Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

As it turned out, there had only been the one key. That had been, of course, because there was only the one room and, come to that, one bath and one large and comfortable bed. The light was still not peeking in to the windows the first time she woke up, but she knew he was awake immediately by the way his breathing had changed. She didn't know what time it was, but she did know that it had been the early breaks of the morning by the time they had fallen asleep. Her eyes didn't open though, she was just enjoying the feeling of his arms around her and the warmth of his body next to hers. When she smiled she was aware that he could feel it as her head rested on his chest and her voice was still heavy with sleep when she mumbled. "I'm not awake yet. Just a few more bits?" It was a strange mirroring of the morning that they had woken together in the forest, because it was within trills that she was fast asleep again.

It was coming on to light when, fully awake this time, she asked him with an incredulous expression, "Do you really think they'll let us eat in the room?" She was laying in bed, still, with the blanket wrapped around her and she watched him as he pulled on his shoes. "I've never stayed in an Inn before, I don't think. Or.. not like this. They'll let us eat in here?" Probably, she considered, now was not the time to discuss the journey from Athart to Andaris, so much more than a lifetime ago. So, she just pulled the blanket over herself, making sure that her back was covered and looked up at him with a wicked smile "Have you forgiven me for lying about the room yet?" It was an important question, after all, even though there was no doubt in her mind.

When he got back, though, with breakfast on a tray, she sat up and knelt on the bed, tugging the sheet around her and shuffling over to make sure that there was room for him. Examining the rather extensive selection of foodstuffs that he had brought, she raised an eyebrow. "Did you worry that we might never eat again?" She lifted herself up and leaned forward, kissing him with a gentle, almost shy expression on her face. It appeared that whilst he'd been gone, she'd pulled on some clothes, too "Are you alright?" Her expression was earnest as she asked that and there was no doubt that it was a more significant question. The simple fact was, she realised, that it wasn't at all what she meant and she lowered herself back down so that she was sitting on her heels and looked at him with a smile.

"By which I mean 'are we alright', coupled with 'was that alright' and the real one, of course, starts with 'was I'. Because, as much as you'd think I might know, I have no frame of reference for that. I've never." She stopped speaking for just a trill, caught her breath and regained her composure slightly "Never, in my life, have I experienced anything like last night. But I am shoddy at this, we know this to be so. I had planned to seduce you the night before we left. I lied, and I apologise for lying, but I'm not sorry", evidently, Faith and anything resembling sense had parted ways some time before "Because if I'd told you you'd have not done the work and I want to be the reason you succeed, not fail. But you suspected, so I lied."

Picking up a piece of toast, Faith nibbled at it and looked at him, considering all sorts of things. Reaching up, she stroked his cheek with a brief gesture. "Padraig?" There were a hundred questions that she might conceivably ask at a time like this and Padraig might be forgiven for dreading some of them; likely to be deeply personal and probing of things that were probably best left alone. "I was thinking about it last night and I realised that I don't know. What exactly does Alchemy do?"

Was he alright? Padraig was much more than alright. When Faith had first told him there'd be two rooms, and handed him what was meant to be his key, he might have caught on sooner. But the trial had been a long, difficult one full of distractions. He'd been disappointed, but hadn't thought to question her. Otherwise, he'd have kept his suspicions to himself and let her have her fun.

To say that he'd been pleasantly surprised by the unveiling of a private room and a tub large enough for two, would have been a gross understatement. If there'd been any forgiving to do at all, he'd have done it before they placed the key in the lock. And next she asked him, he'd tell her so. Gone had been the questions of if she was ready, or not. The arrangements were as clear a message as he needed. And if he'd missed any before, he wouldn't think of missing this one.

Suffice to say, in spite of a long trial in the elements, when he might have slept soundly, he took very little sleep at all. And he wouldn't have had it otherwise. No question he had an appetite when the morning came, and leaving her only so long as was necessary to feed her well, Padraig had left the room and headed downstairs to order the a tray. Boiled eggs, fresh fruit, cheese, jam, small rounds of toast and a pot of tea. "Sustenance for the trail ahead," he told her when he came back with the tray. And there was that appetite that he'd amassed overnight.

