Even if it hadn't worked out that way-- as near as I can tell, I think I'd have said the same about trying it.
[given the situation at the time, given the position they were in-- yeah. sometimes you just have to take the risk, when the alternatives are what they seemed to be.]
Perhaps so. I think some of my friends were a little cross about it. . . we hadn't discussed doing this, exactly - that maybe we'd tell them some of what we know, but. . .
[He laughs a little.]
We had no idea what that thing was. We were afraid we were giving them a weapon that could destroy our homeland. I know a little more, now, and . . . possibly, but there's little danger of that. The Bright Queen can be rather fanatical, but to them the beacons are no more than an object of worship; it is only my own home that sought to weaponize them.
We. . . found it in a sewer, if you can believe it. We happened to be down there on our way back from a small job, and we ran into an agent of the Krynn, who had come to steal back this artifact that the Empire had stolen.
[He shrugs.]
At the time, we wanted nothing to do with this thing; all we knew was it would be a target on our back. So we gave it back to this Krynn infiltrator, only to hear him be captured and slain by crownsguards.
I suppose all of us. . . especially those of us who grew up in the Empire. . . all we knew at the moment is we did not want the Empire to have it back. So we stole it, and kept it with us. It resisted most identification magic, we could learn only the barest information on it from the libraries we could access. All we knew is that when we looked into it, we could see into - I wish I could show you. It looks like gazing upon reality itself, seeing different possibilities. And after looking into it, for brief moments at a time, you can rewrite possibility just a little. Just to an infinitesimal degree.
The things that could be done with it if it was in a more potent form are of course dangerous, but. . . not one has yet unlocked that potential.
You can rewrite possibility? How does that-- I guess I don't expect anyone would fully know how it functions, that's sort of how these things tend to go, but that's... I wish I could see it, too. It sounds a little like something from my own-- well.
[a brief pause, a careful rephrasing.]
Certainly it isn't from our own world, we knew that much about it, but we encountered something similar. It was only with-- years of study that we were able to truly start learning much about it and its properties.
It is possible to tap into that power. The extent to which I can do it with spells has always only been. . . um, say I used my spell on poor Mr. Mollymauk the other day. He'd have been granted a mote of possibility, and when he hit his head too hard on the coffee table, he could seize on that and change something, make it possible from him to have hit a little less hard. It only works on moments of chance in the seconds of their aftermath. [In other words, it lets you redo a bad dice roll.]
On one occasion, on one occasion, in a great emergency. . . a colleague of mine and I did something a little better. . . managed to suspend time in a small space so that we could recover our spells before a fight. But that's the extent of it.
[Oh. He's a little surprised but he shouldn't be; this seems to be an occupational hazard for most wizards he has ever met, getting trapped by their own hubris in dangerous places. But to hear it told is still a little jarring.]
It's... well, somewhat, yes. It takes some time to adjust to a different age, while no one else necessarily knows there was ever any difference. Not many do know-- no one else, here. Somehow everyone's been polite enough not to question how my age was written.
[a slight sigh, with a brief shake of her head.]
Physically, it's not so difficult-- as I said back there, that loss doesn't bother me so much as just... having two fewer decades to work with.
[she has to think about that one. if this week has made one thing clear already, it's that she might not get to decide just what to let people know. it might not be the worst idea to just... take it into her own hands, here and there.
so eventually, she does answer, starting off with:]
They've been recovered, now, but there were seven relics put out into the world, each with different capabilities and a focus in a different school of magic. The Animus Bell, of course, but also the Oculus, the Philosopher's Stone, the Gaia Sash, the Temporal Chalice, the Phoenixfire Gauntlet... and the Bulwark Staff.
[Hmm. Yes, some of those names pop out to him as especially interesting. Philosopher's Stone, Temporal Chalice, Phoenixfire Gauntlet. . . yeah, he wouldn't say no to those. Especially that chalice. You ever see someone get a little bit of a thrall from a universe away?
But he sort of shrugs it off.]
And you are collecting these powerful things to remove them from the world, so they cannot be used to harm anyone?
That's a large part of it. The relics-- they were capable of so much more than we thought they were, we knew they would be powerful, but the things they could do... the Gaia Sash drowned an archipelago in minutes. The Phoenixfire Gauntlet left nothing but circles of black glass where there used to be cities. The Oculus could create a black hole and eliminate a whole army-- entire wars were fought, over these objects.
[so, not so great in practice.
one or two people know about this, already, have at least some of the pieces, and there might be some element here of knowing that if she obscures the truth her memories could just put the lie to it. but she's already mentioned she made her staff, and she has some hope that he might kind of understand.
there are still parts of this she won't ever want to tell someone willingly, but there's no need to bring those up.]
