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rainbow in the clouds
Wanderdeep Luna and Arabek Dusk
Permalink Mark Unread

Deep in Deviskaryl's forest, where people rarely go, there's a lake, unremarkable but for the beach on the west side, where she's been practicing the sort of gentle sandy slope and tiered dropoff that makes for the best swimming hole. She's got her technique down just about perfectly, ready to deploy on beaches needing a touchup in a few weeks when summer is over, and is just practicing for speed and efficiency now; she pauses in her work when the sun begins to set, watching it through the augmented eyesight of dozens of cats, only a sliver of her attention still on the lake, considering how she might shave off another minute or another bit of effort.

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All at once there's a mirror-sheen sphere just above the beach for a fraction of a second forcing the air out of the way. Then a fraction of a second after the sphere appears it vanishes leaving behind a young woman dressed in an aqua sundress with bare feet. She lands easily on the beach. There's a satchel slung across her shoulders and a set of intricate bracelets on her wrists. There's also a small disk in her left hand. "Well, this is as beautiful as I imagined," she muses to herself, "Didn't expect the beach though, that's new."

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...uh huh.

Deviskaryl doesn't have a cat in the immediate area; she sets about fixing this problem.

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The young woman drops the disk in her hand into her satchel and stretches on of her bracelets over her hand. Water picks itself up out of the lake and swirls around her in an intricate pattern. "Hm, so the magic that's floating everywhere doesn't stop me from moving things. I wonder what it's doing?"

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The cat goes faster. A few more join her; this may call for ominous staring.

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The woman deposits the water back in the lake and rotates her bracelet. Then she starts flying. She lightly lands in the treetops. She has a wide smile on her face.

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What the fuck.

The cats arrive, moving confidently through the trees, albeit at a lower level where the branches are sturdier. They stop in the next tree over; the leader lashes her tail, annoyed.

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The woman flies down to one of the cats. "Ooh, you're a pretty kitty. I don't think you're a normal kitty though. You have way too much magic to be a normal kitty."

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What is your deal, lady.

- it is suddenly quite a bit more obvious that this cat is annoyed and unsettled and nervous.

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The woman abruptly backs up. "Hello. I'm sorry if I'm upsetting you somehow. What exactly is the magic you just put on me doing?"

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The cat relaxes, considerably, but there's no immediate response otherwise.

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"I'm Luna Lovell by the way. I'm a traveller of sorts. I try to find new places, especially beautiful ones."

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"Deviskaryl," the voice comes from nowhere in particular, formed of several overlapping languages but perfectly comprehensible anyway. "Goddess of forest and self-actualization. The blessing allows you to understand the body language of animals. How did you come to be here?"

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"It's a pleasure to meet you, I haven't met a goddess before. Thank you for your blessing. As for how I got here, the short answer is magic. The longer answer is that I was using farseeing magic to choose a place to visit next and this place looked nice."

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"Perhaps not the wisest way to choose a destination, even if it has served you well enough in this case."

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"Maybe it would be safer to avoid magic places but that wouldn't be as much fun."

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"As you will."

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"So, I take it you're why this whole area is really magical?"

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"In that it is me, yes."

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"That would explain why there's so much cognition, communications, and knowledge magic."

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"- Yes."

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"So is it ok for me to stay here for a while or should I find somewhere else to go. I wouldn't want to impose."

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The cats' tails twitch consideringly.

 

"You can stay. I'll show you to a town, if you'd like. - The cats are also me, these ones."

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"I can tell, well, I can tell that they're magical in the way the land is but more, and that they have extra magic on top of that. I'd be happy to visit a town."

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Tail-lash. "It is supposed to be a secret, which of the cats are me."

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"I'll avoid telling anyone else what I see then. Any particular reason why you keep that secret?"

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"If it's ambiguous which cats are me, interacting with any cat works as worship, which fits more neatly into most peoples' lives than asking them to visit a temple or make offerings."

The cats begin making their way down from the tree.

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"Ooh, so you're powered by worship. That's interesting."

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"Yes. That's true of all gods, here; we each have a domain and a terrain type and a focus, and the ability to modify our domains and make human and animal avatars, and to bestow up to six blessings on whoever we like and one larger power on ourselves and our acolytes if we choose to have them, and a few other miscellaneous powers."

