fandomhighdorms | Magical Reserve - Preserve Next to The Cabins, Wednesday

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Magical Reserve - Preserve Next to The Cabins, Wednesday

With tea and biscuits--oh hush, he was a proper ~~Irish~~ English boy--ready for members and guests, Merlin was cheerfully waiting for everyone to arrive.

"Hello! Today, Karla and I have a bit of a new exercise for us all to try today," He informed everyone with a sort of manic cheer that came from hoping to god this ended well.

Karla stepped forward with the blithe carelessness that came from having no clue that anything could possibly go wrong with her plan. "Kiss kiss everyone. So, more than anything else, there needs to be trust between us as a group. Without it, we'll be disorganized, inefficient, and the other members of the Reserves won't trust us, either. Which, in a crisis, could lead to disaster. So, I thought today we could focus on building that trust together. And for that we have--" she paused for a moment to let the anticipation build "--magical trustfalls!" She beamed at them, certain they'd be as enthusiatic as she was about the idea.

"Yay!" Merlin offered with a strangled little cheer. "Karla and I will demonstrate."

Or something.

"Karla?"

"That's right!" Karla said, giving Merlin a reassuring smile. One that had a lot of teeth in it. She practically skipped around behind him. "In case you're not sure what a trustfall is, Merlin is going to close his eyes and fall backwards, expecting me to catch him before he hits the ground. I'm going to do so, but only with magic." She clasped her arms behind her back. "Ready Merlin?" she chirped. "You trust me, right?"

It wasn't reassuring at all! But he nodded dutifully and closed his eyes. "Of course."

Really.

Taking a breath, he fell backwards.

Karla took the easiest path. Using Craft, she solidified the air behind him, the same way she would if she were airwalking. Merlin hadn't tipped back more than a few inches before the air caught him. "Now, there are a ton of different things I could have done. I could have called in a big pile of soft things for him to land on, or put a shield behind him, or just floated something over to catch him."

Merlin blinked a few times and looked around at the nothing holding him up. "Whatever it is you believe might work best. And if you don't think you can use magic, your hands are perfectly fine."

"Or if you think your magic isn't suitable, you can always brainstorm with a partner about ways you could possibly make it suitable," Karla added. "I've found that a lot of working with magic involves improvising." She looked over and gave Merlin her best unsure-but-game grin. "My turn now?"

Merlin nodded and waved toward the rest of the group. "Pair off and get started then!"

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"I couldn't see the details or any images," Karla said quietly. "Only the emotions. Too much time had passed for me to get more than that."

Whatever had triggered that terror was almost certainly something best avoided. Still, Karla felt bad that the price was Rachel being cut off from all of her emotions.

"You're absolutely certain of that?" she asked. "And there's nothing anyone can do to help?"

"You would not want to see," Raven said quietly. "It is the end of the world." She tried to shake off the lingering dread. "I do not know if anything can be done to help. This place is so much different from Azarath, but I have been afraid to let my guard down for fear of what might happen."

"I can see where you'd be hesitant to try," Karla murmured. "That's quite an intimidating burden to carry." She automatically sent out another brush of sympathy. Then froze, wincing. "I'm sorry. I didn't think. Should I not do that?"

"It is all right," Raven said. "Professor Skywalker has been helping me shield out much of the emotion around me, so I would be able to deflect it if I wished. Tasting another's compassion is not harmful, though I am envious of your ability to express it."

"Yeah, well, sometime compassion's not all it's cracked up to be," Karla muttered darkly. Then gave Rachel a guilty smile. "Though still better to feel it when you oughtn't than not, I suppose. Have you heard about the shielded room on the sixth floor?"

Karla was proud of that room.

"I think it was mentioned to me once," Raven said, "but I was not aware it had been completed." She couldn't help but notice Karla's distaste for compassion. "Are you all right?" she had to ask.

"I'm fine," Karla said. "Just thinking. My mother always taught me that compassion is the greatest gift one can bestow upon another. Generally, I believe her. There are just times when a person's compassion is used against them, is all."

Raven nodded. "Even good emotions can be used to hurt, I am well aware of that," she said. "May I ask you a question about yourself?"

"Sure," Karla said, shrugging. "It's only fair."

"The other day in class, you called yourself a Black Widow," Raven said. "What does that mean?"

Karla laughed a little, certain that Rachel could feel the relief radiating off of her. Of all the questions Karla had assumed she was about to ask, her caste certainly hadn't been one of them. "Black Widows are a caste in Kaeeler, my home," she explained. "We're the healers of the mind. We weave tangled webs of dreams and visions, of illusions and prophecies. We deal with poisons and potions and try to put back together that which has been broken."

