Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
Well, if she doesn't like all those bloody politics, how would she like to be pulled (suddenly and violently) through a confusing magical anomaly, and dropped into a small square stone room with two unconscious and badly wounded women?
Well, it's novel.
She sets about assessing their injuries. Color? Responsiveness? Is she going to need the Rubywise, or can she get away with bandages and balm?
They both have heartbeats and have some automatic responses but are pretty badly off!
This one has a bunch of huge gashes all over her body and rent through her light armor. She's bleeding all over the ground!
This one (more of a wizardy type, incidentally) looks like she got hit with some kind of horrifying flamethrower???
Sigh. Rubywise it is, drizzled over the gashes and a tot between the lips for each patient. And some Eigengrau poured over the burn victim. Winter is rarely a healing Principle, but needs must when the devil drives.
(She does not notice, at this time, that she did not have a jug of Eigengrau on her person. This is the kind of thing one can fail to notice, when one is a Librarian of the Watchman's Tree.)
As the crimson fluid soaks in, it burns, and the wounds gnarl over into gruesome-looking scabs. The Eigengrau has a gentler effect, chilling and numbing and flattening blisters, while the Rubywise entering their systems accelerates the healing process.
She spreads some Regensburg balm on the scars and the burns, after they've dried a touch. It's anesthetic, and it'll stave off infection, and moreover it'll keep those scabs from popping the second the girls sit up. She'll have Gideon's on hand for them next time they bathe. If she's still here by then.
How did she get here, anyway? Whatever happened felt a little like Knock, a little like Rose, and a lot like neither, just someone playing silly buggers with the fabric of reality.
And, now that she comes to think of it, where is here? Is there anything written on the walls? It's not guaranteed to be in a language she reads, of course, but that'd be information too.
(The healing stabilizes both of the women - they begin to stir, slowly.)
There's no obvious sign of what could have brought her here, though she probably noticed that the women arrived at the same time she did and then collapsed! (If she was attentive, she would additionally have noticed that the shorter woman had one hand raised, the younger woman was holding a katana, and they were holding hands before they fell.)
There's no writing on the walls! The stone is very old, and the air is dry.
Sophie is nothing if not attentive, in the sense that if she were inattentive she would be dead dozens of times over.
Probably their simultaneous arrival implies the same force playing silly buggers with all three of them, though Occam's Razor is hardly a guarantee when Hours are involved.
The younger-looking woman's eyes snap open. She springs to her feet absurdly quickly, wincing in pain, and looks around wildly.
(Ridaya, on the ground, hurt but alive. A tiny, stone room. An unfamiliar human woman, wearing unfamiliar clothing, no obvious equipment but that just could mean she's hiding it... some dragons can shapeshift)
Her eyes widen in terror. She puts herself between the still-down woman and Sophie, and is clearly eyeing her sword but afraid to reach for it.
She barks out a short sentence in a language Sophie doesn't know.
Sophie, in turn, doesn't pull Thirza's knife, despite considering it. See, she's polite.
Not knowing a language is a feeling she hasn't actually had in a while. It's sort of heady, a reminder that there are more things in heaven and earth. She tries her own languages, in approximate order of most- to least-likely.
(These include Latin, French, English, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Vak, Aramaic, Sanskrit, Mandaic, Ericapean, Sabazine, Phrygian, and, not really expecting it to work, Old Cornish.)
She doesn't seem to recognize any of those! But trying a bunch of languages in a row, for whatever reason, has her glancing at her sword less. (She's still very clearly shaken, though).
When she opens her mouth again, the language(?) she uses doesn't... exactly sound like a natural language, to someone from Earth. It's breathy, melodic, flowing, and has almost no hard consonants.
She can't quite keep herself from grinning. That does not sound like a natural language! It sounds like a supernatural language! Those are useful!
She'll parrot back the words, then cock her head. More lexemes?
Ah, yes, the situation might be too urgent for linguistic fun times. Tragic how that can happen. Hello, other woman who also probably doesn't speak any of her languages.
She drops to a crouch once the smaller woman moves and helps her up, talking rapidly in the first language.
She's clearly very distressed, and after her friend(?lover?) says something quietly, she starts crying.
She holds her companion, looking miserable. (She's giving Sophie the occasional curious glance, though.)
Unfortunate. Understandable, though; you don't get injuries like that without something bad happening. Sophie will school her expression and lament that she does not have tea and pastry to offer the distressed girls, as would ordinarily be her wont.
As the burned girl glances her way, she gives a little finger-wave.
(She gives a little nod.)
The two of them have a short but very emotionally intense conversation.
...she sits down on the floor, looking exhausted and upset, and turns away from the two of them, rather pointedly.
It is still not the best time for linguistics fun time but that looks like someone who could use a plausible distraction.
She points to herself and says "Sophie." Then she pauses a moment, points to herself again, and says "Sophie Hatter."
Point to burned girl?
It takes burned girl several seconds to figure out what Sophie wants, and when she does, more tears fall from her eyes.
She swallows, then points at Sophie.
"Sophie. Sophie Hatter."
Point at herself. "Ridaya. Ridaya Biru."
Point at the upset girl on the ground. "Luto. Luto Zils."
('Luto Zils' makes some kind resigned groan upon hearing her name, but doesn't turn to look at them.)
...she tries the phrase from earlier, cocking her head in what she hopes to be a universal gesture of uncomprehending.
Actually, wait, these people have no idea who she is or what she can do. She... says the phrase, pointing at Luto, then turns and points at herself, cupping her ear and frowning in confusion. Then she'll babble for a little while in the phonemes the phrase used, pointing at Ridaya and making time-circles with her other hand; then she'll point at herself and babble the same way.
That was utterly silly and may very well have been a complete waste of time! But if Sophie never did anything that would probably make an ass of herself, she wouldn't get out of bed in the mornings.
Ridaya looks very confused the first time she says the phrase, but after Sophie says it while pointing to Luto she seems much less lost.
She cocks her head, thinking, and then says three new sentences in the melodic language, watching Sophie curiously.
Smile! Not too exuberantly because they're sad but smile!
She starts looking for lexeme breakpoints. It's a very fluid language, but she's pretty sure that word was separate, what about this one? She doesn't have enough corpus to construct even very wrong sentences, but she can indulge the echolalia a bit before gesturing for more new language.
Ridaya is easy to prompt into clarifying word boundaries!
She also looks like she's getting an idea.
Ideas: probably good! (Some ideas are bad, but it's hard to imagine one that would hurt right now.) She smiles encouragingly.
Ridaya holds up a finger, then... makes a weird set of very precise gestures while saying a few words in a different language. (She looks like she's done this thousands of times.)
Then she starts making a bunch of differently-colored spheres, cubes, and other regular polygons, all about the size of a marble, all looking frail (like they could crumble any moment), and all appearing floating in the air between them. Each one takes her a bit of concentration and a few seconds.
Impressive! Some work of... she doesn't really know what art might do this. Impressive nevertheless. She claps her hands lightly.
