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Post by Circe on Sept 28, 2020 18:21:22 GMT -6
"Don't thank me yet, you might not appreciate what happens." Xiaolian quickly added. He was going to throw a fit with the bracelets, but she was pretty certain that he couldn't brute force his way through them. Burn through was a real risk, but between her and Molly she was pretty sure this would work. It wouldn't be half-assing an imperial rote because she was exhausted and frustrated, this would have real structure and planning behind it.
"You can pay whatever you feel is necessary, I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't." Whenever money was involved, Xiaolian wondered if she was risking corruption herself by accepting payment for anything. She knew that some of her kind would have said that the privilege of the duty was payment enough, but those were also the ones who seemed to be prone to holier than thou attitudes and performative actions towards enlightenment.
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Post by demikara on Sept 28, 2020 18:33:52 GMT -6
"It's a chance to gain control over my magic again. I may not appreciate the method but so long as it leads to the needed result, I'll be pleased." He had no clue about the bracelets of course. Those he would have objected to strenuously. He'd have to try and think about what was a good amount to cover a teacher. Would it be hourly, as a wage, or would it be a salary? He wasn't sure. He'd have to work it out with the teacher in question. It would be specialized work of course, and probably only a few hours each week, so a wage would be fine enough.
Two hundred an hour should be fine, right? It sounded about right to him at least.
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 15:30:14 GMT -6
Two, nearly three weeks had passed. Xiaolian hadn't managed to get Zhen to agree to assisting her, and the other guardian she hadn't had a chance to speak with yet. So that just left her to take care of one very large and looming problem. With the bracelets secreted away in a pocket, Xiaolian just hoped that Tyrus didn't take this the wrong way. Ultimately it was for his own safety, but whether or not he agreed on that end was going to be debatable.
Slipping through the mirror and easily bypassing all of the mage's wards but the proximity alert, she was certain that this was the better option. While it was entertaining to sneak up on Molly, she would rather not have to defend herself in a fire fight right then and there. Her magic was back, but she was still easily tired and not yet at what she would have considered fighting shape. Thankfully however, they were no longer in a war and while peace was a fragile thing, it did afford them some breathing room.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 15:37:53 GMT -6
At least she had decided to trip the proximity award, Tyrus decided, already having an idea of who tripped the wards. The same person who put them up. Either that or he was going to have a battle on his hands. He still couldn't see details well enough to drive yet, though his vision was much clearer now than it had been before, even if everything was still lacking in color. Unless, of course, it was magical. He was waiting for her outside the house when she came close enough at least. He could do that much. "Xiaolian." It had been her. The tenseness, the readiness to move, bled from his muscles. This was an ally, not an idiot who managed to get past most of the wards but trip the proximity ward.
"You'll have to forgive me for not driving out to you. My vision isn't quite there yet." But it was much better. Good enough he could navigate things much easier, and good enough he had kicked Carter off and declared himself on vacation for the next two weeks. In two weeks, he should be able to see well enough, if his eyes kept healing at the rate they were healing.
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 15:57:00 GMT -6
"Mage." She spoke blandly appearing out of thin air. It had been easier to skip along, winking in and out across the path, rather than just walk, once she was through the wards. Xiaolian had few if any qualms about exploiting the wards she had designed, and given Tyrus's reaction she likely should have thought things through a bit better. But admittedly it was hard to think like the residents of this world, who were often given over to illogical and overtly emotional reactions to things.
"Is your vision still a problem?" She mused, wondering why it had taken so long for things to even get moderately better. This plane seemed to have a bit more resources than others when it came to sorting out magical incidents. "Well.. I suppose we will just make do with it then." Xiaolian then decided, it was for the best after all.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 16:00:24 GMT -6
"Still very blurry. I can't read a thing. But I can navigate well enough without it." It was healing, what he had done. And that was, frankly, more than he had expected after the first few days when he couldn't see anything. "Of course, I'm still completely lacking color as well. Unless its magical." Luckily, there was a whole range of magical color if he really wanted to find something colorful to look at. And it was very rare that something was completely a single type of magic. "Welcome to the ranch. You mentioned you'd be introducing me to a teacher, the next time we met." He looked around curious. "Will they be joining us later, or are we going to them?"
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 16:18:48 GMT -6
Xiaolian nodded, at least things were moving in the right direction without having additional assistance. "You shouldn't have the need for reading anything." She stated unsure how best to phrase this entire situation. He seemed overly eager and it made her feel slightly guilty for what she was about to do. But he was going to have to at least change part of his thought process now that he had been elevated or thrown into the realm of the immortals. His sire had done a lot, but there were still clearly glaring issues that she couldn't fix on her own, and her own sire offered little assistance outside of heavy handed tactics.
"I did, you are correct." She hesitated. This was not going to be a terribly fun time for either one of them, but it would take some of the pressure off the surrounding area if they could begin to get things even slightly under control. "My brother would have been best to teach you, but he declined. The other I have not heard from yet..." She explained, while choosing her next words carefully. "Unfortunately for now that leaves only myself, and I cannot promise to be the best instructor... but you won't have to worry about hurting me."
Xiaolian didn't know how else to put it. If a spell went rogue, then getting it back under control or eliminating it was what she had been trained for. Not to mention she was perfectly capable of taking a hit and giving it back just as good if not better.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 16:24:45 GMT -6
That caused a moment of hesitation. "Are you sure? I'm sure you'll be a great teacher, and I know you've cleaned up after my magic before but in the moment...my magic is dangerous." Was she sure she'd be okay? He wouldn't do anything to harm her intentionally of course, but his magic was chaos itself on the best of days. "I don't blame your brother for declining. I know I scared him on the solstice." He hadn't meant to, but he had been startled and on edge. There was more than one reason that he certainly agreed with how Xiaolian handled the solstice.
