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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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"When she's done I'll unsend her," Kanaat says.
Nick will go back to reading book titles, then.
And eventually, Keo reappears and puts Nick's sack of books down on the floor.
All the nervous tension bleeds out of him at once. "Thank you for dealing with that. Not being able to control my ship felt almost like suddenly realizing that I don't have a right hand. But it's not going to hurt anyone. I don't suppose I could get something to eat?"
"Of course. You can have full cafeteria access as long as you're here," says Keo.
"Right, and I still want someone to pay for my glider. Maybe not the ship, I did tell you to sink it. Walk into the lift and name my destination, right?"
"Yes. Do you want me to go with you to the cafeteria?"
"If you don't mind. I'm sure I'll start forming lots of questions about magic any second now."
He makes a mental list of magic he has observed so far.
1. Putting and taking things from another world.
2. Translation spell.
3. The lift, badly enchanted stairs.
4. Mind magic and... something about hair?
"You said your hair isn't dyed. And your husband had... Ears. So there are intelligent species other than humans here?"
He makes a mental list of magic he has observed so far.
1. Putting and taking things from another world.
2. Translation spell.
3. The lift, badly enchanted stairs.
4. Mind magic and... something about hair?
"You said your hair isn't dyed. And your husband had... Ears. So there are intelligent species other than humans here?"
"Right," says Keo, directing the lift to the cafteria. "I'm a dragon, Kanaat is an elf."
"Are there any particularly relevant or particularly distinct-from-human characteristics of dragons or elves?"
To the lift, "Uh, cafeteria?" It starts moving.
To the lift, "Uh, cafeteria?" It starts moving.
"My hair, his ears, our lifespans, my shapeshifting and various other properties," says Keo. "The full list in the case of dragons would take a while."
"You shape-shift? I thought you mind-magicked."
"I do both. Shapeshifting is all dragons, mind magic is just me," says Keo sunnily.
The lift comes to a stop and opens onto a cafeteria crowded with children.
The lift comes to a stop and opens onto a cafeteria crowded with children.
"Ah-huh. And what do you shape-shift into? ...Is this a school?"
"This is a school," confirms Keo. "I shapeshift into a human. Sometimes a mouse, but less often."
"Ah, so naturally you look like something else. That could have interesting navigational uses if your weight changes as well." Nick walks up to the rows of food. "Ooh, meat." He has some of anything that contains meat or seafood (which he recognizes as more meat).
"My weight does change, but I seldom need to navigate like you do," she points out dryly. She helps herself to a few foods too. There's lots of meat available; if he wants rabbit and beef and chicken and pork and tuna and shrimp he can get it.
"I have no idea how things work on solid land, but in Cloudbank you always think about weight and lift. You dream about it. I can't just turn that off."
He does want all those kinds of meat, and he takes a chicken egg as well.
"I can rarely afford fresh meat. This is going to be delicious."
He does want all those kinds of meat, and he takes a chicken egg as well.
"I can rarely afford fresh meat. This is going to be delicious."
"It's not particularly hard to come by here. We have to have it available for the leonine students even if everyone else were vegetarian; they're carnivorous," says Keo.
"And someone mentioned conjuring iron. If I ever go back I want about ten tons of the stuff - metal is extremely rare at home. Rare enough that it's hard to make proper tools. A lot of people's lives would be a lot easier with a little steel."
"That will be easy enough, although it'll probably be necessary to send it in batches rather than draw an enormous circle," says Keo agreeably.
"I don't suppose magic can be exported, too? From what I saw of your office, there's easily a dozen kinds here."
"Not a dozen," says Keo. "Well, depending on how you count, I guess, but anyway - most forms of magic you have to be born with. Wizardry won't work in your world at all even if you import wizards. It is possible you could use witchcraft but I wouldn't count on it."
"Wizardry is the chalk and circles and hand signs, correct?"
"Yes."