But then she clarified her earlier question, and it occurred to him what she meant. How could she have any doubts after what they'd shared? What she said though? Suffice to say it did his heart good. But it was also a question she ought never have to ask. Padraig smiled and looked her in the eye. "To answer your question, neither have I." Not like that. Nothing like that. Interactions with women, there'd been plenty. But apart from satisfying a biological need, they'd not been much more than business arrangements. The intimacy though, the affection and the need, that was the thing.

"It's the heart that makes the difference," he told her. "But you never need to ask me that question. If the answer wasn't clear enough, then I didn't do my part. And I know. Or at least I suspected," he told her when she confessed to lying, the night before they'd left home. "I knew why too, and I love you all the more for it."

Alchemy then? He grinned and shook his head. "If you were thinking about it last night, then I definitely wasn't doing my part," he teased, as he poured her a cup of tea, and picked up one of the soft boiled eggs. "There are similarities to chemistry," he considered. "But in the hands of a skilled practitioner, it's alike to a powerful magic without the necessity of being a mage."

It wasn't quite as simple as that, but it was a start. "You can combine ordinary ingredients with magically sourced or rare materials and regeants to create potions, powders, applications that can do things like make someone seem invisible or larger than the norm. Make them glow in the dark, levitate, turn an opponent's sword to rubber. I'm not that skilled, not by a long way," he told her. But maybe some trial, if he kept dabbling.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to imply anything negative. It isn't that. Oh, it really isn't that" By Famula, what was she doing? Frowning, Faith looked at him for a moment as though considering something and then spoke again "I really shouldn't be allowed to communicate when I'm emotional. You've answered my question, albeit the words I spoke weren't what I was actually asking and we need to revert to your mind reading abilities." She took hold of his hands and gave him a look which was mostly resigned to the fact that she was truly abysmal at speaking what she felt, but she did her best "It's just, well for want of a better example, it's the difference between worrying if you're going to enjoy what I cooked, running through the recipe in my head and just fretting that I've used the right ingredients, compared to sitting down with you and actually just enjoying it together. I was just backsliding, is all. I am truly sorry I'm so very bad at this, Padraig. Please, just.. well that well aimed brick would go down well about now." Wrapping her arms around his waist, she just stayed there for a few moments, feeling his arms around her and stopped herself. It felt like that, like stopping herself from spiralling back into what she had been, and just allowing herself to be what she was becoming.

It had to be said, though, she watched him with a slightly incredulous expression on her face as he ate. "Feeling peckish?" She had an arch expression but it was amused as he confessed to knowing that she had been planning something the night before they left. "Well, I'd tried every trick I had to try and get you to notice me when we moved the furniture into my room, but you were oblivious. So I thought I'd be more direct and try a romantic evening. Which also didn't work, so I had to go to my third plan of attack" She grinned up at him then, pure mischief on her face "If you had hung off the side of the bed or, worse still, bade me goodnight and closed the door, I don't know what I would have done. Can you imagine?"

But alchemy and, more importantly when she was thinking about it? She looked horrified and shook her head "Oh, not.. no. Not then. I wasn't really thinking anything. Or nothing lucid anyhow. It was when I got the room. Or the key, precisely. I was hatching a very complicated plot for ways to make you think that I had two rooms. There was, at one point, a supporting cast." Was she serious? Who really knew in fairness. She certainly seemed it. But she took the tea and smiled up at him. Listening to his explanation, she frowned slightly. Trying to make sense of it, she came to a conclusion. Whether it was correct or not largely didn't matter.

"So, a mage uses power from within themselves. This", she put her right hand in his, showing the tattoo on her wrist "Padraig, I'm beginning to understand the powers this gives me and I need to explore them with you a little. But this is power granted by an Immortal. Does alchemy... well, if chemistry looks at the chemical make up of the world, alchemy looks at the power in those things? So, mages internal power, this, power of the Immortal and alchemy, power from the natural world?" That made sense to her. Mostly. She thought that mostly was probably all she could manage.

