This one feels like the tale is restarting, to be honest, which is perhaps not how these revisitations should go. But then, I think similar happened in Mejaran and the House of Mercy too, so perhaps I should be observing that in some of our stories the characters really want to carry on living :) Which is strange really, considering your homicidal tendencies and my predilection for murdering Incarnations of human virtues. So, Nifty -- I mean Nostril -- damn it all, Nes-- Nystor is definitely up to something, most likely his old tricks, and the kids have no way to get back to the Dream Kingdom and warn King Brekstan and Prince Reimar but Nystor might be finding a way anyway. OK, perfectly normal scenario for us then :)
Mine Three weeks in to lessons and their physics lessons were definitely taking an odd turn. Olivia had even gone and found the syllabus, convinced that Nystor had to be deviating dramatically from it, but they had read it from cover to cover and found that Nystor's teaching of quantum mechanics was a little bit advanced, but in there. The way he was teaching it was like no textbook they could find in the library, but it was effective; everyone in the class was getting the hang of imagining a complex four dimensional world where things obeyed probabilities, and if you were careful about your expectations you could get things to happen as you wanted. "It's just like imagining what you want and having it appear," said Josh one lunchtime. "It's like this is the underlying explanation for what happens in the Dream Kingdom. Only there it's on a much bigger scale."
Potions class, as Dylan had started thinking of his Chemistry lessons, was getting weirder. At first the students had recoiled at the idea of drinking their experiments, but as they found they caused no ill effects, and tasted like Coke, or Fanta, or Irn Bru, they got more enthusiastic. Even odder flavours like Elderberry and Wormwood got a pass when they turned up. Dylan scrutinised his classmates like a hawk everytime they drank a potion, knowing that Nystor was doing the same. And he tried to surreptitiously sip his ahead of Nystor calling on him to drink it, to see if he'd managed to find the right potion first. So far there had been no successes, and Dylan thought he could see a hint of frustration creeping in to Nystor's teaching. "He's got some patience," he told the other two, "but maybe not enough."
The Thursday before Black Friday put Potions class at the end of the day, and Dylan was both interested and excited to see that Nystor had added a new ingredient to half of the worksheets. He read through his at his desk, and as he got up to gather de-ionised water, hellebore petals and Calcium Chloride he had a thought that didn't feel like his own. For a moment it was as though someone else was looking through his eyes, and then he thought, Calcium is too large. Magnesium would work much better. He made himself keep walking so as not to attract attention, and inside his head he thought Who said that? Who are you? The silence that returned was deafening. He gathered his ingredients, including the extras from the tray that Nystor set out at the front, and then took a roundabout route back, talking to several of his friends while he looked at their worksheets. Two of them had Magnesium Chloride listed, but he was relieved to see that other ingredients also differed. Even so, at the end of the class when they had to drink their potions he made sure he was watching closely. He wasn't completely sure he hadn't made it up, but he thought that Peter Sullivan flickered when he drank his potion. Nystor didn't react, so perhaps he hadn't noticed.
"I've got a clue," said Dylan to Olivia; Josh was at a tennis lesson and so Dylan and Olivia were sat in the club-house waiting for him to finish. "I think Nystor's getting closer to the potion, but I've got Peter's sheet and mine, and I think the answer is somewhere between them." He explained about the last Potions class. "Can you talk to the voice again?" asked Olivia. "I wonder if it's really on our side at all?"
Olivia looked out the window to where Josh had just hammered a backhand into the net, but her thoughts were obviously elsewhere.
"You said Peter flickered?"
"No, I said I thought he maybe flickered. Possibly." Dylan shifted in his seat, seeking comfort that wasn't accessible. "Why?"
"Well, it's just that..." Olivia trailed off before mustering her thoughts for another attack. "It's just that... what that implies... is that Nystor doesn't want to go back to the Dream Kingdom when he's asleep. He wants to go back there, in mind and body."
"Which means... if Peter's potion was the winner..."
"... we'd probably never have seen him again."
"We need to stop this before he kills somebody - directly or indirectly." Dylan stood up in a rush, toppling his chair over backward. "Come on, there's only one thing to do."
"Only...? No, I'd say there are many things we could do," Olivia countered, remaining seated. "Talk a breath, let's wait for Josh to finish up and we can talk this through together, the three of us. Four, if that voice decides to chime in again."
"No. We'll grab him on the way - he's not learning anything out there anyway," Dylan said as he watched Josh send a forehand sailing over the fence that surrounded the courts. "This can't wait."
"This?" Olivia said as she moved to follow her friend out the clubhouse door. "What is this anyway?"
"Simple," Dylan told her over his shoulder. "We need to know what Nystor knows. We need to break into Nystor's office and steal his notes."
