mes études

[beheld_beauty]

Belle studies magic.

It's tricky. Getting into and out of her rose-sphere is routine after a few days, but she still hasn't uncovered an explanation of how channeling works, though she's been informed that there are three options for how to do it (by herself, through a willing helper, or through an unwilling helper). Unlike the fourfold options for reaching the Dreamworld, this does not tell her how to begin fumbling towards a practical understanding, even though she can rule out the last one just on the basis of its description.

Beast can only do so a tiny bit of reading per day, and her pile of books that she can read shrinks much faster than his. She combs the library for multilingual dictionaries, so she can pick her way through the titles of the foreign-language books and at least prioritize them before handing them over.

Finally something in an obscure language that even Beast can barely read - Belle has to look up a lot of words - explains the channeling in a way she can understand.

Comments

[beheld_beauty]

"If I were the type to do that I suspect I'd know it by now." She turns a page in her notebook and begins laying out all the steps for permanent truesight. "I have already glanced at you and spoken, so perhaps I'm not so easy to love as you suggest. Or you've lost that particular facility."

[deslandes]

"Not always the first glance or word," he corrects. "Just the right one."

[beheld_beauty]

"What makes it the right one?" (Note, note, note. He did have a very lovely smile, but while that would certainly help, she can't imagine falling quite in love simply by having it turned on her.)

[deslandes]

"It's the right one when I fall in love with it," he says, tautologically.

[beheld_beauty]

"Yes, I mean, did this happen according to any special pattern?"

[deslandes]

He shrugs helplessly.

[beheld_beauty]

"If you don't know, you don't know," she says.

Note note note.

"What's being in love like?"

[deslandes]

"Sad," he says. "But in a good way. And it must be less sad, if the person you love also loves you."

[beheld_beauty]

"- How could something be sad in a good way?"

[deslandes]

He struggles to describe it.

"Even if I never see them again - and I mostly didn't - and even if they're all dead now, which they must be, they lived once and I saw them once and loved them once and it was beautiful while it lasted."

[beheld_beauty]

"- hm."

Notes. Notes.

"Of course, if this works, as well as it needs to, you wouldn't never see me again."

[deslandes]

"Yes," he says. "If this works, it will mean you love me, and that will be very different."

[beheld_beauty]

"And presumably unambiguously a happy occasion."

[deslandes]

He shrugs.

"I don't know that until it happens, do I?"

[beheld_beauty]

"Surely you can make reasonable guesses?"

[deslandes]

He just shrugs again.

[beheld_beauty]

She sighs.

Notes notes notes. "How are your eyes doing?"

[deslandes]

"Fine for now. What do you want me to read?"

[beheld_beauty]

She turns to a page in a book about permanent spells, and hands it over. "If I'm going to do the enchanter's sight thing I need to know more about what I'm walking into."

[deslandes]

He reads.

This section deals with duplication of permanent spells: apparently you're not supposed to do it. Casting a particular spell on a particular object, and then casting the same spell on the same object again - with the same or different parameters, it doesn't seem to matter much - will usually lead to effects you didn't anticipate, and it is always better to either disenchant the subject before the second casting, or find two different spells that you can combine to get the desired result. Even casting two separate permanent spells on a single person or thing can be tricky, but unlike the same spell twice, it isn't a near-guarantee of disaster.

[beheld_beauty]

Bell writes all of this down. "Well," she says, "if the sight spell I have in mind does what I mean for it to do, I'll have plenty of time to learn to safely disenchant myself if I want to switch later. ...If it doesn't... When you said that one book was about fake love potions did you mean the potions don't work, or that they work to generate 'fake love'?"

[deslandes]

"They don't work," he says. "The first part was all about how dangerous real love potions are, and how it's a much better idea to sell fake ones and let people fool themselves."

[beheld_beauty]

"...Real love potions exist, though? They might be more or less dangerous than attempting a disenchantment, so it might be a good option to have in reserve if we run out of time."

[deslandes]

He shrugs. "I haven't seen them in any other book; have you?"

[beheld_beauty]

"No, but we haven't got through all the ones in the other languages yet. Let me know when your eyes are up for more reading," Belle says.