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the foundations of the earth
mirelótë in flying city
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There abruptly appears a beautiful woman in beautiful clothes who looks extremely annoyed.

She looks around at her surroundings, and sighs.

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Her surroundings are a semicircular room with tiered seating going up the circular part. Next to her is a baffled-looking man who looks as though he had previously been addressing the people seated there.

He says something in an unfamiliar language and baffled tone of voice.

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"I don't suppose," she says, "that any of you speak Quenya?"

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No one appears to speak Quenya! One girl sitting near the front tries four other languages, all still unfamiliar.

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Pretty suddenly appearing lady tries some too. No overlap.

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She sighs.

"Illia Zavier," she says, gesturing to herself.

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"Mirelótë Ambela."

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She has a brief conversation in the first language with the man that ends with him writing something on a piece of paper in an unfamiliar alphabet much less pretty than the Tengwar. He gives her the paper and she says something in a tone of polite request and gestures for Mirelote to follow her.

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She follows agreeably.

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She leads her through a corridor that isn't quite pretty enough, through a garden that is, and into another building, where she locates a particular closed door and raps on it. A woman with wispy white hair and a large number of wrinkles emerges. Illia shows her the note and she begins trying more languages, quite a lot of them.

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Nope.

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She frowns and says something to Illia, who nods, and then writes something on the other side of the sheet. Illia leads her to another building, and knocks on another door. This one is more like the one she was originally in, although the tiers are straight lines instead of curved. She has a brief discussion with the woman standing at the front of the room that involves Illia brandishing the note.

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The woman accedes, and calls something up to the seats. A woman comes cheerfully down; unlike most of the people here, she has her hair decently braided. She leaves the room and smiles at Mirelote. "Odette Zavier," she introduces herself.

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"Mirelótë Ambela."

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She gestures for her to continue speaking.

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"- you want me to talk more? Perhaps you're the local equivalent of Fëanáro, who would be overjoyed to be here and would already have derived the word ordering of your language and whether it agglutinates or isolates and catalogued all your phonemes by now."

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...She giggles and shakes her head, and points a finger at her ear and then snaps her fingers, sending a small shower of multicolored sparks flying.

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"...how did you do that? Can you understand me? Should I assume nodding is at least the same?"

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She nods. "I--understand," she says haltingly, mimicking the Quenya clumsily.

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"Marvelous. How in the world does it work?"

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...She is deeply puzzled by this question in some way she does not have the vocabulary to communicate.

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"...I have probably not provided vocabulary sufficient to answer the question. Ah, basics - zero one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve. It's possible you don't use base twelve... I am an Elf, I think you are not Elves but nor are you orcs nor Dwarves nor Ainur... I have arrived here accidentally on my own part and likely as some hilarious divine joke on someone else's part..."

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"Base ten," she says after a moment. "...Divine?"

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"Probably. Not necessarily, I suppose. I'm concerned I won't be sending backups to Mandos - does whatever you're doing handle proper nouns well -"

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She makes a so-so gesture. "Mandos...divine?"

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"Mandos is one of the Valar, of whom there are fifteen, one of whom is - not in good standing and therefore imprisoned by his fellows. The Valar are intermediate between Maiar, who are smaller in scope and more varied in psychology but similar in kind, and Eru Ilúvatar, who is broader in scope and different yet again psychologically. I suspect the latter of sending me or acquiescing to my being sent but I do not know why."

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"Eru...Iluvatar..." she sounds like she's having a little trouble processing, then gestures upwards with a querying expression.

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"He lives on our moon, if that's what you mean, although even when the moon does not happen to be above one's current position it is customary to conceptualize him as overhead."

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"Not moon," she snorts, shaking her head, then shakes it dismissively; she doesn't expect Mirelote to understand what she meant by that. "Not...not Valar, not Eru Iluvatar, not Maiar," she says, making a broad sweeping gesture around them.

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"...I'm not sure what you're getting at. I know that you are some other thing than the species I'm acquainted with and that this probably implies I am not on either of the planets I have visited before."

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"...Either of the planets?"

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"I was born on a planet called Endorë and when I was a child the Valar invited the Elves to come live on Valinor, and my family was among those who chose to accept. There's transit between the two, sometimes, I honeymooned on Endorë."

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"One planets," she attempts. "...Not sure not one planets? With--" she makes an encompassing gesture--"Maiar Valar Orcs Dwarves Elves--" she gestures to herself and her sister.

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"I'm - not sure what you're getting at, I'm sorry - at least not if I assume you aren't forgetting vocabulary after it's introduced, maybe you are - does your species have a name -"

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"Forget," she nods, and, "humans."

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"Pleased to meet you, humans," says Mirelótë. "Would it help if I wrote things down? I think I have seen evidence that you have writing -"

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Giggle. "Writing," she nods, and pulls a pen and some paper out of her bag.

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"Would you like the Quenya alphabet to start out or should I just write vocabulary words?"

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"Alphabet."

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Mirelótë writes down the tengwar, names them, and starts writing down each and every word she has used so far in a tidy list.

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Odette nods and starts transcribing them.

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Mirelótë reads aloud as she writes - "I don't know how whatever you're doing to translate works, can you read Quenya without my speaking aloud? Everything is phonetic."

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"Translate--not writing."

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"Spoken translation only, I see."

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"Translation..." she looks over the list of vocabulary words. "I--understand. More humans not understand your language. Humans understand our language, you are here, you want our language and us your language?" she tries.

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"I would be delighted to learn your language. I will even have the advantage of not forgetting vocabulary words."

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"Not forgetting," she sighs enviously, and starts going down the list and translating the vocabulary words as best she can.

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Mirelótë nods along and guesses at what nuance might be missed when Odette hesitates to translate a word and asks for conjugations.

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Illia helps with conjugations once they've said enough things in this language--Genoshan--for her to have any idea how to help.

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"Thank you."

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"You're welcome."

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Language learning! She indeed does not forget any vocabulary words, although she uses them a little idiosyncratically.

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Well, it's miles better than Odette's doing with Quenya. She corrects her where she can.

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"Perhaps now," says Mirelótë after this has been going on for a while, "you can tell me where I am?"

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"This is the University of Genosha, in the Free City of Genosha, on the planet Earth."

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"That sure is a planet I do not know of. Well."

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"Well," she echoes. "This is kind of unprecedented."

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"On my end too."

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"We're going to have to tell someone higher up about this," she observes. "Illia got me because I could do translation, but..."

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"I am past the need for specialists; I'm sure you have other things to do. Thank you very much for your time. How do you do it, anyway -"

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"Sympathy."

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"I'm afraid I don't have - whatever idiom makes that make sense -"

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"...Magic?"

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"- huh. At home only Ainur can do magic, incarnates can't. You seem otherwise very incarnate."

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"I'm not actually a specialist, it's just I can do more magic."

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"Why is that?"

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"Uh--magic has--side effects. I can handle them better."

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"How much should this dissuade me from asking if yours is the only species that can do it?"

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"I have no idea if ours is the only species who can do it. Or how much the side effects should dissuade you."

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"Well, what are they?"

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"Uh--it hurts, and it messes with your head to varying degrees."

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"Hmm. Yes, that's - fairly dissuasive. Congratulations on being able to cope with that to your satisfaction."

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"I'm really resistant to one of the kinds of messing with!"

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"How so?"

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"So there's three kinds of magic--Sympathy, Effort, and Conquest--and they hurt differently and they do different things to your head, and Sympathy--makes you more pliable, but I am really not a pliableness-compatible person, so it has to work way harder to get anywhere with me."

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"...hm. What do the other two do?"

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"Effort makes you stubborn and Conquest makes you bossy."

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"This seems asymmetrical."

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"Oh?"

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"Stubbornness and bossiness are more similar to each other than pliability to either."

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"I...suppose I see your point..."

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"Otherwise it would be more tempting to attempt to balance the three against each other, but if the system is by nature lopsided that seems less likely to naively work."

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"It works a little but you're not supposed to just rely on that, it's easy to let things get more out of hand than you realize that way."

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"I'd imagine. And if they fail to counter each other on - translate 'orthogonal'?"

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"'Orthogonal'."

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"If they fail to counter each other in some orthogonal manner then whatever that was could go totally unchecked."

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"Yeah. You'd have to be--really uneducated or badly educated, to not be paying any attention at all to keeping these things in check, though."

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"Oh?"

