draculabutbackwards

[He shrugs one shoulder, but he glances away as he does.]

I still want to cure my uncle's illness. [He remembers, at least, that Adrian spoke with Belos, albeit not the specifics, so he doesn't bother hiding that.] That's most of why I've been getting lessons from Dracula.

[Sideways, always. Nothing to be gained from a frontal assault right now.]

And you're determined to work that out the long way, or have you considered staying on after for a deal of your own? Not that you have to decide now, but.

[They both like concrete, analytical steps. And he won't mention to Father what he quite possibly already knows. When he's back.]

I've... [His gaze stays away, one hand plucking idly at a seam on the edge of his cloak.] Learned something new about his curse recently. So I think I might be able to get closer the long way. But...

[There he grimaces faintly.]

I'm. Not exactly sure what it is I'm meant to be changing in order to graduate.

That's also on the list, yes.

[He just didn't want to jump down Hunter's throat, but if he wants to be efficient.]

Inmates seem like a very arbitrary designation sometimes. There are certainly wardens I find... less amenable company. Some inmates have oceans of blood on their hands.

[Including his father, but he'd rather leave that relationship as uncomplicated as possible for Hunter.]

And some are, well, Rags, who was a bit of a shit, I suppose? My best friend, a renowned hero from a noble line? So the only point I've been able to spot is... making you better able to live up to your honest potential. And also no wanton murder, but that doesn't really seem like a problem you have.

Well, not committing it, anyway.

[Is it self awareness to realise that you're very eminently killable, or just a horrible upbringing that you expect people to turn on you and try a murder at the drop of a hat?

But there's something about the way Adrian phrases that that bothers him - better able to live up to your honest potential - and it shows in the slight frown on his face as he rescues the gu before it can fall off his head.]

I don't appreciate how this place apparently thinks I'm not already trying.

Nobody doubts that.

[Who possibly could?]

It's most likely a matter of what you're trying.

[The centipede looping around his arm can't distract him enough from the conversation, and his ears flick as the frustration becomes more obvious on his face.]

What am I supposed to be trying, then?

If you don't know, then that's the work we really need to be doing.

[He keeps his tone sift,knowing that sound, knowing the frustration of hitting a wall you aren't used to.]

Certainly you're not being dinged for lack of dedication to your uncle.

[More's the pity.]

Might be best to think in terms of building up from here. Researching your world as well as what Father can teach you from ours.

[He takes it on faith that holes in Hunter's haphazardly limited education would show themselves. Belos clearly isn't thoughtful enough to have done a very good job.]

[It sounds like a perfectly innocuous line, but the comment on his dedication still makes Hunter flinch a little, turns his frown more self-conscious as he swallows quietly.

And when he does talk, it's definitely the tone of admitting a guilty secret.]

Back home, I... I did actually have a series of, um. Forbidden texts. [Something about the words feels so ridiculous whenever he says it to Dracula or, now, Adrian.] I've been studying wild magic as well as the nine formal covens.

[He's sure that's something they've discussed before, but it's just more proof of his theory that nudging Hunter toward his own discoveries is the best move. The fact that Tepes family ethics find the concept of forbidden texts downright oxymoronic is beside the point.]

Knowledge can't be wasted. What have you learned?

I've... actually learned a lot about elementalism from the Savage Ages. A-and some old rituals - a lot of wild magic can't actually be replicated by a single witch anymore, thanks to the Coven system.

[There's still that uncertainty, the halting pauses between words, but both become less the more he's left uninterrupted.]

Stuff like- entering people's mindscapes, bonding and summoning rituals, a lot of ancient potions - even just being able to use multiple elements at once isn't something modern witches can do anymore.

[Just wanting to keep him talking, Adrian is afraid of shutting him down with enthusiasm as much as anything else. Neutral and scholarly, here. No unseemly enthusiasm for what sounds like quite ordinary magic.]

Oh yes?

[He's so singularly used to only receiving a scathing response to his sharing that a lack of it still makes him clam up for a moment.

But, it's not negative, it's just... nothing. Neutral. And that's... by definition that can't be bad, right?]

It... um. Actually, the art of coven sigils was only truly perfected in the last thirty, maybe forty years or so. [He can't help but tread back into safer waters, but it's still somewhat on-top, right?] Wild magic was still banned but the practice of it was nearly impossible to regulate. It was only with the creation of the sigils and- through them, the ability to limit the amount of magic that any witch has access to, for their own safety, that the Emperor's Coven began to make actual progress in rooting them out and forcing them into a coven before they could really hurt anyone.

