For one moment you were in one place at the second you were somewhere else. Reality went sideways and your sanity too a break. The world kept spinning and you felt your body tingling your belly felt like someone was poking with white-hot pokers while you could feel ice cold fingers running across your spin.

Than it was all gone and you were alone, the world was spinning and you senses were muffled, fuzzy cottons in your ear, blurry sight. You glanced back and saw a large obelisk-like rock glowing from heat, for a few seconds you could see the world you came from without a warning the image changed into the infinity of space, quickly the rock cooled down and the stone changed again this time back into plain rough rock.



The sound of wave was the first thing that broke the fog on your muddled senses. Wave crashing down, over and over. Next was the smell, the strong smell of sea salt, the sun was shining warming you. The open sky above were violet... wait violet? you blinked your eyes trying to clear away to muddle but the image remain sharp. There was a small rock construct ahead of you, it was dark black with some sort of golden lichen growing on it.  Far ahead there were cliffs, most were marble white with steep climb but you could guess you could find a path across. Ahead was an open sea... or an ocean it was wide azure blue and wild. There was no sign of civilization anywhere.


This message was last edited by the GM at 11:36, Sat 20 Nov 2021.

[Intro Post]

She hadn't been expecting soft.  Not when the world went sideways.  Not when the air rushed completely out of her lungs, and reality got skewed.  She had expected to end.  Wink out like a candle snuffed out by the wind.  All the locks and mechanisms she'd worked through made sense.  It wasn't some elaborate riddle to prove you were worthy... it was a barrier intended to keep out fools.  And she as the offspring of the original fool had leapt through the rabbit hole after her predecessor with all the enthusiasm of the word Eureka!

No... not soft.  She opened her eyes and the glint of gold and silver was blurry and gaussian. Slowly the landscape of little grains took shape.  Cress lifted her head.  From there she lifted her shoulder and then sat up fully.  Pulling her glasses from the sand she shook off the sand and put the on her nose.

Her backpack wasn't far away, dug into the sand as if discarded by a impatient pickpocket. Crawling to it, she checked the contents.  The bag of journals was intact, the tangle of clothes, damp but there. Licking her lips she stood and took a long look at her surroundings.

The initial impulse to yell out dad!  It was strong.  Fifteen years and somehow her subconscious thought that he would be waiting on the other side of the door.  There were no footprints fifteen years old in the sand- she didn't even need to look.  At least there wasn't a door- a portal back.  Perhaps that had been her worst fear, that he'd simply not returned because.

"Dad!" she yelled it anyway, listening to her shout being swallowed by the crashing of the waves.  Cress closed her eyes and listened to the roar.  When the crash had subsided and the hiss of the water returned her shout to the sea, she picked up her backpack and headed toward the black construct.

The black construct was roughly shaped like a cube, it had lichen growing on it, the one on top were green but on its side they were golden. As Cress examined the construct she couldn't shake the feeling it was an altar, something of the way it was made although it looked natural... perhaps not an altar a memorial?

Black against the violet sky with the azure sea in the background.  It was pretty especially with the green and gold.  There was a vague part of her that was relieved to see the purple sky.  She was somewhere else- that was possibility number seventeen on her list- multi-dimensional travel or number eighteen- inter-dimensional travel began the science fiction entries.  There were more specific possibilities, but right now she was comfortable with different planet- she wouldn't know for sure until the stars came out, or different reality.

As she walked around the... cube.  Cress licked her lips and moved her fingers on the rock trying to see if there were any glyphs or writing.  If it was an alter, usually there were symbols...

It took some moments until Cress found faded marking, perhaps a writing perhaps drawing perhaps both. At first she thought the altar must be very old than she thought again, the altar was set on face of a sea, the tide, salt and winds would corrode it very fast.
When exploring the the side facing the sea she saw what appeared like a drawing of waves and a person with uplifted arms, the rock above the hands was lose and she could pull it out if she wished.

She pushed her glasses up further on her nose as she peered a little closer at the etching.  Well this was the first of the artifacts she'd found.  Proof that there was sentient life.  She tilted her head, and culture.  Pulling out her journal she turned to a page and made a rough copy of the drawing. Returning the journal to the ziplock in her backpack, she turned her focus to the rock.

Alter, movable stone, out in the open.  She'd trap it.  Of course, it could also be shoddy workmanship, or tidal erosion, but she had been working on a giant puzzle box for the past three months.  After a little prodding and fumbling to see if there was any sort of trap, Cress reached for the stone.  Pressing her body away, to the side, remembering a certain acid scene in the Mummy, she will dislodge the stone.

Perhaps Cress had seen the ancient Indiana Johns movies, perhaps she expected cunning traps. A gout of flame, or a poisoned dart. Instead in a rather anticlimactically moment, the loose rock fell to the sand with a wet thud.

Inside the little groove Cress found a pair of brass bracer, they were dirty and slightly on the tarnished side but once she cleaned them she could see that despite their storage conditions they were in serviceable condition.

It would have been cooler with a trap.  Cress smiled as she moved the stone to the side and then looked inside the cavity.  Pulling out the bracers, she let the faintest brush of a smile pass across her lips.  Nice.

Using a bit of sand and water to brush away the filth, Cress looked at the intricate detail of the bracers.  The artistry was quite remarkable.  She pushed up her glasses and tested them on her forearm.  That's where she figured they should go based upon their size and the way they were shaped.

Cress wore the bracers, in tales the magical items the heroine finds always fit or magical shrink to size. It didn't happened with the bracers, perhaps they were not magical. What the bracers did had were leather straps, in dire need of oiling, that she managed to adjust and fixate it on her forearms.

Perhaps it was something in a reflection of light, perhaps a feeling of of a chill but Cress turned back to the pile of rocks.

Standing on top of it was a female creature, she was easily seven foot tall, her skin was composed of silvery blue scales, she had metallic silver hair and her eyes were orbs of glowing white and a pair of golden horns were spouting from her head. She had face pain or tattoos on her face, chest and arms. She was dressed in long billowing robes of dark green and even for a person from the moderate 21st century they were scandalous and overly revealing. She held one arm on her hip and the other saluting to the sky, on her forearms she had a pair of bracers pretty much like the ones Cress now wielded only in better shape. Her nails should be have called claws and were dark blue of color.



The female creature stood there motionless and without sound, holding her arm high above and the other on her hips.

Okay... a Greek Warrior woman she wasn't.  Cress smiled, amused by her efforts of dress up.  Still it gave her insight into the culture that lived here.  First they were past the stone age into the bronze age.  They cured leathers which meant that there were animals here that could be skinned to be used as such and they had invented buckling.  They also were past the point of civilization to reach artistry.  The etchings on the bracers were proof of that.  Also clearly it was armor which meant that the civilization had either met with a conflicting civilization or that there were contests where those that wore such items needed to protect their forearms.  Forearms! she added another observation to the list- the creatures must be humanoid in order for her arms to... Uh oh.

Cress' eyes lifted to the alter, first noting the foot and then traveling higher and higher until she reached the woman's face.  Okay- that deserved a wow.  Carefully, Cress stood and turned fully to observe the woman.  A glance around the sand told her that the woman hadn't simply approached while her back was turned.  There was only one set of tracks approaching the alter.  So the woman had... appeared.  For a moment, Cress let her gaze drift toward the ocean where the woman was looking.  She licked her lips, ready in case the alien...er... resident (Cress was the true alien after all) decided to attack.

"Hello?"

If the woman does respond- Cress will greet her.

If the woman does not respond- Cress will tentatively approach, checking to see if the woman is visceral or not.

