She looks pretty confused by it!

She turns around and tries to go back through the portal and when that doesn't work she just - stands there, at a bit of a loss. 

She draws her thin jacket closer around herself and shivers.

"So, uh - did you have anybody who might want to kidnap you to the middle of nowhere?"

"I don't think so! Did you see - was it somebody -"

"I didn't see anybody. I wasn't looking around, though, there could have been someone - I don't how close they'd have to be to do that - "

"...I don't know how you'd do that at all. There's an involuntary teleport at Fireball range but it wouldn't grab two people - unless someone was working off a description in which case I guess they could've conceivably be unsure who they were going for." She gestures vaguely. They don't look that alike aside from both being reasonably pretty Chelish women in their early twenties but they're both that. 

"Well, I don't know, then."

When no one's speaking it's very quiet. No city noises. Just wind.

"Maybe we should - climb a hill, or something. In case that lets us see where we are."

" - yeah. Good idea.

I'm Carissa."

"Korva." She almost gives her last name, and then - doesn't. Not because she's sure what exactly could go wrong because of it, but she also hasn't determined that it's safe. But there are plenty of people named Korva.

She looks around and gets to work climbing the nearest hill. It's a ways. She's not going to say anything else unless Carissa does.

She's not going to say much. She is thinking. 

Did someone kidnap her? To here? Was it a random accident - what kind of random accident could reasonably cause that - should've taken more planar studies only it never seemed like it'd really matter, since she wasn't ever going to get that good -

- no one's going to come looking, that'd be expensive, more than it's worth - unless Korva is somebody, and doing a very convincing impression of being nobody...

She reaches the top of the hill, eventually. Looks around.

There are no cities in evidence. No respectably-sized towns, either. No roads, at least not here. There are planted fields. There are some farmhouses and barns huddling together at the base of the next hill over, and another little clump of buildings further away, in roughly the opposite direction. 

"I guess - someone over there might know where we are?"

"Yeah." She kind of wants to wait until she has some offensive spells if she needs them but that's - fairly ridiculous, you are much likelier to die of exposure in this climate trying to sleep here overnight than you are to die of random farmers being murderous maniacs. Or handing them over to local officials who hate Cheliax - but surely that's not that common -

"I am not entirely sure what we ...do once we know where we are...I guess I can put money together for a Sending. Eventually. And to pay someone to fetch us. Even more eventually than that."

"Okay. I am - mostly thinking about how not to starve, right now. Or freeze. If it's this cold during the day I am kind of worried about how it is at night. I guess there's a limit on how cold, if they're still before the harvest, but - "

"But it'd still probably kill us, yeah. Otherwise I'd say let's not try to meet the locals until I can prepare some spells, just in case, but I don't think we can plan to sleep outside tonight so we will have to hope we look sympathetic or useful and didn't invade this place two hundred years ago and they're still holding a grudge about it or anything. Or we could claim to be from, I dunno, Molthune, no one has a grudge with Molthune, do they?"

"I don't really remember. Maybe I would remember if I were more - " vague hand gesture.

"Are you - a wizard, or - "

"I'm a weapons enchanter in Her Majesty's Seventh. Corentyn. I don't have an adventuring spell list at all but I do have Endure Elements, I did a tour at the Worldwound. I am not sure I have anything that farmers would want in exchange for food. I can do infernal healing, I guess."

"That's probably enough for you to get by on?" she says, starting off towards the farmhouses. "I guess unless they're the type to object to infernal things."

It occurs to her that Carissa... actually has no particular reason to also provide for her, except perhaps loneliness. She'll have to figure something else out. She can probably figure something else out, she doesn't mind working. 

"I don't have any spells. So - I dunno. I'll see where they're at, I guess."

"I think most places can use more hands, around harvest time." She doesn't actually know anything about farming and it seems entirely possible that this is very obviously idiotic to someone who does, and then separately from that maybe condescending? She could say that she'll try to look out for Korva too but that'd be a very weird thing to declare about a person you met in a magical accident ten minutes ago, even a reassuringly self-possessed one. If she were here with a much more powerful wizard and they offered to look out for her she'd be - well, she'd assume it was a sex thing -

They can keep walking towards the houses in the distance. It's probably not colder than the Worldwound but she was dressed for the cold at the Worldwound. 

Yeah, it feels like probably humans can live here with enough layers of clothing - and obviously they do - but she's dressed for early fall in Egorian, and between the cold and the wind and the unfamiliar setting, she's - kind of extremely miserable, and a little scared about how long she can possibly stay out here, if the farmers don't want to provide them with shelter. She considers running towards the farm house, but is not actually sure whether this will warm her up or cool her down, between the exercise and the increased windchill, so she just keeps walking, and occasionally breathes on her hands.

"Yeah. Probably."

It's a longer walk than it looks from the top of the hill. There aren't quite enough landmarks for her to successfully judge exactly how far away things are. By the time they reach the farmhouse she's shivering and getting really worried about the numbing sensation in her toes. 

There are men working outside. All of them have long beards, longer than almost anyone wears theirs in Egorian. They definitely seem Kellid, though she can't place the specific region. They greet them in an unfamiliar language. One of them is laughing.

She does not speak a word of Hallit and in fact couldn't confidently tell you that that's Hallit though it presumably is.

"Hello," she says instead in Taldane when Korva doesn't immediately say anything. "We're lost."

These men don't seem to understand Taldane! The one who greeted them tries saying the same thing as before, but more loudly and slowly this time.

Reasonable of him but she is terrible at languages and also has been able to cheat at them for the last four years. She glances at Korva in case she happens to not have this problem.

" - I also do not know Hallit."

She mimes being cold. This is kind of hard to differentiate from how she's acting anyway, but she tries to get the message across. She gestures inside.

The men do not wave them inside. They try a few more phrases. Then one of them goes inside himself, and brings out a man in a more finely embroidered blue cloak. They talk for a while, occasionally gesturing at their guests. 

After a few minutes of this, the first man finally waves them inside.

She is cold enough that it hurts to be warmer. She smiles gratefully at them and tries to keep track of who is around, how closely they're being watched, how much danger they seem to be in - are there women around, are there children around -

There's a woman with graying hair, and a young girl, maybe seven or eight, cooking something over a low fire. Three more women sit by the fire, all of them hand-spinning thread. There's a baby on the floor playing with a stick. Occasionally young children appear, working on inscrutable young-children errands, but they disappear again without interacting with the adults.

The men speak to the women for a minute or two, gesturing once again at Carissa and Korva, and then head back outside. The women are certainly watching them, but none of them seem inclined to interrupt what they're doing.

So they are probably not in very immediate danger, at least. She slips her boots off to rub her toes, which are sending stabbing pain up her feet. 

"Well, I'm feeling optimistic about not getting murdered before the morning," she says, which is - not true at all, actually, she is feeling very doomed, but objectively in a practical sense most people do not murder random women, so she should be feeling optimistic.

She's staring very intently at the women who are spinning thread. She knows what a hand spindle is, but she's never actually seen one in use. Her family always had a wheel. 

"Probably. At least until they determine whether we're useless, or realize we're Chelish. Do you - will you have Comprehend Languages in the morning - "

"Yeah. Though I can't do that and two of Mount and two of Endure Elements and we'll need those, if we're gonna flee and try our luck at a different random farming village, which we might need to. - I figure I have better odds if there's someone watching my back, so I want a plan to get us both out -

If they'll let me I can do Share Language, it gives them Taldane and lasts all day. Might do Tongues and try to convince them of that and save the first-circle slots for running away if we need to. - I'm probably not thinking of something because I'm not thinking great at all and I don't wanna pull out my spellbook, 's worth a lot more than I am -"

Nodnodnodnod. The bit about it being better to have someone watching her back makes her feel a little better, that's - sensible and not wrong and a reason to keep her alive. 

"Maybe once they're asleep. Depending on where they want us to sleep, I guess. And whether you have a light prepared. I'm no good at planning but I'm hoping if I watch for a while maybe I can - offer to do some spinning or something once my feet are back to normal, that'll at least answer the question of what we can do that might make it worth feeding us - never done the kind of spinning they're doing before, though, I don't know how hard it is to get it right - "

"I have a light. I haven't done any kind of spinning but if you figure it out and can explain it I'll try it. - I don't want to be obviously a wizard but also I'm going to look awfully useless at everything else, probably. Do you know if the way we do it in Cheliax is better, maybe you could teach them..."

"It's better but I don't off the top of my head have any idea how to successfully reinvent and assemble a spinning wheel. I don't even do that much spinning, I'm not going to be very good at it, just, I learned how to do it when I was a kid, so - I'll work on it."

She nods. 

She sits there and tries to look very boring and tries to keep track of each of the people in the room and how dangerous they look.

When she's stared at the other women for long enough (and is no longer freezing), she heads over and attempts to gesture for them to give her a spindle. They have extras.

