I have nothing to add this morning; it's getting hotter and the workouts at the gym are correspondingly harder -- no A/C there, just fans :)
The loophole "The demon seemed to be protecting an hourglass," said Lord Derby. Lord Vileburn held two palm-sized mirrors, one of either side of Lord Derby's head, and Samual shivered when, for a moment, Lord Derby seemed to have three heads all looking in different directions. "Ow." "Sorry," said Lord Vileburn, not sounding sorry or interested. "No-one's found a way to do that one that doesn't involve damage." Ernest looked hard at him. "You'll find you have a small cut on your hand, pretty much a papercut." "The hourglass was part of the Magic Hour spell," said Elizabeth. "The Magisters told us about that. It's a strange spell really, it sort of takes a short space of time, typically about five seconds, and stretches it out into a full hour in an orthogonal dimension. Obviously this can only be done in a incomplete Frechet space, which our reality isn't, so there's a framework that's built into it... hmmm. Perhaps you'd prefer the layman's version?" "Please," said Lord Derby, running a finger over the papercut. It wasn't bleeding. "You're trapped inside five seconds. Usually by the time we realise what's happened everyone else is past those five seconds, so we can't reach you until the spell ends. Then you pop back into the time-stream where you ought to be. The thing is, there's a loophole there that allows anything to happen to you inside those five seconds because they sort of twist back on themselves. So it effectively hides you from the rest of the world." "Can I affect the rest of the world inside those seconds?" "No," said Elizabeth. "That's what makes it a magic hour. It's most often used by lovers wanting some privacy." She blushed again as, Lord Derby noted from the corner of his eye, did Samual. "But then the demon took me somewhere?" "Ah!" She brightened. "Well, that removed you from our dimension so then time passed normally for you there, and everything behaved normally. It would be easy to find a dimension that was incomplete so you could build the transportation into the Magic Hour spell." "I think I understand," said Ernest. He sighed. "This was definitely a trap then, intended to take me to that place, which seems likely to have been Carcosa. But I am intending to go there anywhere, why take me there early? And the demon seemed ineffective there, at least if it was supposed to kill me. Then we have the fact that you tell me the demon behaved oddly while it was there... this is all extremely strange. I feel rather out of my depth." "That's never stopped you before," said Lord Vileburn. "Your protections seem fine, Ernest, but I want to remind you again that you should check these things before relying on them after incidents like this." "Next time I'm abducted by a demon I shall be sure to do so," said Lord Derby, and the two friends shared a fleeting smile.
3 comments:
I have nothing to add this morning; it's getting hotter and the workouts at the gym are correspondingly harder -- no A/C there, just fans :)
The loophole
"The demon seemed to be protecting an hourglass," said Lord Derby. Lord Vileburn held two palm-sized mirrors, one of either side of Lord Derby's head, and Samual shivered when, for a moment, Lord Derby seemed to have three heads all looking in different directions. "Ow."
"Sorry," said Lord Vileburn, not sounding sorry or interested. "No-one's found a way to do that one that doesn't involve damage." Ernest looked hard at him. "You'll find you have a small cut on your hand, pretty much a papercut."
"The hourglass was part of the Magic Hour spell," said Elizabeth. "The Magisters told us about that. It's a strange spell really, it sort of takes a short space of time, typically about five seconds, and stretches it out into a full hour in an orthogonal dimension. Obviously this can only be done in a incomplete Frechet space, which our reality isn't, so there's a framework that's built into it... hmmm. Perhaps you'd prefer the layman's version?"
"Please," said Lord Derby, running a finger over the papercut. It wasn't bleeding.
"You're trapped inside five seconds. Usually by the time we realise what's happened everyone else is past those five seconds, so we can't reach you until the spell ends. Then you pop back into the time-stream where you ought to be. The thing is, there's a loophole there that allows anything to happen to you inside those five seconds because they sort of twist back on themselves. So it effectively hides you from the rest of the world."
"Can I affect the rest of the world inside those seconds?"
"No," said Elizabeth. "That's what makes it a magic hour. It's most often used by lovers wanting some privacy." She blushed again as, Lord Derby noted from the corner of his eye, did Samual.
"But then the demon took me somewhere?"
"Ah!" She brightened. "Well, that removed you from our dimension so then time passed normally for you there, and everything behaved normally. It would be easy to find a dimension that was incomplete so you could build the transportation into the Magic Hour spell."
"I think I understand," said Ernest. He sighed. "This was definitely a trap then, intended to take me to that place, which seems likely to have been Carcosa. But I am intending to go there anywhere, why take me there early? And the demon seemed ineffective there, at least if it was supposed to kill me. Then we have the fact that you tell me the demon behaved oddly while it was there... this is all extremely strange. I feel rather out of my depth."
"That's never stopped you before," said Lord Vileburn. "Your protections seem fine, Ernest, but I want to remind you again that you should check these things before relying on them after incidents like this."
"Next time I'm abducted by a demon I shall be sure to do so," said Lord Derby, and the two friends shared a fleeting smile.
The words say one thing
The ideas another
Sneak through the gap
Greg - yeah, it's stupid hot here as well. Looking forward to fall.
And the start of my new indoor job.
Ah, more fascinating Derby goodness. So pleased that you're carrying on with this. Have I mentioned that already? I fell that I may have...
Morganna - love this. So succinct and it totally captures the idea of the prompt. Nicely done!
Post a Comment