Intro thread: the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaven
The door leading to the outside of his room is green. He doesn't remember it being green. Maybe it's a trick of the light? Anyway, it doesn't matter.
He extends his flow to the brass doorknob, twists and pulls, then pushes off with his flow again, on his feet, to send him and Damjen through the door.
They both look young. Late teens. One of them is wearing a drab olive-green jumpsuit without any patterning or patches, along with boots. It looks old, and the color seems faded. He has the muscular build of an athlete, or someone who works in a very physically demanding job. His hair is black and buzz cut. His skin is pale.
The one clinging to his back is wearing a puffy shirt with lace, and a blue waistcoat with yellow raised millefleur embroidery. On his head, he has something like a felt bonnet covered entirely in moss with flowers pinned onto it. It's clear from the uneven pattern of the flowers and some torn moss that some of the flowers fell or were ripped off. He has high waisted brown trousers and leather shoes stained with fresh grass and dirt.
He hadn't changed before he left, because he wanted to be early enough to do scouting. He realizes this isn't the best clothing you could have for an operation like this, but, whatever.
They are now in a room. It is not the room that used to be outside Kandrad's room. It is lit by covered lanterns mounted to the walls, and besides a few coatracks, it is empty. Opposite the door they came in is a hallway that bends to the right after a dozen or so feet. The flickering of fire light and the soft murmur of distant conversation emanate from that bend in the hallway.
The door silently closes behind them.
This is not the interior of the castle.
Kandrad puts out his arms and stops himself with his flow. He's graceful enough with it that he manages to land without making a large thud, though it does still make a sound.
Damjen almost screams, but clamps a hand on his mouth to stop himself. Unfortunately, this imbalances his hold on Kandrad, and he awkwardly flops onto the floor, cushioned slightly by the bedsheet-bag. He quickly picks himself up and steadies himself as best he can to prevent himself from exposing them in spiritual hearing.
They don't go further into the hallway. Supposing that the wall is made of dead material (green wood would be considered alive, but seasoned wood would not), he ought to be able to look through the two walls and see the people that are talking in his spiritual sight.
Huh? But it's not being impeded by living matter...is he going blind? He looks at his hand, then at Kandrad, then back to his hand, then has his gaze rotate around his hand to keep in peripheral vision. He closes one eye, then the other, repeating the process.
He doesn't look back at the door. They are not going back to Kandrad's cell.
He can still see the energy flows of Kandrad and his hand, in all parts of both his eyes. He's not going blind. What is going on here???
He grabs Kandrad by the wrist, holding the bag in his other hand, and they walk just to the edge of the turn. He rolls his steps to make them quieter. He looks at Kandrad, taps his ears, then points to the space beyond the bend.
Got it.
The typical technique he would use to sense without seeing is the semi-autonomic spatial sensing technique Grandpa told him. But that involves sending out his flow throughout the whole room, tying it to his breath, then detecting the minute changes and blockages. It would surely expose them to any flow or eye mages.
Instead, he relies on the passive empathic senses of his flow. What emotions are being expressed in the group? Fear, anger, frustration, sadness, contempt, happiness, contentment? How strong are they? He can try to intuit how many there are based on the strengths of the emotions, but it's very unreliable — some people can be very emotional and some can be very unemotional.
Focus, contentment, happiness, something else bizarre and difficult to read that kind of resembles anticipation. It seems like three to five people.
What an odd set of emotions. Contentment and focus are plausible together, but he can't make sense of the anticipation.
He realizes that this is his first time vicariously living through the empathic senses of another type of mage, but he quickly pushes away the thought. Now isn't the time for philosophizing about qualia.
They'll wait a few more minutes. Does the quality or intensity of the emotions change? Do some leave or enter? It won't be obvious from the emotions whether or not people enter or leave, but it would typically come with an abrupt change in the composition of the emotions — though regular conversation might cause those to arise too.
At one point there's a burst of excitement from some of the people, disappointment from others. Probably there are at least four people, plus the one with weird emotions that are hard to decipher. That one continues to feel something-like-anticipation, increasingly colored with amusement as the minutes pass, but the murky illegible depths below that surface seem to be constantly changing.
Ughhhhhh why won't they leave so they can pass...he clamps down on that thought and suppresses it, for fear of alerting the flow mages to their emotions. Is he seriously going to have to wait for hours again.
Well, he did sign up for it.
Kandrad stands ramrod straight, preternaturally still except for the movement of his breathing, a byproduct of his flow training. Unlike Damjen, Kandrad is very used to having totally nothing to do for long stretches. He can totally Just Wait.
After another half-hour or so, the normal emotional presences leave. The weird one remains, weird as ever.
Okay...he's getting kind of tired of waiting. But he also doesn't want to try and get past the Weird Emotion Entity. It's one against two, sure, and he has no doubt that Kandrad can very well handle his own, but his eye magic doesn't do anything for him in a fight. Well, theoretically he could use it to detect weak spots and strike the most vital areas...but it's all for naught, since he has exactly zero combat training.
How far away does Weird Emotion Entity seem to be? Maybe he's close enough to be able to smell them. If so, he can get an intuition as to whether or not they're the type of person quick to or slow to anger, or whether or not they're kind or cruel, on a broad level.
They aren't that far away. This person is probably slower to anger than anyone Kandrad has ever met, generally kind (although that's dependent on context) and almost entirely lacking in cruelty. He has a pretty good feeling about them, probably one of the best of all the people he's met.
His sense of smell has never failed him yet.
Fearlessly, he steps across. His posture is open, neutral, but he says nothing.
Damjen has to suppress another scream, and he angles himself to have sight of Kandrad but not of Weird Emotion Entity.
