The elf didn't look prepared at all. As a matter of fact, Siana would be surprised to find out that he even thought twice about his audition. He stammered, went on unrelated tangents, and looked terrified at the prospect of questions. She was sorely tempted to just kick the idiot out of the room, but it was better not to create a precedent. The rules she set were clear - if she didn't leave herself an avenue to dismiss people earlier, she had no choice but to listen. She could as well give him a chance.
"And what application do you see for your ability?" she asked, tapping her fingers against the surface of her desk.
The elf looked positively surprised. "Uh... application?"
"Do I need to provide you with definition?"
"Ah- no, no need, Highmaster Whitechalk! There's... plenty of application! In everything!"
"I would require a more defined example" she commanded. "Can you give me one, for example, in industry?" Perhaps narrowing it down would help the fool. Siana herself already had some ideas, but she had no intention of doing his job for him. He hasn't earned it so far.
"In industry? Uh, of course, Highmaster! For example, there's... well..."
"Time's up" a servant announced, mercifully cutting this pathetic display short.
"What? I mean- Please, wait! I just need a little more time!" the elf shouted. Apparently he lacked self-awareness as well as preparation and... pretty much everything she was looking for. Siana waved for one of the guards to escort the idiot out.
"Next, please."
Evan was quite intrigued and didn’t bother to hide his curiosity. To think: a mage capable of manipulating time. Now, he had a semblance of a theory of magic, which could successfully describe many magical phenomena, but manipulation of time was in a league of its own. For all intents and purposes it should not even be possible!
Of course, being an opportunist that he was, Evan simply could not deny himself the chance to speak to this paradoxical individual, especially since there was an audience day. It seemed fate itself wanted him to face this challenge, to embrace this new possibility.
As the door opened, Evan was treated to the sight of a seemingly desperate elf being escorted out. Perhaps not everyone was quite as carefree as he was... When called at last, Evan walked through the open door and gave the lady a small bow. He didn’t know how people greeted nobility here, and etiquette was a side project of his, but the implications of the ability of this lady in front of him simply dwarfed everything else.
“Good day, my lady,” he introduced himself, “my name is Evan and I am a wandering scholar of sorts. As to the reason for my seeking an audience with you - well that’s just my curiosity. If you don’t mind, the locals speak of you being capable of manipulating time. Is that true, my lady?”
Now here was to hoping he wasn’t too rude.
Siana's expression turned to one that teetered between a frown and amusement. "And you would believe every single rumour you hear, master... Evan, was it?" The herald standing by the door confirmed it with a nod. The chronomancer couldn't say she was pleased - although the rumours never threatened her. It wasn't something that would require an intervention - wagging tongues would always make up stories, and accidentally hitting upon the truth was of no concern. Acting upon it would only make those more perceptive notice that there was something the Whitechalk family wanted to keep hidden.
"Good sir, if I were capable of manipulating time, I would most certainly use it to get back the minutes I lost through the previous petitioner" she answered. "And I fear you have chosen your way of verifying those rumours... poorly. The purpose of this audience day is to provide people with vision with a chance to share this vision and possibly receive support to make it come true. You do have such a vision - or at least a skill you want to improve, do you not?"
A rhetorical question, one everyone in the room knew the answer to. He had to - he wouldn't be here otherwise.
"Why, you flatter me, my lady," Evan replied with a smile. When he said that the focus of his curiosity was chronomancy he didn't lie, but that was not the whole truth either. In reality, there was a whole long list of things that brought him here. Discussing the reason for his curiosity about chronomancy was just as well for him.
"I do have a vision, as you put it, my lady," he continued, turning his gaze to the windows. "I am sure you have extensive training in magic, but in my experience teachers usually skip the what's, how's and why's. To them it's all empirical correlation with no need to describe the cause," he scoffed, then looked back at Siana. "Have you ever wondered about the nature of magic: what it is and how it interacts with our world, my lady?"
Clearly, he must have had experience with only bad teachers. It wasn't surprising - after being used to Whitechalk quality, Siana had a well-founded habit of recognising everything for being of unacceptable quality. That whatever magic teachers he had neglected such an important part of training was saddening, but not surprising.
