In the Shadow of Ribbons: Part 1-15: Marnie: Seeing An Empath
Scene 15 of 'In the Shadow of Ribbons', set Within Thalenra. Joint research will bring warmth - Marnie won't let the coolness of the Academy prevent that.
The previous scenes are all saved Within Thalenra. Or go direct to scene one here, or scene 14.
Four months have passed since Marnie joined Erian at Velcirra academy. It is Restavane, the tenth month of the Thaymian year, and a week before the annual Apprentice showcase. Not that Marnie is interested in that - she’s got research to do.
It didn’t take long for Marnie to settle into life within the Academy grounds. She learnt new techniques in the classes she attended, and gained some understanding from helping Erian teach his. In the evenings she got to work with the ritual circles in the house, playing with Erian’s wards, and making her own when they weren’t fixing her missing memories. She made friends with a few students, and managed to avoid incurring too much curiosity from the instructors. There were a lot of rules and regulations to remember, and she didn’t always manage to, but compared to being Belaine’s ‘apprentice’ or even as one of the Nabs, life as an Academy Adept was fun.
A bell rang out marking the end of the day. Marnie let the spirit matter she’d been working with fall away, and grabbed her bag. She would normally have stayed a little longer, and listened to the other classified adepts compare their illusions, but tonight was too important. Erian had promised they would start the next phase, but he often got caught up doing something for one instructor or another. It didn’t take long for her to learn; she had to get to him first after class if they were going to research together.
Tonight was an important step in their joint research - they would be going into her Mindscape to tackle one of the gaps she still had. Up to now they had focused on drawing memories out of her, and replicating the images the emotional storm created from them. Now they could do it at will on any memory she could visualise well, and Erian said the spiritual energy didn’t swirl around as much anymore. Erian thought the remaining gaps had a hidden weave Belaine had added, separate from the general haze that had befuddled most of her mind. If he was right, tonight they would find it, figure out how to reverse it, and fix all the rest. She’d remember everything. Well, at least the stuff in front of the wall.
Marnie ran through the maze of corridors that connected the Spirit Wielder buildings to the classroom Erian taught Reading Technique in. She had long since learnt the quickest routes, much as she had on the streets, and had got this route down to under five minutes once. She had gotten used to all the people around, but instinctively kept a minor obfuscation veil going when she was in a hurry, just enough to stop anyone from realising she was there until she was passed. She bounced to a stop as she reached the corridor she wanted, and sighed. She could see someone speaking at Erian, she let the veil drop, and slowly walked up, listening to the end of the conversation.
“You will see we do not get a repeat of that debacle at the Adept Showcase. Even you should be able to prevent the Apprentices causing such damage.”
“The committee has confirmed the revised rules, Instructor Henton. I intend to personally check all devices submitted-”
“Pental will supervise your checks. See to it that he is informed.” The man didn’t wait for Erian’s answering “understood, Instructor Henton” before turning away and starting up the corridor towards Marnie. The smile and nod he gave her as he passed were very different from how he had been speaking to Erian.
Marnie swallowed down the bristly comments that came to mind and returned the nod and smile, before looking back at Erian, whose gaze still followed Henton. She could see the calm, respectful smile he always wore.
No, not quite the same. It had taken her weeks to notice what that calm smile was hiding. It was respectful, but never more than that with the instructors and adepts - it didn’t have the easy warmth she’d noticed when they worked together in the evenings. The more she watched him the more signs she saw. With every person he spoke to there was a tenseness around his eyes, slight hesitations in his answers to them. His eyes were always focused on something she couldn’t see - never quite on the person in front of him. When he did that with her, she knew he was looking at the pretty ribbons she’d seen in the memory he’d shown her. With them it felt different - he was bracing for something, always alert, expecting a reaction.
She could have blamed how short a time she’d known Erian. After all, it had only been a handful of days, and all of them had been around people close to him, before the academy. And then there had been the novelty of it all; being around people again kept her distracted for a while. Even as the weeks went on, most of the time out of the house together was in his lessons, and the apprentices that he taught ‘Basic Manipulation’ or ‘Reading Technique’ to were enthralled by his teaching - as was. The students in his Adept Reader class ‘Unravelling the Filaments’ were less so, but she had put that down to their age - the older Nabs had always been grumpy.
