Since you just described what the spell does at the start of the chapter, you could replace the highlighted section with something along the lines of 'I rewove and cast the illusion spell, guess I'd get to use it after all.'
Meddle not...
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
I guess it's just that illusion spells can easily be widely varied.
10
Zrazta looked around at the cars moving driving past outside the café, holding some kind of coffee mix thing. My tea was sitting on the table before myself as I held the tracking necklace in my hand.
Wrapping the chain around my hand, I let it hang as I focused magic into it, reaching out for the others linked to it.
If Alexis was on this Plane, then I could find her as long as she kept it on her. If she wasn't here…
Well, then we had a problem. Because as far as I knew, there was no way to track someone across the Blind Eternities. I would need to see if I could track down Ajani and see if he had some ideas.
I could feel like link form with Zraztas necklace across the table. I kept searching. A link slowly formed.
Alexis was here. But the link was weak, thin.
She might be here, but she was far away. Very far away. Last time I followed a link that far was when I tracked Sheila and Rengosa to the Broken Isles from Northrend. She wasn't even on this continent!
What the hell was she doing?
"Find her?"
I opened my eyes to spot Zrazta watching me from across the table with a small frown. I nodded, "She is on this Plane at least, so that's something. But far away or behind some high tier magical shielding or disruption. The link is weak."
She nodded and leaned back, sipping on her coffee before glancing down at it, "…This is good."
She told the barista to get her something that was popular. It ended up being a lattemochacharamel nonsense thing with more nonsense in it.
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes again and started to weave a scrying spell. Perhaps if I could see where she was, it would help track things down.
It was a lot easier to do when you had an actual sympathetic link instead of needing to build some kind of makeshift one.
Still, this was a long way to scry. Only way it was even possible was because of the ready made link to her…
The spell fizzled.
I clenched my jaw against the slight washback of unused mana. Ow.
"What happened?"
Leaning back against my seat, I shook my head and rubbed my forehead as I looked at my Consort, "I don't know, spell failed. I'll try again."
Weaving the spell anew, going slower this time and paying real attention to each step, I closed my eyes and focused hard. Incorporate the link and…
Ow.
Great, now I have a headache as well. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head, "…Nope. She is somewhere shielded or with significant magical flux."
"Headache?"
I nodded and opened my eyes, reaching for my tea, "Yeah. I'll be fine. But I'm not trying that again, if we want to find her, we have to actually go there."
Zrazta frowned and sipped her concoction, "Do we fly there?"
I shook my head, "Bad idea. I tired that before, they can see you with radar or something. You would need to fly so low it wouldn't be possible to travel somewhere that far."
Not to mention if you flew low, a blurr spell wouldn't be viable and I'd give it five minutes until we were on YouTube with a couple of thousand comments of 'Fake' and 'I can tell by the pixels'.
"So, what do we do? Can we travel by ship?"
"Don't know," I sighed, "Earth is a bit of a pain to travel on, we don't have any documentation which make things almost impossible."
Zrazta slowly nodded and sipped her 'coffee' in thought, "Could it be faked?"
"Not easily. Illusions aren't that detailed and forgeries able to fool computers are likely crazy hard to find." I said and sipped my tea, putting the necklace down on the table in thought, "Well, there is one idea."
"Hmh?"
I watched the necklace in thought, "There is a few options… if I'm able to narrow down the general area, or at least country, we could post a portal key stone or have someone with valid papers take it there and then portal across. Or we could go to another world and travel there, but that take a lot of calculations to even get remotely right. I like the first idea better."
"Me too," she agreed and looked out the window as a car drove past, music thumping hard, "This world is strange."
"No arguments from me," I agreed and sipped my tea. I wasn't even sure this was the world I was from originally. If it was, it was the only world I ever run into with no local magic. That's just strange. But it did force the inhabitants to do things the hard way. No magic to light fires, they had to figure out how to do it other ways.
So, they did. The technology tech tree might be a difficult one to climb, but it seemed to pay off in pure comfort and practically late on.
Zrazta finished her drink and put the cup down on the table, "Let's go? If we are to narrow things down, we need a map."
"Yep. Let's go."
AN// Big barrels of thanks to Azunth for betaing this section.
