Closed I See at Sea[Sayana]

[Clyde Sullins]

20 Summer 516

Clyde sat on his bunk, a short cot within his room, and stared at a wall.

At that particular moment he was picking apart a particularly odd bit of wood, some kind of knot or twist in the material causing an odd appearance to it. The rest of the wall was clean wood more or less, but his eyes were naturally drawn to the one imperfection.

Luckily for him he had a strong stomach, and so the movement of the boat didn't bother him.

Neither did reading or staring at a single point while the boat moved with the surf, something that for some people was nauseating.

Focusing on the wall for the moment seemed to help him think, along with the familiar caress of Cha in his hands. He stared at the wall, pondering how to go about the lesson.

The time had finally come to initiate Sayana into Auristics, and so he was left pondering how to go about it before she came. She would be there in less than a quarter bell, coming to his room to learn away from prying eyes above deck.

Mage business was for mages, and not for random nosy sailors.

As he stared at the knot in the wood, he imagined it was an eye, and settled on the lesson.

Going through his things, he took out a small pot of inscribing paint, along with a small hand mirror that had been stowed in the drawer of his bedside table.

That would be all that they would need.

His lesson plan sorted out, Clyde sighed and waited for the agreed upon time for Sayana to arrive, and for the lesson to begin.

He had left the door slightly ajar, and one she arrived he would invite her inside and ask her to shut the door behind her.

Then, he would ask her a single question.

“How do you do magic? Explain the process to me, your thought process, how you do it, what you feel, or think, or such. How do you get the magic to occur? How do you get hypnotism to arise and flow out of you? Describe it to me, and I in turn will explain a few things to you, which perhaps will be of use in your learning Auristics. Once I know your process, I can better expand upon it.”

[Sayana]

There was a knot. It twisted and turned in a multitude of directions, and it seemed almost lop-sided. But Sayana couldn’t see it. The knot was in the pit of her stomach.

She hadn’t had the best of experiences with auristics. Her first, was beautiful and priceless, when the aura of her unborn son was read. Except it left a bitter taste in her mouth ever since the miscarriage. Her second experience had involved being completely overwhelmed by auras, so much that it had positively frightened her enough not to attempt it again. Or at least not alone until she better understood it. And her last experience had been the sudden and completely unexpected detection of her hypnotism by none other than Clyde Sullins. It had been that action alone that had caused her initial respect and caution towards the mage. As well as subjecting her to a healthy dose of humility.

The caw of a gull distracted her from her thoughts of unease and she watched as the bird flapped up to land near the top of the main mast of the ship. She turned her gaze back to the vast blue expanse of the ocean, and attempted to clear her thoughts with a deep breath. The salty breeze toyed with her brown locks of hair, and for a moment she reached a certain level of calm. However, the next tick it was shattered when she imagined herself struggling to do the simplest of things under the watch of the mage.

She shook her head sharply and swung her legs back over the railing she had been sitting on. It was time for the lesson, or the initiation as Clyde called it. She flew down the steps from the stern, taking them two at a time. Perhaps it was because she was running a few chimes late, but it was almost as though if she didn’t run head long into the session, she might find some excuse to change her mind. At the door to the cabin, she breathed in and out heavily, then stepped inside with smooth grace. She wore a long elegant red and black dress with thin straps that went over her upper shoulders. Her arms were free and a silver necklace adorned her chest.

The door to Clyde’s room was slightly ajar, and she knocked twice before letting herself in at the mage’s invitation. As she closed the door shut, her gaze fell to his blue blue eyes. It was not often that she found herself taller than him and not craning her neck upwards.

“How do I do magic? Like how do I do hypnotism?” She asked, initially surprised at his question. Even though she knew he wanted the details of how she harnessed the magic, she first wanted to set a few things straight in regards to hypnotism.

“Hypnotism is about knowing people and at its core it is about communication on the most intimate of levels. So I need to know the person’s thoughts, their personality, and what triggers them. Often I can take very broad sort of responses and apply it to many different people. For example, something like adding guilt to my target to encourage them to reveal information.”

Up until now, she was mostly focusing on the general concepts she used rather than the direct djed manipulation. But the preamble made it easier to get into the details of how she actually applied the magic.

