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Post by Noa on Jun 12, 2022 12:27:11 GMT -6
The sun was still low on the horizon -- and this boded for an earlier hour in the summer than otherwise. He didn’t even know when was the last time he had seen the sun like this, given that he didn’t usually rise until well into the morning if he could help it, and he certainly didn’t spend that kind of time out of doors.
Early in the morning, however, the fish were generally active and hungry. Even without a bait to tempt them, perhaps he would catch something good.
As Noa busied himself, Nightshade crept closer to watch. The sensation of a Wiurn looming over his shoulder, and moreover trying -- and failing -- to be stealthy about it, was rather absurd. “What do you think you’re doing?” Noa asked.
{What are you doing?} Nightshade replied.
“I’m fishing. You’ve seen me do it before,” Noa pointed out.
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Post by Noa on Jun 12, 2022 12:27:37 GMT -6
He was wondering as of late whether he had simply gotten lucky with Avander. The rest of his monsters had rather childish temperaments, of varying sorts -- Grunty, a simple glutton; Azalea, who was eager to please and obedient but also fairly simple; and Nightshade, who had an immature streak in the general sense. It was actually kind of hard to take them seriously knowing what they were really like, though fortunately most people didn’t, and so they could still get the job done.
{Hey,} said Nightshade. {Don’t think about that green one. He’s not here right now.}
Case and point, Noa thought with a sigh.
He decided it was simpler to just let Nightshade watch. After all, the Wiurn wasn’t actively disturbing him, and there was no real purpose in chasing him off. It was only when he was getting ready to cast that he said, “Get out of the way.”
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Post by Noa on Jun 12, 2022 12:28:31 GMT -6
Before Nightshade could question his order, Noa sent him the mental image of the hook catching on his wing membranes and tearing. With a shudder, Nightshade did as he was told, and backed away a good distance. Once Noa felt that he was far enough, Noa began casting.
Nightshade didn’t return until the hook had hit the water. In fact, he was even a little hesitant then, though after a few minutes of no further activity, he got bolder.
{That’s an ugly tool,} thought Nightshade, with distaste.
“Well, luckily it’s not meant to be used on you,” Noa said.
Nightshade went quiet -- but not for very long. {If you catch something, can I eat it?} he said. Noa resisted the urge to sigh again. He had the sense that they had actually had this conversation before, and now he wondered if this was why he didn’t bright Nightshade on more fishing trips.
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Post by Noa on Jun 12, 2022 12:30:26 GMT -6
“No,” Noa said.
{Not even a little one?} Something suspiciously close to a whine was starting to creep into the Wiurn's tone.
“No. They’re for the trader. I have few enough fish to send to them when they want fish for crystals as it is. You have perfectly serviceable food back at the estate.” He hadn’t yet grown impoverished enough that the quality of his creatures’ food was compromised. Frankly, Nightshade had nothing to complain of.
{But this is fresh. It’s live.} There was a growing sense of anticipation as the Wiurn looked into the water. Perhaps he saw some movement there. Noa didn't bother to look. If they caught something, they caught something. If they didn't, they didn't. He wasn't about to work himself up waiting for a fish to bite.
What Nightshade said did make him click his tongue, however. "You want to eat live? Give up. That's too much hassle."
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Post by Silver on Jun 12, 2022 18:57:17 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:18:45 GMT -6
Noa never thought he would be one for going out and doing nothing, especially since there always seemed to be so much to do now that he no longer had his parents around to run the family business and affairs. But after the fifth or so session with the lawyer that had been hired to settle the matter of the Gracehaven estate, he was ready to wash his hands of the whole ordeal. Why did he need to clarify anything? Was it not enough to know that he was the sole surviving heir? No one else had come forward. Never mind the fact that most people had never heard of him; was it any fault of his that his condition had kept him bedridden and out of the public eye? The resemblance was obvious enough, he thought -- to his mother, mostly, but he was told he had his father’s eyes.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:19:04 GMT -6
And the family was all of a certain style, one could say; many looked as though they were cut from the same cloth: honey-colored hair, pale skin, a slender build. Though that last might have been some aspect of the family curse.
Rhys seemed to be happy to be out too, though most likely for different reasons. Or perhaps not; attuned as he was psychically to those around him, maybe the Faeron genuinely shared Noa’s relief to be out from under the nitpicking scrutiny of some paper shuffler from some little firm in the heart of the city. Rhys stretched his wings and flew in a lazy circle before alighting on a branch in a nearby tree.
{So do you actually know how to fish?} he said, inclining his head.
Noa gave a shrug. “If I fling the hook in there, something’s bound to bite eventually,” he replied.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:19:20 GMT -6
In truth this was only the case in the mornings, when the fish were very hungry, and couldn’t tell good from bad. But he wasn’t really out here to catch anything, so the point was moot as far as he was concerned.
Still, it was an undeniable truth that they were probably going to be waiting for a long time. Noa hadn’t actually come out here to do nothing, and after about five minutes of sitting in the grass waiting for something to happen, he felt the beginnings of restlessness like an itch in his chest.
“Say,” he said. “You must have some of your own mana by now. What do you think about learning some spells?”
