RP:A Change in Lesson Plans
Mage Tower Training Center
Ezekiel sat by himself, far off to the side of the main training room with a book in hand. It was one of the many he had borrowed from the library downstairs, and probably not the last. Occasionally he glanced up, usually when a loud spell went off, or a recruit shouted in either joy.. or dismay. For the most part though, he kept his focus on the book, and tried his best to understand its teachings. He pressed his left index to the page and followed with his eyes; he lifted his right hand and held it flat. "Ok.. focus.." he mumbled to himself while the metal ring in his palm lit up once more. For a moment, it looked like he was about to conjure something into this plane of existence, but no more than a few seconds after he started.. the ring in his palm fizzled out and he ended with a sigh.
Satoshi is quiet, very, very quiet. Even if she weren't light on her feet, footsteps are hard to catch over the eternal noise of training magelings, something the kit puts to her advantage as she prowls along the training room's perimeter. With a tread that makes as much noise as snowfall, Satoshi stalks closer to her target, ears folded low and body poised as if to strike. Muscles bunch and promptly uncoil, sending the foxkin forward... in a short hop, rather than a pounce, so that she lands directly beside Ezekiel. All the better to trill in clear, delighted tones, "Rabbit~! You're alive~." Well, if her popping up beside the jumpy mage doesn't give him a heartattack, that is. Really, Sato, you should know better.
Ezekiel was truly oblivious to the sneakily approaching foxkin, leaving him utterly vulnerable to an attack. Or in this case.. a scare. She jumped, he yelled, the book went flying.. and then he vanished. Back about a year or so ago, around the last time he saw Satoshi, he sought an artifact that had gotten a lot of hype out in the Nameless. He came across a young drow in search of the same thing, and together the two.. tried.. to work together to acquire it. In the end, it turned out to be a small, prism shaped stone with runed etchings carved all over it. When hit with enough magical energy.. it teleported the two half way across the desert. In time, the mage took to repairing both halves, and even went so far as to attach them to the palms of his gloves; a cheap way at getting around, without the actual spell know how.. He would have earned and F if any mage had their say. He ended up in the meditation center, laying on a large pillow, blinking repeatedly while his heart raced. "Was that.." he mumbled, sitting up to look at the few he'd disturbed. With a nervous and apologetic laugh.. he pumped another raw torrent of energy into the runes and pictured the book he dropped. He was gone for maybe ten seconds before landing back on the ground with a bright, azure flash of light. "Just barely.. My heart hurts."
Satoshi, when Ezekiel returns, is standing there with a bewildered expression. Being sensitive to the ebb and flow of magic, the kit's whiskers have gone as straight and rigid as needles in response to the surge of magic that had caused Ezekiel to disappear and reappear in a matter of seconds. Teleportation, she can taste that much about the magical residue, although it isn't of the same type of Svilfon's. "That's a new trick," Satoshi remarks simply before plopping down to sit beside Ezekiel in a cross-legged position. It's the closest she'll get to an apology for startling him. Just as her next remark is the closest she'll get to a 'long time no see'. "Been practicing then, I take it? What've you come up with so far~?" How long has her odd apprentice been gone? Hell if Satoshi can tell. Her mind never did have a strong grasp on time's passing--she'll greet someone the same whether it has been a five days or five years since she's last seen them, makes no difference.
Ezekiel eventually crossed his legs and reached for the upturned book. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and his nerves were just barely starting to calm. He was still as skittish as ever.. but he seemed to handle it better, somewhat. "Sometimes a trick, sometimes a pain in the.." he caught himself. "Take a look.. there's a story behind them." He held his palms out flat for, so that she could see the small, runed prism that had been cut in two and worked into the rings. Thing was.. cut down the middle, the flat side of the two halves were facing up. That only meant the sharp, pointy edge had to be embedded in his palms. Much like the rings, they were a permanent, and painful, addition. "Should have seen the first few weeks of this.. 'bout killed me a couple times." With no sense of control or direction, he ended up in: a lake, a tree, edge of a cliff, a wyvern's nest, and on an orc's dinner plate. "They hurt more than they help. Eventually I'll take them out, when its safe." That was all he had to say about that. "Honestly, I don't have a lot. Actually, nothing." He frowned, feeling as if he was letting her down. "Life sort of caught up.. distracted me, kept me from my goals. Last week was the first time I visited the tower, ran into Svilfon, a wizard. Scary fellow." He held the book up, showing her the simple spell he was trying to cast; it was a basic fireball. "I don't understand this one.."
