Concert for ButterKlavier and Audience 4
darthcourt10
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Yellowhammer
Concert for ButterKlavier and Audience #4 "Ils doivent envisager qu'une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d'un grand pouvoir*."
5 July 2014
Passel House, Hampshire, England
"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury." -John Stuart Mill
Spoiler: Noblesse Oblige
Colombe du Chasteler smiled across the parlor table at Duke of York as the blonde shipgirl shook her head, her ponytail swishing across the floor. "...and that is how Karl, Tamenokalt and I put paid to that rogue jinn."
Duke leaned back in her chair and sipped her cup of tea. "That was a fascinating story. If possible, I would like you to share that with the Orion sisters, since as you mentioned they can cross the Channel."
Colombe sighed, "oh yes. Magical methods such as an Owl Box or Vanishing Cabinet work and while jinn have issues with bodies of water -- rather like the vampire myths, I wonder if there is a connection? -- modern technology such as steamships and air travel make the Atlantic less a risky and lethal ordeal when I was a girl and more an annoying inconvenience like a passenger crossing a storm-tossed sea on a liner. I suspect that some of the additional passengers on the flight out of Iran in 1979 were jinn although I did not ask since they were vouched by... someone whom I trust implicitly. Technology is a blessing and a curse both. I certainly do not miss storms at sea as a passenger on board a sailing ship, but it also allows for things that were normally geographically restricted to one region or continent to find a home in other places which may be ill-prepared to deal with the threat that they are."
The Muramasa rapier then smirked nastily as singing was faintly heard from outside the parlor. "Of course that cuts both ways. As a very nasty and annoying ghost in my ancestral castle found out to his very brief everlasting regrets when he picked a fight with one of the top exorcists in Japan who was visiting from the Shinto shrine where she lives. By the time he realized what Toku was capable of doing to him, it was far too late for anything but the screaming as she sent him to Hell... literally."
Duke blinked. "Hell and Heaven exist literally?"
Colombe shrugged expressively, "In a sense, yes. I have it on good authority that various legends about the divine and infernal realms, such as the Greek Underworld and Mount Olympus, Valhalla for the Norse, Takamagahara for the Shinto, and so on and so forth have a hard core of truth in them. There are Powers there that sometimes interfere in mortal affairs, although generally indirectly through agents. Case in point, the spellwork to seal Verdun back up this time around among other things included a paen, a prayer calling upon and praising Hades by a Greek mage who is an agent of Hades. That bestow His blessing and authority upon the bindings shackling a creature of necromancy and unlife. Some of the magics I have learned from various traditions such as Greco-Roman, Hindu, and Chinese call upon and beseech various Powers."
Colombe took a deep breath and gazed into Duke's eyes before speaking quietly "More directly and personally, I have actually called upon and then sworn myself to Hachiman-no-kami of the Shinto in 1902 in the Congo, who empowered me in my hour of need. That was necessary to defeat the most powerful Dark Lord I have ever had the distinct displeasure to combat and who nearly killed me." Her lips quirked. "In a sense it is a family tradition since Muramasa-no-Norimune, my father, was one of Hachiman's Blades and some of my fundamental powers I got from her call upon Hachiman. So I formalized my service that I had been performing unknowingly for the first two centuries of my life."
Colombe leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees, tenting her fingers. "That is not an accepted part of 'modern' European magical systems such as Ron is studying, which rely much more upon the caster's inner will and personal strength. There are various good and not-so-good reasons for that being the accepted norm, but it does restrict them from taking full advantage of the specializations a differently focused understanding of magic has. Case in point, you are familiar with the Dementors that attacked Hogwarts this spring?"
Duke frowned, "Oh yes. Quite vile brutes indeed."
"No arguments here." Colombe stood and drew her rapier. "But if you had a practitioner of Egyptian Heka magics to call upon Horus-Ra or in my case an Adept in the Greek magics of Επίκληση to call upon Apollo Pythios to empower and strengthen me to fight evil...."
Her eyes hardened and she snapped out a spell in Attic Greek "Ηλιακή φωτιά!" Suddenly golden flames sprang from the blade of her rapier, casting no shadows and illuminating the room as if a piece of the Sun was present.
