To Rise to Glory (Private Carly)

[Atl Myrsa]

The Offices of the Lord Imperial Magus could be found on the top floor of the Arcane Bureau. The stairs lead to a solid oak door that was rather plain except for a circle in the middle that was divided into seven sections each showing a symbol of a different sphere of arcane. The only other future of the room was a man standing outside of the door. He appeared to be youngish in his twenties and human. The man was dressed in red and black with the crest of the Imperial Magus on his breast. Underneath his surecoat was a set of armor and a blade at his other side. The Guards was the physical defense and the a field against spell casting was the primary arcane defense.

The room beyond was a large and comfortable. The primary feature of the room was a large desk. Made of solid oak there were strange images carved along the sides that from the door were hard to see. The light in the room seemed to mostly be drawn there. The desk itself was clean except for a couple folders that were placed into a pile right next to were the occupant worked.

Behind the desk was a large window that took up the whole of the wall. Images showing the last battle of Diana seemed to dance across the glass. Placed in the center of the large window was a map of the Empire with markings for all of the cities and mountians and major rivers of the Empire.

Two more desks occupied the room. Located next to the door. Situated so that the occupents could look at the main desk these two were also carved from rich oak. One was completely clean and another was covered in folders and papers.

One of the remaining walls was completely covered in book selves. They seemed to be almost groaning from the weight of all of the books. Most were normal sized that one would expect to find any were else. A few were small things, and some were so large children could be squashed by them.

The last wall held a fire place that was currently ablaze giving off light and warmth in the cold winter. Four chairs were positioned around the fire each with a little end table between them. They were richly embroidered with geometric patterns on them. One last table sat next to the fire place with a pot of tea, glasses, and a couple bodels sitting on it.


*****

The entrance to the Bureau was designed to greet visitors. Polished wooden boards covered the floor. On the floor was a soft and large black and red silk carpet that stretched down the middle of the chamber towards the back of the room. Located in the center of the carpet was the crest of the bureau of the Arcane. Either side of the carpet was flanked by a couch made of cherry wood and polished till they gleamed. The couches were also over stuffed and had flora patterns in reds and gold.

At the end of the carpet was a large desk also made of the same polished cherry wood as the couches. The owner of the desk was a young elf female. She was sitting behind the desk filling out paper work seeming to be very bus but as visitor approached the desk she would stand and bow to them. While clearly and elf, she lacked the elven beauty that so marked the race, she wasn’t ugly, but almost plain looking. Her skin a dark grey that was off set by her black hair and light brown eyes.

"Serale Visitor. How may I help you?"

[Carly Jr'ana]

Kalendryas 23rd in Era II of the Celestine Mandate
Era XIV Post Fractum
Paradigm: Gala of Empress Michelle Held in Alleria Prime

The visitor had just come directly from picking up her new clothing, a rather odd set of clothing on such a young girl. Hardly into her teens the young sea elf wore a set of dark purple, so dark they bordered on black, swashbuckling clothes. A long coat embroided with vines and blossoming roses, she wore white leather gloves and boots, the gloves she fiddled with as she approached the desk at the far end of that carpet. Upon her head was a tricorn hat with three coloured feathers. She wasn't so short as the desk dwarfed her, but her chin only came up to it.

Carly surveyed her Elvin kin, noting how peculiarly unflatterning her looks were, the strange combination of grey skin and brown eyes. She blinked, her own shock of yellow curls were unusual no doubt, but today it was tied back by a leather strip to expose her pretty blue features. She bowed to the woman and gave her the most adorable smile she could muster, black pools of eyes drinking her in.
"Vedui miss, I have an appointment with the Lord Imperial Magus in regards to a Mage Council position. I expect he is expecting me?"

