Closed [Inner Sanctum] Secrets of Smoke (GST Thread)

[Sayana]

This GST thread has been approved by Nightmare and can be found on my SS thread.

Winter 50, 515 – Inner Sanctum

It was one of the coldest days of winter yet. Snow blew thickly in the air and piled up more and more by the day. Many people chose to stay inside if they could, and only stepped out of the thick stone walls to cross the narrow streets of Syliras or to reach one of the more isolated buildings of the city. But even with thick stone walls, cold drafts seeped inside adding to the chill.

Fortunately, the Inner Sanctum was connected to the many winding corridors of Stormhold Citadel. Inside, it was dank and dusty but surprisingly a good amount of light streamed in from one of its windows. Lining the windows were thick curtains and otherwise the room was mostly empty except for a large table with a couple of chairs in the center. Upon the table were a few items: a pot of water, some small stones, a feather and several candles. Two of the more ordinary candles were lit and in candle holders and in the middle was a deep blue candle which gave off thick blue smoke. To the side were two other coloured candles, green and red, which were unused but likely had similar properties.

Seated at the table was Sera Grey Baxter. She wore a mask of blue and gold with embellished tear drops stemming from her eyes. A long dress adorned her frame and she waited patiently in a state of meditation for Nivel to arrive. The previous day she had asked the pycon to join her in another lesson in reimancy. It had been about two seasons since Nivel’s initiation and they were long overdue for more in depth training.

When the pycon arrived, Sera Grey would invite Nivel to join her at the table. “The beginning of Winter was a time of turmoil, was it not? Are you ready to take the necessary precautions and renew your training with reimancy? Or as they say, ‘get back on the horse’?” There was warmth to her voice at the last comment. No matter where Nivel was at in her journey through the ranks of the Knighthood, Sera Grey would always be fond of the little pycon.

“Shall we begin with some meditation and a simple shield? I would like to see how you’ve been progressing.” The mage knight couldn’t help but look curiously at some of the more recent changes to Nivel’s appearance. It may pose a challenge to maintain the focus of meditation with the new additions to her form.

[Nivel]

OocSorry I took so long

It was a chilly day indeed, but nothing short of death would keep Nivel from her long over due training with Sera Grey. Nivel practically sprinted down the stone Hallways so as not to keep the women waiting but she was careful not to run to fast and trip on the felt robe she now wore for protection from the harsh weather. As she traversed her way through the nearly empty winding passages ways of the city she speculated as to what her former Patron would have in store for her. Sera Grey was an interesting character with many tricks up her sleeves so what ever it was it would sure to be interesting.

Nivel finally wiggled her way under the cumbersome door as she usually did, and noticed strange light coming from the tables in the middle of the otherwise dark room. Nivel wasn’t at a high enough vantage point to see the objects on top but was instantly intrigued especially from the blue light. The pycon was unaware that fire could turn other colours and it opened up some definite possibilities in her nexus.

While Nivel couldn’t see Sera Grey with the table obstructing her vision, the pycon had become familiar enough with the women’s aura that she could feel her presence. It was clear that Sera Grey shared this connection because she invited Nivel to join her before the pycon had truly made her presence known. Nivel pulled herself up onto one of the chairs with an elongated arm and then proceeded onto the table using the same method. The Pycon took a moment to look over the objects laid out on the surface and her ears fluttered with interest as she did so. Nivel had no idea what they had to do with her training but was eager to see what she would be doing with them. When Nivel finally looked up to see Sera Grey, She noticed she had a new mask on. The pycon didn’t verbally compliment the mask but her peculiar spasms were sure to give Sera Grey an idea of how the pycon felt.

“I am Sera” Nivel said with a gentile bow. Nivel knew there was no way to hide the mishap that had happened, the aura of her monstrous tails would likely have soured by the overgiving’s corruption. There was still a touch of shame that could be felt in her Nexus for letting her Patron and the Order down but Nivel didn’t let it show.