It didn't take long to figure out the woman wasn't real but a hologram, an illusion. It was a very crafty one because try as she might Cress couldn't find any machinery in the rock pillar that would result in the hologram. There was no light source and when she passed her hands through the thing it just reformed.

After something like ten minutes the woman faded and was gone. When considering it Cress thought that when the woman appeared her bracer got hotter, it was a spike of heat, nothing to hurt her but at the time she wasn't even aware of it. As long as the woman hologram was visible her bracer stayed slightly warmer, she didn't noticed it until the hologram was gone and the bracer returned to ambient temperature.

Her fingers played through the light and illusion watching the colors swirl only to find their way back to form.  The lack of technology in the rock had her pulling at her lip.  So what was she looking at?  A refraction of the light, using mirrors required- well mirrors.  They were absent.  She supposed there might be enough water vapor in the air to create a projected hologram, but she almost laughed at herself for contemplating the idea.  Where would be the projection units.  This was hardly Disneyland.  No, this was something else, probably more akin to the portal than to some alien technology.  She didn't like the word magic.  It implied a lack of understanding and superstition.  A word for the illiterate or borderline crazy.

But...

What was it?  Cress twirled a tendril of red hair at the base of her jaw tugging it gently.  This was something, and it was tied to the bracers.  As the image faded and the heat crept out of the metal, she climbed up and sat on the edge of the rock. Her fingers slid over the metal, feeling the textures under her fingers.  She inspected them.  No cameras- that would have been ridiculous anyway. While she was inspecting the hologram... wrong word... hmmm... illusion... better... she was putting her hands and the bracers through the image.  That in itself should have caused some sort of disruption or distortion, but it hadn't.

The heat signified that the bracers were activated though... Some sort of thermal reaction to being used.  Cress chewed on her lip and moved to stand on the rock as the woman in the illusion had been doing.  The stance the woman had made was etched into the rock and repeated by the illusion.  Not actually copying the stance would be a forehead slapping, duh thing to do.  Besides... who was around to see?  It wasn't like she was standing in Times Square or anything.  Even then, people would only think that it was street art.

Cress smiled as she stood on the top of the alter.  It took her a moment to plant her feet right and then match her arms.  One at her hip, the second saluting the sky.  She twisted her hand held in the air first with the palm up and then with the palm down, trying to remember.  At last she looked out to the ocean and the violet sky.

If nothing happens, she will laugh at herself and return to the sand to pull out her journal and make notes.

If something happens... well she'll probably fall off the rock out of surprise.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Sat 27 Nov 2021.

Cress climbed carefully climbed on the rock alter. She took her position and lifted her hand in salute. For a few second nothing happened and she was about to make some snide comment about gullibility of tourists or something of the like.

Suddenly something caught her attention on the top of the rock altar she was standing on was a circle of glowing runes. They weren't glowing before but now they were bright golden.

Once more she felt a wave of heat from the bracers.

Suddenly the beach changed, shifted like someone ran a brush on it. The sky turned overcast and changed hue to yellowish orange, the sea was foaming and the dark green waves were cruel and high. At the distance she could see a ship, it was a sailing ship and it looked ancient. It even had a pirate flag, black with a white skull.

On the beach there were four people standing back to back. The lady from before, she was wearing the bracer and a black leather armor. Next to her was a broad shouldered man, dressed like a pirate with the posture of command, his skin was yellowish green and instead of hair he had tentacles, long one for a beard and mustache. He was holding a wicked blade in one hand and a flintlock in the other. To their side was another female form, this one had golden fur and long black hair. She was dressed in a swashbuckler outfit and had the sword, hat and pistole to back it up her facial feature resembled that of a fox or a rat and she had a matching tail. The last member of the group was tall skin like steal with inhuman face, instead of hair he had multiple horns and he was build like a warrior, he held a large spear.

The four were standing back to back with weapon drawn, ready for combat.







Surrounding them were a dozen "people" most had red scale skin with long flappy ears and large orb eyes, some were pale white and pink bald with head like a star fish and large pale green oblong eyes. They wore blue and yellow colors and were dressed with dark leather, armed with swords, tridents and clubs.





The scene quickly erupted into combat, from the start the four were far better warriors than their dozen opponents. The large steel colored man used his spear to slam enemies away like they were dolls, the lithe fox swashbuckler appeared to be dancing between enemy thrusts sending lighting fast quick lethal jabs. The captain was commanding his crew, there was no sound just image so Cress couldn't tell what he was saying but he was fighting as well as commanding. The woman whom Cress wore her bracer was pointing her hands and a gout of flame erupted toward some assailant. She pressed the two bracer together and suddenly there were six of her.

The fighting while intense took only a minute or so, the next Cress saw the companions were gathered around the prone figure of the bracer lady. The captain was holding her in his arms, her clothing were soaked with blue purple blood that was staining the sand. She touched his tentacle cheek one last time staining them purple and than she was gone.

Above the group a message in blue fire appeared, it was a long text in a language Cress didn't know and couldn't even recognize the symbols.

A few moment later the whole scene faded and Cress found herself alone on the shore.

The breeze tangled little tendrils of hair against her cheeks as she held her hand high the other firmly planted on her hip.  She looked down noting the glowing runes under her feet.  Almost immediately she looked up at the bracers as they began to heat up.

Interesting.

She first noticed the change of the sky.  It was as if a stone had been cast into the violet and the yellow cascaded until the amber hues painted the sky.  Her eyes drifted down to the rolling green ocean and the ship.  "Ohhhhhh..." she said looking at the jolly roger flying against the sunset sky.

The movement on the beach made her turn to watch the battle.  The four that were backed together caught her eye and Cress couldn't help but stop the pose to look Her eyes fell on the woman with the bracers and she honed in on what she was doing.  It was clear that they were incredibly outnumbered.

The battle was impressive.  Cress lifted her hands to her lips as she watched the opening moves and the prowess of the four fighting in the center.  When the flame burst from the woman's hands Cress almost fell off the rock.  She watched the multiples appear, and she looked down at the bracers.  Her death made Cress kneel on the rock.  The actions of the captain was tender.

She looked up as the message appeared in the air, her eyes following the symbols.  When it all faded, Cress stood speechless on the rock.  For several minutes she simply stared at the site of the battle and then back to the ocean.  The sky was violet again.

As if being struck by lightening, she swore.  "Shit!" and jumped to the beach to grab her pack.  Pulling out her journal she began writing, trying to remember the runes she'd seen and their order.  At last she climbed upon the rock and copied down the glyphs in the top.  Breathing out she looked at them.  They weren't the same as the ones from the door.  Though that wasn't particularly surprising.

Climbing back down to the beach Cress walked to the sand where the battle had taken place.  For a moment she wandered the sand remembering the battle, walking where the woman with the bracers had been.  A bit tentatively she brought her hands around copying the movements of the woman when she had created fire.

Cress was standing in the morning sun, the wind was blowing hard. It was a sea wind full of fragments of salty secrets.

She was practicing the motions the woman did but nothing happened, she did that again and again until she felt like a kid mimicking some super hero. Pointing shouting, was the woman shouting she wasn't sure, to no avail.

At one point she struck the bracer to each other like she had seen the woman doing. This did bring a change, there was a gong, strong and loud like a clear song. It was ringing inside her head, she could feel the bracers heating up, charging being ready to her command.

Okay... yeah... it was stupid.  As she danced around on the sand she was aware of how stupid it really was, but then again who was going to laugh at her?  Granted she had just watched what was a battle between two very real groups.  There had only been one ship, so the logical jump was that the other group was in fact residents of this land.  Did that make the larger group some sort of militia?

