narcmagician: (mana)
Mahad ([personal profile] narcmagician) wrote in [community profile] digipara2025-01-12 06:54 pm

magical trevor's back from his hiatus (for [personal profile] knifemonopoly)



[ Even six months since being summoned to the palace, Mahad feels ill at ease.

He tries not to worry about the hometown he'd left behind - the wisewoman one village down the river had mentored him, after all, so he knows the people's spiritual defense is in good hands. He tries to take each criticism he receives from the other priests to heart, the better to become worthy of the honor which landed at his doorstep when a messenger from the Pharaoh Himself (life, prosperity, and health to him!) arrived seeking the magician with enough heka to part the Nile. More than anything else, he tries to suppress the Ring: no, he suppresses the Ring, for if he should succumb for even a moment and let it feed on his own darkness, then Kemet too will fall. This is a burden, but one he gladly bears.

No, he dislikes the palace because it is simply too large. And the larger the place he takes his apprentice......the more places she finds to avoid him.

He can sense heka emanating from a pot in the courtyard, but it contains no stain of ill will, so he doesn't bother looking in. Instead, he simply stands next to the pot and inquires: ]


Is that where you're reading your lessons, Mana?
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ put all your thoughts to bed)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-13 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's no response, at first. An iron will to not blink in the face of conflict, probably -- a refusal to back down, even when it seems most hopeless...truly, the composure of whoever is in that pot is unshakable...

....

....

....

A light snore comes from inside the vase.
]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ you're in control)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-14 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[zzz...

zzz...

zzz...

...thE WORLD IS SHAKING WHAT'S GOING ON WHAT'S HAPPENED?!
]

Aaah! I'm sorry!

[A bald little head with a child's braided side lock pops up out of the pot quick as a startled cat. He looks around in alarm, red-brown eyes wide, fingers gripping the clay.

IS IT AN EARTHQUAKE. IS IT THE GODS. ARE THEY MAD HE'S SKIPPING CLASS?
]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ glass half empty glass half full)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-14 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[Atem, prince of the two lands, gazes down -- well, only a little down, more across, he's not much taller even when this man is kneeling in front of him -- at the...priest? He's dressed like a priest, one of the six -- not one of the normal ones that scurry in and out of temples like ants as he and his father perform their daily duties, but the ones who keep the sacred Millennium Items. Atem thinks he remembers glimpsing this one briefly, and the gold at his chest confirms it. But he's got pupils? He's a teacher?

He isn't acting like a teacher.
]

I've seen you before, [Atem says, still standing in the pot, which comes up about to his chest.] Are you a tutor or a priest?

[He doesn't think any of the other priests teach. Atem sort of thought their job was to hang around the king doing magic.]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ count your blessings not your flaws)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-14 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's turning this over thoughtfully in his little ten year old brain. It checks out. There's the Ring, right there...priest, absolutely.

But Atem's face lights up when Mana is mentioned by name.
]

!!

You're Mana's master!

[They absolutely met. They'd played together with all the excitement of two people around the same age who immediately discovered they got along, and nothing but the fun had really mattered.

He's now excited to meet Mahad.
]

She says you're a really powerful magician. The best! I knew you weren't a tutor. Tutors don't admit it when they're wrong. But priests do!

[Said triumphantly, like he's showing his work.]

I guess magicians do, too...
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ either way won't be going thirsty)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-15 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[...a flash of guilt flickers over the boy prince's face. He's, uh. Not supposed to be here. He's not sure waking him up counts as wronging him.]

...it's okay.

I thought it was an earthquake. Or the gods were mad because I was hiding from Sennedjem's lessons.

....

[He seems to shrink a little. He doesn't want to go back to classes, he's sleepy...they always make him get up so early to start learning before dawn, before it gets hot...and after that, there's fighting practice, which is even worse. Atem has never liked gym.]

Are you going to tell him I'm here?
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ rid of monsters inside your head)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-15 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[Atem trusts many people implicitly. Very few mean him harm, and even fewer could inflict it. He doesn't trust everybody, but his mistrust is a boy's for an unkind teacher, or other children who are nice to him but not to others.

This new priest is easier to trust than a teacher. And Mana trusts him, which is already a point in his favor. Atem can tell him the truth. He shouldn't lie, right?

He pulls a breath.
]

The lessons are hard, [he says -- complaining, yes, but that's not the end of it.] And it's cold before the sun comes up, and it's dark, and it's hard not to fall asleep. If I fall asleep, they just make me wake up, but if the others look sleepy...

[He chews on his bottom lip. This part is harder to talk about -- how the tutors won't ever hit him, but they'll strike the other students learning with him as punishment.]

Or if they get the answer wrong...

