OR: "Does RhyDin Need a More Powerful Klutz?"

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She stood in front of the Clinic, fingers twirling and turning the little rectangle of paper. Over and over. A nervous ruffle of her hair.

She said this is where she would be....

She'd never been in a clinic. A wrinkle of her nose, a reminder that there were sick people in that building. Over and over the businesscard twirled. She could always turn around and go back to the Inn, save this for another day. She shifted from foot to foot. The elfess had treated her nicely, even gave her a Look - though she didn't completely understand it - but she still frightened the halfbreed a little. Maybe it was those steel-colored eyes.

Still, it would be rude to refuse Sivanna's offer. And Ahni was anything but inconsiderate.

She sighed softly and started off toward the door to Riverview Clinic, one hand clutching Sivanna's card as if it could protect her. Bare feet whispered softly against the floor. Maybe she should have worn shoes. She paused and began to turn back, hoping that perhaps no one had noticed her, perhaps she could slip away.

Too late - the receptionist already spotted her. Eye contact made the Nervous Nelly continue her trek toward the front desk. Her preferred form of greeting, a nod and a faint smile, was given to the receptionist.

"'Qu..." Jitters caused her voice to break. She cleared her throat and began again. "'Quel re, my name is Ahni Valyntine...I would like to see Sivanna Cyredghymn, if you don't mind..." Another ruffle of coppery hair, a caress of the slowly-healing slash that marred the right side of her face. "Sh-she works here, right?"

The sudden voice behind her made her jump and whirl around on one bare heel. A blush crossed her cheeks when she realized who had spoken. "Oh! Miss Sivanna...'Quel re, arwenamin." She bowed her head respectfully. The Elvish words rolled off her tongue just as they should have, showing that she really was getting the hang of it. Practice makes perfect, they say.

She blinked for a moment at Sivanna's outstretched hand before the lightbulb went off. The hand holding the businesscard ducked into her pocket to deposit the rectangle of paper, then withdrew to shake the cleric's hand. "I got lost on the way, but a kind person in the Marketplace pointed me in the right direction." A blush. A sense of direction was not one of the half-elf's finer attributes. She gazed at the mountain of papers somehow contained by Sivanna's one arm, opened her mouth to offer her help, but shut it when the elfess asked to continue the conversation in her office. "O-of course..."

Gently pointed in the right direction by Sivanna, she paused for a moment to allow the elfess to lead the way. She followed soon after, bare feet padding in time with the clicking of Sivanna's heels. She looked around in wonder at the hospital, emerald eyes sparkling. It wasn't as bad as she originally thought.

In Sivanna's office, she stood at the door for a moment and debated whether or not to sit down. A small jump at the thud of the paperwork on the desk - that seemed to startle her out of her daze. She moved to a chair and sat lightly on the edge, emeralds on the elfess. Her trusty satchel came off of her shoulder, set on the ground beside her feet. Ribbons of sunlight warmed the scarred half of her face, and a small smile was given to Sivanna.

She looked thoughtful at the question of magic, emeralds moving from the elfess and resting on the ceiling. "I've only learned how to manipulate fire so far...I learned from a spellbook I've had for as long as I can remember." With that, she lifted her bag and began to rifle through it, digging through the multitude of chocolate and sweets, and finally brought out an old and battered leather-bound book. One half of it seemed to be a little charred, as if it had caught the business end of a fireball. "It's been through a lot, but it's very helpful. I'm currently trying to learn to control water and ice, but it's not going as well. I haven't read into earth and wind spells yet...one step at a time, I think." A small blush, and she looked down at her feet."As for healing...the only way I know how to heal is to take the wound away, but..." At this, her fingers found the frayed hem of her tunic and twisted. Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "...I'm not allowed to."

She sat in silence and worried about being a Chatty Cathy. Her fingers twisted and turned the hem of her tunic.

She sat with the spellbook in her lap, fingers worrying the hem of her tunic until the elfess asked for her book. "Oh....of course..." She held the book out for her to grab, then watched Sivanna examine it with gray-flecked emerald eyes. No need to be worried, she thought.

She perked at the mention of blending magicks. "Y...you can do that' Blend magicks, I mean?" She tried to hide her excitement, especially when Sivanna said it could cause a catastrophe, but unfortunately didn't do a very good job. Doesn't Nature blend magicks" She shook her head slightly to clear it and refocused her attention on the elfess, just in time to hear her repeat the half-elf's words.

