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Post by Circe on Aug 28, 2020 21:47:32 GMT -6
Xiaolian just rolled her eyes and stepped back, allowing Tyrus to navigate his way forward on his own. It was one thing to take him across the ranch, instead of on the ATV, but it was another thing to walk him forwards like a small child being presented to a seldom seen family member.
Catherine meanwhile stirred at the sound of Tyrus approaching, she had been drifting in and out of an uneasy sleep once the worst of the storm had passed. "Tyrus?" She croaked, her voice hoarse. Her head felt heavy and light at the same time, like she was both there and somewhere else entirely. But she had a sense of identity and self, which was far better than could have been expected given the circumstances.
Shifting her weight slightly where she lay under the tree, Catherine struggled to stand, her limbs felt disconnected and uncooperative. But one thing was certain, no solstice had been this bad until Tyrus had meddled in everything.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 9:17:18 GMT -6
"Did you make it through okay?" There was a moment, then a rush of words. "There should be food near you, and blood as well. I'm sorry. This entire day has been squarely my fault." And he was paying the price. His arrogance was a costly beast and it had certainly taken a beating, along with, apparently, his sight. Hopefully this was temporary. He was a vampire now, surely this would heal. He had never heard of a blind vampire.
How the hell was he going to hunt when he couldn't even see? He had his other senses still, at least, but he had no clue how to hunt using those. Please Ra, let this be temporary. It would take who knows how long to manage anything at all with him blind. At least he had a PA to help out. That was something, even if he wasn't thrilled to need help for everything right now.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 11:21:27 GMT -6
Catherine held up a hand, indicating for Tyrus to slow down. "Use your words.. one at a time... please." She entreated the other. Her head was still reeling from the nightmare that the solstice had brought. For a brief time she wasn't sure she would survive the onslaught, and had found herself fractured and scattered across the expanse of the veil. If there was ever such a thing as flying too close to the sun, this was it. She felt lucky to even be remotely coherent, muchless conscious after being used as a channel for raw and unbridled magic to flow uncontrolled through.
Standing and leaning heavily against the tree, she took in her surroundings. It was a sight better than the last time she'd completely lost control, there wasn't a trail of carnage in her wake and the Council wasn't yet threatening to take action against her. It wasn't much, but Catherine was thankful for such blessings, however small they may have been.
Pushing strands of hair out of her face, it appeared to her that sometime during the day's events the prolific amounts of pins normally keeping everything neat and tidy had been lost. Never mind the strange effects of that much magic on a person, irregardless of who they were. She just hoped that this wasn't adding fuel to an already formidable fire with tensions between her sire, the council, and Tyrus.
"I found it earlier, it was appreciated." Catherine finally responded. She had been ravenous when she had come around from whatever strangeness had beset her earlier, leaving her unable to move, think, or even speak. It had felt like she had been in a desert for days on end without water, and finally found an oasis, saving her from certain death.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 11:59:46 GMT -6
"Good." He was relieved. She had at least been able to eat. "And no side effects for you?" He looked around the glade with eyes that could only see the magic inherent in what had happened. He'd keep the cattle on the other side of the ranch for now, but he'd want to do something about the glades. The trees were much larger now, than any tree on his property, at least, as far as he could tell. The magic extended fairly high up at least. "I'll ward-" There was a stumble as he realized he couldn't right now.
"I'll have Carter ward the glades from sight, under my supervision." That was the best he could do right now. He was largely helpless and it rankled. How the hell was he even going to bath himself? He used mundanes products for that. Hopefully this was temporary. He felt helpless and he didn't like it at all.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 13:01:38 GMT -6
"Side... effects?" Catherine faltered. That was the last thing she wanted to hear, especially after the horror she'd just gone through. Taking a moment, she made a quick scan of herself and tried to determine if anything was wrong. As far as she was able to tell, things were fine aside from a few issues. "I don't think so? I am bit dizzy..." She added closing her eyes, hoping that everything would stop spinning so much. She had made it through relatively unscathed, if only thanks to an increasing familiarity with this most recent departure from the norm. There was also a certain level of trust she put in individuals like Xiaolian, that she did not yet have with Tyrus.
