Sorano's Secondary Magic Training Thread (Private)

Sorano's feet gently touched the ground as Hoshi lowered the letter mage. "Thank you, Hoshi-chan," the exceed's passenger said gratefully. The two had known each other for a few years, and now we're great partners. Scanning the bottom of the canyon for her new mentor, Sorano could see no aura, at least not Speculo's.

She and Speculo had met in a library, and had begun talking about magic. When he brought up his own magic, the letter mage had become increasingly fascinated by the idea of using mirrors as a producer of spells and had asked the mirror mage to teach it to her.

Today, Sorano had let her multi-colored hair down loose, and had worn a simple dress with few decorations on it. Her hair, as usual, was pushed back with a beaded headband, and her left sleeve had a hole cut in it to reveal her blue guild mark, something she was extremely proud of. She wore her usual laced sandals, with laces up to her knees and sturdy soles. She wore a Phoenix Mountain type amulet to ward against bad spirits, like every child in her old village had. Nothing too fancy for a training session.

"You see him, Hoshi-chan?" Sorano asked, peering down over the rim of the canyon.

"Nuh-uh, not a shadow," the small tabby exceed chirped, sitting back with her tail neatly folded over her paws.

Both girls sighed, and settled back to await the man who was to teach the twelve-year-old letter mage.

Speculo

"Come on, at least seem like you are excited to learn." Came a voice from behind the two girls. Speculo knew how to sneak up on people. Even if it was with the help of his illusion spell, he was still working on his stealth abilities. The white coated Mage bent down at the waist towards them. The sword by his side clicked in it's sheath as he bent over. "So, what do you want to know first?" It was only because of the lack of contact from The Six Path's that he agreed to do this. Otherwise he would be too busy. But this girl he met in the library reminded him so much of himself... And he thought that teaching somebody may be good for him. She was cute either way. Oh, and then there is the fact that she is a child. And children are Speculo's weakness. Every single one. Ugly or cute, If you are below the age of fourteen, you can get him to do anything. He had requested training her in the canyon because he didn't want other people to figure out about Mirror Magic. To him, it was a powerful magic in combat and didn't want more people to have it. But if he could train somebody, he can select which spells to teach and how they use it. He planned on teaching her intervention and mirror shatter, but if she was ambitious enough he would teach her more. But first, he had to teach her to make the mirrors out of thin air. Time to get to work.

HP: 100% MP: 100%

Link: "Character Magic Bank Katana"

OOC: Woops, sorry. Edited now.

S'okay^.^))

Requirements:

Sorano leapt into a neat, practiced attack position the second she heard Speculo's voice. Recognizing the aura, however, she slowly lowered the dart she had been prepared to stab into her to-be mentor. Now that wouldn't have been good. She could just imagine how the first time she trained with her mentor, she had sent him to the healers'. Not good.

"Spec-Speculo-san," she said, a bit alarmed and annoyed at the same time, "Forgive me, I don't know your surname, but you do know that sneaking up on someone isn't the best of ideas unless it's an enemy. I could have knocked you out with that dart; I'm not a weak mage, you know." She tucked the feathered dart back into her bag, and crossed her arms, then leaned back to look up at the man. It was times like these that she remembered she wasn't as old as everyone else.

Meanwhile, Hoshi hadn't been as prepared as Sorano, tumbling back right into Speculo's face. Now, the poor exceed stood up, shaking herself off and glared at the man. "S-sorano... Why do you always work with scary people?" she wailed, "Only Kinzoku-san and Tykva-san are ever nice to me!" Hoshi was right to be worried. Sorano here was dealing with an independent mage without a guild, who could join either sided affiliation at any time. She had to be cautious.

"You are the teacher, you should know what to do first, Speculo-san, or should I say, Sensei," Sorano shot back, picking the poor exceed up and brushing her off. Hoshi mewed angrily in response, writhing about before dropping to the ground by the letter mage's feet.

