Hanging about with an Apprentice - Jygust 30th late ET

[Ashari]

OOC: This thread is meant for Ash & Aerin, but others can join if they have a reasonable explanation!

Ashari had left the company of Ashtallion feeling revived. He was good for keeping her spirits up, and for that she was quite thankful. Well, that and she could tell him anything without worry of him selling her secrets or telling anyone else. She also felt as though she could depend on him to be a tried-and-true friend who would be there as she continued to rise in power, just as she could be there for him in turn.

In the meantime, she had questions for Aerin concerning one of her illusive students. A gentle knock rapped across Aerin's door. "May I come in?" She asked to the air. It was her house, but she respected the student's privacy until she had reason not to.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

"Yes, Mistress, come on in..." came Aerin's reply from behind the door. The redhead was seated cross-legged on her bed in almost a meditative position, looking at Cicero expectantly as he crouched upon her table eying a Banner and a nut which had been placed side-by-side. Not wanting to interrupt her student's work right at the end, Aerin clicked her tongue a couple of times and gave the small monkey a wink, smiling and nodding as he grabbed the banner and bounded across the room to her, the nut remaining untouched on the table.

"Good boy..." she cooed, trading him another nut for the coin as she rose from the bed and approached Ashari. "It is just an object, Mistress...I'm not training a cut-purse in here, no worries. How may I help you?" she asked, brushing a band of loosely-curled hair behind one ear so that it met with its equally disheveled sisters. She had just come off-shift at Simple Pleasures and had not yet allowed herself the privilege of self-pampering aside from stripping from her work clothes and donning a robe.

[Ashari]

Ashari, too, was in a comfortable robe, and stepped into the room confidently as if she wore a gown. Being regal was coming naturally to her these days. Perhaps it was the knowledge of the burden she carried in her womb. "You say that like I'd have a problem with it," she said with a wink and took up a position next to Aerin on her bed. "Such talents could come in handy for a Caesar."

The mage gave the monkey a scratch ontop of his round head. "Sweet thing," she murmered, then looked up at her student. "What do you think of Paige?" It was a rather blunt and to-the-point question, but Ash wasn't one to dance around the details. She didn't want to admit to her interest of the mystery of the slave-girl, but did want to hear the opinion of her apprentice.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

"Paige?" Aerin replied, giving Cicero a blown kiss and a tug on the top of her robe, exposing only minor cleavage. She wasn't trying to seduce the monkey by any means, but it was one of the first signals that she had taught him after arriving at Thalas. Cicero did as bid and equated 'getting nude' to 'close the door' and did so, the wood thumping very lightly as it closed. Aerin mulled the question over in her mind for the flicker, not wanting to utter a word about Paige unless either Paige was around or privacy was assured.

"She seems pretty sweet..." the redhead began, giving her pet another nut as he returned from the completed task. "I saw her tonight in Simple Pleasures and nothing seemed amiss...why?" Her brows furrowed a little over a concerned face - two months after Paige had arrived and Ashari was suddenly concerned about her? Something had to be wrong. But what, if anything did Ashari know of Langredoc? What if Aerin was asked about it? Aerin had little, if anything, to hide about it but still kept her face as under control as she could so that, hopefully, Ashari would not think her to be hiding something.

[Ashari]

"I've just noticed how often she seems to be gone..." Ash noted, but smirked as Cicero did as his master bid. Now that's the power I should be exerting. "If not just in body, but in spirit. She seems distracted by something."

The mention of Simple Pleasures had her nod. "Was she alone? Or was she coming in to visit you?" Ash wasn't quite sure which was the better alternative. "I know she's troubled by her sister - and to her being missing, but I can't afford to be giving her classes if she's just going to wander off with some local merchant and let him have his way with her," Ash said with a huff. "There are many dangers in this city. I wouldn't want her to fall prey to them in her interest of finding her missing twin."

There were other things, too. Paige's inability to swiftly account for where she'd been spending her time. Ashari was increasingly under the suspicion she was up to no good. Even now - where was she? Ashari hadn't a clue, and that was rather bothersome.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

"I have noticed the distraction as well, Mistress, but I am not sure if it was due to her sister..." she began with a shrug "...or with duties at the Palace." Aerin pursed her lips for a flicker and then gave a small nod. "She was with a man - one I have seen her with before. A swordsman...and a wolf cub."

