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

[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.

[namesthesky]

Ayabel wants to know if she wants a pen maybe?

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I can write with the stream." She stops walking and pours a little ink onto one of the pages. Over a few seconds the ink arranges itself into, No pen required.

[namesthesky]

"...Okay, but I can't do that, so maybe it would be good to have one anyway."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Fair point." She buys a pen. And another pastry.

[namesthesky]

Ayabel looks at the pastry but doesn't comment. Sunrise Row ahead.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"You want one?"

[namesthesky]

"It would be nice. You are going to have to feed me if you're going to keep me."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I intend to officially free you as soon as I'm sure I can give out Aelare's blessing. There's no reason you shouldn't eat like me in the meantime." She buys a pastry for Ayabel.

"Oh! Your name is on the papers, but I haven't told you mine yet. You can call me Steel."

[namesthesky]

"You can call me Aya if you like," says Ayabel, after disappearing the pastry very fast.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Aya. Hm, I'll need to buy a pot and a bag of potatoes or something. Street stalls are probably more expensive, if nice. But let's look at these boarding houses first."

[namesthesky]

"I can cook," Aya mentions as they investigate the rooming options.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"That would be nice, but I can cook as well. I'd like to hear all about this world, though. What kind of things are expensive? I can transmute things, some things at least, and money can not but help."

[namesthesky]

"Gold is more expensive than silver is more expensive than copper... Expensive relative to what, what do you mean?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"That's what we have to find out. I can make glass from sand? I can pull metal from ores without chemicals or heat? I can make soap, force crystals to form with the right ingredients, mix up a concrete-like stone that makes excellent building material."

[namesthesky]

"Pulling metal from ores might be very profitable. We have soap... crystals, maybe, especially if you could turn them into decorative stained glass sort of windows or something... concrete might have a market."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I can also reshape metal in very intricate ways, without necessarily using heat. It loses strength until reforged if I'm not careful, though."

They should have a decent idea of the housing options available by now.

[namesthesky]

They can get single room with a bed that ostensibly could fit the both of them for five seo per fifteen days (it goes up if they want to buy in smaller blocks), or a room with two beds for seven seos, or two beds in a room with other people for two seos every five days.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Would the room with one bed be fine with you? I can sleep anywhere. Literally."

[namesthesky]

"It's your money and better than the accommodations I'm coming from."