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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
imeanforever
"I mean, I do know I don't hold up under torture, so take that under advisement. Or just order me not to tell anyone."
infinitely-stranger
"Unfortunately I also don't have a way to tell it to you without either potentially saying it to Shrike instead, given his method of communication, or writing it down where apparently any local mortal with the right spell could spy on us and see it."
infinitely-stranger
"That should do."
In the distance, a bright light flares against the dark sky.
("Can you see the beacon?")
("Yes.")
("Good. I'll wait for you here.")
The whisper spell ends. Arcane takes Promise's hand. "Now would be the time to turn invisible if you're planning on it."
In the distance, a bright light flares against the dark sky.
("Can you see the beacon?")
("Yes.")
("Good. I'll wait for you here.")
The whisper spell ends. Arcane takes Promise's hand. "Now would be the time to turn invisible if you're planning on it."
imeanforever
Invisible she goes. And inaudible and unsmellable. She can't do intangible, so he can still feel her hand. Flat harmonics are so nice, though.
infinitely-stranger
Arcane begins fast-flying toward the beacon.
And spells: S I E R U L Y P E R I N O N
"Do not reveal my name to anyone, except where you believe it would be strongly in my interest to do so."
And spells: S I E R U L Y P E R I N O N
"Do not reveal my name to anyone, except where you believe it would be strongly in my interest to do so."
imeanforever
He might actually be able to see her nod, if she's still harmonically interesting against the dead background, so she nods, but she also squeezes his hand.
on-my-word
And there is the beacon - an extremely bright light, sustained with local magic a hundred feet above the ground - and there presumably is Shrike, standing underneath it. When he sees Arcane approaching, he dismisses the light and creates another one at a considerably smaller scale, closer to 'lamp' than 'lighthouse'.
infinitely-stranger
Arcane ceases fast-flight, lets go of Promise's hand, and lands.
"Does this qualify as a more comfortable venue for conversation?"
"Does this qualify as a more comfortable venue for conversation?"
on-my-word
"More comfortable than 'hovering miles above the middle of a desloate ocean', at least for me."
imeanforever
Promise lands lightly on the bare earth, a bit behind Arcane so as to leave less conspicuous footprints.
infinitely-stranger
"I'm a sky-veil," says Arcane, folding his starry wings. "Hovering miles above the middle of a desolate ocean is more comfortable than many places I could name. But this will do."
He notes that Shrike brought chairs and a table and paper and writing utensils. Reasonable supplies for this sort of meeting. One of the chairs has an... obviously wingless design, and the other is more of a backless bench; Arcane sits on the latter and lets his wings trail behind him.
He notes that Shrike brought chairs and a table and paper and writing utensils. Reasonable supplies for this sort of meeting. One of the chairs has an... obviously wingless design, and the other is more of a backless bench; Arcane sits on the latter and lets his wings trail behind him.
on-my-word
Shrike sits in the other chair.
"So. What exactly is the Queenscourt and how exactly do you propose to conquer it?"
"So. What exactly is the Queenscourt and how exactly do you propose to conquer it?"
infinitely-stranger
"The Queen is of a singular kind, whose singular magic causes her to know the names of everyone native to my world. As I believe you're loosely aware, there is a property of my world such that knowing our names makes us her vassals, meaning that we cannot harm her and she can give us arbitrary magically enforced commands. With this advantage she effectively rules the world, although in practice she only directly commands one part of it, called the Queenscourt. Other courts exist; one of my occasional duties with the Queenscourt was to conquer any that the Queenscourt wished to absorb, if they proved difficult to acquire by other means. At this point it is inevitable that the Queen will find out this world exists: either I will return to her and the information will come out in the course of standard security procedures for a Queenscourt vassal returning after an absence, or I will not return to her and she will seek me out and find me. The moment she learns of this world's existence and the magic its residents are capable of, she will seek to conquer it, precisely because this world's magic has the previously unprecedented capacity to capture her and dismantle her court without interacting with any of her normal defenses."
infinitely-stranger
"If you are able to arrange for about three dozen people to be summoned at once, into wards that prevent them from moving around or communicating with one another by any means, and for at least one but preferably all of those people to be immediately and regardless of their objections fed local food by a person who is present and able to communicate with them, that will take care of the Queenscourt. There are of course details and precautions, but I believe that is enough of a sketch to tell you whether this is something you can accomplish."
on-my-word
He thinks about it.
"Almost certainly, yes. But I will want to hear the details and precautions before I commit to anything."
"Almost certainly, yes. But I will want to hear the details and precautions before I commit to anything."
infinitely-stranger
"As implied, feeding is an avenue of vassalization. The strength of the claim varies according to several factors, and weaker claims sometimes fail to take hold especially in the presence of many competing claims, but no claim can hold if the one feeding is already a vassal of the one fed, so the Queen cannot be vassalized this way except by a mortal - someone from outside our world. Across that boundary - if a mortal eats food from our world, or the reverse - such claims are extremely strong. Do not eat food from my world."
infinitely-stranger
"Sky-veils can subsist indefinitely on natural light and rainwater, neither of which carries a vassalization claim."