|
[PRP] (jeregretriens + Asahi Kumoru )
Kumoru made his home currently in Themeloria, a coastal city south of his birthplace where onion towers mingled with the straighter and more austere white spires in more traditional Akerian fashion. The mage worked as a librarian in one of the libraries - a profession that paid relatively well here, and allowed him enough time to occasionally browse the stacks for himself. It also allowed him a nice, if small, apartment to himself.
News had been bubbling in the cosmopolitan port town of some prophecies that had come to light in his hometown of Khora; naturally, the mage order based there, the Tower of Wings, who held nearly as much de facto power as the Emperor himself, wanted some clarification. Prophecies generally came from lunatics, as the foremost experts on magic in the Empire had not yet found any reliable method to predict the future. However each supposed oracular occurrence still drew some attention from the Tower - the elder mages wished to maintain as much of a monopoly on magical power as they could. And Kumoru, who had more than his share of disagreements with the Tower of Wings, naturally desired to one-up them whenever he could, so long as he could do so wthout attracting too much attention. So today, the back room of his nice apartment had had the furniture removed or shoved to the walls to free up enough space in the center of the room for a magic circle. The necromancer himself was on his hands and knees, working on writing words of magic around the circle in charcoal on the floorboards. The Tower had cast him out on his own because he insisted upon the study and practice of necromancy, and so, if he could gain some insight greater than theirs on this whole supposed prophecy using his chosen craft, it would leave him with a fine feeling indeed. Especially if, as it sounded, the prophecies threatened the Emperor himself. Once all the words necessary for drawing something from the opposite side of the veil of stars were written on his floor, Kumoru stood and stretched, wiping charcoal-blackened fingers on his navy robes. He wore his armor today - sturdy leather bracers reinforced with steel, and a hard leather cincher around his midsection - since he was not wholly sure what would come of his summoning, but he had met with success previously and so was fairly confident that he would be able to handle whatever came through his portal. And so, his preparations complete, the necromancer fixed his ponytail and knelt on one side of the circle, and spoke a quick prayer to the Goddess of Primal Words before beginning to chant his spell. It would take some five or so minutes for him to voice all of the words to draw a being into his universe. Fortunately, the spell produced far more light than sound, thus allowing Kumoru to cast fairly regular summonings without troubling the neighbors, but whatever ultimately came through he portal might have a bit of trouble seeing the rest of the room clearly at first through the slowly-fading purple glow. |
As if it needed repeating...Becca once again was thinking to herself that her life -sucked-. She was changing the band-aids and burn cream on the marks that dotted her arm, wincing a bit as she put fresh cream on the tender burns. She finished up and washed her hands, sighing softly. What else did she need to do today? She sighed, pulling back on the long sleeved top she used to hide her injuries with.
Alex would be home in two hours, and she would need to make dinner for him and then begin the nightly game of keep away that was protecting him from their mother. It would be a lot of work, but...the teenager was resigned to it. She was used to her life by now, and, unusual as it was, it had become normal for her, and she didn't dare complain. Whatever it was, though, it left her with two hours. Two hours, the time sounded like so very much, and yet it was hardly enough for anything. It was barely enough time for a movie, and certainly not enough time for her to relax any before the constant hustle and bustle started again. She sighed quietly, retreating to her bed and flipping open a notebook to draw in. This was the first time she'd ever drawn fantasy things--usually she drew such morbid things as car accidents and murders; and quickly tried to forget the fact that she'd seen such gory things. She flopped onto her bed, but this time she felt herself falling. Falling and falling, and falling and falling, wasn't there a movie about all of this? She yelped when she finally hit the ground, having been blinded by a flash of purple light. She stood up slowly, whimpering a bit and taking off her glasses to rub at her eyes, her whole body trembling as the sickening feeling of fear all but swallowed her. Just what was going on here? |
The necromancer held a hand in front of his face to block the still-fading light at the lower half of his field of vision so he could start to get a look at what he had pulled from beyond the star veil this time. His nerve endings still tingled all over from the magic that had coursed through him with the spell a few moments before, but after a moment, he had enough feeling in his body again to stand slowly.
