Sensible Divinations (Lavinia & Ia!)
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Exotic Solos =&gt; Topic started by: Ia! on 14-02-2012, 04:23:14</h2>
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				Title: <strong>Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>14-02-2012, 04:23:14</strong>
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				Cael held his eye up into the sunlight, inspecting it for any remaining streaks or smudges before giving it a last few wipes with the polishing cloth.&nbsp; He gently deposited it in its little nest, a pigeon hole like the many others in the carrying case he stored all his third eyes in.&nbsp; The topaz one was not his favorite, but was probably the most useful.&nbsp; Attuned to spotting gold, it was perfect for finding lost treasure or, as most recently, the hidden cache of burglars foolish enough to steal from people able to afford the services of a diviner.<br><br>He packed away the collection of straps that held his third eyes in place across his forehead, an inch or so above his brows, before closing and locking his case.&nbsp; Where his natural two eyes allowed him to perceive depth (in addition to length and width), his third eyes gave him trinocular vision, allowing him to see from a fourth dimensional standpoint.&nbsp; Just as three dimensional eyesight could see inside the two dimensional shapes drawn on a piece of slate or parchment, four dimensional eyesight revealed the contents of locked rooms, hidden spaces, even the workings of the body, every organ and vein and bone seen clearly, as if laid out side-by-side, even as they were all jumbled atop each other.<br><br>Making sense of such vision was difficult for the human brain, so the mage who wished to stay sane used cheats and aids.&nbsp; Cael’s collection of eyes were each attuned to draw attention to certain elements and objects, bringing them more clearly into his field of view.&nbsp; Such aids were necessary.&nbsp; The math required to prepare the ritual space was arduous, and the best vision required calculating the position of the sun or whichever the brightest lightsource would be.&nbsp; Channeling the ley and attuning it properly to the eye was arduous as well.&nbsp; Finally, the sights revealed were often less than pleasant.&nbsp; Dear friends and admired colleagues were reduced to pulsing, throbbing, masticating conglomerations of organs, bones, tissue, and fluids.&nbsp; It wasn’t magic for those with a weak stomach.<br><br>He wished he could inflict his visions on the students of his next class.&nbsp; How they bemoaned the maths he heaped upon them.&nbsp; “Where,” they wailed, “was the beauty, the art, the mystery of magic?”&nbsp; He snorted softly.&nbsp; It was the same every year.&nbsp; So many would be shuttled off to the less rigorous training of a court magician for being unable to grasp the nettle of rigorous logic necessary to actually perceive the beauty they were looking for.&nbsp; Like his collection of third eyes, math was the tool necessary to see what was hidden in plain sight, if you only knew how to look.<br><br>Besides, there was mystery enough among the students themselves.&nbsp; In the case of his most junior divination students, there was that girl... what was her name?&nbsp; He scowled at himself for forgetting it.&nbsp; The girl was a puzzle.&nbsp; Whenever she channeled ley, the orichalcum needle of a ley compass practically held still so strong was the flow.&nbsp; That it would do so in a place like the university, with its multitude of mages, experiments, conjured beasties and all the rest, was doubly astonishing.&nbsp; If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, on a hidden compass the girl couldn’t possibly have known was there, he wouldn’t believe it. <br><br>The affect of ley on the human body was as profound and immediate as any drug.&nbsp; The surge of energy and emotion could overwhelm a weaker spirit or a lax will.&nbsp; Too much could do irreparable harm to body and spirit.&nbsp; Before most got that far, however, the surge of emotion would become too great, concentration would be broken, and the mage would be left exhausted, gulping in gasps of air as if they’d just run three times around the city walls in full armor, with fading memories of ecstatic experiences only retained in the briefest of snatches. <br><br>And even at that level, by a high magus with decades of training and practice, the needle of a ley compass would still swing as much as five degrees.&nbsp; With this girl, it merely wavered one or two, and she seemed to do it effortlessly.<br><br>And yet, in spite of such considerable power, she could barely do a thing with it.&nbsp; Simple conjurations and prestidigitation that students her age could handle with ease she struggle through.&nbsp; Lack of concentration, said his fellow professors.&nbsp; No discipline, the girl wasn’t applying herself properly.&nbsp; Some even suggested that such a powerful flow of ley had damaged some vital part of mind or soul necessary to properly work magic, that the girl was some sort of mystical cripple.<br><br>Which was possible, Cael had to admit.&nbsp; But it was just as likely that the girl hadn’t been trained properly, that she’d had some wool-headed nonsense stuffed between her ears as a child about how magic was supposed to work and that was creating some sort of block to her abilities.&nbsp; Perhaps all she needed was the proper instruction.<br><br>The middle-aged mage smirked at himself.&nbsp; Hubris?&nbsp; Possibly.&nbsp; But seeing things that others didn’t was the very essence of divination, and divination was his specialty.&nbsp; Perhaps all the girl needed was a fresh perspective.<br><br>He set his collection of eyes on their shelf and, as he turned, his gaze fell on a map of the Gulf of Duhan hanging on his wall.&nbsp; His smirk faded.&nbsp; It was another tool of his divining arts, gorgeously rendered in special pigments and inks, with the thinnest strands of orichalcum woven through the papyrus.&nbsp; Its use was radically different from his third eyes and, unlike them, the sort of tool nearly every diviner mastered and used regularly.&nbsp; And the things he saw with it said he might soon not have time to focus on a single girl, no matter how intriguing her mystery might be.
