|
Post by Shinko on Sept 7, 2014 8:34:35 GMT -5
When Sieg heard the knock on his door, followed by the archemage's voice, he jerked a bit in surprise. “L-Leif? He stammered, feeling a flush crawling across his nose. “H-how long have you been standing there?” He then laughed, covering his face. “Come in, come in, I'm not doing anything at the moment. Except apparently advertising how very much like my father I've become. He was always saying the most ridiculously corny things to us when he was alive, and I always chided him for it. Yet the older I get the more I turn into a slightly more melancholy version of him.” He tried to push himself upright as Leif walked into the room, but his arms were shaking badly and with a slight yelp he slipped back down. The knight laughed, though it was half frustration. “It's probably going to be at least a few weeks before I'm fit for duty again. Once I get my strength and muscle control back I need to retrain myself to be physically fit enough for combat.” Then he shoved his elbows under his back, and forced himself into a semi-upright position. He was propped on the backboard of the bed, but at least he wasn't lying flat anymore. “The healers said it's something to do with my brain and the fact that I... y'know, for a few minutes. But it should be fine as long as I work at it.” He brightened, and said, “So I hear that you've gotten the last of the knights cured? And there were no more casualties after you arrived. Though I heard the healers out in the hall earlier arguing about if you should burn the notes you took on the curse so no one can try to duplicate it, or keep them in case someone does so there's record of how to fix it.” Sieg is flustered a bit to realize Leif heard his ballad of FRENSHAP, but recovers quickly and just laughs at himself. He then explains that he has some residual damage from being dead for a bit, but that he's already working to compensate for it. Then he talks to Leif about magey things.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 7, 2014 11:49:42 GMT -5
Judging by the color of Sieg’s face, he was embarrassed, too, but he took it with a good humor that made Leif feel less awkward, strangely enough. “Not long, I’d just gotten to the hallway,” he said in answer to Sieg’s question as he entered. “Apparently I’m finely-tuned to track down the most awkward situations to put myself and others in. ...But, ah...it was a nice gesture.” Leif was not entirely surprised to see the half-elf’s weakness, but that didn’t make it easier to watch. “It's probably going to be at least a few weeks before I'm fit for duty again,” Sieg explained. Leif went to help him sit upright, but the knight managed it on his own first. “The healers said it's something to do with my brain and the fact that I... y'know, for a few minutes. But it should be fine as long as I work at it.”Leif nodded grimly as he sat in the chair the healer had vacated. “That doesn’t surprise me. And even before then, you’d lost a lot of blood and been in a lot of pain. That’s enough to pin anyone to a bed for a while. But you’ll be fine,” Leif agreed. “I’m sure you’ll be driving the healers mad with your stir-craziness by next week.” Sieg brought up the other knights, a thankfully happy topic. “Yes, and from what I hear the knights are all recovering nicely. I’m sorry you had to be attached to my test subject,” he added apologetically. His expression darkened when Sieg mentioned the argument he’d overheard. “Yes, that’s been a very popular topic with everyone. It’s a tricky decision either way...on the one hand, nobody should ever cast that spell again. But only another archmage could replicate it completely, and I’d be interested in studying some pieces of it - to see if I can maybe…” He looked back to Sieg. “Did - did they ever actually tell you that it was an archmage who cast it? The healer didn’t want you to know...I think I said some things, but you were probably too tired to really process by that point.” Talking about stuff, including awkward situations, bedrest, and the curse and its source.
