trans_9 | On your broomsticks! [OPEN]

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On your broomsticks! [OPEN]

Following the instructions given to him by crew members here and there, Cedric stepped through a green archway tucked on a corner of the fifth floor and entered a grey void. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the sort of place that would be perfect for a day of flying. He imagined a bright grassy plain, a large lake, and a forest off to the side. Vague memories turned into vivid images surrounding him, so thoroughly convincing that he really believed he'd been taken from the ship and placed on a field back on Earth. It was quite a convincing illusion
.
All it needed now was the key piece: a group of brooms. He thought for a moment on which brooms to provide them with. Firebolts were the world standard, but he'd never known one well enough to be able to picture it accurately. The school brooms, Shooting Stars, were nice and safe for new riders but not quite reliable. In the end, he knew his own broom best: a sleek Nimbus 2001, gifted by his father. As long as he instructed the fliers to go slowly, they should be safe on those brooms.

Visitors would find Cedric side-mounted on a broom in his black and yellow Quidditch robes, gliding just slightly over the grass. As soon as he spotted them, he'd greet them enthusiastically and move to touch down. "Hi!"

((ooc: wide open for everyone to join in! We'll be doing some group exercises too, so thread around! Fly as a group when you're ready!))

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"I would say that I was confident in your enchanting abilities, but seeing as these brooms are not real that wouldn't be particularly relevant," Daja said, wearing an amused smile.

"And does everyone learn this, in your world?" she asked, as she started to experiment a little, leaning up to try and rise higher.

"I don't enchant my own brooms. We buy them. I've had to trust, and it hasn't steered me wrong yet." Cedric was glad for that. He wasn't sure what they would do if a broom sold went rogue.

He nodded. "Everyone takes lessons in their first year at Hogwarts, but not everyone likes it. Some people prefer to Apparate or use Floo powder to travel. Both of those methods are faster than flying, but I've always found flying more satisfying."

Realising what her next question would be, he explained the other terms. "Appariton is the ability to instantly teleport yourself from one place to another. Floo powder is thrown into fireplaces to activate a type of magic, and it's possible to instantly travel to any fireplace that's connected to our Floo network."

"I see - then the original craftsman is responsible. If their work is substandard, their reputation would suffer," Daja said, nodding. They might not have much in the way of regulatory boards and the like back home, but as a Trader she knew that a bad reputation could cripple a merchant, or craftsman.

"You travel through fireplaces?!" Daja gaped. "How do you not get burned? Do you need a special, magical fire, or are your kind immune to the effects of the flame?" Daja was herself, but she knew that the ability was by no means common.

"Exactly. A few broom-makers have gone out of business that way," Cedric remembered. He was lucky. He'd always done his research before deciding, and a broom hadn't steered him wrong yet.

As for the fire question? He laughed. "It's both, actually. It's a magical protection cast over a fire with Floo powder. We don't feel anything but a tickling sensation. There's also a spell, the flame-freezing charm, that was used by clever witches when we were being burned by Muggles. One witch allowed herself to be caught and burned over and over again because she liked the tickling so much."

He would never understand that, but different paths for different people.

"Burned by muggles?!" Daja repeated, stopping in her tracks and staring at Cedric with a horrified expression. She wasn't really that familiar with the term 'muggles' - had Ron mentioned that before? - but it was clear that whoever they were, they had been actively attempting to kill witches.

"Yes. They were afraid of our magic. Some wizards deliberately frightened them. We were mutually paranoid, and they defended themselves as best they could."

It had been a painful history. "That's why the world of magic is kept secret from them. We can't risk another war."

"That's awful," Daja said. She wasn't sure what was worse - mages deliberately using their magic to terrorise those who had none, or that those without magic had decided to hunt down those that did.

"My home is very different - there's no separation between mages and non-mages. Magic is a part of everyone's life, and any mage who abused their magic would have to face the law, just like any other criminal." Daja was silent for a moment, thinking of what Emelan would be like if mages and non-mages were divided. "It had never occured to me that things might be any other way," she said, solemn.

"We tried to govern ourselves. We were just too outnumbered, and no amount of cooperation from the other government could help us. It was debated for a while, but we had to hide," he sighed. "So I don't see much of the Muggle world. We follow their fashion at times, but that's all."

Vainly enough. He had to admit that they did have good taste in clothing. "I'm glad we're not in hiding here. It'd be difficult to pretend."

"How do you hide?" Daja said, trying to imagine a world where magic was kept secret. She couldn't really picture it. "Surely it would be very difficult to keep every mage hidden. Where would you all live?"

"It's not easy." Cedric started in. Oh, what a massive headache-inducing thought it was.

"We have our own villages. There's Hogsmeade, a village by my school, and several other settlements. Some of us live among Muggles too. We hide our magic use from them, dress as they do, and hide our magical creatures. We'd use disillusionment charms to make ourselves invisible while riding brooms, for example."

But that couldn't cover everyone. "If they do find out, we have teams skilled in the use of memory charms to erase it from their memories." He looked guilty when mentioning this.

"Don't you worry about people without magic finding your villages?" Daja asked. Some places were hard to find, certainly, but even the most secret of locations could still be stumbled upon...

"You alter people's memories?!" Daja said, horrified. "But that's..." Barbaric, cut she stopped before she could stay that word. This was Cedric's culture - he would not appreciate her criticism.

