V5 Incline 43: Test-Taker Larishazza

We walk on into the building, his ears full of my voice, his eyes entirely on me. However much attention he truly has for me, though, it's helping him ignore what the others are saying. It's especially helping him ignore the guards that are coming on over to see what's going on. And, even better, as we properly enter the building, the guards stop with knowing glances between them. They're not allowed in here... Perfect!

With the problems vanishing, an interesting thing happens. I steadily quiet down, and Nin whimpers at the loss of my singing. But he just can't look away from the smile plastered over my face. Personally, I think he likes how flush my cheeks are right now!

It takes no time at all... And we find ourselves on our lonesome for the time being.

"N-Now what...?" he asks, coddling one of his arms with the hand of the opposite one. All while his head refuses to stay at one spot, on one angle. He looks left, right, up, down, everywhere and all about. I say nothing for the moment and slip a hand up to his cheek, aiming his gaze to my smile and my bouncing, dancing body.

Snatching up his hand, my smile wavers and shifts, and I bring him through the building. I look around the building with him and take in all the details. All the panels pulsing with magic and all the shrine-like devices that are either clearly labelled as locked or those that flare with anticipation for occupation. It's all a sight that he seems to be very interested in, so I want to help him as much as I can at least enjoy the view.

I even make a point of putting us in a bubble of magic just to repurpose what I did to help us sleep! I'm blocking the paths of others intentionally so I can get him through the building untouched. Uninterrupted and unharmed.

I send Nin ahead, lowering my magic barriers as we finish passing the majority of people. I look back their way, sticking out my tongue and winking at the people I had been a bother to. All before I catch up to Nin and present him with a fresh grin. Going further ahead, I slide in front of the console for one of the rooms and click away, registering the room for us.

With a final press of a button, I go back to him and take his hand. We arrive just in time to watch the door to our room open. Or, rather, the portal. Something I've been looking forward to, just as much as he's going to retroactively understand.

"Okay, so push that button, then that one, then that, then that one, that one and that one!" I tell him, barely controlling my excitement, and with each push of the buttons, the sounds of machines fill our ears. I ease up back a step so we can get a more complete view of the portals. And, he certainly enjoys it thus far...! So, I keep my mouth shut, no hums, no nothing.

I'm not even really looking at the portal, I'm looking at his face, mostly. His face, then the machine and back again. Lingering more and more on the way his eyes light up literally and emotionally. It's so very, very sweet to see his eyes grow as he watches the portal work.

"What... What is this...?" he asks with utterly flabbergasted amazement as he approaches the portal. A learned caution to his movements as much as it is a caution of the unknown. I start to giggle, then laugh. Louder and louder.

He looks my way, and I shove him right on through. I join him instantly and keep laughing as I dance around the vast stretch of empty, metallic whiteness. My eyes find him, and my laughter dies as I take in his frightened form on the ground... A mixture of uncertainty and misconception in his eyes.

"Hey, hey... It's alright, Nin. It's just a magic portal that brought us to a pocket dimension where they keep all the magic training equipment." I explain to him, keeping it all simple so he can understand it well and easy. Only, that seems to fail as he has no means to ground any of this in his mind. He doesn't know enough about the technology?

"Portal... Dimension... Just like the ship..." he mumbles, it all becoming clear as he goes through his memories.

"Ship?" I can't help but question, magic of this power needs grounded facilities and the flow of something like Thrurstradtur's magic manipulation systems. Still, I'm glad he does get it!

"Special ship." is all I get out of him, and he wanders off to look at the vast, seemingly endless chamber. He spits a noise out, and it echoes as I adjust the tone of the room to ease the blinding whiteness it has by default.

"Alright, let me see..." I think out loud to myself, fiddling around with the extensive consoles near the portal that stick out like a sore thumb amid the endless, duller white. My tongue flicks out and about, my lungs breathing as they otherwise do as I make as many noises as I can. I flick the last few things into place and I run off back to Nin.

"H-Huh?" he goes as I take his hands and drag him back with me. I aim one of his fingers and I do what I somewhat did on the other side of the portal. Various activation buttons glow and switches flick up and hard. My grin grows and grows over his amazement, amazement that refuses to go as various solid items suddenly form. Matter created purely from concentrated magic inspired by the Ancient Jhermonikra, as the people of this land call them.

Bricks, worked wood and nails from nothing, just poof!

The equipment Nin's helped me set up is nothing fancy on its own. The bare essentials, really. Very basic stuff, very unmagical stuff given how we just made it, give how fancy this room is and everything about it.

