Open Chronicles Lessons in Lithomancy pt.2

[Naderi]

If the first classroom was far, far too large the first time around, the second was decidedly larger but far more appropriate. Naderi had requested one of the open-air theaters, the ones outside used for a lecture when practical, and plausibly dangerous, elements had to be tested. The open theater could have easily seated past a hundred but was thankfully under-occupied. Several students must have decided that Lithomancy was not for them after the first class, and Naderi let out a sigh of relief at the thought.

Today she'd have less to deal with, and less to teach the rest of her art to. She knew this wouldn't be her last class, seeing as she'd have to teach more in order to get additional spending money. Naderi just hoped more students would give up before getting this far. Perhaps next time she'd be vaguer.

The half-elven woman's brows furrowed at the thought. 'No, that would just lead to more problems.'

In any case, she strode forward to the podium.

"Welcome again folks. This is Applications of Lithomancy. I am," Naderi paused as she placed a hand on her chest, "Naderi, a librarian and adjunct professor here. Today we'll be going over Impulses, the dangers of Lithomancy, and applications. By the end of today, we'll have you cast your first spells. In preparation for this, I've asked a few additional professors to watch over the class."

Naderi looked to the side and sweat just a bit. She had asked for a small handful of combat capable professors. In the best case scenario, this would be an open and shut case. At worst, the classroom just might turn into a battlefield.

 

[Sigfrith Runecarver]

Sigfrith looked up as Naderi spoke, but he spared her only a glance before returning to his work. He was one of the other professors of the college come to try and keep things in check. He had been working for most of the day in preparing for this set of lessons. While lithomancy was not magic he was familiar with, rune magic was compatible with most of them, especially linguistically oriented ones. But this was basic enough.

The Dwarf had been inscribing runic circles for the novice students to work their casting from. It should be enough to keep them from blowing their neighbors up or summoning demons anywhere outside of the circle. It might explode in the apprentice's face or maybe consume their soul depending on what exactly it was that they tried, but they should have the sense not to.

And if not, Sigfrith had his trusty rune-inscribed ax tucked loosely in his belt. It would chop through his own rune circles if need-be and could do a fair bit of damage magical or spiritual beings themselves. That and a big heavy ax swing worked wonders on all enemies, regardless of their nature. That and the carving hammer he had at his back, but he hoped that wouldn't be necessary. If he had to carve the deep stone-runes, that meant they were in deep trouble.

 

[Selina Della Altas]

Selina was in attendance, and she made sure she was on time. The last class was the drop of honey dripped on her tongue, the knowledge hidden in Lithomancy was tantalizing in itself, and she was on the edge of her seat ready to learn. So far her grasp of Lithomancy was the barebones. She brought a few props from her dorm to perhaps practice on for this class, things to help her experiment with words; a bag of dried apples, a fist sized stone, and a jar with a single live black ant.

She also brought scroll paper that she can write down her new spell attempts on. As a wizard she couldn't simply let the magic within her flow at will like a mage could. A wizard was less of a wielder and more of a manipulator when it came to magic. And as a manipulator she had to be extremely specific, a written spell being the exact formula to shape her manipulations.
And so she was ready to write down formulas as she learned more. She wanted to know how she could use Lithomancy in conjunction with the fields of Transmutation, Conjuration, Abjuration, and Evocation.

She was seated towards the front of the seating for the open-air theater. Being outside meant her voice wouldn't carry as far, so Selina wanted to be sure she caught every little bit of information. She sat somewhat alone this time, her friends deciding Lithomancy wasn't that interesting and letting their bookworm friend take the course by herself.

 

[Gaheris]

In the furthest and highest seats, far removed from the rest of the class, were a trio of men. And not a single one of them looked like anything approximating a student. It was not wholly unusual for unaffiliated guests to attend certain college lectures, but they did look a strange bunch.

There were no materials for lithomancy, or even cursory note-taking, among them. They wore the plain clothes of travelers, their boots crusted with mud. Two of them wore red cowls that obscured their features, but not Gaheris. Red, he had long ago decided, just wasn't a good color for him.

