Roughly First Two Months of Winter.
Obligatory Pretty Picture
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Erenthril flexed languidly atop his bed. The royal blue comforter, the off-white beige sheets, the fluffed silk pillows that caressed his cheeks when he went to sleep each darkening. Oh yes, he’d gotten a good deal of sleep, and awoke to a new day. He stared out the expansive windows of his home, watching the sun’s rays bask overhead and sparkle down upon Telath. A beautiful day indeed.
And then it was straight to work.
Pre-noon rituals were something of a luxury to be capitalized upon in Jaedaxia, as far as he was concerned. From the moment the sun had peeked across the horizon to the moment it was directly at its zenith towering above him, Erenthril was busy inspecting two very inconspicuously looking diamonds. Yes, that’s right, diamonds.
How did one acquire such diamonds, might it be asked?
Well, it was a rather elaborate process Erenthril had discovered the cycle before. After all, delving through the essence plane of earth was a rather long and tedious process in and of itself, especially when one realized it wasn’t exactly their forte element and what they were attempting to manage itself could be rather easily described as ‘bordering the impossible’. Yet that was exactly what the Elementalist did on a regular basis; Archmagus and whatnot, he had the capabilities. He’d be damned if he didn’t use them. And so, after much debate and numerous self-arguments, the Elementalist discerned that the element of earth, plus the essence of fire, added to the incredible pressure he was able to induce and siphon from the elemental plane of air by pressurizing the very element he lived off of, created the bespeckly gems. That is to say, Erenthril created his first diamond nearly by accident through a series of hit-and-miss trials that could not, would not, suffice to be said as clinical or experimental. He’d nearly singed his hands off in the process, and it was thus decided from that day forward that pretending to be a blacksmith and forging something infinitely more hot than what one was used to was usually a bad idea. Hands were removed into their pockets from thence forward.
And so that had been the first diamond he’d ever created. Small, no bigger than a few centimeters really, with a weave he entirely understood and had, essentially speaking, designed himself. This, naturally, encouraged evolution. All things did after time. And so two brightenings later, the Elflord had created an exact fitting replica of the sapphire in his House signet ring. Except, unlike the sapphire in the ring, this one was a diamond. With a few flecks of gold. Color was something nearly impossible for him to control, given he hypothesized it being primarily induced by raw heat and power. But the fact that he’d made a perfect fit and was able to neatly singe out the original gem in his signet ring and fit the other one perfectly in was a fun compromise; he was immediately satisfied.
Now, granted, this was only two diamonds – but two were the only things he needed, so to speak.
The grand plan, after all, was to create three archmage enchantments in the span of a month; relatively simple, he figured, given he’d designed the diamonds themselves and thus had already known of their weaves…essentially, he created them, why study them? But it had already been mentioned that only two diamonds had been created. The housing structure to nurse the third enchantment, then? One out of two small oddly arcana-crafted orbs that was essentially unbreakable and rumored to buff the contents of the enchantment upon them. He’d picked it up in Imperia a few eras back, and had never used the second of the two. Now was more or less the perfect excuse to use it, seeing as he’d never been more competent and it had never been more useful.
And so, with the three items in his possession for which the enchantments were to be made during the course of the month, the Syl’rosyian Elflord was more or less ready to begin. He spent roughly two thirds a candlemark each brightening for a cycle studying each design; given his familiarity already with both the diamonds, most of his real concentration was traced towards the ambiguously designed orb. Having already enchanted the other in the past – alas, he missed the Elfhame – he was more or less already proficient with the orb’s design, as well, but seeing as he wasn’t the creator of it the necessary precautions were taken.
Mindful that enchantments were meant to take long time, he was patient in his studies. He found it both enthralling and boring all at the same moment, a simultaneous combination that meshed well enough to keep him engaged in the task at hand. Common impatience was ignored for protocol, and having no desire to end up on the wrong end of the stick when it came to denaturing, he was exceptionally attentive to detail in each diamond’s weaves, as well as the orb’s own.
