The Sorceress, the Ranger, and Potions Anonymus

[hamnat]

For those who don't know, Kishurin is my second character, and Max is my third. So, all bunnies are approved in this story. The title is somewhat misleading...potions don't really come into play in this story. Sorry!

It was dark and cold, and Shenjara was deep in thought, as she read the note over and over again, obsessing over for reasons she knew not. She just felt like she had to read it, or she would loose it or something. She was sitting with her back to a small tree in the middle of a grassy area. Crops were growing all around her, and a river could be heard to the south. She had been following this river for some time, away from Brokenthorn Forest. She had recently caused a massive fire there, and nearly got herself and her companion killed in the blaze.

As she sat there, her thoughts turned to Joran and the Pendant, which she had recently christened Polaron. She was worried that she may have been hallucinating when she had that dream, because she hadn’t heard from Joran in some time. It saddened her to think about it the first few nights, then she gave up hope. “Hope is for the foolhardy” her mentor used to say.

She eventually came to, appalled that she had let herself get so obsessive. She hated how random her thought process was, always changing pace and direction. It sickened her when she thought of how she could go from thinking about Joran to thinking about her Torch faster than the blink of an eye. She focused her thoughts on potions and alchemy as she sat there, trying very hard to keep control of her wandering mind.

She went over the process involved in making a flame infusion, trying to remember the exact process. It was one of her more favored potions, but with a complicated problem: the designer stage….

"Potions, like spells, have several steps that must take place in perfect order. First, the ingredients must all be collected. Next, the ingredients must be individually prepared for the concoction stage. Then, the concoction stage, the ingredients are all mixed together in boiling water. More complicated potions continue into the isolation stage, where the ingredients are all separated or split into groups. After the potion may go into the designer stage in which the groups of ingredients are arranged into an exact pattern which can be altered to cause the potion’s exact effect to be altered. In the arrangement phase, the ingredients are placed in exact locations, which may be altered for effect, for a design that often resembles a summoning circle. In the enchantment phase, magical energies are channeled through the design, giving them ingredients the 'charge' they need. The imbuing phase is where the individual ingredients have energy channeled through them to specialize the effects. In the final stage, the infusion stage, the ingredients are mixed and remixed with more water through a series of shaking, stirring, pouring, and swirling. The infusion is then poured into a glass liquid container, such as a vial or flask. An enchanted stop is then place in the open end to elongate the potion’s 'shelf-life.'"

She was feeling focused now. The review of her Basic Alchemy class was helpful, so it seemed. She felt content with this feeling. She hated confusion. With this new peace of mind, she found that she was very tired. She pulled her robes as to work like a blanket, turned over, and promptly fell asleep. As she slept, she dreamt of the cold outside and the fire inside. A light was coming from the cold. Coming, as she reached for the light...

[Kishurin]

Schwiiiiip............schwiiiiip..........schwiiii p.......

With is back to a tree Kishurin was running his knife over his leather vest, listening to the sounds it made. It was something remarkable to him: sound. For the first 66 years of his life he had been a cloud-being with little capabilities for sight, sound, or smells. Cloud-life seemed devoid of all humanoid pleasures.....even love. He was happy to be away from all of that, as the monotony of those days was disturbing. Here, even in cloud-form, he could enjoy all of these things. Sight, sound, and otherwise.

He slipped his leather vest back on to his mandarin skin, slowly as the leather would cause him friction burns very easily. Pain. Another humanoid marvel, pain was something that cloud-beings never experienced. And despite how masochistic it sounds, he liked being able to feel pain. Pain made him feel more human.

He sighed as he slipped his dark shirt over his leather vest, and donned his cloak afterwords. He picked up his longbow, crafted elegantly out of Yew and drew it over his shoulder the string in front of his body. He picked up his belt and pulled it tight around him, buckling it fast, as his daggers pulled on his belt. His knife went back in its sheath, which was fastned to the lower-left leg of his baggy pants.

He picked up his pack and shouldered it. He looked around at the many trees here, less dense than much of Brokenthorn as he was close to the edge. He began walking to the Southeast, knowing which way he was going because of the stars. Those beautiful stars looked better far away than close up. He tried to point out which ones he had watched over, but there were too many to figure it out. As he came out of the forest, the dense treeland gave way to wheat fields, with nary a tree to be seen. He kept walking for a couple hours, looking at the stars as he did. One of them flickered green, then blue, then white, then red, and finally green again. He waved towards home and said a prayer in Scian.

