Tag Archive | prompter: skan

Time Out, a story of Tír na Cali for the Dungeon & Cave call

Oct31

Lady Castilla came home late from a tiring night at the office to find her assistant Geordi still on the phones.

She waited patiently until he hung up the call, taking the time to strip off her business-wear and slide into a robe and her favorite slippers. Only when she heard the click of the phone did she click the leash onto the back of Geordi’s collar.

“How long have you been on the phone today?”

He may have been property by law, but he was her most valuable assistant. There was no groveling in his voice when he answered her. “Twelve hours.”

“Don’t you think it’s time for a break?”

Now, he hesitated. “There’s still the calls for the Mansfield problem to deal with…”

“It’s time for a time-out, Geordi.” Lady Castilla tugged on the leash, pulling him back in his chair. “Clothes. Off.”

“I’ve really got to get this paperwork done…” He was not so pampered or valuable as to directly disobey; he was already unbuttoning his shirt.

“The paperwork will be there when we’re done. You’ve been overworking yourself.” She gave him enough slack on the leash to work, but not enough that he forgot it was there.

“There’s always more work.” He draped his shirt over his chair and moved on to his pants.

“Then I’ll buy you an assistant.”

“They’ll just mis-file everything, like the last one.” He dropped his pants and knelt to finish with socks and shoes. “The work has to get done.”

“Later.” He was already on all fours; she gave the leash another tug. “Come on.”

“But the paperwork…”

“No more words, Geordi.” The closet was well-appointed, the cage inside it even more so. “Your mistress is telling you it’s time for time-out.”

“But the Mansfield problem…” He tugged back against the leash, as futile as that was.

“Later.” She put her slippered foot on his bare butt and gave him a firm shove into the padded cage. The leash, she threaded through the bars and hooked above his head, leaving him just enough slack to curl up comfortably. “Rest.”

She padlocked the cage door and stepped back, watching. He looked at the lock, and back at her. “But…” The tension left his shoulders. “Yes, Mistress. Thank you.”

“No more words now, Geordi. I mean it.” She passed a sippy-cup of Merlot through the bars. “Rest.”

She closed the closet door on the cage, leaving him relaxing wordlessly with his wine.

Written to Skan’s prompt. Tír na Cali has a landing page here.

If you’d like to see more of this story, I bet there’s more to be written. Just drop a tip in the the tip handcuffs:

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/842095.html. You can comment here or there.

Meeting the Archmage, a story (Of the Circled Plain) for the Giraffe Call

Sep3

To Skan’s Prompt

“Hello? Hello, Archmage? I’m Tad, I’m here for my apprenticeship…”

The cabin was, the way things were, a hermitage, stuck halfway up the side of a mountain. Tad’s family had dropped her off this morning at the base of the stairs, if you could call them stairs. Once she stepped on the first uneven cut of stone, she was no longer theirs. She belonged to the Archmage now.

Except that the Archmage was supposed to be here, in this cabin, and as far as Tad could tell, there wasn’t anyone here. The fire was still going in the stove, but you could do that with magic, couldn’t you? “Hello? Archmage, sir, ma’am, ix?”

“Here.” The voice was coming from near the fire. From the fire itself? Tad had heard of those who got devoured by the Flow, but not like… not like that, surely? “Look down, child.”

Tad looked down – and jumped back, grabbing for a shepherd’s crook she no longer carried. There was a mountain lion staring at her from the fire-rug.

The mountain lion yawned. “Surely you have seen a mountain lion before?”

The cat… was talking to her. Tad slapped her forehead with her palm. “Sir-ma’am-Ix…” Was that what she would become?

“Sit down, child. The Flow changes everyone differently, and there are many stories I will tell you about that, as our years together continue. But at this moment, I want you to tell me a story.

“Archmage, sir-ma’am-ix?”

“Ma’am will do. I haven’t thought about it in a while… so tell me, Tad, how you got old enough to be an apprentice with a name as short as Tad.“

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A Review of “On the Nature of the Sira & Its Flow” (Reiassan Demifiction)

Aug16

A study of the paper,
On the Nature of the Sira and Its flow
by Opaknaipbo-Oset, Scholar of Edally Academy

Paper written c. 850 R – study 1002 R.

Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset was one of the first to study aether as a science, although he did so in the era when it was believed to be sira, an ancient Tabersi word meaning simply force.

In this paper, one of his most comprehensive, he details the flow of several different kinds of sira. In a move that is not uncommon to ancient scholars but unusual in his era, he color-codes three sorts, lithic as green, aqueous as blue, and igneous as red – much as Temples of the Three still color-code the services of the gods – the blue, Tienebrah, the red, Veignevar,the green, Reiassannon.

More than that, which is, after all, a simple trick used throughout history, Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset tracks specific flows and patterns of the sira over the continent, and within specific “spells” and formulae.

Although there is a great deal of superstition in Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset’s work, there is a great deal of value there as well. While he still thinks of the aether as a magical force of the gods, he manages to make some surprising discoveries about the flow of aether that still color research today.

Within the book is a series of maps. Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset spent years, with a series of interns and apprentices, walking across the continent from end to end, mapping every line of wild aether he could detect, and finding patterns in the way that it moved and spread. Those maps are the basis for research still being done today.

More interesting, to those who study such things, are the diagrams of “spells.” If Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset could diagram things that he thought were magic, what can those of us, who truly understand the nature of aether, do with those diagrams and Scholar Opaknaipbo-Oset’s work?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/779493.html. You can comment here or there.