Solo [Gilthas' Workshop] Surviving With Air

[Kelski]

Timestamp: 45th of Winter, 518 A.V.

Since Gilthas had improved the route to his workshop and had added an entrance to the underground from The Midnight Gem’s basement, Kelski could make it to his place in under a half bell of walking in the pleasantness of the underground. One thing she liked about the underground is that it maintained a cool temperature, was never affected by weather, and could be counted on to virtually be the same every time she made the trek between Gilthas’ workshop and her home.

He’d smoothed out the pathway she’d once had to repel down and now Kelski could skip down a stairway carrying a lot of groceries and supplies with her. Visiting Gilthas was one of her joys. She often invited him to dinner as well - or he dropped by to have supper around the hearth with the denizens of The Midnight Gem. Sometimes he even cooked, which was a rare treat. He knew recipes no one had ever heard of, so Kelski often delighted in the change of pace.

When she slipped through the double doors of his place and sat down some fresh vegetables and a side of bacon in his ‘kitchen’ area, Kelski couldn’t help marvel at the ice box. He had a large steel box that housed a block of ice. He made the ice with Reimancy, of course, and it melted off to provide fresh water for the brats lurking around since the runoff drained into water troughs. He claimed when she got her water element, she too could make one. Kelski couldn’t wait. All the groceries went into the steel chamber, away from the nibbling teeth of the multitude of brats and other creatures that inhabited Gilthas’ area. Kelski called out his name and went to find him.

She found him…. looming over what looked like a glass coffin filled with dirt. The Kelvic raised an eyebrow at her eccentric mentor’s doings and opened her mouth to question him. He held up a hand to stop her then held out his hand as if asking her to take it. She did, and he drew her forward until she saw the steps leading up to the coffin. “My dear.. . just in time. I thought today we’d have another lesson in survival, Reimancy style. You traipse around underground with your friends far to often for my liking. One of the biggest dangers underground is cave-ins. I thought today I’d bury you alive and teach you how to create air for yourself.” He said as Kelski dutifully hopped up the steps that lead to the coffin and at Gilthas’ bidding laid down in them.

“Stretch out. I’m going to cover you over all but for an air pocket and a small candle. The glass should allow you to see me and me to watch you to make sure you are okay and doing things right. The candle will be your tattle-tail to make sure you have enough breathable air. It’s a reassuring thing for both me and you.” He said with a hint of good humor.side e

Kelski did as he asked, trusting him, and finding the coffin so big she could curl on her side and hold the candle while looking out the glass at im.. Then Gilthas took a shovel and from a large pile of dirt hauled in and dumped on a tarp he began to fill either side of Kelski up. When he had the coffin almost all the way filled with dirt… he reached in and lit her tiny candle with a finger of Res tasked to ignite into fire. Then he put a long board over her merging the two piles of dirt together and creating an air pocket for her. Finishing filling the coffin up, he fitted the lid on and left her in the dark with the only candle flame and the thin light filtering in from the outside glass to illuminate her prison.

The weight of the dirt was heavy and it made her nervous. She trembled slightly, suddenly realizing that Gilthas could have described this situation, but having her be in it, was a whole different experience.

A tap at the glass got her attention. Gilthas pointed at his mouth, mimicked breathing out and formed the word RES with his lips… then Task With Air. She nodded in the faint light and drew in a big breath, concentrated, tapped her well and transmuted first djed to Res then Res to Air. The transformation occurred just beyond her lips when the blue and purple translucent fog of her Res melded into air. The fresh blast of air caused the tiny flickering candle flame to burn brighter, and Kelski’s eyes went wide.

[Kelski]

Gilthas pulled out a book of parchment, bound loosely with rings and began writing on it. He held it up to the glass and pointed at it.

• HALF THE BATTLE IN DANGEROUS SURVIVAL SITUATIONS IS REMAINING CALM.
• BE CALM.
• WATCH THE FLAME.
• TASTE THE AIR
• ADD AIR WHEN IT STARTS TO FEEL STALE OR YOU FEEL SLEEPY AND THE FLAME WAVERS.
  

