You know honestly I can't say I expected this

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet hisses a creative curseword, and slams the door shut, and reaches for her magic. The door to the building she's hiding in becomes to all appearances an ordinary wall. It'll take her pursuers time to find it - none of their arcanists are any good at crystal craft, from what she can tell. It won't buy her enough time, but it'll buy her some, and every second counts.

She starts trying to patch herself up while she looks for an escape route they're not covering. Blood craft's not her best, but she's gotten a lot of practice at it, lately. Enough to stop herself from bleeding out from the wound in her side (because of course it's deep) and keep herself from collapsing from exhaustion. Too slow - one of these days it'll kill her.

But not yet, she thinks, as she spots a window to an alley. Out go her magic senses - no one's alive and breathing in that alley but a cat rummaging through the garbage.

She dumps an illusion over the alley, to appear exactly as it was before she entered it. She can't get the cat right in a rush, but she doesn't need this to hold out for very long. Just long enough to get away. Song disguises the sound of the window opening and her scrambling out of it. She's conscientious enough to close it behind her. Easier than another illusion. Maybe they won't notice the blood.

Which way? Mm. One that way, two to her left, three are - oh look they found the door, she needs to hurry. She takes a right, and runs.

And comes face to face with - a snake? With a mirror for a head? What, how in the -

It's very fast. She was not expecting it. She didn't even sense it, like it appeared from nowhere, she raises her knife but she's not fast enough -

And then there is darkness.

Darkness and pain.

She'd scream, but the air's sucked out of her lungs in a whoosh. She snaps her mouth shut and flails, lashing out with something, anything - but she feels nothing around her. Nothing at all. Not even air. It's like a pressure, on all of her, but instead of pressing in it's pulling out -

Is this how she's going to die? Some Ministry snake monster thing?

Not. Likely.

She isn't the best at blood craft, but she knows enough to keep herself alive. She knows enough to snap her eyes shut and cover her nose and mouth and push magic at herself so her body doesn't shut down. It's hard - there's so much to monitor, she has no air... But she can keep herself alive. If she doesn't move and she focuses near entirely on self preservation. For - for a little while, anyway. Not forever.

Time crunch, then. Well. She was always good at those.

Her lesser crafts won't do her any good here. No way to make sound with song, no air to ignite in fire with heat, no time for aura anything, nothing to move and change with breath. Forget stone and metal, even when she's not in a crisis she's awful with both, not to mention there's nothing around for either.

But she is good at crystal, and crystal deals in light.

If she's not the brightest fucking beacon the world has ever seen, it won't be for lack of trying.

Maybe someone will find her. Or maybe she'll blind the bastards who put her here. Either way, it won't hurt to try.

Comments

[warpfairy]

I'm a half-Vulcan, half-human, and we're currently near Ferengi space in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. How did you come to be floating in vacuum?

[poll_the_stars]

I was eaten by a mirror snake thing. It - did something, and then I was in vacuum. (She knows it sounds crazy. But it's true.)

[warpfairy]

How did you glow?

[poll_the_stars]

Well. Tempting as it is to lie, it - seems like it's a bad idea. And she doesn't know enough of what she's dealing with to craft a lie that makes sense. Best to go with the truth, she thinks.

Magic. I'm an arcanist - do you know what that is?

[warpfairy]

Let's go with no.

[poll_the_stars]

Okay. I am an individual who has done a fancy ritual which has had the effect of giving me a ton of extra senses with which to observe the world, and the ability to affect it in certain ways. For example: glowing, healing myself, not dying in a vacuum. A number of other things, with varying degrees of ability and talent.

[warpfairy]

That explains a lot. And... is unprecedented to the best of my knowledge, as is snakes that can teleport you into interplanetary space by eating you.

[poll_the_stars]

That about makes us even, this is all extremely unprecedented to me, too. Also kind of terrifying, but I'll cope.

[warpfairy]

Do you think you might know enough about the stars around your planet for me to take you home?

[poll_the_stars]

Maybe? Pause. I don't - um. Could you assume that I have never heard anything about space travel but some likely wildly inaccurate movies and then explain this all to me from there?

[warpfairy]

... We're on my ship, the Prometheus, which I use to fly from star to star and see what's around them so that an organization called Starfleet will know the general layout of the area. If you had a sufficiently detailed understanding of what the sun and constellations look like from your home I might be able to find exactly where you came from.

[poll_the_stars]

Thank you. Then comes a pretty decent knowledge of constellations, along with a basic understanding of what the sun looks like. She throws in other celestial bodies, just for good measure - her planet has a moon.

... They are recognizable. As Earth's.

[warpfairy]

I don't think I can take you home.

[poll_the_stars]

Not anything you recognize? she wonders.

[warpfairy]

No, I grew up on the planet matching those celestial objects, and it is not known for having elves or magic.

[poll_the_stars]

Oh.





I think I am very far from home.

[warpfairy]

I think so too. I'm sorry.

[poll_the_stars]

It's. It's okay. But I think I need to sit down now, excuse me.

She sits down now.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Unfortunately this has broken the telepathy touch, but sitting down is immensely important.

[warpfairy]

The not-elf, who has forgotten to introduce herself, goes back and sits in her chair, leaving Inavet to process this.

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet takes a minute. It is a long minute.

She has friends. Family. Work that was being done. A - she hesitates to call it a rebellion, a something like that. Group of people that disagreed with how the system worked and wanted it changed. Could they carry on without her? Well, yes, it's not like she was a leader in it. She could have been, but she was too valuable to go recruiting and risking herself and going outside where people could see her and recognize her. Because she could get other people magic. And she did get other people magic. They still have it.

And even without her - they have the basic instructions of the ritual, they have arcanists who could figure out how to make rituals the best for the person doing them, give them the best chance at getting the most magic possible.

(But she was careful, she picked her new arcanists carefully, leader though she wasn't she was a force for communication, for slow change, not a bloody awful rebellion where a lot of people die and new people get put in charge but mostly the system that feeds and clothes and houses people gets horribly broken. What will happen without her there? Will all her nightmares come to life?)

She doesn't know.

But she can't dwell. Not now, she can hash out her feelings on the subject later when she's in private, but right now - no. No dwelling. Dwelling lies possible madness.

"... Okay," she says. She motions to her head. "Telepathy."

[warpfairy]

The air prompts the not-elf, who comes back over to Inavet. Hand, face.

[poll_the_stars]

Right, so - how does this place work, is there a - I don't know what one does with strange members of a species from another... Something. Not world. Dimension? What happens now?

[warpfairy]

The computer can continue learning your language - I can help it with the abstract concepts, since you're comfortable with the telepathy. And then you can get computer translation anywhere in the Federation with modern computing equipment. We've got a very good social safety net, basic necessities are effectively free, you won't be going without food or shelter or anything unless you find the Federation not to your liking and go somewhere else.

[poll_the_stars]

I can learn languages reasonably quickly if you do something similar to this device and put words to concepts. Magic, she volunteers. Is there something in the Federation I would find not to my liking?

[warpfairy]

I like it for the most part, but no things are universally popular and it won't try to keep you if you don't care to stay. I'll set up the device to teach English for you if you like.