« Back
Generated:
Post last updated:
two kinds of (immortal) people
Sparkles in Dreamshard
Permalink Mark Unread

Sadde is running.

There is no particular reason why she is doing this. She just hasn't really done much of anything properly fun for the past five years, at least for the sake of having fun, so the wind in her hair and the occasional glimmer her skin projects on random surfaces when she's hit by the sun are enough.

Until she finds a key.

She comes to a halt and peers at it. It's on the ground, half-hidden by grass, and there's a tree right over there that would have obscured her view had she been running a foot to the right. But as it is, she found the key. It is a very small key, as if sized for a child to hold, and it has a certain shine to it that's not quite like any other keys she's seen during her vampire life.

She explores a radius of about a mile around the key. There seem to be no houses or cabins or mansions or anything like that where such a key might have come from. She returns to it and peers at it, then shrugs and picks it up.

She doesn't pocket it, though, because the moment she touches the key she's quite certain it's a magical key.

It doesn't actually do anything, it doesn't explode or shoot fireworks or glow, there's no mysterious voice saying that he has found the Artifact of Doom or anything like that. She just—knows.

When she straightens up, she notices how she knows it. There seems to be a certain sense produced by the key, a feeling of sorts, that shifts and moves about as the key is moved through the air. She waves it around a bit, and reaches two conclusions: one, most spots in the air don't feel like anything; two, what a spot in the air feels like depends on the spot itself, and if she waves the key around a given spot multiple times she feels the same thing each time.

O-kay, this sounds fun. Now what does the key actually do?

...well, it's a key, presumably it opens doors. It's a magic key—does it open all doors?

After thirty minutes—during which she runs to the closest town, finds the least observed door, and tries to open it with the key, followed by several further attempts on several different doors—she has determined that the key does not in fact seem to have the property of opening all doors.

She has also determined that locks consistently don't feel like anything to the key. Which seems to suggest that, if she wants to use it, it's not going to be on an actual door. So she decides to try the obvious thing. Except not here, this is not a good place, so she finds an isolated spot in the woods to try the obvious thing.

Upon finding an appropriate isolated spot, she waves the key around until it feels like something, then she pushes it and turns it, as if she were unlocking an actual door.

That one works.

She pulls it, and the door opens before her. And the image on the other side is... quite fantastic. A frozen lake—ocean?—with water everywhere, and a few floating rocks in the distance, with—are those houses?—on them. She removes the key from the door—good, the door still exists—and gingerly steps onto the ice, wondering whether it can hold her weight.

Permalink Mark Unread

The ice holds and feels very solid under her feet. The air is oddly still, but doesn't smell any different.

She catches movement from one of the houses, it was only a glimpse but there is definitely a person in there.

Permalink Mark Unread

Well, alright. She checks that the door doesn't insta-close once she's on the other side, then—

runs.

Permalink Mark Unread

Vampire speed means she gets there in no time. There are about three dozen floating rocks, each the size of a house, a handful of them have cottage-like buildings on top. When the angle is right Sadde can see an angel-like statue on the rocks. The entire thing is connected by bridges made out of rope and chains.

The person was inside the biggested cottage, and there is a chain ladder hanging from that rock, a bit too high for most humans but she can reach effortlessly.

Permalink Mark Unread

She shifts into a more human appearance, and jumps, then climbs.

Permalink Mark Unread

There are two young men inside the cottage, and here are few things about these young men in order of importance:
1) One is reading a book while drinking tea. The other is listening to music with his eyes closed.
2) The one reading is completely naked, despite the cold winds outside, thank you very much. The other is dressed in an awesome cool red leather jacket with matching red jeans.
3) They both have wings. The one reading is actually floating above the ground without using them. The other's wings are firey red, orange and yellow.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hello."

Permalink Mark Unread

The floating one is mildly startled by the "Hello." and very surprised when he looks over and obviously fails to recognize her. Now that she can properly see both their faces they are obviously identical twins. Except for the wings. Maybe Almost-identical twins then?

"There is someone outside." He whispers to the other, then more loudly "Felix! There is someone outside!"

After a pause to look at her, the not-Felix covers himself with the book and floats away from the window.

Permalink Mark Unread

The same mildly-startled-then-very-surprised expressions repeat on Felix's face. He gets out of the couch he was reclining on and whispers "Go cover yourself, Fenris. I... will get the door and see how she got here."

Felix takes Fenris' silence as ascent and gets the door.

"Hi..." Felix says and after a moment he rejects using "How can I help you?" and "How the hell did you get here" and instead asks "Are you lost?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You could say that. I used a magic key to open a magic door and found this place and you and your naked twin."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh," Felix says sounding way more casual than his heartbeat indicates, "Where is this door? We assumed we had mapped them all, unless it is new." Newer than the last time Fenris slept? Unlikely. "Where does it come from?" He adds.

Apparently he is not curious about the terms "magic key" and "magic door". But again, he is a winged twin standing inside a cottage floating above a fast frozen body of water.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Somewhere in Scotland. And it is new, given that I used a magic key not five minutes ago to open it."

Permalink Mark Unread

...

Permalink Mark Unread

"I heard something about Scotland?" Fenris returns, now wearing some loose fitting pants.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You didn't have to cover yourself on my account, you know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thanks!" He says and takes the pants off.

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix gives his twin a look that means "wish you didn't do that because we are identical", but Sadde might be forgiven for not knowing that.

"Why would opening it have anything to do with being new? What do you mean with Scotland? We are not even remotely coplanar with Scotland." Felix asks like he is talking to a very confused person.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...we appear to be talking past each other."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Would you like to come in?" Asks Fenris "Also, where is the door?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I already asked that, but she didn't answer." He gets out of the way so she can get in. "Sorry, completely forgot how cold it is outside."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think you two are comfortable enough with magic that I don't need to pretend I actually mind the cold. And the door is that way," she says, pointing precisely, "in the middle of the frozen whatever." She comes in. "Can I also not pretend I have a human memory? That'd be grand."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, so it is going to be an interesting day. I mean we are obviously comfortable with magic, but I bet we are all going to learn something interesting today. Maybe the value of friendship."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris is momentanly distracted by looking where she pointed, then his minds catches up with the rest of what she said. "What kind of memory do you have that isn't human?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perfect recall of everything that's happened since I got turned. Into a vampire, that is. That's a thing I am. Don't worry I'm not going to eat you, I have a nifty witch power that means I can generate vegan blood on demand and when I do that I usually turn off my senses of taste and smell."

Permalink Mark Unread

Stunned silence... in stereo!

"I don't see how we can learn the value of friendship from that." Felix finally says.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Priority question: Explain what you mean with 'witch power'? Please."

Permalink Mark Unread

"People where I come from sometimes have magical powers, usually just the one specific power per person. Mine's expansive biokinesis, I can modify my body in all sorts of ways and generate matter with it. Biological stuff only. And I can generate blood right in my mouth and drink it, so I basically feed myself with nothing."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris sips from his tea. "What I want to make it clear is just that you didn't steal some tome of secret lore, right? If you did we don't mind continuing the conversation, we just would prefer to move it somewhere with less stuff we own." Also less secrets. "Or at least back in Felix's home."

Permalink Mark Unread

"See how we're learning things already! As far as I was aware, there are no tomes of secret lore, and I am knowledgeable enough to know the secret shadow vampire government. Also I'm pretty sure I'm from another world, what with the magic portal, so maybe my world doesn't have these tomes."

Permalink Mark Unread

The twins exchange looks. "Okay..." Fenris says uneasily. "That at least is a point against the possibility of a vengeful Witch-Queen coming here. Well, see... Wait, what is your name again?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"She didn't say. I'm Felix and this is Fenris, by the way. Color-coded for easy identification." Felix says shruging his red-feathered wings while waving at Fenris' white's.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sadde. Weird, I know. And no I'm not a Witch-Queen, the Queen where I'm from actually calls herself Empress Regnant and she's pretty decent and not at all vengeful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good. Not all Witch-Queens are bad, but they like their tomes of secret lore." Pause "So, Sadde..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fenris!" Felix admonishes. "Okay. Sadde, Do you mind showing us evidence of your claims? It's not that we think you are lying..." He shrugs helplessly.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Was that some twin telepathy? And sure." She goes sparkly, then not sparkly again, and now she's standing at the other side of the room. "Do you want me to show you the door back to my world, too?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Kinda, I'll explain to you later. What is up with the sparkly skin?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I was wondering how you managed to get up here with the ladder being half chewed off. Please, do show us the door?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Vampires where I'm from have sparkly skin. I can unsparkle myself with my witch powers. And sure, I'll show you the door."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Felix, that has got to be a point in favor of what I'm thinking."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Lets see the door first and then we will talk."

