Solo Supremacy of the Mind

[Rayage]

Summer 2 515 AV

The mind controls the body, and the mind controls reality. The nuit sat there at her desk looking over the papers and logs sprawled out upon it. A hand collected the papers and stacked them with care as she sighed and looked at the magelight around her laboratory. The D-wire hummed a constant tune and provided light to her facility. The humming sound was something that went unnoticed most of the time by the nuit, having grown accustomed to the low and monotone sound. It did not bother her. Instead it was the tone of inspiration. When her thoughts would slow down to the point where she could hear the noise again it was a sign for her to move on. She needed something different, something to capture her attention again and keep it. Alchemy had been buzzing around her mind, but no longer did those thoughts dominate it.

Her mind wandered though still on the subject of magic, but more on what she could do; the disciplines of magic she knew and all that she had learned over the past years. Of the many disciplines she was introduced to the only one that she was really good at was Alchemy. It was where the undead excelled, it was where she could truly be the wizard she dreamed of being. Alchemy unlocked the possibilities, and was the doorway to endless experiments. Almost anything could be accomplished through the use of Alchemy that much the wizard was devoted to upholding.

It was indeed a flexible and diverse magic, but it was not the best in defending one from dangers. The magic which could potentially protect her she was still very green in. Miro had disappeared and so there went her training in Reimancy. Her work here in Sahova had impeded on her gaining any progress in the other arts as well. Alchemy and this lab, her responsibilities a Master, all were taking up her time and baring her progress from the other magical disciplines.

Her mind was expanding here, but her soul wasn’t growing. Her powers were not changing. Her influence might be evolving, but her soul, her very being was not evolving. She was not getting closer to her goal of being able to defend herself. Her personal magic was weak and the nuit wanted no longer to be associated with that word. “Weak” and “Weakness” will be eliminated as the undead would delve deeper into the mysteries of personal magic. With that resolution in mind Rayage nodded to herself, looking over her bandages and how damaged she had become due to overgiving. She felt that weakness return. She was not as strong as Keene, but she could change that. Change will happen. Practice. She needed to practice to get stronger.

Practice makes perfection, practice makes the wizard. Practice sharpens the mind. Practice instils progress. Practice will free her from ‘weakness’, and freed she need be. She needed to be strong like Keene, she needed strength like Evalin possessed so many hundreds of years ago. She had gotten by thus far by a lot of promises and empty words, manipulation of the mind, Hypnotism. No longer would that be her only option. She needed to spread her wings and soar to new heights, and those heights can be reached with the practice of personal magic, the other half that will make her a full wizard. The path was before her, was given to her when she was initiated, but she had not tread it yet. Now, she needed to take the steps, be brave and take the journey of each discipline at stride, and walk that road. Become a true magician.

Though what magic could she practice here, now, without making too much of a mess? Reimancy was out of the question, at least not without supporting and controlling glyphs. This lab and its contents were too valuable to accidently destroy with an out of control spell, especially the fire that she wields. She thought and then looked at a quill resting on her desk. It was then the idea struck her. Projection. It had been far too long since she practiced the magic at length. Her mind searched for memories of the magic and she remembered how it felt, the lack of feeling in her arm as the astral body was coaxed out by djed. It was a slow process, and one that the nuit needed practice with, detaching and reattaching. The concepts were still so new and fresh to her, and that to get them down she would need to practice.

She took a minute and calmed her thoughts. She needed to focus if any magic was going to be done, especially ones that she was unfamiliar with. She stared at the quill, figuring that it would be the best target for her to practice with. The quill itself was light, and she was sure that even at her level she would be able to lift it. With that thought she faintly smiled at the quill. She was going to do it.

x

[Rayage]

Now she shifted her focus from the quill to her left hand. She held her hand up in front of her face and locked her eyes on the extremity. She stared at the lines crossing her palm and looked at the crevasses on her fingers. Slowly she focused her attention on the hand before her, and once she had centered herself on the hand she let it gently drop down to drape over the countertop.

