The Snow Queen

Please don't post in this thread unless your character has been approved of by me.

OOC: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=968011
~ ~ ~

It had been a long day for one of the Tower Academy's "youngest" educators. She leaned forward towards her desk and picked up a small icicle shard that she'd formed moments earlier. She stared at it intently, as if it were some sort of puzzle that she couldn't quite figure out. Truth be told, she knew everything about it. It was as very much a part of her as the blood that coursed through her veins. But she knew that she could do so much more. Creating such a tiny object was only a fraction of what she was truly capable of making.

Would they understand?

Did it matter?

Perhaps not, she thought.

The young woman peered in close, and she could easily make out her reflection in the sparkling surfaces of the shard. A pretty face stared back at her, but it wasn't her real face.

She hadn't worn that face in centuries.

Would she ever get to see it again?

Ariesa frowned and then placed the icicle back on her desk. She rose from her high chair and drew her cloak around her slender body, clasping it tight just beneath her throat. She moved out from behind her desk and started walking towards the twin doors that led out into the hallway. She offered a polite smile to the snowman that held the door open for her, and she heard it close behind her as she started walking to her class for the evening.

~ ~ ~

The Tower Academy played host to a number of a powerful beings, though many of the students that graced its halls were still trying to find their way. Some had been aware of its existence since they were very young, and others that had just come into their own had been told that they could hone their special powers. Ariesa walked into her classroom and ignored her students for the time being. She had been teaching long enough to know that it was almost impossible to get their attention right away.

Still...

A girl's got to have her fun.

She turned towards the row of seats and gestured a hand towards the ceiling. Snow began falling delicately towards the students, but before it could reach them it began swirling around and around in the air, forming a large clump which she dumped right on the head of one of the younglings towards the back.

"Now that I hope that I have your attention... welcome to The Academy. My name's Ariesa, and I'll be your instructor," she said. "You'll quickly discover that a lot of your teachers would have you spending time reading ancient texts... but there's so much more to magic than pouring over musty old tomes. In here we're going to have a bit of fun. So, who wants to tell their story first?"

Captain Malcolm Illium leaned his back against the wall of the Royal Legion supply depot in Mistlake, taking in the warmth of the midday autumn sun as he polished the blade of his sword with a scrap of leather. In the coming weeks a chill would fill the air and the heavy mist from the nearby lake, from which the town had earned its name, would blanket the area, but for the time being, the weather was as fair as it could be, by his reckoning. Just inside the depot, the other two soldiers on guard rotation - the garrison’s gruff and experienced but rarely sober sergeant, and a young, fresh-faced private - quietly agonized over a game of cards laid out before them on a supply barrel that they had converted into a makeshift table. Malcolm never would have tolerated soldiers under his command playing games on duty, but in the few weeks he had been posted at Mistlake, he had quickly realized that he was fortunate his men showed up for duty at all. Mistlake had a reputation as a backwater where the kingdom sent its misfit and broken soldiers, and thus far, the town was living up to its reputation.

The monotony of the guard shift was broken up by a sudden crash and commotion in the nearby street, which was little more than a dirt and gravel path running between some of the town’s shops. Looking up from his sword, Malcolm saw that a young girl, perhaps nine or ten years of age, had run into one of the townsfolk and fallen, bloodying her knee and spilling the contents of her cloth sack. Standing and returning his weapon to its sheath, Malcolm quickly made his way to the girl and helped her up, gathering her spilled belongings and carrying her back to his post at the steps of the supply depot.

“Sergeant,” he called into the building, “fetch me some fresh water and clean rags.”

Turning to the girl, he put on a kind smile and hoped that the ragged scar along his left eye would not frighten her.

“Let’s have a look at that knee, shall we?” he said gently.

Behind him, the sergeant returned with a small bowl of clear water and a few pieces of cloth bandage.

“I’m just going to clean up this scrape a little,” he told the girl. “It might sting a bit.”

“That won’t be necessary, captain,” another voice interrupted, before Malcolm had a chance to apply a dampened rag to the girl’s wound.

Looking up, he saw a teenaged young woman approaching him.

“I thank you for your concern toward my sister,” the elder girl said, in a proper accent that suggested noble ancestry, “but she does not require medical care.”

“I merely sought to clean the wound and dress it with a clean bandage as a precaution, m’lady,” Malcolm replied deferentially.

The elder sister flashed what Malcolm could only interpret as a bemused smile before lowering herself to the younger girl’s height, taking the younger girl’s wrist in her hand and guiding her fingers over the scrape in an intricate motion.

“Remember what I showed you?” the older girl asked. “Just like this.”

