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Meira
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Apr 11, 2011 14:38:22 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Apr 11, 2011 14:38:22 GMT -5
So this was the Tower... Her passage her had been an adventure all its own. The Mythic she'd come to know as Math had a flying style she'd never seen implemented anywhere else. This was probably for the best. But she was here now, and in one piece, so she couldn't really say anything against it. The tower was dark. Very few areas were lit, and those that were had only dim lights that teased the eyes. These areas, apparently, were used most often when those not within the fold were present. Vesta was such an example. Upon her arrival, Vesta was quickly separated from Math and Kvothe, only able to offer the two a quick thanks for their help before she found herself escorted away by an unfamiliar, older man. She was ushered into a dimly lit room that contained nothing more than two chairs and one under illuminated light in the high ceiling. She was instructed to sit down, and she did, then the man left without any explanation. She sat there, eyes adjusting to the dim light to find that there was nothing of interest in the room, until another entered. This being was a female, human by all appearances. She was very old. Her hair was completely white and seemed to glow in the dim light. Fastened in a braid, it hung down over one shoulder past her waist. Her skin hung loose on her thin frame, and when she spoke, her voice was soft, but strong. All of these features might have proved fascinating in their own right, but as she entered, all of Vesta's attention was drawn toward the woman's eyes. They glowed. Vesta was hypnotized instantly, unable to look away. The old woman smiled, leaning a staff against the side of the other chair before lowering herself down into it. She sat in silence for a moment, facing Vesta. Then, she finally spoke. "Give me your hands, child." she said, extending her own toward her. Still staring at the old woman's eyes, Vesta complied. The woman's hands were thin, the joints knobby, but her grip was strong. Vesta suddenly felt something like electricity flowing from them. Her instinct was to pull her hands away, but the old woman held fast. And then Vesta's vision began to falter. Memories flashed through her mind. She saw Kvothe and Math on the roof next to Math's ship, she saw Ryn and Sam before she said her farewells. She saw the rings she fought in, the thugs she beat. She saw spacer crews, dusty landing pads... She saw Jasper. Then fire, and nothing. As her vision returned, Vesta found herself hunched over in her chair, air drawing into her lungs in quick gasps. The old woman across from her was rubbing her hands, her glowing eyes fixed on Vesta. "That's some past you've got, girl." The woman's voice was sharp, but carried a thoughtful curiosity. Vesta didn't know what to say in return as she sat herself back up straight. "But no worse than any other I'd suppose." She stood then, crossing to the door. One knock had it opened from the other side by a younger man, dressed as one might expect a guard to be. "She'll do. Show her to the recruit wing. I need my rest."Vesta stood as the man turned toward her. He carried a staff, and a sword, just as Kvothe did. Math had a staff, and a lightsaber. Where'd he get that? The old woman only had a staff. Vesta was walking, but her thoughts controlled her concentration, an easy thing in such low light. Without that concentration on her movements, she found her nose in sudden pain. The culprit? The door. "Watch your step, miss." The man took her arm, leading her slowly from the room. Vesta's free hand rubbed at her nose as they moved through the dark corridors. Most of the walk, it was pitch black, and Vesta had to trust that the man knew what he was doing. His eyes were glowing as well. Did everyone's eyes glow here? Something in the air tickled at her nose, but Vesta couldn't place what it was. It carried an aroma with it, but it eluded her. Though as they continued, Vesta began to wonder if her eyesight was adjusting. She thought maybe she could see the guard's hand on her arm. But if she looked to where it would be, she could see nothing but black. -->]One Week Later[<-- With the recruits, Vesta had been given a quick history of the Tower and the Mythics who dwelled within it. She'd been assigned a mentor who oversaw her initial orientation and sorting. This man, a human named Benjen, was in his late fifties, but was as strong as any man Vesta had ever known. His hair had once been pitch black, but was now streaked with grey. His square jaw was covered in a short beard that had gone nearly all grey, and his eyes - when they weren't glowing from the effects of etherium - were a brilliant green that sparkled with the energy he seemed to always put off. Benjen pushed Vesta that week, physically and mentally, constantly testing her abilities. Unlike other recruits, Benjen did not allow Vesta to sample etherium right away. He wanted to see what she could do without it first. What she could do, though, proved to be very little. Her frustration would always arise when a task became to difficult. And as she'd always experienced, the tasks that were too difficult were those that called for the use of the force, or mythos. Though, to be fair, under Benjen's instruction, Vesta had come farther than she ever had in the years since Jasper's death. As the seventh day of her orientation came to an end, Benjen sat with Vesta for their evening meal. He told her that the orientation process was over, that he'd meditated over her future. He told her that a darkness hung around her, within her, making her path hard to determine. He knew her martial prowess could one day be a benefit to the Battle Mythics, but there was another path as well. He did not speak of the path, but simply allowed the possibility to sink into the young woman's mind. He did not seem happy about it, but said she might find answers if she followed the second path. The question was, did she truly wish to seek those answers. The next morning, Vesta woke, unsure of what would come next. Instead of finding Benjen outside her door when she exited her chamber, it was a guard. The guard instructed Vesta to follow, and so she did. The corridors of the Tower were still very dark to the Vahla woman. She'd grown somewhat accustomed to the darkness, however, and so navigated much easier than she had when she'd first arrived. Benjen had told her that trace amounts of etherium lingered everywhere within the Tower, and it was likely that her system had begun to use it with minor results. The guard soon stopped and Vesta could hear him open a door. He guided her through it, then over to what seemed to be a low sofa of some sort. She sat down and caught a fleeting look at the room as a match was struck. But the flame was small and lit little more than the man's hand as he moved it down into some sort of lamp or something. There it caught a fuel source and the light burned brighter for a moment, giving Vesta a better view of the room. Three other sofas, like the one she sat on, were arranged around a low, round table. At the center of the table was the device that held the flame. Above the flame, a flat, round vessel held something. There were other tables, with similar sofas circled around them in the large room. At those tables, other beings sat. The man adjusted the flame, increasing the heat until the flames were blue, then near invisible and the shadows moved back in. The man then left without another word, and Vesta was alone in the room, barely able to see smoke begin to rise from the vessel above the flame. She could tell the smoke was filling the room, and suddenly identified it as the aroma in the air she'd detected when she'd first arrived at the Tower. Etherium. Had Benjen decided she was ready?
