Sorcery for Dummies?

[Joshua Cross]

Originally Posted by Grim

In the heart of the city, rising tall over the wide streets of Nexus Prime, reside three towers of unmistakeable beauty. They are set on several acres of well tended lawns and gardens and rise high into the clouds, piercing them with their elegance and power.

Silvery strands connect each tower to the next, gossamer walkways that link each building as a whole. They span at great heights and thus cast no shadow upon the ground far below, so high and fragile they appear to be. The towers themselves, made from granite and layered in a crystal that sparkles with all the known colours of Alleria (and perhaps some that aren't), blaze beneath the midday sun, a myriad of ever-sparkling colors that lights up the sky itself.

These are the great Rainbow Towers where arcana is taught and studied, learned and mastered. Here, some of the greatest masters of their kind gather and teach those seeking the Gift, or Curse as some may call it. To nurture and develop their fields of study is their united goal, so that their power lives on in the knowledge of fine minds throughout the Empire long after their physical forms turn to dust.

Admittance to the ranks of the accepted was a stringent process, and receptionists were renowned for their uncanny (and even maddeningly frustrating) ability to weed out the prize few from the rest of the candidates that passed through the Tower halls. This was made all the more unnerving by the fact that the Towers went through receptionists faster then one could give money to a dwarf. One would disappear and another would simply take his or her place, and with each new face, a new set of requirements popped up, a new test of wills that was to be bested before one could gain entry.

The latest installment of clerks at the front desk was the youthful looking woman sitting behind the beautiful dark wood desk, her head buried in some obscure tome of knowledge. Stacks of paper were littered across the writing surface, along with a scattering of inkwells containing feathered quills.

Looking up hastily from her book, the ebon hair that had been dangling freely over shoulders fell into her face, obscuring her features and partially hiding her dark, wide eyes from view. Quickly adjusting her robes and pushing her hair back over slender shoulders, her thin pink lips broke out into a girlish smile at apparent embarrassment for being so unprofessional. Clearing her throat, she sat up straight and give a slight nod to the new entries. Her eyes seemed red around the edges, as if she had been crying lately.

"Serale. Is there a way I could be of assistance to you today? If you are an aspiring student we offer two fields of arcanic study: Mysticism, the art of the mind and Sorcery, control the very fabric of magic itself. So, then, what can we do for you?"

A small sign next to the desk read:
400 - Initiate, without room and board
700 - Initiate, with room and board

600 - Apprentice, without room and board
900 - Apprentice, with room and board

700 - Journeyman, without room and board
1000 - Journeyman, with room and board

Timestamp – Late - Afternoon
Brightening: Carmelyana | Cycle: 3 | Month: Immanis | Season: Winter of Era I
Era XIII Post Fractum

After spending most of the morning wandering around the vast city, Joshua found himself exploring the training district of Nexus Prime, known as the Secluria, but more specifically the Rainbow Towers which were well known for their training in the arts of Arcana. As a child he’d been interested in studying sorcery, from what he read in the few books on the farm, it was an interesting and logical type of Arcana that could do what seemed like miracles; though if one thought about it any type of Arcana could appear to be a miracle to anyone not familiar with the art.

In the past his dream went unfulfilled, but now that he had the money and means to investigate his childhood wish to his heart’s content.

“Should I, it is quite expensive- 700 crowns for training and a place to stay.” Joshua hummed to himself as he weighted the various pros and cons to dishing out nearly half of the inheritance he had received from his parents. “On the other hand,” he paused in mid thought to run a hand through his snowy white hair. “It does give me food and a place to stay, and really- I don’t have anywhere else.”

The young Halfling spent the better part of three hours debating whether or not he should, or should not pay the price for training. Completely oblivious to the people who passed by him, nor the very passage of time itself, until he finally decided on what to do.