"Theory and specific nature of every spell is a vital part of the Art, one not to be neglected" she responded. "Any fool can learn a cantrip or two, but to truly be worthy of a title of a mage, one must know the truth of their abilities and their nature. It is regrettable that many are content with just trusting their spells to work, rather than knowing how and why they work. Is this what you're after? Studying the nature of magic?"
"Indeed," Evan nodded. "Though I go even deeper. People who do go through the trouble of learning their theory are usually content with just their branch of magic. I have yet to meet anyone who would try to explain why those branches exist in the first place, what unites them and what sets them apart," he paused. "I've made more progress in learning what unties different branches of magic though..."
"For example... What do you think, my lady, fire magic has in common with, say, the art of transforming things?"
Siana folded her arms, responses springing from her mind and to her tongue. It was a broad question, one that had many true answers, and there wasn't a lot for her to guess, he didn't give any indications about the nature of what truth he sought. But she wasn't concerned - so far, everything pointed to this Evan being a man of scholarship and science, one to view what he did not ask for as yet another avenue to explore in his search for truth.
"Are you speaking of the act of transformation itself?" she asked. The fire transformed rather than destroyed, from whole into ashes. An entropymancer's hex of destruction and a flamespeaker's fireball may look very different on the surface, but the act and the result was the same.
"Or do you mean the effort in maintaining it?" It was not enough to conjure a ball of fire, it wouldn't remain on its own. Summoning a rock into the world was a simple effort of will, singular and without need to further attend to. But fire was different, it would burn out and disappear without the mage's mind expending effort to keep it burning. And why wouldn't it, without fuel to devour?
"Maybe you wished to invoke the Dawnseeker Theorem?" She could go on until he indicated that she hit upon what he wanted to unearth.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, my lady," Evan grinned. "I've never been good with names after my amnesia. If you'd like to specify the contents of the theorem, I'd be delighted to discuss it, but for the sake of time, let me illustrate my point."
He snapped his fingers and flame erupted between him and Siana. It burned quietly before morphing into a solid piece of steel, which fell on the floor with a dull thud. Evan's smile never left his face as he explained: "They are one and the same you see. Fire is just a byproduct of the reaction of oxidization of some types of matter and iron is a type of matter itself. There is only one thing that sets apart wood, iron, air and any other substance," Evan floated the ingot for Siana to examine, even if it was just a mundane piece of metal. "Would you care to guess what I am referring to, my lady?"
Amnesia. That would explain both his lack of a title, despite interest in scholarship, and his lack of knowledge in several areas. Still, it wasn't something she would hold against him - she worked with people with worse disadvantages before. And she did find his words interesting. "I see. I once sponsored a physicist who worked on similar research. According to the results of her work, the answer to your question would be... the nature of particles making up matter and the bonds between them."
"Well, that's true," Evan nodded. "But the difference between particles is energy. One can be turned into another if you have enough power. And of course that also means that any matter nearby is a source of energy. I did for example completely destroy a number of molecules in the air around us to perform that little parlor trick," he gestured to the ingot and vanished it without much consideration. "That mechanism, I believe, lies in the foundation of all branches of magic and only the act of manipulating this energy can be considered indescribable magic itself," Evan stopped. "Though I do have a number of ideas regarding it, I'd rather not bore you with conjecture."
"So you see," Evan looked at Siana, "chronomancy is a very interesting challenge, because on the outside no transfer of energy takes place, and to confirm or a deny any hypothesis, I would need to observe said magic in action."
He certainly was a man able to keep his goal in mind and steer the conversation back to his goal. It was a quality she could respect, even though it was inconvenient at the moment. It wasn't just the matter of what she thought was best - the good of her family took priority over one person's judgement. And she couldn't claim that there was no advantage to keeping the knowledge of her abilities in the domain of rumours and guesswork. Advantage that belonged rightfully with the Whitechalks, and she would rather keep it that way.
"You needn't worry about boring me with theory and conjecture - the purpose of this meeting is to propose it, after all" she pointed out. "And so far, it looks like you have quite an unique view on magic, something worth researching. Apart from chronomancy, what else would you like to study?"
Evan couldn't really blame Siana for the refusal, he'd be the same if he had any family secrets to keep. Still, it was rather disappointing. On the other hand, the last question was a good enough olive branch for him and he did have a side project or two in mind.