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"Like your translation ability. It's very nice, I have translation magic but it's a little uncomfortable to have new languages crammed into my head periodically."

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"Yes, we don't need to worry about that. I may be able to offer you a translation blessing, if your stay is going to be too short to justify your version."

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"I'm willing to pay the cost of mine. I'm just mentioning it because I'm always looking for ways to improve my magic, and copying magic is one of the ways I do that."

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"Ah." She sounds interested, if still rather reserved. "- can you tell me more about how your magic works?"

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"The short version is that I can teach magic to recognize things and then do things when it recognizes them. The long version includes all the various basic things magic can do, most of which are really dangerous if you don't use them carefully, and all the things other people over the years have taught magic how to recognize."

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"Dangerous in what way?"

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"If you're using the magic in it's most basic form there's no safeguards. If you tell it to push on you and you don't specify how it could snap your neck. If you tell it to freeze time in an area that you're partially inside it'll cut your hand off. Warnings to prevent you from doing that are things you need to add intentionally."

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"Ah-hah." Yeah that's something she's going to need to keep an eye on. "It seems like letting you copy blessings will be safer for all involved, then."

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"Perhaps, copying magic isn't always straightforwards though. I suppose it's possible that eventually there will be some problem caused by stuffing too many languages in my head but I only have five so far and I've heard of people speaking more than that without any magic involved."

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"Memory blessings are fairly common, if you do have trouble. I don't offer one, but I expect at least one of my neighbors does."

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"That sounds interesting, I wonder how much magic it would cost to maintain, I'm usually near enough magic that it isn't important but I wouldn't want to be reliant on something that might fail."

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"I wouldn't expect it to; blessings are usually permanent."

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"Perhaps, but magic is quite abundant on your world. I wouldn't expect it to be an obstacle here. That said you haven't been consuming magic while I watch, and in fact you're shedding some. Maybe your magic is very unlike mine. It has something of a different aesthetic than the magic I've seen before too."

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"Your magic is very unlike mine, yes - some things require upkeep, but blessings aren't among them; the only way you would lose a blessing would be if the god who gave it to you removed it, replaced it in their repertoire, or died."

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"That's good to know then. Thank you. I doubt the world will be convenient enough to let me copy that feature of your magic." Luna sighs.

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"I suspect it won't, not without a god involved. But you can try, if you like. Are you studying magic toward some goal, or for its own sake?"

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"I want to help people, and enjoy my life. I don't really have any specific goals. I also hope I'll be able to find more people who Wanderdeep will like. What it did to me was ok for me but it would hurt most people."

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"Hmm?"

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"Oh, Wanderdeep is the origin for my magic. When everyone who has my magic dies or is otherwise unable to use magic it makes a copy of somebody who fits the definition of a good user. That happened to me."

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"Ah-ha. Well, if it's straightforwardly teachable, I can help you find some suitable volunteers."

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"I learned it from books, and some experiments which varied in how dangerous they were in retrospect. I think I could teach it pretty well, but it isn't my choice who gets magic, and I don't fully understand the criteria."

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This tail-lash is brief and not directed at her. "What do you know?"

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"It wants people who are smart and I think the second criteria is motivated or maybe steadfast, the third and fourth criteria are about your goals or morals, it's hard to figure out what those are selecting for but looking back over the notes my predecessors have left it looks like it's somehow selecting for people who are well intentioned as one of those criteria. I'm not sure what the last one is or if both the third and fourth can be summed up as well intentioned when taken together. One of the artifacts I brought with me will tell me who meets which criteria."

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"That shouldn't be too hard, then. The next poetry day is in a month and a half; we can let people know to submit notes along with their poems if they're interested in dedicating themselves to something like that."

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"Well that sounds like a better chance than I've had in awhile, mostly I'm reliant on checking the people I meet one at a time. I wonder if my magic recognizes you as a person."

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"That would be interesting to check."

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Luna unslings her satchel and rummages around in it for a few moments before finding a disk covered in strange glyphs and five circles. She sets it in the palm of her hand then concentrates. All five light up. "That's reading off of me, just to confirm it didn't get damaged since the last time I used it. I don't think you count as specifically here enough for it to give me a readout on you. I tried pointing it at your cat self but it doesn't see that in and of itself as a person."

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"That makes sense, if it has to learn how to recognize things. I could make a human avatar to try, but they're expensive and I don't have much use for one - we can ask one of my neighbors, if there's some reason we need to know."