Satoshi leans forward to inspect the offered palms, whiskers just inches above the surface of Ezekiel's hands. "Huh. Odd dialect of runes, not one I'm fluent in." At best, Satoshi can grasp glimpses of meaning within the symbols, as if they're related to the runes she's familiar with. One of the many distant cousins of the arcane language. She'll remember these ones, however. For while Satoshi might have trouble remembering the actual names of people she meets--hence the nicknames--it is only because she long ago devoted the brunt of her memorization skills to magecraft. There isn't a spell she hasn't read that she's forgotten, there isn't a rune she hasn't seen that she can't recall with perfect clarity at a later date. The runes on this prism are now committed to that memory, for the magus to mull over and pick at later. For now, Ezekiel's drawn her attention onward, specifically when he mentions a familiar name. "Svilfon~. He's one of my husband's fledgelings, and a very dear comrade to me. Did he try to kill you~?" Satoshi's voice has an eager lilt with her question and her expression is expectant, as if she's asking if a kindly old lady had offered Ezekiel cookies, milk, and a pinch to his cheek. Apparently this is the norm for Svilfon.
Ezekiel set the book down and marked its page. He raised an eyebrow and studied her expression. "He put two wands to my head and demanded I help him with an enchantment.." He had one of the best poker faces of all time on right about now. "I don't know what I'm doing. I just.. focused all the energy I had on a sword." There was something else he was forgetting to mention, something about lack of concentration and focus. "It exploded. Threw us across the room.. Heh, sort of like that first time.. eh. We met." If this was how he was going to meet every mage, he was out. "Listen.. I need your help."
Satoshi shows no expression of surprise. Explosions and Svilfon are one of the closest, happiest marriages she's ever encountered. Surprise does cross her features when Ezekiel continues. "Oh? With what? I assume it wasn't the fireball spell you were just showing me in that book?" The kit's nose wrinkles in a look of impishness. Asking a cryomancer to show you how to summon fire would go about as well as trying to tell Kasyr to stay in a glass shop for a day without collapsing the entire building.
Ezekiel shook his head, "No, not that." He held the book in his lap and placed both hands behind him so he could lean back. The sound of the stone's in his hand grinding against the stone on the floor was enough to put a shiver down someone's spine. "That accident under the arena.. all that raw, arcane power. I paid a visit there recently.. had another incident. Nothing was damage, I think." Just stepping into the middle of the arena had him lifted into the air, much the same as the night Satoshi detached him from the battery. "I need to control this power, I can feel it in my veins. It's too much, sometimes. I know I said I'd join as your apprentice, but I've shown no advancement since then." He sighed, sitting forward again, pausing to open the book to a random page. "Reading from a book isn't doing anything for me, I need something more hands on.. do you know of anything that could help? Help teach me to control, manipulate and use this energy?"
Satoshi mimicks Ezekiel's pose, almost down to the grinding sound due to the ice that fills the thin lines of runes engraved in her palms. "Honestly? I've been going about this teaching thing with you far differently than I usually do. It doesn't seem to be working, so maybe my proper method should be called in... See, something about your predicament reminds me of my own. Not quite the same, obviously." Satoshi lifts a hand to wiggle fingers at Ezekiel, as if to say, 'No gloves fused to my flesh'. "Rather, it's the fact that you're a bundle of supressed, and very potent, energy that needs an outlet. It'll keep building up. Without an outlet... well, ka-boom. I had hoped lessons in concentration would held you find that trigger to release the energy under your control. That doesn't seem to be working. I discovered mine while under a great deal of stress." Life or death level, to be exact. "And I'm a believer that stressful situations produce better, more natural results in a mageling than sitting in a classroom reading books all day. I avoided the harsher path for you because I wasn't sure you had the mental fortitude for it, in truth, and I was tired of losing apprentices to my lethal lessons. I'm running out of other ideas, Rabbit, so tell me. Do you want to try this alternate teaching method? Or would you rather a new master that might have other options for one in your situation?"
