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Shara is getting very tired of this horse and this forest and the map which has clearly marked hills and rivers and nothing labeled adventures via which to satisfy picky artifacts sold wholesale here. Kayam doesn't seem to mind, but Kayam's more patient than her to begin with, and Kayam's horse is more placid - Shara would trade but she's supposed to be gentling this one as long as she has a long consecutive while to do it in.
Her horse veers off left. Shara steadies it - but looks left, why not, to see what's distracted the horse.
Well, that's one hell of a garden. It's got residual magic over it - the raveler's equivalent of lint, nothing Shara can mess with while the plant raveler's not actively working on it, but there is definitely a plant mage here.
The house has the same property.
And so does - something else.
Three different kinds of raveler-residue over the same property. All recent, though the house, requiring no active maintenance, less so than the garden and the - other thing.
Shara raises a hand; Kayam comes to a halt while Shara squints.
And then the unfamiliar something inside the house flares and Shara gets a very clear look at what's making the third kind of lint.
She promptly loses her breakfast onto the excuse for a trail they're riding on before she can even think about interfering with its work.
"Whoa, milady, what's - what's wrong, were the rations bad -?" asks Kayam
Shara shakes her head. "Some kind of raveler I don't recognize in that house. They're - I don't even know how to describe it. Raveling people."
"...The way you say that I somehow don't think you mean like healers do."
"Not like healers do," shudders Shara, swigging water. "Raveling their - feelings, I guess. There's people in that house and I don't know if there's a thing keeping them all together except the magic."
"Could... you... stop them, if they tried to do it to us?" asks Kayam slowly.
"I think so. I was caught off guard - there, they're doing it again, I can't reach from here but I can see the stitching. I think I could counter it."
"You think."
"If it was coming at me, absolutely - I'm less sure I'd grab it in time if it was aimed at you. It doesn't feel long-range, though."
"Okay. So - what do you want to do, milady?"
Shara thinks.
"Tie up the horses. You hang back here and watch through the window. I'll - knock on the door and see if I can fix the problem by talking. When I've figured out who it is, if I've decided they can't be reasoned with or I'm worried they're going to keep raveling at me until I'm too tired to stop them - I'll let off a flashball and you fold straight in - don't walk through the garden, it'll turn on you if the plant mage wants - and then I guess you kill this particular raveler. Maybe their work will dissolve when they die and the others will be okay."
"What if their work, um, does not dissolve when they die, as a for-instance?"
"Then," says Shara, "we'll be in a house with a bunch of people who just watched us kill their best friend, and you will fold us back to our horses smart-quick and we will run away very fast, but at least no one else will get - mindraveled."
"This sounds a bit more dangerous than your usual sort of idea," says Kayam.
"It's pulling double duty," says Shara, and she dismounts, and approaches the house, and knocks.
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pleating
"'Cause... it seemed like her magic was really strong and she was using it on you all the time and it made you like her?"
try_me
"Well, yeah, and I liked her a lot. But then I learned about her magic and now I hate her. You can still like someone and also hate their guts and want them to die in a fire."
"So I know how much context to supply. So, Casasha's throne doesn't have traditional inheritance. Or, not all the time. The child or children of the existing monarch regnant get first crack at the position, but if they don't get it by age twenty-one - or if there is no such person - anyone from a pennon family can send anyone they like to have a try. And if that doesn't work commoners can give it a shot, too. The way you get the regnant crown is by convincing the heir crown that you are the sort of person who should rule Casasha, and the traditional way to do that is to have an adventure, rescue one or more people from some sort of horrible fate, and then show up covered in glory and possibly new scars with exciting backstories and see if the crown will float when placed on your head. So I was looking for things to do in that - category, and Casasha's in pretty good not-very-adventurous shape, so I was wandering the wilds. The crown allows you to have your adventures with companions so I brought Kayam."
try_me
"It's like an ex girlfriend, basically. Or boyfriend, I guess you might swing that way. Hating someone but also liking them."
"Highness, milady, Princess, or Pennon all work. Even if the crown takes to me like a friendly puppy my father's still alive, so not majesty. And only if you want to. You can skip it if you'd rather. Kayam likes it for some reason."
try_me
"I mean... Not all ex-girlfriends? Just - some of them. It's like - you like them, but there are things that you hate about them that you can't get over, so the liking becomes fuel for hating them because you hate how you like them. Did that help?"
in_tatters
"If the crown doesn't consider this enough of an adventure I promise to look at it sternly."
try_me
"I'm glad I don't want to punch you, too! That would be awkward, we're sharing a horse."
"That's very kind of you. I have a few more years if it doesn't approve, anyway."
in_tatters
Adarin nods. "Good luck to you. Strange that the crown doesn't judge by the ability to rule, though. Just - the ability to go on adventures and save people. Apparently."
"You'd have to take it up with a long-dead artificer. It hasn't picked us any bad monarchs, anyway, and it's idiosyncratic enough about what adventures count that there could be a secondary criterion like that."
in_tatters
"Hmm. Then I will give the crown a pass. It may proceed picking monarchs with my permission. I'm still going to look at it sternly if this doesn't count as an adventure."
try_me
Zeviana isn't out of things to say!
"So, seen any cool things while traveling? I stayed still for so long that I think I want to travel now. A lot."
"So, seen any cool things while traveling? I stayed still for so long that I think I want to travel now. A lot."
"I'm sure the crown will be glad to hear that you don't demand its retirement."