(1876-04-25) Just A Flesh Wound
Just A Flesh Wound
Summary: Alia and Dovi perfect a new spell.
Date: 2020-04-25
Related: None
NPCs: None
Players:
Alia  Ludovic  

Alia's Workroom
It's kooky and full of alchemy. And a very beat up Alia.
1876-04-25

"You." Ludovic says in typical dovi fashion. "Look like you've been dragged by your hair through a swamp." A waterskin is pushes at her. "Drink."

-

"Thanks, Dovi." Alia looked up from where she was sitting, a thick cloth wrapped around ice, most likely, held to her temple. No doubt the story had gotten out. Alia had been allowing herself to be used as a practice dummy for most of the day. Aeneas had been taking a whack at her with a practice sword for the better part of that day. No one was quite sure why, though the cadre of alchemists had been seen wandering in and out of Alia's work room, usually after she took a break and retreated to lick her wounds. The skin Alia accepted with her free hand, though she only took a small, cautious sip. "You do know how to pay a woman a compliment."

-

"That was a compliment." Ludovic answers with a little grin. The waterskin, she'll be glad to taste, contains mint tea. Its not very warm. "You going to explain why you're replacing the practice dummies?"

-

Alia handed the skin back after taking a second sip, before she readjusted the ice, leaning back into the pillow she had put between the back of her chair and her back. Again, that free hand rose and she pointed to the desk where she seemed to be working on some sort of ink. It was a deep, rich purple. "I've been working on a new ink, trying to work out how to use it to power a protective spell. It hasn't been working. But I can't know if it works unless I take some sort of damage. or try to, anyway."

-

"Then use Brandon and the other squires." Ludovic says "Squires get beat up all the time. Its part of the privilege. And you're too important to be hurt."

-

Alia shook her head, "No, that's not precise enough. I need to really understand how it feels, be able to gauge the changes between one formulation and the other. And I'll be fine eventually. I have the fleshknit, I just don't want to waste it." She shrugged, removing the ice from her temple, showing Dovi the inside of her forearms where a circle rune had been inscribed with some almost feathery looking embellishments. "You should have seen me when I first started training with Maximus. I never left a session not bloodied."

-

Ludovic wraps his fingers around her wrist as he gets a good look at the circle. "That's why I suggested the squires." he says "But alright. I get it. Still don't think we can't afford to have a battered fire sorcerer when we go over the wall though." He lets go of her wrist and moves to lean against a post. "Been wondering what happens after we take Rykers. How it'll all be over."

-

Alia smiled, as she looked at the circle, "I am so close, I can feel it. I don't know how I can feel it, but I can. I just…it feel like…if I just get the embellishment right, I know I can make it work. I can almost see it, just on the edge of my vision…but it disappears as soon as I try to look at it." She took a breath, shifting the ice down to her cheek, "All of the land will be reclaimed, if we can manage that, but it is still a difficult thing. It might be impossible, though I am loathe to admit that. How do we defeat a thing like Teleko?"

-

"We get rid of the armies." Ludovic tells her. "And we've got the advantage. Even when you and Darius vanish over the mountains we'll still be stronger than he is. There's nobody who's immune to being overwhelmed by superior numbers. Hey." He taps his chest. "Five guys in loinclothes can even beat me."

-

"Is that what you all thought at Mathis? You did not defeat him then. And he can raise armies of the dead. Every one of those Qatunax we kill is another soldier he can raise. So every enemy is one we have to fight, twice. And keeping him under control, or at least ineffective, I don't know. If he is part of all of this, with Michael, he could and will still be dangerous to us." She grinned, though, in the end, "They clearly got lucky."

-

"We were awful sorcerers at Mathis." Ludovic points out. "Myrana was basically the only one of us who had any idea what she was doing. Heck I was absolutely useless that day. You know blunt weapons cant hurt him? Well. Thats what I learned when I tried to help during that fight." He shrugs "And I think we almost got him. He fled after all."

"Main thing though Alia-darling. If raising dead things was easy. Wouldn't we already be wading through ranks and ranks of the dead? He's limited. Heck even the old things in the stories were beaten by people with swords and sticks. Theres no reason why we cant do this."

