On Neutral Ground (Atticus)

[simanus]

Simanus moved the straw dummy further away from the door. Atticus would be here soon. She returned to the empty blackboard and leaned against it, practicing the incantation to her family's trademark spell non-verbally as she had been for most of the day since returning from the gardens. Even if she possessed the skill to teach the spell, she never would, it was a more than a matter of blind honor, the spell was dangerous if misused. Thus she had had to invest her afternoon in ensuring the security of the spell by making sure the incantation would not be heard.

The door creaked open and she looked up, knowing who she would see. "I hope you will remember that I didn't invite you here to duel. I simply wish to make a small demonstration and let the matter we spoke of earlier stand. Bygones and whatnot." To emphasize her intention she smiled pleasantly, keeping any vulpine predatory looks out of her visage.

[Atticus Kaine]

Atticus strolled through the door and hung his heavy cloak on the rack behind the door imedietly he spoke turning and locking eyes with Simanus "I need to know where you stand with me or against me I have plans and I dont want you spoiling them "

With that he went and leant against a desk in the class room and looked at Simanus a flirty glint in his eye as he looked her up and down "I'm sure me and you could go very far together"

His wand was tucked firmly in the back of his uniform and he looked at Simanus he was worried she would rat him out looking at her "I've been puzzling it all day wondering why your name would be familar and i can't think so come on let me know"[/color][/size]

[simanus]

"As I said," Simanus replied, not failing to notice the glint in Atticus' eye, "I try my damnedest not to take sides. My only concern is for the school and more importantly those within it who are important to me. If whatever it is you've got going on won't be a threat to them, then I have no intention of standing in your way." She waited a moment, wanting to ensure that her unwillingness to be totaled into a 'for' or 'against' column was clear, she preferred to be an unknown quantity. "As to my last name, I don't think I know you quite well enough to go into detail," she gave him a shifty grin, "but it won't matter for my demonstrative purposes here."

"I can understand why you'd think we'd make a good team," she had originally planned to let that comment go, but c'est la vie, "and perhaps at some point in the future our aims might coincide. As to alliances, I don't make them, leastways not in general. You clearly serve what I call The Black; and while that side certainly holds to some of the same ideas as I do, I prefer to remain one of the Undesignated." Now was the time to demonstrate.

"My mother Almea comes from a family called Tarrant. What I would now like to show you is that family's trademark spell," she now drew her wand, having waited this long so as not to risk a duel, "I show you this neither as warning nor as olive branch, but as a demonstration of what I can do." She turned to the straw dummy against the far wall and performed the complicated whiplashing movement with her wand, filling the space of her mind with the incantation at the crucial moment.

As the wand traced its course through the air, its tip began to glow blue-white with such intensity that it would have been painful to look at directly, though it gave off no light. When it pointed at the dummy, a ball of blue fire trailing an arching tail burst from the tip. There was a sound not of explosion but of a cracking glacier as the fire struck the dummy, which was briefly engulfed and then left frosted and brittle-looking. Simanus strode over to the dummy and elbowed it in the chest with a mild amount of force; it was enough for her purposes and the dummy shattered into hundreds of tiny glistening shards. She turned back to Atticus, "Coldfire," she said simply, "What my allies may count on and my enemies need fear."

"Now, back to the issue at hand" she continued, stowing her wand and returning to her place by the blackboard. "Perhaps if you give me a little more detail on what you're planning, I can speak to my level of willingness to help," she finished, before decided to add one last addendum, "I would also be happy to answer any questions about my mother's family."

[Atticus Kaine]

Atticus watched the demonstration, coldfire a interesting spell he thought could do a lot of damage in the right hands he thought and these were certainly the right hands

"I very much like that spell" he commented as he watched the dummy shatter "Now the plan will only affect shall we say the less pure among us" he walked closer to her leaning on the teachers desk not far from her

"I may Indulge in the what you refer to as the Black but I serve no master except my self." He let his guard faulter slightly "If you had a father like mine you would bury your self in the study of how to hurt people in the hope you would get revenge"

"I'm sure if worked as a team we could conquer any goal" He stood up straighter looking her in the eyes a flirty tone layed thick in his last sentence and he wanted to guage her reaction[/color][/size]

[simanus]

"Ah," Simanus smiled, "a purist. I prefer to rate wizards by the power they demonstrate. If it's useful, I couldn't care less who their parents were." She couldn't help but wonder what Atticus wanted revenge against his father for, but knew from experience that such information was awkward unless volunteered. His posture and tone indicated that some elements of her personal information had not yet reach his ears, absent their expression, how would he know?

"Tell me," she said, adopting the sultry Southern Belle voice she often used with men and turned to look at the empty space of the room a foot or so in front of her, "to what use might my chilly skills be put in your current designs? I might help you out, if you were to do something for me in return, or rather for an associate of mine." Simanus might indeed aid Kaine, if nothing else it would be diverting.

"As for me," she took out her wand again and began to move it slowly up and down, a coldfire-colored mist began to drift from its tip and take a vaguely human shape, "while I don't give a hoot in hell for genetic prejudice, I'm not opposed to thinning the herd...so long as my involvement is concealed, my purposes in the long game of things require me to remain unconnectable to events." Her skills lay in supply and strategy anyway, and if Kaine or one of any associates he might have had mastered the Fidelius, it and her own skills would be enough to keep her hand unseen. Simanus flicked her eyes away from the sculpture she was freezing into being and back to Atticus long enough to say, still in that sultry accent "Make me an offer."

[Atticus Kaine]

"Anything for a lady" Atticus said looking towards Simanus "your coldfire skills maybe used at some point but at the moment I need another person to help plan and put into place pieces which will fall into place later"

Atticus looked at her sculpting "Very nice, You say you only respect them that demonstrate power but I belive those who demonstrate power for the sake of demonstrating power misunderstand it" But with this none the less Atticus clapped his hands

"I've always been of the school that wands are holding us back " with that he started slowly rubbing his hands the speed increasing his hands started to glow red generating sparks "thats why i learnt these little conjuring tricks and wandless spells" spreading his hand the field of the sparks continued but between his hands a green clay like object appearred as he got his hands about a foot apart the object took the shape of a bottle clicking his fingers it turned to glass filled with liquid and flew into his right hand

"Can I interest you in a drink?" Atticus said with a laugh "Took many a frustrated evening and a broke bottle learning that little trick"

[simanus]

"No thank you," Simanus replied, her sculpture was almost finished now. She didn't mind a drink, but while she respected handless magic, wandlore was still her favorite subject and she didn't care for the remark about the holding wizards back. "Power isn't a means to an end but an end unto itself. What most people don't understand is that the only end which is permanent is death so so an end may later behave as a means," this was a fine and some would argue convoluted distinction, but one which was the inevitable result of service to the Red. "My comments about power extend only to accepting it wherever it shows up, if it can be made to suit my purpose, and power can show up anywhere" she added, putting the finishing touch on the sculpture of an old flame at Salem, "I can count on one hand the beings I respect."

She returned her wand to her pocket and her sculpture, its delicate female form cast in a hollow shell of solidified mist rather than solid ice, dissolved back into the air. "It has grown quite late and as the professors seem to be on the mend from whatever it was they were ill with, I'd rather not get put in detention," she said directly, "shall we continue our conversation on the way back to the dormitory or have you more business to attend to elsewhere before turning in?"