Has Never Seemed So Far (Sabelrose)

[Sablerose]

Calla lowered her head and said "I am sorry. I am actually very new to the area, and given time, I might have figured out sooner something was wrong with the lands around here. And, had I known your plight, I would have offered my aid, as I am now."

She raised her head. "That said, I cannot change what has happened. But I can help for the future. As I mentioned, I can help you mold the lead into whatever forms you need. That should speed up the process of sealing off the source of the contamination. As for healing the damage that's occurred, it will probably be far longer than a mere handful of years for the real toll to show up, but the sooner the purging begins, the better. I may have to contact other Druids, though, to help determine what we can do to isolate the contamination in the meantime."

She gave a tilt to her head as she looked at Lilandra. "Still, between the two extremes of science and magic, I suspect we can find a solution to the problem."

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia shook her head, and started typing again.

"I made it a point to have as little contact with your society as I reasonably could. There are laws against communicating with the inhabitants of a world that has yet to master FTL (Faster Than Light) travel. Your not knowing of me was a result of my careful attempts at self-seclusion, and so no apology is necessary."

Lia sighed. "Though, leaking radiation all over a forest, enlisting the aid of a local nature priestess, and becoming uncommonly popular at the local brother might still count as excessive interference... I would not look forward to the inquiry that will result from this, expect for the fact that I must make it home before such an inquiry could take place. Gaea, I am never leaving home again. I'll just breed for a good decade before I even set foot outside the palace again...

"But now I am rambling. There is much work to be done tonight. If there are no additional questions, we can start moving the shielding I have made from the cart outside to the ship and down to the engine room."

[Sablerose]

Figuring that having the other woman explain what was meant by being able to travel 'Faster than Light' would take up far more time than they had (not to mention give the Druid a massive headache), Calla replied with "No questions, other than where do you need me to stand and what do you want me to do when I get there?"

[Lilandra Monaco]

The smile that Lia offered in response was as bright as the rest of the night was long.

First came the trip back down the hall to the empty room they had entered and back into the forest. Lia brought with her a silver device that looked much like the top part of a table, only it hovered in the air under its own power. Once outside, they made for her horse drawn cart.

Then the real work stated.

The pair had to careful move the heavy thick sheets of metal onto Lia's floating 'table' one at a time. The device would dip down with each sheet placed on it, only to float back up to its previous height a few seconds later. Once that was loaded, they had team up to push the table back to the ship.

Once inside, Lia guided them down to the engine room, the air getting hotter and hotter as they made their way there. In the center of the room hovered what looked like a tiny sun, but Lia was more focused on the floor surrounding the dais where the tiny sun hovered. There were hollows where each of the metal sheets had to be set.

And here was their frist roadblock. Lia had apparently gotten the measurements wrong, the shield panels were all roughly ten to twenty millimeters too long to fit in the hollows. She looked about a heartbeat way from bursting into tears, before she remembered Sablerose 's earlier offer to manipulate the shape of metal. It took awhile to explain what a millimeter was in the absence of a translator screen, but eventually it got across and the alternations were made.

Each shield panel was locked into place over course of the next several hours. Lia was sweating openly by this point, and her long limbs were shaking with fatigue.

Finally, with all the shielding in place, Lia guided Sablerose back to the room where they had their earlier conversation. She sank heavily into the chair taking a minute or two before typing out a message.

"Thank you. Regardless if this proves successful or not you will always have the gratitude of the Caledon Royal Family." She paused. "Not that that means much on this world, I suppose, but, it is still yours all the same."

She reached over to another panel, bring it to life with a sweep of her fingers. The screen flicked on, and he typed out a new message with on hand. "This screen will display the radiation level being emitted from the engine room."

The screen displayed a rather simplistic bar graph. There was one long red bar displayed, but as they wacthed, it slowly began to shrink, changing from red, to yellow, green then finally bottoming out at a blue bar that was only barley visible.

<Yes>, Lia whispered. Her hand was shaking as she turned back to the translator screen. "Shield is holing," she typed, having to go back and correct a few typos in her excitement. "I'm bring the ship up to full power, to make sure it holds."

Several more keys were pressed. From deep withing the ship, low hum began to increase. More and more terminals around the large room bean to light up. The overhead lighting went from sepia to full illumination. And through it all the radiation level remained low and blue.

Hands trembling with relief and exhaustion, Lia typed out "It worked!"

[Sablerose]

It was one of the most grueling workouts that Calla could remember doing since when she first started training as a Druid. Yes, she had been tested in more difficult ways as she progressed in her skills, but this time, it was a combination of both physical and mystical stamina. Lifting the lead sheets made her muscles burn, and controlling the shaping of the sheets took control. Her spells reshaped the existing metal; it did not add any more. And 'removing' such small amounts of such a heavy metal (she had learned to hate this 'millimeter' standard of measurement) was surprisingly taxing.

And in the heat from being in the engine room and keeping her concentration steady had been a test.

