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FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Adalia (

thunderproof
RECIPIENT: Errybody with a sending crystal
WHAT: What's up with your mages, guys?
WHEN: Drakonis 12
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: N/A

I have a question for the native mages among us, if you all don't mind!

❰ adalia sounds inquisitive, curious, sort of sing-songy — she's been pondering this for a while, both in general and today specifically. ❱

Would you consider magic something you are, something you have, or something you do? A combination of those? All three? Something I haven't yet considered?

❰ a sound of shifting fabric as she sits up on her bed. ❱

See, I would consider myself magic, innately. I'm a sorcerer where I'm from — we have magic in our blood. I would be considered a mage by Thedosian standards, but to me "mage" is a very broad word. Anyone who does magic could be considered a mage where I'm from, and then there are breakdowns within the broader "mage" classification — there are sorcerers, who are magic innately; wizards, who learn magic through study; warlocks, who are granted power by others — not to mention bards, and those who are given access to divine magics for worshiping their deities.

All of these different classes of mage approach magic in a different way. What is your relationship to magic? Is it part of you, or is it merely a tool? I'm curious.

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Oh, he is no more innately magical than I am, any more than you might say a man who composes music is innately musical. He, too, had to learn; in time, perhaps I would have learned enough to match him.

( she speaks as though it's a foregone conclusion that will not be the case, now. perhaps it is. )

But it is hard for me to say, in comparison; there are no separate forms of magic to be classified, to my knowledge, except insofar as one witch might prefer a slightly different technique to the next. But it is not a difference in the nature of the magic, or the witch, merely...

( a verbal shrug: ) Your handwriting is different to mine.

I would be most glad to discuss it, in any event.

Oh, that brings up another question — does your magic not work here? Mine works... differently than it should, sometimes, but it works. I'm curious as to what other rifters experience, as far as that goes.

❰ this is all so interesting, adalia could probably interview everyone who responded here for hours. different handwriting has her nodding, almost audibly as she shifts in her seat — that makes a lot of sense! ❱

Different handwriting, yes — there's an element of that in Toril as well, I don't think even any two wizards will ever cast the same, no matter that they're learning the same spells. And of course sorcerers cast in a very idiosyncratic way, being as their magic comes from within and they feel the spell more than learn it.

Fantastic! My schedule's pretty flexible, whenever you have time please let me know.

I wonder if it isn't simply the reverse entirely, that in Sulleciel all possess an innate capacity for magic that might be triggered by education, or else lay dormant and unused—rather than magic being so separate as it seems to be.

( it is acutely frustrating, that she won't ever know, and can only speculate. )

A thought, since the magic that I practise does function here, despite being so different; it is different than I'm accustomed to, at times, but nevertheless it does work. More ambitious casting without obvious equivalents are more difficult; if magic is a means by which one asserts one's will upon the world, then there are certain things that my own world allowed that this one resists.

And my office is always open, when I am free; it can be difficult to predict. But it is the diplomacy office, in the division tower.

Oh, there's an interesting thought... Honestly, half the reason I want to figure out how the rifts brought us here is so I can visit all the other rifters' worlds and learn about them. Yours sounds fascinating.

❰ screw going back home, can she just use the rifts to planehop and go to earth and sulleciel and the fade? ❱

I've experienced that too! I have a sort of... weather manipulation I can do, changing the direction of the wind, stopping rain, all in a limited radius — I can do it here, but it's... harder, like Thedas itself is resisting me. It tires me far easier than it ever did back in Toril. Do you mind telling me what magic of yours is affected...?

❰ because curious or not, adalia is familiar with the desire to keep some things close to the chest, especially here, as a mage. there are only so many people she'd trust not to use her abilities against her. ❱

Diplomacy? — oh, gods, I never got your name! I'm sorry, I just get distracted — I'm Adalia. Would you be Petrana?

I would be Madame de Cedoux, ( lightly, a gentle but firm correction; not unkind, only she's not in the habit of casual first name terms—

she has occasionally regretted ever stating her given name in public, given how many people seem to think it license to use it carelessly. she doesn't truthfully begrudge others their ease (mild despair every time she has to correct someone, aware they may well take it amiss), but it will always to her feel a little like being startled in her knickers by a stranger. )

And my world is, regrettably, far less friendly to those interested in the study of magic than Thedas.