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>14-02-2012, 17:55:27</strong>
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				Ril classified each of the clouds as their drifting brought them into focus; a Dragon, a hermit crab, one of Magister Elias’s schematics, the riuth nebula from one of those star charts that Theyin was always going on about.&nbsp; Already, she had decided that, if asked what she was doing in the eastern tower, she would tell the good magisters that she was testing the currents, opening herself up to the changes of the winds. While it wasn’t an ideal response given the general unpredictability of the winds, it was still a few steps up from ‘making cloud pictures.’ <br><br>A roast, a slice of pie, one of Moria’s sweet rolls. Spirits, she hungry. Her stomach groaned in agreement as she watched one of the sweet rolls float a foot or so before a few of the wispy white tendrils stretched forward to become the wings&nbsp; of a small bird. “Hey Dallian, that one looks like you.” <br><br><em>Quirk. Quirk. </em> The little dime finch cocked his head to the side, watching Ril with beady black eyes as she pointed toward the sky. Occasionally he would chirp or tilt his head to one side to indicate…well, Ril was never quite sure what he was trying to tell her, but he was a fair companion. They’d been together for almost a year now.&nbsp; Ril had found him about a week into her stay at the academy, a pitiful little thing with a broken wing, chirping angrily outside her window. She remembered Magister Collier telling her to let it alone. <em>”Those garden finches are a dime a dozen, scavengers and thieves all of ‘em. Leave it be, child. We don’t need that kind of thing around the tower.”</em> But of course, she hadn’t left it alone, or rather she had for a time, but it hadn’t lasted. She’d followed the magister only to double back to the students’ quarter an hour later to check on the finch, taking it upon herself to nurse him back to health in secret. <br><br>Pets were frowned upon. <em>“Too easily,”</em> the magister had said,<em>“a pet becomes attuned to the energies of its master.”</em> Such pets were referred to as familiars, animal guides. In lore they attracted spirits, interrupted the natural flow of energies, empowered their masters – all manner of unusual things, but Dallian never seemed to do any of that, or if he did he didn’t tell her about it and did well enough to keep his efforts masked from her. Though, even Ril would admit that he had an uncanny knack for understanding human speech and emotion. <br><br>A chirp drew her attention back to the familiar not-so-familiar in question. “What? I’m all out of food.” He chirped again, hopping anxiously from one foot to another before taking flight. He would be back. Sighing, Ril followed the shape of him with her eyes until he was little more than a speck of brown turned black in the distance, hardly bigger than a dust mote. When, at last, he winked out of sight, she turned her gaze inward. <br><br>Classes would be starting soon and it wouldn’t do well to be both late <em>and</em> ineffectual her mind supplied with no small amount of bitterness. It wasn’t that she couldn’t grasp the concepts of certain magics, they were just…wrong - mathematical equations and the stressing of control above all else. It was wrong. It was unnatural. How could they not see the inherent beauty in everything that they did? The sounds, and colors, and textures that called to her, wrapping her in their embrace whenever she reached out for the energies around her? Yet each and every time she was the failure, the one who couldn’t keep up. She’d lose herself and the lesson time and again. Magic would pulse in her and through her, but instead of sensing the auras of her classmates, tasting the flavor of their magic, she’dsllip into the walls and peek out at them, feel them, watch them as they were praised and patted, watcher herself was she was ridiculed. <em>“ What manner of power is Chella trying to sustain?”</em> they would ask. How the hell would she know when they had already informed her that the sky blue one that smells like hyacinths was an unacceptable answer? It was beyond frustrating, the gap between what she could do and what they could see her doing and these days, she’d more or less given up on trying to explain what she saw or felt or tasted when they practiced their arts in a classroom setting.<br><br><em>I could show them the stone trick.