FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The itching she could still feel was slowly settling, but her mind was freshly disturbed by the thought. Her ears flattened against her skull and she keened slightly as the horrible thought rolled through her mind though. Kalokin beat her to the punch though, manifesting and coiling around her to nibble the edge of one ear.

"That's an extreme scenario though... You would have to truly want someone dead for that to happen. Still, I don't want anyone getting hurt, so you need to learn the basics of control.

"Fast huh? I guess time isn't on my- Say, Kalo, how long have I been here?" Her brows knit as she thought of another problem, but she could address it later. A shake of her head and the issue of time was dismissed momentarily. Kalokin would have answered, but as she pushed it out of her mind, he figured it wasn't important. "Yeah, I understood most of it. Does that mean that's what might have happened to me..? You said my Soul was altered by yours... so if my tampering did that to someone, does that mean it's what happened to me?"

"Not quite... I know how to do it in ways that aren't fatal. If you were to do the same to a mortal, intentionally or not, it would leave him bedridden for weeks, at best, potentially dead at worst. Gloominess aside though, I still insist on you learning magic. I mean... MAGIC! It's just so fun!"

Her ears perked some when she heard that excitement in his voice, and she moved to sit down in front of him, grinning.

"I am certain it is, and I cannot wait to learn!" Seeing the way he bounced, and the excitement, she laughed warmly. A small tilt of her head and she nodded to him. "How do we start?!"

He stopped and slapped himself in the face.

"We start with my incredible lack of foresight... Be best to start from the absolute ground, since you didn't study magic in school One moment."

He evaporated back into her mind quickly, and his return to her this time sent a shiver through her veins. She could feel a vast power thrumming at her fingertips, and even though she recognized it as Kalokin's she felt like she could just reach out and grab it.

That's because you can. What I did is I "tapped" my magic. I pulled energy from my soul into my mind, to prepare it for casting.

The feeling faded as Kalokin let the energy disperse. He reached again, and she felt him pull the magic from within his soul.

Remember, magic does nothing on its own, it needs your mind and your will to focus it. I'm going to cast magic, and I want you to try and concentrate on how it feels. The way Khaesho described it, it'll feel like I'm trying to move a limb that you don't have. Don't fight it, just relax.

He started simple, with the most basic spell he could cast. Light flowed down Shou's arm and into her hand, where it dripped upwards and formed a glowing sphere, the kind he commonly used to light their way. It had felt pretty similar to how Kalokin described it. More accurately though, it felt like the first time she'd moved her new tail. She knew it was there, and she knew she could move it, but it felt completely alien to everything she knew. Her brows knit a little, and she focused on the flex of that unseen muscle.

Felt weird didn't it? Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Now, I want you to try and mimic the same thing. Magic is one part firm will for every nine parts intent; focus on what you want to happen, and pull strength forwards. Sometimes it helps to internally visualize what you want to happen. Think of my soul, and pull a thread of power from it.

"Yes, it did... very weird."

One part will, and nine parts intent. Well, she could be intent, she closed her eyes and focused on the feeling she often got when she danced. That almost trance like state of pure focus for the task before her. And then she opened her eyes, slowly, this time she tried to flex the magic in her veins, and tugging gently at Kalokin to use it. She tried to focus on the feeling of something like water slipping along her muscles to form an orb of magic similar to his. It was strange, and she felt slightly foolish, especially since nothing happened at first. Then, Kalokin's soul... shifted, and a wavering thread of power filtered through her veins. It send a spike of cold exhilaration down her spine and lifted her hide in goose bumps, making her fur floof outwards.

Oh my, that's interesting.

Shou's eyes widened in surprise as she stared at the phenomenon taking place. Pale blue light poured along her arm in a similar manner to Kalokin, but that was where the similarities ended. His had looked like ribbons, spiraling through her fur to clump into a perfect sphere. Her attempt looked quite literally like a stream of water, rippling like colored glass as it flowed towards her palm. It pulled up into a sphere, but the orb twisted and danced, stirred by unseen currents. It threw watery, uncertain light around the room, mimicking the effect of bright light shown upwards through troubled waters.

It looks like you're envisioning it as a liquid? It looks cool, but the instability is a slight flaw. Try and tighten down a little bit. Less flowing, less substance, and more a constant source of light. Like the sun! You're holding a small sun cupped in your hands. Perfect, pure, unblemished light.

It was pretty, but as she looked back to the orb she focused once more. Tighten down, less flowing, constant light. The sun? Sharp eyes narrowed in concentration when she tried to do just that. Envisioning the orb of water turning into something like the sun, or better yet, a blue dwarf!

