</3 – Page 2 – vvardenfellcat

School is Not for Horsing Around – Icarus/J’hasi

Tolfdir cleared his throat as the student began to calm down, “In continuing with our theme of safety, we’ll start with Wards.” Icarus stared contently, yet nervously. “Wards are protective spells that block magic. I’ll teach you all a ward, and we’ll see if you can successfully use it to block spells, alright?” Despite the shorter mer’s attempts to sink behind the late khajiit, but to his dismay, Toldir’s eyes found his way to the justiciar, “You there. Are you at all familiar with ward spells?”

Icarus swallowed heavily.

No.

No he wasn’t.

Hey may have had the spell, but the last time he used it years ago, the ward had spontaneously combusted, setting one of his fellow justiciars aflame.

“Do I?” Icarus grinned, ignoring the fact he sweating bullets. He boasted in hopes that Tolfdir would be convinced to choose one of the more inexperienced students. “My good sir, I have quality collection of wa-”

Icarus was cut off as someone cleared his throat across the room, trying to grab his attention. He made a quick glance at Ancano, who was signaling him in a threatening manner to not finish that sentence.
“I ah… I know one, I suppose…?”

“Good.” Tolfdir clasped his hands together, “I suppose you would not mind helping me with this demonstration?”

Ah shit.

He pointed in his general direction, “If you could just stand over there, I’ll cast a spell at you, and I want you to use the ward to block it.” He shoo’ed the other students away “I don’t want anyone getting hurt here.” Icarus backed away while still facing the instructor. “The ward spell please?”

Icarus focused as the energy emitted from his hands. Tolfdir shot a few bolts of fire at the mer. However, the ward lasted not even long enough for the instructor’s firebolt to touch it, sending it towards his robes instead.

Tolfdir grimaced as the justiciar frantically flailed his arms to put out the flames consuming his sleeve. “Oh dear…. Well, ah…” He scanned the other students before zeroing in on the newer Khajiit.. “How about you? Are you at all familiar with ward spells?”

J’hasi’s voice felt weak in his throat as he saw the results of the failed Ward, thinking of his own inevitable mishap that was sure to happen. Especially with a spell he had never used before in his life. In front of the whole class. And two Thalmor agents. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. Swallowing and clearing his throat a little, he watched as the Justicar finally seemed to have put himself out.

"N-no sir.” he finally managed to get out of his tightening throat. Hist help him…

“That’s all right. I can teach you a very basic ward, one that’s enough for the purposes of this lesson.” J’hasi listened carefully to Tolfdir’s instructions, understanding the concept of the spell well enough. It never seemed to matter how well he understood a spell, though. Every time either nothing would happen, or a painful something would. His fingers flexed at his sides, curling up tight enough for his knuckles to crack before releasing, his palms stinging a little from his claws.

“Over there, please. Just opposite me. Wouldn’t want anyone else in the way.” Tolfdir said, his voice calm and his tone intending to be soothing, but it only made J’hasi’s stomach twist as he walked to the seal where the Thalmor had been standing. His nose wrinkled as the smell of burnt wool grew overwhelming before the Thalmor retreated along with the other students. J’hasi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and released before turning around, facing the others.

“Now, cast the ward spell, and keep it up.” Sounded simple enough to anyone else. The Khajiit looked at his hands, his lips pressing tightly together before he put them in front of himself, fingers curling as he summoned up magicka to his palms. A moment passed where nothing happened, then a shimmering blue-white light shakily came into existence. A startled, relieved huff of air, too quiet to be considered a laugh came out of him as he watched the Ward grow stronger and spread in front of him, feeding off of his magicka. Tolfdir smiled.

“Good. Now, if you’ll just hold still…” J’hasi’s eyes snapped up, ears at attention as he saw the fire crackling around the instructor’s hand. He swallowed, the ward faltering and crackling a little at the edges. He was painfully aware of his rather flammable fur and of everyone’s eyes on him all of a sudden, especially with that other Thalmor staring at him like that.

The fireball was cast, crackling on its way towards J’hasi and his ward, which chose that precise moment to fizzle out. The Khajiit’s tail puffed up as he focused again, a panicked, split second of nothing before the ward came back full force. Too much apparently, as once the fireball contacted it, the ward backfired, sending a painful shock up his arms and leaving his palms numb, knocking him back a step. But he wasn’t on fire, which was a plus. He just needed to get the feeling back in his fingers again. The professor smiled.

“Excellent work! With a little practice, you’ll have less trouble keeping it up.” J’hasi swallowed, giving a short nod to show he understood. ‘At least I wasn’t set on fire first day.’ Tolfdir turned to the others, seeming pleased that the second student wasn’t quite as disastrous as the first.

“Well, I think this is an excellent start. I’d like you all to continue practicing with wards, please. I’ll pair you off into groups: one of you will cast a spell, and the other will attempt to block it with a Ward. Mind the fire though, we wouldn’t want anyone else getting hurt. Brelyna, you’re with me. Onmund, J’zargo, you two are a group. And Icarus, you’re with…” Tolfdir trailed off, eyes settling on the last student.

