(no subject)

[sythyry]

Dissection of Spells [21 Hivvem 4261]

Prof. Gostegg:"Ah, hello, Sythyry. Who are these other people? I don't believe they're in my classes."

Me: (provides sensible introductions)

Prof. Gostegg:"And you have come to my office an hour before my actual office hours because...?"

Me:"Because I have to do some ducal business in an hour, and ... well, this matter might be ducal too. Or at least city guard matter."

Esory:"What?"

Rhedwy:"Sythyry is now the adventurer. Zie always makes everything sound like the very important thing."

Esory:"Oh, right. Of course."

Prof. Gostegg:"Well, can't the city guard do it?"

Me:"Is there anyone in the city guard you'd consider competent at Dissection of Spells?"

Prof. Gostegg:"A former student or two. No better than you, Sythyry. So, no, not really." Which stung, of course. Serves me right for coming outside of official office hours.

Me:"Well, can you take a look? Here's the Eye of Mirizan and Melizan."

He does like using the Eye. He's got his own tools, of course, and they're technically just as good in most ways. The Eye remembers what it noted, though, and will reveal it quite nicely and pleasingly to a master. Which Gostegg is, and which I am not.

Prof. Gostegg:"Well, someone has tried to cover her tracks, hasn't she? Thelvion, I'm going to cast two spells on you. Please don't resist them."

Thelvion:"I shall not!"

Prof. Gostegg:"Well, then. Someone has cast a pattern spell on you that turns you into a Rassimel. It's permanant. And it's quite thoroughly occluded."

Thelvion:"Permanant? Does that mean I can't ever change back?"

Rhedwy:"Change back? You know about this spell, Thelvion, and you do not tell us?"

Thelvion:"Change back to Herethroy ... I mean, I am really Herethroy, Prof. Gostegg?"

Prof. Gostegg:"Again, in the spirit of inspection, pray allow me to inspect your psyche intimately .... Well, isn't that odd?"

Thelvion:"What is it?"

Prof. Gostegg:"You have, if I am correct, a Creoc god-connection in the utterly standard Herethroy way, albeit a rather underdeveloped Creoc branch on your magerium. And a heartily-trained Healoc branch, despite a distinct lack of a god-connection to Mircannis."

Thelvion capered around the room. "I'm Herethroy! I really am Herethroy! I knew it!"

Me:"Esory, the next time we agree that something is preposterous, remind me that I really am an adventurer, and so it is more likely than not to be true."

Esory:"Right-o! It's all your fault, lizard."

Me:"Oh, Prof. Gostegg? Does his magerium look normal aside from that?"

Prof. Gostegg:"I certainly don't see any anomalies."

Me:"The branches are the right shape?"

Prof. Gostegg:"If they were not, that would be an anomaly. What are you getting at?"

Me:"Um, never mind." I am unsure of the social graces required for declaring a friend to be a suspected bonstable.

Prof. Gostegg:"Well, I do believe you have some ducal business to take care of. Also your non-Rassimel friend is cavorting dangerously amid the over-tall and under-balanced stacks of manuscripts. Take himself and yourself away, if you please. I shall see you in class. Ah, and here is your Eye back."

Us:Goodbye! Thank you!

Rhedwy:"How is it that you did not know of your magical arrangements?"

Thelvion:"My parents had me do Healoc lessons when I was young, so I've always been tolerably good at it. And didn't encourage me to do other magic very much."

Rhedwy:"So your parents know that you are the Herethroy, not the Rassimel? But ... your parents? How many were there?"

Thelvion:"I'm adopted."

Rhedwy:"Ah, adopted. But this parental advice suggests they know from early that you are Herethroy."

Thelvion:"It does, doesn't it? But they never wanted me to have any Herethroy friends, or read Herethroy books, or have anything to do with them."

Irigatur:"Cyarrgone."

Everyone else:"I beg your pardon?"

Irigatur:"Cyarrgone. The Herethroy ruling family of Cyarrgone were mostly assassinated some thirty years ago, except for a baby boy taken under the care of a notorious Zi Ri. He hasn't been seen since."

Me:"My grandparent?"

Irigatur:"Maybe. You're Llezcaryg's grandchild?"

Me:"No."

