For whatever reason, Julia was nervous. Even if Kady had a point, that everyone's magic was different in Vallo so the lack of formal training might actually be to her advantage when it came to teaching. Still, as she waited for her meeting with Dorian, she couldn't help but second-guess herself. She'd sent a syllabus over ahead of time so he'd have a chance to look at what she'd planned on teaching in magical theory, at least. It would either work or not.
And if not, she was probably going to need to get a second job. Especially if there were more swords to buy later on. She couldn't rely on Marina to buy all of them for her. Julia smiled at that thought and relaxed. Marina was friends with Dorian, even if she wouldn't use that word, and Julia had talked briefly to him before going and fighting whatever those monsters from his world were called.
Apparently that was all she needed to calm her nerves as she sat outside his office and waited for him to call her in.
It was a busy day, but Dorian didn’t mind those - he liked them, in fact. Thrived on them, really. He preferred to be working on a consistent basis, whether it was research or teaching or assisting walk-ins at Glorious Purveyors (though he had plenty of appointments too, as discussing various artifacts for sale could require a lengthier consultation). All of that kept him from thinking too much about his home, and while he’d settled nicely into Vallo he still missed certain aspects of Tevinter.
Even the craggy cliffs and stormy skies, violent turbulent storms - the Imperium was a myriad of weather experiences, mostly hot and arid and mimicking Navarra (or Nevarra mimicked them, however you wanted to look at it) in terms of climate. There were jungles and beaches, sharp rocks and a mass of gray above, nothing really too hot or too cold. Less desirable parts of Tevinter that he didn’t miss too - like Magisters who coveted power and who would kill anyone they needed to, in order to keep that power secured; blood magic practiced in secret, slave sacrifices, literally buying and selling elves in marketplaces.
But for all the bad, there was a deep love for his homeland too - he wanted to save Tevinter, wanted to do all he could to plant the seeds of change. He couldn’t do that here, but he could do what he was able to for Vallo itself. And that felt like enough, most days.
Checking his schedule, he saw he was due to conduct an interview for a potential new teacher - one of Marina’s friends, whom he heard a bit about. Adjusting the lapels of his velvet jacket, he went out to greet his next appointment. “Julia? It’s a pleasure to see you. Please, come in.”
It occurred to Julia as she greeted Dorian in return that perhaps her nerves were partially due to the last interview she'd had at a magic university. There, they'd told her she didn't possess the ability, and had erased her memory. Or tried to. She guessed now that they had intended on her remembering enough to seek magic out on her own, thanks to Jane Chatwin's meddling.
The goal may have been accomplished, but at what cost to herself and others she cared about?
She took a seat, and added, "Thanks for meeting with me."
The main office was about as dark and gothic as one might expect it to be (considering the selection of classes and lectures available), complete with candles dripping wax and blood-red stained glass lamps. Dorian switched one on, also opening the curtains a bit because Maker - he was used to gloom and doom but sometimes the vibe of the University was a little much. Also reminded him of home, which in a way he appreciated at the same time as well.
There were chairs in front of his desk and Julia was welcome to make herself comfortable, as she did - before he sat down himself, he thought he ought to be hospitable. “Can I get you some tea?” he offered. Honestly, the electric tea kettles were an amazing invention. “And it’s no trouble. I’m interested to hear about your experience and what kind of ideas you have for a magical theory class.”
Obviously she’d get the job - he wasn’t about to turn away qualified instructors. Only reason he might turn someone away was if they were so sloppy it was embarrassing.
"Sure, thank you," Julia replied. And then she smiled slightly as he mentioned wanting to hear about her experience.
"Well, I had a nontraditional education in my world," she started. "I took the entrance exam at Brakebills, and was deliberately denied entry…" She paused. "That's a story in and of itself, but it wasn't lack of magical ability that kept me out. So instead I was recruited by a group of hedgwitches, led by Marina, only the one from my timeline, not the one you know. Which I'm guessing may be weird but given where we are right now?"
She offered Dorian a shrug. It wasn't as weird as it could be.
"Anyway, I learned from her, another coven, and then through a series of unfortunate events, found myself with god-like powers that I've had to learn on the fly, using little more than intuition and theory."
That was the short, clean version at least. "Which leads to my interest in teaching it, especially here, where there's so many forms of magic available." Here her voice sparked with genuine excitement, because the vast amount of new magic Julia had access to study was overwhelming, in the best way possible.
Tea it was. Dorian listened, pouring two cups of aromatic leaf water - he was fond of the stuff, and there was a particular kind that was produced in Rivain. Kind of a cinnamon, ginger, and clove blend that also had healing properties - he was able to find a similar blend here in Vallo, but he wasn’t certain about the healing portion. Still, he enjoyed the taste (it was stripweed tea he was allergic to, anything stripweed - the hives) and often kept some in his office to brew whenever he had a moment.
“God-like powers,” he repeated with a little laugh, passing over one cup before he made himself comfortable in his chair, legs crossed. “Said so casually. That’s rather impressive, however. And you’re right, the abundance of magic here - it’s startling, really.”
Almost overwhelming. He’d arrived and jumped right in, of course, because that’s what he did - Dorian wasn’t one to balk at anything, especially a challenge. He had wanted to help Anders with his unfortunate situation but the mage didn’t seem to want to correct a very dangerous problem, Hawke didn’t either, then they both disappeared. Since then, Dorian had taken the Black Emporium Hawke left behind and merged it with Gilmore’s Glorious Goods and also come to really enjoy his work with the University. Meanwhile, the magical problems requiring magical solutions just kept piling up but he tended to focus strictly on his duties rather than stick his fingers in too many pots.
