worlds apart

[sturdycoldsteel]

The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.

"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"

"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. Survivable, but it put her in a perfect position to be hit by a sphere of magma and disintegrated by the sheer heat.




She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.

Comments

[willfindout]

...Someone is blinking at her in confusion.

The someone has hazel eyes with catlike pupils, and claws, and long pointed ears like some sort of elf.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She notices that there's someone else here after about two seconds. "F- Crash a tile!"

With sharp cracks, rock springs up from the floor, covering the parts that need covering the most. Then most of the rest of her. Then she stands up and presses the excess stone back, leaving smooth floor. "I am confused."

[willfindout]

"Believe me," says the stranger, "so am I. Where did you come from?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I died, should've popped up again at home..." She starts looking around confusedly. What even is this place, she can't feel any tiles.

[willfindout]

"...That's not what normally happens when people die."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Well, I'm a Fate, not human. Where am I?"

[willfindout]

"In my study, in Aluvanna. You look Ceirene but I suppose if you really aren't human that doesn't mean anything."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"You don't look quite human to me. And my world-sense is giving me... Nonsense. Wherever I am, it is very far from home. This is somewhat concerning. Though, I do apologize for appearing in your study without permission."

[willfindout]

"Humans who have ears and fingernails like yours are Ceirene. Humans who have ears and claws like mine are Aluvai. I've never heard of Fates. If you're far from home, I'd like to help you return if I can, but I'm not sure if it will be possible."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Indeed. I would appreciate the help. Though the first step would be figuring out where 'home' is relative to here... If that even makes sense in a world with double sided curving continents."

[willfindout]

"What shape do you expect your continents to be?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Flat, made of consistently sized squares and triangles laid out like a puzzle or game board."

[willfindout]

"Oh. I can see why Suranse might look bizarre from that perspective," she says. "You can see the shape of the continents from here?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I can feel them. Fates feel the state of the world directly. And not all of them - just part of this one, enough to tell that it's doubled and curved. And some of whatever is above us."

[willfindout]

"Above us is the floating jungle, and past that is the other half of the planet. In what other ways do Fates differ from humans?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"We each get a terrain type associated with us, and magic that depends on the type. I'm Mountain, both my name and type. With a little bit of ocean. One becomes a Fate by doing some sufficiently impressive magic."

[willfindout]

"...Interesting," she says. "Does it have to be magic? How impressive? Impressive to whom?"

[sturdycoldsteel]

"It has to at least involve magic, as far as we can tell. Mine was an automated transport net... Work..." She looks confused as a golden beam extends to the ceiling, and two rather large strong-and-bulky-looking wings with grey feathers appear.

"Bloody rift, things keep happening to me today."

[willfindout]

"...That's what happens when someone does something impressive here. Or, I suppose, thinks about something impressive they previously did. I'm sorry, I would have warned you if I'd known that would happen."

[sturdycoldsteel]

She waves them around a bit, but folds them close when this creates enough wind to ruffle study objects. "...Well, as I was saying, impressive feats of magic. I don't know many other fates' stories, but they're always big things. My transport network covers a full fifth of the continent Orral, though it's admittedly a smaller than average continent. The world-tree, is an entire town in a tree. The wardwall, a city-covering magic shield."

Ah, that's how you put the wings away. Good thing she's used to mental triggers to use magic. What's this other one do? ...Better not test it in someone's study.

[willfindout]

"Winged people don't get old or sick, and are hard to injure, and as you've seen they can put their wings away, and they have Spheres," says the local person. "You can make a portal to your Sphere from wherever you happen to be. It's customary not to make them inside other people's homes unless you know them well, however. If you want to see your Sphere we can go outside."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I already had the first two things. Hopefully it'll stack. Could you explain Spheres? Portals are not a thing my kind of magic can do."

[willfindout]

"A Sphere is a place that's yours alone. It starts out around house-sized and grows for as long as you're alive. The only way to get to or from a Sphere is through portals."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"This sounds extremely convenient, as the only reliable way to kill a Fate for good is to first destroy all the places that are theirs. Perhaps being stranded here isn't so unfortunate after all. I'd like to see this Sphere of mine. But I never caught your name?"

[willfindout]

"Oh - it's Rokarai," she says. "I apologize for being too distracted to introduce myself."