Duke's eyes widened in awe as Colombe finished with a smug smirk. "Creatures of Darkness such as Ghouls, undead, and Dementors really do not like this spell since it burns them body and spirit, consuming them utterly. While I am no priestess of the deity whom I called upon with my invocation, He does not begrudge me a tithe of his power to call upon so that He is remembered in the minds of humans as a protector of humanity from evil. Especially since some magicals did their best to stamp out that knowledge from the minds of those children who have the potential to call upon the Twelve Olympians." She scowled at the memories.
Colombe whispered a dismissing charm of thanks and the flames died. She sheathed the blade slowly and wearily. "Magicals have much to answer for, I have found. That is part of the reason that I am called upon to do what I do. After all, as a noblewoman and the last living child of Jean-Francois du Chasteler, I have the obligation of my heritage to set an example in word and action of how matters should be performed at all times answerable only to My King, My Honor, and My God. Virgil perhaps said it best in the sixth book of the Aeneid..."
"Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera,
credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos."
Spoiler: Translation From The Latin
Others will forge breathing bronzes more smoothly
(I believe it at any rate), and draw forth living features from marble.
They will plead law-suits better and trace the movements
Of the sky with a rod and describe the rising stars.
You, O Roman, govern the nations with your power- remember this!
These will be your arts – to impose the ways of peace,
To show mercy to the conquered and to subdue the proud
Duke quoted along with Colombe as the rapier gave her a look of surprise. "Colombe. I did have officers who studied the classics in public school and university before the War. Leaving that aside, great truths such as that, to whom much is given much is demanded are eternal whether we speak of Virgil or the Parable of the Talents. I personally prefer the version that was printed in a Yorkshire periodical in 1858."
"He cannot act on their judgment, but must be governed by his own. As he has great responsibility, he has great power, and is bound by the strongest obligations to maintain that power and the dignity of his office."
Colombe nodded in agreement as the battleship stood. "Just so. Now, shall we see what the children are up to to celebrate Christmas in July?"
*They must consider that great responsibility follows inseparably from great power.-French National Convention, May 8th, 1793
Concert for ButterKlavier and Audience #4 "Ils doivent envisager qu'une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d'un grand pouvoir*."
5 July 2014
Passel House, Hampshire, England
"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury." -John Stuart Mill
Spoiler: Noblesse Oblige
Colombe du Chasteler smiled across the parlor table at Duke of York as the blonde shipgirl shook her head, her ponytail swishing across the floor. "...and that is how Karl, Tamenokalt and I put paid to that rogue jinn."
Duke leaned back in her chair and sipped her cup of tea. "That was a fascinating story. If possible, I would like you to share that with the Orion sisters, since as you mentioned they can cross the Channel."
Colombe sighed, "oh yes. Magical methods such as an Owl Box or Vanishing Cabinet work and while jinn have issues with bodies of water -- rather like the vampire myths, I wonder if there is a connection? -- modern technology such as steamships and air travel make the Atlantic less a risky and lethal ordeal when I was a girl and more an annoying inconvenience like a passenger crossing a storm-tossed sea on a liner. I suspect that some of the additional passengers on the flight out of Iran in 1979 were jinn although I did not ask since they were vouched by... someone whom I trust implicitly. Technology is a blessing and a curse both. I certainly do not miss storms at sea as a passenger on board a sailing ship, but it also allows for things that were normally geographically restricted to one region or continent to find a home in other places which may be ill-prepared to deal with the threat that they are."
The Muramasa rapier then smirked nastily as singing was faintly heard from outside the parlor. "Of course that cuts both ways. As a very nasty and annoying ghost in my ancestral castle found out to his very brief everlasting regrets when he picked a fight with one of the top exorcists in Japan who was visiting from the Shinto shrine where she lives. By the time he realized what Toku was capable of doing to him, it was far too late for anything but the screaming as she sent him to Hell... literally."
Duke blinked. "Hell and Heaven exist literally?"
