Private - To Play With Fire

It changed again.

With the newly acquired runestone in her possession and an adventure under her belt which had almost taken the white-haired woman's life, came the inevitable need to explore its properties. Unlike her gauntlets, there was no physical connection to reassure her of the strength the stone was capable of as it merely floated by her side. A faithful yet small follower of iridescent light, bound to its owner by means she could never hope to comprehend.

Portia decided on the place that had seen her first steps on Terrasphere, if only to indulge the common sense remaining on the back of her mind telling the female to train in a secluded area where not a large number of people could get hurt. As much as she would've loved to make a public display out of her non-noteworthy set of skills, the only type of magical combat she currently knew spoke of danger when it was put to use.

She fell to her knees, exhaustion not registering until the spell had been cast and the energy she felt seconds ago flowing through her veins fully disappeared into nothingness, just as it had done multiple times when she had needed it the most. The concentrated look in her eyes didn't subside, however, and while one of her hands was pressed against the ground to prevent her from collapsing, the other remained in the air, fingers pointing to a certain direction in which a puff of smoke manifested, the remnants of a tree which had once stood there now turned to mere branches and burnt leaves scattered across the ground in front of her.

Destructive, wild, hers. And for all her attempts at using it, she barely registered what was going on. One moment, she felt the sudden urge to set such wild energy free of its bindings, give it free reign to do as it pleased; and the next... She was exhausted, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs and with nothing but the results of her destruction and a headache to account for it. When it came down to utility spells, she could hold her ground just as she would do standing against an enemy who challenged her to a melee fight. Alas, this was not a physical fight, but a mental one.

She shifted from a kneeling position to a sitting one, bringing her palm menu up to materialize some of the adventuring supplies found on her way to the woods. A little break in the middle of a training session never hurt anyone, she reminded herself, and took a sip from a vial filled with water.

And then... a flash of blue in the corner of her vision and a loud noise to make it company.

Nervous as she was, droplets of sweat beginning to dot her forehead at the notion her spell might've had more consequences than those she knew of. Portia struggled back to her feet, lifting a hand to press it against one side of her aching head. The noise echoed a second time, and as much as she wished to ignore the calling of the energy's source, wished to acknowledge every little part of her that shouted not to let her curiosity take over, she didn't listen. It was calling, beckoning her to come closer and there was no way she could say no to its demand.

She burst into a dash towards the direction all the noise came from, legs wobbling underneath her weight with each step she took towards it. There were days when she truly hated the fact she picked Arcanamancy just for the sake of flexibility and adaptability in the midst of battle, often because it caused more trouble than it was worth it. The last thing she needed was an army of NPCs chasing her tail because of a mistake.

''Is everything alright?'' Her tone of concern didn't match the neutral expression on her features as she stepped into close proximity to what had caused the explosions. It was either faking or getting arrested, and it didn't take much to know she wasn't fond of the latter.

@Luna Avalbane

 

Practicing with Arcanamancy always required way more free and open space than you thought you had. That was the first rule that Luna had taught herself when she set out learn more about the magic that she'd chosen and how she could possibly use it, though she'd only really reached one actual conclusion. And that was that Arcanamancy was really hecking good at blowing things sky high, like, unbelievably good at it. It was honestly one of the most explosive things she'd ever seen in her life, it made her feel like an action hero, firing explosions and laser beams from her hands.

Now was no different, really. She'd just stepped into the forests to stretch a little arcane muscle and get some light practice in, especially with a particular spell that she hadn't quite managed to grasp yet, without letting the system guide her through the motions of what to do. Magic Highway had always been pretty hard for her to grasp, reversing the idea of the sky beam and creating an explosion from beneath the target was tricky at best and complete chaos at worst.

But she could smile, after the blue explosion started to die down and the dust settled, glad that for once, she hadn't blown herself to kingdom come with the fledgling technique, somehow. She sighed, looking down at her grimoire as she read through the pages, finding the correct page after the shockwave had blown her a few pages ahead by accident. She still didn't have it down perfectly, probably never would, but it was getting there slowly and with practice.

That was when she was startled by a voice calling out to her, turning wide eyes towards the source with a hand on her chest, before sighing in relief. Thank god it wasn't a highwayman or a bandit. They were always the worst to come across. "Ah, s-s-sorry about that! I didn't disturb you too badly, did I? I was just practicing with my spell." She gestured awkwardly to the crater ahead. "It still needs some work though."