By the time that the pair had finished, Calla felt as drained as if she had walked at least five miles with a heavy pack on her back, and her head thudded painfully.

But hearing Lilandra say that it had worked had made it all worth the while.

"You're welcome," she said, her exhaustion quite audible, though she was honestly pleased at the compliment. "And I hope someday to understand more of your people. Though I think you'll understand if I don't feel too anxious to try to comprehend more of your science today. I'm going to be nursing sore muscles and a headache this evening."

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia hesitated, then stated typing again. "I will have to tell you more about my home and people sometime then. But for now I think we have earned a rest."

She examined the read-out of another screen, then turned her attention back to Sablerose. "The residual radiation is still to high in the ship to remain her without these suits. The internal systems should reduce it to safe levels in approximately one lunar cycle. At that time, I extend to you an invitation to come back so we may speak under less stressful circumstances."

Her face grew grave. "Unfortunately the system the ship uses to cleanse itself is far to limited to affect the outside environment, so the damage caused so far will remain. No additional radiation should escape however. Once I can repair my commutations systems, I will call for assistance from the Queendom. But... I am not sure how long that will take.

"But for now, I will take you home, Druid Sablerose."

[Sablerose]

"I'll do what I can to try to restrain the damage done. Hopefully, I can actually bring this radiation under some control while your people make their way here." How to pull that off was something she would be thinking long and deep on, not to mention consulting with elder Druids.

In the meantime...

"I'm more than willing to take up your offer, Lilandra. I know you must be tired as well, so as long as you're sure I'm not making any kind of imposition on you, the offer's very much appreciated. And, on behalf of Laurelmoon, I would like to extend an invitation for you to come visit us at some point. I think our peoples have much to learn from one another."

[Lilandra Monaco]

A slight frown creased Lia's tired features. "There are rules limiting what I can share with a pre-FTL society," she typed slowly, choosing her words carefully. "However, I would be honored to share what I can.

"But come, let us head back to the airlock. We can remove the suits there and your clothes and personal possessions will be waiting for you. They were kept there to keep them clean of radiation to avoid bringing any back to town with you."

Lia led Sablerose back to the frist room bare room, which was the so-called airlock. Once they entered and the door to the rest of the ship closed behind them, the shelves with their clothing reappeared from the walls.

In her exhausted state Lia was not as careful about hiding her body as she removed the suit. She pulled at the zipper at her throat down. The air shimmered around her again as the suit deactivated and she pulled it down and off her body, tossing it in want looked like a trash recapture near her shelf. She turned to Sablerose briefly, unconcerned with her nudity, motioning to a similar bin next to her own shelf before turning back to her clothes and pulling them on. Once dressed, she breathe a deep sigh and looked back at her new friend.

"Ready?" she asked, then frowned. No matter how hard she tried, she always sounded so stupid when she tried to speak English.

[Sablerose]

Lilandra's nude form barely registered in Calla's perception in her state of exhaustion. Not that Lilandra wasn't attractive, but even if Calla had been able to muster up strength to do more than look her up and down, anything beyond that would have taxed what was left. It was quite amazing how a quiet a libido could be when one was all but asleep on one's feet.

She followed the other woman's example and threw her suit into the same receptacle, grateful to be out of the thing. If their skyships were powered by something that required being encased in such a suit with any regularity, Calla had her doubts just how many people would want to ride in such a thing, not matter how miraculous it might have been.

Now clothed in more familiar materials, Calla turned to respond to Lilandra's question. "Yes." She saw the frown, and suspected why it might have appeared. After several hours of making letters appear on a wall as her form of communication accurately, she was required to speak in an unfamiliar language again. "Don't worry. You're doing fine. Better than some I know for whom this is a native tongue."

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia smiled at the compliment, and for a moment, considered hugging Sablerose. But no, that was probably too intimate. The rules of personal space and intimacy were so blasted weird on this planet. On Caledon, if someone had helped her as much as Sablerose had done this night, the princess would have them well on their way to their second orgasm by now. As such she would have to figure out a way to thank the druid without sex. That was going to be hard.

"Come," she said at length, leading the way out of the airlock and back to the forest outside. It was still dark, but dawn was much closer than she would have liked. Once outside she produced that strange crystal from her apron again, and the door closed behind them and vanished. From there she headed to the cart, patting the horse that pulled it affectionately. She pulled some of the sugar cubes it liked so much from her apron then. It neighed in gratitude and ate them from her hand.

That done she climbed back into the cart, taking the reigns as she did so, then offered her hand to help salve rose up. "Where to?" she asked.

[Sablerose]

"I'd like to ask if you could drop me off in Venus, as close as you can manage to the Royal Castle." She took the offered hand. "But only if it's not going to be a problem for you. Otherwise, the city gates are fine. My familiar can let the guards know to expect me."

Calla settled into the cart, more than happy to relax and let someone else control things for a bit. "And if you need some time to rest, I can make arrangements for you to stay in my suite for a bit."

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lia nodded. "Can take all way," she said once Sablerose has settled on the cart beside her. She tugged gently at the reigns, and ticked her teeth.

