Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on May 2, 2022 12:54:53 GMT -6
Something can be gleaned, not far from where you are..
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Post by Jack on Jun 11, 2022 19:20:35 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:22:44 GMT -6
He wasn't actually sure how much that helped, but they could hash out the fine details later. For now, he just wanted to be able to see if Rhys could replicate the effect, and if the healing could be applied to flesh wounds as well -- though he couldn't imagine it being otherwise, if it could even alleviate the symptoms of his condition, which were generally harder to treat, even by magical standards.
As he watched -- still concentrating on the feed of energies between himself and Rhys, of course -- the wound stopped bleeding, then sealed over and closed. The pain, too, abated, although there was a momentary and very intensely itchy sensation. Noa was all too familiar with that particular discomfort, and knew how to bear with it as a momentary inconvenience brought on by the healing. When it was done, he ran a finger along his skin where it had been broken before.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:27:23 GMT -6
"It worked," he said simply.
{Please, let's not try it again. Or at least -- don't hurt yourself,} said Rhys. {I know I can do it again, I think I have it.} His tone had a slightly frantic edge to it, as though he expected Noa to repeat his actions at any moment, and Noa supposed the fear wasn't entirely unfounded. He had done the like before, in the interest of affording himself or one of his creatures to practice some skill or another, and Rhys had probably even seen the worst of it, since he had the most healing in his repertoire by a large margin. He was likely nervous specifically because he knew full well what Noa was capable of.
"Very well," Noa said. "If you're sure you have it." He considered the possibility that Rhys might be bluffing to prevent him from wounding himself again, but it was more likely than not that it was true.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:29:57 GMT -6
This was hardly the first spell that Rhys had learned, even if this one drew from a different energy source than usual. And Rhys was no stranger to healing either, so combining the two disciplines was likely easier than starting from scratch, especially since his intelligence was on par with Noa's own.
And now he felt well enough to perhaps accomplish some mining, though as to how much work he would really get done today, well, that remained to be seen. He hadn't had much in the way of plans when he had come out here, in large part because his state of being had made it rather difficult to think, let alone to plan. He had been driven more by a sense of necessity than anything else, knowing as he did that he would need more gems, and sooner rather than later if he could help it at all.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:32:44 GMT -6
Whether he would be able to find them was another story.
He hadn't brought the gargoyle with him. He probably should have, but at the time, Noa hadn't been thinking straight, and there was a part of him that stood by his decision not to involve the gargoyle on this trip, even if it meant that the trip would be less efficient for it. He didn't think the gargoyle had ever seen him during one of his bad episodes with his condition, and he didn't want to have to explain it to the gargoyle when there was no need for the gargoyle to know. But if he didn't explain, then the gargoyle would have questions, and he was learning as of late that a curious housemate was something of a nuisance to deal with. He had successfully managed to make something of the mishap with Briar, but he wasn't eager to repeat the process.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:45:10 GMT -6
Even if the outcome wasn't exactly the same, it was such a hassle to manage people. He always thought so, even when he was only dealing with contracts with business partners or the unfortunate souls desperate enough to broker deals with him in exchange for a piece of their souls, or whatever magical crystals they had managed to come across. It was even worse to have to manage a relationship where he would have to deal with them on a regular basis. Noa liked Briar -- a concept that baffled even himself, to some degree -- but even then, if Briar hadn't suggested such an interesting and useful arrangement, he might have washed his hands of the Sprite when he had caught Briar snooping where he had no right to be.
Needless to say, if the gargoyle became such a liability, Noa would dispose of him. But there was no need to as of yet.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:48:22 GMT -6
And thus he would prefer to keep it that way. He may not have liked the gargoyle as much as he liked Briar, but the gargoyle was still useful, and their ongoing agreement had largely benefited Noa, with little payoff to the gargoyle himself.
