abraxaslogs | I know it sounds impossible

Jayce might have gone into the Horizon sooner if he knew people would be worried, but he also had a very difficult time right after the attack happened. He sort of froze entirely and it took a little time to shake him out of it, so those first few days, he was dazed. Not in a good headspace.

They have been working nonstop on preparing for the relief work to Libertas, getting supplies together, making tools, and he's been filling up his bigger-on-the-inside satchel with whatever they'll need to walk through with. It will be any day now that they get to go. So right then, magical focus is the most he can do.

Like usual he can sense when someone is in their space so by the time Kell sits next to him, he isn't startled. But even here, despite people can appear and be whatever they want in the Horizon, Jayce looks worn out. Harried. The meditation room is as calming as possible. He doesn't mind the distraction and Kell must have been worried.

"We're not good," he admits, honestly. Sometimes Jayce really tries to put a pleasant face on for others or seem optimistic, but it would be really out of tune and it's also not the truth. "They're letting us go probably tomorrow, for relief work. It's ... apparently it's very bad there." Jayce can't really prepare for how bad.

"I figured, I just ..."

The rest of the sentence trailing into nothing. Wanted to know you're alive. Glad you're both alive. Worried that you might have died. All of this sounds hollow to him. True, but obvious, and woefully not enough. Not even close to the turmoil that threatened to overwhelm him those previous days when he did not find Jayce in his Horizon domain. And he is not the one going into the scorched city with a meagre hope of finding survivors.

"I'm sorry"

It feels as if he should have done something to prevent this. Somehow foresaw the mad woman for what she is. The memory of their conversation where he defended Thornean queen burns like acid now. Kell wishes he has never said that, that he somehow was able to see through his own wishful thinking. But he didn't, and it's too late now.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"You were worried." He can tell. "I'm sorry, I should have reached out, we got caught up in planning." Jayce can be caught in his own pain and grief and still see that Kell came here because he cares. He hurried here, actually, and Jayce manages a small smile for him.

Rio comes over and simply lies down next to Jayce, putting her head on his knee. He pets her lovingly. Viktor and he haven't fully figured out what she is, a simple projection or something the Singularity gave life to, or just a really impressive fantasy. Either way, it doesn't matter, she is theirs.

Jayce does remember that he was defensive of the queen before, but he doesn't really see it that way. Kell was hopeful he wasn't being captured in a castle with his brother with the bad guys. But Jayce saw all of this coming; it doesn't mean it makes it easy. Being right feels wrong when it's like this.

"You're my friend, Kell. That's help enough." Jayce reaches over and pats his back. "I imagine they put you all on lockdown pretty heavily, right?"

Kell huffs. "No wonder, pretty absorbing situation to find yourself in."

This particular, cynical brand of sarcasm is automatic. His default shield. And very, very inappropriate here. Kell drags a hand down his face with a quiet groan. Shit.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply..." He had no intention behind those words. "Sanct. This is all fucking insane."

The pat on the back makes him feel even more guilty. He shrugs.

"Not really. They must have realized they will need all the help they can get to deal with fires that hit the fields and the forests after the retaliation strike. The mad bitch is too busy going after her own people to take it on us. For now. Rhy volunteered to help, so we're going out soon."

"It's okay, Kell. Viktor's also someone who gets sarcastic during these times." Angry and sarcastic. Jayce tends to shut down or make it internal, but he gets that his friend didn't mean to be callous. "There's too many minefields around what we're living through to get squeamish about wording."

Which is another way of saying 'shit's real bad, don't worry about phrasing.' Jayce wouldn't waste his time worrying about how someone is reacting to an active war beginning in their homes, even if the two of them were forced into their factions.

Jayce glances over at him and almost as an automatic response to his concern, Rio lifts her head to waddle over to Kell and put her head on his knee instead. She really is a reflection of her owners, one way or another.

"You two need to make a plan. If there's a way to escape the castle if there's a direct attack, if you can make it to one of the other cities." Jayce is dead serious. "I've seen what something like New Magic weapons can do. I had a single hammer with my Hextech, and I killed people in full mech suits like it was easy. If Free Cities has even a fraction of what we did, they could wipe the castle off the map."

Kell looks down at the creature, those huge sad eyes fixed on him, and can't help but smile. He pets Rio on the head, like the strange dog that she is.

"I'm Antari, Jayce. We're really difficult to kill. Trust me, I tried."

