To learn is to step into a world of possibilities and recognize them for what they are.
To understand is to acknowledge those possibilities, and answer the question of why they are what they are. Louise never had problems learning, or understanding when it came to magic, and studies.
But to be told her familiar was an Ill-omen for what could be what she could only assume to be an apocalypse, she held a fair amount of well deserved confusion.
"Excuse me?" She asked once more, trying her damndest to retain the knowledge her professor impressed upon her so suddenly. " I needn't ask that you understand, I merely request that you keep an eye on him. Those runes hold no small amount of ability, and if you notice anything, I need you to tell me immediately. Understand?"
She couldn't quite understand what it was that drove him to ask this aside from his previous explanation. Yet even that didn't quite suffice, all he'd said was that Izaneus' appearance had ill tidings
Not a few minutes earlier, Colbert had expressed his concern unto Louise regarding her familiar.
"Louise, a word?" He'd asked, a stern expression on his face, which Louise of course replied with. " Of course Professor, Is there an issue?" Neglecting to mention the previous… folly, with her spellwork. Cryptically, Colbert answered thusly. " You could say so.. Tell me, what has your familiar been up to of late?"
A ping of anxiety struck through the smaller mage as a myriad thoughts passed through her heart before her head
The most powerful of which resonated for a moment. Had Tabitha told Colbert Izaneus was an Elf?
Based on the quizzical look Colbert gave when she started mentally freaking out, Louise calmed slightly, if he hadn't an idea what she was freaking about, then surely it wasn't anything regarding his heritage at least!
But.. What of his magic?
A small sliver of anxiety persisted through this thought alone, nervous energy began to well, more than easily as she'd been skipping mealtime to study, and improve in her own progress in the fields of magic.
"It has to do with the nature of his summoning." He began slowly, curious and confused as to why Louise was sweating bullets in equal measure. " Those runes engraved onto his hand. They refer to him as Mjöðvitnir. Or, The "Mind of god" As the texts refer to them" he began, waiting to see her reaction.
Which of course was pure shock, she didn't quite understand the weight of his statement, but with such a lofty name as "Mind of God" She quite understood she'd either gotten extremely lucky, or extremely unlucky.
Turns out it was a bit of both.
"Your confusion is warranted, let me explain.. As history, and Brimir himself has shown us. Familiars are a representation of us as Mages. " He spoke simply, affixing his glasses once more.
'With one obvious exception' Louise thought, twisting his words to fit her still fairly depressed mind. It wasn't as though her previous travails disappeared when she started learning another form of magic, merely that she'd learned another way to cope and deal with her problems. Their effects wouldn't simply leave her one day.
Colbert, unknowing of these thoughts, continued. " and the Mjöðvitnir, is a familiar Brimir himself was known to summon, a humanoid, with gross ability to conjure whatever magic it so wished."
These words caused The younger mage's thoughts to spiral slightly, from the sheer shock alone that she had summoned one of Brimir's familiars. That was… horribly terrifying and exciting all the same. For a myriad of reasons.
"It's no secret Louise, that your familiar brought with him some strange magic itself. Which furthers our concern. But, were the it worst of our worries, then I wouldn't be talking with you right now. No, what concerns us was the premonition Brimir underwent after his war with the Elves."
Louise staggered to wrap her mind around all of this information assaulting her mind at once. She started to hold her head, placing fingers on her temple as if it would help her digest everything she was being told.
Colbert paused for a moment. His eyes looked down at his pupil sadly. By what manner of torturous fate was this little one meant to shoulder the weight of the world? The cosmos held no sense of justice, or fairness, this he long since knew. But wasn't it too cruel to force this path upon someone so undeserving of its pains? He sighed.. Perhaps it was best to shelter her from its entirety, at least for now…
"...Which is why I must ask that you remain vigilant of your familiar, Keep an eye on the young Izaneus, and should you notice anything, report it to me immediately.."
"Excuse me?" She asked once more, trying her damnedest to retain the knowledge her professor impressed upon her so suddenly. " I needn't ask that you understand, I merely request that you keep an eye on him. Those runes hold no small amount of ability, and if you notice anything, I need you to tell me immediately. Understand?"
Louise dumbly nodded, trying to understand why her Professor had deemed it prudent to both reveal so much and yet so little to her all at once. It seemed entirely redundant! The most she understood was that they wanted her to watch Iza.. But she didn't know where he was half the time anymore.
He'd isolated himself so entirely that the only time they actually made contact was at their appointed sessions of source study.
Something within her felt like something was off, she felt the telltale signs of tears begin to tug at her eyes. She couldn't determine a reason why. Other than her previous encounter with her teacher.
With a sigh she wiped the water from her eyes by masking it as though she were squeezing the bridge of her nose in frustration.
Things were going to be a lot different from now on, she could tell.
And as much as she would boast, she wasn't sure she was quite ready for it.
In the Vault, Izaneus struggled to contain his emotions as images of his father laughing alongside the very men he left with that day, on that very same carriage flashed in front of him, stubble and the same blue eyes as him, with vastly darker hair. Yet blonde like his kin, and wife.
His eyes held a certain amount of joviality behind them. Yet also, behind that happiness, even in the vague image the divination spell provided him, Izaneus could sense a solemn resignation within his father. Which made only all the more painful when the divination scattered briefly, before returning to what the wizard could only assume was the future, his father, limp against the wall, A tendril of pure abyss exiting his chest. Leaving him to bleed onto the stone surroundings.
Izaneus watched. Knowing full well this was done years ago. Far, Far before Izaneus had arrived to the world. Yet despite these painful revelations, he couldn't directly tell the rest from the staff, not how it got here, not how it was related to his father's death, and certainly not how it found it's way here.
Izaneus, at that moment however, couldn't particularly focus, and for good reason. Despite his father never returning, despite being told that he likely had died on whatever adventure he'd gone on, Iza had held out hope, a small glimmer of belief that made him think his father was just fine.
Which was promptly snuffed out by the cold winds of reality.
The last vision the divination shared, was a small cave outlook, with coastal sands surrounding its entrance.
With a swipe of his hand Izaneus willed the spell end, which it did and Izaneus himself walked off. Feeling that being around anyone but himself was a worse idea than scrying that staff's past. A decision he already sorely regret.