Session 1: Drysi Maelgwyn

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady watched and waited as Drysi was pulled along the rollercoaster of her logic and emotions at whiplash speed. It was often a painful process, counseling mages. Mundane problems were often exponentially compounded by the presence of magic in a person's life. Drysi's situation was no different.

As she wound down, Dr. Sumedha filled the waxing silence with a soft, confident voice. "Miss Maelgwyn- Drysi. I know you're not stupid, which means I know you understand what I'm saying. It is a lot to take in, and the realization can be very stultifying. But perfection is hard. It is much easier to shuck our flaws into our neighbor's yard than cultivate them into strengths.

Her voice quieted and gentled, almost loving. "You have so much potential, Drysi." As she spoke, Drysi would be awash with a pleasant sensation. A quiet joy, like the one found when your mother says, "Good job," and wholly means it. "You can start realizing some of that potential now, but you'll need help. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it also wasn't built by one man. We can actualize your fullest potential together, as a team, like the time you and your friends caught Mr. Flynn during that exercise. How exhilarating." Her eyes drifted as if recalling the scene, despite obviously never having been there. After a few moments, she refocused. "I know you can do it. The real question is: do you want to do it? Hard work, fighting against yourself, and habits you didn't even realize you had formed, with the only reward being self-satisfaction?"

[Kokuten]

Drysi drew up her hands to her chest, as the conversation refused to take any combative turns. The girl was disarmed from one of her more famous escape mechanisms, and she was forced to listen to Sumedha. Worse, she was forced to face herself as the truth was laid out. The girl's face made motions between frustration, embarrassment and wariness. The little voice in the back of her mind told her that it was just a lure, and that the counselor was opening her up just to cut her down. To expose her weakness.

Bloody psychologists and their tricks will do nothin' but crack yer hide and hurt you.

The words burned in her mind, like a message pressed on the surface of her brain and she blinked and shut her eyes. When she opened them, though, she didn't see a distrustful figure sitting across from her. She saw someone who seemed to genuinely care for her, despite flaws the triclops had. While that, on its own, made Drysi uncomfortable, the girl relaxed.

That voice became harder to hear as the memory of the live-exercise was brought up. She remembered being sullen the entire time, until the end. When she had watched Willow snatch up victory, it filled her with a happiness she realized she hadn't felt in a long time. That little glow took root in her chest, as she played the memory in her mind again.

"I don't want to lose sight of perfection," said Drysi, her voice having calmed down a few levels, "but... I don't... I don't want to be unhappy anymore."

She had thought about that moment after the exercise ever since it happened, how she hadn't felt anything like it since. Tears started welling in her eyes. She tried to wipe them away, but her eyes began to outpace her hands. "My gram told me to always keep my eyes on the power, but I've pushed everyone away in the process. I've just been so bitter since I've come here, and I'm so afraid of ruining everything."

The sadness started to overrun her mind in a flood, and she started sobbing, only wiping her face intermittently now, "I want to be better. I don't want to be mean. I want to be happy, but I don't know how. People scare me. Everything scares me. I'm so afraid they're all going to find out how much of it is just a farce."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

The smile that spread on Dr. Sumedha's face was not the cold, piercing thing for which most students knew her. It was genuine, radiant warmth. "What leads one person to happiness may not work for the next. Your gram's advice may be good for her, but I don't think it's working for you."

She sighed. "I think you miss home, and I think the new place is the main source of these anxieties." She paused, again, as if searching her mind for something. "And I think you want to be taken seriously, like a true Librarian." Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. "For what it's worth, I believe you'd make an excellent Librarian."

She rose suddenly to her feet and approached her desk. "But I'm sidetracking. Our focus is you." She sat at her desk, her hands finding the notebook and pen. "So, let's return to our prior discussion: what is it you need to achieve these things? In particular, what can this school provide to you to accomplish these things? And, perhaps, we can consider alternatives." She looked up from the preliminary diagram on her notebook. "I understand it is imperative to you to become a Librarian, but it is prudent to have a backup plan- purely as a precaution. There are many mercantile potentials for your craft, if you were interested, or else the Occultus Magica and the Guild are always welcoming scribes and similar preparatory arts into their ranks."

[Kokuten]

The warm words were enough to swing Drysi's balance of emotions back into place, and she started to wipe her eyes. The white sleeves on her arms were soaked. What little make-up she wore had smeared on to them. It was back to being embarrassed, but at this point the triclops had cracked wide open, and she had been vulnerable enough with the counselor to trust her. The little voice in her mind seemed to have given up trying to coerce her.

Brushing her hair out of her face, she tried to regain some sense of proud civility, but gave up when her eyes kept running. She wiped her face a couple more times before regarding Lady stiffly.

"An alternative. To being a Librarian."

The girl's lip quivered as a secret surfaced in her mind, but she held it close to her heart.

"This session is confidential," the question almost sounded like a statement, "you're not allowed to tell anyone what I say here?"

