Two Spiders on One Web [Leto]

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He nodded along with Leto's summary of Sama'el's own goals, adding, "Well, I'll certainly end up specializing in something more than other things, but it seems prudent to be able to be self-sufficient if my pavilion has to leave Endrykas for any amount of time. If I marry Dymphna and my friend Denen joins my pavilion, that'll be two herbalist healers, which is good considering how often I injure myself." He flushed faintly at that, and after seeing Denen coupling with Aiken, he wasn't sure that Denen himself didn't want to bind himself to Sama'el in a similar fashion as Dymphna did. "I suppose... I suppose it is a good thing to be a great glypher if you're summoning things from other worlds. The glyphs, they help bind them, no?" Sama'el wasn't stupid, but he was often naive, which was strange considering his history and how quickly life had tried to beat out any childish joy in the world from his mindset. Sama'el had no judgments of the man's hair. He had seen enough of the world not to be shocked by such surface things, though Leto would be in good company if he spent time with Sama'el and his friends; they all had sob stories and were all attempting to work past them. "I'm sure you'll find someone, fine looking man as you. And accomplished. Just have to get over being shy, I think. I had that problem too, but it seems like once you make a friend or two, more come, and things take care of themselves."

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto nodded as Sama'el spoke of the glyphs and how they were used to bind the summoned creatures in place generally. Looking at him after he said that, Leto then finished listening to all he was saying, taking it all in. It was true, as he met more people, he'd probably end up meeting someone, somebody, somewhere that he'd find to be with him.

Allowing his gaze to fall back towards Sama'el after having strayed for a brief moment, he then said, "Yes, the glyphs are used to bind summoned creatures or people from other worlds... they can act as a barrier between the summoned monster and yourself, creating a barrier... one of the properties of glyphing. It can protect yourself from the summoned creature while a summoner negotiates with it..."

He at least had the basic knowledge of summoning, as well as other worlds, though he had made circles before, he had never succeeded yet in summoning a creature from other worlds. Someday in the future though, he hoped to be a master glypher as well as a master summoner, and be able to control or negotiate treaties with creatures of other worlds. A long distance aspiration, as it was.

"I'm only versed a bit in the creation of a basic circle right now, but I can use the glyphs to augment the barrier and create a stronger leash... i haven't been successful yet in opening a portal, just learning the knowledge, and making minor attempts at it. Hopefully in the future though, through the use of glyphing, i'll finally be able to summon something, nothing dangerous I hope, but something nonetheless..." he said with a smile, looking towards Sama'el, letting on to one of his more happy aspirations.

"We'll see what happens later in time though, as it goes on. Hopefully by making more friends I will indeed find someone to be with. I truely believe what you say, about that, and will try my hardest to expand my horizons as i'm doing right now... slowly, with the help of Arias that is," he said. As he said it, he turned his head back to look towards Arias whom was still napping at the moment, but his eyes flickered open every once in awhile, not in a deep slumber, but more of a resting daze.

Turning back towards Sam, he cocked his head a bit, and then asked, "So, what do you plan on doing the rest of the day? I hope I am not interrupting you too much..." Honestly he knew he sort of interrupted Sama'el with his webbing, but hoped his presense wasn't much of an inconvenience to him now, that they were having a decent conversation and such...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Well, I don't really know much about summoning, but it seems to be a rarer discipline among our people, so perhaps that will be your claim to fame. Just be careful about parlaying that into a familiar, because if you have a Strider and a familiar, you'll probably not feel the need for companionship from your fellow Drykas." He said it with a smile, and a sort of silent invitation to actually be his friend. Sama'el admired skill, and Leto certainly seemed a nice enough fellow. There was no one so rich that they could afford to turn down a new friend. "Arias is certainly friendly, and a handsome beast. I was only half-joking when I mentioned breeding Dohaina. She's of an age where I could start." He looked at the golden mare thoughtfully. "It's just... once she becomes too pregnant for me to ride her on circuit, I will be left with my Windrunner, and I don't know if the Watch will allow that. Faster than a Strider out of Cyphrus, but not so fast within the Sea of Grass. I would love to have some foals frisking about, though... Then it would feel like a real pavilion." He laughed then -- Sama'el frequently did -- and shook his head. "Listen to me talking like a pavilion is only weeks away... It will take some time and effort yet. "But I had no great plans. I was working a bit with the Web, but I'm trying not to overdo it. I don't want to overextend, you know, and I'm still a novice at it. I don't mind just passing the time with you, but if you want to be productive, I suppose you could teach me a bit of glyphing and I could teach you to ride a bit better. Or something." He shrugged, the offer made in good humor, but he really didn't require being busy at every waking moment.

