An evaluation of Dory - first time in the UOM (SAM 28th.)

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

"Follow the light miss. It will lead you Professor Thran for evaluation. Good fortune - he said" thought Dory as she followed the bright orb in to the depths of the university. Her heavy backpack was causing her pretty much discomfort, witch she however hardly noticed. She was a bit worried and very much exited, her heart started to beat faster making the blood rush though her vains. Dory was nearly going faster then the orb and it seemed that if she knew where she was going, she wouldn't wait for it to catch up!

" How can someone be evaluated? And is evaluated even a subject? Must be, if there's even a professor of it! Too bad uncle Ettv never mentioned anything, but on the other hand - it might have spoiled the surprise. How does this thing work?..." There were many questions twirling around in her head with such speed that she hardly even caught up with herself.

[Tristam]

The orb of light increased to match her speed. Most students travel slowly out of wonder or discomfort but some are too excited to marvel at the paintings on the walls or the students performing basic spells in the many nooks and crannies put aside for personal study.

Dory was forced to slow a bit as the orb led her up a rather narrow spiral staircase that led up into one of the University's famous spires.

The orb of light finally stopped at a door of nightblack stone with silver hinges. A silver plaque on the door read

Professor Darien Thran
Department of Illusion and Mentalism
Mage of Twilight

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

She thought she noticed a few painting along the way, quite interesting ones and she even though one of them looked suspiciously like her uncle. She could have ben wrong though. Once this was all over, Dory would surely check.
And as for the other students...well, she would be able to do the same soon enough!

The spiral staircase wasn't an easy one to climb, not with her load of personal stuff behind the shoulders. She even nearly tripped once. Was it becoming some kind of habit?

Finally the orb stopped at a perfectly black stone door with silver hinges. And the sign had maid it clear that they've arrived.

Dorry took a second to catch her breath(after all she didn't want to fall in puffing like a hot pot of tea), then she gathered her thoughts and finally knocked on the door.

Not waiting for an answer, she puled on the handle and sort of leaned on the door, while still standing outside. Tacking a quick glance around the place she asked...

" Excuse me. May I come in?"

[Tristam]

At the exact moment Dory moved to lean upon the door, the occupant of the room gestured for his door to open. The end result was an overbalanced Dory tumbling into the room beyond. She landed unceremoniously upon a hard wooden floor. She could see little of the room at first because the light within was dazzling compared to the gloom of the corridor. The walls and floor were a bright white which reflected the sunlight streaming in from above.

After a little blinking, Dory could see that the half of the room she was in was bare of anything else but the light. The other half of the room however was shrouded in shadow though how was a mystery to her. Dory saw nothing that should have been blocking the light. Dimly, Dory could see a desk and chairs and maybe some bookcases in the gloom. She might have missed the shadowy figure within entirely were he not laughing at the manner of her entrance.

"Well now, another penitent stumbles out of darkness and into the light." He chuckled. "I do hope your mind is more agile than your body, my poppet."

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

"Woops!" and Dory crashed to the floor. The floor was hard. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be a mixture of cushy carpet and hard stone, because the owner of this cabinet seemed to have a thing for opposites.

Fortunately the young woman was not of those easily embarrassed, and thought nothing of her little tumble except "Ow, that hurt!.
She blinked a couple of times trying to get used to the dark, before she actually noticed a figure was present and the laughing was not coming out of thin air. Though that too might have seem quite normal around here.

" Well, at least my mind is not overloaded with dresses and other stuff... in both meanings." she replied to the comment and laughed. But it was only half true, as just about any young woman Dory loved a pretty dress, yet fashion was never her weakness as of many other girls.

It took her a couple of seconds to get back on her feet, and even then she slightly tilted to taking of her backpack, but managed her balance this time.

" My name is Dianissiya E'Dorian, Professor. And it is a great pleasure to meet you." she said still smiling.

Dory took a few steps towards the shady figure and held out the scroll she was given at the entrance.

