strangetrip | [EP] open your hands if you want to be held

Out beyond the greenhouse and the gardens, in the orchards she'd nurtured with love, and magic, and friends, Regina had stripped her usual business casual battle armor in favor of a softer mien. She rested beneath the shade of a tree, inhabited by an elemental named Manzanita, who understood nothing of fashion, everything of fornication and fertility, and laughed like a babbling brook or syrup sap at the words she didn't understand from the fashion magazines Regina read to her beneath her boughs.

At her feet or more occasionally her head, a puppy-now-nearly-a-dog sprawled, his tail thumping when his mistress laughed unusually loudly. From time to time, inexplicably, a black kitten-cat herded by a spirit Russian Blue appeared to torment the dog. Behind them in a magically constructed paddock, a mare grazed, keeping quiet watch over the antics, and less quiet watch over the picnic basket of fresh fruit (apples, and plums, and pears, and berries and cherries, oh my) on a picnic blanket at Regina's side.

The conversation that was more of a communion took a turn for the sly when Manzanita detected thoughts of a certain wolf in her not-a-druid's mind. It wasn't words, but a suggestion, perhaps Regina might leave this issue of outer-bark wholly behind. Head back, laughing, Regina (briefly, magically) shed her clothes for a light dusting of leaves. (~~Please, let me down, Mama. I'll be good.~~)

On second thought, with a flip of her wrists to replace her clothes, she murmured, "Smelling like forest is freedom enough."

[ooc: Slow because shit is real, but hit me til I scream. Find Regina in the orchards she planted at any time during this post. Avoid seeing her naked if your fireball tolerance is low. Otherwise, fireball forecast: low. Title quote: Rumi.]

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I know you're not there yet. No, no she wasn't. Corbie liked protection spells, had something of an affinity for them, certainly more than anything offensive and destructive. But creating a protection that another, more well-trained wizard might admire... if she didn't believe that Regina had known an older version of her in another world, she'd have thought it was nonsense.

She thought of the rings in her pocket, and continued to eat her peach. "I'll do what I can," she promised. "I dunno if it's much, though."

"I think you'll be surprised." Regina gave her an encouraging smile that was at once a teacher's pride and a woman's need. "We can talk about it after your next lesson."

Regina did note that there seemed to be a little something on Corbie's mind, but if the girl wanted to talk about it, she would. It wasn't Regina's way to push for information.

Between most of Corbie's teachers treating her more like another student than like a teacher to a student and, well, Illyana, the encouragement Corbie felt at Regina's pride made her sit up straighter. She didn't glow quite the way she did for Felix, but certainly more than she would for anyone else here.

"Speaking of my lessons," she ventured after a bit, "can I ask you something?"

Regina sat and waited through the quiet of Corbie eating her fruit. It seemed evident to Regina that she had something on her mind, and Regina herself had nowhere to be.

At length, Corbie spoke, and Regina replied evenly, "You may." She smiled lightly and added, "I may even answer."

She should have expected that, but knowing she'd gotten the softest of bats in answer, Corbie smiled all the same. She pulled a box from her pocket, a small, slim box painted with a design of flowers across the lid. She slid it open to reveal a set of rings, ten in all, silver and lapis lazuli (that was what Mildmay had told her they were, she hadn't a name for the stones). Each one sized perfectly for her small fingers.

"Emma said... she read her cards for me, and she said you might know something 'bout these."

As the light glinted off ten blue stones in silver settings, Regina's head swam with deja vu. Only it wasn't deja vu if she knew she actually had seen them before, was it?

"She's not wrong." Regina lifted her gaze from the rings back to Corbie's bright blue eyes. "They're yours. From Gotham," she confirmed, but then asked kindly, "Do you want to know the rest of what I know? There's nothing bad in it, but sometimes knowing your future, even if it's one you never live, can be difficult."

Corbie nodded vigorously, making her curly hair bounce. "Please. I know a little bit already, I think, but... Well. They just showed up in my Easter egg." And she was so hungry for any scrap of Felix that she could still have. Even so long after she'd last seen him, even after it stopped hurting, she missed him very much.

"You were wearing them when we did the warding. You used them as a focusing tool." Smiling, Regina reached out to caress Corbie's cheek. "Felix had a set like them, gold and garnet, and he had those made for you to mark your transition from apprentice to wizard."

She considered a moment, thinking what else she could tell Corbie. "I believe that was a mutual decision, although I don't know what inspired it. You also had the Cabaline tattoos of blue eyes on your palms."

That last part caught her off guard completely, and the girl stared first at Regina and then down at her own palms, empty of any such marking. She thought of Felix's hands, the blazing colors of his tattoos and the way they almost, almost but not quite, masked that some of his fingers had been broken. She had only seen him wear the rings once for Lord Brightmore's wedding, but they'd left quite the impression.

"But I ain't made that transition yet," Corbie murmured. "Jackson told me if I didn't stop calling myself an apprentice then at this rate I'd never stop, but I'm not there yet." She paused a beat. "And grateful as I am for the vote of confidence, he really doesn't know what he's talking about."

Jackson was often an idiot about many things, though, this wasn't surprising.

"Men often don't," Regina replied with a hint of wickedness in her eyes and around her mouth.

She considered whether she would consider Corbie a sorceress in her own right. Rumpelstiltskin certainly would not have, nor would her mother. While she was neither of them, and she had considered Emma and Elsa sorceresses before they knew half what Corbie did, they had needed a great deal of instruction even when she'd acknowledged them.

"And no, you haven't made the transition, but you are not an apprentice, either. Not here. Here, you are a student. My protege." There were others who taught her, but Regina still considered herself Corbie's primary mentor and would even if someone else thought differently.

"Truth," Corbie agreed.

She took the box of rings in her hands and took a deep breath. "I thought a lot about this. And..." She held out the rings to Regina. "I'd like you to keep these for me. 'Til I'm ready."

She had thought about it. The only other candidate really was Illyana, and quite simply, she feared that Yana would never deem her fit to be a wizard in her own right. With Molly, Dorian, Carlos, and Lillith, while she learned interesting things from them and broadened her understanding of what her magic could do, it felt less like teacher and student and more like peer exploration, even if they were further along than she. And then Zahra was both fairly incompatible as most of her magic was combat focused, and focused on her growing family.

Edited 2018-06-21 16:49 (UTC)

The request surprised her eyes softly wider and her brows lifted with it. A slight sting of tears burned behind her eyes as well. To be trusted with something so important... She smiled as her fingers met Corbie's around the box of the rings.

"If that's what you want." She wanted to say more but hated how stiff and formal the words sounded in her head. Still, she didn't know any others. "I'm honored. And... I know how important Felix is to you. To be thought of with near that much respect means a great deal to me."

More than you can ever know, child.

Corbie nodded, her eyes bright and earnest. "It's what I want. And... y'know, not just because Felix ain't here. I trust you."

Since Corbie had stayed close, Regina reached over and hugged her again. "Then I'll take them and keep them safe behind an arcane lock until we agree that you're ready to wear them."

Corbie hesitated for only a moment before she hugged Regina back tight. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome." And thank you.

[EP] open your hands if you want to be held

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