Tower of sin

((Side note, I felt it made the post look better to seperate several sections with '---'s. The first section is pretty much introduction. The second part is the bulk of RP. The third part is Crayis's racial and outfit descriptions.)

"Goodbye, then. We seriously hope that you will reconsider our offer...Witch Slaver." On that, a monitor's image of a business man cuts off, and revealed a variety of seemingly random notes depicting vitals of various named people. This screen was mounted on a wide-short model computer, which itself was pretty much mostly normal except that it had a lack of user input in any way: no power switch/button or reset, no mice or keyboards, but simply a device much akin to a flash drive with a crystal mounted at its end. (and its screen shared a similar lack of cords.)
This was set on a pretty semi-normal desk with doors to drawers built into it, but no handles for them, and this desk sat in front of a monsterous humanoid woman, with strange fancy wear. (it's described as an end of the post)

She was rather relaxed looking, with crossed legs and even a slight lean backwards in her chair, arms lazily on the arm-rests, but once the screen changed, she straightened up, and her claws were quick to dig into the arm-rest as the woman hissed. "Witch slaver..." she muttered in disgust. Unintentionally, it was a title she acquired, buying up witches found and to be executed from anti-magic cities, who would never be seen of again.
Such a fate of these witches were so vague, that they were assumed to be hidden servants to give her factory export: This woman was a producer of raw materials at discount prices that were bought up mostly by these anti-magic cities, though she wasn't very discriminating about her customers. Thing is, she did eventually switch into a system of accepting money, and money only, but very much initially, she demanded that their business consisted of their doomed witches.

Getting up, the humanoid glanced around her office. The walls to the sides had shelves full of books about the information of the various places she dealt with, and their histories, bought from their own book stores with the money they've given Rujin for the deals.
The back wall was plain, as was the front wall that faced held the entry door, left closed.
She reflected on the changes of her life, and then left the room, into the lightly curved hallway...

The entire 'house' was an incomplete tower, much of a stump like the remnant of a tree found by a lumberjack. The outward sprawling 'roots' were assumably power generators that fed off of a surrounding radiation-like influence of magic energy*, manipulated into harmless passiveness. The building's surfacing actually was smooth, not rough 'bark', save that the flat top was quite rough. It was a quite roomy place, with the typical things you'd find in a house, but surprisingly it wasn't massively spaced out to inane degrees, despite its clearly larger presence from outside.
It was definately work that took Rujin much time, constantly depleting her repeatedly to build almost from the day she lost Lisui. The title of witch slaver had in fact tainted the house itself, called off that there's no way someone naturally could possess sufficient mana to build something as this. Also, over the time since a bare completion, it had actually grown in its outward appearing size to what it was now, from what would be reasonably proportionate of its inward appearance, and this stirred more thoughts of curses and witch-based slave labor.

Rujin had thanked the house sarcastically that her body had in fact mutated away from her original fox-trait species, too, and wasn't quite sure if Aji was subtly scared by the change or not. Rujin was also scared that Aji would stumble into knowing the kind of reputation she built up in her business dealings...
Really, it's in fact for the fears that dealings were done with those decisively far from home. (That way, the reputation would not be local at all.) It may perhaps have been as good of a reason as the acceptance of Aji in the local city that Rujin also decided to build the tower near a magic-friendly humanoid-friendly cultural environment. (After all, mages would naturally rather not generally deal with anti-magic loving sorts.)

* - HSR (High Spell Release) is a type of magic 'radiation' that disturbs the stability of physics, resultingly distorting object properties within. Typical amounts of spellcasting releases so negligibly scarce amounts that HSR influence dies quickly without any effective impact whatsoever.
However, constant strong spellcasting can gradually accumilate lesser degrees of pollution that can linger for extended times. They cause small inconsistancies in the nature of objects that can damage sensitive equipment, (such as electronics. The lifeforce of creatures is strong enough to nullify these distortions though) or cause slight disturbances in results of influences, and cause instable things to spontaniously collapse into whatever risks they threaten into.
Higher densities can become very dangerous, shredding presence into the raw chaotic flood for the mere exposure. Such effects are even longer-lived, but the effort it requires must be deliberate, and furthermore the magic and caster themselves somehow shielded to prevent being dissolved into the field without contributing to the density.
It is theoried that pure-type magic energy is condensed instances of strong HSR, due to the similar properties they can produce. Furthermore, it is subtly factual that several magic styles deliberately safeguard from HSR, reagent-regulated magic being better known for this quality which right-out nullifies potential HSR contribution by the properties of the reagents that the spells are run through.
HSR completely ruins anti-magic powers because of its overwhelming presence, making it seem like a valuable counter anti-magic power, but the difficulty to accumilate useful amounts, lack of transportability (it's stationary to the area it occurs within), and double-edged nature makes it surprisingly worthless except when subject to overcomplex manipulation.

---

All of this was neither here nor there. Rujin went to the living room, which she tried hard to give a modernized (relative to RL) look to amongst much of the house otherwise, and looked around. Modernized? Surely. Clocks? Nope, not really in this room. She lost track of time, and wasn't sure if Aji was home or not...Actually, reflecting, she lost track of if Aji actually HAD school today or not.
Groaning, the mother mutters "I'm not getting old, just time un-savvy" to inspire confidence for herself. Besides, today was such an important day...Looking at the strange smokey golden sphere she set up at the center of the main table to the room, Rujin couldn't help but note how importantly negative of a day it was. The anniversary of Lisui's death...If it wasn't for that, she would still be having her old life for massive theft, and she felt she could have someone she could associate with her hidden lifestyle. Despite the benefits of her adopted son, Rujin still missed it. (---or maybe so for Ajipreah. Rujin did much less of teaching for him since school started to do so in her place. Not to mention that hours which they were both simutaniously awake thinned from Aji's time in school.)

Then...Life changed so much...She realized the curse to care for others, foreign pain in her heart she could expect to only ever see from Aji, in that she would care at all for others...But then Rujin giggled. It seemed innocently amusing, but in the shadows of her mind it was vicious and malicious: The screaming that she promised unto her enemies... A memory spoken aloud in her mind, not to the room, which was a promised curse: "To hell your soul and blood! My ghost shall make curse onto you that shall stain your descendants! Something to echo darkly in your futures forever!" The dying words of her faker...
Rujin seriously did wish she could learn how they reacted to that, or for that matter what happened to the mask, which she's sure must have degraded when the reinforcement of its owner's life broke away from infesting it.

