Let's Do The Space Warp Again

[iamnotpolaris]

'Guided random' selected, parameters recalibrated, universe selection initiated.
What's on the other side now?

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[endragoned]

'How is that a thing you can feel?'

[whatamithinking]

'My telepathy has a spatial aspect. I can usually tell where a mind is--and yours appears to be in two different places.'

[endragoned]

He considers these statements.

Then he says: 'That is my Bondmate.'

There is a lot of implicit information in that one. Like the fact that his Bondmate is a dragon, and that if either of them dies so too will the other, and the fact that this makes his Bondmate his greatest weakness. Which is why having someone know about the Bond unexpectedly was so alarming.

[whatamithinking]

'Ah.'
She considers this.
'None of us intend to harm--either of you? You singular? Is it appropriate to refer to you as one person or two? In my experience, dragons are usually harder to harm than humanoids anyway.'
This also contains the implicit information that "dragon," to her, is a category rather than a species--various usually-winged reptiles in various universes, almost all of them more formidable than other sapient species from the relevant worlds.

[endragoned]

There are two of them, but they are the same person. It is not a usual situation, even among Bonded dragons. (He clarifies the concept so that she does not have to rely on an imprecise categorical description formed in worlds other than this one: this is what local dragons look like, this is what it feels like to be one, and here is the feeling of recognizing a Dragonbond, and the function the Bond has in allowing the dragon to reproduce and allowing their Bonded to do arbitrary amounts of magic without cost—)

But while Bonded dragons are usually less vulnerable than their Bondmates, this dragon's Bondmate is (uniquely among all people who have ever Bonded to dragons, as far as he knows) an Endarkened (distant impression of a very long time spent in very unpleasant conditions), and therefore near-literally impossible to kill, unless you happen to have a unicorn handy (the burn of a unicorn's horn, an incandescent blaze of pain across the palm of his hand).

[whatamithinking]

Oh.
'I'm sorry all those terrible things happened to you. (recognition/unicorn's horn/Tialle?)(brief admission of own offensive abilities; immunity to physical harm does not necessarily imply immunity to telepathic damage)(disinterest in using offensive abilities outside of emergency situations)(prediction that he is strongly unlikely to cause relevant emergency situation)'
And because she so rarely gets so much shared with her outside her sister: '(this is what it feels like to be a telepath/this is how your mind is perceived to my senses)'

[endragoned]

He hasn't even told her what the terrible things were; it seems a bit early for sympathy (not that he doesn't appreciate it) (but it feels strange, he can hardly remember the last time someone else had any sympathy for him)—

—her perception of minds is interestingly strange, different from how he perceives himself (tangled up and intertwined with his own thoughts in a way that dissolves the question of whether this is one mind or two, and he may be lonely but he is never ever alone)—

—he has no interest in finding out whether or not she could kill him (well, maybe a little (but he has no real taste for that kind of suicidal experiment, it's just a passing thought)); nor has he any interest in causing harm to others (he's had quite enough of that)—

—and yes, it was Tialle (the other half of the sense-memory, pain transmuting to magic, and he broke their chains and she carried him out on her back (he could not stay there any longer; he did not belong with the other Endarkened (a fact which his father made quite clear by imprisoning and torturing him for one or two thousand years)))—

[whatamithinking]

The last thought prompts a spark of rage (not towards him, on his behalf) and a handful of memories (not her own, there is a flavor of a different mind to them, a woman being killed with some kind of projectile weapon and the tortures that followed) and it's terrible if no one feels sympathy, terrible things shouldn't happen to people--

And she knows what it's like to never be alone, her sister by her side always (always, always, I promise) even if they are still firmly distinctly two.

And the other Endarkened sound bad but that's not his fault, were there any others like him who were not terrible but did not escape, could there be still, she doesn't want to harm him (beautiful) but if there are others of his kind who do need killing (and she will check, very very carefully, you never harm the innocent with the guilty, not if you have a choice) then perhaps she ought to find out if she can do it.

[endragoned]

He was the only one he ever met. The rest were all much more enthusiastic about torturing captives for sport and power, including torturing him when his deviance was revealed. And this was all a very, very long time ago, and he would really rather they were not reminded of his existence, and although this mind-magic of hers seems powerful he would not advise her to try to take on Shadow Mountain by herself.

