Luvi felt like she was running around in circles with nowhere to go. She had hadn’t gotten very far with figuring out new ways to push her magic. Chaining runes was a nice addition but it didn’t really make her ‘stronger.’ Feeling desperate for progress, Luvi set aside time during her travels to meditate. She had started to develop a habit of clearing her mind and letting her troubles leave her during her journey.
All she had to do was focus on ignoring all the noises around her and then she could start to think freely. Oh how peaceful and happy she was feeling to just be by herself and not feel like a worker bee for once. She would be content with spending all of eternity in this kind of focused trance.
She might have been sitting by a camp fire in reality, but in her mind she was in a house in the middle of a bustling city. She pictured herself trying to crack into a safe that held the secrets to runic magic. She would like to be productive during her travels, and learning a new rune would make her very happy.
She worked at getting the safe open for hours, making little progress. Her peace was thrown off when her door was thrown open and an angry looking man walked in. The man, no, the creature was covered with runes. Something must have put him in a sour mood and it must have been pretty serious for him to barge in. Luvi tried to push the man, or whatever it was out. It was her mind, simply deleting it ought to be easy.
She pictured the thing being tossed from the home and the shut slammed behind it. That worked, for a time. However it came back once more. This time he took the form of her father. Luvi gave him a confused look.
“What did I tell you about meditation training? It’s all a waste of time. I’d rather you just take a nap all day or maybe even take up some sissy hobby than sit around like some monk. You’ve got potential and I won’t have you wasting it!”
The man changed shape even as she focused on him and took the appearance of a rune floating there in the middle of the room. The rune emitted an eerie sound that made Luvi’s real body flinch. It didn’t take a scientist to realize that this rune had something to do with sound. If she had to guess, it was one that would amplify her hearing.
What was more interesting was that the man was even there to begin with. She chalked it up to her consciousness being contaminated by the sparks she shared her body with. She was good enough at meditating that she could ignore most outside disturbances… but distractions within her own mind were difficult to deal with. She thought it important to ignore these distractions for the sake of her own sanity. She was honest with herself when it came to what she could handle. She felt as though embracing these intrusive thoughts were the first step towards self destruction and going outside of her magical limits.
“I think I’m content without being able to hear well,” she said angrily, “I’m not even blind so what would I need enhanced hearing for? Also, while I’m at it, meditating did help me with a couple things. I was able to figure out many runes, including this one, among other things that you never bothered to teach me. You can’t have it both ways. Either teach me everything or accept that I have to meditate to figure or teach me yourself!”
Luvi opened her eyes and realized that she’d been talking, no, shouting out loud. A couple people she was travelling with looked at her strangely which made her feel embarrassed. Her words had been meant for her father, though she doubted she would ever actually tell them to him. She had a feeling that with this journey she was going on she might not even see him for years.
She was surprised that she had learned a rune so suddenly. She’d expected to eventually break into the safe to pry the knowledge away. To have the knowledge come to her like that was unexpected. She wasn’t complaining though.
The question was, did she even want to practice the rune? Being able to hear well seemed fairly useless. She found herself talking through potential scenarios. “What will you do when your eyes get flashed then? Just hope nothing kills you for however long it takes to recover?”
“Fine then, let’s just get this over with,” Luvi sighed.
The first proper step was for Luvi to spend a couple hours becoming familiar with the shape of the rune. Even though she could very easily inscribe a rune with only a few gestures, new runes could be difficult. She was in no rush to start applying it either since she very much wanted to stretch out the evening as long as possible. Until she learned the full meaning behind the rune she would have to draw the rune out meticulously to make sure she didn’t mess up. This was a more complicated rune to draw out for sure which was really doing a number on her wrist with all the necessary strokes.
After drawing the rune perfectly several dozen times the next step was to try using the rune with minimal power. Over her many trials and tribulations she had gotten quite good at not putting too much ether into runes. Her spark seemed to recognize the risk of going too heavy at once. It delicately laced the ether into the rune of sound as she drew it onto the floor. Of course, she couldn’t successfully place it onto anything other than herself so it faded away. She just needed to make sure she could do it right before applying it to her own forehead.