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 7, 2014 13:29:33 GMT -5
“Apparently I’m finely-tuned to track down the most awkward situations to put myself and others in. ...But, ah...it was a nice gesture.” Sieg laughed. “You and me both. Though sometimes it seems the people around me go out of their way to make me feel awkward just for the amusement of my reactions. Alain Stallion did it every time Orrin and I stopped in Destrier for something when we were up in Bern.” He nodded his head at the table beside the bed, where he'd had the cup of water last time Leif was in the room. Now, instead the space was occupied by a small stitched up leather sack. “The healers gave me that, and said to exercise with it whenever I'm awake. Like this.” The knight reached for the sack, his brow furrowing with concentration. His hand missed a few times, but he was finally able to grab it- “Ha! Knocked it off the table every time I tried the first two days, I'm getting better at this already.” From the way the sack gave under his fingers, it must have been filled with sand. He brought it carefully around to the bed, trying not to drop it, and then let his arm rest palm up on the sheets. He bent his arm at the elbow, bringing his hand up to his shoulder and giving the sack a squeeze as he did so. Then he let his arm slowly fall, loosening his grip on the sack. He repeated the procedure, arm up arm down, squeeze and release. “Supposed to do twenty, then switch hands." A slight tremor entered his voice as he admitted, "When I first tried to do this I couldn't- just couldn't, it was actually kind of terrifying how little I could control my own arm.” He shrugged when Leif talked about getting bored from the bed rest, looking sheepish. “Probably, although right now I'm still spending so much time sleeping that being stir-crazy is the least of my concerns. I'd almost be tempted to accuse the healers of splipping something into my food, it feels like as soon as I finish eating my eyelids turn into lead weights. This is the first time I've really been lucid and not starving in a while.” The knight coughed, a slightly apologetic tone coming into his voice. “The healer mentioned you've tried to check in on me, and every time you did I was unconscious. Sorry about that, must have been infernally frustrating on your end.” Sieg switched the hand he was exercising with the sand sack as Leif spoke about the curse, but his head snapped around with Leif mentioned the caster. “No... no, I was not told at all. They sent us after an archmage and didn't warn us? We thought it was just a normal, albiet homicidal and uncannily smart spellcaster. We didn't even have any other mages as backup and only the Jade knights had spell shielded armor... though it didn't seem to do any good, they were all hit with the curse just as hard as the elves anyway.” Sieg laughs at himself some more, then shows one of the small preliminary exercises the healer gave him to rehabilitate his motor control. He apologizes for being asleep every time Leif wanted to check on him, and then reveals that nope, he still wasn't told that socioarchmage was an archmage.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 7, 2014 16:37:16 GMT -5
Leif smirked. “I told your mother I was sure the Grand Duke would find some way to harass you while you and Orrin were out adventuring. He must have the counter-sense to ours, the ability to detect people who are about to step into embarrassing situations.” He watched as Sieg demonstrated the exercises with the pouch of sand. Leif had seen this occasionally in the church, though the cloth had been of cruder fabric. He’d owned a sand-sack like that for a time, in fact, though his had been meant for squeezing to try and relieve stress rather than to exercise muscles. It hadn’t done much good in that category, but it was definitely useful for patients working to recover their fine motor control. Leif nodded in approval as the knight explained his regimen, though he felt his expression falter when Sieg admitted he hadn’t been able to do it at all at first, and how frightening it had been. “I’m sure,” Leif said sympathetically. Waving off Sieg’s apology, Leif said, “I wasn’t expecting deep conversation or anything, I just wanted to be sure you were recovering. If anyone was frustrated, I think it was the healer, I’m sure she’s grown more than tired of telling me that you’re going to be fine. Though I’m glad I was able to slip past her tonight, it’s - it’s good to actually see that you’re doing better.” Leif had been smart enough to expect his news about what the spellcaster was to not be taken well. “They wouldn’t have known he was an archmage,” Leif quickly assured Sieg. “Otherwise, they would have sent for me to come help catch him in the first place. ‘Pit, he probably didn’t know he was an archmage.From the sound of it, his powers - his full powers - released when one of the knights hurt him, and that’s why the curse was so strong and complex - and probably how it got through the spell-shield armor. Before the release, his power would've seemed like any other mage's." Leif frowned a little. “Which is strange, now that I think about it...his powers weren’t released, but he wasn’t nearly as bad off as I was. Obviously he wasn’t well, considering the murders, but when I started feeling the blocks, I couldn’t have killed people even if I’d wanted to.” To say it would have been physically impossible wasn’t an overstatement; Leif wouldn’t have been able to handle all the sensory input to kill someone physically, and he couldn’t have thought clearly enough to cast a spell strong enough to kill directly or strategic enough to kill indirectly. “And that was when I was seventeen, I’d be amazed if he was going through the same thing I was since he was that age. I guess different archmages experience that differently...” It would explain why nobody in the church had known what was going on. Realizing he’d rambled off on a tangent, Leif shook his head slightly. “Erm. Sorry. I haven’t had much chance to sit and think about that before now.” More replies, and Leif wanders off on a tangent about socioarchmage.
