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Silent Storms

Started by DragonSong, December 06, 2017, 12:53:53 PM

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DragonSong

Jorris quirked an eyebrow but didn't say anything as he left the room. Lily was slightly surprised- it was hardly proper to leave her alone with a young man they didn't know, who wasn't family.

Obviously she wasn't worried, particularly with the state the poor man was in, but it was a little surprising Jorris wasn't standing more on propriety.

She smiled softly and tilted her head at him. "Yes. Jess and Dorian are like that- the twins. They've always been a pair, then there's me and Jorris." She shrugged. "Mother sometimes says she feels like she got two sets of twins, with the way we cling to each other. Oh." Her face flushed and she added quickly, "Beg pardon, I seem to be rambling."

Her eyes narrowed in concern and she leaned forward on the arm of the chaise to reach out to him, perhaps meaning to touch his arm in some gesture of comfort. "Are you quite sure you'll be alright until the doctor gets here?"

Wycliff

Jace nodded, but a moment before she touched his arm, his eyes widened slightly, and he shied away from the touch. The conversation was so natural, he'd almost forgotten the whole reason he'd come. "I'll alright, there's a larger matter to discuss here." He glanced around, noting that they were, indeed, alone. His eyes played a tune of sorrow, the weight of what he was about to tell the girl heavy in the air. "I'm afraid... you shouldn't touch me. That's the reason you passed out earlier," He looks Lily straight in the eyes, not a hint of deception within their golden depths, "I'm a magic eater; anything magical that touches me is drained of it's energy."


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DragonSong

Lily blinked, silent, then laughed. "What? That's not- are you sure you didn't hit your head when you were injured?" She shook her head, ignoring the small tickle of doubt that had begun to creep into the back of her mind. "Are you a mordecai then? I've never heard your kind referred to as "magic eaters" before."

Her heartbeat had picked up, though she studiously ignored the way her body was reacting; fear and panic pulsing through her.

Wycliff

Jace nodded once more. "My Mom always compared it to a Mordecai, and they are pretty similar, but also opposite. Mordecai stop magic from happening, I absorb it after the fact." He sighed. "When you touched me, I felt an influx of magic power. For better or worse, there's no doubt that you possess magic energy." He leaned back. "It's only a hunch, but if that condition your brothers spoke of is similar to what happened when you touched me, your magic may be activating subconsciously, and making you faint because it uses too much. That's a common side effect of overusing one's magic."


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DragonSong

She shook her head again. The panic was creeping closer to the surface. "No. No, you're wrong. I'm not- I don't-"

"Ah, Miss Lily." She'd been about to stand, to flee the room, but before she could a familiar figure stride into the parlor, coat crisp and well pressed and a doctor's bag in hand. Doctor Andres gave the young woman and her companion a quick once over and quirked an eyebrow. "And I've heard you are not the only one in need of my care today."

The doctor strode toward Jace, ordering the rising Lily, "Sit, girl, you'll make yourself ill," without even looking at her. "Now, Jace, was it? Let's have a look at that wound."

Lily could do little but sit, as she was told. She wanted nothing more than to leave the room, but she knew if she fled now it would just raise more questions. Shaking hands clasped in her lap, she stared down at the floor. He's wrong. He has to be wrong, he has to be...


Wycliff

Jace took his hand off the lightly dressed laceration. He hoped the doctor wasn't as competent as he looked, because the original wound was a deep stab by one of Uthlyn's guard's short sword. He'd done the second cut so hastily, it actually didn't match the cut in his robe. So long as the Doctor didn't have a side job as a detective, he figured it should've been fine.

Jace took a moment to give an explanation. "I was attacked on the street, the man had a short sword, and took me by surprise." He was careful not to lie, only leave important details out.


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DragonSong

The doctor knelt beside Jace and frowned. "I believe this will need stitching. Hold on, I have an anesthetic."

She he rooted trough his bag, Lily tried to stand again. She had to get out of this room. It suddenly felt like her corset was too tight and the air was too thick, she just needed to breathe-

"You sit down, young lady, I'll see to you once I've tended to this cut." Doctor Andres looked up at Jace. "Now, how exactly did this happen?"

Wycliff

Jace chuckled. "Well, you see, a sharp iron object was quickly thrust into my side, which parted the skin, and caused me to start losing blood." He chuckled. "Jokes aside, I'd like to keep any further details private."

Jace glanced over at Lily, who was quite obviously panicked, her breath quick and unsteady. His eyes began to widen. Wait, they said she tended to faint among stress... she wouldn't?!

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DragonSong

There was a- a pulse, a beat that echoed her heart but wasn't her heart, and it sent Lily spiraling into terror. But she couldn't move, couldn't risk letting the doctor know her thoughts. Because if Jace was right, if he wasn't lying...