Cress moved into the next section of the battle.  While fire would have been cool, come on.  Things were starting to get shaky in her memory, but walking the battle made her think through things.

A militia indicated that there was some sort of civilization here?  That would make sense for the ship as well.  Of course, she wanted to slap herself- that completely depended on the Jolly Roger being the same symbol here.  There were people involved in the battle who were lacking mouths.

She brought her arm around striking the bracers together and was startled out of her thoughts by the tone.  Cress stopped feet deep in the golden sand as she looked at the bracers.  As the metal began to heat her eyes went a little wide.

Now what...

The connection had obviously done something.  They were growing hot like when she had seen the battle, and... the woman had brought the bracers together right before she made multiple copies of herself. So...  Soooooo....  Communication? While that was true of the recreation it wasn't true of the battle.  There was only one common denominator between the alter, the recreation, and the illusions of the woman- they were in fact all illusions.

So... Illusions?  But... how?  There were no buttons or indentations.  Had the woman said anything? She couldn't remember- she didn't think so.  Okay there was an easy way to test.  Thought and speech could be done at the same time.

Focusing she extended the bracers and said "Cat".  At the same time she pictured a yellow and gold tabby cat that had frequented the apartment building where she had rented her cubical.  It was the last living thing she had seen before coming here unless you counted rats and birds.

Cress tried to hold to the image of a cat in her mind, it was more difficult than she expected. Especially when the thoughts of rats and birds started to invade her mind.

Floating in  the air in front of her was a cat, it was licking its paw on invisible ground six feet higher. Than the image blurred and the cat tail turned into a rats tail, the fur got darker than turned into feathers.

The image wobbled and than collapsed into pinpoints of light that dissipated. The bracer on her hands returned to the ambient temperature.

She really, really in her heart of hearts did not expect to see the cat and she definitely was not expecting to see the rat tail slink out of it's back or the discoloring of the fur or the feathers.  By the time the image disappeared, she was breathing in, eyes wide, and mouth agape.

Did that actually happen?

"Did that just... did they... did I?" The last word came out in a squeak.

Granted she'd just walked through a bronze door under a rollercoaster onto an alien planet with a purple sky, but apparently her mind stopped working at illusionary cats.  Taking a moment she paced in the sand running her fingers through her hair.

"Did...?"

She turned in the sand and looked back at the rock.  "I did... I mean it was them, but I... IT WAS MY CAT!"   She had no idea who she was talking to, but it needed to be said.  "Holy Shit!...Fucking Hell!"

Okay granted she hadn't been able to hold it, and it had gone wildly wrong in the end.  But that was... that was... what?  It wasn't science.  That cat was in her head and so was the rat and the bird which had turned the cat into a sort of nightmare in the end.  It was possible that it was some sort of Alien technology.  Cress could feel reality beating her over the head.  It was Magic.

Okay Magic or at least something she couldn't comprehend that could only be described as magic.  That's when she started laughing.  She'd done magic.

"Wow," she couldn't help smiling and doing a little turn on the beach.

After several minutes of just sheer glee, Cress brought her fingertips to her lips.  It was all well and good, but it was obvious she'd need practice.  Obviously the rat tail and the feathers were because her focus was all over the place.  She'd need to practice things.  It only made sense.  All good things came with practice.

Cress remained with the alter until she was certain she'd discovered as much as she could about it.  At last she looked toward the cliffs.  She needed to get over the cliffs before nightfall.  Shouldering her backpack, Cress began the walk toward the cliffs.  Along the journey she'll practice with the bracers trying to keep a solid image in her mind and testing the time limits of the illusions.

Cress was pleased to find that the cliffs were not difficult to traverse and that very quickly she found herself on a flatland at the edge of a forest. She could see marking of an ancient crossroad, one branch lead south the other led west.

Try as she might she was unable to activate the bracer again, it seemed to have ran out of juice.

Looking back from the rise at the beach, Cress tucked her hair back so it stopped blowing in her eyes.  Facing forward, she could see that the higher land was much more preferential to the beach.  It was interesting- in the illusion battle the larger group must have come down through here?  So that meant that the smaller group, saw them coming and thought that they were stronger.   Cress looked at the bracers- then again maybe they teleported or apparated in.  Anything was possible if there was an entirely new quadrant of physics out there- or maybe it should be considered metaphysics?  Yes, that word worked better.

So the bracers had a power limit- Cress pressed her lips together.  She had to wonder if this was a power that was inherent to the metal itself- a sort of storage capacity of the metal, or whether she was the energy element.  It was well known that the human brain was able to generate significant levels of power.  It would make sense if an alien technology was able to tap into that source.  It was also a good chance that an alien species may have a more highly developed generation of said energy.  It was all things to ponder.

Pressing her lips together, she removed the bracers and put them in her backpack.  She would let them be for a time and if they were usable after a period- perhaps that would give her a clue to what their power source actually was.  If they weren't working after the rest period, she would put them on and see if being in physical contact activated them immediately or whether she had to wear them for an extended period of time to charge them once more.  Of course, there was always the possibility that they simply had one charge and she was incompatible other than to activate them?

She hiked the flatland keeping an eye out for water sources or potential food.  When she came to the crossroad, Cress looked both ways.  Choosing the western path, she continued her trek.

The day was warm and Cress walked with the sea at her north, she could hear it crushing on beach. She kept walking on the upper ground at the edge of a forest.

She didn't find anything of worth to eat or drink, perhaps if she invest more time into searching she would find more.

The sun was high in the sky when she saw far ahead the lake, it was a small lake but what caught her attention was the building. Curved from the inside of a rock, white marble blocks and azure blue roofs the building was large housing easily hundredths of people. There were no antennas or signs technology. There were ruins around the building, signs of aqueducts and towns across the lake all in ruins. The old road was heading toward the structure and by her guess she would reach it by evening.

Cress paused on the peak looking down toward the crystalline waters of the lake. The purple sky reflected against the blue waters making the entire mirrored surface a strange iridescent shimmer.  What she saw took her breath away and it wasn't just the landscape.

There was a civilization.  It was fresh and real and glimmering and goddamn it if it didn't look like it was a fairytale.  She almost stumbled.  It took everything in her being not to try and place the architecture with some classical period.   It was just the way her brain worked, but if she had to guess, it was a civilization that was still pre-age of enlightenment back on earth.  Her eyes scanned the ruins and the village, drifting up to what she assumed was a fortress or castle.

Everything indicated some sort of governing system- possibly a caste system.  Taking off her glasses, Cress cleaned them on the edge of her shirt.  She thought perhaps to check the bracers, but discarded the thought.  There would be time enough to experiment with them.  It was getting late and if she wanted to avoid sleeping out on an alien landscape in the open- within a stones throw of a village- she should get moving.  It would be best to show her presence rather than be found.  Especially if the residents looked like the ones in the vision.

Shouldering her backpack, she began walking toward the bit of civilization, careful about her approach.  While it looked all in ruin- there wasn't anything saying that it couldn't be inhabited.  There were plenty of places back home that proved just because something wasn't pristine it didn't mean that it wasn't housing life.

The structured seemed close but it took Cress the rest of the day to reach it. It was summer here and so despite it was late in the day the sun was still high enough to give light.

The village was empty deserted, there were signs of violence everywhere, burn marks and holes in the building, some of it resembled bullet holes and explosive damage, other building were cleanly sliced off. There was no sign of bodies, skeletons or any other remains, nor was there any possession, in a casual glance, left.

The closer she came to the structure the more it reminded her of a gothic church, in brighter colors, there were statues of monsters spread at different locations like gargoyles she had seen on earth.

