When a witch tries to close a window

[mage_see_mage_do]

Here are two witches, a spell circle and an opening between universes.

One witch is casting a complicated spell, while the younger one observes.

The spell is completed, and the opening between universe starts to shrink for a moment...

...then it grows again and the universe seen through it changes.

Comments

[sturdycoldsteel]

Someone is flying, sans-cloudpine, directly towards the window. She doesn't seem to be paying any attention to it. She comes through and realizes she's about to fly into someone far too late to actually dodge. She crashes into whichever of the two witches is nearer the window.

A turtle appears on top of her head, clinging as tightly as a turtle can.

The woman from another world rolls away and comes up in an unfamiliar fighting stance, holding a dagger of unfamiliar design. She says something unintelligible.

[mage_see_mage_do]

The newcomer hits the older witch, she recovers from it and stands up, hands raises, he posture is not at all aggressive, but she is obviously prepared to dodge an attack.

The other witch steps closer to the older one, there a simple exchange, maybe a question and an answer.

The younger witch starts drawing some symbols using honey from a small jar, the ground here is irregular stone, but she manages apparently neat symbols. The older witch looks apologetic.

Assuming the newcomer doesn't interrupt, the younger witch will recite something and then the honey symbols will disappear.

"We mean no harm. If you can understand me nod," her words still sound like another langauge.

[sturdycoldsteel]

During this time she glances around her, and steadily backs away in the direction with the most space, not dropping the knife from its ready position.

When they ask her to nod, she nods and replies, "Why am I here and why is there a turtle on my head?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

The newcomer might notice how the window through which she came is now a white ghostly veil in the air.

"I can't understand you," She says apologetically "This spell makes me being understood. Nod once if you want the magic to be cast on you too."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She goes blank-eyed for a moment, and says some words that sound disbelieving in tone. Then she lowers the knife and nods.

[mage_see_mage_do]

"We are sorry for this. We are just trying to protect our world."

This time the teacher casts the spell. Just like before the honey disappears.

"We can understand you know. What do you want to know?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I have dozens of questions. Starting with the most important, where am I, did you bring me here and if so why, how are you doing magic without any bluestream infrastructure."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"We call this world Earth. It wasn't on purpose we are trying to close a window between this and another world and it settled on yours for a moment. Our magic is different than yours," she says at once.

The teacher says something.

"The window isn't closed all the way, so we should be able to send you back."

The teacher says another thing.

"Oh, right. I am Temperance and this is my teacher Hemera."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Okay. My planet is called Telra, you can call me Steel. Our magic can't do portals. That is kind of alarming, actually, that you can do portals between worlds. Next question. Why do I have a turtle on my head?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

Hemera blinks hard at the last question.

"It showed up after she came here, like a newborn" Temperance says to Hemera, before answering the newcomer "another kind of magic did the window, we can't do it ourselves... That is your daemon and I am confused why you didn't have one before, unless you came to being right before the window changed..."

Hemera stares at Steel in shock and fascination.

[sturdycoldsteel]

The turtle says, "There aren't any daemons in her world."

Steel stares in shock at it. "You can talk."

"Of course I can. I'm part of you, and you can talk."

Steel blinks. "...Can you send me home? I can't do any magic here unless I build the stream myself. There's no infrastructure. It's very inconvenient, really."

[mage_see_mage_do]

Hemera says something, still staring.

"Ok. Hemera think it is possible, but she needs to analyze the window first to see how to approach the problem. Don't do your magic in this immediate area. The reason why Hemera isn't under the translation spell is to not to mess with her analysis scrying. Huh, your daemon is going to need a name, I guess."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"You think my magic would interfere with yours? Yeah, probably shouldn't risk it. I'm not keen on the price I'd have to pay to do anything significant anyway."

