Magic New and Old

Ahsch glared at the list, certain that his annoyance would be palpable even to those who weren't plugged into his brain.

All the recent thinking and talking about his 'build' had made him go and look at what exactly it had been, a task that had quickly been expanded to include all the magic and magical abilities that he had. It was a fairly neat list, divided into his Boons, his Innate Magic, his constructed spells, his Sexual Learning-granted spells, and the spells he had learned the old-fashioned way.

The result was... a bit of a mess. After putting asterisks beside the Boons and Innate Spells he had chosen that fed directly into his initial build idea - that being playing around with sympathetic bonds - and comparing that to the other spells he now had that also tied in... he was a bit miffed to see very little synergy. He wouldn't go so far as to say that the magic he'd picked up in the past 18 years was worthless, but very little of it was related to sympathetic bonds.

Thinking further on sympathetic bonds, he came to an additional realization: some things that he would have thought would include them - like Dominant's Tithe - made no mention. But based on how they seemed to work, he had to assume there were sympathetic bonds involved somehow. The problem was, he couldn't detect, let alone interact with them. A thought that further cascaded into annoyance with his chosen race - one of the reasons he had picked to be a hrafthi was because they supposedly had some innate skill with sympathetic bonds. Yet as far as he could tell, he was about as skilled at working with them as anyone else.

Reluctantly, he picked up his quill, pulled out a sheet of parchment, thought for a moment, then began to write.

Mother,

I hope this letter finds you and the others well. Things are interesting here, to say the least, but Ariin and I are in good health and fair spirits.

I am writing you to pose a question, and perhaps a request. I've heard that we hrafthi are in some way gifted when it comes to working with sympathetic bonds - yet I have found that I seem about as effective with them as any other mage who makes use of them. Given my new position, I feel it appropriate to make use of any and all assets available to me, and would like to find some form of mastery with sympathetic bonds. However, we hrafthi are few and far between, and I have neither seen nor heard of any in the Capital or R'sath. If you have any guidance, it would be most welcome.

Pass my greetings and love to the others. I should see about traveling to Sarvas in the coming months, perhaps show Avery the forest - I'm sure she would find it a grand adventure.

Love,
Ahsch Odestag

The Dominant Mage read and reread his letter, then folded it and sealed it in an envelope, which he addressed to his mother. With casual use of Daydreamweave, he summoned Dorin to see about delivering it, and once his servant was away, turned his attention back to the list in front of him.

Frowning again at his own lack of focus, he decided to see about fixing things. Another sheet and he started to make a new list - one of ideas.

1. Spirit String + Flame Shot = flame maniuplation?
2. Spirit String + Ice Shot = ice manipulation?
3. Spirit String + Dollify = flesh manipulation?
4. Spirit String + Entropic Revelation = time manipulation?
5. Spirit String + Mend = direct mana manipulation?
6. Spirit String + Float = gravity manipulation?

He continued until he had a dozen ideas. Many of them he suspected wouldn't work - Float, while it manipulated gravity, did so in a very specific way, and attaching a sympathetic bond to it via Spirit String was more likely to provide some finer finess on size or movement than being able to increase gravity in an area or object; similarly, Entropic Revelation affected time in a very specific manner, and only on himself, so he wasn't sure what could possibly result from the combination.

While he was comparing lists, he cast a look at his repertoire of spells gained from Sexual Learning - the largest segment of spells he knew, in fact. Funnily enough, it was also the least-used. For sure, there was potential in many of the spells there, but he was making use of so few of them. And while he considered that, he remembered how his wife had expertly avoided having sex with him for enough time to trigger the Boon. Before their marriage it was sheer luck - most of their intimate times were spent with Mahat and Ariin, and they constantly switched off; the few times that it had just been Ahsch and Avery, while she was for sure a thorough lover, she seemed to keep things brief and at arms' length.

After the wedding and Ahsch's revelation, that pattern had continued - and the hrafthi had noticed on occasion certain emotions coloring his wife. Conflict, brief flashes of guilt when she maneuvered their intimate moments in such a way as to pause or end them before Sexual Learning triggered.