“The technique I use most is focusing on a single emotion, or a series of interconnected emotions, and expanding it so much that either pierces through to the person or sort of encompasses them.” She rested her hand against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to recall the exact feeling of it. “It’s like scratching an itch at the very back of my mind. That part that you caress as you drift off to sleep. And it’s taking that magic all the way at the back of my mind and drawing it out, weaving it through my thoughts, encompassing that single emotion that I want to project and then sending it out in a piercing spear, or a warm blanket, or glow that slips through to their very soul…”

Her eyes snapped into focus to meet Clyde’s once more. “And then the tricky part is doing all that while maintaining a seemingly casual conversation.”

When her gaze fell upon the mirror he had taken out, she moved over to pick it up in her high right. “But the very first time I used magic, it wasn’t so simple. And it felt like a completely different approach.”

She looked into the mirror at her reflection. It had been a surreal experience. One that she wasn’t even sure if it could be replicated. But if anywhere, she could replicated a similar experience in Alvadas. For half a tick her fingers tapped against the wall before she curled the hand into a fist.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde nodded and listened as Sayana began her explanation.

In order to help her learn a new magic, he first needed to learn how she used the existing ones. Pulling forth and manipulating ones djed was a unique experience to each mage, and as such one had to understand that approach before instructing how to expand upon it.

At first she seemed focused more on hypnotism theory, something that was in a way interesting... But not what he was asking. But still, he knew the information might be of use later, and so he still listened and noted it.

“Most magic, or at least personal magic, tends to follow a few steps. First, one calms or centers oneself. Often this is done with meditation, incantations, gestures, something to get one into the right frame of mind. Have you ever used a gesture or incantation? A gesture is where you use a motion, a meaningless motion, as a way of focusing ones magic. An incantation is the same but with words of similar meaninglessness.”

“You could make random hand gestures, chant a word over and over, or whatever. It just helps to prepare ones mind. When you do make an attempt at auristics, I would like you to use one of these, either an incantation or gesture, whatever feels right.”

Clyde paused for a moment, giving Sayana a bit to process before going on to the next step.

“Next is accessing ones djed. Once you are in the right state of mind, you must access your internal store of djed within yourself. You feel for it, touch it, pull it forth, and mold it into the shape of the spell you are performing. Mages tend to have a bit of freely expendable djed, a inner reserve so to speak. Once you go through that though, you start throwing stuff onto the fire to keep it burning, and who knows what might get used as fuel. Thats when overgiving starts to kick in. That's why its so dangerous. If you don't know when to stop, if you keep going when you've run out of fuel, you'll hurt yourself worse and worse, perhaps permanently. If your lucky, you'll just be physically messed up, or hurt. If you aren't so lucky... Well, Zeltiva had an entire place to keep all the people who went crazy from overgiving from the University. If you don't use control on yourself, restraint, you'll end up that way also.”

Clyde let out a sigh, having paused now to give focus to his words on overgiving. He didn't want Sayana going crazy, not that he'd likely notice due to how overgiving usually worked.

“Once you've done that, you release the spell, and it takes affect, or begins. The type of spell doesn't matter, they are all at their core the same. Focus, molding of djed, release. Personal magic is simply the direct usage of djed to cause an effect. The usage of ones own djed. World magic by its name takes its djed from the world, and not the mage himself. Gnosis take their power from the gods. ”

“Now, since you've already learned how to access your own internal djed, you don't need to learn that. All you need to learn is a new way to mold the djed you access into a new type of spell. Instead of transforming the djed and causing a hypnotism effect, you will make a Auristical effect.”

“Now, I'm going to draw a glyph on your forehead, a simple focus glyph. I want you to focus your djed on that point, try to pull the djed to it, through it, in the same way you pull your djed for hypnotism. For now, start with the eyes. Try to pull the djed to your eyes, and open your aura sight. While you do that, look into the mirror at your own reflection, and use your incantation or gesture.”

“Look at yourself in the mirror, and try to see more. Try to see your own aura. A person's aura is the easiest to see in general, as its the strongest, at least compared to inanimate objects and non-sentient creatures. Sight is the easiest to start with, so try that to begin, though once you are more skilled you can use other methods.”

