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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.
Nick in Elcenia
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"We're going to have to tell my mom -"
"No! No don't noooooo -"
"What do you want to do, let him fall from where his scoot used to be and see if he's an air mage, I'm betting he's not! We can't just leave him in the circle forever. It'd be a hassle giving him a brick of iron, you want to try feeding him? To say nothing of keeping it hushed up! Telling her now is better."
"We'll be in so much trouble! I'll get expelled!"
"You won't get expelled."
"No! No don't noooooo -"
"What do you want to do, let him fall from where his scoot used to be and see if he's an air mage, I'm betting he's not! We can't just leave him in the circle forever. It'd be a hassle giving him a brick of iron, you want to try feeding him? To say nothing of keeping it hushed up! Telling her now is better."
"We'll be in so much trouble! I'll get expelled!"
"You won't get expelled."
"If you're worried about getting expelled, think about me. I'm worried about getting killed."
"We aren't going to kill you," says Korulen. "She'd need my help to -"
Korulen pauses midsentence, going white.
"...Korulen?"
"You can't co-cast a reversal," she says. "No, no, no, even if we - fixed his glider or sent him back with somebody who could fly or something, we can't send him back at all - why did I let you -"
"It's not my fault! Anyway, we could send him, couldn't we, doesn't that fix it both ways -"
"We can't send him, he's not from here!"
Korulen pauses midsentence, going white.
"...Korulen?"
"You can't co-cast a reversal," she says. "No, no, no, even if we - fixed his glider or sent him back with somebody who could fly or something, we can't send him back at all - why did I let you -"
"It's not my fault! Anyway, we could send him, couldn't we, doesn't that fix it both ways -"
"We can't send him, he's not from here!"
"I. Need. To. Talk. To. An. Adult!"
"They'll expel meeeeee," howls Saasnil.
"No. They. Won't. You're my backup, okay? If nothing else. I have to tell Mom."
Sniffle.
"No. They. Won't. You're my backup, okay? If nothing else. I have to tell Mom."
Sniffle.
If this goes on much longer Nick is going to start seeing how durable the invisible wall is.
Well, the wall is very durable, but it doesn't go on for very long. The door opens. An adult - although she doesn't look far if at all past twenty, she is an adult - with green hair enters the room.
"Shoo," she tells the girls, and they shoo.
"I'm very sorry about all this," she continues to Nick.
"Shoo," she tells the girls, and they shoo.
"I'm very sorry about all this," she continues to Nick.
"Okay, but that doesn't actually stop my ship from killing someone without me there to stop it! Full engines, flying straight towards a town! It was a few miles off, so maybe it won't hit them but maybe it will and this is an absolute disaster godammit!" He punches the ward again.
"How long will it take to hit if it hits?" asks the green-haired woman.
"Approximately forty-five minutes. Do you use minutes? About... Six times as long as I've been here already."
"Assuming that you cannot go back, but someone else can go to the ship, what should they do about it?" she asks.
"Someone from here? If they can't fly it, deliberately crash it into the deeps by puncturing all the gas cells."
"All right. It's being handled," she says. "Is there anything else extremely urgent like that?"
"No. Unpiloted objects and uncontrolled fire are the only really dangerous things I can think of, and I try not to use fire at all. But how is it being handled, exactly?"
"My husband is drawing a sending circle, will be done in less than the described amount of time with plenty of safety margin, and will then - provided it's safe to do so - send me or one of our employees to go and puncture the cells and then be unsent."
"Can you fly? Quickly? You'll need to catch it if they can only send you to where it was. And come to think of it cutting open the cells wouldn't be very safe, you might breathe the gas. You should just hold open the valves from the control room instead."
"I can fly," says Keo, "but he can send me where it is now, so I shouldn't need to. He can put me in the control room. May I scan your mind to see which valves you mean, in case a description wouldn't be adequate?"
"Scan my mind? By magic, presumably? How thoroughly?"
"Minimally invasively. I will also want to confirm the story about the runaway ship entire, and determine whether it would be safe to let you out of the circle, but I won't see anything I'm not looking for."
"Fine, you can read my mind to confirm the story and find my ship's controls and see that I'm not going to attack anyone. I guess it's reassuring that you're asking for permission. But I'm only agreeing because lives might be in the balance, I wouldn't hold with random mindreading for no good reason if I could stop you."
"If you didn't want to let me we'd have to confirm that your world was safe to visit some other way, and you'd have to stay in that circle, which would get very inconvenient very quickly, but I wouldn't do it without permission." She pauses, then smudges the chalk. The ward vanishes.
"I want to have a long conversation about this very interesting world once my ship is safely crashed. But do please make sure nobody's going to die because I was summoned as quickly as possible."
"The circle is in progress," she soothes.
Nick paces impatiently. He takes off his jacket and gets a better look at his broken glider. "Do I have to do anything in particular to help?"
"No. You're stuck here for the near future. The school is responsible for you; I can put you in a spare room."