[Flashback] First Lesson with the Mystery Man [Hatter]

[Hadrian]

"My questions," he said, a bit surly, "have been coherent. You've simply ignored them. Leeching, it's outlawed by the Drykas, but you claim you can do it. Why would you teach it to me? Is Web energy clean enough to Leech without poisoning yourself? Can I learn a discipline through the Web? Can I follow your Web back to you?" He was rehashing questions now that hadn't been answered, but he cut off anything further, sure that Zephyrus would evade them. It was best to stay on topic, he supposed, gather himself and continue working on the Web under his direction, and perhaps save other disciplines for another day. If Zephyrus didn't lose interest in him and in Zeltiva before that could happen... "And why are we back to pretending your book isn't there?" he asked, exasperated, but wondering if he was just imagining things now. It certainly seemed to him that there was something like a bubble of non-attention around it where Zephyrus was concerned, but perhaps it was just impressions leftover from being connected to his Web. As he looked around, he was distracted by the afterimages of the Web, but then he realized he could still see it, even without engaging his Auristic vision, as Zephyrus had said he would. But for now he attempted to turn it off, at least enough so that he wouldn't be tempted to grab hold of it again and let the ley-line pull him out of his body to seek wonders and forget its place within him.

[Panna Cotta]

“I am Drykas in name, blood, and heritage.” He replied thinly, wondering if the mage should be smacked on the head. “But out here, I’m just a seasonal master teaching young pups to do tricks.” He adjusted his hat. I’m far too cool to be just a Drykas, he would have said. Zephyrus didn’t give it out, but he was rebellious in his own way. Why else would he be letting Hadrian learn Webbing? He’s got vested interest on the scholar, that’s what. “The thing is, you’re not asking questions that need answers. You’re asking for reassurance. So typical of students,” he tapped his head with two fingers, “you can’t let your brain hold you back. No guts, no glory. Where’s the risk in that?” He paused and drummed his fingers on his table. “If you want to learn Leeching, learn it. I’m getting paid to teach you, that’s all.” The man smiled, toying with Hadrian.

“As far as webbing is concerned, you did say you know what webs are used for. You got half of it right, the other half you need to figure out on your own.” He clacked his cheek and said, “Teaching does not mean I’ll put everything on a spoon and feed it to you.” And Hadrian even went through a test to become this man’s student?

Then the Drykas closed his eyes and leaned back on his chair. He would hear out Hadrian if the mage had more whines to deliver, staring at the kid and yawning, pretending to be bored. “You went this far to become my apprentice, took the exam, so why don’t you take the risks? You’re already breaking University rules, if they find out and expel you, best you might as well have made the most of it.” Then he perked up, sat up straight and held a hand above the book. “You see something in here, do you?”

“You think you see something, because you are affected by an Illusion.” He smiled, “It only proves up until now that your eyes are weak against certain forms of magic. Your Auristics is insufficient to protect your sorry ass.”

“But tell me, did you still see it when you were in the web?” The man held a serious frown, what was this about? A short explanation was due. “A certain artifact had gone missing from the University, nobody could tell where it is. Don’t really care for some old rock getting stolen, but I heard that the perpetrator is believed to be a Drykas.” And that suggested many things.

“Some of the old bags in the high-ups think I’m involved, have to say they just don’t sit well with my swagger,” and if Hadrian could have an opinion, Zephyrus was mysterious enough to be considered suspicious. The mentor rubbed his chin with a thumb and continued, “But it interests me because as far as I know, I’m the only Drykas within a mile radius who could work so well with Webs. I seem to be missing something… or rather I am being purposely left out of the web.”

“Whoever’s doing this,” setup, he should have said, “is doing it well, but not perfect enough to stop me from preparing a counter-attack. If it just came to being a suspected thief I wouldn’t really mind, but the fact that this whole…” he searched for a word, “arrangement seem to be orchestrated by someone who didn’t want me to teach around here just tickles on my nerves. It’s just a suspicion, but we’ll find out soon.” A funny smile. Did Hadrian notice Zephyrus said “we”?