Wrapping the chain around my hand, I let it hang as I focused magic into it, reaching out for the others linked to it.
If Alexis was on this Plane, then I could find her as long as she kept it on her. If she wasn't here…
Well, then we had a problem. Because as far as I knew, there was no way to track someone across the Blind Eternities. I would need to see if I could track down Ajani and see if he had some ideas.
I could feel like link form with Zraztas necklace across the table. I kept searching. A link slowly formed.
Alexis was here. But the link was weak, thin.
She might be here, but she was far away. Very far away. Last time I followed a link that far was when I tracked Sheila and Rengosa to the Broken Isles from Northrend. She wasn't even on this continent!
What the hell was she doing?
"Find her?"
I opened my eyes to spot Zrazta watching me from across the table with a small frown. I nodded, "She is on this Plane at least, so that's something. But far away or behind some high tier magical shielding or disruption. The link is weak."
She nodded and leaned back, sipping on her coffee before glancing down at it, "…This is good."
She told the barista to get her something that was popular. It ended up being a lattemochacharamel nonsense thing with more nonsense in it.
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes again and started to weave a scrying spell. Perhaps if I could see where she was, it would help track things down.
It was a lot easier to do when you had an actual sympathetic link instead of needing to build some kind of makeshift one.
Still, this was a long way to scry. Only way it was even possible was because of the ready made link to her…
The spell fizzled.
I clenched my jaw against the slight washback of unused mana. Ow.
"What happened?"
Leaning back against my seat, I shook my head and rubbed my forehead as I looked at my Consort, "I don't know, spell failed. I'll try again."
Weaving the spell anew, going slower this time and paying real attention to each step, I closed my eyes and focused hard. Incorporate the link and…
Ow.
Great, now I have a headache as well. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head, "…Nope. She is somewhere shielded or with significant magical flux."
"Headache?"
I nodded and opened my eyes, reaching for my tea, "Yeah. I'll be fine. But I'm not trying that again, if we want to find her, we have to actually go there."
Zrazta frowned and sipped her concoction, "Do we fly there?"
I shook my head, "Bad idea. I tired that before, they can see you with radar or something. You would need to fly so low it wouldn't be possible to travel somewhere that far."
Not to mention if you flew low, a blurr spell wouldn't be viable and I'd give it five minutes until we were on YouTube with a couple of thousand comments of 'Fake' and 'I can tell by the pixels'.
"So, what do we do? Can we travel by ship?"
"Don't know," I sighed, "Earth is a bit of a pain to travel on, we don't have any documentation which make things almost impossible."
Zrazta slowly nodded and sipped her 'coffee' in thought, "Could it be faked?"
"Not easily. Illusions aren't that detailed and forgeries able to fool computers are likely crazy hard to find." I said and sipped my tea, putting the necklace down on the table in thought, "Well, there is one idea."
"Hmh?"
I watched the necklace in thought, "There is a few options… if I'm able to narrow down the general area, or at least country, we could post a portal key stone or have someone with valid papers take it there and then portal across. Or we could go to another world and travel there, but that take a lot of calculations to even get remotely right. I like the first idea better."
"Me too," she agreed and looked out the window as a car drove past, music thumping hard, "This world is strange."
"No arguments from me," I agreed and sipped my tea. I wasn't even sure this was the world I was from originally. If it was, it was the only world I ever run into with no local magic. That's just strange. But it did force the inhabitants to do things the hard way. No magic to light fires, they had to figure out how to do it other ways.
So, they did. The technology tech tree might be a difficult one to climb, but it seemed to pay off in pure comfort and practically late on.
Zrazta finished her drink and put the cup down on the table, "Let's go? If we are to narrow things down, we need a map."
"Yep. Let's go."
AN// Big barrels of thanks to Azunth for betaing this section.
May take more than 3 depending on how far away Alexis is and how far they go to make the additional scryings. If she's in Australia or China or such, he'd have to travel a fair bit to get a significant change of angle. Remember, the tracking spell is giving a direction of 'thataway' not a compass heading to 3 decimals.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
You also have to account for inaccuracies in the way a flat map displays a spherical space. That one trips inexperienced people up all the time.
As an example of it, how many Australias (as depicted on a map, not a numeric value) would it take to fill the land area of Africa?