As Malcolm and his soldiers looked on, the young girl’s fingertips began to emit a green-blue glow, and as the eerie light illuminated her wound, the scrape slowly healed before their eyes.

“You’re Academy students, aren’t you?” Malcolm asked in awe.

“Yes,” the older girl replied. “And we should be returning. Thank you again for your concern.”

“Here are the things your sister dropped,” Malcolm said, handing the girls the cloth sack that the younger one had been carrying.

“Thank you,” the younger sister replied, before both girls turned and headed down the road out of Mistlake.

“Gods damned magicals,” the sergeant muttered, once the girls were out of sight. “It ain’t right what they’re doing over in that tower.”

“Practicing magic?” Malcolm asked.

“Forget that. I hear they’re mixing up nobles and street rats, they got gods-fearing people studying with atheists and monotheists, hell, they even have children from our kingdom bunking with Karons. Can you believe it? It ain’t natural. If you ask me, we should raze the whole place to the ground and be done with it.”

The mention of the kingdom’s sworn enemies from the west, the Karons, sent a twinge of phantom pain through the scar by Malcolm’s eye.

“You saw what those girls could do, sergeant. What makes you think even the entire Royal Legion could stand against the people in that school? Whatever strangeness is going on there… at least they keep to themselves, mostly.”

“I’d get ready to see a lot more of their kind here, Captain,” the sergeant replied, pulling out a hip flask and taking a swig. “Always happens every year. They start coming into town for supplies and before you know it, people are gettin’ turned into frogs and what not. You’ll see.”

“I guess we will,” Malcolm said, turning his gaze to the silhouette of the Academy in the distance. “I guess we will.”

Ellie Crystal. Pluviophile.

TearsoftheWorld said:

She turned towards the row of seats and gestured a hand towards the ceiling. Snow began falling delicately towards the students, but before it could reach them it began swirling around and around in the air, forming a large clump which she dumped right on the head of one of the younglings towards the back.

"Now that I hope that I have your attention... welcome to The Academy. My name's Ariesa, and I'll be your instructor," she said. "You'll quickly discover that a lot of your teachers would have you spending time reading ancient texts... but there's so much more to magic than pouring over musty old tomes. In here we're going to have a bit of fun. So, who wants to tell their story first?"

Click to expand...

Breath caught in the throats of the students as the snow gathered-- but only one lad's breath escaped in the form of a squeal, there in the back of the class, suddenly beset with frozen fluff.

Ellie was leaning on the wall at the back, watching Ariesa do her thing, work her magic both literal and figurative.

As an older student-- she'd been at The Tower Academy for six years now --who was at least somewhat proficient in Ariesa's favorite sphere of magic, she had been a natural choice to be Ariesa's teaching assistant.

Not that Ellie Crystal knew everything, decidedly not. But she knew a thing or two about ice. Just a thing. Or two.

She in no way approached the professor's gift for the craft and the art of cryomancy, though she did all right. Enough so that she could, well, assist.

The prodigious ease with which Ariesa performed these displays sometimes left her in awe.

This was not one of those times. This time, Ellie was grinning, grinning along with the other classmates as that particular youngling found himself the recipient of the most perfect snowball Ellie had ever seen.

Turning to face the youngling who had been snowed upon, Ellie held up her hands side by side in front of her, knuckles facing each other, palms facing out... and then brought those hands apart.

The snow that had clumped and dumped on the neophyte student suddenly rolled off and away from him, even the frigid stuff that had gone down the back of his neck scrolled back up and out and then then down onto the floor.

Smiling sheepishly and gratefully at her, the youngling glanced at her quickly before returning his attention to Ariesa-- but not so quickly that she did not have time to wink at him with her blue blue eyes.

Ducking down next to the little pile of snow, she gathered it into one hand, returned it to the individual flakes, opened a window towards the back of the class, and let those flakes blow outward.

Tugging the window shut again, she considered her own story...


The town was named Westbrook, but unlike some towns, like Mistlake, whose name was wholly appropriate, there were no rivers east or west or north or south of where she lived.

Some debate continued to even this very day about where the name had come from, but it was all academic-- the only water in the town came from underground.

They had done well with this, considering.

They had a central well, and pumps, and the town eccentric-- Daedalus Rushton --had conceived of a brilliant irrigation system that fed the gardens and crops, so long as everyone took turns.

But decades had passed and Rushton, in turn, had faded more into his eccentricity, hiding out on the edges of town, and once, on the very hottest day of summer, the irrigation had broken down and the pumps had failed and nowhere had the genius been to be found.

