Quickening [Leto]

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Well, as long as I can cook for myself on circuit without fear of poisoning myself, I'm content. Hopefully at least one of my wives will be a good cook. Denen and I are about the same, and my, ah... servant, Jyn, he's all right too. We have kept ourselves, our animals, and the baby alive, so I suppose that's all one can hope for." He took another mouthful of stew into his mouth thoughtfully, chewed and swallowed. His eyes kept glancing between the horses and Leto. He had watched many an equine courtship, and had helped Serena Windmount pull several problem foals out of their dams without harming either of them. But this would be a new test of his horsemanship, overseeing the breeding of his own horses entirely. "I suppose we could always go draw glyphs and see if I can still find those memory stones. You're a good teacher." If Sama'el suspected anything about Leto and his proclivities, he gave no sign. He did have the drive to be an Ankal and to bring his pavilion back into a sort of renaissance, but he had found comfort and release in Denen's body, and there was a bond between them too. Luckily the Drykas understood the necessity of non-monogamy in the Sea of Grass.

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto smiled as Sama'el explained his position on cooking with Denen and Jyn. At least they knew enough to keep themselves alive, and that was all that counted. Nodding his head to the next suggestion that Sama'el gave, Leto grinned and said, "Thanks. I do try, and intend to perfect my skills along with you as well..." As he spoke, his voice was soft and gentle, much how it normally is. Glancing towards Dohaina and Arias, he smiled, and then turned his gaze back towards Sama'el. "Would you like me to have my aunt watch them, while we are practicing?" he then questioned Sama'el. It wasn't everyday that Arias would get to mate, and he was glad Sama'el allowed them to do what was only natural.

Depending on Sama'el's answer, Leto would either retrieve his aunt to watch the horses, or he would just lead Sama'el back to his tent, flipping open the flap, and motioning for the man to enter it before him. There was some parchment upon the table, as well as the quill and ink. The small chair that was normally there, was sitting there as usual, and Leto would allow Sama'el to sit down, so that they could begin...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"I think... they'll be all right," he decided, though it was obvious that he was nervous about leaving them. It was understandable if one knew how he had lost his first Strider, and how young he had been at the time, but this was part of maturing, and it might take the horses hours, or even several days. There was no telling how long Arias' seed would need to take in her womb. He followed Leto into the pavilion and into his room. They managed not to see his aunt and uncle, but Sama'el didn't ask about the obvious tension. He didn't want to pry into another pavilion's affairs, even if Leto was fast becoming a friend. At a nod from Leto, he sighed and sat down in the chair, only sighing because he had hoped to watch Leto work first to refresh his memory, but Leto, like most teachers, wanted to see where his meager skills were now. "I don't remember all that much," he admitted. For a young man who couldn't read, glyphing might prove quite difficult to master.

[Leto Sunsinger]

"Would you like me to demonstrate it for you again? I could show you once more, and you could copy me as we had done before, putting your own glyphs in place of mine where they need to go?" he asked Sama'el as he looked towards him sitting in the seat. The sigh had not gone unnoticed, but for now, Leto didn't say anything about it. If Sama'el allowed Leto to, the man would pull out a sheet of parchment once more, and would take the quill, dip it in the ink, and begin to draw carefully and lightly upon the parchment.

As he drew the circle, he would draw two circles, very close to each other and then on the inner circle would draw a cross from one side of the circle to the other, and up and down. As he did this, he would then draw barrier glyphs around the outer circle. Finally he would draw in the astral coordinates to Swalden in a counter clockwise fashion onto the inner circle. "Would you like me to summon one of them first? And then have you summon one afterwards?" asked Leto as he finished the circle and looked down towards Sama'el...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

His last attempt at summoning had not been a happy experience, but he had learned a bit since then and knew he could not be afraid of his own memories or he would go mad someday. But sitting in the chair, he just looked up to Leto and nodded, his face only a little glum. "You're the teacher. But after the summoning, can you show me how to trap Fire in a glyph? That might prove useful, especially if I find another Leecher on the Web." They were ruthless when it came to Leechers in Cyphrus, as they were always trying to drain the sacred Drykas Web.

[Leto Sunsinger]

"I'd be more than happy to show you how to trap fire in a glyph," said Leto. "Or actually a sigil, which is comprised of multiple glyphs put together to form the focus, the barrier, and the trigger," he finished, looking back down towards the summoning circle he had drawn. Looking up towards Sama'el, he smiled, and then asked, "Would you like to draw a summoning circle now that you have something to copy off of? And then i'll summon the memosite? Or if you want to, we can set aside summoning for a bit, and work on just creating regular glyphs, sigils, and things of that sort? So you can learn how to put spells within a glyph then? It's up to you, ask, and you'll recieve. I know you had a pretty rough experience with summoning last time, perhaps this time would be different... But it's up to you what you'd like to learn how to do today..."

