• Mature • I Mark Thee (Graded)

[Kasoria]

13th Trial, Ashan, 719
Orm'del Sea
Southwest of Volta

Continued from here

"I really don't know about this."

"It's not that complicated."

"That's not what I mean."

"I know."

"I could kill you!"

"Aye, that's a possibility."

Legonne studied that leathery old face for any sigh of jest. His eyes roved the sharp cheekbones, the high brow, the chin dusted with stubble and most of all, eyes black as his hair and the metal of that cutlass at his belt. All he saw in the last was his own reflection, staring back at him with incredulous eyes. This man was serious, and nothing more. By his tone and manner, Legonne wondered if he'd ever told a joke in his life. He rubbed a hand over his mouth and shook his head.

"I... I don't know-"

"I'll double my offer."

"It's not about the money."

"Nonsense," the man snorted, with all the disbelief one would expect from an Etzori, born and raised in a city similarly forged from endless mercantilism. "It's all about money, and whether or not you'll get to spend it."

"Look, I'm-"

There was a metallic thunk as a bag of coins hit the deck between them. Legonne looked down at it from atop his barrel. It was... large. Half the size of a fist. Maybe a third what he was getting paid for this voyage, if he had to guess. Paid to do what came naturally to him, if truth be told. To allow his Spark and the friendships he'd made with the elements around him to be conjured, harnessed, and put to practical use. Now he was being offered yet more, and for... quite a simple task, really.

And possibly a fatal one.

"How do I know you'll be able to handle this?" He said suddenly. He almost blurted out the words, tugging fretfully at his short red beard, seasickness forgotten. "If your barrier is weak, or malformed, for even a few-"

Kasoria decided that words would not longer be of use in this negotiation. All the words in the world couldn't take some people out of their reservations; sometimes it was best to show them your point. He glanced around briefly as the hedge mage kept babbling about the risks. The deck of the Lucky Lady was alive with activity, if not especially lively, as it were. Always some work needing to be done, but the crew were pacing themselves. Kasoria realized that they'd not seen his magic, yet. Oh, they knew he was a right little shit with his bare hands and a blade, but a mage as well?

This should be interesting.

"-and that's not even taking into consideration the... the..."

Legonne's words deserted him as the little man raised his arm, and something started to happen. Light oozed out from it, like mist back-lit by a dozen massive candles. It glowed and pulsed and spread up and across and yet there was a mind to it. No, not a mind... his mind. The mage spared a brief glance at Kasoria's face, but then he was entranced anew by the magic he was working. The little man had told him he needed "help" with his magic, comparing it to the sparring he'd done trials before with that big thug Kilmain. Legonne had smiled and humored the man. Wondered what trinkets of mystic knowledge he might know that he may have been told were arcane lore.

Now he saw how wrong he was, as the man they called "Mister Thagoras" formed and hardened the glowing energy into a construct about two feet across. Fastened to his forearm like a buckler shield. Opaque like thick, hard ice. Legonne reached out without even knowing, then caught himself and looked up again. Kasoria gave a half-smile and nodded. His finger's continued and-

"... oh, my."

It was like touching lightning, trapped behind glass. Like caressing a thunderstorm, casked and corked within a barrel. Ethereal and terrestial all at once; a shield that could deflect a blade or a mace, yet was made from stuff drawn and fashioned from a man's very soul. Legonne drew back his hand and as he did, Kasoria breathed out... and the Shield dissipated into the wind. A gust caught it as the ship crested another wave, blowing the lightning mist into nothingness.

He looked around. The scrubbing had stopped. The sellswords stared. Even Captain Senter was watching with a hanging jaw. He snorted and turned back to the mage, spreading his hands.

"Convinced?"

Legonne took the money.

[Kasoria]

There was no way they could do this nonchalantly. There were plenty of chores and duties to be attended to on the Lucky Lady. Sailors were used to busy lives, for their tasks were often essential, even life-preserving. From slopping out the shit-buckets to repairing the sails to sentry duty to those brave few that allowed themselves to be dangled over the side and scrubbed the barnacles... everyone had a duty. Everyone had a task. If you didn't, you weren't crew, you were cargo, or passenger, and Captain Senter didn't have the patience for the latter.

