[IC] The Magic Apprentice(s)

[RomanAria]

Anna heard her name called and shot to her feet from where she'd fallen when she'd been teleported. Her face, already pale enough, went bone white. "E-excuse me, s-sir... w-w-w-what d-d-d-did you s-say?" But she knew. And somehow he knew, and he'd called her out on it. Then she realized what he'd said about a few months. Oh, my gods. Alex must be dead. They must have killed my big brother because I was an idiot and I left him after he'd been the only one to protect me and he must have gone to his grave thinking I abandoned him. Of course she wouldn't say it out loud. Even though now everyone knew, or would know, how messed up her mind was, she wouldn't tell them. She wouldn't let herself look weak. And for whatever reason, she felt compelled to walk forwards, until she was standing just in front and to the left of the master. She curtsied to him, sinking until her knees touched the floor, then rose back to her feet. Not sure what else he wanted her to do, she forced her voice and hands to quit trembling, though she wasn't entirely successful at it. "Sir? What is it you would like me to do, that you called me forward for?"

[olcharlieboi]

he would look at her for a few moments before raising his finger infront of her face "...your emotional problems will be a trouble.. it could cause the death of you and your fellow apprentices by your powers going crazy because of you losing control... I took care of anything that could get in your way" he says with a slight grin "paid a nice visit to your family once they knew who I was they was bowing at my feet, afraid.. or at lest your idiotic brothers was" he laughs "your injured brother is just fine, in fact he should be recovering nicely... but so you don't start thinking... I may have to suppress your memories for your training... unless you can prove they wont get in the way" he says looking at her with a serious look.

[RomanAria]

Anna was so terribly startled at his comment that she looked up and met his eyes for a moment. She realized belatedly what he'd said about Alex, and her eyes filled with tears and she knelt and pressed her forehead to the ground. "Oh, thank you. Thank you thank you thank you, sir." When she'd gotten a hold of the outburst she met his eyes again; he would be able to see the pain in hers but also a steely resolve. "I'll keep it controlled. I promise. I will keep it controlled. I have to keep the memories; without them I wouldn't be me. I'd still be scarred and scared and just as emotionally fragile but I wouldn't know why, and that would be a worse torture than holding onto them and trying to keep them from biting me." Alex had taken her to see a hedgewitch once, to get her memories taken away. She'd gone into a psychotic episode once she'd glimpsed the scars on her neck and chest in the mirror, and she hadn't come out of it until Alex had tracked down the same hedgewitch and made her take the spell off.

[olcharlieboi]

he would raise an eyebrow "alright... then we'll begin with you... if you can show me you can handle the first part of the magical aspect of training without it exploding... then I will allow you to keep the memories of your brothers.. otherwise I will take them and replace them with suitable replacements" he chuckles, "Cup your hands infront of you, leaving a space between your hands and focus on it... allow energy to flow through your body and form into your hands.... I don't expect you to get it on the first try.... if you manage to get the energy to flow, try to shape it into a sphere between your hands.. but don't try to force it, if you do then it will fight you, you must allow it to flow as it wishes" he chuckles, "once I can see you start to do it.. and it doesn't explode or show signs of exploding then you can keep going as you are"

[RomanAria]

I will show him. Anna had previously had A LOT of practice at focusing on certain things. So she cupped her hands the way the master had shown her and focused on it. But nothing happened for a few seconds, and she almost gave up. Then it occurred to her to look inside. After all, the needles had poked holes in her body to let the magic in, so surely it must have been stored inside her. So instead she imagined like she was looking inside her hands, and found tiny streams of a pale blue-gray light. She poked one of them, and it poked her back. She tried to pull it up to the surface, but it just parted around her imaginary hands. Then she remembered the wizard's warning and let go and instead started a game of tag with it. This is insane. Am I really playing tag with a stream of magic? But she didn't realize she'd had the thought until afterwards, so intense was she on her task. She got the stream to chase her up up up into the wind and light, and when she realized that was what she'd done, she let go of it. Now she was back in her own body, holding onto a dancing line of magic. She wanted to draw it into a ball, so she once again focused on the stream of magic, no, this time she was inside the stream of magic, guiding it like she'd guided her pony some days-- no, no don't think about that. The stream wavered with her lack of concentration, and she pulled her mind back into it, into it, into it. There. Now she had control. She carefully started winding it around itself, twisting it and turning it, until she thought the stream knew what she wanted it to do, and she had a ball about the size of an apple. She returned to her normal eyesight to see a glowing pale blue ball about the size of a youth basketball cradled in her hands. She thought to the stream of magic, I think that's big enough. and it went back to flowing uninterrupted under her skin, so now she was cradling a stable ball of energy. That whole affair had taken her less than fifteen minutes. "Is that satisfactory, sir?" she asked the magician. Sweat was streaming down her face and she was swaying exhaustedly on her feet, but she still maintained control of the glowing ball. And then she remembered another question she wanted to ask. "Sir, the magic, it was responding to my slightest thoughts and feelings... Is it sentient? or is it just that finely attuned to me?"

