"If you have a better Heliopticon, we would be overjoyed!" Ionnia actually smiles in a way that meets her eyes, at the prospect. "I mean, I'm sure heliopticon operators will continue to practice as a hobby and insist that the days of the heliopticon were the heights of purity and good content in communication, before the rabble came and spoiled it, but, you know. Communications difficulties are the bane of Imperial life, and the more we can eliminate them, the better.

Some Senators simply refuse to 'rely on' Autumn magic at all - especially for something politically important, they'd assume it could be intercepted or tampered with, even though that's actually impossible; in less civilised areas of the Empire, they often have rather little grasp of how even basic ritual magic functions.

I suppose if you can afford to keep something like Crystal Clarity up around yourself, that would also dampen the Plateau's effects adequately. I'm afraid I am more of an administrator than a ritual theoretician, much less an aura expert; and Willstone's researchers are generally here to use the Autumn regio, and I suspect Autumn effects are a little subtle for dealing with something like the Plateau.

If you can't do it with religious endeavours, you'd be looking at Day and Night at once - I believe that's what they used to calm it in the first place, before the Iron Helms... happened to it. Even so, everyone is quite convinced that ritual magic alone is no longer sufficient, so it may end up needing to be a combination of... all available powers."

"There's literally always people like that, I'm sure.

"Honestly, I think they have a point about not letting the skills pass from the earth, just in case...but boy is everything else just somewhat silly.

"I have literally no idea how your magic works compared to mine except that yours seems to be...weirdly planar slash conceptual?  But yes, that doesn't seem wrong."

"...All available powers?"

"Oh, and, here, take this; it's connected to my communications network, so you can get in touch with me if you ever need to.  Or want to, really."

She hands over a smartphone-alike (and its associated accessories).  "Do read the manual; it might be a bit slow-paced at times but it's got useful information about how things work, inside."

"We really need to find a way to refer to your Not Quite An Eternal without upsetting anyone, or being unduly inaccurate, I suppose," replies Ionnia. "I'm sure our Questors can find you someone to explain our basic magic theory - it does tend to call upon the Realms for more sustained and complex effects, but there are a wide range of fundamental resonances that can be used, some more mathematical and some more conceptual."

She nods at the gift, but makes no move to pick it up from the table immediately. "That is a handsome gift, thank you. I only hope my poor gift of local knowledge can be adequate to it. Is there aught else you want from me particularly, or shall I get the Sentinels to lead you to some Questors for your Plateau related research?

Oh, and how long do you think you'll remain here - is it worth us signalling some of our people in Zenith, who might know more about immediate requests for aid, when they will take at least until tomorrow to arrive through the Iteri pass? There are plenty of rooms for wandering scholars if you do wish to stay overnight, and meals are served in the dining hall, to which you are welcome, or at any time from the kitchens."

"Ahh, that's what you meant.

"I think that's all I have to ask of you.

"...Hmm...

"Give me a minute to check on something, before I decide whether I can stay?  I would certainly appreciate the local knowledge, regardless."

How's Keth doing with making contact?

It's just as well the strange flying vessel is arrow-proof.

Keth is not arrow-proof, but is also not the physick and has the most conspicuous robes, so she makes sure she is very visible as the vessel descends far enough that anyone might shoot into it. Fortunately, the guard-station has become tired of wasting arrows by the time this is a meaningful threat.

It turns out that being on guard duty in Spiral does not improve anybody's mood; it quickly becomes apparent that this is mostly some kind of respite duty for people who have got excessively combative and paranoid out beyond the effect of the Block, and none of them are pleased to have some work to do, or to have to share their cramped quarters. Apparently their main duty is ensuring tariffs are collected from caravans that use the pass, as well as being an early warning if anything changes with the Block - but the effects of the Winter regio have left everyone listless and unmotivated.

None of them are very pleased with the idea that they might have to be a messenger, to collect someone more senior who can deal with things, so eventually Calak is dispatched to the larger post up at Damarkan's Forge, although he's also not exactly happy with the idea that he might be running all the way down to Apulian to get the attention of the Salt Lord; Mhendi sends a Winged Messenger off, in case that might be faster this time, and then starts attempting to study the controls of the flying vehicle so that they can operate it off autopilot if they need to.

Meanwhile, Keth has settled in to the business of attempting to drag some information out of the soldiers' various depressing anecdotes, mostly featuring them being the only one of their unit to successfully flee a Druj incursion, or people who would have got on just fine in any other circumstances pointlessly murdering each other.

...The icons left in Keth's care seem to find the way this is being managed personally offensive, given how they flood the area with their energy rather than allow the Winter regio to drain these people who should be healing any further.

The airship's piloting interface is rather easy to use, even untrained!  There's even the option of flight simulation, since they're not presently traveling!

Keth's communicator breebles at her.

"Just finished my meeting with the Arbiter; how are things going on your end?  Anything that'd help you out any?"

