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Metamancer Kaede in Fairyland
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That is a rather peculiar effect.

He's seen a lot of magic before, and it looks nothing like it. It looks like it should be connected to something but whatever it is is too far away for him to even guess at what it might be. He doesn't want to metaphorically touch it—it looks fragile—but he's been looking at it for a good long while and has not really gotten very far. It seems to just be there, it's not actively doing anything, it's connected to wherever but doesn't seem to react to anything done around it (so not a spying device or whatever), it's... inert.

It's bizarre is what it is.

He decides to go poke it. Not metaphorically, physically. He gingerly walks towards it, reaching with a hand...

...but he's not looking where he's going, so he misses what happens when he trips on a rock, falls bodily into the thing, and finds himself somewhere else altogether.

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There is a lot of magic in the somewhere else. Also plants, lots of those. He has a pretty soft landing in a bed of something pachysandra-like.

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Wow that's a lot of magic. There's magic in the air—it's literally everywhere, it moves a bit when he moves and it seems to be sorta shaped around the plants and the ground—

He stands up, dusts himself, and looks at the place he presumably came from. No hint of the mirror image of that weird phenomenon. Hmm.

Well, what else is there around him? Other than, apparently, magic literally everywhere.

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There is a small magic flying person, over there! He is about two feet tall and has fluffy brown moth wings and brown skin and brown hair. And, if Kaede squints, telekinesis.

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...what.

He... walks over to the small magic flying person? How can a person be magic that's bizarre what is this.

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The small magic flying person hears him and spins midair and lands abruptly. He blinks. "Oh! I didn't see you there. Hello. I'm Fortune."

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"Hiya. I'm Kaede." Click. "It's a fascinating pleasure to meet you."

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Fortune smiles upon him. Well, up at him. "Likewise, likewise, don't do anything. Except breathe. I guess you can talk. Don't yell though. Follow me."

He flaps fluffy moth wings and goes off in a different direction than he was heading before.

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...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

He follows (of course) and breathes (thank the gods) and says, "What's going on? What did you do?"

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"I'm gonna sell you to Thorn. Well, trade you." He can also see what happened, sort of, if he looks. Apparently looking at things isn't doing things.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Okay okay panicking is not a productive course of action here—" My name? You can control me because you know my name?"

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"Yup."

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What horrible, terrifying magic

"How?"

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"I'm a fairy."

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"Can all fairies do this if they discover humans' names?"

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"Yeah."

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Shit shit shit shit okay what counts as doing things he can breathe he can talk he can walk he can look at things he can think he can—

—he can still bind spells. Okay.

"Why do you want to sell me to Thorn?"

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"He's got somebody I want more than some random mortal."

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...random mortal, so the person he wants is not a random mortal, are they immortal? Are fairies immortal? Nonhuman, anyway, so the name thing doesn't work only on humans?

"Fairies are immortal?" he asks, to confirm that guess.

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"Congratulations."

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It works on fairies, so a fairy can command anyone whose name they have—Fortune is probably a nickname. Shit. Okay, if he ever escapes this he'll need one and also to get the fuck out of this horrible place.

Can he actually cast spells? Casting is just performing the action he's bound a spell to, it's not an extra thing in addition to that, as long as he has a spell bound to an action and enough mana performing that action casts it—he'll bind the tiniest, most stupid spell he can to moving his foot just so, all it'll do is make the air around his nose a bit chillier—works

"And you think Thorn would rather have a random mortal than whoever it is you want?"

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"Yeah."

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He could blow this fairy up. He has enough mana, if he's smart about this. But then—he looks—that order wouldn't go away, he'd still be ordered to follow and not yell and only be allowed to talk and to breathe—he could erase his name from his own memory but not from the fairy's, doing mental magic on other people costs way more mana than he has—can he break the claim directly?—no, he can't directly manipulate any magic at all, that counts as doing something—he suspects he wouldn't be able to anyway, this looks extremely insistent and like it'll be there for as long as the fairy knows his name, that's a property of the fairy himself, he can't change that—that's not all, there's more to it, but he'd have to look more to figure it out—

"Why?"

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"She's not his type. Everybody likes mortals, though, you're hard to come by."

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"...likes? To do what?"

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"I don't know, I've never kept one."

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"How do mortals usually end up here?"

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"Gates, I guess. Didn't know there was one around here."

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"It wasn't there anymore after I went through it."

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"Oh. Didn't know that was a thing."

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...okay he'll need to stare at this magic for a bit longer to think of more intelligent questions. He falls silent.

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Flap flap flap flap.

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"Can mortals order fairies if they know their names?"

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"I assume so."

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Okay, he can work with that, if he could get this fairy's name—he doesn't have enough mana for that, though—what if—" How do you undo orders? Will I be stuck with these until you make them go away or will Thorn do that or...?"

Of course it must be possible for orders to be rescinded—or, at least, he must plan for that case because it's the only situation where he'll be able to do anything at all ever—and either the person who gave the order must be the one to rescind them or anyone who masters him can do it. He's really hoping for the latter.

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"Thorn can do whatever he wants with you."

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So that's the plan, then, if he can get someone else's name he can order them to rescind his own orders—and then burn this system to the ground this is horrifying—but first he has to escape Fortune, or Thorn. He can in the worst-case blow everything up and become invisible and just hope someone will pass through that he can telepath at but maybe there'll be a better opportunity—there might be some other aspect to the magic this fairy doesn't know, he seems like he doesn't know much about magic—

Kaede falls silent again.

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On the fairy flies. Kaede has to walk pretty briskly to keep up.

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Kaede will do his best to keep up on his feet but apparently this order doesn't force him to do his very best to follow, he doesn't need to spend mana and fly. He stares more at all this magic (especially the fairy's) and follows.

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The fairy is magic. And immortal. And telekinetic. And knows his name.

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Yeah that is a fuckton of magic he has literally never seen so much magic it would be amazing if it weren't so terrifying.

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And they arrive at a place with more fairies! These are not telekinetic. They are other things instead.

Fortune tells somebody he wants to trade this mortal for Whimsical, and the somebody flies away to tell Thorn.

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Okay what kind of master is Thorn, can he guess that from the fairies around?

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The fairies around are not saying. They are doing their jobs. One is painting a wall, one is gardening.

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...okay... doesn't look so bad...

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Oh, and there's screaming.

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—okay that's bad where's it coming from?

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In the building. The fairies don't react.

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...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! agrees the screaming victim inside.

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Fuck fuck fuck—are the other fairies not reacting because they were instructed not to, do they not care, are they complicit, what's the screaming about—he doesn't scream, himself, because he's not allowed to. He can, in fact, do nothing but follow and talk and breathe and perform basic mental actions and that is suddenly not anywhere near enough.

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The fairy Fortune spoke to comes back and says Thorn accepts the trade and to bring the mortal this way. Fortune follows her.

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He obligatorily follows Fortune.

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They pass the door whence screaming. The fairy in there is still twitching but she can't scream any more.

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...oh gods oh gods oh gods is she conscious wait no he can't do that now they don't have time but is she?

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Well, if she's not, whoever is methodically slicing her wings to ribbons is really wasting his time.

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

No he needs an actual plan he can't just speak in her head out of the blue they might notice and order him to stop—and, and who knows, maybe she enjoys this, if fairies are really really immortal perhaps this kind of kink is more common?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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On he must follow to Thorn.

Thorn and Fortune whisper in each other's ears and Fortune goes elsewhere to collect Whimsical.