Assuming that Sayana allowed him, Clyde would take out the inscribing paint and paint a quick glyph on her forehead. It was a simple one, and one he'd used for quite some time. A simple sun, a circle at the core with a wavy line going up and down and touching the sun at its low points, forming a sort of wreath around the circle. A sun in total as the glyph.

Of course, to Clyde's mind this was the black sun's symbol, not a normal sun, though no one would know that by looking at it.

Clyde would sit back and watch for a moment, as Sayana began her work. While she knew a magic already, he still expected it to be a long slow process to learn to access her djed and use Auristics.

[Sayana]

As Clyde began to explain the first steps of how most magic was conducted, Sayana chose to take a seat next to him on the small cot. For a few moments she looked at her reflection in the mirror as she listened to his words, then absently brushed a few locks of hair from her face. She twisted the mirror slightly in her grip, and she managed to catch sight of Clyde’s face in the small device.

“Gestures? Is that what you’re doing when you’re stroking your staff?” Her remark had been genuine and inquisitive, but after two ticks her choice of wording struck home. An uncontrollable smile burst upon her face, and she had to raise her hand to her mouth to stifle any audible laughter. “I meant no offence Clyde. Truly, honestly.” Sayana quickly apologized, whether he would understand the source of her apology or not. “Gestures, right, gestures. I will think of one.” She breathed in and out through her nose as she regained her focus on the lesson.

Any sort of concentration with a calm mind was made six times as hard as she listened to his explanations. When he mentioned overgiving, at first a frown crossed her face and then her a wave of understanding hit her. It made sense, and she had encountered the concept before, but she hadn’t specifically heard the terminology. Or else it had been so long ago and in such casual passing that she hadn’t recalled it.

In comparison to her previous magic ‘teachers’, Clyde was by far the most thorough. Terms like world magic versus personal magic versus gnosis flowed from his lips in clear explanation. She might not grasp it all in one sitting but she would most likely recall the terms if mentioned a second time.

Sayana nodded with unspoken permission for him to draw the glyph. She sat still as she watched in the mirror as the symbol of the sun was painted on her forehead. “Syna for sight, joy and laughter… My mother named me after her.” Sayana spoke as he finished the image.

She glanced over at the mage and caught sight of the long blue piece of wood. Pursing her lips tightly, she looked away and tried to keep the smile off her face. Instead she looked in the mirror again and momentarily closed her eyes to regain her self-control. As she opened her eyes, she stared into her reflection, meeting her own gaze. Then recalling his instruction to use a gesture, she kissed the tips of her fingers and blew softly. Surprisingly, it acted as an amazing focal point and with hardly a thought she summoned a calming feeling to engage her djed. When she blew a second kiss, she gazed deeply into her own eyes and allowed the slow release of magic to bring calm and soothing thoughts.

Truthfully, she had rarely ever utilized hypnotism on herself. Although, with the mirror it was rather fitting and it had actually been her very first use of the magic, or magic in general. While one might argue that one can’t truly hypnotize oneself, just like one can’t tickle oneself, it was as it was.

Regardless, she felt calmer and more focused. The Eypharian held up the mirror and with a frown she used her high hands to take off her silver necklace. She also took a moment to remove her boots, but nothing more. If one looked carefully at her upper chest, one might notice three white scars forming an ‘X’-like shape.

Now she was ready to begin. She focused hard on her reflection and tried to clear her mind. But when she thought about using the gesture, it suddenly didn’t feel right at all. It was certainly not a gesture that was easily sustained without being utterly ridiculous. She felt the fingers of her low hand tapping lightly against her leg but as soon as she noticed it, she squashed the movement.

The Eypharian was about to close her eyes and refocus, when she caught sight of the sun glyph upon her forehead. Whether or not it was an intentional source of inspiration on the mage’s part, she held her mid hands at a comfortable height while slowly tracing a circle in her right palm. With her high hand, she held the mirror aloft and gazed into the glyph. Tracing around and around, she could feel the light touch of her finger as she focused on image of Syna. She was starting to feel that she was getting closer and closer until…

Sayana inhaled sharply and completely abandoned what she was doing. At the same time she abandoned the mirror and had it pointed down and in her lap.

“Clyde, you’re sitting right next to me,” she spoke in a hasty voice, as if stating the obvious had some sort of profound meaning.

