"Describe what your court will be doing in the wake of your disappearance."
"Those who were not in range of my voice will be doing their best to order out all those I commanded to hold. They will be seeking your gates so that my Arcane may force them open. They will look for anyone who may have been working with you," the queen says. "Assessing and repairing damage and injury and transformations."
"How long will it take Arcane to find a gate and force it?"
"He has done this in as little as an hour before."
"Will he start with the one Alendi went through?"
"Yes."
"Who besides you knows Arcane's name?"
"Spellwhip and Cirrus."
"Where will they be?"
"Spellwhip in the massage lounge until someone releases him. Cirrus in the retreat thirty miles east."
"I am going to open a small gate within shouting distance of Arcane. Tell him to take no new action; apply that to any other vassals who hear you. I'll do the same near Spellwhip. Will someone be going to fetch Cirrus?"
"Yes."
"Describe the retreat enough that I can make a gate there."
"It sits in a valley surrounded by two streams, one which runs from the red mountains and one which runs from a white marble spring. It is twilight there. The clouds are what gives Cirrus his nickname."
Promise draws a line on a wall she has not yet covered with lines and dots. She touches several spots along this line. "When one of those settles you'll do the same thing to Cirrus. Who know Spellwhip and Cirrus's names?"
There follows a dizzying nest of mutual and circular and dead-ended vassalizations; Promise eventually makes the queen draw a chart, which activity is interspersed with the use of occasional gate-settlings as escape routes for queenly orders are cut off. Eventually Promise has checked off all the ends on her chart.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-02-14 01:25 am (UTC)"Those who were not in range of my voice will be doing their best to order out all those I commanded to hold. They will be seeking your gates so that my Arcane may force them open. They will look for anyone who may have been working with you," the queen says. "Assessing and repairing damage and injury and transformations."
"How long will it take Arcane to find a gate and force it?"
"He has done this in as little as an hour before."
"Will he start with the one Alendi went through?"
"Yes."
"Who besides you knows Arcane's name?"
"Spellwhip and Cirrus."
"Where will they be?"
"Spellwhip in the massage lounge until someone releases him. Cirrus in the retreat thirty miles east."
"I am going to open a small gate within shouting distance of Arcane. Tell him to take no new action; apply that to any other vassals who hear you. I'll do the same near Spellwhip. Will someone be going to fetch Cirrus?"
"Yes."
"Describe the retreat enough that I can make a gate there."
"It sits in a valley surrounded by two streams, one which runs from the red mountains and one which runs from a white marble spring. It is twilight there. The clouds are what gives Cirrus his nickname."
Promise draws a line on a wall she has not yet covered with lines and dots. She touches several spots along this line. "When one of those settles you'll do the same thing to Cirrus. Who know Spellwhip and Cirrus's names?"
There follows a dizzying nest of mutual and circular and dead-ended vassalizations; Promise eventually makes the queen draw a chart, which activity is interspersed with the use of occasional gate-settlings as escape routes for queenly orders are cut off. Eventually Promise has checked off all the ends on her chart.