A King's Next Step [Training Thread]

Frustration filled the literal fibers that composed Menat’s physical being as she sat, eyes focused intently on the tuning fork gripped between the bound and coiled vined that now acted as her fingers. The small metal object, unremarkable to any that’d take a single glance at it, was by far her most powerful object in her possession to date. Yet that power remained locked within the small two-pronged metal shell. Sure she had learned one or two tricks with it by now but that was nothing, more akin to accessing excess power escaping through cracks of the door that hid away the true source from her reaches. She sighed, falling back onto the floor of the palace training area in an exhausted manner unbecoming to the nation’s princess.

Magic and Magoi were still new to her. Things she didn’t understand how to fully access let alone control and manipulate. She was so used to relying on her skill and raw natural abilities, the strength and speed that the crimson haired Faunus she descended from were infamous for. Since obtaining her new flora based form she had lost those natural gifts she took for granted. Her mother hand given her lessons of what her new form was capable of, of course, given that she had dealt with creatures of Menat’s new nature and the very fact that she held command over a Djinn who allowed her to manipulate plants as well. But that had been it. Lessons of what sort of things her daughter was now capable of.

“I need someone who knows about Magoi.” She’d mutter to herself, the green glow of her eyes fading slightly as she softened her expression to one that would come across more expended. “I wish Merlin was back already. All that fancy book learnin momma got him and all his fancy magic are exactly what I need.”

WC: 313/2,000

@Merlin

In the Garden of Meridia, at the heart of the palace, a long-awaited reunion was on the horizon. The grand home of the Firdaus family had grown to be rather raucous in some days with all of the siblings, but it still felt vacant in the absence of Merrze's life. The Empress had always brought upon a joy that was unrivaled, but she was not here. The Fanalis mother was conversing with the people of her nation, with the cultural council to discuss her victory over Amy. While she was in business, the eldest son would be returning. To recover and lick the wounds he had held in that dungeon. To heal from the trauma he had absorbed, to come to terms with the mind inside his own that now existed.

The young prince wanted a moment to breathe, just a small reprieve from the world around him. He had seen beauty, he had seen unyielding terror before his very eyes. The death of an emptied soul, of a body, burned thousand times over. The pain still existed, residing in his heart, tapping at the back of his mind. The time anything became too much, too much for him to handle Triton would take over. It was something he was only now realizing existed, taking hold in the scape of his subconscious. It was an uncomfortable change but the young man had to adapt.

If there was one thing that could always calm his heart, it was the gardens of his home. The array of fauna his mother had cultivated. It had grown larger every year, to some, it was a veritable jungle but that showed how vibrant life was here, how much it could grow with the right love and care. Being at the beating heart of a jungle capital was weird, but they were flourishing they were growing. Yet the young prince could not help but feel as if he was stagnating as if the world around him was growing as he still lived in memories of a past that was more of an illusion than it was clear pictures. Before he could get lost in the thought, the rukh around seemed to be dancing.

It guided him to a familiar figure, it danced the birds fluttering as the commands of fate were beginning to quake. They lead him, to his elder sister the Spriggan Menat. It had been some time now since they had last seen one another. For him, he looked gaunt, the pain he had experienced still on his face. He was elated to see Menat, she was always kind to him and they looked after the young ones together. They were the most responsible, but he felt as if he could bear no more of a burden.

"Well it's good to see not everyone is gone, I heard Merzan even is thinking about training with the guard. I hope they didn't push too much on you while I and mom were gone." he spoke while approaching. He was happy for his sister, he was supposed to be leaving for Magnostadt but after his recent experience, he needed to rest.

While the siblings weren't far in age, she had been blessed by magic at a youth. She grew quicker than the other kids, she had seen more, fought against more. Menat had likely seen horrors while he was still reading his books to the babes. He admired her, was this the world she had experienced? "I"m impressed you went to one of those worlds, that you saw such beauty. I do not know what your dungeon held, but the fact you stand there with that power amazes me. I see the magic seems to be having some trouble arising though?"

There was a slight smirk on his face, playing with his family was the one joy he had left. He was no longer the same magician he was before.

WC: 666

Menat felt a sudden rush as whatever counted as her new heart seemed to speed up at the voice. She practically rolled back to her feet as she was addressed by the eldest of her younger siblings, the very one she had been lamenting the lack of accessibility to while he was off with their mother. Rushing her brother she threw her arms around her sibling, pulling him in tight against her firm bark in the warmest hug a plant could possibly muster. “Merlin!”

She didn’t realize she felt such tension and worry over her brother’s departure from Meridia until she was holding him in her arms like this. She knew it was a dumb concern as their mother had brought him with her so she had to have had kept him protected. Right? It didn’t much matter she supposed. Merlin was pretty much standing here in her arms after all so it couldn’t have ended up being too bad. She wasn’t sure what had happened to the duo while they were off in their dungeon but she could only hope it had gone as smoothly as Ipos had for her. Like she always did Menat simply chose to ignore her brother’s high praises and awe of how she had claimed her dungeon, a new layer of respect and understanding seemingly there this time however.