If Kandrad's instincts say it's fine, then he's not going to gainsay him. But he's also not going to allow himself to be in the sight of Weird Emotion Entity.
The hallway leads to a large room with wood-paneled walls, high coffered ceilings, and a large fireplace at the end. Comfortable-looking chairs and couches line the walls, while the center of the room is filled with round tables surrounded by chairs, some of which look like they aren't designed for humans. The only person in the room is a woman in a cream-colored dress with a veil draped over the top of her head, sitting in a chair next to the fireplace.
(She is clearly weird emotion entity. When Kandrad enters the room, her emotions change to something... strong, positively valenced, and very complex. That's about all he can figure out.)
She rises to greet him.
"Greetings, and welcome to my refuge. I am called the Hearthkeeper."
She's not speaking dzwejwej, but they both can tell what she's saying effortlessly. They might not even notice, if they're focusing on what she's saying and not the sounds she's making.
The room looks so pretty! He smiles despite himself. He's glad that she's glad and that she didn't react negatively to his presence.
"Hello, Hearthkeeper," he says.
Damjen continues to observe indirectly by reading Kandrad's thoughts. He's glad that she's glad too. Or at least, what he interprets as gladness. There is still Weird Emotion behind it that's inscrutable.
They are indeed focusing on what she's saying rather than how she says it, so they won't notice.
"I'm not sure why your companion is lurking in the hallway, but I wouldn't wish to give him the impression I don't know he's there."
"We were anticipating hostiles, so he was being cautious," he says matter-of-factly.
...well if he's going to just say that, then there's really no point, is there? He takes a deep breath and turns the corner.
Does he try to read her mind? She clearly has some sort of detection power. Is she a flow mage too? The detection didn't rely on line of sight...
He'll refrain for now, choosing to look at her nose or mouth when facing her to avoid mind-reading her. It's typical eye mage etiquette; he's used to it. He'll let the conversation play out, and if it turns sour, he'll try to do mind-reading.
"I apologize for my impoliteness, Hearthkeeper." Is that a title, or a job description, or a name-with-a-meaning?
"I am Pekksjempar Damjen..." right. By breaking Kandrad out, and running away from his betrothed, he functionally separated himself from his clan. He might do away with the matronymic too. But he can't unsay it, and in any case, having been born of his mother is an inalienable state, and it's not like she can take away the eye magic she gave him while he was in her womb. Not while he's here, anyway. "Damjen is my given name."
"I don't take offense. It's not unusual for new arrivals to be afraid. And it may reassure you to know that I do not permit my guests to harm one another."
"Nor will whoever or whatever threatened you follow you here. When you entered that green door, you left the world you inhabited behind, almost certainly forever, and entered my refuge. Those who pass through that door, without fail, have something to flee from, and nowhere else to go. This place is a sanctuary for them, and for those who are born here. I do not choose when and where the green door appears, and it is not by my will that you came here or that you are unable to return, but I do control the refuge and endeavor to make it a hospitable place for my guests."
"You'll be quite safe here. There is always the possibility of a self-inflicted accident if you have poor judgement, but I employ an excellent physician, so you would be very unlikely to die of it. It's old age that causes nearly all deaths in the refuge."
That is...a lot...to process. It is indeed the case that they had something to flee from and nowhere else to go. Or, well, they did have somewhere to go...but that somewhere was the barren interior filled with dangerous magical beasts. Still, to know that they'll be here forever...
"Thank you for your understanding. I do not intend to harm anyone here."
He's glad to hear her say she has an excellent physician. It's such a mundane and workaday statement inserted after those life changing words. He suppresses the urge to cackle at the absurdity of it.
Kandrad is sad that he won't get to talk to Grandpa again, but he understood that that would be the case when he left. It is what it is.
"A few more things you should know: if you see a red door, do not enter it unless you wish to leave my refuge. It's dangerous out there, and most who leave do not return. When you're ready, I can show you how to get food, navigate, claim a room. If there's anything else you need, you can always ask me, and I may be able to assist you. It is customary, though not required, to lend any books or other written media in your possession to the librarians, so they can make copies. You may also wish to meet our physician, Ton'guni, for a checkup at some point. Do you have any questions?"
"Thank you for your hospitality. Is there anything we could do or give you to repay you for all of this?" He was about to talk about the books, but those are Kandrad's now, so it's not his place to be offering the books up to be lent.
"That is neither necessary, nor possible, unless you have unusually powerful magic or rare and valuable skills. I would appreciate it, I suppose, if you do things to improve the lives of your fellow guests, but you should do what is healthy for you, and what allows you to flourish here."
That sounds so implausible but Kandrad doesn't detect any hint of lying from her.
Same. Though without the help of magical senses. Damjen wants to wait for a good opportunity, not when the whole of her attention is directed on the two of them.
Hm. If they can acquire meat, Kandrad could acquire spiritual energy. What to use that spiritual energy for, he has no idea, but it gives them optionality.
"I am ready," he says, and turns to Kandrad.
He would have preferred for Kandrad to have said that aloud since that would make it less obvious he can read minds but, whatever.
"We are ready. May we be taught how to get food?"
"Yes, this way."
She leads them through one of the doorways out of the room, and into a large kitchen.
Now that her back is turned, he will take this opportunity to try mindreading her. Is she actually going to lead them into a place with food? Is there nefarious intention in her surface thoughts?
The moment he forms the intention to read her mind, she turns around and speaks sharply.
"Stop. Damjen, whatever you were about to do, don't do it."
"I admit that that was very impolite of me, and not in accordance with xenia. Again, I am sorry. I was concerned that you were misleading us. Though, given your power, it's probably a moot point for me to consider it." He moves his gaze to the small of her back instead.
Only by a great application of will does he resist trembling.