Another tracing of the rune and Luvi placed the rune on her forehead for the first time. She felt the familiar rush of ether to her head but this time it went to her ears instead of her other sensory organs. She felt like a ton of ear wax had just been taken out of her ears and every sound was magnified. She was gung-ho about her success for the first couple minutes and then everything went south. Her ears started ringing and she started experiencing ear pain. It was a new experience for her but she knew something was wrong when she couldn’t hear anything other than the dull throbbing of her heartbeat.
Even though only a small amount of ether had been used, Luvi experienced some major pain in her ears. Even after covering them the sound from the heartbeat was rather painful indeed. She had no idea how she was supposed to control the ether to make her ears work as intended.
She imagined once more what her father might say next “Stop fighting the rune and accept what it is. If you’re going to wimp out then there’s no reason to ever learn another rune.” To which she would think “Just because I don’t live up to your expectation doesn’t mean that I’m scared. I’m trying my best”
Luvi tried again with more ether and nerves of steel. Noise blasted into her ear drums as she held back a scream at the last second. Her ears were so sensitive that she could hear heartbeats from other bodies racing with excitement. She heard the saliva swishing around in someone’s mouth and the quiet gulp he made as the liquid went down their throat. She went to move but felt a pop in her neck that sounded like thunder in her ears. This was truly incredible but she could see how a sudden loud sound would absolutely destroy her ears.
“I think I’ve got the hang of it, but I still need some work,” Luvi admitted to herself when the rune wore off. She typically didn’t fail at using a rune after she got it down once. Knowing how the rune was supposed to feel was usually good enough for her to reproduce the effects in her mind and thus become in tune with the true nature of the rune.
Finally feeling content with her progress, Luvi finally noticed that the intrusive thoughts had gone away. It was almost time for bed so she laid down and stared up at the stars for a while. She couldn’t sleep, so she closed her eyes and tried to meditate once more. She focused on her steady heartbeat, then the heat of the campfire. When she fell into a trance, she focused inwards to see if she could gleam anything else about herself. She came to the conclusion that the intrusive thoughts were at least partially due to how she continually failed to live up to her own magical expectations.
It was tough being alone. The only person she had in her life that could use magic was Goku and she hadn’t learned much from him since their first couple meetings. Lying there under the stars, she felt very much alone despite all the people sleeping nearby. Still, she felt as though she could still be mighty even if she felt alone. With her magic, she could harness the strength of ten women. With that final thought in her mind, she finally let sleep take her.
All she had to do was focus on ignoring all the noises around her and then she could start to think freely. Oh how peaceful and happy she was feeling to just be by herself and not feel like a worker bee for once. She would be content with spending all of eternity in this kind of focused trance.
She might have been sitting by a camp fire in reality, but in her mind she was in a house in the middle of a bustling city. She pictured herself trying to crack into a safe that held the secrets to runic magic. She would like to be productive during her travels, and learning a new rune would make her very happy.
She worked at getting the safe open for hours, making little progress. Her peace was thrown off when her door was thrown open and an angry looking man walked in. The man, no, the creature was covered with runes. Something must have put him in a sour mood and it must have been pretty serious for him to barge in. Luvi tried to push the man, or whatever it was out. It was her mind, simply deleting it ought to be easy.
She pictured the thing being tossed from the home and the shut slammed behind it. That worked, for a time. However it came back once more. This time he took the form of her father. Luvi gave him a confused look.
“What did I tell you about meditation training? It’s all a waste of time. I’d rather you just take a nap all day or maybe even take up some sissy hobby than sit around like some monk. You’ve got potential and I won’t have you wasting it!”
The man changed shape even as she focused on him and took the appearance of a rune floating there in the middle of the room. The rune emitted an eerie sound that made Luvi’s real body flinch. It didn’t take a scientist to realize that this rune had something to do with sound. If she had to guess, it was one that would amplify her hearing.
What was more interesting was that the man was even there to begin with. She chalked it up to her consciousness being contaminated by the sparks she shared her body with. She was good enough at meditating that she could ignore most outside disturbances… but distractions within her own mind were difficult to deal with. She thought it important to ignore these distractions for the sake of her own sanity. She was honest with herself when it came to what she could handle. She felt as though embracing these intrusive thoughts were the first step towards self destruction and going outside of her magical limits.
