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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
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infinitely-stranger
"Reasonable. Could have unwanted consequences if he notices you anyway by whatever means; I don't know what local magic has to offer in that area."
imeanforever
"Did the mind-reading mortal learn your name or somehow omit to do so?"
infinitely-stranger
"I gave it to her myself, in the course of altering my Queenscourt orders - given that one of them was compelling me to conquer a strange world full of unforeseen circumstances, getting out from under the rest served Queenscourt interests better than the alternative. And then she exploited a loophole to lift that one too. If only she had turned out to be more cooperative when I gave her her freedom."
imeanforever
"If there are uncooperative mortals around with your name - I can't think of a good way to mention this but will settle for a bad one. It might wind up being useful if I had it too."
infinitely-stranger
"Potentially, yes... I could worry about who you might be made to give it up to but there really aren't very many options worse than the uncooperative mortal with arbitrary mind magic."
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."
