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

[witchwatcher]

"Would a big steel beam from a foundry do?"

[imeanforever]

"If it's big it'll take me longer to transmute the whole thing. Ideal would be a lot of little pieces all the same shape and size - spheres or cubes maybe."

[witchwatcher]

"A bunch of spheres of iron the size of your fingernail? I can raid the ammunition stores."

[imeanforever]

"Sure."

[witchwatcher]

"God, this is messed up. Inviolable orders, cruel masters, gates to fairyland. It's the kind of thing you hear about in old stories. And I just thought of a loophole in your orders prohibition. When a mortal asks to be given orders in addition to the previous conditions only give them an order with the exact wording they requested."

[imeanforever]

[witchwatcher]

"This... Ugh." Silent flying for a while, then.



Hilly forest eventually turns to forest with a lot of lakes and rivers here and there. There is a town in the distance, and a big stone castle just beyond that. "We're almost there. Do you want to wait outside the town somewhere and I'll come find you in a few hours, or come with?"

[imeanforever]

"I can just wait. It'd probably be hard to keep me away from all the names."

[witchwatcher]

"It's not as important as before, but yeah. How's that pile of rocks look? It's an easy landmark from the air, but unlikely anyone will find you. You want some more food and water before I go? I'm not sure how much army rations count as mine and not somebody else's..."

[imeanforever]

"I'd rather not risk it unless it's coming straight out of your hand. The rocks look fine."

[witchwatcher]

"The rocks it is then. I'll be back in a couple of hours, with, uh, Scatter."

[imeanforever]

"Okay."

Promise lands on the rocks.

[witchwatcher]

And Gren flies off towards the town.



It's twilight when she's back flying a different flying thing with someone else following her.

"Jesus, you weren't kidding, a real fairy."

"Names!"

"Ach. At least Jesus has been dead for a millennium and a half?"

[imeanforever]

"And I don't know who they are."

[witchwatcher]

"Right." Scatter looks around, embarrassed. "We've got plenty of food and water and iron shot for transmuting. Where should I aim the teleport for? Geographic features and enough of a description of them that I can picture 'em, please."

[imeanforever]

"Will you be able to teleport again right away?"

[witchwatcher]

"No, not if I'm bringing folks along. Two minutes delay maybe. But I can tell whether a place is teleportable-to without straining myself."

[imeanforever]

"Okay, my tree can wait." Promise describes the Valley Continent instead.

[witchwatcher]

She closes her eyes and breathes deeply.


"...Fairyland is really weird. And I think I need a specific place on the Valley Continent. Unless you possibly want us all to land hundreds of miles away from each other."

[imeanforever]

"I've never been there. The middle of it?"

[witchwatcher]

"Dead center, yep I can 'port there. Anything we ought to do before going?"

"Not that I can think of," Copycat says. "But remember: Nicknames at all times in Fairyland. I'm Copycat, you're Scatter, she's Promise."

[imeanforever]

"And don't eat anything you didn't bring or that might have been tampered with."

[witchwatcher]

"Right. Off we go, then. Brace for transport in three. Two. One."

And they're in fairyland, about a hundred feet above the geographic center of the valley continent.

[imeanforever]

Promise flaps. "I can turn Copycat invisible but I don't know Scatter well enough. I'll go down and find a place without any other fairies to bother us?"

[witchwatcher]

Copycat says, "Sure."

Scatter shrugs. "Copycat's paying me, whatever she says unless it's an obviously terrible idea."