(The applause earns her a brief, slight smile.)
Ridaya moves most of her shapes off to one side, arranging five in a row in front of Sophie; black-green-white-purple-black.
She says a five word sentence in the language, first at normal speed, then slowly, tapping each object in order. (Sophie will recognize the middle word as one that was in both Luto's initial phrase and Ridaya's first sentence).
She pauses to see if Sophie is basically following along.
Sophie follows! (She's briefly confused at the repetition of black, then clears her preconception and gets back on track.)
Ridaya brings over two blue shapes and swaps them for the black ones, flips the green one upside down, then repeats the sentence, except the first word is now 'Ridaya', the last word is now 'Sophie', and the second word is in a different tone.
She iterates through configurations of blue/black and Ridaya/Sophie - all 4 are valid, apparently, and the green-flip version of the second word is associated with 'Ridaya'.
Black for nouns, blue for proper nouns? And the language might be tonal, that's a fun complication. (But it's complicated to tell a semantic tone apart from emphasis, this early in hearing a language. Reserving judgment.)
Ridaya continues to introduce new sentences and word variations in this manner for several minutes! Sophie will pick up that it's a tonal language, but tone appears mostly be used for verb conjugation.
Via pointing, Ridaya gives her the words for most objects in the room, easily indicable body parts, and a basic suite of verbs. (The verb in her five word sentence was 'speak/talk', apparently.)
It might be a bit early yet to notice, but Sophie doesn't forget words. And she's got very good grammatical intuitions.
"...sad," Sophie attempts. "Sadness that you are sad. I would help if a thing would help."
Through the tears, she manages to say "No thing can help" and then adds, rather bitterly, "Ridaya says no thing can help. And no thing can help if Ridaya no help."
Ridaya looks a bit like she's been stabbed in the chest. Metaphorically.
"[Unknown(1)], Luto. I - I [Unknown(2)] [Unknown(third person pronoun)] [Negation] [Unknown(3)] you, I-I can't, [Unknown(1)] [Unknown(1)] [Unknown(1)]"
She drops to her knees, not at all gently.
Half-paralyzed by awkwardness, Sophie finds herself distractedly going through the motions of a process she is very familiar with. The tisane is a simple one, sweet and soothing and just the thing when one has been crying. It steeps quickly, and a bit of cream leaves it the perfect temperature and a lovely shade of pink. She could make it with her eyes closed.
She would not have said she could make it without a cup, or water, or... ingredients of any kind.
But it would seem she could. Because she is, currently, holding a cup of hot-but-not-scalding witching tisane, which she was not holding a minute and a half ago.
She offers it to Luto, since it's not getting any warmer, and starts on another in the absence of anything better to do.
...her eyes widen and her face softens considerably.
"[Unknown 4]," she whispers.
(...Ridaya still looks like she's struggling a fair bit, but she nods gratefully at Sophie.)
And in a minute and a half there will be tisane for Ridaya too.
She's going to... test the limits on this ability, a little bit.
If she tried to make Swaddled Thunder, could she? (Absolutely not.) If she tried to make more Regensburg balm? (Easily.) If she tried to make... Pyrus Auricalcinus? (She'd need some wood, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility.)
Hm. File it under "abilities she might have actually already had and not noticed". How are the others doing?
Ridaya accepts the drink and drinks the entire thing in one go. She steals a few glances at Luto, but doesn't say anything.
She catches Sophie's eyes and... reaches out a hand?
She appears to be going for - some kind of armgrab handshake dealie? But she's very easy to make back off if Sophie does not seem interested.
No, no, she'll just be awkward about it because she's a fundamentally awkward person. This is fine.
This will not bother Ridaya.
She says something to Luto, and then turns to Sophie, mimes eating, and says "Do you want [new word]?"
"Yes, thank you." It's been a bit since lunch, and she doesn't in fact have wood to turn into strange fruit.
Ridaya nods, and then opens her backpack and pulls out a medium sized bag. She proceeds to sticks her head and torso into it, despite there not being nearly enough room in the bag for this to be reasonable?
After several seconds spent rummaging around, she withdraws holding a different bag and what is probably a waterskin.
From the new bag, she fishes out a variety of preserved foodstuffs, which she offers to Sophie.
That's a very blatant magical effect. Much like the illusions, it's hardly beyond the limits of magic as she knows it, but it's... off.
She gratefully accepts some kind of dried fruit and hard biscuit. It's not exactly hearty fare, but it'll do for an afternoon tea. And she can even make some more tisane to go with it; it doesn't feel like a limited kind of ability.
Once she's eaten, would anyone like to help with more language lessons? She's hoping to have it down in her usual twelve hours, then maybe get some context on where the hell she is.
(Ridaya will also offer Sophie some water, if she wants it.)
She spends a while gently coaxing Luto into eating some food as well, but once she's done with that, Ridaya will resume teaching Sophie the language.
First she solicits time-words. Then she says "Ten more hours, maybe, and I speak correct."
...Huh. Ridaya cocks her head, but then nods.
Once she's taught Sophie a word that probably means 'magic' (for examples, she points at the tisane cups, her conjured small objects, and her bag that is bigger on the inside), she says. "Ten hours for you to speak correctly... magic?"
This does not seem to present any challenge to Ridaya's worldview - she nods and continues teaching.
She's definitely picking up on where Sophie's strengths are, and is giving more ambitious examples, particularly when teaching syntax and grammar rules.
After she finishes forcing herself to eat, Luto... disappears entirely into Ridaya's bag, for a minute, and emerges with some bedrolls and blankets, and some miscellaneous smaller items. She begins to set up the bedding.
(She's still not making eye contact with either of them, though she does glance occasionally at Sophie.)
Ah, bedding. She does not currently need to commune with the Mansus or dream on an important bit of memory but it's nice of them to – wait, right, normal people do that every night. That was really inconvenient, she remembers.
"None for me, thank you," she says.
Ridaya seems to run out of grammar she wants to teach and says "Okay. Now I will do some magic to help me give you more words!" and then does the same kind of hand movement/verbalization combo that she did before (both the hand movements and sounds are different).
When she finishes, all sorts of objects appear in the air between the two of them! (She absentmindedly waves a hand through one to demonstrate that they are illusory.)
She begins pointing and naming them.
Nouns! Sophie loves getting to the nouns, the meat-and-potatoes course of a language. Sun, moon, teacup, tree...
...Scroll, potion, wand, staff, rod, spellbook, several kinds of weapon, armor, and accessory...
As she finishes naming groups of nouns, Ridaya shrinks their images and moves them off to the side to make room for new ones. The images seem to require her ongoing concentration, but that's probably good for her.
Angel, fairy, another kind of angel, a rainbow of dragons and also several metallic ones, elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, orc, goblin, as many as several devils, daemons, and demons...
...huh.
Sophie doesn't get so much confused by the words she doesn't have a concept for, as concerned when they come so hard and fast.
"These are real things? People?"
...Huh. Where's Sophie from?