[Atl Myrsa]

The Nimalni elf looked up at the Bureau's vistor. Pulling out a book she looked at it and asked. "Your name would be ." The woman looked up at her a friendly expression on her face Carly Jr'ana." Waiting for the woman to nodd in conformation. She then rang a bell, and turns towards the a door in the back. A door opened and out walked a youth. He appeared to be a kemite human who was dressed in white robes with a flack arm band on either arm. "Please take our guest to the Imperial Magus Office."

"Please follow me." the young man said motioning for her to follow her. He led her up two flits of steps before finally stopping outside of the Magus door. He motioned for her to wait a moment while knocking on the door. "Your appointment is here." A voice could vagle be heard beyond the door. The young man opened the door and motioned for her to walk in. There was a brief buzz in her ears as she stepped into the offices.

Atl turned to look at the newest arrival. He was standing next to the fireplace and smiled at his newest arrival. "Please take a seat."

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly nodded, letting her smile slip from her face and replacing it with an impassive look as she watched the young kemite approach from a door she hadn't previously noticed. She looked him over, impressed by the way the Bureau molded it's outward image to the public. The carpets, the clothing, the entire building was constructed to form an image. She smirked inwardly as she followed the man upstairs wondering if he were a mage of some sort. Carly took the moments as she waited outside the door to fuss over her clothing and make sure they sat correctly, which they did. Her eyes then went to the guard with his uniform, and that sword. She briefly wondered whether whatever protection they had against arcana would have any effect on her sphere of magic, afterall, it was incredibly new.

She passed through the plain oak doors into the office, her eye's went to the Imperial Magus while her sixth sense drank in the room in its entirety. She strode across the room towards the fireplace, stopping before on of the chair's to give Atl a small bow before sitting down, one leg crossed over the other. "Vedui your excelency. I am Carly."

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl nodded towards the young woman who hand entered his room. The Imperial Magus was a member of that strange and rare race of elves at least in the Empire. He was a member fo the Nimalni elves, the islands elves, or the mountians elves. His normally light grey skin was hidden beneath a tan, his brown hair was cut short. Trimmed neatly around the edges it clearly showed his elven heritage.

Atl smiled at her and said. "Serale Carly. It is a pleasure to meet you at last." Atl said taking a seat. His saphire blue eyes took in the young woman before him. The only emmotion they really showed was curiosity. "It is always a pleasure to meet with other arcane users." the young man said.

Standing back up he walked over towards the table with tea and the looked at his guest. "Would you like some tea, or wine?" Atl poured himself some tea into a proclien cup and then looked at his guest seeing if she wanted anything. If so he would pour it and then hand her one. If not he would pick up his own he would take a seat again. He waited a moment before speaking. "I hope that your journey here wasn't to tiresome."

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly sniffed at Atl's remark, shaking her head. It was certainly never a pleasure to meet with other arcane user's, not when they all considered your sphere a fraudulent one, not when they considered it herecy, and certainly not when they considered her far to young to have amounted to anything. "Perhaps it is for you Magus, but I find as an Ikomancer we are treated with a degree of disdain by the arcanic community." Carly took off her hat and placed it on her knee, ruffling the hair that had been underneath it. Her face remained impassive in that way adults often looked and children did not, a trait she had cultivated for that fact.

Watching the fire she grinned and nodded at the question "Yes, err.. tea thankyou." Taking the tea and sipping from the cup before placing it on her end table. Her foot bobbed restlessly on the end of her leg, she rolled her inner eyes at the small talk where they could not be see, in her mind. She found small talk so very boring. "Yes, quite pleasurable. I took a ship up from Taralon, the sea's were very pleasant. Stroke of luck that."

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl listened to his Carly as she spoke, and voiced a dissatisfaction about the treatment of the Ikos magic users. Atl's only realy prejeduce was Neocromancy and that was actually the users more then the field. It was a fine line but it was there none the less.

He sat down and sipped the tea. He listened for a moment as she spoke first on the persecution and then on the travel. The Imperial Magus looked at the fire before turning to look back at this applicant.