"Stop," Thorn says to Kaede.

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He stops.

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"You may breathe."

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He breathes. He tries very hard not to hyperventilate, and does not succeed at all.

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"Tell me what you're thinking."

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"That I'm absolutely and completely terrified beyond what I thought was at all possible—" and while he's saying that it occurs to him that Thorn must not know about his magic at all ever ever if he hopes to ever have a chance of escaping he makes a spell up on the spot he's going to forget everything about his magic for twenty-four hours when he says "—and that I don't understand what's going on—"

There's a pause.

Then he continues: "—and that I just forgot something and I think it was important but I don't know why or why you're doing this and I'm worried for the fairy I saw on the way here and I'm afraid you're going to kill me and I never even did anything noteworthy with my life—"

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"Stop." ...Longish pause. "You may breathe. Answer me honestly, concisely, and without omission whenever I ask you a question. Why did you pause?"

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Breathe. "I do not remember."

He starts crying.

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"How long have you been in Fairyland?"

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"A few hours, I am unsure how many, but not many."

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"Address me as 'Master'. Was Fortune the first fairy you met?"

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"Yes."

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"What did he do with you?"

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"He asked my name, Master, and told me to not do anything then said I could breathe and talk but not yell and that I should follow him and he answered my questions while we walked."

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"What did you ask him?"

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"I don't remember everything, Master, but I know I asked him what he was and whether he was immortal and what he was doing to me and how he was doing it and where he was taking me and why and what you wanted to do with me and whether you could rescind his orders."

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"Are you useful for anything?"

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"I don't know what you'd want to use me for, Master. I'm a smarter-than-average human."

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"Do you have any skills?"

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"I'm good at mathematics and physics, I was a good Explorer for the Explorer's Guild, I found several artefacts..."

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"What do you mean by artefact?"

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"Magical artefacts left by the ancient civilisation that existed before the Three Kingdoms were formed."

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"Did you bring any to Fairyland?"

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"No ancient ones. There are newer ones in my backpack."

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"What do they do?"

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"One of them is a tent that is larger on the inside; another heats up food and water; another is an identification token used by the Explorers' Guild; the backpack itself is an artefact of the same kind as the tent."

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"Are any of them potentially dangerous to handle?"

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"If one does not know how to use the one that heats things up they may get burnt, but it is easy to learn."

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"How are they made?"

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...he doesn't know about enchanters?

"Certain humans are born with the ability to create artefacts, and then they can turn mundane objects into them by spending some of a form of magical energy they produce from birth called mana."

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"Can you do that?"

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"No."

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"How difficult is it to acquire these things?"

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"It depends on the specific effect you want, Master. Artefacts can be purchased, and the more complex ones are luxury items or owned by nobility, and many of the ancient ones are impossible to reproduce and are also typically impossible to legally acquire and would need to be stolen."

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"What sorts of things do those do?"

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How the fuck does this guy even know what humans are and not that.

"A great many things, Master, from the absurd and useless to the inimitable. There are giant stone spheres that roll from one place to another for no discernible reason, there are huge floating cities, there are extremely complex golems, there are information management systems..."

He can go on for a while.

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Thorn is interested.

Eventually: "What are you afraid I'll ask?"

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"The names of various nobles and people of royal blood."

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"Why?"

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"Because the way the government is set up controlling certain key people would allow you pretty arbitrary control over the Three Kingdoms."

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"What else are you hoping I won't ask?"

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"About the other types of magic humans have access to."

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Smile. "Tell me all about them."

There's some leeway in that order. ...The whimpering fairy girl who has regained some vocalization capacity a few doors down the hall may speak to how wise it would be to use it.

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...

"There are three other kinds: arcanism, elementalism, and metamancy.

"Arcanists work like enchanters in that they start producing mana from birth and can bind magical effects to things, but not like enchanters in that the things they bind these effects to are actions rather than objects. When an arcanist has bound an effect to a certain action or set of actions the effect is called a spell and the actions are the incantation, and they can use the incantation to make the effect happen. Arcanists can also make magic scrolls that can be used by nonmagical people to reproduce the effects of spells they have bound. Making a scroll always costs more mana than just casting the spell that scroll contains.

"Elementalists can apply magical effects, called blessings, to themselves. Unlike arcanists and enchanters, they do not have an infinite amount of mana that they recharge constantly, but rather each individual blessing has a finite quantity of mana which is recharged only while that blessing is active.

"Metamancers cannot generate any magic but they can perceive and manipulate it directly, steal other mages' mana or absorb the mana in scrolls and artefacts, and convert one mana type to another. It's believed they can do more than that but there aren't many records or studies about it as performing metamancy is a sin."

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And now Thorn wants to know lots more about all of that.

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Kaede can go into lots of detail—he is a huge magic nerd—but it's from a scholar's perspective, with many third-person pronouns and descriptions of observable effects. He knows barely anything about metamancy, for aforementioned lack of records, but says he believes most ancient artefacts and scrolls are generally better because metamancers used to help make them.

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And finally: "What else are you afraid of?"

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"Those were the only things I was afraid you'd ask, Master, but I'm afraid I'll end up like the person who was screaming when I arrived."

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Smile. "She has an attitude problem. Do you have an attitude problem?"

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"I don't know what you'd consider an attitude problem, Master, but I would hope I don't."

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"Tell me what you're thinking."

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"I'm thinking I'm exhausted and still terrified but less than I was before and I probably shouldn't be less terrified than before and I don't know what an attitude problem is and I want to leave this place and I'm trying to find a way to do it or some loophole in your orders or questions but I can't and I don't know what to do and I hate this whole system and want to burn it to the ground and if I brought enough mages from back home I could but I think I'm going to die here—"

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"If you do think of any loopholes in my orders or questions," says Thorn, smiling, "bite through your tongue, lie still on the ground, and brute force the cube root of one trillion and ascending integers from there until further notice from me or Blossom." He indicates a fairy in the corner.

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...this is not a question, so he cannot answer it. He merely shivers.

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"Accurately describe your physical needs so I don't kill you by accident."

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"I do not know the exact quantities so these will be approximate based on what I remember humans in general need. I need to sleep at least around six hours per day on average but if that's all I get for too long my mental capacities will deteriorate. I need to go to the toilet at least once a day. I need to eat around fifteen hundred to two thousand calories per day, and I do not know the balance of nutrients I need other than that to survive but it includes things found in meat, grains, and fruit. I need to drink around two litres of water per day. If I do not move my muscles for too long they will also deteriorate. I have approximately five litres of blood in my body and if I lose too much of it I will die. I cannot hold my breath for longer than around a minute. I need to not be set on fire..."

And he can go on.

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Thorn cuts him off eventually. "Kneel here."

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He does.

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"You may eat what you are hand-fed." And he feeds Kaede nibbles of weird fruit and nuts.

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...okay. Why. He cannot ask. Is this a kink. Is Thorn seriously—

—he will just not think about it and obey.

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And he is fed a reasonable amount of food and then Thorn tells him to think about ways he could help collect magic from his world from Thorn, and several people including Blossom are authorized to give him orders which Thorn tells him to obey as though they were enforced, and then he is escorted to a room and told he may sleep.

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Kaede is very good at coming up with plans to collect a lot of magic from his world. He hates himself for it. Partway through it he realises from Thorn's questions there must be another world most humans come from, here, and that's why Thorn doesn't know anything about magic. He doesn't know how he'll use that but he'll use that.

