You may call me Orthos when you require my aid on a difficult spell or shoul dyou ahve a specific need for the most part I will place lessons in the book as I feel you are ready for them. They will often be difficult to understand at first glance as deciphering them is part of the test one's mind must be quick as well as knowledgable after all.

Ozzy nodded, saying, "Sounds good. For now, though, mind if I get some more shut-eye? I'm..." he paused for a moment to let out a yawn before continuing,"...still pretty tired, LeCarde took a while to hunt down. Tomorrow's Sunday, so I'll have be out of school. Hopefully, the lessons can begin in earnest. If not, well, it'll be because I'm dealing with bad guys."

I am hear when you are ready Mage Gysbourne.

Ozzy nodded, getting back under the covers on his little cot and tucking the book under one arm, almost like a teddy bear. He then dozed off to sleep, letting his mind wander again. As he slept, he couldn't help but dream of power, of using his magic to accomplish amazing things, of crushing mages like Lecarde beneath his awesome magical prowess.

>>> From the Foster Home >>>

Mr. Gysbourne's car pulled into the driveway in front of the house, with the driver getting out and opening the door for the passengers in the back. Once they had all of their things out of the car, Mr. Gysbourne lead them into the large home. The driver, glad to finally be off the clock, went to his own car and drove off.

"Welcome home, children. This is where you'll be living from now on. Chuck, Iris, it's good to have you both. However, I do have some news for you... there is something of a reason I've adopted you both... Chuck, you're a wizard, and I am taking you on as my apprentice."

Chuck and Iris gaped as they approached the Gysbourne residence. It was a darn sight fancier than the apartment that Ozzy had lived in before; Chuck hissed a hurried question, "Did you know that Ozzy is rich?" before stiffling a yawn. He blinked owlishly at the front doors, then glanced back at the trunk as though willing his suitcase to come out.

Of course, it didn't.

Iris helped him lift it up and Chuck trudged quietly up the stairs, his suitcase clunking behind him. Iris arranged her things so that she could use the wagon - off of the floor, of course, to get up the steps, "It'll be quieter this way, Mr. Gysbourne." She promised him as she fiddled with the video-game controller guiding the cart in. For her current guardian's peace of mind, she walked alongside the wagon and let it hover close to the ground.

"I promise not to run in the halls fast enough that my wake shatters anything." She told Mr. Gysbourne in a stage whisper, "Or break any expensive decorations. Or throw loud parties. Or jump off of the roof... no, I can't promise that; there's these shoes I'm working on. But I can promise not to break the roof." She continued, trying to assure Mr. Gysbourne that he had made the right choice, albeit clumsily. Her face was open and she was obviously trying to reassure him. Apparently, 'making reassuring comments' was not something the people at the facility saw fit to teach her.

Of course, everyone knows how reassuring scientists can be, what with news stories like the killer meteor scare around the turn of the century.

"Err... just try not to break yourself, dear. The roof can be replaced. You cannot." replied Mr. Gysbourne, REALLY not sure how to take Iris's comments. He'd known she was a genius, and a para genius at that, but apparently this was a little more than he'd bargained for.

Iris nodded. She had not broken herself yet, although Dr. W had assured her that the possibility was there and warned her many times about how uncertain her physiological responses to trauma were. Dr. Mercer had told her all of that, too, although he said that he felt silly explaining such things to a child and usually just asked Dr. W to tell her.

"I promise." She assured him.

Once they were shown to their rooms, Chuck dumped his suitcase into the closet and fell asleep on the bed fully clothed. It had been a hard day. Who'd have known that getting adopted could take so much out of you? 'Course, it was the middle of the night.

Iris unpacked. She usually didn't get to sleep until later and she set the room up as quietly as possible, zipping around and checking to be sure her experiments weren't damaged. She was unpacked after a surprisingly short time and stowned the carry-all in the seaman's trunk, which she repurposed as a bench by laying a blanket over it. She set up her laptop and putzed around her homework some, talked on IM with a couple people, and finally decided that there was nothing else to do that she could do quietly. She, too, crawled into her new bed, looking around the room as though it were an alien space-ship, and stared at the ceiling for a while. After some time, her breathing slowed and she, too, slept.

After all, tomorrow would be her first day of freedom in almost a month. It was going to be another busy one.