Rujin shakes her head...It probably doesn't really matter at this point. No matter how they felt, the fox-beast had her own goals now.

---

She had strange ear attachments, ones that extended from along the rims of her fox-like ears, to make them 'reach' more sharply out from the body with golden round-edged additions. These ear attachments had a filling between the rims of themselves to the ears themselves by the spanning of a layer of sapphire crystal.
She wore a pair of bronze bracelets, that were only tight rings in their pretty simple features, but nothing else additional of decorative pieces.
The woman also had a short-sleeve shirt that was mostly normal, but the back side arced upward in its rim to expose a half-circle of flesh---sort of. It would have, but she had a wide black belt worn under the shirt, with a pair of gun holsters fused into it, pointing diagonally up-outwards along the belt, mostly angled towards going to the sides.
The pants she wore were segmented all the way down their length, each segment going down along her body for a while, before splitting off to a new segment, while the old segment instead curved outward and formed into a brief skirt-like feature for a very short distance. The pattern repeated itself three times along the top area of the pants, before when being split off to individual legs, went about 7 more times along the legs.
The left/right parts of the top three had gun clips hidden into the underside by slots, and thus were a little harder and less flexible than the others. (though by having the clips actually mounted, were rendered entirely inflexible)
The woman's body was quite strange. (consider the description off the base of a human) As mentioned before, she had fox-like ears. Her nose, though mostly human, had nearly transparent whiskers extended from the bottom half of the sides, in sets of four per side, and reaching halfway to the ends of her shoulder laterally, though they barely dipped down at all. She also possessed canine fangs of the mentioned creature.
The hands were tipped in fox-like claws instead of presenting fingernails, but there were thin lines of fur, that one-per-finger, ran back from the center of the top of the finger's tip, all the way to the hand, then ran equidistantly from between the other three fingers, before shifting placement laterally along the hand for the thumb's line of fur to join the pattern as it ran further back. They all came to meet a ring of fur at the wrist, though it was covered by the bracelet.
The fox-trait had a fur-less long-thin tail, but along the tail it split into a variety of sub-tails which resembled the nature of fox-tails, extending perpindicular of the main tail. These sub-tails consisted of the main-tail's fur, but the tipping was bare, and reflectively plated in iron-like flesh.
The feet were also strange. The ankle was akwardly different, and extended forward for the dominate foot, although it split off to extend further downward a sub-foot. This sub-foot was fused into part of the main foot where they were nearly joined into the ankle, and went downward before curving to point backwards, and tipped with a large claw that arched to stab down into the ground by shape.
The main-foot was four rather cylinder-like shaped pieces that were almost solidly fused together in a lateral formation, to make the effect of linear dips that the foot curved down then back up out of three times. (though the dips increased width, and thus depth, as the feet went further) These cylinder shapes extended in small spread of angles between eachother, going about 6.25 degrees from any adjacent one(s). They then sharply curved downward and hosted claws that looked more akin to spikes stabbing at the ground, which reach that barely surpassed the bottom of the sub-foot, equal with how far downward the sub-foot claw acutally reached.
The entire foot design, sub- and main-, were scaly.
She was an adult, barely passed the point one'd call her off as a young adult, with a somewhat rather voluptuous build. (at least relatively speaking, since she was a bit monsterous) Her hair reached to the shoulders, pure white, and she had deep grey eyes. The fur was a blue tinted offset of the white hair color, until the tippings which were a bit more definitive from white, and cyan. Her skin was rather lightened from a base of a mediterranean coloring, the paleness almost looking unhealthy. Scales took to a copper-like appearance, even to the point of mimicing metallic visual texture.

A dream... a dream of many things. A dream of friends past, of wished futures, and what was there now. A dream of an education, a calmer life, and the ability to finally settle down with his mother, his only family he'd ever known. That was his dream, and it had become a reality... didn't it?

So why, then, was he so restless, and on this particular day, ironically? Why, then, was this the third time he'd skipped out on school? Sitting outside in that tree, Aji could not honestly answer that. His mother had gone through all of that trouble to send him to school, and had settled down... for -him.- It was not that he did not appreciate it. Quite the opposite, he let his mother know at every available opportunity how he loved her and thanked her for all her help.

"Maybe that was the start of it, then..." he thought to himself while his head swiveled back up to the tower.

It had only been about a year or so since that incident where she had stopped being "Crayis," yet since them, for all those promises made, he felt her becoming more and more distant. That, probably, was what started all of his feelings of uncertainty. When they'd came and she spoke of getting schooling, he had assumed it to be with her. Yet, now, she was more of a distant figure while he went off to a building of strangers to learn. Now it was to a point where in his awake hours he barely saw her, and this tore at his heart daily. By blood or not, she was his mother, and he sorely needed her. He was, by draconic standards, still quite young.

Sure, he enjoyed a general education. This was a magic-friendly town too, so he could even get a bit of help with that. Particularly, he had always been said to be a promising student, and by many of the faculty, he was held to high standards. Perhaps that was also it's second loss to him. No matter what, he found himself alienated. Magic friendly or not, many of this town still hated or feared him simply because of his draconic blood. Aji, by now, had even come to expect that, and although this town was far better than most, it -was- still there, if even hidden. He had come on to a new type of discrimination too, though, within the school. Being held to such high standards, many times he would be under much more strict scrutiny to do a job the correct way, or cast a spell flawlessly... and Aji was anything but flawless. He made mistakes, and that was what got him in trouble on more than one occasion, accident or not.

Still, that was not the biggest let down. Aji had come to this town expectant that everything would finally go as it should. He would be accepted, and he would be happy. Generally he was at least accepted, and he usually did not have to worry about being chased down the street by torches and pitchforks. However, for all his attempts (or lack thereof due to shyness), Aji had not made a single friend.

