[Sharp Tongue Pub] Drawn Together

[Hadrian]

Their respective girlfriends would have to wait for another time, perhaps, as Hadrian didn't bring up his girlfriend or her prison -- a male body. They were no closer now to recovering it than they had been before the dangerous journey to Ravok, although they knew more of the players now. Time would tell, he supposed. It always did. Tanroa teach me to understand its nature, he quietly prayed. "Voiding..." He nodded, but quieted down as Lucas continued talking. Perhaps he would be a good student and assistant, after all. It would not hurt to take him to Zeltiva; he would be trustworthy, anyhow. "We sail on the 80th. If you are determined to go, I can see to a berth for you as well. But with regard to the voiding... One of the reasons I am not more proficient with it is the same reason it would not have done you much good in the tourney. I believe it requires a certain amount of skill before it becomes really useful. I have found a use for it with my magecrafting, but generally I just open small portals to keep up the skill. If I become more capable, they might open larger portals and I might be able to take things back out..." He concentrated on his hand, muttering some ancient dialect of Nader-canoch, his off hand contorting itself into various mudras to increase the efficacy of his will over this reality, and eventually a portal to the Void opened up, but it seemed to pull itself larger and larger by fits and tugs, until it was large enough to fit both hands into. But Hadrian was sweating. "I could," he said through gritted teeth, "draw glyphs all over my hands and perhaps pull it a bit wider, but..." He breathed, muttered another chain of old, old words, stabilizing it for the nonce. "But this is the limit of my skill. I can... I can get it about this large. I can make a Pull. But anything that goes in isn't coming back out. I can't move it." He paused again to stabilize the rather large portal; there was something terrifying about looking into absolute nothingness, especially when it loomed so large. "I'm just not... good enough. Yet." With a gasp, the portal snapped in on itself and he blinked holding his hands to his temples. "If you're no better than me..." he said, voice weaker, "the void would not have availed you in a tournament. Could you... could you make me more tea? And... make it darker in here? Please?"

[Lucas Arias]

„On the 80th then“, Lucas murmurred. „I’ll have to tell Yeller, my boss.“ The man would not be pleased that his bartender ran off again so soon to become some kind of professor’s assistant in Zeltiva and learn Voiding. On the other hand, he might find the idea of the failed squire pretending to be a serious academic funny. Maybe Lucas would write him a letter sometimes. Maybe he’d even visit him again.

As Hadrian said something about Voiding requiring a certain amount of skill before it became useful, Lucas made a face and nodded. „I suppose I’ll have to keep on practicing then“, he murmurred, and then his eyes suddenly lit up. „So there really is stuff in the Void? You can put things into it and take them back out? Can you also take things that others have put into the Void?“

As Hadrian started muttering something weird, Lucas arched an eyebrow. The portal that the man had made now was much bigger, but unfortunately it seemed to have made him sick. Lucas made a face.

„Glyphing?“ he asked. „You know that as well? I wonder if glyphs are anything like Kelwyn’s …“ But no, he decided it was better not to tell Hadrian about the weird mark that Kelwyn had given him. Maybe he didn’t like Kelwyn.

„Ummm, Hadrian“, he said as he noticed how much the man was sweating. „Maybe you should close the portal again.“ As he requested more tea, the failed squire nodded, and then he closed the curtains.

„Better?“ he asked. „Maybe we should both be content with really small portals for a while.“

He tried to open another one which was even tinier than the first one and disappeared just as quickly to show him what he menat.

[Hadrian]

All those questions. He continued to massage his temples after the portal snapped shut, while Lucas saw to the light and the tea. Perhaps he would make a good assistant after all. But he tried to organize answers to all those questions, the better to distract him from the impending headache that he could only hope the tea and dim light would deflect. He didn't want to have to ask Lucas if he could take a nap there to recover from a foolish overuse of a skill in which he had only dabbled over the last year. "Thank you, that's better." He took a breath. "There are things and creatures in the Void from what I understand, but only with greater skill or sheer dumb luck can we manage to get anything out at this point. I'm just not sure how to locate something someone else has Voided. "If you mean gnosis, it could be. I have seen a few drawings of Kelwyn's gnosis marks, but they are unique to each person from what I understand. So they very well might look like glyphs. But glyphs themselves are not like gnosis marks; they can only modify pre-existing magic. Though I suppose you could make an argument that a gnosis mark was a glyph left by a god, obeying different rules or the same rules on a higher order... hm... "And yes, small portals. Baby steps. That is the safest way to increase one's skill with the arcana."

[Lucas Arias]

"Maybe there is a discipline of magic that lets you find stuff", Lucas mused. "I mean, with magic you can open portals, throw fireballs around, turn into a completely different person, read minds ... so why not this?"

He filled Hadrian's cup with fresh, hot tea and handed it to him.

"If you need anything else, just let me know. I don't want you to pass out in my home because you've ... you've been on the verge of overgiving, right?"

He furrowed his brow. Lucas wasn't particularly familiar with the side effects of magic apart from that one encounter with Jett, but that had been frightening enough. He was pretty sure that he didn't want his future employer to break down and suddenly have white hair.

If Hadrian got sick, Lucas might not be able to go to Zeltiva anymore, and he had already come up with quite a few things he wanted to do there.

That gnosis marks were glyphs left by the gods was something he hadn't really thought of yet. He decided at once that he would do more research in that regard. Maybe there was a professor at the university that could help him with that?

"Anyway, do you want to stay here for another little while or go home? You can lie down here a bit if you want. Just throw my stuff on the floor."

[Hadrian]

"That is certainly possible," he allowed. "If there isn't some lost discipline, though I could probably magecraft something... Anyway, there is overgiving and then there is overgiving. This is slight. I am careful, but sometimes I push the envelope a bit too far. But you are probably right, I should lay down for a little while. I'll recover faster, and if you don't mind." He sipped at the last of his tea, then moved clumsily over to the bed, sat down heavily, and tried to neatly move Lucas' stuff to the floor. Hadrian did make an effort, and he was a bit embarrassed to be laid low before a relative stranger, but one with connections to home as well as to the future. Well, he would have to hope that Lucas was indeed trustworthy. The bed smelled of another person, and he tried to ignore that unlooked for intimacy, instead closing his eyes and attempting to hypnotize himself into a sleeping sort of trance, still alert enough should danger approach, but utterly relaxed so as to better recover. It was a strange thing to attempt to hypnotize himself, but perhaps he ought to experiment more with it when he was not in pain...

[Liar]

EXPERIENCE AWARD Hadrian Skill Points Persuasion 2 Voiding 2 Philosophy 2 Investigation 1 Anthropology 1 Storytelling 1 Lore Blending In Recruiting Assistants A Stranger’s Hospitality Notes You two shared a lot of information but as far as I saw didn’t do much teaching, so I gave a combination of storytelling and philosophy instead. Let me know if you were hoping for teaching points. Lucas Arias Skill Points Investigation 3 Storytelling 2 Philosophy 1 Voiding 1 Cleaning 1 Lore Standing Out How to Be an Assistant The Limits of Voiding Notes See above about teaching points. Lucas and Hadrian play off of each other so well; it makes me feel better about losing you to Zeltiva! :P