With a simple nod of the head, Nivel began to ready herself for the task at hand. She sat down cross legged and slowly let her worries and stresses flutter away like swarm of butterflies. When her Nexus was finally clear of excess clutter she let it focus interlay on what it meant to protect and focused that feeling outward and into a physical presence. Strands of shield came out of her mouth and encircled her. They wound around her slowly and until just about ever inch of her was enveloped. Nivel then focused on flattening and densifying it to turn her spun canoon into a hard shell.

“Okay I’m ready” Nivel replied confidently as she awaited further instructions.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Sayana]

Sera Grey gave a brief nod as the pycon finished forming and solidifying the shield. “When I first initiated you into reimancy, we focused on producing res and transmuting it.” The mage knight explained and recalled the moment that she thought she had lost Nivel. “Today, we will be focusing on attraction. It still requires res to be formed, however, usually it consumes far less res than it would to transmute the element.”

She reached down and pulled out a small glass cup. After filling it with water from the pot she placed the cup between them near the center of the table beside the blue smoking candle. “Just like with transmutation, I focus my djed where I want to the res to form. Then I will it to attract the element I desire.” Following her explanation she began to demonstrate. The mage knight held out her hands, palms up, on the table. Closing her eyes for a moment she concentrated on the gentle stirrings of djed within her veins, willing it to slowly accumulate towards her hands. An ethereal syrupy liquid began to form within her palms. She was in no rush and only needed a small amount to accumulate in the cup of her hands. Like gel, it stuck to her hands as she lifted them up over the glass of water.

Beckoning the water, willing it upwards to join with her res, she caused a splash within the cup and then a small current flowing upwards to her right hand. It looked almost surreal, like drawing syrup into the air. Despite the attracting force from the res, the water was still inhibited by the tug of gravity. When the strand of water was nearly at her hand, she focused on creating a pull from her left hand, with its small portion of res. Like a snake, the water suddenly twisted and moved almost diagonally between her hands.

She released the water with a sudden splash and a faint sizzle from one of the candles. As she bent to produce a small cloth, she explained some of the properties of reimancy that had occurred during the demonstration. “As you can see, with attraction the element in question is drawn directly towards your res. But if you have multiple sources of res that are engaged, you can better direct how you want the element to behave. But you still have to will the element towards your res, it doesn’t just come on its own.”

Once the table was cleaned she added one more piece of information. “What you might not have noticed, is that the water in the pot was also drawn to my res. It didn’t manage to splash over because I was careful, but any element nearby could potentially be drawn to your res when you are attracting.”

Sera Grey set aside the cup and gestured to the blue candle. “I’d like you to concentrate on producing res, only a small amount, and will the air towards it. The smoke should help you visualize the results better and you can practice moving the res physically or mentally to control where you want the air to go. Take your time. You may not have the best precision but it will get better with practice.”

[Nivel]

Nivel nodded along as Sera Grey explained the lesson in detail. It was probably hard for the masked women to know if the pycon was actually absorbing what she was saying but Nivel took in as much as she could. Though the events of the traumatic initiation lingered in the back of her nexus as Sera Grey spoke of them.

These unpleasant thoughts left her mind when the seasoned reimancer summoned her beautiful purple res in the from of an etherial gel. It wasn’t often that Nivel got to see her former patron’s magic in use, The women was usually pretty careful with her magic. Nivel had only seen her magic during the initiation and once during a bandit attack.

Nivel watched as Sera grey continued with her demonstration and took in all the information she could on attracting elements. With all the trouble she’d been having in her magic studies she knew that learning such a useful skill would make things less complicated. She didn’t want to experience any more serious over giving mishaps if she could help it.

“But at my skill level I won’t have to worry about attracting other elements, right?” Nivel finally spoke up to hopefully show her understanding “I don’t have strong enough res to pull more than one element” Nivel didn’t sound very sure of her own statement, She had a feeling sera grey would correct her soon enough.