“I’ll do it!” Joshua announced suddenly in a loud voice, stamping his fist into the palm of his hand. In his mind it was a rash decision and more time should be spent on weighing all the factors, but time with full blooded humans had made him a bit rasher than your normal elfin. “Serale, I would be interested in signing up for Initiate Sorcery training; with room and board of course”

[Skay Ravendi]

OOC: Peermoderation You're a half human/elf right? 'cause you said Halfling in your post and that's a completely different race o.O

On that particularly snowy brightening, Susan Marie, the receptionist was caught in an extremely good and surprisingly more sane mood than usual. "Alright. That would be 700 crowns and I need your visa and a signature here." She slid a paper with various things written on it and showed a place where he had to sign, after receiving the crowns and checking the visa.

"Your room would be..." Now she dug through the papers to find all the occupied and free rooms. "Ah, yes, room 106. On the first floor or the Tower of Force. And room 101 for your lectures, also on the same floor, in... 2 brightenings, dawn. And here's the key." She gave a simple looking, seemingly iron key to the man when all the documents and the crowns part were cleared. "If you by any chance spot a black cat with one white eye in the corridors or somewhere, please bring it to me. I really miss Muchinukunus."

And there was snow. Lots of it. All over the rooftops of the Towers and all over the streets and just generally in the whole city. It was winter after all, and Nexus was famous not only for the rain, but also for the snow during the winter season. That did not stop the Towers or actually the whole city working any bit slower than usuall though. It only gave red cheeks to those who had to spend more time in the outside.

[Joshua Cross]

OOC: Hooray for peermoderation. Yes, I am, but I used that because it flowed better than half human/elf in the sentence. Plus the compendium said that Halfling was often used erroneously to refer to half human/elf creatures; however, I shall use hybrid from now on since it’s less confusing.

Joshua looked down at the paper, taking his time to make sure to reach over it thoroughly before attaching his signature to it. Of course it was the same old agreements, and waivers about personal safety- some of the words he couldn’t really understand but he got the gist of it and so signed it confidently. The next point of business was to hand over his payment for the class, as well as room and board for the time he spent. There was a moment of hesitation before handing over the seven hundred crowns, but it was brief and unnoticeable to any.

“Ah, room 106 and 101. I understand, thank you for accepting me.” Joshua took the key and bowed thankfully, about to take off and get settled into his new room when the receptionist spoke up again about one of her cats.

A black cat with one white eye called Muchinukunus. The half elf committed her pets description to memory, as well as it’s name before assuring her he would do exactly that if he happened to come across the creature.

“Don’t worry, if I do see him I will definitely return him to you.”

[Skay Ravendi]

OOC: Update crowns in your profile And btw, love your avvy ^_^

"Oh thank you. That would be wonderful." Susan Marie replied and gave a key to the half elf. It was a simple metal key with numbers 106 inscribed upon it. The room itself was nothing grand. It had a bed, a desk, a cupboard, a cheap rug, two chairs and a window in the room. Perhaps the most surprising thing was the view which opened up through the window.

Joshua could swear that what he saw was a view into the middle of the ocean. With waves crashing upon other waves, no land, no harbour, no nothing nearby. However if he tried to open the window, he'd get the view of Nexus Prime. And so he had found out the first thing the Tower of Force prided for. Most of the windows in the tower looked out into random places, all over the empire. Perhaps even beyond.

The other thing that he had no chance of not finding happened when he went to the lecture. Assuming that the half elf did not oversleep or otherwise miss it. Whenever he moved over a spot which was 3 metres from his door to the direction of the lecture's room, he was teleported back to the entrance to the tower. So it seemed that if he wanted to get to learn, he had to first get to the lectures. And time was drawing close.

Though it would be wrong to say that being teleported and kicked back to the entrance was not fun. The feeling was nothing overly grand, the view changed in but a second and there was a strange feeling in the stomach, but other than that, it was quite... interesting. And while most of the Towers were still tight asleep, a certain teacher was already waiting in room 101.