[He knows, technically, that it's supposed to make them more motivated not to give wrong answers. But really, it just makes Atem resent the whole thing. He's only still trying because Father says it's important and he should, and he can't see a way out of it for long. Defying Father just doesn't happen.

Today, he saw his chance and took it. But Atem knows he'll be brought back eventually, and the lessons will go on.
]

And I don't like wrestling, or fighting with swords. I'm never going to win really. They let me win when I get the holds right, but that doesn't count.

[He's small and not very strong, and maybe one day that will change, but he's no match for a fully developed adult fighter right now. He resents both not being able to win and being given a meaningless victory, and is whining about it.]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ and what is yours?)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-16 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
You'd help?

[He's tried to solve it himself.

He's spoken up, stood and shouted, brought it to his father -- all to no avail. Nothing's actually changed. Nothing's become less unfair. Atem's not given up, but he's at a loss.

I've already tried everything I can think of, the boy thinks to himself. I might as well try magic.
]

Really? Do you think you can?

[He sounds hopeful. Mahad is powerfully magic, and also, just as importantly, several years older -- and maybe the combination of the two will be enough.]
Edited 2025-01-16 04:39 (UTC)
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ there's so much more)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-16 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
?!

[He nods, brightly!]

Yes!

[He's sure everyone else would love to get out of their reading and writing and arithmetic for a while, too. Tombs aren't the most fun thing Atem can think of, but he'll take a dull walk around someplace new over school-as-usual.

All kids like field trips.
]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ have you forgotten what you have)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-16 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[...learning about the magic that gets worked in tombs is more interesting already than just tombs. Atem is in.

The firsthand demonstration of magic clinches it. Atem's little fingers with their neat nails grip the rim excitedly as it shakes, and he giggles like he's on a roller coaster ride.
]

It's not a lie! [he agrees. Atem clambers out of the pot when it stills, rolling over the side and dropping onto sandaled feet with a little tap! He flings his arm out, pointing ahead to the part of the palace where morning classes usually happen, and declares grandly:] Let's go to the tomb!

[Time to collect the other students and go!]
Edited 2025-01-16 16:22 (UTC)
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ you can be king again)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-19 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
[He's happily leading them along, a spring in his step. For a bit, Atem doesn't notice that Mahad keeps looking at him -- his head is full of the idea of no real class today and there's not a lot of room for much else.

But, eventually, he clocks it.

He checks his clothes, first, for something dirty he hasn't noticed.

...

Yeah, they're dirty from being inside the pot.
]

Do you think I should put on clean clothes....?

[He has to be really, really clean to go into the temples. Are tombs the same?]

Sorry I got it dirty. I didn't know I was going into a tomb...
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ and what is yours?)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-20 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[He gives Mahad a truly blank look at exert indiscretion, he has no idea what that means -- but he understands the second question, and shakes his head.]

Only the writing kind.

[Not magic magic. Not the kind where you can make things move, or summon a ka. Just the sort of thing where you draw a snake, and maybe, in the afterlife, someone will have a problem with snakes. Or if you write nice words on a tablet and pour water over it, nice things will happen to the person who drinks the water. Boring!!]
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ there's so much more)

It's fineeeeee

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-22 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I know that the really powerful magicians can pick up the river and put it on top of itself! [Atem says, excitedly.] And they can cut off their heads and stay alive!

[He's misremembering some details about Djedi. It was animals, not the magician himself.]

And the ones that are pretty good can summon their ka to fight for them.
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ glass half empty glass half full)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-01-23 03:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[Okay. Today just might be the best day ever. No classes with Sennedjem, instead he gets to see Mana, and as far as teachers go? Atem will take this guy any day over the reed-happy droning "no lions in the classroom" tutoring style he's used to.

But the light on his face clouds over for a moment, and his nose wrinkles as something occurs to him.
]

...how much math is in Mana's class? And writing?

[what if he's just trading one boring symbols memorization morning for another??]
Edited 2025-01-23 15:21 (UTC)
knifemonopoly: (bb ☥ there's so much more)

1/2

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-02-01 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
!!
knifemonopoly: (that drown a wasted life)

[personal profile] knifemonopoly 2025-02-01 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[He continues on through the halls and passages with a new spring in his step. Is Atem humming?

He definitely is.

He reaches the door where the class is usually held, and -- pauses, just a moment, outside. Atem isn't shrinking back out of fear of the tutor, but the task ahead of him; a cowardly and unworthy and unwise part of him remembers that maybe, this would be easier if he bolted. It's not a part driven by reason or logic, just...child's instincts. He rests his hand on it, but doesn't push yet.

He glances back at Mahad. Is this going to be okay? Is it going to go the way they want?
]