“And then just last week some book got stolen. Nobody could find it, not until last night when I had a babe in this very room who refused to sit on my table because of some dirty old book. It’s right here isn’t it?” He asked, jaw clenching. “Well I certainly could not see it. I've avoided it since. But you can, and you’ll help me figure out how to remove it from my table before someone sends in pirates to raid my room.”

Hoo-boy. “Now I want you to take rest and when you stop seeing after images of the web, we start prying off the leylines. Give or take a bell’s enough?”

If Hadrian ever hesitated to agree, or worse, threaten to back off from Zephyrus' request, "I didn't save your hide from Zelina for nothing, now make yourself of use."

[Hadrian]

Hadrian took a deep breath, counting in his head for patience. It was going to take some getting used to if he was going to work closely for Zephyrus Shadowrunner. He was not Professor Stonemiller, Professor Oslie, Theroulde or any of the other tenured professors who had grown accustomed to a friendly rapport with their students. He had to remember that Zephyrus was challenging him, and that such adversity would help him grow ever faster and more powerful. Not that power was his aim, exactly, but he did wish to increase his skills, to look at the world and see the plan of the gods at work. Hubris, perhaps, but the attempt made his soul sing. "All right. You're right. Point me in the right direction, but don't spoon feed me. I get it. And I appreciate it. I just have to get out of my university habits when working with you." He glanced down at the book and up at Zephyrus again. "An illusion?" he asked dubiously. "Well, I saw you draw up the Grand Oath. Was that illusion too?" He wondered if he was not bound by that contract after all, not that he had any particular problem with it once they had altered the terms. "I don't... actually remember if I saw it while I was on the Web. That's strange... I normally have an eidetic memory for the most part." Frowning, he considered taking another look, but as his mentor counseled a moment of rest, he resisted the temptation. "Is there... someone here skilled enough with the Web to keep you out of it?" He supposed certain things like the Archives were warded so powerfully that even a Web Mage couldn't necessarily sneak past, but he was still new to this particular brand of magery. Zephyrus' 'we' was not lost on Hadrian, but instead of beaming with pride like a normal student, he attempted to turn his analytical skills toward the information he was given. "I mean... I see a book there," he said in response to Zephyrus' question. "I saw you draw up the contract, which I signed, but now you say you can't see it... I don't know what to make of that, but I will help as I can. You're the expert. A bell works, I guess. Are you going to teach me to Void in the meantime or should I just meditate?" he asked with a crooked grin. He started to call his breathing under conscious control, the foundation of all his meditation. This was possible without going into a complete trance, but the idea of this apprenticeship was starting to excite him more than irk him again. Zephyrus might let some crumb of training drop and Hadrian didn't want to miss it. "Oh, and you're right... My Auristics are still rather crude. Personal magics don't seem to be my forte."

[Panna Cotta]

"The question is, was there someone in here who is skilled enough to keep me out of the web." The why's they could figure out later. The man stood up and leaned on the desk, placing his two hands on top, staring madly at something that wasn't there. If someone managed to infiltrate his web without him knowing, there must have been good reason.

Vengeance, for one.

The Drykas wasn't an admired figure in the University, what with his uneducated fashion style and his penchant for never following the rules. He didn't seem the kind who would easily break under pressure. He focused on the matter at hand, "When you return to the web I want you to continue what you're doing right now," he circled a forefinger in front of the young man's face. "Keep your breathing slow and steady, and keep your eyes on the table. After that I need you to move out of your body slowly. Take your time and get used to the web before you lift a finger. I want you to use your Auristics and keep concentrating around this area."

Once Hadrian complied, he would have trouble eyeing the area Zephyrus pointed at. A mild headache will torment him, but not so much that it will impede his vision. It will take extra effort to use his magical eyesight while inside the web, he will need to combine stillness and concentration in order to catch a glimpse of thin red lines that formed around a book, effectively combined with his mentor's own threads. They would fade away from his eyes if he even dared to blink.

