space oddity

[rockeye_stonetoe]

One day in fairyland, there is an immensely bright flash of light a about a mile above the ground. Something like a metal house is suddenly flying through as if it came through a portal, faster than all but the fastest fairies.

It's flying, not directly down, but still very much towards the ground. It does not take long for it to stop flying and start carving through earth and trees. Eventually it runs out of momentum near a certain lake. The thing seems to still be in one piece, which is rather miraculous considering the two miles of destroyed trees behind it.

After a few minutes, a mortal covered in unusually bulky clothes emerges from the thing. All that is visible is his face. He starts inspecting the outside of his space oddity.

Comments

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Some sixty years later, she hears rumors of a flying palace that appears and disappears in a brilliant flash of light, wandering around queenscontinent and blasting any fairies who don't leave when it tells them to. It sounds an awful lot like Liam's ship, if a bit bigger.

Five years after that, the flying palace approaches her forest. Does she still have that communicator? If she does, it beeps insistently.

[imeanforever]

She has it, although she doesn't usually carry it on her person. She fetches it out of the back of a closet.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Hello, Promise. It's Liam. It took almost a hundred trips to find you again, this place has really uncooperative geography. May I come down and visit? I want to test something."

[imeanforever]

"What do you want to test?"

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Sorcery is not the only kind of magic. Any more details would ruin the surprise - You'll have to see it to believe it."

[imeanforever]

"I'm... not sure I like the sound of this."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"I promise you, if it works you will love the results. Order me not to lie if you like and I'll say it again."

[imeanforever]

"I'm not sure orders will work over these devices. Or sure that you know me well enough to guess what I'll like."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"Fine, ruin the surprise, I'll just say it. I found magic that might be able to change your true name. I've already had my name changed. Now I want to see if you can give me any orders."

[imeanforever]

"The last time I was your vassal and you weren't mine you made me give you my name when I was trying to help us both escape Yellow."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

"And if this magic worked, once again you're my vassal and I'm not yours, and yet I'm not giving you any orders right now. Not that I don't appreciate a healthy dose of caution and paranoia, but I'm offering to free you from old masters out of the kindness of my heart and not a hope to get de-aged, which I could just order you to do. If it worked."

[imeanforever]

"You probably don't know if orders work through these devices either." She doesn't mention the other risks associated with ordering her to de-age him. "But you can land. Don't crash into any plants I use."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

The ship doesn't land nearby - it's far too big to easily find a landing spot in a forest. Eventually it settles on metal legs, bridging over the middle of a river.

Liam gets out and starts walking to Promise's location.

[imeanforever]

Promise exits her tree.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick arrives in person. "Hello. You're right that the communicators might not work. And just so you don't complain at me for witholding information later, I can't do the magic myself. Please try ordering me to tell the truth for the next five minutes."

[imeanforever]

Promise watches his mouth move. She makes fairy lights in the air: My ears don't work right now. I'm happy for you to pass me notes if you want me to participate in experiments.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Nick replies with fairy lights himself, one word at a time, though he's much slower and clumsier about it.

Order- me- for- five- minutes- don't- lie.

[imeanforever]

She shuts her eyes when he does this, opens them again to see the complete message, and says, "For the next five minutes, do not lie."

[rockeye_stonetoe]

He says something she can't hear. Then,

I am- a fairy-. After a pause, Didn't- work- I can- lie-.

[imeanforever]

Well, that will be useful if you ever want to go near Yellow again.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Do you want- name change- Nick glares frustratedly at the lights. Switching- to device-. And he pulls out some sort of screen-thing, and points it at her. The word 'testing' appears on it.

[imeanforever]

What are you testing? I can read the screen.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Whether the screen works at all. It's a new design. Do you want more information about apellodynes? That being the name for the type magic-person who changed my truename.

[imeanforever]

Yes please.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

Apellodynes are a group of hereditary magic users. Their magic cannot be learned, only inherited, though there is a skill component as well. The magic works by drawing on the connection between names and people, or names and animals and names and inanimate things. Knowing something or someone's name, they can do various magic to it.

They can find the owner(s) of the name, especially if the name is genuine and unique instead of a nickname or a small child's blanket named 'blanket'. Nicknames and non-unique names for objects and such are both referred to as 'weak names'. If a thing is near them, they can tell when its name is spoken, again to varying degrees based on distance and strength of name.

The most difficult thing for an apellodyne to do is magically renaming things. The renaming is for magic purposes only, and people will still remember your previous name, it will simply no longer feel like yours or affect you in any way.

Renaming things causes the thing renamed to magically change in various, usually subtle, ways. For example, one cannot rename a stick 'gold coin' and make it become so. A valid example would be renaming a tree 'spicy fruit' and its fruit would become moderately spicy.

The renaming ritual is more difficult when more people know the old name, if the old name is not a truename, or if the target of renaming is either not present or unwilling. The ritual also requires the apellodyne performing it to know your current name and your new name.

Any questions?