He doesn't immediately fall asleep. He's too busy shivering violently and anticipating what's going to happen. But eventually he does succumb to his physical and emotional exhaustion.

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Then he can wake up to more screaming!

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He doesn't scream. He's not stopped but he isn't allowed to do that. He just wakes up having had far too little sleep for this and decides not to waste time hoping yesterday was a dream because that's extremely unproductive.

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Also he has to resume thinking about what Thorn wanted him to.

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...right that. But he may also try to sleep. He tries to sleep. He fails to try to sleep. He resumes thinking. The panic does not help with the thinking. He starts going in circles after a while.

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Somebody, not Thorn, comes in to hand-feed him and give him water and ask what he's thought of.

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The best way for Thorn to get magic is to get people who can do magic, and getting people is something this wretched system is so very good at. But more than that, if he could get his hands on an actual, real metamancer he'd be set, all he'd need other mages for would be as mana batteries and he'd only need the one vassal to do all the things. He can, to start, perhaps just purchase or steal some artefacts and scrolls and/or envassal more mages, but the best long-term strategy would be that. Now, people don't announce they're metamancers, but the Kingdoms have a large enough population he would be surprised if he couldn't find them if he had the right people as his vassals, and Kaede knows who the right people are.

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The fairy takes notes and then asks him what he's thinking.

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He's thinking of ways the plans as outlined will fail and how to amend them and whether amending them is worth the cost, and he's also occasionally trying to think about whether there's some other plan that's superior.

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And how is he feeling?

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Scared out of his wits. And like he should potentially go to the toilet lest they forget to allow him to later and it becomes a problem.

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The fairy escorts him to a disused edge of the garden. They don't seem to have plumbing.

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...they probably don't have biological needs like that, that'd be just bad design.

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Apparently not. When he's done she escorts him back.

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Now he's just scared.

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She refines his thinking assignment and leaves him.

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He thinks. His mind starts going in circles again. He tries to make it stop. He succeeds. Then it happens again.

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Screaming.

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That makes him lose track of what he was thinking of, and become unable to pick thinking back up for a while.

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The order does not grant him any powers of concentration he doesn't normally have.

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Yeah he's getting that.

He thinks. More hours pass.

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The screaming dies down eventually.

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And then it's been twenty-four hours and he remembers everything

He's still thinking about the plan, but he's also thinking about a telepathy spell that also lets extremely soft sounds be made in the vicinity of the receiver's ears that only they can hear to maybe work if telepathy orders don't and he blinks thrice very fast and then the person who was screaming hears "mynameiskaedepleaserescindmyordersipromisei'llrescindyourstooyoucanjustthinkatmeandi'llhearit"—

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- I rescind all your orders.

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He doesn't start moving. He stops thinking about the stupid plan

I need your name to rescind yours.

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I can't give it out. Are you a mortal - can you feed me -

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- feeding works? Yes I can. I'm going to become invisible and find you and feed you, yes -

And he's invisible and can go through solid objects and fly and everything he's holding is invisible and optionally can go through solid objects too and that will last—forty-eight minutes—he's completely out of mana—it should be enough—

He goes looking for her.

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Lying inert on the floor of her room, pinned to the floor like a preserved butterfly with spikes through her arms and legs and wings, smeared in blood and naked.

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- what counts as food -

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Ideally something that is intended as food from your world or is at least a plant but if you don't have that maybe a drop of blood or something would work.

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He'll try the blood, he bites his thumb until he's bleeding and smears some on her lips and I rescind all your orders—did it work -

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No I'm having a little trouble swallowing.

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- fuck that I can do that after we're out of here do you have any orders to fuck me up or cause a ruckus or stop me if I just take you with me?

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No.

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Okay. I'm sorry if this hurts you, this spell will not last very long and I want to get away from here as fast as I possibly can -

And he holds her—she's surprisingly light—and she turns invisible and can go through any objects he wants her to go to including these fucking spikes that fucking sadistic motherfucker and he can fly the hell away

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And then they're out and he flies and flies and flies and flies—

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She is limp and bleeding.

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Can you swallow yet? Does any plant count?

Fly fly fly he's getting as far away from that hellplace as magically possible—

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A fairy plant might not work but it's worth a try if it comes straight out of your hand. I might need more than a drop to get any down and don't think I can chew right now.

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So he flies closer to the ground—anything feedable?

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Many plants. Berries and ferns and moss and trees and vines.

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Berries. He gets some and then flies real high again and tries to feed her them—

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She manages to bite one and choke down some juice.

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"I rescind all your orders."

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She wrenches herself out of his arms and heals and arrests her fall with suddenly unpunctured wings.

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"Oh thank the gods—let's fly farther I still have a few minutes in this thing—"

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She doesn't argue with him. She flies.

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Fly fly fly okay fly closer to the ground and now he's out of juice and they're both visible again.

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She promptly goes invisible again. "I can do you when I've had more of a look at you."

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—that wasn't her kind magic. That was something else altogether, to do with the whole magic that's everywhere. Interesting.

"Do you think we're far enough away?"

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"No."

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"Okay—I can't fly anymore, I can run—I suppose you have no reason to be around me anymore, you can just fly away I guess, I'll figure this magic out and do something..."

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"- never give me an order unless I of my own volition request it or your best sincere model of my preferences indicates that I would prefer to receive it. You may issue the reciprocal."

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"—oh that's smart." He issues the reciprocal.

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Shiver. Sound of flapping wings. "This way." Flying.

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...okay. He follows.

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"Can you keep up at this pace -"

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"Yeah, although I'll eventually get too tired and slash or hungry."

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"We can stop and I can feed you something when you need it."

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"Okay. Thank you. But for now I can keep up."

And he can stare a little more at the order magic—even if she's invisible that's just obviously there—with the knowledge that feeding plays into it to figure out more details.

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Flying flying flying flying. "Do you have a nickname."

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"...no. I should come up with one. What's yours?"

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"Promise."

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"I'll be..." He thinks about it for a couple of seconds. "Explorer."

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"Okay. I can make gates. And I can feed you safely, so you won't starve before then."

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"Thank you. Are gates only one way? Or do they disappear? The one I went through wasn't there anymore when I ended up here."

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"That's a tear, not a gate. I'll have to close the gate for you."

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"Oh. Okay."

Follow follow.

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"He didn't have you long, did he -"

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"I arrived yesterday—I—" Pause. Consider. She's already seen his magic, and it's not like the knowledge itself will change much if she can't order him and Thorn already knows all about it—" I'm not from the mortal world you're used to, and we have a kind of magic you're unfamiliar with, and I have a particularly versatile brand of it so I used it to make myself forget I had it for twenty-four hours and when I remembered—that's when I contacted you."

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"...clever."

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"Thank you. But I only forgot I personally had the magic—I also made it so I'd subconsciously ignore the constant feedback this magic gives me, I can see magic everywhere, I can even see you even though you're invisible—it hadn't occurred to me that I should forget the fact that magic existed at all and I handed him the best plan I could think of to obtain more magic from my world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"- what did you tell him to do -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The gist of it was obtain a metamancer—it's the kind of mage I am—and then obtain other kinds of mages to serve as mana batteries—metamancers can use any kind of magic but can't generate our own. We're also reviled and practising metamancy is heresy so it won't be easy to find one, at least, the easiest way would've been to get the names of people who might know where repentant metamancers are but I never got around to giving him those names."

Permalink Mark Unread

"- okay. He probably has people besides me who can make gates - did you describe any locations in geographical detail -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, you need that for gates?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"To aim them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. That's—an extreme relief, then."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did you have any drawings or writing with you that might have included geographical representations or descriptions -"

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"I had books, they were mostly historical, but—yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigh.

