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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]
A tall fortress of books lay in the centre of the study table. Nivel had carefully laid them like the stone bricks of the fortress city until it became too difficult for her to continue. It stood only about a foot high but to a pycon it was quite an accomplishment. She had spent a few bells early in the morning tirelessly collecting what ever books she could find from the lower shelves, hoisting them up the chair and then unto the table. It would have been a simple task for a Tall Folk but they didn’t have to stretch their limbs and pull their entire weight up just to get on a chair and then pull an object that was nearly five times their body mass.
After all that work Nivel just wanted to lay in her fortress and do a bit of research. She pulled a random book off the top of her pile and pushed open the leather cover. It was a book of human anatomy, and the first thing they Pycon encounter was a simple diagram of human anatomy. At first Nivel didn’t know what she had stubbled onto but it soon became clear as she read the accompanying notes. She carefully catalogued the picture and most of the important names into her head, by using the names into short little songs that she lightly whispered. “heart pumps the blood, bones keep them up, Stomach is were the foood goes,”
She delved deeper into the pages to see if she could find anything else of note and stopped when she came across a page titled pressure points. As she read on she discovered the titles meaning and the potential it could bring. Nivel knew of some areas that were sensitive on a Tall Folk but not many and she had only found them by fluke. She memorized their locations with the aid of yet another song. “Whip them behind the knee, punch them in the gut, kick them on the neck and the’ll fall on their but.” She was mindful to read over the dangers of using pressure points so as not to end up killing when she didn’t intend to. In Nivel’s mind Tall folk were such fragile but complicated creatures, so she had to be careful when dealing with them.
When the pycon felt she had read enough she climbed to the ledge of her tower. She looked down at her monstrous tails, Oglaba and Dinky as they met her gaze with their single pupiless eyes. They weren’t truly sentient but parts of her that no longer cooperated with her body after an overgiving mishap at the beginning of the season. Nivel liked to think that they were alive, like little pets that also happened to be fused to her. though like most pets, they took some guidance from time to time. “Okay, I want to do a flip and I need your assistance. You two know what I want you to do right?” Nivel asked hesitantly. The serpent creatures clapped their toothy jaws and Nivel just had to take that as a yes. She bend her knees in order to launch herself off the edge, she then thrust her head forward. Her tails thankfully cooperated and threw their weight forward so that she could do a forward flip. Nivel landed with a tumble then walked the length of the table. “Again?” She preformed another flip to get herself of the table, though her legs took more impact than intended and she had to wait for them to reform.
With her research finished, Nivel decided it was time to head towards the Inner sanctum. She had a meeting there with Sera Grey for some Magical training at midday and while she had plenty of time she didn’t want to be late. Nivel was going to take her time but the stinging chill that filled the stone corridors made her want to rush. She held her felt coat firmly around her tiny clay body and folded her wing shaped ears under her hood to keep them out of the chill, as she briskly made her way to the Sanctum. Her tails seemed to slither about in there own accord but Nivel ignored them.
A bell or two later of walking and Nivel had found herself in front of the large door. She wiggled along the floors cold surface like a worm, but found it much harder than usual with her coat. The pycon couldn’t wait until the weather became less chilled so she could be free of the limitations of fabric. She liked to dress up occasionally for fun but doing it all the time seemed unnecessary, she didn’t know how Tall Folk could stand it.
Once inside Nivel caught Sera Grey from behind as she packed some objects from a large sack; The first was a wooden bowl carved from drift wood and another smaller green sack. Nivel tried to step delicately to see if she could sneak up on her former patron, but it was futile. “Greetings Sera Nivel” the seasoned Mage knight said softly. “Greetings to you to Sera Grey” Nivel replied back. The pycon nearly forgot how Sera Grey was already intimately familiar with her aura making stealth nearly impossible to achieve against the women.
“You seem to be early, but I have finished the preparations if you consider yourself ready little one” The patron turned and looked down at the pycon from behind the finely embroidered mask she wore that made her look like a mystical fawn. The women hair was twisted into horns that completed the look with charms and sting weaved into the design. Nivel always liked her patron’s style, though she wondered how she was ever able to be a competent knight with her elaborate hair styles and other theatrics.
