7th of Frost, Evening - Wayfarer's Rest
The door to Leith's living accommodations was shut firmly, the Rathari pressing her back to the door as it gave a half hearted click finally giving her the time to take in her surroundings well and truly since she had arrived. The new living space she had obtained that many might call cozy was kept interminably warm by the hearth just below on the ground floor. The innkeeper insisted several times, through no prompting on Leith's part, it was kept running through the night all winter long. A simple bed with sheets washed just few times too many and the visible line of dust around the edges of the room didn't bother her. In fact she would have enjoyed every facet of the room, if it had belonged in a ship, on the water.
The lack of motion left her a bit bereft. It wasn't that she hadn't spent time on land. She had done this for days, even weeks at a time, but always knew precisely when she would return to the sea. To feel the hard unmoving floor beneath her feet and to know it would be her company for so much longer, it was a strange feeling.
Leith's thumb popped the top off of a bottle of ale and took a long thoughtful swig. The only thing for this was to make the place feel more like home for the hopefully short period she would inhabit it. She had several design changes in mind, a couple of which would probably require reimbursing the inn keep, but she decided that was what they would get for turning down her services in the kitchen.
One, however, was more of something to remind her of home.
She let her legs give out beneath her and slid in a slow and controlled motion, ale bottle pressed to lips, down the back of the door with a moderately soft thump to the floor. The now half filled bottle was then set to the side as Leith fished several small object out of her pocket. Two were smooth stones, the third a clam shell. Leith had picked these up on her walk back into town form Lake Udori and began to take each one between thumb and forefinger, inspecting, discarding, and reassessing. Finally, she selected the slightly larger stone of the two, blue grey with thick white line of quartz bisecting it. She could hear Clyte's voice in her head, even as she began to focus on the stone, "What are you doing with that stone, child? You think because you rubbed it in your hand while walking on the beach it's going to hear you better?!"
She did indeed continue to rub it between her fingers as she felt the ale touch a nearly empty belly and flow through her. She was none too good at the concentrating, whether that be on one thing or many, but the relaxing feeling, coupled with the idea of the lake contained in the small smooth rock and returning to it's waters soon put her mind in a good place. She thought of the room, the easy box of the space, too still, but not too small, and formed the idea in her mind of the stone sitting just under her dresser, resting on the worn wooden floorboards and drowning out the sounds. The creaks from the hallway, the low thrum of music coming up through the floorboards below, silenced. She imagined this stillness, and pictured it in her mind's eye, then willed this reality and idea onto the stone. She tried to imagine the lack of sound as a thick blanket laid over and around her room that prevented all sound from entering, focusing her intent through the tips of her fingers where they touched the water worn surface of rock. As she thought it she felt a draining sensation. A pull and a weariness that went past what this day had put her through. The ale touched her lips again and she shifted onto her knees. Then she held the stone, peering at it's facets. All in all it looked no different, and a sort of heat in her ears that amplified the beating of her heart, prevented Leith from knowing if she had well and truly imbued the stone with any true magical potential.
She crawled forward on her knees and very delicately placed the stone between carved wooden legs of the dresser, far enough back into a mote of dust to guarantee it wouldn't be disturbed by the usual maids. When the stone actually touched the wooden floor, Leith felt a second sensation as the two aspects of what she had willed came into play as stone touched wood. She leaned back slowly, a ringing pain in her head persisting no matter how slowly she sat back on her heels, slowly realizing that there was an absolute silence to her room now. She placed a palm on the floor, steadying herself. In that moment the feeling she had when entering the room seemed to double, then triple. She felt a pain in her side where her negation rune lay, though it hurt in the way your legs did when you had run too far for your current level of endurance. The state of her mind was worse. It reminded her of her initiation, the feeling of hopelessness, the desire to isolate herself, compounding upon the fact that she already felt supremely and utterly isolated from everything she had known. Knowing she had done all she could to divide herself from everything and yet still it somehow was not enough. She breathed in through her nose and out of her mouth several times. Then she looked around the room, the dizziness subsiding somewhat. Firstly she had not practiced her Negation in some time, already a novice, the lack of practice had done nothing to help her on this re-entry to her magic. Secondly, despite this way of negating sound being one of the first lessons Clyte had taught her, she had always done so in her own bunk, a room half this size easily, she bit her lip frowning at how she hadn't realized what a larger room might do to the strain on the attempted spell.
But it had worked, and as this truly settled in, the feelings began to subside, and Leith let out a long breath. She guessed the silence wouldn't even last the night, but establishing the ward was the more difficult part, making sure it stayed up, was by far a simpler thing, and the habit of it would hopefully encourage more ward making. Leith reached her fingers under the dresser once more, running her fingers over the stone and feeling the small amount of power contained within, the purpose it served clear. She then sat back. Clyte kept a ward against sound in her chamber where she practiced her magic as well as her bunk, and it was her habit that had made Leith become more accustom to silence then the noises of a ship. It had been fine on her voyages, but here where none of the noises were precisely familiar, she thought it best to resume the habit. One step toward mastering her magic, and perhaps some sleep.
---
It was early in the morning, the sky just beginning to ease a suggestion of light grey into the blackness when Leith shot up. This was an interesting maneuver as she had fallen asleep face down with the ale bottle beside her, clothes rumpled. She half rolled off the bed, hearing footsteps outside somewhat muffled, but she couldn't tell if that was actually because of the lingering effects of her ward, or simply the door. As a bit of the sleep wore away she could make out a cart rolling by outside, and at least two different types of birds. She clicked her tongue fretfully, but had indeed been expecting this. She had a lot of work to do on getting her wards stronger and enduring. Muttering sleepily the Rathari slid on her stomach, reaching fingers under the dresser and touching the stone. She felt the familiar twinge in her rune and a much slighter weariness as she willed the ward to re-assert itself, the footsteps outside fading two fold, the sounds outside disappearing. Then she actually undressed and went to sleep for a few more hours.
