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A New Road

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:46 am
by Avamande
Image

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
Searing 90, 122 Age of Steel

It hadn't even been a full season since Avamande had acquired the Cardinal Rune of Kinetics, and they still felt the need to practice with their new power. While they had made good use of it before, that much was true, but it never hurt to get as much use of a fresh magic in to get familiar with its peculiar traits. An exterior observer of the mage would have a different assumption however. Looking at them practice their magic, most would likely assume that they were actually having fun.

After all, who wouldn't enjoy flying across the sky as effortlessly as a bird? Even with their blunted emotional state, even Avamande couldn't deny that they had prioritized practicing with Lift, and had almost always decided to use the power upon themselves, and that hurtling through the air across the open skies of Karnor was not a negative experience. Perhaps, if pressed, they would even say they were enjoying themselves.

Flying across the the expanse of open country, they did make sure to expand their other senses, experiencing both the aether flux and making sure examine the spatial mapping of all around them. This was, after all, a rigorous exercise in the art of arcane forces, and absolutely not something being done for fun. They were particularly entranced by the flux, how it ran through every thing material and immaterial, from the wind flowing through their hair, to the grass on the ground, to the door hanging in mid-air, to the birds soaring above them, to deer peering through the trees.

Up here, it was as if all the horrors of the past two seasons had never occurred, and Avamande could truly bask in the glory of creation, unbothered by sorrows and po- The door hanging in mid-air?

Coming to an immediate halt, Avamande slowly turned around, staring at the speck of wood in the distance. Cautiously, they returned to it, probing it more cautiously now. It seemed, in all respects, to be exactly what their eyes told them it was. The aether flux reacted as expected of such a thing, and there were no clear spatial distortions to suggest anything untoward. It was certainly no illusion, as their hand fell upon it solidly.

By any and all standards Avamande could test, it was indeed a perfectly mundane wooden door. That was floating in the air. With no clear sign of support. Or otherwise anything magical about it all.

Needless to say, they opened it.

It opened easily, unlocked, revealing a strange - but not altogether unfamiliar - sight. A ship's cabin, modestly appointed, with a simple wooden table and chairs. Curious, they entered inside, their feet touching a solid surface as they cut the flow of magic. Avamande cautiously explored every inch of the cabin, coming to the inevitable and extremely bizarre conclusion that this was... a ship's cabin.

Confounded, they sat themselves down upon one of the chairs to think, only to discover another elf suddenly across from them.

"It seems you are the surprising one, Master Kynne. I suppose that one deserves another, however," they mused, looking at the man with their typical flat expression. If he wished them harm, then it was clear that there was nothing that could be done about, but beings such as this could certainly be entertained.

With an exertion of will, Avamande opened a portal underneath their chair, the other end on the ceiling of the cabin. An application of Kinetics then served to keep them seated there, upside down, long hair flowing down in front of their face.

"I am Avamande Val'Istar."

Re: A New Road

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:06 pm
by Aegis

Dark eyes sidled over Avamande, sparkling a bit, a teasing smile on his face. He watched as the man showed control over a couple of magics, and a bit of humor as well, and his smile grew a bit. The long, hanging hair was quite the sight. He went to speak, when he cocked his head, as though he heard something. Something that Avamande would not have heard. Avamande would begin feeling a pressure pushing on his body and chair. It was a rotating pressure, one that seemed to want to make Avamande spin, on a few different axes.

And the pressure was intense, massive.

The captain just chuckled, standing up, shaking his head as though this was not surprising him. "Oh really? You've not sent us gifts yet during the chats." He turned to the wall behind him, knocking on it, and a panel slid open, a pair of crystalline goblets, red wine inside. He picked them both up, turning back to the table and Avamande, "It seems she likes you, she brought you some of the good wine."

A sniff at it, "It's hard to find this vintage anymore. Those vintners disappeared when the Empire did." He smirked and winked at the man from across the table, his arm extending outward, far out of reach of Avamande's arms. He brought his own wine to his lips, taking a sip from his before opening his other hand, dropping the goblet. His eyes were watching Avamande sharply over the top of his own glass.





Re: A New Road

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:15 am
by Avamande
Avamande reflexively pushed back upon the spinning force as soon as they felt it intrude upon their body, a pressure so strong that they had only felt it once before, when undergoing their Threshold Sickness for Kinetics. Then, it had been their mastery of that Rune that permitted them to survive, resisting the crushing power of the aether flux as it sought to destroy an unmoored soul. But as the moment passed, and Kynne kept talking, and they felt the pressure continue, the mage relaxed slowly but surely until they permitted themselves to drift wherever... whoever was doing this wished them to.

Bobbing in mid-air like a drunken top, it was all Avamande could do to keep one eye on Kynne as he went on about a gift. He seemed to speak of the ship herself, and while the Hytori was satisfied that they had done something that she found pleasing, they were rather confused. Good wine however was good wine, no matter its source, and they appreciated the gesture for what it was. Until the captain continued speaking, and mere curiosity morphed into something much stronger.

The Empire. Few were the realms in Ransera's history that had risen high enough to claim so lofty a title, and only two seemed apt for the source of this vintage. Whether it was Clockwork or Boundless, a mere thimbleful was a treasure without measure, and it was handed to them as casually as a red bottled last summer.

And then Kynne dropped it.

Still flowing with the strange pressure that seemed to want nothing more than for him to spin, Avamande reacted quickly. It would be uncouth to rebel now after so long ensconced in this strange embrace, so they did not. Instead, they called upon the aether flux suffusing the room and brought the goblet towards them, letting it and its contents drift in the same flow. A lazy spiral of wine spun its way out from the cup, but the mage restrained it there, deciding it was rude to drink before their host.

"A toast?"