Wolfish Soul

This ought to be not only the practice for her, but also a usable time spent for him as well- the need to grasp Necromancy as soon as possible in the face of growing threat looming over their heads was clearly needed, and with that, just before they headed out he called one of the roaming undead on Valmasian territory.

"You. Bring me a body of a large animal from laboratory."

And with that, he was headed towards the old place where they used to practice. Why not? It was fairly serene, and if anything, a perfect place to actually train and ensure that everything that gets done would be properly grasped, away from the constant noise and distraction.

In such things, it was all about the focus.

Awaiting for the corpse to arrive soon enough, his head turned towards Final. She said she made progress? That's good. It probably means he wouldn't need to actually go over the basics of Cognitive casting again, and perhaps she could actually impress him, and show some of the skills she's learned.

"Well, now."

"How far did you get? Are you capable of making a full-fledged spell, from Cognitive casting alone?"
(Arthur Rowan)

Nisseth crept from the shadows.
(Nisseth Vadryth)

Final, while in tow of Arthur raises up an eyebrow at his command. She'd eye the undead who seemingly obeys without a further tug and tow, and as such she'd arch her eyebrow up a lil' higher, this time glaring at Arthus. She'd inquire;

"You got a promotion or something?" she asked, turning her gaze to the undead who rushed towards a building.

As the proceeded towards the area where they had practised before, she'd explain to him what she had accomplished thus far, and how she did it to give him the proper concext. However, she'd beckon Nisseth to follow once they exited the square.

"So. I've been using meditation to get my head straight. I often get distracted because I keep getting visions in my dreams, and it's affecting me. Everytime I close my eyes it's like they start playing out again. I can't really stop it. Over the weeks I've been practising I realised it was causing me to not be able to focus on the cognitive casting." she uttered, summing up her problem. She continued;

"So I found a solution. I often write down my dreams. It's a way to remember them if they occur again. A minor technique in Lucid Dreaming. So before I practise. I meditate and simulate the dream once again. To put it in a place. It's like getting over a break-up. You give it a place, and you can move on. I do this by putting the dreams away in my memory palace. It helps me keep going. And after, I could focus more on cognitive casting. I'll show you." she said. Noticing Nisseth arrived, she'd wave at him.
(Final)

She got it right.

Once Final mentioned whether Arthur got a promotion or not, there was a clear smirk curving over his lips, one full of pride and being satisfied of own results. You don't just basically decide the future of a nation everyday, do you?

"Yes, I did. As of recently, Headmistress Cho and Lady Nyphadora have appointed me to become Adjudicator of Valmasia - the Drakanite Elren serves me as my military commander."

"Now I decide what direction Valmasia goes. And in fact-- I already have a few things on my mind."

But back to topic at hand. It's not too long until the undead minion brings over the corpse of a larger animal- a wolf, placed right infront of Arthur. The corpse is clearly still relatively fresh, even clean, and before proceeding any further, he runs his hand through the fur of the wolf - it's easy to tell he's likely attuning to the body's inner workings, to its circuitry, a process of Necromancy attempt.

"I believe you shouldn't try and shut off these dreams. People that often delve into spiritualism like that tend to, ah-- begin hearing their ancestors, or people they relate themselves to."

"It could be your ancestors trying to contact you, or other spirits seeking to come in contact with you. It's a good thing you decided to write those down."

"And sure, do show me what you can do now."
(Arthur Rowan)

Nisseth, on the other hand, remained silent, his hands clasping one-another behind his back as he wandered over to the side to gaze towards the duo. He, too, has been practicing, but that was not the point right now.

Final was in the spotlight.

The jester's eyes followed the undead as he wandered off and brought a dead wolf, an inquisitive brow arching behind his mask.

"Congratulations, reid-- master Arthur, for your promotion. I trust you'll take New Valmasia in the right direction," he spoke with a firm nod, before his attention shifted back towards his sister.
(Nisseth Vadryth)



Final curls the corners of her lips downward while her eyebrows bob up. An expression that denotes somewhat being impressed. Even though she does not think all too highly of Valmasia at all. Well, perhaps things might change, as she does harness respect for Arthur, so she is not willing to judge on the matter just yet.

"Well, congratulations then, Arthur. Or should I say, Adjudicator." she said, with a pause and a slight bow of the head. She adds;

"Just kidding I'm going to keep calling you Arthus, that word sounds goofy." she added quickly, raising her noggin' up.

"And I know. I'm not stuffing them away for good. Just for the moment so I can focus on other matters at hand. I'm a dreamer, and also one that does it during the day. It merely helps me to focus on what's at hand." she explained, lowering herself on the ground while she watched the wolven corpse on the ground.

