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Post by Briyanna on Oct 29, 2008 12:27:27 GMT -5
((So I've been working on Bri's story for ages. The other day, I worked up the nerve to actually start posting her biography/story over on the WoW forums. So.. I present it to you.
Bri's story starts kind of in the middle and works outward. If I work it right, it will end at the story I'm working on at current with her, and work from there in future stories, interludes and muse-babble. I should have room for 1 chapter per post, if not, I'll split it up a bit for easier reading.))
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Post by Briyanna on Oct 29, 2008 12:32:14 GMT -5
Blue-green eyes opened, blinking moisture back into them. As their vision cleared, the sight of others, laying on pallets, in various state of injury filled them. They blinked again.
"Lady Soleilin.. you're awake."
The eyes turned upwards and to their right. A man stood there, frowning, holding a mug in his hands. He knelt.
"Can you turn to your side?"
"Where am I?" At least, that's what was intended to pass chapped and cracked lips. Instead, the words were given no voice but a hoarse rasp.
"The Silvermoon central medical-"
"Why?" The voice gained strength, a croak this time.
"Lady Soleilin, your unit was-"
"Where are they?" A sharp snap; the voice gained tone. The body lifted slightly, eyes widening.
"Lady Soleilin, you shouldn't move yet, you've suffered injuries to-"
"What happened?" The tone panicked. The body rose up, gripping the young man by the shoulders. Skin broke along the arms and hands, blood trickling down them.
"Someone get a Senior Healer over here!"
"Where are the others? The Scourge? Where are--" Cracking but tonally clear, the voice rose as hands shook the man. More skin along the back, the neck, the legs split from burns and scrapes, injuries not fully healed. "Sleep, Bri. You're not ready for all this yet..."
~~
Briyanna Soleilin floated in darkness. It was preferable to the visions she had been seeing.
The lines backing up. Her hands glowing with power she couldn't control properly. The Explosion. The fires.
Pain laced through the darkness, a sullen red glow in her vision. Part of her instinctually reached out to Heal it... and the pain worsened. Of course. It was her own, and her power was gone.
The darkness faded as she drifted deeper into it, and into dreams.
The field swam before her, three other Novices at her sides, all focused on the same thing - backing up the Field Healers, and getting the wounded behind the lines to the Healery set up just beyond the Sunwell. The Scourge was too close; and the retreats had been sounded. The Healers were the last to run, making sure stragglers had the strength and energy to get themselves back, casting spells to push back the Scourge, to mercifully end the lives of those who couldn't get away from being Raised. Her hands ached as she flung spells she only half-knew back at the Undead, just enough to give her time to escape.
She was one of the last to reach the quickly-constructed building, the last to turn to look as light filled her vision, screams echoed from the light, and even as she covered her eyes, she felt the sheer force of it drop her to her knees. Something hot touched her back, and she rolled away from it, the screaming focusing itself into ones of pain and panic, closer than where the Sunwell, now a source of painfully bright light, disorienting shockwaves, and pure agony, stood. She looked up, wincing. The building was engulfed in flames. She watched numbly as people poured out of it, some whole, others shielded, and still others that would be little but ash and debris within seconds.
Ignoring the nausea, she ran towards the building, something in her telling her that she had to help, before it was too late.
Only a few were left - and one of them was a Novice she was close to - the only one in her age range that she talked to much. The one she had told her stories to, laughed with.
"'Miira!" The girl looked up, smiling slightly, though her face was smoke-grayed, her hair tangled.
"Bri! Take this one will you? The sheilds will hold." The other girl pushed a young soldier at Bri, who caught him and helped him out of the building, passed him off to their mentor, and turned to go back. Kasmiira was nearly to the door with another, who managed on his own to get ahead of her, caught by another nearby Healer and pulled to safety. Before she could take two steps back, the doorway collapsed.
Silence descended in Bri's vision, as it had to her when it had happened. Time slowed to a crawl. Kasmiira turned, looked up, bent over, arms over her head. The beam struck her shoulders and she fell.
Bri screamed, and felt herself moving towards the building once again. Hands grabbed her arms, an arm slid around her waist. She twisted, writhed, felt her skin tear where it had already weakened from the burns she ignored. The hands wrestled her to the ground as the building collapsed further, giving a last glimpse of her dearest friend trapped beneath a burning support beam, still fighting to get free.
