remote station

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis tel Jobont is not living up to her lantelis.

She had been en route to her usual position after a rest-and-resupply period. Instead of the expected uneventful trip, somehow she loses her anchors, falls through a bizarrely shaped storm, then finds herself impossibly over land instead of water and with her upper antennas chopped off like they were never there.

She was able to stabilize with only minor damage to the uninhabited land, but she cannot hear a single intelligible signal, and a hundred other things add up to this is no place anyone has ever seen before. Or rather, reported seeing before.

So here she sits in the sky, relaying nothing, thinking about everything.

Comments

[synchrosyntheses]

“You were undistinguished, and now you can set your hand on fire? Or, I suppose, other things as well. Well, I would be more surprised ordinarily, but seeing as I am here due to an inexplicable selection of almost exactly myself...”

[calescent]

"But you don't belong to a prime family, and your telekinesis isn't one of the five kinds of prime magic we have here. There is one who does wood, but no one does glass."

[synchrosyntheses]

“How oddly specific. We can — do — any solid or liquid material we choose to.

“What is the next strangest thing after primes? I suppose this is a hard question to answer, seeing as you do not know what is strange to me, but your first thing was quite interesting.”

[calescent]

"Probably the next strangest thing is blessings. They're hard to explain with vocabulary you have... there are extra letters, that mean things by themselves. If you put all the letters on objects in a bowl and pick one without looking, it will be the right one."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Stranger indeed. How much can you ask them?”

[calescent]

"Not very much. They're abstract concepts; no 'yes' or 'no'. But they're nice to have."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Do you think they could help me learn about how I came to be here? Even a hint?”

[calescent]

"Maybe. We can try it." She gets up from her desk.

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis lifts off the floor and follows. “If you showed me the symbols then I could make them, but I imagine that would interfere with picking them.”

[calescent]

"It might not, but it's faster to go to the place where I already have some. ...Keep about that far away from me. If you get too close I'll read your mind."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Read my mind?”

Teytis is now distinctly farther away. Still following, though.

[calescent]

"I haven't yet and I don't want to. Just don't get close."

[synchrosyntheses]

“I won't.” (She makes sure of that.)

[calescent]

The chapel is small, but not too small to allow them personal space.

"Just take one at a time. I'll try to say what they mean."

[synchrosyntheses]

She thinks, and reaches past the coins visible on top and pulls one out.

[calescent]

"Intelligence. ...Fast mind good at doing mind things. It's one of the first three I got." Kiri taps her blessing jewelry.

[synchrosyntheses]

“That could describe me, or what I am doing, as well.” She takes another in the same way.

— It also matches one of Kiri's, now that she knows to look.

[calescent]

"...Power. Being able to do many things or big things."

[synchrosyntheses]

“But now it seems more probable that these are only matching yours.” One more?

[calescent]

"Clarity." Her last one. "Knowing what to do, not thinking about other things that aren't what you want. I'm not sure this works for you."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Now I wonder if you could actually read my mind. Not enough to try it. Perhaps all of these things do not work for me.”

[calescent]

"You don't have to try it. I can feel your warmth from here, though."

[synchrosyntheses]

“My warmth?”

[calescent]

"Warmth is -" Well, easy to demonstrate. The room warms up a few degrees. "That. The opposite is cold." The room chills. The room returns to normal. "I can feel when things are warm or cold, from farther away than I read minds."

[synchrosyntheses]

“All right. Would you care to tell me about the next strangest thing, or perhaps ask me some questions of your own? I do appreciate your taking the time to teach me.”