... A girl? Well, he supposed there were all ages present on the other side of death. Kumoru just suspected that he would have to be particularly careful in dealing with this one, if she truly could do what he required. And that likely meant having to calm her fears, if she was like any of the other ghosts he had summoned. "Hello," he offered gently as the last of the light of magic faded. He crouched just outside the charcoal circle, resting his elbows on his knees, and watched her to see how she would react. |
She looked around, her eyes wide and unseeing as she tried to look in his direction. Only when she got the glasses on could she focus on him--otherwise finding herself far, far, far too nearsighted to see -anything-. The glow that had dazed her was still only just fading, but she shuffled backwards from the kneeling man. She didn't know how she managed to get here, didn't believe in magic outside of her own powers, and didn't know what at all to think.
"Who are you? Where am I?" She was remarkably normal looking, for being a girl from Indianapolis. Of course, that likely meant she looked quite outlandish. She wore Converse shoes and blue jeans, and a black and red top that was associated with one of the newer social movements of popular culture. |
"My name is Kumoru, and I summoned you here, to my little apartment in Themeloria," he told the girl, brushing his long ponytail back over his shoulder and out of his way. He thought she looked strange, but the necromancer imagined he likely looked just as bizarre to her as well, with his navy robes over a plain white shirt and brown trousers. His light armor was a bit strange for daily wear in the city as well, but he would not be the only man she would meet in this city with nearly waist-length hair.
He suspected that he was more accustomed to seeing otherworldly things than the girl was, though, and so remained at a distance for the moment, not wanting to frighten her. "What's your name?" Kumoru inquired politely. "I will need your help with something, but I promise I can send you home when we are finished." |
She pressed her eyes shut and whined fearfully. This...wasn't -really- happening, was it? No, this was just a dream...a bad dream, a weird dream, a something...but it wasn't -actually- happening. It couldn't be, couldn't be possible, wasn't possible, -wasn't- happening. She took a deep breath, not sure what to even say. At least he'd asked her a question, though, so she decided to start there. "My...name's Becca..."
|
Kumoru had been trained as a diplomat when he was still at the Tower of Wings, but was less sure of how to deal with children. Still, he had gained at least some idea from seeing other people, and from the few times he had been home with his younger siblings. The mage remained crouched, arms resting on his knees, as he fixed his robes a bit.
"My name is Kumoru," he told her. Then added after a moment, "I summoned you here, but don't worry, you will be safe with me until I can send you back, I promise." As soon as he spoke those last words, his mind played out various scenarios where the Tower tried to steal the seer from him for their own purposes, if the girl was indeed the seer he had been trying to summon. Of course, she had yet to prove her abilities, and even if she could, well ... Kumoru would do his best to keep her from finding out about the potential danger. For now, he had to calm her down. "... Would you like something to drink?" he inquired, figuring it might not hurt to offer, since she appear solid, unlike his usual summoned ghosts. |
She opened her eyes slowly, taking a deep breath and considering the strange man for a moment. Finally, she sighed, and nodded her head. This...had to be a dream, that's what it was. The stress of knowing she was due to die soon had prompted her to dream about things, that was all, surely. But a drink sounded good, and might as well be a good place to get herself grounded and start figuring things out.
"...What do you mean 'summoned'? That's not possible, is it? I mean...this's got to be a dream, right?" She crept forward, though, uncertain but....she knew when she was due to die and this wasn't the time. Surely that had to count for something, right? |
Kumoru opened his mouth to tell her that he had pulled her here with his magic, from the land of the dead, on the other side of the star veil. However, the longer he studied her, the less she seemed like one of his usual ghosts. She seemed quite alive, strangely. And telling her that she was dead when he himself was not sure did not seem like the best option.