</em> But no, Ril already knew how that would go. The stone trick, as she called it, neither looked nor felt like anything to those around her. As a result, she did it often, using it to spy on her classmates when she had little else to do. <br><br>Taking a breath, she reached out to touch one of the walls. The stone was sun-warm beneath her fingertips, almost unbearably so. She smiled. The heat would help her focus. <em>Focus. Focus. Focus</em>For a moment, nothing happened. She stood with her palm pressed against the heated stone, her eyes closed, her feet planted firmly apart, her weight equally balanced between them, and she was human. A body experiencing its own weight, the heat of sun and stone, the gentle caress of the breeze as it whisper past and around her and then through her. Something had changed. The shift she called it, the moment when she went from feeling the wind move around her to feeling it move through her, the cracks in her. Here and there, her awareness of the cracks and crannies began to form. She felt herself flatten out, expand and solidify, and then she felt them, the whispers of too long robes against her upper arms, the scrape of chairs being pulled out and pushed in again. She was about to tell everyone to stop moving when a boy ran past and she felt herself beneath his boot, her solidity giving way beneath the pain. <br><br>“Hey, jackass, watch where you’re walking!” But of course he’d stepped on her, she was a floor. <br><br><em>“Arileri Schala?” </em>Ril winced as she was torn from the hall floor and thrown back into the tower, into herself all fleshy and weak and hurting. For an instant, all was movement, currents, bright flashes of orange, orange, orange, and orange was pain. “Yes, Magister?” she ground out as she returned to herself, head pounding and limbs aching. Well, that could have gone a bit better. <br><br>If the magister had taken notice of her pain, the way she winced whenever he spoke, he said nothing of it. <em>“I have been instructed to inform you that you will no longer be attending sensing and attunement classes. The collegiate would like you to proceed to divination studies this afternoon instead.”</em> Inwardly, she groaned. <em>Not again.</em> No doubt divination was bound to be another <em>perfect</em> fit. “When does it start?” she asked, trying to feign an interest she didn’t feel. <br><br>The magister fiddled with the hem of his sleeve, staring past her rather than at her, as though distracted...or guilty. <em>“It begins in the south atrium in five minutes. I suggest you hurry.”</em> Great, day one in yet another new class and she was already going to be late. Typical. She took care not to swear as she sprinted past the magister and down the tower stairs. Out of breath before she reached the bottom landing, Ril decided to slow down a bit. She wouldn't be of any use to anyone cramped and winded and if that made her late, so be it. <br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>14-02-2012, 19:52:15</strong>
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				The girl was late.&nbsp; Cael didn't let the pleasure he felt show, kept his face impassive, his eyes following her, judging her, all the way to her seat.&nbsp; But inside he was cackling as he told her to remain after class.&nbsp; It couldn't have been better if he'd arranged it himself.<br><br>He picked up where he'd left off, outlining the basic principles of the class, explaining what divination was and, more importantly, what it wasn't, the usual speech he gave every time he taught neophytes.&nbsp; The girl wasn't the oldest in the class, but she was older than most.&nbsp; By her age, most girls were novices already.&nbsp; It made him doubt that effort alone was to blame.&nbsp; The sting of being left behind should have been more than enough to overcome any laziness, or it ought to have broken her by now.<br><br>He considered revising that assessment as his lecture wound down.&nbsp; She looked distracted.&nbsp; Bored?&nbsp; Possibly.&nbsp; Probably; he wasn't the most arresting speaker, and this introduction bored him, as vital as it was.&nbsp; (For the thousandth time he considered revising it drastically, and knew that he'd not find the time to do it.)&nbsp; But that wasn't it.&nbsp; Something about her eyes, they looked haggered, drained...<br><br>Gods, he thought, the girl's been channeling ley!&nbsp; Something big, well, big for her.&nbsp; He wondered how strong the eddies were around her.&nbsp; They must have been sizable if this girl, who seemed to command entire rivers of ley without breaking out a sweat, was feeling drained.<br><br>He didn't even give her time to forget, or slip out.