RP:A Meeting of Mages

Part of the Thy Kingdom Come Arc

Summary: At Hildegarde's war camp, Dominic and Sykule meet. They realize they share some similar abilities... though one or both of them are holding back information.

Frozen Pathway

Dominic stood near the edges of the camp, sparring with a ghost. Well, not a ghost, exactly -- it appeared to be a somewhat translucent human male, dusty blonde hair and green eyes and scar-covered skin, and each blow was met and treated as if it was solid. An illusion, then. And not sparring, exactly -- Dominic faced off with his semi-corporeal opponent, fists flying haphazardly, as if the illusion was more a punching bag than an actual adversary. The illusion blocked each blow coolly, with the grace of someone practiced in combat. Dominic showed no such finesse, instead striking more like a child throwing a tantrum than an actual warrior. Black bangs clung to the sweat on his forehead and his eyes -- identical to the illusion’s, though they had no other visible similarities -- scrunched up in fury. Three more punches and a kick, trying to knock the illusion off balance. It didn’t work, of course; the illusion merely stepped calmly out of harm’s way and beckoned for Dominic to hammer him with another wave of ‘attacks’.

Sykule paced around the camp. He was anxious because of the war, he was tense because of all the recent events, but most of all, he was bored. He needed something to take his mind off the uncertainty of the future. The young boy wore his trusty travel cloak upon his shoulders, and his wizard-like hat covered most of his face with his white hair wrapped around in a short ponytail. It was not long until something caught his eyes. A man was sparring with another one, but something seemed off. One of them moved with such grace, such perfection....it didn't feel quite right. It didn't took long for the boy to realize it was some kind of Illusion. He approached them both and watched as the fight went on, trying to study every detail of it.

Dominic jabbed forward with his fist again, overextending. The illusion, though it had only blocked up to this point, took the opportunity to counter, grabbing Dominic’s arm and wrenching him to the ground before vanishing. The air was knocked out of the man as he fell, and it took a few seconds through his daze to realize that he was being watched. “Hi,” he called flatly, peering at the boy upside-down from his spot on the ground before dragging himself up into a standing position and dusting himself off.

Sykule cringed when the man was knocked down, he knew how painful an illusion could be. "Oh, sorry! Did I distract you?" it was already quite a feat to maintain a realistic illusion, but the man was able to sustain it while fighting, that was truly impressive. "I couldn't help myself, It's not everyday I get to see...well, any kind of magic, I guess" The camp wasn't a place with many magic users and he couldn't practice his own magic freely, at least not on his own anyway. "I believe we haven't met yet, my name is Sykule, a recruit of The Eyrie and untrained illusionist." The young boy stated, as he smiled and extended his hand to the stranger.

The extended hand was initially regarded with a cant of the head, but Dominic did actually shake it after a moment. “Dominic. Uh, no special titles or anything.” He cast a glance back to where he’d been fighting, the cold ground marred by his scuffle with the illusion. “The magic’s nothing special, either. Just…” he trailed off with a shrug. “Blowing off steam.”

Sykule gave the man a friendly smile. "Blowing off steam? I wonder what you could do when you're really mad then." The man really did not seem to be special, except for his abilities. "So, what brings you here? You don't look like a regular soldier."

Sykule’s first quip was met with a somewhat queasy smile. Dominic truly angry wasn’t something anyone wanted to see. Or something he wanted anyone to see. Or both. And so he chose not to answer that part, only responding to the boy’s question. “Same as you, I imagine, if you’re part of The Eyrie? More or less. Here for Hildegarde, to help her in her cause.” A beat. “Or, well, that’s the idea, anyway.”

Sykule nodded in reaction to Dominic's response. Hildegarde had many friends, indeed, and enemies too, unfortunately. "Yes, I came to this land not long ago, in hopes of finding a place in The Eyrie. But all I found in Frostmaw was a reason to join Hildegarde and her army, and take back the city." The boy sighed. "Unfortunately, there's not much to do around the camp except hearing the other soldiers talk about the war."

Dominic stepped a few paces away and reached for water he’d left on the sidelines of his skirmish. It was drained quickly, a few large gulps decimating it entirely. “Probably because they can afford to just talk. Me, I desperately need the practice. And I can’t just sit around idly, waiting for something to happen. Done that too long.” Dominic sighed and set the empty glass back in its place. “So, you’re looking for something to do?”

Sykule raised his eyebrows slightly. It didn't occur to him until now that while he was not be able to practice with the other soldiers, sparring with Dominic could be interesting. "Yeah, what do you have in mind?" Sykule didn't look older than... 15? 16? He wasn't sure, young humans looked all the same to him. He didn't look like a fighter-type either, not that he really was one, but people were usually surprised by his strength and speed. "No need to pull any punches just because I look like a kid, I'm up to whatever you suggest."