They both lead her out and take flight. Their flights are obviously differently. Fenris pretty much ignores gravity and goes wherever he wants, while Felix actually needs to flap his wings and follow air currents.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you need a lift?" Fenris offers.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nope! I'll run."

She runs.

Permalink Mark Unread

That is fast. She might need to slow down a little so the two can catch up to her.

Presently, they arrive at a patch of frozen water that looks identical to others patches of frozen water, but is where the door was.

Permalink Mark Unread

...was?

"Wait. Where—the door—" She zips this way and that, looking for the door, even though perfect recall means she couldn't have been mistaken about its location. "Fuck!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"What is wrong?" Fenris lands near her, well, he floats above the ground near.

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix lands, for real, a moment later. "Is there a problem?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The door vanished."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...How did it open the first time?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She grabs a key from her pocket. "Magical key," she repeats, and demonstrates by opening a door to—apparently that's a hundred metre drop into a volcano.

Permalink Mark Unread

The twins look at the door, barely paying attention to the volcano.

"That is not a magic door as we know them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perfect recall. Yes, I'm sure."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, tell us everything that you know about the magic key."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Found the magic key while running around a woods. It was clearly magical, it felt like things. Tested it on doors. Then tested it in the air. Opened a door, ended up here. The end. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the things it feels like correlate with the worlds it opens to but I'm not sure how."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So individual... Keyholes feel different, do they move around? Maybe something like the planet's rotation changed the door's position."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe it is a time thing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If it's a time thing, it's a longer time than these few seconds right now, and it's not continuous. And it's definitely not a planet rotation thing. Vampires also have keen enough senses that I'd be able to tell."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix runs his hand over his hair. "I don't know how to help you, maybe the volcano's place is your home world? We would need some technology to test it but not right now. I'm sorry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How do you know the different feelings correspond to different worlds? Actually, do you mind if I test the key myself?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't actually know, I haven't tested, and sure." She hands him over the key, confident in her ability to snatch it from his hands if need be more quickly than he could escape.

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris gives no sign of stealing the key, he waves it around, apparently testing the feeling it gives. "Definitely magical." he comments.

He then mimics the push and turn, opening a door to what look like a dark cavern, a frog tries to leap towards them, but a sudden and strong wind pushes the creature back. Door is closed. Door is opened again to the same cavern, frog leaping away. Door is closed.

"Could you try opening the door to the cave?" He asks.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure," she says, and opens the glimmering shape of a door. Yep, still the cave. "What happens if you try to lock it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris locks it, door vanishes he tries to open again...

"I think the door is gone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Are you okay? Holding together I mean?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...yeah. Mostly yeah. I think." She shakes her head. "What if you try to unlock it again on the same spot?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix decides not to offer a hug just yet.

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris tries that, his accuracy is not vampire-perfect but he manages to push and pull through the keyhole and there is the cave again.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So, yeah, same places mean same doors."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes... Maybe you can only open from one side and that is why you can't go home."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Always soften the blow, Fenris."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Have I mentioned vampires also have superfast cognition and a lot more brain room?" she asks, knowing that she has not. "I have worked out the consequences of my predicament already."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You haven't, but it isn't a reason to ignore your feelings. Also Fenris is not the best at emotional comfort."

Permalink Mark Unread

"My feelings are fine. But thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm glad to hear that. And you are welcome."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just one more test." Fenris borrows Felix's phone, sets it to record video and repeats the open-close-open door routine with the phone in the other world.

"Okay," He says after inspecting the phone. "Apparently the other end of the door vanishes completely when it opens even when this side remains visible."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. Can you run this test again with me on the other side? I have better senses than this camera."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure... Do you want the cave or to try for somewhere better? Huh, Lets go with the cave anyway. I mean does your type of vampire burn under real sunlight?" The cave's door is open.

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, we sparkle," she explains, and goes to the cave. "Reopen the door after about ten seconds?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix mouths "Weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure." Fenris close the door, countdown by his wristwatch, the door is opened. "Hello, again. No weirdness from your end?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The exact absence of weirdness consistent with 'the door stops existing' on my end."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Same deal. No extra weirdness from our end." Says the naked, winged man floating above the frozen waterscape completely unbothered by the temperature.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay... Too soon to ask if you want a place to crash?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I also don't need to sleep. Or sit. Or rest."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix blinks. "Okay, I'm officially curious about your type of vampire."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Me too. And if you plan to stay in this world we should give you a few pointers. Even if you don't, hopefully you won't mind having the conversation."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure! Do you want me to just list all the perks and drawbacks here? Or maybe go back to your place, since you in fact do need to rest and stuff."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't need a chair," Fenris says floating cross-legged, his wings are apparently aesthetical. "But some tea, pencils and paper would be useful for this kind of conversation."

Presumably they take flight and go cottageward.

Permalink Mark Unread

And while Sadde can't fly, she can jump pretty high.

Permalink Mark Unread

She might catch twins impressed with the jump.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So do you still drink tea or coffee?" Felix asks as they get in the cottage.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can but I'd need to mess my biology up a bit to digest them and otherwise they don't really do anything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"More for us then."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris retrieves pencils and a notebook. He floats horizontally, but at her face level. "So what can you tell us about your type of vampire?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sadde appreciates the view. "Pros: superfast, super strong, do not need to sleep, can hold a given position for basically ever, perfect recall, enhanced senses—we can see in ultraviolet -, supersped cognition, if you have my-world witchcraft it often gets better, if you don't you sometimes get some, ultrafine motor control, can growl, can speak at a high enough pitch that only other vampires can understand you, your features are rearranged so you become gorgeous, you stop aging forever, the only way to kill you is by setting you on fire and given how hard it is to keep a vampire still you'll usually need to be torn to pieces first, and if you are torn to pieces you can glue them back with a little venom, which replaces your bodily fluids and can be used to turn other people into vampires, you do not feel uncomfortable at any non-burning temperatures. Cons: when you turn you spend three days in agony wishing you were dead and it only gets worse during those three days, I cannot overstate how much it hurts, you will spend those days screaming; some of that pain will remain in your throat forever, you will have unquenchable thirst and the smell of a human, even if far away, will be enough to make it flare as if you were swallowing chainsaws, not to mention the fact that your vision is good enough that you can actually see blood coursing through other people's veins and hear their heartbeats, you'll spend your first year in a crazed state where your emotions occupy so much of your new brain it'll be hard to control yourself around other humans and not eat them, and if you start eating one it's basically impossible to stop because you get into a frenzied out-of-control state, animal blood tastes absolutely rancid but will still feed you, if either of you kills anyone to eat them I will probably tear you to pieces and wait for your newborn year to pass, your new vampire senses are so intense and vivid that your human memories will quickly fade in comparison to the first minute of your existence, you'll mostly remember highlights and important things but stuff like names or faces will probably go away, females can never bear children but males can impregnate human females with hybrids, and typically the only way the mother will survive the birth of the hybrid is by being turned into a vampire when it happens, and a C-section a week before birth is recommended, also the pregnancy lasts a month. Maybe-pros-maybe-cons: emotions never really stop being completely overwhelming but you do learn to get a grip on them, your eyes turn golden when you eat animals but quickly crimson when you eat people, there's a magical soul-mate thing going on where if you look at someone who's your magical soul-mate you will never fall in love with anyone ever again and will love them forever, and if they're a vampire they will instantly love you back, this magical thing is strong enough to withstand pretty much all sorts of things that could affect it."

Permalink Mark Unread

By the time she finishes this Felix has finished preparing their drinks, then drinking it, and now he is getting more.

"That is... extensive."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris catches her appreciation and rolls his eyes.

"Extremely extensive," Flexing his writing hand, he gave up the full list half-way through. "I'm not entirely sure where to start asking... Huh, am I not particularly more biteable because of..." He waves at his naked self, sounding a bit too calm.

