The image is a WIP for the story below. The story ends with a very specific pose that is rather hard for me...
An Enthralling Demonstration
(A Lecture to Gale's group at Waterdeep University; post-bg3 game events where Gale is a Uni professor and a hero, but single somehow.)
The sand of the arena clung to her boots before she even entered the tunnel to its ground-level entrance. Within minutes, she watched as the rest of the group filed in. Everyone except Gale glanced every which way as they entered—clearly this was the first time they had been in here. It was funny seeing how they dressed, Gale didn’t change his outfit, clearly he expected to be left out of this. Tannalysk wore a loose-fitting shirt and shorts. Kal and Lena were wearing normal street clothes. Meanwhile Adira and Lena were wrapped in tight-fitting leather. Shiro grinned. These fools. Once they entered, she activated the privacy veil to keep out any observers or wanderers that might disturb their practice.
Shiro grabbed a staff at the rack. “If any of you have a weapon preference, feel free to grab one now. If not, don’t bother, I’ll try to match you with one that suits your style at another time.”
She watched Gale out of the corner of her eye; he also took a staff. Tannalysk grabbed a claymore. Nareiyana poked at a flail but pulled away from it as if it issued an electric shock. Kal eyed the rapier but ultimately left it on the rack. Adira confidently grabbed a pair of daggers. Lena was the most timid, she stayed behind Nareiyana, too wary of touching any of the weapons.
Shiro commanded, “Follow me,” as she led them to the center of the arena. It felt good to be in familiar territory. She turned to face them. “First and foremost, I would like to thank Archmagus Dekarios for inviting me to your group and for requesting these training sessions. It is my honor to teach you my craft.” She bowed towards Gale first and then to the group, as was customary. She couldn’t abandon all of her customs, not here.
Gale graciously returned the gesture with a half bow. The rest just stood there, looking confused or fiddled with their clothing.
Shiro continued, “Today’s lesson will be about awareness. Awareness of your opponent, yourself, and your situation.” She eyed the group and continued, “Would you mind being my volunteer for a demonstration, Gale?”
“Not at all,” he replied confidently.
Shiro began to walk to one end of the arena, then turned her head over her shoulder, “Archmagus, do not hold back.”
With his characteristic smug expression he replied, “I wouldn’t dare.” He nodded and paced in the opposition direction.
Shiro stopped about eighty paces away from the Archmagus.
“We will begin with your worst nightmare.”
She rolled up her left sleeve, revealing two long tracks of glyphs written down her forearm. Using the back of her index and middle finger, she traced down the length of two lines of text from her elbow to her wrist, reciting “le verre comme son, l'ombre liée.” Her two fingers flicked a reverberating shock that snapped a circular shape into place with a recoiling wind. The dust settled, revealing a twelve-meter diameter disc of a transparent glassy substance, immediately before Gale.
Gale pushed out his right arm in an attack, reciting with unaffected confidence, “Detono.” The thunderous blast shattered the strange disc before him into glittering shards. He stepped forward into the cloud of shards, then froze, as the ring of shadow encircling the disc, dropped and collapsed onto his body, snapping like a vice around his elbows.
Shiro paused a moment, eyeing the effectiveness of the restraint, then walked the eighty paces towards him. She pulled out a folded piece of paper from her bra, unfolded it without any urgency, and placed it on his forehead—her arcane seal. A flicker of magenta light reflected in his eyes when it touched his skin. The ring of shadow that pinned his arms to his sides fell with a heavy metallic clang like a dropped horseshoe. Shiro turned away from him returning in the direction she was standing before, and Gale followed behind her as a loyal thrall, the ring of black shadow traveled with him, encircling his footsteps. Without tuning to him, she pointed to the end of the arena recited “Te impero, ardere.”
Gale lifted his arms and cast fireball, exploding the entire half of the arena with a roar of fire and a reverberating thunder.
With her arms folded behind her back, Shiro offered the compliment, “Bonum” before proceeding towards the group. Her placid expression intended to enforce the gravity of her power. She pointed to a location next to her, and Gale walked to that exact spot. She lifted the seal from his forehead and the ring of smoke leap back from the sand to his elbows.
Her eyes scanned the group, “This is your nightmare. To be captured. To be used.” She turned to Gale. “He is very strong, you can see him fighting.”
His eyes were searing flames of deep purple, the muscles of his arms pressing outwards, threads of his weave desperately trying to strangle the ring of smoke that bound him.
She turned to face him “But even he, Gale of Waterdeep, is vulnerable.” She paused to let them consider. “I will let him fight his way out of it, but you see how much time I have... Ample time to apply another binding seal.” The arena was entirely silent. She paced in front of the group’s gaping faces.
“This demonstration is designed to terrify you. Someone that tries to kill you is one that knows they aren’t strong enough to capture you.” She turned to face Gale and then to the group “So if you encounter someone that tries to capture you, you should run.”
Gale broke free of his binds with a growl, the ring of shadow disippating in the black and purple flames that lapped at his arms. His breathing was heavy and his eyes still glowed from his exertion. His voice and body his own again, he responded gravelly and resolute, “Again.”
She turned to him and nodded her head, “Of course. To your position.” She maintained her calm and walked to her end of the arena. Once she arrived, she nodded for him to begin. She began with a fluorish of her staff to disguise a motion that traced another line of glyphs on her arm to the staff’s point.
