[Flashback] Too Many Magi [Moros]

[Hadrian]

12th Winter, 507 A.V. It was not two weeks into the season and he was already spending more time in the library than he was in the cottage he owned near the illustrious and ancient pre-Valterrian buildings that made up the bulk of the University. It was getting late enough that he would probably spend the night there, hiding in the stacks when it got to closing time, and lighting a candle to see him through the night until he found a comfortable chair to sleep in for whatever hours he managed to sleep. Just now he was sketching an imaginary tower, some fortress or domain he would create with magic someday. It was a complicated affair: an overall drawing, smaller studies of relevant parts, mathematical equations that proved such and such would support that other thing, glyphs in precise circles and patterns, sigils that would improve upon the mere design of the place, and little explanations written out in careful, yet whimsical calligraphy. There was a geometrical analysis, a few quick corrections, and finally he pushed it away. There would have to be a graduation at some point, and then a career that poured gold into his pockets. He would need either a shyke ton of gold, a shyke ton of magic, or just a ton of both to make this little dream a reality. "Perhaps alchemized building materials," he pondered quietly to himself, then stood up, stretching his long, skinny limbs until his back cracked and his chlorine-blue eyes went glazed for a moment. Shaking his head, he wandered into the stacks again, blinking when he saw another young man, perhaps his age, and of a height too. He was right where Hadrian wanted to look, but the young enchanter walked up anyway, politely keeping a bit of personal space between them, but perusing the same shelf of books. Even glancing sidelong, he could pick up a few details, especially when he blinked a few times to call up his Auristic vision. A magus, for sure, with an aura like that, though inexpert Hadrian couldn't tell much beyond that, a bit of a pattern of curiosity, which made sense considering he was in the library at this time. Blond hair, voluminous clothes that seemed to hide a body similar to Hadrian's, though he was attempting to look bigger, perhaps. He thought the young man looked familiar, but he only smiled vaguely and nodded when he caught his eye, a strange, golden sort of eye. He wondered if perhaps he was a Kelvic or something, though from what he understood, they didn't often take to learning magic. Ah well, but he dismissed the man from his thoughts, reaching out for the book he wanted.

[Moros]

Looking up from his book Moros realized that he had already been in the library for close to eight hours by the setting sun outside. He had a meeting just before lunch with Master Uriah and had come straight here to do some research. “Of course, I forgot about lunch” he muttered to himself as his stomach grumbled loudly, letting him know without a doubt that he hadn’t eaten in hours. Standing up and stretching his long and lanky limbs, arching his back and reaching his arms up and behind him Moros headed for the front desk to get yet another candle. These days he spent more on candles then he did on food. He approached the desk and took one of the shielded candles from the desk, handing the attendant 5 copper mizas and heading back to his seat. Just before sitting down he remembered that there was one more book he wanted to add to his growing stack to go through tonight. “something about Djed” He again muttered to himself while walking in-between isles looking for the right shelf. Once he found the right shelf he walked slowly down, dragging his finger along the covers as he read the titles, leaving a nice trail of dust across the books and sending clouds into the air. Noticing the other individual in the isle, he quickly took his finger off of the books, it was a bad habit to get into anyway. Taking a quick look over he noticed he was as tall as he was. But he was not here to stare and size up strangers. Looking back to the shelf he spotted the book he wanted, an old and dusty volume with a thickness of two or three fingers. Not a large book by any standards, but the size of a book did not determine its quality. In Moros's mind every book had the potential to change his way of thinking and how he thought of magic. Reaching out to grab it, already preoccupied with locating his next book to add to the stack. His hand connected solidly with the strangers hand. “Oh, sorry, just let me get my book and I will be out of your way.” he spat out quickly. Grabbing his book from the shelf and taking a large step back so that the man could find the book he was looking for. “There you go.” he said, flashing a quick smile.

[Hadrian]

The other young man had taken his book! Of course Hadrian had drawn his hand back immediately upon the unintentional contact, and as a result, the blond man had the book he wanted. But it wasn't an emergency, after all, and he overcame his initial, knee jerk reactions. It was just an old book, and anyway, what he needed to do was continue writing out the glyphs, not reading some long dead expert talk about them in theory. "Sorry," he said, then rubbed his eyes wearily. Perhaps the length of his time therein, reading and writing and cramming information into his mind, had made him temporarily insane. "If you're... if you're really looking into glyphing as a discipline," he said, pulling out another book and holding it out to the man, "you should look into this one. I've found it very helpful in the past."

[Moros]

Moros was not trained in reading facial expressions but even so he saw the look of complete surprise flash across the mans face. “What the heck, all I did was smile at him” he thought. The man sputtered some and Moros ignored it instead looking down to the book to double check it was the one he wanted, which it was. Looking back to the stranger he finally understood what he was saying. He was recommending a book to me. Taking the book Moros checked the title, “Glyphing in History.” It sounded boring, “I'm sure I will get to that one soon thank you. I'm rather tired right now and I don’t want a book that will put me to sleep.” Checking the book one more time so that he did not forget about it, Moros put it back on the shelf. Looking back at the man, who seemed frustrated and slightly confused Moros asked. “Can I help you with anything else?” He was not all to thrilled with helping the man, but figured that the least he could do after blatantly rejecting his book was to at least ask if needed help. He readied himself, hoping that the man was not as hopeless as he might seem. The last thing he wanted to do was run around the library looking for obscure books of his own choosing.

