Hunting for Answers (Thoth)

He'd made his office as familiar as it could get. At first glance, it would look like a mess - and at second glance, it would still look like a mess. Enelen would claim there was a method to his madness, but the fact was that there didn't really need to be a method to his madness when he could just summon anything he needed. Things got shoved in random drawers, and on random shelves, and in random folders. None of it was organized, and he relied entirely on summoning to find the things he needed. He'd only just started at the school, but he'd already begun to load up his desk with papers on absolutely everything. Papers on the school, on the islands, on how magic worked.

A knock at the door drew his attention from the paper (a comparative analysis of magical sources) he was reading, and he flicked his eyes up before grabbing his staff from beside him, waving it slightly. The door flicked open, and a chair pulled itself up in front of his desk, sliding over from a corner.

"Come in." He was surprised to find himself having visitors so early, considering he'd yet to have started classes.

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Tag to @Bowen​

Enelen resisted the urge to go back to reading his paper. He probably could have just insisted they wait for him to be done, but it wasn't exactly nice to do so, and with a small sigh he tucked the paper off to the side. No point in filing it away - it would come when called, just like everything in the office.

"I most likely can." He wasn't exactly arrogant, but he found no real purpose in pretending to be humble. Student problems could almost always be solved by a seasoned mage. There was no point in acting like he couldn't, considering there were only a rare few problems he had no ability in. Even then, he still helped... usually by referring the person to another mage who was more specialized.

Unfortunately, his ability to do that was limited. There were only so many mages he knew of, and he'd yet to meet any of them.

"Sit down, and tell me what your problem is, and I'll see what I can do."

In his own world, he'd been famous for his lack of smalltalk, and he doubted it would be any different here.

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Tag to @Bowen​

It took him longer than he cared to admit to piece together just what she (he? he genuinely couldn't tell what gender they were, but they seemed to have a high enough voice) had just said. Something about a curse (or spell?), and they were actually a dragon? Dragons didn't exist in his world, but he'd been given a crash course on the general idea of such things, and the fact that they existed.

She would be the first he'd met, if so. Not that it would change anything. What she was really presenting was a challenge, and he leaned forward slightly in his chair, eyes unfocused as he felt around, one hand clutching the staff at his side.

There was indeed something there, although at a distance he couldn't say much more than that. Some kind of enchantment, different from his own world's magic, but similar enough it was still at least mutually intelligible. Like a different dialect of a language he spoke fluently. It was certainly there, and certainly old - several years, at least.

He tilted his head slightly, and then opted to stand, approaching the girl. "If you'll sit still, I'll investigate. There certainly is some kind of spell around you. A dragon, you said?" He had no experience with dragons, so it wasn't as if he could say the spell was draconic in nature.

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Tag to @Bowen​

She'd said yes, so he stepped forward, his staff clutched in his right hand as he held his left hand over her head. It didn't strictly have to be her head, but she was sitting, and it was the closest part to arm level at the moment. He simply needed to get close enough to feel her essence, and to feel for the spell there.

The spell was there, a powerful one, although it was also badly frayed. It was like looking at a cliff. He didn't need to crack the rock to get an idea of what might be underneath. He could find the caves, the cracks, the strange spots. Part of it was figuring out what each bit of the spell was. What was at first glance a binding might instead be a part keeping the spell in place. What was first a bit to prevent shapeshifting was really both - a shapeshift that prevented other shapeshifting. It was a very complex spell, and he was doubtful if he even could have undone it a few years past without a lot of research, but as it was, it was literally falling apart. He simply needed to pull on the right thread of the spell, and then it would all fall apart.

"You are correct." He finally said, taking a step back. "You have been bound in a very powerful spell. But it's also reaching the end of it's lifespan, and starting to come undone. I imagine you're already experiencing some side effects from it unwinding, although I couldn't say how those would appear." It could be almost anything.

"I could undo it - however, I couldn't say for sure what will happen when I do. But, whether I undo it or not, it'll be coming off soon enough. At most you have a few months, but it's difficult to tell at just a glance. No more than six months at the absolute slowest." He'd have gotten a better idea if he was able to compare the rate of decay over a few days, but that was probably too much to ask to solve his curiosity.

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Tag to @Bowen​

He could only shrug as she asked about side effects. "I am not familiar with dragons, to be quite honest. Parts of your true form would no doubt start to leak through, although I couldn't say what that would mean." He didn't know what a dragon was really supposed to be about. He didn't know about different kinds, or anything like that.

"Six months is a very unlikely estimate. I would say probably two or three before it fully fails, but it's possible it might last as long as six." Perhaps he'd been too generous with saying the best (or worst) case scenario.

"That might be painful, and it might also have side effects of it's own. Think of the spell... like a net. A net that has bound you down and kept you in place. It's starting to fray, but if the net isn't removed, you might injure yourself as bits and pieces of yourself comes free." A net wasn't a perfect metaphor, but it was at least mostly understandable. "I would strongly recommend that you remove it before then."

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Tag to @Bowen​