Dominic’s response was firm and immediate. “I don’t treat people lightly just because of their age. Or, er, their apparent age.” He squinted at Sykule as if trying to look through him. He’d met enough strange people who were not what they appeared -- who was to say he wasn’t one of them? “You said you’re an illusionist? What is it that you’ve been able to do, so far?” Dominic was technically an illusionist, though he had no formal training and was basically just rolling with things as they came to him. There was still a chance for him to learn something, even from an untrained mage, and Dominic was absolutely not going to pass such an opportunity up.

Sykule smiled at the man. "Don't worry, I'm not some creepy old mage walking around as a kid." but, ironically, that would be exactly what a creepy old mage would say, he joked to himself. he was eager to show what he had learned so far. "Well, I've been focusing around two basic skills. Unlike you, I'm not very good at "creating" images or objects. You need to think about so many little things, so many details, and if one little thing is off place, your illusion is busted." he made a crushing gesture with one of his hands with that last statement, to illustrate his speech. "I've been more inclined towards the manipulation of light itself. Bending light around something to make it invisible, mirroring objects, distorting fields of view. It's not very subtle, but it works well enough." he paused for a second, and looked directly at Dominic, making his big pale-gray eyes visible underneath the hat "The downside about this, is that my illusions are purely visual. I wouldn't be able to trick a blind man, for example, or anyone with a good sense of hearing. But that's where my second skill comes up." his eyes sparked slightly, and he proceeded "My second skill is more personal. Instead of creating an illusion I simply force the impression of whatever I want upon the person. Instead of making a sword look like a cane, I make someone believe he saw a cane. You could describe it as some kind of hypnosis." his eyes became a reptilian-like slits for a second, before turning back to human pupils. "Of course, it depends on how believable the idea or feeling is, the target's willpower and ability to resist against my own. It's also limited because, theoretically, I can only trick one person at a time." The young boy sighed, and closed his eyes "That was a long monologue, sorry."

Dominic had regarded Sykule’s speech silently, leaning most of his weight onto one leg and standing with his arms folded across his chest. “That’s… quite a lot, actually. And you say you’re ‘untrained’? Seems pretty good to me.” Dominic paused, his eyes sweeping across the breadth of the courtyard. No one else seemed to be here at this hour, the camp gone quiet as most of its inhabitants slept. “I’m not formally trained, either. Not… really.” It was a bit complicated. “It doesn’t matter. You practice enough, you’ll arrive at the same end as someone with a tutor, I think.” Another long exhale. “Besides, I’m not ‘creating’ images. It’s not as impressive as it looks.” He didn’t elaborate, instead beckoning Sykule to step forward further into the courtyard. “I’m sure we have plenty to learn from one another. How about you show me?”

Sykule nodded, with a playful smile on his face. "The fact that I'm untrained, means that I didn't have much to practice. I can't go around mind-tricking people, and there are limits to what I can do with the light manipulation on my own" he stood still, in a perfectly balanced pose as he spoke "This is one of the easy ones" he stated, as he started to step sideways, in both directions at the same time, giving the impression the boy was splitting himself. Soon, there were two identical copies of him, standing before Dominic.

Dominic tilted his head again, regarding the split of the boy with a contemplative expression. This was a welcoming distraction from his own thoughts. “That’s not much different from what I’m doing, honestly. Can you move your two selves independently from one another?” He took a couple paces back and leaned against a wall with one leg bending at the knee, the boot-clad foot flat against his resting place.

Sykule 's heads shook synchronously. "There aren't really two selves. Only the same person being multiplied." They spoke in unison, even though only one voice was heard. "I can do it multiple times too, since it's not a very tiresome task, like a mirror reflecting another one." The boy started to split again, and again, until there were sixteen copies of himself, all standing at the same welcoming pose, with both arms slightly extended.

Dominic pivoted his head, peering across the numerous copies of Sykule. “You make that look easy.” He pushed off the wall with his foot now, stepping forward with the unsteady grace of a mildly inebriated dancer. As he moved, his illusion appeared again, appearing like some kind of sentient shadow first before settling into the same scar-clad figure as it had been previously. The illusion stood where it was spawned, smirking at the many Sykule imitations before flickering and then disappearing again. Dominic paused in place, twisting his lips in an unsatisfied expression at the space vacated by his illusion. “So what are you trying to do? Are you trying to learn how to fight, or is defensive or survival magic your goal?”

