Old Bones and New Magic [DragonSong! <3]

[Rhindeer]

"It's better to be relaxed because my kind of magic is all about feeling," Makani said as he laid the knife across his knees and met Kiri's eyes. "It's about instinct and letting go. Other types of magic require...mm...restraint, I guess you could say. Discipline. And this requires discipline, too, don't get me wrong. But it's different. There are few rules, and few right or wrong ways to do things. When you get really comfortable with it, when you really let it flow through you and speak to you...that's when you know you're one with it."

He cracked a small smile. "It sounds easy, right? But so many struggle with it. Society is filled with rules and rights and wrongs, and burdens and tasks and so much thinking and worrying, but that doesn't really exist among other creatures. You just...are. You are your feelings and your instincts and your passions and your emotions, in this moment. And that's what this kind of magic is. Besides that, your emotions will effect your work. If you're nervous or stressed or upset, it'll show in your blood and flavor the spell. We're going to do some work here now, and for this to work without any...side effects, you have to be calm."

He took a deep breath, and motioned to the gourd before her as he picked up his own and took a sip. "Kava root tea," he said. "It's good for this sort of thing. We're going to form a connection with our blood so I can properly monitor you. The process can be a little jarring, and if you freak out, it could be...unpleasant for us both."

Makani took another large swig, watching her. What he left unsaid was that the tea was as much for his own nerves as hers. Maybe even more so. After all, he had been through this process once before, years and years ago as a youth when he'd agreed to the training, but it was his first time sitting on this side as the teacher. What if he fucked it up? Maybe he should have put a little more consideration into the matter before he'd agreed, but...

Well, what had he just told Kiri about living in the moment? He perhaps did that far too liberally. And more honestly, he was curious, and his curiosity had always been both his delight and his doom.

[DragonSong]

"Okay," his new pupil said slowly, trying to process his words. She mirrors him, picking up the gourd and taking a sip of the tea, cranking her nose for the strength of the flavor.

"So...how does this work? What exactly should I be expecting?" If she knew what was going to happen, she figured she'd be less likely to "freak out".

[Rhindeer]

"Right," Makani said, taking another sip of tea. The true test here would be in how Kiri took his next few words. Makani was giving her ample opportunity to back out, just to play it safe. Besides, impulsive as he was, he did want to do this right. This was potent magic they were dealing with—the most powerful sort, in his opinion. There was no room for error.

"This is a binding spell," he started, and lifted the knife. "I'm going to cut your palm, and cut mine, and then we'll clasp hands and let our blood mingle. Er..." He paused, thinking of how best to phrase this. It sounded a lot stranger when he actually had to say it out loud.

"I'm going to, ah...we're going to exchange blood," he said, meeting Kiri's eyes. "Some of mine will flow into you, through the cut, and some of yours will flow into me. You'll feel hot all over, starting from your hand and traveling to your toes as it works through you, and it could feel...intense. We'll be connected, body, mind, and spirit. I'll be able to feel what you feel, and vice versa. Don't worry!" he added, holding up a finger. "We won't be able to know each others' thoughts. Just feelings, and intense sensations."

He cocked his head thoughtfully, turning the knife over in his hand. "My teacher did this with me, long ago. She explained it's to better monitor the student, make sure they're safe and not getting in over their head. It makes it easier to pull you out of a bad spot, too, if necessary. It's not a permanent thing, either. It fades with the flow of your blood, so you have to repeat it every week or so. But like I said, it can be intense, especially at first, and disorienting. And it's an advanced spell—my life will essentially be yours. As teacher, I will take the brunt of the binding. To be blunt, if you do something foolish and get yourself killed, I likely won't survive it, either."

He let that sink in a moment, expression somber, before he flashed her a smile. "Not that I'm concerned! We're perfectly safe here, and my teacher and I both came out fine! But just in case you felt like cliff diving anytime in the near future."

He held out his palm and hovered the blade just above it. "Still interested? Any questions?"

[DragonSong]

Kiri listened intently to every word that came out of his mouth, attempting to understand. It was...a lot of information, and none of it had even existed as a possibility in her life until a few hours ago. It was quite a lot to take it.

She thought about her answer, brow furrowed. She wanted to learn, she wanted to do what Makani could, for him to teach her. But she knew this was not a decision to be made lightly. Was she really ready to commit to this?

"Yes." Lifting her eyes, the huntress nodded sharply. "I'm still interested. I want to learn." She tilted her head a bit to the side. "I...don't think I have any questions." She took a breath, then slowly held out her hand.

