The person who has just crashed into this universe after an instantaneous, eternal fall with a soft crack of displaced air definitely isn't exactly human either, judging by the tail.  And the ears.

"...welllll.  Fuck.  On the plus side, I'm not dead.  On the minus side, I think home might be doomed and I can't really do much about that from here."

She draws herself up into a ready stance, not looking for a fight but nonetheless prepared for one, tail lashing back and forth, a knife that wasn't in evidence a moment ago in her hand as ink shifts beneath her skin, dispelling an orb of light she doesn't need - the slight pressure-itchiness of it almost a comfort - and observes where she landed.  Warm, sea breeze, bright sunshine...

"...I swear, if this is - home -" she barely chokes out the thought, because she means the place she grew up, this time, a place she's long been exiled from due to the plots of gods and monsters and misses dearly, "- again, but - somewhere, somewhen, somehow else...I will pitch such a fit at the universe.  Or praise it, depending on if there's not a repeat sabotage.  But - it doesn't seem right.  There's no coconuts.  And - that's not a presentation of tiefling-bloodedness I've ever seen or heard of before."

"Ahoy!  Where the fuck have I washed up?"

Said not-a-familiar-kind-of-tiefling looks up sharply at the other girl's arrival. She's afraid and startled, but mostly confused. Not more confused than she is afraid, necessarily, but confused enough that for a moment she freezes instead of trying to leave.

"Uh, what?"

She shakes her head, aware that that probably sounded really stupid.

"This island doesn't have a name, I don't think… were you trying to get to the mainland, somehow?"

She doesn't seem surprised enough by the fact that she didn't see or hear the stranger arrive. Disturbed, yes, but… she's been losing time a lot, lately.

"Wasn't really expecting to end up anywhere in particular; when a goddess decides you can't even die in her universe lest what you've done - been manipulated to do - to, undermine other gods or something, leak, you thank your lucky stars you end up anywhere at all.  ...What were you expecting?"

Her tail lashes back and forth stressily, but she's sheathed her knife for now.

This doesn't really un-confuse her!

"Uh, I wasn't really expecting anything. I came out here because there wasn't anyone else to… put at risk."

Her eyes follow the tailswishes. She… doesn't look like a husk, even though she's got nonhuman features. But that doesn't really tell Su-Yeong what she is.

"At risk of...what?"

Her tail continues lashing, and her knife jumps to her hand, drawing a frustrated hiss before she sheathes it again.  "Fucking overeager bloodthirsty -- bleed on your knife once and it never -- ugh.  No, I'm not going to start anything, and I'll help with whatever you're worried about, if I can."  And Su-Yeong might need that reassurance, because underneath a deep blue, and deeply unsuited-for-this-weather, overcoat, which Su-Yeong might be able to see is embellished on the inside with scrap cloth and embroidered ?artwork?, is what is unmistakeably armor.  Not very heavy or all-covering armor, per se, she's no knight, but this woman has clearly experienced people trying to stab her and decided to make that process difficult for anyone attempting it.

She opens her mouth, then closes it. She - wilts, a bit, at Hali's eagerness to defend her.

"At risk of me. You're… really not from around here, huh?"

"I am not!  And - you're a people.  I help people when I can help people!  So - what's happening, that you're worried that you'll hurt someone?"

The question makes her laugh, hard enough that -

She changes, shrinking down to a more human size and amount-of-covered-in-fur. She eeps when she realizes that she's now naked, but she's got enough head hair that she can kind of… make that be less of a problem?

"Um. Sorry about laughing, it's just surprising that you seem to honestly not know. I'm a husk. And that means I'm dangerous, just inherently. I'm not in control of my magic, so if I get mad, there's nothing stopping me from - hurling fireballs, or whatever."

There is a moment of realization-of-what's-happening, followed immediately by what could absolutely be specifically panicked gay not-looking.  "...well if it's control you need, I - actually think I could work something out for that, given time, depending on how the - husk-ness - works?  I'm very good at magic that affects other magic; when you have to counter magic things the hard way you darn well learn all the tips, tricks, weak spots...but also, what's really stopping anyone from doing that?  I literally can't do the wizard thing the way wizards do it and I'm right here with instincts to fireball stuff!"

She takes a moment to process what the other girl said, then - looks up hopefully.

"Okay, so… I don't really know how it all works, I'm not a doctor or anything, but… what happened to me is-"

(She stops herself, touching a hand to her heart and shutting her eyes while she calms her own breathing.)

"Something happened to me, something really bad and humiliating. I can't really go into detail because thinking about it too hard makes me mad, and when I get too mad, I - change. The opposite of how I changed just now, in case that wasn't obvious. And - it isn't all the time, but sometimes I also lose track of time - like, I'll wake up in the morning and go to get some water, and then it'll just be late afternoon and I've just eaten some sort of forest creature, and I don't remember any of it. That sort of thing. And I haven't burned down this place yet, but - it could happen. When I started out, I looked pretty much human, just with the weird eyes, and then a couple days later I looked like this, and after about a week I started being - uh, the bigger me - sometimes. Probably in a few more days I'll be big all the time, and then - I don't know. You're supposed to lose your mind, but most husks don't make it to that point."