Permalink Mark Unread

"—is the other mortal world controlled by fairies?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No. Well, I don't know what's happened in the last fifty years but I don't think so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wh—fifty years?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm so, so sorry."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not your fault."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I know, just—" Sigh. "Anyway, wh—why don't fairies take over the mortal world? If they can command anyone by knowing their name or I guess feeding them? Or is everyone there aware of fairies and using nicknames...?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, they aren't - weren't fifty years ago - uh, sorcery doesn't work there and we wouldn't be able to safely eat anything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. ...does sorcery rely on the magic thing that's literally everywhere here?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't know what you're looking at."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There's this—thing—that's everywhere and it's sorta shaped like the environment but is particularly disturbed by people, relatively speaking, and when you became invisible it sorta—moved? Or, not exactly moved, but it was like something moved through it or—something?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"- harmonics?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe? The name's suggestive, it does sorta look like a wavy harmonics-y thing—what is it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's a - feature of the environment. It helps to know where the harmonics are to do sorcery."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, my world doesn't have that so sorcery probably doesn't work there either, Thorn won't have a complete overwhelming advantage."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think kind magic still works in the mortal world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I'd expect so, it doesn't seem to rely on the harmonics in the same way. I—can't comment on how sorcery differs from my world's magic, but without it and with some advance warning I think my world's mages could put up a fight."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thorn collects sorcerers. Good ones."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—collects. Creepy. No, what I mean is, if Thorn or his vassals go to my world they won't have sorcery so that won't be much of a problem and—I think a metamancer could counter a sorcerer pretty easily but that's not a resource my world's going to use anyway so I'm thinking about myself more than anything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thorn doesn't collect particularly good kind magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigh.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"This whole system is terrible and I hate it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mmhm."

Permalink Mark Unread

Follow follow.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think it'll take another four hours this pace to get somewhere I'm comfortable stopping long enough to make a gate."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. ...can sorcery be taught to humans?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How? Are there books?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't suppose you'd show me where to find some. Later."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I had books in my tree but I can't go there, Thorn'll expect it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Your tree?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I started in a tree and I lived there till Thorn caught me and I miss it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"'Started'?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Began to exist."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...out of nowhere?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, in the tree trunk."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. I didn't know fairies appeared from trees."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not all fairies, just leaflets."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "I'm sorry about your tree."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'd only need to be there long enough to get a cutting but that's still too much to risk. Maybe after long enough that it'd be crazy for him to still be staking it out looking for me."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"I could help with that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can see magic. Unless there's some kind magic that blocks me completely, I can see any magic in this world. And I can—manipulate it, shape it, make it stop—when I said I thought metamancers could counter sorcerers that's what I meant, I think I could effectively be immune to sorcery—and with my kind of magic I could go there and get a cutting without them ever noticing I was there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Couldn't he still notice a cutting being taken?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not if I leave an illusion there before I take it and mess with the harmonics to make it look like everything's alright at least until I'm too far to be tracked down. Or I could just turn the whole tree invisible just to rub in his face what he's lost but this is petty and spiteful and most of all probably not very smart."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not very smart."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Get a cutting of your tree undetected, though, that I most likely can do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It'd be nice to have my tree again."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "I can't do anything without some mana, though, so after you make my gate I'll need to—get things, build a mana base again, that's much harder from a cold start, should've grabbed my stuff when we were running away—I expect you'll continue fleeing somewhere after you make the gate?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So you could make my gate, close it, then open another one when you reach a place you think is safe, to the same place, and I'll go through it when I have enough mana?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. Your gate might take a while to settle, though, so I want to be sure we won't be found in that time wherever I put it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Take a while? Why?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sometimes they work right away or take any amount of time between that and a week."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And I don't want to leave it open and unattended."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "Yeah, that wouldn't be good."

Permalink Mark Unread

Flying flying flying.

Permalink Mark Unread

Following following following. He can do four hours no problem.

Permalink Mark Unread

It takes a bit longer for her to be able to invisiblize him but then she does that. Eventually she finds a spot she likes. She lands. She turns them visible.

Permalink Mark Unread

He keeps a distance from her. She probably doesn't want to be too close to people now, way she threw herself from his arms when he rescinded her orders.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yep.

"Where do you want to go?"

Permalink Mark Unread

He describes a hill a distance away from a medieval-ish city where he knows there's a Guild chapter.

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise marks the edges of the intended gate and casts. She tosses a pebble. It lands on the ground in Fairyland. "Not settled yet."

Permalink Mark Unread

He squints. "I can see it there. Or—not the gate, but the thing that will be the gate."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's not surprising if you can see magic, it doesn't need maintenance to keep trying to settle."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, it's... okay when you do sorcery that's not directly changing the harmonics but this is, it's like the gate wants stuff to—align correctly or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sorcery does change harmonics a little bit by default..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah but I mean, this is like—it's different, when you did sorcery it was a bit like you were changing the environment itself and then the harmonics were matching that but this is changing just the harmonics directly? Or. Something, it's hard to translate the stuff I see. ...way easier with this magic, but not easy."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It shouldn't be just doing that, there's also the part where there will actually be a gate."

Permalink Mark Unread

He squints more. "—yeah, there's that. It's like... a lockpick, except it's a million of them opening a million locks at the same time? Erm. I'm not sure that analogy makes sense."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. ...maybe I can help nudge it along..."

He hasn't tried messing with harmonics, yet, not directly like this. He has some intuition about it after staring all this time, though, so maybe...

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise tilts her head.

Permalink Mark Unread

...yeah he got this. Harmonics are fiddly, moving one part affects other parts nearby, but if his guess is right flatter is better so he can aim for that and keep his actions contained to a specific area—

"It's settled," he announces.

Permalink Mark Unread

Rock toss. "Congratulations," she says when it disappears.

Permalink Mark Unread

"How long do you think you'll need to find a place and make a gate?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Few days, maybe a week. Especially if I'm planning on growing a tree there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, so I'll be back on the other side of this gate in, let's say three weeks?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. - Can you safely be deaf when you do that? If I'm caught."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—yeah, I can. Might be a good idea for me to say I rescind all orders you got from anyone but me as soon as I arrive?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you're going to make cunning plans like that for goodness sake don't tell me about them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...right. Sorry, I'm not used to thinking in—these terms. Even while talking about these terms."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably doesn't come very naturally to mortals."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does it to fairies? I'm unclear how—" Pause. "Might be a better idea to talk later, the gate's here, I shouldn't hold you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I was prepared to wait here for a week and I'll probably eat and sleep before I move anyway. If something does happen to me before I open a new one you might need to know more. But keep it to the essentials and not my favorite color maybe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Problem is I'm not sure what the essentials are. I figured out that humans could do orders too by looking at the magic, the fairy who captured me only told me fairies could do it, but I didn't know the food thing until you told me. You said you 'started'—did you just, start existing as a baby or something?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, I was never a child."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And did you know how to speak and all that when you—actually how do you speak my language if you didn't even know about my world?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fairies don't use languages, they seem like more trouble than they're worth, we just talk. I knew how to talk."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

Blink.

