chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

The toddler and the singer are both pleased. The woman catches and re-ties her scarf.

The women in Criin embrace; the one who was praying starts babbling incoherently, weeping into her wife's shoulder.

The original CC petitioner has experienced a gain of four points, so far, and hasn't noticed yet.

Here is a little iron miracle who wishes her parents would come get her too.

[aeskhyne]

Well, where are her parents?

[alicornucopia]

They are sitting on their porch in northern Embreyae with iced tea. There is no immediate evidence of newspapers. Maybe they just haven't heard the news.

[aeskhyne]

He checks their recent history. No - there, they've heard. How'd they take it? He watches.

[alicornucopia]

They exchanged a look. They said nothing. Eventually she suggested that they could go play netball the following afternoon if their usual opponents are free then.

[aeskhyne]

Well, now he's just curious - how did the iron girl get to the shren house in the first place? What were her parents like then?

[alicornucopia]

They took one look at the clutch of eggs, and the father said, "I'll find the address of a house," and the mother said, "I'll put the good eggs somewhere else", and then they did that, and soon after there was a shren egg in the mail, neatly dated with a sum of money enclosed, and attached to a letter insisting in no uncertain terms that they never wanted to be contacted about the egg, that if the shrens bothered them about it they would warn all their friends that they'd be better off if they just trod on the striped ones.

[aeskhyne]

Well then.

The little iron miracle gets a little flying note: Some things even I can't fix. -Teah

How's the Empress doing in her applesauce investigation? And the dragon council with the original flying note? Has anybody managed to interrogate a Snitch?

[alicornucopia]

The Empress's wizards are inspecting the tree and the applesauce and getting nowhere. The security staff is performing a comprehensive check of the entire palace and the princesses are rather inconvenienced.

A different member of the dragon council is checking out the note now. They've brought in an expert on handwriting, who is peering at the individual strokes of the characters on the note.

Some adult ex-shrens have gotten successfully ahold of Snitches to poke and prod at them and begin to learn about their properties.

[aeskhyne]

Being in a world that doesn't know about him is kind of fun.

What about Keo? Attending to other things now? What'd she do with the sleeping human?

[alicornucopia]

Keo is currently making sure he has a pulse, frowning.

(A teacher's assistant is missing her lesson plan. A man in Rozarima has accidentally set his house on fire; he's out but is worried about his pet drake getting hurt before the mage arrives. A girl in Ryganaav is not magical in any way but is scared out of her wits by the man her father's negotiating her sale to. A New Disciple of the Generous Lord has been caught practicing an illegal religion in Iraam and is running, afraid he'd botch a teleport if he tried it now and unable to think where to go. A Petaran county budget clerk can't make the figures add up right. An Aqathean potter is irritated to be undersold by low-quality imports. A boy in Tava is terrified of his mother.)

[aeskhyne]

He does have a pulse, yes. He's just... asleep. Deeply, unwakeably asleep.

(The lesson plan is retrieved in a shower of rainbow sparkles - the house fire burns in reverse, restoring everything it destroyed and then vanishing, all in a few heartbeats - he'll come back to the girl; he thinks he might have to talk to her - the New Disciple can be whirled away to the nearest collective of same that includes someone who speaks his language and isn't located in a country where his religion is illegal - a rainbow sparkle alerts the clerk to the numbers that result directly from embezzlement - how do the authorities in Tava tend to handle cases like that?)

[alicornucopia]

Tavan authorities are likely to let the mother in this particular case off with a warning and then tell the boy's teachers to keep an eye on him. They're averse to breaking up families at the drop of a hat.

[aeskhyne]

Mmhmm.

In that case - there don't seem to be any other countries with the same language in widespread use, so he looks for one that handles refugee children well. Esmaar fits the bill. How about siblings, any of those...? Yes. Yes there is.

So the kid gets a choice: to stay where he is, to be transported to a refugee center in Esmaar where he's very sure to be well taken care of but the language thing might be inconvenient, or to be transported to his runaway elder half-sister who shares none of their mother's objectionable qualities.

[alicornucopia]

The kid goes to his sister's place. She is confused but she gives him a muffin.

(Gambler in Oridaan wants to draw the seven of squares. Elf in Rannde wants to know what the vampire religion is hiding. Chef in Mekand wants to rescue the burned sauce because he doesn't have more saffron. Chieftainess in Mryne wants the agreement with her neighboring tribe to hold. Wizard in Zuq wants freer information exchange between the three traditions of wizardry.)

[aeskhyne]

Sauce fixed in a puff of rainbow sparkles first, then back to the girl in Ryganaav - what's the story with her odious potential husband?

[alicornucopia]

He's older than her, his current wife seems - sad, and his kids do too, and she doesn't like him.

[aeskhyne]

He investigates why the wife and kids are sad, and considers potential interventions.

[alicornucopia]

The wife and kids are sad because the guy is pretty terrible to them, that is pretty much it.

[aeskhyne]

Somehow he suspected as much.

He gives the odious potential husband bad luck as regards the accumulation of money and wives, and the existing wife and kids good luck as regards health, happiness, and food security - an intervention subtle enough that he doesn't think there's a reasonable way for anyone involved to guess magic.

And to the girl, he gives a choice: stay (where the man's new luck may or may not prevent him from buying her), or be transported to a neighbouring country that takes refugees. Esmaar will support her without her needing to do much about it, but is likely to be jarringly magical; she'll need money to start herself off in Saraan and more money to keep herself going, and he can provide the first thing but only some luck as far as the second, but there will be somewhat less pervasive magic involved. And whichever way she goes, she can have the same luck-blessing he gave to those other people, if she wants it.

[alicornucopia]

The girl contemplates this choice - and stays put, shivering. But she'll take the luck.

[aeskhyne]

All right. Prayer granted. Has Keo figured out his body is alive yet? How about the air mage and the rescued sisters, how are they doing? He did imply he'd keep an eye on them.

[alicornucopia]

Keo is pretty sure he's alive, but is really bewildered about it and powerless to find out in the way she'd normally resort to what he'd like done about it.

The air mage is sneaking olives in a tree, unobserved by the farmer to whom they belong.

The sisters are sitting together in a room in the temporary housing facility listening to a staffperson explain how they'll try to place them with an adoptive family.

[aeskhyne]

Well, he can't do much about Keo until she tries praying to him again. In the meantime, he's sure there are more prayers to grant. There always are. Maybe some more people will have bad ideas he can gently warn them off of so the Empress of Linnip doesn't have to be the only one.

[alicornucopia]

A girl in Reverni wants her papa and her siblings back - a man in Nirlan wants his husband to just hold still and stop fighting him - a boy in a trained-light academy in Ekanedae wants to pass his exam - a woman in Esmaar wants to teach math at U. Daasen - a girl in Ertydo wants just fiiiiive more degrees of sleep - a woman in Egeria wants to know why she's so confused and so alone and in this hospital without her other half - a man in Gibryel wants mosquitoes to go extinct - a teenager in Rannde wishes he were smarter - a sorcerer in Pra Verian has had an accident with a large object in motion and now his sister is on the floor bleeding and he doesn't want their parents to find out it was him -