" My great uncle specialized in magic's of light and darkness and I want to follow in his footsteps. In fact he used to be a professor here, though it was quite a long time ago. His name is Ettvinuel E'Lendor." she always thought papers were only for documents and officials, and that just telling a person about what was in there was a lot better then making him read the thing. Especially here in the dark.

[Tristam]

Professor Thran stepped forward into the light as she approached with the scroll. He was wearing silk clothing, all seemingly worth more than most earned a life time. His black hair glistened in the light. The right side of his face was almost inhumanly handsome, with a delicate brown eye appraising Dory. Yet the left side of his face remained as shrouded in shadow as the half of the room he left. The smirk on his lips never disappeared, not even for a flicker.

"So you are kin to one of my predecesors, eh?" He took the scroll from her hands and unrolled it. A quick scan from top to bottom told him all he needed to know and he tossed it over his shoulder. The scroll effortlessly floated on an unseen breeze and landed on his desk. "Then you have quite a reputation to live up to. "Gather your thoughts, then. Let's discover if you really belong here or if the E'Lendor blood has thinned." Thran announced. "Adopt whatever position you use for meditation and clear your mind."

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

" Meditation is a state of mind, not a state of body." replied Dory quickly, it was one of those times that she actually knew what she was talking about.

" But I have to admit it does work better when you are comfortable." she added with a smile. " So thank you for the kind offer.... is their a chair around here?"

Dory looked around the room searching for something to sit on. She didn't really want to get back on the floor, not if there was another option.
And when a chair was successfully found, the adhiel maid herself comfortable by lifting her feet on the floor and sitting cross-legged. It did work better on a mat or soft carpet, let alone a sandy shore, but the chair was wide enough not to fall from it and also a lot more cleaner then the floor.

Dianissiya closed her eyes and took several deep breaths relaxing those tight shoulder muscles. Another deep breath, she started from her toes, quickly moving up, bringing back the feeling of heavy warm nothingness, and within a couple of seconds it felt as though she almost didn't have a body at all just an odd shade of it. Her mind was working clearly.

" I am ready." she replied.

[hr]ouh... meditation is something I know in RL. should be fun![/hr]

[Tristam]

Professor Thran watch Dory as she crossed over to the shadowd side of the room and adopted her meditation pose on one of the chairs by his desk. His comments would be taken as challenge or insult by most people yet she did not even acknowledge them. Thran couldn't decide if she lacked perception or had attained inner serenity. In one so young he expected the former.

Her skill at meditation was real enough though. That was one less thing he would need to teach her. "You understand the principle of mediation. First you focus on the body, to feel and understand it totally and then secure in that knoweldge, you move beyond it to allow your mind free reign. Now apply the principle to the next level. Examine your mind. Focus on it like you did your body, examine the nuances of thought and emotion that reside there. Then secure in the center of you being, extend your awareness outward and see the world as it really is. See the Aether." He breathed.

"I cannot tell you what you will see." He informed her. "Each perceives the Aether through the lens of their own mind. Some see strands of energies. Some percieve colors or shapes or sounds. What I can tell you is that you will see primarily shadow in this half of the room and light in the other. Open your mind, extend your awareness and tell me what you see." He instructed.

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

In thrueth, Dory didn't really care what Professor Thran said and simply ignored it. Who knows, perhaps he and her uncle had a sort of conflict or perhaps on the contrary....She didn't know and she didn't give damn about it. It just didn't have anything to do with her.
People tended to say a lot of things, a fair third simply without thinking, another part without knowing and finally, a part pursuing their own interests.
The last situation would usually make Dory think about why he would say such a thing, but in this case it was she who was looking to acheave her goals. Simple as that. But oddly Dory was often accused in having a weird manner to think of thing, she didn't have the slightest idea why.

Professor Thrans instructions were a whole other thing altogether. She was determined to do everything he said like he said...

