sythyry | (no subject)

Guild of Sky Pilots [23 Hispis 4385]

I had to scold Arfaen. I did a mediocre job of it, since I am a Zi Ri and she is a Cani. And she actually has had a terrible month: some her fault, yes, and some mine, and some neither of ours.

After that, as a recreation of sorts, I brought five small assorted objects to the headquarters of the Sky Pilots Guild in Eigrach.

Which was the first time I had actually gotten into Eigrach myself. So of course I needed a hat, because everyone in Eigrach wears a hat. I have a much smaller head than any other adult in Eigrach, and more of a feathery crest too, so getting something in a shop is not much of a choice.

I asked Grinwipey to help make one for me. He said, "You want a hat, lizard girl, you go make yourself a vorple-fooping hat. I got killed three felting times, y'blunkwad, and my tents are as wobbly as the cobbly-knobbly after it's done the bobbly, so I ain't giving you no regelatinized help even."

So, rather late in the morning, I acquired an extra 4/3 of a day in which to make a hat, and used far too much of it. I ended up with a spiky thing of blue leather and swashes of azure brocade, with a few blue glass globs on silver pins stuck here and there to ~~provide extra support for some structural flaws~~ add some very expensive-looking accents in case anyone was unclear on which blue Zi Ri I was. (In case you have lost track, I am the only Zi Ri of any color on Srineia.)

So I flew out of a window, under a froliose sky. (The clouds were still perfectly spherical, but today they have a five-pronged curl-handled fork sort of a thing on the northern side.) And finally made it actually in to Eigrach for the vacation I had been promising myself for several decades.

Except of course for an errand. Or recreation of sorts.

Guild Hall

The official Grand Guild Hall of the Sky Pilots Guild is a suite of seven rooms on an upper story of the actual skyport. I flew around (not through) the city, with liberal use of my teleport arrow, to avoid getting lost. This attracted some attention, which was good, because Glishe was there when I arrived. (Glishe is a tall and gawky Cani with bright pink fur and matching pink formal robes, and, of course, a tall and gawky pink miter. He is also the guildmaster.)

Me:"Good day! I-nob have come to present my credentials as an auxiliary member of this ancient and very important Guild, an honor I have from the generosity and dignity of the Guild branch in Vheshrame."

Glishe:"Ah! I-nob was wondering when you might arrive to do this errand!"

Me:"Forgive me; I have an unseemly tangle of obligations. It seemed wise to keep the nendrai company yesterday; she is dangerous when she is morose."

Glishe: [not suitably intimidated] "Right; your senior colleague Windigar mentioned the situation to me when he presented his credentials earlier. In any case, I believe he was the pilot when you actually approached Eigrach...? Is something the matter?"

I tried to stop remembering mile-long spiky black fingers from outside the universe.

Me:"Oh, nothing much. We hurried a bit on the last leg here. Which is another matter I wished to discuss with you, actually."

Glishe:"Well, credentials first, for the sake of proper procedure."

So I presented to him certain secret recognition signs, the details of which ~~are really quite silly~~ are far too arcane and important for me to describe, because my inferior command of the Ketherian language and my even more inferior translator would surely detract from their considerable dignity and, somehow, render them really quite silly.

Glishe:"Honored Auxiliary Pilot Sythyry, we are pleased to welcome you to the Guild of the Sky Pilots in Srineia!"

Me:"And I am quite equally pleased to be here, especially after all the doom on the voyage."

Glishe:"Oh, there was doom?"

I spilled five assorted small knick-knacks on his table. "I generally live a straightforward and uneventful life, but occasionally it is otherwise. Pirates assaulted us in the sky off of Dossimar. Here are five of them, nicely restrained courtesy of my friend the nendrai."

Glishe picked up a bright red rubber ball with blue stars painted on the side. "This is a pirate?"

Me:"That is a pirate. She is a cheerful Orren woman. She killed a reasonably skillful Sleeth in fair combat, and stabbed my ninety year old secretary in the back as she fled."

Glishe:"I daresay she may stay a red rubber ball for a little while. I presume you wish to put them on trial here?"

Me:"I do, in fact."

Glishe:"By any chance, do you know if this cheerful Orren woman was involved in the band of Dossimar pirates who pillaged the Iglomo of Crown a few weeks back? A sky-barge out of here, you know."

Me:"I haven't spoken with her. My guard-Sleeth is still a bit under the weather, and I very much don't want to train the nendrai to attack primes."

Glishe:"Well, I daresay that will come out in the trial, one way or another. Perhaps you have some affidavits that attest to her piratical deeds?"

Me:"I have some witnesses, at least."

Glishe:"All from Vheshrame?"

Me:"I'm afraid so."

Glishe:"That will not give them much dignity in a court in Eigrach."

I glared at him, because I thought he was trying to keep the pirates from getting tried.

Glishe:"I beg your pardon; why are you glaring at me?"

Me:"Because these sky pirates have assaulted me and broken my ship, and I wish to bring them to justice. Clawy, bitey justice."

Glishe:"Why, of course! The Guild of the Sky Pilots does not approve of piracy! We wish to make justice as effective as possible, though, and the quality of witnesses will, of course, matter."

Me:"Are truth-testing spells legitimate in court, in Eigrach?"

Glishe:"Yes, though your opponent and friends are allowed to interrogate you under them; we do not encourage mind-magic in Srineia!"

Me:"I will endure truth spells. I daresay that the murder victims and perhaps some others will as well."

