"Not so strange. It's hard to be sure how it works. I think part of it is that I wouldn't be much threat if I went mad, and part of it is how they think I am already."

"Sounds reasonable enough. It does mean that I shouldn't linger, though." He takes another look at the scenery below, then hops the railing to hover just on the other side of it. "What's your name, in case I need to send word of your bird?"

"They call me the Romantic Ornithologist. A message addressed thus will find me. Safe travels, stranger."

"You too."

He rotates into a dive, staying close to the tower at first, then as he gets closer to building height he levels off, kiting across the sky.

Flight is pretty attention getting! There's pointing and shouting.

Well if there's going to be a scene anyway, he's not going to bother being quiet: Wheeee!

He does stop short of actual aerobatics, though, and touches down in whatever open area is most convenient when he runs out of speed.

There's a big clearing in the tourist village, with a couple of campfires and some sort of sport being played and plenty of open space. People walk towards him, waving and talking animatedly to each other! The first to arrive asks, "I say, how'd you learn to do that?"

"It's magic! From another world, I don't know if anyone here can pick it up."

"You mean, from the Neath?"

"Never heard of it."

"Well. It's another world, sort of."

"How would one go about trying to pick it up? Magic, I mean. Is it dangerous?"

"Pah, he's probably using some cleverly disguised stage trickery. Or a mechanical glider." Someone grumbles.

"It's not dangerous but does require a certain frame of mind and a fair bit of devotion, at least how I do it, and your god situation seems to be different here, that might matter." He sits crosslegged in midair, still at eye height to the crowd. "Or it might not, I'm not really enough of a scholar to make a guess."

Mentioning religion is a good way to get some uncomfortable looks. Someone tries, "It's fun, I hope?" Another asks, "Devotion how, exactly?"

("-Seriously how is he doing that, it's got to be real-" "Circus performers can do all sorts of clever things with wires.")

"It's lots of fun, if you have the mindset for it in the first place. The devotion is to a concept - travel, in my case; lots of things work but it has to be something fairly broad like that - and if you let it be the most important thing in your life and focus on it the right way, plus a few other details, you'll eventually start getting spells to help you. And lots of the concepts do have gods associated with them, at home, but it's not necessary to follow one, it's just useful to have the guidance and community. I am quite fond of Fharlanghn, though."

"Do you know if it's a thing that happens here at all? You'd think someone would do it accidentally, once in a while, but I've never heard of such a thing and I would consider myself fairly well-read. Perhaps it only works where you're from?"

"It could be," he nods. "Or it could be that now that I'm here, it'll start, or that it'll only work for new followers of Fharlanghn specifically - having a cleric here," he indicates himself, "might mean he can see it when he otherwise couldn't. I have no idea."

"...Hrm. What's the right way?"

"What sort of concepts work? Science? Charity? Justice? Craft? Cooking?"

"I'd expect all of those to work - I wouldn't expect to run into a cleric of cooking but mostly because people who're that passionate about it are so rare; smithing works, though, I have met clerics of that. It has to be something that's already the most important thing to you, that you couldn't imagine living without, and then -" he explains the rest; they'll need holy symbols, and daily devotions, and to spend some time figuring out how they in particular relate to their concepts, which will determine some of the details of the magic they get. It can take up to a year, or in rare cases even longer, though if it takes more than a couple of months they'll want to review what they're doing to make sure all the parts of it feel right to them. They'll start out with fairly weak magic if it works at all, just a few simple spells a day, but they'll get more and stronger spells over time.

Well, they're mostly a bit skeptical, but some seem intent on trying it. One person is sure that caring for animals is his life's purpose. Another is a painter but 'art' seems a little more ephemeral. The machinist in the group doesn't think this is a real thing.

Does he want to show off more to give them good motivation? Does he want to play tennis or football? Does he want some tea and sausage at this one family's campfire?

His Fly spell has worn off by then and he's not sure how safe it is with the starlight anyway, but Locate Object is a fun party trick - divinations are pretty great all around; he's using one that lets him magically speak and understand any language he comes across, as another example.

After a middle-aged woman quizzes him in increasingly uncertain languages, they totally believe him about the language thing! Wow! Cleric magic is real! This is not as earthshattering as one might expect, since they are in the Reach, but still.

The Horologist, Captain Abernathy's very quiet other passenger, almost manages to sneak up on him. "Could I trouble you to repeat the instructions for becoming a cleric? Everything that has a place, in its place. All clocks aligned, clean and tidy and ticking along in unison."

"Of course." He does. "And devotion to tidiness does work, at least some of the time; we call the broader concept law and its inverse chaos."

"Enforcing the law of time upon the High Wilderness is the entire purpose of the Royal Horologists," she says, a little bit as if stating something obvious that anyone should know. "Does the holy symbol have to be a single, solid item? A pocketwatch would be entirely appropriate, but it's a bit complex. Perhaps my spare crown wheel."

"A pocketwatch should be fine; two of our gods at home have a cornucopia and a bundle of flowers as their holy symbols. You'd be able to use a picture of one, too, in a pinch."

She smiles. "I think it will be a boon to the world, if you can truly introduce a path to power driven off commitment and diligence."

Does he want to join this family for lunch? Or play tennis with these folks? Or go to the Bohemian playing violin on a food crate, eyes closed, at one end of the clearing?