(no subject)
In Which Vae is a Monster [24 Lage 2461]
This time there were only about twenty imposing people at the Halflight Gate, including Seeks-Balance and Rhedwy and Paarhan but not Kaim-Su. I gather the situation is considered to be safer. Dunno why they think that.
Like last time, Vae wasn't waiting, but her spell was, and she showed up in a burst of hideous ostentation. In Orren form. Wearing a shifting whorl of largely-opaque, largely-opalescent radience which would have looked very attractive on anyOrren I didn't know was a monster.
Me:Something that I very much hope was cheerful.
Vae:"Hiio, Sythyry! How are you doing today?"
Me:"Oh, not so terribly as all that. And yourself?" I might be in a state of mind where explaining my perversions and moping to leadsmiths somehow seems appropriate. I am not so far gone that explaining them to monsters is. Especially not a monster responsible for a good share of the moping.
Vae:"There's a gladness on me for seeing you, that's one thing of it! Little enough company do I get of an ordinary day."
Me:"That sounds a bit lonely, to be sure."
Vae:"That it is, truly. It's Umtangeia or Mretheia I'll pop off to, as often as anything, just so there's someone to talk with." I knew nothing of these places.
Me:"I know nothing of those places!"
Never, ever say that to a nendrai. Really. Never.
She stretched her tail and touched the space near us, and a terrible blossom of straight claws and curved claws closed around us and opened with us in mid-air. In a big huge hurry I spread my wings to catch myself in my fall, but I need not have done: the world-branch below us could not have been closer than some hundreds of miles. And there were three fans of world-branches above us. Vae, herself, wasn't bothering with aeronautics.
Vae:"They're quite nice places! We'll be there in two more hops."
The clawed and clawed blossom of her teleport grabbed us again, and tossed us some ridiculous distance further down.