An hour had passed since Amras's chance meeting with Rift and Pride, yet still he sat motionless before the crystalline cage he had constructed for a plagued rat. After the first five minutes or so the creature's squeals had softened, its end not coming as it had doubtlessly expected but its freedom never attained. The fevered creature nos simply lay slumped against the side of one of the clear walls breathing heavily as its body rebelled against it.

A small motion from the gryphon's talon stirred the creature, prompting it to jump up and scurry along the wall for the thousanth time, looking for any kind of opening. Though Amras meant no harm there was no way for the lesser gembound to know that.

As this was occurring Amras opened his silver eyes and looked with intensity toward the captive test subject. This hour had not been spent haphazardly but rather in deep concentration as he tested small flows of magic through various parts of his system. As usual through his veins he could feel an inclination toward magic being shaped into the water element, though his head the arcane, through his heart primal, and through his lungs pressure. What he had confirmed, however, was that sending magic through his gut yielded no results immediately but seemed to open a door of communication with something within.

"An alien visitor you may finally meet. Befriend the stowaway and your power will be complete" he spoke aloud, quoting the riddle his subconciousness had given him during his arcane magic mishaps. "I've whispered greetings plenty of times now. Let’s see if it replies if I speak louder."

The gryphon took a deep breath and began to gather magic in earnest, enough so that the crystal on his forearm began to glow. His previous tests had been residual, barely enough even to make the quartz glimmer. Now the full forces of a spell were coming to bear and there was no backing down.

"Visitors within, I wish to cure this rat of its maladies." he imprinted into the spell as magic rushed from his arm toward his gut, hoping beyond hope that request wouldn't be rejected and leave that potential energy with no direction as it manifested.

The magic simply stayed stagnant for a second, but as though after some deliberation the gryphon could feel a mental click as the white light from his stone tool on a pale green color. A single tendril of incorporeal energy extended from the gem like a spider web, reaching out slowly at first but lengthening exponentially quicker over time as though doubling in size in rapid succession. The tendril connected with the rat and the broke as the spell manifested a pale green light around the creature’s body which sunk into its flesh.

The rat was none too pleased with this turn of events, but did not seem to be in pain. Its breathing, in fact, began to appear less labored already.

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Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Dried Mothers Tear mushrooms (25 in3)	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags:
notes: None

As the gryphon's arm returned to his side a deep sense of pride washed ovr him. That had been it! After countless cycles of life he had actually managed to access the last of the twelve elements! The rat was still sick, yes, but on some deep level he could feel the answer of the disease element to his plea for aid. A concept without words, backed up by the light of the spell. Not a 'yes' but more of a 'we will try'.

Rift was wrong about the element, and in a sense he had been too. This was not an element of disease as he had been led to believe by its effects. It was an element of life outside and within and all around the self. Tied to this magic was the essence of another world unseen and the alien creatures that reside within. An element of the... prokaryotic? A word seemingly without meaning but which somehow felt aligned with the entities it touched.

With no result from the movement aside from a strange light the rat settled down once more. Its symptoms were settling down by the moment, perhaps weakening the disease just enough that its own immune system would be able to handle it the rest of the way. The large blue creature was seeming less and less a threat by the moment, evident by it barely moving as they stood up upon two limbs as relatively tall as a castle with wings that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

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Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Dried Mothers Tear mushrooms (25 in3)	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags:
notes: None

Bones creaked as Amras stretched out his wings, feeling his mind racing from one element to the next. He had expected to be able to eventually access this last element but the clarity brought about by seeing every element now was unreal. He could recall every twist and turn of magic through the linear elements of energy, light, fire, and electricity. He was now deeply in tune with the rhythms and flows of magic through his heart, blood, lungs and mind thanks to the internal elements. Finally even the world around him had opened up its secrets as he could almost hear whispers of communication from every rock, leaf, mushroom, and now alien microbe.

The song of magic itself flowed through him, resonating with something deep within. This was his destiny, a long road that just now had become fully illuminated. He knew were he to invoke the arcane element right now it would likely light up with a million colors as his subconscious cried out in fulfillment.

Before Amras even knew it he could feel his own base element, the one that had started it all, rise up on its own accord. It was the basis of all his magic, and with it having been twisted into every form imaginable the gryphon felt on some deep level that it yearned to reach out and show a pure display of its own might. Perhaps it was silly, or perhaps he was just drunk on elation, but whatever the case Amras reached his taloned hand toward the top of the crystalline cage and allowed the unbound energy to do as it willed.

The milky quartz crystal glowed a brilliant white, brighter than it had ever gotten before, and an orb no larger than an acorn formed at his fingertip. The magic hadn't even manifested yet and already the usually almost invisible spell-in-progress illuminated the area almost as well as any bauble could! Within seconds the orb stabilized and solidified into what almost looked like an odd glass bead before shooting toward the cage top like a bullet.

The impact was uneventful at first as the spell collided with the quartz, creating no initial sound but leaving its surface glowing brightly. The glowing stayed steady though and within a brief second a high pitched ringing became audible. The glowing grew brighter and brighter, the ringing louder and louder, a hissing sound began to emanate from the surface, until all at once the crystal exploded outward in a blast of pure plasma.

Luckily for the rat below the blast was mostly directed upwards, and luckily for Amras he had already started curing the patient who was now running away from the shattered cage like its life depended on it. The relatively small blast wasn't quite enough to knock the gryphon back but the ringing stayed in his ears for a few moments following. Who would have guessed that his native element could produce such might?

Amras lingered for a while after that, looking over the carnage and considering uses for this destructive power. It certainly couldn't be used as casually as a dispel, but at the same time it could probably be quite handy if used in a controlled manner. Whatever the case might be he had probably scared away any infected creature for miles around so it was probably time to move on and end his self-imposed retreat to Eridanus.

- Fade out Amras -

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Pouch 1: Baubled talc rods x12	Pouch 2: Charcoal dust (50 in3)	Pouch 3: Dried Mothers Tear mushrooms (25 in3)	Pouch 4: Charcoal chunks x7 (medium)
Back bag: Empty

Take hold of the power within
"And shape the fabric of reality around you"
tags:
notes: None