"But you are right--I do get the feeling someone is attempting to contact me from the spirit realm. These visions show people I have never seen before in my life. And not just once, so it's not a typical dream. You see, you only dream of the people you've seen, even if you don't know their name. And in such cases it only happens once. But these dreams show the same people, over and over, like it's trying to tell me a story. So I'm definitely not going to stuff them away. They're clues I have to chase, perhaps if I manage to enter the Spirit Realm one day."
(Final)

There's only a mild smile appearing to such.

Sure, one could argue that Adjudicator is supposed to be revered with proper title, but- truth be told, he didn't even feel like it's necessary when it comes to dealing with people that resided in Valmasia or the ones that were actually stood by its side in the times of need.

The potential enemies and outsiders, however? That's a different story. They'd need to show all of the respect they can even muster.

"Doesn't matter to me."

"And it seems like you got it figured out. I don't think you would need my guidance when it comes to actually travelling around the Spirit Realm - once you manage to tear the veil and actually step in, that is. Tearing that veil is about all of guidance I can offer to you, though."

"So cling on those clues, since they'll be the only thing leading you."

A pause. His gaze settles back onto the wolf, and it's not for long before he begins channelling the mana at his disposal into the most important organs - precisely the brain, the heart, the spinal cord and stomach. All of them contained the vital circuitry that was necessary in order to resurrect anything, from an animal to an actual human being, and unless those were properly fed, there's no point trying.

He took a slow approach as usual, causing the mana fuel to come at the rhythm of his heartbeat. However, unlike the last time, the surge was great, enough to actually cause an apparent, slight glow in the air.

And a chilly wind, one that represented the corruption that comes with Necromancy.

"Well? Still waiting for you to show what you can do now."
(Arthur Rowan)

Final takes a moment to look at what Arthur is doing, trying to find out for herself what he /might/ be doing, as in, the process itself without asking. Somewhat a test to herself if she even grew a little more knowledgeable on the usage of mana in general.

Either way, she snaps out of it and walks over towards the sea. She'd approach the same log she had planted there. One that was cut to be even at all sides, in a way forming a small table. However, the log was small enough to be blown away easily by say, a burst of energy.

She opened her bag and reached in, rummaging around while speaking;

"So I figured what cognitive usage of magic is about is to be able to add precision to the usage of your magic, right? I often just fire off energy blasts at random and indiscriminately. So I figured I don't really mind how much I use and if it's efficient." she said, placing the apple atop the log.

"So I knew I could use magic whenever I wanted to, in any way, but I knew I can't really focus it to do smaller tasks. I lack subtlety." she said, wandering back towards Arthur and the wolf he was infusing with his mana.

"So I figured. I'll have to focus on the proportions I'm using. Smaller amounts of mana to do smaller tasks. And as such, I devised a way to initially trick myself into doing it, sorta." she said.
(Final)

He knew very well that to each there was their own.

And if Final had to devise some sort of way in order to bypass her limits when it comes to Cognitive casting, sure, why not? He's had experience of explaining that technique to the likes of Bei Bei, whom was exactly like Final, in fact - a brute melee fighter, choosing to take confrontation to the closer quarters instead of keeping herself scarce at distance.

No surprise there, though. A lot of people choose to dabble in that art.

"Oh? That's clever. Maybe once the smaller tasks are covered, you could switch up to something bigger with time, and eventually even master it."

"Go on, then. I assume you'll be testing some magic on the log, yes?"

But he wasted no time on his own practice, and even though he kept speaking to Final and the corner of his eyes constantly watched her, it's clear that his mind was focused on the process of fuelling thecircuits of the wolf infront of him. Whether he was trained that well at this point, or just powerful enough to distribute attention between the ritual of bringing something back to life and speaking to her, that matters not.

It only shows that he's truly advanced when it comes to magic.
(Arthur Rowan)

Final nods in confirmation when he spoke, she'd endeavor to show him how exactly she came to the point of performing a small feat within cognitive casting.

"Alright so. I'm a dreamer like I said--I day dream alot so I figured I like to "see" things. Meaning; I like to visualise things in order to fully understand them. So when we first started training. I literally visualised myself from the outside, sitting and meditating. With that, I visualised my mana circuits on top of me. Like I am a blank piece of paper and the mana circuits are drawn on me. That visualisation helped me get some hold onto my mana flow, and thus manipulate it, sorta." she explained, lifting a hand to point it towards the log, which had the apple balanced on top of it.

"But it wasn't enough. I could force out some mana in low amounts and such. But the proportions were all wrong. I couldn't get it right and it was a mess. I've spent weeks trying different things but it never worked out. Then I came up with an idea. Was super coincidental though, as I was just watching some of the undead gathering water. Basically; I visualised a faucet, and a bucket. The faucet represents my mana reserve--the bucket represents how much I want to use when I cast magic. Basically, I turn the faucet to let out the right amount of mana, and the bucket is the magic I want to cast."

