Difference between revisions of "Sovereigns game"

A fragment of the Garden of Remembering

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== The Job ==


Reset. Where are we even going with this?
The job: heist, some item/artifact
* held by powerful folks with lots of resources in vaults/with securtiy, need to infiltrate things, can get in past open floors of museum/casino/staging area/whatever
* folks might be the Magi, but probably aren't, because that would really complicate things later and also they really like keeping things in-house and thus would be rather hard to infiltrate. Probably some random other gang or corporation, or an operation by a specific bureau.
* have plan for getting past security, need to get crew/get rest of crew back from random holidays or out of prison or another totally random job they were already doing, or stuff, and figure out the details of everything else
* job is kind of sudden and high priority and they need to beat anyone else there


The opening: planning and all the stuff to actually do the heist
* They do the heist. They make it in. There's some unnecessary drama about all the over the top security, and some conflict with head of security guy.
* The item is already gone, head of security guy shows up absolutely pissed and everyone expects him to arrest them, but then he turns out to have been their totally adorable mechanic Khalemi, and their other inside source all along. Is absolutely pissed that she fucked up the security, because she was actually trying to make it good specifically so this ''wouldn't happen''. Everyone is a bit surprised, because the security guy was actually some pretty good acting on her part, and also why was it a guy?!


Ensue: the plot. Hunting down the folks who stole the item. It's important, yo. Brains of their opperations, criminal mastermind Cithandra, won't say why, but it is, and they need to get it back. Things go sideways at some point. Comnen, usual point guy, talky person, swagger and all that, gets taken out of the running, and Cithandra has to take direct control of everything and more than being a general mastermind, turns out to be really, really scary as direct boss. Also really suave and sophisticated. But scary-like.


Int. The wide room. The grand hall. Visitors Center to the right, gift shop attached. Some cafes, probably; this is civilisation, after all. Hallways leading off. Wide doors. Staircases. The entire second floor is a conference venue. This is the base floor of the Atlas Tower of the Magi. There are five towers in total, rising above the great city covering the plains, between the forested mountains. Seres, Gorgon, Torrent, Calcutta, and at their center, Atlas, the main one. The tall one. There are other floors below this, but they are not typically open to the public. The floors above vary. Most of the libraries have hours. The restaurants, the overlooks, the gardens, these are all open when they are open. Anyone could probably walk into one of the meditation chambers at any time, if only they knew where they were going, and as long as they didn't make trouble, nobody would mind.
Somehow they get Comnen back. Hijinks ensue throuhout. Sokar does his thing taking random side jobs all the way through, which turns out to be a really good cover at least two times in a row when security people ask them just what the ''fuck'' they're doing here.


Nissa is in the base now, getting coffee, or whatever their local equivalent is. Whatever ''her'' equivalent is. Something sticky and unpronounceable. Boba. She's that kind of student, not that most of the folk around her would take her for a student. She's not really dressed like one, but nor is she dressed like a master. Mostly she's just dressed like a random person, surrounded by random people, chatter filling the space.
Ending: they get the item.
* Item is a key to a vault of scary group ..., which they open, and find... an alien girl?!
* Having no idea what the hell else to do, they take her with them as they head out into the stars for their next adventure.
* Also said alien girl probably wasn't at all what Cithandra was expecting either, but whatever.


She finds a table, sits down, pulls out a tablet, pulls up some spells. Their forms hover over the table, the accompanying text appearing on air, backed in opaque white. She reads them carefully, mouthing the forms, trying to shape them in her mind. There are rooms set aside for exactly this higher up. Quiet rooms. Fireproof rooms. Rooms with serene views and carefully constructed soundtracks and no distractions, carefully designed to facilitate learning and retention.
=== Setting organisations ===


Nissa doesn't want facilitation. She wants the real world. She wants to learn in the same chaos and cacophony she'll be using it in. She wants her damn boba.
Somewhere in the background there's references to at least some of the three main scaries, which may or may not show up as clients hiring the crew at some point or other:
* The United Worlds, the massively bureaucratic galactic republic where everything mostly just goes through random bureaus regardless of what the politicians from all the random systems actually say
* The Magi, a quasi-religious guild of space wizards that basically force all magic-capable people they find to either join them or die (or maybe just be cut off from the magic, which is also horrible for them?)
* The ... which turns out to be this horrible mysterious organisation that experiments on monsters (aliens) for ''reasons'', and is a good chunk of why so many of the aliens are humanoid (or elven?), because they actually started out as humans/elves or were previously much more alien and then engineered into hybrids. This is definitely not commonly known and will not come up for awhile. Is probably known as a major source of biotech through some front, and is in fact possibly really only known for that at all, publicly.
: Probably run by a group of dark wizards, or something.


Her fingers spark, and she shakes it off onto the table. That wasn't even remotely related to the spell she was trying to do. She peers at the notes, flicking through the pages - has she stumbled upon something else, perhaps?
Other random groups that occur:
* Citheldryn: a myserious organisation that has embassies on random planets and isn't entirely clear what its purpose is, where it came from, or anything. Also very unclear where any of their money, of which they seem to have a lot, comes from. Is generally suspected of just paying off the UW bureaucracy to ignore them.
* Syndicate: a major crime guild that somehow has never actually been connected to any crimes, officially. But everyone knows they do crime. They do crime.
* The Right People: not exactly a group so much as just random people who think the UW/Magi, in particular, are dumb, and do their own thing. Gnerally includes any gangs/other unlawful factions not actively at war with each other, as well as quite a few underground non-Magi wizards. Syndicate is not really a part of this, but sometimes involved.
* Various other guilds, gangs, corporations, cabals, and planets doing various things throughout
* The border worlds, which may or may not have any seat in the UW itself, and often go totally ignored by its bureaus/forces, and thus may wind up ''really'' doing their own things


The problem is, Nissa is brilliant. Among the Magi, she's considered a prodigy, a sensitivity to the Source unlike anything they've seen before. But it's not true. She might be good, rather better than average, even, but her skill is not talent, and she isn't some sort of magical nexus. It's all skill, trained by an intellect ever seeking answers, with a focus born of practice and discipline. If it were the same discipline employed by the Magi, it would be fine. But it isn't. She made it all up as she went, following the mathematical patterns of the physics of the rest of the universe, assuming there would be parallels with the magic of the Source itself.
=== Crew ===


And, though she doesn't fully understand it yet, she was right.
* Comnen - probably actually owns the ship, boss as far as everyone is concerned, prefers smuggling jobs but also has history as a merc and will do heists etc if someone else figures out the details. Presents himself as a ball of swagger and confidence, and puts all this swagger and confidence to use to hold the crew together, along with just generally being awesome.
* Cithandra - suave, sophisticated, and above all, absolutely gorgeous and elegant criminal mastermind behind a lot of the jobs, sometimes tells the crew the full plan, sometimes... not. Also generally doesn't actually come across as particularly criminal or mastermind, and usually just suggests random things offhand, and then finances random parts of it, as the rest of them put the details of the operation together...
: Overtly, she's just this rich lady who hired the ship to take her with and finances them because she was bloody ''bored''.
* Sokar - main pilot, keeps taking on these totally ridiculous side jobs whenever they get to a new system, much to everyone's annoyance. Possibly turns out that this tendency was ''precisely'' why Cithandra hired him.
* Khalemi - medic, tech handler in general, bot operator, very good with security systems and distributed operations, completely lost whenever she has to do anything hands-on. Also apparently a pretty good actor... when acting a man. Can't act out other women for the life of her.
* Jonas - some sort of 'public relations'
* Torkora Ma - wanton thief, possibly another sort of 'public relations'
* Nissa - young underworld wizard with a very peculiar view of how magic works, uses it to fix random stuff, very nonchalant about absolutely everything, with a particular skill for going completely unnoticed as she just walks right into pretty much anything unquestioned




Several of them really don't get along with each other, but do have the professionalism to keep overtly expressing it to a miniumum while actually doing the job (well, usually). Will get very annoyed when they have to fix things for each other, but generally make a point of doing it precisely so the other survives/makes it out/whatever so they can actually berate them about it...


Int. Elsewhere. Ciphreya: another city, another world, another galaxy. Civilised, but differently. This is much smaller, and isolate. A sanctuary in crystalline architecture, away from the troubles of the rest of the universe. They consider themselves the apex of development, here, the heart of a monumental organisation. They're right, to a point. Their influence is huge, and spans across the local clusters. Beyond that point, they're not so right. It's too far away. They don't even know what's out there. The void. The abyss. Dark beyond of the universe. Other civilisations, perhaps, with other apexes. They haven't made contact, and the gods have been vague to a fault.
== Screenplay? ==


But their gods back them. Their gods are among them. That makes it all right. Right?
<screenplay>


Rahah doesn't think so. She wants everyone to just leave her alone, let her grow up, play, make friends and be ridiculous. She's only six. She's a god, or at least the reincarnation of one, or so everyone keeps insisting. She doesn't want to be a god. She wants to be normal.


She's incarnated as a Deresi, but passes for Nissai: an elf apparently in her adolescence, adult proportions, but lanky, short. Her control over her magic betrays her most of all. A teenager would be able to cast a light without setting it on fire. A teenager would actually know how to cast in the first place. But everything Rahah tries comes out wrong. She can't shape the spells at all. Mostly she can do tricks with force, pushing and pulling at a distance. Sometimes she manages to control the flow of raw energy. But she can't shape it.


So mostly she doesn't. She pretends not even to be a caster at all. It's easier than to admit the truth: as Deresi, her connection to the Source is different. She is her own source, her own nexus. And so the general hatred and mistrust of Deresi passes her by, but so, too, do opportunities. Opportunities to learn and grow. Opportunities to understand.
NISSA
There's a magus here.
(she gestures in a direction)
Somewhere thataway. We should be careful.


SOKAR
How do you tell?


NISSA
They're practically glowing with power.


The Source. One of the lingering mysteries of the universe. Every great civilisation has, if they progressed far enough, tried to tap into it at some point on a global scale. It is, after all, a source of power, a connection between worlds, the exception that makes Darstaddian physics work. Like the ambient matter that holds galaxies together, it is the ambient energy that pulls all forces together, and so it is used to power entire civilisations, to reinvent travel, to rebuild the foundation of the very concept of existence. The downfall of many, in time, has been taking this too far. The cenva, the first ones, remade their very selves upon this, and thus unmade themselves. The gods were reborn of these fragments. The Artiil, the humans, launched themselves into the cosmos on the tails of their own unmaking, destroying their homeworld, but not, at least, their own being.
Sokar gives her a sudden, worried look.


To engineers and architects, it is but another tool, another constraint, to use and work around.
NISSA
Oh, don't worry. They're very bad at what they do, totally uncontrolled, so it's really easy to sense them. I'm much better than that.


To casters, those born with an innate sensitivity who choose to pursue its more personal application, or who have it engineered into them later in life, it is a wellspring of power and madness. Most remain at the surface, only pulling small amounts of power, for simple things: to ease the day to day, complement other skills, perform some tricks, but stick to the known, written spells, and never go too far. But some delve deeper. The madmen, the visionaries, the sorcerers. These are inevitably the pioneers, those who discover its applications, who write up the theorems that form the basis for new spells, and for the more global applications of the civilisations themselves. Some of them become gods. Many destroy themselves. Others skirt disaster at every new reach, only to find themselves changed no matter how careful they were, for it always changes its users, the more so the deeper, the darker, they go.
SOKAR
If you say so, kid.


There are speculations as to how deep it goes. There are speculations as to there being another side: a dark side, an existence far stranger, that mirrors our own, perhaps, or something else entirely. But these are only speculations. There are no hypotheses, not that can be tested.


Even the gods don't know, save, perhaps, for one. The Spirit of the Universe. She's not even a god anymore, not really, but she was, once. Long ago. Before she changed. Maybe, just maybe, she reached that other, darker, side. Maybe this was what changed her. The Deathgods, after all, call her their ''Dark'' Sister. But she doesn't speak with mortals. She doesn't even speak with gods anymore. The Deathgods act as her liaisons on the rare occasion she deems anything worth communicating, and she doesn't accept questions.






The man sits down across from her, and Nissa looks up in surprise. It's Damorin, one of the Magi masters. "I missed you today," he says. "You need to practise."


"I do practise," Nissa replies. "I'm practising right now."
JONAS
Shit, how old are you, anyway?


"What?" Damorin asks. "The lessons give structure. If you don't practise the key foundations..."
NISSA
Mmm, I dunno. Maybe 10ish?


"Your key foundations don't work," Nissa says, cutting him off. "There's structure here, but it's all arbitrary anyway. Isn't it more important that I have a structure, rather than conflicting it with contradictory bases?"
JONAS
What...
(turning and yelling toward Comnen)
BOSS! The kid is really a kid!


"You're a magus," Damorin says. "You can't just make up your own basis. It doesn't work that way."
COMNEN
(showing up)
Yeah? So?


Nissa stares at him, dropping a half-shaped spell in a small flash of colour. She doesn't know what to say to this. She's already said too much. Unaffiliated magic is illegal in the Commonwealth, but it's hardly safe in the Union, either, the neighbouring militaristic state with which an uneasy truce is maintained purely out of necessity: an all-out war would devastate both parties, and leave the galaxy in ruins. So she'd joined the Magi, the Commonwealth mages, and tried to get along with their particular approach. She'd found it utterly stifling.
JONAS
So... she's like, really, really young!


"What I mean to say is I can do all that already!" Nissa says. "Why do I need to go to these lessons? They're pointless."
Nissa just smiles, looking vaguely cute.


"Really?" Damorin asks. "Show me a common star."
COMNEN
Yes...?


Nissa holds up her hand and a pinpoint of light appears above it.
JONAS
Like... a ''kid''. Why're we puttin' a kid in all these... situations?


Damorin nods. "Make a purification."
NISSA
Is it really ''you'' putting me in these situations? Is it?


Nissa gives him a slightly surprised look, and then pulls up the spell on her tablet, before shaping it out according to the instructions. She drops it over the table, and it sparkles, clean.
COMNEN
She's a fucking squid, man. They're weird.


"You need to know the spells," Damorin says, frowning. "That won't work in the field."
He turns and leaves.


"Why would I need to clean something on the spot without time to look it up?" Nissa asks. "What possible situation could mandate that?" What she doesn't mention is that she already has another cleaning spell - a much less pristine version with a more variable scope. Hers looks natural, unlike this. Like cleaning by hand, it takes multiple passes, multiple castings, to make anything actually pristine. She uses it daily when no one's looking, to avoid having to clean things up by hand.
JONAS
But... but...


"I can think of a few," Damorin says.
NISSA
(now looking a bit annoyed)
Squid. Yes, that is... ''exactly''...




Line 76: Line 124:




SOKAR
I got us a new job.


== Begin original ==
COMNEN
What... the fuck?


<screenplay>
KHALEMI
...again?


INT. Ciphreya: a wide hall - day
TORKORA MA
Are we stealing something?


Tall, sweeping windows line a well-lit hall, overlooking an elaborate city floating on the ocean beyond, the outside architecture fashioned after ice. Lights on the ceiling complement the light from outside, illuminating architecture that is a nice cross between futuristic and fantastical, but also clearly just a hall, with some doors off on one end and another, and some potted plants serving as decoration.
SOKAR
Naw, naw, this is just a strict pick up, drop off.


A deresi girl, RAHAH, is sitting on the crenalation over the far door, pulling her hair back, looking totally at ease and on top of things. She is also very small, despite appearing nearly fully grown.
TORKORA MA
You say that like that's not exactly how stealing things works...


A man, JERDALIM, enters, pauses a moment in surprise, and then proceeds over to Rahah, passing some yaks. He stops a respectful distance away, and eyes Rahah consideringly for a moment.
KHALEMI
What's the catch?


Rahah pulls at her hair, trying to get it up.
SOKAR
No catch, just passengers.


