Symphonies of Pain [Eitan]

[Tobias]

73rd Ash, 121

Tobias had been arranged to meet for Toby's training session. This time, it was to do with the arts of the arcane. Tobias remembered the day he had got his mark, from the forsaken coven witch who tortured him. He sighed as he closed his eyes in thought for a moment as he appeared to be able to focus as he sat there quietly; his eyes glowed a vivid purple as he appeared to be exploring his own Symphony; whilst he waited. Those memories and emotions of fear, anxiety and pain would haunt his mind, the memories of his childhood when he had finally been given a home and finally right at the back of his mind, the memories of the orphaned child. That struggled in fear; using the notion to survive. A common occurance in his mindscape as a single tear fell down from his cheek and dropped from the floor as Tobias was entranced for a moment.

He opened his eyes and wiped the second tear that appeared to drool down his cheek; before wiping it. These were the Symphonies, symphonies full of pain, but also life. They were the embodiment of the human mind. They are the reason why the melodies, rhythms and notes exist. They were somewhat bittersweet as he reminisced on them for a moment, before being able to focus. What had taken Eitan so long, perhaps it was the moment to begin his magic trance again. He sat in the middle of the empty hall and closed his eyes. He entered into meditation as he explored his own Symphony once again. If anyone were to distract him from it, he'd be in complete trance, unable to focus on reality until he had excited his moment of foreshadowing.

[Eitan Angevin]

With his time split between the Air Defense Corps and the Order of Reconciliators, he never came to the Hall of Reconciliation without having to report to Vigilant Richter, and there was always paperwork. Some was sent by courier to the barracks or to his home, but there was always a bit of a backlog wherever he was. Eitan was running a race, having to run faster just to stay where he was. In any case, he wasn't late to his appointment with one of the Aspirants under his watch, but by the time he was at the Hall of Servitors and found the training salle assigned to them, Tobias seemed to be in a trance.

His eyes were also glowing.

Eitan fished out his aura glass monocle and peered through it at his charge. Through that lens, there was a light burning in the Aspirant's pants. A rune was etched into his inner thigh, activated now. It was good to know he had a tell as Eitan couldn't always be looking through the monocle.

Mesmer made him nervous. He had done more research on it since being assigned Tobias, and he had already learned how to negate it with his own rune. That had been important when going into the Warrens where wraiths used similar magical tactics to mess with one's mind. There had been another charge of his, then, a man whose eyes changed color. He could only hope Tobias' fate would be better than Albrecht's.

Rather than interrupt, he politely waited for Tobias to have his cry. He studied how the magic worked; more experience and context would give him more ability to combat it when it came from witches and the like. He also studied Tobias' face, his strange, patchwork premature gray hair, and found him interesting to look at, though he wouldn't stare normally.

[Tobias]

Tobias appeared to be in that same trance for a moment, looking into his symphony as he tried to understand Mesmer's concepts; the rhythms of the mind played a strong part in his gift, followed by the senses of the magic, that was until he got out of his stance. He gasped as he saw Eitan stood there for a moment as he quivered back in fright "Bloody hell, Eitan!" He shouted as his eyes were widened with abject fear. He took a deep breath and calmed down. It appeared he jumped out of his skin as his heart was still pounding at that moment "Don't scare me like that, by golly."

Tobias eventually gets up from his feet as he's still shaken for a moment; the stress from the fear appeared to have settled in as he looked over at Eitan "Sorry, I'm just... Jumpy. Forgive me" He said with a shrug as he looked up at the taller man as he moved his hair behind his ears, revealing a slight pointed shape to them. Half-elven. Tobias always hid his ears behind his hair so that no one would notice. He gulped as Tobias was slightly skittish, full of nerves, probably from the discovery that he had made "So, today's training session is... The corruption we had been bestowed upon ourselves" He said with a frown "You only have one right? I was, well... Unfortunate to be given two" He said.

That was twice the corruption running through Tobias' body; he appeared to be riddled with magic; although it was no fault of his own. He continued further as he looked deeply into Eitan's eyes; the dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. "Do you mind if I examine your symphony? I won't meddle or anything, I promise... I just need the practice I guess, as do you..." He blinked as he stared deeply into his eyes "It also gives me time to get to know you on a much deeper level, that's the thing about the symphony... You can tell weither someone is happy, sad, or even lying to you. Emotional imprints, they don't go away, they become part of the symphony; atleast, that's what I understand." He said with a smile.

"Do you... Trust me?"

