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Cam studies. He studies madly. The next week elapses with him having very little sense of individual days. He doesn't want anyone to know anything special is up, so he goes to a movie with Renée and to a friend's house after school to play Nintendo games and Charlie gets his weekly phone call and he shows up to his classes and gets his homework adequately done. But other than that he studies. He wants to be fluent in this thing inside three months if possible. It's easier than Spanish, he's motivated, he can use it in everyday conversations as he asks passing animals and convenient plants how smart they are (dogs: smarter than goats; squirrels: about goat level; his friend's hamster: dumb as a rock; shrubs: way dumber than trees; indoor potted rosemary: just a step above grass) and chats with Grace, he's basically dropping himself in an immersion course with some inconvenient English here and there so he can interact with humans. He thinks three months is ambitious but reasonable.
He's not actually doing that many spells. He does wheedle tofu into tastiness on a nightly basis, and when he feels a cold coming on he looks up a spell about that, but he wants to know what he's doing before he gets going on what he most wants to be doing, because he wants to be doing big things. He swore to oppose death. He meant that.
Today he is preparing to oppose death in his backyard. It's threatening rain and he doesn't want to be all the way down the street with Leafy if the clouds open up. The jerk tree doesn't talk to him if he doesn't talk to it and it's perfectly serviceable as something to sit under, anyway.
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lifes_sake
lifes_sake
Oooookay.
Cam goes inside.
He writes down everything he can remember about this conversation.
He tries visiting the cat's address again.
Cam goes inside.
He writes down everything he can remember about this conversation.
He tries visiting the cat's address again.
In a word, no.
lifes_sake
And the others he can get to, also all no? Does the directory do phone numbers? He will try calling the ones who are not cats.
The directory does phone numbers!
No one is home.
No one is home.
lifes_sake
Curses. Can it do wizards farther afield? He'll deal with the argument about long-distance calls later.
It can!
The first few he tries are not home either.
The first few he tries are not home either.
lifes_sake
This is starting to look like a systematic problem.
Is the Lone Power known to have any capabilities that would render lots of wizards uncontactable? Do tell, dear manual.
Is the Lone Power known to have any capabilities that would render lots of wizards uncontactable? Do tell, dear manual.
It frequently does things that cause large numbers of wizards to be very busy.
lifes_sake
Yeah, all right.
Cam investigates the news. What does the television have to say about things that might render large numbers of wizards very busy?
Cam investigates the news. What does the television have to say about things that might render large numbers of wizards very busy?
The television offers no special clues.
lifes_sake
...Okay, maybe it just left him alone. The only source he has on Ordeals usually killing people was Iggy.
Cam writes a lot in Grace. About being afraid, unbalanced, trapped with nothing more than his own wits to defend himself. He wants to know more spells. He wants to be able to do more than just talk if anything like that happens again. He may wish to acquire an arsenal of enchanted objects, since there might be cases when he could get at one of those without telegraphing as much as he'll have to in order to utter Speech spells.
And then he looks up spells of protection.
Cam writes a lot in Grace. About being afraid, unbalanced, trapped with nothing more than his own wits to defend himself. He wants to know more spells. He wants to be able to do more than just talk if anything like that happens again. He may wish to acquire an arsenal of enchanted objects, since there might be cases when he could get at one of those without telegraphing as much as he'll have to in order to utter Speech spells.
And then he looks up spells of protection.
Spells of protection are many and varied! Some protect against magic, some against physical injury, some against very specific things like drowning or fire or poison or or or...
There are a lot of horrible things that can happen to a person, aren't there.
There are a lot of horrible things that can happen to a person, aren't there.
lifes_sake
There really are.
Cam is going to be proof against as many of them as possible, starting with magic and going down a prioritized list based on what freaks him out and what is most likely. He starts with defending himself against magic, then -
"Is mind control a thing? Or mental spying?"
The manual says it's not a common thing, but it's a thing, and there are spells against it. Cam casts one of those. It's kind of tiring. Also, it feels different, like he's not doing something new, just - adding a layer.
The manual, when prompted, says that some people have natural magical affinities for certain things. This particular affinity is not recorded, but nor is it particularly surprising.
All right. He moves on - general anti-physical-injury defense; he doesn't want to get hit by a cement truck and ruin everything; he should really have done this earlier but he wasn't confident in the Speech and didn't feel threatened enough, he supposes.
He's quite tired now.
Is there a danger to magical exhaustion beyond abruptly falling asleep, or can he safely cast things as long as he likes until his ability to talk coherently drops off?
