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to another's sight
Permalink Mark Unread

There is a house, and in the house is a bed, and in the bed is a girl. She sleeps soundly, curled up very small under her blanket, while a steady accumulation of snow makes round soft piles on the roof and against the outsides of the walls.

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Something creeps into her dreams.

It creaks like old wood, tall and four-armed and gnarled, fingers warped and many-knuckled. It bristles with vicious intent, curved hooks and barbs of hatred built to tear into flesh. Though its body seems insubstantial, at its heart lies a fist-sized lump of polished bone.

It turns, and looks at her. Its eyes are ophidian, predatory. Fine gold chains bind together its lips, sealing away its wintry voice.

Five bright shards of possibility shine from within its withered fist.

Though it does not open its mouth, it speaks nonetheless.

Choose.

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She snaps awake with a squeak of alarm.

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It sits on top of her on the bed, its fingers unforgivingly substantial as it presses her down into the mattress.

Choose.

It holds five silver-bright tarot cards in one hand: each one's edge looks sharp enough to cut.

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"Wh-what? Why?"

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"Because it is the Law."

Echoes of other words surge against its skin. Because I was commanded to. Because you are weak, and I am strong. Because I want to see you suffer. To destroy my enemies.

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"...What Law? Whose Law?"

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"The Law of the Creator of the World." The Law that prevents me from harming you, save in ways deemed 'fair'. The Law of my sworn enemy. The Law of an incompetent clutching at straws.

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"What am I supposed to choose between?"

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"Different lives. Different fates."

How you will suffer, and how the Creator will compensate you for it.

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"What are the - options?"

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"The Hermit. The Hanged Man. The Empress. The Fool. The Chariot."

Give up your friends. Give up your body. Give up your life. Give up your fate. Give up your mind.

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"What..." she pauses for a second or so, struggling to order her thoughts. "What is the nature of each of the choices?"

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"They are choices of a new life, in a new world."

Their nature is cruel and unforgiving.

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"What are the differences between the choices?" she tries.

(Hermit, Hanged Man, Empress, Fool. The Chariot means 'give up your mind' and that is not even worth considering, but she doesn't know what the rest mean yet, not enough to understand them.)

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"What you will have to sacrifice."

Impatience. Boredom. A catlike tendency to play with its food.

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Okay, maybe if she gets more specific...

"What does the Hermit choice do?"

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"It will grant you the power to manifest an aura, but you will no longer be able to express your emotions."

With one's soul all bottled up like that, no wonder it starts lashing out, trying to escape.

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"What does the Hanged Man choice do?"

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"Eternal youth, at the price of never growing up. High status, at the price of scrutiny."

Everything you might want, at the price of having it. Ah, wishes and their wishers...

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"What does the," what was the next one, "Empress choice do?"

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"It will grant you strength, at the cost of battle eternal."

Those who live by the sword die by the sword. Or by my bare hands. Whichever is more fun.

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"What does the Fool choice do?"

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"Choose your fate. Choose your life. Become a different person."

What an ironic thing, to be chained down by the weight of your past self...

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"What else do they do?" she says, frustrated.

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"All of them will grant you power, in one way or another."

Go on then, make a choice...

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"...The Fool lets me choose more things?"

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"Yes."

Damn it, she's one of the attentive ones.

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"Which choices let me choose more things?"

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"All of them."

Poker face...

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Hermit, Hanged Man, Empress, Fool...

"What are all the more things the Hermit lets me choose?"

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The shadow tenses, swallowing hard - then the golden chains threaded through its mouth compel it to form words.

"The body type, strengths and weaknesses of your new body. Lifespan, as associated with the strength of your body's aura. The manifestation of your aura's power. The talent that you will gain. The ways that your aura will be etched, and the techniques of its use that you will know."

Damn it damn it damn it damn it!

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"What's an aura and what does it have to do with lifespan?"

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"Auras are expressions of the power of one's soul. The stronger the Aura, the longer one lives."

Vague resentment, held in check by golden chains...

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Hermit: body things, aura things. Okay...

"What are all the more things the Hanged Man lets me choose?"

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"The body type, strengths and weaknesses of your new body. When your body will stop aging. The reputation of your family. Your demonic heritage. Your bodyguard. The supernatural strengths of your demonic body, and the tomes of forbidden knowledge that will come into your possession."

Boredom and half-interested cruelty, as its lips are shaped and moulded by the magic.

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"Is it the Hanged Man in particular that would have demonic heritage or do the other ones have that too?"

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"No. The others do not descend from demons."

Even the Lilim are as shadows to us...

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Hanged Man: body things, demon things.

"What are all the more things the Empress lets me choose?"