OOC: I know had said that he would first teach her how to make mirrors, but now I'm thinking a lot harder about this whole thing and think this is better for right now.

Speculo

"If I thought you were a weak mage, I wouldn't have agreed to train you. I know you could give me a fair fight, but whether one of us is stronger doesn't matter, does it?" He turned to the exceed, kneeling down on one knee. "Hey, you don't bite me, and I won't bite you. I'll be as nice as I can be as a teacher to your friend, I promise." He stood back up. "Now," He took out a small mirror from behind his long coat and held it out to her. "I don't want you to start making your own mirrors quite yet. First, I want you to think of the other side of the mirror. What is beyond it? Inside it? Magic can do just about anything, and making a beyond or an inside is within those limits." He continued. "With your knowledge of creating things with your Script Magic, try making the other side of that mirror a small temporal space, where things can enter. This space you create will not have the laws of physics we have in our world, but it will serve it's purpose." He was trying to teach her the best he could, but he learned from a very detailed book that has long since been lost. And he had no idea how to be a teacher. Another thing that was tripping him up was the fact that he did his spells almost with a lot of thinking of how they worked. But like this, he had to explain things he wasn't sure of himself. But, it sounded right to him.

HP: 100% MP: 100%

Link: "Character Magic Bank Katana"

OOC: That's fine))

Tilting her head to the side, Sorano tried to understand what her mentor had just told her. Creating a temporal space, huh? Solid Script was a very simplistic magic, with absolutely nothing complex at all. It was simply writing a word, and bringing out the full essence of the word with magic. Nothing needed to be created. You only needed a strong, firm knowledge of the word. Still, she supposed mirror magic was different, more illusory than solid magic.

Perhaps she should try to draw a space in her mind, or diagram something real fast and push it into reality? Realizing that this process of thinking was taking way longer than she had thought, Sorano decided to give it a try. However, though she drew the diagram very neatly in her mind, focusing on it and willing it into reality, it didn't seem to work. Apparently mirror magic didn't use things like fancy magic seals and the such. Rethinking her idea, the letter mage ignored the man and exceed beside her, and thought hard. Slowly, she retried it.

She tried the diagram again, but instead of simply willing a space to open, she tried to visualize and manipulate the energy around the area like with as aura, using that part of her she couldn't quite describe. That feeling she always got when using magic. She could feel more of a reaction, but she couldn't quite see if it really was working. She glanced up at Speculo, a question plain in her eyes.

OOC: I'm going to incorporate the auric part of Sorano's mirror magic in, here...))

Nodding coolly at Speculo, Sorano returned her concentration to the mirror. Realizing that doing the whole diagram was too tough on her mind, she cut down on parts that might have been too nit-picky and focused on making the space bigger. She imagined she was reaching her auric hand to the mirror, nearly activating Spirit Warrior, and gouged a deep hole into the mirror. If anyone with auric sight had been around, they would have seen the slightest shadow of aura that was hand-shaped reach from Sorano's normal aura over, and dipping itself into the mirror, being made of magic and energy itself. The little spirit warrioress focused on digging as deep as she could into it, sweat beading on her forehead before releasing slowly.

Opening her eyes, she hadn't even realized she had shut them. She sat back, surprised at how much effort that had taken. She leaned over to peer into the mirror, then blinked in surprise. At first, nothing seemed wrong, until Sorano squinted at it, dimming her auric sight. The colors of her reflected aura still glowed just as brightly!

Turning to Speculo, she pointed at the mirror. "Do you see a glowing ring of color around our reflections?" she asked softly. Hoshi leaned over as well, looking at the glass.

"Whoa Sorano-chan, what's that weird glowing thingy around me?!?!" Hoshi squealed, jumping back.

"I-it's..." No, it was impossible! Only people with auric Magic or special lineage could see auras! "It's an aura?!?!" Sorano gasped softly, watching the shimmering colors. But, she had used her own auric energy to form it, hadn't she?

