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 Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:59 am
Evelyn sat at the edge of her seat. This lecture was launching so many questions, but she was able to contain herself. She looked over at Jessie for a full thirty seconds, trying to imagine what was going through his head. She almost called him over to her, to see if he wanted to sit next to her, but dismissed the thought. She turned back to the presentation.
She was enamored with this lore, and she only imagined Jessie and Cressa looking tan instead of dark for two seconds before dismissing it. Honest.Regardless of what that overlord says.
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Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:13 pm
"Now..." Cressa sighed. The images behind her abruptly changed to a large parchment map, like something out of one of her old, handwritten textbooks. "The troubles all came to a head about the time dwarves and some of the other races were just getting a foothold on the world. Around 20,000 years ago. Our people, the dark elves, were mainly divided into two big civilisations - Miyeritar, which spanned the tropical jungles to the east..." Lines appeared on the map to denote the locations. "And Ilytiir in the south. To the north - the largest of the sun elf nations."
"I'll try not to bore you with the tedious details of dates and battles. I'll just give you all a nice, clear overview, of what's generally regarded as the darkest period in elven history. These were called the Crown Wars. And the first began when the sun elves attacked Miyeritar, out of greed... and prejudice... and annoyance."
She paused. Some further explanation certainly wouldn't hurt her bright students. "You see, one of the ruling houses of this sun elf nation had discovered a distant familial connection to one of the ruling houses in Miyeritar. They'd been attempting to use this to interfere in Miyeritaran politics for several generations. This had caused escalated tensions between dark elves and sun elves for some time. The sun elves were haughty; they considered themselves the brightest and most beautiful elf, the "crowning" race, and believed they had the right to rule over all their cousins. The dark elves had a very different culture, which they knew the sun elves would've been more than willing to break down and assimilate. Finally, the sun elf nation issued an open letter to Miyeritar, demanding that they capitulate to them and become an annexe. When Miyeritar did not surrender, the sun elves began interfering with trade routes, cutting them off from supplies before mounting a full invasion."
"It took them over two hundred years to conquer Miyeritar, and in the meantime, Ilytiir launched numerous counter-attacks to defend their brothers and sisters in the east. And Ilytiir fast became a greater problem to the sun elves and their sylvan allies than their original target. They conquered a lot of sun elf cities, including strategically important ports and trade routes. The sun elves vented their frustration on Miyeritar, enslaving thousands of people. In response, the Ilytiiri mistreated the elves they had conquered in kind, using scorched earth tactics to starve them into submission, and razing towns to the ground. The destruction was, from what the history books say, quite vast, and quite indiscriminate. Enslaving the Miyeritaran dark elves had well and truly poked the hornet's nest. It was the sun elves' way of showing that they truly believed themselves to be a higher people than their dark-skinned cousins. Never before had such a thing been done amongst elves. They had always treated each other as equals."
"The sun elves are appalled at their losses, of course. Open war is declared on all dark elves, regardless of state or allegiance. The planet is torn in two. Dwarves and merfolk and other peoples also begin taking sides and skirmishing. The warfare touches everyone." More and more lines and symbols appeared on the screen, indicating battles and seizures of land and resources. The map is very quickly a confusing mess of conflict, spanning several hundred years. Notably, the territory of the sun elf nation spreads far north and west, taking up most of the continent and many areas beyond, whilst the territory of Ilytiir remains mostly unchanged. "By the time a thousand years have passed, the sun elf nation is referring to itself as an Empire, even as many of its conquered peoples, including Miyeritar, continue to resist."
Cressa halted for a long time, scowling at the map. She looked back at her students and shook her head. "I'm sorry. This is where the story really starts to get to me. As you can see from the map, the territory of the dark elves has hardly shifted in over five hundred years. And yet the popular consensus among surface elves is that the Ilytiiri were making a bid for global domination. And that is the supposed justification for what happened next."
She paused again and reached up to massage her temples, thinking about how best to put this. "They call it the Dark Disaster. Our people call it Lil'Katree - literally, The Slaughter. An impenetrable storm of magic blazed over the jungles of Miyeritar, and when it cleared, nothing remained."