(Another deep breath.)

"But - you said you have magic that can directly affect other magic?"

"Yes.  I - I can't promise I'll succeed.  I don't know what this is or how it works or why it's this and not some other thing - but, I'll try.  I - can't not.  Because - fuck, if I was in your shoes...Okay.  Okay, I need to - look at you."

She's still keeping her head averted, keeping only the corner of her eye on Su-Jeong.

"Like, doctor-like.  If I'm going to ever get a good idea of what's happening.

"So...I should have a blanket somewhere, if that would help.  Won't get in the way any, I'm looking at magic."

She does, indeed, have a blanket; she pulled it out of a bag that absolutely shouldn't have fit any such thing inside.  Would Su-Jeong like the blanket?

She nods.

"Thank you. And - for what it's worth, I don't know that anyone really knows why magic is the way it is."

She would like the blanket! She wraps it around her shoulders, not bothering to push her hair out of the way.

Then Hali can take a look at her soul, pulling out a rune-etched jeweler's loupe with which to get a close look once she's taken in an overview with her normal vision.

The first thing that she'll see is that Su-Yeong's soul has two parts. There's the part that looks like a human, of course, but it's connected to a spectral goat. Both human and goat have the glowing red eyes, with a stream of red light connecting each pair.

The goat, agitated, paces around the human, looking like it perceives everything around it as a threat to be challenged. Right now it's peering suspiciously at Hali, but it'll also turn towards the sound of a bird's call or the rustle of leaves.

Looking closer, the magic takes on the appearance of pumping blood, but there's something obviously dysfunctional about it. The channels that it pulses through are - not precisely injured, but they're too small for the volume of angry red magic coursing through it. It's forcing the channels open - has already forced them open wider than they should be - but it's still not enough. She's generating magic too fast.

"Holy what the - okay!  Found the problem!"

And she actually might well have a solution for it, or at least a patch while she can focus on the underlying thing!

"You have way too much magic forcing its way through your soul and your soul goat is spooked as all heck.  I can help with the magic, I cannot immediately solve the trauma response."

She snickers.

"Soul goat?"

That makes it sound like she's got a familiar, somehow. A weird, fucked-up familiar, that doesn't know he's supposed to have his own body instead of - what, appending horns and fur to hers? - but a familiar nonetheless.

She wonders if she'll get to name him.

"What do you plan to do to help with the magic?"

"Bleed it off, not with literal bleeding but with, like, spells that can draw off that reservoir.  Maybe into a different reservoir.  ...And, yeah, there's like, a goat soul.  Attached to your human soul.  By the, like, eyes?  Is that normal here?"

"Bleed it off?"

The goat doesn't like that! It starts pacing faster, rearing up onto its hind legs, glowing brighter, and Su-Yeong starts to glow and grow…

… but the human part of her soul reaches out to the goat and, with great effort, pets it, easing it down, scritching between its horns. She returns to her smaller form. She's quivering a little, but also smiling triumphantly.

"Um, okay, the first thing I want to know is… that won't hurt him, right? Familiars are definitely a normal thing, more people have them than not. I guess I don't know if they're as attached as mine is, but people with magic all have familiars."

"I - I can't be sure, because this isn't something I'm used to working with, but - there's a big problem I see in that you're generating so much magic it's literally bursting the channels between you two, for all that they're not not healing up.  And I think that's not helping either of you!  I will probably need to take a closer, more detailed look for - longer-term things - but for right now, I'm confident that a tap won't hurt either of you."

She nods nervously.

"Okay, I think that - should be okay."

(She closes her eyes again, focusing on what it might be like if this - stranger - succeeds. She could have a real familiar, she could go home, she could eventually get a better job than the - old one. That last one wouldn't be easy, since she doesn't know anyone who might take her in as an apprentice, particularly since she's already an adult, but… she's seen, so many times, the difference between how people with magic and people without are treated. She holds onto that hope until her heart starts to hurt.)

"I'm - ready, I guess? What do you need to do?"

"I need to - well, write some things down, first, because my magic is built off of runes rather than soul-exertion - and then I can give you the thing, and it will hopefully work as intended.

"...Any aesthetic preferences or recommended methods of venting excess magic?"

She laughs - she'd been assuming that this would happen right away.

"Uh, I dunno what's on offer… I think I definitely want it to put my familiar into his own body, so probably you should go out to the mainland and look at some normal people, so you can know what that's supposed to look like. If you can put it into a clear red gemstone - I'm not picky on the kind, but it should be a close color match to my eyes - that would help me look normal, too. I think a necklace or ring would be best, but there's also hairclips and bracelets… I don't have any piercings, by the way, I know some guys do earrings. I guess you can look at magic jewelry while you're visiting the mainland?"

She gets up and starts to pace.

