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diatuooc2019-01-16 09:53 am
magicademymods) wrote in diatuooc2019-01-16 09:53 am
Entry tags:
Test Drive #1
The Airship There
By carriage or coach, spellwagon or ship, perhaps even on the wings of magic, the Sundered heed the call to gather at the Tenzin High Dock of Vulbaria. On this, the appointed day, a great passenger airship sits in the dock, the seals of the six Houses fluttering from flagpoles along her length and her wooden planks atremble as if it is eager to be off. At last, the gangplank descends, and the Hand of Diatu opens her doors to the Sundered so they can take their first step on the path towards protection and salvation.
Inside, you may choose from long comfortable couches, broad circular tables surrounded by straight-backed, cushioned chairs, or viewing seats at the glass front of the ship. Sundered who need special accommodations are quickly provided for, ensuring everyone travels in comfort. Trays drift through the air periodically, offering snacks and drinks to the passengers.
This may be the first chance you've had to truly relax since being swept to this strange world. Certainly it is the first chance you've had to meet your fellow Sundered. As the airship lifts gracefully off from the High Dock, your journey to Diatu begins. Excited? Nervous? Simply angry? Or perhaps searching among the crowd here for a familiar face or some sign of hope?
Rain, Rain...
Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. It's raining.
Seriously raining. One of those downpours that feels like a curtain has dropped on you, that soaks to the bone within a second of stepping into it. Obviously, this won't do, and a civic-minded cluster of Purifeul students has taken it upon themselves to solve this problem. No sooner do you step through the gates then you practically run into a giant and complex runic diagram being drawn out with long staffs by several students, all of them speaking seeming nonsense about derivatives, limits, and equations. Magic! In action right before your eyes!
And yet, just as their mathemagics wind towards the center of the diagram and they all make their final stroke -- one student slashes his line off on a weird tangent, speaking an equation that sounds nothing at all like what his fellows utter. The spell completes... weirdly, as the students look in horror at each other. The temperature abruptly drops seventy degrees, and a cold wind begins to blow.
Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. Please get out of the blizzard before you freeze.
Thaumaturgy 101
After some fifteen minutes of grumbling from Professor Loshakle, followed by half an hour of theory and basics, the grouchy old man finally gets to drawing a magical symbol on the board. "This is straight out of Fundamental Principles of Wizarding," he says, writing Sense Magic next to the symbol. "As is everything you'll learn here. I'll emphasize yet again, you MUST know the name of the spell and the proper gestures. You can't simply wave your wand in any old pattern and say any old words. That isn't how it works," he says, glaring around the class as if daring someone to question him.
But he gives no one the opportunity, instead producing a wand and making the gesture to trace the symbol he'd drawn in midair. "Sense Magic," he intones, and the air and his wand both shimmer.
"Now. You all try." Just like that. What the Professor doesn't mention is that this spell can produce some very interesting results if the symbol is off, or the timing...
Bala-inlota Practice
Bala-inlota is the main interaction the Magicademies have with each other -- the sport of wizards! Two teams take the field, with the goal of heaving a ball through their opponent's hoop. The rules primarily revolve around not inflicting lethal injury, because bala-inlota is a free-for-all at best, where each team relies on both physical and magical might to win the day.
You kind of wish someone had told you this BEFORE you got hauled onto the field so the coach could see if you've got what it takes.
Now half a dozen players are charging down the field at your ragtag group of semi-willing recruits, while another half-dozen are preparing spells that you've been absolutely assured aren't as nasty as the ones deployed in actual play. On your side: the ball, your wits, your physical ability, and maybe three classes's worth of magical education.
On the upside, magic is pretty good at healing.
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Dressed in the azure and cobalt blue robes of his house, he carried books in his arms as though he'd been born to life as a scholar. He chatted amicably with other students when morning classes let out, then bid his classmates a friendly goodbye and turned to head back toward Eiather tower.
But there was a reason he had yet to abandon his sword and carried it with him still. Eleven's peripheral drew his attention toward a familiar frame, body tensing as only a man knowing he was being hunted could. Surely, it wouldn't be..
Heart racing in his chest, Eleven's breath halted as his eyes fell on Hendrik for the first time in weeks. Disbelief speared through his limbs and his books tumbled out of his arms.
Why? For just a little while, his life had been peaceful, but it seemed that was now over.
His entire body yearned to flee, but he knew from experience that would only invite the knight to give chase, and he'd rather the other students weren't involved.
Eleven drew his sword and willed his hands to steady.
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No, that couldn't be right, they'd been side by side going up those snow drifted stairs to see His Holiness. And even as he watched the books tumble from the Luminary's arms, Hendrik's confusion only grew as he saw the boy draw a sword at him.
Not sure what to do in this situation, Hendrik had no wish to draw the other man into combat. Maybe during training, but this wasn't the temple on the mountain, and this was no time for training, there were far too many questions that needed answers. And one of them had to do with a sword being pointed at him right now.
Raising his hands in deepening confusion and surrender, Hendrik didn't know what to say. Had some spell been cast to turn the other against him? What happened to Angri-La? What about the pledge? Did his oath mean nothing?
All of these thoughts raced through his mind as he shook his head, never taking his eyes off of the other. Something was very very wrong.
"Honoured Luminary, I have no wish to hurt you."
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Eleven's brows drew together and he cast distrustful eyes over the man that had not only hunted him to every corner of Erdrea, but now to another world entirely.
His grip on his sword tightened, though he made no move to swing. When his voice made it past the pounding pulse reverberating through what seemed like his entire body, it was in a soft yet firm challenge that did not tremble.
