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Adarin's magic has some advantages over witchcraft, but it is imperfect. Still, over time, mana recovers, and in this time Metis's hospitality does not run out.
They watch Harry Potter, Adarin is introduced to Wikipedia, he makes the second thingamajig. Isabella interrogates her alethiometer.
It's kind of cryptic about whether she has to fear being a "crazy witch". But she's tentatively optimistic and still brainstorming new ways to format the question. (She complains about the alethiometer being bad at numbers and at "yes" and "no".)
It can, however, identify landmarks by referring to whatever they're named after. It's not so hard to interpret on the subject of where she may find a place to claim. She moves into it, Adarin in tow, Metis retained as a friendly advisor but apprenticeship terminated. The place has plumbing and a generator already; she gets satellite Internet for an entire half-day of spellcasting and collects a hand-me-down laptop from a mortal friend of her mother's. She sets up arrangements for building a nice big wall along the edge of a clearing on her appropriated property. It's a very busy couple of weeks.
Eventually she tries asking the alethiometer a fifteenth way whether she's prone to crazy witchitude. Whether she'd ever hurt someone she loved if they rejected her, or even threaten it.
The alethiometer says: love violence counter-to querent nature.
She's starting to get the hang of interpreting it, even if most of the practice has involved getting the addresses (via intersection and cardinal direction because it can't give her anything so useful as house number or latitude) and this is - this is pretty damn good.
This is good enough.
Of course, that's not all the answer she needs, is it?
Path goes looking for Vernaia.
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dark_light
prodigal_miser
Nothing goes awry, and they pass through without incident.
It's cold, and the only light is from the night sky above. Two moons, just like Adarin said, and thousands of twinkling stars. There's no light pollution here, and no haze from smog. They're unobstructed, entirely.
She and Path are alone, except for Adarin, sitting above, legs dangling over the side. He's bundled up in a fluffy, fluffy coat, and Vern's in a set of blankets. He waves, grinning.
It's cold, and the only light is from the night sky above. Two moons, just like Adarin said, and thousands of twinkling stars. There's no light pollution here, and no haze from smog. They're unobstructed, entirely.
She and Path are alone, except for Adarin, sitting above, legs dangling over the side. He's bundled up in a fluffy, fluffy coat, and Vern's in a set of blankets. He waves, grinning.
dark_light
"Oh this is the most beautiful light," breathes Isabella, floating up to Adarin's level. "Oh it's nice. ...You look cold."
prodigal_miser
He snickers. "I'm fine. The fluffy coat is more than just for looks."
dark_light
"It's so fluffy."
Path attempts to wriggle under Vern's blanket with her. He doesn't need them any more than his witch does, but he's still warm himself and might help. Also, snuggles.
Path attempts to wriggle under Vern's blanket with her. He doesn't need them any more than his witch does, but he's still warm himself and might help. Also, snuggles.
prodigal_miser
Vern snuggles back, giggling a little. Yeah, it's for warmth, suuuure.
"It makes me look dashing," he deadpans.
(He doesn't look bad in it, exactly, but he is quite fluffy and it's hard to take someone seriously when they are that fluffy.)
"It makes me look dashing," he deadpans.
(He doesn't look bad in it, exactly, but he is quite fluffy and it's hard to take someone seriously when they are that fluffy.)
dark_light
"It makes you look ridiculous." She alights on the cliff, dismounts, and flops on his fluff. "It's soft, though."
prodigal_miser
He giggles, cuddling back.
"Thanks. I figured no one would look here since it requires fluffy coats."
"Thanks. I figured no one would look here since it requires fluffy coats."
dark_light
"And it's perfectly witch-friendly. How far are we from where you live?"
dark_light
"All right. Should we go now or do you need to brief me on a bunch of things first? Or cast the translation spell on me, for that matter."
prodigal_miser
"Hmm... Translation spell, then I brief you in my language so you can get used to it?"
prodigal_miser
Notes are retrieved, and he reads over them twice, then there's the casting of a spell. He finishes it without issue. Nothing obvious happens.
Except he switches languages, and says, <"There, that should have worked.">
The spell doesn't make it sound like he's speaking English. He sounds like he's speaking another language, and there's a set of thought-only notes now in her head about what it means. If she wants, it'll even parse the grammar of it. Like Adarin explained, it's built to translate, but help with actually learning the language itself.
Except he switches languages, and says, <"There, that should have worked.">
The spell doesn't make it sound like he's speaking English. He sounds like he's speaking another language, and there's a set of thought-only notes now in her head about what it means. If she wants, it'll even parse the grammar of it. Like Adarin explained, it's built to translate, but help with actually learning the language itself.
dark_light
Isabella thinks, and then composes a sentence in her head and observes the suggestions of the spell unfold at her merest curiosities.
<"If we hit any snags with portal-based capitalism, I bet you could sell castings of this for ludicrous amounts of money. Well, maybe not ludicrous. I don't think linguists tend to get rich.>
<"If we hit any snags with portal-based capitalism, I bet you could sell castings of this for ludicrous amounts of money. Well, maybe not ludicrous. I don't think linguists tend to get rich.>
prodigal_miser
He grins. <"I'm very proud of my spell. Translation spell based capitalism I'm all for, as well.">
dark_light
<"This is a beautifully designed bit of assistive magic. Okay. Briefing?">
prodigal_miser
<"Thank you! Let's see. Some people will want to know where you're from, you can be as honest about it as you like or completely unhelpful, it doesn't matter to me. Don't accept any invitations without letting me know, first, some people would try to corner you about something or do something terrible. I would have to break things and that would annoy me. If anyone gives you trouble, give them my name and say you're a friend, and they should back off.">
prodigal_miser
<"Then you have my permission to do whatever you deem necessary to get them to back off. Try not to kill anyone, but I trust your judgement."
prodigal_miser
He smiles. <"I think that's about it, the details I can tell you as we go. Would it help if I gave you a list of the people that have been particularly unhelpful or have tried to drug me?">
dark_light
<"Couldn't hurt."> She pulls out a notebook, notes that the spell does literacy just as nicely, and adds, <"I might start taking notes in this language just to confound anybody from back home who finds my books.">
prodigal_miser
<"Sure. It works with other languages, too, so if there's one you know that's really obscure, that might be a better idea. This spell was designed with potential infiltration in mind, I had no idea what your language actually was,"> he explains. <"Anyone under the spell would be able to read it, but obviously I'm not going to. Invasion of privacy, also jerk move.">
dark_light
"Okay, maybe I'll write in some dead language that only four people know existed," she says. "And yeah, if I expected you to read my notebooks we would not get along so famously."
prodigal_miser
"Yes. While I like getting along famously with you, I just don't read people's journals, diaries, and so on without permission anyway. Because I try not to be a jerk."