She nods. "All real, all people." Then she waves a hand, sorting them into two piles.
elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, orcs, goblins, dragons, fairies (she adds humans to this group and names them): "Mortals."
devils, daemons, demons, angels: "Outsiders." She adds more kinds: inevitables, azatas, proteans, asuras, elementals (earth, water, fire, air).
Sophie thinks.
"In my home," she says, "almost everyone is human, or was human. The ones who were human do not die slowly with time, and they look strange. And they love and do things for... the biggest and most powerful things, of whom only a few dozen exist."
Ridaya's eyes light up. Cosmology!
She flattens the existing set of illusions until they're all about an inch tall and down on the floor, then makes a planet. (It's earthlike, but it's clearly not Earth - different continents, and there's also a weird hole that's visible at this scale.)
She points at it. "This is a planet, named Golarion. Many kinds of mortals live here. We are here now."
Zoom out. A solar system with a sun and eleven planets. She names them in turn: "Burning Mother, Aballon, Castrovel, Golarion, Akiton, Verces, Eox, Triaxus, Liavara, Bretheda, Apostae, and Aucturn. "Other planets have people, too. Mostly mortals, I think - would need the good books about each planet to say for sure. Elves say they come form Castrovel. We can see what is on other planets with magic, but it is very very hard to go to them." And... Sophie seems like the type of person who would appreciate the trivia fact that "no mortals live on Burning Mother, but some fire elementals do!"
Is Sophie following ok?
Yeah, she's following.
"Our Burning Mother is a biggest-most-powerful-thing," she mentions. "Sort of."
She nods. "Biggest-most-powerful thing is 'God', I think. The Burning Mother is not a God."
Zoom out again, until Burning Mother is just a dot among stars and then indistinguishable in a larger galaxy, which disappears (along with other galaxies that briefly come into view) to a point of light as she zooms out further. She highlights the spherical universe and points. "This is the Material Plane. All mortals come from the Material Plane."
Next, she adds spherical layers surrounding it, one by one. "These are the Inner Planes - the Plane of Air, the Plane of Wood, the Plane of Water, the Plane of Earth, the Plane of Metal, and the Plane of Fire. Elementals come from the inner planes."
She waves a hand, and these planes resize and fold out from each other, a series of spheres instead of one nested one. "You cannot go from one plane to another without magic, no matter how good or fast you are at moving." She hasn't given Sophie words for the mathematical reasons why this is true, or how to talk about it topologically, but hopefully they'll get to that later.
Ridaya reverses her hand movement from before, and the seven planes of the inner sphere resize and collapse back into one. (She leaves a quarter of it cut out, so the others are visible within the plane of fire). "The Inner Planes make up the Inner Sphere."
Zoom out again, so the inner sphere is at the center of a larger sphere with eight very distinct regions in different parts of the edges. "These are the Outer Planes - Heaven, Nirvana, Elysium," (three rather distinct but all rather nice-looking places), "Axis," (a vast, incredible metropolis) "the Boneyard," (a small region directly above Axis), "Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss" (three places that look various kinds of terrible). She highlights the area between them. "This is the Maelstrom."
She draws a line from each of the nine outer planes and brings up the non-elemental outsiders from before, sorting them. "These outsiders live in these Outer Planes - so do our Gods. When mortals die, their Souls sorted by Pharasma (our first, biggest God)" (she re-arranges the nine groups of elementals into a tic-tac-toe board) "and then are sent to an outer plane. After many many years in an outer plane, mortal Souls can become outsiders. Outsiders - sometimes love and do things for Gods, but not always. They are the most like that in Heaven and Axis, and not at all like that in the Abyss or the Maelstrom."
She sighs, looking unhappy. "Hell and the Abyss are both very bad. Hell hurts all mortals who go there very much, either to turn them into devils or just for fun. Many people who are sent to the Abyss are destroyed by demons, and most who survive long enough to become demons are sad and hurting all the time. Abaddon is - a different kind of bad. Everyone who goes there is destroyed."
Luto is pretty sure that some of the stuff Ridaya is saying is different from how Zan or Uma would explain this stuff?
...thinking about it just makes her want to cry, though.
Eternal damnation, eternal reward. How the Solar Church would have loved that.
"Loving and doing things for gods is not... good," she says. "Not all of the time. Not most of the time. The people who love the gods are sad and hurting. But they chose it."
She nods. "I think - devils, demons, and deamons are really really not okay, and will probably never be okay. But... I have talked to angels and azata and agathions and aeons, and they were all... doing okay? Not sad, not hurting, doing things because they want them."
Hmm, how to put it... "I think that... when those kinds of outsiders do what a God wants, it is because they think they want what the God wants, and that the God can see how to get it better. And... I think they are usually right? Gods give mortals God-magic*, when the mortals want and do things that those Gods like" oh wait she should explain alignment!
She circles the top line of the tic-tac-toe board with her illusion and points. "The word for this is Good-aligned**. And... Good-aligned Gods give mortals God-magic for doing things like - healing the sick, helping those in need, saving people from each other, or disasters, or other people who want to harm them. And people who also want those things tend to go to the Good-aligned outer planes, and become outsiders there." Hopefully that makes sense?
*: when talking about magic before, Ridaya sometimes used a modifier word that Sophie didn't have any other context for. Here, she's using a different one, which via the grammar rules of this language is clearly related to the word for Gods.
**: 'Good' is the word for good (as the opposite of bad, thumbs-up emoji, etc etc), but with a proper-noun/specific-concept marker
How... bizarre? Yet somehow adorable?
"We have no Good gods. Maybe we have some Bad gods, but mostly we have Not-Good Not-Bad gods. Who do not care about helping, but do not care about hurting us."
That sounds horrible?
"...I think that would be... sad, and scary," Ridaya says. "Evil-" (she illusion-circles the lowest line of the tic-tac-toe board and highlights the Lower Planes on the sphere) "-aligned Gods and Evil-aligned outsiders are... very very bad, and make many many problems. Many are badly hurting all the time, themselves."
She circles the middle row. "Not-Good, Not-Evil is NeutralG/E. The NeutralG/E-aligned Gods are..." she shrugs vaguely, her knowledge of religion struggling. "They want and care about things that are not helping all or hurting all, I guess? There is a NeutralG/E-aligned God of merchants and moneychanging" (illusion of a key, in a different color than the outsiders are, goes into the center-left square), a NeutralG/E-aligned God of mountains and winter" (illusion of a snow-capped volcano erupting, center of the grid), and..." hmmm, who is else NeutralG/E...
She was about to remember that!!
"...Pharasma, the God who sorts Souls, is NeutralG/E-aligned." A set of scales goes into the center box, next to the volcano.
(Sophie miiight be getting the impression that although Ridaya is really quite knowledgeable in general, she isn't especially educated on Gods in particular.)
Sophie's used to it. People specialize, because they have to. Even she has to specialize, to an extent! That extent is reduced by her mystical bond to the most powerful library in western Europe, but she isn't omniscient!
