Private Tales Enough of Our Disease

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria was entirely too used to waiting in the wings.

She was always a last resort, expected to stand aside and be witness to the incompetence of those before her when all the while, Initiate Larrainth was someone capable of securing a fast win. The girl was a walking devastation. An ending. A young girl nurtured to tear things apart, and even at her age now, a year from graduation, she was unrelenting to loosen her talons. But she bit down on the impatience, the sneers. Vittoria complied with the orders given to her, because this was not the first time.

No, no matter how capable they thought their plans were, they always needed to resort to the girl with an unnerving smile.

She waited outside the entrance carved into the cliff face, taking tentative steps closer to the edge of the rock that gave the feeling of being suspended into the air. The wind battered against her, foretelling the winds of a storm that was to pass, and the dark shadows loomed in the horizon. Vittoria knew one more step would be precarious, but she stood there, a pillar. A voice called to her, one without panic lacing it until her name was called a second time. It tried to sound firm, commanding, but there was that worry against as she ignored the summons.

"Vittoria."

She peered over her shoulder, a soft hum of recognition.

"The Proctor has asked for you."

It was now her turn to perform. With careful balance, she pivoted and headed for the tunnel carved into the stone, had walked into the swallowing dark until her eyes adjusted enough to see the faint direction leading her to the room they had discovered. She knew her uncle had followed her, the familiarity of weight and pace of his boots loud enough to deafen her soft steps.

Word had reached certain ears that a curse, a spell, a reckoning was defending a weapon not meant to be placed in the hands of their enemies. A fae relic, Vittoria had gleaned, that was capable of rebuilding what has fallen. It was a symbol of hope, a symbol of renewing.

Something to be destroyed, something to be procured...

They only needed to get past the protection barrier first before analysing the might of the relic that waited deeper into the tunnels.

"A fool's task..." She announced her arrival. A great number of experts were scattered about the chamber, but her eyes quickly found the face she only cared enough to seek. "is it not, Proctor Krixus?"

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair stood silently behind the row of experts taking their turns looking over the magical barrier. He did not bother with pushing his way to the front as he could already see what he needed to do from back here. Unfortunately, he was also being patient as they were letting some of these experts make their own attempts at solving their problems.

It was fruitless, and anyone who could stop and think about it would recognize that. They had already determined the spell and items were fae in origin, but Vel Anir did not have many that dealt with the fae, and it showed. These people were still treating it like some standard Vel Anir magic.

However, Alistair could see the truth. It was actually his first time getting to experience fae sorcery with his vision and even he admitted it was impressive. It was...fluid, everchanging, malleable. The opposite of foundational Vel Anir magic. Of course, besides solving puzzles, there were simpler ways of bypassing puzzles.

That was when he called for Vittoria. It was a stroke of luck that she had been picked for this assignment, but he was glad it was her. She was too often used for simple destruction, but that did not take advantage of her innate talents. With enough time, he hoped to show that breaking down was the first part of creation.

Alistair was taken from his own analysis as he heard his own name, and looked over to see her arrival. He smiled as he motioned her over.

"Yes, Initiate Larrainth, but the Fae always did see us as fools I suppose...What would you suggest? May I call you Vittoria? You may call me Alistair for the remainder of this assignment. I find that efficiency is more important than formalities."

Vittoria Larrainth

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Her attentive eyes were on the Proctor, listening to him with a smidgen of amusement. "Yes, you may, Proctor." She was not going to break protocol just for a mission, and liked her distance from others in terms of familiarity with names.

But Vitt liked Proctor Krixus' classes. Every lesson had her transfixed on the work, had her envisioning herself being able to see the magical strings all coming apart and showing what lay beneath a spell.

There was a theory that Vittoria could break apart a curse like this. A mage-made wards were certainly an obstacle to tackle, but ancient fae magic? She could smell it's difference from here, not even within touching distance of it. The closer they stepped up to the clear barrier, the stronger the scent. Her eyes began to pick apart the flickers of strangeness, as if alive and well and capable of operating without the one that cast the spell. A sentient opponent, if they were not careful enough.

"This used to belong to a Court within the faefolk, before they broke through earth and let the sea swallow half of it. They hid relics all over Arethil, spreading the magic and might in all corners lest they are in need of a saving grace... That is all the faerie was able to say before we killed him." Connall cleared his throat to get Vittoria's attention, stepping closer and holding up a key. She raised a brow, offering him one wrist bound with a runic nullifier band. "And the other one." He instructed after unlocking it.

She had burned through too many of these to keep up with the demand of leashing her powers, and so the Academy decided to go ahead with the locking mechanism despite knowing full well she could pick it apart with her magic within a minute.

But Vittoria was keeping trust between all parties on a tight leash.