And so after a moment, he settled on simply, "I brought you here with my magic." Then the necromancer knelt and made a smudge in the circle of charcoal markings with his finger; the air all around the circle shimmered for a moment, indicating the dissipation of some sort of shield. When he stood up again, Kumoru held out one hand to her. "Come with me to my kitchen, and I can give you some water. The pipes here in this part of town are good, and I boiled the water anyway so it is more than safe, I promise." Not at all sure where she came from, especially with her strange dress, Kumoru figured it would be good to assure her of the quality of water here. Infrastructure had improved in the Empire since its establishment, but there were still plenty of places untouched by the benefits. And, of course, people of the past would not have known such luxuries as safe wells and sanitary aqueducts. "May I ask where you are from? What is it like there?" He smiled gently, hoping he was doing something to ease her fears. |
Becca frowned at his explanation, and frowned deeper when he went to lengths to explain the water quality. Magic...wasn't really possible, was it? Then again, neither was seeing the future, she supposed. Either this was possible or she'd been crazy the whole time and she'd finally been snapped the rest of the way out of reality....either way worked, she supposed. She nodded quietly, moving to follow him and listening to his questions.
"I'm from Earth..." It was as logical a place as any to begin, she supposed. "In a city called Indianapolis, in a country called America..." |
The rest of the mage's apartment outside of the back room looked a bit cluttered, with books and boxes of things sitting on top of some of the furniture. There were still places to sit and places to eat, and space to walk as long as one was careful and did not necessarily want access to all of the bookshelves, but Kumoru was clearly not currently situated to receive guests. He nodded slowly at the girl's words as he ushered her out into the main living room of the flat, and was still clearly looking her over with curiosity.
"Indianapolis," he repeated slowly as he led Becca to a well-worn but comfortable-looking leather chair. "And your country is America." The necromancer had not exhaustively studied Akerian history, but he was still fairly well-read and had not heard of such a place. Perhaps ... one of the old minor kingdoms further to the south? "Who rules that place, and by what title do you call him or her?" He moved to the open doorway that separated the living room from the small kitchen, and lingered there a moment before adding, "We here in Themeloria are presently under the regime of Exarch Aristemai, and the present emperor is Pyraskalos." Hopefully that would mean something to her...? Kumoru waited a moment longer in the doorway, then moved quickly into the kitchen to fetch her a glass of water. |
Becca hovered around the books, looking at them to try and get some idea of the sort of place she was in. She couldn't make heads or tails of them. She moved to follow him towards the kitchen, staying in the doorway herself once he went in. The names he rattled off made her eyes boggle a little bit, and she shook her head. "I don't think I'm on the same -planet-. Or I'm in a storybook or something. I dunno. But...those aren't real people and this isn't a real place last I checked."
She sighed, shaking her head forlornly. Was this a dream? Or more likely it was a delusion. "No...none of this is real.... I've gone crazy, haven't I? I've finally had enough visions that my brain broke and I'm just....gone doo lally. ...I guess there's no harm in playing along, though, right? Why did you summon me? What do you want?" |
"Or, perhaps you are from a story book," the mage replied thoughtfully as he returned to the girl with a ceramic cup glazed solid blue on the outside and, as Becca could see when he handed it to her, solid white on the inside. It was filled with water that may have had a slight earthy smell to it, but was free of visible impurities.
He held a matching cup in his other hand, and he took a drink from it before telling her, "I do not think you have gone crazy." The very distinct (and exciting!) possibility was forming in his mind that he had summoned her not from the other side of the star veil of his own world, but rather from another world entirely. To think, that there was another veil beyond the two already known that connected to yet another place parallel to the one in which he lived! And that he could brush that aside like a curtain with his magic in the same way that he was learning to brush back the curtains of death! Perhaps he had gone crazy and was imagining all of this. The girl's words snapped him back to the present, though, as he processed what she had said. "You said you have visions?" he inquired. "What sorts of visions, if I may ask? I summoned you here because there is something I believe you are able to do that no one in my world can." |
She took the cup carefully, peering at it curiously and utterly unsure about it or whether its contents really were all right to drink. She sniffed at it, but finally took a sip of it, hoping it wouldn't be anything too far strange. It..-was- just water, right? Despite the utterly odd smell it had...