( yes. )

Though it was such magic that allowed me to study in Thedas—one such spell that I found rather more strenuous than previously is a means of acquiring written language.

Madame de Cedoux, sorry!

❰ it's not for adalia to worry about how people want to be addressed — there are far more interesting thangs to worry about than if she's on first name basis with a total stranger, honestly. if someone like myr suddenly told her to call him messere shivana, she'd be a bit hurt, but petrana is, miraculously, not myr. ❱

...less. Less friendly to magic than Thedas.

❰ how tho ❱

Really? Interesting... There are spells like that in Toril, but I don't know them. Why would that be so much harder, I wonder...

Comparatively, ( with the wryness of someone aware of just how awful the thing is that she's about to say in its implications about both places— ) Thedas has been a wonderful experience for me. The access to magical academia, to its history here—

Certainly, we are privileged by being considered rifters first, and I do not take for granted that the freedoms presently enjoyed may yet prove transient, ( because "ceasefire" is different to "peaceful resolution", and much hinges on the next divine, ) but the opportunities aren't to be ignored.

( which is an interesting way for someone in a high level diplomatic position to be talking. petrana has strong feelings about mage freedom. )

❰ just give adalia a moment for that horror to settle in, then — ❱

When we work all this out, I'd like to take you to Toril, if you'd be willing to come. All the fun of Thedas without any of the racism or the anti-magic sentiment.

❰ a pause, and then, because to leave it there would be inaccurate — ❱

I mean, some people are still afraid of magic, but we don't have Circles and no one has ever been made Tranquil. And from the sounds of it you'd love Candlekeep.

You must tell me more about it in the meanwhile, ( feels like the most diplomatic answer, when petrana doesn't quite have the heart

(or the stomach)

to right now open the can of worms that is her doubts there's ever going to be any leaving thedas, or how exhausting the thought is of working so hard to build something here only to discard it as carelessly as the natives must fear them capable of doing—

that is a conversation that doesn't need to be had with a sweet girl alone in a strange place who wishes to talk about magic. )

My lord husband intended to make of our world a better one, and I can only hope that he shall.

( but if she never sees it,

... that's all right. )

Candlekeep? Oh, well, it's where I was raised! It's a library — the library — in Toril. We keep... gods, all the books there. I mean, I know there must be books in the world which haven't made it to Candlekeep, but there aren't many.

❰ much as adalia wishes she'd had a real family and a real home, she is still proud of where she came from. she truly loves candlekeep and what it represents — her voice is brimming with pride and fondness over the crystal. ❱

There's hundreds of tomes on magic, and history, and magical history... That's why I think you'd love it. It may not be your world's history, but you might enjoy the learning all the same.

❰ but uuuuuh say what ❱

Your husband?

❰ you sound so young the fuck ❱

Oh, certainly; Thedas is not my history, but it is the world I am in now, and I've found it utterly fascinating. For my work, obviously, it is a necessity to know—but I would have been content to do nothing but learn it, had I the option.

And; yes. Marius.

( how she's spoken about him in private and how she speaks about him in public are two very, very different things. )

He taught me magic.

Now I feel sort of bad, I am doing nothing but learn for the fun of it... Does that take the enjoyment out, having to do it?

❰ adalia's never really had to learn anything, she just follows her own whims. the idea of being constrained by a job is... distasteful. ❱

— right! Right. Good at innovation. Right.

❰ the detail was totally uninteresting up until about two seconds ago. ❱

How is he trying to make the world better...?

( by conquering it.

but petrana has years of experience in making marius's warlord tendencies more palatable— )

He doesn't believe that magic ought to be an offense punishable by death, ( though he'll certainly exploit the fact that it is ) and so when he is the man who makes such decisions, he will choose differently.

As for study—well, I think you sell yourself short to say that what you learn is of no other benefit, don't you? To better oneself is not a frivolous occupation, nor a thing happening in a vacuum.

❰ i mean, sounds fair to adalia, though there is the question of how he is going to become the man who makes such decisions. it's not really relevent at the moment, though, and also, adalia doesn't care that much. ❱

I agree completely! I was raised to always be seeking to better myself by seeking out new knowledge. I can't see myself ever being content with what I know, I always want to find more.

You're a very insightful person. I like you.

❰ congrats, petra, you are the first mom adalia has adopted. ❱

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