[Toherro's] A Darkening of Dark Rites (Amber, Private)

[Amber Brightwing]

Perhaps it was elementary, but it was also easy to use and practical. She could probably have done without the chalk, but she knew it worked perfectly fine when using it. Perhaps she'd experiment a bit with it at a later date, but right now this worked just fine for her.

She had felt satisfied at the ease things came compared to her Apprenticeship, but that satisfaction soon began to diminish as attempts at imbuing only brought failure. In hindsight, the two other stones would have been far easier to get a spell into. Of course, it would have been easier for the spell to get out again as well, so she could see how those would have resulted in very unstable imbuements. With the right – or wrong – spell, she could imagine the need to change classrooms afterwards.

Even though her failure only made her more confident she had picked the right stone, it was still a failure and it didn’t get her any further. The Mer’s advice helpful in getting her moving again, putting her back on the right tracks. This time, instead of just trying to shove her spell in the stone, she use Alteration on the heart of the stone to bend its threads of the web to the side to create a small emptiness in which the spell would fit. Afterwards she used Abjuration to carefully poor the spell into its holding place. Hopefully this method would bring her more success.

[Straylor Leonard]

It took perhaps more counts than Amber would have liked, but in the end she succeeded in producing a tiny 'box' within the heart of her chosen stone. This took a lot of rearranging and general alteration before she could finally abjure the spell Convoke Shadows into the specific spot she pre-made for her charge.

"Hmm, that will do", the Mer announced with little enthusiasm, "basically you would be doing that several times ... though no more than you would normally cast at any particular time. Not the most exciting process, I know." At that, Aribeal offered a smile though it quickly faded behind his sharp and perhaps cold features. "I will actually be off performing several duties the next three brightenings, so you will have this classroom for yourself."

Walking over to his heavy desk, he found a seat behind its oak platform and sat down. "Please practice imbuing and casting the spells typically learned at your level. I will be back, and when we resume our lessons, I intend to practice only particular ones that you find a little more challenging. Otherwise, practice, practice, practice. Hmm?"

[Amber Brightwing]

Amber wasn’t keeping track of the time and it wouldn't have mattered if she knew how long it took either. Imbuing was all about storing spells for later use after all, so not something where speed was of much relevance. She was quite a bit more enthusiastic then the Mer about her success as well. Perhaps if she had been a Master with access to enchanting for a few eras she could have agreed about it not being a very exciting process. Right now it was the most complex thing she had ever done with Arcana though and she was thrilled about it.

“I will.” She nodded affirmatively. There was more then enough things to practice to keep her busy for a long time. Those three days would be filled easily enough. With that she went back to her work at hand. Practicing imbuing and newly learned spells sounded easy enough to do on her own. She was confident both would go well enough, but together… Well, it couldn’t be that much harder now could it.

She went back into Clara. After activating Convoke Shadows to clear the stone again she make sure her Circle of Magic was still intact, reactivating it if necessary. Once that was done she started working on one of the few spells preconfigured in her mind. Acid Rain, both something that might prove useful some day as well as an easy start because it was closely related to Acid Cloud. In both Acid was Conjured and Altered into a cloud form, with only the size and result being slightly different. Once the spell was made she Altered the stone again and Abjured the spell into created emptiness.

[Straylor Leonard]

Master Aribeal nodded approvingly as his student began to perform an imbuement again, though not before Amber effectively activated the previously imbued spell into existance. And within a few counts, the fae's body was wrapped in an ink-like blanket of shadow that caused the dull candlelight that lit the classroom to shimmer on its surface.

Conjuring and altering the essence of destruction was not something uncommon for the fae. But this spell was 'bigger' in a sense that it caused total destruction wherever it was cast. This was no Acid Orb that targeted a single person or thing; no, this was devestation at its best. A single casting placed against the right wind and place could rob a city of its crops and possibly cause the loss of many lives in the long run. It was like producing a slow-moving poison capable of eating through common metals and especially flesh.

Producing Acid Rain, Amber then proceeded to hold fast to Clarity as she paused to clear another spot in the rock's heart. Using one mental hand to 'pause' the spell so that it did not come to physical form, she dug using her mind, altering until she formed a web-like space before abjuring her spell for later use.

"Well done", the Mer noted with a smile, "I was prepared to assist you, but you did well by yourself. Did you notice how difficult that was, mentally? I suggest preparing the object first rather than casting then fiddling with the object. It's dangerous. Not only for you, but for anyone else around you. Like me." A grin slowly formed on the Necromancer's countenance before he chuckled a little, obviously amused at him own joke.

