The Flow and the Fountain, a story of the Circled Plain
This story is set in the world of the Circled Plains and the serial Jumping Rings, but stands alone.
It is written in reply to
kiarrith's suggestion to this request for questions, after the successful Domain Name Fundraiser.
I still need more questions! I have answered the four asked and need one more.
In the Tenth Circle classroom, scrubbed-clean children sat in a rough circle around their Eighth Circle teacher. They were dressed near-identically in Circle-issue tunics, plenty of coverage for the mild autumn weather.
The teacher, sitting cross-legged in front of a short blackboard, was dressed very similarly, her issued tunic painstakingly embroidered with forget-me-notes. She drew on her chalkboard, first, a horizontal line near the bottom of the board.
"There is Flow everywhere, just as there is water everywhere."
"Even in the desert?" the small child raised his hand as he asked the question. Next to him, another small child hissed.
"You're supposed to wait for her to call on you!"
"It's all right, Yen, Prin. Yen, even as there is water deep underground in the dessert, there is Flow even in the most Flow-less areas. But," she drew an uneven line, up and down like hills, above the first line. "There is much more work to get to it, so much that you have to be very strong and very determined to tap these places."
She drew a human-like figure standing on the "ground", in one of the places where the distance between the two lines was very thin. "In the thin places, the Flow is very easy to access. These locations make for very easy magic. If you want to pull for a ward, or for a little combat magic, or for a bit of cooking, these are the easiest places for that. But--" She drew thin lines between the bottom line and the figure. "When you draw upon the Flow, you become a conduit. You not only make the place you're standing on thinner-" she drew the Flow line up a little higher -- "you make yourself a place the Flow can come up through. Do that a little, and the Flow changes you." She held up her hand, slightly-blue webbing was visible between her fingers. "Do it too much-"
"And you become a Fountain!" Prin bounced in her seat. "The Flow just--" She wiggled her fingers upwards enthusiastically. "Wooshes up through them. Right up to the sky, like fireworks."
"Exactly, Prin. The Flow is a useful tool - but a dangerous one. Never forget that, children." She drew the lines upwards through the figure, like fireworks. The children shared looks between each other and shuddered.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/925126.html. You can comment here or there.
It is written in reply to
kiarrith's suggestion to this request for questions, after the successful Domain Name Fundraiser.
I still need more questions! I have answered the four asked and need one more.
In the Tenth Circle classroom, scrubbed-clean children sat in a rough circle around their Eighth Circle teacher. They were dressed near-identically in Circle-issue tunics, plenty of coverage for the mild autumn weather.
The teacher, sitting cross-legged in front of a short blackboard, was dressed very similarly, her issued tunic painstakingly embroidered with forget-me-notes. She drew on her chalkboard, first, a horizontal line near the bottom of the board.
"There is Flow everywhere, just as there is water everywhere."
"Even in the desert?" the small child raised his hand as he asked the question. Next to him, another small child hissed.
"You're supposed to wait for her to call on you!"
"It's all right, Yen, Prin. Yen, even as there is water deep underground in the dessert, there is Flow even in the most Flow-less areas. But," she drew an uneven line, up and down like hills, above the first line. "There is much more work to get to it, so much that you have to be very strong and very determined to tap these places."
She drew a human-like figure standing on the "ground", in one of the places where the distance between the two lines was very thin. "In the thin places, the Flow is very easy to access. These locations make for very easy magic. If you want to pull for a ward, or for a little combat magic, or for a bit of cooking, these are the easiest places for that. But--" She drew thin lines between the bottom line and the figure. "When you draw upon the Flow, you become a conduit. You not only make the place you're standing on thinner-" she drew the Flow line up a little higher -- "you make yourself a place the Flow can come up through. Do that a little, and the Flow changes you." She held up her hand, slightly-blue webbing was visible between her fingers. "Do it too much-"
"And you become a Fountain!" Prin bounced in her seat. "The Flow just--" She wiggled her fingers upwards enthusiastically. "Wooshes up through them. Right up to the sky, like fireworks."
"Exactly, Prin. The Flow is a useful tool - but a dangerous one. Never forget that, children." She drew the lines upwards through the figure, like fireworks. The children shared looks between each other and shuddered.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/925126.html. You can comment here or there.