But when - after too many weeks - she finally realised how the Instructors and the Classified Adepts treated him, she’d kicked herself for not noticing sooner. They wouldn’t meet his eye, and the conversations were short - almost curt. Even the students from her Classified Adept classes who were usually friendly, turned terse whenever Erian was nearby. Most weren’t as blatant as Instructor Henton, who used his authority to excuse his attitude. The rest gave lip-service to the respect his rank deserved, but never more than that. Erian never reacted. He kept that same calm, respectful smile no matter what they said, always civil, giving no cause. And still they treated him like that.
She saw his real smile as he caught sight of her. “You are right on time, Marnie. I need to give a message to one of the instructors, and then we can return to the residence.”
“He was yelling at you again. What was he blaming you for this time?” She couldn’t help herself, even though she knew what would happen.
“Don’t speak of the instructors that way. It will only draw their ire.” As she’d expected he’d avoided her question. He went through the open door of the classroom next to his, where Instructor Pental taught. She could hear Erian deliver the message - but not Peental’s reply. She caught the flicker of tenseness around Erian’s eyes when he came back out, even as his smile remained fixed.
She grumbled internally as they set off home. It was frustrating. Even with what he’d told her of wariness and lack of trust, she didn’t understand why they treated him that way. Old scary stories about empaths didn’t justify it. She almost said something to an instructor more than once, but each time her regained memories of confronting Belaine - and what followed - kept her silent in front of the intimidating mages. She did say something to the Adepts in her classes, but they’d given her a quizzical look, like they didn’t understand why she was talking about it, and then acted like she’d been joking. She hadn’t really spoken to them much since then. She’d brought it up with Gretham on one of his visits, but he’d just given her a weird smile and said to pay it no mind - Erian could handle it. And of course she’d asked Erian himself, but just like he had now he’d always look away and change the subject. So, so frustrating.
Still, she knew he wasn’t hurting during their research sessions, so he’d be happy tonight - he usually was. The purple thread connecting them reassured her a little on that. Marnie hadn’t told Erian about it yet, but she would when all the gaps were gone.
As her thoughts turned to the research, her internal grumbles likewise shifted to chatter about it, as they stepped out of the main building of the Academy. The tall clock-tower stood in front of them, at the centre of the courtyard, its pointed top poking out between the four storey walls that surrounded it. “I want to start with the newest one, between when he said he’d take me to a meeting and sending me to the cell.”
“That is sound thinking,” They left the courtyard behind as Erian continued. “Have you been visualising either side of it as we discussed? You will need to have firm control of what you felt at the time.”
“Yep. I remember how close I was to breaking free around then. I’d hidden it better than before. I’d had my escape all planned out in my head on the way to the meeting, or maybe during it.” They reached less travelled paths as she thought back over those moments. The memory just after the gap had gotten stronger, thanks to Erian’s help. She could now recall her shock and disbelief when Belaine ordered her to the cell - and the too-familiar inability to resist his order. “I want to know how he figured out I was resisting.”
“And you are still sure you want me to accompany you? I know you can prevent my collapsing, but I don’t want to frighten you again.”
Marnie rolled her eyes. She wished he’d stop bringing that up. Yes, she had got a bit upset when he’d fallen over right after the Mindscape, but that was mostly at Gretham for stopping her from helping him when he struggled to get out. If she’d grabbed him instead of Gretham - as she’d done several times since - Erian would have been fine. “Stop worrying about it. You’ve been managing fine using me as an anchor haven’t you? And besides, it’s not like there is anyone else I’d trust in my head.” She looked up at him with a little smirk as they passed the last of the occupied buildings along their route. “You’d be worried less if you’d practiced more.”
He cleared his throat as he looked away, but he did look less worried. “That’s not necessary. You are right. I can get both in and out if I focus on your spiritual energy.”
