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Daphne is not in the relatively safe areas of her hometown or college campus, so it isn't really all that surprising when she suddenly is in a random forest instead of walking back to her car.
It's a little surprising; normally she is permitted to enter random forests of her own will. But not that much.
She starts walking, looking for whatever inane plot she will be required to participate in/thwart this time.
Eventually she sees a cottage. She makes for that--random houses in the woods are prime weird shit locales.
She knocks on the door. "Excuse me! I don't know what's going on here but I'd rather get it over with sooner rather than later so I can go home!"
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Little Bird checks her email. No response yet.
"Anyone from here can. I don't know if being a fairy would interfere somehow," Jawbreaker says.
"I know Fey Realms fairies don't, as a rule, but I don't know if it's because they can't or because they have their own magic and they're snobs," Overbite adds.
"I know Fey Realms fairies don't, as a rule, but I don't know if it's because they can't or because they have their own magic and they're snobs," Overbite adds.
imeanforever
"Maybe I could learn their magic. I'd like to have more than sorcery to fall back on."
"Thaaat seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons. Their magic is a bloodline thing--half fey can do it sometimes, but plain humans just can't, and I'm not confident you count. Also, we would have to find a fairy to teach it to you, and most of them are, again, snobs. We'd have to find a way to make it worth their while, which would be...difficult. And I can't be sure that one wouldn't be offended by the fact that your kind of fairy uses the same word as them when you're so different," Overbite says, wincing.
imeanforever
"I can just say I'm a leaflet," suggests Promise. "That's the kind I am. But if it's safer to learn the kind mortals use I'm just as happy to try that."
"Much safer. My brother will ultimately be a better teacher than Jawbreaker but if he's willing he can get you started on the basics."
"I'd be fine with that."
"I'd be fine with that."
So Jawbreaker starts teaching her!
When he said gestures and incantations with some ritual, he was perhaps being somewhat misleading. One starts with ritual, and builds connections between steps of the ritual and gestures or incantations or other things, slowly replacing them until a ritual that takes three hours to perform is replaced by a word and a wave. This is why two magicians may take different actions to get the same result--they started from the same ritual but abridged it differently.
When he said gestures and incantations with some ritual, he was perhaps being somewhat misleading. One starts with ritual, and builds connections between steps of the ritual and gestures or incantations or other things, slowly replacing them until a ritual that takes three hours to perform is replaced by a word and a wave. This is why two magicians may take different actions to get the same result--they started from the same ritual but abridged it differently.
If Promise looks to be running out of notebook Little Bird will ask to tear out the first few pages that had her own writing on them and volunteer to get her a fresh one from the campus store.
imeanforever
"That would be nice of you, thank you. ...Maybe more than one if you can."
"Sure thing."
She comes back about ten minutes later with five spiral-bound notebooks in assorted bright colors.
She comes back about ten minutes later with five spiral-bound notebooks in assorted bright colors.
"You're welcome."
If you know enough about ritual theory, you can develop new spells. Unfortunately Jawbreaker does not know enough about ritual theory and this will have to wait until Overbite's brother can teach her. But he can familiarize her with several rituals. Once she's performed the rituals and gotten them down firmly he can help her start abridging them, starting with steps that occur in a lot of different rituals.
If you know enough about ritual theory, you can develop new spells. Unfortunately Jawbreaker does not know enough about ritual theory and this will have to wait until Overbite's brother can teach her. But he can familiarize her with several rituals. Once she's performed the rituals and gotten them down firmly he can help her start abridging them, starting with steps that occur in a lot of different rituals.
imeanforever
For practical reasons, Promise would like to as much as possible abridge rituals into actions she can often perform even while under heavy orders, such as blinking, breathing, and various actions that are part of keeping her balance.
...Actions like that introduce a risk that she might do magic accidentally, but if they're careful and creative she can have something like breathing to a certain rhythm instead of speaking, and blinking in a pattern. Does she anticipate relative freedom of facial expression while under heavy orders?
If orders to smile only apply to her mouth, she can put a gesture into a peculiar eyebrow movement. Can she wiggle her ears? Can she roll her tongue? Are either of these likely to be prohibited?
imeanforever
She can't wiggle her ears. Rolling her tongue will be noticed; irregular breathing won't. She could usually tense muscles that didn't complete visible motions of their own? Clench her jaw, say.
"...Huh. I never noticed you can't roll your tongue without opening your mouth. You can clench your jaw, but if you were in the habit of doing it otherwise you'd need to break it; if a gesture means magic to you then it will do magic whenever you do it. That's one reason most magicians prefer grandiose gestures and nonsense words; you're unlikely to do those without meaning to. Your situation is different, of course, but that does mean you'll need to be more careful."
imeanforever
"Maybe the entire stealth idea is worthless anyway. If someone clever gets me I'll be under a general order that won't let me do magic regardless."
"If it looks to be more trouble than it's worth then by all means we can skip it, but it sounds like it's possible that that order might not be applied, and it might be valuable to be able to pretend you're doing your sort of magic when you're not."
imeanforever
"Maybe I should wait until I've picked a complete spell I want available under those conditions and assign shortcuts to its components then. Everything else can be a word or a gesture."
"That makes sense."
In the meanwhile: ritual! This one was selected more for ease of performance than usefulness; it will turn things different colors. It also is made up almost completely of common components that feature heavily in more useful spells.
In the meanwhile: ritual! This one was selected more for ease of performance than usefulness; it will turn things different colors. It also is made up almost completely of common components that feature heavily in more useful spells.