Legend of Ransera

Posted: **Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:28 pm**

59th of Ash, 120 AV

There was a faint sound from the streets outside of Ale'Ephirum, the shop which Lyra had recently had finished. Though the door was closed it seemed that it was impossible to completely block out the noise of the people of Kalzasi, something that the old elf planned to remedy before too long. One hand rested on the desk directly across from the shop entrance, a single candle burning in its holder, the wax just starting to drip down its surface. Goldeyes flicked from bookshelf to bookshelf, a feeling of anticipation beginning to feel up inside her chest. Lyra let herself smile slightly as she picked up the candle, beginning to make her way down the hallway among the books and across.

It had been a difficult battle, getting this little shop established. The city magical officials, the Circle of Spells were not to be underestimated.

They were quite a handful, even for children. Lyra mused to herself, letting a long nail trail along with the wood of a shelf as she passed, Though they do not force me to join their collection, they did manage to stick their little fingers into my affairs quite a bit.

After lengthy negotiations, Lyra and the Circle had come to an agreement. They would provide her an official license from their guild to sell items of a magical nature, and in exchange, Lyra would provide a few specialty services for the Circle, at cost for materials. It seemed like a rather fair arrangement, were one to not look too closely. In essence, the clever ones had managed to maneuver Lyrielle tu Kovash Elmari into a long term service agreement.

"Clever." Lyra said as she opened a door at the end of the hallway, stepping into her workshop, "I am certain they shall call upon these 'favors' in due time. For now, though, it benefits me to stay in their favor." the door closed with a soft click, and Lyra set the candle on a small table beside the frame. This room was lit by several lanterns that hung from the ceiling. The workshop was spacious, shelves lined each wall and in the center was a large table with a raised surface for large scrollwork. Most of the shelves, for now, were empty, waiting to be filled with items crafted by Lyra herself soon enough. Set in the back wall was a doorway that lead down to Lyra's laboratories.

After taking a few moments to study the room Lyra made her way toward the back wall, stopping before the door and setting her hands on her hips. She reached up and ran a hand along the frame of the door, feeling the smooth wood grain and the artful way the molding blended into the wall itself. The door itself was rather plain, a simple handle of bronze, and was locked with a key that hung around Lyra's neck.

It wasn't bad, per say, but given what she planned to utilize the space below for... Lyra knew she would need to ward this entrance from those who wished to enter uninvited. Perhaps a special door? She thought for a bit but finally shrugged. For now, she would have to be content with making the entrance as difficult to get through as possible.

Posted: **Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:00 pm**

The door was opened with a key from around Lyra's neck, the portal opened to reveal a well-polished staircase that lead down into darkness. A smell of cold and wood wafted up, a scent that also hinted at faint traces of paper and herbs below. Stepping back Lyra examined the door as a whole, clasping her hands behind her back as she considered how to proceed.

"The coin of this age does not go very far." the elf spoke allowed, brow furrowed in thought, "I would have liked to create a proper entrance, but resources and time are both limited." She scratched one cheek, eyes wandering over a shelf of materials that she had on hand. Several vials of spellwrights ink, aether infused paint, several types of the most common grade of dragon shards, and various instruments of writing and drawing.

"Not very much to work with on hand either." she sighed and tapped a finger on the back of her neck, rubbing at a spot there as she closed her eyes. She imagined the door, a portal that lead to something so vital to her now. What would she, her old self, have done? What did she wish to do?

"Turn their eyes away." Lyra whispered, and a smile crept onto her lips, "Though I cannot do much to keep the brutes from forcing the door down, at the very least I can make it difficult for them to even notice it is there."

Her decision made Lyra moved to the self, taking a large vial of infused black paint and several brushes. The paint was a special item, one she had requested from a rather peculiar alchemist here in the city. The elf made a mental note to speak with him further. Eventually, she would like to be able to produce all her necessary items, but until that time she would have to rely on others to produce those resources for her. The paint itself was black, much like her ink, but was an oil base that allowed it to be used on surfaces besides just paper and parchment.

The first brush Lyra selected was a long-handled thing. Checking the hairs at the end, and nodding in satisfaction she dipped the tip into the open vial of paint and began a slow and delicate design along the edge of the doorframe. The process was simple. She needed to create a series of interconnecting shapes, something that looked slightly stylized so as not to be overly suspicious. Eventually, she would have the molding carved with a more particular design and trace the designs with the paint for improving the effect and longevity of it, but at the moment the elf merely needed the glyph to function as intended.

She created loops and swirls, a winding pathway that traced up to the first corner of the doorway, at which point she created two oval shapes, one inside the other that looked like an artistic rendition of an eye with no pupil. From there she continued her sweeping, looping designs to the next corner, where she created another stylized eye. She repeated this process until each of the 4 corners of the doorframe had a stylized eye glyph painted on them, with shapes connecting them together. The two on the bottom however were left unconnected, as she needed to trace the path over the floorboards. She did not do this immediately, however. Stepping back Lyra examined her work, frowning slightly as she noticed slight flaws in her lines that should have been elegant and gracefully. Tsking slightly Lyra eyed the hand that still held the brush, turning it over so she could look at the glyphs that covered the skin.

There are still issues with this body's control. Lyra thought, her mouth set in a grim line. After a few more seconds of study, she sighed and shrugged. There was nothing to do for it for now. Besides, she was planning to replace the entire door before the end of next season, so minor errors here and there mattered little.