He sighed and let himself glide down from the tree; another thing he had been working on by himself was to develop his wings. He could even fly for a short distance now, but it was quite strenuous. After landing on the ground, he took a look around, up and down the path that lead to town, and to the tower, wondering where to go... after standing there for about a minute, he turned right, moving towards the tower, and entering.

It was time to do something about his unrest, or it would continue to grow and tear at him.

Aji ascended the tower, his mind now flooding with things he'd heard before. "Witch slaver" was what the people of the town called her. Purposely, he had tuned out all of that. He knew that it had to be untrue. Why would she enslave those like herself? He didn't know... all he knew was that the one whom had visited him a few times was making an impact on his thought process. He somehow or another felt it a good idea to investigate his mother... and yet, that too tore at him. Why would she do anything if not out of care for him?

He reached the top even as this question hit. Intention filled with care for him or not, if it hurt others, Aji did not want to be even an indirect part of it. Over this past year, his feelings for such had not waned in any way; they'd only intensified. Yet, Aji had also gained something else during that time: a will to protect others, especially those important to him.

Openly, he made his way to his mother and stood before her. There was a look in his eyes, one that Rujin had only recently come to see with him: determination.

"Mother, I don't wanna go back to school," he said looking right into her eyes, "There's too much I feel I'm missing. It isn't doing me much good anyhow," he held back his anxiety, however lightly apparent in his twitching tail, "And... I wanna know just what is this business you're into."

(This next part only applies if she tries to dodge, bounce around, or shift the topic of her business in any way)

When his mother dodged, Aji did something then he'd never done before: he growled at her, "Mother... don't hide it from me. Please... it hurts enough that I can barely see you during the day, sent off to a building where people are taught the "proper" way to do a craft. That isn't what I wanted... and it still is not. I want to stay with you, and to know just what's going on. You said you'd leave dangerous work behind... so, what are you doing?"

Rujin perked up her ears, her thoughts being broken when she heard Aji enter. 'Oh, I guess it was the end of school. Gr...I didn't even get started on deciding dinner or anything.'
But...when she looked towards him, she was caught on surprise...She didn't know he had this kind of determination, and it seemed unnatural. This uneased her, but she ignored it. (The uneasyness, that is, certainly not her own child. XD)

She gave a stressed sigh, starting to think of what to do...Aji needed the education, sort of, but she knew he was dangerously deprived of socializing---It cut off with his curiosity of her business. Rujin tilted her head, confused. That was unusual.
But no matter, she decided. Rujin had always respected Aji, either directly at his will, or at least enough to act the way she thought was appropriate. This time would be no different: She would tell him 'openly enough.'

"Alright. I'll tell you about it, but we have to know what we're going to do about your school, too." she crossed her arms, continueing "That's not a subject we can just, 'drop' easily." She had to admit, saying that made her want to do it so that she could have her cake and eat it.
Rujin motioned to the kitchen "We'll sit at the table and talk." With that, she did so, and if Aji tried to deny it, Rujin was willing to explain briefly that the conversasion was going to run long, so it'd only be appropriate to have a seat.

"We're going to need to go over school first. I'll talk about Silva, but how you learn things growing up is a much more significant part of your life. I'm sorry about hurting you, I really didn't mean to. To be honest, I didn't really realize how much it'd take away from our time together...How about I teach you then, like the way we used to do it. It did make you happy, after all. But...we are going to need to be around other people."
"It's really important that you experience being around other people, especially since you're a little different from them. I don't want you to only ever know me, and not be able to deal with others." Granted, there was the time before he met her...but she didn't feel he actually experienced exposure to others...just exposure to the slums towns can offer.

The moment Rujin turned around and walked over to the table, Aji deflated almost instantly. It was hard for him to hold such a demeanor. Serious or determined or not about this whole situation, she was still his mother, and it took most of his willpower to not just run up and hug her or something. He was, after all, still one hell of a momma's boy. That, and she thought for sure she'd fight him on it or something. Aji didn't really wanna fight with her, but he was dead set on figuring this stuff out. As he grew, so did his thirst for knowledge, and his distaste for secrets between them.

So naturally he went over to the table and picked himself up off the floor and into the chair (he was still only about up to chest level with it) to sit down. As you can expect, he eyed the cake with great interest and a lick of his lips (I think there's cake there according to the comment?)

Aji of course listened intently to her explanation on his education, her thoughts on what she wanted to do, and what he wanted to do. Needless to say, when she said "how about I teach you then, like the way we used to do it," Aji was nothing short of ecstatic, and he gave her one of those hopeful, shiny-eyed child smiles. She also talked about that thing on experiencing interaction with other people.

Aji, surprisingly, had something to say on that, "No, I didn't wanna stop going to town or anything. I still wanna go and, like, like, talk to the people or stuff. Maybe I could even go for supplies. The merchants and people here don't shoo me out of the stores, after all... I'm sure I can like, do chores and errand runs for you and stuff."

That wasn't it of course, Aji found himself thinking as his eyes wandered to the ceiling. He was not quite sure yet what it was, really. Interaction, though, helped to alleviate those feelings as well... yet so did being with his mother, even if they were isolated from the town. Curious contradiction? He didn't really get it either. All he knew is what he felt, and he felt that this way, he would get answers to this first part of everything.

Realizing he was looking like him old self again, Aji cleared his throat and tried to look as determined as before (probably looking more cute instead >_>), but the feel was at least there, "That all sounds good mother. I'd like to do all that stuff, I really do wanna. But, now then, that leaves the business..."

((*FACE DESK* x.x; Nooo...No cake at all. Having a cake and eating it was reference to the phase 'You can't have your cake and eat it'. Rujin is going through sending Aji to school, expending a cost of time with Aji. The thought that the phrase is based on is---....well, I accidently forgot to remove the comment, actually: it refers to Ruin saying that she would be a teacher if it's what it took to keep Aji in school.))
((Removing the part of the quote was because later in post it was apparent she wasn't concerned about him going to school so long as he socialized and learned somehow.))

((I've been pretty unsure about this, but I'll go ahead and mention and elaborate it just in case it's not understood: The Silva tower is very incomplete, in the form of the bottom part being finished but the rest right-out not built. The housing for Aji and Crayis is very close to the entrance vertically and horizontally, although coincidently since the Silva's incomplete that's not very far if at all away from the top.))