"Now that I'm thinking of it, I'd really like some regular clothes, too, and some food that I don't have to catch and eat raw, but I don't have any money on me and I don't want you to get in hot water for stealing. I guess I could send you to my house, but, no offense, I don't really know you that well yet, and it'd probably freak out my boyfriend. More than he's probably already freaking out…"

(That makes her feel guilty, but - it'll be okay, she tells herself. The weird magic girl is going to fix this.)

"Anyways, you might want to disguise yourself a little, now that I think of it… I think the ears and moving tattoos are fine, they could be illusions, but you should probably hide the tail, and - can you do illusions? Or control animals, if you got a bird to sit on your shoulder that'd do the trick."

"Oh, oh, I see.  Okay, hmm.  Yeah I think I can give your soul goat a real-enough goat body.  Might even be easier, actually; the goat knows what it's like.  And - I should have clothes that will at least be decent, if not well-fit; I'm just not wanting to risk shapeshifting accidents with limited supplies.  I can do illusions if a trip to the mainland's necessary."

It really seems like it might not be, given how much stuff she's pulling out of just belt pouches.

"Always keep the tools of your trade on your person, as best you can.  Never know when you'll need them."

And, shortly, after a bit of hunting around for some rocks - "Probably worth getting this redone in metal, for durability's sake, because I don't think there's going to be - any resilience to the resulting structure - but I'm holding onto my coins for now -" that are promptly reshaped into passably jewelry-like objects and etched with runes - "...from soul select goat..." - and then gone over to stylize with a further series of specialized tools - "I think it might actually - oh, hm, no, I want the inverse of how draconic usually connotes animals, so let's flip the stylizer backwards -" - there is jewelry.  It's even somewhat red!

"You put this," a torc of sorts, "on, and it - should pull your goat through this collar?"

Nod.

"Yeah, I can stand just covering up with a blanket until I'm sure that I'm not going to ruin anything else. If we're still here for very long, I can toga it up."

She peers with great interest at what Hali's doing! It's kind of tricky to follow along, naturally, since she doesn't have any background in runecrafting, but it's fun to look at the cool tools and the bags of holding. (She wonders how it works, since she's pretty sure local magic can't do anything like that. It could probably do… a portal bag, maybe? She's pretty sure it'd be tricky, though, and would take some fancy fiddling with gemstones.)

She balances the stone necklace thing in her hands for a moment.

"Redoing it in metal sounds good - once I get home, I can probably look at how much money we've got socked away, see if I can get something similar for you to play with."

And then, not without trepidation, she puts it on.

At first, nothing happens - at least, nothing outwardly visible. But to magic sight, both neck accessories light up red. The extra magic pools towards them - it's still being produced at the same rate, but the magical channels are no longer being overtaxed. (Some of the damage is clearer, now.) The goat agreeably ducks its head through the collar, then curls up sleepily. Su-Yeong's horns and the tinting on her hands disappear, and the glow of her eyes fades considerably. They're still giving off noticeable red light, particularly when her face is shaded, but they're no longer inverted - she has red irises now, not white.

A few moments later, the visible image of a goat fades into place in the same spot.

Su-Yeong lights up, reaching out to pet it, then pulls her hand away with a frown.

"He's - he feels like an illusion?"

"...Hmm.  Ah, damn, I missed a connector; I can fix the lack of any solidity - there, done - but - I do want to point out that this isn't intended to be a permanent solution?  That now that you're not - constantly at risk of loss of self from magical overpressure blowing your soul up - we can see if it's possible to fix this.  In a way that won't stop working if the devices maintaining it get damaged."

"Oh, so it's more of a patch, got it."

She pets him again, still cautious.

"Well… thank you. Really. I mean, we haven't even really introduced ourselves, and you still-"

She sniffles, biting her lip.

"You needed help, I was there, I could help, therefore I helped.  And - it cost me nothing but time, which I have in abundance."

"...Oh, right, introductions are a thing.  Hali Northwind, crafter of items and, despite myself, adventurer, at your service."

A grin.

"I'm Su-Yeong. I… don't actually remember what my last name was; I grew up with a couple other kids my age."

She looks at the goat thoughtfully.

"… I think I'll call you Morgan."

And then she yawns.

"Wow, I'm - more tired than I thought. I guess maybe I was… running on extra magic, a little, without realizing?"

"Definitely possible; you're also definitely a bit soulworn.  I should have a proper bedroll somewhere in here if you feel like you can nap - I also have a spell to sleepify someone, if you feel like you need to but can't.  And then, once we're sure this is medium-term stable, we can probably head to the mainland?  I'm - not sure how it would be best to play this, honestly; there's - there will be people who want to have the ability to hold someone's ability to continue exercising volition over their head.  I'm insufficiently equipped for that."

She's going to keep a watchful and somewhat worried eye on Su-Yeong and Morgan, no matter what; she's in uncharted territory right now and doesn't want to miss something.

She laughs.

"Soulworn, that makes sense. I feel like I'm sore in places that don't exist. I'll take the bedroll, yeah, I've mostly been sleeping on grass."

Another yawn.