She's very slow, compared to them, but she thinks she's able to follow the process well enough to create passable yarn. When she's sure she has the basic motions down, she waves Carissa over to see if she can explain.

She can also try to learn to make yarn, though she is even worse at it. It's also awfully demoralizing - you get so little yarn from so much work. It is - weird that there's not a spell for this, actually - presumably someone would've tried - 

One of the women is laughing at them. Another is occasionally looking over disapprovingly. Mostly they're ignoring them to chat with each other. She is not incredibly optimistic about successfully demonstrating that she can do useful work. Maybe she'll be able to pick up the pace with a little more practice, though.

"Maybe you could figure out how to get an unseen servant to do it? But I think unseen servants are mostly, uh, more expensive than just getting people to do things. I guess I don't really know how it comes out if you're a wizard."

"Unseen servant could probably do it. You can sell first-level slots for more in a city but probably five hours of spinning beats whatever else I could offer them here on a random farm." She glances around. "It'd be really conspicuous. Probably wanna do it tomorrow once I can defend myself if they decide they want the spellbook." But the idea is cheering. She smiles at Korva very slightly.

She smiles back. A little. 

Eventually it is dinnertime. There's a lot of dinner, for a lot of people seated at the table. They have loud, animated conversations, and eat half a dozen different kinds of food.

The two of them are given bread and beer and little bowls of mostly-broth. She is not sure whether they're supposed to sit at the table or not, and isn't very sure how to ask, so she eats it on the floor by the fire. It's warmest here anyway.

This almost definitely communicates something about their standing here and it's probably not anything great but they really just need to go twelve more hours without being killed - or, well, prevented from sleeping - and then they'll be able to talk, and figure out where the nearest city is and whether they can make it on horseback, and then they can go be found. ...hopefully she won't be in trouble for deserting. She thinks probably being kidnapped is not the same thing as deserting but it can't possibly come up very often and maybe it's treated the same by law. (Should she, instead, run - but, no, having considered actually deserting would mar the extremely reasonable "I was kidnapped and returned as soon as possible" defense considerably.)

She eats her bread and broth and drinks her beer and tries ranking the men by dangerousness in her head.

A lot of these men look pretty dangerous. It is hard to rank them precisely, but a lot of them look like they probably know how to fight.

Eventually dinner ends and various couples and children and friend groups break off and head to different rooms, or in several cases outside, presumably to some of the other buildings. No one gives them any particular direction about where they should be heading.

One of the young women comes back out of her room and hands them a blanket. 

"Thank you," she says, even though they won't understand her. Gesture at the floor near the fire to ask if they're supposed to just sleep here?

The woman seems to think that's fine. She leaves without pointing them towards anywhere else.

Great. 

She wants to - say something, but there's not much to say, right, they're not friends, they're just mysteriously stuck here and it's entirely possible Korva knows more than she's saying about why they're here and they'll obviously both be talked to pretty thoroughly, at best, when they get back -

She does a light, and pulls out her spellbook, and makes a plan for the morning.

That's reasonable.

She doesn't have any plans to make. She's not going to be able to earn enough money for transit back, not unless Carissa wants to pay for it, and there's really no reason to do that, is there, so - she's probably stuck. She can probably manage not to starve. Maybe manage to pick up the language the long way, even if this seems ridiculous and impossible right now. Kanir will be fine. She's trying not to think about Zara. 

She says some quiet prayers in infernal, and then - there's not a lot else to do, is there. And she's tired.

"We good - sharing the blanket, under the circumstances?"

"Yeah, for sure. - as long as you're not really squirmy or something. Not trying to be difficult company but I need to sleep."

"Yeah. I will try to be very still."

Then they can share the blanket. It's not a very big blanket. Carissa is not in the cuddliest of moods but it's a lot better than being alone, really.

At least it's warmer this way.

It is, in fact, very difficult to sleep under these conditions. She tries very hard to keep herself perfectly still, and it still takes her a long time to drift off, probably hours. She hopes Carissa isn't having the same problem, that would be a rather significant problem for both of them.

She's a wizard in the army, it is probably one of her core job skills. (She was so close to having saved up enough for a Ring of Sustenance.) She sleeps tolerably. 

When she wakes up she prepares Mount and Endure Elements and Share Language and an Unseen Servant and Detect Thoughts and Tongues. Swaps out Mage Hand for Jolt which is useless in combat unless you want to murder commoners but does let you do that. Wishes she had invisibility, or flight, or mage armor, but she wasn't going to be an adventurer -

And then after that she prays, only half because it seems like an appropriate situation for prayer and half because she wouldn't want Korva thinking that she didn't, very often. This is wasteful, she says to Asmodeus. I am very obedient and I have worked very hard for your cause and our people and I shouldn't die here, I can do more. 

She wakes up with the sun and finds herself miserably tired. She spends about a minute remembering what's happened and trying not to cry. Won't do any good, and will make her look very stupid in front of the wizard.

She gets out a spindle and wool from where they were put away last night, and starts practicing again, trying to remember how the other women did it. She mouths words to herself in infernal, silently, so as not to distract Carissa. She doesn't ask for help. She never asks for help. She offers praise and asks to be shown what she should be doing in order to serve Asmodeus. And she focuses on her spinning.

Eventually other people begin to file out of the rooms and go about their business, cooking and spinning and going outside to tend the crops and animals.

Well, here goes. She has Tongues twice in case they have to flee this place for somewhere else. She casts it. Walks over to one of the women. "Excuse me?"

" - oh, you can speak!"

"I did magic so I speak your language for now. It will not last all day. I have another magic that can teach someone mine, and that will last all day, but I can do it only for one person" because I wanted to have a lot of Detect Thoughts "and I wasn't sure who to do it for, or if you would recognize what I was doing."

" - I've never heard of that sort of magic," says the woman, looking startled.

     "You've never heard of a lot of things," says the old woman cooking.

"I suppose not," says the first woman. "I suppose it seems like it would be useful for you, if you're going traveling to places that don't speak the same thing you do."

"That is how I learned it, I was fighting at the Worldwound and I wanted to talk to people who'd come from far away. I did not come travelling here on purpose, though. I think it was some kind of weird magic accident."

She looks uncomprehending. "A magic accident?"

"I am very confused about it, it has never happened to me before. Is there a major city anywhere near here I could travel to? They might be able to get word to my superiors and they might know what happened."

"A city?"

"I mean, a cleric with Sending, and a shop with work for a weapons enchanter. But where I'm from those are usually in cities."

"There's a priest not very far away? I suppose it might take a while to find someone able to send word off the island, though. I don't think I - know exactly what one needs to have work for a weapons enchanter."

"There are special metals that can hold a stable spell. I - don't know how it is done here, and I'm happy to learn, but I would have a hard time getting the materials myself so I would rather find a wizard to work for.

Where is the priest? And who are they a priest of?"

"...they're just a priest? I know there are wizards but I don't know which ones are any good at it, I probably ought to ask. You're not runaway slaves, then, are you? Thorgeir thought you probably were."

"- oh. No, just a long way from home. I can help more with the spinning today, I didn't have spells prepared yesterday. I would appreciate it very much if you would ask which wizards are any good at it. And who should I give the translation spell that will last longer?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. I suppose if you're a great witch then perhaps you had better talk to Thorgeir. I don't suppose you can travel alone, he'll probably have to put together an escort for you. Maybe he'll be more likely to help you quickly if you can tell him his fortune."

"I can travel alone if I have to but an escort would be wonderful. I - might be able to tell him his fortune, but I would need time, and candles, and something precious to him." And Detect Thoughts.

"I'll ask him! Do you need anything right away? I'm sorry about the floor last night, we really thought you'd just run away from the next farm over and we'd sort it out in the morning, you didn't look like you could have gone far."

"I would like breakfast, for me and Korva, and if anyone wants small things mended they should bring them now so I'm not delayed in departing later."

"...I will get you breakfast," she says, and does not comment on Carissa's ability to successfully mend things.

Breakfast is mostly bread, but at least in this case that's what everyone else is having, too.

She sits down next to Korva. "Hey. They said they know of some wizards, but not how strong they are, and can try to find that out. They also offered to take us to a priest but I asked a priest of who and they said just a priest in general, so probably not one with Sending."

"Well, that's something, anyway. Better than what we had to go on yesterday."

"Yes. They said they figured we were escaped slaves. Apologized about the floor. I - didn't ask the name of the place because I didn't want to say where we were from, but I might tell them before we leave. Since - if they take it badly that's pretty manageable, compared to if their wizard does."

Nodnod. "That makes sense. At least - depending on how much offense they take, I guess."

"I'll make us a couple of horses and then if we have to we can kill their horses and ride off to the other side of the island and pretend to be from ...somewhere else. I am not, like, an expert at riding horses but the conjured ones don't have much in the way of personality and they don't buck or anything." And obviously if they take it badly enough she won't have time to do that but there is not a lot of point in dwelling on situations where they just get murdered for no real reason. These people don't seem very murderous for no real reason. 

