Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Continued from here.

Cylus 5, Arc 721

Devin didn’t wait for Professor Gir to finish speaking (or writing the questions down). He immediately made a beeline for Lysander who looked at him with raised eyebrows and an amused expression on his face and asked him, “Do you want to work with me? I know a lot about mutations and such, and I even have some experience with alchemy”, he added which was actually not a complete lie. He had some experience with alchemy. It just hadn’t been as an alchemist. When he had newly arrived on Scalvoris, he had occasionally volunteered as a test subject for Petyr Lovan because he had really needed the money!

“Sure”, the blonde harp player replied, deciding that working with someone who knew something about alchemy and mutations might be helpful. One of the questions was What do Transmutation witchmarks commonly look like? and another one was Both Alchemy and Transmutation involve giving an object new properties. In which way do they differ though? Lysander had some sort of idea when it came to the former, but he was totally clueless when it came to alchemy. Well. Almost. He knew that it involved potions and such. “We need a third person though”, he continued and took a look around the room.

Devin was about to tell him that the two of them would be a perfect team and that they didn’t need to add another person to their group – they would just get in his way; he planned on subtly questioning Lysander about his love life and flirting with him if it turned out that he was single again because they had so much in common – but Lysander already waved a hand and smiled at someone. When Devin turned his head in order to find out, his heart skipped a bit. It was none other than Lucia, the annoying know-it-all (who had nice, curly red hair which was pretty much the only thing about her that he liked).

He wondered if it was too late to pretend to be sick or fake an epileptic fit because he really didn’t want to work with her. If he faked an epileptic fit, he realized, he would never find out if Lysander still had that girlfriend though. For that reason, he smiled a radiant and utterly fake smile and nodded at Lucia when she walked over to them and sat down in the chair that was to his left (the student who had initially been sitting there had joined another group).

She did not come alone though. She brought a few of the books that Professor Gir had set down on his desk with her. He had told them that they could use them to find the answers. It was hard to properly conduct a research project if you didn’t have any materials!

“We don’t need those to answer the first question though”, she said rather than greeting the two young men and sat down, looking very prim and proper. “I already know the answer. Transmutation mages are also called …” she began, but broke off, looking a little irritated when Lysander raised a hand (that ended in fingers that sported black nails that Devin found very stylish, although they weren’t as sharp as his own nails).

“We don’t know the answer yet, and I’d rather figure it out on my own”, he told her which caused Devin to beam at him. The Mortalborn didn’t really care about figuring the answer out himself as long as he got it somehow , but he liked it a great deal when someone disagreed with Lucia.

So, without further ado, he grabbed one of the books that Lucia had brought and that was titled “An Introduction to Transmutation”, slid just a little bit closer to Lysander who had taken a seat to his left, beaming at him once more and started to leaf through it, maybe a bit too quickly. It didn’t sound as if that particular question would be hard to answer!

Since Transmuters also being known by another name seemed to be a pretty important thing, Devin decided to start looking at the relative beginning of the book. It made sense to him that the most important information was found at the beginning, and that the book went into details later on. He skimmed page after page, but he just didn’t find anything. Maybe, he had skimmed the pages too quickly and overlooked something though?

He considered that possibility when Lucia informed him in a somewhat exasperated tone of voice, “Check the last couple of pages, Devin. Most scientific works contain an index. That’s a list of words or phrases that the author considers to be relevant to the reader”, she explained when he simply gave her a somewhat blank look. “Maybe you’ll be lucky and find the answer there. It seems like something that might be worthy of being included in the index to me”, she added.

Devin was just about to tell her that she should just take a look herself when Lysander abruptly slid another little bit closer to him, turning his head slightly so that he could take a look at the book as well. He decided to change his mind because he really enjoyed being near him.

So, without further ado, he leafed to the very end of the book. He didn’t only find the index that Lucia had mentioned. He found something even better. There were two pages that were titled “terminology”. He took a look at them, rubbed his eyes because he couldn’t believe that the answer was actually right there, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started to write the answer down – because that was part of Professor Gir’s task as well.

A few moments later, he furrowed his brow and asked his two teammates, “The book says that Transmuters are also called Etherists. Why are only Transmuters called Etherists? The book claims that it has something to do with Transmuters having a more complete understanding of ether manipulation. Practicing a certain magic doesn't automatically make you better at understanding ether in my opinion though. Studying ether makes you better at understanding ether. And besides, all mages use ether. Everybody that uses ether should therefore be an Etherist!”

Lucia didn’t say anything, but just harumphed.

Lysander on the other hand replied in a slightly thoughtful tone of voice, “You have a point. All mages use ether, and it’s unlikely that simply being a Transmuter makes you an ether expert. Maybe we could look into that matter – or ask Professor Gir”, he suggested smiling before he took another look at the questions. Apparently, they would have to find out what witchmarks looked like next. That question should be easy to answer since Devin had told him that he knew a lot about mutations, he decided, probably more than he knew.