"I don't know what you were planning on doing, but if you did it, it probably would have caused you severe brain damage and possibly killed you. Explain what you wanted to do."
That's a...surprising claim. Eye magic is entirely passive. Is it some sort of spiritual contagion? But she seems mentally stable – if she was carrying any contagion severe enough to cause brain damage, she ought to be suffering from it too.
"I intended to move my gaze to your head, thus allowing me to read your mind with my eye magic."
"My thoughts cannot be safely comprehended by mortals. You can read anyone's mind by looking at their head?"
Oh. They've stumbled into a cozy corner of the void beyond the world's skin, maintained by a similarly eldritch entity adopting the guise of humans for their comfort. The Weird Emotions start to make sense now.
"Eye mages can view the structure and operation of living things, which can include thoughts if their gaze is directed towards the brain. It's occluded by living things not congruent to the organism. Where I'm from," since apparently they have been brought somewhere very far away, "people sometimes wear caps with moss, vines, leaves, flowers, green wood, or other such live or fresh vegetable matter to prevent this. Theoretically, meat could also work, but no one does that because it's extremely inconvenient and distasteful to others."
"Thank you for explaining. This poses an unacceptable risk to the privacy of my other guests, so once you've claimed a room, I'll need to confine you there until I can prevent you from reading people's minds without their consent. I'll dialate time so that you won't have to wait more than a few hours. I apologize for the inconvenience. Your companion is not required to join you, however if he chooses not to, he will probably go more than a hundred days without seeing you. Does all that make sense to both of you?"
That's...a long time. Also, wow, she is truly a powerful entity to be able to just manipulate time like that. He's going to stop with the subterfuge and try to ingratiate himself to the Very Powerful Chronomagical Eldritch Entity instead.
"You are welcome, and I understand. Will it still be possible for people to give consent to have their minds read? In my home, I worked as a therapist" barely "and I used my power in my practice.
Relatedly, I am also able to view the internals of the body with my power. Will that also violate privacy norms?
May I know more about what it means to 'claim a room' and how that is done?"
"I want to stay with him, and I want him to be able to keep reading my mind."
"Yes, it will of course be possible for you to read minds with consent. Some people may object to you being able to see inside their bodies, I'm not sure. But once I can block your mind-reading, it should be relatively simple to block that as well, for anyone who is bothered by it."
"I had planned to show you how to claim a room after you both ate—it's easier to explain with a demonstration—but the short version is that the space inside the refuge changes, and most of its rooms are temporary and will vanish after you leave them, but you can establish a claim over a room by inhabiting and using it, which makes it persistent."
"Is it possible for a single entity to lay claim over multiple rooms? Or for multiple entities to lay claim over one room? Can claims be relinquished?" He wants to know that he won't be stuck with a bad room — whatever might pass for a 'bad room' here — for the rest of his natural life.
That might be too many questions. "If you would prefer to explain this later, then please ignore my questions for now."
"Yes, yes but only with my help, and yes. I am willing to explain this now, but unless it's urgent to you it probably makes more sense to explain after you've eaten."
"It is not urgent, but thank you for offering." Damjen will allow himself to be led.
She leads them into the kitchen. A few pots are simmering on one of the stoves.
"You can find other kitchens—I mentioned that we have temporary rooms, it's possible to look for specific things you want out of them—but this is the main one. Some of my guests enjoy cooking, and when whatever they're making is convenient to make in large batches—stew and rice, for instance," she gestures towards the pots, "—they often do. So you can often find hot food in here. You can also get uncooked ingredients out of the pantry, to cook yourself, or to eat raw. It should be capable of providing you anything you're familiar with, but it isn't always cooperative. If you're having trouble getting something specific you want, let me know and I can help. I'll also mention that this pantry is unique, the ones you'll find elsewhere in the refuge are more limited. Dishes are usually in those cabinets and utensils in those drawers. If you find anything you like, you can keep it—we have a functionally unlimited supply."
"That's very generous, thank you."
What ingredients does the stew have? Does it have meat? Does it look like regular food, to his spiritual and mundane sight? It's not like, an illusion?
Yes, Kandrad is also very interested in the food and whether it smells like the food back home, or whether it smells good. He'll be able to tell if there's spiritual energy in it, and how much.
The stew contains lamb, vegetables, and spices. It does not appear to contain any spiritual energy whatsoever. It does look and smell like normal food.
Ah. He doesn't mind eating nonenergetic food, but it might be upsetting to Kandrad.
"Is it possible to conjure food that has spiritual energy in it? This food does not have any."
Assuming he opens the pantry and not one of the other cabinets in the kitchen, he'll find it full of ingredients he's familiar with (and a few he isn't, which don't have any spiritual energy) including, yes, a can of preserved meat.
It would be a stretch to say that Kandrad is familiar with any ingredient, since, before now, he has never actually stepped foot in a kitchen. He knows kitchens existed, he knows food is prepared in them, he knows what the shape and appearance of vegetables and fruits and meats are. He hasn't actually like, seen any, or touched any, or smelled any, or tasted any. Not until they've arrived to him already prepared.
What he is familiar with is the smell of the spiritual energy of the food.
He will pull the can with his flow and open it, then scoop it into his mouth, again with his flow. It looks like it would be really messy, with the meat just flying through the air into his mouth, but nothing goes anywhere it shouldn't.
It's simultaneously fascinating to watch, and deeply uncomfortable because it goes against all his deeply ingrained etiquette and manners training growing up.
He will just have some of the stew with rice. It's been a long time since he had meat; it would be interesting to eat some again. He will pull out a drawer and try to find a plate and cutlery.
That's easily done. It's pretty good stew, actually. It's not quite like anything he's had before, but it somehow still has that satisfying quality of comfort food.
