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Letters from Abroad II (World Walker pt. 3.2)

Day 8, Ryalis

Hey guys,

It’s been two weeks since my last letter. I ended up camping in the forest for another week before I was ready for people again and went through the gateway eight days ago.

The gateway did in fact spit me out close to a city and I made my way there. Remember when I said World Wandering was going to change my body? Well, apparently that partially extends to language. I didn’t really think much of the fact that Tricks could talk to me without a language barrier but considering it took me almost a year to learn your language enough to reliably communicatee with all of you without a translator (and then two more years to become fluent) I probably should have. Instead, it never occurred to me until I arrived here and realized that I didn’t understand most of what anybody was saying when I walked around the city. I understood maybe one in five words, barely enough to get the gist of what was being said. Wandering clearly doesn’t give you fluency in a language, just enough to roughly get by.

As you can imagine, I didn’t take that well when it sunk in. I mean, I’d been in a quiet, calm forest for a week without talking to another being (though I did say goodbye to Tricks before I left). Then suddenly I was surrounded by people and the hustle and bustle of a busy city without the ability to communicate in any meaningful way. My anxiety went through the roof, and it only got worse when the implications of the last part really hit me: If I don’t speak the language, how on earth am I supposed to get food or a bed for the night? Or ask for directions or information in general? How the hell am I supposed to deal with anything, cope in a world I don’t know if I can’t even talk to people? I can’t be a healer if I don’t speak the same language as my patients either so how am I even going to earn the money I need to get the aforementioned food and bed for the night?

I’m pretty sure I had a panic attack or went into shock because it felt like I blinked and all of a sudden, I was sitting on the floor of a shop of sorts with no idea how I got there. There was a man with a truly impressive beard in the room with me though he kept plenty of distance between us which I really appreciated even in my compromised state of mind. He kept talking to me in a low, soothing voice with his hands clearly visible at all times. It took a while for my brain to come back to life and be able to focus on his words (to be fair I did stare at his beard for at least five minutes first. Seriously, it’s magnificent). To my surprise I could understand him pretty well even if it sounded like he had a heavy accent. He kept repeating his name, where I was and what had happened before pausing to gauge my reaction (or lack thereof to be honest) and then starting all over again. When he realized I was back and able to focus on him he fell silent, smiled at me, and gestured to the cup of water next to me on the ground.

His name is Kaddin and the city I’m currently in is named Ryalis. Apparently, he saw me sinking to the ground outside after not moving for a while and got concerned when I didn’t respond to external stimuli. He is a veteran (like us, but I didn’t get any details on that and didn’t ask either) so he pays extra attention in situations like this. According to him I looked like a soldier in the middle of a flashback which wasn’t entirely off the mark. So, he carefully moved me to his shop to ride out the attack in a safe environment. Thankfully my magic didn’t go haywire this time so my panic attack – while kind of embarrassing – at least didn’t cause any damage to his shop…

Once I calmed down, I asked him why I could understand him so well. He said he tried a few different languages before he found one I reacted to at least a little (in that I lifted my head) and then decided to stick with it. He also showed me the ring he was wearing. Apparently, it enhances the part of the brain that learns languages so learning a new language takes less time and goes more smoothly. As far as I understand he met someone who spoke a similar language to mine (which explains the heavy accent since it’s not quite the same language but sounded more like a dialect) a few years ago and thanks to his ring he was able to pick it up relatively quickly.

He also made me an offer. A big part of the shop and Kaddins joy in it is teaching veterans like him “peaceful” life skills. He said learning how to make magical luggage was a huge turning point in his life because it allowed him to choose a path that focused on creating instead of destroying and wasn’t full of violence and stress. I mentioned that I was a healer and before that a battle medic and he argued that to him that’s one of the most violent and stressful jobs he could imagine which … is honestly fair. So, he offered to teach me how to make a piece of luggage of my choosing (I chose a trunk) and even though I thought it was a bit weird to offer someone you met not even an hour ago in the middle of having a panic attack an opportunity just like that, I instantly accepted for a multitude of reasons:

