(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

From here.

The room is comfortingly neutral, warmly lit but without overt decoration. A couple of padded benches and a small bathroom, should they need it.

"Will this suit our need?" Sinric asks softly.

Comments

[manofbusiness]

"They can only hurt them if you tell them what you see, until they come to pass." He sees the failure on Sinric's face. "Again. Make each layer strong before you move to the next."

[thewidewideworld]

"This isn't working." He snaps, instantly contrite.

"Forgive me. That was rude. But may I try another way? I think... I have an idea."

[manofbusiness]

"By all means. You know your own mind better than I."

[thewidewideworld]

He slips off the bench and kneels on the floor, his eyes closes and his fingers spread wide, lightly touching the floor.

Instead of visualising a wall, he sings, a soft tune, wordless and flowing. He sings a mosaic into being, one tiny gilded tile at a time. He sings patterns into the tiles, abstract representations of his path, just as he did with the cards.

[manofbusiness]

Childermass can't read his mind, but he can see the tension begin to leave him. He watches, not interrupting.

[thewidewideworld]

The song becomes more complex, more confident as the wall takes shape. There's a shimmer in the air, tiny flashes of gold surrounding Sinric.

[manofbusiness]

He smiles a little.

"Tie it in with the magic you already had. Good."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric brings the song closer, his voice rising to a crescendo, the gold shimmering growing brighter and brighter.

At the very apex of the last note, the web of gold sinks into his, his skin shining with it for a moment before its gone.

He falls to the floor, laughing in bewildered exhaustion. "I didn't that would work."

[manofbusiness]

"Anything is worth trying. If it had not, you would have found something else... and now you will know how to reinforce it, should it begin to fail in the future."

[thewidewideworld]

"It's not strong enough yet. I know I will need to rebuild it over and over. But I can feel the shape of it now. And if I do it at dawn, when I'm most at peace-"

[manofbusiness]

"Then it will work better", Childermass agrees. "A state of calm, or close to it, must always be achieved first."

[thewidewideworld]

He nods, pulling the shimmering of gold a little tighter around himself, seeing it clearly in his minds eye now.

"This is how you protect yourself when the magic becomes too overwhelming?"

[manofbusiness]

"Yes", he says simply. "I learned it young, of a necessity."

[thewidewideworld]

"How old were you, when it first came on you?" He could find out without asking but he doesn't want to do that, doesn't want to take from another history without their consent.

[manofbusiness]

Childermass appreciates that. He's a man with many secrets, at least in his own world.

"Certainly by the time I could speak in sentences. My mother taught me to watch my words, lest they become - not mine."

[thewidewideworld]

"She knew of your magics? Was she born to it also?"

[manofbusiness]

"If she had gifts of her own", he says with a half-shrug, "she never let me see them. But she was not afraid of mine."

[thewidewideworld]

He can almost feel the branch there, the thread of how the world might have been had Childremass' mother not been wise and unafraid.

But he pulls the next of gold tighter and pushes the thought away.

"I am glad for you. If this had come to me as a child, I fear what might have become of me."

[manofbusiness]

"You would very likely have let it slip you knew things you had no right to", he agrees. "As very small children will."

[thewidewideworld]

"Something my master might have cultivated to his advantage, but could just as easily have destroyed me for. To protect himself and his court."

[manofbusiness]

"Which do you think he would have chosen, knowing the man he was?"

[thewidewideworld]

"It depends how early such things showed. And how badly. He was a good man who loves and cares for me. But whispers of witchcraft could have threatened all he built. He would have kept me safe, I think. But he would have sent me far away. Or kept me where my words would be heard only be him."

[manofbusiness]

"At least until you learned to guard them around other people. He would not have thrown away the good your gift could do him, if he had any sense."

[thewidewideworld]

"He was wise and kind." He lowers his eyes. "I miss him very much."

[manofbusiness]

"But he is still with you." Childermass looks at him steadily, and he knows what he's talking about. "And always will be."