Yes. Some of the rooms are still intact, especially the subterranean ones.

It doesn't look like it. He doesn't see anyone.

Oh.

He should probably get out of here now. Is there a warehouse he can get to?

Yes, although they're now exposed to vacuum.

That's fine. He just wants to get one of the half-meter long plutonium batteries. Actually he's going to get multiple and put them inside his pocket dimension by stuffing them down his cowboy hat.

He's going to conjure his motorcycle now – the motorcycle Gran gave him – though he doesn't know where to go.

Gran and Dee said that there were a lot of witches on Earth. They told him that when he was taking Aethernautics classes. He should go to Earth.

His Witchery has a speed of 89.408m/s. His motorcycle has a speed of 116.23m/s. He's done speed tests with his Metallurgy and Windkeeping before. He thinks he can get a speed of 1300m/s from Metallurgy and Windkeeping, each.

He'll call on Aethernautics to tell him how far away Earth is from Mars.

It's about 225.308 million meters away.

That's very far away. But in space, there's no air. He remembers that that's called 'vacuum'. Which means that there would be no air slowing him down, and he could get faster and faster. But of course, he would need to slow down before reaching Earth, or he would hit it very, very hard. And it would not be good for him or the witches living on it. He'll accelerate all the way until he gets halfway, and then he'll accelerate the reverse way, to slow him down.

His motorcycle takes 15 seconds to get up to full speed. That's an acceleration of 14.528m/s².

His witchery takes 10 seconds. That's an acceleration of 8.9408m/s².

Controlling both himself and his motorcycle with Metallurgy and Windkeeping...he thinks he can get to the maximum total speed of 2600m/s in 6 seconds. That's an acceleration of 430m/s².

In total, that's 450m/s².

He doesn't need to worry about g-forces – he's become immune to them.

He needs to figure out how long it will take for him to reach the halfway point. The equation for that will be (t/2)*(450t/2) = 225308000.

Solving for t, he gets 1000 seconds one way. 2000 seconds to account for deceleration. That's 33 minutes. Very doable, though he'll want a snack on the way to account for all the mana he'll be using up.

He opens his mouth, and out comes a swarm of nanites – it looks like black sand with sparkling grains of red mixed in – and they form a cable connecting the plutonium battery to his mouth. So he can sip on electricity while he's traveling.

There is now someone on a motorcycle traveling towards Earth at 0.0010c and increasing.

Fully mastering the Aethernautic arts creates awareness of millions of cosmic bodies, of which small and artificial ones qualify.

There are a lot of artificial cosmic bodies near Earth. There are not millions. This leaves a master aethernaut, at least one who spends a lot of time in time-dilated domains and has plenty of attentional capacity relative to the outside of them, in a good position to be on the lookout for any unexpected new ones.

Lunabella and the O.R.C. have agreed that Lunabella, which in this case means 'in significant part Einodia personally', will take the lead on handling space issues aside from those arising from nonmagical terrestrial activity.

Thaaaaaat looks like Mars is doing orbital bombardment of Earth, but using only one projectile – no, it's a witch on a Hellrider, and she's still accelerating. What is Alphazon doing this time? Why does everyone keep refusing to be reasonable?

It is probably in the general case good that Aethernautics true-name finding doesn't cover people, but it's in the specific case a bit inconvenient. (The true name of the Hellrider is basically just a serial number, and the rider almost certainly also knows it and might have a soul-bond with it, so it's not very helpful.)

Einodia tells her servant where she's going and why and then makes and goes through a rift on her broomstick. It's stationary in CoNRAD's frame of reference.

Oh no!!! What is that thing!!! He has never seen such a thing before!!!

He will put out more black and red sparkling sand from his mouth, and now the motorcycle and him are now enclosed in a steel sphere.

Cyborg-y and heading from Mars. This absolutely reeks of Alphazon.

And now Einodia has, technically, met the witch! She'll Send a message to him. (This is in English speech and text, because Alphazon tends to use English.)

"You are on a high-speed collision course with Earth. If you continue on this course and enter into Earth's sphere of gravitational influence, I will arrest you and turn you over to the custody of Occult Research and Containment."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa someone is speaking to him and he doesn't know how!!! It feels very weird. It's like he's reading, but he's not.

"Hello. Who is this?" he'll say in plain speech.

…no reply. Might be a language issue, might be a Restriction issue, though those really tend to show up only in unguided awakenings.