The vision faded again, blackness laced red once again taking over. Golden light fell over her like a soothing rain, promising rest, promising peace. She took it all too readily as darkness laced with silver and gold descended like a soothing blanket.
~~
Her throat hurt.
Her eyes stung.
Her back, her arms, her legs were all just aching places.
A hand was stroking her hair.
Her eyes opened again, and her mentor, Malai'or knelt beside her, shaking his head, telling her not to speak. Soft cloth was pressed against her eyes, briefly, drying the tears there. She blinked, and looked up at him, sliding her arms down a little as if to rise.
"No, Bri." He moved and gently replaced her arms back to where they had been stretched over her head. "Don't move. You're nowhere near ready to get up.
She sniffled softly, and he reached to dab at her eyes again. "Shh, now. You've over-exerted yourself with your outburst." She blinked a few times at him. "To answer the questions you startled poor Saion with, you're in Silvermoon. The central medical hospital, second floor, primary unit. You're here because you were weakened by the Explosion, burned by the fires of the building, and then we wound up having to bind you to stop you from injuring yourself further after restraining you to keep you from killing yourself. You and I are the only part of the medical team to survive the last few weeks, those of us who made it out alive have all been battling The Addiction - only now do we see how deeply the Sunwell's power affected us all, and how dependant we had grown upon it. You were saved by your unconscious state, I by dedicating myself to seeing that you made it through."
Bri sniffled again, tears dripping off her nose. Malai'or dabbed at her eyes again as she rasped softly, "Miira..." He winced, and resumed stroking her hair.
"I'm sorry, Bri. There was nothing you could have done... We had to keep you from going after her." He felt her tense.
"I'm more important than she was? Is that it, Lai?"
"I didn't want to lose you both." Malai'or's voice cracked at this statement, his hand steadily stroking her hair as she hiccuped. The hand lifted briefly, and a moment later, he was urging her to shift her weight and turn enough to sit up. "Drink this," he murmured, holding a mug to her lips. Instinctively, her tongue darted out to taste the contents, and only parted her lips to drink when she identified it. Her eyes closed, tightly, as she drained the infusion of Dreamfoil and Liferoot - an extraordinarily strong painkiller. She had a feeling she knew why he was giving her -that- one, as dangerous as it could be to numb pain completely.
She waited, tears still pricking her eyes. After a few moments, the pain was gone, her body felt numb. She looked up at Malai'or and nodded, once. Without hesitating, he pulled her gently against his shoulder, her arms around him before her head was against it. Other aides looked over, shook their heads, and pulled curtains around them, letting them mourn their friends, their family, in peace.
~~
"If I'm supposed to be so powerful a Healer, then why /can't/ I help? If I'm going out there, alone, then I need to know how to Heal myself if 'm almost dead! It's not like I have much power to fight!"
"Hush, girl. You know damn well that even in this state you would not be doing anything but resting. If you try to help us you might as well direct what offensive power you have to your own mind and stop your heart from beating. It would save us from having to destroy you when you become one of Them."
Briyanna stopped struggling, though tears of frustration continued to slide down her cheeks. Though the burns had been relatively light, by continuing to move, to struggle, to keep going after they had been inflicted, she had complicated matters. Her skin had split, blistered and in a small section of her back, had peeled away. The wounds were infected. Her fever, brought by magic as well as her wounds, prevented her from doing much. At least she had the consolation that she had a private room in the secondary unit wing now that she was no longer in danger.
She lay stretched on a thick pallet of hawkstrider down, swathed in sterile silk, her face resting on a down pillow of the same, her arms stretched ahead of her, hands face down. She concentrated on her breathing as she felt the sting of infection being burned away by magic. She should be doing this, she thought. It shouldn't have to be others; she herself was a healer - supposedly one of the most powerful healers to be alive in her generation.
Not that she wanted it.
Her eyes closed and she sighed. Vaguely she heard, "She's drifting off; finish that and then leave her be," but by then she was sliding into sleep.
Only to dream.
