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azabel lands in ASFTV!timeline valdemar
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Half a second is enough to get off a :NO: clumsy set-command but not enough to actually interrupt the dart's trajectory in the process.

She wobbles, she slips on a bit of ice she'd so carefully stepped over, she collapses into the snow.

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When she wakes up, she's in a comfortable bed - which is the first off note, it's a lot more comfortable than her slightly-lumpy bed in the palace guest wing in Haven - and it's very quiet and still, mostly dark, and she has a headache. 

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Aaaaaaaaah what the fuck - she sits up, casts out enough Thoughtsensing to see who's around, blinks against the darkness and casts a mage-light -

- casts a -

- she screams.

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The room continues to be dark. Nothing else happens.

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Does her Sight work - okay can she see what's been done to her -

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All of her Sight works! Her projective Mindspeech also seems like it ought to work, not that there's anyone to Mindspeak right now. 

...Those sure are some compulsions. The ghost-outline of their effects is visible to Mindhealing, and the traces of magic to her mage-sight. They're - actually very tidy, minimally restrictive, clearly done with skill and efficiency, not at all like the sloppy overpowered compulsions she's sometimes seen in rescued bandits' victims.

Tidy, but thorough. The projective aspects of her mage-gift and Mindhealing are very, very, very thoroughly cut off, with no obvious way to route around it. 

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Well, is it projecting in the sense these compulsions care about if she, say, tries to remove the compulsions on herself, that's all very tidily internal.

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She cannot do that! Possibly if she spent long enough trying from different angles with the aid of Mindhealing Sight, she could wrangle it. 

However, she doesn't have time to explore this, because a minute later there's a knock on the door. 

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If this knock had arrived immediately post-scream she'd think they might be concerned about her well-being but as it is she's going to ignore them and keep poking at different angles on the clockwork. Suppose she THINKS VERY HARD about things to make it spin this way and that, does that get anything close enough that she can give the compulsion the slip -

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Someone opens the door. 

The woman is tall and muscular, with startlingly dark skin, an especially sharp contrast given her white hair, tightly curled like wool against her scalp, and her brilliant blue eyes. 

She's wearing an absurd quantity of shielding, several different talismans, and she seems to have a native shield up even against Mindhealing Sight, which is approximately unheard-of. 

She's also holding herself a little as though Azabel is some sort of dangerous and terrifying wild animal. 

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Aza folds her arms irritably.

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"Do you speak Valdemaran?" the woman says out loud, with a strong accent. 

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"Not good."

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A nod. 

The woman taps one of her talismans and does something to it; apparently, this is in order to allow Mindspeech. 

:My name is Nayoki. I am a Mindhealer and hail from the Haighlei Empire. I work for the mage who calls himself Leareth:  

She bows her head, briefly. :I - would prefer to be no more invasive than needed, since perhaps you are not our enemy. I want to ask you some questions. I was Truthsayer, before; I will know if you lie:

She looks like someone who is trying VERY HARD not to be visibly nervous, and almost but not quite succeeding. 

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:Is this your way of saying that if I don't answer your questions you'll fuck around in my head some more:

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:I would ask Leareth what to do in that case, I suppose:

The woman takes a deep breath. :My first question is, are you immortal: 

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:Well that's not a threatening question at all, is it!:

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Nayoki sighs. She glances around briefly, and then pulls a stool from beside the wall and sits. 

:Leareth does not want to threaten you, except to the extent that you are in Haven to threaten him. But, events are escalating rapidly and in baffling ways, and - now you. A mage who, according to our sources, knew Urtho personally, for all that the man died two thousand years ago. You are familiar with creating new species. It was claimed that you carried an artifact from Urtho's Tower, of unknown purpose. And you chose now, of all times, to travel to Haven and aid them in their war preparations. This is– the way Leareth put it was, an out-of-model event. Something is badly wrong, here, and if it is the gods who have sent you here, as Their pawn, then - well, one thing Leareth has learned over the centuries is that, when it comes to fighting the gods, there is no such thing as overkill: 

She sits back. :But we know little, and what we do know is unconfirmed: 

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:So he decided to open with KIDNAPPING ME AND PUTTING COMPULSIONS ON ME:

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:You seem to find this surprising: 

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:I mean, does he WANT me to be hostile? This is how you get that:

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:I believe his prior is that you were already hostile and dangerous all along. That is generally how it goes, in his experience: A little shrug. :I do have permission to remove the compulsions if I discover that you did not, in fact, come to Haven in order to help the gods defeat Leareth, or that the situation is less alarming than we thought in some other way. But that judgement will be faster and easier to make if you answer my questions: 

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:We can see what I think of your questions, then. Let's hear them all before I decide if I'm answering them:

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Nayoki nods, expressionless. :My questions are as follows: is it true that you knew Urtho personally; if so, how and why are you still alive now; do you in fact have an artifact of Urtho's and if so is it a weapon; why did you choose this timing to travel to Valdemar; was this of your own choosing or were you sent; what do you know of Leareth and what are your intentions toward him at this time: 

A pause. 

:...Also, it seems likely that half of these are not the right questions at all, given our limited information: 

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:I had a time travel accident:

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