JERDALIM
COMNEN
Sovereign? Are you all right?
How is that not a catch?!
We're already sitting on stolen cargo, and we still have to catch up...


Rahah stops, finally looking down and noticing Jerdalim.
KHALEMI
Yeah, that does sound a biiit dodgy.


RAHAH
CITHANDRA
Yeah, it's just my hair. You know.
And passengers will be a very nice way to ensure nobody checks for stolen cargo when we stop off. Isn't that right?


JERDALIM
SOKAR
That's not what I meant.
Uh... is it?


A yak nudges at Jerdalim in search of treats.


The floor is a total mess. Stuff is everywhere, broken furniture, doors, an entire shredded notebook. Yaks are also around, several just lying on the ground, and others standing about, eating the junk and plants.


RAHAH
(shaking her head)
Oh, er, this wasn't me.


JERDALIM
(skeptically)
Riiiight.
Is this a bad time? Should I... come back later?


RAHAH
The passengers turn out to be: two magi and a kid, a priest, a random couple, and three guys they're all mildly certain would also fall among the Right People.
What? No, no, that's fine. What's up?


JERDALIM
Comnen glares at Sokar.
It's about your proposal. The Committee would like to discuss it with you, and since you put for your availability 'whenever'...


RAHAH
COMNEN
When?
''These'' are the passengers you managed to come up with?!


JERDALIM
SOKAR
Well, now, really. It's just that they couldn't get you on comms, so...
You know, maybe I am starting to think this wasn't such a good idea.
Look, in light of all this, it would be completely understandable should you want to... reschedule.


RAHAH
NISSA
No, no, no, that's fine! I can do now. Just give me a moment... untangle my hair...
Well, I'm going to need to be careful.
(twisting about to untangle her clothes from the wall)
Agh!


She pulls her hair free and falls to the floor, landing in an undignified heap in front of another yak.
COMNEN
What exactly happens if you aren't?


The yak sniffs at her.
NISSA
Depends.


COMNEN
On?


INT. Ciphreya: more hallways and stuff - day
NISSA
Depends.
(quietly)
We might need that priest.


These halls are in much better order. An obelisk thing is mounted in the middle of a circle at the end of one, and in a flash of light, Rahah and Jerdalim appear next to it.
SOKAR
...what for?


Jerdalim immediately marches off, and Rahah follows, but lags behind a bit finishing putting up her hair for real this time. It winds up in a huge bun tied at the back of her head, with a fair bit of it just randomly sticking out in every direction.


She hurries to catch up, and then has to continue to hurry a bit just to keep up. She's much shorter than he is.
</screenplay>


Other folks pass by, of various species.
== Old stuff ==


RAHAH
Possibly some stuff that happens later...
So what's the verdict? Is it a go? Did they accept it?


JERDALIM
{{ hidden |
That's what we need to talk to you about.


RAHAH
LATER STUFF, I DUNNO.
But is it a yes? Is that why you're actually talking?


JERDALIM
Reset. Where are we even going with this?
Patience.


Rahah unhappily quiets, falling a bit behind again.
The Hadris Citheldryn reaches out to the Magi of the galaxy of Edo for the overt purpose of establishing relations between like-minded organisations. The practical reason is slightly different - they have no agents among the Magi, and yet they are the pushers behind the Commonwealth. They do have agents among the Union. Becoming a Lord there is easy.


Some of the passersby eye them curiously. A few of them make respectful gestures.
The Citheldryn is an organisation of watchers and keepers, dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, protection of the cosmos, and on a smaller scale, enabling travellers from more advanced societies to more safely interact with those that might otherwise be considered unwise. They rarely get involved in local politics, but if they do show themselves, it is as a mysterious local faction, a neutral country, a group of charter houses. Maybe they present themselves as interested primarily in hunting monsters and curtailing the supernatural, maybe they are nothing more than a local embassy for some foreign power that's basically completely forgotten about the local presense, and never does anything.


Edo is one of the artiilie settlements gone wild, a galaxy primarily inhabited by humans and the humanoid aleakin, with populations of saakma and kriss thrown in. Few elves.


INT. Ciphreya: Arbitration Committee chambers - day
* Artiilie: ancient humans.
* Aleakin: anime girls with giant eyes, tentacles for hair, and four arms. Technically not actually girls as they're all hermaphroditic, but they ''sure look it''.
* Saakma: octopus-like things. Have tentacles instead of legs. Have tentacles instead of arms. Have tentacles on their heads. Eat pretty much everything, especially the more decomposed it is. Related to the aleakin, vaguely. Also hermaphroditic.
* Kriss: giant spider mantid crab people. Have way too many growth stages that all look totally different to keep track of, and nearly as many genders. It makes sense to them; nobody else even tries to keep track. Generally when others run into an alien thing they don't recognise they just assume it's a kriss at some random stage.


It's a wide room, with more windows overlooking the city, but from higher up, here. A large horseshoe-shaped table takes up most of the space, the opening facing the door. At it (or on it) are seated the Committee, of various species: VELORIUN COMB, MASASSA ANALI, TERSULLES, SHICHIRI MIUSUKE, HADALLIS RAN AKORE, NAIJE, and KANUNN. Several other seats are empty. A few of them are talking. Others are working at data pads. Masassa Anali is at the head, looking imposing and somewhat irate at her pad. Tersulles is staring off out a window, tapping a pen on her nose. Naije is a cat, and sitting on the table. Veloriun Comb has what looks suspiciously like a bottle of bubbles in front of him.
Three primary factions:
* Commonwealth - republic of worlds with stupid politics, policed by the Magi. Relatively more representation of the common folk than in the Union, but mostly run by various corporations in practice. Control the left half of the galaxy.
* Union - feudal dictatorship run by the warlock Dark Lords, who constantly feud. Progression among the Lords generally achieved by being biggest bad in general vicinity, and constant backstabbing. For common people it's just tiresome and for the most part they just ignore it. Control the other left half of the galaxy.
* 'Right People' - not really a faction, so much as a loose assortment of criminals and people who just don't care about the stupid feud between the two empires. Grey Systems in the neutral zone between the two left halves sometimes claim to be 'among the right people'. Some Commonwealth corporations also officially involved. Also connected via dark net, etc.


Jerdalim goes and takes his seat. The others glance at him enquiringly, and he sighs and gestures toward the door.


Rahah enters a moment later, and stops uncertainly at the opening of the horseshoe.
== 1 ==
 
The main character of the story is small, not like how a child is small, although she is a child, but like how a half-size statue of a full-grown adult is, as a half-size statue, smaller than a full-size statue. Today, she's in disguise: firstly as a person who is simply not nearly as small as she actually is, and secondly as a person who is simply someone else who isn't her.


Masassa Anali stands.
Her name is Rahah. She's an elf, she's very, very young, and she is, to her considerable irritation, apparently the reincarnation of a god. She doesn't want to be a god, she wants to go to other planets and hit monsters with a sword. But instead she is, and as a result, people won't leave her alone or let her do anything dangerous or go anywhere where dangerous things might happen. They tell her this is because she's too important, because she could get hurt, or, her personal ''lease favourite'', because 'hitting things with swords is uncivilised'. But really, Rahah just wants to go hit things with swords anyway. She doesn't want to be civilised. Civilised is boring.


MASASSA ANALI
So today, she's changed her appearance and put on a pair of hoverskates that make her at least appear to be at eye level, maybe, to a merely ''short'' person. Her name is now Sjerdami. And Sjerdami is signed up for a 'diplomatic mission' to another galaxy. There probably won't be any opportunities to hit things with swords on this 'diplomatic mission', but maybe she'll get lucky, right? She hopes she'll get lucky.
Sovereign. On behalf of the Arbitration Committee of the Hadris Citheldryn, welcome.


RAHAH
At very least it'll get her out of this place and away from her overbearing guardians who only want the best for her.
Hi. Sorry I'm late and smell like a yak.


MASASSA ANALI
Sort of.
(sitting)
I am pleased to inform you that your proposal to initiate formal diplomatic relations with the Magi of Edo has been accepted.


RAHAH
Rahah - no, Sjerdami - gets to the hangar where the ship is to find everyone else apparently already there, and getting yelled at. Some of them are wearing uniforms like hers - dark and glittering and masked - but a lot of them are just wearing random clothes. She scoots over and hangs behind the bulk of the group, not trying to draw attention. Not show her guilt. Sjerdami's real. Of course she is.
(brightening up)
In full?


MASSASSA ANALI
The woman in charge, Tersulles, doesn't seem to notice, and continues to try to yellingly coordinate the group, getting progressively more tired-sounding as she directs folks about, loading the ship, sorting out roles. Most of them aren't actually doing much and just sort of stand there regardless.
There are matters to discuss, of course. Questions to be answered.


NAIJE
"Stop, stop, stop!" Tersulles says loudly, "Everyone just stop."
Who will lead this venture?


RAHAH
Everyone just sort of stops, aside from the people who were already stopped, who continue doing exactly what they had been doing.<ref>Nothing.</ref>
I covered that in the proposal. I'll be taking a team of agents-


NAIJE
Tersulles takes the opportunity to count heads, winds up short, looks a bit concerned, and then comes around and spots Sjerdami.
(interrupting)
You?! You are a child.


Veloriun blows some bubbles. They drift colourfully over the table. Nobody acknowledges them.
"Oh, stars, would you not stand in back when you're that short?" she says exasperatedly.


RAHAH
"Sorry!" Sjerdami says.
I am a qualified agent of the Citheldryn.


Naije snorts a laugh.
"Is this your first mission?" Tersulles asks, marginally more kindly.


SHICHIRI MIUSUKE
"Er, maybe," Sjerdami says.
You lack experience. This would be your first mission.
 
The woman turns back to the rest of the group. "Anyone else new too?"


RAHAH
"Is that a problem?" a guy says from somewhere in the middle of the lot.
Because you won't let me go on any!


KANNUN
"No, just... who are you?" Tersulles asks, shooing people out of the way.
(talking over Rahah)
She raises a valid point. She passed all her qualifications. We have little reason not to let her go.


NAIJE
The guy, now visible, waves.
She is the reincarnation of the sovereign. Her endangerment is reason enough even besides.


KANNUN
"Right," she says. "You two, make a note. If we ever pair off, don't pair with each other. Make sure you wind up with someone more experienced."
Bring her as an agent. Protectors will accompany her, and can sequester her in the voidship if needed.


Shichiri shrugs.
"But she's so cute and tiny! Why can't I?" the new guy asks.


HADALLIS RAN AKORE
Sjerdami glares at him.
I see no harm in it.


NAIJE
"And how would you like to be called 'cute and tiny'?" Tersulles demands.
I suppose...


A bubble lands on Naije's nose. She hisses at it.
"Well, uh," he says, "it's okay? I mean, people do it all the time."


RAHAH
"And you're just straight up admitting this?" someone else asks.
But...


SHICHIRI MIUSUKE
"Okay, I did not need to know that," another person entirely says.
Who do you want to head this up, then?


JERDALIM
"Er, why do you assume we know what we're doing even if we have done this before?" another woman asks in the middle of all of this.
Tersulles?


Tersulles glances over at him enquiringly, twirling her pen.
"Everyone, please!" Tersulles shouts, putting up her hands. "Stop. You're like cats!"


JERDALIM
"Cute and fluffy?" someone suggests, and receives a withering glare for his comment.
You're our best diplomat.


TERSULLES
Finally everyone stops, and Tersulles conjures up a console and activates overlays on everyone. Suddenly all their names are hovering above their heads for everyone to see, colour-coded in blue, purple, and red, with a small amount of status data as well.
Oh, very well. But since you volunteered me, you get to sort out the paperwork.


Sjerdami looks up worriedly, but hers just says 'Sjerdami' like it's supposed to.


INT. Ciphreya: hangar - evening
"Now we know who everyone is," Tersulles says. "So if you want to continue making annoying comments, I ''will know who you are.''" She goes on, losing the threatening tone, "Colours mark your general roles: red's guards, blue's aids, and I and Keke Ama are apparently purple."


It's a room much like the rest of the city, well-finished, full of light, but bigger, with huge windows, and full of ships. In the darkening evening, the city outside glitters and glows.
"So what's purple?" a guy named Varras asks.


Some folks by a sleek-looking sports craft. One of them is juggling knives. Another has a cat on his head, but neither he nor the cat are doing much.
"We're the ambassadors," Tersulles says slowly. "Which you should know if you've read the brief." She pauses. "How many of you have read the mission brief?"


Rahah skates past them, in the black ciphreyan guard uniform, now with weapons holstered on her thighs (they're basically cylinders, about a 20cm long each), headed for the Voidship: a strange contraption of spheres and rings and pointy bits, with some stairs coming out. Tersulles and six agents (VARRAS, TULL, AMANSTANI, TENENBAUME, KEKE AMA, and LHORYS) are in front of it, with another two in and out loading things (AA and TAJIRA LOS). Several agents are also in uniform, and noticeably armed.
Three agents raise their hands, including Sjerdami and the other newbie, whose name is apparently Lhorys. Then, very hesitantly, another hand goes up as well. This hand belongs to Keke Ama.


TERSULLES
Tersulles stares at the other ambassador worriedly.
Ah, you came. Did you bring your mask?


RAHAH
"Wait, so there was a brief?" Varras says.
(holding up a small gem)
Mask and three backup shields.


TERSULLES
"Usually is," an elderly elven woman, Tull, says.
Very good. Keep that on at all times.


RAHAH
"But you didn't read it either?" Varras asks her, looking a bit relieved.
Why? The Edo are fairly peaceful.


Rahah puts the gem on regardless, sticking it to the middle of her forehead. A faint glow spreads over her and then disappears.
Tersulles sighs. "I must honestly wonder," she says, "What those who hold our organisation in high regard would think if they saw this."


TERSULLES
"Oh, we're totally professional," Tull says. "We just need to put on our professional faces first. Isn't that right?"
Just in case. You never know when you might get stampeded by yaks.


RAHAH
"Unequivocally," an Amanstani says. "Arbitrator, come on. Tell us what we need to know to pretend to be professionals."
That only happened once!


TERSULLES
Tersulles gives everyone a moment just to see if they care to continue to irritate her before going on. "As you all would know if you had actually read the brief," she says irately, "this is a diplomatic mission to the Magi of the galaxy of Edo. I will be acting as primary ambassador, with Keke Ama as secondary. You all will be our assistants and guards, and generally pretending to be real professionals." She glares around at the group. "You all remember which you signed up to be, right?"
And aren't you glad you had a shield on?


Rahah grumbles.
The agents nod.


The other two agents come out again and come over.
"Sure," Amanstani says. "I'm a guard, right?" Her name is in blue, though, clearly marking her as an aid.


TERSULLES
Tersulles ignores this. "Because if not, again, you're coloured accordingly," she says. "The main thing you'll be doing aside from that is observing the Edo while we do this. See what stands out. See what feels off. There may be undercurrents in their worlds that we do not yet know, and it is your job to follow up on them." She pauses. "That being said, this is a low-priority mission. Should things go... awry, simply get out. Retreat to a safehouse. ''Don't everyone get killed or come pester me about it, or pester me about getting killed.'' Any questions?"
Everyone, thank you for signing on. As you may know, if you read the brief...
(she pauses)
How many of you did read the brief?


Three agents raise their hands, one very hesitantly.
An apparent Tenenbaume raises a hand slightly.


A couple of others just look confused.
"Yes?" Tersulles asks.


VARRAS
"Awry how?" Tenenbaume asks.
There was a brief?


TULL
"Awry," Tersulles responds slowly, building up almost unto hysterics, "Wrong. Problems. Catastrophic failure. Anything from and up to rabid squirrels to imploding planets. Completely overreacting regardless of the situation is fine, as long as you remember your fellow agents and don't get them killed. Please, do not get them killed. Or me. I will be very upset if you get me killed on what is supposed to be a low-priority, low-risk mission to peaceful words."
Usually is.