“I’m ready!” Nivel proclaimed cheerfully as she scurried to one of the rundown chairs beside the work bench. The pycon hastily made her way up to the marble surface next to the bowl and awaited further instructions.
“Good, you know what to do.” The women nodded her head ever so slightly. Nivel nodded back and sat down in a cross legged position to begin the first step. She rid herself first of the most troubling and distracting thoughts like plucking petals from a flower. Then she finished off the smaller distraction until she was left with an empty mind space to work with. Making a shield was the second step, and Nivel began to focus entirely on conjuring the djed to make one. It was a long process and possibly unnecessary since she was making it to protect herself form any back fire cause during Reimancy. Nivel had probably the least dangerous element to work with but one could never be to careful. When the shield was finally spread out amongst her tiny body and the membrane was solidified to ensure protection, the little mage knew it was time to start conjuring res.
Shielding didn’t drain to much Djed so the overgiving affects were minimal, but as soon as Nivel had reached the point when the ethereal emerald coloured gel came oozing from her palms the real pain began. It felt like someones hand was holding her nexus and slowly squeezing the res right out of it. She pushed on through the pain until she had eventually produced enough to fill both of her hands.
“That should be enough” Sera Grey instructed. “Now lets see how good you control it” The women turned her head to the left and held her hand to her mouth as she thought of a task for her tiny disciple. “Best to start out simple, follow the rim of this bowl twice around.” It seemed like an easy task so Nivel willed her Res over to the shallow bowl in front of her. Its movement was shaky as she tired to maintain its course with only her force of mind and will. The glimmering gel finally made it to the bowl but it almost continued past the rim before Nivel reined it in. It amazed Nivel how hard this simple task was still proving to be, she thought it would have gotten easier with all her practice. She let out a sight to vent her frustration and maintain her focus before continuing.
Carefully Nivel traced the rim of the bowl, which had quite a bit of twists and turns to it than a most ceramic bowls she had come across. Once she got half way around the warped circumference she could feel it becoming noticeably easier and she finished the rest in a fraction of the time and with much smoother movements. She did another wind around and found even more improvement.
“Very well done” Sera Gray clapped her hands delicately in celebration. “Now I would very much like to see you create a butterfly”
Nivel nodded her sore head and focused again on the Res. Being a pycon, Nivel was well versed in changing form so changing the res’s shape was remarkably easy for her. With the power of her nexus she flattened the res and sculpted it into a remarkable looking butterfly but it remained frozen in time. It just wasn’t a true butterfly unless it was flapping it’s wings through the wind. Nivel knew her task wasn’t complete until she gave the creature life, but as soon as she tried to flutter it’s wings they warped unnaturally. The pycon let out another frustrated sigh before making another attempt with more focus. The wings only twisted into an abstract mess that was far worse than before. She tried to find a balance and soon the wings were fluttering and slowly moving forward towards Nivel. It didn’t move anything like a butterfly should but Nivel was willing to take it.
“You did very well for a fledgeling. As expected you can shape your res very well, you could use work on your control however.” Sera Gray paused to scratch her chin “I could have sworn you handled yourself better the last time we did this, perhaps I’m pushing you to hard”
“No I’m fine” Nivel retorted. The pycon didn’t want to talk much more on the matter since her nexus was throbbing. At this point she simply wanted to finish the training up and rest in her comfy shoe bed.
“If you’re certain then we should continue to the next part before your Res expires.” She took another moment of silence to remember the next part of the agenda. “Now that we have practiced basic control we should focus on doing so while your element is active. You know how to do this, Correct?”
Nivel nodded her head weakly.
“Excellent, I would like to see a soaring bird made out of wind. but first..” She trailed off as she reached for the mysterious green bag. An off white powdery substance erupted from the bags opening and came poring into the bowl, leaving clouds of dust in it’s wake. “I want you to make the bird dance in this flour, and move the flour into this.” She reached down and pulled out a brown ceramic bowl.
Pycon gulped nervously, she wasn’t sure she had the energy to make a bird out of wind let alone have it cary the flour from one bowl to the next. She didn’t want to give up though and was determined to finish the odd task put before her.
