I can't fix you, but maybe I can still help

[powerispain]

He's trying to kill us--could ruin him--worry about that later--grab your sister and go.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Kaaderid continues patiently teaching her the language (it is called "Leraal") until she has enough vocabulary to suggest that Illia could come help farm beans while they continue this conversation.

[sheerstubbornness]

Um. Okay, sure. "I can--help, better--with--" Kaaderid hasn't mentioned magic yet, she doesn't know that word in Leraal. She snaps her fingers and makes a spark.

[alicornucopia]

Kaaderid screams.

Tozef comes running and - presumably, they talk a lot faster to each other - asks Kaaderid what happened and gets an answer in words Illia hasn't learned yet.

There's a sword on the wall; apparently it isn't decorative?

[sheerstubbornness]

What the hell. Well, obviously she's not going to let the sword hit her. She puts enough Effort into her muscles to dodge easily--

And then she bolts, because whatever just happened probably means she's not welcome anymore. She dashes to the oasis, drinks as much water as she can hold, fashions a makeshift waterskin out of her skirt and magic, fills it, and runs off in a random direction as fast as she can sustain herself.

[alicornucopia]

There are more people with swords chasing her by the time she's haring off into the desert, and they're all yelling.

[sheerstubbornness]

Well they're not mages she can run faster than them. ...Can she understand any of their yelling?

[alicornucopia]

It's some of the same words that appeared after she made the spark; otherwise, no, Kaaderid did not teach her the angry mob dialect.

[sheerstubbornness]

Ugh. What even the hell.

She doesn't like using Sympathy but she can. If she sharpens her vision temporarily can she see anything other than desert and mob?

[alicornucopia]

Lots of desert. Medium sized amount of mob. Desert-related landscape features including cacti. Way over there is another town! She could run to it if she wanted and see if they also produce an angry mob.

[sheerstubbornness]

Well, she was doing alright before she did magic. She memorizes its location, lets her vision go back to normal, and heads in that direction. When she gets within normal vision distance of it, she slows to a normal run, and then a walk. She drinks from her impromptu waterskin, then lets her skirt assume its normal properties and shoos the remaining moisture from it.

[alicornucopia]

This town seems more suspicious of her and nobody spontaneously volunteers language lessons, but nobody actually points a sword at her.

[sheerstubbornness]

Will this continue if she uses her halting vocabulary to ask which way out of the desert?

[alicornucopia]

...they seem confused. They've got a well and everything. Is she looking for the [word she doesn't know]?

[sheerstubbornness]

Possibly! She doesn't know that word.

[alicornucopia]

Lots of water all in a (squiggly gesture)?

[sheerstubbornness]

...Sure, let's go with that.

[alicornucopia]

Well, the water in a squiggly gesture is a long way that way.

[sheerstubbornness]

Great. She will go that way.

[alicornucopia]

She does not see any water in a squiggly gesture for quite some time.

[sheerstubbornness]

Well, once she's out of sight of the town, she starts running magically again.

[alicornucopia]

If she travels a hundred and fifty miles she will reach a river!

[sheerstubbornness]

Great. Is there anyone else there?

[alicornucopia]

There's settlements along the river, but she can go between them if she likes, they're not that close together.

[sheerstubbornness]

Well, what she does is walk upriver, based on the principle that it probably has a source somewhere that is not a desert. When she's in sight of settlements she makes sure not to be going fast enough to suggest magic.

[alicornucopia]

People look at her but don't bother her except the one person who stomps out to ask her if she's [insert angry mob words], huh?