Irigatur:"Then no. It was Llezcaryg who spirited the rightful heir off."

Esory:"Really?"

Irigatur:"Really."

So we went to the library. Thelvion paid for all of us. Irigatur dredged up some books, and, indeed, Irigatur's story is correct, and it would put the prince at the same age as Thelvion, and the adoption the year after the vanishment.

Thelvion looked a bit dizzy. "So I'm the long-lost prince of Cyarrgone?"

Me:"I may never be able to call you tedious again."

Thelvion:"Tedious...? Never mind. You're going to visit the nendrai now, aren't you?"

Me:"It is that time ... it's a bit late in fact."

Thelvion:"I must come with you. I must have this spell removed!"

Me:"I don't know that that's a good idea..."

Thelvion:"Quickly! We can argue as we run!"

We did. "What will your lover think? Won't you risk being assassinated? Don't you want to find out the real story? Wouldn't a prime spellweaver be a better choice than a nendrai?" It didn't do any good, though. He didn't want to put off being the right species for a moment longer than necessary.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Thelvion... really isn't very clever, is he? Because I'm sniffing the doom from here.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

What doom do you smell? Your nose may be better than my tongue!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The long lost ritual, 'Summon Lleczaryg'?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Probably the doom of assassins coming after Thelvion in order to eliminate the last legal heir to Cyarrgone?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

The collective dooms of a) the results any time this nendrai casts a spell ON someone (Thelvion may come out of it a Herethroy, but looking somehow... wrong), b) the results of Thelvion's presumably traff Herethroy lover suddenly not being interested in Thelvion any more, and c) the results when Llezcaryg discovers what has been done -- or rather, undone... or undone-ish -- and arrives too late to stop the assassination of the last heir of Cyarrgone.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Vae's managed dozens of spells without doom! I mostly don't talk about them anymore though.

I don't know what will happen with the lover. Thelvion refused to think about that.

Llezcaryg ... um ... yeah. Doom.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Yes, Vae has, but, IIRC, she's heavy on the Mutoc, not so much on the Destroc or any of the others. Which means that she'll probably not want to remove the spell, so much as change it. And does she actually know what a Herethroy looks like, much less how they work?

Remember what happened with her shrinking you back to "your normal size"?

Thelvion may end up a rather overlarge cricket.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Simple: Mutoc Magidor, not Mutoc Corpador. Just change the spell from a full transformation to a minor disguise.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

She would have used Mutoc Magiador Locador, to move the spell to something else.

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

The only possible good that could come of this is Thelvion ceasing to be tedious. Possibly by a means other than his death, even!

[goodluckfox.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't the proper course of action be to consult with the Wild And Scaly Llzewyg or whateverzirnameis? Seeing as how they're prolly the one who ensorcelled Thelvion in the first place, they may have had their reasons and don't need you meddlesome youngsters getting in the way.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

"Proper course of action" is not a course taught at Vheshrame Academy.

Rather, it is, and it's a required course too, but nobody actually gets the point.

[redbird]

The first lesson on Roke, and the last, is Do only what is needful. (That's another magical school, not on your world or mine.)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I wonder -- Roke doesn't mainly teach the overpriveleged, spoiled children of the nobility, does it?

[redbird]

No. They get some of those, but they also get orphaned goatherds, and the children of sailors and cloth-dyers and reputable but non-noble traders and fishers and farmers and such.

They do turn out adventurers, of the less piratical sort.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many of those orphaned goatherds are bonstables.

[Bard is too sick to explain Earthsea to Sythyry tonight. -bb]

[zeeth_kyrah]

Not many, but one of 'em was the most powerful wizard ever, until he spent all of his power trying to cork a hole in his world's magerium. He didn't make a plug big enough, of course - the fool didn't think to try sewing it back together over many years, because sewing was something women did.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Well, whether corking or sewing is the best course of action depends entirely on how flexible the material you're repairing is. If it's stiff enough for a cork to be feasible, it's probably too tough to sew.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Do you mean to say that you've never taken The Proper Course of Action?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well ... only by mistake.

The Doom is unraveling quite nicely...

[winterbeast.livejournal.com]

Whenever anybody says "Well, it is Thelvion.(or any other person) It won't be much of an adventure, I'm sure. Run for cover.

Winterbeast