Beyond the city of Rharne lies the Stormlands, which is home to a number of farms, forests, fields, Lake Lovalus, and the River Zynyx. This subforum also includes the Stormwastes to the south.
Holding Storm's Edge: Let's Cook This Noodle
4 Ashan 720
Whatever magic Kasoria was using to make his shields seemed really useful to Mathias when he saw the arrowhead like barrier manifest to defend Kasoria from the ether explosion. Damn useful... but not for him. Mathias was not one to use shields. He used bows and generally by the time someone reached him, he was hoping they were dead. When Kasoria began walking towards him, Mathias misjudged his intentions. Kasoria extended is hand out to him and Mathias looked at the hand suspiciously. Karim wouldn't help him up... this was some trick... some lesson... he wouldn't be fooled. So rather than take Kasoria's hand, Mathias set Kasoria's sword in it and rose on his own, hobbling slightly
The pain was bad but he did his best to hide it while the two of them went off to get water, Mathias completely unaware of the request brewing in Kasoria's head. The pain seemed relatively contained now and the nosebleeds had seemingly stopped. The pain stretched up only to about his ankle and sat there festering while Mathias did his best to keep his weight off the foot. A few short trills later he and Karim were elsewhere, sipping water to slowly wash away the exhaustion of training. Well exhaustion for Mathias... Kasoria seemed pretty alright. Mathias nursed his water slowly, shaking his foot every few trills to try and get the pain to go away. Little did he know what Kasoria secretly wanted.
Human Male
Transmutation Mage
Glowing Silver Hand Veins
“The archer is the true weapon; the bow is just a long piece of wood.”
~ Sebastien de Castell
Vorund had always been the thinker. The plotter. The schemer. Moving pieces across a board the size of a city, with hands no-one ever saw. Kasoria was the muscle, the blade, the fists, the bloody consequence of Bangun Vorund's will. Towards the end, he had become a sort of... emissary, he supposed. A mouthpiece, using his reputation and the wits Vorund knew the slight little man possessed. Of course his negotiations were always tinged by the threat of force; far more so than even Vound's veiled extortion.
But Kasoria had time to observe. Oh, so many arcs, being in the same room, listening and watching and learning. He didn't much care from the scheming nature of his master, but he could not deny the efficiency of it. The slick and polished way he got what he wanted. It was almost like magic, but there was naught etheric about Bangun Vorund. Just cunning and toughness and sheer, unbridled ruthlessness. Kasoria had learned the lesson well, though. Had absorbed it almost through osmosis, arc after arc.
Vorund's magic was that, by the end, when he got what he wanted from you, you gave it to him. You were convinced it was the right and prudent thing to do. The best for everyone. That was the key to making a deal; making everyone happy, even if it was just an illusion for one party.
Harder to put into practice.
"Thirty trials, boy. That's 'ow long I'vbe been 'ere now. Cuzza' youse."
The old man didn't wait any longer. Trying to perfect the plan or scheme up the right words like some twisted poet wouldn't help him anymore. The truth was, he was leaving soon. Either they'd let him go, or he'd find another way out. Hells, he already had a way out. But what he'd told that redhead had been accurate: he always took something with him from the jobs he signed up on. For this one, the grand and gloriously heroic siege of Storm's Edge, it wouldn't be coin, more's the pity. But he'd already gained a fresh weapon, and now... now he had a mage over the barrel.
Depending on if you can make him see things that way.
"I head back 'ome, won't 'ave fuck all t'show for it, save fer a few new scars," he sipped at the water, letting a trickle of it dribble into his beard. When Mathias looked over, he'd see the Raggedy Man looking wistfully up at the walls. As if imagining the world of horrors and wonders beyond them. "Cuzza you." Now he swung his gaze towards Mathias. Black and cold. "Cuz you had the moment t'tell me, weren't no coin t'be found. Jus' blood an' death, fer folk who ain't my kin, ain' my people. Y'know the difference, boy, 'tween lyin', an' jus' not tellin' someone somethin' that matters?"
Kasoria waited a moment or two, then answered his own question. "Fuckin' nothin', because when the times comes, an' it matters, an' you don't know, y'might as well 'ave lied t'me." All right, time to cap it off. "Thirty trials. Trials I could a' spent wiv' my son. Trials I won't get back, cuzza youse. F'I had somethin' t'show for it, some coin, some reward, might a' been worth it. But as it stands? Nothin'." He leaned a touch closer. Hammering home the point one final time, but in a different way. Didn't want to use the same bludgeon for too long, after all. "Who's fault is that, Mathias?"
He started to get to his feet. Tossing the dregs from the cup and throwing it back into the water barrel it had been floating in. That was the set up, and whatever Mathias said next, he knew what his next lines would be. He turned away for a moment and allowed a fleeting look of doubt to cross his face. Fates, he was never a conman. Always hated the bastards. Even Oberan, irritatingly charming as that wanker could be. But he knew what the stakes were, and what he'd said hadn't been entirely false. Aside from bow and a quiver and a book, he'd take nothing from Storm's Edge, if he couldn't make this work. And frankly? This little sod owed him.
"But now I know how youse can make it right," he said, turning back to Mathias, mask of simmering annoyance and buried betrayal restored. "Trans-moo-tay-shun.."
Fates, and didn't his accent just mangle the living fuck out of that word?
"Initiate me. Let me do what youse can do... an' we'll be even. Den the time youse stole from me'll be worth it. I can go back to me boy, back to me life, wiv' summin' I can use."
He didn't add anymore. He wanted to, but he didn't. Threats or cajoling or - fuck forbid - pleading, would just have gilded the lily more than necessary. He wanted the shock of raw words to dig into Mathias, and leave them there without anything else to salve them. So he got up and stretched his sore muscles. With a final nod to the lad, he said, "Get back t'me when y'have a decision. Jus' don't be forever."
Kasoria walked away, wondering if Vorund would have been proud, and if he should have been.
word count: 926
Common Speech | Thoughts | Ith'ession Speech | Speech of Others
Knowledge:
Transmutation - The Strength of Adamantite
Transmutation - The Sharpness of Adamantite
Transmutation - The Color of Ivory
Transmutation - Shapecraft is not meant to go through your foot
Strength x 2
Endurance x 2
Blades (Gladius) x 3
Loot: - Wealth: - Injuries: Light Overstepping: For the following ten-trial, Mathias will suffer from spontaneoous nosebleeds and cramps in his foot that will gradually get better over the course of said ten-trial. Renown: - Magic XP: Yes, for Transmutation. Skill Review: Appropriate to level. Points: 15
Comments: First of all, I love the title of this thread!
With that being said, this was an entertaining training/fight thread.
Kasoria’s observations of Mathias and his thoughts on Transmutation were interesting to read.
Playing a Transmuter myself, I’m always interested in how other people write about Transmutation. I think you wrote about it well, Mathias. It was pretty easy to understand!
I wonder if Mathias will agree and initiate Kasoria ….