Let them believe her to be compliant.

"All magic can fall, even fae magic." If this was the effort and spell to keep a relic protected, then she could only imagine the wit and craft of magic within that object beyond. Vittoria rolled her wrists, looking to the barrier again and tried to spy and weak spots. "Where shall we strike first, Proctor?"

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Ah, he had forgotten about that. How rude of him, but the idea of a runic suppression band on an initiate was...unbecoming. While he could understand the reasoning behind their fears, Alistair found the practice of collaring their Dreadlords, even future ones to be unsettling.

It was a good sign that Vittoria could also seem to sense the differences in the fae magic. Maybe some of them were actually listening in his class.

As he turned back his attention to the barrier, Alistair began to perform his spell while speaking.

"I want to try using your magic in the ways that I believe we have mentioned in my class. However, we have to be careful."

As his spell came to fruition, a large runic array came into being. It was his best attempt at deciphering the magic of the barrier before him. It had all of the correct forms, but...it was like trying to recreate a painting with only numbers.

"This is the magic before us...In the way that I see it, but then imagine it is also doing this."

With a wave of his hand, the array in front of him had several sections begin to spin and shift around each other in a complex pattern.

"That's what we are working with, but if we use your magic uncarefully, then there could be dangerous feedback, so we need to find just the right place to...break it down."

Alistair had already been looking at the pattern, but it was like trying to catch an oiled eel. Even when he felt like he had a firm grasp on the spell, it would just slip out of his hands when it rearranged itself.

Vittoria Larrainth

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

It was the same as threading string through the needle's eye.

To even navigate this foreign magic, Vittoria had to admit to herself that she was glad to have the eye of the Proctor for this task. His eyesight unique, and the point of view she lacked to tackle this task. Her eyes fell to the demonstration of magic, watching as it coiled and interlaced, but the different strains worked together to become a stronger layer.

Much like sinew between bone and muscle, a layer she could peel apart.

"A slow investigation then... may I?" She asked, stepping closer to his magical demonstration and examining it before calling her power.

The Proctor would see the silent shadow of her magic's aura, a greyness clouded around her being as she began to cast. Like smoke, her magic seeped into whatever space it could find, investigating the individual tendrils and identifying them enough to isolate them.

But Vittoria was careful. Tentative. This was not her first curse she had broken, but what she knew of the fae was enough caution going in. Tricksters. Superior. Magic flowed in the ley lines that covered the world of Arethil, a resource not monopolised by those residing in the Anirian territories.

"Odd... I can feel possibly hundreds of different strains within this." Vittoria began to peel away the larger, more common strain.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair watched Vittoria and her magic carefully. He wasn't sure if she even realized it, but the way her aura appeared played a large part in explaining her talents. The shape may be because it was a specific focus area, or maybe it was just natural talent. The smoke demonstrated that she had a talent for finding the cracks and weak points to take things apart. The Academy was likely urging her to just barge into things with her magic and tear it all down, but this ability to find the weak points was the real talent that should be trained.

"Yes, hence the need for caution."

The formula that she was looking at and he had created just a diagram, and not the actual spell so she could experiment with it all she wanted.

Alistair had begun to notice others beginning to pay attention to their work, some stepping closer maybe in the hopes of assistance or just learning something for themselves. He held up his hands towards them indicating that they were not required for this and they should stand back. His blank gaze did not leave room for argument.

As Vittoria continued to work, her aura interaction with the spell assisted with his own insight. He removed certain pieces from the formula as they were revealed to be decoys or tricks meant to slow the spellcaster down. This simplified the array and revealed more of the core fae magic, but that core was a very complicated piece of work.

"I will give it to the Fae. They certainly know what they are doing."

Vittoria Larrainth

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria agreed with the Proctor, but would not voice it so aloud with others present.

Not only did they linger out of curiosity, they remained to witness Vittoria's destructive magic being tamed for this task. She earned the name Unmaker, earned the fear and respect of those that knew her father. What she know became, so bloodthirsty even in the age of revolution, Vittoria was all the more eager to show just how capable she was with her magic.

"The fae are also foolish to leave trinkets of great power lying around."

But Vittoria worked carefully and slowly. Steady hands like a surgeon, she eliminated layers and layers of the magic. Undid all the complexities of being woven as one, until what was left was an obstacle of near impossibility.

"This... this is now a puzzle." There was an excitement to her voice, a lighting up in her eyes. Puzzles had been a way the Academy kept her occupied in her younger years, and this one did not weigh on her one bit. "You see that, Proctor Krixus? How one strand is in fact made up of three? Each component touches another magical strain..." A pattern. A possibility of figuring out the complex system.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"True, I wonder if I was as old as some of them then maybe I would leave lying around artifacts of great power like discarded pieces of paper."