"I thought it was 'Darkspawn'."
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Hendrik's mind went into overdrive, but he didn't dare make a move. His warrior's instinct of something being wrong had been correct. Something was very wrong or had gone horribly wrong in the brief..moment he'd last seen the Luminary. Just how long had it last been since the other had seen him? And how could this even be possible?
"I have mistakenly called you that in the past, but I had asked for your forgiveness for treating you poorly at Heliodor castle. Do you not remember?" Another thought passed and he spoke again. "I swore to protect you and kneeled before you in the Last Bastion pledging myself to your service. Does none of that sound familiar?"
And Hendrik wondered if it had it all come to or had all been for naught.
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Eleven shook his head, stance widening. "You hunted me even to Yggdrasil. How can I believe a word you say?"
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"Jasper regrettably hit you from behind, and I had ordered him in the name of His Majesty to face his punishment. But then the Lord of the Shadows appeared and destroyed the Tree."
He sighed and finally took his eyes off of the Luminary.
"I do not know of your fate of your companions on that day, but you showed up at the Last Bastion as did more survivors."
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"I've been here for a month. How could I have done those things?" His jaw set and his arm swung out, sword slicing through the air beside him. "What do you want from me?"
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"I do not know. And I do not know how it is even possible that we are no longer on the temple on top of the mountain. Nor will I pretend to understand how it can be that you say you have been here a month when it seems to have been naught more than a mere moment since I saw you last."
Hendrik saw the sword but would not raise his own sword except to defend himself if needs be. They were on the same side now, wrongs had been righted between them.
He finally raised his gaze after a thought occurred to him at the Luminary's question.
"If I must, I will ask your forgiveness again. And I shall pledge myself yet again to your service so that you can see for yourself that I am a man of my word."
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Ever more lost, his sword arm fell to his side and he stared at Hendrik's feet.
"Why would you?" he asked finally. "Why would you pledge yourself to me, now?"
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And he searched for just the right words to say, but he wasn't half as quick as Jasper. That was why he'd said with Jasper's wit and his own might, together they would serve Heliodor. That dream was gone now, but Hendrik would remain true to his word, because that's who he was.
"Because I serve you, even if there is no darkness in this place."
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He swallowed hard, eyes closing.
"What changed, Hendrik? You were so certain I was the Darkspawn, before. Sometimes, I almost believe it myself."
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So he bowed to the other and repeated the same words he had spoken that night.
"I have treated you poorly. Forgive me."
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Eleven breathed deeply, fingertips pressing into the hollow of his chest. His granddad's advice had never seemed so difficult to follow as it was now.
"Mordegon stole that power from me. Near as I can tell, I've been sent here to regain it. ..What will you do?"
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But he folded his arms and looked at the other man. "If you've been sent here to regain your lost powers, that might explain why you disappeared from my side. Yet how you did so remains a mystery."
Another thought. "We were told by King Carnelian that upon going to the mountain it was another sacred place. Perhaps that was incorrect and fate chose otherwise for you."
He stared at the Luminary. "But no matter what else has been decided, the oath I swore to you still stands."
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..Loyal to a fault, Jade had said.
Yggdrasil, lend me strength.
Eleven released a steady breath, then raised his eyes and met Hendrik's unflinching. He sheathed his sword and straightened, willing himself for just this moment to have the proper bearing of a legendary hero.
"I want to hear it," he said, the words a distant echo to his own ears- like someone else was saying them. His every nerve trembled through the fingers curling to fists at his sides. "Swear yourself to me."
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And at the request, at first Hendrik was momentarily stunned. Both at the words and that he was actually making ground here, figuring that since somehow time had been altered, he might be fighting this particular battle of trust for a lot longer. But, it was a battle he fully intended to win.
With a nod, the knight walked over and stood before the other. "Honored Luminary." Hendrik then kneeled and placed a hand over his heart, while lowering his head just as he had done at the Last Bastion. He took a breath and recited the same oath.
"I serve you now. Though it cost me my life, I will stand beside you until the darkness is no more." And then he waited, but remained humbled before the Luminary.
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Eleven flexed sweaty fingers and surveyed the mark on his hand, then offered it out to the man kneeling before him.
"I accept your oaths."
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The knight then adjusted his gloves, made a fist and pushed his fist into his other open hand. He did this in the opposite fashion and then placed a clenched fist over his heart with a grin on his face.
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He met Hendrik's eyes and nodded, then bent to recollect his books.
"So you're a student here, now. We'd best get you settled in."
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"What is this place? The last I knew we were in Angri-La, on Mount Pang Lai. You would have spent six years of your childhood there to train with their Grand Master according to His Holiness, the High Lama. And we were enroute to find out more when you slipped away from my side."
He took a breath and looked up at the castle beyond where they currently stood, then back at the Luminary. "And now I find that I am here with you."
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"Really?" He's never heard of the place. It was disconcerting how other people always seemed to know more about him than he did himself.
"..You mean no one told you?" At least he had answers to Hendrik's questions. "We're in Anastara, and this is its magical academy. I don't know if you noticed any magic you may have had was sealed, but now there's.. something else- latent magic that wasn't there before. It's supposed to be dangerous left untreated, but they're willing to teach us.."
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"Anastara." This was him trying out the unfamiliar name but then he gently shook his head. "I feel no differently. But still, I wonder what purpose this new route serves. Mayhaps if we learn something new, we can use it on the journey."
He looked around, noticing several people coming and going, nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far, but he would remain on guard.
Looking back at the Luminary he nodded again. "I wonder if any more of your other companions will show up here to learn as well."