The screen shifted to an image of lush, tropical forest. A shining white and gold city, rising as high as the treetops. And then - nothing. Wasteland. No-man's land. The ground was levelled, dusty and grey. Nothing living for miles. And it stretched on and on into the distance... met the horizon... and kept going...
"Over eight million dark and sylvan elves - gone. As if they never existed at all. In their place, this - this dark, evil stain on the landscape, which hardly healed at all until quite recently..."
The image of the desolate wasteland was replaced by something similar - a large, flat meadow, green plants, pink flowers and blue sky. It was not what it once was... and how many thousands of years had it taken for nature to reclaim it?
"When the curtain of magic fell down and nothing but wasteland remained behind it, every elf in the Prime world drew back in horror at where their conflict had taken them to. To this - to genocide. Warriors and mages laid down their arms, and truces were hastily drawn up right across the world. Thousands of elves made pilgrimages to see the destruction for themselves, and pay their respects. But none were more horrified, more sorrowful, more angry than the remaining dark elves in Ilytiir. And by now, sun elves and dark elves were firm, fast enemies. They hated each other. Skirmishes and scuffles broke out at the Miyeritar border, between embittered dark elves and the bastards who had killed half of their family."
"The peace lasted only ten years - a short, short time, like minutes in the span of elven history. The Ilytiiri were mounting a massive attack. For ten years, they rearmed day and night. I have a very ancient text by one moon elf writer, who happened to be in the city for a few nights. She observed... 'the streets are overflowing with gunpowder. A mage is stationed at every smithy, enchanting weaponry and armour faster than it can be made. I can hear chanting from the street outside every chapel. How will the sun elves stand up to this wounded animal, so fervently thirsting for their destruction?'"
"In this time, the worship of our Goddess grew, and came out into the open. She and her family of gods promised the remaining dark elves the power that they needed to crush the sun elves once and for all. The sun elves had used terrible powers against them - so why not? Why not?"
Cressa's shoulders and chest heaved as she said this. She practically shouted it at some invisible ancestor of hers, positioned somewhere over in the corner of the room.
It was like she was watching a movie she'd seen time and time again, whose ending she already knew, even as she wished the characters would make a different choice. "Did they think they had nothing to lose? They had EVERYTHING to lose! They were the last of our people! Maybe they didn't think the sun elves would dare commit another act of genocide, not after the horror the first one caused. If that is what they thought, they were wrong. They were so wrong."
On the map, a great, dark, jagged stain appeared, arrow-shaped, seeping up from Ilytiir to the sun elf territory in the north, capital city clearly marked. "Ilytiir's savage counter-attack began the evening of the ten year anniversary of the destruction of Miyeritar. Under cover of darkness, they marched northwards, and left a blackened trail of destruction in their path. Everything and everyone that stood in their way, fell. It was as if the vengeful spirits of the lost country had risen again to stalk the earth. For miles around, the smoke from their path could be seen on the horizon, like an omen of doom."
"And again, this brings us to the justification for what happened next. The sun elves stipulate to this day that the dark elves were utilising dark powers in their final assaults. Now, seeing as worship of our fallen Goddess had grown, it's not a stretch to say that dark magic was being used. No history books are clear on what magic exactly. The area is left vague. However, every book on the matter - and there aren't many - has been written by surface elves - sun elves. And I believe that the evidence does not hold up. There may have been use of primitive abominations as weapons of war - the world would never, ever have seen the likes of these before. However, there is no evidence of unspeakable dark powers being used, and absolutely nothing to the scale and extent of the disaster which provoked the attack in the first place. Historiographically, the records are slanted to portray the Ilytiiri in a dark light, making pacts with devils and looking forward to global domination. There is bias. And it does not tally with the reality of the situation."
"The point is, the dark elves had been preparing for this, and their army was, from what I can estimate from my research, roughly nineteen million strong. Nineteen million. Every remaining man and woman and youth had taken up arms. They had been planning this for a decade, and planning it with religious devotion - it's said that no children were born for the whole time they had been preparing, so that when the time came, everyone could get up and go to war. They were that devoted to crushing the sun elves once and for all. With an army that huge, nothing that stood in its way had a chance. Everything crumbled. All anyone could do was evacuate. And the capital city was, within just a few short days of the march, in serious danger of being breached. If the Ilytiiri forces reached the walls, they could easily overpower them. Their enemies' army was spread throughout the world, defending the precious Empire. The sun elven rulers saw the ferocious power on the horizon, and did the only thing they could think of..."