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 7, 2014 17:40:36 GMT -5
Sieg furrowed his brow. “That's right, you mentioned that once- about archmages needing to have their powers released. I'd forgotten. So... that was the stickiness? His magic releasing and hitting us?” The knight shrugged, “As for the discomfort, well... we don't think he was entirely right in the head. I don't know the right word, but he was sick on an emotional level. As in I don't think he felt emotions at all, at least not the same way you or I would. According to one of the other knights who wasn't cursed and was charged with guarding him, when he was being interrogated about those people he killed, he didn't seem triumphant, or remorseful, or anything else. He just shrugged and said they were test subjects. He wasn't killing for a thrill or revenge or any of the other usual motivations. He was killing because he wanted to see what his magic could do and as far as he perceived it, the people were there for his use.” The half-elf scowled. “And then they killed him, of course. They didn't want to wait for him to recover from the pull and use his various experimental tricks on us all. Too little too late for the knights who'd been sent after him without realizing what we were dealing with.” Sieg laughed mirthlessly, “I wasn't actually sent along for any particular expertise of mine, unlike the rest of us. I was sent to play translator, since I'm fluent in Kythian. I was picked for the group that would go in and confront him for the same reason- I could understand what the Jade knights were saying to him and relay it to the Nid'aigle elves. But I was as ready to attack him if need be as any of the others. After all that's my job.” Not quite picking up on Leif's discomfort with the subject of conversation, Sieg glared a bit at the sand sack. “It's funny, the little things you don't realize you take for granted. In the line of work I do, every little motion, every second of reaction time counts. The slightest little movement can be the difference between a parry and getting your chest carved open.” A very forced sounding laugh emerged from his throat. “I'm supposed to wield a sword, and right now I can barely turn a doorknob- and that takes a few seconds of effort and false starts. And I... I can't stand up by myself right now, my balance is shot and I can't move my legs very well. I have a job, a duty, and what if I never-” Sieg realized what he was saying and his mouth snapped shut. The knight glanced away, a flush crawling across his face again. “Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble. It's stupid, the healers are... are saying I'll be fine, so I'll be fine.” He hated himself for the slight tremor that slipped into his voice. The knight trusted the healers, but he couldn't ignore the evidence of his own senses. The skin he was in was not responding like it was supposed to. For the first time in his life it didn't feel like his body was an extension of his will, but rather a disconnected shell he was trying to fit himself back into one small section at a time. Being a knight was his entire life, it was what he'd wanted since he was small, and for the longest time it was the only thing that had made him feel like his life had any worth or meaning. If he never got better, if he had to leave the service because he was a liability... Sieg puts in some theories of his own about socioarchmage, and fills in some info Leif might not be privy to. Then he inadvertently starts venting about his fear of his loss of motor control, before clamming up upon realizing that Leif's probably not comfortable with the topic.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 7, 2014 20:56:48 GMT -5
“The stickiness was definitely his magic. I...I didn’t even know archmage magic could work that way.” He rubbed absently at the scar underneath his eye, but his hand dropped as he listened intently to Sieg’s description of the captured archmage’s psyche. “That’s...that’s disturbing,” he said at last, feeling both hot anger and a chill of eerieness. “That must be from the block, then...I guess they can build up differently. It’s probably for the best that they killed him...I imagine the uncontrollable magic would’ve started once he recovered from the pull.” Sieg explained why he’d been sent to join the knights sent to Corvus, but quickly his words turned to the discomfort and fear of his current weakness. Leif’s stomach squirmed guiltily, but it was clear the half-elf was terribly worried about not recovering. Honestly, the thought of that scared Leif, too - he didn’t want to see his friend crippled, especially not because of stupid mistakes Leif had made. His voice shaking, Sieg said, “Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble. It's stupid, the healers are... are saying I'll be fine, so I'll be fine .”“Don’t be sorry, you’re not rambling...it’s - it’s one thing to be told you’re going to be all right, but another to actually believe it. For what it’s worth - as near as I can tell, you’re doing really well. And don’t forget you’ve got to recover from blood loss and dehydration, too - but I know it must not feel right.” It must be like the pull, in a way, Leif realized - that concrete sense of something being...not quite right, of being off and knowing it. “You’ll get better - I know you will. But...I hope you don’t think that if…” Leif huffed in frustration at his inability to put together the words he wanted. “I know being a knight is important to you, and you find a lot of purpose in it. But if for whatever reason, you can’t be one...you know your mother and I - and your sister, I’m sure - will be there to help you find something else. There’s more than one way to save people.” Here, Sieg, have Leif’s clumsy attempts to make you feel better =D
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 8, 2014 6:48:59 GMT -5
