Has Never Seemed So Far (Sabelrose)

[Lilandra Monaco]

Night had fallen, and the half moon was high in a clear sky There was light breeze, cool for the time of year, but not overly so. Comfortable would be a good word for the weather.

Lilandra Monaco did not look comfortable at all.

She was dressed in a heavy blacksmith's apron, a positively spartan tunic and breeches underneath. Her silver hair was tied off on in a messy ponytail, her face streaked with soot and ash. She was steering a smallish wagon, pulled by two horses that has seem too many summers. Though it was small, it was loaded damn near to capacity if the lumpy tarp that covered it was any indication Perhaps that was why her trip moved with deliberate slowness south from Venus to the forest. Her head bobbed up and down with the motion of the wagon, occasionally dropping lower still as she dozed, only to shake herself awake and look over her shoulder now and again. She rubbed the jewel on her right cheek now and then, before turning back to the road ahead of her.

Once under the cover of the trees, she seemed to relax a little, looking around less, though her hand did stray to her right cheek now and then. She followed the path for a bit longer, then strayed, slowing her team even more as she headed deep into the woods roughly in the general direction of the lake.

The deeper she went the fewer animals sounds reached her; no nocturnal birds or mammals seemed to want to go this deep. Finally, she stopped the wagon near what looked like a burned out thickest of dead trees, grass, and shrubs. She shrugged her shoulders and rubbed her rear, trying to work out the kinks of the long ride.

Just on the outskirts of the thicket, jutting up form the ground was a silvery-colored butt of rock was sticking out of the ground. When she approached it, it reached to about her waist, and it was covered what appeared to be runes; or at least the letters of a wholly foreign language. Lilandra paused only long enough to remove her boots, then stopped in front of the rock and knelled down. She reached out with one hand, fingertips caressing the letters, if indeed that was what they were.

"<Sorry I'm late, love>" she said in her own musical tongue, confident in her isolation. There was a smile on her lips, but nothing but pain in her voice. "<There was a party. For something called a 'bachlorette'. I'm not clear on what that is, but for some reason it provides these people with an excuse to finally use what the Goddess gave them and have some fun for once. For some reason I was in particularly high demand.>" Lia gave a little laugh at that, and the speed in which it transformed into quiet sobbing was startling.

"<I hate it here, Shalla! I have to hide myself all the time, hide what I am all the time until someone pays money to see. I'm not a proud calodin anymore. I'm an oddity! A fetish! Goddess, sometimes I wonder if I'm the one who died and this is hell!>"

Lia wrapped her arms around the stone as much as she was able, and spent the next five solid minuets crying against it. Then, with a finale gasp, she stood, rummaged in her apron pocket for something and pulled out a shard of crystal. Her thump depressed something on it , and in what looked like the center of the dead thicket, a door suddenly shimmered into view. It opened as she approached, sliding up and out of sight, filling the small clearing with a bright light from the other side. She paused to blow the headstone a kiss.

"<I Love you, Shalla. I'll get you home. I'll get us both home.>"

Then she head a rustling in the woods, and froze. Animals didn't come out this far, not anymore. She stepped back from the door, whcih shut but remained visible. She now held the crystal in her hand as though it were some kind of weapon. "<Who's -- >" she began before she remembered herself. "Who? There?" she tried again in English.

[Sablerose]

Normally, Calla -also known as the Druid Sablerose- was not driven by rumors, certainly not by the idle talk of a pair of Castle guards. Even the potential of a problem in this country's forest would not have caught her attention for more than a brief time.

But the things that they spoke of made her take notice: a malformed fawn; plants that seemed to be withered unnaturally; animals whose very bones were weakened to the point of being nearly useless for supporting their very bodies. And most of all, an illness that seemed to affect both the animals and the guard who entered the forest. Whether his hunting was considered illegal here was something for the local wardens to determine. But she doubted that any of those same wardens would be able to deal with a forest that had fallen unnaturally ill.

And that's exactly what she found.

Calla did not immediately try to determine the cause, as she walked through the forest. There was not enough evidence of any magical attack, though she could tell that it had some kind of magical origin. She could feel its illness. It made her stomach churn. But it was not enough to deter her now. She had wished that she had agreed to bring Greystreak, but given the effect that animals seemed to suffer while here, the Druid did not want to risk her Familiar's health. Grudgingly, he had agreed, but their mental link still tingled in the back of her mind. He was napping lightly while she investigated the environment. For the moment, he was silent, though Calla could sense his constant but underlying concern for her welfare.