She sighed softly. "My f—-" She blushed and fidgeted with the black ring on her left finger. "A'maelamin. He doesn't want me to heal, because it ultimately hurts me. Even though I think I heal faster than he does..." She tilted her head a little, worried that it didn't make sense. She lifted her hands from her lap to gesture while she explained. "See, if you cut your hand...I could take the wound from you...but then my hand would be cut. I'd like to learn how to heal without hurting myself, but I can't seem to find any books that show how it's done."

Her eyes sparkled when she remembered something she'd wanted to ask the elfess. "That creature you summoned in the Rings...the dragon...How did you do it' C-could I....?" She bit her lip, fingers again found her tunic's hem. She cleared her throat and ruffled her coppery hair with her free hand.

"I...I'm sorry, you wanted to know what I can do, not what I want to do...." An odd whistling sound floated up from her belt. "Oh, almost forgot!" She opened a small pouch on her belt and pulled out a small white flower in a tiny glass jar. It made a stretching motion, then turned toward Sivanna and...bowed" Yes, if flowers could bow, that's what it would look like. She offered the jar to Sivanna, if she wanted to inspect the flower, that is. "I grew this for a'maelamin when we first met. I gave it the tiniest amount of my life, and as long as I want it to live, it will. I...thought you'd like to see it..."

She watched Sivanna flip through her spellbook with eyes that paled to a moss green, curious as to what the elfess thought of it. The poor half-burnt tome only really covered the basics of elemental/Wilde magick; according to that book, the rest was up to the imagination of the caster. She had learned to speak with fire and thus could control it - if only the spirits of the other elements were as receptive....

As Sivanna explained the dangers of blending magicks, she nodded. That information was stored tightly in her memory bank. Perhaps she would try it one day, of course heeding Sivanna's words. She had no idea what Abysmal magick was, anyway - dark magick, possibly' When her book was held out for her, she placed it in her lap, fingers of one hand curling around it almost lovingly.

On the topic of Bahamut, the half-elf's eyes widened, and she was quick to shake her head. "O-oh no, no disrespect at all. He —-" As she spoke, she tilted her head slightly, as if silently asking if Bahamut was indeed a 'he.' "—- looked quite...fearsome." The last word came out as almost a whisper, and her eyes flickered gray for a second or two before returning to pale green. She was absolutely certain that Sivanna was right, Bahamut would probably not listen to her at this point, though never was more likely. "I'm not sure that I'd like to summon something as frightening as that," she muttered. At the mention of 'Elemental,' she perked slightly. "Elemental...as in fire" That...seems to be the only element that listens to me...right now, at least." She didn't know exactly what kind of creature would answer the call of Fire, or Light for that matter, but it intrigued her.

Sivanna's offer of training bounced around in her mind as she watched the cleric inspect the jar, and a blush crossed her cheeks at the impressed smile. Ahni was not one to brag, but that little flower happened to be the most amazing thing to come from the half-elf's fingertips. She'd grown plenty of plants in the normal, mundane way, and that flower was anything but mundane.

The Elvish that slipped from the lips of the elfess seemed unfamiliar to the half-elf, so she took a few moments to internally translate it. Connection. She smiled brightly to Sivanna. "It's been living for...a few months, I'd say. It doesn't need water or sunlight, like other plants, just the thought that I want it to continue living. I...did say I'd given it a tiny bit of my life, right?" A hand moved to the back of her head to ruffle her short hair. "I didn't tell a'maelamin that, but it's true. It won't shorten my life much because it's a plant and so small. And because it has a bit of my life, it responds to my emotions...some of them, at least."

She watched Sivanna closely to gauge her reaction. "It whistled both to remind me to show you, and because it thinks it would like you. In its mind, you're not a threat to my life. It hums when it's around a'maelamin, because it knows I love him. When I'm frightened or sad, it whines. It likes to think that it can sleep, and so it will lean over in its jar at night to mimic sleeping." The half-elf sighed softly, fingers still twirling her poor frayed hem. She bit her lip, again worried about being a Chatty Cathy. It sounds crazy, I know, she thought, moss on quicksilver.

"A-anyway, I would like that very much - the training, I mean. And....a Rune, if it's not too much to ask. You said it could be...a necklace, or a tattoo, or anything of that sort' How...." She paused to ruffle her hair, a thoughtful look on her face. "How could a tattoo be a Rune?" Not that she wanted one - she'd heard that they hurt - but she could be extremely curious at times. One might say that Curiosity was Ahni Valyntine's middle name. Unfortunately, no one had ever told her what happened to the cat.