She watched him drink from his and that reassured her a little bit, though not by much. What he had to say wasn't all that comforting at all, and she wished that things would just hurry up and go back to normal. "I....well, I mean... Magic isn't real. Not where I live. Nobody can do anything special like that..." She didn't even have to continue for a large 'but' to hang in the air after her words. She knew it was obvious, so she sighed forlornly and continued. "I can see the future. Ever since I can remember. But...I never saw -this- happening..." |
The necromancer took another drink of water, and gestured towards the leather chair with an upturned hand. "You may sit, if you like," he told the girl.
"I summoned you," Kumoru went on. "Because I need your abilities as an oracle. Some people in this world can use magic, but not all can. None of us have any way yet to see the future, by magic or by any other means. "I do not want to overwork you, however, and I don't know if you are tired from coming here? So we do not have to get started now. Rest if you like." He wandered across the room, one arm folded across his chest with his other elbow resting in his hand while he held his glass of water up. Kumoru studied the girl further, scrutinizing her appearance - if, for whatever reason she tried to run away from him, he wanted to be sure he would remember her face, since she could easily find clothing that would keep her from standing out as an otherworlder. He dearly hoped she would not try, though, as, while Themeloria was a relatively safe place, she would still be lost. And if she told anyone else of her oracular power, little Becca might make herself a target. If the girl thought this world a storybook, though, perhaps he could use that to his advantage, though. "I understand if you wish to return to your world as soon as you can, but it will take me a bit of time to prepare to do so. So if you like, I can take a bit of time to show you around my ... little fantasy world, too?" ... Well, truth be told, he was not one hundred percent sure yet how to send her back to the place she had come from and be certain that she would arrive at her desired destination and not somewhere else. But Kumoru was nothing if not confident in his magic. If he could bring her here, then he could find away to send Becca home. |
He was being awfully patient with her about calling it a fantasy place, and she supposed if nothing else that meant he couldn't be -all- bad. Then again, Becca wasn't the world's greatest judge of character. She sighed quietly and nodded her head. "Sure...show me around...just... I need to get a notebook and a pencil or something to carry with me... I get awful headaches if I have visions and I can't draw them..."
Assuming humans in Themeloria weren't too far different to humans from Indianapolis, Becca actually didn't look all that remarkable, just black hair and deep blue eyes as her distinguishing features. Her clothes were hiding scars, though, there were vague hints of the dark discolourations visible through the thin fabric over her arms and shoulders. She wasn't concerned with trying to run away, at least; she knew she wouldn't know her way around, and....it seemed like she had a willing guide even. "Tell me what you want me to look for, though, and I'll see if I can fish it out. As soon as you get me something to draw with." |
Kumoru nodded slowly, setting his cup down on top of a stack of books on one of his end tables as he moved to a shelf. "A blank book is no trouble at all," he assured her, taking one of the thinner leather-bound books from the shelf and flipped through the pages. Then he put it back and tried another. "I think I have one here somewhere, and if I do not, it will not be difficult to purchase one for you."
