[Hytech PRP] The Training Begins (FIN)

[Seth_Avi]

For Seth today was just another quite day at home. He had worked long hours the previous few days and fortunately had been scheduled off for today. There wasn't all that much to do around the apartment at the moment, so he had settled himself comfortably onto the couch to read a new book. It was a pretty interesting read, and he soon found himself oblivious to the world. Not that it mattered really since he was alone in the apartment anyway. For now.

[AnimeEyeshime]

Seth being engrossed in his book, it was possible he didn't notice his ninja guest, at least not until she dropped onto the other end of the couch, shaking what looked like an average prescription bottle full of pills--make that two bottles, one in each hand. "Seth, my furry friend! Philomena handed me these and Shimy's brought your trainer to town, so let's get a move on, eh?" She plopped into a proper sit (she'd been standing as she shook the little orange bottles at him) and crossed one leg over the other, grinning at the cheetah. "You'll like her. She's a kind one."

[elfgurl1234]

Seth, needless to say, was quite startled when there was another person all of the sudden standing on the other end of the couch. "What the--?!? Meerowyn! How did you get-- nevermind." She was a ninja. He wasn't going to bother asking how she got inside. Instead the cheetah Hyte accepted the two bottles that she had been shaking at him, looking over the contents curiously. From what she was saying about Mena and a tutor, he gathered that these must have been the 'magic-pills' that the Angora had been working on. "Um, alright. Where are we to meet?" he asked, wondering if he should take the pill now or later. It had taken a few days to work before, right? Would the effects be faster in the concentrated pill form?

[AnimeEyeshime]

"Shimy's gotten her a place on the edge of town, so it's there we're off to," Meerowyn said, getting to her feet suddenly--if one had to guess, they'd say she was full of nervous energy. It was difficult to tell whether this was a change from the normal Meerowyn. She glanced to the bottles the cheetah was eyeing, and added, "Philomena said it should take about half an hour to properly kick in, but she's not certain. I'm to report back on it, I think--how long it really takes. Either way, Reira won't mind if it takes a bit longer. She likes to get to know folks before jumping into their minds, if she can help it."

[elfgurl1234]

"That's fine. I'll save it for when we are a bit closer then," he replied, getting up and stowing the bottles away in his pocket. "Are we traveling by car then, or have you some other means of travel?" He wasn't sure how she had gotten here after all, so he wasn't sure on her preference for leaving either. Regardless, this trip should be a rather... interesting one.

[AnimeEyeshime]

"A car is probably more convenient for you," Meerowyn said with a nonchalant shrug. "I can do a teleporty spell but I'm not good at taking others with me, so..." She left exactly what might've happened to those others up for debate, but one couldn't help but get a sinking feeling at the implications. "I know how to get there by road too, basically. You drive, we get there in one piece, everybody's happy!"

[Seth_Avi]

Seth sweatdropped at the unfinished part of her sentence, getting the meaning quite easily. "By car it is then," he replied, grabbing his keys off the counter and heading for the front door.

The two drove for quite a while, but eventually they made it to the directed building (and in one piece, which was always a good thing). Once the car was parked and locked, the two made there way to the doorway of what appeared to be a smallish cottage. The place certainly looked cozy enough. Fishing the pill bottle out of his pocket, the cheetah Hyte went ahead and took one before knocking on the door. If it was supposed to take about half an hour to take effect, there would be no harm in getting a head start on things.

[AnimeEyeshime]

Meerowyn cocked her head to one side after a moment. "She says she's 'round back. Let's see--a bit of a squeeze--" The space between house and picket fence would have been more than adequate to get through save for bushes planted alongside the house part, making shuffling back a possibly scratchy exertion. Nonetheless, the two made it through and to the back, and were greeted by the sight of Seth's trainer perched on a large, flat rock set beside a pond that burbled, clearly with some fountain component hidden by the foliage.

Reira herself was a strange sight, even for Gaia--her skin was alabaster pale tinted blueish and impossibly smooth looking from a distance, though if one peered they could almost make out the tiny scales covering her entire body...the part of it that wasn't sheathed in a billowy tunic dress, anyway. Her hands and feet were webbed, and arms and legs also had offshoot ridge fins, looking tough like some kind of cartilage. Her neck seemed to have gills on it, though they were mostly hidden by her long white hair, partially braided in some spots and sporting a single crimson red to indigo feather--a startling contrast to the relative colorlessness of the woman. Reira opened her eyes--it hadn't been clear that they had been closed before, it seemed that her eyelids were transparent--and offered a smile to her guests. "Thank you, Meerowyn, for leading him here. Seth, my name is Reira Iok. I am to be your tutor. I am glad to be of service."

"Reira's my halfbrother Erik's girlfriend--the guy working on the barriers," Meerowyn said in a loud whisper to the cheetah. Reira chuckled.

"Indeed, part of the reason I agreed so readily to the request was to be of use since I cannot stand at Erik's side at this time. But it is not unusual for paths to diverge in such ways," she said softly. "But I am here also because this is something I can do. I understand your powers are quite temporary." She looked to Seth expectantly.

[Seth_Avi]

Having better distance vision than most, Seth took in the woman's appearance curiously as he and Meerowyn approached. She definitely appeared to be of the 'merish' type from what he could tell. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Iok," he replied with a polite smile and small bow. "I am grateful for your willingness to help."