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"Well--I guess I don't know much about how these things are taught outside of Genosha, but here the classes on--paying attention to how the magic's affecting you and mitigating the effects are considered really critical."

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"That seems wise. We don't have this magic on Valinor or Endorë; it may be that only humans can use it. So we don't have classes on it."

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"Naively I'd guess that if you haven't been able to you won't but I don't know how to check that assumption."

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"Well, under what circumstances do people normally start to do it?"

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"...I can't even remember a time when I couldn't do tiny pieces, maybe we had better ask someone who didn't grow up in Genosha."

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"They start little children on it here? Goodness. All right."

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"You're really not supposed to do anything that isn't really tiny until you're at least fourteen, but I was...always kind of precocious."

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"What counts as really tiny?"

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"If it hurts more than mildly stubbing your toe, is I think the cutoff."

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"What can that do?"

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"Uh--depends on how you apply it? A lot of the classes here are about using magic efficiently. Kids mostly use it for things like sparks of colorful light or closing a papercut."

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"Oh, is that what you had in mind to convey when you -" She snaps her fingers near her ear.

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"That I was using magic? Yeah."

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"That makes sense! I apologize for the discomfort."

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"It's fine. I'm really Sympathy-resistant. ...Context: doing mind magic to oneself generally leaves one significantly more vulnerable to the relevant mental effects of the magic than doing that amount of magic not to one's mind does; I'm resistant enough that I could--adjust my reaction to pain."

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"Oh, how useful."

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"It is!"

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"I wonder if we could accomplish some of the same with chip blessings - and maybe protect against or at least revert the personality changes -"

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"Chip blessings?"

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"Elves keep our minds on little metal things in our skulls! And we can write little - translate 'program'?"

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"...I...don't think we so much have those."

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"...chips I was assuming you didn't have, but no programs either? Um - instructions. That cause our minds to communicate with each other or behave in ways we prefer. I have a lot of memory blessings, that's why I don't forget vocabulary words."

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"You have telepathy?"

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"Only with each other."

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"Still. Lucky."

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"It's often convenient."

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"We technically have telepathy but it's super inconvenient, I've been trying to develop a more convenient version for ages."

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"What's involved in developing new magic?"

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"...So I should maybe start from how one does magic in the first place. So--each of the three requires a different state of mind."

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"Seems sensible."

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"Sympathy involves persuading the world to do what you want, Effort involves pushing the world to do what you want, and Conquest involves ordering the world to do what you want."

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"With you so far."

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"So 'magic that we already have' that isn't just free-form is...ways of persuading or pushing or commanding that are known to be relevantly effective. And telepathy in particular is tricky because it's incredibly important to be able to tell it apart from freeform mind magic after the fact."

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"Is freeform mind magic common?"

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"No, it's completely taboo. That's why anything that even borders on mind magic has to be able to be distinguished from it, if it looks like you've been doing mind magic to people you are fucked."

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"In what way?"

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"Usually lethally."

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"By whom?"

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"Whoever catches you. Of course, if it turns out they made it up, they're fucked. Also usually lethally."

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"Goodness."

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"Mages have to self-police."

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"How can you distinguish things after the fact, do they leave traces?"

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"Yeah, and there's past-scrying."

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"Which... works on people's minds?"

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"No--well, yes, but you don't use it that way--but it works on the magic."

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"I'm not sure I follow."

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"...It is possible to tell, with magic, whether or not mind magic has been done to someone. Telling what mind magic has been done to them is much harder, when it's possible at all, which it often isn't. So any mind magic done to another person is verboten, because you can say 'well, I boosted their work ethic like they asked me to' but it's not possible to tell whether you've made any other changes, like implanting the memory of asking them to, or literally anything else."

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"Ah, I see. If we can make contact with Valinor at some point the Valar might be able to help with this sort of thing."

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"That would probably be helpful."

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"That's why I suggested it! Chips used to have a feature that allowed Elves and orcs to make binding oaths. Now they only allow us to speak guaranteed truth, not constrain future action."

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"Huh. Yeah, that--probably wouldn't go as badly if a society was used to it, but."

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"It went very badly for orcs. Elves had fewer horror stories."

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"Do we want to know what happened to the orcs?"

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"Possibly not."

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"...Sort of torn between trusting you on that and being curious."

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"As you prefer."

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"...Okay curiosity wins."

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"I mentioned one of the Valar is not in good standing. He created orcs from captured Elves - we have blessings that give us excellent control of our bodies but they don't work under sufficient stress and a sufficiently tormented Elf given some other constraints will have orc descendants; they look different and have less functional chips, but can still swear oaths. He obliged orc children to swear him oaths of service as soon as they could talk, without time limit. Their oaths have now been broken since the Oath Reform Act of 1400."

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"...Oookay, that's...horrifying but I'm a little distracted by how bloodworking as I know it does not work like that."

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"We're a designed species."

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"Huh. By who?"

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"Eru."

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"...You know, there's people who claim humanity was created by a god, but there's no contemporary evidence. Not that I'm doubting you, mind, given what you said about your moon, just...it's a weird coincidence."

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"The first Elves appeared as fully-grown adults and are around and can be consulted about that."

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"How long ago was this?"

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"Four hundred sixty five Valian years ago, or ten times that in Endorë years."

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"...How long does your species live?"

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"...I'm not sure I understand the question."

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"...So underblood is capped with these things that prevent the stuff that does stuff from degrading when cells divide, but in doing so they degrade and eventually they run out; this causes gradual breakdown of the body which can be reversed by magic but there aren't enough mages for everybody to get as much of that as they need so most people die after a hundred or so of our years; less so Genosha which does have enough mages per capita to cover everyone. You said you don't have magic, so I'm assuming telomere decay eventually gets you."

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"Uh. No, it does not. Nothing... gets us. If we have an accident of some kind one of the Valar specializes in reembodiments."

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"...Do you mind if we at some point drag you to our dad so he can have a look at your underblood, it sounds fascinatingly different from ours."

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"I can think of things he could do with it that I would object to but if he just wants to make people stop randomly dying I encourage it!"

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"He's not so much a practical bloodworker anymore but, uh, remember what you asked me about languages and someone named Feanaro?"

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"Yes? He's not just a linguist, he does other things too, he's working on faster than light travel at the moment."

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"No, no, it's just--our dad's like that about underblood, was my point."

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"All right. I'll be delighted to meet him."

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"Awesome."

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"If now is not an opportune time, what shall we do until then?"

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"He'll be teaching right now, yeah--uh, we should probably take you to the administration and see if we can find someone willing and able to bring Atennesi Cohen in on this."

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"Who's that?"

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"He's a Great Mage and runs the city."

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"What makes someone a Great Mage?"

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"One's magic gets stronger the more one does it, there's a threshold."

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"What does clearing the threshold allow?"

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"It's a power level thing, not a capability thing, so it depends on how efficient one is."

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"...but what is the standard for achieving the threshold? Do you have to be able to fly, or is that a thing that non-Great-Mages can do or that only some Great Mages can do -?"

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"Oh, I'm a ways off from being a Great Mage and I can fly. It's--based on a measure of raw magical power that I'm not sure how to describe to someone who's never done magic."

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"Aha."

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"Most people don't fly even if they can."

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"Too uncomfortable?"

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"It's often more about the mental effects than the pain but yeah."

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"What things do people commonly do with magic?"

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"Healing, engineering, practical bloodworking, chemistry, manufacturing..."

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"Practical bloodworking?"

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"Manipulating underblood. Good for creating more productive strains of crops and livestock and prettier flowers and eliminating genetic diseases from embryos and so on."

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"Oh, I see. Valinor has a very managed ecosystem, I wonder if the solutions overlap much."

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"I dunno but I bet it'll be fascinating to find out!"

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"Various people including the Valar will be investigating my disappearance, but I don't know what the timeline will be on their fetching me back if they can do it at all. Is it likely to be manageable on this end?"

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"...I do not actually know. If anyone can do it it's probably Atennesi."

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"Well, I will be pleased to make his acquaintance."

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"Well, let's go see if the school administration will go get him."

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"By all means lead the way."

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The twins lead her to yet another building, through more Sufficiently Pretty gardens, to what appears to be an administrative building.

"Hello," Illia says to a secretary. "Someone from another plane of existence landed on my theoretical bloodworking class." And she shows him the note. He examines it for a while and then looks up at Mirelote.

"So you're the supposed outworldly visitor?"

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"Yes, hello. My name is Mirelóte Ambela."

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"You seem to speak Genoshan pretty well," he says doubtfully.

