Prison Walls [18-19 Nivvem 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

[Recall that Sythyry was getting put in prison overnight for safe-keeping, before zir trial tomorrow. -bb]

The Induction

Guard-Mage: “Excuse me, Miss Zi Ri. You’re not allowed to bring magic items with you into prison.”

Me: “Oh, I see.” I removed several dozen oddments, including the teleport arrow, the scrying livery, and a ferocious lightning-caster, and piles of bound spells. “Does that satisfy your requirements?”

Guard-Mage: [After inspecting me closely with magic sense] “Yes, it does, thank you, miss. We’ll give them back when you’re set free.”

Which left only a few devices on me, things that aren’t at all easy to notice by ordinary magic sense: the seven-winged burning thing, my ring of pocket universes, the Glory of Hren Tzen in its current setting, and this and that.

Me: “That won’t be necessary. Items — go home!” I used the ring to toss the dozen or so oddments into a pocket universe, with a twisty spin to it that made it look as if I had teleported them quite far off.

Guard-Mage: “Did you just send them off to your skyboat?”

Me: “They are, indeed, where they belong.” Which was certainly true — they belonged in my easy reach, and where nobody without Vae’s power or hCevian’s subtlety could steal them.

Guard-Mage: “Through the city walls?”

Me: “My skyboat is, indeed, on the opposite side of the city walls.” It was, too. Not that they had gone there. Unlike hCevian, I can’t teleport through city walls.

Guard-Mage: “The city walls which block teleportation through them in both directions …?”

Me: “I suppose one might be generous enough to describe your walls that way, if one were so inclined. I might, after this matter is through, recommend certain enhancements to them to improve the safety and glory of Hanija … or I might not, depending, in part, on my treatment.” Also true, though, of course, I didn’t think I could teleport anything through those walls.

Guard-Mage: “Could you teleport yourself like that?”

Me: “Why, it is easier for one to teleport one’s own self than any other thing.” True, and not even misleading.

Guard-Mage: “I had better go talk to the lieutenant about this.”

Me: “If you’re worried about me escaping, don’t be. I won’t escape. If I had wanted to, I’d have done so long since.”

Guard-Mage: “Right, then. Glad to hear it.”

Me: “Very well!”

Guard-Mage: “Then you won’t mind if we take a few precautions. Just of a precautionary nature of course.”

The Precautions

Hanija doesn’t have many prison cells suitable for holding and restraining a Locador wizard. Which meant that I was taken to Kamku-Yi Prison, which is a rather well-buried dungeon sort of thing under Kamku Fortress at the Kamku Gate. Five hundred feet underground, enough so that it takes a significant spell to teleport out. And by “significant” I mean “not the easiest, and not the second-easiest either unless you’ve got an expertly power at it.”

Stopping Spellcasting: The dungeon cell (which I was not in at this point) had a decorative cornice in it that cast The Wizard in Helpless Fury, which prevents the casting of pattern spells for a few minutes unless one resists it. They did ask me to accept a Silence the Creative Wizard spell when I went in, which curtails spontaneous magic, but don’t be ridiculous; the guard-mage who cast it didn’t have enough power behind it to make it last all night, which means that it’s not going to do very much to me. They really ought to back it up with Spellbinder’s Despair, which blocks bound spells, but that’s far too expensive for them to afford unless they know they need it, and I’d sent off all my bound spells.

Escape Plan Number One: Spont any of a number of protection-from-Magiador spells (Tune the Magic Resistance would suffice and then some). In a few minutes, the Wizard in Helpless Fury would wear off (that spell only lasts a few minutes; the cornice casts it every few seconds; usually I resist it by reflex, being well used to resisting magic (Thanks, Vae!), but once in a while it does get to me — but not so if I had any protection from it.) Then I have my full spellcasting back, and can teleport out if I want, or whatever.

Flaw in Escape Plan Number One: (1) I had more Locador than I knew what to do with, from enchanted tools artfully concealed or cached an infinite distance away, so working on tricks to block that curst pattern-stopper spell was beside the point. (2) I didn’t want to escape.

(1) stayed true.

(2) stopped the moment I saw my cell.

Comments

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

It is nice to know that security theater is alive and well in both of our cultures.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Heh, not thinking of that. -bb]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

What's happening to Arafen while all this is going on? If your cell wasn't very nice, I shudder to think what they do with the common folk.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

She told me later -- she was put in a cell of prostitutes and dancers, and had a perfectly fine time. My choice of cell wasn't a matter of rank; it was a matter of magical power.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Why does no one ever put pleasant and well meaning prisoners in the darkest, deepest dungeons? Present Company excluded, of course...

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

It's even easier to put yourself in a pocket universe than any other thing!

Also... eep! What could be so awful about your cell that you couldn't just float in the middle of it and close your eyes?

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

And here I was, planning to suggest you defend yourself in court while covered in firey phoenix-style feathers. I hear phoenixes make great defense attorneys.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Why on wood do phoenixes make great defense attorneys?

[waterotter.livejournal.com]

Because they're always right, of course.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

It's a reference to a famous attorney named Phoenix Wright who always wins his cases!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I am not entirely sure what you did, but you seem to have caused my translator to wash its "keyboard" and "monitor" with some very fine Prince of Wales tea.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

It should be noted tea, especially expensive tea, is not noted as an effective cleaning agent for keyboards and monitors! ^_^

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Looks like I have a new toy to show off.

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if it happens to be coffin-sized or something of that nature. Certainly it's a not-unknown style.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Not always. You don't want him representing you in probate court:

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oyyyy! T_T

[kibbe.livejournal.com]

I do not know, that sounds like the perfict time for Vae and the locador deamon to show up and spring you from jail, setting off all sorts of awful alarms and whatnot as well. Lest, thats what the doom indicators seem to be saying. You have been running low on DOOM of late, so your about do for a major doom episode.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Low? Zhi just got thrown into prison for making love to a consenting partner! I think that is quite enough Doom!

[foomf.livejournal.com]

... Is "Miss" the appropriate title, or is there more happening here?

The word 'Miss' was (in the ancestral tongue to the language your translator uses) originally the title of respect for a still-dependent unmarried daughter of a landholder/titled family, as given by any person who was lower in rank, a diminutive form of 'Mistress'. Note that in the sexist society of that time, there was no equivalent diminutive for males, which remains the case.

It generalized to being the default formal title for any unmarried female when social change in one country created a society where there are no entitled nobility, but rather self-rule through law and the election under that law of rulers appointed to limited terms of office. (Before that, it was still used more for landed/wealthy/entitled than by anyone of the "common" folk.)

As we don't have sufficient persons possessed simultaneously of two physical genders that social pressure would create a third title, there's no mapping to the language our translator is using. So, I was curious whether this was a case of the guardsman being ignorant of the proper title for a Zi-Ri, or a deliberate attempt to place you in a more compliant role by linguistic induction, or simply a matter of the translation being off by a hair.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Actually, 'master' was used for boys, e.g. schoolboys, and about the same as 'miss', for some time. That usage has kind of died out. In any case, the guards and such were using a low-grade but respectful title with approximately-female connotations. -bb]

[foomf.livejournal.com]

[I was under the impression that Master was used for any higher ranked male who didn't have a better title, while 'Mister' was used for established gentlemen, but I'd need to dig much deeper. I suspect layers of subtlety.]