It'd been about a week since the sickness had cleared up, but Aethril was still wary. After evaluating her own actions and attack on Purity (of whom she was still certain was dead) she made a point, to herself, of two things: the first to keep her cool, and the second to just keep practicing until she found her feet again.

The last week had been spent kept mostly to the confines of the Palace. Easy enough, with the company and entertainment. If she wasn't inside hauling Obieth or Eggbert to the theatre, she was having lunches with Isra or pacing along the courtyard gardens to get fresh (relatively fresh, for what you could find in the caves) air.

It was around now she'd decided it was time to get back at it.

First up was a spell to give her her energy-- largely unneeded, but its success brought some much-needed encouragement to her. She felt better, more ready, refreshed. This was followed by dressing in usual Magic-Practicing Attire: a loose shirt and quarter-length pants, topped with a ponytail. She was soon passing the barrier and saying goodbye to Eggbert as she passed him by the entrance.

Normally, Aethril would have preferred to go to Pegasus. There was a certain wisdom in the phrase 'don't shit where you eat,' or in more accurate terms, 'don't corrupt where you sleep.' There was greater wisdom, however, in not pissing off to another room entirely in case you plague yourself again.

With this, the Hand was trekking out to one of the further sides to Cepheus, passing a creek and the great hill to an unlit grotto by the Eastern end. She paused, here, took a look around, and slowly stretched her arms out above her head.

Time to practice.

@Pollen

She'd passed by more than just Eggbert. In fact, the little Gardener had been- at the moment- reaching up very high to reach a very important pot on a very precarious pedestal.

She barely managed to catch herself from falling over when Aethril left. 'Ah!' She turned and scrambled down from the chair she'd situated herself on, planting the watering jug she'd carried (not the fancy one.. she wasn't big enough, yet!) onto the surface.

Where was she going? She'd seen that outfit before, and when she went out with it, she would come back tired, and Pollen frowned. Was she exercising? Shaking out her pelt, Pollen dropped down to follow her casually, slinking just slightly in the sparse undergrowth and kept her distance.

She didn't want Aethril to be sick again, this far away from the Palace, either.

Breathing in sharply, Pollen leveled her gaze on Aethril as she willed the plants to camouflage her into the nearby bushes, the honeysuckle and ivy breaking up her silhouette as they flourished into life. It would not be enough to cover her, but- it would be something.

Besides, it wasn't hard to miss her head peeking out of the bush as she watched.

@Aethril

She stretched, and she stretched, and then she was ready, shaking out her hands and hyping herself up a little, in her own head. What would she practice first? Fire and lightning were always good to practice-- the former had even saved her life, at the expense of burnt hands that lasted a few days.

With an exhale, Aethril cracked her fingers and noticed something peering out the shrubs.

It might have been a good ruse, she supposed, if Pollen had done more than just plant some ivy and honeysuckle on herself. Someone with a better nose would have noticed the immediate, misplaced scent. Aethril's eye was rather drawn to the shape of star-like leaves against almond-shaped.

Her muscles unknotted and her arms went slack for a moment. It was nice to know that this one cared enough to follow her out here, but something at the back of her mind told her that other Hands might not appreciate it too much. Hell, Aethril wouldn't appreciate it if she were going somewhere to meet someone in private.

Either way-- Aethril knew what she was practicing first.

Manipulation of one's mind wasn't something that ever quite came naturally to her. Aethril was rather one for seeing results, and quite often she preferred spells where she could directly see how she was affecting someone. She could, however, quite see how spells like this were useful, however.

A little ping of corruption soared across her into the back of Pollen's head, with one simple command bearing down on her head. Get out of there.

@Pollen

Manipulation wasn't particularly necessary when interacting with Pollen, but she certainly didn't find the idea too alien to take notice of it. Aethril was looking at her, and that was enough to draw her out- even with the faint tingling at the back of her mind.

"I wanted to make sure you didn't get sick again," she squeaked before Aethril could ask for an explanation. Her mint green digits wormed into the dirt, and she looked up to Aethril, half-asking for an apology with her expression. "What um- what're you going to do? I can come with you, if you want." If she was going anywhere else, at least- she'd seemed to stopped here, anyways.

Propping up, Pollen tapped her hands together, uncertain. Could she help the Hand? She could be doing her job right now, but wasn't part of that job making sure that Aethril was okay..? Well, maybe not, but she'd still found that bit important.

@Aethril

+1 corruption [2 total]

Aethril's head was inclining forward. Pollen obviously hadn't meant any ill will by it; and it was, perhaps, almost sweet. "You should ask before following people out," she told the Amber regardless. "Some might be furious if they found you sneaking around after them."

She turned and she was focusing again, wrists rolling. "I'm practicing magic," Aethril went on. Her fingers twisted and her brow furrowed but His magic wasn't responding to her-- which was marginally better than it attacking her, but frustrating nontheless.

At least Pollen wouldn't have noticed.

With a huff, her head was turning back. "I want to make sure I don't get sick ever again," came the partial admission. "I have Obieth, of course, but I'd still like to hold my own if I get into another fight, and I can't have my magic backfiring back into me, now, can I?"

