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The Iktiyar Looms Closer [Training ; Solo]

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Asha

Asha
β-Tier
β-Tier

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, for Asha, while a far more competent student, also had to tack on the extra work she 'opted out of,' in order to catch up so that she would not fail her Iktiyar. Generally speaking, the Iktiyar was quite the difficult exam, and there was no way that Asha would fail and eventually be expelled from Magnostadt with no money, no home, and no people to mooch off of while she reevaluated her life and started a new one. Of course, this meant starting to actually train spells and become a better magician instead of slack off and utilize the ones that just came naturally to her. As a start, Asha thought she would built on the spells she knew and modify them, so that they would be increased in power and somewhat more useful in single combat, rather than just rely on the skills of others. She saw just how particularly useless she was on her stint with Noir, and she wanted to rectify that, as if she could barely survive with a partner, there's no way she'd make it on her own.

To begin, she thought she'd try and do some clever fine-tuning to a healing spell in order to make it more powerful. Pouring over books and asking teachers for advice proved not very useful, as they all said the same things: "with great practice comes great power," blah blah it was all the same to her. Instead, she might as well try different variations and commands for the rukh to do some flashy magic techniques instead of trying the old fashioned way--that's not really how Asha learned. Asha proceeded to cast her healing spells, and one after another it all came out the same, and all came out disappointingly for Asha--nothing new, all the same, she was not improving AT ALL. She thought of everything--expanding the range of the spell, focusing it in multiple directions, creating a medium to do some flashy magic thing so that magoi would heal another's wounds at different 'waypoints' so to speak, but nothing seemed to click. After a full day's worth of frustration, she decided to sit in the town square and relax, watching the city fountains spout water until Asha decided to return to her room and sleep.

That night, Asha tossed in her sleep, very disgruntled with how her training of her spell was coming along, and it gnawed at her very core until, in deep sleep, she immediately awoke and shouted "Eureka!" in delight. Wasting no time, and ignoring curfew, she rushed out into the city with her staff, still half asleep in her night-wear as she gracefully ran (read: stumbled) to the town square. Taking inspiration from fountains, and how the water spouts out to hit a wide area, and not just focusing on one thing, she released the magoi without concentrating on some focal point, but instead just into the atmosphere:

Quah Tgndid Ms'ny!" She shouted, watching in amazement as a faint, purple light filled the area and rejuvenated Asha with warm delight. There! She managed to create a new spell, and just like that, Asha walked confidently back to her bed, and laid down to sleep--until she realized she wasn't that tired and tossed and turned again in bed until morning time.

WC: 564/500




The next day, Asha awoke to very bright sunlight and the stark realization that she was, once again, late to her first class. In an impressive rush of speed and daring shortcuts throughout school, she managed to sneak into class, late, undetected by her professors (by very much noticed by her peers) as she huffed and puffed and tried to regain her breath as she took out all her materials to take notes in class. From what little she actually retained, and was able to write down, she learned much about "finesse" and "form," whatever that had anything to do with magic. Today marked the third day in her physically intensive and time intensive training before the Iktiyar so that she may pass and move on to the 2nd Kodor. While she didn't quite know the hard statistics behind how many people fail and how many people pass, Asha didn't want to risk being one of 'those people' that can't continue on with their magic training because they were "too lazy," or "too stupid," or "too caught up in writing in her silly little journal that she can't focus on anything, seriously that stupid journal is childish and..." Despite having a rough start with the Old Slumbering Sage, Asha really took a liking to him, even when his attitude is quite crude and very critical of Asha's extracurricular activities and hobbies. She thought it would be more prudent to train higher level spells with him, as he was far more adept at magic than she was, and could probably give her a much more relateable lesson in "how to use stronger magic" than her by the book, stiff professors could.

"Hyah!" Asha shouted, releasing a very familiar vine doing a very familiar tactic, in a very familiar setting, in which the old man used a very familiar hand motion to burn the vine, again, which was, indeed, very familiar to Asha.

"You're focusing too much on the spell itself. Let it come naturally--magic isn't forced, it's felt. Again." He said, readying his stance again hopeful that Asha would actually improve this time. She repeated the same motions, this time without a thought in the world, and swirled around, bringing her staff with her and feeling the magic radiate through her body, and through her staff, to reveal nothing. Absolutely nothing. She made a flower sprout from her staff and that was it.

"IS THIS FOR REAL? THAT WAS THE WORST ADVICE YOU'VE EVER GIVEN YOU STUPID GEEZER ARE YOU EVEN SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!?" She yelled, raising her fist in disbelief and having thoughts of throttling the old man with her fist and staff while summoning a vine to help her out in her endeavor. Yet, the old man only chuckled, raised up his hat and spoke very calmly in response.

