fictionalized | log; welcome to roland, morgan

A temporary home isn't bad in the meantime. Especially knowing that you'll find your permanent home eventually.

[Which must be really, really nice.

Even if she can get home...there's always the fact that her father will have another child--have her--and then what will she do?

Something. Something that she'll figure out in the future. All is well.]

[He shrugs, and with perfect nonchalance—]

Maybe. Once I leave this country, I'll become a Taboo Breaker, remember? I'll become a hunted criminal. And when I met Pia three years ago, she was travelling the world. She didn't have a permanent home of any kind either.

[a pause]

Well, that's how it is for fugitives. You can't really stay anywhere for too long. But it's a better sense of freedom than staying in a place like Roland, at least.

Well...I suppose you can either be on the run with Pia or find somewhere safe to settle, or change things...

[She's tapping her chin thoughtfully at that.]

You two would probably be better off in my world than here, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to get there. Oh well!

[And meanwhile Peria's existence is completely ignored—]

Yeaaaah, that's a pretty major obstacle right now. Ah, well, we'll definitely figure it out, since we have to send you back eventually... Anyway, as bad as things are in this world, it's still my world, you know? I'd rather change things than just take the easy way out and leave it.

[PRETTY MUCH Morgan doesn't even remember his name.]

True enough. I didn't think you'd really come along anyway.

[Since Zohra and Pia. Though he does give some confusing mixed signals about whether or not he wants to change things for real.

Regardless--]

That's probably for the better regardless!

[Zohra probably didn't even mention it—]

Yeah... Well, we'll find a way to send you back home, either way.

[There's a pause, before a figurative lightbulb goes over his head.]

Ah! Ah! That reminds me!

[...probably not.

But she blinks, tilting her head.]

Eh? What is it?

... You wanted to see other countries' magic, right?

[...k-kyaaaaa--]

Yes, absolutely! You think I'll get the chance, if I go with you?

Well, we're gonna be travelling the world sooner or later, aren't we? People won't be firing magic at random, but we're bound to see a spell in action eventually, even if we have to provoke it ourselves, right?

[...sounds like a good plan to her.]

Of course! I'll learn these spells if it's the last thing I do here. I'm so excited now! You have to hurry up and find Pia, okay?

Yeah, yeah. Though hmm... actually learning's gonna take more than just that. We'll have to find someone who'll be willing to teach you, and the only kind of people who'd do that are traitors or fugitives.

[a shrug]

Well, as fellow fugitives, we might run into someone one day, so we'll deal with that when the time comes. Though if you really wanna learn foreign magic, you'd better be expecting to stay here for years. Even if we find a teacher, don't think it's the same as learning Roland's magic, since other countries have completely different structures and mechanisms. I mean, Estabul has their strings of letters, Runa has their spheres of light... nothing like Roland's magic circles at all.

[He laughs.]

It's why countries make such a fuss about not letting the secrets of their magic spread, you know? Like I told Noire back in Haven, I'd be executed just for teaching you, but hey, I've probably committed worse crimes as far as Roland's concerned.

[stay with him for six years though and it all works out—]

[...YEAH OKAY yolo really. Morgan just smiles, shrugging a little.]

Well, I don't know when we'll be able to find a way for me to get back, but even if we do, I'm not really in a hurry.

[s h r u g.]

Father has to start his own life in his timeline anyway, so it's not like I can hang around. So I can stay here and learn magic until that gets too bothersome too!

[On Zohra, that is, with his little romance with Pia.

Morgan's got this all planned out--or, at least, she's thought about it all.]

[Well, he was expecting as much from her. He sighs.]

Geeeeez, so you're saying I'm stuck with you for years? This is gonna be a pain. And it's easy for you to be all carefree about it when I'm probably gonna be the one who has to do most of the work to find someone...

[That said, in spite of his annoyed tone, he's not really.]

But before we get into all that—

[He points at Morgan.]

Before you even think about learning other countries' magic, you gotta have a better foundation first! You barely have any experience or magic theory knowledge when it comes to this world as it is. Well, it should take a few years before we even find someone who can teach you foreign magic anyway, so that should be enough time... but you gotta get the hang of Roland's magic first! As things stand right now, you've hardly even reached military-level magic, you know? There's no point in teaching you foreign magic when you're not even proficient with one country's system! Or magic as a whole here.

[He crosses his arms.]

So we gotta start there first. That reminds me, though—since we don't have Haven's stupid writing rules anymore, I can start teaching you about magic structures in general. Though that stuff's more theoretical than learning specific spells, so it might be above you... but if it's the way that magic really works here that interests you, it might be worth it.

[A pause, before he starts mumbling to himself (sorry, Morgan, he's not giving you a lot of room to talk here).]

So I'm gonna be teaching her—and I've still got missions, and I still wanna work on developing those... I'm gonna be pretty busy, huh...?

[Ooooh. She just beams, looking instantly more alert and interested at his ramblings.]

Oh, magical theory? I can do that. I can learn yours and you can learn mine, now that there are books and things. Ooh, you could even see what Thunder spells actually look like now!

This is great! I missed being able to write, hee hee!

[She seems to be ignoring his exasperation and apparent concern about how busy he'll be.]

[wow thanks morgan]

Hehe, isn't it? It'll probably take a long time before you'll be able to create your own magical structures or be able to efficiently dispel others—and you'll never be as good as me, of course—but it might be fun, teaching you! I've never done this kind of thing before, I mean.

[sparkle sparkle]

So your tomes have actual text in them now?

I'm sure it'll be really fun and I'm really excited again--

[OH RIGHT! She brightens, opening her thunder tome and showing him the lettering, which shimmers slightly with the trapped magical power within.

It looks something like this:

]

It does, it does! See?

Ooh!

[He peers at it with an excited expression.]

Is that ancient language or something?

[Morgan just beams, nodding.]

I think from what I remember from my studies, it was used in magical songs first...but now they can use it to trap magic in the books.

[She trails her fingers along the words, so pleased that they're back.]

A lot of old magical texts are written in it too.

Neaaaat. I've never heard of a magic structure being able to do something like that here, though I guess magic traps would be kind of similar...

[...]

Magical songs, though? How does that work?

[She pauses, pursing her lips, clearly going over everything she's learned--and then she sighs and shrugs.]

They were called Galdr, but we don't know very much about them, anymore. The people who used them died out a long time ago.

[oh well, onto more important things--]

I bet there's a way to do something similar with your magic. It's just a matter of trapping it in something that can contain magic for a long time...

Really? Too bad.

[It's Zohra's turn to look deep in thought now, apparently.]

Well, theoretically, magic structures could last forever as long as no one disrupts them... It's how ruins and stuff probably still have traps keeping people out. The problem is more of what, in the context of spirits, 'trapping magic' even means...

It must be similar at base, don't you think? The spirits are the energy source for the magic, in a way, and when we create a new spellbook, it's just trapping the magical energy in the book as well...

Hmm...now I wish I would have studied spell tome creation more...

Well, if you write down the magic circle on each of its pages, then sure, that'd probably work. But having to carry a book at all times and lose a hand for it—well, that puts you at a disadvantaged in close combat, so you're really better off just learning how to cast more quickly.

And that's not really how your tomes work, anyway...

[...hmm. And she blinks and shrugs.]

True enough! Spell tome creation has been a big thing in my world for a really long time, so it's no wonder they're good at it anyway.

log; welcome to roland, morgan

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