11
"England?" Richard Castle asked with a frown, "Why would she be in England?"
I leaned back on the couch, crossing my arms with a shrug, "How would I know? I'm only just getting a general area; this stuff isn't exactly pinpoint at this distance.."
She was somewhere in the country, that's all I got. A larger scale map would help, but not by much. Quite frankly it was on the other side of the planet and scrying was more of an art than a science.
Zrazta nodded, sitting on the couch next to me, her legs pulled in beneath her, "The difficulty is getting there," she said and sipped at her coffee, "Atregos says there are a lot of controls on how people can travel? We need some sort of papers?"
Richard nodded and rubbed his face, "…We can handle that. If you get there, can you find her?"
"We can," I agreed, "Easiest if she has the necklace with her, but I know Alexis well enough to track her by memories or your blood. It would be slower and more difficult, but as long as she is on this Plane, I can find her."
Unless she was specifically shielded against it of course. Even then there were ways to at least get the most likely area.
"So how do we get there?" Zrazta asked with a frown.
Richard reached for this phone, "I'll hire a private plane and going to England. Just a pilot, no stewardess. You two can go invisible with your magic stuff, right? Alexis said something about that."
I slowly nodded, putting my arm around Zrazta, "That might work."
Still checks and such, but that would be easy to sneak past. Easier to hide on than a public flight. Yeah, that'd work.
"I'll get it set up," he said and poked his way through his phone.
"How are you doing?" I asked him with a frown, "Do we know who those guys were?"
He paused and then shook his head, "Not sure. They said they wanted money and they wore masks anytime I saw them. But they didn't call anyone for a ransom. I don't get it," he said with a frown.
"It does not matter," Zrazta commented and shifted to stretch out her legs, leaning against my side, "The brigand is under lock and key at the city guard and your mate is interrogating him for his accomplices. They will be found, soon enough."
Personally, I wasn't so sure. I remember reading somewhere that the odds of being caught for a crime were kind of low. But they had one and if he knew the names of the others…
Well, there could be a chance.
"Yeah," Richard agreed and walked over to look out the window, "I know."
"When do we leave?" Zrazta asked and scooted off the couch to get up, "And is there somewhere we can change?"
Castle looked back at her, "I'll see if I can get one tomorrow. We go as soon as possible."
"As for changing, not anytime soon," I answered for him, "Can't do it outside or we get spotted and while this place is big, I barely fit. No way you would, Love."
She grimaced and then nodded, "I'll deal."
"It's uncomfortable, I know," I sighed, "But Earth is Earth. We need to be careful, Zrazta."
She didn't look overly happy but nodded, "I know."
Getting up, I gave her a small kiss, "We'll find some spot we can turn back. There has to be a forest or empty warehouse or something somewhere."
Zrazta sighed but nodded again, "We have a couple of weeks before it becomes unbearable," she agreed and reached up to run her fingers through my ponytail, "But until then, I want to explore this world."
"We'll see plenty while searching for Alexis."
She smiled, "If we are leaving tomorrow, I'm going to go get some rest. You should too."
"Join you in a bit."
Nodding, she moved to walk up the stairs to the guestroom. Despite my worries about Alexis, I couldn't help but smile after her until she was out of sight.
Then I turned around and walked over to join Richard in looking out the window only to find him looking at me, "What?"
"Third wife? Really?"
I just grinned and looked out over the city, "I'm a lucky dragon."
"I would say so."
Smiling slightly, I crossed my arms and looked out at the lights in the darkness before I looked at him and sighed, "We'll get her back. You know that, right?"
Castle nodded, "She's tough."
"I want you to understand who I am when I say this. I'm a Dragon mage artificer with self crafted magical power armor. The closest thing I have to a father is a being that many worshipped as the God of Magic. Alexis is one of the toughest people I know. Not the strongest, but she is smart, determined and skilled at her craft. Believe me when I say that I have no doubt in my mind that she is completely fine. Something might be keeping her from calling, but she's fine."
His jaw clenched for a moment before he nodded and turned to walk up to the bedroom.
I turned to look out the window again, really, really hoping that I told him the truth.
Stay safe, Alexis.
AN// Big thanks to Seonor for betaing this section.