It's a little awkward to eat standing up in the kitchen, but oh well. He likes the stew. The texture and taste of the meat is definitely interesting. He doesn't know what to think about it. But on the whole, it is pleasant.
"Are you still hungry?" he asks Kandrad.
"Hearthkeeper, would it trouble you if we took the time to cook our own food?"
Ahh. He previously got a sense that the Hearthkeeper was rushing them to claim a room already so she can do her mindreading blocking thing. But in that case, they can take the time to cook.
Basically all cooking and grocery shopping was handled by servants, and none of his siblings ever bothered to cook. Damjen was the exception, though he preferred to cook and bake sweet things. It does mean he has the best theoretical and practical knowledge of cooking among his siblings. For once, he is the best among them. Relatively, anyway. In absolute terms, he is still bad at it. And he doesn't know how to cook anything with meat in it.
He'll look through a few of the drawers to see if there are any recipe books. Can they be found?
Yes, there are quite a few. Some are handwritten. None are written in dzwejwej, which doesn't stop Damjen from reading them perfectly easily.
That is...concerning. How is it possible that he understands what the text is saying even if all the glyphs are unfamiliar to him?
He takes one out and holds it out for Kandrad to see.
"Can you read this for me?"
He doesn't know any magic that can do translation of written text. Magic that interprets audio is sort of possible indirectly, in that you can just mindread the speaker and know what it is they're trying to say.
"May we know how it is possible that we can read text that is not in our language?"
"I placed a translation effect on the refuge a long time ago. Communication was quite the challenge before then."
This technically answers his question but doesn't satisfy his curiosity. It's probably an eldritch thing that will give him severe brain damage if he tries to comprehend it, and perhaps annoy their host, so he refrains from asking more questions.
"Thank you," he says, then turns back to the recipe book.
Flip flip flip...he wants to pick a recipe that is within his skill level. He picks out several and gestures for Kandrad to look at them.
"I'll try!"
He'll open cupboards and take out the necessary vegetables: celery, carrot, potato, onion, garlic, parsnips. Can he find herbs? Dairy cream and chicken? Hopefully they have spiritual energy.
"Yes, that is our preference," he adds.
The magic pantry is very good. He will take out all the requisite ingredients and take out a large pot and put it on the stove.
Hm. He knows that he has no idea how to butcher a chicken.
"Do you know how to butcher a chicken?"
Sort of. He knows how to field dress various wild animals. He could try doing that with the chicken.
This sounds like it will end in horrible disaster.
"Please try."
He will hold his arm out and the whole chicken starts to levitate.
With the other arm, he makes a series of quick gestures with his wrist, and the chicken begins to fall apart, being slashed by invisible blades. The pieces of haphazardly and unevenly cut chicken fall neatly into rows on the cutting board, with the bones falling on the other side.
Wow. Who needs knives when you have a flow mage. He smiles.
"Can you cut the chicken pieces so they're all more even in size?"
Damjen will give instructions to Kandrad as to how to cut the other vegetables. He's assuming that he has zero knowledge on the whole thing based on his thoughts and what he knows of him, so he gives very specific instructions down to the desired dimensions of the vegetables.
Kandrad is happy to receive such instructions and can cut precisely to the specified parameters.
Lovely. Damjen will get some butter, which he forgot to take out of the pantry until just now, and fry the meat in it.
He's flattered. He'll put in the vegetables, and then the cream, and leave it to simmer for several more minutes.
"It's not ready yet."
He turns to face Hearthkeeper, though he averts his gaze for fear of severe brain damage.
"Do you have many guests?"
"A little over four hundred, at the moment."
She has been watching them cook with faint amusement.
"You know, there are some people who would probably be willing to teach you cooking."
Huh. He feels like he ought to have an opinion on this number but his mind is quiescent about it. Probably because he has no reference as to the typical number of people an otherworldly refuge ought to have. It's about the size of a village back home.
"I'll introduce you to some people once you're out of time dilation."
"Do you two have any specific requirements for the room you'll be sharing?"
"It would be preferable if the room had many houseplants in it. Preferably ones similar to the ones from my homeworld, but I don't know if that's something that is possible.
Is it also possible for the room to have...a shift, a bathrobe, something else to wear?" That isn't really a room furnishing but it seems like the kind of thing the question is meant to elicit. He wants to wash his dirty clothes and he doesn't want to sleep naked in the same room as Kandrad.
Speaking of sleeping, he's almost gone twenty four hours without sleep and both the coffee and the adrenaline rush are wearing off. He's totally going to crash soon.
"I can manage that."
"It's also worth noting that if either of you are willing to lend any books to the librarians for copying, it would be most convenient to do so tonight, as you would get them back in hours rather than days, according to your experience of time."
Mmmm. He doesn't really like it...but he trusts the Hearthkeeper, and if she was to affirm that the books aren't going to be damaged or altered in any way in the copying process, he would entrust the books to her.
"No, the books will not be damaged or altered. Moreover, if your books do suffer damage at a later date, the librarians would be able to make you new copies."
"Okay," he says, and then takes the bag from Damjen and pulls out the three books. They're hard cover books printed with metal type, with illustrations. Rather than move closer to the Hearthkeeper, he uses his flow to gently float the books in her direction.
She takes them.
"If you would like to stop by the library on our way to your room, to see it, we can do that. Or I can take the books there myself."
"In visiting the library, will we meet others there?" It seems extremely awkward to introduce themselves and then disappear, from their perspective, for several months.
"It's rather late, and the only person currently in the library is Dorian, one of the librarians."
"In that case, please do convey the books to the library on our behalf, thank you."
In that case, he will check on the creamy chicken soup, and see if it's cooked. He can sort of tell based on how the spiritual energy changes whether or not it's cooked all the way through, but he has little training in it.