"We have about three dozen. They care about things like snakes, or doorways, or when people eat people. Not things like merchants."
She tilts her head in thought. "I think we have Gods that care about all of those things, but not... only those things? And I don't remember which, I'm not -" (her face twists and her voice catches) "- our Gods-knowing person, that was..."
Ridaya snarls, and then -
disappears with a pop.
(The illusion disappears as well.)
"I could have helped," Sophie mutters. "Would you like a weapon, Ridaya. Would you like to talk about what to do, Ridaya. Would you like to see if I can make your friend be here like I can make tea, Ridaya."
Then she looks at Sophie, eyes wide, having processed what she just said. "Can you? Bring them back?"
"No! That is stupid! But so is going back to where she was burning to death! And so is calling her a coward for not doing that! Everyone is stupid!"
She looks crushed at the 'no', like she's about to say something when Sophie (incorrectly) calls Ridaya stupid, and like a wilting plant when she (correctly) calls Luto stupid, because, augh, yeah.
"-I didn't mean it," she says quietly, miserably, like it could fix anything.
After a beat, she remembers that she should also say "-she didn't go back, though. She - she wouldn't. I - think she's just calming down. She - she hates being angry at any of us." Even when I deserve it, she doesn't add, but she's not trying to hide that she thinks it, either.
"I will believe you when I see her. Ugh. I thought, learn the language first, no one is going anywhere – no! Stupid! I know enough language! Where are we!"
She gets up to examine the walls for doors.
A stone square room, twenty feet to each side. There's doors on the north and south sides, though they don't look like they've been opened recently.
On the other side of the thick door, she's panting, shaking, trying not to scream.
She hears Luto scream her name. She ignores it.
Coward. Coward. Coward. The sound of it echoes in her mind.
It's stupid, is what it is. So what if Ridaya has one more teleport prepared today? Taking them back in this condition would kill them both, or all three of them if Sophie wanted to commit suicide with them, and for what? Because Luto feels guilty for not parrying the dragon? He was enormous! Ridaya doesn't think all five of them could have beat him well-rested!
So why - why does it hurt so much - why can't she breathe
Sophie shoves a cup of tisane into her hand.
"Drink the tea. Slowly. Think about the tea. Not about your problems."
She accepts the drink with a cowed nod. "Sorry."
Siiiiip. Focus on the tea, not - focus on the tea, focus on the tea,
Sophie retreats back into the room and sits down again.
"Sorry for shouting. We will talk when everyone is calm."
Ridaya follows, meekly, closing the door (it swings shut eerily easily), and then sits down on the far wall away from Luto, clutching her tisane.
Sip. She should - no, focus on the tea.
Sip. She wants - focus on the tea.
....turns out being silent is kind of excruciating even if she's a more than a little bit mad at Luto and a bit scared of Sophie!
"Sorry for leaving, I just, I needed -"
"I have shouted at people the amount I want. Do not be sorry to me."
It comes out all in a rush. "Ridaya I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I didn't mean it, I know why you won't do it."
She sucks in a shaky breath. "It just feels wrong, to leave them there. My job, my purpose, is keeping all of you safe, so why should I-" be alive, when they aren't, why isn't it me dead back there and Zan or Uma or Vakt here with you, why why why
"It's o-" she catches herself, because it's not really okay, is it.
Sip. "...It wouldn't be better if you'd died, Luto. They wouldn't have wanted that, and I wouldn't've either. You know how much it scares us, when you jump into harm for us."
"Red dragon. An extremely powerful one. He would have beaten us all even if we were ready and well-rested." Though probably they would have all survived, in that case.
Siiip.
"Dragons. We do not have dragons. We have stories about dragons."
She considers.
"Can poison kill them? Can lightning? Can you make them drink?"
Ridaya shakes her head. "A dragon that big? It would take... so much lightning, to kill it. Maybe four bolts from a deadly storm, if it were standing still. Much more than that if it were magical lightning, or if it could move - a dragon's hide can shrug off many spells, and dragons that live to be that old can protect themselves from energy with magic." (She pauses, fills in the vocab gaps as best she can without her illusion, and then continues.) "And I do not think a poison would work, not unless your poisons are much much stronger than ours, much stronger than your lightening. Certainly I do not think we are likely to get him to drink it."
She slumps against the wall.
It dawns slowly upon Sophie that she might have the solution to this problem.
She does not want that to be the solution. It is, almost without exception, the wrong move, to use it in a way that is not prescribed, to use it frivolously – she might never find another – she doesn't know these people –
but that doesn't change the fact that she has a lead-sealed vial of Nillycant in her pocket, and it doesn't change the fact that she knows damned well that if an encaustum terminale can rewrite the very heavens, it can kill an overgrown lizard.
"I have a bad idea," she says quietly.
She looks at Sophie carefully. "...how bad of an idea?" Don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up,
"Very bad. It –"
She breathes deeply, and puts her hands over her face.
"We have stories of dragons. Do you have stories of... magic doing too much? You ask for a broom that sweeps on its own, and it never stops, and in a thousand years it has swept your house into dust?"
She snaps taut with sudden anxiety. "...yes, we have that. If yours is like ours - it would be a very, very bad idea. I would not want that."
She takes in a deep breath. "Luto. You know I love you, love them, would do almost anything to get them back. Do you trust me? About magic?"
"This - if it is anything like what I am thinking of, magic that does too much, it could easily kill us all. If we were lucky, it would only kill us all. It is very very difficult to use safely, and when used unsafely..." she shudders.
That's all true.
(But she's the Librarian. Who cares what anyone else can do?)
She knows it'd be a bad idea.
(When has magic ever been a good idea? But she's built a life out of it.)
She is an idiot.
(She is not a coward.)
She takes out the little vial, and a sheet of Nivine parchment, and a steel-tipped quill.
"If either of you interrupts me, it will be worse."
And she punctures the seal and begins to write.
She could - no, it's too late, Sophie is already writing,
She casts message on Luto. "Don't move," she whispers urgently.
Luto's never seen Ridaya this scared, not when she was bound and bleeding about to die two months ago, not in the Abyss earlier today, not even when the dragon's claw was reaching out to her before Luto jumped in the way.
She's as still as a statue, praying. Please, she thinks desperately. Please, Kofusachi, don't let this go wrong, don't let whatever Ridaya is so afraid of come to pass, please, please, that cannot be the path to flourishing and abundance,
Hours of the Mansus, I beg thee heed my plea.
I call upon thee, Madrugad, cold grey light of dawn. Your gloaming brings the final sleep, and this is what I need.
I call upon thee, Sun-in-Rags, bloodied sunset-king. You are fallen from your throne, and this is what I need.
I call upon thee, Chiliarch, soldier without peer. You say the word and thousands die, and this is what I need.
I call upon thee, Lionsmith, on whom no shadow falls. You fight until the last man falls, and this is what I need.
I call upon thee, Double-Edge, final god from stone. You cleave what is from what is not, and this is what I need.
I call upon thee, Wolf Divided, death's begotten son. You love hate, and crave destruction; this is what I need.
