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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 16:23:10 GMT -6
Waking her up with ice cold stones had been entirely too much fun, but he was sure to pay for it. But they did need to have a conversation and he had let her sleep in some. Given he was up with the dawn, he considered it sleeping in, even if she didn't. Still, he was waiting for her, and hoping they could have the conversation here, in relative comfort. He had seen the farm. He didn't think comfort was one of its mainstays. The mage wasn't looking forward to this part, even though it was necessary. He had at least had a chance to magic his clothes clean and tear free, given the majority of his clothes were still at the farm.
Catherine wasn't going to be thrilled. He wasn't thrilled and was still sorting through his emotions on this. Teaching like this wasn't normal between a teacher and a student. It was between a master and their apprentice. He didn't know if she would even understand the cultural undertones, given her disdain for magic. He tried not to think of his previous apprentices. At least he knew Catherine wasn't a foolish child. Hell, she was older than him.
What was he doing, trying to teach her? She was the only other person like him, when it came to magic, but what was he doing?
But he couldn't let her know his feelings on this. He folded them away and tucked them deep into his heart. This was a necessary thing, or they'd both be killed. That was the stakes he was working with and he knew it.
Now he waited in an alcove near her rooms for her to wake up and get moving. They had a lot to do, no time to do it in, and they somehow had to do it without killing each other when he was supposed to be making certain that even if she lost control of her emotions and her magic, she would twist her magic to create.
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Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 16:53:52 GMT -6
It didn't take long for Catherine to reappear in the same clothes she'd worn when they'd arrived, clearly the gown, shoes, everything from the previous night had been a loan from someone roughly her height and build. They were rumpled and stale despite careful folding and setting aside, her hair had been hastily braided and pinned out of her face, and her shoes still had dust on them from their journey from the farm. Even though they had been able to take advantage of Molly's family, that still hadn't precluded them from any amount of walking once they had reached the city below the palace.
Like Tyrus, the majority of her things were back at the farm or in the mundane realm. She had no real possessions in the fae realm anymore, having largely divorced herself from it after her father had died. In her opinion there was little else for her there except heartache, and a culture that few would even begin to understand. By now, she considered herself more closer to the mundane, with a few fae quirks in manners and thought.
Catherine said nothing, and only gave Tyrus a dirty look.
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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 17:18:45 GMT -6
"Teacher's prerogative." He declared, grinning. Pulling stunts like that again was going to be fun. "Before we go back though, we need to talk about the training. And some cultural things." That was going to be fun. He didn't much want to start with that or discuss it at all. Maybe she'd forget he said anything. The mage didn't want to discuss this at all. "It's going to be incredibly tedious. And emotionally draining." He couldn't budge on those. "But other than that, I need to know what sort of magic you want to learn. Something you're comfortable with preferable, or at least..." He hesitated.
"You aren't comfortable with magic. But you have to choose the one that you are most comfortable with for me to train you in it. I would prefer if you chose two. How I'm teaching you involves making several spells instinctive, but you'll get a good general education too." This was not going to be fun. "I need to know what you're wanting to get out of this, other than control."
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Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 17:53:00 GMT -6
"The thing is Tyrus, I have no desire to learn it." Catherine was blunt about her lack of desire for learning magic, especially when she had seen what it could do to people. There was also the constant concern about loosing control and never getting herself back from the magic's grasp. In many ways she had come to accept the binding as something of a fail safe, and almost at times found herself agreeing with the Council.
"I never asked for this, yet here I am." She was still clearly very angry with him for the situation they were now in. "And no, I have never been 'comfortable with magic. Why should I be when I have had my fill of all the horrible things we do to one another with it?"
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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 18:06:45 GMT -6
"You're not being given a choice." He pointed out. "You will get sick again if you ignore it." A student who didn't want to learn. This was going to be so much fun. "Look, your options are learn and live or ignore it and die. The council won't let you live unless they are convinced you are under control. It won't matter if you're here or there. And I'm in the same boat. Magic can do truly terrible things. I've seen a man killed by my father boiling the blood in his veins. He was human. I was six." It had been one hell of an object lesson.