“Do you have a potential course outline I could take a glance at? I’m curious as to what the curriculum looks like.”
Julia had come prepared with an extra syllabus so she pulled it from the portfolio she was carrying and handed it over, grateful for an excuse not to talk further about herself. She gave Dorian a moment to look it over before she spoke. "You can see there's room for flexibility because the topic lends itself to that, depending on what sort of magic the class is used to. But what I want to focus most on is how that magic adapts to Vallo, and how magic users can potentially learn magic from worlds different than their own, sometimes with adjustments of how they think about it."
She paused for a moment before adding, "In my world, for example, magic comes from pain. Then there are some spells I've learned of here that require focusing on a particularly strong, happy memory in order to cast them." The differences were pretty stark. "So the assignments have flexibility too, depending on where a student is coming from."
Finished for the moment, she took a sip of tea. "This is really good," she mentioned.
From pain? Andraste’s great flaming ass, that was dramatic. And here Dorian thought his people and homeland had that monopoly on that sort of thing - apparently not. “Yes, I would say - not every student has to go to those dark places to cast. I would hope not, anyway.”
He sipped his tea, smoky gray eyes - a whole row of tombstones - roving over the syllabus and taking in all the info. The compliment about the brew made him smile a bit, glancing up. “Oh, yes - it’s similar to something from Thedas. A little piece of home, if not an exact piece. This looks good, by the way,” he added, tapping the paper. “Marina’s class is more hands-on application of hedge magic, as you call it, but I appreciate something more theory-based as well. Where you can interact with the students and have good discussions. A lot of blocks or hang-ups can certainly be solved by talking over new approaches to magic. This would be good for that, getting them to think outside the box.” In the classes there were locals from the various covens as well as Outlanders - for the covens, Dorian was under the impression that a lot of them didn’t share information easily. That they were born and raised in their circle and their circle alone. Thus, the exposure might be good for students coming from that sort of environment.
"Yeah, it was a relief to learn magic worked differently in other places," Julia said. It was kind of bullshit that her world drew from the dark, that their ability was spawned from trauma, but she had magic, and that was worth something.
She smiled though, as Dorian obviously understood what she wanted to do with the class. Having learned magic as eclectically as she had, it sort of lent itself to thinking outside the box. "That's exactly what I was going for," she agreed.
She took another sip of tea, making a note to ask him later where to get some, and then added, "Marina's a great teacher. I mean, different than the one I had, but I've done magic with her here to know it's true of her too. Getting to work with her is sort of a full alternate universe and timeline circle, really."
“She’s wonderful,” Dorian concurred, and he was pleased with the decision to recruit her for the teaching staff - he hadn’t realized they’d become good friends during that first instance when she’d wandered into Glorious Purveyors (or - whatever constituted ‘good friends’ in Marina’s mind; she didn’t hate him, anyway) but he wasn’t complaining.
In addition to being a good teacher, Marina also cared more than she let on - about her studies, about the students. She probably wouldn’t bother to teach at all if she didn’t. He knew she had done something similar back where she’d come from and lost most of her students to violence, it seemed - the hedge witches had to study in safehouses, in secret. Similar to how apostate mages learned on the run, in Thedas, rather than submitting to the rule and control of the Circles.
Well, that settled that. “When would you like to start?” he asked Julia. “I can do some shuffling, see how many students would be interested in moving to your class. But no need to wait for the fall semester or anything like that.”
That had been one of Julia's questions, whether or not it was too late to get in before fall. Well that and whether or not she'd get the job. She had never taken that for granted, so she was smiling as she answered. "As soon as possible." She had already started helping Marina with a few things, but she was ready to launch herself fully into teaching, as she always handled life better when she had something to do, and a challenge at that.
Dorian appreciated the enthusiasm, the willingness to jump right in. Since taking on the position of Headmaster, he’d been involved with hiring a few new teachers and also recruiting new students - it was very rewarding, to find people who fit well. Like a key right into a lock.
“Perfect - next week?” he suggested, fingers stroking that brilliant mustache all contemplative-like. Something he did when he was thinking. But he supposed now his next task was going to be a twist here and a shuffle there, figuring out how to fill the class - but everyone here was adaptable, so he was sure it’d be just fine. “I’ll show you where your office will be then too - you can set it up however you like.” For office hours, when students had the opportunity to come by and discuss their assignments - he liked for all the teachers to be available and accessible for that.
"Next week sounds great," Julia said, beaming. And an office? Of course she'd have an office, that only made sense. But considering she was one of those undergrad students who had stopped by many professors' offices during their hours, the idea that she was going to have office hours made her wish Quentin was there to nerd out to after the interview because he'd understand fully.
Maybe he'd still show up sometime. It was that thought that kept her from thinking about anything else involving Q, and it was probably healthier for her that way.
"I guess I'll see you then?" Julia asked. "And thank you!"
Dorian chuckled a little - he knew he was going to bring Julia on board, but it was nice to get the formalities out of the way. "You're very welcome," he said warmly, and he'd see how this went - but he was certain it'd be a good thing. The university was running smoothly and he intended to help keep it that way for the foreseeable future.
No matter what quirks the magic of this world decided to throw at them next.