Leave a Trace [Talon]

[Rickter]

Leave A Trace
Frost 8th, 121st Year

There were few places Rickter would literally go just to enjoy the smell, mostly because the aromas there weren't a favorite or just grew tiring overtime. But never here. As the wolf looked among the tools of the first lower level within the shop, he couldn't help but admire the amount of work and effort that Talon would put into his craft. Someday, the wolf wanted to be able to make nice things for the prince too, as well as the rest of those who had grown affectionate in his heart. Though he hardly had a crafting bone in his entire body, having mostly relied on trade skills such as fishing and mercenary work more than anything.

None of that mattered though, because while he didn't have an entirely artistic talent to his name, the prince of the Shokoze himself was one who clearly had a knack for it. Besides, this was one of those favorite places Rickter did like to come to. Mainly because when Talon was here the entire forge reacted to his presence, and as soon as the runeforger started up the forge, the smell that Rickter always waited for would never fail to tease his nostrils. Rainwater. Dense rain clouds smelled as if they filled the entire room, overpowering even smell of burning coals, and the raw potency of aether felt humming within the room.

"Telion's worried about Ishin," the wolf admitted for the sake of small talk, "thinks he'll harder on me than Tarshenna." He remarked with a credible lift of his eyebrows in amusement, having already explained to Talon the meeting with the Arbitraer, as well as what very little he understood of the Echo. "Though, I just think she's worried that duty and training will take away time from the family." Not that he wasn't entirely upset by the whole idea, given, Rickter's poor nose often stung from the times the twins had soiled their linens.

Regardless, even with the capacity to enjoy and appreciate how slow things had fallen in his life recently, Rickter's eyes moved from the tools he curiously looked over, and to the silver-winged Synnekar with a warm, sentimental feeling inside. He watched the man working on his latest project and paid closer attention, seeing Talon observing the artifact with his own eyes as the air around him tingled. The wolf could trace a lace of the prince's personal aether then, the scent thickly strong compared to what the forge itself emitted.

"You never use these," he then pointed to the pair of goggles that laid on the table, "is that because you use Semblance to do it instead?" Rickter looked curiously to the man and then down at the aura glasses, curious to see what sort of effect he'd witness if he were to put them on.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

[Talon]

The Skyforge was abuzz with activity. Winter brought with it the coming graduation of the Circle Mages and as a result, his shop always received a large amount of orders for wands, staves, rings and other arcane accessories. Enchantments of all sorts from simple illusions to more elaborate pieces often required that Talon supervise the details of several forges at once, meticulously guiding the hands of not just his own enchanters but those from the Circle that utilized his spaces. At the moment however, Talon was focused not on a project related to the upcoming Circle graduates, he was overseeing the creation of a gemstone that would serve as the centerpiece of an amulet. He glanced up from his work as Rickter commented on Telion’s worries surrounding Ishin.

“I do not think anyone can be a harder trainer than Tarshenna.” A soft smile touched the corner of Talon’s mouth but he could feel the uncertainties resting in Rickter’s heart. Reaching through the Bond, Talon brushed over Rickter’s thoughts. He performed the mental equivalent of lacing their fingers together even as he turned his gaze back to the gem in front of him. Picking up two pair of tweezers he opened himself up to the flow of aether inside of his body. Guiding it to the forefront of his vision, Talon brought the weave of the crystal’s form into his focus. On the surface, the gemstone appeared to be that of a diamond that shimmered perfectly in the light, even seemingly to glow softly with its own internal silver-white light.

“Telion is right to have reservations. I have the same, Sorumeito. Like many of the troubles that have faced us as of late, this Ishin seems to have come from nowhere. I would advise that you enter any encounter with him with a clear head.” Reaching out with his tweezers, Talon picked up one of the pathways of aether flowing through the crystal. He began gently tugging at its direction in order to bring the flow into better alignment.

“We must all find a balance between our duty and our personal life, Rickter.” Looking up from the crystal, he smiled. “Do not ask me what that balance is. I have yet to find it.”

It was no secret that Talon spent more time working than most nobles of his status. The amount of times that Rickter and Aoren both had been forced to pull him back into bed and give himself a day off were fun memories. He felt Rickter’s curiosity bloom just as Talon was realigning another aetheric pathway within the crystal. He glanced over when Rickter made his statement. His eyes fell to the goggles.