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"The magical and physical aptitudes of your new body. The style of your transformation. The Focus, Element and Signature of your magic."

Hmm, I wonder if I'll get to play dress-up with this one...

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Empress: body things, magic things, transformation style.

"What are all the more things the Fool lets me choose?"

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"The natural aptitudes of your new body. The lifespan of your new body. The general appearance and body type of your new body. The companions that you would have. The anomalies you would encounter in your life. Your overarching fate."

Cambiare are always so boring.

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Cambiare: too many things - no, she should try to remember them anyway. Lots of body things and some fate things.

She takes a deep breath (because this is scary and she needs to focus) and stares hard at the creature, and at its reflection, and she asks: "What exactly can I choose about the Hermit's body - what different," what was it all again, "strengths and weaknesses can it have, and what else can I choose about it exactly?"

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"You may specialize your body towards improved learning skill, agility, or dexterity. You may also choose your general body type, in terms of appearance."

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"Can I have the Hermit's appearance be just like mine is now? Learning and agility and dexterity are strengths; what are the weaknesses?"

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"Even with the closest possible body, you will lose about an inch of height. As for weaknesses: if you specialize your body towards learning or strike a balance between dexterity and learning rate, your strength or overall health will suffer: if you specialize it towards dexterity, your learning rate will suffer."

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"What if I specialize it toward agility, or don't specialize it at all?"

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"Agility comes with either learning ability or dexterity. In the first case, strength or health will be affected: in the latter, learning rate. If you do not wish to specialize, I will select a choice for you."

Hmm. Do you care more about your body, or your mind...?

Permalink Mark Unread

Then it sounds like what she wants is agility and learning ability, and the closest possible appearance to her own. And that is all the body things.

"What exactly can I choose about the Hermit's aura, and," what was it, "the talent?"

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"Your aura's manifestation and etching, and the techniques of its use that you will know. There are seven possible talents: Dance, Vocals, Instrument, Gymnastics, Acting, Scholarship, and Programming."

The faint sound of a snare drumroll.

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"What about the Hermit's lifespan, what can I choose about that and what difference will it make to other things?"

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"The longer your life, the more obvious your aura, and the more unsettling you will be to others."

Live a long life alone, or give up your future for a chance at companionship? Decisions, decisions.

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That's a tough one. Maybe she should come back to it.

"What do the Scholarship and Programming talents do exactly?" she asks next.

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"Scholarship will grant you mastery of a single area of academia. Programming will grant you fluency in a single coding language, and the talent to learn others."

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Useful, but... she doesn't like the idea of just putting talents in her head like that. Maybe one of the ones for the body.

"What about the Gymnastics talent?"

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"You will be a prodigy of physical movement, having mastered one area of gymnastics."

A sense of absence, as the golden chains shape the shadow's mouth.

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"Can I choose which area, too? What are the areas?"

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"Yes. Any that you can think of. Aerial acrobatics. Tumbling. Parkour. And so on."

How generous.

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Parkour is closest to what she already knows... okay.

Quick review: She wants agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to her own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, and she isn't sure about the lifespan and she still needs to pick the manifestation and etching and techniques of her aura.

"What can I choose about the manifestation of my aura, and what other effects will the choice have?"

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"There are six possible aura manifestations: The Dread Lotus, the Lilting Lotus, the Jade Lotus, the Hidden Lotus, the Brilliant Lotus, and the Spectral Lotus. They have no effects on your other selections."

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"What are each of the manifestations like?"

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"Each lotus consists of five powers. I will explain each in turn.

The Dread Lotus is a dark, shadowy aura.
Firstly, it makes your every movement graceful and hypnotic.
Secondly, it lets you slow your falls and levitate as a physical effort, as fast or slow as you can walk or run.
Thirdly, it allows you to control another being for up to an hour each day.
Fourthly, you may use your aura to move objects within it, as if you were standing anywhere within its range.
Fifthly, no-one will suspect you of wrongdoing until confronted with hard evidence.

The Lilting Lotus is a gentle, protective aura.
Firstly, it allows you to relieve or cause pain with a touch.
Secondly, it makes you regenerate rapidly from any injury, be near-immune to diseases, and purge sickness from those within your aura.
Thirdly, you may mend the flesh and bone of anyone within you aura.
Fourthly, you may create defensive barriers within your aura.
Fifthly, you may restore the recently-dead to full life and health.

The Jade Lotus is a dynamic, pulsing aura of electric potential.
Firstly, it allows you to strike those within your aura with lightning-like spiritual energy.
Secondly, you may drain stamina or life from those within your aura.
Thirdly, you may teleport to anywhere within your aura's range, creating a shockwave where you appear.
Fourthly, your aura will actively retaliate against anyone who tries to harm you, requiring no action from you.
Fifthly, you can use your aura to accelerate your movements and speed your cognition.