On the subject of that dour fellow - Gaheris was the only one who seemed to be paying attention, although with his usual disaffected expression. Of his colleagues, one had his arms folded, and appeared to be nodding off, while the other was more interested in whittling away at a block of wood, carving it into some primal shape.

 

[Phillipa Ebonheart]

Phillipa had made sure to be in attendance this time around. If only to assist with the demonstration aside Sigfrith. The other professor was excellent in his craft, which let Phillipa worry about other things while watching Naderi work. The pair of daggers hiding in the jacket she wore were ready for a fight, but she hoped they wouldn't be needed.

 

[TTamark]

Steve perched himself front and centre. He sat with a large satchel full of potatoes. This time he had also brought with him a travel sized pot of potato stew. Steve was exited to learn even more about Lithomancy, like maybe how to do it safely this time. Steve did have a question he wanted to ask before things got too far though,

"Hypothetically, if someone was to do something like light a candle in a room at midnight with their curtains closed so no light existed except the candle, and they focused on the absence of light, stuff like darkness, void, or shade, and they focused this on a vegetable, and then said vegetable seemed to consume anything and everything that produced light... this is all hypothetical again, but would that be dangerous, and/or be punishable, and the reason that there are teachers ready to leap into action at any moment? Hypothetically of course!"

Man, Steve was exited for this class, and he was going to learn so much useful information. The smioe on his face said about as much.

 

[Leyus]

Leyus was still most definitely not supposed to be here. It was a miracle that he had even lingered in Elbion long enough to attend the second class. The fact of his attendance was even more surprising.

It wasn't that it was really that difficult to get on college grounds again, with only himself to smuggle in it was a laughing matter for a man with the experience that Leyus had. He was careful enough to choose the same (rather flashy, with the red hair and all) looks that he had had during the previous lesson, as well as leaving it. And, honestly, nothing was easier than drowning in the mass of magic students here afterwards, with the more technical matters solved.
No, this wasn't the shocking part.
The shocking part was that this lithomancy thing had become the first thing to actually keep him awake at night, while there wasn't any immediate danger to his life, in years. It was like the childish wonder he had felt all those years ago, while learning his first magic tricks or climbing up to the trapeze for the first time. It was excitement and the drowning want to learn and understand, to master.
It was all rather overwhelming.
Even more so, because he had always possessed his own magical abilities that were given to him by nature, but had never learnt to do anything like that himself. The memory of the wetness on his fingers, conjured out of noting, sent thrills down Leyus' spine.
Could he really learn to have such power over words?

It would be a useful skill, he reasoned, taking a place far enough back from the main student crowd that had gathered here, and letting his eyes note the few people here that definitely did not look like they were here to learn.
A useful skill indeed. And maybe a chance to see if the potato boy really could blow something up this time.
It had noting to do with the way his fingers tingled with excitement. No, that one surely had to be one of the glimpses he caught from those magic nerds around.

 

[Focraig'Diin]

The ice mage, having finished part of this strange Arcanum he had found, attended the second class with a bit more attention than before. The connection between his magic and Lithomancy was not to be ignored, considering the sphere of black ice had yet to dissipate despite his own efforts. Nothing seemed to affect it at all. He was tempted to use Dry Ice, but that branch attracted attention he did not need right now.


He sat at the leftmost section, again, mostly alone because his ice made for... poor enviroments. He kept the sphere at his side, suspended by its own crafts as he watched the professor. The others setting up circles for practice were noted, and he opened his Rith Cryocodex to a blank section at the back, quill out and ready.

"ACHOO!"

"Apologies."

"Geh, none taken... *sniff*"

 

[Selina Della Altas]

Selina began taking notes before Naderi even began to teach. She was trying to figure out a nagging problem. How could she record a Lithomancy spell down on paper, Let alone her spellbook?

