Songs for the Smiling Princess: A Lesson in Magic.

((Hello again everyone! Sophie's out of bed again and stirring up trouble. Having noticed the amount of nascent mages that have joined Ny's merry band, Sophia has decided to see if any of them would be interested in learning a trick or two. This thread is open to spectators and vic- *ahem* students alike.))

It was a beautiful night. Gnarled trees formed a perfect circle, closing off a tiny pocket of grass from the rest of the forest. Their leaves quivered in the wind, leafy maidens gossiping while their mistress was out of earshot. Occassionally, a leaf twisted and curled, an autumnal blush spreading momentarily across its surface. Maidens were reknowned for peeping at keyholes, and these trees were no different. The object of their eyeless infatuation stood alone in the centre of the glade. Her vestments lay on the grass nearby: only the twining snow of her faithful ribbons dangled a precarious shield in front of her modesty. Not that Sophia minded. She barely noticed the cold coaxing goosebumps from her bare calves or the moonlight beaming off dew and tree-trunk alike, transforming her skin from pale flesh to glittering, flawless ivory. The misty eyes were closed, perfect smile open. Singing.

At first, her song sounded nonsensical, childish. It wove and dipped about the glade, a harmony without a melody, questing, seeking, brushing leaves from trees. Sometimes it came to rest over a just-formed bubble of dew, injecting it with Fade-touched colours, or spun about a bemused owl, tickling her feathers with playful abandon. The trees quivered, listening, searching for meaning. Not in the way of mortals of course: they were trees, and concepts such as meaning as Sophia would have understood it were alien to them. But everything had its place: sunlight shone onto their leaves and fed them, water rushed into their roots and quenched their thirst. The forest danced to a symphony of its own: everything had its place, its tempo. Where did this strange song fit in?

Not even Sophia knew, yet. And that was the entire point of the song. The symphony of the forest, of life itself… it had been a melody always on the edge of Sophia’s hearing, something she synchronised with automatically whenever she returned from the Fade. But now… ever since her mind had touched that strange, wild song buried deep in the heart of that emerald wolf…

The harmony trailed off, dripping into silence. The willowy mage stood motionless, listening. The notes of the forest wove about her, almost-silent, nearly-invisible.

“… to harmonise with the song of the forest… to understand that Symphony…”

Sophia glanced up at the stars glittering above.

“… would it help, do you think?”

The stars twinkled merrily on, oblivious. Sophia sighed.

“... then let us turn to dreams, then.”

The dreams of others. Of the Fade. The Mistress had attracted so many new stories of late. Stories with magic woven into their very words. Sophia smiled. Tonight was such a beautiful night… a magical night. It would be a shame to waste it, wouldn’t it?

At her command, the Fade flexed, calling to sleeping minds. To those who dreamed. To students.

Kassina sat bolt upright, not sure what had woken her. She shifted to wolf form and went out into the darkness to investigate. She could feel a light wave of magic on the breeze calling to her. Kassina remembered a dream of a clearing and the strange woman with the ribbons. It was clear in her mind for she rarely dreamed, other than the nightmares of the night her parents died.

The call was intriuging, but Kassina remained caution, moving slowly through the darkness alert to the sounds and smells of the world around her. The animals in the forest seemed happy, content signalling that whatever the call was it was no danger to her.

Eventually she came to the clearing and saw the ribboned woman as she had in her dream, her skin seeming to glow in the moonlight. Kassina moved to within a few feet of the other mage and sat down, looking up at the woman with curious wolf eyes.

He had slept as best he could.

He had slept as he always had.

He had slept fitfully, frightfully, exhaustion that ran as deep as the marrow in his bones the only thing keeping him unconscious. That he had slept as long as he had was a testament to how weary he had been all day; and he slept still, despite the setting of the sun; and he would slept until the end of the world, until the end of time, had he not dreamed.

It was not a nightmare, in the strictest sense of the word. In fact, it was not a nightmare, and that was woke him - knife in hand, body already rising despite the rush of blood to his head, feet adjusting his center of balance, stable like a mountain, ignorant - defiant - of the swaying of the world, other hand reaching for a sword-

No.

He needed to clear his head. He had slept too long. Fought too much with the un-memories, the questions that plagued him like flies and needles. He couldn't breathe; had rested too poorly; and so many other little aches and ills. He wondered, briefly, if he would even live long enough to see the Deep Roads once more.

Once more?

Another question he didn't need; another question to repress. He walked - not stumbled, not crawled, but walked, upright and righteous, despite all the ills of the world on his aching shoulders - away from his little post, doffing his helmet as he did so, leaving it as a marker - he would return, in time. But for now, he needed to breathe, to be-

He could smell the Fade - smell the Dream, smell where the Veil was weak; and its perfume caught him, lured him, unconsciously, for he smelled it, with a deeper part of his psyche that wasn't attached to the physicality of odors and scents. And he followed it to its source, not knowing that his footsteps led him anywhere; for all he was aware of, he was simply walking. Moving. Obeying a need more carnal than hunger, obeying the need to be-

The Griffin wandered, unknowing, into the Storyteller's clearing.