Ozzy had woken up fairly late (for him) that day, waking up at around nine. He then went through his morning routine, showering up and getting dressed before getting some cold breakfast, as hot breakfast had been cold for a couple of hours now. He then fulfilled his promise to Orthos, sitting back down on the cot in the lab and starting to read the book, hoping to learn the secrets within.

Iris was up early, running agitatedly around her room until someone told her where to go for breakfast. There, she and Chuck had an animated discussion - involving Mr. Gysbourne if he cared to get involved - about going back to school. Iris was excited, Chuck had liked the controlled environment of the foster school program since it allowed less of a chance of bullies, but he wanted to go to school if Iris did. The conversation moved on to catching up on school work. They weren't really behind, but Chuck seemed to feel that he would have some makeup work to do. Iris assured him, "I'll help you if you have any. I'm more worried about finding titanium for that wheelchair design. I'm not going to be able to move on it until I get some titanium."

Mr. Gysbourne was certainly glad to get involved in the discussion about them going back to school, and had made a mental note about Iris' predicament, wondering where titanium might be obtained cheaply, such as an aircraft 'graveyard' or some such other place.

Later in the day, Ozzy emerged from his 'cave' grinning. He'd had his first lesson from Orthos, and it certainly seemed that the tome had a lot to teach. When he spotted Grandpa, he waved him over, saying, "Hey, Grandpa! Guess what?"

Grandpa looked sort of exasperated, asking, "What, Ozzy? Did you open the Tome?"

"Perceptive as always, Grandpa. And guess what else? It chose me. So, umm... think you can work something out with your magic shop friend?"

Grandpa sighed, nodding. "I'm sure I'll be able to work something out, given that you recovered it and all."

With that, Grandpa went to go make a phone call.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:05, Mon 19 July 2010.

Suddenly in a puff of smoke a beautiful white haired woman in black robes appears in the Gysbourne kitchen. "I have come to claim what is rightfully mine!"

Ozzy looked up from his studies-slash-mindworm conversation, surprised somewhat by the appearance of a black-robed woman.

"Uhh... do you mean this?" asked Ozzy, inicating the Tome.

"Because I believe it's my name in the 'this book belongs to' section, not yours. And if you're actually the magic shop guy, then Grandpa's in the office, trying to call you."

Still, he readied a rune-shield, just in case.

"The book!" SHe exclaimed wide eyed at the Tome. "At long last.... My ancestor penned that tome it is mine by birthright surrender it to me and no harm shall be done to you."

Now Ozzy was REALLY confused. If it was 'hers by birthright', how had it ended up in the hands of the magic shop? Or, better yet, Enigma?

 "Uh huh... and did anyone in your ancestry ever oh, I dunno, sell the tome? Because unless you're also related to Enigma, this thing has been out of the family for a while, hasn't it? Also, would you care to ask the Tome what it wants?"

With that, he looked down at the open Tome, asking, "A little help, here?"

"It was lost in my ancestors tomb found by a scholar wh othen used the tome under the name Maester He passed it on to his grandson we had an agreement that once he had defeated the Psychic known as Brain we woule decide who the true owner of the tome would be he unfortunatley died in the effort and the location of the tome was lost again until now."

The tome sprouts writing saying "She speaks the truth."

THe woman sneered "What the tome wants? TIs merely an imprint a shadow of my ancestor to make sure the secrets contained within do no tgo to the unworhty."

"Well, the Tome has accepted me as its student, and, if I'm understanding this right, you essentially have to kill me to break the contract with it. I have no intention of misusing the Tome, of that you can be sure, and I think I earned the chance to learn what it can teach me. Are you familiar with the name Darius LeCarde? He stole the tome from the person who found it after Maester's grandson died. He was a powerful demon mage who was attempting to use the Tome, along with the Pitiless, to summon his own personal demonic horde and take over the world. I stopped him, with some help from my allies, and he is now imprisoned for his crimes." replied Ozzy, hoping that maybe some sort of bargain could be struck. He didn't want this to come to blows, not with Iris and Chuck in the house.

"There are ways to sever the connection between tome and student not the least of which is to defeat the owner in a contest of magical might." She glanced around the room. "You are apparently ill prepared fo r such a contest, I shall return at a more opportune time..." ANd in a another puff of soke she was gone.