"Carter? You don't-" She started to say, falling short as another wave of nauseating vertigo hit her. Placing a hand on her head, she breathed deeply for a moment waiting for it to pass. This was misery.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 13:06:18 GMT -6
"That's...it's good that you're only dizzy." He said. One of them would be fine in a day or so max. And frankly, she was the more important of the two. "And yes. I'll have to ask Carter to do it. I-" He hesitated a moment, then his voice quiet, finished the sentence. "can't." He tried to meet her eyes, though he had no clue if he was or not. She was simply too bright to really be able to tell any individual features. "I'm blind. Mostly blind, at least. I can see magic but that's all."
He tugged on his braid, seeking some kind of comfort in the midst of all of this. "I didn't let the Boyuans do their job fully. And I've paid the price for that." And hopefully it was temporary. He had no clue how long this would last, or if it was permanent or not. There had to be some kind of work around but he wasn't sure what it could be.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 13:30:23 GMT -6
Catherine sighed as she slid back down to the ground, standing was too much work, and the more horizontal she got the better. The sooner things stopped spinning so much, the better. "You need physical sight to cast a ward?" She drawled tiredly. None of this made sense anymore, especially the part about two Boyuans. As far as she knew, Xiaolian didn't have any family, at least not in the area. But then again like most of the unseen, she was likely silent about them unless it was necessary. "But it serves you right, arrogant bastard." Catherine muttered massaging her temples. Tyrus didn't tend to listen well to advice, and instead went off to do whatever it was that he had wanted to do in the first place.
"For christssake Tyrus... curses come home to roost. How the fuck did you cast a permanent mage sight spell on yourself? That's something we teach in academy 101... your a gods damned mage for fuckssake.. how?" She questioned with a sprinkling of a few other choice curses in between. Her filter was temporarily removed or rendered incapcitated by the day's events; never before had Tyrus been given such a front row seat of such crude language from his sire.
Catherine didn't understand how he could be so foolish, even she knew that negation of dangerous magics were best left to a ward breaker or null. All of her magical knowledge was functional and in applicable to their laws, along with a few nasty tricks picked up along the way; not theoretical and speculative mechanics like he so favored.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 13:42:28 GMT -6
Tyrus shrank under the words. "I don't have the ward memorized, and I'm not going to be able to find this on my own until I get close enough." He'd need the help. The cursing was more effective for its rarity though, and he felt like crap as it was. Always nice to get cursed out by your sire. Then again, he thoroughly deserved this one. "There was magic pouring out of them at one point. Solar noon was rough. The lieutenant ended up binding my magic temporarily in response." And pinning him to the ground but that was an embarrassing detail as well.
"I could see when my magic was bound, at least, though not in color." And he really wasn't willing to fiddle about with magic in his eyeballs to try anything. Hesitating, he tried to cancel the magic going to his eyes and nothing happened. That would have been entirely too easy.
Regardless, he was screwed on so many levels now. He had no choice but to be blinded until whatever this was wore off, if it did, unless he wanted to be parted from his magic forever. That wasn't even an option as far as he was concerned.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 14:03:27 GMT -6
"Then you would make a terrible specialist, just like I make a terrible mage." Catherine commented bluntly. Her team each had their speciality, but each had been asked to at least memorize common ward schemes that they might come across in investigations. It didn't mean they had to cast them, but it was worth knowing how they were constructed and what magical potentials they had. "All the Lieutenant did was likely slap a nullification spell on you, that's her particular specialty. You'll likely be fine in a week or so." She waved aside his concern, it wasn't the first time someone had gotten on the wrong end of the Lieutenant. Her records detailed as much, a string of disciplinary actions and it didn't matter what the situation had been either, she hadn't hesitated if she deemed it necessary.
"She likely wouldn't have done it without good reason either. What exactly were you doing to get crossways with her?" Catherine had so many questions, and while she could have pulled the answers directly from him without asking, she had at least given him the courtesy of freely answering.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 14:12:09 GMT -6
"It's a good thing I'm not a specialist." He agreed on that at least. And he was pretty certain that wasn't a nullification spell. "And I wasn't complying with her as well as I could have been." He had also scared her brother some, but he was pretty sure that didn't have anything to do with the binding. "It was a relief, to be honest." Terrifying, but a relief to not have to deal with the magic pouring through him like it had been.