1. I currently don’t have a way to store things besides my go-bag which is very small so I’m unfortunately rather limited in the amount of provisions (or cool souvenirs for you guys) that I can pick up and I’d like to change that.
2. At some point I’m going to need a tent and somewhere to store these letters and definitely some books (my self-restraint thus far has been heroic, but a girl can only hold off buying books for so long. Plus, my library at home could be full of books from whole other worlds! The amount of knowledge I could gather not to mention the stories from different worlds would be incredible. It’d be a dream come true and also the envy of every scholar everywhere).
3. What the hell was 3. again?
4. Oh right, I love learning new skills especially tactile and magical ones (which reminds me, have you guys figured out how to make that projector work yet? I can’t wait to use it to show off my memories of these worlds) and I thought making magical luggage would be a really good skill to have. I haven’t actually started yet because I had to get one of those language rings first. Then I have to soak up enough of the language to be able to hold and understand somewhat technical discussions so more on luggage later.
5. When will I have this opportunity again? I mean yeah, we have people making luggage at home too and one of them would probably teach me how it works. But I don’t know, there’s just something different about magic in this world even though I can’t put my finger on it yet.
6. Room and board are included in the offer, and I can work in the shop in the evenings for a bit of spending money. It’s mostly cleaning and restocking shelves but honestly that sounds super peaceful and is going to be a nice contrast to the hectic city. So I won’t have to find a place to stay after all and everything important is taken care of.
7. Might as well, what else am I going to do here?

Since I know that this is something that would fascinate you, Eli, (and also because I really want to try replicating some of the ideas from the shop in the future) here’s some details on the ring and the trip I took to get it. Kaddin sent me to a store across town that specialized in custom jewellery with all sorts of magical properties.
They sell your standard rings and necklaces enchanted for protection, focus, etc. like you can buy at home. But the really interesting stuff was in the back room. There were necklaces that would turn into wire much longer than the necklace chain (though I have no idea what you’d use that for) and an honest to God bracelet in the shape of a snake that turned into a fucking electric whip of all things. Bella, you would’ve loved that one. There was also an armbrace that turned into a physical shield that could divert both spells and physical objects to spare your magical reserves in battle which was the mastery project of the jeweller. I don’t know how heavy that would get though, even if he assured me that the magic made it lighter to carry than a normal shield. The jeweller (who is also the owner) crafted everything in the shop himself and showed me around with so much enthusiasm and obvious pride in his work. There was just so much cool stuff in there it would take forever to describe it all to you. It was unbelievable to see what these people can do with magic that we never even thought of.

When I told him I needed a language ring (Kaddin offered to front the payment, and I’ll pay him back a part of my wages. I do not understand how that man is so generous, honestly, it’s mind boggling; that can’t possibly be a good deal for him) he asked me if I had magic myself. Apparently, the ring will work better for you if your own magic is heavily involved in the crafting process. However, it won’t work at all for anyone else since it will be attuned specifically to your magical signature which I thought was pretty nifty. I’m gonna have to figure out how to isolate that aspect and translate it to other projects because it’d be so useful. Think of the possibilities! There’d be no more need for privacy wards on your stuff that constantly suck up a bit of your energy. Instead, you’d be able to lock the item to your magical signature and be done with it. Though I think the step has to be taken during the crafting process, so you’d have to make the item yourself…? Still, it’s worth looking into.

It was super hard to combine my (very intuitive) magic with the very mathematical and technical magic the owner used to make the rings. My magic leans more towards witchcraft while his leans more towards wizardry (at least according to our definitions) and usually those two don’t mesh well but we managed to make it work. I can’t wait to show it to you guys. We (or I guess you) can even make your own since I was allowed to take notes on the crafting process after solemnly swearing that I won’t open a shop or sell them anywhere close to here. I explained the whole wandering situation and that I wasn’t planning on staying in this world for long and though the owner had never heard of wandering before he was happy (and a bit smug to be honest) at the thought of his product being spread through other worlds.

Now keep in mind that while the ring will help you learn languages significantly faster, it will not give you instant understanding and fluency in a language. Instead, it enhances the part of the left temporal lobe (they call it Wernicke’s area in my birth-world) that is responsible for learning and comprehending language. It (the ring) helps the brain form new pathways faster than it normally would and combined with the (very) rudimentary language skills wandering gives me it will help me get fluent-ish faster. Since my own magic was involved in creating the ring the jeweller said I should be able to communicate reasonably well in about a week if I constantly immerse myself in the language. Fluency would take up to a year especially if I wanted to lose the accent. But I don’t plan on staying here that long anyway. The design of the ring is very lovely, a focus stone (in my case dragon’s breath since my magic resonates well with it) surrounded by interwoven strands of silver covered in runes. Since so far (for the ring) my magic has only acted as an energy source that I directed however the jeweller told me to, I’m still not sure what the price for magic is in this world. I guess I’ll find out more about it once Kaddin starts teaching me…

Day 29, Ryalis

I’m finally fluent enough for Kaddin to start teaching me after three weeks of “immersing myself in the language” whenever I wasn’t restocking shelves or otherwise working. This mostly meant meandering around the city while listening and talking to people. It also meant a lot of visits to the library which has a built-in teashop that serves ridiculously delicious chai tea and really good pastries that are often still warm from the oven. The tea has caffeine in it and seems to be this world’s equivalent to coffee. I might be slightly addicted to the stuff so it wasn’t exactly a hardship to go there a lot (I can practically hear you guys laughing at me – shut up!).

