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]

Inavet takes it, and closes her eyes. She makes a thoughtful 'hmm' sound.

"A little weird," she pronounces. "I can tell you are connected to the OTC, or at least, something big, but nothing too bad. You're not nearly as hard as some of the other people that want arcany."

She releases Eva's hand, re-reads the contract to check for any things she might have missed (she hasn't missed anything) and then she signs.

"I am also being very nice and not shaking you down for every Chron you have. Or, literally any."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Aw, that's so sweet! But still, I insist you take something in return." She produces a soft mote of blue light, which she holds strangely, fingers wrapped around the space beside it. "Here's a Chron for it at least."

[poll_the_stars]

"Sure," agrees Inavet. She's much happier to accept freely given money than shake Eva down for Chrons. "Thanks."

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva carefully transfers the Chron to Ina, making sure she has a firm grip on its invisible octahedral shell.

"It's no problem at all: I get paid a full Sol each month since my promotion."

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet finds the Chron's invisible shell kind of fascinating, but has little trouble holding it.

"Nice. Congratulations on that, by the way."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"That's what happens when a low-ranking member of the OTC suddenly ends up in charge of a major branch. I have a window in my office now and everything."

[poll_the_stars]

"Did they just hand it to you because you were present, or did they put you in charge before it turned out to be uh. Itself?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Both of the above, more or less. Combined with quickly negotiating multiple major contracts within about a week of the branch opening, I was promoted rather than being replaced."

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet nods. "Makes sense. Uh. When I have the method to get you arcany, will your door just..." She waves a hand to it. "Again?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"You should probably message me via the forums for faster service."

[poll_the_stars]

"Sure. It shouldn't take long, I can't just use the standard method, but you're not too strange." She could just send the instructions to Eva via the forum, like she did with Miles, but having a forum record of the technique to gain arcany rather defeats the purpose of the contract. She will not be doing that.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva taps her lip.

"...Since you're concerned about infosec, you should note that some people are able to see auras. I can't interpret yours particularly accurately, but I can guess that you've got more than one kind of magic. I won't pry, though - I'd expect that you'd share if you had more extra senses."

[poll_the_stars]

"Thank you, for that. You're correct, I don't have any other senses, though I do have some magic that lets me gather information. But it's not, well, arcany." She smiles a little. "My first magic spoiled me for sheer sensory information density."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"I've never encountered another magic that would give me so much all at once as yours. So thank you. Thank you..." She waves her hands futilely, then settles on repeating herself.
"Thank you."

[poll_the_stars]

"You're welcome."

Inavet does so like making people happy.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva just stands there for a moment longer.

"... Well, I should probably go earn my salary."

[poll_the_stars]

"Probably," says Inavet, lightly. "But I will need the gem back first if I am to cheerily share my death."

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva blinks.

"Oh, yes."

She hands back the stone, fingers parting from it a little reluctantly.

[poll_the_stars]

Someone notices this.

"If you have another gem," she offers, "I can hold that so you can keep a record of the extra senses for a little while?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"I have many, many gems. One of the first things I saved up for was an Infinite Inventory Method."

She pulls out another gem, seemingly from midair, and offers it.

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet takes it.

She smiles a bit, then frowns and looks at the kobold. "Do you mind if I do minor, very harmless magic, for the sake of uh. Enriching the experience I'm giving her?"

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold grins slightly and touches Ina's arm gently with her nose. "It's okay."

[poll_the_stars]

She's a little nonplussed by the complete shift in how the kobold's acting, but - okay. Sure. Inavet can roll with this. She nods. "Thank you."

Relaxing and closing her eyes, she plays with arcany. When it lies untouched, it relays sensory information. When it's being actively used, it's like taking a deep breath instead of breathing evenly, or swimming in a pool of water instead of merely touching its surface.

She's good at it, too. She should be, she's been at it for several hundred years. She switches crafts that she toys with, on what makes sense and what whims she feels like. She has a leaf break off from a tree, and a playful breeze moving picks it up and sends it away, and this becomes a small mote of light following it, which becomes a mote of cold, and she sends that to her arm for a cold chill on her skin and she attends to her body reacting to it, and -

Well, she's not the best arcanist in Facet, but she's needed to be adaptable. She can keep up little sensory tricks like this for a while, even when limiting herself to things that look as harmless as possible. Eventually she finishes with sparkling multicolored sparks of light, raining down from the trees above. Satisfied that her work was at least very interesting, she hands the gem back.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva takes it with a leather-gloved hand.

"I suspect that I don't want to experience this until later, when I won't be in the middle of work." She smiles.

[poll_the_stars]

Giggle.

"Fair enough! I hope you like it."