"Okay. Ready when you are."

[Rhindeer]

...And she wasn't phased by any of that?

Makani stared at her. Was he more nervous about this whole thing than she was? Funny that, considering she was behaving about as impulsively as he was! But the weight of it all was beginning to settle on him the closer the binding drew--the fact that he would be actually responsible for another human life.

He didn't yet move the knife.

"Then it's my turn. Just one question before we begin," he said, still watching her curiously.

"Why? Why do you want this? This is more than simple blood magic, but you said you're ready for pain and sacrifice. What drew you here? What draws you to this?"

[DragonSong]

Her mouth opened, then closed rather sharply. Her frown was back, three little lines deepening between her brows. She thought her answer over for several long moments, wanting to be as honest as possible-- and, truly, a little curious herself. She was mostly acting on impulse: why did she want to do this?

"Because..." She paused, licked her lips, then continued slowly, "Because if I can learn this, I feel like-- like I have to. I never thought magic would be a part of my life, but for some reason when you said it could be..." Kiri shrugged. "I felt like a had to take a chance. Like-- Oh! It was like lining up a shot!"

Yes, that made sense, at least in her mind. A little more eagerly, she leaned forward and tried to explain, "It was like my life is this-- this massive, long-range hunt, and up until now I've just been waiting for that perfect shot. That one moment that would let me take down the biggest, most dangerous game I could ever track. And when you told me maybe I could do this, learn this, it was like that shot just clicked into place. My vision narrowed to that point, my whole body was the bowstring, and this, what I could learn here, is the arrow."

Realizing she'd babbled a bit, she suddenly fell quiet and sat back. "I, um...yeah. Sorry if that doesn't make much sense." Clearing her throat, she dropped her eyes and shrugged, hoping her answer had been what he was looking for.

[Rhindeer]

A long pause followed Kiri's words as Makani processed them, weighed them.

And then...

He smiled, let out a soft laugh that sounded almost relieved. "That makes perfect sense."

With a quick flick of his wrist, he sliced a line down his palm that quickly welled up red. The knife was sharp, so sharp the pain came seconds later, but he was used to the sting of the blade--welcomed the familiar sensation, even--and didn't even wince. He cupped his hand to keep the blood pooled there, careful not to drip as it darkened the lines of his hand like ink, and then motioned for Kiri to extend her own hand.

"I get it. That sense of...meaning. Of purpose. I've felt it. I might not have described it the same way as you--I'm not as much a hunter as you seem to be--but I felt that same pull when I first started, like it was a piece of me I hadn't known I was missing until I found it. And then, when I began--" Another quick, controlled motion and he cut her palm cleanly then set the blade aside, "--everything just fell into place. Take my hand, now."

Blood had filled his hand, was dripping over the sides--but it didn't fall. Instead, it swirled, curling around his hand like living tendrils.

[DragonSong]

The huntress let out a breath of her own, relieved at his acceptance. She extended her hand again when he beckoned, already bracing herself for the sting of the blade against her palm.

Listening to his words, she almost didn't notice the way his blood began to twine through the air-- at least until the knife cut across her skin and she hissed in a sharp, quick breath. She didn't relish pain, but she'd certainly had worse.

This really isn't so bad, she thought as she cupped her fingers and watched the blood begin to pool in her hand. Carefully, she reached out to do as she said, pressing her palm to his and wrapping her fingers around his hand.

Almost immediately she felt a sort of tingle, beginning where their hands touched and slowly spreading up her wrist into her arm. Quietly, almost reverently, she whispered, "How long should we...?"

[Rhindeer]

"Shhh!" Makani hissed. "Just wait. You'll know."

And sure enough, as Makani closed his eyes and concentrated once more, Kiri would be able to feel that sensation grow from a tingle to heat, not so hot as to be uncomfortable, but warm enough to sweat. Makani focused, breathing calmly through his nose and out his mouth as the heat coursed through them, up their arm, into their face, into their other arm and down through their core. Perhaps he should have warned her about this part; when he'd first experienced this, he'd thought he'd peed himself when the heat shot between his legs--which had made his teacher laugh to no end--but it seemed that was a rite of passage, so now it was Kiri's turn. It traveled down lower, curling in their toes, her blood, her essence coursing through his veins as his coursed through hers.

And that was when the other sensations came.

A flood of emotions hit him like a kick to the chest, all of Kiri's current emotions all at once before he was able to grapple with them and sort them, put up his own mental wall and let them trickle in slowly. His mind reeled, dizzy and euphoric as for a second he could feel her entirely--the throb in his cut hand, and the throb of her pain, side by side, aching in time to the different paces of their hearts.