He listened to the brief additions from Meerowyn and Reira, and nodded to the woman's last remark. "Yes, the magic I use is not really mine so to speak. Definitely only temporary." And already he could feel the odd tinglyish feeling he had felt before when first infected. It seemed that the pill was doing it's job.

[AnimeEyeshime]

"Please, call me Reira. There is a clan full of Miss Ioks, and it's been so long since I have been amongst them, it feels almost disingenuous to claim it for myself," Reira said, moving to her feet gracefully. Truth be told, the 'Miss Iok' she always thought of was her Erik's mother, and that was an Iok she had no chance at being compared favorably to. The Lady had been everything she was not; the former merqueen knew it quite certainly.

"It is not entirely without precedent; in the land I spent most of my early young adulthood there were those called Magus, who collected the winds on the plains and harvested magic from it. No power of their own, but they could prove...most formidable, when experienced in the use of their magics." She spoke almost absently, remembering the few men she'd met who'd used such. Mostly men, the Patriarchs had ruled the plains. "This will be interesting for both you and I then, I think." She turned to Meerowyn, cautioning, "You perhaps would not like to stick around, yes? I know how you value your privacy."

Meerowyn chuckled, and offered Reira a little salute. "Indeed! I'll be in your range, so let me know when it's safe, all right?" She bounced forward to engulf the fragile looking Reira in a hug, and then she was off, almost too quick to follow.

"We will go slowly, and cover thoroughly. This is the first time I have really tried teaching; please let me know if there is something I might improve upon," the merwoman admitted with a shy smile.

[Seth_Avi]

"Alright, Reira it is then," he agreed, respecting her wish to be addressed informally. Considering the undertaking they were about to have, it was likely best for them to be on a familiar basis anyway. "I suppose magic manifests itself in many unexpected forms. I am sure that you will make a fine teacher." Hm, and already he felt himself beginning to crave sugar. Perhaps this pill was working a bit faster than anticipated. "Um, before the telepathy decides to kick in, do you perhaps have some initial advice on control?"

[AnimeEyeshime]

"You could think of your ability perhaps as a net--by default, it casts itself wide and deep. The first step then, is to manipulate the net and hold it close when you are not actively seeking," Reira said, gesturing with her slim webbed fingers as she spoke. In her case, even now the the ranking members of her former court were as weighted stones in her own net, casting the net further and wider. They were but a faint murmur across the distance of the stars, and she suspected if she bespoke an individual on Phanes specifically her voice would be strained and hardly above a whisper. Her mind now was deeper than a human's, but she was nothing compared to the Ti'ama or their halfbreeds...

And thinking on them, it inevitably lead her mind to their counterparts. On the whole, the phoenixes were rather simpler, more honest, more direct--she liked that about Lord Twilight, and her Erik. She longed to reach out to him, but it was more dangerous than necessary, and his work would not need the distraction. Patience, she told herself sternly. He was safe, and they would meet again soon enough.

[elfgurl1234]

"A net?" Seth echoed, intrigued by the analogy. It did rather make sense, considering what he had experienced with it thus far. Was it really so simple as to just 'pull it back' then? A small sparkle off to the side caught his attention, and he quickly willed it away. "To manipulate this 'net' then, is it just pure will power, or is there something more?" The cheetah Hyte was beginning to feel the first twinges of a headache. He'd have to remember to mention to Mena later how quickly the pill actually took effect.

[AnimeEyeshime]

Reira blinked slowly, first set of clear eyelids coming down and then up again, as she considered the inquiry. "I suppose it can be called 'pure will power'. It is as casting a physical net though--it taxes the mind, when the muscles are unused. When one trains for combat, they not only build and strengthen the muscles, but the muscle memory. So that when an attack comes, you naturally perform the correct counter. It is something like that, when it comes to the power of the mind." Naturally magicians of most kinds developed a strong will; otherwise, the power would overwhelm and control them. She was given to understand the Contractors' Ti'ama acted as an added filter on the power available--they could access more, generally, but it was also pre-channeled and thus less direct.

Not that it made it any less devastating when used to ill effect. She remembered the storms sent over Umihome by the Winddancers' "mere" channeled-magic. They were tied to no planet-being, yet the destruction they had caused was immense. But that fight is over, she reminded herself gently. And Umihome had been rebuilt, the vast coral and rock dwellings fused back together by the Lady herself, and her former colony was safely nestled in their burrows.

[Seth_Avi]

Hm, that made sense. It sounded as if he would be needing to do a lot of practice after all if he wanted any chance of controlling it without the aid of Ti'ama shields. "I suppose I'm going to have to do some weight-lifting then," he said with a small smile, joking. The headache was starting to get worse, and, despite knowing what was coming next, Seth was still a bit disoriented when the full fore of the telepathy turned on and there were suddenly quite a few other voices in his mind other than his own. The predominate one was Reira (as she was the one directly in front of him), but the cheetah Hyte could also hear the thoughts of what he assumed must have been the surrounding neighbors. Why did thought speech always have to be so fast and confused....?

Ok, concentrate! Just try to pull it back like she said, he told himself, trying to figure out how to 'grab' a hold of the telepathy. Finding his 'hold', Seth strained to reign in the range of mental hearing. After some effort he was able to cut out the surrounding neighbors voices, but he couldn't quite pull it in enough to cancel out Reira's. [So if the hearing is analogous to a net, what might projecting be analogous to?] he asked, mental voice a touch weary as he continue to try an keep a hold of the foreign magic.