~
Images, sounds, and emotions flashed through her mind. Somewhere inside, she vaguely recognized them as memories, but since she was less than conscious, she could only vaguely recognize that these things had once occured. Her hands twitched, restless in her sleep as she heard voices in her mind, accompanied by faces she had never seen.
"Rethalena Briyanna. I think she will be a wonderful asset, don't you think?"
"She has your eyes."
"This one should be in the private nursery. She is too prescious to be put in any other."
Briyanna murmured softly in her sleep, though the words were not coherant on the outside as the thought in her head: "Was.. that my parents?" but the thought was gone before it was answered.
Her knuckles stung as they were rapped once again with a switch. "No, no no, a thousand times no! Curve down, then up again. You do this backwards, you stupid child."
"... very strong vocation. I have not seen the like in some time."
"She has chosen to join the ranks of the demon summoners."
"No, not with the skills she has. Her powers are far better fit to heal."
"But have you seen her torturing the fauna in the courtyard?"
"Wipe her mind of it."
"Sir?"
"Do it."
~
Briyanna's eyes opened and she stared, startled, into darkness. That conversation she remembered. She also remembered biting the mage who tried to wipe her mind of both the conversation and her desire to become a warlock. She did not remember torturing anything.
~Oh, but you do,~ said the little voice in the back of her mind. ~You still do it now. That little burst of shadow-power you use to distract the enemies of those you try to heal on the front lines - not much, just enough...~
She shifted, wincing as she felt the skin on her back stretch. She hadn't meant it like that back then.. had she? How could she have, considering what she did with that power now?
She sighed, tired of laying in the same position. She wanted to get up, move around, stretch out. She shifted slightly, preparing to tuck one of her legs under her to stand.
A tiny blue glowing orb burst to life beside her. "Don't even think about it, Bri. You are not well enough to move around."
"Lai, I can't stand it," she murmured back. "You only let me up when I need to be bathed and it's driving me insane." She tucked her leg further up, and slid her hands down. "There is no reason I should be treated like this when I am perfectly--"
"Bri, what are you doing?!"
"Capable--" A gold glow began hovering around her, sparking slightly.
"Damn it Bri! Stop!" Malai'or reached out, his blue light flaring to illuminate the room - what little of it Bri's aura didn't.
"Of doing this," She pushed herself up, turning herself carefully to stand. "Myself!" She concentrated, glaring at Lai even as he tried to get past her aura to put her back down. She gathered power to her, preparing to cast one of the higher healing spells the others had been using on her for the past few days. As if to prove her completely wrong, her aura flared, then seemed to shatter as she cast, feeling the spell touch her, doing what the others could not. She collapsed as her aura faded, leaving the only light Malai'or's.
"You foolish, foolish child." Gentle hands lifted her into a strong set of arms, then lay her back on her bedding. "The Well is gone. Your reserves are not up to such things."
Bri could only hold the glare for a few moments before she was asleep again. Only this time, she lay, much more comfortably, on her fully healed back.
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Post by Briyanna on Nov 5, 2008 16:57:24 GMT -5
"Bri, there's another one in the front area."
Pushing her hair out of her eyes and sighing, Bri offered a reassuring smile to the patient she had just treated - a young dark-haired man who came in from the skirmishes with a knife and an arrow in one shoulder. "You'll be fine in a day or so. Just rest now." She stood up, feeling his eyes on her back as she moved, pale grey robe flowing around her legs as she strode towards his curtain to pull it back and vanish. She sighed, her smile gone. Another one.
She brushed her hair back and smoothed down her robe, then headed into the fray. "You have to let me see him, you don't understand!" Saion and Malai'or were both restraining a young woman, older than Bri, younger than Saion, pale brown hair tied back, green eyes wide. Another young woman was holding her hand, only this young woman wore Healer apprentice robes.
"Enough!" The women both stepped back in shock. Saion and Lai stepped back as well, releasing the hysterical woman. Bri strode forward and looked into the green eyes, then nodded. "Come with me." She offered a smile to the apprentice, who smiled back nervously. Sliding an arm around the woman's shoulders, Bri led her into another room - a waiting room fitted with comfortable seating. She heard Malai'or's voice, complimenting both Saion and the apprentice - who Bri had recognized but could not place a name with the face - on their perseverance.