“ Don’t be sorry, you’re not rambling...it’s - it’s one thing to be told you’re going to be all right, but another to actually believe it. For what it’s worth - as near as I can tell, you’re doing really well. And don’t forget you’ve got to recover from blood loss and dehydration, too - but I know it must not feel right.” Sieg sighed, unable to meet Leif's eyes. “They told me that the reason I'm having problems with my movement is because... because something in my brain stopped working. Apparently it can't be repaired by magic, something about mucking with the head for anything more complicated then a concussion doing more harm then good. But I can't help but wonder, how does playing with a sand sack fix it if magic can't? I can see my muscle control improving, sure, but I have to actively concentrate on every little movement. I can't just cover my face on a thoughtless impulse because the sun's hurting my eyes or whatever else I might normally just... just do.” “You’ll get better - I know you will. But...I hope you don’t think that if…” Leif huffed in frustration at his inability to put together the words he wanted. “I know being a knight is important to you, and you find a lot of purpose in it. But if for whatever reason, you can’t be one...you know your mother and I - and your sister, I’m sure - will be there to help you find something else. There’s more than one way to save people.” Sieg didn't reply at first, still not meeting Leif's eyes. Then he looked around, and with a tired grin he said, “You would have made an awful priest, you know that? I just can't imagine you standing in front of a crowd and delivering a sermon.” The knight flopped his head backwards against the headboard of the bed. “Thanks, Leif. I know you're right, and I know the healers are right too. It's just hard to convince my gut of that right now. I don't mean to make you feel guilty or unburden my insecurities on you. Yeah, you might have messed up a few times mucking with the curse, but you still saved my life in the end. Even if I don't get my full movement back, I still have my life. Mama and Ophelia would probably prefer I retired and stopped putting my life in danger, eh? I just... really hope I don't have to.” He glanced sideways at the archmage. “Leif, if you don't mind me asking... how exactly...?” The knight gestured at his chest, trying to point but not quite getting his fingers to curl in the right pattern. Dork knight is melancholy some more, but does his best to shake it off and appreciates Leif's sympathy. Then he asks Leif how exactly the nerdmage managed to bring a dead person back to life.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 8, 2014 11:30:42 GMT -5
Leif was afraid for a moment that he’d only managed to make things worse, but Sieg met Leif’s eyes again; surprisingly, he was smiling a little and even had a bantering comment ready. “You would have made an awful priest, you know that? I just can't imagine you standing in front of a crowd and delivering a sermon.”“They kept me far from the pulpit for a reason.” Leif said with a half-smile of his own. “I can only assume there would be a lot of stammering and very empty pews at next service.” Sieg thanked Leif, reiterating that he was still just having trouble convincing himself he would be okay. The knight added, ”I don't mean to make you feel guilty or unburden my insecurities on you. Yeah, you might have messed up a few times mucking with the curse, but you still saved my life in the end. Even if I don't get my full movement back, I still have my life. Mama and Ophelia would probably prefer I retired and stopped putting my life in danger, eh? I just... really hope I don't have to.”Leif nodded. “I understand. I hope you don’t have to, either - I don’t think you’ll need to. And,” he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, “don’t worry about my guilt complex.” Privately, though, it was somehow a relief to hear Sieg also acknowledge that Leif had made mistakes. He couldn’t quite put a finger on why that was, but set it aside for considering later. Sieg, to Leif’s surprise, asked “Leif, if you don't mind me asking... how exactly...?” and gestured at his chest. “I don’t mind,” Leif said. “Just...tell me if it starts bothering you, if it hits too close to home.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “I don’t know all of the science behind it, but apparently small lightning spells can make hearts beat - even if it’s outside the body, or so I’m told, you can use one and the heart will contract.” He lifted a hand, opening and closing it into a fist to demonstrate. “At some point, the priests in my church found out that if you could apply that to hearts inside the body, too. It...it doesn’t always work,” Leif admitted. “We can get the heart to contract, but it’s up to the body to actually pick up the beat. When it does, though, it buys a little more time for the priests or healers working on them. So that’s what I did to you - used a very small lightning spell to get your heart started again. “Clearly it worked, but...sometimes it does result in this. The issues with the brain you mentioned, I mean. It has something to do with blood not getting to the head...again, I don't know all the science. Just that what the healers told you is right; trying to fix it magically would be...bad. Maybe someday people will know enough about brains and what happens inside them to invent a spell for it. Meanwhile, we have the weighted sacks, and as long as you keep practicing, it’ll fix...fix whatever made your head forget how to move properly.” Leif textwalls Sieg with an explanation about how he restarted his heart and why dying messed up his brain (as best he can, being in medieval times, causing Tiger to grit her teeth and savagely mutter, “oxygen deprivation, oxygen deprivation, Leif you’re making me look stupid here!”).
