[flashback] rare books (caelum & hadrian)

[Hadrian]

Hadrian caught a sight of the diminished Caelum before he left the room, and heard his words from without. After a moment or two of dazed quiet, he began shuffling through their notes, collating and ordering things with, as the ethaefal required, precision. Some things were cross-referenced, but he tried to keep it all logical. Not his logic, necessarily, or even Caelum's, but the shared logic they had forged together over the hours. He couldn't say that he completely understood what they had done, but parts of it tickled at the edges of his awareness. He knew he would not be able to fall right to sleep tonight; his brain would be turning each datum over and over trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. The sundering of Syna and Leth; the birth of the ethaefal.

That was work for masters, and Hadrian's education had hardly yet begun. He sighed and set the notes in a neat stack, wishing there would be time to copy it all out for himself that he might study it in Zeltiva as his facility with magical systems grew. Perhaps someday.

Finally he stood up and quietly walked out of the little study area to see what this transformed being was up to. Just a man. It was strange how quickly he had gotten used to the more fantastic form and now this tattooed man seemed like the thing fallen out of the sky.

"What would you do with the power of Dominion if you had it?" he asked softly. "Can the celestial realm be healed? Or would it just leave insurmountable scar tissue..."

[Caelum]

"My goal isn't to have it," came the sigh of words. It was not annoyance or frustration that pock-marked this rougher, thinner voice. It was still dark, still yanked on it's edges by an accent so incredibly foreign that it warped his words; but it had not the smooth, addictive quality of what words he spoke during daylight. "Not unless it's necessary. It's..."

He trailed off, frowning down at the fresh books piled into his arms. Moonlight from the windows mingled queerly with that of the specialized lanterns, creating an odd concoction that tried to suit him. It failed.

"I'm going to speak to the proprietor about borrowing these for the night," he said finally. He hesitated, star-swallowed eyes at long last meeting those of Hadrian Aelius. A loner not by nature but by accident, the whole of his existence on earth an accident itself, he inhaled. "Will you meet me here tomorrow so that we may continue?

It was a question, finally, not a demand borne on an air of arrogance and nearly insufferable distance.

[Hadrian]

"Yes," he said without thought or reservation.

This was what made his heart sing. This was the thrill of life that was missing while he remained with his family for the winter holiday. And this he would gladly do tomorrow and the next day, so enamored was he with the way Caelum's mind worked on a problem, though he got the distinct impression that it was more than just weariness dragging the avatar down now.

He stretched a bit to limber up after sitting in that chair for hours.

"I highly doubt you'll find an instructional grimoire on lost disciplines here, excellent though the establishment may be. Unless Phaleron is holding out on us, keeping some things locked away for the exact right person. Or price."

But he claimed he didn't want to wield forgotten powers, so Hadrian shrugged, turning the shrug into another realignment of his body.

"And if you haven't already, someday you should see the university library in Zeltiva."

[Caelum]

"Can't find a decent tome on it anywhere," he admitted gruffly. So did he gather odd, fringe bits that dashed against fading ripples of what was clearly a lost truth. It said it all in it's name, after all -- lost discipline.

"Maybe I will," he added and canted his chin. It was a polite, but curt nod to his conscripted scribe. Tucking the books close to his chest and gathered notes tucked carefully into his bag, he turned for the door.

There was more air in the room, somehow, once he had left it, as if his soul was a fire eating up all the oxygen in the world.

END

[Dusk]

XP Award! Hadrian XP Award Writing: 1 XP Research: 1 XP Philosophy: 1 XP Lore Award Ethaefal Forms Caelum XP Award Rhetoric: 2 XP Teaching: 1 XP Writing: 1 XP Additional Note I enjoyed the thread, guys - if you'd like to keep training these skills up, posting either individually or in another scene Training Thread would be a great way to go about it!