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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 20:37:11 GMT
Kat had been a Mirrormancer for a few years now, but as yet she hadn’t attained the rank of Master, which had irritated her no end. The Senior Mirrormancer Geriant had deliberately sabotaged her efforts towards a master work and had been a constant pain in her arse. Now Geriant had been called away to one of the other towns to repair one of the mirrors and finally Kat had a chance to produce her masterwork on her own without too much interference.
She had hurried to finish it lest Geriant returned and tried to spoli it before she had finished. A masterwork Mirror had to access some place beyond Eschanta and they were used to try and find people and creatures who could help them in their war. Way back in the day the Senior Mirrormancer of the day had located the Dinathactor’s and had pulled several through and turned them into a breeding stock. The Shadow Cats had also been pulled through, though they soon escaped and that experiment had not gone so well. After they had lost three Mirrormancers to trying to go through to these foreign mirrors, the King had banned his Mirrormancers from travelling to places outside Eschanta.
Kat must have looked a fright after all her hot, sweaty work, but she was determined to try out her Masterwork and see if she had finally succeeded without the help of the Senior Mirrormancer. She activated the mirror and saw a strange temple with thin long dark haired person facing away from the mirror as the image appeared.
"Excuse me Madam! Can you hear me?" Kat asked politely.
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 20:56:31 GMT
Ovid had been put into the temple depths of the god Tezcatlipoca. It was dark as night and he was supposed to be experiencing death before rebirth. There was suddenly a bit of light in the place where no light should be. He felt his eyes burn from the sudden light and blinked several times. That is when words came.
"Madame ?" He looked for the source of the light and it came from a pane of obsidian set in the wall. He walked towards it looking in.
There indeed was a woman in the smokey pane. The young man with tanned skin and paints on him looked at her.
"Spirit, you have reached out. I am here." He bowed his head and placed his arm across his chest.
"Have I been reborn already ?"
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 21:03:16 GMT
As the person turned Kat re-evaluated her initial words. The person in the mirror was either a rather slight man with makeup or a less delicate woman. She couldn't decide but given a lack of breasts probably the former of the two. Still different species could look like anything.
"I did indeed reach out through the mirrors but I am no spirit and I know nothing of your rebirth. Are you expecting one?" It was to be expected that there would be cultural differences, but as it was her first contact beyond Eschanta she wasn't fully prepared for it.
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 21:14:02 GMT
"No spirit, are you Tezcatlipoca ? You speak to me through smoking mirror. Yes I am dead or am supposed to be for a time before I am reborn." He looks down for a moment, "So they tell me."
"I am Ovid, may I ask who you are ?"
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 21:20:35 GMT
She studied him further. His skin was darker than those on Eshanta but lighter than hers. She wondered whether perhaps her sire had come from a workd similar to this. She'd never seen anyone before who didn't have a pale skin and seeing someone with a different skin colour like her intrigued Kat.
"I am Princess Katerina Alswyck. Does your skin change colour when you die Ovid or is it always such a tone?" It would be no good trying to get a dead man to help save Eshanta, but it was interesting intellectually to her that she could talk to a dead man who thought he was about to be reborn. "I am a master with the mirrors, or at least I should be now."
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 21:31:29 GMT
"Princess Katerina Alswyck." He repeated as if memorizing it and seeing if he had it right.
"My skin I cannot see while dead though you have blessed me with a bit of light." He looks at his arms and down at himself.
"My skin is as always though it does darken in the sun." He smiled then, "Master of Mirrors then you are like the God Tezcatlipoca no wonder you can speak to me in this place. This is the temple of smoking mirrors. It is nice to have some company it is a bit boring being dead."
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 21:40:49 GMT
Kat looks around her at the smoke from the forge fires.
"Yes, I'm sorry about all the smoke. I'm sure it will clear in a bit but the rapid cooling can do that sometimes. The fires give off a fair bit of light too, though its not usually too dark down here anyway." She had the place to herself for now, but other Mirrormancers came in and out of here at all times of the day.
"Can I ask. How did you die?"
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 21:58:11 GMT
"I do not mind the smoke. Your fires are welcome to me as well." He bowed his head in thanks.
He looks somewhat dismayed, "I was drugged at the end of a ceremony. Perhaps it was then that they killed me or poison took me. It is unclear they don't speak very clearly about these things. They simply said I must experience death for several passages of Huitzilopochtli in the heavens before I may be reborn. I was picked out for this not all must suffer death."
"You though look full of life, though you seem tired. What is it like to be a Master of Mirrors ?"
Something caught his eye a tiny glint of obsidian elsewhere in the chamber.
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 22:11:07 GMT
Several passages of Huitzilopochtli in the heavens? This sounded to Kat like he meant days perhaps.
