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(no subject)

Who: Emil (

siebter ), Felix Harrowgate (

lord_wizard ), and Cain Knightlord (

derpish ).
What: Attempted curse removal! Shit's goin' down.
When: A day.
Where: Chimera HQ
Rating: Prolly no higher than PG.

It was kind of strange to think that this was actually happening, for real. He'd been waiting for years back home to find some clue that would aid in his search for a cure for his eyes. And now, within months here, he'd found someone who could help. Though it seemed almost too good to be true, Emil honestly felt about as excited as he did nervous. After all, when (if) this worked, he'd be able to see his friends, and he might finally be able to help them when they needed it, instead of always the other way around.

He didn't quite know what the room he was in looked like, but for now, any thoughts of locations and knowing where he was had been pushed out of his mind. Instead, he was thinking only of what was going to happen now, with an almost childish sort of nervous energy. "Um...this won't hurt, will it?" he couldn't help but ask; half curious about the answer (but he wouldn't mind that, not if it was necessary), and half to dispel some of the nervousness.

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Cain wasn't too sure what to expect with this magical removal of the curse, or even if he trusted it. Emil was very innocent and naive, and he was concerned about the boy getting hurt or disappointed if it didn't work.

So while he might not know much about magic, he was determined to be there for Emil. Standing at his friend's shoulder and watching carefully.

The room itself was small and very plain, with stone walls and a floor, and lights made to look like oil-burning lamps set into the walls. It wasn't exactly cheery or welcoming, and Felix had fixed this somewhat by laying a carpet in the middle of the room. On the carpet, facing each other, were two wooden chairs, one of which he led Emil to.

"It shouldn't," Felix answered with a soft smile, though he couldn't really be sure.

"Sit right here," he continued, sparing a glance at Cain before taking a seat in the chair opposite.

Emil nodded, sitting down in the chair, as instructed. He was thankful that Cain was with him; even though he was the sort who tried to be strong, he couldn't help but be somewhat afraid, so it was nice to have a familiar presence with him through all of this. "Okay," he said quietly, nodding again. "I'm ready."

He would have preferred to stand by Emil, keep his hand on the boy's shoulder as a comforting reminder that he was there because he couldn't see Cain if he went to sit on the chair.

However, he didn't know how the magic worked and didn't want to risk making it go wrong by staying too close, and so he nodded and moved to where he had been told to.

"What exactly are you doing?"

Felix's eyes, often considered strange or spooky by other, settle again on Cain. He kept having a strong feeling of déjà vu every time he looked at the man.

"First I need to determine if there is indeed magic affecting Emil, though his response to my filters may already confirm this, as well as determine the type of magic it is, if possible. The hard part will be finding it's source. It will be the magical equivalent of following a tangled string," he explained casually. Again, he wasn't sure if that was the case, but one metaphor was as good as any other.

"This part won't look like much," he said, then turned back to the boy and took his hand. It only took a moment of concentration before he felt it there, palpable feeling of power like a snake hiding under the ground. He leaned back a bit and shifted his vision. At most all Cain may be able to see is a slight pale glow in the wizard's eyes, but Felix sees much more. Noirant power, and a lot of it, though tightly compacted, as if sealed away.

He blinks and nods. "It's there all right...the question is how to get to it," he says, more to himself than Cain or Emil, his eyes still locked on the boy.

The filter issue again...he'd wondered if that was a bad thing, but maybe it was just that the curse was a magical one. It might not have been a real problem. Or so he could hope. He was thankful, all the same, that Cain had asked-- it was a bit easier to not feel so scared when all of this was being explained as it happened.

He wondered how this worked, how all of this looked to the other two men. But when Felix spoke again, he couldn't help but to feel somewhat relieved. This was a good thing, right? "So it is magic? And it can be fixed?"

Like a tangled ball of string? He observed with interest as Felix's eyes shone with an odd light, pushing glasses up his nose to watch with closer scrutiny. He might be ignorant in this field so far, but he had been designed and raised to absorb knowledge at a frighteningly fast and efficient rate.

He wondered if the theory of magic was closely related with physics at all, and made a note to ask Felix some questions later to help understand. But for now there was nothing more important than Emil, and the best thing he could do for him now was to stay quiet and allow Felix to concentrate on what he was doing.