VARRAS
Tenenbaume raises his hand again. "How completely is 'completely overreacting'?" he asks.
But you didn't read it either?


Tersulles sighs.
"Like if we implode the planet in reaction to rabid squirrels," Tull suggests.


TERSULLES
"That seems excessive," a guy whose name is apparently just 'Aa' says.
I must honestly wonder what those who hold our organisation in high regard would think if they saw this.


TULL
"Exactly!" Tull tells him.
Oh, we're totally professional. We just need to put on our professional faces first. Isn't that right?


AMANSTANI
"We do want to avoid excessive loss of life, damages, or anything up to or including starting a war," Tersulles replies, regaining her composure.
Unequivocally.
Arbitrator, come on. Tell us what we need to know to pretend to be professionals.


TERSULLES
Tenenbaume raises his hand again. Tersulles just stares at him.
As you all would know if you had actually read the brief, this is a diplomatic mission to the Magi of the galaxy of Edo. I will be acting as ambassador. You all will be acting as assistants and guards, and generally pretending to be real professionals. Is this clear?


The agents nod.
"Define 'excessive'."


AMANSTANI
"Gods take me now," Tersulles mutters. "You're not cats. You're... somehow worse. I'm herding something ''worse than cats''."
Sure.


TERSULLES
== 2 ==
I also want you to observe the Edo while we do this. See what stands out. See what feels off. There may be undercurrents in their worlds that we do not yet know, and it is your job to follow up on them.
Lastly, be aware that we have the Sovereign with us.
(she indicates Rahah)
She is here as an agent like you, but should things go... awry, her safety is our first priority.


Rahah gives Tersulles an annoyed look.
They finally get all the pre-launch stuff sorted out, load themselves into what turns out to be a much bigger ship on the inside than on the outside, and launch it, rather lazily, into space.


Tenenbaume raises a hand slightly.
They drift vaguely away from the planet. Rahah... er, Sjerdami, stares vaguely, and quite literally, off into space out the large window. Aa is in a poofy armchair piloting. Tersulles has locked herself away in an office where nobody can bother her. Mostly everyone else is just sort of hanging around.


TERSULLES
"So we getting going, or what?" Keke Ama asks.
Yes?


TENENBAUME
"You wanna drive?" Aa says, getting up. "Here, you can drive. But when you accidentally take us sideways through space into another universe, don't go blaming me..."
Awry how?


TERSULLES
Keke Ama gives Aa an uninterested look. "No, I just want to know if we're getting going or not at some point."
Awry. Wrong. Problems. Catastrophic failure. Anything from and up to rabid squirrels to imploding planets. Completely overreacting regardless of the situation is fine.


TENENBAUME
"Yes, Ama," Aa says. "We are. At some point."
(raising his hand again)
How 'completely' is 'completely overreacting'?


TULL
"Okay," Keke Ama says. "When?"
Like if we implode the planet in reaction to rabid squirrels.


AA
"After I sort out the calculations?" Aa says.
That seems excessive.


TULL
"Okay," Keke Ama says.
Exactly!


TERSULLES
Aa and Keke Ama stare at each othe for a moment, and then Aa sits back down.
We do want to avoid excessive loss of life, damages, or anything up to or including starting a war.


Tenenbaume raises his hand again. Tersulles just stares at him flatly.


TENENBAUME
Define 'excessive'.


Tersulles sighs heavily.


{{ setup |


INT. Voidship: main chamber - night
== 0 ==


They eventually get going, piling into the main chamber. Aa is in a poofy armchair piloting. Tersulles is seated at a table pointedly ignoring everyone else. The others are mostly just standing around, the walls around them acting as windows to the city falling away from them outside. The chamber is otherwise full of sofas and tables of very random heights, with some screens floating midair.
Instantiate. The wide room. The grand hall. Visitors Center to the right, gift shop attached. Some cafes, probably; this is civilisation, after all. Hallways leading off. Wide doors. Staircases. The entire second floor is a conference venue. This is the base floor of the Atlas Tower of the Magi. There are five towers in total, rising above the great city covering the plains, between the forested mountains. Seres, Gorgon, Torrent, Calcutta, and at their center, Atlas, the main one. The tall one. There are other floors below this, but they are not typically open to the public. The floors above vary. Most of the libraries have hours. The restaurants, the overlooks, the gardens, these are all open when they are open. Anyone could probably walk into one of the meditation chambers at any time, if only they knew where they were going, and as long as they didn't make trouble, nobody would likely mind.


They quickly get out into space, and Rahah stares out at the dwindling planet in fascination.
Nissa is in the base now, getting coffee, or whatever their local equivalent is. Whatever ''her'' equivalent is. Something sticky and unpronounceable. Boba. Her daily fix. Others around are doing much the same: workers, visitors, those with business and those touristing. The workers and the ones on business pass through quickly, but the tourists linger, milling around in one great mass, and Nissa lingers among them, fading from notice.


A moment later, the stars blur and disappear.
She doesn't need to do this anymore. For once she's ''supposed'' to be here, sort of. But old habits die hard.


KEKE AMA
(miming utter horror)
Oh gods what is this we're in space how how how is that even whaaaaat?


She flails a bit to emphasise her point.


Tull just stares at her.
Instantiate. Elsewhere. Ciphreya: another city, another world, another galaxy. Civilised, but differently. This is much smaller, and isolate. A sanctuary in crystalline architecture, away from the troubles of the rest of the universe. They consider themselves the apex of development, here, the heart of a monumental organisation. They're right, to a point. Their influence is huge, and spans across the local clusters. Beyond that point, they're not so right. It's too far away. They don't even know what's out there. The void. The abyss. Dark beyond of the known universe. Other civilisations, perhaps, with other apexes. They haven't made contact, and the gods have been vague to a fault.


KEKE AMA
But their gods back them. Their gods are among them. That makes it all right. Right?
(stopping)
You people are no fun.
Oy Sovereign. This your first time offworld?


RAHAH
Rahah doesn't think so. She wants everyone to just leave her alone, let her grow up, play, make friends and be ridiculous. She's only six. She's a god, or at least the reincarnation of one, or so everyone keeps insisting. She doesn't want to be a god. She wants to be normal.
Naw, I've been in games.


KEKE AMA
She's incarnated as a Deresi, but passes for Nissai: an elf apparently in her adolescence, adult proportions, but lanky, short. Intellectually, she learns quickly, and speaks well, but moments betray her age frequently. Her control over her magic betrays her most of all. A teenager would be able to cast a light without setting it on fire. A teenager would actually know how to cast in the first place. But everything Rahah tries comes out wrong. She can't shape the spells at all. Mostly she can do tricks with force, pushing and pulling at a distance. Sometimes she manages to control the flow of raw energy: not magical, but kinetic, thermal, magnetic, or perhaps simply the very processes behind them. There's no shaping this. It's like making poetry out of Assembly; it's simply not what it's for.
Real ones, or online?


RAHAH
So mostly she doesn't. She pretends not even to be a caster at all. It's easier than to admit the truth: as Deresi, her connection to the Source is different. She is her own source, her own nexus. And so the general hatred and mistrust of Deresi passes her by, but so, too, do opportunities. Opportunities to learn and grow. Opportunities to understand.
Both.


KEKE AMA
(nodding)
Those your weapons?


Rahah pulls out one of her weapons and turns it on as a double ended plasma sword and twirls it a bit like a baton.


VARRAS
The Source. One of the lingering mysteries of the universe. Every great civilisation will, if they progress far enough, try to tap into it at some point on a global scale. It is, after all, a source of power, a connection between worlds, the exception that makes Darstaddian physics work. Like the ambient matter that holds galaxies together, it is the ambient energy that pulls all forces together, and so it is used to power entire civilisations, to reinvent travel, to rebuild the foundation of the very concept of existence. The downfall of many, in time, has been taking this too far. The cenva, the first ones, remade their very selves upon this, and thus unmade themselves. The gods were reborn of these fragments. The Artiil, the humans, launched themselves into the cosmos on the tails of their own destruction, losing their homeworld, but not, at least, their own being.
So what happens if you drop it?


RAHAH
To engineers and architects, it is but another tool, another constraint, to use and work around.
Er...


Rahah hastily turns it back off and puts it away.
To casters, those born with an innate sensitivity who choose to pursue its more personal application, or who have it engineered into them later in life, it is a wellspring of power and madness. Most remain at the surface, only pulling small amounts, shaping them according to established templates, for simple things: to ease the day to day, complement other skills, perform some tricks. They stick to the known, written spells, and never go too far. But some delve deeper. The madmen, the visionaries, the sorcerers. These are inevitably the pioneers, those who discover its applications, who write up the theorems that form the basis for new spells, and for the more global applications of the civilisations themselves. Some of them become gods. Many destroy themselves. Others skirt disaster at every new reach, only to find themselves changed no matter how careful they are, for it always changes its users, the more so the deeper, the darker, they go.


KEKE AMA
There are speculations as to how deep it goes. There are speculations as to there being another side: a dark side, an existence far stranger, that mirrors our own, perhaps, or something else entirely. But these are only speculations. There are no hypotheses, not that can be tested.
Cool. Never seen that outside of games before.


RAHAH
Even the gods don't know, save, perhaps, for one. The biggest one of all. The Spirit of the Universe. She's not even a god anymore, not really, but she was, once. Long ago. Before she changed. Maybe, just maybe, she reached that other, darker, side. Maybe this was what changed her. The Deathgods, after all, call her their ''Dark'' Sister. But she doesn't speak with mortals. She doesn't even speak with most gods anymore. The Deathgods act as her liaisons on the rare occasion she deems anything worth communicating, and she doesn't accept questions.
Yeah, I had them made based on my Sarathi spec.


Keke Ama looks a bit skeptical, but nods.


AA
This'll be a few hours, kids. Get comfortable and stop freaking out our resident Tersulles, please.


Tersulles looks up, and then hastily goes back to her pad.
The Magi of Edo are casters, tapping into the Source and bending it to their will, and as much, bending themselves to it. They remain at the surface. They speak of distancing themselves from fear, letting go, and yet they fear its depth and do not let go. Those who do are deemed fallen, to the deep, to the dark side, and they are hunted down. The Source must be regulated. Its casters must be regulated. This is the mandate of the Magi, and they enforce it mercilessly within Commonwealth space.


Beyond, in the Grey systems, they exert their influence in other ways. Beyond those, in Union space, they have no influence at all. There, deep casters reign as Dark Lords, creating order and progress out of controlled chaos as they each delve further into their own power and madness, fighting each other, each trying interminably to come out on top, united only by their common hatred of the Magi.


INT. Gorgon Tower: training room - afternoon
Throughout it all, on either side, are the Right People, the underground, the dark net. Thieves and smugglers, unaffiliated casters, undiscriminating traders, and ubiquitous problem solvers. Those who consider themselves not so much above the law, as simply... to the side. Both sides, as it were, in many cases. For the casters, it is a precarious position - safer than openly taking a stance as a Lord in the Union, and more free than joining the Magi of the Commonwealth - but to be discovered is usually a death sentence in either case. To the Lords, the unaffiliated are all potential enemies (as opposed to other Lords, who are simply enemies), and must be purged. To the Magi, they are undoubtedly fallen, and must be purged.


A class is going on. It's a large room, but they're not really using the space: several apprentices are standing around a master Magi, DAMORIN. One apprentice, NISSA, is off the side, leaning against a wall.
But they do it anyway, because the options are all terrible.


MASTER DAMORIN
Nissa did it anyway because it's all she'd ever known.
Hold the shape in your mind - picture it, know it, feel it.


A few of the apprentices look confused. A couple start making the shape of a ball with their hands. Nissa just remains as she is, watching.
And then one day a friend had said, "I wonder what we could do if we could get inside the Magi."


MASTER DAMORIN
And Nissa had said, "How? They'd kill us the moment they knew what we were."
(nodding)
Now make the shape with your hands. Feel it fill them - guide the energy to become.


The apprentices shape out a ball. Some of their hands fill with light. One of them draws his light up and tries to throw it at the ceiling, but it fizzles out first. Another, ZHANA, has nothing happen for a bit, before her hands suddenly catch fire. She shakes them out, trying to get rid of the fire, and then starts screaming for help.
And her friend had said, "Only if we tell them. Just fake an awakening. They'd probably make you join."


APPRENTICE ZHANA
"And what about you?" Nissa had asked.
Agh agh ow agh get it off get it off!


Damorin hurries over to the burning apprentice and grabs her hands, putting out the fire and healing them.
"You know I'm just kidding, right?" he had said.


APPRENTICE ZHANA
"But could it work?" Nissa had asked.
(staring at her hands)
Ow.


MASTER DAMORIN
He'd nodded, slowly. "You look the part," he'd said finally. "Just act like you're ten years younger and I think everyone would buy it. Need some creds to back it up, but..."
(turning toward Nissa)
Nissa?


Nissa holds up a finger and a point of light appears over it.
"I can get those," she'd said.


MASTER DAMORIN
"Don't I know it," he'd said.
Good.


He turns back to the others.
He sits down across from her now, slipping into the table, pulling out a newspaper, not really paying Nissa any apparent attention as she stirs her drink absent-mindedly with a straw.


MASTER DAMORIN
"How's it going?" he asks, still looking at the news.
Let's all try that again. Know what you want, and form the shape in your minds...


Nissa sighs and stares off out the window. Billowing clouds thread their way through the high towers of the urbanised valley, while the deeps below glow strangely. Ships and planes buzz about like insects. In the distance, forested mountains, though huge, are only barely visible behind it all.
Nissa snorts and covers it with a quick drink. "Well enough, I suppose," she says, not looking up. "What are you doing here?"


NISSA
"Just checking the news," he says.
(softly, but like thunder)
''Dream.''


Her perspective shifts, drifting slowly, then flying out the window at speed, among the ships, through the clouds. Towers blur past, and then the mountains rise up around, full of ragged faces and grasping trees.
"Mmm," Nissa says.


"Not very good at noticing what's right under their noses, most folks," he says.


EXT. Tavakind mountains - afternoon
"Nope," Nissa says. "You know that paper's two weeks old?"


Nissa is in the forest, standing amidst the trees. Her form is wispy, not all there. She reaches out to touch a nearby tree, but her hand goes right through it. She glaces at the ground, but she's floating a bit above it.
"I'm still catching up on recent events," he says.


MASTER DAMORIN
"Anything interesting?" Nissa asks.
Nissa.


The voice is too loud, but also not there. It echos through her mind like an unwanted thought.
"Well, there is one thing," the old human says, finally putting aside the paper and leaning forward, and Nissa does the same, the tentacles on her head perking attentively. "I hear they've got a new batch of apprentices around here," he says dramatically. "Some of them might even be... the right sort."


MASTER DAMORIN
Nissa rolls her eyes.
Nissa!


"But no, not really," he says, leaning back. "Just the usual."


INT. Gorgon Tower: training room - late afternoon
"Tease," Nissa says.


Nissa turns around in surprise. Damorin has a hand on her shoulder, looking concerned.


The other apprentices are all gone.


MASTER DAMORIN
Twenty yaks. Twenty yaks had stampeded the corridor when they opened the portal. Rahah stares at the mess below, dumbfounded. She's perched atop a doorframe, clinging to a bit of wall trim. This wasn't what she'd expected. Jerindal, hanging from a light fixture further down, also stares. This wasn't what he'd expected, either.
Are you well?


NISSA
Two yaks, all that's left, stand around amidst the mess. They forage a bit at it. They chew on the potted plants.
Yeah, sure. What...
 
(she looks around)
Two yaks is enough for the two young elves to remain clinging to their perches above them, afraid to make a sound.
How long was I...?