"Well on a good note regardless what others may thing Ikos is a an arcane field." Atl said. "As such its voice will be just as important in the Mage Council. The Empire reconizes it as a legal magical feild and so the Arcane Bureau isn't the Church of Faith with its narrow minded views of what is correct and what isn't. Our goal is to enhance the teaching and advancement of the arcane arts. All legal fields"

Atl sipped again. "Please tell me about your arcane training."

[Carly Jr'ana]

The good thing about tea, Carly mused, was that it gave you something to do with your hands while you listened to the other person. So she picked it up from the end table and ran one of her small blue fingers around the rim of the cup, enjoying the shapes the steam made as it passed through her fingers. Carly had already known Ikos was perfectly legal, despite what the Church said. Besides, who could listen to the church with its infighting presently? "The last I heard the Church was busy fighting amougst itself, if they're not ready to debate the simple matters, I doubt they are ready to debate what the existance of my sphere represents theologically. And personally I do not see much coming from it theologically, not all of us believe in that mad woman..." She took a slow sip from her cup, letting the steam curl across her bangs and delighting in the droplets that formed and slid down onto her nose.

"My training? Well, I began my initiation in Ieffreon under Edwin Yolme. He wrote me a recommendation back then, if you would care to see it. From what I'm told, an Ikos initiation and training is very differant from other mages, we spend much more time in mediation not casting then we do elsewhere. Because we really do have to learn our own minds. So under Edwin I studied the runes and practised my meditation. After I'd practised for a few months I returned to continue my apprenticeship under Professor Yolme again.

That involved a much more rigorous series of sessions discussing the fabric of the universe, how fate works, experiments in Ikos. I spent brightening upon brightening painting and drawing, it gives you a great deal of time to be alone with your own thoughts painting. But it also comes in handy in my sphere...

Theoretically I had always read ahead, ever since I'd managed to procure whatever available texts. So that was no trouble really, the discussions were more lively for it I thought. But then I travelled for a while, visited family in Medonia. Then moved to Sherian and proceeded to acquire my Adept status under Madame Rosalinda. An Adept Ikomancer must be capable of forseeing the consequences of their actions, whatever possibilities may exist. So naturally my training was very theological, because the thing to understand is, that to be good at Ikos you can really only train yourself by spending a great deal of time in deep inner meditation. Where you are taught to wield essences, mana and shape them, we Ikomancers are taught to wield fate itself, turn luck to unluck, and weave them into reality. My Adept training was like learning another language, how the runes translated into elvish, or charismean. I was of course taught other such useful skills, like how to unbind others and the responcibility that comes with that. And other... Ikos skills which I'm sure you'll find in any available text, no matter how vague they are.

And after that I entered in the Vers Arcana Tournament, which was a good chance to test myself. Was quite exhilirating really. Is that the sort of thing you want to know?" Went to sip at her tea again, realising it had infact gone cold, and she frowned at it before drinking it anyway.

[Atl Myrsa]

To be completely honest Atl knew minimal about Ikos, so her explanation while simple was helpful. Atl sipped at his tea the whole time. It wasn't much but a simple herbal tea, but Atl was druid so that wasn't much of a suprises.

"Yes that is what I wanted to know." Atl said noticing her pausing to look at the tea. "Training is one of the key factors of the Bureaus mandate. As such each member will come with differents experiences. Some have private master and some learned through classes." Atl finished his tea and set it aside. "As such the Mages Council will be the primary insturment in establishing standards empire wide for the teaching of magic." Atl stood up and poured himself some more tea. "More?" He asked her.

Afterwards he sat back down and looked at her again. "In your experiences, and view. What state are the Empires schools, and arcane master in. What stardards do you think needs to be established to improve the state of the schools?"

[Carly Jr'ana]

Carly listened as she scowled at her tea, scowled at her tea until she was offered more which she took gratefully. She mused privately on the thought of the mage council setting the teaching standards for arcana, she could see many inconsistencies between the limited two arcane faculties she had attended. She sipped at her tea, suddenly realising she was asked a question. Thinking back through her memory she shrugged apathetically.

