Need chuckles approvingly into the back of his head. :This is going to be fun. I'm going to work you hard, and I want to learn as much from you as I can. I'm too old to learn new forms of magic quickly, but I've got time. Both of us can benefit a great deal.:
She's grown stranger and hungrier since becoming a thing that could be called a lich, but she's never stopped being a teacher. Here she's choosing her angle of approach. Everything she's said is entirely true. She learns from her students as they learn from her and becomes stronger in doing so, which is tremendously satisfying, whether she's teaching magic or how to ride a horse. Need just also has the ulterior motive that she senses Raistlin won't want to hear, people in his position usually don't - that she loves to watch and guide someone as they grow and settle into something better than how she found them. She could make a difference for him.
...And then they're separated. One moment they're well into the trees and the quiet, then some invisible boundary is crossed, and Raistlin is back in the chaos of the fair and Need's weight and the pressure of her swordbelt are gone. Her spell continues to work. It's a scaffolding she set up and poured energy into, not one of her contact effects, but there's a change in feeling without her there to feed and adjust it, like the ground of a path starting to yield underfoot, some of the strength starting to drain from his arms and legs. It will relinquish its effect on his lungs last, and that time is coming in minutes.
Need, meanwhile, was plunged into non-sensation and gropes furiously for new contacts. Her range is so limited now! Some animals - cats? yes, cats - were within the pitiful radius, literally close enough to hear the clatter of her appearing to fall somewhere enclosed under stone ceiling. She can follow their senses as they bolt from the unexpected sound, even after they leave that radius, but they don't look towards her, and there's a flatness and lesser understanding to riding the minds of animals. They don't know where they are, beyond primitive reckonings of territories.
She reaches back and can find the few people she'd contacted enough to speak to, Raistlin included, but she can't sense the mindscapes around any of them, just what they can perceive, and the quality of input is poor and seems to be delayed. She hasn't bonded closely enough to any of them, soul included, to work remotely very well, not even enough to just give advice based off of their own senses and her reckoning. The little mage who wants to be her bearer and apprentice is the one in the most trouble - Stacia and Guts are more than capable of looking out for themselves, and the cook and fortuneteller are as safe as anyone is in that situation - and she strains a little to talk to him. Her Mindvoice is all harsh metal-on-metal, but attenuated, its connotations faded and ashy, as she calls out over miles of distance.
:Boy! I don't know what happened.: Need always has fury buried close under the surface and that seethes now, carefully not allowed to burst free. :I hate this, but I'm too limited to help you from here! You're a bright child and don't need me, though.: All the dubious riders on that statement would be more obvious up close. Regret makes it through, and frustration.
no subject
She's grown stranger and hungrier since becoming a thing that could be called a lich, but she's never stopped being a teacher. Here she's choosing her angle of approach. Everything she's said is entirely true. She learns from her students as they learn from her and becomes stronger in doing so, which is tremendously satisfying, whether she's teaching magic or how to ride a horse. Need just also has the ulterior motive that she senses Raistlin won't want to hear, people in his position usually don't - that she loves to watch and guide someone as they grow and settle into something better than how she found them. She could make a difference for him.
...And then they're separated. One moment they're well into the trees and the quiet, then some invisible boundary is crossed, and Raistlin is back in the chaos of the fair and Need's weight and the pressure of her swordbelt are gone. Her spell continues to work. It's a scaffolding she set up and poured energy into, not one of her contact effects, but there's a change in feeling without her there to feed and adjust it, like the ground of a path starting to yield underfoot, some of the strength starting to drain from his arms and legs. It will relinquish its effect on his lungs last, and that time is coming in minutes.
Need, meanwhile, was plunged into non-sensation and gropes furiously for new contacts. Her range is so limited now! Some animals - cats? yes, cats - were within the pitiful radius, literally close enough to hear the clatter of her appearing to fall somewhere enclosed under stone ceiling. She can follow their senses as they bolt from the unexpected sound, even after they leave that radius, but they don't look towards her, and there's a flatness and lesser understanding to riding the minds of animals. They don't know where they are, beyond primitive reckonings of territories.
She reaches back and can find the few people she'd contacted enough to speak to, Raistlin included, but she can't sense the mindscapes around any of them, just what they can perceive, and the quality of input is poor and seems to be delayed. She hasn't bonded closely enough to any of them, soul included, to work remotely very well, not even enough to just give advice based off of their own senses and her reckoning. The little mage who wants to be her bearer and apprentice is the one in the most trouble - Stacia and Guts are more than capable of looking out for themselves, and the cook and fortuneteller are as safe as anyone is in that situation - and she strains a little to talk to him. Her Mindvoice is all harsh metal-on-metal, but attenuated, its connotations faded and ashy, as she calls out over miles of distance.
:Boy! I don't know what happened.: Need always has fury buried close under the surface and that seethes now, carefully not allowed to burst free. :I hate this, but I'm too limited to help you from here! You're a bright child and don't need me, though.: All the dubious riders on that statement would be more obvious up close. Regret makes it through, and frustration.