weight, even if the magic within it did not physically.”

“As for that... Well for me the scroll itself wasn't hard, I could knock out a dozen of those no problem with my skill in it. But the magic itself that was put within the scroll, that was trickier. Active magic will always be an effort, even if you are skilled at the thing. Always draining to an extent. I could easily see a scroll such as what I just gave you selling for 50 or even 100 gold mizas. If not more.”

Taking a rest once more, Clyde tried to empty his mind, taking a series of slow soothing breaths to even himself out. Without looking at Xii, Clyde pointed at the scroll, and continued on.

“Now for the second scroll, I want to try something out. I want you to rest the limb upon the scroll when you do your morphing, and try to change into the dog paw. Hopefully said shifting will be stored within the scroll. But I've not tested it out yet, storing Morphing, so it might not work that way. But its a good a try as any to rest the limb your morphing upon the focus.”

Since he'd done the first magic, and let Xii try it out, he'd planned to let Xii do the second magic, and then try out the spell upon himself. He'd still have made both of the scrolls, making it all possible, and his magic had made her magic possible by truly seeing Rye, but the sharing of magic in this instance would make this particular exchange a bit more even. Though still, in Clyde's eyes, more slanted in his favor in having done more work. Particularly since his magic, both the Glyphing and the Auristics, were the working of a master, and Xii in turn was but an initiate.

While he waited for Xii to do as he'd asked, he tried some morphing of his own. Or more to the point, to morph Cha. He'd only used morphing once, and it had only been for a short time. The next step in his progression was to learn to morph Cha. Then able to channel the magic through her, he'd be much better able to use the magic.

With his story of the snake, an idea occurred to him, and Clyde decided to morph Cha so as to make her more snakelike, or at least more limber and bendy if only for a short time. It'd be a easy first step, simpler than trying to change her substance in general.

Focusing once more on himself, he tried to distance himself, thinking of his outer self as just a body, a thing to be molded. Thinking of Cha that way was a bit simpler, as she'd originally been but a mundane item of wood. Now she was much more, but she was still a thing in a way...

Focusing on the two outside things, his outerbody and Cha, he tried to think of both being heated by a forge, a heat of flame being flashed against them, warming them as a piece of steel in a forge.

Focusing on this intent, he willed the heat into Cha, building up an image in his mind of her shifting and swinging and bending like a snake, but still with a outer wooden shell. The trick would be internal, making the internal bits softer and more pliable, perhaps more jointed or without solidity.

Nothing happened just yet, but he could feel the disconnect between his perception of the two as people and into the perception of them as moldable items growing.

by **Xii** on April 23rd, 2015, 1:33 am

It seemed her apology ~her thanks?~ had not been enough. As Sullins explained about the value of things ~a lesson she was certain linked to gratitude~ the girl wondered what had been missing. He had seemed to expect some sort of apology before, and so she had given one. But her words had fallen short. What had been missing? Sincerity? She wasn't certain she had learned that emotion yet.

Still, she made sure to absorb his words. He was good at giving lessons even if they were unrelated to magic. He'd already taught her some about 'respect' and 'politeness' that she would assimilate in order to form a more cohesive outer whole.

The Zithling perked up somewhat after that, showing more curiousity now that the subject had changed back to magic and to the marked parchment that Sullins had called a 'scroll'. So all she would have to do ~maybe~ was touch the focus ~the sun-thing at the center~ while she was morphing, and somehow the marks on the paper would duplicate the effects? She looked harder at the strange little drawings, trying to memorize their shapes so that she might recreate them later to make her own scroll.

Soon enough her teacher seemed to fall back into a trance, and she figured that was her cue to do so as well. Excited and somewhat nervous ~wanting to prove that she was capable~ she looked back through her notes, and then look the mirror and propped it up against her backpack so that it was facing her, in case she needed it. Then she threw a few glances around the room, before closing her eyes.

The hunt. She focused on the hunt. That was how she always slipped into her deepest meditations, by imagining what it was like to stalk through the grasses, then to feel her body still as it paused to listen, to hold her bow silent at the ready, to become patient, just another part of the surroundings, so that the prey may come by and be fooled and die. This idea she focused on, hunting, waiting, being nothing... and as her mind cleared of distractions, one by one killed as if shot through by arrows, she instead began to think of her place within the room she was in, how she must blend into this space, and the shape of the things within it.

Doors. Three doors not including the entrance, one with a lock and the others without. Wooden. A window to the side, facing into the street and the canal beyond. Benches, also wooden, two to the left and one under the window where it might catch the sun and the sky. A plain floor and walls, except for the pictures... three paintings. These were of greater interest, could be described in greater detail, and naturally the mind focused upon them.

The first was of the lake. Glances of light shattered the water, reflected from the sun. The city was visible... though partially obscured. The city looked bright and dark at once. Ravok. The coast could be seen at the other side, looping far into the distance.

The second was of a black sun surrounded in glaring lances of white. An eclipse. The light had been lovingly detailed. The whole painting was light, light and dark and shadow and glow. The black sun seemed impartial. The painter had not chosen to display what landscape it looked down upon.

The third and final was of a wooded area, full of trees and the life of the forest. There was a break in the woodland, glimpsed through the outer layer of trees... a clearing, bright and green with grass.

These images replayed over and over, strengthening in their detail, becoming real and true and at the same time... distanced, as if thinking so much about them had already changed them in some way. Yes. These were all things that might be changed. That should be changed, should she will it. And there were other things in the room that she had not yet added to her mental inventory... the man and dog and staff, for instance. All of those, too, might be changed. So might the backpack and coat and supplies and mirror. The mirror, yes, reflecting... reflecting the image of a young girl. Xii focused now on this girl, taking in her relaxed expression and shoulders, her open ~but oddly blank and staring~ dark eyes.

This girl, she thought, was something that she wanted to change. This girl was malleable. This girl would become what Xii wanted her to be.

The girl moved as she was directed. What Xii thought the girl did, and the power of this simple relationship felt right to her. The girl should do as she was told. With a flick of will, Xii told her to pick up the scroll that the man in the room had prepared, and the girl reached out with a hand and grasped it, settling it onto her lap. With another flick, the girl placed her wrist upon it, and then looked down at her hand.

The left hand, the one laying on the sun in the scroll, would be the one that would become like a paw. She had studied the dog's bones and muscles, his insides to make it so. Now she reached towards the girl and down, deep into her, and felt what it was that made her up. Strings. Lots and lots of strings, each vibrating, thrumming, humming with energy. The Zithling mentally cracked her fingers and started to pull and pluck.

It was like playing an instrument. This she somehow knew, though she didn't know how since she had never played one in her life. But it didn't matter. The girl had become an instrument; an instrument of her direction. Xii strummed the strings, searching for the right one ~or group of such~ that would allow her to control the shape of the hand. She thought as she did that she might hear the music she was creating if only she listened harder. She did, focusing on the vibrations of the magic, and followed the melody where it lead.

At last, with a quick touch to one of the strings, the girl's hand on the scroll began to twitch slightly, and Xii knew she had found the right 'song'.
oocI had planned to do the whole morphing in one post but it got really really long. So this post will be for meditation; the morphing itself I'll put in my next one.