He paused as he replaced the second book on its shelf, and glanced over at her briefly, quirking an eyebrow. "Also perhaps some clothes, if you wish." The mage had the money to spare in order to get her a change of decent-looking clothes, he figured, so he may as well offer. A vague idea had crossed his mind to provide her with some sort of nonsense paper charm and tell her that she must remain within his sight for the supposed magic to work or risk something terrible happening to her as a result of her summoning. Some lie to keep her from running away. But the idea of lying to the girl just because she was from another world and did not understand his hardly set right with the necromancer. If he was nice enough, she would likely stick close to him for fear of not knowing what else to do. ... And there was nothing wrong in his mind with increasing that fear, since much of what she did have to fear was true. But only if he found it necessary, Kumoru decided. Prove himself a kind protector first, then mention the risks she would face alone as a supposed seer in this world. The fifth book he leafed through was the unused blank book he had been thinking of, and Kumoru stepped back over to Becca to offer it to her with both hands. "Here you are, and you may keep it," he said with a small smile. "And I keep plenty of pencils lying around, on my tables and such. Here-" he picked one up and gave that to the girl as well. "Will these do alright? "As for the visions in question," Kumoru went on, then stopped as a thought appeared to strike him. He then inquired, "Ah, do you see in color, if I may ask?" One of the people he had known during his schooling had told him that he only dreamt in black and white and shades of grey, and, on very rare occasions, a few shades of brown and orange. "I ask because I am wondering about a particular object, a candle. Legend states that there are six in a set, but we are concerned with only the emerald one. A green precious stone, carved like a candle." |
Becca took the notebook and pencil as soon as they were offered, finding a place to sit down and turning to the first page and starting to doodle emo skulls and crossbones, hearts, stars, and checker patterns. Slowly, her name took shape out of the doodles--claiming it as hers. "Yeah, this is fine. Just...something I can draw with, y'know? D'you have a pencil sharpener? In case I break it."
She looked up when he asked about her visions, though, and she sighed quietly, not sure how best to phrase it. "I...-see- in colour, but...I draw in black and white. If...you see something you want me to remember the colours for, you should ask me right away." She listened as he explained about the candle, and she nodded along, huffing a little bit as fussy teenagers were prone to doing. "So it's -not- a candle. It's a green gem carved to -look- like a candle." Sometimes her power was difficult to force to bend to her will, and a little detail such as looking for a candle or looking for a candle-shaped stone would no doubt give her a headache for a week. "I'll see what I can find, though. Can you do CPR?" It was a valid question as far as Becca was concerned, though whether or not the phrase meant anything here or if medicine here was even that far advanced (or first aid, or whatever, Becca thought; she'd never much cared for calling things their proper names). |
"Pencil... sharpener...." the necromancer repeated, looking momentarily confused. Her mention of breaking the pencil helped him realize her meaning after a moment. He leaned down to pull open a small drawer on the front of one of his end tables and removed a small sheathed knife. "This one should still be sharp enough to do the job." He glanced between the girl and the knife, and then added, "If you are not used to sharpening this way, I can take care of that if you need me to." Though Kumoru had to wonder what a pencil sharpener might look like if not a knife. The graphite in the pencil Becca now held was darker but also softer than what she was likely used to; Kumoru would likely have been impressed by how fine a point Earth pencils could be sharpened to.
He moved to stand before her, holding the knife to offer to her if she looked like she wanted it, but glanced upward momentarily as he tried to decide what, precisely, he needed to know. What little bits of information would be most essential from her. "We are fairly certain that it is a green gem carved to look like a candle," Kumoru began, a bit hesitant. "No one has seen it for sure in a very long time. So if you can see where it is, any details about the place at all, that would be very important." The necromancer looked down at her again, and brushed some of his dark hair back behind a delicately pointed ear before adding, "If you see one of the other five candles, though, and can tell me anything about where, please let me know?" Really, the rumors that had been circulating concerned the Emerald Candle in particular, however the resurfacing any of the others could bring up similar turmoil in the Empire. Ruby, Topaz, Amethyst, and Diamond were missing as well, and if the Sapphire Candle appeared in the girl's visions in any location but the Imperial Palace, then there was a very real risk of civil war in Akerias. "Thank you, for what help you can provide," he told her politely with a small smile, as he tried to shake off the unpleasant thoughts of war. His brow furrowed at her question, though, and he frowned a little as he asked, "Ah, what is 'CPR'?" Akerians had developed some similar medical techniques, however knowledge in the Empire was behind that of Becca's Earth, and the terminology was far different; the mage definitely had no idea what she was talking about. |
She took the knife and tried to whittle down the pencil to a sharper point, frowning when she only succeeded in breaking it. She needed a -sharp- point to be able to add details to her drawings, and the devil was in the details. She sharpened it back up, shaking her head as she did so--no, she didn't need help. "Pencil sharpeners are really convenient, though. It's....it's like this." She added in a quick sketch of a pencil sharpener in one corner of the page she was using, figuring that it would be self-explanatory rather than her trying to talk about it and confusing the issue.
