The Tower Where It Happens

[Kala Leukos]

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Indric moved off with the tea pot to brew more. The warrior didn't seem the type to be domestic, but he was also an orphan and so he likely knew how to do a great many things that didn't seem important for a warrior.

Kala watched Torin examine the shard. She was keenly interested in how his mind worked.

"It also seems like a labor-intensive means to hide something, too," she added, "when one could more easily ward. I have not identified the flower, and the feather looks corvine, possibly from a crow. I would like you to study it. I haven't had the time to truly delve into it. The thing arrived via courier, a gift from some anonymous admirer. So, of course, at first I checked for traps. But if there is some subtle magical signature from the contents, I haven't spent the time sussing it out from the resonance of the aetherstone itself. Perhaps you will find some use for it."

She smiled. "As for the raiment, I think we should, first and foremost, experiment how divine energies interact with runeforging. How my use of an artefact might produce different results from a..." She laughed a little at herself; she was more than mortal now, but it felt arrogant to say so. "From a mortal.

"As it is, I now have a more divine form and I have some control over my mortal seeming. I can manifest my wings or not... That makes hiding them less necessary, though the glamours on my cloak are still helpful for disguises, or making it appropriate for anything, from travel by dusty road to party at the palace." She smiled.

"And I think... I think soon, I shall brave a mist storm. My divine spark came from Mother Naori. If I ever fully ascend, I will be a Mistlord and not a Dragon God... I want to better understand the chaos of my nature, and from the center of such a storm, I could pluck a shard of chaos. And then the both of us can meditate upon the nature of chaos and its applications in runeforging."

She paused.

"I will, of course, ensure that whatever I bring back will not be dangerous for you."

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[Torin Kilvin]

"It would be a lot of trouble to go to, to hide something. Or... preserve something?"

If the flower was unknown to easy research, it could be ancient, or powerful, or just a flower from far off. There was something to the magic, a web of complex tangles that his mind longed to follow through to their ends. He would find their ends, but not at that moment.

Snuffling back the continued physical aftermath of a good hard cry, Torin narrowly avoided wiping his nose on his sleeve. Too much of interest was happening that distracted him from his manners. Even a normal housewife would look at him like a child if he were to do such a thing. His attention was immediately taken up by the new discussion and the possibilities it held.

"That would be amazing. I would love to experiment with... uhm, with you, or your energies, but with you there. Uh." He knew Kala wouldn't think ill of him for his choice of words, or lack thereof, but it still felt like he was stumbling over himself in haste born of interest. The Lady's own little verbal slip as she navigated the new territory of her divinity helped.

Torin blinked at the change of subject to something dangerous. Runeforging divine power was dangerous, but it didn't feel that way between the two of them. Flying into a Mist storm though... His alarm and concern showed clearly on his face.

"It that... safe? You are a Mistlord, or will be one does that protect you from..?" He gestured, expansive and sort of frantic movement to imply 'all of that'.

The idea of being able to experiment with a shard of pure chaos was fascinating enough that he would delve in regardless of the dangers, but obtaining such a thing was far beyond him.

[Kala Leukos]

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"Preservation does make more sense," she allowed, smiling. There was a reason she brought these things to him; he had a discerning arcane eye and his perspective was different from hers.

It didn't take a goddess in her own cathedral to intuit what he forced himself not to do. She stood up, moved over toward him, and offered him a clean handkerchief, her other hand offering him consolation, just resting upon his shoulder. The fine white linen had a small seven-pointed blue star embroidered into each corner. She was not terribly taller than him even when he was sitting down, and yet she felt quite protective of him.

In fact, she felt a lot of things about him. He was handsome and strong, careful and caring. When he appeared in her dreams of lust, she certainly didn't mind. For all that he had been through, though, and for all that he seemed to enjoy a quite spicy relationship with Master Kavafis, there was an innocence at his core that she wanted to preserve—like a blossom and a feather in aetherite.