 

[Naderi]

"I see a lot of familiar faces," Naderi said as she scanned the crowd. "I want to start by saying thank you for attending this class. My first lecture was admittedly cut far too short. I was..." she paused, reaching over and grasping her left wrist with her right hand, "shaken.

"It was partly due to the fact that many of the initial students were already starting to show... promise for the discipline. Many of you were already producing basic applications of Lithomancy without having been properly educated on the... downsides. The concerns. The consequences."

Naderi stepped forward, out in front of the group.

"First off. A review on Impulse."

Naderi opened up her hand and a shimmering ring floated above her hand. "What Lithomancers call an Impulse is like... A genre of book. Some like romance. Some like fiction. Some enjoy the biographies of fishermen. An Impulse is a type of genre filter.

"There are twelve we record:

"Calm: To be reserved and harmonious.
Daring: Innovation and the desire to build new things.
Feeling: A strong bond to emotions.
Focus: Passion to specialize, obsess, to be an expert.
Force: Headstrong and direct to the point.
Grit: Boldness and the ability to stand up and resist.
Hope: To draw strength beyond yourself and your limits.
Reason: Careful analysis, consideration, and experimentation.
Renown: To gather those around and nurture relationships.
Scheme: Planning, accounting for everything. Structure.
Style: To make lasting impressions to be recognized.
Trust: Acting in reliance and need of others and they to you."

She once again wrote each Impulse on the board.

"The type of Phrase, or what lithomancers call our spells, change depending on the context, the genre of that you are producing.

"For example, think of the word COOL. A COOL spell affected by a Calm genre would be about keeping your emotions low in a tough situation. For COOL but for Force, it would be about creating a blast of cold. Or, for the most expression, a Style impulse would be about looking impressive in front of others. However, COOL isn't applicable to every type of Impulse. What does a Trust:COOL spell look like? Or Hope:COOL? It doesn't fit, does it?

"Does everyone follow so far?"

 

[TTamark]

"Let me see how well I understand these 'impulses', you asked what trust or hope would look like, but from the way you described impulses moments before, could you not see cool in terms of trust as weakening the reliance you have with others, and with hope weakening ones own ability to draw strength? Because cool also represents the process of slowing, stopping, and ending.

And last class you talked about people's proficiency with being able to use some better than others, using your book analogy it is true people are partial to certain genres, but people change, and sometimes quite rapidly, faster than emotions can usually keep up with! Like one might be fearful, cautious, scheming when they are afraid about being punished for their actions, but with the switch of a coin then curiosity comes, or excitement! Suddenly now you are dealing with a whole different person now they are bold, and forceful, and daring. So is the impulses limited by the person, or by their feelings?!?

Would one be able to then draw from ones own fear, or sense of doom within themselves, and then channel it through force to cause the doom of an object, the object to be consumed by it's own destruction as it implodes so that nothing of what is was is left? Or would it work better if the doom was present in the physical world itself, if so would the reason be because of there being something more difficult about drawing from feeling instead of channeling through them, or would it be better to go fro physical because I wished for physical demise, rather than a emotional one?"

 

[Selina Della Altas]

That made sense to Selina. Yes, an impulse was a filter, or a lens that altered the nature of the spell... Like context!
That realization was so dumbfounding to her, why didn't she think of it before? If the words by themselves are all that is used, what is the limitation? Context!
Naderi had mentioned in the first class that lithomancy was closely tied with linguistics. So the puzzle of the schools limitations now seemed absurdly simple to her.

She grinned excitedly and began jotting down notes. Lithomancy was cast in two parts, context and sentence. She scribbled through an example spell on a slip of paper. She combined one of her own impulses, 'Daring', for her context, to build or 'transmute' is more what she was going for, to enact change. Using that to define the context of her sentence which was, 'Create Lesser Object'.

On paper it looked good, but she still had no idea how she, a wizard, could cast such a spell. She couldn't pull magic out of the air then manipulate it from there, she didn't have that kind of connection. Her spells were cast either verbal, somatic, material, or a combination therein. For her to cast a fireball she couldn't channel her own magic into a spell, her spells involved complex hand gestures, words, and possibly a physical component was required to be present. She recorded these combinations into her spellbook and memorized them.

