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He's moving her to a different court to see if it'll improve her attitude. She's allowed to fly. It's been a long, long time since she was allowed to -
She is only allowed to fly to her destination, not anywhere else. She notices that she is not where she should be, that she cannot progress to where she was told to go, and she careens out of control when her wings won't flap anymore, and she crashes.
imeanforever
thisvorlunatic
"Understanding this problem just became a whole lot more urgent," he mutters, mostly to himself, wishing very badly to pace back and forth but not wanting to look away from her lest he miss a warning. "Something I can do, something I may already have done—" and there he stops and looks at her intently. "Is all this inexplicable constraint-management accomplished by speaking?"
thisvorlunatic
Okay, that's almost certainly cracked it, but it is imperative that he understand this system correctly before he starts messing with it.
"Verbal commands? Straightforward, such that if I approached this without special expertise I could allow you to speak and so on without accidentally making the problem worse in some unexpected hard-to-fix way?"
"Verbal commands? Straightforward, such that if I approached this without special expertise I could allow you to speak and so on without accidentally making the problem worse in some unexpected hard-to-fix way?"
imeanforever
She takes a deep breath. "Thanks," she murmurs. "...You might be looking for the sentence 'I rescind all your orders'."
thisvorlunatic
"That sounds like exactly the sentence I was looking for," he says. "I rescind all your orders."
imeanforever
She relaxes. Considerably. "Thanks," she manages again, and then she starts crying into the not broken one of her hands.
imeanforever
"I," sniff, "if you happen to know of any gates back to Fairyland that's probably," sniff, "more long-term tenable than me staying here. The tear I came through won't have lasted."
thisvorlunatic
"I have never heard of Fairyland before this moment. —And before anything else I would very much like to know how careful I need to be about what I say to you, since you seemed unsure whether I'd accidentally added to your pile of orders earlier."
imeanforever
"If it's an imperative or a permission and you mean it it sticks. I didn't know if you meant it or not and wouldn't have until I had something to warn you about that I didn't for whatever reason want to warn you about."
imeanforever
"Also if I learn your name the orders thing goes the other way too. Food would have done it too but you fed me first, name works anyway."
thisvorlunatic
"Well, that's an information security problem of staggering proportion. Thank you for letting me know. I mean, I was already not keen on introducing you to all of my friends because people on this planet are likely to react badly to the wings for cultural reasons, but good grief."
imeanforever
"And I'm incapable of harming you, that comes with the names-or-food thing. Which is called vassalization."
thisvorlunatic
"I hope you don't mind me saying that I am offended on a very fundamental level by the existence of this phenomenon," he says.
thisvorlunatic
"Well. I have no idea where to start looking for a gate to Fairyland," he says. "What can I do in the genre of seeing to your immediate comfort? I can go get you those painkillers but I confess I don't have anything that's been tested on fairies. There are plenty of spare bedrooms in this house and you are welcome to occupy one for the forseeable future."
imeanforever
"I don't know if the painkillers will work either. I... don't know very much about healing injuries the long way around. I can't do sorcery here but I usually heal myself that way whenever I'm allowed. I could... I could use some rest."
thisvorlunatic
"There's non-magical medical attention available here, potentially, but it comes with complications and I have no idea how fairy biology works so even if I procured a doctor I don't know how much good he could do for you. I can show you to the guest rooms if you'd like...?"
thisvorlunatic
"I'm - sorry about whatever happened that got you into this state," he says, a bit helplessly. His gaze keeps flinching away from those broken bones. "The guest rooms are this way. I have no idea how to judge the risks of giving a fairy painkillers but if you want to try it I will get you some."
Off to the guest rooms.
Off to the guest rooms.