Chormynth, Daughter of Nuria's Story

A figure with bright red hair set against armor of black and burnished silver walked calmly up to the gate. Her pairs of backward-facing bright red horns told of her lineage if not of the cobalt blue round eyes set in a pool of molten stone. Right arm clad in a thick gauntlet from shoulder to hand it flared occasionally along its surface to curl around her red hair. Momentary embers of fire colored dark maroon loosing more flakes into a shower of ephemeral ash from her armor. Those with an arcane eye coudl tell it was a weapon made by some non-draconic creature larger than herself though it reeked an aura of its psionic nature. Some other writhing part of her her nature much like that aura kept her mind level and her voice firm unlike many fiery souls with such lineage her ire was controlled. She sniffed at the air then raised a bladed red-scaled tail curling from behind her to keep it from touching the ground.

She scowled at the ruined library and withered grounds. The strong voice of a warrior was something one could feel scowl when they were displeased, "I walk all this way and the power's a burnt out husk. What daemonkind have these mages unleashed. I suppose I'm in the the right place for learning then. I hope there's something left I can learn out of or at least something I can tear a new abyss into."

There was as square metal-clad book two palms wide swinging at her hip that she removed. It unlocked with a click of its own as she looked at the building slowly drawing her fingers across the page. The drawing taking place underneath of the building itself was something more elegant. As she worked the metal rose across her throat gleamed with soft light.

The academia had been burnt by something fierce and its halls silent only except for the occasional breeze and idle pitter-patter of vermin in search for a meal or a place of refuge. It was only when the young woman ascended the stairs of Celestia's grounds would a lone figure of a tall robed man standing before her. His finery was of browns and darker colors that seemed to swirl or change at a glimpse, whilst his face seemed hidden under a mammoth sized wizarding cap his eyes glowed like a pair of ominous blue orbs which took upon the role of his eyes. In his left gnarled hand was a staff which he clenched tightly and it only seemed to match his height.

"Magic can be a dangerous thing when not properly handled." The robed figure piped up only to remain in the spot he stood upon her arrival. "Academia Celestia, a twin school if you would, housed some of the most acutest minds and willfully ignorant souls that thought they could master the fine arts and handle its lore."

The old wizard continued to look upon the newcomer only to raise his hand towards them. His staff began to glow slightly only to dissipate like ash being blown away from a doused fire. "I presume you had come here to learn? Those things you carry obviously are enchanted and work on a higher principle than most. Most students start from nothing more than a dream and the understanding of what is to come, yet I imagine you already know much of your own."

Instinct and whispering gusts in magic across her skin shot her left foot back as Bigsby spoke. The gleaming sword drained out of her gauntlet as well the metal sparking into existence for her to brace one-handed for an impact that didn't come. She coughed and planted the sword into the earth beside her. In the eye of the arcane it seemed more like a cannon filled with marbles. The fire spell there while vicious was not one of power fit for the blade.

"Then they were lucky to be born without having to defend their dream with what wasn't their own!", She shot back at the man with a smile her eyes softening as both hackles and adrenaline tamp down with the man taking up idle chat.

"I am Chormynth, daughter of Nuria. I am from the Black Storm and there are too many threats walled behind the bulwark to have a childhood filled with collecting flowers and playing with ignorance.", she said making a small bow with a gauntleted fist across her breast.

She wondered if any would know of the Black Storm with it walled away as it was. Jinhai were chipping away at the stone daily setting new anchors to keep it from enclosing them again. A place writ for the destruction of all things was easier to arrive than to leave.

She set her book at her hip once more its clip, "But I read in time free from study to find my calling in magic in a place no fit to learn the arcane anymore. If this place still teaches then I will learn."

Eyes cast down at Pyroclast for a moment she adds forlornly, "I have my gifts from our overbeing and my mother but find a piece of me is missing to fill them. Some of me is as hollow as this building. I did little more than nearly burn my own arm off studying magic on my own. A thing supremely frustrating!"

