From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Subject: Re: [MC] Marcel [D-Inn] Langauge Lessons
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 22:47:29 GMT

AND NOW for a different perspective...

Characters: Marcel & 'Raelf [plus Serena, and Shiralee the barmaid]
ADMIN:  This takes place while one 'Raelf is healing Thk.  Marcel is
	used with permission.  The +'s mean it's in French.

['Raelf has taken Marcel aside to speak with him while his earlier
 self is busy tearing Thk into his composite elements and reassembling
 them without the holes and missing bits.]

>+"You come from the quarantined places?  The TORG? ..."+  the discussion
>became very quiet but intense (and the subject of a separate post).

"+Quarantine?  I am not sure I understand.+" 
The bread and water arrived, along with the luxury of actual butter and
some sausages that the short-ogre cook had made up by mistake.   Marcel
noticed a bit of hunger, and started on the bread.

'Raelf touched the amulet on a thong around his neck.
"<<Activate notebook>> Remember to randomize Marcel's arrival.  <<End notebook>>"

Serena took the tray from the bar, nodding her next set of orders to
Shiralee.  A pitcher, filled with chilled cider, to the table with the
other 'Raelf, and that stranger knight.  Hmm - how do we account for this
fellow, he didn't say he had a twin, have to ask him what's going on.
Oh, and more fish for the lizard and the other twin.  A waitress' work is
never done.  Unless the place closes and we can kick out all the customers.

'Raelf took advantage of the distraction of cider arriving, to do a bit of
sleight-of-mind.  Under his poncho, he called four figures of the spirit
element Void.  Four tiny crystal spheres appeared in his hand, and he laid
them on the tabletop.
A clear white sphere proving lack of ill intent.
A swirl of 1/3 black in 2/3 white, the measurement of karmic debt.
A figure-eight, of gold, on its side, the test of magical facility.
The spiked figure of Truth, shivering gently in the bar's ambience.

None of them vanished.  There was little guile in this man, he was not
concealing anything, he had no active magical field, and he was not exactly
evil.  So he had escaped the Torg, and of course no sane person would ever
consider sending him back there.  How to break it to the man.  Bluntly.

"+Well, you've got shit-all chance of someone sending you back.  As soon
as a High Lord as much as sniffs at a cosm, the Gatekeepers immediately
close all crosstime traffic in and out.  Nobody wants the Gaunt Man to
come visit.  So there's no way back legitimately.+"

[Great, we're stuck here.] /Shh, I am talking./
"+You do not think I have endangered this cosm, do you?+"

"+Naah, not if I spike the hole you fell through.+"

"+How do you know so much about this?+"

'Raelf decided to err on the side of caution.  Once he knew the man
better he might consider telling him the real details.  However, better
not lie, with that crystal sitting on the table in front of him.

Shrug. "+I picked it up here and there.+"  True.  In travellers school,
which took the students here and there and back.  The Knight became
pensive at the thought of magic being used around him.

"+I must know this.  I do not mean to offend, but is what you do
witchcraft?  I have been shown there is a difference between white and
dark magic, but I cannot tolerate the black arts done in my presense.+"
[Boychik, you can be a real schmuck at times.]

Yeah, sure, thought 'Raelf, last time I heard that they burned me at the
stake.  That was great fun.  Snort.

"+No, not the black stuff.  I'd be careful on calling it 'witchcraft',
though.   Use 'black magic' if you must.+"

"+I did not meaan to offend.+"

"+No offense taken.  Others might give you a punch in the snoot.  At the
least.  Oh, and for your future reference, what I use is a science.  It's
the physics of my own world, but I'm rather more an artist in application.+"

'Raelf poured a second glass of cider and quaffed it slowly.  Marcel
waited til he finished, then spoke.

"+Well, I do not have much in the way of local currency, but I
would like to pay for a language lession, if possible.+"

'Raelf became uncomfortable.  He knew the local Common well enough now,
but he hadn't gone through and abstracted the grammar and syntax rules.
He had them for Del Loric common, but not for the local variant.

"+I'm not really the guy you want to talk to.  I'm barely understandable.+"

The spiky crystal of truth evaporated in a puff of aether.  The blond man
bit his lip.  Oops.  Not quite true any more.

"+Well, you can at least start me off, can you not?+" Marcel holds
out a small pouch from his backpack.  "+I do not know much of the money of
this land, but take what you think is fair from there.+"

'Raelf looked up from the pouch of unusable currency and grinned.

"+Not all that useful around here.  Looks like your friend already spent
the gold on your room.  Those Nile Empire coins, and the Victoria Silvers,
will be useful locally.  The currency here is the shekel, it's a two
ounce silver coin or a fifth ounce gold coin.  Tell you what.  For
a favor to be named in future, I'll give you the bare bones of what I've
got.  I don't recommend you try to learn it the way I did."

"+I learn languages quickly.  I do not forget, so there is no need to
go slowly or repeat, unless I am not sure of the pronounciation.+"
/Are you recording, Howard?/ [Yes, yes. Get on with it.]

The lesson progresses rapidly, and 'Raelf is amazed at Marcel's grasp of
linguistics.  His pronouncation is pretty bad, but he definately is picking
up the vocabulary and grammar at (dare we say it) computer like speed.

'Raelf finished, a few hours later, having given him as much of the
Del Loric grammar and vocabulary as possible, and the rules he'd figured
out that differentiated the local tongue.  He sighed in relief and sat back,
speaking in the older dialect.

"All my know.  Wowzers.  You fast to learn.  You chipped or something?"

"Not exactly."

There was a stir at the table where SunStorm and the others were seated.
They were starting to go out.  'Raelf stood up abruptly - there was something
he had to give them.

"Well, must going.  Have quest for giant's dragon."

"Giant?"

"Yah, short guy over there.  Be seeing you." 'Raelf wandered off to talk
with his 'brother.'