Solo De-void of meaning.

[Alexander Faircroft]

57th Fall 516AV
17:13
Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex stepped into Greyhearts office. The smooth stone walls surrounding him as he did so, the crackling fire and dark inky blackness of the night sky outside despite it only being around the seventeenth bell. The swirling grey smoke from the fire place battling against the ever descending pale white of the mists.

“Ah Alex!” Greyheart spoke snapping his eyes up from the desk in front of him as the door behind Alex closed. “Glad to see your back! Anything I can help you with?” Alex smiled lightly the polished to perfection pleasantry of his smile something that took a little effort to shine as a drop of rain falling from the heavens.

“Ser I’d like to learn a new skill.” Alex began before being cut off by his rather over eager patron.
“Oh well whatever it is I’m more than willing to help.” Greyheart tilted his head as Alex lowered his.
“Ser…What I want to learn is a skill Numia, one of the pycon’s I’ve been sent off on patrol with once showed me. A magic that creates large black spaces of emptiness.”

“Voiding? You want to learn that magic of rather questionable safety? But why?” Greyheart gave him a rather reserved and frightened look.
“At some point I’m going to be in a situation where the physical methods I’ve been developing won’t be enough. Aside from that I’ve already learnt one magic. This one from Nivel. Auristics.” Alex closed and reopened his eyes to see the Aura of the patron he called his friend, the outline of a white sword replacing his appearance it’s pommel in the place of Greyheart’s head, the whole thing a swirling off white colour with a soft red tint too it. His eyes closed again and he stumbled backwards a thumping pain in his head again. He didn’t do that often enough for him to mitigate the migraines.

“Well…Looks like you’ve taken what I said to heart. About learning whatever you can wherever you can.” Alex leant on the edge of one of the chairs. Silently as Greyheart looked him over. “Alright wait here I’ll be back shortly.”

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Chimes ticked by. Moments of impatient space. Alex’s hand ran across his jaw and he glanced towards the fire. The shifting oranges, reds and yellows taking his mind off of the sheer absurdity of things that had happened. Time ticked by, slowly, agonisingly. The moments of loneliness accompanied by nothing but the snap of a log brought him back to some earlier memories and some darker times. When his mind was just about to dive him into the darkness that sat at its fore front Alex heard the door’s latch lift.

Greyheart stepped into the room accompanied by female figure. Long black hair bold straight and spilling around her shoulders to her middle back. Milky white skin and a pair of almost black eyes stared at him. “This the one?” Her words were almost…empty. Like she understood what she was saying but had no feeling behind it. No emotion. Greyheart nodded and offered her the seat next to Alex. “Alexander Faircroft. My name is Merissa Trulazen. Sera Trulazen to you. You’re the squire under direct control of my wing leader and as such he’d asked me to initiate you in one of the magics I know. And before you ask ONLY one.” The strained emphasis on her words was such that Alex had to take note. As those were the first words where she didn’t sound like she had on interest in what she was saying.
“Thank you…Both of you. And Sera, I’d like to learn voiding. I’ve seen just how powerful and how terrifying it can be.”

She just nodded and looked him up and down. “You’ve a good deal of respect for magic. And a good deal of fear. Perhaps it won’t be a waste to teach you the basics and let you feel your way out from there. Voiding is the art of opening portals to the void. It’s a way we open a pathway into the other side. This side, the one we stand on is where we reside. Anything you void, isn’t destroyed. Merely banished into an endless expanse that has no limit. To open a portal to a place where nothing is you must understand what it means to be nothing.”

Alex simply stared at her his words not forthcoming and caught in his throat.

Boo!