With a smile, Rujin says "Alright, we can do that..." she almost in fact giggled when Aji gave her that look, but she instead nodded and continued to treat him maturely. "I did promise. Alright, I'll try to be clear about it."

With this, she brings up her left hand over the table, and water seems to spill out of her palm. Aji should be familiar with it, as Rujin's powers over the year seemed to have actually shifted into becoming something water-based. (It's something she herself didn't understand but associated with Lisui's death, but that's another topic)
The water held itself together, and quickly built itself up into a shape of a small model of a city, with even color fillings.
"There's three fundamental lifebloods of a town. People, placement, resources. No matter what, these three make up a town unconditionally. People are what makes a town a town, why it exists, so on. The lifeblood of placement is that a town's buildings and people have to go somewhere. The final part is resources."

Generating the silva tower, incomplete as a model as it was in its current state, Rujin continues "Silva is a type of industry that uses complex magic work to provide materials. We import these materials to the towns that will pay for them. If a city wants metal, we give them metal. If they need wood, we provide wood. So-on and so-on. It's a business, so I accept money in return for service, it's only natural."
"The transfer of silva works in a certain way. In order to import the material, I provide golems as transport. These golems will produce the materials after reaching destination. Only when the bartering is confirmed in the most secure way I can manage will I provide the materials. I understand this form of dealing to be cautious but solid, and I try to deal transfers in minimal amounts at a time: If they fall short on their end I'll stop the transfering and call back my golem, taking minimal losses. If I fall short then they are not going to feel obligated to give me any more money until I finish paying them, and their losses are minimal."
"There's risks. I might be giving them counterfeit materials that will vanish when magic runs out, or they might give me conterfeit money because they don't have enough of money that they want to pay me. Unfortunately I can do nothing for it, and I will try to signal them as many signs of safety as they can reasonably ask for. However, only by understanding risks of conterfeit can a business relation actually grow and prosper."
As she explained this, she made tiny golem models appear and go back and forth between the tower and city.

"I cannot flaunt unlimited magic power. Resultingly, in terms of agreement, the trading routes are dominately the responsibility of those who want the materials. I try not to be unreasonable about this in three ways: The golem is quite capable of fending for itself, and even in trying conditions can manage to successfully deliver. Second, the golem design prevents the materials from being stolen from raid or monster, should it not be able to succeed. Third, the transaction of resources for money occurs immediately upon arrival, nobody can be cheated out of their money or resources from the lack of arrival."
"However, there are still inperfections." Some monsters form into the paths of the golems, and start tackling and attacking them. They defeat the golems more often than not. "There are some types of monsters of exceptional calibur that disrupts the business with exceptional capability. I have engaged in an agreement with the companies I deal with, in that I will pay them discount in exchange for their ability to provide people to defeat the monsters. I forewarn the risks, it is a dangerous situation, but it is ultimately up to them whether they are to engage it."
Mercenaries start coming from the towns and defeating the monsters, helping the golems get through. "I have to raise prices because the strain of having to replace golems and reconstruct the transaction spells lowers my ability to produce supply. If these monsters are defeated then I will not have to worry about this issue."
"Furthermore it is an economic concept alone that a business unintentionally acts conservatively by raising its prices, forcing its consumers to make better use of the resources they generate. As a business myself, I feel I must try to respect this form. However, I find that to pay away my prices in exchange for their services is a form of bartering."

"The so-far success of my Silva business seems to reflect a sense of accuracy of my beliefs. There are more details to all of these aspects, but I've already explained a lot to mention this much alone, and furthermore I covered the whole idea of what Silva does, besides some slight extensions of what I mentioned before: Mostly for the fact that I will see what I can do to assist the monster hunters."

Aji, out of respect for his mother, at least attempted to try and pretend to be interested in all of that stuff that she just mentioned. The thing was, attempting to and actually being or looking so were very different things, and Aji's eyes quickly glossed over as he started to daydream about other more fun, shiny things... like magic golem fights! Actually that part did interest him, you know? Magic stuff always tended to.

Anyhow, though when she stopped, he finally snapped back to reality and shook his head, "No, mother. I mean I appreciate what you meant and telling me and stuff, but... mother, they call you 'witch slaver..." Aji's obviously worried gaze said it all. He didn't believe them, of course, but behind every rumor there is always some sort of grasping truth, no matter how shrouded by that rumor... and the truth was what he wanted now.

Rujin gives a sigh. They certainly make trouble for her... (Especially, of all people, her consumers, which she thought was just plain wrong. After all, they were the ones that helped carry the slang along)

"My business started specificly with anti-magic cultures. They would be the ones who needed resources the most, so they were convenient business targets. Plus it's harder for them to force money out of the golems. So firstly, I dealt with those sorts."
"Furthermore, though, I needed a lot of mana. When I was building this place, you notice I was casting very many spells, right? Normally someone would run out of mana after casting so much. However, I knew this was coming. The deals I made with them were to trade me the witches they've imprisoned for execution. With these witches I've made a deal again: I had just bought them but I was willing to give them back their freedom as long as they would give me their current reserves of mana. It would regenerate for them, so they lose nothing for freedom, and I furthermore would have the mana I needed."
"So, from these deals, I had mana to build this place, they had their materials, and the witches were free to live their lives. I eventually lost contact so it's not something so easy to prove that I did. Because I couldn't say what I've done for the witches, I had to let them call me the witch slaver---a title of pride to them, as someone who forces witches to do her bidding by forcing them to do spells for her. Besides, even if I could prove to them it, I wouldn't. Letting them know I left off good relations with people they hate so harshly would mean that I spit on them and their beliefs practically. It would be very bad for business relations, and furthermore, as much as I think that spellcasters should be free I'm no goddess that determines right and wrong, as sad as it is."

Aji, then, probably said something totally unexpected, "Why not keep doing it?"

He shifted more forward in the chair and was smiling again, "You were helping people. Nuttin wrong with that. I mean, like, if the witches were unjustly captured. A lot of people in those non-magic town places imprison magic users just for being magic users. They don't think they need another reason..." that actually brought a frown to Aji's young face, "That's bad mother. It's bad to judge a person for face value."