I leaned back on the couch, crossing my arms with a shrug, "How would I know? I'm only just getting a general area; this stuff isn't exactly pinpoint at this distance.."
She was somewhere in the country, that's all I got. A larger scale map would help, but not by much. Quite frankly it was on the other side of the planet and scrying was more of an art than a science.
Zrazta nodded, sitting on the couch next to me, her legs pulled in beneath her, "The difficulty is getting there," she said and sipped at her coffee, "Atregos says there are a lot of controls on how people can travel? We need some sort of papers?"
Richard nodded and rubbed his face, "…We can handle that. If you get there, can you find her?"
"We can," I agreed, "Easiest if she has the necklace with her, but I know Alexis well enough to track her by memories or your blood. It would be slower and more difficult, but as long as she is on this Plane, I can find her."
Unless she was specifically shielded against it of course. Even then there were ways to at least get the most likely area.
"So how do we get there?" Zrazta asked with a frown.
Richard reached for this phone, "I'll hire a private plane and going to England. Just a pilot, no stewardess. You two can go invisible with your magic stuff, right? Alexis said something about that."
I slowly nodded, putting my arm around Zrazta, "That might work."
Still checks and such, but that would be easy to sneak past. Easier to hide on than a public flight. Yeah, that'd work.
"I'll get it set up," he said and poked his way through his phone.
"How are you doing?" I asked him with a frown, "Do we know who those guys were?"
He paused and then shook his head, "Not sure. They said they wanted money and they wore masks anytime I saw them. But they didn't call anyone for a ransom. I don't get it," he said with a frown.
"It does not matter," Zrazta commented and shifted to stretch out her legs, leaning against my side, "The brigand is under lock and key at the city guard and your mate is interrogating him for his accomplices. They will be found, soon enough."
Personally, I wasn't so sure. I remember reading somewhere that the odds of being caught for a crime were kind of low. But they had one and if he knew the names of the others…
Well, there could be a chance.
"Yeah," Richard agreed and walked over to look out the window, "I know."
"When do we leave?" Zrazta asked and scooted off the couch to get up, "And is there somewhere we can change?"
Castle looked back at her, "I'll see if I can get one tomorrow. We go as soon as possible."
"As for changing, not anytime soon," I answered for him, "Can't do it outside or we get spotted and while this place is big, I barely fit. No way you would, Love."
She grimaced and then nodded, "I'll deal."
"It's uncomfortable, I know," I sighed, "But Earth is Earth. We need to be careful, Zrazta."
She didn't look overly happy but nodded, "I know."
Getting up, I gave her a small kiss, "We'll find some spot we can turn back. There has to be a forest or empty warehouse or something somewhere."
Zrazta sighed but nodded again, "We have a couple of weeks before it becomes unbearable," she agreed and reached up to run her fingers through my ponytail, "But until then, I want to explore this world."
"We'll see plenty while searching for Alexis."
She smiled, "If we are leaving tomorrow, I'm going to go get some rest. You should too."
"Join you in a bit."
Nodding, she moved to walk up the stairs to the guestroom. Despite my worries about Alexis, I couldn't help but smile after her until she was out of sight.
Then I turned around and walked over to join Richard in looking out the window only to find him looking at me, "What?"
"Third wife? Really?"
I just grinned and looked out over the city, "I'm a lucky dragon."
"I would say so."
Smiling slightly, I crossed my arms and looked out at the lights in the darkness before I looked at him and sighed, "We'll get her back. You know that, right?"
Castle nodded, "She's tough."
"I want you to understand who I am when I say this. I'm a Dragon mage artificer with self crafted magical power armor. The closest thing I have to a father is a being that many worshipped as the God of Magic. Alexis is one of the toughest people I know. Not the strongest, but she is smart, determined and skilled at her craft. Believe me when I say that I have no doubt in my mind that she is completely fine. Something might be keeping her from calling, but she's fine."
His jaw clenched for a moment before he nodded and turned to walk up to the bedroom.
I turned to look out the window again, really, really hoping that I told him the truth.
Stay safe, Alexis.
AN// Big thanks to Seonor for betaing this section.
