Keydall's Greater Illusions

[Dragon]

A brightening after Keydal paid the crowns in the University for the classes a letter arrived. In fact just a messenger with no letter, all he said was that Laria, the Mistress of Mysticism is going to be waiting for Keydal the next brightening in the morning in room 204. That said the messenger left and the brightening came to and end not that much later. The next one was a rainy brightening. Not just slightly rainy, but it was simply pouring and if one had to go across the street then the chance to stay more or less dry was impossible. Unless of course one had magical anti-rain shields.

Fortunately for Keydal the University had a roof and the rain was warm so it was not terribly bad. Mistress Laria was a young human in her early twenties. She was a pretty woman with emerald eyes that sparkled with the light of intelligence and cordiality. Her features were delicate enough to be considered attractive. She had long, brown hair bound sternly back into the makings of a ponytail. Like all mages of the University she wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it, however a strand of grass or some other such verdant device usually hung conspicuously from the folds of her clothes. It was clear enough to see that the woman had an inherent love for the outdoors, and would perhaps have felt more at home teaching the sphere of druidism, rather than that of mysticism. A radiant light glinted off the surface of a ring worn on one of the woman’s hands, an item of jewellery which clearly belied the fact that the woman was married.

She waited in the room 204 as agreed. It was one of the usual classrooms in the University. Just a few chairs, one desk and quite a few cupboards. On the ground there were quite a few pillows, probably for students to fall onto when the Unbinding technique knocked them out. Each classroom was a little bit different. In some windows were small and in some large. In this particular one there was a large window. The rooms of Mysticism had a women’s touch, many more pillows and other girly stuff could be found all around. There miss Laria was waiting sitting behind a desk and drinking tea to get warmer.

[Keydall Dahanye]

Keydall hated the rain. Having grown up in the desert, most would naturally assume that rain would be an amazing concept which would never cease to fill her with wonder, but it was not so; the desert had suited her well, and the smell of wet hair did not. The fact that she had very little else to wear and was currently clothed mostly in brown cotton didn't help. Her clothing was suited for travel and for a limited budget, not for the rain. Brown cotton shirt, brown cotton trowsers, brown leather boots, various weapons hidden throughout her loose and simple clothing and the large scabbard at her side... none was particularly inclined to resist the rain. Which was why she walked into her first journeyman mysticism class looking more than mildly disheveled. Her black hair hung to her shoulders in wet lanks, her countanence was less than pleased, and her clothing clung to her body like a wet second skin.

Haya's tits. Keydall cursed mentally before she could remember she was in the presence of an accomplished mystic. She's a woman. This revelation was filled with all sorts of negative conotations, for Keydall did not get along with members of her own sex very well. They were generally less distracted by her breasts and almost always either very intelligent or too stupid to be worth bothering with. Something told her that this woman would be the former, which was an admirable talent in one's teacher but made things somewhat more difficult for this student anyhow. Keydall didn't like people who were too intelligent - they weren't as easy to manipulate, and somehow Keydall always found that this was a talent of hers that came in handy.

Nonsense. She's your teacher, and there is no reason you need to distract or seduce her. Keydall automatically corrected herself, though her initial instinct was to shun females for the above mentioned personality flaws. "Serale." The human woman said. She'd meant for it to be in a friendly fashion, but she'd simply sounded like her lips were pressed together too tight. Nice gem - bet that's a marriage that works well. "You must be Mistress Laria." What's with all the pillows? Keydall fondly remembered mistreating well paid bums in her last class... pillows seemed less exciting. "I'm Keydall Dahanye."

[Dragon]

OOC: Your PC scares me o.O

"Serale Miss Dahanye." Laria said with a smile and then scratched her head. Sure the rain was hard an all, but there were still ways to get from one place to the other without looking like this. Like for example hiring a carriage or taking some better cloak. Apparently this woman either was really poor or really silly not to take care of herself. Well whatever the case Laria was not about to be nosy and could not start the lessons when the student was looking like this. "In that cupboard there are dry clothes. They are of the lower level mages that work here. A bit like mine, only brown. Change into them, I can't teach if you'll start sneezing out of Clara in the middle of the class."

That said Laria returned to the window, gazing outside once in a while at the rain which was still just as heavy. She did not care much for Keydall's tits nor her naked skin, nor whatever else she might have hidden under those wet clothes. Both of them were women in Laria's eyes. "There are some rules for accepting apprentices and promoting them to adepts if they haven't studied under the master from our University. And in your case you haven't, so therefore you'll have to answer some questions and prove yourself as one who is worthy to be promoted. We don't want adepts running around the Empire who can't even control their apprentice powers."