Bri gently pushed her charge into a chair, then took the chair beside it, turning the overstuffed monstrosity a little to look at the woman better. "Now," she said, calmly. "Who are you, and who is it you're looking for?"
"I'm Syrelia Lyresong. I'm here to see my fiancée, Lejoraan Suth'air."
Bri winced, looking the woman over. "I see," she said quietly. "How long have you been together?"
"Well, we met about four years before the ... Incident. He made it back from the lines, but was called back out to deal with.. well.. the continued mess. He proposed just before he went out on this last sortie."
Bri nodded. "Syrelia, I'm afraid Lejoraan has suffered some very serious wounds. It seems as though several of the Undead caught him isolated from his unit, and while he was not infected by the Scourge, he was clawed from head to foot before his battalion got to him, wiped out the Scourge... and got him back to us."
Syrelia stared at Briyanna, frowning. "Are you saying there isn't much left of him...?"
"Oh no no, not at all." The priestess sighed with relief. Perhaps this wasn't going to turn out like the last four... "He'll make a full recovery. He just won't... appear... the same."
Another blank stare. "What do you mean?" Syrelia's voice was flat.
"Come with me." Bri stood and led the young woman from the room, down a long corridor, and up a short flight of stairs, then down another hallway, pausing at a door in the middle of the room. She knocked on it, in a pattern. A voice called for the visitors to enter, and Bri opened the door, leading Syrelia inside.
Bri closed the door behind them, and pulled a curtain across it. She then followed Syrelia to Lejoraan's bedside.
"Jor? Jor are you awake?"
"Reli? Is that you?"
Bri moved to pull back the curtain around Lejoraan's bed, and a shriek from over her shoulder confirmed her fears.
"What is this? What trick is this?!"
Bri turned and caught the woman by the wrist. "Please keep your voice down; you'll disturb the rest of the ward."
Syrelia, who had been quiet and worried, had now turned into something more like the others encountered - only more vicious. "This is not my fiancée. My love was handsome and proud, with hair of silken gold."
"Reli... It..."
"Quiet, you hideous monster!"
"Enough," Bri snapped. "I did tell you that your fiancée was viciously attacked. Look past the scarring and look into his eyes if you want the truth."
Syrelia stared at Bri, who glared back. She then turned back around to look at Lejoraan, whose eyes were clear, despite the angry red welts that marred his once handsome face, and the dirty-blonde hair that was still matted with blood and whatever else was nearby when he fell. "We were with him for several hours. He is to rest before we can finish cleaning things up. You insisted on seeing him at once; considering that we are at war, you should know what to expect."
"... You are no love of mine."
Lajoraan blinked, his scarred lips parting to speak. "Reli, what are you saying?"
"You think I can love someone who looks like this?"
"Miss Lyresong, please calm do--"
The slap echoed in the room before Syrelia turned on her heel, snapped back the curtain before the door, stalked out, and slammed the door behind her.
"... Did she just... after all that we..."
"I'm sorry, Lejoraan." Bri rubbed her cheek, closed her eyes, moved across the room, and pulled back the curtain, then went about gathering the things needed for a proper washing. "Let me get you cleaned up properly. I know Malai'or will stop her before she makes it far. Perhaps when you are not so unrecognizable she--"
"Healer Soleilin, it was in her eyes. She won't return. Don't bother. I don't want to fight anymore, and I don't care what happens."
Bri fought the urge to growl. Lovers. Overdramatic and fussy, often interrupting the natural flow of anything. "Don't be stupid." She settled the things beside his bed, dropping hot stones that had been warming over a fire into two basins, one large enough to soak in, the other much smaller, which she brought to his bedside. "You'll look and feel better once you have clean hair, and I can get the rest of the dirt off your skin."
She got no answer, and sighed. She reached for herbal shampoo, and turned back to help him turn so she could wash his hair out with the heated water. It took quite a bit of time, but she managed to get the worst of the tangles out, the dirt, the blood, and other debris out of his hair by the final rinse, leaving behind a cascade of golden silk. She worked conditioner oil into it, then braided it and tied it up. She helped him disrobe and settle into the tub, and offered him herbal soap that would help keep him calm. As he soaked, she made tea that would help him rest while she worked on his scarring.