Shaking off the last dregs of his fatigue, or at least as much as he could given that he never felt perfectly well anymore, Noa turned his attention to his surroundings. They hadn't gotten very far into the caverns, though it was already dark enough that he needed a light source to see clearly. The tunnel was spacious, and the scoring in the rock suggested that this tunnel had been made using tools, rather than through the more natural means of the creatures that made their homes here, or by natural phenomena. That wasn't a good sign; it meant the place had likely been picked through already.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:51:22 GMT -6
That didn't mean their efforts here were doomed to be fruitless, but any really good finds would be the result of very good luck on their parts, and regrettable negligence on the part of whoever had made the tunnel. A smart and enterprising miner would already have taken all the best things for themselves -- though Noa didn't think a smart and enterprising miner would have gone to all the trouble of digging a tunnel from scratch either, unless they had a lot of resources at their disposal. Even someone like himself preferred to wander existing tunnels and caverns, and dig where they felt there was likely to be a good yield.
The only thing that kept him from leaving immediately to find another cave was the fact that this one was easy to traverse. Having been dug by someone else, there wasn't likely to be any abrupt drops or the like.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 17:57:16 GMT -6
It was possible that the digger, whoever they were, had gotten lazy at some point down the line and made a very narrow tunnel, but where they were currently situated was comfortably wide, or at least wide enough that Noa himself and the mining buggy he had with him could comfortably pass. Whether that was true for a larger expedition no longer mattered, since he was the only one here -- as far as he could tell, anyway. If there was someone else, Rhys would be aware of their presence before Noa himself, and thus far the Faeron hadn't seen fit to notify him of anyone else's presence.
He considered his options. He could go to a different, more naturally formed tunnel and try his luck there, but given how his day had started, he didn't feel in the mood for anything strenuous or physically demanding. If his yield suffered for it, so be it.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 18:00:39 GMT -6
There was no telling when the symptoms might come back anyway, since lately they had been growing worse and more alarming at a rate that Noa hadn't anticipated. If he was levitating himself over a cliff drop or something, that was just a recipe for disaster.
The gargoyle's presence really would have been useful now. He would have known whether there was anything valuable, and if there was, where to dig to get at it. But the gargoyle wasn't the only creature capable of doing that anymore, and part of the reason that Noa had been taking him on fewer and fewer trips was because Rhys could periodically serve the role just as well -- or almost as well, anyway. The spell had a set duration, and it cost a lot of magical energy to cast, but for short trips it worked well enough for them to manage without the gargoyle's assistance.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 18:56:57 GMT -6
Noa sighed. It wasn't the best solution if he wanted his magical energy on hand on a just in case basis, but he had enough hollow nodes now that he supposed he shouldn't be stingy with it. He ran his hand along the nodes hanging from the chain at his waist, testing them to see that they were all still live. He felt the slight ping of their energies against his skin, then turned to Rhys. He didn't say anything, merely inclined his head slightly, but Rhys could guess his intent.
The Faeron acquiesced without a fuss, and Noa began preparing the spell. He had done it often enough now that he didn't have to spend much time recalling it. A mage of fewer talents might still have been consulting the notes in their grimoire for such an energy-intensive spell, but the Saint-Clair family came from a long line of gifted mages.
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Post by Jack on Jun 13, 2022 19:04:11 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 21:28:32 GMT -6
His parents would have had something to say if he couldn't manage even this much -- if they were still alive, anyway. Now that they were dead, there was no one to judge his craft, but that didn't mean he couldn't take pride in his lineage. The energy flowed readily and easily through him, heedless of the otherwise ravaged state of his body, and he shaped it just as easily into the delicate latticework of a spell. It settled over Rhys, gossamer and light, and in a moment it was gone.
"Well?" Noa said, once it was done. Rhys stretched his wings, unfurling his tendrils, and felt around in the air with them. Noa did always wonder if the mechanism of the spell adapted itself to the creature's inborn senses, to make it easier for them to make sense of the gem sensing ability granted to them on a temporary basis.
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Post by Noa on Jun 13, 2022 21:33:23 GMT -6
None of his research on the spell itself had gone into that kind of fine detail, and he understood why -- that kind of information wasn't useful in teaching the spell to the mage. Still, watching Rhys put the spell's effect to use did inspire that kind of idle curiosity in him now and again. He supposed he could make an experiment of it and find out once and for all if he only tried it on a few more subjects; Rhys wasn't the only one to whom he was telepathically linked, although the Faeron was certainly the most intelligent, and therefore the most introspective and articulate.
As far as he understood it, Rhys seemed to experience it as a sense that operated through his tendrils. Now he waved them around, in a way that was not wholly unlike someone dowsing for something, except what he sought was gemstones and not water.
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