((Also Shinko, let me know if you need more to work with here for a reply))
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 8, 2014 12:58:29 GMT -5
Sieg raised an eyebrow, "Leif, you're talking to a man who spent over a decade stabbing himself in the gut and twisting the knife over the death of his father. I know what guilt is like, and I know how it can eat you alive." He shrugged, the gesture slow and deliberate as he forced stiff muscles to cooperate. "I don't know exactly what it was you did that hit me so hard that first time, the healer was vague about it as I'm sure you recall. But experimentation and failure is part of the learning process. It's just usually not done with such a high stakes ticking clock involved." As the knight spoke, he made an odd motion with his arm, stretching it out to one side with the sand sack and holding it like that. Then he lifted his arm so that his hand was held high above his head, and held it again. It became evident when he lowered his arm back to the midpoint and held it there again that he had shifted to doing a different motor control exercise. "I don't really understand what happened. The healer said the magic was rebounding or something? At the time it hit me with the sensation of all of those wounds being inflicted on me like when I originally got them. That's part of why I was out of it for a bit, I think I started hallucinating because it felt so real. Why would the magic have done that?" he gave that awkward shrug again. "Regardless, I know if I did that to somebody I'd be kicking myself in the head over it. You're a nice guy Leif, if you didn't feel guilty about it there would be something wrong with you." He smiled, "I didn't hear anyone else yelling from the other rooms, so I imagine you took what you learned from my case and made sure to set up the buffer of feather-magic before the stickiness could hit them, right? So you learned from the mistake, and that's the important thing. That's the most important thing I've found for feeling better about a mistake- taking steps not to make it again." Sieg listened as Leif explained the spell he'd used to restart the knight's heart, his amber eyes widening. "Huh. I've been hit with lightening magic before, but usually it was from enemy mages who were trying to kill or paralyze me. It never occurred to me it could be used to start a stopped heart." Ha laughed. "I'm glad it apparently worked in my case." When Leif explained about the damage being temporarily dead had done, Sieg tilted his head. "That's a different way of putting it then the healer did. The way she explained it made it sound like whatever in my head controlled my ability to move properly had just shut down entirely. But if it's just that my body forgot how to move... that makes the exercises make a little more sense." The half-elf brightened visibly at this. "That's not so bad then- it's like when I was a page. I had to condition my body to be able to cope with things like armor and teach the muscles in my arms and hands how to properly hold and manipulate a weapon. I didn't inherently know how. But with enough practice it became instinct and habit." He sighed with obvious relief. "This I can handle. It's still not fun, but I can handle it." Sieg talks a bit about guilt, explaining that he understands how Leif feels and that there's nothing wrong with him feeling that way- taking a rather different stance then Morgaine did thanks to his own perspective on the issue. Then he listens to Leif explain the defibbing and brain damage, and the way Leif words the explanation actually gives Sieg a very great deal of comfort.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 9, 2014 12:32:55 GMT -5
"Leif, you're talking to a man who spent over a decade stabbing himself in the gut and twisting the knife over the death of his father. I know what guilt is like, and I know how it can eat you alive." Leif glanced away, mentally wincing at having not made that connection himself and thus speaking so carelessly. Part of him argued that it was different, that the death of Sieg’s father wasn’t the half-elf’s fault, while Leif was a trained Archmage and should definitely have been more careful with the spell. Sieg brought up the first error of Leif’s...though even Leif could admit that it wasn’t entirely his fault. He’d had no way of predicting what would happen when two archmages’ magics collided, and shields weren’t exactly a standard practice in curse-breaking; you usually didn’t need them. "Well, in fairness to the healer, I didn't give her very much to work with to give you an explanation. The other archmage’s magic and mine started clashing as soon as I cast the spell to see the glyphs, and I think that’s what caused the rebound. My magic was shielding me from the worst of it, but you were latched into the curse, so…” He rested his chin in his hands, absently running a finger over the scar under his eye. “The hallucinations could have been from another spell that was triggered. There were a lot of spells in that mess that I didn’t have time to look at.” He nodded when Sieg guessed that Leif had put up shields for the other knights. ”So you learned from the mistake, and that's the important thing. That's the most important thing I've found for feeling better about a mistake- taking steps not to make it again."