Magic Box, Sunday, 04/19

[not_every_mage]

Anders had listened to radio that morning with some interest. He'd assumed Cora Byrn's appearance was down to some trickery of the island's, but it was nice to have his hunch confirmed.

Feelings about the weekend as a whole and meeting Cora aside, he supposed the good news he could take from it all was the implication that his parents probably weren't dead. Though even that came with a sting: They might as well have been dead to him. That was what being a Fereldan mage meant, let alone being an apostate.

He'd brought Lachlan to work with him to stave off the stupid gnawing homesickness in his stomach, and played with the cat while he idly wondered if one little letter home would really be that much of a risk.

[OOC: Open shop, no OCD!]

Comments

[nuclear_snide]

Spending all weekend with Winifred again was bittersweet - her mind and spirit were wonderful to experience again, but being deader than she was...well.

So eventually, they decided upon him showing her the island. Which inevitably led to this shop.

"No, honestly," he was telling her as she opened the door, "they have magic right out in the open here. Oh, hello, Anders." He waved to him. "Anders here is one of my students," he explained.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"So much has changed." Winifred nodded to Anders as she looked him over. "Hello."

[not_every_mage]

"Hi there," Anders said, with a slight smile. Lachlan looked up from his perch on the counter to mrowl curiously at the visitors, and Anders scritched his head to settle him.

"This is Lachlan, and it;s nice to meet you. Are you visiting for the weekend?"

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Winifred answered, smiling a little sadly. "Only for the weekend. Are you a wizard, then?"

[not_every_mage]

"My world calls me a mage, but it's the same idea," Anders confirmed. "And you, are you one as well?"

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"A sorceress, yes," Winifred answered. An important distinction in her mind, given what wizards had done to Hrothbert. He might have forgiven some of them; it didn't mean she had to.

[nuclear_snide]

"His world hasn't got a Council," Bob interjected. "He's more a sorcerer than a wizard himself." Please agree, Anders!

[not_every_mage]

Anders was perfectly happy to agree, and not only to make his teacher happy.

"We'd call it an apostate," he agreed. "A mage free of the Circle. I'm quite a terrifying individual, as you can tell."

The cat fur all over his shirt added to that effect.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes," Winifred answered, laughing. "Quite terrifying, I can see. And with your very dangerous familiar, too." She reached out to pet Lachlan, if he'd let her.

[not_every_mage]

Lachlan would absolutely let her; he tilted his head to encourage the petting, as if it was only his due.

"He's fiercer than he looks," Anders said, with pride that wasn't entirely a joke. "Killed six beetles on the patio the other day. Would have gotten a bird if I'd let him."

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Oh, very dangerous!" Winifred smiled at them both. "I'm glad something good will come of all this. Hrothbert's always been a good teacher. If not the most patient," she teased him.

Bob just rolled his eyes.

[not_every_mage]

"He taught you too?" Anders guessed. "I like his class quite a bit. He's got a lot to teach, even if he is a bit cranky."

[nuclear_snide]

"I am not cranky!" Bob protested. Crankily.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

Winifred laughed. "You keep insisting that, dear. And good lord, no," she answered Anders. "We taught each other. And others."

[not_every_mage]

"This was when he was still -- um."

Anders tried to think of a polite synonym and couldn't.

"Alive."

[nuclear_snide]

"Non living-challenged?" Bob suggested with an eyeroll. "Yes, thank you."

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Personally I'd go with 'free'," Winifred said, with a look of disapproval not directed at either of them. "Yes, we were quite the team back then. Though he got a bit further after I died."

[not_every_mage]

"How far did he get?" Anders wondered. "I'm a good healer. Nothing too special in a fight, not yet. I know there's a lot more magic I haven't even touched yet."

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Not far enough not to make a mess of things, far enough to frighten small-minded idiots and put himself here." She saw Hrothbert's hurt look and took a deep breath. "But that's neither here nor there. You're a healer, you say?"

[not_every_mage]

Anders was desperate to hear more of the story, but he sensed from Bob's hurt look that he wasn't going to get it all at once.

"I am," he said, putting curiosity to the side for a moment. "Sadly I don't know a spell yet that will heal the dead. But if you had a paper cut I'd take care of that in a wink."

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"That seems rather specialised," Winifred noted. "Is your world a very dangerous place, then?"

[not_every_mage]

"No more so than anywhere else, really," Anders said -- and if his perspective on that was a little skewed,one had to consider that his main exposures to other worlds were Fandom and Rapture. "It depends where you go. Why, was yours?"

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Not so much that anyone but hedge witches specialised in healing magic," Winifred answered.

[nuclear_snide]

"Not so little that you didn't get an arrow through the heart," Bob countered. Or him an axe to the skull, but he'd largely brought that on himself.

[not_every_mage]

"We couldn't quite get by with only hedge witch potions," Anders said, with a little shrug. "Maybe your non-magic doctors were better than ours. It's an unusual gift but not extraordinarily so, anyhow. The armies use us, and it's a status symbol for the rich to have a healer on staff at their estates. "

Taking care of some lordling's sniffles. Anders was grateful his running away had spared him that sort of life.

[nuclear_snide]

"Anyone who hired a wizard or sorcerer openly would probably have shared their fate," Bob answered sourly.

And with evidence of that fate right here, he rather desperately wished he could hold her again.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

Winifred gave him a sad look and brushed her hand through his. "Our world wasn't always terribly kind toward magic."

[not_every_mage]

"Most of them aren't," Anders said, sympathetic. "It seems to be one of the constants about worlds with magic. If mine's a little better" -- relative to being killed just for being what you were, anyhow -- "it's only because magic's too common there to try to keep it a secret."

[nuclear_snide]

It was all relative, wasn't it?

"People often fear what they don't understand. Especially when it gives other people an advantage," Bob said with a shrug.

[not_every_mage]

"Another thing that holds everywhere," Anders said, something about his eyes seeming older than he was.

He tightened his fingers on the counter.

"Sorry. I'm sure you didn't come in for us to terribly depress each other. Though I do seem to be rather good at it today."

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"And Hrothbert's terribly good at it all the time. When he's not chasing skirts," Winifred said wryly, hooking her thumb at him.

[nuclear_snide]

"I beg your pardon!" Bob said, his affront almost entirely mock.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Granted," Winifred answered, smirking.

[not_every_mage]

"You could start chasing nice trousers as well," Anders suggested. "Double your chances on any given night."

Or not, given that Bob was intangible. Details.

[nuclear_snide]

"Mm. Tried it once or twice. Not really my thing, though any port in a storm...And I never chased skirts while I had you," he said to Winifred.

[wontcallhimbob.livejournal.com]

"Chance'd be a fine thing. Of course you did," Winifred told him. "You just didn't do anything but look and chase."