And no doubt she could feel him, too, though he controlled himself. Kept himself calm, let his emotions filter in slowly, so it wouldn't knock her over. Calm. Soothing. He projected those at her, hoping to ease her in. He knew what to expect so it was easier for him, but for her? Well, his first time had been terrifying and jarring; everything had bled together in a confusing jumble until he didn't know himself from his teacher. He may or may not have had a panic attack.

Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at her, hand still grasping hers. "How do you feel?"

[DragonSong]

Kiri began to tense as the heat poured through her system-- then she suddenly gasped, her hand clenching almost spasmodically around Makani's and a shudder rippling through her whole body.

It was strange and new and intense and terrifying and wonderful. She could feel his heartbeat like it was pounding against her own chest, the pulse of his blood-- her blood-- their blood echoing in her ears.

When it was over she simply sat there, shaking slightly and trying to remember how to breathe. finally, she sucked in an almost painful gasp of air and lifted her eyes to Makani's face, her own eyes wide and slightly glazed.

"I--" She shivered, then shook her head and turned away as he stomach suddenly rebelled.

When she wasn't sick all over the floor, she took a few more deep breaths and straightened up again, then nodded slowly. "I'm...alright?"

[Rhindeer]

Despite himself, Makani laughed. He didn't mean to, but her amazement at being alright tickled him. Maybe it was because it mirrored his own wonder after his first time doing the exchange with his teacher. It could certainly feel almost like dying, in a way. He'd been told by those that came close to death that once the fear and pain passed, euphoria and acceptance set in and suddenly they weren't afraid anymore.

This experience was similar, albeit with far less danger.

"Of course you're alright," he said with a small grin, and pat the back of her hand with his other one as though to soothe her. "I told you it would be intense, but it won't kill you. Worst that could happen is you panicked during it, and...well, that would be unpleasant, but nothing you wouldn't survive. The worst is over now, though."

He let some of his emotions seep into her through their connection, a sense of warm accomplishment and pride that she had taken this so well. Certainly better than he had. "This will feel a little weird, but I'll be sure not to overwhelm you. I've had practice so I can guard you from my emotions, let you feel only what I want you to. You'll learn how to do that, too, with time. How are you feeling? Any wooziness? If you're going to get sick, I only ask you do it outside."

[DragonSong]

"I'm..." She gulped in another breath, then managed a shaky approximation of a smile. "I'm not...going to be sick." I don't think. "I am pretty dizzy though..."

The sense of warmth and pride that wasn't quite hers seemed to settle somewhere near the center of her chest and she took another deep breath--less shaky this time, her heart rate finally starting to even out. The second smile she shot him was a little less wobbly, and some of the color was returning to her cheeks.

"Well, that was...a lot," she chuckled after another moment spent taking stock. She glanced down at the cut along her palm, tilting her hand slightly from side to side as though changing the angle might change the way it looked. Wait--learn to guard from her emotions? She looked up at Makani again. "Am I--so you're going to feel whatever I feel? I can't stop that?"

Oh dear. She'd meant what she'd said, she was determined to learn all he could teach her, to see this through, but that...not just physical sensation, but emotion? She wasn't sure she liked the idea of forcing what she felt on someone else, accidental or not.

Kiri flinched a bit and gave him an almost sheepish look. "Ah...sorry in advance?"

[Rhindeer]

Makani bit his cheek to keep some of his amusement inside when he saw, and felt, the moment realization hit her. He could feel her concern, but he could only imagine what she was thinking: worry, perhaps, that he would spy on her most private, embarrassing thoughts and feelings. Or worry, perhaps, that she would inflict those embarrassing thoughts and feelings upon him.

It was tempting to tease her, but he also knew better. Now was not the time for that. Now was the time to reassure her in her moment of vulnerability, like a good teacher should.

He reached and took her wounded hand in his and turned it palm up so he could trace a finger along the bloody slit. "You can't stop it yet, unless you have some natural and surprising aptitude-which, who knows? But you'll learn. And yes, I will feel what you feel, but I can block you out, too. Don't worry, you won't be inflicting me with anything I don't allow in, and should you need a time of...privacy for whatever reason, by all means, let me know. But don't concern yourself with me."

As he moved his finger up and down along the cut, Kiri would feel it begin to warm and tingle, almost to the point of pain but just shy. The flesh began to knit itself together, working from the inside out, until all that was left was drying blood over fresh pink skin.