“That does make sense,” Leif admitted. “Things certainly went smoother with the other knights. I just...I know I have a lot of power. I’d rather feel some unneeded guilt than become arrogant with it. Though a better balance might do some good. “Still - I am sorry you were hurt and...that the curse took so long to figure out.” The wording was different from what Leif would have normally chosen...but it was true, wasn’t it - the curse had taken a long time to figure out. That wasn’t necessarily Leif’s fault. Well, the guilt complex was just that - complex. It wasn’t going to go away in one conversation. He reminded himself what Morgaine had told him long ago, about letting people forgive him. Leif winced a little at the healer’s recounted description. “And people say I’m tactless... It’s much more like...like an atrophied muscle, in my experience. Or an injured one. And no,” he agreed with a wry smile, “I imagine it won’t be much fun - but I don’t think it will take as long as your squire training.” Tilting his head, Leif asked, “Do you have any idea if you’re staying here to fully-recover, or are they going to make you ride back to Nid’aigle as soon as you can take the trip? I wish I could say I’d heard something about it, but that seems to be the elves’ decision...and I don’t speak elvish.” Leif-guilt, fun for the whole family and part of why this post took so dang long to write! \ o / Also, Leif wonders if the knights are staying to recover or if they’re being ridden back to Nid’aigle as soon as they’re capable of taking the trip.
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 9, 2014 13:37:55 GMT -5
"Clashing? Huh... I've never heard of that happening before. Then again not much that the curse did really matched up with anything I've seen from magic before. The healing siphon caught even the mages off guard." Sieg frowned. "That does remind me though, what happened to the healer trap? Why didn't it grab you when you used the lightening spell? Or... or did it?" When Leif apologized for his fumbling with the curse, Sieg shook his head. "No worries. I'm sorry for losing it there for a while. I... I can only imagine how that was on your end. I honestly don't know what happened, I still felt mostly lucid right up until the fever started..." He unconsciously put a hand over his chest, as if to confirm that he could in fact still feel his heartbeat under the skin. He could, of course, the pulse against his palm steady and strong as it had not been in a long while. It felt almost surreal to know that for a while it had completely stopped. Shaking it off, he grinned. "Ah, yes I've had plenty of experience rehabilitating muscles- you probably guessed that, given how long I went without magical healing. I broke my leg when I was still a squire, and I've dislocated my shoulders... Woo, more times then I care to count. It's a pain, but a passing pain. It's just... going to be a lot harder to have to relearn how to move almost every muscle in my body." When Leif asked where the knight would be going to recover, Sieg unexpectedly winced. "That's been a rather tricky topic, now that you bring it up. Nid'aigle's military healers don't have the specialization for the sort of long-term, extensive rehabilitation I need to do. Lord Everett's healers are the only ones in Corvus aside from your charity church's with the training to handle this, so I almost have to stay in Solis, but well..." he flushed a bit. "I'm not entirely certain I'd be able to afford to keep receiving treatment from the Jade healers. Knights earn a livable stipend, of course, and bonuses for unusual duties, but even so healers are expensive. Especially noble-employed ones." He shrugged. "They're still discussing it. Or, well, the noble's messengers are corresponding with my commander about it, since none of the other knights here except me understand enough Kythian to dance diplomatic circles around the issue. I suppose worse comes to worse I could always look into something in Medieville and get my mother's help, though that would mean admitting to her what actually happened to me. Which I'd rather avoid if at all possible. The last thing she needs is more to worry about." Sieg talks to Leif some more about medical and magic related things. Then our poor knight admits that he's actually kind of at a stalemate insofar as where he'll be doing his recovering, for monetary reasons of all things. (Hey, doctor bills are expensive!)