The grass fluttering in a faint breeze caught her idle mind and she was sighing again, thoughtful. The idea of the rebellion worried her; the idea that a corrupted cat chewing away at plants brought the sense of concern that it might be starting up all over again, and this was just the start of it made her sick to her stomach.

Unfocused eyes darted back to Pollen before hardening again. "Besides," she went on with a grin. "We can't stay cooped up in the Palace all day. Don't you have anything you want to practice?"

@Pollen

"Oh." Aethril didn't seem furious, at least, and she wasn't upset. And so, Pollen sat down on the ground, perking up in interest at magic. Aethril's magic was kind of a lot of different magics, wasn't it? She knew of the plant kind, but not really any others too much.

"Maybe you were just having a bad day?" She'd said in her innocence, peering up to Aethril. Besides, magic was hard to control- Pollen knew that one personally! She hadn't had plants backfire, per-say- she just hadn't paid attention, really.

From what she knew, Aethril did go out sometimes, at least- a lot more than Pollen did. And she was happy to be here, helping, and maybe practicing?

Pollen leaned forward, planting her hands on the ground excitedly. "I'm practicing gardening! But, it takes a long time when I'm not using magic..." She deflated for just a moment before she raised her hand, focusing on the grass beneath her. "I think I want to practice magic?"

She'd focused, trying to make the grass bloom like she did when they'd first met, yet nothing came but a strained expression on her face.

"I guess it doesn't like to work sometimes, though," she huffed, drawing her limbs back in.

@Aethril

A bad day. Aethril snorted briefly with good-natured laughter, shaking her head. It had been a bad day-- she'd lost control and made a fool of herself. She let the corruption seep into her mind and make her stupid. Pollen, as innocent of a response it was, held some gentle wisdom.

"Magic always comes easier when you're in a good mood," the Hand told Pollen with an idle smile. "Loosen yourself up and relax."

She'd have to follow her own advice, she realised. She rolled her shoulders back and she did her best to loosen up; but when she lifted a hand to call her magic, nothing came to her.

"Well,"" she said. "In theory, it's easier when you're in a better mood." She spun and she sat down by the trunk of a half-withered tree, leaking crisp, black-brown leaves from its branches. Her legs crossed in front of her and she watched Pollen.

A hand waved, encouragingly. "Give it a try."

@Pollen

As much as she tried magic, she hadn't had proper lessons herself, other than that first interaction with Aethril- but was that a proper lesson? Well, first thing to remember would to be in a good mood for magic, then, and she watched as Aethril attempted to cast.

"It's the um- the uh-- the thought that counts," she spoke with a single, hard nod, able to get the metaphor in place after a moment of deliberation. "I just have to think really hard about it, too." She shoved up again and balanced once more, holding her paws together.

Give it a try, then. Glancing around, Pollen looked for something to try her magic on, one paw raising to touch the bark of a nearby tree. "I wanna move the limb, maybe?" She pointed up directly above herself, to the leafy branch that stretched out closest to the ground. Her nails dug into the tree, and she reached up with her free paw, and focused--

But nothing came, and she stood there frozen, realizing how silly she looked. Huffing, she let her palm drop as she kept staring up, grumbling. "Maybe I should ask it nicely?" She glanced to Aethril, confused for a brief moment.

@Aethril

The thought didn't quite count when it was a life or death situation, Aethril thought, but she supposed it was fair enough. Her head turned to follow Pollen touch the tree, and watched the very still tree. Her brow furrowed.

Aethril had never quite heard of someone... asking, their magic, no matter how politely, to work. Her gaze snapped to the branches, then to Pollen, then to the very bark of the tree. "It's more likely because it's too big," she said. "You could try moving something smaller. You could try moving a branch on one of the bushes."

But she was gently curious, and her hand extended. "... please move," she asked of it, almost begrudgingly. Maybe it was the intensity of her focus in speaking, or maybe it was because she was calmer, but her magic caught the very roots of the tree and crawled upwards like an infection, consuming pale brown bark with slick black oil.

It shifted and it creaked painfully, like old bones rattling. Two branches bent and then twisted around each other, weaving a sort of braid shape together.

The Hand was thoughtful. "Well, it might help," she offered. "Or it might be coincidence."

@Pollen

Too big? Maybe, Pollen thought, as she looked back to the branches.

She could do something smaller. That might work. She'd turned her head to find something- maybe a younger tree, or a shrub? She'd pulled her hand away from the bark- and moved a little back when Aethril spoke to it- and watched as it moved.

"Have you ever asked magic before? Sometimes, I ask the plants, but I don't think they can hear me," she said, making her way through the thin treeline to find a smaller young birch, wrapping her digits around it.

"Please move, a little?" Her request was gentle, like she was talking to day-old chicks, her other paw lightly touching the side of the tree as she focused her magic into it. She strained- and strained some more- and eventually she let out a breath once the blood rushed to her head, breathing deeply. She pulled the plant closer to her forehead and looked back at Aethril, the epitome of 'a heem heem, whimper' without the sound of it.

"Asking isn't working..." What would work, then? She was focusing, she did what she normally did, but sometimes she just... had bad days, like this.

She hated having bad days.

@Aethril