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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Apr 16, 2011 15:09:08 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Apr 16, 2011 15:09:08 GMT -5
The Tower was dark. That wasn't new; the Tower was always dark, or darker than most other places. Kvothe didn't notice most days. He naturally could see better than an average species in low light, and the Etherium that'd been built up in his system over the years only enhanced that further. To him, the dim corridors of the Tower were as normal as any other halls might have been elsewhere to any other person.
Today, however, things were different.
As he stepped from the suite that he stayed in, and had at one point been home to the Algaterra family, he noticed that the halls seemed darker. Everything seemed darker. Could it be his vision starting to falter?
No. Not that. The bladed end of his staff pinged softly as he walked along, tapping it on the smooth marble-tiled floors like a walking stick. I know what it is. Something was different about him; something had been different since they returned to the Tower after the battle with the Unum on the edge of the world far away in the Itzli Mountains.
His eyes were their natural hazel for the most part, but a thin ring of orange wrapped around the edge of his irises. It had been there almost constantly since their return, whether he was alone or with others. Even though he carried himself largely the same way as he always did, there was a tightness, a tenseness to him that had been picked up on by those that knew him well, even if they hadn't said anything about it. More than anything, there was a faint, subtle heat to his presence in the Mythos.
It was anger; a quiet, boiling anger that lurked just beneath the surface. For the most part, he kept it contained, but he'd been more and more irritable as of late. Now his temper flared at things that might only have irritated him regularly. He didn't want to think about what might happen if something that would have actually pissed him off happened.
I've already seen it. He stepped into a lift, waited for Fas to get in, and hit a button to send him to one of the Tower's lower levels. In his mind's eye he was back in that Mythos-forsaken base. Iri was there, all bruised and beaten. That was when he'd snapped. An uncontrollable rage had filled him, had pushed him to righteous action without thought. That was when he'd killed those two men. The images replayed again, as they had so many times. Blood everywhere, splattered on his face and his robes and armor. The scream of the second as he gave the most terrible death he could imagine...
"It's over, Kvothe." He shook his head and turned around to look out the curved panel of transperisteel on the far side of the lift. As it took him down, he could see other Mythics on various levels milling about, doing various things. "I did what was right. It doesn't matter anymore."
Ping!
He felt his stomach shift a little bit as the lift came to a stop. He turned on his heel and stepped out, green sash trailing slightly behind him. Fas bounded out ahead, those long tails of his bobbing through the air behind him. At least the flickercat seemed to be in a good enough mood.
Kvothe took a left turn, then two rights and another left. And there he found the place he was looking for: one of the meditation rooms. Mythos only knew he needed something to clear his head.
Though he wasn't as hooked on Etherium as some of the other Mythics--he was probably one of the lightest users of the stuff in the Order--he still recognized the benefits of it. And now, when he felt so conflicted, he knew some meditation was something he needed dearly.
He glanced around the room as he stepped into it. A few Mythics were scattered about, no doubt going through Etherium-enhanced meditations of their own. A familiar figure sat on one couch, near a freshly-lit Etherium burner.
Vesta. The woman that he and Math had recruited into the Order.
Haven't seen her in a while. With little more than a mental shrug, Kvothe walked over and, after leaning his staff against a nearby wall, settled down onto the cushioned stool across from her. Fas sat on his hanunches on another side, roughly the same distance apart from both of them. The blue lights on his tails cast a nearly eerie glow on the area around him.
"Hey Vesta," Kvothe said softly, watching thin whisps of blue-white smoke curl up from the Etherium as it started to burn. "Been a little while since I've seen you." The aroma started to slip into his lungs. He could already feel his mind starting to clear, to relax a bit. Light from the soft flame caught on and reflected from the tapetum lucidum that'd built up in his eyes from his Etherium use over the years; they almost seemed to gently glow in the meditation den's dim light.
"So this is the Tower. This is our home. What do you think so far." A thought passed through his mind and he chuckled. "Is this your first time trying Etherium?"
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Meira
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Apr 23, 2011 21:18:48 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Apr 23, 2011 21:18:48 GMT -5
Vesta's heart had settled into a quick cadence at the realization that Benjen had sent her to try Etherium. Why hadn't he come with her? Was it some kind of test? Was she on her own now? A sinking feeling pulled on her stomach at the thought. First Jasper, then Ryn, now Benjen too? Vesta didn't want to lose another mentor. The sinking feeling deepened into a sort of sadness. But she fought against it. She didn't know what Benjen was up to. It would be foolish to jump to such conclusions so quickly. There could be many reasons he was not with her at this very moment.
As that concept came into her mind, it brought with it a dozen examples. Benjen could have been assigned another recruit. He could be ill. He could be in the room after all, watching her. She looked around, suddenly aware that she could see more details than before. Other ideas of where her mentor might be rushed through her mind, all at once confusing and in complete focus. It was dizzying. It was exciting.
"Hey Vesta."
Vesta turned her head toward the voice. The room seemed to take a moment to follow. Her vision blurred, then caught up and bounced into focus. A man was settling into the sofa across the table from her. At first, the smoke from the burner obscured his features, but - as if at the thought - her eyes somehow focused through it and recognized the man as Kvothe.
"Been a little while since I've seen you."
"Seven days, four hours, fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds, twenty-four... five..." she shook her head, stopping the sudden count. Her eyes belied her confusion, but she smiled all the same, glad to see a familiar face. Next to her, a faint light caught her attention.
"Fas!" she said, her smile widening. The creature was beautiful. Dangerous, enticing, she wanted to pet it. Her hand reached out, but she stopped short, unsure if Fas would allow her. "May I?" She asked the cat, almost as if she expected it to answer her back.
"So this is the Tower. This is our home. What do you think so far."
