Private Tales Light After Dark

[Audreyn]

Audreyn gave him a sly sideways glance, her pace almost too fast and intentional as she tried to remain nonchalant in the moment.

"Oh. Ok." Her mind spun, but like other things that had come to pass as of late-- she locked it away and did not allow herself to think on it.

"You know, I'm not wearing any undergarments," she stated, bluntly changing focus with a tactic that she was sure would destabilize him. "I can't try anything on. Maybe you go buy the stuff and I- I'll buy some."

 

[Gerrard]

"I...er...well...yes..."

Objective achieved. Gerrard had already managed to fluster himself with such a simple question. Now his gaze was firmly fixed ahead of them.

"Why don't you look down the markets on the left and I will...go and buy some food to be sent to the house. Then we can meet again here."

"Andmoney yes." Gerrard added quickly, fishing some coins from his pouch for her.

 

[Audreyn]

With deft, awkward movements she took the money and left them to go their separate ways. She hadn't meant separate entirely from him but as she found herself alone amongst the stalls and the bustling colors ... it helped her recollect her thoughts. And so she returned with renewed vigor (and dress) to their agreed upon spot. The fabric was light and teal blue, but she was a bit too done with the topic of dresses to show this off to him.

"Okkkkay," she told him, trying to gather what was in his hands into her arms as she walked with intention out of the market. He would be forced to keep up, the girl showing no signs of slowing.

"Where's this park you mentioned? I wanna do magic things."

 

[Gerrard]

"Slow down!" he called after her. Gerrard had thought in the mid afternoon heat in that heavy dress that she might have slowed down.

Lengthening his stride Gerrard managed to catch up to the enthusiastic young mage. After all she had no idea where this park was.

It turned out to be as well walled off as the crossroad town that had seemed so imposing to Audreyn. There were guards moving through the fields. They made sure the vagrants of the city couldn't move into the grounds.

Finding some shade under a tree - one he hoped she woundnt set on fire - Gerrard found a root to sit on.

"Where did we actually get to again?" he asked. It wasn't a technique to reinforce her understanding, he genuinely couldn't remember.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn flopped onto her back, gasping in exertion and fanning at herself. Who knew so much water could leak from your body? Not her.

She wordlessly held up her hand in response, her brows furrowing as she pulled forth a ball of light. It barely held for a moment before exploding, sparks landing around them haphazardly. She yelped and sat up, patting herself down.

"Right there," she informed him dryly.

 

[Gerrard]

"Well that is the flare to start it and now I'm wondering just how dry this grass is..."

He made a show of looking at the ground around them.

"Its just like a candle lamp. You need to do the glass around it now. We'll worry about the sound later. It's a little different from when you try and contain the fire but the concentration is the same."

Gerrard held up his right palm. "Picture its size and shape, feel the magic start to shift to your thoughts. Say-leth-ee-ah. Sailethia," Gerrard said. A semi-transparent sphere appeared over his hand.

 

[Audreyn]

She crinkled her nose back at his antics ... also checking to see how dry the grass was.

"Sailethia," she repeated, settling in a bit more comfortably. "Sailethia, right. Sailethia." She held out her palm and with intention, muttered the incantation again. The sphere jumped into her hand, holding steady. She smiled in delight, relief in her chest. "Wow, it really is easier when I use words. Why is that?"

As she spoke, the sphere flickered off, her concentration lost. She didn't care though, excited by the prospect of not lighting something on fire.

"Sailethia!" She brought it back into her palm with a flourish.

 

[Gerrard]

"Keep your focus on it, hold it there. Close your eyes if you have to. Words aren't really...power. You remember I conjured it without speaking the first time? It's a focus for your own power. Every mage goes through stages with simple spells. They use the word out loud, they call out the word inside their own head, then they can bring it about without even thinking of the word.

"Other more complicated spells can take a long time to prepare and can never just be brought about on a whim. When you're ready try and bring the light back into existence, but inside the sphere."

Gerrard watched carefully. Explaining at length was as much to stop her overthinking things as it was to answer her question.