MASTER DAMORIN
The much older elven man who marches in a moment after, however, is not afraid to speak at all. "What, in all the worlds, happened here?" he demands loudly.
The class just ended.


NISSA
The two yaks stop munching to watch him yakily.
Oh. Uh...


MASTER DAMORIN
"Don't!" Jerindal squeaks. "You'll spook them again!"
What were you doing?


NISSA
"Really? That's all you have to say for yourself?" the man says. "And you, Sovereign," he goes on, turning on Rahah. "I would have expected better of you."
(turning bright red and looking away)
Nothing. I... nothing.


Damorin frowns.
"Er, better than what, exactly?" she asks. "This was all an accident."


MASTER DAMORIN
"Yeah, dad, this really wasn't what we were trying to do." Jerindal says.
I understand your desire to move on to more advanced magics, but the rules are the rules. You must complete your basic training.


NISSA
"So what exactly ''were'' you trying to do?" Jerindal's dad asks.
Why? I can do all this already. It's just... basic stuff. I could not show up at all and still ace the tests.


MASTER DAMORIN
"Er," Jerindal says, starting to panic. "You know. About that? Yes."
But you do. And you must. For control.


NISSA
"Leave," Rahah says.
I have better control already than some of the advanced apprentices.


MASTER DAMORIN
"Leave?" Jerindal's dad asks.
True. But your impatience does you no credit, either.


NISSA
"Leave Ciphreya," Rahah says. "We were trying to get away. I mean, I was. Trying to get out of here. Anywhere but here. So we opened a portal. Jerindal was helping me because he's really good with magic, but it's not his fault. I talked him into it. It just... it worked, sort of, but then a herd of yaks came out and... um..." she shrugs blankly, looking sheepish, trying to cover the lie. Jerindal is basically the only friend she has. He'd insisted on going with her, just so she wouldn't be entirely alone, even though he was actually fairly happy here. And she'd needed it enough to not say no. "It didn't really... work?" she finishes, lamely.
At least you understand. Some of the masters just get so mean about it. It's not my fault this all comes so naturally!


MASTER DAMORIN
Jerindal's dad stares at her. "Jerindal," he says, still looking at Rahah. "Room. Now."
You are a Magi, Nissa. Your power is your burden, and you must shoulder it as such. If your power is greater, then so your control must be even more so. Where others may scrape by with acceptables, you must exceed, or you place us all at risk. Do you understand?
 
Jerindal drops off the light fixture and runs away, giving the yaks a wide berth.
 
Rahah drops down as well. She stares up at Jerindal's dad defiantly, mostly just because she is so short, and that's the easiest way to look when looking up without looking totally pathetic.
 
His name is Jerdalim. He's a member of the Hadris Citheldryn Arbitration Committee, the closest thing they have to a ruling body here. Or the closest thing in lieu of her, the supposed Sovereign. Not that they'd listen to a child. Maybe when she grows up they will, but somehow, naggingly, she suspects they'll to find a way around it then, too. It's been a very long time since the sovereign god has ruled here, and it's a far different organisation now.
 
"Why?" he asks.
 
"Because it's absolutely stifling here!" she says. "I can't do anything, I can't have friends, whenever anything goes wrong it's always their fault and they take the fall, even when it's not! I'm the sovereign, the god, so I have to be perfect, and yet I'm a child and you won't even listen to me or let me do anything or anything! You can't even make up your stupid minds!"
 
"That's not how it is at all," Jerdalim says. "You just need to grow up, that's all."
 
"You won't let me grow up!" she yells.
 
Jerdalim gives her a somewhat confused look, and starts to say something.
 
Rahah turns and runs away.
 
It's the wrong way. The way the rest of the yaks went, full of damage... and yaks. But she keeps going anyway, stubborn anger and fear and confusion driving her on as they hop away in surprise at the tiny ball of bushy hair and tears rushing past them. Why did she actually say all that? She doesn't know. She does want to get away, of course, but it's not that important, is it? They respect her so little already, and she knows this won't help, but... but she doesn't even know. It's all a mess, her whole life, and she doesn't know how to deal with any of it. She doesn't even have a dad, like Jerindal does. He lost his mother when he was very small, but she'd never had any parents at all. Been born from a seed of her own creation, she was told. Something she'd set up in a previous life.
 
She doesn't remember any of it. Previous lives, being a god, any of it. And yet that is the entire cause of everything wrong now - her past selves setting it all up for this - and so she resents them terribly. That they were all ''her'' only makes it that much worse, somehow.
 
She curls up in a dark corner, past the destruction and yaks, past the people going on about their lives as they pass from place to place, and winds up amidst the dust of the empty rooms beyond. She cries into her knees, not knowing what else to do.
 
 
 
The Arbitration Committee of the Hadris Citheldryn does more than arbitrate. They also review proposals, among other, even more boring, tasks. Most of the proposals up for consideration now are fairly standard, and this one, submitted by a member they don't know, probably some recruit from the galaxy of Edo itself, fits right in with the rest.
 
The proposal is essentially thus: establish formal diplomatic relations with the Magi of the Edo Commonwealth. It makes some solid points. The Magi are organised, and generally peaceful, unlike their Union counterparts, a loose consortium of warring warlocks who basically run the Union. The Magi safeguard various powerful artefacts, and it would be valuable to ensure these artefacts remain in good hands. The Magi are relatively enlightened, unlike most of the very competitive factions even in the Commonwealth itself. It would be worthwhile to share knowledge and practices, and learn from each other. There's little to lose from a diplomatic mission as a cover for a more thorough evaluation.
 
The committee deliberates. They don't bother to meet up, just read through it as they get to it and submit their comments online, replying to each other as need be. Standard practice. Consensus is established tricklingly, until nobody has anything more to add, and the proposal is put in the approved queue.
 
 
 
Rahah gets a notification, and pulls it up warily on her handheld. Strangely, it's nothing bad. A proposal she submitted almost a year ago under another name, almost as a joke, just to see what would happen, has been approved.
 
She stares at it blankly and wipes her eyes, the glow of her handheld illuminating her face, and the dust, and the empty room around her. She hadn't expected this. And yet she'd had a plan with it, sort of. She'd chosen Edo specifically: it was a big galaxy, heavily populated, ''not'' of the elven worlds, and not Artiilie, and yet full of magic. Somewhere, perhaps, that she could disappear. Or be someone else. Or... what? She doesn't remember. It was a half-baked plan from the start, and now it's almost entirely gone.
 
 
 
Nissa goes. She plays the game, starting over, continuing by her own rules. She attends the lessons, even the ones conducted by the masters she ''really'' doesn't like, and goes through the motions, casting the spells. She doesn't even try to do as the masters instruct anymore, simply casting them all her own way, translating them to her own understanding of magic, but even still, none of the Magi seem to notice the difference. She's not sure why: she can see it plain as day. But they simply applaud her apparent talent and tell the others to look at how she's doing it, follow her lead.
 
And it seems to work. Somehow some of the other students ''are'' learning by watching her. Or do they only think they are, and this is still enough to inspire them to succeed regardless? A sort of magical placebo effect? Nissa isn't really sure, but the Magi approach does seem very much based in feeling, so it would make sense. Hers is more about mapping the perceptions to predictable patterns, like the mathematics of music, playing out in impeccable beauty.
 
It's in her physics classes that they show surprise. She's very good, a very quick study. She's doing her best to not betray the fact that she knows it all already, of course, but this is very basic stuff. Mechanics. Simple energy. Introductory fields. She wiles away her time mapping more complex concepts back to the Source, and the Source to the very same mathematics as the rest, and sometimes they glance over her shoulder before she realises, and see the equations on her screen. Usually she's just staring blankly, thinking, and so they take the blank stare to mean she doesn't actually know what she's looking at and ignore it. But then someone catches her making some connection, writing down a counterpoint or progression, finishing a proof.
 
Nissa isn't even sure what it's for. She just followed the maths to the logical conclusion, intending to test it out later. She's just about to go back to staring blankly at it when she realises she is being watched, someone is standing over her, and she looks back suddenly, up.
 
Master Callas is staring down at her screen in wonderment. "I don't believe it," he whispers. "You've solved Alacro's Theorem."
 
"Huh?" Nissa says blankly. She has, genuinely, no idea what he's talking about, but then she runs a search and pulls up the theorem itself. It's familiar, all right. Not exactly what she was working on, but very close. This isn't something she'd counted on at all, someone recognising what she was doing.
 
"Do you mean to say," Callas says slowly, "that you came up with all of that, start to end, on your own?"
 
"Uh," Nissa says, pulling up her version next to it. "I just found this on an image board. It's not even the same..." She starts to point to one of the differing bits and then stops, realising her mistake, as usual, all too late. "Oh."
 
He's not even looking at her tablet anymore, just her. "Come with me," Callas says.
 
The rest of the class is staring, watching, trying to figure out what's going on. They're oddly quiet.
 
Nissa gets up, follows him. The class watches in utter bemusement as they leave, tense with anticipation.
 
He takes her to his office. "All right," he says. "Let's put it up on the board."
 
Nissa glances between the board and her tablet, considering how best to connect them, and then doesn't. There's something amiss with this, something niggling that she can't quite place. She grabs a stylus instead, and starts rewriting it out, referencing the tablet, trying to figure it out as she goes.
 
It's fairly normal, as far as she can tell. Straight maths, mapping into the Source.
 
And then it occurs to her, all at once, why all their science is stuck. Why the stagnation, why none of the maths have moved on past a point, for so long: that's where the theorem stopped. It's leaving out the Source. They are leaving it out of all of it. Magic is as much a part of mathematics as force or energy, and yet nobody is using it.
 
She's quick enough to not say anything, maintaining her blank expression, just pausing as she goes, glancing back up at what she's already written. There's no way she could be the first person in a thousand years to realise this. Not in a galaxy this big. Not on both sides of the divide. What happened to all the others?!
 
She writes out the next line, changing one key thing from the proof in her notes.
 
She changes the following line to be a progression from that, and continues on, propagating the change through the rest of it, until she gets to the end, and closes the proof. She steps back, pressing her tablet to her chest, screen inward.
 
This doesn't make any sense. It's utterly insane. And yet that feeling in her gut, that great seeping dread, it tells her that she's right, against all logic.
 
Callas nods, reading through it, and then just stops. "Wait," he says. "How'd you get this? From Sade's induction to..." he points between the previous line and the one Nissa had changed. "That's not right."
 
"Er," Nissa says, trying to sound as clueless as possible, "you can't do that?"
 
"No," Callas sighs, but he chuckles regardless. "Still, this is very good, especially at your age."
 
"So what... can you do there?" Nissa asks.
 
Callas writes out another line, slightly different from the changed line, and then just stops. "That's it. That's all you can do. That's the problem," he says. His replacement matches her original. Except unlike his, hers had continued right on from there.
 
"Oh," Nissa says. Apparently she'd only barely caught it in time. Or something. In time for what, though, really? What is the deal with that feeling, that terrible dread about all of this?
 
The Magi talk about following their feelings often, speaking of the Source guiding them, and up until now Nissa has always just sort of nodded along, not really understanding, figuring it went hand-in-hand with their weird casting in general. But is this what they meant? Is the Source guiding her now, keeping her away from something terrible?
 
She gives Callas an uncertain look, masking her fear in confusion.
 
He shrugs. "We should get you some proper maths classes," he says.
 
They get back, only to find the rest of the class gone.
 
"I suppose this is why you don't leave a pack of twelve-year-olds unattended," Callas says.
 
"Well, not without an explanation," Nissa says.
 
"Relax, child," he tells her. "I got overly excited, that's all. You didn't do anything wrong."
 
Nissa isn't so sure about that. She isn't so sure at all.
 
== 1 ==
 
 
 
 
 
Nissa investigates, but finds nothing. She searches for common Source algorithms, and finds nothing. She writes exploratory comments on discussion boards, and comes back to find them deleted. She starts to be more careful, doesn't write up her own where anyone can see, only when she's alone, or somewhere safe. She pays precise attention to exactly where the accepted maths cut off.
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{ hidden | 1=
 
Are these always so... disorganised?
 
Naw, this one's just starting out a bit bad because it was put together so quickly. You didn't hear this from me, but I hear Tersulles needed an excuse to get offworld, something about her mother in law? So she just kind of rushed it along, and hasn't even slept in several days, on top of everything else.
And everyone who showed up, well, nobody takes low-priority missions that seriously to begin with, and I guess the timing must have been a bit weird because nearly everyone's a smartass for some reason.
 
How would the timing do that?
 
No idea, but this isn't normal, is all I'm saying.
You should get some sleep yourself, you know. There's no telling when we'll get there.
 
 
{{ Maths | 1=
 
"That's the problem," Nissa says. "Nobody in Edo knows these maths. They're not published. They're not used. They doesn't exist, as far as we're concerned."
 
"So?" Aa says.
 
Nissa shakes her head incredulously. "So it's been over a thousand years since anyone's made any progress, and nobody's come up with any of this? That's just... it's statistically impossible."
 
"What are you saying?" Rahah asks.
 
"I don't know!" Nissa says desperately, but gestures back to the board. "But I mean, this is right, isn't it?"
 
"Yeah, looks solid to me," Aa says, reading over it again. "I'd have to reference it back to manuals to be sure, but..."
 
"What's it used for?" Nissa asks.
 
"Looks a lot like... some of the shield mechanics stuff?" Rahah suggests, though she isn't quite sure herself. She's used some of that before, but using something and actually learning it are entirely separate matters. She frowns. "Actually if you're starting out with this..." She writes out a different line next to one of the earlier ones, setting it all up. "Continue in the same vein..."
 
They all stop and write out the progression together, filling in various bits.
 
"Yeah," Aa says when they're finished, stepping back. "This, I recognise. This is what you do to make an invisibility field. Plug that into the energy matrix, that maps the flow of magic in order to negate perspective on everything behind it."
 
"And this stuff," Nissa asks. "It all involves magic?"
 
"Yeah," Aa agrees. "I'd... say so, based on what we've looked at so far."
 
Rahah gives Nissa a confused look. "Are you suggesting there's some sort of conspiracy in Edo to keep magic and technology separate?" she asks.
 
Nissa shakes her head. "I'm not..." she says. "I don't know, but in the Commonwealth... but I mean, whatever is going on..." She looks desperately between the two agents, totally confused.
 
"We need to get to the bottom of it," Aa says.
 
"Yeah..." Rahah agrees. "Whatever it... is."
 
"Well, yeah," Aa says. "That's why we get to the bottom of it."
 
"To figure out what it is," Rahah says.
 
"Yeah," Aa says.
 
"Yeah," Rahah agrees.
 
"Yeah," Nissa says, relieved.
 
"And we all just agreed with each other agreeing with each other," Aa points out.
 
"Hey, boss lady!" Rahah yells at Tersulles.
 
}}
 
{{ arbcom (original) | 1 =
 
Veloriun Comb - guy with bubbles
Masassa Anali
Tersulles
Shichiri Miusuke
Hadallis Ran Akore
Naije - a cat
Kanunn
Jerdalim
 
 
<screenplay>
 
INT. Ciphreya: Arbitration Committee chambers - day
 
It's a wide room, with more windows overlooking the city, but from higher up, here. A large horseshoe-shaped table takes up most of the space, the opening facing the door. At it (or on it) are seated the Committee, of various species: VELORIUN COMB, MASASSA ANALI, TERSULLES, SHICHIRI MIUSUKE, HADALLIS RAN AKORE, NAIJE, and KANUNN. Several other seats are empty. A few of them are talking. Others are working at data pads. Masassa Anali is at the head, looking imposing and somewhat irate at her pad. Tersulles is staring off out a window, tapping a pen on her nose. Naije is a cat, and sitting on the table. Veloriun Comb has what looks suspiciously like a bottle of bubbles in front of him.
 
