chalk | Glowfic Constellation

or-the-broken

"Not quite as nice a trick as it looks, huh? Yeah. That could be a problem. Somebody who can do what you did for me would still be better than nothing, but to really replace me, whoever went would have to know how to deal with complications."

"Well, there's not necessarily a reason it has to be exactly one person. A student will be much faster to get and much less expensive than a trained-light, even one who only has a class about wound evacuation under their belt and nothing else. We could find one of those who'll go for a couple of days within the angle, probably, if you can tell me a bit more about what they'll find there if they show up with themselves and a letter you write."

or-the-broken

"Confused and mildly alarmed administrators," he says dryly. "What do you want to know? If anyone's going to attack them? No. If anyone's going to feed them? Yes. House them? They can stay in my apartment, it's not like I'll be using it."

"Lights need more water than other people," says the bubblegum-pink light. "And sunlight." (The room has enormous windows taking up a couple walls.)

"And they won't speak the language. The spell you're using won't work in another world. Pity dragons are never lights," Keo muses.

or-the-broken

"The language thing can be handled. There's such a thing as a universal translator in my world; I don't personally have one, but the hospital can probably scare one up, especially if I'm going to be gone for a while and especially if they get excited about lights. Sunlight, though... what kind of sunlight?"

"...light... from... the sun?" says the light, gesturing window-ward.

Keo doesn't seem to have anything helpful to add there.

or-the-broken

"The sun here isn't the same as the sun at home. If what you need from the sun here isn't something the sun at home has, that could be a problem."

"Well - I guess you teach whoever you send your dragonsong and if they find it tastes wrong when they're there you bring them back for sunbathing every day?" the bubblegum-pink light says to Keo.

"Sounds like," Keo agrees.

or-the-broken

"So that's solved. Handy. What's a dragonsong?"

"If someone sings a dragon's name to a certain tune, the dragon knows about it. Doesn't know anything else, so it's best if it's an agreed-upon signal, but it does work transworld initiated out of Elcenia."

or-the-broken

"This place is damn strange," says Dr. Hall.

"I have," reports Keo, "one student who is also a light and takes anthropology classes and would love to write a report on your world for course credit for a few shifts of healing. Shall we go talk to him?"

or-the-broken

"Sure."

Keo waves to the light, leads him into the hall, and then into the lift, which she directs to a residence hall. The lift moves.

or-the-broken

He observes the lift moving.

"Damn strange," he repeats.

"Is it? Your language has a word for this," says Keo. "It's a lift."

or-the-broken

"Different functionality at home, different aesthetic," he says. "Different mechanism, too, I bet."

"Well, yes, this one's magic. I'm getting the sense you don't have magic at all where you're from."

or-the-broken

"Correct."

The lift comes to a stop and opens up. Keo leads him into the hall and knocks on a door, and a kid who looks like a humanoid lion opens it. "Hi, Keo. Hi, offworld person."

or-the-broken

"Hi," says the offworld person. "I'm Dr. Hall."

The kid looks confused.

"He's the nonmagical version of a trained light," Keo says, "not a psychologist."

"Oh," says the kid. "Anyway, I called my mom and she says I can go as long as it's safe and I'm going to learn things."

or-the-broken

"It's safe. And there's plenty to learn."

"Okay. Keo said you'd write me a letter?" The lion-kid produces a piece of paper and a stick of graphite.

or-the-broken