[Eitan Angevin]

"Apparently, you can't hear a symphony approaching your own," he noted, eyebrow raised a bit as he tucked that tidbit of knowledge away for later use. "And yes, it's best to practice magical things here within the safety of the Order's halls lest anything go wrong. 'Tis best for those outside these halls to see us using magic competently and for their benefit, hence my work shielding airships and troops during battle. The nature of your runes would behoove you to use them quietly lest people distrust you."

Tobias had, after all, brought up the topic of trust.

"Trust is earned, but I trust you so far. It is my hope that in time, we will grow to trust each other more. Now, you may listen to my symphony, but if you ever attempt to meddle with it, there will be consequences, whether from me or Richter or people higher up. There are approved uses for the magic, including interrogation or milder questioning, but using it upon superiors is not sanctioned by the Order. Now, I will let you practice by listening to my symphony, and then I will raise a ward against Mesmer and you will practice looking for ways to break through.

"Based on your latest tests, you will not be able to breach my shields, but it will still be good practice for you. Sometimes even more powerful magi are careless and a persistent, skilled magus can find a weakness and exploit it."

His eyes had been on Tobias this whole time, but now he paused a moment.

"Do you have any questions or are you ready to begin?"

[Tobias]

Tobias stares at Eitan for a moment as he appeared to be nervous; as if he was supposed to had learnt how to do that "Err... N-no... Not yet, I probably should've been able to do that but..." He paused looked over at the other man "Absolutely" Tobias nodded with agreement as he crossed his arms before he looks at him.

"I won't... I wouldn't know how to meddle with someone's symphony anyway; what do I look like? I might have been a coven witch, but it doesnt mean I pledged my allegiance to the damn thing." He said; Tobias took it the wrong way, thought that he was judging him based on his own mistakes. His shoulders tensed up as he sighed; from then on, he noticed he was being defensive, perhaps too defensive for his own good "I'm sorry, I just don't like being reminded of the fact that I was once a criminal. I get it, I've been through the notions a dozen times; I have been warned, shamed and have even put my only family member on the line." He said with a shrug as he appeared ready, although there was one thing which Tobias didn't take into account.

"Erm, Eitan... There is something you should know... I think you'll be able to notice it better but, for my safety. I want you to wake me if I'm feeling the urge to overstep, using my abilities also invokes inner dangers on me, I will not always notice it; Its why I need to understand it more... Not to mention, it frightens me Eitan, thats why I'm trusting you. If you notice anything at all, even the slightest twitch or an ounce of pain... Stop me by disconnecting the hold" He said looking at him.

"Will you do that?"

[Eitan Angevin]

An eyebrow arched up.

"I meant the nature of your runes being compulsion and illusion, not from whence they came." He hadn't said a thing about the covens, but it seemed Tobias had a guilty conscience and he should. Guilt could drive him to make things right again.

"You are going to have to learn self-control, but I will try to learn your tells and be another line of defense in the meantime. I can set up a shield that will block you from your rune when I activate it. A failsafe, if you will." He smiled, an attempt to reassure. "Then if you seem to be going off the rails, I can shut it down until you recover yourself. Now, I just need to see your rune."

Eitan flexed his fingers as if he were going to be doing some complex sleight of hand, though it was all in the mind—the mind and the soul if one believed in those. He believed there was an energetic pattern in the aether that belonged to each person, and he supposed that could be called a soul. He didn't know if it was holy in the way some called them holy, or whether they would all be devoured by Wraeden's maw in the end. It wasn't a happy thought, to be sure.

It would be interesting training magically with Tobias. He didn't have the same runes, so he couldn't teach him from experience, but he could certainly help him practice and push his boundaries, and he could learn how better to dispel illusions and mind control with his wards by practicing with the man. They would hone each other, each of them both blade and whetstone. And it would be a challenge holding wards like unsprung traps around Tobias' wards while also attempting to ward off magical aggression, but Eitan always rose to the challenge at hand.

[Tobias]

Tobias nodded in agreement as he began to build more trust for the Reconciliator, he looked over at the other man as he nodded towards him "My Mesmer Rune is located on my inner thigh" He said. However, that was uncomfortable for Tobias to reveal. An intimate area for such a mark to be placed upon Perhaps Madame Alvare was planning on torturing him in the future. Who knew what capabilities a coven witch could have, especially of significant power. He sighed as he eventually closes his eyes, before moving his hands over to Eitan's head and starts channeling Aether "Lets begin." He said as he would start channeling through to read Eitan's Symphony.

It was an interesting thought to peer inside someone elses symphony for the first time. It was the tell tale intricacies of Eitan's emotions. He channeled his way through the Overture, before starting to explore the complicated weaves of Eitan's mind. Something which had been repressed long ago. Eitan appeared to have had a bundle of repressed emotions that Tobias wanted to explore; he did not tamper with a single part of his symphony. Only peered in and felt the emotions connecting between Eitan and Tobias. It was difficult at his stage to inflict harm; however, Tobias would've never dreamed of breaking the trust that he had just earnt.

