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

[nonbird]

"The kind of magic that miracles are made of comes from my world, but it is extremely difficult to make it in large enough units to miracle with - specifically, it is extremely painful to do that. So of course shrens and ex-shrens are much better at it than any of the people from my world who can. But that's only because of how you grew up, so when the last person who was a shren for the first twenty years of their life dies of old age, there won't be anyone left who can do it that easily. So I guess I should try to figure out why dragons die of old age, because I suspect it is a magic thing and I am very good at figuring out magic things."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh. I mean," says Quaro, "even four thousand years with no shrens - plus I guess if you can stockpile it a while after that - would be wonderful..."

[nonbird]

"Hmm. And I suppose if you stockpiled it the right way, then after you ran out of miracles the next few shrens to grow up like that could get the magic to make more... but I'm sure there are still plenty of dragons who would rather not die of old age if they can help it, and it would be nice if there didn't have to be periodic gaps in miracle coverage."

[alicornucopia]

Quaro doesn't follow all of this explanation, but he nods at the last remark.

[nonbird]

"And now I'm done dragoning everyone in this iceberg," he adds.

[alicornucopia]

"Thank you," says Quaro. He shifts his weight slightly, but doesn't go anywhere.

[nonbird]

"You're welcome!" he says cheerfully. "And none of you can catch shrenness again now. Not that I expect that to be much of a hazard after today."

[alicornucopia]

"New ones will still hatch," says Quaro. "Unless you can miracle them in the egg. Did you get the home shrens?"

[nonbird]

"What's a home shren?"

[alicornucopia]

"Sometimes the parents will keep theirs instead of destroying the egg or sending them to one of the houses. I can't tell you where they are, but the council can, they have to have a map so dragons know where not to go." He pulls out his crystal again, offers it to Lazarus.

[nonbird]

Lazarus peers at the crystal some more. "Hmm. Well, all right then. They won't mind if I call them?"

[alicornucopia]

"They'll panic like headless chickens because the only reason I have the crystal is so if necessary I can warn them about rogue shrens. But they'll listen when you tell them why you're calling."

[nonbird]

"Hmm," he repeats. He takes the crystal and strikes it. (Magically speaking it is extremely straightforward and, despite what he called it earlier, its method of operation is not really very mysterious at all.)

[alicornucopia]

The voice on the other end, predictably enough, doesn't answer in English.

[nonbird]

"Hi! I'm a miracle distributor and I would like a list of all the home shrens so I can go turn them into dragons. I have already done it for everyone on this iceberg."

[alicornucopia]

"...You're Quaro's miracle-worker, huh?" says the fellow from the dragon council.

[nonbird]

"Yes I am."

[alicornucopia]

"Can you prove it?"

[nonbird]

"I am at this very moment looking at eighteen baby ex-shrens happily flying around. They are extremely cute. Would you like to come see them for yourself, or did you have some other kind of proof in mind?"

[alicornucopia]

"...I'll send someone to have a look. In the meantime I can give out the addresses regardless - you just want the ones under twenty or all the juveniles with known whereabouts?"

[nonbird]

"That depends on how many there are. Definitely the ones under twenty, but if the rest are a very long list then I should probably wait to get to them until I've dragoned all the little ones and then gone and told them about it."

[alicornucopia]

"Right then..." The dragon starts listing various addresses; he renders numbers into English where applicable but most of the rest of it is in an assortment of other languages.

[nonbird]

Lazarus decides that the most obvious way to keep them all straight would be to teleport to each one as the dragon lists them. One, two, three, four, five - with those still fresh in his mind, he makes a wish - six, seven, eight...

[alicornucopia]

"...Noets, Drast. That's the last one," concludes the dragon. "Is that everything besides the person en route to inspecting the site of the violets' house?"

[nonbird]

"Yes, I think so," he says, making the wish for these three. "Thank you!"

Oh, and he's gone and teleported away with Quaro's minimally mysterious speaking crystal. He returns to the iceberg. Now that he's been to all eight stray shren baby locations, he shouldn't have any trouble going back to them to explain things.