“I think I’m content without being able to hear well,” she said angrily, “I’m not even blind so what would I need enhanced hearing for? Also, while I’m at it, meditating did help me with a couple things. I was able to figure out many runes, including this one, among other things that you never bothered to teach me. You can’t have it both ways. Either teach me everything or accept that I have to meditate to figure or teach me yourself!”
Luvi opened her eyes and realized that she’d been talking, no, shouting out loud. A couple people she was travelling with looked at her strangely which made her feel embarrassed. Her words had been meant for her father, though she doubted she would ever actually tell them to him. She had a feeling that with this journey she was going on she might not even see him for years.
She was surprised that she had learned a rune so suddenly. She’d expected to eventually break into the safe to pry the knowledge away. To have the knowledge come to her like that was unexpected. She wasn’t complaining though.
The question was, did she even want to practice the rune? Being able to hear well seemed fairly useless. She found herself talking through potential scenarios. “What will you do when your eyes get flashed then? Just hope nothing kills you for however long it takes to recover?”
“Fine then, let’s just get this over with,” Luvi sighed.
The first proper step was for Luvi to spend a couple hours becoming familiar with the shape of the rune. Even though she could very easily inscribe a rune with only a few gestures, new runes could be difficult. She was in no rush to start applying it either since she very much wanted to stretch out the evening as long as possible. Until she learned the full meaning behind the rune she would have to draw the rune out meticulously to make sure she didn’t mess up. This was a more complicated rune to draw out for sure which was really doing a number on her wrist with all the necessary strokes.
After drawing the rune perfectly several dozen times the next step was to try using the rune with minimal power. Over her many trials and tribulations she had gotten quite good at not putting too much ether into runes. Her spark seemed to recognize the risk of going too heavy at once. It delicately laced the ether into the rune of sound as she drew it onto the floor. Of course, she couldn’t successfully place it onto anything other than herself so it faded away. She just needed to make sure she could do it right before applying it to her own forehead.
Another tracing of the rune and Luvi placed the rune on her forehead for the first time. She felt the familiar rush of ether to her head but this time it went to her ears instead of her other sensory organs. She felt like a ton of ear wax had just been taken out of her ears and every sound was magnified. She was gung-ho about her success for the first couple minutes and then everything went south. Her ears started ringing and she started experiencing ear pain. It was a new experience for her but she knew something was wrong when she couldn’t hear anything other than the dull throbbing of her heartbeat.
Even though only a small amount of ether had been used, Luvi experienced some major pain in her ears. Even after covering them the sound from the heartbeat was rather painful indeed. She had no idea how she was supposed to control the ether to make her ears work as intended.
She imagined once more what her father might say next “Stop fighting the rune and accept what it is. If you’re going to wimp out then there’s no reason to ever learn another rune.” To which she would think “Just because I don’t live up to your expectation doesn’t mean that I’m scared. I’m trying my best”
Luvi tried again with more ether and nerves of steel. Noise blasted into her ear drums as she held back a scream at the last second. Her ears were so sensitive that she could hear heartbeats from other bodies racing with excitement. She heard the saliva swishing around in someone’s mouth and the quiet gulp he made as the liquid went down their throat. She went to move but felt a pop in her neck that sounded like thunder in her ears. This was truly incredible but she could see how a sudden loud sound would absolutely destroy her ears.
“I think I’ve got the hang of it, but I still need some work,” Luvi admitted to herself when the rune wore off. She typically didn’t fail at using a rune after she got it down once. Knowing how the rune was supposed to feel was usually good enough for her to reproduce the effects in her mind and thus become in tune with the true nature of the rune.
Finally feeling content with her progress, Luvi finally noticed that the intrusive thoughts had gone away. It was almost time for bed so she laid down and stared up at the stars for a while. She couldn’t sleep, so she closed her eyes and tried to meditate once more. She focused on her steady heartbeat, then the heat of the campfire. When she fell into a trance, she focused inwards to see if she could gleam anything else about herself. She came to the conclusion that the intrusive thoughts were at least partially due to how she continually failed to live up to her own magical expectations.
It was tough being alone. The only person she had in her life that could use magic was Goku and she hadn’t learned much from him since their first couple meetings. Lying there under the stars, she felt very much alone despite all the people sleeping nearby. Still, she felt as though she could still be mighty even if she felt alone. With her magic, she could harness the strength of ten women. With that final thought in her mind, she finally let sleep take her.