It would seem that the book was an anchor. If Hadrian will be a good student and tell exactly what he saw to his teacher, he would be advised to unravel the threads.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian certainly wasn't skilled enough at Illusion or Webbing to prevent Zephyrus from the Web, from seeing his own book, but he didn't think he was the mystery opponent of which the Drykas spoke. Having little to no information from which he could offer a hypothesis, he merely kept quiet and then did as his master bade him. The meditation had helped gather himself; though no Leecher, time allowed the natural flow of djed back into him, the generation of his own from what he was: a creature of spirit as well as matter. It took less effort this time, though a thin sheen of perspiration bespangled his brow by the time he managed to climb out of himself, his physical form, standing -- so to speak -- a silvery outline of himself for those with eyes to see. A shining cord connected this astral form to the body at the navel, a significance he would ponder at greater length later. The disembodiment took time, and all the while his eyes were on the table. Breathing in, he let his djed flush into his eyes, breathing out, he sought to loosen the moors between soul and body, until he was in that spiritual form, his Vision enhanced by his meager auristic training. So close to his body did he remain that it took little effort to partially rejoin his body to the point where he could speak. He only needed to rejoin his throat center with its correspondent in his other body, and then he was able to report what he saw to Zephyrus, delicate red threads among his own shining lines. It was a fortunate thing that he needn't blink when he didn't truly have eyes anymore, else he might have lost them, imagining them a trick of the mind. "It is difficult to look," he said, "and causes me pain. But there are threads there that don't feel like you... Does that make sense?" He didn't know Zephyrus all that well, but now that they had shared energies, he felt that he was able to recognize what was Zephyrus' work and what was not. "Wait... I can't see them now, but perhaps when I step out of my body again..." When Zephyrus gave his order, Hadrian dutifully released the connection between throat center and its energetic equivalent in his etheric body. When he looked now, he felt an intense desire to look away, his 'eyes' not wanting to focus where he knew the book to be. The pain came on stronger, nearly blinding him, but he knew what he had seen and, after persevering, he saw them again. Energetic hands reached out, tentative and careful, to unravel these other threads, fearful that they might be laced with some energetic poison or other magical boobytrap, but what could he do when Zephyrus ordered him to do something?

[Panna Cotta]

One, focus. Two, focus. It was a rhythmic activity, though Hadrian was strained at best. The headache would stay on longer than he would expect, but for now he just had to bear with it. As his mind was able to gain steady control over his eyes, his body moved freely. It was uncoordinated movement at first, like his body forgot how to move as a single whole.

He knew, in the back of his mind, the part where he could silently watch what he was doing, that the invisible book needed a little bit more care and caution. Soul fingers met with red threads, and Hadrian was pulled into someone else's web. It wasn't Zephyrus' web, and instinct told him that he must have transferred to another weave. A web spun within the web, concealed and separated. Why would someone go through all this trouble to hide a book in plain sight? If Zephyrus needed to be accused of a crime, surely the bother was so unnecessary? But something was there, something someone wanted to show to anyone but Zephyrus. And beyond that was another secret that was only present in this web.

Whereever he was now, made it terribly hard for him to think clearly. There was always a way out, and all he had to do was lift his fingers from the threads. But there was a certain instinct that forbid him to do so. It was as if something - someone - was feeding him with thoughts. Images flashed in his head. Again. There, but not quite. It was a male student, face somewhat familiar - he may have been Hadrian's classmate in Anthropology a couple of times. The Drykas instructor was in the memory, offering a nasty knowing smile against - this wasn't - against Hadrian! - it feels like - He was being leeched! - but it couldn't - He was in the memory of Anvor, though there was something terribly wrong in what he was seeing right now.

Hadrian tasted blood dripping down his nose.

