[flashback] the scholar and the pirate (nel & hadrian)

[Hadrian]

"Oh, all sorts of anything," he assured her vaguely. "There are several colleges that specialize in different sorts of things: magic, navigation, economics, literature, art..."

He smiled at the intent look on her sylphid face, manning up to the pain that was miraculously disappearing, though he didn't blurt anything about magic because it was possible that her prettiness was distracting him from the pain.

"A gnosis mark is supposed to be a sign on the skin that a god or goddess has marked you, either favorably or unfavorably. So in my case, Syna probably thinks I'm a vagik. But they aren't supposed to fade, really, and they sometimes grant powers or curses, depending..."

[Nel Sayo]

"That sounds like a fairytale," she laughed quietly.

Nel loved stories. Fairytales and legends, myths and great adventures, those were her favorites. Not a child of religion, though, our Nel. In all her time a-sea, she'd never met anyone god-touched, never stumbled into the path of a wizard. Weren't her kind of people. But she liked the idea of such things.

With a shrug, she started them walking again, though she fell side-by-side with him this time, instead of ambling aimlessly ahead of him.

"That's a lotta stuff to learn. I guess it takes awhile. Do you have a favorite?"

[Hadrian]

"The learning or the gnosis?" he asked, seeking precision as he had been taught. One or the other might be fairytale, but he was learning that fairytales were more than they seemed, full of encoded wisdom, whether for practical behavior or more magical purposes.

"The University is sort of magical. Anything you want to learn, almost, you can learn there. And gnosis, yeah. Zulrav's Stormwardens are granted marks, and they can control the winds."

It was something he had vague hopes of achieving, divine aid in his studies and endeavors.

"I'm focusing on magic now," he said, "and not just to piss off my parents. I know a lot of people disregard it, but here there be wizards... It's all kinds of awesome."

[Nel Sayo]

"Well it all sounds pretty fantastic," she laughed.

But her mouth formed a perfect O of wonder when he spoke of the stormwardens, and controlling the wind, and that was the sort of thing that Nel was interested in. That sort of thing could be useful. And awesome -- yes, awesome was the perfect word for it.

"Wow!" she decided, rocking back on her heels for a second, before continuing on. "Magic, huh? Can you do anything? I've never met a wizard -- you're my first. I mean, I've always heard they existed, but I guess I never really thought -- really thought -- that I'd meet one. We're just here for the day, in Zeltiva, we never stay long. My brother jokes that I'm made of magic, but that's stupid anyway -- Could you turn me into a toad or anything? Not me, I mean, but somebody else."

[Hadrian]

He laughed and found that whatever combination of leafy goo and feminine wiles she'd worked on him was soothing at least that portion of his anatomy.

"I'm not really much of a wizard. They make you learn all the boring stuff first. Like history and theory and such. It makes sense, I guess, though... Know how to treat burns and put out fires before they hand you a lit torch near a pitch-soaked ship."

He continued to grin at the quip about burns considering his state.

"I think I'm going to focus on magecrafting... improving things magically, and making magical things. They think I might have a talent for it. But, for you, I will try to learn whatever spell will turn you into a frog. If you really want."

[Nel Sayo]

"No!" she squeaked, around another tumble of laughter. "No, not me, I said, I don't wanna be a frog, but I mean, turning somebody else into a frog could be useful sometimes, right?"

And then you could punt them into the sea if you didn't like them and be on your merry way. Nel's way was often merry. She carried on beaming at the young wizard and bopping alongside him, in no rush.

"How do you improve something magically? Like make it more magical, or make it prettier, or what? Can you show me? Ha -- yes." A delicate arch of her eyebrows. "Burns. You. Treating them. You're one'a those blokes who had to put his hand in the fire just to be sure it burns, weren't you?"

[Hadrian]

"Maybe," he admitted, a little shifty as he tried to hide whatever guilty smile wanted to appear at being called out as an over-reacher.

"Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be better off as a frog, and fricasseed. But there are always consequences. And, like, I could take your dagger and make it nearly unbreakable, or sharper and impossible to dull. Or nearly impossible. Or make it more likely to find its target if you were throwing it. I mean, it's just a matter of finding the right reagents and a controlling a delicate flow of power."

[Nel Sayo]

"I don't really know what you're saying," she admitted, with another bright laugh. "But it sounds neat and when you fricassee frogs they're delicious."

She shrugged; it was enough for her.

[Hadrian]

He shrugged good-naturedly, wincing a little at the overheated skin of his chest shifting with the movement. Few people really understood magic; most people, even many Zeltivan-born, would just waggle their fingers and say 'woo-woo' when the subject came up. The more he learned himself, the more he realized he had yet to learn, and he was still working at precision in speech. It was as much incumbent upon the communicator to be clear as it was for the other person to pay attention.

"So what do you do?"

[Nel Sayo]

"I'm a sailor," she said proudly, aiming a beaming smile up at him.

She didn't look much like a sailor, but then she didn't look like much of an anything specific, either, just an odd amalgamation of sylph and street urchin.

"Which is not as neat as being a wizard, but I bet it's more practical a lot of the time."