Canter Light

Vertina may not be a hardcore explorer but she knows the feeling of an oppritunity arrising that you need to grab in the brief time it's there. So she didn't raise too much of a fuss when Arashi sent word she was going to be temporarily delayed from their meeting to train. Fair enough. At least she had the courtesy to say something instead of just going off willy nilly.

Besides, it gave Vertina a bit more time to figure out just what she was going to do. She had trained in handling Light powers herself, but she had already posessed the basics. Teaching it brand new to someone else was going to be a different experience. A challenge.

But she did like challenges.

But she had struck on an idea, and had kept herself occupied in preparing. Kogushi was a bit out of the way as far as ports go, but for where she eventually wanted to take the dire shire out to, it was actually closer and less harrowing than making a trek on foot all the way from Breg Epona. She's pretty sure Arashi wouldn't want to give her a ponyback ride down, even if she did try to claim it was a training excersize.

There would be no pony rides. There would be no rides of the sort! In fact, if Vertina is at the port, they'd see the dire-shire trudging off the boat like she was carrying five Starshadow's instead of just the one she had at present. There's a reason, and if the salamander does a quick inspect, they'd see the debuff Arashi received.

At least the boat ride gave her some time to rest, but the debuff was a nagging problem that she wanted to be rid of. As soon as possible. Once all the way off the boat, Arashi takes a long look around, seeing who's around, and if Vertina is around as well. If not, she's going to find a sit and sit on it.

Ah there she is. Vertina ambles over to the disembarkment of the ship, only to pause and squint at the sluggest shire as she makes her way down dockside. She knows seasickness and that is not it... Nope, different debuff, though that name would fit something aquatic. "Good grief girl, what happened to you? You're dragging your hooves like someone hitched you to a plow."

Wait is that racist to a equine were fang? ... Eh, whatever, already said too late to take it back. It was an apt description either way and that's about as far as she bothers to think about such things.

Arashio offense taken. "That's what it feels like," Arashi responds, glancing up to spot Vertina when she speaks. "There's no timer. It -has- to be removed, and turns out, Light is one of the things that can remove it,". HINT. HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINT. The only way it could be more obvious is if she crafted a giant neon sign. "And don't you dare suggest keeping it on for weight training."

"Oh for goodness sake, no! That's a terrible idea." Vertina replies, giving her head a strong enough shake it almost whipcracks her ponytail. "At least, this isn't that kind of training, anyways." The dragongirl steps a bit closer, murmuring some mantra under her breath. A soothing glow briefly covers her hands as she stands and puts them on Arashi's shoulders. "Just relax for a moment, it'll make expunging this nasty little linger easier."

Relief. It isn't said but it's visible when the salamander agrees with Arashi. Training soon, but for now? Having the debuff removed is a delight. The dire-shire does as instructed, relaxing, taking a breath, letting Vertina work on the debuff. A bit of light magic and poof. The icon vanishes and heaves a much more obvious sigh of relief. "Oh my god, that is so much better."

"Don't see a lot of debuffs that don't time out on their own. Must of been one heck of an adventure you went on." Once it's done Vertina removes her hands from the mare's shoulders. "That should help give you some of that energy back, too. Light is good for more than punching undead in the face to make them dead again." With it taken care of Vertina walks back over to where she had been, picking up a create and balancing it on her shoulder. "I know this is a little out of the way here, but our unwanted company hasn't been seen around Westelande so we're less likely to get any uncomfortable interruptions," she adds as she starts walking towards the edge of town. "Mayer showed me a few places out here that are good for training when I was working on strengthening my chi focus."

    "Um. I think it was a dungeon we won't have access to again, anytime soon, if ever. I think it was an Undyne ruin and the only reason we got down there was cause of the storms along the coast. And atop that, there was a wall that was collapsing as we were going in, and probably has collapsed by now letting the ocean in. so.... ... I didn't bother making a map of it." And she's a map maker. If she didn't see a point, well... there's probably no point.

    As for 'friends', the war, and all the other things, "Eh. Wherever is fine. Gives me a chance to see if there are shards about." Ever the convenient reason to go -anywhere-. "There was one in that ruin so, i'm glad I went."

