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"I mean, yes, sure, I'm not going to go charging off half-cocked, but I've dealt with things that smart people don't tangle with before. Not voluntarily, usually, but I did and came out of it alright. If there's someone consistently doing bad things to people I'm not going to give up without knowing anything about the situation."

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"He collects sorcerers. Most of them are psychologically loyal, his orders are airtight, and you are mortal. Follow me."

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"Oh, magic users. Yup, not dealing with that by myself if I have a choice. Sure." She follows.

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Promise flies - "Run, at least as long as you can, Yellow may head back to his house at any moment and we want a wide search radius, he flies faster than I do and definitely faster than you run."

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Daphne runs. She's a little faster than the average mortal on account of having so much practice dodging serial killers, not that Promise knows how fast mortals tend to be.

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Promise in flight is still faster, but she holds it down to Daphne's speed.

When Daphne needs to slow down, they slow down, and Promise finds a large shrub. "Can you hide in there? For a few days, if necessary - I can leave you safe water, I can feed you a little of what I have before I go, that's safe since I'm already your vassal."
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She grimaces. "It wouldn't be my favorite thing, but I can survive for a few days as long as I have water. Some food would be good too but I think I could go as long as a week without food if I had to and not die. Maybe more than that? But--yeah, not fun, I've had worse, I'll survive."

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"It shouldn't be a week. I'm going to make you a gate, it may settle right away in which case the question is moot. Can you describe a good place to put you? In geographical terms."

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"...If it's going to be days my car will have been towed anyway and I should be back on campus soon..." She describes the geography of the Borgia University campus area.

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"Okay. Here's hoping." Promise makes subtle marks in the ground. "I'll make it between here and here. It'll only work going this direction." And then: "There -" She throws a rock. It disappears midair. "Go on through, it settled."

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"Thank you. I hope you don't get captured by any more terrible people." And she steps through.
...Of course, she picked the location based on believing that she was going to be a few days before she got there, which means that she now has to find a way to get her car back to campus from New Jersey. Oh well, better than lying in a shrub for days.
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Promise, meanwhile, closes the gate and flies away.






Three weeks later, she zips back to it, opens it, and slips through, panting.
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A random student is there when she does! He is mildly alarmed.
"Uh, Miss? Are you alright?"
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Promise scrunches her eyes shut. "I need to find Little Bird. Do you know her? Please just answer yes or no."

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"Uh, not personally, but I know of her and I can get you to her."

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"That was not a yes or n- Just don't tell me anyone's real name. Please take me to Little Bird."

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"I'm sorry, but it wasn't exactly a question I could answer yes or no to. Do you need help standing?"

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"No."

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"Okay."
He leads her inside a violet building and up to the second floor. He knocks on the door. "Little Bird? There's some sort of leaf girl who wants to see you."
After a moment the door opens. "Promise? What happened?"
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"Some of Thorn's vassals found me. I couldn't outfly them for long, but if I can hide here for a few weeks - even a few days - they didn't see me come through here, shouldn't be able to find the gate, if they do they won't be able to use sorcery so as long as I can stay far enough away and nobody tells them their names - if I can just stay long enough that they lose track of me I can start over somewhere farther away."

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"...Almost everyone uses their real names here. I conveniently have a close social group who are in the habit of using nicknames but someone's going to slip up eventually."

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"I can hide somewhere. Or put out my eardrums - well, you could, one of Thorn's people ordered me not to do it myself before I got away, but I don't have to stop you. I can fix them when I get home. I don't want to envassal anyone. I just need somewhere to hide and you can feed me without making anything worse."

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"Um, you can hide out in my room for the duration if you want. No one but me and my roommate will come in without an invitation and she'll be fine not calling me by name and I can refrain from calling her by name and that sounds like more fun than putting out your own eardrums. Also, if you've acquired orders you don't want since last we met, I rescind them."

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"Thank you."

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She opens the door wider to let Promise in. "Thanks, Frederick."
"My name's not Frederick."
"I know. This kind of fairy gets some kind of dominance over you if they learn your true name."
"Oookay, then. I don't think we've actually been introduced, how did you know my name wasn't Frederick?"
"The embarrassing birthday display your friends put up in the dining hall last month."
"Oh."
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