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"I have a very good memory and a friend who would be ashamed of me if there existed phonemes I couldn't pronounce. Odette and Illia have been very helpful."

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"Okay," he says. "Well, this is enough evidence that if you're playing some kind of elaborate prank I won't get in trouble for it. Gimme a sec, I'll be right back."

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"Of course. Thank you."

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He leaves. He comes back with a woman wearing nicer clothing.

"Hello," the woman says. "Mirelote Ambela?"

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"Yes, hello."

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"Hello, my name's Serah Baum. You're from another world?"

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"Planet at least, possibly world altogether."

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She nods. "Do you mind if I do a few things to verify?"

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"I would like you to be more specific."

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"That's fair. I want to use Sympathy to find things out about your physical structure that corroborate or refute your story."

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"If this amounts to a medical exam, that is fine."

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"Essentially, yes. It's more thorough than a nonmagical exam."

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"We don't have this kind of magic where I am from and I would appreciate more precision."

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She nods. "What knowledge of magic do you already have?"

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"Odette has explained the Sympathy/Effort/Conquest division and the side effects and some of the uses."

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"Essentially I would be using Sympathy to compile an average human body based on examples in range, with standard variations, and comparing your body to that for where they differ, down to the molecular level."

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"That sounds fine."

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She tilts her head for a moment, before blinking in shock.

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"What?"

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"...You're...more inhuman than I was expecting."

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"I'm an Elf."

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"I can see that. Would it be rude to ask how you have a piece of metal embedded in your spine with no scarring if you don't have magic?"

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"It grew there."

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'That's interesting. Our bodies can't--manipulate--metal like that."

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"We're a designed species. It might be impossible to evolve chips like this."

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"What do they do?"

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"My chip stores my mind and sends instantaneous backups to a person called Mandos who could print a new one and make a new body around it if mine were destroyed."

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"...Goodness."

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"It can also be user-modified to, for instance, improve my memory, and we can communicate telepathically chip to chip."

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"Well, this is definitely enough to be bothering Atennesi Cohen with," she says. "If you'll excuse me a moment...?"

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"Of course."

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She leaves again.

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Ambela waits.

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After a few minutes a man with sharp cheekbones and long hair appears with a soft but sharp cracking noise.

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"Hello."

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"Hello. My name is Atennesi Cohen. It's a pleasure to meet you, although given the circumstances I shan't be offended if you don't feel the same way."

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"I think it can be a pleasure to meet you even in an irritating broader context."

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He smiles. "I often feel the same. Your command of our language is impressive."

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"Thank you."

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"So, what would you say your immediate priorities are?"

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"I would like to assess the plausibility of going home using resources from this end, and if that seems intractable I'll wait for assistance from home and will want to pass the time looking for things to share that will be useful to you - it seems likely that we have more technology, for instance, though I'm not an engineer to tell you the entire tech tree."

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"The most likely way of finding out if I can send you home would be to try sending you home and see if it works," he says.

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"Would you be able to elsewise travel if so, or would it just be a sudden anticlimax?"

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"It is possible I would be able to follow you; it is also possible that without you to serve as a connection your place of origin would be subsequently inaccessible."

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"Can you bring someone else here? Then send only one of us back?"

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"I would have to try."

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"Maybe give them a couple days first. Valar are slow by nature."

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"Alright. I doubt the time zones match; are you tired? Hungry?"

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"I don't sleep on a daily basis but I've been having language lessons long enough to be a little hungry if it's no trouble."

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"It's no trouble--although it does occur to me that I shouldn't simply assume you share human dietary tolerances and requirements."

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"If I don't recognize anything you have I'll taste a little bit and see if it tries to kill me. I can go without food for a few days without a problem."

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He nods, and teleports away again, and then teleports back with a tray with a wide variety of small nibbley foods on it.

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"Well, they smell good." Taste taste taste. "- seems harmless." Nom nom.

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"I'm curious how you can tell so fast, some toxins are slow-acting."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Elves have very good control over our bodies and I could tell if mine were beginning to attempt to do something it shouldn't. There could be things I might have missed but they'd take long enough to do anything that I'd get genuinely hungry waiting to find out."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah, I see. It seems your species has many advantages."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It does. And the Valar have patched up the drawbacks."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "Rather than continuing to take up this administrative space, would you like to retire to my office? It has a greater degree of privacy, comfortable chairs, and no one to feel awkward about our presence."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't mind."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods, and there is a slightly louder cracking noise, and then the two of them are in a tastefully decorated office with several comfortable chairs. He sits down in one of the ones not behind the desk.

Permalink Mark Unread

She sits too.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you tell me more about the Valar?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Have you heard any of what I told Odette and Illia?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, I'm afraid not."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are magical beings in my world and most of them are Maiar and the fifteen largest and most powerful are called Valar. One is not in good standing due to war crimes in our history's only war, and is imprisoned by the others. They have specialties, although some of them have more relevance than others - Mandos for instance specializes in the dead and can reembody people, from chips if they survive or from backups sent from the chips if the chip is physically destroyed. They are psychologically different from incarnates in many ways but have learned to accommodate incarnate needs and are very useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods thoughtfully.

"Given what you've learned of this planet so far, what would you expect them to want to do if asked to help?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Apparently you die for no reason. That's stupid."

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles lopsidedly. "It rather is, yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So I think they'd fix that, but I don't know much else about what would need doing."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods. "There is, unfortunately...something of a complication."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"What have you been told of my status as a Great Mage?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"There's some threshold of magical capacity that one crosses to receive the title. It is somewhere past being able to fly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That much is true.

All the Great Mages in the world form the Council of Magi. Five hundred years ago, all but three were killed."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you wish for me to tell you how things are as the general public believes it, and then clear up any falsehoods, or explain the truth and then the misapprehensions?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The second, please."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright," he says. "Three Great Mages didn't survive; four did. I escaped, altered my appearance, hid my power level--not something everyone knows how to do, even all Great Mages--and assumed a false identity; I am many centuries older than is commonly believed. The three known to have survived murdered the others and have been quietly picking off anyone who looked like they were going to be both able and inclined to upset the status quo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I see."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I created Genosha to--ah. Had it yet been brought to your attention that the city is flying?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...no."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are rules against mages as rulers that I managed to circumvent by creating a flying city instead of occupying a preexisting territory."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Clever."

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles. "And you've met the reason why. Well, the reason in general, not the reason in particular--Odette would be dead if she had been born anywhere else. I can keep my colleagues' attention away from my city. Not so for anywhere else."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What about the status quo are they trying to protect specifically and why?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"A large part of it is that they like having more power over others than they would if Great Mages and magic in general were more common. I...also believe that they may have...philosophical objections, to some of the implications of a more magical world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Do Elves have the...tendency to assume that because a thing is, and always has been, that it is correct and good for it to continue to be?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...the tendency exists."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Death is...something that's difficult to deal with. The tendency is, ah, a popular coping mechanism."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mmm. We don't hold that people have to be alive, if they don't want to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. Before five hundred years ago...we--I and several others who were like-minded--were working towards--improving the world. Making mages more accessible to everyone. We had some successes. Many of them did not survive the--transition. Rates of magical de-aging have plummeted in the last five hundred years. Some did; it's currently all but unheard of for disease to be fatal, or for that matter more than a minor irritant."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So I'm concerned as to how the other Great Mages would react to Valar, and how Valar would handle that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It would... surprise me if they could inconvenience the Valar themselves very much, but Vala power works best in places they have invested themselves in so they might be able to stymie them here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And I would like to prevent that, if possible."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. What do you think their reaction to contact with powerfully magical aliens would be?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I expect it rather depends on the context," he muses. "This is not, you understand, a possibility that has come to mind before...the worst case scenario, off the top of my head, would be to attempt to magically prevent anyone from your world from being in this one and decrying them to all and sundry as incomprehensible horrors."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are only three of these people, right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

He shakes his head. "There were, five hundred years ago; there are two more now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What can they do, generally -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"A great many things...it's very odd to be trying to describe this to one unfamiliar with magic. Transmutation, manipulation of objects, enchantment..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's - vague. Valar can reembody the dead and communicate instantaneously with each other or Maiar and travel at the speed of light and duplicate physical items and oblige architecturally implausible structures to stay up and prevent animals from reproducing beyond the carrying capacity of their environment and once one of them made someone's fingernails invulnerable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Our capabilities are very broad. Do you know why the fingernails?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Someone complained about her nail polish chipping."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They'd be more thoughtful before doing something like that these days but the recipient seems fine with it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm glad. It seems like it would make trimming them a problem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"She - just doesn't grow them? Past where she wants them? Bodily control."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah. I hadn't realized it was quite that thorough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's pretty great."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It certainly sounds like it!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are the - status quo mages - liable to notice Valar if they are only about as obtrusive as I have been?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That might depend on where they were but probably not."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then the Valar being more detailed and experimental about their powers and how they stack up against yours is going to yield better results, if one can be brought."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's good to hear."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can't tell from here if my chip is sending backups. If it's not I might not be able to directly communicate with home even if I swear something to a Vala. If you can bring someone from my world here, does that reliably imply that you will be able to send them back?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I couldn't swear to reliably under the circumstances but it does imply it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm going to try swearing to the Valar that this is a matter of urgency and that I have certain intentions if they can't manage travel, give them a day, and then I think you should try to bring in my husband. It wouldn't really be excusable to wait much longer with the dying for no reason."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods somberly. "...How long is one of your days?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't know local time units yet. Perhaps six times longer than I have been here so far."

