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Two girls are moving their hands through the air and speaking together in perfect parallel.
Two girls are looking expectantly at a circle of red chalk on their floor.
Two girls have done something exceptionally stupid.
Arcane in Elcenia
infinitely-stranger
Arcane tries the door, which doesn't let him out, and the window, which doesn't let him out either, and then for lack of a better way to occupy his time he starts cleaning the chalk off the floor with sorcery. This world is harmonically empty, which is interestingly novel for now but will probably begin to bore him as soon as he's figured out how to work with it.
Meanwhile:
"I'M SORRY DON'T KILL ME I'M SORRY I'M -"
"What was that oh shit what did it do -"
"Sit down," Keo snaps at the girls, "and shut up while I do my best to contain your disaster." She's simultaneously relaying the facts to Narax, to his friend Neris whose name and existence haven't been let slip, and several faculty members likewise. (She doesn't know what the deal is with names, but they seem key.) Narax is finishing his scry. Kanaat's looking up remote knockout spells. She's got the room wards up backwards on the girls' room; the summon needed to be let out, which suggests that wards in general may suffice. Not the intended use of the inverse room wards, but it'll do until something more stable shakes out.
"...you have another bro-?"
"Silence."
She tries to erase their names from the summon's memory.
Can't.
Narax's scry is in progress; she piggybacks on his supervision.
And, carefully not listening for a reply, she speaks to the summon:
<I don't seem to be able to directly remove names from your memory. If there is a way for you to let me do this and you prefer it to a more invasive option, raise your hand.>
"I'M SORRY DON'T KILL ME I'M SORRY I'M -"
"What was that oh shit what did it do -"
"Sit down," Keo snaps at the girls, "and shut up while I do my best to contain your disaster." She's simultaneously relaying the facts to Narax, to his friend Neris whose name and existence haven't been let slip, and several faculty members likewise. (She doesn't know what the deal is with names, but they seem key.) Narax is finishing his scry. Kanaat's looking up remote knockout spells. She's got the room wards up backwards on the girls' room; the summon needed to be let out, which suggests that wards in general may suffice. Not the intended use of the inverse room wards, but it'll do until something more stable shakes out.
"...you have another bro-?"
"Silence."
She tries to erase their names from the summon's memory.
Can't.
Narax's scry is in progress; she piggybacks on his supervision.
And, carefully not listening for a reply, she speaks to the summon:
<I don't seem to be able to directly remove names from your memory. If there is a way for you to let me do this and you prefer it to a more invasive option, raise your hand.>
infinitely-stranger
In the time that it has taken for them to do those things, Arcane has come to a realization.
He does not raise his hand. He writes in the air in large, easily readable arrangements of fairy lights: YOU HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS.
And, if they're going to try unknown otherworldly mental magics on him, he's going to search his as-yet-unmodified memory for a place outside of immediate Queenscourt influence with harmonics as compatible with zero as possible, so that he can open a gate there quickly if he needs to get away. (He has to guess at the meaning of 'compatible', because he has never personally seen mortal-realm harmonics, but 'similar' seems most probable.)
He does not raise his hand. He writes in the air in large, easily readable arrangements of fairy lights: YOU HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS.
And, if they're going to try unknown otherworldly mental magics on him, he's going to search his as-yet-unmodified memory for a place outside of immediate Queenscourt influence with harmonics as compatible with zero as possible, so that he can open a gate there quickly if he needs to get away. (He has to guess at the meaning of 'compatible', because he has never personally seen mortal-realm harmonics, but 'similar' seems most probable.)
Neris takes over watching the scry and Keo reads a paraphrase from her instead of looking directly at it.
<And I would very much like to discuss that with you via some method other than carefully avoiding you giving anyone whose names you know a command via elaborate rigmarole.>
Keo sends out an order to evacuate that entire building. Probably overkill, but the students scamper.
<And I would very much like to discuss that with you via some method other than carefully avoiding you giving anyone whose names you know a command via elaborate rigmarole.>
Keo sends out an order to evacuate that entire building. Probably overkill, but the students scamper.
infinitely-stranger
Erase the large letters. Write smaller, at greater length.
My kind is immortal. Queenscourt will find me eventually. Cannot know how long it will take. We can make gates between worlds. When she knows of this place she will conquer it rather than risk any wizard ever summoning her under better security protocol. Rigamarole unnecessary; I mean no harm. You may check.
My kind is immortal. Queenscourt will find me eventually. Cannot know how long it will take. We can make gates between worlds. When she knows of this place she will conquer it rather than risk any wizard ever summoning her under better security protocol. Rigamarole unnecessary; I mean no harm. You may check.
infinitely-stranger
Until she says otherwise he's going to assume she hasn't started listening.
Assurance you will not seek to alter my memory without my consent?