His bullet points where clear to her and Kelski nodded. She centered herself, dipped deep into her well like a frog jumping into a cool pond of water to escape the heat of summer. Laying on her side, staring at a small burning candle flame, Kelski did all Gilthas asked. She inhaled, sometimes her breath getting rough as she got nervous. The dirt pressed in all around her, and she felt horribly confined, buried, and on the verge of panic. Eagles did not do well without the sky to see above them.

But Kelski had been exploring the underground of Sunberth for seasons so this bit of dirt was a little easier for her to take. She drew djed periodically, exhaled Res, and transmuted it to Air. Each time the flickering and sputtering candle would firm up, glow brighter and she’d calm as fresh air flooded her lungs and ultimately fueled her brain.

Tapping the well, keeping a mental finger in it tended to help a lot. But so too did knowing Gilthas watched over her and would get her out of the buried coffin of dirt if anything bad happened. It still took her a long time… and even as muscles cramped and shoulders locked up, Kelski would grow on the verge of panic again. Gilthas sometimes held up the paper again, tapped the ‘be calm’ bullet point, and watched her re-settle.

Sweat broke out on her brow. It was hot in the little pocket, and Kelski wondered if she could control the temperature of the air in the pocket. Inhaling deeply, getting a firm mental grip on her deep well, she visualized what iced winter air felt like being breathed in and out. Then, on the next exhalation of air into the tiny space, she felt her lips ice up.

Kelski smiled, then shivered as the air temperature in the pocket plummeted. Grumbling, Kelski wondered why she could never get anything right. She inhaled again, concentrated and tried not to shiver, and went to adjust the air temperature again. She expelled warm freshly formed air, but found the method inferior because it just warmed her immediate face temporarily and then went cool again.

So, while Gilthas watched, Kelski concentrated – remembering her well of djed – and began to expel Res, filling the chamber around her face in the open dirt. She breathed the res out over and over again until the thick sparkling blue and purple vapor was all around her. Gilthas watched curiously, an eyebrow arched, until she willed it into warm comfortable air. That much air at once in the small pocket she was curled into caused the little candle to flare.

Kelski ducked her head back with a gasp, trying to turn her head away and protect her face. She felt the hairs on one delicate eyebrow scorch off in the little oxygen flare… and the whole part of her hand that held the candle… her two fingers and side of her arm also felt a burn.

She yelped and dropped the candle, which caused it to go out. Kelski fumbled around for it, but knew she couldn’t relight it. Instead, she wiggled, not liking the darkness, and then glanced at the glass where Gilthas was once more holding up his paper… pointing at the ‘BE CALM’ note on the page.

[Kelski]

Kelski got the message. Be calm. But it was easier said than done. She had no idea if Gilthas was going to let her out now that she was in the dark, with only the dim light filtering through the glass to see by. But she knew the light had been comforting somehow, making it easier for her to judge her air. And while she had plenty for a few minutes after flooding the space with res and transmuting it, she was more nervous than ever about being curled in the dark coffin alone surrounded by dirt. The lid pressed down on her, so too did the weight of the dirt Gilthas had piled on top of the plank holding her space open.

Her sweat redoubled and she started panting lightly. Gilthas watched without comment for quite a while until finally he wrote something else on the parchment and pressed it up against the glass.

• WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
• IM NOT DIGGING YOU OUT.
• YOU MUST GET OUT ON YOUR OWN.

What? Kelski read the words in the dim light and almost didn’t believe them. Get out on her own? What? Her breathing redoubled, and suddenly she was feeling light headed. Realizing her air was running out, Kelski dipped into her well, tapped her djed coaxing it into being, and breathed out Res which she transmuted into Air. Taking a fresh breath, she took several moments to calm down.

Get out? Get out? Get out? She repeated it to herself like a mantra, only she used it to calm herself rather than start into another panic. Kelski carefully stretched out her fingers, one leg, then another, feeling the dirt all around her. She kept repeating the mantra, but transmuted it into something new.

You will get out. You will get out. You will get out.

Gilthas watched on, frowned, and offered her more advice. A new piece of parchment was selected, he scribbled something else on it, and held it up to the glass. Kelski read it, re-read it again, and thought hard.