"Well, I didn't arrive to Atlas Verde due to chance alone," Evan offered a small smile. "Your minerals and gems are of some interest to me. You see, there are some difficulties with integration of iron into my theory - but that's more guesswork than anything. I also believe that some of the gems you mine here might be good for my enchanting experiments. And of course, I shouldn't forget about some benefit for you..." he looked at the ceiling. "Yes, I believe that should interest you. If one can store enough energy in a dense enough object, then the process of smelting for example becomes much simpler."
Siana nodded. "If you're after researching magical gemstones, you can find no better place for it than Atlas Verde." She didn't bother to keep pride out of her voice - why should she? She was never the kind to value false modesty, after all. And her province was famed for its jeweling and industry.
Out of the corner of her vision she noticed the herald giving her a sign. They were out of time. She focused her attention back on Evan. "I usually set a specific time frame for each person to present their idea, and I keep to it. I think it's safe to say that you've made your case and I will support your research."
She plucked one pearl off her earrings. They were all telepathically charged, meant to hold her thoughts and convey them to her servants. After all, if she had time to explain every single thing to her people, she could as well handle each case alone. One of her men - a well-groomed elf in Whitechalk family livery - caught it with his telekinesis and bowed, understanding the situation. He walked up to mage. "I will take it from here... master Evan."
Apparently he was as much at a loss of words about how to address someone without a specific scientific title as she was.
"Very well," Evan nodded to the elf. "Thank you, my lady," he gave Siana a small bow. "I am sure we'll both benefit in the end."
Indeed, and if the fates would allow it, he might still get the chance to study chronomancy. And if not, well, this little research would bring him closer to his goal regardless. Now there was the question: how would one contain a lot of energy in a small dense object? It was a riddle worth solving!
The elf led Evan to a nearby office, equipped with a similar set of furniture plus one additional plush armchair to be occupied by one lucky enough to be invited within. He indicated for him to sit as he took the chair behind the desk. He opened one of the drawers and took out a prepared contract, stoppered inkwell and a quill made from a feather of some exotic bird, using his magic to arrange them on the desk. He opened the inkwell, dipped the quill in and turned his attention back to the mage. "Greetings. My name is Salvail Willander and I will be handling your case." The fingers of his left hand were still playing with the enchanted pearl. "You will be researching the capacity of Verdan gems to hold magic, correct? I assume you would need specimen for your research - do you already have a laboratory or workshop, or shall I have one prepared?"
Evan gglanced around the room while the elf was getting the papers ready. The local nobility really di d have a sense of style. The chair was nice too. Perhaps the current lady of the family wasn’t different from him, they both did pay attention to the little things.
There was this nagging feeling at the back of his head to study the pearl and how it stores what he assumed to be orders for the elf. Were those memories the elf was meant to access? Unlikely. Were those thoughts, if so, were they a series of words or mental images, that the elf was supposed to interpret. Evan was so engrossed in his thoughts that almost didn’t notice the question.
“Greetings, I would be grateful if you had one prepared for me,” he replied. Yes, having a proper lab for a change would be good for his research. Perhaps he would be able to conduct those experiments he always put back for another day...
The elf was so absorbed in filling in the forms that he didn't notice the extra attention Evan was paying to the enchanted jewel. "What kind of a lab would you need? Any specific equipment? Glaive's Cradle? Stonespeaker lens? Ironweaver transformator?" he began to rattle off a long list of arcane paraphernalia. It looked like he was going to continue for a long time, but suddenly stopped, his fingers tightening around the pearl. Apparently he just received from it some important information. "Or... physicist apparatus? I can't claim to know what would be those, but if you give me names, I can order what's needed."
The reaction of the elf was interesting, apparently the pearl was enchanted to not only store information - whichever medium it may use - but also to receive it and probably transmit. It was quite qurious. Evan did however, had the patience and self-restraint not to ask, or at least that's what he was repeating to himself.
"A physicist apparatus - the entire kit - would be useful... Maybe the lenses," he mused. "I'll need an alchemic purifier too," Evan tapped his finger against the handle of the chair, the rhythmic sound making it easier to organize his thoughts. "I think that's all for now," he concluded. "If I need anything else, I'll let you know."