Her gentle hands and the sweet soap removed the dirt that still clung to the edges of the scars. She helped him out of the tub and back into warm bedclothes, and back into bed. He drank the tea. She combed his hair until it shone like the golden silk Sryelia regaled, then braided the sides of the front into little warrior braids, as he had come in with. She reduced the worst of the angry red welts along his face, talking to him all the while about how everything would work out - Syrelia was only startled. It happened all the time.
Through it all, he said nothing, though his eyes followed her and he was obedient and reponsive as she worked.
Bri left him to go back after Syrelia, who was glaring daggers at Lai in the waiting room. Both he and Bri accompanied her to Lejoraan's room.
Bri pushed the curtain aside at the door, as Malai'or led Syrelia to Lejoraan's bedside. And stopped, shaking his head. Syrelia gasped. "Bri. Bri, come take care of this..." Lai's voice trembled as Syrelia backed away from the bedside.
Sighing and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, the priestess returned to Lajoraan's bedside, and blinked. "No," she whispered. He was staring at the ceiling, his green-blue eyes staring lifelessly upward, tracks of tears still visible on his now mostly-healed face. Her hand trembling, she reached to check his pulse. She leaned to check his breathing. Biting back a sob, she reached up and closed his eyes, then backed away.
Her hands glowed as she raised them, a look of pained determination on her face. Lai grabbed her wrists. "Stop.... Don't insult him that way. It was clearly his own decision."
Bri turned to Syrelia, her eyes watering. "Loved him, did you?" she grated. The young woman nodded. "Not enough to see past his injuries."
"Bri!"
"He gave in because you told him you didn't love him."
"Briyanna, stop."
"No. I... I'm not doing this anymore, Malai'or. I can't do this anymore." She looked down at Lajoraan, and ran her finger down his temple, tracing one of the scars she had just expended precious energy to reduce - for the sake of the woman he loved - and who she had assumed loved him. "Miss Lyresong, his last words to me were "It was in her eyes, she won't be back. Don't bother, I don't want to fight anymore, and I don't care what happens." Did you love him because he was handsome, or did you love him for who he was inside?"
"Novice Soleilin!" Bri winced at both the words and the tone. She turned to look at Syrelia, whose eyes were now filling with tears, then at her mentor.
She bowed, the half-bow of respect of authority and seniority. "I'm sorry, shan'dor." She bowed low to Syrelia. "My apologies, Miss Lyresong. I'll make Lajoraan's arrangements," she looked up into her mentor's eyes, "but the next time someone comes in demanding to see their lover, I won't do it. I'm not watching another fight. I'm not watching someone else -die- for the sake of -love-. Not when they have already suffered on the battlefield fighting for their loved ones!" She turned on her heel, ignored the sudden wail Syrelia emitted ignoring Malai'or calling her back, and stalked out of the building and into the mid-afternoon sun. If it hadn't been for the black smoke in the distance, the pall that loomed over the blackened streak now known as the Dead Scar and its surroundings, the faint moans of those too addicted to magic to comprehend anything, it would have been easy to enjoy the warm rays filtering down through the gold-leafed trees and the rose crystal hangings scattered all over Silvermoon City.
Ignoring the people, the marketplace and all the warnings to not leave the city unless necessary, she stalked outside, and towards Stillwhisper Pond. The crescent platform where the mages typically trained was empty, fallen leaves and blood splatters marred the white marble. Dropping to her knees, she traced a bloodstain, wondering whose it was. Had this warrior come in and been treated, or died in the medical unit? Had he fallen here? Was she now one of -them-? Was there a second half, left waiting? Or perhaps this was another that ended as she had just witnessed.
"How many more deaths?" she asked herself. "Five just this week, and only two of them remorseful once their "one true love" was gone. Three other survivors left weeping." She stood back up, looking at the darkening sky. A wisp of breeze blew past her, lifting her chin-length hair and rifling through it, then moved on to the tree above her, shaking loose a few more of its golden leaves. One of them caught in Bri's hair, and she lifted a hand to retrieve it. The five-pointed leaf was streaked red, the slender veins standing out from the stem to the tips of the points. She let it go and watched it float on the breeze to the pond, where it touched the surface and floated there, lost in the middle of the water.