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 9, 2014 19:00:38 GMT -5
Leif grinned tiredly. “There wasn’t a trap set for the lightning spell. I’m guessing he didn’t know that trick, and it’s not technically a healing spell. It’s elemental, and who would be trying to heal a wounded man with an elemental attack?” His smile was short-lived, though, as Sieg replied to his apology with one of his own. "No worries. I'm sorry for losing it there for a while. I... I can only imagine how that was on your end. I honestly don't know what happened, I still felt mostly lucid right up until the fever started..."Leif pointed a finger at the half-elf. “ No, Sieg - don’t you start doing that to yourself again. There is literally no way you can blame yourself for dying of bloodloss and dehydration because someone you didn’t know was an archmage cast a curse that defies the laws of magic. Unless you were - I don’t know, squeezing the blood out of yourself? Refusing to drink? Which I know you wouldn’t be doing, because you aren’t an idiot.” Leif shook his head. “For ‘Woo’s sake - maybe I ought to tell your mother after all so she can give you a stern lecture!” Sieg’s answer to Leif’s question about where he would be recovering startled the mage - he hadn’t realized the knights would be expected to pay for their own treatment - that seemed brutally unfair when it was House Jade who had brought them here. “That’s ridiculous - I know the healers need payment, but - “ Leif shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. I know Lord Everett keeps funds set aside that we can tap into if we need, and if not, well, there’s a bit of extra at Marson I can use. “Actually, I bet it would be easy to get Everett to pay for it...I could talk to the librarians and some of the scholars and maybe get their help - if you don’t mind and when you’re feeling better, they’d probably be interested in learning more about Nid’aigle. I know the librarians are always complaining about the elvish books they have in the library; apparently there’s been debate going for years about a few passages and the accuracy of the translations.” He grinned sheepishly. “...I admit I didn’t pay much attention because magic and birds weren’t involved, but…” Leif does an odd amount of grinning in this post but uhm more importantly, he explains that there was no trap for the lightning spell, scolds Sieg for apologizing for dying because really, Sieg?, and says he’ll figure out how to get payment together so Sieg can stay in Solis to heal properly, dangit (possibly enlisting help from scholars & librarians who want to learn more about the elves and check the accuracy of their translations)
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 9, 2014 19:41:24 GMT -5
“No, Sieg - don’t you start doing that to yourself again. There is literally no way you can blame yourself for dying of bloodloss and dehydration because someone you didn’t know was an archmage cast a curse that defies the laws of magic. Unless you were - I don’t know, squeezing the blood out of yourself? Refusing to drink? Which I know you wouldn’t be doing, because you aren’t an idiot.” Leif shook his head. “For ‘Woo’s sake - maybe I ought to tell your mother after all so she can give you a stern lecture!” The knight was startled by Leif's vehemence, but he grinned and lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Alright, alright, point taken. I'll be good and not wallow in self-accusation over things that are in no way my fault. Though I do still feel bad for worrying you, even if it wasn't something I had any control over.” he shrugged with a rueful smile. “I know what it's like watching someone you care about die, I wouldn't wish that on anyone else.” Leif seemed equally unamused by Sieg's reply about the cost of his recovery. “That’s ridiculous - I know the healers need payment, but - “ Leif shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. I know Lord Everett keeps funds set aside that we can tap into if we need, and if not, well, there’s a bit of extra at Marson I can use.”The half elf's expression took on a trace of panic. “Leif, you already saved my life and the lives of my friends and comrades, you don't have to beggar yourself for my sake!” But then it seemed that Leif got a different idea. “Actually, I bet it would be easy to get Everett to pay for it...I could talk to the librarians and some of the scholars and maybe get their help - if you don’t mind and when you’re feeling better, they’d probably be interested in learning more about Nid’aigle. I know the librarians are always complaining about the elvish books they have in the library; apparently there’s been debate going for years about a few passages and the accuracy of the translations.” He grinned sheepishly. “...I admit I didn’t pay much attention because magic and birds weren’t involved, but…”A slight snigger escaped Sieg at that last remark. Then, a chuckle. Then, bafflingly, he found himself bent almost double laughing. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” he gasped, trying to wipe his eyes and missing completely. “I don't kn-know why that's so funny. I just... I just...” he lost himself to another fit of hysteria. “Oh Woo, maybe I am going stir-crazy,” he said, shaking his head. He looked up at Leif, his amber eyes dancing with mirth. “I don't mind telling your scholars whatever they'd like to know. Actually it'd be kind of interesting to do- Alain Stallion apparently picked my father's brain for information about Nid'aigle during the Langian War, so it'd be like carrying on a family tradition. But why would that be a fair trade for weeks of physical therapy in the eyes of the Jade patriarch?” Sieg is still apologetic about dying because of course he is. Then he inexplicably becomes very amused by Leif's offhand joke, probably because he hasn't really had anything to laugh about recently and he was way overdue for something to lighten his mood. He says he'd be willing to tell the Jade scholars whatever they want to know, noting Belial did something similar while he was alive and it'd be like he was continuing a family tradition. But he's not sure if that'd really be a fair trade for his medical expenses.
