Continued from Fanning A Flame...
Joy, exuberant joy spread across the young college student’s face, the excitement was contagious and it bounded back his equal excitement doubling her own. And she glowed with it, almost literally shedding light. She began to play with the silver glob-dust, using it to draw on her arms in a form of silver henna.
“I so totally believe you.” she said her voice slightly sobering at the word trust. “I trust you, with the magic, Mister West, but I really don’t know you too well.”
It’s hard enough to trust people some times, but I just want to trust him, but... A look of pensiveness flashed over her face before she breathed in deeply and heavily, drawing in some form of emotional stability before looking back at him. Then she took his hand.
"It's just 'West'," he answered softly.
He concentrated as their hands touched, weaving a wide, delicate net around them that made them part of the park scenery: just visitors; background, even as he gently ran his fingers over Lachesis' web. There would be a moment when someone would look away from them, and focus on something else: he made all of those moments happen at the same time. Traces of Mana motes flickered and went out as he pulled the energy into a caccoon for the next spell to ease it's piercing of the Lie.
In that moment, he moved them from here to there.
The park was replaced by a grassy field, with a small house and barn nearby. An old, but serviceable, tractor was next to the barn, and a paddock had a well worn track along the interior.
For a moment, a heartbeat, white and black squares overlaid the ground, and the world itself shifted into black and white absolutes as West's Nimbus flared: the KingMaker's board. His fingers closed on her small hand for a moment. He saw the pawn promoted on the eighth rank.
"This is my place. City's that's way," he said, nodding to the east. "About six miles."
"You are the flame," he said, turning serious, now that he'd shown her that they were talking about more than pixie dust ink. "I will teach you to light the path, if that's what you want. I just can't do it in the middle of the park."
She watched him carefully as specks of his aura began to swirl slightly around him when the scenery changed abruptly and the shock of it almost knocked her to the ground, and would have were he not holding on to her hand. The visuals of a grassy field instead of the children in the playground nearby shocked her and her face lost most of it’s color. But before she could even raise her voice to ask a question when the world flashed through an even more disorientating change then snapped back to normal. Her head spun with confusion and she tried to shake it all out when he explained that they had teleported.
TELE-FREAKING-PORTED
To the middle of six miles away from home.
She was shocked, more than shocked; and yet with the adrenaline pumping through her blood and ears she grinned. There was an excitement to it and she returned his serious words with a smile reminiscent of a six year old on Christmas Day. “ Yeah.” She said almost immediately and the warning bells that had first gone off when they had suddenly shifted were silent, reinforcing her decision. “That is what I want.”
And that was dealing with an Obrimos. Power. He understood now.
There was a small voice that was relieved: that quietly pointed out that if she'd Awoken under other circumstances, one day he might have seen her on the other side of Supernal line: a Seer.
"Good," he said, giving a nod of agreement.
West stabbed a thumb at the barn.
"We start with what and how and why, and all that. You ever ride a horse? I'd like to ride the fence line for gaps or holes while we do that. Been needin' doing."
She glanced up in the direction he had indicated. “Only in a petting zoo” she said honestly, “But it would be fun to learn.” She hoped her statement wouldn’t decrease the lesson or make them walk, since he obviously wanted to do some work on (what she assumed because of the barn) the farm.
“We going to be doing something potentially messy? I’ve never fixed a fence before.”
West nodded. Inwardly, he was pleased. The willingness to learn, it was crucial. Sometimes it was lost in the Awakening: power replaced humility in some instantly.
"Sure," he agreed, nodding toward the paddock and motioning for her to follow.
"Well, it's only messy if you fall. Or step in horse shit."
Arriving at the paddock, he led two horses out, and threw saddles on them with a practiced motion before beginning to cinch them. The saddles looked large, and heavy; it was clear by the ease he handled him that he was strong and well conditioned. One of the saddle was shaped smaller, for a woman or child.
"That's a joke," West explained, giving her an apologetic smile. "Fixin' bobwar ain't messy. At worst, it'll just cut your hands up, but you'll be watching, not doing." His Texas accent crept out, shortening and at the same time drawling the words 'barbed wire'.