Unless lithomancy was an entirely verbal based spell system, that simple note she wrote held hardly enough instruction to cast a spell. But even so she was excited to try it out, and with the presence of other professors and magical circles being prepared, she was nearly fidgeting in her seat to get started!

 

[Naderi]

Naderi pointed at Steve. "Good question, uh, you," she said, recognizing the boy's face but not the name. Had she even asked anyone's name? Naderi wagged her finger up and down at them.

"Everyone has some degree of each Impulse. That's just the makeup of people. I am capable of showing Daring just as I'm capable of showing Hope or Grit. Sometimes, I can be pushed to express more of myself in a situation. However," Naderi took in a breath and waved her arms around herself, as if to show 'this is me.'

"But just because you can feel like something, and muster up a high-pitch of emotion in that one moment, doesn't mean you're capable of drawing it as power. And if you did... Well it might draw out the darker consequences of Lithomancy."

"Lithomancy," Naderi said, tapping a book against a desk again, a small habit of hers, "is ultimately a patient art. We draw our words slowly. We build them slowly. A strong amount of emotion isn't stable enough to properly create a spell for an Impulse you're not suitable for. Its powerful. At its strongest, it tugs at the strands of reality."

She turned towards the board.

"And tugging at them improperly can be fatal."

Naderi turned back towards the class.

"Has everyone considered what Impulses might suit them? When we craft spells today, we'll be doing that with those in mind."

 

[TTamark]

Steve thought hard on everything Naderi said, but how was he supposed to know which filter, or impulse suited him best. Steve's thought process was confusing and ever changing, to limit himself to any number seemed to just not be right. To be honest it seemed easiest to figure out the few that didn't fit him at all. From what the teacher seemed to imply making a mistake with using one he couldn't could lead to real bad stuff.

"I think feeling suits me best."

Best play it safe for now, feeling definitely had a strong bond with him, but he felt that he should be able of so much more. He mentally ran through the list considering each system of thought and it's relation to him:

Calm: To be reserved and harmonious; no this was miles away
Daring: Innovation and the desire to build new things; things like starting a kind nation of undead, or form a style of magic dependent upon a single veggie? check
Feeling: A strong bond to emotions; yes... my morality, my hopes all come from this, and I hope that everyone can be happy, this is why I must save the world, it gives me the strength to carry on.
Focus: Passion to specialize, obsess, to be an expert; I must excel at everything I do how else will I achieve such an impossible task as saving the world?
Force: Headstrong and direct to the point; you got a problem fix it the fast way.
Grit: Boldness and the ability to stand up and resist; with my dream nothing can stop me, not even the worlds itself.
Hope: To draw strength beyond yourself and your limits; it might not be the same, but I hope my hope to save the world counts for something
Reason: Careful analysis, consideration, and experimentation; I am experimental, but no. I don't have the time.
Renown: To gather those around and nurture relationships; I... I don't think so, I call everyone a friend, but... that is where it ends...
Scheme: Planning, accounting for everything. Structure; I must have plans upon plans, failure is not an option, so I must be ready for everything, and deal with issues before they arise.
Style: To make lasting impressions to be recognized; No I don't care for such things, though I guess a impression is bound to be left after saving the world.
Trust: Acting in reliance and need of others and they to you; I trust my friends and they trust me, we have to. I am dependable, and will always look out for them, I believe they will do the same for me, even if they have yet to earn it. Trust is something to be given freely, but broken easily, so I must make sure not to break it. I once promised to save the world... I will.

 

[Focraig'Diin]

The mage wrote down what Impulses Miss Naderi had covered in her previous lecture, holding the ball of black ice tentatively in his free hand. With what he assumed as Feeling, and the corresponding word of 'Void', he had accidentally crafted the orb which he held.

He wondered what others would resonate with him. But at the same time, he was more... wary of this craft's dangers. He himself was all too familiar with risks in spells, and sometimes paid the price for such casts. Lithomancy would surely carry similar costs, if not moreso.

