TIMESTAMP: 25 Calid March, 122
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NOTES: -
► Show Spoiler
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"Um…" his face reddened ever so slightly. "He is…a mentor? I suppose? Perhaps just a friend now. Back in Zaichaer, I trained under him in Necromancy and medicine. He still teaches me those things, but with Acolyte training, there is much less time." Everything he said was true, just not the whole truth.
The young woman was also very perceptive in her own right. She saw that the question flustered him despite the fact that he'd tried to hide it, and that light dusting of pink across his cheeks? They definitely were lovers, she concluded. There just must be…complexities to their relationship. That, or at the very least, Hector wanted them to be lovers. This conclusion was further backed up by how she'd seen the two interact over time, too. She saw the reverence with which Hector regarded Vergil, and Vergil's affectionate and protective nature over the elf were hard to miss, especially with how cold the man was towards the other Acolytes. Now wasn't the time to dig deeper in that regard, though.
"Hmm, that so? I wondered why he was immediately offered employment and you weren't, but that makes sense. You never finished gathering together your qualifications…plus you are younger than most have assumed, too."
"That would be correct– any training I was undergoing got, ah…disrupted. Now, I'm essentially starting over, but the offered position really is a gift." He spoke appreciatively because if nothing else, the Imperium had treated him and his companion well thus far.
"I would say so! But I imagine you don't lack magical prowess, then? After all, the Inquisition does have standards for those they accept into their fold." Her eyes were bright, cat-like and curious. His runes were clearly what held most of her interest.
"Er…yes. We're both respectable mages, I'd think. I do wish I had more runes, but you've offered to help in that regard, so I appreciate that a lot, honestly." Though he spoke genuinely, he seemed nervous when talking about the subject.
"Which do you already have?"
Hector pointed at the rune on his throat, just above his sternum. "Summoning. I work alongside a lovely little spirit, mostly, but I can flexibly summon others if necessary. I've specialized in Eldritch at this point despite spending most of my life around elemental spirits." He wasn't sure how obvious it was that he wanted to make her think he only had the one.
"Ooh, really? Are you referring to an aidolon? Can I meet it?" She spoke quickly, excitement in her voice.
Luckily, she'd bit the bait. Lamenting about a lack of additional runes beforehand reinforced that this was his only one, too. He felt relieved. At least…for now. It wasn't like she'd ever see his other rune, though.
"Sure thing!"
Hector's aidolon, Tirspi, almost always accompanied him when he goes outside or interacts with others, not including Vergil. Should he ever need the spirit's help, he liked to have it around. Such was the case here– he didn't unsummon it when he got home because Carmina was there and, while he wanted to trust her, one can never be too careful.
As such, the spirit had heard their entire conversation and made itself known after Hector spoke. Black smoke billowed out from beneath his robes, inky and absorbent of any light that touched it. The strange substance felt like fog, clouds if touched, but visually it was thick as tar.
The gentle chiming of bells interwoven with sibilant whispers briefly filled the air around them, and while no words were spoken, the impression left was one of greeting.
Carmina looked extremely pleased, she'd not interacted much with spirits. "Ooh, how lovely! It's so beautifully strange! What can it do?"
"A few things, at the moment. Primarily, it's a predator. It feeds off the vitality of the living, and when I met it, it was not more than a puff of smoke. In its base form, it struggled to feed off of anything that wasn't already dying yet lacked the tools to put creatures in such a state. So in exchange for its obedience and companionship, I agreed to help it access food. As one can see, it's very much grown!" The elf sounds incredibly proud of both the spirit and himself. "Now that it's a bit more powerful, it can defend me by using its ability to feed to inflict harm. On top of that, it can haunt others using their worst memories and darkest fears and lastly, it can snuff out all light in a radius of about a city block. Personally, I'm just excited to see how it will grow as time goes on."
As he spoke, the fog swirled around him, eventually settling into more of an aura around the rather cheery looking mage.
"Is Vergil a Summoner, too?" The curiosity in her eyes and voice knew no bounds.
"Ah, no. Though I wouldn't decline him should he ever ask for the rune, to be fair."
"Oh, well, then what does he have?"
Hector looked nervous at the question, hesitating. "As…as I said before, he is a very private person. I'll answer anything you ask that directly involves me, but…his runes are, well, his and so…I don't really feel like it's my place to share."
This was partially true, but the primary reason for his discomfort was that Vergil only possessed one rune: Vitalis. As far as he was aware, this wasn't something either of them were supposed to advertise to their peers, regardless of the fact that they were safe to possess such runes.
Though she looked disappointed, she wasn't about to press the issue. "Fair point. I can tell you care a great deal for him, so I won't force the issue."
How polite. Granted, she didn't think he had anything mysterious. She was convinced Hector only had Summoning, so it would make sense that what Vergil had would be equally standard of a rune. An incorrect, yet reasonable, assumption.