People had done the best they could have, hauling water up from the well for thirst and for work, but when the time had come for Ellie's father to draw up water for the horses, the old rope by which they hauled the bucket had frayed...

...and had snapped.

Her father had sworn in disbelief as the bucket's handle had grazed the tips of his fingers and then had gone into the dark bowels of the well. They could have, of course, found another bucket, asked around, but in the moment it had just seemed like the most devastating thing.

Ellie had watched her dad slump down, thunk his forehead lightly against the rim of the well, and her heart had gone out to him.

So she had let go of one of the reins of the horses she'd been minding as he had been getting the water, had stretched out her hand...

...natural as breathing...

...and had asked the water a favor, just as sometimes she asked the rain to dance for her on the windowsill when a storm had kept them inside.

It had not happened immediately, as the water had been a long way down.

Time enough for her father to have sat back a bit, to have glanced at her and have wondered what she was on about.

But Ellie had replied not a word. She'd been busy.

...and then, just as Zavier Crystal had been about to tell his daughter off for being ridiculous, the bucket had floated back into view...

...borne aloft on clinging, slithering, billowing water, water that had been itself borne aloft on seeming strings of nothing at all.

The bucket had then bobbed past Zavier... and then the water had climbed into the bucket, and the bucket had thudded to the earth by which he'd knelt.

He had stared at it in wonder.

And then he had stared at her.

And she had smiled brightly and proudly at him, as only a little girl can, completely unaware that she had defied any flavor of physics.

"Ellie," he'd mumbled. "Ye're a gods-send."

"Thank you, Da," she'd replied brightly and cheerfully. "Wha's tha' mean?"


Her blue blue eyes flicked about the classroom, wondering who was going to speak up first.

After all, if there was one thing that everybody had-- everybody-- it was a story.

Ariesa took a position up in front of her desk, resting her butt just on the edge of it with her arms folded casually across her chest. Her class was full of students both young and old, which suited her just fine. Some may have been as old as herself, like the pointy-eared brats from Eversong, but she doubted it.

Was it... arrogance... that made her think that?

She looked back and forth, scanning the row of seats and spotting a few fresh faces mixed in with some returning students.

Then there was Ellie.

While Ariesa didn't possess the sort of wonderful blue locks of hair that the young woman did, she couldn't help but see a younger version of herself. In all her years teaching at The Academy, Ariesa had never had an assistant. At least not until Ellie showed up.

The tenured professor watched her T.A. pick up the snow off the ground and dispose of it out the window, and then she turned her attention back towards the class.

Ariesa remembered the first time she'd walked into her classroom.

It was in that moment that she knew...

This girl was her golden ticket.

"Okay. I guess I'll go first," she said after a moment.

Her story.

With revisions.

Subtractions.

A wonderful tale...

"I come from a small fishing village a good distance away from here," she explained. "My father and mother didn't have a whole lot of money to begin with, but we made due with what we had. I thought, at first, that I was special... that my gifts were my own. But they had gifts too. As it turned out, the entire village was just like me."

Ariesa smiled at the student towards the back that had served as her target dummy just a few minutes ago.

"We could control snow and ice," she said as she unfurled her arms and held out a hand with her palm facing up towards the ceiling. Once more, seemingly out of thin air, she conjured a wonderful display of snowflakes with just the slightest wiggle of her fingers.

"Well, that didn't sit too well with the other villages around us," Ariesa continued, and with a flick of her wrist the snowflakes vanished.

"I was just a small girl when they came for us. They brought swords and spears and arrows, and they set our houses on fire to try and trap the rest of us. I don't really know what happened to my parents. The smoke was so thick that I couldn't see where I was going. I don't know how I managed to get away, but I did. I don't know what happened to my family. I tried going back a few years later, but by then everything was going.

I hid my powers.

I hid them until I found my way here.

To me... the past is in the past."

All Ariesa had was the future.

Wonderful... wonderful prospects for the future.

She looked over at her assistant.

She'd be the key.

Ariesa could feel it. The young girl had shown remarkable strength and skill. She was ready now.

~ ~ ~ * * * * * ~ ~ ~

Once class had let out for the day Ariesa asked Ellie to stay behind for a few minutes. School had just started, but this was important. This was bigger than The Academy.

"Ellie, I have a special project that I'd like to get started working on," she said a bit cryptically, but she put on a playful smile as she reached for a leather-bound book on her desk.

"You've done remarkably well in my classes... and I know you're ready for this level of magic. This will be your last test."

Ariesa clutched the old book in her hands, but she didn't open it.

"I don't want to keep you any longer, but if you could come back a bit later tonight then we can go over things a bit more. How's that sound? You up for a challenge?"