If he blushed a little at experimenting with her energies, she only smiled more, acknowledging but not unkind.

"You have a gift, Torin, from someone more ancient, powerful, and wise than I. I will do whatever I can to help you continue to nurture it." Her head canted to the side. "Even risk a mist storm." After a thoughtful pause, "There is a dance between chaos and order in everything. A country. A star. A particle of dust. The Dread Mists are... concentrated chaos, and I have felt a resonance within my bones when there have been even minor mist storms nearby. I believe I have to attune myself to it, similarly to how we attune to elements. I will continue to research prismatoriums, how they have been safely harvested. I have no wish to perish or be warped beyond recognition.

"In the end, though, there will always be a risk. But I think it will be necessary for me to understand it, understand myself.

"The shard of chaos is a more tangible goal, though, and a way to share that with you. Share myself with you."

Then she blushed, feeling vulnerable in a way that was not sexual, but then they were both young and healthy. Sexual was just the language that some emotions translated into.

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[Torin Kilvin]

If Torin's magical affinities, or even his simpler skill with blacksmithing, had been granted by any power higher than that or genetics, he was unaware of it. Present company aside, he had never attracted the attention of any higher power except Aurin, and that power was of his own granting... sort of. The handkerchief he took, when it was offered, wondering briefly what had become of his own before blowing his nose and wiping his face as discreetly as one could do such things and still get the job done.

His Semblance picked up a thousand little strains of what was going on around him all the time, so if any part of him noticed the momentary touch of interest of a lustful sort, it wasn't a conscious one. If he had allowed himself to pick up on the little touched of lust that followed him around in his day-to-day life, he would have spent a significantly higher percentage of his time embarrassed and often uncomfortable. His was the sort of body that eyes followed, even if he kept his own lowered half the time. It was a trait that he should be outgrowing, and maybe, now, he would. Even if he did, it would take more than a belief in his own lack of tainted blood to get him to realize how often the average person was thinking about sex simply because a handsome artisan was within view.

Handing the somewhat soiled cloth back to its owner without embarrassment, he said,

"I think we are both growing into the things we were meant to be. More than anyone, I feel like I've grown into more of myself with you. I think this might be more we can learn together."

They had taught and learned from each other, often learning together as equals, since they had met. Kala learning more of her new abilities as Torin learned how his could synergize with them, sounded like just the next step in their connection. It also sounded like crazy storybook magic, which did not make it less enticing. He watched and listened, reaching out to feel at the ideas she was presenting as she recalled them, feeling the connection she felt to a minute degree.

"I see." He answered slowly, because he thought he did, a little. It still worried him, the idea of her tiny form flying into an unimaginably massive storm, goddess or no. The image connected with one of the little Silver Lady he'd made as a thank-you gift for her years ago now, and in doing so sparked an idea. Had it not bloomed into his mind, he might have picked up on Kala's more conscious questing interest. As it was, his hands opened and closed, aching for the tools that would allow his ideas to move from his mind into the world.

"I think, when your regalia is finished, that it should fuse together, covering you, or whoever you grant it to, fully, like..." A blush brightened his cheeks, but he was too excited to stop himself, "Like the Silver Lady. Creating an all encompassing protective field." Kala, liquid silvered, wings and all, was an awesome image to hold, even just in his head. Hovering over her people, as goddesses has been portrayed in statues and edifices since the first peoples worshiped.

[Kala Leukos]

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"Keep it," she said, gently closing his hand over the handkerchief. She didn't say it with any sort of disgust, but rather the casual generosity she had always shown him. "I have more than I will ever need. Kaus wasn't forced to learn needlepoint."

There was no rancor in her words, though. It had taught her fingers to be deft, her eyes to be sharp, and she had found little ways to leverage those skills into more impressive things, like weaving aether and detecting patterns in the chaos around her.

