RP:A Fiery Awakening

Summary: Iintahquohae visits Magikrios to discuss her homework assignment, and is taught an initially unpleasant, but important lesson. She is able to cast fire to some degree again. A business arrangement follows.

Part of the Weave Your Own Fate Arc

Meditation Room

Magik is walking around the room with a cup of coffee as he tidies up the best he can with one available hand. Being as he just woke up he's equipped with black fuzzy slippers and his simple black mages robes that are not tied together. Under those robes is a fancy black two piece pajama set.

Iintahquohae is wide awake and drawn in by the scent of coffee, with a few books tucked beneath her arm that she's borrowing from the library. As one might expect, she is fully clothed in her usual getup; black, dragon scale lined jacket, leggings and boots. The meditation room is still a baffling space to her, but she steps in all the same upon seeing the pyromancer. “Morning,” she calls, carefully setting her stack of books on the floor. “Need a hand?”

Magik turns and smiles towards Inks, "Ah, Iintahquohae. If you don't mind. Just give the pillows a little fluff then stack them. They'll all be out in the middle of the floor before days end anyways." He chuckles then remembers he left Inks with a bit of homework, "Did you think on what the assignment I gave you?" He takes a sip of coffee before lightly kicking at a pillow to move it towards the fresh pile of comfort.

Iintahquohae feels a bit odd fluffing pillows in a mage's guild, but with the mindset of wanting to be a team player, she complies and starts fluffing and stacking pillows as directed. His inquiry about her homework does slow her movement about the room while she responds to him. “Yes. I wasn't sure if you wanted a paper or not, but I think I've figured out what fuels my fire.” She lifts a pile of pillows she has fluffed up and stacks them up against a nearby wall. “When I was able to conjure up fire successfully, it was to protect myself. I was in one of Frostmaw's multitude of battles, and tossing fireballs wasn't a challenge for me. The other instance was in effort to prove Daath wrong and that I could do it. So if I were to guess, if I think of protection and to some degree, pride, I can create a stronger flame.”

Magik listens attentively as he sips on his coffee some more. Protection was a good angle to work with, but passion was even better. "What are you passionate about?" He clenches a fist, "What really just," his fist ignites into his signature black flames, "..gets you worked up?"

Iintahquohae's brows raise at Magik's question. She's fairly...nonplussed about things, apart from her work. That is her real passion. That and adventure, thanks to Pinquettki. When he clenches his fist however, she takes it to mean fighting. People who touch her without her permission immediately springs to mind. The business falling apart, getting caught... “The potential risk of a light being shone upon what exactly I do for a living, I suppose.” She is blatant about it with some, and thinks that what happens in the meditation room, likely stays here. “If something were to interfere with what I do to keep my family afloat, I would be furious.”

Magik unclenches his fist to extinguish the black fire, "Of course, what is said inside these walls stays within these walls." He takes another sip of coffee. Not black though. Sugar and cream are a must. "You love your work, your family. The thought of that fuels you. Interesting." He hesitates for a brief moment. "What type of work are you involved with?" Magik may have a secret to share as well. It's only fair.

Iintahquohae looks over her shoulder. The room's empty. Magik doesn't look like the type to snitch. She chooses her words carefully, however, to dance around the word smuggler. “While I do run a tailoring business in Cenril, I am also an acquirer of various items and move them around. Think of it as a delivery service without concern for local laws and their import or export fees.”

Magik remains silent as he tosses his now empty coffee cup to the pile of pillows. The cup miraculously lands so a mess isn't made. The tower elf takes a few heavy steps towards Inks, once again clenching a flaming fist, "So, if someone were to try and stop you from this illegal trading right here and right now, you'd get a little pissed, yeah? The thought of your business getting interrupted and your family starving would really make your blood boil, yeah?" The elf stops as his body starts emitting black smoke. His calm demeanor is gone. He seems pretty upset that Inks would dabble in illegal affairs.

