Sophia - Dorotea

Sophia awoke and stumbled to the kitchen. Blearily, she looked for the coffee maker before memory returned. "Awake at last," Dorotea called from her seat on a high stool near one of the many counters. Sophia fumbled through the steps to make coffee, without replying to Dorotea. "What are your plans today? Going to fix this thing so I can go home?"

Sophia just grimaced, filled a cup and sipped coffee. Finally she replied, "Is there any way to convince you that I have no clue about how to fix this thing?"

"Not really, no. You have a magical aura that is obviously attached to this thing and you are able to command it. How could you be in that position without understanding?"

Sophia slumped forward on her stool and put her head in her hands. "Believe what you have to. I know I need things called 'Control Crystals' for something in the 'Core Systems'. The Core Systems I will look at this morning, and I know what control crystals look like, but I have no idea how to find them."

"Let's go then!" Dorotea stood and headed for a door. "Lead on."

"I need coffee and food first," Sophia replied, still leaning heavily on the counter next to her stool.

Dorotea stared at her for a few minutes, then rose, walked to the cooler and began pulling out food. She slammed a large plate of cheese, cold mystery meat, and bread in front of Sophia. "There, food." She hovered while Sophia slowly ate several bites and then said, "Ok, you can come back for the rest."

Sophia glared at her, but got slowly to her feet and led the way through the dining room, the throne room, and to a hidden door in one of the skull carvings behind the throne. She kept a firm hold on her coffee cup as she descended the narrow ladder to a small room with a single oval metal door. The wheel handle spun easily, withdrawing the heavy steel locking pins from their holdings and the door swung away from her on well oiled hinges. A ragged, uneven pulsing sound beat on them as they stepped into the massive room. Machinery, wires, cables, tubes, and odd constructions filled the room in a tangle of confusing clusters. Magical energy hammered against Dorotea's senses, driving her into a huddled crouch as she slowly followed Sophia into the room.

Sophia stopped and stared around the room. Concept sketches came back to her and she slowly approached the third panel on the right. She reached out and touched one of the buttons. A screen lit up and text began scrolling up it. "Damn it, what was that command, ah right!" Her fingers flew as she typed in the command for low level details of all failures. A list of damaged control crystals and their locations printed across the screen. "Why didn't I pay attention in those design meetings?" she muttered as she looked at the list.

"What?" Dorotea asked from where she was huddled on the floor next to the console.

"Nothing, just wishing about the past and mumbling to myself."

"When I want to remember, I try thinking of something else. What the sky was like, if there was a particular scent in the air, what I had recently eaten, things like that. It tricks the mind into a context and then the memories often return," Dorotea suggested through clenched teeth. "Are you close to finished? I can't take much more of this."

"You could wait in the throne room." Sophia frowned in concentration and then smiled, "Yes, I remember. They are accessible from this world. If they weren't, there would be no way to get anywhere. Where were they going to be? Right, we hadn't decided yet."

"This isn't a game, girl. Unless you are a godling, and if you are, you should send me back. Right this instant!"

"Godling, right, in my dreams. I'm just a community coordinator and character designer. I bet I could tell you a lot about yourself, Tyana, and Kyira, and maybe even some of the citizens of nearby cities, but that's it."

"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" Dorotea muttered, crawling toward the door.

"Oh, yeah, sure..." Sophia replied in a distracted tone. Once they were back in the throne room Sophia settled into the throne and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Not really. I can feel magical energy and that place was worse than the rest of this place. Can't you feel it?"

"A bit, maybe. There's a sense of warmth and comfort but also a sense of sickness and pain. If you can sense magic, can you also find magical items? If I were to show you one of the control crystals, could you narrow in on it? It would really help."

"What you ask is no simple thing, girl. It would require great spells and months or years of research to create such a spell and it would only work if the thing in question was not ensorcelled to prevent discovery. Why can't you find them? You're linked to this thing, shouldn't you be able to feel parts of it?"

"I don't know. It didn't occur to me to try it."

"Maybe we should go try then? You seem completely confused about so many things, so I must ask, what skills do you have?"

"I can create characters, set them up, recruit actors and..."

"No girl, what kinds of survival skills? What magics do you know, what weapons can you wield, that sort of thing."

"Uh, none..."

"None! And I have to rely on you to get me home? What sick fate have the gods conspired for me now?" A deep gong shimmered through the air of the throne room. "What the hell was that?"

"A summons from friends of mine. I could go to them if this thing worked."

"I need to think. I'll be in the library," Dorotea said as she strode off abruptly.

"Do you think she's safe?" Tyana asked from the air.

"Keep an eye on her. Tell Kyira to carefully watch what she selects to read. I think she's ok, but let's not take too many chances with her. Is there any way you can speed teach me anything to help me venture out of here sooner? She's going to get bothersome very soon, I suspect."

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple, mistress. I wish it were," Tyana replied.