She frowned darkly as a leaf crumbled between her fingers. The tree it had been attached to was stunted. Whatever had created such a situation, then, had been around for awhile. At least a season, she guessed. The tree was not dead, not yet. But it would be dead before the season was out, unless the source was found. Even then, she suspected that it was too late for it. And others would follow, if unless the destruction was halted.

As she stood up, a hint of something akin to singing caught her attention. Whatever the source, it was not from any forest creature. If anything, it sounded all too human. Then, the song stopped, to be replaced by...

crying?

Intrigued, Calla made her way quietly toward the source. Soon enough, she came upon a thicket where most of the foliage had been destroyed. On first glance, one would have thought it had suffered from a blaze, but the signs of fire on the trees did not match the signs she looked for on the surrounding area.

And, kneeing near one edge of the thicket, a woman wrapped her arms around some kind of stone. Again, it wasn't natural to the area from what she could see of it. The woman was quite obviously the source of the crying. Was she also the source of the forest's destruction? Calla frowned again, but otherwise remained still as she continued to watch. The white-haired woman's grief seemed sincere, but as for what she was crying about, the Druid could not be sure. When she finally stepped back from the stone she had been embracing, Calla could see now that not only was it not natural to the area, it looked more like a marker of some sort. If the other woman's sorrow was an indication, it was possibly a gravestone for a loved one.

The woman brought out some sort of crystal, which she pointed toward the center of the thicket. Suddenly, light flooded into the thicket as some kind of portal appeared. Whatever the woman's problems, she was also Calla's only lead to the forest's condition. She could not afford to let her go without trying to question her.

She did not bother to be subtle now. She stepped from her hiding place, holding tightly to the wooden staff she had been carrying. However, she did not reach for the scimitar that was hanging naked at her waist. The silver sickle that she carried as a sign of both her royal heritage as well as her position as a Druid sat on her other hip. It wasn't a weapon, but it could be used as one in a pinch.

When the woman spun around at the sound of Calla's approach, she gave a confused look at the musical words that she spoke to Calla. It wasn't a language she understood, though it sounded like something she ought to know, at least in part. When the woman switched to a far more familiar tongue, Calla stopped.

"I am Calla, also known as the Druid Sablerose. I am here investigating rumors of a sickness in these woods. I came across you here, and would like to ask what you might know of it." She stood still and kept her voice even, doing her best to keep any hint of accusation out of it. "Who are you?" she asked, nodding to the other woman.

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia didn't reply right away. Instead she touched the jewel on her left cheek with her hand, silently and invisibly scanning the woman before her. She appeared unremarkable, the stick in her hand just a stick, the blade at her waist not dangerous unless Lia was foolish enough to let her come closer. But there was one word in her speech she did not recognize: druid. She had learned the hard way that such gaps in her knowledge of these people could end very, very badly. She kept the crystal pointed at Sablerose.

"Me. Lilandra. Monaco." she said carefully. English always felt so simple and clumsy on her tongue, making her musical voice sound nasal or atonal. Her usual defense mechanism of silence would not help her now; doubtless this woman had been here a while. I have been foolish, to drop my guard just to grieve...

"Sickness," she confirmed with a nod. She mental ran though the words she knew, and their translations for English, but she could fine not find and adequate word in their tongue to explain. "Radiant. Sickness." she settled on after a moments silence. "Fault is...mine? Inadvertent. I try... to...resolve?"

She waved her free hand in a shooing gesture. "Not healthy on humans here. Get ill. Should go."

[Sablerose]

Calla saw the woman struggling with Calla's language. Unfortunately, her spells were designed to allow her to speak more to animals and plants than humans and human-like beings. So it appeared that both of them would have to find a work around.

She shook her own head at Lilandra's warning. "I am a priestess of Nature," she said. "If you tell me what you did or might have done, I might be able to correct it. I could have spells that can stop this, depending on the cause." Granted, that all depended on Calla's ability to get past the language barrier. "Now, let's try to figure this out."

[Lilandra Monaco]

At the words "priestess of nature" the tension seemed to leave Lia's shoulders, and she finally lowered the hand holding the crystal. However, her nose did wrinkle a bit at the word 'spells', though. There was more to this problem than waving one's hands and saying magic words.

But how to explain that to this Sablerose? Lia mentally kicked herself for all the time she wasted refusing to learn the language here. She was silent for a time, turning the problem over in her head. This woman wasn't going to leave, and now that she knew about this place, and if Lia did not answer her questions, she would come back Gaea knew when, and Lia would not be able to stop her. Of course she could just attack and be done with it. But shooting anyone unprovoked, especially a priestess, felt so fundamentally wrong to her that she discarded the idea at once.