Jerdalim goes and takes his seat. The others glance at him enquiringly, and he sighs and gestures toward the door.
 
Rahah enters a moment later, and stops uncertainly at the opening of the horseshoe.
 
Masassa Anali stands.
 
MASASSA ANALI
Sovereign. On behalf of the Arbitration Committee of the Hadris Citheldryn, welcome.
 
RAHAH
Hi. Sorry I'm late and smell like a yak.
 
MASASSA ANALI
(sitting)
I am pleased to inform you that your proposal to initiate formal diplomatic relations with the Magi of Edo has been accepted.
 
RAHAH
(brightening up)
In full?
 
MASSASSA ANALI
There are matters to discuss, of course. Questions to be answered.
 
NAIJE
Who will lead this venture?
 
RAHAH
I covered that in the proposal. I'll be taking a team of agents-
 
NAIJE
(interrupting)
You?! You are a child.
 
Veloriun blows some bubbles. They drift colourfully over the table. Nobody acknowledges them.
 
RAHAH
I am a qualified agent of the Citheldryn.
 
Naije snorts a laugh.
 
SHICHIRI MIUSUKE
You lack experience. This would be your first mission.
 
RAHAH
Because you won't let me go on any!
 
KANNUN
(talking over Rahah)
She raises a valid point. She passed all her qualifications. We have little reason not to let her go.
 
NAIJE
She is the reincarnation of the sovereign. Her endangerment is reason enough even besides.
 
KANNUN
Bring her as an agent. Protectors will accompany her, and can sequester her in the voidship if needed.
 
Shichiri shrugs.
 
HADALLIS RAN AKORE
I see no harm in it.
 
NAIJE
I suppose...
 
A bubble lands on Naije's nose. She hisses at it.
 
RAHAH
But...
 
SHICHIRI MIUSUKE
Who do you want to head this up, then?
 
JERDALIM
Tersulles?
 
Tersulles glances over at him enquiringly, twirling her pen.
 
JERDALIM
You're our best diplomat.
 
TERSULLES
Oh, very well. But since you volunteered me, you get to sort out the paperwork.
 
}}
 
{{ party |
 
INT. Voidship: main chamber - night
 
They eventually get going, piling into the main chamber. Aa is in a poofy armchair piloting.  Tersulles is seated at a table pointedly ignoring everyone else. The others are mostly just standing around, the walls around them acting as windows to the city falling away from them outside. The chamber is otherwise full of sofas and tables of very random heights, with some screens floating midair.
 
They quickly get out into space, and Rahah stares out at the dwindling planet in fascination.
 
A moment later, the stars blur and disappear.
 
KEKE AMA
(miming utter horror)
Oh gods what is this we're in space how how how is that even whaaaaat?
 
She flails a bit to emphasise her point.
 
Tull just stares at her.
 
KEKE AMA
(stopping)
You people are no fun.
 
AA
This'll be a few hours, kids. Get comfortable and stop freaking out our resident Tersulles, please.
 
Tersulles looks up, and then hastily goes back to her pad.
 
}}
 
{{ heist (original) | 1=
 
INT. Gorgon Tower: training room - afternoon
 
A class is going on. It's a large room, but they're not really using the space: several apprentices are standing around a master Magi, DAMORIN. One apprentice, NISSA, is off the side, leaning against a wall.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
Hold the shape in your mind - picture it, know it, feel it.
 
A few of the apprentices look confused. A couple start making the shape of a ball with their hands. Nissa just remains as she is, watching.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
(nodding)
Now make the shape with your hands. Feel it fill them - guide the energy to become.
 
The apprentices shape out a ball. Some of their hands fill with light. One of them draws his light up and tries to throw it at the ceiling, but it fizzles out first. Another, ZHANA, has nothing happen for a bit, before her hands suddenly catch fire. She shakes them out, trying to get rid of the fire, and then starts screaming for help.
 
APPRENTICE ZHANA
Agh agh ow agh get it off get it off!
 
Damorin hurries over to the burning apprentice and grabs her hands, putting out the fire and healing them.
 
APPRENTICE ZHANA
(staring at her hands)
Ow.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
(turning toward Nissa)
Nissa?
 
Nissa holds up a finger and a point of light appears over it.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
Good.
 
He turns back to the others.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
Let's all try that again. Know what you want, and form the shape in your minds...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INT. Gorgon Tower: training room - late afternoon
 
Nissa turns around in surprise. Damorin has a hand on her shoulder, looking concerned.
 
The other apprentices are all gone.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
Are you well?
 
NISSA
Yeah, sure. What...
(she looks around)
How long was I...?
 
MASTER DAMORIN
The class just ended.
 
NISSA
Oh. Uh...
 
MASTER DAMORIN
What were you doing?
 
NISSA
(turning bright red and looking away)
Nothing. I... nothing.
 
Damorin frowns.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
I understand your desire to move on to more advanced magics, but the rules are the rules. You must complete your basic training.
 
NISSA
Why? I can do all this already. It's just... basic stuff. I could not show up at all and still ace the tests.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
But you do. And you must. For control.
 
NISSA
I have better control already than some of the advanced apprentices.
 
MASTER DAMORIN
True. But your impatience does you no credit, either.
 
NISSA
At least you understand. Some of the masters just get so mean about it. It's not my fault this all comes so naturally!
 
MASTER DAMORIN
You are a Magi, Nissa. Your power is your burden, and you must shoulder it as such. If your power is greater, then so your control must be even more so. Where others may scrape by with acceptables, you must exceed, or you place us all at risk. Do you understand?
 
NISSA
Uh...
 
MASTER DAMORIN
You don't need to follow the lessons exactly. But show up. Witness how the others learn. Practice yourself. That will still be worthwhile.
 
NISSA
For things I could do in my sleep? How can that...
 
An explosion shakes the tower, and a somewhat horrifying creak rumbles through its frame a moment after.
 
Nissa nearly falls over before quickly recovering herself. Damorin sticks out a hand to steady himself, and cocks his head.
 
NISSA
What was that?
 
MASTER DAMORIN
I don't sense anything.
 
NISSA
Warlocks?
 
Damorin gives Nissa a look, and then hurries off toward the door. He sweeps a hand in a circle off to his side, summoning a disk under him, which lifts him a bit off the ground.
 
Nissa runs up and hops on the disk as well as it carries him off.
 
 
INT. Gorgon Tower: exploded area - late afternoon
 
The area is somewhat exploded, with chunks of things and various whatnots around, but nothing terribly structural seems damaged. Wounded people are also around, with Magi healers tending to them. A few are outright dead.
 
Master Damorin and Nissa fly in through a window, Damorin standing confidently in place and Nissa sitting next to him clinging kind of desperately to his legs, totally ruining the effect.


NISSA
Damorin glides over toward some folks who don't seem so busy as the others. One of them is a bit singed.
Uh...


MASTER DAMORIN
MASTER DAMORIN
You don't need to follow the lessons exactly. But show up. Witness how the others learn. Practice yourself. That will still be worthwhile.
(stopping in front of them)
What happened here?


NISSA
Nissa stops clinging to his legs as soon as the disk stops.
For things I could do in my sleep? How can that...


An explosion shakes the tower, and a somewhat horrifying creak rumbles through its frame a moment after.
SINGED GUY
(gesturing really big with his arms)
Like boom.


Nissa nearly falls over before quickly recovering herself. Damorin sticks out a hand to steady himself, and cocks his head.
NISSA
We figured that much out already.


NISSA
SINGED GUY
What was that?
Well, like, I dunno. Everything was normal. And then boom.


MASTER DAMORIN
MASTER DAMORIN
I don't sense anything.
No sign of anything amiss prior? Anyone acting suspicious?
 
SINGED GUY
No, man, it was normal. Normal!


NISSA
NISSA
Warlocks?
Someone could have put an explosive down before and...
We're in the wrong place. This was just the distraction.


Damorin gives Nissa a look, and then hurries off toward the door. He sweeps a hand in a circle off to his side, summoning a disk under him, which lifts him a bit off the ground.
Damorin guides the disk on away from the others.


Nissa runs up and hops on the disk as well as it carries him off.
Nissa barely manages to avoid yelping and clinging to his legs again.


MASTER DAMORIN
I agree. But from what?


INT. Gorgon Tower: exploded area - late afternoon
NISSA
I dunno, if you were blowing up Gorgon Tower, what would you be trying to distract from?
What's rather distant from here and generally full of magi?


The area is somewhat exploded, with chunks of things and various whatnots around, but nothing terribly structural seems damaged. Wounded people are also around, with Magi healers tending to them. A few are outright dead.
MASTER DAMORIN
Many things, I fear.


Master Damorin and Nissa fly in through a window, Damorin standing confidently in place and Nissa sitting next to him clinging kind of desperately to his legs, totally ruining the effect.
NISSA
What is all that and has anything warlocks might be after?


Damorin glides over toward some folks who don't seem so busy as the others. One of them is a bit singed.
MASTER DAMORIN
Why do you suspect warlocks?


MASTER DAMORIN
NISSA
(stopping in front of them)
You don't sense anything, I don't. No intent, no malice. Nothing. Aaaaagh.
What happened here?
(she cowers down on the disk a bit, clinging to the edge)
It's like there's nobody here, and the only way you get that is if you're actively shielded. Why would anyone not magic shield themselves?


Nissa stops clinging to his legs as soon as the disk stops.
Damorin nods, but Nissa is not paying any attention whatsoever to him, and instead squeezing her eyes shut and barely managing to avoid panicking.


SINGED GUY
MASTER DAMORIN
(gesturing really big with his arms)
Very good.
Like boom.


NISSA
NISSA
We figured that much out already.
(opening an eye)
So that leaves a few obvious options, right? The council, the archives, engineering, that thing nobody ever talks about in Seres Tower.


SINGED GUY
MASTER DAMORIN
Well, like, I dunno. Everything was normal. And then boom.
Let's take a wild guess and check the archives.


MASTER DAMORIN
He zips the disk back out anther missing window.
No sign of anything amiss prior? Anyone acting suspicious?


SINGED GUY
Nissa shrieks and grabs his legs again.
No, man, it was normal. Normal!


NISSA
Someone could have put an explosive down before and...
We're in the wrong place. This was just the distraction.


Damorin guides the disk on away from the others.
EXT. Magi compound - evening
 
They fly out over the open air between towers, headed for an even taller, bigger tower, rising quickly to regain the height they'd previously lost. All of the Magi towers are much taller, fancier, and bigger than the surrounding city, but this one, the Atlas Tower, is the tallest of all.


Nissa barely manages to avoid yelping and clinging to his legs again.
It's a bit like Nissa's dream vision, but much windier, and for this she spends the entire time clinging to Damorin.


MASTER DAMORIN
Damorin raises a hand as they approach the Atlas Tower, and then opens a portal through the wall. They zip in through it and the portal closes behind them.
I agree. But from what?


NISSA
I dunno, if you were blowing up Gorgon Tower, what would you be trying to distract from?
What's rather distant from here and generally full of magi?


MASTER DAMORIN
INT. Atlas Tower: archives - evening
Many things, I fear.


NISSA
The archives look normal enough: shelves of books, scrolls, and other things cover the walls. Tables with terminals take up much of the rest of the space.
What is all that and has anything warlocks might be after?


MASTER DAMORIN
Damorin and Nissa glide in through one of the side rooms out into the main room, before Damorin finally dismisses the disk and drops back to the floor. Nissa falls on her arse and just sits there in relief for a moment, looking around.
Why do you suspect warlocks?


NISSA
NISSA
You don't sense anything, I don't. No intent, no malice. Nothing. Aaaaagh.
Well, nobody's here.
(she cowers down on the disk a bit, clinging to the edge)
It's like there's nobody here, and the only way you get that is if you're actively shielded. Why would anyone not magic shield themselves?


Damorin nods, but Nissa is not paying any attention whatsoever to him, and instead squeezing her eyes shut and barely managing to avoid panicking.
DAMORIN
Shh. Listen.
 
They stand and sit, respectively, in silence for a moment. The soft buzz of the terminals fills the silence, covering other sounds in the structure of the building: a vague creak as the structure shifts, sounds of mechanical parts, and plumbing. Footsteps in another room. Breathing: one heavy, one rapid, one perfectly, deadly calm. Another, slightly less calm. Heartbeats. A voice. The rapid one.
 
LIRIEN MAYASU
We're in, master.
 
Nissa glances up at Damorin inquiringly.


MASTER DAMORIN
MASTER DAMORIN
Very good.
They're here. Three of them.
(he glances down at Nissa, smiling slightly)
Warlocks.


NISSA
NISSA
(opening an eye)
(starting out kind of happy and then just sounding disappointed)
So that leaves a few obvious options, right? The council, the archives, engineering, that thing nobody ever talks about in Seres Tower.
Uh... oh.


MASTER DAMORIN
MASTER DAMORIN
Let's take a wild guess and check the archives.
You may follow, but stay back, and keep a shield ready.


He zips the disk back out anther missing window.
Damorin heads off toward the sounds.


Nissa shrieks and grabs his legs again.
Nissa follows after him, brightening up considerably.




EXT. Magi compound - evening
INT. Atlas Tower: collections - evening


They fly out over the open air between towers, headed for an even taller, bigger tower, rising quickly to regain the height they'd previously lost. All of the Magi towers are much taller, fancier, and bigger than the surrounding city, but this one, the Atlas Tower, is the tallest of all.


It's a bit like Nissa's dream vision, but much windier, and for this she spends the entire time clinging to Damorin.


Damorin raises a hand as they approach the Atlas Tower, and then opens a portal through the wall. They zip in through it and the portal closes behind them.
Lirien Mayasu is opening a case.


Yoishe is kneeling by the wall, holding herself perfectly still.


INT. Atlas Tower: archives - evening
Dazroth is holding a glowing blue sword to Yoishe's throat.


The archives look normal enough: shelves of books, scrolls, and other things cover the walls. Tables with terminals take up much of the rest of the space.
Horgon is standing a bit off to the side, holding a very large gun like a cherished child.


Damorin and Nissa glide in through one of the side rooms out into the main room, before Damorin finally dismisses the disk and drops back to the floor. Nissa falls on her arse and just sits there in relief for a moment, looking around.
Damorin stops at the doorway, and Horgon cheerfully points his gun at him.


NISSA
HORGON
Well, nobody's here.
(grinning)
Looks like it's a party!


DAMORIN
YOISHE
Shh. Listen.
Damorin...


They stand and sit, respectively, in silence for a moment. The soft buzz of the terminals fills the silence, covering other sounds in the structure of the building: a vague creak as the structure shifts, sounds of mechanical parts, and plumbing. Footsteps in another room. Breathing: one heavy, one rapid, one perfectly, deadly calm. Another, slightly less calm. Heartbeats. A voice. The rapid one.
Dazroth silences her by moving his blade slightly closer. A tendril of smoke rises off the edge.


LIRIEN MAYASU
DAZROTH
We're in, master.
Shhh, my sweet.
(to Damorin)
You would be wise to come no closer. Let us finish what we came to do, and there will be no more suffering.


Nissa glances up at Damorin inquiringly.
MASTER DAMORIN
And what is that, exactly?
 
Dazroth smiles slightly.


MASTER DAMORIN
Nissa pokes her head in around Damorin.
They're here. Three of them.
(he glances down at Nissa, smiling slightly)
Warlocks.


NISSA
NISSA
(starting out kind of happy and then just sounding disappointed)
Hi. Can I watch?
Uh... oh.
 
DAZROTH
Of course.


MASTER DAMORIN
MASTER DAMORIN
You may follow, but stay back, and keep a shield ready.
(warningly)
Nissa...


Damorin heads off toward the sounds.
NISSA
Hey, if he's fine with it...


Nissa follows after him, brightening up considerably.
Nissa scoots inside and stops a short distance from Lirien Mayasu.