|
|
|
Post by Tiger on Sept 10, 2014 9:34:43 GMT -5
Sieg promised not to wallow in guilt, but of course he had to add, ”Though I do still feel bad for worrying you, even if it wasn't something I had any control over. I know what it's like watching someone you care about die, I wouldn't wish that on anyone else.”“Well, you didn’t wish it on me,” Leif objected. “Actually, you held on a lot longer than I think anyone had a right to expect of you. ‘Pit, you were still clear-headed enough to help me figure out how the curse worked. So, you have nothing to feel bad about. Maybe try being proud of yourself for once, even,” he added with a quirked smile. Leif’s offhand comment about birds and magic got a snicker, which was more than Leif had expected - and then it turned into a full-on gale of laughter that had Leif seriously concerned for a moment. The remark really hadn’t been that funny - something Sieg even admitted right before breaking into another bout of laughter. “I - are you all right?” Finally, the knight recovered enough to say, “Oh Woo, maybe I am going stir-crazy,” “You must be - laughing at one of my jokes instead of replying with something deadpan and halfway clever. You poor man.” Sieg said he would be fine talking to the scholars, and to Leif’s surprise, said that his father had done something similar for Alain Stallion during the Langean war. The half-elf seemed dubious that the costs of recuperation and the information he could provide the scholars were equal, and Leif assured him, “As soon as they find out there’s a Nid’aigle knight here who speaks fluent Kythian, they’ll be up in arms to make sure you stay here. They have a decent portion of budget allotted to them; even if they can’t convince Lord Everett to pay for your care, they can put off buying a copy of “Eastern Kingfisher River Toads” or “Religious Texts of Lyell” or whatever nonessential books they’re trying to buy and reroute the funds to you. Call it a consultation fee. “Though if your father helped Alain Stallion during the Langean War...I wonder if I can find a way to drop that fact in when I go to talk to Lord Everett. It would kill him to think the Grand Duke might have more recent information on a Corvid people than House Jade.” Leif continues to fight the (potentially-losing) battle of “stop blaming yourself for dying geez, Sieg”, and explains why the scholars’ interest would sway Everett...and realizes that playing to Lordshipping Everett’s rivalry with Alain would help sway him as well.
|
|
|
Post by Shinko on Sept 10, 2014 10:56:09 GMT -5
"Proud of myself? That's a novel concept! How does one do that?" Sieg asked jokingly. "Surely I won't get the answer from you, Mr. I-Can-Summon-Dragons-And-Raise-The-Dead-With-Lightening-But-Woo-Forbid-I-Miss-A-Moving-Enemy-In-The-Heat-Of-Battle." Sieg's eyes took on a nostalgic light. "You might find this hard to believe, but when I was a teenager I was actually a pretty prideful young idiot. Kind of did a one-eighty and I don't know if I've really figured out a happy-medium yet." He'd stopped doing the exercises by this point. His arms both hung limp at his side and his back was sliding down the headboard of the bed a bit. He shoved the sandbag around with the side of one hand absently as he spoke. "I will admit, as embarrassing as the way I was treated in Bern was, it was also gratifying in a way. I still didn't really feel like I deserved it, but Orrin's cheerfulness is infectious and it's hard not to be at least a little flattered. I couldn't even try to justify it with the fact that I was doing my duty- I wasn't really, because my duties are first to Nid'aigle, then to Corvus, then to Kyth as a whole. Running around in the Bernian mountains killing monsters might technically be considered serving Kyth, but it's very low priority in terms of my obligations. It was just... something we did because we wanted to." He grinned impishly when Leif suggested appealing to the Stallion and Jade rivalry to sway Lord Everett. "That I could see working. Half the time I wonder if those two are the most powerful lords in Kyth or a pair of schoolchildren trying to establish who's dad can beat up who." To the knight's surprise, he found his eyes starting to glaze a little while he was talking, and shook his head to clear them. Sieg talks a bit about his self esteem issues, admitting he knows it's a problem he needs to address and that he does sort of like the few times he can honestly say he did something he felt proud of. He also jokes a bit about Everett, and Alain. All the while he's starting to show a few signs that fatigue is catching back up to him, since he is still recovering. But he's being stubborn and trying to fight it off because like a four year old he wants to keep talking to his friend and doesn't wanna go to bed mommy. D=
|
|