Vertina ughs. "Sounds like too much water for my tastes. That's the one element I can't come to grips with as easily." She's no Avatar, three out of four is good enough for her. "Hopefully this works out to help you with that little venture too. At least your sidequest gave me time to work on just how to handle doing this."

"Huh. Really? Well if you ever get curiuos, it is actually my top stat. Something I plan to start incorporating into things a lot more once I have things balanced out.. which this is the start of." Light one, light two, then water three to water 4... that's what Arashi has planned out. It'll take a while.

Back to the matter at hand, "I tried to do some research myself but it seemed pretty elusive. What did you come up with..?"

"Yeah. That's the thing. Light isn't an element you can just .. grab onto, for lack of better terms, like you can the earth or the air or what's around us. It's not just a thing that's there." Once they're out of town Vertina stops and crouchs to put the crate back on the ground. "For some it comes as a divine power. For someone like me, it manifests through ki and chakras." She pries the lid off the crate. "But I've got a few other tricks up my gi to use too."

Seems Arashi is all ears, listening to what the Salamnder has to say. "Yeaaah, following some 'divine entity' isn't where it is going to come from for me at all. I couldn't even name one, in all honesty." The crate is given a long look, especially once the lid starts to come off. "I'm sure you do." Otherwise they wouldn't be out here. In the desert.

"Yeah. I get spirituality part, it's a component of martial arts, but the whole.... organized belief in a higher power thing, y'know." Vertina wobbles a hand back and forth, not feeling like needing to get into more detailed. "So sounds like you came to the right place!" She takes a flask out of the crate, and hands it to Arashi. "Here, drink that. I alchemized a status buff potion that should give you a temporary resonance with Light energy, so you can learn what it... feels like, I guess you'd say."

Fortunately as she's also a Brewer her potions don't taste like horrid medicinal crap.

A drink? Well. That wasn't expected, but it gets accepted and tossed back anyway. "I had a feeling. If I had gone to one of the crusaders or some other similiar class, ... yeah, it wouldn't have worked out," Arashi admits before offering the flask back. ".... Well. ... That's a different feeling." And it didn't taste awful either. Bonus!

Vertina returns the flask to the crate, puts the lid back, and turns to sit on it. "Good, good." Vertina takes a deep breath herself, and puts her hands together fist in palm as she closes her eyes. "Calm your mind, and focus on where that feeling is coming from. Find your center of essence. That is where you're going to have to learn to draw from. Every living thing has that bit of a spark, the potion is just an attunement to help you find what would otherwise just be a meager flicker to start with."

Sit? Sure. Sit. Vertina has a crate, Arashi has being herself. All those travels in the wild and resting at 080 helps with getting used to resting, well, anywhere. There's no rhyme or reason to her position, other than she's trying to look down deep for that feeling that's........ at the base of her neck. Yep. That's where that wispy feeling is flowing from. "Well, the potion worked.."

Vertina mmhmms softly. "Before you can use it in battle you need to learn to resonate with it. So just focus. Feel. Get familiar with that part of you. Eventually you'll come to find more than just that spark." Vertina shifts on her seat a bit, folding her legs up into not quite that meditative pose you often seen, due to how long they are. But they're tucked in close enough. "I know, this isn't the most exciting of activities. But if an impatient thrillseeker like me can master it..."

"First steps and all that.." Arashi has been around the block in this game before. She understands that a change of pace is needed for something she hasn't used in the past. "As long as it doesn't get all upset at it's opposite trait being higher, that's all.." Edge of Shadow, Shattered strike, there were clear examples of her using the -other- side of the coin already.

That gets a bit of a chuckle out of Vertina. "Yin and Yang, and all that. They're opposites, but parts of a whole. They co-exist. Not everyone can easily handle both is all." A pause as she takes another thorough breath. "You already have a strong Dark attunement, that's the other reason I figured you might need some extra help finding a point of light to draw on." Meditating, this is probably the most calm and least constantly in motion anyone ever really sees Vertina. "But once you learn to focus on it, and draw it to you, the actual use of it is comparitively easy."