The Hidden Lotus is a subtle lavender aura.
Firstly, it makes your footfalls and movements muffled and hard to discern, and grants the ability to see vast distances regardless of lighting conditions.
Secondly, it allows you to become invisible so long as you minimize your physical interaction with objects.
Thirdly, it grants you perfect sight of everything within your aura.
Fourthly, it allows you to conjure simple solid objects, made of lavender light.
Fifthly, it allows you to throw your voice anywhere within the range of your aura.

The Brilliant Lotus is near-blinding to those with aura sight.
Firstly, it extends your lifespan by five seconds for every second that you are alive.
Secondly, it fixes your apparent age at any age you choose, in a range from 7 to 21.
Thirdly, it allows you to view the past through any mirror you touch.
Fourthly, mirrors allow you to view any place you know of within the city.
Fifthly, mirrors allow you to view a single branch of the future.

The last aura is the Spectral Lotus, which manifests as a kaleidoscope of shifting colors.
The Spectral Lotus grants a strong innate resistance to magic. Its remaining four powers may be selected from any of the auras above - but each manifested power must come from a unique aura."

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(Agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to her own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, and...)

"How big are auras? What is their range?"

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"Most of them are approximately twenty-four feet in radius. The Lilting Lotus is half that range."

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She wants a lot of things from the Lilting Lotus, but she also wants the five seconds per second of lifespan, except...

"If I had the aura thing that gave me five seconds per second of lifespan, what would that do about my aura strength? Does aura strength affect anything besides how unnerving I am?"

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"The Brilliant Lotus is uncommonly powerful, and manifesting its unbounded lifespan will naturally make you very unnerving. Aura strength otherwise has very few effects."

You're not wriggling out of that one.

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"Very few is some. What effects does aura strength have?"

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"Stronger auras are easier to expand with training, and easier for those with aura-sight to see."

Nosy.

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She wishes she weren't too scared to have her selfspace avatar get up and get a paper and pen and start writing all this down. But she can still half-see into the reflection of her desk, and - yes! - she can make the reflection of a pen write on the reflection of a notepad. The strange magic creature can't stop her.

"Can I choose any lifespan at all when I choose my lifespan?" she asks, and in the meantime she writes:

Agility and learning ability, the closest possible appearance to my own, a Gymnastics talent in parkour;

The Spectral Lotus aura manifestation, with the Lilting Lotus's second power of health and sickness-banishing and the Brilliant Lotus's first power of unbounded lifespan and the Jade Lotus's fifth power of making myself faster and ... maybe the Dread Lotus's second power of levitation but maybe the Hidden Lotus's second power of invisibility...

Etching? Techniques?

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"No. You may only choose how fast you age. The options are at half your current rate, at one-quarter your current rate, and at one-eighth your current rate."

The Shadow doesn't seem to notice the mirror-writing.

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And a longer lifespan comes with a stronger aura, and a stronger aura sounds like it's actually useful. She underlines the invisibility power, since if she's going to be as unnerving as all that she might as well be invisible too, and adds 1/8 aging rate to the line about her body's properties.

"What can I choose about my aura's etching?"

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"There are fifteen possible aura etchings.
First, the ability to levitate as a physical effort, as fast or slow as you can run or walk.
Second, the ability to teleport twelve feet, once per minute.
Third, perfect grace and elegance, and the ability to fall any height and be uninjured.
Fourth, supernaturally enhanced hearing.
Fifth, a supernaturally enhanced sense of smell.
Sixth, inhuman flexibility.
Seventh, speed-reading at full comprehension.
Eighth, perfect knowledge of one scientific theory.
Ninth, natural parkour skill and the ability to adhere your hands and feet to surfaces at will.
Tenth, resistance to heat or cold or electricity.
Eleventh, a mind safe from all intrusion.
Twelfth, general magical resistance.
Thirteenth, your aura is naturally hidden and impossible to read.
Fourteenth, you can detect and read others' auras.
Fifteenth, you can completely disable your fear response at will."

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"How many etchings can my aura have...?"

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The Shadow's aura bristles, thousands of cruel spikes closing in around her - but the golden chains restrain them, pare them back, and finally force the creature to speak.

"Up to five."

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She flinches at its response, but:

Aura etchings: 11, safe mind; 13, hidden aura; 14, aura reading; 1, levitation; 2, grace and not hurt by falling.

"What can I choose about the techniques?"