She smiled, shifting to the side a little, now that she felt like she wasn't about to be attacked. It was probably stupid to let her guard down so easily, but she just got so tired of keeping it up constantly. "My name is Luna. Who are you?"

 

Her steps came to a sudden halt, a look of confusion set upon the pale skin of her face as she came across a person who held some similarities in appearance to her own. Matching light-colored strands of hair, the same pale skin and only the color of her eyes to tell the difference between their avatars other than the difference in equipment, hairstyles and other details she wasn't as quick to notice.

''Right, that...'' Portia found herself at a loss for words as she beheld what was left of the ground in front of the duo. Judging by what she had done before by using the same type of magic, and comparing the result of the spell to this stranger's, the only logical explanation she could muster was of the female being a much stronger user of Arcanamancy than she could ever hope to become. She lifted a hand to scratch the back of her neck, uncomfortable by the notion she might've disturbed this person's training session as well. Unsure of what to say, she allowed the silence to stretch over both of them, almost allowing Luna's introduction to go unheard. Almost.

''Portia... Ah, Portia Ahrens,'' she mused with the same friendly voice she had summoned earlier, curving the corners of her lips into a welcoming smile to accompany her outstretched hand. Somewhere along in her sprint to the isolated area, she had equipped her gauntlets once more, ready to engage in a fight should the circumstances have called for it. However, and as an act of good faith towards her fellow player, she unequipped them again, leaving nothing but the runestone to float at her side. ''I came here to practice too but wasn't as lucky as you with the results and all.''

There was a certain annoyance added to her tone at the words that came out of her mouth, unknown whether they were directed to Luna or at herself and the lack of ability she possessed. Still, she soon found it in herself to try and remain as polite as possible to the mage, allowing only her smile to falter from her features and nothing else as she addressed her again, attempting to praise her spell and its seemingly positive outcome. ''If you're trying to blow someone or something up, congrats! I think you'll be just fine with that.''

 

Well, if Luna had said that she wasn't even sightly curious about the undertones of disappointment and annoyance to Portia's words, then she'd have been branded the world's worst liar right there and then. It wasn't even all that hard to tell that she'd picked up on them either, her face wasn't exactly all that empty and difficult to decipher, at least. But even then, she didn't feel offended or upset that the girl was annoyed or whatever, in fact she was actually really excited to finally meet somebody else that seemingly used the same type of magic as her. At least, the way the woman was speaking seemed to insinuate that they both used a kind of destructive, difficult to control magic.

"Ah, it's nice t-to meet you Portia!" She smiled sweetly, a hand reaching up to brush the flower that decorated her right eye, smoothing out the petals gently as she thought to herself and reached out with her free hand to take Portia's. From everything that Portia was saying, it seemed that she hadn't quite managed to hone in her own magic, whatever that might be. And it really could have been anything. Just remembering the destructive power of Vivian's fire made her tingle and feel warm all over. Truly, the magic in this game was an experience unlike anything that was even remotely possible in the real world.

Still, that faltering smile and the polite demeanor were rather odd to Luna, who really valued the ability of people to enjoy themselves no matter where they were. Her smile and gaze warming slightly as she let go of the woman's hand, after a moment of grasping it. "You use magic too, then? What type of magic do you use? Is it like my own?" She lifted a hand and produced a small orb of arcane energy, in order to show Portia a little bit better, her arcane energy glowing a purple-blue hue.

"If it is, I'd be happy to teach you some things. I've never met anybody with my kind of magic before!" She grinned ever so slightly, shifting her feet somewhat awkwardly. Despite how regal or proper she might look, she was still an ordinary person.

 

Seeing the woman smile openly, with no possible concerns for herself as if she were just an easily excited person, made it easier for Portia to smile genuinely. No sooner had their introductions finished, her hand fell back to her side and she allowed herself to part her lips in awe at her acquaintance's display of magic. Soon, she brought her hand up to mimic the movements she had used prior to summoning the ball of energy, and the runestone glowed as the magic tried to take a corporeal form atop her palm, only to disappear in a puff of smoke much to the girl's frustration.

''Whatever do you mean?'' If all the explosions, the crater ahead of them and the meeting with the mage hadn't been enough to bring confusion to her gaze, Luna's words now surely did the trick. It was such a silly thought when she took into consideration the list of masteries displayed on the Character Creation screen, bringing the woman to wonder if all magic users had opted to settle with the traditional elements rather than expanding their horizons. ''But look at what you are able to do with it... Is it really that rare to see?''