There Laria gave enough time for Keydall to get changed and was not going to continue till the woman would do just that. The mistress knew from her own experience that sneezing was simply too much to be able to do arcana flawlessly and quite often in arcana mistakes resulted in bad results. Like turning into a frog instead of a katta, or making an Imbuement explode instead of get a spell from it. "So first I want you to tell me why you have chosen mysticism and what drives you to advance in it further on. Or we can do this the faster way, but that involves me going into your mind and searching for specific feelings and memories."

[Keydall Dahanye]

OOC: Bit busier than anticipated - posting will be eeeeven slower, if that's possible

Keydall stiffened at the suggestion. It wasn't much of a physical reaction but it was certainly visible to her Mistress that her student didn't like the idea of taking her clothing off. It was only a second before Keydall forced herself to relax and follow the mildly insulting yet sound advice. Though her mistress's disapproval wasn't spoken aloud, one didn't have to be a Mystic to catch the true meaning behind her words.

Keydall changed quickly, folding her wet clothing and laying it somewhere it wouldn't soak through unneccessary pillows. She was glad her mistress's eyes were averted, not for the exposure of flesh but rather the exposure of weaponry, the true reason for her lack of excitement at the proposition. Keydall was nothing if not well armed, and while the vast majority of these weapons remained hidden until used, taking off her clothing meant that her secrets would be revealed. Once satisfied that her knives and other weapons were well hidden, she turned to face her new Mistress, arms clasped behind her back, eyes guarded. "Understandable." Keydall said when she realized the mage was waiting for a response. However, the requirements were somewhat less appealing - Keydall's reasons were her own and there was little short of probing that would get her to reveal the horrors of the past few Eras.

Unfortunately, not all of the horrors had been inflicted upon her, and Keydall was very much a murderer and criminal. Having this seemingly righteous woman digging through her secrets seemed to be a very suicidal idea, and Keydall was not currently into killing herself. Something told her that Mistress Laria, Master Mystic, would be very good at reading minds... and telling what was a lie. So despite her reluctance, Keydall did what she could to avoid having her mind probed to reveal the truth behind the lie, and gave her new Mistress a very edited version of her story.

"From the moment I left my life in Arakmat, my life has been plagued with... altered realities. A good percentage of the past few eras is clouded with hallucinations and noncomprehensible magic, to such an extent that I didn't know what was real and what was not for a long time. I found that blocking out magic didn't make these visions go away, and so I learned to accept it. With each new spell, I find myself growing more calm, more controlled, and more and more free from these sights which have plagued me. I wish to learn more mysticism not only to protect my mind but also because I have developed a taste and interest in it."

[Dragon]

The mistress looked at the girl with growing worry inside of her, however her face, her whole features showed perfect calm. Only inside she... did not trust this woman. Illusions? Visions? Hallucinations... What was wrong with this woman or rather what had happened to her? There was not enough time to think that over without keeping an uncomfortable silence so the mistress gave a short smile and added. "I see..." Teaching someone who was half insane such powers was definitely a dangerous thing. And while Laria enjoyed risks, she did not want to let someone dangerous with newly gained powers into the world. Especially not with the powers of a journeyman.

"Tell me... what do you intend to do if you find that peace of mind and soul? What would you do then with the powers you'll get? With your life? I understand this is just guessing, but I'd like to know." Laria smiled again, but Keydall could see that the smile was not of a young and immature woman, this was a smile of a mystic, of a master. "Do not try to lie or go around this. Trying to fool a master mind reader at such a range would be a very bad decision. I'm sure you wouldn't even consider it of course." The last words were said with such an elegant smile that one could frown upon it. A mystic, and a master mystic atop of that was a bad thing to mess with. Fortunately so far there was no reason to mess with Laria...

The mystic hoped that she was simply wrong in perceiving the words of her student. That she simply had a false feeling. That she was simply wrong and that within minutes the real training could continue. There was much to learn. Journeyman was a big journey towards power. There weren't many people who had such power in the empire. Less than one person in the crowd of a thousand. And Keydall was about to be that person. She had paid for the classes after all, all she needed to do now was to answer correctly - why mysticism.

[Keydall Dahanye]

If Keydall had made it through Apprentice classes, then obviously she was not stupid enough to lie to a master mystic. Though Keydall was rarely insulted, as her opinion was that all other people in this universe were less important than her (minus Silas, upon whom her mind was not yet made up), she found this insinuation rude in the extreme. "If I was trying to lie to you, Mistress Laria, I would have found a much more pleasent reason for being in this class." She kept herself from going any further but it was a strain. "As for my goals beyond this class - to be quite honest, as you have so politely suggested, I have not yet thought about it. Thus far, my exploits in mysticism have been limited to self control."

