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

[Amber Brightwing]

Amber frowned. That didn’t go entirely as it should. That the boy wasn’t taking the waves of pain that well was the least of her concern, but she had expected the pain to stop again once the commands were followed through. After all, what good was a mind controlled minion if it just laid convulsing on the floor.

Once the spell was dispelled, she’d address the boy, who in all likeability should be recovering once the spell was gone. [/b]“Apologies. That didn’t went as it should have.”[/b] Not that she felt sorry in any way for what she had doneshe’d use him as a test subject again right away, , but an apology seemed in place. She never intended for him to suffer that much after all.

It took her only a second to decide what to do next. Try another spell while her she still had a testing dummy of course. Just to be fair it wouldn’t be one her target would suffer from this time. Dark Compact was the first Necromancy spell she had encounter so far that was altruistic. Not that the boy would notice much of it. It wasn’t because the spell was altruistic she was. After Divining a connection with her target she would Abjure only a token amount of life into him.

[Straylor Leonard]

Dark Compact worked well enough -- though it did cause Amber to feel a sudden trick of pain erupt from her chest. It was like someone with claws decided to maul at her heart. The divination she produced was simple, and the abjuration worked both ways -- removing some Life from her and sending it to the boy.

It took a few moments for the servant child to stop shivering, and slightly more time to recover from the nightmarish experience. He simply regarded Amber, finally understanding what she previously mentioned -- something regarding apologies.

"I am used to it", he said in low tones, "you are actually one of the nicer students here ..." With that, he stood up and weakly resumed his post by the door and kept on mopping the rest of the classroom.

Within a few moments, however, he suddenly paused and looked up towards the fae.

"I almost forgot", he added, "Master says that you should meet the other students. They are in the library, down the hallway northeast corridor."

[Amber Brightwing]

Auw. That hurt. This was definitely the both the first and last time she’d be casting the spell. She doubted the contribution of a Fae’s life force would matter much anyway when dealing with Human sized people.

She just grinned as he called her one of the nicer students. “I suppose that says more about the other students then is says about me.” She thought he was just confusing some basic manners with being nice though. Take Spirotyn for example. He had a big mouth, but not much more. She remembered how he once had to rely on Master Aribeal to get himself out of the mess he created with it, and that for a Journeyman. All bark and no bite.

The Fae pondered what to do next. She still had nearly an Journeyman spell worth of Vis left, but perhaps it was better to take it easy for now considering how things had gone the other day. The boy solved the problem for her though, so she headed to the library to see what Aribeal had set up for her. So far she had mostly been in contact with her Master and the two doormen and only knew some students by face from seeing them walk past now and then so she wondered what the sudden change was about.

[Straylor Leonard]

The library wasn't at all far from the classroom -- especially when one was capable of free flight. Amber was able to wizz past most of common hindrances and got to the large oak doors within a few moments. Now ... the problem would be to open them. She would be able to look through the keyhole, however, which revealed the three robed figures sat within the dim room.

The library was essentially a classroom with more shelves and tables for initiates and apprentices to study when they had time off. Those accepted by the Necromancers here were less likely to waste time as the risk gem bloods did in comfortable academies. There was a zero percent failure rate here ... largely because those who showed little promise basically disappeared one brightening, never to be heard from again.

Inside, the three seemed to be sitting inside their respective Circle of Arcana -- until a spell would sudden erupt from outside one Circle and impale itself against their schoolmate's. A ripple of laughter and giggles would ensue followed by the usual cheers and taunts.

"Hah, that's another point for me", said a young female dark elf. The had sharp features common to her race and wore a deep red set of robes.

"You cheated! You're both teaming up!" the other robed figure cried, this one was a young male of human decent. He was several shades paler than normal humans, however, which hinted at his elven heritage.

[Amber Brightwing]

Opening the door was not much of a problem anymore. Even when no lower level members of the cult were around to do so for her, she still had her Spirit Puppet spell which had been designed especially for that. As soon as she had called some spirits to her aid she would have them shaped in a hand-form and open the door for her. Even though there was still a lot of room for improvement (something she would try out soon with her newly given power to create spells from scratch) it did the job fairly well.

Once inside she couldn’t help but wonder why she was here again. Did Aribeal want her to supervise some children playing? She gathered her Spirit Puppet around her, having it serve the same purpose as the Spirit Shield it had been derived from, so she had something in between herself and these guys in case they felt like tossing anything in her direction.

She didn’t bother raising her voice for now, waiting for them to tell her why she had been summoned here.

[Straylor Leonard]

The Spirit Puppet spell worked well enough, the votex of summoned spirits to work in unison as a makeshift hand that opened the door before Amber. At that sight, the students within the library paused their games. It was the dark elf that piped a simple "Serale" first, followed by the Elven boy. The third happened to be a human girl that was dressed in dark emerald robes. She had her dark hair tied in a pony tail behind her head.

"Nice", the female noted with a grin, "how does that work?" She was obviously referring to Amber's reshaped Spirit Puppet that was now acting like a shield. "What are you? Apprentice? Adept?" The other two looked up, looking equally curious at the fae.

[Amber Brightwing]

“Serale.”