[Hadrian]

"Well, it didn't put me to sleep," he offered, wondering if this situation was really as awkward as it felt or if that was just a function of his weariness. Perhaps he should just head home and sleep. There was only so much a person could stuff into his mind at one time before the mind required dreamlife to assimilate it properly. "No, no. Thank you. I don't need any help. I'm just trying to decide whether to go home and sleep or skulk about past closing time to read... I haunt this place a lot when I'm not supposed to." He shrugged, knowing the librarian didn't mind overmuch since he was religiously respectful of the library materials. "Well... enjoy your books." Somehow he seemed to have antagonized the other student, so he prepared to extricate himself from the situation. Truth be told, he had plenty of books at home that he could read or re-read as the case may be. It would be strange to share the library with someone he had offended.

[Moros]

Moros had plenty of experiences in akward situations being the bookworm the he had been for most of his life. But this, this was very akward, normally he got along fine with other students, even if they were freshman just starting out upon their journey into the world of knowledge. He wondered how he would pull himself out of this situation, the other student did not look physically intimidating. Being almost as tall as he was, and just as skinny. He decided that he would rather not share the library with a fellow student who was just attempting to make himself better, just as he was. He decided that an apology was in order but decided that he would attempt to keep the book in his possession. “I'm.....uh....sorry bout that....” His eyes downcast, as if a little runt again being scolded by his mother for doing something he knew was wrong. He had hoped that by stammering out an apology that it would somehow rectify the situation but unfortunately it had quite the opposite affect. He had succeeded only in making himself look quite the fool while raising the tension in the room even higher. Instead he decided just try to make some conversation, hopefully he would just forget. “Are you studying Glyphing also? I think I have seen you around a couple of times.”

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was confused by this entire thing, but he was willing to give his fellow magic student the benefit of the doubt. He was apologizing and making conversation. Perhaps he did actually want to speak to Hadrian. Sometimes it was difficult to tell. Generally other students only spoke to him when they wanted something, like his notes or his help with something. "I, ah... it's all right. And yes, I suppose. Glyphing is part of magic. I'm studying magic. And anthropology. I figured that might help me blend in with local populations long enough to study their magical systems and innovations. Assuming I graduate without blowing myself up. I should spend more time studying glyphing, though, or at least cryptography. Eventually my notes will become sensitive documents and I wouldn't want just anyone being able to read them." It might have come across as arrogant, but it wasn't meant to be. Certainly he was working with strong magics when magecrafting, and that was quickly becoming his emphasis. "Ahhh. So. I'm Hadrian Aelius. What do you study?" He put out his hand to shake and make proper acquaintance.

[Moros]

“At least this is over” Thought Moros, happy to be away from situation that he had created. Hadrian, he knew he had heard the name around before but he could not quite put his finger on it, maybe it would come to him later. Shaking the man's hand he listened carefully to what Hadrian said. “His notes were going to become sensitive documents, what did he have planned?” again thought Moros. Again throwing it back into the recesses of his mind to think on later. At least he had reveled that he was a student of Glyphing, which would explain being in the library so late, Glyphing took hours upon hours of study to be even somewhat proficient. “I am Moros, as of right now I am studying Reimancy, Glyphing, and Alchemy here at the university, nice to meet a fellow student of the arcane.” He wasn’t sure if he should go on at this point but decided that it could not hurt to revel more about himself. “I study under Master Uriah, if you have heard of him, as of right now I am working on an experiment and I will need the use of glyphs to guide some of the magic in use, so I am here brushing up on some things so I don't kill myself.” Thinking back to what Hadrian had said earlier he suddenly asked. “Which section of anthropology? I mean there are lots of subcategories...right? As soon as he spit it out he realized that his lack of knowledge on the subject had just been reveled. Mentally rebuking himself for the mistake, he turned his attention to Hadrian waiting for an answer.

[Hadrian]

"Pleased to meet you, Moros. Alchemy, huh? I'm focusing more on Magecrafting than anything else, but we should exchange notes sometime. I have a feeling we'd find more similarities than one might expect. I know Master Uriah, but I haven't studied under him." He did watch Moros more closely now, curious. He had no negative feelings toward him; Hadrian was just an awkward sort of fellow. But he could discuss magic or some other scholarly pursuit with much less in the way of awkwardness, excited as he was by anything that tickled his mind just right. "Subcategories, sure. My specialization there is in cultural anthropology. Understand a culture and you can begin to understand their psychology, and that helps communicate and work with them, which is my eventual hope. If I can persuade a Myrian Maledictress not to eat me, then I might also be able to learn a thing or two from her, you know?"

[Moros]

“I would enjoy comparing notes sometime, there are similarity’s in all magics, but finding them can be very difficult.” Moros was more then curious about this character now, he as intrigued. Hadrian had proven to be a knowledgeable person. Normally Moros rejected having any sort of conversation about his magic unless it was with Master Uriah, but Hadrian seemed smarter then the average student here at the university. “Magecrafting eh? I've heard many things about Magecrafting some good, many bad. Does it really have the power that the stories say?” He had heard and read many a story of Magecrafted items, some so powerful that the limits of their power was not even known. What little he did know of magecrafting was limited to descriptions of a few items and their power, he knew naught the process that was used in making them nor the dangers involved. “Have you crafted anything of late then?” Moros naively asked, wondering if he had indeed met somebody much more advanced then him. Before Hadrian could answer he motioned that they should take a seat at the nearest table before their discussion could get out of hand and them left standing for half the night. Moros took a seat at the wooden table, putting both his hands palms down on the table after setting his lantern in the middle of the table so that he could see Hadrian's face. The light flickered off of his face, reflecting off of his chlorine blue eyes and making them seem to glow softly. The shadows danced off the walls as Moros listened to Hadrian closely.