Travel & Agency
Jun 15, 2020 17:02:25 GMT
Varis/G'Lorth/Sundilar, Markas Virnala, and 2 more like this
Post by andycd on Jun 15, 2020 17:02:25 GMT
Focus.
It was like nothing else. Since the moment Jenna had found this pool of arcane power inside of her following her transformation some years ago, she had wielded magic almost every day. She had grown and strengthened this unrequested but welcome side-effect to Granny’s meddling like a muscle - or perhaps more accurately, like feeding a fire. The power flaring her eyes violet now was not that pool, not that muscle. It was the Portal, the Weave itself.
Jenna and Aurelia had talked about a number of contingency plans over the years, especially since Aurelia formally ended her apprenticeship. This was one of the more drastic ones, and she knew her guardian must be a little upset that she didn’t get to take on this challenge herself. But she was needed elsewhere - Aurelia had a much broader arsenal of aid than Jenna and frankly against devils the last thing they needed was fire. So it had fallen to her young shoulders to rebraid the portal’s remnants into something new.
Most people didn’t understand what had happened when Aurelia had destroyed the portal during the orcish invasion. Before, there had just been a permanent rift in the air, which Aurelia had managed to secure enough over the first year or so to be able to close it and reopen it - back then it was closing the portal which was more difficult than opening it, like pushing a door closed against a harsh wind. When Aurelia destroyed it, all she did was cut through the strands of the Weave that kept it consistent, controlled. What remained afterwards was not a stable, permanent rift, but still a tangle of very potent transportative magic, like a coiled spring that could be pushed on again and again to produce energy.
Casting teleportation magic while connecting to that strand was almost effortless, and so the two of them had been able to keep the traffic flowing. In an emergency though, like this one, all Jenna had done was tap more directly into that source of power, to become the spring, the harsh wind blowing in. It was exhilarating.
Teleportation? No problem. Move an army? Say the word. Need to go from Zot Goran to Port Ffirst? Jenna can do that all the way from the hilltop of Daring, feet barely touching the ground, her golden focal orb floating in front of her. Wendy was keeping her grounded though - that woman just knew where things needed to go. She hadn’t even known Wendy could do magic - and it didn’t seem like she could, not quite anyway - Wendy was just steadily directing Jenna’s focus where it needed to go. People needed to get from one place to another quickly, and with Wendy grasping onto the same network as Jenna, nothing could be easier.
“Eat, Jenna,” came a firm voice from her side. Her physical, mortal side. Dimly she turned her actual head and Wendy was standing there, holding out a pie, other hand still raised towards the circle. “You have to sustain your body as well.”
Turning away, Jenna reached out and took the pie, absent-spiritually. “How long has it been?” her mouth said, before biting into it.
“3 days, but it should wrap up toda----” the voice disappeared again as Jenna floated up a little higher. A group of soldiers were travelling from Maray to the main battle, and she could get them there faster. Magic had an insistence about it sometimes, she’d learned from the fire that had poured from her hands when she was starting out, and right now she was submerged in one of the most potent sources of transportative magic on the Prime Material.
Plane shifting was still a stretch - still difficult to achieve - but on the Material she felt almost limitless. It was all she could do not to send the entire population of Daring to the moon and back. Instinctively, she held out her hand again, and Wendy took it, and after a moment or an hour she felt her feet touch the ground again.
Focus.
It was like nothing else. Since the moment Jenna had found this pool of arcane power inside of her following her transformation some years ago, she had wielded magic almost every day. She had grown and strengthened this unrequested but welcome side-effect to Granny’s meddling like a muscle - or perhaps more accurately, like feeding a fire. The power flaring her eyes violet now was not that pool, not that muscle. It was the Portal, the Weave itself.
Jenna and Aurelia had talked about a number of contingency plans over the years, especially since Aurelia formally ended her apprenticeship. This was one of the more drastic ones, and she knew her guardian must be a little upset that she didn’t get to take on this challenge herself. But she was needed elsewhere - Aurelia had a much broader arsenal of aid than Jenna and frankly against devils the last thing they needed was fire. So it had fallen to her young shoulders to rebraid the portal’s remnants into something new.
Most people didn’t understand what had happened when Aurelia had destroyed the portal during the orcish invasion. Before, there had just been a permanent rift in the air, which Aurelia had managed to secure enough over the first year or so to be able to close it and reopen it - back then it was closing the portal which was more difficult than opening it, like pushing a door closed against a harsh wind. When Aurelia destroyed it, all she did was cut through the strands of the Weave that kept it consistent, controlled. What remained afterwards was not a stable, permanent rift, but still a tangle of very potent transportative magic, like a coiled spring that could be pushed on again and again to produce energy.
Casting teleportation magic while connecting to that strand was almost effortless, and so the two of them had been able to keep the traffic flowing. In an emergency though, like this one, all Jenna had done was tap more directly into that source of power, to become the spring, the harsh wind blowing in. It was exhilarating.
Teleportation? No problem. Move an army? Say the word. Need to go from Zot Goran to Port Ffirst? Jenna can do that all the way from the hilltop of Daring, feet barely touching the ground, her golden focal orb floating in front of her. Wendy was keeping her grounded though - that woman just knew where things needed to go. She hadn’t even known Wendy could do magic - and it didn’t seem like she could, not quite anyway - Wendy was just steadily directing Jenna’s focus where it needed to go. People needed to get from one place to another quickly, and with Wendy grasping onto the same network as Jenna, nothing could be easier.
“Eat, Jenna,” came a firm voice from her side. Her physical, mortal side. Dimly she turned her actual head and Wendy was standing there, holding out a pie, other hand still raised towards the circle. “You have to sustain your body as well.”
Turning away, Jenna reached out and took the pie, absent-spiritually. “How long has it been?” her mouth said, before biting into it.
“3 days, but it should wrap up toda----” the voice disappeared again as Jenna floated up a little higher. A group of soldiers were travelling from Maray to the main battle, and she could get them there faster. Magic had an insistence about it sometimes, she’d learned from the fire that had poured from her hands when she was starting out, and right now she was submerged in one of the most potent sources of transportative magic on the Prime Material.
Plane shifting was still a stretch - still difficult to achieve - but on the Material she felt almost limitless. It was all she could do not to send the entire population of Daring to the moon and back. Instinctively, she held out her hand again, and Wendy took it, and after a moment or an hour she felt her feet touch the ground again.
Focus.