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto laughed a bit at what Sama'el said about a familiar. "Don't worry, I have no intentions of summoning anything to become a familiar with myself. I have Arias, and once I find the companionship of other Drykas, that's all i'll need... no otherwordly creatures would satiate that need I believe," he said looking towards Sama'el with a grin. When he spoke of breeding Dohaina, Leto let out another smile.

"Well, Arias is in his prime right now, so i'd think it would be a good time to breed with him, if you're serious about it, i'd consider it. Perhaps sometime in the future when your pavilion becomes more important than the watch, and you need to have a herd of your own, then Arias would be ready for it..." he said, considering it heavily that Arias wouldn't mind the thought of breeding. A snort was returned from the strider, blatantly lazy, as he understood what Leto was talking about, and in that, allowed his lazy eyes to drift towards Dohaina in a suggestive form. Leto turned his elderly gaze towards Arias and laughed a bit more. "I don't think he'd have a problem with it either," he then said.

Then Sama'el spoke of trading the learning of skills. This didn't really put Leto off, but then again, he had never really taught anyone anything, so it would be a new experience for him. He had to broaden his horizons anyways, so... why not? Anyways, it would be a fellow Drykas he was teaching it to, not necessarily an outsider, so he had less of a problem with doing it. Looking towards him with his dark gaze returning from being focused on Arias, he then said, "Learning to ride better would be optimal... And I could teach you the basics of glyphing if you'd like to learn them. Glyphing is easy in that respect... you learn the basics of it, and then once you know the basics, all you do is pretty much get better at them. If you'd like to learn, I could teach you..."

As he spoke, he did so with a smile all the way. He was certainly enjoying Sama'el's company, and if he was not interrupting him from anything, then Leto didn't have a problem teaching him a new skill if he wished to learn it. It was his pavilion's specialty anyways, and hopefully it would help Sama'el to expand his horizons if he indeed was to become Ankal of his own pavilion. "So, which did you wish to do first then? Glyphing or riding? I have some scrolls back in my pavilion that we could work with, or we could just carve glyphs into rocks if you'd like to learn that way, if you have a knife or tool on you... Eitherway is fine by me," he then said.

He would teach him the basics of glyphing, and it would possibly be good practice for him anyways, something that he could work on himself while teaching Sama'el the basics of. If he even wished, they could try a practical application of glyphing via opening a summoning portal to another world, if Sama'el was interested in seeing it with his own eyes...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Well, good. I'd hate to lose a friend to some otherworldly monster," he said, and there it was: they were friends. "And yes... I will have to figure out what my role within the Watch will be before I can breed Dohaina. Also, I wouldn't want to ride circuit as much when she is out of service. I'd want to be there to take care of her and the foal." He lit up like a firework when Leto agreed with his idea. Sama'el did have a natural knack for leadership, but he was still young and a bit shy about leading those who were older or more competent in their work than he was. "Oh, it doesn't matter, either way. But learning more about glyphs will help me with my origins for Webbing... And we can work on riding on the way to your pavilion, or whenever, really. It doesn't even have to be today. Since we're friends now." He did pat his hunting knife, however. It would be a suitable tool should they decide to stay there and work.

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto smiled, and then thought about it. He had never thought that glyphing could enhance webbing, but perhaps him and Sama'el could put their minds together with the basics of it, and figure out how exactly it would be enhanced. Whether it was to create new webs, store a web, or create a barrier around a certain part of a web, they might be able to utilize it practically with webbing.

"Well, since we're out here, we might as well go over the basics. From what I was taught, and all that i've known about glyphing, it can do absolutely nothing by itself. Glyphing is used to say, store, split magical effects, create a barrier to sustain magical effects, channel magic into an area or pathway, combine magic, stabilize high powered magics, or unstable magics; or it can be used to release a magic via a trigger..." he said, listing off the uses of Glyphing. That was the very first thing his uncle had done for him, and had explained to him, that without other magic, Glyphing was pretty much useless.

"I'm not sure how it would work in webbing, but perhaps we could figure out a way to make it fit into that magic while teaching you the basics of it," said Leto. "If you wish to see a practical use of it, i'm sure I could set up a summoning circle, the basic circle, and attempt to open up a portal to another world, to draw in a lesser being, and use the glyphs as a barrier to help keep a leash on it, if you're interested in the practical uses of it. Or if you'd just like to learn the basics of how to glyph, that is fine as well." Picking up a nearby stick, he then looked towards the ground.