She's hanging out with all the other castles... :lol
- Location
- USA
I...really don't think it's as hard to sneak on a plane as he is making it sound? He has invisibility spells and blink, and they only check your ticket at the gate. Sneaking past them should be pretty easy.
nullptr
Mostly Harmless
- Location
- The 906
I would think that the fact that aircraft are confined areas full of people would make it difficult to be invisible. Someone would bump into you at some point during the boarding process or during the flight itself. Not to mention, where would you be for the entire duration of the flight? It's not like you can really count on there being empty seats, and even if there were getting into and out of it while invisible... yeah, not seeing how it'd work.
I suppose they could just teleport into one of the cargo holds, but riding in there for a trans-atlantic flight would be miserable.
12
Zrazta couldn't stop looking around, peering out the window. I couldn't help but smile at the sight.
Made me appreciate things like this more, see it with new eyes. Modern flight travel really was insanely impressive compared to pretty much everything.
Sending people and materials flying through the air in a pressurised metal tube at close to the speed of sound.
We might get there eventually, but it would take a long time. To be honest, it would be cheaper and easier to simply get those things here…
…and quite frankly, the infrastructure to keep something like this up and running didn't exist anywhere else.
Oooh. I needed to remember to bring some aluminium to Saheeli. Ten kilos or so, maybe we could stop by on the way home.
She would love that.
Maybe titanium! I could actually use a couple tons of that myself. While there were stronger metals, it was quite strong for its weight. How difficult would it be to get my hands on some depleted uranium or tungsten carbide?
Pulling a piece of parchment and a ballpoint pen out, I started to scribble down some ideas. I couldn't be sure until I actually tried to mix things, but I bet either of them could work well mixed with adamantium or Dwemer Metal.
Then again, with the strength of titanium and its light weight… it could be used for parts of armour, it would depend on its enchantability index. The actual metal was almost secondary to the enchantments, after all.
It would almost be best if you could skip the materials completely.
I paused and thoughtfully looked across the plane at Zrazta. Would that even be possible? It would take an insane amount of power channelled with absolute precision until the array was set up, but…
In theory. In theory, it could possibly work.
Self-contained and self-carried enchantment work. Possibly very fragile with no solid foundation, but maybe…
Zrazta turned around to look at me before she tilted her head. "What are you thinking of?"
"Lots of things." I answered quietly, glancing over at where Castle was slumped in one of the seats. He finally fell asleep… not sure if he'd slept last night.
After everything he had gone through only to discover that Alexis was missing... I was honestly surprised that he'd managed to keep conscious as long as he did. I didn't want to wake him, he would need as much sleep as he could get.
Zrazta moved across the plane and straddled my lap, frowning at me as she also looked over at him before turning back to me. "We will find Alexis."
"I know," I sighed and stroked her cheek. "I… I hope so. I owe her a lot… we all do."
Nodding, Zrazta rested her forehead against mine. "She is skillful and strong with a good heart."
Putting my arms around her, I nodded before I reached for my necklace with one hand and focused on the magic.
The link to her necklace were still there.
I nodded, said "Yeah." and let my hand drop again as Zrazta scooted around to sit in my lap with her back against my chest.
"This world is fascinating," she said, changing the subject as she reached to remove her illusion ring. "To construct such incredible machines with no magic, it's amazing."
Putting my arms around her, I just murmured in agreement and relaxed back against the soft seat, looking out the mirror before I sighed and nuzzled at her hair. "I'm sorry, Love. This didn't exactly turn out like I planned. I wanted to show you Earth and then find someplace where we could just… fly…"
Zrazta grinned and half turned to look at me. "Atregos, you would have been bored to death with just flying and hunting in two days."
Smirking, I eyed her. "Oh, I can think of some other things to fill the time."
"Oh, could you now?"
"Mmmm."
Smiling she turned back, cuddling back against me. "I think we should still be able to find some time after we find Alexis."
"I can't help but like the way you think," I said and pulled her closer. "But right now, we should get some sleep. We are still hours out."
She nodded and sighed, relaxing. "Not moving."
"Don't want you to. But you should put the ring back on."
Zrazta pouted but nodded, put it back on and crossed her arms over mine, closing her eyes. Taking a deep breath, I pulled her tighter and did the same and for the first time since we arrived on Earth, I actually felt relaxed.