She could only see one solution. She just hoped it was the right one.

Lia raised the crystal again, pointing it at the door. It once more slid up and out of sight, flooding the area with light. "Follow." she said to Sablerose. "Will explain." Lia turned, spared on look over her shoulder, then stepped inside and was soon obscured by the light.

[Sablerose]

I don't like it, Greystreak grumbled. Calla had quickly filled him in on what was happening. Thankfully, he had been keeping a casual track on her thoughts, so she only needed a couple of seconds to explain what was going on...and how Lilandra was beckoning her to follow.

I don't like it either, she echoed. But it might be the only chance we have to get information on what's going on around here. If she wanted to attack me, why not get it out of the way here?

Simple logic. Wherever she's taking you is more familiar to her than where you are. You'd be on her lands, her terms.

That Calla had to give Greystreak. Still, she had to try something. Lilandra had some information, tantalizingly close, but it came with a price.

And that price was trust.

Greystreak offered one last warning. If she is taking you to an extra-dimensional space, there is no guarantee that out bond with pass through the barrier. You would be, for all intents and purposes, on your own.

It was a very chilling problem, and it almost made Calla change her mind. But if the information that the other woman offered was true, it could help her solve the problem with far less effort. I understand, Greystreak. But I don't think we can ignore the possible benefit.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Greystreak said quietly My Nature bless your path. Come back to me, dearheart.

Thank you. And I intend to do just that, dearheart. She offered him a mental embrace, then nodded took a steadying breath, before following Lilandra.

[Lilandra Monaco]

Whatever Sablerose had been expecting, the reality must have seemed strangely pedestrian in comparison. Once she crossed the threshold, the space she found herself in was no larger than a a commoner's sitting room. The light that had split the night was shinning from a flat panel in the ceiling . It was bright, yes, but only in comparison. Once in its direct glare, it would not take much time for her eyes to adjust.

Once they had been given that chance, the rest of the small room would come into sharp focus... and being an empty space appearing for all the world to have been made entirely out of metal. To her left the wall was blank, save for a few smaller lights blinking in what might have been a sequence. Straight ahead was another door, this one closed. To her right, facing the wall, Lilandra was undressing.

The tall woman had, in the intervening moments, shed her blacksmith apron and tunic, and was in the process of wiggling her breeches past her hips. Each item was placed in turn on a shelf that seemed to have grown right out of the wall. Next to this shelf was another one that held another garment, this one a deep purple footed one-piece jumpsuit that seemed too slight to fit an average sized woman, much less Lia.

Lilandra was careful to keep her backside facing Sablerose she removed the last of her undergarments, placing them, on the shelf. That shelf soon retracted into an opening in the wall, and vanished. The only item she kept in hand was her crystal. She then took the one piece, placed one foot into each leg hole, then proceeded to pull it on. The material was tight, but stretched to accommodate her shape.

Lia pushed her arms through sleeves of the suit, and zipped it up her front from her waist to her neck. The air seemed to shiver around her, before she turned to face Sablerose. She reached out to the wall, only it wasn't as blank as it first seemed. Her fingertips flew across it, depressing buttons so slight they were easily missed. Two more shelves slid out of the wall before Sable, one bare, the other with a suit identical to her own, only white.

"Disrobe," she said, point at the empty table. "Then dress." she went on, indicating the suit. "Safety. protects from..." she paused, wrestling for the words. "Cause of illness?"

[Sablerose]

Calla blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light inside what amounted to some sort of metal-walled corridor, but as soon as she could she took in her surroundings. It was an odd set up, though no more so than the few extra-dimensional spaces she had visited. And definitely far less so than many of the ones of which she had heard.

When Lilandra began to strip off her current clothing, Calla had the decency to advert her eyes, though she had wanted to continue examining the rest of the 'hallway'. She had to admit that Lilandra was an attractive woman, the dark skin offsetting her white hair pleasantly. And, overall, she did not seem like an immediate threat to Calla, though the Druid admitted that appearances were often deceiving.

The oddities continued, as Lilandra touched the metal wall at several points, seemingly where lights appeared, from Calla's perspective, under the metal. Then two more shelves slipped out from the previously smooth surface. Her host indicated that she would need to place on the other suit, while putting her current clothing in the other drawer. She was reluctant, at first, as she knew that it would likely require her to leave her weapons behind. With no idea what she was likely to be encountering, it made her uncomfortable to be unarmed and on Lilandra's grounds.