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"There are fifteen again. You may choose up to five. They are Bolt, Burst, Resilience, Clothing, Spikes, Sphere, Beam, Lash, Naginata, Breath, Form, Collapse, Fade, Mask, and Clone."

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"What do all of those techniques do?"

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"Bolt. Project bolts of spirit energy. Burst. Make your aura explode, destroying the area around you while leaving you unharmed. Can be combined with Bolt to make the bolts explode. Resilience. Increases how often you can draw upon your aura. Clothing. Allows you to form your aura into any set of mundane clothes. Spikes. Allows you to form a shell or wall of aura spikes within your arms' reach. Sphere. Create a protective sphere of spirit energy. Can be combined with Burst to produce a blast of energy when struck. Beam. Maintains a continuous beam of spirit energy for ten seconds. With burst, can once again cause explosions where it impacts objects. Lash and Naginata summon weapons of the appropriate type, formed of your spirit energy. Breath. Allows you to go without breathing and ignore the effects of pressure and radiation. Form. With tremendous effort, separate your spirit from your physical body and act with supernatural strength. Collapse. If you should die, your aura will destroy everything within ninety-six feet. Fade. Temporary invisibility. Mask. Disguise your physical features. Clone. Temporarily duplicate yourself. With burst, yet more explosions."

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Aura techniques: Resilience. Clothing. Breath. Sphere. Bolt.

Riya takes another deep breath.

"If I chose the Hermit with the closest possible appearance to my own, body specializations of agility and learning ability, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, one-eighth of my aging rate; the Spectral Lotus aura manifestation with the Lilting Lotus's second power of health and sickness-banishing and the Brilliant Lotus's first power of unbounded lifespan and the Jade Lotus's fifth power of making myself faster and the Hidden Lotus's second power of invisibility; the five aura etchings of safe mind, hidden aura, aura reading, levitation, and grace-and-safe-falling; and the aura techniques of Resilience, Clothing, Breath, Sphere, and Bolt, what else would be left that I could have made a choice about and didn't?"

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"Nothing."

The shadow's aura settles, seeming to simmer with cruel satisfaction.

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It isn't angry at her, which is surprising, so maybe she missed something else...

"...What else is wrong with that list, then?"

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The shadow blinks.

How did she--?!

But the golden chains are already compelling it to speak.

"You may only select five aura techniques or etchings. If you select five techniques, you may not select any etchings, and vice-versa."

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Well. That settles that. The aura techniques seemed mostly undesirable anyway.

"Then I want the Hermit," she says, "with the closest possible appearance to my own, body specializations of agility and learning ability, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, one-eighth of my aging rate; the Spectral Lotus aura manifestation with the Lilting Lotus's second power of health and sickness-banishing and the Brilliant Lotus's first power of unbounded lifespan and the Jade Lotus's fifth power of making myself faster and the Hidden Lotus's second power of invisibility; and the five aura etchings of safe mind, hidden aura, aura reading, levitation, and grace-and-safe-falling."

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"The deal is struck. Accept your card."

The Shadow extends the Hermit card towards Riya. It gleams silvery.

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With her real body, she reaches hesitantly towards the card...

...and as her fingers close on it, her inner reflection reaches out and snatches all the reflected cards out of the reflected shadow's hands.

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There is a flash of light, a sense of twisting space -

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And then she is alone in her room again.

Something is different. Was the view outside her window always of a city?

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No. The view outside her window is of a forest. This is not her house and not her window and - her self is all wrong - she looks at the glittering silver fragments fading from her reflection's hand.

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It seems she didn't quite manage to snatch any of the cards from the Shadow's mirror-self, but these fragments definitely did something to her...

Not to mention the larger changes from the Hermit card itself.

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She curls up under her blanket and examines her reflection. She can tell which things are from the Hermit card and which things are from the fragments. For some reason, all the fragment-things seem to be about parkour. She did not want this much parkour. Why is there so much parkour.

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The parkour seems to like her, regardless of her blandishments. Running, jumping, climbing, leaping! How to find the best line and jump small buildings in a single bound! Parkour!

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Well, it's not like she precisely objects... anyway. She has all of the options she chose. Is there anything different about her that the shadow didn't warn her about?

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Her thoughts seem clearer somehow, more crystalline. Easier to hold simultaneously in her head.

Her body reacts perfectly to her commands, with fluid, natural grace. This is more than simple agility - every motion seems aesthetically pleasing somehow.

Her bed-head appears to have fixed itself, not a single hair out of place. And she smells faintly of vanilla for some reason.

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She investigates her reflection until she sees exactly how and where everything is attached. It would be terrible not to know herself. It's already terrible enough to have been changed like this.

Still, it's not so bad being able to think easier and move easier and having... very convenient hair? Smelling like vanilla is weird but she can probably get used to it.