Permalink Mark Unread

She shrugs. "The arteries in your neck are the most alluring, in that sense, being naked doesn't make you any more likely to be ravaged by a hungry creature of the night."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think there is an innuendo in there somewhere."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Grow up." Fenris tells his brother. "I don't think we would be interested but your kind of vampirism is very... simultaneously attractive and repulsive."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Trust me, if you're not currently immortal it is very much worth it. Not to mention all those perks, like the brain capacity and superpowers. Though I suppose you two probably already have a means of getting superpowers, apparently."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is called Skymagery, not superpowers, we are born with them. Skymages are sort of an human ethnic group, but with hereditary magical powers, mostly weather-related stuff."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Still not feeling like becoming a vampire." Fenris says a touch too defensively.

Permalink Mark Unread

A touch too defensively? "Okay, suit yourself, the Empress Regnant might literally kill me if I force-turn either of you, not that I'd want to. I'd just like to reiterate how being alive is great and doing that forever is even better and dying is really bad. The Empress wants to eventually break the Masquerade back home and turn everyone who wants to be immortal. Also the pain part could be avoided back home due to this witch who can make it go away so the three days of agony become three days of boredom, but I currently lack a way to return."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We like being alive, it is just that..." The two exchange a look. "Okay, just need to talk to with my brother for a moment."

Permalink Mark Unread

The two move to the kitchen.

"Are you thinking of-?" Fenris asks before being shushed.

They continue the conversation through writing.

Permalink Mark Unread

It doesn't take long for them to return.

"Okay, first. What are the limits of turning people into vampires? And is it possible for you to sleep at all?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not possible for me to sleep at all without screwing with my biology on a deeper level than I'm comfortable with, and what do you mean by limits?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"So vampires in general can't sleep. Damn, but still a plus. I meant, if there is a limit to how many vampires a vampire could create in an certain span of time?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Only in how much venom they have in their body at any given time, and if they start stockpiling on venom they can pretty much turn whoever they want. There is the problem that during the newborn phase in addition to being out-of-control the vampire is even stronger than a regular vampire, so turning many people is a recipe for disaster, normally."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Could you still get an output greater than once a month?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you had lots of help or were the government, yes. Also, apparently being told in advance about vampires helps considerably with the self-control."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, so here is the deal we are already immortal."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well then I suppose I don't need to convince you to become vampires anymore!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, not if the only reason is keeping us from dying. We still do die but get shiny new bodies after a week."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Honestly, we might be more shielded from permanent death than you are. Even if we are considerably more fragile."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe more shielded than a regular vampire." She grabs her left hand with her right and—pinches it off. It makes a horrible screeching noise. There is, however, no blood at all, and it's like her insides are made of stone. Then a new hand starts growing in its place.

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix looks away from the non-gore.

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris however watches it fascinated.

"Interesting, but we also have a power that requires sleep. Including the ability to make my kind of immortal. Which is limited to about once a month."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...are you going around distributing it to other people every month? Please tell me you're doing that." Her regenerated hand shrinks back into a stump, and she reattaches the old one to where it used to be.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, but we do keep a few extras for emergencies. It can be administered when the person is dying and it will work instantaneously, no three days waiting no pain."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that does sound like a very good deal. I prefer having the vampire superpowers now but that's because I've already gone through the pain, I'd probably have picked the instantaneous option when I was human."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Any reason why not combine both?" Felix asks Fenris. "Besides the non-discussed."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mostly the fact we don't have any data on how it works on non-humans. Also we probably should discuss the non-discussed, which is to say. The immortality also grants Skymagery, which comes with nifty powers and extremely visible new limbs." He waves his wings to inlustrate the point. "Which does wonders for our ability to distribute the thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't mind the extra limbs, if I ever need to get rid of them I'm pretty sure my magic can. What are those nifty powers?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They are, at least the ones that come with the immortality, randomly chosen from regular skymage's gifts which can grant control over: wind; heat; cold; light; darkness; electricity; humidity. In addition there are the gifts of forecast, and flight, the last one every skymage gets. They might come in greater form, making them more powerful. I have greater flight, which means I fly telekinetically and get unique wings."

He extends his full wingspan, and reveals two claws in each wing, formerly hidden by fluffy feathers. The claws look sharp and sort of cartoonish evil.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Greater heat. Which means fire and pretty fire-themed wings."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh! Can I choose the powers or are they random?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Our samples are limited, but it and my innate feel of the power so far indicate completely random. You could get the bare minimum of just wings or maybe you could get all the nine greater powers and become a rainbow-winged messianic figure."

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles. "Is your world in need of one? I arrived too late to the party in mine and the Empress Regnant had already fixed everything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Everything?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, she took over the evil government, developed a way of keeping track of vampires who kill people, is slowly peeling off the Masquerade with the explicit purpose of making everyone immortal and eliminating suffering... It's the early stages, granted, but."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now I'm feeling like I'm not doing enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"To answer your question. I'm not sure we need a messianic figure, but our worlds," The s sounds corrective. "still have problems. Note how we left implicit that death is a common thing and immortals are not. We have some other issues too, some you wouldn't have."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Worlds? And what issues?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We will get back to the issues in a moment, but yes, worlds. We have several pocket dimensions, also known as hiddenlands, in this universe connected to Earth and each other by magical doors. The dimensions have all kinds of unusual features, magic stuff or magical beings," Felix waves to himself and his brother. "You are standing in one right now. The horizon and the sky above are actually illusions."

Permalink Mark Unread

"All magic actually comes from the dimensions, and the issues we don't share should be related to their existence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Or the absence of vampires," she points out.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, right." He admits. "I assume both our worlds have hunger, war, poverty, disease on all kinds of levels and variance depending on the region. Yours wouldn't happen to have a species of sapient talking fish that is going extinct due to low population, right? Or arranged marriages based on hereditary magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nope! Tell me more about those?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The fish or the marriage?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Or both?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Both, of course."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not much about the fish? They can also breathe air and speak, have human levels of inteligence and there are too few of them and they are too related for a stable population."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The arranged marriages are mainly a skymage thing, we originated from a dimension where we get a month of normal weather and then an elemental comes and causes storms for a month. Thus the need for skymages with the right powers to counter each specific skyspirit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Skymage gifts are genetic, but in a complicated way, so maximizing magic potential is important. Not that I'm defending them"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Before you ask, one way the genetics are complicated is that the number of greater gifts is genetic, the specific gifts aren't. Felix and I have the same genes, but manifested different greater powers."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You think that was complicated then try to work out who your grandparents want marry you to with when you are eleven."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How do you get this magic, then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was purely genetic until Fenris' immortality came along. It originated with the Stormlands dimension."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So now it's not? Does it thenceforth become genetic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Haven't got the chance to collected data on that yet. Some of the relevant people even decided to become immortal only after having children."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Weird how people don't have enough scientific curiosity to have children to collect data."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. So weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris shrugs. "So are you curious where all these dimensions come from?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, my experience with magic has not turned up a reason for it but you seem to imply there is one here, so do enlighten me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It was mostly a way to bring up the subject. There is this magical crystal, if it touches a sleeping person it will create a pocket dimension based on that person's dreams. Also, to wake up the dreamshaper will need to find and open a door and get out of the dimension. Or they won't ever wake up again."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But if you do wake up, then you will be able to expand the dimension in your sleep. This is Fenris', I have one too, much warmer and livelier."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...that sounds somewhat horrible!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, it gets better! We know this because someone discovered the damn thing and was using it on innocent people, including us, for fun and profit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...are you sure you don't need a messiah?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It wasn't a common thing to happen. I'm pretty sure the crystal remained completely unused for decades if not a couple of centuries."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...And the guy was some kind of," Felix makes his tone more Fenris-like "statistically unlikely monster. He kept his nephew in a coma because his dimension was profitable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...that's horrible. But I presume the past tense is relevant here. Where's this crystal, now? And are you two currently asleep?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"He has been dealt with. The crystal is heavily protected. We are both awake. The first time around people usually have... a dreamself walking around the dimension, but we haven't learned to replicate the trick. Some of the other shapers know how."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. So, about getting those powers...?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh, it is not a trade. But would you be willing to turn two of the dreamshapers into vampires... Their pocket dimensions are literal nightmares."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is really not. He is just thinking of the trade offs between giving you the powers now or later."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm already trapped in this dimension, and I'm imagining if there's a way from here back I could use vampire superspeed to get there fairly quickly but regardless, gaining powers and making other people immortal while also saving them from horrible torture every night or something sounds pretty good to me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, thank you. Rachel's problem is mostly lack of control. Emma however faces her phobia of insects every time she falls asleep and even refused becoming immortal."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Would you happen to have a few syringes? Glass, vampire venom will corrode anything else."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We should have some, but I don't mind talking to them first. Also, we should build something around your door's area. At least put up a sign to not close the door. Which we can with deal later. Do you want the extra immortality and powers now or later?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now would definitely be good!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure, follow us." Felix gets up and leads her out.

