Comes with a free prize

[mage_see_mage_do]

Usually when Temperance calls a animal to sacrifice it doesn't come with a free prize, but here comes a hamster with a couple of rings tied to it by a red ribbon.

The thing likely belongs to someone, and Temperance catches him to see if she can return to it's owner...

...and now she is in a forest, that is unusual. There are trees as far as she can see and the landscape is doted with wide pools of water, in fact Temperance is standing on one of such pools, near the edge.

The tiny hamster jumps from her hand landing on a nearby log, it scurries off while the witch is distracted.

Temperance is very confused, but she still has her supplies and cloudpine with her, all she needs is to perform a quick spell to figure out where she is and then get home.

The spell works but answers only gibberish. She tries another and the result is equally confusing. A spell to point the north doesn't work at all.

She tries a spell to find the hamster and that works, she grabs the creature to see if she returns home, she touches the two rings, neither has any effect.

Temperance is very confused.

Comments

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick is wandering around a forest on a planet that has no sentient life, gathering samples of mushrooms and fruit seeds and a few small creatures. Biodiversity sells, after all. Strange, this weird rodent-thing has some sort of ring tied to it. A lost pet, released into the wild for some reason? He goes to untie the rings -

His locator pings, informing him that his ship is no longer in range. He looks around and the forest is completely different. Did I just go through a seamless dimensional jump without a fuel source? He pockets the rings, they might be some sort of - trigger. Whatever they are, he wants to analyze them later.

But for now he pulls out a scanner and investigates the area. Apart from trees and moss, the rodent-thing, and himself, there are no macroscopic life forms or other heat sources in the area. He starts wandering, carefully avoiding the strange pools. After a few minutes, the scanner thinks there might be a human over thataway, so he approaches as cautiously as he can manage.

[mage_see_mage_do]

Nick will find the "human" sitting on a branch that is suspended mid-air without apparent support. She is a pretty young woman and she notices his approaches. The branch turns so she can face him.

She is holding a hamster quite similar to the one Nick found.

"Hello?" Temperance asks "Do you speak English?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I've never heard of English, and yet I understand you. I've been in places with sort of - translation auras like this before."

The thing he's pointing in her general direction looks a little bit like a weapon, or maybe a power tool.

"What's powering your vehicle? Gravity manipulation? Efficient, whatever it is. It's not giving off any EM signature at all."

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance blinks.

"What do you mean with places with translation auras?" Temperance asks "I am a witch and never heard of such magic. That thing is a gun or...?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"It's a scanner. Really good eyes, that's all. I visit lots of places with dimensional jump technology, some have magic, some just have tech, a few have translation magic but most don't. You're more confused than I am, were you also randomly yanked here by some rings tied to that hamster?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance shows the hamster with ribbon-tied rings.

"Apparently so," Temperance says "Where I am from dimensional jumping isn't something that magic or technology can do... Do you have a way back home?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I do not. At the moment, at least. The hamsters were on our respective worlds, though, so they must have some way of getting there. If I had more tools on me I would already be trying to rebuild my scanner to look for things that might help with dimensional jumps. But I don't think I can build a jump drive from scratch just with what I have on me."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"I might be able to divine some information," Temperance says "but most divinations require knowing the north at minimum and this place doesn't even have a north."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Do you suppose the pools have something to do with it?" He steps in one. Nothing happens.

[mage_see_mage_do]

"I did... land on one when I arrived here," Temperance says "but they are all around... let me try something."

She puts the hamster in a black silk sac and retrieves some and herbs from another. She draws something on the back of her hand and mutters something that Nick barely hears. The herbs vanish from her hand and her eyes go unfocused for a moment. She turns her hand around slowly.

"There is magic in the pools," Temperance says "that divination is very specific, and there might be magic in the entire forest, but the pools are definitely magical."

"Hey, where is your daemon?" Temperance asks suddenly "are you separated?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Hm, try asking if the rings have magic? And what's a daemon?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance looks at him like if he grew a second head, or maybe like he just lost one and didn't notice anything wrong.