• REMEMBER YOU CAN PRESSURIZE AIR.
• IT IS A FORCE.
• YOU CAN PUSH WITH IT.
• BUT CONTROL IT.
• IT CAN HURT YOU EVEN AS IT MOVES EARTH.

Kelski nodded and looked thoughtful a moment. When her brain suddenly reminded her about all the space above her that Gilthas had filled with dirt, she started to panic. It was a lot of dirt. It was a lot of weight. She didn’t even know she could move that much weight by shoving on the plank above her with the force of her own muscles. How could her magic do it? But glancing at Gilthas, Kelski trusted him. She trusted his word.

Kelski dragged in a deep breath.

He didn’t say TRY to push it. He said she could push it. Her mentor was always very specific with what he said. His words were never thoughtlessly spoken. Instead, he picked his phrases carefully.

She could move it. That transformed slowly to a new phrase. You can move it. And finally the phrase became what Kelski latched onto. I can move it. Kelski chanted that over and over again, building her belief and weaving it with Gilthas’ belief to strengthen her resolve. Then, tapping her well, knowing there was still a great deal of it left, she began to expel Res. She carefully transmuted it to Air, breathing steadily and deeply as she did so.

[Kelski]

Gilthas watched as his djed daughter worked through the problem in her mind. Kelski was sharp, but it was often hard remembering she didn’t think like a normal human would. So he observed. The more he learned about how she thought the easier it would be to teach her things that would work towards her goals in her life rather than work against her nature.

Kelski built her Res, tapping her well and building up what in essence was a wall of Res transmuted Air about her. Gilthas said she could do it… but she could hurt herself doing it. So, she wanted to build a wall of air around herself to cushion and protect herself as she worked on building air pressure above her. The idea was that she wanted to move the plank and the dirt that was above it forcefully off her… and in a way that was strong enough to force open the lid. She’d looked at it climbing in. It had no latches, only hinges, and it should be feasibly easy to move with just her bare hands. If she could move it with her bare hands, could she move it with her Reimancy? If she had both Earth and Air, she could simply transmute the Earth to Air. But she had only Air and had to work with what she had.

The Sea Eagle kept building her Res generated Air. The Key, she figured, was holding the mental image of the wall before her. Gilthas had stressed over and over again if it was her Res it was under her control. The only reason she couldn’t control it was if she didn’t have a firm grasp of it in her mind. Kelski had a firm grasp. She made sure of it. She built up the image of the wall in her mind, a solid tangible thing until she was absolutely certain it existed and there could be nothing else. Then, pressing further, pulling from her well, she built more and more Res up on the other side of the wall, changing it to Air.

It physically almost hurt to concentrate that much. Her breathing was ragged as she kept expelling the Res. Finally, though her hands were outstretched at an awkward angle – mainly from holding the little candle earlier – she switched from breathing it out to expressing it from her palms. That helped a little, and she could feel the vibration of the plank above her vibrate, as if it were rattling under the pressure.

Gilthas wrote another note, pressed it up against the glass.

• GET ON WITH IT ALREADY.
• IF THIS WAS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION, YOU’D BE DEAD.

Kelski bared her teeth at him, hissing unhappily. Her sudden anger fueled a deeper less controlled pull of djed from her inner well, and she lost control. There was a surge, a thrust that resulted from her just wanting to get out of the situation rather than control the situation, that exploded her Air outwards, blew the lid off the coffin and sent a shower of dirt and the plank up into the air, coating everything in the workroom.

Kelski sat up, spitting dirt out of her mouth and glaring around her.

[Kelski]

Gilthas shook his head. “You let me provoke you, Kelskanisha K'etir. That’s not any good. If I can do it so easily, the enemy can get to you even faster. And now how do you feel? Controlled, you’d still have lots of djed left. But that… that was an unnecessary show of force driven by rage. I bet you are feeling a bit tapped out.” He said conversationally. The Eth showed no signs of being angry or frustrated. His charge had done well. If she’d held her temper, he would have been surprised. Everything about todays exercise had been to teach her to keep her head… to look back and see what happened when someone didn’t in a controlled situation. Here, overgiving if she did indeed overgive, was safer than anywhere else she could have done it. Here, they could talk about it further.