With her small inquiry resolved, Nivel began to conjure her res. She took a moment to clear her mind once more and focused it intensely on the abnormal feeling of res. Slowly but surely the ethereal emerald coloured gel secreted from her tiny hands and with it came the usual numb pain. She willed it to stop prematurely so that she only produced a small amount. Being the tiny creature that Nivel was she never seemed to produce much res to begin with, so her interpretation of a small amount was minuscule to say the least. To a tall folk her res looked like a glimmering firefly, but to Nivel it seemed reasonable enough.

Nivel willed her res to hover on top of the bowl of water and to start pulling the air around the blue candle towards her. The focal point of the candle helped her greatly with her focus, and before she knew it the candle began to flicker and the water began to ripple. The spoke slowly changed it’s direction toward the tiny ball of res but didn’t seem to do much else. The pull of nivel’s res wasn’t strong enough at first but it didn’t discourage her. She continued to concentrate on the fire and did her best to narrow her focus even more. Eventually the spoke began to waft toward the res until it began to encircle Nivel’s res. The air within the smoke reacted to Nivel’s res and became imbued with magic. She could feel the air that had joined with her res and was internally overjoyed that she had succeeded.

lastly she willed the res to form into a ring, the wind surrounding it spun around like a tiny tornado. It took the smoke with it and the blue spoke smoke spiralled around the sparkling green res made an interesting visual effect. The ache in her nexus increased as she willed the hole in the centre of her res to increase.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Sayana]

Sera Grey gave a simple nod at Nivel’s inquiry about attracting other elements, then watched the pycon proceed with the lesson. In her hands, the brilliant purple gel slowly began to seep away. With a brief glance downwards, the patron willed the remaining res into a small pool of water cupped in the indent of her palms. Nivel’s work was slow with the reimancy, but she was making progress and soon a small spiralling blue tornado hovered near the candle.

However, Nivel would find that as she tried to widen the hole in the centre of her res, there was less res than she had when she had started. The pycon had started with so little to begin with that soon the swirling smoke would inevitably collapse in on itself, with nothing to fuel its movement.

“Res does not last forever,” Sera Grey spoke when she started to see symptoms of the tornado failing. “It will degrade the longer you have it out, so it’s important to use it sparingly.” She held out her hands for Nivel to see, and all that remained was the bit of water she had transmuted the res into. “Once finished attracting an element, I’ve made it a habit to transmute it. It’s safer than having left over res which you might accidentally attract or transmute.”

The mage knight paused to let Nivel appropriately take care of any remaining res. “With all forms of magic, it’s important to use your head. Try to think creatively rather than directly to achieve the desired results. Reimancy, in particular, can be very taxing on the body so it’s all the more important to come up with creative uses that don’t require much res.”

She reached down and pulled out a small bag of sand. There were several props now on the table. The pot of water, the empty glass cup, some sand, and couple of small rocks, and the candles – both normal and coloured. She used the blue candle to light the red one which also began to billow out coloured smoke as well.

“Your next task is to use reimancy, in some form or another, to create a distraction. It might be something you could use in combat or even a simple distraction to confuse or startle a criminal you’re interrogating.”

[Nivel]

The patron only gave Nivel a slight nod but it felt so good to have her knowledge confirmed, even if it was only a small gesture. As a novice, any sign that she was going on the right track was something the pycon very much coveted.

When Nivel’s tiny loop slowly eroded out of existence it was a little discouraging. In the few times she had conjured her Res it was in larger amounts so it didn’t fade quite so quickly. She knew that as her Res grew in strength it would last for much longer but she couldn’t help feeling a touch frustrated at her own short comings.

With a wave of her hand and a few whispered incantations spoken, the thin wisp of a ring burst into a subtle gust of wind that petered out soon after. Sera Grey hadn’t really taught Nivel any incantations, Her father was actually the one who brought this knowledge to her attention. Not that Nivel used them very much or knew much about them, She didn’t really remember the proper pronunciation of most of the words. It also didn’t help that she had virtually no knowledge of the old language that was commonly used in magical text. Gestures were far more natural to Nivel anyway.