The smirk that shone on her Mistress's face did nothing to improve Keydall's disposition, but she tried to limit the sarcasm. "My interest in Mysticism lies not in its application, but rather the preventative measures which it represents. I am fond of being in control of my own mind, Mistress Laria. This is why I have come here this brightening." There was one other reason, naturally, which Keydall did not speak of aloud. Not neccessarily because she wished to hide it from her teacher, but because speaking of it was painful. She being a representative of her family, such as it was, it was only natural that she was not the only one with problems. Her cousin's had far surpassed her, leaving his mind a ruined wasteland with the mental capacity of a turnip. Keydall had tried in vain to help him, and in the end, had lost him. Though Silas was lost to her now, Keydall blamed herself for his death. Had she only been a journeyman, perhaps she could have found something to help him.

Though she was not a particularly emotional person, her self-hatred over Silas's death weighed heavy on her soul as she had little to distract herself from her guilt. The only way she knew of to overcome it was to prevent such a failing in the future. She couldn't change the past, and so self-improvement was the only answer to her pain.

[Dragon]

"Very well. In that case we shall begin with the training. In order for you to advance to the next level you need to be promoted by three masters. While promotion to apprentice level takes just one master, promotion to journeyman is a trickier and harder thing and therefore needs three masters. Or an archmage, but we have no such anywhere near. However before we go there, I need to find out if you can handle well your apprentice powers. As it is, arcana and especially archanomechanics get a lot trickier in that level." It seemed that Laria went into a simply scholary mode of mind, where her voice became one of a teacher who was doing her job all of her life time.

"First of all I need to see how you cast a spell called Animation. Summon anything of your choosing. Then Dispell it a bit later. I also need you to tell me how you see the world in Clara, how does it look to you. And lastly I need you to tell me how you do the casting. I know a lot of mages simply do it insinctly and have no idea how to explain what they are doing, since the mana creation and spell shaping simply flows out without a thought about it. For journeyman however you'll have to understand the process as well, so I just need to know if you already understand it or if I need to teach it." Laria did not smile now, she was still in her scholary state of mind. Determined to teach and have things official.

"You may begin whenever ready." That said Laria sat down in a chair comfortably and waited for her student to begin doing what she was ordered to do. All that time Laria herself was in Clara, watching her student in that state, not touching Keydall with any kind of a spell and trusting her enough to be able to do everything right without any kind of mind reading or any other spell cast on her. She already sent a message to master Nicholas and mistress domenique to come so that the three masters could promote Keydall, but both masters did not seem to be in a hurry for that, so Keydall had all the time to complete her tasks.

[Keydall Dahanye]

"The world looks virtually the same to me." Keydall replied promptly, glad that they were moving on. "Except I can see arcana. Sort of. At first I merely know it's there, and then as I begin to manipulate ara and vis I begin to visualize it. What I 'see' is a slight liquidy aspect of the world around me, which I can then mold into shapes." Now that the talking aspect of this unpleasently probing interview was over, Keydall could move on to the important things. She had not practiced as much as she probably should have, but she had practiced as often as she could.

Keydall inhaled deeply and slowly, letting her body relax. Settling herself on the ground, Keydall focused on the fabric of a particularly fluffy pillow. Not because the weaving fascinated her - indeed, there was little that could interest her less - but because it was simple and directly in front of her. Soon she let her mind and eyes relax so she was no longer looking at the silk, nor, indeed, at anything at all. Once she felt herself deep in the calming state of mind she knew as clara, Keydall began preparations for her spell. Her master Ulinde, who had guided her thus far in her teachings, had told her to gather her magic about herself so she could have an easily accessed source, and this was what she now did.

"You want to allow the Ara to flow to you, allow it to come to you don’t grab at it..." His voice rang through her head as she gathered her magic and wits about her. "When you have channeled the flow you use your personal energies... Vis to shape the Ara, which you have collected, into the spell..." Yes, but what spell? Animation was a spell of unlimited possibilities. It was designed to allow flexibility, fettered only by the extent of the mage's power and imagination. Her first animation had been a gingerbread man. She'd grown beyond that, however. What would prove her ability to her teacher, show she was ready to progress in her arts?