[olcharlieboi]

he chuckles then laughs "...magic is in everything that lives and doesn't live.... each has it's own path it's own actions... some act more eradic than others, while some are easy to control... the magic within yourself is the easiest to learn though normally takes a while.. it took you simply two tries... you almost wavered at a moment.. but you have passed satisfactory... as you now can do this, you notice how drained you feel?" he asks with a raised eyebrow "longer you try to maintain magic the longer it takes a toll on your body.. because it's not prepared to use magic... you will have a training schedule from now on... from 8 A.M to 4 P.M I want you to do physical exercise... taking many laps in this canyon should suffice for now, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. I want you to train on your magic control, once you do these two enough you will be able to do this without batting an eyelash" he chuckles "what ever you do in the unnamed time frame is up to you" he chuckles "let the magic go so it can disperse then start on the physical exercise" he tells her "i'll be watching" he looks to the other apprentices "you all start working on channeling the magic like she just did"

[Eklispe]

Bristlebane had been watching the whole thing rather curiously, unfortunately he hadn't been able to pick up anything by watching, just a lot of intense looking concentration. Nevertheless he attempted to do as the Master ordered and put his hands together focusing on the space between it. For several seconds he felt very stupid and then thought about what Anna had done, she had seemed to lose focus on the space and instead concentrated on... nothing really. Bristlebane thought hard on this matter until he noticed a flicker of color at the edge of his vision, but as he turned to look at it he vanished. Cautiously he stared ahead focusing on nothing and the color appeared again. Slowly it stretched until it was clearly visible, now that he could get a good look at he could see it wasn't such much a color as a lack of one. As he looked at the color he slowly seemingly rose out of his body and looked down on it, now he could see the thread of void was emitting from a ball of it at the center of his body. Bristlebane tried to mentally grab it but it simply squirmed away from his invisible grasp, after several more useless swipes at it he decided he would have to change his tactics. With the brow of his mind furrowed in concentration he made a cage out of that invisible force he seemed to be able to control and wrapped it around the sphere. When he tried to jerk the cage forward he felt a sudden pulling sensation in his chest and he had to gasp for air and a glacial chill swept through his body forcing him to the ground and causing small flakes of frost to appear on his arms as he quickly put it back. Panting heavily and terrified of what he had just done Bristlebane considered the problem more carefully. Scared of the orb within himself he decided to make a more cautious attempt, although at this point he regarded touching the orb at all as risky. He made the cage again but this time wrapped bars around about a quarter of the sphere, as it moved away he once again felt the sudden chill rip through his body but it wasn't nearly as bad this time. Bristlebane dragged the cage between his hands and focusing on turning it into what he wanted. The tiny pebble sized ball of magic briefly formed into a small absence of color visible to the physical realm before vibrating uncontrollable and broke apart the energy smashing into his hands and leaving little burn marks. Bristlebane collapsed to the ground breathing heavily, his entire body shaking, and mentally cursing himself, he had barely done anything and he was already practically out of energy, at least he had learned how to look at his... magic would be the name for it. Taking a brief glance as he did he saw the orb hadn't regained the part of it that he had spent but as he looked a spindly thread of void wrapped itself around the sphere and it grew infinitesimally bigger. It seemed that this whole magic thing would be a whole lot hard than he thought it would be. "I'm sorry." he manged to get out, "I almost had it." he said his voice showing his utter disappointment in his inability to control it. Everything else had ever learned in life had come to him naturally with little to no effort, he wasn't prepared for this strange new experience

[RomanAria]

Anna nodded. She looked at her ball of energy. You can go float free now. Thank you for helping me. She was probably crazy for talking to it like it was a sentient being, but it seemed to understand, and dispersed to a glow and then faded entirely. But then she had another problem. "Excuse me, sir, but, um, my robe is a little too long to run in?" It trailed on the ground well behind her and would get tangled in her legs. She supposed could just fold it over and tuck the hem into her undergarments, but then it would be a little too short and anyway it would start to come undone the moment she started running.