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris follows after them.

They cross the chain bridges and floating rocks. Each rock has a simple stone fountain, most fountains have statues of winged humanoids, some drapped with cloths. Only one figure per fountain, none the same, two are humanoid but have scales and other reptilian features.

It is a short walk (or flight) until they arrive at a statueless fountain.

"Okay, last details before you can't return. If you drink from this fountain a statue of you will emerge from it and when your current body dies a new one will be made in the fountain's pool, it will take a week to mature. This isn't much of a benefit to you, but the new body will be reshaped by your preferences in some ways, you can look any age, get thiner, fatter, muscular, etc. Or just look like yourself. The entire structure can fix itself even if it is very throughly destroyed, trust me, we tried."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am quite pleased by your scientific thoroughness!"

And she drinks!

Permalink Mark Unread

It tastes like regular water, but as soon it passes her throat....

A sensation spreads from the center of her body to the extremities, at the same time her senses sharpen. The leap isn't as intense as human-to-vampire but it is noticeable. An entirely new extra sense tells her the qualities of the air around her in a way that she couldn't before. She now knows, as a directly observable fact, that the twins are passively altering the air near their skins to a comfortable temperature.

Inward, the new sense also tells her the new powers she just acquired. She can control the wind, the temperature (both hot and cold), the flow of electricity and humidity in the air. A greater power than those is over darkness, the ability to simply will light to stop existing and erecting durable barriers of darkness where she can see. Another great power is flight by just willing herself to a direction and speed without the need for (or the hidrance of) wings.

Speaking of wings, she can feel them trying to grow, pushing against her back like a pair of broken bones. Of course, since she is a vampire it is hardly worth her notice.

Permalink Mark Unread

But since she is a biokinetic witch, she will allow them to, opening up the way. She removes her shirt to give them space. "I think if I weren't a witch I'd have trouble manifesting these wings," she comments as she starts floating.

Permalink Mark Unread

"They are supposed to grow much faster, so it doesn't hurt. Oh, greater flight! My favorite."

The wings finish growing, all six of them, they are as long as her arms and black-feathered like a raven's. After they finish growing there is a sensation in her eyes, similar to the wings.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...And greater darkness, too, what else did you get? It should be obvious."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...something in my eyes." She lets it happen.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Greater forecaster." Fenris announces "They get bird-like eyes and yours are black like a crow. You should have innate feeling to how the atmosphere and the weather behaves and a sensory boost. But it might not stack with vampire senses."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There was definitely some stacking going on," she says as her eyes turn golden again. "This is so cheating. Here I was thinking vampirism was cheating, this is such cheating."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cheating is such an ugly word." He chuckles. "I prefer optimizing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sounds like something a cheater would say. Being able to shapeshift the wings away is just unfair. Just how much you would save in custom-made clothing..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am totally cheating," she says, and starts shapeshifting the wings away as well, then puts her shirt back on.

Permalink Mark Unread

Wings are shapeshifted away, leaving a small sense of pressure, not painful at all, but if she wanted to get them back it would be as simple as leaving a wound regerating, easier even.

"Cheater!" Felix mock accuses.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did you get anything else? Only greater powers leave visible signs." Fenris illustrates this by displaying the previously unmentioned gift over cold, chilling the air noticeably.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Apparently wind, cold, heat, humidity, ice, and electricity. I cheat at everything forever," she giggles.

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix whistles impressed. "You are just plain unfair." He says dismissing his brother's cold.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wanna do some magic testing? See if the gifts are stronger because you're a vampire?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Count me in!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well the obvious test is... Flight!" Then Fenris zips up to the sky in complex chaotic curves.

If she decides to follow him, she will discover that his top speed is greater than her, but she can keep her top speed constantly and react faster and with sharper turns.

Permalink Mark Unread

She is somewhat miffed that flying is so slow. Why is she so slow? Running is so much faster! She wonders how her ice power works, can she, like, conjure ice in the middle of the air or something?

Permalink Mark Unread

She can't make it out of nothing, but she can gather water to freeze using her humidity and wind powers. It can give her a ball of solid ice and compacted snow bigger than her fist before gravity claims it.

Fenris pushes the frozen ball with concentrated wind. "Careful, there are breakable things down there."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hmmm, how quickly can she create those balls? Do her enhanced senses and cognition help? How quickly can she undo them? What's the actual difference between cold and ice?

Permalink Mark Unread

With her enhanced senses and cognition she can get something larger than her head before gravity takes care of moving away. She melts/vaporizes them at about the same rate she freezes, but with a glob of liquid water midway through. She can control the air's cold, condensation is fine, snow is fuzzy and ice is a blind spot that she can't influence directly.

"Do you want to land and do some ice-sculpting?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, what I want to do is this."

She conjures a ball of ice then steps on it and pushes, using a part of her brain (multitasking ftw) to melt it before it hurts anything. Does that give her a better boost and more speed than just flying does?

Permalink Mark Unread

It involves more concentration than flight does, but if she repeats the step-on-ice trick continuously her speed is better than running, but turning loses considerable speed compared to both regular running and flying. Also she leaves a trail of fog behind her.

"What did you just do?" Fenris shouts far behind her. "Don't go too far!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She's a vampire. She has lots of spare concentration, and she can probably combine flight with this to turn, use the best of both words, so to speak. She does that, turning around and quickly going back to Fenris. "Conjure ice, kick it for speed."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I like your style!" He praises. "Just a warning, if you find yourself surrounded by a grayish fog, it means you are near the dimension's edge and if you go further it is possible that you will vanish out of it."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix joins them. "It isn't dangerous but vanishing means that you disappear for at least several minutes, experience only a couple of minutes yourself. Then you reappear, often on Earth or another dimension."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll keep that in mind. How do you make gates back to Earth? And how do you choose where to make them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Only dreamshapers can place and remove them, while we sleep. They also occur naturally when the dimension's dreamshaper is dead."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They're stationary and have different ways to open, which are specific to each gate, we call them keys. It can be very incovenient."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There is this thing called a gatewand that can open and close them, but it has a limited usage. I first assumed your magic key was one, before things are properly explained."

Permalink Mark Unread

"These powers are really nifty. It's also pretty interesting that my magic key took me here instead of to your Earth."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I love being an immortal skymage dreamshaper, specially because of the mouthful it is."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think it is from here, but we should definitely check to see if the key only connects between two worlds."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What do you mean?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The dreamshaper crystal also gives off a magic feeling when touched and... It just feels different from your key, like it doesn't belong to the same kind of magic, so it might be from a third world. But we still should check for sure that it leads to multiple worlds, just so we don't feel like morons when it turns out you could go home all along."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, yeah, good point."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But that is for later. Do you have other clever ideas?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not yet, haven't thought of any particular thing I want, but I do want to test things."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, before play time. Do you want your statue to be covered?" He points at the general direction of her six-winged statue that had been formed on the fountain.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...covered with what?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Clothes, or at least something to cover the nudity, some people get embarassed by proxy."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. I don't particularly care."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good. Have you tried to do anything with electricity? As long we keep away from the cottages this is the safer place to try."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We also have a teacher in the know, in case you're interested."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I haven't tried!" So she tries. What can she do?

Permalink Mark Unread

"You should be able to gather electricity from the air and surfaces then direct it where you want." Felix explains as if reacting to her curiosity. "You could create something like a natural thunderbolt after a dozen minutes. Or disippate electrons by grounding them."

It feels more liquid than moving humidity itself, fuzzier as well. It wants to behave naturaly and escape her grasp. Except her expanded cognition can easily keep it all under control. If she wants it will take actually only a couple of minutes until she has enough power for a lighting strike.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Let me try something," she says, and starts focusing.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can wait." Fenris turns to his brother. "So, I think to properly secure her door we need a large tent, motion detectiors, cameras, solar panels to supply energy to the other things and?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Another sign outside pointing at the right direction. Maybe something like a small informative book explaining what the fuck is going on. Oh, better yet, the motion detectors set a recorded message playing loudly. With music! And a light show!"