Her heart pumping quickly in her chest and if the mage didn’t catch on right away, she would start to explain but in a fragmented sort of way. “I can’t. Not right here with you right there. You could leave the room. I could leave the room. But if I see, if I sense your aura…”

By now she hoped he understood. Although if he suggested that she merely look in a different direction, she would stubbornly attest that she couldn’t, or couldn’t be sure, or might make a mistake.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde stared back at Sayana as she made her odd statement. It took him a moment to recall what she meant, the odd unconscious caressing he so often did with Cha.

He wasn't usually even aware that he did it, it was more of a nervous habit, like a child clutching at a doll.

He didn't really care what she'd intended, but in hindsight he did suppose he did it quite often with Cha... An odd habit he didn't recall starting. He was more annoyed about her losing focus and breaking up the stream of the lesson than about what she'd said.

The fact that she assumed his glyph was a simple sunburst made him smile a bit, once more finding the fact that such a symbol used so openly would so easily be mistaken for another.

But then, few outside of Ravok would recognize it. Even those of the Knights might not see it for what it was.

After this Sayana finally seemed to focus, and was sinking into a more meditative state. She hadn't used Auristics yet, honestly he didn't expect her to achieve that for some time, but she was heading in the right direction.

With that in mind he was somewhat annoyed when she suddenly broke from her concentration, only to complain about him being there. After a moment he knew what she referred to, the oath, to which he simply let out a long sigh.

“Fine, Say. I give you permission to look at my aura today, if you do by chance look at it during your training. But before you start overly worrying about seeing a bunch of other aura's, shouldn't you first learn how to see just one?! How do you think auristics works?”

“Do you think you open your aura sight, and suddenly the aura of everything in sight will bloom into existence for you to see? That's not how it works. You must purposely focus on each item in order to make its aura visible. And then you must take time and dig into it, in order to learn more than the most basic facts.”

“As a new user, you'll be lucky to examine one aura, one. Not just at a time, but per session. It will take quite a bit of training before you are skilled enough to be able to see more than one aura, or to not exhaust yourself after each individual reading. You won't be accidentally seeing a bunch of aura's while you examine one, not as a initiate.”

“For starters I would advise you to have direct line of sight on the item you are examining. It should also be close to you, and the only thing you are doing. It will take all of your focus just to inspect the aura of the one item. It will be the only thing you will be doing, and it will be quite obvious you are trying to do something, as you stare endlessly at one thing or person. Subtlety and finesse doesn't come in until you get more skilled.”

“Now, focus. Focus just on the one thing, yourself in the mirror. Nothing else. Just that. Use the gesture or incantation to aid your focus, let the glyph act as a place to draw your djed to, and focus on your task. Nothing else.”

[Sayana]

Sayana felt heat rise to her cheeks at his sharp words. She half wanted to say that might not work for her the way it did for him, but that might have led to complications involving knowing more than she originally let on. So she bit her tongue and stared at herself pointedly in the mirror. Still, she noted his choice of words. She could see his aura today.

Some of his words got through to her. He definitely stressed the concept of focusing in on one thing rather than reaching out to everything all at once. Had that been the cause of her initial experience? But all the sitting and listening was making her grow restless, even with the rocking of the ship.

She got up suddenly and went over to the small window in the cabin. Peering out, she could see the endless sea and waves. “Is magic ever like a dance?” She asked, although for all intents and purposes it was a rhetorical question. She wasn’t really expecting a reply, though would listen a bit better than before if he chose to answer it. For a moment her eyes lingered on his face and lips. She wondered what it would be like… And then a brief sigh of disappointment escaped her and she finally took a seat at the end of the cot, her back towards the mage.

“Okay okay, I’ll focus.” Albeit small, the momentary break seemed to ease her restlessness. She held up the mirror purposefully in her high hand, and only briefly twitched it to catch sight of Clyde before focusing on her own reflection.

The sun, Syna, beautiful in her spherical perfection and radiant in every passing day. Her eyes gazed at the glyph, seeking both the symmetry it held and the seemingly chaotic rays that emanated from it. She moved her mid hands to a comfortable position and put her lows out to keep her steady with the rocking of the ship. Keeping her eyes fixed on the black sun upon her forehead, she began to trace the palm of her right mid. Again and again she traced the circle with using her index finger and her eyes followed the circle of the sun. For a tick she wished she had the benefit of a drumbeat, but soon tried to match the pattern to the rocking of the ship.