“Correct.” He adjusted his wings, shifting them so that they rest more comfortably upon his back. “Semblance was a gift from my teacher, Saris Kore. After my mother, he was the first one to introduce me to the aetheric arts.”

Talon stepped back from his workbench. He turned so that he could walk up to Rickter. The aura glass goggles drifted up into the air as Talon lifted them with his Kinetics. He brought the goggles over to his outstretched hand. He smiled fondly at the memories of his teacher.

“Saris was the first man to tell me that I would never be a scholar of the arcane.” He chuckled. Talon ran a thumb over the lens of the goggles. “He was the first person to call me a sorcerer as opposed to a wizard and explained the distinction between the two from an academic standpoint.”

Extending the goggles to Rickter, Talon elaborated.

“Needless to say, he was right. He gave me the best tool to find a road to success. Semblance. It is how I make sense of the world. As a result, I never picked up the practice of using the glasses myself.”

[Rickter]

The wolf wondered about his Bondmate as he investigated the forge, moreover when the next coup he and Aoren would attempt at freeing Talon from his duties. After all Rickter has seen nobody work harder than Talon when it came to his duties, so much so, that the wolf often enjoyed placing himself at a point where he'd garner Talon's attention. Though, he certainly beheld no intentions to lead the man astray today, as he knew that Talon's work here was just as important as the duties he carried at the palace.

When he bore that in mind though, and simply observed his surroundings more than anything, the wolf felt the hairs on his arms rise from the minor spikes in aether felt within the room. Runeforging was such a fascinating concept to the warrior, having laid eyes on the workbenches as well as devices that made this all possible. Clearly, it all went way over his head in regards to understanding it, but of course, that wasn't going to keep him from learning eventually. When he heard Talon remark about Tarshenna, the wolf had no reservations to laugh aloud at the comment. "You could say that again!"

Brief as the trills were though, he quickly looked to Talon with a grin. His Bondmate was ever focused as always, a trait he couldn't help but admire even as they conversed. To then hear that his Bondmate also beheld reservations, though, led him to press his lips in a firm frown with consideration. Not that he wasn't prone to ignore the feelings of his beloved also, but hearing Talon share his insights on the Kensei certainly gave cause for thought. "Of course, Sorumeito," he expressed in return with the mental equivalent of a brush along Talon's forearm, "besides you know I'm a cautious fellow."

But of course, the ideology on balance was something that struck Rickter as amusing. Particularly when the one who implied it clearly had no such grasp of it, even so much as quickly admitted himself when the suggestion came up. It led the wolf to yet again chuckle, with a strong warmth flowing into his Bond. "Don't I know it. Aoren and I had to tear you away from your desk, the last time we three went out together." He brought up with a fondness in his tone, the firmness in his expression non-existent as he smiled at Talon through his beard. Even throughout their arduous times together Rickter had grown closely to them, making the quieter moments like now ever more sweeter to live within.

When he came to investigate the aura glasses, the wolf's minor concerns for his lover piqued into curiosity, and he beheld that look of wonder in his eyes even when Talon started the story of his teacher. Soon enough he parted from the workbench to approach Rickter, if only to bring the goggles over with a mere flex of his thoughts like before. To hear that Talon was told he'd never be an arcane scholar, well, that already prompted the raise of an eyebrow out of the Rathari. For as long as he'd known Talon, the man had been nothing but exemplimentary in his magical talents. But to hear that Semblance was one of the first few magics the prince learned, and how it helped shaped his perception of the aetheric world early on.

That stirred a curiosity within Rickter he hadn't known in a while. He'd felt it before when receiving the Negation rune, when he finally took on his role as a guardian in training. When the goggles were handed over to him, the wolf still smiled, as he accepted the glasses with a hint of considerable care. Not one to drop things really, not when he handled something that didn't belong to him. Once the wolf looked through them though, and immediately he saw a world of vibrant color, his eyebrows rose from the top of the goggles as he slowly gazed about the room.