It was his standard beliefs on that end. Rujin probably remembered all too well the state she'd found Aji in, and certainly, Aji hadn't forgotten it either. That was back when he was -just- a dragon-blood. Although he didn't exactly have magic ability at the time, it had the same effect on people: running with torches and pitchforks behind himself.

"Well... I guess then we need money for stuff too. I just don't feel right leaving people to their unjust punishment... it needs to be just in order to be right."

Aji hopped down from the chair and walked over to Rujin, then, quite rapidly, hugged/snuggled against her, "Thanks mother, for telling me. I didn't believe them, not even for a second, but I wanted to hear it from your own words."

He finally released her and smiled with those shining, green eyes of his, swishing his tail back and fourth lightly, "So what we gunna do first then?"

Rujin debated the thoughts in her mind about it. This definately wasn't the first time that kind of question came up: She was practically harassed by the customers at first to barter between the witches and her materials. Rujin even had to walk down the halls of prisons to see the miserable prisoners...
But she was fixated on accomplishing her business-based domination plans so much, that she simply didn't care. It took not caring, after all, to have done everything she had done in life. Curling her tail, she thought about it while Aji talked to her.
She had to deal with that, but she didn't have to deal with making sure that Aji wouldn't be getting wrapped up in her business. Hit on the fragile point, she decided she pretty much had to, but also calculated maliciously that she probably could shift them into acting as a labor force for those towns so that her customers would feel the pressure that they could do nothing about: she could stop dealing with them whenever and not lose anything, but they would lose out if they didn't deal with her anymore. She understood this dominance when she was hiring men to take care of monsters.

Watching as her child hugged her, she replies almost off-handedly "I'll see what I can do for the witches and other spellcasters." before answering directly to what he spoken last: "Well, first of all, did you go to classes today? Because if not then we should start with teaching!" It was a sort of half-serious half-joking tone.

Aji couldn't exactly blush, at least by human standards, but the look in his eyes did reveal a bit of shame and embarrassment as his tail swishing slowed at the mention of him going to class, "W-Well... no, I didn't go to class today. I was more worried about this stuff," he obviously hadn't caught on to any joke. He did, though walk up to her and grasp on to her arm, "But I do wanna learn stuff today! I mean, like, maybe I could even show you what I learned, and we could go from there, uh huh? Yeah! And, and, like, then we can start talking about what to do for the other spellcasters, and, and, and we can like, figure out the next way to help my spells and stuff! Maybe one would even be willing to help me out more, too!" Aji was obviously going off in his dream-filled world, somewhere.

Rujin sighs lightly, and says "So I figured..." in response to what he first said, then smiles and lightens up, listening to him as he went on. Much more calmly, she says "Sure thing, helping the spellcasters is going to need some thinking through, though, since I'm going to be out of the blue wanting them again. I think I might be able to do simply more than releasing them, too, something that can help everyone hopefully. After all, just letting them go is very disorienting to them: at least with you, you had me to stay with and that helped you get used to things. Go ahead and show me what you learned."

(This is going off of the assumption that they at least have a couple floors of the tower completed )

He couldn't help but be a bit cut off by her abrupt transitioning from one statement to another, but she was always like that, so what was the difference? So, anyhow, he started to actually get in a better position to do so... but stopped and lowered his hands and looked around to a nearby window. Prime opportunity! He walked over (more like bounced with excitement) and opened it, and just as abruptly (I guess that trait was rubbing off on him), he jumped out the window!

Except, like she probably might have expected, he didn't fall. He turned around, beaming with glee as his wings were keeping him aloft, "C'mon! Let's go outside. Don't wanna risk hurtin anything inside."

With that, he let himself glide down to the ground (also because even with that short burst, he was feeling the pull of gravity more and more). Upon waiting on the ground, he ran over to the door and crouched down to hide... and when mother came out, he did a tackle hug!

((Am I really that bad about it? >.<; *thinks about who she's asking that* ... ... ...I'm asking for a second person's opinion, that is. >.>; ))
((Hm x.x; I noticed that a lot of this was internal reflection, so I tried to push for more content...but couldn't think of any content to add D: ))

Rujin felt herself tense up the moment he looked at the window, thinking a 'oh no he isn't!', and walks towards him, as if someone trying to cautiously approach another person attempting suicide by bridge...well, he jumped anyway, and Rujin winced, before less cautiously just going to the end of the window. Seeing Aji on her way, she smiled
When the woman reaches the window, she says "That's pretty good!" in full honesty, before replying to his suggestion "Good idea. I'll go ahead get out then." and leaving.

Rujin simply had trouble with the concept, even though Kasa did start some lessons for him: Aji wasn't fully grown, so with the rest of his body, his wings weren't entirely developed, and then he can get pretty energetic, and she always felt most of all that his judgement on priorities to not get distracted by things, like the fact that he can actually fly, was just barely working out on his behalf.
It's not that she didn't know that Aji could do it. He can do little spells, he shown he can fly, he knows how to hunt, (at least somewhat from before they settled down) and none of the three could be done without calm, focus, and patiance. (well, at least patiance to learn, considering how much patience flying doesn't need directly.)

In the end, as always, it got filed under a mother worry. Rujin wondered about other species, she didn't remember one in particular ever getting concerned, or even teaching from themselves, for their children to fly. Then again, she was thinking about a species that could get mangled and then would be fine if you give them a few hours.
...Then she found herself tackle-hugged. "Ack!' She looks to Aji as she tried to get back to the real world, and laughs some, saying "I didn't even see you coming!"
The makirak tries to get up, trying not to get the disturb her adopted child's grip on her.

Aji did some more snuggling and a giggle too, "Heehee, course you didn't, that was the point!"

After that, though, he finally let her up, and next he began to immediately start showing her what he'd been learning. For the most part, lots of it was fairly difficult to demonstrate without an injured person around, but he tried several levels of healing spells... and the truth was, he was -amazingly- proficient at it. If Crayis had even a tiny knowledge of greater healing arts, she'd recognize immediately that Aji's potential in that area went way beyond standard. Needless to say, he'd been working hard at something he felt so passionately about, and he made no attempts to hide it.