Her eyes looked into Ashari's for any sign of recognition to see if the man was a part of an assignment or a total surprise to the guild mistress. "To be truthful, she did look a little nervous to see me, which was odd, since she knows that I work there and when I work there... I am guessing that the meeting place was not her idea..." Aerin gave a snap of her fingers and a toss of her eyes up toward Cicero's bed, the little thing more interested into trying to squirm its way into Ashari's lap than just standing by.

He ignored her, as usual - she would have to work harder on that trick.

"After a drink..." Aerin continued "...she was gone, and he soon after. He, however..." she said with a hint of concern in her voice "...bought a drink, never touched it, waited a few burns, and then left by himself." Curiosity had her cat by the throat now and Aerin was dreading more shrouded questions as that would make curiosity give the final squeeze on the soft feline neck.

[Ashari]

There was indeed a spark of recognition in Ashari's eyes, but it was paired with confusion as well as immediate distrust toward Paige. How many swordmaster rogues are there in this city with wolves as pets? Ashari considered Red's comment that the young man could be a enemy of Mike's, but now pairing him with Paige was too much. What if Paige is the spy? Perhaps Michael sent her into my organization to see what we're up to, and who is coming and going. Her thoughts went to Red's new identity as the blonde Babe or to Ketch's movements through her home.

"Do you think she could've just forgotten you were supposed to be there?" She asked while continuing to adore Cicero with attention. "Or do you think she wanted you to see her?" Perhaps he's blackmailing her... and this character is his thug. "Did Paige say anything to you that would suggest that she knows you, or did she treat you like you were just a waitress?" Ash paused, and added more importantly. "And when was this? Have you seen them together more than once?"

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

Aerin shook her head slowly at the first question, listening to them all before replying, Ashari's queries making her more and more suspicious of the man Paige was with first-off, and Paige herself as the flickers passed. "I doubt very seriously that she would have forgotten, Mistress..." Aerin replied with a frown. "And from the look in her eyes, I doubt that she wanted to be there in my presence at all. I thought she was on an assignment from you, with he as the mark so..." she continued, never taking her eyes off of Ashari. "...so I tried to signal to her that we extend the lesson from this morningtide and just be waitress and patron as not to make her companion wary of my presence."

The redhead curled her fists into balls reflexively, opening and closing them in tempo - in accordance with her own tactics for relief from her personal daemons. She was growing increasingly upset about herself and Ashari being made fools of if Paige was, indeed, up to no good. "It was this eveningtide and yes, I have seen them together before, Mistress - my other thought besides him being a mark, was that there might be romance between them just by how she would act when I spied them together..." Aerin had done, so she thought, a good job of covering her own affairs but she had a fleeting thought of the others being grilled like this about her.

Is this a part of the weeding process? she wondered as her attention lowered to Cicero, but not quite, her eyes pausing for a flicker on Ashari's belly before fully connecting with the monkey, her thoughts flittering to those of a not-so-hairy little body resting in the teen's lap, wondering if her instincts about other things were true as well. With a jolt, she returned her gaze to meet Ashari's face.

"Now that she 'knows' that I 'know', Mistress, she may trust me a bit more and invite me further into that particular circle." Aerin suggested, putting herself on the line without hesitation for it had been her judgment at first which had brought Paige into Thalas after such a short initial meeting. "I could casually observe and maybe even query just a bit about him if you would like. Before she arrived and after she left, possibly while she was still there..." she mentioned, giving more of her assessment of the events "...his eye certainly did roam over myself and other women so perhaps, if it is romance that she is after, she has not quite caught his full attention yet and I..." she said with a smirk, perking up a bat as if to make herself more alluring even in her present half-tired state.

"...could see if that suspicion is correct as well...on your approval, of course, Mistress..." Her eyes lowered once more to the monkey and Aerin smiled, noting that her tail-equipped little roommate had fallen fast asleep under Ashari's caresses. "You are very good at that, Mistress... I usually have to sing him to sleep or out-tire him, which is why I do his training so late. There must be something verrrry special about you, Mistress - which is a good thing." she added as she carefully took up the sleeping animal and deposited him in his own bed, placing a rag doll with blood-red yarn for hair under one of his arms so that 'his Aerin' would be close by upon waking.