Bigsby smiled from under his massive hat and remained standing before the young woman. Her introduction was touching and spoke fathoms of her station and determination. Her words she had spoken also added to her character that proved to the old wizard that she had determination and spunk about her.

"Chormynth, Daughter of Nuria, of the Black Storm. Your words ring true in some regards however...." Bigsby paused as he began to walk towards the young woman. "In order to learn from this husk of a site you will need to understand something important." Bigsby turned to look at the tower and grimace. "Magic can be learned in several different ways. Those who attended this academy trained in several arts. If you wish to learn I could teach you."

Chormynth reached the back of her brigandine gauntlet to her sword and with a clank of metal signaled her intent to disarm to a weapon ever watching her mind for commands as she could not send them herself. A short metal screech from the distending weapon wreathes her arm in heavy plate once more. Gauntlet stretching to tighten around her hand she flexes it absently for a moment. The metal squeezes and flows around her hand like a dog circling its bed. The hollowness of it compressing rang out into the Aether like a sigh. Its capability left for the most part dusty and unused.

She makes a momentary pleasant smile at the man chuckling, "I only know enough to tell that you're a man of power. My mother is a learned weapon of mass destruction that can't teach me her ways and compared to her I feel like a broom of mild annoyance. I'm glad there are many ways to learn as I did not take to the power like hers that is native to the architects of my blade."

Looking him up and down she added, "As much as my mother was one to trust strange men bearing hidden motives I suppose I am little better. Still, I bear no ill will if you do not. I will dedicate myself to any of the methods this place has to offer as long as you're willing to teach, Humankind, and trust will have to arise thereupon."

She showed her silver book to Bigsby though the pages showed only what one had written into them. In Bigsby's case the book of course showed nothing though Chormynth gesticulated with it, "My journal is poorly suited to the arcane though my overbeing has a library of its own for written knowledge if one knows what to ask for. I think I will need a spellbook."

Bigsby listened and smirked from beneath his massive wizarding cap. This young woman had much potential if applied and nurtured appropriately.

"Your bright enough to see what sits before your very eyes, fascinating, and you wish to become something more than a simple tool I take it?" Bigsby began to stroke his beard as his blue crystal orbs began to examine Chormynth only to then turn his back to the girl and look upon the ruinous state which was the academy before them. "I'd not worry about any ill towards you Chormyth, I've none to offer, only knowledge awaits you." Bigsby tilted his head back to look at his new apprentice only to then turn about back towards them and walk away from the academy behind him.

"This way please. We first need to discuss your training and method of study. Also a spellbook need not be something special, though I find it disappointing that such a tome in your possession would fail to meet my standards....." Bigsby began to trail off only to then cough a little as he glanced back to see if the young woman was following behind him. "As for this locale I suggest we forget about the strict rules and regulations that they had once tried to provide. I've teach many students from this place and I grow bored with it. Tell me do you wish to learn the more practical applications of magic or would you be more comfortable with something a little more advanced?"

The old wizard offered a sly smile as he looked upon the Daughter of Nuria. "No harm in learning the basics of course. I prefer to start from the ground up myself."

Chormynth eyed the crystals then marches quickly to keep pace with Bigsby, "Well met, then, teacher. It's not the tome that is lacking but myself. It likely does meet your standards the tome resides in the mind of an overbeing. Myrkul's Vein has long since reduced the arcane spellbooks in its memory unconsciously to raw magic castings. My attempts to make spells writ met much the same fate. Even we lessers of Myrkul are not permitted to enter the Necropolis to see the originals that should reside there."

She eyed the building as they passed, "I attempted to scribe one of the simplest patterns I found for a light spell. It took handful of rest periods and it went about as well as what hit this place. I was glowing out of every orifice for several days."

A creaking gauntleted hand offered the ferroplasm-bound almanac accessor, "You are free to see what I mean if you like. Trying to master the pattern in my blade was what nearly blew my arm off. Using raw magic feels like trying to drink from a waterfall to me. Myrkul is a granite canyon; It is sturdy, vast, and unyielding. If it's all the same I think I would prefer to work with basic creeks than throwing myself into rapids to learn to swim."