"They prayed. They beseeched their God to save them from imminent destruction. And their God, who was once the lover of our Goddess, who had already cast her out for betraying him, was swift and merciless in his reply."
"We were changed," she said, holding up both of her dark hands, "Cursed. One fateful day, black hair turned white; tanned skin, black as coal; green and grey eyes to red. I can only imagine how terrifying it must've been, the light of the sun like fire on the skin, the whole world burning, white, like magnesium. Within days, every dark elf had retreated to the underworld. The sun elves had removed the threat of Ilytiir forever. But at what cost?"
Her story had drawn to a close. The ethereal screen flickered out of existence, and Cressa shifted forward to sit on the table. "...I don't care what anyone thinks of our people. They didn't deserve to be cursed for generations, until the end of time, millions of innocent unborn banished. Ten thousand years later, here we are, unable to walk in the light of the sun without protection, mistrusted and mistreated and hunted like animals. No one deserves this. No one."
"We call ourselves Ilytiiri to this day, not dhaerow - not traitor. We are where we are now because our ancestors would not abandon their culture, or their people - and we have not forgotten that, or them."
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Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:22 pm
 It was all that he needed to hear. "Yes, that is how they make driders." How it made the drider. That person-that-was-not-a-person, creating such horrendous, mutated things and pitting them against the rapidly weakening newcomer. He and his mirror self, battling with magic and monstrosities, and he gave out. The memory filled his mind to the brim, leaving him all but dead to the world. It didn't help matters that he had heard mention of the class's content before, leaving him with little distraction from his brooding. Xeiashi could almost hear the cackling laughter of The Other. He was not it, and it was not Xeiashi, and even in his mind he insisted upon the distinction. The first shambling horrors were but a joke, not even worthy of being considered a test. He was trapped in the realm with scarcely another soul in sight, forced to fight the beasts created by the Other with ever-more-draining spells as the Other remained floating just out of reach. Not that he hadn't tried, of course. The landscape became littered with half-pillars and blast craters where he had attempted to assault his captor, but always there was some new monster to distract and unwind his plans. The very last, having been suspiciously similar to a spider-human hybrid that was later confirmed to be a drider in his studies, had finally bested him and left him defenseless in the barren landscape. He had no energy left, and even if he had, the drider would have speared his skull anyway...but The Other decided to monologue. "It was a very fine speech", the blue-haired kid assured The Other with as much contempt and sarcasm as he could muster, though that was difficult when teetering on the edges of unconsciousness. Truth be told, he had probably fallen into it a few times during the parts about 'uprisings' and 'things that you don't have the guts to handle'. Unfortunately, he had been completely aware for the part gloating about "You've already done this. Remember your eye? That wasn't just alchemy. That is just like this, but you continued to fumble around in your ignorance and spout pointless blather about 'ethics' and 'morals'. Face it, you weren't strong enough to use it on anything else, but it was just fine to do it to the earth, the trees, and all of the things that didn't 'live' in your definition of the word. Even now, you're thinking about transmuting the ground beneath me, but you are helpless to do so. You could easily do something more....drastic, but again, you have those morals. That is why you lost, just like your useless Professor Panda. Now there was a useless pile of wizard..."Even now, Xeiashi couldn't be certain of what happened next. He felt a rage building up inside of him....and soon enough, he was standing, breath heaving in and out of his chest, amongst dust and rubble. A small pool of gore remained where something had happened to the hideous spider hybrid, but the fact was ignored, as his hand was on fire. Not really on fire. It certainly felt like it was on fire, though there were no flames. A series of splotchy, weblike burns persisted in creeping up his hand, however, bringing with it the burning, raw energy that he had created. In some part of his confused mind, he realized that this was definitely not good, and did the only thing that came to mind. He held his hand out, vertically, towards the battlefield that was still strewn with the misshapen corpses of the earlier battles, and he released all of the energy in a single burst. Drained and shocked by the sudden light, he passed out once more, and upon waking briefly noted the large gouge that seemed to have been cut from the face of the landscape. He was too tired to care, though, and started to walk in some direction... 