[insert Catholic-choir music here]
Colectore masukerei
Ajhimuska triashina
Pilasujin ratakurin
Qeshi'erei dan'u suleit
[music ends]

He looked down and sighed, home looked beautiful as well. He smiled as he thought about Tanalia darting around all the stars, waking them from there slumber to a grumpy stupor. "Blasted whippersnaffer" they would often say, but she usually only did it to a ward in which the stars were meant to be woken. She was like a little sister to him, and he was fond of her as such.

He looked up towards the horizon and saw a small camp. A fire, a long oaken staff, a few odds and ends, and a green entity lay there, the green thing against a tree. As he stepped closer, confusion seeping through his mind, he noticed glowing blue runes on the staff's end. [i]"Must be a mage..."[i] he thought to himself. As he moved closer to the green lump, it moved slightly. He saw flame-red what looked like hair as the green thing turned over. Upon a closer inspection, he noticed pale, pointed ears, remeniscent of an elf, but not as long as one. He also noticed the raised chest and came to the conclusion, "A girl. This mage out here is just a girl! How can a mage go through her studies so quickly, and so young!"

The red-haired girl was very young in his eyes, he figured around 13 in human years, 36 in elvan. That startled him, as mages usually don't begin their studies until 24. And they rarely finish them by 34. Elves were even more suprising. They didn't start studies until 125 most often, and because of the artform they see it as, didn't finish until well past 250! How did this elf-girl do it?

He went ahead and searched for more firewood. When he returned, he refueled the fire and promptly got comfortable. He lay on his side and his azure-colored eyes gazed towards the young elvan magess.

As she turned over, he smirked. "A fair creature. But as she is an elf, it is to be expected." He closed his eyes and drifted towards sleep. "We’ll see what tomorrow brings, young magess.”

[hamnat]

As Shenjara slept, her dreams were taking a familiar turn.

"Shen. Shen, can you hear me?" called the ethereal voice once again.

"Joran, is that you?" She called out into the cold darkness, while around her was like a warm cave.

The ethereal voice replied, "Yes it is me, Shen. You are about to meet someone. He is a friend. He has traveled the stars and loves them so. He is like a light that will illuminate your darkened life. Look around, and you will see a light coming towards you."

As Joran had said, to her left, a dim light was coming towards her. She was afraid at first. "Joran? I'm not a spirit like you, so I don't have the same insight into this kind of thing! This is frightening!"

"Shen.... the cold is the world, my voice, guidance. The heat is you in all your dying glory, and the light, the torch by which the voice will lead. You will wake up to a stranger. Doing what? I do not know. I do know that he his not of this world and is a kind person. Keep in mind, though, that he is somewhat shy and you may intimidate him."

Shenjara began to understand, "I see.....Joran? What is it like to know everything you need to know?"

Joran must have smiled at that, "My lovely Shen...I do not know everything I need to know....but enough to get me by."

Shenjara snickered at that. Joran had always been witty. He continued, "Shen, keep in mind that I am dead now, so I will not be angry or sad if you find someone to...replace me. I feel bad for the guy who falls for you." He chuckled heartily.

She smiled and replied in a mock pout, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean."

The voice chuckled a little, then said, "It is time for us to part. The light is very close now and your body must rest, as well. Until we meet again, Shen!"

"Until then, Joran...."


___________________________________

Shenjara woke to a pale morning. The fire was still going for some reason. She figured it must be the guy that Joran had told her about. As she looked around groggily, she notice a pale man in dark clothing laying on the ground near the fire. "The light" He seemed to be to dark to be refered to as a light though. She was curious, but decided to control herself and let the man, or boy?, sleep. She propped herself against the tree and began to twiddle her fingers, shuffling every now and then....

[Kishurin]

The day was getting bright when Kishurin woke. As he sat up, rubbing his eyes, he was aware someone was looking at him. He glanced over to where the young elf had been when he found her, and sure enough she sat there looking at him with a look of curiosity.

The red-haired elf's blue-green eyes widened and she gasped, “Oh! You’re awake!”
Somewhat nervous, he responded, with a friendly, yet shy smile, “Y-yes, I-I am......m-my name is ke-Kishurin Misohana, a r-ranger of sorts. And hu-who are you, ma-my young elvan f-friend?”