From her hand to the djed within the hand she shifted once again focusing on the presence of the pulsing power within. The djed tingled and pricked at her hand, buzzing to life inside her. Her eyes moved up to her arm until she focused on the elbow. That was the major joint in which she would begin her detachment. For this exercise she had all the time in the world to really focus on coaxing the astral body out of the limb. She would do this the slower way with her left hand.

Having mapped out the parameters of her magic she felt the buzzing of the djed within the area as she focused on it. All throughout her forearm, wrist, and hand the tingling, prickling sensation could be felt. The nuit attributed that to the beginning of the process of detachment. The djed slowly forcing the astral body out of the physical shell that it inhabited, that was the feeling. The buzzing was the arm losing feeling as the body prepared to leave, and Ray just observed and noted the sensations as she kept her concentration on the elbow, willing the astral body more and more to just slide out.

The more she willed the more the buzzing intensified in her arm, until eventually it started to fade in parts. Starting in her elbow she slowly lost feeling. It was an emptiness, like nothing was there at all. It started in a small spot, around the center of the elbow and gradually, slowly the spot began spreading. It was much like a ripple on the surface of a pond when a rock was dropped in. However, the ripple in this case traveled a lot slower than the kind which traversed over water. This ripple crept with the speed of an animal with all its legs broken, and bleeding out. The ripple of sensationless feeling, of nothing, of the exiting of the astral body floated through her arm.

She focused on this feeling, or rather the lack of feeling, spreading through her arm as the astral body was pushed out. To any normal person the loss of feeling in an extremity would be alarming, but to a projectionist it was just a sign that the magic was working and astral form was being displaced. The more she focused the less the buzzing became as the small drop turned into an entire patch of her forearm unable to be felt.

A little more, a little more, the nuit urged herself on. Her focus and attention on the spell and its intent intensified with every passing tick. The more numb she felt the more excited she got, the more focused she was on actually detaching the body. Even with her increased attention and efforts the detachment was still slow, half her forearm engulfed in that dead feel and by her estimate many chimes have passed. However, as with anything that requires attention and concentration the mind has a way of exaggerating the passing of time, so she was unsure of exactly the length time which has passed.

More and more the numb feeling moved, being propelled by the wizards will from the center of the forearm and out. The innermost part of the astral body was always detached first before the rest came out afterwards, following closely behind the core of the body. Soon her wrist went numb, and the feeling began spreading up her hand and eventually to her fingertips. After what seemed like a bell, her lower arm from the elbow to the fingertips was successfully separated from the astral body. The arm was out.

x

[Rayage]

Her left hand from the fingertips all the way to her elbow as gone. She could not feel it anymore. She could not control that particular body part anymore. It was, for the purpose of this training, dead to her. What was left was the invisible astral body floating there right above the dead arm, having been pushed out of its shell. It hung there, suspended, waiting to be directed by the wizards will or to be put back from whence it came.

Taking the invisible hand she practiced waving it around in front of her. However, she could not see the extremity the nuit could feel its movements. It was an odd thing to know that something is right in front of you yet one is unable to see it. She brushed her projected hand up against her body, trying to better ‘feel’ and get a good grasp of spatially where her projected limb was. She observed as the hand grasped at her cloak and tugged on it. Again, another testing clenching of the fabric followed by another pull. The fabric moved. The movements and tugs however were light, and not much force was behind them. They still could mess with the fabric though.

Practice was the key here, and testing the projected abilities of the limb was crucial to knowing her own boundaries and limits. Finally taking her right hand and making it flat, she held up in the air before her, her fingers spread, pointing upwards, palm facing towards the dead left arm, all supported by an elbow on the wooden desk. She then stopped touching the fabric of her cloak with her projected hand and centered her gaze on the suspended right hand. The nuit then carefully moved her astral hand and extended an invisible astral finger. Aiming for the center of her palm she moved in, willing her astral finger to brush against the center of her palm.