"Before actually starting, you must know something about the glyphs. They are another name for runes, and can be drawn pretty much anyway you want them to be, so long as you know what their instinctive meaning is. They can mean what each individual wizard wants them to mean. Meaning, we could potentially draw the same glyph, and each have it mean two different things to each of us, since we're two different people..." he continued, watching Sama'el as he spoke.

"One other thing is that once a glyph has been exhausted, the magic that was stored in it has left it, it will break, disintegrate, or dissolve... Many mages usually have to replace sigils quite often when doing large experiments. A Sigil is a grouping of runes that is used to perform a certain job, whether it be a barrier, a trigger, or a pathway. We won't go over pathways or switches, as not even i quite am able to use them... only Masters are generally skilled enough to use pathways and switches. I'll explain what they are though when I get that far..."

As he spoke, he smiled at Sam, and then said, "I am not going to fast am I? I've never taught anyone how to glyph before, so I figure a lot of it is informational. If you wish to do a practical application, we could either use my skill of summoning as a demonstration, or go see my uncle who is also competent in Reimancy to have him show you, and have you practice with your scrolls... unless yo know some reimancy and can use it yourself..."

He certainly hoped that he wasn't going to fast for the new friend that stood before him, and if he had any questions he was certainly free to ask them, and Leto would answer them the best that he could. "Feel free to stop me if i'm going to fast, or if you have any questions about anything that I explain to you... Knowledge is quite a great thing to have, so the more questions the merrier..." he then said finally, and awaited to see if Sam had any questions for him, or anything he wished to ask about Glyphing thus far from what Leto had explained to him...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el was unschooled and in many ways naive, but he was not stupid. He nodded from time to time to let Leto know that he was understanding, at least so far as one could understand something without hands on experience. It made him nervous to speak up for himself since he was so new at any magical discipline; surely Leto know much more about it than he would for a long time. "I think I understand all that... It's just that the closest thing to glyphing that I have learned is how to weave an Origin rune when anchoring a web in place. You know about those, don't you?" he asked slowly, not sure if he was getting a different sort of instruction. "But that's weaving a rune out of own's djed. That's like reimancy from what I understand... But I don't practice it yet. My cousin is going to initiate me when he unlocks another element within himself. I'll have to introduce you to Eldon. He is a fine hydromancer." Sama'el was very partial to his cousin, and thought he hung the moon. This was obvious by the enthusiasm with which he spoke of him. "You could, I guess, show me a very basic summoning circle," he posited, "explaining what each glyph means to you as you draw it. Then I can do my own, just for practice, to see how my glyphs are different."

[Leto Sunsinger]

Reimancy, it was a skill that Leto often thought he should learn in order to defend himself from whatever types of creatures would come through summoning portals. Perhaps he would have to speak with this Eldon, and see if the man wouldn't initiate him into reimancy as well, something that could easily help him out... or at least have him there when he was summoning something, if it came to that point, or they needed someone that could defend them with the arts of reimancy. He'd definitely trade scrolls and the like if he could learn the magic, and even provide free scrolls with the various combinations of focuses, triggers, and barriers needed to cast a spell from a scroll. As Sama'el suggested that he draw a summoning circle, with the runes around it, Leto nodded, and then took the stick he had picked up, and started to draw it within the dirt.

The circle he drew itself happened to be about three feet in diameter, but with no astral coordinates as Leto did not want to actually activate and summon a being from another world, he was just showing Sama'el what the basic summoning circle looked like, as well as one that is enhanced with glyphs. Taking the stick, he'd then draw on the dirt the glyphs. As he drew each one, around the circle, he looked up towards Sama'el and then said, "This is an example of a barrier sigil. It's a grouping of glyphs designed to create a barrier... though they have no real meaning apart, when put together, each of the glyphs simply means 'Contain Magic', if you will, and will act in that fashion. The focus is the circle inside of it, that would be where one would see the portal open up at. A Trigger," Leto continued, and then drew another glyph nearby the circle of glyphs. "Is where you would drop a single drop of blood to activate this type of basic circle. The trigger, in this instance would mean something as simple as Drop a Drop of Blood here"

Looking down at his work, he then turned to Sama'el and said, "Now, if this was a real summoning portal, i'd have to put in the astral coordinates along the circle, and then draw a cross in the middle of it. Because I do not wish to summong anything, and merely wish to show you what a sigil looks like, i did not add those features within it..." Looking back towards his work within the ground, he turned his dark gaze towards Sama'el once more, and then said, "This is a basic sigil, and summoning circle... it is also how glyphing can enrich a summoning circle via the barrier or the trigger, or the focus, in the center." As he said this, he drew one more rune within the center of the circle, and then said, "That would be your main focus, where the magic is stored, if you were trying to store a summoned creature, which only experts or above i'd say should try and do..." Smiling a bit, he then added, "If you're storing something such as an offensive spell within the sigil, when you release it via the trigger, you'll obviously want to aim the focus away from you, as it will go out the same way it went into the focus. If you're storing a defensive spell, one to activate upon yourself, you'll want to aim it towards you..."

