Making Connections (Arysana)

by **Alses** on March 21st, 2014, 5:09 pm

Timestamp: 61st Day of Spring, 514 A.V.
Location: Mhakula's Tea House

“…and the Seiza have indicated that they would appreciate your presence at the Tuwele for the ruling on the first case in law because of your amendment, your grace. I think they’re aiming for a symbolic gesture, and it would do you no harm at all to become more acquainted with Seiza processes and procedures.” A very bureaucratic cough disrupted the little soliloquy, recapturing Alses’ slightly wandering attention deftly and discreetly.

“A declaration of the seriousness of your combined intents is how it will be seen by the…influential factions…in the city,” he continued. “As such, a good event for you to be seen at, even if the subject matter isn’t the most appealing. We’ll be recommending looking sad and sorrowful, but resolute and firm nonetheless, for anyone important who’ll be watching, either openly or in the shadows.”

“Very well, very well,” Alses sighed, eyes dancing protectively over a document she was supposed to be reading. “Have the proper secretary pencil it into our diary, will you? Oh, and make sure we have a briefing before I head over to the Tuwele on whatever day; we don’t want to be the only person in that courtroom with no idea what’s going on or why.”

The reply of: “Very good, your grace,” was accompanied by a slightly wry smile at the old – and weak – joke, then a shimmering walk across the acres of floor, a smooth retrieval of yet more papers from an inexhaustible briefcase – stamped, as with everything, with the gilt crest of the Council – and finally an all-too-quick resumption of the near-monologue.

“Ah yes, Item Seventeen,” her indispensable assistant announced with some relish and a certain amount of repressed glee, adjusting his glasses fastidiously as he did so. “In your usual precise fashion-” was that perhaps a soupcon of reproach there? “-you had ‘Svefra’ pencilled in.” A pause. “This is the appointed time, Councillor, so…Svefra?”

One eyebrow arched as Alses leaned back pensively in her chair, absently waving him into a seat as she did so. “We have the most regular contact with the Inarta of Wind Reach – thank you for your recommendations, by the way – followed by the humans from Zeltiva, followed by the Svefra, yes?”

Her assistant nodded. “In recent years, you are correct,” he allowed. “Although in the past the Svefra were more numerous than the sea-captains of Zeltiva.”

Alses blinked. “Why?”

Her secretary looked away, as though embarrassed. “We don’t know,” he said helplessly. “It could have been something to do with the Djed Storm, but we’ve not seen their visits pick up. The Southwind pod is the first to have come to Lhavit for quite some time, as it happens. But do continue, please.”

Alses nodded gracefully. “Therein you make my point for me. They are our third-largest trading partner, and yet we know so little about them. Who’s their primary god? Where is their homeland? How is their society organised? What are their ships called? How many people are in one of those pods? How many pods are there? What are their prejudices and fears? Conversely, what do they like? What are their stories, their histories? What do we know of their culture? D’you see where we wish to take this?”

The man smiled thinly. “I believe I do, your grace. There are several ways we can go about this, as it happens; we can set up a scouring committee to go through everything in Bharani about the Svefra and produce a report, we could conduct a survey, or we could ask them directly. Or a combination thereof.”

Alses smiled, and it wasn’t an altogether nice smile. “Oh good. Scour Bharani by all means; we would like to know what Lhavit knows – or thinks it knows, at any rate. I shall ask a Southwind of my acquaintance to look the report over, point out anything hideously wrong, too.”

A shallow half-bow. “Very good, your grace. If we can move on to the next item on the agenda for today? Excellent. Now…”

A

Alses very nearly – almost, but not quite – ran from the Radiant Tower when the city’s massed bells rang joyously out to mark the start of the Noon Rest. Or lunchtime, as most people called it. The prospect of escaping her plush office and her ever-present, indispensable assistant – with his never-diminishing piles of paper – became a very tempting proposition indeed by the eleventh bell.

There was apparently a restaurant of some kind within the fabric of the Radiant Tower itself, a place for the staff and visitors to be victualled and rested – a sensible thing, really – but whilst the work might often be interesting, and whilst it still gave her pride a nice little tickle to be called ‘your grace’ and deferred to, after a few bells in her office being talked at, the walls started to close in.

Thus, her escape, every lunchtime, to one of the many eating-houses and tea-houses that Lhavit sported, to be surrounded by normal people, far from the concerns of paperwork and factions in the dark and juggling hanging swords poised just over her neck.

Small wonder she went home to Elysium Hall every night exhausted, another day in which her personal ship of state hadn’t foundered and sunk.

Today it was Mhakula’s, her oldest lunching-ground. She was a well-known figure to the Interchangeable Yhavaos that ran the place by now; they were well-used to her little peccadilloes and preferences, and they were never anything other than happy to see her. Even now.

Mhakula's prided itself on the finest teas and the sharpest swords in the city – and once you'd got your head around the apparent contradiction, you had a good handle on Lhavitian philosophy in general. Pointy metal had never drawn Alses to the place, but it did at least provide an interesting spectacle to observe whilst enjoying tea – and there was very little chance of a brawl breaking out or the place being robbed, to select just two of the thousand and one events which could make a meal taken at an inn or tavern an interestingly lethal experience.