Aether was ambiently flowing in different channels from what he could tell, the colors hardly making sense as reds and greens swirled about, avoiding blues and purples that flowed in from the device that emitted such concentrated aether. "It's very... disorienting, isn't it?" He admitted before his gaze slowly drifted toward Talon, where the ambient aether turned into more silvery hues the closer his gaze approached. Any further though, and it had felt like he were trying to stare directly into the sun, an attempt the wolf wasn't brave enough to try even if he wanted to. Therefore, after seeing his fill, he removed the goggles to rest them back on the workbench.

"I've never wondered the distinctions before myself really." He admitted with a calm and affectionate grin toward his Bondmate. "Come to think of it, never thought I'd be much of a battlemage either. Guess that happens when you want to protect royalty." He teased with a bit of a wink out the left eye, his arms crossed as he leaned into the workbench with his hip. "Your teacher sounds wise. Magic wasn't something I grew up learning much about, aside from what they taught at the academy at least." He then lifted his head up a bit to gaze overhead, moreso thinking about how much he had in fact learned over the year.

"For the longest time, I thought I knew everything I needed to. Never once bothered to inquire about my Reaving powers, since the man who gave them to me wasn't around to answer them. Thinking 'bout it now, feels like I've still barely scratched the surface." Elementalism and Negation he'd managed to come along pretty well with, and he'd already grasped at ways of applying his own Kinetics as well. Traversion he was just plain terrible at, having to deal with the motion sickness that'd afflict him when he'd Blink or Vault too many times. Semblance though seemed like a much easier Rune to study and practice, in theory, since it relied mostly on the perception of the aether in general.

So when Rickter looked back to his lover fondly, he did so with a tone brimming with a certain enthusiasm. "Do you think... you could teach me?" The request came with a raised brow, as the wolf wondered what his Bondmate would say to the idea.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

[Talon]

“It was at first.” He watched as Rickter placed the goggles on his face. Talon took a seat on one of the stools next to his bondmate. He reached out, gently placing a hand upon Rickter’s thigh, rubbing his thumb up and down the firm muscles he felt there in order to help ground the wolf as he explored the world with new eyes.

“Aether is in everything. From the most mundane rock to the most powerful of the gods. It simply exists in different concentrations. It manifests toward different purposes as well. That is an important distinction.” He did not immediately say why that was an important distinction but it was something that Rickter could come to learn on his own in time.

“Intelligent beings, such as yourself and myself, have higher concentrations of aether than a rock or an ant. Our aether is also much more malleable than those other two examples. It is why we can accept a rune of magic and learn to grow and change ourselves to adapt to the use of them. If a rock were to be imbued with a rune of magic, it would have unfavorable consequences.” He could recall very well the first lessons he had been given during his early days as a practitioner of magic. They were filled with instruction on the consequences of recklessly using magic without putting thought and planning into each action. He could remember sitting in his mother’s laboratory as she toiled away with one of her latest necromancy projects, asking questions and receiving either her patient answers or an example of the consequence to his question.

“That is why world magic such as Runeforging exists. That is how we can make a mundane rock into an artifact of great power. The difference is that while a person can grow beyond their initial understanding, that artifact will only ever be able to act within the boundaries given to it by the enchantments.” At Rickter’s confession, Talon nodded. He initially only turned to magic because it was expected of him. It was only as he matured that he truly gained a passion for it. Even then, he would never be the scholar that his mother or someone like Lyra was. Talon knew that his drive was more to wield it because he took joy in the act of using magic than to discover its many great mysteries.

“We never stop learning, Rickter. Nor should we want to. Each day presents to us an opportunity to discover something new.” When Rickter posed his next question, Talon did not hesitate in his answer.

“Of course.” Of all the runes of magic that he possessed, Semblance was perhaps the safest to imbue upon another. He had absolute confidence that Rickter would be able to survive the initiation and that the use of it would only help his bondmate grow.

[Rickter]

While he'd observed his surroundings through a different pair of lens, Rickter felt the comforting guide of his soulmate's hand. When he did he could help but smile, if not almost imitate a tail wag with each stroke of that firm thumb. The wolf settled for curling his toes within his boots for the moment instead, before the removal of the goggles led to his Bondmates insightful wisdom in turn. Rickter's eyes rested on Talon curiously as a slight tilt came to his head, having never fully grasped that concept with aether. It led him to ponder that distinction that had been mentioned, before he nodded with a small grin once more. "That's something to think about." He came to admit with a cross of his arms, attentively watching Talon as he continued with the lesson.