[Amber Brightwing]

The Acid Rain went easier then she expected. Almost as easy as an apprentice spell used to be. More complicated and more powerful, but it still felt not that much more difficult somehow. The imbuing part on the other hand seemed to have become exponentially more difficult compared to the previous time. She bit softly on her tongue as she concentrated not the let the whole thing blow apart while she was creating a spot to store it in.

When it was finally completed she couldn't help but let out a silent sigh of relief. She frowned and thought on the Mer's explanation on why things had been so difficult. She had been doing the other way around because she had assumed – wrongly as it turned out – that when creating a hole for the spell to fit in, it would just revert back when not tended. And in hindsight, keeping the space open while creating a spell might have been easier then doing the other way around too.

She took a deep breath and went back into Clara again. Without any comments from her master she assumed that she was to keep practicing. Another new spell… Her mind scanned the newly learned ones for something else to try, halting at Summon Horde. Another spell that should come fairly easy, being an enlarged version of Summon Undead.

As she wondered whether to take out Acid Rain too, having heard that storing different spells made imbuements more complicated, an even better idea came to mind. Dispel took some time and effort to do it properly, but if she was using one technique to get rid of a spell, she could just as well use another. So once she had freed the spell from its holding place she started using Mana Reweave on it to simply transform it into Summon Horde. After Conjuring up the needed material, Altering it to split it into five different ‘blobs’ and using [/i]Divination[/i] to connect a spirit from the Plane of Death to each, she poured the spell back into the stone.

[Straylor Leonard]

Proceeding as any good student did, Amber deicded that she would attempt Mana Reweave on her imbued Acid Rain in hopes of re-using the essence used to cast the more devestating Summon Horde. Both spells were especially different in scope and use, but the fae was determined. And raising an eyebrow in amusement, Master Aribeal continued to regard his student as she did so.

The first obvious process would have been to activate her imbued spell, thus releasing it from its dormant state. But instead of allow it to manifest (and to completely melt the classroom and perhaps the adjacent hallways), Amber began to deconstruct the spell similar to dispeling it. The only difference was that she attempted to collect the varying weaves of the decomposing spell instead of letting it fade away as most dispeled and expired spells tend to do.

Doing this required a lot of concentration. Amber felt this, knew this. She could feel the sweat began to form on her brow and back. The sheer concentration may have been enough to knock out an apprentice. But at this rate, the fae was doing fairly well. She managed to collect a good amount of essence from the previous spell, quickly using it to fuel her next spell: Summon Horde.

This was like combining Reshape Mana and Create Spell all at once -- an apprentice and journeyman technique. Channeling extra essence from the Plane of Death, she proceeded to build up and alter the separate 'blobs' as she fit before divining a link that tethered a spirit to each shell from the Spirit world.

But Amber suddenly found herself excessively fatigued. Her vision suddenly blurred as she 'held' her last spell, ready to be released or imbued into the stone.

It was then that she noticed the Mer suddenly dart out from behind his desk with surprising agility and caught her as she fell from the air...

[Amber Brightwing]

Both spells were of different scope and use indeed, but Amber saw no problem in that. The master had been rather vague on how different the spells could be when she had asked about it, so she just assumed that it mattered little. If they were alike, simply using ‘Reshape Mana’ would have satisfied after all.

Everything sounded easier then it turned out to be though. She licked her lips and swiped the sweat of her brow as she continued to focus on deconstructing Acid Rain back to its most basic component. It seemed that she hadn’t been entirely successful though as she had to channel some extra essence to gather enough for the spell. The last part was the easiest. Summon Horde had been imparted, so shaping it went well enough.

As soon as she had completed the spell she felt the relief as if just having climbed a high mountain and having reached the top. Relief quickly turned into tiredness and an alarm went off in her head. Had she overdone herself? A Journeyman spell, part of one and some lower level spells… Not enough to tire her when added together was it? But how much effort had the imbuing and the Circle of Magic taken out of her?

Without even thinking she released the spell right away. Undead were harmless when not ordered to otherwise after all, so there was no need to consider possible consequences. She had heard about mages overdoing themselves, and she certainly wouldn’t try and waste any more Vis. There had been tales about mages loosing their power to cast after overextending themselves too much or even dieing and neither option sounded very appealing. At the same time she tried to reach the table to land on. Her wings gave away before she could even try to fly over though and she felt herself dropping down. She was in luck as unlike the last time she screwed up the Mer did come to her aid this time. If not she might have become a stain on the floor.

[Keldon Elsdragon]

Edit: Sorry posted in the thread I was reading not the one I was replying to. Ignore me

[Straylor Leonard]

Several Candlemarks later...

