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Post by Circe on Jul 25, 2019 19:01:17 GMT -6
Catherine sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, expecting to find her glasses there but it looked like those like a lot of things had either been broken or totally disappeared during the last few days. She had been so tired, she couldn't remember where she had left them or placed them. She found herself greatly missing their tinted lenses, that reduced most of an entirely too bright and intense world to a slightly more tolerable level. "What bullshit thing did you tell them, Tyrus?" She was going to give him the opportunity to say so himself before she plucked the answer he was so avoiding from his mind herself. It wouldn't be that unpleasant, but it wouldn't be that pleasant either. "Because I do not need to have some....one responsible for me." Catherine nearly said child, because in the eyes of time that unseen like fae and vampires experienced he really was one, but she instead swallowed her words down like everything else that week.
"Neither of us have a choice because you opened your bloody mouth." She reminded him bluntly. Catherine understood having no choice in anything entirely too well, that was how she had ended up as a Warden. Council needed someone who knew their way around the unseen, and she happened to be their choice in exchange for years off an already heafty sentence for mass murder. It had been a deal she couldn't refuse, and theoretically should have been easy enough to do for the next 200 years. This however had never been part of it, and now she was stuck with whatever terms Tyrus had signed her to.
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Post by demikara on Jul 25, 2019 19:08:24 GMT -6
"You were dying. The only deal I signed was to teach you to control your magic, even when impaired." He snapped back. "Do you think I really wanted this? I had assumed I'd have enough time to work with in Dallas." That had turned out great. "And my home was attacked so I lost the safe place to teach you." This was not good. She was pushing him now. He took a deep breath. "This was the best choice. And Catherine? I didn't want that obligation. I know it's wrong. You're my elder. But you're about to be my apprentice, whether either of us want it or not."
Damn. He had said the 'a' word. He dropped his head in his hands and resisted the urge to scream. This was great. Just great. "The only term you have is to learn control. Everything else was kept as threats. I terrify them too much for them to try and give me a sour deal." Well, and to succeed. They knew better. Tyrus knew perfectly well that they knew better. "I opened my mouth to save your life. And if you doubt that, there will be something in your grandmother's library to confirm it."
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Post by Circe on Jul 25, 2019 19:23:53 GMT -6
This was going to be a miserable few months, especially when they both were taking delight in making stabs at the other. It was too easy, especially when they were both so similar. "Christ Tyrus... you know that that is not something I take advantage of, muchless broadcast." He had had to mention her age, something that she would have preferred to keep between her and no one else; but he had pried that out of her earlier. For her there had reached a point where she stopped counting and just gave in to letting the years pass by, each one no different than the last.
"Your home was lost because there are shifting politics among the courts again." She didn't dare say the rest, but instead thought it. 'You were just a casualty in a power grab, your scrawny ass is lucky my team came when they did... what idiot stores reagents and chemicals like that anyway?!' Catherine hadn't understood half of what Ivor and his team had relayed through the coms, and she had had her hands more than full trying not to have the life choked out of her by a vampire. "I apologize if we were unable to prevent it." She added, knowing full well that was likely a hollow apology.
At the mention of apprentice, Catherine looked at him oddly. "You brokered a deal with the Council and bound yourself in contract to me. Tyrus.. do you understand the gravity of this?"
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Post by demikara on Jul 25, 2019 19:38:42 GMT -6
"It isn't your fault. Something is going on at the court. Everything sounded like I could rebuild it, and the reagents weren't lost. Had the fire reached them, it would have been much worse." Some of the reagents were incredibly sensitive to heat. It was why he stored them underground like that. He sighed and lifted his head again. "And I understand the contract. All too well, I understand it. Trust me, I regret not giving either of us more time. How I did what I did was wrong." It was terribly wrong and he felt like a heel for going about it how he did. Contracts were such final things. "All I have to do is teach you control. After that point, the contract will be fulfilled and we'll be released from it."
She just had to maintain control while out of it, while drunk, or angry, or consumed by her emotions. She had to show some form of control. That was all the contract called for. She could learn that, could learn to direct her magic. "You'll have to prove it. Your trigger is anger, from what I saw. So you'd have to prove it while angry. But that will be enough for the contract. I was careful." Just not careful enough.
