Setting is a library | Canon is The Old Kingdom Trilogy Series

[postcog]

The library is...impressive. Not like her own, the Great Library, carved into a mountain and full of hidden passages (and deadly creatures). Still, it's full of books she has never seen. None of them have magic in them, but all the new information she was finding made it up for it in spades. Lirael had never read about the things she was reading now, and such as her curiosity she could very well ignore the fact she had found herself on a weird place, most likely away from the Glacier. Or maybe she entered a room that had another library inside? It could happen.

Noises blur out, people blur out. It's just her and the books. She likes it that way; silent, neat, ordered. If she focuses on it she can spend a little longer in here without freaking out.

Not freaking out is very important.

Comments

stands like statue while Lirael pets it, only fetches ball when commanded

[lesserkey]

The dog resumes a more dignified position and remains standing by the shelf, staring at Lirael. No panting, and no noise since its first bark. Some breeds are like that, and some dogs not friendly by individual nature, but this one is still pretty weird.

Meanwhile, Kai takes her in at a glance, guilt growing. She looks like she's only a teenager, and given how timidly she speaks, he might have frightened her a lot more than she frightened him. The clothes he lacks any context for, but the important bit is that they're both lost. Being a people person by necessity as much as by choice, he tries smiling at her, a carefully calculated degree of friendliness that falls between 'greeting a visitor to archive' and 'meeting an acquaintance's younger sibling for the first time'.

"Well, this isn't good," he says, but he doesn't sound very worried. "I'm not sure what could have happened. I'm Kai, by the way. Nice to meet you. Apart from the circumstances."

she's too used to unruly mutts tho

[postcog]

Lirael's knowledge of dogs comes from either her encounters with them in the Lower Refractory and from books; the Disreputable Dog barely counts. In any case, dogs are meant to make noise, even if it's soft and measured. This dog? Lirael was pretty sure it was just the shape of one hiding something else.

Considering Lirael isn't really fond of talking as a whole, the fact she's trying is a big deal. His smile feels safe enough, at least.

"I'm Lirael." As she says that her hair falls like a black curtain over her face. Her eyes wander back to the dog with interest. 'Hi', she mouths at it.

someone should play D. Dog for sure

[lesserkey]

The dog-thing gives no sign it understands, though it does. Its continued attention is not hostile, at least, only watchful.

With Lirael's attention on the dog, Kai reaches up with one hand as if to rub at his right eye. It's a more convenient pose than simply shutting it, as people have misinterpreted that as winking in the past. Through his left eye, he can see — some sort of magic, he thinks. Not a type he's familiar with, not set or contained in array of sigils, except, perhaps, something shining from behind her hair, on her forehead. He can't see it clearly.

The biggest thing is that she either isn't a demon, or is an entity so far above his paygrade it doesn't matter. Kai lowers his hand, and steps around the cart to put it on the dog's head.

"Why don't you assume public behavior protocols for a while?" The question-as-command again. The dog immediately perks up, the ears in the right position, the tail starting to wag. It's not one hundred percent genuinely dog-like, but it's much better than before.

"I'm just going to see if I can get a message back to where I came from," he adds vaguely for Lirael's benefit, though he assumes and intended for the dog to be distracting. It creeps forward, eager but cautious to sniff at Lirael.

that would be the best thing ever and I would pull whoever does to all the games ever

[postcog]

There's just a lot of staring from Lirael's side. She senses something that feels like magic coming from him for a moment, but again, neither Charter nor Free Magic, just a weird tingling on her Charter Mark. So he's definitely a creature of Free Magic, which is good, but he's also an unknown...which could be bad.

The command takes her by surprise, and even more how the dog acts afterwards. Pretends to act, she tells herself as her hand goes to give it a few tentative pats, brushing her hair out of the way. "What is it?" The question is for Kai, of course. "It's not a sending..." Wow, look how many words she's stringing together. Him not being Clayr certainly helps.

To his other statement, she just nods. She has already tried, but it didn't seem to do any good.

I've only seen a Mogget or two so far!

[lesserkey]

He moves some books around on the cart, uncovering scraps of paper. The pen takes a bit more hunting down.

"Ah, we — called up a spirit and told it what kind of body to have. Is that like a sending?" Kai sounds distracted as he writes, but he isn't at all. The dog subjects Lirael's hands to extensive sniffing before essaying a tentative lick. In as far as possible, it's gathering what information it can, but it is a very limited demon, like Free Magic on a choke chain far harsher than the Charter. The choke chain is traceable back to Kai, which wouldn't be a surprise.

I found a D. Dog

[postcog]

"No..." She tries not to sound dismissive, because he obviously doesn't know what a sending it. "A sending is...made of magic. Just magic." No spirits or anything like that. That sounds more like Dead Hand.

She can feel its connection to Kai, which gives her enough confidence to scratch behind the not-dog's ears. "Have you, um...seen another dog? Female."

congrats!!

[lesserkey]

His 'message' is mostly notes on this encounter as well as the surroundings, but if Lirael takes a look she may notice it seems to be nonsense, as it's enciphered.

"No, I'm sorry. I, ah... I was in my library, where there'd only be dogs like this one, and I'm not sure at what point I ended up here. You were the first person I came across."

The unasked question dangles delicately at the end of his answer, an invitation to volunteer her own circumstances. It seems best to use a light conversational touch with Lirael rather than asking too many direct questions of her.

now I really need to get Abhorsen done

[postcog]

"Me too." That's all she says for a while, as she's only now realizing she couldn't possibly be on the Great Library, not if a stranger had walked into here just like that. Or could she? For all its strange rooms, the Library never really connect her to places outside of the Glacier. Surely she had somehow ended somewhere completely different.

That wasn't good, at all.

"I mean- I was on my own library, too. On the Glacier." Maybe he knows of it? And knows a way back, too.

it's so good

[lesserkey]

He glances up from his note as the dog gently thumps its tail against the floor. There's no recognition in his face.

"'The Glacier'?" Kai repeats cautiously. There are capital letters in the way Lirael said it; he almost wonders if she's from somewhere in Mongolia. If there weren't discrepancies in the way she reacted to the demon, the unusual array of magic he saw through his left eye, he might believe they were from the same world. He's about eighty percent sure they're not.

[postcog]

"Of the Clayr," she adds, because if he doesn't know that then he's certainly not from around, as in not at all. She hasn't started thinking about different worlds being a possibility, but she's getting there, slowly. Kai certainly feels alien in more ways than she can explain.

Still, her voice carries some disbelief. Who doesn't know about the Clayr's Glacier?

[lesserkey]

The apologetic look that precedes his response is probably answer enough.

"I'm sorry, I've never heard of that. And I think you won't have heard of where I'm from either." Kai hurriedly scribbles a few more words and angles what he intends to be a reassuring smile at Lirael. "I know I'm not in my world, and maybe you're not in yours either. But it's okay. This spirit should be able to travel back to mine. The people I work for won't let us come to any harm."

While not a lie, this is certainly the most optimistic rendering of the likely outcomes, if his demon can in fact make it back. The dog prances away from Lirael's hands to peer attentively up at Kai, tongue hanging out in its best imitation of canine eagerness.