"But you also can use it to make beautiful things. You created a beautiful garden from nothing, using magic. You carved beautiful scenes into stone, using magic. It's a tool. Every tool can be used to do horrible things. But they can also be used for great beauty." This fear of magic had to end. How the fell she had been scared of it, even while living here, he didn't know. The very air sang to him here.
If he didn't have so many depending on him, he'd never leave.
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Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 18:14:41 GMT -6
Catherine wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that despite all the beauty, the fae had their dark side too. The Unseelie especially when magic was being used, they had devised all sorts of horrible things to do to humans, if only for their own enjoyment. Some of the Seelie nobles could be just as bad, especially if they were further divorced from the center of the court. Many of them along the border between the two kingdoms were often just as wild as those without allegiances.
"Your father did a lot of things, some of which I would like to choose to think did not happen, but it did." Her life had been spent as a bargaining chip once she had left childhood, and everyone had an idea of what she should choose to do.
"But in the end, the Council will only see my worth as what I provide them."
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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 18:30:06 GMT -6
"The Council is made of fools. We choose to listen to them Catherine. You and I? We don't have to, if we don't want to. If we are cruel and harden ourselves, it wouldn't matter what they sent against us. But we're not cruel. So we play along. Having control of your magic gives you that much more leeway. " It was heady. It was dangerous. But it was true. The council listened when he spoke because he could level the building in a fit of pique. He got away with quite a lot that a lesser magic user never would have been able to. The laws only applied to magic users in so far as they could be enforced, and there was only one person who could easily enforce the law for him and she was sitting with him now.
"Grasp your power. You'll become more than a servant of the council. I know how'd they have us. They'd rather we be shackled, like I am to the Dragon Court, and in service to them. Learn to control your magic Catherine, and that's one less way for them to control you."
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Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 18:37:58 GMT -6
Catherine thought for a moment, struggling to remember the looks on each Councilor's face when they had pulled her from Broadmoore. Some had offered pity, some had dismissed her, and others like Agathon were satisfied with what they had been able to accomplish binding up power that she had previously never offered to use against them. As she listened to Tyrus, it seemed than she had had the greater injustice done to her than she had done to the Council.
"You are still too full of pretty words, mage. But.. I will think about it."
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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 18:48:46 GMT -6
"I'm a prince. I hope I'm full of pretty words." He shrugged off the compliment easily. "Or...I was a prince. When we return, I may find out I'm not anymore." His family needed him. If there had been an attack on the court, he was needed there, now. But Catherine had needed him too, and everything had happened so quickly. He hoped he wouldn't regret it. "Think about what sort of magic you'd like to engrave into you. I chose transfiguration and animation. If I had to choose for you, I'd go with nature. Your first instinct was a garden. That's...that's a good thing."
At least she was thinking now, and not just moping, he'd take that. "I do have good news. The kata aren't going to work for what we're doing. We're going to try something else." He was well aware she hated the kata. They were useful for teaching control, but she had gotten all out of them she was going to get. It was time for something else now.
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Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 19:16:55 GMT -6
Catherine tried not to let her face show anything besides neutrality upon Tyrus's mention of the court. She had a very good idea of who exactly had attacked the court, but she also knew that pointing fingers or yelling fire could cause more trouble than they needed. Trans-border and trans-racial politics gave her a headache like no other, and it had taken decades to learn how not to get herself killed by some of them. The hardest ones to appease where the werewolves and other were-creatures, they didn't have the scope of time like some other groups did. "Why a garden was my first thought, I have no clue." She said shaking her head. Nature magic was closely related to the fae, primordial magics, Catherine just didn't know if she should even consider it as an option.
"But none of your damn katas are good, because your idea of drills are terrible."
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Post by demikara on Jul 24, 2019 19:21:44 GMT -6
"They're meant to get you used to the flow of magic." He pointed out. "But I think they may be too low level for you." She didn't need to get used to the flow of magic. She needed to get used to being one with her magic. He had been treating her all wrong. "You need to practice with the actual stuff, and not just a kata to help you feel the flow. So until we leave, everything you do, you do with magic. Not your psionic abilities. With magic." She needed to be submersed in it.
