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Time passes. Canada is cooperative about portals and now there's one each in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, on a second floor of the hub with customs agents Isabella is tolerating for the time being as long as they're well-behaved. Japan and Australia and the UK all follow suit at roughly the same time, so then there are portals in their big cities, too, a couple new ones per week. Other nations are slated to trickle in as they handle their red tape to deal with sudden new national borders that don't have the built-in delay of airplanes. Some of the parking garages are being replaced with custom-built installations. Isabella pays off her loan, renegotiates for the continued use of her shiny credit card, and has reason to be grateful for her retained law firm, which is kept busy by frivolous lawsuits by airline companies. She's not appreciably cutting into their traffic yet - sure, the price point is dropping, but they're still competitive. They can just smell their own demise coming from a mile away.
Five witches besides Isabella ward the colony site. Robots guard the site of the portal, obligingly letting colonists through during scheduled trips and reporting to Isabella by mirror if anybody else shows up. Other robots help the colonists with setting up their farms and houses in the warded area. It'll hold a city, no problem, although another transfer of silks and bags to pay for warding a second site is going to be called for before they get literally everyone across, since in addition to city they need farmland, and since they can't build vertically as effectively as fully industrialized Earthlings or the deceased aliens.
One day:
"It's been exactly a year now since you crashed my picnic. Let's go to a fancy restaurant and celebrate."
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dark_light
silkhiding
"With the - the... Everything?" She fidgets. "I didn't know about half of it, not until - not until Enathira broke down and told me about - everything. I don't - I'm not a mover and shaker of the world, my magic's pathetic and my husband's - departed. I don't know what I could have done."
"We're sorry," whispers the bird.
"We're sorry," whispers the bird.
silkhiding
Wince, cringe. This is becoming something of a theme. "No, it's not. I'm so sorry. I didn't know what to do. So I suppose I didn't do - anything."
dark_light
"So what changed? Did Enathira tell you the story yesterday?"
ofthefallen
"But before yesterday," says the redhead, "she hadn't met me. And she couldn't get here on her own."
ofthefallen
"I am two hundred and twenty eight. I have long grown weary of politics and marriages of convenience, while I watch the ghosts of wronged innocents pile up. I give them some measure of peace before they fade away. But I would much prefer if they didn't have to die needlessly." She cuts Adarin a look. "So if I must act to prevent further bloodshed, I will."
dark_light
"Reasonable. All right. What can you do, what are you good at, how far can you convince us to trust you?"
ofthefallen
"I am reasonably strong, magically speaking. My talents lie in earth and stone - I tend to use it to make tombs, memoirs, tablets outlining a person's life. It could be reasonably re-purposed to include architecture. While I will not claim their talents as mine - I have ghosts with me that will lend aid if it seems appropriate. Searching, finding, past wards and defenses. I don't know of a way to convince you to trust me, and frankly I don't care if you do."
silkhiding
"Um," says the other. "I'm not very powerful. But I'm patient? I... Enchanted ribbons, one at a time, to be strong and do what I tell them to. I can just -" She snaps her hand out, the end of a ribbon flies from her hand, tangles itself around a tree branch, and she pulls it back - branch and all. "Do that. I don't know what to call it."
She fidgets. "I um... Haven't hurt anyone in my life? I don't know what would convince you to trust me..."
She fidgets. "I um... Haven't hurt anyone in my life? I don't know what would convince you to trust me..."
dark_light
"We can use an architect, although we cannot use an HR disaster waiting to happen. I have no immediate idea what to do with grappling hook ribbons."
prodigal_miser
"Human resources," supplies Adarin. "Meaning we can't afford fallout if you upset people or your ghosts go - spying."
He is visibly uncomfortable about the ghosts.
He is visibly uncomfortable about the ghosts.
ofthefallen
"Ah. I don't typically disturb the peace. 'My ghosts' go as they will, however, though I won't ask them to spy."
silkhiding
Her companion doesn't look particularly surprised by Isabella's pronouncement. But she droops a little.
dark_light
"Can the ribbons operate autonomously without you there, and/or follow sophisticated protocols of behavior without your conscious intervention?" wonders Isabella. "Maybe they could sort the mail or something - what do you normally do with them? You must have had a reason to invest the development time and mana."
silkhiding
"... Reaching things, when I - couldn't... When I was unable. They're not intelligent, they just follow directions. I mean I could - maybe work on a spell that would sort mail? I understand the concepts of - lots of things, I studied... A lot of magic, but I don't have the mana to cast large things."
She looks between Adarin and Isabella and fidgets. "I also know a bit about healing? I didn't think of it because it's not the... huge gushing injury kind."
She looks between Adarin and Isabella and fidgets. "I also know a bit about healing? I didn't think of it because it's not the... huge gushing injury kind."
silkhiding
"Little things, little - health issues. Um. Colds, coughing fits - I know how to do a lot to help with... breathing... In particular. It takes me a while because I need breaks because of my mana, but I can do some."
dark_light
"Maybe you could operate a first aid station in the portal hub or something. We should probably have one; it's not overwhelmingly accident-prone but it gets more crowded all the time and it might take a minute for an ambulance to show up..."
silkhiding
She nods. "Maybe? I don't know how much I could help, but I'll try. If there's a lot of people, though - I don't think my magic would be very useful. I'd need training for - big things. I don't know what to do with large injuries."
dark_light
"Obviously it would need more than one person to exist usefully at all, since the portals are open twenty-four hours a day. I'm still brainstorming."
Path murmurs to Vernaia, who is still wrapped up in his wings as best as he can arrange it, "Should the colony stay a secret from them?"
Path murmurs to Vernaia, who is still wrapped up in his wings as best as he can arrange it, "Should the colony stay a secret from them?"