Completed The Color Of Fire

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 65th of Summer, 522 A.V.

“TAZRAE!” Rainmere shrieked.

Tazrae laughed at Rainmere’s expression. “What?!” She demanded, laughing in spite of herself, stepping out from behind the palm tree she was hiding behind. The young Innkeeper had agreed to meet up with Rainmere for another Firedancing Session and had come upon the woman already hard at work with her poi. Taz had snuck up behind her, ducked behind a palm, reached out with her Fire Reimancy – something that she was very comfortable with – and sent her Res out to merge with the fire on the poi then pulled the fire off the poi, putting both of them out abruptly.

Rainmere cursed re-dipped her poi, and started again lighting them after whirling the excess tar off them. Taz had waited, a hand over her mouth covering her laughter, and had stepped forward to do it again. It was good practice reaching out with her power and her mind, calling the fire to her and snuffing it out. Since fire was her first element, she could control it, even if she didn’t make it. All she had to do was link Res with it to make it her own and then will it out of existence.

Holding her hands up in an “I give up!” manner, Taz fully revealed herself and stopped abruptly within Rainmere’s sight. “I also come in peace; with wine and snacks.” She said, lifting up the basket that was draped over her arm.

Rainmere laughed, grinned, and shook her head. “I should have known immediately! But I was so stunned they went out like that and I kept thinking about what I would do if that happened during a performance.” She admitted, laughing at her own reaction and shaking her head.

“I’m so sorry… I just couldn’t help it. You looked so focused and beautiful out there spinning that poi. I just … “ Taz left off as Rainmere cut her off…

“You just got jealous, didn’t you?” She said, whirling and bending at the waist in a mock bow. “You know it takes years to develop good technique with the poi, right? And while you have the magic going on for you, and the excess energy, but your body doesn’t know how to manipulate poi like it's an extension of you. So, less jealousy and more hard work.” Rainmere teased, laughing at the coral flush in Tazrae’s cheeks.

“It's honestly not jealousy… though I should be. It’s just that you are stunning, dancing with fire.” Tazrae said abruptly, meaning it. “It’s so beautiful it makes my heart just seize up watching you. You are a born show woman and it leaves me breathless watching you.” She admitted, as the other Firedancer sat down her poi and walked over to Tazrae. She took the basket from her, set it down and aside then folded her friend into a hug. The two women hugged tightly and then pulled away smiling at each other.

“I’ve had years to perfect my technique. You’ve only had a few lessons. Don’t worry, you’ll get there.” Rainmere said, misunderstanding Tazrae.

The Innkeeper shook her head, making her curls bounce free, as she laughed a denial. “It’s not that at all. I don’t even remotely want to be as good as you are at it. I just wanted to learn a creative and challenging way to practice my Reimancy with. I’m not comparing and belittling my abilities when pressed up against yours. You absolutely love your sport. I get that. I’ll never love it as you do. So I’ll never be as good at it as you are. You just come alive Firedancing, Rainmere. And I appreciate that. But I still want to learn, not because I love dancing, but because it will help me be a better fighter when that time comes. Your love of this art is going to help teach me control and grace, two things I don’t have. And I’m sorry for that… because you deserve students that love doing this as much as you do.” Tazrae admitted, touching her instructor's shoulder gently and giving it a squeeze.

[Tazrae]

While Tazrae spoke, she sent a cooling breeze fueled by her Res around the little clearing on the beach where they both stood. It was hot today and since the sun had already set and it was quickly growing fully dark, the heat hadn’t dispersed off the sand yet and it was still toasty warm. Taz chuckled, thinking though it was fall in Syka, there was no sign of cooling temperatures on the way. Instead, it was as hot as ever and the sand tended to bake them until early morning when it lost its heat and instead was soothing and cool. Until then, a Reimancy breeze would do. Dictating the temperature of the cool air, the mage was able to chill the area slightly, making it more comfortable for them to work in.

Rainmere nodded, returning her smile and laying a hand over the hand on her shoulder. “I really appreciate your honesty, Taz. And it helps me focus on what to teach you and how to focus on that teaching. You are here for control. I can understand that. But it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you were just a tad jealous…” She said with a grin.

Taz laughed out loud and nodded. “Okay. Pure jealousy. You got it.” She added, grinning wide. “Now… can you please teach me some new techniques so I can work on magic on the fly?” She demanded, laying a hand on her hip and cocking her frame demandingly.

Reinmere smiled. “Sure. Did you bring your poi?”

Taz nodded in response, and gestured to a second bag she had held apart from the food in the basket but slung over the same arm. She reached in and pulled out her set of poi on their chains. Laying them down, she shrugged off her wrap and gathered all her stuff to set it out of the way. They were on Swing Beach so Taz made sure the food was out of the way of thieving monkeys and birds. Once that was settled, she pulled her hair back, captured it in a messy bun, and picked up the poi.

