30th of Ashan
Jonathan needed a few hours to himself. He was upset over the death of Daeva, still, and needed time to smooth out his rumpled feelings. In his view, enough horrific things went on that people did to one another, that Harvesters should be forgiven their needs. He wanted to truly understand Aberration but for the moment, that was stalled out. The only thing he had was Transmutation, so he vowed to become more competent in that skill. He needed to learn to defend himself. Daeva was a cruel lesson in that. Transmutation could be used for the arts, and to tear down a building, but could it also be used for combat skills? He'd attempted to make small stone daggers to fit between his fingers during the fight; that had been a crude weapon. They'd have shattered the second he'd punched someone. He wanted and needed something a little more elegant. Could ether be used to do such a thing? Of course he could just shape a blade and use that. He might even be able to refine a metal one and use it a little better than any mere soldier. Transmutation experts were experts in the natural, and manipulating the natural. His father was able to turn the lowest quality diamond into something women would strangle their grandmothers for. There had to be a way.
He'd have to go to ether for the answer. It was always the answer. Everything he needed to know lay in manipulation of his ether. So instead of picking up a rock to carve, he focused his attention. He tried to picture ether as something he could grasp. Something that could coalesce into something in his palm. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to feel the ether flowing through his arms, pooling into his palm, twisting and shaping into something simple. A ball. He extended that energy out and tried to compact it inward a little bit. He felt something there, trying to wander off but with his strict discipline he tamed it and forced it to stay put.
Jon opened his eyes, and smiled. A small, glowing ball of energy settled in his palm. It was difficult to maintain, and he had to keep gently reforming it. It felt like holding water, something that wanted to wander off and bleed into nothing. He had to work to maintain it, and he kind of liked that. It glowed, and Jon could move his arm and shed light onto something. That was interesting. He hadn't had any idea that forming ether in this way would make it into light. It made an astounding amount of sense when he really put thought into it, and he smiled. He pushed it a little further, adding more ether to make it roughly the size of a large orange. The light intensified, pulsed and grew like a living thing. Jon's first instinct was to show Alistair. He wanted to show off to his teacher that he'd learned something new just by focusing his ether. He wanted Alistair to be proud of him.
He had to focus if he wanted to keep this little ball of light alive. He tried brightening it, making the light more intense. If he poured more ether into it, it would. It would shine as bright as a torch in a lit room, or he could gutter it down to a very light, soft glow that barely illuminated his palm. His first thought was to use it for reading. He could take this into any dark room and immediately be able to see details others might miss. He'd always hated using torches in a library because of the risk, and now he could use something completely and utterly safe. He was excited at the prospect.
