first invocation

[redprayer]

Priest's Progress [Vault]

In a corner of one of the Vault's training rooms, Rezo is standing very still, holding a shakujo-style staff in front of him. At the same time he can be heard chanting in a foreign tongue, and as he chants, air begins to swirl around the tip of his staff, rattling the metal chimes together. The currents grow faster and stronger, whipping his hair and the ends of his coat around dramatically, and then-

"{Diem Wing.}"

-Rezo stomps the end of his staff against the ground and the wind whooshes outward in a circle away from him, knocking over several targets in the process. The closer they are, the more likely it is they've been sent flying.

Of course, any coolness is then undermined by Rezo having to shuffle around and right the targets up again...

Dewey Decimal-less [Vault]

It's been long enough since he was rescued that Rezo has gotten more comfortable with reading Imperial, such that he's started to read more for specific subjects than he is for the sake of reading practice.

That said, he's still learning to navigate the Vault library and his reading isn't exactly fluent yet. After another shelf proves to be of no use to him, Rezo exhales; then perks up when he hears someone approaching.

"Excuse me. I'm trying to find books on a particular subject...?" Hopefully you're someone who normally helps out at the Vault library. Or that you're a generally helpful sort.

Spirit Surgery [Locked to Ziel]

Rezo's fairly sure that Ziel doesn't believe that Rezo can help him. Or maybe it's Rezo who has his own doubts. Still, Rezo does have a little background in soul research- in manipulating astral bodies beyond just exploding them- so he seems to be the best shot Ziel has at treating such an unusual injury.

Settling on a time to meet in between the preparations for the Corsairs' latest mission was simple enough even if nothing else is likely to be, and when the time comes by Rezo is sitting quietly in his room awaiting a knock at the door. When he hears it, he answers it promptly.

"Ah, Ziel? Please, take a seat."

Rezo flips on the overhead light and stands aside so Ziel can enter. The Vault dormitories aren't exactly the most reputable of spaces for a doctor's office, but Rezo's doing his best with the space he has. His room is neat and tidy, with most personal effects tucked away, and he's found a spare chair and a set of medical tools that he's set on a side table.

As soon as Ziel's inside and the door is shut, Rezo asks "How have you been feeling?"

Comments

Priest's Progress

[thirdtenkaistar]

[Thomas just left after depositing a small sheaf of papers and envelopes used by the official offices of the Empire for future use when he hears a distinctive metallic ring, and curiously he goes to peek in, in time to see a bunch of dummies flying around]

Oh - you use wind magic too? I didn't realize how many outworlders can use magic.

[redprayer]

The name Angelika gets a quick shake of the head from Rezo, but he waits until Donnie's done searching before he presses the boy for details.

Once Donnie's back, Rezo says "Thank you," and takes a step in the direction that Donnie came from. But he moves slowly, so that he can keep speaking as he goes.

"Who is Angelika? Is she a priest?"

[purplexing]

Leading the way, Donnie tries to remember what Angelika had told him.

"Not exactly. But she said she was raised in a church orphanage so she knows a lot of religious stuff." He's not quite sure where the Inquisitor experience came in there, but he figures that's something Angelika can share herself if she's so inclined.

"Here we are."

this would be a lot more risky if rezo still had shabranigdu latched on

[redprayer]

"Well, either way I have some experience with treating {chimeras}-" With making them. "-So I don't believe your goldsign will complicate your treatment terribly much."

Rezo withdraws his hands from poor Ziel's horns, but gently presses two fingers against Ziel's forehead.

"In order to examine your spirit body," Rezo says, "I'll need to make contact with it using my own. It may feel strange, but please bear with it."

Still keeping that bit of physical contact, Rezo begins to work himself into a meditative trance. He breathes slowly and evenly, lets his mind empty, and listens to the sound of Ziel's own breathing.

The astral sense is oft compared to other, physical senses, chiefly sight, but as Rezo's own sense of sight is borderline nonexistent that analogy doesn't come to Rezo's own mind for explaining what he senses. For him, it's more like tracing the edge of something with a cane, distantly feeling out all the bumps and edges...

And what he does find feels rough. Rezo may not know how Ziel's astral body used to be shaped, but it's obviously misshapen now. There are blockages where it should be flowing freely, connections made where they shouldn't be, buildups of dead astral substance... It's just a mess, only just in good enough condition to keep Ziel functional.

Well. Functionalish.

As Rezo explores, a hazy light suffuses the room, and the magic hums as it's carefully manipulated.

[redprayer]

"Wind can travel quite a long way." The smile Rezo gives Link is a trifle embarrassed. Air magic isn't even his specialty, truth be told. His blindness makes flying complicated, so he usually only utilizes it defensively.