"I mean, I was thinking that we just don't tell anyone? I'll probably tell Tobi, I mean, once we're alone, but… I'm pretty sure all anyone knows is that I vanished. But - besides Tobi and the kids, there isn't anyone who would really miss me. My-"

Her breath hitches, and her eyes widen.

(To magic sight, there's a bit of a magic flare-up, but it's easily contained. Morgan looks up irritably but doesn't look like he's on the warpath.)

"Okay, I think - I still feel really shitty when I think about it, but I don't feel like I'm going to explode about it."

She shakes her head.

"Anyway, I don't actually have a job anymore - my old boss fired me for hurting his pwecious wittle baby's ~feelings~, so any new job would basically be a fresh start, and they don't have to know that I was gone for a week and a half, or why. I'm definitely not gonna flaunt that I'm relying on a hard-to-replace magical doodad to not rage out, that'd be stupid."

"Yeah.  's why I have the tattoos.  Can't take those off me.  Not without destroying the very thing anyone wanting my services would want me for.  And - yeah, we don't tell anyone about you in the short term, I think.  Just - you're not the only person - and familiar - with this happening to them.  And I want to help them, too."

She pulls a small pad of paper from her pocket, and jots down 'emotions increase m. produced; strain channels, stress familiar, increase emotions; feedback loop' with a cutely scrunched-up expression on her face.

Then, she turns her attention back to Su-Jeong.

"That is really shitty.  ...Would you like a hug?  I'm not the best at - emotional support - but, damn.  You've - been through a lot, lately.  And don't think I didn't catch you thinking about how you 'wouldn't be missed'; you're not vanishing on me, okay?"

She passes Su-Yeong the bedroll.  "Rest and recover, doctor's orders."

Thoughtful nod.

"Tattoos, huh? That sounds like a good idea, once we've really nailed down a solution."

She looks at Morgan while Hali takes notes.

"I guess that makes sense, yeah… I don't know how many people this happens to, really. There's… reports, a few times a year, but I never really kept track. You'd just have to figure out how to find them before the guard does, 'n then make sure they" (yawn) "trust you."

She thinks for a moment about the hug offer.

"Maybe after I sleep? And - man, you know what I just realized, once we get back to the city I can take a real bath. It's been way too long since I touched a bar of soap."

And with that, she wriggles into the bedroll.

Hali can busy herself with analysis and brainstorming while Su-Yeong naps.

Su-Yeong's magic behaves pretty consistently in her sleep! The magic production slows down a little, and it continues to pool in Morgan's body, where it slowly dissipates into the general magical environment. By the time she wakes up, her channels look a lot better - they're still too big, but the magic flows through them comfortably now.

Eventually she sits up, pulling the blanket around herself for modesty again. (Stretch goal: get into some regular clothes before the day is out.)

"Do you have any food on you? I'd really like a snack, I think. Alternatively, if you know how to reliably distinguish poison berries from good ones, we can shake down a bush or two."

"I've got rations, which - are only debatably food, but will certainly fill your stomach fine.  I do have a poison tester, though."  She has a set of utensils with runes on them, she means.  "They'll - hmm, let me just..." A single group of runes shifts.  "There, now they'll vibrate and light up.  Used to just vibrate."

She laughs.

“Let’s try the poison tester, then.”

She wraps the blanket around her chest under her arms like a towel, then leads the way to a cluster of tempting berry-laden bushes.

"It's keyed to whoever's holding the utensil, so we should probably both check.  But yes, I could go for some berries as well."

It is time, for testing!

Testing!!!

The first berries they find are small and red and don’t ping as being poisonous, but when Su-Yeong pops one into her mouth, she spits it out.

“Bleah – too sour and hard. Maybe you could salvage it by making jam or a pie, though…”

The next red berries they find look similar, but are larger and more luscious looking. Unfortunately, they aren’t safe.

The third kind is the winner – shiny dark purple berries similar to currants.

"Mmm.  These are good.  ...So, what do you want to do now? I - think you're stable enough that we could go to town, possibly, though that depends on whether running into your boss would cause lots of anger; your magic production increases when you're feeling like that, some sort of runaway defense mechanism I'd bet."

She laughs.

"It probably would, but I don't think we'd run into him - he's basically the richest person in town, or second richest. His family has lived in this big fancy house on the hill for generations."

Pause.

"We might run into his daughter, though, and that… could be worse, depending. She's a couple years younger than me, short," (she gestures) "round, green magic, and really long blonde hair. I… don't actually know what day of the week it is right now. I'd guess Monday or Tuesday? If I'm right, she's probably gonna be up at her house, but if it's Saturday or Sunday, we'd wanna keep an eye out for her."

"Any way we could check, without going inside ourselves?"

"Well, most of the markets are open-air, so we'd probably be able to spot her from a good distance away. I - can probably make up my mind to just turn around and walk the other way, if I see her or she tries to rope me into a conversation, but that's probably something we don't really want to gamble with."

She pops one of the dark berries into her mouth thoughtfully.