3 comments:
This one feels like the tale is restarting, to be honest, which is perhaps not how these revisitations should go. But then, I think similar happened in Mejaran and the House of Mercy too, so perhaps I should be observing that in some of our stories the characters really want to carry on living :) Which is strange really, considering your homicidal tendencies and my predilection for murdering Incarnations of human virtues.
So, Nifty -- I mean Nostril -- damn it all, Nes-- Nystor is definitely up to something, most likely his old tricks, and the kids have no way to get back to the Dream Kingdom and warn King Brekstan and Prince Reimar but Nystor might be finding a way anyway. OK, perfectly normal scenario for us then :)
Mine
Three weeks in to lessons and their physics lessons were definitely taking an odd turn. Olivia had even gone and found the syllabus, convinced that Nystor had to be deviating dramatically from it, but they had read it from cover to cover and found that Nystor's teaching of quantum mechanics was a little bit advanced, but in there. The way he was teaching it was like no textbook they could find in the library, but it was effective; everyone in the class was getting the hang of imagining a complex four dimensional world where things obeyed probabilities, and if you were careful about your expectations you could get things to happen as you wanted.
"It's just like imagining what you want and having it appear," said Josh one lunchtime. "It's like this is the underlying explanation for what happens in the Dream Kingdom. Only there it's on a much bigger scale."
Potions class, as Dylan had started thinking of his Chemistry lessons, was getting weirder. At first the students had recoiled at the idea of drinking their experiments, but as they found they caused no ill effects, and tasted like Coke, or Fanta, or Irn Bru, they got more enthusiastic. Even odder flavours like Elderberry and Wormwood got a pass when they turned up. Dylan scrutinised his classmates like a hawk everytime they drank a potion, knowing that Nystor was doing the same. And he tried to surreptitiously sip his ahead of Nystor calling on him to drink it, to see if he'd managed to find the right potion first. So far there had been no successes, and Dylan thought he could see a hint of frustration creeping in to Nystor's teaching.
"He's got some patience," he told the other two, "but maybe not enough."
The Thursday before Black Friday put Potions class at the end of the day, and Dylan was both interested and excited to see that Nystor had added a new ingredient to half of the worksheets. He read through his at his desk, and as he got up to gather de-ionised water, hellebore petals and Calcium Chloride he had a thought that didn't feel like his own. For a moment it was as though someone else was looking through his eyes, and then he thought, Calcium is too large. Magnesium would work much better. He made himself keep walking so as not to attract attention, and inside his head he thought Who said that? Who are you? The silence that returned was deafening.
He gathered his ingredients, including the extras from the tray that Nystor set out at the front, and then took a roundabout route back, talking to several of his friends while he looked at their worksheets. Two of them had Magnesium Chloride listed, but he was relieved to see that other ingredients also differed. Even so, at the end of the class when they had to drink their potions he made sure he was watching closely.
He wasn't completely sure he hadn't made it up, but he thought that Peter Sullivan flickered when he drank his potion. Nystor didn't react, so perhaps he hadn't noticed.
"I've got a clue," said Dylan to Olivia; Josh was at a tennis lesson and so Dylan and Olivia were sat in the club-house waiting for him to finish. "I think Nystor's getting closer to the potion, but I've got Peter's sheet and mine, and I think the answer is somewhere between them." He explained about the last Potions class.
"Can you talk to the voice again?" asked Olivia. "I wonder if it's really on our side at all?"
Olivia looked out the window to where Josh had just hammered a backhand into the net, but her thoughts were obviously elsewhere.
"You said Peter flickered?"
"No, I said I thought he maybe flickered. Possibly." Dylan shifted in his seat, seeking comfort that wasn't accessible. "Why?"
"Well, it's just that..." Olivia trailed off before mustering her thoughts for another attack. "It's just that... what that implies... is that Nystor doesn't want to go back to the Dream Kingdom when he's asleep. He wants to go back there, in mind and body."
"Which means... if Peter's potion was the winner..."
"... we'd probably never have seen him again."
"We need to stop this before he kills somebody - directly or indirectly." Dylan stood up in a rush, toppling his chair over backward. "Come on, there's only one thing to do."
"Only...? No, I'd say there are many things we could do," Olivia countered, remaining seated. "Talk a breath, let's wait for Josh to finish up and we can talk this through together, the three of us. Four, if that voice decides to chime in again."
"No. We'll grab him on the way - he's not learning anything out there anyway," Dylan said as he watched Josh send a forehand sailing over the fence that surrounded the courts. "This can't wait."
"This?" Olivia said as she moved to follow her friend out the clubhouse door. "What is this anyway?"
"Simple," Dylan told her over his shoulder. "We need to know what Nystor knows. We need to break into Nystor's office and steal his notes."
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