When that second cycle came around, the Elflord was ready to begin the actual enchanting process.
However, he didn’t get to it until the third, for obvious complications otherwise known as a life.
And so he spent the majority of one day denaturing the second diamond he had created, the one set into his ring. Stepping into the astral plane, he viewed the weave expertly,
“Bedazzling craftsmanship,” he’d comment to himself, sitting atop his bed, still in his pajamas – otherwise known as boxers. He slept commando style. And he liked it. Never had any complaints about it, either, which was fine by his standards.
Anyways, he’d taken the ring and placed it a short ways away…that is to say, on the far end of the bed. Not that that would help him much. Feth this up royally, and two short feet wasn’t going to be enough to help him out of this mess. And so for prudence’s sake he placed it on the floor, drew a small circle around it, and
activated it for his own protection. Meant to keep things inside it…in. Lovely bit of patchwork that was.
Denaturing the item was relatively simple, the diamond had been made of his design, weaved intricately to be fitted to his own ring, and thus out of all three of the items it was this one that he had the best grasp of. Likewise, he’d also cast the spell he was about to enchant upon it in it before; the sapphire that had held the master version of
Elemental Shield would inevitably be fitted into another ring and given away; this one was to be enchanted with a buffed up, archmage-powered version of the very same spell. Protection was essential to the Elflord, and there was none higher the elements could offer him beyond the spell he was about to enchant into it. Familiar with its shaping, Erenthril quickly began casting with a third of his Vis, the equivalent of a spell in the proportions he desired, and began to unravel the diamond’s weave. He watched as the strands seamlessly floated surreally about the item as they began to unwind like a roll of toilet paper…odd analogy as that was. When he had a sufficient map of the diamond laid out before him, the Archmage Elementalist began to shape the spell itself. Using all four elements of Air, Water, Earth and Fire, he took the mana from the arcalysis and began to shape it like a craftsman and clay. The two key shaping techniques were the
abjuration and
alteration of the elements, effectively creating the aura itself which furthermore served as a quasi-shield for all four. In order to maintain balance within the spell, and rule out the possibility of the essences negating one another, he
conjured them evenly before finally
evoking them all together to reinforce the brunt of the shield. Not exactly common place, and not many could cast it with an archmage’s power. He’d probably manage to count all of them on one hand.
Waiting a good minute or so to study the weave rather hard, and give it a long, good check-over, the Elementalist would finish the enchantment if and only if the weave had fitted itself well with the actual construction of the diamond itself. Denatured as it was, he wanted everything to mesh together perfectly before he altered the item’s state and let the actual enchanting take place.
Assuming Success…
The Elementalist waited four brightening after that before he finally shut himself up in his room and locked the door, convinced the world around him had gone mad. Having been able to do the first enchantment in roughly two candlemarks or so, that is…the actual process of enchanting, he would find time to do the second. His intention was to mirror the spell
Cold Snap that he’d read about in his old text books. A stereotypical archmagus spell. Granted, now that he was evolved with the essence of Air, he was finding less and less reason to make enchantments or imbuements concerning that particular element; this one’s usefulness could not be denied. The ability to freeze enemies all together in solid cases of ice quicker than they could react, let alone think, was something many would consider a prized skill. Definitely resume material, so to speak. And thus it warranted the attention of the first and smaller of the two diamond’s he’d created, and likewise the same precautions he’d taken with his first spell.
This time beside the coffee table, the Elementalist activated a Circle of Arcana around the small item no bigger than half an inch in diameter to keep any mishaps pleasantly away from his bodily person. Next came the step of denaturing the object, needless to say it went about just as well as the second diamond’s enchantment had gone, if not a bit faster simply because there wasn’t as much of it to be deconstructed. Should that have gone well, he’d begin the actual shaping of the spell itself. Again, allotting an Archmage’s vis to create the necessary amount of mana he hoped to use, he channeled the essence of water that would inevitably become its more chilling secondary form of ice for the basis of the spell. He shaped it much like he would a Freeze spell, crafting the weave so that the ice would be
abjured into the targets and
altered around them. Except unlike the Freeze spell, in order to give
Cold Snap its
snap, he added an evocation, which would undoubtedly rapidly increase the actual manifestation of the spell. Those standing in the way wouldn’t have a chance.