Permalink Mark Unread

"What?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"—that's probably not essential, I'll ask later. Where'd your name come from, if you just started?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I just knew it. Breeder fairies are children and get named though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...sounds like another nonessential thing. Can you tell me more about the mechanics of orders? Like, how they resolve conflicts, or partial conflicts, what sort of media can be used to transmit orders, whether they ever expire..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Recency always takes precedence. They can be written in principle but only if you watch them being written; looking at preexisting writing is safe. If you're name vassalized the orders expire if your name is forgotten but fairies are good at remembering names. If your master is mortal and dies, the orders expire. Otherwise no."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "How do ambiguous orders decide which meaning to go with?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You have a very little room for interpretation but not very much, seldom enough to make a difference. Exact words matter but not as much as you might hope."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does master intent matter at all?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not a ton."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The food thing, you said it might not work if it was fairy food. Why is that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Food works best if there's a clear claim on it. You have a better claim on mortal food than on anything here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"'Claim'? And why did it work anyway?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If food is yours. Not in the sense of having paid for it - it helps if you grew it yourself, the berries from my tree are mine, that sort of thing. Hand-feeding is very strong."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah, makes sense. But blood is relevantly food? And you have to swallow it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Apparently and yes. Weak food claims are dicier."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod. "...I can't think of anything else to ask. Could stick around until I do or maybe there's something obvious? Or if you think that should be enough I can go."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't know what else you picked up. Those are the basics."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just that. I inferred a couple of things from Thorn's questions, like that there was some other world where humans usually come from, or a bit of how much leeway I had under his orders, but not much beyond that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're sure yours is different? Maybe check if the gate is right then."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm very sure, yeah, and good idea—" He slips through the gate, then back. "Unless the other world is a mirror image of mine that's the place, yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That seems unlikely."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I think so, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. See you in three weeks."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Take care of yourself."

Through the gate.

Permalink Mark Unread

When it's closed it's like it isn't even there.

Permalink Mark Unread

...huh.

Permalink Mark Unread

Three weeks later she's back at the same spot.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

A gate appears.

Permalink Mark Unread

She makes herself invisible and intangible and deaf and blurries her vision and steps through the gate—

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise is there, and nobody else.

Permalink Mark Unread

...doesn't look like anyone's magic here either but just to be on the safe side: "I rescind all orders I didn't give you."

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

...telepathy, are you deaf, that could be a thing they've done

Permalink Mark Unread

I'm not.

Permalink Mark Unread

...she makes sure this sound only reaches Promise's ears and "Say 'fifty-four' in telepathy if you're really not deaf and not under any orders I did not give you."

Permalink Mark Unread

Fifty-four.

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay, she's visible and tangible and not deaf and not blurry again. "Hi."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hi. How does that spell work?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Which? And 'work' in what sense?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The telepathy spell, what does it do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, it's strictly communicative, sends thoughts you want to send and only those. Mindreading is possible but hopelessly expensive and also unethical."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How have you been?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm all right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did you find a place to put your new tree?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Show me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Why?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just curiosity.—if you want to rescind any orders I might be under or something you can feel free to. You can even tell me to stop if that'll convince you I'm not selectively deafening myself or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think you're compromised now but that's not necessarily permanent."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh and by the way I think I figured out why sorcery doesn't work in the—or at least my—mortal world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Harmonics do in fact exist there, but they're all—scrunched up, messy, noisy, not flat at all—enough so that I haven't really been able to properly flatten them yet. I didn't dedicate much time to that, granted, but still."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...huh. That might do it if they were chaotic and extreme enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You have no idea. And whenever I move one part all other parts move and it's like trying to hold water and I still don't quite have the hang of it. I'm thinking though once I do it might be useful to figure out a way to make an artefact that does it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then you could be a sorcerer."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. And more interestingly, depending on how gates work, that'd be a way to make intra-world portals."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah! It'd be awesome!" She grins. "Anyway. Ready to get a cutting of your tree?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"What's your plan on that exactly?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Step one: be extremely invisible and most of all intangible. Step two: go to the tree. Step three: illusion the place I'm going to get a cutting of with the cutting itself. Step four: turn the actual cutting invisible and grab it. Step five: run. Step six: profit."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not really nearby."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...if I figure out how to flatten the harmonics in my world we could use it to gate to your tree. When you closed the gate from your end last time it was like it wasn't even there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...that'd work."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you think I'd understand harmonics better if I knew some sorcery to begin with?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe? I don't have any books with me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Could you teach me the basics, maybe? If there's a way you think when doing sorcery that helps with this, or if I could at least do something small a few times to see how stuff interacts."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can try but I've never taught before and haven't been a beginner for a while."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's okay if it ends up not working, I'll be able to figure it out, probably, even without it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Seeing harmonics should help. But you also need to register a lot of other traits about the place where you're working and what if anything you're working on. The standard first exercise is fairylights because they're only on a place and not a thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. "Not a thing as in, they're just sourceless light?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not a thing as in you don't cast them on a thing. Sorcerers can't make stuff from nothing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And light doesn't count as stuff that's being made from nothing? Makes sense, I guess."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Right. Closest I can do is rapid-grow plants."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod. "Well, how do you make fairylights, then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You pick a spot in the air and take note of everything about it. Temperature and pressure and current light including where from and nearby objects and humidity and wind and amount of dust and harmonics if you know them. And then you add the light." She makes one.

Permalink Mark Unread

Blink. Peer. "Okay but how exactly do you add the light?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's just sort of a matter of understanding well enough what it will do to the conditions of the space."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And, I suppose, wanting it? Or does intent not matter and it's just, visualising it or something?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Intent matters, but it's - mm, definitely not the part you want to focus on. You can't make sorcery happen just by wanting it."

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods again. "How do you notice things like dust in the air, though? Or is it not that fine-grained an understanding you need?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You don't need it that fine, or good sorcerers still couldn't act fast, and they can. But you sort of learn to taste the air, after long enough, and guess from how long a place has been undisturbed and what sources of dust are around, even if it's not well-lit enough to see the dust."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. D'you remember how long it took you to do it the first time?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"A few hours."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh okay. So I guess I could do that and then see if that gives me any insights on how to do things to the harmonics of my world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Go for it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you do it a couple more times, though? So I can pay attention to the magic part?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Light light light.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, I got it. Lemme see what I can do—"

And now she will do her favourite activity: staring at nothing!

Permalink Mark Unread

...Promise busies herself elsewhere.

Permalink Mark Unread

Stare stare stare light? No. How about now? No.

...hmmm. Does it helps if she uses arcanism to make a short-lived light and then look at what fairylights would actually look like there?

Permalink Mark Unread

That does help, if she's paying attention to the right things and arcanizes the right sort of light.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oooh cool so by the time Promise comes back she'll probably have managed it.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yup. "Congratulations."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thanks! Do these things compensate each other? Like, if the harmonics are flatter does that allow me to know less about the environment, if I know more about lighting can I worry less about dust...?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Although it's not 'if they're flatter', it's 'if you know them'."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh well then I guess I have an automatic advantage over any hostile sorcerer if I just mess it up a lot."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Especially if you confuse them on their home turf."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good to know. I'm going to my world to see if I can do anything to harmonics there—I don't expect you to hang around this gate, so, how do I get in contact when I've figured it out?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...there isn't really a good way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...a paired stone. I can link two stones so that one gets warm or something if the other one's rubbed a certain way, that way you'll know I'm on this side and done? And you could open a gate to my world every, I don't know, two weeks or so if it takes that long to see if nothing's come up that's stranded me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You think the stones will work across the worlds?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably not, which is why I suggested the two weeks thing, I'm expecting I'll use them if slash when I manage to gate here on my own."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway, I can reuse this gate as much as I want, opening and closing it's instant." She demonstrates.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, okay, that works, then."