She carefully shifted the res into a bird, it was harder than the butterfly but she wasn’t sure if it was just because her res was losing its potency or if it was truly more difficult. She hoped it wasn’t her res, since she still had to finish the exercise. Once the struggle of the rez sculpting was over Nivel focused on evoking the element of wind into her tiny sculpture. For her to be able to remain in control she had to only transmute the outer shell of the res so the execution had to be precise. She felt the wind in her mind and the green of the rez started to become clear and alive. She could feel the breeze coming off the rez now and the flour began to cloud up. Soon the bird was engulfed in wind and she willed it to swoop down into the bowl. She did it a little to quickly and a flour was shot everywhere. When the bird emerged however it brought a large about of the flour with it. Nivel willed it to jump into the other bowl and crash in a puff of white. When the flour settled there was indeed flour in the other bowl.
“That could have gone better, but you did make a bird and it did carry some of the flour into the other bowl. So I suppose you passed this exercise.” She looked back and forth at the damage. There was floor coving nearly the entire area. “I might have to think of other ways of doing this exercise that don’t result in such an awful mess.” She said as she began brushing the powder of her robe.
“Sorry about that” Nivel mumbled meekly. “Are we done…or is there more for me to do?” Nivel desperately hoped the answer was yes to her first question, she didn’t feel she had it in her to preform anymore magic.
“I’m afraid there is one last task Nivel but fear not it shouldn’t be too hard for you to accomplish.” Nivel groaned at Sera Grey’s response. She hoped her patron was right, she felt like things would get dangerous if she were to continue. “All I need you do do is attract a bit of wind before your Res fades. I would ask you to try and return what little you have left back to your body but there wouldn’t be nearly enough left.” Sera Grey continued to explain. “Wait you can absorb it back?” Nivel replied in bewilderment. “Probably not at your level but eventually you can absorb unused Rex back into your body but it will never be the same about that came out, Res deteriorates to fast to fast for that.” “Oh cool” “Keep your mind on track little one, you don’t have much time” “Oh right” Nivel snapped back into the present and began to focus on attracting wind to her left over Res, she imagined it as a mini cyclone drawing in the air around it. She started to feel the wind with in it’s range, it was an odd sensation but thankfully not as odd as when res first invaded her body. She didn’t like the feeling but she embraced it and a large gust of wind blew the bowls over on to the floor and out into the air. The wind quickly died with Nivel’s exhausted res and things went silent once more.
Nivel practically collapsed, her nexus was throbbing and she wanted nothing more than for it to leave. The pycon prayed to Haramous, Sylir and even Syna in hopes that Sera Grey wouldn’t ask her to clean up the horrendous mess she made with the flour. “Don’t worry this mess will be swiftly dealt with, you just rest for now and shall carry you back to your bed. Do you still sleep in that sock or have you gotten a proper bed?” The patron asked as she pulled out a rag to collect the flour on the blanketing the ashen counter. “I sleep in a boot now, it’s much better” “I suppose it would be.” she paused a moment, as she ran her own statement through her head for a second time “..for you”
Nivel laid on her back with her arms spread wide. Her nexus didn’t stop throbbing but she had gotten used to it enough that she could almost go to sleep. She was half asleep when she was lifted from the ground by Sera grey’s gloved hands and then gently placed in the snug pocket on the front of her robe. The fabric of the pocket shielded her from the cold and before she knew it Nivel was wrapped in her cocoon of unused socks and dishtowels with in the confines of her well crafted leather shoe bed.
Lore: Medicine: Heart, Lungs and Stomach Medicine: Pressure Points Singing: Useful for Study Sera Grey: Seasoned Mage Meditation: Ridding Yourself of Distracting Thoughts Planning: Shields, THEN Reimancy Reimancy: Much Control Involved Sera Grey: Pushing Hard Reimancy: Using Air to Move Things
Additional: +3 Shield Points for training with your patron
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Usually I wouldn't give out the Max in a Magic-related thread because it can be such a game-breaker, but wow, you really followed through with this one. It was a joy to read and you were really creative when it came to your tests. I ADORED Nivel, too. The way you describe her, your choice of words, it just makes her seem like an over-enthusiastic squirrel (sorry, Arch)! Your characterization of Grey was beautifully realistic, too.
One thing I'd advise would be to keep an eye on spelling and grammar errors, as there were plenty hear. Also: periods. Use them.
Oh, and please make sure you go back and edit your post in the Request Thread to reflect the fact this one is now done and dusted. PM me with any questions and later 'tater!