All this self-examination takes her a lot of time. Now she's hungry. She sits up in bed and sends her reflection tentatively out of the reflected room to look around for where she might go to find food here.

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There is a place that is recognizably a kitchen, with a set of cupboards, a pantry, and a large strange humming box filled with fresh food. Apparently it keeps things cold: there is an interesting little box at its base, pumping hot air out of the insulated compartment.

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What an... object.

Are there any people around? She would like to avoid them if so. She does not want to interact with any people at this time.

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There are people in bed in another room nearby. They seem soundly asleep.

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Good enough.

Her real body sneaks down to the kitchen and acquires an acceptable quantity of food and sneaks back up to her room. Then she sits on her bed and eats while her reflection pokes around to examine the reflected house.

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There are all sorts of unusual objects. Some are recognizable variations on things she knows: some are completely foreign to her. Many things are made of a strange, unnaturally smooth material, like the black, polished bones of some ancient beast. Copper wires snake this way and that, through the walls, from one strange device to another: what arcane purpose could they serve...?

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It's very odd. But when she follows and studies the wires, she figures out soon enough that they connect to mysterious objects. Some sort of bizarre local magic. This must be a strange place indeed, to have produced the bone-hearted shadow with the golden-chained mouth. It makes sense that there would be all kinds of bizarre magic here.

Now she is done eating the food. Her reflection returns to her reflected room, and curls up in bed at the same time as she does. But only the reflection cries.

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Eventually, the sun rises.

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At least her dreams still work right. She lies in bed and watches the dreamscape fade out of her selfspace as the reflections of her surroundings fade in.

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Still the same strange room.

Still the same strange city.

Still the same strange world.

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She sits up after a few minutes and sends her reflection out to check if it's safe to go get food again without running into any people.

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People appear to be having breakfast in the kitchen. One of them wonders aloud where she is.

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She does not want to talk to anyone. Maybe if she waits for a while they will go somewhere else and she can get herself some breakfast.

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It appears that one of them has decided to go knock on the door to her room.

There is a window in her room. It's not too far to the ground, and she knows parkour. She has options.

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...Escape via the window is a tempting option, but in the end she stays put.

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Someone knocks on the door. "Riya?"

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...is it too late to climb out the window? Probably.

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They knock again.

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She does not want to talk to them and wishes they would go away.

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"... Must still be asleep."
Footsteps recede down the hallway.

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Success.

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What will she do with her hard-won time?

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...

She will fret. And patrol the reflected corridors of the house looking for a good time to sneak downstairs and get more food without having to interact with any humans.

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After an hour or so, the humans leave the house. Apparently they have work to do.

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Good. Now she can eat breakfast.

And...

...and do what, really? What is there to do? Where is there to go? She lives in a city now. This is wrong. Cities are full of people and people are troublesome.

Well... she did get all that parkour.

Maybe she can go climbing.

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There's bound to be a decent view somewhere, of something that isn't city. Right?

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She decides she will find out. Out the window she goes.

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There is really quite a lot of city.

No matter how high she climbs, how far she walks, there is always more. More strange, mismatched architecture. More concrete towers and stone columns, wood construction intermingled with metal.

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... This is wrong.

This is too much city. There needs to be less city. Why is there so much city. This is much worse than too much parkour. Too much parkour is an oddity; too much city is - is -

How high does she have to climb, how far does she have to run, to get away?

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There is no away. There is only city.

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She can levitate.

She can just go up, and keep going up, as fast as she can run, until the only things close enough to reflect in her selfspace are her body and the clouds.

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She can. But eventually her muscles will begin to tire, especially in this thin air. She cannot remain in the sky forever.

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She can remain in the sky for a while. Long enough to calm down, and then long enough to study the city from horizon to horizon. How is it so big? Why is it so big? Who would do this terrible thing?

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The city does not have answers for her.

But if she had to guess... the Shadows seem like good candidates.

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Shadows are bad.

 

She floats down to the top of a skyscraper and perches on the edge. Why is everything so terrible. What is she going to do. This is the worst thing that has happened to her.

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Someone is sitting next to her.

They weren't sitting next to her a moment ago.

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She jumps up in startlement, and one movement flows into another, and she is halfway across the roof before she calms down enough to pause and look back.

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That's quite alright: the girl is still sitting next to her.

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...

Nope. Back up to the sky she goes.

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The girl looks up at her. She seems to be declining to fly.

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Well then, Riya can just. Stay. Up here. Forever.

...

No. She cannot do that. That is not a thing she can do.

...

She slowly lowers herself back toward the roof, eyeing the other girl warily. When she is just barely close enough for the other girl to have a reflection in her selfspace, she stops to examine it. What are this stranger's properties?

