Life In Oorah Thrassen: Research into Locador Demons [22 Lage 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Nangbang and I stopped in Oorah Thrassen overnight on our way to Srineia. (Nangbang was — dare I say it? — only slightly sickened by the long teleporting session.) Saza showed me things that I cared about.

Saza: “I have learned certain facts about Locador demons. Indeed, I have learned more about Locador demons than ever before. Strange beasts!”

Me: “Tell me of this matter!”

Saza: “People have become Locador demons altogether, at least temporarily. There is a pattern spell for doing so, or there was; nobody I have asked admits to having a copy. I have asked spell-sellers, so I don’t think they’re lying about it; they would be glad of making a high-priced sale, I should think.”

Me: “A notable fact! I was not sure it could be done at all. Is it relevant to Feralan though?”

Saza: “It might be. Four hundred and some years ago, a Rassimel noble — Icispachi — spent some weeks in the form, and wrote a book about it. I am trying to get a copy of the book. We might get some insight therefrom.”

Me: “That is, at least, more than I knew before.”

Saza: “Don’t look so disappointed, coz!” Zie gave me a flickery licking kiss on the cheek, which rather startled me. “We’ve gone from ‘This is unheard-of!’ to ‘Similar and related things have occurred!’”

Me: “Truly, an important conceptual evolution.”

Saza: “Now, I haven’t tracked down anyone else merged with a Locador demon. But there are cases of merging with the demons of seven or eight other elements — including Magiador, which is tantalizingly similar in various ways.”

Me: “I didn’t know that!”

Saza: “You are clever and inventive, but a bit unaware of things that happened centuries before you hatched.” Zie grinned. “One part naïve and seven parts nubile, coz!”

I blinked at zir a bit.

Saza: “Anyhow, I am prevailing on scribes in various cities to give me records of these various prior spiritual entanglings, and what was done about them. I promise nothing — but I expect everything!”

Me: “I expect no less of you!”

Saza: “And, of course, I am tracking down the locations and qualifications of various experts in disorders and maladies of the spirit. If we need to take Feralan somewhere — Green or Inihithre perhaps — shall we wait until you can come along?”

Me: “Probably so, at least if it is a matter of a few days. We’d need to travel by airship in any case; perhaps mine, which I hope will be repaired by then.”

And so on. No actual answers, but various forms of hope, and many places where further research is possible and might yield answers. It is much easier to do this sort of thing from Ketheria. It is also much easier to do it if one has a thousand-year-long reputation as an ingenious and honorable magus than merely a hundred-year-long one as a nendrai-wrangler and pervert. Hiring Saza was absolutely the right approach.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Our world is not so easily flammible as all that! Nor are our homes, if properly made.

There are recreational incenses, but they are generally burnt in small pots on a table for several people to share, rather than used in a pipe or cigar. I'm not much fond of them myself, but I am a very small person. Most are relatively mild drugs -- comparable to a dose of kathia or brandy -- and compounded with pleasant aromatics to provide an aesthetic experience. It really is rather like sharing a bottle of brandy or pot of kathia, only not so fattening.

Bard claims not to understand smoking very well itself, but thinks that part of the fundamental point of smoking is that it delivers a dose of a drug to the participant very quickly. Those who are in such a hurry here (and wish to use botanicals rather than spells, say) tend to use tinctures, taken under the tongue.