Guinea Pig [Dimitri]

[Hadrian]

24th Spring, 511 A.V. His father's home was not so august as those of the greater knights within the Order, but Trajan Aelius had been serving the Order with his financial and economic prowess for decades and his family lived well. Even the black sheep, Hadrian, lived comfortably when he was in residence in Syliras, though he stayed mostly in his room or outside the family apartments if he could help it. Fortunately his family was far too busy to pay him too much attention. Certainly he lived more comfortably than his brother Verus, who had to stay in the squire dormitories. This caused Hadrian no end of amusement. But he had some food in his room for Dimitri if he did come as he had promised, and he should arrive at any moment so Hadrian was skulking by the door to answer it before a servant. He was anxiously awaiting the squire, who had used Hadrian's skills to test himself against magic, and now Hadrian wanted to try certain other things with a willing subject. Of course, he had no intention of harming the young man... There was a knock at the door and Hadrian hurriedly opened it, forcing a more cheerful smile than he felt. "Hello, Dimitri... won't you come in?" In fact, Hadrian all but pulled him in and dragged him toward his room.

[Dimitri]

Dimitri walked down the corridors of the residential district, deeply frustrated by the day's training. His sword hand was still severely injured from that hunting trip nine days ago. He couldn't even close it without it searing in pain. He had to constantly change the bandages as blood and puss stained them. He could draw a bow nor hold his sword in it, and riding was intensely difficult. So his master was training him in switching sword hands. He was floundering hard in this endeavor though. He wasn't used to the feel of a sword in his left hand, and ever since his master found out that he'd been injured hunting instead of training, he'd been training him much harder. For each time he dropped his sword, he had to run the city's perimeter. And he'd been dropping his sword often.

Dimitri was repaying a favor to Hadrian today. The man had helped him in his own training, so Dimitri would help him in some unknown endeavor. He finally found the apartment he was looking for and knocked on the door. Almost immediately he was dragged inside by some soft, but still masculine hands. As he was whirled around he could see a finely decorated place belonging to a family with a fair amount of money. He turned and looked down and saw that familiar pale face adorned with a smirk. Hadrian.

[Hadrian]

There was food and drink discreetly laid out on the table, two armchairs near a banked fire in the hearth. Spring was in full swing and it wasn't really cold enough for a full fire to be raging therein. His bed, various other things that didn't really belong to him, but to his father. "Thank you for coming, Dimitri. I thought I'd invite you over to talk about magic so you might be more educated about it and understand it better. It's one thing to be able to shoot balls of water out of the air, but another to recognize what you are seeing and the best way to neutralize it. There's food and drink... Verus often complains about what they feed the squires... But you can have a seat here if you're ready."

[Dimitri]

Dimitri looked around the inside of Hadrian's home. His family was quite well off it seemed, and Dimitri felt a twinge of jealousy. But he stifled that quickly. He could get something nice like this for himself one day. "No thank you, I ate a little bit ago. Dimitri studied the two chairs, and determined that both were better than anything he'd ever sat on before. He moved over to the chair and slowly sank into it. "I'm glad you are willing to do this. I honestly know nothing about magic other than it exists, and what you've shown me. I'm not interested in learning how to use it, but rather how to identify and use means against it. What did you have in mind? Like I said, I'm quite ignorant on the subject." Dimitri studied Hadrian's face as he waited. Magic seemed like such a foreign idea, something wholly unnatural. And yet, it was natural. The world was made and destroyed by magic according to the stories, and there are several Knights that use magic to help the Order. Maybe his opinion was changing. Who knew?

[Hadrian]

"Please yourself," he said, forgoing food himself to sit in the opposite armchair by the small fire. He had grown up with such things, and was grateful for their comforts but had lived without them as well. Wealth didn't impress him, though he was cognizant of the power that wealth offered to do what one wished. "First," he began, and at the same time, he focused on pushing his aura outward in order that it might interact with Dimitri's, making gentle nudges toward attentiveness to what Hadrian had to say, and the urge to accept it. This would work well if he ever became a professor, or a master to apprentices, though he supposed he would have to learn how to fine tune it to allow healthy disagreement. He planned to reveal Hypnotism as a form of magic when they were further along, allowing him a bit of practice before revealing it made it more difficult to do. "First, I suppose we should just discuss what magic is, right? It's what makes up everything, really. Everything in the world is made up of substance and energy. You can see the substance, feel it. Magic... or djed, which means 'backbone' in Nader-canoch... is the deeper energy. Fire is energy. Substance converting into energy and back into substance... ash. But the deeper patterns, those energies are djed. Souls, actually, are the most complex arrangements of djed, but most people can't see souls. "Aurists like me can. Some Konti blessed by their Lady Avalis. Others... Auristics is one of the most basic forms of magic, and all it is is the ability to sense the djed, interpret it. They say Masters can manipulate their own auras... but... that's more advanced than we need to discuss just now. Most people See with their Auristics training, but that's because we humans use sight more than our other senses. Ultimately it's another Sense entirely, though the mind can interpret it as vision or sound or touch. "So it's a passive skill, but sometimes knowledge is more effective a weapon than a sword, so caution is always important. Much of what makes a Master is more skill than strength, and wisdom in interpreting what one senses. But I preach caution, not fear. Fear will taint the djed, because it responds to the world, to souls, to everything. It's all connected..." He paused, observing Dimitri's own aura and how tendrils of his own were twining into it like a benevolent weed. "Am I making sense so far?"

[Paragon]

Hadrian : Hadrian Skill XP Reward Auristics +1 Teaching +1 Lore: N/A Other: N/A Dimitri : Dimitri Skill XP Reward Observation +1 Lore: Lore of Djed (basic) Other: N/A Shame this was cut short, I'm sure it could have been fun - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, don't hesitate to PM me.