“I don’t believe I caught your name, my boy.” The Khajiit in question swallowed, already feeling a sense of dread brewing in the pit of his stomach, his tail curling around his ankles.

“M’name’s J’hasi, sir.” he said, just loud enough for the elder to hear. Already Onmund and J’zargo were bickering about something, what, the black Khajiit had no idea. Brelyna watched from a bit off, a slight frown on her face. The Thalmor he didn’t even want to look at. The professor smiled.

“J’hasi, then. You and Icarus work together.” J’hasi’s ears dropped back inside his hood, his stomach twisting uncomfortably.

‘Damn it.’

What in Hist’s name was that noise?

J’hasi grumbled, trying to find a way to muffle the sounds of movement and chatter in the lower quarters, echoing off the stone walls and filtering through his shelter of blankets and furs to slip into his ears and aggravate his remarkable hangover. His tail swished, pushing out from under the blankets as he shifted, only to slide back in at the touch of cold air. Normally the other students wouldn’t wake until later and drag themselves to class, and do so rather quietly. What had changed?

The Khajiit’s hand reached out, knuckles brushing over the chill of Elvish steel as he reached out for his journal next to his bed where he had left it. He cracked open an eye, the soft bluish light from the inner pool of the Hall giving him enough light to see, and yet not enough to blind him, facing away as he was. A low hiss of Jel and Dunmeri curses slipped from his mouth, his tongue unsticking from the roof of it in the process as he was reminded of the exact reason he had drank so much last night. Drinks were always cheap on the eve of Saturalia, and he had certainly needed them.

He just wasn’t fond of the festivities come the next morn.

Absence Without Leave – |Astarill/J’hasi|

astarill:

Beautiful. That was the word he would use if he had to describe the Khajiit’s reaction. Just beautiful; the yelp, the shock that ran through him, the snap of the book and how he curled up in a ball. As hilarious as Astarill thought it was, it didn’t show. Only an eyebrow rose, stiffly, as if chiseled out of the mer’s otherwise stone-faced façade.

“You were ‘just checking out the books, sir’,” Astarill iterated, weary with feigned tedium as he finished the Khajiit’s sentence. “Yes, I heard you the first time.” Then his voice changed; he didn’t raise it, but infused it with a sudden snap and harsh articulation, “Get up.”

As abrupt as the change in his demeanour had been, it changed again. Calm, neutral and even slightly amused, he gazed over the items on the floor. “What’s all this, then?” With the tip of his boot, he prodded the elongated package among the other items the Khajiit had seen fit to strew about. “And why is it here? Have you not been assigned a room, or do you adhere to a school of thought that believes libraries are just the ideal place for it? Because if so, I fear you are alone in that paradigm and you would do well in this case to conform to the majority.”

At the order (it clearly wasn’t a request), J’hasi quickly got up, shifting his feet underneath himself before standing, holding the book tightly in his trembling hands. His head was tucked into his chest a little, shoulders hunched, gaze down, ears back, his still-puffed tail kept unnaturally still behind his straightened legs, the same way he had stood whenever he had done something wrong back at the plantation when he was little. Thankfully the only lashing he’d be getting would be verbal. …at least he hoped. He hadn’t actually been to a formal school before.

When the Altmer poked at the wrapped package, the Khajiit’s heart seized up in his throat. It was difficult to swallow, his eyes nervously flicking over the contact between the mer’s boot and the old cloth wrapping. The professor would’ve felt the weight inside of it, something that was hard, narrow, and heavy. J’hasi felt a little tension release in his chest when it didn’t scrape, nor did the wrappings shift. He barely heard the rest of what was said before he tried to swallow again, eyes still locked on the package for a moment or so as he spoke before returning his gaze to the floor. While the Altmer’s tone sounded calm enough, the words themselves still made him nervous.

“N-no, s…sir. I… I was told to go straight to the Hall of the Elements after being shown around. I-I perhaps took that a little too literally and thought I wasn’t allowed to go to my room to leave my things there afterwards. I wouldn’t have brought them in here otherwise.” Certainly not the package, as its contents were evidence enough to put him into a world of trouble if found by the wrong people.

The Khajiit felt a little better about his composure near the end of his explanation, since the tension in his voice had reduced to a slight tremor as he spoke, his hands gripping the book tightly enough so they wouldn’t shake. While he could still feel the prickling, it wasn’t as cold now, and he felt it less under his skin and more just on the surface of it and in his fur. He risked a glance up at the mer’s face, finding his expression a touch less terrifying than it had been earlier. J’hasi’s gaze flicked back to the ground. ‘Shut up, shut up, just answer the questions and shut up…’

“I can put it away now, if that’s allowed.” ‘And now you’re doomed, idiot.’ It was so stupid to ask that, especially now, but he felt nervous and completely caught off-guard. He didn’t like being in this situation. He felt like prey being circled, even toyed with before the kill, something he hadn’t felt in years, and not something he liked feeling again. The worst part was, he couldn’t even run away from it, not if he wanted to get what he came here for. The Khajiit’s jaw tightened, feeling his next swallow knot in his throat.