Magic without a magic

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel wakes up. This is not where she went to sleep. She has a peek at the stream -

- And lets out a surprised yelp at the nonsensical cacophony.

"What in the blue hells is this place?" No answer is immediately apparent, so she climbs to the top of the ravine, carefully avoiding the various inexplicable things in the area. The snake-goat hybrid was particularly grotesque.

The top of the ravine has a road. She tries to fly, but can't. Again, very strange. This is a pretty nice road, physically, but magically it's completely undeveloped. She walks towards the city, peeking at the stream once in a while only to see fog, and seeking an explanation.

Comments

[sturdycoldsteel]

When she realizes this Steel has to duck into an alleyway to calm down. She bends the local stream and heats up the rock below her feet to take most of the strength from her anger. Lots of things are wrong with Telra, but slavery is not one of them.

She comes back and tries to locate one of the more alert slaves.

[namesthesky]

Most of them are just sort of sitting or standing around, being chained to stationary objects. One of them is looking curiously at the exotic embroidered person.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel asks that one, "Is slavery normal here, or did I happen to be magicked up near a particularly ruthless city?"

[namesthesky]

"...Slavery's legal throughout Tayane."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"In the probably-fictional world I have memories of, most people are required to work in the civil service for three years, but at least that has an end date. Damn."

[namesthesky]

"Do you know who or what you were before you fell into the magic?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Absolutely no clue. My brain continues to insist that I'm a healthy adult who's been teleported here from another world in the middle of a courier run, as much as the odds are against it. I have my own magic, though." She hovers for a moment, demonstratively.

[namesthesky]

The slave blinks.

"That's a useful embroidery."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Yes. I can't fly without preparing ground for it, but I can hover, and heat things, and make light. Now - I have no memories of Tayane. Suppose I am philosophically opposed to slavery, and I have strange magic from an embroidery that can do a wide variety of physical effects with effort and preparation time. How would I go about ending it, or at least making the conditions less terrible?"

[namesthesky]

"Can you remove tattoos?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Hmm... Maybe. I'd have to actually try - bodies are tricky. If I can't remove the ink directly, I could try to rip out a layer of skin and re-grow it."

[namesthesky]

"Because if you can do that you can free any slave you can get to quicker than they can change the law. Magical removal of our heel tattoos constitutes Aelare's blessing and requires immediate manumission."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Is Aelare a diety? My memories are largely void of religion."

[namesthesky]

"Aelare is a deity, yes. Generally credited with the magics. It's not necessary to believe in them, that's just how the law is worded."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I might attract attention if I tried to do it right now. I imagine someone has already noticed me chatting to you for longer than usual. Are you likely to be here in a few hours, so I can go buy some paper and do some figuring and planning?"

[namesthesky]

"Probably, but I can't guarantee it. The proprietor might let you put a hold on me for a couple of hours."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I had a backpack full of coins. They were the thing I remember carrying on my courier run. I converted them to seo." She glances at the sign.

"I have more than enough to get you out of here for now and have plenty of time to experiment with tattoo removal. I'll buy you and not actually order you to do anything, and you won't have to risk going somewhere else, if you consent to be my experimental subject for tattoo-removal once I think I can safely do it."

[namesthesky]

"I accept."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She goes over to the proprietor and offers to buy Ayabel at a slightly lower than listed price, but yields to the listed price if he won't stand for haggling. Once a price is agreed on, she produces gold coins.

[namesthesky]

The proprietor says she's a bargain to begin with and won't budge. He takes the golds, returns some silver, unlocks Ayabel, and hands the buyer some papers proclaiming her ownership.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Where can we find a private room, possibly a separate workspace, paper and writing materials? And you're my external pricing module, at least for now - is a little over 1300 seo enough to be getting on with?"

[namesthesky]

"It'll do for a few months, longer if you're extremely frugal. There are boarding houses on Sunrise Row and some of them should have private rooms available, and I know where in the market to get paper and ink."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Shall we get paper and ink first first, or head to Sunrise Row? You know, my memories include a way to give other people magic. I wonder if it would work... I don't have the books I'd need to do it even if it acutally works like that, though."

[namesthesky]

"Which it might not, although you can hover, so maybe it would. Paper and ink is more or less on the way to the Row."

[sturdycoldsteel]

So Steel walks where directed, stops to buy paper and ink but ignores the writing utensils, and then they are at Sunrise Row.