Her eyes fixed on the mirror, Sorano spoke, "Many types of auras exist in this world. Most commonly known is the magical aura, which all mages can sense to a certain extent. It shows how much magic power one has. The type I can see reveals emotions, and emotions only. Some can see motivations, fears, and more as well, but my mother's side of the family specialized in emotional auras, not the other types. It reveals nothing about personality, though one can sense emotional patterns that allow you to determine aspects of their personality. These patterns also can help you identify people and true forms, since auras tend to varyfrom species and shape. I honestly have no idea how I did that. Perhaps because of the auric magic my mother passed on the me? I don't know. And yes, I can always see them with my bare eyes." Sorano took a long breath and let it out.

Speculo's aura flashed sparks of surprise mostly, but underneath she could see waves of worry. What could he be worrying about, though? Sorano shook her head. She could worry about that later, and he wouldn't know she saw it there, him being so inexperienced with auras. Realizing they were getting off track, the letter mage stood and picked up a larger stone. "Let's see if this even works, first," she said, hurling the rock at the mirror's surface. It began to sink in, and both exceed and girl held their breaths to see what would happen.

The girl quickly dodged the rock, though her exceed was absolutely terrified of it. "Sorano-chan, that's scary!" Hoshi wailed, as usual, Sorano sighed, and patted her friend's head briefly before turning back to Speculo. He was explaining how to make a mirror out of thin air, she frowned. Solid Script was easy for concentrating the energy, since it was something everyday, constantly used: a word. But making something just out of plain old magic? Well, she needed a focal point. Deciding it would be her palm, Sorano concentrated on the word mirror, just like in Solid Script. However, only a faint shimmering of magic in the word "mirror" showed up, since she hadn't written it out.

Nope, concentrating on the word wasn't going to work. Concentrating on the image of a mirror instead? Within her mind, Sorano drew the image of a mirror on her palm, even shading in shines and shadows. Still, the results weren't good. A shimmering shadow of a mirror appeared, but that was it. Only a shadow made of magical energy. She sighed again, tossing that idea.

"It's hard..." she muttered, her brow furrowing in concentration. She gathered the energy again, her magical aura wavering around her, pulling her magical energy towards that location. This time, she basically poured in everything that came to mind when she thought of mirrors, and slammed it down in frustration. However, the result wasn't exactly what she had been pushing for. A weird half-existent half-weird magic gas thingy lump of mirror-like metal appeared above her palm before thunking into it dully and dissipating into magic energy again. "Argh..." she grumbled, before breathing in and out to calm her emotions. She had promised herself years ago to gain complete control of her emotions constantly ever since those fateful days, and she didn't want to break that promise now.

Sorano sighed. It was awfully annoying being reminded to keep her emotions in check. It was especially bad because it brought back memories she would rather forget, the reasons why she always came off as indifferent and aloof. Even while using the magic, she hadn't looked frustrated or anything. She had had to learn to control her emotions after that day, and she had her first mentor to thank that she wasn't some psychopath at the moment.

She built another diagram, something her previous mentor, Anna would have disapproved of. Anna liked abstract, imaginative things, not organized diagrams, but they worked better for Sorano. Concentrating, she went back to the meditation lessons Anna had taught her to keep her emotions in check. She imagined a pool of water pooling in her palm, full of magical energy. She imagined the top freezing, forming the diagram, and the water falling away, freezing her emotions at the same time. When she looked up again, her eyes were as cold and unfeeling as ice and a small, perfectly circular mirror sat in her palm.

"I apologize for my previous immaturity, I do hope you deem my results better this time," she said crisply, every word she said standing at attention. Though Speculo didn't know it, having told her to keep her emotions in check may not have been the best of things. Though learning control had saved her, it had taken two years and a warming, welcoming new guild family for her to slowly let herself socialize and actually talk more to people without sounding like she was reading out of an English grammar manual. Reminders only froze the shield around her heart again.

