Crystalline Undeath [Closed to Rehtul and Crystal]

[Flamebird]

Her eyes fluttered open.

Her face was pretty much glued to the pages of a book. The chair she in felt stiff and rigid. She reached and gently peeled the pool pages off her face. She hazily sat up, looking down on a book detailing the intricities of Post Shattered Tap magic. The words were blurred to her as she struggled to wake up. She closed her eyes, shaking her head a few times, she reached back. She smoothed her hair down and opened her eyes.

This library was ginormous. Elven architecture swirled in golden beams and dainty walls. The redwood bookshelves were carved as if meant to be seen as living wood. The halls between isles were expansive and roomy, and the reading area in the front of the room was even more massive. She looked up, the ceiling curved up in a towering dome, stain glass allowing light to filter down from the outside world. This library was indeed fantastic. Felicity had spent her first hour here gawking at the gorgeous library.

Then, of course, the bad part. Sitting.

Felicity was here because she wanted to learn a style of magic from her friend Rehtul Orlouge. He had agreed to train her, after much pestering on the young woman's part, and had brought her here to... read.

Ugh.

Felicity loathed being forced to stay in one spot.

She looked down again, piles of books were stacked before her, waiting to be read. Her eyes crossed. Why. So. Many? She groaned, like a toddler being forced to eat greens. Reluctantly, she bent down to read another page.

At least these books were so boring, she could fall asleep without having nightmares.

With a sigh, she pressed her elbow against the table and plopped her chin in her palm. She flipped another page, reading over its contents. Felicity wanted to learn ice magic, and Rehtul was an expert in the art. She felt goosebumps on her back just thinking about ice magic. She made it look like to Rehtul that it just seemed cool, she wanted to learn ice magic out of curiosity. She did, in fact, hide her real reasons for wanting to learn.

Exposure therapy. Felicity was deathly scared of ice magic, due to past traumas from her first mentor. Felicity was hoping that if she could learn ice magic, she could overcome this fear. She also could one up on her lover's collection of elemental powers. That was definitely a plus. She blinked sadly, she missed him already.

No time to think on that, however. Or, there was all the time in this boring book nook, but Rehtul wanted her to gorge her mind in useless knowledge instead of training. Either way, she had reading to do. So read she did.

[Sugarp1e1]

Above the mortal girl, on lepidopteran wings, a Faerie flitted about from shelf to shelf. She skimmed through each title, looking for something, anything, to silence these thoughts.

"We need science."
"We need magic."
"We need to relax."
"We need to move."
"We need release."

The Faerie was only sure of one thing: this needed to end.

One half of her wanted to continue searching, the other just wanted to accept her fate. She knew this was no way to live, but couldn't help but admit to herself that she was in over her head.

After all, who exactly has a cure for having five extra souls?

An exorcism wasn't an option. The Faerie didn't want these souls gone; just separated from her body.

She knew how she got herself into this mess, so she had an idea of how to get out. But the concept of creating empty bodies isn't exactly something she's had any luck in finding, especially bodies that resemble the one you may have lost.

Years of searching. Nothing to show for it.

The Faerie shook her head, her clawed hands covering her eyes and scratching her forehead. The ground directly below her slowly began to freeze and frost began to form on the surrounding bookshelves.

Not wanting to pay for any damages to the books, the Faerie withdrew from the shelves. She briskly swooped over the tables below her, looking for an empty table to calm herself at.

The Faerie's wings kicked up a slight breeze, strong enough to ruffle some papers, but she felt it better than the alternative of freezing some poor sap's reading material.

Fortunately, she found a table to sit, away from the readers. Her head still in her hands, she took deep shaken breaths.

"You need to stop."
"You have to find a way."
"You reap what you sow."
"You aren't helping."
"You've cursed us all."

Ice and frost continued to form around the Faerie, her frozen tears falling onto the table with tiny clinks. The sound of tinkling bells.

[Celandine]

Vast. Glorious. Magnificent. The rafters stretched high above her, huge and arching that spoke of skill in architecture which belonged to ancient masters. Shelves upon shelves, row upon row, spread out underneath them like a blanket of knowledge merely waiting to be plucked. It was a fresh buffet for any starving and eager mind, open for all but limited to only those who knew the languages and understood the deeper meanings.

