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

[poll_the_stars]

"I wasn't planning to claim to be a Vulcan," she agrees. "I just didn't want to get into a 'no actually I am another species with differently pointed ears see they don't curve forward they go back isn't that novel.'" She peers at Isabella. "... Do you want to talk about why there are fewer Vulcans, or should I skip it?"

[warpfairy]

"The planet was destroyed. When I was a child, and on Earth."

[poll_the_stars]

"Oh," says Inavet. "I'm sorry."

[warpfairy]

"There are Vulcans left. But many fewer. My father is gone. I don't recommend bringing it up with other Vulcans, or part-Vulcans. Although the species prides itself on emotional regulation, it would still be impolite."

[poll_the_stars]

Nod, nod. "Yeah. I'm sorry."

[warpfairy]

"It's all right. You didn't know." Pause. "Magic can't put planets back, can it?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Nnnot through any way I know. Bringing back the dead's similarly likely-impossible. I am unwilling to actually declare it completely impossible, but we've had a very long time to work on the problem."

[warpfairy]

"Pity."

[poll_the_stars]

"Yeah. But we can do longevity, which is something."

[warpfairy]

"To what extent?"

[poll_the_stars]

"... My lifespan's measured in the thousands. I'm actually over a thousand already, and I'm considered rather young. I'm not fantastic at blood craft, but I've been getting a lot of practice with it lately. I know I could likely give a human an extra century or two, maybe. If I worked at it."

[warpfairy]

"That. I would do that with magic."

[poll_the_stars]

Inavet smiles a bit.

"From what I hear, most of the bigger stuff's done while someone's in the womb. Better ground work. But some stuff can be done on adults to help, I think."

[warpfairy]

"Billions of children are born in Federation hospitals. If the doctors knew how to do this - especially if it could work on non-humans - then the total years gained would be immense."

[poll_the_stars]

"Yep. Thus why I couldn't comprehend why you wouldn't play with genetic engineering. That's what I was talking about. I am not planning to keep a jealous hold on magic - it is really very useful for - helping people. Living longer, preventing sicknesses, dealing with disasters, so on. I just want to introduce it carefully because uh. I have also seen how it can be abused."

[warpfairy]

"What are the specific failure modes you've seen?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Large-scale sterilization of our entire species, really thorough media censorship, magically crippling arcanists from the start despite how it's psychologically upsetting and irreversible, tracking every non-magical citizen at just about all times, something involved with keeping actual immortality to the elite... Plus all of the horrible ways one can kill someone. It can definitely be abused."

[warpfairy]

"I'd hope it would be somewhat reassuring that the Federation manages, for the most part, not to abuse its technological abilities in those departments. If anything it's too reluctant to use its abilities; the aforementioned Prime Directive."

[poll_the_stars]

"I am very glad that the Federation is less abusive than my last experience with a government," she agrees. "Also nice to not be a fugitive."

[warpfairy]

"You were a fugitive?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Heh. Um. Yeah. They - actually had a kill order on me, hence the stabbing. They took offense to me taking offense to them and giving other people magic. It was a tightly kept secret."

[warpfairy]

"Oh."

[poll_the_stars]

"It - didn't take very long for me to realize that there was something wrong with how they did things, and that I didn't want to be a part of it. So. Yep."

[warpfairy]

"Can you keep a secret, or were you on the run because you weren't good at that part?"

[poll_the_stars]

Blink, blink. "... Yes. To the first. I was on the run because they knew me. Because I'd technically betrayed them and made it personal. Why?"