"Miss Naderi?"

He raised a hand, quill tucked between the fingers.

"Before we start actual practice, mayhaps a... heads-up to the spell's dangers? We are, in a sense, weaving what could be defined as Reality. I hope I am not simply speaking for myself when we all wish to conclude with lessons learnt without consequence."

"ACHOO!"

Who in the world was sneezing all that much? He had made sure to keep away from the other students.

Naderi

 

[Leyus]

All in all, this was swiftly descending into just exactly the boring stuff he would have predicted these people to be into. Magic was all cool and mysterious, and quite useful, but why it had to be thought like this, well, that he didn't understand. Or maybe he did, having learnt a bunch of skills in similar way, but magic seemed like something so vastly different, that very mundane teaching techniques appeared to be... almost inappropriate? And people all around him didn't flare that much of an excitement (except for, maybe, the potato guy, he was ludicrous, but therefore at least amusing).
That is to say: nerds.

Leyus, obviously, didn't care to write down anything, even if he was here to learn at least something. He trusted his memory well enough, and, to put it simply, if it was something he couldn't memorize just so, it was something he couldn't carry with him and, hence: quite useless.
These impulses oddly reminded him of the time when he had just begun studying acting, and his mentors taught him the different types of roles there could be in plays that had seemingly nothing in common, how they could emerge in a grand spectrum of one's performing skill. He knew that it was also somewhat similar with different singing voices, although Leyus himself had never possessed that gift well enough to be trained. So, impulses. Not that hard to understand. And what was he if not renown and blessed with intricate style?
Indeed.

Anyhow, his fingers itched with the want to start doing something real for once. Safety instructions were nice and all, but he wanted to get to the point.
To where the fun bit in magic started at last. Although it was difficult to even feel annoyed for once, because around him there was almost exclusively a very sickening aura of concentration and exited glee. How horrendous.

 

[Selina Della Altas]

Selina thought she could pretty accurately identify at least two impulses that she would be talented in. Daring and Reason.
Daring; because of her drive and thirst for knowledge, to create and grow in power to become a great wizard.
Reason; because of her approach to this goal, through intense study and the correct application of knowledge and power she will become like one of the great lore masters of old.

She thought that if she could only understand how to adapt Lithomancy to her own craft she could figure out how to actually wield the art. A spell with only a verbal component is what it came down to. And that verbal component came down to a single word... Definitely not enough to craft a spell with, at least in writing for a wizard.
But wait a minute... Impulses... there was another component, one she hadn't considered. An emotional component, the spellcaster must be able to enter and control a specific emotional state in order to cast the spell. This was most often associated with Psychic magic and so Selina almost overlooked it.

So she had to enter and control the emotional state of her impulse. So she could use 'Reason' as context and emotional direction for the words 'Magic Missile', the result may be a spell that is normally automatic to take a more tactical target, such as a vital point rather than simply striking the target in a straightforward manner.
At least... That's how she imagined it would work, right?
Or what about 'Daring' to increase the power of her fire spells?

It was another component that helped her understand it a bit better, but she still couldn't quite see how she would write it out in a spell format.

 

[Naderi]

"Good question," she said again, pointing at Focraig, not that Naderi knew his name. "I didn't necessarily want to get into it just yet because, hopefully, the students would know not to attempt to say, destroy the fabric of reality."

"But," she eyed the man carefully, her eyes drawn to a lowered, sharp look, "I can see that some might already have decided to play around with that much." Naderi crossed her arms and moved forward to the front of the stage. "An Unspeakable," she started, "is sometimes something like this:"

She drew her hand out in front of her and a ring appeared there again. Compared to all the other times before, which looked like odd characters and runic glyphs before, to the students that had something click in them — the ones that discovered the secret to Lithomancy in a manner they understood — they could then clearly see the word she was attempting to draw. Even with only a glance at the ring, they could feel what Impulse she was attempting to draw on. She took a 'U" and rotated it as a C. She took an 'M' and rotated it to a W.