"I'm not certain yet. Normally to follow a curse I'd look into someone's eyes, but well...that option is rather closed off to me at the moment. Can you tell me anything at all about it's origins or about magic in your world in general?"

Felix sat scrutinizing Emil, more like a puzzle than a person. It might have been a little unsettling if the boy could actually see him. His curse might actually be a blessing in that case.

Yes, it really was probably for the best that Felix didn't look into his eyes. However, he could do his best to explain this curse of his, even though he didn't know much at all. "I really don't know how I got it; as long as I can remember, I've just always been like this. There must have been some time that I could see, but I really don't remember."

He shifted a bit, as if able to feel Felix's gaze (though he had no idea about the way the man was staring at him). "And magic...I don't really know much about that, either. No one really has magic, except...I know someone who could use magic. But he had a magic book with him that let him use it." He wondered if this would be at all helpful to Felix.

This was all endlessly fascinating for how odd it was, magic and mythology and curses all coming together in a way the scientists back home would never have believed would be possible.

He truly hoped this information would be of use to Felix, so he could help Emil. The little boy deserved to have his wishes come true.

"It is possible that your lack of memory is connected in some way, though whether or not it is part of the curse or merely a side effect remains to be seen," Felix said.

There were just too many types of magic to get any good idea of what might have been used on Emil. The book might been magic in his world could be learned, but sadly, it wouldn't say what sort of magic it was.

"Very well, I'll try to see what I can do. I'm going to place my hands on your head. All you must do is hold still, even if it becomes a little uncomfortable. If you are in any real danger I will pull away," Felix explains, and places his hands lightly on Emil's temples.

Again, there is no visible effects, no obvious change, just a slight deepening of his breath and a depth to his gaze as Felix reached out and tried to find the source of the curse. Seconds stretched as he reached out into Emil with his magic. It was much as he'd described to Cain, like following a tangle, but more like following in down into a pit of tar. There was so much to it, coiled up on itself. It made him shudder a little even to see it. Magic in most wizards was an intrinsic part of their being, but this was a like a foreign body, a parasite that had taken hold in his child. It took him a few minutes to locate the center. He couldn't be sure how it would react, but if the curse was to go, this was where he would have to do it. He prods at it, testing, seeking the strand that would help him unravel it all.

Emil wondered, vaguely, if this curse was able to be undone, if perhaps he would finally be able to remember what had happened before he had it. If he could finally remember his life before this.

He nodded when Felix told him what he should do, and sat very still, only breathing. He was more nervous now, but pouring his concentration into not moving helped him to forget that, leave it behind for the time being. His eyes remained closed behind the bandages, and he waited.

For a while there was nothing, and then-- pain. It hurt, something he hadn't been expecting, it wasn't supposed to hurt. The pain was short-lived, but it was sharp enough that it caused him to gasp, slightly. He stayed still, but stiffly now, nervous.

Cain felt a little like a fish out of water as he watched the proceedings, a rather uncomfortable and alien sensation for a man who was used to understanding and being in command of any situation he entered. But his outward visage was calm and composed, simply watching in silence.

However, when Emil let out a gasp of pain, Cain took a compulsive step forwards and out of the chair, eyes sharp on Felix behind his glasses.

"You're hurting him."

Felix pulled away with a quickly suppressed flinch the moment he heard Emil gasp, though Cain might have seen it in his eyes. That reaction had told him what he'd needed to know, though it didn't mean it would be easy to say to the boy.

"It shouldn't have. I'm sorry..." Felix said, pausing to collect himself. Part of him, the part that spoke in Malkar's voice, would always expect punishment for failure.

"I can't remove the curse. At least, not with the information I have. The magic is buried so deep. It's like...a splinter...but it's become almost a part of who you are. The only way I could remove it would be through brute magical force. It's crude, but effective, without knowing what sort of theory shaped the curse in the first place. However, doing that would, in all likelihood, kill you," he explained to Emil, though he glanced from time to time at the other man in the room.

"There is one more thing I could do..." Felix offered hesitantly. There was a chance, a small chance, that unlocking Emil's memories would give him enough information to try again someday.

He'd had an inkling before Felix said it, but all the same, when he said he couldn't remove this curse...Emil still couldn't help but feel disappointed. The man truly did sound repentant, though, and it wasn't as though Emil blamed him for being unable to change things. "It's okay." He was thankful to Cain for having spoken up, though, even if it did feel as though Felix knew before anything was said. "Um, but if there is something else, you can try it."

