ATWinPC-13

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==Chapter 13 - A Toreel Wizard in Prince Davion's Court==
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===Something for our Benefit===
Euschelus, Taurian ConcordatOctober 14th, 3025
Their hosts seemed convinced, but Chim still had one more trick to perform. Not for their benefit, not really. But for herself, and her companions.
"You sure about this?" L'heo asked, holding a small bag full of diamonds in his hand. "We don't know how hard it will be to come by these."
"We need to know if this can work," Chim said. She'd placed the charred skull she'd recovered from the ruined war machine she'd defeated on the ground before her. "We can't afford to just guess or hope for the best. We... I need to know."
The brigadier was still observing them. In fact he'd had others come out to watch, wanting to document everything, complete with using their camera machines to make a record. 
"So, for the record," he said. "What are you trying to do here?"
Chim sighed. "When..." she hesitated. "When a person dies, their soul passes on to the astral on its journey to the plane of judgement." Or at least that was how it worked back home. That was really the point of this experiment. Could souls exist separate from their bodies here? Did... did these people even have souls to begin with? "The journey to the plane of judgement can take years, even centuries. At any point before it's finished, before the soul incarnates again and is judged by the higher powers, the right magic can bring it back."
"I get that you're magical and all," the brigadier said. "But I'm not inclined to believe this talk of afterlives and judgement and all that."
I was frustrating. But Chim was getting used to it. "I understand. Even if this works I'm sure we would be arguing over the details for years to come." This would be so much easier if they were back home, where she could take naysayers to literally see things like the river of souls, or the boneyards, or actually talk to the dead waiting for judgement there, or the ancient dragons and higher beings that stood in judgement over them. Getting people to accept things on faith is a real pain in the neck.
"Even if it works?" the brigadier asked. "Not certain it will?"
More uncertain than she was prepared to let on. "Souls on their way to judgement aren't really conscious," Chim said. "But they have some will. They have a sense of the person trying to call them back, and they can choose not to return." Chim shrugged, trying to nonchalantly not think about how none of these rules may apply here. "Sometimes it just doesn't work."
The brigadier nodded to the bag of diamonds as L'heo poured them out and formed them into a ring around the skull. "And the shiny rocks?"
"It's..." having never really thought about it, Chim momentarily blanked on how to explain it. "It's like the price the universe charges for making the magic work. This isn't exactly my area of expertise, so I have to lean on more powerful magic and kinda force it into the right shape. More power means a higher price. So more diamonds than an archpriest might need. On the plus side, I can cast it faster." 
"Huh," the brigadier said. "So the universe is naturally capitalistic. Nobody tell the Syndicalist Party."
Chim looked up at him. "You seem remarkably flippant about this."
The brigadier shrugged. "Either you're blowing smoke up my ass and nothing's going to happen. Or I'm about to watch you raise the dead," he seemed to absently touch the device on his glove, "and the whole universe is going to have to figure out what that means."
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===Raising the Prisoner===
Brigadier Fiscus has seen a trivid way back in secondary school biology outlining the structures and systems of the human body, played out over the course of an hour, starting from the skeleton and gradually adding organs and layers of muscle and other tissue, providing narration on their function and makeup. 
This was a little bit like that, except there was no narration, it happened in a matter of seconds, and this wasn't any trivid. First, the young girl spoke some words in a tongue that Fiscus didn't recognize, then the circle of diamonds around the skull seemed to dissolve into some sort of glowing light swirling around the skull and lifting it into the air as tissue began to grow and form around and inside it. In a matter of seconds a fully formed nude man stood before them, wearing a face that Fiscus immediately recognized from the many bounty notices and mug books kept back at the command post. 
There was recognition in the man's eyes as well, not directed at Fiscus, but the small girl standing before him. "What?" he said. "You... what happened?" Only then did he notice the uniformed soldiers standing around him and his eyes filled with panic. Instinctively, the pirate tried to run, only to be grabbed by two of the troopers who had been on hand to witness the event.
Fiscus' mind wasn't on that, however. His attention was on the girl, briefly noting the absolute relief on her face. Well how fortunate for her, he thought to himself, trying to calculate the nightmare he just witnessed. 
"So..." he said. "It worked."
"Yeah," the girl said. "I was pretty worried there for a bit."
