Come on wuss it's just a door

[poll_the_stars]

Avetlarinyarenesaar... Is currently trying to force herself to walk another few steps. She hasn't managed it, yet. Her reason for stopping was perfectly ordinary - check the address, make sure it was correct, be sure she was in the right place. She'd been quite sure, but there wasn't any downside to double checking, so she double checked. And triple checked. She stopped herself from quadruple checking, but she wanted to anyway. To - be sure that she was right. Yes. Not because she was procrastinating, or nervous, or thinking what am I going to say? She wanted to be sure that she was right.

Well. She's right. She checked three times, there's no doubt to it.

"Look," she mutters to herself, "I get it, it's scary, but deal. You are not allowed to - to -" To what? Go home? Maybe try to work up the courage later? Maybe try and avoid the shren house like so many other dragons?

It was a door. It's idiotic to be afraid of a door. Sure, there were shrens on the other side of it, but there could conceivably be shrens on the other side of lots of doors, some of them were in hiding, hair dye existed. Subtle colors existed. She could have been near shrens any number of times.

That - did not actually make her fear go away. Instead it makes her want to curl up in her little apartment and not go outside again.

Great. Okay. Stop that train of thought, it's not useful. If she stands here any longer, people are going to stare. (Is that person over there staring? Probably. Damn.) Just - door. Go. Walk.

She forces herself to walk to the door, somewhat stiffly. And then she is at the door. ... Does she knock? Does she just open it and go in? She has no idea. It's customary to knock, so... She takes a deep breath and does so. Resisting the urge to flee and teleport away (or scamper into the bushes) isn't easy, but she manages it.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

It's a variant on the spell that lets wizards look at the wizarding reservoir, the one Sand Dusk Chanters think is God.

The dragon magic reservoir is... smaller.

[poll_the_stars]

Yes. Yes of course it is.

Emptier, too, she expects.

I think, she writes to Ehail, That we'll do more if we invent a conception spell based on the reservoir. As in, a dragon cannot conceive with another dragon unless there is enough magic for the dragon to live. Without any chance of death or shrenhood. That way the number of babies dying and in pain from esu is capped while we work on solving everything else. For example: shrens.

[alicornucopia]

Ehail writes back. That sounds like a good idea. I guess if it's a spell conception it also means they don't have extra siblings beyond the one there's enough magic for.

[poll_the_stars]

Yeah. Which will make clutch sizes significantly smaller, but I don't think anyone will complain, considering, she agrees.

So. To work on that.

They do. Progress is made. Avet gets into the habit of setting alarms to remind herself to manage bodily functions such as eating and sleep. Lots and lots of letters are exchanged.

And then the spell is invented. Avet informs her line representative, and explains how the spell works.

[alicornucopia]

Her representative wants to know if it's relatively easy to cast or if people wanting to use it will have to come to her personally.

[poll_the_stars]

It isn't very complicated. It's just a conception spell. She mails several copies of instructions to cast it to the line representative and sincerely asks for them to be distributed to every possible dragon. She will provide more copies if required.

[alicornucopia]

It only takes a few days for there to be a formal order by the dragon council that dragon couples attempting to reproduce form an orderly queue and then visit one of the listed conception spell providers until they get a successful result. (She's on the list.)

[poll_the_stars]

Avet is vaguely offended that they didn't ask if she wanted to be a listed conception spell provider, but she would have volunteered anyway, so she doesn't make a fuss. She provides conception spells when asked, and continues to write to Ehail.

They've distributed the spell and there's a formal order out that dragon couples use it, she informs. So that's taken care of. I don't know about you, but I'm doing a happy dance.

Now, on the subject of shrens -

And it's back to work.

Avet doesn't see an obvious way to fix shrenhood. This isn't surprising, it's a subject a lot of wizards have looked into and come up empty. But she felt she had to check, because no one invented the conception spell, and so she no longer trusts dragon wizards that aren't also named Avet. After a lot of analyses, it becomes clear that shrens are incapable of permanently holding provided dragon magic from the reservoir. They have a hole. With it in place, all extra magic provided spills right back out into the dragon magic reservoir. The hole cannot be patched without killing the shren, at least not by any obvious method Avet can see.

But really, she writes, curing shrens is a minor problem in comparison to preventing esu. And I think that it's possible we could temporarily give a shren the ability to fly with a sustained spell. What do you think, should we try it, or is it too dangerous?

[alicornucopia]

It wouldn't be hard to find a volunteer, Ehail says, which isn't really an answer, is it.

[poll_the_stars]

Avet is kind of used to this, actually, Ehail is sometimes bad at answering questions like these.

A lot of shrens would risk death for the chance to fly? she asks, catching the drift.

[alicornucopia]

I don't know how many, but some.

[poll_the_stars]

... Okay. Well. I'm willing to try the avenue if we're careful and we check our work twice and we have an adult volunteer to test it before we let it near the babies.

[alicornucopia]

Jensal's probably going to be better at finding a volunteer than I am.

[poll_the_stars]

I'll let her know, she agrees, and once that's mailed she teleports to the Esmaar shren house and knocks on the door.

[alicornucopia]

Jensal, as usual, gets the door.

[poll_the_stars]

"Hi. Have you heard about the dragon conception spell yet?" she starts off with.

[alicornucopia]

"It filtered down," says Jensal blandly.

[poll_the_stars]

"Okay, good, making sure. .... Any black groups that can hear us right now?"

Because she does not want to start a panic about 'There might be a way to let shrens fly.'

[alicornucopia]

"Probably. My office is soundproofed. Do you want to talk there?"

[poll_the_stars]

Nod. "Yes please."

[alicornucopia]

To Jensal's office they go.

[poll_the_stars]

Once they're there, and the door is closed:

"Ehail and I don't think there's an easy way to cure shrens anytime soon. But, a sustained spell to let them temporarily fly might be possible."

[alicornucopia]

"That would be absolutely invaluable for the babies," says Jensal. "Do you have such a spell now ready to test?"

[poll_the_stars]

"That was the train of thought, yeah. No spell yet, I'd like adult volunteers before casting experimental spells on babies. I thought it was important to let you know so you could get a volunteer ready to go beforehand, so that when the spell's ready we can test is as soon as possible. Spare the babies as much esu as we can."

[alicornucopia]

"I'll ask around. I can probably turn someone up in less than an angle if you want to wait."