I suspect that this reminder will not be the most pleasant, so I apologise in advance, but there is one week of June left to do and we've not revisited the sixth yearlong story yet. That in itself isn't such a bad thing to be reminded of, but typically you don't put up the next yearlong prompt until you've written on the last one... which you haven't yet ( http://daily-writing.blogspot.com/2019/05/sunday-may-12th-2019.html ).
Bronzed The King smiled, and Samual looked carefully at him, hunting for signs of relief. He wasn't sure he could find any, and he wondered if the King had had any doubts at all about the outcome of the holding to Account. Then he wondered how often the King might have been held to Account. "I agree with Ernest," said the King, "that the end does not justify the means, and I won't waste anyone's time with my reasoning for my decisions. Many of you were there to hear it already. I shall instead resolve to think things through better, further, and faster. But we are past that now and need to decide what actions to take in future. And to help us be informed to that regard, I call upon Elizabeth now to tell us about what Labdaris has been doing while we thought he was dead." Everyone turned to look at Elizabeth, who was still sitting down. Now embarrassed she tried to rise, but Memnith's hand fell on her shoulder holding her down. "Stay seated," he said quietly, so that no-one else could hear what he said. "It gives you authority." Elizabeth squirmed for a moment, deeply uncomfortable with the weight of everyone's gaze upon her, but Memnith's hand was like a stone beam pressing down. "Right," she said, uncertainly. She coughed, clearing her throat. "Right. We were gifted a set of stone tablets by the King in Yellow, in return for the Narwhal's Horn. The King asked for a record of what Labdaris has done while he was out of our sight; what we got is essentially Labdaris's workbook. No-one needs to complain about that, this is much more useful than a diary." "After all," said Memnith quickly. "Who really cares what he had for breakfast each morning, or what his opinion of his co-workers is?" "There are two significant achievements and nearly a hundred smaller ones," said Elizabeth pretending her boss hadn't spoken. She looked everywhere but at Memnith. "These cover a little over a year. The first is the creation of a spell to record things magically, and is how the King in Yellow was able to provide us with this; it somehow made a copy of Labdaris's records. Thus what we have is everything Labdaris thought important enough to record, and that includes almost all his acts of magic. The second is the creation of a spell that attempts to predict the future."
"Is that even possible?" Lord Martial Redstone looked across to Lord Theurgical Verbilious as he spoke. Verbilious shook his head. "Not exactly," said Elizabeth. "There is a theurgical proscription on attempting to the predict the future." "True," said Verbilious, his voice loud and booming. "In the seminaries we tell the priestlings that this is because it is heresy to attempt to know the will of the Gods. Those who aspire to Mastery question this soon enough, and then we teach that hubris is a sin and to know the future is to succumb to it." "And in fact," said Elizabeth smoohtly, as though she'd planned the interruption, "the problem is that by predicting the future you change it. If I use the Power to determine that my Lord Vileburn were to bronze Lord Verbilious and set him as an attractive warning to those who interrupt, then I have the opportunity to stop him. So the only way the Power can tell you truly what will happen is by enforcing it." "I hope you're not planning on having me bronzed, Memnith?" Lord Verbilious's words were soft, but there was a hint of barb. "Not with the King watching," said Memnith. "He'd disapprove." "Labdaris's spell," said Elizabeth. "seems to give a broad view of the picture by taking the caster out of the equation as much as possible. The less the emotional attachment, the easier it is not to interfere."
I can recall the first time I was "bronzed". It was a couple days before my freshman year of high school, My friends and I decided that it would be a good idea to go buy self tanner from target and get tan before we go to high school. Being 14 year olds with no job and a ten dollar bill from my mom, I had to buy the cheapest tanning lotion they sell. Well an hour or two later we decided to use the tanning lotion. I wake up on Sunday, the day before I start my high school career, an I am the shade of a bronzed orange. Needless to say, I ALWAYS look into the self tanner before i buy it now.