The daemon asks, "Why would I need a name?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

"If you allow her, Hemera will want to look at you at some point," Temperance says "but the window is a obvious priority," Hemera talks, Temperance nods "and Hemera wants to try it soon as possible and it is better if you are not around to confuse her. Down there should be fine."

Temperance points towards this hill's bottom. Steel should be able to notice two pine branches floating there, with bags hanging on then.

"Damn," Temperance says in response to the daemon "okay, Daemon 101. Every person in this world has one. Ours are just away for safety. Don't let anyone touch your daemon. The connection between you and it means you can't stay too far from them unless you force the connection until it stretches indefinitely. Oh, and Daemons are your soul, if one of you die, both are gone."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"This is highly inconvenient," Steel complains, "Snapping turtles are not renowned for being easy to care for... At least they're long-lived. I wonder if my, uh, daemon, already has my kind of magic? Normally you have to get it, but I already had it."

The turtle goes cross-eyed for a moment. "I can see the stream, at least, I probably have the rest too."

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance conducts Steel and daemon to the spots where their cloudpines are. Hemera is left behind drawing runes.

"Your daemon doesn't need to eat," Temperance explains "they need to breath and sleep, but they don't age. I am not sure if turtles need constant moisture or something. What is this stream that you talk about?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel carries her daemon down the hill. "The bluestream is the framework that my kind of magic relies on. Before anyone carves out something useful from it, it's just a sort of... Endless fog like hundreds of thousands of tangled threads. Living things perturb the fog a little bit, but serious effort is required to shape it well enough to do magic with."

"You could say my magic comes in three parts - sensing, shaping, using. All our roads have flying-shaped bluestream. Anyone who is activated can fly along them. Shaped-stream is everywhere, it powers almost all industries and infrastructure in my world. The problem is using the stream has a cost - your physical senses to sense it, your ability to voluntarily move to change it, significant concentration and some of your emotion to use it. The costs are not permanent, at least."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"That sounds fascinating! So we have the stream in our world? I wonder if witchcraft involves making the structures you are talking about in a different way. Can you see the magic on me?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"You have the stream, but it'll be useless until someone invests hundreds of hours into a hospital or a road or a forge or something. I don't think I can see your magic... You look like a person in the stream. A slightly strange person, but still just a person. Bluestream doesn't really do ongoing magical effects very well, it's almost all instant-activation. What's your magic like?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

"Witchcraft involves four main components, herbs, runes, verses and sacrifice," Temperance explains "we need to arrange those to create a spell... and this is the point I should mention my not-exactly-human status. I am a witch, which is sometimes called a sub-species of humans. We are the only ones that can do witchcraft."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Hum. That's an interesting biological trait. Well, bluestream is best at big physical effects, light and heat and moving things around. What's witchcraft best at?"

[mage_see_mage_do]

"How exactly does one become activated?" Temperance asks "witchcraft usually does nature related stuff, healing, protection, environment, scrying, etc. Light and heat are simple to do, but not moving things around... There are some other things that are possible but not what witchcraft is great at, like summoning objects or improving then."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"When you're well into adolescence, you can sign up to sit inside one of the stone circles. Some people fall unconscious for nearly a week and then wake up with magic. Some people just feel like they're on fire until they leave the circle. I think the ratio is about 70/30."

She levitates her daemon from the ground into her hands. "Motion is easy. That was almost trivial, even though I had to push back the fog for it in addition to actually casting it."

[mage_see_mage_do]

Temperance is grinning "Okay, I totally want to sign up for that, how do I sign up for that? I mean the feeling on fire doesn't sound fun but it is worth the risk. You people don't have anesthesia or the activation bypass it?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"The activation bypasses anesthesia, if you're one of the unlucky minority. Keep in mind that you'll fall, not unconscious, I used the wrong word. You'll lose access to all your senses but still be awake and capable of thought for five days. They usually take you to a hospital and force-feed you to keep you healthy. I have no idea how it would affect your daemon if just you went into it, but you saw my daemon also has the magic."