Amber just grinned at the short comment of praise, but didn’t react on the ‘how’ question. They could figure that one out on their own. The spell was useful enough, but it still lacked some finesse. She had mostly been thinking about ways to reduce the overhead that was needed to properly control it. Like not having to wrap it around her as a protective shield to transport it easily.

“I’m an Adept, but only since yesterday. The spell was just a Mana Reshape though. It still needs some polishing up. Anyway, I was told to come here. Any chance one of you could explain me why?”

She looked at the others, not expecting much as they seemed fairly surprised at her presence.

[Straylor Leonard]

"Well", the elven boy piped up, "this is the Library so maybe you're suppose to be reading?" The other two chuckled along. "We were sent down here to practice since these walls are enchanted by something that Nullifies spells hurled against the building itself. Really useful, I think. But I doubt it's Necromancy."

"Yes, it's Mysticism", the female dark elf nodded towards her human counterpart, "isn't it Ava?"

"That's right", Ava replied as she crossed her hands across her slim chest. "So an Adept, huh? I think that's nice. We're only apprentices, but we'll get Promoted soon enough! We're reaching Clarity with little problem now ... well, except for Edward there." She giggled and the elven boy frowned.

"Maybe you're suppose to practice with us", the dark elf suggested with a shrug, "that's why Master Aribeal and the other teachers here tell us to do."

[Amber Brightwing]

“I have my own library these days. No doubt there’s a few more books to be found here on certain subjects, but it covers most of my researching needs for when I need some quick references.” Technically she didn’t really own the library, no more then she owned the Thane’s estate it was located in, but as long as she held her position it was hers to use.

“Walls that Nullify spells you say?” She pondered for a moment. “I suppose that might be a reason to come here to practice. If that’s the case then it won’t be for today though. I’m starting to run low on Vis.” Her mind went over the spells she hadn’t tried yet. “And there’s only one spell from the newly imparted that I haven’t tried out yet and that would best be dispelled before coming into action. The rest just wouldn’t have any effect when cast on thin air either.” She never found casting spells without some proper target that helpful anyway. It was hard to figure out where improvement could be needed when you couldn’t judge the effects.

“Well, if there’s no other reason for me to be here then I’ll be going again. Maybe I’ll drop by tomorrow to practice here.” Unless the three other students had more to ask or say she’d be heading back out. If they wanted her to stay in this place for some reason then they should have told her why.

[Straylor Leonard]

"Vis isn't really a big problem", the human girl offered with a grin, "you should try these. It's an odd herb, suppose to increase your stamina and Vis regeneration." She then pulled out a small blue pouch and tossed it in the direction of Amber's Spirit Puppet Shield. "It helps", she added before turning around to face her classmates.

"Guess we'll be seeing you on the morrow then?", the elven boy asked.

"Bet we could beat you at Spirit Ball", the dark elf dared with a light chuckle, "three on two -- that's fair, right? You are a Journeywoman after all."

[Amber Brightwing]

She focussed on guiding her Spirit Puppet for a moment, having the shield stretch itself downward and then curving back up, forming a basket to catch the pouch in. Once caught, she’d just leave the bag dangling below her.

“Spirit Ball?” She fell silent, leaving the words hanging as a question for more information on the game. Necromancy wasn’t exactly a game that lend itself to games, but this defiantly had caught her interest. Stretching her Arcana muscles in with some competition sounded like great practice.

Once they had explained her how it works she had yet another question to ask. “And what’s this herb called? What’s the exact advantage and what are the side effects?” She had worked with herbs for quite some time herself and if there’s on thing she knew that’s that the better something worked, the bigger the chances on unpleasant side effects became. She wasn’t about to use a unknown herb from an random Apprentice without knowing exactly what it was.

[Straylor Leonard]

"Spirit Ball", the elven boy repeated, "it's simple really."

"Not for you!", giggled the dark elf.

"Basically we each produce a Circle", Ava continued, "and attempt to either dispel your opponent's spell or hit their Circle first. Only Initiate level spells are allowed, so it's quick. With four of us, we can be in teams." She shrugged before replying to Amber's next question.

"Those?", she pointed at the pouch, "it's just a sleep aid. No side effects that we know of ... though, I guess you end up a little more groggy than usual before Rosyun." She chuckled, "so make sure you have time to rest before using that."

[Amber Brightwing]

Amber did her best to contain a grin when the boy explained her to concept of Spirit Ball. Even as experienced Apprentices she should have an unfair edge on them as newly promoted Journeyman. If they started at the same time then she could most likely cast a spell and beat them back into Clara to dispel there’s. Even in a two-on-one she might have the upper hand, so even if the Elven boy didn’t contribute much this should be a cake walk. She kept the comments to herself though and would show them there error the next day. It’s not like she minded an unfair advantage when it was on her side.

She blinked at the comment on the herbs. “So it just helps you recover your Vis during the night? How is that useful, Vis recovers well enough on it’s own while sleeping. Or does it help with Vis recovery the next day as well?” Unless the herbs somehow increased what she was capable off, like by giving her more spells to use, she’d not use them. And even then she’d most likely just keep them for a more crucial moment.

Unless more needed to be said she’d be off and return the next day.