[It's a pity he's afraid to be enthusiastic, but gentling Hunter along despite himself is the only thing he's found that works. Maybe when they make a bit more progress.]

That's more recent than I'd have guessed for something that seems so entrenched, the way you talk about it.

[Do the people of Hunter's world not have functioning memories? But. Hunter's young. Yes, only a few years younger than Adrian, but he was raised with a very long view.]

Do you know if there was some great technical puzzle worked out to allow the discovery or if something else changed? Politics or something?

I'm... not actually sure. [Which is frustrating, to say the least, but in the way that he can gloss over it if he doesn't think too hard about it.] There's not been any recent studies on them, besides the known fact that when you are marked with a coven sigil, it prevents you from using any magic that isn't tied to your coven. There's a few basic spell circles that people can use regardless of their coven, but they're the exception rather than the norm - mostly the kind of spells you'd use when you're a kid, like summoning something small you already know the location of.

One of the starker differences between our worlds seems to be that in mine magic is a matter of making your will understood, and in yours it seems to have more of a mind of its own.

[He keeps up the quietly scholarly tone, but he's pleased to be sure he's found a potential road to nudge Hunter down.]

If the rules changed, or even if there's just some novel way to manipulate them, both are pretty major shifts.

It's a bit of both, actually. Magic spells are the most common method of directing the innate magic nearly every witch and most demons have - its actually biological, whether you have a magic bile sac of not - but rituals can be used to harness the natural magic of the Boiling Isles, or for more complex spells that require more focus than raw power.

That's also part of what coven sigils are for. They completely lock down any kind of magical ability that isn't for that coven. It's a way to prevent witches from hurting themselves by learning too much.

[Oh Hunter.]

I don't quite see the distinction? If a bird has an organ for using the natural magnetic fields, then that's just living and inorganic bits of the same system.

[One ear flicks up a bit, and there's a subtle change from uncertain to determined across his features, that carried into his voice.]

But a bird isn't going to actively choose to use that magnetism to try and fly into the sun. Its biggest threat isn't itself, it's other creatures abusing it. That's not true with witches. They're a threat to themselves if they treat wild magic like something that they can harness or make use of, and everyone else.

[And this is why he's careful about his approach. Direct challenges go nowhere, and apparently even pretty incidental stuff can trigger defensiveness.]

I just meant the distinction between witches and natural magic seems arbitrary, but sure, let's talk about that, too. What's wild magic actually doing? Remember my context is quite different.

Wild magic is... [Hold on a second, it's weird trying to define something that's so second nature to his worldview.] It's everything that's not relating to one of the nine major covens. There are a lot of smaller covens, but all of their magic can still be sorted into the main covens, like- specialisations.

[He lets Guard crawl up his wrist so he can tick off on his hands.]

A lot of wild animals have magic, or such high natural defences that make confrontation a deadly risk in a best-case scenario. Natural formations like Fool's Blood - the Titan's Veins themselves are impervious to magic, but growths of Fool's Blood means the area is decayed so the entire area becomes a hazard. Witches using the wrong kinds of magic? Learning too much means they set themselves off while they're casting, like dymamite, or it could lash out when they lose control of their emotions.

[While he's still hoping a lot for this socratic method, he's starting to get interested despite himself. He'd assumed the covens were regulation and distinction, however artificial, but it sounds more like a carve-out.]

I think I've been operating under a misapprehension. Wild magic isn't just magic beyond the coven system, but magic outside? Is there anything beyond a fairly new tradition distinguishing the two?

I'm... um. I'm not... actually sure.

[And it's a galling thing to admit, but it's still true.]

I haven't been able to find any records of the transition onto the coven systems besides officially published texts on it. Belos introduced the system as a means of honouring the Titan - using wild magic is blasphemous, it's disrespectful and hurts it.

The titan splits some very fine hairs, then. Hm.

[That hm does not drip with palpable disdain. Because he's trying very hard.]

This is just gut instinct, but a creature giant enough to live on its bones and an idea like wild magic don't seem intrinsically antithetical.

Well, no-one's been able to speak with the Titan before. [He can't help the faintly defensive edge. He's got a ways until he's above that, unfortunately.] There's no way to have known what it might have wanted before that. Thanks to Emperor Belos, we finally do and we can change to be better.

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