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Post by trashpanda on Jun 13, 2018 21:09:37 GMT -5
Logan felt him draw close, felt the malice dance along her skin like electricity. Her eyes were focused on a spot on the wall, drifting as she relied on her other senses. She held very still, trying to discern what had upset him. So far as she was concerned, she was as guilty of entering his mind as someone who knocks on a door is guilty of entering a house.
The malice ebbed, and she felt him draw away. His thoughts were more muted now, but she felt them shift from rage to... concern, or maybe reserve. There was a long silence. And then he admitted to... some sort of history. She wondered who this woman was, and how bad it had been. On the one hand, she had no doubt that the mental arts could be used for unspeakable cruelty, but on the other, many had a visceral reaction to telepathy or empathy that they wouldn't have for a more physical art. Farrhago was honest but... she wondered if he wasn't prone to exaggeration.
But something bad must have happened. Where was the woman? The child? What had happened to them?
Logan's brow knit at his apology, more confused now that his mood had shifted. For most, it was inherently difficult to trust her kind, especially if they'd had any kind of adverse experience in the past. She resisted the urge to push at his defenses - she didn't understand, and to not know what was on someone's mind was an unfamiliar feeling.
When he continued, she frowned. Honestly, she was unfamiliar with how physical magic worked. She tended to use names as a focus to help her reach for a specific mind. They didn't work as well as touch, but she was far more dangerous knowing someone's name than not. Besides, she had a less-than-obscure past in the region. In certain circles, she was implicated in a scandal several cities over. Sordid business, mages meddling in civic affairs. And she wasn't innocent, even if Eric had been the one executed for it. Only a handful of people would remember her face, but names traveled.
But, to be fair, she had his name. She weighed it in her mind, and considered her odds should she have to use it. She nodded, then said, "My name is Logan, and I don't know who you're speaking of. I worked for Eric of Eddenbar."
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Teegan
Junior Member
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Post by Teegan on Jun 15, 2018 1:01:15 GMT -5
'Logan', he thought, laughing internally at it. Typically, a male's name. That would suit her well, as anyone who overheard the name would probably assume such, and be on the lookout for a male mage, and not this woman before him. For all he knew, this could be a fake name, like the one he had adopted many years ago when he had been transformed into this feral shape. He stored the name, and the fact it could easily be a fake, in the back of his mind, saving it for a later date. "She goes by the name of Chelyrra," he said, motioning to the table and chairs that began to rise up towards the ceiling as they had before, his scratchings now visible before her. He had nearly completed the circle and all the runes he needed for the spell. "It means 'ruler' or 'queen' in ancient Elvish, if you're not well versed in that tongue," he added. "She fancies herself the greatest sorceress of the age," he scoffed, showing his obvious disagreement.
"I was her apprentice about a century ago," he continued, moving to the scratched circle and continuing to etch a few more runes in the floor with his claw. "She made me what I am today," he finished, using his free paw to indicate his body." As he put the finishing touches on the spell, his glanced up at her. "I used to be human," he chuckled. "Handsome, at least in my own opinion, and should probably have been long dead by now." He sighed. "But, as you know, the magic I use has continued to fuel my life, and I have been going now for nearly one hundred and thirty years." He looked up at the ceiling, doing some mental math. "I'd say I have about fifty more years left in me before my time, and Chelyrra has maybe ten. Fifteen, if she's taking care of herself." He stood and moved to the bowl of water she had brought that he had placed on the nightstand next to his bed.
He carried it carefully so as not to spill any, and placed the bowl in the center of the circle of runes he had carved and knelt before it. "Although, I plan to cut that short by as much as possible," he mused aloud, a devilish grin dancing about his snout. As he looked to Logan, the smile faded. "I'm looking to see where she is, if she's keeping anyone with her," he informed her. "I want to try to see if I can figure out what I'll be up against when I finally track her down."
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Post by trashpanda on Jun 20, 2018 12:52:07 GMT -5
He didn't react to her name, which was a blessing. Not that she would have expected him to run in her circles, with the face of a wolf.
But one worry replaced another. This woman they were hunting was experienced, and a mental worker. If Farrahgo's accounts were accurate, she could tear apart significant mental defenses easily, fend off physical magic well enough to mount a mental attack, and transform humans into half-wolves. She wondered if this was really the best partnership - mages were few and far between, but this man was on a collision course with the most powerful mage she'd ever heard of.
Then again, she couldn't think of a reason not to help tonight. This man could use her help, and the spell was simple enough, if powerful. She nodded to him - he would need as much information as they could get. She cast her magic out through the entire inn again, to make sure they were safe. Besides the one man who was thinking on turning them in - he wasn't very bright, thinking that loudly when he was planning on crossing her - it was quiet.
