Flashback Curiosities Abound [Raeyn]

[Lani Stranger]

49th of Winter 507AV

Note :

Lani has had many names in her life, at this point she was known as Leavou, so that is the name I will be using. For more detail on that timeline, consult her plotnotes.

The snow was coming down in large clumps, and the mixed blood was grateful to be in a city again. Her mother disappeared most mornings to talk to the noble people in this city, who she said would teach her magic. The eleven year old had viewed her mother’s notes and understood the basics of her mother’s pursuits, but the Konti was strict about making sure the child didn’t learn magic. There was the looming promise that she might in the future, and her mother had been unable to stop her from learning on her own. When she was intent on learning something, she did it, just like her mother.

But since Alchemy was off limits, Leavou decided she could pursue the knowledge on her own. This was the City of the Stars, magic flowed through the streets and few people batted an eye at it. Perhaps she was young, but if she could find the right channels, she could do it herself. The only problem would be to find those channels.

So the eleven year old stamped her boots just inside the library, pulling her mittens off and unwrapping her scarf so it hung loose around her shoulders. She wasn’t prepared for the majesty that was the Bharani library, and the eleven year old paused for a second. She could see the glasswork architecture that bloomed out from the shelves and floors of the library, and although none exhibited the patchwork of walls that she was used to in Alvadas, you could clearly see the generations of architecture climbing up the library.

She admired the massive library and wealth of knowledge before her, but she wasn’t going to be cutting any corners. She wasn’t here to learn about herbalism and poison, which her mother would have loved if she was passionate about. She was here for magic.

“Excuse me.” Her small childlike tune rang out beside the pale woman who greeted those who entered the library. There were a few walking in behind her, but she demanded her attention.

“Yes dear, what can I help you with.”

“Um,” Leavou shuffled closer so she was out of the main entrance of the library, but slightly to the side. “My mum is studying with the Dusk Tower.”

“Oh! That’s interesting. Is she here, are you looking for her?” The patronizing tone of adults who didn’t know how to talk to children filled her voice, and Leavou smiled.

“Well, I was hoping I could pick up a book for her.”

“Well what is she looking for?” The pale woman asked, straightening as if to prepare to walk her through the library.

“Alchemy.”

“Alchemy?”

“Alchemy.” Leavou confirmed, blinking her eyes at the woman in an attest for innocence. Even if R’yse did not want her meddling with the world magic yet, at least she had educated the girl on it. Leavou knew it was an expensive art, it was a hard art, and a risky art. She even knew the basic fount and filter equations, but she had yet to be able to create her own Alchemy rings, or memorize the keystone glyphs. Which was what she was here for, keystone glyphs.

“Dear, do you know what Alchemy is? The towers hold the information on magic, and you have to apply with them.” She spoke, and Leavou’s shoulder’s shrunk. This woman didn’t take her entirely seriously, that was fine.

“I know what Alchemy is. I know the font and filter equations, I just need to learn keystone glyphs.” She spouted her knowledge like a bird pruning it’s feathers. That was the extent of her knowledge, but the woman didn’t know that.

“Well we have some histories of famous wizards, I’m sure we can find one who does alchemy. Would you like me to direct you there?”

“No, I’ll find it.” Leavou grumbled. “Thank you.” She spoke clearer, stuffing her mittens in her pockets, and walking more into the library.

“History is right over there, dear.” The woman pointed to the right, and Leavou looked, and glanced back. Up the stars she could see the bars that held the magical wings, looming behind the writing desks were scholars studied and copied. A longing settled in her. Yeah she could learn about the history of famous wizards and mages, but unless one of them happened to have the keystone glyphs written in them, she saw it as a waste of time.

Instead she turned left and began heading up the stairs.

[Raeyn]

One thing worthy of note about young Raeyn at the tender age of sixteen and a half, was that the boy had a near unrivalled tunnel vision. Hoping over the threshold of the Bahrani Library, he'd carry in grey sludge that the winter's snow turned into, packed densely against the soul of his shoes, and notice none of it. He'd hurry past imposing archways lined in thick, precious tomes as if they were an everyday sight to him. In his relatively short career as an Alchemist's apprentice, he'd have mastered the art of avoiding nosy Seekers, forcing unwelcome help in finding specific books upon him, until they gave up asking. Then again the young redhead was such frequent a sight at the library, that some might think he had made himself a nest somewhere in a dark forgotten corner of it and took up residence.