[Joshua Cross]

Brilliant. That was the only word that came to mind when he first experienced the windows of his room. He’d heard a little about Arcana, but never expected anything like this, most of the time what he’d heard was usually considered to be hearsay, conjecture, rumors, lies- the ranting of madmen. In truth, the young boy had even doubted that he would really learn anything in this tower, but still decided to risk it anyway even if it made his purse a little lighter. However, he felt that this was proof that he’d made the right decision and that his seven hundred crowns had not gone to waste.

“Amazing, it’s absolutely amazing.” His hand gently brushed against the glass as he peered between his fingers to the vast ocean before him. Many questions came to mind regarding the miraculous glass; was it an illusion; was the window and possibly his room visible to creatures on the ocean; could the view be changed; and the most important question in his mind- will he one day be able to do that as well.

Only two brightenings, and his questions may be answered. But for the first time in his life he felt eager, anxious, as though the passage of time was incredibly slow- so much so that even the joy he got from constantly examining the window from different angles became redundant. Joshua had always prided himself on patience and yet he couldn’t help but pace his room, or lose concentration when doing his job at the library. It wasn’t until he woke up on his first day of class that the calm composure he had been accustomed to returned; that was easily broken but his next encounter with one of the various attractions of the Rainbow Towers.

Inability to reach the lecture room did not pop into his mind until after he’d tried multiple times to see if the same event would occur; Joshua had found himself enamored with this new phenomena. “It’s similar to the windows,” he said to himself. “Except, instead of showing me another place it takes me to one.”

In truth he could have taken the whole day, and maybe more, to experiment the bizarre workings of the hallway; however, he had other duties to perform and a teacher that was waiting to teach. That meant he had to calmly think of a solution to this enigma and get to the lecture hall.

Was it trigged by stepping upon the floor? That was the first thought that came to mind, since it always seemed to be in the direction of the lecture hall after a certain distance had been reached from his room. The only problem with that solution is that it was impossible for him to be stepping on the same area of the floor every time- it had to be the entire hallway that did this. Was it that he was trying to get to the lecture hall and that if he attempted to walk backwards through the hall he could make it through? An interesting theory but also unlikely since it seemed too simple a way to thwart magic of that caliber, but it did bring up a better and more plausible idea. Instead of walking towards the lecture, he could attempt to walk towards the reception area and possibly be transported the same way as before but toward his class. The only other option in his mind was to take the long way around, if there was such a thing.

“Okay,” he inhaled a deep breath and began walking in the opposite direction of his room. “If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to ask that nice receptionist for directions.”

[Skay Ravendi]

And so it was that walking over the same spot simply kicked him back again and again. In exactly the same way. There was the long way though, yes. Though it wasn't exactly long either. The Towers had been placed on to the sides with paths going from them to the main building, where the reception and other such things were. And they also had paths from each other. His tower, was to the Northeast, meaning that it had two paths leading to Elementalist's Tower to the West and to the Mystic's Tower to the South. There was only one corner left open and that was the Southwest, but about that corner, a rumour was floating. Supposedly there was a forth tower. Yet so far that only remained a rumour, for none could be seen.

While paths between towers and to the main building had corridors made out of columns and a roof, there was no one forbiding Joshua from just walking out of one corridor and simply going to the other one, which would give him a new entrance. By going through the second door he was able to go to the lecture's room without crossing the place of constant teleportation and thus enter it to begin his lessons.

Inside the room a woman was sitting behind a desk in an overly comfortable chair. She was quite old and had black hair, but Joshua could see streaks of silver in it already. A few eras ago Silvana used to be quite a beauty and people could still see it. Other than that she seemed to be completely human and was wearing a nice black robe instead of a gray one like most arcana people. "Serale, please take a sit..." Her eyes went down into a paper on the desk. "Mr. Cross." She smiled to him a kind, yet strict smile. "My name is Silvana and I'll be your tutor."