Despite the aura from the icons being more pleasant than the local alternatives, it causes the garrison considerable quantities of panic; one of them does agree to leave this time and runs off towards Damarkan's Forge to collect a Urizeni priest who can more easily investigate it.

Mhendi agrees to hop the vessel a little way away, to calm everyone back down. 

"Slowly - we might want to fly over to Apulian directly, once Mhendi's got the hang of it. Do you know why your flying vessel has started emitting an aura of its own? Mhendi had to take it away from the encampment as everyone was talking about leaving to avoid it, even though we tried to tell them it was fine - nobody likes surprising new effects around here, even pleasant ones."

"...I'm going to guess that something about the situation there was direly offensive to my sensibilities in some way, plausibly to do with why everything looks at best half dead around there.  Let me just...

"...oh dear.  Alright, one moment..."

The 'aura' stops actively roiling and looking for people to help, but it doesn't stop being protectively flared out.

"Alright, that's...

"Perhaps you should chalk it up to a very strange human having far too much emotion at what she heard about the conditions and the history that brought everyone here and doing a spontaneous aura thing because of that; it should be safe now.  Well.  'Safe', because really, not having the aura be as aggressive about protecting those who need to be warded is a danger to them and others, but if someone really wants their magically-induced clinical depression, they can keep it.  It was essentially my fault, anyway; the impetus that caused that reaction is that I was feeling particularly protective-whether-you-like-it-or-not at the time I anchored the symbols and hadn't properly modeled consentingness."

"They've sent someone to fetch a human priest from Damarkan's Forge, is it okay to let them examine it or should we put them off?

I think everyone here's really had enough weird additional effects on them for a while and gets twitchy when another one shows up, even if it's entirely benign and actually helpful. We can probably talk them round if you think that'd be helpful, but I'm not sure I want them to get used to it if we're going to have to move on to Apulian anyway. I'll know more on that front when Calak gets back from the Forge - that's the nearest place with anyone who apparently knows what they're doing, the garrison here is a bit... under-resourced... from being stuck in the Winter regio."

"I see no reason the priest shouldn't be allowed to take a look.  ...And if this is better for them, we're not going to just...leave them to Winter's tender lack-of-mercy; I can make something that'll - oh, this might be a good test case for seeing if things like the Black Plateau's aura can be supplanted with sufficient meddling.  I'm not going to leave them in the lurch, regardless.  It'd be deriliction of admittedly self-imposed duty."  She makes a noise somewhere halfway between a laugh and a sigh, and continues.  "Anyway, if things are stable, I have some people to consult on my end; I can get the plane to make some additional conduits if that's something that'd be helpful."

"Once the priest is here and has checked it out for them, if we can carry something back to put in the garrison, they'd probably benefit from it once they've calmed down," replies Keth. "Should we be waiting for you, or should we head on to Apulian - where the Salt Lord is - if we don't get any more luck here?"

"That's up to you; you understand the political implications better.  I'll catch up with you by tomorrow either way."  She cues up the shipboard fabricator to do the thing she said she'd do; it produces a heavily rune-etched, stylized statuette.

Now the vessel is spitting out statues. Fantastic. She starts incanting for detect magic, in case that helps - then thinks for a moment, stops, and gently touches the statuette to see if there are obvious effects first; if this doesn't go too badly, she takes the statuette outside and starts incanting again, not wanting to accidentally target the whole vessel and possibly keel over in the middle of nowhere.

"We'll probably stay put here for you unless we're ordered to attend, then; I'd rather have you with the vessel when we go down there in case Salt Lord Mahiri Kaliact decides she fancies taking it apart and trying to see how it is made. I've heard she's fairly reasonable as Salt Lords go, but anyone can be driven by avarice when they get hold of this kind of equipment."

"Quite.  Thankfully, I've got plenty to go around."

"Keth wanted something for the Block; this is that," comes the vessel's proprietor's voice after a second of observing Mhendi's confusion. "Anchors an aura to itself.  Speaking of which, Keth's thinking y'all should stay put there-ish until I catch up."

When Mhendi touches the statue...The statue seems faintly amused, as if to think that Mhendi should have recognized it.

Nevertheless, Mhendi gets the information she's looking for - it's a more replicable way to ask for [CONCEPT UNTRANSLATABLE: (embrace, protect, respect, exalt, uplift)]'s attention, with some added decorative elements because Her favored felt like making this pretty, unlike most of her other work.  (Really, She thinks her favored could stand to be less relentlessly utilitarian-brutalist in more of her functional designs; She knows Her favored has aesthetic opinions that can mesh with her perceived needs.  It's simply a matter of spending a little more effort for a worthy reward.)

That she gets this information before the spell completes, and it includes what's inarguably gossip, is presumably surprising.

Well, it's nice not to have to waste mana on it, she guesses. She doesn't really need to verify its story, not with audible confirmation from their strange visitor.