“Never mind me and my issues. Tell me about you! How did your trip with mom go? Did she keep you safe? Are you okay?” The motherly aspect of Menat’s persona that had all those years of looking after her younger siblings in their mother’s stead was in full effect as she broke her hug and placed Merlin at arms length so she could examine him physically for any signs of injuries. When she deemed him visibly acceptable she pulled him back into one more hug. She had been lamenting her brother’s departure for the fact that he was the best person to help her unlock the secrets of her djinn’s vessel, aside from their mother, but she also just generally missed her family members when they were away. The same went for when she herself was away from her siblings and not when they were away from her.

WC: 374
TWC: 686/2,000

"Mom kept me safe, nothing actually happened to me besides illusions or so that's all I can tell. In the Dungeon of Amy, I saw something so beautiful and amazing but, the first two doors were doors of death. As we transported between worlds we saw, that each time mom had felt the pain while for me and Jason we were quick in their fury." Merlin was quick to explain, the emotion of it all barely held back by had smooth demeanor. He didn't want to go through the thought again, but he had to explain it to his sister. She had to know, the truth, the horror that had happened.

"In a room, she referred to as the midway, we met an interloper. A man from some strange group of obsession had told us of his death. Mom had told him of how she had seen death, how she was not afraid for she had been to heaven. He didn't like how she saw it, how she didn't love it, he wanted to test her. He had caught us in a magical trap, paralyzing us all while would use intense illusions on, They had to have been real with how her body reacted, he killed her countless times, bringing her back to experience some new form of death. Once his game was done, well mom didn't give him a chance to get to us next."

Merlin stared on, he wasn't sure how to go from there, to explain the beauty, how he had seen some sense of hope. "Something changed about me in there, I'm not sure about it but I still need to figure it out. I think I'm becoming two people or maybe something I don't understand quite yet. There wasn't any horror after that, we had traveled to a fallen city. A replica of the djinn's home in what he said is now an underground bunker. We had met a giant crab who was friendly which shocked me more than anything. Mom told the story of us, of our home, and the pride she had in us. How she saw us as the ones who would shape the world to come. It was a beautiful story, I think she missed you more than anyone. Don't tell the babies I'm sure they'd be sad to hear that."

He joked a little trying to ease the tension somewhat. How was he to talk about the goat child he had to raise now too?

The phantom sensation of Menat’s stomach dropping hit the girl as if she still had one. She listened to what had happened to her brother while off on his adventure with their mother. She knew it. She should have said something about how a dungeon wasn’t the place that he should have had his first adventure in. Even she had gone off to other places such as Kina before facing Ipos and even then she had gotten lucky with her own adventure through the dungeon. Instead all she could do was pull him back into her embrace, her arms radiating comfort for her sibling.

“You shouldn’t have had to deal with that Merlin. I’m sorry mom dragged you along with her into that nightmare, you didn’t deserve to be tortured like that.” Her hand came up to brush the boy’s hair from behind as if he were her actual child. “We don’t need to talk about it anymore. Or even ever again if you don’t want to.” Several minutes pass with Menat still comforting her brother before she released him once more. “But I want you to remember this. You’re my amazing little brother Merlin and there’s only one of you, regardless of what happened to you in that dungeon.”

If her face were still that of the one she had grown up wearing it would have been nothing more than an encouraging, soft smile to brother. Instead with the blank mask of bark and sockets filled with glowing green light all she could do was bath him with a soft, warm light from her “eyes”. “Anyway! It’s a good thing you showed up when you did. I was actually just thinking about how I could really use your help while I figure out how to draw out more of Ipos’s power from her vessel. You’re the smartest magician I know after all.”

WC: 313
TWC: 999/2000

"I appreciate the praise sister but how many magicians do you talk to?" He would say joking with his sister. He didn't regret going into the dungeon, but he should've experienced more for sure. He was more of a bookworm than he was a fighter, it only spurred his desire to leave home for strength quicker. The boy had no desire to leave his family, to leave his sister behind after they were just now seeing each other once again. This challenge, this task to help her was exactly what he needed to take a break before even bigger things came. He would look at the rukh around her, it was frantic with power but the direction was lacking.

"The rukh around you is gathering, its rustling around but it seems like it's lacking direction. I know magic isn't your strong suit, but you have practiced magoi manipulation yes? You should have some handling of that from what I know. From what mother taught us, from what I've seen from her own usages of a djinn is that you put your magoi into the vessel, then you try to expand it from there. The magic itself seems to stick, to become one with yours, after that it's like using a magic tool. Or, that's what I seem to make of it. For now, just try and imbue as much of your magoi into the vessel. Try and will it to take shape, to take form. Even if you don't know the shape it's meant to be. Just will it to take form, for that power to be in your hand for you to use."

