Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kumoru took another sip of tea and shrugged. "I'm used to people staring at my eyes, since they're such an unusual color." He closed his fingers around the flame he had conjured, extinguishing it. "As for magic," the young mage continued, looking up at Chris, "I suppose I could try to teach you a few little cantrips. Simple spells that every mage learns. If those come easily to you, I can see about showing you some more complex wind spells." He left his necromancy out of it. True, Kumoru was aware of the dangers involved in such death magic, but a part of him also wished to keep the spells he had learned secrets from all. Not until he had learned more for himself.

The mage was silent for a moment as he took a drink of tea, then set the mug down on the edge of the table. He brushed a lock of hair back behind his ear so it would not be in his face, and rested his elbows on his knees.

"Thank you," Kumoru said after a moment, in that sort of distant tone people have when they are thinking about something else. Then, after a pause, in a slightly stronger tone, he added, "I take care of myself because I have time to do so. My hair is long because I am a mage. It is only my status that allows me to look like this."

"Imposing?" The mage bowed slightly where he sat, glancing back at Chris. "Not at all. There's nothing wrong with finding me handsome. You may stay if you wish. It's not often I have someone around to talk to." He reached for his cup of tea again, and took another drink.

Kumoru laughed a little at being told he was "not like most guys", though he couldn't really say why. He drained the last of the tea from his mug and set it on the table again, shrugging a little at Chris's second comment. "I seek to understand. That's my chosen path in life."

"Right, a spell," Kumoru said, brightening noticibly at this opportunity to show his skill at what he had studied all his life. The mage scooted forward a bit on the sofa so he was closer to the low table, then glanced at Chris. "There's one spell that everyone at the Tower learns... It's more of a test of our natural skill than anything else, but I've found it comes in handy sometimes..."

Turning his blue gaze back to the table, Kumoru placed the tip of his index finger against the dark wood and began to trace out several runes. The characters were not complex - no more than fifteen or sixteen strokes between the bunch of them - and when Kumoru finished with those, he traced a circle to encompass them all. None of the patterns he had dictated with his finger left any sign of their being there on the table, but as soon as Kumoru completed the circle, the area of table within the shape changed from wood to a perfectly reflective mirror.

The mage nodded, taking the tablet and pencil and starting to trace out the runes for Chris. "The order of the strokes matters in the spell, too," he told her. "Shall I number them for you?"

Once he was finished copying the set of runes for her, Kumoru returned the pad and pencil, shaking his head. "No, this is a simple little spell for beginner mages. It either works or it doesn't," he told her. "There's really no way to miscast it in a way that would cause any sort of undesired effects. The spell is easy to break, too." The mage touched the table lightly right at the edge of the magic mirror, then dragged his fingertips gently across the mirror. "Just smear the runes, and break the circle around them. Even if you didn't use chalk or something to make visible marks, you can still cancel the spell like this." As his fingers moved across the mirror, the smooth reflectiveness faded and vanished, leaving behind just the table, as it had been before the mirror spell.