[PRP] red pen (eve + renard)

[shibrogane]

Renard sighed through his nose, and held out a hand for the notebook.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Should it take less experience than I have to know how to make one?" Eve asked neutrally while handing the opened journal over. She honestly had no idea. Along with chronomancy she'd done an enchantment and separated Ezra from the Burning Man, with help and extra power from some others. While she was mostly proud of her accomplishments so far, she had little reference for how basic or advanced any of it was.

The design featured a zodiacal Wheel of the Year, as well as circles for the phase of the moon and position of the sun, as obvious calibration points. There was also space in the center for a floral arrangement (elaborated upon on another page), as well as plenty of notes about materials and their ritual uses and potential substitutes or augmentations.

Instead of explaining anything, Eve waited, certain Renard would find something he didn't like about it.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard considered it for what probably seemed like a long time, but was in actuality maybe three to five minutes. "What is the connection between the flowers and the stars," he asked. He raised an eyebrow at something, turned back a page, and leaned back in his chair, evidently settling into Time to Teach A Thing mode. "Elaborate on the physical form of the schema; I don't see anything about it here. What will give it its shape?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"I misspoke a moment ago, about the schema. Sorry for that," Eve began. "So far this is designed as an altar for a ritual. The zodiac sign, moon phase and sun position I choose specify the target moment in time."

Then she briefly turned to another page, which had more detail on the flowers. "And while the celestial bodies denote the target time, the flowers establish the form and purpose of the spell. I'm using symbolism derived from floriography here."

A midnight-blue painted fingernail pointed along the sketch on the page, and Eve described the meaning of each flower in turn: vervain for enchantment, white poplar for time, flos adonis for painful recollections, and moonwort for forgetfulness. "Factor in how they're arranged, and the translated message is 'an enchantment of time allows a painful memory to be forgotten.' In practice, this makes it clear I'm undoing something about the past I find unfavorable," she explained. "The caster's mind fills in the rest of the details, though other flowers can be added to account for special circumstances or context around what's being reset."

She took a slow, deep breath, still a bit on edge. This was the first time she'd had to explain her magic to someone qualified to critique it, and that eroded her confidence a little bit. "Is this all something I could convert into a schema, then?" she asked. "The closest I've gotten to that possibility was thinking about a sigil to make the whole thing more portable, and easier to set up."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You're not undoing anything," said Renard, patiently. "You're resetting. They're different concepts; undoing would be as if it never happened, which is patently not within the power of what you've done on this page. Resetting means it did happen, but from the moment of casting forward it will be as if it didn't."

He looked at the page. "No, not as it stands. A schema requires a strong skeleton. What you have here is the musculature, but nothing to contain it or it to latch on to..." Renard leaned in, turned the pages. "If you wanted to maintain this work you've done, a glass etched orb with the flowers within it might function as you wish, but you'd have to create multiple orbs. It wouldn't be a functional schema without substantially more work."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve arced a brow. "So I need a frame, or a set of frames linked to each other?" she guessed.

If so, she knew exactly who she could contact to get that done.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I used a rock," said Renard flatly. "As I wanted to actually undo the last thirty, forty years, and remake it better. I didn't need to make it changeable. You'd want a series of shells, frames, whatever you want to call it."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"For each component, then?" Eve had taken her journal back, and now was writing Renard's instruction onto a fresh page.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard shrugged. "For each component you want to be able to change," he said. "So dates, times... you'll want to be as exact as you can."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"That sounds within my abilities," said Eve, thoroughly expecting some frustration in her near future. "Thank you for the direction. Did you notice any other technical issues that need work besides that one?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You need to connect the stars and flowers better if you're going to make a schema rather than a ritual alter," said Renard. "I'm not sure how you would do that, with your design. But you do have to."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve nodded thoughtfully, still writing. "I'll have to think of something, then." She had some ideas, but she'd have to explore them later. "Can I e-mail you when I've made my changes, now that you know what I'm up to?"

shibrogane