Her own words were followed by a gesture of her hand, bringing it forward to signal to the area surrounding the two. Far from disappointment, she felt a slight hint of pride in the newly-found knowledge she was one of the few users of Arcanamancy, however untrained and volatile her own powers might be. Come to better think of it, she had been in quite a number of different party compositions before and she had never witnessed anyone making use of the mastery... Was destructive power at a high energy cost such an undesirable choice?

Try as she might, though, casting never struck her as an easily achievable feat. And when Luna offered to guide her on her initial steps towards mastering it, the smile on her face grew only wider. Of course she would say yes. ''Arcanamancy, yes... But I've only used it twice and that's if it doesn't disappear before I've finished the spell. A little help would always be appreciated, but I don't mean to distract you nor cause you any trouble.''

 

There! That smile was much better than the faltering smile that Portia had been wearing a few seconds ago! It looked much more at home on that pretty face than the serious expression or disappointed and annoyed expression that the woman had held just a while ago! Luna's smile widened ever so slightly as she watched the girl in front of her try to mimic her little exercise with the ball of energy, smiling ruefully as the ball fizzled out and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Ah, she remembered the says when she could barely conjure forward a ball like that. At the very least, she could make sure that the girl wouldn't be figuring everything out for herself.

"Mhm!" She nodded happily, even if she had at one point been a little bit upset that she'd seen nobody with Arcanamancy before. Now it felt special, like some sort of private club that only herself and Portia were a part of. It did have its downsides, for sure, but there were just as many upsides to it. Few magics could even come close to hitting as hard and as much as Arcanamancy. It was, in her humble opinion anyway, the ultimate magic when it came to fighting groups of enemies at once. "I've never seen anybody wield it other than myself, really! Meeting somebody else that uses it is really cool!"

She had to stifle a giddy giggle, not wanting to come across as too eager or excited and scare the girl away. The fact that the girl was willing to let her try to teach her was even better, even if Luna had never actually been a teacher before, if she didn't count the time that she'd taught Savannah about Beast Taming. And she didn't, because she'd always known from the start that Savannah would pick up on those skills quickly. The woman was amazing, after all.

She waved her hand, shaking her head with a warm grin on her face. "It's really no trouble at all. I'm actually really excited to try my hand at teaching somebody! I'm fairly sure I can help you with your struggles a bit." She smiled, before lifting a finger to point at the crater she'd created. "Would you mind showing me what you can manage right now? If that's okay with you?"

 

''Yes...'' There was a tinge of hesitation coating the word that fell from her lips. Upon realizing this mistake, she lifted a hand over to her cheek and gave it a gentle scratch as if to convince herself to spring into action. ''Yes, of course,'' she repeated and added a bit more to the sentence, nodding as she drifted her attention away from the female and turned to face the power she had managed to harness, to the crater where that missing piece of soil had been blown away because she caused it. Because she desired it.

Her focus settled on a few meters ahead of the destruction her newly found companion had caused, she commanded the runestone to come ever closer to herself, raising a hand in the air and closing her eyes in the process. Portia wasn't sure how many times had she uttered the same string of words before, a different outcome brought to life at her fingertips each time the incantation stopped flowing from her mouth as the spell was finished. This time, however, she wasn't sure when she had stopped until she felt it. First, the enhancement of her magical senses as the sparkles of magic coursed through her own veins, empowering the weakened will she accustomed herself to whenever she cast a spell.

Then it manifested. The hand she had previously left in the air now surrounded by an ethereal light of the very same color she had seen when Luna summoned an energy ball through her own means. She waved it with ease, forming a pattern in the air for small spheres of light to appear. A spell she had used only two times before, the one that brought down the water beast that took her ear as a prize. Her eyes lit as she opened them again, twinkles becoming more prominent in that piercing grey gaze of hers as what looked to be enjoyment dawned in her expression.

However, it was soon that the same satisfaction she displayed proved to be short-lasting. And with the twist of expression on her features came the feeling of air being sucked out of her lungs as the light left her hand and sent her stumbling back, unable to regain her footing quickly enough as not to fall to the ground. The small projectiles she had created before her will faltered back into nothingness flew in random directions as they had nothing that could control them nor their direction and exploded upon hitting a hard surface.

 

Luna watched Portia's attempt with a critical, if non-judgemental eye, watching the woman's efforts to summon an attack with Arcanamancy and comparing it to her own, humming. She'd never seen quite the attack before, though she supposed that everybody used their own skills in different ways. It was interesting to see, that was for sure, though what really caught her attention was how Portia lost control of the spell soon after it was ready. Odd. She'd never quite lost control of an attack like that or fallen at the last moment. Her own problems had stemmed from keeping the attack within her control.