"Can you use your spiritual olfaction to tell whether the food is good to eat now?"
In that case, Damjen will take out two bowls and ladle some soup on them. He only wants to eat a little, to taste it, since he already ate of the stew earlier.
Kandrad does not understand what Damjen is doing, and proceeds to scoop the soup with his flow into his mouth.
And then take the soup out of his mouth with his flow because it's too hot, then start moving the air around it to cool it down. The mouthful of soup floats in the air as a spinning ball.
Damjen winces. He really should teach Kandrad the concept of cutlery or table manners. It can wait, though.
And, after a few minutes, she returns. When they're done eating, she can show them to their room.
They finish quickly. Damjen only took a little, and Kandrad eats very, very quickly.
After turning to confirm with Kandrad, Damjen says, "Thank you for waiting. We are done now."
She leads them out of the kitchen and through a series of winding hallways. The furnishings and decor, while locally coherent, change from one section of hallway to another with no apparent logic, and no hallway takes a straight course for very long. Some do have windows, but it is too dark to see outside by mundane sight (Damjen can see the foliage). By far the most common source of light are wall-mounted lanterns, a bright, steady flame enclosed by glass and metal, the same as the rooms they saw before.
"I did not create this place, so much as I found something that was already here and altered it, repurposed it, tamed it, into my refuge. That thing is most often called the Eternal House. It's quite dangerous, most of all because it's extremely difficult to navigate. Things move around when you aren't looking at them. When I formed my refuge out of a part of the house, I exerted my power over it to make it safer, more predictable, more hospitable. But even here, the house has a will of its own, though it is benign. I tell you all of this to explain why the rooms and halls of the refuge are always changing. The rooms nearest the great hall are mostly stable, but the further we travel, the less consistent it will become. There are tricks you can learn to navigate—certain patterns or types of decor that tend to lead you somewhere stable—but for the most part people navigate by wandering the halls with their destination firmly in mind. This will usually get you where you want to go without too much delay. Do not expect to always, or even usually, take the same path between any two places, but you are unlikely to get lost. The same technique can be used to seek out specific types of room, if for instance you want to find a bathroom, or a room with a closet full of clothes you might wear. You could do this yourself to find a room to claim, though it would be challenging to satisfy specific requirements like an abundance of houseplants, for instance. My assistance will make this task simpler."
Wow. This place is a spatial abomination. He can tell what directions they've been moving towards and how many steps they've taken, and he feels they ought to have curved back to a previous location at some points. It's so upsetting.
Damjen's spatial intuition is weaker than Kandrad's, but he has nonzero knowledge about architecture and interior design. Enough to know that this isn't laid out like any normal house.
"Thank you for your guidance. The clothes...the clothes are unowned and we can just claim them? I would not want to inadvertently take someone else's clothes.
Since a claimed room does not disappear" don't think too hard about the eldritch plane's mechanics "could I obtain plants from elsewhere and put them in a claimed room? Are all places in your refuge indoors?" He can see greenery through the window, so perhaps one could open one and go through? Or would that put you outside the safety of the refuge and be, presumably, torn apart and consumed by horrors?
"Clothes, and all other objects, in temporary rooms and other spaces, are unowned and you can take whatever you want. It's one of the main ways people get material things they want. Permanent, private spaces—that is, rooms that have been claimed—do not have mechanical locks, but you would not be able to open the door to enter them without the owner's permission. You are able to freely enter common spaces, and it is sometimes acceptable to take things from them depending on the specifics. I believe the only common space that regularly contains unworn clothes is the headquarters of the Refugee Fashionable Society. They have a large collection of clothing they harvested from temporary rooms in the house, which makes it easier to find specific items of clothing you're looking for. I believe you're free to take anything that isn't stored at one of the workbenches, although I'd advise seeking assistance from one of the society's members—they know how the collection is organized."
"You can obtain plants from elsewhere and put them in a claimed room. They might not be species you're familiar with, however. I can advise you how to care for them if need be."
"Not all of the refuge is indoors, no. The house is also capable of creating pseudo-outdoor spaces we call gardens, and everything I've said about rooms also applies to them. The temporary ones usually aren't very large, but we also have several permanent gardens that are much larger."
Kandrad immediately wants to go claim a garden but that would separate him from Damjen since he thinks he doesn't like the outdoors type. Also he seems very tired and he should go to sleep.
Damjen likes the outdoors. He just doesn't want to have to sleep on the ground or go camping. He's interested in nature watching, not survivalism.
Also, he really likes the sound of this Refugee Fashionable Society. Truly, he has found his own people.
"Thank you, I will keep that in mind. Is it possible to attach rooms together? That is to say, create doors that connect two rooms deterministically? Or do all non-hallway rooms necessarily only have a single door which leads into hallways?"
"It's possible, yes. Some people claim and inhabit suites of rooms. In most other cases, it would require my assistance. It is also common for rooms to have multiple doors, although where those doorways lead is usually not persistent."
That's great. He can ask to connect a garden to Damjen's room later, once he's claimed one.
"If we wish to ask for your assistance, how would we call upon you? Are there times or circumstances where calling upon you would be displeasing?"
"My attention is functionally unlimited, and I do not sleep. You can find me by the hearth in the great hall, or you can call out for me anywhere in the refuge, and I will hear you. I do not hear everything in the refuge, to be clear. What you expect and desire to be private, will be private, I will not be aware of it."
They've been walking for several minutes.
"We're in the right place, now, to find a room that meets your specifications. It will take me a few more minutes to find one."
As they continue walking, several of the doors along their path crack open of their own accord.
