Haru walked slowly towards the back of the library, feeling confused. Brittany was...acting strange. Okay, it wasn't hard to figure out what she'd been getting at with that comment about Ken, but after that...what did she mean, about telling Jon if she noticed anything unusual? She didn't know the slug-girl that well, but she didn't seem like some kind of X Files nerd who kept a database of paranormal occurances or something. What interest would she have in "unusual" things, and why?
She felt a little nervous at the suggestion. It wasn't that she didn't trust Brittany, and...well, she supposed Brittany probably had pretty good judgement about who else would be trustworthy, she seemed like a perceptive sort of person. But...it had almost felt, to Haru, like her suggestion of Jon was in response to Haru's concern...
"The tool of others." That was part of it, certainly; she didn't want to be someone's pawn. But she also just didn't want to get drawn into anything...uncomfortable. That feeling she'd shared with Ken, of being a small fish in a big pond, her fear of getting tangled up in some big complicated thing that would drag her out into places she didn't want to be...she shuddered slightly. No, she didn't want to get drawn into anything.
But...suppose she had no choice? She couldn't for the life of her imagine what Jon and her friends could be involved in, but...suppose it were something serious? What if there were people who...who might force her to do their bidding? What if her only place to turn was to the strange little group Brittany seemed to be hanging out with? She supposed in a situation like that she'd have to give Jon points simply for knowing something about her ability and not trying to pressure her into letting them use it, but still...
...or was she letting her imagination run wild? She didn't even know. Baseless speculation wasn't going to get her anywhere; but she wasn't sure she really wanted to get anywhere. All the same...maybe later, maybe...maybe she should see if she could find out what the deal was with Jon.
"Lad-um, Jon," Brittany began, looking concerned. She tried to keep in mind that people of this time didn't use formal address as often as she was used to, but it did feel strange to be addressing the new head of her order so commonly. But then, apparently it felt just as strange to Jon to be addressed as someone in a position of authority.
Really, the whole dynamic between them was like that. Brittany bore no disrespect for the slug-girl, but it was strange for her to be more knowledgeable about anything magical than the inheritor of one of the elemental keystones...she did trust that Jon was the right keeper, it was just odd...
"Yes?" Jon replied.
"I have been thinking," the Briton girl said. "If the stone cannot be used now, and if an enemy were to find you, it's unwise that you should have no other defenses." She couldn't remember what the string around her finger was for, but it had her feeling a little nervous, and that had brought this, which she'd been pondering earlier, to the front of her mind.
Jon thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I suppose," she said. "But it's not like I have any powers or anything...unless you count leaving a trail everywhere I go. And I trust you to guard me, but until you're able to leave the school..."
"She's got a point, though," Karyn said. "If anything does show up, it'd be a lot better to be prepared."
Jon sighed. "Yeah, but how?"
"You could learn ordinary magic," Brittany said.
The slug-girl and the cecaelia-girl stared at her as if she'd just suggested that they have a nice quiet picnic on Mars. "Ordinary magic?" Jon asked. "What's ordinary...?"
"Wait, we can do that?" Karyn said. "I mean, just learn...? Us? Normal people?"
Brittany bit her lip, trying to suppress a smirk, laughter in her eyes. "Did you think I was other than human?" She frowned for a moment when remembering that in a way, she was, but that was irrelevant - she'd been every bit an ordinary human when she began her studies.
"I...uh, I guess not," Jon said, feeling a bit sheepish. It was just...it was another one of those curious steps further into a world she'd never really suspected the existence of. Further and further through the looking-glass... She wondered - had her grandpa known that was possible? Had he learned magic?
"But if you can't leave the school," she mused, "we can't exactly go somewhere private for you to show us how."
Brittany nodded, looking around to make sure that their quiet corner of the lunchroom was still quiet. "I will have to explain it to you, and we shall hope for the best..."
"I overheard you talking about spirits earlier," Karyn said. "Do we...have to bargain with them, or something? Or is it...how does it work?"
The ancient girl smiled, again visibly bemused. For all she had read, as impressed as she was at how people had advanced on their own in the millennia since Merlin had sealed away magic, it was a bit funny how what seemed like the simplest, basic principles of things were enduring mysteries to the people of this time. "There are spirits of that sort," she said. "It is possible to bargain with them, if need be - but it's best to leave them alone unless necessary. Not all of them are friendly. 'How it works' is..."
She paused a moment, trying to think of how best to explain it. "I do not know how much you understand about these things," she said. "But ordinary magic comes in working with the spirit of the thing to be worked with."
Jon raised an eyebrow. "So it's...animistic?" she asked. "As in, things are alive, and there's some kind of spirit version of the real world?"
Brittany thought, frowned, and shook her head. "No," she said. "I think you misunderstand. Things are not alive in the sense that they possess souls - not all things, there are exceptions. There is not a 'spirit world' and a 'real world;' your idea of a 'real world' is a..." She paused, looking for words. "...'false dichotomy.' It is a separation that does not exist. The world is both physical and spiritual; the two are intimately linked facets of the whole, not separate things."
She put a hand to her head. "It is...I suppose it is an understandable mistake," she said. "So much of your knowledge was formed while all the spiritual was dormant save for the souls of men...oh, but it makes it hard to explain this! Do you understand?"
"I think so," Jon said. "A thing isn't a person, but it has some spiritual reality...sort of like an animal isn't a person..." She looked around the lunchroom. "...uh, well, you know what I mean...but it's still a living thing?"
"Something like. An animal is a good analogy, because there are different ways of working with it. An animal may be directed by tools; you can put a bridle on a horse and steer it where you will. Or, you may direct the horse without any tool, if you understand it and it knows you well enough for there to be a communion between horse and rider."
"And we're the tool-users," Karyn said.
Brittany nodded. "Tools are useful - they can allow any man to do his work with less need to be taught. We do not use magic to till the fields, because every farmer would need to be a wizard. But that true understanding between the doer and the object is the key to manipulating it on a more intimate level than any workman's tool can achieve. That understanding is the basis for magic."
"Huh," Jon mused. "It sounds...it sounds like it'd be difficult to learn. I mean, sticking with the analogy, you don't just build a rapport with an animal by reading a book on it, you have to work with it, get to know it..."
"Indeed," Brittany said. "I studied for years to learn what I did, and even then I could name half a dozen others better than myself without thinking. But the basic principles are perhaps not as difficult as you think. I would accompany you and teach you myself, but in my absence I believe you might make a start."
Jon nodded. "I guess we can try."