Ellie. "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice."

For people so alike in talent, Ellie considered, her heart breaking a little inside, she and Ariesa could not have been more different in background.

Ellie had been the only person in the history of Westbrook with even a hint of magical power, and Ariesa had come from a town that had specialized in that selfsame gift. Ellie's power had been greeted as though it were her town's salvation-- a way to bring water when water was scarce. Ariesa's power had been seen as a threat, a massing force to be massacred.

The past was the past.

But the past was another country from which everyone emigrated-- and your birthplace always shapes you, whether you like it or not.

Ellie hoped that Ariesa had overcome her nativity by fire. If not, Ellie would give anything to help her do just that.

~ ~ ~ * * * * * ~ ~ ~

TearsoftheWorld said:

Once class had let out for the day Ariesa asked Ellie to stay behind for a few minutes. School had just started, but this was important. This was bigger than The Academy.

"Ellie, I have a special project that I'd like to get started working on," she said a bit cryptically, but she put on a playful smile as she reached for a leather-bound book on her desk.

"You've done remarkably well in my classes... and I know you're ready for this level of magic. This will be your last test."

Ariesa clutched the old book in her hands, but she didn't open it.

"I don't want to keep you any longer, but if you could come back a bit later tonight then we can go over things a bit more. How's that sound? You up for a challenge?"

Click to expand...

Ellie's marks in her classes had mostly been solid-- a lucky confluence of natural talent and the ethic of hard work taught to her by her family and community. But she'd never thought of herself as excelling, or worthy of any especial merit or praise. But this... opportunity... smacked of omen, and Ellie couldn't help but be taken aback.

...rare it was that a waterbearer such as herself found themselves dry of mouth, but this was one of those times.

"My last test?" she wondered, breathtaken, her blue blue eyes locked on that book's cover as a leather-clad arm moved up to tuck blue blue hair behind a pale pale ear.

Her youthful accent had mostly faded-- it slipped through sometimes in moments of absolute concentration, when she was too focused on her task to not sound like a stableman's daughter-- these days she sounded more... refined.

But now, now she was simply breathtaken. "...last test? As in... graduation?"

She sputtered for a moment, but somehow managed to recover her mental and verbal traction, tugging to straighten her black leather top before nodding her most solemn nod.

"Professor... m'Lady... 'twould be an honor. I only pray I live up to your expectations."

Ariesa couldn't help but smile at the way Ellie took the news. On the surface, the task she had been offered could very well have served as her final test, but that wasn't really why it was being offered. The only person that knew the true purpose of the test... was Ariesa. Her reasons were her own, and, as much as she adored her assistant, the less she knew the better.

"Yes, well, you've more than exceeded our expectations. The task before you might seem easy enough, but trust me when I tell you that it isn't. It will test you in ways you've never been tested."

The smile on Ariesa's face faded, and although her voice was more stern than before it wasn't meant to be dissuade her young pupil.

"You'll probably need some help too, but we can discuss all this a bit later. Why don't you come back here later tonight? I'll cook up something for us to eat, and we can discuss the terms and conditions of your project. How does that sound?"

Ariesa looked up in time to see a few young students start filing into her class. The rest of their classmates would be joining them shortly.

For the rest of the day, all Ariesa could think about was opening that heavy book on her desk.

She hadn't been this excited in hundreds of years.

As day turned into night, she had some fresh meat and vegetables brought up to her study. The dark-haired woman set about preparing dinner, and as she waited for Ellie she went through an entire bottle of wine, though it had very little effect on her senses. She once got into a contest with an older man at a tavern late at night. She put on as best a show as she could to make him believe he had a fighting chance at winning, but at the end of the night she was still seated at the table while he'd fallen clear out of his chair.

Ariesa was in the process of opening a new bottle of wine when she stopped to look at the silver bracelet on her wrist.

Such simple little things.

Powerful.

Magical.

A terrible cage.

She wanted to spread her wings and fly away... literally.

"Soon," she said aloud as she finished pulling out the cork, and as she started pouring herself a new glass she remembered all the sacrifices her family had made for her.

If it weren't for them... she'd probably be dead too.

"Here's to you, mother and father," Ariesa spoke in her native Draconic tongue as she lifted up her glass in their honor. "How I long for the days... when we danced in the sky and raced under the light of the stars."

Alistair

A Time. Long Ago. [Within Lands Afar, and Different]

CRUNNNNCCHHHHHHH! Pine tree wood, splintered. Frozen earth cracked, and crumbled. Beneath the magnificent, FORCE. Of one, limb. One, boot. That came, lumbering. Down, onto it. One, of Giant-sized proportions. The impact, hurtled. Several, few. Ink black robed, individuals. Into the air....