-

"Perhaps you're right. The world certainly feels different than it did then. I don't feel so…adrift, when I reach for my magic anymore. And maybe he is limited, and maybe we might be able to defeat him. All I want, is for this threat to be over."

Alia, suddenly, in the middle of everything, sat bolt upright, reaching out, this time, to grab Dovi's hand, letting the icepack drop as she reached for one of the stone paper weights, setting it into the palm of his hand, before she covered it with her own, so that the stone was sandwiched between his palm and hers, "Dovi, make me a cat."

-

"It does." Ludovic agrees. "It feels solid now. Before it was like anytime I evoked it I was opening the door of an overfull granary and it was just as likely to bury me alive as it was to refuse to open. Its better now." The suggestion earns a chuckle and he folds his fingers around the rock. There's that sense of the power moving and then he removes his hand again to reveal a cat-shape. Not the best piece of sculpture he's ever done. "What was that for?"

-

Alia frowned, shaking her head as Dovi pulled his hand away to cup the stone, "No, no, I want to feel you making it. I…" she frowned, as if she were trying to find the words, "This magic, it isn't fire magic. I think that is why it is so hard for me. It's like…someone who plays the lute could play another stringed instrument, but they won't be as good at it because it isn't the instrument they are good at. This is not a fire spell, but it is…a spell that protects you, that makes you stronger, more resilient, like…like stone." She reached for another paperweight, offering it to Ludovic and this time, she made sure to be clear, "Let me hold it with you, so that I can feel you when you use your magic."

-

"So you want something sustained then?" Ludovic asks her before jerking his jaw towards the exit. "Come outside? I'd like some space." "

-

"I don't know what I want," Alia replied, as she pushed herself to her feet, holding herself still for a moment, as though to make sure she was alright. "I just…it's like a niggle in my mind." And then she nodded, "Alright, but don't tear down the walls, alright?" See? She could still make a funny, even as she moved to follow Dovi outside.

-

"I wont." Ludovic laughs. "Advantage of being in a place mostly made of tents I suppose." Once outside he scuffs up the dirt a bit and then beckons for Alia to move in close. "You might want to close your eyes for a bit."

No more instructions follow. Instead he just wraps an arm about her waist and yanks her into him. And once she's there he starts gathering the power. Just like she asked. Not a huge amount. Just a hum. To start with nothing happens as the pull of his magic fights against the general inertia of the earth. But in the end power wins. As it will. Yanking every loose bit of earth out of the surroundings and sending it clattering against them both as it forms a hazy sort of wall.

"Stable now." Ludovic breathes as he opens his eyes a bit and squints at her. Maybe it is. That doesn't stop gravel sized bits of rock from impacting against them every few seconds. How lucky they don't have much in the way of momentum.

-

Alia was not afraid, as she made her way out towards wherever it was Ludovic might decide to do, well, whatever he was going to do. She was also not afraid of his magic. In its way, it was much more powerful than hers, but she had known him too long, trusted him to too deeply to fear for herself. So, when he bid her close her eyes, she did. And when he pulled her against his chest, she stayed there. And all the while, there was something focused in her expression. That was what he would see if he looked down at her. She did not flinch, despite the rocks that were hitting her, hitting them. It was an expression of reaching, "I can feel you." And she did not mean the rocks. It was that skittering of power that left goosebumps on the skin, the way that all sorcerers could feel another when they were using their magic, if they were close enough.

-

"That's the point isn't it?" Ludovic's remarkably relaxed looking more like a cat basking in front of a fire than his usual self. "Surround you in Earth. See what happens."

-

Alia really should have thought to bring out her ink. Alas. Well, she at least had her bag, and the quill she always kept stored in there. And it was that quill that she retrieved now, lifting her right arm to expose her forearm, her strong left beginning to scrape a pattern into her flesh. The quill was not so sharp that it cut a clean line into her flesh, but it was sharp enough that it left a red welt in its wake as she worked. And never once did she open her eyes.

-

"Careful." Ludovic says softly when she extends her arm. His head tilts so he can watch her making that mark. "Where did you learn that?"

