Leirbag's Staircase - Chp 1

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In the burgeoning town of Prospero, one thing was on everyone's mind: esoterica. The Bizarre Bazaar was a yearly festival in which merchants, artists, and collectors alike gathered to craft, sell, barter and trade the strangest wares imaginable. Sometimes they would be worthless junk, but other times one could find themselves with a rare antique or - to the right buyer - a treasure worth a small fortune! All in memory of when the town first began as a crossroads for caravans traveling home from distant lands.

But the festival was still a day away, and for Halsing, he had a class to teach.

[Alright, it's noon. Describe yourself. The classroom is either at your home, or a small school house. You have -- *rollz* -- 3 students in attendance, with 6 being either absent or late.]

"Allright, settle down." Said the middle-aged orc professor, his deep voice incapable of hiding his disappointment at the lack of assisting students. "We're starting the class, maybe the rest of your companions will eventually show up."  He muttled to himself.

The orcish teacher was wearing his usual lecture clothes, a long cream coloured robe with blue accents, the official raiment of the academy. A ceremonial attire Halsing seemed to don with great pride despite how impractical it was.

"Today we're starting our lesson on Metamagics. Or like we discussed before the study of..."

The orc grabbed a piece of chalk and started to write the word "Nature" on the board, then next to it a bit far away he wrote the word "Man". 

Then he turned around and adressed his students.

"Anybody? What is Metamagic?"

Of the three humans present, the one with long, braided hair of auburn hue shot a hand up. Evan. He never missed a class, but had a perfectionist mentality that left him frustrated more often than not. In stark contrast was Tobias, nursing his thick brow as he sat slumped over his desk. You wouldn't think him a mage by his stocky build, visible even beneath his uniform. And then there was Leaf, glancing between his classmates after looking up from his notebook and quill.

Halsing looked at his students, his gaze trailing down the gaps of  their tunics instinctively only for his will to force his stare back to the black board.

"Metamagic is the study of...magic itself." He finished. "And the phenomena associated with it." The orc then wrote the word magic between the words Man and Nature.

"Allright, let's start with this: Who can tell me what this is."  The orc pulled a small rock out of the sash on his waist and left it on his desk.

"A rock?" asked Tobias, blinking his eyes awake.

"A power stone!" said Evan. "An elemental geode? A... a soul stone?"

"Yes, Tobias. Glad you could join us." Said the Orc, tapping onto the rock. "It's just a rock I am afraid. I got it this morning, picked it up from the front of the school."

The orc grabbed the pebble and held it up in front of his eyes.

"Not very interesting by itself, a proper Geologist could probably tell you much more about it than me. But as far as it we are concerned its just a rock. It has certain properties, weight, durability, volume. Just like the rest of the world it belongs to, it can be mesured, determined and understood."

The orc left the stone on the desk again. Then he mumbled something, tapped the stone twice and made a quick gesture around it. There was a soft buzz of magic and almost instantly the pale grey stone turned a noticeable deep blue.

"This is a simple chromathurgy. You are familiar with it I believe? One of the basic arithmetistic variables, it won't last long. The basis for it is a local change of the properties of the targeted object, in this case, it slightly changes the speed of light around the surface of the object, pushing the specter of the absorbed light towards the blue."

Halsing lifted the pebble into his palm and showed it to his students.

"Consider reality, the world. " He started. "Just like this stone it has its properties, its rules. Magic as we understand it allows us to act upon those natural laws. It is an expression of sheer will. The will of man."

[Take a beat.]

Leaf began writing things down in his book the teacher went into detail. Tobias, normally the one to lay his chin over folded arms as he stare inattentively at the best of times, was wide awake now, staring at the blue stone.

"How much will is required to safely alter natural law?" asked Evan.

"It is not a matter of quantity, if that were even possible to mesure." Replied the orc. "Who can say how strong a will must be to lift a finger, or move a boulder. There are men who would find the former impossible and the latter extremely easy."

Hasing then underlined the word nature.

"What is important is this." He started. "Consider the consequences of magic. If man has the power...no matter the cost of it, to alter the world, then the world itself is defined by man's ability to shape it." The orc then wrote "science" between the word "nature" and "will".

"Knowing this, understanding the responsibility the use of magic entails, we must strive to understand its consequences- A heart taken only by passion, blinded to the use of reason will become slave to its nature. This heart will be incapable of understanding the inherent laws of the world and will inevitably twist magic into a
tool to satisfy its basest of whims."

[Take a beat.]

Now both Leaf AND Evan were jotting notes down, staring intently at Halsing as the orc went on. Tobias, however, remained transfixed by the bewitched stone, whose light shimmered in his olive green eyes.

"Professor," said Leaf. "You make it sound as though the heart is dangerous. What if it's directed by more... noble concepts?"

"You mean like love, or hope?" asked Evan.

"Yeah, something like that."

The orc looked down at the desk where the stone was resting.

"That is a complex issue. What dictates what "nobility" is might just be an expression of a desire for power, or a consequence of it. Honor and fealty, love or lust, might just be useful constructs." The orc then looked to the class.

"I want to instill in you the doubt of the thinker. I want you to hesitate, to contemplate every decision, every use of the art. Mesure, ponder and never take magic and its power for granted."

The orc then turned to the board and drew a line back that went from "Nature" to "Will" then another one from "Will" to "Nature"

"If man's will shapes the world, so does the world shape man's will. One will undoubtetly shape the other. If corruption is allowed to grow in one both will sink into a spiral of chaos."

Halsing then moved to the front of the desk.

"Magic, the will of man and the world. They are one in the same."

The orc then turned around and gathered some parchment laying on his desk.

"On this issue, I want you to ready an essay. Here are a list of books I want you to read. Principia Arcana, Lex Matematica and The first law of Man."

[Take a beat.]

"Homework?" moaned Tobias, his attention to the stone broken. "But what about the bazaar?"

"You have until next week." Said the orc, tapping on the parchments. Then he gave his students a smile. "Plenty of time to read and enjoy the bazaar. Speaking of which. I can see lecturing you today won't be very effective. Take the day to enjoy the festivities. I'll see you next week."

The trio nodded, each gathering their things as Halsing began looking over his blackboard and work notes... then something stopped him. He'd heard the students walking out of the room, but couldn't shake the feeling he wasn't alone. He heard someone clearing their throat. When the orc looked over his shoulder, he saw Tobias standing just a few feet away.

"Um, hey professor," he said, waving. "Have you got a minute?"

The orc felt a throb within him. He could smell the fragrant sweat on the skin of his student, the pulse of his vigor under his skin, the curvaceous bend of his flesh around his broad shoulders and the intense musk seeping through his undergarments.

Halsing clenched his jaw, calling his will to himself with old, trained, practice. He was more than a beast, he was more than an orc. He was a teacher, a mentor, a thinker, a scientist. He was beyond the pleasures of the flesh, he was master of his body and mind.

"Yes, Tobias?" He said turning around to face the student.

[Take a beat.]

The human stared up at the orc with olive-colored eyes. Funny, up close, his round face betrayed a strong jawline. "I uh, wanted to ask," he said behind wide, fulsome lips. "Could you... give me some pointers? O-on my spellcasting. I hate practicing in front of the others, and you know... you keep staring at me during class whenever I do it."