But Kasoria was a sellsword; his duty was no immediate, but to be proven by an uncertain future, and his more menial tasks were accomplished. Legonne was a mage, and while he had a few other chores the captain assigned to him, most of his work was... well, magical. Conjuring or warding off winds. More importantly than that, reading the waves to discern the potentials for storms and squalls... and most of all, separately salt from seawater to refill their drinking barrels.

Everyone had a task, save these two men. Who stood across from each other on the main deck, preparing in ways that lit their hands like lanterns and drew the eye without even trying. Even Captain Senter was watching them from next to the wheel, arms crossed, expression hard.

"Long as you don't fuck up my lady, I don't care what you do," he'd told them both when they explained what they'd be doing. He hadn't even looked up from his chart. "Second you scorch up anything on her, though, I won't be happy."

Is he ever?

Kasoria made a little growling noise as he shook the thought away. Now was not the time for idle musings. The mage opposite him had been communing with his own power - the power of the very elements - for far longer than he. He'd seen Legonne coax water out of the sea, into barrels, then painstakingly boil and sift the salt away from it. He'd even managed to save the white powder for the ship's cook. He'd seen the skinny young man summon all his will and grit and hurl what seemed like a gale into the sails of the Lucky Lady, speeding her through slow waters and still skies.

The Etzori had been impressed. And he'd spied an opportunity.

"Y'know what they're doin'?"

The helmsman hissed his question to Senter, but Kasoria still heard the whisper of it, over the wood and water and softly blowing air. His eyes were closed as he delved into his Spark; hands clenched and drawn into himself, as if he were pulling something closer... only it was pulling something up. As he stood there, eyes closed and heartbeat steady, those around him could see the glow in his arms start to pulse. Just like before, it started to drift and ooze out of him. Formed a dome-like barrier in front of the little man, like a man-sized bowl protecting him from the soles of his feet to a few inches over his head. Through the shimmer barrier, he saw Legonne spread his arms wide and then-

Mortal Fucking Blood...

There was fire in the air. Not flying through it, not hurled by the warlike constructs of man, not lightning or burning hail like in the godly tales of old. One moment there was nothing but clear blue sky over Legonne's shoulders, and then... flames. Balls of fire, spitting and grumbling as they feed on some unseen core. Legonne seemed far less awkward now, with his skinny frame and scraggly beard and thin face. Shadows were deep on his expression now, and Kasoria could swear he saw a burst of bright orange rage across his eyes, just as he settled into a definite combat stance... and bought the balls together.

"Sure about this?"

Kasoria clenched his jaw and matched his stance. Left hand out, maintaining the Barrier already made. Right hand cocked back as if to launch a blow, already crackling with his Spark. Already he could feel that indefatigable ache in his bones, beyond his bones. But he was ready, and nodded. Legonne nodded back, and with a yell-

The crew watching yelped as if with one voice when the tide of fire roared across the deck. A pillar of it, smashed down from vertical to horizontal, exploding out from Legonne's hands and towards Kasoria. Who saw it, through the Barrier. Saw it growing larger and brighter like some vast, divine predator made up of the elements alone. And just before it hit the Barrier, his right arm shot forwards, injecting another dose of ether into the Barrier that seemed to make it glow every brighter-

-the noise was impossible, unnatural, and unmistakable. It was every sound of roaring flame meeting quenching water every man had ever heard, only so much louder. The pillar smashed into the Barrier and Kasoria grunted. He could feel layers of the barrier being pulled away, burned off, like flames burning through a wooden shield. He pressed more and more of his Spark into it, and as he did... he closed his eyes.

Remember this, he ordered himself, mind's voice calm while the efforts of hos body cast him as stained and grunting. Remember how this feels. This... Defiance. Know the scent of it, the touch of it, the nature. Just like that old bitch in the catacomb told you.