Another point in their collective favour was that they were accommodating of, well, special needs. Alses was generally almost guaranteed a seat by a window, to drink in Syna's light, for example.

She was greeted at the door by a smile like the noonday sun – the Interchangeable Yhavaos had always had the most extraordinary solar-powered smiles – and was soon ensconced at a table overlooking the dao arena and flooded with light from a large window at her back.

All the paraphernalia for making the perfect cup was laid out in front of her in short order – fired teapot already filled with her chosen blend, cups and saucers, a pot of water with a little brazier to keep it piping hot, an array of spoons and no biscuits – they'd learned not to bother giving them to her, since she found their taste somewhat lacking in any case.

Tea couldn't be rushed, and even though this was her lunch break, her time to take her leave of all the concerns of her position, she still found her mind’s eye, her mental compass, swinging to point due Magic, and with a sigh whilst the tea steeped and brewed, out came the papers and documents, forming a sort of sediment over at least half the table as she read.

Soon, her tea was forgotten and the rest of the tea-house faded into the background, all her attention focused on the documents passing under her eyes.

by **Arysana** on March 22nd, 2014, 5:44 am

Arysana | NPC 1 |NPC 2 | Thoughts
‘Stubborn,’ is what she was often called, ‘headstrong’ the most common after – with the word ‘bossy’ popping up on occasion - all because she was, by nature, all or nothing; it was how she lived and breathed, with little room in her heart and head for shades of grey. No wavering, no hesitation, no turning stomach or unsure mind, she would either rise to the top or crumble at the bottom, train for weeks or not at all for days on end, once a task was set for herself she would see it through, no matter the plight or strife that hit her in consequence.

Bossy was what she was called that morning, when she tried to prod her ever-stranger sister to joining her for lessons in some form of combat at the Tea House. As she quickened her pace, a string of quiet chants rolled through her mind as the memories of that morn bubbled to the surface. ‘Slow and steady. Breath in, and breath out. In, out. Smother the storm. Gods, I hate that word.’

Her gaze fell upon the tea house with a tremor of trepidation - just because she would never doubt her choice and remain steadfast when push came to shove, did not mean that she was the kind to jump in her decisions, perhaps even more so when the addition of further tasks and responsibilities could very well land her in the catholicon, and she’d initially planned to act with her sister by her side.

'Dao Sword? Or unarmed? Both? Can I afford that? Do I have the time?'

She swallowed hard as she entered the Tea House, her stomach settling as she caught sight of a blissful woman, one of the owners should her memory be serving her well, the etchings of worry quite clear on her weathered face. ‘It’s a wonder the kinds of things that you pick up once they've been pointed out.’

Arysana's gaze raked over the holding of the older woman's shoulders, how she stood with impeccable posture, even though her gaze seemed somewhat heavy and woeful. It was then that the sound of the room caught her attention, the white noise taking on distinct chatter and the sound of clashing blades, a certain heat and humidity that came not only from pots and cups of teas, but also a rather large crowed of people.

"I apologise for the inconvenience," she said, her expression telling that such was true. That, or she'd been in the business for a very, very long time. She seemed to feel that the situation needed no further explanation, moving on to speak before the reimancer had the chance to ask about where to go to see about learning the art of martial arts and the blade. "We could double up a table, if you'd like?" There was a strange coarseness to her words, a certain waver that the reimancer herself used when she wished to rid herself of blame and trouble.

"No worries, I..." she trailed, heavy moods and atmospheres never a kind that she was fond of, flitting her sights about the room as she took the offer into consideration, a dismissal on the verge of springing to her lips when she took notice of a famed figure, all thoughts of sweat and steel leaving her in an instant. "Actually, yes."

She swallowed hard and kept her gaze on the Ethaefal, hoping dearly that she was not mistaken in who she thought she saw seated. "This way, then," she cooed, her gaze no doubt having followed Arysana’s when she was staring agape at who appeared to be a Councillor.

The older woman exchanged a few short words with the Ethaefal, before turning back to the reimancer and gesturing her to take seat, the copper haired woman sliding into the section of chair that directly apposed her tablemate, and she struggled to keep the grin off face, pressing her lips as she weighed up which word would be best spoken first. "I hope you don’t mind," she began, keeping her words loud enough for the woman before her to hear, having to shake herself from a stupor as she was shortly lost in the glory that came with being in the presence of one of Syna’s daughters in broad daylight.

"My name is Arysana, I," she trailed and sought coherence, too many thoughts hitting her at once, not even taking note of the slipping of her full name. "You are… Alses? The Councillor of Magic and Foreign Affairs, was it?” Her mouth went dry as she spoke, looking harshly over the papers that flooded the table, hoping to find the confirmation she was looking for in their scrawled text.

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by **Alses** on March 23rd, 2014, 1:24 am

Alses was engrossed in the latest batch of reports and requests to her office when a disturbance in the air told her of an approach. Moving with graceful purpose, and masking a soupcon of nervousness with consummate ease – to all but Alses and a mere handful of others with the wit and skill to see through it, anyway – there came one of the older and, as it happened, more senior Yhavaos, with someone bobbing uncertainly in her stately wake.

