Nothing gets past oud! (Warning: the following post does speak of witchcraft.)

#1
I am a mystic.

J am also gifted with the charge of protecting another of my kind who is like a daughter to me. The relationsip is a symbiosis: she is my hands and legs when there are things I cannot do, and I am hosting her and giving her room and board in exchange for helping me keep my home maintained. We love one another. The Old Norse word for what we are to each other is 'Innangarð', or 'inner yard': that means your immediate family and closest companions.

And something threatened her today.

The threat came from my old teacher, the one who opened my abilities fully and made me able to do the things I do. My body is failing me, My mind and abilities are not. And oud has not failed me, either. I just got a new bottle of Oud Yusuf. And I used that to anoint my student. It builds a ward that absolutely nothing will be able to break through, while not hurting my old teacher. I do not seek to harm people with what I do—very much the contrary.

I am a paladin. I am a defender. I am the guardian of the citadel, and I am the walls themselves. And the walls are laced with the aroma of this precious substance that all of us so love.