Their conversation moved to more general topics as they passed the empty buildings to finally arrive home. Marnie grinned as her favourite place came in sight, and skipped up to the door that only Erian could open - and her. It resonated with her signature and clicked open.
She bounded up the stairs to tackle her domestic chores. She wanted nothing more than to dive into the research, but after that time they’d both gone two days without eating, they’d made an unspoken decision to always see to the basics first. Marnie did wonder how Erian had managed before she came along, with food and whatnot. It made her a little sad thinking of him eating alone here all that time. So, just as she did each time it was her turn, she put her all into preparing their meal, and spoke of fun things while they ate.
—-
In hardly any time at all, the two of them were in the first ritual room that contained the circle Erian had altered for their research. Not that you could really call it a circle any more. As their understanding of their combined magic grew, Erian had devised a figure of eight set up, each side customised to match a single signature. The curves of the centre of the figure-eight were joined with points, forming a diamond shape that helped direct the flow of their energies. He’d spent ages on it. On the evenings she’d been adding her own versions of the upstairs wards to the two ritual rooms, Erian had worked down here long after she finished. More than once, she’d woken up to him just coming upstairs to sleep. That happened less since she threatened to tell Gretham.
Her own circle in the room next door was nowhere near as pretty as Erian’s. She’d been using it to practice what she learnt in the advance ritual circle class she was taking, but no matter how clear she made her orders, the threads would just not arrange themselves as well as they did for Erian, and it would be ages before her hand-drawn attempts would be up to scratch.
Returning her thoughts to this room, she ran an eye over her wards, checking if any needed a bit of maintenance. She still didn’t fully understand the energy they were keeping both in and out, but she knew it was there. Their experiments had proven that. She felt that flash of pride again, from when Erian had praised their strength, just after they had managed to re-create that first storm. Grinning she plopped herself down in the centre of her side, and waited for Erian to do likewise.
She watched as he did his own checks, taking longer than usual; even though most of the circle’s functions wouldn’t matter today. They’d be in her Mindscape, and nothing was getting in unless she let it. He looked tense again, wearing that same guarded expression he always had before they entered. His wariness hadn’t eased, no matter how often she’d got him safely in and out. Even stumbling onto that spiritual anchor thing, it hadn’t shifted. She still didn’t understand the why of it - there had to be more than just high resistance. But just like he avoided her questions about how the academy mages treated him, he wouldn’t speak more about his Mindscape fear.
“Erian, the circle is fine.” She patted the ground. “Sit down and relax. It will be alright.”
He gave a quick nod and sat opposite her. “This will be different from what we’ve tried before. Instead of focusing on a foggy area you will need to visualise everything around something that you have no knowledge of. Without that proper visualisation, we can’t replicate the conditions that will make the weave appear.”
“I’ll call just as soon as I’ve got it.” She gave a firm nod, her expression unusually serious, and closed her eyes. While Erian slowly settled into the meditative state he’d need to answer her call, Marnie took a simple longwise step and entered her Mindscape.
—
Marnie’s Mindscape
| The amethyst wisp of Marnie appears within an amethyst copy of the ritual space left over from her last visit. The wisp bobs around it tracing the figure of eight. |
No need for you today. The memories are staying in my head this time. Let’s see. We’ll look at them from above so I can cover them with a blanket if it gets weird.
| The ritual room drifts apart into amethyst fog. A concave circular floor takes its place. A low guardrail surrounds it, while a large piece of woollen cloth hovers far above. |
I didn’t mean a literal blanket, but sure, that works. Now the memories.
| Colourless images flow through the mist, pulled from the far reaches. The wisp hovers and flits between them searching for the right ones, each taking on her amethyst light as she focuses on it. |
Visualise… visualise… I had them earlier. Thinking about more than one is tricky but… Got it!
| Two sets of memory images flash for a moment then drift down to the concave surface. They settle on opposite sides and begin to move repeating moments in time. The rest, unneeded, disappear. |
Okay, hold them both in place to make the gap appear. Don’t think about the empty bit. How am I meant to not think about it? It’s like not thinking about, I don’t know… socks. No, wait I can do this. Those memories are borders. If I stretch them like so then… Ah-ha!