Vesta turned her attention back to Kvothe, completely forgetting what had moments ago been a strong urge to scratch Fas behind the ears. Her arm fell back into her lap, where she was now crossing her legs up on the couch.
"I haven't seen much. But the recruits' wing is nice enough I guess. Do you know Benjen? He's my mentor. Benjen...." Her voice trailed off. It had suddenly occured to her that she didn't know Benjen's last name.
"Is this your first time trying Etherium?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." What had she just been thinking about?
Though she could not see it for herself unless she happened across a mirror, Vesta's eyes were beginning to glow. The room was becoming more and more clear to her. But Vesta's mind was racing under the influence of the Etherium. Never having experienced it before, The speed was hard to control. She was processing information much more quickly, making it hard to clamp down on any one thing. Instead, she found herself bouncing from thought to thought without even so much as a pause. That is until the lights of Fas' tail caught her attention once again.
Her eyes followed the creatures tails as they swayed slowly, their blue light seeming to dance in the air. Soon, she was following the movement with her head and shoulders as well, swaying back and forth on her couch.
"Beautiful..."
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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Apr 26, 2011 21:27:09 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Apr 26, 2011 21:27:09 GMT -5
Yeah, it was her first time on the stuff. Kvothe could tell that much even before she answered his question directly. He'd seen the signs many times over the years; signs of the new and those who'd not yet built up some degree of tolerance to the Etherium. Her memory was sharp; far sharper than it normally was, if her precise recount of the time that had passed since they last saw each other was any indication.
He chuckled softly, threads of silver weaving faintly through his orange and hazel irises as her attention skittered this way and that, from him to Fas to him again. "It's something, isn't it? I remember the first time I tried it, even if it was so long ago."
Pausing, he took a moment to unclip a small glass container from his belt. It was prismatic in shape, made of two hexagonal pyramids connected at the base. A light, blue powder filled it to about the halfway point. After setting it on the table and pulling a small brazier over to sit before him, Kvothe eased the top open and poured a dusting of the powder into the brazier's bowl.
"It's amazing. I remember those first moments, everything was so clear, so focused. Almost felt like I could do anything, learn whatever the instructors threw at me." He found a match, lit it, and held it to the oil-coated wick that extended to just below the bottom of the bowl. With a flick of his wrist, he set some of the air around him to stir in a gentle vortex; one that would keep the added Etherium in the air around him, away from Vesta.
"Of course, I had to learn how to deal with it. The hallucinations, the withdrawals..." He shook his head and looked up at her through the lazily-swirling smoke. That had been the hardest part, learning to deal with the hallucinations. They faded as one became more and more used to the drug, but at first, they seemed so real, so vibrant...
He opened his mouth to say some more, then decided not to and closed it with a wry little smirk. Mythos knows she's probably having a hard enough time paying attention to me already. Instead he settled back to sit more comfortably on his stool and watched her. He could already feel the effects of the Etherium starting to kick in: the way his vision seemed to sharpen, the feeling of a fog that he hadn't even known was there beginning to lift from his mind... a growing clarity that would only get sharper as he delved deeper.
"You said Benjen was the one they put over you?" He leaned forward as he spoke, puffing at the fire beneath his brazier to give it a bit more life and warmth. "He's a good man. Very experienced." He looked to his flickercat for a moment with eyes that he knew were starting to faintly glow. "Wouldn't you agree, Fas?"
Fas, for his part, simply looked up at Kvothe and titled his head a bit to the side. An ear flicked and he laid down, looking to Vesta. He watched her from there, head resting on his two front paws as those tails continued to flick idly, almost hypnotically.
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Meira
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Apr 29, 2011 22:39:06 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Apr 29, 2011 22:39:06 GMT -5
"Hallucinations?"
Vesta knew little of Etherium. The Mythics she'd encountered before coming to the tower had been vague about it, and Benjen had told her nothing at all. When she'd asked him about it, he'd simply told her that she would learn in time, then he'd continue whatever drill they were working on.
Her eyes scanned the room again at the mention of hallucinations, suddenly suspicious of everything around her. The dancing blue lights of Fas' tails caught her eye once more. No, she thought. Fas is real... Her eyebrows furrowed. Or is he?. She remembered then that she'd wanted to pet the creature. It still sat, watching her as she was watching it. She reached her hand out again, slowly inching it towards the feline's head. Slowly, gently, she lowered her fingers until she felt soft fur. Satisfied, she retracted her hand.
"He's real." she said with a matter of fact tone, as if to reassure Kvothe as much as herself. No hallucinations yet then. Or maybe...
Kvothe had lit his own brazier. Smoke now billowed up around him. But it... stayed around him. It swirled of it's own accord around the man's head. Vesta tilted her head slightly to the side as she watched the smoke. How was he doing that?
"You said Benjen was the one they put over you?"
"Hmm? Yes. Benjen." The thought brought her out of her fascination with the trick Kvothe was doing with his smoke. Her mind again wandered as she considered the possibilities of where Benjen might be.
"He says I would make a good Battle Mythic. What with my background and all." she said, stretching her legs back down to the floor. "We've been talking about making my staff. I've got the idea for what I want I just-"
Vesta reached her arms down, rubbing along her ankles. She wore light pants that stopped at the knee and only slip on shoes, but her lower legs felt so warm. She looked down at her legs, forgetting what she was going to say about her staff. Her feet were hot. No, they were burning!
Her eyes widened as she looked at her feet. Her shoes were in flames! Panicked, she kicked them from her feet with a stifled yelp, bringing her legs back up onto the couch. The scars that ran across the top of her feet pulsed with a burning pain. She rubbed at them, eyes still fixed on her shoes that appeared to be smuldering under the table. Then, when she blinked, the flames were gone.
"Not burning..." she said to herself, barely audible. Her brow furrowed as she looked at her feet. She could still feel the heat, but the pain was gone. She remembered Kvothe and Fas and glanced back up. What had she been talking about?
"It won't be much." she said. With the thought of her staff back in her mind, she was all but forgetting about her shoes. "Simple." She nodded, even smiled, then wondered where Benjen was.