Leto would not judge Sama'el if he didn't wish to do a summoning of a memosite right now due to the nature of his last encounter with one. He still remembered the embrace Sama'el had given him, and he wanted to teach Sama'el what Sama'el wished to learn, whether it was more summoning practice with memosites, or it was to use the glyphs to learn to trap a flame spell within them. It was up to Sama'el in the end, as Leto would merely teach him what he'd wish to know and learn. Questions were always welcomed, and Leto would answer them to the best of his abilities as a competent glypher and novice summoner...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el had a need to prove himself now where Memosites were concerned. The last one had caught him by surprise, pulled unhappy memories out of the dim past to upset him, but this time he wanted to know how to control the sharing. He smiled. "I want to do the summoning right this time," he said. "Teach me how to keep the memory stones under control, and then we can learn about the sigil things." That said, he began to draw the summoning circle, using Leto's as a guide. He remembered this vaguely from their last attempt, but once was hardly enough to memorize it.

[Leto Sunsinger]

"Sure thing, we shall work on the summoning of memosites then," said Leto to Sama'el, a smile upon his face as his obsidian gaze shifted back towards his sheet of parchment where the summoning circle happened to be drawn upon. Looking down towards it, he went over to his bag, and pulled out a clean fish hook out of it. They would use the fish hooks to prick themselves and give a little blood to the circle in order for it to be opened up, and bring a memosite through. Moving back over towards Sama'el, Leto smiled, and when Sama'el had finished drawing the summoning circle with the barrier around it, and the astral coordinats in the inner circle, he would look at him and asked, "Are you ready? I'll summon one first, and go through the explanations with you again to refresh your memory..."

He then pricked his finger, and smudged a small droplet of blood upon the summoning circle. As he did, the familiar pool like surface formed, and Leto looked down towards it, as the oil smell would fill both of their nostrils. Smiling as he turned to Sama'el, he said, "Now remember, you have all of the control with the leash. When they first come through the portal, they aren't very strong. Only by loosening the leash, you give them more leeway into this world..." Turning his head towards the memosite that appeared in the pool, he nodded to it as it spoke and asked for his information once more. "Pavi, Leto Treebearer, Day 43, Season of Summer, 483 A.V., 28 years old..." He then turned back to face Sama'el quickly, and said, "Now you entrust it with a memory of yours, and you focus all of your being and will power into a single memory you wish for it to have, a single memory, so that it doesn't sift through your mind and take any memory that it wants..."

He then began to think of a memory to give the memosite, and in doing so finally figured one out. He'd give this memosite a memory that he had not wanted to think of for quite some time. He was only thirteen, and he was out on his way back from Riverfall with his mother, brother, and father. Him and his brother were riding ponies, while his father and mother were riding their striders. They weren't riding very fast, but suddenly the striders began to move quicker as if they sensed something. It was large, and dark shadows seemed to cover their path as they were almost to Endrykas. Nobody knew what the creature was, and Leto didn't see it clearly, but he saw the blood, and a lot of the blood. His mother was severed in half by the creature, her strider along with her, and her body fell limp to the ground. His father turned around and charged at the creature with his spear, but he too was killed nearly instantaneously. Leto was knocked off the pony, and began to run away from the creature as he got up. His little brother disappeared in all of the commotion, and Leto was struck in the back. When he next awoke, he was inside a healer's tent in Endrykas, with barely any memory of what had happened, other than what he just shared with the memosite, and scars all over his body.

Once the memory was given, he looked up towards Sama'el, a bit of a sad look in his eyes, and said, "I gave them a memory of what happened when I was younger, it's a terrible one, but I felt it necessary to get it off of my chest..." A short smile crossed his face, and then he nodded to Sama'el. "But now that a memory has been given, a memory is returned..." And his vision went white after he said that, as the memosite was giving him a memory in return for his own.

It was a memory of a fight between a reimancer and an abomination. The reimancer was using powerful fire and water elements to create a wall of hot steam to stop the creature from coming through to him. Behind him a shielder was crafting a shield in an effort to protect their child from the creature, in hopes that when they died, the child would be safe, and the creature unable to touch it due to the shield. Once the child shield was completed, the child indeed was safe, and the reimancer and the shielder succumbed to their wounds from the creature that was attacking them. The child was later found by their people, safe and sound, albeit quite hungry. As the memory finished, Leto drifted back into the world, his eyes a bit teary at the memory of the creature tearing the reimancer and the shielder to bits, as he had seen the vision through the eyes of the child that was watching it, and felt the emotions of the child during it. "You have my apologies," said Leto to Sama'el. "I guess for one sad situation, another is presented... Nothing very useful from that memory, but it was a sad one indeed..."