AN// Big thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
Made me appreciate things like this more, see it with new eyes. Modern flight travel really was insanely impressive compared to pretty much everything.
Sending people and materials flying through the air in a pressurised metal tube at close to the speed of sound.
We might get there eventually, but it would take a long time. To be honest, it would be cheaper and easier to simply get those things here…
…and quite frankly, the infrastructure to keep something like this up and running didn't exist anywhere else.
Oooh. I needed to remember to bring some aluminium to Saheeli. Ten kilos or so, maybe we could stop by on the way home.
She would love that.
Maybe titanium! I could actually use a couple tons of that myself. While there were stronger metals, it was quite strong for its weight. How difficult would it be to get my hands on some depleted uranium or tungsten carbide?
Pulling a piece of parchment and a ballpoint pen out, I started to scribble down some ideas. I couldn't be sure until I actually tried to mix things, but I bet either of them could work well mixed with adamantium or Dwemer Metal.
Then again, with the strength of titanium and its light weight… it could be used for parts of armour, it would depend on its enchantability index. The actual metal was almost secondary to the enchantments, after all.
It would almost be best if you could skip the materials completely.
I paused and thoughtfully looked across the plane at Zrazta. Would that even be possible? It would take an insane amount of power channelled with absolute precision until the array was set up, but…
In theory. In theory, it could possibly work.
Self-contained and self-carried enchantment work. Possibly very fragile with no solid foundation, but maybe…
Zrazta turned around to look at me before she tilted her head. "What are you thinking of?"
"Lots of things." I answered quietly, glancing over at where Castle was slumped in one of the seats. He finally fell asleep… not sure if he'd slept last night.
After everything he had gone through only to discover that Alexis was missing... I was honestly surprised that he'd managed to keep conscious as long as he did. I didn't want to wake him, he would need as much sleep as he could get.
Zrazta moved across the plane and straddled my lap, frowning at me as she also looked over at him before turning back to me. "We will find Alexis."
"I know," I sighed and stroked her cheek. "I… I hope so. I owe her a lot… we all do."
Nodding, Zrazta rested her forehead against mine. "She is skillful and strong with a good heart."
Putting my arms around her, I nodded before I reached for my necklace with one hand and focused on the magic.
The link to her necklace were still there.
I nodded, said "Yeah." and let my hand drop again as Zrazta scooted around to sit in my lap with her back against my chest.
"This world is fascinating," she said, changing the subject as she reached to remove her illusion ring. "To construct such incredible machines with no magic, it's amazing."
Putting my arms around her, I just murmured in agreement and relaxed back against the soft seat, looking out the mirror before I sighed and nuzzled at her hair. "I'm sorry, Love. This didn't exactly turn out like I planned. I wanted to show you Earth and then find someplace where we could just… fly…"
Zrazta grinned and half turned to look at me. "Atregos, you would have been bored to death with just flying and hunting in two days."
Smirking, I eyed her. "Oh, I can think of some other things to fill the time."
"Oh, could you now?"
"Mmmm."
Smiling she turned back, cuddling back against me. "I think we should still be able to find some time after we find Alexis."
"I can't help but like the way you think," I said and pulled her closer. "But right now, we should get some sleep. We are still hours out."
She nodded and sighed, relaxing. "Not moving."
"Don't want you to. But you should put the ring back on."
Zrazta pouted but nodded, put it back on and crossed her arms over mine, closing her eyes. Taking a deep breath, I pulled her tighter and did the same and for the first time since we arrived on Earth, I actually felt relaxed.
AN// Big thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
I have to think even with extensive stabilization such an energy construct has to have dire consequences when disrupted.
You should probably stick to substrates, dude. That said, why not something substantially lighter than metal while you're on a heavily industrialized planet? Plastics? Aerogel?
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
.....
Plane crash..
Hijacked?
otherwise attacked?
surrounded when they land?
Oh, random guess. This is going to get crossed with some spy show now, like Alias or Homeland.
Pensive Rumination
Praise me more?
- Location
- Australia
Huh, I thought this was just taking place in the episode where Alexis and her friend were actually kidnapped, but then I realised she very easily could of dealt with regular kidnappers as a planewalker.
Also she's wasn't shipped off to Paris like she was in the episode.