A smile, slow and sly, crept over his face as he opened his eyes. Flames snarling and burning around the edges of the barrier. Then it died. The barrier was holding; his etheric shield was being properly fed, properly maintained... but it wasn't enough. Not large enough. The flames were starting to curl around them and singe his clothes, scorching teeth biting into his flesh. Both his hands curled into claws as he forced more ether into it-

-then a tremor ran through him, like the aftereffects of a hammer blow between the eyes. A great and awful tremble that drove him down to his knees. Legonne saw the little man fall, but knew he'd not be able to snuff out his flames immediately. The pillar of fire seemed to bellow as if in victory, snaking around the dying Barrier-

-until Kasoria roared and threw out his arms to the sides, extending and ripping the barrier in two, elongating it for a few trills longer, blocking it entirely-

-last desperate effort obliterating the Barrier before him-

-but not before Legonne snapped his hands down to the deck and strangled the conjured fire. The air between them was just that again; empty space, flecked with sea spray and the stink of burned oxygen. But there was smoke around Kasoria now. A thin drift of fog that all men were peering through. Legonne took a step forwards, as the fog cleared... and there stood the Etzori mage. Shrugging off his jacket that smoked and glowed at the cuffs. Revealing forearms scorched and angry with redness in odd places. Even his hair seemed singed and puffing faint grey trails into the air.

"Are... Are you-"

Kasoria snapped his hands out to the sides. Ash pattered onto the deck. Burned or not, harmed or not, his eyes did not waver... and as his fists formed again, the glow returned to them.

"Again."

[Kasoria]

"No."

"For fuck's sake, I'm fine-"

"Not fire, not again."

"Fates, man, I'm-"

"I didn't say we were stopping!"

Legonne's raised voice was enough to stop Kasoria's next snarled retort. He wasn't just an awkward figure in red to the little man now; he knew his quality, his power... and yes, his courage. To stand his ground and dictate terms, despite knowing what Kasoria was capable of. Then again, he thought with some dark amusement, if I could cook a man alive with a flick of a twist, I'd have some iron in me, too.

"What, then?"

The mage smiled. Never a good sign, with them. They always looked like they knew something you didn't, something big and nasty, and most times they were right. The mage wiped the sweat from his face and extended his arms. At his wordless command, tendrils of water rose from either side of the Lucky Lady. Like tentacles from some vast monster under the vessel. He drew his hands together and the tendrils hovered and writhed over him. Came together over his head and as his hands weaved and danced and gestured, flowed around him in shimmering bands.

"Water," the mage said, voice betraying only a hint of strain. "Less likely to burn you up if your Barrier breaks again."

Kasoria nodded. Fair enough.

He squared his feet on the deck and held up his hands, palms up, facing each other. He drew from his Spark and forced the ether out of the star-shaped scars on his palms. First two searching tendrils, then they came together into a ball... growing... expanding... until he turned them outwards and the ball flattened and blossomed into a-

"Hmmm," Legonne said with a nod of respect. "Better idea."

It wasn't the flat, shield-like Barrier he'd used before. With swept-back edges that fire could glance off but then still come around to get at him. This time it was like a bowl, or a cone, edges curved outwards. Kasoria's brow knotted as he forced the shape into being, like a sculptor with stubborn clay. After a few moments it was blocking him entirely from Legonne's eyes. Edges crackling but the body of it... solid.

"Now!"

Legonne gave a grunt and heaved his hands outwards. The serpents of water flew at Kasoria and smacked straight into the Barrier with the force of a geyser. The little man shifted his feet at the impact, feeling it not in his arms or his hands, but his whole body. This was the nature of Abrogation: the conflict of two ethers, or two Sparks, warring against each other for dominance. One mage trying to exert his will over another... who would deploy his own to stop him.

A little more...

The crew wasn't working anymore. To a man, they were watching the duel taking place before them. Stuttering, seasick Legonne, revealed for what he was. Feet planted hard and steady on the deck, face set in an unyielding grimace of effort. A literal wave of water obeyed his commands, appearing now from the very air to pour at Kasoria's Barrier, which pulsed and glowed and absorbed the energy. This time, it didn't lap around the edges of his defenses. Now what wasn't absorbed was flung back at Legonne, though not with much force. And behind it all, heedless of his audience, Kasoria focused and forced and conjured and... learned.