She looks around for small rocks.

Permalink Mark Unread

There are rocks of various sizes and shapes.

Permalink Mark Unread

She picks a couple and frowns at them for a couple of minutes, then offers one to Promise.

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise holds her hand for the rock to be dropped.

Permalink Mark Unread

It is dropped.

Explorer rubs the top of her rock with a thumb. Promise's starts becoming warmer.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Neat."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you make another gate here to refresh my memory?" she asks, pointing. "You can close it immediately afterwards, just wanna watch the process."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't like extraneous gates. They're permanent."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...hm. If I figure out how to destroy the one that's already there?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure."

Permalink Mark Unread

She squints at it. She—gives the harmonics a good hard shake, right in the middle of it.

Permalink Mark Unread

The gate decays into something like what she originally walked through.

Permalink Mark Unread

Blink.

Blink blink.

"Erm. I. Think I just turned that gate into a tear."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...well that's not very good."

Permalink Mark Unread

She grabs an ordinary rock and throws it through the possibly-a-tear.

Permalink Mark Unread

The tear dissolves into nothing.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aaaand it's gone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...cool."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hypothesis: tears are just gates whose harmonics got too shaken up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's interesting to know!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. Gates are not as permanent as all that, apparently."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, they are known to last at least thousands of years, but sure. It's good you can make them settle instantly or you'd be stuck here till another settled."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. I'm hoping this will be enough for me to learn to make my own gates even though I don't actually know sorcery yet. Your magic is... much easier to generalise than mine."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Generalize?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Magic back home's very idiosyncratic. I can get mana and use it, but if I want to understand magic someone else did it's always extremely complex and involved and difficult. But this tear looked just like the tear I went through the first time, and your fairylights look like mine, they're all part of a coherent whole."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Yes. Your way sounds annoying."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is! I mean, magic's very pretty, and the variety adds to it, but from a practical standpoint, yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway, gate?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Gate." She replaces the torn one.

Permalink Mark Unread

"See you in two weeks, or if I do amazingly at this, less."

Permalink Mark Unread

"See you."

Permalink Mark Unread

She does not do amazingly at this.

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise is there in two weeks.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I rescind all orders I didn't give you," he greets her.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I rescind all orders I didn't give you too. Hi."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hello! Good news: I managed to hold harmonics flat enough to do fairylights in them. Bad news: if I let go, they get all crumpled up again. Good news: I can make artefacts that hold them flat! Bad news: I haven't yet been able to get to 'gate-making' levels of sorcery."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...yes, that takes years by default."

Permalink Mark Unread

"By default, but I'm arrogant enough to think I could've managed it based on what I remembered of what it looked like, magically. Not so, apparently."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't have my book on gates here, unfortunately."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's okay. Presumably you'd still be able to make a gate from my world to this one, near your tree."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe even in my tree."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, yeah, good idea."

Also wow he had never seen her happy. That. Sure is something.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is now and wherever this one goes to good?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

She goes through.

Permalink Mark Unread

The other side is a grassy hill overseeing a city. It's far enough away a human would probably take a couple of hours to get there on foot, but there's nothing obstructing their view.

Explorer steps through. "Okay so I can get the harmonics flat here..." and he gestures vaguely to indicate where he means.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...can you outline it in lights?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yup." He does.

Permalink Mark Unread

She makes a gate!

Permalink Mark Unread

It settles instantly.

"Should make the both of us invisible, inaudible-except-to-each-other, and intangible-with-exceptions."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can't get that fancy but okay..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can," he says, grinning. "—you can speak all languages, right, this will look like me just describing the desired effect out loud but that's actually functional." And he starts describing in detail the effects he suggested, including in what cases light will or will not interact with Promise and himself, how sound will work, etc.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't do languages at all, they seem like a lot of bother."

Permalink Mark Unread

He doesn't reply until he's done describing the spell, and then they're both invisible—except they can perceive (not quite see) each other—and intangible—except they don't fall through the ground and can hold things if they want—and inaudible—except they can still talk to each other.

"Humans don't really have the option. I'm still super curious about what you do instead, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I just talk."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That doesn't really allow me to make any new predictions."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't know what you want me to say! It seems perfectly straightforward to me. Anyway this not seeing thing we're doing now is - weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, it is. Useful, though. And you'll be able to stroll through right in front of whichever fairies may be guarding the tree and they'll be none the wiser."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

And she steps through.

She comes back with a branch and some books.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Was no one guarding it? Or were there branches inside your tree?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can move my tree however I want so I moved a branch inside."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that's great, then. Did you want to grab any other books? My backpack's bigger on the inside, and I can make it temporarily weightless for that to not be a problem either."

Permalink Mark Unread

"These are all my books. I didn't have time to accumulate many."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. ...I hate Thorn very, very much."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"I don't suppose you'd let me come with you and borrow your books?—or, I guess, point me to a library, if there is one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are libraries but it's probably not safe for a mortal to go to one. You can borrow my books."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh," he says, brightening up considerably. "Thank you!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're welcome."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you have an introductory one?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She offers him a blue book.

Permalink Mark Unread

He takes it, beaming. "You're sure you won't need it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm past that. You can keep that one."

Permalink Mark Unread

He will not offer to hug her, she is clearly still not comfortable with physical contact. Instead he will just keep grinning and repeat, "Thank you! You're great."

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

"How long do you think I'll take to get through this one?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depends how good you are."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is skill at this its own thing or is it correlated with, like, attention, or general intelligence, or anything like that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't have statistics."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fair enough. How long did you take?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Couple years."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—wow. Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wasn't in a hurry so I lingered a bit over some of the exercises."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "So... when I'm done, will I be able to contact you again? Or would you rather—not?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You can if you like."

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles.

"Is gating taught in this book?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, that's not introductory at all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. How will I find you, then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You could just pick a time, again."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mmm yeah, okay. How 'bout a year from now, in case I'm a prodigy and more relevantly metamancy turns out to help after all?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

Smile. "Good luck regrowing your tree."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm going to do it with magic, not luck."

Permalink Mark Unread

He giggles. "Have fun regrowing your tree?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I will."

Permalink Mark Unread

He lets go of the harmonics of the gate that leads to Promise's old tree and throws a small rock through to make it disappear.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigh.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hm?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"- it'd be really useful to be able to gate anywhere in Fairyland but I am at something of an ebb in my ambitions right now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—you kinda do deserve some time to decompress. But for what it's worth, you're welcome in my world, I could find you a place to stay or you could stay with me, and I could get you food, and all that. ...what ambitions, if I may ask?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"- I don't want to have to rely on you for any sorcery I want to do. Uh, it's sufficiently unprecedented that with your magic on top of it it'd probably - riskily with a lot of strategic thinking required - allow taking courts that are otherwise well protected."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can get you artefacts that keep the harmonics flat, and then you'd only need to recharge them periodically—and by periodically I mean once every few months, or once a year—and it needn't be me who recharges it, there are enchanters who sell this as a service. Is taking courts the ambition?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you got the Queen you could pretty much fix Fairyland as fast as you could integrate fairies."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—you could? How?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Queen is a one-of-a-kind and her power is to know every fairy's name."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

"oh"

 

 

 

 

"I support this ambition very much."