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"It could be interesting to find out but I don't expect it to be important."

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"And we're not generally in the habit of asking favors of each other."

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"That seems a shame, there's usually so much that can be gained from cooperation."

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"We're not unfriendly, we're just busy with our own domains. We do send people back and forth, when someone turns out to be better suited to someone else's philosophy."

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"Ah, I suppose being areas of land in a certain sense would make it difficult to live in close proximity."

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"Yes. And it's better to have room to expand without crowding one another. I do send acolytes visiting, sometimes, when I have acolytes."

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"Is that just a fancy word for priest or does it have some deeper meaning?"

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"Deeper meaning. Priests assist gods as a vocation, but aren't otherwise different from any other follower; an acolyte shares their god's power in an irrevocable way."

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"Interesting, so having an acolyte lets you spread your influence further but it opens you up to the risk of them misusing your trust."

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"Yes. It's also a lot to ask of someone; I prefer my followers to pursue whatever suits them best, and it's almost never that."

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"Are there responsibilities essential to the roll or is it just that you only offer it to people well suited towards devoting themselves to it?"

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"No specific responsibilities, but I do look for people who have an idea of how they want to contribute. Other gods often look for something in particular, though."

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"It makes sense that as a goddess of self-actualization you focus more on your follower's preferences than most gods."

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"Yes."

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"Do you have any questions for me?"

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"I've never had a visitor from another world, before, I don't know what you might mind being asked. What has that been like, for you?"

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"It's nice, I think this agrees with me better than what I was doing when I got copied by the magic. I like seeing new places and meeting new people and doing that was expensive in the place I used to call home. Now I can get food from magic in a pinch, but usually I carry some with me and trade in favors."

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"That does sound like it suits you better, yes. You won't have trouble with food here; I do a fair bit of harvest goddessing on the side, so my people can focus on other things - you will need to trade for it, but it's abundant enough to be inexpensive."

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"What sorts of things do people trade for? I've learned to make gemstones so most places with currencies I can use those to trade, but like I said I prefer to trade favors."

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"Gemstones will work fine. If you have any skills besides the magic, I can probably find someone who'd be interested in a lesson, or help with a project - or with the magic, depending on what you can do with it."

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"Hm, what I can do with magic is a long list. I fly or levitate things up to a total of about three times my weight, though my precision suffers the more weight I'm lifting. I can also do something a lot like teleporting, but it takes time to plan a series of jumps if I want to go somewhere really specific. I can bring air with me underwater or into space. I can make objects or dissolve them into magic and turn them into other things. I can freeze time in small areas. That isn't a complete list of the magics I have premade but it's all the big ones. I can make new magics if I have enough time to think about it and figure out what I'm trying to do though."

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"I don't think you'll have any trouble finding things to do, then, those all sound useful enough. If you can bring cargo or passengers, the teleportation might be the easiest, not many people are interested in making the trip from Cresthill to Miller's Pool."

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"I can teleport as much cargo as I can fly more or less. More if the topology of the terrain and the oddities of my teleportation system cooperate."

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"That should be plenty."

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"That works out nicely then. I prefer exchanging magic directly to working with gemstones, it feels a little bit fairer. Gems tend to be valued for being rare and it's easy for me to make them."

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"Ah," she chuckles, "not here. I make gemstones myself pretty regularly; the artists like them for their beauty, not how rare they are. I'd make everything common, if it was easy enough."

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"Ooh, do you understand the chemistry then? It took me over a week to figure out how to make the rubies look right. Diamonds were a lot easier."

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"Some of it. I can do a perfectly nice ruby but not a really spectacular one without just copying something I already have; getting the inclusions right is tricky."

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"It is, and then the faceting. Still I have lots of fun experimenting with personal projects. Diamonds with rubies and sapphires embedded in their centers things like that."

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"I don't do the faceting, usually. Embedding's a good idea, I wonder what they'll make of that."

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"I don't really know. I haven't met them, I would expect they'll be impressed though."

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"Oh, of course. I'm not sure how they'll use them, though, that will be interesting to see."

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"It sounds it. Your people must make beautiful art with such a helpful goddess encouraging them. Is there somewhere I could go to see some of it?"

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"Mmhmm. I'm not big enough to have any real cities, but Cresthill has a little art district with a few galleries and museums."

