• Graded • Projection of Force

[Alistair]

6th of Vhalar, Arc 713

"Ali," the woman called for him. "Alistair," her voice resounded throughout the room. He had been sleeping in the same shoddy upstairs tavern room for the past few weeks, yet for some reason he'd rarely felt so comfortable. It was probably because of the journey he'd had to get here - long, painful. The man rarely felt so unsettled as with the ship swaying through the ocean, churning and...

"Alistair!" she exclaimed. He felt as if it were a dream. There was something about her that always managed to make him feel like reality had inverted, that it had turned upon itself. His eyes fluttered open, and the woman stood before him. She wore black clothing as usual, with that pendant around her neck. The Bane of the Supercilious, she called it. She never said why - but the name fit her personality.

Her appearance was something unrealistic of a powerful Necromancer. Black of hair, eyes that he couldn't distinguish from violet and deep blue, fair and clear skin. She was a Lich, and a Naerikk, but appeared almost indistinguishable from any other human woman. That was something she'd always emphasized - blending in, immersing into society so as to infiltrate cultures and perceptions. She did that well. He could see an admiration for her from the people on the streets of Etzos - one look at Ellasin, and you almost felt like a touch of divinity was washing against your skin. Well, usually. There was of course always the extremely unsettling feeling that came too - a feeling that made others cower.

He supposed it depended on her mood. And that mood - he wondered - was what, at the current moment?

"Yes, My lady?" he rose from the bed, rubbing his eyes. The Lich sighed. "Dear, you're a very thick sleeper," she said with a stern disappointment. "We're going to get started on the study of Rupturing today. You've expressed interest in it, yes?" The man nodded in response.

"Good. I am among the best of Rupturers in the Coven, and I've decided that I will be the one to initiate you."

[Alistair]

Initiated? he questioned. By Ellasin? He supposed it couldn't get any more clean than that - she was quite likely the best mage in Idalos, and certainly one of the oldest. She had experience, and a passion for magic that he saw in no other . . . except for perhaps himself. So, he had no quarrels with this, and it wasn't like he had a choice regardless. He nodded.

"Let's go to the Coven," the woman suggested. To do so, she quite notably opened a portal then and there, Alistair's eyes alight as her hands ripped into the air and rend it apart. Her portal was a pitch black visual in the center, with a swirling orange blaze around it. But, he did not feel heat. He felt nothing at all - the portal did not seem to effect its surroundings in the slightest, though it was loud and had seemed to shake the walls whence it opened. "Hurry, before some trollop opens the door and notices the blazing hole in the center of our room," she jested. "Right," Alistair replied. The witch and her apprentice stepped into the rift.

The moment passed like any other, though he felt like he'd been launched across Andaris or something. He'd plunged through space, and it left his body feeling exceptionally awkward, to say the least. He felt a gag develop in his throat, the man re-actively covering his mouth. The Lich laughed. "Such a greenhorn," she said with a grin. "That's not the first time you'll experience the rupturing. Nor is it the worst experience you'll have. The slightest of ill calculations can leave you rend open, thrown into the wrong location, or perhaps arriving with parts missing." The Lich extended her hand outward, the portal closing behind them.

"How does one open these portals?" he asked. Ellasin shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know. Magic, I suppose," she grinned. The woman's sense of humor was far more juvenile than one would have expected for someone nearly two centuries old, Alistair noted. "I'll explain it all, worry not. Let us go to what I call Astra na Beialah, the Observatory." The darkly shaded walls of the coven's base were lit with energy as the Necromantress passed. A door, made shining with the following of her energy, lowered itself beneath the ground to allow the man and woman inside. Within was a circular room with nothing but a large circular sphere in the center, laid on the ground. In the center of that was a glowing stone suspended slightly above the ground. The edges of the sphere - one with a dial pointing north - were lit with thousands of carvings, lines running through the corners with numbers beneath them. Names.

[Alistair]

Andaris, Venora, Krome, Burhan, Warrick, Gawyne, Endor... he could see the names of the cities of Rynmere. Then, to the south... Rharne, with villages surrounding it. The dial was pointed at Nashaki presently, though Ellasin brought herself to the center of the large circle and moved the dial along the edges by pushing it. It moved from Nashaki to Ivorian to Athart, Treidhart, Port, Solaero, Augiery... he didn't even recognize the name of some of these cities. "Augiery is where I came from originally," the woman said. She stopped it there. "As a Naerikk, I was born there. But I would not die there, no..." She shook her head.

"The women of Augiery would make slaves out of men. They believe themselves to be better than others - superior to others merely due to arbitrary characteristics. In this way, my kind are no better than the Immortals. To place yourself above is to blind yourself to the happenings of below." She lowered herself onto the ground, arms wrapping around her knees as she stared into Alistair's eyes. "And so I look to the world from the very bottom, always, from caverns and crypts onto the shining palaces of Kings, wanting but never having, chasing but never reaching. It is the life of unlife, cruel yet empowering. It is the life I chose." Her eyes displayed a flurry of emotions.

