That's the terror of knowing what this world is about

[divinityfrompain]

WHO: Julia Wicker and OTA
WHAT: Catch-all for January!
WHERE: Thorne
WHEN: January
WARNINGS: Nothing so far





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[divinityfrompain]

"Yeah it's like you have the willpower of magic within you and the hand movements are being used to focus the energy in the room toward what you need. Like...." Julia gets to her feet and she stands solid. She puts her hands together in a triangular form and almost like a thunderclap pushes a firm gust of wind from it. Not so strong that it knocks anything over, but it does flutter pages and move a few books. And ruffles hair of anyone nearby.

"Sigils are useful and I'm pretty sure they have a whole collection of those too, or something like them." They definitely have symbolic imagery that she's caught on to. Solvunn has a lot of those that connects to the gods that sometimes get drawn to them. Like whatever spell it was that helped those cultists all the time ago, she's heard about since. Julia's magic includes sigils too, usually as defensive spells.

As for his question, she shakes her head. "No, I was intentionally left out of the magical university, a whole it's your destiny to learn on your own reasoning. Which is hard because outside of that university, it's difficult to find and learn magic." And that means that hedges like her have to work twice as hard to find one spell that was just hanging out in the university. Those students never had any idea how lucky they were, they squandered it so much. "But it made us witches tougher."

[godshattering]

The answering gust of wind to the small one he'd created gets an immediate grin from Claude, one of both delight and appreciation for what she'd created. A library clerk nearby pauses to watch when that bit of wind gets their attention. He nods to them before turning his gaze back to what comes next when his attention is focused on each reveal as the conversation progresses, though not without an eyebrow raise at her answer to the academy equivalent in her world.

"Huh. Sounds like that's standard everywhere since I've heard plenty about the schools of sorcery in Fodlan limiting who could attend either through intentional ways or less obvious ones like high fees." Lorenz, after all, had told him plenty of times about that particular school in Fhirdiad and its particular exclusivity. "An unfortunate commonality and even more so if it involves limiting magic to learning it there or somewhere else alongside it, all of which can be said for the academy my grandfather sent me to." Let alone the tutors he would've had in Almyra if he'd stayed.

Still - a slight grin crosses his face at the mention of it making her stronger. "I've always enjoyed a challenge myself even if it's one that shouldn't have to be faced. And it sounds like it helped if what you've shown here is anything to go by, or out in the gardens since I think I've seen you out there, too. If pulling upon nature is another way to do the magic I'd be all for that since I've always preferred to lean upon that over, say, faith in something."

[divinityfrompain]

The library is probably used to all kinds of mages coming in and out of here and occasionally using magic within. It's interesting to be in a place so steeped with magic that they have lessons on multiple levels every day. Julia would probably have loved being here for that alone, the amount of magic she could have learned by now would be massive. So she's trying to soak up as much as she can now. She technically can do a lot more magic than most given her deity power, but she often comes back to common spellwork.

"The thing is that the majority of my world doesn't know magic exists, up until a short time ago I thought it was only in fantasy books. If you don't get into the college or are from a magical family they wipe your mind and we have a whole lot of possible magicians who will never know what they're capable of. It sucks." She wonders if they ever think about how the well drying up with time if they keep being selective and elite. If the less magicians that they train lead to the eventual death of magic as they know it, because they haven't taken in all possible students who give more variety.

Magical politics! Go figure.

"Hedge witches, that's people who had to learn spells on their own, we're kind of bold and reckless because we have less training. But we love magic, you know?" Otherwise they wouldn't risk so much for just a touch of it. It isn't about power, not the way Brakebills might want to imply, it's the same reason trained magicians do it. The thrill, the love of something put into your very blood. "It's always a challenge." She smiles at him and shrugs. "I do wish I could like squirrel away some of these books and portal them home, the things they could come up with if they had access!"

[godshattering]

Something only in fantasy books - that resonates as something he's heard from other Summoned over the years and Claude smiles faintly. No matter how many times he hears it it never stops amusing him; it amuses him even more so when there's so many things he's been told from other worlds about their advancements and what life is like that he could say the same about so many things in return. Here, at least, it sounds like there's absolutely a(n unfortunate) shared thread of limiting things to those in power or close to it feel should be limited to only those they deem worthy. That gets a shake of his head since challenge sounds about like the right way to describe it.

"You and I share wanting to bring some of this back with us if we can since the world I come from could make good use of even just a tenth of what's available here. The Free Cities were who brought me here and there's more of a focus on technology than magic but so much would be of use if the nations at home could use it to make a difference for those who need it most." Everyone, preferably, if there'll be a chance for him to get his way on that when becoming king to make it so. A push towards equity for more than the nobles would do much - to say the least.

"For what it's worth, I've often found challenges make for a better understanding of something. For what I've been through, anyway, since it made me all the tougher for it." In good and bad ways, but that's perhaps a bit too much to go into upon just meeting someone and perhaps it goes unsaid as a fact of anyone going through something difficult as it is. It's with that latter thought in mind regarding meetings that Claude realizes something important to add as he sits up a little straighter in his lean against the table behind him. "I'm Claude, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

[divinityfrompain]

"I'm not sure we could use the spells in my home. Magic isn't as present as it is here, I'm not sure we have any magicians with an ounce of the full potential the mages here have. It's not thick in the air like here, I can practically breathe it in." They have powerful magicians and spells and the like, but it's not the same as being born with it seeped into every molecule. She thinks there are plenty of magicians who would want to stay here solely because of the access to magic they love on a higher scale. She's not one of them, but she wouldn't be surprised.

"But in Solvunn they only really seem to do magic related to the gods and I've been trying to teach them my spellwork, which has gone well. But they're pretty stuck in their ways, they might not want anything from Thorne." Solvunn isn't as hateful toward Thorne as the Free Cities, they didn't make a move in the war until it seemed too dangerous not to. But they might find non-god magic distasteful. 'Stuck' is one way of calling stubborn disregard for new options.

"I agree. I'm definitely tougher for all of it." For better or for worse. Julia smiles brightly when he introduces himself. "Oh shit I didn't even realize we hadn't done that, too focused on the convo I guess, I'm Julia. My boyfriend lives in the Free Cities, maybe you've met him? The Doctor?"

[godshattering]

"I think Solvunn and the Free Cities probably share that not wanting anything from Thorne," he quips a bit dryly but with no less humor behind it, since - "Not even the things which might be good for them, considering magic could solve problems the technology in Cadens can't quite reach yet. I suppose that'd go against the military's goals, though." A deeper topic mean for another time, possibly, since there's nothing they can do about that here when it comes to Cadens' leadership or even Solvunn's resistance to... well, also anything besides what they know.

Better to set those problems aside as his expression brightens at the mention of one particular Summoned. "I do know him! We've talked a few times here and there and he's rather delightful." And then some, though that feels like the most succinct way of putting it when Julia knows her partner far better than he does and the rest is all sincere as said. "I get the impression he's lived a rather interesting life just from what he's told me in those conversations. I don't know about you, but I'm always grateful for the Horizon to make the distance a little easier even for as much as I like being independent."

Which is most of the time, content as he is to go about whatever he's doing - but being limited to small in person visits isn't ideal when longing for someone. The same applies to now though a bit in reverse since now those Claude spends most of his time with are scattered elsewhere to lessen that separation just a bit.