The horse was old, but well trained and was in motion a moment later. The cart was also far lighter than it had been when he ha arrived, and he soon established a quick pace back to Venus.

Lia was silent for the bulk of the trip, already thinking of how to go about repairing her ship as now that it had full power. Obviously her first concern should be her communication equipment. Once that was fixed she could call for...

Lia must have been more tired than she thought, as stated dozing off mid-thought and had to jerk herself awake, before she slumped over and fell off the cart. After that close call, she stopped her train of thought and focused solely on staying awake. But after a fulls day of work at the House, followed by the loading of the shielding into the cart, and then the installation of said shielding had pushed the infamous endurance of the Calodin people beyond it limits, and she had to wake herslef up several more times by the time she they reached the palace.

She looked up at the guards who challenged them at their arrival with bleary eyes. She hoped Salberose could get them past the checkpoint, as she only knew one way to deal with guards, and for perhaps the first time in her life, she was not in the mood to have sex.

[Sablerose]

As tired as she was, Calla didn't nod off as much as she had expected. She did take catnaps, a habit she had picked up when learning to ride long distance. However, once she spotted Lilandra nearly falling off the vehicle in her own exhaustion, she did not sleep again, concerned for her friend.

Grey, can you let the guards know to let me and Lilandra in? She's barely conscious at this point, and there's no way in hell she's in any shape to ride back again. Not without some sleep, in any case.

The wolf was already well awake from the sound of his 'voice'. I'll do you one better. I'll alert the household staff to expect a guest. I'd already let them know that you'd be out overnight. And once you got back out, I was able to do a little rummaging in your recent memories and got the gist of what happened. I've sent it on to some of the senior Druids back in Laurelmoon. They'll look into what can be done while Lilandra tries to contact her people. Maybe between their advanced science and our nature magic, the forest can be regenerated much quicker than it could for either alone.

Calla gave a weak smile. Always one step ahead of me, aren't you, you old wolf?

Greystreak gave a mental snort. Someone has to be, he replied dryly.

When the pair arrived in their rather undignified horse and cart -certainly not a conveyance anyone would expect two members of royal families to come up in- the guards initially did what would be expected and were trained to do. One held up a hand to challenge them, and the others tightened their grips on their weapons.

Oh for pity's sake, gentlemen! Greystreak was projecting loud enough for everyone to hear him, including probably Lilandra. Did I not say that they would be arriving in a horse-drawn cart?

In the weeks since they had arrived, Greystreak's reputation for being able to mental speak to just about anyone had been well noted. That didn't mean everyone was used to it yet. He was trotting up to the guards as Calla was just about to identify herself. There was a note of exasperation in his voice, though they all knew that they were just doing their job.

"Aye," said one of the guards. "But we got our orders, direct from the Captain of the Guard. All folk lookin' to enter have to be challenged." Calla had heard about the switch in Captains, and this one's reputation for strictness was well earned.

"It's all right, Grey," she said aloud. "I am Calla Valerian, Crown Princess of the Kingdom of Laurelmoon. I am also known as the Druid Sablerose. This is my friend and guest Lilandra. She will be staying in my rooms for a bit of time, to get some sleep."

Thankfully, the senior guard did recognize Calla, and certainly knew Greystreak. He cut short any further need for proof with a quick nod. "Thank ye for yer understanding, Princess." He came up and took a hold of the horse's bridle, steadying him as he began to recognize the scent of a wolf being nearby. He turned then to Lilandra. "With your permission, ma'am, I can bring ye two around to the entrance nearest Princess Calla's quarters. It's a coupla flights of stairs up, but at least not a long walk through the castle."

[Lilandra Monaco]

Lilandra gasped as heard a voice in her mind. But since the words had bypassed her ears, it also bypassed her translator implant, so she had no idea what it had said. Which was particular terrifying, jerking the calodin to the kind of full wakefulness that is born of panic.

She was shaking a little bit, looking wide eyed and Sablerose, unsure if this was something she could being up. That's it, she thought this world has driven me to insanity. They its the padded room fro me when i get home. If I get home. I wonder how they treat the mental unstable here. Hopeful better than they treat their prostitutes

She almost missed the offer by the guard for a shortcut to Sablerose's room. "Yes." she said awkwardly. "Please." She didn't feel very tired anymore, but she knew once the adrenaline of that shock wore off, she would likely crash even harder.

[Sablerose]

Oh dear! Greystreak's consternation at the panic in Lilandra's mind and his obvious part in it was quite noticeable, even without knowing the language. Calla shielded her mental sigh as she thanked the guards.

The wolf familiar tried another approach. With a bit of rummaging around, he found just what he needed. With a bit of a tweak, he gave Lilandra a bit more of the rudiments of their language. Enough to make his mental conversations a bit more tolerable. At least, language-wise.

Should be better now, he projected to both women. Apologies, Princess Lilandra. I speak mind to mind. I forget not everyone is at ease with that.