Soleira rose up from the river’s waters. Bathing was one of those few indulgences she loved to take. Her white clothes clung to her slender frame. They would dry in the beautiful early morning sun for sure. Today she was early to get herself cleaned though. Kal was already walking towards his rock near the village. People, those who wanted to move the earth like he did, were following him. Soleira hurried over. Right in time to take a place behind everyone, as they spread out before the old man. He shook off his cloak for a moment and then went to stand upright with both palms pressed together. His eyes were closed as he slowly moved his arms up and around in large circles. Every move of his body was slow, careful, meticulous and flowing. Soleira didn’t really get it, and several times she lost her balance or did a move too fast. People around her were better at following Kal than she was but still, she didn’t give up.

Eventually, though, it would appear the old sage had gone through all his moves as he picked up his cloak again. Then he sat down, cross-legged. Some people left then. Others remained and sat down around him as well.

“I suppose you wish to talk about magic.” He said, with a faint smile on his lips. His eyes went over everyone. Though for a moment he locked eyes with her. It seemed to surprise him that she was there, but he then carried on. “Magic is more than simply chanting some words or burning some figures. First, you must know what you are using when you move the world around you.” He took a handful of colorful dirt in his hand and let it slowly crumble in between his fingers. “Mana is what allows all of us to cast magic. It is suffused within everything. Within the dirt that falls to the ground. Within the air you breathe. Within the fires you light. Within the plants you grow. It is everywhere, and that is ultimately what you control. Mana in turn then controls the world. So before you can change the world, you must understand how to control mana.”

“The most straightforward way is through what one would call sorcery.” He said and to prove his point, he hovered his hand over a bit of ground. Without saying a word or even move his fingers in a strange way he raised his palm and the ground beneath it moved in the shape of a palm. Then he looked up and locked eyes with Soleira. “Sorcery is the manifestation of your will. You demand the world to change for you and you don’t care how. To use sorcery your resolve must be unyielding. It requires a certain kind of arrogance to demand the world around you to change yourself. You must stand firm.” Kal rose up. With his left foot he drew an arc around him. Then did the same with his right. Creating a sort of oval in the ground amid which he stood. He took a rather square and squat position.

“Form is everything.” He continued with his lecture. “With the makeshift circle around me, I declare that I will not move from this place. I plan myself here. So when I want the world to change, it must change around me.” As to show it he began to push his hands outwards. The earth around him crept away as if he was pushing it away with his hands. Then he stood upright again and motioned everyone to stand up as well. For some this wasn’t their first lesson. They immediately made the same makeshift circle around themselves and assumed the position. Then they began to push. Some managed to move a little bit of dirt already. Some nearly fell over when they tried to make the circle. Kal just kept a patient but quiet eye over them as they tried to cast their sorceries.

Soleira, as much as she wanted to be a good student, was failing miserably. The making of the circle was easy enough, but when she tried to move the dirt it felt as if it was pushing back against her. She tried to want the world to change around her. Yet she couldn’t summon that supposed arrogance and steadfastness. Her frustrations grew. “Come on.” He said as she pushed forward. Her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth a little as she tried to concentrate. It didn’t work.

“Remember, sorcery is like a muscle. You must train it.” Kal said at the end of the short lesson. His pupils took heed of his words and then walked away in peace. The sun was rising higher. Soleira’s clothes were dry now. Farmers were heading towards the fields. She would join them, but a clasp on her should by Kal stopped her. She turned around to face him.

“You’re not yet ready.” He said, with a comforting smile. “Someday you might be.”

She returned the smile but shook off his hand on her shoulder. “If I need to be… that hard against the world around me then I don’t think I’ll ever master magic.” With those words spoken, she walked away. Not towards the fields though. She took a few steps towards the hilly region before flapping her wings and letting them carry her there. For the first time, she realized how light she felt, and how effortless she glided through the wind. With barely a breeze moving through her hair. Was that part of magic? Or some other blessing like the shield she could summon.

She was some miles away from the village when she finally landed on the rather high hill with only a few trees on them. In their shadow, she sat down for a second and looked up towards the colorful sky that was dancing above her. Clouds like rainbows moved over her. Casting their large shadows across the hill. They weren’t rooted on the ground, she thought. Clouds were free to float upon the wind. Moving to wherever they wanted. Sometimes they’d moved left then, or right, or not at all.

“Kal says you have to be arrogant to use you.” She said out loud to the mana that probably couldn’t hear her. “But I don’t think that’s right. You don’t need to demand things from people. Or animals. Sometimes you can just ask them. And if they can do what you ask, they usually do. Is it the same with…you? Do you think you would listen to me if I just asked you something?” It felt stupid. But she was alone, so she could be stupid. Stupid and hopeful. She closed her eyes and let her hands move in front of her. As if she was pushing along the air around her. “Mana, if you are listening and hearing me, I would love a bit of wind.”

For a second wind blew around her. Rustling the leaves and her clothes. Before it died down again into nothing more than a very soft, barely noticeable breeze. Soleira, however, shot up with wide eyes. This time she didn’t move her lips but just thought it. She asked the mana to move the air for her. And it did. Amid the strong wind she had asked for, the little Oraeliari was laughing out loud.

