vivala | first invocation

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first invocation

Priest's Progress [Vault]

In a corner of one of the Vault's training rooms, Rezo is standing very still, holding a shakujo-style staff in front of him. At the same time he can be heard chanting in a foreign tongue, and as he chants, air begins to swirl around the tip of his staff, rattling the metal chimes together. The currents grow faster and stronger, whipping his hair and the ends of his coat around dramatically, and then-

"{Diem Wing.}"

-Rezo stomps the end of his staff against the ground and the wind whooshes outward in a circle away from him, knocking over several targets in the process. The closer they are, the more likely it is they've been sent flying.

Of course, any coolness is then undermined by Rezo having to shuffle around and right the targets up again...

Dewey Decimal-less [Vault]

It's been long enough since he was rescued that Rezo has gotten more comfortable with reading Imperial, such that he's started to read more for specific subjects than he is for the sake of reading practice.

That said, he's still learning to navigate the Vault library and his reading isn't exactly fluent yet. After another shelf proves to be of no use to him, Rezo exhales; then perks up when he hears someone approaching.

"Excuse me. I'm trying to find books on a particular subject...?" Hopefully you're someone who normally helps out at the Vault library. Or that you're a generally helpful sort.

Spirit Surgery [Locked to Ziel]

Rezo's fairly sure that Ziel doesn't believe that Rezo can help him. Or maybe it's Rezo who has his own doubts. Still, Rezo does have a little background in soul research- in manipulating astral bodies beyond just exploding them- so he seems to be the best shot Ziel has at treating such an unusual injury.

Settling on a time to meet in between the preparations for the Corsairs' latest mission was simple enough even if nothing else is likely to be, and when the time comes by Rezo is sitting quietly in his room awaiting a knock at the door. When he hears it, he answers it promptly.

"Ah, Ziel? Please, take a seat."

Rezo flips on the overhead light and stands aside so Ziel can enter. The Vault dormitories aren't exactly the most reputable of spaces for a doctor's office, but Rezo's doing his best with the space he has. His room is neat and tidy, with most personal effects tucked away, and he's found a spare chair and a set of medical tools that he's set on a side table.

As soon as Ziel's inside and the door is shut, Rezo asks "How have you been feeling?"

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Leading the way, Donnie tries to remember what Angelika had told him.

"Not exactly. But she said she was raised in a church orphanage so she knows a lot of religious stuff." He's not quite sure where the Inquisitor experience came in there, but he figures that's something Angelika can share herself if she's so inclined.

"Here we are."

Rezo smiles faintly. "Ah. One does pick up quite a few things under those circumstances." It's sort of how he got started himself! But that's an old, old story. He just hopes that the church of the Divine is gentler with its orphaned wards than it is with suspected heretics.

"These ones, correct?" Once they're at the shelf Donnie found, Rezo silently casts his reading spell and picks up a book, running his fingers over the spine and cover. Wherever there's ink the surface raises under Rezo's touch, allowing him to feel out the shapes of the letters. He carefully reads out "Berengar's Credo."

Donnie nods before replying verbally. Rezo acts so naturally about things that it's easy to forget. Which does bring up the question the turtle had in mind, although it's somewhat answered as he watches the man do...something? He tilts his head, peering at the book.

"How are you..." he starts to ask.

"...Reading?" Rezo guesses. He obligingly moves closer to Donnie, so that Donnie can get a better look at what he's doing.

"It's a water elemental spell, more or less. It makes the ink and the paper rise against my touch so that I can feel out the shapes of the letters. Or the illustrations, although those usually aren't as useful to me."

They have to be really simple for one thing, and while a sighted person can mentally translate a flat image to a three dimensional shape without much difficulty, for Rezo it's much more abstract.

"It has its limitations, but it makes most books and scrolls readable."

With that unspoken invitation, Donnie leans in to have a better look at the page, squatting slightly so he can get a good side-view and really see how the text has gained that embossed effect.

"Whoa... I didn't know magic could be used for things like that," he marvels. Can he touch it? Does it only react to Rezo's hand? Of course he wants to test this out, an inquisitive finger sliding towards the page like a cat reaching a paw out for a forgotten morsel on the table.

Rezo's hearing and tactile senses give him a general idea of what Donnie is doing, from the sound of him shuffling into place and the slight weight of Donnie's finger against the page.

"The spell only responds to the caster, I'm afraid," Rezo says. "And I have to keep my fingers close to the page. If you watch closely..."

Rezo presses his fingers against a random word in the middle of the page, causing the ink to press up against his touch in return. Gradually, he raises his fingers away from the page. When they're barely more than half a centimeter above the paper, the letters flatten out once again.

"Some of my earliest versions of this spell were more responsive, but I found it was easy to accidentally damage the paper that way."

There's a pout at that, even if Donnie half expects that answer. He pulls his hand back but otherwise remains close enough to see while Rezo moves his fingers and then pulls them away. It seems like such a simple thing, but it's still neat to watch, a quiet 'ooh' escaping the turtlekin as he does so.

"So even magic takes some fine tuning?" he muses, stepping back to give the man his space again.

"Of course. Few things come out perfect the first time," Rezo says, smiling. "Even the most powerful and knowledgeable sorcerers aren't gods."

He shuts the book, thinking for a moment before admitting "Though even gods aren't immune to failure." At least, not the ones from his world. But perhaps the Estherian gods are less fallible?