"From what I've seen the schools charge far too much for lessons, the aetherfracture was only so long ago and we expect to recoup the number of mages and magicaly items so easily when to become a mage you must sell your house? And the masters are in a sorry state, while they teach well enough they are either too swamped by students to study their own and create wonderful spells, or they have hardly any students and are restricted to sitting in one place.

The seperate spheres in the schools stay apart, when perhaps they should be collaborating. Initiates can still do... things, but they seem to learn by rote. And I must ask why there are only so many places one may go to learn Ikos, or Song, or perhaps Druidism? Why are mysticism and sorcery so wide spread, every city seems to teach these subjects but does little to attract practitioners of other spheres.

Also, there appears to be little correlation between what the schools teach. Everything is passed down from Master to student, who then passes this to their students. So far there has been little generational shift, but given time we won't have just spheres but rather schools of thought. This could be dangerous, it is our diversity that gives us strength. Like the Empire, all the races working together towards one goal. The masters of each school, and sphere, should talk, collaborate, trade spells, ideas. It is our ability to talk that makes us differant from a common beettle. Perhaps bench mark tests, exams of a sort... how do we know an elementalist from Prime is as good as one from Medonia? However, in terms of Ikos, we simply needs many more Masters."

She ceased her talking and took a sip from her tea cup again, looking across the space between them.

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl listened to every word she said his saphire eyes showing interest, but his face reamaining expressionless other wise as she went through her list. Atl recorded each complain in his head as he heard them They were many and varied. Most Atl had at least thought of some he hadn't. He wondered if he had sounded like this to the Regent during his interview.

There was a hidden passion in that voice, that was controled. Atl nodded briefly at that. The Imperial Magus was finding interviewing to be much more different then being interviewed. Atl quickly address a list of issues she had presented and narrowed it down for the next question.

"Thoughts are some serious issues." He paused. "Lets say how would you address the coast of training? How do we give Masters enought time study, but keep up the teaching." He paused for a moment. "What guidlines, rules or activities would you suggest to deal with the lack of communication between the schools and the masters of the spheres?"

[Carly Jr'ana]

Pausing to drink from her tea, and finding herself growing bored of the same flavour Carly began to examine the cup itself. Placing her cup back upon it's table she lay her hands upon her lap and answered the question put to her, it was one she had considered previously but never put a voice to. "The answer is quite simple, we simply put the students into classes rather then individual lessons. Much like it used to be. There is no reason a Master must teach several students at several differant hours, much of their task is simply waiting for results from the student. As to cost, students themselves have uses. There is no reason they should not be capable of cooking the meals of a school, or cleaning it, or even helping the Master to engage in their own experiments. Perhaps schools should also sell magical items, or the services of their students and recoup their loses that way. On the other hand, the government itself could provide financial assistance to the students to lower the cost of their training.

As to fostering communication, it will no doubt be difficult. But if we were to host a series of functions, events as it were on certain topics and finding solutions to them, we could invite the Masters along and have a series of forums on these topics. They would either be forced to learn about each others spheres in the process, or be seen as incredibly foolish. And I have found most mages to be vain. Alternatively, a guilds of mages could be set up. We could charge a fee for joining, which would then be used to foster the teaching of arcana, and place certain conditions on mages conversing every few months. Then, being the government, we could tie joining this guild as a condition to teaching in arcane institutions."

[Atl Myrsa]

Atl nodded his head listening for a moment. "How large or smale would you keep the classes?" He asked. He didn't disagree with her idea, was just curious how far down the idea she would take it. "So you are opposed to students paying a for there lessons at all?" He asked with some interest. Lowering prices was common removing wasn't."

"the conferences ideas are good." He contiuned. "What would be your view of recreating the Mages guild?"