Admittedly Rickter felt it far easier to grasp its presence within everything. All of matter seemed composed of aether in some way, that was essential for even just his shields. Though he never bothered questioning it before either, and Talon could just somehow bring out the inquisitive nature of this wolf. Not that Rickter didn't mind, he always learned something wherever he went with the prince. Listening to how his soulmate enthused about Runeforging, the wolf couldn't help but nod in return as he contemplated the practice. He'd never really thought to make anything before, and the idea sounded somehow fun and terrifying at the same time. Probably because he knew next to nothing about it, and only held reservations based on that lack of experience.

The wolf would consider giving it a try one day, but for now, he remained focused on the conversation that continued between them. Rickter's eyebrows perked a little at the encouragement to learn, a look of agreement in his eyes as he genuinely appreciated the sentiment. He quite loved the passion in his Bondmate, particularly when it came to his outlook on the world. Thus when the question came up and Talon responded, Rickter's lips parted to a wide grin as he brought his hands upward. The tips of his fingers brushed Talon's upper sternum and neck, before he cupped the man's jaw and gently tugged him in close. A blanket of warmth wrapped around them through their Bond, as Rickter's breath deepened the moment they made contact.

He didn't have to say it as Talon already knew exactly what he felt, yet still, the wolf could not help but thank him before pulling away. "Thank you, Talon." The fondness in his eyes never lessened when he pulled away, his hands lowered to pinch at the collar of his shirt. There then came another spur of curiosity as he waited, before asking his Bondmate in turn. "Where did... you wanna place it?" In waiting for Talon to decide on that, Rickter began to remove the shirt if it were necessary.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

[Talon]

Talon eyed Rickter with clear appreciation in his eyes as the Rathari man removed his shirt. When Rickter posed his question, Talon could only smile. He slid forward, his hands coming to rest upon the wolf’s thighs. He squeezed tenderly, fingers massaging into the strong muscles he felt there. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to the line just beneath Rickter’s jaw. Talon kissed along the line of Rickter’s neck, his hands sliding up the wolf’s form until they came to rest at the crest of Rickter’s hips. He nosed along the contours of the Kinetics rune that he had gifted to Rickter, letting his warmth breath ghost over the other man’s skin as he inched his way down lower.

“Here?” Talon teased Rickter’s skin with just the barest brush of his lips before kissing across his bare chest. He wrapped his arms around Rickter’s strong torso and pulled him closer, hands splaying across the muscles of his back.

“What about here?” He teased one of Rickter’s nipples, lightly grazing over it with his teeth, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Talon toyed with it for a moment, knowing how it made the other man feel to be teased this way. After a playful minute, he kissed Rickter’s chest firmly before trailing lower. Talon followed the line of Rickter’s hair as it formed a trail down his belly. He kissed down Rickter’s abdominal muscles, gently lifting Rickter so that he could more easily access the full expanse of his bondmate’s body. After a moment, he kissed Rickter’s stomach firmly before very carefully but firmly turning Rickter around so that his back was exposed to Talon. The Avialae prince wrapped his arms around Rickter’s front, squeezing him close, enfolding him in the circle of his arms and letting the fullness of his own form press against the wolf. He wrapped his wings around the both of them protectively.

“I think I know where. Close your eyes.” He whispered softly, gently nibbling on the shell of Rickter’s ear. Opening his sight, Talon tapped into the flow of Rickter’s aether. He brought the full depth and expanse of Rickter’s aura into his focus, spending a full minute concentrating until he had the entire breadth of it with his vision and awareness. The whole while, he gently ran his hands up and down Rickter’s arms in a soothing motion, joined by the gentle press of his wings along Rickter’s legs. Once he had the full expanse of Rickter’s aura within his view, Talon took a moment to appreciate it.

He saw every emotion. He saw the flicker of different motions and intentions. He processed Rickter’s taste, his smell, the way his body felt, he even honed in on the way his many cardinal runes of magic pulsed and vibrated with power. He brushed his senses over the divine Emblem that he had lovingly gifted to his sorumeito and smiled softly.