13
I frowned at the necklace hanging from my hand before I poked it, "Either this thing is broken or Alexis has learned how to teleport hundreds of kilometres in seconds."
Zrazta looked at it and then me, "That's rather advanced."
No kidding. Even teleportation and portal spells to Portal Key Stones were difficult. I worked around it by using trinkets, more skilled mages did it with spells.
Actual freeform, long range teleportation? That was Archmage or Wyrm level magic. Some very skilled Dragons could do it.
I sure as hell couldn't. Not my kind of magic.
Sighing, I shook my head, "I don't get it. We followed her here, she was like two kilometres away and suddenly… poof."
She was far away up north.
"At least she seems to be well," Zrazta said and looked down along the street, "Can it be used to track where she was? If she didn't learn how to teleport, there must be some sort of portal."
"She can't make those 'either'!" I sighed and then shook my head again, "Sadly no. It'll simply point towards her direction. But we do know the direction she was in so we might as well go and check."
Zrazta nodded and shouldered her bag, "So… this way?"
"Yep," I agreed and did the same, putting my necklace back on. No point in it right now. About two kilometres. It wasn't an exact science.
We continued along the sidewalk and I slipped my hand to take hers, earning a quick smile before she frowned as a car drove past, "As interesting as this world is, it smells."
"No arguments there," I agreed.
London didn't smell any better than New York. Guess it came from living in a world with clean air, but coming to earth really made the pollution stand out.
"How would we find out where she was?"
"Honestly, no real idea," I admitted and shrugged, "Only thing that comes to mind is that if she teleported, it might have left some magic residue?"
Zrazta paused and frowned, "…Is it really possible to track that? That would be a very weak signature."
"Normally no, but this is Earth. Not exactly a lot of background magic around to disrupt the signature," I agreed as I stopped, "Give me a moment and we'll see."
Zrazta nodded and let go of my hand to give me room to work.
I motioned for her to follow me into an alley to get a bit out of view before I pulled out a crystal and some string from my satchel, tying the string around it, "I'll do a quick enchantment on this thing so it points towards the closest magical signature. I'll key it to ignore anything within five meters so it doesn't point at us."
Getting to work, I started to wave magic into the small quartz crystal. Not the best material in the world, but it was cheap and not like it needed to hold very muOW!
I blinked in surprise and rubbed my chin where a shard hit me as the crystal shattered into shrapnel and smoke in a ozon filled zap!
"…That's not meant to do that…" I said and frowned at the burning string, "The fuck?"
Zrazta frowned and walked up, running a hand across my cheek to heal the small cut, "What happened? You don't usually make mistakes like that."
I looked at her in surprise, "I didn't. It was perfect, I keyed it to ignore anything within five meters and then ramped the sensitivity up to maximum. I don't see how that could have happened! Only way I would have gotten that reaction would be if there was…"
I paused and frowned at the burning string before dropping it on the ground before I continued, "…Would be if there was a massive magical field somewhere close by. With that I mean powerful, very powerful."
"But you said Earth didn't have magic?"
"It doesn't!" I exclaimed, "Something is fucked here. Sure, there is energy in the Land, but…"
Weaving a spell, I cast the spell to see magic, a purple symbol appearing on my forehead as I looked around.
Nothing here. The alley looked normal. Zrazta's dress, ring and bag shone with magic and her skin rippled with energies. I couldn't help but smile at the sight. Beautiful.
That got me a look in turn and she pointed towards the exit of the alley. Grinning, I walked out onto the street as I looked around quickly before somebody could notice the symbol glowing on my forehead.
Nothing to the east. Nothing real, there were hints in the air. Odd.
I turned around and gasped. The west shone with magic, it rippled through the air, bending and twisting at the sky. It almost… it almost looked somewhat like the space bending enchantment you use on bags.
"What in the ever-loving fuck is going on here?" I asked as I looked at the massive spatial twist in the middle of fucking London. The buildings along the street shone but it seemed to be focused on one building in the middle.
"What do you see?" Zrazta asked as she walked up next to me.
I slowly shook my head, "No idea," I answered and cancelled the spell, "There is a massive amount of magic here. Way over Alexis level of spellwork. Something very strange is going on."
She nodded, "Let's investigate."