"Do you know if your magic can show me things that are far away? Because maybe we could do a quick check of her place, or try to see where she is directly."

"Yeah, I can do that."

She has a spyglass, with a few gears on it that would look solely decorative if it weren't for the sense that nothing this woman makes wastes functionality like that.  "I meant more about checking the date, but we can find the rich kid too."

"Oh, haha. Well, we could probably pick up a newspaper? Which does still require us to go to the market…"

She thinks for a moment.

"Actually, there's a cheese shop that has different daily specials. If your telescope can focus on something like their chalkboard, we can check that."

She can absolutely get the cheese shop in her sights with enough twiddling of the dials.  It's a funny little enchantment - when it's active, the light that enters the barrel of the spyglass is consumed to power the effect that copies light passing through a small volume of space relative to the direction the spyglass is pointed.  The various mechanisms increment or decrement offsets, angles, and field of view.

It's Thursday.

"Thursday."

What's the town look like?  In general?

It's a smallish, but bustling, port town! The island they're on is about two and a half miles west of the coast, which forms a rough Ω shape as it runs north to south. The land slopes upwards like an amphitheater into foothills, and massive statues of a sphinx and harpy mark the northernmost and southernmost points of the town, respectively.

There are docks lining the central bay and fancy rich-people houses along the west-facing beaches running up the north and south ends of town, with the regular housing being down in the "bowl" formed by the foothills. The cheese shop Su-Yeong mentioned is in an open-air market that's just east of the docks in the midpoint of the bay. The signs in the market and surrounding area proclaim it to be part of the San Carlucco neighborhood.

If Hali looks for the place Su-Yeong used to work, she'll find herself peering at the mansion nestled between the sphinx statue's legs. It's got a garden full of flowers, which a sixteen-year-old girl who matches the description Su-Yeong gave is merrily tending to. (There's a nervous armadillo investigating underneath some bushes a couple feet away.)

"That's her?  I'm kinda surprised that...there was much friction?  ...Is that her armadillo over there?"

"Yeah, that's her. It's not that she's - cruel, at least not on purpose."

"She's thoughtless," pipes up Morgan. "Her dad spoils and babies her like nobody's business, so she's basically in a mental bubble where there aren't any serious problems and everything is sunshine and rainbows. She has basically no understanding of the concept that most people aren't rich and pampered like her, because she basically doesn't talk to anyone except other rich people."

Su-Yeong nods. "I almost pity her, really, because her dad treats her like… well, a baby. He gives her everything she asks for and a lot of things she doesn't. Like…"

She starts laughing darkly. Morgan continues for her:

"So there's this competition going on right now, right? It's to select the new city representative, and it's extremely prestigious. There's people in the running who have been training specifically for this competition for more than half their lives. And Philomena's dad entered her, because she's his precious little girl who deserves only the best."

"Right," says Su-Yeong, "but the thing is? Her little armadillo is less than six months old, and she can barely lift him even when she's wearing a pile of emeralds. Tobi could probably do better than her, and he's just pretending to have magic!"

Morgan nods. "And she complains about this. Which, again, we get it. She doesn't want the job, she knows she'd suck at it, she isn't that stupid. And her dad doesn't respect her enough to not do things that she obviously doesn't want. But - to act like that's the worst thing in the world, in front of people who make about as much in a week mopping her floors as she's given by Daddy for just a fun day at the market…"

"Yeah.  I'm - probably not in the best position to empathize, because honestly I haven't exactly lead a life of privation, for all the danger it involved, but - damn.

"She needs freedom, and you need not having to deal with rich people bullshit."

Nod.

"Hear, hear. Well, the good news is, it looks like she's at home right now. She… might go down to the market later; I don't think she has lessons scheduled today, but…"

She taps her foot thoughtfully.

"She does have a lesson scheduled tomorrow. If we decide that we really shouldn't go to the market today, I'm… okay with sleeping here one more night, but I'd really rather not. I think what I'd like to do is borrow some of your clothes and go home. My boyfriend should get off work in a couple hours anyway; I think it'd be best if we showed up after he's already settled in. If you need a place to spend the night, I can't promise that he'd agree to it, but I'm pretty sure he would anyway. So… if there's any tests you want to do before you trust me to not ruin your spare clothing, I think now would be a good time for that."

"Worst comes to worst, I can just camp."

"And - I think y'all're doing well enough with control that I don't feel much need to worry?  So let me just..."

She has some spare clothes!  They're cut for someone who has a tail, and is probably rather taller than Su-Yeong, but they're still more clothes than Su-Yeong would otherwise have!

"Yeah, that's true."

She experimentally floats the blanket between herself and Hali as a screen while she changes. It's an interesting mental sensation, and she definitely has to consciously focus on keeping it up, but getting dressed is automatic enough that she doesn't drop it. Her magic looks like it's happy to be used, especially the magic that was pooling itchily around Morgan while Su-Yeong was idle.

When she steps out, her pant cuffs are rolled up and her shirt is untucked to cover the hole where the tail would go.

