92%. Is your character particularly confident? Does their confidence level change if less people are around?
The white limestone cliffs plunged downward, their upper banks crusted with foliage that trailed in vining swags over the sides. Tjra stood balanced on the very edge, their toes curling into the moss as they looked down and down to where the river sent up plumes of spray around the rocky bottom of the canyon.
"Tjra!" Ljot's voice was stern, but Tjra did not look up. They were focused on the golden bell dangling from a branch some fifteen yalms down. The training tool swung in the morning breeze giving off a cheerful chime here and there as if certain death didn't linger below it.
"Let them try if they want," Valdis said. The ancient witch was seated on a flat stone, and she gestured to Tjra with her cane as the youth ignored the clamor behind them.
"You encourage them too much, Valdis," Ljot protested, but anything else she had to say fell away as Tjra thrust their hands out. Their focus was all on the trial now.
Their carved ash rod swung in a wide arc as they gathered the mist around them, pooling it into an invisible stormcloud. The air stank of ozone, the crackling static of the energy making their hair sizzle with sparks as they gathered it, compressing the storm into a glowing blue prism that shuddered under the force of their control.
They held the crystallized storm until sweat beaded on their brow. Not because they needed to, but because they could, the power aching like sweet fire in their limbs. When it was almost too much they lept, sweeping in an upwards arc as the storm splintered into glowing fragments like daggers.
They seemed to hang there in the air and then their arms snapped out again and the bolts plunged into the abyss. Streaking condensation they crackled in a wide arc and then shattered against the branch, smashing it into pieces.
Alone the tiny gold bell was too heavy, too smooth, to lift with their current skill. Its mass too concentrated. Now it hung from a fulm long segment of branch dressed out in green and gold speckled leaves. As they landed, feet crumbling away a chunk of moss Tjra pulled with all their might, funneling the down draft of their previous spell into a whirlwind that gathered and spat the branch fragments back up the side of the cliff.
The branch with the bell landed at Ljot's feet, its sweet golden sound accompanied by the percussion of the rest of the branch thudding all around them and the sharp cries of Ljot and her initiates.
"They're going to get someone killed," Ljot snarled, but Tjra paid her no mind as they untied the bell and brushed past her to place it in Valdis' hand.
"You could be a little less cocky," Valdis wheezed, but Tjra could see that she was proud even if she wouldn't say so in front of the others. They smiled viciously, but bowed their head anyway. Rubbing their victory in Ljot's fuming face could wait for later.
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OOC: Arden, or Tjra here with their old forest name, is like 99% confidence, particularly around big groups. At least when it comes to their own abilities. As in this example they can be a real shit about it, though they've also grown up a lot since their early training back home.
Thanks for the ask @mymistymornings !
Ljot and Valdis were named / created by my wife for one of her characters that has some shared background with Arden and I borrowed them for this.