It was advantageous, then, that she was who she was. Celandine, born of Philomel Van Der Aart, the famous Matriarch, and blessed by the tree goddess Drys. The young half faun had not only grown up several times faster than was natural but also could take in, comprehend and use any knowledge within a quarter of the time of an average being. Learning weaponry had become instinctual. Picking up a new language had become simple. Reading - well, despite technically not even being a decade old yet she could easily breeze her way through a full dictionary in little more than an hour.

There were currently four to her side. Each one a dictionary of various themes. One of phrases and quotations. One of mythological creatures and their symbology. One of literary names and meanings. And the last ...

Currently she was going through something similar - a basic dictionary of common augury symbols and their meanings. For too long now had she been suffering under her prophetic dreams, with often little knowledge of what they actually were trying to tell her. Yes, in basics they showed an image of the day to come, an insight into a danger she might face or a person she might meet. However, more and more there was strange and wondrous other sightings in her dreams. A deer with a mighty crown, for instance, in the middle of a very urban town before she had narrowly avoided a bar brawl. A giant, whose hair tickled the sky when she had actually ended up being in a field of poppies with nobody in sight. A bird that seemed to be on fire before the day she had witnessed a crime of forestry arson. That was why she had come to this library, to better understand herself and her abilities. Because phoenixes rarely flew where she was bound. And giants were infrequently that tall.

She sighed a little but kept reading, oblivious to the faerie who broke down weeping, the nuclear lass becoming frustrated, and the blue-haired mage who was somewhere hidden amongst the shelves.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Treatise on the Creation of Artificial Life, by Darnaeus Goldweather, lay open on the table in front of the mage Rehtul Orlouge as he adjusted his glasses. He had come to Raiaera partially to get some books on elemental magical practice to help his friend Felicity in their training, but he had an ulterior motive. Creating homunculi seemed to be a very involved process that required vast sums of resources and no small amount of skill. It was fortunate, then, that the man had both in spades.

That would have to be put to the side for the moment, it would seem. Even in the gilded halls of the Raiaeran libraries, the fidgeting of the uncultured could still get under one's skin. Hadn't she ever been required to sit and read reports from her underlings in that military organization she was a part of, or was she more of a bully sergeant type that always required some level of action to be able to function at all.

The young man snapped his notebook closed with a sigh and turned to face the redhead next to him with a look that practically screamed, "If you don't stop fidgeting I'm going to drop a hundred kilos of ice directly on your head." After a few moments of finding his better nature, however, he merely rubbed the bridge of his nose and slid his notebook into one of the voluminous pockets hidden in his jacket.

"You know, you asked me to train you. I told you I learned everything I know from books and built on it through trial and error from there."

Indeed, the girl had incessantly called on him, and only a week or so after the young Hanuh had left his personal care for her trip to Berevar. It had gotten lonely, after he'd finally catalogued everything in the old man's lab. Of course, he'd also found some notes labeled with Felicity's last name, though he wasn't particularly keen to discuss that information with her until he was certain she'd be okay talking about whatever this man had done to her.

The sound of tinkling bells caught the young man's ear. He turned to a desk about halfway across the room from him and saw little out of the ordinary besides a small droplet of water. He shrugged internally and turned his attention back to Felicity, under the impression that he had simply caused the air's temperature to fall in his irritation over the girl's inability to sit still for even five seconds.

"What did you expect when I agreed to teach you magecraft?!" he whispered to her harshly.

Then, softer, he said, "Look... to master a craft that has a crystalline structure, one must be able to still their mind and emotions and hone them into sharpened edges. The first step is to learn the fundamentals of what kind of magical forces you're working with and how to apply them. Until you know how to use the magic safely, I'm not teaching you a single practical thing. You know what happens if you accidentally cut yourself."

[Flamebird]

In her own little world, she really could see nothing outside the table, a cross Rehtul, and her own fears. Felicity was hot headed and stubborn. If challenged to a fight, she was going to fight. She had met Rehtul in the Citadel after all. Still, she knew he was right. Even down to calming one's mind. Yet how on earth was she supposed to do that? It frightened her, as she was unable to even stay still without thinking, and thinking often times lead to thoughts surrounding her past. Leoric had a history of literally dragging her to bed and knocking her out to get her to sleep at all. She was too busy doing something, anything to avoid her internal terror.

