He had a steady rate of about one spell per cycle, judging by previous life experience. But Tahi-shei had an experiment to do, and this time, he was choosing Polaris because it just made the most sense. Seeing Madhukar practice her magic, which seemed largely offensive, had given him an idea. While he had no idea if he could manipulate fungus to be offensive, certainly electricity could be, right? Tahi-shei had never considered that he could learn non-fungal spells before, but he figured that it was at least worth a try. And where better to start than electricity?

He'd seen quite a lot of Madhukar's casting and had a decent understanding of the mindset she got into to cast it. He figured that it was going to be harder for him to learn an electricity spell than a fungal spell, of course, but he figured that putting himself near a natural source of electricity would help. Tahi had, at first, considered a storm but waiting for a lightning storm could take a while and be... dangerous, to say the least. Instead, he'd opted to make his way towards the wheel in the water. He knew that it was what made the lights glow, and was curious to see how it worked.

His first observation as he drew near to the turning water-wheel was that the river was pushing it. His second observation was that neither the wheel itself nor the water actually seemed to be electrically charged, although he wasn't brave enough to dunk himself into the water and check. He folded his legs underneath him at the edge of the water and watched as a handful of little, silver fish with three eyes got caught up in the turning of it. He watched them panic and then get plopped back into the water as the wheel turned, not in the air long enough to be injured before they swam off in a rush.

How did this machine produce electricity? He puzzled over it. It just looked like a piece of wood turning in the water. Out of curiosity, he dangled a hoof down into the water and swished it in a circle, but all that happened was a little whirlpool and the disturbance of a few fish. One tried to bite him, but he pulled back before it could get its mouth around his hoof.

Tahi-shei got an idea, then, recalling that mildew tended to grow wherever water was left to stagnate. With the help of his new spell... well, assuming there was any kind of mold or mildew on the machinery, he should be able to make at least a rough internal map of its mechanisms. He took a deep breath and focused. This was a rather new technique of his, pushing his consciousness into that of the fungal web all around him, but he was sure that he could manage it.

He found a slight resistance at his attempt, but kept pushing -- then, the faint hum of the heartbeat that was Polaris seemed to become thunderous. Moisture, electricity, light, sound, decay -- Tahi was able to feel every fungus in the cave and it was absolutely meaningless because of how violently overstimulated he was in seconds. It was too much. It was like peering into a second dimension, into a void, and it felt like every single one of them was screaming -- or maybe it was him? toomuchtoomuchtoomuchNO PLEASE STOP--

Just as quickly as it had come on, it faded in a flash. His throat felt a little bit raw. Apparently, he had been screaming. Tahi felt nauseous, and dry-heaved twice before his breathing evened out. He took several moments, and decided that maybe he would avoid trying out that spell again for a little while. It seemed to him as though the fungus was angry.

He sighed, letting the headache fade for a moment before continuing his observation. Nothing clicked to him, and it was starting to frustrate him. Sometimes, when the air was dry, he'd shock himself when he touched something metal. He considered that for a long moment, thinking and trying to scrape for other clues. When Madhukar cast certain spells, her fur would all stand up on its ends like she was startled. What could that mean? He thought about the things that made his fur stand up. It wasn't exactly very expressive, not like Madhukar's, which seemed to be about a third of her body language.

He slowly considered how those things might fit together. Maybe it was the electricity that made the fur stand up? But how? And why did he shock himself on metal stuff sometimes, but not others? Dry air made it worse, and... usually it was after he'd woken up, or moved around a lot? A lightbulb went off above his head (literally; one somewhere above him flickered on in an amusing coincidence) and he looked down at the water wheel.

Tahi-shei got an idea. Was it... the friction? The water moved the wheel, and the wheel moved against the mechanism behind it to make electricity? His eyes widened at the idea. Friction made heat, he knew, but if it could make electricity as well? That would be revolutionary! At least to his little experiment, it would be.

Tahi-shei thought back to the storms he'd experienced. When there was going to be lightning, the air would get... heavier, almost. Could those two things be related? Maybe that was a type of friction? Or maybe electricity just... spawned from resistance. He pondered that. Maybe it was a stubborn element, one that needed to be coaxed with aggression (or something to that effect). He considered that. It made some amount of sense... especially when he recalled Madhukar, and how her magic only came to her naturally with anger. That it came hot and violent when she was overwhelmed, but that she was able to take it and refine it further.