"Besides, the pupil shouldn't apologize to the teacher, it is the teacher's job to teach, with full knowledge that you're a messy little fledgling." Done with his task, he reached off to his side where he had set some thin strips of cloth. He used one to wipe the excess blood off his palm, and another to begin the process of wrapping his hand.

"You're very lucky, by the way," he said as he tied it off. "Lucky that you have done this with me, and not someone else. What you did here was actually incredibly foolish, you know."

[DragonSong]

Kiri sucked in a sharp breath as he traced the cut over her palm and she felt it begin to heal. It was...odd. She'd only had magic healing once or twice before, and that was through poultices that simply sped up the natural process—well, she supposed that was essentially what was happening now, but...

It was different. She could feel her flesh knitting together. She swallowed once, staring at her hand in bald amazement as the cut was replaced with new, pink skin. Shaking her head slowly, she glanced up at Makani as he wrapped his own hand.

So. Many. Questions.

"Foolish, mm? Which part? Agreeing to learn magic out of nowhere, or agreeing to learn your magic? And why do that?" She gestured to his bandaged hand. "Why can't you just heal yours the way you healed mine? Does it not work on yourself or something?"

She scrubbed her palm against her thigh in an effort to remove the drying blood. "Also, do you want me to help you with that?" Wrapping your own bandages was never easy—doing it on your hand was just a nuisance.

[Rhindeer]

"Agreeing to learn this magic from a stranger," Makani answered, fussing with his bandage. Tying it one-handed was not easy, and it kept coming undone, but he was trying not to show his frustration. "Blood-binding yourself to someone you don't know. Everything I told you could have been a total lie, and you'd be tied to me, life and blood and all. That's incredibly dangerous, my dear. My magic--this magic--is incredibly dangerous used the wrong way. So consider this your first lesson: as long as you are under my tutelage, you answer to no one else."

The bandage unraveled again and he let out a long-suffering sigh and just stared at it, frowning. Perhaps the ritual had affected him more than he thought; his patience felt thinner, and that was usually his first warning that he was tired. Or hungry. Or both. He could weather the effects better than a novice, of course, but that didn't mean it hadn't still hit him like a club to the gut.

He glanced up at Kiri and held the bandage and his hand out for her to take over for him. "Please," he said, and thought for a moment on how best to answer her questions.

"Why I can't heal myself...hmm. I suppose it's kind of like how you can't tickle yourself," he said, but then he laughed.

"No, but seriously. All magic has costs and limitations. This magic costs blood and pain and flesh and bone, sacrifice. When I heal you, I am sacrificing my own energy and giving it to you to hurry your body along. But I can't give myself the energy I already have. My energy, my body, is already working to heal the wound as much as it already can with what it has, and it has a little less after I healed you. Now, if I were to take it from somewhere else, say, kill a rabbit or steal it from you via our bond, then I could heal myself. But our magic needs a source. Does that make sense?"

[DragonSong]

She couldn't help wincing a bit as he highlighted exactly how risky her choice had been--but she also couldn't make herself regret it. Despite her trepidation about the specifics, learning this...it just felt like what she was supposed to do.

"Well, clearly you don't think I'm a complete idiot, or else I doubt you'd have offered to teach me at all," she pointed out with a vaguely self-deprecating, lopsided smile.

When he acquiesced to her help with the bandage, she scooted a little closer and took his hand between both of hers so she could re-wrap the thing, moving with the quick efficiency of someone who'd performed this sort of action so many times before that it had become second nature. She was careful to keep a light tension on the bandaging as she worked, but not so much that the pressure would become uncomfortable.

And she listened as he worked, absorbing his answer like dry soil absorbed rain. "So...I could heal you, if I knew how," she surmised slowly, "just by using the...the energy that I have? Is that the right word?"

She finished wrapped the bandage and tied it off briskly, then sat back and cocked her head. Her wings fluttered a bit, fanning out for a moment before sweeping back in close to her spine in an old, contemplative habit. "Yes. Yes, I think that makes sense." She thought a moment longer, then asked, "This source--does it have to be, I dunno...proportional? Like, you said killing a rabbit--isn't a death more...weighty, I suppose, than healing a cut?"

[Rhindeer]

Makani's lips quirked when she commented that he must not think her a total idiot, and he let out a soft snort.

"Mm, yes, I suppose so. Something like that. Really I just felt a moral obligation to get to you first before you got yourself killed—the same way I have a moral obligation to stop a toddler from tumbling off a cliff," he said, but there was a teasing glint in his eye as he said it, because while that was partially true, he also wouldn't have agreed had he not thought she had potential.