"Keep at it, curses!" Hissed out. One, of the many. Still, upon the ground. "This one's not as old. As the others. Use the chains. Ready the amulet. And begin the incantations...."

"In your baleful name, Dark One, we call unto you. To do your bidding. Yet again, we shall rid the world of one more. Of these foulest of monstrosities..." began, the chorus of many. Together.

Dark times, require that of. Dark magick, after all.

"Evil. Hide it so that it can be seen. No more! Ast tarran un evile la vamoosh shi sha awei ast. Ast tarran un evile la vamoosh shi sha awei ast. AST TARRAN UN EVILE LA VAMOOSH SHI SHA AWEI AST!"
========================================================================
A Time. More Modern. This Week. [Within the Fishing Village of Tortuga]

"FEEEEE. FIIIIIIIIII. FOHHHH. FUHMMM!" boomed, the voice.

This, stopped him. In his tracks, causing him. To whip, his attention. Over, into that direction.

"I SMELL DUH BLOOD...OF A VILLAGEMAN!" Little the, boys. And girls, cried. Out, in screams. Women, gasped. There was, something of a. Crowd, formed. Around the Town Square. Wherein, one man. Stood, above. Propped up, on a. Wooden box. Continuing his story. "The Giant no sooner declared: BE HE LIVE...OR BE HE DEAD." The man, paused. For effect.

There was a unified. Hush, throughout the. Gathered, together. Audience. The every, one.

"I'll GRIND HIS BONES TUH MAKE ME BREAD!" he bellowed out. That frightened, the living daylights. Out of the, people. Leading to cheers. Laughter. And much, clapping. They, the mite. In attendance, and present. Were eating up, his. His...tale. His story telling. Who didn't like a good scare? From things -- fantastical, or even monstrous -- that obviously, had no place. Here, in the 'real' world. They only had, as much. Life, as the children. That came to, believe. In such, tall tales...

His pupils, had. Dilated, some. As he stood, in this. Thought processing.

And yet. It was a phenomenon, he wasn't. Couldn't be, familiar. With. Perplexing, almost. Enough to have, furrowed. His brows. Where did this imagination, come from? The guy, up there. Performing. To the whims, of the many. Around. How did he. What did he. How was it all possible? Just....where...did the person, acquire. The means, to be able. Hm. To channel, such. Through himself, like that? Unless....did he make it up. All of it? 'They' called it a children's story. Is that, what that means? These. Things. They, don't exist?

Before, blinking away, the dilation. Receding back, unto the mite of his azure irises. It didn't seem like, something. With which, he could. Claim to maintain. Any sense, of. Control. Nor really, wrap. His mind, over. No. Move. Moving. THAT, he was confident. In doing. Passing, through. Not, lingering. Never, staying. One simply, wasn't. Where one just, didn't. Feel, that it was. The 'right' fit, yes? Whatever that meant.

For as long as he could, remember -- which, come to think about it....wasn't really that long ago -- Alistair. Never, quite. Felt, like he belonged. Community or place. As if, everywhere he's ever. Been. Something, had always been. 'Off'. Perhaps, he was the missing link. Pattern. A piece, to an as of yet. Unseen, puzzle. Out there, in the some. Of, where. Phew. Or was that, the. Imagination thing, again?

It didn't matter. His boots, carried. The likes of his being, across. Tortuga's marketplace. He picked up, some. More items of, necessity. Food, water. The shorter, rotund like. Fella eyed him. With beady little eyes. Easily recognizing him, as someone. Not from the area. "Where you headed, stranger?"

This caused him, some. Temporary. Internal, conflict. Had he ever the clue? His blues looked out. In the distance. Far off, some. There seemed to be. Was it. Mountains. "I...don't know." There was white, on the tip. Of some of them. "Maybe. I'll go to those.."

The storekeeper followed, his gaze. In the direction, of the. Mountains. "All the way, over there? Near Mistlake? Why it can get chilly COLD over there, son! You better bundle up -- if you know what's GOOD for you!" He shivered, and made a gesture. With his arms, over his. Shoulders.

The young man, stared. Unfazed. Unblinking. Unhindered. Softly. "The cold's never bothered me. Before..." His blue orbs, returned. To the stout individual. He nodded to him. "Thank you." Acknowledging not, the agape. Mouthed expression, of the other.

It was past time, he were to leave. As it were. And he was planning on. Making the trip. By foot...
========================================================================

Ellie. "Play it Cool."