Outside of the web, Zephyrus fought desperately to suck the negative energies flowing into Hadrian's body. The boy triggered a trap - surely the student anticipated that, and took a little precaution before following orders? Hadrian was being leeched - it was the only thing the Drykas could do as the apprentice's body no longer responded to physical stimuli. Quickly Zephyrus jumped back into his own web, now better aware of the danger that awaited him, tugging Hadrian's body - tearing the human's hands away from the petching webbed book. To the young scholar, it was like having headache on top of another headache. It was impossible to continue the lesson at this point, not without dire consequences.

At the very least, he managed to get a lead as to who may have plotted against the Drykas professor. It was Anvor! But that man deserved his punishment, didn't he? Though Zephyrus' manner of disciplining students was far from 'traditional'... And how would a school drop-out manage to proclaim vengeance upon Zephyrus and act it out... Oooof... Hadrian's mind hurt. There will be time to think of it later.

"Thanks for that," Zephyrus told him coarsely. "You didn't perform too well, and I should get you some rest." But Hadrian was no longer listening, slowly drifting off into a dream...

In his dream, he was back in Zephyrus' office, in front on Anvor. The Drykas professor was not around, but Anvor was speaking. "I'm really sorry," the voice echoed itself, "I didn't mean it." The young man was obviously talking to himself. Hadrian had nothing else to do but watch the monologue. There, but not quite. "My parents are going to disown me ten times once they hear about this... I'm really scared." Anvor looked at him, past him. Hadrian saw someone cloaked walk through him - he wasn't really there - and the visitor carried a nearly-lifeless Anvor away.

[Hadrian]

It all seemed like a dream, and a dream of pain. He was like an infant learning to swim, except his hands were tied to the weave and so the whole of his etheric body flailed like a fish out of water as his vital energies were pulled out of him. The images and words of Anvor seemed so real, and they had a sort of conversation, though he wasn't sure he would remember what was said whenever -- if ever -- he woke up again. 'It's all right,' he said. To Anvor. To Zephyrus? He tasted blood, which meant that he was at least partially back in his body, or else that was another element of dream. He wondered if he would meet Nysel on top of everything, but the idea frittered away, probably for the best. Would he want a god to see him laid low? More importantly, had he crawled back into his body himself or had Zephyrus helped? Was Zephyrus the enemy? Were those Anvor's thoughts leaking into him. But it hurt too much to think, even if he wasn't quite aware enough for it to truly be called pain. There were impressions of things: pain, light, Anvor, Zephyrus, Hadri-- who was Hadrian? 'Where are you, Anvor?' he asked the dimming divide between consciousness and not.

[Panna Cotta]

There was a thin boundary between what is real and what is not, and such is often the case when one is enveloped within an illusion. Hadrian skirted a lot of dangerous things just by being here. It was rather disappointing that Zephyrus had taught him webbing, for all his Drykas pride he certainly knew how to ire the wrath of his clan and ancestors beyond the Ukalas. But there was one vital point - or rather - one vital person behind all that has happened so far.

Anvor, the Drykas defiler, who wrote a false book about Drykas tradition. The important piece of the untold story - beyond, of course, being booted out of the University and punished magically by Zephyrus, - was that Anvor came to possess a particular artifact that, by its own character and denifition should be Drykas, but is not. Its existence offended Zephyrus greater than anything he had encountered in his life, but the thing possessed a uniqueness that was deserving of praise. And for that it has been confiscated and kept away, and eluded the sight and knowledge of any other Drykas. It had stayed so until recently, and Zephyrus' greatest suspicion was that the "missing artifact" is in fact this hideous item that should not exist in the first place. The Drykas professor had suspicions that Anvor, may his soul and conscience rest in peace, was somewhat involved. But how would he get to the bottom of the mystery?

The answer was Hadrian. The prim and proper student who was always searching for this-and-that about magic, someone who has the wits of a mage and half the guts of a wizard. He could help Zephyrus greatly, and was proven to be of great use, if only he had unraveled the trap instead of triggering it.