The motion slowed, then ceased. The light lost the translucent gleam, becoming an opaque source as it solidified into a spherical shape. It wasn't consistent though; and it had a mottled, spotted color like an actual star would. The light it gave off was steady, but it revolved on a vertical axis just like a star should, throwing small shadows around the room in accordance with the dark spots.

It was quite bright enough to see by, and it made for a pretty sight, this blue dwarf in her palm. She stared at it for a moment, incredulous that she was actually using magic... this was the stuff of children's tales, the substance of myth and legend. It was real though, and it was hers to control.

Kalokin lay silent for an entirely different reason. Over four thousand years, he'd seen a lot. He'd seen Vessels try too early, and fail to produce anything.

He'd seen vessels who simply lacked the mental flexibility to use magic, though they were rare.

He'd seen bright souls flaring with exuberance that didn't need his him as a power source.

He'd seen natural weavers who took the light as ribbons and wove it into colorful patterns.

He'd never seen this before. On her very first casting, her soul jumped forwards to enact the exact letter of her will; forming into glowing water. Then, again, it had formed literally into a sun, complete with sunspots. One and all, his Vessels' first castings had been simple light, pale illumination that lacked any form or pattern. Consistent. Pure. Yet, Shou had accidentally cast his magic as exactly what she envisioned it as, not a Thimble more and not a Sand less.

It was almost as if she'd either cast magic multiple times before, or she'd been in the prolonged presence of someone who had. Civilized didn't use magic. They didn't even believe in it.

Then why is...

"Hm? What's that Kalokin?"

He hadn't realized that he'd let his thought leak until she replied to it. He shook his soul slightly, an odd motion that left Shou slightly confused.

Never mind that, it's a step in the right direction. Better control will come with practice. Now let's take another step. Make it uniform. Make it simple. Make it nonexistent. It is not physical, it does not move, it does not have patterns. It is singular. It is perfect. It is radiant.

The sight of the star shape in her hand had her excited for what she might be able to do. Kalokin was telling her to make it perfect, but her mind was already racing down another avenue. Already seeing more stars, and patterns forming between her raised hands now. Memories of how the solar system looked, the galaxy, the patterns of the stars in the heavens. They pulled through her memories, and there was delighted joy in her thoughts as she attempted to break away the larger orb in her hand and form it into smaller ones. Unfortunately for her, she got a hell of a lot farther than that.

Kalokin's soul felt what she wanted, and raced to help make it so. This was Kalokin's specialty, his soul was perfect for this, and the magic flowed like quicksilver sparks through her mind. The light faded into yellow, and became larger to make the scale correct. Clumps broke away, and colored themselves after planets, assuming correct orbital paths. Power flowed through her until she was left dizzy, gasping at the result. Floating above her hands was an accurate representation of the solar system, to scale, as far as she knew, with a vague detail and color of each planet. It even included a rather gritty belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

The... solar system? Yea, that's about right. Not exactly what I was planning for lesson one, but good job for that! This only worked so well because I'm good with illusions and light manipulation, but you've got good focus. Now for the hard part. Can you keep it together and still walk back to where Khaesho sleeps?

Shou held a delighted, and awed look on her face. The sight of the solar system before her was awe inspiring, and she stared at it with wide eyes and a bright smile. The pure delight in her face was enough to make her seem almost like a child, as the innocent joy nearly burst in her chest. At Kalokin's words, she laughed sheepishly, wishing that she could look at him shyly.

"The light looked like a blue dwarf... and well, I got excited thinking about stars... But let me try!"

Before she even finished her sentence, her solar system fell apart. The planets lost color and fell off their orbitals, and the sun dimmed slowly. Shou paused her movements, readjusted and stared a moment. Then her nose scrunched, and she thought of a dome, a space center and how it captured the sky in an arc. Then she tried to imagine that over her head, holding the 'hologram' of the solar system together as she slowly traced her way back to Khaesho. There were several times she had to stop, refocus, and readjust.

She tried to keep concentration, but it limited her speed severely. After the third time she tried to stop and fix her illusion, Kalokin banished the entire scene with a tug of his mind, and they fell into utter darkness.

Stop. See? There's a reason I wanted you to start simple. Mortal's aren't very good at complicated magic. You have to keep your body alive, keep breathing, keep your heart beating, and move all your little muscles all at once, and that's even without your attention spans flitting away like moths. I can do complicated things because I've had a lot of practice, and because I can focus entirely on the magic. This time, listen to Professor Kalokin. Make a single, solid, pure light, and use it to light your path. Baby steps Shou.

