Private Tales A Thief in the Night

[Fife]

They walked quietly after that, and all the while Fife continued to look around. Raigryn led them to a memorial courtyard, to which he indicated they sit. She did as she was told, wrapping her arms around her knees when she sat down. Considering her small size, she was mostly arms and legs -- a blessing that only aided the appearance of a prepubescent boy on the cusp of his teen years.

She had been scanning the people, waiting patiently until he spoke. In response to his question Fife held up a hand with fingers spaced a short distance apart. A little.

Pointing two fingers to her eyes, she then swung her hand toward the few people ambling by. I can see... Fife made the sleepy gesture with her hands as she had done before. ...the sleepy feeling. She then waved her hand in a vague sweeping gesture and shook her head. But not really the others. To help clarify, she made a disgusted face with her tongue out and then a furrowed-brow accompanied by a fist striking her palm. Not the sick and angry. Those she only saw when it was dire.

She knew why he was asking, and she looked back to him with her arms around her knees once more, waiting. Her pulse quickened in a surprising jolt of excitement. Fife had never been certain what she had been doing, always doubting if she had ever done anything special at all in those moments -- if the adrenaline and fear had only made it seem so. To be learning magic, real magic... She was a bit giddy as she awaited his instruction.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

It was a long time since Raigryn had taught anyone the most basic lessons of Empathy. It felt strange to be back here and it took him a few seconds to settle his mind on the way to proceed. With just a few days he had to condense down the important facts.

"Don't try and reach out to find those other feelings. Not yet anyway. If you concentrate too hard on anyone you're took likely to form a connection and draw too much.

"This isn't a flashy magic. We don't chant loud spells and make fire dance in our palms but it's still dangerous. For you, for others. Most can't stop you taking from their emotional aspects, but I can. So turn your attention to me. If you try too hard Ill simply cut you off."

Traching had always been a passion. With each sentence he was reminded of just how much he enjoyed speaking of their craft.

"There are eight emotional aspects. Different names but always eight in any form of Empathy. Take your time and try to centre your own mind. An empath has to be in balance. You cannot hear another if you talk over them." He assumed that lesson was known already. He certainly had Fife's undivided attention right now.

" Try and settle yourself. Focus on me, see if you can perceive any other aspects than the three you've used."

 

[Fife]

Fife listened carefully to what Raigryn was saying, her eyes drifting from him to the few people walking through the square before returning to him by the time he had finished. She would test her skills on him, then? It sounded safe enough and he seemed confident. Letting go of her knees in favor of a slightly more comfortable position, turned slightly toward him on the step, Fife focused her attention on the man beside her.

Balance? An "Aspect" she hadn't already used? A frown and a furrow brow creased her face as she looked into the distance between them. Centre your own mind. She knew how to look for Sleepy, so she decided to begin there.

Drawing a deep breath, she swept the thoughts from her mind. You cannot hear another if you talk over them. It made sense, even if she could only relate to that in her own mind. With her confusion and excitement cleaned out and only her curiosity remaining, Fife attempted to see the Sleepy around him.

Of course, she didn't exactly see Sleepy. Like seeing something nearly invisible, she sensed the light veil around him. He seemed calm, collected -- a feeling like a fountain glimmering on a soft spring afternoon. It was an "Aspect" that she was well versed with, using its presence to hone in on easy targets.

But she wasn't using Aspects she already knew. Fife peered beyond that soft veil, looking for something else. She didn't know what she was looking for, but knew what she was not: Sick and Angry. Fortunately, neither were present.

What was there, however, was something akin to... excitement? Happiness? It was bright and warm, flittering about like a butterfly. Whatever it was, it was new and Fife focused on that. She didn't know how she was supposed to take from it, and might have been a bit heavy-handed as she made the mental reach to pull it toward herself.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

The world turned to shades of grey. It wasn't an overwhelming sadness, but every little positive he felt lost its edge. Sounds, sights, and smells all evoked their own form of joy. Now there was nothing. A fraction of a second before he closed off his mind and he knew she had drawn deep. His expression went bleak.

Raigryn held up a hand. "That's enough now," he said clearly. His fingers tapped out a beat on the stair beside him. If she looked she would see his fingers moving in a blue.