"Free your mind, yes, but think about the magic in its own terms, not how you want it to appear. Otherwise, it will be the same as the first spell you cast when you 'felt' magic. Listen to the rukh, my dear! They are the real teachers here, I am merely your punching bag." He flashed a very stupid smirk and it enraged Asha just a little, but taking his slightly condescending advice, Asha held her staff firmly in front of her body, listening to the whispers of the rukh as she focused more and more energy, until, as if by some trance, Asha pointed at the old man and shouted the name of her new spell very confidently--

"Quah Alsif Krmah!" Two vines erupted from the ground, and with impressive speed rushed the old man, ready to puncture his skin with all their might until he released his borg, blocking the vines and having them fall to the ground. While she wished she could knock him around a little, she was so ecstatic to have learned a new spell that she ran up and hugged the old man. Stunning him, just a bit, he reciprocated the hug, and patted her on the head.

"Good job for today. Tomorrow then!" He said abruptly, ending the hug and walking down to his carriage, "Go to class!"

WC: 696/500




Today marked the fourth day of cramming all her training for Iktiyar just soon before she entered! Having little inspiration and motivation to continue, she half-heartedly continued her studies, not really improving or doing worse, just going through the motions as the hours went by. Classes were fine--all the buzzwords kept re-appearing: "form," "finesse," "feeling"--the three f's of magic. Asha could think of a few more f-words to go along with magic, but decided to keep her anger and frustration to herself as she passively attended her classes for the day. Asha roamed the Plains for a while, hoping the old man would be around, but he seemed to be missing from his house, or his random appearances over the Plains just offering his unsolicited but sage advice to Asha that usually helps her out in a pinch. Feeling uninspired to train on her own, Asha decided to hit the very limited library open to 3rd Kodor students to get some supplementary material. She came across a book, A Beginner's Guide to Becoming a Better Magician by some old guy whose name she really didn't care to remember, and started to read the book, starting with its first chapter: "Focus." Another "f" of magic, but still, it was better than thumping around and failing to get anywhere with improving her abilities. As if the book was written just recently, all of the reading, the chapters, even the messages the book seemed to send all seemed pointed toward Asha's self-proclaimed intensive training. Of the many things Asha adored about the novel, what piqued her interest most was that it told her to "relax" and "enjoy life a little" because "cramming knowledge into a short block of time is the easiest way to fail the Iktiyar." Taking no time in not following very specific instructions from what she could only assume was an award winning and critically acclaimed book on becoming a better magician, she slammed shut the book and fled outside to the Plains, hoping to feel the air on her face and the grass beneath her boots as she enjoyed the good outdoors and the landscape the area had to offer.

Like clockwork, the old man watched on as she made a complete fool of herself, but enjoying herself as she embraced her free time just a little too dramatically. He meandered over to her, waving his arm up to get her attention.

"Asha! Have you been keeping up with your studies?" He asked, all the while maintaining an all-knowing and sneaky grin. Asha ignored his usual facial expressions and just responded normally, a lot calmer than normal.

"Well, you know I've been doing so well I think that I thought I could use a little break? Just unwind and come back to it when my mind is clear you know?" She replied, playfully waving her staff around and walking toward the old man. He nodded and came closer, offering his 'sage' advice once again.

"Well, I see that your mind is clear now. Let us begin the next spell! Come! Lay one on me!" He said, with a dumbfounded look on his face as he immediately realized what he said, "NOT IN THAT WAY I ASSURE YOU. A SPELL. CAST A SPELL AT ME." Asha giggled, and after focusing on the task at hand, she began to listen to the rukh, just as she had for the previous spell she learned. This came a bit naturally to her, and the rukh's words came a bit clearer to her. Pointing her staff at the ground, a wave of energy rushed through her and focused more, keeping her staff firmly pointed at the ground until Asha could finally understand what the rukh were communicating indefinitely. It seems clearly her mind seemed more beneficial to her training than ever, and with noble finesse, raised her staff from the ground, pulling out two long branches adorned with menacing spikes from the ground--

"Quah Alsif Zxrah! Take THAT!" She yelled, released the thorny branches at the old man, which he, once again, effortlessly deflected the spell with his borg. He smiled at her after completing the spell.

"Excellent job Asha! We'll continue this tomorrow!" He said, and scurried away again just as Asha was about to thank him.

WC: 707/500




Only a few more days left until her Iktiyar! The nerves started to weigh on Asha as she adopted more and more nervous ticks, including, but not limited to: biting her nails, eyes randomly twitching, waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, occasionally walking into walls, and accidentally snapping her writing utensils while writing down notes in class. While she felt incredibly prepared, and possibly quite ready to take her Iktiyar, she still felt she lacked that quintessential "oomph" needed to be taken notice of and have people think "wow, she's got star power!" She scoured around the library for any help on "amazing spells" or anything to give her the edge, whatever it was, and in whatever context in meant, as she was nervous she wanted to be prepared for anything. She hadn't seen the old man in a while, despite offering to visit him, just because she's been so busy with studying and keeping up with her classes. Having realized she hit a pretty impressive wall in her training, she decided she would swing on by to the old man's carriage out on the Plains and ask for some advice, or even just have some friendly conversation to take her mind off of things.

