Journey to the Capitol - Part 1 - Restless Mind

Deapite what Ahach expected, the group of twelve did not have a carriage, not even for Kirasiel herself, who rode a black horse with small white spots. In fact, the entire royal entourage were mounted on horses, with three of the knights riding ahead on the rode, three taking up the rear, and Michlas keeping close to Kirasiel. Ahsch, Ariin, Mahat, and Dahil were behind the royal girl and her bodyguard. Though to look, there were only three; Ariin and the twins' mother were mounted on a pair of tilre - large, quadrupedal, flightless birds, which were about the size of a horse, but seemed larger due to their copious feathers - which had been purchased the evening before from a neighbor after Ahsch had agreed to go to the capitol. Ahsch himself actually rode Mahat, who in her greater fox form was large and strong enough to serve as a mount (and the familiar was quite keen to make many innuendos about being mounted and ridden by her Master).

Traveling by mount was moderately annoying, as three was the limit of what the road could accommodate riding abreast, talking past people was slightly rude, and the ache of being mounted all day quickly set in after only a couple hours. The mood was also rather low, as none of the knights were talkative, nor were Kira or Michlas. With the dour mood, Ahsch had to wonder what exactly had happened back at the capitol. Clearly it was serious enough to warrant the recall of a royal daughter, but only a handful of knights discounted anything truly earth-shattering - no coup or invasion, for instance.

Regardless, small talk was rather unappealing, given the circumstances, so the hrafthi boy got as comfortable as he could and turned his mind to the one thing he knew would keep him busy for hours on end - spellcrafting.

With now new ideas about how to approach shapeshifting, and his frustration with his lack of progress still prominent in his mind whenever he thought of the ability, Ahsch decided to change gears and work on creating new spells from the resources at his disposal. The first on that list was one he already had considered - putting Mage Sight and Enhanced Senses together. Given his familiarity with the former and the passive nature of both spells, the Dominant Mage suspected it wouldn't take overlong to make a new spell from them - a day, maybe a few at most, unlike the weeks or months that more active spells could take.

Like he had before, the boy tried layering the two over each other, playing around with how, exactly they interacted. He tested whether order mattered - finding that overall, it didn't. Mostly he learned that when he started to have both active together was extremely disorienting, as though his brain could really only take one sensory enhancement at a time, and struggled to parse both the entirely new information of Mage Sight and the increased stimulus of Enhanced Senses simultaneously. Though that was curious because he'd had Mage Sight and Heart Sight active together before and they hadn't clashed, but possibly that was due to both being add-ons in his visual perception, whereas Enhanced Senses also raised his sensitivity all around, including what Mage Sight added? He briefly tested Heart Sight with Enhanced Senses and all three together, and figured he was probably close enough to right - the two together was about as bad as Mage Sight plus Enhanced Senses, and all three, while noticeably worse, wasn't exponentially so. Still, it didn't solve the question about how to get even just two of the spells playing nice with his brain.

Perhaps I'd have to increase my mental stats first? Though how to do that is an entirely different question... He shook his head. No, don't think of it like a game, think of it like reality, with the stats reflecting that. Instead... how would I acclimate myself to that overstimulation? By exposure? I've already spent what probably amounts to months, if not years worth of time with Mage Sight on, but Enhanced Senses is new. Maybe I just start running one or the other 24/7, so that they become the new normal? The upkeep cost on them isn't too high - Enhanced Senses is higher than Mage Sight, I can tell that much, but that's probably due to not having it be truly 'settled' yet. I bet as I get used to using it I'll find the shortcuts to make it more efficient. He paused in that line of thought, frowning. Wait, wasn't Mage Sight... He checked the System Description. Yeah, 20 to cast, 10 to upkeep. So I should be able to Free Cast it soon, which will be nice.

Deciding that he was acclimated enough to Mage Sight as it was - being quite similar to going between a very bright and very dark place in terms of adjustment time and 'difficulty' when he turned on the spell - Ahsch activated Enhanced Senses, estimating its cost to be somewhere around 25/12 for activation/upkeep, and moved on to his next idea - there was no point in creating a 'Mage Senses' spell if he was disoriented every time he used it, and it would take a while for Enhanced Senses to become normal, after all.

Reviewing his Innate Magics, Ahsch had a thought. Edge of Glory and Arsenal of Ecstasy had some similar effects, and while he doubted he could cast Arsenal of Ecstasy on Ariin if she already had the same spell active, what if he could make a new spell that would grant the same benefits, but still affect her?

He glanced over at his sister, who rode her tilre on the opposite side of their mother. At times, he really wished he could make a telepathic bond with others - he'd start working on the new 'Edge of Ecstasy' (or maybe 'Arsenal of Glory?') right away if he could actually test it on the intended target, but doing so without warning her would probably cause a scene. And while he could false-cast it to get a feel for what he was doing, much like he did when integrating the Sexual Learning-learned spells into innateness, nothing beat an actual casting.

So then make a telepathy spell, Master, Mahat suggested, tossing the concepts of his numerous sympathetic-bond creating spells and his soul and mental spells at him.

He toyed with the idea. It would be a lot easier with a pre-existing telepathy ability in there. Almost wish she had Familiar of Flesh, would make things a touch easier.

As far as I can tell, you have what you need right there, the familiar chided him. Sounds like you should quit complaining and get to work!

Ahsch grumbled good-naturedly, but did as she said. He took stock of his options. Heart Pierce directly related to the mind on some level, but that would make a one-way message - potentially useful, but not what he wanted. Spirit String, while it interacted more with spirits, _did _have a sympathetic bond involved, one he had played around with in creating Heartstring to affect emotions. Possibly the bonds formed from Mystic Domain could be useful as well. The main problem with all of them was that none of them really involved higher thoughts. But the Dominant Mage did have one that could work: Dreamweave. A shared environment, interactivity, he just needed to make it something that would work without needing the targets to sleep. The sympathetic bonds from the String spells and Mystic Domain, plus the more cerebral involvement that Dreamweave used.

It took him several hours of work - with a brief pause when the group passed out the dried rations for lunch as they kept moving - but by the time the party stopped to make camp, Ahsch had the beginnings of the spell in mind. He was annoyed to find that he couldn't quite separate the subconscious aspects of Dreamweave from the cerebral-ness of the spell, and suspected that using it would cause a sort of daydreaming state in himself and the target, but with practice he figured the disadvantage of not being 100% present could be mitigated to a large enough degree that it wouldn't be _too _problematic. He hoped. He kept puzzling at it over dinner, his gaze appearing caught in the campfire's flames as the group quietly ate. He fell asleep to thoughts about shoving something as complex as Dreamweave into a sympathetic bond.