A Jaunt Through Jielam - 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

By the time the group of travelers approached the Jielam border, Stirring was half over, and while in most places in the continent the snows would have melted and grass and flowers begun to grow, the northern border of Wolsic where the group now found themselves was so far north that it still felt like late winter. Snow blanketed the ground; what few deciduous trees that grew there were still dormant, a few dead leaves twirling precariously from the branches from which they had grown; the sky was a pale grey, overcast with thick, dreary clouds that promised frigid precipitation. Rather than shedding layers of clothing, most of the group had to bundle up more warmly as the season progressed, and even Daeron, who had experienced many types of climates during his travels early in his life, had opted to put away his regular footwear in favour of his fur-lined boots.

While Kyrie was still their leader and guide, it seemed that Mailon was the one who was more or less in charge at the moment. The group had stopped just short of a peak of a tall hill at his insistence, and they were in the process of once more setting up their tent. It was not time to stop for the night - it was barely past noon - but over the hill, Mailon informed them, was the border to Jielam, the country of his birth, and the country that hated outsiders so much that even its own people who refused to kill them on sight were exiled under threat of death.

"I just hope Lancaeriel is ready with those spells of hers," he murmured worriedly as he pinned one of the tent pegs into the ground. There was really no way of knowing at the moment how ready Lancaeriel was: she had spent the morning in the tent, alone, and there was no way to communicate with those inside while it was packed away.

[Kara Winters]

By the time they had arrived at the border, Miyuki's water and draining runes were complete. Well, they would work, but there were no tubs or anything built for that sort of thing yet. They hadn't managed to get those supplies on their journey up, which was unfortunate. Unless they found some resource on their travels, the woodworking room would be empty for now.

Like the others, she too had started wearing her lined boots. In fact, it was a sign to how cold it constantly was when her and her mother would forgo their preference in shoe wear for something far more practical. Just because they had originated from the Winters clan didn't mean they were suited for cold.

"I hope so too," Miyuki murmured as she helped with the tent, "What she wanted to do is quite complicated. I got the easier of the tasks when she told me to work on the water system."

[Nara-pyon]

"And yet to someone like myself, even as task such as that seems quite complicated," Mailon replied softly, offering her both a compliment and consolation for what he perceived as her feeling of not being as good as the other.

He tied down a rope to the peg he had just hammered into the ground and pulled it to test its strength. He nodded, satisfied at his work, and then moved to begin the next one. "Do you think you will have the opportunity to learn all that she can teach you?" he asked Miyuki curiously. Of course, he wasn't sure how long they had been together before now, or how much Lancaeriel was capable; he only knew that Lancaeriel was teaching her.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki smiled brightly at Mailon, understanding the meaning even if she hadn't needed the pick me up. Really, her only disappointment was that they were on a schedule. Normally, she would work and learn along side her teacher, but they simply did not have time for that.

"If it's just runes, illusions and plant magic... maybe," Miyuki replied with a laugh, "Everything she knows though, unlikely, she's been around both physically and spiritually for a long time. I would probably be as old as her by the time I got that far."

In fact, she might not even learn everything for runes, runes were only limited by the imagination.

[Nara-pyon]

"And how old is that?" Mailon asked curiously, his pale eyes on Miyuki even as he pounded the next peg into the ground beneath the snow.

The cold didn't bother him in the least, and he had chosen to dress in his native clothes: bare feet and hands, a pale grey fur wrap around his waist, and a seal-pup skin on his back, its fur white with small black vertical lines just behind his neck. He had chosen to dress like this rather than in the forest garb he had worn previously to prevent suspicion from the guards he knew would be lining the border into the country.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki thought about it, "You know... I don't know... I can't remember how far back that would be."

She knew events but never quite knew exact dates. She could name eras if it came down to it, but not exact years.

"She remembers her past lives all the way to her first, and back then she was a... second generation elf? I think?"

The details were fuzzy, but her teacher was just old period.

[Nara-pyon]

"So quite old," Mailon smiled. "Whereas you on the other hand are quite young. Yes, it would take a very long time to learn even a portion of what she knows, then. Still, I wish you luck in the endeavour - at least to learn what you would like, if not all."

He tied the last rope and checked it, then smiled once more at Miyuki. "There. Someone can go in and fetch her now."

[Kara Winters]

"I'll go do that," Miyuki offered before slipping inside the tent.

She didn't have to go far, since the kitchen was technically the centre of the tent, and had the most working space that was where Lancerial was working.

