The sixth day of travel began as a quiet one. For the first time since the Gaping Maw set sail across the lake, Iris had the day off. Technically, she still had to perform routine checks on a few of the sails, but she made quick work of it with the use of her blips. With her only tasks completed before midday, Iris blipped down to the cargo hold, set up a lantern, and turned her attention towards the books the librarian had given her. While she read, Littletooth scampered around the cargo hold, occasionally bumping into or bumbling off of crates.
The first of the books was The Intricate Mechanisms of Magic and Reality, Volume 1, which contained dense and hard to decipher knowledge of the finer workings of reality and beyond. She was quite fond of this one, as she frequently imagined herself secluded in a tower one day investigating the deepest secrets of existence. This was perhaps the most valuable addition to her book collection so far, and she had no doubt it would serve her well for years to come. For now, however, it remained too advanced for her to truly understand most of what she read, so she placed it aside.
The next book was titled Reality for Fools, which included extremely simplified interpretations of some of the same knowledge to be found in the previous book. It was a good starting part for the average person to learn interesting factoids about more esoteric and complex topics than they would otherwise be exposed to, but the author had made a point to emphasis that many liberties had to be taken during the process of translating the knowledge of ancient scholars into language that a normal person could understand. It didn't necessarily serve as a precursor to more advanced books, as it focused primarily on disconnected but intriguing topics rather than foundational knowledge.
The last book was the one she was most excited for in the moment, A Layman's Introduction to Wizards, Witches, and Threadbearers. Quickly deciding this was the one she wanted to read, she returned the others to her bag, took a seat against a large wooden crate, and cracked it open.
The distinction between witches and wizards is often argued to great length in scholarly circles, primarily amongst wizards themselves -- who often find it necessary to insist upon their distinctions from other classes of magic. Witches, for their part, are typically less concerned with such distinctions, having perhaps a greater concern for their work rather than how it is perceived.
The most common argument for the distinction between the two classes is made by highlighting the differences in ultimate goals, and the pursuit (or lack thereof) of greater, more intricate knowledge of invisible mechanisms. Witches tend to focus primarily on practical results, notating which herbs when mixed under what conditions create which particular effects. A wizard, on the other hand, is more likely to be concerned with why those herbs, mixed under those conditions, create those effects. While a witch mixes herbs to discern useful new combinations, a wizard mixes herbs to discern to the true and undeniable nature of said herbs -- and perhaps stumbles upon some useful effects along the way.
More broadly speaking, a trait that often distinguishes wizardry from other classes of magic is an unquenchable desire to push boundaries. While a witch may be content to master the spells and potions of their lineage, or a sorcerer may dedicate decades to the mastery of their skills and abilities in their intended use, a wizard relentlessly pursues creative application of their skills through the stretching and bending of perceived limitations and capabilities. It is said that a wizard left to their own devices with a single ability, which an adventure journal may interpret as having only a single effect, will soon discern a thousand ways to use it. A common piece of wisdom amongst wizards is that the only known limit to the depth of an ability is the user's dedication to discovery.
Iris attempted to keep reading, but the previous paragraph lingered too loudly in her consciousness. She had experimented somewhat with her abilities so far, and even discovered a few traits that weren't previously noted by her adventure journal, but life had moved far too quickly for her to truly dedicate substantial time to the effort.
"Fuck it," she said to herself, clapping the book shut and deciding that now was as good a time as any. She pulled out her adventure journal instead, and briefly reviewed her ability descriptions.
Spatial Distortion
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : Low, varies
Description :
Lapse into the void behind reality and reappear a short distance away, in an unobstructed location of your choosing. Mana cost increases exponentially with distance traveled.
Discovered trait : other beings can brought through the void with you, however this results in extremely high mana cost.
Special Use : Emergency Exit
Cooldown : 30 days
Mana cost : All
Description:
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In the event of imminent death, lapse into the void behind reality and reappear an extreme distance away. Activates automatically, location cannot be chosen.
Available Evolutions : 0
Send and Retrieve
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : Low, varies
Description :
Temporarily lapse an object into the void, reappearing a short distance away in a location of your choosing, with a velocity and direction of your choosing. Max velocity is approximately the speed at which user could throw the affected item. Cannot be used on items that too large or heavy to be lifted by the user. Cannot be used on items worn or held by others.