| The images stretch around the edge of the circle, until they can move no further. Something blocks their path. A fuzzy static of amethyst filaments enters the space between them. |
That’s gotta be it right? Something wants to be there but it’s being blocked.
| The wisp bounces against the fuzzy surface and rebounds. |
It’s not as strong as the wall, but it’s definitely there. Erian was right.
| A thaumic-link thread forms from the mist reaching out to the edge of the Mindscape. The wisp stretches with it, ready to guide its target. |
Erian, are you ready? I’m all set up in here.
| A vision appears just beyond the walls of the Mindscape, showing Erian sitting in the Real. “I am ready.” Erian’s voice carries along the link. The amethyst wisp watches as thaumic threads cross slowly through the vision from the Real to the veil. Their ends drift as they search for their target. The Marnie wisp flashes attracting their attention. Slowly each thread notices and drifts towards the Mindscape. They pulse as the azure-blue Erian wisp forms within the Mindscape and lands next to the concave floor. At its touch the Amethyst mist takes on colour, turning the guardrail burnished gold, and the cloth above a vibrant pattern of red, yellow, and green. Only the contents of the concave floor remain untouched. The amethyst wisp bounces up and down. |
Hehe! The entire space in one go! It’s so much quicker now.
| “My control has indeed improved.” The azure wisp hovers over the centre of the floor, the staticky gap beneath him. “Are you prepared for this? As soon as I add the spiritual energy to the memories the strength of the emotions associated with them will increase. It is necessary to fully realise the memory, but it will be a lot to bear.” Marnie-wisp pulses strongly. Erian wisp lowers to the edge of the enclosed floor and circles through the two memories, a trail of colour follows in its wake, enveloping them in multiple hues that blend with the images bringing a vibrancy that infuses them with life. The amethyst wisp trembles. |
Oh-oh-oh. This is more than I expected. Too much. Look at me standing there in the hall. Oh it hurts, I can feel his order. Why can’t I resist it? I was so close.
| The wisp slowly moves towards the images, pulled by remembered emotion, becoming lost in the moment. The Azure wisp gives a strong flash and pulls her backward, up and away. “Marnie! focus! You can’t let yourself dwell in it. Stay in the present, in the now. It is a memory, nothing more. They are echoes of past emotion, nothing more.” |
Memory. Past Emotion. In the now. Visualise don’t dwell.
| The amethyst wisp repeats the words and its trembling ceases. The vibrancy finishes encompassing both the memories, they stabilise and, the staticky gap shifts and flickers. A weave of orange thread floats up from beneath the concave surface. |
Eww. I can feel the edges now. That’s him, his signature.
| The wisp whips a strand of amethyst fog at the end of one of the orange threads. A twang follows the crack as the end snaps. It flicks back and forth. The static beneath it flickers once, and the static lessens by a hair. The azure wisp fades a little in thought after snapping a thread itself. “It seems he has learnt a method of tethering weaves to the emotions in memory instead of the memory itself. But to do that he would need to see them…” |
Oh, like you do?
| “…yes.” The azure wisp dims further, but says nothing more as it snaps more thread. |
Maybe that’s where those old stories come from blaming empaths for stuff, when it’s really weavers with empathic ability.
| “…Perhaps. If Belaine is able to do… that, I do not think we can prove it. These threads would not be seen without spiritual energy. You only see them now because of our compatibility. No memory crystal will show them. And any orb I produce would only reveal them to another… Empath.” The Azure wisp flickers, then resumes its work. The Marnie wisp bounces between each thread snapping them as it goes. |
Well, it’s not like we have to prove it. And it could always be like when I worked on the wards. I didn’t need to see the energy to block it.
| The Azure wisp brightens slightly. “Very true. If the Order is as old as claimed they could have developed techniques similar to that.” The remaining strands are broken. The static clears from the gap as the hidden memory takes shape. |
Ohhh, here it comes.
| “Remember: keep your distance; observe, don’t dwell. Narrate if you have to, but do not become part of it. Keep it in the past. It is a memory - nothing more.” |
Memory. Nothing more. R-Right. Here goes.