Metal surrounding the book was cold though smelled a bit of vellum and spice. Physical contact of the living to an almanac accessor left the distinct aetheric impression to many of some outsider creature nearby but not looking at them. Its mindful presence impressed and trundling in that bit of reality. Always watching with the accessors but not always seeing unless engaged. It ever idled in Genesis, the infinite neutral plane of growth, anchored to the mountain named Eminence and quietly tended to the minds and possessions of its underbeings as any gardener should.

"Listen girl." Bigsby chimed in as he turned to look at the young woman. "Learning the basics of any spell will grant you further experience with more advanced spells." The large hatted wizard began to offer a rather strange gesture as he muttered a few strange words and creating several floating and glowing transparent lanterns that flouted around the two. The old man simply smirked as he began to direct the ghostly lanterns to swirl around the both of them whilst he removed his massive hat and reached deep within its confines.

"Ghostly Lanterns are a simpler version of a spell to create light. Also feeling overwhelmed is quit common for an initiate who has never cast an arcane spell before." Bigsby began to trace the air before Chormynth leaving behind a trail of glittering golden trail as he began to write out the advanced formula before her only to erase it and produce a simpler version of the spell. "Dancing lights is infinitly better than just casting light upon an object.....or yourself, furthermore, with Dancing Lights you can send these ghostly lanterns fifty feet or further depending upon your skill."

Chormynth watched the patterns flow her draconic eyes shining in the light they made. They were far more abstract than the ones she was used to. Myrkul's patterns felt like carrying a finely balanced mountain of flint and steel swimming in lamp oil. These were soft sturdy luminous things and something she could more easily remember. Nodding at Bigsby, her new teacher, she listened attentively looking at the patterns as they changed. In Myrkul's these patterns were too complex to hold outside herself perhaps these simpler structures she could?

Palm up and held out she looks at Bigsby in a slack expression of pattern darting eyes, "I couldn't fit Myrkul's patterns wholly in my mind it was the only way to keep them from falling apart. This, I think I can do this."

A whole of self brought to muster was the thing she lacked to learn her mother's skills. Third self of Myrkul wasn't compatible with both humanity and her the third of dragonkind. It could never connect to the Almanac directly. Calling on the motes inside her she felt them crawling to life, forced to become her own overmind as it were, as small dodecahedron clumps of pentagonal pincered motes rose through her armor like they were red flares through dense fog. The microscopic beings took up an orbit in the sky above her hand as her mind's eye started trying to duplicate the pattern she saw before her. Trying to emulate the shifting patterns of the Overbeing taught her that. Red stars took up their part in the sky connecting with thin blue threads between them as more structures were writ down and linked. Each looked like a single isolate of the weave as if a microscopic acolytes in support of Chormynth's will. They orbited in silent concert as the sky willed new designs.

A ghost lantern sputtered in to existence, horrifically malformed, as the thin blue-red constellations sputtered with her changes to the patterns. The wrenched light drifted uncontrolled and spun as if unbound by gravity entirely. The pattern fluxed and changed but a thing copied by eye wasn't a thing with accuracy let alone smoothed out by practice. Her hand started to shake as her focus wavers.

"Egnh. How do you... keep it from moving. It's getting too far.", She strained.

Bigsby watched his young apprentice and her first actual spell. She was indeed talented though her actions did bring a smirk to his old features as he reached out to her quivering hand only to mold her fingers to mimic his own.

"Do not overcomplicate or force to much of your will on such a simple spell." The old codger chided her only to then chuckle, "You simply need only to imagine the source of light you wish to produce, think of something you are familiar with that produced that spark of light which brightens a dark and dreary room, and then create three more duplicates......" Bigsby began to trail off as he pointed up to her single lantern only to focus upon its shape with her. "Once you have the ideal picture in your mind simply command it with either thought or words. Be forceful if need be as it helps control the very fabric of your creation."