"Also first they asked me to do a fortune-telling."

"Ah. ...can you, uh, do that?"

"No! I don't even think that's possible! I didn't want to argue about it though so I said I would."

" - yeah, just checking. Uh. I guess if they believe in it then it's - probably possible to give them something satisfactory?"

"I don't know what the local wizards are doing but it's probably not 'prophecy actually still works far enough north, no one noticed'. Maybe I will predict many good things next year, by which time hopefully we'll be home."

"Yeah. Seems valid to me."

After breakfast she will go share Taldane with the man indicated.

He is busy talking with some other people (and then has to be convinced to talk to her by the first woman), but then he can accept the spell and talk to her.

"Halla tells me that you are a great witch."

Wizard, she does not say. "I don't know how your people measure the powers of magic-users. At home I was an enchanter of magic arms and armor."

"Strange work for a woman," he says, but does not sound altogether disapproving. "What magic do these weapons have?"

"They are deadlier, and find their aim more easily, and cannot be broken or tarnished or rusted. I cannot do that work here, I need special metal to hold the enchantment, but a wizard here might know of the metals I need."

"I know that Hauskuld the White is a wizard of some power. He lives at Foss, to the south. But you may wish to go to Reykjavik, and speak to the court wizard there, if you are foreign."

"I might want to do that. But - I think I would like to talk to Hauskuld first, if that is all right." They'd better have their story about which country they're from very straight before they go to the court wizard.

"We can spare men to escort you to Foss tomorrow, if you have no business here. It is nearer than Reykjavik. Perhaps Hauskuld will find more reason to make that journey than we do."

"That makes sense. I am grateful for your hospitality. I can conjure us horses, for the trip, if it's best made by horse."

"We do not need spells to reach Foss," he says, narrowing his eyes a little. "Our own horses can easily make the journey."

But real horses have personalities and will be scary to ride. She does not object, obviously. "Thank you. Ah, what stories are told of Hauskuld's magic?" Teleport, please please please Teleport...

"He is known to break curses and to lend men strength in battle, and has often seen the future. I do not know whether he is skilled in the enchanting of weapons. But he is good to deal with, and will deal fairly with you."

Lawful. And Remove Curse is fourth circle for wizards. It's not as good as Teleport but it's pretty solid. ...and the local wizards are all, what, in a conspiracy to pretend prophecy still works? Maybe there were no clerics of Aroden, so far north, and prophecy is sketchy anyway, and they didn't know what happened and just passed on traditions that no longer worked.  "I see. Thank you so much."

"We will ride tomorrow, then. I am told that with some time you can tell men's fortunes."

"The art of seeing the future might be more studied here but I have learned a little of it," such as the fact it doesn't work and hasn't for a hundred years. "I would be happy to see what I can see for you. I will need some candles, and an item that is precious or significant to you. I will not damage it, of course."

Then Thorgeir can offer her the great sword that was given to him by his father, and which has slain many men in combat, if that seems like an appropriate focus for such a ritual.

Yes, that is perfect. (Is it a good sword? It is presumably not a magic sword, though it's not out of the question for a treasured family heirloom.)

Not a magic sword. It looks well-made, and has some decoration on the hilt, but it's made of iron.

She sets the candles around the sword and closes her eyes and casts Detect Thoughts, not particularly disguising that she's casting something, she's supposed to be casting something. Even if there were anyone here with the ability to identify it as a divination that'd be fine.

This gives her a sudden impression of the minds of everyone in the room - a very shallow one, just a glimpse of what they're capable of - and she pauses, at Korva, but - not right now -

- focuses on Thorgeir. Hopefully he is thinking something about how fortunetelling (which doesn't work) is supposed to work (which it doesn't). 

Thorgeir believes that those who are sufficiently wise can tell the future. It is a gift given to people from all walks of life, and to both sexes, and therefore it is not so unbelievable that this woman might have some form of sight, although it is unusual in one so young. He does not intend to place much stock in whatever fortune she gives, because Halla is no great judge of wisdom or sincerity, and no one has ever heard of this woman before, but it is right to offer something to those who have offered a stranger shelter from the elements. Perhaps she will have something to tell him about whose counsel to beware, or what preparations he may take to protect himself from misfortune, or what will become of him if he goes away raiding next year, as one of his friends suggested.

Okay, that's actually extremely sensible starting from the premise that ...those who are sufficiently wise can tell the future...she flicks through hypotheses about why people would believe that, hyper-local god? That's not unheard of - but even the gods don't have prophecy - you could imagine a society with heavy reliance on augury (it's not common in Cheliax, asking someone other than Asmodeus would be suspect and it's hard to even imagine circumstances under which the question would be worth Asmodeus's attention) - 

- she needs to focus, Detect Thoughts won't last all day. Whose counsel to beware she can maybe do. She reaches for the thoughts of other men in the area.

Most of the men in the area are working in the fields, which are large enough that they are mostly out of range. A very old man is copying a manuscript in his room, the long way, and thinking about how his back hurts. (Perhaps more helpfully, Thorgeir is occasionally thinking about people who he is already suspicious might be trouble. There's Gerlief of Stóruvellir, who may be angry about an entirely deserved insult to one of his friends last summer, and Asgrim the Red, who lost a suit to his cousin three years ago, and Halbjorn of Önundarholt, who just looks incredibly shifty all the time...)

Sure. 

"I see a man with a long nose, and red hair, and scarred hands. He is speaking loudly, he is angry - I think he is angry about something that has occurred already in this moment, not about something that will come to pass in the future, but his anger is in the future. Trouble may come, but it looks to me like it could be avoided." Maybe this is too vague but he didn't expect her to be a very good fortune-seer.

"This is not impressive counsel," says Thorgeir, laughing. "But I will consider what to do about it."

She shrugs sheepishly and - has hurt feelings about not being a very good fortune-teller, which is ridiculous - probably better to stop now and be thought incompetent than push it and be thought lying, and also she noticed something about Korva while briefly surveying the minds in the room and she wants to spend the rest of the Detect Thoughts on that. 

What is Korva thinking.

Korva is spinning again, carefully watching the movements of the other women's hands and trying to figure out how to do the thing that they are more precisely. Maybe they won't have to stay here, maybe Carissa will find a teleport and take her back, but there's no reason to do that, and so probably she is stuck here, and probably she will need to be very good at this skill, if she wants to convince anyone else that she might be worth feeding. 

- teleports carry along three people in addition to the caster for free - not the time to think about that - 

Even if Korva does know much more than she's saying about how they got here it seems like it was not intentional, and like she'd want to go back, so - probably she's not hiding anything enormously important to know about.

Detect Thoughts runs out. She blows out the candles, and hands the sword back, carefully.

Thorgeir accepts his sword.

Nobody tries to talk to them about the specifics of their plans to ride south tomorrow. There is lunch - it is, again, mostly bread - and eventually dinner, which is much more interesting, and has meat and cheese and soup. Thorgeir calls over that they should sit at the table tonight, but otherwise mostly ignores them.

This seems preferable to most other things, since she's not planning to tell him where they're from until tomorrow. She has her Unseen Servant spin for her and she sits with her back to the wall and tries to look competent but not interesting.

The women seem very interested in the unseen servant. It's hard to tell exactly what the content of that is, since she doesn't share a language with them right now, but they stare at the spindle and the yarn and talk together in low tones and in general act like they have never seen anything at all like it before.

Well, it's usually not the best use of a first-level spell...and it's possible that the spell just isn't known here? She knows that a few hundred years ago wizards knew a lot less magic, spells were closely guarded and you had to apprentice to someone for years to learn them, not at all like nowadays when there are enough wizards in a city that you can usually find a scroll, or someone who'll let you copy in exchange for one of yours or a month's wages but not a year's.

She tells Korva the plan is to ride south tomorrow, meet the wizard who is supposedly lawful and removes curses.

"That seems good. We'll be able to make it without warmer clothes, won't have to convince them to offer us those - I don't know what we could possibly give them for that, if it takes this long - "

"I can do Endure Elements and then we should be comfy enough. I'm - hoping we won't have to be here through the winter, but if we do Endure Elements was good enough at the Worldwound in the winter."

Nodnodnod. "That's good to know. Hopefully we'll have everything sorted out by then, but - good to have a backup plan, I guess."

In the morning it is decided that two men will ride with them to Foss. Each of the men have horses, and two more are provided for Carissa and Korva. No one appears to try to determine whether they know how to ride them. 

She has ridden a horse for a journey before. She didn't especially like it.

"In Cheliax where I am from," she says, getting on her horse, with Detect Thoughts up, "wizards mostly ride magic horses."

They do not know where Cheliax is. It's kind of weird that wizards don't ride normal horses, and also kind of unclear why she's telling them this, but probably magic horses are superior to normal horses in some way.

"What makes a horse magical?"

