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Message: <blockquote data-quote="figmike" data-source="post: 3622473" data-attributes="member: 52877">Twilight“Now move your arm up and make the sign of Sight and Wards,” the old teacher spoke to his young students.  When they did so, appearing before them there was a variety of different shaped patterns on the floors, doors, and on the tables.  They existed in different hues and colors.  The teacher started to point to each one, explaining the meaning of the colors, how fiery crimson was an elemental fire ward, and how a grey pattern represented the warding of ghosts.  “Now, Peleps Regis,” the teacher looked towards the young boy in the back of the room. “what are the primary ways to summon ghosts, and what are the primary tools to ward yourself from them?”The young child knew the answer immediately, blood and salt.  But when asked to perform the ritual of summoning, he was unable to do so.  He wasn’t afraid, and he knew the techniques, but he couldn’t force the ghost to reveal itself.  His teacher told him that there is more to summoning than knowledge.  “It requires confidence and force of personality,” the man said to him.  “This is something you find all though out your life.”And that was his life.And this is his life now.Peleps Regis walked into his family home.  He had been in the matsurigoto building all day.  The return home was never one of his favorite things, especially now that his father was in such a mood.  His position at work was a strange one, but like all members of the All Seeing Eye, he had to make certain that no one knows he’s a member.  Not even his family.  So to his parents he will always be the nonexalted scribe, working his boring government job for the Thousand Scales.  Going nowhere and bringing nothing in return.Things had been worst since his oldest brother, Oraga, had gotten his third coil in the Order.  Most families would have been proud of a son who joined the Immaculate Order, much less obtained Third Coil. But to Regis’s father Peleps Orsten, exalted to the water dragon and proud member of House Peleps, when Oraga joined the Order and changed his name to “Jade Fist” he had turned his back on his family.  Now anytime something good happened to Oraga, it was as if someone had died in the house.   His mother had a way of always forgetting he was in the room.  Regis was a smart man, he always had been.  But with six brothers and sisters, each with forceful personalities, he could get left behind.  She would talk to the others, and at her youngest son.  It was as if nothing he had to say really mattered.  He sat down for dinner and the house slaves brought in the food.  He ate in silence.Things at work were no better.  Ledaal Tsuro was his Air aspected supervisor and one of the finest diviners in the Realm.  At least to hear Tsuro tell it.  But as talented as Regis was, as smart as he was, his skills as a diviner were somewhat lacking.  Of course there were plenty of other things he could offer, but he always got passed over.  Others around him were promoted to more prestigious positions, while he stayed behind, assisting Tsuro in whatever ways he needed.And that was his life.This is his life now.Spider looked out across the ocean, just barely visible were the tropical islands that he had never stepped foot on.  Who lived there, he may never know.  From here he could see Steel Sun’s corsair galley on its way back from whatever plunder and pirating they had just done.  Sun was a good man and easy to like.  He was also the only other mortal on the island.  At least the only one Spider was allowed to be near.  Spider looked up to the top of the golden spire that was Fakharu’s domain.  She was somewhere on the top level, Fakharu’s mistress, his princess, his treasure.  His prisoner.“It is time for your lessons, Master Spider.”  He knew the voice.  It was hard to forget.  High pitched and like a reed flute.  Spider looked over at Burnished Mantis, chamberlain of the house.It’s been four years since he first met Fakharu, Censor of the Celestial Bureaucracy, Dragon of Water.  Some things you get used to, others perhaps not.  Burnished Mantis was an insect spirit before starting to work here on the island.  He’s been with the Censor for a few hundred years at least.  He stood a good eight feet in the air, looking like a mantis polished in emerald stone.  Added to the fact that he could stand without moving for as long as he wanted to, the creature reminded most of a statue come to life.  But there are some things you get used to here on the island, and Burnished Mantis was one of the easiest.  Not overtly friendly, but honest and dependable.  As he walked into the library, five golden felines raced away.  After four years you would think they would be used to him by now.  One of the cats poked it’s head out from a bookshelf and stared at him.  “YOU ARE LATE,” said a voice like stones crunching.  The earth elemental Shemaru stood in the back of the room, one of his felines perched on his broad shoulders as normal.“I WAS VISITED BY MIRROR OF DIVINITY,” the librarian continued. “YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW I LOATH THAT.  SHE WISHES TO SPEAK WITH YOU AFTER OUR LESSON.”  He pulls out a large tome, flapping it in front of the Solar.  “THIS IS A BOOK ON DEMONOLOGY, WRITTEN BY MOL VARESI, STUDENT OF SALINAN.  YOU WILL READ IT BY THE TIME I HAVE RETURNED AND WE WILL DISCUSS THE FINER POINTS OF HIS CONCEPTS AND IDEAS.”And with that the elemental walks away.  Spider looks down on the tome.  Some things you get used to.</blockquote>

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