She kept wondering if she was doing it right. More than once she found herself distracted by the imaginary gaze of the mage boring into her, and with a flick of the mirror she had to check just how imaginary it was.

“It’s not working,” she muttered darkly after about ten chimes. But she didn’t seem to stop her efforts other than let out a sharp sigh before starting up where she had left off.

As she restarted her efforts, Sayana paused a moment to consider what exactly she was trying to do. Auristics was about seeing something, feeling something, knowing something intimately. The very essence of it. Whereas hypnotism was about using her mind to communicate or overpower another mind. But they both stemmed from the same source, the magic. She slowed her circling gesture and focused more on her palm. Feeling more, feeling deeply, feeling intimately. Even though she kept her reflection in sight, all her attention was on the delicate sensation of her finger caressing her palm. The way it tickled just ever so slightly, the speed, the softness. Her breath slowed and she found herself reaching back and back and back in her mind, trying to conjure her elusive magic to be used in a new way.

Her palm was the target for her internal djed and she willed the magic through her hand, reaching, feeling, encompassing. Eyes still shut, she felt a subtle change. There was a faint warmth where her finger traced her hand. For a moment it seemed to heat up but then… Suddenly it all vanished, sensations and all. Her eyes snapped open and she muttered, “Let me try it again.”

Her concentration had been broken and it took some time to re-establish it, but this time her approach was slightly different. She focused on her finger being like a conduit for her magic, a channel to flow through, and her palm or her whole hand being the target. Tracing the circle again and again, her eyes glanced down at what she was doing. When it finally came, it was startling but not so overwhelming as it had been before. Her focus was far more narrow and localized, thus keeping it contained and not so chaotic.

As she traced her finger over her palm, she began to feel a slight warmth upon her finger, similar to before. But then it was as if there was a thin viscous film upon her hand. Like a sticky warmth, something coating her hand. This time she didn’t break her concentration and it began to feel more like a warm syrup in which her finger traced circles upon. Except the faint smooth tickling feeling never stopped.

Her concentration wavered, and suddenly a rush of energy drained from her. You taste like… honey. A faint smile formed on her lips as she remembered the words of an old lover. She slumped slightly upon the cot and closed her eyes for several moments after the mental exertion.

[Clyde Sullins]

“I don't know about dancing to be honest, haven't done much of it myself. I prefer to think of it as a song if anything. Each one with its own tone, rhythm, and notes. There is something oddly pleasant about slinging words as you cast a spell, for the more literal interpretation of that...”

Clyde smiled as he sank into his own memories of past spell-singing's. He recalled singing to a storm, and singing as he fought off a pale mouth-less beast.

While Sayana did her work Clyde gazed off into the distance, focusing on his own thoughts and memories, of times past, rather than staring at his student. He knew if she had a question she'd ask it, and that staring would only be a distraction when she needed to focus.

When he heard Sayana complain that her attempts weren't working, Clyde just smiled and shook his head, not bothering to look at the girl.

“Patience. All things in their time. Rushing it won't help. You are learning to weave a new djed, a unique thing, its not something you'll unlock instantly.”

There were a few moments when he thought he might have felt something, a tingle, a sensing, something upon his aura's peripheries, possible signs of her moving and molding or shaping her djed, but each passed as quickly as it started.

Clearly if she had any success, it was minor, and she'd not been able to fully open and sense an aura. That, he was sure, he'd be able to sense fully.

When she finally slumped over on his bed, he smiled once more, and exited the room for a moment.

He returned a few chimes later with a couple of pieces of hardtack.

When she sat back up he'd cough and get her attention, and then hand her one before beginning to munch on the other.

“Its always a good idea to eat after magic. I'm not sure if you've managed to expend any djed yet, or if your just tired from the mental focus, but it can't hurt. But for the future, once you do manage to do something its always a good idea to eat after a casting. It helps replenish the djed the body uses in magic.”

After munching for a bit longer, Clyde looked at Sayana for a moment, before continuing.

