The Magic Box, Wednesday

[iceolatedqueen]

It occurred to Elsa that she really didn't know quite how to get in touch with Rinoa if there were things she wanted to ask her about. Things, like, say, going into the back room and pulling out all of the potentially dangerous reading material that Rinoa had packed safely away when she'd first opened shop here. The books out front were all fine

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[angelo_wings]

Lady Caraway wasn't finding much information, but she wasn't about to give up so easily. There was a magic store on the island; surely some of the items there might indicate what was going on, with the temporal rifts that had been appearing.

She had taken some of the Lieutenant Commander and Mr. St-- Jono's advice, such as it was, and toned down her wardrobe a touch. Not quite street clothes, obviously, but considerably less outlandish than her usual.

"Good afternoon," she greeted the girl at the counter. "Would you mind telling me where the reference materials are?"

(fleeing for work but wanted to establish her here first! SP ok??)

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa laughed again, not unkindly. "I didn't say no reason," she said. "I have all the usual normal fears. And I could go mad. Some Sorceresses do. It used to eat me up, worrying about it."

[iceolatedqueen]

Well, there, then. All the more reason to continue hiding, handed right to her, just like that. Elsa glanced up briefly, eyes wide.

"Go mad? Be... be overwhelmed by your own power? Or...?"

It wasn't something that had escaped Elsa's own personal list of fears, no.

[angelo_wings]

"It's happened before," Rinoa admitted, fingering the ring on her necklace. "Not to me! I mean ... other Sorceresses. There's just so much there. The idea is, it's hard to find your way back again. Back to you. So some people get lost."

[iceolatedqueen]

"I wonder," Elsa murmured, "if those people are the ones that never really had much of a handle on who it is they were meant to be in the first place?"

[angelo_wings]

Lady Caraway wondered if the other-her was mentoring this girl. She could hope so. If not, clearly that was her job, wasn't it?

Maybe they weren't staying long, but sometimes the smallest things could help.

"I think it's more subtle than that," she said gently. "I think it's ... it's what you have ties to. If you love reading books in a sunny window, if you remember the taste of chocolate on your tongue, if you have someone you love and would never let go of? Those things can anchor you to you, no matter how much power is swirling around. I may be a lot of things, I may be the Sorceress, but I still get to be Rinoa."

[iceolatedqueen]

Fantastic. Elsa's ties to solitude and terror would do her wonders, right?

"... Singing," Elsa ventured. "I like to sing, but mostly alone. And... study."

Not that she needed them! For any reason! Really!

[angelo_wings]

"I play the piano," Rinoa replied. "Music is its own kind of magic."

Elsa should remember that, if ever she needed to. As for Lady Caraway, she was sadly on a mission, and probably had tarried far longer than she ought.

She looked up at the store again, frowning. "If I ... own this store," she said, "or, another me does? Does that mean ... that I can borrow some of the inventory?"

[iceolatedqueen]

"I... suppose you can," Elsa replied after a moment, dragging her thoughts away from the possibility of going absolutely mad in favor of thinking about what stock Lady Caraway might be in need of. "Was there anything in particular that you were hoping for?"

[angelo_wings]

"Books," Rinoa said. "I'm not going to destroy anything, but this store might have more useful tomes than even the library. Some of it might be dangerous, but I can handle myself around books."

Plus they were going to smell like old books. Nice little perk.

[iceolatedqueen]

Old books really did have a certain something to them, didn't they?

Besides dust.

"I was actually..." Elsa glanced down at the book she'd tucked away. "I was thinking the same thing. But it seems to me that you'd have a better chance of finding your way to something useful than I've been."

[angelo_wings]

"Nonsense," Rinoa said, offering a warm smile. "You're the employee, here. We could work in half the time if we split up the task. I'd appreciate another pair of eyes helping out."

If Elsa liked, she could pretend it was because she was a lowly employee, and not because she was clearly a fellow Sorceress. Lady Caraway didn't mind.

[iceolatedqueen]

"I can certainly offer another pair of eyes," Elsa replied, nodding faintly as she pulled the book she'd been leafing through up and set it on the counter. "I... possibly already have been. Rinoa... your counterpart... had me searching for anything I could find about portals or rifts. She seemed to think there was something to that."

[angelo_wings]

"Then that's an excellent place to start," she said. "Good use of initiative. I'd authorize a raise, if I knew how to do that."

A little counterpart-universe humor.

[iceolatedqueen]

"That's fine. If I decide I need it, I'll remind our own Rinoa once everybody goes back home and this is all sorted out," Elsa offered with a wry smile. "I didn't really take this job for the pay, though."

She hardly needed the money.