Permalink Mark Unread

And then:

Thunder! On the frozen lake.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Lets not give anyone a heart attack, which is bound to-" Thunder! "Gah!"

So that is what it looks like for someone to stumble midair.

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix is even more surprised, since he has to make an effort to hover, he falls a short distance and has to approach after a looping a circle around them.

"Some warning first!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles. "I'm faster!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can see that!" You can barely notice the exasperation in his voice. "It is rude to almost knock someone out of the sky, it would be like kicking them hard on their chins."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, it was funny." Felix admits. "How about darkness next? I don't think there is too much variance to it."

Permalink Mark Unread

She tries that next.

Permalink Mark Unread

It is different than the other effects, not only it is stronger, but also she is not manipulating something, instead she just decides for light to stop existing if it crosses this plane in space, she can block specific parts of the spectrum if she wishes, including way above even vampire vision. Combined with her cheater-level cognition she is able to create complex and colorful shadow figures by subtracting parts of white light.

Permalink Mark Unread

She does exactly that! It's exciting!

Permalink Mark Unread

It is like a shadow puppet theater, except tridimensional and she can make the figures quite large, complex and obey her mind. So it is not really all that much like a shadow puppet theater, more like a hologram projector. Their quality would never fool a vampire, but...

"You could trick a human under the right conditions, like in a fog, which you can conjure by yourself... I might be getting just a little bit jealous."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, that ship has sailed for me a long time ago."

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles. "Such cheating."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix giggles, then thinks of something and giggles again "Hey, do that sparkly thing, then try to subtract the part of light that cause the sparkles?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She tries it.

Permalink Mark Unread

It works! Sort of... The right shading to stop the sparkling makes the skin a bit darker, like she is standing under a glass cover, it is less attention-grabbing than sparkling like a thousand crushed diamonds for sure.

"I'm going to need to find a way to control what skygifts people get, won't I?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depends if Sadde's type of vampire become public or not." Felix says turning to Sadde. "Which is an interesting question to be discussed somewhere that doesn't tire my wings so much."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I could carry you," she says. "Can you control what skygifts they get?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not sure, since... our sleep isn't normal, we are more aware, but it isn't like being awake either, the sensations are hard to describe. It feels possible, but it would consume my time making new eternal springs," He waves at the giant rocks "and before you we didn't have other easy ways of immortality. Creating some new skygifts also feels possible and easier too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But then we get to the problem that greater skygifts color-code the wings." He quietly accepts being supported by Sadde.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I want new powers! Also what does that have to do with the eternal springs, exactly? How do you make one of those?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"When we create things for our dimensions it is like we are taking this energy and giving it form. Some things are harder to make, especially complicated or powerful things like the immortality the eternal springs grant. Usually, it takes me a month before I have enough of that energy to create new one. But if I stop to do other things like, create more space, a gate, try to experiment with what I can do, or do something complex like a new power or a non-standard spring, then it will take longer than a month to have a new spring available to immortalize someone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And since one of the major perks of immortality is time, he just decided to get around to it later. No scientific curiosity at all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, no, I can't say I disagree with his reasoning, scientific curiosity can wait until everyone stops dying."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is like you two have a sane and reasonable set of priorities."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He is just needling me, because I came to that conclusion by making charts with the pros and cons of each decision. Made a huge deal about the scientific curiosity being there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Then your brother's the sane one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not every item in the list had the same weight. The scientific curiousity was also about how much I could work with an existing form of magic. Which could mean new ways to cheat."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose. But now I'm here and you have the best way to cheat ever, so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, exponential cheating that allows more diverse cheating, the best kind."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix giggles. "Coming back to a previous question. What do you think about going public with your immortality in a bottle?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not sure it's a great idea, people will probably react badly to a sudden reveal. I mean, there's a reason the Empress is peeling off the Masquerade as opposed to just going on live TV about vampires."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is not frequent, maybe once every other decade, a new magical thing is discovered in an unexplored dimension, so our world might be better prepared than yours. But considering what vampirism brings to the table..." Felix shrugs, causing some of his feathers to brush against her.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Actually, how was the Masquerade managed? Are vampires that rare?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, it always bothered me in the movies when the cops found dried up bodies and went 'what could possibly have done this?'"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Masquerade hasn't been managed, yet, like I said, it's being peeled off, very slowly, on a person-by-person basis. No public announcement, just telling your friends and family and such. And yes, we're that rare."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I meant before the current Empress took over. We have been debating, 'we' meaning the dreamshapers, if we should follow a similar smaller scale model to reveal our abilities or at least the immortality."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We need to settle for a name for our club of sorts. Hey, how rare are witches?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Rarer than vampires. Possibly less than a thousand worldwide. And I'd thought your kind of magic was public in your world?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Dreamshaping is a secret, my type of immortality as well. I think everything else we told you is public, most of it at least."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wow, less than a thousand? Skymages alone are about two million and change. That... I can't even picture that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I may be full of poop. Less than 0.01% of the population for sure, so less than a million. I'd expect we're two orders of magnitude rarer than that, probably more, so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That is oddly imprecise, you would think with only one dimension the census would have an easier time."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...there isn't a census, magic is secret."

Permalink Mark Unread

They give her matching disbelieving expressions.

"That is an extremely useful piece of contextual information."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sorry. Yeah, witches are secret, just like vampires."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's alright. Interworld confusion is expected. The fact we share a language or a Scotland is itself marvelous."

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix's phone beeps and he peers at it. "The movie. Should we cancel or delay it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You should take a nap long enough to just make a temporary sign for Sadde's door. I can introduce her to your dimension while you do that if she's tired of playing with new magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh! New dimensions!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mine is way cooler," Felix says letting go and flying cottage-wards. "Not frozen, but waaay more fun."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris follows and retrieves clothes because some people have stupid rules about pieces of cloth in his dimension.

Now Felix is trying to nap in Fenris' bed and Fenris is dressed in jeans, trainers and a sleeveless gray shirt with large openings for the arms and wings. Then he guides Sadde to a spot high above the cottage that doesn't look or feel any different from the other spots of air.

"This specific gate can be opened this way."

Fenris demonstrates by creating a "bubble" of hot air in one hand and cold in the other.

There is a shimmer in the air that becomes white-translucent and then, they can see something on the other side. Some sort of cityscape made of something brown-red.

Wordlessly, Fenris walks inside the open gate and vanishes for a moment, and now he's on the other side.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ooh, fun! Sadde wonders what that'll feel like. She walks through.

Permalink Mark Unread

She can feel the portal's surface dulling her senses, then her surrounds change completely almost disorienting her.

On the other side she notices the obvious difference in atmosphere, Fenris' dimension was unnaturally still in restrospect. Felix's dimension has what Sadde might guess is a more natural weather pattern, the sky above is mostly clear and the wind is pleasant.

They stand above a beautiful citadel made of red-brown marble. There is little in way of streets and roads, making it look like a single city-sized masion or like someone tried to recreate an old historical city somewhere else.

There are a lot of torches, firepits, pyres small or big everywhere. Placed in positions where you would expect trees, water fountains or even just lampposts. In fact there is no lamppost or lightbulb as far she can see. Their fire also feels funny.

Fenris is checking his phone and looks up. "Felix would've liked to show you the city, he is proud of the aesthetics. So, first interesting trait. Fire here doesn't consume or harm. You can catch fire, but it feels pleasant and at most blinds your senses. Unless you have pyrokinetic powers and will it to consume. This trait stops as soon the fire leaves the dimension."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am pretty sure I don't want to test that assertion." Pause. "Wait, actually I do." She pulls her index finger until it breaks off, and then regrows it, so that she's now holding an extra finger. "Let's try burning this!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are you capable of starfishing your-No, focus." He says, but directing her to a small pyre in a nearby terrace. "The second thing, and very minor thing is that my brother can't conjure lighting that isn't fire based, unless it is an intrisical part of another thing, like a car. He can create it as part of a whole car, but not as a replacement part."

The extra finger lights up, but isn't consumed.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wow. This is pretty cool, actually."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris nods with far more gravity than would be expected given the context.