AN// Big thanks to memzak for betaing this section.
Zrazta looked at it and then me, "That's rather advanced."
No kidding. Even teleportation and portal spells to Portal Key Stones were difficult. I worked around it by using trinkets, more skilled mages did it with spells.
Actual freeform, long range teleportation? That was Archmage or Wyrm level magic. Some very skilled Dragons could do it.
I sure as hell couldn't. Not my kind of magic.
Sighing, I shook my head, "I don't get it. We followed her here, she was like two kilometres away and suddenly… poof."
She was far away up north.
"At least she seems to be well," Zrazta said and looked down along the street, "Can it be used to track where she was? If she didn't learn how to teleport, there must be some sort of portal."
"She can't make those 'either'!" I sighed and then shook my head again, "Sadly no. It'll simply point towards her direction. But we do know the direction she was in so we might as well go and check."
Zrazta nodded and shouldered her bag, "So… this way?"
"Yep," I agreed and did the same, putting my necklace back on. No point in it right now. About two kilometres. It wasn't an exact science.
We continued along the sidewalk and I slipped my hand to take hers, earning a quick smile before she frowned as a car drove past, "As interesting as this world is, it smells."
"No arguments there," I agreed.
London didn't smell any better than New York. Guess it came from living in a world with clean air, but coming to earth really made the pollution stand out.
"How would we find out where she was?"
"Honestly, no real idea," I admitted and shrugged, "Only thing that comes to mind is that if she teleported, it might have left some magic residue?"
Zrazta paused and frowned, "…Is it really possible to track that? That would be a very weak signature."
"Normally no, but this is Earth. Not exactly a lot of background magic around to disrupt the signature," I agreed as I stopped, "Give me a moment and we'll see."
Zrazta nodded and let go of my hand to give me room to work.
I motioned for her to follow me into an alley to get a bit out of view before I pulled out a crystal and some string from my satchel, tying the string around it, "I'll do a quick enchantment on this thing so it points towards the closest magical signature. I'll key it to ignore anything within five meters so it doesn't point at us."
Getting to work, I started to wave magic into the small quartz crystal. Not the best material in the world, but it was cheap and not like it needed to hold very muOW!
I blinked in surprise and rubbed my chin where a shard hit me as the crystal shattered into shrapnel and smoke in a ozon filled zap!
"…That's not meant to do that…" I said and frowned at the burning string, "The fuck?"
Zrazta frowned and walked up, running a hand across my cheek to heal the small cut, "What happened? You don't usually make mistakes like that."
I looked at her in surprise, "I didn't. It was perfect, I keyed it to ignore anything within five meters and then ramped the sensitivity up to maximum. I don't see how that could have happened! Only way I would have gotten that reaction would be if there was…"
I paused and frowned at the burning string before dropping it on the ground before I continued, "…Would be if there was a massive magical field somewhere close by. With that I mean powerful, very powerful."
"But you said Earth didn't have magic?"
"It doesn't!" I exclaimed, "Something is fucked here. Sure, there is energy in the Land, but…"
Weaving a spell, I cast the spell to see magic, a purple symbol appearing on my forehead as I looked around.
Nothing here. The alley looked normal. Zrazta's dress, ring and bag shone with magic and her skin rippled with energies. I couldn't help but smile at the sight. Beautiful.
That got me a look in turn and she pointed towards the exit of the alley. Grinning, I walked out onto the street as I looked around quickly before somebody could notice the symbol glowing on my forehead.
Nothing to the east. Nothing real, there were hints in the air. Odd.
I turned around and gasped. The west shone with magic, it rippled through the air, bending and twisting at the sky. It almost… it almost looked somewhat like the space bending enchantment you use on bags.
"What in the ever-loving fuck is going on here?" I asked as I looked at the massive spatial twist in the middle of fucking London. The buildings along the street shone but it seemed to be focused on one building in the middle.
"What do you see?" Zrazta asked as she walked up next to me.
I slowly shook my head, "No idea," I answered and cancelled the spell, "There is a massive amount of magic here. Way over Alexis level of spellwork. Something very strange is going on."
She nodded, "Let's investigate."
AN// Big thanks to memzak for betaing this section.
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
Wouldn't be the first Hiver SI to show up there. . .