Welcome to Gaia! ::

Participants: Danylrein with his lantern plague (Arana Kamina), Felicity and Claudia (X Purple--Platypus X)

Location: A library in Colwe

Time: Early afternoon

Conditions: Cold and clear.

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Peace.

A simple word, but it was something that Dan had been able to find little of recently. Lack of sleep from nightmares and increasingly agitated parents certainly did not help matters.
The elusive condition had been attempted to be achieved within his own home, but solitude felt uncomfortable while the relations with others present was, quite simply, awkward. After over a week of down spiraling conditions, Dan had finally decided that it was time to get out of the house.

For the first time in many days Dan felt something at least resembling peace inside the Cowle library. The complete sense of the word was near impossible in the current world, but what he found now was close enough, muscles relaxing and his various thorns of stress retracting to the point where it was bearable.
Currently he was perusing the shelves, the bulk of his traveling cloak draped over the crook of one arm. While he had intended to remain inside all along, the day was bitterly cold, and only inside the warm by comparison library had he been willing to take it off to reveal the long sleeved green shirt beneath. Numerous patrons who usually only used the library occasionally had flocked inside to escape the weather, and though the owners of the library eyed them with suspicion, they were grudging allowed to stay as long as they respected the books. A gold embossed spine catching his eye, Dan pulled the book off the shelf and gradually began flipping through the pages.

"Excuse me sir"

Dan looked up to find one of the librarians right next to him, the man's expression somehow both apologetic and annoyed at the same. Taking note of the page number, Dan closed his book and held it by his side, regarding the librarian.
"Yes?"

Temporarily pausing the wringing of his hands, the librarian gestured at the outline of Dan's lantern, partially hidden by the traveling cloak hung over his arm.
"No open flames are allowed near the books," the man said, tone initially apologetic, but turning sour and condescending with the next few words. "And don't tell me it isn't lit, I can see the flickering shadows from a flame."

Any will Dan had had to cooperate with the man disappeared with the condescending tone, and he moved the cloak aside. "I don't think that is an issue," he said softly, revealing the black plagued flame inside his lantern, the flame's normally grinning face instead displaying an almost comically angry expression at the librarian.

The man flinched visibly when the items plagued state was revealed, and licked his lips nervously, sweat beading down his forehead. However, this fear did not last long and was soon replaced with a desperate and hungry look in his eyes.
"Well," he began, almost babbling, "It is still a violation of the rules since no matter how strange a flame is it is still an open flame and we can't possibly put the books in danger so it would behoove me to preform my duty and remove the item before it could cause any harm-"

"Sir," Dan said, cutting the man off, "Are you saying that you are wishing to unlawfully deprive a mage, a son of a noble family, of a personal possession?"

The librarian sputtered to a halt, caught off guard by this change of pace. Checking to see if Dan was bluffing, the librarian looked into the young mage's eyes -and blanched.
"M-my apologies young sir," he stuttered, then made a hasty getaway.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Dan pinched the bridge of his nose, mouth twisting into a grimace. He hated playing the nobility card, but there had probably been no other way to get the man off of his back - he had seen the hungry look in the librarian's eyes. Plagued items were confusingly divisive - loathed by some as an incarnation of death, and yet sought after as items of political power by others. Just the mixed signals about his lantern was enough to give him a headache.

Opening the book to begin reading again, he soon closed it with a sigh, his thoughts too irritated to focus.
So much for stress relief.

“He-hello.. What are y-you read-ding?”


Giving a surprised blink Dan looked over to find himself being addressed once more in such a short amount of time. This time, the individual was a woman. She had brown hair, looked horrendously nervous, and - Dan's thoughts stuttered for a moment - had a plague on her shoulder. The excito was clad in dainty white flower petals, and though the garb looked innocent it was belied by wicked, pointed black fingers and a dark face with white features. The inverted colors provided the being with an interesting contrast, but there was something.... off about the being. Dan found himself unconsciously putting his guard up.

That was just for the woman's plague, however. There was no need to be rude to the woman herself.

"Ah, hello. The book is about art theory for beginners, things like contrast and use of color. Nothing real complicated, but I admit my attention was not really being held." He cocked his head politely. "Is there anything you are interested in finding? I could point you in the right direction, if you wanted." With this Dan gave small smile - he genuinely wanted to help her out. And if she had only come over because she had heard his argument with the librarian (he had realized the possibility shortly after she came over) well.... he preferred to avoid conversations started for the wrong reasons. He wasn't going to brush her off outright though. She looked.... too fragile for that.