He closed his eyes. Yes... he could feel it now. Not just the universal texture of ether, of magic, that a mage could feel the ghost of whenever a spell was cast around him. This was Defiance, very particularly. The elements of the world, shackled or persuaded to the will of a mage. He let the feel of it soak into his own Spark. A part of himself, he knew. One that was always there, that had no voice... but still he spoke to it.

This is the one, he whispered to that vast throbbing well. This is the one we've seen a hundred times. The magic so famed in stories and legends, in tales and plays. For every mage skilled in Attunement or Empathy or whatever the fuck else there is, there are ten Defiers. This is the most... common. This is the one that you'll likely see the most of.

His eyes snapped open. Even through the tsunami of water and the pulsing Barrier, Legonne swore he could see the little man smile... and clench his hands back into fists.

The Defier gasped as he felt something change. The Barrier was weakening; he could sense it through the fire hoses of water he was launching against it. He could tell, from arcs of experience, how it was thinning, battered and worn away like rock was by waves. But now it was strengthening again. Not just from "Mister Thagoras" putting more effort in. No, this was the difference between a shield of wood and a shield of bronze. This was a singular strength. Cast and crafted for just this discipline.

"Nemesis," the Defier whispered, and lowered his arms.

The waters died. The thick column of it splashed down to the deck and soaked into the wood. But the Barrier remained standing. Until Kasoria slowly opened his fists, and swept his hands down in the universal gesture of "enough". Then it flickered out of reality like a candle puffed by the wind. There he was, still standing... until he toppled down to one knee. The Defier hurried over and reached out-

"No!"

-Kasoria's hand shot up, trembling and shaking and scorched but still commanding. He bowed his head and screwed his eyes shut. Fates... it still fucking hurt. Every time, it fucking hurt. Great pain or minor agonies, it would always cost to use this power. The eternal, inescapable balance of magic. It was wondrous and implacable and impossible... but it wasn't for free. His head pounding and his limbs shaking, Kasoria finally got to his feet. He swayed and when he started to fall again, the Defier was there to catch his arm.

Mister Thagoras chuckled dryly, a black little irony considering what he'd just been fighting. He looked up into the younger man's concerned eyes and patted his bicep.

"Have t'wait a while, 'fore we do that again."

Legonne smiled back, tilting his head to the side. "You've found your Nemesis, then?"

Kasoria straightened up and nodded. He didn't have long. Only a few trills before it happened. But long enough to wink and say, "Seemed like a good choice."

Then he bolted for the side and puked like a drunkard.

Concluded here

[Strange]

Thread Review

• Kasoria

Kasoria

Skill Points: +10 (can be used for Abrogation)
Magic XP: Yes (Abrogation)

Renown: +5 (for sparring with flamboyant magics in front of the crew)

Injuries/Overstepping: Tenderness on forearms due to mild burns.
Wealth Points: None
Loot: None

Skill Knowledge:

• Abrogation: Learning the feel of Defiance ether
• Abrogation: Using Martial Arts Gestures to Get a Better Feel for Casting
• Abrogation: Choosing Defiance as your Nemesis
• Abrogation - Nemesis: Doubles the Power of the Abrogative Ether Used Against It
• Abrogation - Barrier: Can Be Bowl- or Cone-shaped
• Persuasion: Show, Don't Tell (the assets you have)

Non-Skill Knowledge:

• NPC Legonne: Defier-For-Hire
• NPC Legonne: Conjurer of Water, Air, and Fire
• NPC Sima: Kasoria's Abrogation Mentor, Then, Now, and Forever

Notes: n/a.

Excellent. While it could have been simple and straight-forward, you gave enough push-and-pull to the interactions that it made for an entertaining read. The suspense of vulnerability, due to learning, came across in the scenes and I felt a little worried for Kasoria when it came to holding the barrier up.

The technical splits between the posts (endings and beginnings of each post) were well chosen and made each post feel like a complete scene that also added to the whole piece. Kasoria seems to enjoy a challenge so Abrogation suits him well for that reason. I enjoyed the descriptions of magic use in this, of both domains, and it does seem like a clever choice to choose Defiance as Kasoria's Nemesis.

Wonderful job and enjoy your rewards!

PM me if you have any questions, issues or concerns.

Total Word Count: 3177 words.

Review Request Link: viewtopic.php?p=118754#p118754
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