RP:Two's a Crowd

This is a Mage's Guild RP.

Summary: While studying for her Arcane Stewardship exam, Pilar meets Odhranos in the Mage's Library. Upon suggesting a more practical approach to studying, the two engage in a practice duel in a courtyard of the Guild's grounds. Magical hijinks ensue!!

Mage's Library

With her test coming up, Pilar was studying hard. She had to prove her merit to become an Arcane Steward. But was she good enough? She could do a few different spells, but had no real skill in any of them (or so she felt. Her illusions were superb). She had a well-used tome of arcane basics open in front of her, and was furiously scribbling down notes.

Odhranos hopped down off the side of the small carriage and passed the reins of the horse (along with a small pouch of silver - the stall fee) to an stablehand who would bring the horse and carriage down to the stables in the village. Ruffling his shaggy unkempt hair with both hands, the mage couldn't help the unbridled joy beaming out of his grin. Gods be damned, he had missed Xalious! The cold biting breeze and the crown of mountain peaks rising in jagged spires on all sides of his view, framing the small town down the grassy slope. That was the problem with Larket, the mage thought. Too damn flat. No good hiking spots. The mage pivoted on his heel and his smile faded somewhat. The Mages Guild... this was a less so welcome sight. After all, it was the fault of the Guild he had spent nearly eight months incarcerated in the searing heat of the Nameless Desert. He still felt the burning in his arms, face and legs from the sunburn, so to say that that wound was still twinging was an understatement. Still, bear it and grin, Odhie, now isn't the time. His face fell into the flinty-est and most un-Odh like scowl, before he marched up the cobbled pathway and pushed through the heavy oak doors of the library.

Pilar heard the doors open but didn't look up. She was looking over her notes on pyromancy. She could summon fire, sure, but her racial weakness to it made it scary to her, and thus, hard to do.

Odhranos glanced around the large library, his stony gaze sweeping from one robe-clad, tired-looking mage to another as he strode quietly between the desks. Eventually, about halfway through the library, he came across someone who's didn't fit the stereotypical "robe wearing novice mage" profile. A moment or two of looking to make sure that the raven black hair and dark skin of the woman intently focused on her book was that of who he thought it was and the mage's stern expression lifted, like a sun peeping out behind a cloud as he strode up behind Pilar, before lightly tapping her shoulder. "I do hope I'm not disturbing, but I couldn't not say hello." The mage whispered quietly, so as not to break the hallowed unspoken rule of quiet voices in the library.

Pilar looked up at her visitor and smiled. "Hi, Odhranos. It's no disturbance at all," she replied quietly. "I'm just studying. Big test coming up." She gestured to her notes. "I'm kind of nervous. But enough about me. How are you? What brings you here?"

Odhranos carefully pulled out the chair next to her, making sure not to scrape it along the floor and incur the wrath of the head librarian. "Ooh a test! Exciting! What sort if a test?" The mage leaned across to quickly skim the top of the page nearest to him. "Oooh, pyromancy! I dabbled with that myself when I first began studying magic. Never felt as right as terramancy did though. I might be able to help a little though, if you'd like." The mage turned his head to study Pilar and noticed the stress in her face. "Speaking honestly though, you have no reason to worry. Your grasp of illusion magic is spectacular and your understanding of the arcane as a whole is much more comprehensive than many fully fledged mages I have met." The mage followed up his encouragement with a friendly smile and gentle bump of shoulders. "As for myself, I'm up to my eyes with work, so I decided to take a day off from working on the Eyrie's construction. I figured stopping by for the day here would be a good diversion, I've missed this place rather a lot"

Pilar blushed under his praise. "Thank you... It's a test to see if I'm worthy of being an Arcane Steward. I have no idea what it'll be. A written test, a duel... I'd appreciate any help. I missed this place too. But Chartsend is nice. I'm living there now, you should visit!"

Odhranos tugged at a stray lock of messy grey-streaked hair in thought. Arcane Steward, eh? Pilar was moving up in the guild then. The mage pondered the thought; Pilar had been in the guild for as long as he had, given that they entered the guild together. Would that mean he was elegible to apply? Odh had his issues with the guild, sure, but perhaps it wouldn't be a bad thing to work his way up the ranks? Maybe he even might be in a position then to try fix the issues he had. Hmmmmmmm.... Odh dragged himself back from his pensive reverie and back to the present moment. "Ahh, Arcane Steward? You'd be well fit for the position. I'll have to look into it myself, I've been meaning to commit more time to the Guild, but well.. things got in the way. But I'd love to help!" The mage grinned brightly, nothing got him as excited as magic did.

Pilar smiled. "Then, maybe I could use some practice. Books are all well and good but if I don't actually practice I'm useless. Should we go outside? Or to a classroom? This is hardly the place to be flinging spells."