Ezekiel crossed his arms and silently mused over the information she'd just given him. In truth, at least at the time, her less-lethal methods of teaching were probably for the best. But one had to remember, Ezekiel wasn't your typical mage case, nor was the accident that left him in this predicament. So really, both went into this not knowing a thing about each other, or the scenario at hand. "Honestly.. a year ago, I probably wouldn't have had the mental fortitude to withstand that kind of treatment. If you only knew.. what this past year has entailed." He'd been mauled by lycans, dumped into the middle of lakes, attacked by numerous raids of bandits and outlaws.. earned quite the bounty on his name in Cenril, and dodged a moth two nights ago. If he had to make a call, he'd say his mental fortitude was well prepared for whatever she had in store. "I'd like to try this.. new.. method, if we could?"
Satoshi smiles, of all things. The fact that Ezekiel accepts her proposal is proof enough that he's grown in the past year. "Then that's what we'll do. And you'll see why the guild calls me the One Lesson Lady." With any luck, Satoshi will break free of that title with Ezekiel's help. "My lesson plan is pretty straightforward. I will try to kill you. How I do so will vary, and it won't always be -me-, but the core of the lessons will be: succeed, or die. If -that- doesn't call your magic up to keep you alive, nothing will, thus it'll only be a matter of time until the destroys you from the inside. It worked for me in mastering my magic, learning the sword, and a number of other things. I have faith it'll work for you too." Or she'll be stuck with that horrible title forever!
Ezekiel realized at that point.. he might have bitten off more than he could chew. He realized she intended for stressful scenarios.. but he didn't think she'd flat out try and kill him. And as cowardly as he was, he wouldn't pipe up in protest; like the guy who gets the wrong plate at a restaurant, but doesn't say anything because he doesn't want to anger the cooks. It was that straight up cowardice that made him keep his mouth shut. He agreed.. he'd follow through. Or try. Hopefully. His voice was very quiet, and cracked as he replied. "...y-yeah, haha.. faith.. hehe.. who-hoo.." He looked like he wanted to cry. "I suppose.. if that's it, when do we next meet?"
Satoshi grins, an expression more predatory than reassuring. "That's the fun part, I'm not going to tell you~. You'll have to stay on your toes. Just think of it this way: if you can make it through the first lesson, you've gone farther than any of my apprentices, and most of my enemies~." In truth, Satoshi doesn't intend to fully try to kill Ezekiel. Seriously harm, possibly, if he completely blunders. But Satoshi hasn't attacked and been attacked by her Coterie mates over the years, and not learned how to pull up on her offensive spells before they deliver the killing blow. The threat and stress is what she's relying on to awaken Ezekiel's magic.
Ezekiel rolled his eyes and flopped backwards, arms strewn across the stone above his head. She wasn't going to tell him, too?! He'd bitten off a continent more than he could chew.. but at least this way, he'd literally be running for his life. In the year passing, that's one thing he knew he'd gotten good at. So at least he knew he'd be trying his damned hardest. "So I take it that concludes this meeting?" He reached down and squeezed the book to his chest like it were finally going to help him now.
Satoshi nods once, still grinning. It's cruel, how happy she looks in comparison to Ezekiel's dismay. "I think so, oui. I'd lead into the first lesson now, if I didn't have other matters to attend to elsewhere in the Tower. Until next time, Rabbit," she says, standing, "keep on your feet and keep your senses sharp~." A salute is thrown, and a pause given in case Ezekiel has more to say, before the magus sets her sights on the Grand Shrine.