The next challenge Sera Grey gave Nivel was to create a diversion. It didn’t sound like it would be too hard at first but the tiny mage quickly felt hesitant as reality set in. She just simply stood there for a moment with absolutely no idea how she would proceed. Her nexus wasn’t usually so hollow but fear seemed to have created a stone wall that prevented ideas from flowing in. She breathed in and out slowly to alleviate her anxiety and eroded the wall. Eventually an idea slipped through the cracks and she was able to proceed.

She conjured a her Res again, this time with a slight increase in volume from her last batch so it would last a touch longer. When the Res was finally created Nivel sent the Ethereal ball a safe distance away and began her gestures. Soon enough the sphere began to grow 4 thin tentacles in a star fish type pattern. It continued this way for a few moments, until the tentacle growing downward split and continued to grow into two more. When Nivel made the odd sculpture do a twirl it became clear that she had made a humanoid frame. The pycons original intention was to use her magic to control a puppet but obviously didn’t bring the fabric casing She would need. Instead she got her res to do a little dance on top of the bowl of sand. Nivel twirled he hands and her Res mannequin copied her movements. In doing so the res began to draw the air around a nearby candle and carried wisps of smoke with it. The little doll erupted into wind and with dramatic twirl sucked in the sand and smoke into a mini tornado before dissipating.
“Was that good enough?” Nivel asked breathlessly.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Sayana]

“Beautiful. You have quite the artistic flair, my friend.” Sera Grey replied with a twinkle in her eye. Throughout Nivel’s display, she was constantly watching the pycon for signs of overgiving. Reimancy was no easy thing, especially at the beginning, but the mage knight didn’t want to completely scare Nivel off particularly since the pycon was still regaining confidence after her bout of overgiving earlier in the season.

“However, don’t forget that you can be creative but efficient at the same time.” From the tips of her fingers she produced a thin stream of violet gas. A small glowing ball formed about an arm’s length from her where another small glowing cloud of gas formed over the pot of water. She breathed in sharply and one of stones ricocheted towards the purple glow and carried along past it to clatter against the stone wall. Hardly a moment later, she let go of the other rock on the table and it leapt into the air only to fall with a resounding plop into the water.

After the brief display, her purple res swiftly fused together and transmuted into a smattering of dirt headed straight for Nivel. She was breathing somewhat heavily from the mental fatigue but a faint smile formed upon her lips.

“I have found, on several occasions, that people don’t particularly like dirt in their eyes, or mouth, or nose…” She managed to keep a straight face even though there was some cheekiness to her tone. “And for some of those occasions we even managed to avoid bloodshed.”

Sera Grey moved to light the green candle and it too began to billow a brilliant green-yellow smoke. As the smoke began to mix with the others, the mage knight coughed as she inhaled a little too much, then swatted it away with a hand. “You’ll find your niche. Plus you’ve got all this to work with.”

She cleared her throat and leaned back in her chair so she was a bit further back from the billowing clouds. “But now I’d like you to use your head again. Your nexus. I’d like you to convince me that this pot of water is hot. Very hot.” She gestured to the pot on the table and patiently waited for Nivel to puzzle out the new challenge.

[Nivel]

“Why thank you Sera Grey” Nivel replied between breaths with a weak bow. Magical training sessions were always an ordeal but she still had some djed to spare. She just hoped she would have enough to finish all of her former patrons lesson. The pycon could never be sure until she ether started hearing the whispers or the pain became too much.

Nivel watched another demonstration from Sera Grey, this time however the tiny mage noticed that she had a bit of trouble focusing on what was going on. The fatigue made her focus a touch hazy and she completely fell for Sera Greys ruse hook line and sinker. The rock hitting against the wall caught her attention long enough for Sera Grey to splash Nivel with a wave of dirt. The naturally agile creature tried to quickly tumble out of the way but she was far to sluggish to do so, Instead she found herself laying in a bed of conjured dirt.
“I don’t like dirt ether, unless it’s clay” Nivel grumbled slightly as she forced herself up. “I’ll keep this in mind, less is more after all.”