"The apprenticeship...that's not part of the contract. It's a social thing, not a contract thing. You don't...you don't spend enough time with the heavy magic users to know it. But one on one lessons, for an extended period of time. That's considered an apprenticeship. We'd have to sign a contract in blood to make it formal. We're not doing that. This way. This way you should live. My apprentices tend not to." The magic consumed them, or they lost themselves and let the magic rule them and it was never pretty. There were reasons he never took one on one students anymore. "I like you too much to trap you into that life." She'd die. Every other apprentice had been.
No, he just had to teach her control, and everything would turn out alright.
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Post by Circe on Jul 26, 2019 17:12:22 GMT -6
Something was going on in more ways that either of them could comprehend just yet, and as it stood they had the bigger fish to fry of Catherine's magic for now. That alone was going to be nearly a herculean task for them to undertake, given her reluctance to even consider the most basic of magic principles. It sounded simple enough to fulfill, and relatively free of loopholes that she could spot; then again she hadn't exactly been looking for them in the first place. Needless to say, she still wasn't fond of whatever bargain he had struck with the Council.
"Of course.. why would I? My job does me no favors. Most of that group are convinced that we are all lapdogs of the Council." Catherine pointed out. That myth had very little to do with the actual truth like most did; instead the Council saw their Wardens not as a tool not for protecting them, but protecting most of the unseen from themselves. It wasn't a rare circumstance that a case crossed her desk involving one party taking advantage of the other, or accidentally summoning something or someone that really needed to not be there. Her job was complicated, but she didn't work as a Warden because she wanted to, but instead because she had to.
"And I am not signing a fucking thing, muchless with my blood. I prefer it where it belongs, in my body, and not on a piece of parchment." As far as she was concerned, she'd already been tricked and trapped into doing something she didn't want to do. If she refused, it not only meant her death, but Tyrus's as well; that much she understood explicitly clear. It seemed that the Council had decided to replace the intial bargain with a new one, and the terms were just as dear.
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Post by demikara on Jul 27, 2019 7:30:32 GMT -6
"Trust me, I don't want you too." At all. This was going to be so much fun. She was going to be so incredibly reluctant on everything. How the hell was he supposed to teach someone who didn't want to learn? "Look. You've already mastered psionics. This is just you learning more magic. You're excellent at the magic you do know. You'll learn quickly. Maybe we won't need the whole time we've been given." That would be nice. He was beginning to really hate this job already. "I was already having to teach you control. This is just accelerating the pace."
That had been the price of their freedom already. As far as he was concerned, this was a raw deal, but it meant they'd both get some time back when they did get back to the human realm. That would make both of their lives easier to deal with. A bit more time would, in the end, help a hell of a lot with his responsibilities. He was already torn in so many different directions. More time would help immensely and he had no doubt it would help her as well.
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Training
Jul 27, 2019 12:29:09 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Circe on Jul 27, 2019 12:29:09 GMT -6
They were getting absolutely no headway with their current discussions. "Look, I know you would rather not do this, and I would rather not have to do this. So let's just get on with this latest bit of misery." Catherine could see that they were on the page with some things, but it didn't mean she'd enjoy it. Everything he had said made her feel like this was all somehow her fault.
In reality, it seemed that the Council had finally found someone to pair her with to keep her in check by their opinion. Neither party was interested in playing nice with the other either. They had already more than expressed their opinion of wishing to be elsewhere.
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Post by demikara on Jul 27, 2019 12:47:39 GMT -6
He felt like they were talking past each other. But at least she was willing to cooperate for now. Tyrus desperately hoped that they would be done sooner rather than later. The sooner they finished, the sooner he could go home and make sure his brothers were okay. The feeling in his gut said they weren't. This was a horrible time for her to have gotten sick. The mage nodded sharply and began.
Nature magic wasn't his specialty. But he could do more than her and knew the basics and for now, that would have to be enough. "Right. Like I said, I think nature magic may be a good fit. Possibly transfiguration as well. I'll let you choose which of the two. But for now, you will be doing everything with magic. For example, if you want a bath, you draw the water with magic and warm it with magic. Ideally, I get you to the point where you're comfortable casually using your magic."
Two goals: Getting Catherine to use magic casually and getting her to have control even when stress out. Surely that wasn't too much to ask.
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Post by Circe on Jul 27, 2019 14:09:09 GMT -6
Catherine looked at Tyrus with annoyance, and wondered how quickly she could get this over with. There were things to do back in the mundane realm, things that she didn't necessarily feel like talking about with him. Eventually she might have to, but if she could delay it, then she would. "Everything with magic... horray." She commented sardonically. This was going to be absolute torture, and as far outside of her comfort zone as she had ever been forced to go before. 'I hope he enjoys this.. because after this...' Catherine thought to herself bitterly. She had a handful of people whom she trusted, and Tyrus was no longer in that group for her after this.