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

He looks at his feet. "Fairies don't die. Fairyland can wait until you're back on your feet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The thing that makes me feel bad about waiting is that Thorn knows your magic exists. I just - I don't know it to be enough of an emergency that I have to rush -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...yeah. Thorn—is a thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He's unusually bad even for masters of courts, for whatever that's worth."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I—got that impression. ...what would go wrong if I just—walked up to him, invisibly and intangibly, and put a berry inside his stomach?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, for one thing he knows your name and you can't vassalize him by food anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...oh. Okay, then... I could just stay around him and spy? See if he's planning anything, find out how much we should worry?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you feel safe doing that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The way I could see that failing is if there's some way for sorcery or some kind magic to detect my presence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Kind magic maybe. Depends on how thoroughly undetectable you can get."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pretty thoroughly, but you saw what I had to do to cast the spell on us—most people don't actually describe the effect out loud like that, but I do have to come up with a sufficiently detailed description, and more complex things are more expensive and harder to define."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Being undetectable outright isn't?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"'Undetectable' isn't really a primitive action, I have to specify which methods of detection I'd be immune to and what would happen instead, and every bit I don't specify but want anyway is filled in by the magic and makes the spell more expensive."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Unfortunately I don't have a complete list of fairy kinds in the court."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. I didn't get, like, caught while I was running away with you, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thorn has subcourts and moves around between them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...okay. So either I was very lucky or he doesn't have anyone with kind magic that can detect that in that court and amongst the people that usually move around with him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The only person who usually follows him is Blossom."

Permalink Mark Unread

"First thing, then. I'm not sure how to ensure this won't—backfire horribly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How—fast-acting do you expect him to be?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...faster since we got away, but not hasty."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What would he wait for? He can't get any more information, and my world is dangerous but not much more than the one you're used to, if the only difference is that mine has magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He can examine your belongings and think of more detailed plans and scout possible sites and try to get more mortals."

Permalink Mark Unread

"—and mortals can die."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...yes, what about it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If Thorn gets mortals then—that's it, for them. Being tortured and then dying, no chance of—anything more."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm pretty sure he won't kill any by accident."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And I don't know if that's any more reassuring. Okay I really should find a way to preempt him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The other mortals probably won't be from your world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That doesn't make me any happier."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It should. If they're not from there they can't provide him useful information on how to get there and operate stealthily."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I suppose you're right. Why would he not get a human from my world?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'd never heard of your world before, so it's probably less commonly contacted than the other mortal world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah but I mean, why wouldn't he just go there now that he knows of it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It depends on whether he can specify a gate destination off what you left."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He definitely can, those books contain enough information to get places."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, then there may be a problem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, that's why I'm worried and thinking I might just go spy on him anyway. After I figure out a safer plan than just showing up and hoping I'm really undetectable."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm trying to think of a way to—the problem here is that if I'm deaf I can't spy but if I'm not I can be ordered. And even deaf someone could just write 'stop' in front of me and I'd be done.—I'm sorry, should I not talk about this with you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, it's fine. You can't elaborately specify that you want to - hear things on a delay or something - that would probably work as well as seeing writing after it's written would -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"—oh. Hmm. I probably could do something like that, actually, yeah. We should test it to make sure but yes it should be possible."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. I can help with that part."

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles. "Thank you. Now... I should probably do something to cancel out sound around me and then an artefact that records it and plays it back..." He rubs his chin and stops talking, looking a bit lost in thought.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Why an artefact?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"—hm? Oh. Anything that's sort of—sustained—like spatial effects, or holding a temporary record of a sound to be played back later, is much cheaper and easier to do with artefacts. With a spell I'd have to specify where the sound that's not being immediately relayed to me would go whereas with an artefact I can just store it in its—magical memory, I guess is the best description."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And actually it might be neater if I just make it all a single artefact rather than artefact plus spell, collect and cancel sound as it approaches my ears and then play it back. I'll need to think of how to prevent that from being itself detectable, but it shouldn't be too hard..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm glad the idea is useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

He beams. "It is! Okay I'm gonna need to write this down, it's probably gonna be complicated—" And he grabs some paper and a pencil and starts scribbling.

Permalink Mark Unread

She flips through one of her books.

Permalink Mark Unread

He continues writing for several minutes, every now and then muttering something to himself or making a sound to pay attention to.

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

Soon: "Okay I think I got something. Now I just need something to enchant—earmuffs or earplugs of some sort, better if they're connected..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can pretty trivially make any shape out of wood from my tree, but I'd have to go get it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh that'd be useful. I can go through the gate and wait for you there?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That works. How exactly do you want it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Something that covers my ears completely—if it could be soundproof or as close to it as possible mundanely that'd help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay." She inspects the size of and distance between his ears.

Permalink Mark Unread

He stays still to let her look.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll be back in an hour or so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. See you."

Through the gate.

Permalink Mark Unread

She is back in an hour with wooden earmuffs.

Permalink Mark Unread

And he consults his notes and stares at the earmuffs for a few seconds and consults his notes again and—" Okay, should be done, I think." He puts them on. "Say something?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Something."

Permalink Mark Unread

And half a second later he beams. "Okay let's see if this was long enough. Order me to raise my right arm?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Raise your right arm."

Permalink Mark Unread

He doesn't.

Permalink Mark Unread

Permalink Mark Unread

He takes the earmuffs off. "I'm gonna shore up my undetectableness spell, can you make a gate to one of his courts? Or all of them, even."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I only know a couple of them well enough to do that. Do you mean right now -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, I think I should probably get some supplies, rest, go tomorrow morning when I'm more prepared—emotionally and otherwise. Not a good idea to just implement the plan immediately after thinking of it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It might be a good idea to put the mortal world ends somewhere - remote - in case -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"—yeah, good idea. And a trap of some kind, built to recognise you and me but do something to anyone else."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you can do that can you also make it note if we're acting on our own?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"As in, if we're ordered?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is there anything nonmagical that can be used as a proxy for that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't think so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then I probably can't make something that detects that, I've never been able to make things that interact with magic directly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thorn'd probably catch something like blinking in a pattern."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If whatever was on this side was fast-acting enough a blinking pattern could suffice, maybe. Harder part would be not letting on that I have something like this on this side, memory spells are expensive and hard, last one consumed almost all of my mana and was very untargeted."

Permalink Mark Unread

"He'll be more careful now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. I'm not sure if he can actually order me to not bind a spell, it's sort of a primitive mental action like thinking is, but if he can then I'm well and truly screwed.—unless I preemptively bind a spell to the action of lying still on the ground in some position or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you want to experiment with that -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...probably, yeah. I'm not sure what—failure mode we're looking at, exactly, here, though. Like, Thorn figures out I'm there and writes 'Stop' in front of me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thorn has already collected another person who can do your telepathy thing," she suggests.

