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

[missnicegirl]

"A lot, probably. As many as I can fit in a room with me. And it can be a big room."

[alicornucopia]

"All right, let's go to the courtyard and then I'll call in a batch."

The courtyard is surrounded by house on all sides and has some deteriorating playground equipment and a garden and a lawn.

Jensal brings out a bunch of children and several adults.

[missnicegirl]

The flicker of light that accompanies this teleportation is bright enough to leave afterimages.

"Natural forms, everybody," says Matilda when they are all on the bottom of the world. Then she starts pointing.

[alicornucopia]

Everybody shifts, more or less promptly - some of the midsize children need to be coaxed by their minders - and then everybody flies.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda turns to Jensal and asks, "Are there more people in your house? Should we go get them right now?"

[alicornucopia]

"There are more people. We don't have any inside shrens in my house at the moment so you can fix them all here."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay."

She teleports herself and Jensal back to Jensal's house.

[alicornucopia]

Jensal gets more people, mostly adults this time.

[missnicegirl]

And Matilda brings them all down to where the cloud of former shrens is flying, and fixes them all. She has enough time today to get everyone in Jensal's house.

[alicornucopia]

Then everyone in Jensal's house will be very pleased.

[missnicegirl]

She checks the time.

"The iceberg house is smaller, right? I think I might have time to get all of them today too."

[alicornucopia]

"That's the smallest house, yes."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay."

Matilda brings Jensal there, so that Jensal can go get Quaro from underwater.

[alicornucopia]

Which Jensal of course does.

[missnicegirl]

"I can fix you all today, I think," Matilda explains to Quaro, "but it'll be hard to bring you to the bottom of the world in large batches because you live underwater and I can't breathe there. How should we do that part?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's pretty deserted here. I can call to make sure there are no dragons around, which there probably aren't, and we can just do it here," Quaro says. "I'll send everybody up."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay. That will work fine."

[alicornucopia]

Quaro calls. Indeed there are no dragons around.

And he sends up a lot of shrens, who go from merfolk to various bird forms as they surface, fly out far enough to give each other room, and shift natural in an admirably orderly fashion.

[missnicegirl]

And one by one as they assume their natural forms, Matilda fixes them all.

[alicornucopia]

And they fly (and swim) around happily.

"Next house, or is that all for the day?" asks Jensal, who this time had the foresight to bring a coat.

[missnicegirl]

She checks the time.

"I don't have time to do a whole next house but I have time to do part of one. Should I wait until I have time to do them all in one go?"

[alicornucopia]

"If you can do half a house that's worth the trip."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay. Bye, Quaro."

She takes Jensal to Ludei's house.

[alicornucopia]

Where Ludei assembles batches of kids for her.

[missnicegirl]

And she takes them to the bottom of the world and fixes them all.

"I think ialdae's learned this well enough that someone who's not me might be able to do it too," she says to Jensal and Ludei when she has fixed all of the kids. "But I don't know how to safely teach a person how to do it, because it's not like moving things or changing colours or making healing lights or even teleporting where if you get it a little bit wrong you're probably okay. If you get this a little bit wrong somebody dies."