The chair where Joshua was asked to sit was a simple one, not too far from the desk. Behind that desk and the mistress was a large window with a view to some sort of forest with trully old trees, though at the moment nothing seemed to be happening there. There were no animals visible in it, there even did not seem to be a breeze, it was just that the forest still had something enigmatic about it. Other than that, there were pillows near the left wall, a bookcase with a few books and scrolls.

"Please tell me, why have you chosen to study arcana? Why sorcery? And what do you intend to do with it, how do you plan to use it?" The questions were trully simple, however a rumour hung around the towers that Silvana sometimes refused students if she did not like the responses to those three basic questions. The good thing though? Joshua was actually in the lecture room. Which... brought a fourth comment. "You're late."

[Joshua Cross]

OOC: Your ava scares me :O

It was a bit disheartening that his hypothesis of walking in the direction opposite of the lecture room did not work, but it was brief and easily replaced by the more urgent need to arrive at the hall on time. Luckily it wasn’t as difficult to navigate around the school, as everything was pretty straightforward if you ignored the various magical pitfalls- which did not appear again even after reaching the classroom.

“Serale, Master Silvana.” Joshua returned the greeting and then promptly moved to the seat she had motioned him to, even though he’d been eager to study the room a bit more since he had an inkling it might hold more secrets than his dorm room had.

He had been staring off into space at the large window behind her, wondering if the view of a forest was really there when she decided to continue by asking him a few questions.

“Why I have chosen to study Arcana?” He leaned back in the chair and scratched his chin. “Well at the time it seemed like a good deal, I am new here and so I don’t have any lodging or way to get food- and until recently I had no job. Seven hundred crowns for a classes, as well as bed and breakfast is hard to pass up.” The half-elf nodded to himself as if to agree with what he’d just said. “Not only that, but as you can see I am not physically inclined so I thought it might be a good idea to get training in something that doesn’t require me to be a ‘mountain’ of a man as it were. Though after thinking about it awhile, I realized that Arcana really is more of a scholarly pursuit- but that doesn’t matter, I’ve always been rather interested in knowledge in general as well as an interest in the various workings of our environment.” Joshua paused a moment to catch his breath before continuing on with his teacher’s questions. “As for why I chose sorcery, like I mentioned before I am not that strong so I logically chose a magic that deals with force to make up for my short comings in that area. Also, I have to admit the idea of manipulating the very bonds of reality is quite alluring and would undoubtedly be useful- I am very interested in testing the limits if they are any to this field of Arcana. Finally, I don’t really have a good idea on how I intend to use it as I have never used it before in my life, but I think it may be useful for my planned research. The ability to manipulate the vary space around me will make it much easier to move around and explore some of the more dangerous areas of history. If I really think about it, it would probably help me keep the library organized, and I can’t help but be eager to test some of the abilities granted by the use of that power after experiencing my dorm room,” it appeared that he’d gotten lost in thought as his words trailed off.

He’d only taken a brief time before hand to think of why he would want to study the arcane, but now many possibilities had begun to flood his mind. Somehow he managed to force his senses back to normal long enough to finish his verbose answers to her questions.

“Unfortunately, I have to admit that I don’t have any noble reasons. The truth is I don’t plan on being a hero; such things belong in fairy tales and seem to be more of a hassle than they are worth. And while I don’t exactly consider myself a saint, I have no evil machinations in regards to the use of that power, as that also is a bit of a hassle- bringing out all those “would be” hero’s out of the wood work.” Once again he nodded as if agreeing to himself. “Oh, about being late, I must apologize- I allowed myself to get side tracked.”

[Skay Ravendi]

"Mistress!" Silvana suddenly pouted. She was a mistress yes. Not a master. Maybe she wasn't as young and as beautiful as other girls, but she was still a woman and in no way looked like a man. At least she hoped so. Though the remark made her giggle a bit as well. Initiates. Fresh meat. It was really fun to watch them learn and especially learn through trial and error. Adepts, those were much more powerful, but sometimes much more fun as well, for they could literally screw around with arcana, bringing both funny, healing and devastating effects.