[whatamithinking]

It's not technically magic--but that's beside the point. She wouldn't start with the whole thing all at once, no, that would be a terrible strategy. Although she could probably sneak in without anyone catching her--she can edit peoples' sensory perception to not include herself. Or in other ways. Either way, if she can do this she can certainly do it without reminding them of his existence. He might be the only one that ever was, or they might be vanishingly rare; less than one a generation. Either way it would harm nothing to check.

[endragoned]

...No, it could harm plenty of things to check, if for example they captured her and used magic and torture to force her to reveal all she knew, and then used her as base material to create hundreds of carefully crafted slaves with all her mental powers but a conditioned loyalty to the Dark. That would harm many things indeed. This particular Endarkened has developed no magical skills or tricks that might alert him to a mental intruder or allow him to deal with one, but it is not out of the question that such magic might exist, having perhaps been discovered sometime in the past ten thousand years while he was living on this island cultivating toxic wildlife.

[whatamithinking]

...Yes, that would be very bad. Okay, so she should try it a good distance away from the mountain and use her transfer device to get away if they notice her.

...How fast can these people move? If there's enough of a risk of them capturing her she should absolutely not risk it (if they create an army of her the world is doomed and damned) but presumably the risk is not so great that she should immediately flee the universe. She can observe someone's mind from several miles away and get farther (this) fast.

Oh, he created the poisonous wildlife? Interesting hobby. It's very pretty.

[endragoned]

They can fly, but only so fast. If she can sense them from that far away, then they would have difficulty sneaking up on her - but that does not mean she would find it easy to sneak up on them. Looking into the mind of an ordinary Endarkened could be harmful in itself; they could have traps that would immobilize her, and would certainly have magical alarms that made them aware of her presence, if she approached that close to Shadow Mountain.

(Yes, he is very proud of his island's ecosystem. It was not trivial to change the life of the island until there was enough prey to support a dragon.)

[whatamithinking]

That sounds like a rather large risk, yes. If she were only immobilized, her sister could grab ahold of her and leave, but magical alarms are not as easy to bypass as mere perceptions of her presence.

...It seems very lonely here.

[endragoned]

Better to be lonely than dead, which was his other option until she arrived. (Although he would be very difficult to kill if he did not choose to allow it, fighting a war against the entire rest of the world would still ultimately end with him either lonely or dead. And the Endarkened want to kill him for previously established reasons, and everyone else would naturally want to kill him because he is a Dragonbond Endarkened and this is fucking terrifying.)

[pythbox]

Are those more minds approaching in the distance? Some number of them. Possibly two. Two seems about right. It is strangely difficult to tell.

[whatamithinking]

'Well, my powers would also be fucking terrifying in the wrong hands, and I object to people trying to kill me for this reason.

Also, someone's just crossed the edge of my range and seems to be coming this way. If everyone else in this world wants to kill you maybe you should hide while we deal with it.'

[endragoned]

It's not just that he is terrifyingly powerful, although he certainly is. It's that he is terrifyingly powerful and Endarkened, and all of the other Endarkened want to conquer the world and kill or enslave all who oppose them and bring their dark god back into the world to rule it forever. This is naturally a troubling prospect.

Someone is coming this way? Two visits in as many hours, after ten thousand years of solitude. How curious.

[whatamithinking]

'That is curious. If it's not a coincidence, somehow, I'm sorry for bringing trouble to you.'

That's not quite what she meant, though. If she came from a world where every other telepath was evil, and everyone she met tried to kill her for her mind, she wouldn't blame them, but she would still resent it and it still wouldn't be fair. It can be unreasonable for this to be happening to him without it being unreasonable for the people who are doing it to be doing it.

[endragoned]

What an odd way to think about things. But now is probably not the time to be figuring that out.

He would not necessarily mind meeting these strangers, but perhaps Edie and her companions should meet them first. Unless they are Endarkened. If they are Endarkened, he will deal with them.

[whatamithinking]

Edie does not mind meeting with the strangers first, and a brief brush over her sister's mind confirms that she feels the same, but she hasn't known Sivath nearly long enough to not have to ask.

[not_only]

"...This doesn't sound like a fight I'd want to get in the middle of, if it came to that," says Sivath.

[whatamithinking]

"Hopefully it won't come to a fight. But nothing says all three of us have to be there."

[not_only]

"Then maybe you'd better go on without me."

[iamnotpolaris]

After a moment, Emily pulls her sleeve up, unbuckles her armband, and hands it to him.
"We're not going to get killed, but if you think it's dangerous it might be a good idea to have a slightly quicker getaway plan. Finding another armband takes less searching than a bead."