"You make them out of the air and they are untiring and last only for the ride. Also wizards who are stronger than me can make them travel above the ground, not bothered by mud or sand or snow, and wizards stronger than that can make them fly, but I have studied only ten years and I cannot do those things yet."

"I am sure there are circumstances under which that would be useful."

The uses of flying horses seem really obvious to Carissa but it's clearly a dismissal of some kind. She shuts up. 

If they haven't even heard of Cheliax there probably isn't a nationwide remembered grudge, of some kind, though it'd be better if they had heard of it and found it uninteresting. 

She attempts to ride her horse.

These specific horses are pretty chill and seem to know that they're supposed to follow the other ones. Korva looks like she's having a slightly harder time riding hers, but they don't break away from the others, or anything.

It is most of one day's journey to Foss. When the men arrive they greet each other excitedly and gesture some at Carissa. The man they call Hauskuld is old, and has a full white beard, and walks with a carved cane.

She casts Tongues on herself, slowly, so it's easy to see that it's Tongues and easy even for a person who has never seen Tongues to see that it's a divination with herself as the target. 

"Hello," she says. "I have heard much of you from our hosts. My friend and I are lost a long way from home, and I want to ask your help in returning us there. I am experienced in enchanting weapons and armor, and can do that to pay for your aid."

The old man nods, sagely. "Where do you come from?"

"From Corentyn, in Cheliax." She is not going to win a fight with a wizard who has at least fourth-circle spells and any real combat spells but - nothing to be done, now, if he does know the place and doesn't like it.

"I have not heard of this place. How did you come to be here?"

She relaxes very slightly. "I don't know. I was in Cheliax - on the street, Korva was walking nearby - and then suddenly I was standing near some fields, near where I later met these people. I have third-circle spells, I can't get home myself. If there are ships that go south from here, I could pay for passage on one of those."

He frowns. "This is a strange omen. I traveled when I was younger, and know many things about the shape of the world, but I have not heard of any place with that name. Nor do I know what magic may have taken you from it. It seems to me that such a place may be difficult to find, even if you could find a ship willing to grant you passage to the lands south of here. And I would guess that you may have some errand here, even if you remain unaware of it."

She should - not dismiss that out of hand even if it sounds stupid, she's been confused lately -

- he travelled. High-level wizard, of course he travelled. He has never heard of Cheliax. It is very hard to have never heard of Cheliax. She could be on the other side of the crown of the world, facing Tian Xia, or Arcadia. 

Or -

"In - Golarion - where I am from - wizards cannot prophecy. A god died, and prophecy broke. People here - speak of it as if it works. So - maybe you are right, and I am farther from home than I imagined."

"Many people have the gift of prophecy, yes.

"Perhaps you ought to come inside, and tell us more about Cheliax."

"Of course." 

She is going to be - calm about this. This is fine. Or if it's not fine it won't become fine if she instead cries about it like a particularly stupid baby. A Plane Shift, not a Teleport, and no passage in any boat could ever get her there, but she can still go home -

- I would guess that you may have some errand here -

- if Asmodeus needs something from her, and she is too weak to think of it on her own, He will presumably indicate it. Somehow. But it would be better if she were not too weak to think of it on her own.

She smiles weakly at Korva and tries to think what to say and manages 'he thinks we're not in Golarion at all' and then follows him in.

" - oh."

Well. She can follow them inside.

The residents of Foss have prepared a respectable dinner, and it is only a little less respectable when shared four more ways. (They can always supplement with more bread.) Hauskuld explains to those seated that the women claim to be from a faraway land called Cheliax, and have come to be here by powerful magic that they do not understand.

Carissa is going to be quiet, thinking about Hauskuld's claim that Cheliax is in a different world, trying to guess his wizard level while she's at it. He clearly doesn't have Greater Age Resistance, so that's an upper bound. He will notice and be angry, if she casts Detect Thoughts. She does not try it. She listens to the conversation for as long as Tongues lasts.

Hauskuld would like to hear more about Cheliax, though! Does she know what lands are close to it, or how her people differ from them?

Yes. South there's the continent of Garund, Osirion with its god-king of Abadar and Nex where many great wizards are trained and Geb where the dead walk and Rahadoum where they ban all the gods. Garundi people are darker-skinned than Chelish people, nearly black-skinned when you go far enough south, and they don't train their women to be wizards or teach them in schools at all. East of Cheliax there is Andoran, which used to be part of Cheliax but became obsessed with destroying whatever their gods named as evil, and was no longer of any value to Her Imperial Majesty, and Galt which also used to be part of Cheliax but became obsessed with destroying anyone who had in any context held power or presumed that they ought to, and was similarly no longer valuable, and Taldor, a once-great empire now weak and divided but sustained by the extraordinary riches it amassed so long ago in its golden age when it ruled the continent. 

North of Cheliax there are some satellite states of Cheliax and a bunch of petty kingdoms ruled by petty tyrants and Varisia, wide and vast and much of it unsettled. Its peoples look kind of like the peoples in this place. And there's Irrisen ruled by Baba Yaga and full of witches, where outsiders are unwelcome, and there's the Worldwound, where the forces of Law battle the endless tide of demons pouring through from the Abyss. 

Far away there is Tian Xia and Arcadia and the barrier islands where Azlant used to be but she doesn't know much about any of those places. She met an adventurer from Tian Xia once and he was pale-skinned with dark hair and strange eyes, and he looked young though he was middle-aged. 

Parts of this sound vaguely familiar to some people, but mostly it sounds like she is from very very far away and like it is hard to say whether anyone will have any idea how to get back there. There is broad agreement that the people most likely to know are the Norwegians in Reykjavik, who are representatives of the Empire of Scandinavia, which is vast and knows of many places, both within and beyond its borders. This turns into a conversation about the Norwegian woman in Reykjavik who claims to be ruler of Iceland, although in practice Iceland has always been ruled by the consensus reached by the judges at the Althing. 

     "I have heard that she will fight those who challenge her rule, as if she were a man," says one. "It is said that she fights like a wild animal."

     "Not like a man, then," says another. "How many wild animals have you killed?" And there is laughter.

They ask Carissa to tell them more about Cheliax, and how people live there, and what her people are skilled at.

Cheliax is beautiful and prosperous, and its people are merchants whose ships sail all over the world, and many of them are wizards, Cheliax has the best schools for wizards in all of the world. Her people are skilled in the making of magic items, and magic weapons. Cheliax is devoted to Asmodeus, the greatest of the gods, the King of Hell, the ruler of legions of devils beyond imagining; when they die the people of Cheliax become Asmodeus's servants in Hell. 

They have not heard of most of those things, but seem to believe it all easily enough. Eventually her casting of Tongues will run out and they will not be able to talk about anything complicated anymore.

After dinner they offer her and Korva a small room with a raised bed and a lumpy mattress and blankets and a chamber pot.

Most powerful wizards have nicer guest rooms than that, so maybe it's a statement or a test of some kind. Maybe not, though; the wizard might just dislike guests and not want to encourage them to stay, or it might be hard to be rich as a wizard if your society is poor and mostly barbarians. 

She smiles gratefully and when they're alone takes off and Prestidigitates her clothes. "I'll do yours too," she says to Korva.

" - thank you."

She looks kind of very uncomfortable taking off her clothes, but they're dirty, and she doesn't have others.

Well, she's very pretty and she's kind of stuck here, maybe she doesn't want to draw attention to the first thing. Carissa'd be pretty prickly, in that situation. She Prestidigitates the clothes and gives them back. Gets dressed again herself. "He thought that the person to ask if they know where Cheliax is was the Norwegian princess who claims to rule the island. The Norwegians are a larger government of some kind. But - but I think his first guess was right, I think we're in the wrong world. I should've thought of it. Involuntary Teleport is a rare spell but Plane Shift isn't. Though - if they were trying to get rid of us, why aim for here instead of the Elemental Plane of Fire, right, and if they were kidnapping us why haven't they found us yet. He said - maybe we're here for some higher purpose. If they still have prophecy -

- in the olden days the gods were subtle, right? They didn't have to send obvious visions or do obvious miracles, they could just - notice convenient coincidences that would lead to good things down the line, and nudge them...set the right child down the right path - if they still have prophecy in this world then in coincidences its people see - subtle work, a greater purpose -"

She realizes she is rambling and probably sounds very stupid, and stops talking.

She puts her clothes on and then looks less uncomfortable. She nods.

"You'd think if it was Asmodeus He could - I mean - it isn't really His style, is it, random plane shifts - "

"It's really not! You give soldiers orders, you don't hope they'll competently improvise - they won't - He could have - told a priest who could tell us to go - or tell someone worthier, I feel like if we're supposed to conquer this place or discover something here we are not very good choices for that. But it was - the local wizard thought it was how he'd expect his own gods to behave." 