Permalink Mark Unread

He gestures to a clock. "One of the little ticks is a second, sixty seconds is a minute, sixty minutes is an hour, and twenty-four hours is a day."

Permalink Mark Unread

She looks. "About twice as long as your days."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh. Well, different planets."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Endorë days are more like yours."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does your species suffer any ill effects from either day length?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No - Valinor has magical properties affecting the passage of time and we don't need to sleep very much."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Humans who have to deal with unconventional day lengths often suffer side effects even if they're getting enough sleep."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We don't have that problem. I suspect Valinor would protect you from that even without further adjustment but if it didn't the Valar would fix it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's mostly an issue far enough north to experience dayless winter and midnight sun."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can live that close to our poles without trouble as long as we keep warm enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It can cause serious mental disorders in humans. I'm glad you don't have to worry about that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll be sure to note it to the Valar if we receive human visitors."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Being a designed species seems very convenient."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

He sighs. "Magic makes up much of the difference. When it can be deployed properly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I applaud your interest in doing so despite the opposition."

Permalink Mark Unread

"People are dying," he says softly.

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. "I'm going to attempt to hurry the Valar now."

She switches to Quenya.

"I swear by Manwë and Varda and Ulmo and Aulë and Yavanna and Mandos and Lórien and Estë and Nienna and Vairë and Oromë and Vána and Nessa and Tulkas that I have found a world populated by an inherently mortal unchipped species, that it is my opinion that time is of the essence in bringing them aid, and that if I receive no contact from home within the next Valian day I mean to authorize a magic-user here to attempt to bring my husband to this world so that he can attempt to send one of us back again as a test of the use of his powers for transit."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

"Thank you," he murmurs.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Of course."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You said they specialize?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, but I included them all anyway just to be safe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sensible. What are their specialties?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She lists them.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Interesting," he says when she's done.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's a little haphazard."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It certainly...has an aesthetic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes. It does."

Permalink Mark Unread

He raises an eyebrow.

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Valar and everything else were set in motion by a greater being called Eru whose motivation was aesthetic and whose aesthetic is tragedy. He has been convinced to cut it out. He now judges poetry contests."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Ah."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I hate to ask, but how sure are you that he's been convinced to cut it out?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Valar have received extra power as he's stepped it down, nothing tragic has happened since then, and he does judge a lot of very sad poetry and such, but if he did wish to fake it he could. I think faking it would be stylistically inconsistent at least as regards the people I knew about but it wouldn't floor me to learn that this place was a secret side project."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It would also not floor me to learn that the plan was some kind of horrible war between the Great Mages and the Valar," he says soberly.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can suggest that they evacuate the place?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That might be for the best," he says, making a slight face. "But some people won't want to go."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're the native expert and the Valar will listen to me; if you have recommendations I'd be eager to hear them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"This is very much a game-changer, I'm still trying to gather information and weigh options," he says. "Thus far my plan was to wait until I had enough Genoshan-born Great Mages like Odette to hold a counter-coup, essentially. Not a very elegant plan, of course, but..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How many did you expect to be enough?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depending on factors impossible to determine in advance, anywhere from two to ten, but likely at least four."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. There are fourteen Valar, they may have dissimilar exact skill distributions but I'd be surprised if they couldn't match up one to one overall, and some Maiar may also count."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am glad to hear that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is it likely to be necessary to kill these people or can they be stopped from using magic short of that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...It's possible the Valar could do that, somehow. Otherwise--not one that I know of."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What if any is the range limit of magic?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"There's no hard limit, but farther is harder than closer. Three Great Mages can cover the planet trivially between them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How quickly can they do things? Would they have difficulty operating from as far away as the moon?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Very quickly. Conquest is almost always instantaneous or near enough in any case. Operating from the moon would be more difficult, but I don't know if it would be enough to qualify as having difficulty."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The moon is only going to be a few seconds away; it would take minutes to get substantially farther..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...By Vala travel?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, they can move at around the speed of light and bring things with them. Elves learned to do that ourselves more recently but used ships that Oromë made us to settle Valinor before that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, that does sound useful."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It would be nearly sufficient if magic were slower and more range limited!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"With any luck, we shall have far longer after to be glad of its advantages than we have to be irritated with them now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I very much hope so. Is magic limited by the speed of light?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It obeys it by default; a Great Mage can break it, but not trivially."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. That will have interesting implications once the dust settles."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What are you thinking of in particular?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Depends. It's just usually a very difficult to bend law of physics."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Magic does a lot of that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes; I'm focused particularly on that one because even the Valar mostly can't break it except with pure information."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Conservation of mass and energy is the most egregious case, naturally."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Valar can do that one!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I confess, it's hard to imagine a form of magic that couldn't."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Purely informational magic," she suggests.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Perhaps," he acknowledges.

Permalink Mark Unread

"How long would it take to determine if your magic is limited to your species?" she wonders.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh--that depends on your pain tolerances, I'm afraid."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did Odette mention the existing telepathy to you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Did she mention why she was dissatisfied with it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"She explained that it is difficult to make it verifiably not some other sort of mental magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah. That's not a problem with the extant form of telepathy; that's a problem with developing a new kind. The problem with the extant kind is that it causes pain to the recipient as well as the caster."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah. How much."

Permalink Mark Unread

"About on the order of a broken bone, but very brief."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And why is this necessary?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It isn't strictly necessary, just faster. There are qualia associated with doing magic that can't be naively derived from nonmagical qualia; once you have them you can use them, and the swiftest way to acquire them is directly, but being around a large amount of magic being used will eventually cause it to be transferred that way."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...how does being around magic do that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a matter of some debate amongst magic theorists, if not a great deal thereof."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. I don't know how much of a habit I wish to make of magic, but that is more a matter of the mental effects. I can tolerate a brief bone-breaking amount of discomfort."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright. Give me a moment to compose what exactly to send."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Take your time."

Permalink Mark Unread

He tips his head back and closes his eyes and after a few minutes says, "Say when."

Permalink Mark Unread

"When."

Permalink Mark Unread

He sends it.

It hurts as described--not only the magnitude of pain of a broken bone, it actually feels like it, or like a very intense jar.

Along with the pain comes information--this is what Sympathy feels like this is what Effort feels like this is what Conquest feels like--and, this is how you manage the mental side effects. Self-examination and modification. Exactly the sort of thing she's good at already.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ow. ...Hm. How do you suppose the pain effects would respond to deadened nerves?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Truly deadened or disconnected?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, I'd rather not kill them permanently, but I can do a lot of things."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The pain doesn't necessarily have to be experienced, but it does have to exist; disconnected serves better."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Convenient. What's a good first thing to try?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The traditional first thing is moving a small object," he says, offering her a pen.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I would naively expect Conquest to be harder than the other two to use at first, since it's instant, is that right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It often takes several tries, at first," he agrees.

Permalink Mark Unread

She attempts to Effort the pen on up.

Permalink Mark Unread

It goes up!

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ee!"

Permalink Mark Unread

He smiles.

Permalink Mark Unread

She tries Sympathy too.

Permalink Mark Unread

It feels very different. But it also works.

Permalink Mark Unread

She expects to be least good at Conquest, but might as well -

Permalink Mark Unread

Nope.

Permalink Mark Unread

She will give it a few tries just to complete the trifecta.

Permalink Mark Unread

After a few tries it leaps into the air.