"Speaking of which, you may want to stand clear," he adds as he returns to his initial position.

[redprayer]

[Rezo tilts his head at the sound of someone's voice. Ah. He has an observer.]

I haven't done an extensive survey of the others, so I'm not sure how common it is. But it's evidently common enough for the Empire to require power suppressors.

[And since this boy said "too..."]

Are you another Outlander? Or a native Estherian?

[thirdtenkaistar]

A Native. My name is Thomas. I guess you arrived with one of the previous liberation strikes?

[His voice is soft, someone who is starting to get used to speaking up]

I assist the Corsairs in my own way, so I'm not usually physically present most of the time.

Sure let's throw some demon lords at his soul. It hasn't been fucked up enough already

[achelord]

Ziel's first reaction at feeling another mage's focus on him like this was to withdraw inwards and bring up mental shields, but he forced himself to relax.

There honestly was much for him to do right now other than wait, and try not to hope. He probably wouldn't be able to do anything. He probably would be as dumbfounded as the rest of the healers he had seen, even with his weird foreign magic from another world. There wasn't any reason for him to get his hopes up.

Dammit. It was happening anyway. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't stop himself from thinking it.

Maybe this time.

Maybe this time it would work.

[redprayer]

Rezo smiles faintly. "Ah. One does pick up quite a few things under those circumstances." It's sort of how he got started himself! But that's an old, old story. He just hopes that the church of the Divine is gentler with its orphaned wards than it is with suspected heretics.

"These ones, correct?" Once they're at the shelf Donnie found, Rezo silently casts his reading spell and picks up a book, running his fingers over the spine and cover. Wherever there's ink the surface raises under Rezo's touch, allowing him to feel out the shapes of the letters. He carefully reads out "Berengar's Credo."

[redprayer]

[Rezo knows the type. Fortunately, his hearing is as sharp as his voice is gentle.]

And what precisely is your way, Thomas?

[As he speaks, Rezo starts moving around to go right the dummies he knocked over.]

He might get lucky and it would augment his powers!

[redprayer]

Rezo's astral touch burrows its way deeper through the network of spiritual channels that make up Ziel's astral body, probing his way to the center. A sheen of sweat begins to form on Rezo's brow back on the physical plane; the sheer delicacy of the work makes it tense.

"Such a vast, complicated form..." Rezo murmurs. Shaped properly, the magic capacity of Ziel's astral body must have been immense. Trying to cleanse and untangle the whole thing is a daunting proposition. But as with any daunting task, the only thing to do is to get started, chipping away at it one piece at a time. Rezo picks a channel connected to the core and touches it.

Mazoku are astral beings that heal by absorbing miasma, the energy created from negative emotions. Their antithesis, the gods of Rezo's world, are naturally the opposite and empowered by the positive emotions of those who worship them. But what does the astral body of a human- even an empowered one like Ziel- draw power from?

Well, Ziel had said his powers come from force and energy. What can Rezo invoke that would have a similar effect?

"{Source of all power...}" No, that doesn't seem quite right. "{Floating within eternity, source of all hearts... Hear this humble prayer, and deliver this soul from the darkness.}"

As he incants, Rezo's astral touch begins to massage the channel in a rhythm with the words of the invocation. And very, very slowly, the channel begins shifting, growing lighter and looser.

[achelord]

Ziel’s eyes snapped open almost immediately after Rexo got to work. Whatever he was doing, it hurt.

It wasn’t the pain he was used to, though. It felt like chiropractor made of lightning and fire was working on him. There was agony, but also a distant feeling of relief. Like setting a bone or burning out an infection.

Ziel gritted his teeth. Somehow, it was working! He suddenly felt prepared to endure a hundred years of this pain, if that was what it took.

[redprayer]

Rezo doesn't keep at it for a hundred years, but if Ziel endures Rezo does keep at it for a little over an hour. The entire time he murmurs various incantations in his own language, chaos words to a spell that is still in the earliest drafts as he experiments with words and intention. Raw astral energy, physical energy, and plenty of Rezo's own energy are called upon to fuel the spellwork and treat the damage to Ziel's spirit.

And yet progress remains slow. Rezo spends most of that hour just working on the one channel, clearing it and reshaping it painstaking bit by painstaking bit. And as time passes, he can feel his limbs grow heavier and his mind grow muddier with tiredness. Eventually he realizes that if he keeps it up for much longer he'll wind up severely harming either himself or Ziel. And so Rezo finally stops, involuntarily slumping forward, his hand slipping from Ziel's forehead to flop uselessly against Ziel's shoulder.