Glishe:"The offer is a good one ... I do not know how matters rest in Vheshrame. A native who made that offer would probably not have to keep it, though the possibility is there ... but here, you and yours might well find yourself under truthspell in court, having made such an offer."

Me:"We have endured far worse than that from the pirates. I shall be glad to tell the truth here, even with a spell."

Glishe:"Very good. Well, tell your story ... actually, pause a moment, so that we may acquire lunch and other guild officials."

After a luncheon -- the most alarming food was a small pastry shell, the size of a quail's egg, full of a puree of green onions, green basil, green cheese, green peas, green fleas, green gages, green pages, green phages, green beans, green scenes, green 'zines, green preens, green prunes, green prones, green pranes, green brains, green plains, green trains, and green grains -- and considerable discussion of piracy, I think I may get some justice for my pirates. (And by "justice" I mean "judicially-approved public repeated executions ending in death".) Sky pilots really aren't fond of pirates, and these ones in particular had been troublesome.

I am, every once in a while, pleased to be part of a sophisticated pan-arboreal civilization with great traditions and great world-wide organizations. A monster from Vheshrame mene could not, I think, get any sort of immediate alliance from the monsters of Srineia, to say nothing of assistance in justice. (Well, I suppose Vae could manufacture her own justice, or revenge, as she saw fit, but most others could not.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Being turned into a red rubber ball was not bad justice for you, either. But it's comforting to turn such problems over to the courts and have them resolved to your satisfaction. I hope it goes well! Better still that Eigrach doesn't insist on the truth spells. *shudder*

My concern would be more if there was an accident and some knick-knack, when executed, proved to be only a knick-knack, meaning that an actual pirate was left somewhere, un-executed. };)

Would the initial execution then be attested sufficient punishment, leaving the pirate to escape as fast as he or she could in knick-knack form?

Of course, Sythry, the question in my mind is why do you want them dead? A eternity as a toy briefly loved and then forgotten in a trash heap, broken, seems more then adequate punishment, to me.

But if they break, perhaps that also is dying.

And perhaps eternity in the hidden place, where nobody destroys it, is the too strong sentence. Even to doorwayers the law grants death and the chance at a better life!

Froliose is a lovely sounding word. Is it worth me digging out a very big dictionary as google knows not of it but refers me politely to you, or may I beg Slythyry to define it.

The hat sounds lovely, I have several times had to make myself a hat for formal occasions as they can be so expensive, and I know how tricky it can be to make a hat in a hurry.

The pastry shell sounds indeed alarming, almost as dangerous as one of Edward Lear's "Gosky Patties"

[OOC: Thank you! Sythyry defined "froliose" a few episodes ago. You may not find it in any English dictionaries; that sort of cloud formation is not available here. -bb]

Oh, and I've got a <a="http://www.world-tree-rpg.com/sythyry/sv/glossary.phtml">glossary and Dramatis Personae over at the web site, too.

Justice can be elusive here, too. In cases of international scope, there is always the question of who has jurisdiction, and whether they're favorably inclined to do anything effective. However, even when the jurisdiction is clear, it often comes down to who can afford the more effective pleader for their case.

Pleaders at law, I am afraid, are a sort of vermin which feeds on civilization. They make laws, often in convoluted, unintelligible ways, and then they argue ad nausium about what those laws actually mean, and how they should be applied in specific instances.

I can not think of a single truly great deed ever perpetuated by a pleader at law, outside of wildly apocryphal tales, invented, no doubt, by such pleaders themselves.

You could have gotten a leather cap and cast cobbler for puppies, or something. But the spiky thing sounds much more dignified!

For that matter, as sie is the only Zi Ri on the branch, sie could simply have neglected to wear a hat, and acted as if ancient and powerful sorcerers do not stoop to local custom.

But this wizard likes to dress well!

Besides, I'm going to need that excuse a lot, I'm sure. I don't want it to get too stale.

Especially tiny wizards that are too small to stoop effectively!

The very green puree that is! Also it does not sound good for a Sleeth stomach.

I suppose, if the pirates stay objects always, there is the chance that someone eventually restores them. This way there is more pain, but also they have a chance to perhaps live better in another life.

...How well does a spirit hold to such a strange altered shape, though? It has no brain - how does the mind stay with the body and the spirit? Or does the shapechanged pirate eventually go insane for the body not matching the spirit and mind?

[Sythyry replies, but Bard cannot understand the reply.]

[The Sleeth ignores translators and neeps Medicine for a bit.]

I almost half-expected the result to be a romantical cone! Details of dye notwithstanding, I'd think it's a relatively easy shape to produce. Relatively.

But then, given the doom that ended up resulting from the first romantical cone a century and change ago, perhaps that would've been a bad idea.

I don't think I'm quite up for another Ilottat yet, no...

Is there a reason Jyondre doesn't qualify as a witness? He might not have seen the worst of it, but he saw the pirates, umm... pirate, didn't he? And he's not from Vheshrame, is he?

Great staring gods, you're right. He's not from Eigrach either, but not so far away. I didn't realize that. Thank you for telling me.

Certainly he is in Eigrach some time - he attends the famous wicker brothel for several days, yes? So, indeed, not too far!

(deleted comment)

Next city over

BTW, I'm not sure if your translator told you, but wizards from our world have finally mastered The Unnatural Tree:

New Artificial Bone Made of Wood

Both of us boggle, for different reasons.