"We have an energy plant based on that property. We don't control what traits our dimensions get, it is not our choice what we can do with them. And Felix is capable of creating people, nearly thirty when he first dreamed, three more until he learned how to not do it. Once to create a doctor to save a dozen lives."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...real people? Actual real people with—what? Do they have memories or?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"People just like you or me. Details and properties vary from dreamer to dreamer. Felix's people dodn't come with memories, but they have skills, goals and aspirations. Some other dimensions produce people with detailed memories. I even assumed that you were one such case, and remembering a whole life's worth of memories wouldn't be conclusive evidence against it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...are those people alright?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Felix's are, he feels very responsible for them. Money isn't a issue and they are friendly by default. We took in some of the others' created people as well."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Good. Your magic is weird. And really powerful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Extremely, I think there is too much energy to feed it so it overdoes on the work while adapting the dream into reality. Felix's dream was of a party where fire didn't harm, thus the fire," He waves at the nearest flame. "But also the people he creates aren't negatively affected by alcohol, can subsist entirely on it if they want."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Where does this energy come from?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not sure, energy might not be the right word even, but it is a thing we can use to create things." Fenris shrugs. "It's a hard subject to research, can't get a board of scientists we trust. Making a board of scientists isn't a desirable option."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So how do you know there's so much energy lying around to be used by magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's a feeling. Like there's an entire ocean's worth of it and we're just taking handfuls of water from it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well, alright. Can I make one of those now that I have all this nifty magic? One of those dimensions that is."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris eyes her. "I would need to consult the others. The Dreamshapers. One way for me to see if this worked is if we killed your current body and used the dreamshard crystal on your reforming new one, it counts as asleep. Keep in mind that you could get stuck with a terrible dimension out of your worst nightmares."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I haven't had nightmares since before turning. I don't remember them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Which isn't very reassuring. But at least you can just not sleep again."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How much control do I have over these dimensions once created?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We all can pick the direction where they expand and where to place gates. Otherwise it depends a lot on the original dream's 'narrative'. If we expand the dimension's sky or underground it tends to not produce things that are found in the surface. Rachel and Emma don't benefit, they create... shapeshifting monsters and swarms of bugs respectively and those can appear anywhere. Felix has an easier time creating ridiculously luxurious stuff than say cheap condos, but he can do the later. My dimension originally had crazy sea-serpent monsters but I can suppress them effortlessly. It helps if you create a story that fits with how the dimension could have become that way.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well I can be pretty creative. I'm just not sure I trust your magical system not to kill me forever enough, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not really going to arguing either way. The fact that you can provide an alternative form of immortality is about the only reason I think the other dreamshapers would be okay with ever using the dreamshard again. Oh, also some of the shapers got changed after they woke up. In one case this rendered the individual mute until she got a new body."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wouldn't really worry much about my own body, since I can fix pretty much anything provided I'm not dead."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Reasonable. Do you want to take a tour? Maybe be introduced to the Partyharders? Those are the people Felix created."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sounds reasonable. Partyharders, really?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris starts flying expecting her to follow him "They picked the name themselves. We also have people calling themselves Mutesingers, Reptoids and Whites."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What are they like?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mutesingers are created mute, but their dimension produces these fruits that temporarily fix and improve voice, which allows them to sing beautifully and command birds with their songs. The fruit also makes birds smarter and capable of human speech; not human intellect mind you, more like a parrot. They manage some pretty complex tricks with that. Reptoids and Whites are very similar to the aliens with the same name out of sci-fi movies and come from the same dimension. Unless you meant them as individuals?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, not really, and I'm afraid I don't know what sci-fi movies you're talking about. If I saw them when I was human I definitely don't remember them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"At least in this world they are a very common trope. The Reptoids are a token evil reptilian humanoids. The real ones can mimic a person's appereance after licking them with a sedative substance. The ones we have are... too incompetent to use this properly. The Whites are human-looking with clear eyes and white-hair. The real ones don't need to sleep and are hard to get tired unless they use magical items from their dimension which tires people."

By this point the sound of a loud party is getting painfully obvious, Sadde probably heard it before but didn't pay attention to it, but now it's obviously their destination.

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods, and follows him to the party.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hopefully, I'm not overhelming you with too much information." They are pretty close now and Fenris notes. "At least they didn't set the pool on fire again."

The party is on a large penthouse with a pool and a sound system loud enough to cause a small earthquake. There are a handful of winged people there, and at least two dozen non-winged. Three have scaly skin and one of those is adorned with blue-green wings and is apparently hydrokinetically shaping water for a sky-blue winged person to freeze.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm a vampire, you couldn't overwhelm me if you tried, and set the what on fire?" She watches the party. "Are those dream-generated people, all of them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not noticing anyone that isn't. They are all in the know for certain, Reptoids aren't otherwise comfortable to be like this in the open."

The party area is quite secluded, surrounded by walls and only really visible from above.

Permalink Mark Unread

"And they all can get wings and magic, too?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course. Genetically they are humans, even the Reptoids, the magic just changes how they look. We prioritize the people that live with us when it comes to the immortality schedule."

Permalink Mark Unread

"This is truly amazing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What exactly?"

They land, most guests wave at Fenris, he waves back.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Everything! This magic, these dimensions, these people, the wings. Everything's amazing. I should try to bring that back home with me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Your easier access immortality ultimately wins and you are getting something of a skewed exposure to magic, but your world is missing a lot of amazement. There are several things you could take home, many Dreamshapers wouldn't mind going to another world and creating another version of their dimensions there, Felix included."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're really underestimating how much it hurts to turn."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris raises a skeptical eyebrow hen seens to think about it. "Easier production," he amends. "It would take millions of me to just keep up with the population growth. Also you should take into account that not all dimensions produce good things, and some of the good things are rare. Or tragic things like the talking fish."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Talking fish. Naturally. In any case, I'm not giving you enough venom to turn that many people, you really underestimate how much damage a newborn can do. So much that in the olden days a warfare strategy between vampire covens used to be turning a couple of dozen people and using them as an army."

Permalink Mark Unread

They are moving close to the DJ booth now, albeit instead of the DJ they're approaching a woman with tiniest wings Sadde has seen so far, they barely poke above the woman's shoulders.

"That doesn't sound very sustainable? Wouldn't the newborns turn against their masters? And... how about the 'food supply'?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, it's not sustainable at all, unless you happen to be the shadow government with a lot of magic and infrastructure to control newborns. And pamphlets. Lots of pamphlets. And like I said, knowing what it is ahead of time is a good way to not become a mindless monster. And they do turn against their masters, but they tend to be mindless strength that lack finesse, a smart fighter can take one down. Not two."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Pamphlets?" Fenris ask, but by now they're close enough to the woman. "Sadde, this is Vera. You can ask her anything if you need it."

"Hello." Vera says not adding anything to this introduction, but looking at Fenris quizzically.

"Very long story."

Vera's wings flutter. "Really?" She asks interested.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, pamphlets, and also the princess can send magical messages right into your brain. Hello!" she greets Vera. "What am I supposed to be asking you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anything, I help coordinate things," Vera says smiling without even reacting to the words 'magical messages right into your brain' and offering her hand. "General secretarial stuff for Felix, mainly Felix, and also Fenris. I get people what they need."

"It can be hard to get in touch through dimensions," Fenris adds.

Vera tilts her head.

"She is from a completely different universe."

"Oh. That makes sense," Vera says agreeably.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Coordinate what things?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Like Fenris said, it can be hard to communicate through dimensions and get stuff done. Move donations to the relevant places. Find the right people to ask for this or that, which can include politicians, or electricians. Often hearing people's wants and complaints. Most important of all," she waves at the party, "coordinating parties."

"We deeply appreciate your work, Vera."

Vera smiles brightly. "Thank you, Other-boss. So, how much on a need to know basis is the whole from another universe thing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Donations? Politicians? What exactly do you do with that, are you taking over the world?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's worlds." Vera corrects. "Answering your questions: we have a power plant that doesn't need fuel and the ability to conjure more matter than we have use for, thus it is much more reasonable to use those resources to sponsor charities, scientific research and the rare Politician we like. Our goals are to solve problems and improve things, it's just that becoming insanely influential through cheating magic is the best way to achieve that goal."