&nbsp; As soon as he dismissed the others, a handful of minutes early even, he pounced, striding with purpose towards her.&nbsp; She'd had to take an end seat near the front, also perfect for his needs.&nbsp; Nobody sat near the front if they could help it, not in Dr. Cael Alain's lectures.&nbsp; Nor did they linger, he noticed, allowing the ghost of a smile to touch his lips.<br><br>"Neophyte Schala, we meet at last," he said, then winced inwardly.&nbsp; Gods, he even sounded like some villain from a children's shadow-puppet show.&nbsp; He forced a warmer smile, trying to make a joke of it.&nbsp; "I've heard about you.&nbsp; I imagine you know why.<br><br>"I have been told," he continued, "that you are lazy, unfocused, and lacking in commitment.&nbsp; I've also been told the moon is made of cheese, that bees can fly only because they've never been told that they shouldn't be able to, and that cats can't be cut by obsidian.&nbsp; And I don't believe any of those things, either."<br><br>Give her hope, he thought to himself.&nbsp; Without it, she'd never do anything.&nbsp; And if her hopes were dashed and her heart broken, it would mend.&nbsp; He doubted he'd be the last man to break her heart.<br><br>And, he added mentally, just in case she'd heard the whisperings about her being magically crippled...<br><br>He took the large ley compass off the shelf and set it down on the desk in front of her with a solid thump.&nbsp; He expected her to groan, or roll her eyes, or even scowl. By now, she was almost certainly sick of the parlor game of making the needle hold still.&nbsp; At that particular moment, the orichalcum needle spun wildly widdershins for two heartbeats, oscillated over a span of 60 degrees or so for another two heartbeats, then spun wildly the other way.&nbsp; Gods, he thought, the ley was <em>still</em> eddying around her?&nbsp; Had she simply cut off whatever she'd been doing and failed to gently, slowly ease the ley out of her spell?&nbsp; He hoped so.&nbsp; If she had gently ended her spell, and the lay was still this disrupted...<br><br>He snapped his eyes back to her face.&nbsp; "I am not interested in parlor games, Neophyte Schala.&nbsp; I am not interested in theories, or conjecture, or guesses, or daydreams.&nbsp; I am interested only in facts.&nbsp; What can be seen, felt, heard, smelled, tasted, recorded and analyzed."&nbsp; He punctuated the statement by jabbing a finger at the compass.&nbsp; He let that settle into her mind as he perched on the edge of the desk.&nbsp; "Without facts, hard data, everything you 'know' is just a guess.&nbsp; So you and I will learn what the facts really are, and from there, we will make a mage of you.&nbsp; Understood?"<br><br><em>((Yes, I'm stepping a bit over my bounds here, assuming she sits still for all of this.&nbsp; Feel free to tsk me for it if she wouldn't and we can retcon as needed.))</em>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 04:05:23</strong>
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				<em>No need to rush, you’re already late. </em>That’s what she’d told herself as she passed through hallway after hallway, but she’d heard the rumors about Dr. Cael Alain, and soon she was speeding up again, breaking into a sprint as she reached an empty corridor. Out of all the magisters, he’d been one of the few that she’d yet to cross paths with and, given what was said about the man, she’d always counted herself all the luckier for it. <br><br>Ril was panting by the time she reached the classroom, slowing to a stop to catch her breath a few paces from the door. It wouldn’t do to seem rattled. She’d done this a handful of times now, what was one more? <em>Steel yourself. Ignore the stares. Don’t let them get to you.</em> She sucked in a breath and edged the door open, ignoring the whispers that broke out mid-lecture when she stepped inside and took the only available seat. <em>Great, front row.</em> Nothing good ever came of sitting in the front row in <em>these</em> sorts of classes. It always involved some form of public humiliation in the guise of a “simple demonstration.” <br><br>Already, a quick scan of the room as she crossed to her seat had told her that she was, once again, one of the oldest students in the room. <em>Damn.</em> Well, it wasn’t as if that was new either, and it certainly wasn’t any worse than Magister Alain’s eyes, which tracked her as she moved to her seat, his face impassive as he paused the lecture and waited for her to settle in. <br><br>By the end of it, she’d lost herself. Divination might have been fascinating under different circumstances, preferably circumstances that didn’t involve eyes darting her way and then back again, their owners hoping that she hadn’t seen, fingers pointing and soft whispers of <em>”that’s her, that’s Arileri Schala, the one who destroyed the north tower.”