"Were you part of Zaichaer’s Covens? Or did you have to live hiding your magic?"
"Both, technically. Although magic among members of the Covens is, um…tolerated? Yeah, tolerated…most people are still afraid of both magic and mages. Consequently, you can't really walk about publicly flaunting magic without significant risk even as a member of a Coven. If there is anything I don't miss, it's the society-wide anti-magic sentiment." Hector spoke of those who disapproved of magic with great disdain.
"I can imagine that– such a mindset is extremely simple minded and regressive. Plus, it denies people massive quality of life upgrades facilitated quickly and easily through magic. Sure, magic should be regulated, but to shun its use is wildly ignorant. It can bring so much good."
"Exactly! And arguing with people about that gets old so very, very fast."
They continued to talk about cultural differences between Zaichaer and the Imperium for a while, both of them coming to the conclusion that the Imperium would be the more comfortable place to live. That is, if you possessed some modicum of power or middle class and above wealth. Both of them skirted over what life was like north of the gash, Hector due to his ignorance and Carmina willfully ignoring its existence, as if it brought her shame.
"Well, you've cleared up what I came to ask you well enough. I can give you the rune whenever you'd like, you just have to have an animal part of some kind to use as your first Totem. Any part of an animal will do, hair, skin, feathers, talons, and so on."
Hector was, at least, familiar with the tenets of Animism from reading and knew exactly what a Totem was. He did have a bird feather he thought he could use, although he was unaware of what bird it was from. He just found it in the park once and decided to keep it. A bit questionable to use an unknown animal part for this, but what is life if you don't take chances?
"I do have a bird's feather I can use. There's no reason to wait, really, unless you have something to do…or if the initiation takes a long time or something. The rest of the day, for me at least, is free."
"A bird's? Do you not know what kind of bird?" She asked the question with no small amount of confusion.
"No idea– does that matter? I can add other animals later so I figure it's not that important."
To that, she laughed. "I suppose not, and it's your choice anyways, so if you want to take that chance, be my guest," shrugging at the end of the sentence. "But I'm free, and it shouldn't take too entirely long. If nothing else, I'll at least stay until your dear friend comes back. He might be…a little surprised, but he'll be able to care for you, I'm sure."
True. Vergil might be…irritated at walking in to find Hector as some bizarre hybrid bird, or perhaps full bird, but he would feel obligated to help in whatever way he could if such a thing were needed.
Hector grinned, "...then allow me to go get the feather!"
The young woman was also very perceptive in her own right. She saw that the question flustered him despite the fact that he'd tried to hide it, and that light dusting of pink across his cheeks? They definitely were lovers, she concluded. There just must be…complexities to their relationship. That, or at the very least, Hector wanted them to be lovers. This conclusion was further backed up by how she'd seen the two interact over time, too. She saw the reverence with which Hector regarded Vergil, and Vergil's affectionate and protective nature over the elf were hard to miss, especially with how cold the man was towards the other Acolytes. Now wasn't the time to dig deeper in that regard, though.
"Hmm, that so? I wondered why he was immediately offered employment and you weren't, but that makes sense. You never finished gathering together your qualifications…plus you are younger than most have assumed, too."
"That would be correct– any training I was undergoing got, ah…disrupted. Now, I'm essentially starting over, but the offered position really is a gift." He spoke appreciatively because if nothing else, the Imperium had treated him and his companion well thus far.
"I would say so! But I imagine you don't lack magical prowess, then? After all, the Inquisition does have standards for those they accept into their fold." Her eyes were bright, cat-like and curious. His runes were clearly what held most of her interest.
"Er…yes. We're both respectable mages, I'd think. I do wish I had more runes, but you've offered to help in that regard, so I appreciate that a lot, honestly." Though he spoke genuinely, he seemed nervous when talking about the subject.
"Which do you already have?"
Hector pointed at the rune on his throat, just above his sternum. "Summoning. I work alongside a lovely little spirit, mostly, but I can flexibly summon others if necessary. I've specialized in Eldritch at this point despite spending most of my life around elemental spirits." He wasn't sure how obvious it was that he wanted to make her think he only had the one.
"Ooh, really? Are you referring to an aidolon? Can I meet it?" She spoke quickly, excitement in her voice.
Luckily, she'd bit the bait. Lamenting about a lack of additional runes beforehand reinforced that this was his only one, too. He felt relieved. At least…for now. It wasn't like she'd ever see his other rune, though.
"Sure thing!"
Hector's aidolon, Tirspi, almost always accompanied him when he goes outside or interacts with others, not including Vergil. Should he ever need the spirit's help, he liked to have it around. Such was the case here– he didn't unsummon it when he got home because Carmina was there and, while he wanted to trust her, one can never be too careful.
