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]

"It is the wrong kind of fire. It's the throwing-fireballs kind. If you want to teach ialdae how to do things with fire, teach it how to do better things. Do you think it would be good to teach ialdae about mages? I'd like to put out burning buildings! That would be useful! Teleporting would be neat too. I've only ever done it between worlds but it would be very, very silly if that was the only way I could."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, you can also put out burning buildings with water conjuration. Mages are more generic. I'm not sure I know any," says Annei.

"Wizards can teleport," says Sarsia. "And people who just learn how, but it might be nice to do it without casting a spell."

[missnicegirl]

"I'm going to see about teleporting," Matilda decides. "Let's see. Where should I try to teleport to, if I wanted to test that it worked as well as teleporting does here? I wouldn't want it to only be able to go across rooms..."

[alicornucopia]

"The Aspelin Mountains," suggests Sarsia. "Top of Mount Ress."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay!"

Matilda thinks for a tick, and then vanishes.

She's gone for about a tick and a half.

"I think that probably worked," she says when she reappears. "It was the definitely the top of a mountain, anyway, and so far my magic hasn't really done any things wrong that it's tried. It seems like sometimes people's ialdae learns the things they've had done to them somehow or other; should I try teleporting you both and see if you pick it up that way?"

[alicornucopia]

"Uh, sure," says Sarsia.

[missnicegirl]

Poof. Now they are all on top of a mountain.

"It's really pretty!" says Matilda. It is indeed really pretty.

[alicornucopia]

"This is Mount Ress," confirms Sarsia.

Annei grins.

[missnicegirl]

"Yay! Okay, now you try going back to the room," she suggests.

[alicornucopia]

They try.

Annei gets it first; Sarsia follows soon after.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda poofs back into the room, still with that distinctive little flicker of light.

"Congratulations!"

[alicornucopia]

Annei is giggling her head off; Sarsia's pleasedness is more restrained.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda is definitely on the giggly side here.

[alicornucopia]

Sarsia writes down that they've gotten ialdae to do this on a little pad of paper.

[missnicegirl]

"So what sorts of things can mages do, besides put out burning buildings?"

[alicornucopia]

"It depends on the kind of mage, but basically their element does whatever they want," shrugs Annei. "And they have to almost die to activate."

[missnicegirl]

"I would not like to teach ialdae that part. That would be really inconvenient! And scary!" says Matilda. "But I might want to teach it the other stuff."

[alicornucopia]

"It's not too bad for air mages, all they have to do is fall, they don't land," says Annei. "It's pretty scary for the other kinds, I think, but they can take knockout potions first."

[missnicegirl]

"Well, if ialdae learns how to mage it shouldn't learn that."

[alicornucopia]

"Can you stop it from learning that?" asks Terali, who is supervising this lesson from a corner of the room.

[missnicegirl]

"I don't know. I don't exactly know how I'd try. But so far I think ialdae has been very good about only learning nice things when I'm the one teaching it."

[alicornucopia]

"So far," says Terali. "Where is it getting all the niceness from? Will it keep it?"

[missnicegirl]

"Well, I guess it's getting niceness from me," she says. "Because when I teach it, it learns nice things, and when Miss Trunchbull taught it, it learned bad things instead. As long as nobody tries to teach it bad things, maybe it will keep learning just the nice ones."

[alicornucopia]

"It got all of witchcraft at once, though," Terali says. "If it does that with wizardry or magery there will be dangerous stuff in with firefighting and telling time."

[missnicegirl]

"It hasn't done that with wizardry, though. And it didn't really do it with lights either, it picked up the sparkly healing ball but not all of its limitations. What kind of dangerous wizardry stuff is there?"