She paused. "Did any of that make sense?" she asked dubiously. Perhaps she shouldn't have been so poetical.

"Yes, it does," Raven said, nodding. "Some of the things we can do are similar, are they not? I may heal the mind by removing festering emotions that prevent one from moving on and healing their soul." She couldn't help but think of Tahiri and the guilt she bore.

Funny enough, Karla was also thinking of Tahiri. Small island, no?

"We can't really remove the emotions causing the distress," Karla said, though she was nodding in agreement. "We try to work with the person, so they can resolve their own emotions. Sometimes, it's as simple as talking and listening. Other times, it requires tangled webs where people can go back, even just in their own minds, and face whatever it is that's festering inside of them. It's another one of the Blood's triangles. Healers heal the body, Black Widows the mind, and Queens the heart."

Tahiri apparently had that Oh, Azar, there must be a way to fix her effect on people.

"Removing all of an emotion would be dangerous," Raven said. "And only as a last resort. Sometimes it is just a matter of easing the emotion just enough to let healing begin naturally. Otherwise the person may become completely numb. Well, that is what I was taught. I did not have much opportunity to practice my gifts at my home. There were little strong emotions there."

"Truly?" Karla asked, interested. "In Kaeleer, we're all strong emotions. Especially Warlord Princes. It's why we have Protocol, in order to keep everyone behaving in such a way as to not trigger those emotions."

"Hundreds of years ago, those of Azarath used magic to purge themselves of all their darkest passions and negative emotions," Raven explained. "And over the years, what was left began to fade as well. The people of Azarath live simply, and their feelings are just as simple."

"That sounds...a little drastic," Karla said, trying for diplomacy. "Emotions, even negative ones, define us. Especially how we react to them. How did they teach you to keep your emotions at bay, when theirs are so muted?"

"Azar was my teacher until I was ten years old," Raven said. "She was the leader of Azarath, and the one who insisted I be allowed to live there when others demanded I be cast out. She taught me to suppress my emotions, although it was much easier on Azarath than it has been here."

"I can imagine," Karla said with sympathy. "But why would anyone want you killed? Just because you feel potent emotions?"

Raven hesitated. Only Joan and Professor Skywalker knew her secret, and she did not know how much she could trust Karla yet, though she sensed no ill intent from her. "They feared what I could do," she finally said. "They feared what I could become."

Karla softened. "I can only imagine what that was like for you. An innocent child, feared for what she may do, might become."

She opened her mouth to ask why they would fear Rachel, but abruptly closed it again. Oftentimes, questions like that were uncomfortable to answer. And she didn't want to spook Rachel.

"For what it's worth, I'm siding with your Azar on this one," she continued with a friendly smile. "You seem pretty convinced that your strong emotions can lead to the end of the world, but since you're fighting against that--and the strongest emotion I've gotten from you so far is fear that that will occur--I don't see you courting that fate. Which means you don't deserve to have that counted against you. We all have the capacity to bring pain and devestation to those around us." Even a Yellow-Jeweled Prince apparently. "And we all have temptations that we must face. Your temptations and consequences are much more drastic than those of regular folk, but that doesn't mean that you should be killed out of hand for it," she added fiercely.

Rachel was rousing all of Karla's protective instincts. She reminded Karla of all those young witches in Glacia, broken because they couldn't be controlled. Because males were frightened of what they could do.

"I wish Azar were wrong," Raven said quietly. "There are so many things I wish I could experience. Sometimes it hurt so terribly to deny myself. But if I should take that step and lose control...." She was slowly learning to trust that those on the island would not shun her for what she was, so she took a steadying breath and continued. "...my father might take hold of me. He is a terrible creature and would cause untold harm to those around me."

Karla blinked a little. Her world didn't have anything like ghosts or demons or monsters, so she wasn't entirely certain what Rachel meant, but she was pretty sure the other girl wasn't referring to some kind of evil human. "How can Azar know for a fact that your emotions are the key?" Karla asked instead, sending over another wave of comfort and reassurance. She might not entirely understand what Rachel meant by 'a terrible creature,' but she wasn't going to head for the hills or anything. "Though I can understand why you'd be reluctant to experiment to find out if she is wrong."

"Azar knew what my father was capable of," Raven said. "She understood how his powers worked and how his blood would affect me. I was trained to lock my feelings away so they could not be used against me when...if...he tried to enter this world again."

She had never doubted Azar before, but since she'd arrived here in Fandom, that had changed. Maybe Azar was wrong. Maybe she could be allowed to feel.

"Blood is the memory's river," Karla said slowly, thinking. "If you'd like, sometime, I could weave a tangled web sometime and see if there's anything I can see. No pressure," she added. "Just an offer."

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