Back in those days Raeyn had a mind to one thing and one thing only; the magical art that had bewitched his heart far more than any pretty girl or dashing handsome boy ever could. His fascination with Alchemy rivalled addiction. Then again, there were worse things one at his age could have been addicted to. And glad to see the boy studying instead of getting into heaps of trouble, his mother slept soundly enough, knowing he'd grow up into a reasonable young man.

Perhaps if she had lived long enough to see him grow, he'd have had plenty of time to disappoint her.

Regardless of manners, or lack thereof, Raeyn would have soon enough gotten where he wanted to be. Such was the perk of walking quite so fast. Face to face with the smiling as always Orath, he had found himself, sat at a desk, lit up by a jubilant dancing flame.

"Took you long enough." grinned the Etheafal, ignoring the fact Raeyn was almost half a bell early. "Before you sit down, theres a few books I'd like for you to fetch." It was a request that soon enough followed by names of authors and titles a plenty.

Just like that the glow of excitement dimmed in Raeyn's eyes. "It's good to see you too." he grumbled, nursing his pride, wounded by being treated like an errand boy. Then again it was something he'd have to grow quite used to for Orath, in spite of having taken quite the liking to the headstrong Inarta youth, truly refrained from giving him any special treatment. Lessons in alchemy could be bought with coin but respect had to be earned. There was no buying that.

Naturally, in a library quite so big, one could loose themselves in the search for specific tomes. More often than not other books of considerable interest could be found when searching for something completely unrelated. Helping to locate specific books was what the Seekers were for. But, having taken many years to familiarise himself with the layout of the library, Raeyn preferred to trust his inner compass with such things instead of having to go though the horrific and completely unthinkable ordeal of having to ask for help. After all, he was almost certain that at least two of the requested books he had read cover to cover at least once before, thus knowing their exact location. And whilst that was more or less true, the young mage had still managed to waste a subsequent bell compiling quite the heavy load of books indeed, at the expense of breathing in quite the volume of old dust.

Satisfied he was missing precisely nothing and wrapped up in his own thought, Raeyn made his way downstairs again. One flight he conquered in the majestic way of a fledgeling wind eagle who had yet to shed the bulk of his baby feathers; and he had just about started upon another before a hard bump would cruelly pluck him out his thoughtfulness and dump him unceremoniously on his ass on that very staircase.

"What the..."

Startled the boy opened his eyes, and what horror befell him was not the stack of expensive alchemy books that now lay sprawled across several steps, nor a slight tear in the hem of his very fashionable white tunic. No, this time horror took the form of a girl noticeably younger than him yet none the less horrifying. For what she was, was a black eyed stranger. And if there was anything in this world that Raeyn was afraid of; that was strangers.

Some might say sixteen year old Raeyn was quite handsome for a sixteen year old. Thought freckly, his face was remarkably easy on the eyes. Though ginger, his hair looked like fire that cascaded down his shoulders in a neat do. Even a strange white lock sprouting from his hairline looked hardly out of place in it's strangeness. Whatever handsomeness there was however was now decisively obscured beneath the look of pure horror in his storm tinted eyes and a blush of embarrassment manifesting in his cheeks as if somebody had slapped him silly.

It would soon became clear that the boy was far too busy wallowing in self pity, as his slender hands reached for the nearest book to check if none of the pages had creased during the fall, to make any kind of apt introduction. Quite frankly he hoped this girl who had brought him so much misery, and purposefully so no doubt, would just move along and leave him to it as he gathered books along with whatever was left of his shattered fragile ego.

Those were the blissful days. The easy days where embarrassment over bumping into another could be considered the pinnacle of Raeyn's problems. How laughably silly it would all seem in years to come, for life had it's ways of putting peril in perspective. That it did.