“Miss Al- that is, your grace, I do apologise - would you be terribly averse to sharing your table this lunchtime? I’d not ordinarily dream of asking, but we’re hideously busy and you know we hate to turn people away…” she tailed off, nervous and expectant, and Alses did not disappoint; she’d benefited, and more than once, from the kindnesses of the Yhavaos, after all, and it would cost her little enough to share her table.

Might even be useful.

Casting a bright, though brief, smile at her slightly-nervous questioner – what did she think Alses could do to her? – she murmured her acquiescence, eyes already sliding back to the documents in hand. “No, not at all. The company would…be useful to…distract us.”

A grateful bow, the whisper of silk and coarser fabrics as the Interchangeable Yhavao and whoever was to double up with her danced around one another, even as Alses returned her attention to the papers in front of her, tidying them up somewhat to give her new companion – whoever it was – at least a little space.

Her lips quirked upwards as she caught the peppermint-tasting relief exploding off whichever Yhavao it actually was, and the hesitant greeting of her new companion – such as it was – only strengthened the smile on her face. “You’d not be sitting opposite us if we minded,” Alses murmured in reply to it, her brain still mostly occupied with thoughts of her work, her job, all the things that needed juggling.

Arysana pressed further, though, showing recognition of who she was and of her position, even if it was couched in a question, and good manners wouldn’t let Alses simply ignore the overtures. She tore most of her attention away from the acres of dense text – an analysis of the latest activities of the Towers, as it happened, far too sketchy and vague for her liking – and focused it on a reply, instead.

“We are indeed.” A wry smile skipped across her face. “For all our sins, which must have been many and grievous. You have the advantage of us, I confess, although it’s always good to meet a fellow sorceress.” The intricacy and brilliance of a mage’s aura always, always stood out against the background, much like a magical item did, a shout in the numinous plane on which Alses ruled. “The pleasure’s ours, we’re sure.” It was only then that she looked up from her work, bright eyes directing the full force of her regard – both physical and arcane – at the stocky woman opposite.

An absolute shock of bright orange hair – the shade she’d heard called ‘auburn’ – was the initial impression, even though at this precise time it was carefully swept up into a restrained bun. That said, there were still wisps and curls escaping their confines and the battery of hair clips and ties that doubtless held the whole assembly together, hinting at the rebellious impression she’d first had, a commingled image formed from both simple physical and more complex – although unconscious, such was her skill - auristic assessment.

The skin, too, was pale – paler than the Lhavitian norm – and the severe pale stripe of an old scar marched across her nose and left cheek, the only flaw. Her eyebrows made a high arch, and piercing green eyes stared back at her as Alses cast her experienced gaze over the woman suddenly opposite.

What was more interesting, more beautiful than mere physical factors, though, was the mental coruscation around her, the aura that fed Alses so much more information than observation ever could, especially as she began to focus more intently on it. Arysana glittered like a diamond in the jewellery-box of the world, her aura sparkling and shimmering with the layered complexity that marked out a mage from the sea of mundanes, and a personal mage at that, if Alses was any judge.

There was a martial shimmer, a touch of blued-steel sharpness, floating just under the surface of the numinous shroud, all ashiver with a touch of nerves. Alses was used to the last bit these days, at least from people who’d not met her before. Something about the title, it seemed.

That was her secret little delight, a soft caress to her evergreen pride, something she tried to keep hidden. Being more approachable than the distant Patriarchs and Matriarch of the great Houses was a goal, another way to differentiate herself from the older power structure, to prove she wasn’t the old order in another guise.

Devotion, love, anger, a flickering burst of insidious sorrow…all of them poured forth in a kaleidoscope of shade and hue as she looked at Arysana, every single emotion bright and vibrant, fiery and changeable. Quite aside from being beautiful, it gave her something of an insight into the woman, how she worked on the inside. Basic and unrefined as yet, of course, an insight formed from experience and breadth of impressions gleaned down the years rather than a specific understanding of Arysana herself, but such things had rarely steered Alses wrong before.

“I apologise for the mess,” Alses continued – her close examination of Arysana had taken perhaps a chime, at most, and more than likely not even that – gesturing to the piles of paper. “We’re supposed to be having lunch, but my work seems to have a gravity out of all proportion to its weight.” A heartbeat.

"Relax, please. I don't bite - at least, not people we've just met."

by **Arysana** on April 5th, 2014, 2:22 pm

Arysana | NPC 1 |NPC 2 | Thoughts | oocSorry for the wait and the length!
Words were spoken before looks exchanged, and a shudder rocked the reimancer’s body for the short moment it took her to gather her wits and bearings. ‘How did- magic?’ Sana pressed her lips and rolled her shoulders, running what was spoken the dozen ticks prior through her mind a dozen times over, frowning for only the scarcest of moments as she chose not to dwell on the odd use of pronouns in the councilor’s speech.