Discovered trait : can be used on other living beings at extremely high mana costs. Mana cost is dependent on physical makeup of the target being.
Available Evolutions : 0
Awareness of Matter
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : None
Description :
Sense the pressure which matter exerts on the void. Range scales with Spirit Attribute. Perceived detail scales with Intellect Attribute.
Available Evolutions : 0
Being the most recently acquired, Awareness of Matter was currently her least explored ability, and seemed like a good place to start. She brainstormed for a while about how she might experiment with it, and felt kind of stupid when a solution finally came to her. It had -- quite literally -- been all around her the entire time: crates. She was surrounded by crates, each of which contained unknown contents which she could, in theory, discern with her ability.
Placing aside her journal, she reached out with both hands towards a small crate nearby and blipped it into her arms. She shook it gently, then placed her ear against it and rocked it side to side like a child trying to guess the content of a present before opening it. She heard what sounded like many small balls tumbling around, and then quickly chastised herself for cheating, reminding herself that the goal was to use her ability, not simply to guess what was inside.
Closing her eyes to focus, she held the crate in her lap as she reached out with her ability. At first she felt only the outer boundaries of the crate, followed by the thickness of the wood, and finally the empty gaps within. She titled the box and many of the tiny spheres within tumbled to one side, movement which she sensed as clearly as she heard. She continued this process for a while longer, focusing as closely on her ability as possible until she was able to discern the movement of an individual sphere, and eventually several at a time. It seemed to be a good exercise, and she guessed that if she made a habit of it she would eventually develop a detailed sense of dozens of spheres at once. She decided she would do this again some time, but at the moment curiosity about what exactly the tiny spheres were was gnawing at her.
The crate made a solid thunk as she placed on the floor in front of her and shooed away a curious Littletooth sniffing at the corner. Though the crate was nailed shut, that was no obstacle for her Strength attribute, and she promptly pried off the lid with her hands. The inside was lined with a scrap of burlap, and filled about three quarters full with small, dark grey metal spheres. She picked one up between two finger tips and inspected it closely. It looked not unlike a tiny cannonball. Unable to discern its purpose from appearance alone, she used her ability to search for the depths of the spheres for any scrap of paper that might be a note, and found nothing. Finally, she thought to check all the sides of the crate for a label, which she found on the underside -- or what might have actually been the top, she wasn't sure -- as she held the open crate over her head and craned her neck upwards. It read "BULLETS" in large, stenciled lettering.
"What's a bullet?" she asked the nearby Littletooth as if he would know. He angled his head curiously before stomping over for chin scratches.
After scratching Littletooth for a moment, Iris shrugged and returned the lid to the crate -- sliding the nails into their previous holes and hammering it down with a fist until it felt secure. She returned the crate to its rightful spot, and then meandered around until she settled in front of a large, flat crate leaning against a stack of even larger, cube-shaped crates. It only took a moment for her to confidently guess the contents as sails, as she had grown quite familiar with their texture throughout her work on the ship.
That thought caught her attention -- she could discern the texture of the sails within the crate, which was a feature of objects she didn't usually sense. She focused on this as she experimented with a few other crates and found that she couldn't sense the texture of most objects. One small crate in particular, however, she was pretty certain contained stacks of paper. Her assumption was based in no small part on the texture of the paper, which she could sense almost as clearly as if touching it with her own hands. Curiously, she blipped over to her adventure journal and reviewed the ability description again. She watched in delight as new markings appeared on the page, and slowly shifted to form the letters of a newly discovered trait.
Awareness of Matter
Source : Thread of Power (Void)
Cooldown : N/A
Mana cost : None
Description :
Sense the pressure which matter exerts on the void. Range scales with Spirit Attribute. Perceived detail scales with Intellect Attribute.
Discovered trait : Greater detail can be discerned on material familiar to the user.
Available Evolutions : 0
It was a small discovery, and not immediately all that useful, but it was a discovery all the same, and she pumped a fist in the air with a triumphant smile. She imagined dedicating countless hours to experimentation and study and filling pages of her journal with discovered traits. In her excitement, she almost missed another promising development -- her experience points had gone up slightly. This wasn't necessarily surprising, as training was known to be a way to gain experience, and the gain in this case had been miniscule at best, but seeing as she was trapped on a boat without any monsters to fight, she found the promise of an alternate avenue to advancement quite encouraging.