TearsoftheWorld said:

"Yes, well, you've more than exceeded our expectations. The task before you might seem easy enough, but trust me when I tell you that it isn't. It will test you in ways you've never been tested."

The smile on Ariesa's face faded, and although her voice was more stern than before it wasn't meant to be dissuade her young pupil.

Click to expand...

Ellie maintained her solemnity-- though it was only a superficial solemnity-- her brain was still a-twitter with panic and noise. This was not the true detachment which she demonstrated on occasion, the detachment that made her a little infamous, but not too too much. "That's as should be, M'Lady Professor. The difference between rote learning and true mastery, is, well, freezing up when the wind changes or going with the flow."

TearsoftheWorld said:

"You'll probably need some help too, but we can discuss all this a bit later. Why don't you come back here later tonight? I'll cook up something for us to eat, and we can discuss the terms and conditions of your project. How does that sound?"

Click to expand...

A group project? Oh, this was surprising! Was this a test to see how well she could recruit an adventuring party? Immediately she began picking classmate names out of imaginary hats, trying to come up with a proper formula-- but then, of course, she reminded herself-- one could hardly tailor a team when one didn't know what the mission was. Unless the task was to find a party that could handle anything? Hm.

"Such a meal sounds most agreeable, M'Lady," Ellie tilted her head. "Though I imagine I'll be so helter-skelter I'll forget where my mouth is."

And then they parted ways, Ellie's mind racing...

...and it didn't stop for an instant, not for breath or daydream, until she returned to Ariesa's study later that night, and lifted her fist to knock on the door...

...only then to stop, and to listen.

TearsoftheWorld said:

"Here's to you, mother and father," Ariesa spoke in her native Draconic tongue as she lifted up her glass in their honor. "How I long for the days... when we danced in the sky and raced under the light of the stars."

Click to expand...

Ellie didn't understand a word of it. (She could read Draconic, this was as essential learning as magical languages got, but so far as she knew it was a dead tongue and she'd never heard it spoken before.) She wondered if this was some sort of enchantment? Or a benediction-- an invocation for some pantheonic entity or entities to adjudicate or supervise Ellie's test?

...what a curious thing to do, this must be a matter of grave concern indeed!

Ellie steeled herself anew, and rapped her knuckles on the wood.

"Professor?"

"Professor?"

Ariesa turned and smiled when she looked upon Ellie standing near the doorway. She set her glass down on the table and moved to open the door more fully for her young assistant to pass through. The hinges creaked as the door was opened, but Ariesa hadn't bothered to have that eerie sound fixed. In point of fact, she rather liked it.

"Come on in. Dinner's almost ready," the older mage said as she approached the table with her own glass of wine. "Can I get you something to drink?"

Ariesa had accumulated a wide array of beverages for her personal collection in the past few months, but some of her favorite drinks she had to constantly resupply. She had everything from jugs of fresh water to freshly brewed tea, wine, and other assorted spirits. One of the tables, resting against the far wall and positioned under one of the windows overlooking the courtyard, had several bowls placed on its surface with a variety of salad greens and mixed vegetables.

The dark-haired mage had become quite fond of green peppers, and she had an entire bowl filled with nothing but sliced portions of them.

Ariesa had already picked out a few and was snacking on them as she prepared the rest of their meal. She asked her assistant about the rest of her day, then sat down at the main dining table with a new glass of wine... and the book she'd been waiting to open and show to Ellie all day. It wasn't a very large book, but its contents were almost as old as she was... and that was saying something.

Way beyond simple incantations and traveling spells.

(No bedknobs required)

Ariesa turned the book around to face her student, and she opened it to a specially marked page.

Whether or not her pupil could read the words written on the page was irrelevant.

The older mage pointed her finger at the drawing of a crystal focus towards the top of the page.

"This is going to be your project," she explained. "An object such as this hasn't existed in this world for many years. Very few even know of its existence. Thankfully, the material components to craft such an object are still around... but they're scattered throughout the world. Some of them will be easy enough to obtain; the rest will not be so easy."

Gold dust.

Crystal vials.

Arcane shards.

Wood from a weat tree.

Three hearts of sapphire.

Astral Essence.

Dragon's blood.

Ariesa would be able to provide the last ingredient herself, along with a few other minor components. While some parts of the text in the book had faded, Ariesa had little difficulty discerning the location of most of the pieces needed to complete the focus. She stood up from the table and went to retrieve a few maps she'd "borrowed" from the archives. Most of the territories marked on the maps were no longer there, but she didn't need, or want, modern maps.

