Yaralon
75th Ashan, 719
75th Ashan, 719
Perched cross-legged atop the roof of the temple of Charmadarst, Tio observed the city of Yaralon below. There was a great view of the people bustling about their lives from up here; it was like watching a colony of ants. He could have watched them for hours, had he not come all the way up here for a reason.
Master Thena had told him many secrets about the power of the attunement spark before he left Scalvoris, but without her here with him it was up to him to discover those powers for himself. There were two powers that she claimed a beginner attuner could learn to do with their spark: spells known as Static and Compass. Static granted the attuner the ability to disrupt powers that sought to scan and reveal information about something, and Compass allowed them to sense the direction and distance between them and a frequency they were attuned to. He planned to learn both of these spells today with the help of his old enemy: meditation.
Tio let his eyes drift shut and slowly started to bring his attention inwards, letting the noise of the city beneath him fade away into the background. His breathing became slow and deep as he calmed his normally eccentric mind and allowed all stray thoughts to float away. He called upon his attunement spark and fed ether into it, smiling as he felt it hum with energy in reply. It was ready to follow his will.
He turned the spark in on himself, wishing to hear the sounds of his own frequency. His spark obeyed, and a noise began to grow inside his head, growing louder and more complex with each passing trill.
The first thing that caught his attention was how damn fast his frequency was! The tempo it sang to was quick and flighty, like a snare drum setting the pace for a marching band where everyone was sprinting. The notes of his magics accompanied his soul's frequency in their own ways; necromancy as a slow, haunting flute; defiance as a similarly fast electrical cackle; and attunement as a steady, gentle harp. They would have made a beautiful noise altogether, where it not for the cacophony of discordant notes that interrupted them: the notes of his many curses. Those granted by Delroth howled noisily like the wind in an attempt to drown his tune out, whereas those given by Syora were short and oh so seductive, trying to draw the attention away with whispered whistles. Cassion's curse was the sole exception, for it seemed happy to play it’s own steady drumbeat at it’s own pace and not give a damn about anything else. All together the frequency, his frequency, was almost painfully noisy to listen to.
But he wasn't here to listen to himself all day. He increased the trickle of ether he fed into his attunement spark, feeling it fire up more with quiet power, and willed its harp-like note to spread across the other notes. The attunement frequency began to ripple out wildly across the rest of his frequencies, making them each turn a little distorted and wonky sounding. It wasn't much, but there was definitely a slight change from how it had been before. He was on the right track: now he had to keep practicing.
Time started to fly by as Tio continued to practice. Trills became bits, bits became breaks, and soon the sun has passed its halfway point and heralded the arrival of the afternoon. Yet the time was well spent, for by that time Tio had become able to warp his frequency to such an extent that it was no longer recognisable as his own. His spark wasn't strong enough to distort it any more than that, so he supposed he'd have to leave it there.
Secondly was Compass. Tio hopped down from the roof of the temple back onto the street, using a stack of boxes piled up against the wall as makeshift stairs. He'd attuned himself to his temporary campsite earlier, and had deliberately gotten himself good and lost on the way here. His goal was a simple one: navigate his way back to camp using only his spark.
Tio began to walk, paying attention only to the frequency of his campsite through his spark. It was simple in theory: since his mind perceived frequencies as a sound then all he had to do was follow the direction the sound came from. In practice it was… trickier. The frequency seemed to echo or move about at times as his spark tried to adjust to giving distance and directions, resulting in his having to backtrack or suddenly change direction quite a few times.
It wasn't until the sun had sunk beneath the horizon and the moons had risen into its place that Tio finally arrived back at camp. He was pretty sure that he'd wandered across every square inch of the city, and the soles of his feet felt like they’d been rubbed with sandpaper. But the discomfort was worth it, for his attunement spark had finally been able to complete its challenge. He could now, at a basic level at least, use Compass.
Master Thena had told him many secrets about the power of the attunement spark before he left Scalvoris, but without her here with him it was up to him to discover those powers for himself. There were two powers that she claimed a beginner attuner could learn to do with their spark: spells known as Static and Compass. Static granted the attuner the ability to disrupt powers that sought to scan and reveal information about something, and Compass allowed them to sense the direction and distance between them and a frequency they were attuned to. He planned to learn both of these spells today with the help of his old enemy: meditation.
Tio let his eyes drift shut and slowly started to bring his attention inwards, letting the noise of the city beneath him fade away into the background. His breathing became slow and deep as he calmed his normally eccentric mind and allowed all stray thoughts to float away. He called upon his attunement spark and fed ether into it, smiling as he felt it hum with energy in reply. It was ready to follow his will.
He turned the spark in on himself, wishing to hear the sounds of his own frequency. His spark obeyed, and a noise began to grow inside his head, growing louder and more complex with each passing trill.
The first thing that caught his attention was how damn fast his frequency was! The tempo it sang to was quick and flighty, like a snare drum setting the pace for a marching band where everyone was sprinting. The notes of his magics accompanied his soul's frequency in their own ways; necromancy as a slow, haunting flute; defiance as a similarly fast electrical cackle; and attunement as a steady, gentle harp. They would have made a beautiful noise altogether, where it not for the cacophony of discordant notes that interrupted them: the notes of his many curses. Those granted by Delroth howled noisily like the wind in an attempt to drown his tune out, whereas those given by Syora were short and oh so seductive, trying to draw the attention away with whispered whistles. Cassion's curse was the sole exception, for it seemed happy to play it’s own steady drumbeat at it’s own pace and not give a damn about anything else. All together the frequency, his frequency, was almost painfully noisy to listen to.
But he wasn't here to listen to himself all day. He increased the trickle of ether he fed into his attunement spark, feeling it fire up more with quiet power, and willed its harp-like note to spread across the other notes. The attunement frequency began to ripple out wildly across the rest of his frequencies, making them each turn a little distorted and wonky sounding. It wasn't much, but there was definitely a slight change from how it had been before. He was on the right track: now he had to keep practicing.
Time started to fly by as Tio continued to practice. Trills became bits, bits became breaks, and soon the sun has passed its halfway point and heralded the arrival of the afternoon. Yet the time was well spent, for by that time Tio had become able to warp his frequency to such an extent that it was no longer recognisable as his own. His spark wasn't strong enough to distort it any more than that, so he supposed he'd have to leave it there.
Secondly was Compass. Tio hopped down from the roof of the temple back onto the street, using a stack of boxes piled up against the wall as makeshift stairs. He'd attuned himself to his temporary campsite earlier, and had deliberately gotten himself good and lost on the way here. His goal was a simple one: navigate his way back to camp using only his spark.
Tio began to walk, paying attention only to the frequency of his campsite through his spark. It was simple in theory: since his mind perceived frequencies as a sound then all he had to do was follow the direction the sound came from. In practice it was… trickier. The frequency seemed to echo or move about at times as his spark tried to adjust to giving distance and directions, resulting in his having to backtrack or suddenly change direction quite a few times.
It wasn't until the sun had sunk beneath the horizon and the moons had risen into its place that Tio finally arrived back at camp. He was pretty sure that he'd wandered across every square inch of the city, and the soles of his feet felt like they’d been rubbed with sandpaper. But the discomfort was worth it, for his attunement spark had finally been able to complete its challenge. He could now, at a basic level at least, use Compass.