She hummed, watching as some of the blasts faded into mere sparkles whilst others detonated, kicking up dust and debris, the shockwaves making her stumble slightly. Even at lower levels, Arcanamancy was an intense and powerful mastery. The raw power that it could pump out made it far too difficult to just jump into.

"Ah, that wasn't a bad attempt." She hummed. What kind of problem was Portia having? Maybe she was splitting her attention too much? "Say, Portia. I don't mean any offense, but do you think you might be doing too much? Even I struggle with controlling multiple different blasts at once." She hummed. It was why she usually stuck to single beams or larger blasts.

"Try just making a single, larger blast. Here, copy me." She lifted her arms, pointing open palms in front of her and crossing her thumbs together, locking them in place. "Keep both hands together like this and draw that arcane energy to the front, forming a sphere out of it about the size of a tennis ball." She instructed. It was one of her simplest spells. It should serve Portia well as practice though. And it was fairly useful in combat. "This spell is very simple. It's called 'Arcane Shocker' and it's just a simple ball blast. No need to split your energy and mind between multiple blasts just yet."

 

Portia's porcelain features remained set in a wince as she rose from her spot on the ground, exposed hands quickly patting her armor as to brush any dirt clinging to the fabric of her shirt or her pants. As her breathing began to even out after the disappointing experience she'd created all on her own, a sigh left her semi-parted lips. She looked all over the place for the remnants of what her spell had caused, finding destruction in some places while some managed to escape it.

Her attention was pulled to her companion at the sound of her voice, regarding the woman with quite an apologetic smile on her face and a hand pressing itself against her own neck to scratch its side. ''Thank you... And that might be the problem, yes,'' she responded to her words, the title of ''Master'' she was about to give her ready at the tip of her tongue, yet it remained unspoken for she didn't know how the other player would react to it.

''The spell worked once, I can't remember very well since it happened underwater and I was running out of air...'' Portia paused for a brief moment, allowing the information to sink in before she spoke up again. However, she didn't remain still as the sentence flowed from her mouth, the rest of her body mimicking what position Luna had adopted for the example spell. It sounded like quite the unbelievable tale when it came out of her mouth, but she highly hoped Luna would understand her. It was a fantasy game they were inside of, after all. ''You could say I was angry when I channeled the incantation, it dealt my companions a good amount of damage and it also took my ear.''

She moved one of her hands to her hair and brushed a few strands of white-hair away, revealing the wound she hadn't suffered long ago at the hands of some underwater dragon. Shifting her focus back to the task at hand, and trusting Luna had been able to see her injury, she moved her hands back to their rightful place in front of her and gave another attempt at summoning her magical essence.

Her tutor was right: the energy flowed easily when concentrated on one point at a time. A small globe of blue light was summoned at the tip of her fingers, and though she struggled to balance it, it managed to stay on her grasp for a reasonable amount of time.

 

Portia's tale would be, to most, quite a tall tale to accept, that was for sure. But Luna wasn't most people, in fact she'd experienced something similar before, though on a slightly different scale. She nodded along with Portia's tale, watching the girl as she seemed to expose the injury that her own spell had caused, wincing at the sight of the missing ear, the awful looking wound carving out a fresh place in her mind. How much had something like that hurt the girl? How much had those attacks hurt Portia's allies? She couldn't even imagine the pain and stress of being in that exact same situation. Still, she was glad the girl had actually confided that with her.

"You know, I-I um, I went through something fairly similar. I think it has something to do with the nature of Arcanamancy, really." She shrugged, trying to ease Portia into slowly splitting her attention between listening to her and maintaining that Arcane sphere. She'd slow down or stop talking when it looked like Portia was wavering, to help the girl keep her attention focused when she needed to. "W-when I was still learning to fight, a um, a goblin had me pinned. I thought I would die or worse. T-then I suppose I just....lashed out?"

Even now, she wasn't sure exactly what had happened to her. Rage just kind of amplified Arcane energy. "My energy flared out, I was w-wreathed in arcane energy and i-it tore the g-goblin to pieces, a-atomized him l-like out of an anime." She shuddered slightly. It hadn't been fast either. "R-rage a-and arcanamancy mix w-well, b-but they also c-create something volatile."