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"That sounds lovely. I would guess that you don't want to walk me there because of the cats thing. Do you have some other way of providing directions that you prefer?"

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"I can walk you in if you'd like, I'll just get lost in the city clowder afterward. It would be faster to teleport, though, I suspect - I can bring you a map, if that suits."

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"Teleporting is usually not convenient, I could fly if speed is an issue." 

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"I do suspect you'd rather not spend the night in the woods."

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"Oh, it's far away? I can take out my map and try to figure out a good teleportation route. Or are you just referring to the time of day? I haven't quite adapted to your local time yet."

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"Time of day; it'll be dark soon."

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"Yes, I was more referring to how my sleep schedule doesn't match your day-night cycle. I can sleep while flying though."

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"Even if you're awake it wouldn't be especially hospitable. Anyway, I can guide you flying if you don't mind carrying a cat." The nondescript tabby of the trio steps forward.

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"Sure." Luna adjusts her bracelet slightly and the tabby cat is levitating next to her. "I could carry you in my arms if you prefer."

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The tabby makes disconcerted vaguely-swimming motions. "Yes."

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So Luna gathers up the cat in her arms. "Is that better?"

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"Much, thank you." The tabby settles herself comfortably, much more mindful of her claws than a real cat would be.

"Cresthill is south-southeast of here - on your left, just a bit to the right of where that tree is starting to turn gold - but if you bear east of that, you'll find one of the main roads leading to it without overshooting if you get lost."

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"Alright." She flies up above the treetops and starts floating in the direction indicated at a pretty fast pace. She fiddles with a bracelet on the other hand and the wind stops blowing on them. They start to fly faster.

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Even at speed it's over an hour's flight. The view is pretty, all late summer foliage just beginning to turn color - not that she'll necessarily be able to see it, in the dark - and a couple times they can see the glow of a smaller town in the distance; Deviskaryl provides periodic course corrections when Luna begins to drift.

"You could tell me about the other worlds you've visited, if you like," she comments after a while.

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"The last world I visited was very built around it's magic system. You could do magic rituals to transform some materials into other more useful forms and a lot of what I would tend to expect to be done by artisans or manual labor was done by various magic rituals or by flowers that were created using magic rituals."

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"That sounds interesting. A little bland, maybe, for my tastes."

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"It was very, orderly. It was pretty but it lacked some in variety."

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The cat adjusts her ears and shifts her weight in a way that's interpretable as a nod. "Orderliness is useful, people generally do best when they know what to expect from things, but I'm not very fond of it for its own sake."

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"I can understand that. I wasn't my favorite world either. It didn't seem to have the same incentives for creativity that my original world, or the not-quite world that gave me my magic system have."

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"And what were those like?"

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"My original world was a place without any magic, but they had advanced technology that could do incredible things. Most people were very accustomed to those things so they didn't seem incredible anymore but especially now that I've seen other worlds I really appreciate them. We could talk to someone on the other side of the planet for very little money and with virtually no delay. We built large flying machines that could carry us over oceans in comfort and at great speed. There were thousands of other little conveniences as well. There were also costs, prices we paid for mistakes we made getting to that point."

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"Wow."

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"It was a nice world, I will probably visit at some point and find my other self to make sure she's well."

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"It sounds amazing."

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"It is wonderful in many ways, but almost everyone is always in a rush and the air is dirty in a way you can't always notice until you've breathed clean air again. It isn't perfect, no place I've visited is."

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"And it's hard to find two people who agree on perfection anyway. But I could clean the air."

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"That's an interesting thought. I don't know what would happen if I tried to introduce a real goddess to my world. People worship all sorts of gods there but I don't think any of them are real. They tend to be these very big vague things that don't do anything conclusively attributable to them. People are very attached to them anyway though."

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"It wouldn't be especially hard, if you can get there, and I could just relinquish my claim if it goes too badly - that's also costly, but it sounds like it might be worth it anyway, it's not hard to prove that I exist."

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"It's something to keep in mind. I'd have to think about it. I worry that it might make some of the people who are too wrapped up in their religion do terrible things."

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"Yes - a long term plan if it's a plan at all; I'd want to make sure it wouldn't distract me too much from my responsibilities here, too, and that takes time. But it's definitely possible, if we decide to."

