Isn't 'incomprehensible German' redundant???
...ugly American...
..didn't I already say - my spells will always be incomprehensible for anyone except those whom they are meant for!
What is this 'Ugly America'?
I've heard of Vinland and the Wonderstrands.
They are told to be beautiful places. Belongs to the skraelings though.
Here too, we have a beautiful place.
But now the troglodyte minions of Kibonreju are smothering it with the filth of their presence.
Disgorged like maggots from the caverns, streams of these creatures congeal into a crawling carpet that begins its advance upon the slope. Their former-human faces frowning at the light of day.
It's a bit like when you check the wheels of cheese in the cellar, and one sounds wrong, and you roll it out and bed it on St. John's wort, and out come all the worms.
And I feel the hill herself, she wants to heave, to shake off this disgusting load.
Maybe I could help with that.
I hope this party of adventurers doesn't expect any spectacular war-spells from me, any shows of fire and thunder. That will be the Sorcerer's task, Repertor's. And while I consider them to be an entirely unchivalrous weaponry, a dragon might for once be justifiable.
My contribution would be of a different kind. Witchcraft and sorcery are two quite different things.
Those who aren't aware of that should just remember that there's a reason why many wizards live in high towers, when no witch ever does. There's a reason why witches gone bad are cranky annoying malevolents, while wizards gone bad are megalomaniacs bent on world-dominion.
As they say in the rhymes of the ceremonies, it's in tune with life, an art that was born among the trees, where our ears were lucky to hear those glorious songs, and we were duly sworn to be a living force.
There are more limits to our powers - in fact that power isn't even 'ours'.
As it turns out though, sorcerers are often more envious of us than the other way around.
Because those things we do, when we do them, seem effortless, regardless of scale. Just tipping the balance.
Take as an example, that well-worn sleight of hand, turning knights into frogs. 'Turning' is just right. A knight walks up to a witch and insults her. At that moment, on the inside, in a way, he already
is a frog.
Expects to become a frog. Wants to. Once you've learned the ropes, frogging a knight isn't more difficult than helping someone turn his coat inside out. That's what it is. Bring that frog out and flip the knight to the inside.
Turning him into a
squirrel, now that's different, that's just supernatural. I've got no fucking clue. It's absolutely nuts. Unless of course the knight is in fact a raving rodent, or such.
You know, about learning the ropes, that's what it's like, a complex knot might look like magic, but it's just knowing what to do. That's what it is. So witchcraft is more simple than you might think but that doesn't mean you shoudn't take it seriously. Not taking witchcraft seriously, is a mistake some people have made before. Each of them only once.
So many powerful beings have come here today, to this one point, in itself a peak of promise, and there's no telling what the tiniest spark might set off.
Just, look at that Messaline.
There's something with her that they warned us of, at initiation.
That some of us would be drawn into the flames, wishing to feed the fire, bound in our mind to stake and pyre.
That's what it is with her and the cross she's carrying.
She fears it and desires it; she desires it more for fearing it; perhaps also she fears it still more for knowing how much she desires it, and the fate it threatens. And how that fear and desire can run away with you and make your head swim and so much more, I do know about that.
I think Kibonreju has no idea what's coming his way...