Her genuine curiosity and attention to detail, that pure spark of passion and wonder he saw in her, was very important to this work.

And she was asking all the right questions, latching onto the nuances of what he said and calling out what seemed off.

"Good observation," he said as he flexed his bandaged hand when she was done, admiring her work, so much neater than when he did it himself. "Death is more weighty than a cut. So indeed, killing a rabbit to heal my hand would be vastly overdoing it—but it doesn't need to be proportional in both directions. Wasteful as it would be, you could kill a rabbit to heal a stubbed toe if you really wanted to, though I don't recommend that sort of...gratuitous disrespect and disregard for life. It leaves a mark on you. All the same, you could do it. But you would need far more than a rabbit's sacrifice to heal me if I were mortally wounded. You would need a human to bridge that gap. Not because a rabbit's life is worth less, but because human spirit and rabbit spirit is too different, too incompatible, for it to work to that great a degree."

He paused, realizing he may have gone on a tangent. "Hm, but that, ah, tampering with humans lives? Is not something we do. The potential is there, and you should know of it. But the main idea is that everything has a price and the greater the ask, the greater the cost. That's also just one side of what we work with here—I stay away from a lot of that and mostly work with dead things. Usually. For the most part." He smiled. "You can avoid a lot of ethical conundrums when things are already dead, you know."

[DragonSong]

"A toddler?!" Kiri retorted with dramatic offense, pressing her newly healed palm to her heart. "How very dare you."

She let the playful demeanor drop when he continued explaining how the type of magic she was now...apprenticed, she supposed, to him to study required sources. She nodded along as he explained, sorting through the information he gave her as quickly as she could.

It was all...overwhelming. The concepts, the general idea, that she could understand easily, but when she thought about the implications—a rabbit life could not be used to heal a mortal wound. But a human's could.

The idea made her shiver. She nodded emphatically when Makani cautioned her against using this magic with a reckless disregard for life. "That I get, I think," she murmured. "The—the mark it would leave. When I was first learning to hunt, my brother, he taught me that thanking the animal was just as important as making a clean kill. Maybe more."

She was quiet a moment, then her eyes suddenly widened and she jumped to her feet, wings snapping in tight to offset her sudden shift in balance. "Gods' tits, the boar! I completely forgot, I promised Larae I'd get my kill back by sundown tomorrow, if I don't leave now—what time is it...?"

She darted to the door and peered outside, trying to judge the sun's position by the angle of light through the leaves.

[Rhindeer]

Makani couldn't help but smirk a little at her comment about thanking the animal, but he bit his tongue. It was important, but not for the animal's sake. The animal was dead and likely quite upset that it was dead; he knew he wouldn't care about the intentions of his killer, however necessary his death was; he would pissed. The thanking was for the hunter—a ritual to make them feel better, to reassure themselves of their own humanity and compassion, to acknowledge the weight and sacrifice of such a permanent act.

At least, that was how he saw it. And he still performed the ritual himself, because it was important to always feel the weight of his actions. Life consumed life, and one must never grow flippant. The moment one could take a life and feel nothing was the moment things grew dangerous.

He opened his mouth instead to agree with her--but that was when she bolted upright and his wings fluffed out in alarm, his back going rigid and heart leaping into his throat in a brief moment of alarm. He relaxed again when she spoke, letting out a breath.

"Good gods, you are a jumpy little thing," he said with a light laugh, and pushed himself to his feet. "But I suppose we did get side-tracked. Ah, are you going to need any help with that?"

[DragonSong]

"I'm not jumpy," Kiri protested, shooting him a quick look over her shoulder. "I just...lost track of time, is all."

She glanced at the body of the boar, evaluating its size even as she considered his offer.

"Well...if you don't mind, yes, actually. That'd be really helpful." She knelt to gather her hunting spear from where she'd left it by his door, then glanced up with a wry, crooked smile.

"Don't suppose there's a spell we could use to make carrying the meat easier?" She didn't sound as if she really expected there to be, merely trying to make a joke out of her own sudden anxiety.

What exactly was she going to tell her family about why a blood witch was helping her lug her kill back home?

Shaking her head, she ran her fingers back through her hair and added, "It's a long trek though—you really don't have to help me if you'd rather not." The offer of help was appreciated, and she would certainly relish the chance to continue pestering him with questions, but she didn't want to be a complete nuisance.