That was the best explanation he could offer for now. He wasn't a strong magician, he could only use one type of magic at the moment. He learned he examined, his uniqueness was in the way he saw the world. It was time he started nurturing those skills he thought.

“Hey now, just cause I don’t talk to a lot of Magicians doesn’t mean I haven’t encountered my fair share in my own adventures.” Her eyes would glow warmer and softer as she gave her brother yet another of her unique smiles. ‘Magoi Manipulation’? Menat wondered to herself as she started to focus on what he had explained to her about using Rukh. She didn’t want to question it out loud as she didn’t need to actually let Merlin know that she hadn’t actually been told about it, let alone gotten any kind of training or education on the subject. But she supposed it was a clear enough to warrant an attempt at what Merlin had explained.

Producing the ornate yet otherwise average tuning fork that had become the metal vessel for Ipos she attempted to focus on it. The problem becoming clear to her. She really had no idea how to manipulate the Rukh like Merlin had explained. She continued to stare at the object in her hand, trying to will some kind of magic essence she was unfamiliar with into the hunk of metal. Yet nothing seemed to happen. The Meridian Princess would simply sigh, her hand closing around the tuning fork once again as she yet again put a halt on her attempts and turning her attention back to her brother. “You said something about how I need to “direct the Rukh” right? Then I guess we need to start with “How do I direct the Rukh”?”

Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly as she asked her brother. “I…” She didn’t want to admit it, especially when Merlin seemed to think she was already some kind of awesome person who knew what Magoi manipulation was and how to go about actually doing it, and she didn’t want to give her brother something else that could affect his already damaged psyche after his trip to the dungeon with their mother. Her fist would tighten around the vessel, enough that one or two of the smaller vines that comprised the coils of her exposed palms would be severed by the sharp and angled edges of the musical tool. She’d instead shake her head, turning her gaze to meet Merlin’s eyes with an intensity fueling the glow of her eye sockets. “I got this. Don’t worry about this. I got this.”

The determination in her voice echoed off the bark that covered her head and replaced her face. A fact that might have actually helped her further embolden herself. Opening her hand back up she would begin to focus back on the piece of crafted metal. Her breathing would slow down to a relaxed pace, the lights that acted as her eyes fading to a soft, dim glow as she tried to “close” them. She wasn’t as lucky as Merlin was, to be able to see the Rukh like he was able to, but she figured something that she hadn’t first realized before speaking to her brother about the subject. Just because she couldn’t see it didn’t mean the Rukh wasn’t doing what he said it was. He mentioned it was gathering around her since it was lacking in direction.

If she couldn’t command the Rukh the way Merlin was able to then perhaps she needed to take a softer approach. She wasn’t sure what the Rukh looked like to Magicians like her brother so the visualization of the substance in her mind was likely to be wrong but it was the best she could do. She pictured things that could visibly work with the mention of gathering around her. Rain? No. It made for a beautiful image, to have rain falling all over her, but it didn’t meet her concept of “gathering”. Snow? Not quite. Still beautiful, maybe even more so. Flow petals. That felt right to the Spriggan. The mental image of small, pink and white flower petals flowing around her in a soft breeze was gentle and amazing for the young Princess to imagine. She would take the mental image a step further, directing the petals in her vision to move from the swirling column they were forming around her into the tuning fork in her open palm. Several trails of the petals would break away from the swirling mass and flow from different directions to meet at the metal vessel in her hand. Vanishing into it as opposed to simply stopping and piling on to it and overflowing from her hand.

The mental image of Menat’s self simply looked at the stream of flowers flowing into the tuning fork in her palm. She seemed to look through the object to the literal soul residing within it. “Ipos. I’m not sure if I’m doing this right but I’d like to ask you for your help again. My brother says I need to give the Rukh shape so please, show me what form our vessel should take.”

The physical, actual Menat remained before Merlin, silent and in an otherwise dormant state. The lights acting as her eyes began to shine insanely bright as she broke her mental image. She wasn’t sure if she had done what she was supposed to or if it had been Ipos offering her the help Menat had requested but the Scarlet Spriggan saw a blatant difference from before she began trying to imagine directing the Rukh. The small tuning fork had disappeared from her palm. Now held firmly in her hand was the shaft of what would at first appear to be an elegant golden staff. The shaft a deep, elegant blue color that sparkled as brightly as the actual gold that made the otherwise simply designed item.

If Menat was able to smile she’d have her entire face covered in one of pure happiness and excitement at the sight before her. Careful to avoid hitting him she threw herself at Merlin once more, embracing him in her excitement. “This is amazing Merlin! Thank you so, so much little brother!” She practically sang to him. A second or two passed before she released him once more. “I think this settles it. I want to make a request of you Merlin. I want you to be the first member of my household and my personal adviser. I can’t think of anyone better for the job than you and this just proves it!”

WC: 1,058
TWC: 2,057 / 2,000 COMPLETE