Keeping Old Promises [Need someone to Approve this probably]

[Duncan Sythe]

Early in the Month of Kalendryas in the Season of Winter, Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum.


Cross legged Duncan sat before the box on the bed and examined it carefully with senses that most would call supernatural or arcane. He had promised to deliver this thing to Alexis, the Minister for War, months ago...but events with a certain Sanguine personality called Albrae had delayed his fulfillment of that promise until now.

That was not to say he hadn't looked at the thing before. Duncan had studied it on and off every cycle or so when his memory had returned to it...but it had taken a month or so of such examination to get to this point.

"I wonder if there's a way to ensure that that box doesn't leave my side...like a range, maybe. I know we can ensure arcanically that it opens only to my command, but is there a way that it doesn't get stolen from me?"

There were many ways to do what Alexis wished. Originally he'd contemplated a spell that killed anyone who tried to take the box outside of Alexis reach, but then that might kill an innocent servant...so he was reluctant to take that approach. Instead the first part of Alexis request, that only he could open it, gave him an idea.

What if it was only visible to Alexis and would give a Psionic shock to anyone who tried to touch it who was not Alexis? To Duncan the way to achieve this of course required Alexis to be around for the final tuning of the thing but he could create the initial framework easily enough and just add the identifier element specific to Alexis later.

The box firstly needed invisibility that activated when someone's hand was not within a meter of it. Then it needed to shock anyone who was not supposed to be touching it. Both of those then needed to be tuned to Alexis. The easiest way Duncan saw of doing this was going to be to Enchant the thing to work for anyone then tune it to Alexis later, although he had no way of testing whether it actually shocked anyone...but he could test that element of it on himself later.

As for the mental link between Alexis and the box? He'd tune that when he met Alexis again. For now sitting the black weatherproof box before him Duncan studied it carefully. The weaves of the item were integral to the enchantment that would go in it...and as a result Duncan had been carefully studying the way the box fitted together. He would of course need a surface enchantment in this case, one that surrounded the box to some degree rather than being contained within it as it needed to detect when the box was touched. The rest though could be safely bound within any part of the box.

Divination, Conjuration and Alteration were therefore required along with Evocation to create the shock. The divination element to doubly detect the touch and hide the box from prying eyes, whilst also detecting the presence of the valid person it was to appear for within a small radius. It would shine like an arcane beacon when it was visible but it would only be visible for Alexis...and part of the criteria had not been making it not appear to be magical when Alexis was near it, besides, getting to it would be difficult enough that making it magical should be a warning not an invitation to try and steal it.

As usual for this Duncan would Imbue the item first with a skeletal representation of the spells he wished to use in order to test the functionality.

That meant Imbuing a spell that would make it invisible when his hand came within a certain reach...easy enough to flip around and attach to a long-lasting enchantment when he did it properly...and a stunning Imbument to set off if the person touching it was not the correct one. In the place of a mental template that he'd get from Alexis Duncan instead would use a mental keyword to be held in the mind when touching the box in the initial imbument test. The goal being to see that the placement of the weaves was right within the box so that it wouldnt...blow up in his face or anything of the sort.

Settling down therefore Duncan drew and Channelled Psionic essence, bringing it within himself and slowly layering it atop the box as one might cast a spell, only much more slowly and holding the spell formed, waiting. It required a tad extra complexity as he would have to Activate the thing and was adding a mental activation as well as an arcane one. Both would be tied to the same keyword Vox, for the trial.

Weaving the first of the two sections, the invisiblity – as it wouldnt hurt him as much as the Psionic shock – Duncan placed the network of altered and conjured threads around the box, then layered it with the divination to touch the mind of the one who touched the box. This would mean that unless the word was present in the person's mind then the box would remain visible.

Once that was complete Duncan's mind held it, a complicated process of remembering what was and adding the rest of what he wished, drawing the additional energy in his mind to complete the task by adding the second component to the Imbument if the word was not present. If it was, the box went invisible and no-one got hurt. If it was not, then the box remained visible and the person whose hand was within touching distance of it got a light Psionic Shock – far below what he intended to put on the final product.