God no. Stop stop stop, it's not right, it's fine, everything's fine!

Very pale, Lily allowed herself to sink back onto the chaise and looked away from the doctor and his patient, focusing on her breathing. The pulse grew slowly stronger, and she shivered as the temperature in the room seemed to dip suddenly.

Wycliff

Jace allowed the doctor to go to work, beginning to stitch the skin. He relaxed into his chair, quite honestly relieved that Lily seemed to be calming down, until he felt the temperature in the room plummet. He raised one eyebrow at first, then both. So, her magic controls relative temperature. That explains the clouds back at the gardens, and why she faints after using it, weather magic is terribly draining.

Luckily, the sewing didn't hurt as much as regeneration. Something about nerves reconnecting was more jarring than a needle. He calmed himself, and gave Lily his best reassuring smile. Just hold it in, you'll be fine.


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DragonSong

"Goodness!"

With a start, Lily whipped her head around to see her parents sweeping into the room. Her mother shivered and frowned, rubbing at her arms. "It's positively frigid in here. Are you sure it's too early to order the hearth lit, darling," she said, turning to address Lily's father with a little frown.

She didn't even wait for an answer before turning back to the doctor and his patient. "And you must be the wounded bird my children have told me about," she said with a smile, eyes softening a bit. "How are you feeling, sir?"

"Lydia," her husband sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "He's a grown man, not some stray pup." He winced at Jace sympathetically. "Apologies, lad. Doctor?"

Andres straightened up as he finished the stitching with a sigh. "He'll live," he said with a shrug, and clapped Jace on the shoulder. "Should take it easy for a few days, though. Now, the young lady."

He turned his attention to Lily, and everyone in the room seemed to simultaneously realize she'd gone pale, her eyes almost glassy. She was shivering violently- they couldn't see with the way her fists were clenched, but frost had begun to gather at her fingertips. Teeth chattering, she looked up at them all.

It's not true. I'm not a mage, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm NOT!

"I-" She swayed. "I'm fine-"

She pitched sideways, and out of nowhere a peal of thunder seemed to shake the manor to its foundations, sudden lightning illuminating the parlor in a flash of blinding white.

Wycliff

This is bad... she doesn't have control! As soon ashis vision returned from the flash, Jace stood uneasily, the stitching taught as it held his healing skin together. He tried to diffuse the situation. "I'm fine, thank you. Strange weather, though, I'd say lighting the hearth is a great idea."

The chances they would buy it were slim. To anyone who'd seen a mage before, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Lily was causing these events. He gritted his teeth, wishing he could control his own abilities, rather than wantonly absorbing everything he touched. A clench of his fists was all he could manage as he narrowed his eyes, turning his gaze from Lily. From his initial impressions, the family seemed nice enough, but if he'd grown to learn anything over the last week, it was that in Connloath, nice people became monsters when mages were involved.


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DragonSong

Lydia had whirled into her husband's arms in a sudden fright from the impossible storm, and the doctor cursed as he lunged to catch the swooning Lily before she hit the ground.

His eyes were hard as he looked up to her parents, then to Jace. "Young man, I think there is more at work here than strange weather," he hissed.

Lydia was suddenly crying, clinging to Carlton as he patted her back. "It is, she's cursed, I told you, I told you we needed to take her to a priest! Oh my poor girl..." She trailed off in more sobs, and Carlton looked around at the people in his parlor helplessly.

"I-" His eyes flashed to Jace and his expression hardened. "Forgive me, sir. This seems to be a family matter. I will have a maid show you to a room where you may rest and recover. I must...tend to my daughter."

The other three Hartnet siblings had gathered in the doorway, eyes wide as the storm crashed outside. Jessamine spoke first.

"It is, isn't it? Lily's cursed, someone magicked her-"

"Don't say that!" Carlton snapped, fear plain in his face as his eyes snapped back to Jace again. Terrified this stranger would put his family in danger.

Wycliff

Jace watched in horror as her family became distant, cold to their own flesh and blood. Their faces, the pure hate and ignorance in their eyes, he could only remember the scene of his father's death, killed by the same breed of hatred. His expression darkened, and he gritted his teeth. "You're going to tend to her? I don't like the tone of your voice, not one bit." With a small flash of energy, his wound sealed completely, the stitching forced out. At this point, his words were laced with venom, overcome with the pent up anger of his father's murder. "I've seen how your country tends to mages, it's revolting. You're all cowards, sheep who fear that which you don't understand."