At the gatehouse there was a lone figure dressed as a monk, it moved toward her speaking in a guttural tongue she didn't understand.

When she got closer, she could see this was no human. He had dark though skin four set of eyes in a ridged face. He had four fingers each ending with a talon. The monk spoke to her again lifting his left hand to his shoulder level.

In reply to GM (msg # 23):

Hiking into... town... if you could call it a town, Cress looked over the desolation.  In a strange way it reminded her of the amusement park.  She wondered if somehow all the violence here might have caused the chain of accidents there?  Some sort of Karmic spill over?  Was such a thing possible?

Her eyes looked over the burn marks, noted the holes in the walls, and where the buildings and other structures had been blown apart.  She made note of it- carefully filing it away.  The culture here... or at least the former culture here was a bit more advanced than she first thought.  Proto Age of Enlightenment wouldn't have had these markings- at least not on earth.  This indicated that they had projectile weapons strong enough to damage structures... That was an advancement from what she'd seen on the beach and her mind naturally separated the two events.  If the civilization who had the swordfight had been attacked by a more advanced culture- well that would explain this... and would explain the lack of population.  It would be a slaughter on a Columbian age conquest level.

When she saw the figure Cress stopped.  She had just gotten used to the idea that she was walking through a ghost town and well... the appearance of a figure well almost made her jump out of her skin.  She'd been prepared for different- alien- once again she was the alien- she reminded herself, but his appearance still made her mind just ever so slightly feel like it was sliding to the side.

After a moment of staring, she noted his clothing.  The robes indicated some sort of clergy?  When he spoke she lifted her eyebrows.  It wasn't a language she knew or close to it.  She was immediately intrigued and inwardly smiled. Hollywood could go suck a egg!  Aliens who all fluently spoke English!  Ha!...

You're the alien, she reminded herself, and you do speak fluent English.  Damn.

The first thing she noted with the raised hand was the claws... huh.  The second thing she noted that it was a raised hand.  Though out centuries it was a greeting gesture.  "Okay," she said and lifted her hand as well-  First Contact indeed.  "Hello," she said, her voice even though she was pretty prepared to sprint away if need be.  Of course, that had a higher probability of her falling on her face than it did actually escaping any sort of threat, but heck even the smallest animals new to scurry when a thing with talons swept in. Sometimes the mouse got away.

"My name is Cress," she said, and then for lack of anything better to say, "I come in peace.  Um... I'm looking for my father."

The monk measured Cress for a long moment and spoke again. He tried a different tongue with the same result.

He pressed one hand on his chest saying Truusqix several times until Cress was sure it was his name. Once they exchanged name Truusqix to enter the dark building.

He spoke again, alternating between the guttural language and one more fluent as he kept motioning Cress to enter.

Cress took note.  So the place where she was had multiple languages.  Not really a surprise given how the evolution of civilizations worked on Earth, but yes- she was just as clueless with the new one too.  That fact was wildly comforting in a strange way.  If she had- if there had been no struggle with understanding- she would have considered this all a dream.

The gesture and the repetition.  So Truusqix was used to talking to people who didn't understand him.  That was a point.  He knew the first aspects of contact with someone who didn't speak his language.  There was no struggle, no frustration-he'd simply moved to introductions using the 'I am' gesture.

She followed suit with her own name copying the gesture.  Okay they had established names.  Next was basic language cues, which usually involved a lot of pointing and repetition.  Eventually figuring out numbers and Establishing trust?

She paused as the monk moved toward the building and gestured for her to enter the dark confined hole, where she didn't know where it led.  Wow he thought a lot of trust went with his name.  That was either positive- or there had been a lot of stupid aliens who had appeared on his doorstep.

Cress rubbed the little divot between her lower lip and her chin.  Her eyes looked at the claws.  Erm.  Generally speaking you didn't see many field mice hopping into the falcon's nest.  She tilted her head and processed.  Truusqix was not exhibiting any predatory behaviors- stillness, watching- he was being quite loud.  Okay not a falcon... but that didn't make him less dangerous.  There were plenty of dangerous Humans that lured people into dark confined places.  There was a whole division of movies, television, news broadcasts dedicated to it.  Dead being the operative word.  Her mind kept flitting to that old Outer Limits episode- "To Serve Humanity" where the bible they had was actually a cook book.  Damn Damn Damn

Well if Star Trek had taught her anything- you had to brave through first contact if you were ever going to progress.  Of course she wasn't with a team and didn't have the phaser technology.  And she of course was missing the convenience of the automatic translator- except the one in her head.  She was good, but not instant.  There was a chance that they'd get to the second phase of learning communication inside.

It wasn't that she was reckless... that wasn't the issue.  Her curiosity simply outweighed her common sense most of the time- thus walking through a portal to an alien planet.  Common sense dictated staying the hell outside, but curiosity, brought about a sincere desire to learn.

"Okay," she said, knowing that he couldn't understand her.  "But if I see one sprig of parsley..."

She didn't hide her wariness. Cress will approach the doorway staying in the light as much as she can, not moving further than the entry until she can get a good idea of what's inside.

The door opened into a long dark corridor. Inside she could clearly see, or rather no see, that the technology level were far less sophisticated than the outside.

There was a burning torch up ahead that was more useful in creating shadows than illumination.

Truusqix opened a crude wooden door, it was double reinforced with iron bar, giving it a very medieval feel.

Inside there was a small room, there was a fire place, a rocking chair with a book held on top. A crude wooden table with several chairs and a few shelves packed with bottles, glasses and plates.

Truusqix motioned at the table as he headed to the shelves taking a small dark bottle and a couple of tin mugs. He placed the two cups on the table in front of Cress. Then he poured some into both cups and pushed one towards Cress while he took a seat, dragging the chair back and sitting on it with a sigh.

The liquid was dark, syrupy like and had an odd unpleasant smell, it wasn't alcoholic as far as Cress could tell. Truusqix meanwhile took his own tin cup and slowly drank from it.

Cress stood in the threshold and sucked on her teeth.  Her tongue clicked several times before she squinted her eyes and continued after the monk.  After all there wasn't any parsley to be seen.

Walking down the hallway, she kind of wished she still had the lantern from under the rollercoaster, but she'd jumped without it.  Not her best moment.

Okay she was back to pre-enlightenment.  Her eyes followed the architecture and upon seeing the door she paused.  And she was being reminded of that chicken little story where all the animals willingly followed the fox into the den.  "In for a penny..." Cress said.

Following him through the door, Cress looked at the table, then the bottle, and then the tin mugs.  Okay- it was a little strange how willingly Truusqix had decided to invite her in for tea.  And... there was nothing saying that she could actually ingest whatever he was drinking.  Who knew? he might have a purely alkaline digestive system and could drink acid without problem.

Still curious she joined him at the table sitting warily on the chair.  When he pushed the cup toward her, she tapped her fingers on the table.  At last she reached toward the cup and looked at the liquid.  She sniffed at it, nose wrinkling with the smell.

Dipping her finger in, she looked at what glazed the skin.  She rubbed it between her fingers looking at the viscosity.  When her fingers didn't erupt into blisters, grow hot, or turn some color she licked her finger and waited for any signs that her digestive system was going to balk at the substance.  It remained neutral.

Finally she lifted the cup and took a swallow.  Picard never mentioned that first contact was sometimes stomach churning unknowns.  She looked across the table, smiled at Truusqix.

"Thanks... er Truusqix," she said.  No use being rude.  He was being nice...she thought.  Thought it was equally possible he was simply waiting for the authorities, seasoning her up for food, or contemplating mating prospects. Yeah... let's just stay with hospitality, she thought.