"Or, perhaps..." she said softly, returning to both the topic and bed. "Perhaps your 'non-student friends' could look into him instead, since he knows my face now." Aerin gave a little eyebrow wiggle at the term 'non student', implying Ketch, Red, and whomever else Ashari held council with besides Wrinkles. "Or..." she uttered with a shrug "I could just shush on my thoughts of schemes and let you make your own elections about the matter, with me just answering any other questions you might have and me minding my own business until prompted to do otherwise, yes?" she asked, giving her lower lip a smiling nibble to fully signal that she was ready to shush for the flicker.

[Ashari]

Aerin seemed well versed in what she was coming up with and the schemes that were quick to fall from her seductive lips. Ashari wondered if she'd been considering these things and was prepared with information and ideas, or if this was a sudden spin. Either was commendable and would make her a better Companion, though she hoped it were the previous and she was only waiting for the opportunity to tell her mistress without outing her fellow student. Loyalty can be a dangerous thing, particularly depending on who you are loyal to.

"I wish you'd told me sooner of her activities. I could've seen to it then, and made sure that she wasn't being taken advantage of in any way," Ash said with a mild scolding edge to her tone. "We want to be good to our friends, but your allegiance needs to be to me above all others - even your fellow students, do you understand?"

She had a good feeling that the young woman got it. "I'd like to teach you things, Aerin - things that will make you powerful in your own right, but I cannot if I don't believe that I have your full trust."

Ashari moved her arms out of the way so that Aerin could pick up her pet. The student gave her mentor a dose of adoration, which Ash used to fill up her ego a bit more with a wide smile. "Thank you," she replied.

"I don't think they need to be involved," Ash continued on the topic of Paige and her friend. "Not yet, anyway. I have concerns - I believe Paige's mystery-man is working for Michael Crane - has she mentioned him at all to you?" Ashari played the card, and gave Aerin the information she was holding. She hoped she wouldn't regret it.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

Aerin found herself nodding in agreement again, noting the lightly chastising tone. "I understand, Mistress, and it was trust in you which partially held my tongue as I thought she was dealing with him under your command, so I trusted and did not meddle." She nodded in agreement once more as Ashari spoke of Red and Ketch's non-involvement, perching an inquisitive eyebrow at the mention of Crane.

"She has said nothing to me of her man or Crane, Mistress. I am sorry.", Aerin said after listening to the concern and information. "Do you think that it might be a necessary evil? Like something involving her sister? Or should we check her room for matches?", she asked, alluding to the fire which had consumed the prior guild. A part of her mind wondered, even after all this time, if witnesses to the original fire might not recall seeing either the mysterious swordsman or the grey wolf lingering about and watching the blaze.

[Ashari]

When Aerin suggested they check Paige's room for matches she shook her head. "Gods, no.. atleast I hope not. To have her under my roof all this time - the thought of her being a foreign agent is wrenching." There was a sadness in Ashari's eyes at the mention of it. She could be too trusting, perhaps, and was still feeling as though she could trust people on their word. Maybe that time had come and gone.

"On second thought, yes... let's consider ways of investigating her-" Ashari mulled over it, and thought about going to check the young woman's bedroom, but decided against it for the moment. There would be times when the house would be empty and she wouldn't be disturbed by Paige returning. On such an occassion she could use her magick and try to get a sense of the slave-turned-companion.

"Would you feel comfortable gently questioning her about her mysterious friend? It wouldn't be unusual for you to ask - after having seen them at Simple Pleasures. Maybe she wants the out - maybe she's desperately waiting for it, it could be why she showed up at a place you were at."

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

Aerin nodded with a small smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. "I would be comfortable with that, Mistress, as it does tug at my curiosity as well, so yes...it would be almost natural to ask." She allowed quite a few flickers of silence to pass before opening her mouth again, mulling over the question's wording carefully. "While we are on the topic of concerns for others...are you feeling well, Mistress?" Aerin asked, placing a hand upon Ashari's in a comforting manner if allowed.

"You seem to be a bit ill-at-ease at times, symptoms I have seen before although I am no healer and do not want to jump to conclusions." Perhaps she is just ill...or stressed...or maybe I am seeing things which are not there... she argued with herself, a bit nervous about prying into Ashari's affairs.

[Ashari]

"Feeling well?" Ash asked. Guilt. "I'm feeling fine, well, mostly," she sighed. "Nothing for a mentor to burden on her apprentice, for my stresses are mine to bear myself." The mage patted Aerin's hand thoughtfully. "And.. on such a topic as learning - how are you feeling? I thought we might do a bit of a paired meditation, with perhaps a touch of shielding - a talent that you ought have in this world which seems to crawl with magick users, though perhaps it's just the circles I travel in."