She crossed to where Rainmere stood and waited in front of her friend. Rainmere was obviously thoughtfully pondering Tazrae’s needs. This was the first time the Innkeeper had actually vocalized what she wanted. Holding up a hand, Rain took off at a jog and returned moments later with a dozen Tiki torches that she then filled with oil after staking around them in their open spot on the beach.

“If you want control, we’re going to play with … what are your elements? Fire and air? We’ll play with them as we work the poi, that way you can work on your split concentration.” She said, then stepped out of the circle of torches to stand at a good trainer’s location where she could call directions to Tazrae. “I mean… I’m only a Firedancer, not a mage, but I bet I can help with this since I know what your secret ambition is now.” Rainmere quirked, then bent her face into a smile.

“Okay… light the torches… of them. Let’s make it theatrical… a bit whoosh! So what… you add in air for that? And at the same time light your poi. I’ll show you some moves, but then you need to follow my instructions which will be random and varied.” Rainmere called out, backing away slightly, not sure how much practicing Taz had been doing before now. Had she gotten better? Lost some of the training?

[Tazrae]

Taz picked up her poi, concentrated, and began generating Res. The process was slow because she was rusty and hadn’t practiced for a bit. Taz knew she had big djedpools and could make her Res last a long time, but her issue controlled. She dripped the Res down her poi chains and sent it wisping across the distance to the tiki torches and zipped between them, connecting the mage to the torches. She fed more Res into the procedure as she danced the translucent sunset-colored material from torch to torch, coating the wicks and in essence making them her own. Then, all at once, she bent them to her will and ignited them all together in a big fiery show. The whoosh of fire went up, licked the sky, then backed down to a more controlled burn, illuminating the darkened area nicely.

“Well done!” Rainmere called. “But they weren’t all even and uniform. Whoosh them up again… work in unison so they all rise up in the big fiery explosion together… and get that poi whirling before you get burnt.” She said, indicating the fire that was creeping up the poi chains, endangering Tazrae’s hands where they gripped the chains.

The Innkeeper immediately set them into motion, beginning a wall plane spin that was even and uniform. Then, as Rainmere instructed she focused on the Res infusing the torches and sent it up into another ‘whoosh’ this time concentrating on the flames rising evenly in a showy manner. It wasn’t hard, not at first until Rainmere called for her to snuff every other torch. She did so, but missed one in the middle directly behind her hand and had to half turn to see it to snuff it. Then she sent out more Res, relit them, and tried again. Once she did that, she broke out in a sweat and began to feel the physical drain of the Res generation and the extended distance control of her Res.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Rainmere introduced new poi spins while she was calling orders on how to control the flames on the torches. Snuff them all… snuff two directly behind you… light them all up… snuff every other pair…. The woman got creative and got Taz seriously working her Reimancy as she did so.

“Let's start you out on hip reels. Do you remember what those are? Let's snuff one poi, set it down for a moment, and work just with one. I want you to practice a reel in front on the front plane, hitch it to the back and do a full turn on the back plane, then bring it forward again. Practice that motion until you understand it and have basic muscle memory of it… then switch hands, practice on the other hand, and do one full circuit in front, cross over, and one full circuit in back. Then… when you are comfortable with both hands, get both poi moving, doing the hip reels at full time, split time, and quarter-time…. “ She indicated with a gesture, confident Taz could do it.

Taz swallowed thoughtfully, set one poi down, and began as Rainmere instructed, doing one hip reel, then another. Meanwhile, Rainmere called instructions on the circle of tiki torches, having Tazrae’s concentration split between keeping the poi functional and snuffing and lighting the torches in certain orders. It had her sweating, not because either task was particularly hard, but because it was a steady drain on her djed and made her understand that it wasn’t so easy focusing on so many things at once when it came to magic. She snuffed and exploded torches, licking the fire up higher driven by air… and at one point Rainmere even made her harden the air under her feet, solidifying it so she could rise up, standing off the ground to keep the poi whirling.

[Tazrae]

Now that Rainmere knew what Tazrae wanted out of her training, the Firedancer didn’t make it easy. She switched it up, made demands, and had Tazrae groaning when she manipulated the djed, feeding it, cutting it off, ordering it this way and that way. It was flat-out almost impossible until she got an idea. The poi swung about her in an almost three-beat function because she did one rotation front, one rotation back and one beat to switch the planes between the rotations. It was a three-beat motion.