Odhranos grinned sheepishly. "Wouldn't be the -first- time I've been thrown out of here for that, but I agree." The mage tilted his head. "I believe there's a courtyard beside the tower, part of the cloister connecting the tower and the dormitories; supposedly it has a warded net built into the stonework to keep any magic cast inside it contained. Some of the apprentices mentioned it, apparently it's a popular spot for practice duels. Should do the job?"

Pilar nodded. "Let's go." The duo headed outside, to the aforementioned courtyard. Pilar looked around. The place had been cleaned up recently. Perhaps a duel had taken place? "I, um... Don't know where to start..."

Odhranos follows Pilar into the courtyard and inspects the place. Like Pilar, he noticed the cleanliness of the courtyard. Too bad Odh wasn't the best at leaving a place tidy. Reaching into one pocket as he strode past Pilar and into the middle of the courtyard, he started to toss handfuls of sand across the flagstones. The amount of sand stored in that single pocket was rather astounding, and within a few seconds, a good deep layer of sand covered the floor. "I hope you're not wearing good shoes, I'd feel bad messing them up" Odh teased, sticking his tongue out as he kicked his own shoes and socks off, stashing them on the low ledge that surrounded the courtyard. Dancing rather jovially across the sandy floor, kicking up plumes of sand as he did so, the mage stood at the other end of the courtyard, directly opposite Pilar. "Right! Hit me, with anything! Except maybe that knife of yours, that might put as stop to things a bit sooner than planned."

Pilar happened to be wearing soft leather boots. They could handle a little sand. She gulped at the mention of her knife. That was a can of worms Odhranos didn't want to open. Instead of saying anything about it, though, Pilar simply nodded and placed her notebook on the ground. Taking a deep breath, she turned invisible. She circled around Odhranos, footsteps echoing. Was she really walking that loud? No, but she had simply magnified the noise and thrown it so it surrounded him. Was she to his right? His left? He had to figure it out soon, or he'd feel a static shock to the back of his neck.

Odh grinned broadly when Pilar faded from sight, closing his eyes so he could focus better. The echoing sound of the boots reverberated around the courtyard, which was a very nice touch. But Odh was kinda sorta cheating. Since the floor of the courtyard was now sand, Pilar didn't have a chance of hiding from him so long as her feet remained touching the sand. The mage couldn't help the cheeky grin. Naturally he played the part of bamboozled victim, turning his head this way and that to try and hear the sound a bit better, but all the while, he focused on the sand. He could sense the faint disturbance that Pilar's weight exerted upon the sand, and in his mind's eye, he visualised a pair of silver footprints as they stealthily crept around the mage to behind him. Pausing for a moment for dramatic effect, the mage suddenly spun around and raised his arms, his hands in mock-claws as he exclaimed loudly to playfully startle Pilar. "Rawr!" The mage cried before the sand swirled up around him. Unless she did something quick, the sand would stick to her clothes in a fine dust, outlining her to see plain as day. And covering her in sand to boot.

Pilar yelped. Doing a heckin scare, Odhranos. The sand coated her and even got in her mouth. She spat and faded back into view, as there was no longer a point to being invisible. She jumped back, watching the sand swirl. She had an idea, but she was hesitant to try it. Instead, she conjured copies of herself, and soon there were a dozen sandy Pilars in the courtyard. They began to circle around Odhranos at vampiric speed, darting back and forth. Which was real?

Odhranos -did- feel bad for making Pilar eat sand. But all is fair in duels and war, right? Ah he'd buy her a drink later or something, as recompensation. The mage let loose a quick bark of a laugh before executing a surprisingly athletic roll for a man in robes, accumulating sand as he did so. When he reached the end of his roll, he was completely obscured by sand, so much so that he looked like a formless blob of sand, before he straightened and stood up, the sand on his skin reduced to a thin layer, just thick enough to be completely obscuring of the mage beneath. Then he stood up from the pile of sand again. And again. Suddenly, an equal number of Odhr-sand-os' squared up against the Sand Pilars, each grinning like a cheshire cat. What do you get when you mix terramancy and illusion magic? Instant party.

Pilar wasn't sure what to do next. Her illusions were only solid to living beings. They'd pass right through the sand mages. So she could bum-rush them, and see which Odh was the real one... But it would reveal which Pilar was real, too. There was another option, her original thought, and it seemed the best time for it. She and her copies waved their arms, and arcs of flame flew across the sand mages. Only the true Pilar's flame was pyromancy, not illusion. But illusion thought to be real would sure feel real.