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 1, 2011 16:41:39 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 1, 2011 16:41:39 GMT -5
"Yes, hallucinations," Kvothe answered, chuckling softly. Of course, he wouldn't tell her about them; that'd take the fun out of it all. Besides, they were different for everyone. His own had involved animals and giant people running about the halls of the Tower.
He'd heard Math's had led to some sorry lout's hand getting bitten because the Squib thought it was food. That was something Kvothe very nearly would've paid to see.
He looked down to adjust the flame beneath the brazier, choking it with a subtle application of the Mythos to kill some of the heat, now that his Etherium was smoldering nicely. Glancing up, he saw Vesta looking oddly at Fas, especially at the softly-glowing flickers at the end of his tails. Looks like the Etherium's really starting to hit her.
What's that? Something tickled at the back of his mind. Something light and airy. As he realized it was coming through the bond, his gaze shifted down to look at Fas. Amusement. That's what it was, smug and satisfied. Fas looked to Kvothe from the corner of an eye as the Rilan's gaze fell on him. He was using his tails to mess with Vesta on purpose.
Kvothe nearly chided his familiar, but it was amusing, watching Vesta watch those dancing lights as if hypnotized. And then she reached out and gently pet his head.
"He's real."
Kvothe did chuckle at that. "Aye, he's as real as I ever remember him being. Don't think it would change now, y'know? And you," he looked at Fas and gave him a half-hearted disapproving look, "knock it off." Mythos knows she'll be loopy enough without your help.
Fas could feel how Kvothe really felt, though, just as surely as Kvothe could feel the cat's smugness. He stopped and laid down, but he wasn't feeling any guilt over toying with a newly-blasted recruit.
"Hmm? Yes. Benjen. He says I would make a good Battle Mythic. What with my background and all."
Kvothe started to lean back, then remembered his stool lacked a back and righted himself right before he would've tipped over the back. He played it off by clearing his throat a bit more loudly than he should've and nodding sagely. Hopefully Vesta hadn't noticed.
"Good to hear. We can always use more Battle Mythics. I was a Battle Mythic, a few years ago." He relaxed his body, breathed deeply of the light blue smoke that gently swirled around him. It filled his lungs with a gentle fire, gave his mind an ever-deepening focus.
"We've been talking about making my staff. I've got the idea for what I want I just-"
Kvothe's brows raised slightly when she cut off. He looked at her. She looked at her shoes.
He looked at her shoes. They looked like they always had to him.
"Vesta?"
She muttered something softly after rubbing at her feet for a moment. Kvothe swore she said something about burning, but who could say. Chalk it up to a hallucination. Must be what it was.
"It won't be much," she went on, as though her imaginary foot-fire had never happened. "Simple."
"I see," he said with a light nod. He leaned forward slightly, settling his forearms on his thighs and sighed. His breath disturbed the drifting smoke. "Sounds good. I remember when I made Pietas." He glanced back over to the bladed staff resting against the wall. "It was something special. Still is. Though I've been thinking about making another one." He hadn't really talked about it to anyone, not yet. Truthfully, he wasn't even completely sure what materials he'd use and what the finished weapon would look like. But he had the beginnings of an idea. "You'll have to show me what it looks like when it's done."
He watched her for a moment, and noticed small motes of light starting to appear in his vision. His own hallucinations, mild as they were.
"How're you handling the Etherium?"
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Meira
She don't mess around
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May 4, 2011 18:00:36 GMT -5
Post by Meira on May 4, 2011 18:00:36 GMT -5
"I remember when I made Pietas."
Vesta followed his gaze as Kvothe glanced back to where he'd left his own staff leaning against the wall. The blades seemed to glint in the dim light at the mention of its name. Vesta wondered why it had a name at all. It was a staff, a weapon, right? But then again, she supposed there were all kinds of stories about weapons having names; it tended to show a sense of personal meaning between the weapon and its owner. Vesta made a mental note to find out what pietas meant.
"It was something special. Still is. Though I've been thinking about making another one." Kvothe seemed to consider his own words for a moment. "You'll have to show me what it looks like when it's done."
Vesta's brow furrowed at that statement. "How am I supposed to show you what it'll look like? You haven't even made it-" That's about when she understood what he was getting at. "-oh... yes." She might have blushed, if her mind hadn't immediately started into the plans she was laying out for the task.
She was supposed to go with Benjen soon to pick out the materials. Benjen had been suggesting forging it from metal and had, over the past few days, recommended a number of different kinds she might use. But Vesta wasn't too keen on a metal staff. She needed something a little more... what would be a good word... grounded.
"Have you ever seen a shepherd's crook?" She asked, bringing her eyes back up to meet Kvothe's. "It'll look something like that. Lots of stuff you can do with a hook y'know."
Pulling, pushing, twisting, hitting, tripping, hanging...
"How're you handling the Etherium?"
Her eyes had wandered back away again as she mentally listed the possibilities. They widened at the realization that she was still being talked to. She looked back to Kvothe again, lips slightly pursed and eyebrows raise in question.
"Hmm?" she replied, once again. "Oh, well... I don't know how to judge my tolerance. I thought my feet were on fire a minute ago." She quickly looked down again to ensure that they still were not.
They weren't.
"Buuuuut.... other than that...." Her eyes once again caught sight of Fas' tails. Smiling, she watched as they swayed back at forth around the reclining feline. "Pretty good?"
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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May 8, 2011 18:00:33 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on May 8, 2011 18:00:33 GMT -5
"How am I supposed to show you what it'll look like? You haven't even made it-"
One of Kvothe's eyebrows arched slightly behind the veil of shifting smoke. The threads of silver reappeared in his eyes, thicker than they had been the last time.
"-oh... yes."
Yes, the Etherium must have been getting to her. It wasn't like he'd been confusing, had he? Whatever the case--Etherium, confusion, or some mix of both--Kvothe chuckled softly and waved the slight awkwardness away.
As she spoke, his gaze drifted to the ethereal strobes lazily drifting through the air around them. Or the ones he thought were drifting around them. They were so beautiful, floating freely like fireflies in the southern Plains on warm summer nights. Some of them held a steady color, a soft, clear white. Others pulsed a gentle blue like the flickers on Fas' tails. Other shifted, from green to orange to purple to red and so on.
