[IC] The Magic Apprentice(s)

[booksmusicanime]

Cas closed her eyes and focused on making a sphere which she made one much more easier than before.

[RomanAria]

Anna blushed furiously as Ven hugged her, and even more when the master pushed them apart. She made eye contact with Ven, winked at him, and then spun around to face the master. "Well, I've not yet lashed out at anyone, even with all my other troubles. I don't see how keeping my other emotions locked up will be any different than it is now." But rather than wait for a sharp reply, as she was bound to get, she focused on her cupped hands again. The magic came to the surface with only the slightest coaxing. As she drew it out, a dull pain flowed into her extremities, up her arms and legs. She ignored it, focusing on not only making a ball, but then shaping it into other things. She shaped it into a ghostly blue cube, a pyramid, a heart shape-- and then a white-hot burst of pain through her chest, she lost her concentration, and fell to the ground unconscious. She'd never realized just how tightly she was keeping her emotions wound, her thoughts and memories, to keep them from overwhelming her. Until, that is, she went unconscious and could no longer keep her mind clamped down so tight. The memories flooded her mind, and with them the terror and pain she'd tried to keep bottled up. If she hadn't just entirely drained her stores of energy, she probably would have hurt someone. But there was no strength left to lash out with. Aerin. Giggling, being tossed into the air. "Helping" cook dinner. Making ice cream and getting to lick the spatula. Singing two-part harmonies of lullabies. Then--crack, a scream, a shout of "No!" And blood. Blood spattering her blankets. Their blankets. And Alex crying and holding her against him so that she couldn't see the carnage. So that she couldn't see the dead body. "She's sleeping, Anna. She... she won't be able to play with you." Sleeping? Sleeping. She's just sleeping. But no she wasn't, and his voice cracked as he said it. "No, no, she's not sleeping, she's dead. She's dead. Aerin is dead." Aerin. Her big sister. She'd not lived to see eight years old. ~~~~ "Anna?" The soft voice came from right next to her. She flinched, as much as the bonds tying her to this rack would let her. "Anna, sweetie, it's okay, it's okay, we're going to get you out of here, okay?" "Let me die!" the cracked whisper came from her own throat. "Just let me die the way they killed Aerin. Just let me die here." "No, Anna. They don't want to kill you. They didn't want to kill Aerin. Death is too merciful in their minds." Tears on her cheeks. Hot, burning, stinging. Crimson tears on his white shirt. "Then kill me. Please. Please. I can't take this." "They'll let up if you're strong. If you show them that you won't break, they'll quit torturing you." "How would you know?" He hesitated. "It doesn't matter." He held a cup to her lips. Cool water. She drank a few sips, though her throat felt like it was on fire. "You've got to be strong, Anna. Be stronger than they are and they'll leave you alone. But if you even think about letting yourself fall apart, they'll see it, and they'll torture you until you can never put the pieces back together." "Why should I believe you?!" She meant it as a cry, but rather it came out as a piteous whimper. "Because I survived it too." He lifted his shirt. She couldn't comprehend it. Red scars crossing his back, his chest, burns on his arms and shoulders. A crash at the top of the stairs. "I have to go, now, or they'll find out I was here. I love you, Anna. Be strong, for me, and for Aerin." A kiss on her forehead. And then he left her to the darkness that wanted to swallow her up.

[Warlord297]

"Solomon are you ok"jack had said

[ShadowVentus]

Ventus takes on a surprised expression before he quickly catches Anna, saving her from any further injury. "...If this is what you meant..then I'll be sure to keep myself a fair distance." He says to the master, sounding rather serious about it. "However..this isn't going to change how I feel about her. I'm sure you knew that already." He states before gently picking her up and following after the other apprentices, carrying her towards the courtyard. Once he reaches his destination, he gently places Anna underneath of the shadiest trees he could find before walking back out into the open field and commencing round two of his magical training, repeating the same process he went through the first time around with his ball of energy, but this time putting more emphasis on keeping its spherical shape.

[Warlord297]

-as jack continues his exercise he is having trouble and asks for help-

[olcharlieboi]

@Eklispe @RomanAria @ShadowVentus @TheHangedMan @Warlord297 The master would watch the apprentices "That is what she gets" he says to Ventus "She tried to go to far to fast, she allowed her emotions to control her, and nearly killed herself, if she hadn't exhausted 99% of her own supply of energy then she would of nearly killed a fellow apprentice as well" he shakes his head I don't care if you care for each other, I just don't want it to advance and I don't want it to interfere with training" he states "this is not a place for such things" he would look to Jack "if you had done it before it shouldn't be any trouble creating the Sphere again" He then would look to Solomon "...This is what you get when being weak" he states without any mercy "this wont interfere with your training, take only a short break if you need to then continue with your magic training" he would look to the entire group "Your practicing on keeping the sphere, this is the same concept as doing the run, if you keep doing something eventually your 'muscles' will rebuild themselves stronger.. well in this case your working on your magic muscles, your energy supply" he states "Eventually you will be able to do this for over 20 years constant, not that you need to for my training.. yet anyways" he Grins "if you can hold the sphere for a week without it dispersing or anything, then you will have passed this section of training" "O ya I forgot to mention, this was an Easy day as well!" he says his grin forming bigger "Tomorrow the training will be more harsh"