She began to walk after him but at the words Horse Shit, she instinctively stopped and threw a glance at the ground in her general area as well as on the underside of her shoes. She started forward towards the barn and West, all the while moving carefully so as to avoid any possible horse created land mines.
She managed to make it to the paddock and swing up onto the fence (an obvious safe place), and watched him saddle the horses. “Ah.” she said in response through a dull look. Thoughts about horse-land-mines weren’t particularly high on her list of things to think about.
“Nothing wrong in learning though.” She said as she hopped down off the fence and waited for a moment. “Okay, you’re probably gonna have to lead me through this whole riding a horse thing, I don’t think the ‘horse’ I rode previously even qualified.”
West made a sharp exhale through his nose, and shook his head slightly. In time, Vaeltia would recognize it as a sign he found something funny.
"Well, the first thing you'll work on is not falling. Getting comfortable in the saddle, finding your balance, feeling the gait," he explained. "It's really not a big deal while we're just walking, and Siouxsie will follow Robert."
As he named the horses, he slapped the one he held affectionately on the shoulder, and tossed the reins over the saddle horn. He tapped the horn, then the back ridge of the saddle.
"One hand here, one there, stick your left foot in the stirrup and swing up."
As he spoke, he demonstrated in slow motion, grabbing the saddle, putting foot in the stirrup and rising as he arced a leg over. He reversed the motion, just as slowly, and stepped out of the stirrup and released the saddle. He squinted in the sun, watching Vaeltia closely. He was curious to see how she learned, and it was a hell of lot easier to make mistakes learning to ride than flinging Celestial Fire.
"All righty? Hop on."
Emily snerked at the name of the horse, to the response of a tail flick from the animal in question. She watched as he mounted and dismounted slowly so she could watch. And then the thought came to her. “So it’s like getting on a motorcycle, except a little taller then?” She hadn’t actually finished all the safety courses but soon enough she would be getting the harley she wanted. If mounting a horse was anything like getting on a bike it should be easy.
She turned to the horse (who hopefully hadn’t taken any offense to her correlation of the cycle), and took a deep breath. Which in retrospect probably wasn’t that good an idea. Yes the wonderful smell of earth and farm but also of horseflesh and horse land mines. She tried to not let it phase her but she still ended up flinching a bit as she placed a hand on the horn and the other in the place West had indicated.
Then she looked down at her feet (narrowly avoiding a dried land-mine) and tried to remember which was the left one. It actually took a few moments to remember, but she did eventually and put it in the stirrup. The over all lifting part was new, almost like trying to climb three or four stairs at a time: difficult but do-able. She lifted and swung her leg over, straddling the horse. She had managed it and with minimal vocalization of effort.
“Okay, that wasn’t that difficult.” she said from the saddle, as Souxsie let out a soft sound that could have passed for a laugh.
A week further into her Apprenticeship, and he he would have have hiked his knee up under her stirrup and thrown her momentum and balance off. Now wasn't the time, though; even though he was becoming more comfortable with her, there were still a lot of unanswered questions and changes she'd been through. It would be a betrayal of trust he was still trying to establish.
"Good job," he said, giving her knee an encouraging pat. He flipped the reins over the saddle horn, between two knots.
"If you need to hold something, grab the horn. If you have to, grab her mane, if you start to fall," West continued, patting each as he named them.
"It won't hurt her if you do, but grabbing the reins and jerking them or falling with them in your hand will hurt her. Squeeze with your legs for balance, but remember to relax them or you'll be sore later."
Satisfied, he moved over to the other horse, stopping to duck into the barn's side door. He reappeared with a tool belt slung over his shoulder, an ivory Stetson, and leather gloves. When he put a foot in the stirrup, it was apparent he'd also exchanged his shoes for boots, and a fluid motion swung him into the saddle. A series of small nudges and taps with his knees and heel put Robert in motion while he pulled on the gloves and draped the belt over the horn. He stood in the stirrups, turning to Emily and Siouxsie and made a few whistling and clicking noises until Siouxsie began following. While Robert kept walking, he swung his leg back over and sat sideways, bringing leg up to fold over the saddle horn to distribute his weight while he sat sideways and could face Emily.
