Just a Matter of Magic

Faolan is a 900 year old witch who's been quite happy to wander Ireland and the world for a while. Having found a trace of strange magic in a pub, he's working on finding the witch to make sure that they're not untrained, and therefore dangerous.

Saoirse is a young selkie-witch with no real knowledge of her witch heritage. Having sold her home after her father died, she's just roaming the country busking for money, unaware that she's leaving a breadcrumb trail of magic that Faolan can follow.

Happy when he told her that there was someone he knew that could teach her some more selkie songs, she privately hoped she'd be able to find out more about what she was. Dad hadn't really told her much, making herself work by pointedy noticing things and silently pointing them out to herself while holding up the mental wall she worked at multitask finding it hard work to keep the wall up all the time while she did other things. Not complaining she knuckled down and kept working at it, eventually she started humming a song that her father had taught her about the sea. It was a gentle lullaby like song and was warm like what she imagined a mothers hug would be like, as a child she'd sung the song to herself trying to convince herself it was her mother. However she'd long stopped doing that beliving there was nothing to gain from it, she'd had what she considered a fantastic dad and for that she was very lucky. Glancing up at the sky and wondering if heaven truly existed she hoped it did for his sake, that he was young and happy, contenting herself like that she continued along well unaware of the mans silent reluctance to take her to where the best musicians were well hidden away. “Do you have a favourite song?” she finally asked just as curious about him as she was about learning more about magic and everything else. One of her favourites came to mind and it was indeed hard to stop herself from humming or singing it.

More curious when told she wouldn't know them, she asked "Will you teach me them?" she wanted to learn new songs as well as how to work with her magic. Looking up and smiling at the crow she helped set up the campsite when they reached their destination for the night and settled herself down getting the fire started. Wanting to work with her magic she pushed the urge away and instead pulled out her guitar running her fingers over it, taking the time to trace the ring of paua that was on the wooden instrument Saoirse felt at ease as if she was on the beach again. A link back to her ever present home, she also had a small bag of sand from the stretch of beach where she'd grown up, the guitar had been a gift from her father the beautiful paua shell an added thing just for her. The instrument held so many fond memories for her, unaware of her warm smile that had seeped onto her features, Saoirse began playing and ended up singing along to the music forgetting she'd asked a question and even that the elf was there, a little distracted at keeping the wall up she managed to avoid making too many mistakes, the magic surging like the tide wanting to rush through and twine with the music

Finally reaching his home after a few more days of walking the call of the sea was pulling at her with each step away from the shore. Able to keep the feeling to herself or so she hoped, Saoirse instead practiced controlling her magic, getting to know it and figuring out the wall. There had been more questions from her as predicted, quietly following him and taking everything in, she was a little surprised when he picked learning to read as the first thing for her to learn. Almost instantly she became frustrated with herself, the letters distorting and flipping themselves, rubbing her eyes and glaring surprisingly heatedly at them it didn't help, to her credit she kept trying and trying not that it helped any.

Looking up at her teacher when he told her not to get frustrated, Saoirse just shrugged helplessly, she couldn't help it. She had to pick up things right away or they'd move onto something else and she wanted to learn to read so badly. Hesitant to admit what exactly was wrong she struggled before eventually giving in and explaining "The letters they keep moving and warping and mirroring themselves" pushing her thick coppery hair out of her face impatiently she avoided her mentors stare. She was stupid when it came to reading and writing she just couldn't do it, she'd tried with her dad helping her and when he'd decided that obviously she couldn't do it and so focused on something else, Saoirse had tried on her own. All it did was make her head hurt, glancing out towards where the sea had be left behind, the familiar feeling of wanting to leave and return to the beach, but she couldn't, swallowing hard she waited fiddling with a lock of her hair.

Glancing up at him again when he patted her shoulder, she relaxed slightly at his words, taking a deep breath and mentally reinforcing the wally she looked back down at the pages. The letters kept making no sense to her, staring at them she jumped when he spoke again and was silent clearly quite reluctant to open up to him. "When i was last taught, if i didn't pick things up quickly, we'd change to something i could pick up right away regardless of what I wanted to do" leaving her fathers name out of it she fiddled with the cover of the book brushing her fingers over it and overly analyzing the textures and feeling of it. It was a coping mechanisim that she'd picked up somewhere along the way, the wall was getting easier to keep up she could focus on the books cover and know the wall was okay. Her hair fell into her face again as she did so, not bothering to push it out of the way, sometimes it was ike a curtain and welcomed

Feeling the studying gaze she went quiet, when he next spoke instead of saying something he'd noticed he instead told her to take a break and play something. Reaching for her guitar she set it on her lap and ran her fingers over the strings wondering what she should play, sitting there silently she eventually remembered a song and began playing. The song safe and sound was one she'd not played for a while, it was a gentle lullaby like song, the fact that she had to be calm and cool headed in order to play correctly always helped her own self discipline. Not singing the familiar lyrics, she just played the song carefully relaxing into the song fairly quickly, feeling better she set the guitar down ready to try again at this reading lark. Picking up the book and taking a deep breath she attempted to read it again, almost instantly running into the problems she ended up just staring at the text upon the page before closing it quietly "Might be best to start from the very beginning" it was a quiet suggestion.