Cam is going to be proof against as many of them as possible, starting with magic and going down a prioritized list based on what freaks him out and what is most likely. He starts with defending himself against magic, then -
"Is mind control a thing? Or mental spying?"
The manual says it's not a common thing, but it's a thing, and there are spells against it. Cam casts one of those. It's kind of tiring. Also, it feels different, like he's not doing something new, just - adding a layer.
The manual, when prompted, says that some people have natural magical affinities for certain things. This particular affinity is not recorded, but nor is it particularly surprising.
All right. He moves on - general anti-physical-injury defense; he doesn't want to get hit by a cement truck and ruin everything; he should really have done this earlier but he wasn't confident in the Speech and didn't feel threatened enough, he supposes.
He's quite tired now.
Is there a danger to magical exhaustion beyond abruptly falling asleep, or can he safely cast things as long as he likes until his ability to talk coherently drops off?
No danger, as long as he stops before he mispronounces something vital.
lifes_sake
Ooookay.
Cam mutters through a tongue-twister to check himself, before moving on to the next spell. It's against diseases. He recites it slowly and carefully and does not mispronounce anything.
But he completely fumbles his next test tongue twister. He closes the manual and pats Gracenote and goes to bed.
Cam mutters through a tongue-twister to check himself, before moving on to the next spell. It's against diseases. He recites it slowly and carefully and does not mispronounce anything.
But he completely fumbles his next test tongue twister. He closes the manual and pats Gracenote and goes to bed.
Tired as he is, he probably won't notice when a shell of air around his bed hardens into rocklike solidity. Nothing is getting in or out of that, other air included.
lifes_sake
Cam doesn't notice.
But eventually he starts breathing strangely - faster, deeper, trying harder to extract oxygen.
"Cam," says Grace. "CAM!"
Cam's eyes open. The air tastes - wrong, stale - he sits up and hits his head -
"Grace - manual - help -" he chokes out before gasping in another breath.
And if the manual doesn't consider that specific enough instructions Grace shrieks at it, "Read Cam a spell that will let him breathe!"
But eventually he starts breathing strangely - faster, deeper, trying harder to extract oxygen.
"Cam," says Grace. "CAM!"
Cam's eyes open. The air tastes - wrong, stale - he sits up and hits his head -
"Grace - manual - help -" he chokes out before gasping in another breath.
And if the manual doesn't consider that specific enough instructions Grace shrieks at it, "Read Cam a spell that will let him breathe!"
The manual's indexing feature is not quite that good! It tries, anyway - it finds a shieldbreaking spell that will work on this construct and doesn't require any materials that Cam won't be able to fetch.
If Cam can say the words in the first place.
If Cam can say the words in the first place.
There's a sound like ripping cloth, and a pair of kids about his age stumble through a glowing hole in the air that seals itself shut behind them.
They're wearing nearly-identical dresses, one in blue and gold with a matching hair ribbon, one in white and red with four fewer inches of skirt. They're both giggling when they appear, but when they see Cam the smiles drop off their faces. The one in blue turns to the window and flings out her arms, speaking a series of crisp syllables that command it to open and a strong breeze to flow into the room. The one in red goes to one knee by the side of Cam's bed, puts both hands on the air-shield, and starts... talking to it.
"What are you doing? You're air! All this hanging around being solid must be so exhausting, look, there's a breeze going, I bet you could be in New Mexico by this time tomorrow if you hurried. Air's supposed to flow. Aren't you bored?"
Apparently all this - delivered in the Speech - is very convincing, because the shield releases and the breeze blows it right out of the room, taking the stale air with it.
lifes_sake
Cam gasps a lot.
Grace speaks up instead. "Who are you and what happened?" She exclaims.
Grace speaks up instead. "Who are you and what happened?" She exclaims.
"I'm Jellybean," says the one on the floor, tipping her—his?—their head up to grin at Cam and dragging a hand through their long curly hair. "That's Matilda. Sorry we're late, we almost didn't see you. You must've really scared you-know-who, he usually kills people while they're awake. Likes it when they can see it coming."
Matilda, meanwhile, is still directing the breezes, carefully unraveling her spell to leave the air behaving exactly like normal.
Matilda, meanwhile, is still directing the breezes, carefully unraveling her spell to leave the air behaving exactly like normal.
lifes_sake
"Last I talked to it, it was trying to tempt me into taking some really vague deal..." Cam manages to say for himself. "Wouldn't describe it as scared. I think. What's it like scared?"
"Scary," says Jellybean. "They all are. You okay?"
lifes_sake
"I'll be fine, just my luck none of the defenses I cast handle suffocation, how did you know I needed help and what is with the Sailor Moon outfits?"