OOC: Watch as I fill this with random blah to take up spaceand meet word count xP))

Sorano glanced at the mirror in her palm. She showed it to Hoshi, saying, "Hoshi-chan?" The exceed peered into it, and gasped.

"Whoa, Sora-chan, it's so clear! And the floaty color thingies are there too!" the enthusiastic exceed chirped, in stark contrast to her companion's serious attitude. Hoshi could get excited by anything and everything, but scared just as much.

After listening to his instructions, Sorano nodded coolly, glancing down at her mirror. Using the auric hand again, she neatly pierced the mirror's surface and opened her eyes again, feeling the ease of the magic this time. "Speculo-sensei. The magic is much easier with this mirror. Is it because it is made solely of magic? Or is it because it is my own mirror?" she asked, glancing up.

She set her gaze briefly on his aura. All calm there, nothing much. She still didn't trust the mage too much, him being about twice her age and not affiliated with anything that she knew of. Perhaps she shouldn't show him too much of her magic? It might be best to play it safe. Though her very own first mentor was an independent mage, Anna Litbell had been someone she had known already, not some random guy met at a library. At least seeing his aura helped her feel more assured, knowing when his emotions might randomly spike or anything. She analyzed him while pretending to work on her mirror, her calculating eyes scanning his physique and possible weapons. He seemed a good enough fighter, healthy enough, with a katana slung at his waist. A mistake of his was long hair, which could be used for an opponent to grab. After having her hair pulled once, the letter mage had always kept a thorny vine or spiked strap in her hair afterwards. He had rather bland personality, nothing special, either.

OOC: Basically what I have been doing for the past three posts. xD I really hate doing it, because it just takes up a bunch of time.

Speculo

"It's probably because of both. That it's your magic, and it is purely made of magic. You are used to applying properties to things made out of magic, you do it all the time." He put his hands on his lower back, pushing while he bent back a little. A few audible pops were heard. He sighed. "How about we go get something to eat? I can't imagine you doing all this is and not being hungry." He knew when he first did this magic, it was very tiring. And his mother gave him cake after a completed spell. Man, being a kid was great. At least, under the age of 4 for him it was. Man. Now he really wanted cake. Sweet things were his favorite, although he never really expressed it. "Or can you go on? I want you to keep making mirrors. As these will be your primary source for casting mirror spells, you need to be able to make them in an instant." He made a mirror once more, it flashing into his palm in less than a second. He discarded it, it shattering and disappearing, before making another one right away. He couldn't tell if she was tired or not. She always had on such a serious expression on her face and utterly deadpan in her voice. It was getting near noon, and he didn't have much to eat this morning. He hoped she was tired and hungry. Or just hungry, that would work to. Maybe her Exceed was hungry? With their small belly, they couldn't fill up too much, right?

HP: 100% MP: 100%

Link: "Character Magic Bank Katana"

"I see..." she mumbled, looking at the mirror. When he asked about food, she smirked a bit. Food was no worry of hers. "Solid Script: Bento!" she commanded, her hand flashing through the air. The letters hung in the air for a second, before transforming into three neatly packed bento boxes. The only limit to what solid script could do was the words. Of course, the girl could hunt and find edible plants as well, but she didn't know the area well enough to do that quickly. Using magic was much faster, and Solid Script non-combat spells took no energy whatsoever.

"My magic bento contains normal things like rice and fish, but it will also manifest what you want. One serving only, though," she informed him, handing one wrapped box to him and one to Hoshi. She opened hers and took out thin chopsticks before delicately eating the contents. "Sorano-chan's magic bento are yummy!" Hoshi squealed, reaching in with a white paw and nipping out a fish before munching away cheerfully. While eating, Sorano quickly took out a book on ancient magic written in some ancient language or the other and began to read at an amazing rate, her eyes flashing across page after page in a matter of seconds while she ate calmly the whole time. Reading was something she did often during meal breaks or free time. She could have gone on, but she had wanted to finish the three inch wide tome today. At the moment, Speculo didn't exist for all she cared. An earthquake could happen and she wouldn't notice. Letter mages were easily lost in their books, after all.