Gale didn’t hesitate this time, shouting “LACERARE!” sending a volley of daggers towards her, in quick succession he also cast “Tenbra Umbrae” in a lower, more menacing tone to conceal the daggers’ trajectory in a cloud of darkness.
Shiro ran towards the daggers, spinning her staff while casting “rester en l’air” just above the volley. She lept on top of a transparant disc above the shadow veil he had created. She crouched and watched him stand in place listening for her approach. From her perch above him, she leap into the shadows and hit him with the charged end of her staff in his back, “lié ici.” With that his cloud of shadow imploded, replacing his spell with another ring of shadow pinning his arms to his sides.
She leapt off of her floating disc and back onto the sand next to Gale.
She pointed to him with her staff “I started this battle knowing his fighting style. But you can see with each fight he is learning, and my advantage grows thinner the longer it continues.” She eyed the group, “If you cannot run from your captor, then you should draw the fight out as long as you can.” She blew at the end of her staff dispelling the binding on Gale. “Learn what you can from your opponent.”
The purple flames at his arms became more erradic in shape. The lapping tongues elongating further outward and distorting.
She turned to him slowly as he regained his breath. “Do you want to try again?”
He was bent over his knees gasping, but he rose halfway, avoiding eye contact with anyone. His voice gravelly, “Yes. Again.”
She nodded to him, maintaining a respectful formality. “To your position, Archmagus.” She walked back to her end, and nodded at him to begin, just as before. This round, she would have to rely on her instinct and not on preparation. This would be a test for him as much as it would be for her.
All his previous pride and hubris was gone. It was replaced with a burning determination. She hesistated as she watched him summon all of his strength, wondering if she pushed him a bit too far. A smile edged it’s way across her lips as she was equally excited to see the full extent of his power first hand.
A storm of wind encircled him, a current of lightning gathered at his left hand as he walked towards her. He gestured towards the ground with his left fist as if throwing down a gauntlet and growled “VINCERE!” sending a quake of roaring lightning before him. He continued his deliberate march towards her, and with his right arm he swung the wind to his side, “Ex textura.” He levitated Shiro in the air into the center of the spiraling winds.
She shut her eyes as the sand whipped through her hair. The winds wove around her, pulling her wrists behind her back and another tightening at her throat with something that felt like fabric. Her eyes cracked open as she struggled to breathe—he used his belt to bind her. She dropped her staff as she gasped for air, the threads of his belt winding tightly around her neck. She conserved her energy waiting for him to come closer as he hadn’t bound her legs.
He approached her, his right hand raised, holding her in the air. The storm still raging within him, his spiraling wind envelopping the two of them. His voice resonating in the winds of his storm, “Now I have you.”
His eyes looked wild, glowing purple with the rage of his magic. She smiled as he finally stepped within her range. She summoned all of her remaining strength and kicked him in the ribs, sending him into the direction of his own spiralling winds. His concentration faltered, ending her suspension and sending her falling onto him. Her knees pressed onto his chest, but her hands were still tied behind her back. She burned through her binds while he was distracted.
He came to quickly and in a low voice, cast “umbra velum” covering her in darkness before she could cast anything else. In the sea of blackness he sent her spinning onto her back. She felt the sand for her staff with her right hand, finding nothing. Then she felt his hands grab her wrists pinning them to the ground over her head.
His breath was heavy above her, his long hair draping over her face, trailing sweat.
She took a moment to breathe, sensing any shifts in his body that would indicate his next move.
He was hesitating. In the blackness of the shadow she saw only the purple glow of his eyes. Her left finger just barely able to touch one of the glyphs on her arm, she cast “lié à moi” and the coils of her binding shadow connected their wrists together.
She watched the glowing light of his eyes widen. She threw her wrists forward and behind his neck. His own wrists forced into motion with hers. With her legs astride his hips, she pushed him backwards into a kneel. She landed, in a straddled position atop his thighs, their wrists entwined behind his neck. The curtain of his shadows fell to the ground. She breathed heavily, seeing his face appear from the darkness, glistening with sweat, his body warm beneath hers. His robe and hair were entirely undone. She stared into his eyes as she caught her breath, his eyes no longer glowed, they darkened. Her voice was ragged, “Let’s… call that a tie.”
He nodded, a smile twitched at his parted mouth, his arms not fighting her binds.
She held back her embarrassment as she realized the jacket of her practice uniform was hanging on by only one shoulder.
Shiro dispelled the binding at their wrists and stood up. She had not anticipated… that. She dusted herself off and faced the group, a bit wobbly. She pulled her surcoat back over both of her shoulders. The straps of her camisole were holding up despite the burns.
The expressions of her lab mates were much harder to read, save for Adira, who looked like she might detonate. Shiro pretended, if only to herself, that this was planned, and continued lecturing “While you might think you need the heaviest hitting spells to defend yourself, the truth is that the victor of a prolonged fight is the one that is more resourceful.” She paced in front of them, to reassert her image, “Do not discount the basic moves, as they might be the ones that determine your very survival.”
She turned to them, needing a diversion, “Now it’s your turn.”
They looked back at her with wide eyes.
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Anyways, this was cause i was tagged by @dr4gonwriter about my Tav giving a lecture. I wish I could draw more scenes from this, but art is hard and I have no formal training in such.
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