After that, he was finished with that bit of an explanation, and then he motioned to Sama'el. "Try drawing a summoning circle, and we'll see what your runes can mean as you draw one... No astral coordinates though, as we don't want to accidentally release something onto Mizahar that we generally wouldn't want there..." he said, smiling, and then handing the stick to Sama'el so that he could draw his own sigil within the dirt upon the ground. "Normally we'd use a big piece of parchment for a summoning circle, but for now, the ground works as an excellent way to craft an example sigil, as you can destroy it as easily as you drew it," he then added, as Sama'el would begin to design his own sigil with a focus, barrier, and trigger...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el watched intently, though at first not a lot of what Leto said made any sense to him, for he lacked the context to understand. His grandfather, the Ankal, had always said that he was too dunderheaded to learn any sort of magic, but Daed had begun to teach him Webbing, and so he was getting a late start to things. That just meant he had to pay more attention. The glyphs seemed to bend the air around them, or perhaps that was an optical illusion from staring too hard. He considered the idea that the Webs he could see might be of a similar makeup to the djed that followed the dictates of glyphs and summoning sigils, but he had no way of seeing all that as he had not been initiated in anything but the Web. He had been to the point of sketching a vague set of runes with the toe of his boot when Leto finally handed him his stick; wood of any size could be difficult to find in most parts of Cyphrus, so they would have to share for the lesson. With a quick smile and a curt nod, he began to form his own unschooled summoning circle. From what Leto had said, he understood the basic principle, but focused mainly on the runes. His own runes ended up looking similar to Leto's, which was perhaps natural given he had just watched Leto create with his own symbolic system, but there were differences: a more sinuous style, and yet more complicated. It was all intuitive, he felt, but when he had taken his inspiration from Leto's circle and improvised his own, complete with the tricks that were well beyond a neophyte glypher's skill, he glanced askance at the older man, hoping he hadn't done too poorly.

[Leto Sunsinger]

As Leto watched Sama'el work on the examploe summoning sigil and circle, he looked towards it, and viewed how he worked with the glyphs he was creating. "Now, obviously summoning isn't the only thing you can use Glyphing for," he then began as he watched Sama'el finish the basic rudimentary circle.

"Most glyphers start off learning reimancy or morphing, or something else they can store spells within, or use glyphing to augment spells... I chose to learn glyphing first, so that when I did learn how to summon, which i learned from a passing wizard through Endrykas, he said my greater knowledge of glyphing would help to augment the circles i created for summoning. Help to have a greater hold, or leash upon those that I summoned. If you know reimancy, you can actually store spells in scrolls to use at a later time, a good example is a fireball... you can store it in a scroll, have the trigger be a verbal word, or a touch to the glyph, and then when you aim it away from you... as you would most offensive spells, you could say the word, or touch it to activate the trigger, which would in turn sent the fireball flying out of the focus glyph..." he explained.

Looking down towards Sama'el's barrier glyph, he smiled, and then said, "That is a good start for a beginner... I learned the same way, focusing on the glyphs my uncle had shown me, and then adding my own spin to them, getting creative with them, as each wizard has their own glyphing system to make their own words and phrases and meanings out of the glyphs... it can be a bit confusing at first, but having a practical knowledge of it will help in the long run. As for glyphing and webbing... we could use glyphing to create the origin glyph of a web, and practice some webbing while we're at it. Or if you want, we could travel back to my pavilion, use some parchment, and draw a glyph on there, a sigil if you will, then take it to the Reimancer's pavilion, and have them store a spell in it, and release a spell so that you could see it in action... unless you wanted to try it with your cousin Eldon, whom you said it a reimancer if I remember correctly?" he then asked, keeping his dark gaze upon Sama'el, smiling as he explained things.

Once again, he hoped that he was not going too fast for Sama'el, as some people weren't quick learners, and Leto wasn't an adept teacher by no means, so teaching people a new skill, he wasn't sure how fast or slow he should go with people that he was teaching. And Glyphing had a lot of basic information that one had to understand before actually doing it. It was what his uncle had taught him, and took him almost thirteen years to get competent at it, though he was definitely getting better at it as he grew more intune with the glyphs he had created thus far, and sigils he had formed out of those glyphs...