How could they not be real?
But on closer look, their light didn't cast itself onto other surfaces, didn't reflect in Vesta's eyes as one of the motes passed in front of her eyes. It was beautiful. But it was one of the Etherium's tricks. Nothing more.
"Have you ever seen a shepherd's crook?"
"Hm?" Vesta's voice made him realize he'd been staring at the wall. Well, it was the motes, really, but no one else could see those. "A shepherd's crook? Yeah, I've seen one before." He nodded once and hoped she hadn't seen his staring.
So the staff would be like a shepherd's crook? That was very innovative. A lot of Mythics got innovative with their staffs. He furrowed his brow slightly. Staffs? Staves? Whatever.
His one were more simple. More practical. The thought made him glance back to Pietas where it was leaning against the wall. Okay, so maybe the blades were a bit strange, to some. But Math had a flamethrower built onto his staff.
"Hmm? Oh, well... I don't know how to judge my tolerance. I thought my feet were on fire a minute ago."
Kvothe nodded. She'd seen an illusion. Not an uncommon one, either. It happened enough that some Mythics had given it an informal name: firefoot. Or fire'insert-body-part-here,' to be truthful. One rather unlucky recruit had the illusion pop up on a rather unfortunate part of his body. Kvothe chuckled softly at remembering the first time he'd heard that gossip, back when it spread like wildfire through the Temple. Sometimes he wondered if the guy ever managed to live that down.
"Buuuuut.... other than that. Pretty good?"
"Good." Kvothe noticed she was looking at Fas again. He glanced down to his familiar. Fas looked back at him. The feeling he got through the bond was vaguely akin to a shrug, and then the flickercat put his head back down. Kvothe shook his head. Silly animal.
"At least you haven't bolted out of the room yet. Or bitten somebody's hand because you thought it was food..." He chuckled. "Don't tell Math I told you that, by the way."
As he watched her, he noticed that one of the little pricks of light was hovering near her face. That wasn't too uncommon, but then it started to move. Toward her nose.
It went into it.
Kvothe tried very hard not to giggle like a schoolchild.
"So..." he went on when he was sure he could speak without bursting into sophomoric laughter again, "this is your last step before you're a Mythic in full, right? Well, an Understudy, but that's better than a recruit. Sure you already went through the screening. And the staff isn't reall a requirement...."
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Meira
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May 28, 2011 11:37:37 GMT -5
Post by Meira on May 28, 2011 11:37:37 GMT -5
"So... this is your last step before you're a Mythic in full, right? Well, an Understudy, but that's better than a recruit. Sure you already went through the screening. And the staff isn't reall a requirement...."
Vesta noted a change in Kvothe's voice for a moment, but it was gone just as quickly. Was it a tone of laughter? Had she started drooling? She looked down at herself, but saw no drool stains. She nodded at his words, shrugging her confusion of.
"Just a fashion statement then?" she asked, her eyes returning to his for a moment, smiling at her own little joke. "To be honest with you Kvothe, this whole initiation process wasn't quite what I expected. I guess I was thinking it would be more.... mythi... mystical? All Benjen has done is drill me. I think he was trying to see if he could get me to quit. It was all..."
She trailed off, her attention suddenly drawn to the space next to her on the couch. To any other, she appeared to be staring at nothing. But to Vesta, the man who now sat next to her seemed as real as anything she'd ever known.
"Hello Vesta." Had she not been so amazed at what was before her, she might have noticed that this man could not be here, sitting and speaking with her. This man was dead.
"....Jasper?"
"I'm happy to see you've found this place. I had been considering bringing you here for some time."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"What would have been the fun in that? Don't you like surprises?" Jasper's chuckle echoed in her mind.
"It would have saved me a lot of trouble..."
"I never took you for the lazy sort. Besides. You weren't ready. You weren't asking the right questions."
"But now I am?"
"Now you are."
"And they can answer them?" Vesta looked at Kvothe. Jasper followed her gaze.
"Well, maybe not that one."
"Math?" she asked, looking back at Jasper.
"No, this isn't about academics."
"Math is one of them."
"Yes, math is an academic subject." Jasper rolled his eyes.
"No. One of THEM." She pointed at Kvothe. "He has a flame thrower in his staff."
"In his wha-? Nevermind. Vesta, I think you will find your answers here."
"I don't understand why you couldn't come with me."
"Of course you do. Think about it, dear girl. Why couldn't I come with you?"
Vesta's brow creased with the evidence of her thoughts. Then, a sadness took hold of her features. "Because you're dead." Jasper smiled. Vesta blinked back tears. He was gone.
Blinking more, Vesta looked around, as if searching for what else might have disappeared. But everything was still there. The table, chairs, the smoke rising from the braziers. Fas... and Kvothe.
"Is it always gonna be like that?"
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Twysper
Feared leader of SM*OTTOTU.
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last online Nov 8, 2014 11:42:28 GMT -5
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Jun 11, 2011 2:09:40 GMT -5
Post by Twysper on Jun 11, 2011 2:09:40 GMT -5
"C'mon fuzzball."
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
The odd halberd-like blade of Latebra Ignem sliced through the space his opponent previously occupied. Math's eyes were alight with rage, and he was already on his way to working up a good psychotic frenzy. The Squib swiped at the man's ankles, before spinning and using the momentum to try and pierce his chest. His first effort was hopped over, and the second was solidly batted aside with the stout piece of wood his opponent held.
The man was probably around twenty-three years of age and about six feet tall, grinning and easily confident in the training room despite his relatively new acceptance to the Mythics. Math hated him.
Mathathyper growled his displeasure at being thwarted before launching a flurry of erratic strikes. The assault looked rushed, cobbled together, and shoddy, but it was also flying so fast there wasn't room for a riposte. Finally, Math brought down the blade in an overarching motion that pinioned both staffs to the ground, the stylized flame hooking the man's weapon away. The Squib continued with his momentum and time seemed to slow down as he vaulted directly towards the other Mythic's face, a savage smirk on his own.