</em>Would it never end? She’d been at the academy for almost a full year now and still the whispers continued. Shouldn’t everyone have grown tired of her by now? And besides, they’d gotten their fact wrong. Again. She hadn’t, in fact, destroyed the north tower, as rumors suggested, she’d merely blown a hole in one of the walls. To this day, she held that it hadn’t been her fault. The wall had been asking for it or, rather, the wind had been asking for it and the wall had simply been in the way. <br><br><em>"Neophyte Schala, we meet at last.”</em>&nbsp; Interrupted from her daydreams of exploding walls and nosy peers, Ril jumped at the nearness of his voice. When had he moved from the podium to her seat? <br><br><em>Spirits, he’s heard hasn’t he?...Of course he’s heard.”</em> The whole damn academy seemed to have heard rumors of her progress, or lack thereof. Thankfully, he didn’t wait long before confirming her suspicions. Oh yes, he’d heard. His next words, however, made her lips twitch into a brief smile, there and gone in an instant. Genuine surprise. That was rare, about as rare as someone at the academy <em>not</em> condemning on her the second they met her, and after a late arrival no less. <em>Interesting</em><br><br>His manner was brusque, but not harsh, though she sensed a certain coldness in him. The logical ones were always cold. No doubt he would soon test her abilities in some way and find her lacking, and any inkling of interest in her would fade. Nearly every magister in the damn place had had a go at her at some point or another, what was one more? <br><br>When he went to retrieve a large compass and set it down in front of her, she scowled. <em>This again, really?</em> The compass swiveled wildly as she stared at it, reacting to the ley eddying around her. <br><br>Letting her eyes unfocus, she watched a swirl of white light shoot from her body and go dancing around the compass, grabbing at the needle and releasing it once, twice, thrice before streaming to the other side to start again. Beneath it, or perhaps in the middle of it, she couldn’t quite tell, a touch something hung suspended - trapped. Aquamarine and buzzing. That was new. She had half a mind to reach out and plunk it from inside the white light, but remembered just as her hand began to move toward it that she was being watched. Studied. Her hand dropped back into her lap as her eyes refocused, moving from the compass to Alain and back again. <br><br>Startled by the something new that lurked within the eddies, the little bit of trapped stability in the swirling white mess that surrounded her, Ril had missed much of what he was saying. <em> “Without facts, hard data, everything you 'know' is just a guess.&nbsp; So you and I will learn what the facts really are, and from there, we will make a mage of you.&nbsp; Understood?” </em><br><br>Catching the tail end of what was likely meant to be a rousing speech meant to inspire her to reach her full potential, or some equally cliché bullshit that she’d heard at least a hundred times now from magister so and so, Ril simply nodded once to show that she did, in fact, understand. Now, if only understanding and belief went hand in hand.<br><br>"What would you have me do?"<br><br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 04:46:05</strong>
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				<em>”What would you have me do?”</em><br><br>The passivity of the question rankled.&nbsp; Curse it, didn't this girl realize that he was likely her last chance?<br><br>Cael stilled his temper.&nbsp; Yes, of course she did.&nbsp; And yes, she'd probably heard a dozen speeches just like the one he gave, and all of them had run into the same stone wall she'd been battering her head against, only they did it once or twice before despairing, and she did it daily.&nbsp; She was frustrated, entirely demoralized...&nbsp; Abyss, it was a wonder she was still trying.<br><br>But she was still trying.<br><br>And the question was as damnably sensible as it was impossible to answer.&nbsp; Where did they start?&nbsp; What did they know?&nbsp; He looked down at the compass, still caught in the eddies of a pretty serious ley disruption.<br><br>“Let's start with this,” he said, gesturing to the compass.&nbsp; “You were working with the ley before you arrived in this room, yes?&nbsp; What were you doing?”
