A Little Birdy Told Me

RE: A Little Birdy Told Me [Emy]

Vanora Lawful

She flicked a bit of paint in Enelen's direction, nothing that she wasn't willing to spell off of him later. "There are many layers to human society," Vanora said, as if beginning a lecture she had given many times over. Which she had. "There are beautiful things, wonderful things, barbaric things, disturbing things. We can't always take them in stride but we can be mindful of them and know how to better ourselves from our predecessor's mistakes. The most baffling aspect, will always be our natural tendency to contradict."

"Most people don't believe in magic," Vanora confirmed. "But they do believe in faith. That's the tricky thing, because more often than not, it's exactly the same thing. It's a confusing element in this world and if there's one thing people really hate, it's not knowing. Yes, it was a barbaric time. My family has had an unbroken chain of spellcasters since the Norman conquest some thousand years ago. Some of my ancestors were found and tried. Most got away, some didn't. But it was a sad time, too. Not because of what happened to the people who were tried, although that was awful, too, don't misunderstand, it was truly terrible misjustice -but because of the fact that people couldn't comprehend they were doing wrong."

"Self righteousness blinded them. People know that now and I suppose that in a way, we spellcasters were sacrificed for the sake of what their views would become at this very moment. There is some safety gained, in the guilt of others."

She took a pause to look at her painting now. It was filled with old symbols, ones in between Latin and Arabic, bridging chasms of centuries and conflicting ideologies between them. This was just a fraction of the magic she knew, which was only a puddle in all the magicians' schools, which was only a drop in the vast, giant sea of magic. Even if she were to one day sacrifice her sight, Vanora would have the comfort of knowing and feeling that the boundary between her and magic was volatile and so liable to change that they often walked together arm in arm. Struggling and tugging at each other, yes, but whoever wanted to do things the easy way?

"There's nothing to be happy about in that," she said, completing the thought as she studied the painting for imperfections. There were many, of course, but that made it seem so much more right. "You should never be happy about being made a sacrifice, especially when it was never of your own choice and free will. But sometimes I wonder those people who have never sat through a summer storm and heard the call of thunder laced with magic in the distance, people who have never felt it through this thin barrier between us and the supernatural. I don't keep at those thoughts for too long because I suppose I would have to soon pity them and I hate pitying anybody who is able to plenty pity themselves on their own."

"I will tell you now, too, not to become comfortable in this little sphere you have given yourself. Manta Carlos is a haven but it is not meant to be a cage. Even if you have no desire to leave, that does not make it any less of one. There is beauty out there in the world, among all of the dangers, but you should know by now that magic is the same way. In order to belong to the world, you need to accept it all for what it is, good and bad, because there is so much, so much more to it than just the magic and if you are truly here for knowledge's sake, such a confinement means that you have murdered yourself to the rest of life."