"We've camped," Miyuki announced the moment she saw her teacher.

[Nara-pyon]

Lancaeriel had heard sounds of activity outside of the tent, and she'd suspected that they had stopped and were setting up the tent, so Miyuki's entrance did not surprise her, and she did not look up or falter in her work.

"I'm very nearly finished," she murmured, sounding distracted. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, her eyes fixed on the parchment in front of her. One finger was pressed against some writings in an open book on the table next to the parchment, but she didn't seem to be looking at it anymore. She kept writing. "Just ... one ... moment ..."

Then, with a triumphant smile, she set her quill down and pushed her long, pale hair behind her ears. "There. I'll just have Cael take a glance over it to make sure I didn't miss anything, and then it should be ready to add to the tent."

She chuckled, her eyes tired as she looked over at Miyuki. "We need to be careful or we're going to run out of room on the tent for all these rune arrays."

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki laughed at that as her eyes took in the array. She didn't have the experience to tell whether or not it would work, she just liked looking at it.

"Hopefully, these will be the last set we'll need," she replied.

Since expanding could be done instead the tent, kind of like building an addition onto a building. In a lot of ways the tent was like a nesting doll the way the expansions worked.

[Nara-pyon]

Lancaeriel chuckled again, then stretched her arms high above her head, arching her back as she did so. She tipped her head first one way, then the other, and then she let out a yawn as she lowered her hands to the table once again.

"So-" she began; but she was interrupted when the tent door opened again and her husband entered. His dark eyes were warm as they lit upon his wife, and he smiled widely.

"Set?" he asked her, unaware that he had interrupted her.

But she simply smiled at him. "If you wouldn't mind checking it for mistakes," she replied softly. "If I've missed anything, it won't work."

And all it would take was a single missing or extra stroke to render the entire array useless. And while she knew she was the more skilled of the two of them in constructing arrays, he could read them as plainly as he read any book, and hopefully he would catch any errors.

Obediently, Cael reached for the array, pulled out a chair, and took a seat. Immediately, his eyes were fixed on the parchment, his eyes moving slowly, painstakingly, over the runes.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki took a seat and stayed quiet. Knowing how much concentration was required to go over something like that. Especially if you were looking over for errors, since you weren't ever quite sure where those errors would be. Often it was a small lapse in concentration and the error would be small. Like a missed stroke.

[Nara-pyon]

Outside, some of the group was growing impatient waiting for the others to come back out, but Shiro quietly and patiently kept anyone else from entering the tent. Distracting those who were working on the runes, he insisted, would only make it take longer.

At length, the flap opened, and Cael led the way out, followed by Miyuki and his wife.

"We're ready," Lancaeriel announced with a tired smile. In her hands, she held a vial and a brush not unlike a calligraphy brush. Cael was the one holding the parchment, which she had requested so that she could glance at it when necessary but have both hands free to paint the runes.

As she prepared to begin, she glanced at Miyuki once more. "If you would like, I can explain the array as I paint it," she offered with a smile. "It won't make it take any longer."

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki smiled brightly, "I would like that."

It might not be the same as working it through herself, but it would give her a good idea of where to go if she ever had to do something similar herself. One never knew when that might happen.

[Nara-pyon]

Lancaeriel smiled and began to work, explaining as she did what each rune contributed to the array. Each rune of course had a meaning of its own, but it was the specific combinations that gave created the desired effects. There was nothing specifically about invisibility, interestingly enough; but rather, it was a mixture of distraction and implementation of ideas - like magically suggesting to the person's mind that there wasn't really anything there, and that they had things to do elsewhere. Then there were the exception runes: that they wouldn't affect those whose blood was included in the paint itself.

At that point she switched to a different paint, since the blood could be only in that array. It was the simpler of the arrays, and it didn't take her long to complete.

"All right, we're set," she murmured, stepping back and sighing tiredly. "I don't think I would mind if it takes a few hours to get somewhere safe for us to come out. I'm exhausted."

[Kara Winters]

"Do you need anything? Maybe food before resting?" Miyuki asked.

She wondered how much magic that took, or if it was the combination of magic and just the mental work that went into making the array.

[Nara-pyon]

"A glass of wine would be welcome," Lancaeriel admitted. "But sleep, really, is all I need."

"Then in you go," Cael chuckled, picking up her empty paint vials. "Come on. The sooner we're in, the sooner you can rest."

Lancaeriel nodded. "Mm. Yes." She turned to head back into the tent, and Cael followed after her.