She read over his scratchings, checking the runes. They weren't incorrect, but Eric had shown her how to add a layer of protection to a scrying spell. They would need it, if they were going to look for Chelyrra. She reached for her magic to show him the changes mentally, then hesitated and looked around for a writing implement. One of the nails was loose in the door jam, and she worked it loose. Kneeling next to him, she scratched in the extra runes and sketched an intersecting circle.
Looking into the bowl of water, she took a deep breath, and fed all of her will into the circle.
She was in a clearing in the forest. Moss hung from the trees, and the air was heavy. It was colder than it was at the inn. She saw a crone sitting by the fire, small and weathered, uncomfortably thin. She was muttering to herself - a spell, maybe. Farrahgo would follow her in, Logan thought, and he could see this much. She would focus on the advantage her power would give her.
She reached out to scan the entire area, stretching her focus as far as she could go. A hungry, brazen energy hung in the air. She assumed it was the magic of the place.
A direct attack immediately looked bad - there were camps dotted through the next mile of forest, belonging to lean people with simple thoughts. She could feel hunger, fist fights over casual insults, the thrill of rolling bone dice. Mercenaries.
Then she felt... a void. Across the clearing, a younger woman sat against a tree, spinning a complex charm, her features placid. No thoughts were coming from her at all. Logan gathered her concentration to reach for the woman's shields, when she felt something else.
A man strode into the clearing, bringing the energy with him. His eyes were sharp, his features angular and scarred. He looked every inch the sellsword - he wore mismatched, repaired armor and no clear colors, and everything was in slight disorder. The feeling hanging over the clearing suddenly had a direction, and thoughts. It wasn't dark magic, she realized. It was his mind.
His name was Sebastian Ward, and his mind was completely open. It wasn't that his wards were down - the minds of most people were poorly shielded. This man's thoughts had been stripped of any natural defenses. They were practically writ large in the air around her. It was unusual, fascinating. More out of reflex than thought, she reached for his mind to hold it, to absorb as much information as she could.
It was a mistake. Images and thoughts started flooding through her mind, too fast to control, too painful to process. She withdrew from the vision so quickly that it took her a minute to reorient, her breathing panicked.
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Teegan
Junior Member
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Post by Teegan on Jun 22, 2018 3:55:49 GMT -5
He watched as she scratched a few more symbols into his spellwork, curious as to what she was doing, and made a mental note to ask her afterwards. They were symbols he had never seen before, and while he didn't fully trust the woman, he didn't distrust her either. He didn't know if her symbols would make the spell more easy to trace, or harder. From what he understood of runes, the circles she had drawn would help make their own location much more secure from eyes that may try to look back. He knew circles tended to be used for safety and security, or at least that's the symbolism he had learned of them when it came to runes. The other symbols were completely foreign to him, and he prayed they were not used as a tracking signal. That paired with the strengthening circles she used would spell disaster, but he had hoped all he had said of the 'Queen' would be enough to not have Logan betray him.
Logan closed her eyes, but he did not. His mental prowess was nothing compared to even the most novice of mental mage. He knew she would almost be teleported to the place in which Chelyrra and any she kept with her would be. He, on the other hand, could only lean forward and focus on the bowl of water. Having her there and being able to piggyback on her abilities made the image appear and focus much quicker than it would have had be been doing it all on his own, and he was grateful for that. He saw the field she stood in, almost as if looking through her eyes. He reached out to her mind to touch the very surface, only to experience what she was. He cursed his mental frailty more now than ever. Had she not been there, he would have only had this image before him. No sound, no smell, nothing. He would have to hope to the gods above that there was some significant landmark he recognized or feature of the land that would give the location away. He immediately recognized the trees. There weren't many places he knew of that had moss-covered trees, at least to the point where the leaves intermingled with the moss as much as they did here. "Crestfall valley," he murmured to himself as he narrowed his eyes.
He recognized the huddled mass that was Chelyrra before the fire, but couldn't place the girl. He was staring intently at her, taking in every detail, doing everything he could to recognize her, but she was a recent acquisition. She looked young. Barely past puberty, he'd guess, though ever since he had turned ninety five, he had become terrible at guessing ages. He could feel the vague feeling of emptiness when he concentrated, a result of Logan, he knew. This sensation was new. Oh, how his anger at his inabilities now turned to that of jealousy of what she was experiencing. He felt her gaze shift to a new presence, and he turned his gaze to the man as well. Definitely a sword-for-hire. Farrahgo had seen plenty in his old age, and this man fit their description to a 'T'. 'Sebastian Ward' came leaping out in his mind, and he immediately knew she had discovered the man's name somehow. He felt as if this man were like an open book, ready for reading, when a shock struck him, causing his mind to leap back into itself and fortify the walls he had built.
