. (lostrequiem) wrote in solsticerp, @ 2012-03-26 22:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | jesse, july 9 2009, tayne |
Thursday: A True Thing
Who: Tayne and Jesse and a door
Where: The lighthouse
When: Around noon
The sermon came easily, the day before, and hadn't taken much in the way of polish. It was, unsurprisingly to Tayne at least, about mistakes and atonement and perseverance. It was what he needed to hear, anyway, so it was apparently what the congregation got to hear, too. That left him with most of the evening and all morning to research a spell for Jesse's door-- not necessarily a good thing, but at least productive-- and even then he wound up with an hour to kill. The spell in question required it to be noon, so he only left for the lighthouse half an hour before.
His truck rattled up to the lighthouse and stopped in a short shower of gravel at its foot. Tayne climbed out, a duffle bag over his shoulder, clanking a little with the materials inside it. This was more complicated than the last spell, but possibly more informative, and certainly less likely to engage the door's magic, itself. Or so he hoped.
It was cloudy outside, although there was no rain expected, and Jesse was already feeling drained of energy. It seemed that the longer he was alive again-- in whatever sense he was-- the more he needed sunlight to feel completely normal. He'd tried standing in a cool shower for a while to perk himself up, but all that had done was make him feel cold, and he'd finally given up and gotten dressed in one of his usual long-sleeved t-shirts and a pair of jeans. His hair was still very slightly damp as he sat on the second landing, not doing much except idly daydreaming. He almost wished he could drink something so he could have a shot of caffeine, but there was no point in dwelling on it.
He heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside, and he figured it was Tayne, but he was just sluggish enough to wait to get up until a knock came at the door.
The knock came, and Tayne settled back on his heels to wait on the steps of the lighthouse. The clouds weren't optimal for the spell-- he'd wanted more light-- but he could create his own light, if he needed to, and what was available turned out to not be enough. That was the simplest of magics, after all, whether plain illusion-- nothing but the warping of light, after all-- or sparking a flame.
The thought made him flinch, and he decided against any flames in today's exercise. It was way too soon.
Jesse reached for the rail to pull himself up and started down the metal stairs to the first level. He unlocked the door and pulled it open to greet Tayne. "Hey," he said, stepping back so the priest could come inside. "What've you got there?" He twitched his head to shake a strand of hair out of his eyes as he wondered if his hair would still grow or if it was set at its current length. It seemed like he came up with something different to ponder every day.
"This's th'stuff I need for that spell I'm gonna do on yer door," Tayne answered lightly and with a smile, hefting the duffel more securely from his shoulder. He was glad he didn't have both hands free, as he stepped inside, since he itched to reach up and brush that hair out of Jesse's eyes and he knew it wasn't a good idea to do so. "It's a little more comp-- comlic-- it's got more stuff in it than th'last one." Which was probably to be expected, since the spell itself was more difficult.
Jesse let the door swing shut, listening to it lock as it closed behind Tayne. He wasn't a hundred percent convinced about doing another spell, but he didn't say so. His main concern was that Tayne would get hurt, that the door would do... something. Something dangerous. "If there's a lotta stuff, we'd better get started," he said, smiling faintly and waiting for Tayne to start up the stairs ahead of him. He had the feeling that he was going to be slow, and he didn't want Tayne to have to wait on him while he was lugging that full duffel.
"We've got time, but yeah, prob'ly should." Tayne did start for the stairs, though he was a little surprised when Jesse fell in behind him rather than leading the way. Come to think of it, looking over his shoulder at his friend, he wasn't looking so hot. Kind of faded, worn down, and a little... well, unhappy, almost. "Hey, everythin' okay, man?"
"It's so dark out," Jesse said, grasping the railing to help propel himself upward. "Ya know, cloudy. Whenever there's not sun, I don't have any energy, seems like." Any light seemed to help somewhat, but of course natural, bright sunlight was the best. Maybe he'd be lucky and tomorrow would be clear and sunny. He felt as if he needed to stay as strong as he could, because he had no idea what might happen from day to day.
"Oh." Tayne blinked and frowned at that, facing upwards again as he thought it over. "Well. Guess you'll like this spell, then. There's a lotta light involved, and I'm prob'ly gonna hafta make it myself. Dunno if created light'll be quite th'same, but never hurts t'try. And I don't mind bein' useful in more way than one, at a time." He glanced back again to give Jesse a little grin.