Finally passing the evocation for the shock into the box Duncan withdrew his mental attention and relaxed a little, standing to acquire a drink from the counter and sip at it as he studied the thing he'd created that was now ready to do precisely what it had been designed to do, in theory.

Now all that remained was to test it, putting his hand towards the box he began by testing the shock, tensing his body for the light effect that should course through him if all went to plan, far below an Initiate level spell it would simply tingle up to around his forearm. After all, he didn't have the keyword in his mind.

After that, provided all had gone to plan he held the word in his mind Vox. If the box vanished when he went to touch it again then all was well and both imbuments would be used up...and it would be time to lay the groundwork for the Enchantments.

[Duncan Sythe]

A shiver ran through him as his wrist twitched without being asked to. At least that worked then. Smiling contentedly at his success Duncan Sythe flexed his forearm and rolled his wrist thoughtfully as he ran his fingers over the invisible product before him. A simple enough matter to unravel the Imbument he'd placed on it now.

Then, then came the real work of the actual enchantment he wanted – not that it would do anything just yet, it would in fact do nothing at all except have an enchanted invisibility spell and the accompanying Warp Mind equivalent evocation inside it, not until he tuned it to Alexis and tested it on himself.

After all, he needed Alexis to attune it and if he didn't set it only when with the man he'd never be able to carry the thing to the Minister for War in the first place. So, Dispelling the Imbument, unravelling it and removing it from the cocoon of Vis it sat in and untying the spell around it deftly, Duncan set about his task.

Enchantment was after all so much more complicated.

Denaturing the object, that was the difficult task, unravelling it enough to entwine the enchantment with the item's very being so that the mana used in the spell was indistinguishable from it's Vis...and so that it would regenerate over time.

He had learnt a lot of the how from the past several cycles, also from when he cast the Imbument. Now he knew how the item was formed and was roughly sure how the spells would fit together, now came the difficulty.

Ascending to Meditation was easy enough, as was drawing upon the Ara around himself melded with his Vis to create the raw energy sometimes used in a Circle of Magic, which in this case he did indeed cast around himself and the box in case anything went untoward. This done Duncan re-gained Meditation and began the process again, but instead of creating a defensive, protective circle to protect the outside world from an exploding box, he applied the form to the box...slowly weaving flows of Ara and Vis through it, using the same properties that made it so good at keeping spells out or in to carefully lift weaves of Vis apart and denature the object, seperated so that he could add his own adjustments – the enchantment – into the weaving.

This would take him a while...and was additionally stressful because before he'd began deconstructing the item he had also held the mana for the spells he wished to cast, a simple invisibility and the warping mind....along with the mana required for the accountriments. He'd have to go back later and repeat the process to add more energy and re energize the offensive spell to master level of course, but that would be easier...like an injection into the item for an imbument rather than a full enchantment.

Thus Duncan finally had the item spread out in his minds eye, looking decidedly odd to the human one. Slowly he shaped the spells he wanted; divination, alteration, adjuration and evocation all coming together into seperate components. The Invisibility which would be nullified by the presence of a mind within a certain space of the item – marked by the alteration – then the evocation that would afflict anyone who tried to touch it without them being the person who had de-activated the invisibility.

Of course for now it was generic, the box would be invisible when no-one was within touching distance of it but would reappear when anyone tried to touch it and would not hurt the person who did – it was not yet going to be attuned to someone. But when he met Alexis next he could make the connection.

The process of putting the components back together around these shaped spells was arguably the most dangerous. If Duncan didn't get it right the object would fall apart when he released the Ara and Vis reaction he'd used to prise it apart...and falling apart meant random reactions with Ara and big explosions.

Still he'd done this enough times before that it was unlikely. Thus, carefully, Duncan reviewed his work as his mind strained on the edge of overwhelming to hold the pieces just a tiny distance apart, checking for inconsistancies in his memory of its formation before finally releasing it and letting it fall back together... Nothing would happen then of course if all had gone well. To check however he got up and walked to the other side of the room, the box hopefully disappearing from sight as he did so.

With that all completed all that remained was the injection of additional mana into the evocation, a simple matter of drawing the energy the next brightening and gently prising apart the very area of the object he was interested in to insert it. Once that step was completed he would be able to give it to Alexis when he saw the man next.