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 06:47:01</strong>
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				What had she been doing? It seemed like a simple enough question, to be sure, but Ril couldn't help but feel that some hidden pitfall might be involved. She highly doubted that she would be able to get away with 'checking to see if classes were starting,' given her earlier tardiness, even if it <em>hadn't</em> been her fault that she'd found out about the change in her schedule a whole five minutes before the class had begun. At the same time, 'spying on my peers' didn't sound like a particularly acceptable answer either, so she settled for a bit of show rather than tell. <br><br>Of course, he'd had to go and put it in <em>those</em> terms, causing her to regard him rather coolly. Working with the ley. It was always something about the ley. Since arriving at the academy, Ril had come to understand that the ley to which the magisters and her peers oft referred was meant to be a simple concept - an intersection of energies. But no one ever spoke of the host of colors and sensations that plagued her whenever she reached out for some piece of the world around her and merged it with her own. Energy was beauty, distraction, anguish, and agony all balled up into one tempting yet elusive little package that dazzled and damned as it pleased. Of course, trying to tell a magister that was like trying to nail gelatin to a tree. No matter how hard one tried, nothing ever came of it. <br><br>She checked a sigh of annoyance as her gaze followed the line of Magister Alain's arm to the compass. <em>The usual show, then.</em>&nbsp; Without a word, she reached out to touch the compass, her hand stopping a mere two inches from its surface. The needle began to spin more rapidly, first in clockwise direction and then in a counterclockwise direction. Her gaze remained fixed upon the compass, her hand suspended in mid-air, fingers tapping out a little pattern above it. <em>Pinky, middle, middle index. Middly, thumb, index, pinky, index, index.</em> Her eyes slipped shut. The needle came to a shuddering stop, pointing toward the magister. It then vibrated for several seconds before going completely, impossibly still. Ril could still hear the thrum of the churning energies long after it had faded, and she allowed herself to revel in the feel of it surging up through her fingertips and into her arms, allowed the sound and sensation to invade her mind even as they ceased to exist outside of it. And then, all at once, the thrum was beyond her and all was still and silent as a tomb. <br><br>Demons she hated uncomfortable silences and, with Alain staring at her as though she'd gone and grown a second head, this had moved far beyond awkward. She supposed that the magister was still awaiting an answer to his earlier question, or perhaps he'd thought her to be completely incapable. After all, this had been the one trick that they'd never been able to trip her up on. <em>"Stop the needle"</em> they would say, expecting her to fail...and then it would swivel madly and they would smile their triumphant little smiles. And then it stop, and that made her smile. <br><br>"I was getting stepped on," Ril said, answering his question at last. She didn't bother to elaborate.
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 07:07:25</strong>
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				His anger flared again.&nbsp; He didn't need this.&nbsp; It was no matter to him what happened to this girl.&nbsp; He was going out of his way to help her and she was mocking him.&nbsp; Mocking his ignorance.<br><br><em>You're the adult here,</em> he reminded himself.&nbsp; <em>Act like it.</em><br><br>Hot on the heels of those thoughts came the favorite question of his favorite mentor: What do you see?<br><br>What did he see?&nbsp; <em>A gods-be-damned compass acting like it shouldn't.</em>&nbsp; If only he could actually see the ley, maybe he could understand what was going on.&nbsp; But a single compass...<br><br>He held up a finger to the girl.&nbsp; “Keep doing that.&nbsp; Don't stop.”&nbsp; He turned and gathered up the other compasses, laying them around her.&nbsp; He wished he had a full dozen.&nbsp; He only had nine, big clunky things, the sort used to teach neophytes.&nbsp; They were supposed to share a compass among them.&nbsp; More skilled students were supposed to supply their own.<br><br>He stepped back, then stood up on a chair so he could look down at all the compasses, see them all at once...