We were in his workshop and he’d just told me about the meeting, when one of the servants came through and said there was a visitor. He got all cross - he didn’t like visitors - and told me to wait. Just said it, not an order. He left the room, and I waited a second before sneaking after him. He didn’t have many visitors, and I thought it’d be good to know who to avoid. I put up a veil when I got near, and I see him in the hall with…
| The amethyst wisp flickers, and leans towards the memory. “The past, Marnie. Keep it there.” The wisp jumps back. |
I know I know. I put up a veil. I saw him in the hall with a man. He was a bit skinny looking, scrunchy eyes, floppy hair-
| “Anton Eydel.” |
You know him?
| “I do, but don’t worry about that now. Keep going.” |
Anton was talking. “They are concerned it is drawing too much attention. I’ve had word they intend to bring it up at this session.” Belaine gave that stupid snort laugh of his and said “They are always concerned about something. The camps have served their purpose. All the better if the council believe they have a victory.” Anton pulls- pulled a funny face and said “What of the promising recruits we have lost? And the suspicion my actions have raised. They will-”. Belaine interrupted him - he was always doing that. “A bunch of useless oathbound are no loss. We will simply replace them. As for that suspicion… We will make use of it.”
This is harder than I thought it would be.
| The wisp fades a little, floating back, to rest on the ground. “You are doing great, Marnie. There is a lot of useful information here. The memory is nearly complete.” The Amethyst wisp flashes and bounces. |
It is. I can see. Okay. Where was I? I was hiding. He was talking. Right. “We will make use of it.” Belaine paced a little, and then that sneery grin he saved for his horribilest ideas appeared. Yeesh, I almost feel sorry for Anton Eydel. “You will see to it that they both are at the camp on the day of the raid.” Anton went all wide-eyed, clearly he’s not a fan of the idea. “How am I meant to arrange that? And for what purpose? Do you intend to have me implicated?” he demanded. Wow that’s a tone. Belaine didn’t like that. “And if I do? Are you questioning what the Pale Eye requires of you?” He loomed over Anton who pretty much became a quivering ball. “No great architect. My life, loyalty and will are sworn to the Eye.” Belaine nodded and looked smug. He stared down at him for a bit. Then he said. “You will see to it they are there. And if something should occur to implicate you… then it will further my design - an infusion of suspicion at this stage will prove useful. If it does not, then you may take comfort in knowing the Pale Eye still has need of you.”
| “Brace yourself, we are near the end.” The azure wisp floats nearer to the amethyst, ready. |
I’d got too curious as I listened to it, got too close. Belaine sensed my presence nearby. Never did know how he did that. He looked right towards where I was hiding behind my obfuscation. My stomach plummeted. I wasn’t allowed to use it without his order, shouldn’t have been able to. He knew then. I made a last ditch attempt to pretend he didn’t and ran back to the workshop as if I never left. He came storming in, and grabbed my head. I felt his threads running through me, knew what he’d find. His face went all red, and he was squeezing. “Again! It is breaking again! This is your last chance Marnie Nab. You will surrender your name to me this time, or I will write you off as a failure. There is little else you can…” He stopped squeezing and did his horrible chuckle. “Perhaps you can serve once more - when you are rebound. Once I strip what you heard go to the cell.” His threads wriggled in my mind and I couldn’t stop them and then there is roaring and his order echoing through my head and I’m walking and-
| The amethyst wisp flickers, pulses, guts, and plummets towards the memory. The Azure wisp halts its fall. The blanket drops from the ceiling, and covers the concave floor. All disappears leaving the two wisps alone in the mist. |
—
The Real
Marnie looked across at Erian from her favourite sofa corner. He held his not-so-hot drink in one hand and the memory crystal in the other, his eyes closed. She was sipping at her own, enjoying the warmth wiggle down her throat as it chased away all the cold dark feelings. He’d been replaying the memory over and over since they got back, and there was barely any steam coming from his drink now. With a huff, she pulled the crystal out of his hand. His eyes popped open when the connection broke.
