In reply to Tristan (msg # 71):

We already did Animal.  That and Muto were when you were turned into a dolphin.

Coscrach laughs.  You seem to have genuinely amused him.

"The woman is Aine Dubh.  Which means 'Black Annie'.  The man who said nothing is Ruadri.  Those two men who came late are Styrbjorn and Palantus.  They are all my sodales or fellow magi.  Annie and Ruadri are like myself from House Merintia.  Styrbjorn belongs to House Verditius.  He...makes magical things.  Palantus is from House Bonisagus.  There's one more who belongs here.  Faisgia.  But he's away right now."

Coscrach looks serious a moment.  "Listen to me.  You should be careful around all of them.  Particularly Palantus and Ruadri.  If something happens and I'm not here, go to Annie or Styrbjorn.  Annie might be...gruff.  But her yes means yes and her no means no.

"As for me being king...not so much.  It's difficult to explain right now.  But this place is a covenant.  A gathering of magi from the Order of Hermes.  We combine our resources so we may do what we most want:  study magic.  And in the case of House Merinta, the mysteries of the Other Lands.

"You have been to the Other Lands Tristan.  Twice now.  Can you name the times you went?"

The boy’s brow furrows.  “That time I crawled in the bag, I think.  Not sure about the other time.  Master, are you more powerful than the other wizards?  Could you beat them all at the same time?”

His brain feels like its fighting unsuccessfully to pin itself as he struggles to understand how Black Annie could be someone worth trusting.  If SHE was the one he should turn to and obey while Uncle Master was gone, how deplorable must the other magi be?

In reply to Tristan (msg # 73):

Coscrach chuckles.  "First of all let's have a seat.

"When you talk about "power" you need to define what exactly you mean.  Your older brothers are taller and stronger than your mother, yes?  But if she tells them to do something, won't they end up doing it?

"Magi tend to have things they focus on.  Projects and areas they want to explore further.  I like to fight.  My magic focuses on fighting.  And I probably have the most experience at it out of all of my sodales here at Cliffheart.  But I would not pick a fight with Faisgia.  Annie specializes in magic dealing with plants.  If I had to challenge her in that sphere, I'd probably lose.

"Power comes in different shapes and sizes.  And what is powerful in one house is not as strong in another.

"But leave that aside.  When I turned you into a fish, you met a friend under the water, didn't you?  That was the second time you have been with the fae.  That thing you met was a fae who takes the form of what is called an octopus.  What did he want you to do while you were visiting him?"

“He wanted me to play games with him.  I was supposed to wager a year of my life on some stupid bet, but I wouldn’t.  I don’t really think he was a friend.  But I liked going underwater.”

His young brain struggles to process want Master Cosrach had told him about different types of power.  Could he beat them all up with magic or couldn’t he?  Maybe he just didn’t want to brag.

"Did something similar happen to you inside the bag?  Did someone ask you to trade something for something?"

Coscrach wrinkles his eyebrows.  "And did you?"

Tristan thinks really hard.  “Can’t remember, master.  Sorry.”  Then something occurs to him.  “Is there a way you can help me remember?”

In reply to Tristan (msg # 77):

Coscrach regards you for a moment and then nods.  "Maybe.  But let's discuss that tomorrow.  For today, you've gone through enough.  Starting in the morning, you'll have chores.  And you'll start your lessons.  You will need to learn to read and write and counting.

"First things first, do you sleep on your left side, your right side, or on your back?"

‘Usually my left.  Sometimes on my back.  Once in a long while, my right.  Unless I sleep different when I’m… you know, asleep.”

Reading!  He’d thought only fancy people did that.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:24, Tue 21 Mar 2023.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 79):

"Well.  We'll have to make sure you never...ever...sleep on your left side here.  Hmm.  For now, let's have you sleep on a ledge.  So if you turn over on your left, you'll fall off."

I'll let you react to that as you wish.

Your "bed" turns out to be just what Coscrach said:  a ledge up in the loft.  There's a cot over on the other side of the loft, but Uncle/Master forbids you to use it.

"It might be uncomfortable.  But sleep on the ledge.  Once you've trained yourself to sleep on your right side you can use the cot."

“Ummm… master, is this really necessary?  If I fall off, it’ll really hurt.” He stares with nervous apprehension at the ledge.  “Can I ask why it’s so important?”

In reply to Tristan (msg # 81):

Coscrach barks a laugh.  "Because I said it is?

"No.  I'll give you a reason.  It's something you need to learn down into your bones anyway.

"We talked about the Fae before.  Those beings we exist alongside.  The ones who want to trick you or take things from you or just have a good time at your expense.

"One of the things about the Fae is they have rules.  The rules can vary depending on where you go or who you're dealing with.  But learning any given Fae's rules...well.  Their story really...is half the fight with them.

"There are Fae on this island.  And they can be tough to keep out.  One of them that is almost impossible for us to keep out is one who looks for people who sleep on their left side.

"Would you like to have another experience like when you were in that bag?  Then learn not to sleep on your left side."

Tristan's forehead furrows like a much older person's.  This all sounds very strange to him.  But he makes no more inquiries and hops onto the ledge, ready to try to sleep.  That might not be so easy to do on the first night he tries this, but he takes the challenge seriously.

