Mage/3
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[edit] The Awakening
[edit] They meet with a mysterious man
"A wolf," replied a rather deep, manly voice from within the nearby trees.
Starlight chuckled, even though the forest was just as scary, just as dangerous. It was a point that she could not allow to pass. "You're not a wolf, you're a man!"
"No I'm not," the voice replied. "Though yeah, I do sound like one, don't I?"
Meanwhile, Andrew was looking at Starlight, both startled and wondering if she had gone crazy. Starlight caught the look and turned around, asking, "well, what's the problem?"
"Who was not a wolf?"
"The guy in the woods, duh!" Starlight answered in her innocent, young voice.
"What guy in the... What are you talking about?" Andrew was getting more perplexed by the moment.
"Oh come on, out with it!" Starlight demanded of Andrew. Andrew remained frozen where he was, so then Starlight turned back to the forest. "Come out, show yourself," she called out cheerfully. "No use hiding. Or, I'm going to use my magic on you!" she added cheerfully.
"Really? Well, it just happens that I'm looking for people who know a bit of magic. And uh, did I just hear you, about a few minutes ago, that you wish that you had some of that magic with you? If I'm not mistaken, that must mean you don't have any on you. Am I correct?"
"No, you're wrong," declared Starlight. Beside her, Andrew's hold on the torch was shaking. He had no idea what was going on. He still hadn't heard a word of the conversation, so the well-spaced, well-acted little dialogue that Starlight was holding seemed a very intriguing yet totally implausible bit of stageplay to him.
[edit] A mysterious conversation
"Are we done yet, Star?"
"Hold on, Andrew. I need to lure him out into the open first."
"I guess I was correct then, you don't have magic with you, do you?"
"No, that's enough!"
"Out with it! Come out of it!"
"Don't you know? Don't you see?"
"You can't lie like that, you know, you're pretty bad at it..."
"--Says who? You think I'm--"
"No kidding, get out of that--that queer--"
"Lying?"
"Yes, I knew it all along!"
"No you couldn't, because I wasn't!"
"Pour some cold water over your head and wake up!"
"No this is serious, man! I--"
"--need to wake up!"
"--am looking for someone who knows some magic and--"
"And I want magic! I want magic! I want--"
"Peace, you're driving yourself mad!--"
"You can cast magic--"
"No, no, it's the truth, it's the truth!"
"But that's so only in the widest definition!"
"How can it be, there's obviously two people talking or not..."
"Who are you?"
"Who am I? I am who I am!"
"Are we going to have to go through that entire argument again?"
"You're not yourself! I see it!"
"No I don't want to go through that argument either..."
"What argument? Which one are you tal--"
"--What are you talking about?"
Silence.
[edit] Starlight confesses her wish for magic
Starlight looked around her. There was still Andrew, face perspiring with sweat and silhouetted by the licking flames; but the voice in the woods was now gone, and she still hadn't seen him. Was this all a dream? Starlight asked herself. If it was, then I must be going crazy. Or did the man just leave? The forest is dark...
Andrew spoke again, after his breathing had calmed down. "You really want to have magic, don't you?"
Starlight nodded.
Then she turned around, and looked straight at Andrew, and realized what the acceptance of that fact meant.
Then Starlight spoke with a voice that seemed not to be her own, for it seemed like what an adult would say. "I want magic. You want magic too. In fact, we all want magic. All that is preventing us from having it, is what we don't know. So let us come together, let us share the same soul, let us breathe the same world, let us view the same angle, let us explore the same soul, let us challenge the world, let us bring back the grail, let us..."
When she awoke, she fell asleep. That was the way it would be.
[edit] Starlight becomes thoroughly confused
And now she awoke, so necessarily...
But it wasn't the same. Out of a surreal world and into a different, but just as surreal, world.
The spinning was nauseating. Where am I?
Then the lights came into focus, and they were left in a desolate landscape.
What is this? There were trees everywhere--but the tree I am looking for is not here.
What?
Am I still dreaming?
Shake out of it! A pail-ful of coldness came crashing down. Wet. So that was what it was. The reality. Now I am slipping once again into the netherworld.