"Your soul," Temperance says slowly "daemons are your souls... shaped like an animal, they appear when you are born and disappear when you die? Mine was away on a errand."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I do not have a daemon. If there was no magic, I would say that I do not have a soul, just a brain, but you seem convinced otherwise and presumably have evidence. I will say that you're going to have to get used to weird things if you visit other dimensions."

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance blinks some more but seems to regain her composure quickly.

"I was going to cast a more complex divination to analyze the rings and the hamster," Temperance says "since they are more obviously magical than the pools and I need a bigger flat surface."

Temperance looks around, her cloudpine branch turning where she wants to look.

"I am not seeing any suitable surface nearby," Temperance says turning back to Nick "I could try freezing a pool but I am afraid that might have some weird effect. We could try searching for somewhere with better terrain, but another idea would be if I used my silks instead. Do you have a problem with nudity? I don't."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I... Suppose. If. You don't have a problem with it, then neither should I. I have no desire to be naked, however, this suit is armored and I'd like to keep it that way."

He takes tools from a belt pouch and starts fiddling with the scanner. "I can, um, modify the scanner a bit, look for different things, which might help."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"I understand if you don't," Temperance says she starts to take things out of her dress "well, I don't understand understand because it is biologically hardwired in my mind, but I am aware that humans have a problem. If you have a way to tell where north is, that might help. I will try to play by memory from where north is in my world... some strings and sticks would help too."

She stores her things in a bag and then undoes the knots on her dress, it all comes off neatly and Temperance is presently naked.

"Hey, I never got your name. I am Temperance Lytess."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"My name is Nick. I'm not sure this place even has a north. Strings and sticks I can do, though."

He snaps a small branch from one of the trees. He applies some unrecognizable tool to the leaves and a more standard knife to the wood. "In a few minutes you'll have some sticks and a few feet of greenish string. You said humans have a problem with nudity, does that mean you are not human?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance gives a small polite bow.

"I know there is some scientific debate over it," Temperance says "sometimes calling us sub-species or race. But witches are different kind than mortals, we are always female. We don't age and are gifted with magic among other things, that includes a completely inability to be bothered by nudity, complemented by the fact that we also feel celestial light in our skin and aren't bothered by the cold."

She was fiddling with a book while saying that, she reads it for a bit.

"Have you noticed other animals in the forest?" Temperance asks "they are sometimes a component of my magic, and if they are scarce it might be a good idea to save what we have."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"There is absolutely nothing larger than a flea alive in this forest other than you, me, the two hamsters, and the trees and moss."

He is finished with the string and hands it over. It's green and a little slippery, but it's still string.

[mage_see_mage_do]

"I will make do without them," Temperance says.

Temperance starts set up the silk making it taut and fixing it with strings and sticks until it forms a flat plane on the forest floor, the surface is bigger than you might have guessed from looking the dress.

Temperance starts drawing a complicated circle of symbols, using her branch to float about her makeshift canvas. When she is finished she sets her cloudpine aside and stands on the pool, near a large rune.

"Could you pass me the rings?" Temperance says "they are in that bag over there."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He retrieves the two rings, adds the two from his own pockets, and hands them over.

[mage_see_mage_do]

She touches his hand and the rings at the exact same time while standing in the pool...

...and now they aren't standing in that forest anymore, Temperance recognizes this one. There is another rune circle nearby.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick yelps in surprise, because there is a monkey sitting on his shoulder.

"I exist," says the monkey, "This is highly unexpected!"

Nick throws his knife at a tree. "What the hell! Dammit, more unintended warping and strange magic doing things to me! What happened, Temperance? And please tell me you know how to undo it."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"That... is your daemon," Temperance says "this is my home world. I think bringing you here... gave him to you," she almost says something like 'fixing'.

She is quiet for a moment.

"I don't know if it is possible to undo it," Temperance says "it is not something anyone would have tried, or at least not with the intent of keeping the person alive. She is your soul."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick starts pacing. His daemon holds herself very small and leaps into one of the trees. He winces in pain when his pacing takes him more than a few meters from her, so he stops.

"Tell me more about daemons, please."