All of the Odhranos' simultaniously crossed their arms infront of them likes X's, to meet the brunt of the fire with sand-clad limbs, which would shield against the majority of the heat, but before long the heat would pass through the sand. The real Odhranos gritted his teeth behind his mask of sand and forced himself not to dive behind a sand-wall at the first opportunity, but that would completely give away his positon. Instead he steeled his nerves and let the fire hit him. A few hairy moments passed as the fire washed over him and he felt like jumping back as he felt it sear his skin, but he managed to keep his cool (aha) and checked the state of the sand first, both covering him and rendering his dummies. Lo and behold, the sand covering his forearms hadn't been changed at all, and as soon as that realisation hit the terramancer, the illusion's power was dispelled and he no longer felt the heat. The dummy Odhranos to his right wasn't so lucky, the fire had blasted a hole through it's forearms, leaving them capped halfway to the elbow with crude glass as the sand had melted under the onslaught. Phew, close one. Odhranos thought, before turning his attention to the Pilar standing before that Odhranos. All of the Sand Mages straightened, then turned to face the real Pilar as one, eerie smiles crossing their faces as they did so.

Pilar frowned. Busted. Her copies faded away and she completely gave up on illusion. She had one last trick. She held up her hands, and it started to get colder, and colder. Freezing mist began to form in the air around them.

Odh permitted himself a wry smile as Pilar released her illusions, and he also dissapated his copies into sand, revealing his real self (and also revealing how damn close she'd been to frying the real Odhranos) His smile fell away as Pilar raised her hands and biting cold mist began to fill the air, chilling the mage to the bone. Gritting his teeth, the mage wracked his brain for something that would help. If he had kept up his pyromancy, he'd probably be able to counter her cryomancy (or what he presumed was cryomancy). With that option not available, the mage turned his mind to more basic arcano-mechanics. When in doubt, go simple. When things get cold, the atoms slow down and vibrate less, simple kinetics. So to warm things up... The mage raised his hands in a mirror of Pilar's pose and the sand lifted from the floor around his feet and began to spin around him, gradually getting faster and faster, until the shrieking howl of a sandstorm echoed around the courtyard. The friction between the sand particles began to heat up the air around the mage, dispelling the mist in the immediate vicinity. From above, the two mages, illusionist and terrmancer, had created what looked like a yin-yang symbol, as their respective magic swirled around them and picked up the air in the courtyard, spinning hot and cold air around, until, above the courtyard's magic field, a tornado began to form. What Odh had failed to comprehend was that while magic itself would be contained within the defensive net, things affected by magic wouldn't. Soon news spread around the college of a tornado whirling away above the courtyard, rising to a height of the tower itself, attracting the attention of mages from all corners of the college, who began to trickle into the collonade around the courtyard one by one.

Pilar was no aeromancer, so the sight of the tornado sent her into a panic. "Odh-Odhranos?"

Odhranos hadn't realised the tornado was even there at all, the focus it took to move this much sand this quickly took a bit of concentration. It was only when he heard Pilar's hesitant exclamation that he glanced across, saw she had her gaze raised to the sky above them before he looked up. "Oh Xalious... that's not good" the mage muttered, as he dropped his hands and the sand fell. But the tornado raged on unabated, it had gathered enough energy of it's own to continue on. The mage's mind raced, there had to be a solution, a way to undo this... aha! "Pilar, stand beside me, use your pyromancy. We need to create an updraft with enough counterspin to dissapate the tornado" He cried out over the increasing howl of the tornado. "And we need to do it quickly, before the tornado decides to start moving, it could wreak havoc if it gets to the village!"

"Um... Okay!" Pilar didn't know much about the mechanics of tornadoes but she trusted Odhranos. She went to his side and let out a continuous burst of flame skyward.

Odhranos raised his hands once more and whipped the sand up into another sandstorm, now spinning the opposite direction that the tornado was. The sand parted around the pair, meeting again infront of them and catching the flames from Pilar's pyromancy, heating the sand up until the sandstorm began to glow with heat. Before long, the mage was drenched in sweat, the heat was incredible, but he only needed to hold out a little longer... hopefully. The ever-growing crowd of mage's held their breath in apprehension as the spectacle unfolded before them. Soon gasps began to break out amongst the gathered mages; the tornado was slowing down!!! The wind that Pilar and Odhranos were creating was spinning against the winds of the tornado, negating it's force and breaking it apart. In moments, the tornado was blown apart into wisps of mist and fog and the mage slowly lowered the now glowing mass of sand-glass to the ground on the far side of the courtyard as cheers broke out amongst the crowd. Glancing around bewildered, a smile slowly spread across the mage's face and he leaned across and whispered to Pilar. "Should we bow or something? I mean... it was our fault in the first place..."

Pilar was unaffected by the heat, thanks to that good ol' vampirism. She took her cues from Odhranos, and as he stopped his magic, so did she. Finally noticing the audience, she blushed deeply and covered her face in her hands bashfully.

Odh glanced around at the cheering mages. Y'know... perhaps the Mage's Guild wasn't all that bad. Maybe his problem was just with a select few and not the guild. Odh shrugged mentally and just smiled happily. "C'mon Miss-Soon-to-be-Arcane-Steward, lets see a smile! Now no one will have any doubt of your abilities, you are all but guaranteed to pass!"

Pilar looked shyly at Odhranos. "You... You think so?" She looked around at all the people, cheering. For them. For her. She smiled.