She listened obediently as he tried to tell her about the candle and everything she'd need to know to be able to find it, and she turned to a fresh page, hovering the pencil over it as she listened, wondering if she should try sketching what she imagined it might look like. She decided against it, however, as she looked up at him, frowning deeply when she saw his ear. What...was this? Was he an elf? She bit her lip nervously, and let her breath out slowly. "....People here are strange. But...you want me to be a glorified treasure hunter? You...lost these gem-candles and now you want me to find them? This is like...Indiana Jones or something..." She laughed a little bit, but when he asked about CPR, her blood went a little bit cold. She took a deep breath, fixing a frightened expression on him. "You don't know CPR? So like...if my heart stops beating, I could die and there'd be...nothing you could do about it? Or...can magic...y'know...fix things?" She closed the notebook and set the pencil down, fiddling with the knife for a little bit before setting that down as well. "I'll help you, sure. I'll even help you treasure hunt. But...I'm not gonna offer myself up to die just so you can get some great big fancy carved precious stone." |
The necromancer leaned over the book a little to watch as she sketched the "pencil sharpener" device, nodding slowly as she completed the picture. So it was still a blade, just fixed at an angle to better shave a pencil to a point. The place she had come from had to have had less crumbly graphite in their pencils, though, for such an apparatus to be truly effective. Still, it was quite a clever idea....
The girl was misunderstanding his intent with his need for her visions, apparently, and he shook his head (and half-wondered if "indiana jones" was some sort of insult where she came from). "No, no, these candles are more than simple treasures," he hurriedly corrected, then paused as he wondered just how much to tell her. A version of the legend of the formation of the Empire were known, but the mages and others who held positions of relative power had more details that either were not or just did not reach the common people. But, well, if Becca thought she was in a story anyway.... "One of the candles belongs to the Royal Family of this place, to the Emperor himself. There were five others made, though, all a very long time ago, and the other five belonged to men who betrayed their countrymen during a very important war. Someone else in this city here claims to know where the emerald candle is, and if he finds it, or if someone else does, just anyone could try to use it to claim the throne," the mage explained. "If the wrong person gets hold of it and then challenges the Emperor, there might be civil war." Kumoru hoped that the majority of Akerians were content enough with their current emperor that some nameless ... "indiana jones" of a man showing up waving one of the other candles after eight-hundred or so years would not provoke them to immediately rise up to overthrow him. But inevitably, people would keep stabbing each other and stealing the candle until someone who could sway the people rose up. And if all the other old stories were to be believed, Akerians could make some pretty brutal war on each other. He snapped out of his dark contemplation of the prospect of history repeating itself as Becca mentioned using magic to "y'know, fix things", and nodded even as his mind processed what she had said. Then he quirked a brow and glanced over at her. "Your heart stopping? Does this happen ... often?" he inquired with concern. "I mean, I can do some first-aid, and I can do what I can with my magic as well, but will you be alright if we go out to do a bit of shopping? Does it come with your visions? Or is there anything else I should watch for?" Since they were going out, armor would be unnecessary, and the mage rolled up his sleeves a moment to remove his bracers, and then the stiff leather cincher around his middle. The navy robes were normal enough to wear out and about, though, and he tossed the armor pieces onto the other, presently unoccupied chair in the room to be put away later. Then Kumoru moved back towards where he had left his cup of water, rubbing his wrists gently before picking up the cup and finishing off his water. |
She frowned quietly, trying to understand what he was telling her. Unfortunately for him, or at least for any secrets he might have wanted to keep, Becca wasn't the sort of person to just jump into something without answers. Fortunately, however, given her lack of education and reliance on her visions for answers...just about any answer would do, as long as it was willingly given. "So if somebody gets a hold of this candle they'll be able to challenge the throne? ...That's dumb. Are the candles so super powerful that having one makes you powerful enough to go against an army? Or do people just dislike the emperor you've got right now?"