 

[Audreyn]

She did so again, his tactic to keep her on task effective. With the light conjured easily in her head, she frowned hard to keep it contained as instructed. It took a few moments, but she got the hang of it with that uneasy nack of hers.

"Now what?" She grunted, not releasing it. Sweat was beading down her forehead, from exertion or heat, she didn't know anymore. The light shone bright but contained in her palms.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard looked at the ground around them. This time he wasn't looking at how dry the grass was.

"Now...you practise summoning and holding that to the count of thirty for an hour. Take long breaks if you need to. Want to make sure you can do this as if it's second nature before we can add the next bit and certainly before it can be done to entertain handsome young nobles.

"Meanwhile I'm going to have a nap." What he had been looking for was a comfortable looking patch of grass in the shade.

 

[Audreyn]

She made indignant noises, a vein in her temple practically bulging as she managed to keep the sphere going.

"Rude," she quipped under her breath. But she had to admit, it was a challenge, albeit a boring one. There was nothing to say she couldn't go about making it more exciting though...

He should have known better than to leave her to her own devices with magic. The first half an hour passed without fan fair. Audreyn did nothing but grunt and pant and produce a magic sphere of light over her hand again and again. She was positively drenched with sweat and envying his relaxed, laid out position. His mistake would be when she noticed his eyes were long closed and his attention sat elsewhere.

Suddenly, mischievous giggling would come from besides him. If that wasn't enough she'd even nudge him with her foot. "Look Gerrard, the sun."

The sphere was no longer over her palm, and it was no longer small. It hovered over Gerrard, the size of a small child as it glowed bright and yellow over him. She grinned devilishly, her pleasure only marred by her concentration.

 

[Gerrard]

The mage had actually enjoyed the warmth and drifted off into sleep. Gerrard became aware of the light whilst his eyes were still closed. He woke to a world of bright blood red and squeezed his eyes shut until it turned to black.

His covered his eyes with one hand before opening them. It wasn't sunlight. It wasn't right. His brain woke up as he risked peering through a crack on his hands. With a groan he turned away from the flare.

"Ah!" he complained, grimacing. His fingers wiggled and the air above them shimmered. There was a soft 'pop' as the flare collapsed in on itself. "Assume you have the hang of it?"

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn fell backwards onto her hands, panting. "Yeah," she grinned, none the least apologetic for waking him. Bits of her clothing stuck her her body, utterly drenched in sweat. She fanned the lose fabric, taking a moment to collect herself.

"Sleep well?" She asked, still breathing heavily. "You're gonna get a burn. You know they say that's 'highly unattractive to respectable sorts'." She mocked the shop keepers voice.

 

[Gerrard]

"Wasn't looking to collect a wife at these dinner parties," he grumbled. "But yes I would rather not burn myself," he conceded. Even in the shade it was still possible to get burned he had found. Sitting up, he did note several ladies being followed around by servants with oversized parasols. Each was designed in house colours, he noted with amusement. The last thing he wanted was to be involved in Vel'Anir's political games. People had to believe he might be to keep offering him a residence and inviting him to parties (the latter he would happily lose).

"Perhaps we should head back and enjoy some shade for a time. See if we have any more invitations waiting for events. We can always practise some more after dinner. And then you need a bath," he added.

 

[Audreyn]

She sniffed herself and made a face. "More invitations. Who else would invite us." It was a rhetorical question, she understood enough why they would be invited places. Just not what else they could possibly be invited to. A barn raising, perhaps?

She snorted, pushing herself up with her palms. She offered him a hand up, her smile still lingering. "You can't forget-- you promised to teach me how to curtsy." And eat properly. And-... "Do we even have enough time for all of this?"

She dusted her dress off once he was standing, straightening her pin.

 

[Gerrard]

"You're a quick enough study with magic, depends if it holds your interest enough to stay in your head. Decorum is very tedious, but fortunately you get a few rules down and don't be loud and crass and it will be fine. We're not trying to pass you off as born and bred nobility here."

Gerrard would have been quite content to snooze away the afternoon, skip dinner and instead return to his work with a bottle of wine late into the cool night.