Amber's eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. She was laying on something soft ... it felt like wool. Should she attempt to rise, she would feel a sudden pang in her head -- an unpleasant reminder of her previous mistake.

She had channeled too much mana and attempted to combine two techniques in one sitting -- plus an imbuing. The fae was lucky to be conscious let alone Unbound. Most magi's minds shut down after that, requiring serious attention from a talented Mystic or two.

Slowly, Amber would note that she was still in the cold, dark classroom of the Mer. Master Aribeal was not present, but he had obviously prepared a decent fae-sized bed for her student along with a medium-sized lantern (big person size) that sat at the edge of the desk.

Beside it was a piece of parchment with writing. A note, it seemed.

If Amber chose to read it, she would find:

Adept Brightwing,

I will be busy the next few brightenings or so. Please summon one of my servants. He is a human boy who wishes to be an Initiate in the academy. I am currently testing his patience and desire to learn our Art.

He will serve your food and medicine. Please drink the tea while it's hot. It will allieviate your headache.

I bid you farewell. Until I return keep studying and practicing. Avoid exhausting yourself too much. It is irresponsible and bad practice as a mage.

Sincerely,
Aribeal

[Amber Brightwing]

OOC: I thought I had already replied to this one ><

Amber opened her eyes and immediately sat upright, her head in her hands as a jolt of pain shot though it. What had happened again and where was she? It took a few moments to recollect what had happened. Slowly it all came back to her, the Mana Reweave that had not been as interesting as she had thought first, the spell that had needed additional Essence and then the imbuing… In hindsight it all seemed like a really bad idea, but at the time it had made sense to try somehow. She made a mental note to be more careful with imbuing next time.

She stood up, rubbing her temples to get rid of the head ache, but without success. What to do next? She picked up the piece of parchment left behind for her and read it though. A good breakfast seemed nice to start off, so she summoned the apprentice and had him serve her. After that she would head to her office. She still had a job to do after all and it would give her more time to recover before she tried to dabble into the arcane again. She’d be back later in the evening.

***

Once back at the underground complex, Amber went over the possibilities she had. She had been told to keep studying and practicing, so it should be safe. Just to be on the safe side she decided to start slow though. A simple initiate spell to see how things went should be more then sufficient for that purpose. After entering Clara and summoning a small amount of Mana it only should take a simple Divination to shroud herself in shadows, hiding her from sight.

[Straylor Leonard]

It was darkening, many candlemarks passed her relatively decent breakfast consisting of eggs, milk, and bread. The young human seemed ill prepared to tend to a fae and was considerably annoyed by the thought of having a fluttery faery tell him what to do. Still, in his mind and heart, anything was better than living out there in the streets, without protection, without a home. Thusly, when the Journeywoman returned she found the young lad hastily cleaning the classroom with a dark set of towels and a metal pail filled with muddy water.

Since the boy didn't seem to notice the fae, Amber was free to slip into the state of Clarity in mid-flight ... slowly unweaving her mind so that all her thoughts fell away like unwanted clothes. It was then that Amber would note how much easier it felt to enter Clara. Perhaps her slight mishap actually aided in increasing her mental endurance for channeling vast amounts of Mana compared to her apprenticeship.

Creating the necessary Mana was simple enough -- and with a quick divination to tether the shadows around the fae to her own will, she was quickly enveloped in Shadow as the spell promised. For now, she was invisible so long as she remained away from a light source.

[Amber Brightwing]

Clara came easily. Even more so then yesterday it seemed and that despite the slight overloading. For a short fleeting moment she imagined the sheer power a master or archmage must have before getting back to the matters at hand. She was pleased as Convoke Shadows went off without a hitch. It seemed her error from yesterday hadn’t affected her spell casting, something she had feared for a little.

Now it was time for the more serious work. She went through her mind to see what spells had been imparted and were still left to try out. With an unknowing target in front of her, the temptation was large to test out some of the more interesting spells available to her. She didn’t want to kill or hurt him too badly though.

Vampiric Embrace didn’t sound that bad though. She remembered seeing the same or at least a similar in action a long time ago on a Paxian graveyard. Even though she disliked Mysticism for the power to control other’s minds, she didn’t mind having said power herself. It was much less sneaky then what mystics did too. Once she got herself a nice chunk of Mana again she would use Evocation to weaken the target’s mind and put a dormant layer of pain into the spell. It would be followed by Divination to exert control and automatically activate the pain when the target was disobedient.

To test if all had gone well she mentally transferred some simple commands: ‘raise right hand’, ‘bow’, ‘kneel’. She studied the target and left some time in between each command to see what the reactions would be.