----------------------------------------------
THE BOUQUET ESTATE - MIDDAY
----------------------------------------------
Teis had organized with the parties involved to prove Melia is real to Nesseth, though had told Nesseth to actually come before Tarbin, unbeknownst to either of them. Not that much longer, roughly about half an hour, hopefully enough time to make sure Nesseth understands how to use her Mana Lenses adequately. Jax, the gate guard, had already been primed of their arrival, with Teis herself waiting outside her lab.
Nesseth makes his way towards Teis' lab, having been let in by Jax without having to wait, much to his own surprise. He spots Teis pretty quickly as the front of the lab comes into view, and waves. "I'm here, Teis! I hope I didn't keep you waiting."
Teis: "No, not at all. You're exactly on time." Teis stands from her chair, picking up the greater mana lenses resting on the table beside her, a monstrous amalgamation of lenses, like a jeweller and an optometrist had a baby. "Before Tarbin arrives, we need to make sure that you can use these well enough to verify Melia's existence for yourself." She approaches Nesseth, gently handing him the apparatus.
Nesseth carefully takes hold of the lens being offered and begins to examine it in his hands. He gently tilts it around, his head moving as well as he tries to make sense of the weird amalgamation of magitech. "Uh... well, I can say this already looks way different from my own goggles..."
Teis: "Thankfully. . ." Teis reaches out to the goggles, rotating aside most of the lenses out of the path of the intended line of sight, leaving only one lens in the way for each eye. ". . .You'll only need these lenses for Melia. While she does have a small presence in the other bands, she's mostly identifiable from her presence in the Emerald band. That is, the band of the Earth." Teis pauses. "Go ahead, put them on, adjust them as necessary and let me know when you're comfortable enough to begin."
Nesseth tilts his head, but shrugs and sets the entire thing on his head, taking a moment to adjust it so it sits comfortably against his face. It doesn't take longer than a couple of seconds, though. "Right, so... uh..."
Teis: "So. . ." Teis nods, moving back to her table, pulling out one of the magical wards inscribed on a piece of metal she'd used to break more of Tarbin's curse. "You are familiar with this ward, yes? We'll be using it as a control. I want you to look at it, and tell me what you see."
Nesseth nods, then directs his attention towards the ward. He blinks after a moment, then sharpens his focus a bit as he glances away, then back again, as though he's trying to confirm something he's not quite sure he saw correctly. He does this a few more times over about 30 seconds. "Looks like... this indicator thing in the lens is... shaking a little? Really hard to tell, but I think it shakes a bit whenever I look at the ward..."
Teis: "Yeah. Magic is everywhere, so even though this ward isn't projecting magic, in fact quite the opposite, the bands are still detecting the ambient magic in the air between you and the ward. Effectively, what you are looking at is as close to 'nothing' as you can get, and any movement is due to the result of interference." Teis explains. "When you're ready, I want you to look down at the ground, at the grass near your feet, and tell me what you see."
Nesseth hums and looks down as commanded, then sort of glances around to the sides a bit, to various patches of greenery. "Looks like... that indicator gets a bit stronger... and... greener? Hard to tell because it's still kind of faint, but easier than looking at the ward."
Teis nods. "Good. Keep looking. . ." She instructs, kneeling down on the ground and reaching a claw tip out. "Near my finger. Are you ready? I am going to grow something. You may have to move your vision around slightly to see the effects of this." Teis awaits Nesseth's signal, then she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and focuses on Nature's Flow to grow a flower.
Nesseth steps around a bit to get as good an angle on the spot of ground Teis is poking. As he watches, he notes the changes in the indicators in the lens, but opts to stay quiet as he just watches Teis do her thing. He occasionally tilts his head a bit, or takes a step to another angle as he tries to study the way the lens reacts to what he's looking at.
Teis: "What did you see?" Teis prompts again. She doesn't want to explain what Nesseth should be seeing, lest she prime his mind to see something which isn't there.
Nesseth directs his attention up from Teis' finger as she speaks up. "Well, that indicator looks like it got stronger while you were making that flower grow... Whenever I looked away, the indicator faded again."
Teis: "Good. This. . .Is where it's going to get harder and more subtle to detect. The key to verifying Melia will be to see that there is flow connecting Tarbin to Melia, and no flow from myself to Melia, and then visa-versa when we reverse who is sustaining her. Lastly, I will ask Melia to grow something, so you will need to see the flow stemming from her to what she grows." Teis pauses. "This. . .Means you will have to shift what you're looking at, both slowly, yet. . .Process the information quickly, in order to scan the area as it were."
Nesseth hums, a little frown creasing his lips. "Hmm... sounds like I just need to practice, then. For all the different bits on these things, it doesn't feel too much different from tracking and hunting..."
Teis: "That's why I asked you to come earlier. Tarbin's due in roughly half an hour from now." Teis nods. "So. . .I am going to draw nature's flow to this flower to make it continue growing, but from a distance. I want you to focus very intently on the strength of the vibrations, as well as the frequency if you're able to process that. . .You'll find that Tarbin, myself and Melia all have slight variances in the frequency."
Teis: "When you're ready." Teis waits for Nesseth's signal, backing up from the flower. Once the signal is given, she presses her clawtip against the ground again, directing the flower roughly now two feet away from her to continue growing and growing, blossoming further as it continues to grow.
Nesseth squints a little as he watches the flower, noting that the indicator once again starts to vibrate and light up just as before, but not quite as strongly. He begins a practiced sweep back and forth along the path between Teis and the flower, and notes how there's a weird... line of sorts, traced out by the indicator, not quite straight, but a definable line of magic between the feline and the flower, stronger than the reading he'd been getting from the grass alone. "Definitely not too different from tracking..."
Teis continues testing Nesseth, swapping the exact nature of where she's powering the growth from to test him, swapping between her hands and feet sporadically, as well as each individual finger. She doesn't tell Nesseth she's swapping where it's powered from, but as Nesseth correctly guesses which finger or toe she's doing so from, she swaps to a new one, continuing until Tarbin arrives.