However, when she felt the touch of her astral finger on her hand the nuit frowned. The invisible finger did not touch the center of her palm but went past her hand entirely and brushed against the pinky finger side of her hand. Backing the astral appendage up she realigned her aim and went again, poking at the center of her hand. This time, she overcorrected herself and ended up on the opposite side of the hand, barely touching her outstretched thumb. The coordination between will, seeing, and feeling was a lot harder when the physical aspect of the hand was out of the picture. Her movement was almost clumsy and her mind unused to this new way of interacting with the world around her. She knew, or thought she knew, where her astral limb was, but the difference between knowing and actuality were vast in this case. Her coordination was anything but perfect.

He frown deepened. However, she realized that this is exactly the reason why she was practicing in the first place. She needed to get better, to grow her soul. She needed practice to be able to defend herself as fiercely as Evalin or Keene. She needed strength and so she needed this magic. Tempering her will, and trying not to lose patience with the whole thing she tried again, bringing back her astral finger, trying to poke the center of her palm once more.

x

[Rayage]

This time her astral finger was closer to the intended target, but still about an inch or so off the mark. At least, Rayage smiled, it actually made contact with the palm. Small victories, as one was getting used to the magic at hand. She then slid the astral finger up and moved it until she could feel it at the very outer edge of her palm right below her pointer finger. She then tried to trace a circle, following the edge of her palm all the way around. During its course the astral finger slipped a little to the left and cruised right off of the palm itself. Bringing the finger back to the starting point every time that happened she would try again, trying to get used to navigating with the invisible finger.

Four, five, six, seven… ten, fifteen, twenty times later the nuit finally made a full circuit around the palm of her hand, tracing that small circle. She dared to go again, tempting another failure, but by now she was getting the hang of controlling her astral body a bit more, and smiled as the finger came full circle once again. Her practice was paying off, and she was learning to be patient with herself. She needed practice, so mistake would happen. They are nothing to get angry about, the nuit found herself constantly being reassured of that fact by her own mental chatter. She could not become a better projectionist without first practicing and getting down the coordination part. When she used her own body to practice she could get immediate feedback to the quality of her work, for she would be able to feel if she was off mark or not. It was something she was glad that she thought of.

Stopping her circling below the pointer finger again she slowly moved the astral finger to the center of her palm. She then moved the body again, tracing a path all the way up to the very tip of her physical pointer finger. Pressing the points of both fingers together, she smiled at the slight resistance she felt on her hand. She pressed harder with her astral finger and did not try to resist on her physical hand, and she watched as the finger bowed a bit backwards, bowing to the pressure of her astral powers! The force was nothing significant, but it was there, and its presence meant the world for the practicing wizard.

The nuit then extended the rest of her astral fingers and tried to match them up with the physical ones of her right hand. With each astral finger she aligned she pressed inward making the physical finger bend just a little bit, but not to the point where it was uncomfortable. The middle finger was after the pointer, then next came the Thumb, and after the thumb the ring finger bowed, finally ending with the small pinky. The task was harder than it sounded for the nuit who was so new to mentally manipulating the astral form, and she allowed herself a small mental sigh when the task was accomplished. Pressing in her astral palm she felt it touch her physical one and the physical pressure of her astral body left the fingers as the palms touched.

The astral body, however, was not a slave to the physical constraints of this world. Without a body the soul itself can stretch and morph. So she began to stretch her astral fingers towards her physical fingers in an attempt to feel some pressure again, along with adding no extra pressure with her astral palm. She wanted her fingers to do all the work, and they did. Her astral fingers began to stretch, the proof was in the newfound pressure bending her right hands fingers backwards once more. The actual stretching of the astral form seemed more like a natural consequence of being formless, and so its implementation was easier for the wizard than orienting herself on where exactly her hand was.

x

[Rayage]

Setting her right hand down, satisfied with her progress so far the wizard turned her attention to the writing quill. The instrument was laying free and flat on the table before her in a crooked way. Her astral body right where she left it, she willed it to grab at the feather. The astral body moved through space and she heard a slight and disoriented tap on the table right next to the feather. She moved her hand up sliding it along the surface of the table, if one could see the astral hand then it would look very much like an uncoordinated baby reaching for an object of interest. The feather moved as the hand made contact, it span one hundred and eighty degrees so the feather was pointing towards the wizard who was trying to manipulate it.

