[X] Go back to Lutecia and Saya.
-[X] About the progress on Lutecia's portal research. Any clues yet?
-[X] If not, talk about their family.
You stay where you are for a few seconds, but Homura seems to be out of it. You pick yourself up and hop off the couch to stand in front of Homura. Then you sigh, because she still doesn't react. You really don't understand why it's having such an effect on her, but it doesn't really matter. Certainly, if she does try something despite her promise, you know several ways to punish her. She won't even be able to prepare anything against you if it does become necessary. You sketch a nod to the unresponsive girl and leave the room, closing the door behind you.
You find the others in the kitchen, Lutecia and Saya sitting on a couple of stools while Agito stands at the stove. Lutecia sees you and raises a hand, so you can't surprise her, so you simply hop up on a counter next to her and sit there. Saya frowns and Agito sighs; you stick your tongue out in response.
"Hey, Lutecia, have you been thinking about getting to the imaginary space?" She looks down unhappily before shaking her head minutely.
"It's a problem of power and knowledge," Agito says, and you and Saya both look at her. "There are spells that can rip a hole to imaginary space that Lutecia could cast, but we don't know how to do any of them, so that's a bust. And we know about cartridges, but making them well enough to store enough mana to be relevant would be difficult, probably expensive, and dangerous, because if you make it wrong and fill it too much, it explodes." Lutecia nods.
"But … you have a Device, and your own magic powers it, right?" You nod, and she looks hopefully at you. "Could I see if your magic is compatible enough for me to use?" You think for a moment, then materialize a bullet for her, and she shakes her head. "No, I … can you release power the same way you do to power your Device?" You frown and dismiss the bullet, then look around the kitchen.
"Yes, but you have to be careful; it's … kind of dangerous." She nods firmly, and you hop off the counter and float to the clear area just inside the door. Agito watches you warily, and Saya stares at you with a mixture of awe and fear. You take a deep breath, then begin radiating power. You try to keep it weak, like when you're warming blood, but extend the range a bit, so Lutecia can see it more easily, and the air around you begins glowing red. Saya gasps and Lutecia steps forward, staring at the air around you, then stretches out an arm. She does … something … that seems to suck in the power around her hand, but then the release rate flickers and surges. Lutecia grunts in pain and stumbles back, and you can see that the glove on her hand is burned and torn. Agito hurls herself at the magician and makes sure she's okay while you stop the radiation and drop to the floor, but when you take a step forward, she turns on you.
"You idiot! What the hell was that for? Why didn't you gi-!" She starts to jab a finger at you, and you decide you've had more than you're willing to take from the jumped-up fairy. You lunge forward and your hand clamps over her face, your fingers gripping the fleshy parts just under her eyes and your palm covering her mouth, and you squeeze until you hear something grinding.
"Agito~" you begin, your voice sickly sweet. "You seem to be taking advantage of my kindness. I've been letting you get away with quite a lot of rudeness, because you're stupid and you're Lutecia's familiar, but my patience is not limitless. If you continue to act in this manner, I will dispose of you and find Lutecia someone who can meaningfully assist her. Understand?" She whimpers, and you take it for an affirmative, shoving her to the ground by Lutecia. You can see the marks on her face from your fingers, then you take a breath to calm yourself and hurry over to Lutecia before she can move toward the fallen fairy. "Lutecia, let me see your hand." She freezes, then gingerly extends her hand, and you grasp her forearm gently. Fortunately, she seems to have managed to get a barrier of some kind up, because her hand is red, but otherwise seems to be unharmed. You release her arm, nodding. "I did tell you to be careful, Lutecia - it wouldn't have been hard for you to lose the hand," you tell her sternly, and she nods before looking over at Agito. You sigh and stand back up, and she scuttles over, putting her undamaged hand near the fairy's face. You hop back onto the counter to wait for her to finish.
"Umm …." You look over at Saya. You'd almost forgotten the woman was there; she's pale and shaking, but she's not in any danger, and you wait for her to continue. "Um, what was that … all about?" You sigh.
"Lutecia's a mage, so she can use magic to let us get to a place that lets us get back to our homes." She blinks, then her eyes widen a bit more.
"You … you all aren't from Earth?" You scoff.