The young woman folded her hands in her lap, waiting for Aerin's response on the subject, for if she were feeling tired and wanted to sleep, that would be fair enough and she wouldn't push the issue, for she'd rather her student alert. Shielding could mean the difference between life and death in this city, though. Ash considered it an important lesson for the budding companion.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

"Your stresses may be heaped upon me at any time, Mistress... I have promised that to you countless times before and will continue to pledge it. And I have already sworn to keep your secrets, have I not, be it coin, illness, or your affairs. When and if you are ever inquired about, I shall tell they who ask that you are the portrait of heath without even so much as a cough or stumble."

Her eyes dropped to Ashari's belly...err...hands for a flicker before rising once more. Perhaps Ashari had somehow sensed something big on Aerin's horizon? The descision that she had made earlier in Simple Pleasures? Was this offer of a late night private class Pan's doing? Without giving herself time to debate it, Aerin gave a nice, toothy smile.

"I am feeling very well, Mistress, and it is my routine to meditate before retiring anyway, so...." she shrugged, indicatig the ample spot on her floor where she normally sat to meditate. "I would love to begin learning magick from you - at the risk of offending you, I have never seen you look as beautiful and erotic as you did that dark night of the fire when you raped me with your power and offered to teach me the same." She stood and held her hands out to her young mentor.

"Please...let us study, Mistress... I am, as always, your eager sponge."

[Ashari]

Ashari couldn't help a blush crest her cheeks at Aerin's overt form of compliment. "Thank you... I think," she responded with her own grin and took up Aerin's hand as assistance in pushing off the soft mattress in favor of crossed legs on the carpetted floor.

"Come then, be a good sponge," she smirked and folded her legs among eachother while setting the backs of her wrists on her knees. Her hands hung in the air in a comfortable half-open sort of way while her shoulders relaxed.

"Why don't we start by some meditation... mmmm," Ashari, though, wasn't content with just that. As Aerin began to meditate Ash fell into her core - the space she inhabitted in her mind while working her magick. A deep breath through her nose indicated peace i her inner sanctum and it's soft green ambiance. Once there, it was outward she went, her magick forming tendrils - like fingers meant for information gathering, and their target was Aerin. Perfectly relaxed and happily comfortable, Ash planned her to be simply read.

The mage sought Paige's secret friend - for his face within Aerin's jumbled mind, so that Ash might have some way of knowing, for sure, if this man were the same who sought Michael's company several months prior. "Breathe in," Ash instructed. "And... release," she continued. Among her searching for Langredoc's face, she also sought Aerin's level of relaxation. She wanted to wait until she were in a good place in her mind before the teaching would begin.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

Aerin sat across from Ashari, her legs crossing beneath her and a tangled mess of thorns and brambles in her mind. She took some deep, claming breaths and began to weed through the thoughts in the same sloppy, self-taught manner that she had done for the past two months until she reached a point where she felt 'centered'.

Her thoughts were still a mess, of course, but they were a somewhat organised mess - had Aerin ever been to Roque d'Ancourt, she would probably have likened the cleared path to her center to the garden maze. Ashari would find Langredoc and Paige in a 'pile' of their own.

[Graves]

(( OOC: Just giving your thread some direction from the magical perspective-- you guys are doing a great job! ))

Aerin's mind gave way to Ashari's probing like soft butter melting in intense heat, the searching fingers easily sliding into the pliant energies and thoughts that composed the young apprentice's mind. Ashari's fingers would feel as though wading through a messy room, with very little rhyme or reason, nor any organizational scheme to speak of.

At first, nothing clear popped out, but as Aerin began to concentrate and clear her mind, the piles of thoughts began to shudder and move. It was dizzying, in a way, to sit inside someone's mind as they centered themselves-- like sitting at the center of a vertiginous whirlpool.

Eventually, the thoughts settled-- and with little effort Ashari could see the image of Paige vibrantly, sitting in its own small section of Aerin's mind. Just below it were other portraits, other memories, among them the sword-wielding Langredoc. Ashari could see the night at Simple Pleasures almost just as clearly as Aerin might, in recollection... and sure enough, there was Langredoc's face-- smiling... his eyes resting tenderly, on occasion, upon Paige, when it seemed that nobody was looking...