“Have you spent any time practicing meditation? I've noticed you are easily becoming frustrated and distracted. If you'd like, we could try a lesson in meditation, to help you focus your mind, and then you could continue the attempt at Aura reading on your own or in a later lesson. It is useful in most magics. It might even help with your hypnotism.”

[Sayana]

Sayana tucked his comparison to singing in the back of her mind. Rhythm, tone, beat… many of those could be reproduced in the form of dance as well. Although she wasn’t yet sure if either auristics or hypnotism leant themselves well to dance.

After she had accomplished the barest amounts of auristics, she was quiet for some time until she heard him return and give a slight cough. She smiled at the sight of the food, even though it was more like sustenance rather than something particularly tasty. Biting down at the hard tack, she chewed away as he made a few more comments about eating after magic.

When he mentioned the meditation, initially she was a bit skeptical. Although, she recalled a bald man in Alvadas meditating once and she could have sworn it was linked to some sort of magic. A slight smile found its way onto her face at the memory, although she decided to keep the details of the encounter to herself. In any case, the Alvadas memory reminded her of something she had been meaning to do.

“I haven’t really done any meditation,” she replied truthfully, since in her mind she would have never called it meditation. “But I might be willing to give it a try. But I have something for you. Or, something that might interest you. I’ll be back in a moment.”

As she left the small cabin, she was starting to feel a hint of a headache coming on. Hopefully it wouldn’t last since it would make any sort of meditation even more difficult. Her palm itched slightly, but that was less of a concern.

When the Eypharian returned she held a small book, more like a journal, protectively in her low arms. On the cover was the title: The Life and Adventures of Lickity Split. “I’m not sure if you like reading, or if you’ll like this, but it’s about the life of an Alvad and the trouble he gets up to. It paints a pretty good picture of Alvadas, although sometimes it’s exaggerated or only includes the most outrageous encounters, but it has the right feel. I could talk to you all day about Alvadas but if you like reading… well you can borrow it.”

There was a bit of hesitation in her voice and her actions as she held out the book. The source could have equally been from handing over a sentimental object, or from admitting that she might have actually taken interest in a particular book.

“So auras… what exactly are they? Are they the same as magic or… djed? I might have managed to feel my aura, but not for very long. How do you gain information from them? Do you have to first know what a certain quality is like and how it resonates in an aura?” She paused to try to think of an example but then realized she was lacking another piece of information. “What information can you gain from an aura? Like by looking at it. Like could you tell I was an Eypharian by my aura even if you couldn’t see all my arms? What if you had never seen an Eypharian’s aura before? Could you still tell?”

That little taste of the new magic left a whole slew of questions in her mind. She ate the remaining bit of hard tack and felt relieved when it seemed like her headache was going away. Perhaps food really was important after doing magic.

She would intently listen to the answers regarding auristics and only once he was done would she tentatively bring up the meditation. “So what exactly did you want to teach me in regards to meditation?” Her tone was cautious, if nothing else. It was like she didn’t want to commit to something unless it was necessary or she believed in the effects.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

As Clyde's mind wandered, it suddenly occurred to him that it was perhaps odd to have fought a mouthless monster... By singing at it.

At the time he'd been experimenting with incantations, and still used it quite often, but considering the thing he'd fought had no ability to speak it was perhaps an odd choice.

He was a bit surprised when Sayana went and fetched him a book, one of which he had no idea about what it was.

Taking the offered book Clyde inspected the cover. From the way she'd described it he assumed it was the personal journal of someone in Alvadas, though he couldn't be sure.

As soon as she handed over the book however Clyde found Sayana launching into a series of questions on Auristics.

“Yes and no. Everything is djed. The form that takes, the type, the density, that differs. But everything in one way or another can be described in terms of djed.”

“However, thats a bit vague of an answer... Well, we both have souls, yes? You've heard of souls? Anyways, we both have them. If a soul was a fire, an aura would be the smoke coming off of that fire. An aura is an emanation that comes off of souls. From that emanation one can know things about the source, the fire.”

“Auristics works by focusing on an aura, delver deeper into it, and pulling forth more information. It will always be smoke, always be this secondhand emanation that we pull information from, but still we can learn much from it. The longer you spend focusing on an aura, the more information you will usually get. The more attuned you will become and the more you will know from it.”