[edit] Starlight returns to consciousness
But the netherworld was dark. As Starlight pondered, waited, she came to realize a startling presence near her. Back! "Andrew!"
"Star? What is it? Are you all right?"
"What happened?"
"Nothing." The boy said it so innocently, that it was hard to believe.
"What did I say to myself?"
"You said that you had to bring back the grail, or something."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Are you asking me? I thought that was one of the few words that you had learned before I did."
Starlight was immensely distraught. "Are you crazy?" She thought she heard, "as much as ever."
"How many people are here?"
"Two. Not including you."
"Did anyone cast some magic on me?"
[edit] Starlight muses on possession
"If I did, would you be asking that question?" replied a dark, somber voice. But it was Andrew's mouth that was moving.
Convinced that she was either being possessed or seeing things, Starlight refused to accept what the other person had just said. But then she thought: just the fact that I'm denying this means that I'm not possessed. So I can take what he just said for real. Though that still didn't make much sense...
Then: but now I'm accepting what I'm experiencing. So in the end that comes back down to being possessed, and my mind being as messed up as it is...
How can I be thinking of all this, if I'm possessed?
But isn't that just how possession works? I end up convincing myself that I'm not possessed? So am I, or am I not?
Starlight refused to ponder the situation. In a hurried attempt to knock whatever she thought was possessing her out of her mind, she ran into the nearest tree, and knocked herself out.
[edit] The Realization
[edit] Starlight in the dreamy realm
Starlight turned toward the light. It burned itself away, but brightly, enjoying its own dismal yet shining bright to the fullest. There seemed to be nothing else there; only darkness, a blackness so profound that Starlight for a moment doubted her own existence. The place didn't seem familiar at all. Where was she? For the moment, she wasn't able to ponder this question. Just this was enough to overwhelm her senses.
When she next fell out of that realm, she was speaking to herself, and again possibly in that foreign, manly voice: "...Let us bring back the grail, let us scope out to the far edges of the earth for all..." she lost the word for a moment, and was deep in thought. I got it! she thought. But it wasn't so, and it was futile. At last she gave up, and bordered on leaving the realm again. But this time she didn't.
As the blurriness cleared, Starlight was left laying in the midst of a cave. "Where are we?" she thought she had asked, her voice having returned to normal. But the reply made no sense:
"Ew era erehw..."
[edit] Starlight finds herself in a cave
"Are you okay?" Starlight pulled herself together, and stood up in the dimness.
"Wow, that's some garbled language," replied Andrew.
Starlight laughed slightly. "I knew I was correct," she said. "You're just fooling me." To which Andrew looked very perplexed. Was he really?
"I don't know what you're talking about, actually," he answered in kind. "Now, you want to tell me about the 'being who wasn't a wolf', to me now?"
Starlight thought back, but couldn't recall anything. "Erm, not really," she replied. Then she added: "But I really don't want to talk about it, and I don't want to think about it either, so can we just talk about something else? Like... where we are?"
Andrew consented, or gave in, and said, "We're still somewhere in the forest between Bahasa and Lads, though of course where we actually are in is a cave. This is the meeting place that we chose to meet up again once we've left Bahasa, so that's why I brought you here. You've been out cold for two days now. The others should be coming."
Starlight lay back down on the cave's floor, with all its limestone and stalagmites, and thought about what she should say, and what they'll say, when An and Grace showed up.
[edit] The two are approached by two strangers
But the people who showed up next were not An and Grace. Two men, both adults, came into the cave entrance and blotted out the only light left inside so that she couldn't see the color of their robes. Starlight was just about to rush up to the children when she realized her mistake. The adults were not disturbed, however.
"Where's the mage recruiter?" the first one asked in a forceful tone that bespoke of power.
Starlight had nearly forgotten about it. "I don't know, I thought he was in my dream or something..."
The man became angry. "Well what did he tell you?"
"I... uh, sort of don't remember," Starlight replied.
"Look at me, girl. You really think that I'm an idiot?" There was wrath in his speech now. No telling what he would do if she didn't give him the information he asked for...
"She really doesn't," Andrew added in, now that he had realized what was going on. "So--" He became quiet. The man was leaning closer, and the darkness was total. Not a single streak of light penetrated into the cave.