 

At first, it showed resistance to stay in one place, hands shaking as they struggled some more and then ceased their movement at once, finding a moment of stability amidst the difficulty of performing even a basic task. Her talents resided in physical combat, not on the research of how spellwork was applied to the world surrounding her, its properties nor the casting itself. Flow, timing, and movement were all concepts she understood from the amount of time she'd spent training before actually engaging in combat against some beast. When it came to magic, however, she was at a dire loss.

''I split the damned thing in half,'' confessing what she had done to the monster down in the Spire actually made a sense of pride sink into her mind, letting a chuckle slip out and quickly fade into the air. Portia hummed along her explanation of Arcanamancy being in sync with how the user felt at the moment of channeling the spells, nodding her head at the comment twice before she chanced a glance at Luna to see how she was managing on her own. ''Do you know if any of the elemental masteries work in a similar manner?''

She inquired softly and then chewed at her own lip, stepping backward to try and drag the ball of energy along with the movement of her hands and see if it would obey her as its master or escape her grasp as all the projectiles from earlier had done. The white-haired woman believed that any magic could have a certain quirk to it since it was the user's energy what usually influenced the outcome unless it came from outside sources, which wasn't the case of the two girls now exchanging their experiences on their respective adventuring trips. ''Well, if that's the case... We might need to switch from out little Arcane Club to Destruction Club. I believe it'd do it more justice, right?''

 

Watching Portia's progress was fun, it was like looking into a mirror into the past, watching herself work through the problems she'd come across on her path to improve her control over arcanamancy. It was just a magic that lashed out, it wanted to lash out and damage and destroy. It was odd, probably, for somebody as serene and kind as herself to wield such an angry and destructive magic, but it was her power and she was never going to trade it for the world. It was a part of her now, it was something that set her aside and made her a little more unique than she would've been without it.

Hearing that Portia had split the monster made sense though, it was in keeping with arcanamancy's volatile and powerful nature. She let her own spell remain charged, her practice having made holding this spell as easy as breathing for her. Portia would reach that point soon though, it was a simple matter of forming the habit of letting the power flow into the focal point. "You're doing um, r-really well Portia. A-at this point, y-you should notice that your magic uh, for lack of better terms, WANTS to f-flow into the orb. Sometimes it can be hard, uh, to suppress the urge to force more in, b-but this is the point w-where we'd fire it."

That was when Portia asked her the question about the elemental masteries. Luna could only shrug sadly. "I um, I n-never picked any of the elemental masteries, s-so I couldn't even begin to give you a-an informed answer there. S-sorry." After arcanamancy, elemental magic had seemed kind of pointless. Even Luna could get drunk on the power of being able to cause explosions with her bare hands and some energy. "A-and you're r-right, Destruction club w-would be more fitting." She smiled, giggling slightly. "B-but I-I'm not sure we'd get many n-new members..."

 

Following her master's train of thought, hesitation dawning upon her at the comment of firing the damned thing, she followed Luna's gaze to meet the orb she held in her own hands, much bigger in size and stable than her own. This fact was of no surprise to her given how much she already knew, and how little Portia could do in comparison to the compared knowledge of an experienced player. If Luna were to lash out at her, just as she had explained Arcanamancy was more likely to do, she wouldn't stand a chance. The fight would be over before she even knew what truly hit her, and maybe she would swap to another magical mastery in her disappointment.

''That's alright... I'm still too new of a player to know what to expect, but we all must start somewhere. The only time I saw an elemental mastery at work was during a quest, Pyromancy, Geomancy and Aeromancy, I think.'' As much as she might have liked to, there were details regarding the particular circumstances in which she'd witnessed those displays of power that she couldn't tell to anyone else but the very same members who accompanied her on that mission. If word were to get out, only the Gods of this virtual world knew how many people would be asking for her head.

Far from feeling tired or discouraged because of her lack of expertise, she found herself feeling more and more invigorated as time passed and she held the orb in place, thrusting her hands outwards to try and test the might of her concentrated energy. ''Destruction club it is! Be it a few people or way too many for us to count, everyone who joins should learn to appreciate there is beauty in chaos, in destruction.'' The flow of energy came to a stopping point, and a beam of light would then shoot forward to the same spot she'd been trying to hit with her projectiles earlier. Despite her initial failure with her previous attack, this time around she would find the concentrated magic to be much more stable than she had initially expected it to be, reducing stone and trees alike to ash as soon as it came in contact.

A couple of seconds later, she stopped and her hands fell to her sides. With the woman now sucking in a breath, she bent her body forward, pressing both of her hands against her knees, a bright smile following suit.