“-but back to the task at hand.” Nivel said as registered the next puzzle that sera grey had concocted for her. Before conjuring her Res, Nivel worked out how water works. Water was something that nivel usually avoided, since her dense body would sink right to the bottom and she didn’t cook her food. Though she did still know that prolonged exposure to lots of heat made water boil, she just didn’t know how to accomplish that without large amounts of fire. Though she quickly realized that Sera Grey didn’t want her to actually make the water but make it look like it was boiling. The pycon was pretty confident she could accomplish that so she began to conjure res again.

She kept the quantity low again, but her dull nexus ache still got a bit worse. She did her best to ignore it and not let it get to her but it affected the movement of her res as she guided it towards the the cup of water. The glowing ball of res gently zig zaged as nivel struggled to keep focus on it’s trajectory. She still managed to get it hovering over the cup of water and stopped to take a few deep breaths before she focused on drawing the air from inside the cup of water. It was slow at first with only a few bubbles rising to the top but as she regained her focus more came. Though this didn’t really make the water look like it was truly boiling, there wasn’t enough movement of the water. Nivel sent the res into the water and did her best to giggle the water about. All this accomplish was a lot of slashing water.
“This is harder than I thought.” Nivel sighed.

OocI'm so sorry this month got pretty busy for me, I'll get to your other thread very soon

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath

[Sayana]

Sera Grey wrinkled her nose a bit as the candles produced more waves of coloured smoke. There was something foul smelling in the air. Patiently she watched as the pycon mage figured out how to deal with this next challenge. A smile came to the knight’s face as the pycon conjured res near the glass of water and began drawing upon the air.

Even as Nivel worked, Sera Grey found herself having to stifle a cough. And then, another cough. She patted her chest trying to clear the feeling but it resulted in a bout of hacking. Her eyes started to tear up and she could hardly focus on how well her student was doing with the boiling water exercise.

The mage knight got to her feet. “Excuse me Nivel, I…” She inhaled deeply trying to regain her breath but suddenly her throat felt like it was constricting and she could hardly breathe. The knight doubled over, hacking and spluttering. Her body was trembling and with another cough there was a glob of blood and saliva on the table. There was fear in her eyes and had she not been wearing the mask, her face would have been pale as she tried to keep herself together.

Nivel, on the other hand, would only feel a growing nexus ache from the reimancy she had been performing. Whatever was happening to the mage knight was not affecting the pycon.

Near the back of the room, there was a faint knock upon the door.

[Nivel]

confusion stuck the pycon as her former patron knight began to have a coughing fit. Coughing wasn’t really something pycon typically did so Nivel could only wonder what the problem was. It was when the Women grasped her throat and struggled to breath that real concern hit the tiny creature.
“Sera! Are you okay?!” Nivel cried in panic but it was clear as the women was far from okay as she began to spat out blood onto the table. Nivel knew enough about tall folk anatomy to know that blood leaked when there was an injury but she didn’t have the faintest idea what could have injured her. All Nivel knew was that Sera Grey needed help as soon as possible.

The pycon scrambled around frantically, trying desperately to figure out how she could aid her long time friend. The timely knock at the door was like a gift sent from Harameus and Nivel spent no time in using it.
“I Need HELP!” Nivel practically screamed at the person behind the door and in a flash the door burst open.
“What’s wrong?” An oddly familiar Symenestra bellowed in concern.
“Sera Grey can’t breath and blood is coming from her mouth!”
“I’ll be back.” Was the mans only response and it gave no comfort to the pycon who was a complete mess.
“Where are you going?” Nivel whimpered but the fell on deaf ears as the man was already gone.

He came back soon enough with two squires, followed shortly after by some healers from the sacred waters.
"I'm not sure what's wrong but she needs help right away" Nivel instructed as she tried her best to keep her bubbling emotions in check.

Credit for Boxcode goes to Estrellir Konrath