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... This girl does not really exist here. She exists everywhere, smeared out across the city like a brushstroke. And she has far too many eyes and mouths to be altogether comforting.

But she is a person, beneath the shadows' taint. She is whole and strong. Something about her is faintly silvery, reminiscent of the cards she was offered. Reminiscent of herself now, come to think of it.

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...This girl is really unsettling.

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She seems to be waiting for something.

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...

Riya comes gradually down to land on the roof again.

"You're very unsettling," she says.

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"Oh. I'm sorry about that."

She looks down at the street below.

"... from the way you look at the city, I would guess that you're not from around here."

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"Cities are bad. I don't want to be in a city."

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"Unfortunately, there isn't anywhere here that's not a city. I've looked."

She sighs.

"... Would a park help?"

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"How big is the park?"

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"... Still small enough that you can see buildings, but there are a few secluded copses of trees where you can almost forget."

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She sighs.

"Why isn't there anywhere that's not a city? How? Is the whole planet like this? Is this even a planet?"

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"I don't know. I haven't found an edge so far."

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"There should be a place that's not a city. I want a place that's not a city."

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"All I can say is that I don't know of one."

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"What do you know?"

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"Well, I know you're from another world. And I know the Shadows took you from that world."

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She considers this for a few moments.

Then she says, "Yes, that happened."

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"It happened to me as well."

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"I'm sorry."

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"I have some comfort in knowing that I'm helping prevent the Shadows from doing this to more people."

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"How?"

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"To date, I have destroyed over seven thousand shadows. It is difficult for them to summon people when they are dead."

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"... Can I do that too?"

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"Quite possibly! What abilities do you have? They seem to be different for all of us."

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"I picked..."

She closes her eyes in concentration, to better remember her exact words.

"The Hermit with the closest possible appearance to my own, body specializations of agility and learning ability, a Gymnastics talent in parkour, one-eighth of my aging rate; the Spectral Lotus aura manifestation with the Lilting Lotus's second power of health and sickness-banishing and the Brilliant Lotus's first power of unbounded lifespan and the Jade Lotus's fifth power of making myself faster and the Hidden Lotus's second power of invisibility; and the five aura etchings of safe mind, hidden aura, aura reading, levitation, and grace-and-safe-falling."

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The girl raises an eyebrow.

"That's a really accurate list. Unfortunately, you don't really have any offensive powers..."

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"I didn't want any."

She pauses. She gazes thoughtfully at the girl.

"What offensive powers do you have?"

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"In terms of things I got from the cards? I have my body, which is amorphous and strong - and I have my bodyguard, who is more effective than me at combat. Aside from that... Well, I have been busy during the last seven hundred years."

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"I don't think I want to have a body like your body," she says. "What else do you have?"

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"I have an armory of interesting weaponry. We can probably find something suitable. You said you knew parkour and were able to make yourself faster?"

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"Yes. What interesting weaponry?"

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"Various enchanted swords, guns, tomes, and so on. Undoubtably we'll be able to find something that suits you."

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"What are all your new things from the cards? I'm trying to understand them, but the paintbrush one is so very odd it makes it harder to understand the rest."

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"I have demonic blood: I'm a Lilim. I don't age, and have a ten thousand year lifespan. I also have high status in this world. Though I was originally an Umber demon, I sacrificed the innate power in my blood in exchange for the Tome of the Gate's capabilities. My other augments allow me to summon demonic defenses and see the futures, pasts, and auras of other people - though your aura is very difficult for me to perceive. It seems fragmented somehow."

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"I chose the hidden aura," she says. "You're all over everywhere, like a paintbrush. Which thing is that? I don't want it, but it's interesting."

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"That's most likely the Tome of the Gate. It lets me teleport to anywhere I've previously been in this city - and I've been to a very large number of places."

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"I don't want to be a paintbrush person. But I want to get rid of all the shadows."

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"I can definitely help you with that. Allies?"

She extends a hand to Riya.

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"Okay," says Riya, nodding. She does not do anything in response to the hand.

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A deck of cards falls into Ishmerai's outstretched hand.

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"... With your permission, there's a reading I'd like to do for you."

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"What reading?"

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"The first reading I ever did for myself. To see your future. To see if you can ever return home."

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"Oh." She considers this. "Why?"

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"Because the cards have said that it is possible for me, and I suspect that they will tell you the same thing."

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"Okay."

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Ishmerai deals, laying the cards out onto the tabletop.

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"Does a future exist where this Kukla girl will return home to her world?"

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The deck produces three cards.

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"Past. Present. Future."

