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]

"Neither of us know very much about witchcraft," says Kerah.

[missnicegirl]

"Oh, well. Why are you looking for interesting worlds? Do you want to learn magic from them? That would make sense."

[alicornucopia]

"That's exactly what we're doing," nods Terali.

[missnicegirl]

"Well," says Matilda, "I'm not sure if I can teach you magic from my world... I don't know very much about it yet."

[alicornucopia]

"We can get other people, if we know who to try to get," says Kerah. "How do you learn it?"

[missnicegirl]

"I don't think getting anyone else would help," she says. "I'm not sure yet how people start being able to do magic, but I'm the first one I know about."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, that's very interesting," muses Terali. "Not necessarily useful, but interesting."

[missnicegirl]

"Useful for what?" wonders Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

"It's not something we could learn," Kerah explains, "or teach anyone else."

[missnicegirl]

"Well," says Matilda, "I could ask Miss Honey if I can come to your world to take witchcraft lessons, and if she says yes and you find me witchcraft lessons then when I figure out how people start having magic I'll tell you."

[alicornucopia]

"There are some people we'd have to ask about that," says Terali.

"Who's Miss Honey?" asks Kerah.

[missnicegirl]

"She's my adoptive mother since last year, and she's in charge of the school I go to."

[alicornucopia]

"Then she'd definitely be one of the people we'd have to ask. Is she going to be upset that you've vanished from wherever you were?" asks Terali.

[missnicegirl]

"Not immediately, she wasn't in the room or anything, but she will if she looks for me and can't find me at all. Can you come home with me to talk to her?"

[alicornucopia]

"That's not part of our exploration protocol, but we can send you home with a letter and then summon the letter," suggests Kerah.

[missnicegirl]

"Okay."

[alicornucopia]

Kerah gets some paper (it's square) and a stick of graphite (it doesn't leave any smears on her hands). "What's your language called, Matilda?" she asks, turning a few pages in a nearby book.

[missnicegirl]

"English. Why?"

[alicornucopia]

"Because now I can cast a spell on myself that will let me write a letter in it. It might come out a little funny, but it should be readable." Kerah casts the spell, and starts writing.

"We can just send this along after we send you back," says Terali. "You don't have to wait. How long should we give Miss Honey to write a reply on the back of the letter?"

[missnicegirl]

"I think an hour would definitely be enough."

[alicornucopia]

"How long is an hour?" asks Terali.

[missnicegirl]

"Well, an hour is sixty minutes and a minute is sixty seconds, but I don't have a clock with me..."

[alicornucopia]

Terali casts a spell; now there are numbers in midair. "The fastest-moving number is splits, then ticks. Is a second close to one of those amounts of time?"

[missnicegirl]

Matilda peers at the numbers. "It looks like a split is about the same thing as a second."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay. Then we'll give you an angle and a half to leave plenty of time," says Kerah, "and then take the letter back."

"Ready to go home?" asks Terali.