Can't help but love them

[aestrix]

Raezenoth has sent his manifested form to sleep. He doesn't need it to sleep, it could (and has) gone years and years without such, but sometimes it's nice to not have a body. To go back to how he was in the beginning - a whisper on the wind, a swirl of desert sands, the rustle of the sparse grass. All of his domain, instead of split and splintered and crammed into flesh for the convenience of having hands. Anywhere in it, instead of forced to move at his (admittedly considerable, for a god) top speed. He isn't sorry to have a manifested form, isn't sorry to walk among mortals and call them friend. But he is a god. He doesn't always have to have a body. So he doesn't.

He tidies up his domain. He finds people who need things, who want things, and slips in items that would let them get what they need, and then what they want, by their own power. He's very accustomed to this, he's had a lot of practice, but he tries to outdo himself every chance he gets. Tries to inspire his followers to a little bit more of that stubborn brilliance he loves in mortals so. Tries to help them improve. The mortals make the god, after all. It is the greatest irony, he thinks.

He is the wind, and the ground, and the water beneath it, and he is all of the little things that help people without snatching away their ability to help themselves. It's nice. Quiet. Soothing, after his recent near-mistake involving deleting slavery from existence.

He'll have a visitor soon. He'll wake his body up for that, it's bound to be interesting if nothing else.

Comments

[aestrix]

The woman is now in a cave, with a little stone bed set into the wall with a scruffy looking man asleep on it. Or. Perhaps asleep is the wrong term. He isn't in any kind of sleeping position; he's stiff and still. Also not breathing. If she checked, he wouldn't have a heartbeat, either.

"Hello," says a voice, from nowhere in particular.

[greatcomposure]

"Hello," she says. "Raezenoth, I presume? My name is Cordelia. I'm Leaf's mother."

[aestrix]

"Yes."

The body on the slab opens his mouth, and takes a deep breath. His eyelids flutter a bit, and then life's breathed into the body, and - he opens his eyes, sits up, and looks at Cordelia.

"It is nice to meet you," says Raezenoth, in his echoing multi-language voice.

[greatcomposure]

"Nice to meet you too," she says. "My son speaks highly of you."

[aestrix]

"Does he?" wonders Raezenoth, subtly pleased. "I have a high opinion of him as well."

[greatcomposure]

"Apparently you can keep up with him at Plasma Rain, which is a rare distinction. He also has a high opinion of your good sense and moral integrity."

[aestrix]

"Surely my skill at Plasma Rain dwarfs good sense and moral integrity."

That was a joke. It's sort of hard to tell, though, he says it in such a deadpan, expressionless manner.

[greatcomposure]

Cordelia giggles.

"It's certainly far less common than either."

[aestrix]

"I will feel proud of myself, then."

[greatcomposure]

"Entirely appropriate."

Pause.

"It occurs to me while I'm here that it might be worth installing a permanent gate between your domain and my world. Would that be something you'd find agreeable? Would you have somewhere to put it that you could defend from nosy locals on your end and any hazards that might attack us on our end and then move on to you?"

[aestrix]

"It might be. I can handle location rather easily, but... I'm not sure if I would like a permanent gate open. I was recently reminded that I don't know of all of the dangers involved in the multiverse."

[greatcomposure]

"No hurry, but it's something to think about. Among other such things. For example, would you like to learn the kind of magic that Leaf and I use to travel between worlds?"

[aestrix]

"What are the mechanics involved in the magic? Does it have downsides?"

[greatcomposure]

"Spellbooks exist, through which people can learn spells. Casting spells depletes a kind of personal energy reserve called MP, of which people have varying amounts that can improve with practice. A particular spell costs a particular amount of MP, and some of them also cost zorkmids, which are a specific kind of gold coin. If you've read the Quality Discount Spellbooks thread, you've seen some of the spells I know about. I don't know of any drawbacks to learning the magic system, although the coin costs of spells can be inconvenient since you have to be physically carrying all the coins you need for the spell at the time that you cast it."

[aestrix]

"Oh, it's that magic system." Pause. Head tilt. Thinking. "... Yes, I believe I would like to learn it."

[greatcomposure]

"I brought a spellbook," she says. "They habitually destroy themselves after reading, but usually not in a way that damages anything else."

[aestrix]

"You make it sound like it is an unpredictable destruction method."

[greatcomposure]

"It is."

[aestrix]

"The multiverse continues to not be boring. May I have the spellbook?"

[greatcomposure]

"Yes."

She retrieves a read magic spellbook from her bag and hands it to him.

[aestrix]

He takes it. He reads it. It splutters, fizzes, and then turns to goo and drips to the floor.

Raezenoth looks at the gooey remains of the book.

"Thank you," he says.

[greatcomposure]

"You're welcome. What's your MP?"

[aestrix]

"Sixty-two."

[greatcomposure]

"Enough for one casting of plane shift, which I recommend learning. Likewise planar message, minor and major planar ally, lesser wish. I can retrieve copies of all of those from home later, if you want them."

[aestrix]

"Yes, please."