Let that on which I lay my curse forever cease to be.
The room grows colder as she writes, and there's a smell of metal and stone. Then she rolls up the parchment and stands.
"We should use this quickly. They can see it."
She takes in a trembling breath. "How quickly - do I have time to make us less likely to get roasted alive when we arrive - is it too late to reconsider -"
She's already moving towards the bag, if they have to do this now they should be doing it invisibly, so she should head for the wand. (She's shaking, quite badly.)
"If you can do it in the space of a few minutes, it should be fine. It's... a matter of pacing."
Minutes. Okay. The pieces slot neatly into place in her mind.
"Okay. In case this does something worse than killing all three of us, I want to have said that I'm really very upset that you did that without at least" her voice becomes muffled as her head and arms disappear into the magic bag "talking to us about it more, this wasn't urgent on the scale of minutes or hours, and on our world the kind of magic I suspect you just used has ended civilizations."
Given the givens, her voice is remarkably level (which is to say, it is shaky but she's not, like, yelling about it or anything?)
"Luto, get your sword. On arrival, defend Sophie, not me, okay? She's our primarycaster, here. Both of you, get over here."
She bounces to her feet right away and is heading towards Ridaya, grabbing her Katana on the way. "Got it."
She recognizes that tone of voice. It's Ridaya's "no time to explain I think maybe we can win this if you all do exactly what I say" voice. She rarely uses it. She's almost never wrong.
If she'd asked then she'd have gotten talked down, because this was and is a stupid idea.
"Yes. It will be over quickly."
Ridaya pulls the bag off her head. She's holding what Sophie knows is probably a wand, two scrolls, and a large pearl, and two scrolls of parchment.
She grabs the pearl and focuses on it - there's no obvious visual effect, but it clearly does what she wanted it to, because she relaxes before she tosses it back in the bag.
"Sophie, I'm going to cast some spells on you to give you a temporary edge before I teleport us. Mostly to your reaction speed, but some other general stuff as well. Then I'm going to use the wand to make us all invisible, cast one more spell for speed on all 3 of us, and then teleport. It will take about half a minute all in all. Ready?"
(Celestial makes it clear when Ridaya is saying the name of an arcane spell.)
(Luto is already here, one hand on Ridaya's shoulder to steady her nerves and for the Teleport, when it comes, the other hand gripping her katana.)
"Give me your hand. And when you feel the magic of the spells, let it in." She unrolls one of the scrolls with one hand and reaches out for Sophie's with the other.
Heroism.
It makes her feel... not, necessarily, like everything will be alright. But it makes her feel like she can win this. Not just getting through the extremely short (one way or another) battle ahead, but making good, getting out, finding a way to make things work.
It's a heady feeling.
She doesn't use a scroll for this next one, just moves her free arm rapidly and chants.
Anticipate Peril.
She starts the wand-boops. They disappear, one by one; Ridaya, then Luto, and finally Sophie.
"Teleport in two moments. Luto, count it down off from here, I have to cast."
She feels Luto's hand squeeze her shoulder in acknowledgement. She casts Haste, from the scroll.
"Teleport in one."
Luto lets her power flow through the coin weaved into the hand on Ridaya's shoulder, and she feels her nervous system adjust to the magic flowing out of it.
Her mind is perfectly empty of worry or fear. She is flowing water, a clockwork mechanism of grace and beauty and deadly sharpness. Protect Sophie.
Casting Teleport (any fifth-circle spell, really, but especially Teleport) is an incredible feeling. For one perfect moment, Ridaya is conducting an incredible amount of arcane power, the simultaneous culminations of millennia of arcane tradition, the years of her life spent on hard study and dangerous important fieldwork, and two minutes of incredibly difficult math this morning.
She holds the dragon's lair in her mind as she says the words and makes the hand motions, completing open loops of the spell. Here, she tells reality. Take us here.
The spell unfolds from the scaffold. It politely asks Reality to bend, just so.
Reality obliges.
(That same Knock-Rose-not feeling. Something like this called her here.)
Kaxalaroth has had an exciting day. Earlier, a group of foreign adventurers appeared in His private lair, which is the type of thing that a Dragon in the second century of His life has learned to be very aware of, if He wants to live to see a third.
However, these adventurers were not here to fight. They were, as a point of fact, just as surprised to see Him as He was to see them. And He was faster, of course.
Two of them got away, barely, which is extremely irritating; He feels it as an itch at the back of His mind, a loose thread. They intruded, and for that they must die. (They might already be dead; He did manage to cast a Dispel as the Teleport went off, which caused a magical reaction unlike any He's seen before. But He still has to check.)
For now, though, He's got loot to sort. Most of the big stuff is done, but the pretty one had a big pile of scrolls for Him to work through - all divine magic, so not especially useful to Him.
He snaps to attention, eyes scanning the area. Who dares -
He can't see anything - He starts casting See Invisibility -
And Sophie extends her arm, unrolling the parchment, and says –
Three words at once. All the same, in a way, and completely different in another.
Kaxalaroth might, in the coming moment, have the chance to feel the pain, as his body shreds away into rust and snow.
He doesn't have enough time to wonder how, in the moment He dies, this could possibly be happening. (It isn't impossible, necessarily, because enough arcane or divine power, few things are truly impossible. But - He had no archmage enemies, He was careful about that, He wasn't stupid -)
He does have enough time to feel pain, enough pain that when oblivion comes, even knowing where His soul is headed, it's almost a relief.
He might think he knows where his soul's headed. But even the best-trod path can be so... unreliable.
(Especially when traveling at night.)
