when you've gone about things all wrong,

[faithlikeaseed]

WHO: Myr + YOU! (With starters for Herian, Vandelin, and Newt.)
WHAT: Bees, glyphs, knight-enchanting, just plain Chant(ing), and other things relevant to Myr's interests
WHEN: Early to mid-Solace
WHERE: All around the Gallows & Kirkwall
NOTES: Will be added as needed!

i. when the day begins to break // the Gallows courtyard

With the height of Kirkwall's summer cresting hot and muggy, Myr's made even more effort to confine his conditioning to the early morning hours. He's up and out before dawn to run laps of the prayer garden (much smaller than the courtyard, but fewer people there and the obstacles don't change day to day); after that, staff-sparring or grappling with whoever might be about, or barring a live opponent, a session with one of the dummies.

Then, magic: Today, he bends all his focus to a knight-enchanter's disruption field, throwing a rippling bubble of slowed time over a secluded corner of the courtyard. A footstep overheard, a voice--at the sound of someone approaching he'll toss a sunny smile their way, and a request: "If you've got a moment, d'you mind stepping inside there? Promise it's harmless; you'll just slow down a bit."

ii. in the things & the way they could have been // the library

Thursday evening, Chant discussion group. In light of recent concerns over the rifters, Myr'd opened the floor to talk of spirits--something he'd never have done on his own, uncomfortable as he is on the subject, if it hadn't felt like an inspired necessity. Tonight's discussion lingered long over Senior Enchanter Baden's treatise, with particular attention to how mankind's darkest desires intertwined with with the spirits' needs to lead them both into destruction. Not an easy topic to cover, not by a long shot, but--there was no true acrimony behind any of the arguing and no one had stomped off in a huff this time, so it went well enough.

Thus it's with a quiet sense of relief that he lingers as the rest of the group files out; he's usually the last to go, since it's his pledge to the archivists that gets them the study room every week and they expect the door locked when it's not in use. But today especially he needs a little bit of extra time to process what's been said and tuck it away--

Though he'll not be averse to anyone who wants to talk a little more privately on anything that came up in discussion.

iii. don't forget son when he's out on his own // Kirkwall alienage

Like many city elves born to the alienages, Myr's no precise idea when his nameday falls in the year. "Mid-Solace" is the closest he remembered from the little celebrations his father and Ben threw for him; he'd chosen the fifteenth himself much later out of a love of symmetry. (That it happened to coincide with the nameday of the comely Imayn--whose eye he'd been striving to catch at the time--was a nice bonus.) It had since stuck there, celebrated informally in Hasmal's Circle right up to the year of the rebellion.

After that--

After that he hadn't felt much like celebrating another year's survival, nor had anyone else. It still feels a little wrong to do so, even though the Inquisition's been a boon in other ways--but it is his thirtieth and that requires something to mark it.

He brings honeycomb and wildflowers to offer at the vhenadahl, that little bit of paganry even his father embraced. (The Maker, Iolan had said, had made the People as they were and given them to the lives they now led; He would not begrudge them their traditions, so long as it drew their hearts back to Him in the end.) He kneels at the foot of the great tree to make his gift of them; remains there, after, in quiet prayer to the Maker and His Bride, asking guidance for the coming year.

And then, as quietly: "I hope you can hear me, Dad. I know the Chantry says otherwise--but you'd always believed the Maker kinder than that, and I want to, too."

iv. wildcard

(Surprise me! Or hit me up on Plurk or Discord if you'd like a specific starter.)

Comments

[nadasharillen]

"I was, I think," Nari replies, still half-chuckling and ultimately rather glad he'd laughed. She knows how seriously Myr takes his faith, but they'd gotten close enough over the last few months that she's pretty sure he knows she'd never make true fun. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Do you want to try again?"

[faithlikeaseed]

"Then I've got that much right." There's a touch of excitement to Myr's tone; this is concrete progress! "And I'd only expect an apology if you weren't funny about it; and even then I could use the practice handling distractions." After all, he's hardly going to get the luxury of uninterrupted quiet on the battlefield.

Accordingly, he brightens at her offer. "Yes, please! This time let's see if you freeze up." Which is what it should do if he's got the spell right, but no telling.

...Come to think, that sounds awfully ominous when he says it that way, but that's magic for you. He draws another breath in slowly, then straightens and begins gesturing with hand and staff to invoke the field once more; it pops back into being a bare foot from Nari, shimmering and innocent-seeming in the early morning light.

[nadasharillen]

Walking into magic on purpose. What a world.

"Right, I'm headed in. I'm going to keep talking so that—" here Nari begins to walk through, attempting to keep her speaking to a regular tempo "—you can hear if there's any change in my speed from the outside, and I can let you know as I slow down, which I am, and Creators it's like walk i n g—" her narration stops, and there's only the sounds of the early morning Gallows.

[faithlikeaseed]

He can feel how the Fade drags on Nari as she moves--especially keenly what with the Veil so thin here--and can't suppress a whoop of triumph when she goes silent. There's what he was trying for! Though keeping the spell going much longer is like trying to keep hold of greased glass; the more he clutches at it the more it slips-- Until the field evaporates like a popped soap bubble, freeing Nari once more.

"It worked! Maker--it worked this time, I think I'm getting the hang of it! Thank you!"

[nadasharillen]

Suddenly time and sound and movement return, which is almost as disorienting as their departure, and the step Nari had been prevented from taking touches down and turns into a quiet little stumble and a low 'oop!', although she quickly catches her balance.

"Well, that was certainly something," she says with obvious respect for both mage and magic. There's a grin in her voice after Myr's excited exclamation. "The something you were looking for, I gather?"

[faithlikeaseed]

"Exactly that something," Myr enthuses. "I'd heard it could be done but didn't know how before now, but it's--Maker's bones, Nari, I've probably overcomplicated it like I always do but it's an incredible thing to cast once it's done." He pauses mid-spate, checks back a moment-- "--Are you all right?"

His tone's abashed, likewise his manner as he... pauses to catch his breath before taking a step or two in her direction, hand upraised as if in an offer of help.

[nadasharillen]

Nari emits a noise that is somewhere between a cheerful verbal shrug and reassurance. "I seem fine enough. I'll be sure to let you know if there are any lingering effects. And to blame you if I'm sluggish in the mornings." The grin is obvious in her voice for the latter.

"As far as making things too complex? I've always found that to be what happens at the beginning. I'm sure as you practice and get to understand it better through that rather than just theory that it'll get simpler."

[faithlikeaseed]

"Well, we can't have that." He grins to match hers, concern entirely forgotten to hear her so chipper. "If it's my fault I s'pose I'll need to make up for it by going about with an aura of haste all the time--that ought to put a spring back into your step."

And that's a spell he could, theoretically, keep going in his sleep--much as the glyphs were, and much unlike the disruption field. "Oh, doubtless; more practice and I'll shed all the bits of casting it that are fluff and not function. Though that'll be fore later; I think I'm done with spells for the morning. Don't want to wind up in the infirmary.

"Have you found time for breakfast yet?"

[nadasharillen]

"Snatched a biscuit and some butter on my way out here," Nari replies, that being her usual approach to breaking her fast. "I'm on my way to the Grove," which means she's also on her way to see Cade, since they share this time at daybreak each day (inasmuch as his prayer and her caring for the space counts as sharing time), "but I'll swing back by for another bite if you've an hour to kill down here?"