chalk | Glowfic Constellation

taytahn

"I – yes. I left something I need."

She hesitates, then decides it's probably safer not to try to hide information from the copiously magic mindreader.

"My way home."

"...That might or might not work, with an active summon on you, but we can maybe try it; what is it?"

taytahn

"A linking book. It's a way of traveling between worlds. But I can't write one home from here; I need one that was written back home."

Not yet believing, but it's worth a try.

"Okay - Lift, stop. Headmaster's office." The lift changes course. "We can draw a summoning circle and you can be the focus so the spell gets the right book."

taytahn

"What will I need to do?"

"All you'll need to do is put your hand in part of the diagram and focus on specifying the exact book you need."

taytahn

"All right."

Deep breaths.

The lift opens on an office containing a lot of bookshelves and an older elf man who bears a lot of resemblance to Korulen who is already drawing a diagram out of a book on the floor. Keo takes a piece of chalk that he has left for him and helps.

taytahn

The woman (who has still not been introduced to Keo by name, in either direction) stands clear and waits attentively.

Eventually the diagram is right. "Just put your hand there," Keo says, pointing at the focus loop.

taytahn

She rests her fingers on the floor in the indicated spot, and focuses.

The elf casts a spell.

And there, simple as you please, is her book.

taytahn

The visitor reaches for her book, and her hand strikes an invisible barrier.

"Do I just smudge the chalk, or is it more delicate than that?"

"Just smudge the chalk," says Keo, doing so. "We can reuse the diagram if we patch the smudge, if you want anything else, but it sounds like you just want to be rid of this world as fast as you can."

taytahn

She takes the book and opens the front cover. Where an ordinary book might have a title page, this one has a rectangular illustration.

The image is moving.

She closes the book and hugs it to her chest, smiling genuinely for the first time since she's been here.

"I'm not – it's not like that. I just don't like being stuck. I was afraid I was never going to see my husband again."

She hesitates.

"Actually, if this works," – her smile falters a little on the word if – "I'd like to come back to visit sometimes. Write a book here, if you don't object. How hard would it be for me to get back here again, your way? My way, I'd need materials from home and a few days to set up. And a place to put the link-in point."

"Not hard," says Keo. "Just a diagram, a little more complicated than this one, and a spell, more or less like what you just saw. Writing a book here would let you come back without a summoning, is that the idea?"

taytahn

"Yes, exactly. A linking book takes the user to the place that the book was written."

"It seems like that would be a difficult system to get off the ground without a supplementary system to ever put the book in another world."

taytahn

"There are also descriptive books, which... there's some disagreement about whether they actually create worlds, or merely connect to pre-existing possibilities. My husband thinks they just connect; his evil father thought they were created and that that entitled him to be worshipped as a god. I'm not sure what I think, except that Gehn definitely did not deserve to be worshipped."

She opens the book again and looks at the image.

"What would you do if you had a book to this world?"

taytahn

"What would you do if you had a road to another town? I'd visit sometimes, meet people, explore the geography and wildlife, look at the stars. Atrus would probably want to take soil samples," she smirks.

"This sounds like kind of a political complication," remarks Keo. "I'm not sure we ought to enable it on our own recognizance."

taytahn

"More so than people knowing how to do it your way? And – if I leave this book here when I go home, how likely are political complications to follow me?"

She is taking a risk here, omitting details about how one goes about not leaving a book to be followed through, but the mention of political complications has put her back on edge.

"There are already systems set up to handle the way that already exists here," Keo points out. "We'd return this book where it came from when you left, we wouldn't want to permanently deprive you of it."

taytahn