A lesson by the forge fire

[Torvallis!]

[August 23rd, 12:30]

Torvallis! waited patiently for Borin. Borin was, they understood, currently in the inn learning magic from Timmean, and had hinted a little that he might be interested in learning fire magic.

Never one to turn away a pupil to the One True Magic, no matter what other heresy they practice, Torvallis! waited patiently by the forge for Borin to return that they might pester him with the secrets of the flame.

[Borin Ironhammer]

Borin walks down to forge somewhat proud of how quickly he picked up earth magic. As soon as sees T! The pride on his face turned to annoyance. "Alright, let's get this over with." He says as he approaches the fire circle.

[Torvallis!]

"Alright, you can see this now, right?", said Torvallis!, pretending to hold up mana but not actually holding up anything.

[Borin Ironhammer]

"No but I can see that." Borin said pointing at the fire circle.

[Torvallis!]

Torvallis! looked behind them, and then nodded at Borin's successful dodge of T! being an asshole.

"Right, well, you've certainly seen me gather enough mana through prayer to Lord Fire and ceremonies, and gathering the energies of the world. I figure you're like, 3/4ths of the ways to knowing the basics already" Torvallis! paused and glanced at their right shoulder.

"Cyanide estimates 5/8ths"

"Alright, so, fire, burn, melt, refine, destroy, scorch, sear, cook. Fire is the carefully managed controlled power of destruction. Wellllllll not really, but close enough for the beginning. It is a consumer: it always takes in . . . uh . . . stuff and puts out other stuff. Like smoke. With 'With fire I light your way', I am literally lighting the air on fire. With 'with fire I fuel the flames', I am loosening some of the control fire has over itself. With 'with fire I strike you', I'm not actually hurling a fireball, I'm throwing . . . the notion of the the complete loss of control over the destructive consuming powers of fire. It's visible because the air burns as the spell passes through it, but it burns who it hits, unlike the light spell, because for a brief moment their flesh erupts into spontaneous flame."

Torvallis! took one of Borin's hands and laid it on the bellows, ((OOG: do we have a bellows?)), and said, "You are already very familiar with using your hands and these to control fire and tell it to burn harder or softer.", Torvallis! then placed a hand on Borin's chest, just below the beard, "Now use your hands and this to focus on the soul of fire, feel yourself talk to the fire, and instead of making it burn harder, tell it to burn more fiercely".

"Er, that's not a spell, so it won't have much effect, but you'll feel the fire respond and rebuke you when you do it right. And then you can use that to coax, slowly coax the power of the fire into the shape of mana"

[Borin Ironhammer]

"Burn harder!" Borin tells at the fire. Realizing how rediculous he sounds he decides that the fire can probably here him if he says it quieter next time. "Burn harder!" He says more quietly.

[Torvallis!]

"Er, Borin, I didn't mean talk-talking, but kinda sorta mind-talking. There is a verbal component to spell casting, so I understand the confusion!"

[Borin Ironhammer]

Borin face palms "ye probably could'a told me that lad" He says as he begins to think at the fire to burnore fiercely.

[Torvallis!]

Torvallis! waited and watched. Borin had already had a close connection to fire, so T! figured he would find the resistance of fire all on his own.

[Borin Ironhammer]

Borin, after thinking at the fire for ten minutes was starting to think this was bullshit but just as he was about to stop he feels the fire trying to resist him as T! Said it would. "Okay I feel it resisting me now what?"

[Torvallis!]

Torvallis! reached into their sleeve and plopped a fire mana into Borin's hand.

"As far as using fire magic at the most basic level, that's almost it. I have a lot of ideas about magic, but the more powerful I become, the more evidence I come across that proves those ideas false. I just gave you a fire mana. Now that you've pressed against the fire itself, I want you to look around and see the slight traces of fire magic that wisp around everywhere. If you can't see them yet, focus on the mana I gave you and follow the lines that it connects to.

When you think against the fire, see how the lines move in accordance with your thoughts, and use that to slowly gather power and energy in one place, and you'll have gathered a fire mana. Many mages believe . . . okay, well, many mages seem to believe from what they've told me and what I've pieced together myself, that this is one of the methods by which the elemental lords grant us mana. Many of them have told me that gathering mana happens naturally from praying to the lords and giving ceremony to them and feeling in tune with their energy, and I feel that this must be what they're referring to.

Spells are another thing to learn. Bit of look-ahead here that might help you with this step: when I use fire magic, I use the energy from the mana to make everything . . . line up in the right way. To generate sparks, to make things burn, to control a burning, those are all basic patterns, and then out of those basic patterns I can weave more complex ones. When I enchant a weapon, but you'll need much more attunement with fire before you're capable of that, I first make a pattern of sparks, and then make them swirl around the weapon, and then connect them length-wise with lines of burning, that is, lines of fire, and then connect them around the blade, and the grid-pattern holds it all stable. It's really just using the more basic patterns, but you have to know them really well, make them really fast. I can imagine learning how to do that before learning how to make light, since it stabilizes in a different way and that helps greatly, and so learning the two is two different things, but they are also connected."

((OOC: I can sign off on Fire Tier 1 now, provided Borin has awareness 1))

((OOG: NB: I'm aligning my old forum roleplay with the recent 'no bullshitting when RPing training people on a skill you'll actually sign off on' ruling on my forum RP, (it confused some people), here when I talk about discarding old ideas, (theories taught to Volk), and am otherwise discussing things actually said IG to me by other mages, and the description of 'With fire I enchant your ____ X points" given to me when Helene's character trained me, both modified by Torvallis!'s understanding of them))

[Borin Ironhammer]

Borin stands there with the fire mana in his hand. He was mostly confused by what torvallis said but he managed to get the gist of it. "Thanks lad you have helped our business very much" he said handing T! a gem.

OOG: I knew you weren't bullshitting but Borin heard Edwin say that Torvallis! speaks the truth. so between the craziness and that he would be convinced that everything that comes out of T!'s mouth is lies unless proven otherwise.

[Torvallis!]

Torvallis! refused the gem.

"I appreciate the offer, but I never accept anything for teaching fire magic. I want people to always feel free, literally, to come to me to learn of fire. Not to feel like maybe they should pay me in any form.

Besides, you were already most of the way there, having worked with fire for longs periods of time every day for, I presume, years. I gave you a nudge, nothing more.

And remember, you still have some practice before you can make your own fire mana, but that's not something anyone can help you with except to make you more aware of fire. Practising your control over fire magic to create fire mana is something entirely internal" (OOC: in essence, income: fire mana isn't a trained skill and still needs xp before you have it)

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