reverielogs | I empathize with your skepticism (open)

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I empathize with your skepticism (open)

» WHO? Jasnah Kholin and open.
» WHEN? Current dated
» WHERE? Observation Deck
» WHAT? Research; note taking, collaboration, exploration of ideas
» WARNINGS? None as of yet

Jasnah sits in front of the observation window, writing on a notebook in her lap, with a diamond brohm softly glowing stormlight. It's a pleasant, clear light cast across her page, where she's working on developing an initial detailed list of questions and set of preliminary notes.

Unfortunately, they're illegible, written in the sharp jags of the Alethi woman's script. But, as she goes, she asks questions out loud;

"What I'm undecided on is whether the visions we're receiving happened, or are happening as we speak.

"On the one hand, yes, the simple narrative does make sense; the team was here, they were working on moving the station. They ended up somewhere they didn't mean to be on attempt number six. Things began to go extremely wrong. There was a betrayal. The station began to try to kill them."

Jasnah has thoughts about this, but not ones she wants to say out loud, where the station would be able to hear her. Since she can't even write a note to slip it to anyone, she has to keep her suspicions to herself. For the best, probably. She wouldn't know how to explain it without sounding mad.

Madder than what she says next, even.

"On the other, I come from a planet that has a world just beneath our own. In Roshar, what's land would be sea in Shadesmar, and the sea in Shadesmar is land in Roshar. There are creatures that exist halfway between the two, visible in part in the human world and much larger where they exist beneath it.

"What if this destruction were the same? Flashes of it creeping through at unusual moments into our life here. The sounds of the screams of the betrayed crew just around each corner.

"I can't chase from my mind the memory of- a stranger, a woman I hadn't met, standing over one of the intact tables in the mess and holding a shattered piece of it. The simplest answer is there was a copy of it, somewhere else here, and that version was the one that was smashed, for her to find. And yet... well, I'll ask you the question.

"Does this feel completely real to you?"

Some people, she's invited to join her for the discussion, in particular women who she's talked with about the station before. (Part of her still hasn't overcome her prejudices, associates scholarship with her own gender.) But she's not being particularly quiet, may turn this question on anyone nearby.

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"Unfortunately it does."

Though this place is so far from anything that is familiar to her there are still many things that make it feel real. It wasn't only the physical structure, the walls and doors, as strange as they appeared felt solid, but also the past. People had lived here, and even if the visions were somehow untrue Vanessa had heard a cry for help -- a scream, and an invisible touch when she'd first arrived. That was real for her -- something familiar.

"What you describe sounds similar to my home." It wasn't such as that there was a physical world beneath their own but the demimonde was hidden within their lives, creatures condemned to walk the two worlds.

"If that means something."

"It does."

Says Jasnah, looking up properly.

"Please tell me about it? How it works in your home."

Comparing possible arrangements will help her understand what it might look like here. What she's taking for granted, what is actually a given.

It isn't something that Vanessa has ever spoken about before, at least not with anyone that wasn't already informed about the demimonde in some way. She didn't know where to begin, at least not in a way that wouldn't sound crazy, but she would at least try to explain it.

"It's called the demimonde. Creatures... vampires, demons, witches. They're all a part of it."

Vanessa looks at Jasnah, watching for some kind of response before she continues.

"Few know that it exists -- that it's more than just a nightmare."

"I've met a vampire."

She says, in surprise. Alucard and his strange transformations add another uncomfortable wrinkle to all this. It's the first time she'd heard the word, and now here it is, twice in one week.

There's surprise, if briefly lasting, in Vanessa's expression. She didn't expect recognition, though Vanessa understands the unease with which Jasnah admits it. It wasn't something you wished to know of.

"Then you're lucky to be able to speak of it." In her experience, they didn't tend to wish anyone to still live.

"Are they they only creature you know of?"

"He insists he won't drain a person's blood without their consent. Is that a normal behavior, in your experience?"

Forgive her for her suspicion. It's just, her own experience with predators hasn't taught her to be trusting.

"It depends how you define creature. We have sentient non-humans on Roshar."

There's concern in Vanessa's expression and a delay before she responds. Though Jasnah's question was one she could answer, an interesting debate being likely, the was something about what she'd said that felt more pressing.

"Are they here?"

