[Flashback] Baptism by Fire [Elisse]

[Tabarnac]

"Death, my dear pupil," he said, "is the least of your worries." With that cryptic statement, he stood and walked over to the side door. He reached out and his fingertip began to glow a smoldering orange. As it neared the threshold, a field of dull red energy buzzed to life, but he drew a quick collection of glyphs that burned on that field, orange on red, until the sigil of unlocking was complete. With a brighter flash, it all disappeared and he opened the door, indicating she should precede him. "After you, then." Inside was a workroom, the floor, ceiling, and walls clean but for dark scorch marks that had yet to be whitewashed out. To his senses, primed to the djed, the room hummed with echoes of power spent and power called, but she was as yet a tabula rasa, and would only sense what her native senses could pick up, which varied from person to person. A single chair awaited her. Wood, which seemed unlikely given his storied power, with arms and a high back. "Please, sit."

[Elisse]

Elisse blinked and her brow furrowed for a fleeting moment, but the expression was gone within seconds as the Professor stood. She turned in her chair, her gaze following him as he made his way across the room. Her eyes followed the movements of his hand, but she could not understand the pattern well enough to follow it. At his gesture, she quickly stood up and stepped cautiously through the door. Her eyes traced over the various scorch marks before coming to rest on the chair. The fact that it was wood didn't really click in her mind. She was frowning ever so slightly. When she had stepped into the room she had felt something in the air shift. It was very minute, like the way the air changes when the weather shifts, but she had felt something there all the same. The Professor's voice cut into her thoughts and she quickly did as he asked, taking a seat in the chair.

[Tabarnac]

Once inside, he drew another glyph in fiery res upon the door and the shield completed itself once more. A person could feel a little claustrophobic in such a small space with a powerful pyromancer, but he was nice enough that one could hope for the best. Hope springs eternal, after all. But when he turned, there was a silver blade winking in his hand, the pommel stone a garnet as big as his thumb. There were sinuous glyphs chased into the blade, but whether they were ornamental or functional was beside the point. He was advancing on her. "This," he informed her in no uncertain terms, "will hurt."

[Elisse]

Elisse watched the Professor with trepidation as he sealed the door closed. She tried to follow the glyph with her eyes again, but his hand was too quick. She was so focused on the fading glyph that she did not immediately notice the knife in his hand as he turned. A flash caught her eye and pulled her attention, and then the silver blade was all she could look at. Her hand was resting on one of the arms, palm upwards and it was shaking ever so slightly. As the Professor moved closer, still her eyes didn't move from the blade. Elisse nodded at his words and swallowed. She was trying not to let the fear show in her eyes. This what what she wanted and it was the price she had to pay.

[Tabarnac]

"Power, unfortunately," he said, calm as death, "comes from pain." His free hand closed over her wrist, knife held at the ready. "This will change you. If you survive." The flick of his wrist was quick and deft, and it took a few moments for her nerves to inform her that she was injured at all, a moment of nothing before the blood began to well up from the incision. Razor sharp, it was thin, but all he needed was an opening. "Now the other."

[Elisse]

The fear she felt flickered in her eyes now. Her Professors voice was different now; eerily calm. Her gaze flicked down to her wrist as he took hold of it, his words almost making her jerk away on impulse. She looked away for a few moments, till she felt a pressure on her hand. There was a heartbeat's pause before she registered what it was, and as he looked back her eyes locked onto the thin red like in her palm. Immediately the pain hit her, and she bit on her bottom lip to remain silent. She was gripping the other arm of the chair with her unmarked hand, and she didn't realize till he asked for it. She relinquished her hold, and held it out to him, willing it not to tremble.

[Tabarnac]

He laid open her other palm with a thin ribbon of crimson, cleaned his blade with a handkerchief, and then made the two props disappear before he took her wrists in both his hands, still firm, but gentle. When he looked into her eyes, he looked with surprising compassion. "It is not too late to stop," he said. "It will get much worse before it gets better. Are you determined to do this thing? There is no shame in changing your mind at the crux of things..."

[Elisse]

Elisse visibly winced as the blade cut into her other palm. Her gaze was now fixed on the thin red stripes that adorned both her hands. When the Professor took hold of her wrists, she glanced up and mat his eyes. She shook her head at his words, and forced herself to speak. "No. Continue." That was all she could manage, afraid that her resolve would fail of she tried to say more. This was what she wanted. She had asked for it. OOCShort post is short. Sorry >_<

[Tabarnac]

Considering her for one long moment, he finally nodded and closed his eyes. He took a big, deep, long breath in through his nose, and then opened his eyes to stare into hers, his mouth opening to exhale air that shone with nascent magic, djed made visible by some internal alchemy. Res. Potential elemental energy, and it danced to his heartbeat, to his breath, to the rhythms of his body and the strength of his will. It coiled at first like a snake, or the exhalations of a hookah-smoker, but with each exhale, it twisted toward her, taking its time like some predatory thing as there was not much distance between their faces now. It split, still dancing like a tame cobra hypnotized by some Eyktolian flute-player, and began to coalesce along her skin, a second, glowing skin that tingled her nerves, stoking them like sleeping things to something that was akin to pain, but not quite. It began to spread along her, and still his eyes promised her that this could stop if she but say the word. Not like the uncivilized post-Valterrian rituals this one, where a person had little say in such things, might making right. Her free will was honored if her request was deemed dubious. The University had a habit of giving people enough rope to hang themselves with the hope that the rope would be put to better use. Eventually, her body was entirely covered in the energy, her skin afire with strange sensation. His eyebrow arched upward with that last chance sort of questioning, waiting merely for a word, a nod, something to banish all this or embrace it. Her fate, it would seem, was her own.

[Elisse]

Her eyes were wide as she watched her Professor and she was forcing herself not to clench her hands into fists. Her palms throbbed, the thin red lines slowly leaking blood, but she didn't look. She couldn't look, she was too transfixed by her Professor. The air he breathed was shimmering, shifting of it's own accord. Res. She knew what it was and she could not take her eyes off it. She followed its course as it inched towards her, and made an involuntary noise - some sort of gasp - as it touched her skin. If she was asked to describe it, she would not be able to find words. It didn't hurt as such, but it had a sensation that was very similar. It continued to creep along her skin, covering her like a second layer. Her fingers twitched from the feel of it. Her eyes once again met those of her Professors. Her head moved in a nod. It was what she had asked for, she wanted it done.