There was feeling behind her words. He could see it - it was as if she was looking back, and yet, into the future.

"I am always ready to be humbled. There were those in my past, man and woman alike, who humbled me indeed. I was not always the most powerful mage in Idalos - in fact, it was perhaps not until recently that I claimed this title." She lowered her back into the ground, staring at the ceiling. On it was art - a painting across the wall, of woman and man reaching out to touch the stars.

To her, it was a beautiful sight, and to Alistair too. After all, that was what magic was. Man seeking to transcend boundaries, that of Idalos and Immortals and the galaxy itself.

"The last before me was one so beautifully poised, a man named Reyard Seymour. He is the one who invented this magic known as Rupturing. I learned it from him, humbled, placed beneath him as his student." Her eyes seemed to trail back through history, an empty look consuming her pupils as she looked back. Remembered.

"Ah, Reyard," she repeated his name. "Perhaps the most beautiful man I will ever know. More than just a mage, he was - he was an inventor, a builder, a scientist, a mathematician. He was everything one could ever want in a man. Humorous, talkative, with qualities of a leader. Handsome. I would have made him mine - a minion of my own, infused crystals into his flesh. The ultimate Rupturer, forever bound to my side. But he left, so suddenly. Where did he go...?" For a moment, he could almost see a sadness in her. A confusion. But Ellasin was not one who knew true sadness. She only knew hunger, and the pain of starvation. She would have liked to have Reyard as her own.

But he would not be hers. That angered her. It -

"It was by his disappearance that I became the most powerful known mage," she said. "But the unknown is still there. What did he do when he left? Did he discover the secret to immortality? Was he investigating me all along? Was I in fact the one who was being used?" She shook her head and removed herself from the ground, standing upright. "No matter, darling. To Rupture is not to look into the past, but to carve out a different future. To be a mage is to seek to banish the limitations of the mortal form. This was a thing I had never considered before the incursion of Reyard into my life."

[Alistair]

They moved on. Ellasin had grabbed a codex that she'd stored along the shelves circling the room. It was written by her while she was being instructed by Reyard. The name of the codex was A Guide to Transcend the Stars, with ceramic icons of stars seemingly glued onto the front. The book was old and quite dusty, though that did not bother her. Damien had noted her lack of care for the quality and maintenance of many of her valuable texts. He claimed it was because she was quite old and dusty herself, which had invoked some laughter by the young apprentice.

"Let us begin to learn about Rupturing, Sotrosei," she called him. One of the ranks of the Coven - the Corrupted. He'd been given this rank shortly after joining, largely due to a strangely vested interest in him by Ellasin. Alistair had always been watched after by others since joining. It did not feel strange to him considering his position as the heir to an exceptionally powerful family, though he did admit Ellasin's particular interest was quite concerning. Even being here now, with her, was something he found bothersome.

Half of him believed shew wanted to murder him and use him as her new vessel, or something.

"Rupturing is," she began, "the power of rending space. It is using pockets of ether that are ever-present in the world to tear apart matter, as Reyard called it. He thought of all this from very scientific terms, and as such created Rupturing as a scientific magic. Space, distance, compression, matter, coordinates, astronomy, so on and so forth - these concepts he wrote into the magic were things that attuned to his curious mind. He sought out the stars, never content with Idalos. Always searching for more." Alistair wasn't quite sure if she was reading this from the book or merely from her own words. He remained quiet and listened.

"There are two forms of Rupturing, the Chasing and Compression. The Chasing is using these pockets of ether - as we spoke about only a moment ago - to transport yourself from one location to the next. By connecting the energies of two points, one can travel between these two points. It sounds confusing to non-mages, but as a mage, I'm sure you can understand." She held her hand out, a small blazing rupture appearing in the air before her. "Energy means everything in this world. With energy, you can do things others did not think possible. Transporting yourself between one place and other is, indeed, possible by linking energy between two individual locations." Not far from the rupture of air appeared a similar void. She tossed a burnt out candle that she'd kept along the bookshelves, and from one end it came out the other.

[Alistair]

Her eyes were lit by a bright red as she stared into the depth of the portal she'd created. "This portal was made by the Chasing. It is merely tethering energy from one location to another and skidding along the path. You replace distance with energy." She turned the page, the portal remaining though Alistair only looked at it and did not touch it. He could only wonder - if it suddenly closed while his hand was inside of it or something, would his hand not be removed? The answer, he imagined, could only be yes.

"There is then Compression," she explained. "Compression is to use the rend in matter - the portal - to ignore the laws of space. To compress, or compact, distance and space itself. To make a step, which perhaps can only move one by a few inches, into a motion that moves one a thousand miles. By using the portal, you defy the laws of space that others must follow, as this portal enables you alone to supplant the world's quantifiable laws." She then placed the book down and held her hands out. It looked as if she was physically rending the air apart before her, a larger portal appearing. He moved forward and parted his lips to ask where it had opened on the other side, but before he could, water began flowing into the room and several fish began to flop on the ground. From the portal then, quite literally, came a dolphin that landed against the wall. The bookshelves shook and many of the books landed on the floor or the body of the dolphin.

