Oddly Targeted Container

[eternally_aggrieved]

The island is deserted, save for the statues.

And now, a rectangular brown paper package. It rustles and rocks, then tips over onto one side and stops moving.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Not very much, but thank you for trying it, whatever it was."

He wobbles up to the Endarkened and taps his horn against the Endarkened's arm.

"Not evil," he says firmly. "Don't ask me why, but there you go. Was there anything else?"

The dragon pokes her head into the office again. "I think the Wild Magic might want to talk to these people," she says.

"The Wild Magic doesn't talk," says the unicorn.

"Well, then, it might want you to talk to these people for it. They have lifespan-transferring magic."

"That sounds really useful, but I can see why you would've wanted to ask me about it," says the unicorn.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"We have a very large assortment of various magics, in general. I'm sorry that Takkarash apparently aren't helping with your virgin problem, but I'd be hesitant to try anything else until I did some more investigation into unicorn biology. Would it maybe help if I was in a different body?"

Eva looks over at the dragon again. "Also, there's plenty of space in here for everyone if you'd like to stay."

[pythbox]

"I can see that," the dragon says dryly.

"Being in a different body wouldn't help at all," says Liselen. "Unless you were another unicorn but it would be a really bad idea to turn into a unicorn and you shouldn't do it. And anyway the Endarkened is a problem too and he isn't going to be turning into a unicorn."

[endragoned]

"How do you know?"

[pythbox]

"Because the Wild Magic wants your help with something and if you weren't a generally helpful person the Wild Magic would have told me to do something about it other than have Saravasse ask you nicely not to leave the universe," says the unicorn. "So if I ask you nicely you probably won't turn into a unicorn either. Since whatever the Wild Magic wants your help with almost certainly has something to do with you being a Dragonbond Endarkened who mysteriously isn't evil."

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva purses her lips. "I don't think we have a mythic gene-splice for your particular kind of unicorn on file, anyway."

[pythbox]

"I'm sure you don't! Turning people into unicorns is a very bad idea!" says Liselen. "Anyway. Dragonbond Endarkened, do you have a name?"

[endragoned]

"No."

[pythbox]

"Well, I'm Liselen and this is Saravasse and it's nice to meet you except for the part where it feels like my fur is inside-out," says Liselen. "Now how do we get lots of this lifespan magic stuff? The Wild Magic says it's safe."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Well, that depends on what you have to trade. OTC generally doesn't just give stuff away for free."

[pythbox]

"Most things don't," says Liselen. "What do you want to trade?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Anything interesting. Magic, technology, services. Especially anything we already have a coin for."

[pythbox]

"Well, there's plenty of magic to go around," says Liselen. "Dragons exist."

"I don't think this person knows about dragons," says Saravasse.

"You explain them, then, you are one."

"Dragons," says Saravasse, "are magic."

"Explain more than that," says Liselen.

"I was getting there. All forms of magic have a price," says Saravasse. "In energy, in favours to the Wild Magic, in—" (she glances at the Endarkened) "—other things. When a mage Bonds to a dragon, all their prices are paid by the Bond from then on. Which means they can do as much magic as they like."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"... I see. Yes, that is... definitely worth something."

[pythbox]

"The Wild Magic says," Liselen adds, "that if people want to pay to come here and find out if their magic works to make a Dragonbond, they can, on the condition that the OTC is responsible for damages to this universe if someone does that and then turns out to be evil and makes a big mess."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"We'll put in a screening procedure. Consider the Wild Magic advanced one Cernnous of credit, in the meantime."

[pythbox]

The unicorn swishes his tail cheerfully. "The Wild Magic wants to give half that in Ka to Saravasse," he says.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"The Wild Magic should be informed that with that much money, Saravasse could buy their own small universe."

[pythbox]

"I'm sure I'm meant to do something else with it," says Saravasse.

"Yes, you're supposed to keep it for all the dragons and their Bonded so you can give it out to the Bonded ten years at a time and nobody's Bonded has to die of old age again," says Liselen. "And some of the rest can be for the other Wild Mages and High Mages and when there's a steady supply then everyone gets some."

"That's more or less what I was imagining," Saravasse agrees.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Let me just do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation here. Rough estimate, how many dragons with Bonded are there?"

[pythbox]

"Sixteen dragons and thirty Bonded, currently," says Saravasse. "Assuming the Dragonbond Endarkened doesn't have a co-Bonded lurking around here somewhere."

[endragoned]

"...I did not know that was possible," he says.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Okay, let's be pessimistic. There is a dragon population boom and there are suddenly a thousand dragons. Even after a hundredfold increase in the number of dragons, that much Ka will keep anyone's Bonded from dying from old age for... " She taps her fingers against her desk. "... About seven hundred thousand years."

[endragoned]

"Well, then, it seems they will be unlikely to run out before you manage to find people who are interested in looking for Dragonbonds," says the Endarkened. "How convenient."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Exceedingly so. I think some of that Ka would be better used to purchase some personal security enchantments for everyone. It's no use having a lifespan of a hundred thousand years if you can still be killed by random accidents."