Darlington has to laugh at the crypticness of it, the amused glint in the other man's eye that suggests something both uncanny and meticulously planned. "Well, now I'm definitely looking forward to whatever it is."
He listens with interest to Palamedes' explanation of his world, the organizational structure of...nearly everything, perhaps; a place more controlled by its houses than even the most crackpot theories about the Ancient Eight ever dreamed. When he mentions that there are nine, Darlington's eyebrows tick up, just slightly. "Technically, there's nine of us, too," he admits. "Though Lethe doesn't operate like the other societies, and our function's a bit different. Which I'll get to."
For a moment, he watches the steam curling up from his mug. He'd explained Lethe and the rest to a handful of people in Darrow, but never in exhaustive detail; not since that first sweltering day in New Haven, walking with Alex through the Green. In a way, he's a bit out of practice, a thing he'd never have expected. "Of the eight Houses of the Veil, there's five major, three minor." As he continues, Darlington ticks each off on his fingers. "Skull and Bones, specializing in divination, specifically splanchomancy and extispicy. Scroll and Key are the portal magicians, though they're also practiced in astral projection. Book and Snake, necromancy. Wolf's Head deals in therianthropy, though most people reduce it to mere shapeshifting, which tends to aggravate them. Manuscript's focus is glamours and perception magic. Aurelian does logomancy of...just about any kind you can think of. St. Elmo's used to be powerful weather magicians, though their power's been on the wane for decades. Berzelius formed itself in opposition to the rest, determining they could do through science what the rest achieved by magic. As far as I know, they haven't succeeded yet."
It's a lot of information. As Darlington pauses for breath, he looks across the table at Palamedes, trying to gauge the impact of it. "With me so far?"
no subject
He listens with interest to Palamedes' explanation of his world, the organizational structure of...nearly everything, perhaps; a place more controlled by its houses than even the most crackpot theories about the Ancient Eight ever dreamed. When he mentions that there are nine, Darlington's eyebrows tick up, just slightly. "Technically, there's nine of us, too," he admits. "Though Lethe doesn't operate like the other societies, and our function's a bit different. Which I'll get to."
For a moment, he watches the steam curling up from his mug. He'd explained Lethe and the rest to a handful of people in Darrow, but never in exhaustive detail; not since that first sweltering day in New Haven, walking with Alex through the Green. In a way, he's a bit out of practice, a thing he'd never have expected. "Of the eight Houses of the Veil, there's five major, three minor." As he continues, Darlington ticks each off on his fingers. "Skull and Bones, specializing in divination, specifically splanchomancy and extispicy. Scroll and Key are the portal magicians, though they're also practiced in astral projection. Book and Snake, necromancy. Wolf's Head deals in therianthropy, though most people reduce it to mere shapeshifting, which tends to aggravate them. Manuscript's focus is glamours and perception magic. Aurelian does logomancy of...just about any kind you can think of. St. Elmo's used to be powerful weather magicians, though their power's been on the wane for decades. Berzelius formed itself in opposition to the rest, determining they could do through science what the rest achieved by magic. As far as I know, they haven't succeeded yet."
It's a lot of information. As Darlington pauses for breath, he looks across the table at Palamedes, trying to gauge the impact of it. "With me so far?"