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				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 07:46:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<em>“Keep doing that.&nbsp; Don't stop.” </em> Well, that was...new. The standard response to 'the needle trick' tended to involve a bit more yelling and the flinging of accusations and expletives in her general direction. That she hadn't been accused of tampering with the equipment yet was more than enough reason for her to continue doing as she was instructed. The compass would spin wildly and then stop as though it''d been frozen, each time with fewer and fewer periods of vibration in between. She was beginning to relax, to throw herself into the sounds, and sensations, and movements. <br><br>As the magister set another handful of compasses on the table in front of her, she eyed him warily. <em>Now what does he want?</em> But the what became painfully evident a moment later as he climbed onto a chair, instructing her, yet again, to continue what she'd been doing.<br><br><em>Move them all? Is he insane?</em> Did he have any idea what he was asking of her? How in the nine hells did he expect her to manage that many at once, to reach out and test each compass' exact calibrations at the same instant? never mind how much energy she'd be tampering with. Influencing one compass was something. Simple.&nbsp; Feeling one compass was something. But several at once?<br><br>Ril sucked in a breath, letting it out slowly as she extended her arms outward- sensing, before pointing them toward the cluster of compasses. She noted that they ranged in size and makeup. Two gold, one bronze, another that might have been some kind of tin. Spirits what would that even do to her? Each metal had it's own makeup, each magnet its own pull. She took another breath, sucking it in quickly only to let it out in a slow hiss. <br><br>He wanted a show? Fine! He was damn well going to get one. <br><br>She tapped her fingers against the empty air - feeling, testing. The familiar patterns become more and more varied the longer she sat in silence until they began making little sense at all, as though the pattern had been lost entirely. <br><br>One by one, the compasses began to slide toward her, as though she were pulling them close, yet her hands remained, as ever, a few inches above them, fingers tapping out their odd little rhythms as she worked. <em>No, no, don't come over here you little bastards, spin!</em> But they didn't seem interested in heeding her demands. Inch by agonizing inch they began scooting close, adding the very real scraping of metal sliding along wood to the rising cacophony of sound that had begun to fill her head. <br><br>As it turned out, the gold compass sang. There was no other word for it, though she couldn't have really describe the singing in question beyond 'nothing that a human could do.' The tin but not quite tin compass whined, and she had half a mind to sweep it from the table or, better yet, pitch it at the nearest wall to silence it, and several of the other, smaller compasses acted as the larger one had earlier, humming and thrumming, and occasionally letting their needles spin back and forth. She decided right then and there that she liked those ones best, even if they, too, were inching closer to her. <br><br>The harder she focused on making them spin, the less spinning they seemed to do. Instead they crept closer and closer, moved faster and faster until they began to press first against her and then against one another as some of the later arrivals began to crowd in. <em>What the hell?</em> She stilled her fingers and cursed aloud as she suddenly felt the need to scream. She checked it, but only just barely. Screaming would <em>definitely</em> be frowned upon, even if she did feel like her blood was trying to buzz its way out of her skin. No, not buzz, thrum. Like the compasses.<br><br>Her fingers began to move again. The patterns becoming longer, more drawn out before repeating themselves. <em>Pinky, pink, index, middle, index, pinky, thumb, thumb, index.</em> Order had been restored. She could feel it, could see the white light sloughing off of her and moving toward the compasses, surrounding them, coaxing them pack to their starting positions. Anything to keep them from touching her. She shuddered, gasped, reached for the white light, running her hands over and through it. The aquamarine light had returned, but this time it seemed to be more of a string. It began to tie itself to each of the needles, then it came for her. <br><br>An undignified squeak escaped Ril as she jerked backward to avoid the little string of energy now making a beeline for her, and she felt the air rush up all around her. She was falling. She was --- "Fuck." The little string caught one of her wrists as she fell, wrapping around it and pulling, pulling, pulling until--- Ril winced as the chair collided with the floor and her body, in turn, collided with hard wood of both, her head knocking against the leg of another desk. The compasses went wild. <br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>15-02-2012, 17:37:08</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Cael watched the compasses start sliding towards the girl, confusion on her face.&nbsp; He'd never heard of that happening before.&nbsp; It came to him in an instant what the problem was; she'd misunderstood him.&nbsp; Instead of allowing the ley to flow naturally and affect the other compasses, she was trying to change the attitude of all the needles.&nbsp; He wasn't seeing the flow of the ley, he was seeing the results of her attempts to manipulate the needles.<br><br>So many things clicked in that moment.&nbsp; How she seemed to get angry when the magisters pointed out that she was manipulating the instruments.&nbsp; Of course she was.&nbsp; That's what they'd been asking her to do!&nbsp; Only he hadn't, but she'd assumed he had.&nbsp; Did she even know what the compasses were for?