Knowing her hand was now right next to the feather the wizard made a sloppy grab at it, her hand pushing the feather further across the desk and away from her until it collided into a stack of papers on the rightmost side of the desk. She frowned as she concentrated even harder on the task at hand. The feather still was not within her grasp, she lifted her astral hand and moved it over the quill itself before dropping the hand flat down upon the writing utensil. The feather squirmed under the weight of her astral body, one side sticking up higher than the other in the struggle.

Now satisfied that she had the feather pinned down on the desk she tried to move it back to where she had it to begin with. So she wanted to slide her hand, and as she willed it the feather started moving, but then so did some papers which were also caught under the grasp of the astral hand. The nuit frowned and immediately lifted her astral hand before papers got everywhere in her uncoordinated fashion. With her right hand she moved the papers back to the stack and looked almost begrudgingly at the quill. Though it was not the quills fault for her lack of practice her patience for the day was wearing thin. She could not believe how uncoordinated and sloppy her casting was with this magic.

Shaking her head she turned her attention back to the feather and once again slapped her astral hand down on the quill. This time the feather followed suit with the astral limbs rather slow and clunky movements, it slid all the way back to where it was to begin with, and with that the nuit was satisfied with the progress she made so far. Who would have thought that getting the hang of manipulating things with just the astral body would include so much trial and error? The concept sounded easy enough, and the notes she was given were easy enough to read and comprehend, but there was a major disjoint in reading and understanding something verse actually doing something. It was that disconnect in Rayages mind which was the most horrible thing to overcome. She knew what she wanted to do and how to do it, but she lacked the finesse of a practiced mind.

x

[Rayage]

Back to the task at hand, Rayage focused on gripping the feather with her astral hand, to hold it within her fingers. She held the feather down with her fingers and placed her thumb on the wooden desk. She then concentrated on what she wanted to do. Concentrating on something so simple that it seemed almost silly to do, but one had to command the astral body, to get used to the astral body without a physical shell, to break away from the normal contingencies of the mind and accept that one can do something extraordinary. The task was almost laughable for any living thing, but it was different for a projectionist, especially one just getting oriented with the discipline of magic.

The feather was held down with her fingers and she slid her thumb across the desk, curling her astral fingers to meet with the thumb. The curling of the fingers brought the feather closer and raised one half of the feather above the wooden desk. It was this raised part that the thumb ran into and curled under, successfully grabbing the quill, pinching it between her astral fingers. She then raised her hand and watched as the quill followed suit.

The quill lifted from the table suspended by the pressure of her astral body. The force she exerted on it was enough to lift it, and she smiled as the feather was raised in the air. However it was at a peculiar angle, and it indeed looked abnormal. Not how a quill would look if it was just dangling there in the air, no, it was held firmly by the wizards hand at a tilted angle. This art, projection, was going to be must useful the wizard mused to herself.

For the first time Rayage stood. She looked at the quill still suspended there in the air, held there by her will, in one place. She took a step to the right, her dead left arm following, falling to her side, the wizard unable to do anything about it looked down at the extremity and watched as the forces of the world moved it to its proper place. To gain one must give, to gain the power of projection one must give control of their physical body. The very soul was moving the objects, and that was something to ponder, but at a late time.

After clearing the chair in which she sat the wizard began to take steps backwards, watching the quill carefully. She willed the quill to stay there, and took another step back, the quill itself shook with her astral hand in the strain of her orders. It was only natural for the mind to fight this, for her to think that this is unnatural, that to extend her reach beyond what was physical was not possible, but in a world of magic nearly anything can be. That was the wonder of this dark, brave world.

She reached out her right hand to touch the quill, but it was just out of reach. The quill, along with her astral body were out of her physical reach, and that was a lot to take in for the wizard. She stepped back again daring to watch to see what would happen. Again, again, again, another step and another look, another observation about the condition of the quill. She made mental notes as she forced her astral hand to be still, to hold the quill in place. Another step and another, and soon she was whole feet away from the desk, and still her astral hand held the quill. Both of which have not moved.

