Closed A meeting of misfits (Malvora)

[Tsaba]

23rd Summer, 513AV Tsaba sat crouched over a piece of parchment, carefully sketching out the complicated shape of a focus rune with the tip of her quill. Occasionally, she glanced over to the completed rune on the parchment she'd set just to the side, but she hoping to be able to draw a fair amount of it from memory by the end of the day. 'The Focus is the most integral part of Glyphing', Dr Marin had said, and Tsaba was determined to master it before the lessons became complex enough that lack of knowledge could hold her back. She'd abandoned her normal spot in the Auristics section, mostly to avoid being distracted by either the subject of Auristics or her study partner looking to talk about it. Instead she'd seated herself in a more central area. When she'd first arrived in Zeltiva the concept of sitting somewhere so public and letting her guard down to focus on her work would have struck her as not exactly a preferable situation, but she'd long since concluded that humans were largely harmless in an academic setting and it didn't matter if a couple of them chose to stare at her. Nuits weren't that unusual a sight, anyway. She paid little attention to the library at large as she carefully copied the rune, making sure she didn't miss any little strokes. Unless somebody came right over or addressed her, she was unlikely to notice anything except the movement of her own quill.

[Malvora]

Malvora felt extremely nervous as she peered into the library. Her dark eyes scanned the area. Her red hair was pulled back into a bun at the top of her head, thankfully the sun wasn't shining on it and it appeared more a regular black color rather than the red it appeared in the sun. She knew that she still looked Zith, but she was trying her hardest to keep that from showing. She had encountered far too many people who hated Ziths to think she was safe in the walls of the University.

She had recently enrolled in Glyphing, with a Professor Marin. She had the suspicion that the wizard didn't have the best opinion of her. Not because she was Zith, but because she had missed the woman's first class. She frowned. That was hardly her fault. She had enrolled in the University late and as it turned out most classes had already had their first classes. Which was unfortunate, because she rather enjoyed the idea of learning. Magic in particular.

Her dark eyes scanned the room. There was a certain section in the library that was designated to magics and one of them, she was sure, was designated for Glyphing. She soon located it, and to her surprise, she wasn't the first person to have arrived there. There was another woman, perhaps one of her classmates, though she seemed too old to be taking such a basic class, examining a piece of parchment. Malvora tried to figure out what race the woman was, examining her closely. She could find nothing to distinguish her as anything other than ordinary human.

"Um, hello," she said cautiously in Common, "I don't mean to disturb you, but are you...are you taking Glyphing with Professor Marin? Because you're in the Glyphing section and I just assumed..." she trailed off, "I can leave...if I'm bothering you...but I'm behind and I was hoping that perhaps you could...help me?" She bit her lip, hoping she hadn't crossed a line.

[Tsaba]

23rd Summer, 513AV Tsaba started when the newcomer spoke to her, although with her sluggish Nuit reactions it was unlikely that anybody would really notice. "Oh. Hi." She pushed some of her parchment out of the way to make room for the young woman. Her first impression was that the girl was a fellow Nuit -- a glance at her dark eyes and thin face seemed to suggest so -- but she almost immediately realised that she was wrong, even before she noticed the piercing that no remotely sensible Nuit would push into their body. The eye sockets were normal; only the eyes themselves were dark. And there was no sign of decay or preservation on the girl. She was unusual-looking, but to be entirely fair, Tsaba's experience on what was considered unusual on the mainland was a little limited. "Yes, I'm studying with Professor Marin," Tsaba confirmed. "I'm Tsaba, by the way. Please, sit." She almost didn't even have to remind herself to give a friendly smile. All this practice at human interaction was really paying off. "Of course I can help. I can show you the most important glyph, if you want. It's called the Focus."

[Malvora]

"Good day, Tsaba," the girl responded, taking the offered seat. She pulled out some writing supplies from her backpack and set them in front of her as she took the seat. She was excited about meeting someone who was in her Glyphing class. After all, Professor Marin had warned her that she had missed the first class and that she would have to work to make that up. She would have to study outside of class in order to catch up with her classmates.

"I'm also in Professor Marin's class. I'm Malvora, it's nice to meet you." She nodded politely as she examined what the woman was looking at. Glyphing, magic in general, intrigued her. She was thrilled when the woman offered to teach her the most important rune of Glyphing. She made a note on her parchment: "most important rune, focus," leaving space beneath it to sketch the actual rune.

"Thank you so much," she murmured to the woman's offer, "I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you. I fear that I may be behind in class." She hid her dismay behind her dark eyes and was careful to give little away from her expression.

[Tsaba]

"I wouldn't worry too much. We spent most of the lesson practising the focus rune, so I'm sure you'll catch up in no time." Probably best not to mention that Dr Marin wanted them to be able to draw the rune properly by the next lesson; that'd just make her nervous. "She says that the overall shape isn't important, but all the components and their placement are," Tsaba added. "If we get the wrong thing wrong, it can be dangerous to use, but some mistakes don't matter as much. I'm not experienced enough to be able to tell which mistakes are bad yet. Do you do any other magic, besides Glyphing?" It might be good to know what the girl did in case they progressed to anything beyond just drawing glyphs; Tsaba couldn't see how using a badly drawn Focus for Auristics could be any more dangerous than just not working, but if the girl had magic like Dr Marin's, then they'd need to be a lot more careful. Not that it was likely they'd be ready to do anything like that so soon; Tsaba didn't want to try actually using the Focus until she'd had some kind of confirmation from Dr Marin that she could actually draw useable ones. But it helped to be prepared. "I'm guessing you're new to Zeltiva, huh?" she added as she got back to her sketch. "Did you come to study, or move for another reason and just do this on the side?"

