IWUAaDNW: Party 5.6

So they tried. I used an illusion of Maryll herself to show her what moves she should be doing––she only goofed around for the first minute after seeing it––and kept a spider near Cirys to stop him whenever he made a mistake. The spell scroll was a bit odd; at several places over the main spell words were little notes that said things like "With Love" or "With Curiosity" or several other emotions, which Cirys seemed to just gloss over. He'd been left quite flummoxed when I'd pointed out the error to him, and so far hadn't corrected himself.

Maryll wasn’t particularly athletic, and she tripped on her own feet more often than not, but by the time the villagers interrupted their work for the evening meal, she had the first half of the ritual down acceptably well.

They went to the village’s center to eat at one of the cooks’ cantinas with Cirys trying to teach the spell words to her.

Speaking of the spell words, they were… interesting.

“Spirits of knowledge, listen to the words of one who shares your will,” Cirys said, while Maryll repeated after him between bites of smoked beetle meat and something that looked like reddish-brown beans. “Heed my wishes and deliver them to the Mother of all Life. I beg her attention. Listen to these children’s humble request. Grant us an audience with this wild Filter, so that we may help it in its purpose.”

“Uuurgh!” Maryll erupted after accidentally asking to be granted an audience with a wild fir tree. “And this is only half the incantation?!”

[...]

He gave only a furrowed brow in reply. Maryll finished eating first, and when she was done, she started repeating the incantation again.

This time, she made a plea to the knowledge spirits to deliver an idiot to the Mother of all Life.

[...]

“See this part?” Kamella pointed at the special indications over the incantation, those that Cirys had glossed over earlier. “These are codes for a certain set of states of mind you have to enter at that point in the spell. Those are the hard part, and how easily you can enter those states of mind separates skilled ritualists from amateurs.”

[...]

Maryll had the instructions, and whenever the steps crossed paths with one of the mindset instructions…

“Right-side sliced circle again.”

…she would describe the symbol, and Kamella’s brow would furrow in thought for a moment as she got in the right mindset.