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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
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imeanforever
wormcan
"Shadow Stalker reports that you were invisible when you arrived. While that may well have been in the area of Vista's effect, is invisibility within the scope of what you call a little bit?"
imeanforever
"Continuing to be invisible having already been so, yes. Starting would be harder."
wormcan
"Vista's power does scale easily, if doing more of it might help. I can have her test it. Some others might be useful as well, depending on what determines how hard it is to use your powers."
imeanforever
"I don't know why sorcery doesn't usually work in the mortal world in the first place. It's not supposed to work at all; my invisibility should have been gone as soon as I came through the tear regardless of where exactly I landed. But if there are several Earths they might work differently and I could have information only about other ones. How long can she apply her power to an area?"
wormcan
"It lasts until she corrects it. Which she is ordinarily required to do at the earliest opportunity for obvious reasons, but some place suitably unoccupied could be found."
imeanforever
"Then I can try making a gate in the suitably unoccupied place and see if it'll settle."
wormcan
"I'll send out some instructions. A space should be prepared shortly."
She types at one of her devices. "In the meantime, would you mind describing what your power can do? When it's working, of course. I should warn you that the gates alone, depending on the exact mechanics, might make you a target for forcible recruitment from any of several groups."
She types at one of her devices. "In the meantime, would you mind describing what your power can do? When it's working, of course. I should warn you that the gates alone, depending on the exact mechanics, might make you a target for forcible recruitment from any of several groups."
imeanforever
"Then it sounds like I might really not want to explain them, doesn't it?"
wormcan
"If you appear vulnerable, the existence of the gates is enough information for the more trigger-happy factions to think it worth a try. I can order Shadow Stalker and Vista not to mention the possibility, unless it's us you're worried about."
imeanforever
"It currently seems like I may need Vista's help to go home, but if you really want to help me go home you don't need a full explanation of everything I can do, and if you don't want to help me go home, I oughtn't tell you."
wormcan
"If sorcery is not unique to you, this is another addition to the list of concerns if other fairies appear. And I still hold out some hope of recruiting you non-forcibly. Your Master power alone could save quite a few lives."
imeanforever
"Again, you are not about to get a torrent of fairies. Sorcery is not unique to me but most fairies never learn any and it flat out doesn't work under normal conditions here. By 'Master power' you mean the names thing?"
wormcan
"Yes. We use the word for a general category of power, which includes the names thing."
imeanforever
"And you frequently have people threatening others' lives, whose names you want to hand over to me, who will listen to me telling them not to kill anybody? This is a routine problem you have."
wormcan
"Most of our opponents do use code names and varying degrees of secrecy, but there are some." Rachel Lindt. Jean-Paul Vasil. Trickster's name is on file somewhere. Even Alan Gramme, if Promise is vastly more effective than someone who is essentially an untrained civilian has any right to be.
"And in the unlikely event that your name thing works on Endbringers, you could be the most important asset the world has. Bar none."
"And in the unlikely event that your name thing works on Endbringers, you could be the most important asset the world has. Bar none."
imeanforever
"I don't know what those are. Are they mortals with particularly troubling powers...?"
wormcan
"Every few months, one of three city-destroying monsters attacks and capes fight it. Heroes and villains call a truce, strictly enforced. We evacuate as best we can, but thousands of civilians die. Your ability offers an outside chance at being the only thing that can stop this entirely."
imeanforever
"If they're monsters, not people, I doubt very much it'll work on them."
wormcan
"They may or may not have ever been human. No one knows where they come from.
Even if you can't control them, we are currently reliant on a handful of capes to transport the entire defending force to the battlefield. Depending again on how they work, your gates could make a valuable strategic difference."
Even if you can't control them, we are currently reliant on a handful of capes to transport the entire defending force to the battlefield. Depending again on how they work, your gates could make a valuable strategic difference."
imeanforever
"Gates can sometimes take days to settle. And going through Fairyland would be dangerous for you."
wormcan
"Low speed would make it less effective. Do fairies or sorcerers have any offensive or defensive capabilities?"
imeanforever
"There are a lot of kinds of fairies. I'm pretty harmless as far as natural weapons are concerned, but there are some who have other non-sorcery kind magic which could be hazardous, and sorcerers can do a lot of different things, which I am not presently inclined to list."
wormcan
"Yes, you've mentioned." Just like a cape, even if Promise technically isn't. But the usual reasons for why an independent would be so much better off with the Protectorate don't apply here, so the counterarguments would fall flat.
Emily glances back at the screen. "It looks like an improvised testing ground for your sorcery has been set up, and Vista is on site. Follow me downstairs?"
Emily glances back at the screen. "It looks like an improvised testing ground for your sorcery has been set up, and Vista is on site. Follow me downstairs?"
imeanforever
"Okay."
Promise settles her bag around her shoulder - it didn't burst or anything when she was shoved, but it did jostle - and follows.
Promise settles her bag around her shoulder - it didn't burst or anything when she was shoved, but it did jostle - and follows.
wormcan
The name plate on the Director's door has been covered, as have the corresponding ones on other doors. On the way down, Promise may notice that the Director speaks the floor number aloud instead of pushing a button, and some of the doors require a fingerprint on the way in.
The improvised testing ground is an unremarkable door halfway down a hallway. It opens onto a round empty room wider than the building. A single bulb in the center of the ceiling is entirely insufficient to light it; extension cords from outside allow other equipment to fix that problem.
"This was a closet a few minutes ago. It is under the effects of Vista's power significantly more than anything she would use in the field, so if that's the relevant factor your abilities should work here."
Vista herself is in the center of the room, smiling.
The improvised testing ground is an unremarkable door halfway down a hallway. It opens onto a round empty room wider than the building. A single bulb in the center of the ceiling is entirely insufficient to light it; extension cords from outside allow other equipment to fix that problem.
"This was a closet a few minutes ago. It is under the effects of Vista's power significantly more than anything she would use in the field, so if that's the relevant factor your abilities should work here."
Vista herself is in the center of the room, smiling.