Ozzy sighed, looking somewhat nonplussed. If this chick won the contest, he'd lose the Tome! That was not an option, so Ozzy delved back into his studies. Jeff would have to settle for a mind-link conversation, it seemed.

Iris was sitting in her room, staring at a confusing maze of wires and such with a pair of wire-clippers in one hand and a solder tool in the other. She had been sitting like that, her eyes flicking along the colorful coils of insulated wire at an amazing pace, for a surprising ammount of time. Chuck, who was sitting in a desk chair with a magic eight ball, was a little bit annerved. He had never really seen Iris sit still like that for so long.

"Is Iris dead?" Chuck asked, "Hey, Iris, it says Probably not."

At that moment, Iris' com came to life. She blinked as she recieved Ozzy's message and set the tools down carefully, then hurried Chuck out of the roome while she replied.

"I'm gonna go, okay Chuck?"

"Okay."

"Do you want to come?"

"Exactly what would I train for? I mean, I can't even do a pull-up and that's normal person stuff. It's just not my thing."

"Okay. Bye, Mr. Gysbourne! I'm gonna go meet up with Ozzy, okay?" Iris hurried out. She had gotten onto her hoverboard and partially down the block before she remembered to ask where she was going.

Chuck sat down near Mr. Gysbourne, looking at the magic eight ball, "Will I have anything interesting to do today? Probably not. I think the magic eight ball is stuck." He gave it a violent shake and looked at it again, "Probably not. Sheesh." Not to be dissuaded, Chuck leaned forwards and asked the magic eight ball, "Will I ever be famous? Definately! Yeah!" It looked like he could keep this up for a while.

>>To Meg's>>
This message was last edited by the player at 05:37, Sat 24 July 2010.

Mr. Gysbourne chuckled as he stood, "Chuck, I think you'll find that that magic eight ball is not so accurate... though I do appreciate your interest in divinations. Now, I do believe it's time that we got started on your lessons. If you'll follow me, we'll begin. That's some training you could definitely use."

"Lessons?" Chuck asked incredulously, "But Iris helps me with my homework! How come Ozzy and Iris don't get lessons? It's not PE, is it? I hate PE. It's mostly 'cause Frank keeps giving me super-weggies and hanging me from the corner of the lockers in the locker room, but that's not the only reason." He followed obediently, though, since he wouldn't think of doing otherwise.

"Because, Chuck. Iris is not a wizard, and Ozzy has already been trained. You, however, are a wizard, with no training whatsoever. Ideally, you would have been started when you were around ten, but unfortunately it seems you did not have anyone to teach you. Now come along, Chuck, and take your first steps into the world of magic." replied Mr. Gysbourne, sighing softly. This would be a long, difficult road indeed.

Chuck started laughing, then stopped awkwardly when he realized that Mr. Gysbourne wasn't kidding, "Magic? You mean like real magic? Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings magic? Do we need to go shopping for ash wands and wizarding robes? Do I need to memorize incantations and stuff? Is your house magic?" He asked incredulously before grasping at some of the other comments, "So is Iris like a Muggle? Well! Can't you just teach her magic, too, like Hermione? She's a fast learner? Who trained Ozzy? Was it someone old like Dumbledore or someone slimy like Snape?" He skipped a little to keep the pace up as he followed along.

Mr. Gysbourne rolled his eyes. While he approved of the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter had made somewhat of a mockery of magic, making it seem like all it was was some fancy hand waving and funny words. The 'squibs', as they were called, were largely depicted as being incompetent rather than simply having the blood but not the Gift, and it made any family with any sort of pride in their history seem like a bunch of malicious, inbred snobs.

"Yes, Chuck, real magic. But you are a real wizard, not a 'Harry Potter' one. There will be no wand, and no robes, nor is there a Hogwarts. There will, however, be books, and incantations, and some other 'stuff'. My house is... partially magic. The hidden bit, at least. Also, we don't use the term 'Muggle'. The correct term is either 'normal', or, if you're feeling particularly haughty, 'Mortal'. However, Iris is not a normal. She is a parahuman. And, if you think of me as old like Dumbledore, and your... brother, David as slimy, then I suppose both."