witchcraft and sorcery

[witchwatcher]

For a brief moment, in a certain part of fairyland there is a tear that leads to the cold sky above a snow-covered hilly forest somewhere in the mortal world.

Comments

[imeanforever]

"I don't think so. I don't think I can even do magic here and I'm tiny and clumsy and harmless without it."

[witchwatcher]

"Right. Would you mind explaining exactly what's up with the food and the not-a-geas and so on? I'm not planning on keeping a slave, but this- Otherworldly magic is so far outside of anything I'm familiar with that I don't want to just wash my hands of it in case that makes everything worse than it already is."

[imeanforever]

"I'm a fairy. The thing you're calling a geas was another fairy knowing my name and giving me orders, very tight ones; that's a fairy thing. I came here by accident, I wouldn't have been able to do it on purpose. I don't want to hurt you or any other mortals."

[witchwatcher]

"Fairies can give unbreakable orders to people whose names they know, or who they've eaten food from? Would it work on Neuroi, you think? ...Do you know what Neuroi are? Because I've never heard of fairies outside of storybook tales before."

[imeanforever]

"I don't know what Neuroi are. It does work on mortals. Although food from me would be safe for you since you fed me first, not that it matters when I don't have any food."

[witchwatcher]

"Neuroi are giant red-and-black monsters who like killing us mortals and turning everything they see to ash. They seem smart enough to maybe be people who can maybe be ordered to stop razing cities, but we've never managed to actually talk to one. I really have to keep flying, I'll be late at this rate. Would you mind coming with me and talking in the air or do you want to hash everything out right here?"

[imeanforever]

"I can come with you but you'd have to let me fly. I'm not allowed right now. Or pick me up and put me on your flying thing."

[witchwatcher]

"You may move around however you like."

[imeanforever]

Promise rearranges the warm thing she's wearing so her wings can peek out of it and flap. Up she goes.

[witchwatcher]

Gren climbs onto her flying box. It slowly, slowly lifts into the air and starts creeping forward, emitting strange metallic sounds once in a while. "Unf. This thing's so damn heavy. How does the names thing work? Could you call me something and have it stick? And how did you accidentally wind up far enough away from the fairy who was giving you orders before that you just... Stopped?"

[imeanforever]

"It would have to be your real name. And I think it was a tear, which is like a gate but temporary and unmarked. All my orders still applied but I couldn't keep doing the thing I was doing, so I didn't do that either."

[witchwatcher]

"Eesh. Gates are supposedly mythical as far as I know. Permanent shortcuts from one part of the world to another? Tears sound inconvenient in general and very convenient indeed in this exact case. If you weren't allowed to do much of anything when you got lost I can't imagine the anything else you were ordered to do was very pleasant."

She seems to have reached her maximum speed. It's slower than Promise's.

[imeanforever]

Promise will keep up okay, then. "Gates only go between Fairyland and the mortal world. And... no, it wasn't."

[witchwatcher]

"You're going to see a lot of names if you go into a town with me. And maybe even if you don't. If I can't figure out a better phrasing before long I'm going to order you not to enforce any orders on mortals unless they ask to be given orders uncoerced and fully understanding the implications. Geases are strictly voluntary, making you just as fail-safe as a geaser would be close enough for me."

[imeanforever]

"Okay. The other effect of me knowing a name is that the person whose name I know can't hurt me."

[witchwatcher]

"Which is a good deal for you, isn't it? I might be able to get you home, if that's something you might want. L- One of my friends can teleport to geographical features. Hm... Answer me honestly, have you lied to me about how fairies and orders work?"

[imeanforever]

"No."

[witchwatcher]

"Sorry about that. Trust, but verify. So about the Neuroi. We don't know if they get names, or if they count as people or anything. If we see one can I try to name it 'N' and see if it can hear you shouting orders?"

[imeanforever]

"Okay. If it already has a name or if it's the wrong kind of thing to be named it won't work and I'll know from when you try to name it, either way."

[witchwatcher]

"It won't matter if we don't see one, which is honestly what I'm hoping for. I have close to zero chance of successfully fighting it off on this lump of a cargo rig."

[imeanforever]

"Okay."

[witchwatcher]

"You call humans mortals. Does that mean fairies don't die? Lucky."

[imeanforever]

"We don't die."

[witchwatcher]

"So what happens if you get burned to a crisp by a Neuroi?"

[imeanforever]

"I don't know. I've never been burned up like that before."