something she can use

[alicornucopia]

Ehail blinks, when she finds the bar instead of her room.

She goes in.

She looks out the window, at the exploding things.

"I don't think this is my planet," she observes to herself, tucking silver hair behind her ear.

~~~

with Elysse

with Lazarus

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"Yep."

[alicornucopia]

"And I can take someone to Lator and then come back to Keppine myself?" hazards Ehail. "If you talk to any of the house leaders - speaking an offworld language and claiming offworld miracles will at least get you a test subject and once you have one of those you'll get the babies."

[prima_sequentem]

"Yes," says Libby. "I expect it'll be worth you making the introductions at Lator, but if you don't know anyone at the other two, I'm sure Chris and Lazarus can cope. Oh, hmm - if the other houses want to try adult test subjects first, they might not have room for test flights where they are, and if your common local version of teleportation requires actually having been to the place in question, it's likely to be much faster if I just give Chris and Lazarus the version I have in case no one has been to somewhere appropriately remote. Some sixes, please?"

[alicornucopia]

"Okay," says Ehail, handing over sixes to appropriate recipients. "The bottom of the world - or a side or the moon - would be safe."

[prima_sequentem]

"Thank you. 'The centre of the bottom of the world' would be a good enough specification for my teleportation power," she adds, for Chris and Lazarus's benefit.

[nonbird]

"And it certainly sounds remote," says Lazarus. He contemplates icebergy discomforts, and then spends his sixes to copy Libby's teleportation power and award himself a generalized defense against inclement weather that includes Libby's extremely well-designed air ward as a defense against drowning.

[alicornucopia]

Ehail distributes eights.

[nonbird]

"Goodness," says Lazarus.

[prima_sequentem]

"All safe," Libby announces a moment later, although everyone's coin storage is already providing this information. "Okay. So we go through the door; Lazarus teleports to Priskta, Chris to Sansee, Ehail takes me to Lator for introductions and then returns to Keppine. We all complete as many dragons as our coin supplies will catch, babies first after any necessary demonstrations. And then I suppose we meet up at the Keppine house again, if you don't mind, Ehail - it seems logical - and I'm sure we can make comfortable living arrangements until someone finds a Milliways door again. The bottom of the world and a little magic, if nothing else. Sound good?"

[alicornucopia]

"Meeting at Keppine is fine. Yes," says Ehail, starting to shake a little.

[prima_sequentem]

"Good," says Libby. "In that case, you can open the door."

[alicornucopia]

Ehail opens the door.

It leads to a little office with a sunshine spell on the ceiling, a spider plant on a shelf, a lot of notes in very small handwriting on square paper that is not remotely in English, and not much else. They all just barely fit.

[nonbird]

They don't have to barely fit for long, because Lazarus teleports away promptly -

[queensidecastle]

- and Chris is hardly a moment behind.

[prima_sequentem]

Libby brings herself and Ehail to the entrance of the Lator shren house as soon as it's clear that, for whatever reason, she's going to be quicker on the draw. Perhaps the local teleport procedure takes time, or perhaps Ehail is just (understandably) a little off-balance.

[alicornucopia]

Ehail is not too off-balance to immediately hammer on the door. "JENSAL," she says loudly. "It's Ehail, it's important."

The door opens, revealing a woman as youthful-looking and oddly-colored of hair as Ehail herself. "What?" she asks. "...What language is this?"

"Offworld. Miracles, Jensal. Let her in, show her the babies, I'm going back to do my house's -"

Jensal blinks. "You're vouching?" she inquires skeptically.

"Jensal, I flew," says Ehail, smiling again, and then she makes a gesture and says a word and disappears.

Jensal... looks at Libby, and gets out of her way.

[prima_sequentem]

"My name's Libby," she says on the way, because doing so will not slow her down any. "I gather it'll be best to do oldest first, among the ones who are still too young to cheat at flying - you'll have to point out the order if it's not very obvious. But my miracles work quickly, so it won't ultimately make an enormous difference."

[alicornucopia]

Jensal nods once and leads her to a room full of - it becomes obvious a ways down the hall - screaming infants.

She picks up a gold one and hands her unceremoniously to Libby.

[prima_sequentem]

Very nearly as soon as she touches the baby, Libby says, "You can fly now. Try it."

[alicornucopia]

The baby looks at her skeptically.

"Do it, Kytheen," says Jensal sharply (picking up a ruby, too, but not handing him over yet) and Kytheen spreads her wings and jumps out of Libby's arms and shrieks in stunned astonishment when she doesn't hit the ground plop.

Jensal hands over the ruby and picks up a diamond.

[prima_sequentem]

"Your turn, go on," Libby says to the ruby.

[alicornucopia]

The ruby tries too.

Once he's been aloft long enough to count he tackles the gold one out of the air, giggling.

Jensal hands her the diamond and collects a red.

[prima_sequentem]

"Go on - you too," she says to the diamond and the red, because there's been time to make the wish for both of them - the bottleneck here seems to be telling them she's done it.

[alicornucopia]

They try. Jensal stops picking up babies and starts pointing. Green. Emerald. Blue opal. White. Silver. Platinum. Obsidian. Malachite. Turqouise. Black. White opal. Iron. Copper. Sapphire. Gold. Jade. Red. Garnet. White. Black opal. Black. Green.

And that's it, that's the last one.

Jensal slumps against the wall when the littlest green baby is in the air.

[prima_sequentem]

"I have eighty miracles left," she says, "before I have to go back to Ehail and get more." And then, with a slight smile, "Make that seventy-nine."