She pulled a dagger from a slit in her robe, the blade making a soft 'shink' as it slid from the leather sheath. "It will never be me," she murmured. She lifted her left hand, palm up, and closed her eyes. "By the sun, and the blood of those who have died for the sake of love, I vow that I will never succumb to any emotion so pointless, so blasé and so false. I will never submit to love, and if I do, I pray to all who will listen to my oath, strike me down so that those around me never have to deal with such idiocy." She brought her right hand up, turning her left, the dagger's edge biting into her flesh. She cried out, but held firm. Her right hand lowered, and she opened her eyes, watching blood drip from her palm, onto the marble, pooling, until a droplet separated and slid down the slope into the pond. "So I have sworn, so it shall be." She closed her palm, and within seconds, the wound was closed, healed, and only the thinnest of scars showed what she had done, and she knew with time even that would vanish.
She lifted the hem of her robe and cleaned her blade with it. The last of the visible sun dipped below the horizon as she slid it back into its sheath. "And so it is done."
A snarl from somewhere off to her right alerted her to where she was, and she shivered. Turning away from the pond, she started back towards what was left of Silvermoon City to return to her duties.
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Post by Briyanna on Jan 22, 2009 14:48:38 GMT -5
Bri was bored.
Her back against a tree in the courtyard, a pile of books beside her, she sat staring up at the sky through the golden leaves' movement in the breeze. At least no one disturbed her here, studying, reading for pleasure, or just trying to escape her tyrant of a governess.
She glanced down at the book propped up on her thighs; a text on anatomy. Anatomy, the voices said, was only useful to learn in order to figure out what to attack in such a way that the body fell apart efficiently. The mental image that accompanied this thought - that of a doll not yet sewn together fully picked up too roughly, its limbs and head rolling or flopping away as the body is lifted - amused her.
She turned a page absently. The hand was a delicate and complex thing. Bones, nerves, muscles, and veins intricately twining together, held and governed by tendons. Applied massage to sectors of the hand could trigger pain relief and other benefits through the network of nerves corresponding with other networks in other parts of the body. Absently, she wondered if pain could be brought about in similar ways.
A noise nearby startled her into looking up. A small white rabbit was looking at her with curiosity. Smiling cruelly, she gestured at it. It squeaked in surprised and bounded off. She turned slightly, and gestured again, and it screamed, its lifeless body collapsing mid-bound.
She looked back down at her text, sighed, and closed it with a snap. She placed it on the pile beside her and selected another book from the stack. She settled "Demonology of the Legion" against her thighs and opened it to a carefully marked page.
Summoning.
It was the one thing that she could not learn to do on her own, and the one thing that they all forbade her. Was it that she was more interested in forging an alliance with someone... or something... else to protect her while she traveled? Was it that she was interested in Demonology and doing things properly rather than the botched stupidity the weak Humans and those smelly Orcs got involved in?
"Misstress Soleilin!"
Bri looked up, frowning. Her governess, a hard-faced, silver-blue-eyed, white-blond woman by the name of Shallia Sa'Nessra, was staring at her, eyes narrowed.
"That is not your anatomy book."
Bri rolled her eyes. "I'm done with anatomy study."
"Are you? Name the Intercarpal Articulations."
Bri sighed, and turned a page of Demonology of the Legion. "Of what row? Proximal, Distal, or Midcarpal?" Her tone was bored, and it was clear she was reading even as she answered.
"Distal." The woman bent down, eyeing the book Bri held against her legs.
Once again, sounding bored, Bri answered. "Dorsal, Volar, or Interosseous?"
"Dorsal."
Bri looked up, meeting her governess' eyes. "Numbering three, they extend across bones on the dorsal surface, connecting the great with the lesser of the multangular, and the lesser multangular with the capitate and that with the hamate ligament. These in turn are also connected by the Interosseous on a thicker scale with varying strengths."
Lifting an eyebrow, Shellia stood up again. "It's clear you'll need to review, Mistress Soleilin. However, I am surprised that you grasped that so quickly."
"It will be easier, as it always is, once I have a chart or model, Governess," Bri answered, not looking up from her book. "I prefer practical work instead of memorizing the names of such things. If I'm going to kick you in the shins, I'm going to kick you in the shins, not particularly kick you in the Tibia or the Fibula. If I'm going to Heal, I need to know where it is, what it does, and how it works, not necessarily the names." She frowned. "And who came up with these names anyway? Was it the humans?"