[Lani Stranger]

She was headed up the stairs, trying to make sense of the haphazard maze that was the library, she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for, if she couldn't get into the locked sections, the eleven year old was lost for what to do. Luckily she was looking up the stairs when a tower of red and literature came barreling for her. She was to the right, headed up, where she should be, and he wasn't paying attention. R'yse had made a point to teach her to never step aside for a man, they should step aside for her. Except he obviously could not even be bothered to look at the young girl in front of him, which made the oncoming events inevitable.

Leavou squared her feet where she stood, watching him descend the last three steps, still not noticing her. Doing as her mother taught her, Leavou grabbed the railing and bucked her shoulder into his stack of books as he walked into her. She barely moved, even though he was much larger than her, and perhaps because he was focused on his books he went sprawling. A small smug smile lit her face, and she turned to watch him knock into the stone steps, shock splattering his ginger features. "Watch where you're going, bird boy."

Her thick Alvadian accent clashed with her desert features. In Alvadas her black eyes were hardly blinked at, there were many more strange features on display in that city. So R'yse had given Leavou the talk about how she might be stared at and asked questions that she didn't know the answer to. These northern folk weren't used to people like her, and they would be curious, or even fearful. The eleven year old hadn't cared too much, less focused on the racism talk than she was on dinner that night, so the thought that he was only intimidated by her eyes and faintly shimmering skin didn't cross her mind. Instead the egotistical little twerp thought she actualy scared him, by simply by knocking him over.

Curious as to what a boy of his age could be studying, she snagged one of his books from the stairs. Seekers and magic from 261 AD.. Boring. She snagged another before he could gather them all. Harameus: The Obscure Deity. Interesting. Alchemy Glyphs. Very interesting. She studied the boy before her now, suddenly more interested in what he was doing. It was possible he was just a human with red hair and freckles, not necessarily Inarta. A curiously placed lock of white hair spoke of old age, but his taut brow and straight jaw did not. His nice clothes said he was rich, wealthier than her at least, and his lack of coat showed he had already been here a while. His running into her showed that he was rude. Leavou flipped her long straight hair over her shoulder, and offered him her hand, but not his books . She hadn't forgotten her manners at least.

"What are you doing with Alchemy books?" She asked, no longer rude, as if the last few seconds simply hadn't happened. She wanted something now. "Where did you get them?" She wasn't too aware of the protocol of this library, but the woman at the front had just told her magic books needed special permission. How had he gotten special permission?

[Raeyn]

Bird boy?

Whatever would possess the child to make such an odd remark? There was precisely nothing bird like about Raeyn. No feathers in his hair nor eagle inspired jewellery that his kin in Wind Reach adored themselves with. He lacked wings or talons. In place of a beak on his face, there had been thin, rose petal coloured lips contorted into an upside down crescent that spoke only of the utter displeasure with this ordeal and the girls truly rude remark.

He could have let it go. He truly could have even forgiven her disgraceful rudeness, blaming age on her lack of manners. But it was not to be so, for barely had he time to gather his thoughts, the strange girl began to reach for his books and demanded explanations which he was hardly in the mood to give.

The boy sighed and rose to his feet, swiping his hands across the fabric of his clothing to bring some sort of order back into his appearance. He wasn't a short kid, nor was he exceptionally tall either but standing up a couple steps from the 11-year-old, coupled with the scowl on his face could have made him almost frightening if not for the flush of scarlet still present in his skin. His hand reached towards her, fingers splayed open and as he spoke, the tone of his voice suggested he'd not take no for an answer.

"Don't be a nuisance and give those back to me." he commanded in the most commanding way a sixteen year old could command with. Not a flicker of a smile dashed across his face, as he completely omitted a please at the end of that request. Raeyn was, as he so often had been, stiff, severe and sour faced.

"Where else would I have got them? You are aware you're inside of a library, right? I don't know where you're from but in this city, libraries are places in which books are kept." He was mostly just making fun other at this point, finding the questions laughable and the intrusion irksome.