4 comments:
I suspect that this reminder will not be the most pleasant, so I apologise in advance, but there is one week of June left to do and we've not revisited the sixth yearlong story yet. That in itself isn't such a bad thing to be reminded of, but typically you don't put up the next yearlong prompt until you've written on the last one... which you haven't yet ( http://daily-writing.blogspot.com/2019/05/sunday-may-12th-2019.html ).
Bronzed
The King smiled, and Samual looked carefully at him, hunting for signs of relief. He wasn't sure he could find any, and he wondered if the King had had any doubts at all about the outcome of the holding to Account. Then he wondered how often the King might have been held to Account.
"I agree with Ernest," said the King, "that the end does not justify the means, and I won't waste anyone's time with my reasoning for my decisions. Many of you were there to hear it already. I shall instead resolve to think things through better, further, and faster. But we are past that now and need to decide what actions to take in future. And to help us be informed to that regard, I call upon Elizabeth now to tell us about what Labdaris has been doing while we thought he was dead."
Everyone turned to look at Elizabeth, who was still sitting down. Now embarrassed she tried to rise, but Memnith's hand fell on her shoulder holding her down.
"Stay seated," he said quietly, so that no-one else could hear what he said. "It gives you authority."
Elizabeth squirmed for a moment, deeply uncomfortable with the weight of everyone's gaze upon her, but Memnith's hand was like a stone beam pressing down.
"Right," she said, uncertainly. She coughed, clearing her throat. "Right. We were gifted a set of stone tablets by the King in Yellow, in return for the Narwhal's Horn. The King asked for a record of what Labdaris has done while he was out of our sight; what we got is essentially Labdaris's workbook. No-one needs to complain about that, this is much more useful than a diary."
"After all," said Memnith quickly. "Who really cares what he had for breakfast each morning, or what his opinion of his co-workers is?"
"There are two significant achievements and nearly a hundred smaller ones," said Elizabeth pretending her boss hadn't spoken. She looked everywhere but at Memnith. "These cover a little over a year. The first is the creation of a spell to record things magically, and is how the King in Yellow was able to provide us with this; it somehow made a copy of Labdaris's records. Thus what we have is everything Labdaris thought important enough to record, and that includes almost all his acts of magic. The second is the creation of a spell that attempts to predict the future."
"Is that even possible?" Lord Martial Redstone looked across to Lord Theurgical Verbilious as he spoke. Verbilious shook his head.
"Not exactly," said Elizabeth. "There is a theurgical proscription on attempting to the predict the future."
"True," said Verbilious, his voice loud and booming. "In the seminaries we tell the priestlings that this is because it is heresy to attempt to know the will of the Gods. Those who aspire to Mastery question this soon enough, and then we teach that hubris is a sin and to know the future is to succumb to it."
"And in fact," said Elizabeth smoohtly, as though she'd planned the interruption, "the problem is that by predicting the future you change it. If I use the Power to determine that my Lord Vileburn were to bronze Lord Verbilious and set him as an attractive warning to those who interrupt, then I have the opportunity to stop him. So the only way the Power can tell you truly what will happen is by enforcing it."
"I hope you're not planning on having me bronzed, Memnith?" Lord Verbilious's words were soft, but there was a hint of barb.
"Not with the King watching," said Memnith. "He'd disapprove."
"Labdaris's spell," said Elizabeth. "seems to give a broad view of the picture by taking the caster out of the equation as much as possible. The less the emotional attachment, the easier it is not to interfere."
Greg - yeah that one was looming over me for a while. Gonna try to not let June's entry get to that point.
Yay, Elizabeth's turn!
Ahem. More interesting developments. More intrigue to come, I'm certain.
I can recall the first time I was "bronzed". It was a couple days before my freshman year of high school, My friends and I decided that it would be a good idea to go buy self tanner from target and get tan before we go to high school. Being 14 year olds with no job and a ten dollar bill from my mom, I had to buy the cheapest tanning lotion they sell. Well an hour or two later we decided to use the tanning lotion. I wake up on Sunday, the day before I start my high school career, an I am the shade of a bronzed orange. Needless to say, I ALWAYS look into the self tanner before i buy it now.
Post a Comment