Saoirse shrugged a little "If something dosent make sense, start at the beginning and work through it until it does" watching the man write out the letters she took the paper when it was passed to her and blinked at the markings on the paper. Rubbing her eyes a little she folded the paper until she could just see the upper and lower case a's, finding it a little easier when it was just the two and not a whole page full of words. "Its a little easier like this" it didn't overwhelm her and was easier to figure out. Studying the letters carefully she was able to remember them "This is A?" phrasing it as a question just incase it was wrong, it was okay one or two letters at a time but whole words quickly got mixed up and muddled. "I don't understand" she finally said frowning somewhat "I can read music fine but letters just go funny" rubbing the side of her head and messing up her thick but fine ginger hair she huffed moving the paper to reveal the next letters.

The question made her think "I know it and i don't know it? I know it goes A B C, but the actual letters I don't so i guess i have to learn to associate the squiggle with the right sound" managing one of her frequent smiles, Saoirse replied "Music has always made sense, I want a whole orchestra of instruments to play and learn" it was a quiet dream of hers that she didn't mind sharing as it had little to do with her home life. Working slowly and carefully she began working on remembering the letters, on her own accord she'd trace each one with a finger reminding herself how one wrote them as well. Once she had managed to go over them all again she repeated the task a few times, pointing a careful finger to each letter and saying it out loud, eyebrows drawn down as she concentrated fiercely on them. Looking up at her mentor when she was confident on them she patiently waited for him to decide how they should progress, it was nice having someone to show her the way again, although fine and used to her own she'd missed the learning new things and the help.

Unable to help brightening up once he mentioned learning near the sea she assembled herself with guitar and flute, her pack over her shoulder that held her meager posessions. Some clothes, a knitted blanket, her knitting needles and some wool and yarn as well as a couple of small trinkets from places she'd traveled and home. Meeting him at the doorway she laughed quietly "Raring to go" the young woman chirped good naturedly, following him through the door way she kept pace with him quietly humming a song to herself without realizing it. Focusing a moment she resumed the wall since they were no longer working on reading, internally overjoyed to be returning to the ocean so soon she attempted to hide it as best as she could. Being a selkie was something to be kept quiet and not talked about after all, quite private about what she was and what her childhood was like she marched

A little suspicious of the grin and his sudden decision to come here, Saoirse decided to keep her trap shut. Blinking at the strange feeling when the dark haired man answered the door, there was a strange feeling of kinship there, wondering if he was like here she stared quite openly. She'd never felt anything like this before, realizing she was staring and not really minding to much that she was, her pale gaze flicked momentarily up towards the dark clouds. Wondering if she'd be able to use her magic to make it rain, she kept it to just wondering, following her mentor into the house and finding out the strangers name was Angus she greeted him with a smile "I'm saoirse, Nice to meet you" assuming Rose was his 'shock' partner, her keen gaze swept around the room taking in all of the books. More than she'd ever seen and she couldn't read a single one, she wasn't able to acesss the knowledge contained within the tomes. Feeling the seas pull she ignored it, a little wary and wanting to keep her affairs to herself.

Watching him vanish down into the basement, and guessing there were books down there he wanted to read, Saoirse didn't bother following him. What was the point? She couldn't read and thus would just get in the way, perhaps she'd see if she could sneak out to the beach, there was a specific part that was calling to her. However her hopes were dashed when he mentioned it was a storm, she knew the rules, don't talk about being a selkie, don't go to the beach on full moons and don't go to the beach when it was storming. Surprised that he knew what her name meant, she nodded "It does thank you" at least his pronunciation was excellent, she liked her name and highly disliked it when it was butchered by people who couldn't speak the tongue. Gaelic had always come naturally to her, more so than english, nodding when he pointed out the spare room, Saoirse nodded becoming a little amused at the term 'witchy' "A little" she admitted, but first she'd set her things down in the spare room which she did. If it was going to storm she might as well make herself useful and start a new creation. Wandering back out with her needles and wool, she hesitated gaze darting out to the darkening sky before finding a place to sit down and beginning to make a scarf.

In the midst of her knitting she suddenly stopped her knitting and stared at him, the feeling and the question "You're, Like me. Arent you?" did that mean that Faolan had figured it out? That was why he'd brought her here? Thinking it over she supposed that it all made sense after all, deciding it was better to not talk about selkies and remember the rules she changed the subject. "He agreed to teach me, I didn't know I was a witch before he showed up" slowly resuming knitting, it was soothing and rhythmic and made sense. The current colours were beautiful shades of blue that she'd spent quite a while picking out at a local market with what money she had, having gone hungry for a few days in order to afford the brightly coloured wool it had been well worth it.

Saoirse managed a weak smile “I've never been around another Selkie before” she explained, all of a sudden quite interested in him now she knew it was okay. Wondering what was keeping him on dry land when she knew very well the only thing stopping her from never coming back from the waves was her instruments and witch blood. However she didn't ask feeling it'd be quite rude to, accepting the food the bite into the sandwich nearly went down the wrong pipe when the other selkie commented that her mentor had already figured it out most likely. Feeling guilty that she was breaking her fathers rules, Saoirse ate silently simply noding in response to the many questions coming from the other selkie. Surprised when he touched the knitting his words confused her “He didn't teach me knitting, he's teaching me magic and trying to teach me to read. I've travelled with him for just under two weeks” resuming her work the clicking of the needles was soothing, silently preparing herself for more questions the pull of the sea continued to tempt her mind and tug her heart.