It would be interesting, having Xiaolian as a teacher. She was certainly competent and he had no doubt she could handle his magic. But there would likely be some degree of dodging involved and he well knew it. Learning better control, learning another method of control, well. It could be dangerous for everyone involved.
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 16:47:02 GMT -6
Xiaolian frowned as she hadn't taken the time to consider Tyrus's hesitation or Zhen's outright refusal. This was uncharted territory, and she didn't exactly have a map. She would prefer to not deal with the guild or Molly's master any more than she absolutely had to. "All magic is dangerous, Tyrus." She explained. "Dodging everything isn't what I was taught either... and tell Dumitrescu to work with you more on psionics." His anxiety was palpable and he had fallen back to projecting, and as strong a psion as those particular lines produced, her own shields could quickly become overloaded. Pushing back hard, she then slammed her own mind shut ignoring any discomfort it might have caused the other.
"As for my brother, he scares easily, and is still very much a novice." Xiaolian dismissed quickly. He was the spoiled baby brother after all, born between sisters who had to their own admission doted on him too. Rolling up her sleeve, she motioned to a character tattooed in stark black ink on her wrist. Xiaolian allowed her own magic to flare briefly and dance across, outlining its shape. "There are exams we face after training and trials we endure as new guardians to earn this mark and our piece of jade." She explained. It was a grueling process, but more than made her qualified to deal with Tyrus and his magic.
"I am more than qualified to teach you mage. Your works are a child's cute scribbles compared to mine."
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 16:54:39 GMT -6
"Ah! Sorry." He slammed his shields up, cheeks painted red. That was embarrassing. "I should have... I'm sorry. I tend to relax my shields at the ranch. Was I projecting?" He must of been. Clumsily, he pulled back on his psionics. "I'll speak to Catherine." It was embarrassing to still need help, but he could admit he needed it. He was generally decent at it, but apparently he could accidentally project his emotions which he definitely didn't mean to do. "Thank you. For agreeing to teach me. I have no doubt you are well qualified." And she was apparently willing to deal with his troublesome magic, which he was more than happy to hear about. She was better with magic than anyone he had seen before, given the simplicity of the sigils she had used and the power behind them. He would have need a great many runes to manage the same effect.
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 17:07:24 GMT -6
"Very much so." Xiaolian nodded in agreement. There were some finer points to psionics that most of the unseen didn't often understand how to practice. She didn't know why or how her own family had come to possess the telepathy trait, but it served its use at times. His sire and her line were some of the most powerful psionics she had encountered to date, with only two of them having any modicum of control. Xiaolian knew about the little sister of the family, willful, ill mannered, and brattish. Theoretically she carried the psionic traits, but seemed to largely be untrained and a danger to herself more than anyone else. "See that you do." She added pulling the bracelets from her pocket.
"Hold out your hands, palms up." Xiaolian instructed plainly.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 17:13:20 GMT -6
Tyrus did so, curios as to why. He could make out something in her hands but wasn't sure what it was. "Alright." Was she about to give him something? She could have just handed it over instead of the odd order. Still, she was in charge here, and she knew what she was doing. He was, for the first time in a very long time, the student. It was an interesting situation to be in. It was also a little embarrassing that he needed further training at his age. He was certainly old enough he should be done learning such a basic concept.
This would be a different way of control, he reminded himself. It would be a new piece of knowledge entirely and it was coming from an expert. He had seen what she was able to do, and that was when, apparently, there was something wrong with her.
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 17:38:00 GMT -6
Xiaolian shuffled the two silver bracelets between her hands before gently slipping them onto Tyrus's wrists, with a brief command muttered in a language altogether different from any he'd ever known. "It will be disorienting at first, but it will provide the necessary structure you will need going forward." She explained as she holding his wrists firmly for the moment to ensure that they worked as intended.
Xiaolian meanwhile suppressed any feelings of remorse or guilt, and reminded herself that this was for the betterment of another and the greater good. This much magic didn't need to be bound out of use, but it certainly did need to be brought to heel. If that meant necking down the flow, so be it. It would be easier to work with that way, at least that's what Molly and Zander had ensured her. The Guardians had never held such beliefs, instead insisting that training to the point of exhaustion and deprivation of the ego would encourage the necessary stillness and control.
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Post by demikara on Oct 4, 2020 17:42:47 GMT -6
"What wi-" The bracelets went to work and he felt the majority of his magic get tied up beyond his ability to touch. Eyes blown wide, and stepped back from Xiaolian, pulling away from her and desperately clawing for his magic back. "What have you done?" He still had some magic. And the loss of his magic had come with a corresponding increase in colors. But right now, he didn't care about that. He cared about the fact that his magic was out of his reach.
The mage tried to remove the bracelets immediately, pulled at them to no avail. "Get them off me. They won't come off. Get them off me right now, Boyuan."
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Post by Circe on Oct 4, 2020 17:54:42 GMT -6
"Yīng'ér shǒuliàn.. ah Bundis.. er.. Brais lean... fuck it." Xiaolian explained, finding herself automatically answering incorrectly. "I can't remember the right words for them." She knew what they should be called in Ba-Shu or even Chinese, but the other words escaped her right then and there. Molly had laughed at her as she had tried to twist the words around her tongue and in her mouth, struggling to make the syllables and consonants play nicely. The word had felt bulky and awkward, not at all like the elegant and silvery words of home. "They're limiters, and it will help your system recover from solstice and adjust to everything."
He was panicking though, and she should have planned for that but she hadn't. "Tyrus, calm yourself and don't force my hand again." She warned reaching out and grasping him firmly by the wrists and shaking them.
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