Basic brick walls, climbing sets, weights... All of the kind of things you'd expect from an outdoors gymnasium or a dance studio. Nin looks to it all and then back to me expectingly, like a student watching their teacher. He stands aside slightly so I can go and guide him, and, I'm more than happy to do just that!

"So, going by what I have learned about you, Nin. I feel like it is best right now for you to go through some basic physicals right now. Just to see what we can improve on and then we can start working on that." I explain, taking him as far as one of the brick walls and giving it a wobble to test how thorough the matter-made-from-magic holds up.

Magic is so funny, when you have lots, a full, genuine brick wall feels like styrofoam. But, if I put more magic into this wall, it will feel like trying to move a mountain. I can either be crushed, or simply smothered by the most stiff, bricky blanket in the world. It can lead to so much joy and so much pain if we're not careful. But, I'm here, so the latter will never happen.

"But I already know how to control my strength!" Nin grumbles, pushing the wall I wobbled away and over the fake, sterile horizon. It barely touches the ground, and it shatters, completely and utterly. Remains that sprinkle all over the place, with one piece even highlighting my earlier point. And it poofs against my forehead, a harmless ping that could be so much more...

And, Nin tries to do the same to another wall, but he simply does nothing. Choice. Within control. For the moment.

"Now just push it over." I say to him, crossing my arms with a slight knowing pout. He tries, and fails. He can't do it, not on that wall, and not on the following walls. They all fly away, with the shortest one only going for a little jump, but an outlier does not disprove the argument. And it's not even a good enough outlier.

"You better not laugh..." he nearly growls, and my face is completely straight, flat... Observant. He goes through more and more of the walls. Failing each time to simply push it over.

"I was never going to, not over something like this. I will just show you something first." I tell him, going up the one of the surviving brick walls. And, I lean on it with my arm forcing all of my weight against the wall. It doesn't move, it doesn't crack. I move to the next wall over and do the same... And I slip up!

Nothing happens despite the loss of my footing. I hop up and I leap up onto the brick wall, from there, I run on over to the next one and land. The wall chips, but it holds. I would've crushed it if I didn't control myself, so one chip means little. A few cracks in what can easily feel like desert sand to me.

"You just pushed it, though...?" Nin mumbles in his confusion, the point settling so cleanly it is confusing to consider.

"Yes, that is the point, Nin, you just got to push it. If it helps, try thinking of how you want the object to react when you push it. It's what I did when I was younger." I tell him, pulling on my own experiences even though Suhurlodst likes to encourage the opposite as much as it can.

He stops and looks over at me with abrupt, quizzical eyes, "How old are you...?"

"Forty-two," I tell him, right on the dot, right on the clock. A prideful smile comes to my lips, one I try to hide given how unsettling many find it. Still, my smile grows, I am quite proud of what I've come to accomplish by my age, magically speaking.

But... Nin? He seems to be bothered by my age, agitated by it.

"What about you?" I ask, tilting my head as he mutters something I can't quite hear, even with how powerful my magic is.

"I've lost track, honestly... Around twenty... Two? Three?" he mumbles, and I blink in surprise, my vision adjusting to more properly take in his magic. The average age for Suhurlodst is higher than most due to the nature of scale, and that average is about thirty. Nin's power is seven years off but already a solid way into the power hierarchy of the students I've met so far.

I'm only here at forty-two because me and my sister spent most of our time back home when it comes to magic training. Along with what else interested me or was expected of me as a daughter of the Sl'Ayiysab family. Gods and goddesses above, even, my sister only picked up her frost magic as we sailed the All-Coast. When she met Omb.

"You are twenty and were accepted here? That is amazing!" I gasp, teasing him a little by stating he's even younger than what he told me. But... No embarrassment comes to him, not like I was expecting... He just starts clawing at his head.

"I wasn't accepted here because I am good with magic..." he nearly cries out, trembling as the tears build up. He collapses suddenly, sniffling as the pain goes across his mind's eye. Echoes in his body and under his... All for a short while... A short while I intend to cut shorter than intended by coming over to him and comforting him.

"Then we will make sure you stay because you are!" I assure him, putting on my signature smile as I pull him back to his feet so we can carry on with our little training session.

I guide him on over back to the consoles and I show him how to reassemble all the brickwalls. All thanks to his guided hands and the magical systems of this room, the portal-linked building, and the unique history of the Flooded Land. And, before they can even finish returning to their prior state, I bring him back over to the walls.

We'll keep practicing on the finesse, and we'll practice the big things!