Kelski’s head was pounding. And she did feel exhausted, tired, and like she wanted nothing more than a bath. She blinked at Gilthas’ use of her proper name and shook her head. That caused her headache to redouble as she scrambled out of the glass coffin and jumped lightly to her feet on the floor. “I’m okay.” She said simply, reaching up to touch her forehead.

Gilthas shook his head. “It’s never okay when you loose control. There are just stages of not being okay. You just had your first Inordination. Or rather, you overgave. I can see it in your eyes and I can practically hear the pounding of your head from here.” He said firmly, then pulled up a chair and patted it. “I can’t stress enough, Kelski, how important it is to hold steady to your control.” He said firmly.

Kelski padded over to the seat and dropped in it. She was filthy, panting, and where she’d been sweating the mud had turned to dirt. She met his gaze, her eyes already growing bloodshot. Gilthas winced in sympathy and walked the distance to the hearth in the other room, stirred the fire, and added some tea to brew.

He returned in a few moments. “I’ve never given you the signs of Inordination. You need to know them, Kelski. Mild overgiving will give you that sense you felt before… the euphoria and the desire to cast more. Then you can add to that hallucinations and the whispers mages hear in their ears to do things that aren’t favorable to our continued existence. We call those ‘sweet whispers’.” Gilthas paused, as if checking off a mental checklist.

“Your heartrate will increase. Your muscles will tremble. Those silver eyes will go bloodshot. I can already see yours in that shape. You won’t be able to control your spells, and my daughter you will be as grouchy as a badger. Antisocial behavior is common among mages, but your cranky will reach an all new level.” He said, shaking his head and chuckling. “Those are mild symptoms. If you Overgive more than that, you will have bleeding – internal and external – and delirium, convulsions, body pain, and your magic will be completely out of control. Severe overgiving and you’ll lose control of your generation of res. It will just produce itself in spurts and you’ll have no control. But it gets worse than that. You will start transmuting your own body – without control – and you can mutate into something completely inhuman. You can bleed heavily, lose consciousness and ultimately you will die, Kelski. You showed excellent control today…. Until the very end. But you can’t use fear, tiredness, just wanting to be away from a situation, etc as an excuse. You need to be as good at control at the end of the day as you started. It matters, my daughter. It matters a great deal.” He added.

Kelski slowly nodded. “I understand.” She said, upset with herself that she’d lost control. She deserved better and Gilthas deserved a better student. She reflected and noted all the places she’d gone wrong. Then she turned and looked at Gilthas, who was over adding some willow to her tea before giving it to her.

“Gilthas… tomorrow when I feel better… can we try again?” She asked, wanting another shot at getting free buried alive. Gilthas smiled, pleased at her desire to do better, to practice, and to do it all over again until she got it right.

“Of course… come eat some chowder.. and let’s rest the remainder of the evening. Can you stay the night? I’ll make up a bed on the couch and I’ll tell you a story of the underworld times.” He added. Kelski loved his stories and knew she couldn’t resist.

“I’ll stay. Then we’ll do it all over again tomorrow. I’ll even clean up your lab… since I got dirt all over everything.” Kelski said firmly.

Gilthas laughed. “It’s a deal.”

[Kelski]

G R A D E S

Kelski

Reimancy: +5, Wilderness Survival +4, Endurance +4, Meditation +2, Arcanology +2

Gilthas: Can Craft An Ice Box, WS: Handling A Cave-In With Reimancy, Reimancy: Knowing How To Task Res To Be Breathable Air, WS: Half The Battle In Survival Situations Is Remaining Calm, WS: Watch Flame On A Candle For Indication Of Air Quality, WS: Taste The Air, WS: Add Air When Air Feels/Tastes Stale Or You Feel Sleepy Or Candle Flame Waivers, Reimancy: Controlling Air Temperature, Reimancy: Fire Blows Up With Lots Of Air, Reimancy: Using Air To Blast Out Of A Trapped Space, Reimancy: Using Air As A Force, Reimancy: Building Up Pressure Slowly, Reimancy: Res Reacts To Strong Emotions, Reimancy: Emotions Can Cause You To Loose Control, Arcanology: Signs Of Overgiving