Sometime in the Age of Dreams
As she had many times before, Lana marveled at the talent her friend possessed. They spun in slow circles, hand in hand, her arm rested on Sierra's shoulder, while her friend held her at the waist. As they moved Sierra hummed, softly, a tune so old that even the Hytori had forgotten who wrote it. The day had long since past, and their time for study should have ended, yet here they were.
Lana shivered slightly, prompting Sierra to tighten her hold on her waist as they spun just a bit faster.
"When you move, it is important to remember where your feet are." Her breath was warm against Lana's cheek, the words a repeat of somewhat that was said earlier when Lana had stepped on the hem of Sierra's robes. "Dancing is an expression of the soul. Keep moving, following the rhythm of the music but also letting your partner guide you."
For emphases Sierra shifted her weight, squeezing a bit harder with the hand that held Lana's as they shifted direction and spun the other direction.
"If you focus and pay attention, your partner will start to show you what they intend. Not with words, but with their movements."
Lana tried to take it all in, but it was like trying to hold water in cupped hands. It worked for a time, but eventually, it all started to drip between her fingers. Something must have shown on her face as Sierra laughed and pinched Lana lightly, "You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"That thing with your face, where you squish your eyebrows together and stick out your lower lip."
Lana made to deny the accusation, only to noticed that she was, at that moment, making such an expression. Quickly she tried to mask it, shaking her head slightly to look to the side. She felt... embarrassed. That was the best word to describe it. She just wasn't meant to do this sort of thing. Dancing was for people who had talent, who walked gracefully and knew when to laugh and to smile when others talked. It was meant for something other than her.
Sierra slowed them slightly, letting go of Lana's hand to nudge her chin to look her friend in the eye, "You are overthinking it. Dancing is about feeling more than anything else. Just let your body move as your heart tells it to."
This made Lana frown, confused, "How do you... feel how to dance?"
Sierra breathed a sigh and halted them completely, releasing Lana who felt a pang of disappointment as she stepped away.
"It is... " the golden-haired woman waved her hands as if to articulate the concept, "Like how your body knows how to move when you walk. When you first start it is difficult and awkward, but after a while, you just... know what it feels like. From then on you do not have to think about it, you just walk."
Lana stared at Sierra for a time, her confusion only growing until Sierra finally shrugged, "You will get it."
"Really?" Lana sighed, sitting down hard on the stone bench and rubbing the heels of her palms to her eyes, "It feels as if that day shall never come..."
She kept her eyes closed, resting her back against the cold stone of the bench, but even with her eyes closed, she could feel Sierra as she sat down next to her. She felt her friend take her by the hand, rubbing a gently finger over the knuckles. She was warm and comforting in her closeness.
"So how do you know what a pictograph means." Siera finally asked, her weight resting against Lana's shoulder.
Lana did not answer at first, considering the question while she enjoyed the closeness. She had never really given it much thought. Ever since she was a little girl she had simply... done it. Some would call it talent she supposed, but Lana very much doubted she had any of that. Instead, it must be something so simple that even a doll-like her could accomplish it. So how did she do it?
"I... don't really know what the pictograph means." Lana began, slowly opening her eyes to look up out the glass dome above, "It is more like, I read their story."
It was Sierra's turn to look confused, and so Lana continued, "A word is just a series of letters put together to form a sound, which our minds interpret based on a meaning we have given it either personally or collectively." Blinking Lyra turned on the bench, motioning for Sierra to do the same. They faced a pile of scrolls, but it was the one that was open that Lana now pointed to, "Words, on their own, have no meaning, but I can read them anyway. A pictograph is similar. It inherently has no meaning unless it is given than meaning by a mage, which means pictographs can be radically different or unique. I do not read pictographs, I look for commonality, a point of reference that tells me what the creates intent might be."
Lyra pointed toward a spiraling pictograph, which looked like a whirlpool that moved toward a center point, "This pictograph is a common one used to collect and gather aether. When you look at it, what does it remind you of?"
"A whirlpool." Sierra said simply, "I've seen one-off the souther peninsula where my father has an estate."
Lana nodded, "Yes, but based on just that observation does this pictograph pull aether in, or expel it out?"
"It pulls it in." she said, giving Lana an odd expression.
"But why?"
"Because a vortex pulls things into itself." Sierra said simply.
"That is what you believe, based on what you have experienced. What if I told you this pictograph can be used to expel aether as easily as it can be used to pull it in?" Lana watched as Sierra's expression shifted, moving from confused, to contemplative, to confused once more, "That is, in part, what makes learning the scripts so difficult. Often times we are forced to look past what we expect to see in order to understand what is truly there. That is where those such as you have an advantage."
Lana tapped the back of her hand, indicating the rune of Sierra's, "I said it before, but when understanding pictographs the context matters greaterly. You can gather context in a variety of ways. Personal experience, points of reference, and the whole of the schema the pictograph is inside of. The most powerful method though is in the aether itself." Lana placed her hand on top of the pictograph, closing her eyes as she did. Though she had no rune of her own, she had practiced the scripts enough she could sense the aether stored within it. Taking Sierra's hand she placed it on the pictograph as well, placing her hand over her friends so they could both feel the faint vibrations of magic.
"Those who possess a rune are naturally more connected with the flows of aether around them. A pictograph, once awakened, vibrates with the intent impressed upon them. It becomes apart of their very aether, which you can pick up. When I look at a pictograph I used all of these things to determine what it is trying to tell me. My past experience, traditions, references from pictographs around it, and the way its aether moves all come together to tell the story of how and why this pictograph was created."
Understanding seemed to be coming to Sierra's eyes, and it made Lana smile.
"If a pictograph is a word, then a glyph is like a sentence. They string together a series of intent driven pictographs to create a greater effect. Rituals then would be like pages in a book, or entire texts themselves. When read a certain way the rituals intact great works of magic that is the cause of much of what we take for granted in this day and age." Lana motioned around them, eyes shining with excitement, "And Archmagic, that would be like the whole of knowledge inside of the temple itself. So vast and complicated that it takes many many many books to even scratch the surface of what is possible."
Without realizing it Lana had stood, her hands out to her sides as she looked around at the stores of knowledge that surrounded them. Her heartbeat just a little bit faster, and a smile lined her lips.
"You really do love the scripts." Sierra's voice brought Lana out of her revelry, and she blushed, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"It is one of the few things I have found that I... can understand. It makes sense."
"Like walking?"
Lana blinked, and Sierra laughed, standing to take Lana's hands, "I am just teasing you. But how you described reading pictographs, THAT is how you feel a dance. Now we just need to translate that passion."