Firmly focused expression softened as Bigsby moved her grip and the listing feeling in her head she hadn't noticed was there revealed itself by its absence. The pattern of congregated motes hurriedly move about to new points in the sky as she rebalances. The mutant lantern untwists slightly but its light and consistency of cast iron form were both anemic. The question remains -- she had to push less hard?

Her voice hesitated to quantify her explanation while focusing on the spell sounding less a warrior more so a worried student, "I'm... used to pressing against the flow as hard as I can. So... I don't drown."

As she stopped straining her hand to lean against the flow of aether into her soul the blue tethers brighten between constellations of orbiting red stars. Torrents of pressure didn't tear away at the edge of her soul much to her surprise. Had she been starving herself of energy from a threat that wasn't there? Her stance relaxed with her steady hand momentarily exhausted coming down from the height of effort she'd been exerting. Done properly her martial arts training was less suited to this kind of gentle work she now realized. Perhaps she hadn't explored ways in which they were compatible. Here eyes widened for a moment as aunt Sybil's calling out to her spear suddenly made more sense.

"A light among the windy dark.", she mused more freely as with her teacher's help her hand bobbed softly in the freed aetheric wind she wasn't the least used to.

Her militant aunt had dark tastes toward aetherkind and her lanterns always stuck with her as a child. She remembered looking upward at a small luminous humanoid form clad in wrought iron restraints tail twitching at the small noises they would make when lighting. They had names, she thought, but Myrkul suffered not aetherkind and broke them all if the black storm didn't get to them first.

The image of a celestial bound densely in chains and iron came as she pushed it closer to the spell. The constellations orbiting her hand furiously reorganized though one even thwacked into Bigsby's hand as momentary inattention sent it too far. She'd been told by Auntie many times to goad them to light again though mostly abyssalkind, "I call the names of broken interlopers; light the way for humankind's will."

The single twisted lantern bent its bars more but this time it took shape of a hollow triad of humanoid voids. As they pulled away from each other the inner surface alit to show indistinct humanoid forms two white and one red all writhing feebly. With less a grip it felt like holding Plinth's censer but the balls floated. She had to focus on keeping the idea but they stood floating on their own. They twisted occasionally in painful directions until Chormynth rebalanced that feeling in her head. She felt like she was balancing three broomsticks on the end of her fingers but they were stable.

Toothy grin wide her barbed tail end dangerously swishes back and forth, "I see, teacher! I was trying too hard! But I feel like my head keeps unbalancing like I have to keep moving it or the spell will fall off. How do I hold it and do other things?"

"Basic spellcraft my girl." Bigsby watched as she struggled only to succeed and apply her own twist to the spell. The old codger was even pleased to see how pleased his apprentice was with such a simple thing. "Basic spellcraft indeed however I can show you more utilitarian spells and incantations if you like, honestly though I'm rather pleased to see someone able to manage as you have."

Bigsby escorted the young woman further away from the academy only to wave at her to follow. The old wizard wanted to show her sights of interest and a better place for her education. "We will cover the basics before we move onto more advanced spellcraft. Also be prepared for theory crafting and practical applications of spells along with the possibility of learning how to craft and enchant items to implement your spellwork....."

Choromynth tried to hold onto the spell while moving but lost track of the balanced part in her head and the patterns fell away as she nearly fell over. A new muscle in her head to train that felt like she'd bedridden it for years didn't inform well to the other well-practiced muscle memory of her weapons training. The lamps she'd been tending unraveled into aether as the woven pattern she hadn't made unraveled and she couldn't fix it. Instinctively she tried to use her strength to 'support' them.

Three lanterns already cracking burst into ocher smoke. A crude but strong inner force of will crushed the pattern into useless arcane slimes that dropped from the air. They weren't particularly healthy owing to Chormynth's power over her weapon's caustic flame. She had a few choice words in draconic before regaining her composure.

Her feelings came out with a twitching eye and a curl of her lip at the slithering blobs dying of caustic flame, "I feel like when I was little and aunt Sybil made me run in circles dragging my sword around. But I understand why now."

