Let's Do The Space Warp Again

[iamnotpolaris]

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

Comments

[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."

[whatamithinking]

And then the sisters should probably go elsewhere, since the minds (she can't quite tell how many, which is profoundly weird) are approaching fast, and there's no point in trying to talk to the visitors before the Endarkened does if they are standing right next to the Endarkened in question.

[pythbox]

There is a nice beach to wait on.

And shortly, there is a large red dragon approaching the beach, carrying something (someone? multiple someones?) gently in her claws.

She spots the humans on the beach and angles toward them.

[whatamithinking]

The humans will wait for them to get there.

[pythbox]

The dragon glides to a neat landing and very carefully sets down the unicorn she was carrying.

The unicorn flumphs unhappily onto the sand and complains in an unfamiliar language.

[whatamithinking]

'Hello,' Edie sends. 'How many people are you? It's usually not this hard to tell.'

[pythbox]

'I am exactly one unicorn!'

[whatamithinking]

'Hi, unicorn. What are you doing here?'

[pythbox]

'Being very very airsick! And I think I have some messages for you from the Wild Magic but mostly it's the being very airsick part that is on my mind right now!'

[whatamithinking]

'Would you like to stop being airsick? I can do that.'
To Sivath: 'Would you like to be kept informed of the conversation, even if you're not here?'