Using your stored emotional aspects to rebalanced your own state of mind was one of the first things new empaths were warned against. Colour returned to the world and Raigryn found a smile again. She would now sense his emotional entirely closed off to her.

"Before you've probably used your powers in reflex. Drawn and used in one motion. But an Empath can store each of the eight emotional aspects. We have to, if we want to use our magic in any significant way without unbalancing the world.

"However you perceive that aspect you just drew, turn your mind inside. You should feel a change. Like a... Warmth. A warmth that holds the same sense you just felt from me. Can you?"

 

[Fife]

Drawing in that brightness made her body hum, charging up with the raw energy to do... something. Then suddenly his emotions were gone, beyond her perception. He was as distant to her as the statue behind them.

She saw the change in him, then, rather than feeling it -- he was frowning. She blinked until her vision focused on him again and she could see that his enthusiasm had vanished. Had she done that? Had she taken too much? She didn't know how to ask him what she had done.

Fife's teeth were ringing with energy but she bit down on the urge to jump up and run by clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from clattering. They were clattering? No, that was his finger tapping the step. Fife could see... something. Almost. She knew she was seeing something even though there wasn't anything actually there. She frowned up at him, but he was smiling again.

She nodded quickly in response to his question. That bright butterfly feeling was bouncing around inside of her like a coal in her hand. She wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to store this feeling, or whatever it was he was asking her to do with it. She could barely think. Fife felt jittery, and began to tap her heel as an outlet.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Breathe, just breathe," Raigryn said softly. "Your body isn't used to storing it. It will have to learn. Really bloody quickly," he added with a sharp cant of his head.

"Just focus on the sound of my voice. There are eight emotional aspects. Four opposed pairs that cover opposing groups of emotions. They have many names but the most commonly used are: Fury and Tranquillity; Disgust and Desire; Charity and Avarice; Joy and Misery. Each encompasses - that means includes - a range of feelings. We, as empaths, perceive them as a group. Each in turn is used for a different purpose."

He watched him struggle intently, wary that he might have to take action to prevent something being unleashed that would draw attention. He would repeat the lesson, but for now he just wanted to talk and give Fife something to latch onto.

Raigryn hadn't expected Fife to be able to draw quite so quickly. Careful syphoning was one of the most difficult initial lessons, but Fife still shouldn't have been able to draw so deep so quickly. The boy had potential. The need for control on top of that became even more immediate.

"You drew from my anger - Fury - and turned it into strength to slip from my grip last night. Joy is different. You can move faster with you ride on Joy. I was a battle mage and a good one. Fury and Joy were always pooled up deep inside to be called upon when I had a sword in my hand."

 

[Fife]

She listened to him, nodding and bobbing her knee and breathing. All of the movement made dealing with the strange bright feeling easier, and as Raigryn spoke it began to settle. It didn't subside, but it went... somewhere. Fife didn't really know where it went, but she was able to stop tapping her heel and calm down a bit.

Absorbing the information he was giving her was a bit more difficult. Eight aspects, some of which she already recognized. Anger was Fury, and excitement Joy. She could assume that the sickly feeling was Disgust and the sleepy one Tranquility. Was Misery the desperate sad feeling she had known the night before? If the Aspects had ranges and variations, she could only guess that was where it fit into the spectrum. It was a lot of knowledge thrown at her all at once, but she did her best to internalize it.

Learning that Raigryn had been a battle mage was unexpected, and yet made sense. She perked up at the mention of the former trade. His worn appearance was so at odds with his scholarly manner of dress and she had already wondered what sort of stories went along with the lines in his face, the wear in his coat.

Fife lifted a finger to point at him and raised her brows in question. You? It wasn't that she didn't believe him, just that she was curious about the comment. That butterfly was still fluttering around in her, and a story would give her something to listen to and focus on while she ignored the aspect and let it go wherever it was going. She wanted to ask him when he'd been a battle mage, and why he wasn't anymore. She wanted to understand why it was so important that she didn't tell anyone that he -- that they were empaths. But those were things she had no way to form into gestures and expressions. Her curious look tightened into one more akin to frustration as she grappled with her limitations in communication.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Yes me," he chuckled. "They say all the great wars were long before my generation but I've seen some nasty ones."

