text / un: starkov

[peasant]

the good news first: rhys and i found the princess of kilnan in the castle and woke her. she's with us right now. the castle was designed to protect her against her mother's soldiers trying to force her back home, which is why it's been so tricky. it's meant to alert remi — her uncle, and the wizard we came looking for — to any unwanted guests, which would be us.

the reason he hasn't come to greet us is that he's asleep. aureliah — the princess — should be able to talk her uncle down before he throws us all out into the mud. he's trapped behind an entrance sam's group found, but aureliah should be able to unseal its magic.

i think more of us should be there when it's opened, just in case something goes wrong with the orb.

the bad news: the orb's name is phyllie. remi made a deal with her and fed his own arcane energy to her in exchange for curing a curse that was placed on aureliah and her mother, but something went wrong during remi's bargain and that energy was transferred from the orb to aureliah instead. that's the reason she has her uncle's magic, and why her mother is so eager to use her daughter as a weapon against kilnan's neighboring countries.

the queen thinks kilnan will be better protected if she can force her daughter to learn war magic. it sounds like remi has been searching through dimensions to find the "right world" (for him and aureliah to hide? we don't know what he meant) but the orb has been draining him of his energy.

from what aureliah said, he feeds "phyllie" monthly. the princess and i think that's the price he's chosen to pay for keeping the curse at bay.

the worst news: i don't know what will happen if we break the bargain remi has made, but i'm sure it can't possibly be anything good. aureliah's life force was given to her by the orb, and the wizard who cast the curse in the first place was killed in the war. so that's a dead end, but maybe someone has a better solution we can offer remi once he's awake.

[ as per this npc thread! feel free to threadjack and hop around threads here to your hearts' content. ♥ ]

Comments

[aurable]

[ Ordinarily, Drift tried to make himself appear as harmless as a creature of his size could but here, he didn't want to give Alina doubts. Neither was he bothered by the staring because, well, now it was his turn to gawk. ]

I swear, each time I think you humans can't get any more surprising, I'm proven wrong yet again.

[peasant]

[ a number of emotions flit across her expression as quickly as a flicker of light — bemusement, uncertainty over whether she should take offense, then amusement, before it settles into something sarcastically wry. there are worse reasons someone might gawk at her, alina knows, a life lesson forced upon her from the moment she took her first baby steps on ravkan soil. ]

Says the giant, [ she blurts out, entirely incapable of remembering polite etiquette. then, as a ruefully deprecating jab toward herself: ] I'm full of surprises lately.

[ in ways that have proven to be a curse more often than they're a blessing, but — she's quick to brush past her own comment. ] So? Will it work?

[aurable]

Alright, fair enough. [ The pointed white finials of Drift's helm flick. Not exactly embarrassed so much as he was sorry to be caught by his own ignorance of humanity. They were turning out to be quite a bit more...diverse than he previously assumed. ]

What, that's new for you? [ She didn't sound too happy about it, as if that kind of ability was anything less than beneficial. ]

I think it's worth a try.

[peasant]

[ embarrassment — his and hers both — does nothing to stem her curiosity. for a moment, her head tilts, studying the flittering of his finials the way her eyes had wandered across new maps as a child. something unexplored, something intriguing, that wasn't the dusty walls of keramzin's lonely orphanage. ]

Was new for me, [ she corrects, without offense. if he's expecting any helpful elaboration, none follows aside from alina's (perhaps less than) reassurance of: ] I'm not going to melt you, if that's what you're worried about. I know how to harness it well enough.

[ well ... maybe that's not true. maybe there is a chance she'll harm him in the process. her brows crease with dawning concern. "worth a try" isn't exactly a comforting answer, after all, and if she's capable of melting down metal — ]

I'm not going to melt you. Right?

[aurable]

[ The open-faced curiosity was mutual expression mirrored in them both. For his limited time on Earth, he still only possessed an outsider's perspective had admittedly had done little to remedy this. Still, he was positive last he checked. None of them could do that. ]

Not at all. It's just surprising. Remi mentioned that tremendous amounts of magic was needed, and that certainly fits the bill. [ Drift wasn't going to make his argument that 'magic' is likely science they didn't fully understand. It was just splitting hairs at this point. ]

What I'm 'made' of is pretty resilient to heat. Living metal isn't run-of-the-mill steel.

[peasant]

Oh.

[ oh, spoken with all of the airiness of someone who doesn't entirely grasp what's being explained to them — but will clumsily try to pretend otherwise. a fabrikator would know the mechanics of living metal better than she ever would (or could).

on the subject of splitting hairs: ]

We call it the Small Science. So long as there's a light source nearby, I can summon light for as long as you need.

[ — in theory, at least. ]

[aurable]

It's not 'small' because you are, right? [ Drift maybe millions of years old and a forged soul housed inside a technological marvel unsurpassed by anything most could dream of - but he was just as susceptible of putting his foot in his mouth as anyone else. ]

I mean—

I would love to see that even under better circumstances.

[peasant]

Why does everyone keep saying that?

[ little. small. tiny. immediately, her nose crinkles in indignation, just as she draws her shoulders more upright — the equivalent of a petite bird attempting to fluff its feathers up to look larger, more intimidating. ]

I'm not that small. [ yes, you are. a huffed out breath, and then: ] Do they call it a spark because you're a giant walking fireplace?

[aurable]

Sorry. [ Drift turned sheepish when Alina bristled before pointing out: ] In all fairness, most everyone is on the short side next to me.

[ He had hoped that a bit of levity would smooth things over as he loathed to upset people. At least that thread of the conversation dropped when Alina asked him a question. ]

Are you thinking of a coal-powered engine? Nothing like it but- ah, in-person would be better, but if we are planning to work together, it would be better if I just showed you.

[ Ordinarily, Drift would have hated to do this, but the connection should be secure, and the spark energy was his idea in the first place. He takes a half-step back, and the panels of his chest his before beginning to slide apart gently. The blue glow of his eyes dim as a brilliant light blazes where a living heart would be nestled. The light pulses, shimmering like ice over clear blue water catching in fractals under the glow of a midday sun.

With a gasp the aperture of his chest closes again. ]

Never get used to that.