[Malvora]

"That is quite the relief," Malvora murmured as Tsaba assured her she wouldn't be too far behind. If she had walked into the second day of class and had been severely behind she might not have worked up the nerve to continue and that would have been a waste of her 60 mizas she had paid. She was worried about much regarding her Glyphing class. This included the fact that she was perfectly aware that she was half Zith and that it showed. There was a good chance that there would be someone in her class with an awareness of what a Zith looked like and would take offense to her.

It would not be the first time.

"I know a bit of Alchemy," she admitted after a moment, "but I haven't much experience. I plan on experimenting with that a bit. I haven't really encountered anyone who is willing or able to teach me. You say that a mistake could be detrimental? Interesting. It is a fairly exact magic then, of course which aren't?" She was uncertain as to how much Glyphing could help her with Alchemy, but she did know that once she moved onto working with other magics, such as Animation, it would come in handy.

"I'm not exactly new. My mother and I came here when I was five after...there were some family problems and we had to leave my home. I planned on attending University my whole life, but we had...financial issues of a sort and my mother had difficulty obtaining a job." She did not even hint at the fact that her mother had been a prostitute for a living, "She recently passed and I decided that I could sell our...home, if you could call it that, and move into the University and take classes with the money I earned." She felt as though she had successfully explained her history without allowing for any indication that her childhood was abnormal. People often suffered familial strife and financial issues. Of this, she was certain.

[Tsaba]

"I'm sorry to hear that," Tsaba replied. "My parents died when I was very young. But I was lucky enough to have a man take me in." She found a piece of parchment in her notes and pushed it along the table. It contained a short list, in different handwriting to her own: -"Magic and I" -"The Forms of Djed" -"Mystery of Magic" -"Soul of the Wizard" -"Glyphing: A Deconstruction -"Introduction to Glyphing" "Dr Marin wants us to read these books by the next lesson. We could read the first one together, if you want." She didn't wait for a response before getting up to comb the shelve for Magic and I -- whether Malvora wanted to study with her or not, she'd still need the book. Tsaba wasn't certain whether the books needed to be read in a specific order, and without confirmation she'd just have to try to follow the list order, just in case. "I don't actually know anything about Alchemy. My only real magic is Auristics. I'm actually more of a scribe than a mage." Having located the book, she carefully slipped her woolen gloves on and pulled it down. "I hope you like reading, Malvora; this class seems to have lot of it."

[Malvora]

Malvora quickly copied down the book titles, making a note to find them, check them out, and read them in her quarters, given to her by the University. It would do her good to have these books on hand to consult when she practiced her Glyphing. Of course, she had already checked out a few Alchemy books, and hoped to delve into them soon. The practice and study of magic, it seemed was quite text heavy, something that almost surprised her.


"I am sorry to hear of your parents," Malvora replied as Tsaba shared her own tragedy. It seemed that parents were often the target of some ill-will, perhaps a fate decreed by the gods. Judging from Tsaba's appearance though, Tsaba was quite a bit older than Malvora and the parents she had lost had likely died years ago. It did not mean her pain was any less than Malvora's, it simply meant she had more time to heal.

"I'd love to read it with you," Malvora responded as Tsaba got up to locate the book and returned with it in her hands. She nodded at Tsaba's statement that this was a reading heavy class, "I enjoy it immensely," she replied, "it is one of the things I do exceptionally well."

"My Alchemy knowledge is fairly limited, as I only gained some experience in it with a few ill-fated experiments. I've yet to attempt anything since then, I'd rather wait until I encounter someone who can help me learn a bit more." She nodded again as Tsaba noted that she was more a scribe than a mage, Malvora had hoped to get a job as a scribe, herself, but had yet to get any response in regards to her interest.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba waved a hand dismissively at Malvora's comment about her parents. "It was an extremely long time ago," she said, "and I wouldn't be alive today had things panned out any differently. Any death is a cause for sorrow, but some are unavoidable." At Malvora's agreement to read together, she opened the book to the Introduction and pushed it between them. Almost immediately, she began scratching notes. It was only when she reached the bottom of the page and looked up to see if Malvora was ready to move on that she remembered that humans liked to make small talk, and simply scribbling away in silence might be perceived as rude. "Why are you hoping to learn Glyphing?" she asked. "Just idle curiosity? Or for a job, perhaps?" It probably wasn't a fair question -- Tsaba could hardly be sure why she'd chosen it, although it was quickly proving to be an excellent choice. But unless they wanted to discuss dead parents, it was the only subject that really came to mind.

[Malvora]

She fell silent at Tsaba's dismissal of her parents' deaths. If it was of no concern to the older woman than she would not bother continuing to talk of it. She lapsed into silence with the other woman, scanning the page as she read. She made a few quick notes in passing, thrilled to finally be gaining some skill. When Tsaba looked up at her, she nodded, noting that she had finished the page at a similar time. Good, they read at a similar pace. She would have been content to read in silence, but Tsaba interjected. She looked up at the older face.

"I have a...love, I suppose is the best thing to call it, of magics. Any magic really. I'm trying to learn all that I can in the next few seasons. I might make a voyage to Sahova someday, but...well...there are things about Sahova that worry me." Notably, she was unsure if she wanted to give up this body to live in another. Becoming a Nuit wasn't unappealing, in and of itself. It was more the fact that she happened to be very fond of what she looked like right now, even though she was often perceived as a monster by people who knew what Zith look like.

"What about you? You mentioned Auristics, I don't know much about that, is Glyphing useful with it?"