Then Talon opened himself up to the flow of another magic. He activated his kinetic aethereal senses and reached out to Rickter, following the lines of his aura and the motion of aetheric power flowing through him.

“Breathe, my wolf, and feel me all around you.” He dipped down and pressed his lips to the base of Rickter’s neck. He gathered the swell of his own power to his mouth, brought his hands up to Rickter’s shoulders and breathed outwards. Touching upon the flow of aether spread throughout the whole of Rickter’s body, Talon guided the lines of power within his bondmate using his depth of knowledge of both Semblance and Kinetics. He tugged the Aether Flux within Rickter into motion, aligning a shape of power into being at the base of Rickter’s neck along his spine. He stitched the Flux into a pattern there and breathed more of his own aether into it as he presented Rickter with the gift of Semblance.

“Open your eyes, Rickter, and see the world anew.”

[Rickter]

Genuinely the wolf's lips curved upward when Talon drew closer to him, and his hands were felt gently squeezing the muscles of Rickter's thighs in turn. Such affections stirred the sensation of a beating tail within the wolf, and were he in Beast or Lycan form, then Rickter would surely be sweeping it across the table at this very moment. The Synnekar drew closer to place a soft kiss at the jawline of his neck, the wolf only tensing from a growing excitement throughout his body. For all the effort he had in pretending not to, Rickter greatly enjoyed the attentative advances of his partner.

Feeling the sensation of those massive hands when they caressed his hips next, it became abundantly obvious that the wolf was proving more ticklish. Quietly chuckling in between the uplifted breaths he took from the kisses, Rickter was practically on the verge of melting into his companion the longer his soulmate teased him. The base of his neck grew warm from Talon's breath as Rickter nearly shuddered, having not forgotten how intimate his partners had been last time either. He'd steadily grown accustomed to Kinetics over the seasons, but he'd never forget the insurmountable force he felt that welled in his soul that day. Thankfully Semblance seemed to be a different type of rune, one that had a much milder threshold sickness in comparison.

Rickter knew what Talon was doing at this point, however, and he couldn't help the rise in his chest when he felt Talon tease him further. The smooches on his chest, playful teething around his nipple when he'd been held closer together. "An interesting choice to be sure." He murmured with loving eyes on his Bondmate, clearly unopinionated as to whether Talon really intend to place it there or not. After all, Rickter belonged with his beloved physically and spiritually, so the wolf would've taken it anywhere knowing it was from Talon alone. But GODS it was getting impossible to even think about that now, now that Talon was clearly enjoying himself in the moment.

The wolf's head might've craned back a bit as he reveled in the affection, feeling his Bondmate's lips travel over his abdomen before he'd been lifted. Once more they were embraced within one another's arms as Rickter's breath alternated, the quickened short pants for air met with deeply long sighs through his nose. His heart pattered excitedly as he looked into his partner's eyes, lips still curved upward before he chuckled once more. Talon seemed to have in mind a place now and instructed him to close his eyes for it. "Okay." His tone was the same as Talon's, a gentle whisper as he yet again slightly resisted the stimulation at his ear. Clearly, his partner was learning, a little too well, the spots and nuances that could easily arouse the wolf.

After he listened to what his Bondmate had told him Rickter's eyes playfully went shut, a moment spent eyeing him with one eye before he fully closed it. Talon's hands massaged into his forearms and even biceps for a minute, while feathers brushed into his lower and upper thighs in a gentle tandem. Right about now the wolf felt his lover gazing into him, taking Rickter's being into full scope as he observed the wolf. It felt strange for Rickter being the full center of someone's attention, but in a way, he found appreciation for it just as he continued to feel Talon's observation. It was like he could see through Rickter and into him now, perceiving every sense of matter that composed Rickter of his being. The wolf could smell the charge of aether in the space between them, as he soon heard the next part of the instruction Talon had shared.