OOC: Apologizing beforehand for Sora's rudeness...))

Sorano barely heard Speculo asking his question, she was so lost in the book. Hoshi nudged her several times before digging her claws into Sorano's arm. "Sorano-chan! Speculo's asking you a question!" the exceed finally yelled as the letter mage yelped and swatted Hoshi's paw off.

Listening to Speculo's question again, Sorano sighed slowly, uncomfortable with all these questions. She wanted to reveal as little as possible about her magic. "Solid Script's form depends on what is being made. Most forms are made of the letters but there are exceptions to this rule. For example, my lightning spell starts out as the letters madeof lightning before coming together and striking. My water spell as all the droplets together in the word at first, before  striking at the target," she explained, before sticking her nose back into the book.

However, soon something disturbed her line of vision. One of the few things that could get Sorano's nose out of a book was the presence of unusual emotions in the area. Glancing up, the letter mage realized that her mentor's aura had turned a shade of sadness, blotting out the once neutral colors. Looking at his physical form, Sorano could see indeed that a tear had come down his face. She stood abruptly, glaring at him.

"Do you have so little control of your emotions? How are you to set an example for me as your mentor if you are crying in front of your mentee? This is pathetic. How does one survive in this cold, harsh world when they cry over magically manifested food? Look at me. Here I am, a thirteen-year-old girl who doesn't even flinch when she hears things about her whole, entire family that's DEAD. How do you survive out there is my question," Sorano said coldly, her eyes reflecting cold auric fire.

Control of emotions was essential to the girl, and anyone who didn't have control was a disappointment to her. "Sorano-chan, isn't that a bit harsh?" Hoshi whimpered softly, tugging at the letter mage's sandal straps.

"Let's get back to training. I've lost my appetite," Sorano continued, resuming the practice of making mirrors.

OOC: lol, turning into a social thread xD))

Sorano didn't flinch as the man's aura suddenly flared up in anger. She had predicted it would happen, and she didn't resist as her grabbed her by the shoulder, and pushed her down, hard. In fact, she remained completely emotionless, settling herself into a casual, cross-legged position on the ground where he had pushed her. She watched coldly as he vented his anger, yelling and shouting at her. This sort of thing happened a lot, as Sorano wasn't accustomed to how other people thought, her main companions being books. But she could see their emotions clearly enough, and Speculo's was so bright now it hurt her eyes. She could feel hot angry energy building up around him.

"I never said I was better than anyone else. If anything, I'm worse. I let myself down and killed because my own anger blinded me, Speculo-san. Forgive me if I did not explain my reasons thoroughly enough, but as most people, I don't exactly tell just anyone about my past," she replied to his angry comments, almost like a counselor, "But I'm redeeming myself for that mistake now by ensuring it won't happen again."

Now, whilst this was all happening, Hoshi stared in fright, anger, and horror as the man shoved her best friend, her hero, the person who had let poor useless her tag along and even taught her magic to the ground. A slow, deadly rage began to build inside her, and the ground began to quiver as a holy presence seemed to fill the canyon. "Don't. Touch. My. FRIEND!" Hoshi yelled, her voice suddenly magnified throughout the canyon, as if a godly force suddenly spoke through her. Knowing what was about to happen, Sorano tugged hard on Hoshi's tail, saying, "No, Hoshi-chan, I appreciate your help, but it's nothing serious. Nothing you need to call on Mother Nature for." The rumbling, the howling winds, the holy presence all began to fade away, leaving a shaken Hoshi.

"Please, if only for my exceed companion and your own safety, calm down. You accepted me as your mentee. Now I suggest you act as the mentor. I have already apologized. We ought to get on with this before the day is over, and I hope you won't scare Hoshi-chan like that anymore," Sorano said softly, stroking Hoshi to calm the shivering exceed down.

OOC: A little Drama is always good for rp's, no? >:P and Sorano started it.

