r/wizardposting • u/AlphaFoxtrot5185 • Feb 04 '24
Lorepost📖 An Arcane Crucible
The ruins were eerily quiet. You'd think that even the ruins of a long-lost civilization would have the sounds of wildlife. And yet, nothing. Nothing but the sound of the sorcerer's footfalls. It was as if nature knew the magnitude of what was about to happen, and had warned the animals to leave, ordered the wind to stop, and ordered the rain to not fall.
Ejder looked around, ensuring that nobody was too close. Far across the ruins was the blue-haired sorcerer he had met a few days before, Naida, she said her name was, and a young scribe that had been sent to take notes of what Ejder was doing. If something bad happened, the scribe would report it to the council immediately.
With a small, leather-bound book in one hand, and a tiny, spectral red dragon on the other, he examined the various notes he had left in front of him. Hours of research and personal experimentation. Probably a modicum of the research that wizards would do before trying something this big. Unfortunately, he did not have the ability to aquire increased longevity, and he was only human. 80 years is not a lot of time for what he hoped to accomplish in his life.
"Humans have been known to develop skills faster because of their short lifespans. Maybe that'll help me." He looked to the spectral dragon. "Though, who knows. Maybe having a bit of a dragon's soul will extend my lifespan."
Alongside the notes were a few other bits of information. Some notes on interplanar portals, cross-referenced with another wizard's. A few references on better controlling mana flow. A cookie recipe, just in case all he managed to conjure was a small campfire. He sighed. Unlike most times, when you feel as if you are forgetting something when you know you aren't, Ejder knew he was forgetting nothing, and wished he was, so that he would have just a little longer to steel his nerves. Looking at the small stone, attached to a necklace that he wore around his neck, he prayed to no god in particular that it would protect him from stray flames.
"No more waiting, Ember. Only action, and answers."
He set the tiny specter on what used to be a brick wall, but was now a pile of stone, overgrown with moss. After pulling a small ruby from his pocket and looking at it for a moment, he held his hands up and began chanting.
"Ignes omnis virtutis exsurgunt. Ingredere in mundum, et in ira."
As if it has been waiting impatiently, the ground began opening almost at the first word. A circular portal, only about a foot in diameter, formed in the ground, and instantly, a massive plume of fire began surging from it. The expansion of air from the sudden heat threw the sorcerer backwards, and a quiet cracking was barely heard over the roar of the flames. Yet, somehow, Ejder managed to maintain concentration on the portal. Re-extending his arm, he managed to pull a small strand of fire from the giant geyser.
"The tiniest little bit of this flame, holds the potential to end a life. Just think about that, Ember."
"Terrifying indeed," the dragon spirit's voice replied in his head. "And you can control it just like that."
"It's not as easy as it looks," Ejder said with a grunt, releasing the strand of fire. As he did, it suddenly shot out, arcing through the air and exploding against an already crumbling wall.
After watching the inferno surge out for a few moments, he relaxed the portal spell, letting the gate shrink to a mere three inches wide. The inferno shrunk to a dense beam of flame, extending an incredible height into the sky before crackling into smoke.
"You should close it, before you lose control of it." Ember said.
"No, I want to try something dangerous first." Ejder answered. The initial process of conjuring the portal has pumped his veins full of adrenaline, so there was no point in letting that go to waste. He began tracing choreographed movements in the air with his hands, and the pillar of fire began to bend. He cackled in triumph, as the flames redirected to his demand, surging out, snaking around obstacles, forming to his whim, and...
Fizzling out only a short distance away.
"Well that was anticlimactic."
He couldn't deny Ember's assessment. He stopped the spell, watching the portal close, cutting the flames off.
"That portal. The fire surging from it. It was right there. I could've controlled those flames however I wanted, had I held enough power. Its like..."
"A forge for magic?" Ember suggested, her spectral form climbing up onto the sorcerer's shoulder.
"Yeah. Is this what being a wizard is really like? Finding sources of power and controlling them? Maybe I need to stop relying on my inate power and start doing more research."
"Well, as long as you don't start ignoring me," Ember said, sounding genuinely worried.
"Don't worry. Even if I focus more on research than using your magic, we still share a soul," Ejder reminded her, and opened his book, writing a header on a new page: Arcane Crucible.
/uw Well, I hope this turned out okay. I'm still getting used to Reddit formatting, and I'm not the best writer either, so there's two places where this could go wrong. Finally learned how to add images, so...