&nbsp; That she might not was disturbing.&nbsp; But also heartening.&nbsp; It was exactly the sort of blind spot he was looking for, assumptions that were false and were confusing her, throwing up mental barriers that prevented her from properly learning.&nbsp; <br><br>He couldn't resist the hint of a smirk as the compasses moved away from her.&nbsp; Oh yes, the girl had talent.&nbsp; But she was clearly confused.&nbsp; He wondered if she actually thought mages could see the ley without tools like the compasses.&nbsp; He'd run across such nonsense before, and that would explain so much.&nbsp; <br><br>His smirk vanished when she went tumbling to the floor.&nbsp; He leapt from the chair, and nearly ended up crashing to the floor himself as the skirts of his robe tangled around his legs.&nbsp; He rushed over to the fallen girl, dropping to his knees.&nbsp; “Are you ok?”&nbsp; Gods, he hoped so.&nbsp; The fall alone shouldn't have done more than give her a goose-bump, but he had no idea what she'd been doing with the ley, since she'd actively been working to blind the compasses.&nbsp; 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>19-02-2012, 23:04:01</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The little string of ley fell away as she hit the ground, her head bouncing off the leg of the desk behind her with a thud before coming to rest against the hard stone floor. Another soft string of curses left her as she fought back tears. Demons that had hurt, and she couldn't stop her eyes from watering. It was a natural response to pain, nothing more and, damn it all, she was not going to cry in from of a bloody magister. <br><br>Blinking back tears, Ril pushed herself into a sitting position, her fingers seeking out the rapidly forming bump on her head, wincing as they skimmed over it. She hissed and quickly pulled her fingers back, eyes widening when they came away streaked with blood. <em>Damn.</em> On the list things that were not good, head wounds probably ranked pretty high up there. <br><br><em> “Are you ok?”</em> <br><br>Ril blinked a few times as though trying to pull him back into focus. Right, the damned magister was still here. "I'm..." What could she say? Fine. Would he even believe that? Probably not. She frowned, taking in his expression for a moment, not mocking but...was that concern? She might have laughed if she hadn't thought her head would pay the price for it. <br><br>"I'll be alright," she said after a moment's consideration. <br><br>((Sorry it's both delayed and uber short. Things got hectic for a bit, but I'm good to go again.))<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Ia!</strong> on <strong>20-02-2012, 04:58:01</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				((No worries.&nbsp; Sometimes it only needs to be short.&nbsp; Here's hoping things get smoother for you soon.))<br><br>"Here, lean forward, let me take a look," he said, shifting around to get behind her.&nbsp; "You're bleeding.&nbsp; Probably looks worse than it is, head wounds are like that, but we should get it looked at anyway. A mage's brain is her most important asset."&nbsp; He stood and offered her a hand up.&nbsp; "Come, we'll give it a look and make sure there's nothing to worry about."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Sensible Divinations (Lavinia &amp; Ia!)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Lavinia</strong> on <strong>27-06-2012, 05:34:09</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The wall bore the brunt of Ril's sudden discomfort as the Magister slipped behind her to inspect her wound. Some part of her fervently wished that the damn thing would burst into flame and draw the man's attention away from her or, at the very least, make him move. She could feel the heat of him on her back as he shifted to get a better look at her head, but it was his concern that she found most disconcerting. Most magisters wouldn't give her the time of day after they'd tested her and, not that she was an expert or anything, but she was pretty sure that self-injury meant failure. Wasn't it about time for him to send her packing? Let her get on with her life, such as it was?<br><br><em>"You're bleeding.&nbsp; Probably looks worse than it is, head wounds are like that, but we should get it looked at anyway. A mage's brain is her most important asset."</em> <br><br>Ril turned her gaze from the wall to the man himself as he stepped back around her and offered her a hand. Whatever his game was, she wanted no part in it. Her eyes narrowed. "No shit," she snapped ignoring the offered hand and, instead, using&nbsp; the desks to haul herself back up. "Look," she began, hoping to cut off whatever lecture he had planned or, devils forbid it, more <em>concern,</em> "I'm awful at&nbsp; this and everyone here knows it. I'm sure you heard the whispers and thought 'it can't be true or they wouldn't have kept her here all this time' or 'I can make a difference' but they have. No, I don't know why, and&nbsp; no you can't. You're not the first to try this. The tests, the theories, the false concern, the lectures, I've been through it all a hundred times and nothing. I'm just not magister material. So just let me get on with my life, alright?...I have other failures to accomplish tonight." Bitterness rolled off her in waves, seeping into her tone as she spoke, each word possessing more bite than the last.<br><br>At her sides, her hands unconsciously clenched into fists, nails biting into the flesh of her palms as she waited for a response, half tempted to flee from the room before he could give her an additional reason to. It was always the same: enter an otherwise empty classroom, undergo countless tests for x number of hours, endure humiliation, get dismissed. Speeding up the process was simply in her best interest, or so she told herself.<br><br>When she met his gaze, there was steel in her eyes. She was ready. 
			</dd>
		</dl>
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