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Post by demikara on Jul 27, 2019 14:14:46 GMT -6
"I'll show you the spells for it when we get back to the farm." He promised and tugged his braid again, a sure sign of how nervous this entire conversation was making him. "So. Which would you like to...essentially train your magic to?" It was going to require so much repetition that they'd both go mad from it. But it also meant her magic would turn to that. This entire thing was going to ruin his friendship with Catherine entirely and he knew it.
He had some exercises for transfiguration off the top of his head. Nature would be a little trickier but doable.
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Post by Circe on Jul 27, 2019 14:27:22 GMT -6
Catherine thought for a moment, she knew a little about the schools of magic, but only enough to do her job. Transforming others and other objects with magic tended to fall under the assault or property damage categories, both were technically felonies because it could be argued that the intent was malicious on the part of the mage in question. "If you keep doing that, you will be bald by the time we are done." She pointed out noticing Tyrus fidgeting with his braid. That amount of tugging and pulling couldn't possibly be good for anything other than getting a headache in her opinion.
"But since you asked instead of deciding for me, nature would possibly be best." At least he had asked instead of making an executive decision as the instructor. "I have an intermediate knowledge of the fae magics, after that...eh." Catherine admitted. Many tutors had simply decided to stop teaching it to her proclaiming that women, especially ones of her status, shouldn't fill their heads with too much knowledge that would never benefit them.
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Post by demikara on Jul 27, 2019 14:32:33 GMT -6
"I'm afraid I don't know any fae magics." He admitted. :I'd love to learn, but I doubt I'd have the capability for it." He couldn't do everything after all. At least he knew the crux of the problem now. "And you have a mastery of psionics. That is classified as magic." It had a genetic component yes, and only certain people could do it, but it was technically considered one of the types of magic out there. Tyrus, who had never had the ability, had never looked into the details.
"Nature magic is rather broad. Is there anything in particular you'd like to do with it?" Hopefully it would be something he knew how to do. If not, he supposed he'd be learning nature magic as well. He had half hoped she'd choose transfiguration. That he knew like the back of his hand. Hopefully she had some idea. If not, he'd come up with suggestions.
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Post by Circe on Jul 27, 2019 14:54:06 GMT -6
Catherine frowned thinking, fae magics were mostly what she'd been taught. Granted she had never achieved mastery, but one didn't hold as strong of ties as she did without learning at least some of it. "Fae magic is... well at its very heart the first magics. The gate spell is fae based, as from what I remember requires a bit of thievery to work well enough." She explained. Catherine knew that this would likely worry Tyrus, as few had ever been able to repeatedly get away with summoning the gate and living due to the high cost of energy required. It also required begging, borrowing, or stealing power from the gods themselves; a loyalty to old long forgotten gods that Catherine would never admit to. It was too risky, considering the short collective memories of humans and longer collective memory of the unseen. To do so would bring trouble, and she didn't want any more than she already had.
"All I know are a few handy charms and one spell, really only good for emergencies. But, seriously.. your the teacher not me."
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Post by demikara on Jul 27, 2019 15:01:41 GMT -6
"Alright. So I can teach you localized weather magic. You've seen me use it drunk, combined with transfiguration to create chocolate milk rain." Which was delicious, if weird. Very weird. "There's plant based magic as well. Growing things, improving the magical yield of herbs. There's animal based magic. Taking on the features and abilities of an animal, communicating with them." He resisted the urge to tug his braid again. "Weather magic is actually a subset of elemental as well. I can teach you some general elemental magic." They was crossover. He considered their options.
"Any of them would work for our purposes. None are more benign than the others, not really, but the most benign is probably plant based." He had a feeling she wanted the most benign magic possible
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Post by Circe on Jul 27, 2019 15:31:48 GMT -6
"Unfortunately." Catherine commented blithely. She really was trying not to be difficult for now, but it the subject just didn't interest her. "If there is a generality for this, then why not that? It might possibly be easier on both of us." Herbs, animals, and weather was not what she had been expecting, but then again Catherine hadn't been expecting much. In fact she was in unfamiliar territory and having to rely on Tyrus to guide her.
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