Kyrie turned to the others. "Let's all go in," she said brusquely. She held out one hand, and the image of Uruloki crawled up her chest and along her arm until Uruloki himself materialized, perched on the palm of her hand.

[Kara Winters]

There was no sense putting it off since the last of the array was up.

"Right," Lin nodded, "Might as well get settled in for the trip."

Though it would be far different than the first time she had done this. Being in this tent was far different than being crowded into one of the smaller tents. While big for a tent, the smaller tents didn't have the privacy or the room the mobile home had offered them.

[Nara-pyon]

Earendil ushered his family into the tent ahead of him, and Wren, Shoneah and the nekos followed afterwards, though Shiro had the courtesy to allow Eron to enter ahead of him.

It was several minutes before Kyrie joined them, and she looked apprehensive when she entered. She looked around to see who was still in the kitchen and living room, and when she saw who was still around, she looked as though she were about to speak, but she seemed to think the better of it and said nothing, only shook her head and headed into the living room. She took a seat on a chair and crossed her legs, leaning back. Her eyes closed, but she didn't sleep. Her brow was furrowed deeply, and it was clear that her mind was fixed on something.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki took some of her working material from her room and wandered into the living room. She was technically done her water and draining runes, and was waiting for the items needed to be finished building. However, it didn't stop her from working, she had taken to writing runes on ribbons which made good restraints.

A variation of her inky rune chains.

This also kept her busy, otherwise she would get too antsy.

[Nara-pyon]

Andarien of course headed straight for the forge, and encouraged Shoneah to join him. After a moment's consideration, she agreed. Lancaeriel wanted to rest, of course, and so to give her the best rest possible, Cael stayed out in the living room as well. 

"Hey, Miyuki!" Kaito grinned cattily, sliding easily in beside her. "Question for you, if you can answer it."

There was a glint to his golden eyes, one that some called mischievous and others called cheeky. It was hard to tell with him which one it was.

[Kara Winters]

Either way, Miyuki looked up to Kaito warily the moment she noticed that glint. Whether it was mischievous or cheeky one should be prepared when Kaito was in that mood.

"Sure, I'll try. What's the question?" she asked as she carefully set her tools aside so she wouldn't drip ink everywhere.

[Nara-pyon]

Kaito pointed at the ribbons on which Miyuki had been painting the runes. "What would happen if I were the one to paint the runes instead of you?" he asked her, still grinning. "Or if I were to use a different ink?"

Magic was one of the things that he and Shiro knew very little about. Shiro had simply refused to do any looking into it since inadvertently summoning Ura, and of course what Shiro didn't learn about, he didn't talk about, and Kaito was usually too lazy to do such learning on his own. So he simply didn't know.

[Kara Winters]

"It depends on what the array is, and what it is for," Miyuki replied, "It is possible for other people to use a rune array even if they weren't the ones to make it."

Miyuki knew this from experience when she helped her teacher with the portal runes. While she never made them she had to provide her magic to help power it. The Winters used a lot of runes that could be used by nearly anyone.

"Most arrays can be used by anyone, the only limitation is if they have magic, or how much energy reserves they have. The only exception to this rule is if the array was powered by someone or something else, in which anyone could use it regardless. Like the portals the Winters use, it's power is tied into the clan grounds and since most are magically inclined, the magic they give off has powered those runes and most of the runes on the grounds."

That was probably an understatement when she had first read this theory, the clan grounds became one of the examples of seal arrays upon seal arrays to the extreme. It was like it's own network and she wondered if anyone outside of Grandmother Kara, Yue, Yukito and Grandfather Donovan knew exactly how complicated the layers of protection were on the grounds.

"So you don't need to be the same person who wrote to the runes to use them. As for the ink, the ink doesn't make much difference unless it's clearly different or you are using special ink to strengthen the runes in a particular way. Though it would be better to use ink from the same batch, which is why using an ink stone to make more ink if you need it is sometimes better. You can make more but it's still technically the same ink."

She paused from her long mini lesson about runes and then asked.

"Why do you ask?"

[Nara-pyon]

Kaito sighed and flopped backwards onto the floor, his arms sprawled above his head.

"I'm bored," he complained. "There's nothing to do in here. I mean, seriously. If there were a dojo or a range or something ... that would be something. But who knows how long we're going to be stuck in here, and there's nothing to do."

He raised his head slightly and eyed the rune-work on the table. He was well aware that Shiro didn't trust him to do anything with magic, but he was bored enough to ignore his brother, if he could get away with it.

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