Her mouth ran dry as she settled herself in her seat, slamming her mouth shut as she noted it had fallen the slightest bit agape before the ethaefal, gaze flitting from face to form and the brilliance of the woman’s skin and hair, and in constant need to shift and change her position beneath Alses’ sharp gaze.

She wasn’t sure how she was to take – was it a compliment or insult, or perhaps nothing at all to be thought much on? People had looked at her in such a way before, not nearly so sharp and firm, but there was the same setting of the jaw and gaze, a similar holding in the shoulders and general look. It was calculating, one of weight and caution and careful calculation.

‘Should I have expected anything less?’

She released a breath, nodding twice as the woman before her bade her to relax, a soft giggle leaving her a the light hearted comment that ended the coax. “I’ll be sure not to meet you twice,” she mused, a breathless laugh leaving her as she took to the tea and spare cup, acting more so on instinct than actual knowledge, her actions as she went about her business steadfast but halting every now and then, the mediation that was occurring in Arysana’s mind clear enough by the frown she freely exhibited, sighing only when the drink was finally poured and sat before her.

“Arysana,” she said, finally, lifting the cup to her mouth taking in a deep breath. “My name is Arysana, though ‘Sana’ is my preference, if you don’t mind,” she pursed her lips as thought caught her, pondering the proper the title to be given to the councilor before her, running though the myriad of names she’d heard the ethaefal called thus far.

Her eyes once more fell to the paper that covered the table, nodding at one in particular, the text scrawled and title difficult to read given the woman’s own position. “What is it exactly you do?” Regret hit her as the question left her lips, bitter in rememberance of the last time she’d asked such a base question. “I’ve asked around my tower-” her words caught and she gave an awkward look, lips moving to form the next half of her sentence before she thought it best to add her place of institution “– Dawn – though I haven’t been able to gain a clear answer.”

She set down the cup and balled her hands, not a moment more before she took up the cup once more, another question almost bubbling to the surface before time enough was allowed for the answering of her first before she bit down gently on her tongue. ‘Breath in, breath out. One question at a time.’

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by **Alses** on April 6th, 2014, 9:45 pm

Alses laughed lightly at the girl's quick, witty reply.“Sana it shall be, then," she responded, amused. "You can call me Alses. Or ‘your grace’, if you want to be formal. We’re learning to answer to either.” A lightning-quick smile, even as dextrous hands danced a toccata across the paperwork, ruthlessly corralling stray sheets into some semblance of order, stacking them neatly ready to be packed away at a moment’s notice.

“You’re Dawn Tower? Reimancer, perchance?” she hazarded, linking the fiery nature of the girl with the furious discipline. A brief laugh, actually quite mirthless under the liquid chuckle. “We’re not surprised you’ve not found out much about us and our role. It’s no real secret your Matriarch has a dislike of me – or rather, a dislike of my position – and she’s a powerful person, both in your Tower and Lhavit as a whole. Small wonder few of your contemporaries want to risk her wrath by discussing us freely. As for what I actually do…it’s rather in the job description. Magic and Foreign Affairs. If you’re a mage in this city, then you’re mine.” Another smile, this one showing slightly more of tooth and fang than before, a mischievous upcurve of perfect lips. “At least, theoretically speaking.”

Alses raised her teacup in a mirror of Arysana herself, although more as a gesturing aid than anything else. “Go mad from overgiving and start trying to level parts of the city, and you’re my problem – as is the fallout once you’ve been dealt with.” She raised the delicate cup high, eyes fluttering almost closed as she directed her power at the liquid inside, throat unconsciously working as the phantom sensation slid down her gullet. “Come up with a new magical procedure, paradigm or spell, if you have an idea to improve the way we do and deal with magic in Lhavit, then you’re my responsibility too,” she continued, and then became more severe, suddenly more serious, her face darkening like a thundercloud passing in front of the sun.

“If you, as a member of the Dawn Tower, go out on the town and you get into a drunken brawl with a scion of House Twilight, say, and the whole thing kicks off because you’ve both got tipsy apprentice friends all around who think it’s a good idea to get involved and spread the word, then it’s my job, too, to sit down with Altelo Twilight and Sousa Dawn in my office or a tearoom somewhere and make sure that it doesn’t flare into fireballs at dawn on the Twilight Tower lawns and the Dawn Tower being bombarded by Morphed chimeras. The maintenance of good order in the djed-aware population, Sana, and the promotion of their concerns and ideas.”

She cast around for anything else that might come under her domain, the thunderhead passing away from her sunny countenance as quickly as it had arrived. “If you bring in a totally new magic to the city, or you somehow learn a discipline here of which we’ve no experience at all, then it’ll probably be within my ambit to figure out what in Syna’s name to do about it, too.”

Alses sighed, a long and slow exhalation of air. “So, Magic and anything to do with Magic. That’s the idea, anyway. The reality is…a little more complex, at the moment. The Towers have entrenched influence and power; they’re richer than me – for the moment, anyway - and they’ve been here for centuries. They’re woven into the fabric of the city; even given the Day of Discord, there’s a lot of loyalty to the Houses, and sometimes it comes at the expense of our independents and the general population – who people seem to forget I also serve.”