Breathing already the wolf deepened his inhales to where he felt the pressure settle in his stomach. He basked in the warmth of his lover and felt it all around him, enough to have the smells of Talon burned into his memory at this point. It was also when he felt the aether within him respond that Rickter realized what Talon was doing, thus, he even meditated on the sensations he felt stirring in his own form. The exuberant anticipation that stemmed from Talon's affections, the euphoric elation felt in his attentiveness as he sought his mark. Within moments Rickter felt his Reaving rune sparking heavily inside his soul, responding to the sudden rise in flux of aether around that part of his neck, before another gentle kiss planted below the nape of the neck took place.

Rickter felt Talon's aether lace into his own once more, converging together to compose the makeup of what would be his new rune. For a moment his breath shifted, the new rune glimmering into a radiant cerulean sun with a single eye. He felt the aether seeping further in now, coursing throughout his body, and doing something that he hadn't fully prepared for. With the goggles, the wolf had a glimpse at what sight looked like, but smells were suddenly amplified for him all of a sudden. The wolf could smell the iron of the tools, the crisp ozone within the ambient aether in the air, he could even nitpick all the different nuances in Talon's own scent now. But it was when he opened his eyes that Rickter saw the world of color.

The hues of red and green were woven between wards and the runeforge, intertwined no less while blue and purple hues swirled about with no rhythm or pattern. Those colors faded away though and with it a minor glint within the wolf's eyes, their glow being a hint of gold before the aether within them receded entirely. "I can..." HIs voice tremored but that was from the excitement when he looked back to Talon's pleasant features once more. "I can see differently now but... Talon the smells!" There was an eagerness in Rickter's eyes when he pointed it out, his teeth shown from a wide grin as he gripped the forearms of his soulmate endearingly. "I can smell everything differently now than what I could before!"

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

[Talon]

Gently he continued to hold Rickter in the circle of his arms. He chuckled at the Rathari man’s excitement. As he saw Rickter turning in order to face him, Talon took hold of his own aura in order to subdue it to the highest degree. He extended his mastery of Semblance over the flow of his own aura and pulled it inward until it was veiled. The last thing he wanted was for Rickter to be blinded during such a sensitive stage of his initiation. He had learned his lesson when it comes to masking his own aura. It had never been something he had truly worried about prior to becoming a demigod. However, after a rather unfortunate near blinding incident in the Low City, he had taken steps to be more careful with it wherever he went.

“Yes, Sorumeito. Your senses have been opened to a way of perceiving the world in a different way. You will be able to taste without actually tasting, see even if you are blinded, smell without truly smelling. Many things.” Talon pressed his brow to Rickter’s and stared deeply into those blue eyes. He kissed Rickter’s forehead then stepped back and held his arms out at his sides.

“I want you to take a look at me.” He allowed Rickter a moment to collect himself and to focus. “You will notice that there is a blurring of the world around my immediate form. It may appear almost as if there is a mirage of heat rising off of me, just above my skin.”

Talon wound his aether about himself more tightly so that there were layers covering his aura. He did not want Rickter to inadvertently delve too deeply and hurt himself by peering past the first layer too heavily.

“I am masking my aura. Be careful not to push too deeply, my wolf. You will blind yourself if you do. What I want is for you to be able to recognize how something might be masking its aura. Study the boundary, observe for the alterations in the flow of aether in my presence and look for the edge where it seems as though aether is falling into a trench.” With awakened eyes, Talon observed Rickter’s aether flow in order to gauge his progress. He would give Rickter however long it took to marshal his senses.

[Rickter]

Rickter's thoughts were filled with the joy the compassion of his Bondmate possessed, a pleasant ease resting in his shoulders as he stayed close in Talon's embrace. He was doing... something. Rickter could smell the air particles within the Flux shifting, which given he never quite smelled Aether like this before, was truly quite an alarmingly interesting thing to realize at that particular moment. Hearing his lover's instructions though as he described Semblance as a concept, one that honestly both excited and mystified the wolf in truth.

Rickter's lips naturally curled at the warmth of their brows being brushed, before the gentle press of lips incited those ghostly tail wags he felt. When his soulmate then took a couple of steps away, the wolf raised his eyebrows in regard to the instruction he'd been given. A chance to gaze at Divinity now? He'd already had a taste of it, but now to actually have a power that could do so? Suddenly the wolf felt it slightly rude and invasive to consider such an act, even if prompted by his own loving Sorumeito. "Alright, Shinzō." He regarded with a steady nod in turn, proud to listen to his Bondmate's instruction.