Silvana found a lot of flaws in the answers, yet at the same time they were good flaws and she knew that they'd be corected within time by the human himself. And she knew that soon enough he'd know what he'd like to do and acomplish with arcana and in this case sorcery. "It certainly might help in the library. Do you read a lot, or do you only work there?" The Mistress suddenlly asked a sidetracked question, but she was interested. For she herself liked to read.

"Well please try to not get side tracked for your next lesson, Mr. Andrea." Silvana said with a warm smile and then she rose from her chair. "Do you know what Unbinding is?" And even if it was a question, the woman did not wait for an answer. "Using this technique mages can turn people like you into mages as well. People who are not unbound, cannot see the world of arcana, no matter how hard they might try. It is the first thing to becoming a mage."

"However the technique sometimes makes people feel pain during the process. Or there are even those that cannot become Unbound and therefore cannot become mages. As unfortunate as it is and we don't even know why. There is also a chance of death, however it is miniture. I only know of very few occurances of that and I dare believe that is had to have been the fault of the master. But I am suppose to warn you of all these things, before we go to the task. So tell me, are you ready, or would you like to reconsider?"

OOC: My fav avvy and you're gonna be seeing plenty of it ~_^

[Joshua Cross]

“It’s a little of both,” He replied. There appeared to be a moment of interest on the woman’s face, but she quickly moved on with her line of questioning; transitioning from one thing to the other without giving him much room to answer anything other than a ‘Yes, Mistress.” Until finally reaching the last question which sounded a lot like some kind of wavier so that he would not try to get some kind of compensation from them if things went wrong. Joshua wasn’t going to be persuaded so easily. “No, it’s fine with me to go ahead with the unbinding. There is risk involved with anything worth doing in life- no point in running away everytime.”

OOC: The horror :O

[Skay Ravendi]

"A good answer." Silvana smiled a true smile. She did indeed like the answer. "Though you still did not tell me, if you read in the library." There was a wink at the end of the sentence and she waited for the answer before moving to the more important matters. Now that Joshua agreed to take the risk, the Mistress had all the rights to Unbound him. It was one of her favorite things in teaching. That and then hearing her students speak about their dreams. Though not all did...

"Well then, would you please move over to the pillows and place yourself comfortably there. We'll go over the Unbounding process." She waited for Joshua to remove himself from the chair and sit down onto the pillows by the wall. "I warned you that this might hurt..." Then she closed her eyes for a moment and when she reopened them, Silvana leaned over her student and touched him on the forehead.

What happened next only Joshua could trully tell. His skull seamed to become smaller and start to crush the brain. And then there was a feeling that there was something going into his mind, pulling something out from his skull, or perhaps pushing something inside. It was hard to tell through the pain. Was it really pain though? Even that was hard to tell as his view blurred and he fell unconscious with the sight of a smiling mistress as his last view. A mistress who knew that the half human would stay unconscious for a good few candlemarks for the Unbinding did succeed.

OOC: You should roleplay your Unbinding dream Anything can happen there, though it shall remain only a dream. Have fun!

[Joshua Cross]

The mistress smiling face was but a vague memory in Joshua’s mind. He’d become conscious, if he could call it that, in a black endless void that was lit by some preternatural light allowing him to see his hands and himself with great clarity. Upon further examination of his surroundings he found that if he looked upward, he could see an array of beautiful colored lights dancing in the sky- some colors he had not seen before and could not possibly describe. As the half-elf gazed at them he found himself filled with a sense of emptiness and unfathomable sadness, unconsciously he raised his hand to grab at the colorful lights but could not touch them no matter how hard he tried.

Eventually Joshua would give up, and cast his eyes downward as if looking upon the lights any longer would only cause him more pain. He then realized that he could see his own dim reflection below him, as if he were standing on a great mirror; however, the lights were not reflected as his body had been. For an unknown reason that disturbed him deeply, but instead of dwelling on it he began to walk hoping to find an exit to this depressing realm he’d found himself in.

