Occupied Transporting Clouds

[all_the_worlds_have]

A door appears next to Mozee. It has only one side.

The doorknob is made of shimmering, shifting crystal, blue-violet-fuchsia-octarine-crimson-peligin...

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[walksonmusic]

The door opens and in floats a mask above a robe. The mask turns from side to side, looking around.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Hundreds of shards of multicolored glass hang above the room, reflecting and shattering the glow of a soft white orb until every part of the room is bathed in prismatic light. Eva sits beneath the loose cloud of glass, a holo-screen filling the air in front of her. Her fingertips flick back and forth to the snapping sound of sparks. Looking up from her work, she smiles. "You must be Mozee. Please, come in, take a seat." She shifts a little in her own white-plastic-and-chrome chair, pushing aside one of the hovering armrests to gesture to a mahogany visitor's chair, intricate flowers cut into the dark wood.

There are no walls to the room: it goes on in all directions, an empty plane of floor tiles stretching on forever. Nonetheless, a window hangs where the left-hand wall might be: it looks out over a blue-green planet, its binary suns just beginning to rise.

[walksonmusic]

"Yes, I am." Mozee sits in the chair. "A pleasure to meet you. I must say, this is quite a place."

[all_the_worlds_have]

Eva shrugs.

"It serves."

She minimizes the holo-screen with another flick of her fingers.

"So, you want to discuss transferring portions of your magic?"

[walksonmusic]

"I suppose. It appeared that you can transfer ordinary objects for people, and that's very nearly what I would want. It would be a physical object, a small one - I would just want to be sure it would still have its Magic on the other end, and that the Magic would still be mine."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Please, explain more about your Magic. OTC will need to classify it so that we can give you the best service possible."

[walksonmusic]

"All right, honey, but I'm not sure what would be helpful for you to know. It's a substance, in a way, but not something you can see, and it can do a great deal of different things. It's Mine because I've been using and shaping it for a long time and it's become connected to me. It's very dense in my Cloud, but if I detach a Bit without enough Magic in it it fades away over time."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Alright, so then the initial indications are that it's a personally-anchored mana-type system. What do you mean by a 'bit' of magic?"

[walksonmusic]

"Perhaps. It doesn't get used up; using it helps it grow. But it's only stable when there's enough of it in one place. If I separate a small amount from my Cloud, usually by putting it in something else, that bit will still be Magic and I can still use it, but it won't last very long."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Hmm. Interesting. Could you separate your cloud into two smaller, self-sustaining clouds?"

[walksonmusic]

Mozee's mask shifts into a smile. "Not yet, but in a way I already have. I've put quite a lot of my Magic into myself, and I've built up enough to be Stable even away from my Cloud."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Ah, I see. You're a thaumic being. I recommend you never go to a world called Fractal."

She smiles slightly.

"In any case, we should be able to deliver small portions of your Cloud without any significant loss-of-strength in transport."

[walksonmusic]

"I'll be sure to remember that. And that's good to hear. What would be the cost?"

[all_the_worlds_have]

"If in a physical object, fairly low: roughly ten OTC per object, assuming the object itself is otherwise valueless."

[walksonmusic]

"All right. I think that's all, then."

[all_the_worlds_have]

"Thank you for your time."

[walksonmusic]

"And thank you for yours, starshine." Mozee nods to her and exits.