{Spells?} Rhys had settled down, possibly for a nap, but at Noa’s words his ears pricked back up, and his eyes blinked open. {What kind of spells? Are you going to teach me some?}
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:19:34 GMT -6
“You should probably learn some,” Noa said. He thought for a moment, tapping a finger to his chin, before perking up. “Ah, I’ve got just the thing. There’s a spell to make other spells stronger. You can cast it on me.” He was immensely pleased with himself for coming up with such a scheme. What were familiars for, if not for assisting their masters? “With this, I’m sure my research will go much faster.”
Rhys looked as though he was thinking it over for a moment, but it didn’t take him long to acquiesce. {Okay. The sooner we find you a cure, the better. So how do I do it?}
This was the difficult part. Rhys… Noa frowned. “How much attention were you paying when I was learning my lessons?”
{Not much,} said Rhys, a little sheepishly. {A lot of it was books, and… a lot of it was confusing.}
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:19:45 GMT -6
Rhys couldn’t read, though he could skim Noa’s thoughts while Noa was reading, and sometimes they circumvented this shortcoming in that manner. Eventually Noa was going to have to teach him, but somehow there never seemed to be time. And he hadn’t brought any books with him today; besides which, teaching Rhys to use spells seemed much more interesting and useful a prospect.
Noa shrugged again. “Well, I can show you how it feels when I cast it,” he said. Fortunately for the both of them, this was one he knew. It had sort of just come to him when he tapped into that first node; it must have been innate to the node itself. Still, the guiding principles of it were something he had looked into, so he didn’t think he would have much difficulty explaining it back to Rhys -- especially not when Rhys could read his mind.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:20:02 GMT -6
“I’m going to cast it,” Noa said. “And I want you to pay real close attention. Focus on my thoughts first, so you get an idea of the framework.”
{Okay,} Rhys said. Once Noa was sure the Faeron was good and ready, he reached for the energy stored within the Hollow node, and drew on it, with the shape of the spell in his mind. There were other things some mages used, gestures and incantations, but Rhys couldn’t speak aloud and his ability to gesture was pretty limited anyway. Besides, it was simplest and cleanest to just frame a spell mentally, guiding the energy with one’s thoughts. Noa pictured the magic flowing from him, and coalescing on a target -- in this case, Rhys, since he was the only other being here. Noa shrouded the Faeron in the energy, and willed it to pull upon and amplify the magic within.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:20:26 GMT -6
And then, because Rhys wouldn’t be casting any other spells any time soon, Noa let the energy dissipate.
“There,” he said. “Do you think you can manage that?”
{... I think so,} Rhys said, though he didn’t sound terribly certain about it. Well, this was his first time attempting to cast a spell, so Noa wasn’t really expecting much, if he was being honest.
“Just try it, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll figure out why,” Noa said, flapping a dismissive hand through the air. Rhys didn’t look terribly reassured, but after a moment of mustering his resolve, the Faeron began making his attempt.
Or at least Noa assumed that Rhys must have been making an attempt, anyway. He certainly didn’t feel the proper flow of magical energy through the air. He waited, but as one moment flowed into another, and then another, nothing happened.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:21:05 GMT -6
Eventually Rhys relaxed the tense pose he’d been holding, and sighed despondently. {It didn’t work, did it?}
“No,” Noa said drily. “What are you doing to gather your energy? I didn’t even feel it coalesce.”
{Oh, um…} A series of sensations and thoughts flooded Noa’s mind, and immediately he clicked his tongue.
“No, not like that. Like this.” Again, he demonstrated -- this time simply gathering the energy to him, before dispersing it without forming it into a spell.
Rhys thought for a moment, then said, {You’re directing it from your node, aren’t you? But I don’t have one.}
… Ah. Come to think of it, that was a problem, wasn’t it? Spoken mages drew their powers from nodes -- or at least, the ones who weren’t elementals, anyway. All of the tutelage and knowledge that Noa himself had was based around this kind of casting.
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:21:17 GMT -6
Elementals were becoming more common around the city these days, and many envied them for their power, but to Noa it seemed a bad deal to be tied to one element, and unable to develop their reservoirs past a certain point. He had seen perhaps a fraction of what his parents had been capable of at the height of their power, and so he knew better, though his current lack of resources was a little frustrating.
“In that case… Try this,” Noa said, and walked Rhys through a modified version of what he did, drawing energy from within oneself, from the core. “I don’t know where exactly your magic lives, since there wasn’t much in my studies about the tutelage of familiars. But if I had to guess, it should be your heart or your gut. Most books on meditation cite one of those regions as the home of your energy locus.”
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Post by Noa on Jul 10, 2022 18:21:44 GMT -6
And meditation was part of a mage’s education, so surely it had some relevance here.
After a few more attempts and adjustments, the two of them were eventually able to get Rhys to pull some magic out of himself and into a usable state. The first time it finally clicked, they could both feel the difference. {Oh! Oh, I think I’ve got it!} said Rhys, perking up. Of course, as soon as he did so, all the energy dissipated.
“It took you long enough,” said Noa, with a long-suffering sigh. “I think two or three fish bit the hook and got away in the time it took you to figure that out.”
{... You don’t have to be so mean about it,} Rhys said, though there was only a slight note of sulkiness in his voice. {So now all I have to do is shape it around you?}
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