The liquid had a foul taste, bitter and sour at once. Someone tried to sweeten it with honey like substance but that attempt failed.

Truusqix finished his own drink in one gulp, he made a face and pulled out his tongue. By the sounds he was making it didn't sound like he was enjoying the drink any more than Cress did.

He poured himself again, this time more of the liquid and waited for Cress to finish before refilling her glass. He seemed very adamant she would drink the foul thing.

She'd read about Masato and until now it was the most disgusting thing that she'd ever considered part of a welcoming ceremony.  Yeah... this was possibly worse.

Cress felt the liquid slide down her throat, and her mouth couldn't help but try to escape back behind her esophagus. The result was a wincing grimace that pulled down at the sides and made her jaw press back into her neck.  Oh it was bad. 

The fact that Truusquix was intent on drinking it despite him also looking as if he found it awful was curious.  She watched him expose his tongue and then watched him pour another helping.  Then he filled her glass again.

Oh boy.

For a second she questioned exactly why she was doing this.  Curiosity right. Picking up the glass her mouth remembered.  This time she plugged her nose and tried to down it in one swallow.

The drink must have had a magical property that kept it foul no matter what.

Truusqix drank the second glass and once again stuck his tongue out and made coughing sound. No mistaking his dislike of the foul beverage.

He poured them a third cup which they drank with difficult, bile would probably be better at this stage, or sewerage water.

Suddenly Cress noticed that her dislike was amplified, she was able to sense someone else dislike. A moment of focus and she could focus her new empathic sense at Truusqix.

She was sure she was feeling his distaste of the liquid. Truusqix smiled, he didn't smile like humans do, in fact she would have guessed he was angry but she felt his happiness and understood he was happy.

When she finished the second cup, she felt like she needed to slap her face.  The liquid was putrid and it was very hard to pull the look of revulsion from her face.  When Truusqix started coughing she joined him, making a soft retching sound.

Her hand slapped down on the table and she looked warily at the cup.  Why was she doing this again????  When the third class was pushed before her, Cress pulled in her lips and she wasn't sure but the thought that tears might be coming did occur to her.

Still she reached for the cup. Ohhhhhhh.... and then...  Eyes flicked from the tin cup up to Truusqix.  The emotional roll through her was rather striking and it took a moment of contemplation to realize what was going on.  This time she picked up the cup her curiosity peaked.

"This connected us?" she pointed at the cup and then back and forth at the two of them.  It was clear that the emotional component was there.  "Well, that's unexpected," she said and again prodded a finger into the substance and looked at it a bit more carefully.  The flavor was noxious, but the result... well it was nothing less than groundbreaking.

Truusqix smiled and spoke, she didn;t understood the meaning of the words but she did understand the notions behind the. Yes, this connect sentient being coupled to a longing it would taste more like, hot chocolate. Well Truusqix didn't think about hot chocolate, but it was his equivalent.


Truusqix motioned with his hand around speaking empathically.

~This is a safe place for people like you~


He motioned upstairs and spoke more, pride in his voice.

~This is a place of scholarship, you are welcome to stay and rest~

Wait.  Like her?

Cress leaned forward a little on the chair.  There were other people who had come here through the door?  Of course she knew her father had... but... others?

"Others that look like me?" She asked aloud.  It was the only way she could focus her thoughts. She gestured to herself trying to push the intent of asking about other Humans.  It was really too much to hope that Truusqix had met her father, but if there were other Humans... perhaps they knew of him?  If civilization had proved anything- creatures with the same relative history and language eventually found one another.

The information about being a place of learning, caught her attention.  Now that was fascinating and more than a little exciting.   Learning meant information- information led to understanding.  Picard eat your heart out.

"What is this place called?" She asked.  It would be nice to establish some sort of vocabulary.  If the substance wore off, broken language was always better than nothing.

Truusqix nodded replying at length to Cress question.

~Yes, others like you. Lost, alone, confused, hungry, tired and alien.~

He smiled again at her, the second question didn't register with him.

He spoke again softly pointing outside.

~You rest now, commune more in the morning~

So there had been others?  Based on her research she had to believe that perhaps there had been an entire rollercoaster's worth of aliens here at one point.  Still he said- alone.  So maybe not.  Cress also had to wonder if there had been aliens from other words other than Earth?  Was this place some sort of nexus?

Running a hand up through her hair she looked around the room again.  She looked to the door as Truusqix pointed.  She gave a nod despite the number of questions running through her head.  She wanted to know more, but it wasn't her world.

She felt like an impatient child, but she tempered it down and nodded.  Rest probably was best.  She hadn't slept in days- not anything worth noting.  She was certain once she closed her eyes that the morning would come in a blink.  Being somewhere safe... She checked herself.  There was nothing she had felt from Truusqix to make her feel as though he was deceiving her.

"Alright," she nodded.  "Rest would be good."

Gathering up her things she moved to the outside area in order to find someplace safe to hunker down and get some rest.

Truusqix led her to a small room on the second floor. The room had a small window, bared with wooden blinds, viewing the lack. It had a small wooden bed with a straw mattress, a simple wool blanket, a bronze chamber pot and a crude table and chair.

Cress collapsed on the bed, it was lumpy and smelled like hey. She could hear screams and moans piercing the night but eventually sleep took her.

In the morning she woke up to the sound of someone in her room. It was a creature she saw in the illusion at the beach, red scales with large ears and a small nose. This one was clearly a female, she wore a long sleeved blue dress and her features were softer, she also had a more feminine figure.

Up close, the creature smelled of salt with a whiff of dried fish. Not a pungent smell but not a body odor one would like to be around for long.

It felt good to sleep, and she probably slept deeper than she should have.  The hay was soft and the sounds of the night, while odd were less disturbing than hearing rats crawling around on the streets when you were huddled behind a dumpster, or in the bathroom at the bus station.

Seeing the alien... no she was the alien... the... resident, she sat up and couldn't help but get a little defensive in her posture.  After a second she forced herself to calm down, relax.  Cultures have different traditions- don't guess...

"Oh!... um hi," she said. She assumed that since she hadn't consumed any of the drink that the female? couldn't understand her.  So she lifted her hand in a greeting.

The odd woman in the room turned to examine Cress.
She moved toward the bed sitting on it and without request touched Cress hair, she made an ooo sound as she gently pulled at the hair.

The woman pointed at herself and spoke some words the final word she repeated several time was Neia.

[Private to GM: Neia Holaxisys - Idzn sorcerers]

Um... She wasn't expecting the woman to get so close.  The whole situation was fine until the woman started pulling at her hair.  Was it that she'd never seen hair before, never seen red hair before, or just liked the hair?  It was impossible to know without more language cues.

When the woman started speaking Cress tried to focus on that.  "Neia," she asked. Her name?  Possibly.    After the third time she repeated it, Cress nodded.
"Neia," she said pointing to the woman.  Pointing to herself she said "Cress."

Neia jumped from the bed clapping her hands and making happy ooing sounds "Neia..." she pointed at herself "Cress..." she pointed at Cress over and over.
She than started speaking rapidly while she went toward Cress pack, Neia waved her hand beckoning Cress to speak.

Every language bridge began with two words.  Most of the time it started with a proper noun.  Neia- Cress.  Proper nouns - names.  Based on Neia's reaction it was a successful exchange.  Cress nodded as Neia reinforced her name, and repeated the exchange- the nod continuing.

Nod was an important symbolic gesture to give.  That for her kind the simple up and down of the head meant yes.  She added the word.  "Yes!  Neia," she pointed to Neia, "Cress,"she pointed to herself and nodded her head.  "Yes!"