The implications of that are hard to keep track of and also - slightly concerning, she doesn't quite want to say anything out loud in case she says it wrong. Being the instrument of a different god makes you worthless, obviously. Being accidentally involved in a plan of theirs - who knows, really -

She picks at the blanket.

"Is it - possible that someone on this side pulled us through?"

"Maybe. A Gate can do that, pull people through from another plane. Raises, again, the question of why - but it's not impossible.

Are you - is there anything I should know that might explain why they'd take us -"

She can't think of any reason why - oh gods, she's an idiot, Zara - but then why not take Zara, and it couldn't have been intended to hit Zara, she wasn't even at home when it happened - 

"I can't think of anything. Sorry."

Shrug. She climbs into bed. "If there is a church of Asmodeus here we should go to them for counsel as soon as we can, I guess. ...and if there's not then we probably need to found it. Raise children who'll be suitable material for clerics, if we aren't."

"Yeah.

"There might be one even if it is a different plane, right, He's got to have some sort of apparatus in other places. But I don't know how we'd find them."

"I don't either." Sigh. 

Sigh.

"Well. We can think about it in the morning. Maybe ask the wizard more about what gods they have here, or whether it's possible that someone here is responsible."

"Yeah. Good night."

"Night."

In the morning their escorts ride back to the other farm without them. Everyone else seems to be occupied with roughly the same things they were at the other little hamlet, farming and spinning and cooking. Hauskuld does not appear to leave his room until about noon.

She sleeps fine. In the morning she prepares Comprehend Languages instead of Mount because she can't run away from the wizard who is more powerful than her, and otherwise the same batch of spells. 

She prays, when she's done, for - she's not sure. For orders, if it would be valuable to give her any. For the chance to be of service. For Cheliax to thrive and prosper.

She has her Unseen Servant spin for her, and waits for Hauskuld, who can of course keep whatever hours he pleases.

Hauskuld comes out to eat lunch. His fingers are stained with ink, and he washes them with a rag. 

He asks her what she is planning to do.

"Do you have Sending? If not I think probably I will want to travel to the city where the Norwegian princess lives, but I'd like to learn more of this world and its gods, first, if there is anyone here who'd be willing to tell me. I have Mount and Endure Elements and Unseen Servant and Owl's Wisdom and Share Language and Tongues and you may copy any one of them, for your aid, if you don't have them already."

He blinks at her curiously.

"What does it mean to have sending?"

"It's what we call the spell that can direct a short message anywhere in the universe, even across planes, and receive a reply."

Nod. "I do not know this spell."

Nod. "I don't either. In big cities in Cheliax you can pay for it. Here - I just want to get a better understanding of the peoples of this country, and of your gods. And I wanted to ask if you know anyone who might have brought us here."

He settles back in his chair and makes a thoughtful sound. "Are you asking what god may have placed you here, without your knowing it?"

"I guess so, yes."

"I think that really depends on what sort of person you are, and whether you mean good or ill. I can think of many powers that have done stranger things, but there is a purpose in them. If I knew what you would do, once you came to Reykjavik, perhaps I could tell whose purpose is served by your being here. But I cannot say.

"I do know that there are much greater wizards on the mainland than there are here. It is possible that there is one so powerful that they could bring you here. I do not know why. But perhaps the Norwegian princess you mean to seek out knows more of foreign spells and foreign interests here than I do."

Nod. "How long has she been here? Who sent her? She thinks she rules, but doesn't really?"

"The Emperor sent her. It's been less than a year, so the chiefs have not yet gathered to discuss her presence. It remains to be seen whether she will appear at the Thing, and what trouble will come of it if she does. Scandinavia has long claimed to rule the island, but this has little effect beyond the calling for soldiers on occasion, and we are always able to find enough men interested in such adventures to the south. We are too remote. But the previous governors were never so closely tied to the Emperor, and now men question whether she will be more set on imposing the Empire's rulings here. But we must wait and see what her intentions are."

"That makes sense. I - do not wish to offend or interfere with your people. I think my intentions are to learn what the church of Asmodeus is doing here, and help them, or if there is not one to found one."

"I do not know of a god by that name. But other gods are worshipped in other places."

Nod. "That's how it is in our world, too. What gods are worshipped here?"

He can give her a rundown of the gods. There is Odin, wisest of the gods and inventor of writing, who sacrificed one of his eyes in order to drink from the well of Mimir and gain unparalleled knowledge of the cosmos. There is his wife, Frigg, greatest and wisest of the goddesses. There is Thor, a son of Odin and the god of storms and thunder, a protector of humanity. There is Loki, the shape-shifting trickster who slew the god Baldr, the son of Odin and Frigg, and who is bound beneath a venomous snake for his crimes. There is Hel, a daughter of Loki who presides over one of the realms of the dead, and Freyja, who receives half of those killed in battle, with the other half going to Odin. There is Freyr, the brother of Freyja, who brings about peace and good harvests. There is Njörðr, a god of the sea and of wealth, the father of Freyja and Freyr, who is married to the vengeful goddess Skaði, who placed the venomous snake above Loki. There is Iðunn, who knows the secret of granting eternal youth, and Heimdallr, who keeps watch for the end of the world, and many other lesser gods and goddesses, any of which might choose to interfere in the affairs of humanity.

She takes notes on all of this, diligently. "Are there stories of them doing things like bringing people from other worlds?"

"It is certainly possible. There are accounts of them traveling between many places that men cannot ordinarily reach, and of course men are taken to their realms when they die. On rare occasions they have been known to bring living humans with them to other lands. I would say that it stands to reason that they might also have the power to bring someone here from somewhere else."

"I see. Thank you. Asmodeus...also presides over a realm of the dead, called Hell, is it known here?"

"Those who die of sickness and old age are sent to Hel. But I do not know of any being called Asmodeus."

"- huh, that's interesting. Your gods of battle have a stronger claim on those who die in battle, and then everyone else goes to Hell? That makes sense. Maybe Asmodeus is not known by that name here; I know He has been known by many names in our history, and as you said I think we're very far away."

"Perhaps that is so."

"Is there more you can tell me of the Norwegians?"

"We were once ourselves from Norway, many years ago, before it became a great empire. Now they hold all of Scandinavia, and much of Britain and Ireland, and much of the lands to the south, and their empire grows larger with each passing year. They are still like us, in many ways, but they have been changed by their holdings. And of course they have an Emperor, and do not settle their disputes among themselves."

Nod. "Who is the Emperor?"

"He is Dyre Halfdansson Yngling, a great general."

She nods with what is hopefully appropriate reverence. "Do the Norwegians have schools of magic?"

"I do not know that they have schools at all. Perhaps in the south. In the north every boy is taught by those he is fostered out to."

And the girls then not at all, probably, but they've treated her well enough. "In my world weapons are enchanted with special metals that can hold a spell. Does this world have such metals?"

"I do not know of such metals. But I imagine it would be a very valued art, among our people, if you could demonstrate it."

She nods fervently. "It is among mine. I want to find the metals I need so I can get to work on it. I am happy to trade spells, in the meantime, for starting capital - and for spells that I did not imagine I might need. Do you have mage armor?"

"What is mage armor?"

"In my world there is a widely known magic that provides - armor, made of force, not of metal. Wizards who live dangerous lives cast it every day. I do not know it because spells are expensive and I did not live the kind of life where it'd come up. I may be - assuming more overlap in our world's known spells than there actually is" which is fascinating, it suggests that with a different approach to research you don't converge on the same set of abilities but end up with consistently different spell development - 

"Perhaps. It is not a widely practiced art here, wizardry. But some places are home to much more powerful spell casters."

She nods. "I would be very grateful for the chance to learn how magic is done here, and happy to teach you all I can of how it is done in my world in exchange."

He makes a thoughtful sound. "Perhaps in time. But spells become less potent when they are widely known, and so it is not wise to offer knowledge to any being who asks. I am interested in learning what kinds of magic your people can work. But if you wish to learn my spells from me, it will take time, and discipline, and you will need to go on to Reykjavik before then, if you wish to speak to the princess before she is occupied with other matters. Perhaps if you return next year, if you do not find passage there. I am an old man, and do not know how much longer I have to benefit from secrets."

She nods. "Spells - become less potent when they are widely known? Do you mean there are more summoners than creatures to summon, or - something more intrinsic to the magic than that -"

"Many spells work only on those who are not aware of them. If the casting of a spell can be easily identified, it is no longer as useful as it once was."

Ah hah some kind of technique where you can only resist the spell if you recognize it and otherwise you might as well be sleeping - she wants it - "I understand. I do not know that technique, so all my spells can be resisted."

Nod. "You are young, and spells are known best to the old. Perhaps next year, when we know more of your intentions. I do not think that I will die within the year. But my sons were interested in braver arts, and with no one to teach, my craft will be lost. Next year, I think, if you still want to learn."

