Markus stood on the deck taking practice swings at the horizon in the distance, the shower of stars more numerous than anyone had even created a number for. After a while of writing Ellianora stopped, looking up from her work to watch his efforts, smooth arcing swings delivered with absolute certainty and self-assuredness. A step, a swing, a swing and a step, he moved across the deck in a flowing pattern like the water neath the ship or a cloud through a mountain. It struck her how similar it was to a ballroom dance, not the simple kind that were taught to children but the real professional kind, where the motion and direction changed multiple times in the space of a single note. Ellianora had always loved watching skilled people perform their craft, there was a quality in the way they moved, and the way they looked at the world that captivated her attention every time, gripping her with the desire to ask them about their efforts and knowledge. Markus’s eyes were interesting too, they caught the light and sent out perfect reflections of his blue irises, giving a sense of night vision, like a cat or an owl. He scanned the boat as he moved, when his gaze passed over her, she realized that she’d been staring, not that he seemed to care, but she quickly went back to her work. I wonder… she thought to herself, but she didn’t really finish the thought before she was distracted by his voice.
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Markus moved through the motions, as he had thousands of times before and would inevitably do thousands more. He felt the wall in his progress, taunting him, he felt the limit of his capabilities, there was no harder swing, no swifter motion for him to make, something he had to be missing to match the heights he knew were there. He sighed and let the blade hang to the side in his hand, taking the opportunity to scan the deck. Ellianora happened to be looking at him at the same time, so she caught his eye a split second before she scooted her knees up to bring the textbook closer to her face. Maybe I just need some magic boosts, he turned his head back to the sky. No, that wouldn’t help, he reasoned, when all else fails you only have your own strength to fall back on. He gripped the hilt again to resume his swings when he noticed something, the seven moons were far apart tonight, allowing the spray of stars to fill the majority of the sky, except toward the front of the ship. He squinted his eyes, peering over the dark waters, the waves caught the moon and starlight in their crests allowing the silver light to reach his eyes from afar. Way off, barely noticeable, a black splotch sat on the horizon, he watched as its edge expanded slowly swallowing the pinpricks of light as it went. Fog, he realized, but at night? It's nowhere close to morning yet. He had a hunch, and he hoped he was wrong.
He looked over at Ellianora, “Hey,” he got her attention.
She poked her head up from the book a little startled, “Yeah?”
“You got any way to check if something’s magic from a distance?”
She thought for a moment, “I can take a look at ambient movements and see if there’s anything unnatural.”
He nodded and pointed at the fog cloud, “You check that out?” he asked.
She turned her head and squinted, “Well, I can try.” She stood up and extended her arm, as magic circles shimmered gently existence laid perpendicular to her fingertips.
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Markus looked at the sigils, any creature that possessed the capacity for magic could inherently understand the runes meaning. He couldn’t read them from birth like others could, but he had a sort of inherent tugging in his stomach that gave him a natural basis for learning the language. He’d studied it for years till it was like learning a second language, and for his effort barely reached a level of understanding where he could identify most single words at a glance, and the rest by feel. As the three concentric circles appeared he identified the runes. Her innermost circle held five in a plus shape, the topmost was thin, fragile, and barely visible as if it would dissipate at a touch Air. Clockwise to it was a bright rune that gave a sense of danger it wavered and sparked, Flame. The bottom rune was formed of right angles, it seemed heavy and immovable Rock. The far-left rune seemed to fluctuate it was written with no edges and surged in a pattern, Water. The center rune shifted and changed, it bounced in place as if contained in its location, was erratic and unpredictable, the rune of raw magic energy, Arcanum.
The second ring had six sigils in it, the most out of all her circles. Spaced evenly apart around the center, he watched them appear. The first was small, minuscule in fact, before blooming out to be the largest one, the symbol was written so that it started from the center and expanded outwards, Blast. The next one seemed to dim the lines confining it, itself fading until barely legible, Negate. Her third rune was boxy, the only one written in three dimensions, the rune itself thick enough to block vision of the others, Wall. Ellianora’s fourth rune in the circle seemed to be made from the air itself, condensing it into glowing strands to form its name, Imbue. The second to last sigil began to appear, only to twist into a replica of Rock, then back to its original shape before changing again, this time into Wall, only when it return to its own identity again did he catch it, Form. Her final rune appeared by slamming into the circle that contained it, landing with directed and tangible force, Strike.
The outermost circle she had access to only contained four items. First was a rather innocuous rune, written with a singular exterior point, it seemed simple and direct, Bolt. Second was a wide rune which when look through, seemed to reach off into the distance with its long hollow shape, Beam. Next was a simple letter pictograph that lightly and gently bounced off of the lines of the circles, Touch. The last sigil was fixed in space, refusing to move or change, Place.
As Markus watched the symbols appear, Ellianora placed a finger on one of the sigils, drawing a glowing line as she dragged her finger over the symbols she wanted, Arcanum > Imbue > Touch. She pushed two fingers into the center of the circle, activating the spell. The ring folded inward on her fingers, leaving them glowing a soft purple. She closed her eyes and gently rubbed the effect onto her eyelids, letting the slightly irritating effect settle before opening them.
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“Well?” he, asked. She’d been squinting at the horizon for about 3 minutes and not said anything yet.
“Don’t rush me, it's really far away” she muttered, “and dark.”
“yeeeaah, it's magic alright” she finally concluded, “and it's not natural either. It's moving in a pattern and at way to steady of a pace.”
“that’s not good,” Markus turned toward the ship, “I’ll alert the crew, keep an eye on it, would you?”
She nodded, not taking her glowing eyes off the approaching cloud.