One of the older charts had bits of Draconic written on it, and Ariesa translated the riddles as best she could while she serving their meal for the night. Most of the riddles referred to places where certain objects could be obtained, such as a heart of sapphire and a weat tree, but Ariesa didn't need a centuries-old riddle to tell her where to come up with an Astral Essence or Arcane Shard.

"So... do you think you're up for a good scavenger hunt?"

Ellie. "There's no business like snow business."

TearsoftheWorld said:

"Come on in. Dinner's almost ready," the older mage said as she approached the table with her own glass of wine. "Can I get you something to drink?"

Click to expand...

"Dinner?" Ellie hesitated. "...drink?"

Even now, she found herself tongue-tied and starstruck, and awed of Ariesa. Was there nothing her teacher couldn't do, didn't know? Like she had the accumulated learnings of a hundred dozen lifetimes...

But she managed to shake it off. Out of the proffered beverages, she selected a tea mixed with lemonade-- and was surprised, when she sipped it, that it was room temperature.

Then, of course, it dawned on her. Oh. Right.

And with just the gentlest exertion of power, the cup frosted o'er... and the beverage was perfectly chilled.

TearsoftheWorld said:

One of the tables, resting against the far wall and positioned under one of the windows overlooking the courtyard, had several bowls placed on its surface with a variety of salad greens and mixed vegetables.

Click to expand...

Westbrook, hardscrabble place though it had been, had somehow managed to be a farming town-- enough to live off of, anyway. And Ellie could not help but express a bit of joy indeed at such lush greenery. She picked up a little cherry tomato almost instinctively and popped it into her mouth. It was wonderful.

TearsoftheWorld said:

She asked her assistant about the rest of her day, then sat down at the main dining table with a new glass of wine... and the book she'd been waiting to open and show to Ellie all day.

Click to expand...

Her day had been a blur, quite frankly.

Numerology had almost been a joke-- she'd misnamed several Major Arcana in a surprise examination in Divination, the old haruspex who taught the class had turned the color of a beetroot-- Glossolalia had gone a little better, she didn't have the gift of tongues in the slightest but she'd managed a very nice short chat with a cart-horse in the courtyard where they'd been practicing-- no, her mind had been on her True Knack, her heart's craft-- her elemental specialty. Aquamancy and Cryomancy.

She had been thinking about Ariesa all day.

And now this. Sitting with something so mundane as food and drink-- and this book open before them. Hastily, Ellie moved her glass of tea and lemonade away so she didn't erroneously spill it. Of course, in an instant, either Ellie or Ariesa could easily redirect any spilled liquid, but Ellie was far too flustered to think so four-dimensionally.

That book.

TearsoftheWorld said:

Ariesa turned the book around to face her student, and she opened it to a specially marked page.

Whether or not her pupil could read the words written on the page was irrelevant.

Click to expand...

She couldn't. Well. Maybe. Given time? Maybe. But probably not.

TearsoftheWorld said:

The older mage pointed her finger at the drawing of a crystal focus towards the top of the page.

"This is going to be your project," she explained. "An object such as this hasn't existed in this world for many years. Very few even know of its existence. Thankfully, the material components to craft such an object are still around... but they're scattered throughout the world. Some of them will be easy enough to obtain; the rest will not be so easy."

Click to expand...

It was then that there came a curious feeling in Ellie's heart, like rising and falling all at once.

Rising because this-- this-- this was bigger than she could ever have imagined-- she had rarely if ever been outside of her tiny town of Westbrook before she'd come to The Tower, and she'd felt like that was the whole of the world. But this-- maps stretching from horizon to horizon-- these were incalculable distances, she would see such wonders-- her eyes eagerly drank in those snippets of Draconic, oh, they were archaic even for Draconic, and that language was dusty and ecclesiastic as it was.

Even with a working knowledge of the language, she needed Ariesa to translate those riddles-- and then her brow still furrowed over the meanings of the twisty, tricky words. Golden treasure inside is hid? ...what?

How do you collect Astral Essence? Isn't it... astral?

Falling because-- she'd thought-- this would be her graduation night. But oh, there was such a long and winding road ahead of her yet. Such a road-- it went ever ever on.

But worth it to walk, in the end. She felt certain.

TearsoftheWorld said:

"So... do you think you're up for a good scavenger hunt?"

Click to expand...

Ellie sputtered, almost dropped the fork she'd forgotten she was holding. "Scaveng--"

She shook her head. "This isn't a scavenger hunt, Professor. This is a quest. Like paladins of old journeying after some mythic sangreal, or a fellowship trying to unmake a primal artifact--"

Ellie stopped and realized what she was saying. Realized that this was. Exactly. What Ariesa was asking of her.