When Neia began speaking rapidly, Cress lifted her eyebrows.  Ooh that was a lot of language all at once.  Neia pointed toward the pack and Cress suspected that they were moving into part two of the language exchange.  Common items.  Either that or Neia was looking to bargain or trade.  She didn't have much to do such, so she smiled as she walked to the pack lifting it so she could put it on the bed. She pointed to the pack and said "Bag"

She pointed to the backpack and said again "Bag." She then opened her hands for Neia to speak.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Sat 11 Dec 2021.

Neia shook her head as Cress repeated the word bag, she showered Cress with long sentences a torrent of words. She lifted her hand in the air and lifted the backpack and with a deft motion open it and upend its content on the floor. She started pointing at different items and more troubling picking some of the items to sniff and lightly bite on.

Or... maybe not.  Picard never had this problem. 

Cress raised an eyebrow as she watched Neia mouth the canteen. She scratched at the back of her head and deftly retrieved the ziplock with the journals before they could be sampled and picked up the bracers, preferring to put them on rather than have Neia run off with them.  The rest would be problematic.  Taking up the bag, she began picking up the items and returning them.

Cress shook her head- since Neia had done it too- it seemed a standard no.  There was no way of explaining that there was nothing to eat.  Truth was she'd been lucky to get out with what she had.  Picking up the jacket, she shook her head putting it on.  "Clothes," she said, bent down and dumped the roll of socks back in the mouth of the backpack.

Neia seemed to grow impatient, finally she snap her fingers and grab a comb from Cress pack. She says a word repeating it until Cress repeat it and than motion for Cress to say comb.
She repeat the process with a pen but this time start with Cress.
Neia seemed eager to hear more words from Cress language far more than she is willing to share.

Or maybe not...

For just an instant, Cress tilted her head.  How did a creature with no hair have a word for comb?  The answer was obvious there had to be creatures on the planet that did have hair.  Or... maybe the hair was in different places?  Cress moved her thoughts away from that possibility.

So this was a language learning game.  Cress did her best to repeat the word for comb.  The syllables were different, but she approximated as best she could.  She then said "Comb" and then the word in Neia's language.

As Neia held up the pen, Cress smiled.  "Pen," she said. She had no idea if there was anything to approximate a pen in this world.  She'd seen a book so there was writing, but they could be using something like graphite.  Still, writing was writing.  She mimicked writing and then paused.  Gently taking the pen from Neia, she removed the cap and made a smiley face on her palm.  "Pen," she said again.

She then pointed at Neia.  It was unlikely that her pen would last her time here... probably since she was remaining here for a very long time if not forever.  It would be good to know the word for writing utensil.

Neia shook her head and tossed the pen, she started pacing around the room clearly frustrated with Cress.

She again tried to points at different items waiting for Cress to name them. She wouldn't dally on any one, just point Cress to another item.

She kept talking motioning to Cress with her hand to do the same.

And that was the problem...

Cress' eyes followed as Neia tossed the pen.  She sighed and retrieved it, adding it to the bags with the journals.  Surrendering for a moment any hope of learning Neia's language, Cress simply named the items.

When Cress started naming items Niea clapped her hands with joy and kept drilling Cress for more and more words. It didn't seem to matter what words but as long as Cress spoke Neia seemed to be pleased.

After what felt like ages but was probably no more longer then half an hour-hour tops Neia motioned for Cress to pause.

She closed her eyes and hummed rapidly than she opened her eyes and looked at Cress "Thank you for sharing your language with me." her English was with an odd accent, her tone reminded Cress people that spoke in a Renaissance fair but other than that she spoke perfect English.

It was a highly one sided exchange, and Cress gave Neia a smile.  It was a little tight and didn't quite reach her eyes, but hey glad Neia got something out of it.  It was remarkable how she had picked it up so fast.

"No problem," Cress said, picking up her objects strewn about and putting them back in the backpack.  "Glad to help."

Neia seemed oblivious to Cress mood "Excellent..." she said as she plop down on the bed.

"I am what you may call a sorcerers or a scholar and now that I re-remembered your tongue we could communicate easily. "

"Later, if you are interest and would care to stay in the sanctuary I could teach you one of the languages of the people of these parts but unless you have an ancestral memory or you are connected to a hive mind it would take some time..." she made an odd choking sound which took Cress a couple of seconds until she figured it was what Neia sounded when she was laughing.

"Before we start do you have any questions to me?"

Okay the sudden language gain that was one thing, but then why was she tasting all her stuff and acting like she'd never seen hair?  What caught Cress by surprise was the word re-remembered.  Which meant that she had at least come in contact with Earthlings that spoke English twice?

Sitting down on the bed, Cress looked at Neia.  Questions... yes only about a hundred, but given the laughter- she figured Neia was probably thinking her too stupid to do much more than nod and utter monosyllabic sounds.  She took a deep breath.  It wasn't anything she hadn't experienced before at home on Earth.

"You've met other humans, like me?" she clarified.  "So... where is here?  I'm looking for my father.  He came here about eighteen years..." There was no way of knowing if time passed here as it did on Earth.  "He came here quite a while ago, when I was just an infant.  He had red hair like mine," she said.

Neia reached out and touched Cress hair again, she seemed genuinely fascinated with it.
"No, you are the first hoooman I ever seen." she answered in a jolly voice.
"You are in the Sanctum of the Fallen. It was used for centuries to house those whose mind have been broken from the use of magic but in the last four decades it was also the home of the Order of the Silver Key." at that she pulled the chain on her neck and showed Cress a silver key.

"We are scholars, we seek to understand the demons that come to this land learn from them and on them."

When Cress mentioned her father Neia shook her head "I have not met him but if he passed through here perhaps there is a record of him. If you will tell me his name I'll try to search for it in the archive. I fear that without focused time period the search might take some time." she patted Cress hand.

"Oh before I forget, demon come from different realms, please understand that nothing is done here to insult you in anyway. If some of the actions or words you encounter seem offensive please understand this is due to cultural gaps and not intentional. Please communicate your distress so we will better understand your people."

Cress looked at Neia curious as she reached out and stroked her hair again, but she did her best to concentrate on what Neia was saying.  Sanctum of the Fallen.  She also honed in on the confirmation that magic existed here.  That explained the bracers.  Order of the Silver Key

Looking at the silver key, Cress nodded.  "So visitors... er demons all come here through the same area?" Cress pinched her chin.  That didn't seem right, and she was certain she had it wrong. "I came through on the beach a few miles back.  Um... I think it was the site of a significant battle with... pirates?"  She said, not sure what the group would have been called.  "I found these," she said showing Neia the gauntlets.  "They showed me some sort of historical record."

She hadn't missed the part about it being four decades.  So only 40 years?  Interesting.  Cress tilted her head as Neia patted her hand.  It was a reassuring gesture.  She wasn't expecting that.

"Um... yeah.  His name was...is..." she corrected,  "Anathan Twilleg." She shrugged.  Cress hadn't expected to find her father with a simple check once she got here.  She figured it would take time, so anything that was written here was just a bit of a boost.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:28, Sun 19 Dec 2021.

Neia pulled a little notebook, it was made from leather and the pages had a yellow tint to them but it was the same principle. Using what looked like a coal wrapped in string she wrote things in the note book.

"There are many standing stones, there is one here near Brothone but there are others spread across the land. I am sorry I am not familiar with local tales of pirates, I do know there was one pirate that used to attack the cost, they called him Dread Pirate Roberts but I think he is gone... sorry I am not into local crime."