“As for knowing, thats not how it works. You can get information from it, but not know what it means. It happens. Your mind usually gives you information in a way you can understand, which is one of the reasons everyone senses aura differently, but it isn't perfect. It is perfectly possible that you'll sense something, but not know what it means. Often you are left to puzzle things out from vague notions or hints, having to work out later what something means either through more information gained from an aura or more mundane methods. Misunderstandings can occur.”

“Now, if you see the same things enough times, and come to realize what they mean by whatever method, you might come to know what specific things mean. But that takes time and practice. But there will be much experimentation and puzzling as each things meaning is discovered.”

“The simplest thing one can sense from an aura is what can be sensed by the mundane senses. Sight, touch, smell, taste, all can be sensed through an aura. Not sound, not sure why not that one but not it. But the others you can. And as they aren't limited by your mundane senses limitations, you can often sense more, though usually more narrowly. I could for instance close my eyes and use my Auristics to see you, to know where you are. I could have an image of you in my head. Though that is still limited by what your mind is capable of being aware of at once.”

“Ones physical senses tend to be the easiest to see. Other things can also be sensed. Sometimes you can see within or through something, though this tends to be somewhat limited and focused, so usually you want to know what your looking for before blindly searching. Magic and its traces can often be seen. The easiest in regards to that is in sensing magical artifacts or active spells or magic.”

“Sometimes you just get vague feelings or senses off of things. Powerful feelings or emotions might be audible. And sometimes... Sometimes you just sense things, sense vague things, which tell you things of the person or thing. Those tend to occur the most seldom and are the vaguest. It all depends on your skill, and how long you spend examining and focusing on the aura.”

With the topic of Auristics covered for the moment, Clyde pressed onward to her next question, meditation.

“Meditation... It is good for focusing the mind, calming oneself, and reaching a state from which you can reach your djed, harness your magic. It also tends to help with concentration. For you to cast a spell, it takes a good bit of concentration, a good bit of focus. If you are distracted, your magic might fail, or it might not work as intended or might take affect in an unintended or uncontrolled way. It is therefore very helpful to be able to ignore distractions and focus on your magic when needed.”

“I would then teach you some basic techniques to calm and focus yourself, perhaps to aid with your concentration when trying not to be distracted.”

[Sayana]

“Like smoke from a fire, like ripples from a ship, like skyke from a gull…” Sayana murmured, and with the last analogy she gave a playful smile. He confirmed her guess that it was probably helpful to have come across an aura before, but he didn’t stress that it was necessary. He also suggested that sometimes it would simply be difficult to puzzle out the meanings behind the auras. For that brief moment in which she had felt her own, it had felt ‘right’ in many ways. But that was probably just because she already knew herself quite well.

She hadn’t expected that there would be the possibility to see through material. And neither had she considered the idea of seeing auras without even opening her eyes. And then there was meditation… Sayana let out a sigh before she had the sense to stifle it. There was some sense to his words regarding it, but it sounded incredibly dull nonetheless. What more was there to do than to concentrate really really hard? And how could someone just sit for chimes and chimes and chimes… Even just thinking about the task that was ahead gave the Eypharian the urge to stand, even just briefly before reseating herself upon the cot. But if this was the game he wanted to play…

“Alright. If you think it will help, I’ll practice your meditation.” Sayana replied, trying not to sound like she had just relinquished to her fate. “But only for a short while. Then I want to try auristics again.” Again, again… oh how that sweet word resonated with her even more than the word ‘djed’.

The Eypharian shifted on the bed so that she sat cross-legged facing the mage. Her low arms supported her gently as she leaned back on them while her mids rested on her knees and her highs were clasped together.

“I have to clear my mind and focus, right?” She asked. It was clear that although she was going through the motions, she didn’t think all that highly of meditation. It was just another hurdle to leap and so long as she got to the other side, she didn’t care if she knocked it over.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose. While the physical action calmed her somewhat, she now found herself itching to do more magic. T-tap. Tap-ta-tap… went her fingers upon her knee. Trying to get a grip on herself she clenched the hand and breathed in deeply once more. She tried to weed out distracting thoughts and focus on a certain level of emptiness. Although somewhat reluctant overall, she was willing to start listening to the mage’s instruction.

Credit: Shimoje