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

She slowed her pace of speech as Greyheart sat back down in his chair opposite the two of them. A look of strong concern plastered across his face. His hands fidgety.
“To know what it means to be nothing I want you to repeat these words over and over until they mean nothing. Black is white and white is black. Repeat that over and over, both aloud and mentally. I want you to repeat this over and over. Since…I’ve already been informed you have some control over your Djed, you’ll have an easier time of this. Ser Greyheart, a word in private?” He nodded slowly as the two of them made their way outside. Alex didn’t shift just repeating the words over and over.
“White is black, and black is white. Black is white and white is black.” The words filled the empty space and Alex began to ponder on their meaning. A loud click echoed through the room. He was locked in the room alone. The crackle of the first his only compatriot. The feeling of being alone beginning to settle in on him again. The crushing feeling there.
“Black is white and white is black. White is black and black is white.” He spoke again slowly quietly trying to push the feeling of being alone away from him, of being away of being afraid. A chill feeling rolled over his shoulders and down his spine. The memories of being alone of being afraid crawling over his mind. “Black is white and white is black. White is black and black is white.” What did the words even mean? That they were just extremes of grey? Links to the same thing? What? As the feeling of loneliness crept in further he started to breathe shallowly, lightly his mind starting to panic his hands shaking lightly.

Boo!

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

“Black is white and white is black, white is black and black is white.” The words repeated over and over like a mantra now, he’d been locked in Greyheart’s office for almost three hours. What did the words even mean, what purpose did they serve? What did they mean? The loneliness had almost all but swallowed Alex now. He sat in the chair breathing heavily his hands clammy and eyes darting over the place. He’d asked for this but he hadn’t acted for this torture.

As he sat there memories came flooding back of being told he was nothing and would never amount to anything. Of being tossed in a room and locked away for hours on end, sat in abject silence waiting for someone to save him. Someone always did. But she was never really around. Never really there to speak to, to tell about the hardships. He couldn’t say a word, as so he lost himself to the silence. And learned that hollow, empty smile. That one of forced pleasantry. Of practiced fake happiness. A gesture holding nothing. No emotion just a want to be free. A wish to be something.

Alex’s hands held together in his lap as he began to think about that smile. Nothingness. Emptiness. Vacancy. Void.
“Black is white and white is black, white is black and black is white.” In the flash of a moment a tiny black spark appeared between his hands. Less than a few millimetres. He thought he’d imagined it. He’d thought it was just a trick of the light when it popped out of his vision. He knew it was real when something hit him. A wave of exhaustion a cascade of drain. Like he’d had all his energy sucked out through his feet.

He slipped off of the chair to his side and slammed into the smooth wooden floor. Armour clattering against the ground. Only then did the lock snap open.

Boo!

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex lay on the ground wincing lightly as the energy from him felt drained and sapped. Sera Merissa walked in first followed by Ser Greyheart who immediately wanted to rush over and help Alex up however Merissa stopped him her hand darting out.
“He’s fine. Just drained. Magic by its nature is something that upon first use sucks the energy out of its new practitioner. Playing with the very fabric of reality in particular is a taxing discipline.” Sera Merissa just watched Alex roll back and forth lightly across the floor trying to pull some semblance of motor control and motion in his arms and legs together.
“This one however despite his respect for magic has very little in the way of a threshold for it. I’d recommend Ser that you helped him back to her quarters as with his current steam I doubt her’ll be able to stand up for at least a half day.”

Stepping past her Greyheart scooped one of Alex’s arms up over his shoulder and helped him back to his dorm room before dropping Alex on the bunk in his full armour.
“Last lesson for today lad, how to sleep in armour.” Greyheart chuckled and Alex simply squinted back, not sure whether to waste what little energy he still had on a witty retort or to just let him get away with it and focus on recovering. Either way he’d have to make the decision now. He chose the latter. Laying still and closing his eyes as he pondered over the new magic he’d just been gifted access too. Sometimes having the best intentions when it came to a particular thing wasn’t enough to prepare oneself for its implementation. As Alex was rightly finding out in these exact moments. However he now knew the trigger for that void, the absence of anything was something he practiced well. That hollow polite smile of his. Coupled with the small incantation to draw his power forth. A little more complicated than using the Auristics, however it was still something.

Boo!