Sighing, Shellia shook her head. "Does it matter? You are to learn all the material. How you use it once you are installed in a higher clinical setting is up to you." She turned to leave, pausing partway across the yard. "What's this?
"RETHALENA BRIYANNA!"
Bri winced. "Yes, Governess?" Before she could look up again from her book, her face stung. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. "How dare you strike--"
A second blow cut her off. She was roughly hauled to her feet, and dragged across the yard. Shouting, she tried to pull her arm free of her governess' grip, tried to strike out, both mentally and physically, and met resistance on all sides, as though she had been placed in a shield. She was dropped onto the floor of the Head Magister's office, and heard rapid speech in a language she didn't understand. The door slammed. Her head rang with the noise as she tried to get back to her feet, her legs tangled in the robe she wore.
Fighting to regain her balance and turn herself right way up again, Briyanna muttered to herself under her breath. As she turned to get to her feet, she found a hand held out to her. She looked up, suspiciously. Lothar'an Silverbright, clearly an elderly elf, but one whose blue eyes looked at her with kindness, stood his ground, his hand held out to her. She took it, and was surprised by the strength with which he aided her to her feet. She knew who he was, though had never met face to face with him. As soon as she was on her feet, she immediately folded her hands in front of her, and lowered her eyes in respect, bowing her head.
"None of that, child." Bri blinked, looking up. The old man smiled, and steered her into a chair, settling in one across from her and conjuring a pot of tea, cups, cream and sugar, and a tray of biscuits. "Now then; I apologize personally for Madam Sa'Nessra. No matter what you have done to incur that kind of wrath, she did not have the right to strike you, let alone twice, then drag you like a grain sack into my office and throw you to the floor." As he spoke, he poured a cup of tea, and offered it to her, gesturing to the tray at the sugar and cream.
Still looking shocked, Bri accepted the tea with a murmur of thanks, though she held the saucer in her palm, the cup with her other hand, afraid to drop it. When it seemed as though her Headmaster was not going to move, she leaned forward slightly, and carefully balancing herself, added a cube of sugar and a bit of cream to her tea, stirred it, and then leaned back. He smiled, and poured himself a cup of tea, likewise added sugar and cream, and leaned back, but gestured to the tray of - now that Bri had a better look - ginger snaps before speaking again.
"She seems to be accusing you of animal abuse and brutal slaughter for purposes of sacrifice to dark gods unknown. Considering you are not wearing the animal's blood, nor are you bloody in any way, this is obviously not true. I'm willing to bet a bit of rogue talent slipped out of you and managed to hit some poor victim in the courtyard."
Bri visibly relaxed, and ventured to sip her tea. It was bitter, despite the sugar and sweet cream. ~Odd~ she thought. "More or less. There had been a rabbit who got close... I tried to shoo it away, but I must have cast something on it. I didn't notice that it died; I was studying."
"What were you so immersed in, Miss Soleilin?"
"At the time, The Anatomy and Inner Workings of the Hands: A study on known races." She sipped her tea again. It was still bitter.
"Madam Sa'Nessra insists you were reading Demonology of the Legion when she brought you here." He sipped his tea, then took a ginger snap, and dunked it into his tea
"Yes, Sir."
"Why?"
Frowning down at her tea, Briyanna answered. "I'd completed the reading I was assigned, the studying I had to do, and was reading on something I'm interested in, Sir. Governess drilled me even as I was reading, and she even said I had the gist. I'm sure I'll need to go over it again, but everyone here stresses the effects of burnout. I had Demonology of the Legion and a volume on the history of the Second War in my stack along with my study books. After a bit of relaxing reading, I figured I could go back through I disagreeigned readings and try to absorb them further, as I have always done."
When she looked up, Lothar'an was frowning at his cup, where his ginger snap had fallen in. He began fishing it out with a spoon. "Considering that, I can't understand what she was so fussed about then...” He looked at her sharply. "Why are you interested in Demonology so?"
