101 Ashan 715 | Mathias Blackwood and Sylvia Lockson | Orm'del Sea
They were fifteen trials into the trip and Mathias was incredibly bored. He'd spent the first couple of trials working with Sylvia to improve his transmutation magic. She wanted to work on Hone but Mathias managed to persuade her that Hone wouldn't really get them anywhere until one of them learned more runes from Perseus. They had spent the first two trials of the journey learning less material qualities.
Mathias held his hand over a candle and let his spark absorb the feeling that came from it. Sylvia sat across from him watching carefully as Mathias slowly moved his hand around the flame. As he did his spark catalogued the sensation. It recorded the way the heat felt and the way the flame danced... or perhaps that was just Mathias. He couldn't really tell the difference anymore. He couldn't tell where his spark's knowledge ended and his began. After they'd played with fire Sylvia moved onto ice. She produced a small- already melting cube of ice and held it out to Mathias who took it in his hands and slowly slid it around with his thumb. These qualities were harder to grasp than the ones he had spent much of his time learning... they were more abstract.
The rigidity of steel could be measured, as could the tensile strength of wood, but Mathias had no idea how to measure the feeling of heat and the bite of the cold. So instead of trying to measure them he merely focused on how it felt against his skin. He'd focused on how the flame felt and next he focused on how the ice felt. On how it slid so easily and how the cold bit into his hand as he held the cube. He did this for two entire trials because he couldn't easily grasp the abstractions but with the time, he did eventually figure them out.
Then Sylvia wanted to try learning scents and Mathias decided that was better left for another time. He really didn’t want to go around smelling flowers but if he had to he would so he could spend a little more time training with Sylvia. Fortunately for him she agreed that there were better things to learn than the smell of flowers.
So after playing with ice and fire the duo had decided to move their practice back to the more simple materials for the following five trials before delving back into the abstract for the remaining trials bringing them to the present. In the present they were sitting across from each other at a desk in Mathias's cabin on the ship. Sylvia produced an iron dagger and a gold coin.
"Gold is a softer metal. I want you to try and make the iron as soft as the gold." Sylvia instructed as she set the dagger in front of Mathias and the coin atop it. Mathias picked up the gold coin and- as usual- he saw everything that had made it what it was. It had been compressed, flattened down with heat into the shape it bore now. With his newfound understanding Mathias picked up the iron dagger and with a wave of his hand he generated a field of ether that glowed a soft silvery-blue color. Mathias set the dagger into his ether field- his workshop- and he began pulling the dagger apart with his ether. It began to shimmer and then fade into an ethereal appearance.
Then Mathias focused his ether into the knife, imparting the malleability of gold into the blade before attempting to reform it and dissipate his ether field. He'd performed the steps before and every time he found reformation to be where he fumbled his work. He often had difficulty bringing the item back to Idalos with the new property he wanted imparted upon it.
But not this time.
When the ether field dissipated the dagger fell to the ground with a soft ding. Sylvia picked it up and examined the blade carefully. "It is a little dull but," Sylvia took the blade in her hands and bent it slightly. "it is certainly softer too. Good job." She set the soft blade on the ground.
"Thanks. I figured constant practice while stuck on a boat would make me better."
"Just take the compliment and shut up." Sylvia said before looking over at the door. "You may have a point though, maybe a walk would do us some good?"
Mathias turned to Sylvia with a slightly surprised expression. "It is late, Sylvia, what would Perseus say if he caught us out after hours?" He said sarcastically.
"The same thing he would say if he found out I was sneaking into your room every night to help teach you magic. Come on." Sylvia waved for him to follow her as she walked over to and opened the door. Mathias had a small room at the very back of the cog ship's cargo deck and Sylvia had a slightly (much) larger room on the main deck beside Perseus' room (the captain's cabin). He was a jealous man- nobody could change that- and so he did little things to keep his students from plotting behind his back. In fairness it really did look like that was what Mathias and Sylvia were doing from his perspective.
There was another crew cabin beside Mathias's which made up the back of the ship. There were also two officer sized cabins with staircases next to them that lead up to the main deck which created a narrow passage to the rest of the cargo deck. Beyond the passage was an open space with two cargo doors in the floor leading down to the steerage deck. Mathias had never been down to the steerage deck so he had no idea what it looked like down there. He'd restricted himself to the cargo deck and the main one.
The duo took one of the staircases by the officer's quarters up to the main deck where they were greeted by a cool breeze and the night sky, not necessarily in that order. They walked to the port side of the ship and leaned against the railing, taking a moment to enjoy the refreshing nighttime air.
"See. Wasn't this worth it?" Sylvia said as she scooted a little closer to Mathias. He noticed but pretended that he didn't and he scooted a little closer to her before answering.
"Maybe it was." Mathias admit as he turned his head. Sylvia’s face was closer to his than he thought it would be. He could feel her breath against his skin, a stark contrast to the cold air.
“Did you just admit you were wrong?” Sylvia asked with a wide but taunting smile. Mathias smiles and leaned closer to her.
"No I admit you were right which is a far more frequent, and completely different thing."
Splash.
There are a few sounds in the world that can bring a good night to a grinding halt. If you are in a forest during a dry season then the sound of someone frantically yelling the word 'Fire!' might put an end to your pleasant night and likewise if you are a fire loving creature in the middle of a burning forest then the sound of someone shouting the word 'Water!' might similarly ruin your night.
If you are afraid of the dark then you know that almost any noise at night, can frighten you. Not that Mathias was afraid of the dark... but Sylvia was a little bit.
However if you are on a boat at night in the middle of the night- and Orm'del Sea- like Mathias and Sylvia were, then there are not many sounds that could occur to bring the night’s romance to an end as quickly as a splash.
Now the splash could also have signaled the beginning of a fun round of water games but this specific splash, unfortunately, did not prelude such festivities.
Because neither Mathias or Sylvia fell overboard. No they remained perfectly in place on the main deck as they watched the body of a member of their traveling city float by them in the water, full of holes.