She turns over the rightmost card, the one symbolic of what-will-be.

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A bleached skull grins up at her. The thirteenth card: Death.

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"Death, upright. The card of endings and transformations. There will be a major change. Another card..."

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A set of scales, perfectly balanced. The eleventh card: Justice.

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"Justice, upright. The card of fairness and good descision-making. If you choose well, the way home is not yet barred to you."

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"Okay."

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"That's good, right? That means that you can go home."

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"It means I can go somewhere that isn't here."

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"Well, even if you choose to interpret it that pessimistically, it's better than being trapped here, isn't it?"

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"... Yes."

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She doesn't seem to have an answer to that.

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"Where are your magic weapons?"

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"Back at my home. Well, my home in this world."

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"Oh." Pause. "I woke up here in a house with people in it. I don't know what to do about them."

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"I suggest you not go back."

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"Why?"

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"The people there will think you're their daughter. You won't know enough about your relationship to fake it. It will end badly for everyone."

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"Oh." She considers this. "But then where do I go instead?"

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"I'm rich in this world: I own property. I can find you a temporary room easily. If you want your own house, I can also arrange it, but it will take time."

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"I want to have somewhere to stay. It would be good if there weren't people there."

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"Do you care where it is, how it looks...?"

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She shakes her head.

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"Then I have a room very nearby. Would you care to follow me?"

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She nods.

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"I can't fly, so I'll have to teleport. I hope you don't mind."

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"How do I follow you teleporting?"

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"I'll take it in a series of small steps - I teleport to the next roof and call out, you follow me, then I teleport again, and we repeat that process until we get there."

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"Okay."

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Ishmerai dies down in one place and springs up in another.

"Here!"

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Riya goes over there.

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They repeat this process a half-dozen times, until-

Ishmerai is standing on a balcony. She hands Riya a small, silvery key and gestures towards the balcony door.

"Your room. It's one of my various safe houses. This is the only door, so you don't need to be worried about anyone else disturbing you."

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"That is good," she says. "Thank you."

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"Would you like me to leave you alone now? It's undoubtably been rather a shock for you, so if you'd rather not talk more right now..."

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"I want to see magic things that might be useful more than I want to sit by myself and be unhappy."

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"That's the spirit! Should I bring the magic things here, or bring you to the magic things? The first one would probably be faster, because, you know, teleporting."

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"First one."

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"It might take me a few moments to gather everything, but don't worry, I'll right back!"

Ishmerai smiles, and disappears.

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She goes inside and waits.

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A few minutes later, there is a 'clank' from the balcony. Ishmerai has appeared again, carrying a backpack full of things that are very complicated beneath selfsight.

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She goes and opens the door, blinking at the backpack.

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Ishmerai steps in with a nod to Riya, and drops the backpack down next to the bed with another loud clank. Unzipping it, she efficiently lays out various instruments of destruction on the sheets.

"Sorry, I would use a table if we had one big enough... I'll have to bring one over here when we're done with the weaponry."

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"What are all of these things?"

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"Powerful magical weapons, found or retrieved from the shadows."

She taps an impressively ornamented longsword.
"The Bastard of Dalheim. Powerfully holy. Causes pain in those who lie while it is unsheathed, and cuts through the Shadows' defenses like butter."

She brushes the notched handle of a rusted revolver.
"Spite. A vicious gun, which seems to guide its envenomed bullets to its opponents' weakest points. Only six shots, though."

A double-edged knife.
"The Lady. A fated blade that draws its bearer towards great dangers - with even greater rewards."

A scimitar, curved like a treble clef.
"Dirge. Sings when unsheathed with intent to kill. The more that enemies fear its bearer, the weaker and more helpless they become."

A battleaxe, heavy as a stone, sharp as a razor.
"Gloryseeker. Grants immense strength and fortitude, deflects incoming missiles, and a canny awareness of one's environment. Unfortunately, none of these enchantments will function for anyone who has ever lied."

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She studies the items, and their reflections. How are they put together? How can she take them apart?

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They appear to be made of thin skeins of enchantment, layered and layered atop mundane metal.

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Hmm...

The battleaxe sounded like it had the things she wanted most. She gently peels the reflection apart, picking up the layers for 'immense strength and fortitude' and transferring them to herself as carefully as possible. She doesn't care at all about the lying criterion, and the reflected copy of it is shredded to uselessness in short order.

Meanwhile, her real body stands there blankly.

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"Immense Fortitude" comes easily, but then "Immense Strength" starts peeling a little at the edges - what she ends up with is more like "pretty decent strength."

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That's... acceptable.

She pulls at the rest of the axe's reflected magic and manages to get a nearly perfect copy of the missile-deflecting aura effect, wrecking the situational awareness part in the process.