"That'll be nice," Jesse said, smiling too. "Maybe it'll help a little. Guess we'll see." Something needed to. It was almost more than he could do to climb the steps when he felt like this, though ordinarily he didn't have any trouble with them. It didn't do any good to complain though, so he gamely kept climbing, making sure to keep at least one hand on the rail and sometimes both of them. It would help him soak up more light if he'd remove his shirt, but he didn't want Tayne to see the long, raw-looking scars on both of his inner forearms. They looked as if they'd been inflicted only the week before, although that wasn't anywhere near the case.
The idea of it made Tayne grin even more. He liked thinking that he could do something to help the guy, even if it wasn't traditional "feeding", like he was used to. "You always like this on cloudy days?" he asked. "Don't r'member you doin' this when I saw y'at night... or's it more jes' after th'night yer more needin' it?"
"I guess it's somethin' like that," Jesse replied. "And it's kinda gettin' worse. Than it was at first, I mean." If that was going to be the case, if bad weather was going to debilitate him like this, then he was living in the wrong place, he thought wryly. Because Eldritch Island's weather was unpredictable to the extreme, he'd found, and there were often storms. He'd just have to do the best he could and trust that God had a plan for what he was experiencing.
"Well, d-- dang, tha's no good," Tayne frowned, catching the curse this time before it made it out. "Well, if this does help, y'can always come by my place. Makin' light's 'bout as easy as breathin', fer me, by now. S'about th'simplest spell I know." He made it up onto the landing with the door, at last, and set down the duffel bag, kneeling next to it to unzip it. Inside were a set of small mirrors and stands to set them on, like picture frames that leaned against a shelf.
Jesse was barely dragging along once he reached the seventh landing, and he sat down next to the stairs, remembering that the last time Tayne had told him he was sitting too close and he'd had to move. He didn't think he'd have the energy to get up again once he'd sat down. He tucked his hands into the ends of his sleeves and watched as Tayne began unpacking the bag he'd brought. "What're the mirrors for?" he asked. "Or should I just wait and see?"
"They reflect th'light an' make more of it, collect th'magic I'm workin' at th'same time, an' then show me th'true thing I wanna know," Tayne explained, setting one under each window and a couple more around the door. "S'pretty straight-forward, actually, once y'know what's supposed t'be happenin', if a little round-about. But you gotta be round-about when you can't touch or affect th'thing yer tryin' t'learn about." He angled the mirrors so they all caught each other's reflection and bounced it to the two by the door. There wasn't much light for them to reflect, but he could fix that.
That was a neat way to put it, Jesse thought. True thing. He wished he could have known and understood more true things about life while he'd been living it, but then maybe that was part of the lesson he was supposed to be learning here. "So you can check out the door without getting too close, like last time," he said. There was something fascinating about looking at the mirrors everywhere, reflecting themselves into infinity, or so it seemed.
"'Xactly," Tayne agreed, attention mostly on the mirrors. He needed them to be just right, or he'd have to start all over, and he didn't want to have to do this twice-- or worse, not have the chance to do this twice, since the botched spell had fried him or roused the door or both. "There. Think that's good. You wanna check my angles, here, or you-- uh, jes' wanna sit there?" He gave Jesse a slightly sheepish smile when he realized the guy had slumped down at the top of the stairs, looking completely wiped. "Nevermind, you jes' sit."
Jesse's expression was mildly chagrined when Tayne first asked him to check the angles of the mirrors and then told him not to. "Yeah, guess I better," he said. He hated to be so completely useless, but this was turning out to be a less-than-good day for him. "If I can do somethin' that doesn't involve movin', just let me know." Might as well do his best to keep things light even if the thought that he might be like this on every rainy or cloudy day-- and there seemed to be a lot of them here-- frightened him a little. He couldn't do anything about it right now, and he didn't want to distract Tayne from what he was planning to do.
"Nah, jes' keep watch on everythin', I guess. Let me know if that door starts actin' up. If anybody'd know, you would." Tayne gave them a second check himself, altered the alignment of one very slightly, and then moved to the window to gauge the light. "Not enough... all right then." He pushed up his sleeves a little, called up the short string of Latin that meant "light", and tossed the whole phrase out the window. Metaphorically, anyway. The words became the thing, and suddenly there was a small sun hanging outside the lighthouse window.