When Cress pulled out the bracers Neia made the same ooo sounds as before "So very interesting... how exactly did they showed you the historical records?"

"Standing stones?"  Cress asked.  She was genuinely curious.  She hadn't remembered stones other than the black alter type stone when she'd arrived.  Had she missed something?  Probably.  She had been more than a little overwhelmed when she arrived.

She nodded.  "I saw beings that looked like you, fighting them," she explained. "They overwhelmed the invaders... I think." Truth was the images she watched focused more on the death of the female with the bracers than the end of the battle.  Still she filed away the name Dread Pirate Roberts, and couldn't help but internally wonder if he had a propensity to say 'as you wish'?

Inspecting the bracers, Cress pressed her lips together.  "Well," she said.  "I didn't do anything other than mimic the pose shown on the stone.  It was a sort of," she did her best to recreate the same pose- not really expecting the sequence of events to return.  She suspected it had more to do with the rock and the glyphs embedded in it than the bracers.

"I think they project images and what I watched on the beach was... intentional.  A sort of living cenotaph to whoever found the bracers.  I was able to watch the entire battle as if it was taking place right before me."

Neia listened carefully taking notes.

"There is a standing stone at a beach nearby...." she said "The illusions you describe sounds very powerful, too powerful to be illusions... perhaps it was some sort of mind magic?"

She ran her finger over the racer thinking "Once my people controlled all the coastline but that has ended long ago. Most of my people are at Brothone  and some and the frozen city of Steedon. If what you saw was a pirate attack it stand to reason the Brothone guard would be sent to deal with it."

It was Cress' turn to take careful note.  "I'm sorry, Mind Magic?" she asked. Pretty much the only magic she'd ever heard of consisted of Fantasy Books, Wicca, and David Copperfield, and she assumed that all of those weren't even close to what she'd experienced with the bracers.

Neia listed several locations and Cress shook her head.  Without a map they were simply words.  "I don't know those locations.  Do you have a map or a globe?" she asked.  She nodded when Neia mentioned the guard.

"So you mentioned that people come here because of magic.  Is that damage because of this Mind Magic?" she asked, looking askance at the bracers.  "I did get them to project a cat."

Neia considered Cress "Yes, magic that affect the mind, placing images only in your mind. It is a lot easier to do the effect you describe with mind magic than with illusionary one."

She looked at Cress with intent "What is a globe? as for maps, no these are rare as the art of making them have been lost for many centuries. Oh people come here for many reasons, some are just wrong in the head, some are born that way, some get cursed and others break their mind with the study or malpractice of magic."

"So... If someone had been on the beach they wouldn't have seen anything... It was just me." She was saying this more to herself, contemplating exactly what that meant.  It surprised her how quickly she was accepting that magic existed and that it seemed to have specialties akin to medicine.  Then, she quickly concluded, the bracers were the other type of magic... illusionary.  Those battling on the beach had seen the duplicate forms of the female pirate.  "I think the bracers create the latter," she said.

When Neia asked about the globe Cress took a second to contemplate.  "It is a spherical map," she said. It surprised her that there were no maps in these parts.  Unfortunately she hadn't spent much time officially studying how to make maps.  She'd mapped out the theme park but that was a rudimentary diagram and nothing that used actual map making skills.  Still she might try.  If they were rare, than maps would be a way to make money.

She focused again on Neia's explanation of the residents.  She nodded. "It's good of you to take care of them then," she said.

Neia considered Cress words, "Depending on the magic, if the mental image was sent on a broad range, anyone could have been affected or it could be just you. It is difficult to tell without testing but magic can be dangerous. Mind magic even more but there is no safe magic. If you like, stay with us, work for us and in return you'll get food, shelter and schooling, yes?"

When Cress mentioned the spherical map Neia burst out laughing "Why would anyone put a map on a sphere? it is not very convenient to carry or look at... demons have such odd customs."

Cress listened and nodded.  She had to admit that she was a little intrigued by the prospect of learning here.  She gave a slow nod. "Okay," she said.  Honestly it was a fair deal and she didn't have anything that was pending.  She smiled at that.

As for the globe, Cress furrowed her brow.  It was hard to explain exactly why a globe was necessary.  After all these people may not have globular travel... a thought struck her.  Was it possible that this world was flat.  She dismissed it.  Still...

"You know I could probably try doing some mapping if you like."

Neia had not much interest in maps, she was not going to waste paper that could be used for essays just to draw where a stream was.
She did needed someone to aid her in the chores of the sanctum, the fallen.
Cress role was mainly to wash dishes and sweep the stone corridors during the day and make sure the lamps are on over the night.
She had little contact with the fallen, although she heard them scream, moan and bang the walls she didn't met any. She had a feeling Neia made sure to shield her from them.

Neia herself was an odd one, she was probably a little cracked herself and eccentric for sure. Cress had a feeling most people whom ended up in the Sanctum were like that.
The other residence kept their distance from the pair, the first month was dedicated to tutoring the local language that was called Idznian, after the name of Neia people the Idzn.

It was not a difficult language and after a couple of months Cress could communicate well and read and write with a descent amount. She learned the Idzn once had a strong presence all over the coast but that some war a few centuries ago had crushed their civilization and those that were scattered were living in this region.

Neia refused to tell her anything more about Order of the Silver key telling Cress there would be time for that later. First she needed to prove she was a scholar, to both of their surprised Cress found she had a knack for magic. Neia had a special magic she called the Kiss of two minds, it allowed her to shape a spell inside Cress mind. For a limited of time Cress was able to cast the spell and in most cases she was able to retain the spell inside her mind learning the logic behind the mental construct.

Neia was very impressed with Cress magical progress, the more difficult spells were still beyond her, she needed to be more precise with her gestures but Neia told her she hasn't met many student who mastered so many spells in such a short time.

Her quest to find her father faltered, Truusqix spent many weeks searching but find no records of her father.

The sky were slowly changing colors and now were red-orange, the days were getting shorter and the weather was getting cooler. Evening were dark now and the hint of winter was in the air.

One morning she found Truusqix outside her chamber, he gave her a deep bow "Salutation for the sun Glory be the morning and blessed be the dawns Cress ... I was wondering if you might assist me with a new fallen arrival."

As the days passed and the seasons began to change, Cress stood at the window to her chamber, looking at the red-orange sky, and set her journal aside.  She couldn't complain.  They were good here.  She'd learned a lot, but her entire purpose for coming felt very far away- perhaps not even here.  She was aware that there were multiple portals from different places, and she'd surmised that perhaps the bronze door she'd stepped through might not have been a consistent doorway to this location.  If that was the case- well her father might not be here at all.  He could be galaxies away or perhaps even in a different time on this planet.  She wasn't a physicist and  what she did know was vague- without resources to check the different theories.

She turned and moved to the door, opening it.  Seeing Truusqix, she returned his bow.  "Um sure," she said.  She assumed he had to have a reason for asking her.  Shutting her door, she followed him to wherever he needed her.

Truusqix looked relived that Cress agreed to help.

He guide you deep into the belly of the sanctum, where the hard cases of the broken were housed. Dark dank corridors, steel doors and heavy reinforced stones this section looked more like a dungeon than a place of healing.

"We got her a few nights ago, a merchant found her on the road... or so he claims. There had been cases of people buying other people before... terrible ordeal. She doesn't speak but she look like you so I figured she might be from your world. I tried speaking with her offering her food, drinks but she is in this ahm catatonic state, I dare not offer her the Fuzz."

Fuzz was the drink Truusqix offered Cress the first day they met, it was imported from the far north and it was expensive as much as it was disgusting.