"It's all true, then," Fiscus concluded. "Everything my people witnessed, everything I saw you do. You can conjure fireballs, launch mechs like toys, turn lumps of concrete or disabled mechs into automatons that walk around at your whim, blow up dropships..."
"That was an accident," the girl said sheepishly. "I thought I could just disable it by transmuting part of it to wood. I didn't know it would explode."
"..." And Fiscus didn't think he could be surprised at this point. "You can just do that, turn one material into another?"
"Well... yeah?" the girl replied. "I promise to be more careful about that."
"Sure," Fiscus agreed. "Be more careful." Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear his college physics teacher demanding to know how that could make any sense. "And I guess you can bring back the dead. How often can you do that?"
"Only a few times per day at most, if I prepare for it," the girl said like that was reassuring. "And as you've seen it takes a lot of diamonds."
"Right," Fiscus said. "Gem quality or industrial grade? Does the universe have a preference?" He immediately waved off her confusion. "And I suspect what we've seen is only part of what you can do, too. And you just don't even..."
He stopped himself. The girl waited expectantly. Their new prisoner struggled in the hands of the guards. 
"I'm gonna give you a suggestion," he finally said. "And it's a very good idea you listen to me."
"Okay?"
"Ditch the guys you came here with," Fiscus said. "Stay here. After that, we'll either make arrangements for you to go to Taurus, meet our leaders." Though saying it Fiscus knew even that would be a mistake. "Or better yet, go home. I'll personally make arrangements to get a ship to take you back to your homeworld."
The girl shook her head. "I can't do that. I've already agreed to accompany Captain Doug's people to meet his leaders. Besides, you've got this whole vast civilization spanning stars that we'd never even conceived as possible. How could I not want to see it all?"
Fiscus sighed. It wasn't really surprising. You didn't volunteer to get on one of these ships and travel for months if you didn't want to see what was on the other end of the journey, after all. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, then raised his wrist and the communicator in his glove to his face.
"All teams," he ordered. "Take the shot."
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Author's Chapter Notes : Reader Comment; That's probably gnomish. Goblins probably speak German, but evidently, I suggested a Slavic tongue before, and I gave German to the dwarfs. LG seems to favor Japanese for Chim's dialect, but he also specifies that her kingdom is isolated from many others Author Comment/Answer; I originally considered Japanese for their language, but I recently got what I think is the great idea of assigning Japanese as the language of the Catfolk. (Because catgirls). I was thinking a Gaelic dialect might be a good fit for Gnomes, so I think Scottish works. Sapphire Islanders (the region where Chim is from) speaking Welsh as the common tongue.
==Languages of Toreel==
HABeas2 the original author and developer of the non-canon BattleTech sourcebook Welcome to the Nebula California would give permission to reveal a full breakdown of languages spoke on the Toreel, Dungeons and Dragons home world of Chim and her companions.
Languages/Racial Evolutions of Toreel
 Languages/Racial Evolutions of Toreel - Racial Tongues
Toreelian Tongue 	Species Basis 	Actual Language
Common (Toreelic) 	Human 	English (American/British)
Dwarfish (Eisengard)	Human Mutation 	German
Draconic 	Reptile Mutation (Native) 	Klingon
High Elfish 	Human Mutation 	French
Merfolk? 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Cetacean) 	Spanish
Serpentfolk? 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Serpent) 	Greek
Orcish 	Human Mutation 	Russian
Goblinoid 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Reptilian)	Polish
Gnomish (Halfling) 	Human Mutation 	English (Australian)
Gnomish (Mekaven) 	Human Mutation 	Gaelic (Scots)
Druidic 	as Race 	Tolkein Elfish
Celestial (Angelic) 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Avian) 	Latin
Infernal (Demonic) 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Ruminant) 	Babylonian
Abyssal (Eldritch) 	Cephalopod Mutation (Native) 	R’Lyehian (Cthulhu)
Catfolk 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Feline) 	Japanese
Kitsune 	Hybrid Mutation (Human/Vulpine) 	Japanese
 Languages/Racial Evolutions of Toreel - National Languages
Toreel Nation 	Dominant Species Basis 	Primary Language
Kingdoms of Man 	Mixed Race (Human-dominant) 	English
Kingdom of Eisengard	Mixed Race (Dwarf-dominant) 	German
Kingdom of Vaslen 	Mixed Race (Human-dominant) 	Welsh
Concorde of the Seas	Mixed Race (Merfolk-dominant?)	Spanish
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