For her part, Aerin might feel a small vibrating and tingling sensation inside of her core, a gentle sort of resonance that did not feel necessarily uncomfortable or intrusive. As Ashari's mental fingers moved around, searching for thoughts, Aerin could notice their wake-- thoughts and memories rising and fading unbidden within her mind's eye.

[Ashari]

Ashari nearly winced as she recognized the man's face. It was disquieting being right all the time, but it did give her reason to have more burning interest in the un-named man who sought Michael's attention. Michael! You shall die by my hand for what you've done, she felt inflamed by the purity of her hatred toward him as she vibrated with her anger. It was a great burden she carried - that of her need for revenge. So few times in her life had she given over to it. Generally, she was a creature who understood that things happened for a reason, and that everything is even in the end. But... she had seen too much - she'd dealt with too much. Too many horrible things had happened to her to allow this to pass. If no one else, Michael had to pay.

If everything went according to plan, he'd pay through his new favorite pet. It was only fair. Ashari sifted through Aerin's shift at work - through the faces she'd seen and then outward, back she retreated into her own mind, to the distance of watching rather than being in, and started to dictate what her apprentice should do.

"That's it," Ashari's voice filled Aerin's mind evenly, though her lips didn't move. "Mmm, feel that place. That's your core. Become comfortable there. It's your center, and it is from there that you shall derive your power," she took a breath, falling into her own inner sanctum - walking on the brink of neverending power as if on the lip of a chalice. Her voice echoed through the wide chamber, changing and distorted from this new place.

"You are exposed, Aerin. I can rip through you - through your mind... I can pull at your thoughts," Ashari's tendrils evoked the protected image of Aerin's lover and their tangled embrace, the memory of which was inexorably twisted with shame for not telling her mistress of her affair. "I will keep searching... you better create a wall to protect yourself..." Ash warned with a cleverly lifted brow. "What other secrets do you have, my apprentice?"

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

Within Aerin’s meditations, from day one, she had always seen her thoughts as a garden which needed tending and the way to her ‘core’ was to arrange them from a thicket to a row of rosebushes, with each memory grouped as it needed to be and nice, neat, and tidy. For her, the mental image of Ashari was that of the young lady wandering those nice rows, picking flowers at her whim, something that Aerin had never experienced before.

It felt...violating.

She was alright with Ashari peeking around the rosebush containing Paige – that was a far easier feeling of unrest than that which rose up when she approached Sonya’s bush and plucked some images free.

Aerin was aghast. Here Ashari had said that she was going to teach her shielding, but instead she was just showing what could happen if no shields were in place instead. To Aerin, this was like offering to teach someone to be a tailor and then, instead of showing them how to stitch, throwing a pile of material on their table and saying ‘Make a dress.’

Ashari’s smirking words achieved their desired effect, however, if the effect was intended to be to put her on the defensive as the redhead nervously glanced at other bushes.

The Murder in Murrelbuck

The ‘Dinner’ at the Red Banner

The Cat in the Gardens

The Proposal for Pan’s Joy

Calm went right the Nether out of the window as she felt herself start to hyperventilate, the redhead imagining columns of nasty, tightly-knotted thorns coming up around her precious memories, venom seeping from each barb.

“Mistress, no... Please…”, she asked, her hands forming fists in both her mind and her lap. In her thoughts, her eyes focused on Ashari’s belly – she knew that Ashari was close to pushing her temper-wise with the teasing invasion of privacy, and she could feel the dark thoughts within her bubbling up even as she tried to stay conscious of the facts that a counter-attack from herself would be wild, untrained, and that Ashari might not be alone.

With those thoughts in mind, Aerin tried to calm herself down and focus only upon walls of thorns.

[Graves]

Red.

A sudden vibrant, throbbing red energy erupted from between Ashari's fingers. For an instant, the appearance was not so different from a long incision in the body of a surgeon's patient... only instead of blood spilling forth between her talons, it was a cloudy, unfocused passion. The thin tendrils of vibrant aurora twining themselves around Ashari's probes, spiralling and tightening. Their hold was weak, but the pressure was clear.

There was even a slight stinging sensation on those mental projections-- as of a small splinter piercing one's flesh. Even so, it was evidently clear that Ashari could easily disintegrate the sudden bondage, could press through the delicate surface of her student's thoughts...

