Marcus answers first with a quiet, affirmative grunt, and it takes him longer to specify: "The Rite of Tranquility.
"Traditionally," he adds, in the tone of someone who is not recommending the thing he is saying. "Under the Circles, a mage could request to be severed from their own dreaming mind, their sense of empathy and ego, in exchange for sealing themselves from their magic and the demons that hunger for it. It's a steep price. I don't think I've ever met a mage who truly required it."
But that, says the harsh tap of the cigarette, is a whole other conversation, and he didn't compel Gela into his office to lecture her on the Circles and their politics of fear. He says, "I still haven't."
"I understand." Perfectly: it is not something she could ask for without raising eyebrows.
(But—if she had something severed in her mind, could a skilled sever-er not reach inside and cut the wolf out, leaving the rest of Gela in? She will ask somebody else about this, maybe check the library for more information. It seems like a lead.)
"I'll speak with Jude." This is the first bit of truth she's told him. Jude should know about all of this. Really, he should have known some time ago; she should have been brave. Now she'll be confiding to get him on side, which is terrible, but they respect each other, don't they, Jude and Marcus, so this much may satisfy Marcus enough to leave Gela to her own devices. It will buy her some time.
She chooses some more words, working through them carefully. "It's very kind of you to be concerned about me. I need to think on what I'd like to do before I try to speak with Enchanter Julius, or yourself, about practice taking place. Do you mind?"
Gela says that she will speak with Jude, and this is assuring. Also assuring: that she says (even if it's only to be polite, and what Diplomacy agent isn't adept at finessing a conversation, with the careful way she chooses her words) that he's been very kind. A better thing to be called than cold or intrusive or cruel, certainly. Oddly easy to convey those impressions, when attempting to do a kind thing. Or a right thing.
Marcus does not give much away, habitually, but there's some quality in accepting what she says even besides the nod that says he doesn't mind. Something he was seeking, and has been given.
"Very well," he says. "Seek me when you're ready."
That he may seek her before she is is a possibility, but not one he feels the need to articulate. Instead;
"Unless there's anything you require of me, you can go."
She tries not to scramble up from her seat, instead rising slowly from it, giving her skirts a patting down with her hands to remove imaginary dust. Marcus is a very stoic person. He is hard to glean any details from and she realises that she is envious of this trait, because she tried very hard to emulate it for years and failed. Gela is completely unable to wall herself off in the way that he does. Little parts of her will always peek through.
"Nothing for now; I'll call if anything occurs." That isn't really a lie. He's now the closest to the truth anybody has ever been, so if Gela has to say something to protect the people in the Gallows, he will be the one to hear it.
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no subject
"Traditionally," he adds, in the tone of someone who is not recommending the thing he is saying. "Under the Circles, a mage could request to be severed from their own dreaming mind, their sense of empathy and ego, in exchange for sealing themselves from their magic and the demons that hunger for it. It's a steep price. I don't think I've ever met a mage who truly required it."
But that, says the harsh tap of the cigarette, is a whole other conversation, and he didn't compel Gela into his office to lecture her on the Circles and their politics of fear. He says, "I still haven't."
no subject
(But—if she had something severed in her mind, could a skilled sever-er not reach inside and cut the wolf out, leaving the rest of Gela in? She will ask somebody else about this, maybe check the library for more information. It seems like a lead.)
"I'll speak with Jude." This is the first bit of truth she's told him. Jude should know about all of this. Really, he should have known some time ago; she should have been brave. Now she'll be confiding to get him on side, which is terrible, but they respect each other, don't they, Jude and Marcus, so this much may satisfy Marcus enough to leave Gela to her own devices. It will buy her some time.
She chooses some more words, working through them carefully. "It's very kind of you to be concerned about me. I need to think on what I'd like to do before I try to speak with Enchanter Julius, or yourself, about practice taking place. Do you mind?"
no subject
Marcus does not give much away, habitually, but there's some quality in accepting what she says even besides the nod that says he doesn't mind. Something he was seeking, and has been given.
"Very well," he says. "Seek me when you're ready."
That he may seek her before she is is a possibility, but not one he feels the need to articulate. Instead;
"Unless there's anything you require of me, you can go."
no subject
She tries not to scramble up from her seat, instead rising slowly from it, giving her skirts a patting down with her hands to remove imaginary dust. Marcus is a very stoic person. He is hard to glean any details from and she realises that she is envious of this trait, because she tried very hard to emulate it for years and failed. Gela is completely unable to wall herself off in the way that he does. Little parts of her will always peek through.
"Nothing for now; I'll call if anything occurs." That isn't really a lie. He's now the closest to the truth anybody has ever been, so if Gela has to say something to protect the people in the Gallows, he will be the one to hear it.
"Have a good evening."