"No. I'm the only person on board from Roshar, human or parsh."

For better or worse.

"We'd be in a great deal more trouble if one of the Fused were here with us."

"What kind of trouble?"

Vanessa hopes that it isn't any kind of trouble that she'd be familiar with but honestly she expects it. If they're creatures--

"They're murderous, and humans are their enemy. I don't know if the war we're fighting would extend out here, because it has largely to do with holding territory, but I hope not to have to find out."

A little shake of her head.

"They're powerful, and not so limited by the lack of stormlight as I am."

"What does the stormlight do?"

An alternate question would have been to ask what it was but Vanessa wondered if she could glean that through Jasnah's answer. It seemed that despite similarities their worlds were so different, and she hadn't even asked whether they came from the same time.

"It powers the people who can fight back."

She admits;

"Radiants, surgebinders, like myself. We can use stormlight to benefit our side."

"Without it here is your power gone?"

Is that how it worked? Vanessa had yet to know of any power that could be lost like so but if it was true they particularly didn't want those creatures here.

"Yes, it would be. Except-"

Except, she fishes from her pocket a small glass sphere, with a chip of ruby in the centre of it. It glows steadily with a red light, illuminating her fingertips.

"-this arrived this morning."

Vanessa looks closely at it, a quiet 'may I?' before gesturing to see if she can take it, to get a closer look at it.

"Is this the stormlight? Or at least a small piece of it?"

Or something else entirely.

"This is stormlight."

She agrees, offering it open. It's almost like a bead, except with no hole- and flattened on one side so it won't roll off a table. The ruby inside the glass is about the size of a pea, but shaped irregularly. The light is soft and steady.

"If it happens again, it might mean an unsteady supply."

"What is it?" Precisely. It was a small, curious object, and while Jasnah had told her a little about it she was interested to know more.

"It's a gemstone, and it contains stormlight. The energy left by the passing storm."

And, because Vanessa is the one woman who it's worth it to show, is another scholar, Jasnah rolls up her sleeve. She's got a bad scrape on one arm, bruised, and going a little hot to the touch. It'd be right at risk for attracting rotspren in her world, if there were such a thing here.

Until, that is, she draws in a sharp breath, absorbing the stormlight from the gem. Her skin glows softly around the cut- then is smooth, and whole again, as the light and the wound fades away.

Vanessa holds her questions, waiting for Jasnah to show her exactly what it is she plans. And then it happens, the injury seemingly healed as if it were never there.

Vanessa reaches a hand out to her arm, testing that it is physically gone and not just an illusion. A few seconds pass before her gaze meets Jasnah's again.

"The energy allows you to do that." It's a magic far different to anything that she's seen before. "Is that all it allows you to do?"

"I'm an Elsecaller. I can transport myself- though I doubt I'll ever have access to the quantity of stormlight I need to do so here- and I can soulcast. Change matter from one thing to another. Metal to grain, air to water, blood to pitch, depending on the kind of gemstone I have. This-"

A regretful glance at the ruby.

"-would have been fire."

She's glad for the clarification, the definition of what Jasnah could do. Relating it to what Vanessa knew was difficult -- she'd never experienced abilities like it.

"How many gemstones are there?"

"Ten."

She answers, and tucks the done stone back into her pocket.

"You don't have any similar system on your world?"

By Vanessa's tone this is all alien.

"Not in such a way." But the idea of this being something wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Vanessa pauses for a moment, almost hesitating. Though she trusts Jasnah, they'd had quite the conversation when they first met, talking in specifics about what she knows ends up revealing more of Vanessa than what she was used to. But it was fair -- Jasnah had shown her something in trust.

"I'm familiar with uses of magic. Witches." Though she's still being a little vague. Vanessa's a witch herself, a closely guarded fact. If Jasnah asks for the clarification she'll confirm it, or let her believe it's just something she knows about.

"What would that mean in your world, for a woman to have such an ability?"

Jasnah asks, without actually asking. If the other woman doesn't feel the need to drag it into the light in specific terms, then she can respect that.

"It would mean secrecy." She knew few witches but people tended not to believe in it or they feared it. The Cutwife had been burned alive for being a witch, as tales through history had always done.

"Some witches are in service to Lucifer. Not all." Just the ones you didn't want to meet. The ones that had tormented Vanessa's recent months.

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