To say that the seamstress believes she has royally screwed up by confessing to Magik is an understatement. The steps made toward her make her take a few steps back, her own fists clenching similarly. If the pyromancer's goal was to elicit a magical reaction from Iintahquohae, he's doing a fantastic job. The look on his face doesn't help, nor does the smoke. Her palms un-clench, and the air can be seen within them rippling with ever increasing heat. Another step is taken back and she briefly looks over her shoulder to ensure she doesn't trip over the books she brought in, and gauge her proximity to the door. Unnoticed by her, both hands have flames slowly building within her palms, each roughly the size of an apple. “I didn't say it was illegal,” she insists. “Don't assume so much!”

Magik growls as he eggs her on, pointing a threatening finger. He continues his steps forward as he glares at the poor student, "No concern for laws. No fees paid. No taxes paid. 'That' is illegal, miss. I'm going to have to take you in. NOW." His last word ignited the black smoke surrounding his body into flames as he quickly reached out to grab Ink's shoulder.

Iintahquohae hopefully, somewhere in the back of her mind, probably knew that this was a trick or at least believed it to be. Fear and a desire to keep her family safe overrides this however, as it often does, and she throws one of her hands out to block Magik's hand. The fireball had grown, now about the size of a watermelon, and she hurls it at him before breaking into a run. Escaping the meditation room is less on her mind compared to silencing Magik. Father told her to never leave behind loose ends. He's human now. ...He has to go. She runs to the left, toward the wall, where she snatches up a few of the fluffy pillows and throws them at the pyromancer. While they are airborne, she finds herself conjuring up another flame with an old, familiar ease from her time in Frostmaw. She tosses it at at a pillow so it bursts into flame, creating a larger projectile that she cannot make herself. The same application is done to the other pillows while, clearly panicked, she tries to drum up a way to rid herself of him.

Iintahquohae shouted, "Stay away from me!"

Magik 's fiery body absorbs the first thrown fireball with ease. "Good," he thinks to himself. The Lyastri takes a step back and holds an open palm towards the incoming projectiles. With a quick wave of his hand, they are sent flying to the middle of the room and extinguished. Magik's fire also disappears. "I mean you no harm and I have an offer for you but keep this energy. Focus. Right now. Move your hands like this.." He cups his hands infront of him and pulls them apart to form his own black fireball. "Use that passion to form that ball again but.." Magik places one hand under the ball and exhales. The fire takes the shape of Inks in his palm throwing the pillows at Magik, "Focus on your family. Everything you do is for them. Find the peace and solace in your passion and you can bend the fire at will."

Iintahquohae has another round of fireballs and has maneuvered herself to another stack of pillows ready start tossing them at Magik, but his absorption of the flames and his nonchalant brushing-off of her attack is at both times terrifying and also a rude awakening that she is clearly, horribly outmatched. His words however, make her want to smack him. Clever of him to trigger her ability with fire, but frightening and angering her like this was not a great feeling. Dumbfounded, the flames in her hands burn her gloves to a crisp, charred chunks of smoldering fabric falling to the floor. With her hands bared, the heat licks at her flesh, but she listens to his words. So this was the lesson. ...She hates it, admittedly, but it seems to have worked. With the thoughts of her family and her job in mind, she tries to lob another fireball, this time at the pillows nearby and not at Magik, and to her surprise finds it easier to manipulate than before. Instead of a fireball, she turns the flames into more of a stream of flame that she can intensify or diminish with the opening and closing of her palm. She stops after setting another stack of pillows ablaze and comes to her senses, looking at the mess she had made. Her eyes fall on Magik, frenzy and panic now gone from them, only to be replaced with embarrassment and just a wee bit of anger.“...I will make new ones,” she mutters sheepishly, rubbing her now fire-less, sweaty palms. “I...understand, but I don't like what you just did. Never again.” You said, "My gloves are ruined. Dammit."

Magik claps his hands together once to extinguish any remaining flames in the room. "Never again. I promise. I had to push you. The same as I do with any student." Magik sits down right where he was 'indian' style. "We've built the foundation. Now we can work with it." The elf smiles, returning to his calm demeanor. "I want you to try meditating later today. It'll help tremendously with controlling your fire. The main key to all of this is finding peace within your reason to have conjured the fire to begin with." He pats the ground infront of him. To an outsider it would look like another part of the lesson but Magik was about to talk business.

