18 Nevrine

Another new mage showed up today. Jeddan and I amuse ourselves by trying to predict which faction the new people will attach themselves to. Most of the factions are just groups of like-minded people, the kind you get in any large group where you’re looking for people who share your interests so you don’t feel lost in the crowd, and therefore aren’t a problem. But there’s still Norsselen’s people, some of whom are causing trouble in Jeddan’s group (I try not to feel too grateful that none of them are in mine), and to my surprise there’s a small contingent who think we’re doing the wrong thing by turning our magic to the service of war. I’m sure if the King hadn’t made this a royal decree, backed up by threat of force, they wouldn’t be here. Relania heads this group, and while none of them resist the lessons they’re receiving, they’re all quick to point out the non-military applications of their pouvrin. (None of them have fire pouvrin. I don’t know if that’s relevant.)

We’ve got a few people in each group who are ready to move on to learning pouvrin. I feel stretched out, I have so many things to do—teach the pouvra vocabulary, teach pouvrin, wrangle Norsselen, suppress Relania’s tendency to give orders in my name, corner Jerussa (the mage who can flit from place to place) to get her to teach me her pouvra. It’s limited to range of sight, which is still impressive, but imagine a bunch of mages who can flit from Venetry to Thalessa in less time than it takes to say “Venetry to Thalessa.” That’s a three and a half week journey! I’m not giving up on that possibility, but I have to learn Jerussa’s pouvra first.