She sighed, looking away from Rehtul with a frustrated frown and furrowed forehead. She gritted her teeth. How on earth was she supposed to do this? Everything from Rehtul's teaching style to how the magic worked was against everything Felicity was. She was always emotional, always feeling. Yet, she knew perfectly well that unresearched, experimental powers could lead to ruin, mistakes, and terrible side effects and damage. Her nuclear powers, which activated every time she bled, were a testimony to this. No wonder she wore heavy clothes, including gloves, boots, and an outfit that covered everything from the neck down. She nodded slowly, her heart pounding inside her chest. She clenched her fist, the fabric of her glove making a rubbing sound.

"Yeah, yeah, I know... but sitting still has always been hard for me." Even more so, since her PTSD formed.

She looked down at the documents and books, feeling overwhelmed. It clearly showed with her wide eyes and daunted expression. She bit her lip, though not hard enough to make it bleed. She felt her jittery anxiety lightning striking inside every nerve in her body. She closed her eyes, practicing some deep breaths. After a moment, she opened her eyes and turned to Rehtul.

"I'll admit, this is different than how anyone else has taught me. Teaching me to swim by pushing me into the water and stuff." She smiled a bit, "But caution and safety is a breath of fresh air. I do appreciate this, Rehtul.. I really do." She looked back down to the book opened in front of her, "I am trying to read this..."

[Sugarp1e1]

With a sniffle and a sigh, the Faerie's hands finally left her face, her fingers and claws dragging down her cheeks and exposing the gray underside of her lower eyelids as they did. She quickly wiped her tears off the table, making more of that bell sound as they shatter onto the floor.

The ice and frost began to melt, leaving shallow puddles and a damp wall behind her.

"I better leave before someone notices." she thought.

No longer having the motivation to fly, she stood up from her chair and stretched, clasping her fingers together, pointing them inward and pushing out her arms into the air. Her second and third pairs, though Glamoured to be invisible to everyone around her, were also stretching. The Faerie could feel her muscles flexing as she leaned backward and lifted her four extra arms.

Her fingers abruptly released and her arms fell back to the side of her being, almost limp. She stayed in this awkward leaning position for a bit before straightening herself.

"I wonder if there's any creative fiction around here."

Hoping to decompress and continue her research later, the Faerie furled her wings and wandered aimlessly between the shelves wondering what to read, not even acknowledging the two mortals who were bickering at the desk.

"At least they've gone quiet again. Maybe now I can hold myself together."

But she could still feel them.

Their frustration.

Their sadness.

Their confusion.

Their fear.

Their hatred.

[Celandine]

Once finished the current dictionary Celandine stood, her mind having taken in some of the words directly and significantly, the others remaining as distant understandings to be plucked at at a later time. Pursing her lips she thoughts about how she knew now that a deer could be associated with the ability to overcome obstacles, or express a connection to an ability to be resolute but also kind. Did that mean that very soon she was to come across some obstacle? Certainly she had been seeing a few different species of the cervid ungulates in her dreams. Although last night she could have sworn that she had seen a winged insectoid like creature with multiple arms.

Stretching, groaning, she picked up the dictionaries and began to reshelve them. That research would do for now. At this moment she was tired and was beginning to feel somewhat hungry. Food. Food would be good. Perhaps some dried fruit and nuts, and she was sure she had some foccaica bread somewhere rolled up in a wax cloth at the bottom of her bag.

Sliding the tomes home beside their comrades on the bookshelves Celandine padded her hooves a couple of times before looking left and right. She could hear distant voices now, ones that seemed to be arguing. But all she could see was book shelf after shelf. Grunting softly she nodded and picked a random direction, the clunk of her goat legs making a quiet rhythm on the rugs of the floor.

But she must have been very quiet. Too quiet. Because no sooner had she turned her first corner than she came face to face, crashing into a small and young-faced woman.

"Sorry!" She felt her miniature horns butt lightly on the girl's skull. Lifting up her hands she stumbled back with the impact, but was already apologetic and appalled. "Sorry!"