[olcharlieboi]

he world look at bristle "like I said I don't expect it in one try... keep trying, if you have to take a break then do so.. I need to see the energy before you start physical training though" he says shaking his head then looks at anna then looks at the robe and touches the bottom of it, and raises his hand, the robe shortening, he stops his hand just below her knee, having shortened it to that far "that work better?" he asks Anna.

[RomanAria]

Anna nods appreciatively. "Yes, thank you, sir." But at the same time she's uncomfortable; there aren't many but there are enough scars on her legs for people to ask questions. And anyway, she's never worn skirts shorter than ankle length before. But she doesn't let it get to her and instead takes off running up the canyon. She's a fairly decent athlete, having spent much of her childhood climbing trees and running and swimming up rivers. But that's different than sprinting up a canyon in the heat of summer, and by her return lap she is panting. But she keeps running. She's learned to never quit, and once she gets used to the ache in her feet and ribcage she can go for hours.

[ShadowVentus]

Ven's face would go from having a look of confusion to then amazement at what Anna had managed to pull off in only two tries. "Nice one, Anna!" He remarked, giving her a thumbs up as a sign of his approval. Then, the Wizard turned to face him and the others, and stated that they would need to be able to channel their magic in a similar fashion before moving on to the physical training. "Alright. If she can do it, then I can do it too. I'm sure of it!" He says, seeming fired up more than ever at the prospect of finally being able to begin his training as a magic user. Having been watching what the master had instructed Anna to do, he mimicked how she had cupped her hands, holding them in front of him and leaving a small vacant space between them. Then, he began focusing on that one spot, essentially isolating his mind from the outside as he did so. At first, he got nothing out of it except for a small spark of energy. The second time, he concentrated even harder, the multiple streams of magic eventually becoming visible to him. The energy then began flowing from his hands and towards the space he had made, forming a small pool of magical energy. Picturing the image of a sphere in his mind, he let the magic runs its course, it spiraling in a wide arc in his hands until surely enough, he now had a sphere the size of a shot put ball resting in his hands. "Will this do?" He asked the Wizard, now seeming a bit tired, but otherwise alright.

[olcharlieboi]

The wizard would be surprised at their starting progress, he would look to Ven and look at the ball he made, he would reach over and flick the energy causing it to explode in a poof of smoke, unharming just smoke is all, and ven would suddenly feel a stronger drain on him than he did before "..unstable.. one simple move caused it to lose it's shape and release.." he shakes his head "though you did manage to do it so on to physical training with you" he would sit back at the rock... and put his hands out.. causing three spheres like the ones he wants them to make appears in his hands, and he just starts juggling them... able to move them, let go of them, and catch them, without the spheres even flickering from it's shape.

[ShadowVentus]

Ventus is caught off guard to see that despite the effort he put up to create the sphere, it simply collapsed from a simple flick of the Wizard's fingers, the sphere exploding in a puff of harmless smoke before his very eyes. If that hadn't been enough, he felt even more tired than he had been prior to the sphere's destruction. However, after hearing that he was able to advance to the physical training, Ven smiled, happy to be able to be on the same level as Anna, for now, at least. "Well, practice makes perfect. This is only the beginning of a long journey.." He states as he turns and begins running toward the canyon, it feeling good to be able to run out in the open after their apparent month's worth of rest indoors. He had yet to break a sweat, but he was panting only after the first lap. Regardless, he was determined to get as much out of today's training as possible, so Ven continued without hesitation.

[RomanAria]

Anna noticed Ven coming up beside her. Well, of course he would catch up, with his long legs. He was taking one stride for every three of hers! "Hi, Ven." She said a little breathlessly. "Having fun yet?" The wind was catching her hair and fanning it out behind her. It felt quite good, actually, even though running into a headwind was very annoying. It was also picking her skirt up a little, not much but... She felt the air on the tops of her knees and blushed. It was terribly indecent for a skirt to show the tops of a lady's knees! Still, it was a small price to pay for not tripping over it. Better to be indecent than to be tumbling down a cliff because of a too-long skirt.

[ShadowVentus]

"I am now." He responds, grinning at Anna as he speaks with her in between breathes. He kept a steady pace as he jogged, moving alongside her as if the two of them were going for a casual run in the park. "I see that he fixed your robe for you. It must be so much easier to move now!" He comments as he notices the decrease in the robe's length, deciding he may as well engage in a conversation while he can. Whether or not Ven notices the scars on Anna's legs is not apparent, for his main focus seems to be more on running and keeping eye contact with her to the best of his ability. "As for magic, I feel like I still have a long ways to go before what I can even conjure something stable..he was able to destroy my sphere by simply flicking it!" He says, explaining his experience regarding the first lesson they had regarding channeling magical energy.