Kandrad flinches and stops walking when the doors start to open. He'll use the autonomic sensing technique and draw out his flow to encompass the entire hallway, tying it to his breath. He'll be able to tell if any more open, or if anything at all moves within that space. It manifests as a barely perceptible rhythmic breeze.
Wow. Unlimited attention and no need to sleep. Okay, he can see now why trying to mindread her would have disintegrated his brain.
Damjen stops when Kandrad does.
"Is that normal?"
"Yes, I'm the one opening them. I need to do so, to check what's inside. The rooms don't exactly exist until their doors are opened."
Kandrad will unstop and continue walking to wherever the Hearthkeeper will bring them, but he'll maintain the technique.
"To claim a room, you form an intention to do so, and either spend some time there—several hours, at least—or leave your things there, or both. It isn't always reliable on the margins, but if the claim succeeds, the room will persist and the refuge will recognize it as yours, denying entry to anyone else without your permission. In this case, I'll set it up so either of you can give that permission. If both of you sleep in your room, that should be more than enough time to claim it. If, in the future, you leave your things in a room that doesn't persist, whether through a failed attempt to claim it or by accident, I can retrieve them for you. Does all that make sense?"
"That makes sense. How does bestowing permission work? Can permission be rescinded?
As for the claim, will there be a sensible indication when the claim has taken? Will we know? Or do we have to find out whether it has taken experimentally?"
"If you clearly form an intention for a specific person to be allowed to enter a specific one of the rooms you've claimed—suites are generally treated as a single room for this purpose—either for a specific period of time, or indefinitely, they will be able to open the door and enter that room during the specified period of time. You may then rescind that permission at any time, as may Kandrad in this case. If you want to get complicated with conditionals, you'll need my assistance. Unfortunately, there is no clear signal when the claim has taken. The house in many ways does not like to be predictable, and past a certain point it is no longer worth the effort on my part to make it more predictable."
"Ah, here we are."
She leads them into a large room with two beds, a large closet, two chests of drawers, a couch, a few armchairs, and short table. One of the long walls has windows from floor to ceiling, to several feet into the ceiling. The area near that wall is full of potted plants, some mounted on wrought iron platforms, some hanging from the ceiling on hooks. There's a curtain to keep the sleeping area dark, and opposite the window-wall, a door leading to a bathroom.
"Will this do?"
"It looks wonderful. Thank you very much. I am very grateful."
Are the plants...normal? That is to say, do they have any spiritual energy?
"Thank you."
This room has so much stuff in it. It's kind of overwhelming. He can't hold all the items in this room in his head, or even count them.
Also, he did not know that plants could occur indoors. He thought they were strictly outdoor phenomena. Maybe that's a Refuge specific thing?
They do! She made sure to get plants that grow on his homeworld.
"You're welcome. Excuse me a moment."
She flickers, moving too fast for them to see, and then she's back, carrying an armful of clothing and a watering can.
"I got the bathrobe you wanted, and a few other things for both of you. Is there anything else you need?"
"Thank you very much, again. I don't think I need anything else..." he looks at Kandrad briefly to confirm..."we don't need anything else. If I could just ask a few more questions:
Is it permitted to eat inside one's room?
Is the bathroom connected to this room by the suite mechanic? As in, it is tied to the bedroom and the door between them will lead to the other deterministically? Assuming we've successfully claimed the room."
"You can do whatever you want inside your room that doesn't harm any of my other guests. If you make a habit of trashing rooms and asking me for help finding new ones with requirements too specific for you to find on your own, I may stop assisting you at some point. And yes, the bathroom is connected by the suite mechanic, as you put it, and is persistently connected to this room."
"I have no further questions at this time." In part because he feels like he's about to keel over in the next minute.
"Great is the one who gives shade in the heat, hearth in the cold, water in the dry, food in the monsoon. Thank you for all that you've done for us."
"You'll be stuck here in time dilation for three to five hours, depending on how long it takes me to figure out how to block Damjen's eye magic. Though both of you look like you're going to sleep for longer than that. Good night."
And she'll depart.
"Goodbye."
"I do want to go to sleep now," he says. How does he turn off the lights in the room? The lighting so far seems to be with wall sconces, which is very old and traditional. Is it the same here?
"Which of these beds do you want to take?"
The one away from the window. He doesn't know what to feel about the Very Large Window but it's certainly a strong feeling. Also, he doesn't feel like sleeping.
"Okay, sure. Also, I want to change my clothes. Can you turn around?"
Kandrad does not understand what rotation has to do with him changing clothes, but it's clear that it's Important to him. So he does.
Damjen will then take off all his clothes and...oh stars, he'll have to do his own laundry. Well, at least if he wants to wear his old clothes. He'll neatly fold them and put them on top of one of the bureaus. Do the bureaus contain anything? What clothes did the Hearthkeeper bring?
The lighting is wall-mounted lanterns, yes. They have a knob on the bottom which can adjust the intensity of the flame—but not extinguish it—and foldable metal panels that can cover up the lantern entirely. They may also wish to draw the curtains so light doesn't flood in through the massive window-wall in the morning. The bureaus are empty. She brought for both of them bathrobes, several loose-fitting linen shirts and trousers, underwear, and socks.
He will put the ones in his size on, along with socks.
"You should take off your boots, Kandrad. Also, I'm done changing, you can turn around now."
"In most people's houses, people take off their shoes before entering so they don't dirty the inside floors with dirt from the outside. It will make cleaning easier."
He doesn't think cleaning is that hard, but he supposes that if one wasn't a flow mage, it would be harder. And Damjen cares about it, so he'll do it. He'll put them beside the bureau that Damjen isn't using.
Damjen would normally have preferred to bathe before sleeping, but he feels like if he was to try doing so, he'd fall asleep in the bath. He'll wash himself tomorrow.