He could sense Fife's frustration even before the frown settled on his face. This was only going to get worse, especially when Raigryn would typically ask for more detailed feedback.

"You want to ask something else. To do with what you're feeling or about me?" he asked. He spoke slowly, carefully. The last thing he needed the young boy doing right now was getting wound up and emotional. Even if Fife became unbalanced, which made it more difficult to access one's aspects, there was always the chance of calling on them in a sudden surge.

 

[Fife]

Fife didn't really know what great wars he was talking about, and it only piqued her interest more. She hadn't realized how little she knew about anything until recently, and her lack of knowledge was frustrating. Fife felt infantile and stupid -- not because of him, but because she was powerless to change her circumstances on her own.

She nodded. Yes, she wanted to ask him something. She shook her head to the first part of his query but nodded to the second. It was sort of about him. Fife pondered how to ask him about Empathy. Tapping her head, she motioned between them and made a few of the familiar gestures for the Aspects she knew. They were Empaths. Empathy. Then she pointed to him and shook her head. He didn't tell people he was an Empath. Finally, she showed her palms up and shrugged in question. Why was it bad for people to know about Empathy? It was vague and he probably wouldn't understand, but she was trying.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn watched patiently as he tried to explain. Unfortunately for Fife the question seemed obvious to him. He was mistaken.

"I closed myself off to you," he explained. "That's why you can't sense my emotions any more. Simple Empath trick to stop other Empaths from... Oh that's not it is it?" he stopped when it was quite clear from Fife's expression he had missed the mark.

This was already getting slightly frustrating. He gave some thought to how long it would take to teach him to write. Longer than he had before he had to leave the city. There was a town to the east he needed to travel to. Too dangerous to take Fife too; they were being regularly raided by naga scavengers.

 

[Fife]

Raigryn seemed so confident in his answer, and the information was something she should have been asking about, but she couldn't help how her expression fell. It wasn't his fault -- her gestures were so vague, so rudimentary. Conveying complex thoughts, emotions, and questions were nearly impossible. There was a reason she was cut off from other people.

When he realized that he had misinterpreted her, she shook her head. No. But she put on a faint smile, pointed to him, and rolled her hand in a go on gesture. It's fine. Continue. Fife tapped her chest and then her ear. I'll listen. She resigned herself to not being able to ask.

Maybe the topic would come up again at a later time? She wasn't very hopeful about that, but let it go regardless. For the time being, she wanted him to continue. That bright feeling was nearly settled in her, only a faint warm glow in the tips of her fingers and toes and ears.

Fife pointed at Raigryn, then positioned one hand palm up while angling the other above it with the heels of her palms touching. Mimicking the closing of a lidded box, she lowered the upper hand, then quickly pointed back at him before tapping her head. You closed your mind?

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Yes I shut it away. Well, I closed it off to you. I can see it was hard enough to hold down what you took. It would be far too easy to take too much and do yourself harm."

Raigryn nodded, pleased that her demeanour seemed to show that the worst was over.

"I'll have to be quicker next time. It will take a bit more experience before I can train you to do the same I think. Not our biggest priority either. I can draw from emotional aspects you've taken and stored, only the emotions you might be feeling right now. We can't transfer our stored up power to each other.

"Now, what we're you trying to ask before? There's no rush no. In fact we should probably walk somewhere quiet in a few minutes and see about using up what you just stored."

 

[Fife]

She listened to him, nodding occasionally to convey that she was understanding and keeping up. She couldn't take his stored aspects, but could siphon off his natural emotions. Fife thought to ask if she could use aspects he was using, but that seemed like a hard question at the moment, so she docked the idea for a later opportunity. There were so many questions, and she worried he would leave her before she got answers to them.

But apparently he was aware of that, too. When he asked what she had wanted to know before, she gave him a weird, surprised look. It was possible he was pretending to be this nice in order to get her guard down, and if he was it was working.