Of course, electricity was her natural element. The rules were certainly going to be different for Tahi-shei. Now, he was trying to decipher just how he would channel his innate magic into someone else's. Understanding the magic was one thing; actually using it was another thing entirely.

He stood up and looked the generator over. Madhukar's magic seemed to explode out of her. It was violent, in a way -- desperate to move, and complete its circuit. But it started somewhere. He focused on a stone jutting up nearby and steadied himself, his hooves planted firmly. He focused on his heartbeat first, and then his breath. Tahi-shei snatched a thread of magic and pushed it outward violently, letting anger overtake him. He might as well start at the baseline.

Tahi-shei groaned in frustration as he looked down and noticed straining black frills licking up around his throat. Cool, certainly, but not what he wanted. How could he turn fungal magic into electric magic? He sighed and trotted a short distance away to damage the frills and melt them off as he avoided the inky goo with a practiced skill. He'd been doing it for a while. As much as he liked them, they were a nuisance and made his life harder than it needed to be unless he was actively fighting something.

Tahi-shei felt distinctly as though he'd hit a wall. While an idea had been on the tip of his tongue, he'd mostly forgotten about it. Perhaps that was closer to the truth? He thought about that. When Madhukar cast magic, things dissipated. The magic never lingered very long. Tahi-shei had to dissipate his magic manually -- stomping out fungus, disturbing his frills. He couldn't make the results of his magic disappear.

Equally, Madhukar's magic was... totally unrestrained. It took massive concentration for her to keep it under her control. His own was quieter, more subtle. He couldn't cause any real harm to himself or others with his fungal blooms, but they didn't take much effort at all to work with. Hers was powerful... massively so. Electricity was a dangerous element, he realized, following the logical pathways.

Pathways. Logic. He thought back to the neutral magic of Polaris and the Spire; thrumming, like a heartbeat. Why was that? Magic... the core... Every Gembound's core was magic, one way or another. He looked over at the towering Spire, focusing on the taste of magic echoing from it. It changed, became fungal. It became electric, water, fire, anything else that it could channel itself into. What was the difference between those different types of magic, if they all ultimately came from a common source?

It was like light, he realized. Not the element, but the actual thing. When you shined light through a prism, it split into all sorts of different colors. Magic was like that, wasn't it? It started as raw, unfiltered everything. So what was the prism, and how could Tahi-shei change which color he produced? The prism had to be his stone, he guessed. Magic touched the ametrine, and fragmented into an element. For Tahi-shei, it was fungal. Fate had brought him into the world.

So... if he channeled raw magic through his stone, could he turn it into electricity? Or, alternatively, could he... shift himself? He had absolutely no idea how to try. Tahi-shei frowned and laid back down, his legs tucking neatly along his side. The deer -- no longer a fawn, but nearly a stag -- huffed, frustration evident. Maybe it just... wasn't possible?

But no, that didn't make sense. He'd seen Gembound use great varieties of magic. It had to be possible, at least. Just... difficult.

Maybe he was overcomplicating things? Very likely. Tahi overcomplicated everything. It was a chronic facet of his personality. He returned back to the basics -- what did he know? Wild. Fleeting. Violent. Uncontrolled. He drew in a deep breath, tasting the magic on his tongue. He was here in Polaris to feed off of it. He focused on the rock again, eyes leveling on it. He tasted the thick ozone, heavy on his tongue -- nearly tangible if you walked close enough to the Spire.

He drew in a breath, and then breathed out sharply again. The air around him felt charged, somehow -- more than usual, like the magic was swarming around him. Getting stronger. And just as quickly as the increase in pressure came, it dissipated. Tahi-shei felt hopeful, then. He was... getting there, certainly -- just not very quickly.

He let the magic envelop him, washing over him in its rawest form. Tahi-shei reminded himself of what he knew about electricity, and tried to refine it again. He focused on the magic around him, and the way it crackled like its own kind of electricity. He started to feel the build-up of energy, uncomfortable and chaotic, and on instinct Tahi tried to dissipate it with a spell he was familiar with.

A small wake of mushrooms sprang up around him, and Tahi-shei frowned as he felt the breakthrough he'd been approaching slip away. He'd need to repress this instinct to clear the energy of increased magic, and he'd need to let it channel through him like Madhukar did. Electricity was not a calm, restrained element like fungal. It was chaotic and brutal, and Tahi-shei needed to let the energy build before he could expel it into an electricity spell.