She's hiding something, he thought, finally admitting it to himself.

He tried not to be hurt about it. Just because he had spilled every dirty secret he had didn't oblige her to reciprocate. And she had been incredibly upfront about her thoughts on him, even when those thoughts were in the vein of if she felt it necessary to kill him.

And, more painfully, he admitted to himself that he knew. He knew she didn't love him. Not in the way that Mahat or Ariin lit up with the emotion sometimes. For sure, Avery appreciated him, sometimes deeply enough it washed out all the other emotions for a brief moment. But she didn't love him. Their marriage was one of politics and opportunities, not romance.

Even though he could feel the kindling of deep, intimate attachment waiting in his heart.

With a sigh he reached out with a direct Daydreamweave. Avery, can we talk?

A pause. I'll be there in a minute.

Ahsch waited, combing his fingers through his hair, pausing to stroke a certain feather.

There was a knock, and Avery let herself in, an eyebrow arched questioningly. "What do you need?"

The hrafthi took a deep breath. "Is there a reason you're avoiding having sex long enough to trigger Sexual Learning?"

His wife froze, her ever-present, casual and lazy smug look stilled into something resembling concern. "What makes you ask that?" she asked weakly, her tone betraying that she knew the evasion was transparent. Ahsch just fixed her with an unimpressed look, and she sighed, then flounced into the chair across from him, booted feet up on the corner of the desk. "Let's just say... my Innate Magic is... unique. Special." She'd been looking towards the window, but her eyes flicked over to meet his gaze. "Mine."

"I mean, that's true of basically everyone," Ahsch pointed out. "True, racial Innate Magic can vary, but on the whole..."

"What kind of monster am I?"

The hrafthi froze, mouth open mid-sentence. "...I... I don't..."

He blinked. He didn't know. And he'd never even thought to ask.

"One of those racial Innate Magics I have lets me... affect attention. Sometimes focusing attention." Ahsch suddenly found himself absolutely fixated on the quill in the inkwell, his wife's voice becoming a mute blur in the background of his mind. Then he was freed, looked up with wide eyes...

Nobody was there. He looked around, confused, glancing towards the door...

"Sometimes it's diverting attention," her words were whispered from beside him, where Avery sat on his desk. He stared at her as she gave him a small, almost sad smile. "Those are active uses, but it can be passive too - nobody ever thinks to ask, or even wonder what a shaid is - it just slips through their mind, a question never fully formed."

"Shaid?" he managed to ask.

"The stories go we were born of angels, whose god was slain, but the bonds between his divine servants and him were severed in such a way that they became more than his Mana and will personified - they became a new race of monsters, many of which could do what I can." Avery shrugged. "So the stories go. I'm the only shaid I know, and very, _very _few... people know what we are, so facts are few and far between." She huffed a small laugh. "And, if those stories are right, the god the original shaid came from was a bit of an evil fuck, so we weren't - and in some places, still aren't - welcome in society at large."

"I... I see..."

"I'm sure you also see that you shouldn't be telling this to anyone, Mahat and Ariin excluded. Butler knows, and maybe, someday, you could tell Dorin." The look in Avery's eyes was dangerous, a colder, deadlier version of what Ahsch had seen the day Kirasiel had tried to drive a wedge between them.

The hrafthi swallowed heavily. "You know I wouldn't betray you like that. And I'll give the girls a command to back up the secrecy."

Avery nodded. "So, all that being said, maybe you understand why I'm **** to let you take such a... sensitive piece of who and what I am."

Ahsch nodded. Despite - or perhaps, because of - her lack of knowledge about her race, it was clearly important to her. Still... "I understand," he affirmed. "And I respect your choice on the matter. But I would still like to ask: at some point, when you're ready, consider it. I... every bit helps, and if Phashak and Phashim aren't the least of our worries by the end of all this, I'll be surprised."

Avery held his gaze for a long, tense moment. But eventually, she nodded, slid off his desk, and left.