Update 20: Finding his center
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Zalan breathes and finds his center, if just for a moment.
An introductory university course overviewing historical forms of planar magic, he thinks.
Five minutes sounds a lot like zero minutes until you're just sitting here waiting for the seconds to tick by, with nothing to do but wither under the scrutiny of strangers who hold power over you.
Zalan suspects that if he checked a clock, he'd see that a shockingly small amount of time has elapsed, except he can't check it until-
...The attendant finishes waking up. It completes a security ritual, allowing it to synchronize with Zalan's consciousness. It can't activate every single translation script he downloaded or it'll trip over its metaphorical feet, but the dragon doesn't know the name of whatever it is they're speaking. The attendant begins sampling the language.
"N-ice to meet you, Adia," Zalan says, taking care to pronounce the smallfolk's name just how they said it. It probably sounds a little forced. It isn't very nice to meet her so far.
Adia responds, awkwardly bouncing off the language barrier. Zalan does the same. He can at least try to sound friendly. He feels too nervous to sing, but he whistles a little tune. Adia gives a nervous smile, as if suspecting it's part of a spell. Zalan stops whistling.
His PA keeps trying to reach out to broader systems. The arcology is gone. The internexus is gone. With frustration, Zalan instructs it to quit trying to find outside help. It'll have to do the heavy lifting itself.
Zalan tries counting on his fingers. He reads out the numbers. The foxfolk remains tense, unsure if this too is some magick. Finally, she seems to understand, and does similar in turn.
From the voice, Zalan is starting to think of Adia as a girl, though he doesn't want to embarrass himself if he's wrong.
His PA is getting language clues in a hurry. Zalan glances away, listening to sample phonemes in his head, trying to guess which ones he may have heard while his construct was switched off...
Ah!
[Best-Fit: Cayshic West (Imperial) ]
[Instantiating]
Please work please work...
"Doing alright?"
!
Zalan tries to disguise his immense wave of relief that he won't be trapped here unable to make sense of anyone. He decides to hold back from revealing his knowledge. Replying will actually take a little practice attuning closely enough with the translation to let him form words he doesn't know. He believes his words will come out garbled at first. For now, he elects not to.
Before he has time to learn anything from Adia, the other foxfolk returns in a rush.
He's holding a different book from before in one hand. In the other, he's got some trinket. Zalan can't figure out its purpose at first.
Edaine crushes it, releasing a surge of functional mana.
"Wait wait," says Adia. "I don't think it's hostile."
"You can't know that!" snaps the mage. "I'm not going to hurt them. I'm going to repair-" the translator falters with a colloquial phrase "-to make certain we can trust them."
Zalan braces himself!
Oh fuck, oh God.
No, calm down.
I can handle this. I can handle this. I'm immune. I'm a dragon and he's some backwater hedge mage. I-
OH GOD!!
A bolt of pure intention strikes Zalan. Command. Desperately, he steels himself.
No!
All his towers crumble.
His strength is bypassed in an instant. His will useless, his skill irrelevant, his soul laid bare by cold, thoughtless affront.
It's terrifying. It's humiliating.
He has nothing to defend himself. Nothing!
The binding spell closes in on an inner self he didn't even realize existed beneath the self. He's nothing. He's a child again, trembling with weakness and too confused to understand how to fight back.
He feels sick. Feverish.
He clutches a blanket.
He stares up at Zigan, the only thing clear in his memory, towering above like a smiling mountain.
"Mom, this feels real bad," he said. "It feels bad in my head and, in my heart."
"Zalan, I'm so sorry," she said. "I wish it didn't have to be like this. The priestess didn't want to bring you pain either. But it was important. You understand, right?"
"But- but, Ivarey said she didn't have to see a priestess, and Iskalth said he didn't have to see a priestess, and Skev said he didn't have to see a priestess..."
Zigan's smile faltered, briefly.
"Well, Skev is a kobold, for one." she sighed. "There... are many who feel that the bad times are gone for ever, but we still remember them. I told you about your great uncle, right?"
"But that was so long ago. Centuries!"
"And you will live for centuries, my precious son," Zigan said with warmth. "Who knows what those centuries might contain?"
Zalan doesn't recall replying.
"What makes us strong can also make us vulnerable," said Zigan. "As long as people covet our strength, we must be vigilant. Find your courage, my sweet Zalan. My great treasure."
"I'll try..."
"I'm so sorry not to wait until you were older, but this works best at your age. It will be with you always, and protect you always."
"O- okay," said Zalan. "I love you, mom."
"I love you too," she said. "When you feel better, your father wants to take you to buy one of those spirit machines you liked..."
Zalan feels his heart lift. He feels himself whole. He returns to now.
He blinks slowly.
"You said it wouldn't hurt them!" says Adia.
"They're... he'll be fine," stammers Edaine.
Zalan can feel the binding magic settling into his Crown and Core nodes. But it can't control him. It's been subverted. He can feel a connection to the fox wizard. He can receive impulses and instructions, but it's just information.
It's been a long, long time since he thought about his inoculation ritual. It doesn't merely resist the binding magick. It's made so it appears to succeed, and tells him enough to play along.
"Well, did it work?" sighs Adia.
"I believe so," Edaine says.
"Believe as you believe the sun will come up, or believe as you believed you'd summon a spider demon and not a dragon?" asks Adia.
"Well, I've just never done this before. But it worked, yes. I can feel the spiritual connection. So we can trust he won't attack us. Isn't that right, dragon?"
Vote:
[] - Be honest. Tell them their evil magic won't work and demand to be set free.
[] - Play along. Pretend to be a bound summon. Follow Edaine's "orders" for now unless they're evil or dangerous.
IF Zalan plays along:
[] - Pretend not to know the language for now. A successful binding ritual should let the subject learn the summoner's language at an accelerated pace. Zalan could play dumb for awhile, maybe a few days, and perhaps overhear things he otherwise wouldn't, but he might also blow his cover by accident.
[] - Start talking soon. Just admit his translation spell kicked in and pretend to be their friend while lying as little as possible. This means he can start asking questions right away, and communicate that he's very hungover.
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