Alses seemed to sag slightly. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be having such problems at the moment,” she murmured, words muffled slightly by her hands as she cradled her head on interlaced fingers. “You’ve met Hanei, haven’t you?” she asked. It was a mostly rhetorical question; most wizards with any real residence time in Lhavit had visited the Registry office, currently located in Koten Temple – Alses made a mental note to change that, since the Temple hadn’t been a point of power temporal for quite some time, and it made no sense to have such an office in a religious building.

“He’s one of my employees, probably the only one you’ve met so far. You know the law says you have to register as a mage if you are one, and that you must report a mage if you know of an unregistered one? All well and good as far as it goes, but it says nothing about progression. I want to change that, but something that should have been a simple, easy change, correcting an oversight so we can keep track of new skills or greater proficiency in the population, is turning into-” she stopped herself from uttering something unwise, aware that Sana was someone of a few chimes’ acquaintance, and a member of the Dawn Tower to boot, the very group she suspected might be behind at least some of the resistance she was encountering. “That is, proving less simple to enact than we anticipated.”

Alses finished tidying the last of a few stray papers into an elegant leather-bound case, stamped with the gilt crest of the Council, before she continued, hands then folded elegantly in front of her. “Foreign Affairs, at least, that we can run quite well. I’ve travelled, and in any case we’re seldom called on in an official capacity for that; Lhavit is remote, as you know, and so all I really have to do is be ready to receive delegations from Wind Reach if they have business with the government and oversee the occasional arrival of a new ship in Port Tranquil. Admittedly-” her lips twisted into a wry and slightly self-mocking smile “-the latest one was something of a blemish, but I’ve been assured things don’t usually degenerate into a battle royal on the docks. Perhaps down the line we’ll visit other cities in an official capacity, or else set up a corps of people to do that for me, but for now I’m happy to grapple with Magic.”

Alses steepled her fingers in front of her and just watched Arysana for a few moments. Outwardly, she was calm; inwardly, though, she was wondering frantically what to say next. Perhaps she’d been a little too honest in her rather rambling reply – but it had already been a long day, even though it was barely half-over.

“What about you, Sana of the Dawn Tower? What does the Tower have you doing, since we're discussing work?”

by **Arysana** on April 21st, 2014, 12:08 pm

Arysana | NPC 1 |NPC 2 | Thoughts
A frown followed a rippling flinch, the geomancer biting her lip as she quelled the shudder and steeled her form, rolling through thoughts and sorting her memories - trying to link and form her opinions and decisions from the chimes prior to then. 'What did that woman said about Alses- Auristics. Very good, wasn't it? Should have pinned her the kind to sell another's talents short.'

"Reimancy, yes. There is little else of note taught," there was a prickle to her tone and a shift to her form, thoughts moving then to those of shielding, and her own general lack of improvement in the arcane. The moment that the turn of conversation shifted from slight banter to pointed topics, the frown she wore deepened as she mulled over what was presented to her - what use did a Councillor Radiant have with falsities and lies? Although not practiced in the constant care and guard of her surroundings, Sana at least liked to think herself having a firm enough hold on the ways that people held themselves, more so when they spoke of things that could land them in deep ice.

Some unsaid war between council and Matriarch? The nature of the 'unsaid' aspect left the copper haired woman completely and wholly oblivious - with no mention to draw her interest and time too scarce to come privy to the knowledge first hand. 'Seems I'll need to speak to Elsie on it, when I can.'

The words that slipped regarding the ownership of the geomancer set with her strangely, with the passing comment on theory easing her once more as conversation continued, the extremities that laid on both sides of the story locked away in her mind for further thought and mediation.

A chuckle left her as mentions of brawls between towers was brought up, the laugh deepening for a few ticks as Sana allowed herself the shortest of moments to revel in the burst of bliss. 'I think I might need to reconsider the amount of time I spend at the demise.' A grin remained on her lips, her sights falling the scattered work as she strained to read a random assortment of words, craving more knowledge and finer niceties to the work the woman before her handled.

Scarlet hit her cheeks for the shortest of moments when Hanei was mentioned, the small giggle leaving her lips as she thought briefly on the flirt of a man who tended to the task of registering wizards. 'she wishes to what when?' As her gaze rose, her expression shifted and changed, settling to a rather dull and tight look as the situation was explained, lips quirked as words of progression were thrown and mentioned.

In a whirl, foreign affairs were brought up, and another two sips of tea were taken before the geomancer found herself reclining slightly in her chair, once more grinning and giggling away at the Ethaefal's words and musing, killing the expression of mirth when a thought droned into her skull. 'This is why you're taken as a fool.'

"Formal lessons in the ways of reimancy, the theory and the history and the ways to keep oneself and fellows safe. Sheilding is mentioned often in class, and I've found myself thrown into an extra class in the fine art of meditation." The eye roll she gave was quite obvious, and her hardened when words of study met those of work. "I also personally assist a professor called Armitican. Nothing quite as fun as your own engagements0-0 organising meetings and lunches, writing letters and sending them, cleaning up classrooms and watching classes on the off few times when other duties call him from a lesson for a few moments. I occasionally help as a tutor of sorts when the old man cannot be bothered to explain a question asked."