NISSA
Whatcha doing?


INT. Atlas Tower: collections - evening
Horgon gives Nissa a considering look, and then points his gun at her, instead.


LIRIEN MAYASU
These cases are rigged to remove all items if they detect improper opening. I need to find the correct methods working backwards and then execute them exactly.


NISSA
By scoping it out with magic?


Lirien Mayasu is opening a case.
LIRIEN MAYASU
Yes.


Yoishe is kneeling by the wall, holding herself perfectly still.
NISSA
Cool.


Dazroth is holding a glowing blue sword to Yoishe's throat.
</screenplay>


Horgon is standing a bit off to the side, holding a very large gun like a cherished child.
}}


Damorin stops at the doorway, and Horgon cheerfully points his gun at him.
{{ Credit (original) | 1=


HORGON
<screenplay>
(grinning)
Looks like it's a party!


YOISHE
GUY
Damorin...
Sovereign. This may be of interest to you.


Dazroth silences her by moving his blade slightly closer. A tendril of smoke rises off the edge.
The guy holds out a golden card.


DAZROTH
RAHAH
Shhh, my sweet.
What is it?
(to Damorin)
You would be wise to come no closer. Let us finish what we came to do, and there will be no more suffering.


MASTER DAMORIN
GUY
And what is that, exactly?
Currency. Credit, specifically.


Dazroth smiles slightly.
He hands Rahah the card, and she turns it about, catching the light on it.


Nissa pokes her head in around Damorin.
GUY
You just tap that to pay, most places. Spend it on whatever you want. We have plenty.


NISSA
RAHAH
Hi. Can I watch?
How much is plenty?


DAZROTH
The guy smirks.
Of course.


MASTER DAMORIN
GUY
(warningly)
Plenty. Just... if you want to buy a planet or something, do let us know first, okay?
Nissa...


NISSA
Rahah looks at him in surprise, and then the card.
Hey, if he's fine with it...


Nissa scoots inside and stops a short distance from Lirien Mayasu.
Tersulles sighs disapprovingly.


NISSA
Whatcha doing?


Horgon gives Nissa a considering look, and then points his gun at her, instead.
</screenplay>


LIRIEN MAYASU
}}
These cases are rigged to remove all items if they detect improper opening. I need to find the correct methods working backwards and then execute them exactly.


NISSA
{{ Pick up job (original) | 1=
By scoping it out with magic?


LIRIEN MAYASU
<screenplay>
Yes.


NISSA
INT. Somewhat seedy restaurant - day
Cool.


</screenplay>
Rahah and Nissa sit down at a free table and look around a bit in bemusement.


A HOLOGRAM of a generic waitress pops up on the table.


HOLOGRAM
Anything to drink, ladies?


== Credit ==
RAHAH
Uh, yes. We'd like... drinks.


<screenplay>
NISSA
Yes.


GUY
HOLOGRAM
Sovereign. This may be of interest to you.
Could you please repeat that?
 
The guy holds out a golden card.


RAHAH
RAHAH
What is it?
Drinks.


GUY
HOLOGRAM
Currency. Credit, specifically.
Item is not found on the menu. Would you like a list of all available items?


He hands Rahah the card, and she turns it about, catching the light on it.
NISSA
Are any of them full of bees?


GUY
HOLOGRAM
You just tap that to pay, most places. Spend it on whatever you want. We have plenty.
Could you please repeat that?


RAHAH
A well-dressed but somewhat scarred man, COMNEN, slips into the spare seat.
How much is plenty?


The guy smirks.
COMNEN
I understand you have a job for me.


GUY
HOLOGRAM
Plenty. Just... if you want to buy a planet or something, do let us know first, okay?
Could you please repeat that?


Rahah looks at him in surprise, and then the card.
COMNEN
Shut up.


Tersulles sighs disapprovingly.
HOLOGRAM
Could you please repeat that?


COMNEN
Bottle of vodka and five glasses.


</screenplay>
HOLOGRAM
(brightly)
Coming right up!


NISSA
Five?


COMNEN
You have anyone else coming?


NISSA
No?


COMNEN
Oh. Well, whatever. You looking to hire me or not?


NISSA
Well, yeah, maybe.


RAHAH
You any good at transporting... questionable items?


COMNEN
You know that's basically my entire job description, right?
A totally legitimate transport enterprise, of course, but sometimes with problems. Solved. In the process.


== Pick up job ==
Nissa nods skeptically and looks at Rahah for help.


<screenplay>
RAHAH
Er, we don't really get out much.


INT. Somewhat seedy restaurant - day
COMNEN
And what exactly did you want me to do?


Rahah and Nissa sit down at a free table and look around a bit in bemusement.
NISSA
Pick up and transport.


A HOLOGRAM of a generic waitress pops up on the table.
COMNEN
 
And the problem?
HOLOGRAM
Anything to drink, ladies?


RAHAH
RAHAH
Uh, yes. We'd like... drinks.
The pickup is from the Atlas Tower of the Magi compound, and the transport is kind of in... Union space.


NISSA
Comnen stares at them blankly.
Yes.


HOLOGRAM
COMNEN
Could you please repeat that?
(finally)
What.


RAHAH
NISSA
Drinks.
We'll get the item to you. We simply need a pickup after.


HOLOGRAM
COMNEN
Item is not found on the menu. Would you like a list of all available items?
Wasn't there a... situation there not a few days ago? Some sort of robbery then too? Did that have anything to do with you?


NISSA
NISSA
Are any of them full of bees?
Why? Does this worry you?
 
HOLOGRAM
Could you please repeat that?
 
A well-dressed but somewhat scarred man, COMNEN, slips into the spare seat.


COMNEN
COMNEN
I understand you have a job for me.
Yes?


HOLOGRAM
RAHAH
Could you please repeat that?
It's okay. They like us there.


COMNEN
NISSA
Shut up.
No they don't.


HOLOGRAM
RAHAH
Could you please repeat that?
(giving Nissa an annoyed look)
Well, they like ''you''.
 
NISSA
(uncertainly)
Er...


COMNEN
Rahah gives her a worried look.
Bottle of vodka and five glasses.


HOLOGRAM
RAHAH
(brightly)
Okay, look. The initial thing wasn't us, wasn't even related to us. This is just another thing. You show up, pick us up. If we don't show up in an hour...
Coming right up!
(she turns to Nissa)
It is an hour, right?


NISSA
NISSA
Five?
Huh?


COMNEN
RAHAH
You have anyone else coming?
The parking permits. They're an hour, right?


NISSA
NISSA
No?
Oh, yeah.
 
(to Comnen; catching on)
COMNEN
You'll have a permit and stuff. Just show up, park, and we'll come out to you. If we don't come out before it expires, just leave.
Oh. Well, whatever. You looking to hire me or not?
 
NISSA
Well, yeah, maybe.


RAHAH
RAHAH
You any good at transporting... questionable items?
Perfectly legal.


COMNEN
COMNEN
You know that's basically my entire job description, right?
How are you getting me a parking permit, exactly?
A totally legitimate transport enterprise, of course, but sometimes with problems. Solved. In the process.
 
Nissa nods skeptically and looks at Rahah for help.


RAHAH
RAHAH
Er, we don't really get out much.
Let us sort that out.


COMNEN
COMNEN
And what exactly did you want me to do?
No, really. Not everyone on my crew is strictly legal, if you know what I mean, so it's going to have to be a real permit.


NISSA
NISSA
Pick up and transport.
No, no, it's real. We're Magi. Sort of. It'll work. I mean, it might be stolen, but...
 
Comnen sighs.


COMNEN
COMNEN
And the problem?
(skeptically)
Do you even have credit?
 
Nissa looks at Rahah uncertainly.


RAHAH
RAHAH
The pickup is from the Atlas Tower of the Magi compound, and the transport is kind of in... Union space.
Yes.
 
Comnen stares at them blankly.


COMNEN
COMNEN
(finally)
I'll need 50 thousand.
What.


NISSA
RAHAH
We'll get the item to you. We simply need a pickup after.
Okay.


COMNEN
COMNEN
Wasn't there a... situation there not a few days ago? Some sort of robbery then too? Did that have anything to do with you?
Half of that up front.
 
RAHAH
That's fine.


NISSA
Nissa gapes.
Why? Does this worry you?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Yes?
(surprised)
Well. Then I suppose we have ourselves a deal.


RAHAH
</screenplay>
It's okay. They like us there.


NISSA
}}
No they don't.


RAHAH
{{ Pickup (original) | 1=
(giving Nissa an annoyed look)
Well, they like ''you''.


NISSA
<screenplay>
(uncertainly)
Er...


Rahah gives her a worried look.
INT. Atlas Tower: collections - morning


RAHAH
Okay, look. The initial thing wasn't us, wasn't even related to us. This is just another thing. You show up, pick us up. If we don't show up in an hour...
(she turns to Nissa)
It is an hour, right?


NISSA
Huh?


RAHAH
The parking permits. They're an hour, right?


NISSA
EXT. Atlas Tower: lot - morning
Oh, yeah.
(to Comnen; catching on)
You'll have a permit and stuff. Just show up, park, and we'll come out to you. If we don't come out before it expires, just leave.


RAHAH
Comnen is standing outside his ship, having a smoke. A ROBED MAGI approaches him.
Perfectly legal.


COMNEN
ROBED MAGI
How are you getting me a parking permit, exactly?
Evening.
 
RAHAH
Let us sort that out.


COMNEN
COMNEN
No, really. Not everyone on my crew is strictly legal, if you know what I mean, so it's going to have to be a real permit.
Hey.


NISSA
ROBED MAGI
No, no, it's real. We're Magi. Sort of. It'll work. I mean, it might be stolen, but...
What brings you here?
 
Comnen sighs.


COMNEN
COMNEN
(skeptically)
Job.
Do you even have credit?


Nissa looks at Rahah uncertainly.
ROBED MAGI
Oh?


RAHAH
Comnen shrugs.
Yes.


COMNEN
COMNEN
I'll need 50 thousand.
Didn't ask.


RAHAH
The Magi nods and goes a bit past to look out over the view. There's a view.
Okay.


COMNEN
The door to the Atlas tower opens and Rahah and Nissa run out, Nissa manhandling a large floating crate, and Rahah lagging a bit behind.
Half of that up front.


RAHAH
The door closes behind them, and then reopens a moment later.
That's fine.


Nissa gapes.
A RUNNING MAGI comes out after them.


COMNEN
RAHAH
(surprised)
Shit shit shit shit shit!
Well. Then I suppose we have ourselves a deal.


</screenplay>
Rahah runs faster, getting ahead of Nissa, and then, weaving her arms over her head, casts to hurl the crate up and over them at Comnen.


== Pickup ==
The running Magi chasing them throws a ball of lightning, which Rahah ducks.


<screenplay>
COMNEN
(backing up)
What the...


INT. Atlas Tower: collections - morning
The crate nearly hits a the ground a few meters in front of him, before its levitating supports get it back up again, and it slides toward him.


RUNNING MAGI
Hey!


The robed Magi stops the crate with a wave of his hand, draws his sword, and advances on Rahah and Nissa.


ROBED MAGI
Stop.


EXT. Atlas Tower: lot - morning
NISSA
(slowing)
Oh crap...


Comnen is standing outside his ship, having a smoke. A ROBED MAGI approaches him.
Rahah pulls out one of her weapons and makes a sword with it as well, not stopping.


ROBED MAGI
Comnent pulls an earpiece out of his pocket and hastily puts it on.
Evening.


COMNEN
COMNEN
Hey.
Sokar. Sokar?


ROBED MAGI
He fiddles at the earpiece a bit.
What brings you here?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Job.
(backing toward his ship)
Sokar!
...fuck. Right.


ROBED MAGI
The robed Magi stops and gestures a symbol in the air in front of him, and a beam of light spears down out of the sky at Rahah.
Oh?


Comnen shrugs.
The running Magi chasing them nearly grabs Nissa, but she twists away and retaliates with a blast of pure force, shoving the Magi back.


COMNEN
NISSA
Didn't ask.
(recoiling)
...oh gods. I just did that. I just did that!


The Magi nods and goes a bit past to look out over the view. There's a view.
Rahah holds her sword up over he head, turning it into a shield, which absorbs the force of the beam as she runs through it.


The door to the Atlas tower opens and Rahah and Nissa run out, Nissa manhandling a large floating crate, and Rahah lagging a bit behind.
COMNEN
(yelling at Nissa)
Hey, girl! Get your crate!


The door closes behind them, and then reopens a moment later.
Comnen turns and runs into the ship.


A RUNNING MAGI comes out after them.
Nissa startles and recovers herself, finds the crate, and runs for that, instead.


RAHAH
The robed Magi moves to block Nissa's path, but Rahah jumps at him, drawing her other weapon too, attacking all out with two double-bladed swords, forcing him to fend her off instead. He parries and ripostes with his sword, and then knocks Rahah back with a blast of energy when she blocks with one of her swords.
Shit shit shit shit shit!


Rahah runs faster, getting ahead of Nissa, and then, weaving her arms over her head, casts to hurl the crate up and over them at Comnen.
Rahah shoots at him instead, and dances around him as he whips a chain of crackling lightning at her, still guarding with his sword.


The running Magi chasing them throws a ball of lightning, which Rahah ducks.
ROBED MAGI
Stop this nonsense. I have no wish to harm you.


COMNEN
RAHAH
(backing up)
Yeah, well...
What the...


The crate nearly hits a the ground a few meters in front of him, before its levitating supports get it back up again, and it slides toward him.
Rahah jumps back, swinging the swords at him and turning them on and off as needed, but he deflects each attack with a flick of his fingers.


RUNNING MAGI
Nissa gets to the crate and shoves it back toward the ship, and then gives chase after it.
Hey!


The robed Magi stops the crate with a wave of his hand, draws his sword, and advances on Rahah and Nissa.
The robed Magi jumps toward Nissa, and Rahah jumps in front of him, blocking his path, swinging her swords in tandem. He knocks the blades aside unnaturally quickly with his own sword, and turns it into a thrust right at her, which she blocks with one, but only barely. He presses the advantage, pushing both his sword and Rahah's plasma blade closer to her face. She turns off her spare and braces it against the other in attempt to push back.


ROBED MAGI
Nissa shoves the crate up the ramp into the ship, just as it starts to take off, and jumps onto the ramp after it.
Stop.


NISSA
NISSA
(slowing)
Rahah!
Oh crap...


Rahah pulls out one of her weapons and makes a sword with it as well, not stopping.
Rahah dodges to the side, letting the sword fall past her, and then swings back at the Magi as he comes around for another one-handed swing as well, black flames tricking down his free hand, and a series of impossible swings and parries and blocks ensue as the flames begin to build.


Comnent pulls an earpiece out of his pocket and hastily puts it on.
Nissa gathers up a ball of swirling energies in her own hands as the ship continues to slowly rise.


COMNEN
NISSA
Sokar. Sokar?
(insistently)
RAHAH!


He fiddles at the earpiece a bit.
Rahah jumps up, sailing into the air, and the Magi throws the black flames after her. She casts her swords out to the sides, forming the blades into a shield around her even as she continues to rise, and the flames hit a moment later, exploding over this bubble.


COMNEN
Nissa hurls her own ball of energy down at the Magi, and he drops to the ground, covering himself in a shield. The running Magi hurries toward him.
(backing toward his ship)
Sokar!
...fuck. Right.


The robed Magi stops and gestures a symbol in the air in front of him, and a beam of light spears down out of the sky at Rahah.
Nissa grabs Rahah and yanks her onto the the ship's cargo ramp as well, and they run inside.


The running Magi chasing them nearly grabs Nissa, but she twists away and retaliates with a blast of pure force, shoving the Magi back.


NISSA
INT. Shades Softly: cargo hold
(recoiling)
...oh gods. I just did that. I just did that!


