Quills (Open)

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan perused through the elongated shelves of some of the most beautifully crafted quills. He finnaly stopped at a long, rainbow peacock feather quill and picked it up, examining its splash of colors. "Hm, this one is pretty good" He muttered.

He put it back and continued to scan each one on it's bronze pedastel. He could never make up his mind.

[qwe]

Dusoan had been wandering the shop for some time now, and still could not find what he was looking for. He noticed a wizard, not too much younger than himself, apparentally restoking a shelf of more colorful quills.
"Excuse me, but could you direct me to where you stock the blood quills?"

[Gyan Salamanece]

"I'm sorry, blood quills? I don't beleive I've heard of such a thing."

Gyan turned around to a kid who seemed to be around the same age as himself. Gyan flicked his hair out of his face and looked into the boys eyes. Who is this? Gyan thought. "If theres a certain type feather quill you need, I can go find someone who works here." Gyan said kindly.

[qwe]

Even throuhg the paleness of his skin, a blush appeared on Dusoan's cheeks. He made a quick hand motion that ended in a short bow
"I am so sorry, I though you were an employee here."
He looked up from his bow, his embarassment overpowered by a sense of curiosity
"But you must be several years into school, you've never heard of Blood Quills?"

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan smiled a bit. The boy as as pale as he was. "It's quite alltight, but no, I'm only a first year in school." Gyan said. "But don't get me wrong, I know much more than most of the students there." He added with a small twitch of the corner of his mouth.

[qwe]

Dusoan liked this boy, a slight, almost quaint cockiness. But not without reason, Dusoan knew. He could tell that the boy spoke from experience, not pride. But that made his ignoroance all the more puzzling.
"I do not doubt your skills or knowledge, perhaps your people do not use blood quills. However,"
He paused for a moment, whether for effect or out of confusion it was impossible to tell
"how then do you write your spells?"

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan tilted his head to the side a bit. He couldn't quite put his finger on the boys accent. He realised what he was saying and chuckled very lightly. "I don't beleive spells have been written out in Europe since before the Middle-ages. We do it with wands and incantations."

Gyan blinked a bit and asked, "Where are you from?"

[qwe]

Dusoan's jaw clenched ever so slightly at this question, but his control was good, only the slightest twitch of a muscle near his temple could be seen. There was only the barest moment of hesitation before he answered.
"I am an exchange student of sorts, and where I am from, we write our spells that we do not cast directly, and no one would ever dream of speaking a spell."
At the quizzical look from Gyan face, Dusoan continued
"Here, its like this."
He opened up a leather travel bag slung by his side. Shuffling throuhg it he pushed aside a dark cloak, some empty provisions bags, a few bottles with unknown contents that clincked, and finally found several rolls of parchment. He seemed to be sorting throuhg them until he selected one and removed it. He unrolled it and showed it to Gyan. It was a single, long series of symblos in an undeciferable language written in the faded brown of stale blood.
"It is a spell for repleneshing water. Are you thirsty?"

(hope you don't mind I took the liberty of having Gyan be slightly confused. It seemed like he would be and it was only a minor thing)

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan pulled out his own wand, slowly, of course, and muttered, "Aquamenti". A stream of crystal clear water spilled out of his wand and into a clear glass vial he had pulled from his satchel. He then cleared it up. "Yes, I would like something to drink" He said kindly. He was very anxious to see how this boy's magic was done.

He could instantly smell the dried blood as soon as the parchment was rolled out. If this boy thought of verbal spells as herecy, he was in the wrong place.

Gyan's left middle toe twitched in his foot as he watched the boy, awaiting his spell.

[qwe]

Dusoan had simply arched one eyebrow at the boy's display of skill, how much like the challenges that would take place among his people. The subtle flauntings of strength, buliding and building to the inevitable, submission or combat. Rarely fatal, but always putting one in place. You always knew exactly where you belonged there. Dusoan knew enouhg about this culture to understand that this was not a challenge to combat, but he also did not know where he belonged here.

"I did not ask if you wished to drink, I asked if you were thirsty"

And at that, Dusoan tore the paper in half with a sharp motion. It immediatly burst into flames and in moments was dust.
Gyan was suddenly filled with a feeling of utter refreshment, as if he had drunk an entire well of the purest, crystal-cold water.

"And that is why we use blood spells." Dusoan spoke simply
"It is compensatory magic, everything has a price. Generally it is paid in blood. Many of your professors have called it primative, we call it ancient. And, as you can see, it may cost more, but it can also be far more effective."