"Well, Sir, I'd wanted to become a Summoner. I was steered into the Healing classes, even though it's not what I want." She sipped her tea again, and frowned. It was more bitter than before now. She leaned forward and took a ginger snap to cut the bitter taste left on her tongue.
"Well, you do have a natural flow for the Healing magics. Your aura is that of the Healer. Are you saying that it truly is not what you want?" He was looking at her with intensity, even as he picked up the spoon and sipped at what was left of the ginger snap.
Bri lowered her cup, looking into it as she dusted crumbs from her robes. "No, Sir. When I was asked.. I .. I had said I wanted to follow the path of the Summoners. There are so few of us who do so, and few who are strong enough to hold will over the creatures they summon. I .. I have ideas, Sir. Ideas that might make the difference to these creatures to allow some of them to ally with us willingly against their own." She looked up, startled to see that Lothar'an was staring at her, his eyes slightly wider, his drowned ginger snap forgotten. She blinked. "Sir..?"
"And so you want to learn to summon them to implement your ideas, and experiment with a very dangerous school of magics?"
"Well.. Yes, Sir."
He put his cup down, and leaned forward. "Briyanna, listen to me. Those who take that path have fallen to things we don't talk about freely. Once you have started down that path, all that is left to you is destruction and in the end, a very painful burnout death, often with leftovers from the void that the original caster had not had a chance to dismiss before they were consumed while still breathing." Bri shuddered, and shook her head. "Yes," Lothar'an insisted, "this is what becomes of them, and why you would not learn from one of them directly, and why there are not more of them. You in particular would be in danger, for such powers, while you could learn them, would not be as effortless as what you are learning."
"But..."
"What creatures can you call from the secondary Plane of the Void, how do they manifest, and how are they controlled?"
Bri blinked. "The Voidwalker, manifesting often as elemental spirits, controlled by manacle bracelets."
Lothar'an lifted a long eyebrow in surprise. "Well.. it seems you grasp research and contain it well... but what of the power I wonder. You have learned a few offensive spells of the shadow magics, have you not?"
"Yes, Sir.. and I know that the Summoners use the same or similar schools."
Chuckling he held out his hands to either side of him. "Use one. On me."
Bri nearly dropped her teacup, and quickly set it down. "Sir?!"
"Go on. The highest you know, with as much power as you can put behind it. I am nothing more now than a shielded sparring partner, your practice dummy, whichever you prefer."
Bri stood up, and closed her eyes, gathered herself, murmured the incantation under her breath, thrust out her hands and focused her energies on blasting Lothar'an's mind, attacking nerves and thought processes to cause injuries where they happened to fall. When she opened her eyes, he had a nosebleed. "Sir!" Without thinking, she gestured, the incantation for the light Healing spell barely passing her lips, and the flow of blood stopped.
He chuckled. "You see?"
"See? What do yo--" she stopped, staring at him, then down at her hands, then back at him again. It had taken her a moment to cast that Shadow spell, but took little effort to cast her Healing spell. "I see..." He gestured for her to sit back down, and he reached for his tea again. She followed his example.
He sipped his ginger-snap laden tea, and frowned, gesturing to her cup, then his own to rewarm the liquid within. "You concentrated on harming me, but didn't hesitate, and practically didn't bother chanting to reverse the damage." He sipped his tea again. "If your parents consent, I would like to jump you into the primary academy. We can't send you to Dalaran, but the one man I'd like you to study under I'm sure would consent to come here, so your regular studies are not interrupted." Bri blinked, and sipped from her cup again. "I would like to pass you into Master Healer Malai'or's tutelage."
Bri nearly dropped her cup again, her eyes wide, her mind blank with shock. "W-when did- but I thought... th-the rabbit Sir..."
"I think there was a bit of over-reaction. Lai should arrive in the next few days, so I suggest you go to your room and pack your things; you'll be moving into a Tutor's suite tomorrow afternoon." He smiled at her. "But... finish your tea first, child, and we can divert the conversation to other things. Can you sew?"
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Lusk
Newbie
Fisherman Extraordinaire
Posts: 14
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Post by Lusk on Feb 8, 2009 21:33:12 GMT -5
You rock, Bri! Your story is well written and kept me well entertained while my roomie was playing WoW. You -almost- give me the courage to post mine.
<3, Lusk
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