"I could use a little practice there. Brush those up," he teased her when she referred to his mind reading abilities. Or lack of them. He suspected that even should he have such a talent, and a world of practice, he'd never truly achieve what every man who loved a woman would wish for. The ability to read her mind, decipher the puzzle that was her mind, and predict her moods. A man might wish for it, it might avoid more than a few misunderstandings. But Padraig also suspected it would make things far less interesting.

"You're not bad at this," he reassured her, and topped off her tea. Warmth for the road ahead. "You're just new at it. We both are. I'll learn to decipher the wonderful puzzle between those beautiful ears of yours. And you'll realize that you don't need to ask such things. But just be, and that's enough."

And no, he couldn't imagine. And told her so. "I missed your cues, because I was so focused on giving you space and time. I wanted you to be sure. And then be sure again. But there wasn't a moment that I wasn't thinking about it, or interested, or hoping," he admitted. And it had been exhausting.

Her interest in alchemy made him curious. But then, considering the powers she'd been recently granted, it made sense that she might be. Of course he was no expert, it was a learning process for him too. But together they might go farther than either of them alone. "I believe so," he said when she asked her question. "But alchemy goes where chemistry does not, usually. But when it does, well..." Well, then it became alchemy.

"I suspect that a chemist can become a competent alchemist, far more easily than a mage could. With alchemy, it's not just the elements and compounds you'd see in chemistry. The boundaries cross with magic as well in the form of magically sources materials and reagents. Say, for instance, a strand of hair, a drop of blood, the loose tooth of an Immortal might be used to create something miraculous. Depending on their realm, I suppose."

She looked at him and she could not help but smile "My ears? Really? They say that love is blind, Padraig, but how can any ears be beautiful? They are strange things, at best" Except his, she considered, but then she was biased. "And there is really nothing to decipher. I am entirely simple. Straightforward. Not at all complex." Her eyes told that truth of that; she knew how far away from reality what she spoke was, at least to him. It was good advice, though, just to be. Just be. "I would like to stay here, if we could. Just be. Eat food in the room and not leave it for ten trials. Just us and that bath." It was a nice idea, but alas there was that whole duty that had to be done.

As for him missing her cues? Faith smiled and sipped at the tea. "I was starting to think that living with me had turned you off women for life. Or me, at least." She was teasing, there was no doubt. "I think this, here and now, this was perfect. I needed that time, even when I thought I didn't need it any more. But then, eventually, needing you overtook everything else. Of course, it overtook everything else five trials ago and then you caught up." She smiled at him, with an expression which told that really, he was more to be pitied than blamed.

Alchemy sounded fascinating and Faith considered what he said, although she raised an eyebrow at the last bit "The loose tooth of an immortal? Do they even... no, never mind. So, would the domain of the mortal be captured in that alchemical essence you are talking about in their tooth? Like... well, I'm still new at all these things, but I have abilities now, things that I can do which Famula gives me. I suppose that this is Her imparting that essence, for me to use?" Nibbling again on the same piece of toast, Faith considered.

"So, two.. three of the things that I can do now. I don't feel cold, at all. I'm warm. Or, at the moment, I have to concentrate to control it, but that will get better, easier, I think. I see the souls of dead people who haven't crossed over and I can look at someone and see what or who they are devoted to, in their heart, which I will never use on you because I don't need to in order to know the answer. But my point is that, if those are the powers that She gives...would it be something like that you could make if you, theoretically, had her loose tooth? Or would it be different?" Initially, it had been a whim and a passing question, but Faith had to admit, this was fascinating.

"Love isn't blind," Padraig argued when she objected to her ears being a thing of beauty. "It sees all. What the eyes miss, the heart sees instead. Besides," he teased as he leaned close and gently nipped one of the attending lobes. "Yours are particularly appealing, with their funny little dimples." Who'd known he'd have romantic tendencies? He'd never have put money on it himself. She'd brought it out in him surely.

He'd like nothing more than to remain in the room for trials to come, and at the moment, he'd be content if the army left without them. But they both knew the impossibility of it. "I'm not sure they'd notice if I didn't turn up for roll call. But you? They'd begin complaining the moment the troops' stomachs went empty." They'd have to grab their moments when they could then, and enjoy these last few in particular while they lasted.