“You’ve looked at it enough. Your drink’s getting cold.” She put the crystal down on the table as Erian finally started drinking. “Did I remember enough?”
“I think you did. Certainly enough to aid Meliath. If this was the kind of information Belaine felt the need to remove, then it is highly likely the other gaps hold similar, perhaps more members of the Low Council - as concerning as that is.” He leant back in his chair, relaxing into his thinking face. “I don’t know Eydel personally, or what role he holds, but I believe he is regarded highly. He was one reports were sent to from the Transition centre while I worked there, and I believe Meliath mentioned him once or twice.”
Those cold feelings were creeping back again. Marnie took another sip. “That means the Order know I’m here, right? If he saw reports and stuff?”
“Possible, but not definite. I don’t know much about it, but the CCD are always monitoring the Low Council. If he was gaining attention as he said, then it is probable they already knew about him.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “But that isn’t for us to worry about. I will pass this to Meliath via Gretham, and he will see that Eydel is dealt with as necessary. The title he called Belaine will be useful to him as well, I think. That is the first evidence that the man is important in the Order.”
“What about how he made the gap. Should we tell him that too?” Erian immediately closed off. It was like he was in front of Instructor Henton again. I should have waited. She needed to know if he was going to tell Meliath, but not right now.
“I’m… not sure what to tell him about them. I cannot prove anything. And… as you said, it is probably a blocking technique, nothing more.”
Marnie bounced down from her sofa, and up on to his. She sat cross-legged, and took his hands, willing her warmth to chase away his cold too. “You do know, don’t you Erian?” she asked gently. “You aren’t like him. Even if it turns out you are right and he can use Empathica, that just means he abuses both Thaum and Spirit. You do neither. He is a Weaver first and foremost - from what those history books you made me read said. If he’s no longer a Mage, then he can’t be called an Empath either.”
He looked up then, and gave a weak nod. “You are right, of course. Though I admit at times I forget the distinction. I will wait until we have cleared a few more gaps, so I can confirm it is consistent, and then tell Meliath.”
“What about him saying I could… serve, again? What if I’m doing that now? Will they lock me up if we tell them that?”
It was Erian’s turn to comfort her as he gave her hands a squeeze. “He also said you needed to be rebound for him to do so and you were not. You are free of him Marnie. Once we remove the last of it, you won’t need to think about him anymore.”
She focused inwardly, bringing the gaps to mind. There were lots of little ones scattered about - they’d clear them in one day for sure - and four bigger ones. It didn’t seem much for twenty years under him. But maybe that just proved she’d done a better job resisting him than she’d thought. She had been able to tell Meliath a lot, after all.
“Five more times then,” she said, and then after only a little hesitation added, “and when they’re done, there’s something I want to show you.”
“A memory?”
The purple thread appeared between them, sparkling a bit as it had taken to doing recently. She willed it away. “Yes… but, also no. It’s… Once we’ve got rid of all the old stuff I’ll show you.”
He studied her for a moment, but didn’t ask anymore, simply nodded.
For once, neither of them felt the need to return downstairs and work on one project or another. In unspoken agreement a companionable silence was enjoyed a little while longer, before they both headed to their beds to think. And perhaps sleep.
Thanks for reading! A time jump this time, which is why I included the little extra in the introduction. I’ll expand on that a bit further, just for the fun of it. Marnie and Erian arrived at the academy on the 30th of Varenth, 1225 TCE, at the end of spring. The Thaymian Council doesn’t see the need for a summer break, so all the summer months are spent in study. The Apprentice Showcase in the month of Restavane is the counterpart to the Adept showcase held in the second month, Sondrel - read about how that went here. For those interested in the wider Thalenra timeline, Milly’s raid on the snack table happened two months back - the Grains-mark feast in Claybank Waylet last month was a meagre affair - and the Seven dragons have just dealt with their first lot of trouble.
The next scene returns to Erian, where time will jump forward once again. We will join him during Tiernath, the third month of 1226 TCE, when the Trials of Classification will be underway at Velcirra Academy.