After a brief second, Math realized he really was frozen in the air. His enraged, sparking yellow-green eyes fastened on his opponent's relieved face, and his long digits flexed as they still tried to reach for him.
"That is quite enough."
Math was slowly levitated down to the ground and he turned to face one of the Mythic elders sulkily.
"At what point did you intend to stop," The supervisor of the staff combat training class intoned sarcastically. "before or after you clawed that understudy's face off?"
"Uh..." Math tried his best to look like he was thinking, then cheshired brightly, exposing needle-like teeth. "After. Guy there much need a Squibby beat-down teaching."
"I don't need to tell you that this is your third warning for... overzealous behavior in my class..."
"Oh no I keep track of them all verrrrrrrrrry carefully--" Math chattered, "one four two six third. One for touching Duke Van somethingorother's artifacts in the library, four for 'disturbing people', two for--"
"Enough!" The older Kiffar glared down at Math. "You are expelled from this class! Do not show up in this training room again!"
Mathathyper reached for his fallen staff, guiding it with the Mythos up into his grasp. He spun it absently, considering.
"Okay."
The Squib pointed it at the understudy currently sitting down and taking a drink of water.
His tiny digits clamped down on the installed lever and a fireball blasted towards the hapless student. He was rewarded with the sound of screaming. Math twirled around whimsically once, Latebra Ignem belching flames around the room, and then walked out, flames licking at his dark figure.
No more room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Math cackled to himself as he walked down a hallway an hour after his adventures with fire. It had been decided in a long lecture that he was not to attend any more sparring classes until his temper was under control, and at least not until the student was out of a kolto tank and the room was repaired of fire damage. Also his staff was confiscated.
And so Math found himself on a prescribed trip to an etherium-meditation room. After spending a couple of years in the Tower, the turns were familiar to him, as were two of the faces within as he entered, and his etherium-enhanced eyes picked their figures out of the shadows immediately.
"Hi Delinquent, Hi Vesta. Much enjoy your moon honey, yes and no?" Math cheshired at his standard greeting to the Sword, hopped up onto the circular couch and made himself comfortable, smoothing his inky black cloak as he leaned over the table and inhaled the incensed etherium burning in the center. "Mmmmm, but better straight, yep."
He paused, and examined Vesta critically. There was something in her voice, in her eyes, that didn't match when he had first met her. She looked disoriented. Finally, Math came to the most reasonable conclusion-- Kvothe had knocked her up! There would be a baby sword of delinquency!
Mathathyper giggled darkly to himself. They were probably trying to keep it a secret. Under normal circumstances with Kvothe, the way to deal with this would be to tell everyone in the immediate vicinity, but Math liked Vesta... and so the Squib figured he would wait until later.
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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Jun 15, 2011 21:45:38 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Jun 15, 2011 21:45:38 GMT -5
"A fashion statement?" Kvothe put a hand to his chin, pondering the way Vesta put things. He'd never really thought about Mythics' staffs (staves?) in that way, but maybe there was some truth to it. Every Mythic had a unique staff, and they all seemed to reflect the personality of the owner in some way...
Kvothe, he thought to himself, suddenly bringing his little thought tangent to a halt, it was a joke.
He was quite glad no one could read his mind at the moment.
"Right, well, I guess you could call it that." His mouth turned up in a wry little grin, but his eyes, touched with maroon from embarrassment at his thoughts, told a different story. Good thing Vesta couldn't read his eye colors. If she could even see it the slight change from where she was.
Vesta went on, talking about the initiation process and her experience with it. Kvothe nodded. Initiation to a group like their own sounded magical and wondrous, but it was an initiation, when all was said and done. Why was Vesta looking off to the side?
"Vesta?" Kvothe glanced to the spot she was looking at. It was empty, save the little sprites of light that were still drifting along through the air.
Hallucination. Must be a- He felt a familiar presence, turned to look over his head. -Math.
Sure enough, there was the Squib, heading in their direction. The edge of Kvothe's mouth turned up in a little smirk as he waited for Math to arrive. Math was animated enough normally; stories were made when Etherium and Squib met.
"Hello, Mathathathathathathathathyper." For some reason, that amused Kvothe far more than it should've, though the Squib's greeting almost had him rolling his eyes a bit. "It was neither enjoyable or terrible," he said, giving Math a flat look, "because there wasn't one." Sometimes Kvothe wondered if the Squib genuinely thought there'd been a 'moonhoney' or if he just liked to screw with him.
He looked back to Vesta to see if she'd noticed Math's arrival, but she was still looking to the side. Kvothe furrowed his brows. "What in the..."
I wanna see!
Instead he got to hear.
Half of an apparent conversation.
If he hadn't known that she was hallucinating--or why she was hallucinating, rather--he probably would've been a bit disturbed. But he did, and so all he could do was wait for the thing to run its course. When she mentioned Math, he glanced over at the Squip and then here to see if she'd really noticed him. But it seemed she hadn't.
Fas--whose attention had locked on Math the moment the Squib appeared--was looking at Vesta with his head cocked aside, with one of his ears flicking. He'd even stopped waving his tails around.
When Vesta snapped out of the vision, hallucination, whatever it was, he waited for her to speak. "Always?" He shook his head. "No, not always. Sometimes the things you see from the Etherium are..." a particularly bright spot of light caught his eye as it nestled itself into one of Math's ears, "trivial. Sometimes they aren't though. Sometimes you see things you don't want to, or things you do. Family, old friends, places, fears, dreams... If it's in your mind, the Etherium can pull it to the surface.
"And sometimes," he added with a little grin and a significant look in Math's direction, "it makes you think people have food for hands."
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Meira
She don't mess around
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Jun 24, 2011 16:17:18 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Jun 24, 2011 16:17:18 GMT -5
"No, not always. Sometimes the things you see from the Etherium are... trivial. Sometimes they aren't though. Sometimes you see things you don't want to, or things you do. Family, old friends, places, fears, dreams... If it's in your mind, the Etherium can pull it to the surface."