He hasn't exactly tried to kill himself. Just another Antari. It took all the combined strength, both of him and Lila, and still, they were unsuccessful. If anything good could have come of it, it's the knowledge that when it comes to surviving the impossible, his own chances are pretty high.

Rhy, on the other hand, doesn't have this advantage. He's the one Kell needs to protect.

"But you're right. I need a plan. I should be able to cross boundaries to any place I've seen before. Or a person I know. Technically. But I wasn't able to do this during the ceremonies at the Lunar Pond. I can't even tell if that was the nature of the place, or werewolves had some stronger magic in place. So I don't really know what other limits on my skill exist here. I guess I need to figure it out."

"That may be true, but the other Summoned may not be so lucky."

Jayce has no reason to doubt that Kell is telling him the truth, that he is very difficult or near impossible to kill. He believes his friend, although he could also be overconfident. But Jayce is just a mortal man with no real abilities to speak of, outside of what he's learned here, so he wouldn't know the difference. But he knows that Kell worries about Rhy more than himself anyway, same as how Jayce always looks after Viktor, whether his love likes it or not.

"I think either the people who take us or the Singularity controls teleportation powers. It doesn't work the way people expect." Jayce knows that because of Ciri, although he definitely isn't going to say as much. The Singularity nearly got both her and Viktor killed when she tried to use her teleportation powers. He knows something is off about it. "Thorne probably has protections in place to keep any of you from leaving." It's hardly worth capturing people if you can't control them, after all.

"Maybe find a place in town you think you can run to easily, if something were to happen to the castle. They might keep you within their boundaries, but you could possibly teleport within it." Meaning if the castle is attacked, maybe he could teleport him and Rhy (and others) to the book store or somewhere else. Jayce doesn't know, he's never been to Thorne.

"I have like three escape routes planned for me and V, if things go badly."

"I know"

His previous declaration was not exaggerated. Not one bit. It wouldn't matter even if it was, because Kell is not going anywhere alone. And his brother is a lot more vulnerable than he is. Even now when he finally has magic he can use.

"I am trying to figure out how far I'm able to go with it," he adds. "But it's useless anyway if I can't take anyone with me."

Kell hasn't thought about any restrictions until now. Not that he wasn't aware of them. It was pretty clear from the official stance on leaving the city. He just didn't want to think about them. Jayce was right to be more cautious, and he's definitely better prepared.

"I could technically teleport to the teashop I work in." A thought crosses his mind that he could get the teashop owner in trouble, but Kell doesn't dwell on it. When it comes to Rhy's safety, he can be pretty ruthless. "I don't know any other places outside the castle well enough to be sure I can leave my sign there, and it won't be disturbed."

He's mad, mostly at himself, that he didn't think about it earlier. That, contrary to his own nature, he let people confine him to a single place. Again.

"Teashop is better than nowhere. I know all of Cadens very well by now, I'd encourage you to do the same." Jayce did that just because he likes to know where he lives, and he runs all over the place between work and his studies. And now he's a healer too, so there is always something he has to do. In fact, this small break is a rare exception in his insane schedule, but he needed the quiet of this place.

"Viktor's worried they will eventually try to get us to make weapons. Our store is known, but I wouldn't say at the moment we stand out any more than other well-known native blacksmiths. A little quirky, but the military haven't asked us for anything before." So there are reasons Jayce isn't as concerned as he is, but he understands the fear. It's not about logic, it's about experience, and always goes back to Jayce weaponizing their technology.

"We can't actually run, even if I have exit strategies. Viktor won't survive without technology and the access we have at the academy." So Jayce can imagine a way out all he wants, but it would be a death sentence for Viktor. His healing can't last forever, they both know that. Jayce doesn't speak frankly about Viktor's sickness to most people, but Kell accidentally found out the first time they spoke, so he knows he can just talk about it.

"I'd really like to think that we're no more than a curious magic experiment for this mad woman, so she's most likely to forget about us while she's busy being crazy. She's also not the only ruler, but I don't have high hopes for the king."

This is all politics, though, but whenever magic is used to enact some big change on the world, it's not only armies and weapons you should worry about. To Kell's understanding, and he's yet to find a single thing here to prove his understanding does not apply here, magic is always forces in balance. The Singularity itself is enough of a disturbance. Magical attack and retaliation, both causing destruction and death, can't possibly happen without disrupting this balance.

"How much of what you rely on for him is magical in nature?"

"I'm not sure I understand what the purpose of bringing people here in the first place was. It was the royals there and their high mage who did it, but then they threw people into the dungeon. It would almost seem like an accident, although maybe they didn't know what would actually happen."