'Hey....wait a minute...that sounds like someone is casting a spell. Not Cressa....too uncertain to be a student...and their control of the magic is horrendous. No wonder the spell didn't work, but who? Finally roused from his flashback, Xeiashi became aware of the world around him, and of the Combat Instructor holding a wand...and tracing runes... 'Ah, symbolic magic. Too slow, but easy to use. No idea what he's trying to do though. Why is he even using magic in the first'This thought was interrupted by the sudden geyser of flame that erupted from the wand. Much smoke, poor combustion....but impressive, considering that Jessie had never been seen practicing magic. A knock at the door disrupted THIS thought (loud noises....why are they so prevalent near the library, of all places! he thought), and, as if sensing the break in class, gossip sprang into its place. It quieted down again shortly, down to a level where he could think properly, when his friend asked about learning Drow. Now THAT was a good idea! How had it never occurred to him before? Of course he would be a part of that, and it would make it a ton easier to read some of the as-of-yet-untranslated works that he would be reading from shortly enough. Before he could add his willingness to participate, though, Cressa had started on a Brief History of Drow, a subject touched on in his other studies but never set out in such a complete image. Learning Drow could wait, there were bigger stories afoot. After so much thinking in a small time, it was all the blue-haired oddball could do just to retain and understand this barrage of Elven history. His stomach may have growled, either that or the Temple was in the middle of an earthquake. He ignored it either way. The small rumble occurred again, but this time his mind was back in the devastated battlefield, eerily similar to the one that Cressa had displayed as part of the lecture. The sheer scale of devastation on a real world left him shocked. It was as if the Mirror World was real...except the sky was blue. He absorbed the continuing lesson as normal, but a small part of his mind continued to be dedicated to understanding the sheer amount of power that had gone into such devastation. One thought bothered him again, just as another had earlier, and he waited until the end of the story before asking it. "So where did your culture begin? When you were exiled underground, was it the worship of the dark Goddess that caused the power imbalance and rivaling families, or has it always been that way?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:18 pm
Cressa's lips tweaked into a little, pensive smile. "Ah... interesting that you should ask that, Xei... yes, our Goddess is the main reason for the rivalry between Houses and individuals. She drives her followers to compete with one another, quite ruthlessly, for various reasons - or for no reason at all. The average lifespan of a dark elf underground is a meager 300 years, mainly due to the myriad of nasty ways we can be murdered. It is a scramble and a scrape for survival, and that is just how she likes it."
"But it was not always like this, no. And our Goddess was not always like this. I mentioned that once, she was the lover - well, I should say wife, really, they have many children together - of the God of sun elves. She has undergone a transformation just as radical as our own, if not moreso."
"You see, she was once a member of the pantheon of Light gods; the patron goddess of dark elves, the arts and artisans, beauty, destiny, and sex."
Some of the students reacted predictably to the word. Others tried very very very very hard to not react to it. "Oh, but we haven't mentioned sex yet, have we?" Cressa said with exaggerated excitement, rubbing her hands together. "How on earth did we just spend an hour and a half discussing drow, without it cropping up once? Well, well, well! We have been skirting around some issues, haven't we? There is a saying, you know, that sun elves make alliances in the boardroom, while dark elves make theirs in the bedroom. Pretty accurate, isn't it, my sweetheart?"
She directed this at Jessie, playfully bumping him on the shoulder with the side of her arm. He bit on the insides of his cheeks to keep from smiling too broadly. "...Pretty accurate, yes."
"Regular politics are boring! Sexual politics have always been the priority to us. Dark elves were very peaceful before the fall. They didn't make a philosophy of it, no, but we are, or we were, as you say, lovers, not fighters. And very talented ones, at that," she declared, with a little, cheeky look towards the men standing a short distance from the tables. Was that Andreas' eye she caught for a moment before looking away? "Anyway, we weren't ambitious like the prissy, pompy sun elves. From what I can gather, we were quite happy to sing and dance and gambol our days away, little orgy over here, little orgy over there, tra la la, nymphs and shepherds, come away, come away~"
"Cressa," Jessie said, laughing along with everyone else.