At any rate, this is far from the worst indignity he's ever been subjected to.  So far, he's getting the feeling life may be much better here than it ever would have been down on the farm.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 83):

Go ahead and make a stress test Athletics/Dex or Athletics/Sta (your choice) for me please.  You will continute to make one with each new post until you roll a 7+.  As soon as you get a 7+ on the roll, you've trained yourself not to sleep on the left hand side.  Botch though...

Moving on

You wake up the next morning to someone kicking you gently in the side.  Coscrach is grinning like a wolf.

"Up boy!  You've had the soft of it.  Now you get the rough."

You have chores again.  Every morning before the second cock's crow, an old woman named Naddy will arrive.  She'll have two buckets: one has some oat cakes in it, the other has some cheese and a small pot of curds.  You have to tell her if the pantry is empty of lard, eggs, or beer.  Naddy can't come into the house.  You have to take everything from her, lay out breakfast, and then sweep.  Coscrach wants the floor in the main room kept clean.

You then have training.  First is with Collin.  He hands you a large club and makes you run circles around Coscrach's hut while holding it over your head.  Then he makes you swing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.  You may end up puking before it's done.

After that, you're allowed a short space for breakfast.  Coscrach is reclinging at the table, sipping a mug of beer and noshing on oatcakes.  The best looking ones too.  You get a decent sized hunk of cheese though.  Much larger then you ever got at home.

Coscrach asks if you've never swept a floor before.  He makes you do it again.  And then a third time.

"No.  Grab the broom.  Tightly.  Look down at the floor.  Picture the broom sweeping all the little bits of dust and dirt into a pile.  Take slow passes at it.  I mean slllllooooooow passes with the broom.  I'll tell you when to stop."

He then goes back to reading whatever that thing he's reading is.

12:09, Today: Tristan rolled 9 using 1d10.  Athletics/sta test.

Tristan lays out breakfast as neatly as he can, although the little chauvinist in him suspects this is a duty better suited for women.  He swings Colin’s club until he nearly passes out and his shoulders feel like they’re stuffed full of hot coals.  Then he sweeps slowly, oh so slowly, scrutinizing the floor obsessively, on guard against dirt particles with an attitude.
All the while wondering, what is any of this for?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Sun 26 Mar 2023.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 85):

Coscrach makes you do that for a long, long time.  You are sure there can't be any dirt left.  If this keeps going, there might not be any floor left!

"Do you think you've gotten all the dirt?" Coscrach looks up.  "If you think you do, why do you think that?"

“Because I don’t see any more,” he replies simply.  “If I saw more, I’d sweep it.”. Then he gets a great idea.  “Master, can you teach me a spell to do this?”

In reply to Tristan (msg # 87):

"One day you'll be able to make that spell yourself.  Though it'll be a waste of your time."

He shakes his head.  "Anyway.  Back to the point.  So you can't be sure you moved the dirt because you can't see it.  Alright.  Let's switch tasks then."

He stands and gestures for you to follow him.

He leads you outside and around to the back of the hut.  There is a circle made of small stones about as wide around as the hut.

"I want you to pick up every one of those little stones that make up the circle.  And I want you to stack them over there...in that barrel.  And I want you to pick up one stone at a time.  And think about what it feels like to pick it up and move it and to put it down in the barrel.

"You have until the sun reaches that spot in the sky.  If you aren't done by then you don't get supper."

Tristan takes note of where his master is pointing and then promptly gets to work.  Although he tries to get a good sense of what he is doing, he wastes no time in getting those stones moved into the barrel.  Missing supper was not on his agenda for this morning!

Every now and then he glances at the sun, fearful that its motion is speeding up while he’s distracted.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:30, Fri 31 Mar 2023.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 89):

"Pay less attention to the sun, and more to the act of moving the stones.  Feel them.  They are only moving because of what?  What is causing them to move?"

“I am,” he replies.  But even as he says the words, he isn’t sure the answer is correct.  He does, however, stop glancing at the sun.  He focuses more deeply on the stones themselves.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 91):

"That is correct.  You are moving them.  You were the one doing the sweeping.  So if there was any dirt still left on the floor, that wouldn've been your fault.  Not the broom.  Not the bin's.  Yours.

"Now then,"  Coscrach chuckles.  "What do you think this relates to?  Why am I making you think about something so obvious?"

“I don’t know, master.  But I disagree.  There are limits to what I can do.  If I can’t see the dirt, it’s not my fault if I can’t clean it.”

Even as he says the words, he curses himself for a fool.  How can this result in anything other than a mountain of wrath falling on him?  But something tells him to be honest.

Never worked back on the farm, but…
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Tue 04 Apr 2023.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 93):

And you hear a groan of exasperation.

"Tristan.  You really aren't so stupid, are you?

"Okay.  Forget the sweeping.  What about the rocks?  Who moved them all?  And how would the rocks have been moved if that person hadn't moved them all?"

“I moved them.  If I hadn’t, maybe somebody else would have come along and done so, some day.  Or maybe the wind and rain or whatever would have moved them somewhere.”

He keeps working while he talks, wondering just what his master was getting at.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 95):

"Okay.  But they didn't move on their own, right?  And they moved because you moved them.  You were the thing that made them go from here to there.

"What I'm trying to teach you right now is called Rego.  It means I control.  "Techniques" means a way in which something is done.

"Do you think you controlled the rocks?  When you were moving them?"