[RomanAria]

"Indeed it is nice to not have my legs all tangled." Anna mumbled, privately wondering why Ven had been looking at her legs to start with. "I think he was being nice to me by not flicking my bubble or making it explode. I'm actually surprised I didn't inadvertently explode it myself! I almost did a couple of times. Now, I have a question. Did it seem like the bubble was listening to you? Because... I felt like it was actually thinking. I had to play tag with the streams of energy in order to be able to coax them to the surface. I know it seems crazy but it felt like I was playing tag and chasing them around." She giggled. It was quite fun, actually, just jogging along, chattering like the best of friends.

[Eklispe]

Bristlebane lay down still tired from the effort of attempting to conjure his ball of magic. He took a quick peek on his sphere of magic again and was pleasantly surprised to see that it seemed to be full, how he knew what "full" was he had no idea but knew it he did. He sat up and put his hands together again reaching for his magic again, it seemed what he grabbed before had been to small and had just winked out of existence. So this time he carefully wrapped the cage of force around about 3/4 of the sphere and slowly, carefully moved it out. As he expected the artic chill swept through his body again but he was getting used to it now. Ever so tediously he split the detached sphere into two parts and slowly moved them through his arms. The magic finally arrived at the destination and Bristlebane slowly brought it into existence, in flickered in and out of being and suddenly started shaking and vibrating like his last one, only this time it was getting bigger instead of smaller and Bristlebane desperately threw the ball of magic at the ground and it exploded pelting him with small rock shards and opening a crimson line on his cheek. Bristlebane collapsed to the ground again looking enviously at the Wizard as he juggled his balls of magic with ease and then at Anna who had completed it before any of them and then at Ven who had gotten it on his first try. He was barely able to resist the tears that yearned to spring to his eyes, partly from the pain of failure and partly from the pain of the cut on his cheek.

[olcharlieboi]

The master would look at Bristlebane "..your doing a very simple thing wrong.. your doing what I said not to do.. you must not force your power... if you do then it will not work, your risking your life each time you do this..." he stands up juggling them with one hand and walks over to him "look at your power, at your magic, tell me what does it look like... each have a different center... this is determined by who that are... and thus determines the type of magic..." he says to him "the major thing is to never force the power.. your simply grabbing at the power like it's a toy, bit idiotically"

[RomanAria]

On her return lap of the canyon, Anna saw Bristlebane sprawled out on his back, clearly having issues with the magic. She knelt beside him. "Hey, it's okay. It's really hard, I know. Oh, dear, you cut your cheek. Here, I'll help you with that. Don't get frustrated." She helped Bristle to sit up. She patted down her pockets to look for a sewing needle, only to remember that her sewing kit had been in her other dress that the master had taken. She thought about it. Maybe... Sewing with her magic couldn't be too hard. Certainly no harder than embroidery. She put her fingers on either side of the cut on Bristle's cheekbone and focused on them, looking inside for the little blue-gray threads. She found them easily and then lightly guided them out of her fingers and across the wound. They were reluctant to go into Bristle's skin, and more reluctant still to hold their form when she let go of them. After a few threads had broken she almost gave up, but then she thought of how sad and frustrated Bristle had looked. She resolved to do this one nice thing for him, no matter how hard it was. She willed the threads to take their shape again and hold them, no matter what. She made them think that it was their own idea all along, to make a net and hold it, and when she was sure they'd do what the wanted, she let the threads go. When she opened her eyes her body was laid out on the ground right beside Bristle's. Funny, she never remembered laying down. She looked at Bristle, at the cut on his cheek. Or rather, the scar on his cheek. It wasn't bleeding anymore. "Oh... my gosh... I did it?" She mumbled. Her arms and legs felt like lead, and now she had to get up and run again. "Oh, gods, I'm dizzy. Okay, um. Good luck with your magic. I'll see you a little later, okay?" Before the boy could respond, she hauled herself to her feet, grabbing onto a conveniently placed root for support, and stumbled off down the canyon in search of Ven.

[olcharlieboi]

The master would watch Anna "....well she just used you as a guine pig... trying to advance her magic before I told her to ever try anything like that." he says while thinking to himself '...if she had messed up she would of taken his entire face off... what was she thinking this early on...'