Willander patiently took down all the names, pausing every now and then to make sure he wrote the unfamiliar words right. He was too absorbed in writing to notice the ever-increasing interest in the pearl - and would probably stay this way, unless Evan tried to take it from him. He did stiffen a bit at the sound of rapping, but was professional enough not to make a comment about it.
"Now then, before we sign anything, I suppose we should discuss the terms of the contract" he sighed. He clearly preferred filling in the blanks to the actual conversation. "This is the same agreement offered to every scholar under Highmaster Whitechalk's patronage."
Rather than rely on his words, Willander picked up one of the pages of the contract and turned it around for Evan to see. The terms were quite simple. The patron party was obliged to provide accoutrements such as workplace, equipment, specimen, even living expenses if necessary - as long as the researcher party would give an account what was it needed for. Clearly, while the Whitechalks had the coin to found those enterprises, they were not willing to be fleeced for unnecessary costs. There was next to nothing about any sort of profits from the research, either.
That was all this particular page contained. Willander kept searching through similar-looking documents to find the next page. Even though they were turned towards him, it was simple enough to notice that they were mostly the same, with only a few lines changed. Apparently the only first part of the agreement was what he meant when he said that it's the same for all the patroned scholars and researchers.
It is clear that searching for an appropriate second part is rather frustrating - the elf's movements and gestures grow erratic and faster as he nervously picked through the mountain of paper. His grip on the gem only tightened, apparently not helping at all in his dilemma. Finally, he gave up and was forced to engage in the hated social interactions. "What sort of rights to intellectual property are you after?"
Evan react the part of the agreement in his hands and nodded. That was acceptable, hevwasn't going to misuse the offered funds - it would just go against his beliefs and ethics. He wondered if anyone actually tried swindling nobles like this... They most likely did.
"Intellectual property rights?" Evan wondered. "All the theories I make during this research will be my intellectual property," he paused. "Well, I suppose all the inventions too, though it would only be fair if this noble house could use them without paying me anything. Then again, there could be made a provision for negating ownership of an invention if the noble house so desires. Is that acceptable?"
Willander nodded, carefully putting a stack of papers in the drawer. "Acceptable. Now then, about publishing your results..." He stared morosely at the pearl. "Since you don't have a title or any formal training, I don't know if that's what you're after. Is it?"
Evan turned his eyes to the elf, looking not quite at him, but rather behind him. It was a valid question. He didn't remember if he had any titles before amnesia, but given the fact that he had yet to encounter anyone referring to him by any sort of meaningful title, he was sure there was none to his name. If Evan was his real name - he was fairly sure it was though. He caught himself wandering and quickly set his mind back on the question at hand. It was an easy one anyway.
"That depends on what kind of results we are discussing," he concluded. "If it is my theory of magic, then I might try and get it published if I get enough data during my stay in here. Some theories I might come up with and prove - too. Inventions... well, I think I decide on that what I actually get there."
Willander picked out one of the pages he was browsing and slid it forward. It was detailing the terms of intellectual property ownership, as established earlier. He frowned, although it was hard to say whether he was reacting to Evan's words or just the whole task he's been assigned. "I see. How long do you intend to wait until publishing?" He quickly hurried to expound on his question. "Counting from the day of reporting your progress, not from the moment of making the discovery."
"It depends," Evan replied, reading the contract presented to him. "Discoveries can take time to test and properly analyze... I think I would like some wiggle room when it comes to the timetables of publishing. Say, two month after reporting. Will that work?"
Yes, bureaucracy was rather tedious and the elf was not intent on discussing magic, so Evan was getting bored. That was why he didn't like dealing with this paper-pushing. Politeness was the only thing preventing him from sighing. Nevertheless, it was necessary, so he would endure and, if he's lucky, time for science may come soon.
The elf finished forming another stack of papers, pushing them aside to make even more unnecessary room. "How long would you be willing to delay the publication, should need arise?" he asked. This time, he didn't offer any additional explanation, but the matter was simple enough to grasp. After all, if a scholar under the Whitechalk patronage discovered something important enough to seriously alter the political, economic or literal landscape, the family would probably want time to get their pieces in place before the discovery went public.
