Learning

[Ariadne]

Ariadne frowned upon seeing Verdans hands stopped glowing. "I know its hard to think of happy memories and then open your eyes to realize that youre not really there. But you just have to try." Ariadne assured him. "It must have been a really happy memory you were thinking of. The whole room shined." Ariadne told him as she gave him a small smile.

[Verdan]

Verdan smiled in return. "Yea, it really was..." he said, a look of nostalgia coming over his face. "I was with my parents back home, we were all together, sitting around the fireplace. My father was telling another one of his adventures." Verdan continued talking, remembering the good times. As the progressed with the story, unnoticeable to himself, his hands, and not only his hands, his whole body began radiating a brilliant light. Verdan laughed "It's working! It's really working!!" he said excitedly. Gradually, the light faded away, but Verna's excitement remained. "It worked!" He nearly collapsed, along with Ariadne, as he embraced her in joy.

[Ariadne]

Ariadne smiled and laughed along with Verdan. "I told you it worked." Ariadne said as she embraced him too.

[Verdan]

Verdan, slightly calmed down and realized the unreserve of his actions. He let go of Ariadne and took a step back, slightly embarrassed. he cleared his throat, sitting down on the bench in his original position and looked around with his eyes for the speck on the bench in front of him. Not finding it, he looked up at Ariadne. "Anyways, thank you," he said, attempting to constrain a grin that was pulling his face apart, "Thank you for showing me this. It will come in handy later in life, I'm sure."

[Ariadne]

Ariadne laughed as she saw Verdan blush. "Your welcome, Verdan" Ariadne said with a smile on her face. "Yeah...It will definately come in handy one day in your life." Ariadne assured him. Ariadne then started looking around. "Wheres Shadow?" She asked Verdan.

[Verdan]

Verdan turns slightly to look at the figure sitting nearby. He gestures in that direction. "Right there..." he says, raising an eyebrow. Was it not obvious?..

((Give him some time...))

[Shadow]

((but that isnt me! I'm over here!XD My computer is being gay, i cant really access the internet...-_-))

Shadow looked up. "hmm? oh, sorry, just trying to think of something cool that i can do.. but there really isnt anything, other thn being stealthy..." A look of realization crossed his face. "I know..." He pulled a small, palm-sized package. "I can teach you illusions. They are quite fun, and are useful when pranking people, stealing needed items, or scaring off persuers." He threw the package on the ground and a thick smoke cloud burst from it. Opening his flaming flask, he cleared the smoke away before it could gather around them and suffocate them.

[Verdan]

"Illusions?" the word had caught Verdan's interest. A thoughtful grin had spread across his face, remembering stories told to him by an old mage of how he used illusions in a duel once. 'Twas a good laugh indeed. He waved his hand in front of his face, clearing some smoke directly in front of him and coughed. "What was that?" he asked, squinting through the smog.

[Ariadne]

Ariadne coughed. As she fanned the air infront of her to reduce the smog. "Thats also good if you want to suffocate the person." Ariadne said with a smile.

[Shadow]

Shadow laughed. "well, you shouldnt use them indoors, but whenever they are needed is when you should use them." He pulled out two more packages. Holding the one in his left hand up, he showed it to them. "this one is the explosion and light flash I used to separate your dreams from reality araidne. they are very loud, can wake anything up, and if thrown directly at someone, they can cause deafness." Holding p the one in his right hand, he showed it to them."this is fire." he threw it on the ground and it burst into leaping flames. "depending on what you want it to do, the flames do different things. just as you controll the glow, you can controll these." He waved his hand, and the flames jumped up and circled around his hand. "but they are special. These flames only produce heat when commanded to."

[Verdan]

Coughing several times. Verdan swatted at the air in front of him. "That's not an illusion," he coughed, "that's called a distraction. An illusion is something you can see but is not real." he explained to the obviously confused Shadow. "For example, a giant fire-breathing dragon spits a fireball at you. Scared and knowing that you've reached your certain death, you cover your head as the flames engulf you. However, you feel nothing. As you look up the vision of the dragon flickers and disappears. That, my friend, is an illusion."

[Shadow]

"Yes, that is a visual illusion. These are more of mental tricks, created to scare, not to injure. Its all psychological. But you are correct." shadow nodded. "I cant create visual illusions. that is a street magicians area. But these on the other hand... I buy." He laughed. "well, the ingredients i buy anyway." he took a dagger and ripped open one of the packages A fine dust poured from it. "This stuff is only a small mix of saltpetre, ground basalt, tree bark, fish scales and . combined with a bit of magic, they create the thick, harmless smoke that is floating around us. yes, Its harmless. unless you inhale too much of it that is." He did the same with the flash package, but a thick, black powder flowed out of it, along with a bunch of small rocks. "this is very volatile stuff. it is made of a mix of charcoal, granite and saltpetre, along with some chips of flint. it took years to get the balance right." Then he held up one of the fire packages. "I dont know what goes into these though. these I buy from a man whom i havent seen for many years, and so i have been forced to use the same one over and over again."

[Verdan]

Verdan squints at Shadow through the clearing smoke. "Dabbling in the art of alchemy, you are." he says with interest. "It could be a very dangerous profession if, for example, an unfortunate mixture explodes in your face. I've seen that happen many a time to old friends of mine who enjoy making powders and mixtures." he says, a smile growing on his face as he remembers the times when he has witnessed failed alchemical experiments.

[Shadow]

Shadow laughed. "yes, I have had my face covered in many failed experiments. but that was ages ago, now i follow one recipe, and i dont dabble anywhere else." He looked aound. "Well, I cant really teach them how to fight, espicially not here." Shadow stroked his chin as he thoguht out loud.

[Verdan]

Verdan grins at Shadow's admitting of his failed experiments. "But you'll never learn anything new if you stop experimenting." he says, disappointed that Shadow no longer takes such risks. Having heard the alchemist's last statement, however, Verdan was slightly confused. "Eh?" he says with a blank look upon his face.