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul sighed and tapped his finger against his chin, wondering how such a very reckless individual had come to ask him, one of the most careful of the Orlouge family, to help her learn how to use magic.It was quite the intriguing series of events, he had to admit, but it was clear that she wasn't really cut out for reading books that required an intense amount of concentration. He stood up and stretched and adjusted his glasses once more to settle more correctly on the bridge of his nose.

"Honestly, I don't think you're getting much out of that book by sitting there staring at one page for twenty minutes at a time," he said as he brought crossed an arm over his chest and stretched before doing the same with the other one.

"Maybe we should try something a little different. I'll be right back, I'm going to see if I can find a book with some exercises we can do to help you get the hang of ice magic in a way more natural to your way of doing things," Rehtul said. He slipped out from in front of his chair, slid it under the table.

He wandered through the myriad shelves with a half smile on his face, amused that he had found a student who was so far his opposite in learning style. As he turned a corner, he came close to running into the hindquarters of a faun.

The chestnut hair of the faun looked vaguely familiar to the young man, and without thinking about it too hard he blurted out, "Philomel?"

He hadn't seen the woman since the time they had "technically" faced off in the Citadel, though he recalled it ended up more him keeping her pet elemental occupied for a few minutes, like playing with a dog. They hadn't talked for long afterward, other than thanking each other for the battle and leaving, though the experience was still memorable enough to the young man to warrant remembering her name.

There was also the fact that his network of assassins and informants kept tabs on her as a high priority person of interest, but he'd never willingly divulge that particular fact.

[Flamebird]

Felicity stood up when Rehtul left. Finally! An agreement of some kind! She took a step back from the desk, placing her foot against the seat and stretching her toned leg. As she switched to the other leg, she muttered to herself. She missed New Brookshaven, her home in Corone. She was hoping she could learn these powers quickly, then return home. Unfortunately, despite her affinity for magic, it seemed like this would take longer than she thought. She stretched her upper body, sighing, as she worried more about the whole calming your mind thing.

Did she really have to?

She looked around after stretching. Rehtul still had not returned. With an irritated groan, she turned and walked towards the direction he left in. Wandering the halls, she adjusted her heavy clothes a bit. Wondering if Leoric was right in this training being a stupid move, she turned a corner to see Rehtul caught up in conversation with others.

The first individual she noticed was someone she knew. Philomel's daughter, Celandine, whom she had met during her time in the Brotherhood of Castigars. The other individual was a fae, at least from what she could tell. The strange fae had the look of a more insectoid creature than most, with wings like a butterfly. They were quite gorgeous, actually. Felicity shook her hands, placing her one hand on a hip. She hung back, waiting for Rehtul to finish.

"Thaynes," She muttered to herself, "This is turning into those bland blabbermouth Brotherhood meetings I always was forced to sit through."

[Sugarp1e1]

The collision with the goat-legged mortal expelled a puff of snow from the Faerie's body as she reflexively unfurled her wings. The impact briefly dispelled the Glamour, revealing the Faerie's true form, before she regained her composure and the Glamour took hold once more.

The Faerie wasn't sure of how much this mortal had seen, but she had a feeling her arms, having been lifted on impulse, would've been the first to be noticed. Or maybe this mortal hadn't seen anything at all, what with her evident focus being on apologizing profusely for bumping into the Faerie.

"Who is this?"

Unsure of what to make of this...goat thing she hadn't seen before, the Faerie kept her wings erect and slowly flapping, not enough to induce flight but just enough to get moving in a pinch should things turn sour. Or maybe dissipating would be a better alternative.

"It's just a mortal, you cur."
"I think this may be faun."
"Yeah, nothing to worry about."
"Mortals can have goat legs and horns?!"
"Just try not to kill her."

This "faun", as they put it, didn't seem to be a member of the Sway. It would be rather reckless of these hunters to make another attempt at her life in a public area like this, wouldn't it? Plus, she didn't appear to have any armor or weapons with which to..."safely" dispatch the Faerie.

As she was thinking this, another mortal appeared behind the faun, this one a blue-haired fellow with a strong magical aura about him. Now this mortal definitely looked more the part of somebody who would want the Faerie's head, the sight of him causing her heartbeat to quicken.

But not out of fear.

No.

Out of elation.

But she had to contain herself. This was no place to deliver punishment.

An icy mist forming around her being, and keeping her fanged smiles to herself, the Faerie finally spoke to the faun.

"It's fine. I'm okay."