She didn't mind the slow speed so much, until Kalokin banished it and she huffed into the darkness. Her ears splayed a little bit, and her nose scrunched. There was a pout hidden on her features in the darkness, as she grumbled softly.

"No, I might not be good at it, but I wanted Khaesho to see it. I was pretty proud of that, yanno... Besides, I'll bet he's never seen the Solar System like that..."

You can re-form it later, no need to keep it up while you walk. You get a free pass as long as I'm footing the bill, but you need to be miserly when using your own power. Waste not a Thimble of magic, lest you need it later.

She grumbled under her breath, but he had a good point. She closed her eyes to focus on what he was saying and nodded mutely as she held a hand up. She remembered the way the orb had looked that Khaesho had first summoned. The very first piece of magic she had ever seen, and she pulled from that memory. The feeling of flexing that invisible muscle, and sending it running down her arm. She'd rather liked the way the 'liquid' light had looked, splattering soft waves over the wall, but she realized that this was more practical. She pulled from Kalokin's seemingly limitless strength again, crafting a bland and featureless orb. It was soft, pure light, clear and bright.

On the subject of not wasting magic though; a word of warning. When you run out of power, you'll know. Don't try to push past it. This isn't some fake physical barrier that your body will lie to you about. This is real. I've seen Serpents kill themselves by accidentally trying to force too much magic from their souls. They literally pulled all the energy out into one massive working, then collapsed, dead. There wasn't anything left of their souls... just an empty husk that lived soulless until its apathy got itself killed. No emotion. No care. Nothing. It's not a pretty sight. It's not something you can accidentally do, but still, if you feel like you can't cast any more, DON'T. It's better to die a painful death than lose your soul.

"I'll keep that in mind... It's probably not something I'll use often, or at least... liberally. I'm... I like managing things on my own, because of my own merits. And magic might make some of that too easy, you know? I was always taught to work hard, and I'll be rewarded... maybe not right off the bat... but, but if I keep working, I can do it."

Hard work is always rewarded, and so it is with magic. Practice and patience will get you farther than strength and skill. Speaking of skill, let's try something a little more... involved. Yyou could try on a disguise, I could show you a few combat ideas, or we can work on stealth and camouflage. Take your pick.

"How about disguise? That sounds like it could come in handy..." Especially because she looked so different from how she used to look. How people would remember her. That brought her to a worrying thought. "Kalo, people won't know me like this..."

Right. That could cause problems. Hmm... No... That won't work... That REALLY wouldn't work... Hey, here's an idea. Your mother was a traveler, an opportunistic trader and one of the few Civilized who venture into the endless deserts. She fell in love with a Snake, got uncommonly lucky, and you're their offspring. You were shunned by Serpent society because you have legs, except for one hopelessly romantic Snake who fell in love with you. Eager to try and escape from the racism and wanting to try and find your roots, you're returning to the Civilized world, with Khaesho in tow. We could break into your old apartment, steal back your stuff, and start a new life. Of everything I can think of, it's the most likely to work, I'd say there's a 40% chance we could get away with it.

"It'll cause major problems. What about my job?! I'm a ballerina, Kalo! I'm the lead in this season's ballet!"

Right, you're a performer! Well, you'll certainly have an exotic appeal now.

Then she thought about the time she had spent here, and her eyes widened again, panic as she worried about her job filtering through. "How long was I here... a week? Oh! Oh no! That means I missed Saturday's practice, Alyssa is going to have my hide!"

Her clothes had been left in the first room she had been led to, she knew, she'd have to find them and hope they would fit over her shifted form. But more than that, she was going to have to come up with a good excuse for why she missed practice.

"Ah! Damn, Alyssa won't remember me looking like this..! They'll start looking! They'll file with missing persons! And the police will get involved! Oh dear! Oh dear, this is not good!"

Police? Wait, isn't that the word that you use for... Fuck it, I'm borrowing your memories.

She felt a decidedly unpleasant yanking in her mind, the result of Kalokin "Borrowing" a significant chunk of her knowledge of society to help him fill in the gaps. It hurt, and it gave her a bit or a headache, but he needed to know all the angles.

Shit... They take stuff this seriously? They'll really put up that big of a fuss just because you're gone for a week? Well, it looks like everyone knew you were coming searching for Khaesho, this is the first place they'll check. Let me sweep the mountain to see if- wait... son of a BITCH, that is a LOT of law enforcement. Start running, I'll start waking Khaesho up. This might get... fun...

He cackled wickedly, and she broke into a sprint without a second thought.