“You said that you have some experience with alchemy”, Lysander remarked to Devin and smiled at him in a friendly way. “So, I thought that we could take care of that question next since it sounds as if it might require a longer answer than the one about witchmarks. Umm … Lucia …” he continued, furrowed his brow in irritation and cast a glance at the redhead who had just grabbed the book that Devin and he had looked at before and was leafing through it as if there were no tomorrow. “Can you wait for us, please? This is supposed to be a team exercise”, he reminded her.

“You two are just slowing me down”, she muttered, quietly enough that Professor Gir was unlikely to hear her. While she didn’t care about Devin, no matter whether he was a local celebrity or not, and thought Lysander was not much better, she cared about the professor a great deal. She wanted to have the best grades ever, thank you very much!

“And besides, this book here doesn’t mention anything about how Alchemy and Transmutation differ, anyway. It just says what Transmutation does”, she continued and closed the book in question again. “I think we’ll need to get a book on alchemy from the professor’s desk and compare both”, he decided and walked over to Professor Gir without further ado – which Devin who would normally have been annoyed approved of wholeheartedly because it gave him a moment alone with his other classmate.

“So, how’s your family and - what’s her name?” he whispered to Lysander and moved on to a new page in his notebook before he readied his pen, in an attempt to make it look as if he were taking notes and talking about their research and not about something private.

“Father and mother are doing well, thank you for asking”, Lysander replied and smiled at Devin once more. “Father’s finally letting me help out in his shop more. By the way, you should really visit again. I’d like to show you our newest instruments. As for Lilah … we broke up. She decided that she wanted to see the world and not get married at twenty-two”, he remarked and let out a sad sigh which caused the Mortalborn to move a little closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder for a bit.

“I think I’ll take a break from dating for a while”, the blonde decided which caused the Mortalborn to frown because that was not what he had wanted to hear (He had hoped that Lysander would tell him that he would be a better partner!). Lysander seemed so sad that he just couldn’t be irritated for long though. If someone was sad, you needed to comfort them so that they felt better – even if they didn’t seem to be open to dating at the moment (they might be so later on though)!

“So, anyway, the alchemy question”, he remarked just as Lucia returned, triumphantly carrying a thick tome that was bound in dark-red leather. “Do you have any idea, Devin?”

The Mortalborn was actually pretty clueless when it came to alchemy, apart from where swallowing potions in exchange for money was concerned, but that didn’t bother him in the least. His extensive knowledge of all things arcane more than made up for that in his opinion, so, he replied with utter confidence, “In order to become a mage, you need to acquire a spark. I’ve never heard of an Alchemy spark though. So, maybe that’s it? Alchemists don’t stick sparks into each other, they do … something else”, he concluded and proceeded to write his answer down only to be interrupted by Lucia once more.

“I don’t think that’s how Professor Gir wants us to go about it. According to this book here”, she informed them and pointed at the alchemy book. “Alchemists transfer properties from a source to a receiving material and use reagents. Transmuters on the other hand submerge their target in a field of ether and imbue it with qualities. Ether is all that they use”, she finished and proceeded to look at them proudly.

“We’ll combine both of your answers”, Lysander decided after he had given the matter some thought. “What Devin said about Alchemy not requiring a spark might be important as well in my opinion. It actually sounds as if it’s very important”, he amended which caused Lucia to harumph once and cross her arms over her chest. Lysander ignored her and just gestured for Devin to hand him the paper that the Mortalborn had been writing on before in order to add what Lucia had just said.

It was just then that Professor Gir who was sitting behind his desk cast a glance in Lucia’s direction, as if he knew that the redhead was not working together with Devin and Lysander. Lucia met his gaze before she abruptly thrust the Transmutation book at Devin and proclaimed, “Your turn, Thorn. Let’s find out what witchmarks look like. I’ll check another book, and then we’ll compare our results. Here, Lysander, have a book as well”, she said in an overly sweet tone of voice and handed him one of the books that she had gotten from Professor Gir at the beginning of the lesson as well.

Remembering what Lucia had said about comparing books (Although he would never admit that some of her ideas might have merit out loud!), the Mortalborn checked the table of contents and the index of his Transmutation book, got another book that provided an overview of mutations across the different domains of magic and got to work, cross-referencing, comparing and getting a headache in the process because it was very time-consuming.

(Which was why Lucia frowned and glowered at him from time to time, because she was much faster!)

Both the Transmutation book and the mutation book mentioned witchmarks, as the Mortalborn discovered, but the mutation book did so in a bit more detail because it focused solely on that aspect of magic.