It was no secret that the geomancer was not fond of the man in the slightes, and her gaze shortly roamed the room as she ensured that there was no a person she knew in sights. "Do you think me fit to teach?" The question came in a surge, Sana edging in closer and she rested her hands before herself, keen to hear any response given.

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by **Alses** on May 4th, 2014, 7:07 pm

“Have we seen and said too much?” Alses asked, slightly concerned. “We forget how much I’m supposed to know, these days. Benefit – and curse – of auristics, I’m afraid.” This was perhaps not entirely true; she was coming to recognize the value of throwing someone off their guard every now and then, a useful tool in any politician’s arsenal, but there were still slip-ups like this one, entirely unintentional and simply borne out of the enhanced Sight she always had.

“Little else of note?” Alses echoed with a wry smile. “I see that m’lady Dawn’s plans for Shielding have yet to bear much fruit amongst her Tower, then.” A widening grin, perhaps enjoying the failure a little too much. “So much for her vaunted efforts, although in truth the city could always do with more Shielders.”

She tipped her head back, looking up pensively at the ceiling. “Shielding would be a useful discipline to have, but I doubt we’ll study it any time soon. Lady Dawn’s dislike would make for an uncomfortable stay at the Tower, to be sure. And the less said about encroaching on House Dawn’s reimantic domain, the better. I’m almost certain that to see me in one of her classes would give her some kind of attack, and I should hate to trouble the Catholicon.” She said it deadpan, but there was a spark of mischief dancing in her eyes.

Tolerantly, Alses let the girl opposite her laugh. “I’m glad you find the thought amusing,” she remarked lightly. “Rather than terrifying. Means we’re all doing our jobs, and the prospect of warfare between the Towers – even ‘turf warfare’, I think the term is – is laughable. We-” she was sidetracked, then, by Sana’s final question, a blunt non sequitur from nowhere.

“Teaching?” Alses tilted her head sideways for a moment, considering, and then shrugged with a trilling laugh. “What an unexpected question!” After a considering pause, Alses continued lightly: “Well, you sound like you’re in a rather similar – perhaps even better – situation to myself not all that long ago. You can’t be any worse than we were when I began; Chiona Dusk threw me in at the deep end with little warning and six students to formally raise from novitiates. She likes her trials by fire, oh, doesn’t she just! From courier to lecturer in one leap, and we’d never taught so much as an evening class before, you know,” she admitted with a smile, “And we are not always the most comprehensible; the curse of a rambling abstract Ethaefal. You can imagine our distress at the time, I’m sure.”

She leaned back in a crackle of bone, cradling her teacup and enjoying the gentle warmth of the liquid inside. “Something of a learning experience, to be certain, especially since we’d not had much experience of lecture-based group learning. The Djed Storm,” Alses clarified quickly, after a heartbeat’s pause. “It was kinder to the Dusk Tower than most, but we - they-” she quickly corrected the lapse, inwardly cursing herself for the slip “-still lost most of their apprentices, even if not from runaway magic directly. Being what we are helped keep control in the early days, I’ve no doubt.” Alses paused for a moment, assessing Arysana opposite with her all-seeing eyes.

“You received formal instruction in your discipline, didn’t you? All you need is to look at how you were taught and reverse your position; teacher instead of student. Then change whatever bored you to tears – if you can, of course.”

“An example,” Alses continued amiably, watching her companion drink. “We don’t much like lecturing, for instance, so I brought in practical sessions whenever I could, to liven a dull theoretical subject up. I took my students to the Temples, so they could see devotion and the pure quill of faith in the Taiyang dances and the meditation of the Chandra, you see, and to the Catholicon so they could see suffering and how to direct healers to ease it. The Dusk Tower gave me considerable autonomy, I have to say, and it seemed to work for me,” she added with a shrug. “Although we’ve been told we’re a very harsh examiner. We encourage free-thinking and experimentation, which brought me into conflict with teachers and students more at home with rote-learning and formulaic magic on a couple of occasions.”

With a soft sigh, she relaxed back bonelessly into her chair. “If you want a more detailed assessment, you’ll have to try and teach me something sometime.” She looked up suddenly, eyes direct. “Where do you stand on the debate, Sana? Generalist or specialist?”

Alses was, of course, speaking of the perennial argument that whispered in mages’ circles, the debate between the relative merits of a generalist and a specialist in magic, and more specifically in its teaching, about whether the purity of a discipline practised mattered or not.

by **Arysana** on May 18th, 2014, 12:39 am

Arysana | NPC 1 |NPC 2 | oocSorry for my lateness and the jumpy-ness of the post! D:
A sigh rolled from deep in Ary's chest, a short, polite smile curving her lips as she shook her head at Alses' words. "No, my fault entirely- I was told of your skill, but it seems as though you've been sold short," she didn't bother to hide her awkwardness, nor the way she was only telling a half truth and how her mind was still set at some unease. She knew the woman had to have been brilliant in the art to gain the position in the first place, but to so easily and casually slip out such statements? Sana needed to learn more of this magic, her estimation of the power of the art by the last aorist she’d encounter obviously not near giving the practise justice enough.

