Quote:
Originally Posted by
WhittyBitty 
Something happened!
It wasn’t really a success, but it also wasn’t a failure. And Rory still felt accomplished for that much alone.
As Professor Burbage spoke, she took in all the words carefully. And she wondered if it was better for her to try harder to evoke the spell with that memory, or if she was better off trying out a different memory and seeing how well that would work for her. The only question was which memory would she choose in that case?
After a moment of thinking, Rory decided to go with the memory of her and Ary spending time together at the topiary recently. They were really close friends and grew up together, her mom being best friends with his father. They had a lot of history together, and were very close. With that memory vivid in her mind, Rory plucked the string of the violin with her left hand. Pointing her wand at it with her right hand, she softly said, ”Memorae Lucentia.”
Hopefully she’d have better luck this time.
Something does happen this time as well! Though it’s soft, almost imperceptible at first. The glow from your violin doesn’t burst or swirl dramatically―it hums. A quiet warmth settles over the instrument and then, faintly, a tendril of aurora begins to drift upward. The silver-lavender wisp curls gently like steam rising from a teacup. It shimmers with the quiet ease of a memory grounded not in adrenaline or grandeur, but in comfort. Familiarity. Trust.
It joins the others. The harp’s brilliance and the banjo’s sparkle do not overshadow your contribution. Rather, they make space for it, like a duet leaning toward a third voice. The aurora threads into the others with quiet grace, adding a delicate harmony that fills in the empty spaces between chords. There’s a sweetness to it—a note of affection so deeply rooted it doesn’t need to shout. Your contribution may not be the loudest or the brightest, but it is felt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PhoenixRising Was she being serious? Kara stared a good minute at the translucent professor, realizing just how very difficult it was to read the expressions of the dead. It was only in the tone of her voice, that while Kara deliberated the lighting theories she was about to launch into on the way the light touched the surfaces would create various illusions on the eyes, tricking the way one perceived things. But bit her tongue and decided against it.
As far as one of the first constellations to her memory it was actually one that no one seemed to bring about. That of the Big Dipper, as she could recall one late night many moons ago, her mother pointing out the big dipper in relation to finding the North Star.
However before she had the moment to bring any of that up, Burbage was launching into a long discussion on mythology that Kara was only half paying attention and definitely got lost halfway though as her quill moved to try to keep notes, but her eyelids felt heavy with the mythology talk and the second year found herself giving a little pinch to the skin on her wrist to perk herself up again. It wasn't until her classmates had moved to select a string instrument that Kara had realized they had moved onto the next part of the lesson, which had that incantation not been on the board, she'd have entirely missed it.
Quickly moving to select an instrument, she grabbed the first one she was able to hold which turns out was a ukulele as she was able to easily hold it. No other reason.
"MEH-mor-eye loo-SEN-tee-ah," she said, hearing Krittika and Hermy's incantations and echoing them. She gave the ukulele string a timid pluck and waited.
Nothing happens.
No glow. No hum. Not even the faintest flicker of aurora.
The ukulele, despite its cheerful shape and lightness in your arms, remains inert. Its string give only the plain expected sound of an unenchanted note. There is no resonance because there is no memory, no emotional anchor to guide the spell. Without that tether, a vivid memory and the true emotion it stirs, magic has nothing to hold onto.
Even a well-pronounced incantation cannot substitute for intention...perhaps if you try again with a memory clear in your thoughts you will find more success...