Iintahquohae rubs her sweaty hands on her pant leg, and walks over to where Magik invited her to sit. She does so, though at a slight distance back. Her expression is a mix of anger that is gradually subsiding, but also a little bit of glee at the improvement she saw. She straightens up a bit, assuming that he was about to give her a lesson on meditation, brushing the mess of curls away from her face. “I'll give it a shot. I've never meditated before, but, apart from my destruction here, this room seems a bit cozy.”

Magik closed his eyes for just a second. The area around Inks and Magik starts pushing heat outwards towards the exits to muffle their voices to any outsiders. Inside the circle however, the temperature remained cool, "Tell me a little more about your delivery service..I may be able to help you.."

Iintahquohae blinks confusedly, first at the method he used to create noise, and secondly because of his inquiry. After what just transpired, she mulls over telling him more, but decides to just let it out. “Father started the business. I have inherited it. My tailor's shop is a bit of a ruse. I do that for a living, obviously, but the bulk of our income...We have a fleet. Our operations are primarily in Cenril as a result, but with my ties to Vailkrin and with my personal travels, we have a small network across Lithrydel. Eyes, ears, the ability to move what needs to be hidden. The Kraken,” she pauses, considering whether or not it would be acceptable to adopt her father's nickname. She decides to anyway, “has many arms and they can reach fairly far.” A coin is produced from her jacket pocket, which she places on the floor and slides over to Magik. On its face is an eight tentacled kraken with a single, large eye. “Father's crew keeps these on them.”

Magik 's eyes light up at the coin and the description. Normally he would look around for any peeping eyes or listening ears but he was confident in his little spell. His cool Veneficus attitude remains but his words wouldn't quite match as they are not meant to be spoken inside the tower's walls, "I have an organization of hidden in plain sight anarchists. Some of which may already be working with you." He takes the coin and admires it, "If you were to join us, you could take advantage of our own network and resources. A higher ranking member is looking to do some business through Vailkrin as well. With our networks connected, it would be beneficial for all parties involved. The Kraken shall remain but will aid the Unseen Hand and likewise."

Iintahquohae had heard whispers of the Unseen Hand, but only that. To her, it was a myth. Discovering that it did in fact exist definitely piqued her interest, even more so if it meant more avenues for work. That meant more cash. The thought of some of Father's crew or people she has worked with also being part of this organization is strange, but she understands. People have to do what they must to live. Once again adopting her father's moniker, she replies with a slight dip of her head, and a nod. “The Kraken would absolutely be willing to aid the Unseen Hand.” Her eyes fall to the coin. “Keep it. Consider it the start of a fruitful partnership, Magikrios.”

Magik grins as he places the coin in a hidden pocket inside his robe. A handshake during a lesson would be a little odd. However, he would need to confirm her ability to keep the SoS a secret, "I'm glad to hear it. A partnership is perfect. How does the rank 'Whisper' in the Syndicate of Shadows sound? Though at the bottom of the totem pole, do not be discouraged. Everyone is treated equally but we don't pressure newcomers to the network to make critical decisions immediately. It's more of a chance to get familiar with how we work and such. Which, I'm sure you have an idea with the way you make your own coin."

Iintahquohae had learned from her father that starting from the bottom is likely the best way to go. That's how he survived. She nods. “Whisper sounds fitting.” Her head lifts upward, then does a quick sweep around the room while taking in more of the muffling sound of flame. Once her eyes settle back on Magik, she adds with a half smile. “This conversation never happened?”

Magik smirks as confirmation to her question, "Headquarters is below Kelay Way outside of the tavern." The heat disappears and his teacher role gets turned back on as he stands. He offers Inks a helping hand up, "Great progress. Remember, give yourself some time to meditate each day."

Iintahquohae accepts his offered hand, and pulls herself back up. Though she is curious about how exactly Magik managed to pull building headquarters beneath the one of the places in Lithrydel with the heaviest foot traffic, she keeps it to herself. She knew better than to talk about business where unwanted ears and eyes could pick up the information. “Thank you,” she replies in stead, though the meaning is clearly double. “I'll make sure to make time for it.”

Magik nods his head, "Lunch time. See you next lesson, yeah?"