That evening she flew back home. Kal sat on his rock again beside the fields. Working his puzzlebox. He had gotten through another layer today. When he saw Soleira though, he put the seemingly half-disintegrating cube down. The seemingly lose parts of it remained, somehow, attached still. “You look happy.” He noted, reflecting her happiness with a smile of his own.

Soleira didn’t speak. Instead she just stopped right in front of him, extended her wings as far as they could and clapped them once towards Kal. A fierce gust of wind, much stronger than what her wings should’ve conjured, blew him almost off the rock. Yet when he sat upright again and gathered his senses he looked at her with a combination of confusion and pure exhileration. “You… you just used magic?” He asked.

“I did!” Soleira exclaimed as she shot forward and hugged Kal. “I did it! I did it!” She repeated several times before she released him.

“So… how did you manage it?” Kal asked as he got up from his rock and grabbed his staff. Pride beamed from his already colorful eyes. For a split second Soleira thought she saw more than just the pride of a teacher for his pupil. Off in the distance though, someone not from the village looked with squinting eyes at the both of them. He had been at the lessons in the morning and now had his eyes on the Oraeliari.

“I just… I asked! I just asked the mana to do this and it did. Instead of you know, demanding it. I just asked.” Soleira answered.

“Remarkable.” There was a sudden, soft glow coming from his eyes. He seemed to be lost in thoughts for a moment before his attention returned to him. “You’ve found a way to surprise, my d- I mean my pupil. Come, come. You must teach me.” The two of them stayed up for hours afterward. People brought them bread and water. When the sun dipped low, nature itself offered illumination. She can Kal kept talking and casting their magic. Exchanging their viewpoints.

Where Kal’s ways were unyielding and demanded strength, Soleira’s way seemed to fall more on flexibility and agility. As the wind itself could blow through narrow crevices or high and unstopped in the skies. They kept talking for hours after sunset though eventually, Kal decided to go to bed.  Not Soleira though. She tried to apply her ways to other parts of the world. Sadly rock did not move for her, nor did the plants. She wasn’t giving up though. That night she never got home. Instead, she fell asleep under a tree.

When she woke up she realized several wild cats laid around her. Keeping her warm. They looked so peaceful. Though the second she stirred even a little bit, most jolted up and bolted. No matter, she would thank them later for keeping her warm. She knew where most of them lived around here. However, when she walked home in the dawnlight she was met with Kal.

The sage was surrounded by small, colorful pebbles. He took one in his palm and tightened his hand for a second. When he opened his hand again colorful sand fell from it. Revealing the stone that was rendered into a square. Which he then placed upon Soleira’s wall before taking the next pebble.

“What are you doing?” She asked with playful curiosity.

“Honoring your revelation, of course!” Kal said as he crushed another pebble in his hand and pit on her wall. “You will see what it’ll become.” He said. “You’ll love it!”

Hours later she returned from a day-long working the field. Excited to see what her friend had made. When she finally rounded the corner to her house she was met with a totally transformed front of her house. The thousands of tiny, flat stones had been placed with such care that it showed Soleira. Her wings were extended behind her yet she was floating in the blue sky. One hand outreaching. Glittering pieces of blue-colored obsidian created glitters that seemingly moved around clouds which then moved in the direction of her hand.

“It’s beautiful!” She exclaimed as she once again threw her arms around Kal and hugged him tightly. This time the old man managed to return the hug.

“Anything for you.” And far away in Qael’s own realm, something on Soleira’s island shimmered and shifted. Rocks moved of their own accords until they shaped a mosaic akin to the one on Galbar. Except this one was far more intricate and far grander. Showing Soleira with a grand, sapphire halo and dressed in a dress made of gold. Not just directing the clouds but the rays of the sun and the people below her towards a squat, flat-topped pyramid.

[hider=Summary]Soleira’s bathing in the river in the morning and then goes to one of Kal’s magic classes. He teaches people his own philosophy of sorcery. Where it requires strength, unyieldingness, and arrogance. Soleira fails completely at the practice of moving earth and Kal tells her she’s not ready. She says that if she needs to be that hard against the world she’d rather not use magic.

Then she flies off to ponder upon magic and mana. Instead of using arrogance or strength she just sort of asks the mana to make the wind blow around her. And it works! Ecstatically she rushes back to Kal, who is equally surprised by the revelation. They stay up most of the evening discussing the revelation. Then she tries to work her magic on stone. It doesn’t work and she falls asleep outside. Luckily animals love her and keep her warm.

The next day Kal is working on her house. When she gets back from a long day working in the fields she finds the frontage of her house is covered by a mosaic depicting her moving some clouds. In Qael’s own realm another mosaic appears, showing the same scene but grander and with her direction more than just clouds.[/hider]

[hider=Prestige]
[b]Post Length:[/b] +10K Characters
+5 Prestige >> Soleira
+5 Prestige >> The Conduit
-5 Prestige >> The Conduit: Teach proper sorcery to the people of Soleras (Minor cultural shift)
-5 Prestige >> Soleire: Create soft way of sorcery (Minor cultural shift)
[/hider]