Colombe shrugged expressively, "In a sense, yes. I have it on good authority that various legends about the divine and infernal realms, such as the Greek Underworld and Mount Olympus, Valhalla for the Norse, Takamagahara for the Shinto, and so on and so forth have a hard core of truth in them. There are Powers there that sometimes interfere in mortal affairs, although generally indirectly through agents. Case in point, the spellwork to seal Verdun back up this time around among other things included a paen, a prayer calling upon and praising Hades by a Greek mage who is an agent of Hades. That bestow His blessing and authority upon the bindings shackling a creature of necromancy and unlife. Some of the magics I have learned from various traditions such as Greco-Roman, Hindu, and Chinese call upon and beseech various Powers."
Colombe took a deep breath and gazed into Duke's eyes before speaking quietly "More directly and personally, I have actually called upon and then sworn myself to Hachiman-no-kami of the Shinto in 1902 in the Congo, who empowered me in my hour of need. That was necessary to defeat the most powerful Dark Lord I have ever had the distinct displeasure to combat and who nearly killed me." Her lips quirked. "In a sense it is a family tradition since Muramasa-no-Norimune, my father, was one of Hachiman's Blades and some of my fundamental powers I got from her call upon Hachiman. So I formalized my service that I had been performing unknowingly for the first two centuries of my life."
Colombe leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees, tenting her fingers. "That is not an accepted part of 'modern' European magical systems such as Ron is studying, which rely much more upon the caster's inner will and personal strength. There are various good and not-so-good reasons for that being the accepted norm, but it does restrict them from taking full advantage of the specializations a differently focused understanding of magic has. Case in point, you are familiar with the Dementors that attacked Hogwarts this spring?"
Duke frowned, "Oh yes. Quite vile brutes indeed."
"No arguments here." Colombe stood and drew her rapier. "But if you had a practitioner of Egyptian Heka magics to call upon Horus-Ra or in my case an Adept in the Greek magics of Επίκληση to call upon Apollo Pythios to empower and strengthen me to fight evil...."
Her eyes hardened and she snapped out a spell in Attic Greek "Ηλιακή φωτιά!" Suddenly golden flames sprang from the blade of her rapier, casting no shadows and illuminating the room as if a piece of the Sun was present.
Duke's eyes widened in awe as Colombe finished with a smug smirk. "Creatures of Darkness such as Ghouls, undead, and Dementors really do not like this spell since it burns them body and spirit, consuming them utterly. While I am no priestess of the deity whom I called upon with my invocation, He does not begrudge me a tithe of his power to call upon so that He is remembered in the minds of humans as a protector of humanity from evil. Especially since some magicals did their best to stamp out that knowledge from the minds of those children who have the potential to call upon the Twelve Olympians." She scowled at the memories.
Colombe whispered a dismissing charm of thanks and the flames died. She sheathed the blade slowly and wearily. "Magicals have much to answer for, I have found. That is part of the reason that I am called upon to do what I do. After all, as a noblewoman and the last living child of Jean-Francois du Chasteler, I have the obligation of my heritage to set an example in word and action of how matters should be performed at all times answerable only to My King, My Honor, and My God. Virgil perhaps said it best in the sixth book of the Aeneid..."
"Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera,
credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos."
Spoiler: Translation From The Latin
Others will forge breathing bronzes more smoothly
(I believe it at any rate), and draw forth living features from marble.
They will plead law-suits better and trace the movements
Of the sky with a rod and describe the rising stars.
You, O Roman, govern the nations with your power- remember this!
These will be your arts – to impose the ways of peace,
To show mercy to the conquered and to subdue the proud
Duke quoted along with Colombe as the rapier gave her a look of surprise. "Colombe. I did have officers who studied the classics in public school and university before the War. Leaving that aside, great truths such as that, to whom much is given much is demanded are eternal whether we speak of Virgil or the Parable of the Talents. I personally prefer the version that was printed in a Yorkshire periodical in 1858."
"He cannot act on their judgment, but must be governed by his own. As he has great responsibility, he has great power, and is bound by the strongest obligations to maintain that power and the dignity of his office."
Colombe nodded in agreement as the battleship stood. "Just so. Now, shall we see what the children are up to to celebrate Christmas in July?"
*They must consider that great responsibility follows inseparably from great power.-French National Convention, May 8th, 1793