Alistair couldn't even imagine how to properly react. "Oh my," the woman covered her mouth. "Ali, can you believe it!?" she exclaimed. "What luck! To not only retrieve a few fish from the rupture, but indeed an intelligent beast!" She closed the portal, preventing the room from being flooded, though Alistair within moments already had his feet covered with water. The large dial in the center of the room was nothing but a puddle lit with carvings. Then, she leaned over to inspect the creature as it struggled. It looked entirely confused, and filled with fear. Which didn't differ all that much from Alistair, who could only stare in awe as everything occurred. Firstly, he had never actually seen a dolphin so close, so that was a surprise. Secondly, she'd just . . . what, opened a portal into the ocean?

He was astounded. To think - all the application of this magic. All that one could do.

Could one not reach into that of a volcano or a great fire and flood a city with flames? How terrifying. "I understand now why people fear all magic, not just Necromancy," he said with a perplexed look. He was partly joking, though mostly he was in fact serious. And a bit put off guard. The scene was just very odd - Ellasin ripping a dolphin from its habitat and plunging it into the room. The room being drowned with water, though it had already begun to flow out into the main chamber. He could hear some of the members of the Coven yelling about it in the hall.

The woman laughed. "Of course people fear mages. Even Immortals fear mages. We can do what they can't do. That is what Reyard wished to emphasize the most - in fact, one of his quotes was this: To be a mage is to challenge the limitations set by the mortal form. To be a Rupturer is to claim that the idea of a limitation itself is obsolete. He wished to destroy the limitations of mortality. This magic was his first step." Her hands moved across the body of the dolphin, stroking it as it suffocated.

Would it not die a slow death in this dark hall? He quite notably frowned. Somehow it seemed too tragic - the playful endeavor of a mage, bringing death to an animal such as this. Perhaps that was why others feared magic so dearly. To a mage, lesser beings could appear as ants. It was the same issue as with the Immortals.

He began to feel a hypocrisy in Ellasin, in this moment. She did not really look above from below, did she? As someone with such power, she could not claim to be the underdog. She would have to use this power responsibly, which she did not. And that was her greatest illness - the abuse of her great power. The idea that she was somehow of this lower victim caste of those trampled on by the supercilious Immortals. She would be as they were once she was in power. He knew it. He saw it from the look she held on her face - the joyous smirk as she watched this creature's life fade, the animal nothing in her eyes.

[Maltruism]

Come and get your Loot!

(There's plenty more where that came from)

ALISTAIR:

Rewards:

• Story: +5
• Collaboration: - reward
• Structure: +5

Knowledges:

• Basic
  • Arcana: Rupturing
  • Coven Ranks
  • Location: Etzos
  • Many of Ellasin's Names for Things are in Ancient
  • Reyard Seymour: "Rupturing Inventor"
  • Rupturing Artifact: The Sundial
  • The Study of Magic is to Seek to Transcend Boundaries
• Specific
  • Ellasin: "A Mage Needs to Blend In"
  • Chasing: Connecting and Riding Energy Between Two Points
  • Chasing is for Short Jumps, Compression is for Long Jumps
  • Compression: To Actually Contract the Distance Between Two Points
  • Ellasin: "Deny Yourself to Stay Hungry"
  • Ellasin: Had Designs on Reyard Seymour?
  • Ellasin: Signs of Power Hungry Hipocrisy
  • Etzos Location: Coven Base
  • Etzos Location: The Underground
  • Naerikk Culture: Same Arrogance as Immortals
  • Reyard Seymour: Disappeared Suddenly
  • Reyard Seymour: More than Just a Mage
  • Reyard Seymour's Codex: "Guide to Transcend the Stars"
  • Rupturing: Miscalculation Can Have Severe Consequences
  • Rupturing: Passing Through the Portal is Disorienting
  • Rupturing: The Portal Can Link to Deadly Location
  • Rupturing: The Portal Doesn't Directly Affect Surroundings
  • Rupturing: The Portal Opens Loudly
  • Rupturing: Two Forms: "Chasing" and "Compression"
  • The Sundial: Carvings are The Data for Destinations
  • The Sundial: Learning the Names of Distant Places
  • The Sundial: Flat Round Plate with Gem in the Center

Loot:

1 dead Dolphin

Loss:

Nothing to Speak of

Injuries:

Nothing to speak of

Fame:-2

PC Witness to Act of Cruelty (Dolphin)

Comments:

I'm actually serious about the cruelty to dolphin/fame thing, especially since you specifically marked it as an intelligent animal. If, however, these things are only supposed to apply to acts involving humans, etc., I will recant my verdict.
My only complaint is the inappropriate use of the word "Sphere".
However, don't expect to wrack up this many knowledges in subsequent threads.
You always get the most when you first start something new.
The "Chasing" and "Compression" entries count as Rupturing knowledges of course.
PM me with any comments or concerns