Following behind him with a bit of smoke from her nostrils, "I'll run as far as I need to, Teacher. Survive what I have to. As my Aunts have always done."

Running? Surviving? This young woman was indeed something to behold. More so sense she had little idea as to the number of errands and tasks she would be sent on, all for the sake of her education of course, and even give her real world experience. The old codger simply chuckled and waved an absent hand back towards his apprentice as he continued to make his way further and further away from the old school.

"You may find that study and experience is the only real teacher you will need, besides my guidance of course...." Bigsby began to ponder a bit as he took in a deep breath and turned his crystal blue gaze back towards the young woman. "Though I must admit that the prospects of you learning the basics is almost titillating! Dancing Lights, a spell you seemed so easily able to conjure! And even now I think we can possibly consider learning Prestidigitation, a spell that is vastly versatile in many ways..." The old wizard began to cough a little only to then remove his massive hat and reach deep within just to produce a silver flask which he quickly imbibed its contents.

"Once we reach a more desirable location we can work on the principles of minor spellcraft and their application."

"Mother said we are descendants of the Archmage Executor of Netheril, our Fallen Emperor. So he would be my grandfather. I suppose that does me a kindness. Though I think I hope it does not last long.", She commented idly while looking to her hand reflecting on its utility from a fallen civilization.

Hard work felt right as long as it was productive much unlike most of her sorties to the periphery of the holy necropolis and stints through Losthome. Most trips through the latter resulted in constant combat without Eldryth herself coming to copy a book for her. Everything galls about calling a lesser of Myrkul to simulacra a perturbed arcane text for you just to read it without constantly cutting away the damned souls there. Even if that particular Lesser of Myrkul was always curious and willing.

A titter of wry laughter from behind him, "Or his daughter by blood I suppose."

Her subsequent huff was less amused, "Still I worry that I cast by someone else's blood memory not my own hard work, Teacher. Training the basics will tell I wager. Neither mother nor Myrkul's Vein was ever very clear exactly how close to the blood of the Fallen Emperor the Mada are."

Her molten eyes twinkle with their molten shift of sclera, "I have my suspicions. I will have my own power for the Living Emperor not so very borrowed."

Her head cocked to one side scattering dust and red hair from her horns along with terminology more alien to the arcane, "What does this prestidigitation thoughtform do?"

Bigsby stopped in his tracks as she continued on only to turn his attention to the girl. If she thought he was confused or excited about the prospect of her blood relation to someone who was considered an Archmage of any kind then she would be sadly mistaken following his next words.

"Magic by blood is sorcery dear girl. Magic in the way I will teach you is wizardry......lets not get ourselves to far ahead....." Bigsby began to look Chormynth up and down only to then shake his head. "I will explain this spell before we continue but keep in mind that depending on how you take to magic in the way I draw upon we might need to find a different method of teaching, though honestly you have done well thus far." Bigsby coughed a little only to then shake his head.

"Come. Lets find a place for a meal. Possibly even find you some attire that wont scare away a meal in a nice tavern if need be." Bigsby began to chuckle and walk away from his apprentice towards a new destination and the continuation to her training. "Maybe we can talk about illusionary spells and enchantments....."

The tall academy club as much as the activity at the college drew Chormynth's molten red eyes and their cobalt blue irises. The flow of power moving everywhere and of the right sort she wanted to learn made her sharp red-scaled tail twitching while in her light jog moving closer. That as the building proved to be a place of learning as she closed in with each clunk and shuff of heavy armor was an added bonus. Fair to porcelain skin looked dead on as she entered the gates having never lived in the light though she was starting to tan. Though only a moment spent those eyes over any onlookers as little mind paid as would her periodic black dusty-robed Jinhai caretakers. Out of courtesy to them and to not cause strife among humankind Chormynth kept her weapon in the form of the thick mass of gauntlet along her left arm though to prying eyes revealed it mutable purpose. The armor dress moved flexibly with each stride though it revealed its heft and some other nature pushing over weeds while spreading small bits of ashen shadowstuff along her path.