C̷̨̧̢̛̮̤͚̱̪̝̣͕͚̹̱̺͚̻̹̹̻͓͐͋͗͐̏̐̽͐̀̒̔̔͑̊̃̐̾̄̾̍͠͝Ơ̸͎͔̲̙̱͉̲͖͈̞͖͆͛̌̿́̔͋͌̄̓̒̿̑̿̈̌̂͋̚̕͝L̶̢̛̝͇̰͈̞͇̱̗̦̯͇̻̺̐́̄̽̄̉̈́͐̋́̃͌̄̕̕̕̕͝Ḑ̶̛̛͕̲̱̬͔̗̲̪͖͖̭͙͚͉̫͇̞̀̄̈́̂́͐̒̍̍̌̽̅͂̃͋͒̆͗͒͂͛̌̀̆̊͌́̈́̀̅́̑͑́̉̏̎̈́̌̀͊̕̚̚̚͠͝ͅ.̸̧̧̠̳͇̩͓̟̟͍͖̞̘͕̯̺̦͍̞̝̺̻͍͇̲̱͕̠̲̰͙̣̬͍̤̤̮̯̳̳̠̓̾̈́̓̉̍͐͌̈͌͑̌̂̽̕͜͠ͅͅ ̸̨̨̧̨̨̮̟͍͚͔̞̺̦̞̼͓͙͎̩͖͕͙̞͖͕͙̼̜̞̜̘͈̺͕̞̻̠̘̔̃̉̏͛͆́́͗͂̍̐̋̈̀̍̂͐̒̾̊͐̓̊̈̓̓̂̆̄̾͗̐̎̚͝͠͝͠͝͝ͅ ̸̛̛̛̛̳̒͑̊͒̄̔͐́̈́́̏̓̓̔̋̾̈́̈͋́̑̾͂͋͑̌̊͗͊̈́͂̇́̃̈̔̀̓͒̋̔̋̀̍̽͛͛̿͘̚͘̚͝͠͠͝͝W̸̨̡̛̞̤̲̯̻̮̟͉͓̰̼͖͇̫̺͛̏̍̄̊͗̈́͊̑́͒̔̎͆͗̄͊̈́͗̈̿͂̅̅̓̋͌̈́́͂͗͐̚͜͝͠͝͝Ŗ̵̢̢̢̢̧̛͓̭͇̥̞̮̳̤̯̦̠̩͉̳̹̘̞͍̻̙̰͕͈̞̱͖͕̼̟̩͓̭̗̗̠̼͕̪͖̏̋͌̓̈́̈́̋́̾͛̓̅͐̉̊͋̅͛̒͆̋̈͒̐̍͑̋̓̈́͋̀̒̑͐̏̆́̀͋͘̚͝͠͝͝͝ͅͅͅO̸̧̢̧͖̜̦̱̹̬͖͔̘͔͚̺̜͈̖̤̺̦̫̤͙̥̙̬̫͉͚̪̮̟͎̞̳̲̩̰͍͔̠͖̝̻͚̘̯̅̉̃͒͐́̀̇̀́̑̒̑̍͋͊̆̓̎͘̚ͅͅN̸̡̨̨̢̛̺̺̘͖͚̰̹̗̠̝͚̓͛̀͌̓͒͛̏̽̀̂͑̇͑͗̏̇̈́̕͜ͅĜ̶̡̨̧̨̢̧̢͓̪̻̭̩͍̤̩̞̞̪͚̟͚̗̱̰̲̼̻̜͈̮̩͈͍̗̘̠͙̤̣̞̝͈͇͐͋̍̓̽́̌̀͗̀̒̇̔̈̀͗̚̕͜͜ͅͅͅ.̵̡̰͍̳͙̭͇͓͂̿̇́̈́̊̂̓̀̽͋́͋̒̉̐̉͌̈͐̽̆͛̉̽̎͌̉̿̀̓̀̄̍͒̿̀͗̃̔̄͐͌̉̂̒̽̈́̌͘͘̕͝͝͠
There are some people who are very excited to make his acquaintance, see.
...let us draw the curtain of charity over the scene.
Where were we?
There was a dragon here. Now, there's a pile of treasure, a pile of rust and snow, and a small pile of dead bodies.
Focus.
"Sophie, is any part of what you just did... ongoing? Is it safe for us to get closer?"
Sophie shakes her head, trembling, as the page crumbles to ash in her hand. "Their work is done. It's... safe."
(That's overgenerous. Nothing is safe, right now, nor will it ever be – but that's not Wolf-Snow, it's just a nonreactive byproduct of the absolute idiocy she just committed.)
Luto, meanwhile, notices the trembling, and gently places an arm on Sophie's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
(It's easier, now that her brain isn't full of screaming hot paingriefguilt, to ask herself what Zan would do in a situation like this.)
"The invocation... was not easy. And I am thinking about what I have done."
Luto hugs Sophie, almost without thinking about it. "Thank you," she murmurs.
...Zan would have asked first, she thinks belatedly, but it's a bit late for that, so she is just going to pay attention to Sophie's body language and back off quickly if it seems like she messed up.
Sophie freezes instantly. (She is an Englishwoman of the early 20th century. Hugs are not her area of expertise.)
Whoops! She begins to let go slowly (no sudden movements). "Ah, sorry, I'm too used to my family," which is true even if it's not exactly what happened here.
Ridaya's brain is still in Tactical Decisionmaking Mode, because she's in over her head too much has been happening Sophie is terrifying they might still be in danger. Dragons this old have enemies, occupy major positions in the balance of power in their area. One of them will notice that there's a vacuum, now, and try to move in, in which case they would likely come here as a first or early step.
She doesn't know how long to expect that to take, and if she's being honest, she thinks they would have to be really unlucky, for someone to show up in under an hour. That doesn't mean it can't happen, and if it does happen, they're currently grossly unprepared for it. She's basically out of spells, Luto's almost out of her tricks, and they're both hurt. Sophie's capabilities are a huge unknown (OBVIOUSLY), but Ridaya is not currently inclined to want to rely on them!
So - she needs to search the dragon's hoard, quickly, for magic items they can use. Ideally, she'll find something that can be used for emergency escape - a scroll of teleport, or similar. If not - the more capabilities they have, the better.
And they should be ready as they can to run away at a moment's notice. She walks over to the bodies of her dead family members, and - she doesn't have the leverage to load them into the bag quickly, so she plucks a few hairs off each of their heads, murmuring an apology as she does so.
She looks back at Luto and Sophie, and. Ah.
...she can't bring herself to interrupt them right away, so she just casts message on Luto to avoid shouting across the room.
"Can you wrap up in a few minutes and let me know when you have?"
"It's quite alright," Sophie apologizes to Luto in turn. "I'm used to different social ways."
She observes Ridaya searching the treasures and hurries over. "Do you need any help? I... don't think we can carry all of this... but you have your big bag."
She nods, already getting the bag out. "You two load everything in this pile into the bag first, and then start on the bodies." (The dragon was still going through her family's gear, so it's conveniently all in one place, easy to load up.) "I'm going to look for a scroll of teleport or something, just in case we need to leave in a hurry."
(She trails awkwardly behind Sophie, distracted by the sight of her currently-dead family members who she let die)
Sophie is by no means too pretty to carry her weight. She shovels the treasure industriously, whistling a tune while she does so. (A good song is often remarkably useful in the course of physical labor.)
Ridaya moves further into the lair, letting detect magic guide her to the items she seeks. She starts pocketing stuff opportunistically - a few rings, two different pairs of gloves, an amulet, a cloak, what she has to assume is a hand of the mage (augh), a pair of goggles, a cloak...
Luto helps Sophie with the gear retrieval. (...She's worried about Ridaya, but she's not sure if there's much to be done there, at least right now.)
"Do you know what you'll want to do next?" she asks. "If it's something we can help you with - we owe you a great debt, for this."
"I have important work where I am from. But I do not know how to go back. Ridaya's magic brought me. So I should stay with you until I understand."
She nods. "We will help you get home." Ridaya and Uma are both geniuses, they'll figure it out.
Oooh, that looks like a Pearl of Power, and it's bigger than hers!
She picks it up and activates it immediately, hoping she's lucky enough to get one of her good buffs back for it.
Ridaya does in fact want a Teleport back yes please and thanks.
She pockets the Fifth Circle Pearl of Power, grinning like a loon.