(ok, I know making Gyan feel refreshed was mild godmoding, but it was just the effects of a non-combative or advesarial spell. If you want me to change it I can, but I think it works OK)

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan took a step back in mild amasement. "Primitive, ancient, either one will do depending on who is looking upon it. I see it merely as fascinating, but uneccesary" He explained.

"If that was effective, I'm fascinated to know how you do magical combat." Gyan said. He was indeed, intrigued beyond beleif and sat down on the floor next to the boy. "Please, if you don't mind, I'd love to hear about it."

[qwe]

(oh, thank you, I've been hoping for a chance to explain Dusoan's world, and this intrest of Gyan's also opens up possibilites...)

Dusoan was fascinated by this boy. He reminded him so much of his own people. And it was very telling that the first question he had was the application to combat. It was exactly the question he himself would have asked. He liked this boy, and without realizing it, was beginning to trust him

"From my understanding, your combat is based primarily on Charms and thier various applications. Blasting charms, ropes, paralysis, and so on. it is not so for us. Our combat is either strategic, kinetic, or awareness-based. There are very long and technical explanations, so I will try to put it as simply as I can.
There was once a time that to say, remove your opponet's arm, you had to sever your own as equal payment for the spell. But eventually we learned that to disable an arm you had but to block a single artery. So you would pay with the clotting of a small portion of your blood, then place your enemy's clott at a strategic place, like the brain or the jugular or the leading artery to the arm."
Dusoan let this sink in for a moment

"Kinetic attacks work on a similar concept, instead of crushing your enemy with a bolder, send a pebble throuhg his skull. Instead of blowing away his chest, send a small point of force to his heart. However, just as our attacks have advanced, so have our defenes. Often, entire duels are fought without sound, only two wizards darting back and forth, thier wands slashing into silent air. Moving like lighteining from the slash to the block, that is, until someone misses the block."

[Gyan Salamanece]

Gyan took his turn to explain wand combat a little bit. "But 'eye for an eye' seems like such an un-neccesary morale for combat. To remove an enemies arm, all I would have to do would be to say the incantation, Sectumsempra, and swing my wand with a sword-like motion towards my target, and the spell would do the rest. There of course, countless methods to do this with a wand, Sectumsmpra is just my favorite.."

He took a breath before continuing. "Charms are but one branch of magic. We also have spells, hexes, curses, jinxses, and hexes. All of which do some of the most extroardinary things." He said.

"Are all of your spells written in blood?" He added with a hint of puzzlement in his voice.

[qwe]

Dusoan actually smiled at the question

"No, not at all. Those are only spells pre-written and stored. In combat, when it would be inconvient and time-consuming to cast such a spell, there are many other ways of performing magic. Often energy is stored prior to a battle by certain rites, but it can also be paid in the moment throuhg mediums such as exhaution or pain. Loved ones can also choose to pay a debt for you, and a limted amount of spelling can be "borrowed" to be paid at a later time. In the most extreme cases, and with supremely powerful spells, it is said skilled wizards can give up things far more intmate than thier lives."

Dusoan seemed to give an inward shudder.

"But in you contention that your spells are simpler or more efficient, you bring up an age-old argument. Your powers are based on skill, not desire. Our powers obviously requre skill, but if a man is willing to suffer horribly and die to kill another, he generally can. In your world though, a powerful man can rise up with more skill, and though the whole world may desire to destroy him, they cannot."

Dusoan smiled, and continued

"I do recall a particular instance of this happening in your distant past. Hundreds of years ago I believe. I think the wizard's name was Voldewort or something like that. He conquered many of your people through his skill, your magics could not defeat him, it was compensatory magic that finally did it. A mother dying for her son, and the son willing to die for all. That is the essence of compensatory magic, and its powers are self-evident."

Dusoan seemed satisfied with his answer, but added one last point as an afterthought.

"One final aspect of our magic is that we get very good at dodging and re-directing spells. If we didn't we wouldn't last long. If you were to try that spell on me now, chances are I would see it in your mind before your hand reached your wand, and I would be into a defensive block long before those clumsy words tripped over your lips. remeber, we are trained to react to instantaneous spells"

[Gyan Salamanece]

It was Gyan's turn to smile. "Ah, but I'm afraid your mistaken there. My mind is compleatley inpenetrable. If you look into my eyes, you'll see that very clearly. I'm not sure if your familliar with the word, but I'm an extremely accomplished Occlumens." He said with a smile. "My name is Gyan, by the way"