She stopped by a billboard with a set of rules reading them over before she wandered off deeper.

Fresh from looking at the academy she'd found she'd need something to pay for her training. It was different back home. Left to her own devices here without being a Mada to call for resources the locals talked about an adventurers guild they thought she was from. Seeking out umbralkind as she explored was just something comfortable when the newness of the bright world of Origin was too much. Pyroclast infested umbralkind with a cancerous combustion the more she struck them. Her mother's engram design not her own and she'd had problems confining one or two of the blazes. Umbralkind of size she wasn't sure she could take on she just wrote in her ingress so Myrkul knew of them eventually. Actually she was getting tired reaching out this far to Myrkul's Vein on the regular. Looking in a nearby river she could see the veins under her rose and spike choker turning black. She'd need to hold off for a while. The Guild she'd heard off probably would offer somewhere nice to sleep if she signed up.

Entering through the doors the heavily armored redhead nearly six foot said little moving aside for them. Full brigandine dress with faint silvery-purple metal weaving through some deep rose colored substance. It shed fading ash even while she stood there. An inch thick gauntlet of moving cables was on one arm up to the shoulder a clear sheathed weapon to those with the eye. The thick metal gauntlet followed a very muscular arm than the looser brigandine on the other. She eyed them returning any inspection in turn, molten red eyes with a cobalt core, inspecting their shadows for unwanted guests.

Uncle Jinhai said to her once, 'This is your purpose.' It seemed like the smaller ones were so soft in comparison. Just plant material for armor. Unsuited to learn power from her Mother or Myrkul she found it rather empty but practical. Comfortable now, yeah, but empty. Mother got her a weapon and training with it as a matter of continued survival. The Black Storm was not kind. This plane didn't spawn umbralkind out of the walls when you weren't looking.

Oza, in his smaller form since he had just been doing a job, watched as the people came and went from the Guild. One of Oza's hobbies was people watching after all, when he was not battling super viruses on the internet, stopping cyber entities from taking over the world, and general monster slaying. Actually, he had been looking into clues into a new strange sequence of events he had been encountering, monsters being virtualized into Cyber Space, and a key word "Lyoko" popping up every so often.

But among all the people, someone stood out from them all. Someone who seemed lost, but not lost. Confused, yet clear. Out of place, perhaps, but also in her place. At least that was what the materialized AI, Oza, percieved. Something about her was definently different from the normal people here. Oza secretly and temporarily accessed the secure, private database of Adventurers, and discovered she had yet to register.

"Well, I guess I know how to introduce myself then" Oza said, as he settled on his younger form. He could make himself appear older as well, but the bigger he was the more energy he used, or the weaker he got, so he preferred his younger, smaller form. The older form was useful for parties, formal gathering, and undercover work though.

He then moved himself down to the floor below, and walked up to the woman who he had spotted. "Excuse me miss, so you need some help?"

At a relatively small radius to her a footfall from Oza nearby would have an infinitesimal psionic creature clad in carbon allotropes levitate off from between crevices of the boards to scurry away. The small mote of black dust alerted more as it traveled and the black dust she constantly shed slowly reversed its flow. She turned to look with a slack interest even as her gauntleted fist pulsed once. Her reflexes were not one of a peacekeeper instead the kind that sprang from restrained blades of a warrior engaged to total war. Her tensed muscles embossed through the thick metal gauntlet smoothed as she relaxed.

Smiling and brushing her red hair behind her horns she had a smooth mid-range voice, "Hello, humankind! I do! I have heard this adventurer guild pays for work against umbralkind and tainted. A few individuals got service for free until I found out. I am looking for training in the arcane but the college needs currency my people do not use."

Away from the door she looked behind her reflexively instincts initially unwilling to turn her back to the open. A sharp red draconic tail appeared from under her armor with scales that matched the ones on her face. It pushed upward through the back of the armor as if weaving around it. It moved side to side in a slow sweep the end pointed upward.