章 115: Drawing Lines

Danika almost told Aishin that she never got to speak with her father anymore, but while she was hesitating, Aishin asked, "Come out and see if the room I rented for the day will work?"

"Ok," she agreed.

Aishin exited first, and Danika followed, to discover that the pebble that contained her garden was no longer in Shrubbery's garden where she'd entered it. Instead Aishin waited in a large empty room with lights mounted in decorative holders on each wall and a doorway at either end.

"What is this place?" Danika questioned.

"A banquet hall in a restaurant, but I asked them to take out the tables," Aishin explained. "Where do you want to set up the spell?"

Danika shrugged and replied, "The middle I guess? But how will we find north without seeing the sky?"

Aishin blinked at her and then rummaged through a couple of his pouches and pulled out what looked like an old fashioned compass. Danika accepted it and discovered that that was exactly what it was.

She had Aishin spin slowly in place and hold one end of her spidersilk thread while she held the other end and marked a wide circle around him with one of the pieces of chalk that he'd provided for the spell. Then she had him hold one end of the string against the mark she drew at the north edge of the circle she'd drawn and moved around until she found the spot farthest from him. She marked that, checked that the compass agreed that it was the south, and then pulled the thread taunt and drew along it until the circle was divided in half. Once each direction was marked, she began marking the angles dictated in the long spell description.

Aishin commented, "It's a good thing I'm not a mage, this looks like it involves way too much math."

"It's mostly pretty simple geometry," Danika argued. She looked up at him and asked, "You don't like math?"

"Not really," he agreed, "it has too many rules."

"But the rules never change," Danika pointed out, "it doesn't matter what language, or even what base you count in, 2+2 is always 4, even if you're writing 4 as 100."

"Um, writing 4 as 100?" Aishin asked.

"Binary," Danika explained.

Aishin watched her plot out the rest of the design with a bemused expression. When Danika looked at him questioningly he said, "I don't know, you get so focused on things that you seem kind of scatterbrained sometimes. I didn't expect you to be good at something like this?"

Danika's brow wrinkled for a moment, and then her face cleared as she replied with a grin, "What do you expect me to be good at then?"

Aishin blinked and then thought for a moment before replying. "Smiling, as silly as that sounds. You don't smile all the time like it's fake, but you smile a lot. You're good at finding ways to combine your character's abilities, which I suppose is sort of a logic puzzle, so goes with this kind of thing?"

Before Danika could respond, the door on the east side of the room banged open and a small cute girl demanded, "Make Toshi lend me…" She stopped and stared at the magic circle design, and asked, "Oh, she's here already?!"

Aishin turned and scolded, "SilentSky or Sky, call people by their usernames here." He told Danika, "This is Nao1."

Danika asked with surprise, "You're playing a girl?"

Nao1 replied a bit huffily, "My character ought to at least be cute to look at! And it's ridiculous that different races cost that Karma stuff to play and that you can't just buy it. And making it a cute girl was ridiculously expensive even before that guy made me buy the voice mod to go with it!"

"It was too horrible without it," Aishin said laughingly.

"Changing your gender doesn't cost anything," Danika objected.

"Just changing your gender barely changes your character's appearance and voice," Nao1 grumbled. "Anyway, Sky won't lend me enough to get it!"

"What are you trying to get?" Danika asked curiously.

"I don't have to tell you that," Nao1 replied a bit sharply.

Aishin said blandly, "But you have to tell me, if you want me to get involved. Why should SilentSky even buy you anything here? And why complain to me if he's refusing?"

A tall man with bright blue hair silently entered the room behind Nao1. He was dressed in what looked like a dark hoodie with jeans, although his boots looked like typical fantasy gear with the usual laces and decorations.

Two more people followed him, one was very short and had flame red hair, and the other was simply wearing his own human form. Both wore the plain tunic and trousers of a starting character. All three wore their own faces although whatever race the flame haired character was had pointed ears and a sharper nose.

Danika pulled up her menu lens to examine them while Aishin introduced SilentSky, Saaki, and Edwardian. The small flame haired character was a genie, and it was the first time Danika had seen one that she recalled. The half human half etain race had been given the name generally reserved for powerful magical spirits, but since their racial abilities were very similar to skills that could be learned in almost any path, it seemed that not many people chose the diminutive race. Danika probably would have chosen a fairy if she'd had to choose between one of the four half human half elemental races, because at least they could fly.

"Hi little dragon girl," Saaki said in the flat tones of someone communicating in text.

"ZipZing," Aishin corrected.

Saaki quickly rolled his eyes and said, "Zippy then."

"Hi," Danika replied politely.

"Hi," Edwardian said after awhile.

Saaki navigated the room smoothly as he circled the magic circle and Edwardian moved awkwardly and erratically, the way Danika had at first when she was trying to fly in the mobile version.

"Ah, be careful not to disturb the lines, especially after I start adding the dust and leaves," Danika cautioned them.

"Shinnnnnn…." Nao1 whined.

Edwardian walked through the edge of the circle, and stopped on a line and after a long moment said, "Oops, sorry."

Aishin turned and asked Danika, "Do you need me to stand here while you finish the design, or should I take these guys away until it's ready?"

Danika considered the circle and then asked, "How accurately can you jump? If I leave the center clear but fill in the rest can you get in and out?"

"Sure, that's easy," Aishin agreed, and jumped neatly out of the circle.

Edwardian suddenly moved with much more coordination out of the circle and over to the door, and said, "I moved him, give me a minute."

A moment later, SilentSky, who Danika hadn't noticed had frozen in place moved again and said, "I'll join you guys in a few, I want to talk to ZipZing before the ceremony."

"It's not a ceremony," Aishin argued, "it's a spell."

SilentSky replied, "Ceremony, contract, spell, whatever, can't I talk to her first?"

"Sure," Danika agreed.

Aishin shrugged and grabbed Edwardian's arm, where he was bumping against the doorway and said, "Ok, then come show me whatever it is you wanted to buy Nao1."

The cute girl complained, "But you always complain if I borrow from you, Sky won't."

Saaki gave a short laugh and agreed, "Yeah. But I've already followed them clear around the market, I want to stay and talk to Zippy too!"

"Go," SilentSky instructed.

Saaki shrugged and darted through the door first. Aishin pulled Edwardian through the door, and Nao1 followed them. After a moment Danika turned and looked at SilentSky expectantly.