Endless was the only description that could do the dimension justice, for no matter how he tried to tell the time it seemed that such a concept did not exist- nor did distance. Joshua had even tried to listen, or use the beat of his heart to keep time yet he could do neither in this place and had begun to wonder if he was even still alive. At least that’s how he’d felt until he finally came upon something new within the endless void, an entity of some such that made it difficult to concentrate when looking at it. When focusing on the entity- which was nothing more than a nebulous cloud- he became disorientated because it was blacker than black, if such a thing was possible. Even in the endless void its darkness seemed to contrast greatly against the surrounding void like a black blotch on a white piece of parchment.

Regardless of its strange and sudden appearance, Joshua felt himself drawn to it to the point that he reached out for it like he’d reached out to the lights beforehand. Unlikely the lights however, the darkness reached back and wrapped smoky tendrils around the half-elf’s arm, crawling ever so slowly consuming more and more of his body and leaving a sick-clammy feeling on the parts it touched. Until he was swallowed whole.

It was like passing through a pool of water, and once on the other side he’d passed from an empty dimension to a field of endless white roses on a flat plan beneath a dark cloudy sky. Joshua could feel the dampness in the air, as well as smell the rain on the wind; it was a nice change from the empty darkness he’d been in beforehand.

True to form, it wasn’t like before the sky opened up and let the rain fall upon him and the field of beautiful roses but as it fell he noticed something odd. No matter how much of the water fell, he could not feel any of it hit his flesh; more disturbingly was the result it had on the flowers. Each droplet left a red mark on the petals of each rose, more and more the marks were added until the field had become a stark crimson. The rain not only effected the plants but his clothing as well, what was once a white hooded robe had now become blacker than the darkest black he’d seen.

There was a moment of disorientation as he looked down at himself, and suddenly found that he was looking at his figure from a distance. A feeling of nausea, dread, and fear all mixed together sat in his chest like a heavy lump as he gazed upon his visage. A black hooded figure with black hair, and eyes like dark lipid pools empty of light or emotion like his pale face as it stared- though it looked like him, it didn’t feel like him- down at the roses dispassionately. Ever so slowly, his dark doppelganger bent down and gently pulled one of the flowers from the field to examine it before crushing it in his hand, and from the spaces between his fingers oozed a thick red fluid that was all to familiar to the half-elf.

Joshua awoke with a start, as though he’d been under water for a long time, gasping for breath and covered in a cold sweat. He’d heard of the unbinding dream, but never of an unbinding nightmare- though he guessed most people would rather forget about them.

“That, was interesting.”


OOC: Nothing like a good nightmare once and awhile XD

[Skay Ravendi]

Joshua found the mistress sitting by the desk, reading a book when he woke up. He was not moved anywhere else, therefore he woke up on the same pillows that held him company for a few candlemarks. "Oh, you're finally awake." Silvana said with a smile, putting the book down and inserting a feather in it before closing it. "What you have just experienced was the Unbindind Dream. I cannot tell you what it really is, but all mages who get Unbound experience dreams. Some connected to the past and they're memories, some not, but in the end, I believe, that it's just a dream."

"For the next time I'd like you to buy some incense. We have it for free during the lessons, however you will have to practise after class as well and you'll need it then. As for what we'll be learning. It is called Meditation. It is a process where we mages learn to achieve a certain Meditative Trance, commonly called Clara. In Clara we can finally see the world of Arcana and begin to mess with it. I assure you that when you'll reach this state for the first time, the view and the feeling shall be overwhelming."

The mistress remembered her first time. From that moment, she had fallen in love with Arcana. And even if it was so long ago, the love was still strong. "It however is not easy. And we shall try to reach Clara tomorrow. Since you slept for a few candlemarks, it's late now and your mind needs to get used to being Unbound. Would you come here tomorrow at the thirteenth candlemark? And don't forget to buy incense, you'll need it after class."