"Well I'm alive at the moment until the Senior comes and finds out what I've done. Then no doubt he'll find a way to punish me, but he cannot deny me the title of Master. To be a Master of Mirrors is to be someone who can create and connect. The creation of magical devices that can communicate across the heavons, to commune with beings across many other places. It seems that those beings can be alive or dead, but I was not aware of that beforehand."
It is no good trying to get someone who is dead to save Eshanta. We have plenty of dead of our own here and we don't need more.
"Do you know why you were selected for death? What made you special?"
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 22:23:49 GMT
A pained look comes across his features.
"I am different from my people. Though I look like them, I am not like them. I was left by gods to them."
Ovid's features scrunched up a bit as he thought.
"I am stronger then others, I heal from wounds that should leave scars and I am unscarred, I sometimes notice spirits even when not in a state of euphoria, As I am different, I am treated differently. Like this trial and others. I may be of the blood of the gods though some wish me truly dead with no rebirth because I am different and they do not like that it is so. Most times though I am treated well. You said you may communicate across many places. Is it then possible I may be from some other place like you and have been placed here ?"
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 22:38:21 GMT
Kat hears Ovid's words and a sadness creeps across her face, in many ways reflecting Ovid's own sadness.
"I too am different from my people. They do not have a darkened skin like me and I was left here by who or what I do not know, but I do not that I am not from here originally. I am the only one who looks as such and they use that here to cause me pain even though I try only try and help. You and I are more similar than I even knew at first Ovid, and I want to be rid of those feelings and pain. Perhaps I too am in need of a rebirth, though we have no such thing as that here."
"Will you look the same or different when you are reborn?"
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 22:55:55 GMT
"I know of some others who have gone through death and rebirth and they look the same though a touch more pale. Thinner too as we are not given food and what water I get drips from upper chambers. So it must be with them. I do know that after a moons cycle life fully comes back to them and they look much more as they did. Some have visions and become shamans. Others find spirits with which they form bonds those changes though one cannot usually see."
He smiles brightening a bit, "Then I am glad to have met you, Princess Katerina Alswyck. For if we are different then we are different together. Take strength then from me that you are not alone in moments when you feel seperate from your people or they treat you as one to hold at arms length. One such as you will be reborn soon. In this you have someone going through the same ordeals though perhaps different. We have a Mirror Master here the God Tezcatlipoca but he is the only one, and yet I have met you. You have brought me enlightenment and so much to think about. Other places and speaking across the heavens, you are blessed to be able to perform such things. Am I able to give you a gift ?"
He takes off a necklace with jaguar claws and jade and emerald beads.
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Post by Katerina on Feb 25, 2023 23:10:45 GMT
So he will look mostly the same if I meet him again. Not that such a thing is likely.
"I am glad to have brought some pleasure to you during your death Ovid. Yes you can pass things through the mirror, though I may have to pass my hand through." Kat begins to panic a little. Her new dead friend wanted to give her a gift and she hadn't been thoughtful enough to have prepared something.
She looks around quickly for something and picks up the closest thing to her.
"A gift deserves one in return. That is the custom. This is my forge hammer." She passes through her hammer and accepts the necklace in return. There is a milky sheen and ripple as her darkened arm comes through the mirror and then as second as her arm withdraws once again. Hopefully that has not violated the King's order not to go through the mirrors. "Is there any significance to the claws on this necklace?"
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Ovid
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Post by Ovid on Feb 25, 2023 23:25:46 GMT
"It was something I made after a trial of manhood. I had to go alone into the jungle and face a great predator. I ended up fighting a jaguar. It is a totem and reminder of the trial. A Jaguar spirit is within." He then thinks on it.
"A jaguar is a great cat in size they sometimes kill the men and children among our people. Powerful spirits, I hope that it gives you strength and reminds you of me." He nods to her.
His eyes widen in wonder as the trade takes place and takes the hammer looking at it.
"I like it." He spins it and swings it in kata style movements.
A bit of future Ovid shines through for a moment as he gives a quirky smile, "Though I would have been happy for a plate of capybara meat or some wild boar." he laughs a bit after that.
"Thank you, I shall remember you and your gift."
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Post by Katerina on Feb 26, 2023 10:10:46 GMT
It is such an appropriate gift that Kat wonders if Ovid senses something about her.
"I'll attend to you food requirements in a bit. Let me show you something first that I have never shown anyone before. I'm not sure how, but there is a connection in this gift which is most precious." Kat tells him. "We too have large predatory cats here that are black and are known as Shadow Cats."
Without any further explanation Kat's form slowly begins to shift, changing such that her limbs become the feet of a large cat and the rest of her follows. The clothes she wore rip in places and hang loosely on her. But now staring back at Ovid is a large black cat with fur that reflects some of the light off it. If it weren't for the forge fires behind her, Ovid would have trouble seeing Kat.
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