The Cavalry Arrives

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

[I am changing the name of the informant Cani girl from "Azliet" to "Nalche". I don't want to have two Cani women with six-letter names beginning with A on the same skyboat. Also, Nalche fits the standard Srineian phonetics, and Azliet, while a common Cani name, does not. -bb]

Vae: [appearing in a cheery blossom of Locador claws] “Hiio, Sythyry, everyone!”

Some Wizard Or Other: “Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

Me: “Hallo! What are you doing here? Is something terrible happening on Strayway?”

Zascalle called out to Vae, “Vae! Help us, save us!”. Vae was wearing her earmuffs, though, and could not hear Zascalle’s direct request. I paralyzed Zascalle for some minutes with a spell, which probably saved her life or at least her spiritual integrity or something. (Spiritual structural integrity, I mean. She didn’t have much of the other kind.)

Vae: “The terrible it is!”

Me: “Oh, heavens. What’s going on? Why aren’t you there?”

Vae: “The she-Cani has no Cani emotions! Not a speck of salaffan or deffa, no proper sense of hierarchy!”

Me: “What — Thiane doesn’t? “ (Thiane being the only she-Cani around.) “You can’t mean Phaniet or Arfaen, I hope!” (Phaniet, I am sure, suffers from no such defects. Arfaen seems to be normal in that regard as well.)

Vae: “Not that is her name, but Nalche is her name.”

Me: “Who?”

Vae: “The child-woman who told you about Zascalle’s decampment! The punishment they make for her, and all because of her lack of those emotions and for her consequent betrayal of them. The asylum she asks of us — of you!”

So, she’s wrongfolk, but not traff, or something. Most of my clients are traff, but we do have a variety of other sorts of problems as well.

Me: “Well, I’m none too impressed with Cani who have all the right emotions just now.” I glared at Thiane, who whined and tucked her tail between her legs. “Have Kantele talk to her, and Phaniet, and see how she’ll fit in.”

Vae: “Not a bit can they do so! The prison of torments and darkest captivity have they made for this Nalche, and it’s a rescuing she shall need.”

Me: “Oh, one of those. Well, check with Bwipin and Rehit to make sure it’s acceptable in Srineia to go rescue someone out of her parent’s prison and scoot them away off-branch. If it is, the wrongfolk can try to do it if they think they can manage, or I’ll be back, um, sometime, if they need heavier magic.”

Probably a bad idea. But I felt like doing something that helped someone today, to counteract all the punishments I’m inflicting.

Vae: “The yes!”

Me: “She can live with us for now. I’ll give final approval, or not, when I get back and recover and get to meet her for real. If I say no, tell her we’ll … oh … we’ll work out a good place to drop her off.”

Vae: “The good! The messages of yours I shall deliver to the eager tongues of Phaniet and Jyondre! And how are you, Sythyry? And did the money come back to you from Zascalle and Thiane? And are these wizards quarrelling with you? And do they need to be destroyed, or will a simple tormenting-up suffice for them?”

Me: “I have made peace with the wizards, or, rather, I have cleared up the few petty disagreements that arose since we last spoke, since we officially never were at anything but peace and never mind anything anyone said about hiring an assassin. I am dealing with Zascalle and Thiane myself.”

Vae: “The happiness is upon me! The worry was on me earlier, and on all who dwell in Strayway, that some doom had fallen upon you from a surprising quarter, and you were in some desperate battle.”

Me: “Oddly enough, not this time. I just had to capitulate on all my disputes. Expensive and embarrassing, but easy enough. Though, I greatly appreciate you showing up in what would have been the nick of time had I actually been in a battle!” It is good to have friends, sometimes, even if they are psychotic monsters and not actually necessary.

So I sent Vae back to Strayway, to give the wrongfolk the news. She popped off cheerfully … but left a gaggle of invisible elementals around to watch, and to zoom and get her if there was any trouble from the enemy wizards. Unnecessary. The enemy wizards had already won, as far as they were concerned.

