Old Ways [6/27]

10:53] Aerilon Tsuchai says, "There is a difference between the spirits seeing you, and allowing them to see into you, to know you better than you may know yourself."
[10:54] Leni exclaims, "I never knew that!"
[10:55] Leni says, "Thanks, uh....Lon? Yeah. Lon sounds nice."
[10:56] Aerilon Tsuchai says, "I-"
[10:56] Aerilon just sighs.
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[10:56] Aerilon Tsuchai says, "Yes, you are welcome. Such is my duty, to teach."
[10:56] Leni just smiles. It's like it never stops.
(Leni)
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[10:57] Leni says, "I learned some stuff on my own, but. Thanks for answering my questions and stuff! It's nice to have other druids and stuff to talk to."
[10:57] Leni says, "I also got this book from some faeries. It's pretty neat, but suuuper small."
[10:57] Leni asks, "Wanna see?"
[10:58] Aerilon Tsuchai says, "I... would suppose so, I have heard of Fae folk offering such things"
[10:59] Aries Milor says, "-"
[10:59] Aerilon Tsuchai says, "At least he did not bring that awful wrym of his back around."
[11:03] Leni asks, "Who?"
[11:04] Leni reaches into her belongings to take out the book in question. And she was not kidding. It is indeed a fey-written tome. And it is, indeed, very, very tiny. It fits in her palm.

That doesn't top her from holding it aloft like the prize she truly views it as being.
(Leni)
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[11:04] {Item} You drop The Book Of Life.
[11:04] Aries Milor asks, "...Oh?"
[11:10] The Archdruid very daintily plucks the book from her hand, and quickly leafs through it.

He holds it very close to his good eye, scanning over what's within with notable interest. With a quirk of a brow, he flips it closed with his thumb and forefinger, before holding it back out to Leni.

"Hm, this is... useful. The Druidic archives hold some of this information, but much of it relates to the order the witches destroyed, to which ours holds precocious little information. You have done well, to learn from it."
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[11:10] {Item} You picked up The Book Of Life. Dropped by Aerilon Tsuchai..
[11:12] Leni takes it back and puts it in a safe, treasured pocket. The one that's also loaded with acorns and four leaf clovers.

"Cool! I said I'd share it with Amy too. Other than her and you...I don't think I know any other druids! But sharing's great," she says with a nod.

"I help run letters all around, but I pretty much live here now. So if you ever wanna see it, it's here! Can you tell me more about that order the witches destroyed? Or is that all lost and stuff?"
(Leni)
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[11:15] Aries Milor says, "Why does Leni surprise me every single day..."
[11:16] Leni exclaims, "Cuz surprises are /fun/!"
[11:16] Aries Milor says, "This is fact."
[11:16] Leni says, "And if you're not surprising people, you're not growing. And if you're not growing, you're boring."
[11:22] Aerilon leans back against the valley wall, nodding along as Leni speaks. A new intensity burns in his eye, staring at her with interest.

"Yes, of the Druids that do not reside in the wilds, a great many were lost in the last war. It was heartening, to have seen my students grow so powerful, though the mightiest oaks fall the hardest when felled."

He pauses for a moment, eyes shut, and takes a deep inhale. Remembering.

Then they snap open, as if nothing happened.

"But- yes. I would suppose sharing is a useful thing, such that I will share what you desire to hear. The Druids of Old Moonfall were... human, fae-touched by the powers they wielded, changing them- growing rabbit ears, having their own become pointed, or having their eyes grow and glitter in the light.

Their last Archdruid perished shortly before the Witches took over, and ran the few that remained of his order out into the wilds. All perished, as far as I am aware. But the Archdruid had taken a student, one who did not complete the trials to become full Druid before his master's death, but who followed on and forged their own path towards it. That student did the same for a student of his own, who would go on to forge our order- and train me."
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[11:27] It's a testament to Leni's interest in the subject that Aerilon is able to keep her attention. It's a feat not many can manage. If she hadn't been invested surely she'd have wandered off long ago. Instead she waits and listens.

"Oooh. That makes sense. With the rabbit people and all! My gramma didn't have a lot of stories about the druids. Plenty about fairies and all sorts of other things in the woods.

So...most of them were gone. Except your teacher? How were they different from the druids now? Other than there's not a lot and all that. I didn't even know there were trials to be a druid! People just, like, call me that. So it stuck."

She rocks back and forth on her heels as she chatters, unable to truly stay still for too long. Always moving, flowing, shifting.
(Leni)
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[11:27] Aries flicks his rabbit ears at the idea of rabbit people.
(Aries Milor)
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[11:36] As she remains in place, clearly listening, Aerilon seems to lower the scrutiny in his gaze, having found whatever he was searching for.