As Logan came back to reality, removed for the scene, the vision on the surface of the water became extremely hazy and nearly unreadable. He shifted his attention wholly on that, though it was of no use. By the time he had devoted any fraction of his power to that, the image was gone. He cursed audibly, then rounded on her. "What happened," he demanded, more out of curiosity than anger. "Why did you recoil? What did you see?"
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Post by trashpanda on Jun 22, 2018 13:42:02 GMT -5
Her mind, usually open and agile, had contracted in self defense. Images, emotions hung in her mind. Sebastian's world had bled into her memory as strongly as if she'd possessed him, and it was... twisted. She took a deep breath, and tried to tune back into the energy of the inn. Frustration - that must be Farrahgo - and the incoherent emotions of sleeping people came back to her.
What had happened was that she'd been a fool. She'd been drawn to Sebastian's open mind like a moth to a flame, and she'd burned herself. But she'd never seen anything like it before - to be fair, she was inexperienced, and this could be common elsewhere. She wondered if he'd been born that way, or if he'd gone mad, or if he'd been driven mad...
Then she remembered what Farrahgo had said when she'd reached for his mind earlier.
"I saw... quite a lot. I'm not sure what any of it means, as of yet." She frowned. "You said she'd torn your mind apart. Did you stop her? Do you know what her intent was?" She wasn't composed enough to be diplomatic in her questioning.
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Teegan
Junior Member
Posts: 53
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Post by Teegan on Jun 26, 2018 2:36:10 GMT -5
His predator's eyes were riveted on the young woman before him, hungry for any sort of answer she'd be able to give. Just as he was about to storm out in search of Chelyrra in a huff, by himself, she finally snapped back to reality. His face grimaced at her words. Yes, she may have seen much, but none of it would do either of them any good if she wasn't able to discern any information from it. His eyes narrowed at her questions, not upset by them, but agitated that she asked this now, and not before. She hadn't even offered a reasoning behind her query, though he was sure it had to do with what had shaken her so violently from the vision.
He sighed heavily. "Of course, at first, I tried to stop her," he began, standing and plodding to the window, where he stared into the vast forest that lay just on the other side of the road. "No one wants to have their minds invaded, their most private thoughts put up to scrutiny. But she demanded I erase any barricade I had erected." He chuckled, thinking of the current defenses he still had in place. "She asked that I build them up to everyone but her, as my master. I shouldn't have secrets from her." He turned now to face Logan, a grim expression on his face, recalling the memory from so long ago. "She was the one that told me to visualize something fortified. I chose a castle I had once seen in my youth, only in passing." He paused for a moment, replaying this thought through his head several times. "When I first saw it, I knew it would be nigh on impossible to breach its walls, or even cross the moat that surrounded it, should the bridge be raised." He blinked a few times, clearing his vision. "She told me that whenever I felt her prodding, I was to relieve all the guards, drain the moat, open the draw bridge, and let her in." He scoffed. "She assured me it was for my own safety. That if I let her in, she'd be able to make sure my thoughts about her, about our lessons, about life and everything else was 'pure'... Although by 'pure', she truly meant 'her way of thinking'." He scoffed again. "I tried a few times to repel her attacks, but my castle walls quickly fell. I was only able to hold her out for a minute at most."
He sat on the bed, the pain of her ripping apart his mental defenses reawakening deep in the lost recesses of his mind. He visibly flinched for a few seconds as he suppressed them once again. He was breathing deeply, trying to keep his heart rate down, doing his best to keep his mind from falling back into that dark place he had been in many decades ago. "Her intent was to make sure I wasn't plotting against her. That I didn't have my own ideas of how things should be taught," he continued. "She would listen to everything I thought about every subject, and 'correct' me when I was 'wrong'." He looked back to the woman, mentally wrestling with himself about what to tell her and what not to share, though he knew if he wanted to earn her trust, he would have to divulge some of his past as a show of faith that she wouldn't betray him.
"You see, when I was human, I wasn't a mage," he admitted, forcing a small smile. "I was merely hired help around her 'school'. She tried teaching me, at first, but when it was clear I showed no magical ability, I guess she gave me a large amount of pity, seeing the state my family had been in. She payed me quite well for the work I did, not to mention the pain I endured for the sake of her pupils to practice various spells and abilities on." He chuckled quietly to himself. "Those scars are long, long gone, replaced by newer, battle-won scars I earned." He nodded slowly to himself. "So to answer your question bluntly, and curtly, it was to make sure I wasn't hiding anything from her. Wanted to make sure I didn't keep information from her, and she taught me how to build the defenses up to make sure any other mage couldn't steal any information I had gleaned in my time working around her."
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