amongst the throng.
I ignored his attempts; feeling a bit underdressed in only long jeans and a dark sweater. There had been no mandatory dress code lain out in the email sent to the students, but many had at least made an attempt to look nice. Several had gone as far enough to dress in full formal attire. I was very glad that I had decided not to wear bright red in the morning; it had been a very close decision.
Despite being ten minutes early, the crowd had nearly surpassed the number of chairs available and I could see more trickling into the courtyard even now. Faces swirled in and out of my vision without any rhyme or reason as I swung my gaze back and forth slowly attempting to take in the sea of people who had come to attend the memorial service of a girl they probably never knew. I certainly recognized almost no one.
It was ignorance that allowed me to worry only about how I was dressed. That moment, the memorial service, wasn't significant to me. The faces around me meant nothing; I hadn't yet realized the significance the Emily's death held. Unbeknownst to me, I was surrounded by more mages at that memorial service than I had ever known up to that point in my life.
What happened, only a second later, changed that.
Imagine a single pluck of a guitar string, not particularly well tuned but loud enough to ring through the silent air to brush against your eardrums with ease. Now imagine that sound is something only you can hear, and with it comes the emotions that accompanied the action of plucking the string… that was how I perceived the first subtle push on the intangible magical field.
Now understand, a very skilled mage can manipulate magic within a spherical field of perhaps one hundred feet- at my current skill level as a freshman I had the ability to work with maybe a tenth of that at my best. That being said, the ability to sense magic being used nearby is a much larger range, for the sole reason that much like the air vibrations that allow one to hear sound, magic is pushed and pulled in buffeting waves, travelling outwards in all directions, but growing weaker and weaker as it becomes more distant from the mage- its source.
That same very skilled mage could have the ability to sense magic done easily within hundredsof feet- the possibility of miles wasn't unheard of. The courtyard wasn't more than a few hundred feet in any direction, only a complete novice wouldn't have been able to sense the deliberate gesture. That being said, finding the exact source would be impossible amongst the hundreds of bodies packed in one area.
A single pluck, measured and calculated… but it was the echo of emotion that accompanied the gesture that made me angry.
Amusement, satisfaction… justice.
I glanced at Jimmy and found he was looking right back at me, eyebrows raised in surprise. Before I could say anything to him, I felt another pluck thrum against my skin.
Acceptance, resignation, understanding.
Another.
Outrage, vehemence-
Yet another. They began to come so fast, like dozens of voices all crying out to be heard all at once. I sensed that they were defying each other, a cacophony of emotions beating with a strange cadence against my conscious mind.
Denial-
Rage-
Fear-
Hatred-
Malice-
Rebelliousness-
The squabbling twangs were akin to a crowd was fighting over the guitar, grappling over it to play a single note, different with every person and coming from a different direction every time. I lost count of the number of times I felt the emotional reverberations bang against my psyche in an almost eclectic melody, but I was sure it had been at least thirty. Some had come from the same people, no doubt, but the sheer number unique in origin was overwhelming. It had to be at least ten different people, ten different mages in one small area at a single time.
The whole of it had only lasted some twenty to thirty seconds. It would have kept going, I think, if it had not been for what happened next.
What
I ignored his attempts; feeling a bit underdressed in only long jeans and a dark sweater. There had been no mandatory dress code lain out in the email sent to the students, but many had at least made an attempt to look nice. Several had gone as far enough to dress in full formal attire. I was very glad that I had decided not to wear bright red in the morning; it had been a very close decision.
Despite being ten minutes early, the crowd had nearly surpassed the number of chairs available and I could see more trickling into the courtyard even now. Faces swirled in and out of my vision without any rhyme or reason as I swung my gaze back and forth slowly attempting to take in the sea of people who had come to attend the memorial service of a girl they probably never knew. I certainly recognized almost no one.
It was ignorance that allowed me to worry only about how I was dressed. That moment, the memorial service, wasn't significant to me. The faces around me meant nothing; I hadn't yet realized the significance the Emily's death held. Unbeknownst to me, I was surrounded by more mages at that memorial service than I had ever known up to that point in my life.
What happened, only a second later, changed that.
Imagine a single pluck of a guitar string, not particularly well tuned but loud enough to ring through the silent air to brush against your eardrums with ease. Now imagine that sound is something only you can hear, and with it comes the emotions that accompanied the action of plucking the string… that was how I perceived the first subtle push on the intangible magical field.
Now understand, a very skilled mage can manipulate magic within a spherical field of perhaps one hundred feet- at my current skill level as a freshman I had the ability to work with maybe a tenth of that at my best. That being said, the ability to sense magic being used nearby is a much larger range, for the sole reason that much like the air vibrations that allow one to hear sound, magic is pushed and pulled in buffeting waves, travelling outwards in all directions, but growing weaker and weaker as it becomes more distant from the mage- its source.
That same very skilled mage could have the ability to sense magic done easily within hundredsof feet- the possibility of miles wasn't unheard of. The courtyard wasn't more than a few hundred feet in any direction, only a complete novice wouldn't have been able to sense the deliberate gesture. That being said, finding the exact source would be impossible amongst the hundreds of bodies packed in one area.
A single pluck, measured and calculated… but it was the echo of emotion that accompanied the gesture that made me angry.
Amusement, satisfaction… justice.
I glanced at Jimmy and found he was looking right back at me, eyebrows raised in surprise. Before I could say anything to him, I felt another pluck thrum against my skin.
Acceptance, resignation, understanding.
Another.
Outrage, vehemence-
Yet another. They began to come so fast, like dozens of voices all crying out to be heard all at once. I sensed that they were defying each other, a cacophony of emotions beating with a strange cadence against my conscious mind.
Denial-
Rage-
Fear-
Hatred-
Malice-
Rebelliousness-
The squabbling twangs were akin to a crowd was fighting over the guitar, grappling over it to play a single note, different with every person and coming from a different direction every time. I lost count of the number of times I felt the emotional reverberations bang against my psyche in an almost eclectic melody, but I was sure it had been at least thirty. Some had come from the same people, no doubt, but the sheer number unique in origin was overwhelming. It had to be at least ten different people, ten different mages in one small area at a single time.
The whole of it had only lasted some twenty to thirty seconds. It would have kept going, I think, if it had not been for what happened next.
What
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