Einodia is a Calamity-grade Windkeeper. She'll conjure air to make contact with the sphere and catch the end of that sentence. "I am Einodia, founder of Lunabella, acting in defense of Earth in order to fulfill Lunabella's agreements with Occult Research and Containment."

This gets repeated over Sending and directional radio, in case the witch is listening to either.

He does not have radio currently!

Oh, he can hear her now. But also read her. Weird, but okay.

"Hello, Madam Einodia," he says. He has no idea who Einodia is, or Lunabella or Occult Research and Containment.

"I'm traveling very fast because I want to go to Earth. I heard that there are a lot of witches there." He wants to ask whether Einodia is a witch too, but he thinks yes? And he's not sure if he can ask questions.

He heard that there were a lot of witches there. This sounds less like an Alphazon agent and more like an Alphazon project.

"If you continue accelerating towards Earth, you are going to cause a dramatic impact, damaging your surroundings and likely yourself, and embed yourself in Earth's crust. Earth is a very highly populated planet, mostly populated by non-witches. Most of the non-witches are not supposed to know that magic exists, and some of them have access to tools which measure large impacts. There are places where you can meet witches, but just going towards Earth at speed is not the right way to do this, except in that it will attract attention such as myself. Do you understand?"

Oh. He didn't know that Earth also had a lot of non-witches! He has never met a non-witch before. He had assumed that like, witches were the norm on Earth and non-witches were a minority.

"Yes, Madam, I understand."

He wants to ask why non-witches can't know about magic. He also wants to ask where the places he can meet other witches are, but he's still unsure whether or not he can ask questions.

And he's not sure whether Einodia wants him to stop going to Earth. It seems like it, but she just said it was a bad idea, not that she's telling him not to. So he's not sure...he's going to stop accelerating but is not going to decelerate either.

"You should either make a better plan for going to Earth or pick an alternate destination. Do you need assistance with this?"

"Yes, Madam. I don't know where the other places I can meet witches are."

"The most witch-populated non-Earth location you can reach via your current mode of transit is Lunabella, whose population consists entirely of people permitted to know about magic. Luna is Earth's only moon, and Lunabella is a set of magically sustained environments located on the portions of Luna not facing towards Earth. Long-term residence requires that you find and submit yourself to a local matron, but visiting does not. Lunabella offers free portal access to Hawthorne, a well-renowned witch school that's operated for over a millennium, and Arcadia, a modern witch school which places remarkably few requirements on its students."

He is Listening and Learning.

He is going to take a risk and say what he wants.

"I want to visit Lunabella. And also visit Hawthorne and Arcadia, if it is allowed."

How does she react to that.

"Lunabella, Hawthorne, and Arcadia all permit visitors. If you wish to visit all of them, you should not submit yourself to a Lunabellan matron or enroll in Hawthorne before doing so, as a matron or Hawthorne would potentially subsequently restrict your freedom of movement and enforce this with Covenants magic. Arcadia will not do this, and if you are the uneducated witch you appear to be, they will offer you food and shelter for a time while you orient yourself so long as you claim to be considering enrolling. I will instruct you on an appropriate landing site in Lunabella, which will put you within 5 kilometers of a visitor information booth. The worker at this booth will at your request direct you to other sites on Lunabella including the Arcadia and Hawthorne portals, and answer other similar questions if nobody else is asking for directions."

Oh good. Madam Einodia seems nice, like Grandma and Dee.

"I will not submit myself to a Lunabellan matron or enroll in Hawthorne before visiting all three.

I do not know what Covenants magic is.

I am...I do not know if Arcadia would consider me educated or uneducated.

Thank you for instructing me on an appropriate landing site in Lunabella."

He is going to Take A Risk and remove his steel sphere, and it disintegrates into a cloud of the same black and glittering red sand that he hoovers up with his mouth.

He looks identical to a Neutral witch save for his faintly glowing red eyes, except for the Alphazon label behind his neck (although it may not be visible at this angle) and his large size – a comparison to Daeva might be more accurate: he's 285cm tall. He's wearing a cowboy hat, a leather vest – just the vest – and brown pants and boots. They do seem to be his mothergifts.

“If you genuinely did not prior to this conversation know of Lunabella, Hawthorne, or Arcadia, Arcadia and the typical witch would consider you uneducated. Covenants magic is a means of magically enforcing laws and agreements.”

Einodia does not pause to breathe. She just pauses. “I would like to ask you questions about Alphazon.”