"What?~ They're not children! We're all adults here, perfectly capable of having a lovely, pleasant class discussion involving multiple uses of the word 'orgy' without descending into primeval chaos."
"Um," he continued, with a pointed look towards one corner of the table, where two of her students had collapsed onto each other with stifled mirth, giggling into shoulders and books.
"CHILDREN!" she said, rapping on the table for attention, "You are fortunate that I do not have time to detail the finer points of the noble art of the orgy to you today! Let us regroup, and recap! We have established that sex and drow go together like bread and butter! We have also established that our dear old Goddess was once married to the head honcho of the surface pantheon! Well, what do you think happened? She wanted more power. And she didn't go about getting it through quiet conversation and binding contracts. She made a couple of... deals, to increase her influence, and let's just say, they took place in the bedroom more often than not."
"Now, our Goddess in those days was known for her seductive beauty and charm. Winding men, and women, around her finger was what she was built to do, and it was a part of us, too," she smiled. The powerful, magnetic charm of the dark elves... "Her husband was absolutely smitten with her, as were many others. But you don't date the big man of the pantheon without attracting a few rivals. One goddess in particular had been aching to take her place for, well, I don't know how long. So of course, when it came to her attention that, GASP, her lovely rival was being unfaithful to her husband, she went cheerfully skipping up to him, happy as larry, and ratted her out. And he reacted like any reasonable, sane person would. 'Darling of mine, mother of my many children, have you been cheating on me?' 'Yes, I'm afraid I have.' And then he stripped her of her divinity, chained her to a dark dimension beyond the reach of time and space, and disfigured her body so he wouldn't be tempted to forgive her because of her beauty. ....Yep."
"What a b***h!" gasped the girl who was eager to learn drow, too, "I mean, the one who stole her husband! Cheating's not good either, but seriously!"
Cressa raised her eyebrows. The tone of her voice changed. "Oh...? Do I detect some serious sympathy for the poor widdle dark elves?"
"Of course we're sympathetic," said one of the boys, who had questioned Jessie earlier about slavery, "We know what everyone says about dark elves. But who in their right mind just believes stereotypes? Everyone is just people, at the end of the day, doesn't matter what colour you are or where you come from. And it sounds to me like your people have really had some bad luck when it comes to prejudice. I mean... that Dark Disaster... it sounds to me just like... the Holocaust," he continued warily, dropping his voice on the word that denoted the most horrible, appalling desecration of life humanity had ever known. "I can't believe they just got away with that. Someody should've been punished. As it turned out, nobody got punished but you guys."
A somber silence passed over the room. Jessie and Cressa were both looking at him intently - kindly, as if they really appreciated what he was saying. Then, he continued. "What I don't get, though, is how you went from peace and love on the surface, to fighting over scraps of power underground. Why did people keep worshipping the Goddess? Why did they just accept her awful doctrines after the fall?"
"They had no one else to turn to. The fall was really the best thing that could've happened for our Goddess. As her followers strengthened in their belief, she strengthened. She regained her divine powers and portfolio, and her grip strengthened even more. Once they had welcomed her back in, it was just a downward spiral."
"Why did she turn to it in the first place, though? Just cheating doesn't make someone evil, right...?"
"Ah, yes. Well. Funny thing, that. They say being transformed into a spider monster and trapped for thousands of years in a remote dimension sent our dear Goddess round the twist! I wouldn't know, myself - I've never met the woman. But left alone there, surrounded by nothing but spiders and webs, she grew fascinated with spiders and their society. Anyone who can idolise them like she does really isn't in their right mind, if you ask me, for reasons we have previously discussed... But our people - her people - really had lost everything, so they turned to her, absorbed her teachings, started from scratch and built something that was... yes, more than a little twisted than it was before, but honestly, whose fault is that? Is it anyone's?"
"It sounds like a lot of bad luck to me," he grumbled. Cressa nodded.
