Dream Fragment - To Heaven Chained (I)
"– and the Nature of his soul was just as straightforward as the king himself, to project force from his body sufficient to cast away whole legions of aggressors –"
She stared down at the tomes on the table, nodding absently as the rotund teacher continued to drone, carefully moderating the motion of her hand as she sketched out a ritual circle in the margins. So long as she kept things subtle, he shouldn't notice.
"– his highness drove away one of the last tribes of Wilders that had been plaguing the city for many years –"
Hmm. What if...? If I switched out the standard array here and borrowed parts of a forging circle, wouldn't that result in a much stronger base? Ah, no, I'd need to balance that with... She drummed her fingers on the desk before she caught herself.
"– and the last king of the Wilders transformed himself into a great, fire-breathing bird, laying waste to the entirety of Ciel. You aren't even listening to me, are you, princess?"
It took her several seconds of silence before her eyes flicked up and she blushed sheepishly. "I... ah..."
He sighed. "Tell me you at least gleaned something from these past hours, and our time has not been entirely wasted."
She bristled, frustration boiling to the surface all at once. "I am well aware that the line of Ciel, since Omen and Aradia, has maintained their history of external natures. The world is bent by our souls, generation after generation. And I've read, at length, many treatises on the conflicts with the Wilder tribes – enough to know that the tribe you described as 'plaguing' the city wasn't even truly responsible for all of that, because the events in question continued for another decade after their departure! If all we're going to do is sit here while you teach me things I already know, then the time is wasted!"
The graying man threw his hands up. "You...! I will speak to your father about this, young lady, and we shall see what he has to say!" Muttering angrily to himself, her 'teacher' pushed himself to his feet and shuffled his bulk out the door. She huffed out an irritated breath before simply pulling a piece of blank parchment closer. With a shake of an inkwell, a dark stain spread across the empty page, and she dipped her finger into it as she reached into her soul.
Her nature twisted, snapping into connection with the page and settling over it like a blanket, and a tiny application of magic later had the ink spiraling itself into different circles as she experimented in real-time.
Much more productive than that nonsense.
Her father entered the room quietly, waving his guards away as he sat himself in the chair across from her, watching her work with an unreadable expression. For a long time, she was content to let them sit in silence, as she took notes with her left hand while her right cycled through different designs and formulae.
Eventually, though... eventually, she sighed. "I'm sorry, father. I shouldn't have spoken to him like that. I just..."
"You just?" There wasn't a hint of what he was feeling in his voice. Neither recrimination nor amusement, simply a king awaiting an answer.
Her shoulders drooped. "I already knew everything he was teaching me. It's such a waste...! Look at what I can do without wasting time on that! Why do I need to sit here and... and...!"
Her father's hand softly came down on her head and she blinked away angry tears she hadn't even noticed. "Hah... my wonderful little genius of a daughter. I apologize. I should have known you'd need something special. I'll see what I can do to make things better, Athame. But you do need to learn how to put up with people, even when they waste your time. How often do you think my time is wasted every day?"
She blinked up at his smiling face. "But... but you're the king."
"Exactly." He laughed, and she didn't understand.
It was a long time before she did.
A/N: As a consequence of the restructuring this arc has undergone, some things and opportunities got lost along the way. Consider these "dream fragments" something like an expository episode of sorts – they're meta in nature, almost entirely OOC knowledge, and unlikely to be able to meaningfully effect any of your votes. They're something like... if you've ever heard of Wakfu, the main villain of the first season (Nox) gets very little explanation behind his motives. Near the end of the season the audience told what he wants to do, but the full scope of his motivations are off-screen... unless you watch the special episode "Noximilien the Watchmaker," which follows him through his entire origin story and allows you to sympathize with who he is.
These fragments are something like that. They'll let me showcase characters that don't get time on screen, fill in background or worldbuilding details in chapters rather than outside of them, and hopefully provide a better reading experience. I don't know how often they'll be used, save that there will be at least one or two more this arc as we draw ever closer to the conclusion.