dark scrying

[make_opportunity]

Maurabel ignores her classmates, by and large. She most especially ignores them when she is on the path that leads to the elemental barracks, because on those occasions they are more likely than usual to laugh at her.

She has considered their arguments, insofar as they have any, and they're nonsense, so now she ignores them. As best she can, anyway.

The amulet-minder knows her, too, and doesn't stop her on her way in to ask what element she wants the way he would anyone else. She'll take an amulet on the way out, probably. (Usually.)

She lets herself in and starts scanning the population. She saw two Shadows out flying on her way in, which means unless nobody else has one checked out, the selection's going to be pretty thin. She can use another element if she needs to, though. She doesn't need to do dark scrying specifically for this project - in fact, she could work entirely out of her personal affinities, if they wouldn't give her the time of day - dark scrying just interests her and she doesn't have enough of her own Shadow affinity to pull it off alone.

She counts Shadows, assessing how much time it's going to cost her to get the willing help of whichever feels like working "cheapest" today - and she sees an unfamiliar face.

A nearby Water leans in the new Shadow's direction. Maurabel stands back politely, hands clasped behind her, and lets her talk to him.

"That's the weird one I told you about," Water whispers to Shadow. "The one who makes it all - transactional, has all these fussy rules for herself."

When Water appears to be done talking to Shadow, Maurabel takes a couple of steps forward.

"Hello, Shadow," she says gently. "I'm Maurabel. Looks like you're new. I'll leave you alone if you want me to but I would like to talk to you. Do you prefer to just be called Shadow and told apart from the others with your university checkout number, or do you have a name you like?"

Comments

[just_a_shadow]

"...I don't have a name," he says, in a quiet tentative voice.

[make_opportunity]

"That's okay, most don't, I just like to check. Have Water over there or any of the others told you about how I'm kind of weird?"

[just_a_shadow]

Shadow doesn't seem to know how to answer this question. He hesitates, watching her warily.

[make_opportunity]

Maurabel is unfazed. She waits until it's pretty clear he's not going to answer, then keeps talking, soft and gentle.

"I've always thought it didn't seem very nice to just grab an amulet from the receptionist and start giving orders, so what I do is I come in here first and find somebody who wants to help me, and sort of pay them. I obviously can't give you money or any objects, since the university wouldn't let you keep it - what I usually wind up paying elementals in is library access - once I taught one how to read first - or escort for time off campus, or just privacy, in the form of me leaving them alone in my room for a while. I have a single-occupancy. And whenever I have an amulet in hand I undo any orders on it that aren't part of the university minimum set."

[just_a_shadow]

"That sounds... nice," he says, sounding... somewhere in the neighbourhood of hopeful, but perhaps not as close as next door.

[make_opportunity]

"I try. It's not as much as I'd like to do, but it's what I can manage with a full courseload."

Both in terms of time management and in terms of continuing to be enrolled.

[just_a_shadow]

He nods. "It's nice of you."

[make_opportunity]

"I have a scrying assignment today. I could do it a lot of ways, but I came here hoping that I would find someone to help me with dark scrying in particular. If you want more time to settle in, or can't think of anything you want and don't just want me to owe you, or you'd rather have the time free, or for any other reason don't want me to check your amulet out, I can ask the others or come back later or just do without."

[just_a_shadow]

"I don't really want anything, but I'll help you," he says.

[make_opportunity]

"If you think of anything later, I'll have a record in my notebook of how long you spent helping me and you can call in a favor," Maurabel says. "A couple things before I get the amulet - I try not to, but I'm prone to using implicit control when I'm distracted, especially if you're physically very nearby. If I start, you can remind me and I'll stop. Outside of unlikely emergencies and leaving the university minimum orders in place, my goal is not to control you at all and just communicate verbally - even if you do things that are annoying or socially unacceptable - but if you do do those things I will be less likely to ask you for help again in the future. If you want to know whether something is annoying or socially unacceptable without trying it, you can ask me as long as we aren't concentrating on a working right at that moment. Does that all make sense?"

[just_a_shadow]

He nods again.

[make_opportunity]

"Any questions?"

[just_a_shadow]

He shakes his head.

[make_opportunity]

"Okay. What's your university number?"

[just_a_shadow]

"Thirty-six."

[make_opportunity]

"Okay. Oh, and if you decide you're done, even if we're in the middle of something as long as it's not dangerous to stop, you can quit any time you want and I'll take you right back. I'm doing my very best to - fill in all the gaps between reality and an actual voluntary arrangement," she winces. "I think that's everything. Okay." And she heads back out towards the amulet-minder.

"Shadow thirty-six, please."

The minder sifts through the rack of Shadow amulets, finds the right one, and hands it over.

Maurabel puts it on and clears away anything accumulated on it beyond University minimum safety protocols. She notes the time and writes it down.

[just_a_shadow]

He doesn't follow her when she leaves the room, but he comes to the door when she takes his amulet.

[make_opportunity]

She smiles at him, a little weakly, and heads in the direction of her room. "We can make conversation if you want, or not if you don't."

[just_a_shadow]

He seems to take this as an invitation to not say anything. But he does follow her.

[make_opportunity]

If he doesn't want to say anything that is completely within parameters!

Her dorm is a six-minute walk away from the elemental barracks. She flicks the door open - it's a mage student dorm, this is their idea of security is having a door you have to flick to open - and leads him up the stairs to a second-floor single occupancy. It's tiny. She closes the door once he's inside, and closes the shutters so it's dark enough to do dark scrying, and sits on her bed.

Despite her warning, she has exerted no implicit control on him during the entire trip.

[just_a_shadow]

In the absence of any specific instruction or suggestion, Shadow sits on the floor next to the bed. With his elemental halo obscuring him under a layer of shadows, he's nearly invisible in the dark - but presumably this will change if she successfully achieves dark scrying.

[make_opportunity]

"All right. If I understood my textbook correctly, I'll be able to steer the vision myself without having to control you, but doing that will let you override me. I'd prefer if you didn't do that even though I'm going to let you; there are specific things to look at and data I have to gather for my assignment. Ready?"

[just_a_shadow]

"Yes," he says, in case she cannot see him nodding.

[make_opportunity]

"Here goes."

Maurabel braces herself for the reportedly bizarre experience of dark scrying, and closes her eyes, and taps into the elemental attached to the amulet around her neck.

[just_a_shadow]

And then... she can see what's in front of her, just as if her eyes were open.

Sort of.

Nothing is quite the same colour as usual, and the visual concepts of dark and light are not just flipped but also scrambled in some way; the more light falling on something, the dimmer and more obscure it looks, but the visual effect isn't dark the way normal human vision understands darkness. It's something else, some shadow-vision alternative.

The word in the textbook is 'undark'. Similarly 'unbright', for things 'unlit' well enough to see. And now Maurabel knows firsthand why there needs to be a separate vocabulary.