[hamnat]

"He seems shy. A bit lonely, but shy neverless. I had better keep my coolwith this one. Besides, another stunt like the one in the forest might be the end of me."

She responded promptly, "My name is Shenjara "Fire Devil" Flamespire, my good ranger. I'm a bit of a hermit you could say. Unfortunately, Im a pyra, and, as such, I'm a danger to people." She smiled as she said, "So be careful and don't make any sudden moves."

As her humorous rebuttal made him chuckle, a thought shot through her head, "Just like magefire!" She focused, which was always a little difficult, and her thoughts turned back to the matter at hand, "Ok, he's calm. Now let's keep us both that way."

"Oh, and by the way, I'm only half-elven. The left half is human. But my ears are full pointy." He cuckled again, barely containing his delight at her wisecracks."Good...."

[Kishurin]

The elf, "half-elf" was witty, apparently, as Kishurin's ribs hurt from the funny jokes she made. But, one has to have wits to be an effective mage anyways. Its wasn't so suprising. What was suprising is that Kishurin hadn't noticed the differences between this girl and real elves of proportionaly equivalent age.

While her youth wasn't so much of a suprise anymore, her age was still a mystery. Although mages wander from the innate curiosity, which causes the interest to begin with, they rarely venture out into the world with out performing vigorous research in magic. They are usually well aged by the time they complete the obsessional studies. He had to ask her about her strange actions.

Kishurin inquried, "Um, there's a, uh, pon-ponderous thought on my m-mind. You're a m-mage, but you are so y-young, even for a h-half-human. How is it p-possible that you have completed even basic studies? Mages are usually old at this stage in their development. So what's your story?"

[hamnat]

"This one's observant. But, he is, after all, a ranger. Heightened observation is a must for the profession."

"Well, honestly, I don't know myself. I have some sort of "link" to the Elemental Planes. My...another mage told me. I only took basic studies with flame magic. I just began traveling while I study spells. I am also studying alchemy and encantments."

"But, as I said before, I am unfortunately too dangerous to people to stay in one place for too long. I accidently scorched my village when I lost control. My emotions determine my power. When I experience more extreme emotions, such as shock, terror, or rage, my power becomes extremely potent. That is why I began traveling."

[Kishurin]

Kishurin was intrigued. Even though he was not very proficient with the art, he was captivated by it. The mystery and extraordinary abilities it possessed fascinated him.

"I see. Hey! Do you mind showing me a few spells you've learned? I love magic, and I really would like to see what you've learned so far."

He had such a fascination with magic that it seemed to cancel out his shyness. That, and he wanted to know what language the girl used. He had heard many in his lifetime and had become fluent in a few of them, but the most powerful language, Old Daimonic, he had only immersed himself in. He had been teaching himself the language from the old tome he carried in his sack. Maybe it could be useful for more than one...

[hamnat]

"I see, he would like to see my spells...well, for logic's sake, I must start with my little Torch...heh..I hope he likes it..."

She smiled and said, "Well, I guess I could. I think I'll start off with a fire spell called Torch" She closed her eyes and began the incantation.

"Bremnoytricgo nmertocit ailutishca reckña.
Shmeriche amni trescquio maishce."

Shenjara's hand became immersed in an all-too-familiar sphere of flame, lightening her surroundings and creating a little chaos in her mind. As she tightened her control on her thoughts, she moved the hand closer to Kishurin and said, “This was my first spell, Torch. It is my favorite spell and I am quite familiar with its use.” She saw the alertness in his eyes as he looked at the ball of flame from several different angles. He was clearly enjoying this.

[Kishurin]

Kishurin stared at the globe of flame, perfectly spherical and strangely passive for a manifestation of flame energy. He marveled at the control she had over it as the ball stayed a peaceful sphere of light and heat.

"Remarkable. It is so unlike fire spells to be this contained. A manifest of raw flame energy that does not behave as it should. Shen, if you don't mind if I call you that, this globe should be much larger and in constant fluctuation. It would seem that you have an iron will, unusual for such a mage as yourself."

Shenjara chanted a bit more,
"Kamashi suno julseigra alkasho
mus'ciera tolunesc atorisce kiner'e"

The globe of flames blinked out as she banished the fire ball, absorbing the expended energy back into her body.

"Impressive! Please, show me another spell you know...."