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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.
Harry Dresden in Elcenia
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Harry tries to look as nonthreatening and polite as it is possible for a scruffy 6'10 man with a stick and a trenchcoat can look. "Nah, the shopping can come later, I accidentally did a thing that resulted in scheduling. I actually kind of came here to apologize."
"Uh, we're the ones who stupidly summoned you and got you stranded here, you don't need to apologize to us..."
He scratches his head awkwardly. "Yeah, but I was - pretty mean about it, and you were already having a really hard time. I know how it feels to make a dumb mistake and have people yelling at you for it to no end, and it sucks. This is so far from the worst thing to happen to me this month that it's kind of hilarious. So - sorry for making a bad situation worse." He pauses. "Don't do it again, though. In case you're not quite traumatized enough to get that."
"We won't! We won't ever," promises Korulen.
"Good then!" says Harry. "So. I'd better head back to the office, I think it's time for them to summon the return letter from Murphy. Sorry again, make fewer bad decisions, friendly neighborhood warden is going away now."
He sidles off. Awkwardly. Is this man ever not awkward. Sources point to no.
He sidles off. Awkwardly. Is this man ever not awkward. Sources point to no.
Korulen waves, also awkwardly, and closes the door.
The lift is obedient to his instructions. Kanaat's in the office; Keo's off somewhere else.
The lift is obedient to his instructions. Kanaat's in the office; Keo's off somewhere else.
"Hey, uh, Kanaat? Has it been an- angler? Yet?"
He's going to have to learn to actually convert these units at some point, probably. That point is not right now. In fact, it's as far in the future as he can reasonably put it. Harry Dresden is not one to change his measurement systems; he never went metric, and he's not going Elcenian without a fight.
He's going to have to learn to actually convert these units at some point, probably. That point is not right now. In fact, it's as far in the future as he can reasonably put it. Harry Dresden is not one to change his measurement systems; he never went metric, and he's not going Elcenian without a fight.
"Angle," says Kanaat. "Nearly. If you think it's been an hour, I can summon the letter for you."
Harry looks to be doing some mental math. "...Maybe? You could, uh, scry her? That's your divination thing? She'd be expecting something like that, and you could see if she's ready."
"It would take several degrees to draw the circle for scrying," Kanaat says. "I can do it if it's necessary, but if it would only be necessary in order to figure out whether an hour has passed it seems redundant."
"Damn. Well, I guess we could summon it now? She's probably done anyway, the full hour was just for insurance."
Kanaat goes over to a circle he drew earlier and casts a spell and receives a letter, which he hands to Harry.
Harry opens it and winces. The writing on it is large and, to whatever degree handwriting can be said to have emotions, it looks pissed. "This is going to be a happy reunion, I just know it."
He reads through. Murphy's handwriting shrinks down a bit past the first few lines as she realizes that figuring out logistics is more important than telling Harry exactly what she's going to do with his spleen. She says that he took a woefully inadequate supply of things with whatever the hell he took them with, magic before basic life grounding as always, and she's packing him a travel bag for when they summon her. She tells him she'll tell most people whatever he wants her to, but she's telling some people the whole truth and nothing but regardless, and he can blow it out various orifices if he objects. She tells him to summon her after half an hour from the hour she was already given. The remainder of the letter is occupied by more invective, apparently added to periodically whenever she thought up something else. She appears to have been interrupted in the middle of the phrase "bony ass".
There's a cheap wristwatch taped to the paper, as she appears to have realized that he didn't take a watch and that he's terrible at keeping track of time. She knows him pretty well. The watch is Hello Kitty themed, because she is not afraid to use her knowledge of him for evil.
Harry sets down the letter and puts on the watch. "Huh. That went better than I expected."
He reads through. Murphy's handwriting shrinks down a bit past the first few lines as she realizes that figuring out logistics is more important than telling Harry exactly what she's going to do with his spleen. She says that he took a woefully inadequate supply of things with whatever the hell he took them with, magic before basic life grounding as always, and she's packing him a travel bag for when they summon her. She tells him she'll tell most people whatever he wants her to, but she's telling some people the whole truth and nothing but regardless, and he can blow it out various orifices if he objects. She tells him to summon her after half an hour from the hour she was already given. The remainder of the letter is occupied by more invective, apparently added to periodically whenever she thought up something else. She appears to have been interrupted in the middle of the phrase "bony ass".
There's a cheap wristwatch taped to the paper, as she appears to have realized that he didn't take a watch and that he's terrible at keeping track of time. She knows him pretty well. The watch is Hello Kitty themed, because she is not afraid to use her knowledge of him for evil.
Harry sets down the letter and puts on the watch. "Huh. That went better than I expected."
"What's next?" inquires Kanaat, who has not read the letter.
"We wait... almost another hour. Apparently that was less than an hour, what we just did. And she's going to show up and yell at me and give me all the things I forgot to get out of my apartment because I'm an idiot. Standard fare, really."
"We could just summon whatever the things are if you'd prefer not to be shouted at," Kanaat says mildly.
"Well, I do also want to talk to her. And she's better at remembering things than I am, I'd miss something. Plus, the yelling is an important part of our relationship, I'd better stock up now so I don't feel deprived now that I don't see her around every day."
"As you like. I'll get started on the circle." He picks up his chalk and starts drawing on the floor again.
Harry seems somewhat at a loss for what to do! He elects to amuse himself by looking at books in weird alien languages. Alien languages, wooooo.
Well, the translation spell lets him read their titles, although some of them disconcertingly trail their text past the edge of their spines as part of being translated.
Even better! Weird alien books in perfectly normal English, wooo. He picks one that seems vaguely interesting (it's historical, record of a war of some kind) and sits to read it. Not his favorite way to eat time, but he'll make do.
This book is about the period of time in which some country called Ertydo conquered a lot of stuff and some of the stuff unconquered itself violently. The wars seem to involve a lot of magic.
Ooh, magic wars. It's kind of fun reading about a magic war that isn't his fault! He feels a bit sorry for the conquered folks, but that's how it goes, and it looks like they got their own back anyway. Good on them, probably.
The book is easily long enough to occupy the entire time Kanaat spends drawing the circle. And the rest of the half hour.
He checks the terrible watch pretty frequently. At the set time, he stands.
"Hey, Kanaat, the time of reckoning approaches. We can summon Karrin for yelling purposes now."
"Hey, Kanaat, the time of reckoning approaches. We can summon Karrin for yelling purposes now."