'Sleep' was a human thing. A part of her remembered sleep, as it had once been, remembered the freedom it had granted her in the Fade where once wakefulness had barred her, but a greater part of her had never known sleep, and was still coming to the understanding that she needed it now. Even as she 'slept' the forest sang to her, and watched through her and she through it, so that her mind was never truly 'asleep.'

But that matter hardly mattered, for the moment - she wasn't asleep at all. The night called to her too strongly for her to lay down her head on some bough or bush, and she danced among the calling leaves like a long-lost partner in a well-remembered dance. The forest seemed especially lively tonight, and she needed only to extend her awareness to understand why.

A smile crept onto her face as he dance came to an abrupt standstill, her attention on some other, distant place in the forest. She'd gone further from the came to greet the outer wood, but there, closer to the camp, was a special guest. The Symphony had returned, and creeping in after it was the Birdsong from earlier. Ah - and trailing after, like a steady drumbeat, was the hunter called Raphael Griffinhart. She might have clapped her hands together in joy at the loveliness of the music in the forest right then, and her feet began to move once more, carrying her through the trees to where she heard the loudest song of all . . .

There. She stopped, crouching atop a tree than hung over the clearing, and crouched low, watching. The Birdsong and Hunter had not yet arrived . . . only the milky white of that reverberating melody persisted for now, and the forest around her swayed to it, reached out for it. She could feel them, the spirits - they would have left their trees to dance along the ground if they could have managed it. She wanted to listen to it, too, for a little while - it was such a lovely, sad song.

Takara danced amoung the trees under the glow of the moon, wild and carefree. The grass caressed her bare feet and the breeze blew playfully across her skin. She was at peace, one with the lifeforce around her. She could feel the magic ebb and flow from all around and she danced joyously to the tune it set.

Takara sat up with a start, the dream still fresh behind her eyes. She slipped out of bed and dressed hurridly, heading out of the tent and toward the song before she even thought about it. As in her dream the grass tickled her bare feet as she had forgotten to put her boots on, but she had put on her robes to protect her from the cool air and hide away the scars that laced her body.

As she entered the clearing she started and looked about her curiously. She had been on auto-pilot until now, not really aware of her actions.

Varen stood at the edge of a cliff, looking out over it. She smiled, spread her arms, and flew. Hair turned to feathers and feet to claws. Nothing could touch her. The mage landed on a tree branch and listened to music. It was pure, something that she had never heard before. The shape shifter woke with a start.

Varen clutched her blanket to her chest as she jolted awake. That was one of the first times her dreams hadn't been nightmares. She quickly threw on some pants and a simple shirt as well as her grey cloak.

The elf was almost oblivious to anything- or anyone- other than the forest. She walked towards it silently, pulling the cloak around her tighter. Varen's mind wandered as she walked through the forest. She thought of the Wardens, of the forest, and of Joshua. Her attention snapped back to reality when she reached the clearing. Glancing around, she recognized Takara, but did not call out to her. The elf stood in silence, watching the woman in the middle. Was it she that had called?

Wolfram was standing over a table, looking down on the papers there. He looked up out a window, indicating he was in a tall tower with a beautiful view. He looked down again and read the papers, double-checking everything. He grinned, acknowledging his success. The date was 9:89 Dragon. He looked down in a bowl of water to see his youthful face in the reflection as music began to play. He had achieved it. He can't recall how, but he found a way to extend his life and not have to go through the Calling. His life goal had been achieved. Now he has all the time in the world to continue his research and learning. He turned around upon hearing a laugh. It was Zerus, his desire demon. "What are you...I...I get it. I'm sleeping right now. Knew it was too good to be true."

Wolfram's eyes just slowly opened as he came to. He recalled the music and it wasn't something that would just show up in his sleep normally. When he came out of his tent and watched some of the other mages walking off towards the source, he knew that was the one responsible. Zerus had warned him of this before he awoke. He couldn't let them all walk to their deaths. Wolfram grabbed his staff and followed the others, blending into the group.

When the arrived in the clearing, Wolfram walked right up to the source. He could feel it. This mage was hardly ordinary. She was a blood mage, like and unlike him. She seemed to possess something that he yearned for. "What are you doing to them?"

That music, that beautiful, soothing rhythm... the pulse of it within the core of her soul... the girl knew it was her. She sat bolt upright, awoken from the dream that came to her, promising caresses and ribbons and lace... Things alien to her mind but oh so very intriguing. She hefted her staff in hand as she left her camp in the woods to follow the source of the magical disturbance she felt. She knew that a large group was traveling nearby, as it was impossible for them to hide the way they disturbed the ground beneath their feet as they marched.

Fiery red hair whipped from shoulder to shoulder in a ponytail behind her as she walked towards the music- the disturbance's source and finally she found it. A group of people gathered around the resplendant glow of a woman by a tree. Ancient, and powerful. Both tree and woman.

She did not bother to mask her presence. She sauntered up easily to the group, bare feet mutely striding across the grass. "Keeper Sophia... The Smiling Princess." she said, behind forest green eyes and a confident smile. "I am Neria Sauvrenteen, I demand to be your apprentice."