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Ari is... so, so lost. He didn't know this amount of lost was physically possible. One minute he's in a briar maze deep in Winter picking frostberries for a pie, then he takes four left turns and he exits the briar and he's in a temperate forest. Not even any snow on the ground. He turns around and there's no thicket to be seen.
He puts the frostberry pouch in his backpack and mutters the incantation to open a Way back to the mortal realm; he might land somewhere dangerous, but better endangered in the mortal realm than completely lost in the Nevernever. And... nothing. Literally nothing happens, no backlash or fizzling or anything that would indicate that he fucked up a spell, but the kind of nothing that happens when you don't have a spell to cast.
In something of a panic, he tests that he still has magic by punching a nearby tree, which splinters and crashes to the ground. "So that's still working, I guess," he mutters. "Punching systems: still online."
So, recap: magic works, he just got snatched out of deep Winter territory and put into something that kind of looks like the Wyld, and the Ways are on the fritz. Either something big is screwing with him or he's very much not in Kansas anymore. Either way, he'd better figure out what the hell is going on.
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bitterchill
imeanforever
"The house is very nice, anyway. Although it will need a few more things in it to look especially houselike. I miss my tree."
bitterchill
"Yeah, decoration is not included. I'll be making the bigger one in a while, though, and that one will at least be fancier in design. If not decorated per se."
imeanforever
"After long enough I might risk going back to my tree just long enough to get a cutting of it," Promise says. "Which ought to work like the original, if I plant it right."
bitterchill
"A specific tree? I could probably get it for you, if you'd rather not risk it. Moustachioed drag plot aside, I am actually competent enough with illusions to disguise myself as some kind of fairy."
bitterchill
"I can't. But I can walk for several hundred miles!"
He sighs. "Yeah, probably easier for you to do it. I could disguise you, though."
He sighs. "Yeah, probably easier for you to do it. I could disguise you, though."
bitterchill
"I could make you look exactly like another thing of roughly your size to anything that doesn't have a wizard's Sight, which I don't think anybody here is likely to have. I can also make you scentless, if that would be a problem."
imeanforever
"...Okay. I still shouldn't do this right now, because Yellow flies faster than I do and has had plenty of time to come home, notice it's a pile of smoking slag, and stake out my tree. Anyone taking cuttings from my tree would be suspect; he'd try issuing orders just in case, he's got that much wit. But after he would have given up - yes."
bitterchill
"If you want, I can scry the tree before you go and see if he's in the area. Scries are easy as long as nobody's protecting against them. Have I mentioned that I really like being in a world where nobody has the same magic as me?"
imeanforever
"I'm finding it pretty useful too! But sorcery can do invisibility just fine. Will you be able to detect that?"
bitterchill
"...Oof. I could in person, but not through a scry. And I'm not totally sure sorcery doesn't have the same trump against me that we're taking advantage of, though the Sight is pretty hard to fool. We could test that here if you're able to do invisibility here yet."
imeanforever
"I think I can, if I go somewhere shaded -" She walks into the shadow of the house, turns on the spot investigating ambient light conditions, and then
disappears.
disappears.
bitterchill
Ari takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, opens them again. He really doesn't like the Sight. It is stressful. Maybe the fact that they've only been here a few hours will help.
He opens his eyes a second time. Suddenly everything is what it is. The house, his, still screaming of magic and blood from when he made it. The ring on his left hand like a beacon, creating a sparkling silver shadow of a clenched fist around itself. The entire area of Promise's hotspot is faintly reddish and shimmering like blacktop on a summer day, the garden bursting with life about to bloom. His backpack glimmers from where he can just see it through the window, components and frostberries and that mongrelstone all throwing off bits of shine.
He looks at where he saw Promise last, and she's incandescent, a blinding green sun hammering at his eyes with her light. And there's more, the light speaks of eternity and protection and hope and- he closes his eyes as tight as he can, screws shut every mode of vision he has, and falls to the ground. "Mother of all fucking headaches, that hurts. It works! Joy to the world! Pain!"
He opens his eyes a second time. Suddenly everything is what it is. The house, his, still screaming of magic and blood from when he made it. The ring on his left hand like a beacon, creating a sparkling silver shadow of a clenched fist around itself. The entire area of Promise's hotspot is faintly reddish and shimmering like blacktop on a summer day, the garden bursting with life about to bloom. His backpack glimmers from where he can just see it through the window, components and frostberries and that mongrelstone all throwing off bits of shine.
He looks at where he saw Promise last, and she's incandescent, a blinding green sun hammering at his eyes with her light. And there's more, the light speaks of eternity and protection and hope and- he closes his eyes as tight as he can, screws shut every mode of vision he has, and falls to the ground. "Mother of all fucking headaches, that hurts. It works! Joy to the world! Pain!"
imeanforever
Promise disinvisibles herself and lays her hand on his head. The pain diminishes, although it doesn't go away entirely.
bitterchill
"Many thanks." There are kinds of pain Ari can appreciate. Headaches are not among them.
"So! The Sight works against sorcery. And hurts like hell, as usual. Still can't use it through a scry, but it's good to know."
"So! The Sight works against sorcery. And hurts like hell, as usual. Still can't use it through a scry, but it's good to know."
imeanforever
"And it gives you headaches, apparently. Anyway, it won't help with determining if my tree is being watched. Although I suppose you could tell me if anyone's destroyed it. They could have."
bitterchill
"Do you want me to check now? Scries are easy, like I said. Especially if I can use you as a focus."
bitterchill
"You exist. I mention that you exist in relation to your tree, preferably using a strand of your hair."
imeanforever
"All right." Promise tweaks a strand of hair from her head and hands it over.
bitterchill
Ari constructs a circle, chanting about finding the tree from whence this leaflet came. The second spell Belinda ever taught him was a directional scy; he could do this in his sleep. He makes a cup from a stone. He takes a handful of snow, shapes it into a ball, and pushes the hair into it. He pricks his finger and soaks in a drop of blood, then breathes on the snowball. It melts into the cup, and the water turns mirror-bright.
"Looks good to me!" he says, turning the cup to face Promise. Her tree is as it ever was.
"Looks good to me!" he says, turning the cup to face Promise. Her tree is as it ever was.
imeanforever
Promise peers at it and relaxes noticeably. "Oh, good. I didn't think anyone had a reason to hurt it, but I didn't know."