Evan raised an eyebrow at this. "Two months should be ample time for a need to arise, make itself known, be discussed and satisfied," he replied. "If the noble house wishes wishes to delay the publication any further, then I believe a case-to-case approach will be appropriate. The agreement can make provisions for such discussions and decisions, but I see little need in specifying it any further."
Honestly, bureaucrats...
"Couldn't have said it better myself" Willander muttered, apparently sharing in Evan's distaste of the bureaucratic bullshit. He quickly cut himself off, rather than risk acting unprofessional again. He pushed one last sheet towards Evan and began putting the rest down in the drawer. He freed up one hand, telekinetically making up for it, in order to indicate the quill and inkwell. "I recommend reading the details before signing."
Evan took the paper and carefully read through it. Looking at all those letters and words detailing the nuances of their agreement Evan just couldn't suppress the though of it being a waste of both paper and ink. In a better world people wouldn't actually break their promises, but unfortunately there was little choice. Thus, having finished the paper, he took the quill with a quick "thank you" and put his signature in the appropriate place. Hopefully now he would be able to get to his magic.
With the bureaucratic part being officially over, Evan let out a small sigh of relief.
Willander nodded and collected the papers, muttering a few spells under his breath - probably something to keep all documents together and preserve them from harm. "I will have a copy for your use, signed by Highmaster Whitechalk, delivered to- do you have an address? A place you're staying at?"
"Yes," Evan nodded. "That tavern... Can't for the life of me remember it's name."
It was a completely unremarkable tavern the likes of which Evan had seen hundreds if not thousands though, so remembering each individual name became somewhat a challenge for him somewhere along the way. There was something about land,asses in the name though. Mountains... Oh yes!
"It believe the name is Mountain Whispers tavern," he said. "Not too far from here. I'm renting a room there at the moment. Should I change my 'residence', I will notify you."
Willander didn't say a word, waiting patiently for Evan to find the name of the tavern. He didn't volunteer any, despite being clearly more familiar with the area - either he wasn't the kind to frequent taverns at all, or didn't think that this sort of jogging one's memory would work. He took the name down on a free piece of paper. "Very well. We will send a message once your laboratory is set up, or should there be a problem you need to know."
As Evan was leaving, another servant approached him - an nondescript-looking halfling wearing the colours of the family. "Highmaster Whitechalk wishes to speak to you". She thrust a small box into his hand. "Open it exactly at ten hour this evening."
"Thank you," Evan replied, giving the elf a polite smile. "I'll be waiting then." With bureaucracy out of the way Evan expected to have some free time, maybe explore the local area a little, he was distracted from these thoughts by the Whitechalk servant. He accepted the gift with a polite nod.
"Very well," he replied. "Thank you for the delivery." With his curiosity now renewed, Evan decided to go exploring for some time, but be back to the tavern by ten. It promising to be a very interesting evening.
The box, as it would turn out, contained a small frame made out of metal twisted in ways that would give any student of geometry a solid headache. There must have been some sort of a trigger to it, for upon unfolding, it would stretch to its limits to form a doorway tall enough to reach the ceiling and wide enough to almost not fit in the room. Clearly, it was designed to accommodate a variety of species, not just the humanoid majority. At exactly 10 hour, a portal shimmered into existence, fitting cleanly between the frames.
Evan grinned when he saw common sense denying shape of the object within the box. He made a mental note to ask Siana about the way one creates such forms. It would be quite interesting indeed. He had to make another mental note as the frame unfolded and formed a doorway. Now this was not just nfolding, it looked like creation of matter. Or perhaps the matter on question was collapsed into some sort of secondary dimension which existed in an inactive portable frame. Oh, that was certainly something to ask about.
The other, albeit less interesting ridddle was, of course, the purpose of this frame. Based on its shape - a doorway - one would infer that it was supposed to lead somewhere. Considering that it was without a doubt a magical artifact, it was entirely expected that it was indeed a portal. The construction of such artifacts was a process Evan had long been curious about, but ultimately considered his theory a little more important, thus never actually taking the time to properly research portals.
"Well now," Evan said with a small smile on his face as he looked at the nearby clock, it was exactly ten in the evening and the frame filled with shimmering magic, "isn't that simply interesting."
