Breaking the Geas
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 54956
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Miranda did not reply. She simply smiled a vacant smile and began to hum an weird, atonal tune
that made Fred's skin tingle. Then, she fell silent. Carola began to weep, and Astra walked over
to console her. While no one else had burst into tears, the strain on everyone in the room was
very obvious. Even Astra, whose remarkable courage under difficult conditions had struck Fred
even in the short time that he'd known her, seemed almost on the verge of despair.
Maria, however, stood up and began to walk. (Fred could tell her apart from Sophie, though they were very similar in appearance, because Maria had a more consciously dignified bearing. Fred didn't understand how anyone could try to be dignified in a situation like this, but the pride of Hespaniards was notorious.) Much to the surprise of everyone, she walked out of the room. She then burst into slightly undignified laughter, followed immeidately by Astra. "Of course!" she said. "Miranda wasn't just humming, she was somehow casting magic--perhaps without even being aware of it. She broke our geases!" "I've never heard of any magic that works like that before," said Fred. "Not that my experience with magic is great, nor do I want it to be." "It's not common," said Maria. "The Irei, the nomadic tribes that dwell in the west of Hespan, are said to have that ability. How someone from Gala learned to perform this kind of magic I don't know. But as the spell was being cast it was clear to me that I was feeling the effects of magic." Fred was surprised, not just by Maria's resourcefulness but by the fact that she'd spoken about the Irei without contempt. He'd known few Hespaniards, thank God, but he'd never heard of one speaking of the Irei without contempt bordering on bitter hatred. This was the normal lot of nomadic peoples, but he'd heard that this was probably also because the Irei were skilled with magic while the Hespaniards had had almost no mages in 500 years, which had spurred their development of automatons and other technological abominations. This caused them to both envy the Irei and fear them. Yet he'd heard no such emotions in Maria's voice. "Thank you," said Fred, both because he was sincerely grateful and he wanted to test the waters and see how she would react to being complemented by an Allarian nobleman. Not being skilled at subtlety, he couldn't keep some amount of edginess from his voice. Maria simply nodded, her expression carefully neutral.
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Knight Random (who's having a very hard time keeping the names of Miranda and Maria straight)
12/21/2005 2:05:13 PM
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