"The old druids were in decline long before the witches destroyed the last of them, they had grown to stagnation, with rigid structures that did not allow them to grow or address the threats that faced them until it was too late."

Whether that was an answer to the point about her grandmother not speaking much of them, or the mention of trials, isn't particularly clear.

"Yes, the one who taught me, raised me, was taught the arts by a man with rabbit ears. He and another, one of old moonfall who had pieced together druidcraft from stories of his youth, forged a new Druidic Order together in their time. Their order- my order- eschewed that rigid system that brought ruin to their predecessors. Druids no longer hide away here in Myllenoris, concerned only with The Vale."

He gestures off to the east, towards starfall and Osrona beyond it.

"To be a Druid under our order is not to complete trials, or face ritual, but to be acknowledged by the spirits as Druid. We serve the balance as equals to the spirits and the world around us, mediating their disputes, and maintaining the world as it desires to be, not as any tradition demands it must be."
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[11:44] Leni's head bobs along as Aerilon expounds on the druids of yore and their differences, their downfalls, what quite possibly led to their ruin, all as she continues to rock forward and back on her heels.

"That sucks," she says rather plainly. "I didn't think that'd be what druids were about. The rigid part, I mean. Since nature's not rigid at all. It's always moving and changing and stuff. Even if it's a lil' slow sometimes."

This reasoning allowed is followed by her casting her eyes about at all of Myllenoris' abundant growth.

"Stuff being rigid's how people start dumb wars, or ruin everything!"

Now her eyes follow his gesturing east, towards distant Osrona. There's a brief flicker of a frown that's quickly subsumed by another easy smile.

"I like that way better! Everyone's got a different way to say what a druid does, but I really like that one. Helping nature do what it wants! Not how people want it to be."
(Leni)
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[11:49] The Archdruid's head tilts slightly, silently listening to her speak with a curious look.

"Yes, the rigidity- the restriction- holds back what desires to be. Holds back the strings of life, where they desire to pull taught and be what is best for them."

A hand gestures to her in agreement.

"That is, at least in the philosophy I hold, the most important part of what I teach. Each student will come away with their own picture of the world, unique to their eyes, but should they hold to that principle, I will have succeeded."
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[11:51] Skoll, having walked into what appears to be a conversation about the druids of the past, decides to simply step closer and observe for now, curious as what they'll have to say.
(Skoll Beo)
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[11:52] Leni nods again, a little more exuberantly, and grins.

"It's a good philosophy!" she chirrups in assent. "Not enough people got it though. That's why they ruin everything."

The druid's always been a bit radical. Age has done nothing to temper that, for sure. She considers the Archdruid a little more intently for a moment as her head tilts back and forth, this way and that.

"Hey! You know a lot about spirits and stuff. Can I ask you something? I was talking to someone about making friends with spirits, with the right kinds who want what I want, and they said I should give them a gift. Cuz that kind of friendship's about give and take. One thing for another. Which makes sense.

If I want to make friends with a spirit who wants to grow things like that, do you know what they might like? For a gift."
(Leni)
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[11:55] As Leni speaks up about the spirits, Skoll reflexively interjects, speaking perhaps out of turn.

"Depends on the spirit." He'll note. "From what I heard, each spirit has its own preference. If you are looking for a spirit that would help one's harvest for example, gifting one's own seeds from the crops could be a gift that such a spirit will appreciate."
(Skoll Beo)
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[12:00] The Archdruid's eye follows the newcomer- recognizing him. No directly acknowledgement of his arrival is given, but the curious eye lands him on him. He nods, as the man adds his piece.

"Yes, each spirit is as capricious and varied as the natural world they reflect. A wraith heeds only the call of what it craves, be it violence or raw power. A spirit of an old oak may only desire company, perhaps a boost of mana, or a spirit of beasts may require it's wards fed.

Seek out a spirit that hears your call, and it will make known what it desires. Be that a task, a gift, or simply your desire to interact with it."
(Aerilon Tsuchai)
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[12:02] Leni absorbs this, soaking in this wisdom from multiple sides, and contemplates it.

"So I should find one, and talk to it, and see what it wants...I don't know why I didn't think of that before!" she exclaims brightly.

"Bet the Vale's got some good ones. I dunno about the ones that just want to grow harvests. Something more...wild!"

There's a glint of mischief and rebellion in her eyes. She seeks nothing so tame as making harvests grow.
(Leni)