Professor Faith

[Alexander]

70th of Ymiden
Scalvoris Campus

”Hmm?” Alexander asked as he walked through the halls. The young mage’s feet moved instinctively towards one of the rooms where the classes were being held. The tall shadow followed him, as per usual, and it had something to say, only nobody besides the blue-eyed man could hear.

”I asked, why are you wasting your time on this? It’s pointless. But you heard me just fine.” The Harvester said as they walked. Alex simply smiled and kept on going. ”Boy. I asked you a question.” The spirit said once more as they came closer and closer to their destination. It was a curious place, the Campus, unlike the Viden Academy, it lacked finesse. The architecture was simple, one-dimensional.

”What are you going to do if I don’t answer? You need me just as much as I need you.” The young mage said as his face turned serious all of a sudden. Several women looked at him strangely and giggled at his apparent madness before passing by. Talking to himself wouldn’t leave a great first impression, he noted. ”Anyways. What is pointless? In your humble opinion. This paper or the Campus? Because whatever it was, you’d be wrong.”

”Would I? You let those professors walk all over you as if you’re nothing. The same with the other children. You could kill them all if you wished it.” Once more, the bloodthirstiness of the spirit showed itself, but Alexander wasn’t worried. Instead, he smiled once more. What annoyed him though, was being called a child. Even his father had acknowledged he wasn’t one before his death, and this stupid spirit wouldn’t.

”But that wouldn’t be right, would it? I can’t just go around killing people. That’d get me killed. And you don’t want that, at least not yet.” He said, calmly turning around only to see nothing. The shadow matched his movements perfectly, choosing to stay behind him, so he turned once more in an attempt to catch it off guard. Once more, he missed it, so he simply started walking again, and caught a strange look from one of the professors.

The Harvester huffed as they finally reached their destination, a simple, wooden door made only for efficiency instead of beauty, closed to keep people from entering the classroom it kept. Inside, however, was what he’d really came for. Or rather, who. He heard she was just as young as him, which was strange, since she was an associate professor already. Then again, that other professor who seemed to not like her seemed even younger.

Knocking on the door Alexander brought a warm smile to his otherwise cold face and awaited to be called in. Upon hearing her voice though, he would swiftly open the door and make a few steps into the classroom, before closing it again. The Harvester still stood behind him, invisible and inaudible to the associate professor, but clear and loud as day to the young mage.

”Excuse me, professor Faith?” He said softly, attempting not to mess up the woman’s work as he did. She seemed like a pretty lady. What was she doing dabbling in incurable diseases, he wondered, and why wasn’t she with the other pretty ladies? ”Professor Carter directed me here, my name is Alexander Chance.” He told the truth, and the shadowy figure behind him appeared to frown. It was much more fun for it when he lied, but there was no point in lying if he wanted to learn something. And he did, that was why he had travelled from Almund only to attend the classes.

[Faith Augustin]

Everything has two realities;
what it is, and what it appears to be

Faith was standing, at the side of the desk in the classroom which was hers, putting papers into a briefcase. She had a system, as anyone who knew her would be unsurprised to know, and so the papers were put into one specific compartment of the briefcase. As she did that there was a tap on the classroom door and Faith called out, "Come in!"

The young man who walked in when she did had a smile on his face and he spoke to her with a friendly and polite demeanor. Faith returned the smile and listened to what he had to say. The woman that Alexander spoke to was short, barely five foot four and she had a very slight build. She was petite bordering on scrawny, fundamentally. Her long black hair was tied back in a loose braid and she wore a nice and well made red skirt and white blouse. The colour of her hair accentuated the paleness of her skin but it was her eyes which stood out most; a blue so pale that they seemed to be almost silver.

A small, petite, unassuming young woman who was friendly and welcoming was what Alexander saw in front of him. His Harvester, though, did not see that. Because to the Harvester, Faith simply wasn't there. She smiled at Alexander and gestured for him to come in. "Hello, Alexander, it's a pleasure to meet you," her voice was quiet and unassuming. She offered her hand to shake and there, again, he might notice the tattoos and nails which seemed frankly out of place with the rest of how she dressed. But each wrist had a black, intricate tattoo and her nailed were long and patterned black. "Professor Carter mentioned you to me, yes. You have an interest in incurable diseases and hope to specialize in that as you progress in your studies?". When she shook his hand, her hand was warm to the touch; more than one might expect.

With fascination in her gaze, she asked the young man in front of her, "How can I help?"

ooc

The reason the Harvester can't see her is that she has a magic item which makes her invisible to "Dangerous Spirits, Wisps, Shadow Creatures, and Familiars when worn." I think the Harvester falls into those categories?

[Alexander]

"The pleasure is..all mine." He said with a pause inbetween the words as he observed the woman's hands. The rest of her body was completely regular, albeit a bit short for her age, and yet her nails seemed to be like claws while she had tattoos on her wrists? They sent chills down the young mage's spine as he looked at them for a trill more before looking away. It wouldn't be polite to stare, he reminded himself, and he was sure of it, she was either a puppet to an Immortal or a mage.