Asha arrived at The Plains, only to find the old man and his carriage quite close to the Magnostadt grounds. Upon seeing Asha, he jumped up abrupty, a small look of glee appearing across his face before he adopted his stern demeanor and rushed over to Asha, which probably meant he was going to scold her for whatever reason.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been! Do the words "Yes, I will see you tomorrow" mean the complete opposite in your language you imbecile!" Asha could tell by his tone that he was worried, and she consoled him and explained her absence, and after much explanation the old man retreated back to sitting down by his carriage and he resumed his agreeable, aloof behavior, "Well. If you were so nervous you should've seen me anyways. I can help, you know, I have helped you already." Asha nodded in agreement and sat down next to the old man, spreading her body out and stretching to make her body less tense.

"I feel...ready? I really do. But I feel like I can learn something else, something to give me the upper hand so I feel absolutely sure that I can do this. I hate gambling, especially when it comes to my own future! I don't want to take any chances," She said, confiding in the old man. His brow furrowed, either with annoyance or feeling sorry for the girl, and in several swift motions rushed into his carriage, Asha hearing only the sounds of ruffling through drawers and other things, until he emerged suddenly from his carriage with a small collection of books and other "intelligent" paraphernalia.

"Read. First thing that seems interesting--tell me. We'll work from there." He commanded, sitting down by his carriage again, and lit up a pipe and proceeded to smoke it as Asha grabbed a book and started scouring through the pages.

Book after book, nothing seemed to jump out--Asha read about the history of magic, the nuances of magic, great magicians, bad magicians, morally ambiguous magicians, the eight elements of magic, about rukh--nothing stuck out to her. She picked up the last book: Magic and Nature: A Symbiotic Relationship and decided to flip through it, skimming the pages for anything important like she did with the others. While it still seemed to be a lost cause, she stumbled across a small section of the book detailing the importance of magicians understanding their own environment and the elements which they control and using that to improve their magical prowess. Until now, Asha had just been naturally inspired by the rukh around her, but never thought to pull in real-life inspiration and fuse it with the words of the rukh to create a magic spell.

"Environment!" She said, alerting the old man and having him stand up abruptly to continue his lesson for the day.

"Ahah! Excellent! Very astute, you. Environments are good because they can fit to your advantage--while magic can seemingly make things happen out of nowhere, it's always good to use nature around you to be quite creative with your spells," He explained. He slammed his staff on the ground, and she felt a rush of magoi erupt from it, watching in awe as the flowers and plants in the area began to float into the sky, and meld to form a very tasteful looking sword made of flowers, thorns, and other plants, "Now, while that is a bit advanced for you, try using your immediate environment to create something a little bit your own speed, hmm?"

Asha looked around her, trying to find some sort of inspiration, and user-friendly way to do something similar to the old man's magic. "Say, old man, what's your name?" She asked, suddenly realizing that she was unaware of his name the whole time. He chuckled, and turned to her and replied:

"Hah. Is this your inspiration? It's Zuhayr." Asha was shocked. His name was a Balbaddan name! She smiled, knowing the meaning of his name, and found inspiration.

"Coincidentally, yes, you were...here it goes!" She replied, focusing the magoi in her body and through her staff. A small area around her became enveloped with magoi too, and as she brought her staff up from the ground, she created four, beautiful roses adorned with thorns all around them, "Get ready old man! This one's going to be a doozie--Rgs'ah Alurdah!" Asha's spell sang through the air, heading straight for the old man and his frail body. Sensing the power of the spell, the old man waved his staff up, this time breaking a sweat, and let loose a cone of fire, burning the flying roses to a crisp and having them disappear into the air.

"Bravo! Bravo! Look at you--your first spell that isn't some pedestrian entertainer's trick!" He cheered. Asha took the compliment as best as she could, and felt relieved, and happy that she was able to muster up something of such great strength. She felt it, she knew it, she was ready to take on the Iktiyar and advance to the next 2nd Kodor! But first, she'd have to perfect these spells or else it would be a very embarrassing spectacle.

"Say...you'll come watch me, right? When I do the Iktiyar?" She asked, shocking the old man. He smiled, and simply nodded yes, this time not scurrying off after Asha completed her training.

WC: 1117/1000





Abilities Trained:


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The Iktiyar Looms Closer [Training ; Solo] A7c79a18123d04ce220ed5593206e86d

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