“Okay”, he finally said, smiled at Lysander and nodded at Lucia. “Apparently, Transmutation witchmarks tend to be simple. Transmutation mages glow when they cast or have glowing eyes, for example, and sometimes, they get glimmering cracks … why do they crack?” he asked because that sounded weird, and what more, cracks on parts of your body sounded to be pretty painful. And besides, what happened to your blood?

If Transmuters got glimmering cracks on their body, did that mean that their blood was replaced with glitter stuff? He normally liked glitter a great deal, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to have it inside of him!

“Mutations don’t always have to make complete sense”, Lucia, the know-it-all replied and shrugged her shoulders before she asked Lysander what he had found out so far, as if she loved teamwork all of a sudden. This time, she graciously offered to write their answer down.

“Right, the three steps”, Devin remarked because he really, really didn’t want Lucia to take charge all the time. He normally didn’t care about leading the team, but he really wanted to give it a try now, so he decided, “I think it will be easiest and fastest if we all check a different book again and compare our result. I’ll take this one again, and you’ll take those two”, he decided and patted his Transmutation book. It contained a lot of information, and what more, it was easy to understand, and he really, really liked books that were easy to understand.

Lucia looked at him disapprovingly, even though he was doing pretty much what she had done before. She didn't say anything though, because the professor had assigned the exercise to them. Lysander on the other hand smiled because he'd rather Devin than the bossy know-it-all played team leader.

“Apparently”, he informed his teammates approximately ten bits later – it had only taken him that long to come up with the answer because the three steps were one of the most important aspects of transmuting something and the information in question was thus very easy to find.

“The first step is Deconstruction. Transmuters submerge the object in a field of ether where it begins to lose coherence. The second step, Alteration, involves imbuing the object with qualities. The third and last step, Reformation is about bringing the object back to Idalos in its altered state”, he continued and furrowed his brow as something occurred to him Did the objects go to another world when you transmuted them?

He didn’t go to another world when he used his Becoming magic! That was weird, but also kind of cool. He was almost tempted to find a Transmuter to initiate him, but only for a moment, because he really, really didn’t want glitter stuff instead of blood. That couldn’t be healthy!

And what more, less magic was probably better, anyway. He really enjoyed Becoming, but he didn’t want to risk another potentially dangerous initiation (You could get hurt, and even die!) only to end up with totally ugly mutations, or mutations that clashed with his Becoming mutations, at least. As a Blessed of Delroth, looking good was very important to him!

“Deconstruction is also called Basing, according to my book, and another term for Reformation is Finishing”, Lucia interrupted his thoughts, because she couldn’t not say something, even though if Devin’s research results had actually been mostly satisfying, and he had not taken an eternity to come up with them this time. She would never admit that he was making progress though. She wanted to be the best, thank you very much!

“By the way”, Professor Gir said once the students had been working on their exercise for a while – in a very gravelly voice that belied the fact that he had actually smiled when the new Cadouri students had invaded the classroom, prior to the start of the class. “If you are really stuck when it comes to an answer, let me know. In my opinion, it would be a good idea for you to learn to figure things out on your own and familiarize yourself with Transmutation and a few basic research techniques in the process, but I do not wish to torment you unnecessarily. That would contradict the purpose of a class”, he added, without even the tiniest hint of a smile.

Having said that, he opened a drawer of his desk, removed a bottle with a bright red liquid from it and drank from it. Once upon a time, Devin had thought that the liquid was blood, because of the colour, and he had assumed that Professor Gir who a lot of students found a little frightening was an undead because of it. When he had inspected an almost empty bottle that the professor had thrown into the trashcan, he had realized that it was only tomato juice though – which was a kind of juice that he found a bit disgusting, to be honest!

A few students actually approached Professor Gir’s desk or raised their hands, even though the man in black was a bit scary. Most of the teams, including Devin’s (who had been given the “honor” of writing the last answer down, in his messy handwriting), had no problems that they couldn’t solve on their own though. Before long, all of them were done, and the time to present their answers to the professor who just nodded at them (and informed them that he would check them until the next lesson), but still didn’t smile at all had come.

“I’ll give our answers to the professor”, Lucia decided before either Devin or Lysander could say something and marched towards Migh Gir’s desk without further ado. Normally, Devin took issue with someone stealing his place in the spotlight, but the first team had already left the classroom, and the door was open as a consequence so that he could see …

… them!

His Cadouri admirers’ class had apparently ended at exactly the same time that his class had ended, and what more, one of them was looking at him again. He waved at the raccoon, grinned and bowed deeply. Presenting the answers to the professor, he decided, was nothing special, anyway. Being admired by cute and fluffy Cadouri because of your purpleness was much better! Maybe, he would even be able to befriend them!