Smile never leaving his face, Evan stepped through.
Behind the portal was a lavishly decorated office. A rich plush rug covered the floor, thick enough to completely muffle one's footsteps. Very little of the walls was visible - large bookcases guarded them jealously, proudly displaying their contents. There was a window at the back of the room, but one glance was enough to determine that it was an enchanted surface rather than a real one - both the landscape it was showing and the warm daylight it let in could not have come from outside.
In front of the window stood a gathering of comfortable-looking armchairs, surrounding a fancy table. One of them was taken by Siana Whitechalk, behind the other stood a large golem bearing a tray with a full tea set on it. "Please sit" she motioned to the other free seats.
Looked like Bianca did her job well and delivered the temporary portal. Now they could start having a conversation - and better get to the point fast. She could command the time to move faster, but not recover any. "I am willing to work with you on your research" she began. There was value to be found in it, and this sort of insight was irreplaceable when advancing the cause of progress. And perhaps even she'd learn something new about her ability - that alone would be worth it.
"I have some conditions for any sort of work that involves my magic, but I believe we can reach an understanding."
Evan passed through the shimmering veil of magic and took a moment to look around. Well, his guess was correct, the doorframe contained a portal. He stood in a fairly nice room, probably considered quite fancy among the local nobles. Well, such details mattered little to him, as long as science was discussed, he would hold that conversation under a bridge in a rain. Though it was always nice to sit in a comfortable chair which Evan too with a nod of gratitude and a quick "thank you".
"Well, I'm quite glad to hear that," Evan replied. "Opportunities like this arise once in a lifetime - a fact I am sure you recognize, otherwise we would not be talking at the moment. Any and all limitations are acceptable, as long as they are reasonable," he hummed. "You probably want to keep some findings about the hows of your chronomancy a secret, that's fine, not all theories have to explain everything about their sources of data, especially if said sources are sensitive."
She nodded. "If I am to let you on confidential information such as the mechanics of my magic, I can allow it if you took the Twilit Bond." His face didn't express recognition - of course, he said that he had amnesia, she shouldn't assume that he would know what was she talking about.
"It's a magical oath. It prevents the subject from speaking about the matters tied to the sworn subject. What we learn would only be discussed in my presence alone. It would not affect your ability to share the knowledge you had previously - it doesn't work backwards. Are my terms acceptable?"
"That sounds reasonable," Evan nodded after some consideration. "Though I have to ask if you will be able to allow public disclosure of certain facts which we both deem harmless."
He leaned back in his chair, looking at the windows. "We'll need a very precisely worded description of the oath, it wouldn' be prudent to just agree to a magic bond on a general phrase."
Siana's lips formed a confident smile. "But of course." She chose it for this exact reason - it could be highly specific and precise. She heard stories about clever people tricking someone into taking the Twilit Bond and taking advantage of the wording. It wasn't relevant to the current situation, but it described well the accurate nature of the spell.
The golem began walking, heading to one of the bookshelves. Its heavy footsteps were muffled by the rich carpet. It kept balancing the tea tray in the crook of its elbow as it tried to pull one book out with its thick fingers. The chronomancer kept talking, oblivious to the creature's troubles. Finally, the construct managed to pull one tome from the bookshelf and place it on the table. Siana traced a glyph on the enchanted leather making up the cover, and the book opened to the desired page. She turned it over for Evan to read.
The golem stood up awkwardly, moving the tray to its hands again. With no other directive, it began to pour some tea.
Evan spared a passing glance at the golem - the contracts were fairly interesting, but rather inconsequential for his research. He had a fairly good guess how one was created, but it was neither engaging nor important enough to conduct an in-depth research. He took the offered book and looked through the intended pages. The information was as expected, details on the oath and whatnot.
"Agreeable," Evan nodded, giving the book back to Siana. He did not really like the idea of entering a magic bond. It was very restrictive and he liked his freedom... The possible information far outweighed these reservations though. Yes, tea looked indeed rather appealing amidst these deliberations..