Only then did it occur to Raeyn that an inquiry into Alchemy was an oddly specific one to come out of a child. At her age he too had little interested in running around after a ball or playing hide and seek with an insufferably loud gaggle of miniature humans; but in that aspect he thought himself unique. Coming to think of it, what was she even doing in this place where she even doing in this place when she could have been doing whatever it is that little girls do? What that could have been Raeyn neither knew or cared but he could hardly imagine it had anything to do with alchemy books.

The young alchemist's eyes narrowed as he studied her expression for a moment. "Theres an entire section reserved for magical books only. If you ask one of the Seekers and tell them who sent you, I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction. There's not that many Alchemy teachers in the city. And I'm sure yours had already made them aware of what you're looking for. As for these books I'm afraid I'll need them for the next few hours but once I'm done with them I'll put them to the side for you."

With that said he prompted her to return the books she was holding once more, frustrated enough with the distraction and wishing for nothing else than to retreat into peaceful study once more. But something about her gave Raeyn the impression it was not to be so. Peace was just a little too much to ask for in this moment.

Word count: 618

[Lani Stranger]

Leavou glared up at him through her lashes when he stood up and chastised her. She held onto his books, heart racing with the idea that he may just take them from her. She was going to give them back of course, they could hardly belong to him, and she was no thief. But she couldn’t get into the restricted sections, and this was her in. Whoever was teaching him, might teach her. And if even that mage thought her age to be a problem, Leavou was sure she could handle a stupid teenager, especially one with an ego the size of his. But she didn’t have a proper comeback when he acted as if she didn’t know what a library was. To be fair, Alvadas’ library was nothing like this one, for starters, there was no water here. Then again Lhavit was a boring stand-still city, how could she help that? She dropped her mouth in offense, but couldn’t fathom a witty reply to his demeaning words. Still, she did not give in to the waiting hand.

She wasn’t going to stand down because some teenager thought he was better than her. Yes, I already tried that. She thought in response to him recommending she find a teacher. She was too young, that is why she was here. But the eleven year old knew better than to display her weakness to a possible rival. She had missed out on the easier pleasures of childhood, where most children didn’t worry about learning something immediately if they knew they would have access in a few years. In one short year she would begin training in whatever profession she was to be in, for most kids this was the last hoorah. The last fleeting season with no responsibility, but to Leavou, it felt like parole. She had spent the last year travelling in the wild and being taught anything she could want to be taught by her mother and the people traveling with them. Except now that they have returned to society with a roof over their head, R’yse suddenly believed that Leavou would simply be normal.

He caved slightly, perhaps curious, and the half-Chaktawe’s crow-like eyes narrowed on the emotion. So, you are learning from someone. She surmised, glancing down towards the studying desks as if she would be able to spot the wizard at a glance. When she looked back at him, she straightened her shoulders with confidence. She had gotten good at mimicking her mother recently, and with an ego the size of hers, the confidence helped the terrible acting.

”Don’t you think I know that? I’m not from here, in case you couldn’t tell. But we don’t hide things from our mages in my city.” Yes we do ”At the very least, you could point me in the direction of someone who can give me access. It isn’t as if I need these books to learn from the beginning like you,” Yes I do She let her eyes follow his posture as if she was looking down upon him, when in reality her head was tilted up. ”I’m merely having some issues with my keystone glyphs and would like to brush up on the local style of writing them.” She put on her most haughty expression as she handed the books back, trying not to shake too much with the action. She didn’t want to give them back, but she did think this boy would clonk her on the head if she held it for too long. Boys were mean, and she was significantly smaller than him. It wasn’t a chance the child wanted to take.

She had been telling the truth for the most part. Unlike most, she had access to the Alchemy ring, merely resting past a locked door in their cottage. She had watched her mother work and had been given small tips and pointers. She had even, once, helped give her djed to a particularly powerful transformation her mother was attempting. It hadn’t worked of course, but the child had learned the meditation process for directing the djed. Leavou had the confidence she might be able to do something. Of course she probably couldn’t, but her self-image was too great for the eleven year old to fathom that she wasn’t immediately excellent at everything she did. She did need to learn the keystone glyphs though, that was what held her back. And this strange encounter was her key. The boy before her didn’t realize that he wasn’t going to be getting rid of her anytime soon.