Cedric shook his head. "We have Muggle-repelling charms for that. They'll either fail to see the buildings in the first place or suddenly feel compelled to leave if they get closed. The smaller buildings are protected in such a way that only people who already know about them can enter."

He winced. Yes, it was horrifying to think about. "Terrible, I know it is," he supplied. "I'd really prefer if we were open and resolved our disputes another way, but the Ministry believes it's the only way we can be safe. They're the ones who train the Obliviators."

"How do the spells know who does and doesn't have magic?" Daja asked, curious despite her. Most magic that she knew worked on everyone, mage and non-mage alike - although mages certainly had a better chance of dispelling it.

Daja was silent for a moment. She travelled through many lands, and one thing she had learned was that rulers were not always the just and compassionate ruler that the Duke was. "Perhaps one day, they will learn of a better way," she said softly. "In the meantime...at least here you do not need to concern yourself with those laws. Certainly this place has many amazing non-magical things - if I were not able to see magic, I would scarcely be able to believe what people can do without it myself."

Steadying her broom, she looked around at the surrounding scenery. "Like this place," she said quietly. "None of it is real, and yet there is no magic."

"Magical people have a sort of energy that can be detected," Cedric started. "I don't have all of the answers, but it's how we're given invitations to go to Hogwarts. They can sense when a magical child is born. And there are traces placed on us to monitor when we use magic. It's illegal for a wizard in training to cast magic away from Hogwarts until they turn seventeen, and we receive warnings if we do."

He was interested in that, of course. Muggles really were clever, weren't they? "I'm amazed by what they've built. But---wait, you see magic? What does that mean, exactly?"

"But it must be extraordinarily difficult to create spells that can react to a lack of magic," Daja said. "And it is illegal for those under seventeen to use magic?! But what if there is an emergency? Or they have not learned to control their power?"

She thought of Tris, and the way that her power could get violently out of control when she was young...Tris would have broken that kind of law a thousand times over, without even meaning to.

"Yes - it looks to me like a sliver of silver light, usually out of the corner of my eye. But if something has a lot of magic, I will see it when I look at it directly. I don't have the skill to see the nature of the magic though. I can only see it's presence."

"The idea's that we're not trusted to control it," he shrugged. "They fear that a younger wizard might lack judgment and reveal themselves to a Muggle. Parents and other adults are supposed to protect them if something happens."

That was quite interesting. He tried to imagine such a thing. "Do you see it all the time, or only when it's actively being invoked?"

"Isn't revealing magic to non-magical people already illegal? It seems rather unnecessary to add in another law," Daja said, thinking that Cedric's world seemed to have very odd laws indeed.

"Magic is magic, regardless of whether it's being invoked," Daja said simply. "But magic that is active is easier to see, yes."

"Daja, we're talking about the Ministry," Cedric laughed. "They're not happy unless they're making extra rules."

That was interesting to him, very interesting. "So I wouldn't have been able to hide even if I'd wanted to, huh? We're using our spells to help. How do you work yours?"

"That sounds extraordinarily unofficial," Daja said, snorting. Then she looked at Cedric, appraising. She remembered Tris's tales about Tharios, and the complicated politics of the Assembly. "Oh dear. You don't have a democracy, do you?" Daja said with slight dismay, her tone indicating that she didn't think much of democracy at all.

"Perhaps you could, but you would need to craft a spell that takes magical detection into account. And it's not a common skill, so for most mages and invisibility spell doesn't have much risk of discovery." She titled her head at Cedric. "How I work my magic, do you mean?"

Cedric shakes his head. "It's mixed, I suppose. We elect the Minster, but the rest of the governing body consists of employed and appointed people. They have considerable power."

As for magic? He was most interested in seeing hers. "Yeah, that's what I meant to ask."

Daja shook her head. "I don't understand how you could ever get anything done when your rulers are a committee," she said.

"I am a smith mage - my magic is rooted in fire, and metal. In my world, we call it Ambient magic, and it is the kind of magic that is rooted in ordinary, natural things. We have less range and flexibility than Academic mages, but our magic tends to be stronger and more focused."

"Neither do I," Cedric had to agree. He leaned forward to listen to her tales, wondering about all of that power.

"Does that mean you can mold them?"

Daja nodded. "Yes, of course. Although while I can use my magic to shape metal, it takes much of my energy. And, work crafted properly in the forge will always be stronger, as will the magics I place upon them. But if you like, I can show you a small demonstration - although it would perhaps be best if we land first."

She could still work her magic up here, of course - but she wasn't that confident with her flying yet. No, being on solid ground would certainly be better.

"Of course. Come on," he smiled, tilting toward the ground and gesturing for her to follow him. He was eager to land and see what was next.

Once he settled on the grass, he turned to make sure she landed safely too. "All right?"

Daja carefully guided her broom to the ground - she didn't want to fall or land too quickly - and soon she was gently (if awkwardly) settling down back on solid ground again. "Yes, I'm fine - thank you," she said.

Leaving the broom, Daja brought out a coiled piece of wire out from one of her pockets. She didn't usually carry around her mage kit, but she did try to always have at least some metal on her. You never know when you might need it, after all.

Using her hands and a hint of magic, she quickly unwound the wire. Then, using her magic she lifted the wire, bending it into the shape of a butterfly. With the little butterfly resting on her palm, she held it out for Cedric to see.

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