He gave her an evil grin. "And there will be drills. But a very different sort. You are going to be incredibly sick of plants in general by the end of our time here. But it's the only way to make it into a habit. And I'm going to push you hard emotionally, on purpose. I need to see you can do the magic instinctively, even when your emotions consume you." None of this was going to be easy on either of them. Catherine was going to have a hell of a time adjusting, but he needed her rapidly used to magic, to using magic, to using it casually and without thought. She had access to too much of it to not use it. It was the pushing her emotionally that he wasn't looking forward too. "I need to know where not to push too. What are your absolutely hands off topics?"
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Post by Circe on Jul 25, 2019 17:44:32 GMT -6
Catherine raised an eyebrow at Tyrus's comment about her psionic abilities, "You realize that I rarely even use those.. right?" She was wondering if the alcohol at the party the night previous had done something to his head. Fae food and drink could be an intense experience for those who weren't used to it, and he wasn't an exception. "Or did you somehow loose a few more brain cells last night?"
It seemed that things were decided for her, and like all other previous occasions it was the threat of do it or die; quite literally. Just because the Council saw it fit to use whatever leverage they had on many of their officers. It was extremely manipulative and unfair, but they'd been getting away with it since they had been established shortly after the Inquisitions.
"Absolutely.. hands... off? I.. I would not know." That was the truth, considering she'd been asked to confront many topics in her career. Most of the Unseen would rather not deal with a Warden, especially given their proximity to the Council. Many thought that they did what was in the best interest of the Council, but that was as far from the truth as a person could get. They took the most difficult cases most law enforcement didn't even want to touch. Ritualistic murders, disturbances linked to illegal magics, special investigations, apprehending felonious unseen, and rendering assistance to the mundane law enforcement as an expert on many occasions.
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Post by demikara on Jul 25, 2019 17:58:38 GMT -6
"I'll try to tread lightly on more sensitive things, like your father and grandfather." He knew those were likely to be sensitive topics at least. The man tried to be sensitive. "If something is absolutely too much to handle, you'll have to let me know." And now for the more uncomfortable bit. The mage tugged on his braid and considered how to put it. "And I know you don't. But I still had to say it."
And now how to say the rest. That was. He didn't know how to address it. "There's...there's some cultural things too. You..." He hesitated and then took a deep breath. He had to discuss it. He had to actually say it and get it over with. That was the hard part. "Since you're going to be my student, my sole student, for so long." He didn't know how to put it. She wasn't quite an apprentice. But she was incredibly close to one for the next six months.
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Post by Circe on Jul 25, 2019 18:11:48 GMT -6
"A small miracle." Catherine commented crossing her arms. She doubted that would last for long, given Tyrus's sole desire lately to push her to breaking; something that Catherine didn't exactly appreciate. But it looked like she was stuck with this until the bitter end, despite her continued reluctance to actually do anything that didn't involve magic. All she knew right then and there was that she was tired, in need of more sleep, and wanted to be wherever this crazy mage was not.
"I what?" She asked leaning hard on the last word, emphasizing her still smoldering anger at being woken up the way she had. Maybe it had been foolish of her to assume that Tyrus would sleep in, but after last night she'd assumed that he'd at least lie in a bit. Instead he had somehow gotten into her rooms and dumped frozen rocks on her, and in her bed. Payback was going to be a bitch, and that bitch was going to be Catherine. She would make him work just as hard as she was if she was going to do this, and that was a big if. At this point she'd rather take whatever insanity the Council offered as retaliation instead of being shackled to Tyrus for months on end.
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Post by demikara on Jul 25, 2019 18:37:33 GMT -6
And she was pissed. Then again, she had been woken up with ice cold stones. He would be pissed off too. The mage tugged on his braid again. "Just a reminder. The council would come for you." He didn't want to admit it. He hated to admit it. Neither of them had a chance to say no on this at all. "So. For the rest of my existence, because of this, I'm going to have a responsibility to you."
She was older than him. It should be the other way around. But he was the more experienced one by far. At least, in magic he was. He didn't want to say the 'a' word though. That would make it entirely too official. He tugged at his hair again. "Neither of us have a choice in this."
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