"You're taking this surprisingly well." Baltanthan huffs as his knees bounce up and down, shifting his chair from left to right and back again. I lean back and move my tail out of the way, settling myself up against the hard wall. Slowly, my eyes move his way and I look at my skin once again.
"I guess, to some extent, I've already come to terms with it. Though, not in this context." I mutter under my breath with my mind shifting to my isolation in general. That one airship, that is all I know exists, if there are more, we never found them or they were lost with all hands. Since I was captured, I've never seen a member of my kind again. I'm so alone, everyone finds me to be the most exotic thing they've ever seen.
This entire school cheered for me, someone they never met before and didn't even know about. They cheered because I could be the last of my kind and the scientific ramifications I bring are so childishly exciting. It has toned down over the years, but, even with all the other species humans know about and interact with. I am still the only ddrai'och out there.
"You know, it might not be as bad as you think it is. You might just be misremembering a small detail, maybe your home is one of those lands without magic." Baltanthan suggests and all I can do is shake my head slowly and without end. No, I know what I know, much as I have lost some of it to time and simple forgetfulness. Wind magic did not exist when I was a child, there was no such thing.
The lands around that accursed Anvil-Peak were lush savannah.
"I just don't get it... How?" I go as Baltanthan starts to fiddle with a small writing hammer. He seems to consider grabbing a notetablet and jotting down something but he holds off from it. Much like him, I can't help but fiddle. Though, it's probably a deeper affair for me, this power gem holds more meaning than a mere literary tool.
"I think you probably just had a lot more magic than you realise. By sheer lucky coincidence, Liadanann, I happened to have read a study about age and how magic affects it. The stronger you are, the longer-lived you will be. It's why so many stories have the stereotypically wise old witch in them. The study was more about the theory behind it all, but, it's also how we..." Baltanthan explains before trailing off into a walk that sees him disappear.
I wait for him, not particularly interested in going anywhere while he grabs what he needs.
His head pops back in, "Well, come on!"
"Oh?" I go, getting up and setting aside my brief confusion. Following after him, we arrive back into the kitchen and his hand starts to firmly smack the fridge freezer. My brow rises while he finds the words he needs.
"See, the way things like this long-term storage unit work-"
"That's a fridge and a freezer." I interrupt with a bit of mean-spirit to my tone. I only sigh when it doesn't bring even a huff of amusement from my nose.
"Whatever." Baltanthan barks back, his face going blank right after. He scowls at me and starts to mutter to himself.
"You were talking about how they work." I remind him and he seems to ignore me, only to 'ah' but a moment after.
"Right, right, how they work is they suspend items in a constant and importantly stable stream of magic. While internal-magic is lost much slower than external-magic, the process of cooking and preparing food leaves it vulnerable to much greater loss. It's why food gets different flavours depending on how it's cooked, it's all arcane chemical theory and all that rubbish." he tells me and I start to nod. I'm following along right now, when I first got my cakesmithy, I opted into getting a fridge freezer as it's frankly better. The ice and cool air have a mixture of benefits.
"That makes sense, when I was a child, they moved us into these cold things that we slept in. They brought me and the other children in and out on rotations and then one final time where everyone was taken out, already adults and all. Before we then left the facility and boarded our transports." I bring up and he starts to nod with a smile, happy he's on the right track.
"And I suspect that those scars on your breasts are from some kind of circulation device? Seeing as a woman's breasts are naturally good at processing magic for the sake of their weaker children." he guesses wrong and explains without missing a beat. And, while I blush a little at the fact, he keeps a straight face as if he didn't just talk about breastfeeding.
I shake my head, though, "No, these scars are because of my time as a prisoner in Nin's homeland. They were experimenting on me for whatever cruel reasons they had but I suppose your strange fact makes it clear why my old harness was stabbed into my genitalia."
"Strange fact?" he goes, it being all he seems to think on and my misery-afflicted face shifts towards a smile instead.
"Of all the things in your head, you know the specifics of a woman's chest?" I question, giggling on the step up towards him just so I can move my weight around more noticeably. His gaze hardens and narrows.
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"Shut up and back away." he grumbles, making me laugh some more. I forcefully slap him on the back to bring him in closer and then walk away. Guffawing while he wipes himself down pointlessly.
"Well, I'm feeling better now, so, thank you for that." I tell him and his expression softens in line with his nod.
"Happy to be of help, now, do I need to escort you back home so your back doesn't give out, Elder?" he jokes and I shake my smirk-wearing head.
Putting my hands on my back, I lean my chest out some more, "If anything will bring me down, it's what I have up here, but, Nin can help me with that."
He hehs his amusement and gets back to where he left off with his delivery of baked snacks. I join him once again at the table, stewing in my thoughts while he seems to break between bursts of thinking and chewing. A still whole pie starts to wave at me and I look up at him, waiting patiently for his mind to catch up with the idea he just had. I smile and he looks away with a contained chuckle, my small, single action not helping him.