He stopped for a moment as he began to feel exhausted through channeling Aether "One moment... I need to rest. I can feel myself getting low on Aether for some reason." He sighed as he took a deep breath as he felt his head "Gosh, that was intense, I've never actually looked inside someone's symphony before" Already, he could express his inexperience in magic to Eitan "I feel, sorta fuzzy..."

[Eitan Angevin]

His eyebrow remained high at the revelation of the location of Tobias' Mesmer rune. If it was a gift from the coven, then perhaps there was a story there. He would wait for Tobias to feel comfortable telling him, though.

"Just a moment, then," he said before Tobias could work his magic. He had wanted a failsafe, after all. Eitan took a knee, looked up for an indication as to which thigh it was, and then put his hand carefully on the outside of the man's leg so he could focus on weaving an anchor into the fabric of his clothes and build a bubble of a nascent shield around where his rune lay. It was a delicate sort of thing to shield someone from their own magic, and difficult in that the warder had to drive a shield between them and something written upon their soul more indelibly than it was written upon their flesh.

But it was an important sort of ward for a Reconciliator to know.

It was even more difficult to hold it just shy of completion, but Eitan was up to the challenge. He stood, nodded.

"All right."

When Tobias listened to his symphony, he might indeed hear how still waters ran deep. There was quite a bit that he repressed so he could get through the day and do his work, fulfill his duty. But the most obvious notes in his symphony just then were his concentration—holding the ward prepared required it—and curiosity—he wanted to know what his Aspirant was capable of doing with the runes that had been, apparently, inflicted upon him.

"All right," he said, hands coming up to steady Tobias when he wavered. "Here, sit down." He eased him into a chair. "Release the aether and just breathe."

[Tobias]

Tobias eventually looked over at Eitan as he shook his head for a moment, noticing the effects of overstepping on Mesmer. He sighed as he looked at the other man "I'm sorry, but I've never channeled that much aether before; it was almost like I was pushing at my limits." He said. It was true, Tobias had a severe headache after that glance into his symphony. It was intense, the first time that Tobias had ever felt the emotions of another person. He sighed as he looked over at Eitan before nodding. Tobias felt one thing; it was fear. He took a deep breath and sighed "No... I can't do this."

The disgruntled aspirant stared at Eitan with something in his eyes. It appeared to be pure terror for he now understood the mistake he had made "I don't want this corruption inside me anymore..." He gulped as he shook in fear; he knew the reason why Zaichaer feared magic. It was a curse, yet it had to be studied for anti magic purposes. Tobias would simply be the one who would invest in their abilities "I'm scared of what it'll do to me..." He looked over at Eitan as made eye contact "Will I be the same person I was?"

He took a deep breath and tried to knock off the negative thoughts that he was feeling; he looked at Eitan "No, I can do this... There's probably a witch out there, grooming another fifteen year old boy or girl into joining the covens, I simply cannot allow that to happen. I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else as it did me." There was still that terror upon his face, yet he was being brave about it. Perhaps the fear was a drive for his flight or fight response.

[Eitan Angevin]

Eitan listened to him vacillate, crouching down before Tobias in his chair. Dark eyes watched patiently, observing as Tobias swam in his terror and then found his bearings and began to swim toward shore. Eitan remained, trying to be a lighthouse warning him off the rocks so he could find safe harbor. The man had been through quite a bit and had a lot of processing to do. Eitan hoped that by witnessing these travails, he would help suck out some of the poison so Tobias could get to work on fixing things.

"You can do it," he agreed when Tobias had already come to that conclusion. "We take on these burdens so that others don't have to. But once you have the ability to control it, you only have to exercise it when your work with the Order requires it. That's a good thing. If you were to use it constantly, it would be an abuse of power and you would be no better than a coven witch. But you have the opportunity to be the person you needed when you were being used by the covens. You can be that person for the people you will help."

He smiled and crossed his arms over Tobias' knees.

"It will be difficult, but I'm here to help you. Now I want you to be quiet for a few minutes and breathe. I know being quiet is a challenge for you." He smirked, but it wasn't unkind. "Then, if you're still feeling like something's wrong, we'll stop by the infirmary, perhaps get something for headache or other overreaction to magic use. And I'm going to need you to be honest about how you feel, not tough it out to prove something to me. I want to take care of you so you can do the good work for the Order, all right? All right."

With another smile, he put his hands on Tobias' knees to steady himself as he rose, then came back around the chair to work some of the tension out of his shoulders because Tobias might be the most tense person he had ever met.

fin.