But that was quickly dismissed when she remembered that if Lilandra had really wanted to hurt her, bringing her inside the metal hallway was far more than enough to make the task far easier. With that in mind, she quickly, if somewhat shyly, undressed placing her weapons on top of her clothing in the drawer. She then slipped into the garment, finding its texture both unusual and intriguing at the same time.

At the end, she mimicked Lilandra's actions, and zipped up the front of the suit, waiting to see what happened next.

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia nodded once Sablerose had put on the suit. She approached the other door, pressing still more button there in rapid succession. The light above them flashed in warning three times, then the door leading outside slid closed, locking with a metallic clunk. A heartbeat later, the door before Lia slid opened with a hiss. She stepped beyond it at once, again waving for Sablerose to follow.

The two women would fall themselves in a hallway, the overhead light panels just bright enough for their surrounding to be awash in sepia tones. Even so, the difference between the metal room and this hallway was night and day. The floor was carpeted and soft, positively homey, the walls a far more pleasing and warm shade of peach. As Lia led the way down the hall, the passed an opened door or two, one revealing what might have been a sitting room, another a bed room, though it was hard to make out in the gloom.

They soon game to another door, this one rounded and patterned with what looked a stylized bird of some kind. It irises open, to reveal the largest room so far. What looked like a love seat was set in a dais high in the middle of the room, complete with comfortable looking cushions. Around the outside wall of the room was several chairs, each facing a wall and a shelf roughly at waits level. Directly in front of them on the far wall, the wall was blank. Just before the blank wall was what looked like a desk, only the chair was missing.

Lia approached on of the seats lined the wall and ran her fingers over the 'shelf' as she sat. The shelf came to life with twinkling lights. The blank wall also flashed into life, replaced with a black screen.

Lia's finger s flew over the now illuminated buttons on the 'shelf' and the same kind of runes that adorned gravestone outside scrolled across the screen. When she was finished typing, she hit still another button, and a cursor passed over her words, replacing them with English:

"This will hopefully make it easier to understand me. Greetings Druid Sablerose. My name is Lilandra Monaco, a princess of the Caledon Queendom. If you are truly a priestess of nature, I believe I owe you an explanation."

[Sablerose]

Calla did her best to try not to show just how overwhelmed she felt here. The odd lighting, the need to change into the odd clothes, the situation as a whole, all of it made her want to scream that the world should slow down enough for her to have a chance to take things in. But she knew that it would not, and yelling in frustration like a child would do little more than embarrass herself and weaken her position as a Princess herself and as a Druid. That did not stop her from being tense, though.

Much of that tension washed away, however, when she tested her link with Greystreak. It was faint, but it was still there. She wasn't sure just how much either of them would be able to pick up the other's thoughts, but the fact that it was still live meant that hope still lived as well.

Calla took a seat opposite Lilandra, but close enough so that she could read what must have amounted to a translation by...something. There were spells that could translate one language into something the caster could understand, but Calla suspected that magic was not the source here.

"I am honored to meet you, Princess Lilandra." She did not recognize the country Lilandra mentioned, but that was something she would work on figuring out later. "If you do have some knowledge on what's causing this blight and how to put an end to it, I would appreciate any help. If this is not halted soon, I do not know how far it will spread."

[Lilandra Monaco]

For all her trouble speaking Sablerose's language, Lilandra seemed to have no trouble understanding it when it was spoken. No sooner where the other woman's words out of her mouth than her thin fingers were dancing over the glowing buttons before her again.

"This is going to sound very strange, but please keep an open mind.

"This 'blight' is what we call Radiation Sickness. It's a condition that affects living matter when overexposed to particular kind of [NO EQUIVALENT WORD FOUND] radiation. I fear I am responsible for bringing this energy to your world, though that was not my intention. Far from it, in fact."

After the translation was complete, Lilandra hesitated. Twice her fingers flexed toward the keyboard, only for her to lose her nerve and retreat. Just before the final third attempt , she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Then she started typing.

"Ordinarily, this energy is safely contained and utilized to power a variety of things. Things such as the structure you now find yourself in. It is, in reality, a vessel." There was another moment of hesitation, then the typing resumed. "A vessel designed to travels not the seas, but the stars." Another pause. "Neither it nor I are from this planet, Druid Sablerose. Myself and one other crashed here some months ago. The circumstances behind this crash killed my wife and damaged my ship. Among the damaged portions was the shielding to keep this power source safely contained. I am trying to repair it, but is is slow growing with the level of industry I have found here."