Permalink Mark Unread

"—oh, yikes, yeah, he could do stuff if he captured a mage... I could probably design something to block that, but alright, suppose he finds a way to order me... Is my first priority to ensure he doesn't get his hands on the magic knowledge? ...I hate to suggest this but should you perhaps be somewhere hidden and undetectable near enough to telepath at me?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Possibly, yes. Somewhere you don't know where I am."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, and with a gate you opened from the mortal side so that if everything goes wrong you can just slip away and close it. I'll make you an artefact that keeps the harmonics flat."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Guess I should make you one of these," he gestures at the earmuffs, "too, and then even if they detect you you'll be able to leave—and with you there this becomes much less dangerous, if all goes wrong and they do find me out you can rescind my orders and I fly away extremely fast—actually we should test whether straight-up telepathy works for orders or if it's just sound. Okay, so, I make the necessary artefacts and cast the spells, you open a gate here fly somewhere else I don't know where to open a gate to the same place, I go spy, that about it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Should I go make another earmuff?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, please, and I'll make harmonics-flattening artefacts out of something mundane."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I would like to be able to wear it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Any preferences on what it is and looks like? Or you could just shape something out of your tree, making the artefact after I've determined what I want its details to be is easy."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll make myself something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

She goes. She comes back with a hinged bracelet-bracer-thing and another earmuff.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So the way I'm thinking works best," he tells her after enchanting the earmuff, "is if you set down the bracelet and touch it in some specific way to activate it, and then it surrounds the flattened area with faint light so you'll know where it is."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If the light is generally visible I can't use it to negate other sorcerers' turf advantage for long."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, you want to do that, too—wouldn't something not perfectly flat that only you knew be better for that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, although flat would still confuse somebody for a while."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay, so—two modes, one perfectly flat for the mortal side so you can open gates, another a bit twistier and then you can study it until you know what it's like and then you can use that to confuse other sorcerers?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

Permalink Mark Unread

He scribbles something and crosses a few things out and writes some more on the piece of paper he's been writing then holds out his hand for the bracelet.

Permalink Mark Unread

Taking it off is a bit elaborate but eventually it hinges open.

Permalink Mark Unread

And he stares at it for a while, then—" Okay, so if you slide a thumb from here to here, it'll do the flat thing, and from here to here, it'll do the swirly thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Relative to the bracelet or relative to where it is when I turn it on? How do I turn it off?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Where it is when you turn it on, and the bracelet shouldn't leave the area it's affecting. You turn it off by sliding your thumb in the opposite direction from the one you first used."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What happens if it leaves anyway?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The effect just gets turned off."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We should probably rest for today, see if we don't come up with ways this will fail horribly, and meet up again tomorrow morning."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles and goes busy himself with something else in his world after she's gone.

Permalink Mark Unread

She is back the next day.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hello. Did you think of anything to change in the plan?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Was it a full fledged plan?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Plan outline, then."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Still need to test telepathy orders."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, let's test that." Rather than using a spell he switches to a telepathy blessing and sends, Order me to raise my right arm?

Permalink Mark Unread

Raise your right arm.

Permalink Mark Unread

He does. "Okay so that works. More dangerous if he has it, but means that part of the plan at least won't fail."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you block it if he has it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"If he has something I haven't thought of I'll only be able to block it once I see it, but I can get a blanket spell for the kinds of communicative effects I know."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anything more or should we iron out the last details and get started?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We should make sure we have the same recollection of the contents of the plan."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah."

The goal is to spy on Thorn and figure out what he's planning and what they should do about it. The outline of the plan is they get as undetectable as they can, wearing their earmuffs, and Promise makes two gates to two different places near Thorn's court—one gate coming from where they currently are, the second coming from an unspecified location Explorer mustn't know about. Explorer determines whether Thorn is in that specific court, and they repeat these steps until they find him. When they've found him, Explorer will hang around and listen in on him and see what steps he has already taken and what steps he's planning to take to secure more magic. Promise will be hidden and, in case Explorer's found and captured, will telepathically rescind all his orders so he can fly away as fast as he can.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't know much about possible gate sites in your world. Or the other mortal world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You could just fly in a random direction away from civilisation—towns and cities are spaced enough apart anywhere but the direction of that city's fine. Or, I guess, you could still gate from here and then just close the gate as soon as you came back through if anything went wrong."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, I was imagining wanting me harder to find than 'away for a while'."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We just need you hard enough to find that if Thorn captures me and this fails you have enough time to get safe, right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If we use your bracelet to stabilise the harmonics here and gate, after you go through one of the gates they'll all become tears so if you need to you can just come back and through another gate and they'll close as soon as you do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...rephrase that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Gates become tears when the harmonics are sufficiently screwy, right? So if you use your bracelet to flatten the harmonics on this side and make the gates, once you step through one of the gates the harmonics will soon stabilise back to what they were before and it'll become a tear, as will the others. Then when you step back here, it'll disappear."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So do you prefer finding somewhere else to gate from, or is here fine?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll find somewhere else."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Let's get it started, then?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...okay."

Permalink Mark Unread

He starts with the spell to make them undetectable—invisible to all light from infrared to ultraviolet, inaudible, intangible unless they add voluntary exceptions, the air around them is only minimally disturbed when they breathe—and the telepathy spell. Explorer furthermore gets flight. They wear their earmuffs.

Permalink Mark Unread

She flies high to get a really good view and picks a faraway spot.

She gates.

Permalink Mark Unread

He waits for her to telepathically contact him in Fairyland.

Permalink Mark Unread

 

Ready.

Permalink Mark Unread

He flies towards the court.

Permalink Mark Unread

There it is. Cute little fairy buildings with cute little fairies. They don't notice him.

Permalink Mark Unread

But they might, right, and they might pretend—

Even though he's super undetectable he'll still be sneaky and watch the court from a distance to see if anything obviously indicates Thorn's there.

Permalink Mark Unread

Not from a distance, no.

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay... sneakily approach the court...

Permalink Mark Unread

If Thorn is here he's inside.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ugh. Okay. He'll pick the closest building and peek through the window.

Permalink Mark Unread

Food prep area. A fairy is fixing salad things.

Permalink Mark Unread

He'll look around for any rooms and things and if Thorn's not there move on to the next building.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thorn is in fact here, having some fun with his consort. It's genuinely ambiguous whether the consort is having any fun.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh gods oh gods oh gods he steps through the door and tries to erase that horrible horrible image from his mind—

Do you know if Thorn's—partner—is okay with all of this—?

Permalink Mark Unread

I think she's having way more fun than most of his vassals but possibly not every minute of every day.

Permalink Mark Unread

I suppose when one's thoroughly immortal and has healing, he sends, some queasiness leaking through.

Permalink Mark Unread

She does seem to kink on it on some level, it's inconsistent with Thorn's proclivities to be forcing her to act it all the time.

Permalink Mark Unread

I... see.

...I really don't want to watch this.

Permalink Mark Unread

You can go back later.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah, I think I'll do that.

He finds a sufficiently hidey spot and... hides. Meanwhile, he'll look at what fairies he can spot and start figuring out their kind magic (this is so much easier than his world's magic to understand, it's a great change of pace).

Permalink Mark Unread

Varies a lot. That one can hear from great distances. That one grows berries from her antlers that have an especially strong food claim.

Permalink Mark Unread

And all of them potentially know his name.

...is Thorn likely to take a while?

Permalink Mark Unread

Maybe.

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay so he'll sneakily sneak around and start looking for other fairies and their kind magics and specifically anyone who might detect him.

Permalink Mark Unread

None of the fairies present have particularly detecty magics.

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay. Good. Yes. Whew.

He informs Promise of this.

Permalink Mark Unread

Good.

Permalink Mark Unread

So we should be fine. Now I guess I... wait for him to be done and follow him around.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah. She throws in a rescindment just in case.

Permalink Mark Unread

Not controlled, but thank you.

Permalink Mark Unread

Just making sure.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thanks, he repeats, and proceeds to implement his plan as described, much less stressed out about it about it.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thorn takes his time.

Permalink Mark Unread

His spell will last twenty-four hours, he can be patient.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thorn does not take twenty-four hours. After a while he and Blossom (who looks the picture of health) emerge and wander about.

Permalink Mark Unread

Promise is kept up to date. He starts following Thorn.