"I'm sleeping now," he says, as he turns down the flames and puts the covers on them.
That is so sad.
He does not elect to use the curtains. He prefers to awaken by natural light. And it will get him started back on the path of having a diurnal sleep schedule. He doesn't know whether or not Kandrad would like it, but he hasn't experienced it before, so he supposes he'll find out tomorrow.
He unceremoniously flops on the bed and is asleep soon after.
Kandrad is confused why Damjen was saddened by him telling him that, but it doesn't seem urgent to address.
Hm. He wonders whether or not the Hearthkeeper would be upset by his flow and smoke empathic powers, given that the eye magic mindreading upset her. She seems to value other people being able to keep 'privacy', the ability to keep secrets. But she was able to detect Damjen doing it and stopped him, whereas he used both of his empathic powers on her, and she did not block it. So he's unsure.
He'll talk about it with Damjen tomorrow. Despite having his sleep interrupted, he feels great. Full of energy. It's probably the fact that this is the only time he's been allowed to hold supernatural levels of spiritual energy in his body without needing to use it or dissolve it. He always hated having to do that.
He passes the time doing nothing.
The lights are closed, but he still knows the shapes and positions of all the entities and objects in the room from his active flow senses.
Hm. He decides to check out the bathroom. What's it like? He uses his flow to baffle the sound of the opening door, if there is any. He isn't very good at making sound baffles, but it will have to do.
There is a bathtub with a showerhead, a sink, a toilet, and a mirror. And more of those lanterns for lighting, of course.
He closes the door behind him to prevent the light from leaking out.
This is a lot of objects and he has no idea what their purpose is. He looks at the mirror.
Oh, it's. Him. He thinks. The entity is making all the same movements he does. And he thinks he looks like him, based on the shape of the face. He moves his flow onto his face to confirm. Yes.
It's kind of unsettling him so he's going to return to the bedroom and sit on his bed. It's softer than the old one he has. He feels like bouncing on it but it would make sound that would wake Damjen up. So he just breathes quietly.
...okay, what Damjen said about the dark making it easier to sleep was right. He does feel like sleeping now. But going to sleep means letting go of his flow technique, and he wants to be able to tell if anyone enters the room. Yes, he heard the Hearthkeeper say that no one could enter their room without their permission, but that only applies once they've claimed the room. This has not yet occurred, he thinks.
He decides to breathe out some smoke and pull it into a very long string, then move the string with flow around the walls, floor, ceiling, and doors of the bedroom, fixing it in place, then attaches the string to his leg. There. If anyone pulls on the string, it will pull on his leg.
He then, somewhat reluctantly, goes to sleep.
When they awake, Kandrad's books are sitting on the table, alongside a note.
It is now early morning. Sunlight streams in through the window, revealing a large garden outside.
Damjen and his companion who did not introduce himself,
I have completed the work necessary to block Damjen's eye magic. He will be unable to read the mind of anyone who does not knowingly consent, nor will he be able to look inside the body of anyone who objects to this, which a few people have. The librarians are grateful for the opportunity to copy these books, and expect that they will be of interest to many people. They may request another look once they've finished etching the plates for the illustrations, to confirm their accuracy. I have spoken to several of the refuge's habitual cooks, who would be happy to meet Damjen's companion and teach him some cooking. He may meet them in the kitchen around sixteen o'clock (two hours before dinner customarily begins).
The Hearthkeeper
Kandrad awakens first, having already slept earlier in the night, and having exerted himself less. He extends his flow to scan the room in the same way as before...there are objects on the table he doesn't recognize.
He bolts upright and leaps off the bed in an initiating stance, before realizing it's their books. With paper on top. From a distance, he picks them up using his flow and rotates them, trying to feel if they feel heavier or lighter than they expected. They weigh fine.
He brings the paper towards him so he can read it.
Hm. He wants to go and meet them and learn Cooking Magic, but he doesn't want to leave without Damjen. He awoke in part because light has begun to stream in from the windows. So he'll wait for him to wake up.
Damjen awakens about half an hour after sunrise, still groggy. His sleep schedule is all out of whack, and he feels the dried sweat on his skin. Ugh.
"Good morning. Oh, I see they've brought back the books."
He reads it.
Sixteen o'clock. Hm. Assuming dinner occurs around sunset, and assuming sunset is eighteen o'clock, then it seems they tell time the same way here. Or it's that translation effect again. Speaking of which, he should bring his pocket watch out with him to synchronize with the local time. The...time dilation...might have caused it to go out of sync. There aren't any clocks in the room, so he'll have to use the pocket watch to tell time.
"Do you want to go to the kitchen and have breakfast?"
"Okay. I'm going to go shower and change. I recommend you do that too. Do you want to go first?"
No. He entered the bathroom and it was full of white and metal objects he did not comprehend. And also a thing that had him in it.
A thing that..."Oh. That's a mirror. It reflects light that's in front of it. It's not like, a you, it's just a reflection of you, an image. It's just light. And I can show you how to use the bathroom."
He will enter and explain the toilet, shower, bathtub, and sink. Does only cold water come out or can he toggle it to have hot water too? His clan...well, former clan's city house had a central boiler, so it did, but the rural estate was older and water had to be boiled each time for bathing.
?????????
Oh. "Most people do not want to look at other people naked. It's a thing, and people can get very emotional about it. Only people who are very close to each other typically don't mind."
Okay, well, he doesn't really care if Damjen looks at him naked. Are they close enough such that it doesn't matter?
Kandrad trusts Damjen enough to follow what he says without knowing what the purpose of it is. He did follow him out of his cell and into this place, after all. So if he says that it's Very Important, then he believes him.