Taz started humming a three-beat tune, and at that moment, it all began to come together. She even, unencouraged, picked up a second poi and lit it on beat one and had it whiling and joining the first in a half step off with the other hand running opposite. The effect was nice because she always had a poi spinning front and back, and she was able to snap changes with her concentration on the tikis in time with the three-beat. It would be so much easier if someone grabbed a drum and pounded out the beat. But no one would be doing that in battle, that much was for sure. So Taz thumped her own beat, the time kept in her mind, and allowed her to get on rhythm and control.

“One, two, three…. One, two, three….” She mouthed as she switched up the poi’s plane, taking Rainmere’s instructions to a new level. Rainmere was good about having her change up planes, and Taz anticipated this, arching what she thought of as the split-time hip reels into side-by-side reels, utilizing the planes on either side of her. As she switched from front to back moving side by side, she used the ceiling plane as a transitional move causing Rainmere to clap, and forget to call out an order to manipulate the torches as she did so.

Taz grinned, kept counting, and added in hip motions that Rainmere normally did. “Is.. the… hips……... sexier?” She asked in the three-beat tempo, laughing. She’d show off for Rainmere, another woman, but it wasn’t a move she’d do in front of an audience.

Rainmere, with a straight face, called out. “You look like you’re having a seizure.” Which caused Tazrae to miss a beat, and send a poi flying. She snuffed the flying poi immediately and then the one that suddenly went slack in her hand, panting. She snuffed the rest of the torches for good measure, while her attention was distracted, and turned back to Rainmere.

“You are such a brat.” Taz declared, rolling her hips and raising her hands up over her head, exaggerating the motion until she was absolutely positive she looked like she was having some sort of brainstorm or physical breakdown. “This is beyond graceful.” They both knew it wasn’t and ended up laughing as Taz went to retrieve the accidentally flung poi.

Once she’d scooped it up off the sand, she turned, acting normal once more, and gave the girl a smile in the near darkness. “Thank you… that’s such a big help. You’d be surprised how easy it is to train your mind to do multiple things at once as long as you are having fun and not stressed. I think that’s why I like Firedancing… like.. not love…. It's fun.” Taz said, halting her trudge across the sand in front of Rainmere.

Her teacher nodded.

“Got anything else for me to practice on? More moves?” She asked.

Her companion nodded. “I have endless moves to teach you. Whether you can be taught through… the jury is still out on that.” She said with a grin. “Let's try a two-beat weave, regular and split time, and a three-beat weave. And this time I want you to leave the torches lit and just play with the wind. I’d rather you concentrate on Air this time. Play with the wind rather than the fire as you manipulate the poi.” Rainmere said.

[Tazrae]

“Okay first.. we are doing a corkscrew. Pretend like you are stirring a big pot with your poi out in front of you. You’ll have to lean forward a bit… do four circulations, then go up and do one up and over your head. So do four stirs, lift, one stir above your head, back down, four stirs, until you can do one stir, lift up and over your head, one stir, drop down, stir out in front of you, gradually decrease your stirs in front until you are doing one in front one up over your head, one in front, and you’ll form a corkscrew. When you get that settled, go the opposite direction, and then change hands…. Once both hands have it figured out, get both poi spinning and doing this and you’ll get spectacular motion.” Rainmere said, dancing forward, demonstrating, working her way from four slow easy motions to one smooth transference… forward overhead forward, then changing direction until she had both poi spinning.

Taz shook her head but gave it a shot. It looked complicated, but like usual, breaking down the moves into a series of learning motions got her ready to try the more complex moves, and soon enough she was on the one in front one above one beat corkscrew and then transferring it to another hand trying it out with that hand and finally getting both poi spinning. She tried to control Reimancy doing so, but the most she could manage was a cooling breeze on the back of her neck. Once her brain thought out more than ‘cool breeze’ it all fell apart. Rainmere wasn’t surprised, and they worked on that for a good bell before Taz had small breezes zipping around as she spun.

Drenched with sweat and more than a little tired, Taz called a halt to the practice, and both girls sat gratefully down and began to nibble the snacks and drink at the wine. They spent that time catching up, doing a bit of light gossiping, and planning the next time they were going to meet. Tazrae made sure to thank Rainmere multiple times for taking time out of her busy schedule to help her… and apologized multiple times for liking Firedancing but not absolutely loving it.

Rainmere only laughed. “The world is full of all kinds. If I taught everyone to firedance, there’d be no more joy in it for me either, I suppose. At least you are honest about why you are learning all this.” She said, grinning.

Taz gave her a final parting hug and both girls broke off, planning to meet again soon.

Words: 3028

[Tazrae]

Grading!

Tazrae -

Firedancing +5, Reimancy +5, Rhetoric +2, Logic +1, Endurance +2, Meditation +1

Lores: Firedancing Moves: Corkscrew, Hip/Shoulder Reels, Reimancy: Using Multiple Forms of Reimancy At One Time, Reimancy: Hardening Air To Loft A Person, Reimancy: Makeshift AC,