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 Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:43 pm
Beomedd Squad circled in over the harbor of Jaltarna on a clear day, the sun only fleetingly obscured by scudding clouds in the upper atmosphere. Below them, the water sparkled, and the white sails of ships seemed to fairly glow. Sylvia sighed contentedly. Like any pirate, she knew this place well. Her eyes swept over the cliffs, the heavy doors that hung open like shutters on this fair day, but in a storm would be shut tight against wind and rain. A sweep of white-sanded beach marked out the shore, and docks extended out from the land like stripes of brown paint on the waves. She waved her arm to get the squad's attention, then pointed to the eastern side of the harbor. The water was shallow over a reef there, and so no ships were in the area; the beach was broad, too, which made it all the better as a landing place.
Even as she gestured, Arlyn dipped one wing and banked, spiraling lower and lower until the tips of his claws grazed the water between wingbeats. He came in for a graceful landing on the sand, moving a little to the side to allow for the others to do the same. Sylvia stayed where she was, perched on his shoulders between neck and wings, shading her eyes to watch the others descend.
((Figured that I'd better do the skip so we can get a move on; not much of a post, but it serves its purpose.))
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:10 pm
Gaius did one more pass of the shore line, deep enough not to be seen but shallow enough that the beach looked only slightly green to his eyes. Sylvia and Beomedd Squad would be fine for the hour or two it would take him to check on his contacts and hideouts. Meriwether the island sorcerer had been his teacher in many of the ways of water, originally the council had sent Gaius to him for training years previous, but now he was going to him for guidance. Meriwether was one of the few weather magi in existence that had not only not gone completely insane (well maybe a little bit eccentric but not insane) and was not a dragon rider.
Statistically speaking most natural weather magi went insane within weeks of forming their first storms, strictly because of the maddening pressure of storms on the mind. Where a dragon rider weather magi, sometimes had the structural re-enforcement of their dragon and therefor lasted on average a couple of years (in some unfortunate cases months).
In the case of Meriwether, he had been a weather magi for upwards of 400 years, a little sea elf who had decided to settle on an island in the middle of one of the calmest stretches of coast line in the world. Coincidentally this stretch was right next to one of the most savage, only shielded by the bluffs in-between. Recently however the storms had been riding over the land and across the little magi's hut and Gaius was rather interested in the elf's opinion on the matter, to say the least.
-HA, the strongest storms in the entire world have been passing over his roof and you want to know his opinion on them, as if you were asking a peasant if he thought the rain on his roof kept him up at night or would help him sleep more deeply!- A low rumbling laugh emitted from Thaddeus's belly, even underwater it could clearly be distinguished as the dragon's laugh. -To a magi like Meriwether any storm is just rain across his roof, and in many cases it does in fact make him sleep better.-
Chuckling to the analogy Gaius braced as Thaddeus erupted from the water. Landing on the beach Gaius made a quick ice shield in front of each of their faces, one of his mentor's oldest tricks was "a face full of water to fill your lungs with." He thought it was hilarious. Most people just thought he was trying to drown them and would never attempt a second visit to his island, witch was not necessarily a bad thing because that was the way Meriwether liked it. Staving off the prophesized balls of water witch had been extracted from a nearby pond Gaius dismissed the shields. Within one of the balls was a miniature gold fish witch Gaius carefully extracted and replaced within the pool. Just then Gaius heard a guffaw from the direction of the house, turning to look he saw a withered old elf who looked almost like he was older than time it's self striding towards him. It was Meriwether with his silken blue cloak and silvery white beard dragging on the ground behind him as if nothing more than a child's favorite blanket.
"Gaius, Thaddeus! Come in come in... well Thaddeus I rather say, you'll be a little bit large for my humble abode but you are more than welcome to sun yourself upon my beach or hunt in the waters if you like. The eels tell me that there is a fresh school of fish just in the next bay, very tasty if fried properly. Oh Gaius good to see you again my boy, there is some freshly fried fish on the stove and some sea weed tea in the kettle. Help yourself, although you won't will you. You have the stride as if you were on official business, and the next time you were scheduled to visit was in at least another 4 months." The old Magus tittered in his usual fashion only now letting Gaius speak as he sunk into his chair. During his speech they had entered the rickety old one room shack, needless to say it smelled like fish and decaying sea weed.
"I'm afraid I need some advice on the resent storms coming up the coast. You know the renegade weather magi much better than I do. These storms passing over head aren't natural, I'm sure you'll know that better than most. What I need to know is if there is any way to tell one weather magi's storms from another's? Any distinctive signs that could lead me in the right direction? And better yet, is there any way to track the source of the magic strengthening a storm?"
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