Remember earlier when I said I’d have to be able to hold “somewhat technical” conversations? Turns out I really fucking underestimated how complicated this was going to be. Somewhat technical my ass. Like I said, magic in this world is really more wizardry than the magic back home so it’s been slow going and full of theory that honestly doesn’t make much sense to me… yet. For example, I know we use runes at home, and they also use them here but it’s a lot more complicated and technical than anything I’ve ever seen before. I swear my eyes almost started bleeding at the among of diagrams needed for the trunk. Kaddin just laughed when he saw the look on my face and promised to explain everything to me and that it looked more complicated than it really was (I’m not sure if I believe him). When I asked him why on earth it had to be so complicated to make a trunk, he said there were two main reasons for that.

The first reason has to do with the price for magic in this world. Magic here needs to be constantly studied and advanced or apparently it will wither away and die like a muscle that would atrophy. So, in order to be able to keep using magic they have to study it and find new ways to use it which explains why so many people here are either scholars or tinkerers and highly specialized in their field. Though that does make me wonder what will happen once these people have advanced so far that new discoveries can’t be made in one lifetime anymore… Will working towards advancement still count or will magic die out? How long until they reach that point? Do any of these people ever even consider the possibility? But I digress, my brain is so scattered lately. Then again you should be used to me being like this…
Anyway, that leads nicely to the second reason: The schematics for the trunk are so complicated because it is ridiculously extensive. Turns out Kaddin is a master in his field too.

I thought it was just going to be a normal, if slightly extended, trunk like my old medic bag that was bigger on the inside but apparently not. Aside from the outside being personalized to look like whatever I want it to (which is honestly the least exciting feature of the trunk) the size of the whole thing can be constantly adjusted anywhere on a scale from “as small as the size of a matchbox” to being “as big as I am tall”. And that’s not even the best part. There are so many different compartments – one of which can be fashioned into a whole fucking apartment! I’m gonna have to get furniture for it of course but I can literally live in the trunk if I want to which is amazing because I do not miss the thrice-damned tents we lived in during the last part of the war. God, I hate camping so much since then I’m glad I won’t ever have to live in a tent again. I need my shower in the morning, a stable roof over my head, and multiple rooms divided by actual doors instead of slightly wonky tent flaps that do nothing to keep the draft out.

All of my books and all the letters I’m writing to you will fit (neatly) into the trunk and there are separate compartments for food and clothes too, including a “library compartment” that can fit full sized bookshelves, a reading nook, and a lamp for cozy lighting. It’s going to be amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it (which is the case for a lot of the things I see here because the level of these things is so far above what we have at home). If this works (and I don’t screw up the building process) Kaddin said he’d give me the schematics and the instructions for it. With any luck (and the mountain of notes I’m taking while constructing the trunk) I can probably teach you guys how to make them for yourselves or I can make them for you if your magic doesn’t mesh well with this approach.

Day 56, Ryalis

Have I mentioned how much I hate numbers? If not, be prepared for a lengthy rant on the topic when we see each other again. Making this trunk took almost a month but it’s finally done. Of course, the first attempt failed and exploded spectacularly all over the workshop which was super fun to clean up and not at all demoralizing. And all that because I got one little fucking number wrong. I had to scrape glue off the ceiling for piss’ sake! While Kaddin, the bastard, just stood there and laughed at my misery. God, I hate math. There’s a reason I’m a healer and not a math freak like Lydia. If I’m gonna make these trunks for you, you best believe I’m gonna need a big empty room and I’m not going to do any cleaning. And I’ll take a LOT of coffee as payment. And it better be the good coffee with cinnamon in it from Nidu’s coffee shop.

We’ve been working on finishing the trunk for the last two days straight so I’m in desperate need of sleep (and also a shower) but you know me – I can’t quit working on something that’s so close to being done (especially something as amazing as this trunk) just because I “need to sleep” or whatever. Thankfully Kaddin is the same way and just got us another round of the sweet, delicious chai tea before we kept working. So now I’m gonna do what I always do after completing a big project: collapse and spend the next day in bed. I certainly fucking earned it.

I think I’m gonna leave this world relatively soon though. I haven’t seen any gateways yet but to be fair I haven’t exactly been looking because I’ve been so busy. However, being in the same place for this long is starting to make me a bit itchy to be honest. I think I caught a case of wanderlust.

Until next time,

All my love

                               Mischief.