Assurance you will not seek to alter my memory without my consent?
<You have my name and those of several of my loved ones and that of a student in my care. You are manifestly not consistently acting according to your own preferences even if you can do so right now. I need you to stop having those names. At minimum, I need an ally under an empathy ward acting as a deadman switch for the erasure if something happens.>
infinitely-stranger
I have strong feelings about the integrity of my memory. If you will not compromise on this point, I will leave, attempt to solve your problem without you, and perhaps fail. If you work with me, we can solve it much more easily. Queenscourt will not start looking immediately; I am free for now. There is time to talk.
<I have strong feelings about my responsibilities to literally every person whose lives my compromised freedom could casually destroy. I would be able to do the name removal with surgical precision if there weren't something stopping me, but there is. Are our needs here absolutely incompatible?>
infinitely-stranger
As my vassal, you cannot harm me. That is what stops you. Can we not discuss dealing with the Queen before we discuss contriving to allow that harm? Planned right, you can neutralize the Queenscourt before they know you exist, and there will be no trouble over my ability to act on my preferences.
There is a pause.
<I've found a faculty member who's willing to talk to you.>
Left unsaid is and Neris and another teacher under empathy wards scrying the situation ready to smear your memories if anything happens, and also I read your mind for details on the name thing.
<I've found a faculty member who's willing to talk to you.>
Left unsaid is and Neris and another teacher under empathy wards scrying the situation ready to smear your memories if anything happens, and also I read your mind for details on the name thing.
infinitely-stranger
And this faculty member can accurately comment on the various capabilities of local magic including yours?
The door opens. A man of the pointy-eared local sort enters, takes one of the girls' chairs, and sits.
"The headmaster's wife has brought me up to speed on events," he says.
"The headmaster's wife has brought me up to speed on events," he says.
infinitely-stranger
"I believe it would not be difficult for her to neutralize the Queenscourt using wizardry and her own magic. But I need to know more about the parameters of summoning before I can recommend a strategy."
"The summoning spell that retrieved you collects a random target from a random world. Spells also exist to retrieve specified individuals, given adequate specification of those individuals by the summoner or someone serving as a focus."
infinitely-stranger
"Adequate specification being? Also, at what distance and under what other necessary preconditions can the headmaster's wife interact with a mind? And can she retrieve forgotten knowledge?"
"Having met the target or any unique specification of both world and person. She is unlimited by distance but most of her powers will not work transworld, except her mindlink, which should be able to persist even if she and the headmaster are in different worlds. She needs an empathic signature, most conventionally acquired by passing within thirty feet of someone, although she in particular can acquire them from other people whose signatures she has already collected. She can undo conventional forgetfulness but not all forms of magical mental attack if they sufficiently destroy the data in question."
infinitely-stranger
"I expect to be able to adequately specify most members of the Queenscourt. It is likely that the Queen has forgotten her name in the conventional way. If the headmaster's wife can be brought to my world and can target the Queen's mind there, and can retrieve forgotten names, she could acquire the Queen's name and command her from a distance; without the ability to retrieve forgotten names she could still do that to any other targetable person in my world. If she cannot retrieve the Queen's name, the Queen should be summoned and securely confined here and someone should feed her mortal food, which will also work to vassalize her but may be difficult without her cooperation."
"The headmaster's wife wishes to convey that dismantling systems of government is well outside the scope of her usual activities," says the elf in an absolute deadpan.
infinitely-stranger
"The alternative is that the Queen eventually comes here and dismantles all of yours. Which outcome does the headmaster's wife prefer?"
"It is not at all clear how the queen in question would accomplish this," the elf points out. "She has found instances of controlled interworld travel in your memories but says they do not appear to refer to our world as their target."
infinitely-stranger
Arcane pointedly creates and dismisses a fairy light.
"My world's magic functions here. It would be very convenient for you if it functioned here except for gates in particular, but there is no evidence to indicate that might be the case. There is no currently known way for the Queen to follow me here, but advances are always being made. It is just barely possible that if I stayed here forever without ever making a gate back to my world, and no tears ever happened to open between my world and yours, and they never learned to target a gate on a person or do anything else that would let them follow me here, they might go on being unable to find me forever. But forever is a very long time. I don't care to take that risk when your world's freedom is at stake."
"My world's magic functions here. It would be very convenient for you if it functioned here except for gates in particular, but there is no evidence to indicate that might be the case. There is no currently known way for the Queen to follow me here, but advances are always being made. It is just barely possible that if I stayed here forever without ever making a gate back to my world, and no tears ever happened to open between my world and yours, and they never learned to target a gate on a person or do anything else that would let them follow me here, they might go on being unable to find me forever. But forever is a very long time. I don't care to take that risk when your world's freedom is at stake."