Spells aren't known best to the old but they're admittedly known best to the high level, which might not be a distinction their society makes, and his wanting to know more of her intentions is very reasonable. She ducks her head. "Thank you. I will return then, if I am still sure of my path." She could sell spells-that-can't-be-resisted-by-anyone-who-can't-identify-them for a fortune. 

"I look forward to it."

When Korva next looks free she will find her and tell her about all of this. "They hadn't heard of Asmodeus but they said most people go to Hell. All those who don't die in battle, those the battle god claims."

"I see. It - doesn't really look like the sort of society I'd expect to be serving Asmodeus? But maybe it's just different because they haven't - figured out cities, or something."

"Yeah, I'm confused. Maybe if the other gods don't contest you for afterlives at all it's not worth expending many resources teaching people in the Material world at all? Or maybe there's not enough here to be worth bothering with, and the Norwegians would look better. The Norwegians rule this place, nominally, and rule a continent nearby, less nominally. We're to go meet their princess."

Augh, presenting themselves to someone with power sounds awful. But maybe she'll focus on Carissa and not on her. "I see."

"Princess is the emperor's daughter, gets into hand-to-hand fights a lot apparently, unless that's a metaphor, got here less than a year ago and they all gather in one place to be governed less often than that so they don't know what to make of her. You could maybe stay back, if you wanted."

Nod. "Should - probably stay where you are, so you don't have to come back and get me if you need to go somewhere else?" Also she can't, uh, talk to people.

"Yeah. I guess maybe I'll want to go to Norwegia, I'm not much use anywhere too small to have enchanting supplies."

Nodnod. "Well. I - guess it makes sense for you to want to talk to the princess, then.

"Do we have any preparations to make here, first?"

"I don't think so but I would expect them not to give us an escort for a couple of days, the way he was talking. And he might want to copy a spell off me first."

Nodnod. "Well. I guess I can occupy myself by spinning thread indefinitely. Just - tell me when."

"Yeah. Let me know if you need anything. If it's cheap I probably wouldn't mind but I might not think of it, I have a lot to think about."

"Yeah, of course. Thank you. Uh - obviously if you find a way to get us any warmer clothes it would be really good not to be so dependent on fires and endure elements, but, uh, I'm assuming that one is going to be hard, given how they make clothes here. Other than that I guess I'm fine."

"Maybe if I kill a bear they would let us keep the bear skin. Not that I have a great bear-killing strategy or anything but I can - think about it. Talk someone here into letting me copy a combat spell eventually."

Nodnodnod. "Yeah. Just - if it's not competing too much with anything else."

"Yeah, if it's convenient."

She waits for Hauskuld to ask something of her and reads peoples' minds (not his) and has her Unseen Servant spin. And is bored and anxious, mostly.

The next day Hauskuld asks her if many people where she comes from know how to spin thread by magic.

"In Cheliax about one in fifty is a wizard. But we are the greatest people of our world; in most places it is much less. Mostly wizards are too important to be bothered with spinning thread, so it is done by hand by people without magic, but with spinning wheels which make it more efficient."

Thoughtful sound. "You recite an incantation, to achieve it?"

"Yes. We call the spell Unseen Servant. It can do many simple things, not just spinning; it could bring me drinks, or sweep the floor, or add wood to a fire. There is an incantation and a movement and the spell eats up a short length of string, and it takes what we call a first-circle spell slot - I get five of those a day - and how long it lasts depends on your power as a wizard. Mine last about a quarter of a day."

"A spell slot?"

"The way my people do spellcasting, people can only hold so many spells ready-to-cast in their mind and on their person at one time. I can do nine, but only some of them can be complex spells. Unseen Servant is not very complex, I could have all nine be Unseen Servants if I wanted. But I can only have two of them be Tongues and if I try to start a third Tongues I won't be able to tie it off."

"Hmm. I am not sure I have ever had cause to cast as many as nine spells in a single day. Perhaps there is some limit there."

Nod. "The limits were not well understood until fairly recently in the history of my world. Wizards used to be rare enough and secretive enough that no one could put the picture together; you just tried things and saw whether you could do them. But now we understand it better and take lots of statistics."

"Statistics?"

"There are days at my school where wizards have to make - as many of the most powerful spell they have as they can, and then as many of the next most, and on down, and then report what they've got. And then cast them and measure how long they last, which also varies with power. And then the school has lots of examples of wizards and can notice patterns."

"Interesting. I have never heard of wizards gathering together in large enough numbers to test such things. Perhaps in the nations that are known for having many casters."

"The study of magic in Cheliax is much more advanced than in other places, in my world."

"I see. It makes sense that you would want to go back."

"I was very happy there. But - if I am called to be here instead then I am called to be here instead. And the best of all would be to learn things from the wizards of this world before I go back" so I can teach people the spells that cannot be resisted unless you recognize them. 

"That seems a worthy errand. Next year, I think. When the Thing is over."

Nod. "Thank you."

"You expect to spend the winter in Reykjavik, then?"

"If that interests the princess, probably."

Nod. "When do you expect to leave?"

"When is convenient for you?"

"Oh, I enjoy the company. But we must offer you gifts for the journey, before you go. I do not know that you are prepared for it."

"I imagine we are not. Is it far?"

"Perhaps four times further than the farm you came from."

She nods. "I can keep us warm with magic but would be ill-equipped to handle any trouble on the road."

"Mmm. We do not have business in Reykjavik, and it is a long time to be without a man. But it is not very safe for a woman to ride so far alone."

"I imagine it wouldn't be." Not without Rope Trick and something to scare off wildlife. She should at least have purchased Magic Missile at some point, it was stupid not to. 

He strokes his beard thoughtfully.

"Perhaps when the harvest is over," he says. "If you do not want to make the ride alone."

"I would be very grateful for you to accompany me at that time."

"It's a long ride for an old man. One of my foster sons would serve better."

"Of course. Whatever's convenient."

"We will determine that when the time comes, then. In the mean time you are welcome to stay with us."

"I am very grateful. I hope that I can teach you some of my peoples' magic while I am here."

"I would be curious to learn more about it, if you wanted to share. Of course it would be entirely understandable if you wished to save your spells for yourself."

"My spells do not work the way yours do. They can be resisted even by people who do not know them. I would be happy to teach you one."

"What sorts of magic can you work?"

"I can do silent illusions. I can protect a person from heat or cold. I can make a horse. I can store my spellbook in the Ethereal Plane. I can make the unseen servant. I can share my language with others, or speak all languages for a little while. I can heat or cool liquids, or flavor them, and clean fabric, and mend it, and I can throw very weak lightning bolts."

"You can make a horse?"

"Yes. It lasts only a few hours, and vanishes if it's killed."

"How interesting. I've never heard of anyone working such a spell."

"Conjuration is the magic of summons and teleports. It sounds like you might not have developed anything similar."

"Perhaps we haven't. How is it done?'

- sure, she can give an introductory lecture on conjuration spells, as best as she remembers it. They are all interplanar; they project a pattern across a plane or shortcut through one or pull something over from one to another. The scaffolding goes like so and you prepare a simple conjuration cantrip like this. Presumably he has something like Detect Magic so he can see what she's doing.

He is absolutely rapt, and wants her to repeat things several times. If she shows him the written elements of the spell then he will have many questions about how to make sense of that, too.

He can look at her spellbook and copy the spell if he likes but even wizards trained in the same paradigm can't use each others' spellbooks interchangeably, they have different shorthand and different diagramming, and that's probably worse if they're from different worlds. She is happy to try to explain.

He could copy the spell page exactly but does not think he would be able to use it without being able to understand what is written. He seems utterly unfamiliar with certain basic concepts, when he asks questions, but the enthusiasm is familiar; he acts like a wizard, when confronted with an unknown spell. After an hour of discussion he tries to cast the spell, without having written anything down, and cannot. He thinks there must be many very unfamiliar parts to this, perhaps built on unfamiliar foundations. What is the simplest spell she knows, maybe they should start with that and see whether that is comprehensible.

Right, that makes sense. She can start him with prestidigitation - not even with prestidigitation, with a sliver of prestidigitation, less than a cantrip, the slightest thing magic can be. If he has ink she can make a spellbook page of it.

He has ink and parchment and would be delighted if she could do that and explain what she is doing.

Then she will walk this very powerful wizard through the simplest possible sliver of a cantrip, trying to explain exactly what she is doing. The diagram tells you how to channel the magic, and once it's prepared then you have it at your fingertips but have to do an additional motion to actually cast it, and then cantrips are the set of spells where you can catch the magical energy back up in the same form once you've cast it, which lets you do it repeatedly if you'd like, but that's a trickier skill and they should focus on getting it at all first.

Then he will try to do what she says and try his best to channel the strange foreign magic.

It takes them most of the afternoon but he picks it up. She hopes that learning a new discipline of arcane magic isn't nearly the same thing as starting from scratch, that'd be really frustrating. Probably not. Most apprentices don't pick up cantrips on their first day of trying.

One he has it he can practice making things change colors and practice catching the magic after casting it.