The wolf took a steady breath in as he focused on his sight, and closed his eyes before activating the new rune glistening between his shoulder blades. When he opened them again his eyes were not blue, but golden eyes that observed the very room around him and his partner. He could see... aether particles now. It felt like gazing into the Flux but this was so different, because where he observed a gathering of these particles, he could glean from them an array of colors and even other things. He felt his nose tingling with the extra senses he'd picked up on, his gaze gradually zoned in around Talon as the wolf focused on what he'd been told.

Around Talon was indeed an array of mirage vapors that crowned the space of his aura, which the wolf's gaze slightly narrowed a bit when he noticed it. "I see it." He confirmed with a hearty smile toward his prince, before Rickter's breath grew excited and he focused a bit more. He couldn't quite see past that veil over his Soulmate, but he didn't need to when he'd already felt the warmth of Talon's soul. So Rickter focused on attempting a peek beneath that veil, letting his glistening eyes lock on just the outer layers of the prince's divine figure. Already he felt like he was daring to stare into the sun, but he knew Talon had taken those extra precautionary measures to protect him.

Thus, the wolf gazed just ever slightly upon the visage of his beloved prince. While he expected the shimmering silver-white glow over Talon's form, he did not expect it to gleam just the surface colors of Talon also. He could tell from just the man's scent alone, of what little traces he could, that the Draegir was happy at that moment. "Holy shit..." The golden lights in his eyes died away as they settled back into their original blue. He gazed upon Talon plainly now with a hearty chuckle, before drawing closer to his Bondmate to rest his hands atop Talon's shoulders. "That almost feels like an invasion of privacy? No?" He offered as a tease before he drew close once more.

"Well, at least now I can literally undress you with my eyes." Rickter cracked a smile before chuckling at Talon, before he rested his brow against his partner's endearingly. "Seriously though, thank you Sorumeito." The wolf then pulled back a bit to gaze into his lover's eyes, a curious furrow in his brow when he looked upon the man. "Was there anything else you wanted to teach? Or anything at all?" He did feel overly humbled by this gift from his Bondmate, but the wolf pondered if Talon would appreciate something in return for it.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

[Talon]

He watched Rickter with a pleased smile on his face, observing as the flow of his aether funneled to his most sensitive of senses, his nose. It was interesting to see how varying semblancers utilized the magic to empower themselves. Talon most commonly used his eyes, that was certainly the most widespread manner in which auras were perceived. The magic allowed for the information being processed to be received in such a way that it made sense according to the senses that one was using. When Rickter had finished his momentary inspection, Talon reached out to hold him. He let out a satisfied huff of air as the Rathari wolf came into his arms. He wrapped them around Rickter almost possessively as he hugged the man to his frame. Burying his face into Rickter’s neck he nuzzled then chuckled at the man’s question.

“I suppose it can be.” He drew back slightly. “I forget that not everyone is as open as Avialae. We spend most of our lives with the thoughts and feelings of others in our heads and hearts. It makes the absence of such things feel…loud.”

He had spent the majority of his life with a Bond of some sort or another to share. There were Light Bonds with family members. His mother and younger brother were both practitioners of Mesmer which meant he could often communicate with them through a single glance.

“It can be a great boon. Using it in situations where you are uncertain as to the motives of others, it can give you insight into such things. I use it in my business practices as well as daily conversation. It can help you avoid emotional pitfalls and gain greater understanding of the emotions of whom you are conversing with. I know of nursemaids who use it frequently to gauge the needs of infants in their care. A world of new information is open to you, Sorumeito.” He pressed their brows together before placing a kiss on Rickter’s cheek. He considered Rickter’s question. Gently, he brought a hand up to the wolf’s left shoulder blade where rest his rune of elementalism. He brushed his fingers over the area, feeling the difference in body temperature.

“I have seen the way that you command the elements, Rickter. I have been thinking, perhaps I should wield them as well?” He looked at Rickter almost bashfully. It was not often that Talon sought new runes of magic. It had been some time since he had received one. He was curious as to what his experience would be now that he had ascended.