And with that, he pulled on the leash with his willpower, biding the Memosite fairwell, and allowed it to leave them back through the portal Leto had created, the ink drying up, and the parchment curling, so that it was unusable. Leto smiled, and looked towards Sama'el and then asked, "Have you any questions now, before you start?" He would answer them to the best of his ability, as a teacher, and hopefully Sama'el wouldn't have as much difficulty as his last attempt with a memory stone. Leto could only hope that was the case, as it all depended on how Sama'el dealt with the leash that he had upon the creature he happened to be summoning...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el hardly had time to nod his readiness before Leto was at it, but he paid attention, listened, and learned. He was not going to ask Leto about his memories. They were Drykas and their people lived out loud in a world of canvas walls. There were few secrets in day to day life, but that made true secrets all the more sacred. But he could empathize all the same. The last time they tried this, the memosite had gotten the better of him and taken one of his own painful memories. It was not gone, but shared; still, a memory stone was a cold comfort. Sharing had not exactly helped, but he hoped it did for Leto. "No questions," he said, and steeled himself. The circle was laid out with as much precision as possible for him. He was certainly no artist or Isur engineer, but the circles with the coordinates were evenly spaced, and everything was laid out for a simple circle. He wasn't supposed to need anything fancy to pull a memory stone out of Swalden's skies, according to Leto. Taking the hook from Leto, it didn't occur to him to go for a clean one; Leto's blood was not taboo. They were both Drykas. But perhaps that was responsible for what happened next, or the fact that he had previously offered a memory but taken none, creating some sort of imbalance between this world and Swalden, however small. The smudge of his bleeding thumb against the circle brought it to life much as Leto's had done. This time, his will kept a tight hold on the memory stone that emerged. "Pavi," he said in Leto's fashion. "Sama'el of the Sapphire Clan. Born 61st Autumn, 492 years after the Valterrian. This is my nineteenth summer." He would turn nineteen next season. This time he offered the memory of standing in Zulrav's own wrath as the demented Isur, Trios, screamed abuse at the raging skies, the which eventually earned him the storm god's curse. Sama'el had tried to reason with Trios to prevent such a thing, but he was glad that Zulrav had not been angered at him. He could not tell one memory stone from another, but the memory it offered was dark indeed. It wasn't until it was halfway through that he recognized it as a young Leto, his family destroyed. The entirety of it came in a sharp revelation, granting him no time to tug on the leash. It was done. This must have been what he had just shared, the same memory stone sneaking through the portal that Sama'el opened on the tail of Leto's. He banished the tricksome thing and glanced at Leto, his eyes big with honest empathy. His hand reached out to touch Leto's back where he knew there was one scar in particular, acknowledged through his clothes. "I'm sorry. I didn't..."

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto watched Sama'el carefully as he performed the summoning. He seemed to be doing okay, at least until the memosite was banished back to whence it came, and he looked up to Leto with those empathetic eyes. He touched a scar upon Leto's back, and Leto flinched a bit at the touch, eyes realizing what had happened when Sama'el had summoned the stone. Falling to his knees, his eyes downcast towards the ground, he let out a heavy sigh. Reaching his hands up and placing them upon Sama'el's knees, he whispered, "I'm sorry... That memory was not meant for your eyes, but perhaps it's our dumb luck the memosites display the memories they do..." Gulping for a moment, holding back the tears, he moved his hands back towards his own body, placing them upon his shoulders, and started to rock back and forth, the memory he had tried so hard to hide from the world was let out, and now Sama'el knew Leto's shame as a boy. He had run from the killer of his family as compared to facing the creature.

"I... I ran away from them... and even then I barely got away... if it wasn't... if... they hadn't come... I don't think i'd be alive right now..." he continued to whisper. "I don't know... how many drykas were killed that day... along with my family... and I ran from it, instead of facing it like I should have..." What could he have done, he was only a boy. Barely able to ride a pony, and wasn't trained in the art of any combat like the diamond pavilion happened to be. "There was nothing I could do!" he cried out, the tears finally flowing down his cheeks as he bent forward, dry heaving at the memory that he had passed onto Sama'el through use of the memosites. Recovering briefly, he picked his head up, the elder drykas looking towards the younger, and asked, "Please... don't think of me as a coward... I... I'm not strong like the members of the Watch..." It seemed as though every scar on his body was burning at the memory of the pain that he had gone through, even when he blacked out, he could still feel the pain of the creature cutting into him with it's claws, it's vicious blades.

"I don't even know what it was that attacked us that day..." he finished, not quite knowing what else to say to Sama'el, but knowing that he didn't want to risk losing a friend over a cowardly thing that he had done when he was younger, that other Drykas had to save him from. He didn't even know what had become of his younger brother, only four years younger than him, and disappearing all the same. He was probably dead. That creature, whatever it was, tore through his family like they were nothing. Leto only survived out of the pure luck of his running towards Endrykas, and the Watch coming to his rescue, assailing the creature and providing a means to escape from it...