Fife drew a deep breath and sighed as she concentrated for a moment on how to ask her question differently. She rose to follow after him as she pondered various ways to ask the same thing, or something close. When she settled on an idea, she half-turned to him as they walked.

She began by moving an finger between them. Us... She then made a cutting motion across her throat before opening and closing the hand near her mouth in a gesture more like an angry goose than talking, if she were being honest. We don't talk... Fife then frowned as she looked at her fingers, slowly counting out eight of them before she held them up for him against her forehead. Eight Aspects in her head was a good gesture for Empathy, right? We don't talk about Empathy... She finished by pointing a general finger towards the other people around them. We don't talk about Empathy to others.

It was a close approximation to her question, so she shrugged. Why? Fife didn't need any encouragement to keep mum on the subject -- she couldn't exactly go telling just anyone. But she wanted some context as to why it was dangerous for others to know. She was supposed to learn to use her Empathy responsibly, not to not use it. If she was going to be using it, she wanted to know the risks. Like carrying a knife -- she knew it was sharp and could be deadly if wielded properly.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Right, I see. Why we don't talk about it?" This time Raigryn decided it would be prudent to check before answering the wrong question. Her expression said enough.

"It's not illegal. You're not going to get the noose for practising the art. Thirty years ago there were great schools here and in Elbion. Then some scholar went and wrote an article that we were essentially emotional vampires."

Raigryn shook his head slowly. He failed to keep a not of anger out of his voice. Vampires were disgusting parasites, shunned by society and often murdered if discovered.

He turned them out across an open field where the housing outside the wall had started to turn to scattered villages instead of one great mass. He picked up a switch that had fallen from a tree as they walked.

"I just keep to being a wandering scholar and occasional mercenary. A lot of folk won't pay an Empath for work. The old days nobles would bring their kids to be emotionally balanced." Raigryn chuckled. "Usually when they had sired too many bastards."

He stopped and flicked the switch through the air. It made a satisfying swish. The kind of high pitched whip that suggested the flexible stick would really sting if it caught exposed skin.

"Of course, you have to control when to use what you've stored too. The Joy you took has a multitude... It has a number of uses. But most easy to call on is simply the ability to increase your reaction speeds, move a little faster. Which will come in really handy when I try to hit you with this stick."

 

[Fife]

Listening, she was glad to learn she wasn't necessarily in mortal danger should another discover her newfound gift. It was concerning but not dangerous. Fife nodded, understanding. He clearly disliked the term in association, and Fife supposed she understood that -- after all, she'd been called a dirty mongrel her whole life. She didn't imagine she would much like being called a blood-sucking beast either.

She hadn't been paying much mind to what else he'd been doing as they walked toward the fringes of Elbion. She looked out across the pasture toward the clusters of homes and buildings that dotted the valley, dissipating as they got further away from the massive city until there was only grasslands. It was beautiful, yet terrifying. Fife had never left the city because it was safe; she knew how to survive on the streets but didn't have the slightest idea of how to do so in the wilderness.

Raigryn turned the conversations back to practicing Empathy, and she wasn't sure she completely understood his final comment. Hit her with a st--??

The hiss of the switch only shortly preceded the stripe of dull pain across her shoulder as she failed to dodge it. Fife gasped loudly, jerking away from him. Hit her?! She took several quick steps away from him, alarmed.

How was she supposed to just use something she didn't understand? Keeping out of his way was hard -- she didn't navigate the mud very well and his reach was quite long. She took another swipe from the switch, wheezing in as much of a verbal protest as she could muster.

Barely stepping outside of his reach again, she heard the swish of the stick cutting through the air. Frustrated, Fife asked herself why she was putting up with this. She could easily run back to the city and never see this awful man again. But she didn't want to. She wanted to learn how to use these Aspects and Empathy -- she wanted to pay him back for his one day of kindness, even if he was trying his damndest to hit her now.

Joy. The stored aspect she had taken from him could make her move quicker. Raigryn didn't hold back and she received another stripe for her failure. It was a powerful motivator, and Fife struggled to reach for the stored Aspect. She could see him preparing to do it again, and she clambered for that damn Joy, straining mentally to replicate what she had done the night before with his anger.