"You know, it might be worth it to find someone to talk to about this. Could set yourself up for some royalties from various studies and so on and in turn, contribute quite a fair bit to the fields that cover your situation." he suggests quite easily as if it's something he'd be more than happy to do. His passion is more so for himself, but, I am glad he finds enjoyment in all of this information. Even if it's not really for me...
"Maybe after some time has passed." I say, memories of my time in that Tobaballian prison still haunting me. God, even here has me on edge with how they once stole some of my blood because they couldn't handle me telling them no every other time. Who knows what else they might've taken while I was sleeping or wounded, I'm hoping it was a one-off moment.
"So what do you plan on doing with this information, exactly, Liadanann?" he asks me and I look down at my hands as they come together. Shifting my thumbs over one another, I find myself looking up at the patterns in the dried paint on the ceiling. Catching a slightly angled shadow, I think of Nin and all the work he does out and about the country these two cities rule.
"Strange as it might seem, not much more than what I was already planning on doing." I tell Baltanthan, shrugging a little at how this revelation might not amount to anything. No, this is something I want to look into, I just need the time and opportunity. I guess I have until Nin gets back from his job to think about it. Though, I feel like I already have my mind made up and I am only getting more reasons to seek time with him.
"And you were planning? If you don't mind me asking." he asks as he sets down his food. If he thinks it makes him appear to care more, I don't really mind either way. I'm glad he enjoys what I have made for him, for both money-greedy reasons, my pride and a simple desire to see my friends happy.
"I wanted to come and collect my armour, the set I made for the Inter-House I took part in." I explain, rolling the depleted power gem out onto my palm. Using the other hand to hold my talisman out, I compare the bright glow of Iderim-Ovi's power and the black-tainted marble. One is as close to the divine as I can ever get, the other might as well be nothing special, yet, it is.
"Because you want to be more involved with Nin." he rightly assumes.
"Yes, h-"
"Why else would you come to collect your armour after all this time of leaving it here? It's been here so long at this point that Mechanical House has forgotten all the rules they had concerning it." Baltanthan elaborates, snickering a little at how fingerprint-covered my work now is. I start to smile as I can't recall much fanciness to its construction beyond magic circuits like the ones this power gem used to give light to.
"Well, I'm interested now, what sort of rules?" I ask, laughing behind my hand.
"Nothing fancy, just, you know, don't be too picky with it, no taking it apart in the event you come back for it." he tells me and I turn a little cold.
"They haven't broken it, have they?" I ask, just to make sure I don't need to figure out some way to get some time in the workshop to fix it up.
"No, no, no. No one was allowed to touch it so precisely until Head of Mechanical House Muholdt was done with his pedanticism. So, making sure he understood how to reassemble it properly, what he would need to do if something did break or would not go back on properly." he tells me and I smile, thinking of that large human and how accommodating he was when I needed to use his school facilities. He was even willing to let me disrespect his patron god just so I would be comfortable working in the workshop. I don't believe I ever had the courtesy to thank him for it, I want to not think this but I had such a foul opinion of humans back then.
"I should be able to just go and get it today, right?" I ask and Baltanthan shrugs, it possibly being me asking for too much. Which, I can get, I'm not even meant to be here in Baltanthan's dorm, I was supposed to deliver the package and head on my way. I hope I can bend the rules a little more, after all, Mechanical House seems to have bent the conditions I put in place regarding my armour.
"Nothing stopping you, I'm certainly not going to." Baltanthan finally answers and I smile, getting back up to finally leave him in peace to eat.
"Well, thank you for having me, Baltanthan, it's certainly been a conversation we've had." I say, giggling at the end as I reach the door. Yet, surprisingly, he gets up to follow me, gear and all.
"Don't give me that look, if I do you this favour, I might be able to squeeze some time in with one of the strongest witches I know of." he huffs with self-serving joy and I am more than happy to oblige. Stepping back outside into the bright daylight and meadow-scented breeze, I wander a little onto the quiet road.
"I forget, which way am I supposed to go?" I ask, spinning about without a care as there's nothing my tail can hit and knock over.
"Which way we're supposed to go." Baltanthan firmly corrects with a few groundward strikes from his staff.
"Yes, yes, blah, blah, blah!" I go for my own amusement and I get a tap from his magic conduit for the trouble. Laughing quietly, I start to follow him out of the rows upon rows of dormitory buildings for Traditional House. Coming closer to one of the flower gardens that rim the place, I put my hands together and sigh as the memories come back.
"You weren't here for that long, but, Suhurlodst has certainly had its impact, hasn't it?" Baltanthan asks me and I start to nod, turning towards him with a slight brush of my pinkish-red hair. My gentle grip quickly shifts into something stronger and the magic in the air takes much of it into a ticklish dance.
"It's where I found peace and comfort after a time of suffering. I met some friends, fell in love and now I have a chance to find out more about my home because of it. So, yeah, I am very glad I came here, warts and all." I tell him, my expression wavering and shifting without notable pause.