She admired the little line between his brows when he concentrated, their auras intertwined at the edges so she had some idea of the direction of his thoughts, but not delving deep to take what wasn't offered. The statuette was remembered fondly. It was polished and set where her eyes would often fall upon it, even if the novelty of it had somewhat worn off.

For all she knew, bearing the kind regard of a goddess over however many years might make it a holy relic someday, whether it ever flew or not.

"Yes?"

Kala considered what he said.

"Yes. I suspect that eventually, I will have to learn to be invulnerable to the chaos without any protection at all, when I fully understand that the chaos is no threat to me any longer. But for the time being, the separation will keep me, hm, metaphorically grounded even if I fly into the storm seeking its eye."

She considered, and then blushed because his image of her cast as if with silver skin made her imagine his strong hands smoothing the raiment over her body. Truly, she wondered whether it was this place coupled with the awakening of his religious feelings that was sharpening her feelings for him. Perhaps Eshar would know. The god was specifically attached to desire—and she sometimes wondered whether they would ever have go toe to toe with the Orkhan Syren—but they had spoken of prayer, faith, and such things as a sort of food for the gods.

Well, perhaps one day he would worship her with his body.

But, for now, "Then we can see about setting up the workshop here, and you can tell me what you might need from me to complete the raiment, whether materials or tests of divine energy."

She nodded. It was decided.

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[Torin Kilvin]

A token from a goddess, even a snot stained one, could be considered a holy relic, but Torin was not thinking of that. A gift from a friend, that represented her continuous care and generosity towards him, was more than enough, and he tucked it into the inside pocked of his coat with a murmur of thanks.

"I think he might be good at it, if he tried. I've thought about learning a decorative needlework, it would help with my finer leather work and even the metal craft, when it is detailed enough." It would also help keep his dexterity in his hands as he aged. He had known plenty of smiths that had lost a lot of it after swinging heavy hammers for thirty years.

The hints of interest sparked softly where their auras twined, but there were so many kinds of interest and desire, generally and between the pair particularly, in that place, that it only added energy to Torin's plans.

Standing he offered his arm, though of course, Kala would never need it again, so they could be close as they walked through the space the Lady had set aside for a workshop, or several workshops working together as one. Having set up his own multipurpose workspace only the year before, all the possibilities were still readily accessible in his mind. He asked about what all it was that she wanted to do and began to envision a place of World Magic masterworks. Between them, they would hold all of them, or at least all of them still well known to the world. There were always things lost and, as Torin was discovering more every day, always things new to find.

The idea that they might discover new things together now seemed more than a possibility, the skill they held between them, multiplied by their lifetimes, made it seem impossible that they wouldn't bring wonders. If they were good, careful, and did not let the power go to their heads, they might even do so without bringing new horrors to match.

[Kala Leukos]

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"It was tedious when I was small and wanted to follow Aquilios into battle with snow men," she admitted, "but I learned to make a contemplative and creative outlet from it. Kaus might very well want to learn when his hands grow weary from holding his swords..." But she didn't like to think of him growing older, growing weary, while she did yet abide, becoming ageless. "For you, I think, it would also help with your scrivening. The time, effort, and attention required to stitch a pictograph adds more intention and power to it."

Kala obliged him, and slipped her slender arm in his, more muscular limb. While she was sad that he felt as though he had to walk around eggshells with people, afraid to hurt them with his strength, she was glad that it made him attentive to other people, not only when she was the one benefiting from it.

Yes, she would take him as a lover at some point, and be careful that his orgasm didn't bloom with the full force of a star's birth, lest it break him. Aurin would be cross with her if she did, and Sivan too, she suspected. If nothing else, she could give him an heir if he never married, a winged child to be the valley's guardian angel.

The tinkle of porcelain and the rush of water remained in their wake as Indric hummed to himself while cleaning them, while Kala and Torin descended and made plans for a workshop where masters could create masterful things, whether it were she or one of her chosen.

fin.

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[Hekatos]

Review

Torin and Kala get 10 xp for use at your discretion.