Reaching wildly as she attempted to step out of the way of the dreaded switch, Fife found something. The stored warmth -- Joy! Hastily grabbing it, she immediately felt that bright butterfly bouncing around in her again and this time she didn't hold it in.

She felt light course through her limbs, and she easily zipped out of his way. In a blur, she accidentally moved quite a ways from him in what she had thought was only a few quick steps. Eyes bright and grinning like a fool, she stood still for a moment to catch her breath and still her racing heart.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn laughed as he watched Fife take deep breaths. The boy had probably used his entire store in one sudden burst. Raigryn hadn't expected him to be able to burn it off like that. Dangerous, but it also suggested Fife had the capacity to pull off some remarkable feats using Empathy. Not all Empath could. Despite building great stores of power some could only use a little at a time.

"When you use an aspect so quickly it takes you with it," Raigryn explained. "Joy is always a pleasure to use, obviously. However, draw too quickly and it takes you off balance. Keep going and not only can you no longer call on your other aspects but you'll become a gibbering idiot trapped in a blissful existence in your own mind. Like the nobles smoking that new drug from Vel'anir."

He held up a hand, realising he'd gone too far. "Don't worry, you didn't have enough of a store to do yourself any harm. I'm impressed you moved so quickly. Sorry about the switch," he said, throwing the branch down.

"Get your breath, let your mind and body settle. Then I'll summarise the rest of the aspects and what they can do."

 

[Fife]

Fife nodded quickly, still feeling like she was on the edge of bursting. She felt like she should have been glowing, tendrils of light curling around her in some telltale sign of the magic she'd used. But she was just a boy standing in a field with muddied boots and shoulders aching slightly from the strikes of the switch she hadn't evaded. She smiled more when he mentioned how pleasant Joy was to use because, truthfully, she was the happiest she thought she'd ever been. His comment, however, turned to caution, however, and her smile sank into a nervous frown. Fife wasn't sure she knew what he meant by off balance, but she was sure she'd find out at some point. He'd be able to tell her if she was unbalanced, right?

Raigryn apologized for the stick, and Fife was smiling again, waving a hand of dismissal. It had startled her, certainly, but she realized he only had a limited window with which to train her, so some unorthodox methods might have been necessary. Or was this how Empaths were trained normally? Fife wouldn't know.

He instructed her to settle herself, and she nodded again. That was something easy, at least. Breathing carefully for several moments, she willed herself to calm down. She was still smiling inexplicably, but her heart rate slowed and her hands weren't shaking anymore by the time she walked back to Raigryn's side. Holding her hands at her sides, she looked up at him expectantly.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Eight aspects." Raigryn dropped to his knees and drew a circle in the ground. He drew a cross over it and then another one at an angle. He ended up with a slightly lopsided, segmented octagon.

"Assuming you're at rest you start in the centre. Using an aspect pushes you towards one side." He hovered a finger over the centre and then moved towards one edge.

"Now when you start you can probably keep using your powers...here," he said, drawing a small circled. His finger drew circles of eight over the area. "Draw too deeply from any one aspect and you'll be off balance. Returning isn't easy either. If you panic and draw on the opposite aspect..."

Raigryn's finger left the circle towards one edge. Then he brought it quickly back into the circle. But it kept moving. Off the other side of the circle of balance, put beyond the edge of his diagram.

"Ever start to fall one way, over compensate and fall the other way? Same thing. But as you grow more experienced..." Raigryn drew large concentric circles towards the boundary of the octagon.

"Make sense?" he asked. It wasn't just that Fife was mute. Raigryn had spent his life walking in different social circles. By contrast Fife's Street upbringing probably left him with a much more narrow vocabulary.

 

[Fife]

Raigryn knelt and began drawing in the mud. She listened carefully and did her best to absorb the lesson. He made it simple enough and her mind supplemented the concepts with feelings she knew. Like now: she wasn't feeling unbalanced, exactly, but there was certainly a greater deal of Joy flowing through her. Too much of a good thing could be a bad thing, or (in this case) dangerous.

When he had finished, she nodded sagely. Then she leaned down and pointed outside of the circle, pressing her finger to the ground to make an impression. What happens if I go too far? It was the first question she had.