Though Dan had made sure to keep his gaze away from the other woman's excito, his cloak was no longer concealing his lantern and the black flame inside was looking straight at Claudia. Not grinning, not frowning, just a blank flat stare, waiting to see what she would do next.

The gaze of the black flame followed the flower plague's descent, never flickering away. When Claudia addressed the face it rotated all the way around, almost like an owl. However, instead of splitting into a grin as it had upon meeting Hayat, the flower's attentions were only returned with a continuing stare.

Dan was somewhat taken aback by the timid woman's sudden volume, but instead of shying away he found himself smiling. "Mages? Where would one even begin?" Dan asked, "In any case, I can start by showing you to the proper section of the library." She very might well still be asking because she overhead the earlier confrontation, but it hadn't been the question he had feared. Also, it was clear that the woman's curiosity was genuine. Giving a small gesture to Felicity to follow him, Dan began to walk towards the area of interest.

"Is there any specific topic you would wish to know about? There is a possibility I could answer it for you without having to consult the books." Dan wasn't just asking this to be helpful - he was also curious about Felicity. She was somewhat different that the normal library patron (along with having that unsettling plague), and he hoped the type of questions she asked would reveal more about who she was.

"May I ask of your name?" He figured that if he wanted to know more about her, he might as well start there. "My name is Dan."

At Claudia's mention of a handsome house the flame gave the barest hint of a smile, the first sign of expression given outside of the flat stare. However, it did not truly understand what the flower was saying. It wasn't quite as random as a bobbing apple, but still not far above, actions simply being reactions to outside stimuli. Unfortunately for Claudia, higher thinking had not yet come to the lantern plague.

Felicity... Dan rolled the name around in his head, stashing it and the image of its owner away, figuring it wouldn't hurt. "A pleasure to meet you Felicity," he said with a slight nod. Then he heard her question.

"How to become a mage?" Dan blew out a breath. "That's a fairly broad question. I'm afraid I won't be able to answer most of that on my own. We'll need to consult the books." Shortly after mentioning the needed material, the group arrived at the section they had been looking for. A good portion of the books were about famous mages from the history of Panymium, but interspersed through out were books on the magical, for both students and those curious about the arcane.

As he perused through the shelves for the latter of these types, Dan began to speak.

"I am no expert, but I might as well share some of the basics I am familiar with. First of all, everyone has the potential for magic. Nobles, beggars, children - everyone. However, only a portion actually end up using magic, and only a part of that have any real strength in magic. The others still have the potential though, including you." He paused for a moment, handing a small book over to Felicity. "I do know some of the 'hows' on how magic works, but it is hard to explain succinctly. That book should be able to get you started. Do you have any specific questions?"

While it had crossed Dan's mind that she might be asking about becoming a mage of the fellowship, he had decided to go the other route. The qualifications to becoming a member were a somewhat intangible value, and since he wasn't even a member himself yet he didn't feel qualified to speak.

Once again, Dan found himself faced with a broad question that had no one definitive answer. He guessed he would just have to give the best general answer he could.

However, before he could begin Dan heard the tome hit the floor with a thud, this disturbance caused by a startled Felicity, who then apologized for... someone named Claudia. The plague. Dan's eyes darted down to his cloak, and as the caedos gave him a sinister grin he felt as if her own pointed fingers were running up and down his spine. "I do not mind," he said. At least, he didn't mind enough to make a huge deal about it, even if he couldn't shake the slight chill he felt. Breathing in, Dan went forward with his answer.

"There are many different ways to work magic in Profugus - there isn't one that is necessarily better than others. The methods that are used in Shyregoed are, as I said earlier, somewhat difficult to explain...." And Dan really didn't know how to explain. Apertures were an abstract concept, one that was difficult to understand unless a person had direct experience with it. He was going to have to simplify.

"The simplest explanation I can give is that mages channel their magic from an outside source. Familiars, an animal bonded to the mage, or items such as staffs can be used as a focus in that channeling to assist with the magic. The foci aren't a necessity however - some mages can do fine without them."