"Hey, you good?" he asked, nodding at her. A pair of gloved fingers pointed at his eyes, and he gestured around them.
"See if you can bring up the Sight."
He was curious if she'd be able to see the Hallow, and if she could create her first Imago without him describing it.
She tried to turn to watch him walk away, and almost pinwheeled herself to the ground but managed to get a hand firmly around the horn and pull herself back up. The horse turned her head back to look at the woman and only seemed to shake it’s head as if saying You’ll learn, hopefully. Emily only glared back at the horse and tried to re-sit herself so she would be able to fully balance. She managed to bring her legs to squeeze against the horse’s flanks and could feel her legs growing tired already, never having something that wide beneath her before. She’d probably get used to it, but a motorcycle would be different, this was a living, breathing, beast...horse, a motorcycle was just a vibrating motorbike. Totally different, and yet there were similarities.
Emily waited patiently for West to return, occasionally having to consciously relax her legs as they had tightened as the horse shifted slightly and she felt the fear of falling off grip her. She leaned forward, over the horse and began to fiddle with Souxsie’s mane, whispering gently in the animal’s ear, and feeling her own fear subside as she gradually became accustomed to the horse.
The gentleman returned, dressed only slightly differently, but enough to be noticed. “Hat?” she asked when he got close enough before shaking off her thoughts of taking his hat. “Yeah, fine.” she said at his question, happy that he hadn’t seen her almost fall.
She stared at him as he sat so comfortably in the saddle. She watched him, highly interested in the motions he managed to make all while keeping the horse in the same direction. Emily looked down at her own hands tight on the saddlehorn only wishing she could have the same fluidity of motion on the animal she was riding.
“Wha..Oh that aura thing? Yeah, okay.” She closed her eyes and her hands tightened on the saddle, and she let herself relax as she tried to pick up on what she could remember of the sight. She opened her eyes slowly and stared at her own hands, trying to bring the flare of her aura into view along with the sparks. As she focused on the phantom image in her memory the reality snapped into place and she could See.
It was bright.
She made a sound and squinted her eyes in response to the flux of power that was hanging in the air around her. “Still bright.”
"Hell yeah, a hat," West replied, a rare grin slipping out.
At the end of the day, he was a Texan -- and proud of it.
He turned to nudge Robert towards the silvery lines of barbed wire that glimmered in the sun and seemed to float above the grass. The horse was familiar with the routine -- even enough to know a break would mean stopping.
West nodded as Emily spoke again.
"It's power," he explained. "We call it mana. It's a physical form of energy of the prima materia: magic itself. This is a place of power, where it collects -- what you're seeing is the ambient bleed-over that permeates the area. It's like Ragu staining Tupperware."
Talking like this made him think of Uriel, from his first cabal in Baltimore. Most of what he knew of the Mighty Arcana, he'd learned from him. It also made him think of Ankh, and he gently pushed that thought away. With her light colored hair, it was easy to imagine her as an Angel of Aether, flinging Celestial Fire. Already, he could feel the beginning of a sense of possessiveness; the possibility of her choosing the Ladder instead of the Arrow made his jaw clench slightly.
Relaxing, he continued. "We all have certain things we're better at than others. Magic itself -- Prime -- is one of your strengths. You will learn to use this energy, like the sparkles I showed you, except you'll be able to shape it, sculpt it into illusions, or throw it like fire."
West paused, watching her as she digested the information, waiting for a question or reaction.
She blinked again, working on getting her eyes to focus and keeping her balance on the moving horse. She nodded as she started to sort through the mana over-bleed, until it was a more bearable shade of bright.
“So you’re saying that this energy, the glitter-flecks of power are mana then?” She began, rewording and repeating his words back; like she had learned in elementary school “That your ranch...farm--whatever, is a place where it gathers, fills, expands and grows? And that Magic; real magic is a strength of mine?” She spoke carefully, trying to grasp all of what he said and still contain it in some bubble of understanding.
