{"id":1161,"date":"2014-07-18T09:29:47","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T13:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2014-07-21T01:33:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T05:33:21","slug":"nida-tears-pt-v-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/nida-tears-pt-v-a\/","title":{"rendered":"N\u00eeda: Tears, pt V (a)"},"content":{"rendered":"

      Today\u2019s snippet, titled \u201cTears, pt V (a)\u201d, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.
\n      Be forewarned, there are mature themes and naughty language below.
\n– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –
\n      \t\tN\u00eeda grinned as a quartet of small air elementals appeared around her feet. They played whimsical havoc with her long white robes, billowing her cloak and dancing with the veil hanging down her back. No taller than Jovi himself, they were androgynous sprites of pure wind and capriciousness.
\n      \t\u201cFour!\u201d Jovi said triumphantly. \u201cFour on my first try.\u201d
\n      \t\u201cVery good, Jovi,\u201d N\u00eeda clapped her hands.
\n      \tThe halfling looked up at her, looping a finger into the chin of his coif and tugging at it. He had never gotten used to the head covering; unlike N\u00eeda, who was most comfortable in hers, where she could blend in, Jovi would gladly give up his coif the instant he was initiated into the Order.
\n      \t\u201cThank you, Arcanist N\u00eeda.\u201d He bowed with the proper courtesy and almost the right manner, yet the wicked little glimmer of humor in his dark eyes were ample evidence that he was only feigning solemnity.
\n      \t\u201cAre you prepared to do it again tomorrow, for the Masters Council?\u201d
\n      \tHe nodded.
\n      \t\u201cAnd have you prepared-\u201d
\n      \t\u201cAll the spells and incantations I will need for the exams are ready and waiting for me, tiada<\/em>. Don\u2019t worry about a thing. I will not let you down.\u201d
\n      \tShe would never admit it, but each time he used the affectionate appellation, tiada<\/em>, she wanted to cry a bit. In her studies of halfling grammar, N\u00eeda had come to know that its uses varied by region and even within villages or clans. Most often it was given to an older woman, not of blood relation, who one thought of as an aunt. Sometimes, as a mentor or honored elder, but always in an utterly platonic and singularly familial sort of manner.
\n      \tIt was never used to denote any personal attraction or sexual affinity.
\n      \tShe smiled at him and motioned for him to dismiss his summons. With a peal of laughter, each of the elementals obeyed his command and whirled out of this plane and back to their homeland. \u201cI do wonder what we interrupted, by calling them here, and why they never seem to mind coming or going at our call.\u201d
\n      \tJovi shrugged. \u201cI just assumed they sat around waiting for the call and then leapt at the chance to visit the material plane.\u201d
\n      \t\u201cNo,\u201d N\u00eeda shook her head. \u201cThey most certainly do not. The Plane of Air is not a vacuum of wind just waiting for you to give it life Jovi. It is, as all the Planes, fiercely alive and much more populous than you imagine. Not as densely as the other elemental planes, of course. But it is alive.
\n      \t\u201cThough there is little land on that plane, as you might expect, there are great islands of ice, magically solidified clouds, and even some conjured rock. Silver and White dragons have wars up there, you know. Mephits born of Air live there, and elementals, yes. There are the ancient Djinn as well, and some outsiders. There are entire cities in the clouds, Jovi, entire communities built upon these queer iron spheres. No one knows when or why they were built or brought to the Plane of Air, and the Djinn avoid them, but they\u2019re there.
\n      \t\u201cSomeday, I should like to go back. I want to study those runes upon the bronze and iron orbs and find out what the symbols mean and who put them there – and why! I want to open one – no one ever has – and puzzle out the mysteries.\u201d She paused, blushing a little as she realized how she had gone off on a tangent. \u201cMaster Sorvanir took me there some years ago\u2026\u201d
\n      \tJovi stopped short and N\u00eeda was two strides ahead when she noticed and turned back to him. His face was cloudy as the sky before a storm and his hands were balled into fists on his hips.
\n      \t\u201cYou should have gone years ago.\u201d
\n      \t\u201cI-\u201d
\n      \t\u201cN\u00eeda – you should be a master by now. You should be throwing around those seventh echelon spells like Master Sorvanir, you should be hopping to other planes to right wrongs and solve their mysteries and you should be on the front lines against the bad things in the Worldwound.
\n      \t\u201cWhy aren\u2019t you? Why did you just stop advancing? You\u2019ve been Arcanist for, for years. You ought to be a Master by now. Everyone knows it but no one says it. Lord Henrietta told me and Mistress Yanagar that you have more potential than most any Arcanist to come through the Silver Legion in two hundred years. Why are you just my teacher?\u201d
\n      \tN\u00eeda drew back, as if to hide her face behind the veil draping down from her wimple. An angry, embarrassed flush colored her cheeks and she struggled to frame a reply. Do not let yourself stagnate,<\/em> Master Sorvanir had told her nearly ten years ago, You have it in you to become more powerful than I. More powerful than most. You have your motivations, I know, and you are so young yet – you must want to linger with other s of your maturity. But Celen\u00eedaneth, you are like a daughter to me and my favorite apprentice in centuries, so I must tell you with the utmost love and respect that you are wasted here, tutoring the new wizards in their first- and -second-echelon spells. Go to the Tower. Advance yourself. Those scrolls I gave you when I thought to retire last year\u2026 they are of the fifth-echelon. You are only working third-echelon incantations because you spend all of your time helping the children. It is admirable, it is, to mold the minds of the youth but there are many who can do that. The world – Kenabres and Mendev – needs those with greater power to defend her. You should be amongst those great powers. Celen\u00eedaneth\u2026 why do you stay?<\/em>
\n      \tShe had not been able to explain it to her mentor anymore than she could explain it to herself in the years since. Yet as she looked down at young Jovi, twenty-four years old and vibrantly alive, filled with ambition and determination, N\u00eeda realized that at last, she knew why.
\n      \t\u201cBecause I- oh, by The Inheritor\u2019s Blade, because I am a fool.\u201d
\n      \t\u201cWhat?\u201d
\n      \tShe dropped to her knees before him and reached for his hands. Surprised by the tears welling up in her eyes, N\u00eeda began to speak. \u201cJovi, I never knew it until it was too late, but I loved your grandfather. And when he left to marry your grandmother, it would have been uncouth and spiteful to tell him what I had finally figured out. And now, I have dedicated so much of my attention to you and to fostering your talent – one day you will be a fantastic theurge worthy of Mistress Yanagar and Master Sorvanir\u2019s praise. But in all this time, I have made a horrible, unforgivable, disgusting mistake.
\n      \t\u201cI have allowed my heart to be clouded again – I love you Jovi, more than is appropriate for a teacher and her student. For a young man and his tiada<\/em>. And that\u2026 the desire to stay here with you, to be near you, is why I have failed utterly to progress in my studies. I did not want to go. I beg you, forgive me.\u201d
\n      \tJovi made a face she could not easily read and dropped her hands. \u201cArcanist N\u00eeda, what in all the bloody hells do you think tiada <\/em>means?\u201d<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –
\n\"Signed,
\nNote: Image is “King Jagiello Statue Central” by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Today\u2019s snippet, titled \u201cTears, pt V (a)\u201d, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.       Be forewarned, there are mature themes and naughty language below. – \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –       N\u00eeda grinned as a… <\/p>\n

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