Kneeling down in front of the door Lyra began tracing more lines from the two bottom pictographs, completing the glyph with a final eye on the floor in the doorway. This eye did have a pupil, a simple swirl that stared up at the top of the doorframe. From this pictograph, Lyra started two new sets of paths. These she wrapped around the door itself, keeping close to the wall before having them angle sharply upward. On either side of the door was a metal hook normally used to hold a lantern. Lyra traced the pathway up the wall and encircled the base of the hooks, drawing a triangular pictograph with a diagonal slash in the center. One side held a slash going from left to right, and the other from right to left.

When she stepped back again Lyra grimaced, mentally chastising herself for this work. It would do but did little too satisfied the ancient creature's desire for grandeur. Setting the brush and paint aside on the workbench Lyra once more rummaged in the chest of supplies, taking out 2 minor dragonshards of the most common quality. Lyra eyed these gems skeptically, but shrugged and resigned herself to the task. What she wanted to accomplish would require something more powerful eventually.

"I am settling quite often with this." the words were amused, though Lyra didn't smile. From the chest, she took out what looked like a set of weighing scales, or at least the baskets where one put the weights. This item she had found specifically for this project, though in the future she planned to speak with Talon about getting a more custom design. Taking one of the smaller brushes Lyra painted a design on the bottom of each hanging tray. A circle with a triangle in it, each with a diagonal slash to match the one painted on the wall. These would act as the connection glyphs, simple but effective. Glyphs could be connected across major distances so long as the power was there to sustain such a connection. In this case, though Lyra just needed the connection to bridge the small gap between where the dragonshards hung to the glyph around the doorway.

Nodding to herself Lyra took each of these hanging trays and used their hooks to let them dangle from the lantern holders on either side of the door. She then placed a minor dragonshard on each train, each glowing with a faint light.

Posted: **Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:16 pm**

It was almost done. The paint itself was still wet, which was important for the final step. Stepping back toward the center of the room Lyra sat with her legs crossed, hands folded in her lap. Closing her eyes she breathed deeply, twisting inside of her body and pulling her essence free. Her mouth opened, and a trickle of black smoke began to spill out and pool on the floor. More and more collected, spinning into a column which shaped itself into the form of a woman with long hair and golden eyes. Flowing forward Lyra ensured there was enough of herself in the body to hold it upright, and then brought her focus to the doorway.

The humanoid form collapsed as Lyra spread herself out, passing over the glyphs and examining them in a way that a physical body could not match. Her consciousness swayed throughout the smoke, pressing here and there and touching the glyphs with delicate tendrils that did not disturb the link. Where the tendrils touched however a small measure of Lyra's aether passed over, seeping into the glyph and making the designs glow faintly.

"Turn away," Lyra whispered, a faint voice flowing from the curling smoke, "Avert your eyes, pay no heed to this place. It is nothing, nowhere, of no interest..." These words repeated over and over as Lyra flexed her aether, thrumming a melody of disinterest and forgetfulness into the glyph. The primary design, not the floor glowed and almost seemed to blink as Lyra flowed down to stare at it directly. From the smoke, a face formed, pale with hair of while that blew in an unseen wind. Pursing her black lips Lyra sent a stream of smoke directly onto this glyph and with it a powerful influx of aether and will.

"Turn and forget, see not and think not of this place. It is nothing, there are more pressing matters at hand, be away from here quickly." The message repeated, growing more powerful each time. Lines of smoke twisted now up along the walls, pooling around the lantern hook and the dragonshards. Black connected the two glyphs, and Lyra imagined the two separate but one. Pull power from the dragonshards, constant and steady, but light as a breeze. Only when one notices the door. The power and command flowed down to the center glyph that shimmered once more, the glow radiating out to the rest of the pictographs before returning to the central eye.

Lyra repeated this process several more times, hardening her design and intent as the paint slowly dried and strengthened. Pulling herself back the glyph shined for a few seconds more before darkening, going dormant until someone other than Lyra noticed it.

Black fog swirled around the room them, billowing before turning down in a swirling vortex to enter the still open body of the vessel sitting at its center. When the last tendril of smoke was consumed Lyra opened her physical eyes, smiling slightly before standing. She dusted off her robes and eyed the door. When she looked at it the glyphs did not activate. When she first touched the glyph with her essence she tied a piece of herself into its very design, so that it would not affect its creator. For any others though, if they were to look at it they would find it difficult to focus on the door. It would be uninteresting, unimportant, and as they looked away their mind would have a difficult time even recalling it was there.

"Now, as for those books..."

Posted: **Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:20 pm**

Name: Lyra

Knowledge:

Scrivening: Creating lasting glyphs
Drawing: Creating shapes
Drawing: Steady hands make better designs
Drawing: Simple designs can be aesthetically pleasing
Drawing: Making a stylized eye

Scrivening: Creating lasting glyphs
Ethereal Body: Spreading senses through ethereal form
Aetheric Paint: Similar to Spellwrights Ink, but can be used on other surfaces

Points: 5
Magic: These points can be used for magic.

Injuries: Nothing to report!
Loot: +1 Glyph of Disinterest

Comment: I quite enjoyed this, imagining Lyra in her ethereal form as she's floating around chanting in a dark and menacing tone. She's such an interesting character and I look forward to seeing how she settles in further, also congrats on the new business!

Welp, that's everything I'm sure! If you have any questions, or feel that something actually was missed; please do pm me so we can talk!

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