When the lady Dawn was mentioned, with an almost impish look, Arysana's brow arched and her gut welled. She was never fond of the spite that at times passed between professors and teachers, nor any fight or discontent in general (that was, excluding her own feuded with the professor that she assisted). Magic was such a dangerous thing, she thought, with the threat of sweet whispers something of a nightmare to her. The woman who built a tower of precious stone and fell to overgiving, the man who burned alive- the one who decided to play a game and see if they could make one drown on land. Danger, danger, danger. There was nothing more terrifying to Ary than to lose control in an art that required it so much.

It was highly probable that none of her horror stories bore much truth, though the bare and of the tale rung wholly true - magic was dangerous, it could drive one mad, make them kill themselves or everyone around them. All at once her thoughts fell back to the nut bag aursit, and a shudder split her spine.

‘Control and discipline. Breathing in and out- nice and even. Keep your feelings calm and cool.’

The way Alses spoke drew her back to reality - the disdain and entertainment at the downfall of the push for shielding (though, Sana herself was in strong agreement in terms of the use of the magic in practicality) left her off, all bliss and joy by then well dissolved. "For someone whose made an apparent enemy of a master reimancer..." Ary found herself soon enough trailing, curiosity eating away at her as she acknowledged a possibly fleeting chance to learn some half to a tale she had yet to learn of. "You seem awfully pleased with yourself?"

When the point was made clear as to how out-of-nowhere her question had sprung, Sana bit her lip and gave an awkward shrug of her shoulders. To one outside of her head it would have been left wing, the whirl and daze and flurry of thought in the reimancer's mind meaning that she confused herself more often than she was happy to admit. It was no wonder a new acquaintance thought in such a way.

Without a moment’s notice, Arysana was once more plunged into giggles and a childlike bliss, the expression pulled and given by the Councillor Radiant as she spoke of trials by fire and a situation that didn’t quite sound so far from her own at all were divulged. Her thoughts once more swept towards the nature of magicians, how secret were kept under lock and key and so many things were mentioned in passing in corridors and behind crammed bookshelves – how so many teachers chose to work by giving their pupil the worst to see if they could handle the worst case scenario.

A weird ripple of sentiment rippled through her, and the moment Alses continued with speech and mention of teaching methods and ways to work and get around things, the feeling burned and clouded. She was right in her past assumptions- it was to Dusk that the Councillor once belonged to, with the manner of speech hinting that the woman had not wholly left the Tower in thought and feeling, regardless of her duty to the newly formed Council. In a moment more the conversation stuck that of the Djed storm, and a crease hit Ary’s brow. She wasn’t a part of the Towers at the time, still caught in the small, cramped apartment of home, her knowledge then almost wholly restricted to what she’d learnt in the academy and from her Aunt- the protective nature of her parents meaning that they were kept almost locked away in the base of their apartment for the almost whole of the storm. But she’d heard the stories, oh, how she’d heard them.

It was always odd how conversations shifted and moved, though as the Ethaefal moved into words of teaching and how to approach the issue, a gleeful still hit her. The words of a teaching instructor were one thing, but to hear words on teaching that directly related to that of magic was a whole different thing entirely.

When the thought of teaching Alses – Alses – was brought up, Sana’s returned gaze was sceptical. "What could I possibly offer Councillor Radiant?” she half mused, the tone and theme of the conversation set in her mind. "I suppose I could see about improving me skill in shielding, it is simple enough from what I know,” it was a fair enough point, she’d thought. Her own skill in the art was nothing more than something so base that she’d never admit to it, though she found that with the books and tomes on offer in the Respite, that it was not something she could not work on and improve on in too much time at all.

“Specialist or generalist,” she repeated the question in deadpan as to buy herself a moment more of thought, mulling over the prospect of expanding her knowledge across all manner of discipline. “Specialist, I’d say,” She let her answer hang in the air for a moment, before scratching her neck and seeking the key reasons behind her thoughts. “Magic is a marvel- though a tool none the less. It has use and purpose beyond its wonder… Skill is a factor, as well. ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none.’”

She gave a light breath as her head tilted slightly to the left, thinking for another moment if tere was anything more she could say on the matter before returning the question. “Yourself?”

Template by Reven Heath

by **Alses** on May 19th, 2014, 8:45 am

“She has made an enemy out of me in her own head,” Alses corrected lightly, “Not the other way around. And besides, it’s our position she dislikes, not me as per se. Indeed, she and I haven’t met more than perhaps a handful of times; hardly enough time to form a justified opinion.”

Alses let Arysana laugh with a tolerant smile of her own, bathing in the unforced giggles and the champagne wave pouring out from her aura, all golden bubbles and froth, although it quickly faded into the ambient all around. “Pleased with myself?” she echoed, pensive, once things had calmed slightly. “Hmm. Well, I suppose we have to hold our hand up to that one,” Alses admitted, half-raising her hand in jest. “I take…satisfaction? Pride? in what I’ve managed to accomplish, in general.” A sigh, and a dropping of the arm into her lap.