"Thank you," she answers. "I'm a little way off from the Block at the moment, they didn't like the vessel with the extra aura - should I take it back immediately, or wait for further instructions?"

She'll ask Keth about that and relay the answer.

With that settled...she has...Questors...to meet.

She's not really a fan of religion in the abstract, and this one's really fucking spooky in particular!  But they seem to have the monopoly on liao and its uses, so she'll deal.

"Can I call her with this? I'd like to wait for the priest to arrive, then call her over."

The Sentinel commander leads her into another box which seems to be a small chapel of some description. At least, there are a lot of embroidered wall hangings with various constellations and what are presumably historical scenes, and a couple of small tables with candles on; the middle of the room is taken up mostly by a bunch of small individual writing desks, and at one of the desks is a blue-scaled lady scowling at a pile of papers.

"I'm sure Evantia will be able to introduce you to the other Questors if necessary," says the commander.

The scaled lady looks up. "Oh! You must be new here. I'm Evantia Willstone, at least for the moment. Come have a seat and let me know what's going on?" She was very briefly irritated about being interrupted, but newcomers are always interesting, and she can't quite immediately place Myra from her clothes, which is especially interesting.

(Keth can in fact make a call!  There's helpful tooltips and explanations and the system's very robust even to unfamiliar written language, plus she keyed in their numbers already.)

"Hello, hello.  I'm a very distant traveler, from somewhere perhaps as unreachable as the stars themselves to most.  The Arbiter directed me in your general direction because I need to understand how the heck liao works, and likely how to use it myself - assuming I'm the same sort of human-ish as y'all are - if I'm to have much hope of actually succeeding in my scheme to unfuck the Black Plateau, which I want to do because the Black Plateau sucks and the options y'all have for not letting it suck people in seem to be almost equally sucky from my perspective.  Not that I give myself no odds even without that, but I'd put money on having some experience with liao helping me pull it off."

"The stars are not so unreachable as all that," replies Evantia. "Although more symbolically than physically, I suppose, until we finally work out what the Vard must have once known.

I would be very happy to help in any endeavour that could calm the Black Plateau! It is one of our greatest failings that all our ritual magic could not bind it. The scholars have been fruitlessly searching for another key like the great ritual of Day and Night that calmed it the first time, but the cabalists of Varushka... if you will pardon my vernacular, they really did a number on it.

What do you know of liao already, that I might not repeat your instruction? I am also burning with curiosity to ask you about your home and how you travelled here, but I can put it aside to work for the calming of the Plateau."

There is something slightly weird about this lady and it isn't just the scales; there's a flatness to her affect even when she seems highly invested in something, it doesn't seem to be insincerity, just - blunted emotion.

"When we're done with this, I will happily talk about rocketry.

"I know liao exists, and that humans, but not orcs, can use it to make emotion-related stuff happen.  I know there's true liao which is Liao But Moreso.  That's about it."

"Okay, so. This is liao." She dips a hand into a cloth pouch attached to her belt and pulls out a small glass vial containing a violently purple substance, and places the vial on the desk.

"It is refined from an extract of a plant called Vinum. The sap of Vinum gives dreamless sleep. The consumption of liao, instead, puts you in a kind of - waking sleep. You are placed in contact with your soul - with the seat of all fundamental human drives, which we call Virtues... or False Virtues - or Malign Spiritual Presences - if we dislike them.

From there, you can draw them forth. If you are untrained, liao will simply give you a strong feeling of connectedness to these underlying forces, and you will dream vividly next time you sleep.

With a little training, you can focus this connection to drive out presences that do not belong - ghosts, possessing spirits, unquiet dead of all kinds; to see such presences, and auras that lie upon things and people, and similar occurrences; to shape the dreams of those you share a dose with, and your own dreams; and to place a mark upon the soul, which takes the form of a couple of words that express something about that person - usually something you would like them to take with them into their next life.

With somewhat rarer training, it can be used to cut someone adrift from their connection to their soul - this is not done lightly, it is a crime punishable by death to do this to someone without a Writ of Excommunication from the Synod, but it does prevent them from bringing forth any auras of their own, and it can be used benignly to - re-seat the soul, after certain injuries to it - and can be used to reverse this effect.

Other uses require one to be Dedicated - this is a ceremony that anyone who is Dedicated can perform, which aligns your soul with a particular Virtue. Dedication can happen spontaneously with sufficiently great deeds in pursuit of a Virtue, but this is usually considered a Miracle and something that would be a sign of the Paragon; however, this is how dedications initially arise.

Once Dedicated, the connection may also be used to evoke auras - on a place, we call it Consecration; on a person, we call it Anointing; on an object, we call it Hallowing.

All of these things can be done by one who is truly connected to their soul without liao - that is the path of the Paragon, which we all seek to emulate and one day attain, be it this lifetime or several lifetimes hence.

Would you like me to explain True Liao, or take questions on what I have said so far?"