The [cleric] visited later in the day. He explicitly wanted to only talk to Kanvin, Kiresula’s elderly father. Kiresula waited in a neighbouring room in order to eavesdrop, but had forgotten how much worse her perception was now. She heard little of the words that were said, but the tone of the [Cleric] was one of urgency. Kanvin’s response was concerned, careful and calmer. It was like this back and forth for a while until she heard a door open and close. She met up with her father after he led the [Cleric] to the door. “Dad, what did the [Cleric] say to you?”
Kanvin looked at Kiresula: “Kirey? Is that you?”
“Yeah, indeed. I know, I look strange.” Kiresula admitted.
“You look really colourful. Like something out of another world. [Cleric] Kritsu said that you looked really misshapen and had completely hideous colours, but I hadn’t seen you and Makit had not said anything like that. I am glad that this is not true.”
“I talked to another Glitchling earlier, who said that the [cleric]s are no friends of the Glitchlings, which is why they live outside of city limits.” Kiresula felt out for what her father heard.
“That’s putting it lightly. It was a huge tirade about how Glitchlings are hated by the [System], which is why they cannot advance and not even receive any buffs, but can be debuffed.”
“That’s not even true. I received an accidental boost yesterday when someone fibbled the cast of [Enfeeblement].” Kiresula said. “And Kshi mentioned something about the use of ‘skills’, but I am not sure. I might need to visit the rainbow house.”
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“That sounds good. I would love to hear if there are any strange abilities that you have. Preferably before you freeze the door shut again.” he smiled in reminiscence of something that happened more than 30 years ago.
“I am not sure if I will ever be a mage again…” she said, suddenly struck by a bout of sadness, “I had not had the same feeling of magic being in the air and just being able to reach out to shape it since… well, I stepped into that broken magic.”
Kanvin took her hand and smiled: “You don’t need to be a mage to be happy. I am a carpenter, so was my father and my father’s father. It is honest work and to see the materials become furniture is a pleasing sight. There are many pleasant ways to live without magic. It must be difficult to live without something you used to be capable of, but existence has many pleasures and delights.”
Kiresula grabbed his hand and held tight. “I guess, but…” she was not even sure what to say.
“Or maybe someone needs to miscast a magical debuff on you. There are some like that, right?” Kanvin asked, not really to learn but to get his daughter out of her funk. She loved talking about magic to the boredom of everyone else.
“There are some, depending on what you are targeting. I tended to use [Magic Drain], or [Aurablindness], or potentially [Unrecovery]. The latter is a really obscure one, it belongs to the ice school of magic and has some really specific prerequisites, so there are not many people who can wield it well.” She started to explain in great detail how the spells differed, but to summarise it, [Magic Drain] was a momentary decrease of magic, [Aurablindness] a momentary debuff to the [Aura] stat making it harder to cast spells while [Unrecovery] inverts magic recovery into a magic drain instead. Kiresula mentioned how she could keep the latter up for more than 15 minutes on a target, made the gestures as if she was about to cast it but stopped herself. “That would probably a bad idea right now.”
Kanvin changed the topic: “You are doing better now?”
Kiresula nodded.
Mayana opened the door and looked relieved upon seeing the two: “Here you are! I have been looking for you!”