Speculo

Speculo only sat down, not seeming to care that a minor earthquake just happened. He faced away from her, holding the cake. "Keep making mirrors." He said simply as he continued on the cake, taking small bites to savor it. Sitting away from there was something he wanted to do, and needed to do. That Exceed... What did it have inside of it? It seemed protective of Sorano, but this time it got angry. He felt the magic that it had when it witnessed Speculo practically assaulting her friend, but now it was gone... His eyes had turned from those of sadness and rage to calculating, searching the knowledge he knew for anything that he could think of. All Exceed were magical in some way, most having wings to fly around. But some had special abilities. Sorano had mentioned Mother Nature... was that the cat's ability? Some awesome power bottled up? Only to come out in rage? It was possible... He made two small mirrors, one in each hand, and cast Truth Seer on one. Holding the reflective mirror behind the now opace piece of glass, he cast his eyes to the Exceed behind him in such a way that they wouldn't be able to tell unless they looked closely at him. With the time given between his order for her to keep making mirrors and now, Sorano and her magic is what both of the girls should be focused on. This spell was to show false from truth. All illusions dissipated when looked at through Truth Seer. Any lies would be shown as well as truths. What would he see of the two of them? What would be revealed?

HP: 100% MP: 100%

Link: "Character Magic Bank Katana"

OOC: True LOL))

Nodding coolly at her mentor's response, Sorano began to concentrate hard on her hand once more, slowly forming mirror, shattering them, and repeating the process. She experimented with larger ones, smaller ones, trying out the effects on auras for each. She soon found that giving the mirrors a slight upward curve sharpened the auras, while a downward curve reduced the auric prints.

While concentrating, her auric sense was up high to concentrate auric vision into the mirrors, so she sensed a change in magic and emotion of Speculo without looking at him. Realizing he had cast a spell, Sorano was instantly on guard, her fingers flicking out the letters of a spell in case he assaulted her with Magic. However, nothing harmful came at her, or Hoshi. Well, if it didn't harm them, she only needed to be on guard. She returned to her mirror-making.

What Speculo would see in the mirrors, would probably be less than he expected. Nothing super extravagant or anything, for sure. Maybe some things didn't show on the outside, but could have been inferred from previous knowledge. What he would see in Sorano, was that she seemed to have a glowing white aura that seemed to be half of her. It was just part of her, a part of aura few people had. It was simply proof of her lineage from the warrior who had control of his aura. Hoshi would likely be a but of a letdown for him. She had a normal mage-exceed's appearance, except for one part: She seems to be one with the Elements. When looking at her, she blended so well with the land, you could barely tell she was separate. This would be all Speculo could see.

Sorano raised an eyebrow neatly, not trusting the older mage completely, but didn't press it. She kept the invisible letters floating by her, however, so she wouldn't have to write out the whole thing if anything happened. She'd only have to apply magic. Meanwhile, her bento spell was running out of magical energy to run on. It flickered back into the letters before disappearing altogether. Solid Script spells were tidy, and disappeared after some time. It happened now, quickly.

Reaching out to prod at Speculo's aura, she was relieved to see it had calmed back down to something mostly normal. Well, no need for her to get any more bruises. She had willingly buckled under the weight of his blow so it dealt minimal damage, but it had still hurt.

Turning to Speculo, Sorano snapped her hand up briskly, sketching out the magical seal diagram onto her palm with energy, then smoothing the product neatly. As the rock hurtled towards her, she eyeballed the distance and speed, adjusting the depth of the mirror a bit, working with the force inside that reflected light as well. The rock sank into it just a bit, before bouncing back towards Speculo.

Once Sorano learned something, she didn't forget it. Glancing over at Speculo, she asked, "Was that quite acceptable, Speculo-sensei?" It was quite infuriating for her to call this mage "sensei", after training under the watchful eye of the high-ranked teenage mage Anna Litbell. She hadn't been able to imagine anyone could ever live up to the innovative blonde mage.