They reached a red heavy door, Truusqix placed his hand on the door "Be ready, she is ahm not well."

Cress took a moment wondering if she should find Neia and tell her that she was helping Truusqix.  After being her for a few seasons she still a little sketchy on exactly how much communication happened between groups.  She suspected that Neia knew that Truusquix was coming to her door, but...

Her head turned, and she had to hurry to catch up to the scholar.  Cress' eyes kept moving as she followed Truusquix down into the areas of the sanctuary that she'd never been.  The steel doors were...frightening... interesting.  After a few minutes of looking at damp, dark, and yes somewhat terrifying, she skipped forward a few steps to walk beside the sage.

So... he was talking about slavery.  Cress offered a nod, somewhat relieved that it was considered repulsive here too.

Wait... what?  "Looks like me?  Human?" she asked not really expecting clarification.  It was just surprising.  She'd figured that finding someone like her here would be near to impossible.

Cress wasn't sure what constituted this woman's problem.  It was possible it was... fear, but she couldn't exactly explain to Truusquix that if she hadn't seen the vision on the beach that she would have been terrified upon meeting him.  Still Cress nodded.  Yeah offering that drink was probably not the best plan...

Pausing in front of the door, Cress looked at it from one corner to the other.  God she was lucky that she'd come to understand the nature of this world before experiencing this world.  Could she have ended up here?  Terrified?  She mulled it over for a moment- probably not.    She'd always been good with weird.  Perhaps something she'd picked up from her dad?

She gave a slow nod and considered for a moment and then walked to the door.  Probably martial arts was the better option than magical arts.  Especially if this woman was having trouble with reality?  Cress readied herself to be able to move and adapt if the woman became violent.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," she said and stepped through the door.  Before speaking she assessed the situation and the woman.  Provided that things seemed quiet she'll offer a hello.

The door opened into a small cell, there was no windows for this cell and the only light came from some sort of etching on the wall. Faint greenish glow that bathed the room in an odd color.

At the center cross leg sat a girl, to call her human was stretching it. She had three thick fingers at the end of each limb, her ears were long almost ten inch long and were pointed. She had long flowing black hair and wore glasses. She wore a very skimpy white outfit and there were black runes on her thigh, legs arms and face.

She was also floating three feet above the floor, her hair was flowing upwards like there was no gravity and she swirls of dark smoke billowed from her hair hands and feet placing her at the center of a whirlwind of black particles.

She made no notion she noticed the door had opened and she seemed to be focused on a book in her hand.

So.... Not Human.

Though after inspecting the figure, Cress realized the existence of a nose, lips, and glasses might have led Truusqix to believe she might be from her world?  She couldn't help but smile a little at that thought.  The floating was cool though.  So was the book and Cress really had to like her sense of style.  Oh yeah... the stranger had hair.  Damn... It was nice to see someone with hair again.

Okay focus... It was pretty clear the woman was making use of magic, so... Cress cast Protective Song of the Sea.  Better safe than sorry.

Scratching her cheek, Cress gave a few more seconds of contemplation.  After all the odds of this woman speaking English were pretty... Oh what the hell.

"Hello there?  I guess because we both have glasses and noses they assume we can communicate."  The one requiring the other... it only made sense.  Holding up her hand, looked at the five fingers.  "Fundamental difference though...that and I'm assuming language?"

Cress spoke the few encantation words and made the waving motions of her hand, as always she felt nothing but she knew that she was using her own mana to power the magic.

Neia told her that natives to the land can sense their own mana reserve, pretty much like when could sense when you were hungry or thirsty. As a new comer Cress senses were not that training although Neia was pretty sure that with time she would learn to feel her own reserves.

She did felt when the net of invisible lines settled on her skin and created a protection sheath around her.

Cress got into the chamber she noticed that the book itself was not real, it was made from the same particles although more condensed.

The girl didn't answer her eyes focusing on the book reading her lips muttering something soft, over and over again.

"Ring around the rosie

A pocketful of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down."

Nursery rhymes? Well that solved two questions...

Somehow this woman knew about the black plague on Earth, or her civilization had somehow ran the same gamete eventually creating the same nursery rhyme that talked about millions dying under the bubonic plague.  Apparently it also involved the same custom of carrying nosegays and burning bodies.   Of course, the rhyme wasn't using the original 'a tissue, a tissue' did that indicate that somehow along the lines of their culture there would be an American type split off that would change the line to ashes?  Now that seemed a bit more coincidental.  The likelihood of this woman being from an alternate version of Earth or having a knowledge of Earth was more likely.

The second question was that this woman was speaking English.  Which... at first seemed natural, except there were over 7000 languages spoken on Earth.  While English debatably might the most common language- if it was, it was only by a scant margin.  It was equally possible that someone eavesdropping on Earth or coming from a parallel universe should be speaking Mandarin or Hindi.  Even Spanish was a possibility if they were talking about Geographic reach and sheer spread.

Cress tilted her head and looked at the woman.

"The cows are in the meadow,

lying fast asleep

Thunder, lightening, we all stand up!"

She gave it a try.  Not many people knew there was a second verse to the poem.  Maybe she was aware of it?

The girl, woman? she appeared early twenties.

Was speaking in English, not just any English but one with a British accent.

"Ring around the rosie

A pocketful of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down."

Again and again, she said the words, the book disappeared and she was hugging her knees still floating in the air. Her hair formed a halo around her the black particles around her began spinning faster.

Cress stood a moment longer, watched the swirling increase, and said "Nope."

Other than throwing a rock at the girls head to break her concentration- nope no rock there.  Cress walked to the door and exited, shutting it with her whole body.

"Not human," she told Truusqix.  "And I don't know how to deal with that.  Some nasty spell she's doing in there.  Let me know if you need translation, but I can't do anything against that level of magic other than tell you it's pretty big.  And I can do that without the spell." She nodded, pressing her back to the door she fully expected a cartoon like boom or perhaps just to die.

Truusqix bowed his head in understanding "It is pity she is not hoooman like you, although you share language?" he seemed perplex by this.

When Cress mentioned a spell Truusqix shook his head "No, she is not casting a spell. What we are seeing is some sort of a reflexive natural response. She is very attuned with the elements. I am not sure which element it is tho. I have heard about the regular one, fire, water, wind and earth but there are tales about those who can draw from wood, metal and even spirit but I never seen anything like that..."

He sighed "I don't she is fully aware where she is, her mind was broken either by magic or by other trauma... thank you for your aid and have a good day." Truusqix began to slowly shut the door

Cress didn't move as Truusquix bemoaned her failure.  She looked at the woodwork behind her and then at the scholar.  If he didn't think it was a spell, well he knew far more than she did.  Her stance changed so she was leaning with her arms folded.

"Okay, so if you could speak to her- let's say you were dealing with someone from here that had the same symptoms.  How would you try to reach her?"

She had her eyebrow raised.  It wasn't like she was the kid the counselors at her school asked to help with troubled kids.  She mostly was the one they ignored because she took care of herself and didn't cause trouble.  Good student, not perfect.  Bright kid, not the Sterling Scholar.  But, she knew how to ask questions and learn from the answers.

"So I can talk to her, but I'm not trained to deal with this sort of thing.  I need training," she said and held out a hand.

Truusqix looked puzzled at Cress "Training? do you need training to breath or feed? you need to listen, you need to speak softly and let them tell you what ail them. You need to provide comfort when needed and restraints when required. As for this poor soul." he pointed at the door "I would sit with her and listen, if she is in her own world I would take with her. I would let her know she is not alone and when and if she will be ready I will be there to listen to her words."