Peony Min (blackmagicks) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-03-23 22:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, peony min, toku matsudaira |
Who: Peony & Toku
What: Toku’s wildest dreams come true! (actually, just teaching Peony a spell)
Where: Tower gardens
When: This afternoon
Rating: Tame, lbr
Status: Complete
Peony was in a positive mood as she made her way down to the tower gardens, where Toku had set their meeting this day. Her morning had started with Pyr’s unexpected appearance; they had attended mass together, and following the service, she had bought him lunch and tea before sending him on his way. She had also received a summons from the Knights of the Peace to come in for a consultation the next day -- that they had not forgotten her despite the circumstances they all found themselves in was a matter that pleased her greatly. Toku had seemed pleased with her request to explore his favored school of magick. Finally, it seemed her plans for the boys’ birthday would work out. Even in difficult times, Faram provided these moments of contentment. With these thoughts in her mind, she stepped out into hesitant spring sunlight. Some of the plants were starting to bud now; bits of green peeking from the black earth, harbingers of spring. The breeze still brought a chill, but then, she was particularly sensitive to these things; in the sunlight and with a woolen shawl over her wool dress, she found a cloak unnecessary. She found Toku standing under one of the trees, gazing up into the branches; she looked up herself to behold a bird building a nest. Life was stubborn, she thought, in the midst of troubled times. She watched as a twig was wrestled into place, sharing a moment of quiet contentment before she spoke: “Good afternoon. I hope you have not been waiting long.” She was early, but it seemed he had been earlier still. At the sound of her voice Toku turned and offered a slight bow in greeting. "Good afternoon. Do not worry; waiting here is hardly an inconvenience such as the word wait implies." Her request had been a welcome surprise. He would have liked to think that his efforts, over the past decade, to pitch geomancy to her were finally yielding results, though her reasons for asking may well lie elsewhere. There was no point in speculating before the lesson had begun. Toku sat down on the grass, legs tucked underneath him. As he had no official commitments all day, he had chosen to don traditional Sako Island attire, rather than a suit. “I find most novice students of geomancy do much better casting while sitting down than on their feet, as they are closer to the earth,” he explained. “Today we shall be attempting to tame the wind, not the earth, but I do believe it would help you slip into the required mindset more easily.” Without complaint, Peony settled on the ground as well, legs tucked beneath her. It was still a bit cold, not yet warmed through by the sun as it would be in summer, but she had ever been an obedient student. Over the years she had spent studying with Toku, he had never once steered her wrong, polishing the basic skills that had been imparted upon her by her mentor in her home guild, improving her breadth of power and her control both. If he had told her to kneel in the snow, she would have done it. She wondered if he sat remembering too. “I will attempt to follow your instruction to the best of my ability,” she said, not so different from what she had said to him once. “What must I do?” For a moment he was silent. Her words were an echo from a time many years ago, and he accepted them with a nod and a small smile. Much had changed since then―Peony had just left her family behind, while he had not yet noticed the cracks that had started appearing in his, delicate china waiting to crumble. No matter what else had happened, how many regrets he may have, taking Peony under his wing after her arrival was not one of them. “Focus on your surroundings,” he began. “Geomancy is unlike other branches of magic. The energy necessary to cast is not drawn from within, but from without. It is a conversation.” The wind was not strong in the gardens, but it did not need to be. Instilling the new mindset in her was the objective of the lesson. He did not expect her to successfully bend the elements to her will on her first lesson, though if such a feat had been possible, he had no doubt she would have been the one to achieve it. Gently, he reached out to nudge the idle breeze in the gardens into gaining some force. Not enough to do anything but rustle leaves. A simple demonstration, no more. She did not close her eyes, for this was not a meditation, but she did clear her mind of extraneous thought. So much of her meditation was focused within; she attempted not to focus on her breath. She felt the chill of the ground through the wool of her skirt, the touch of wind against her cheeks. She thought of the way it had felt when she had first explored Earth, the connection that allowed her to push at and manipulate the element. it was not -- quite -- what Toku was asking, but it was the closest she had; among other thoughts, that was the one she chose to bring forward. She did nothing with it, simply left that awareness to linger. She felt the magic as the wind rose. She felt it -- curiously -- not from the mage who sat across from her, but from the wind itself, as though some invisible force, utterly apart from the two of them. It was not always easy to see the weave of a new spell, and here too, the demonstration gave her only a vague impression of the necessary components. A conversation. An interesting way to consider it; she often considered her own interactions with the elements a transaction: she gave, and they responded with obedience. Here, she was not meant to offer anything, but it was difficult, as she opened herself to the mental frame most suited to casting, not to reach for the light within and use it to bend the breeze to her will. “How does one gather the requisite energy to commence the conversation?” she asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice. The request for obedience, this she could understand -- she could make it without more than a thought. But how to get the attention of a force outside herself without giving of her own power? That, she could not fully work out on her own. He gave her a small smile. It was not an uncommon question among beginners. A sign of the mindset associated with other types of magic, which was ill-suited to geomancy. But it was a good question, because it meant she was aware of that shortcoming. "One does not gather the energy, Peony. One requests, and it is given." He placed a hand on the ground. "You are a powerful black mage; you know the elements and the world around you can be wielded as a weapon, and you command them to become such. There is more raw power in nature than most realize." He spoke calmly, knowing that she was listening to and pondering every word. "Through understanding, it is possible to form a bond with nature, so that it always answers when you call. The power you wield is not your own, and you cannot treat it as such; it is something you borrow." “Perhaps I chose my words poorly,” she said, but she was considering, turning the ideas he had given her over in her mind. She was not at all certain of the key to begin the conversation. Still, she would try. She sat in silence for what seemed a long time, her mind clear, her attention on the wind. She called it to heed her without touching the well of power glowing at her core. A conversation. Why would it choose to listen? How did she ensure she was heard? More silence, more thought, before she reached again, out, not in, as though the air itself was rife with threads of power that could be wielded, shaped, commanded. For a brief moment, she thought that she felt -- something -- the unfurling leaves on the tree above her gave a little tremor before lying still as she lost it, like water through her fingers. Like power through the inexperienced hands of a young scholar who could not yet find a way to look in. It was not, in the end, so different a concept. “I believe this will take considerably more work,” she said, “but I think I may be beginning to understand.” It was subtle, but it was there; a barely-felt rustle of the leaves overhead, then gone. That much was a feat; few were those who could go that far on their first lesson. “If you listen to the earth around you, then the earth will listen to you in turn. Or the wind, as the case may be.” He smiled. “This is a good beginning, Peony.” Nostalgia invaded him then, the memory of Peony a decade ago, newly-arrived and such a long way from where she was now. And there was so much potential in her; it made him excited to see what she had yet to achieve. “Let’s see you try again,” he said. |