Dory focused on her mind, on her own thoughts, on her feelings, on what she was. It was a remarkable experience....it wasn't like she herself was the body and neither the thoughts or the feelings, all that was something simply produced by this thing that you would probably call the "soul"? After giving herself a few moments to really get used to this feeling, the young adhiel started slowly expanding her awareness of the world around her, but from the point of view of this newly found feeling...
Another sensation awaited.
Dory suddenly realised that things weren't exactly what she used to think they were. And she started to feel it as well. It wasn't exactly a physical thing, that you could touch and neither was it simply a thing of thought it was different. If Dianissiya was to describe it, she would say it was like gaining a new way to feel, like opening your eyes if you had them shut all your life.

Dory still had her eyes closed, but she could see the things around her, she could see the two different kinds of illusion dividing the room...

" I see different ...things here and there....I don't know what it is, but \i would guess it to be energy. I have no emotional feeling about either, they are just different in ... structure? It seems one is reflecting or rather giving energy....because I can't seem to find a on the surface source, but I could follow where it comes from...But the other on the other hand is absorbing the kind of energy the other is "reflecting"...it's a bit confusing... I can't really see" Dory said and realized that there was a fine reason she couldn't see...her eyes were closed.

Her bright brown eyes opened very slowly, she feared to loose this "feeling", but once she did, Dory discovered it was still there. And now she could see in "both ways"!

" Well that explains it." she said thoughtful, and a smile suddenly started to appear on her face. " I may be wrong, but the way I see it, it is all light but in energy, the light part of the room reflects it, but the energy isn't real I can see a twist of it in the beginning over in that corner, it's just shaped to look this way....and the other. The other doesn't have it there, you've directed it haven't you Professor, but some of it is made to wander off the way and that is how there is shade....the dark part....the energy just vanishes on the surface of thins, I don't understand how it's possible though.... If I could direct part of the "light to where you are standing, Sir, then You would most likely appear in light, while everything else would stay as dark...It explains that why when I've opened the door and "dropped in" this part still said dark, though there was a real source of light...."

Dory paused.....

" I can't really describe how I feel it, but it's like seeing color, form and feeling it at the same time without using any senses that I was used to. And, Professor, I think I'm wrong, but to me right now it seems that EVERYTHING is maid of this stuff....Everything and it's so different and what I see depends on what I focus" she forgot about herself, she was almost lost in this twirling and movement of unbelievable form and color...."... there is so much....and ....." Dory blinked stoping herself....for a second there she felt she could almost fall through all those colorful swirls in to nowhere, it was terrifying and she quickly gasped to the feeling of her own body again. Her fingers clasped on the chair turning white.Dory abandoned the concentration on the energies.
She froze, staring in one point at the floor. Not panic but, fear was written on her face.... for several moments she couldn't force herself to say anything.

Next time she wouldn't go that far.

[hr] I hope I didn't overdo it. Let me know if I need to edit the post. [/hr]

[Tristam]

Things did become a little clearer to Dory when she opened her eyes. The bright side of the room was filled with many bright strands of light with no visible source. Along side them were blue strands of air. At the midpoint of the room, she could sense a barrier, a weaving of strands she could not quite identify but that the light and shadow could not cross. The dark side of the room however was not lacking in energy. The darkness was more than an absence of light; the space was filled with dark strands of energy imposing the darkness on the room.

Her first instincts were correct though, the energy was everywhere. Grey strands of earth tightly locked formed the stone floors and walls. Dull greens and grays made up the wood of the desks and the chairs. Professor Thran himself was a beacon of energy, a pure white beacon on the Aether.

As Dory plunged headlong into the cacaphony of energies, Thran stepped to beside her chair. His hand closed over her shoulder as she pulled back from her concentration. "You must learn to walk before you run, my poppet." He purred. "Breathe deep, Dory. Come back to yourself. The energies of the world are always in flux but the center of your being is a safe haven from them. Your thoughts and fears, your wants and desires may change but your center is always your own. Retreat there when what you see is too much."

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

" I'm certainly not going to go that deep any time soon!" she said with a slightly nervous laugh and let go of the chair.

"It seems that one can almost get lost in all of those energies. They are all so different, like this art of the room and that one...they are absolutely unlike each other. But how were you able to shape the that way? Or were these energies just drawn here they way they are...But considering that it is an illusion, I would guess you maid them take the form they did...But how? And what's holding them apart?"