Permalink Mark Unread

Good. "As I suspected I do not have much affinity for Conquest but I can do Sympathy and Effort just fine. And now I should probably stop for the time being; I'm not going to be a magical asset in the coming excitement."

Permalink Mark Unread

"True enough," he admits. "I might suggest finding someone to tutor you in basic magical self-defense measures, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Especially if Mandos isn't getting backups from here, that does not seem unreasonable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can find you one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're very much welcome."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The Valar, on the other hand, have immense attentional capacity and might be able to learn enough to tilt the balance in a short time. Though I'm not sure how to expect them to interact with either side effect."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That...is a very good question," he says, frowning.

Permalink Mark Unread

"They can use physical bodies, although they have to operate them manually from the level of protein folding on up. I imagine they could arrange for there to be pain nerves. Affecting their personalities would be... weird. They're already very alien."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, I'm very concerned about that possibility."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They might have to ask Eru to what extent they're in danger from that. Maiar have a broader range of baseline personalities but are still strange."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am slightly concerned about the possibility of his...aesthetic sense...interfering."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sigh. "The Valar he seems to see as pets more than playthings; they can get somewhere with him most of the time."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Promising."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you think there's anything else we should discuss before I find you a tutor?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Nothing springs to mind."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Shall I also arrange temporary lodgings?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't urgently need sleep, but if it's convenient it wouldn't hurt."

Permalink Mark Unread

He nods and walks over to his desk and opens a drawer and rummages for a bit. "I can get you a cafeteria pass now, and the name of a tutor and the location of a room you can use within a few hours."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

He hands her a brightly colored piece of paper with the words "Admit One" on it in Genoshan.

Permalink Mark Unread

She tucks it into a pocket of her pretty pretty outfit.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to be in the meantime?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I will be most comfortable somewhere pretty. The garden I went through on my way here was pretty enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Teleport again?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Or I can walk, as you prefer."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I have no objection to transporting you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

There is a crack, and then they are in a garden.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're welcome," he says, and bows, and disappears.

Permalink Mark Unread

Mirelótë sits in the garden and sings.

Permalink Mark Unread

A few hours later he returns with a key with a piece of metal with a number written on it dangling from it and a woman with a long black plait and skin darker than a Vanya's.

"This is your tutor, Shepenwepet; if you don't get along with her I can find another."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pleased to meet you."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles back. "Quite likewise."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Where do we start?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The start is learning to sense the magic around you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. How is that done?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The easiest way is as an exercise of Sympathy--have you worked anything out about your resistances?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I have some guesses but nothing solid; do you have advice on that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Guesses are often accurate, but the most reliable way to be sure is to do enough magic to have a noticeable impact and compare the impacts to each other."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I am better at Sympathy and Effort than Conquest, to about the same degree; I think I would have been very vulnerable to Conquest as a child but have tended to veer away from those mental habits for the same reasons I am now better at the other two; and I do not think I am in danger of becoming - more sympathetic - than I already have, to the degree I might be in danger of excess stubbornness."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sympathy, then. The basic exercise is to--persuade the world to give you information about it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is there more detail to be had or should I begin with that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You want to ask it about a particular thing, and since you're a beginner it's best if it's something that you genuinely prefer to know apart from completing the exercise."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there things that require enough magic that I might be startled by pain or mental effect if I naively asked?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She shakes her head. "With anything but Conquest it takes time to ramp up to the higher pain levels. You can always stop if it gets higher than you were expecting."

Permalink Mark Unread

All right.

She would like to know how close this world is to hers. She has traversed the distance herself; it would be reasonable for her to have the information.

Permalink Mark Unread

Pain starts to build.

Permalink Mark Unread

She disconnects anything that is too distracting.

Permalink Mark Unread

Pain: keeps building for a while.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is possible I have picked too difficult a question. Can I assume that as long as it hurts I'm making some progress?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...With Effort, yes, with Sympathy not necessarily."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll pick something simpler." How big is this planet? She could guess based on curvature and gravity but surely the magic won't mind helping her out.

Permalink Mark Unread

It hurts!

Permalink Mark Unread

Please? Just this one little thing.

Permalink Mark Unread

...

...

...

1.08321x1012 km3

Permalink Mark Unread

She mentally thanks the universe and reports on the planet's volume to her tutor.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh," she says. "I...would have expected that to be beyond someone who just started."

Permalink Mark Unread

"- in pain tolerance or in magical skill?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, mostly the latter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm cheating on the pain tolerance. I am not sure how to explain the magical skill."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm not sure either. Can you describe your thought process?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I, ah, explained to the world that I could guess how big the planet was based on the gravity and the curvature but that surely it wouldn't mind helping me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...How did you know the curvature?"

Permalink Mark Unread

...she points at a gap in the plants beyond which is the horizon.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...You can tell from the plants?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can see the ocean through there, which I'm assuming matches the planet's curve unless you are currently having some kind of adverse weather event or bizarre magical happening right there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You can see the ocean from here?" She looks at the plants again and frowns.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes? It's possible I can see better than humans."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I sure can't see anything from here."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Can you - count the tiles on that gray roof?" Point.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh. No. Not without magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...okay. I must see better than humans. Does magic let you borrow others' senses? That's a common use of osanwë, people will leave their eyes and ears open."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh, there's illusions, otherwise no."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do illusions compensate for weaker senses -"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, if one person can see something farther away they can make an illusion closer up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ah. So not quite, except in the sense that a telescope can."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Exactly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh well. Does this explain why I was able to derive the volume of the planet?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Most likely, yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good to know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now try asking a question about magic."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hmmmm that thing Odette mentioned about discerning whether mind magic was harmless or not what's that like? Should be doable, she has prior experience with and information about chip-based mental alteration, she just needs to compare to the magic kind.

Permalink Mark Unread

There's no mind magic of any kind around.

Permalink Mark Unread

What would it be like if there were?

Permalink Mark Unread

Nope.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't seem to be able to get a complete answer to what I had in mind but I have been informed that there is no mind magic about."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Yes. What kind of answer were you looking for?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wanted to know what it would be like if there were."

Permalink Mark Unread

"How did you expect to find that out without any to check against?"

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"I was hoping my informative magic might inform me. Perhaps I need more context about what things it can and cannot tell me."

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"It doesn't pull information from nowhere. You need something to--consult."

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"Consult?"

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"There needs to be a--source for the information."

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"I don't think I understand."

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"Well...say you want to know how many sections there are in an orange. That isn't an inherent fact about the universe, so if there aren't any oranges in range for the magic to consult it can't tell you the answer."

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"And the range is..."

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"Depends how strong you are."

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"According to what function?"

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"More power greater range."

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"...I'm sorry. I don't know exactly how it works."

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"I am assuming, perhaps erroneously, that you have a general idea of how much practice corresponds to approximately how much range, whether that range varies by the type of magic used or whether one is achieving motion or divination or something else... I am beginning from absolutely no background information about the subject, at all, and things you can normally omit from even beginners' lessons are likely to be new to me."

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"You can stretch your range if you focus on that. Most people deliberately try to do as little magic as possible for the desired result, I'm sure data exists on how range corresponds to power level all other things being equal, but it's not my area. I can find someone who does know, though."

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"That may be worthwhile."

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She nods. "Sorry."

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"I'm a very irregular student, I don't expect instantaneous adaptation to my needs."

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"I'm glad." She takes a piece of paper out of her pocket, writes something on it, and puts it back in her pocket.

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"What should I try next?"

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"I'm going to levitate something; see what you can find out about that?"

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"Can you be more specific? Several times now I have mistargeted what turned out to be the intended aim of the exercise."

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"...Good point. The idea is that instead of asking a specific question you just sort of--ask for any information on the magical action."

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"Can you rephrase that?"

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"I will levitate--this rock," she says, picking one off the ground. "You use Sympathy magic to query the universe about the general characteristics of the magic acting on the rock."

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"Okay."

And when the rock is up she asks. The universe ought to know and it's been so cooperative, and her tutor says it should be doable, so surely it will be no trouble.

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That is definitely some magic there! It is Effort magic. It is about yea much Effort magic. It is levitating the rock in this manner.

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...huh.

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"Well?" her tutor prompts. "What are you getting?"

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"It's Effort but I struggle to describe how much or what it's doing in words."

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"That sounds about right," she chuckles.

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"No standard measurement?"

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"They exist but I didn't expect you to know them. If you want to come back to my office it's nearby and I have charts."