He will practice this well into the night, whether she stands by to help him or not. 

"It's very different in structure from ours," he says, in between incomprehensible muttering to himself. "Like trying to work our magic without knowing what a rune is. How fascinating."

"There was an ancient empire in our world that did runic magic but I don't know very much about it. I think there are lots of frameworks that could work and this is the one my people learned."

"Fascinating."

In the days that follow, Hauskuld will be interested in learning as much magic as he can from Carissa, provided that she is willing to continue teaching it.

She would like to get something for it but she's still not sure how things are done around here and she doesn't want to make the powerful wizard mad and it's not giving up that much in the way of options, to teach him the rest of the cantrips she knows and then Mount. 

She does ask for extra ink and paper.

He can give her extra ink and parchment.

When the harvest is over, he informs them of this, and declares that his foster son Grim should escort Carissa and her companion to Reykjavik. He offers them two cloaks, one red and one deep blue, and some bread and cheese to keep them fed until they reach their destination, and two horses, if they would prefer not to have several Carissa's spells tied up in castings of Mount.

"Thank you. I enjoyed my stay here. I hope the magic of my world will serve you well in your research."

"Thank you! I wish you good fortune on your errand, and I hope to see you here again, in time."

"In a year, maybe." If the princess doesn't kill her. Or take her prisoner. Or just ask very nicely for her to go to Norwegia - Norway, it's called Norway - and present herself to the emperor, which she very much does not want to do while she knows this little but will probably not outright refuse. 

They head off.

The ride can be made in three days by ordinary horses that do not disappear after a number of hours. It's colder than it was before, but they have Endure Elements, and also cloaks, now, which help somewhat. 

Reykjavik is a slightly larger farming village, consisting of about a dozen longhouses hugging some hot springs. There are some ships beached a ways away from the sea.

There are really not a lot of people on this island. There are enough that the princess can definitely kill her, though, and beyond that she is not sure it matters.

Hopefully Grim knows who they should be introduced to here?

Grim greets a woman between them and the longhouses. She is guiding a horse with a wagon attached to it, transporting some large dead animal behind her. (Carissa may or may not recognize it as a dead walrus.) She has a bloody spear slung over her shoulder, and an unbloodied sword at her side. 

She greets him back. "Welcome to Reykjavik. Where are you three coming from?"

"We're from a place called Cheliax. It's very far away." She does not particularly glance at Korva while saying this so she does not notice any reaction Korva has to this person.

That's good, because Korva is kind of freaking out, and while she is trying very hard not to give any outward sign of it, she is not entirely sure that she's succeeding.

It's Zara. She's ten years older and wearing local clothes and riding a horse and dragging some kind of horrible slug-animal behind her, but it's Zara. The face and the voice are unmistakable. 

She is not sure exactly what is happening but she suspects that she is probably in incredibly deep shit of some kind.

The girl rounds on them curiously. "Very far away in what direction?"

"We don't know. We got here in a magic accident. Cheliax should be south of here but some people have told us it isn't."

"What sort of magic accident?"

"We were Teleported or Plane Shifted or something out of the street and to a random bit of farm here."

"That sort of thing happen often, in Cheliax?"

"Not very often. Not to - random people. I do not have a good guess about why it happened this time."

She looks them over. Pauses, for a bit, at Korva.

She looks down and tries very hard not to think about anything.

"Weird. What's your business in Reykjavik, then, trying to catch passage south?"

"Maybe. But if no one has heard of Cheliax then probably I'm not going to discover it sailing south. It's not easy to miss, in which case I want to pick up the local magic and teach mine and be connected with the church of Asmodeus if you have one."

"Huh. They have many witches, in Cheliax?"

"Wizard. There are also witches but that's a different thing."

"Huh. All right, then, wizard. You won't find churches here, they're too many buildings for us."

"I see. What I need are priests, I suppose. They do not have to be in buildings."

"Well, we'll see if the priests have heard of such a thing. What is this church of Asmodeus like in Cheliax?"

"Asmodeus is the greatest of the gods of our world, and the ruler of Hell, and the patron of Cheliax where I am from. He has made Cheliax safe and prosperous enough to offer magic education to everyone and I want to do that here too, through his church here if possible."

"The ruler of hell, huh? What's hell like?"

"It is a place people go when they die. They serve Asmodeus, there. It is generally understood to be unpleasant, at first, to be faced with what you are supposed to be, but good once you have accepted it."

"I think that is probably much too vague to determine whether I know what place it is."

"It has nine levels? In my world you go there for being lawful evil but I think it works differently other places? It has devils?"

...this is honestly very confusing. She's definitely a confused something, but it's not very clear which thing she's a confused version of.

Maybe Catherine will know.

"Hmm. That sounds a little like a lot of things and not exactly like anything. What about her, is she from Cheliax too?"

"Yes. We were stolen out of the street at the same time. We don't know which of them whatever-happened was targeting. She doesn't have magic but I can translate for you if you'd like, or I can give you our language and then you could speak with her in that."

"How would you give me your language? The slow way, or are you saying you have a spell for it?"

"I have a spell for it. You don't have to do anything, I just use the spell that lets me speak yours first because I don't want to do magic to people without asking."

"Interesting. I suppose I'd better get the walrus back home before I go mucking around with strange magic - but look, we're almost there."

She dismounts her horse and leads it up to one of the longhouses, calling for someone inside to bring the slain animal in. Some men appear to do that, and then within a minute there's also a small crowd of children and teenagers, trying to get a glimpse of the wounds that killed it, chattering about how it's humungous, and how all of them together couldn't eat it in one night.

Someone else appears, following the children out.

"What's the occasion?"

"When I killed it the occasion was hunger. However, it is now that we have guests. This is Carissa of Cheliax. Don't ask me where Cheliax is, she doesn't seem to think it's anywhere. Carissa, this is Catherine, our court poet. I expect if you want to compare your religious traditions to ours, Catherine is likely a wealth of knowledge on the subject. If you're sure you want priests, then you should know that the highest-ranking priest on this landmass is me. Archpriestess Vigdis Yngling of Iceland welcomes you to Reykjavik."

Ah okay. "Thank you, Archpriestess. In Cheliax our priests can perform miracles on behalf of their gods, is that how it is done here?"

"When we're worthy of it, and when it suits them. Which often means we're on our own."

"I see. Do you know any priest who can send short spoken messages at a great distance? I might be able to use that to communicate with my home world."

"If priests could do that then the Emperor would have a much easier time giving orders from the front. I don't expect that anyone can do it on demand."

Nod. "I understand. Thank you. Did you want the translation spell, now that we're back -"

"Sure! That'll let me talk to both of you? How does it work?"

"I shove all my vocabulary into your head. It doesn't hurt or anything. It fades in about a day."

"Neat."

"It seems a terrible idea for rulers to accept unnecessary magic from witches they met five minutes ago. If you don't mind my saying so."

"I don't mind your saying so. Would you rather we tested it on you?"

"No."

"I want to know how her magic works. If I drop dead on the spot then I expect she will not be around for long enough to profit from it. You can do the spell."

If she were actually a dangerous wizard she'd do Dominate Person, or something, having asked the target to let her do magic to them. She's not so it's in fact true that if she bothers the ruler she'll die about it immediately. She casts Share Language.

"Is that all, that didn't feel like - oh huh, I can speak something else now, can't I. That's very interesting. I haven't seen anyone do something like that before."

"I think wizards here work somewhat differently. Which makes sense, there are different magical traditions even on my own world."

"I suppose there are here, too. Still, I've rarely seen a spell whose effects were so immediate. I suppose now that I can speak I ought to welcome your companion to Reykjavik, too, huh?"

She nods more calmly than she feels. She sounds much more certainly like Zara than she did, now that she's speaking the same language. She idly checks for a shadow; the girl has one, which doesn't mean anything. 

"Thank you."

"Archpriestess Vigdís Yngling of Iceland. I hope to hear more of your homeland and your journey here at dinner. Your companion seems interested in magic, but I'm told that isn't your skill."

"No, Archpriestess. I have no particular skill at anything."

"I doubt that. 

"Thordis, take their horses to the pens, if that's all right with them? You should come in and eat something, it'll take them a while to butcher the walrus. There are various people you ought to be introduced to, if your primary interests are magic and religion. I'm sure we have much to learn from you, as well."

"Thank you." Bob of the head to cover not having been told the appropriate form of address yet, she should've asked about that.

....and Detect Thoughts on Korva, who seems to be having a bit of a time?