“In specifics, we’re not overjoyed at Lady Dawn’s dislike and the obstacles that she can and doubtless will throw in my way, but that is something that’s both beyond my control and probably won’t change any time soon. She and I both know that nothing can be done openly; the Towers learned their lesson about being heavy-handed when Aysel’s sword cut quick the skein of Weisur Twilight’s life a decade and a half ago. Laws and Statutes of Lhavit,” Alses clarified with a smile, “And I quote: Any that use magic to take a life unlawfully shall surely be put to death, just as though they had used a sword or hands or any other such mundane method. Lady Dawn won’t risk the destruction of her House over me.”

She leaned back in her chair and steepled her hands. “Besides, I’m hardly the only one to notice the…tension…between us; if something happens, there will be pointed questions asked, doubtless.” A sigh and a shrug, an enjoyment of the tea still remaining in her cup and the wisps of steam rising in lazy curls from its surface.

“And so – if we wish to play – we will have to do so within the bounds of the law, or in those places where the law has yet to reach. Invigorating, isn’t it? Frightening, too, that we’ll not deny, but invigorating as well. If we play well, life will be good, and if not…well, we’ll have learned something for the next time.” A wry smile, and a gesture to the glittering crown-of-horns. “And time at least is something we have in endless supply; the scandals and worries of one generation fade into dust before Tanroa’s river and we will still be there, perfect and serene when all else is bones and ash.”

That was, perhaps, one of the reasons Alses hadn’t been able to bring herself to care overmuch about Lady Dawn’s…issues…with her position – or at least, not care in a visceral, immediate sense. It was the inevitable triumph of the eternal Ethaefal, outlasting the enemies they could not destroy. Alses’ golden eyes danced over Arysana’s face and features and the aura radiating in rainbowed shimmers, carefully watching the effect her words had on the woman who’d unexpectedly become her lunchtime companion.

“Slightly morbid there. We do apologise,” she added quickly, soothing over any ripples from her off-kilter remark. Once upon a time, a head-in-the-clouds Ethaefal, she’d never have noticed or cared about the effect of her words; now, she was much more cautious, much more aware of the power of a stray sentence.

Sana’s reply to her musing on teaching, though, drew her eyebrows together in a sudden frown; people minimising their own talents annoyed her, and her reply was perhaps a little sharper than it should by rights have been.

“What couldn’t you offer?” Alses shot back, a sharp and cold retort. “Everyone has something of interest: a skill – like Shielding or Reimancy - or a perspective – how they and their contemporaries are thinking - or even information – like what goes on behind the pearly walls of the Dawn Tower. All of it valuable; if you were ever to offer me any of those things I’d take them and be grateful for it. There is no-one in all of Mizahar whom you could present to me and I would find completely without worth, not even one of the Forsaken.”

Alses took a moment to calm and centre herself once more, gazing at her companion over the gilt-edged rim of her teacup and suppressing the almost-tangible aura that had surged around her as a side-effect of her own irritation. Pulling in the complex curls and curlicues of her own aura, leeching them of djed until they faded from vibrant immediacy back to something more normal, it was oddly soothing. Returning her attention back to the shallows of Mizahar and Arysana in particular, a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. A new debating partner! Or, perhaps, a potential convert.

“We’re a generalist,” Alses returned, unhesitating and with an eager glint in her eye. “Magics that chime together should be used together, in my opinion; the use of one can enhance the understanding of the other. We don’t hold with the purity of learning and teaching a single discipline in splendid isolation; integration can be beautiful and useful, especially if the student wants to learn more.”

Alses gestured aimlessly with her free hand, as though trying to catch her own thoughts. “Glyphing and almost any magic, for instance. Alchemy and Magecraft. Voiding and Projection. The whole can be greater than the sum of the parts, and they produce novel ways of looking at the world, at problems that need solutions. Magic is, as you said, a tool – or rather a whole toolbox – and to use just one is something of a narrow view, to our mind. You might hone your fretsaw to the point of perfection, but it won’t be as good at breaking something down as a hammer, if you follow our meaning.”

A grin, wide and white, perfect and pure, the smile of someone faced with a particularly satisfying puzzle and the opportunity to acquire all the tools to solve it. “To me, all magic is linked. Part of a greater tapestry where each discipline is a thread or pattern in the weave. There are bits missing, of course, links we don’t understand, lore and disciplines lost to the fire of the Valterrian, but still…” Alses shook her head and brought herself out of philosophical abstraction and back to concrete discussion. “We used to argue the point endlessly with my first instructor at the Dusk Tower – and she was the very epitome of an inflexible specialist.”

A wry smile and quirk of arched eyebrows followed. “Even besides all that, given my job it’s more or less a prerequisite that we have to understand at least a little bit about a great deal of magic; there are many disciplines practised in the starry city, after all, and I am officially in charge of them all. It wouldn’t really do for me to be ignorant of all but one or two, would it?”

by **Catastrophe** on June 10th, 2014, 1:24 am

Alses :

Notes :

Closed Making Connections (Arysana)