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"Indeed, could you change the carbon dioxide concentration of the atmosphere for the whole planet at a meaningful speed?"

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There's a pause while she considers. "It would depend on how big my domain was, and how it was arranged, and what you mean by 'meaningful', and what else I needed to do at the same time. But if the conditions were right, yes, I expect so."

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"Around the time I left people were starting to talk a lot about the concentration of carbon-dioxide. It was above four hundred parts per million. The scientists were saying it really ought to be closer to two hundred eighty."

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"That sounds unpleasant."

"What I could do, actually, would be modify some plants - a few species, probably, for different climates and things - to take care of that, and then people could plant them all over, beyond what I could claim as domain. That will take some work, I haven't done anything that complex before, but it'll be much more efficient in the long run than doing it directly."

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"That's an interesting idea. I don't know enough about the science to tell you if that would work."

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"I'd have to try it to be really sure, but I don't see any reason to think it wouldn't."

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Luna shrugs. "It's not that I don't think the plants would work, it's that people are still putting more of the stuff into the atmosphere at a decent pace."

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"Ah. I'd need to know more about that, then. But I could certainly give it a try."

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"What sort of technology do the people of this world have?"

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"Not very much compared to what you're used to, I expect. There've been a couple of big improvements on waterwheel machines recently, though, and people are working on new designs to take advantage of that, and I hear someone has come up with something that makes books without having to write them out, but we don't have one yet."

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"I'd guess that's a type of printing press. The older ones used fully carved pages while the newer ones have a bunch of individual letters that could be moved. In my time we've replaced both with machines that can place ink precisely where you want it based on designs made on things called computers."

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"That sounds fascinating."

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"Yeah, I don't entirely understand how computers or printers work myself. I think printers need special inks that don't bleed to work. Computers are... somehow they use really tiny arrangements of electrical stuff to do math and then build on that math to do much more complicated things."

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"Hmmmmm - left a bit - electricity is like lightning? I don't see an obvious connection between that and math, but maybe if I play around with it I'll be able to figure it out."

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She corrects her course. "I don't know quite how it works, I know people who work with computers sometimes make jokes about binary. Maybe that's related somehow."

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"...oh, that is interesting. I still don't see how you'd get from there to lightning, but it does suggest how you might get math from a machine - it'd be something like a very simple abacus, where the bead triggers part of the machine to act somehow." She considers. "If the lightning is just to power it somehow, we might not need that at all, I bet it'd be possible to make a waterwheel machine that worked that way."

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Luna smiles. "I'm glad I could help. What exactly are waterwheel machines?"

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"Waterwheels are, well, a big wheel, turned by a stream of water, usually a river, and then you can add a shaft and gears to power any kind of machine that can work on turning power. The simplest kinds grind flour or draw water, but they're useful for lots of things - mostly that kind of mechanical work, pounding ore to be smelted or grinding wood for paper or what have you, but there's no reason you couldn't use it for something where the machine itself is the interesting part."

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"Interesting, I'm not sure how would that work. It sounds cool though."

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"You'll want Miller's Pool, for waterwheel machines, they have plenty of them and won't mind showing them off at all; I'll get a prototype set up there myself once I have an idea of how to make it work."

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"Well I did plan on teleporting stuff between the two. That works out nicely."

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"Mmhmm. If you're going to be staying for a while you'll probably want to set up shop there yourself, that's where the inventors are and I expect they'll be the most interested in your magic, both learning it and finding uses for it. Cresthill is still nice, though, just a bit slower paced."

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"Ooh, I'm always looking for more ideas of what to do with magic. Going through the archives gets tiring at times though."

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"I don't have many inventors, mind. But if you're going to stay, I can get word out, especially once it's common knowledge here; plenty of people will be willing to move for magic as flexible as yours."

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"I want to be careful about giving out my artifacts, just because I'd want to be more careful about making sure they can't be easily used to hurt people. I tend to leave myself that option just in case. But otherwise that sounds interesting."

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"Oh, certainly. I'm not imagining you're even necessarily going to teach everyone you can. But even if there are only a few people who can use your magic - if they're here, people will want to move here to work with them, even if they can't be one."

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"Oh, that's a separate thing. Anyone who wants my magic has to go to Wanderdeep with me. I can just check to see whether Wanderdeep will accept them in advance."

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" - Ah."

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"It would only have to be a brief visit, I wish I could share it without that complexity but it is what it is."