"Yes... perhaps you are right. But you know, not only bad things have happened because of the fall. Our people are thriving under the ground. Our culture, and the ancient language we still speak, is very much alive, thanks to our isolation from human culture. On the surface, moon elves have all but vanished, and the sun elves have waned, too. Their lands have slowly been encroached upon and vanished. Half-elves are far more common now than a full-blooded high elf; even more common than sylvans. There have been stories of thin-blooded high elves, who need to sleep once a day, like clockwork... even rumours of a few who have grown old... and... died," she said quietly, with a little shudder of horror. "Our people flourish, by contrast. And aspects of our culture are still the same. We venerate the arts in a way no other elves do. Yes, all elves can produce beautiful art and music, but the others do not celebrate art as we do. It is just a tool to them. Something they take for granted. Where we come from, art is lived and breathed. Our warriors learn to dance before they learn how to draw a sword."
"We have festivals..."
"Yes, we have festivals! Oh, such festivals... but I don't want to go off on a tangent about that. The point is, compared to a lot of other people, we're not doing so bad. In some respects, anyway. Do we have any more questions...?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:15 am
Evelyn had turned completely bright red at the mention of…certain things. She instantly turned her thoughts elsewhere, and contemplated in great detail the tiny embroidery work on the edge of her dress and scarf. It wasn’t until Cressa shouted that she tuned back into the lecture. It was quite compelling…when Cressa asked if there anymore questions, Evelyn, try as she might, couldn’t withhold one more question.
“What on earth would cause a society that had experienced slavery, prejudice, and slaughter to continue such practices? Prejudice slavery against males, and slaughter of…well, apparently everyone? What on earth could cause such…hate?”
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:29 am
Jessie and Cressa looked at each other. And as the seconds spiralled on, it became clear that they weren't going to be able to come up with an answer. Jessie murmured something to her. She replied quietly, with a shrug and a little, helpless gesture of her hands. Their combined powers couldn't answer this, the deepest question of all.
Cressa finally turned back to Evelyn, and held up her hands in defeat. "We don't know. This is just how it is. Not all of our cities are like this. There is resistance. A few places have undergone successful revolutions. But... I suppose.... nobody's perfect?"
"We will not blame you if you feel disgusted with our people, Evie, after all that you've learned today," Jessie said gently, looking straight at her. "Cressa defends our people, because they are our people, dysfunctional as they are. But we do not condone what they do. It is terrible, and it is senseless. We agree. We are very far away from home now, you know. If we didn't share your disgust, we would not be here to say all of this in the first place."
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:42 am
Evelyn threw up her hands and waved them slightly, before lowering them into her lap as composed as possible. “I’m not disgusted, really! I understand. Every culture has its faults. It’s not like it reflects your views. But…oh, I’m being silly.” Evelyn clamped her mouth shut and strummed her fingers on her lap.
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:02 am
Jessie smiled at her, bright and warm, but he didn't risk saying anything with her bodyguards in the room. After barely escaping with a plausible alibi on the weekend, it didn't seem prudent to throw away their chances of being left alone for two seconds on a misconstrued statement. So to the best of his abilities he tried to tell her, with his eye and his expression alone, that it was okay. Cressa was easing herself to her feet, sliding off of her table like Titania out of her thyme-strewn bower. "Do not fret about it at all. As my partner in crime has said, we do not judge. Our precious, fragile feelings are not hurt."
A little ripple of laughter passed through the room. Cressa began circling the desks. "So! It's been about two hours. I think we've done quite enough today. Class, you are dismissed. Thank you for taking part, for being so understanding, and for not relieving your churning stomachs on the floor. Your effort and enthusiasm is much appreciated!"
"We've learned a lot today," she continued as the students began to gather their things and get up. "Hopefully most of your questions have been answered. And for those of you who were wondering why I am so impossibly beautiful," she said, drawing close enough to Andreas to remain coy and at a distance... but her eyes and her tone were boring into him, and only him, hungrily. "Now you know - it's because I am. Impossibly beautiful."
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:08 am
Andreas’s eyes evaluated the dark elf in front of him. He took a simple two steps forward, and nodded his head. Aloisius, who actually had wanted to ask Cressa something, saw that it was simply not the time and walked over toward the door, leaning against the wall right beside it. Andreas clapped lightly. “Quite a lecture.”