"Be glad that you didn't catch him on a ranting mood. He can get really worked up on some issues." Vera comments smiling and Fenris doesn't disagree.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Don't we all. I don't actually object to a rant, you know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't actually like to rant... but among other things it's frustrating how the hardest thing about setting up the power plant was how the competitors kept running interference against us. Or to talk about my own people, we are aristocracy that works half the year, and the other half of the year do they go around the worlds trying to solve natural disaster or famine? No. They pat themselves in the back for taking care of their land so well, so dedicated, so willing to play games of eugenics and politics to perpetuate..." His tone changes from sarcastic to infuriated and Fenris abruptly stops and takes a deep breath. Vera puts a hand on his shoulder and offers her drink, which he accepts. "Oh, that strong. Okay. Also, there is so much lost potential with magical artifacts, many kept in museums or private collections instead of being to put use. The witch-queens are just... frustrating, they aren't actively mean to their own subjects, but their main use for magic is fighting each other by creating thematic armies of walking trees or magical animals. Do they use that powerful magic to produce energy or labors to their people? No. At best they will have magical servants so no mortal soul gets inside their homes and steal their hoarded secrets." He breaths deeply again and takes Vera's drink again. "That is from the top of my head... I might have an entire library wall of graphics."

"One and a half walls actually." Vera informs. "Had to move recent history and geography around by the way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Your world's a terribly interesting place. Your own people?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I meant the Stormlords, that is the name for the Skymage culture that I belong to, it's the largest."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. I... am kinda really curious about just how your world's organised. Politically and geographically and stuff." Pause. "Is your world called 'Earth'?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"How your worlds are organised." Vera corrects again.

"Earth, yes. In the country known as the United States of America, coplanar with Florida. We could compare things," he waves Vera-ward "it will help me get used to the new placement of history and geography."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds fun! Also um you mention witch-queens and aristocrats, so a course in politics would help probably."

Permalink Mark Unread

Vera is called away by someone at the other end of the room.

"We could check now, but you might have more fun here?" Fenris says. "...I'm not the best host."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I like parties but I like learning things way more."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris gives her a smile of approval. "We could go to our library then." He says floating a bit higher.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, library! Definitely yes!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris leads her to two buildings down the street, to a place that seems to combine the best traits of a fairytale palace with a modern high-rise.

"We also have a public library over there if you need it." Fenris points to a building the size of a stadium several blocks away. "Our gates are easy to open so the internet connection is stable."

Fenris lands on one of the building's large terraces and puts his thumb on a scanner by a door.

The door opens to a room larger than any place Sadde has ever owned; filled with shelf after shelf of books, several comfy-looking reading nooks and, because the size wasn't enough, what looks like a half-dozen robots. It's one of the few places without fire, but Sadde might notice the torch-nooks that have been adapted to regular lamps.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sadde zips with superhuman speed to the closest shelf, then another shelf, then another, and she flies around a lot to look at out-of-reach books, then she returns, beaming. "This is awesome can I stay here and read everything?"

Permalink Mark Unread

There are books about everything, there is even a section entirely dedicated to what appears to be trashy romance novels with covers picturing shirtless skymages holding non-skymage lovers.

Fenris chuckles. "Felix won't have any issues with that. He does have a sort of private library in his sort-of-office," he waves to the vague direction of a door, "but this library is for the residents."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Private library? That's just dangling steak in front of a dog. What's in it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's less dramatic than it sounds? It contains documents, books that he got as gifts, one of his personal computers... trashy novels with the wrong details bookmarked so he can blog about it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wrong details?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. There is an entire genre focused on pocket dimensions and magic. Among that, there is a sub-genre devoted to Skymages as well. Felix likes to point out the mistakes on the ones with real world magic... It is less mean than it sounds. Authors often get things wrong, especially because of tropes like 'It's cold, let my wing protect you' and 'broken wings that take months too heal', Skymage's wings can heal completely after days. And shirtless spooning is not necessary to keep someone warm."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. Well, those are low on my priority list, history books are higher. And anything you have on technical aspects of magic. I could probably get done with this library in..." She looks around. "Two days? Maybe three?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris blinks, and if someone could look like they're drooling with their eyes, they'd look like this.

"That... just unfair," Fenris says, jealous, approaching a computer and searching for book tittles. "We do have history books, of course. Layered Atlas should be interesting for you too and I'm curious about border differences. We have technical books about magic, but none that can teach, there is strong evidence that Witch-Queens can track them down."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is unfair! But with just a tiny vial of venom you can have all this and more!" she giggles. "But Witch-Queens can track books that teach magic down?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can't even with your the extra benefits, it is more desirable to keep my method of immortality around. And yes they can and they do, even just copies that people managed by memorizing the information and writing down later. The nicest among them will demand prison time and for the relevant memories to be erased, it escalates from there. It was why we were so nervous when you said you had an witch power. I think it would be like... saying you stole state secrets and decided to brag about it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...they don't sound like very good people. Are there books about them?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, stealing their magic knowledge is very much like stealing state secrets and I don't think anyone tried it in the last four decades. Pretty sure the last execution was a while longer ago than that... They fight each other a lot with magic and magic construct armies, but it's actually surprisingly safe for their subjects and visitors who are very rarely harmed, to the point you could consider the whole war thing a type of sport. We know that their power relates to how much land they can claim as their own... Buuuut they aren't the best people." Fenris forms a book list of what he considers introductory knowledge and instructs her on where she can find them.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Guess I'll have to fix that once I'm caught up on knowledge, then," she says, and goes after books.

Permalink Mark Unread

"They are on my to-do list. It is just a problem that doesn't feel urgent. Our last resort solution, and I mean last, would be using Fenris or another Dreamshaper to create someone with their knowledge. We know that writen or recorded information is tracked, but we are not sure if the same applies to copied knowledge."

Fenris focused on simple, short books that focus in general history or 1900-2000 history, there is also geography and a very luxurious layered atlas.

That atlas describes Earth and its pocket dimensions with transparent and detachable maps so one can compare the different locations between dimensions. Sadde might feel an intense moment of pity for geography students that have to learn not only where a given place is, but what also exists there in a different plane of existence.

Country borders are suprisingly similar in this world, a human wouldn't notice it on a preliminary inspection where they are in the first place. But she can note some small divergences here and there, all of which seem to relate to a gate.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Poor geography students," she does comment as she's zipping through the books almost as fast as she can turn pages, which is really fast. Thank you, perfect recall! And then she's done.

Permalink Mark Unread

Worlds Overview:

History, Politics and Geography are surprisingly similar, there are more additions than changes as far she can read. Barrack Obama is the current president. The Two Worlds Wars happened. 9/11 happened. When something doesn't match, it isn't all that extreme, a remarkable date changing a day or two and that is it.

The Stormlands are home to the Skymages and coplanar with a good part of the Atlantic ocean. The Witchlands are home to the Witch-Queens coplanar with part of the arctic and Atlantic oceans and with west Europe. In early 20th century the US started an effort to give names in English to everything, so that might explain the easy-to-identify labels. The vast majority of pocket dimensions are city-sized, with the rare noted exceptions.

They have an area called "The Bermuda Conflux" where some massive chain reaction caused hundreds of gates to burst open in the 1950s. The area is not shaped like a triangle, but it occupies about the same area as The Bermuda Triangle in her world. The effect still happens today causing unstable gates that can open or close own they own.

Fun trivia: Disney's parks are built on pocket dimensions. They show a picture of a Disney princess and prince couple kissing to open a gate (this is mentioned in the Bermuda Conflux section to illustrate that Disney is safely out of the conflux's zone).

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's really interesting how a lot of our histories match, given the impact magic has had on your world," she comments after reading it all.

Permalink Mark Unread

"How much do they match? Also you should get used to pluralize world. Or maybe use universe instead."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Right, sorry. And they match a lot, most differences are pretty minor like minuscule territory changes due to gates and minor date changes and such. I don't think anything that happened back home didn't happen here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...That is seriously weird. I mean, actually seriously, and something that should be investigated, even if there isn't a way to do that that doesn't involve an entire team of historians." Beat. "I'm actually tempted to hire such team but the logistics just wouldn't work."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Why wouldn't they?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We would need to disclose where are you from and how you got here. Without evidence they would assume you are from a closed pocket dimension where people have weird memories, which is a public known thing to have happened."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't particularly care much for Masquerades, we could just show people the magic key and see what they make of it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The dreamshapers aren't quite ready to go public, yet. But if you are willing to lie, we could come up with something that wouldn't involve us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure, I could do that. How are you planning on going public?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It would take years if not decades. I actually had something of a to-do list before, which mainly involved securing the dreamshard and getting more political and economical power. That is the abridged version, not everyone has cheating eidetic memory." He says wryly.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am entirely unashamed of my cheating eidetic memory! How much power do you currently have? What's the plan, at the moment?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris describes the broad concepts of this year's plan. It mostly involves becoming influential with political figures without drawing too much personal attention. The focus is local, but there are also plans to get some national and international attention. Try to change some laws that would make easier for Dreamshapers to use their powers under less scrutinity. Possibly see if they get the little Witch-Queen magic that they allowed to be taught, which is apparently hard given that Witch-Queens and Skymages have a tense relationship (this was mentioned in passing in history books, they fought each other during Worlds War II).