She found her target and so set about giving it form and life. "We want to use our Vis to channel the Ara flow that we have collected." Keydall used the magical extention of herself to begin shaping her spell. First she gathered the ara into one spot, concentrating it. The vision in her mind was strong, and she used both will and vis to give it birth. Gentle folds of red-striped white fabric coalasced out of the mist, intermixed with a bit of dirt or a blade of misplaced grass. There was no body to support the miniture robe, merely empty air upon which the fabric was suspended. It rose only one foot high from the ground, a much smaller version of the costume the mage herself rose, and Keydall used her magic to make it move. The fabric parted as if there were invisible legs giving it motion, and moved over to Keydall's new mistress and gave the woman a bow, it's inanimate nature making it unaware of the mimickrey it presented.

Once Keydall had seen Laria's robes appear and then waltz across the floor towards their model, she used her magic yet again. But this time she was not creating, but ripping apart. If spells were only shaped ara, Keydall used her vis to unshape it. She unmolded it, uncolored it, ironed it back to its natural shape and set it free. Once her tasks were complete, she wiped the beading sweat from her forhead and looked to her Mistress for approval.

[Dragon]

"That is very good. I am impressed with the illusion. And your explanation of Clara is good enough. Your spell creation explanation is a bit flawed though, so we'll cover it later in the training. However, you are accepted and the two required masters shall come soon and we'll be able to continue with the promotion." Laria smiled watching the Illusion rp apart completely and vanish into nothingness as if it was never there in the first place. It was not hard to tear apart a spell, all one had to do was reach out for the spell or its mana and tear it apart with his own Vis. Fortunately or not, it worked only on spells which were cast by a mage of the same or lover level.

A few minutes later Nicholas, Master of Elementalism came into the room. He was an old human with white, short hair that were rarely ever combed. He had blue eyes that shined with wisdom and experience. A large scar ran along his whole left arm, which he got when summoning a Fire Elemental. Fire and Earth were his main Essences. Like all mages of the University he too wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it that went rather well on his plump, but tall built. He was an old but a cheerful man, and even if Keydall did not know that yet he had a habbit of calling students all kinds of sweet names.

"Oh serale there Mistress Laria. And serale to the young blossom as well." He smiled overlooking Keydall. "I assume we're waiting for Mistress Domenique only now?" Turning his gaze back at Laria he spoke with his sweet, but cranky voice. "Yes, indeed. She should be here soon. Please take a seat." By the time Laria offered her seat, the door opened again and Mistress Domenique of Mysticism entered the room. "Ah, Domenique. A pleasure to see you again. We don't seem to meet too often lately."

Domenique was a woman who was very stern-looking with a cool expression on her face that suggested that this woman will not tolerate any nonsense. She has long, brown eyes and greying blond, light brown hair pulled back into a tight bun. "Yes serale. Lets just get this over and done with, I am very short on time this brightening." In fact Domenique was not short on time and had a whole free brightening it was just that she hated being near Laria. The two women never got along, never ever, however this time the meeting could not be avoided as the last maste of the university could not come.

"Are you ready, miss Dahanye?" Laria finally addresed her student, ignoring Domenique fully. Master Nicholas took a seat that he was offered and the other woman only moved a bit more into the room, while Laria moved closed to her student. "I do not know what you felt when you were promoted to Apprentice, however Promotion is rarely a pleasant feeling, unlike Unbinding where you have the unbinding dream and the first taste of arcana. Promotion might even hurt your mind a bit as it will be released to a higher level that was closed to it before. And I must warn you that it might fail, for not all mages can advance. That is why we have so little Journeymen and even less Masters running around. Not all minds are able to manipulate arcana or advance in it and in those cases there's nothing masters or even archmages can do."

[Keydall Dahanye]

Young Blossom? Keydall thought without much amusement. If this man had been less obviously intelligent, Keydall would have taken the nickname as a sign of weakness. Such terms were either endearment (and as he didn't know her, that seemed unlikely) or of condecending, and it was generally a bad idea to condecend to Keydall. Made her feel as though she needed to prove the action incorrect, and this usually happened in a very unpleasent fashion. For now, however, she simply smiled tensely and was still.

The other master seemed almost nervous in her nastiness, which Keydall took note of. Keydall wondered who it was that made her that inclined to leave. She was willing to bet it was the old man. He seemed tougher than his words would lead one to believe.

Keydall was surprised to hear Laria's disclaimer. It had never been mentioned to her before that someone might not be able to be pormoted. Perhaps it had been because Ulinde was her teacher. A brilliant mage, he'd had nothing but faith in her ability to succeed, and wouldn't have wasted her time on warnings she'd not heed. "Thank you for the warning." She said somewhat cooly. "But I wouldn't have let you waste your time if I didn't believe in trying despite the possibilities."