Rezo's only made the smallest of dents in the extensive workload ahead of them, but it's the best he can do for the day.

"...Ah... Hah... I think... We'll need to take a break... there, I'm afraid..."

Rezo pushes back against Ziel's shoulder and sits back, hard, in his own chair. Now that he's coming back to reality, he can feel a river of sweat dripping down his back.

"{Damn.}" He's sure he could have made so much more progress in the past!

[thirdtenkaistar]

Well - I pass information along.

[Thomas moves to help Rezo with the dummies]

Sometimes, if they need extra hands, I come by to help heal.

[redprayer]

[Pass information-? Oh, he's a spy. As well as-]

So you're another healer. What do you use? Magic, medicine, or both?

[thirdtenkaistar]

I do know some basic care, but it's mostly magic - that's the kind of wind magic I do, the healing kind.

[redprayer]

[Rezo pauses with his hands on a dummy.]

-You use wind magic for healing?

[Does Thomas specifically mean treating issues with the lungs, and oxygen intake, or...?]

[purplexing]

Donnie nods before replying verbally. Rezo acts so naturally about things that it's easy to forget. Which does bring up the question the turtle had in mind, although it's somewhat answered as he watches the man do...something? He tilts his head, peering at the book.

"How are you..." he starts to ask.

[achelord]

When it finally ended, Ziel didn't exactly feel tired. Not in the way Rezo clearly did. The man was drenched in sweat and looked like he was about to fall over. He stared at him for a moment, concerned, but something more important tugged at him. Ziel closed his eyes and looked inwards, taking stock of his own condition.

It was still a mess. He wasn't miraculously restored. Channeling ether still felt like pulling barbed wire through his veins. Except...for one channel that had previously been unusable. It was still in bad condition, but it was working. Now that it wasn't blocked off and torn, it could actually recover on its own, like it was supposed to be able to.

There were still many more that were damaged, but that was more progress than he'd made in the last four years. He opened his mouth, but words got clogged up in his throat. He wasn't sure what to say.

"It...worked?" Reporting basic, observable facts seemed safe. His voice was hoarse. "At least a little bit. I was starting to think there was no one who could reverse the damage."

[redprayer]

"...Reading?" Rezo guesses. He obligingly moves closer to Donnie, so that Donnie can get a better look at what he's doing.

"It's a water elemental spell, more or less. It makes the ink and the paper rise against my touch so that I can feel out the shapes of the letters. Or the illustrations, although those usually aren't as useful to me."

They have to be really simple for one thing, and while a sighted person can mentally translate a flat image to a three dimensional shape without much difficulty, for Rezo it's much more abstract.

"It has its limitations, but it makes most books and scrolls readable."

[redprayer]

"Oh. Good," Rezo says. He absently swipes a hand across his forehead.

"I'm afraid I wasn't able to do as much as I'd like... I haven't done that kind of intensive magic in many years." And as he'd told Ziel, this was experimental. Still, Rezo had hoped for more from himself... He remembers what the mazoku, Xellos, had said when they'd fought so long ago. 'Is that power really yours?' As loathe as Rezo is to admit it, it seems he really does owe a great deal of his status as a former Great Sage to Lord Ruby Eye.

Well. The Dark Lord is no longer present, so Ziel has to make do with just Rezo.

"Regardless, it seems the principles I had in mind are sound. If we continue to experiment regularly, I should be able to refine the technique and improve the efficiency. And we can keep making headway on your condition. That is, if you're amenable...?"

[purplexing]

With that unspoken invitation, Donnie leans in to have a better look at the page, squatting slightly so he can get a good side-view and really see how the text has gained that embossed effect.

"Whoa... I didn't know magic could be used for things like that," he marvels. Can he touch it? Does it only react to Rezo's hand? Of course he wants to test this out, an inquisitive finger sliding towards the page like a cat reaching a paw out for a forgotten morsel on the table.

[thirdtenkaistar]

[He continues as he props another dummy, not noticing Rezo's reaction]

Yes, I use it to draw ambient ether from the air to help a person's body to recover quickly, I guess one might call it a 'breath of life'.

[achelord]

"I'm amenable, I think."

He felt like he should be happy, but he mainly felt drained. The effects of years of pain don't disappear overnight.

Still, Ziel did his best to summon up a smile. It looked a little forced, but it was better than nothing. "I haven't had much practice in being grateful, lately, but thank you for this. Genuinely."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods - forgetting once again - but Rezo will hear the sound of Link's footsteps as he dutifully moves back.

Although not too far back. Link wants to see what Rezo's going to do next, after all.