She wasn't really processing anything else about how else that might have worked. She didn't understand it at all. "You guys ought to have a democracy instead. It works better, there's a lot less people have to die when the government fecks up..." She smiled sheepishly when he asked about her heart, not sure if she should answer that honestly or not. "It doesn't happen -too- often. It's random, I guess. I think it has a little bit to do with my visions, though, cause it happens more often if I've been fishing for 'em. And it happens when I fish for 'em, but it happens -extra- randomly I mean." She shrugged idly, figuring that there was nothing better to do than to try. "If it happens it happens, I guess. Staying in won't change it any. What do you need to get, anyway?" |
The necromancer did his best to answer her questions as patiently as possible. "The candles are just symbols, but they are very important to our people here. Surely you have something similar in your world? Some sort of symbol of leadership that is nothing more than a symbol?"
Kumoru moved to fetch his wallet from another of his drawers, and tucked it away in his robes before adding, "We do actually have a democracy here in Themeloria, to elect the leader of this province, though he - or she, at the moment - acts under the Emperor." He smiled wryly for a moment. "And fortunately, our government has not, ah, 'fecked up' in quite some time, so the system we have in place appears to be stable and suitable as it is." Pausing briefly in front of a small round mirror near the door, the mage brushed his fingers through his hair a little to ensure that it looked alright, then rested one hand on the knob of the door out of his flat and beckoned to the girl with his other hand. "I thought we could purchase some more normal-looking clothing for you, and also some extra food. I will need some idea what you like to eat?" Kumoru shrugged. "Otherwise, I would like to get out of the house for a bit and get some fresh air, and so if nothing else, I can show you around the neighborhood a bit. Around the neighborhood of this 'storybook land'." |
Becca thought hard about the question, but eventually she just shook her head. "No. There's... No, nothing like that. I mean, the President lives in the White House, but...if somebody else broke in there...if they didn't get killed by security... Living there doesn't make you the president. The president's the president, and he's elected. I mean...the people follow the government for a reason and...cause it's the government and cause it's right. Not cause they've got some thingie that says they're powerful. I mean...what if I found this candle thing? Would that mean I'm in charge? But I don't even know where this place -is-. I'm a fifteen year old kid who can't even tell you how our government works aside from we vote for people."
She followed over when he headed for the door, and her eyes went wide when he offered her 'normal-looking' clothes and a choice of food. "I...dunno...what's 'normal' here? And what kind of food do people here eat? I don't eat weird stuff..." |
Kumoru pulled his door open, revealing a view onto a balcony-walkway with a chest-high railing separating the walk from a drop of about one story to a cobbled plaza below. The white paint on the railing was peeling, but other than that, the metal looked sturdy.
He paused in the doorway at the girl's question, and stroked his chin in thought for a moment. "You would likely not be able to, because it is a matter of swaying the people that having the candle grants you legitimacy. It would require great familiarity with the past of the Empire." He looked to her again and smiled faintly. "So, unfortunately, I suspect you could not, certainly not now. But there are those who could, and I suspect they are far more ill-intentioned than you could ever be, Miss Becca. And that is what concerns me." The necromancer made a sweeping gesture of one hand, encouraging her to join him outside. "What would happen if someone in your world were to say that someone had been elected to be your ... 'president' when it was not true? If the lie was elaborate enough that many people believed it?" He spoke the unfamiliar word with great care, enunciating each sound as though savoring the taste of it. "I do not know your world at all, but I suspect it would not be a good thing?" As for "normal", he told her, "Ah, we have fruits of various types, and breads and grains, some meats." Kumoru shrugged. "I will confess now that I am not a very talented cook, so I hope you will not mind eating from a rather limited menu." |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 03:50 PM. |