The golem silently poured, then set the kettle back on the tray. It picked up a tiny fruit from a basket, squeezed its sap into one of the cups and offered the result of his effort to the noblewoman. It was clearly accustomed to preparing tea for her, it could handle the task without any input necessary. No such luck in Evan's case - the construct poured the full cup, then picked up the vessel filled with milk in one hand, the sugar bowl in other, and held it out for him silently.
While it struggled with its task, Siana was preparing the spell. She muttered something under her breath as she opened one of the hidden compartments under the table and took a small coin out of it. Frowning, she tossed it to the golem which instantly recalculated its priorities and decided to trust Evan to add whatever he wanted to the tea, setting down the sugar bowl. It picked up the coin and began to toss it in the air, each time providing the result for her to check. "The binder of the oath will only appear if we get heads" she explained.
It was perfect time to discuss the precise terms of the oath. "As you were concerned with the specificity of the oath, what wording would you use?" she asked.
Evan glanced at the golem again. Unfortunately before he could state his preferences it was already occupied with tossing the coin. A peculiar sight in all honesty. Regardless of that, hisvtea wouldn’t be complete without milk. With a simply swipe of Evan’s hand the jug was lifted into the air and an invisible force had it pour some milk into Evan’s cup.
“It’s a tricky matter,” he said when the tea was ready. “I should be able to talk about what I need except for the exact things you find to valuable or sensitive to be shared with others,” Evan paused to both take a sip of his tea, which turned out to be quite exquisite, and to think the matter of wording through. “How about this,” he put the cup back onto the table, “‘I shall not disclose anything pertaining to the nature of your abilities which you explicitly ask me not to disclose’. It should allow you to restrict access to sensitive information but still allows me enough freedom of maneuver.”
The golem finally succeeded at its task. It handed the coin back to Siana, then headed to Evan's side, as if to log his tea preference into whatever simulacrum of a mind its creator saw fit to enchant him with. The chronomancer took it, chanting something under her breath. Some translucent sort of smoke began to rise from the metal surface, as if it was heating up - but the skin of her glove showed no sign of burning.
The gas formed a small figure, vague enough to pass for a shape of some of the sentient races, but tiny enough to be able to comfortably hide within one of the tea cups. Some hissing came from its direction, a sound more of air than of throat. The chronomancer extended one arm in its direction, brushing close to the creature's form. Instantly, one of its hazy limbs extended far beyond the length of its entire height, wrapping around her wrist.
"Do move your hand closer" she instructed. "The binder has a limited... volume. Recite the words then."
Evan took som time, albeit not much, to study the shadowy figure above Siana's hand before following the noble's example. To be honest it's was the first magically binding vow he had ever done - or at least remembered. "I shall not disclose anything pertaining to the nature of Siana Whitechalk's abilities which she explicitly asks me not to disclose," he repeated. The things Evan did for his curiosity...
"This oath I accept and will honour" she recited. With a soft hiss, the gas forming the vague shape of the binder snaked through the air and entered their skin. It was quite a tingling sensation, but quickly subsided. As she tossed the coin, the golem extended its large hand to catch it.
Now that the formalities were over, they could begin what both of them came here for: the research. She leaned back in her armchair and posed the question. "I imagine you had the whole day to decide what experiment you want to try first." Not to speak of all the time he had since hearing the rumours.
Evan flexed his hand after the ritual came to an end. It felt as usual after the tingling sensation subsided — not a trace of the powerful magic left. He turned his focus to Siana when she spoke.
"I need to know what I am working with," Evan replied bluntly, "the extent of your abilities. The more I know, the easier it will be to uncover their nature and underlying mechanisms," he took a sip of tea. "I won't lie to you, I do have a number of ideas, but they are about as reliable as rumors, some of which claim you have a 70- meter tall magical unicorn in your basement. Without any information we will be but speculating."
Siana extended a hand in the direction of the golem, without even looking. The creature handed the coin back to her, without any prompting. The coin has served its purpose - without the oathbinder inside, it was useless to her. She had no qualms using it for a demonstration. But first... "I ask you not to disclose what you are about to see" she recited, before turning her power onto the coin.
There were no dancing lights, no fanfare or thunder, no theatrics. The coin just aged. The colour of the metal slowly changed, turning from proud copper to a sickly hue of green and blue. The shapes etched in metal slowly wore out, becoming smoother and indistinguishable.
Tempus fugit.