"Scheme:COW."

The world... seemed to shudder for a moment. Those that looked onwards towards Naderi couldn't fully comprehend what was happening. In the palm of Naderi's hand looked to be a marble small cow, sized like a guinea pig. But it was fully black like the sea, its skin like stars and constellations made of rice, and with eyes that tasted of spikes. Those that watched could feel their senses warp and become confused as if they were experiencing an out of body-like synthesia. Definitions became slightly difficult to consider and for many of the students, they would experience a splitting headache.

Naderi threw the cow(?) onto the ground in front of the combat-oriented professors and it made a clatter on the ground like rain falling upwards. It sat there, unmoving yet looked to be rotating at the same time.

"Kill it!" She yelled, tearing her eyes away from it. It made her want to hurl. She let the combat professors handle it.

"If you wanted to know what would happen if you both forced a spell with an inappropriate Impulse. Well that's it," Naderi heaved as if she sick. "Lithomancy is empowered by an affinity, a synergy between a proper Impulse and a proper Phrase, combined with the number of Glyphs that make it up. The longer the Phrase, the stronger it is."

Naderi finally stood up straight, her body shaking at the strain and use of a large amount of magic. "Alone, you can push the Impulse to do what it shouldn't and it can cause weird things to occur to your Phrase. Alone, you can force your Glyphs to form words they shouldn't; in this case, it might not work exactly as you plan it to. Together, however, if you rush it, it almost certainly causes an Unspeakable. A THING that shouldn't exist."

"But, you might also create an Unspeakable even if you don't mean too. Forcing an Impulse or forcing a Glyph always has the chance for something like that to occur. This is far more likely the longer, and therefore more powerful, your Phrase is. What I did here, with... that," her eyes glanced over to it and she saw pink flowers in her stomach, "was create a minor one. By forcing both aspects, but keeping the Phrase short, this one should be... Safe."

"That is nothing, however," Naderi warned, "compared to what you could do. Imagine if I say, forced an eleven letter Phrase and did the same thing."

 

[Focraig'Diin]

The ice mage was increasingly more interested yet worried. This art and Dry Ice had enough in common. The effects of this Unspeakable was one of the dangers the ice craft had written down in the Cryocodex. Misuse your intention, and the icefire would burn you to nothing. Reverse a Law, and the Herald would consume you.

Glancing at the anomaly with a gaze barely focused, Focraig chuckled.

"Seems as good a test as any, Miss Naderi. Thank you. Apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I am Focraig'Diin."

 

[Leyus]

It seemed that getting to the point would involve more safety instructions after all. Eh. Although, it probably could serve well to know what exactly he was getting himself into. Even if the word "unspeakable" made his mouth twitch with certain fondness: between Lerte "unspeakables" were lines of prose or poetry that one couldn't read out loud without a great bit of struggle.
In Lithomancy unspeakables seemes to be quite different.

The demonstration clearly shook Leyus in more than one way. First of all, he actually understood what the teacher-lady was doing even before she finished. He, Leyus, understood the bit of magic performed in front of his eyes just as if he was watching a play and distinguishing different roles. Not exactly like he usually did, but with the same clear feeling of certainty. I made him lean forward, gaping, because this had never, ever happened before. He hadn't even properly listened all the time!
But these thoughts were quickly vanished when the twisted creature appeared. Yes, that's what it was: twisted. Wrong. He wasn't able to put his finger on what exactly wasn't right with it, but Leyus' skin crawled with the sensation.
Only when it was destroyed, he finally managed to breathe freely, suddenly falling back with a dull throb in his head. An attentive observer could see that color had drained from him a bit, leaving not only man's skin but hair, eyes, everything, a bit lighter.
Fine, these unspeakables were really very, very different.