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"I would love to see charts."

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She traipses off to her chart-infested office.

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Follow follow.

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Her office is very tastefully decorated, under the piles and piles of books and papers!

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Good!

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There are a lot of haphazardly piled books and papers, though. Shepenwepet starts rummaging through them, looking for the charts.

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Ambela sings quietly in the meanwhile.

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"Aha!" she exclaims, unearthing the right chart. "You sing very well, by the way."

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"Thank you."

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"You're welcome," she says, and spreads out the chart on a relatively flat bit of desk.

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Chart!

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Chart! The chart tracks different numerical power levels using some kind of efficiency equation compared with a handful of arbitrary tasks. Apparently power level is tracked separately for the three branches of magic.

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Now that's more like it. What a nice chart. She memorizes it.

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"Most people don't actually use the numbers much, just go by intuition," she says, "or I'd've found this faster."

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"I appreciate intuition, but it's nice to have numbers to anchor on in the absence of any prior experience with magic."

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"Oh, I can totally see that."

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"So thank you." She points. "Yea much?"

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"Yes, that's about right."

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"What's next?"

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"The basic idea is to get to the point where you have a very very low level of this running at all times, so it doesn't register anything unless someone does magic to you."

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"Interesting... how long does that normally take to figure out?"

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"That depends on how much time and effort--literal effort, not Effort magic--you put into it. It's theoretically possible to do in as little as a few hours, but...not really the kind of thing that happens."

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"I'm not in as great a hurry as that, although if Atennesi thinks I need to learn it perhaps I should aim for days."

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"I think if he's seriously worried about you getting assassinated he's probably got people watching out for it, but there's always a chance of something slipping through the cracks."

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Nod. "I'd rather avoid dying."

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She nodsl

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"Although if it happens anyway I'd appreciate it if the bit of metal in my head were retrieved intact and remanded to Vala custody, or someone who can deliver it to them."

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"Okay, I'll let Atennesi know. Or you can, if you see him first."

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"I will be sure to mention it."

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"Why do you have a bit of metal in your head?"

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"My species uses them to record and augment our minds."

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"Oh, cool."

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"We think so too."

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"How does it work?"

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"I think you don't have the underlying technological concepts, but for us it works naturally, we're born with them."

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"Huh."

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"Unfortunately we don't know how to give them safely to people who don't have them; there's a species like that at home, too. They don't really want them but even if they did we wouldn't know how."

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"I guess you probably have different brain structures from ours."

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"Yes."

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"Wow. So with these things you can be resurrected?"

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"Yes, as long as the chip is intact it's as simple as making a new body around it."

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"Yeah, information loss is the big obstacle to resurrection."

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"Mandos has backups but I'm not sure if he's getting them from here, so if something happened to my chip I'd potentially lose some memories."

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"We might be able to do something about that if it was fast enough--we can do resurrections, just not ones where the person's been dead more than a few hours. If a Great Mage does it; the rest of us have a few minutes to do it at best."

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"- interesting. Does that extend to cases where the head has been destroyed?"

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She shakes her head. "Maybe if it was a few seconds ago and it's a Great Mage doing it, but not at my level for sure."

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Nod.

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"But a piece of metal--probably degrades less than brains do."

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"Oh, yes, if it isn't melted or anything it's fine indefinitely."

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"It might be that if it was damaged Atennesi could fix it, I don't know."

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"That would be convenient."

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She gives a wan smile. "Better not to find out, though."

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"Oh yes. I've avoided dying this long."

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"In less hazardous conditions, it sounds, but yeah."

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"It's true, Valinor is very safe."

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"And whatever it is that made Atennesi Cohen think that learning magical self-defense should be one of the first things for you to do here."

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"I'm not sure of the exact details of what he has in mind but I don't think the caution is likely to be misplaced." She is attempting to be aware of magic. So aware.

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There is some magic over there, and over there, and over there...

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She points it out.

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"Good," she says, genuinely pleased.

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"Is it worth learning it by Effort as well?"

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"Probably not."

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"All right." Background awareness of the thing.

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"You're very good at this."

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"Thank you."

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"You're very welcome." She gestures at the chart. "How much do you think you're using right now?"

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Poke.

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"Okay, let's see if we can cut it down a bit."

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"How do I do that?"

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"Try narrowing the focus of what you're looking for. You don't need to know about the chemistry being done three rooms over, you need to know what if anything is being done to you."

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"There's no concern about things being relevantly incoming, or prepared elsewhere to be suddenly directed at me?"

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"Magic travels fast enough you don't get enough more warning to be worth it."

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All right. She knows a lot about herself, it's her thing. The magic will not mind informing her about herself, surely.

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"Okay--at some point in the next few minutes I'm going to do something harmless to you, I want you to try to catch it and oppose it."

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"What will you do?"

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"Temporarily illuse your skin blue."

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"All right."

She is watchful. She is not blue.

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She makes an attempt to blue.

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Mirelótë has never been blue before and doesn't want to start now and this is her skin so that is her prerogative and she is sure the universe will agree.

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Her skin does not blue.

"Were you guarding for that before I tried?"

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"Only in the sense that I was clear on the limited number of authorized sources of changes to my person."

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"Do you think you can do that at all times?"

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"Not in my sleep."

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"Well, that's beyond anyone," she admits.

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"I have enough attention to spare to do it at other times as long as I don't decide it's a lesser priority than some other task I want to add."

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"Okay. That'd be a bit of an attention drain, mind."

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"I have attentional capacity blessings. I'm not sure how to render it into translateable terms - ah - I can have a couple dozen conversations at once? I don't always have all of this turned on, it can be boring if I'm not doing and thinking about many things, but I have plenty to spare for this."

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"Oh. Convenient."

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"Yes. Efficiency is also desirable, of course, but I can cheat a bit in its absence."

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She has a few tips for efficiency!

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Oh good!

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Efficiency: super useful. Unless you are a Great Mage or Odette Zavier. She mentions as much.

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"Surely it's still useful, if not as high a priority?"

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"Oh, in some circumstances, but--there's a difference between 'making something you can already do more efficient' and 'trying to get a more efficient version of something so you can do it at all.'"

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"Ah, yes. How does one accomplish the latter?"

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"It's a bit of an art. More detailed commands or requests or insistences, mostly."

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"Can you give me examples?"

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"Okay--so suppose someone's had their arm lopped off, and I want to grow them a new one. If I have enough power, I can make their body regrow it. But if I don't have enough power to just issue that command, I can detail exactly how the cells should replicate to create the new limb, and see if I have enough power for that."

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"Ooh!"

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"See, the first way, you're making the magic do the information handling as well as the regrowing itself. The more specific you get, the more you can do."

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"That explains why I could find the volume of the planet."

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"Exactly."

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"It's a tidy system in its way."

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"Tidy. Now there's a word I haven't heard used to describe it before."

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"It's not its dominant feature but it has its symmetries and balances."

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"I mean, you're not wrong."

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She glances around. "Of course, it's probably not a surprise that I've not had much interaction with the word tidy."

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"I've seen worse."

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"Well, I don't think I'm even the worst person here."

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"There are three clusters of Elves on Valinor. I live with a different one most of the time but the one I am has a lot of inventor types and scattered notes do not alarm me."

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She laughs.

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Giggle. "Are there more things I should learn, or am I at the point where it's a matter of practice?"

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"Mostly practice."

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"Then thank you very much for your help."

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"I can help with the practice, if you like."

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"...by attempting to turn me blue?"

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"For example. The idea is that you approve a list of harmless magical actions, and I and a few colleagues attempt to apply them to you at miscellaneous points, so you get practice catching these things when you're not expecting it."

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"Sure. What's on the list?"

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She opens a different drawer and pulls out a different piece of paper with a list on it.

-Blue skin

-Cold patches

-Hot patches

-Two inches of hair grown

-Three millimeters of fingernail grown

-One millimeter of fingernail severed

-Finger temporarily magnetized

-Toe temporarily magnetized

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"Please don't interact with my hair."

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"Okay," she says, and crosses that item off the list. "Any particular reason?"

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"Elves have very sensitive scalps."

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"Huh. Interesting thing to have. Well, it's off the list."

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"Thank you."

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"You're very much welcome."

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"What precisely are cold and hot patches?"

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"Spots of raised or lowered temperature on your skin."

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"That should be fine. Although, again, preferably not the scalp."

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"We typically limit it to arms and legs anyway but I'll make a note." She does that.

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"Thank you."