Sophie finishes packing up the gear and turns her attention to the piles and piles of treasure.
This ring... it's got a little blossom of white opals, set into a platinum band, a lovely little design. There's a spark of Sky in it, but she thinks there's something more, too.
She is not foolish enough to put it on without a thorough look-over. But she does slip it into her pocket.
Luto takes in a few deep breathes to steel herself, and then starts loading Zan's body into the bag of holding.
"It's going to be okay," she whispers in Tianji, unsure if she's reassuring Zan or herself.
Oooh, a little side room full of scrolls? That seems like a good place for a Ridaya to go check out.
The new arrivals include:
an ageless-looking woman with white hair, wings, and a long scarf which moves like a fifth limb;
a blue-skinned man with two curved blades gripped in his hands;
and two persons too heavily armored to gender, wielding gleaming scythes.
The woman speaks in a commanding, yet slightly bored tone: "You stand charged with taking actions with the potential to cause ruinous harm to the fabric of Pharasma's Creation, and the misappropriation of a soul rightfully Hers. Surrender the Outer Being to us and your charges will be tried fairly. Resist, and you will be killed."
The wizard, an elvish woman with long white hair adorned with purple flowers, is already casting some kind of divination. Next to her, a woman in expensive-looking Mithril armor has her butterfly holy symbol at the ready, eyes focused on Luto and Sophie.
She holds up both her hands and straightens up, inching closer to Sophie while doing her best to seem very nonthreatening.
The scarf lashes out and cracks like a +5 Brilliant Energy whip at Luto's feet. "Stay where you are."
This is all her fault. If she hadn't said anything, Sophie and Ridaya would be okay.
...and she can't even warn Ridaya through the silence field.
The elvish wizard frowns, peering at divination output. "Huh. This is fascinating. I can't really see a source, but I think - "
Suddenly, Sophie feels the same tug on her as she did about a minute ago, when Ridaya teleported them into the lair.
(Luto can't say anything and won't risk moving, obviously, but her face relaxes.)
One day, she'll stay in one place long enough for the consequences of her own actions to catch up with her.
Not today, though.
She follows the tug, allowing it to draw her to wherever it wants her to go.
Ridaya is nowhere to be seen, but it's pretty unmistakably her hysterical laughter coming from near the wall!
Ridaya finishes identifying the magic in the rod, blinking in surprise. (Who was this dragon?)
The scroll case she pilfered is overstuffed with good stuff, and she regretfully eyes the spells she's leaving behind as she gets the whispered message from Luto.
Trouble. Here for Sophie.
And now she has to figure out a new plan, alone, again.
Ridaya isn't Uma. She likes reading, but she's not always reading; she's got a good memory, but not a near-perfect one. She knows a decent amount about a wide variety of things, but she's not a walking encyclopedia set. She's smart, but she's not Uma. Which is why when they needed to make really good plans, it was always her and Uma - best friend, lover, the most brilliant mind she's ever met.
...Uma isn't here. Ridaya will have to do.
She casts Invisibility from the wand she never put back into the bag of holding, and then peeks her head out the door.
She can see - Sophie at the top of the treasure pile, Luto a little further forwards, both standing very still. There's also (she peers at the magic intently) an interesting Silence variant surrounding the two of them, which means that Luto can't hear her. But she can't see the people who presumably teleported into this cave (they can't have been waiting here for Sophie, after all) - they're on the far side of the treasure pile. They probably don't even know she's here.
Think.
Okay.
She knows:
- A group with at least a fifth-circle wizard is after Sophie. Even if they escape this cave, they're very likely to be scried and pursued, within days if not hours.
- But also - they probably don't have greater scrying, because if they had, they'd know that Ridaya was back here, and they would have gone after her.
- Sophie and Luto are currently inside a silence and under close observation.
- Even if they have a see invisibility or truesight, the people observing the two of them can't see Ridaya, just as she can't see them.
- They're in Avistan somewhere - the plane shift clearly didn't take them back to Kyonin, and her Teleport out of here went wild when the dragon tried to dispel it, but combined they could not have gone over fifteen hundred miles.
- The square room they were in was underground (the smell, the clearly-hewed-in-place stone...) somewhere dry (really noticeably non-humid air, no moss or fungal growth) and sandy (small grains of it, in the corners). Desert.
- One of the desert countries bordering the inner sea (Osiron, she thinks?) has a city built around some kind of enormous artifact that blocks divination. If they can get there, they might be able to use it to hide from a scry.
She has - the rod, a bunch of scrolls, a bunch of unidentified magic items, and a Teleport ready. Which means - as long as they don't notice in time...
She steps out of the alcove, carefully, low to the ground. She focuses on Luto and Sophie. They're about fifty feet away. Perfect.
She holds up the rod. She holds the image of that stupid tiny stone room in her head.
Reaching Teleport.
Sophie allows herself to breathe.
"Thank you. ...are they going to follow and kill us all."
There's the sound of Ridaya trying to catch her breath. "I think they will try, but I think for them it will not be simple to find us right away, and I will make it harder."
...right, she doesn't need to be invisible. She pops back into sight. "Luto, get the rope from the bag."
Luto is pretty overwhelmed right now but she can follow directions! She starts digging in the bag of holding.
Rope? ...she really can't complain about silly components, when she makes pears out of wood and ink out of dreams, but it does seem a silly thing to have to scramble for.
(She probably should have put Uma's handy haversack on instead of in the bag of holding, but in her defense she's been very distracted!)
"Ridaya - I only got Zan's body, I'm sorry,"
"...I got hairs from all 3. We can get them back." If we survive this.
She takes the rope and casts a spell with it.
It... suspends itself in midair, the end of it seeming to disappear into something?
"Follow me," she says to Sophie, and then climbs up the rope and then out of sight.
Sophie dutifully climbs. An odd little ritual, but no stranger than the rest of what she's seen here.
When she gets to the top, there is... now an entire extra room. It's not huge, but it definitely wouldn't fit in the small room they were already in, and there's a (somewhat magical?) window that peers back out into the stone room.
She's already digging through Uma's flask bandolier, squinting to read the scribbled labels. She pulls two out, then looks at Sophie.
"Drink this one," (her left hand is raised and wiggling slightly) "then rinse this one" (right hand) "around in your mouth and spit it back into the container, please? It'll make you harder to find."
Sophie follows this instruction to the letter.
"Thank you. We're safe here?"
She makes a wobbly gesture with her hand. "We are harder to find, here, and you even more for the next nine hours - Luto, you too, I can't prepare mine for another two hours and they saw you." She hands over the appropriate vials.
"Then we can talk about... what comes next, I guess."
Sophie fidgets with a length of string, cat's-cradling it from one hand to the other. (She's got an idea for making herself harder still to find. It isn't nearly so stupid as her last.)
"Do you have any ideas?" she asks. "For what we should do. I think I'm at a disadvantage, not knowing anywhere to go even in theory."
"I think - and hope - we are near a city that would be a very good place to hide for longer, and to make Zan alive again. And she's - really really good at talking to people who should be on the same side and making sure things are ok."