Keep watch. Well, Jesse supposed he could do that. It seemed to be his purpose these days. He watched curiously as Tayne checked and adjusted the mirrors, staying quiet. He knew very little about magic, obviously, and he didn't want to be a distraction. Even though he had some idea of the kinds of things Tayne could do, it was still startling to see a bright light directly outside the nearest window. It made him feel better just to see it, and without realizing it he turned more toward it as he waited to find out what Tayne would do next.
Grinning just a little at Jesse's reaction-- Jesse might not have noticed it, but Tayne sure did-- Tayne moved to the other window he'd placed a mirror under to do the same, there. The reflected light bounced from one mirror to another, creating a warm glow all through the tower room, but never shined it directly on the door. Just like Tayne had hoped. He headed slowly to the spot in between the two mirrors by the door, keeping half an eye on Jesse as he moved.
It was brighter then, and Jesse felt as if he were basking in light. It was strange how it made him feel as if he could breathe better, even. He wasn't aware of Tayne's scrutiny because he was concentrating on the sense that even the magical lighting was increasing his strength. Finally he remembered that he was supposed to be watching the door, and he shot a glance that way. Everything was still calm. After much deliberation, he turned his arms downward and shoved his sleeves up to his elbows. It should be fine as long as he remembered that he couldn't turn them to where Tayne could see the undersides.
Tayne couldn't help a satisfied grin at Jesse's expression and the way he just seemed to relax in the presence of light. He'd found a way to "feed" his friend, after all, even if he couldn't use his usual culinary prowess for it. This might not be such a great thing in the long run, but just then, he was nothing but happy for the find. He pulled his attention away at last and with effort focused it fully on the spell. He pulled his sanctified oil from his pocket and started tracing symbols gently on each mirror by the door with one finger, chanting softly in Latin under his breath. The glow slowly coalesced into those lines, on those mirrors specifically, but the shine throughout the room didn't ebb, either.
There was something fascinating about watching a spell being performed. In his previous life, Jesse never would have believed that something like that would be possible, but now he couldn't keep his eyes off what Tayne was doing. It helped him focus his attention that he was beginning to feel better, stronger and more alert. It might not be the sun, but he'd take it. He sat up straighter, keeping his forearms pressed to his front with the tops of them exposed, and he felt his fingers begin to tingle a little. The light within him, wanting to respond to the light Tayne had just produced, he felt sure.
The light on the mirrors got steadily brighter, and as it did, Tayne spoke a little louder. Setting the power gradually up into an active spell, once all the signs he needed were drawn on the mirrors, he turned incrementally towards the door. He didn't want to rouse it, but he did need to at least face it so that what he saw could register in the spell. He just did it slowly, along with the slow increase in the glow and his volume.
The last lines in the last repetition of the spell's verse were called out rather than just spoken, and the spell unleashed.
Jesse didn't know what to make of what he saw once the symbols that had looked etched on the mirrors faded away. It was all sinister and dark, dim paths winding away into nothingness, precipices off which one could easily fall. Shapes that would not be fully exposed to the light, slinking away before a real idea of what they looked like could be captured. What looked like a pit of fire, burning molten orange. Burned-out holes in the ground, caves dripping with mucky moisture. Without sound it somehow seemed to scream danger... danger... danger.
Once he was sure the spell had taken and the door wasn't going to lash out at him for using magic so close to it-- after a long moment of holding very, very still and watching the door instead of the mirrors-- Tayne finally turned to look, too. And he frowned, scratching his head. "It's a door... to hell?" was his first guess. As a priest, probably not a surprising one. It sure did look like the traditional "hell", even if he technically didn't believe in that kind of "hell". So he corrected himself: "Or someplace equally nasty, anyway...."
"I already knew there couldn't be anything good behind a door like that," Jesse said. "That just kinda proves it." It seemed as if the spell had worked; it had told the truth, even if in an oblique way. He could absolutely believe that wherever that door led was somewhere horrible. He stared at the mirrors, wondering how long the pictures would stay, and thought about his mission to keep the door closed. It seemed even more important after what they'd seen here.
"It hasn't told us anythin' 'bout th'why' though," Tayne said, still frowning down at the images. "I s'ppose I need t'find another spell, for that one... or tweak this one." He already thought he could tweak this one, to give him a little more detail. It was complicated to cast, but it was very general, in results. He'd not wanted to try anything terribly specific, when he wasn't even sure if the spell would work and not explode in his face.