Word Count: 762

[Raeyn]

"I'd have never guessed." he rolled his eyes as the girl confirmed she was indeed an outlander. Sarcasm seeped from his tongue like poison. His ears however listened to what the girl had to say with enough focus that he began to internal pick out little inconsistencies in her story. Jarring little inconsistencies.

If she had been learning under any of the Alchemy tutors he knew, then why was she having so much trouble with such a rudimentary thing as keystone glyphs that instead of seeking help from her teacher, she'd go to all the trouble to come to the library. Something spelled a little off to him. Raeyn quirked an eyebrow, letting the insults she had thrown at him sink into his skin so that they could stew there and enrage him at a later time.

"Have you listened to anything I said? Whoever teaches you should have given you access already. But..." his voice trailed off for a moment as he looked her up and down. "Coming to think of it I believe I haven't see you at the Twilight Tower. That's odd. Are you a new student? If so who teaches you?"

He never truly conferment his status as a student there, trusting that the mere mention of the place in as an authoritative manner as the one with which he spoke, would made that very very obvious. Had he known of the delightful secrets kept behind the doors of her home, greedy little Raeyn may have been a lot more willing to help. As it stood, however, he was growing more and more suspicious of her bluff and intended on catching her out in it.

His sun kissed fingers with their nails bitten down past their nail beds grasped the books with a certain fondness as the girl reluctantly handed them back. It would be a mighty embarrassment to turn up to Orath empty-handed.

"What's your name, anyhow? If we are to start bumping into each other often, we may at least get this tedious formality out of the way." he said, finally relaxing a little. And soon enough, perhaps a little unexpectedly, his hand stretched out towards her once more but this time not in demand but the offer of a hand shake instead. "I'm Raeyn."

Word count: 381

[Lani Stranger]

Leavou kept her lips sealed as he asked her questions. Her bluff was falling apart quickly. In a battle of wits against a teenager who actually knew this city well, she was at a sharp disadvantage. She had at least grown up watching her mother learn, but she hadn’t paid attention to the boring process, because she wasn’t learning it herself. But she wasn’t about to give in to this grumpy redhead, so she simply kept digging her hole.

”My name is Leavou,” She flipped her glossy hair over her shoulder again, a nervous habit that broke free of her attempted steely demeanor. She ignored his hand more out of embarrassment than superiority at this point. ”I, uh, haven’t been assigned a tutor yet, I am here on my own study.” The hesitation was minuscule, but noticeable to a keen eye. But Leavou didn’t think about that. ”W-Who do you study under? I haven’t heard your name before.” She gathered her confidence back up, almost sure his piercing eyes could see through her obvious lies at this point. She wasn’t going to give in and tell the truth, and she didn’t know when to stop digging her hole. She had to think of a way to capture his attention, to either get that book back, or to meet his tutor. Her puppy dog eyes worked much better on adults after all.

”After all, I don’t really need one. I have my own Alchemy ring at home. I’ve already been initiated into some personal magics. This is merely the next step.” She spoke this without the self-subscribing voice of her mother, a slight pitch accenting her tones as she tried evade her earlier bluffing. This in itself wasn’t entirely true either. R’yse wanted her to learn no magic yet, but it was hard to keep things out of Leavou’s curious mind once she had her black sights on them. This part had been true, but she took on the haughty tune to her words once more. ” You can hardly blame me for learning magics at age eleven when you are, what, fifteen? And just beginning. Now, if you don’t mind, Raeyn, I should be on my way.” She had a bad habit of letting her sharp tongue fly when it certainly didn’t need to. But he hadn’t reacted to her last insults, so the child kept flinging them. It was partially a move to get out of there before he started calling her on her lies. She would simply follow him once he had moved far enough away. It was also a possibility that he, for whatever reason, would grill her on the legitimate existence of this ring, in which case she could work a bargain out of him.

At this point it was understood that she wanted something from him, and sweet talking wouldn’t work. She had always had trouble getting along with other children, everything was a competition to her, and even when there needed not be a rivalry, Leavou envisioned there being one person on top, and one person on bottom. In this moment, she was very much on bottom, and she didn’t like it.

Word Count: 528