To be honest, it was a bit overwhelming, but awesome none the less. She managed to open and bear enough bright with her eyes half open, no longer the tight squint as before. “Erm... you’re shining much brighter than before.”
"It's probably spells," West answered. Despite the nonchalant tone, there was something intense just below the surface, and he squinted as he looked at her.
After a moment, he spoke again.
"My personal protection spells are... hidden. Cloaked. Your Sight must be very potent to see them."
There was a quicksilver rush through him, excitement. Some Awoke stronger than others, and it seemed she might have.
"So... yeah. I'd say it's a strength of yours," he added with a hint of a smile.
"You want to know what else you're good at?"
“I thought it would be the surroundings or something, you seem to be in your element here.” She said as a return, “Not necessarily my own ability to see what you have hidden.”
A slow, almost nervous smile crept into her face; the type of expression one gets when the slightly uncomfortable feeling of one receiving a little too much attention from a teacher. It was probably the stare, she wriggled a little on the saddle. She almost fell off but managed to hold on and pull herself back into balance.
“Okay so this Prime Magic is strong for me, but honestly I don’t see anything else that I could potentially be good at. That is besides almost falling every so often.”
He considered the possibility: that his own personal resonance was becoming attuned to the Hallow... or vice versa. That maybe, like sound, resonance might expand rather than overlap. It was something to study. A smile slipped out at her last words. If he didn't know that she'd just Awoken, he'd think she was being funny. That it was unintentional was actually funny.
"Falling. Yeah, kind of," West agreed. "Gravity. Heat, Sound, electricity, fire, all of that. Energy. They call people like you Mighty. Theurgists. Miracle Workers."
Turning in his saddle, he swept a wide arc to encompass the landscape.
"I want you to look again... but not for sparkles. Look at the wind blowing the leaves and grass. See it. Look at Robert," he slapped the horse's rump, "See his body heat. Remember how you looked for the mana, but look for energy."
Emily’s brow furrowed as she spoke, “So you’re saying I’m supposed to be good at falling? And because of that it makes me a miracle worker...” She shook her head in pure disbelief, it didn’t make sense how something so simple could do such a thing. It was just another prime example of human fallibility.
She nodded at the instruction and lowered her head slightly to focus on the he horse, not looking for anything specific, only it’s energy. The pulse was there, almost a beat sound in her ears to go with the slight movement she saw as the horse seemed to move in itself. She turned her eyes on Souxsie and the horse was also showing the same symptoms. As a thought took her she cast her gaze wide.
And nearly fell off the horse.
No.
Actually fell off the horse.
There had been a moment of pinwheeling though and she landed in a light roll onto her knees. Through the sight she managed to see the faint movement of her fall before it vanished.
“It’s like before...” She whispered, “everywhere.
With a slight tug on the reins, Robert stopped, and West slid down from the half saddle position he was in. One day, they'd laugh at this, when she could jump off of ten story buildings and land like a feather. Right now, though, he felt a touch guilty and responsible.
"Sorry," he mumbled slightly, walking over to offer a hand. The faint smell of leather from before was much stronger with the source -- the gloves -- on.
"But... yeah. Everything you see? You can learn to control. Even the light. Even kinetic energy."
He opened his mouth again, to tell her about when Uriel had turned sniper's bullets away from them, but stopped himself.
"I'm sorry. I know this is a lot."
She was in awe, to put it lightly. It seemed similar to the way people describe drugs, not that she had ever tried them, but every sound, smell, touch, sight, and taste was so different. Each one special, each one perfect.
She pulled herself up with his help and dusted dirt off her knees. Before grinning, and throwing herself around him in a hug. Her face opened into a bright smile, she was shedding light, and even heat. The laugh of mirth that bubbled up from within her seemed to have the echos of others joining with her.
That was when she noticed what she was doing.
“Sorry,” she said releasing him from the hug. “And yes, it is a lot. But you’re telling the truth, so it should be easy enough for you to tell me again.”
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