Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Alright... alright... I got the message..." grumbles Passura gloomily. "Ye had to go bust me bubble, didn't ye. I thought I had figured out a way to get away from numbers."

"Why do you want to get away from numbers, they're fun." says Ari. "Mara is really good with them... She helps daddy keep his books."

"Yeah... I bet you and I feel the same way about math, Passura.. sad to say though.. Kero's right... It is kind of important. To count money, make change, build things... it all needs math to some degree... can't get away from it." says Bez with a sour chuckle.

"Yes, mes'sirrah.... do you want some tea as well?" he asks shaking some loose tea into the pot.

Bez nods and says he'll go fetch some. "Ai used to chew ginger root, too. And we have some of that as well. Would ye like some?" asks Bez rummaging in the cabinets.

Bez peels a piece of ginger root and hands the aromatic woody chunk to Kero, telling him he's running down to the garden to get the mint. "It's a bit late in the season for it, but it tends to grow year round here in the sheltered spots. I'll be back in a bit.If you want to lie down, have the kids guide ye to the pallet. I'd not go on yer side though, iffin I were you. Those stitches alone will be enough to keep ye awake, ye lay on them and forget all about getting any rest."

"Mes'sirrah..." asks Passura after he returns from taking Tam his tea. "Why does twilight hurt you? I thought twilight magic was good magic... why does good magic hurt good things?"

Emnast smiles and joins them at the table. "I could answer that for ye, iffin ye want me to, Lucy... Ye don't look so good. Want to lay down?"

When Kero nods weakly to his question the serpentine and dragon guide him into the living room, Emnast trying to explain the mechanics of magic to Pasa as they walk.

"All magics... good and bad... work with energies... and as such, it is the source of those energies that label them good or bad... as well as how those magics are most commonly used. Even the green magic of healing can harm... if fact, it is one of the most harmful magics there is."

The boy's eyes grow wide. "Why?"

Emnast helps Kero lie down then covers him with a warmed blanket. "Ponder this... if magic can mend tissues which have been severed by a knife, can it not also tear those very same tissues asunder?"

Passura shudders and drops down by Kerobian. "Yeah, I guess it can... but why would a healer want to do that?"

"Most wouldn't... unless driven mad or insane." says Kero quietly in return.

Emnast nods. "Agreed. Creation magic can create, but it can also warp... fire magic can warm or purify but it can also destroy... same with almost any form of magic."

"Even light magic is dangerous." comes a weak voice from the door to the bedroom. "Sorry to intrude, but can I join this conversation. When the girls said Kero has been hurt, I wanted to see how he was and found you discussing one of my favorite topics." says the bard making his way to the pallet beside the boy and mage. "Light illuminates, but it can also blind. Music can soothe, but it can also disturb... it's simply a fact of life. A tool is merely a tool, it depends on how ye wield it."

Ai squeezes in beside them and slips beneath the blanket with Kero. "Move over, scamp... we're doing a class here... mage to mage... " he hisses to Kero teasingly. "It's like this, Pasa. All magic has an opposite. For light magic it's darkness... for Fire magic it's water... for air it's earth and so forth. Twilight magic is a school based on creation magic... void magic is a school based on it's opposite. Void magic dismantles.... twilight magic puts together... Hey... void master... yer better at explaining this than I am. I'm a creationist, so I know how my school operates and you taught me a lot about yers, but ye could explain it better than I and we both know it."

"But why does it hurt ye so? Wouldn't it be just like any offensive magic against ye, what makes it so powerful?" asks the boy in confusion.

Ai sighs. "I understand why you are confused, Pasa... it confused me as well when first I confronted the school. Let me try to explain it from a ceationist's point of view. Have you ever heard of the snake, Ouroboros?"

Passura nods. "He is a god amongst my kind. He represent the cycle of life... throughout the universe."

Tam nods. "That is one interpretation of him, yes... though in truth he is far more complicated than that. And the views of him vary... some even see him as two coiled snakes rather than one... male about the female, each biting the others tail... in a way... that is what voidic and creation magic do, neither one could exist without the other, but like the pole of a magnet, they both attract and repel each other's energies. Still, let me give the conflict a bit of explanation."

He leans up carefully against Keobian and uses him for a back rest, being extra careful not to put any pressure on his injuries. "In the beginning the Father was... pure and simple... he was... and all was formless about him. He chose, for reasons only he understands... to give form to these forces and in doing so, began the creation pool. But he was alone in his efforts... Before then he merely existed... but at some point in the midst of his house cleaning, so to speak, where he began to separate chaos from order, he began to recognize a need for companionship... hence the angels came into being... and then he began to putter around with the idea of a self-replicating creation... one which once set into motion pretty much took care of itself. No problem there, except some of my kin grew worried... we were the first... the greatest... the best... his young, so to speak... " Tam sighs with a tired chuckle.

"We were children... in search of an identity... and terrified of being replaced. Of course no one put it that way. Once created, we simply were... no one learned, our knowledge was inborn, no one died... no one grew sick... we had emotions, but only the most fundamental... love... anger... fear... hate... there was no balance, so to speak and my brothers flew up in a revolt. Few could see at the time what I now do, though many have come to embrace his wisdom. We were made to love him, but such forced love is stale. When I say I love the Father, I mean it with every fiber of my being, but I was made to love the Father. I was given no choice. Creation was made to love him as well, but on their own terms... and the gifts he gave your kind... the abilities... it boggles the mind. For you see, he gave you all something that connects you to him, a tiny bit of himself, a spark... a fire that makes you unto him... if only in a small way. You have a soul. We do not. We have a spiritual essence, true, but a soul?" Tam shakes his head sadly.

Then he grins at the boy and taps him on his head. "How does this relate? Isn't it just ancient history? Yes and no... Think of the energies of creation as a pool or a rather enormous ocean... the more he created, then less there was in the pool... something had to be done. So he began a cycle... creation pulls from the pool and the void refills it. Creation magic draws from the pool. supplying the spark of life, void magic returns things to the pool, removing it. But... since void magic needs to know how things are put together, to take them apart properly, Ker has the ability to reconstruct... not create... but to put back together... His massive intelligence has allowed him to use that skill to design things that may never have walked this earth, true, but it's really like a child using a very elaborate set of building blocks. He cannot create new blocks, only reassemble the old in new and interesting ways. And... as Kero's magics have slowly consumed him over the ages... his body is a bit unstable... less so now that my parents have done what they could to bolster his essence... and even lesser still since I gave back to him something he has been missing for the better part of his existence... a true, viable working heart. But no matter what we've done for him to aid him in his life, the truth is... Kero is and of the void... and that twilight blade tried to take part of him and create something with him..."

Tam looks over at Kerobian and smiles. "Anything ye care to add to my long winded dissertation?"