"We'll go through the most simple dance or two and you can always excuse yourself after those. Entertain some young boys with empty heads with a few magic tricks. One magic trick. But it is a good one."

It was immediately apparent when they left the park that the stone roads and buildings had been soaking up the afternoon sun. He quickened his pace towards the shade that his house would offer.

 

[Audreyn]

"Could be two magic tricks," she murmured under her breath. But no, she seemed to know better than to push that. Two spells in a few days was a bit much much for a girl that thought she was a demon a month back. Still, the idea was there, and as Gerrard knew all to well...

Where there's smoke, there's fire.


Audreyn spilled into the entry way of the home rather loudly-- bags dropping and groans bemoaning. "It is so hoooot," she complained all the way up the stairs, not stopping as she went.

He would be granted an hour's respite before company found him again-- this time towel bathed and dressed in much a much more forgiving silk. Audreyn flopped with little decency besides him and held him out an apple as a greeting. "How are there any cats in this city? Aren't they hot?"

 

[Gerrard]

He took the apple and nearly giving it a bite. It paused a few inches from his mouth as he spoke.

"You know that the very largest cats live in the heat of the savanna? Well actually I think the largest are North on the Steppes but the lions of the savanna are still big enough to bite your hand off."

At that he gave a sharp tilt of his head to one side and took a bite of the apple. The windows on the shady side of the house were all open and a pleasant breeze ran through the house. If not pleasant, it at least offered something of a reprieve.

Gerrard lifted the book he had been reading from his lap and closed it. He was a man more than accustomed to the silence, but he found he welcomed the interruption this time.

"Just some bread and fruit for tea?" he asked. "I'm assuming no more woollen dresses for a time."

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn blinked and wondered if he had previously practiced reciting that fact for a moment just like this or if he had just made it up.

She bit into the apple and kicked out her legs over the side of her chair, sprawling to the breeze. "No wool and no teaaaa. It's too hot, you'll cook your insides," she stated factually back. She bit into her apple again then stretched back out, feeling for the breeze between her fingers.

"I do have to say its rather nice wear water for clothing." The silk slid between her fingers next. "How can you bare scratchy wool after something like this?"

 

[Gerrard]

"Because it lasts forever and keeps you warm on the road," he said with a shrug. "We can find less scratchy cotton."

Gerrard was considering her advice. Whilst the tea itself wouldn't bother him he didn't want to light a fire until later in the evening.

"Few years back in Elbion something called satin silk was the fashion. No patterns, but very shiny and very smooth. Think it went out of fashion because it was expensive to import."

 

[Audreyn]

"You sure it wasn't cause nobles couldn't stay on their horses?" She murmured rhetorically. She slipped a little inside the fabric as she tried to sit up.

"Okay," she declared, more to herself than anything. She righted herself properly and branched out her legs to keep her nice and slip proof. "I'm not gonna nap. Let's do this. Curtsying. Show me how its done." She bit into the apple, attention abruptly engrossed on him.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard laughed softly at the joke. It had been surprisingly witty. His joints ached faintly as he pushed himself up out of the chair. The amount of noise one made in complaint standing up seemed to be one of the clearest indicators of age.

"Hmm," he went. He'd seen enough of them but had to think how to actually do it. Left leg...no right leg behind.

"Ah, like this. Meet their eye, skirt held at the sides lightly. Sweep your right leg behind and up on the toe. Bend just a little and let your eyes fall to the ground, then back up. Like this," he said, making a rather ungracefully curtsy with an imaginary skirt.

 

[Audreyn]

"..." She chewed slowly, expression contained behind the apple she held over half her face.

"Mmmhmmm... right... didn't catch that-- one more time." Her eyes were a little too wide.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard made a suspicious hum at the request.

"Very well."

He slowly repeated the formal greeting, his gaze daring her to laugh.

 

[Audreyn]

She burst out into a delicious cackle, hitting her knee in her delight. "M'laaaady." She did a half bow from the couch, her hand flaring out with the apple in a flourish.

"Come on now you have to do it in a dress I don't know what to do with the faaaabric!" She teased, grinning widely.