"You tell me then," was all that he said, and he said it slowly and clearly and with a deep voice.
"Well...something happened two days ago, and frankly, we don't understand what happened, we're still trying to figure it out..."
"I'm not laughing..." the loud voice echoed around the chambers.
Andrew was perspiring now. He had to think of something to say, and quickly. "If you really want an answer, even if it's not accurate, I'm saying that the mage recruiter you're looking for is in my head."
Pause.
[edit] The language of the baffled
Andrew continued. "So it's very likely that the mage recruiter is controlling my mind right now. But it's also possible that I'm speaking the truth. Why not do something to fix it? You're so impressive-looking, can't you find out what the problem is without having to resort to threats?" Andrew was now worked up, and his hands were clenched in the darkness. He had no fear for the adults now. "If you're so dangerous, then why not catch the mage recruiter on your own? And if he's bad, why are you trying to scare us, because it's so not working!"
"You children think you're so smart, aren't you," the man continued, not the least distraught. "You think that I should be able to figure it out on my own, without your aid, because I'm an adult. But through all your hard thinking haven't you come across the idea--even once--that my magic may be at work already, and that what you are saying is part of my scheme of things? It's about time that the irritating old fool go back into the Outside from whence he came."
And no, Starlight and Andrew hadn't thought about this. "How many layers of complexity does this get?" Starlight asked to herself.
Then the two old people departed. The sudden influx of light into the cave caught the youngsters by surprise. "What the...?" was at the tips of their tongues.
Then Andrew chased after them, out of the cave and into the forest, fists ready to strike, and a question formed on his lips. There were indeed the two people outside.
[edit] Reunion with An and Grace
But they weren't men any more. It was simply An and Grace. An knew some magic... and Andrew and Starlight could both feel a bit of magical residue in the air...
An and Grace both burst out laughing. "Oh, that was hilarious!" declared Grace.
"Yeah, we had them fooled," said An, now in his teenager voice. "So, Andrew and Starlight, you two ready to meet the real mage recruiter?"
"Who's that?" asked Starlight, still half dazed by the light.
"Me, naturally," replied An.
Andrew cut in, driven by his anger: "WAIT! How do we know that the two men who just left, dropped you two here to foil us, and that you two are their minions?" He said this swiftly, so fast that Starlight didn't catch it.
An seemed all too happy. "Well," he began, as he rubbed his chin as if he had a beard (which he didn't, of course), "It certainly could have. In fact, now that I'm thinking of it, that seems much more likely, doesn't it, Grace?" She nodded, quite happy with An's way of talk.
But Andrew wasn't. "Just prove it to me in a way that I'll believe!" he shouted at them, fist raised.
An half stepped back and raised a hand in mock defense. "Well, that'll just have to wait, now, won't it?"
Andrew became angrier. Hadn't he said the same thing to Starlight shortly after meeting her? "You two..." he managed to growl.
But already, the four were at peace with each other, in their souls if not in words.
[edit] Kenaz
[edit] The Gift of Magic
[edit] An confesses his little joke
"So, you two've been enjoying yourselves, I see," began Starlight, still rather dreamy with getting up so early in the morning. "Want to tell me what it is you've been having fun doing?"
"Nah, I think that can wait," replied Grace. "It's not all that important. But An here is promising to teach you some magic."
An turned toward her immediately, with a awkward glance. "Says who?"
Grace faced him innocently. "Won't you?"
An couldn't refuse. "Of course I will. How can I refuse, with you pushing me on to it?"
Andrew joined in again. "I thought you said that you're the mage recruiter," he wondered.
"Yeah, that's a position I gave myself," replied An.
"You mean you don't have a master? You learned your magic on your own?"
"Quite right," An answered. "It's not that hard, though of course it'll be so much easier if someone were to teach you."
[edit] The four trek out into the woods
Starlight leaned over toward him. "So," she asked with an alluring expression, "Aren't you going to make life easier for us?"
"Oh all right, all right," An replied, attempting to hide his happiness at the prospect of becoming their teacher with displeasure at being made to do what he 'didn't' want to do. "Come on then, let's go off into the woods."