It hadn't occurred to Jesse to consider why, and he realized, lack of magical know how aside, it was a good thing that he wasn't alone in this. He'd never get any closer to knowing what the door truly was, besides dangerous and frightening. "Why's always the question that's hardest to answer," he mused, idly tugging his sleeves down. He didn't want to take the chance of forgetting and exposing the raised, reddened scars.
"This case, though, think it's an important one," Tayne said. "Ain't as like to mess up with this stuff if we knew what th'goal to it was. Never did like runnin' blind." Which meant he'd better get to work on some way to figure out the why. Tweaking this spell was probably a good start. "Div'nation was never somethin' I was all that good at," he added, mostly to himself and in a low mutter.
"Is there anything I could do to help?" Jesse asked, getting up and stretching now that he felt a bit more revived. "Not that I know anything 'bout spells, but... research, maybe?" He felt slightly guilty that Tayne was having so much trouble figuring out the door, or maybe that was guilty that he felt he had to, and if he could assist in some way, maybe that would mitigate it. "Or I might be more of a hindrance, I dunno." He smiled wryly.
"Don't see how y'could," Tayne said apologetically. "I mean, there ain't even a real library on this island... s'pose I could let you sift through my spellbooks an' notes an' such, though, while I work on priest stuff." He didn't honestly think that Jesse would find much of anything, really, but he thought it might be a good idea, anyway, just to familiarize the guy with how magic worked. That could wind up helpful, in the end. He didn't know if Jesse would have any kind of talent with it, but exposure would at least suggest if he did or not, and knowing what Tayne was doing would at least mean he could help with a few things.
"Anything you need," Jesse said. He was with Tayne in not being sure how much that would actually help, but he didn't think it would hurt anything. He could at least feel useful and not like he was leaving Tayne to deal with his problem all alone. Spending time with Tayne was never a bad thing either. Really, he was the only friend Jesse had. He knew other people here, but there was no one he felt as comfortable with.
"C'mon back to th'church with me, then," Tayne suggested, pausing to mirrors a quick wipe with his hand, which cleared off both the remaining oil and the images, as if they'd never been there. One nice thing about this spell was the easy clean-up. "I'll git you set up t'read while I a few confessions done, an' visit a few folks after that. Maybe you'll see somethin' useful that I ain't seen, since I know th'things too well." It was possible, he had to admit.
"Sounds great," Jesse said. Going to the church was another good incentive, because he loved the place. It was the most peaceful place he'd ever known, and he could sit there for hours doing nothing, just soaking up the atmosphere. Having something that could be potentially useful to do was even better. He felt well enough now that the walk over there shouldn't be a hardship, at least. That meant a lot today.
"Good." And he would have more Jesse-company. Not the smartest thing to be looking for, but what else was he to do? Cut himself off from the poor man? Of course not. That'd be cruel to them both. He'd just behave himself, that was all. Holding up both hands, Tayne called both balls of light over with a quick few words in Latin. They hovered over each hand for a moment before he extinguished them in the same way. The tower looked dismally dark, without them. "Think you can make it down all them stairs?" he asked Jesse, determined to make more lights just like that once Jesse was firmly ensconced in the office of the church.
Jesse was a little sad to see the light disappear, although he didn't suppose Tayne could have just left it there. It had fortified him enough that he figured he'd be all right for a while. And tomorrow, hopefully, would be a sunny day. Maybe he'd just send up a prayer or two to that effect. Couldn't hurt, right? "Yeah, I'll be okay," he said, giving Tayne a smile. "Need any help pickin' up?" There were still the mirrors to be put away, even if that wouldn't take very long.
"Sure, if yer up to it now." Tayne was just pleased Jesse seemed up to anything at all, now. It had been a little bit distressing to see him that wan-looking. "Jest go get the ones by the windows for me?" He, himself, retrieved the duffel bag to start loading the ones by the door inside, carefully and one by one, so he made sure nothing lay on top of something else in a way that could wind up with breakage. These things were expensive, and he didn't want to have to buy more and draw attention to himself, and where he was.
"Sure," Jesse replied, ambling over to the windows and sparing a glance for the dismal weather outside. He didn't want to think about what he would have felt like by the end of the day if Tayne's light hadn't helped him at least a little. He busied himself gathering the mirrors Tayne had asked for and then walked over to hand them to him so he could pack them away.