Rahah holds her sword up over he head, turning it into a shield, which absorbs the force of the beam as she runs through it.
Nissa and Rahah find themselves in a cargo hold full of random stuff, past an inner door for the airlock. The crate has bonked into a heap of stuff and stopped.


COMNEN
COMNEN
(yelling at Nissa)
(over the intercom)
Hey, girl! Get your crate!
Are you idiots on? If so, shut the door and get up here!


Comnen turns and runs into the ship.
RAHAH
(putting her weapons away)
What?


Nissa startles and recovers herself, finds the crate, and runs for that, instead.
Nissa bonks a large button by the door, and the door closes and the ramp retracts.


The robed Magi moves to block Nissa's path, but Rahah jumps at him, drawing her other weapon too, attacking all out with two double-bladed swords, forcing him to fend her off instead. He parries and ripostes with his sword, and then knocks Rahah back with a blast of energy when she blocks with one of her swords.
NISSA
(sounding resigned)
This way, I think.


Rahah shoots at him instead, and dances around him as he whips a chain of crackling lightning at her, still guarding with his sword.


ROBED MAGI
INT. Shades Softly: cockpit
Stop this nonsense. I have no wish to harm you.


RAHAH
The cockpit is a cockpit with windows, screens, and consoles. A pilot and copilot seat are in front, with two seats behind them. Comnen is in the pilot seat, taking the ship rapidly up into the upper atmosphere.
Yeah, well...
 
COMNEN
Nice of you to join us. Now strap yourselves in before things start to get interesting, eh?


Rahah jumps back, swinging the swords at him and turning them on and off as needed, but he deflects each attack with a flick of his fingers.
NISSA
(taking the seat behind him)
Interesting how?


Nissa gets to the crate and shoves it back toward the ship, and then gives chase after it.
Rahah takes the copilot seat and tries to figure out the buckles for a moment before getting it.


The robed Magi jumps toward Nissa, and Rahah jumps in front of him, blocking his path, swinging her swords in tandem. He knocks the blades aside unnaturally quickly with his own sword, and turns it into a thrust right at her, which she blocks with one, but only barely. He presses the advantage, pushing both his sword and Rahah's plasma blade closer to her face. She turns off her spare and braces it against the other in attempt to push back.
COMNEN
No way your Magi friends aren't reporting that. We have a few minutes, maybe, but... ever run from cops, girls?


Nissa shoves the crate up the ramp into the ship, just as it starts to take off, and jumps onto the ramp after it.
They slip into a lane of ship traffic headed offworld.


NISSA
NISSA
Rahah!
Er... no?
 
RAHAH
Is it fun?


Rahah dodges to the side, letting the sword fall past her, and then swings back at the Magi as he comes around for another one-handed swing as well, black flames tricking down his free hand, and a series of impossible swings and parries and blocks ensue as the flames begin to build.
COMNEN
(yawning)
Tremendously.


Nissa gathers up a ball of swirling energies in her own hands as the ship continues to slowly rise.
They get further out into space without much issue over the next few minutes. Comnen mostly just sits there letting the ship drive itself.


NISSA
NISSA
(insistently)
Rahah?
RAHAH!


Rahah jumps up, sailing into the air, and the Magi throws the black flames after her. She casts her swords out to the sides, forming the blades into a shield around her even as she continues to rise, and the flames hit a moment later, exploding over this bubble.
RAHAH
Hmm?


Nissa hurls her own ball of energy down at the Magi, and he drops to the ground, covering himself in a shield. The running Magi hurries toward him.
NISSA
How screwed are we?


Nissa grabs Rahah and yanks her onto the the ship's cargo ramp as well, and they run inside.
RAHAH
Well, as much as my people aren't going to be terribly happy about this, we did just formally break off all relations anyway. Yours are probably going to be double annoyed.


An incoming transmission causes something to notify, and Comnen flicks the button to turn it on.


INT. Shades Softly: cargo hold
TRANSMISSION PERSON
 
Transport address e695.db43.2158, you are recorded and registered for illegal activities. Return to port now for proccessing.
Nissa and Rahah find themselves in a cargo hold full of random stuff, past an inner door for the airlock. The crate has bonked into a heap of stuff and stopped.


COMNEN
COMNEN
(over the intercom)
(bonking at the button)
Are you idiots on? If so, shut the door and get up here!
Ah, shut up.


RAHAH
TRANSMISSION PERSON
(putting her weapons away)
Transport address e695.db43.2158, excuse me? Return to port, or you will be disabled. This is your final warning.
What?


Nissa bonks a large button by the door, and the door closes and the ramp retracts.
COMNEN
Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit the wrong button? What I meant to say was...
(he leans really close to the mic)
GO FUCK YOURSELF. WITH A FISH.
 
Comnen hits the correct button this time, silencing the comms.


NISSA
NISSA
(sounding resigned)
(scrunching up a bit, uncertainly)
This way, I think.
Er... that... shouldn't we do what they say? They know the ship, there's not...


COMNEN
(leaning forward and shooting them out of traffic)
The fuck you hire me for? This is normal. Rejig the paint, set a new registry address and they'll never know it's us. Course we need to get out of their worlds first, buuut...


INT. Shades Softly: cockpit
The police boats start shooting at them, and Comnen dances the ship about, evading.


The cockpit is a cockpit with windows, screens, and consoles. A pilot and copilot seat are in front, with two seats behind them. Comnen is in the pilot seat, taking the ship rapidly up into the upper atmosphere.
NISSA
What, it's that easy?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Nice of you to join us. Now strap yourselves in before things start to get interesting, eh?
(sarcastically)
Sure, if you know what you're doing! And can even get really unlucky...


NISSA
His words are punctuated by an explosion as something actually on the ship gets hit.
(taking the seat behind him)
Interesting how?
 
Rahah takes the copilot seat and tries to figure out the buckles for a moment before getting it.


COMNEN
COMNEN
No way your Magi friends aren't reporting that. We have a few minutes, maybe, but... ever run from cops, girls?
(wincing)
...and wind up with a registered bad one.


They slip into a lane of ship traffic headed offworld.
A crew of some sort, CITHANDRA, pokes her head in as Comnen wheels the ship about in yet another direction.


NISSA
CITHANDRA
Er... no?
Boss, did I just hear a...
 
(she notices Rahah and Nissa)
RAHAH
Who are these... people?
Is it fun?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(yawning)
(yanking the ship in another direction)
Tremendously.
Job, Cith!


They get further out into space without much issue over the next few minutes. Comnen mostly just sits there letting the ship drive itself.
CITHANDRA
(barely clinging to the doorframe)
And you didn't think to possibly consult your crew before endangering us all?


NISSA
COMNEN
Rahah?
They had a parking permit. Didn't seem that dangerous.


RAHAH
CITHANDRA
Hmm?
(sarcastically)
Oh, well if they had a parking permit...


NISSA
COMNEN
How screwed are we?
(he glances at the monitors before choosing the next dodge)
'Sides, I didn't want to wake you.


RAHAH
Comnen is still flying very erratically, while the police boats continue to try to shoot them down.
Well, as much as my people aren't going to be terribly happy about this, we did just formally break off all relations anyway. Yours are probably going to be double annoyed.


An incoming transmission causes something to notify, and Comnen flicks the button to turn it on.
Cithandra loses her hold momentarily and winds up half-sitting on Nissa. She grabs onto Comnen's chair instead.


TRANSMISSION PERSON
CITHANDRA
Transport address e695.db43.2158, you are witnessed and registered for illegal activities. Return to port now for proccessing.
You really thought this flying, and I shudder to even call it that, you thought it wouldn't wake everyone on board?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(bonking at the button)
Dammit, Cith, can we have this conversation some other time? Say, when I'm NOT trying to keep us all from getting killed.
Ah, shut up.
And sit down, for fuck's sake. Inertial dampening's only so good.
 
He drives them on in squiggles, vaguely approaching another large planet.


TRANSMISSION PERSON
Another crewmember, JONAS, yells from somewhere further back in the ship:
Transport address e695.db43.2158, excuse me? Return to port, or you will be disabled. This is your final warning.


COMNEN
JONAS
Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit the wrong button? What I meant to say was...
Ey, what is going on?!
(he leans really close to the mic)
 
GO FUCK YOURSELF. WITH A FISH.
Someone else yells something incoherent.


Comnen hits the correct button this time, silencing the comms.
Cithandra manages to get herself into the remaining seat, and activates the ship-wide intercom.


NISSA
CITHANDRA
(scrunching up a bit, uncertainly)
Everyone, please remain calm and strap yourselves in. It seems we've taken a job, and as long as we don't all die from it first...
Er... that... shouldn't we do what they say? They know the ship, there's not...
(she shoots Comnen an irate look)
...things should calm down shortly. And then we'll get paid.
(turning off the intercom)
Also we should probably pick up the rest of the crew before we leave, yes?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(leaning forward and shooting them out of traffic)
One thing at a time!
Nah, this happens sometimes. Rejig the paint, set a new registry address and they'll never know it's us. Course we need to get out of their worlds first, buuut...


The police boats start shooting at them, and Comnen dances the ship about, evading.
He takes them into the planet's rings, dodging hunks of rock and ice and... other things at very alarming speed. Stuff blurrs past as they zig and zag between things.


NISSA
NISSA
What, it's that easy?
How are you not hitting everything?!


COMNEN
COMNEN
(sarcastically)
(pulling his hands off the console)
Sure, if you know what you're doing! And can even get really unlucky...
Magic!


His words are punctuated by an explosion as something actually on the ship gets hit.
CITHANDRA
That's not him. That's the Shades doing it.
We solid, boss?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(wincing)
If we see anything big enough, yeah...
...and wind up with a registered bad one.


A crew of some sort, CITHANDRA, pokes her head in as Comnen wheels the ship about in yet another direction.
RAHAH
(pointing a bit to the side)
There.


CITHANDRA
COMNEN
Boss, did I just hear a...
What? Where?
(she notices Rahah and Nissa)
Who are these... people?


COMNEN
RAHAH
(yanking the ship in another direction)
You just need something bigger than the ship, right?
Job, Cith!
47 seconds, 18 degrees off, no, 23 degrees off...


CITHANDRA
Comnen gives her a skeptical look, but directs the ship in the general direction.
(barely clinging to the doorframe)
And you didn't think to possibly consult your crew before endangering us all?


COMNEN
COMNEN
They had a parking permit. Didn't seem that dangerous.
Ah, I see it.
(gesturing)
On my mark, hit that button.


CITHANDRA
They squiggle a bit around things, and then a rock slightly bigger than the ship suddenly looms up in front of them and they rapidly slow.
(sarcastically)
Oh, well if they had a parking permit...


COMNEN
COMNEN
(he glances at the monitors before choosing the next dodge)
Mark!
'Sides, I didn't want to wake you.
 
Rahah smacks the button, and the rock explodes in front of them.


Comnen is still flying very erratically, while the police boats continue to try to shoot them down.
Comnen yanks the ship to a stop.


Cithandra loses her hold momentarily and winds up half-sitting on Nissa. She grabs onto Comnen's chair instead.
Cithandra pulls a lever, and the ship suddenly goes dark, everything turning off all at once. Even the artificial gravity goes off, though a few minor things stay on.


CITHANDRA
KHALEMI
You really thought this flying, and I shudder to even call it that, you thought it wouldn't wake everyone on board?
(over the intercom)
Boss? What in the world is going on?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Dammit, Cith, can we have this conversation some other time? Say, when I'm NOT trying to keep us all from getting killed.
(replying)
And sit down, for fuck's sake. Inertial dampening's only so good.
Oh, nothing, my dear, just evading the law of the worlds.


He drives them on in squiggles, vaguely approaching another large planet.
Cithandra unclasps her seatbelt and heads back into the rest of the ship, guiding herself along expertly.
 
KHALEMI
(over the intercom)
Should I put out some bots?


Another crewmember, JONAS, yells from somewhere further back in the ship:
Comnen sighs, considering.


JONAS
COMNEN
Ey, what is going on?!
Yeah, give us a full scrub. Let's go with... Destiny's Reach.


Someone else yells something incoherent.
KHALEMI
(over the intercom)
I'm on it.


Cithandra manages to get herself into the remaining seat, and activates the ship-wide intercom.
Comnen turns and starts typing at a red screen. The ship is totally dark around them.


CITHANDRA
RAHAH
Everyone, please remain calm and strap yourselves in. It seems we've taken a job, and as long as we don't all die from it first...
So... now what?
(she shoots Comnen an irate look)
...things should calm down shortly. And then we'll get paid.
(turning off the intercom)
Also we should probably pick up the rest of the crew before we leave, yes?


COMNEN
COMNEN
One thing at a time!
Now we wait. Khalemi's going to put out some bots to scrub the hull, make us look like a different ship, and I'll reset the registry address, and then...
 
(he gestures vaguely with a hand)
He takes them into the planet's rings, dodging hunks of rock and ice and... other things at very alarming speed. Stuff blurrs past as they zig and zag between things.
Sooner or later someone not cops'll come near here, we follow them out, essentially.


NISSA
NISSA
How are you not hitting everything?!
Sooner or later? So how... long does that usually take?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(pulling his hands off the console)
Usually under a week. Give or take.
Magic!


CITHANDRA
NISSA
That's not him. That's the Shades doing it.
What?!
We solid, boss?
 
COMNEN
If we see anything big enough, yeah...


RAHAH
RAHAH
(pointing a bit to the side)
We really don't have that kind of time.
There.


COMNEN
COMNEN
What? Where?
That's how long it takes. If we want to get out of this system, we have to look legitimate, and that means not randomly coming out of these rings right after the ''same kind of ship'' just illegally went in and supposedly exploded.


RAHAH
NISSA
You just need something bigger than the ship, right?
(standing up)
47 seconds, 18 degrees off, no, 23 degrees off...
I have a better idea.


Comnen gives her a skeptical look, but directs the ship in the general direction.


COMNEN
Ah, I see it.
(gesturing)
On my mark, hit that button.


They squiggle a bit around things, and then a rock slightly bigger than the ship suddenly looms up in front of them and they rapidly slow.


COMNEN
NISSA
Mark!
Hidden. They will not be able to find us with their technology, or their eyes.


Rahah smacks the button, and the rock explodes in front of them.


Comnen yanks the ship to a stop.


Cithandra pulls a lever, and the ship suddenly goes dark, everything turning off all at once. Even the artificial gravity goes off, though a few minor things stay on.


KHALEMI
(over the intercom)
Boss? What in the world is going on?


COMNEN
COMNEN
(replying)
(over the intercom)
Oh, nothing, my dear, just evading the law of the worlds.
New plan, kids. Get the basic scrub done and make sure you're all on floor in ten minutes, and we're heading out.
 
Cithandra unclasps her seatbelt and heads back into the rest of the ship, guiding herself along expertly.


KHALEMI
KHALEMI
(over the intercom)
(over the intercom)
Should I put out some bots?
Have you been eating those beans again?
 
 


Comnen sighs, considering.


COMNEN
Yeah, give us a full scrub. Let's go with... Destiny's Reach.


KHALEMI
(over the intercom)
I'm on it.


Comnen turns and starts typing at a red screen. The ship is totally dark around them.


RAHAH
CITHANDRA
So... now what?
(to Comnen)
And you didn't think it was perhaps relevant that the ones hiring you were Magi? That that might make things a little more dangerous?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Now we wait. Khalemi's going to put out some bots to scrub the hull, make us look like a different ship, and I'll reset the registry address, and then...
Why would that possibly make things more dangerous in Commonwealth space?!
(he gestures vaguely with a hand)
 
Sooner or later someone not cops'll come near here, we follow them out, essentially.
Cithandra just stares at him.


NISSA
CITHANDRA
Sooner or later? So how... long does that usually take?
You mean besides what just happened?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Usually under a week. Give or take.
Well I didn't exactly expect that.