Within Aerin's mind-view, the thorns came up quickly, but it was as if the stems contained no cellulose... the plants rose around the memories they were intended to protect, but they did not stand as imposing brambles. Instead, they wilted over on themselves, providing a pathetically thin covering, collapsing even as they rose up. They were certainly barbed, however, but it was more like a thin mesh of needles than the thick hedges she had initially visualized. The thoughts were completely blocked off, to be sure, but the barrier separating them was impossibly thin-- more like lace than plant matter.

The brambles braced themselves with hostility against the garden-woman's probing fingers, but they looked so pathetically small against the strength of Ashari's mindcraft...

Please... the thin skein of vines seemed to whisper, a request echoed from the bloody energies which Ashari perceived.

[Ashari]

The young woman exalted in her power. Her verbal attack gave way to Aerin's loss of control, something that Ashari was entirely aware of as her pupil recoiled as if backed into a corner. Upon realizing, the pressured student lashed out with barbed physical energies. Pinpricks raced along Ashari's flesh from her hand and then upward over her arm and across her shoulder and chest.

Her fingers flexed in response and the tendons of her forearm danced beneath the surface of her tanned skin with rippling intensity. She considered returning the favor, but she didn't. Ashari understood this was Aerin's response, and it was the first time she'd felt so perfectly abused. It was a disgustingly invasive thing, akin to rape, and so Ash could sympathise with the backlash.

"That's wonderful," Ashari cooed within her mind, her voice echoed as she directed it toward Aerin with clarity. "Good job, now make it stronger," she said. "Weave them closer... build it, but for nether's sake, tone down the barbs."

Ash pulled back her probes some, making them prod only occasionally, nudging her shield with the force of a flick. "Carefully now. Let it grow naturally. Don't expand too quickly. The shield is meant as a way to protect yourself. It needs to become easy. I want you to practice it every day. Without protection you cannot learn the things I wish to teach you." The brunette found a weak spot in Aerin's shield and highlighted it with a small flare of energy which she melded onto her apprentice's as if it were her own - like a sudden inpenetrable patch of iron on a wooden gate. "It should be that strong."

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

As much as Ashari reveled in her power, Aerin despaired in hers…or rather, her lack of it. The intrusion alone was enough to throw her off guard, the revealing of secrets even more so, but the failed shielding and counter-attack seemed to shift the balance even further off kilter.

Until Ashari spoke again, that was, and gave an example.

I did it halfway right? The faintest hint of a smile played on her lips for but a flicker as she took a quick mental note of both her ‘world’ and Ashari’s patch. No barbs?, she asked back mentally, reconsidering her initial response. It had been a garden-themed gut instinct to use vines and thorns as a shield and she briefly toyed with the thought of changing the visualization to something else but shrugged that off, figuring that the way she ‘saw’ things on her end was probably not the way that Ashari saw them on her end of the link, much like viewing abstract art. Best to stick with one thing, then, I guess… she pondered as she focused on the image of the vines, picturing them growing harder and thicker in a column around Ashari instead of a widely-spread maze of vinework.

No thorns… no leaves…just a woven tapestry of vines…

Numerous…

Entangled…

Thick…

Green and alive, as the redhead knew that dead vines were harder, but brittle…

Fast…

Condensed…

She just hoped that her new approach to shielding by trying to isolate the invader would fare better than trying to wall off each individual thought and that working in a smaller patch would give her 'wooden' gate a bit more 'iron'.

Nether be damned, she hoped that ANY of her attempts were working the way that she visualized them.

[Graves]

Ashari could see the changes immediately upon the shield-- no longer were they loose brambles, resisting her encroachment only vaguely. Instead, the energy became more vibrant, living. Like a gossamer shell of emerald, it rose up, twining and twisting around. The energies were thick and heavy, but their consistency was not solid. Ashari's probes would find the material more like a creamy soup than a steel wall.

But, suddenly, as the shield rose up, there was absolute silence from both parties. While the wall was not solid, it still blocked thoughts perfectly well. The only way Ashari might get in would be to push through the verdant curtain (something she could, of course, easily accomplish).

For Aerin's part, the vines would suddenly rise up, vibrant and living... however, because she was no longer simply lashing out against the intruder, but instead forming a shield, the vines were no longer as specific as before. She wasn't shielding private memories only, and thin hedges of vines rose up around every memory, completely isolating every thought, and obscuring the garden invader from the apprentice's sight.