The next question was more complex. Fife stood stark upright with her hands flush to her side. She made the sign of eight against her forehead to indicate the Aspects and drew an augmented smile across her face with both hands. Joy. Then she began to lean toward the right, starting to teeter as she began to go too far. Leaning her weight back the other way, she exaggerated finding her center of balance again and shrugged. How do I keep balanced?

Guessing, she signed for the Aspects again, but this time frowned and drew lines down from her eyes like tears. With the opposite?

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"For now, only use little amounts of ea aspect," Raigryn said. His voice took in a slightly stern note. It was a rule he broke enough himself, but it was one of those rules that a student wasn't allowed to challenge through their entire education. Do as I say and not as I do, was the principle at play here.

"You'll settle yourself before long. Now if you want to go further.. "

Raigryn used the toe of his boot to carve out a thick semi-circle further away from the octagon he had drawn.

"Maybe out here it takes you days before you feel right in your own mind and can access your abilities. Out here..." another semi-circle, "you might feel a connection with the source of the aspects. An impression of the person it was taken from that might never go away. You've permanently changed your own personality, moving in this direction might forever be a slippery slope. And if we go ever further..."

Raigryn took two paces away from his original drawing. "Maybe this far out you're a gibbering wreck for the rest of your life."

 

[Fife]

Hearing the warning in his tone, Fife nodded and payed close attention. She looked over the rings and half circles he drew, taking the lesson to heart. So it was like a knife, one that could her as much as others. Taking too much was bad and using too much was bad. Her face was sober as she contemplated the information. With a sigh, she gave him one final nod; she understood. Working with caution was something she could do.

Then her curiosity got the better of her. Fife pointed to him, then toward the first outer circle he'd drawn. Have you been here? It likely wasn't her business, but she asked anyways. He had yet to really punish her for asking questions.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"I've been quite far, yes," he admitted. "Been a few times when it was risk madness or... well... die."

Something amused the Empath and he smiled down at Fife. "But I've not given you permission to push it that far so you'll just have to die should that come up."

Raigryn thought it was funny. Chances were that a girl who had lived at risk on the streets her entire life wouldn't find it quite as amusing.

 

[Fife]

Fife looked down at the drawing as he spoke, her mood sobering further. She was feeling more like her usual pessimistic self as he commented that he'd made a choice between madness and death, and she wrapped her arms around herself. An easy choice to make, honestly.

His attempt at humor, however, was met with a stern frown and a sharp glare. The hypocrisy! She wasn't keen on death, and would certainly not be following that command.

To express her dissent, she squeezed her eyes shut and stuck out her tongue at him. It was unfair, plain and simple. She rather liked being alive, even if it meant living a charade. Living in madness couldn't have been much worse than as an abused, homeless mute girl. Fife held her arms tighter around herself.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"It's alright, I'm planning on finding you a nice safe apprentiship in the town," he said, deflecting any of Fife's retort with a chuckle. "Not taking you to convince mountain giants to pick a different mountain to live on."

He crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his tongue into one cheek thoughtfully.

"Got any skills that aren't thieving?" he asked bluntly. "You've got small hands. I know a cobbler."

 

[Fife]

Reluctant as she might be to the prospect of being dropped off in the care of yet another stranger, Fife didn't think having anything to do with giants sounded appealing or safe. He said it so casually, however that she blinked up at him in surprise, her indignance vanishing. Wait, he was going to deal with giants?

She had attempted to rob this man. She was lucky he'd took pity on her rather than squishing her like a louse.

"Got any skills that aren't thieving?" he asked bluntly.

Fife shook her head. No. She was hardly a "skilled" thief in the first place. He mentioned a cobbler and she cocked her head to the side. He knew a what?

But upon a moment's thought, she smiled suddenly. She could whistle. It wasn't useful, and wouldn't help her get anapprenticeship, but it was something she was proud of -- likely the only thing she was proud of. Fife began to whistle a peppy jig she had heard played in a tavern once, mimicking the notes perfectly from high to low. She didn't perform the whole thing, but enough that he would recognize the song if he was at all familiar with it. The skill was useless, but it was entertaining.

// Raigryn Vayd //​