"speech"
"others"
The little blue book that Madeira retrieved from the bookcase was slim but well-made in design. Ennisa, who had come to appreciate books and paper since working at the Cosmos Centre, flicked through the blank pages appreciatively but said nothing. She listened carefully to what Madeira had to say. She explained how malediction was wrought; circles, wine barrels, energy. Djed, a word with an arcane twist to it. She was a regular citizen, a normal person so to speak, and this brief but well-explained description of the magical fabric of reality was foreign and deeply fascinating. So fascinating that she temporarily forgot her distrust and dislike of her new teacher.
Right up until the Spiritist tapped her a couple of times on the forehead to demonstrate her point. Then, she remembered that she didn't really appreciate being talked down to, didn't appreciate being mocked. Was she being ridiculous? Probably. It was her right to be ridiculous if she wanted to be, wasn't it? Never mind that now.
Ennisa looked at Madeira's little red book filled with scribbles and circles. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the arrangement of the book, but she wondered if there was anything else that the Spiritist had written down, anything that she was hiding from her, perhaps on the back pages. The thought also reminded her of her own travelling notebook, full of her own scribbles and secrets, easily readable by anyone with any literary comprehension, which would be most people in Lhavit. She would need to do something about that.
Madeira's instruction rang out, and her teacher lent against the wall to watch her as she constructed her first malediction circle. Ennisa was a fairly confident young woman, but there was something about the blonde Spiritist that set her on edge. She commanded herself to ignore the lurking mage, and instead bent the first page of her new blue journal open. The charcoal was black and crumbly on her fingers, and it wouldn't have been her preferred writing material, but she supposed she'd bow to Madeira's way of doing things for now.
"Tell the djed your pulling from the bird what qualities you want from it with that image." She drew a circle slowly so as not to smudge or waver, but it ended up being more of a wonky oval anyway. Never mind. Presumably, that wasn't the main importance here. Once she'd finished the circle, she considered the crow's skull. It was a fragile thing, the mass of bone and once-working parts, but if she concentrated she could quite easily imagine the feathers the bird once wore, and the bright, intelligent eyes of the crow.
What qualities did she want to draw from such a creature? Flight immediately sprung to mind, but she knew flight would be achieved from this first go round. Intelligence? No, flight would be the better option, or more precisely, speed. In the centre of her wobbly circle, she wrote in small but not illegible writing, "As the crow flies". Next, she began to draw. Firstly, because she wasn't sure she would get the shape right, she drew on the outside of the circle as a practice. She sketched the rough shape of a wing outstretched, the fingers of the feathers, and the lines of the feather shafts. She did this a couple of times until she felt she had managed to portray some of the strength of a beating wing, and then loosely copied this sketch behind the words. Then, to finish off and make it look a little more decorative, she roughly drew two disembodied almond shaped eyes, and coloured these in black with the charcoal.
The circle was large, and in its current state would certainly not fit on the crow's skull, so before she called Madeira over, she tried to copy the whole thing, but a lot smaller. She wasn't quite so pleased with the result, as she had to squeeze everything in. To save space, she shortened the phrase to, "atcf", which made no sense out of context but at least she knew. Then, still slightly displeased with the final result, she beckoned the Spiritist over. "I've finished. Take a look. What next?" If this was seen to be impatient, well... Ennisa didn't give a petch.
Right up until the Spiritist tapped her a couple of times on the forehead to demonstrate her point. Then, she remembered that she didn't really appreciate being talked down to, didn't appreciate being mocked. Was she being ridiculous? Probably. It was her right to be ridiculous if she wanted to be, wasn't it? Never mind that now.
Ennisa looked at Madeira's little red book filled with scribbles and circles. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the arrangement of the book, but she wondered if there was anything else that the Spiritist had written down, anything that she was hiding from her, perhaps on the back pages. The thought also reminded her of her own travelling notebook, full of her own scribbles and secrets, easily readable by anyone with any literary comprehension, which would be most people in Lhavit. She would need to do something about that.
Madeira's instruction rang out, and her teacher lent against the wall to watch her as she constructed her first malediction circle. Ennisa was a fairly confident young woman, but there was something about the blonde Spiritist that set her on edge. She commanded herself to ignore the lurking mage, and instead bent the first page of her new blue journal open. The charcoal was black and crumbly on her fingers, and it wouldn't have been her preferred writing material, but she supposed she'd bow to Madeira's way of doing things for now.
"Tell the djed your pulling from the bird what qualities you want from it with that image." She drew a circle slowly so as not to smudge or waver, but it ended up being more of a wonky oval anyway. Never mind. Presumably, that wasn't the main importance here. Once she'd finished the circle, she considered the crow's skull. It was a fragile thing, the mass of bone and once-working parts, but if she concentrated she could quite easily imagine the feathers the bird once wore, and the bright, intelligent eyes of the crow.
What qualities did she want to draw from such a creature? Flight immediately sprung to mind, but she knew flight would be achieved from this first go round. Intelligence? No, flight would be the better option, or more precisely, speed. In the centre of her wobbly circle, she wrote in small but not illegible writing, "As the crow flies". Next, she began to draw. Firstly, because she wasn't sure she would get the shape right, she drew on the outside of the circle as a practice. She sketched the rough shape of a wing outstretched, the fingers of the feathers, and the lines of the feather shafts. She did this a couple of times until she felt she had managed to portray some of the strength of a beating wing, and then loosely copied this sketch behind the words. Then, to finish off and make it look a little more decorative, she roughly drew two disembodied almond shaped eyes, and coloured these in black with the charcoal.
The circle was large, and in its current state would certainly not fit on the crow's skull, so before she called Madeira over, she tried to copy the whole thing, but a lot smaller. She wasn't quite so pleased with the result, as she had to squeeze everything in. To save space, she shortened the phrase to, "atcf", which made no sense out of context but at least she knew. Then, still slightly displeased with the final result, she beckoned the Spiritist over. "I've finished. Take a look. What next?" If this was seen to be impatient, well... Ennisa didn't give a petch.