10000netherworlds | The Oasis

Najaran nodded, still thinking. "It isn't quite so clean as that though..." she considered then stood up and used the base of the staff to draw in the sand. She made a big circle first, then started dividing it up into edges. First she cut a small wedge that was less than a quarter. "If this is all the people on this world," she gestured with the staff, who looked a little dizzy, to the whole of the diagram "Are here. Then this," she stabbed the small section, "would be all the Cepters. Apparently loads of people hate us because some Cepters like Zenith go crazy and don't really care about if anyone gets hurt or anything gets broken when they're looking for new Cards, or if they're just big bullies." again, see Zenith.

"So to a lot of these people," she gestured to the larger part. "All Cepters are bad guys, even though we really aren't. I mean there are some towns that like us alright, like Soron. It was a desert that used to be a seaside community. Without fishing and stuff they started running a Cepter tournament and people came from all over to bet on who was going to die and who was going to win." She licked her lips. "There was a really good inn there with some super yummy food!" Because that is the important part. Riiiiight.

"But then there was this other town, near the Bisteam gates. There they arrested me, just for being a Cepter and took all my cards. Alta broke me out of jail because she wanted me on a treasure hunt. But she didn't trust me for a long time and kept my cards." she looked back at her friends, most of whom were ambling their way over, done drinking. "She did appologize though, and because of her I got to meet Kigi and help save the forest." She gave a bright smile. "And Joaquin learned there was life outside his books when he made friends with some Treefolk. And Ganz stopped drinking! So it is all right now!" Bright cheerful smile.

"You guys done?" she asked the cards. The creatures nodded. "Do you want to go back or stay out here?"

The knight... spoke. "If. We. Stay. Might. Have. To. Peel. Po.Ta.Toes."

Najaran gave a bit of an embarrassed laugh and swiped the empty cards through the air. Every creature other than herself, Gooligan, and Roy vanished into the cards. She had the grace to look sheepish. "No point in being a Cepter if you can't get help with your chores every now and then, right?"

"THAT IS NOT WHAT THE BOOK OF CREATION IS FOR, NAJARAN!"

Huh, she actually managed to stay on-topic for quite a while there, though. And more interestingly, she sounded like she actually had some good experience with adventuring. She sure didn't look the type, but who was he to judge?

And no denying she had a powerful ability at her beck and call. Maybe too powerful for her age, though it didn't sound like she was misusing it in any substantial way. This was a lot to think about.

"And now you ended up here. Not exactly the happiest ending, unfortunately..."

"Which part wasn't the happiest ending? Where I almost became dinner for the Lord of Flies? Having to work for Mistress Grubbel? Or the part where the Master was really angry that I ate his favorite cake?"

All bad endings to her mind, all which had happened, sadly.

"Where you ended up here in the middle of nowhere." Possibly literally, though Roy still held out hope for a caravan. Still, it sounded like she'd had a good journey that should have ended there instead of pushing her on to more trouble like this.

"Oh." She shrugged. "But we got to meet you," she said considering. "So it can't be all bad. And besides, you came from somewhere other than where we did. So.... if we go the way you came and you go the way we came, we both wind up somewhere new. Or we take another direction together," she said with a shrug, "and team up until we find some place with real beds and decent food."

There are moments when she is almost mature and reasonable.

"Well, I just ended up here, so there's nowhere to go where I came from." He didn't think expanding on it as plane-shifting or teleporting would really add to the dialogue here... "And teaming up would probably be the wisest decision in any case."

From what she said, she didn't NEED help -- no matter how she acted -- but two heads were better than one as a rule.

"Well, then we'll just pick any direction that isn't the way I came from. there has to be a city or village somewhere, right?"

She was the cheerful sort.

Clearly. And he was used to that sort. "That's true, but the question is whether we can reach that city or village traveling blind and with limited supplies. Honestly, I think we're better off staying here until some sort of caravan shows up. There's water, and food from the trees."

"the food is still limited here," she pointed out. "And we run the risk of dying of boredom. And if we eat all the food here... what will the next people who arrive eat?"

"One of us runs the risk of dying from boredom," Roy countered. "And even then, it looks like a fair amount of traffic comes through here, if you checked the tracks and signs."

Yeah, he knows she didn't.

"The tracks and signs?" she looked around, bewildered. Then she looked back at him. "And I really don't want you to die of boredom...."

"Don't worry about me. I've been dead before, it was terrific." Roy took a few steps to the side, pointing at some faint ruts and prints at the side of the oasis.

"You've been dead before?" she asked, startled. "And... and you came back? How? Are you some sort of Zombie?" Was he a card after all?

She frowned, looking to where he was pointing. "That's sand... not a sign."

"No, I was raised. Do I look like a zombie?" Seriously, what kind of question was that?

...Well, a question answered by her next comment. A dumb one. "It isn't the sand itself, so much as the impressions left in it."

"Well... no,,, less stringy and gross, but I haven't seen every possible kind of zombie, I'm sure. Master Horowitz keeps saying that there is always more to see and to learn. But... what does your height have to do with anything?"

Gooligan drooped, but was leaving the headache for Roy.

"Resurrected," Roy said immediately, with the patience only someone used to Elan could show.

"Resser....? Is that some kind of place to get food or something?"

"Brought back to life." Roy was learning a great deal about the capabilities and limits of her particular magic. At only the cost of his sanity. Which went pretty cheap these days.

"WHOA! You can do that? For real? How?"

"You're not familiar with clerics?" Imagining a world where the gods didn't intervene through their mortal representatives was extremely difficult to comprehend, but... "Or maybe what clerical power should have existed on your world was subsumed into those cards..."

"Clerics?" she asked. What were clerics? Were they yummy?

"Brining the dead back to life sounds like a rather dark use of magic," Gooligan said, carefully, watching him. "Whoever managed that must be extremely dangerous. We should be cautious."

"I -- what? No. It's just another spell!"

Dangerous?! Well, sure, a cleric of the level to cast Resurrection was by definition 'dangerous', but there's a difference between potential and actuality!

"Wait, that's a spell card?" Najaran asked, excited.

"Which is dangerous in your hands, Najaran! You are forbidden spell cards for a reason!"

"No, it's not a spell 'card'. The magic I'm used to relies on discrete patterns of invocation with variable energy sources. In this case, the energy comes from the cleric's god."

"So.... a God card....?"

Reason one hundred and seven to never introduce her to Elan.

Now that I have a journal for him, want pi face tossed at this starter?

Boy would he and Roy not get along!

So... is that a no? LOL.

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