"I am - I'm from Schneeberg." She stares at you, uncomprehending. "Hesse? Bavaria? … Germany?" She finally shows some understanding, and you nod happily. "Of course, I'm not from this world's Schneeberg, not unless things are a lot stranger than I think." She screws her eyes shut and looks down at the floor. You turn back to Lutecia, who is helping an unsteady Agito to her feet. Lutecia frowns at you and seems to want to say something. "So, can you use it?" She blinks, confused, and you deflate. "My power. Can you use the power I generate in your magic?" She sighs and finishes helping Agito.
"… No. Or, I can, but it takes more energy to convert and hold your power than it gets in return." She bows her head. "I apologize." You scowl.
"Well, do you know any ceremonial or ritual magic? Those usually have ways to make up for deficiencies in power, right?" She wilts and lowers her head again. Hmm … do you actually know more than she does? "Well, how about this? If I show you a set of magic symbols and tell you what the set does, do you think you can either use it as is, or else adapt it to a style you can use?" She looks up at you, but she does seem to think it over. She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it and places her hand on Agito's shoulder. After a moment, she looks back at you.
"We might be able to do something with it, yes," she says. You don't miss the emphasis in her quiet voice, but it's not really relevant. So long as Agito knows her place.
"Okay, that's good. I'll be right back!" You dash off to your room to get the calligraphy set. You really should do the best job you can if you're going to do it at all. You grab the case and hurry back to the kitchen. You're glad that Remilia was still trying to teach you magic when she showed you this, and that she used the same glyphs the last time she prepared it …. You pull out a couple sheets of paper, the brush and the ink, then appropriate the stool Saya stopped using when she went to tend the stove.
"I … I thought you didn't know any magic," Agito manages. She's still pale, but Lutecia has her arms held protectively around the fairy.
"I can't do magic, but I know some, because my sister thought I should do it. Of course, I never could, and eventually even she gave up, but I still know a lot. Now, quiet please - I want to make sure I get this right." You do your best to tune out errant and get to work. Once you finish the first sheet, you try to blank your mind of it and take out the second sheet, recreating the glyphs once again. They match well enough that they should both be capable of recreating the effect, and look up for Lutecia. You don't see anyone, but you hear footsteps behind you, and turn to see Lutecia walk into the kitchen.
"… I wanted Agito to get some rest, so she's sleeping now," she says, and you nod, gesturing for her to look over the sheet with you. She hesitates, then takes a deep breath and sits on the other stool. She frowns when she sees the diagram.
"I think it's correct," you tell her honestly, "but it's been … a couple centuries, I think, since the last time I saw Remilia use it. Austerlitz. Big battle, not much fun because we were just spectators. Anyway … so the first bit is the border. You can actually do it on a map, but it really should be a specially-prepared map that conforms to the reality of the land. You can also put the magic in the ground itself, but that's really only useful for long-term applications, where you're planning on gathering energy over a long period of time. Properly done, at least the way I was told, you should look over the area you want to use, and tell the magic what part of the area it's going to affect. But that's supposed to take more energy than the map, so …." You shrug, but Lutecia nods in understanding. Oh, good. "Okay, the other important part is these glyphs. They tell the magic what it's going to draw the energy from -" you point to one set of glyphs, then another, "- and where it's going to store it. As far as I remember, the description can be as broad or narrow as you want, and this set is actually pretty much equivalent to 'the container that the user designates,' so if you use a written version, you can write in whatever you want; if you use the spell directly, though, you have to keep the location in mind, or else it just draws the energy out of the blood and sends it into the air." She frowns and looks up at you, and you shrug. "The spell draws usable energy from blood spilled on the ground within the area determined. Anyway, these sets determine conditionals - if you want the spell to only start drawing energy when you activate it or to activate at a certain time or event, or if you want it to automatically shut off for whatever reason. These other sets -" you point to the remaining lines of glyphs, "- aren't important for our purposes. You can use them to try and discriminate targets, but that takes more energy to make it work. They can also be used to fuel active spells directly, or to automatically start another spell or effect, but since the plan is to go for a brute-force assault on the dimensional barrier, just storing the energy should be good, right?" She nods slowly, and you smile and pass the paper over to her, then give her a hug. She gives you an odd look, and you smile. "If you have any questions about it, come find me, okay?" She nods and takes the paper, then climbs off the stool and bows before leaving.
Well, that should give her some pointers, at least. But now what ...?
What do you do?
[ ] Go back to sleep.
[ ] Do something inside.
- Anything in particular?
[ ] Do something outside.
- Anything in particular?
[ ] Other?
DM Note: It's ~11 AM on Thursday.