[TheHangedMan]

Solomon shook his head. "Don't . . huff . . . need rest. Can . . . keep going," he said, resting on his knees. He got up and repeated the exercise again. This much was nothing, he told himself. He could do this - ha had to do more than this, so he kept running.

[Warlord297]

"o alright then i'll try again master" -as jack keeps tryin to make the he finally makes it, a perfect sphere still in hold- "Master i-i-i did it:D"

[RomanAria]

As suddenly as Anna's consciousness had left her, it now came back, and she sat bolt upright, looking around her in a panic. Instantly the blood rushed to her head and she tipped over again, and sat back up (far more slowly). She didn't exactly know how she'd gotten under the tree in the first place, or what had made her pass out-- Oh. Right. You idiot, Anna, using up your energy so fast. And then she remembered what she'd seen in her own memories. She'd pushed them down for so long that she'd almost forgotten them, but now... I couldn't remember, because it was so painful. I didn't remember my own big sister, and no one ever reminded me. It's like when she died... When she was murdered, the memory of her was buried too. But I'll remember. For you, Aerin, I'll remember, and when I have a chance to avenge your suffering, I will, or I will die trying. She rose to her feet, leaning on the tree quite heavily. She had to catch her breath for a moment, as a little ghost of pain seized her muscles, a reminder of what she'd been trying to forget. Which meant... She'd done this before without any magic training, to keep herself from totally losing her sanity: She imagined that her memories were like a filing cabinet, and the bottom-most drawer was where she kept the bad ones. Well, the bottom drawer was wide open, and the memories were scattered around her head. So she took a few seconds and literally grabbed the memories and shoved them back into their filing cabinet, which she then put a mental padlock on. Terribly silly, yes, but the visualization helped her keep it under control. She stumbled away from the tree and back out into the sun to rejoin the other apprentices. Only when a breeze touched her face and her cheeks got cold did she realize she was crying. She wiped her face on her sleeve, forced a tiny smile onto her lips, and ducked under Ven's arm so that she could get into the circle that the apprentices had formed.

[Eklispe]

Bristlebane's face fell at the masters words. They were supposed to be able to hold this for a full week, and they were still on the easy stuff? There must be a trick to it, perhaps there was a way he could, tie off the magic. If he could make it so the sphere existed by itself then he would just have to "feed" it magic from time to time. He had glanced at Anna when she had gone on her spree of magic use and had learned a bit from watching how she quickly moved the threads. Bristlebane thought with a little work he could find a way to make the magic exist on its own. Carefully he coaxed the threads of magic around looping them around each other gently, then he let it go. The threads were suddenly pulled on as if the world was trying to drain it away and the threads slammed shut tying into a complicated knot. He grinned, knowing knots did come in handy, it looked like the sphere could sustain itself now without him having to focus on it. However as he watched a drip of magic managed to escape the intricate knot, it seemed it wouldn't last forever but the rate of decay would be much lower. He pumped the sphere full of almost of all his magic, the chill that came with it was almost normal now. Bristlebane sat on the ground breathing heavily, he now had a sphere about the size of a baseball that could keep its shape without his constant attention. "Hey, I think i figured it out." he said proudly. Normally there was no way they could hold a sphere for a week because it would vanish when you went to sleep, but this way if you could give it enough magic to survive the nights you could keep it up forever theoretically.

[booksmusicanime]

"Fun." Cas mumbled sarcastically. She stared at the sphere she had formed. "One week huh? Challenge accepted." She mumbled with a small grin.

[olcharlieboi]

@ShadowVentus @RomanAria @Eklispe @TheHangedMan @Warlord297 @booksmusicanime The master would nod at some then look to Bristlebane and shakes his head and reachs towards his sphere "..your thinking wrong" he says and makes his hand as if his going to flick the sphere "..if I barely tap this.. it will explode..." he says "You must rely on your magic and your magic alone.. by doing what you are then you are not flexing your own magic muscles and it makes the training I want you to do useless" he states "..do you understand?" he would await for an answer before simply walking away "make sure to dispel it and try again" he turns towards them when he has distance. "you can control your energy.. even while you sleep but you must train!" "i'll show you all an example of what you can do with your OWN energy.. when you reach the point I have.. actually some time before but enough about that.. it's called Control.... Then transmutation.." he states as suddenly they see blue energy coming off him.. off of ever part of his body.. just like it does for when they make the spheres except its around his entire body... then the energy starts to get rough on the ends.. as it starts to turn red.. as the energy seems to get more wild "...by controlling my own magic.. I can change it to a different kind.. mine is the calm kind.. but with enough training I can turn it into the wild hard to control energy as it is now.... then I can do this.." he says as the energy starts to generate heat.. and suddenly he is covered in flames, his entire body seeming to be on fire.