After that, he went into what might have been considered utility spells. For the most part, he could use a few elemental spells, and he had decent ability with non-attack kinds, like sound-forming and stuff. No spells, though, were on any advanced level. What he excelled at with obvious reason was his lightning spells. So far, Aji had perfected the ability to shoot fourth an orb of lightning, though he also noted he didn't really like that as much. It hurt people, after all. He had, however, a solution to that.

Aji also gave Crayis a demonstration. Quite randomly, he used a nearby animal (regret on his face for having to do so), he hit another nearby creature with that same lightning orb. It's energy, though, was a bit off. If Crayis went up to it (Aji did anyhow), she'd notice something odd: the animal was still breathing, and looked unharmed in any way.

Aji was quick, then, to use a healing spell, and the animal got up and ran away. Aji turned to regard his mother happily with a swishing tail, "I figured, since I don't actually like to hurt people, why not take that quality away? I worked with a guy, and he showed me how to use spells only to render unconscious versus kill."

When Aji gets off, Rujin decides only to sit up, watching Aji with a smile. When Aji started showing her, she could understand he was using powerful magic...But she wasn't specifically sure what kind of level he was on. The problem lied within that Rujin had taught Aji a completely different style than her own, so it was really rather hard to determine how correct it was or advanced. She only dabbled a little into it: For most-part, when she figured out different casting styles, it was only enough to get the jist of when someone's using it, not for actual usage.
Regardless, she meritted his demonstrations as he went along with small praises, to help encourage him.

When Aji shot the orb at the creature, she was rather shocked, and wasn't quite sure what to think...but then caught that the creature was unhurt. Curiously tilting her head, she approached it with Aji, and then listened to what Aji said. "Handy. Really, there's a whole variety of spells that deal with disabling targets harmlessly." She gives it some thought, and adds "You're looking very promising with healing magic, too. But...there's one key point you need to be able to do to be able to progress as a healer. When you're healing with people, it's not all about how strong you can heal them, but also, you have to bear the experience of them being hurt in the first place..."
Granted, Aji did have to bear seeing her fight, but she felt it was different for him to experience the actions, and for him to really let the results soak in before his eyes, and feel that he needed to use his skills optimally or else the person would die. ...And there's also that she felt there were two key points, not one: Also that he needed to understand when failure occurs, but she didn't want to crush her own child psychologically. Having Aji understand that much felt like it was vicious.

Rujin's attention perks up to seemingly nothing. "If you really want to try it, I can show you a few people to help right now. But don't worry about them too hard: I'll help them if you don't feel you're up to it...and it's a nasty thing to see at your age."

Aji, all said and done, actually felt pretty tired by the end of it, and despite all attempts, he looked it too. He still had a bit of energy left, but he didn't wanna press his luck too much today. He would have said no in the first place to Rujin's request there, but he could not help but be intrigued, if not worried, at what she said, "Erm.... show me a few people right now? Are you suggesting we go out of our way to hurt others? That's kinda mean, mother..." suddenly his tail perked up, and all showings of being tired disappeared, "or are people hurting? Where? I can help them!"

Rujin broke out the wonderful power of the...! Face-palm. "...People are hurting, not needing to be hurt. I would never ask that." mostly because she'd want to do it herself if that was the goal, but that was beside the point. "You were really tired just now, though, are you sure you're up for this?" She had the idea of his response in mind, though.

In the while, a section of the outer wall of the building, from the opposite side, opens up, and several golems come out of an unlit hallway. They separate from eachother for short distances, then after a pause, start producing spells, generating metal poles to form square-edge shapes, then curtains to drape over the shapes to form temporary rooms. They start generating beds, but they never bother with a ceiling.
Once done making the basics, the golems go back into the hallways, and then come back out, and lay several humans and humanoids onto the tables. They were all mercenaries, of several different forms, spellcasters, fighters, archers, so on with nothing in particular being static, even in terms of if they were very skilled or not. They were all unconcience, though.
They were organized from the most outward 'rooms' being barely injured people, to the most inward being people who barely clung to life, or begged the question of how they were still alive. The golems then return to the unlit hallway, and the wall closes up behind them, leaving no sign at all that it was ever opened in the first place.

(Assuming Rujin heard a yes.)
Rujin tossed the thought around in her head, worried, but partially buying time for the golems too. "Alright. But don't push yourself too hard, alright? Should we get you something to help your magic recover some? I probably have a potion or two laying around for that..."

"People need me help. Do you need to ask?" was the response to Rujin (happy, not snide) when she asked her question.

So Aji watched all of that stuff happening curiously. He gave several "ooo"s and "Ahhhh"s and "Cool!'s when he saw the golems come out and everything unfolded and stuff. For a good time, it seemed like Aji's face would only grow brighter and brighter at the display of magic in front of him.

That was, of course, until he saw the several people there. Aji's face looked like his heart had just been torn from his chest, stomped on, and cut in half... and then for good measure someone had slapped him across the face. Yeah, it hurt him to see that. It hurt a lot... and Aji wasted no time running into the middle of them.

And yet, there were so many. Aji had already used a decent amount of power to do his demonstrations, and he silently cursed himself for trying to show off in front of mother. He could not help but question how, or why, she had all of these people, but at that point it didn't matter. There was no way, no way at all he could hel-

"What is really wanted can be drawn out, young one; it is costly, but it is there. I tell you use this when you must help in a large manner, but beware, for it is strong, and your young body may react harshly..."

Words of the past had come back to him. He might have said haunt, but Aji was hardly hesitating to considering negative repercussions. He knew what he had to do. He hoped, truly hoped, that he could pull it off.

Aji brought his claws together slowly, his frantic breathing slowing to a steady, rhythmic pace. The swish of his tail slowed to match the pace as he bent his wings inward. This went on for about a minute, with seemingly no effect, but Aji stayed there and kept trying. Perhaps because to a lesser eye, one unfamiliar with healing arts, or magics in general, might not have noted the 'feel' around Aji. There was only one word to describe it: hopeful.

It started with one small light tip of his tail, flickering on, then off. Then two, parts of his wings. Steadily, what could only be described as an aura of slow-flowing, blue fire enveloped Aji. It pulsated once, and the flow sped up slightly, and did the same. Steadily, it did it about five more times, until the flow was -much- more like what you'd expect from a fire.

