[PRP] a split focus (ezra & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

"Yet both Renard and Liam function within the Court." As he remembered them at the ball; the night of the tithing. "Unless that is simply a matter of honorary status considering who and what they are?" Much like Sunny's presence there.

The look on Ezra's face gave him pause; made something heavy settle into his stomach for a moment. There was a flash, a slight tremor that was a feeling he had not had for months - the kind that had lead to seizures and fainting spells - but it faded after another breath.

"Why," he said slowly, "do I feel as if you're going to tell me that she was tithed by someone," there was something about the way he said that; unease creeping into his voice, "with my last name?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Renard was the source of all magic, before Ascencion was born," said Ezra. His voice had a chill to it. "Liam was his husband. After her birth, they retained their positions out of respect. They were, in essence, the dowagers. Her regents."

He said, "Because as far as I know, Minerva Mercer--Noeh, the Sorrowful One--was the one who tithed Melany. Insofar as such a thing is possible, she created the nobility and their trials."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

A thought settled in his mind at that statement, one that he could not get rid of. That Renard was magic and Sunny was magic after she was born. Renard who had been caged from his magic. It had all gone to his child. That would have made for a complicated relationship: the child you had not expected, or potentially wanted, and said child also contained all of your magic.

Complicated was probably an understatement.

It fled in a moment when Ezra continued on the heavy feeling returned. "She was well aware of what she was doing when she performed the magic that created the Court," not knowing would have made the magic not work as intended, "but she had intended something else as the focal point - a spell schema of Renard's - instead it locked onto Melany."

The knot settled into his stomach, his thoughts wondering if that had turned Melany into one of the first Nobles or if Minerva had actually moved to tithe her through the trials of nobility.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"A what?" Ezra arched an eyebrow. "A schema of Renard's? The man couldn't have built one after the cage."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It wasn't from after the cage," Jeremiah replied. "She stated it was a leftover from the time before the cage. Something complex, that held it's own structure and adapted to circumstance. It was meant to create, ah ..."

He paused, reaching into his pocket and a small notebook pulled out. Pages were flipped before he closed it after reading what he needed. "A self-perpetuating seal."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"That's not how spell schemas work," said Ezra. "And nothing remained after the cage that Renard and Liam weren't holding. Otherwise, there would be more spell schema than just that one..."

He paused.

"Where did you meet Minerva Mercer?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"... and how exactly do they work then? A structure that holds data essentially?" It was not something had actively pursued but- His face flickered, expression bleeding back in at the way that he could not stop when Ezra said her name like that and asked what he did.

"Once," he said quietly, "Algie met her on the other side. She wore oxfords and had a pair of golden rings on a chain but she wasn't there. Like she was dreaming of it or, perhaps, from another time altogether and out of sync. She simply said her name was Mina but gave no last name and gave him his grimoire because she had holding onto it for him.

"We met her again at the Court, during the night of the red moon, though it was Algie who discovered her; found that the lone doe was Mina and that her name was actually Minerva Mercer.

"It was not until after the world shift, searching the other side, that I found her on the beach with no magic and spoke with her." Had done some more than once since. A breath was let out, Jeremiah looking to Ezra. "Why do you ask?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"They hold information for a spell, yes," said Ezra. "If you think you won't be able to remember every changed aspect you want to put into a spell, you create a schema to hold it. But what I mean is, a schema used as a focal point would have to have an absolutely massive magical input. It would be incredibly effective, but also nearly impossible to power."

He frowned, and looked down at his composition. "It's nothing," he said. "Just... an oddity."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"So potentially good for creation of a cage but not what they were doing for the creation of the Court?" Jeremiah finally gave in, though he did not realize it, to raking his fingers through his hair and then rubbing at the side of his neck a moment. His hand dropped to lap after ward, fingers tapping a beat quietly before stopping as Ezra frowned and looked down.

"... and how is that an oddity?" he inquired. "I know- Mina is someone I've known in other cycles but she's not here this time and I've not run into her at all." A noise of frustration was held back, trapped in his throat. Somehow he thought that that was what Ezra was trying to ask previously. "She's somehow tied to me, was possibly important to me, yet I do not know how or why she is a Mercer."

shibroswol

 

[shibrogane]

"It would've been powered by three or four people at most," said Ezra. "Not nearly enough to force an attachment to an object with the consequences they wanted it to have. Caging computer viruses is one thing. Changing the shape of the otherworld would've been quite another."

Ezra said, "I thought I taught you better than that. Either way, it's not my place to say anything further on the matter. I'm not involved, and I'm sure she has her reasons for keeping quiet about it."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Four, in this case, but ..." Jeremiah looked thoughtful. There was, in his experience, no reason to not trust Ezra. If anything, he had looked out for him more than anything else. While he would look for answers himself, he would work from what he learned from him. "Considering that the creation of the Court would have been a change to the shape of the otherworld entirely,."

There were more questions than answers but he also knew there was a nice and there was a place. Which brought him to what Ezra said and, for once, he looked sheepish before it smoothed away (but there was a barely there pink to his cheeks all the same).

"You have and I do know better," he replied. The rabbit hole was deeper and deeper but sometimes he did get frustrated. "Though there is something I want to ask you that you are involved in."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Yes, alright," said Ezra. "What is it?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Back when you first found me this time," when he had held the flyer; the one that read IT WALKS, "you said it had been sleeping for fifteen hundred years. What was it? Surely not Renard?"

shibroswol

 

[shibrogane]

"Not Renard at all," said Ezra. "I believe Renard is the one who distributed that warning, actually. It's something else, and... maybe it only wants what we all want. Freedom."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

If Renard was the one that distributed it then-

Mention of freedom put a different question in his mind. "I think freedom is on the mind of most." Not safety, but freedom. "More and more lately. At some point this will all ... reset, correct? In the later months of the year."

What then for them if it happened?

azuredreams

he gonna stop bothering u soon, ezra, but he got one more question that he just asked