"Thanks for letting me borrow these. Now, how are we planning to get into town? I don't know how to teleport - I swam here, but I don't really want to repeat the journey the other way, y'know?"

It'd be kinda cool if Hali had, like, water-walking magic or something. But she'd also take a tree transformed into a raft or a straight teleport or whatever.

The blanket has a variety of things that are eager to soak up that magic, too; self-cleaning and self-repairing enchantments go on all Hali's stuff.

"Hmm.  Well, give me a second, I wasn't planning on needing a boat but I can whip up a floating disk or something.  Or just carry you across.  By the way, you should absolutely be trying to use magic pretty often; it still builds up.  ...Heck, throw yourself across the channel if you feel daring.  I put enough magic on my clothes that they won't get hurt by a dip or a telekinetic yank, even if I prefer to have multiple layers of protection from stabbing."

"Well, I guess that points me towards trying to find some sort of magic tutor sooner than later, since I really don't know what I'm doing yet. On the plus side, if I'm still producing crazy levels of magic, I bet I can knock their socks off with my raw strength."

She puts on a posh accent.

"My word, I've never seen someone who manifested so late with such raw power. Are you sure you're new to magic? Why, you ought to be studying at a fancy university… with a full scholarship, of course."

She laughs, flipping her hair.

"I don't mind how we get over, or waiting while you set something up. I just don't wanna get too wet."

She does experimentally try lifting various first-sized rocks off the ground with telekinesis, though, while she waits.

Hali can carry her across the water with judicious application of -kinesis!

She's lifting her boooooones.  She's still somewhat amused that this trick works.

wheeeeeeeee

(Su-Yeong carries Morgan, since he doesn't really have any bones. It's good telekinesis practice anyway, since he's heavy enough to be a little cumbersome.)

"What were you planning to do for your disguise, by the way? If you can swing it, I bet you could tell everyone you're doing a cat costume for fun? It'd get you some weird looks, probably, but you don't look like a cat husk, you look like… something else."

"Oh, right."  Illusion!  Human-looking Hali!  "You only have humans here?"

"Kind… of…? I mean - we've got regular animals, but those aren't people. And there's familiars, but those are part of a human, y'know? And then there's husks, which I'm pretty sure most people would say aren't human, but, y'know, you can't get a husk without a human. But no, we don't have, like… I dunno, dragons or elves?"

"Husks aren't a species, they don't reproduce.  ...Wow, that's really odd, though, that - only humans, and yet, well, magic like the sort that's built into - how husk physiology exists, exists?  I'm surprised some enterprising soul hasn't tried to give themself some useful animal trait ever."

"Well, you kind of can? You can make wings for yourself, or make a hard shell, or stuff like that. But they'd be magical constructs, not really part of your body, and they wouldn't last forever. I'm sure there's some kooky scientist out there who's trying to figure out how to do partial huskification, but you gotta be careful, right, because if there's an accident then your lab gets wrecked and you might get killed. Maybe there are ways your magic and our magic can usefully combine, though."

There's a moment where several half-formed thoughts fight to get out, and fail, but eventually Hali says "I hope so."

"I want more inherent traits, generally."

"Huh, really? Just 'cause they're useful, or you like how they look, or…?"

"They're useful, and they can't be taken."

A serious nod. She decides it'd be rude to pry.

"That makes sense, yeah."

"The more tools I cannot be deprived of, the less helpless I can be rendered when I - face whatever comes.

"And...I think I'm going to have to fight a god, someday.  One that knows all the tricks I had back home because her agents pushed me to make them, in service of the plots she wove.  But now - I'm outside of her range, because the things I know could topple her if I spoke where any of her kind could hear - and they would - so I can - orient, plan, grow beyond the tool she made, and come back prepared to kick her ass.  Because the Spider Queen is an asshole that needs kicking, posthaste."

"Wait, a god? Like in mythology? With the - with the living in a volcano, or getting your eyes plucked out and one's the sun and the other's the moon, or the weird incestuous family trees?"

"I can't say that that's known to be in-correct, though what I am given to understand based on their actions is that most of the interventionist gods just do - spy shit, or throw around armies or big explosions.  They have physical and temporal power, they play with us like pieces on a board - but I don't think they're fundamentally some different-from-us form of intelligence.

"Wow. Well, I don't think I'm really equipped to help, unfortunately, but - if you think that magic from our world will be useful, then that's good. As long as it doesn't… I dunno, draw her attention to here and bring down the spiderpocalypse."

"I am fundamentally incapable of surety about this.  But - she threw me into the void beyond the world because I couldn't be allowed to die where any god could get their hands on me.  So.  I don't think it's likely."

"Right. Well, you'd definitely know better than I would."

A thoughtful pause.

"I hope you get your revenge, though."

"I hope I do, too.

"Or - it's not even about revenge.  I hope I can get back there in time, and with enough power to, save the people she's tried to use me to hurt.  And if I can repay her for that, well, that's sugar on top."

Nod.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"...this has gotten very depressing.  Do you still want that hug from earlier?"

...The fact that it's probably her who needs a hug right now is not something she'll mention.