He was disappointed for Emil that his hopes had come to nothing, but he was trusting Felix the more time went on. He had stopped when asked to, and wasn't condoning anything dangerous.

"What is it?"

He doesn't want Emil to jump in without thinking it through, just for the hope of his curse being removed.

"It's a meditation technique...not even properly magic at all. Mostly it is a way to organize and give form to your thoughts, and through which you can control the way your mind accesses dreams. My purpose with Emil would be to help him open up the dreams of his past to help give us more information. It would not be an immediate fix, nor a guarantee, but there is no harm in learning it," Felix explained.

Of course, he'd been sworn to secrecy in various blood-curdling ways to never talk about it, but that had been in the Mirador, and the man who had helped him was dead, and most of all, this was just a boy who needed help.

That's right, there was the possibility that this curse and its meaning was somehow related to the memories that he was missing. Even if it didn't entirely fix this problem, maybe it could still help him understand. (Even that was something, maybe.) "That's fine, right...?" It was a question somewhat posed to both Cain and Felix. He may have just been far too excited about a possible cure, and didn't want to worry Cain too much or trouble Felix with all of this.

"I don't see a harm in that."

It sounded like a type of hypnotherapy, which wasn't dangerous in itself. If it could help unlock the secrets to curing the curse, then there was no harm in trying it.

Felix nodded, straightening his posture that had unconsciously slumped, guarding himself against rejection or persecution.

"Emil," he said, keeping his voice calm, clear and gently commanding, "I need you relax and concentrate and do everything that I say. Clear your mind of worry. Try imagining a single object, like a golden egg, until you feel your mind focus. Tell me when you've done that."

He knew, with Cain in the room, that he was rushing this process somewhat. This was a tool for wizards, who normally had years of experience in intense concentration and training of the mind. Emil was just a boy who happened to have magic trapped in him. Felix was certain that the latent magic would be enough to power the symbolism he was going to help Emil build to map his dreams.

He nodded, though it took him some time to push the new nervousness from his mind; he didn't exactly want a repeat of the last attempt at fixing this problem, and even though this was even less likely to hurt, the thought still remained in his mind.

However, he eventually managed to stop thinking of things like that, and once he had finally figured out something to imagine-- and focused on it-- he nodded again. "I'm ready."

"Good. Now I want you to picture a place," the wizards told him. He falters slightly at this, not knowing if Emil could actually remember being able to see before. He figures that if the boy can get around, he has at least some idea of architectural layouts, though perhaps not the details.

"It can be anywhere but it will have more power if it is a place familiar to you. A house. A city. Anything. The castle lobby would do nicely if nothing else comes to you. Don't focus too hard on the details. You're building a map in your mind. Just imagine the structure, the bare outline, and the details will come in time," Felix said.

That much came a bit easier to him; he remembered the layouts of the rooms of his manor with relative ease, and so it was not entirely difficult to construct the memory of that; the room was mostly empty, anyway, just a few benches, most of all, the piano in the center of the room; it was simple to recall.

"Okay," he said, a bit more confidently now, "what should I do next?"

"You need gateways," Felix explained, leaning back in his chair a little, "Doors will do nicely, though they can be gates or arches or anything like that. Whatever makes sense in what you've imagined, there just must be at least six of them. If you can incorporate these into the portals that are already in that location, all the better."

Unfortunately, the room he'd envisioned only had one door, but trying to "imagine" more of them shouldn't have been an all-too-difficult task. It took him a bit longer than it perhaps should have, but once he'd finished (two each on either of the long walls, one each at the other ends of the room), he nodded again. "I did it."

The rest was a little harder to explain, especially without being able to see what Emil was seeing. He could pull others into his construct, but Emil's was not going to be fully formed enough to do the opposite.

"Very good, Emil. Now, picture yourself standing in the center of this place. Tell me where you are," Felix demanded gently.

It seemed to be a simple enough question. "I'm in my room at my manor...it's a long room, but it's kind of thin. Um, there's a piano in it, and some benches on the longer walls..."

He wasn't exactly all that good with explaining spaces like this, partly because he wasn't exactly sure what Felix wanted to hear, but also because he didn't know a whole lot about what the room looked like, either.