His reasoning behind the deduction was simple, it didn't take a smart individual to notice either the tattoos or the nails, and it took an even dumber individual to notice her dressing style and the way her hair was set up. She wasn't one of those kids that enjoyed being edgy dark, she was responsible, mature, a true professor, and those markings weren't. They were markings of a child or an edgelord. Thus, the only reason why she'd have them was unwillingly, through magic, or if it was a sacrifice to bear them, for an Immortal.

She was smart as well, she figured out why the other professor had sent him there in mere trills. He wasn't dealing with a delicate precious lady, that much was for sure. If she was a mage, he needed to be cautious. Electricity flew through his eyes as a sign of a significant emotion as his smile was kept up through his anticipation. Would she be able to detect he was a mage through some magical powers? He had never met one marked by an Immortal, so he couldn't be sure, but if she was a mage, she would probably notice his brand right away, as small as it was.

"I was hoping you could tell me more about how you got to the cure of Lightbane. It was a serious disease around here, or so I've heard." He said brightly, warmly, covering up the fact he knew what she was. To Alex, the student of medicine uninterested in anything besides boring books and diseases, she was only Professor Faith, the one who was going to teach him about those diseases, but more than that...He shrugged briefly, letting go of the serious thoughts. If she knew what kind of mage she was, the answer was simple, he would kill her and feed her to the monster behind him.

Speaking of, the Harvester hadn't made a sound since they walked in, and thus the young mage decided to look around the classroom, glancing quickly behind him, but he wasn't there. The shadowy spirit was still standing near the door of the classroom, for some reason, with its mouth wide open. He would need to speak to it about it later. Even if he couldn't be seen, he should have manners. Perhaps they never thought him that in Emea?

[Faith Augustin]

Everything has two realities;
what it is, and what it appears to be

Faith watched him look down at her hands and she smiled slightly. If he wanted to know he would ask, or he would stare longer, she figured. She listened to what he wanted and she nodded, "Of course. I've got a break before my next class, would you like to come to my office?" My office, Faith thought and considered just how much things had changed for her. Her office was bigger than the space she had been allocated to sleep in at Tristan's house, the storage cupboard with a mattress on the floor. Her brands and scars were gone and her life had meaning, purpose and love.

She smiled and motioned to him.

"So, you're studying your letter?" There was a big intake of medical students this season, and Faith had not yet taught them all. "Are you enjoying it so far?" She chatted with him, until they got to her office and there she invited him in. It was a nice room with a large desk and a window which looked out over the University gardens. One wall was covered in bookshelves, filled with books and two of the other walls were covered with maps. All maps of Scalvoris, all the same basic map in the same dimensions, but each one with different content.

As well as the desk and more formal office chairs, there was a low table with four comfortable armchairs around it; it was there she gestured. "Four men came into the clinic where I was working with the same symptoms," she explained. "At first, we thought it might be meningitis, but it quickly became apparent it was lightbane." Faith frowned slightly as she remembered. "Yet, it isn't contagious. So either it had mutated, which we know disease can do, or it was caused by something."

Looking around at the shelves, she stood and reached down a book on Scalvoris specific diseases. The book itself was unmarked, evidently she did not turn down pages. However, there were maybe a dozen bookmarks in there, each one with a word written on it. She opened the book to the appropriate page and handed it to him. "That was what we knew, and what the usual treatment was," the pain grew so bad that treatment was to forcibly remove the sight from the patients.

"I persuaded them to let me treat them, let me try to cure them," she said with a smile, judging by which it had not been an easy task, "and then I questioned them in detail. Where they had been, who they had been with, what they had seen and touched." It had to be something, she explained, because by now they knew it wasn't contagious. So, she had questioned the men. "They were Earth Troops in the military here, most of their time was in heavily populated areas. So I started with the few times they had been somewhere more isolated, as it was easier to cover all variables."

Faith smiled a little and looked at him before saying the simple truth, "I got lucky by doing that. They had been on a patrol into a wooded area, so I went and found out which trees and plants were there, then researched each of them. That led me to the gingko tree. No insects live in them, you know, no birds make them their home. And we treated their eye conditions with gingko and with echinacea, which can also increase allergic reactions." Faith gestured to the book and then smiled. "I had a theory, then. It was an allergic reaction to the gingko tree, exacerbated by the treatments we give for it. So, I tested that theory. Thus far, it seems to have worked, I'm pleased to say. The four men in question have their sight."

With a smile, Faith sat back and looked at him, "I don't know if any of that helps you?" She suspected she'd probably just bored him witless. "Or, if there were specifics you were wanting to ask?"

ooc

Ze uber post of much talking. Sorry!

[Alexander]

Alexander simply nodded. Professors got an office, that was nice to know, he thought as he looked once more at the shadowy spirit who remained by the door. He guessed the Harvester wasn't interested in listening to a "boring little lady", thus it decided to stay put? Or maybe it saw a threat on the outside and decided to act as a guard? Who knew how spirits would think, it was all a mystery shrouded in an enigma. Similarly to the woman herself.