As for the immortals, he grinned and teased her again. "Do they have real teeth, you mean? Or is it that they'd not be so flawed as to have one knocked out?" Interest question really. But after what he'd witnessed after an immortal was run through, he suspected that in some ways they were as vulnerable as anyone else. "I can only guess that the powers you've been granted, are in fact some of her essence imparted to you. And I would then suppose that any part of their physical bodies might also contain some of that essence."

He frowned, thinking on it further. "So with a strand of hair, or a teardrop from an immortal as a reagent, you might then be able to use that to imbue an alchemical concoction and give it some essence of that particular immortal." He was only guessing. But it was definitely food for thought.

"So these dead souls..." For some reason that particular mention gave him pause. "Do you see them all the time...I mean, if a spirit is there, do you naturally see it? Or do you have to focus in a certain way in order to see?" he wondered. If it was the former, and if it was him, it might come to drive him mad, always seeing without the means to unsee.

As he spoke his theory on love being far from blind, Faith looked at him and would have spoken in response, except he leant forward and as he nipped at her ear, she closed her eyes and could not help the moan which escaped her just before she spoke, her voice thick with desire "We'll never leave if you insist on that. They can go hungry, I don't care" She did, very much, but in that moment? Not in the slightest. "Dimples? I didn't know ears could have dimples and I certainly wasn't aware mine did. But then, there were a lot of things that I wasn't aware of." By the Immortals, she wondered, how did he do this to her? Reduce her to instinct, reactions and a quivering wreck by telling her that her ears had dimples? She really didn't know and the response she had to him was at once both exhilarating and terrifying. Did he know? She thought so, and as she looked into his eyes, any doubt about that question fled. Of course he knew, she realised, because he was right there alongside her in the same situation. So, she reverted to form and spoke the facts as she saw them "Immortals, but I'm glad we only got one bedroll and only one tent. I am concerned enough about how many breaks there are between now and when we can be in each other's arms again as it is. I think you might be addictive." Yes, it sounded like an accusation. Mostly because it was meant as one. But the accusatory expression was quickly replaced with one which thusfar only he had ever seen. She suspected it might well just stay that way. "Which means I love you. Just so that we are clear there."

However, the conversation about alchemy moved forward and she watched him as he explained to her about it. "That's astonishing. Truly, it is. It's like taking chemistry to beyond it's natural ability and finding the magic not in yourself but in the world." She smiled up at him and watched his expression as he spoke of it. It was like he was coming to his own realisations, his own understanding. "If we find anything so unusual, I'll collect it up, if I see it. Maybe you can use it?"

But the Unquiet Dead? Faith sighed slightly and pulled back. Literally and figuratively. She sat back and wrapped her arms around herself. "They're everywhere, Padraig. So many of them, and they're there because they've chosen not to go to Vri.I think, though, that the more I learn about this the more control that I have. Right now it's a bit of a free for all. They stay anchored to things or places and I can see those anchors, even if there's no soul present when I'm seeing it. There's one, a place, over there. In the corner." She turned her gaze to the apparently empty corner of the room. She didn't tell him what she saw, she didn't think it was necessary and it certainly wouldn't be helpful. "I can't help them, but they can see me, and know that I can see them. She just wants me to help her and all she can do is beg" She looked up at Padraig and realised that, when she looked at the soul in question, it was deafening, a symphony of sound and hurt. If she looked at him, though, it quietened the noise for her. So, focusing on it, on them made her see them more and focusing on him distracted from that. But just normal trial by trial things made no difference. So, Faith reasoned, in order to try and minimise this and keep it under her control, rather than her under it's, she needed to learn to exist in a place where she siphoned them out. Turning deliberately back to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tip toes, reaching up to kiss him. "But you make them quiet." Her voice was whispered and filled with emotion she couldn't deny it, she was glad he did. "When I'm here, in your arms, you're all I see, all I hear. Which is quite useful, really".

She knew that it was coming close to the time they had to leave and for the first time in her life, Faith considered the advantages of being late. But she didn't say any such thing, just held herself quietly in his arms and thanked Famula for the man who held her.