Overnight

[darkest_evening]

There are things to do, of course, besides being Aya's cuddle buddy. Prime is usually quite busy, and now is no exception. Just because he's personally out of mana, doesn't mean he's utterly useless. His plane's got mages in it, after all - and many of them owe him favors or are amenable to being paid. And they need mirrors, for communication. After longer than was strictly prudent spent comforting Aya, he bids her goodbye and goes to handle the less glamorous moments of being him. That is, talking to people, asking for favors, paying favors, persuading them to say yes, they'll use some of their precious magic stores to make mirrors.

Ironically enough, the one thing missing when he's finished is the mirrors themselves. Easy enough to fix, with Revelation. But he'll take care of it tomorrow - he's tired, and it's been a long and complicated and emotionally exhausting 'day,' even if he doesn't properly have them anymore. Sleep, and then he'll get back to dealing with it all. The mirrors, first, they're easiest, then continuing to figure out what to do about Aya.

When he wakes, he goes to talk to a demon about that. Knock, knock, calling Inferno, is Revelation in?

Comments

[darkest_evening]

"Well because it's likely it'll be very boring on your end, unless you have a mirror around?"

[namesthesky]

"I have a mirror." She unsnuggles and fetches it.

[darkest_evening]

"Okay. Then I'll get to scrying."

Scrying occurs. It takes a bit to get the aim right, but after a few false starts - there is Tayane, in the mirror.

[namesthesky]

"Is this now?" Aya asks, squinting at the house depicted.

[darkest_evening]

"Yes? It can't be anything but, mages have zero ability to see the past or future."

[namesthesky]

"But - that's the old lady's house. It barely looks any different. Those flowers are annuals, they'd have had to be replanted, why would they be the exact same flowers she had me plant hundreds of years later with her dead and me gone...? The shutter's still broken - why would the shingles still be there, they're wood, shouldn't they have had to be replaced...?"

[darkest_evening]

"I - have little to no idea? You left Tayane with a method we know nearly nothing about. It might have had strange effects?"

[namesthesky]

"Maybe. Can you find the magic I fell into? I can look up in my notebooks where exactly it was, if that's not specific enough."

[darkest_evening]

"I'll try."

Scry, scry - several false starts, several misaims with catching the wrong magics - and then there's the one Aya fell into.

[namesthesky]

And there by the road is the embroidered bear - and the wreckage of the cart - and there beyond is the sillhouette of her door -

"I don't think any time has passed in Tayane at all. I've been assuming everyone I ever met was dead, but - maybe they aren't."

[darkest_evening]

"That - seems like it's likely? What would you like to do?"

[namesthesky]

"I'm not sure. I wasn't even considering this possibility. I suppose it's a good thing I wasn't in a hurry to resurrect my parents, that would have been confusing."

[darkest_evening]

"A little, yeah. ... Do you want me to try and look for your parents? Or anyone in particular?"

[namesthesky]

"If they're still alive they're more urgent than I'd previously thought, though mostly as a subset of the dealing with slavery thing. Meanwhile, the fallen wagon probably hasn't even been reported yet. I've been technically free since the first time Ice resurrected me, any magic that rids a slave of the heel mark frees them - Aelare's blessing, it's called - but they won't have that on the books, and that annoys me."

[darkest_evening]

"Me too. You're not a slave."

[namesthesky]

"That sort of depends on what you mean. They don't have meaningful power over me any more, and haven't since I fell into the magic, but they do have a piece of paper that says they own me."

[darkest_evening]

"... The former. A piece of paper that says something but can't be enforced is a piece of paper. But I would still like to make it go away, because a piece of paper shouldn't have any capacity to turn people into chattel, in any circumstances." Pause. "Thoroughness, and all."

[namesthesky]

"Well, that and if I'm going to do anything in Eseo I will need legal free status."

[darkest_evening]

"That, too."

[namesthesky]

"Not that very many people would recognize me, and I do have a clean heel now, but just in case."

[darkest_evening]

"Yeah. .... What circumstances happen to get the heel tattoo?"

[namesthesky]

"In my case they did it when I was a baby, because my parents were - are, I suppose, probably - slaves. Freeborns are sold into slavery if they have debts they can't otherwise pay or if they commit certain crimes."

[darkest_evening]

That is Prime's 'do not want' face.

"I see."

[namesthesky]

"I don't remember how my parents wound up in their situations, but they were freeborn, I remember that."

[darkest_evening]

"We can always ask them, if we get the chance to meet them."