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"You're welcome."

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"Should I sit here or does it work just as well wherever I am?"

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"Oh, wherever."

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"I think I will go back to the garden. Thank you again."

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"You're welcome. Again."

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And back to the garden, singing.

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After about half an hour someone tries to do the fingernails thing.

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Her fingernails are just how she likes them.

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Is she sure?

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Yes. She would have grown them more or less if she did not want them just so.

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But is that very important? She'd better be very very sure.

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She's very sure. They are her fingernails and no one else gets a vote, even if they have bizarrely strong fingernail opinions.

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The magic fades.

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Good.

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A few hours later, how does she feel about the temperature of her arm?

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It's fine, thanks. It should keep doing what it's doing.

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But what if no.

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Surely her own arm would not violate her expressed wishes in this way. It is her arm.

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But what if no.

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Her arm her rules.

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In another fifteen minutes, blue?

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They've already had this conversation. Not blue.

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Okay but blue.

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No. Not blue. She is not going to change her mind.

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The next one is a few hours later and the magnetized toe one.

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Her toes are not magnetic and will remain not magnetic.

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And now it is late enough maybe she should take her cafeteria pass and go eat.

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She is a bit hungry and maybe it isn't open round the clock. She goes looking for the cafeteria.

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The cafeteria is currently open! Odette is also heading in to eat. She waves.

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Wave! Perhaps if there is space she will sit with Odette.

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Odette is sitting at a table with several other students, including her sister, but there is totally room.

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"May I sit here?"

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"Sure!"

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"You must be Mirelote! Odette and Illia mentioned you."

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"Yes, that's me. Pleased to meet you."

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"I'm Constanza Hirsch, Illia's girlfriend."

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"What is the naming convention here exactly -"

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"First name given name second name family name. It's not universal but it's pretty common in Genosha."

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"I see. My names are both given, I use them interchangeably but most people have a preference."

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"Huh. Why two?"

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"One from each parent. Father first if applicable."

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"Oh, that seems convenient."

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"It works for us."

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"Sometimes parents argue over who gets to pick the kid's given name. Mom named Odette and Dad named me."

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"Occasionally Elf parents argue over whether a name is suitable or not but mostly they just call the children by the names they chose themselves until the child has a preference."

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"I have my maternal grandmother's name, Dad picked Illia's to match--the Odyssey and the Iliad are a famous pair of books."

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"Aw, that's cute - you're twins?"

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"Yeah."

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"Is that common in humans? It happens in Elves but only deliberately, and I'm not sure humans could do it deliberately."

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"It's not very common, but it's not rare enough to be very remarkable. How do you do it on purpose?"

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"Elves have a lot of control over our bodies and someone decided to see what would happen if they had two babies at once."

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"...So does that imply there's only been one set of twins ever, or...?"

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"A handful of other people have tried it since then, but the first to do so was a friend of mine."

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"Huh. So if it's the same mechanism every time--are they either all identical or all fraternal?"

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"The experimental set is identical, some later instances fraternal."

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"Huh. Yeah, it's complete chance for humans. Well, chance with a side of genetics."

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"I think that may be how it works for orcs and dwarves but I didn't ever ask about that in particular."

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"What are those like?"

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"Orcs are basically off an Elf template but without most of the - special features - and they're uglier and they like having very large families and living in very dense cities. Dwarves are shorter and don't have gender as a concept and they have beards and they're very fond of - trade, markets, economics."

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"Special features?"

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"They don't have telepathy even though they have chips; they can't control their bodies like we can - a lot of chip blessings don't work for them - they don't sing..."

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"Huh."

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"They prefer to be how they are, at least as a group; they very deliberately build things to an unElven aesthetic even though they do make them pretty. I think they don't mind looking at each other at all."

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"I'm more concerned about the--lack of special features--than the differing aesthetic."

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"They let us figure out how to give them birth control, at our insistence, but have made no attempt to replicate anything else Elves can do for themselves."

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"Ooh, birth control, that's important, they didn't have that?"

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"They did not. We were fairly horrified. They didn't think it was terribly important, they like children and aren't as picky about timing as Elves are."

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"I find that hard to imagine. Not that I don't believe you, just--I'm not sure I ever want kids at all, it's a very different perspective."

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"If there are orcs like you they are not well represented."

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"I mean, I'm not sure I don't, either, I'm only twenty."

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"Oh, orcs also grow faster than Elves."

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"Oh?"

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"On Endorë, we take fifty of their years to come of age, a hundred to be fully adult - on Valinor there's a time effect and we take fifty Valian years, which is ten times longer - and Orcs take about two-fifths as long."

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"Yeah, I think we're like orcs there."

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Nod. "Valinor would multiply the time tenfold but only if you went there; no orcs have been."

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"What's Valinor like?" one of the others asks.

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"It's beautiful - as its primary feature - Elves love and need beautiful things. It's peaceful and joyful and full of music and learning."

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"Sounds amazing."

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"I love it."

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"I can see why!"

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"Maybe some humans can come visit once we have travel figured out."

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"That'd be cool."

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"And it turns out that humans are not the only species that can do magic."

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"Oh, congratulations!"

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"Thank you! It's rather thrilling."

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"I can imagine, magic's great."

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"I'm enjoying it."

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"Doesn't hurt too much?"

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"It varies. If it gets very bad I can cheat with the bodily control feature."

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"Oh, nice. Can you do that with stuff above the neck, or just below it?"

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"It's much more complicated around the brain, so I usually wouldn't, but it's not impossible in principle."

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"Most stuff is not above the neck so it doesn't come up most of the time but it's not exactly uncommon. If probably not worth doing preemptively."

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Nod.

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"So more useful for Sympathy or Effort than Conquest, I'm sure. What have you figured out about your talents and resistances?"

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"I think I would have found Conquest very appealing as a small child but have cultivated different habits since then. I have had decent success with Sympathy and expect comparable efficacy with Effort. If there is such a thing as being generically resistant I might be that, although most so to Sympathy."

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"Ooh, that sounds convenient."

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"The generic resistance?"

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"Mhm."

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"I make a habit of exactly the sort of thing that counteracts mental effects anyway."

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"Really? Why?"

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"I prefer to have well-documented, well-organized thoughts that are observably trending how I prefer."

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"Neat."

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"Thank you."

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"Well, it's not like you need my approval, but you're welcome."

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She laughs slightly.

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The alien is interesting but not infinitely so; discussion shifts to classwork.

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Mirelótë is curious what they're learning.

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History! Chemistry! Engineering! Physics! Biology! Psychology!

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Fascinating.

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Mostly these classes in some way relate their subject matter to magic.

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Seems efficient.

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That is often the point!

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Are physics the same here?

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As far as she can determine here.

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Good.

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"That reminds me, we should take you to see Dad," Illia comments. "Probably tomorrow, it's getting lateish."

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"All right. The day after tomorrow I'm going to ask Atennesi to bring my husband here if no one has come after me themselves, but tomorrow is open."

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"That makes sense. I hope it works."

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"I hope so too."

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"He's a Great Mage, it probably will."

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"The Valar have different but comparable powers and have not followed me. That could be their limited sense of urgency, but it could be that it's very difficult."

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"Well. I wish you luck."

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"Thank you."

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"You're welcome."

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After dinner Ambela goes back to the garden.

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The sun is setting. The garden is differently pretty in the dark.

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She climbs a tree and takes a nap in it.

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The trees are really not optimized for nap comfort but are certainly sturdy enough to hold her weight.

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It'll do.

She wakes up around dawn and climbs down and sings more.

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Some people loiter nearby to listen to her singing.

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That's fine!

And she monitors magic on her person.

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There is an attempt to cold.

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No thanks.

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The attempt subsides.

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Good.

Singing, singing. She can sing while notetaking on her notetaking gadget.

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Illia eventually shows up. 

"Wow," she says of the singing.

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"I'm not a particularly gifted singer for an Elf, but it seems less of a standard pastime here."

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"Most of us are not that good at it."

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"You're all very young, I don't know enough to rule out sheer practice effects."

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"True! I feel a bit better about my singing voice now."

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"Is it time to go meet your father?"

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"Unless it's a bad time for some reason!"

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"Now is fine!" She stands up.

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"Cool." 

She leads her to another building where there is a higher concentration of science things.

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Follow follow.

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And in one of the labs there is a cheerful man with short brown hair. "Hello! You must be Mirelote. I'm Karole Zavier."

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"Pleased to meet you."