He stepped forward towards Lily, and an ominous energy began to emit from his body, one even they could feel. He raised his hand, Lily was lifted from the Doctor's arms and levitated over beside Jace. He glared spitefully at Carlton. "This is your daughter, your flesh and blood, a girl who looks to you for guidance and comfort. The fact that you could even make that hideous face at her means you're no different than the scum off my boots." He glanced around the room, judging each of them. His other hand raised to meet the family, a challenge. "Anyone who wants to tend to this girl will have to go through me first, and you can bet your ass I'm not an amateur like Lily."


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DragonSong

Both of Lily's parents started forward, reaching out for their daughter. Jessamine gasped, reeling back, and her twin hissed, "Mage!"

"Let her go, let her go!" Lydia was shouting, only held back from rushing her Lily's side by her husband's arm around her waist. Carlton himself seemed at a complete loss, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. "It's you, it's your fault, you've magicked my daughter, let her go-!"

"Mother, enough!"

Jorris's sudden appearance in the doorway was enough to stun everyone silent, if only for a brief moment. His eyes flickered from his family to the doctor to Jace. "We have to turn him in," he said softly, evenly. "But Lily... She doesn't have to go to the camps. I won't let that happen."

"What are you talking about? Your sister isn't a mage-"

"Yes she is." Jorris snapped his eyes back to his mother. He was trembling slightly. "She is, Mother, and somewhere deep down you know that. But she's never used that power consciously- according to him." He looked to Jace again, lips curling in a sneer.

"We have to turn him in. But- but we can do better for Lily."

Wycliff

Jace began a hollow laugh. "Turn me in? You'll be the ones to hold me here, a bunch of pathetic, powerless humans?" He almost spat in their direction. "Ridiculous." He glanced at Lily. "You l expect me to believe that you can protect Lily from this country? It's plain as the shock on your face that none of you can stand mages. Sent to a mage camp would be merciful compared to what happens every day to mages who can't control their abilities, and she'll only grow more unstable with time." He glowered at the family. "The only chance she has if survival is leaving Connloath, or at least it's civilized areas, and learning to control her power. If you care about her safety, you'll let her go, and if you don't care," A tongue of black flame appeared in his palm, "I can introduce you to the same fate she'd suffer under your society."


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DragonSong

Either luckily or quite unluckily, Lily's eyes fluttered open- but they were not the soft silver gray they should be. Rather, it almost seemed as though the lightning crashing outside the manor had lit her up from the inside, irises bright and sparking with power.

Easily, she shrugged out of Jace's power. Yet she remained hovering, a wind that only seemed to affect her holding her body aloft and tossing dark curls about her face.

Her parents stepped back, terror plain on their faces. The doctor murmured a prayer, and Jess and Dorian clutched at each other. Lily's lips moved and thunder rumbled, nearly shaking the foundations of the manor.

Her hand moved, almost beckoning, and suddenly the windows of the parlor exploded as wind and rain rushed in, surrounding her in a protective barrier. Her magic lashed out at anything and everything- save Jace. It recoiled from him instinctively, though there was only so much such an uncorrected power could do to truly avoid him.

Wycliff

Jace watched as Lily's magic awakened, a process he'd never seen in person. The lightning seemed to have a life of its own, impressive for the amount of power she was putting out. A few errant bolts here and there were absorbed, of course, but not enough to disrupt the spell unduly. The darkflame in his hand sputtered out, and a smirk spread over his face. He glanced outside, then back to her family. "You see, this is what we are capable of, the lengths you idiots here in Connloath would force us magic users to. Why anyone would invoke the wrath of a mage, I'll never know, but at least you're right in one respect," Jace's golden eyes narrowed, "You should fear us, because you're inferior."

He walked over to the window, his eyes on Lily. "Hey, if you can hear me, don't bother with those humans. I'm not the best teacher, but I can teach you the fundamentals of magic. What do you say?"


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DragonSong

The weatherwitch turned her head, eyes sparking, and stared him down. There was no emotion on her face, no consciousness. She was completely controlled by her suppressed power, and without a conduit magic cannot truly think.

But it can sense intent. Slowly, Lily nodded, and the miniature storm raging around her began to die down. She stopped hovering, coming to rest lightly on her feet. Then the magic seemed to be sucked back into her body and she gasped, back arching and eyes going wide.

When she slumped forward again her eyes had returned to their normal silvery gray, and she was panting as she looked around quickly, confused. "Wha- what...happened?"

Wycliff

Jace extended a hand, ignoring the crowd of shocked and terrified humans. "You've awakened, Lily. Your powers as a mage have finally surfaced: would you like to learn how to control them?" He hoped she said yes, because from the look of her family, there was no longer a place for her there. Rightfully so, too, because someone like Lily deserved better company than a bunch of ordinary humans.


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