He did hope he'd be fine in a week or so though. This only being temporary would be a wonderful thing. Somehow, he doubted it was though. It wasn't responding at all. He'd have to give Carter a call to help him out. This was, perhaps, not in the job description of a PA, but job duties did have a tendency to expand unexpectedly.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 14:30:41 GMT -6
Catherine looked at Tyrus questioningly, there was something he was holding back, she could sense it. But again, she wasn't going to drag it out of him by force. "Why am I not surprised?" She said leaning back against the tree. It was solid and not at all moving like most of the world seemed to currently be. "But all things considered, I suppose we were lucky. No one is dead and the Council isn't breathing down our necks." They seemed to take special interest in her specifically, but more than likely would now take more interest in Tyrus if they caught wind of this little incident.
"Either way, I can't believe you're going to let Carter out here. You barely let me out here."
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 14:35:43 GMT -6
"I barely let anyone out here. It's my home." He wasn't exactly thrilled to have Carter out here either. "But I don't know who else could help me. Carter is paid to be my assistant. He'll just be assisting a bit more than usual for awhile. Though if you'd be willing to cast the wards, I'd be glad to accept the help. Carter is an excellent assistant, but sometimes his ways of helping can get a bit ridiculous." That was one way of putting it. That tablet when he had been in the hospital had been a lovely bit of magic, but he had both a cell phone and a nurse call button if he had needed aid.
Carter over-engineered his solutions. It would definitely require firm oversight if he let the assistant cast the wards. Otherwise he may get unusual ideas.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 15:14:20 GMT -6
"Of course, you're right.. I apologize." Catherine agreed as she made another attempt to get to her feet, sensing that perhaps it was time for her to be on her way whether she wanted to be or not. This time she was more successful, if not still unsteady and shaky. Tyrus was right, this was his home and she had made a mess of it during the solstice. Surely the wards on her own home would have held if it hadn't been such and unusual situation. She disliked this situation as much as Tyrus, and could sense that tensions were still high between the two of them. This was far from ideal, but then again they had never gotten along well even when Brandon had been Tyrus's pupil. There was too much difference and yet again too much in common between them.
The magical mishaps in the last year had only served to further highlight such glaring issues. Catherine feared if they were not resolved, that even worse chaos would befall them; at their own hands or others.
"What happened to the wards you had the lieutenant help you with?" She knew that Xiaolian and a few others had helped Tyrus cast new wards, after all the Lieutenant had asked for discretion. Xiaolian had expressed concern to Catherine that the amount of magic required to ward the ranch would peg monitoring sensors, long since repaired after the fire that had nearly razed everything to the ground. "Surely those are still intact... are they not?" She faltered.
As far as she thought he was concerned, she was a one trick pony that couldn't be taught anything. It didn't make sense that he would be asking her help to restore the wards.
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Post by demikara on Aug 29, 2020 15:21:16 GMT -6
"They still stand, but I don't want to risk the ranchers seeing the groves. They do come close to the house sometimes." Not more than once a year, but it happened. It was a working ranch, and except for a few warded paddocks, the cattle could be driven to whichever paddocks they were rotated onto. The mage shrugged. "I know the unseen isn't hidden anymore. But they don't know I have magic and I'd like to keep it that way."
Outside of the court, he lived a fairly mundane life. He used his magic regularly left, but it wasn't like he didn't have the basics, even if his internet out here was absolutely terrible. That was more a function of geography than anything else.
"I'm sorry again. This entire day has been my fault. Please, stay as long as you need to recover at least. I have some tea at the house, if you think it would help." And several tisanes "And some coffee as well, of course." She probably drank coffee instead. She was a cop after all.
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Post by Circe on Aug 29, 2020 15:42:17 GMT -6
Catherine looked over at Tyrus, fighting back a fresh wave of vertigo and nausea. She could see that he was concerned, near to the point of wringing his hands anxiously and begging. It made her uncomfortable in more ways than one. When she had realized she was well and truly stuck in their sire-fledgling relationship, she had made it a point to never let it reach the point of one begging the other for something, anything really. But here they were, with Tyrus profusely apologizing and imploring her for some, if not any assistance.
Looking down at carpet of moss and delicate flowers blooming at her feet, she hesitated. Perhaps what led to this situation was in a way both of their faults, Catherine for wanting something that had been taken away, and Tyrus for his confidence in being able to fix it. Things had grown more complex and with more moving parts than she'd ever been able to recall in the past. Something would have to give, and what it was she didn't know yet.
"Alright, I'll help you." Catherine finally agreed, telling herself that there would be no strings or fae born transactions, trickery, or attitudes. It would have to be soley based on good faith and trust that things could, or rather would simply just have to get better.
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