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"The girls have told me quite a bit about you."

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"What are the highlights?"

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"Alien, impressively fast at language learning, impressive mental resistance..."

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"I don't have a confirmation of that last, only a suspicion."

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"Still, overall very favorable impression."

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"I'm delighted to hear it."

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There is a rapping on the window.

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Mirelótë looks.

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Odette waves.

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Illia rolls her eyes and goes to open the window.

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Odette flies in, lands, and brushes her dress.

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"Good morning."

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"Good morning! Dad doesn't do magic anymore so I'm here for that part."

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"I see. Why is that -"

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"Specialized for talent over resistance when I was young."

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"I see."

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"I've mostly recovered since."

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"I'm glad to hear that. You can't pick up a new specialty safely or have just redirected your energies?"

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"I very much don't want to risk falling back into old habits. And Sympathy is both the most convenient for bloodworking and the one I had a problem with."

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"I see."

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"Maybe someday. But not today."

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Nod.

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"Anyway. I need your consent to examine your underblood."

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"You are welcome to look at it. I assume you had no plans to do anything else with it but I should be understood to have what is probably a stronger-than-human negative reaction to the idea of finding myself with children I did not plan for or have under ideal conditions."

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"Oh, certainly not."

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Nod. "I just wanted to be quite sure. You may look as much as you like."

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"Thank you. Odette?"

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Odette grins. 

Illusions fill the air. Squiggles and symbols and a traditional representations of chromosomes.

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It's fascinating.

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Karole certainly seems to think so!

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"What observations are standing out to you?"

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"It's clearly designed. So elegant."

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"We do have some differences with our designer but he did a reasonably good job on the Elven organism."

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"I can see that."

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He continues poking delightedly at her genome. 

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"If it will be useful to have another Elf as a sample, I am expecting Atennesi to attempt to bring my husband here tomorrow."

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"That sounds lovely."

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"Hopefully it will work in both directions and we will be able to communicate between worlds."

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"I certainly hope so!"

He's pretty much going to delightedly examine her genome until his daughters drag him away to dinner.

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Dinner sounds good.

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The twins bid her goodnight again after dinner.

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"Good night."

The tree in the garden was not the most comfortable she has ever slept in so she doesn't sleep; she stays up notetaking and singing.

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No one bothers her. In the morning people start hanging around to listen.

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That's cute. She doesn't mind giving a concert.

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Her listeners appreciate this!

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And when it has been a Valian day since she said she had certain intentions, she goes to Atennesi's office.

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He has a secretary; the secretary waves her in when he sees her.

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In she goes!

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"Hello," he says. He looks tireder than last time she saw him. "I assume I would have noticed if the Valar had shown up."

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"They've gotten better about not radiating static wherever they go, but yes, they would have found me and I would have found you."

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"Radiating static?"

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"They interact with physics irregularly and have to do a lot of it manually. By default they used to cause the environment to be unpleasantly staticky."

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"Peculiar."

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"Yes. If you're curious they can still do the static on request, although it does not seem a priority. Do I need to do anything to allow you to bring my husband here?"

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"No, simply your presence should suffice. If my initial attempt fails I may ask you to do something that might increase efficiency."

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"All right."

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He closes his eyes and tips his head back.

He assembles exactly what he wants in as much detail as possible.

He demands it.

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An Elf appears. He's a little taller than Mirelótë and dressed similarly and he blinks twice and then beams at her. "Did Eru do that or -"

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He was probably involved in my disappearance but you I asked Atennesi here to bring. "Atennesi, my husband Rúmil."

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He stands and bows. "It is a pleasure to meet you--ah, Mirelote, if you could translate that--"

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"I'll translate by osanwë, he'll pick up the language about as fast as I did." She does.

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"Are you also summarizing our previous conversations, or should I re-explain?"

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"If it's more convenient I can catch him up."

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"You know him better than I and are more likely to be able to present it in a way most compatible with him."

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"All right. Rúmil, this is another world with only this species as sapients; they're called humans... - Was I sending backups?"

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"No. Mandos couldn't tell what was going on - I went to the Moon to talk to Eru -"

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"Really, did he have anything to say for himself?"

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"He said you weren't dead. I said - various uncomplimentary things - and he said that you would probably not have preferred nonintervention and I said those were hardly the only choices he had and he apologized and said he was late for a poetry reading."

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"That sounds like Eru." She translates for Atennesi.

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"I think I prefer this world's probably nonexistent deity or deities."

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"He's occasionally useful but your system definitely has its advantages. Anyway. I asked Atennesi to bring you here because he can use people from Arda to magically locate Arda, and if he sent me back he might not have been able to find it any more, and humans are inherently mortal."

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" - as in they just all die? And here I was feeling vaguely badly for a few of the words I had for Eru -"

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"They can use magic to stop themselves from all, yes, just dying, but there's a conspiracy to suppress that!"

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"Well! All right, we go back and get the Valar -"

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"There is some concern about how they will actually stack up against the higher-power locals - particularly considering that Atennesi could pull you here but they could not, I take it, get me or come after me. But yes, that's the idea."

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" - what do you think Eru intends -"

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"Optimistically, he thinks we'll have a marvelous little adventure and write alternate universe fanfiction and be inspired by the dead humans we were too late to save and so on."

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"Uh huh."

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"It may, with enough time, be possible to retrieve the dead. It has not been done yet, beyond the very short term, but I have hopes."

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"So do I."

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"And if there are two worlds, there are probably more."

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"Probably."

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"I'll let the Valar know to expect, uh, this."

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"We should probably bring you in again before fetching them in case they anticipate a problem or can get goodies from Eru for the trip. Another day, maybe. And you should check if you can do magic in Arda it's like this -"

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" - oooooh. I should check that I can do it here, first -"

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"You probably can, I can, but yes."

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He takes off a ring and tries to float it.

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Float float float.

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Mirelótë hugs him.

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Hug. Squeeze. "I'm so glad you're all right and learning magic - and what a good magic system, could almost have been custom-designed for you -"

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"I could do without the part where it hurts!"

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"I bet someone has blessings to help out in no time."

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"Personally, I've found that the pain often makes those who might be inclined to dismiss the mental effects think twice."

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"The blessings can have warnings on them."

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He nods. "Congratulations on your reunion. I am very glad for all our sakes that it was possible."

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"Thank you for fetching him."

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"You're completely welcome."

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And she sends Rúmil more catchup information on the world.

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Which he frowns and nods at.

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"Where his interests and yours diverge I'm happy to fill him in on any details that weren't mentioned to you."

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"It can wait until the inherent mortality stops."

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"I don't like it either, but it has waited centuries already for a reason. If details could help--" he shrugs.

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"If details can help Mirelótë will have thought of them."

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Giggle.

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He smiles. "Fair enough. Should I send you back now?"

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He hugs his wife. "Take care."

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"I will. We will bring you back after another Valian day?"

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"All right."

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She squeezes him. "Now is fine," she tells Atennesi.

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He sends him back.

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"Well. Is there anything else I should be doing as long as I'm here besides sitting in the garden attracting a crowd?"

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"I'm sure there are things you could be usefully doing, but I'm not sure about should."

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"Well. What would be useful?"

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"I have dossiers on my...peers."

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Nod.

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"I have them very thoroughly secured, it will take a little while to retrieve them."

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"I can wait."

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He retrieves what appears to be a sheaf of papers wrapped in diamond from a false bottom of one of the drawers in his desk.

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"We're going to have to teach you about computers and maybe cryptography."

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"I look forward to it."

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He places another sheaf of papers on top of the diamond-wrapped one and script appears on it in shining silver.

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"Ooh."

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"These aren't permanent; the writing is magical and will fade when I cancel it."

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"It's pretty."

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He smiles. "Thank you," he says, and hands her the papers.

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She looks.

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The papers are divided into five sections each labeled with a name: Jehan Sival, Yuen Lien, Ahuitzotl, Ea-nasir, and Andresh Polsen.

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She doesn't have much practice reading this language but no time like the present. She starts at the top.

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The three in the middle of the list are the original conspirators; Yuen Lien is nine hundred and thirteen years old, Ahuitzotle eight hundred and sixty, and Ea-nasir six hundred and seventy-three. Jehan Sival is four hundred and six, and Andresh Polsen is three hundred and twenty-six.

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They're really all old enough to know better.

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Each dossier is divided into "public" and "private," the former is thinner and details publicly available information on the individuals; the latter is thicker and less unambiguously pleasant.