What Hadrian doesn't know so far is that a particular item within the Drykas' office conceals the magical artifact. He was close to it, and if he had been a little bit competent in shielding he should have solved half of the mystery. The book, now bereft of its magic, having released its trap glyphs on the unsuspecting student mage, was specifically modified to elude Zephyrus, creating the illusion that the web it belonged to would not be properly seen, sensed, nor touched, by the Drykas professor.

Hadrian was now sitting in front of a large desk inside a room, scribbling on a notebook. On his left was a book about the Drykas, on his right was a bottle of ink and a mysterious gray-silver metal cube. He took speed as he wrote, and this he could see with his own eyes.

"The Drykas are in possession of magical items such as this Webbing Cube, and they use it to form magical leylines in the region of Endrykas. These Webbing Cubes are made from high-level Magecraft, and every horseclan member is in possession of one... The Drykas forged these metal from, possibly, special metals that can only be found in the region."

Already, he could see the sweeping generalizations that Anvor written about the Drykas, and would somewhat understand the reason for Zephyrus wrath when he was consulted regarding the paper. One thing struck him odd, however. Every horseclan member is in possession of one. It sounded wrong, but...

Anvor heard a knock, and he quickly closed the journal he was writing, and to Hadrian's borrowed eyes he could easily recognize the object, though its worn spine and vintage pages looked very, very familiar.

Before he could think any straight, Anvor separated from Hadrian, pushing himself away from the table and knocking off a chair.

"Who are you?!" He asked aghast, "You are not from here!" Anvor screamed the shrillest shriek Hadrian ever heard, which was, a good thing in the end, because he somehow awakened and gained a morsel of awareness, mildly in control of his own thoughts.

Hadrian had a mystery to solve, a trial to endure. He had to use every thread of his wits and cunning to help the Drykas professor, or save his own hide. There were two things Hadrian knew he could ask about, one would be about the Webbing Cube and the other would be about the mysterious book. Or he could not ask anything at all, or ask about both. Ghosts, dreams or not, are fickle and impossible to negotiate with. One thing rang true, however, he was not a student of the Drykas mage. He was bait to the ghost of Anvor.

OOC noteJust to make it clear, Hadrian is in a dream right now. While, as rules go, you may gain lores while in a dream, you may not gain any valuable or significant experience. Do note that this is supposed to be a challenge, and you have an idea what the stakes are (Saving your Drykas mentor's reputation and finding the artifact, as two examples). It now rests in Hadrian's ability to manuever things to his advantage.

I am very sorry for the long long long wait!

[Hadrian]

"Oh, shyke," he said, unsure whether he seemed a ghost to Anvor or solid as the dead student thought he was. This was all a delusion, it seemed. Or illusion. Or dream. He couldn't be sure which, but he was all but certain that Zephyrus was playing him. "Anvor... Anvor, do you remember me?" He was reeling, or whatever mental construct of himself he now inhabited, that was reeling. It took all he had to keep it together, but he plowed through his disorientation. Careful not to rush Anvor, he let the urgency of his voice and demeanor arrest him. "Tell me... Tell me about the cube and the book." Direct. Too direct, perhaps, but it was an opening volley. At least he could always fall back on the fact that he had been up front and honest with Anvor from the beginning. "It's me. Hadrian. Hadrian Aelius. I'm in trouble, but so are you."

OOCSorry for the delay and the brevity. I'm trying to wrap my brain around what's happening.

[Cachet]

Hadrian : Hadrian SKILLS Auristics:2 Meditation:3 Intelligence:4 Negotiation:2 Webbing:4 LORE Negotiation: Changing terms of a Grand Oath Taking a Grand Oath Webbing: Leaving your own body Webbing: Disorientation Webbing: Finding a Web Zephyrus: Drykas in blood name and heritage Misc Notes: A nice thread with a very good intro into Webbing. Well played Anything seem out of place? Any questions please feel free to contact me ASAP.