The Tower of High Socery, Redux

[for_magic]

The Tower of High Sorcery didn't look much different these days from a distance, but up close the wizard's efforts showed.

The gates stood permanently open, now, but an obvious sign cautioned all visitors not to enter the cordoned-off areas. A magic mouth repeated those instructions, firmly but politely, to those who might not bother with reading

Comments

[gifthasacold]

Don't enter the cordoned-off areas?

The verbal repetition was interesting, and Thom spent a few minutes examining the sorcery that made it work, but he soon moved on.

The purpose behind the warning was clear as soon as he stepped over the first rope. Magic buzzed along his skin, and he had to stop, closing his eyes to force Roger's Gift to heel. It wanted to lash out at the probe. Thom kept his Gift tightly under control. The Tower was almost aware of him, it seemed, and he didn't want to test the limitations of its patience.

The answer was in here, somewhere. He was sure of it. This was a center of arcane power, similar to The City of the Gods, and Thom would find what he was looking for here.

WOO LET'S DO THIS!

[for_magic]

"The magic mouth said don't!" an irritated wizard said from one room down. A moment later he stepped out of the audience chamber, and --

"Ah ha. I've been looking for you!"

SILLY LIVEJOURNAL, THAT'S NOT A TAG

[gifthasacold]

"That makes two of us," Thom said. He ignored the other wizard's comment about the warning - it was meant to keep out those not of their caliber. "I wished to return this. It is very informative. Not in the direction I needed, precisely."

The Lord of Trebond didn't see any sense in frustrating himself trying to puzzle out the omnicomm, and so he didn't use it. He had no idea that he was talking completely at cross-purposes with Aibghalien. He handed the borrowed book back. "Have you found any sort of library here? That is more what I'm in need of."

Despite his effort to keep his tone level, and to behave normally, Thom was visibly deteriorating. His fever was higher than it had been the whole time on Stacy and Roger's Gift rebelled harder by the day.

Mind if I tag Celena in here?

[curiousredsoul]

It hadn't taken her long to find the one she'd come to look for, especially when he called out. Though that other particular voice was rather familiar. The one known as Thom if she recalled correctly, one whom had proved rather interesting during their initial meeting. Disregarding the warnings herself, she was careful after all, she made her way towards the voices in her elven form (After all it was easier to get about in such buildings) she looked in through the doorway into the room both Abghalien and Thom were currently located within.

Even just looking at him, those same signs she had noticed in their first meeting had grown all the greater. After a moment she decided to make herself known, stepping into the room with a pleasant smile to them both, "There you are, Aibghalien, was about to go looking for you," she comments with the slightest of playful hints before giving the slightest dip of her head to the human wizard, "Thom, it's good to see you again, how has your research fared?"

[for_magic]

He has really, really got to figure out how to succinctly explain that the spells here may not read 'non-wizard, non-sorcerer' magic as magic.

He glanced at Celena, offering her a smile along with a silent plea to help him with this cause. Then he turned back to Thom. "There are a number of libraries here, actually, along with private spellbooks and journals, the study of which would probably take ages... ages you don't have to spare, if I'm not mistaken. With respect -- and I do mean respect, as one practitioner of the Art to another, and one noble to another -- you need help."

Jump right in!

[gifthasacold]

Thom's immediate response was a scowl and a petulant twist of his lips into a sardonic smirk. "You've run into the smith-mage, I see - she's mistaken, I assure you, I'm closer than I have been and I am certain that in the event I require assistance I will ask for it."

He glanced between Celina and Aibghalien. Their sudden appearance, together, gave him the feeling that he wouldn't be able to lie his way out of this one as easily as he had with Daja. The fact of the matter was that magic was so specifically ticklish that one needed all the details of a situation before one could begin finding a solution - and Thom... Thom couldn't bear a repeat of his experience as the palace's social pariah.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena smiled in turn to Aibghalien as she moved to stand by him, that silent plea not going unnoticed. She watched Thom thoughtfully as he spoke, he did seem somewhat stubborn if anything, either way, they had to at least try, "It is far from hard to notice your deterioration, Thom, even more so now than our first meeting. I am glad that you have made progress, but is it enough progress? How much time do you truly have before the taint consumes you and your gift entirely?" She replied and asked with some concern, though without sounding outright insistent or forceful, such things after all rarely went well with the stubborn.