Somehow, Rezo doubts it.

"Hm. I guess that's true," Donnie concedes. "I haven't really had much experience with magic users, but I guess everyone has to start off somewhere."

That's a curious thing to say. "Why do you want to study them?" he asks, glancing at the other books on the shelf. Rezo had said that the Church of the Divine had interested him, so surely there must be good reason he'd decided to look into such a specific thing as a religion of a world not his own. Mere curiosity?

Rezo hums. He actually hasn't considered his own motivations much in this area. "Hmm... Simple curiosity?"

He reaches out to trace his fingers along the spines of the books on the shelves and thinks a moment more before adding, "Actually, I used to be a priest in my old world. So I suppose you could say the topic of faith is of personal interest to me. Not that I have any interest in conversion in either direction, but it's interesting to compare the differences."

Curiosity would have sufficed as an answer, but as Rezo expounds, Donnie nods thoughtfully.

"And maybe even find similarities?" Finding familiar things is comforting in its own way when you were so far away from home. "...what does a priest do?" He has zero experience with priests, and from what he's learned about Rezo, the man doesn't seem all that different from other people, although his command of magic is intriguing.

"Perhaps." Esthere is very foreign to Rezo, after all, operating on a different set of rules than his old world. Here, nobody had even heard of mazoku.

"A priest's exact duties depend on the priest and the community he serves. I was a traveling priest, so I would go from town to town helping those who were sick, or afflicted by evil. I would also officiate rituals such as weddings or funerals if needed, and deliver sermons or lead worship services," Rezo explains. "The role of a priest is to be part teacher, part mediator, part healer, and part bureaucrat."

He thinks a little more and adds "And sometimes, musician."

Those were a lot of hats all rolled into one. "Sure sounds like a busy job," Donnie says, smiling a bit. He likes keeping busy too, so it's not like he sees that as a negative thing.

"Musician? What do you play?" he asks.

Rezo smiles. "Busy, but it's usually fulfilling. A good priest is of help to the people around him."

The question, on the other hand, gives him some pause. "I..." Rezo hesitates, wondering how to explain. "It's... I'm unsure if it exists in Esthere or what word they would use for it, but my world refers to it as a {harp}. It's a stringed instrument shaped like a triangle." As he explains, he absently mimes plucking at invisible harp strings with his free hand.

"I've experimented with a few other instruments, mostly other stringed ones, but the {harp} is what I was trained on and what I'm most comfortable with. Besides that, I've also had vocal training. Although it's been quite a while since I've been called upon to play or sing."

"Busy is good, especially if it helps people. More so if you enjoy it." Donnie just liked to feel useful.

"Hmm... Well, to be honest, most of the music I'm familiar with is the painful and undoubtedly drunken noise that the Corsairs like to belt out at the Flotsam taverns after a successful mission, so I can't really call myself an expert in anything music-related. I think I've seen someone play something with strings though, but it wasn't triangle-shaped. Kinda...round with a long neck?"

Rezo chuckles at the mention of the drunkards at the Flotsam taverns. Certainly they're not the best example of music, but he has rather an appreciation for them now. When he'd been rescued from the Imperial work camp, the noise of the taverns had been the first music he'd heard in several years.

"That sounds like a {lute,} or perhaps a {guitar.} The next time I visit Flotsam I should ask what they're playing."

Thoughts of guitars remind him of Zelgadis, and for a moment Rezo's smile turns distant. He wonders if his grandson still plays sometimes, back in their world.

"Maybe they'll even know what that other instrument is that you were talking about," Donnie suggests. The life of a Corsair isn't all missions and fighting after all. Having a hobby definitely doesn't hurt .

Idly he wonders if he could maybe build an instrument, but he hasn't the slightest idea of where one would start with that, and it'd probably depend on the type of instrument to boot. He strokes his chin thoughtfully, blinking then at Rezo.

"Everything okay?"

Rezo's faintly surprised by the query, and wonders what Donnie saw in his face before he formulates a response. "...Oh yes. My apologies, I was lost in thought. It's been a very long time since I last played any music, you see."

Certainly, it would have been before he arrived in Esthere, before several years lost to the Hellmaster's Jar or devoted to the pursuit of the Philospher's Stone.

"If I do find a {harp} or something similar, I would be terribly out of practice," he says, smiling. "Though perhaps the good people of the Flotsam taverns wouldn't notice."

It had been just the subtlest shift. Donnie's no expert on emotions and feelings, that's his little brother's territory, but when he's paying attention, he can at least notice some differences, even if he has no idea what they may mean. Machines are so much easier to decipher.

"Ah," the turtlekin says once Rezo replies, nodding a little and accepting the answer for what it is. It makes plenty of sense to him, anyway.

His smile is lopsided on the following note, prompting a laugh. "Probably not, which I guess would be good and bad since it wouldn't be the best gauge to know if you were improving. Well, I'll keep an eye and ear out for anything, if you'd still be interested. Anyway, should I leave you to the books or is there anything else you wanted to look for?"

It's a relief that Donnie accepts his explanation, because Rezo is unsure how he would ever explain what he was actually thinking about. Hopefully, he'll never have to.

"I think that's everything, but thank you," Rezo says warmly. "You've been very helpful."

The turtlekin's smile brightens. Sure, it isn't fixing machines or something, but being helpful's always good, right?

"You're welcome. And anytime." He's still learning his way around words and the library itself, but that hardly stops him from offering.

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