From the mouth of the cave, the four youngsters walked through the dense woods. The sun was bright overhead, still colored with the tint of the morning, its rays shining bolts of light piercing the woods and lighting the forest floor below. The light scattered across the ground in spots where the leaves did not block them; overhead, the leaves were light green, with the sun's light streaming through them, on the brink of proving them transparent. All types of flora surrounded them; everything seemed alive; the very forest and its minions felt the joy of life. It was another day, and now that they had found each other, it was a day to enjoy, just as Starlight's birthday party was, but now so far away from their parents, and without the lurking gloom of having to return home. Now, they were in control.
They were listening intently for what An would say next. For his part, he was a bit disconcerted, having never taught anyone before and not wanting to appear as an irritating adult teacher (even though he was only thirteen and barely older than the others). "Okay, so--Introduction to magic. I guess I must have given you all a rough intro, and that includes Grace--" An turned around to look at her, and his face had a slight but noticeable pink tint. "Yes, even you. But mostly to Andrew and Starlight," he continued, turning toward the other two: "So I should apologize, but I don't feel like doing so, so you'll just have to live with that, okay?"
[edit] An teaches the others a spell
The others were still waiting for the real talk, so he continued. "You all have heard plenty of rumors about what magic is, haven't you? So tell me something that you've heard about the spellcasters."
Starlight answered first. "Don't they say something, and then that's how they cast the spell?"
An nodded. "Indeed, that's what they all say. In fact, that's what even the spellcasters say, the way they spread rumors and stuff. So here, learn this spell. Diffindo branch!"
A loud boom, mixed with a crackling sound. A burst of light not too far away from them, at the limb of a tree branch, and as Starlight jumped out of the way, the broken branch came hurtling past her with dizzying speed, crashing only after it had been blasted some twenty yards and knocked down plenty of smaller twigs.
Starlight was laying on the forest floor, stiff with amazement. As she was regaining her breath, Andrew added in, "Sounds familiar. You got that from somewhere, didn't you?"
"Yes I did. Making that spell wasn't hard at all. So, Starlight, do you want to give it a try?"
"Wait, you mean I can just say what you said, and the spell will work for me too?"
"Yes, it should," An replied. "So give it a try."
[edit] An casts magic without a sound
Starlight was only now regaining her composure. She stood up, brushed off some fallen leaves from her dress, and recalled what An had just said, the spell-word, diffindo. She took a deep breath, and prepared herself for her first attempt at magic.
"Dif--" she began, but was cut off as a white cloth appeared from right beside her and gagged her, pulling her backward. She fell onto the ground from the pressure of the cloth, and tried desperately to pull it off with her hands, but it wouldn't let go. All that the others could hear from her were muffled sounds.
The others looked at An with awe. "Wow," said Andrew. "That's some cool stuff right there. Allow me." Andrew turned to Starlight, still fighting the animated gag, and spoke out quite clearly: "Diffindo cloth!"
There was a bright flash where the cloth was, a booming sound; Starlight felt like being pressed further into the ground; the white cloth flew off away from her, fast as a blur. Once again, the blast stunned them, except for An. He turned to Andrew and nodded happily. "Learning something already, I see." Andrew gleamed.
[edit] An as the groups' teacher
Starlight pulled herself back up, panting from being so stifled and tired from fighting so ineffectually against the gag. "How'd you do it? You didn't even say any spell!"
"Of course not," An replied. "Who's going to have time to say words when fighting another spellcaster? That's why they have you believe that they need to say chants to cast spells. That's why they spread those rumors. To make you--you who are budding magi--think that in fighting them, all you'd need are fast reflexes and a handful of verbal spells." He shook his finger so that they could all see he meant it. "That's not gonna fly. Magic isn't straightforward at all." He took a breath. "Oh, and I just remembered," he seemed to apologize, "I was supposed to be giving you an introduction to magic, and one that wasn't rough, at that. Well, I guess I had too much fun with this, and spoiled it all for you, didn't I? I guess I ought to take a break from teaching you all, let you experiment, you know... And as far as a smooth welcome, I guess you'll just have to settle with what I've given you already." An walked into the forest again, and the others, perhaps a bit more unsettled, followed.
An was their definite leader now.