-

"I have you to protect me," was Alia's simple reply as she worked, "The Academy has writings about this, the closed moon rune, and I read about the pattern they can teach you, but it didn't feel right, it didn't work the way I needed it to, so I am trying to create one of my own." Just like Alia, not to take the easy road. A beat, "It won't work without the ink…or my blood. Have you got your dagger?"

-

Ludovic raises an eyebrow. "Cant you feel it?" He shifts a little so there is enough space for her to claim items from his harness and the spell drops at almost the same time. Gravel and soil pitterpattering to the ground all around them. "Mind?" He reaches for the quill. "I think." Drawing either with the quill or a fingernail he traces on her arm. "It ends like this."

-

"I could feel a lot of things, but I'm not about to go randomly groping you, Ludovic d'Korbina." Alia snorted laughter, as she finally opened her eyes, and now that she could see, she glanced down to look to the side so that she could reach out to take his dagger, pulling it almost from its sheath before she stopped, waiting for him to finish the close of the rune on her arm. And as she felt it, not the spell itself, but some echo of it, her face brightened with a brilliant smile, "You did it, Dovi." She spoke with absolute certainty, as she pulled the dagger from its sheath. Her skin was read enough that she could see what she was supposed to draw there.

-

"I'm handy sometimes." Ludovic answers with a grin. "And not just because I have stone in my pants. You want to see something really good?"

-

Alia paused, just before she was about to begin cutting the rune into her arm, curious, because of course Alia was, "Of course I do. But it isn't in your pants, is it?"

-

Ludovic shakes his head with a bit of a cackle. "Do you have any idea how long it would take to get in my pants right now?" He's still snickering when he once again pulls his magic too him, holds out his hand, and like iron to a lodestone, his czekan simply puts into his hand. "Magic."

-

"I do know." Alia tipped her head, "Well, I can guess, based on my own obstacle course." Men in armor, am I right? Her eyebrows raised though, as the axe came to Ludovic's call, "That is amazing, Dovi. And…perfectly timed." And then, Alia bent to the work, and Ludovic could feel her own magic, as familiar to him as his was to her, as she began to cut the rune into her flesh, adding the embellishments that Dovi had added.

-

"I've been able to do it for months and months." Ludovic says "Just only been since the change where i've felt confident i could do it without accidentally lopping my own arm off." He lifts the czekan a bit and lets go of it, leaving it to just hover there by his side. "Always figured it could be handy." He eyes that mark again. "You're not going to ask me to hit you are you?"

-

Alia worked quickly, but carefully, her lips thinning as she felt the tip of the dagger cutting into her skin. "Of course I am." She stepped back, away from Dovi and his axe, only looking up when she was sure that she was ready for him. "You have all the ammunition you will ever need." She hoped. I mean, it was a very great number of rocks he had called.

-

"Bah. I dont want to hit you." Ludovic shifts his stance despite his words, taking up the czekan, but turning it in his hand and putting it down rather than hitting her with it. "But. Fine." He shifts his stance, lightly flexing his right hand, and looking at her carefully. A glow in his stone eye. "Are you sure its supposed to keep you from getting hurt?"

-

"Of course you don't. But you will anyway." because whether against his better judgement or not, Dovi usually went along with Alia's madcap schemes. And she certainly was standing as though she were ready for him. She was also staring, "Dovi…your stone eye. It's glowing." And then, in a rush, "Hurry up and do it quickly." Like a bandage, rip it off quickly.

-

Ludovic sighs and shakes his head as if he cant quite believe what he's doing before taking a step forward and punching her in the gut. He isnt wearing gauntlets. So.. it could be worse. He grunts as he steps back, sounding unhappy. "/She/ did something to it."

-

It wouldn't have been full force either.

-

There was only the faint glimmer of Alia's normal magic, as she stood there, waiting for Dovi to hit her. But it was not only her magic when his fist hit her gut. Something that was not quite an aura, but was something very much like that flashed in his eye, though there was a sense that had he not been able to see the magic, it would have looked like nothing at all. And Alia did stagger back, but not as far as she might have done. "Dovi. We did it!" She grinned, even as she rubbed the ache in her gut, "Now we just need to see if it works with the ink as well."

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License