Don't expect mercy from my government

[poll_the_stars]

One elf is starting to run out of time. The assassins plotting to kill her could show up any day now. She would really rather they didn't.

The irony doesn't escape her. She's still sending messages about her plans to sell off all of her lifespan and die to become a daeva with a lot of OTC currency. If she wanted, she could mint a ton of Ka, then let the assassins kill her. But the idea doesn't appeal. Some form of giving up, of letting them win. She's not often petty, but in this particular instance she thinks she'll indulge herself. Besides, it's not like they're the merciful type. She recalls Aisilian's perfect comprehensioned words. You were in quite a lot of pain...

No. No, she'll - not do that. She'll go spend a little while in Nexus.

She sends Miles a message.

So everything is packed and I have everything I need with me to flee my dimension before I get assassinated. Is now a good time?

Comments

[poll_the_stars]

She shrugs. "I don't mind. Challenges are fun, I just wish there was some variety in the type of challenge. I have the feeling that people will be wanting me to sort out their arcany rituals until the end of time."

[thisvorlunatic]

"That may in fact be literally true."

[poll_the_stars]

"Never before has the concept of being immortal made me want to sigh heavily."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Should I go find you something interestingly difficult to do that has nothing to do with arcany?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Not until after I overthrow my government," says Inavet loftily. "They are torturing people, that takes priority. After, though - sure!"

[lurkingkobold]

....

You know, the kobold had almost forgotten this is an elf that she's sharing a table with?

But that is definitely an elfish government that was just described, right there.

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet winces. "Sorry. I don't like it either."

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles scritches the kobold. That is what one does with distressed kobold friends.

"Yeah. Overthrowing the nasty government comes first."

[lurkingkobold]

Nod.

(...and then what?...)

[poll_the_stars]

"Possibly also waiting until it's all. Settled, I can't imagine reforming it will be easy," muses Inavet.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I assume you do have some sort of post-revolution plan... if you want tips on governance and structure, that sort of thing, I know a few people you could ask."

[poll_the_stars]

"Yes Miles, I have some sort of post-revolution plan," she says dryly. "And the plan isn't 'Inavet is queen of the world,' most of what I have been doing is assembling a group that could, uh, morally and competently run a government after overthrowing the last. But I would love all of the tips I could get. Not exactly something I or anyone involved has experience at."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes, that's more or less what I expected in my vague mental image of this rebel group. You and a bunch of people, out of whom it isn't necessarily going to be you who ends up running things when the dust settles, but whoever does won't have any firsthand practical understanding of the subject either. Hence offering to hook you up with someone who does. Send Nifl a PM - she's not actually so much the governing type of empress, but she hangs around with the governing type of emperor and she pays attention. And she does have absolute authority in her own domain, just not over the empire as a whole."

[poll_the_stars]

Giggle. "I will, thanks."

Breakfast concludes, and Inavet excuses herself to go actually ask Nifl about that thing.

[thisvorlunatic]

And Miles excuses himself to have a think over whether he can really afford to go on this trip now.

He thinks he can. He thinks they'll be okay.

So he makes appropriate arrangements for his deadman switches (apparently it is strictly impossible for him to be kidnapped out of the monument while it's active, lucky him), notifies his mother and Illyan in that order, PMs Inavet, gives the kobold goodbye scritches, and heads for the spaceport because if he's going to gate to a depressurized environment he's going to do it from inside a depressurized airlock.

[lurkingkobold]

They will, probably, be okay! The kobold has pretty much gotten the hang of not upsetting the elf, and if the elf decides to eat the kobold - well, Miles being around is probably not going to stop that from happening, if the elf decides she wants to, and at least this way he's out of the line of fire. (The kobold is far too tactful to say this, of course - she's already made her case for not doing this, and her decision on how to handle the fact that he needs her to; there's no point in bringing it up again, when nothing has changed about those.)

A few days pass, mostly uneventfully. The kobold organizes the kitchen, catches up on the forum, and even feels comfortable enough to make brief trips to visit Novelty (to help with an ethical crisis) and Lioncourt (to give her invisibility, once she's concluded that it's safe enough).

On the fourth day of Miles' trip, the forum is quiet, and the kobold, starting to be confident that she can leave the elf alone for a few hours without coming back to anything life-threatening, decides to go for a walk.

[aestrix]

The first half of the walk is uneventful.

The second half, less so.

There is a fast moving magical something heading for the forest.

[lurkingkobold]

Ohgodwhat.

[poll_the_stars]

The fast moving magical something turns out to be a fast moving magical someone. She's permanently hasted, but doesn't usually make this fact apparent. She's making it apparent now. That and her teleportation.

It turns out that when an arcanist mints most of their lifespan, they can tell. It turns out that they can tell by what can only be described as feeling like they have decayed, like a part of them's rotted away, and all that's left is this half-decayed husk you wander around in. And the old body you can't ever get back.

Inavet has just discovered this fact.

She stops her running (pointless, near directionless, she realizes now she was trying to escape the ick that's inside her) to instead throw up. It's not very dignified. After her stomach is purged once, she looks at the remains of her breakfast morosely. Then she throws up again, coughing. Once that's done, she hisses an Elven curse word and wipes at tear-filled eyes. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh.

She stumbles away from the vomit to sit down on the nearby rock. She buries her face in her hands and starts carefully picking her way through every curse word she knows. On the seventh, the word's interrupted by an unbidden sob. By the twelfth, she's too busy crying to continue.

Fuck that was awful.

[lurkingkobold]

Oh dear.

...this is not a situation that will be improved by upsetting the elf further. The kobold stays put.

[poll_the_stars]

It might be interesting to note that while Inavet doesn't show other outward signs of aging, her hair is now slightly greyed.

... The elf might be here a while. It seems that once she's started crying she doesn't have reason to stop.

"Shit," she mumbles, sniffling. "Now I have to figure out how I'm going to die."

[lurkingkobold]

(The kobold was sitting on the rock, but, in her alarm, dived behind it. She's not in any position to see the elf's hair, or anything much really.)

[all_the_worlds_have]

And a door appears.

It has a doorknob shaped like a rose, carved of brilliant pink crystal. It appears to be very thoroughly one-sided.

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet notices this immediately! She blinks at it.

She doesn't even comment upon it, just huffs a little and sniffles, wiping at her eyes.

[all_the_worlds_have]

After a moment, a silver-haired woman emerges from the door. She smiles sadly at Inavet, her fingers gently clasping the rough chunk of quartz on a silver chain that serves her as a necklace.

"... Hello. I'm Eva."