The hedge walls weren't thick, really, but they were solid enough that no sound penetrated through them, only small flickers of light that revealed their thin nature. It took a great deal of strain to maintain the walls at first, to build them up from nothingness... but in the end, it paid off:

The mental image of Ashari was isolated in what looked to be a shimmering cocoon of constantly moving vines; small flowers began to sprout from the tips, and the garden was completely silent once again... but could such a fragile barrier really keep out a power as great as Aerin knew her mistress to be?

[Ashari]

Ashari took in a breath through her nose. It was a cool inhale. This work was child's play, and now - for the first time - she could understand the Grandmere's frustration. The brunette magelet wanted to flex her magickal muscles. She yearned to pull Aerin's mind from it's bonds and meld her energies with her own.

So much of an untapped resource. Goosebumps overtook her skin in a flood akin to the prickles from her pupil's defensive attack. That was an instinctual response, Ash reasoned. imagine how much there is in her... The lacking of their telekinetic link was a savior. Ashari having a moment of privacy for such a thought gave her also the time to reflect on the night of the Guild house fire.

The hair on the back of her neck rose, and then upward along the nape of her full mane. Greedy eyes washed over Aerin's body as Ash envisioned the swarm of energies in her body. She took another sharp breath through her nostrils and tried to clear her mind of the intoxicating thought of relieving Aerin of her life by means of stealing her life-force. I wonder if Portia felt this way, I wonder if she saw people as mere puppets.

It was a trick best saved for Michael Crane, and this small rendezvous had inspired her to the means with which she would end his pitiful life. "Thank you, Aerin... this has been most enlightening already," she said aloud, her voice tinged with the drawl of her predatory thought pattern. "Now, keep building," she commanded, giving a jab toward the young woman's weak wall. "You're now protected from the most meager mental magick mage out there," her vocabulary caused even her to snicker thanks to it's alliteration. "Ahem, anyway... that's only that bit.. what about different sorts of attacks? One needs to be prepared for any means of magick use, not just my brand."

Ashari switched gears, and found herself borrowing from the world around them. It was becoming easier - changing from one means of magick to another - as she sought out energies of water from a local cup. "What of energy with more physical properties?" Her voice was clear as she drew from the side table beverage and created a small orb of liquid which she tossed playfully toward Aerin's chest.

[Aerin Penna Seleratus]

OOC: Assuming success in Ashari’s attack with mod approval.

Aerin was back, quickly, to regulating her breathing as well, a small nugget of sense in the back of her mind knowing full well that Ashari would most likely prod again. She was pleased, however when her work was commended and she was told to continue building. Her eyes stayed closed as she focused harder, trying to make the vines thicker and stronger.

"You're now protected from the most meager mental magick mage out there, Ahem, anyway... that's only that bit.. what about different sorts of attacks? One needs to be prepared for any means of magick use, not just my brand."

Aerin paused for thought, wondering if the coumn of shields should have gone around herself instead…

"What of energy with more physical properties?"

Aerin’s mouth began to open and ask for an example, when breath and concentration splashed out of her body and mind in time with the water. “Huuuuuuuh?!?!?” Aerin squealed in reverse, the thin weave of her nightclothes becoming flesh-toned and as tight as a second skin for a flicker as her breasts were soaked from afar. “Mistress!” the redhead cried out in hushed amazement, not wanting to awaken any of the others with a fit of screaming, her immediate reaction after realizing that she was soaked was to clamp her hands over increasingly perky nipples, cupping her breasts as both protection from the cooler night air and from the near-nudity involved in the soaking, a look of shock on her face but a feeling of damn near playfulness forming below the mask.

Ashari had seen her with another woman and then sneaked a peek at her pupil's breasts in the flesh soon afterward - Could this mean a change of heart...?, She wondered for a flicker as she continued to stare at Ashari in stunned silence with wide eyes, a wider mouth, raised eyebrows, and a whole lot of questions and confusion. Probably not..., she rapidly countered, remembering Ashari's look of near-disgust when Aerin had tried to kiss her the very first day that she had entered the Rocky Isle Guild officially.

Casting visions of her frequent Ashari/Aerin fantasies out of her mind (hopefully before they, too, could be perused - especially with her sheilds fully nullified for the flicker), the redhead re-focused her thoughts on wondering what Ashari’s true response to the successful soaking and unsuccessful shielding from the attack would be.