As such, the spirit had heard their entire conversation and made itself known after Hector spoke. Black smoke billowed out from beneath his robes, inky and absorbent of any light that touched it. The strange substance felt like fog, clouds if touched, but visually it was thick as tar.
The gentle chiming of bells interwoven with sibilant whispers briefly filled the air around them, and while no words were spoken, the impression left was one of greeting.
Carmina looked extremely pleased, she'd not interacted much with spirits. "Ooh, how lovely! It's so beautifully strange! What can it do?"
"A few things, at the moment. Primarily, it's a predator. It feeds off the vitality of the living, and when I met it, it was not more than a puff of smoke. In its base form, it struggled to feed off of anything that wasn't already dying yet lacked the tools to put creatures in such a state. So in exchange for its obedience and companionship, I agreed to help it access food. As one can see, it's very much grown!" The elf sounds incredibly proud of both the spirit and himself. "Now that it's a bit more powerful, it can defend me by using its ability to feed to inflict harm. On top of that, it can haunt others using their worst memories and darkest fears and lastly, it can snuff out all light in a radius of about a city block. Personally, I'm just excited to see how it will grow as time goes on."
As he spoke, the fog swirled around him, eventually settling into more of an aura around the rather cheery looking mage.
"Is Vergil a Summoner, too?" The curiosity in her eyes and voice knew no bounds.
"Ah, no. Though I wouldn't decline him should he ever ask for the rune, to be fair."
"Oh, well, then what does he have?"
Hector looked nervous at the question, hesitating. "As…as I said before, he is a very private person. I'll answer anything you ask that directly involves me, but…his runes are, well, his and so…I don't really feel like it's my place to share."
This was partially true, but the primary reason for his discomfort was that Vergil only possessed one rune: Vitalis. As far as he was aware, this wasn't something either of them were supposed to advertise to their peers, regardless of the fact that they were safe to possess such runes.
Though she looked disappointed, she wasn't about to press the issue. "Fair point. I can tell you care a great deal for him, so I won't force the issue."
How polite. Granted, she didn't think he had anything mysterious. She was convinced Hector only had Summoning, so it would make sense that what Vergil had would be equally standard of a rune. An incorrect, yet reasonable, assumption.
"Were you part of Zaichaer’s Covens? Or did you have to live hiding your magic?"
"Both, technically. Although magic among members of the Covens is, um…tolerated? Yeah, tolerated…most people are still afraid of both magic and mages. Consequently, you can't really walk about publicly flaunting magic without significant risk even as a member of a Coven. If there is anything I don't miss, it's the society-wide anti-magic sentiment." Hector spoke of those who disapproved of magic with great disdain.
"I can imagine that– such a mindset is extremely simple minded and regressive. Plus, it denies people massive quality of life upgrades facilitated quickly and easily through magic. Sure, magic should be regulated, but to shun its use is wildly ignorant. It can bring so much good."
"Exactly! And arguing with people about that gets old so very, very fast."
They continued to talk about cultural differences between Zaichaer and the Imperium for a while, both of them coming to the conclusion that the Imperium would be the more comfortable place to live. That is, if you possessed some modicum of power or middle class and above wealth. Both of them skirted over what life was like north of the gash, Hector due to his ignorance and Carmina willfully ignoring its existence, as if it brought her shame.
"Well, you've cleared up what I came to ask you well enough. I can give you the rune whenever you'd like, you just have to have an animal part of some kind to use as your first Totem. Any part of an animal will do, hair, skin, feathers, talons, and so on."
Hector was, at least, familiar with the tenets of Animism from reading and knew exactly what a Totem was. He did have a bird feather he thought he could use, although he was unaware of what bird it was from. He just found it in the park once and decided to keep it. A bit questionable to use an unknown animal part for this, but what is life if you don't take chances?
"I do have a bird's feather I can use. There's no reason to wait, really, unless you have something to do…or if the initiation takes a long time or something. The rest of the day, for me at least, is free."
"A bird's? Do you not know what kind of bird?" She asked the question with no small amount of confusion.
"No idea– does that matter? I can add other animals later so I figure it's not that important."
To that, she laughed. "I suppose not, and it's your choice anyways, so if you want to take that chance, be my guest," shrugging at the end of the sentence. "But I'm free, and it shouldn't take too entirely long. If nothing else, I'll at least stay until your dear friend comes back. He might be…a little surprised, but he'll be able to care for you, I'm sure."
True. Vergil might be…irritated at walking in to find Hector as some bizarre hybrid bird, or perhaps full bird, but he would feel obligated to help in whatever way he could if such a thing were needed.
Hector grinned, "...then allow me to go get the feather!"
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Aidolon Speech
'Thoughts'
"Kathalan Tongue/Speech"
"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"