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just how powerful are these Witch-Queens?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They can fly as well as we do. Have offensive magic about as good as my lighting powers, but more versatile. Their defensive magic allows them to survive any conventional ammunition. Their magic's main weakness is that each power needs to be charged in a magical zone in their territory. They can't make those zones on Earth if you are curious as to why they never conquered something here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That does make it harder to just take over the world..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No need to tell me, but... I'm not going to defend them, but overall the Witch-Queens' main sin is spending their efforts in useless inter-fighting. Otherwise they don't start problems and treat their own people well."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So... what's their objection to creating a utopia?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"As far I can tell, each one would want to be the one in charge. They are very proud when it comes to each other, might be a magic effect actually. It's possible there might be some other limitation to their magic, they all pick a sort of theme to specialize and build an identity, which isn't exactly a limitation, but more a way of focusing. I remember... The Queen of Winter Flowers, she was known to have offensive magic with all sort of energy effects, she just prefered using cold and plant magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see. How easily can you seal off one of these pocket dimensions of yours? Can you create an entirely new one or do you strictly need to expand what you already have?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It mainly depends on if the Keys to the gates are known, or if you have a gatewand. If the gates can't be opened then it is possible to enter by walking to the border of a coplanar dimension until you vanish and devanish but that will requires luck, a second suitably located and acessible dimension, and vanishing is more likely to land you on Earth. We can't create new ones, but we can... expand in sections if we go far away. So you have a section here," he holds a closed hand up, "and another section there," he raises a second hand, "that aren't connected, until you expand enough to bridge the gap." He splays his hands until the index fingers touch.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So anyone can walk into another person's dimension even without that person's permission?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Most dimensions no longer have their dreamshapers. And the circumstances which allow for someone to enter are restricted. Gatewands are not cheap. There is some limited magic that allows one to locate dimensions or gates or even guess what the Keys are, but they are rare, expensive and often have drawbacks. Otherwise, pocket dimensions are very hidden - in fact the non-American English term for them is hiddenlands. Of course, Dreamshapers make invading dimensions almost trivial."

Permalink Mark Unread

"My question's really, can you prevent Witch-Queens from invading this place?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, assuming they don't get their hands on another Dreamshaper and there isn't some kind of dimension-travel magic that they complete failed to use during their losses in Worlds War Two."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, how about we plan worlds takeover, then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You are really enthusiastic about the idea of taking over the worlds." Fenris points out smiling.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am! I'm very upset about the fact that mine was taken over by someone sensible before I could do anything about it, I have all these nifty superpowers to do it with, and honestly you guys have enough magic that some creativity should be enough to do it without having to go the slow route! Although your world is pretty nice already, I'm not totally sure how much it needs its takeover to be fast."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. I actually don't want to take over the worlds', just need to solve... well, all problems that can be solved. I must say at least our world people-eating creatures tend to go extinct pretty fast so even with magic being sub-utilized I can be patient." He thinks for a moment. "Well, it is a good idea to rethink our timetable given the new resources. How did your sensible empress take over?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"What people-eating creatures? How do they go extinct? And she took over by staging a coup and killing the previous leaders using more magic than they could handle and then sparing the people who wouldn't try to murder her or humans in the future."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wasn't refering to any specific beings, just to the fact that your world has enough of them for it to be a problem. They usually go extinct because humans are pretty good at eliminating threats. They don't always start with enough numbers to allow for a stable population and the more magical they get, the rarer they are. I'm not entirely sure that model would work for us... You said that sometimes vampirism gives a magical power?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, some people get magical powers upon being turned into vampires, some people get their magical powers to work better upon being turned into vampires."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Why? It probably isn't a game changing element, but it is a possible resource."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...because magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. It sounds versatile and the fact that is foreign might be an advantage. What else can you tell me about it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean, you asked me why it does that, and it does that because magic. I'm not sure what else to tell you, the list of pros and cons and ambiguous stuff was pretty thorough, and no one really understands much of our type of witchcraft."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, can you give me examples of what you can do?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Me, personally?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You personally and you the type of magic person."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, general biokinesis. I can generate biological matter and shapeshift pretty arbitrarily and I have an internal sense of what's in my body and what it's doing and all that." She generates a unicorn horn just to demonstrate. "There's a copy-witch back where I come from, she can touch other witches and get a copy of their powers that displaces the previous one she had. The Empress has a sort of mental immunity, the Princess is really believable when she speaks and can magically impart knowledge directly into your brain, the Emperor can read minds, there's a precog, a teleporter... It's pretty varied."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fenris takes a step back. "Believable?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"When she says something true, it's very, very obviously true."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, the powers are limited individually, but broader in scope than most our magic. Some pocket dimensions have teleportation effects, but nothing that belongs to the user. We don't have precogs or mind-reading, there are ways to send thoughts, or influence the mind, but they aren't common. Are all those powers as strong as yours? How far does the precog see?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The answer to both questions is 'I don't know.' The first one has a qualifier of 'I'm not sure what that would mean for vastly different types of power.'"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I might be projecting what we know about magic. And I doubt you world has thaumotologic academics. In any case, I still think there is an obvious difference between your biokinesis and the biokinetic effect that allows the Partyharders to ingest nothing but alcohol and stay healthy. And it isn't that hard to translate from Mutesinger's power over birds."

Permalink Mark Unread

She shrugs. "Powers vary a lot, qualitatively and quantitatively, and I didn't actually meet all that many vampires, most of my information comes from pamphlets."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pamphlets?" Felix says walking in.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We were talking about her kind of magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And my Empire is very helpful about it and gives pamphlets!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Felix yawns. "How helpful. I've never seen one, but that sounds like it could happen here. In case someone discovers an unusual ability. Speaking of unusual abilities, for some reason I expected that Sadde would have changed her face by now, but is the same as before."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe there are pamphlets for school age children. More likely than not they would be sent to the school counselor to determine if it is actually magic, imagination or... a problem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Or some combination of the three. We definitely didn't have that problem, there is extensive literature about our kind of magic. At least the skymage magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I expect some day we'll have extensive literature, but for now it's just pamphlets. And I like my face, if I wanted to change it I'd've done it a while ago."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I didn't mean to offend. Anyway, they are setting up a tent around the door with motion detectors and explanations for the crazy door."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You didn't offend, and that sounds eminently reasonable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway, what about Sadde's magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sadde wants to take over the world and the conversation went there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, I want to make stuff better for everyone, and since my shadow government's so nice, I want to make a shadow government here, too!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Improving things? We like you! Do we get seats at the shadow government's shadow table? The one with tall chairs and in a room where the lighting is such that you can only see our mysterious silhouettes?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Felix, don't be silly, our silhouetes are pretty telling, there would be no point." Fenris says flatly, before breaking into a smile.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not that kind of shadow governor! We'll have robes and masks."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, great that will certainly hide our identities, as long people don't pay attention to our easily recognizable wings. I mean, I bet there are tons of Skymages with my exact type of wing shape and color, and my exact built, voice and body language."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nothing a bit of creativity won't solve. Everyone who's in this government will have to pretend to have wings, and the wings will also be covered by the robes, and they are robes no one will recognise your build, and of course the masks will distort our voices."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course! Because you are our wise shadow queen! Do we get to pick nicknames to go with the robes?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure! What would you like? I'm Sparkles."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course you are. Can I pick "Happy" for me and "Wolf that devours the sun" for Fenris?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wolf for short."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ha! Nice reference, I like."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway, Sadde wants to fight the Witch-queens."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ambitious. More than a little suicidal, but ambitious."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But, thankfully, immortal!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Any plans so far?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nope! I'm in the information gathering phase of my plans."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I gave her a list of books as Worlds 101. She read them all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, if she can read that fast... We have a library's worth of Witch-Queen information that we are too busy to actually read."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, that sounds like a fantastic idea."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want to start now? We actually have a section specific for Witch-Queens, but it doesn't contain literally all information we have on them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, I'd love to!"