Alistair offered dismissively as he largely ignored the crowd. He was well aware of the reputation that Vittoria had developed for her year, and some of Alistair's friends had had similar reputations. However, Alistair was largely the opposite.

He was easily forgettable in his abilities, often seen as another name on a report of successful missions, but rarely the star. Even his magical discoveries that he had proudly perfected in the last few years, while innovative would eventually be used to far greater effect by those like Vittoria. Those he called the hero types, while Alistair considered himself far more of a shadow. He was never noticed, but always there when the Republic needed a win.

As Vittoria pointed out the strain, Alistair leaned closer in looking closely. Each strain combined nearly perfectly into one, but...his eyes were not so easily tricked. The faintest of changing colors revealed what he needed to see.

"Right here, and follow this seam up...It should unravel." His finger pointed to the bottom of the piece of the puzzle before carefully tracing its way up in a slightly curving arc.

"Not too much here. Just enough energy to make it unravel but not dissolve."

Vittoria Larrainth

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

The path was there, she could see it just as the Proctor could. He was right, there was no need to rush this, that her magic could just as well be applied with too much pressure and disintegrate the entire thing. It could be catastrophic, a sure result in death, but Vittoria was a master of control with her magic.

Slowly, smoky tendrils of her magic began to work at the seam, to peel away from the rest.

"Decoding this labyrinth has given me much joy. I had thought this venture to be boring, but this...." This had been worth the travel.

There was pure happiness in her facial features, her fingers tucking raven strands behind her ears to better look at the construct of magic before her. With expertise and patient, Vittoria unfurled two more strains of magic at the same time, carefully untying them from their conflicting placements, and at last, leaving the last strain.

"The heart of the magic." Her voice was on the precipice of passion, and Vittoria stood up straight to give herself time to take a much needed breath. "The last piece of the puzzle."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair stood by and watched with a proud expression like, well, a teacher. Vittoria had already had strong control of her magic before his classes, but he liked to think that his tutelage had only sharpened the sword further.

While no one else may be able to understand was had happened like the two of them, they could all feel the change in the room as the main ward unraveled. That simply left Alistair to cast an average dispelling spell for their path to be opened.

Like a pack of hyenas looking to pounce on a wounded predator, the so-called experts moved to hurry forward only for Alistair's voice to boom outward.

"There is no guarantee that there are no more magical defenses. Please form an orderly line and follow behind us." If he had to play the role of Dreadlord rather than a magical specialist to ensure these fools did not get themselves killed then that is exactly what he would do.

Satisfied that they would follow them, he turned back to Vittoria, "Excellent work Vittoria. Let us learn of the reward for our labors."

He stepped forward to lead the group down the tunnel to the fae artifact, expecting Vittoria to follow at his side.

Vittoria Larrainth

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Praise was always good in her eyes, especially from her educators.

It allowed her to realise she was on the right path, that her understanding of magic was with no fault.

Proudly, she walked alongside Proctor Krixus. Her uncle stepped in behind them both, grunting at the vultures that followed behind. Most were not magically inclined, had resorted to spelled objects and artifacts to study the fae magic, but in their quest for knowledge did they forget the might of the Dreadlords.

Vittoria would be more than happy to demonstrate her power, the nasty effects it could have on a person... but to be trusted without the shackles at her wrists, Larrainth needed to play her part.

"I expected paintings on the walls. Fae are savages, are they not?" She mused allowed. Connall chuckled behind her, and Vittoria threw him a look of equal amusement. "Perhaps they were not capable of such arts."

"The fae boy claimed this relic is not one well protected. Their kind do not care for it as it belongs to an isolated Court." Both Vittoria and Connall scoffed, as if the fae being so organised and civil enough to hold courts was ludicrous.

"Well, then. That makes it our treasure." Vittoria delighted.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair smirked at Vittoria's quips about the original owners of the artifact. It was true, that many in Vel Anir saw the fae as barbaric, often because of their ignorance of the mysterious creatures. Alistair would even admit to being one of them, as he had never seen any fae art pieces in his life.

However, maybe the fae simply found their art in other areas of their life. Even now, in this abandoned place long forgotten by time, the magic energy was so thick that Alistair could see better than he ever had with his human vision.

So maybe the fae would not be creating the next hyper-realistic Siege of Vel Anir (a personal favorite piece of Alistair's), but he would classify the spell they broke through as nothing short of artistic. These were a people beloved by magic...How unfair.

"Yes, Vel Anir's treasure."

He turned his harsh eyes back to stare down those behind him, reminding them all of their first duty to the Republic.

"We will proceed with a quick study of the artifact, and then once we are able to conclude that it is safe for transport, it will be moved back to the city of Vel Cirak for further study."

Vittoria Larrainth