The Commons, Kalzasi
90 Searing 122
90 Searing 122
A floating door.
This hadn't been here before, Charlie would have remembered. It floated a few inches off of the floor in the very center of the The Steady Hand's back room, giving off an untrustworthy aura.
Charlie inspected it, but found it looked otherwise normal. "Ms. Dorothea?" Charlie called out to the front of the store. No response, she had already gone home for the evening. The young man looked to the pile of tailoring he had left to do, and then back to the door. Oh what was the worst that could happen? This was probably just one of the many people he fancied trying to sneak him into their estate without their family knowing. Yes, that had to be it. Why else would it have appeared here, when he was alone? There just was no other explanation for it.
Shit, which one was the Traversion mage again? Hilda, or maybe it was Henrietta? It didn't matter though, he would recognize them when he stepped through the door and into the awaiting arms of someone stunning.
As if.
Charlie swaggered through the door, confident as could be with an effortless grin on his face and the sort of composure that hid nothing about how grandly Charlie thought about himself. It didn't even falter when he looked around and it suddenly became clear Charlie was not anywhere close to where he thought he would have ended up. To have changed his disposition would have been to let on that Charlie might have made the slightest miscalculation in his assumptions. That was never going to happen.
Instead, Charlie took a seat without a moment's hesitation. Charlie had no time for second thoughts when it was hard enough to come up with the first one. "Charlie Angelov." He said, tone too casual.
When asked to surprise Kynne, again there was no hesitation on Charlie's side. "Sure thing." he agreed almost as soon as the words left Kynne's mouth. "Think of a number, any number." He said, though the instruction itself mattered little for what came next
In an flash, he began channeling aether, though the only indication of it was his glowing blue irises. With Kynne's symphony in view, Charlie helped cultivate a single, simple melody. Charlie was careful to ensure it was harmonious with every other thought, subsuming anything contrary and making itself real. To this end, he focused on the structure of the symphony rather than its content. The melody Charlie spent so much work perfecting contained within it a single number.
"Ninety-four!" Charlie said with grand showmanship, at the same time surging Kynne's symphony with surprise that far exceeded what should have accompanied a party trick. Charlie let that emotion linger for just a few second, really hanging on that astonishment before finally withdrawing it and leaving Kynne's mind as it was before.
Expectantly, Charlie raised his brows. "Forgot to mention I'm a professional Willbender. Pretty good, right?"