Thos were just a few questions rising up atop of the whole bunch she couldn't finish asking by the end of the day.

[Tristam]

"The lighting effect in this room are not strictly speaking an illusion." Thran informed her. "Though the ability to manipulate light and darkness is central to the school of illusion. Let's see if you have the knack for it." The professor decided.

"Calm yourself and focus your senses once more upon the Aether." Thran instructed. "All of the energies that you sense, Dory, can be grasped by your will and forced to obey your commands. The energies of darkness and light are the most abundant here so start with them. Concentrate on a strand of energy. It will resist you. You will reach for it only to have to slip away effortlessly. Concentrate upon it all the harder and it will slow under the force of your will. Then you can take hold of it and use it. Grasp a strand of light and bring some light to your darkness. Or if you wish, bring some shade against the harsh light of the other half."

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

DOry focused upon the Aether again and the energies she assumed were supposed to be light and dark. This time she was careful not to wander of in the chaotic (or very well organized?) swirling of the magic material.

And just as Thran said, the energies struggled to go back to their initial form while Dorry tried to force them to do what she wanted. Or rather it wasn't really about force, but more of control because the magic wiggled and and attempted to escape her focus just like one of those frogs Terran used to catch when they were kids. It was that memory that actually helped her, Dory started to think of the energies as aa slimy and slippery frog that she had to hold on to tightly and not squish it at the same time.

She took hold of the darkness and pulled it in to the light and then did the same with the light in the darkness, because she couldn't chose and simply decided to try both.

[Tristam]

The threads were difficult to grasp but once within her hands the light and the darkness were ammenable to movement. First a small globe of darkness hung in the blinding light and the Dory created a flickering globe of light in her palm that turned the black of that half to a dark gray.

Thran nodded in resignation. "Well then. It seems this is indeed the place for you." He admitted. "Very well. Based on what I have seen you are worthy of membership to the University." He crossed over to his desk and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled it before her to reveal a contract thick with legal and magical jargon and sealed at the bottom with silver wax bearing the symbol of Pecunia. "This is the standard University contract. Basically it states that we will provide you with room, board, and everything reasonably expected for a student to efficiently study magic. In return you will pay us the sum of four crowns per year. If you are unable or unwilling to pay, then you will work off your debt to the University by performing jobs both magical and mundane. In addition you will be expected to aid in the defense and security of the University once you are of sufficient experience to be hepful in that regard."

Thran dipped a quill in ink and handed it to her. "If that is acceptable, then sign the scroll and your training can begin."

[Dianissiya E'Dorian]

" Perfect." replied Dory at once. She shook her head a bit to loose the attuning with the Aether and picked up the quill.
She did remember what the doorman said about her not having to pay because her uncle worked here...but she decided it could wait and be sorted out later. After all he could be wrong, and she was prepared to go along with the contract the very moment she left home.

And with a swift move, Dory left an elegant signature on the paper. Perhaps, her writing wasn't too good in general, but her signit might just have become a reality),Dory was exited as ever.

" Oh, thank you Professor! You have no idea just how happy I am! ..Only two questions - Where do I leave my stuff and when can I start my ature was something she practiced!

The young woman looked back at professor Thran smiling even more widely. She felt almost like walking on air (and with a little practice study?"

[Tristam]

OOC: Your post seems a little garbled above. Forgive me if I've misunderstood something as a result.

Professor Thran nodded in satisfaction and rolled up the scroll. "You will be allotted quarters in the student's dormitory. I am sure by the time you find your way to them a room will be have been prepared." The professor scratched out a list on a sheet of paper and signed his name at the bottom. "If you take this to the library they will outfit you with a set of beginner's texts. I would have you train up in the basics of magic before coming to see me again. You'll find a class schedule in the Hall of Ages and practice areas anywhere you care to look for one. Once you can do what you did here routinely, return to me and the real training shall begin." The half of his face she could see grinned at her.

[Tristam]

Archived without skilling due to player disappearance.