She yawns. "I need to sleep soon, to get my magic back. You don't need sleep, right?"
"No. Really I shouldn't, for a while. I will do safe things while you sleep."
Ridaya wants to do a bit of a glare about that, because she is still, actually, kind of really upset about the unsafe wishmagic and being reminded of it doesn't help, but Sophie seems (as best as Ridaya can tell (which is not very good!!)) to be genuine about doing safe things while she's asleep.
And also she is actually really tired, at this point, and that's overruling.
She extracts from the bag of holding 2 sets of bedding and a pair of fancy-looking headbands. She hands the silver one with orange and red gemstones to Luto. "Here."
"I - but -" it's Zan's, she thinks miserably, but she sees that Rids is holding Umakhi's headband and wow she really should not be making this harder for Ridaya.
She puts it on, and then gives Ridaya's hands a gentle squeeze. "We'll get them back," she says softly.
Ridaya nods stiffly, like she doesn't quite believe it, and puts on Uma's headband.
She turns to Sophie. "I sleep now. Need two hours to start getting my magic ready. Luto... maybe sleep, maybe not? Up to her. She will need more sleep than me but... needs it... less urgently?" and probably wants it less, with a fresh new source for her horrible nightmares and no Zan or Vakt to hold her when she wakes up... :(
"...I have something to help sleep, too. If needed."
(It isn't the most efficient use of Solomon's elixir, but it's a potent weapon against nightmares.)
"...If Luto wants, when she sleeps? I won't need it."
She wraps herself up in a blanket, curls herself around Luto such that her head is behind Luto's back, pulls her cloak over her head, and falls asleep. (She's a fieldwork wizard - she's very good at sleeping, when needed.)
Luto pets Ridaya gently, sighing.
"...worried about her," she says softly to Sophie, after Ridaya's breathing changes.
Luto nods glumly. "When you just started writing, earlier... I've never seen her that scared before, even in situations where she thought she was going to die. I think it's less bad, now, but... she's still scared of you."
She hugs her knees. "...It's not just that, though? It's - with Umakhi gone, Ridaya's handling everything that they used to do together, and it must be making her constantly think about Uma, and... "
Luto does not pay a lot of attention to most magic, but she is definitely qualified to talk about this one.
Hand-wave. "Kinda? It is... something magic can do, but not easily or cheaply. It's cheaper and easier if you have the body, or at least a part of it."
"The version if you have the whole body - Vakt could cast the spell for that, if she had a big diamond. We had one, but - we had to use it on Ridaya a few weeks ago."
It'd been hard on all four of them, even knowing they were going to get Ridaya back the next morning, but Umakhi had been miserable. She'd stopped talking almost entirely, stopped reading which was actually a lot more worrying, and had refused to sleep that night, claiming that she needed to make sure nothing happened to Ridaya's body before the morning.
"The version with just a part - harder to cast, and takes a diamond twice as big. We should be able to find someone selling both in a big enough city, though, and we can pay."
Sophie nods. "Big diamonds are expensive. Even when no one does magic with them. I am glad you can pay."
She nods. "Me too. We have been very blessed" (lit God-favored) ", to be able to do the things we have done. I am very proud of my family." Petpet the sleepy wizard.
...unsurprisingly, with Zan's headband on, it's easier to ask herself What Would Zan Do.
"Do you have... other people, who you work with? Live with?" It's useful to know if people will come looking for Sophie (especially if they can do the kinds of things Sophie can do), but also - she doesn't really know Sophie, like, at all, and it would be nice if that changed. For both of them, probably.
"I work with many people, but I live alone. My house is very old, and has many strong books and strong magic. It would not be safe."
And maybe she can pretend that's why she lives alone.
Luto almost says wait then why do you live there but manages to catch herself in time. Surely Sophie must have her reasons (quite possibly something to do with the scary book-related magic?).
Still, it clearly bothers her. "I am sorry," she says gently. "I know that for some people it is fine, being alone like that" (Luto's tone and face make it very clear that she is not even slightly like this) "but it's still sad, to not have the option."
She dips her head slightly. "What are the people you work with like?"
"Some of them want very much to help as many people as they can. I think they are good, and I like them. Others want to help their friends. This is sometimes enough to like them. Others only want to help themselves, and those I dislike, but I do have to work with them. ...some of them do not want to help anyone, just to know as much as they can. They are dangerous. But I sometimes find I like them anyway."
Luto smiles, though she also tilts her head at the last one. "It is dangerous, where you are from, to want to know things? I do not think it is like that here," though she glances down at Ridaya, because, well, she's really not the subject expert.
(and then her face falls, because Ridaya is not actually their subject matter expert either, and suddenly she misses Umakhi, misses the way she'd brush her wings against Luto instead of saying hi, misses her bad jokes and Ridaya trying to explain them through tears of laughter, misses coming back from a bathroom trip or a watch shift and seeing her partially entwined with one of the others reading some complicated-looking book,)
"It is terribly dangerous. If someone wants to know one thing, that may be fine. If someone wants to know everything? People like that..."
She sighs.
"People like that do what I did."
She rolls that around in her head.
"Can I ask... why did you do it? I'm extremely grateful you did, you've given us the chance to get our family back, but it... you barely know us."
"I did it because... I am here. I do not know you, but you are the only ones here with me. You are good. You are... Good. You were in pain. I thought of something that I could do to help you."
Then she shakes her head. "...it was not really for you. It was to make me feel strong. To say, I have solved your problem, and I am important. I am very stupid."
...oh. She nods in understanding. "It may have been a thing you did for you, but... you still solved our problem. Thank you."
She reaches out and pats Sophie on the knee.
"...I am the stupid one, in my family, the one who does impulsive things when feeling scared." smile. "I have never killed a dragon about it, though. It was very impressive."
...awww, Sophie has such a nice smile. "Even if we ask very nicely?" She bats her eyelashes.
That startles a laugh out of her. "I think only you would ask!"
Yesss she made their new attractive and dangerous friend laugh!
Luto giggles. "You have only met two of us! Maybe we will get Zan back and she will say" (she adopts a noticably different voice and register) "'Oh, Great Sophie, I know it is not easily done and I do not wish to impose on your kindness, but I do have a small, tiny, very big and also urgent problem with this other dragon, and I have nobody else to turn to in my hour of need, please help me', and then poor Ridaya will be out-voted..."
Her eyes are sparkling in a way Sophie's never seen them before.
"I'd want to see if that one dies to thunder, at least! It's not my first instinct. That would be terribly expensive."
"Maybe there are kinds of dragon who die easily to thunder... I don't know much about the kinds of dragons, just that there are lots of them. Umakhi, the one with the wings, is the our main Knower of Things. A scary number of things, really. We joke sometimes that has a hard time with people because she is too busy being friends with every book she ever meets."
She sighs, and continues in a softer voice. "...I miss her. Miss all of them. I really hope we can get all 3 of them back without more problems."
She hugs her knees.