after challenging @jadesabre301 to do sad slave!verse Serannis, I had to balance the scales a little bit. Here’s a snippet from the only universe she hasn’t written yet - the one where the translators are students at Khem’s school in Arrabar.
10 gold pieces’ worth of components is quite a sizeable proportion of a first-year’s requisition allowance. Most of the students Serannis knows are pursuing other options, arguing the various merits of this spell and that, defending their choices as vigorously as they did when choosing their first cantrip.
(Jadesa had chosen prestidigitation then. She liked being able to instantly clean spilled ink, or warm her gloves, or make her vegetables taste like Chultan dark chocolate. Serannis found chocolate with the texture of broccoli all but inedible, but Jadesa still enchants her dinner every night.)
There was never any question for Serannis, though. He submitted his research proposal and his requisition form a week ago, and now his heart is hammering with sheer excitement as he sits in a classroom with a brazier blowing fragrant smoke in his eyes. There’s a teacher watching – there always is, when a student’s trying something new – but she might as well be in the Underdark for all the attention Serannis is paying to her.
He makes sure both books beside him are open to their correct pages, then takes a deep breath. He’s been practising the chant and the hand gestures for almost a month (you aren’t supposed to begin before you get permission, but he couldn’t wait), and he knows them by heart, could do either or both while trancing, but this – this is the first time he’s putting them together. This is the first time he’s united syllables and movement with will and fledgling magic.
This is the time that matters.
Serannis begins calling. Smoke and hands shape the path; will projects his words and meaning into the outer edges of the Feywild. Come, small spirit, he calls. I seek a friend, a companion, a help. A familiar. I will fulfill my part of that ancient contract if you choose to answer it. We will be bound, but I will release you if you ever want it. Please, come.
Serannis doesn’t know how long he calls. He is too focused on getting it right, on impressing his desire into the magic. The spell is supposed to take an hour, he remembers, but that kind of time doesn’t seem to mean anything while he casts.
Hello, he hears – a voice that tickles inside his mind, inhuman, insubstantial, and bright as a ray of sunlight. The spell falters for a moment as he grins with incredulous delight.
Whoops! it observes, merriment in the not-sound. I can’t hear you if you drop the passage, you know.
Carefully, Serannis feels contrition for his carelessness, and polite wondering about his visitor and whether they are interested in becoming a familiar.
There is a sensation like a soundless sneeze, which seems to be mildly scornful. It’s a long way to come if I wasn’t, the fey tells him. You’re not terribly bright, are you?
Sometimes he isn’t, Serannis feels, but he does try. And he’s very honoured to have attracted its attention.
I don’t think you’ll get very far without help. And at least you’re polite. Hmmm… His head feels like a jam jar with a moth in it, if the moth were frowning thoughtfully at the glass in between battering itself against the walls. It’s nice in here. I think I’ll stay.
He can’t quite believe it, it’s too good to be true, this is so exciting -
Yes, yes, it says, and Serannis can feel it preening even as it pretends to dismiss his enthusiasm. I know. Don’t get too excited, we’re not finished yet. You need to give me a name.
It’s a kind of anchor, he knows. “Penna,” he says, a new sound in the chant.
A ripple of light like sundazzle on water: a small fey laugh. A feather, am I? That’ll do. What form shall I take?
This part, truth be told, had taken Serannis longest of all. He had pored over his favourite books for weeks trying to decide. There were so many birds in Faerûn, so many magnificent and strange species that he would probably never get to see, not if he spent all the rest of his life seeking them out.
But he was learning magic. He could cheat a little.
Serannis holds up the second book. It’s open to the vivid illustration of a male Aglaiocerus coelstis in full breeding plumage – the violet-tailed sylph. The hummingbird is a small jewel of iridescent greens and blues, and less than four inches long… except for the tail, nearly as long again, shining in vivid purple.
Oh! the fey says. That’s almost as bright as home. I love it!
Then the hummingbird materialises in front of Serannis, the wings a blur as it darts from side to side, gleaming vibrant in the sunlight, its tail quivering. “You are stunning,” Serannis breathes. He has a familiar, and finally he has seen a violet-tailed sylph in person – and the book didn’t do it justice, it is so much brighter and so much more beautiful.
I can definitely get used to this, Penna says, and perches on Serannis’s finger when he holds it out. Clean up your summoning, and then you can go show me off as I deserve.
…
10 gold pieces’ worth of components is quite a sizeable proportion of a first-year’s requisition allowance. Nevertheless, Serannis scrounges it together repeatedly. There are other species of hummingbird. There are wrens, finches, gulls, owls, corvids and swifts; there are the loveliest songbirds in the world. Penna seems to enjoy the changes of form as much as Serannis does. Jadesa laughs until she cries the first time a small blue penguin follows Serannis into the library.
Serannis has to swear off parrots, though. Penna is all too happy to repeat Brighthip’s vocabulary lessons at inconvenient moments.
Oh the thing! For the 'Master Commander', please. >:3
general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life | He’s pretty great :3hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would banghogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: That he’s real smart and an ass, he can always make me laugh, the cute way he pretends not to care.worst quality: I’m sure someday I’ll get tired of not being told stuff…, I guess the smoking? But that’s whatever. He should really be nicer to Rook.ship them with: What? Why would I ‘ship’ him with anyone? *makes little boat out of gum wrapper* There. Shut up.brotp them with: Rook? Him and that Zero guy seemed to get along. Also if they got over themselves, then Seeker. Dynamic duo of my favorite jerks. <3needs to stay away from: Whoever’s out to get him! Seriously. I’ll shoot you.misc. thoughts: “Maybe he’ll – Ooh! He texted me! Ok, chill out. You can text back later… What did he say? Stop it. Just wait to text him back… You! Put that – put that phone down! Uugh, screw this! I’m responding.”
when someone talking about they're salty cause they know someone with the same name as them but your name Jasmine and everybody you know has the same name as you so you low key don't care 😂😂😂😂😊😊😊😊😊😊