He can't read minds so all he can do is speculate, but it doesn't seem likely they knew what they were getting when they reached out to other worlds. Otherwise, they would be more directly controlling the situation. It seems very reactive so far. Free Cities and Solvunn did the same once they realized Thorne had an edge. But did they? No one has asked anything of them.

"What I'm more worried about is what they'll use their New Magic for, combined with magic and technology. The weapon I made, it was lethal in a way very few weapons are. If they can harness something similar, on a larger scale, this could get uglier."

Jayce told Kell that he killed people and that it haunts him, but it also is coming from a place of understanding. He made one superpowered hammer and killed a whole collection of people easily, having never fought before. He thinks Free Cities has militarized to a higher level. It is very concerning. The Queen may have used a very dangerous magical attack to kill Libertas, but he worries that a New Magic weapon could wipe an entire section off the map with far less strain.

As for Viktor.

"Most of it. He does take some medical supplements and has been healthier for it, but my magic has been sustaining him." Viktor would be in very rough shape if it wasn't for that, which they both know. "But he's working on a project he started back home, if it works it could cure his condition entirely. It requires us to be here, we need their crystals to power it."

"I don't know what's their deal was," Kell admits. "Maybe it was an accident. Judging from initial reaction, it does seem to look that way. It sounds pretty stupid now, but at first, I was just glad to be here, so I didn't ask questions that I definitely should have. I doubt they let me snoop around now."

That counts for many things all at once, their presence, the reason why the Summoning happened in the first place, the Singularity, their connection to it. Understandable as it was, he'd rather had himself to be less complacent then. It's too late now anyway, but Kell can't help being bitter about it.

"I'm afraid that what the Queen has ordered could have been a show of force, but in no way the worse the mages here can do. And she has the whole Academy full of elite mages. Even if I only count the lecturing magicians and none of the students, that's already a lot. Back home, my mere existence in my home country's capital was enough to keep others from having stupid ideas."

Kell hates his role as a weapon for Arnes, and a deterrent to her potential enemies. He can see how here there could be a similar solution in place. They're just not in position to know about it.

Nothing of what he says is exactly encouraging, and he's painfully aware of it.

"Then you can't really leave."

"The reason I'm worried about it is because there is a difference between magic and magical technology. The difference with technology is it doesn't require effort or life force or people to cast anything. Imagine you can do a fatal high-level damage spell but instead of any cost to the mage, it's as simple as pulling a trigger. You could pull that trigger multiple times before someone could open their mouth to say a spell."

It isn't that Jayce doubts the ability of Thorne. Obviously they just bombed an entire city, he saw it first-hand. He saw the destruction that one giant spell could do. But he also knows what technology can do, and if that sort of magic is combined with it, it's on a scale most mages can't fathom. Thorne and Solvunn's technology is lacking, but Jayce has seen what Free Cities has come up with. It isn't as advanced as his work, but it will be.

Jayce sees now that Heimerdinger was right. He'll never get the chance to tell his own mentor that, but it's probably for the best.

"What I'm saying is that this is the start. We're all about to see something much worse as they escalate this war."

Jayce is worried about everyone. Solvunn seems to be the only safe one, for now, but he doubts it'll stay that way. He really thought he managed to outrun open conflict for now. It was only just beginning in his city, with some violence going on, but Libertas has really messed his head up. He's barely stable at this point, mentally, but he's really trying.

"No. We need to finish the cure and execute it and then he'll need to recover physically for awhile, so. No matter what happens, we need the Free Cities to not only stay thriving, but think well of us."

Thus Viktor's genuine concern they might come to them for weapons or try to use their knowledge in one way or another. That fear is reasonable.

Kell nods slowly. It might be just as Jayce says, and if it is, it puts Thorne at a disadvantage. Being at disadvantage and knowing it tends to lead to people overreacting. What's probably a saving grace is that there's no unanimity in Thorne's crown. The king didn't openly support the queen's action. He did not condemn them. That would stupid. But the direction his action has taken show that he's not that eager to escalate anything.

Or it could all be conjecture and wishful thinking on his part. Kell has no way of knowing. The only thing he's sure of that the times of relative peace and comfort for the Summoned are over.

"If I can help you with that in any way. Just tell me."

I know it sounds impossible

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

wrap this up and let the boys meet in oleuni square after it opens up again to discuss?

YES, will reply to your new post