This was no mere graduation. This was--

--this was--

--this was the stuff of legend.

Ellie opened her mouth. And shut it again. And her eyes searched the nowhere of the middle distance as she processed this realization.

With a dawning grin, she gazed up at her beautiful mentee and bit her lip with a nod.

"When do we leave?"

When Ariesa directed her pupil's attention towards the book, she studied the young girl carefully, and her lips curled into a soft smile as Ellie looked at the page carefully... almost in pure reverence... as if the words would either come dancing off the pages, or disappear entirely.

Considering the world they lived in, either one could have likely occurred.

Thankfully, it was not that kind of book.

After setting down the maps and explaining what the components of the focus were and where they could be found, Ariesa sat back in her chair and took a sip of her wine.

"This isn't a scavenger hunt, Professor. This is a quest. Like paladins of old journeying after some mythic sangreal, or a fellowship trying to unmake a primal artifact--"

You have no idea.

Ariesa waited.

Her lips curled into a grin.

She waited.

Finally, her eyes lit up as her young student turned to her and grinned as well.

"When do we leave?"

"At the end of the week, I should hope. I'll make all the arrangements with your other teachers, so if there's anything you want to do before then, I suggest you take some time and prepare yourself."

Ariesa took one of the maps and turned it around so that she didn't have to crane her neck to read it.

"The first item on our list will be the wood from a weat tree," she said as she turned the map back around and pointed towards a part of the parchment that had started to fade.

"The wood is incredibly durable, and it will serve as the handle for the focus. Unfortunately, there aren't too many places left where weat trees are known to grow. Most of the forests were cut down years ago, and cut down far faster than newer trees could be planted. But," Ariesa continued as she tapped the map with her finger, "if we're to find any, this will be the best place for us to look," she said.

"It's outside of a town called Cargan. Sparsely populated, and the closest fortification is many leagues away, so it's likely that there'll be a few trees left standing," Ariesa said, then quickly tapped her knuckles against the table so as not to tempt fate.

Ellie. "In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed."

TearsoftheWorld said:

"At the end of the week, I should hope. I'll make all the arrangements with your other teachers, so if there's anything you want to do before then, I suggest you take some time and prepare yourself."

Click to expand...

Belatedly, this gave Ellie pause. Of course, of course, she had other lessons-- how could she carry on her schoolwork in other classes when she was on the road? Some sort of freeform independent study? She'd have to bring all her books-- updated syllabi-- Glossolalia should be simple enough, "try to talk with four animals every day, journal your results," except her results would probably be dismal-- would she be able to contact her teachers if she had questions?

Maybe some sort of courier spell? A seeing-stone, or a magic mirror, or a crystal ball?

But-- but-- of course, Ariesa would handle it. Of course.

...Ellie had only to prepare herself.

How do you prepare for something like this? I mean, obviously I'll have to-- tell my classmates I'll miss them. Write a letter home to tell them the news. But-- but prep for the thing itself?

It sounded like there would be a lot of walking.

...I'm going to need better shoes.

TearsoftheWorld said:

Ariesa took one of the maps and turned it around so that she didn't have to crane her neck to read it.

"The first item on our list will be the wood from a weat tree," she said as she turned the map back around and pointed towards a part of the parchment that had started to fade.

"The wood is incredibly durable, and it will serve as the handle for the focus. Unfortunately, there aren't too many places left where weat trees are known to grow. Most of the forests were cut down years ago, and cut down far faster than newer trees could be planted. But," Ariesa continued as she tapped the map with her finger, "if we're to find any, this will be the best place for us to look," she said.

"It's outside of a town called Cargan. Sparsely populated, and the closest fortification is many leagues away, so it's likely that there'll be a few trees left standing," Ariesa said, then quickly tapped her knuckles against the table so as not to tempt fate.

Click to expand...

Ellie watched and listened with studious, unwavering, riveted senses as Ariesa laid down the first of their places-to-be and things-to-do.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Weat tree. Cargan. Rapid deforestation. Terrible shame, no respect, what if there were wood-sprites or dryads in those trees? But at least it sounded like there would be new growth?

--and then she found herself jostled from such super-serious thinking by the simple act of staving off a very old-fashioned superstition. And the irony. Knocking on wood when talking about trees...

...Ellie lit up at the thought of it, and she beamed at her teacher.

"I'm sure there will be. I mean, your reasoning sounds... sound. And if there's not any there for whatever reason, we can keep looking."

And then she squinted one eye. "And if all else fails we can go to one of those fortifications and ask if we can hack off a chunk."