Vesta nodded solemnly. This Etherium was a drug, a hallucinogenic, but its effects were interesting. Increased focus, an openness to new concepts and the force itself, and insight. That must have been what Jasper meant, or at least what she thought Jasper meant. The Jasper she'd just spoken to was a memory, a construction of the man based on her own experiences with him. She'd known he was trying to find a new master for her; he'd been getting old and tired. She'd always known she wouldn't be able to stay with him forever. But she hadn't known anything about his plans. But perhaps it worked out for the best. Vesta had found her own way on the path for answers. Jasper would have liked that.
"And sometimes, it makes you think people have food for hands."
She followed his gaze to find a small furry creatures seated on the couch where before there had only been air. Vesta smiled and, forgetting herself, reached out to pat Math on the head. Her hand ruffled the fur between his ears for a moment before she retracted the arm, her finger tapping lightly against his nose as she did so.
"Math!" she said, her whole face alight with the smile. "I was just talking about you! To Jasper... well... to myself actually... I guess. I'd thought he was real for a moment but he's not. He's dead. It was just a hallucination. Did you really try to eat someone's hand? Didn't he get mad? How did you put the flame thrower in your staff? Where is your staff?"
Her eyes searched around their table and the couches that surrounded it, but saw no sign of it. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned back to the Squib. "This is my first time trying Etherium. I guess Benjen thinks I'm ready to join the Mythics. I'm going to make my own staff soon. Won't be fancy like yours or Kvothes, but I think it's going to be real nice. Hey where'd you get that lightsaber you have? I didn't think Mythics made lightsabers."
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Twysper
Feared leader of SM*OTTOTU.
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last online Nov 8, 2014 11:42:28 GMT -5
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Aug 19, 2011 0:19:26 GMT -5
Post by Twysper on Aug 19, 2011 0:19:26 GMT -5
Math's ears flattened accommodatingly at Vesta's touch, his olfactory fur bringing in the unmistakable scent of etherium on her hand before she playfully tapped the Squib's nose. Math sneezed.
Oh. Maybe she was just on Etherium. No munchkin baby delinquent yet.
Math waited while Vesta rambled, ears scooping up the ambient atmosphere of the lounging area. Finally, when there was room for him to talk, Mathathyper rattled off his own bit of quick speech.
"Squib like when people talk about me. Of course. Of course of course! I used magic to shrink it, silly, like those little tiny old ships in bottles. How do you think they get in there?" Something devilishly psychotic suddenly possessed Math. "My staff? MY STAFF, CONFYOUSCATED BY EVIL BIRD OF FEARSOME EVIL AND EVEN MORE EVIL MYTHICS! They shall pay!"
Math suddenly stood up on the couch and ignited his twin lightsabers, flailing them around in the air with pent up rage from the earlier indignation. He was not a little squibling, to have his things taken away from him like that!
After a good four seconds of catharsis, and after making sure everyone in the room knew his rage, the twin red blades hissed back into nothingness before being returned to their spot under his cloak. Math sat back down, beaming to match Vesta's expression from earlier. A myriad of squiggly lines were newly etched into the ceiling above him.
"Etherium is much good. Cannot achieve, uh, inner of peace without it. Inner peace is very much good. Most Mythics refer to me when they need help with zen stuff." Math nodded and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and sitting still to demonstrate his sagely qualities. A second later, the Squib's eyes flew open again.
"Fancy like Kvothe's? Kvothe's is not fancy! No no no! What it needs is a stabby laser... thingy, then it would be fancy. I could help you make a fancy staff like that." Math chittered to himself, mostly. He made a disgusted face at the mention of lightsabers. "Lightsaber is much much better than stupid heavy swords Mythics use. Therefore Math is much much better than stupid fatty Mythics. Miayan showed me how to make them, but I remembered, and you need crystals and some time and a great fantastic big oven."
Mathathyper loved being able to talk to someone in what was essentially his own dialect; dealing with fast and nonsensical. Iri was usually the only other person around who would do this with him. Now it was like he had two best friends to talk to! Math adored the prospect. He had so many things to say that people like Cruentus and Kvothe wouldn't understand.
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Meira
She don't mess around
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Aug 24, 2011 19:48:49 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Aug 24, 2011 19:48:49 GMT -5
When Math sneezed, Vesta covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. Then Math tore into the whirlwind that was his speech. Vesta, strangely, felt like she understood it all. Her head bobbed up and down approvingly as he spoke.
When his voice raised louder, Vesta's eyes widened slightly. When he jumped up and produced his lightsabers, those eyes grew to the size of saucers. She watched, mouth slack with awe at the display. In an unthinking moment, she'd reached her hand out toward the pretty red lights. But Math extinguished the blades before one of them could slice off her finger tips. Vesta's hands returned to her lap as a slightly disappointed look crossed her face.
When Math demonstrated his "sagely qualities", Vesta was again overcome with how cute she thought the little creature to be. And again, her hand extended to ruffle his fur as she gave a little squeal of delight.
At the mention of a stabby laser addition to Kvothe's staff, Vesta remembered the man was still in the room. Her face turned toward him, her eyebrows raised and a quick "oooo" escaping her lips at the idea. "What do you think, Kvothe?"
Then Math was speaking again and Vesta's attention once again pulled back to him. She knew some about lightsabers. Jasper had given his up when he left the Jedi, but he'd told her about them. The blade itself held no weight, and this was a key difference between a lightsaber and a metal blade. The balance was thrown off for all but those especially trained to wield a lightsaber. She looked back to Kvothe. He had a sword of some kind, though she didn't know if he had it on him or not.
Moving quickly, she along the rounded couch until she sat perched at it's end next to Kvothe. Her feet were still bare from when she'd abandoned her burning shoes, and now were on the edge of the sofa, her toes curling over the side. Knees propped her chin as she studied the man.
"Do you have your sword?" she asked. "Can I see it? Is it really all that heavy?" she looked back at Math with a smile. "Or is he just as small as he looks?"
"I see the etherium agrees with you."
Vesta turned her head in the direction of the new voice. Benjen had just entered the room and was leaning his staff against the wall next to Kvothe's as he spoke.