Felix nodded, picturing this for himself. The details didn't matter much, it was the layout he was after, to better guide how Emil would designate his gates.

"That's fine. Do you know where north is? If you don't, just pick a direction to be north, and face it. It may work best if it's on one of the smaller walls. But again, this is your construct, not mine," he told Emil.

In that case, north would be the wall one would face upon entering the room from the actual door; the back of the room. "Okay, I have it."

"Excellent. Now listen carefully. Each of your doors is a gateway. A passage which channels a particular type of dreaming. To open or close a certain door denies and grants access, which either decreases or increases the chance you will have such a dream when you sleep," Felix explained, taking a deep breath before he launched into the rest of it.

"Now, follow along with me. North controls dreams of the future. You are already facing that door. Turn clockwise, to the right. The next door you encounter controls true dreams. Turn again, and the next door is for dreams of revelation. The next door...is your dreams of the past. Don't linger there yet...complete the map. Turn again, the next door. This is the gate of nightmares. Turn again, to the last door, and this is your gate to dreams that answer questions. Keep facing that door. Do you understand?"

He nodded; in his visualization, he was almost entirely facing the piano, though turned away slightly. "What should I do with the door?"

"Try and open it," he said, simply. There was a chance Emil would need more practice with the construct before he could interact with it.

He took a few steps closer to it in his mind, ready to reach for the handle to the door, and...all he touched was the wall. To this, all he could really come up with was, "...I think the door moved. Or something."

"Your construct isn't stable enough to manipulate yet. That's all right. It just means you'll need to practice. You can let go of the image now..." Felix said. He'd almost said 'open your eyes', but well...

"You have the structure now. Just work on picturing your room every day, preferably right before you go to sleep. Once you have enough control, you can open the doors. That door and your door to the past are the ones you will want to try and open. Leave the others. In time, as the construct gets stronger, it may change on it's own. The doors in particular may take up traits according to the dreams you assigned them. Don't be alarmed by that. It's subconscious. And above all remember that whatever you see cannot harm you unless you let it."

In a way, all of this sounded kind of scary, but maybe this would be just what was needed. Even though it hadn't worked right away, it had a better chance than simply removing this curse. "Thank you," he said, really meaning it. "I'll try my best."

"I don't think there is much to thank me for, but you're welcome. Let me know if you need help remembering how the door are ordered, but hopefully you will only need to recall those two," Felix said, feeling a little uncomfortable, as always, with praise. He fidgeted slightly with the cuffs of his jacket and glanced back at Cain, wondering what the other man thought of all this.

"I think I'll be fine now...thanks again." He stood from the chair, though hesitated, in case either Felix or Cain had anything else to say for now.

Cain had watched this process with a keen fascination that seemed almost inhuman, bright blue eyes taking everything in and storing it in his memory to go over later and analyse.

It was odd, nothing like he had come across before, and yet echoing with remnants of hypnosis.

"Thank you, Mr. Harrowgate."

Felix rose from his chair as well, waving away the platitude.

"Please, it was really nothing, and feel free to call me Felix," he said pausing as the feeling of familiarity grew the longer he looked at Cain.

"I'm sorry, but I have this feeling we have met before, but..."

Though his mind was half on the process that had just occurred and half floating around elsewhere as he prepared to leave with Cain, any distractions fled when Felix said that. So they didn't know each other, but...maybe they did? That was kind of weird. But maybe it was something like his own memories.

Cain smiled, a bright derpy grin that made him look a different man from the one that had been watching the proceedings so intently.

"Maybe you know my identical twin, Abel? He's resident here as well."

Felix raised his eyebrow at that, but at least that reaction served to strengthen the similarity.

"Yes, we've met a few times," he said, smiling back, "I had no idea. How lucky for you to have a twin here."

He was a little confused how anyone could have met Abel and not noticed the similarity before, considering how identical they were, and it saddened him a little to know the priest could look so different now.

"I don't know what I'd do without him."

"I have thought much the same in regards to my own brother," Felix said with a slightly sad smile.

He and Mildmay looked very much alike, though they weren't twins, but in nearly every other way they were entirely different.

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is there a posting order?

there is now? idk

we're doing this!!

yus

Re: yus

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you two feel free to go on wthout me for a bit as cain will just be watching

I'm sorry it's not very exciting >.<

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