[for_magic]

"We can help you," he said, quiet but firm. "Our magic is different, a solution may come to us all working together easier than it does to you. We need your magical strength on our side, instead of distracted."

He wasn't above appealing to pride.

[gifthasacold]

"You can see it?" Thom asked the woman sharply - she spoke like she'd met him before. Thom's fevered brain was trying to place her voice, her way of speaking, and was failing utterly. "How - nevermind." Thom knew how bad it was. He didn't have much time, that Aibghalien was right about.

"Your magic is different," Thom said. He knew that much better than most, having read the text the other wizard gave him. "I - how much more time will be wasted in trying to make each other understand-"

He was grasping at straws and he knew it. Somehow it was harder to repel these strangers than it had been to refuse Alanna's help.

[curiousredsoul]

"It is simple enough to note your physical condition, your fever is far greater than last, among other signs, but to put it simply, yes, I can," She replied simply enough and right to the point. It wasn't hard to note either that he didn't quite recognize her at the current moment and given her form it was only to be expected, "Last we met I was in a far different form than this," she explained simply to aid his memory.

"The more people and ways of magic available, the greater the chances that you will be able to cure or at least suppress the taint that plagues you," She nodded as she supported Aibghalien's point, "The more minds on the problem the more viewpoints and options will become available to you,"

[for_magic]

"Even if we can't solve the problem, we can at least buy you time. Perhaps even indefinitely," Aibghalien said, picking up Celena's thread. "The last thing anyone wants is to see you dead or your ability to use magic damaged."

Of course Aibghalien would see the second as a more dire fate.

[gifthasacold]

Thom put his own hand to his forehead and snatched it back - it was easy to tell he was feverish. He hadn't been close to a mirror in the past few weeks - "I must look ghastly," he joked, smiling weakly. He finally placed the woman's voice - looking back and forth between the two of them, he thought he knew why she had taken this form. "You've already developed the annoying habit of continuing each others' sentences," he said.

He was avoiding their offer. He would have to tell them what he did, and he'd be lying if he said he wanted to share that. "Time," he said. "You're right. I'm short on that, and running out rapidly."

[curiousredsoul]

"Perhaps not so bad, but noticeable enough to those with a sharp eye," She replied in turn with a soft smile, chuckling softly at his comment, "It would seem that way wouldn't it," she replied with a hint of amusement.

The avoidance went far from unnoticed, which drove her curiosity all the more, "Well then, there is little time to waste, let us help you, so that your time may not run out,"

[for_magic]

He nodded in agreement, though he had to hide a small smile at Thom's second statement. "Whatever the problem is, our help can't possibly make it worse at this point."

[gifthasacold]

He was torn - he knew that if Alanna was here she would knock him down for refusing help when he needed it most, but he had his pride... then again, Celena and Aibghalien were vastly more competent, it seemed than some of the Masters in the City. They had noticed the deterioration, even zeroed in on the root of it in his Gift.

He held his hands out, his face breaking out in a sweat as he brought the magic to the surface, blood-colored fire outlining his hands. "The Trebond Gift is amethyst," he said. "It always has been, in our line. I - in the course of - I unintentionally absorbed the Gift of a sorcerer equally powerful to myself." He spread his fingers. The outline wasn't amethyst streaked with orange, but a solid color. "Our Gifts became... intertwined. I... it's difficult to control such power."

That was as much admission as they'd get out of him that he could barely keep the combined magic on a leash, and that was even disregarding the personality of Roger's Gift. Violent, angry thing.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena dipped her head as he spoke, watching him thoughtfully, observing the magic he brought to the surface. It was clear that if what was saying was indeed the case, the two energies had merged into one greater energy, one that appeared to threaten the one who sought to control it.

"The gifts of this other Sorcerer and your own have merged? Is it this merging that causes the fever and the taint I sense," She pondered thoughtfully as she looked to Aibghalien briefly then back to Thom, "Has such a merging of power occurred previously among the mages of your world?"