That did worry him a bit. Enough, that he would raise his voice, even if he hadn't intended to speak.
"So, if any forcing can create an Unspeakable, does that mean that the same Impulse together with the same Glyphs always holds a chance of doing that? Or if you do it once and it works, it means that it's safe? Or at least safer?" look at him, joining the horde of magic learners with their constant overly smart questions. How sad. "Yes, ah, my name is Ley," he added quickly, because the last guy had introduced himself. "Ley" was the name he usually used, when he didn't want to give away his full one. This was one of those occasions, because, well, Leyus wasn't really supposed to be here.
But if he was to ever use this in the future... Well, he had to know. Calculating risks was a thing he did, contrary to a popular belief, and Leyus didn't like to be left blind in this regard.

 

[TTamark]

Was the teacher giving him the evil eye? Nah, whatever reason would she have for doing that, its not like he actually did rip a hole in reality... Wait, did he? Steve placed his hand on the dark potato. No... Right? something that can absorb light is normal for magic. Yeah... I'm fine.

Steve was even more reassured when the "cow" was summoned, he definitely did not have that feeling with his potato.

Still Steve had hoped to have had a more sure understanding, he needed to get to his point and not waste too much time checking out random classes.

"What impulse and glyphs would you recommend if you wished to separate a soul from a soul stone, phylactery, or philosopher-stone?"

 

[Selina Della Altas]

The unspeakable definitely had a profound impact on her, looking at it seemed to draw her in, like staring at a void. Even from the distance from where she could see it she thought she would go mad from the impossibility of its very existence and the limitless depths of its secrets. Her head was struck by a crippling wave of pain as her eyes and mind were filled with totally alien and unknowable sensations, she fell from her seat as it tortured her mind, convulsing on the steps of the amphitheater.

Phillipa having smashed the piece of non existence released her from its influence, she was relieved that the pain was gone and she slowly put herself back in her seat, but she was also disappointed... What would have happened had she continued to look into its depths?

She was seated once more, but Selina was more than a little perplexed. Wasn't the twisting of letters to create words in Lithomancy just an exercise? She had to reexamine her theories.
She raised her hand to ask a question,
"Miss Naderi, I have a question; I was under the impression that Lithomancy was a verbal and emotional art, or linguistic and emotional if you will. But is there a material component as well? The letter tiles that you used in your first class, or are you mentally taking the letters from objects around you to form your words? Otherwise, if the letters are at our disposal in the first place, how can it be possible to create a forced word?"

She looked down at her notes for a moment, looking a bit lost and confused. That emptiness was also like a window into hidden secrets for Selina, one that she knew was dangerous, but the pursuit of knowledge was tantalizing her.
She continued.
"I think I understand when you describe forcing an improper word into an improper impulse or context, that makes more sense to me than forcing disassociated letters to create specific words, no matter where they come from."

Thinking back to the 'COW' it looked like Naderi used some form of transmutation, though what the source or material of the transmutation was she couldn't guess or describe except as a lack or absence of definition. She had another question in regards to the 'COW' so she continued once more, taking a deep breath.
"Professor Naderi... Have these unspeakables been thoroughly studied? What do we know of them? Are we certain of the extent of the danger they posses? Or is this considered a 'black art' and its research forbidden by the college?"

 

[Gaheris]

She produced it - that unspeakable thing - seemingly with only modest effort. It was a surreal experience. It was right there, the main floor of the amphitheater, but his eyes couldn't focus on it. Specks of light shined from a dark core, a vaguely cow (COW?) shaped object.

Gaheris did not like this, not one bit. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, staring at it but simultaneously unable to properly behold it. She flung it, suddenly, and when it hit the ground there was an awful clamor. It reminded Gaheris of a waterfall.

And then as quickly as it happened, it was incinerated by an enterprising combat instructor. Despite the disorientation, one didn't need to be a Dreadlord to handle these sorts of creations. Once it was up in smoke, Gaheris finally realized he had been holding his breath.

He shuddered, and the sleeping armsman suddenly twitched, and snorted awake. "Huh- wh-?"

"Shush," whispered the one who was whittling. "Just an abomination. Go back to sleep."

Gaheris frowned, wondering silently if he'd sleep soundly tonight after having borne witness to... That.