    "True, that's why I'm giving it a shot at all. I mean, if you've seen Starshadow, and now the way my ARMS have gotten since learning this Data Drain thing, I figured maybe I should try to follow the trend that the game seems to me pointing me toward."

"And that's the first of many steps. But eventually the journey will lead where you wish to go." Vertina uncrosses her legs and gets up from her seat on the crate. She easily settles into a stance with her legs a bit apart for balance. Holds her arms together in front of her, heels of palms together. If one recognizes the stance they wouldn't be surprised to see the flicker of energy drawn at her palms "It's finding the flow, and shaping it to your needs. Light might not be as easily grasped as the Elements, but once you do, it can be handled in much the same way..." There's a burst of light of it erupts out... and then there's a *THMP* as a plume of sand bursts up from the dune it hit. "Dang it, I was aiming for that cactus."

    At least Arashi opens her eyes to have a look. An energy blast! .. It goes wide, but at least it happened. "Hey, I'd be happy just getting the blast out, for what it's worth," she offers. Yay sympathy. As she goes back to trying to focus on that spark, a sharp eyed Vertina may notice the lighter side of Starshadow starting to flicker a bit. First steps.

Vertina turns her attention to watch the mare for a moment... and the flicker gets her to raise a scaled brow a bit. "Wow... You're already getting a reaction." After a moment she steps a bit closer. "That's an unusual weapon, too. Can I have a look at it?"

"Eh?" The flicker vanishes with her focus. "I did?" Arashi seems confused at first, but when Vertina brings up Starshadow, that explains it. "Oh! Sure." Around it comes, held out for Vertina's inspection. ( https://i.imgur.com/Nd5fjsK.jpg ) One blade is black, the other is white, the crystal like hilt is a sky blue color, with a silvery grip. The pommel is just an orb. (Nothing fancy there.) "The weapon I quested for ... a very, very long time. It was the only thing that made me stand out before the apocalypse... then it was shattered on the day of. It should be double the length, but i'm still collecting its shards. I've found them in the most ridiculous places.. like that ruin."

Oh, that's what the shards she was talking about before relate to. Vertina nods her head a bit. "I thought it looked... unfinished. And yet." She points a clawed fingertip at the white half. "That part. It was just a flicker, but it was reacting to your concentration." Which gets the Salamander to smirk. "So you already have what you can focus it -to-, you just need to learn -how-."

    Blink. "Huh. ... Makes sense, like I said, I have this whole black and white thing going on more now than I used to," Arashi muses. "I .. that's neat it reacted though. The dark blade always seemed to work for me but that side never really did a lot. I never figured it out... should have known."

"Since your natural focus is darkness, there probably wasn't enough of a spark for it to resonate with. Until you drank that attunement potion and actually focused on it." Vertina claps her hands together. "But this is good! A tangible goal will help with learning to control an abstract concept! It gives you something to see and feel, to know when there's an actual reaction. With some practice you won't even need the potion, that weapon will provide plenty of a focal point for you."

    "Well, cool, then." There's no arguing the point. If Arashi can see the reaction she'll know the feeling, the sensation, and how she's working to bring it to the fore-front. Mixing the two... can come later. Rather than put the weapon against her back, she'll put it out ahead of her and just keep a close eye on it as training continues, once returned, of course. "You're right, it is still incomplete. Working on that, still."

"But now I get why you're so eager to explore places that aren't commonly visited." And a better understanding of her student will help them both. Vertina sits back down, taking out her personal flask and getting a drink from it while watching Arashi practice. "I was wondering if you'd need some kind of training weapon but this is even better, being one you're already familiar with. Once you've got a feel for it I'll take you out to the spot I trained at. At night certain desert themed undead and Dark aligned monsters spawn there," A nod towards Starshadow, "and that'll help you practice actually using it. Though Light can do more than just smite darkness and heal, trust me."

    "I wouldn't be here if I thought all it could do was a couple niche things. If that beam attack is any indication, there's plenty more it can do and I'm looking forward to figuring it out. My offer for water training will stand if you want it, but one thing at a time." Grin.

"Yeah, small steps and all that." Vertina tucks the flask back into her inventory. Then smirks again. "You'll get to see plenty of it while we're training."