"It's intriguing, though I have to say most of the topics are a tad boring." He said with honesty and a warm smile on his face. She didn't seem to notice he was a mage, therefore she wasn't a mage, therefore he was in no trouble. He could sleep easy knowing that a small woman with a frail body would not be after him, he thought and chuckled as he scratched his left hand with his right one. It was itching randomly. No big deal, he thought, must have been the fact he hadn't showered last trial. He would shower as the night came, and it'd be fixed, he thought as he sat in the armchair and examined the room. It was an interesting room, he wondered whether all professors had the same offices or did she decorate hers to her liking. It was boring at the same time though, full of light. No shadows danced, no insects crawled, it was too perfect for his liking.

Alexander listened with interest as she talked and then looked at the book she gave him. It seemed fun, the disease mutated, almost as if it was challenging the mortals to keep up with it. If it was a living, breathing thing it would've been playing a game with them, instead, it was its original creator who was playing the game. That was why he liked Lisirra so much. She had the same sense of humour as him, and she enjoyed the same type of challenges as him. Though the woman might've disagreed with him, so he kept a serious look and a frown as he read the page.

It was interesting, how the woman rose to the challenge of the disease and battled it without playing its games. Alexander wouldn't have been able to do that, but she was. There was something about her, some air that flowed around her, that made her feel special. She wasn't an ordinary human, he knew that much, but her skills as a doctor were on par with legends from fairy tales. Those old witches that could cure anything, or those ancient sages that knew everything. How was she so good at it? How did she accomplish what she did with so little trouble? She just saw a challenge and beat it. How?

"It is very helpful, professor, thank you." He said, once more adorning a smile on his face. He needed to keep up the facade, he couldn't just ask her why she was so perfect, that would cause suspicion, and seeing how easily she beat the disease's challenge, he stood no chance with her as an opponent. Alexander decided, he wouldn't be playing games with her, it was too dangerous, he would just leave her alone for now. Who knew what else she was capable of."I do have one question though. Are the origins of lightbane known? It had to have come from somewhere, right? My guess would be that it was another, simpler disease which mutated into something so horrible, but then my question would be how? How would a disease mutate at such a level?" He knew one of the answers, and it involved the Plague Queen, but alas, he wanted to hear what the woman next to him had to say about it. Would she acknowledge the power of Lisirra, or claim there was a mortal-level cause for it.

[Faith Augustin]

Everything has two realities;
what it is, and what it appears to be

A tad boring? Faith raised an eyebrow and looked at him in some surprise. He was more honest than most students would be when discussing her colleagues, but then that was quite refreshing in and of itself. She smiled at him and considered, "I have to admit to being a little challenged at the thought of any aspect of medicine being boring, but hopeful that you will not find my classes to be such." There was no irritation or negativity at his words, just a consideration of not being entirely comfortable with either her subject or her colleagues being dull.

She glanced, like some kind of beacon drew her to it, when he scratched. Her eyes quickly scanned his hand where he was scratching, to see if there was something there which might cause it. Always looking for that kind of thing, Faith almost subconsciously noted the colour of his skin, the whites of his eyes and his respiration and pulse, if she could spot that on his neck. She usually could.

When she asked if he had any questions, he did and it was a sensible one. "No, it wasn't known. We knew that it seemed to be a relatively recent disease, so certain assumptions were made." Faith frowned slightly, not approving of that at all. "Assumptions are the death of science. Or so I believe. In fact, lightbane isn't a disease at all, it's a reaction. An allergy. It became more prevalent as our understanding of other diseases grew." Probably, she explained, people had been getting a strange reaction in their eyes after being near gingko trees for as long as gingko trees existed. But, once they had started to treat those people with gingko and echinacea, they forced the reaction further. "What causes that reaction in some, not others, we just don't know. Yet." Everything was a yet to her. Nothing, after all, was impossible.

There was a second answer to his question, though, and she sat back. "But diseases do mutate. There are lots of reasons for that, some easier to fight than others." She assumed, of course, that fighting diseases was what he wanted to do. He was a student of medicine after all. "I believe that diseases mutate because of environmental changes, as one reason. Or because they are engineered by mortals and then interact with the environment in unexpected ways might be another. They might mutate because they interact differently with different races and then cross-contaminate." All of those, she explained, were quite mundane reasons. Then, she smiled, "And then there diseases which mutate possibly because of magic or the will of the Immortals. Much more difficult to catalogue that sort of likelihood, but it undoubtedly happens. And then," she added with a rather rueful smile, "there are those reasons for things which are simply, at this moment, beyond our comprehension. I'm sure there are plenty of those too."

She smiled at the young man. Was he young? She thought he was probably about the same age as her, in truth. How strange. "But I must ask, Alexander. If you are finding medicine dull at this stage, have you considered switching subject? I suggest it only because I believe you learn better and more if you are enjoying what you learn." If he was bored in his first season of his first level, then he had a lot of seasons and a lot of levels to get a lot more bored. He would think about it, he said, and then he left her to what she was doing.

[Theo Nji'Ryn]

Faith

Knowledges: None....You sure?

Points: 15

Comments: This was an interesting read in spite of being abandoned. Faith's a great teacher even when she's not 'officially' teaching. Alexander, if you're able to come back to us, give me a shout and I'll add a review for you.

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