They were created in the first place to stop an entity that seeks out their power source from ever finding our plane, to separate it out across the seven of them and hide the Light that we put into them. The original thought process was that this was a better option than seeing the world destroyed-- and I objected to that when it was first decided, too, but it isn't the only way. I couldn't... it just couldn't continue, not when there's still an alternative.
[It's a little hard to follow, since he can tell there are pieces she's leaving out, but he understands a little. He understands the idea of creating something and learning it's too dangerous to continue to exist.
He nods.]
I can, uhm, see from the history of my world why this would have gone badly. Nothing like powerful magic to tempt people.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[given the situation at the time, given the position they were in-- yeah. sometimes you just have to take the risk, when the alternatives are what they seemed to be.]
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[He laughs a little.]
We had no idea what that thing was. We were afraid we were giving them a weapon that could destroy our homeland. I know a little more, now, and . . . possibly, but there's little danger of that. The Bright Queen can be rather fanatical, but to them the beacons are no more than an object of worship; it is only my own home that sought to weaponize them.
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[not in the exact same kind of situation, but there are always times where unexpected things happen, and points where you just try to make a call.
there are points where that turns into an argument, too-- she can't help but think about lup's objection in the robot world.]
-having said that, I guess I can also understand being a little bit cross about-- you really had no idea?
[but there's not any judgment there, or anything.]
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[He shrugs.]
At the time, we wanted nothing to do with this thing; all we knew was it would be a target on our back. So we gave it back to this Krynn infiltrator, only to hear him be captured and slain by crownsguards.
I suppose all of us. . . especially those of us who grew up in the Empire. . . all we knew at the moment is we did not want the Empire to have it back. So we stole it, and kept it with us. It resisted most identification magic, we could learn only the barest information on it from the libraries we could access. All we knew is that when we looked into it, we could see into - I wish I could show you. It looks like gazing upon reality itself, seeing different possibilities. And after looking into it, for brief moments at a time, you can rewrite possibility just a little. Just to an infinitesimal degree.
The things that could be done with it if it was in a more potent form are of course dangerous, but. . . not one has yet unlocked that potential.
no subject
[a brief pause, a careful rephrasing.]
Certainly it isn't from our own world, we knew that much about it, but we encountered something similar. It was only with-- years of study that we were able to truly start learning much about it and its properties.
no subject
[He shrugs a little, mildly self-deprecating.]
It is possible to tap into that power. The extent to which I can do it with spells has always only been. . . um, say I used my spell on poor Mr. Mollymauk the other day. He'd have been granted a mote of possibility, and when he hit his head too hard on the coffee table, he could seize on that and change something, make it possible from him to have hit a little less hard. It only works on moments of chance in the seconds of their aftermath. [In other words, it lets you redo a bad dice roll.]
On one occasion, on one occasion, in a great emergency. . . a colleague of mine and I did something a little better. . . managed to suspend time in a small space so that we could recover our spells before a fight. But that's the extent of it.
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[working with that at all is impressive, given the type of power it sounds like it holds.
before she can ask anything else about it, though-- it's her memory that they both go through, this time, a story of hers.]
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Oh. All for the sake of. . . that relic?
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[a slight shake of her head, there, as if clearing it after that memory.]
For the sake of removing it from the world.
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[He smiles a little at that.]
Something happened to a friend of mine like that. But only a few years.
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[she manages a small smile back, there.]
But it must still have been-- strange, for them, even if it was only by so much. I'm sorry they've had to experience it.
[even if it doesn't seem like much, a few years can make a difference.]
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[a slight sigh, with a brief shake of her head.]
Physically, it's not so difficult-- as I said back there, that loss doesn't bother me so much as just... having two fewer decades to work with.
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so eventually, she does answer, starting off with:]
They've been recovered, now, but there were seven relics put out into the world, each with different capabilities and a focus in a different school of magic. The Animus Bell, of course, but also the Oculus, the Philosopher's Stone, the Gaia Sash, the Temporal Chalice, the Phoenixfire Gauntlet... and the Bulwark Staff.
no subject
But he sort of shrugs it off.]
And you are collecting these powerful things to remove them from the world, so they cannot be used to harm anyone?
no subject
[so, not so great in practice.
one or two people know about this, already, have at least some of the pieces, and there might be some element here of knowing that if she obscures the truth her memories could just put the lie to it. but she's already mentioned she made her staff, and she has some hope that he might kind of understand.
there are still parts of this she won't ever want to tell someone willingly, but there's no need to bring those up.]
They were created in the first place to stop an entity that seeks out their power source from ever finding our plane, to separate it out across the seven of them and hide the Light that we put into them. The original thought process was that this was a better option than seeing the world destroyed-- and I objected to that when it was first decided, too, but it isn't the only way. I couldn't... it just couldn't continue, not when there's still an alternative.
no subject
He nods.]
I can, uhm, see from the history of my world why this would have gone badly. Nothing like powerful magic to tempt people.