exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Everybody looks at that girl, and she laughs, clearly delighted.

"What's your name?" Terali asks her.

"Annei Nepailah."

"Congratulations, Annei, you're the first Elcenian ialdae user."

[missnicegirl]

Matilda giggles. "I guess I can put you down now," she says, and she does that. "I don't know which parts of ialdae you've picked up... I think you might have some of the ability to teach it things, though."

[alicornucopia]

"How do I... do... anything, with it?" asks Annei, getting out of her chair and pocketing her book.

[missnicegirl]

"I think the first thing you should try is probably levitating yourself, but I can't really explain how very well. When I started using magic I had to concentrate very very hard on what I wanted to do with it, but now it's much easier and I hardly think about it at all."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay," nods Annei.

"Might be time to revise your schedule again," says Terali, almost teasingly. "You're conversational in Ertydon at this point, Fena says, so you could make time to teach Annei and anybody else who catches it by having fewer language lessons if your schedule's crowded back home."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay," says Matilda. "And I'd like to meet a light, please. I want to see if I can teach healing to ialdae."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm a light," call two different people in the crowd of would-be ialdae users.

[missnicegirl]

"Can you show me your magic?"

[alicornucopia]

Both of them cup their hands and get little balls of sparks, one robin's-egg blue, one dark purple.

[missnicegirl]

"Hmm," says Matilda, peering thoughtfully at them. "Okay. Thank you."

[alicornucopia]

"You're welcome," says Purple Light.

"It would be very good if you could teach ialdae to heal," Terali says, "because lights don't work on themselves or each other, so if they get hurt or sick they're stuck with potions. Not that I'm knocking potions, but they're not as comprehensive or fast."

[missnicegirl]

"I definitely want to teach it to heal, then. I'm not sure if I have, yet. I'm not sure what's a good way to test it."

[alicornucopia]

"I have a headache, if seeing it in action would help," suggests somebody, and Robin's Egg Blue Light heals that person's headache.

[missnicegirl]

"Thank you, that might have helped too. But what should I test ialdae healing on? I already know I can make sparkly lights that don't do anything except sparkle."

[alicornucopia]

"Does anybody else have a headache?" Terali asks the assembled crowd.

"I have a scraped elbow?" someone volunteers.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda levitates herself higher than everyone else so she can see the scraped elbow person more clearly, and she concentrates slightly, and a pale blue sparkling light lands on the person's head and her elbow ceases to be scraped.

[alicornucopia]

She peers at her elbow.

"Fixed!" she reports.

"At range," marvels Annei, "ooh."

[missnicegirl]

"Oh, do lights not work at range? Well, I guess ialdae learned it differently. But it still works! Hooray!"

[alicornucopia]

"I could, I don't know, prick my finger," says Purple Light, "and we could check if it works on lights?"

[missnicegirl]

"Okay," says Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

Purple Light unpins a pin from her hat and pricks her finger.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda makes blue sparks over Purple Light's head. Purple Light's finger is unpricked.

[alicornucopia]

There is scattered and then more enthusiastic applause.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda giggles happily.

[alicornucopia]

"So I can learn to do that?" asks Annei.