Sykule hesitated for a bit with the question."That's an interesting thing to ask." The illusions started to move around Dominic, mirroring each other's movements, looking upwards with a pondering pose. "Hm...I'm not a fighter, so I guess it would be used for survival, mostly. It's not something I could use to kill anyone, obviously, but it's very useful to confuse, and can be used in many different ways." The copies now stood around forming a circle around Dominic, and slowly turned towards him, with arms crossed. "So, can you guess who's the real one?"

Dominic was barely any good at having a good sense for his own magic, actually, much less anyone else’s. Though he scrutinized each illusion in turn, he didn’t come away with any clear answers. “I’d guess that it’s one near where you were originally standing. But that depends on how it works for you. If you can... slip into the shadows, becoming any of your illusions at will, then I have no way of knowing which one is you.” He hadn’t thought about how this statement might imply some clues about the nature of his own abilities. Secrets were exhausting, anyway, and he’d slowly been adopting an apathetic stance toward whether or not he kept them.

Sykule widened his playful smile. "Come on, make a guess, just point at the one you think is right." the voice came directly from behind Domnic "But if you're wrong I want to know what kind of magic you can do." the boy was confident he wouldn't guess right, he still had a trick up his sleeve.

Dominic hesitated, but ultimately decided to cater to the boy. “Fine. Umm… that one?” He pointed to one near the back, roughly in the center of the crowd of illusions.

Sykule 's copies started to vanish one by one, until only two remained. "Gotcha." The boy said, as the last remaining copy disappeared, the one Dominic was pointing to. "So, better luck next time." Sykule now looked like someone who spent a long time holding his breath, and was now panting. Maintaining his illusions for such a long time wasn't that easy. "So...what now?" he asked Dominic when he managed to recompose himself.

Dominic stared down the empty space left by Skyule’s last illusion, accompanied by a roll of his shoulders. “Well, it was just a guess.” He seemed actually a bit uncertain now. “If you’re curious about what I can do, well... your guess is almost as good as mine, really.” Green eyes moved to his side, where that same illusion of his manifested again, mirroring Dominic’s pose. “I, uh, must admit… I don’t really know what I’m doing. Or how. Still in the process of figuring everything out and working out how to actually control it.” Quietly and mostly to himself, he added, “Assuming there’s any kind of sense to it at all.”

Sykule stood up and walked towards Dominic's "illusion". "I have never heard about anything like that. You can't control anything about it?" He did look a lot like Dominic, except for the weird hair. "Wait, you mean it wasn't you the one who made him...fight like that?" Sykule thought that their difference in fighting style was because Dominic was too busy choreographing his illusion's moves to do anything other than throwing random punches. To think that "thing" knew how to fight so well on his own was just...Sykule closed his eyes and tried to feel any magic energy other than Dominic's around him, to no avail. "Did he ever hurt you or anyone else?"

Dominic hadn’t counted on Sykule catching on so quickly to the state of things. “Yes and no. He’s… not me, and still tied to me.” He didn’t know what else to say, wasn’t sure how else to explain it. “I can’t seem to form any other kind of figures, if that helps answer your question. Just… him. And, uh, ‘did he ever hurt me’?” He looked sidelong at the illusion. The illusion returned the gaze with the slightest upturned corner of the lips. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Sykule was already quite used to finding things he had never seen before ever since he started his journey, but the man and his doppelgänger were something he neither imagined or expected to meet. "You were sparring when I got here, at least that is what I saw, and he threw you on the ground. That's fine, considering the situation." he searched Dominic's illusion for any sign of reaction to his speech. "But did he ever do something you really didn't want him to? I want to know how much influence you have on him."

Dominic folded his arms across his chest again and squeezed, not quite comfortable with this conversation anymore. “That’s, uh... complicated. I guess you could say it varies. Sometimes I know what he’s doing... sometimes I don’t.” The illusion lofted a brow at Dominic before stepping into his space and disappearing once again. “And regardless, I have no more control over what he does than anyone else would.” He didn’t seem entirely convinced of that last statement, and that doubt was marked with a slight frown. “I suppose you could think of him as more of an external guardian than something I’m manifesting entirely of my own will? That’s my best understanding, anyway.”

Sykule nodded. "I suppose you are right. He seems to be quite reasonable about it too. If I knew more about magic I could try to guess what could be your relationship or even his origins, but it's up to you to decide how to deal with your...friend." The boy still had much to learn about magic, maybe one day he would figure it out. "Well, you kept your promise, and I believe I've taken enough of your time. I hope to see you around more often, Dominic. Maybe next time we can spar for real." The boy said, bowing slightly with a friendly smile.

Dominic echoed with a polite smile, though it was a tad lopsided. “Another time then. I’d welcome it.” He turned away from the boy, staring out into the shadows of the courtyard and resting his hands in his pockets. “The more practice, the better.”