That's good. It drives some mad. Not many, but some." Benjen's eyes alighted on Math with those words before returning to consider Vesta.
"psst." Vesta whispered and reached to tug at Kvothe's sleeve. "Can you see him, or am I imagining real people too?"
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Rugs
The ring-dang-doo, now what is that?
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Aug 31, 2011 13:32:30 GMT -5
Post by Rugs on Aug 31, 2011 13:32:30 GMT -5
Kvothe smiled a little when Vesta noticed that Math had come into the room. For all his strange, strange ways--and he could be extraordinarily strange--the Squib wasn't so bad. Most of the time. And he seemed to be alright by Vesta, which was more than could be said for a fair few other new members to the Order, or even some old ones for that matter.
So he folded his arms over his chest as Vesta's attention shifted to their furry friend and watched, content to let the focus of the conversation shift away from him as the Etherium continued to gently float around him. A quiet chuckle slipped through his lips as he idly wondered whether the Squib would provide some of his usual entertainment.
As expected, he did. Math started off fine enough, even if his answer was more than a little nonsensical. And then off he went into a strange frenzy with sabers flaring to life and flailing all around him. Kvothe laughed openly at it, no small thanks to the way the Squib looked like he was trying to burn the little motes of light out of the air with his weapons.
Of course, he didn't notice Vesta reaching for the burning plasma blades, but they flicked away before she could hurt herself.
Then he continued on through his little ranting speech, presently on the virtues of Etherium.
"Most Mythics refer to me when they need help with zen stuff."
"Is that so?" Kvothe asked, eyes threaded with silver in wry amusement. He bit down a little laugh and shifted on his stool, widening his feet a little and leaning forward so his forearms rested on his elbows. "Well, next time I need some inner peace, I'll be sure to give you a call."
Wonder if Magnus ever goes to get help. Now that might be something to remember and set up for a later. With the proper sort of convincing, he was certain the little Squib could be convinced the librarian needed an in-office appointment to help him deal with the troubles that came from dealing with rowdy, sometimes-stupid students.
The sound of Vesta's voice brought Kvothe back out of his own thoughts. What did he think? About what?
"Oh," he said, "the stabby laser thing?" He chuckled softly and shrugged, palms hands held palm up. "I can't say, really."
Presently the Squib was espousing the virtues of his lightsabers and brushing off the worth of the swords used by the like of Kvothe. Kvothe snorted softly at that.
At least he didn't have a little speck of light drifting uncomfortably close to his rear.
When Math had had his say for the moment, Kvothe just chuckled softly and shook his head. "Good to see you haven't changed, Math." He smirked a bit at the Squib. "Would hate to think of poor Vesta here only getting some watered-down version of you."
Of course, while he was speaking, Vesta was moving, and it wasn't until she was perched on the couch next to him that he noticed she was staring rather intently at him. He looked to the side, saw her focused face close to his and recoiled a bit in surprise.
"Do you... need something?"
"Do you have your sword? Can I see it? Is it really all that heavy?"
"Er..." Truth be told, both of his swords were back in the Algaterra suite. That was probably a good thing; no telling what might happen with people blasted on Etherium having dangerous objects in their hands.
Though he was sure she wouldn't flail around like Math had.
"Or is he just as small as he looks?"
Kvothe laughed. "Aye, Vesta, I think that might be the answer. Swords aren't so heavy so long as you have the right type for you." For a moment, the Sword looked studiously at Math. Then a devilish little grin touched the edge of his mouth. "I think Math would be just fine with a little rapier. Surely he's manly enough for that..."
"psst." Kvothe felt a tug on his sleeve. "Can you see him, or am I imagining real people too?"
"Hm? See who?" Kvothe looked around the room. It was dark, and the air was hazed with smoke, so for a moment he though that Vesta was simply hallucinating again.
But this time she was not. There was a man standing over near the wall. Benjen, if Kvothe recognized him proper.
"Ah, yes," Kvothe said, looking back to her briefly, "you're seeing him right." He turned tot he other Mythic and gave a nod of the head in greeting. "Ho, Benjen. Come to join us?"
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Meira
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Sept 23, 2011 7:53:00 GMT -5
Post by Meira on Sept 23, 2011 7:53:00 GMT -5
Vesta let out a relieved huff of air when Kvothe confirmed that Benjen was indeed real and not some hallucination. She smiled up at the man who had become her mentor as he moved around the couches to sit down next to her. He returned Kvothe's greeting and held his hand out to Math, should he was to smell it or shake it or whatever the Squib might do. But when he remembered the stories of Math on Etherium, he retracted his hand slightly, in case Math tried to take a taste of it.
"I am sorry." Benjen said to Vesta as he sat down. "I had meant to be here when you arrived, but I was detained. I can see, however, that you've been well taken care of in my absence." Benjen nodded his head to the other two with those words. "So, tell me-"
"At first, it just felt funny. Then I thought my feet were on FIRE! And then I saw Jasper. I told you about him, right? I talked to him for a bit. He told me he was glad I found my way to the Mythics. But... if it was just a hallucination of Jasper, then what he thought is really just what I think, right? So really, I was just kinda telling myself that I am glad I found the Mythics, aren't I?"
Jasper chuckled and nodded his head. "Aye, I suppose so. Now Vesta, listen to me. I can no longer be your mentor. I've been called away to another task. That was why I was detained. But, such a reassignment couldn't come at a better time. I believe you are ready to be counted as an understudy now. Think hard of where your path will take you within the Stellar Mythics, my dear."
Benjen put his hand on Vesta's shoulder, a smile on his face. Vesta threw her arms around the man and embraced him with a squeal. When she released him, he was chuckling and mumbled something like "So you're one of those people on etherium..." Then he stood and nodded his head once more to Math and Kvothe before saying his goodbyes and dismissing himself.
Vesta sat on the couch, a silly grin on her face. She looked back and forth between Kvothe and Math and then let out another high pitched squeal of delight. Unable to contain the glee, she jumped up on the couch, bouncing a few times before sitting back down, still smiling dumbly at her companions.
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