Lia stopped there to give Sablerose a chance to take this all in.

[Sablerose]

Calla sat quietly, contemplatively. She was not sure what exactly this 'radiation' was, but she got the impression that it was some kind of powerful energy. Given the kind of damage it had wrought, it had to be. As for the idea of a ship that sailed the stars, it was an intriguing concept, if true. She knew that there were dimension beyond the one where she lived. But those were realms of magic. From what Lilandra was saying, these were worlds that existed in the same dimension as the very world on which the two women sat.

She could feel Greystreak's thoughts, which brought some relief to Calla's worries. Incredible, he said quietly. If I understand what she's saying, whatever kind of protection that she kept around the source of this radiation was damaged upon the crash. And this radiation has a detrimental effect on living tissue, causing mutations and potentially death.

So, then the question becomes, what can we do to help her reseal that power?

I suppose asking her is the first step. However, I'm honestly out of my depth here, Calla. I know about magic, not hard science.

Seems that you do have your limits after all, Oh Wise One.

I'm wise enough to know that I don't know everything, pup. Now, let's see what we do to help her.

"First, let me give my condolences for the loss of your wife. I am sorry that the crash stole her from you. However, we now need to find away to solve the broader issues from that incident. If I am to understand you correctly, this radiation will continue to inflict damage so long as it remains unsealed. I would agree that our level of technology is probably much inferior to yours, if you are able to travel among the stars.

"Yet there has to be some way to help you prevent further damage. Once that's done, I might be able to help the healing process of forest begin. Would it help you to find a specific kind of metal or the like?"

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia's fingers were a blur once more.

"Metal, yes. That was the hardest part at first. The metal knows as lead is the ideal for shielding the [NO EQUIVALENT WORD FOUND] Reactor Core . Actually, in normal situations, were erect as Containment Field around the core. Its an energy shielding powered by the core itself, completely self sustaining. Lead shielding is a back-up in the event the Containment Field fails. Only in this case..."

Lia paused, the cursor on the screen blinking as it waited for new input.

"I cannot explain it, but the lead shielding was missing. I suspect sabotage, but that only raises more questions than it answers. The only reason to do such a thing would be to kill the occupants of a vessel. But crime is virtually non extent in the Queendom. And at the risk of sounding immodest, I was well liked among my mother's many children and something of a celebrity ever since I became a Breeder. I cannot imagine why..."

Lia paused again, the dark skin on her face growing darker with embarrassment. "I apologize, that is neither here no there. Lead is a fairly useless metal for you level of technology. Too malleable, low melting point, and in large quantities, poisonous. It has taken me a long time to gather a significant amount and longer still to shape it at smith's were I apprentice while also making sure no one else is exposed to its toxicity. Though I am more resistant to it myself than a human would be, and have the certain.. other advantages gifted to me when I became a breeder, I still have to careful.

"But I am please to tell you, I think am very close to containing the core this very night."

[Sablerose]

Calla frowned at the mention of the removal of the lead shielding that Lilandra mentioned. Though she knew next to nothing about the properties of the science that Lilandra understood, it did seem odd that the metal would be stripped from something that was able to hide itself in plain view such as her ship that sailed among the stars. Still, nothing was impossible, as this vessel proved.

"I cannot make lead appear where it does not exist, but I can use spells to locate it, remove it from the ground and manipulate its shape. Will that be of use in your repairs?"

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia blinked rapidly at Sablerose's words, then faint smile touched her lips, and she looked down shaking her head. A sound that might have been a giggle escaped her, only it sounded more like the tinkling of crystal wind-chimes. This went on for a few seconds then, she composed herself long enough to begin typing anew.

"Had I known you a few months ago," she wrote, "I would have been spared a lot of toil..." the typing stopped, the cursor blinking and the smile faded and Lia bit down on her lip as her eyes began to water. She wiped them quickly, then resumed. "..and pain. But as it was, I have a massed the last of the lead I need. It is outside, in the wagon I drove here. All that remains is to install it. Not," she added, "that installation is easy. But once it is done, there will no longer be a radiation leak. This area would be safe from additional damage."

With that message done Lia leaned back in her chair, exhaling a deep sigh. With one handed she pecked out an additional message. "As for the existing environmental damage... I do not have the tech needed to mend it. And while it will heal on its own, it can take decades. Once I am able to return home, or at least send a signal to my mother, she or I can can bring the treeborgs needed; once planted they can accelerated the healing to a handful of years."