blood sweat tear

[imeanforever]

He's moving her to a different court to see if it'll improve her attitude. She's allowed to fly. It's been a long, long time since she was allowed to -

She is only allowed to fly to her destination, not anywhere else. She notices that she is not where she should be, that she cannot progress to where she was told to go, and she careens out of control when her wings won't flap anymore, and she crashes.

---

with Miles (kappa)

with Minus (kappa)

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

He found three. He hands her the one on the top of the stack.

It contains actual practical scrying instructions and you don't even need to disassemble any animals!

[imeanforever]

Hooray! What do you need to do?

[eversomuchfun]

That depends on who or what you are trying to scry and how you are able to identify said target.

The most general-purpose scrying ritual involves a candle, a metal bowl, a pinch of salt, a splash of ink, and a drop of the caster's blood. One adds various target-specifiers at various steps of a short ritual, culminating in burning all burnable ingredients in the bowl and then pouring the ink over the ashes, filling the bowl with water, drawing and adding the drop of blood, and staring into the bowl until a clear image forms.

"These are all written for a human audience but I don't think the spell will care," Sherlock mentions.

[imeanforever]

"Why do you think that?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Assorted demons can use magic just fine and unless a picky god gets involved or someone has an applicable type of innate magic they can cast all the same spells as humans."

[imeanforever]

"I don't think my kind magic ought to have anything to do with it... okay."

[eversomuchfun]

"Going to try spying on anyone?"

[imeanforever]

"I'm not sure where I'd get most of these things."

[eversomuchfun]

"I could acquire them for you."

[imeanforever]

"Then yes, I will try spying on Thorn at least once."

[eversomuchfun]

"Won't that be fun."

[imeanforever]

"No, not really."

[eversomuchfun]

Snort.

[imeanforever]

"But it'll give me an idea if during moments I never had a look at there are clues to how people other than Thorn in the command structure would run things if they wound up the ranking non-incapacitated member."

[eversomuchfun]

"Yeah."

[imeanforever]

"But maybe it won't help or nobody who could take over would be any better. I could probably cripple the entire court, but you saw the kind of orders I was under...."

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes. There might conceivably be a scrying spell that could get you someone's fairy-relevant name, and I suppose if we're considering incapacitating most of the court already I could flood the place with tea... at last, a practical use for the multiplying potion!"

[imeanforever]

"That involves getting close. Thorn is very smart. I don't want to try to hit him with anything he could conceivably see coming."

[eversomuchfun]

"Well, I wasn't thinking of pouring barrelsful of tea over anyone without first turning them into flaming stone rats or similar. I suppose a flaming stone rat probably can't drink tea. There is room to refine this concept."

[imeanforever]

"I don't have even nicknames for some of the lower levels and other satellites of the court."

[eversomuchfun]

"Very thorough spying might take care of that for you," he suggests.

[imeanforever]

"Yeah, it would."

[eversomuchfun]

"But if there's another plan you like better, it's all the same to me."

[imeanforever]

"There's probably no tidy way to bypass Thorn and get the Queen..."

[eversomuchfun]

"Mm?"