Then she says, "That was useful."

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"...Alright?"

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She stands there for a few moments, trying to figure out how to explain.

Then she says, "...I can... copy magic. Parts of magic. I copied parts of that one," she points at the axe. "Do you have more magic things?"

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"These are most of the ones I can carry with me. Were you looking for anything specific?"

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"I don't know what things there are. But I want to be able to get rid of the shadows." She looks at the other weapons. "Maybe I will copy some things from the others of these too. But it's hard to figure out what being holy is made of exactly. Do you think it would be useful to be holy?"

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"I don't know, to be honest. None of this magic works in ways I truly understand."

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She nods thoughtfully.

Then she says, "I wonder what happens if you take the axe away and then bring it back..."

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Ishmerai picks up the ax again, and vanishes for a moment: then she reappears.

"Did that do anything?"

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"I'm not sure. It might have changed the reflection a little. But it didn't fix all the things I took out."

She looks at the holy sword and tries to figure out how its holiness is implemented and whether it would be a good idea to copy it.

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The holiness is rather complex. It's 'destroy evil in general' and 'speak honestly' and 'strengthen the righteous' and 'destroy demons specifically' and a half-dozen other things, all tied together in intricate knots that reinforce each other. It looks rather likely to shred if she pulls at it.

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"Holiness is complicated," she says after examining it for a little longer. "I probably can't copy it very well."

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"That's unfortunate."

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"Yes."

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Awkward silence.

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"Do you have any more things?"

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"Yes, I do. I have many more things. But not a huge number of them are portable like this."

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"Can I look at them somehow?"

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"I could bring you to them, but it might be somewhat uncomfortable for you."

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"How?"

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"If you were to allow me to embrace you, I could bring you with me when I teleported. I... normally don't prefer this, for a lot of reasons."

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"Why?"

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Her teeth and eyes swim out of the darkness.

"I'm told it's rather intensely disturbing."

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"Probably," Riya agrees. "But is it the only way to see the magic things?"

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"No, just the fastest."

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"What are other ways?"

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"We could fly, like last time. But the storehouse is very far away."

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"I could fly to a place far away." She considers. "Maybe not now."

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"Probably best if we leave that aside for now, then."

She sighs.

"... Do you need anything else? Food? Books?" A hug?

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"I probably need food," she says vaguely. "...I like books a lot."

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"Books are nice. Would you like any particular kind, or should I surprise you?"

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"I don't know what kinds there are," she says. "I like most books. I guess not usually sad ones. But even those sometimes if they're interesting."

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"So... Surprise you, then?"

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She nods.

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She vanishes with a smile - then she reappears, clutching a thin sheet of metal to her chest. Though there are lines incised on it, they don't look much like letters.

"Here we are!"

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"Is that a book?"

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"It's better! It's all the books. The people here call it a magicomp."

She sets down the slab of metal on the small desk, then pokes it: a three-dimensional image of a row of books rises from the metal, little stone gargoyles at each end propping them up.

"This is my custom library application, set on 'shuffle': just tap one of the gargoyles to get a new random shelf of books. If you see something interesting, just take it from the shelf: the books are semi-real and will persist as long as you're reasonably close to the sheet."

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"Oh."

She looks at the row of books.

"I like this thing."

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"It's a very nice thing! I didn't have anything like it back in my old world. Hopefully I'll be able to take one with me when I go back."

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"That would be nice," she agrees. "...This is a magic thing. Are there more magic things that aren't weapons? Some of them might be useful. But I don't know which ones, because I don't know what things there are."

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"Um... There are very fast vehicles that hold a lot of people, boxes that keep food cool, lights..." She trails off. "There's a lot of magic, I'm not really sure where to start."

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"I'm not sure either."

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"Let's table that for now, then. I'll think about it and get back to you with a list of useful things."

She tilts her head.

"... Incidentally, I don't think I ever got your name?"

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"Riya."

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"Ishmerai."

She smiles. "I hope you settle in well, Riya. I know it's awful at the start, but... you get used to it, after a while. Don't let the shadows win."

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"I don't like being in a city. I won't like being in a city. I want the shadows to stop." Pause. "Thank you."

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Ishmerai half-smiles. "I didn't say it gets less awful. I said you get used to it."

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"Yes."

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"... Sometimes, that's enough. Sometimes."

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Riya starts investigating the books.

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Well then. It seems that the conversation is done.

Ishmerai has other important things to do: she'll leave Riya to her books for a while.

"I'll check up on you tomorrow morning. Is that alright?"

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"Yes."

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Ishmerai nods, and vanishes.

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Riya reads books. And sleeps.