She smiles warmly at Hali.

"How about once we get to shore?"

"Sounds like a plan."

They're almost there, anyway!

They sure are!

Conveniently, there isn't anyone visible nearby. There are some benches facing the shore, though, their backs against a raised stone walkway a couple hundred feet out. There's a staircase leading up to the walkway between some of said benches.

Su-Yeong sets Morgan down and holds her arms out. Hug?

Hug, definitely.  Definitely a hug.

It feels… nice. She should have done this earlier, honestly, it's been nearly two full weeks since she touched another person.

...Yeah, she needed this too.

Eventually, it's time to pull away.

"Thank you again," she says. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up here. Nothing good, probably."

"Probably not anything good, no.  ...I'm glad I arrived before whatever it was did happen."

That gets a laugh.

"Yeah, definitely!"

Morgan looks up. "We should probably figure out what you want to do, as far as pretending to have a familiar goes. Unless you were planning to copy that, I guess."

Su-Yeong laughs again.

"Oh, right. Uh, a familiar can be basically any land creature or bird? It'll have eyes that match yours in color, and I think if it's a bug it'll be a little bigger than normal - like, if someone had a butterfly, it'd be like this big" (she spreads her hands to illustrate something about the size of her face) "even if the actual kind of butterfly it is would be this big."

She pinches her forefinger and thumb together, making a circle a little bigger than her eye.

"I see."

"...I have to admit, I'm really curious as to whether I could do that."

"Do familiars mean things?"

Su-Yeong hums.

"I'd say it means a little, yeah. I don't think anyone's ever done statistics about it, and I don't have a lot of magician friends, but - usually they mean things about how you're built, how you think, how you approach social situations."

Morgan nods.

"I don't know a lot, but… I've got some intuitions and instincts that Su-Yeong doesn't, that I think are part of being a familiar. We didn't know that people had those, since we haven't talked closely to any other familiars, so I think those intuitions are probably pretty real, and not just something that Su-Yeong would have expected me to have? They're not very solid, though, I've just got a sense that there's a reason I'm a goat and not, oh, a sheep or a horse or a tiger. I don't know exactly what that reason is, but I think… we respond to stress, especially, in a way that's more like how a goat would than a bunny or a cat. It doesn't mean that Su's personality is exactly like a goat's, especially because we're not, actually, the same person, but… I dunno, am I making any sense?"

Su-Yeong scratches his head again, between his horns.

"I think that if you decide you wanna try copying our magic system, you should probably take a close magical look at some regular people, so you don't accidentally copy my husk-ness."

"Makes sense.  ...I'm going to have such a familiar, if I figure out how, aren't I."

She grins.

"Probably!"

And then she sits back to watch what Hali does next.

"...Gotta admit, now that we're here, you probably know more about what to do than I do; I'm just going to need somewhere to think and possibly some notes on local magic users.

"Oh, and - Morgan, do you have any idea what you were doing, magic-wise or existence-wise, before you - well, got that body prosthetic?  I've been meaning to ask."

"Well, I was planning to go back to the townhouse I share with my boyfriend next, since I want to explain everything to him first. We'll figure out what to do together, from there… do you know how long you're gonna stay in this world? You might want to get some sort of job so you don't have to camp and eat travel rations, but that'd risk letting out that you're not from around here, which - wouldn't be the end of the world, but it might get you tangled up, y'know? Uh, we can tell you what we know about magic users, but since I'm so new to having magic, let alone using it, you'd probably get as much, if not more, information from peoplewatching with your fancy specs."

Morgan thinks.

"Let's see… I definitely existed before I… existed. At least, part of me did, as part of Su-Yeong. I don't know if I have all of her memories, but I have a lot of 'em and a pretty good sense of her whole life. I think the… feelings are different, though, from how she felt about the things at the time. Not super different, like there isn't anything that she's happy about and I'm sad about, but - different enough that I feel like I was there, somehow, and not just - having a record of it in my mind, y'know?

"And then, at about the time that she turned into a husk, there's - it gets clearer, or at least more clearly me. I remember - being in front of the whole staff, Mr. Vasillia yelling at me, and - Su-Yeong was so scared, worrying about what she and Tobi were gonna do, embarrassed - but I was furious. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to punch him, I wanted to light a fire to his stupid ancestral mansion. And I wanted to make his daughter watch, to know how much what she did hurt. I couldn't - do anything, though, she was turning around and getting her bag and crying and running home. And I was so, so mad, I was stewing in it, I felt like I was burning up. My head was pounding, and - my human body felt wrong. I kept feeling like I needed to do something, on and off…

"I think I started being able to control what we did while she was on the way home, but - we both were in our body, and control was slipping between us, and she didn't seem to know I existed. I barely knew I existed. So I think she didn't remember what I was doing, especially because we still both felt horrible and angry and scared, and it's easy to get - lost, in that. We didn't realize what was happening to us until she looked in the mirror at home, and then she ran here.