She closed her eyes after her explanation; focusing for a brief moment. The magi around her can sense the mana welling up within her, but opposed to her aggresive manner of forcing it out, it builds up slowly. Then suddenly, a white-blue-ish gush of mana emits from the palm of her hand, sent towards the log and apple. Instead of knocking down the log however, it only forces the apple off of its surface.
(Final)

Arthur could not entirely relate to her struggle with Cognitive magic.

As one that dabbled in studies and had access to a lot of knowledge spread across the library, there was no issues with precision in his tale. In fact, what he actually had issues with was something akin to Symbolic magic, to actually draw upon one's emotion, to unveil the large mana reserves and use them for your will. Perhaps it's part of the reason why he dabbled in the Chaos Arcane, as it is as Symbolic as possible - a half-symbiote, half-parasite, that both gave large benefit to the user, and yet threatened to make them go mad if their resolve wasn't strong enough.

Gladly, in his scenario, it was. For now.

He studied what she did. To hear her compare the process of magic to the running water like that, it was actually... fairly clever of her. There's no way for others to teach her something like that, since it comes different for everyone - at most, a suggestion could be made, but the part of figuring it out comes for each on their own. It's a good thing that she managed to figure out her own part.

"Ah! Good, good."

Amidst all of this, the energy of Necromancy seeped through the Lifestream, wreaking havoc on a lower scale and rupturing it- the soul of a wolf was being forced back into the body, and although the lengthy process of a ritual has been lasting for a while, there's some progress.

It twitched its leg.

The scarlet hues briefly glanced at the animal at his mercy, before he turned his gaze back upon Final.

"I can see that you can focus the small amounts of mana, at the very least."

"Do you wish to try the Mixed casting, then?"
(Arthur Rowan)

Final crossed her arms the moment she performed the feat, proud of herself. Arthur's appraisel of her feat also sounded like music in her ears, and as such she felt some sense of accomplishment.

However, she did not expect that this small feat was enough to have Arthur go to the next step with her. She turned her gaze and asked;

"Huh? Was that enough already? Are you sure? Cause if so, I'm ready." she said, watching Arthur work his magic on the wolf. She had never witnessed such a thing, as such she would take a moment to look at the what Arthur was doing, flinching a bit once the wolf twitched his leg.

"Did you just wake him up?"
(Final)

The awakening was a long process.

It's something that Arthur had to keep performing on the wolf if there was a hope to actually wake him up, and the mana continued to seep as a fuel through his circuits- slow enough to make sure there's no real drawback, but quick enough to make sure that the soul can still find the path back to the body, and that the light of life would not vanish.

A difficult task, but he was trained.

"He's only beginning to awaken."

His gaze turned to Final. It seemed that she doubted herself- but where there was uncertainty in her mind, which is understandable why, he was confident enough in her ability for her to attempt the most complicated technique.

Even if she failed without any botch occurring to her, that's already good enough. An experience is an experience.

"Yes. Yes, I think you are ready."

"Remember how I spoke that Mixed casting combines all of the castingtechniques? It all begins from drawing out the mana, through the means of Symbolic magic. Tap into something you feel strongly about."

"It can be... your wish. It can be a strong memory from the past. It can be a positive feeling, or it can be something negative. But remember - what you feed your magic will make it reflect that accordingly."

"Feed it joy, and your magic will be bright, energetic. Feed it hatred, and it will be destructive, volatile."
(Arthur Rowan)

Final nodded to his explanation of what he deemed to be the essence of mixed casting. However it would soon appear she was uncertain as to what it meant.

"I get what you're saying. Like--I should channel my feelings into my mana, which I have been doing all this time, even if it wasn't as refined as I might hope. And then I utilize cognitive casting to channel it, and give it it's proper form. Proportionate and efficient, right?" she said.

"But what do you want me to do? I don't get what it should look like in order for it to be complete. Can't you give me an example?" she asked.
(Final)

Oh, she was in for a surprise.

The said example was, in fact, infront of her all along- the wolf that he was performing ritual upon at last begins to move his limbs properly, it's head gently moving about as if trying to awaken from a very, very bad dream that was Death. Eventually though, under Arthur's command it manages to stand up, the animal's eyes darting around inquisitively.

It doesn't seem to be afraid of humans from this up close. After all, it was under Arthur's control entirely.

"This, Final, is an example of Mixed casting."

"I channelled larger pool of mana through Symbolic means, but controlled the flow through Cognitive process. Then, Reflexive casting was used in order to keep the channel going while I spoke to you, to make sure the process doesn't stop, and also fill several circuitry points at once."

"But I assume you want something more simple, yes?"

A pause. It's probably no use if he just explains something from the magic he personally uses, so it would be a good idea to tell her what sort of things she could do on her own.

"The Energy you channel... you could draw upon it with Symbolic casting, to provide you with greater supply of mana. The Cognitive process could be used to direct the shots precisely, and Reflexive casting could be used to make several of those at once."

"Try it, if you wish."
(Arthur Rowan)