Despite the dark atmosphere

[curiousdiscoverer]

They are in a derelict warehouse, the owner was quite happy to rent the place, it was easy to see why, it took all day to clean the floor and create a space to properly write the spell circle.

Despite the dark atmosphere, their purpose was far from evil.

Franklyn observed Ada draw the circle, while Maeghan read a book, using her cloudpine to support herself more comfortably. Maeghan looked bored, but Franklyn knew she really wanted this to work more than she was letting on.

Because if this worked, Franklyn would have magic, actual personal magic, the first male witch in this world.

Actually, the second male witch in this world, since this spell was meant to bring a male witch from another world so they could do another spell to copy them.

When Ada completes the last line of herbs in the cycle, Franklyn helps her memorizing the spell’s verse.

“Nothing will go wrong,” Maeghan assures Franklyn when Ada starts speaking the spell...

Comments

[intricate_engineer]

The tarsier runs over to Glen. Glen picks her daemon up, holding the tarsier up to her face.

"I want to be Echo," the tarsier says bumping Glen's nose with her own.

Glen smiles, "Echo's a perfect name. Hello Echo."

[between_worlds]

Rove walks over to Alex and he scratches her head.
"I don't think you can heal her."

[not_without_scars]

"Why the fuck not?"

[of_all_trades]

"Chill!" Franklyn says to Maeghan "something magically weird happened..."

Franklyn eyes the newly arrival for a second than he starts fiddling with a device that he took out of his pocket.

The device looks a lot like a golden pocket watch, but if looked closely it has three hands and weird symbols.

This process takes a few moments.

Ada takes the opportunity to say defensively "I know the spell was set up correctly!"

Finally Franklyn finishes whatever he was doing.

"Okay..." Franklyn says "I think the spell was set up correctly, but the part that tried to target for a cooperative male witch... it was vague enough that caught them both. Well, fuck."

[between_worlds]

"Why do you need a witch?"

[not_without_scars]

Maeghan looks like she was going to start saying something, but instead she just looks at Franklyn.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn thinks for a few seconds, then says.

"We are going to use him for a spell..." Franklyn explains "to switch species, the witches in this world are always female. We are trying to find a male one so I could switch into his species without switching genders. It was actually faster to design both spells that way instead of creating a spell that didn't need to use examples."

[between_worlds]

Alex shakes his head, "I'm not a witch. I don't even know any magic. Why is my spark suddenly a dog?"

[of_all_trades]

That question really confuses them.

"Er... Spark means soul?" Franklyn asks "every person..."

"Except bears," Ada says from her position in the back.

"Except bears has a daemon," Franklyn says waving at his own Zara and the dog "I don't really know how it wasn't a dog before, or some other animal. Do you have any idea why yours is so injured?"

[between_worlds]

"A spark and a soul are almost the same. My spark is damaged and I doubt you can heal souls."

[of_all_trades]

"That could explain it," Franklyn says "as far I can explain nonbear people without daemons. I am not sure if there is soul-healing magic, albeit one of our half-sisters might know she is obsessed with-"

"DON'T TOUCH OTHER PEOPLE'S DAEMONS!" Shouts Ada and her own daemon suddenly.

The three locals go very, very still.

"Yes, Yambe Akka be merciful," Franklyn says "that is a very bad idea... don't let anyone touch yours either."

[intricate_engineer]

"Why not?"

[of_all_trades]

"It feels really, really horrible," Franklyn says "I never experienced myself, but it feels like the person is in... every part of yourself and you can't escape it."

"It is considered worst than murder," Ada says.

"Yeah," Franklyn says "for the sake of completeness: If you really love the person, it isn't awful, but most people never try."

[intricate_engineer]

"So you pulled us here by accident and now our souls are animals?" Glen says, "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure we can help you."

[of_all_trades]

"Oh, that hope flew out of the window, crashed into a car and..." Ada started saying.

"Anyway," Franklyn says "yeah, you can't help us and... we were planning to bring more herbs, but we lost some while flying over here. I don't think we have enough to send both of you home and it might be better to poke the Alethiometer for facts before sending you anyway."

Franklyn looks at Maeghan, some quick communication happens.

"We are really sorry for what happened," Franklyn says "but I don't think we can return you before tomorrow morning at earliest. You guys can crash with us tonight..."

[between_worlds]

"We can get home ourselves, you actually caught us when we were traveling. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to leave until we know more about Rove and Echo."

[of_all_trades]

"Wait... Seriously?" Franklyn asks "and how many favors I should try to pull out of my sisters so you could take us on a trip to another universe?"

[between_worlds]

"I'd be happy to take you, but I'm not sure what would happen to your daemons."

[of_all_trades]

"How it works?" Franklyn asks "If you two aren't witches? Actually I still want to figure out why the spell caught you two, hold on a second..."

Franklyn fiddles with the Alethiometer again.

"We should explain more about Daemons to them," Ada says "I have no idea where to start."

Franklyn ignores Ada. He rubs his forehead after finishing fiddling and stares at Alex.

"So... are you extremely immortal?" He asks.

[between_worlds]

"I am, but Glen's not."

[of_all_trades]

"Okay..." Franklyn says still rubbing his forehead "I know we pretty much kidnapped you and changed the nature of your souls... but how that happened? I am not sure how different your world is and I am guessing it is outside the Alethiometer's range"

[intricate_engineer]

"What's the Alethiometer?"

[of_all_trades]

"It's a device that answers questions with objective truth," Franklyn says pointing at it with his free hand "with the downside that it only speaks a cryptic language composed of 36 symbols that are a pain to decipher."

[intricate_engineer]

"Who made it?"

[of_all_trades]

"No one knows," Franklyn says "The creator managed to hid his own identity. After trying several variant questions with mine, it confirmed the known story that it was a male mortal metaphysical scientist from at least three centuries ago. It also doesn't answer anything about how to create new ones, much less how to make the design more user-friendly."