picknicking

[dark_light]

There's something unutterably pleasant about landing in a bit of woods in the middle of Nowhere, Manitoba, removing a sandwich and an apple from her backpack and having a picnic before she's ready to move on. She could eat in midair, but it makes it too likely that she'll drop something and find it unrecoverable.

Path's on her knee, and her cloudpine is propped up against the tree next to her.

Comments

[dark_light]

Isabella notes him cleaning up, and says "thanks", but then her attention is back on her spell.

[prodigal_miser]

"You're welcome," he replies, "Let me know when you're ready to begin your spell? I'll work on mine some more."

[dark_light]

"Sure."

Write write cross out page turn write flip back a few pages "hmmm" write write draw a circle and lots of arrows "hmm" flip forward a few pages write write.

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin goes to the attic and does much the same! His daemon follows and offers assistance, something he's realized is quite helpful in spell creation. Time would pass until Isabella lets him know she's ready.

[dark_light]

Path flutters up to the attic. "My Isabella is ready to put down runes now if you want to watch," he announces.

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin looks up from his work and nods! "That would be lovely, thank you."

He finishes the part he was writing, then gets up and heads down to watch, daemon trailing behind.

[dark_light]

Path flies ahead, maneuvering skillfully in the indoor environment. He lands on his witch, who is in her room with a bag of sugar.

"Here goes," she says, and she slits a little hole in the sugar and starts drawing the runes, occasionally pinching the hole shut to consult her notes.

[prodigal_miser]

"Good luck, I hope it works," he wishes.

Finding an out of the way part of the room, her guest sits and watches. This is all quite interesting, and he watches with fascinated attention. He might ask to look at her notes, later, but that'll be for when she's done with the spell. It's hard-coded into his head to never, ever distract a spell-caster that he doesn't want to screw over.

[dark_light]

Eventually she is through with her circle and puts the sugar bag down on its side so it will stop leaking.

She steps over her runes carefully and kneels in the middle of the circle. (Path remains outside, facing her.)

She inhales, and closes her eyes, and recites an apparently memorized poem:

"Sugar circle, seek and bring
The compass that can, silent, sing.
Find it, bring it, take it here,
From its place to somewhere near,
And in my hands place honesty
And give Alethia to me."

There is a sudden wind and the sugar goes everywhere. The lights flicker. And Isabella is holding a slightly dented alethiometer, which she instantly hugs.

[prodigal_miser]

Not minding if he's a little covered in sugar, her guest watches this attentively. When the lights flicker he smiles, just a little - he does quite like how magic has the habit of announcing itself. When the spell works, he laughs a bit, happy for Isabella.

Adarin grins and appreciatively claps, cheering a little. "First try, congratulations!"

[dark_light]

Isabella takes a little bow from her kneeling position. Then she inspects her alethiometer, which appears to be in working order, dents or not. "Okay. What do you need to do with this thing?"

[prodigal_miser]

"I need to study it a bit, magically. Have to understand how it all... Fits to make the spell work. May I?" he motions to the alethiometer. It's easier to do this if it's being held, but not strictly required if she refuses.

[dark_light]

"Sure. Just please be careful with it." She hands it over and grabs her cloud-pine, which she apparently has no qualms about using as a broom to get the worst of the sugar swept up.

[prodigal_miser]

"Of course," he replies, taking the alethiometer gently. This scrying spell is one he'd prepped long beforehand, and it's used so often that he knows it well enough to use it here.

Staring at it, he says his own incantation - a memory aid, according to his explanation. Nothing particularly impressive would happen, but Adarin does get a sort of far-off look in his eyes as he stares at it. He's not seeing the Alethiometer. After about a minute of very intense staring with little to no blinking, he's found what he needs to know and is released from the spell. He rubs his dry eyes, a bit.

"Alright, it's really complicated so I'll probably need to look over it again, but I have the basic idea of it now. Would you like it back?"

[dark_light]

"Unless it'll help you to hold onto it. I can't make a lot of headway at doing anything with it until you finish your spell."

[prodigal_miser]

"Fair enough. Would you like the one that offers translations for what it says, or the one that does the opposite for you first?"

[dark_light]

"The former. They 'talk to themselves'."

[prodigal_miser]

He nods, "Then I'll start with that one." He offers the alethiometer back to Isabella. "I'll ask when I need to see it again - I don't want to give you the impression that I'd run off with it, or something."

[dark_light]

She tucks it into a pocketlike location in her silks. "Thanks. I wouldn't appreciate it if you did that."

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin grins. "I figured. That would get me booted out of your attic or stabbed, I'm sure," he teases. He has no intention of taking her alethiometer.

[dark_light]

"At least one of those." She finishes sweeping the sugar into a corner, and wrangles it all into a dustpan and tips that into the trash.

[prodigal_miser]

"I'll avoid both by not doing that, then," says Adarin, then he gives a little wave and heads off to get to work! Spell creation, hurray. Write write mutter mutter cross out write write grin write mutter say curseword cross out a lot write write.

He will be at this for a while, and a few hours later will come by again to ask to look at the alethiometer again.

[dark_light]

She hands it over.

[prodigal_miser]

Intense staring ensues, then he nods at it, thanks her, and returns it with no trouble.

Another few hours later, he returns, and says, "I think I've got the first spell ready. You wanted to watch, right? I'm afraid it won't be as showy as yours, and I'll need to take a break for a few days after I finish it."

[dark_light]

"I would like to see, yes. A break from magic or from everything?"