[Dragon]

"Very well then." With that all the masters glanced at each other and since all looked ready they began the process of Promotion. It was an interesting master level technique, one which was not so easy to learn, however one which had to be learnt in order for magic not to fade away from the Empire. It started as a small tingle on the left side of her head and then Keydall felt it grow stronger. It seemed that someone was pushing in a small needle into her head. Pushing it deeper and deeper. It wasn't terribly painful, but it was not pleasant like for example Unbinding.

Then the other side of her head got that feeling as well. It seemed that hands were holding her head, holding it extremely tight. And then her vision blurred into blackness, yet she was still completely conscious. About half a minute or a full minute later it seemed that all the needles that were pushed into her head were pulled out with great force. All pain was gone, and there was a feeling that there was something heavy removed from her mind. Something which had been a natural thing before. Now it felt as if losing a few pounds, only from her mind.

"Thank you very much." That was Laria speaking, yet Keydall could still hardly see, even if the vision was gradually returning. "Our pleasure, our pleasure, Laria." This was Master Nicholas and there was a snort in the background. Probably coming from Domenique. "Our indeed." With that thought Domenique left first, without saying a word. Master Nicholas stayed for a bit longer looking at the newly promoted mage and then turned to Laria. "Well it seems that this worked just fine. Good luck, I shall take my leave of you now then." The man kissed Laria's hand and departed leaving the woman smiling.

"Well, how are you? As you can tell it was successful. Try to go for Clara and see just how fast it will come for you. You might be pleasantly surprised." With that Laria sat down in the chair again, in the room which became much more empty again. Both other masters returned to their own needs, Master Nicholas smiling and Domenique still quite irritated with such a brightening. The positive thing was that at least it was over. She doubted if she could take another minute in the same room with Laria.

[Keydall Dahanye]

Confident that her head had just been pressed into an Iron Maiden, possibly with the goal of turning her brain into juice, Keydall opened her eyes. The pain was not as bad as some, but it was worse than the last time she'd been promoted. Granted, she couldn't actually remember her promotion from Initiate to Apprentice, but that was a good sign that it hadn't been much like this. That pins and needles inside your brain sensation wasn't one she was likely to forget. Her vision slowly returned to normal as she half-heartedly listened to her masters leave the room till it was only she and Mistress Laria.

Despite the unpleasentness that had caused it, Keydall's head felt... better. No, not better - different. Lighter. Looser. Like she'd just discovered parts of her mind that she'd never used before. She shook her shoulders, barely hearing her Mistress's words as she revelled in this new sensation. "Hmm? Oh, yes. Fine, thanks." She mumbled in agreement.

Inhaling deeply, Keydall closed her now almost perfectly clear eyes and began to relax. It wasn't hard - the strange lightening effect in her brain definately made her job a little easier. Controlling her breathing - slowly in, slowly out - Keydall cleared her mind of all thoughts, and attempted to enter clara.

[Dragon]

While it used to take one or two minutes to enter clara and then perhaps just a second to craft a spell, now it took just mere thirty seconds. The world of arcana returned to her view and the woman could once again see Ara, Vis and Essences all around her. The world of magic was here and now it could be manipulated once again very easily. "Wonderful. As you see, now with proper mood and concentration, meaning that if you're not on fire or running or drunk, or any other distraction, then you can reach Clara in just 15 or 30 seconds. That is extremely useful in many situations as I'm sure you understand. It opens a lot of new paths. Only we have to choose the right ones. Now. Again the crafting of a spell is the same as it was in previous levels and shall take no longer than a second. Its instant more or less."

"Now, we shall try one new spell this brightening as not to overstretch your mind. Again you'll have to reach out for Ara around you and merge it with your Vis. That will create an arcalysis which will let your mind to go to the Astral Plane. There you shall Focus upon the plane and the Essence that you need. That's Psionic Essence in the Psionic plane. After that simply channel enough of that Essence to our Plane, to your mind, and merge it with your Vis one more time. That will create mana which you'll have to shape. The same process as for any other spell in any other level. Now the shaping is different because it is unique for each spell. The spell you're going to do is Attonement. A rich, cool sensation shall flood your mind, enabling you to think more quickly, have higher intellectual function, and activate its magical centers more rapidly. The Attonement is temporary, but while it is effective, you'll become more productive and successful. You can cast that spell on other people as well, but now try it on yourself."

"Now the spell is Imparted into your mind so you shall have no trouble shaping and casting it. However I need you to tell me what Mana Shaping Techniques might be used for it. Guess in other words. And tell me what you know of those five techniques as well. After you complete the spell that is. And ask any questions that you might have now." That said Laria waited for Keydall to do what she was told, watching the adept in Clara, ready to stop her if something would go wrong at any point.