With the second part of the question Dan was going to have to strike a balance. He didn't want to scare Felicity away from magic by making it sound too hard, but he also wanted to impress upon her the possible dangers of magic overuse. That was a particularly hard lesson he had learned himself, one that he wanted to spare this frail woman from. Frankly, he didn't know if she would be able to survive that lesson.

"Using magic does make you tired - magic is simply another way to do work, and any type of work takes energy. You shouldn't let the fatigue deter you, it is natural," Dan said, and then his tone firmed. "However, you must know your limits. Even novices can use magic for a fairly long time before anything happens, but when it does happen it will hit hard. Overusing magic will make you very sick, most likely for days, and it is not worth a few extra hours of magic use. Master mages can go for days, even weeks, but they know their limits and when to quit."

As Dan spoke the flame in his lantern regarded the new stowaway. Well.... regard might not be the correct term. The face had begun to twitch in a sporadic, jerky manner the moment the flower had landed. With each inch that Claudia came closer the twitching increased, the flame trying to sort out two conflicting signals. One from the caedos, and the other from its ever important owner. The lantern, quite simply, didn't know what to do.

As Felicity asked about his foci, Dan felt his chest constrict for a moment as he was forcibly reminded of unpleasant memories. All those days in his youth searching desperately for something that could reduce his blindness, one attempt after another, attempts that turned into failure after failure. How useless and broken he had felt - in fact, still felt sometimes.

Concealing the pain of these personal memories, Dan gave Felicity a sad smile. "I don't have a foci myself, but as I said earlier one doesn't necessarily need one. Mainly they are just used to help." Felicity asked her next question. When it sunk in, Dan suddenly stopped.

At the back of his mind, very faintly, alarm bells had begun to ring.

On it's own, the question didn't seem that strange. Even in the frame of someone being curious about magic, it was only a little odd. However, there was how it had been phrased, that nervous little smile. Most of all, he remembered the sinister face of the caedos staring up at him. Something wasn't right.

Dan looked Felicity straight in the eye, his voice becoming a shade quieter as he spoke.

"Why do you need to know that?"

He didn't know what she was trying to do or what she wanted the information for. Part of him even wondered if he had said something he shouldn't, but he did know one thing for sure. He was done giving information for free.

As Claudia's fingers began to stroke the metalwork, the flame shuddered, and after moment, went still. It was not the the stillness of calm, but more akin to the stillness of paralysis. In one way the stroking was soothing, the touch of kin, but beneath that.... it was poison. For a long time the flame was simply still, unable to overcome that touch.

Suddenly, the dominant signal from the flower was overrode by another - Dan was upset.

In a split second the flame flared against the side of the lantern Claudia was on, the face in the flames now unintelligible. A tendril of black seeped out from the frame of the door, and only after a moment, leaped onto the stroking hand.

As Dan watched Felicity, it became quite clear that he had hit some sort of nerve. The woman almost looked as if she were drowning, breath shallow and eyes glassing over. With each passing second he too felt a terrible pressure on his body, paranoia ratcheting higher with each breath. What did her silence mean? What would he do?

There was no way to know, and he never would know, for the downward spiral of emotions was snapped by Claudia's voice.

“What did you say..? She’s a fragile girl! You've unsettled her!”

Dan looked to the flower, who was now back on Felicity's shoulder, apparently done with seeing his lantern. He didn't miss how Felicity flinched away from her touch, and his unease about the creature deepened. "I am sorry that I upset your keeper. I was.... confused as to why someone would ask about sickness with a smile." While Dan obviously couldn't say to the flower's face that she was the main reason he had been suspicious, the statement was still the truth, and his tone was frank and blunt.

Looking back to Felicity with a sigh, he once again pressed the small book on magic into her hands. "I am afraid there is not much more I can tell you - this is all I can give." Feeling something tickling his hand, Dan looked down and saw a tendril of flame from his lantern wrapping around his finger. "I must go," he said as he looked up. "My plague has become agitated and I do not wish to draw any undue attention." An excuse, but one he would use willingly to escape the conversation gone bad. "Farewell, and I hope that our next meeting will be more auspicious."

As he walked away, Dan thought about his gift of the book. If she was truly wanting to learn magic, he would not have slighted her in helping her learn. If that was not the case.... it was a book, and he would not have been able to prevent her from picking it up anyway. He just couldn't know.

As Dan moved farther away from the other pair, the face in the flames reformed, once again staring, a gaze that never flickered even as the others faded out of sight.