[booksmusicanime]

"Whoa." Cas said raising her eyes wide. That was really cool. She thought smiling slightly.

[Warlord297]

"awesomeeee"he can see the wonders of magic through heart and the power of the masters magic.

[Eklispe]

Bristlebane frowned, of crouse the objective was to train thier magic "muscle" so to speak. It was amazing that he said eventully they would be able to control energy even in their sleep. Then he watched in awe as the Master ignited himself. Freshly determinded to become stronger Bristlebane tore the threads that held his sphere apart and tried again making a baseball size sphere that was only a little wobbly in shape and concentrated fericously on it.

[RomanAria]

Anna gasped at the master being covered in fire. "Oh my gods, stop burning yourself!" She shouted. But then she turned to the task at hand and looked, a little shakily, for her own magic. Her threads of magic were almost gone, but even as she watched they were slowly regrowing. Carefully, she reached into herself and beckoned the threads out, pulling them into a ball. The ache in her chest returned, more intensely than before. When she thought she didn't dare risk gathering any more threads, she willed them to hold their shape, and took the opportunity to glance at how big her sphere was. It was holding it's shape perfectly, though it was only the size of a golf ball. She held it out and settled on the ground to wait. Also to prevent herself from later falling over; Her vision was already swimming and it felt almost like she couldn't breathe.

[Warlord297]

-as jack begins to make a sphere of magic and begins summoning up magic by the heart but doing so nearly killed him-the hearted magic is used by memories by as jacks memories are so very bad and very less good, as jack remembered his parents during the great war the sphere begins grow and jack doesn't notice it-it keeps growing until jack is inside it-and then jack lets go of the sphere but yet the sphere is still active-then jack begins to cry as anger and emotions take over him and the the sphere suddenly explodes- -jack goes unconscious and he lays there on the ground knocked-out-

[RomanAria]

(oh, my god, everyone is emotionally falling apart.) Anna winced as the boy fainted. Her vision was definitely fading, now, but she didn't care, her selfless instinct kicking in entirely. She held the sphere with one part of her mind and carefully dropped her hands to her sides. The sphere held, miraculously. She cautiously approached Jack. "Hey? Are you alright?" Probably the same thing that had caused her breakdown had caused his, a flood of memories. "I know it hurts, doesn't it, and the memories just don't go away. You poor thing. Come on, let's get you sitting up, I'll try to find a drink of water that you can have. Do you want to talk about it?" He probably wasn't conscious yet, but a soothing voice always did wonders to calm an over-active mind. Her sphere, previously doing well on it's own, fizzled out with a sharp agony shooting through her body; she gasped and went limp for a moment until she could get air back into her lungs. She still couldn't see, but her energy was no longer actively draining. "Come on, let's wake up, now. We've got to keep trying, right? Don't ever give up." It sparked a bittersweet memory for her, and she started singing, softly, under her breath. "Do you ever stop and ask yourself why? Why do you try, why do you fight, why do you even care? But I've got news for you, you can't give up because I'll always be there. For you." A song she and her sister had written-- Nope. Not thinking about it. Just enjoy the music, Anna. You can't see, otherwise everyone would be looking at you like you were crazy, so just enjoy the music.

[ShadowVentus]

@RomanAria Ventus, having surprised himself by lasting so long with his sphere, finally begins feeling a sharp, intense pain from his chest, egging him on into deciding that it was time for a break. He quickly dispersed his sphere, allowing himself to drop to his knees, panting with exhaustion. He was seeing spots in his vision as he remained there, supporting himself with his hands at the moment. It didn't take very long for him to catch his breath, so he was able to return to his feet, albeit a wobbly approach. Seeing Anna now awake and on the move brought a tired smile to his face, happy to see her doing a bit better than she was before. He walks over to her, moving at a somewhat leisurely pace in order to further preserve what little energy he has left. "Hey..how're you holding up?" He asked her whenever he got into range of her hearing. Of course, seeing how she was currently on her knees like he had only been rather briefly, he couldn't but worry about her.

[booksmusicanime]

Cas took a seat on the ground and put her hands in front of her and focused pulling at her threads of magic and forming a new sphere. Her eyes watched as her sphere took a perfect round shape.