Lady could see her become guarded again, three brilliant, emerald eyes trying to hide behind her messy blonde hair.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady's eyes glimmered, as if excited. "Absolutely. The only thing I take more seriously than my responsibility to you, is my craft." There was a sense of the plural you in the statement, as though Drysi was merely the avatar of the entire student body in that moment. She set down the pen as if to emphasize her point. "If you prefer, I can keep it from my notes entirely." It was true in a sense; she could keep it off paper, but anything Lady intended to remember was easily secured in the steel vault of her mind.

[Kokuten]

Drysi shifted her position in the chair, considering Lady's words. There was a trust that radiated from the woman, a sense of safety; all of it made it easier for the girl to relax. Lady represented the things that Drysi wanted to exhibit in herself, professionalism and perfection. The woman radiated it in a strange, cerebral way. It made what she was about to say feel silly.

"If."

The word came out, but it was followed by a pause. A gap filled with a tangible tension as that secret in her chest rose.

"If I cannot be a librarian."

She broke eye contact, once, twice, three times and started to flush, her lips pursing tightly.

"If I cannot be a librarian."

Those two pale fists in her lap clenched tightly, she looked away, and muttered it almost inaudibly.

"I would like to study as a druid."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady's eyes flashed, quicker than a blink, at the confession, like a predator catching its prey unaware. But the smile she wore was unchanged, honest and reassuring. "Well, Miss Maelgwyn, the only place better than Safeholme for Druidic studies is the Isles themselves. The runic arts would probably be a natural transition for you, given your predilection for script, but Druidism encompasses far more than that. I think it would be an excellent fit- assuming of course, that we can't get you into the Library of Cardiff."

The doctor's glance at her notepad was perfunctory, as there was really nothing of substance there. "Well, Miss Maelgwyn, I think I have sufficient information to chart a successful path through Safeholme. If you have any final questions or concerns, feel free to share them now.

"Oh! Before I forget, how are your other magecrafts? Your application has papersophy listed as well."

[Kokuten]

"Papersophy?"

Hmph. Drysi grumped audibly at the mention of it. Like a cat, she looked away to the other side of the room, as if to make herself more aloof. Lady would notice that the girl would hide her eyes with her hair when she didn't want to talk about something, as if people could glimpse truths through them.

"It's a parlor trick. My mother insisted it would look favorable on my application as an exotic art, but that's all it is," harumphed Drysi, still hiding. "I used to practice it with her when I was wee, and not a minute after. It's not a discipline of magic like inscription is. You don't see people practicing paper at Cardiff or even at Safeholme."

There was tinge of hurt pride in her voice, "What's so magical about making paper fold and float."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady raised her eyebrows. "I see." She looked back down at her desk for a brief moment of thought, then back to Drysi. "I would encourage you to try and keep an open mind about other magecrafts." Positioned as she was, looking away from Sumedha, Drysi would witness an origami monkey scaling the corner of the couch. It paused at the top and fixed its blank face on hers.

"Some require more nuance than others, but I can't say I've encountered a craft that was worthless." The monkey folded one arm in half to touch its brow in a stiff salute, then leaped off the couch. It refolded as it fell, taking the shape of a large-winged bird. It floated casually, before eventually resting on the coffee table. Across the table, Sumedha had retaken her seat and reached out for the origami, which unfolded itself without command into creaseless, unmarred paper.

She began folding. While she worked, she said, "I've heard of papersophists who could craft immaculate blades out of notebook sheets." A strange thing happened as she manipulated the paper. With each fold, as she firmly pressed the crease, the paper seemed to gain length, much like a parlor trick. After a few folds it was roughly dagger-sized and likewise shaped. One crease had an uncanny gleam, like the knife edge it ought to be. She held it up to the light to examine it, then threw it like the paper airplane it morphed into. It looped a couple times before swooping toward the floor, unfolding, and slipping under the office door.

Lady smiled. "No magecraft is useless."

[Kokuten]

It hurt. It hurt saying the things like that. To feel ashamed of a talent she had for something, something her mother took pride in.

Her grandmother had said those words to her, dismissing the art as a parlor trick, fueling many of the disparities of the girl's heart. Reflexively, her fingers began to perform the motions. Subtle suggestions that would move the medium.

Then she saw the monkey and her heart began to pound. She looked down at her fingers, shocked that she had done something so silly. Yet, when she looked at the paper creature again, it moved, even as her hands were still.

I'm not controlling it.

It saluted, and jumped; she gasped, following its movement all the way to the table with careful eyes. Her mind was racing, trying to piece together what magic was driving it. It began to come together as Sumedha sat down, willing the paper flat and pristine again.

Drysi was sitting on the edge of her seat, her hands drawn together at her chest as she watched Lady work. Each little fold had her rapt attention, the careful movement, the gentle touch. They were the hands and precision of a Papersophist, a true Paper Witch. In a moment, the paper became a blade, and then with one beautiful motion it flipped from one form, to another, and it was gone.

She stared at the door for a few seconds, before turning her head back to look at Lady, a natural wonder in the girl's eyes.

No magecraft is useless.

Her heart fluttered.

"You're... a... you're a paper witch?"