Tsking beneath his breath, he’d again wait and inspect. The actual denaturing undoubtedly took some time, as did the enchanting itself, but checking over the weave, this was the most important part, for it was the actual reconstruction of the diamond. Its properties would no doubt have to be intact for any sort of success to be attained.
Assuming more success and brownies…
Ah, yes, finally.
The orb.
And more importantly, the trickier spell of the three. Given his familiarity with Elemental Shield, and the likeliness of Cold Snap to Freeze, it was all fun and games up unto this point. This was the big boy’s game now. The more testier task. An Archmage level
Detonation. He’d heard stories about this spell. His journeyman Fae teacher had warned him about its destructive properties. Nikolas had joked about it in Nexus. And he was fairly certain that even Heronythys was wary about its uses on the large-stage. City-wide annihilation. Provincial destruction. Or it could be contained. Just a few blocks leveled. It all just depended…really. He had a few tricks up his sleeve for this spell.
Not only was he enchanting it into an unbreakable item – thank Ioannes for that – but he also wanted the trigger to be voice-activation. He’d done it before, but it was always a little more edgy to get the enchantment to respond to certain sounds and words. A series of patterned responses that would trigger the Arcalysis, let the spell manifest itself then as the activation. Gah, Arcana was such tricky business at times! Scheming and conniving, it always challenged him to be on his toes. That was probably why he loved it so much.
Denaturing the orb took a while. He’d be the first to admit it. Unlike the other diamonds he’d actually
created, this one he hadn’t, and so he proceeded with caution. Simultaneous to the denaturation, he was also holding the mana necessary for the spell itself. He had decided to take a rather unique approach, an improvised Elemental Shield. Likewise, he channeled all four essences, and once the mana was readily supplied for the shaping of the archmage-tiered spell, he would begin. He started off with the same
abjuration and
alteration of energy, except the weave was slightly altered. The pattern was meant to be spreading outwards, concentrically, in a wave out from his body. Likewise, he would
conjure all four essences to balance their properties and ensure the effects of negation would have no bearing upon them. Fire for fire, molten rock would combine from the earth, followed by intense pressurized air for…well, air, and of course the icy shards that would be littered into a blizzard-like frenzy and somehow manifest within the spell itself. Pure, utter, destruction. Not quite the bomb archmage sorcerer’s touted, but still rather formidable. And unlike Elemental Shield,
Detonation was more…hostile. He’d finish with a combined
evocation tempered with an
abjuration that would set the limits of the spell and serve as a guard to its prowess. While evocation would spiral the energies outwards, the abjuring movement would be able to inevitably curve them to a halt. An agreeable choice of words was inevitably contrived to be the activation, and he had to think hard on how to achieve it. Essentially, skilled masters were able to trigger the enchantment’s activation to an action or word. It was essentially just tweaking the pattern of the ara around it in such a way that the spell itself recognized the pattern simultaneous to an activation. There was little room for trial and error, and thus it came as a benefit that Erenthril was an avid student of air. The strands of ara containing the essence shifted with each word a person spoke; talking released air, and each word had its own unique pattern due to the fact that no one word sounded the same. It was difficult to explain even with modern Imperial science, but Erenthril had noticed this long ago, and thus was able to trigger the arcalysis that served as the spell’s activation to certain patterns in the ara around it. A fun, longwinded way of getting what he wanted, so to speak. And thus as he breathed the words aloud to himself, he murmured
“Mae undlin.” Closed the enchantment. Let the item ravel back into itself, infinitely more complex than what it had been at the start. It was elvish, no doubt. And a fine literal definition of what those words meant.
The Kiss of Death.
Linear Mode
