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]

The man squints at her hair when she starts speaking Draconic. "...Okay..." He gestures at the baby dragon on his head.

[missnicegirl]

"I can't tell anything weird about that one... can I look at more? When baby dragons die is it very sudden and inexplicable like old age, or does it happen some other way?"

[alicornucopia]

"The others are napping. You can come in. They... they cough, and they don't stop coughing until they stop breathing," he murmurs, motioning her inside.

[missnicegirl]

"That's not like old age, then. I might still want to try giving them magic transplants if I can't see anything weird about any of them," she says, lowering her voice on account of napping babies as she comes in.

[alicornucopia]

"Magic transplants?" he murmurs.

There are two more babies, curled up together in a crib with a lid, one malachite and one gold like the hair-wrestling baby.

[missnicegirl]

"...oh," says Matilda, staring at the babies. "That's easy. They don't have hardly any magic at all; no wonder they die. Magic transplants are when I replace someone's dragon magic with ialdae. It does all of the same things, languages and fire and colour-group stuff and everything, but it doesn't get holes in it or suddenly go away. I should do it for those two babies. And then I should talk to the dragon council again and find out where all of the dragon babies in the world are and give magic transplants to all the ones like them."

[alicornucopia]

"These ones will die if you don't?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes. There's a space in every dragon's magic where if it's empty you die, and these ones are all empty spaces."

[alicornucopia]

"If you can fix them - do it. The one on me is okay?"

[missnicegirl]

"The one on you is fine," she assures him.

She looks at the babies, and transplants all their magic in. She knows all the colour groups now. It's very, very easy.

"All done," she says. "And I should go now. Unless you have a communication crystal to the dragon council - do you?"

[alicornucopia]

"No, just to my line representative - my wife has one to her color rep, since it's her mother, but I don't know where it is."

[missnicegirl]

"I'll just go back and use Jensal's again. Thanks. Your babies are cute," says Matilda, and she teleports back to where she last saw Jensal.

[alicornucopia]

And Jensal is there. "Any luck?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes! It was really obvious. Two of the babies just had no magic at all," she says. "I gave them full magic transplants. Now I need to find out where all the rest of the babies are so I can do it for everybody. Can you and Ludei help?"

[alicornucopia]

"Help transplant magic? Yes. And the rest of the ialdic miracles too, potentially."

[missnicegirl]

"Anyone you can teach to see magic, you can teach to transplant dragon magic with ialdae, I think," Matilda agrees. "Okay. But I really want to fix all the babies who are alive right now and might not be later. Let's call the dragon council again."

[alicornucopia]

Jensal nods and produces the crystal again.

[missnicegirl]

She rings it.

And says, "I found out how to fix the babies so they don't die and it's very easy and I want to get all the babies fixed as soon as possible. How fast can you get me and Jensal and Ludei a list of where all of them are?"

[alicornucopia]

"You fixed my grandchildren?" asks the voice on the other end.

[missnicegirl]

"Yes. There was one who was already fine and two who needed magic transplants, and now they have them."

[alicornucopia]

"We'll get you a list of addresses. It'll take a few angles to be complete but I can give it to you piecemeal as it's assembled."

[missnicegirl]

"That would be very good, thank you."

[alicornucopia]

There is a pause, and some murmuring, and then the dragon starts reading off addresses.

[missnicegirl]

Matilda needs to distribute this list, and she can't actually be in several places at once.

Matilda has heard of link paper.

She conjures up two pads of paper, hands one to Jensal, retrieves a pen from her pocket, writes three columns on her paper - Matilda, Jensal, Ludei - and starts writing down addresses while she teleports to the first one.

[alicornucopia]

Jensal seamlessly takes over writing down the addresses the councilmember speaks.