Hm. He doesn't want to completely cut off his connection to him in closing the door, though. If he closes the door, and speaks, will Damjen hear it? Will the sound pass through? "If you can hear me, say something," he says, after closing it.
Sound passes through the door the way it normally would through solid wood. (Sound also passes through the walls, they're just very well insulated.)
In that case, Kandrad will take off his clothes and put them on the counter, and activate the cold water shower.
It feels like rain. Or at least, he thinks it's like rain. He hasn't actually experienced being out in the rain before. He lets the water pass through him for a few minutes, doing nothing for a bit.
Is there soap? He is familiar with that, at least. What other items could be found in the bathroom?
There is a bar of soap in the shower, and one in a dish on the vanity. Several washcloths and towels are stacked on a shelf, and there are safety razors, shaving soap, various brushes, and combs inside the vanity cabinets.
He's unfamiliar with the other items. He has no idea why anyone would make a blade that small, it's completely useless as a weapon. Whatever.
He will soap himself, wash again, and then dry himself with a combination of the towel and flow wind. It's very convenient to be able to clean himself with more water than the jug he used to be given earlier.
Damjen said that he should not allow himself to be seen naked by other people. So he'll put the towel around his shoulders before leaving the bathroom.
"When I said that people are concerned about nakedness, I mean that you should cover your genitals. Not, just cover up your body. That's really the important part." He turns around.
Oh. Well, he's about to get changed now anyway, so he won't bother repositioning it. He will put on his other jumpsuit, which is clean.
"I'm done."
Huh. He's not sure why Kandrad chose to wear his old clothes rather than his new, but whatever.
He will shower and get dressed without incident, bringing his change of clothes inside the bathroom so he can get changed without having to exit.
He's going to fill up the watering can and...he's not sure if the tap water is good for the plants? He also actually doesn't know if the tap water is good to drink. He assumes he does but he'd rather not assume. He hasn't drunk anything since last night. Well, they're about to go to the kitchen anyway, so he can bear it a little longer. His moss cap won't die not having been watered a day. He holds off on doing any watering.
It's really not necessary for him to bring it, since no one else here seems to have the ability to read minds like him, or has had their ability to do so blocked, but it's a reminder of home, such as it was.
"We should check if we've successfully claimed the room. Let's both exit, and then try to reenter. Does that sound good to you?"
Damjen will grab Kandrad's wrist and open the door to the outside. What does it look like?
In that case, they will both leave, close the door, wait a few seconds, and then open the door. Is it still their bedroom?
Great!
"Shall we go to the kitchen now? Actually, wait, I should grab the letter, to verify our introduction." This seems unnecessary but it's better to have it than to not. He does so, then returns, closing the door. He has the urge to open it again just to really make sure that the room is still there, but he suppresses that urge.
"We announce our desire to go to the kitchen," Damjen says aloud, then passes through one of the doors at the end of the hallway. Is it the kitchen, or is it another type of room?
Okay, he expected that.
The Hearthkeeper said that the types of decor or patterns could be used to lead them where they need to go. Is any of the decor...foodlike? Kitcheny? They will open the door in that direction.
There aren't any obvious clues, but he sure can keep opening doors. More rooms, more hallways. Nothing that would be out of place in a house, somewhere.
In that case, they will continue to do so. Damjen will continue his refrain of announcing their intention to go to the kitchen.
After the third room, Kandrad will join in and synchronize his words to Damjen's.
After a few minutes, they reach a fairly wide hallway. A few people are passing through, light traffic all headed in the same direction.
What occurs if he tries to look at their heads or their torsos? What do the people look like?
Damjen cannot read their minds, but he can see inside their bodies. Most of them appear human or humanoid. One of them is a cat.
One of them waves to them as he passes by (not the cat).
Damjen will wave back.
Hmm. He can still see that they're alive, but it's like someone put a blur effect on their heads. He can still determine the luminance — spiritual energy flows of living things are brighter when they have more activity, like deep thought, and less for less, such as sleeping — but he can't make out any thoughts from it.
There is wider phenotypic variation among humans in Narmjesa due to human experimentation and modification by the Cannibal Kings, so the fact that some of them are humanoid isn't surprising or alarming at all.
Huh. He wonders if the cats are also people or if the Hearthkeeper blocked him from reading any sentient mind, not just sapients.
Kandrad does not wave back.
He's close enough to smell the others somewhat...do they seem friendly? He'll be able to tell if the animals are people or not — nonsapient animals have different characters from sapient. Do they have suspicion or anger in their emotions?
They seem about as friendly as one (with more life experience than Kandrad) would expect from strangers. The cats are people. None of them are feeling suspicious or angry. Mostly they're some combination of groggy, hungry, calm, or anticipating seeing their friends.
If that is so, then he will follow.
Hm...he deduces that an open door, so long as it is kept open, will lead to the same place until it is closed. That's how people can travel in groups and be led to the same place, like what he and Kandrad have been doing. So, if he lets one of them go first then he'll be led to wherever they're going. Well, provided that they don't slam the door before they could pass. But also, he has no idea where they're actually going. It could be that it's not the kitchen.
If they wait a minute or two, will they all clear out?
There's kind of sporadic traffic all headed in the same direction, but if he waits a few minutes there will be a break in that traffic, where he can't see anyone in the hallway.
He looks at Kandrad, and they again announce their intention to go to the kitchen and go through. The other people including the Hearthkeeper didn't need to do this verbal announcement, and from her words it's not necessary, but he thinks verbalizing it helps with intention.
Maybe, once he settles here, he'll conduct a study about it.
They walk down the hallway, which shortly after merges into another hallway, also with people sporadically passing through in the same direction. It's different people this time, though.
Kandrad will ignore Damjen's palpable hesitation and perform the announcement. Because he's hungry.