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"And that's safe, and everything?"

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"Wanderdeep is very safe. And so is my teleportation. It just takes a while to get there. I think it's a couple days trip each way. No time passes for the people teleporting though."

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"All right. I may want to come along anyway - have someone bring a vial of dirt, not even a cat - if that won't complicate anything, the first time."

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"I haven't brought anything made with other magic systems along before, but I don't think it would cause problems."

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"We can test it, if you'd rather be sure, but a vialfull of dirt isn't much of a loss, if that's how it's most likely to work out if there is a problem. - You should be able to see it now, that glow up ahead."

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"I would expect the problem world be with the long trip not a short one. We can test a short teleport though. Do you want me to put you down before I get to the city?"

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"Once you're settled in is fine."

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"Alright." Luna flies on. "Which part of the city should I be headed towards?"

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"Trader's quarter, I think - northwest bit, the section with the big buildings with the clay-tile roofs."

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Soon enough she's touching down in that part of the city. She looks around.

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Warehouses, stables, inns; shops catering to travelers, mostly closed for the night. A good number of cats wandering around, all mundane. It's not a touristy part of town, obviously enough, but there are benches and decorative flourishes on things and a tiny park visible up the road.

"Is there any particular type of person you'd like to work with, or cargo you'd like to take or avoid?"

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"I would prefer to avoid transporting weapons. Otherwise nothing I expect to be relevant. As for people, I'd prefer to interact with nice people. But if that's not possible I can manage."

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"Easy enough. This way." There's a twinkle of communication magic in the air, and one of the street cats stands and starts walking purposely up the road.

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Luna carefully doesn't comment on the cat and follows along. She's walking now but her bracelet is still over her hand.

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Around the corner and up two streets, with occasional further communication-twinkles when the cat begins to get distracted. He sniffs at the door of an inn - possibly The Drunken Crow, from the picture on the sign - and meows once, loudly, before trotting off.

"You might want to do your translation magic now."

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"Alright, I'll need to put you down first." Luna puts down the cat she was carrying gently and looks through her satchel before pulling out a small cube with intricate patterns on it. She runs her fingers along the sides of the cube and winces. Then she speaks again this time in the most common local dialect. "Seems to be working." She drops the cube back in her bag. "Do you want me to pick you back up?"

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"It doesn't matter very much as long as it's clear that I'm with you - it's not going to be as obvious to them as it was to me that you're not just a very confused acolyte."

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"Alright." Luna steps over to the door and opens it. "After you."

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And in she goes, making a beeline for a table near the middle of the room and hopping daintily from floor to chair to tabletop, attracting attention but mostly not outright stares from the patrons.

The tavern itself is mostly fairly generic, but nicely decorated, with painted landscapes on the walls and blue glass candleholders etched with a leaf pattern on the tables. A small shrine is set up in one corner; several candles arranged around a statue of a cat on a small table draped with a green cloth, with a collection of objects arranged in front of it.

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Luna follows as best she can, doing her best not to run into anyone.

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It's not crowded enough for that to be especially difficult. A waitress comes over promptly with a menu for Luna and a small plate of cooked meat scraps for the cat. "Hello. New in town?"

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"Yes, I'm from pretty far away. I'm using translation magic if you're curious."

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"Ah. Visiting acolyte?" She nods indicatively at the cat, who nudges her hand to solicit petting.

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"Not quite, I have a different source of magic."

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"- oh?"

She glances at the cat, who has rolled over onto her back - everything's fine, I'm calm, there's nothing to worry about, says her body language.

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"I'm from another world, and I have magic from yet another. I'm a wanderer, I visited because this world seemed nice to my scrying and Deviskaryl has been a very gracious host."

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"Ah, interesting! And she brought you here for - explanations, introductions, that sort of thing, I imagine?"

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"And a place to sleep."

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"Of course. Where would you like to start?"

(The cat rolls back over, rubs her head on the waitress's hand one more time, takes a piece of meat from the saucer, and heads for the door; when she gets there, she drops the morsel and meows to be let out, which she promptly is.)

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"Could you tell me about this city? Deviskaryl said it had an art district which is why I came here, I always like seeing local art, but otherwise I don't know much about it."

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"Sure!" She sits. "I'm Aubin, by the way."

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"Luna. It's nice to meet you."