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Inavet hisses a creative curseword, and slams the door shut, and reaches for her magic. The door to the building she's hiding in becomes to all appearances an ordinary wall. It'll take her pursuers time to find it - none of their arcanists are any good at crystal craft, from what she can tell. It won't buy her enough time, but it'll buy her some, and every second counts.
She starts trying to patch herself up while she looks for an escape route they're not covering. Blood craft's not her best, but she's gotten a lot of practice at it, lately. Enough to stop herself from bleeding out from the wound in her side (because of course it's deep) and keep herself from collapsing from exhaustion. Too slow - one of these days it'll kill her.
But not yet, she thinks, as she spots a window to an alley. Out go her magic senses - no one's alive and breathing in that alley but a cat rummaging through the garbage.
She dumps an illusion over the alley, to appear exactly as it was before she entered it. She can't get the cat right in a rush, but she doesn't need this to hold out for very long. Just long enough to get away. Song disguises the sound of the window opening and her scrambling out of it. She's conscientious enough to close it behind her. Easier than another illusion. Maybe they won't notice the blood.
Which way? Mm. One that way, two to her left, three are - oh look they found the door, she needs to hurry. She takes a right, and runs.
And comes face to face with - a snake? With a mirror for a head? What, how in the -
It's very fast. She was not expecting it. She didn't even sense it, like it appeared from nowhere, she raises her knife but she's not fast enough -
And then there is darkness.
Darkness and pain.
She'd scream, but the air's sucked out of her lungs in a whoosh. She snaps her mouth shut and flails, lashing out with something, anything - but she feels nothing around her. Nothing at all. Not even air. It's like a pressure, on all of her, but instead of pressing in it's pulling out -
Is this how she's going to die? Some Ministry snake monster thing?
Not. Likely.
She isn't the best at blood craft, but she knows enough to keep herself alive. She knows enough to snap her eyes shut and cover her nose and mouth and push magic at herself so her body doesn't shut down. It's hard - there's so much to monitor, she has no air... But she can keep herself alive. If she doesn't move and she focuses near entirely on self preservation. For - for a little while, anyway. Not forever.
Time crunch, then. Well. She was always good at those.
Her lesser crafts won't do her any good here. No way to make sound with song, no air to ignite in fire with heat, no time for aura anything, nothing to move and change with breath. Forget stone and metal, even when she's not in a crisis she's awful with both, not to mention there's nothing around for either.
But she is good at crystal, and crystal deals in light.
If she's not the brightest fucking beacon the world has ever seen, it won't be for lack of trying.
Maybe someone will find her. Or maybe she'll blind the bastards who put her here. Either way, it won't hurt to try.
Inavet and T'Mir
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Yep! All things explained, and all philosophical discussions done.
Back to practicing magic. The cat is going to practice jumping from thing to thing! Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.
It gets steadily less smudgy the more attention is paid to it.
Back to practicing magic. The cat is going to practice jumping from thing to thing! Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.
It gets steadily less smudgy the more attention is paid to it.
Hoppity. Hoppity. Hoppity -
Okay bored now. The cat's getting wings.
It flings itself off of the back of Isabella's chair, and just as it is about to hit the ground, spreads feathering cat wings and soars. Flap flap. Flap flap.
(And now she is trying to get the air movement right from the movement of the wings. And the sound. Tricky stuff! She doesn't get it entirely right, but she'd rather keep her flexibility with almost-right than have one obvious trick that is always correct but very predictable.)
Okay bored now. The cat's getting wings.
It flings itself off of the back of Isabella's chair, and just as it is about to hit the ground, spreads feathering cat wings and soars. Flap flap. Flap flap.
(And now she is trying to get the air movement right from the movement of the wings. And the sound. Tricky stuff! She doesn't get it entirely right, but she'd rather keep her flexibility with almost-right than have one obvious trick that is always correct but very predictable.)
Inavet snickers.
"It is important to have fun with magic. And to stay creative."
(The cat flies to an appropriately high spot, and lands neatly. It preens its feathers, smugly.)
"It is important to have fun with magic. And to stay creative."
(The cat flies to an appropriately high spot, and lands neatly. It preens its feathers, smugly.)
"In my experience, it keeps people second guessing. And if you're not afraid to try things you're more likely to see alternate ways around a problem."
Speaking of. Back to practicing.
The cat goes back to flying around the room. Getting a believable flapping motion from a creature that doesn't typically have wings is tricky and fun. It does laps around the ship, swooping at random intervals, steadily un-smudging and looking more like it's an actual thing that exists and makes sense.
Then it is nice and fully un-smudged and believable, and Inavet sends it swooping after the toy. Jingling, anatomy, no smudging, air movement from the flaps, a coherent illusion overall... Her? A workaholic? Never. It's not easy, but she's not practicing to do easy things, she's practicing to get better.
The cat goes back to flying around the room. Getting a believable flapping motion from a creature that doesn't typically have wings is tricky and fun. It does laps around the ship, swooping at random intervals, steadily un-smudging and looking more like it's an actual thing that exists and makes sense.
Then it is nice and fully un-smudged and believable, and Inavet sends it swooping after the toy. Jingling, anatomy, no smudging, air movement from the flaps, a coherent illusion overall... Her? A workaholic? Never. It's not easy, but she's not practicing to do easy things, she's practicing to get better.
warpfairy
Magic is magic, but a cat jumping around the room loses its appeal when one is not personally piloting the cat. Isabella does some obscure console things, then:
"Is there anything in particular that would help convince you it would be a good idea to give me magic?"
"Mm. People to talk about you when you're not there. General - personality showing. What would you do with it?"
warpfairy
"I don't know what I'd get, so I don't want to get attached to any plans. Unfortunately, I spend almost all of my time alone. The only person who knows me particularly well is my mother, which might not be a very objective source for you."
"Not really," she agrees. "Mm. Why - all of your time alone? And with magic - what sort of thing would you try to do?"
warpfairy
"I described the job I do. It involves usually being very far away from anyone, in uninhabited systems, seeing what's there. It would really depend on the kind of job. I'd want to know how it worked. I don't immediately know what I'd do with illusion cats. But something with energy, for example, could help power all kinds of things people need."
warpfairy
"In a couple of days we'll dock at a station. It's mostly Ferengi-run and I can't recommend it as a long-term place to stay because you don't have any money, but if you don't want to stay on my ship with me - which you are welcome to do - you could get a shuttle to Federation space."
"I am willing to stick around until yes or no for magic," she says. "Seems - mean. 'Thanks for saving, want magic? Too bad, no convincing me, bye!'"