She looked at her outreached right hand and compared it to the astral appendage floating invisibly around the room. It was almost double her arm length by now, and as she backed up her right hand, her right arm, as it is attached to her body, followed. The same thing would make sense for the astral body, at least, once it would stop stretching and be unable to fulfill her command of keeping the quill suspended above the desk.

Further back she walked, more and more, until the quill moved in position. The quill started to follow Rayages backpedal. That was when the wizard stopped and looked at exactly how far away the quill was. Her right hand was still outstretched and she estimated that it was about three times her regular arm’s length. She now knew exactly how far her projection could stretch in its current state.

x

[Rayage]

Turning her right hand over so her palm faced the ceiling of her laboratory she locked her gaze on the floating quill. She mentally planned out the path for the quill to take. It was a simple path, straight from the desk to the palm of her right hand. There was no obstacles in the way of this path, and it was a simple one. Rayage was confident that she could do this, and that this task would be easier than orienting herself of her whereabouts of her astral body. Especially because it was a physical object, something that she could see.

So she mentally commanded her astral hand to bring the quill over to her right hand. It was there she waited for her thought to execute. Hand out, patiently waiting for the return of the quill to its more proper place. At first the quill just quivered there in the air, and then the wizard focused a little bit more on the task at hand, moving the astral body. It was so different from maneuvering the physical body, but not at the same time. It was the same thing that moved both, but it was more alien to the wizard to have to move it outside the physical shell. Challenging even, and this was reflected in the movement of the quill in the air, or lack thereof.

The more she ordered her astral body to move the more it did. She needed to be firm in her commanding, as her powers of projection thus far were slight. The astral body was clumsy and disoriented outside the mortal shell, but practice would make up for that. She had to believe it, and saw her own proof in the bumbling wizard that initiated her into the art. She would get better, but it would take time and consistent practice. Luckily, the wizard had all the time in the world to practice in a seemingly immortal lifespan…

All wizards start out at ground zero, Rayage reminded herself as the quill inched towards her. The great ones worked past the limits of the beginning, as the beginning was always the most bumpy of paths, but beyond it only gets more dangerous. She needed to decide if she wanted to commit to this path. She needed to decide now, and so she did. Her decision was a grab for power, to protect herself and her dreams, so she would no longer be looked down on as a wizard because she was only known for a world magic. No longer.

No longer! And the more her determination grew the faster the astral body seemed to move, as if it too was empowered by the nuits new mindset. Closer and closer the object sailed towards the wizard at a constant and steady pace. Then the pinnacle of her time spent: the quill was resting in the air above her outstretched hand. The wizard smiled, and relinquished her grasp from the object letting it fall into the hand, which then enclosed around the quill itself. She did it. She was going to get better at this. That was a promise.

Satisfied with her days work the nuit looked down at her dead hand, and tried to position her astral hand over the dead astral bodiless one. She was getting impatient with herself and needed to return to her work as usual, her latest Alchemical Project was waiting to be spun further into completion. So she did not have the luxury of reattaching the recommended way, and instead opted for the faster way to reattach. Going from the elbow down, the nuit pressed the astral body back into her arm, releasing her hold on the djed that had knocked the astral body out. With the djed out of place, the astral body had a form to return to and sunk into the arm. The forearm was probably the easiest to reattach to the body, as it was just one piece going down the arm, when she got to the wrist, however, progress slowed as she needed to pay extra attention to the wrist and hand area to make sure everything was properly attached. The hardest part of reattachment was most likely the fingers, as she found it difficult to get them realigned as well. However as she got it, she slowly pressed the astral form back into the body to which it belonged, and as she did so she could feel the tingling that she felt when detaching. However, this feeling, at this time, meant that she was doing it right and the body was accepting of the astral form.

Once it was completely inside the wizard waited a chime or two, trying to let the buzzing feeling die down a bit and her astral body to snug back into her physical. It was in those moments that she slowly felt her arm again. Once the buzzing died down the wizard looked at her left hand and raised it to her face. She clenched her fist and noted that her movements were as good as to be expected. She opened her hand and closed it again, did that motion a couple more times as if trying to get used to a pair of gloves. She then accepted the condition of her hand and let it drop to her side, turning back to her project she would begin to work anew.

x

[Languish]

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