Botober 15: A Single Strand
Oct. 15th, 2020 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alfvaenOctober 15th: we're almost halfway through the month. Isn't that exciting? Today's Botober prompts are:
A Single Strand
Another burst of laughter came from the downstairs room; Master Selden was drinking with another group of what Dennis called, in the privacy of his own head, "coots of magic". He wondered what happened to mages between barmy old age and their youthful apprentices. He'd never seen any of them, and was beginning to wonder if they just killed their apprentices when they grew up, and maybe they'd all end up dying of old age.
Dennis had been sent upstairs to sort "space worms". Master Selden had collected them through some mysterious process that he didn't deign to tell Dennis about; he just expected Dennis to able to sort them according to his vaguely-described criteria, and then he'd punish Dennis when he inevitably did it wrong. The space worms themselves weren't slimy like regular worms; instead they were barely solid, and often his fingers would pass through them when he tried to pick them up, unless he concentrated very hard. It was this intangibility that he was supposed to use to sort them: solid worms in a bowl, less solid worms in various jars, from crystal to pottery to lead. It was intensely frustrating, and Dennis was getting a headache.
He grabbed for another worm, and failed again. But he felt something on his fingers nonetheless. He pulled his hand up and peered at it, to find a single strand of silver hair.
His pulse quickened. Master Selden had reached the age he had through extreme care. He had safeguarded his true name (which was, of course, not "Selden"), he was careful not to meet the gaze of another mage, and he also took precautions to keep his hair, blood, and other physical residue from falling into anyone's hands. He kept his hair extremely short, and burned it after shaving. And yet here was an entire strand, several centimeters in length, long enough to wrap around his finger.
His brow furrowed. Was it actually Master Selden's? He'd learned enough to be able to make sure. He took a tiny metallic object out of his pocket, a flake of steel that he'd carved into a star. He wrapped the hair around it carefully, not wanting to split the strand and weaken its power. He tiptoed to the top of the stairs, where he could just peer down at Master Selden laughing with his guests. He whispered a simple Finding, and paid close attention to the tug on the star. It did, indeed, point to Master Selden. He moved to a different position and did the Finding again, and it still pointed to Master Selden, so it wasn't someone farther away who'd just happened to line up the same.
Dennis pocketed the hair-wrapped star and returned to his sorting, barely paying attention to what he was doing. He still wasn't sure if Master Selden was planning to kill him before he became a danger, but his master had made a single mistake and made himself vulnerable. Dennis knew that a single hair wouldn't be enough for him to overpower the master yet, but it might be enough to give him a tiny advantage. He'd have to do a Preserving on it to keep it from disintegrating over time, and he'd be able to use it to siphon off the master's power, a little at a time. He hadn't quite learned that spell yet, but he knew what book it was in.
One day he would be a "coot of magic", and when he was, he'd have to be more careful than Master Selden had been.
- Things: Coots of magic
- Concepts: An object 1 cm tall that is metallic
- Advanced: Boy sorting space worms
- Terrible: A single strand of hair
A Single Strand
Another burst of laughter came from the downstairs room; Master Selden was drinking with another group of what Dennis called, in the privacy of his own head, "coots of magic". He wondered what happened to mages between barmy old age and their youthful apprentices. He'd never seen any of them, and was beginning to wonder if they just killed their apprentices when they grew up, and maybe they'd all end up dying of old age.
Dennis had been sent upstairs to sort "space worms". Master Selden had collected them through some mysterious process that he didn't deign to tell Dennis about; he just expected Dennis to able to sort them according to his vaguely-described criteria, and then he'd punish Dennis when he inevitably did it wrong. The space worms themselves weren't slimy like regular worms; instead they were barely solid, and often his fingers would pass through them when he tried to pick them up, unless he concentrated very hard. It was this intangibility that he was supposed to use to sort them: solid worms in a bowl, less solid worms in various jars, from crystal to pottery to lead. It was intensely frustrating, and Dennis was getting a headache.
He grabbed for another worm, and failed again. But he felt something on his fingers nonetheless. He pulled his hand up and peered at it, to find a single strand of silver hair.
His pulse quickened. Master Selden had reached the age he had through extreme care. He had safeguarded his true name (which was, of course, not "Selden"), he was careful not to meet the gaze of another mage, and he also took precautions to keep his hair, blood, and other physical residue from falling into anyone's hands. He kept his hair extremely short, and burned it after shaving. And yet here was an entire strand, several centimeters in length, long enough to wrap around his finger.
His brow furrowed. Was it actually Master Selden's? He'd learned enough to be able to make sure. He took a tiny metallic object out of his pocket, a flake of steel that he'd carved into a star. He wrapped the hair around it carefully, not wanting to split the strand and weaken its power. He tiptoed to the top of the stairs, where he could just peer down at Master Selden laughing with his guests. He whispered a simple Finding, and paid close attention to the tug on the star. It did, indeed, point to Master Selden. He moved to a different position and did the Finding again, and it still pointed to Master Selden, so it wasn't someone farther away who'd just happened to line up the same.
Dennis pocketed the hair-wrapped star and returned to his sorting, barely paying attention to what he was doing. He still wasn't sure if Master Selden was planning to kill him before he became a danger, but his master had made a single mistake and made himself vulnerable. Dennis knew that a single hair wouldn't be enough for him to overpower the master yet, but it might be enough to give him a tiny advantage. He'd have to do a Preserving on it to keep it from disintegrating over time, and he'd be able to use it to siphon off the master's power, a little at a time. He hadn't quite learned that spell yet, but he knew what book it was in.
One day he would be a "coot of magic", and when he was, he'd have to be more careful than Master Selden had been.