Comments

That was probably the stupidest thing

[(Anonymous)]

Zascalle did in this whole doomage (mmh, can I be a doom-mage, too?). What did she expect Vae to do?

[rowyn]

The Doom!

It's nice of you to help Nalche, though. Especially since I suspect horrors to come of it. But that's what usually happens from you helping people, so I guess if you were going to stop on account of that, you would have by now.

... it occurs to me that this may be the reason the evil wizards decide to be evil. Too much doom from being good.

[arenhaus.livejournal.com]

“Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

:D

Bard, aren't you afraid that if Sythyry ever learns how you translate zir diary, zie'll sic a pet nendrai on you too? ;)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[I mostly hope that Sythyry is fictional! But insofar as zie is real, zie enjoys bons mots and literary (and other) homages as much as I do, so I think I'm probaby OK. -bb]

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Some Wizard Or Other: “Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Okay, that made an otherwise blah morning quite tolerable. Thank you.

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

...Yes.

I mean, seriously. Getting away from the scary nendrai was what triggered this entire escapade(at least the "run away fast" bit). And suddenly she's trying to ask Vae for help?

Face meet palm.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Zascalle...isn't quite all there, is she. I mean, asking for help from a Nendrai??? When it's OVERLY clear as to exactly what sorts of things happen to those who ask a Nendrai for help?

Y'know, I think Zascalle, as we say in my world, is both [CENSORED] in the head, and just plain [CENSORED] in general. Not only should her children be taken away from her, her ability to breed should likewise be removed, lest she continue to bring more doom upon the innocent.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Zascalle was desperate. Perhaps she thought her chances with Vae were better than with me. Perhaps she was right -- Vae is entirely helpful sometimes (perhaps one time in six), and more helpful than harmful usually (perhaps four times in six). The remaining one time in six, of course, is the one that makes it into my journal.

If she continues being monogamous with Thiane, she will have no more children.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard beams! -bb]

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Nalche might not be traff per se(at least not identified as such), but odds are good that she'll be more comfortable among other sorts of primes at least socially. She still has her loyalties to wrestle with, presumably(if she has none at all that would probably not make her a good candidate for Castle Wrong either), but most people have some sense of loyalty to balance.

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Zascalle is totally ruined, flustered beyond reason, and obviously not thinking clearly. Asking Vae for help is simply clear evidence of such.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

She did ask for help from a gaggle of known and flamboyant traff-folk. For what that's worth.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well, she is desperate and still has 11 of 16 or so accounts of Sythry's money still. If she can get away with Vae long enough, she would still have the moneys.... It's desperation and greed that is currently motivating her. She is one Cani that doesn't know when to let go of the stick.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

Being as I see it completely outcast from cani society, she likely at least fully qualifies as Wrongfolk, so should fit right in.

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

And scared! Don't forget scared!

[rowyn]

That puts her at somewhere above Zascalle on the Scale of Desperation, then.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Are they going to be indentured together? You never specified.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oh! My apologies. Yes, they are.

[mazlynn.livejournal.com]

For some reason this entry made me very happy. I can't quite pin down why. I think it's the image of Vae riding in to the rescue, and finding out that everything is perfectly fine. Thank goodness! :)

Oh, and of course the obvious doom that will occur by the time your instructions get mangled in translation from Vae to the folks at Strayway, and then bent in interpretation by the folks actually carrying out the appropriate actions....

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

She might as well have shouted something like, "Please! Merge ME with a Locador demon! Merge ME!"

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard beams. 'That's why I wanted it! Sometimes things go pretty much right, even for Sythyry... but zir friends do care about zir and want to help.']

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

So scared she forgot what she was originally scared of!

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

...unless she has other and more straightforward reasons to be comfortable with traff-folk, in which being desperate to escape Eigrach's silly mannerisms around it would make entire, entire sense!

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Probably so. She's been dreading me with both hands for weeks now, and will try nearly anything to get away from her current object of dread. Even if the other choices are worse.

If I ever start doing that, please whomp me with a frozen carcanofex tail.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

An interesting possibility, and one which admits a certain degree of plausibility.