"It was - basically more of that, afterwards. I definitely got mentally stronger, over time, more able to do things. But away from - from the Vasillia place, from town, from everything that had just happened, I didn't feel so - much. I mean, it definitely weighed on us both, but we were able to think about other things. We weren't able to ever relax, though, we were always - stressed, feeling like something horrible was about to happen, or like we'd have to fight for our lives. And I think - I still had that feeling of bodily wrongness, and I was trying to - do something about it? To be a normal familiar, shaped like this. I think it worked, because I remember that I felt - a little better, in that regard. Not all the way, but less. That's probably when we grew the horns. And I think… starting a few days after that, we would shift between being little with horns to being bigger with horns and also hooves. And I would be - more me, more in control, at those times.

"When you told us about how we had a goat soul that's when we both realized that I existed. And so when - I think you made a comment that freaked us out? Oh, right, it was the thing about bleeding off magic, we thought you might try to make me stop existing. When you said that, I got mad and scared like I would before, but Su-Yeong didn't, and she was able to - keep me from taking over. Then you made that doodad, and it was like… suddenly, I wasn't stuck in Su-Yeong's human body. I was next to her, next to that collar. So I was able to - pick it up, and put it on, and I could feel myself getting real. It was amazing!"

He prances a little in excitement, then realizes how much he's been rambling.

"… Does that help?"

"It does; thank you, Morgan."

(She's been nodding along to the explanation - it makes a lot of things make sense.)

"Okay, so - are you coming to my house, or should we split up now? We'd have to figure out a way to find each other…"

"I have tools for this purpose!"  And Hali can hand Su-Yeong a message-stone!  "I can find you with this; I don't hand out the version that I use, with a point-at-its-partner glyph, but you can get in touch with me this way."

Ooh, doodads!

"Huh, kinda like a telephone. How do I use it?"

"Hold this button, say your message.  Push this button, listen to your messages one at a time.  It'll vibrate when you get one and if there's one in the queue when you're listening.  What's a telephone?"

"Oh, that's really handy! I was a little worried about what would happen if you had something to say to me before I got home, but this means we can both have privacy and convenience."

She presses the button to make it listen. "Testing! Hee hee."

Looking back at Hali: "Oh, a telephone is like… an enchanted object? They have them in the guard stations, and in some stores, and rich people have them in their houses as well. Any one telephone can connect to any other telephone - they all have assigned numbers, so if your phone's assigned number is 107 then anyone who has a telephone can put that number in and that'll make your phone make a jingling sound, and then you take the phone off its housing - it's shaped kind of like a banana, with an end you put to your ear and an end you put to your mouth - and you can talk. I don't think it can record messages for later, though. At the Vasillias' place, there was a room that we kept the phone in and there was supposed to be someone in that room at all times so that if it rang we could either bring it to the person the other guy was trying to reach or write down a message by hand."

bzz bzz goes the matching stone in Hali's hand.  And it plays back!  "Testing!  Hee hee."

"Interesting; how does it work?  You say 'like' an enchanted object, which leads me to assume it is not."

"Oh, whoops, that 'like' was more of a filler word, my bad. It is an enchanted object - or at least, it has one inside? I don't know all the ins and outs - hey, maybe I could learn how to enchant objects, actually! Since I've got all this extra magic itching to be used. Anyway, enchanting is tricky, because magic likes to move around and not stay in one place all the time. It's why magic constructs do… this."

She puts her hands up, focuses, and manifests a translucent glowing red cube between them. She makes a fist with one hand and raps her knuckles against a side, making a sound similar to a wood block. She relaxes the mental muscle, and the cube vanishes, dissipating into red light. The process looks… pretty similar magically as it does visually, except magic sight shows how the magic flows from her soul into the shape.

"Pretty much the only thing that magic will stay put in is a gemstone, which I think is why magicians use them? And then enchanting is… a step past that. I don't know what goes on inside the phones, just that there's enchanted jewels inside that power them."

"Interesting.  You and I...our magic directly complements eachother.  I've been looking for a robust storage solution, one that won't get blown away by a strong enough magical headwind, for a while, and you could learn quite a bit about how to make magic that does things with less wrangling from what I've figured out of why runes work as they do.  I should, perhaps, test these theories, though.  Or rather, hypotheses."

She nods, making up her mind that as long as it's not going to eat up all her savings she will learn all she can about how magic works. She knows how many doors magic can open for a person, and probably that there are even more that she has no idea about because they're behind other doors that have been closed to her all her life.

"Sounds like a plan! Okay, I'm gonna go home, catch Tobi up, take a shower… I'll give you a not-ring once I'm done, and I'll keep the stone nearby in case you've got any questions. Oh, before I forget, is there anything you want me to not mention to him, at least when you're not around?"

"Not anything that I expect that you already wouldn't want to be careful mentioning.  Be safe, okay?  I'm going to go wander around, and then I suppose I'll find you before sundown."

Thumbs-up!

"Okay, have fun!"

She heads up the stairs.

And Hali, after a moment's work configuring her runes, follows.  There is, after all, new magic to see up ahead!