Evelyn stayed seated, glancing at Jessie every other second before blushing and looking down at her hands. Why must she always be so nervous?
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Cressa raised her head a little, in a queenly fashion, and her smile became mysterious. "Thank you," she said simply, before floating off to continue her errance around the tables, students shuffling for the door around her.
"When will we hear about the lessons?" the girl who had signed herself up immediately after Evelyn eagerly asked. Cressa fluttered her hands at her.
"Oh, don't worry about it for now. Go and do what young people do, and leave us responsible personel to talk and get back to you."
She looked a bit put out, and poutily clutched her books to her chest. "What if I said I wanna know now? Unlike you, we don't exactly have like fifty lifetimes to learn everything we want to learn," she harrumphed. Cressa did some more fluttering.
"A-ta-ta-ta, shhh. Mortality is not an excuse for impatience, young lady!"
Jessie was sitting relaxedly, but he was keeping his gaze down upon the grain of the desk; silent; still conscious of the fact that giving the game away would be easy, so easy. He chanced a look up as the desks cleared of their occupants, but Evie was looking down in a similarly concentrative manner. He looked away. Then he tried again - she'd turned her gaze once more. Eventually after just missing each other a handful of times, he happened to look up just after she did. Eyes met - he smiled... then looked away again.
When the room had finally cleared, save for the bodyguards of course, Cressa bent over her desk and looked between the last remaining seated with interest. "Well, well, well! My star pupil, and the bane of my existence, both staying behind after school. I wonder, to what do I owe this mixed blessing?"
Jessie jumped to his feet. He hadn't really meant to stay. He supposed afterwards, he'd been entertaining ideas of getting a message to Evelyn about how particularly beautiful she looked that day. It would've been dreadfully romantic...
However, it was not to be. "Oh, um, I really must get back... Cressa, we can talk later. Evelyn," he said, and the word was filled with a kind of expectance. A thrill went through the air. Casual. Casual! "...The tickets arrived today. I'll meet you at six thirty tomorrow, remember."
(( Inu - feel free to have him leave and launch into yoru CRESSA HELP, WOUNDS or whatever you wants to do, he isnt going to say anything after this anyways =D <3 ))
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 7:15 pm
Evelyn nodded, blushing a fierce red and watched him leave. Aloisius bowed with a wave of his hand as Jessie passed.
Evelyn stood and looked at Andreas then Aloisius before saying, politely, “Boys, could you wait out in the hallway?” The two bodyguards exchanged a look, then one at Evelyn, then another at each other. The first look to express the degradation of being called “boys,” the second look to evaluate the girl, and the third look to shrug at one another and walk out.
Evelyn walked toward Cressa, adjusting her scarf. “Cressa, would you mind if I asked you a question?”
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:57 am
Cressa tilted her head with curiosity, and slid up onto her desk. "I take it this isn't about the lecture. What's the matter...? Are you having woman problems? Do you need me to get my hand-puppets out?" she asked kindly.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:16 am
Evelyn blinked at the dark elf, and then realized what she was saying. “Oh! No, thank you. I was just…well, you see…do you know of a way to get cuts and other wounds off? Something s bit stronger than what we were taught in basics…something perhaps stronger than in ‘Madam Medicure’s Encyclopedia of Magical Medical Prowess?’”
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:56 am
"Hmm! What's the nature of the wounds we're dealing with? Everything you know already should be enough for mundane wounds. And you don't appear to be missing any limbs or vital organs," she said thoughtfully, giving Evelyn a cursory all-over inspection. "Neither did your companions. Did you get yourself sliced by a cursed weapon? Burned by hellfire? (That one's always a hazard for demon-summoners.) Slow poison? Doxy bite?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:54 pm
Evelyn giggled a little. “No, I dare say I haven’t seen a doxy in about five years. And all my organs and my companion’s organs are completely intact. No cursed weapons or hellfire, or anything of the sort.” Evelyn’s face became somber as she approached the subject. “Well, Cressa, have you ever cast spells in your sleep?”
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