Jill, from Katherine Kerr's Deverry books

[turtledove_jill]

A young woman with short blonde hair walks in, stops, and looks around in surprise. She is wearing worn baggy trousers, a slightly stained linen shirt, boots, and a swordbelt from which hang a sword and a silver dagger.

"By the Lord of Hell's black hairy balls! Since when did Brin Toraedic have a room that looked like this(OOC: This Jill is from

Comments

[ian_ma1co1m]

Pardon me, miss. You wouldn't happen to have a passionate interest in hyenas, would you?

[turtledove_jill]

"How odd. And English? I haven't heard of this language. Where is it from?"

[ian_ma1co1m]

It's what I'm speaking, or so I thought. Is it not what you're hearing? Because I'm hearing you in my native language. Another oddity of the Sorting Room, perhaps.

English originated in a country called England, as a hybrid of several tongues. The English were one of several nations to colonize a land called America, where it absorbed elements of their languages and other immigrant peoples' into a sort of second-generation version of English. American English is the one I'm native to.

What would your land and language be called?

[turtledove_jill]

"To me, you're speaking Deverrian," Jill replies, then just nods through Ian's explanation fo English. Smile and nod, and pretend to understand. It'll make sense eventually.

"I'm from a land called Deverry," she says. "The kingdom includes Eldidd and Pyrdon as well, which used to be seperate countries until the Time of Troubles, after which High King Maryn unified them all. Our language is Deverrian."

[ian_ma1co1m]

*nods* This school is in an island nation called Scotland. It's one of several smaller countries that were unified under the rule of England in much the same way, centuries ago.

I assume you're finding that your 'dweomer' and our 'magic' may be closely related concepts? Since you are without your own tutor here, have you any idea how you'd like to proceed with your studies? I'm sorry to say I have no idea how to get you back home, though that's certainly not to say there isn't a way out there somewhere.

[turtledove_jill]

"They seem to be." Jill nods. "I'm not truly sure what to do without Nevyn or Aderyn or even Salamander here to teach me dweomerlore, but I have to do something. They've told me many times how dangerous it is to start learning dweomer and not finish, and I've experienced a little of that firsthand. Since dweomer and 'magic' seem to be similar, or the same, or suchlike, mayhap I should learn what it is that gets taught here. It'd be daft not to at least try to keep from going mad, mayhap the mental discipline and channeling energies correctly is what stops that more than knowing the correct names for the Elemental Kings and suchlike."

[ian_ma1co1m]

You may very well be right at that. Many of us, including myself, are brought here from a more mundane society which regards magic as existing only in children's stories. Yet without a background in magical lore, we've been able to manipulate some of the magic forces around us.

Those of us who are brought here all seem to have something in our past lives that would mark us as good candidates. In my case it's scholarship; I'm an expert of mathematics. So of course I support your continuing your studies. Perhaps you could use your time determining where our magic and your dweomer coincide and where they differ? That might not take you too far off course from your original training, in case you're able to resume it.

[turtledove_jill]

"Oh, most humans where I'm from consider dweomer to be children's stories, but they believe in witches and suchlike and believe in dweomer fast enough if they see proof of it."

Jill considers the suggestion about studying the difference between dweomer and magic. "That sounds like a sensible idea. I've just been told about potions here, which sounds a lot to me like some of what I've been studying. Herblore isn't dweomer, but it's a place to start. And, ah, what are 'scholarship' and 'mathematics'?"

[ian_ma1co1m]

Ah. Scholarship, at least, isn't an idea you're unfamiliar with. It's what you're doing with your friend Nevyn, as I understand it. It's - stepping outside the regular world for a time, to concentrate entirely on learning and mastering a subject at a very high level. In your case, dweomer.

I've spent most of my adult life as either student or teacher of mathematics, which is the use and manipulation of numbers. It can be very abstract at a high level, so it requires the kind of mental discipline we've been discussing. I've found that discipline does help greatly when applied to magic.

[turtledove_jill]

Jill thinks over these concepts. "I think I get it. I'm not sure what these high levels of numbering is, but I know there's a lot more to it than the everyday stuff I use to count coin and suchlike. It seems that any kind of strong discipline is what's needed for dweomer and magic study."