It's Zara, it's Zara, it's Zara, it's Zara, it doesn't make any sense that it's Zara but it's the same face and the same voice and - not precisely the same manner but close to it, close to what might have happened if you had left Zara with these people ten years ago, and because she was Zara she hadn't rolled over and died about it and instead had somehow managed to excel - 

- she has to figure out whether to tell Carissa, and also what to tell Carissa, if she doesn't want Carissa to think she's insane, although maybe she is insane, because it doesn't make any actual sense that Zara would be here, and she doesn't know in what sense it can possibly be true, or why she would be here even if it were -

Who is Zara, Korva didn't even mention a Zara. Is this the person who kidnapped them - why all the rigamarole, though, it's not as if they'd have been uncooperative if kidnapped and told so -

She keeps walking. Doesn't look at Korva, doesn't say anything.

She is scared, now.

Occasionally she stops being miserable about this for long enough to instead be miserable about the actual Zara, since she's now been reminded of that. Zara is a child. She looks very much like the Archpriestess, but younger and more energetic - maybe not more energetic around strangers, and she's been without anyone for a month, now, and there's no possible way to get back to her quickly, so worrying won't help, but she's scared of what's happened to her and scared that she'll do something stupid, and she misses her terribly.

She is still trying very hard to do an impression of someone who is not experiencing any emotions of any kind.

That does not make any sense. 

She stops reading Korva's mind so she'll stop being distracted. It's not like it makes more sense to Korva.

Vigdis brings them inside one of the longhouses. There are no walls inside, just a single very long room with some support pillars and the occasional curtain. There are beds and tables and chests along the walls, and a fire pit with cooking equipment in the center of the house. There's a very old woman sitting by the fire and spinning thread.

"This is Ýrr, our seeress. We also have a wizard, but we've been needing wood more than spells, lately, so he's out chopping trees. I'm sure he'll be back for dinner. Ýrr, this is Carissa. She's a wizard from Cheliax. It's a very faraway place, I'm not sure exactly where. She's interested in our magic, and I'm interested in hers. Much better use of you than spinning, isn't it?"

     "Her fate is off course," says the woman, barely looking up. 

"How so?"

     "She does not belong here."

"But she is here, and that must mean that someone meant it."

     The woman grunts in acknowledgement.

Gah, what is the woman doing, she wants to check with Detect Thoughts but probably a seeress can notice mind-directed magic and then they might kill her. 

"Do you have any idea who meant it?" she asks quietly.

She stares at Carissa for a sort of uncomfortably long amount of time without blinking.

"The gods do not see this one," she says, and returns to spinning. "It is not their doing."

So prophecy works here and weak fortune-tellers are probably just casting the fortune-telling spells that existed in Golarion, too, when prophecy worked, and more powerful ones are, what, consulting the gods? Several of them?

Maybe she can use their magic to develop scrying she can then use to contact Cheliax. 

She nods. The woman didn't say anything about the Zara thing and she doesn't want to volunteer it. 

"Do you have maps of your world, Archpriestess?"

"Scandinavians don't use maps. Don't need them. What do you want to see?"

"I was hoping to confirm my guess that Cheliax cannot be reached by any sea because it is on another world."

"I see. I'm not sure anyone has a map of every place that can be reached by sea, I think there are some places that nobody's ever fully explored. But I think Scandinavians know the world better than anyone else, and I've never heard of a place called Cheliax. I guess it could be on the other side of the Muslim lands, or past China, or out in the sea somewhere no one here has ever made landfall at all, but if it's nowhere we know of then a map wouldn't help you anyway, would it."

"And my people have also explored our world, and do have maps we think of the whole thing, and we've not heard of yours. In my world wizards think that the stars in the sky are suns like ours with worlds like ours around them. We have made contact with some other worlds from other stars. I think - maybe that explains this. Or maybe this is a demiplane."

"Hmmm. Do any of the nine worlds have a place called Cheliax in them?"

      "I am not so sighted as to see to the ends of this earth," says Ýrr, "and the others are only known to us by the gods and the dead. There are many unknown things within them."

"Is there any way to get to the other worlds?"

     "Not that men know of," she says. "But no man yet knows where this realm ends, or where he might sail into another."

Vigdis spends a while thinking about this.

"You said you arrived here in a magical accident?"

"Yes. My people know how to travel between worlds but I don't, personally. I could maybe learn it someday but it'd be a very long time and most wizards of my abilities who try to get that good never succeed."

"How would you go about trying to learn it? Is it possible, separated from the rest of your people?"

"Uh, I know how to do spell research. I'll need a lot of spellbook-quality ink for it and it runs some chance of killing me but not much. And - I'll need to become much more powerful, which happens over time, and by fighting in wars with magic. It seems like a particularly dangerous spell to invent but before I get that powerful I'll get powerful enough to contact my home world and then I can maybe figure out a way to copy spells off other people."

"Well, I'm sure fighting in wars with magic can be arranged, if that's what you want to do. 

"I was sent here primarily to explore the lands beyond Iceland. We know that there are other islands out there, ones with no known inhabitants. But it seems to me that it would be very short-sighted to focus on them to the exclusion of exploring ways of contacting other worlds, since that could also be invaluable to the empire. 

"I think we should determine how to get you what you need for spell research."

"Ink. It has to be high quality but Hauskuld had some that was fine. Parchment. For enchanting weapons I need special metals that hold a spell, I don't know if you have them here. The one that's most common in my world is soft and silvery-white, and tarnishes in the air; we call it spellsilver."

"Hmm. I'm not sure if we have any spellsilver, but I can look into it. Ink and parchment we can obtain."

"Thank you. I can teach the wizards in your court to do magic in my system, if they would like that."

"I think they would! We'd be interested to learn as much as possible about your people and their magic, all the more so if it's possible to use it to travel between our nations. Do you think you'd like to keep talking things over with Ýrr until dinner, and I can track down our wizard? Under normal circumstances I'd introduce you to someone more, you know, specialized in making diplomatic contact with new peoples, but I'm afraid you've caught me without a full set of officials, just yet. But I'm sure we can make do."

It is actually a relief not to be talking to diplomats with all kinds of magic items for mindreading and sensing motives who see right through you and can guess the exact best words with which to keep you compliant. "I'd be delighted, thank you."

"Excellent. If she's being very concerning you can also talk to Catherine. Don't worry about being a bother, she likes visiting. I'll see you for dinner."

And she grabs an axe and heads off to get her horse again.

"How does one become a seeress?" she asks Yrrr.

"A court seeress is chosen by her liege. One ought to be sighted, and well-versed in the ancient lore. Able to see the ends and beginnings of things. Of course, not all seers who serve under kings and their children were chosen for possessing any particular wisdom beyond other men and women."

Most historical societies had no sense of what made one wizard more powerful than another. It is a modern inventions, comprehending wizards in terms of the most powerful class of spell they can cast, dividing spells into classes of power at all. She nods. "Are people born  - sighted, gifted in prophecy - or do they learn it?"

"Children are not sighted. But it appears in many people, eventually, in free men and slaves, in men and in women, in the sick and the healthy, in those educated by kings and in those who have worked in the fields since they were small children."

"Huh. In Cheliax prophecy is broken and I know little about what it was like when it worked. Maybe it was like that."

"It sounds like a hard way to live. But I suppose that many live without it anyway."

"I think the important things are locked in anyway."

She sighs a little, long and quiet and only barely distinguishable from a breath that isn't meant to communicate anything at all.

"What would you say the important things are?"

"The grand plans of the gods, things like that."

"Do you think that no god has ever made a plan and then seen it fall to ruin?"

"Oh, many have. But - not Asmodeus. He has - been the architect of that ruin, when His plans require it, and His plans don't fail even when the other gods seek it."

"He must be very careful."

"And very powerful. Yes."

"Does he know his own end?"

" - He is going to conquer all of the other planes and then everyone worth having will be His forever."

"Forever is a very long time."

"Yes."

"I would wonder whether a being who thinks his fate goes on forever has seen his own end at all."

"I - don't think I know what you mean by that."

"I suspect that all things come to an end eventually. Even the gods. Even the greatest and most careful." She smiles at her spinning. "Easy for me to say, of course, when I won't have to face being wrong. But it seems a very suspect story."

"I hope all things don't come to an end eventually. Then it'd - all be for nothing, wouldn't it?"

"No, I don't think so. Other things come to take their places. Winter follows summer, and then another summer follows winter. The old shapes the new before it leaves, and the new shapes what comes afterward, but each thing passes, in its time. Even when this world passes, another will take its place, with echoes of the old in it. But it would be very foolish to assume that things will go on being the same forever, hanging frozen, never needing to make way for summer heat."

If Carissa doesn't exist she is not particularly sure she cares that the new world has echoes of the old in it. She is not going to argue the point, though, obviously. She nods.

Ýrr goes back to spinning. 

She was supposed to also talk to Catherine. She looks around for her.

She's not spinning. She's outside watching the young children play.

Carissa wants to read these peoples' minds so badly but if they catch her at it they will butcher her in whatever is the local fashion. She walks outside, instead. "My translation spell will run out of time in a few minutes. I wondered if I might ask questions in the meantime."

"Of course."

"Where are you from?"

"Britain, originally. More recently from Akershus, in Norway."

"What's it like there?"