NISSA
NISSA
What?!
(holding up a hand)
For the record? Neither did we.


RAHAH
RAHAH
We really don't have that kind of time.
Honestly had me or that Magi not been trying desperately to not actually kill each other, one or both of us would probably be dead.
 
NISSA
Er, what?


COMNEN
RAHAH
That's how long it takes. If we want to get out of this system, we have to look legitimate, and that means not randomly coming out of these rings right after the ''same kind of ship'' just illegally went in and supposedly exploded.
I mean, I'm totally rubbish in a real-life fight, but flailing madly has won me a few even in-game, so...
You got two dumarses attacking each other with magics and swords and weird-arse other things, how in the world could that possibly end well for either if they're actually trying to kill each other? Think about it.


NISSA
NISSA
(standing up)
What were you trying to do?
I have a better idea.


RAHAH
Distract him.


NISSA
And him?


RAHAH
Stop me from doing something really regretable, probably.


NISSA
NISSA
Hidden. They will not be able to find us with their technology, or their eyes.
So basically we just pissed off the good guys. For no real reason.


RAHAH
Possibly. We'll have to see what's even in the box first, of course...


COMNEN
You don't know?!






COMNEN
(over the intercom)
New plan, kids. Get the basic scrub done and make sure you're all on floor in ten minutes, and we're heading out.


KHALEMI
Union space
(over the intercom)
Have you been eating those beans again?




Line 1,403: Line 1,821:




They open the box. A glowing, not quite right object is inside. It looks a bit like a glassy seed.


 
They all sort of stare at it a bit.
CITHANDRA
(to Comnen)
And you didn't think it was perhaps relevant that the ones hiring you were Magi? That that might make things a little more dangerous?


COMNEN
COMNEN
Why would that possibly make things more dangerous in Commonwealth space?!
So what is it?


Cithandra just stares at him.
RAHAH
I have no idea.


CITHANDRA
NISSA
You mean besides what just happened?
It's a seed.


COMNEN
JONAS
Well I didn't exactly expect that.
A glowing one.


NISSA
NISSA
(holding up a hand)
A glowing seed.
For the record? Neither did we.
 


RAHAH
Honestly had me or that Magi not been trying desperately to not actually kill each other, one or both of us would probably be dead.


NISSA
Er, what?


RAHAH
</screenplay>
I mean, I'm totally rubbish in a real-life fight, but flailing madly has won me a few even in-game, so...
You got two dumarses attacking each other with magics and swords and weird-arse other things, how in the world could that possibly end well for either if they're actually trying to kill each other? Think about it.


NISSA
}}
What were you trying to do?


RAHAH
{{ Infected hand (original?) | 1=
Distract him.


NISSA
<screenplay>
And him?
DAZROTH
Don't touch him directly. The contagion may spread.


RAHAH
RAHAH
Stop me from doing something really regretable, probably.
Right. But if it's magical in origin, could not magicking it do the same?


NISSA
DAZROTH
So basically we just pissed off the good guys. For no real reason.
Do you not use safeguards?


RAHAH
RAHAH
Possibly. We'll have to see what's even in the box first, of course...
(a bit surprised, but quickly covering)
They may only work against known vectors.


SANTANA
That's a good point, really. We still don't know how the plague was spreading.


The others start discussing this.


Union space
RAHAH
(quietly)
Comnen, were you shielded?


COMNEN
Yeah. I thought you said this would protect me? That stuff went right through it!


RAHAH
What happened? Was there a flash or anything?


COMNEN
(shaking his head)
It went all dark. Just all over. And then my hand...


RAHAH
Hrnng...


They open the box. A glowing, not quite right object is inside. It looks a bit like a glassy seed.
Rahah takes his affected hand at a distance, holding it up by magic, and inspecting it, indirectly, with more of the same.


They all sort of stare at it a bit.
The discussion around the rest of the cubicle dies down a bit as folks watch.


COMNEN
COMNEN
So what is it?
Well?


RAHAH
RAHAH
I have no idea.
I... have no idea.


NISSA
DAZROTH
It's a seed.
Not related to the plague?


JONAS
RAHAH
A glowing one.
It's unlike anything I've ever seen.


NISSA
Comnen manages to avoid snarking at this, but only barely.
A glowing seed.


RAHAH
It's like...


But though she clearly recognises something, she doesn't finish the thought, instead hastilly dropping Comnen's hand and leaning away.


</screenplay>


</screenplay>
}}


== Infected hand ==
{{ Hopeless (original) | 1=


<screenplay>
<screenplay>
DAZROTH
Don't touch him directly. The contagion may spread.


RAHAH
COMNEN
Right. But if it's magical in origin, could not magicking it do the same?
(turning to the guy behind him)
Agh, these people are hopeless.
 
The guy behind him turns out to be Dazroth.


DAZROTH
DAZROTH
Do you not use safeguards?
Now you know how I feel.


RAHAH
COMNEN
(a bit surprised, but quickly covering)
Er... sorry.
They may only work against known vectors.
 
</screenplay>


SANTANA
}}
That's a good point, really. We still don't know how the plague was spreading.


The others start discussing this.
{{ End thing (original) | 1=


RAHAH
<screenplay>
(quietly)
Comnen, were you shielded?


COMNEN
A courier hands a package to Rahah and leaves.
Yeah. I thought you said this would protect me? That stuff went right through it!


RAHAH
Rahah opens it. It's some sort of note, and she skims through it quickly.
What happened? Was there a flash or anything?


COMNEN
Nissa leans over.
(shaking his head)
It went all dark. Just all over. And then my hand...


RAHAH
RAHAH
Hrnng...
It's from Dazroth.


Rahah takes his affected hand at a distance, holding it up by magic, and inspecting it, indirectly, with more of the same.
NISSA
What is it?


The discussion around the rest of the cubicle dies down a bit as folks watch.
RAHAH
(handing the note to Nissa)
An invitation.
 
</screenplay>


COMNEN
}}
Well?


RAHAH
I... have no idea.


DAZROTH
{{ Metadata | 1=
Not related to the plague?


RAHAH
Characters:
It's unlike anything I've ever seen.


Comnen manages to avoid snarking at this, but only barely.
* Rahah
** telekinesis
** weapons - swords, blasts, shield
** very basic magic
** slight foresight
* Nissa Velei
** general magic, but especially explosions, blasts, bursts
** ???
** Maths!


RAHAH
It's like...
But though she clearly recognises something, she doesn't finish the thought, instead hastilly dropping Comnen's hand and leaning away.
</screenplay>
== Hopeless ==
<screenplay>
COMNEN
(turning to the guy behind him)
Agh, these people are hopeless.
The guy behind him turns out to be Dazroth.
DAZROTH
Now you know how I feel.
COMNEN
Er... sorry.
</screenplay>
== End thing ==
<screenplay>
A courier hands a package to Rahah and leaves.
Rahah opens it. It's some sort of note, and she skims through it quickly.
Nissa leans over.
RAHAH
It's from Dazroth.
NISSA
What is it?
RAHAH
(handing the note to Nissa)
An invitation.
</screenplay>


Party:


* Tersulles (arb)
* Keke Ama


* Amanstani
* Lhorys
* Tajira Los


* Aa
* Tenenbaume
* Varras
* Tull
* Sjerdami (Rahah)




Arbcom:


== Metadata ==
* Veloriun Comb - guy blowing bubbles
* Masassa Anali - possibly the chair
* Tersulles
* Shichiri Miusuke
* Hadallis Ran Akore
* Naije - a cat
* Kanunn
* Jerdalim


Characters:
* Rahah
** telekinesis
** weapons - swords, blasts, shield
** very basic magic
** slight foresight
* Nissa Velei
** general magic, but especially explosions, blasts, bursts
** ???
** passive ability to cause people to like her for no apparent reason (often causes the opposite reaction if they actually notice)


Crew:
Crew:
Line 1,623: Line 2,014:
* Horgon
* Horgon
* Lirien Mayasu
* Lirien Mayasu
}}
}}

Latest revision as of 23:52, 27 August 2018

The Job

The job: heist, some item/artifact

  • held by powerful folks with lots of resources in vaults/with securtiy, need to infiltrate things, can get in past open floors of museum/casino/staging area/whatever
  • folks might be the Magi, but probably aren't, because that would really complicate things later and also they really like keeping things in-house and thus would be rather hard to infiltrate. Probably some random other gang or corporation, or an operation by a specific bureau.
  • have plan for getting past security, need to get crew/get rest of crew back from random holidays or out of prison or another totally random job they were already doing, or stuff, and figure out the details of everything else
  • job is kind of sudden and high priority and they need to beat anyone else there

The opening: planning and all the stuff to actually do the heist

  • They do the heist. They make it in. There's some unnecessary drama about all the over the top security, and some conflict with head of security guy.
  • The item is already gone, head of security guy shows up absolutely pissed and everyone expects him to arrest them, but then he turns out to have been their totally adorable mechanic Khalemi, and their other inside source all along. Is absolutely pissed that she fucked up the security, because she was actually trying to make it good specifically so this wouldn't happen. Everyone is a bit surprised, because the security guy was actually some pretty good acting on her part, and also why was it a guy?!

Ensue: the plot. Hunting down the folks who stole the item. It's important, yo. Brains of their opperations, criminal mastermind Cithandra, won't say why, but it is, and they need to get it back. Things go sideways at some point. Comnen, usual point guy, talky person, swagger and all that, gets taken out of the running, and Cithandra has to take direct control of everything and more than being a general mastermind, turns out to be really, really scary as direct boss. Also really suave and sophisticated. But scary-like.

Somehow they get Comnen back. Hijinks ensue throuhout. Sokar does his thing taking random side jobs all the way through, which turns out to be a really good cover at least two times in a row when security people ask them just what the fuck they're doing here.

Ending: they get the item.

  • Item is a key to a vault of scary group ..., which they open, and find... an alien girl?!
  • Having no idea what the hell else to do, they take her with them as they head out into the stars for their next adventure.
  • Also said alien girl probably wasn't at all what Cithandra was expecting either, but whatever.

Setting organisations

Somewhere in the background there's references to at least some of the three main scaries, which may or may not show up as clients hiring the crew at some point or other:

  • The United Worlds, the massively bureaucratic galactic republic where everything mostly just goes through random bureaus regardless of what the politicians from all the random systems actually say
  • The Magi, a quasi-religious guild of space wizards that basically force all magic-capable people they find to either join them or die (or maybe just be cut off from the magic, which is also horrible for them?)
  • The ... which turns out to be this horrible mysterious organisation that experiments on monsters (aliens) for reasons, and is a good chunk of why so many of the aliens are humanoid (or elven?), because they actually started out as humans/elves or were previously much more alien and then engineered into hybrids. This is definitely not commonly known and will not come up for awhile. Is probably known as a major source of biotech through some front, and is in fact possibly really only known for that at all, publicly.
Probably run by a group of dark wizards, or something.

Other random groups that occur:

  • Citheldryn: a myserious organisation that has embassies on random planets and isn't entirely clear what its purpose is, where it came from, or anything. Also very unclear where any of their money, of which they seem to have a lot, comes from. Is generally suspected of just paying off the UW bureaucracy to ignore them.
  • Syndicate: a major crime guild that somehow has never actually been connected to any crimes, officially. But everyone knows they do crime. They do crime.
  • The Right People: not exactly a group so much as just random people who think the UW/Magi, in particular, are dumb, and do their own thing. Gnerally includes any gangs/other unlawful factions not actively at war with each other, as well as quite a few underground non-Magi wizards. Syndicate is not really a part of this, but sometimes involved.
  • Various other guilds, gangs, corporations, cabals, and planets doing various things throughout
  • The border worlds, which may or may not have any seat in the UW itself, and often go totally ignored by its bureaus/forces, and thus may wind up really doing their own things

Crew

  • Comnen - probably actually owns the ship, boss as far as everyone is concerned, prefers smuggling jobs but also has history as a merc and will do heists etc if someone else figures out the details. Presents himself as a ball of swagger and confidence, and puts all this swagger and confidence to use to hold the crew together, along with just generally being awesome.
  • Cithandra - suave, sophisticated, and above all, absolutely gorgeous and elegant criminal mastermind behind a lot of the jobs, sometimes tells the crew the full plan, sometimes... not. Also generally doesn't actually come across as particularly criminal or mastermind, and usually just suggests random things offhand, and then finances random parts of it, as the rest of them put the details of the operation together...
Overtly, she's just this rich lady who hired the ship to take her with and finances them because she was bloody bored.
  • Sokar - main pilot, keeps taking on these totally ridiculous side jobs whenever they get to a new system, much to everyone's annoyance. Possibly turns out that this tendency was precisely why Cithandra hired him.
  • Khalemi - medic, tech handler in general, bot operator, very good with security systems and distributed operations, completely lost whenever she has to do anything hands-on. Also apparently a pretty good actor... when acting a man. Can't act out other women for the life of her.
  • Jonas - some sort of 'public relations'
  • Torkora Ma - wanton thief, possibly another sort of 'public relations'
  • Nissa - young underworld wizard with a very peculiar view of how magic works, uses it to fix random stuff, very nonchalant about absolutely everything, with a particular skill for going completely unnoticed as she just walks right into pretty much anything unquestioned


Several of them really don't get along with each other, but do have the professionalism to keep overtly expressing it to a miniumum while actually doing the job (well, usually). Will get very annoyed when they have to fix things for each other, but generally make a point of doing it precisely so the other survives/makes it out/whatever so they can actually berate them about it...

Screenplay?



NISSA
There's a magus here.
(she gestures in a direction)
Somewhere thataway. We should be careful.
SOKAR
How do you tell?
NISSA
They're practically glowing with power.
Sokar gives her a sudden, worried look.
NISSA
Oh, don't worry. They're very bad at what they do, totally uncontrolled, so it's really easy to sense them. I'm much better than that.
SOKAR
If you say so, kid.






JONAS
Shit, how old are you, anyway?
NISSA
Mmm, I dunno. Maybe 10ish?
JONAS
What...
(turning and yelling toward Comnen)
BOSS! The kid is really a kid!
COMNEN
(showing up)
Yeah? So?
JONAS
So... she's like, really, really young!
Nissa just smiles, looking vaguely cute.
COMNEN
Yes...?
JONAS
Like... a kid. Why're we puttin' a kid in all these... situations?
NISSA
Is it really you putting me in these situations? Is it?
COMNEN
She's a fucking squid, man. They're weird.
He turns and leaves.
JONAS
But... but...
NISSA
(now looking a bit annoyed)
Squid. Yes, that is... exactly...





SOKAR
I got us a new job.
COMNEN
What... the fuck?
KHALEMI
...again?
TORKORA MA
Are we stealing something?
SOKAR
Naw, naw, this is just a strict pick up, drop off.
TORKORA MA
You say that like that's not exactly how stealing things works...
KHALEMI
What's the catch?
SOKAR
No catch, just passengers.
COMNEN
How is that not a catch?!
We're already sitting on stolen cargo, and we still have to catch up...
KHALEMI
Yeah, that does sound a biiit dodgy.
CITHANDRA
And passengers will be a very nice way to ensure nobody checks for stolen cargo when we stop off. Isn't that right?
SOKAR
Uh... is it?





The passengers turn out to be: two magi and a kid, a priest, a random couple, and three guys they're all mildly certain would also fall among the Right People.
Comnen glares at Sokar.
COMNEN
These are the passengers you managed to come up with?!
SOKAR
You know, maybe I am starting to think this wasn't such a good idea.
NISSA
Well, I'm going to need to be careful.
COMNEN
What exactly happens if you aren't?
NISSA
Depends.
COMNEN
On?
NISSA
Depends.
(quietly)
We might need that priest.
SOKAR
...what for?

Old stuff

Possibly some stuff that happens later...



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