And, all at once, Aji's arms, tail, and wings shot out, while he opened his eyes and exhaled sharply. An explosion, or at least if one could happen without any force, was all that could describe the fire's flow from Aji's body, and subsequently it flew into each and every one of the people surrounding Aji, a bright light enveloping them. Then, in a rapid display of power, their wounds all sealed.

Just as quickly as it had happened, all of the lights swiftly vanished, leaving a panting Ajipreah in the center of it. He turned around and gazed to Crayis, that excited look in his eye, all too happy to have helped people, and he started back towards his mother.

Started, at least. Past his first step, lines began to open up in between his scaled skin, and green blood started to flow from them. More and more of these appeared on him. Not even halfway to Crayis, Aji collapsed in a quick-growing pool of his own blood.

(^^; this is something that he'll sorta be unconscious for a couple days because of. Feel free to transition it if you wish, or keep it going otherwise).

While Aji was absorbing the joy of the display, Rujin was planning out how she was thinking of going. The least injured could get healed by Aji, and progressively until he couldn't do anymore. Naturally she had no intention of letting Aji do all the work and just stand by, she just wanted to wait until she had his limits figured out to step in.

For this, Rujin cringed at the fact that Aji disorganizingly rushed to the middle of them and overwhelmed himself. She marked one failure in the back of her mind on that alone.
When he seemed to focus on something, Rujin started to focus too, redeciding how she's going to clean up for how Aji was (as it looked) about to deplete himself on frantic casting.
However, when the flames started to emerge, Rujin called off her own casting, and watched curiously. As the show went on, the look shifted from curiosity to amazement.

When Rujin saw Aji's reaction, she smiled back, pretty proud of him...Up until she noticed that he was starting to bleed. She immediately got worried, and immediately directed her attention to her spells, working on healing magic for the new purpose. The makirak quickly rushes to her son, and produces white glowing energy, before coming down next to him and placing her hands on his body.
Rujin continues focus, even as the healing spell released to recover Aji's entire body in an equally spread effort. The continued focus fed additional fresh energy to the spell, which she only stopped for when it was enough, or if it seemed ineffective.

Rujin growls and then sighs. She wasn't sure if Aji was the bigger fool for going all-out disperately, (partly since Rujin was around to help, partly because she was going to make sure they wouldn't die while he's trying to work on the other ones) or if she was for not hiding them properly to prevent Aji from triggering the panic reaction.

((Actually, the day mentioned is supposed to be pretty significant X.x; So I've been more/less been also waiting to see when Evon was going to be ready to post.))

(Eh?)

The sun beat down on both men as they stood face to face in a wide open field, just behind a two story farm cottage. The breeze gave them little relief as the sweat dripped from both of their topless torsos, exposing well worked muscle as each held a sword. The first, Taller and older, smirked a little. He seemed confident over his opponent, pushing off the ground and kicking up some dry grass as he raced towards his opponent with deadly speed, bringing his blade down in a graceful swing. The younger man brought his blade to parry. The steel crossed for only a second before it slid across, the younger man ducking under and pushing forward to his opponents chest. The teens hand thruster flat palmed into the adult's, whom stumbled back, a black singe mark where the younger mans hand had been. The man lowered his sword, looking to his younger counterpart.

A soft smile before he spoke" So you have been practicing magic again. You're getting really good Glen". Glen lowered his sword and bowed, before stepping forward. His demeanor changed a little, as if trying to use the compliment to push his topic. " Thanks Tom. I've been working really really hard on fire magic..and..My swordsmanship is getting keen too. I was wondering if I could-" Before Glen could finished, it was clean Tom could see where this conversation was going. They had been debating the topic for a while, and it seemed to still bother Tom. " Glen" He spoke, setting his hand on the lads suntanned shoulder. " You are getting good, but the people at that tournament are more skilled then you, and maybe even myself. I don't need you getting yourself killed over some prize money." Tom turned from Glen, sheathing his sword. " Finish your chores. The horses need more hay" Tom left glen in the field as he walked back towards the Cottage.

Glen sighed, sheathing his sword as well as he lifted a bale of hay over his shoulder, moving towards the barn. He was grateful, indebted for life, to Tom for helping him recover his farm. Furthermore, Tom had become more so Glen's tutor and a Father like figure. He reached the barn, throwing the hay into the stall's corner, watching his favorite black stallion back up from the startling appearance." I'm sorry, Kale" The horse seemed to forgive him, walking up to the stall door and nuzzling Glens hand as he stroked down from his head to his soft wet nose.

He sighed, continuing to stroke the horses head. " I just want so much to go to this tournament. It's not even that far. Its like a days or so's ride from here. Nice place, no more anitimagic bullcrap. The prize is so much too. 20,000 gold" He leaned his head against the horse's, whom tolerated it for the moment, but seemed to be more interested in the hay, and it nudged from Glens grasp


Tom stood at the sink, staring out the window at the barn where Glen was caring for the horses. He wasnt sure what to do with that kid anymore. He was getting restless, and who could blame him. They lived out in the middle of no where, making trades once a month with the neighboring towns for more grain and the necessities. Tom was feeling more and more like Glens father, but he knew he could never really fill those shoes. Who was he to hold Glen back?Tom turned from the window to take a seat at the table, looking over the flier Glen had brought home from trade the last month, highlighting the tournament.

(Meh, ima let Rujin's healing be conviently good enough. )

"What were you trying to prove?"

Aji stood before the dragon. That same silver beacon of light that had been visiting him more and more. Aji was never sure what to think of him. He seemed nice enough, at least, and Aji was fairly certain that these visits were more than mere dreams, even if they only did happen when he lapsed into a dream. Yet, at the same time, he still had not told a single person about them.

"I'm not sure," Aji said at length, "I guess... I guess I panicked there at the end, seeing so many helpless at once. Admittedly, that was the first time I ever faced something like that."

Aji hung his head low in failure, but heard the voice continue, "Nothing wrong with that, young one. You must remember that you are still that: young, and while you have considerable talent, you yet lack experience."

