milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Snow! ~~GIP!~~

. . .Dude, it's summer back in Nita's world. Snow is a good thing.

Nita's outside, idly making snowballs and ~~stock~~piling them up. Though she's got a good coat and mittens, she's hatless.

Approaching carries the risk of a snowball fight. You've been warned.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Kind of. Mostly I just use pre-established worldgates -- they're gates you can use to go anywhere, pretty much."

"Are they only for wizards, or can anyone use them?"

"Mostly just for wizards."

"Oh." He pauses, then, "Is your wizardry like Tom's, where you have it or you don't?"

She frowns. "We don't always have it, if that's what you mean. You take an Oath, promising you'll use the power for good, and it gets gifted to you."

"So... anyone can have it that takes the Oath?"

"Not quite. Some people are going to take to it more, just like any job. And you have to start kind of young -- around your age, probably. Ten or eleven."

He's looking very interested in all of this.

"So... I could?"

She considers. He looks like he's about the right age -- and if they're old enough to ask. . .

"You probably could."

"How?"

She tilts her head. "If the Oath gets offered to you, and you take it, you have to go thorugh an Ordeal. If you" -- survive -- "succeed, you'll be a wizard."

"Who offers it to you?"

"The Powers, but They contact you different ways. Like, They contacted me and my partner through these books." She hefts the manual. "But I know wizards who woke up with the Oath in their heads, waiting to be recited."

He considers this. "So how do they choose who they want?"

She shrugs and gives him a wry smile. "They choose whoever's best for the job. You can try and find common factors -- like, we all tend to love words -- but mostly, it's just. . . whoever's best."

Gavroche considers this for another moment, then nods. "Okay."

She grins. "Am I done lecturing now?"

He grins back. "I was just interested."

"Hey, it's cool. I don't get to talk about it at home much."

"Why's that?" he asks curiously.

"My world's sevarfrith -- people don't discuss magic openly there, because most people don't believe in it. People used to get killed for being suspected of being a wizard."

"...like Jeanne d'Arc?"

He used to hang around with students. Uneducated or not, he picked up some things."

She nods. "Like that, yeah."

"Oh."

"It's not like that all over, though. There are places in the Universe where you can talk about it -- like here."