Aji looked back up at the great silver creature, his gaze befuddled. Aji was not sure whether to take that statement as a compliment or an insult.

"Had you seen all of those hurt people and become stoic, then you would not be worthy of that power you wield. At the same time, though, you must learn to control that panic."

Aji slowly nodded, "Soooooo... what do I do?"

"Continue on. Have heart in yourself and your mother, young dragonblood. With time, you will find that question to answer itself..."

Aji's eyes snapped open and looked all around. He still ached enormously, and felt like he could barely move. Hell, he may as well have jumped out of the tower without his wings. Still, the sight of Rujin made him visibly relax and smile, and he asked the obvious question:

"Are they okay?"

For that awakening, Rujin was able to relax and distract herself from how miserably the healing messed up. Worst of all she hadn't figured out Aji's kind of potential for real operating, since he used a panic 'cheat' that didn't seem at all reliable.

When Aji asks about them being okay, Rujin tilts her head, then nods. "You healed all of them with that. I thought you were coming back to me for that. I didn't know dragons had that sort of a healing breath..." she then looks over to the people. It didn't matter what level of power the healing had, they were still unconcience thanks to an accident.

Looking a bit nervous, Rujin reflects on it. Before they were carried out, they all had spells casted on them. She had to use a life sustaining spell for keeping some of the worst victims from dying...
This life sustaining spell, however, was derrived from a particularly nasty stun spell. (so if they woke up they wouldn't disrupt Aji) Their bodies were ok, but they were absolutely crippled to the curse of the stun 'side effect'. (it was the sustaining that was technically the side effect, though)
"Surely they'l be fine now, but Aji, it would only be formal to double check on them. Did anyone teach you that part, yet?" She knew she hadn't. She was always busy giving him basic knowledge, spell lessons, and survival teachings, when she hadn't sent him to school.

"Ah, that's good," Aji was obviously happy for having healed them, if still a bit groggy. That was pretty obvious from the fact as he tried to stand up. He was actually successful for a couple seconds, but the ground decided to give him a kiss, and so it did. Groaning from obvious dizziness and pain, Aji again attempted to focus in on Rujin's words. Hearing the semi-scolding, his tail sorta drooped, "Well... no, no they didn't. In fact the school you sent me to was mostly made for attack spells. I was an okay student, but not the best. I mean, I don't like hurting people..." he trailed off and let that obvious point hang in the air as he tried to stand again, this time using Rujin as a brace. That, and he simply went to hug her, "Sorry, I didn't wanna worry you, but that was the first time I'd ever seen that stuff... it was a lil scary. I didn't know wat to do."

Rujin blinks a few times, and shifts discomfortedly in clear worry about him falling over after standing up. That wasn't exactly the healthiest signs. She listened to him, and let him hug, hugging back as he spoke some more. "Well...To be honest, I was going to attempt to reveal them a little more easier on you in the order from easiest to hardest ones to take care of, to get you to gradually adjust to what you had to take care of smoothly...I kind of botched on my part." she smiles nervously, and says "As for healing spells, you don't seem to have that much energy, and I don't want you to faint. I'll go do it and instruct you based on it."
...and so, she did just that, pretty much, without giving much of a choice because of her concern. She started going over spells of his casting style as she actually did it. (Details omitted because I don't really have confirmed if the spells even necessarily exist. XD )
"We'll start with checking if they're even alive. Everything living or undead have streams of energy running through it between its actual body and its core form of 'self'. In other words, Lifeforce. Unfortunately, golems and such are harder to sense because they go by something a little different. Using this spell, you sense if that's even there, because that'll flatout identify if the person's still alive." *cast* "This spell identifies specific targets to accurately decipher if it's present, unfortunately it's low grade: if the lifeforce is hidden it won't sense it, nor will it sense if it's weak or strong."
She skims her vision along the variety of people, and fakes a small thinking pose, before looking to Aji "As you can see, this is a lot of people. I'll teach you a field version of the spell, if you're still following." *cast*
"Of course, we already knew it, but yup, they're alive."

"The next thing is that we need to find out just how strong the lifeforce is. A good method of doing so is to make a spell that will sense the overall nature of the lifeforce. The wholeness of the energy can get detailed if you use strong enough spells, but what we can achieve, is that by scanning along the ends of the lifeforce, we can get a rough jist of how much of the lifeforce is properly active, against how much of the lifeforce there overall should be, including lifeforce ends that just are inactive and broken: Basically a current out of maximum." *cast* "This spell works just on one person at a time, once again. Now, there's a way to make a group-wide variation, but the thing is that it's important to get an accurate understanding. Spreading it over a field can make the details 'blur' and difficult to accurately determine, and furthermore if you don't perform the spell's aiming properly, you can end up capturing the general field including plants that are well, trampled, or even damaged, as well as the people you're trying to concern yourself with, and additionally sense the area itself as part of who you're trying to check the condition, making everyone seem very unhealthy when they're not."

"Anyway, these are all pretty basic level spells, but they're pretty good fundamentals to work with. I don't want to give you too much to think about, since you're just waking up...This is a lot to take in, I think I already tried to teach too much at once..."
"But...did you understand me the whole way?"

((Edit: added content because the post felt very cut-off))

The best way to sum up what Aji was thinking was "Nnnnnnnnng-durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...." and then after her big showy display, when she asked "did you understand me the whole way," Aji blushed and scratched the back of his head while saying, "You had me up until "We'll start with." He peeked his gaze back up at her, and then down, "Specific ways of casting that are new to me... I always just went with what felt right, since no one else really knew how to do that stuff much..."

He sat down anyway, and intently stared, "I think I get it, though. You can check a person's power and if they're still alive with magic, yeah.... but... well... " Aji offered a sheepish grin, "Wouldn't it be easier to look for a pulse? I mean knowing how strong they are really should only matter if you're fighting them, right? I don't really plan on fighting... at least I don't wanna. Or... even then, if you meant gauging a person's current health... couldn't that, too, be done by simple mundane means?"

He suddenly realized he might've been insulting Rujin, and he held up his hands in appology, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you. It's just... um... Ah.... yeah," he again smiled sheepishly, scratched the back of his head, and looked at the ground.