Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

[Do we really look so ugly to you humans?]

«Scary,» Zorian corrected. «The word you’re looking for is ‘scary’. You probably shouldn’t have spent so much time lovingly describing how your fangs can easily punch through bone and hardened leather or how you kill your prey by driving said fangs into your victim’s neck and severing the spine.»

[But cats do the same thing, and cats are cute! You explained so yourself!]

«And then you butted in to note that cats are ‘yummy’, thus completely invalidating my attempt to make you seem less threatening,» Zorian noted.

Novelty sent him an unintelligible telepathic message accompanied by a note of annoyance. Zorian just shrugged and went back to his book while they waited for Tinami to show up.

«Oh. My. Goddess,» Tinami said, staring at Novelty like she was the best thing ever. «She’s beautiful!»

[Well yes, I don’t want to sound arrogant but I have been told I’m quite a looker,] Novelty preened, standing a little straighter and trying to look more dignified.

«And she really does talk telepathically, just like the stories say!» Tinami exclaimed. She turned towards Zorian. «Wherever did you meet one of them? How did you befriend her? Can I touch her? Do you think she’d teach me her ways if I ask? Do you—»

«I don’t think I’m capable of pulling off the ‘yes, yes, no, yes’ routine so one question at a time, please,» Zorian said. «Also, most of those questions you should be asking Novelty here instead of me.»

«Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be disrespectful and ignore you,» Tinami said, turning back to Novelty. «I was just excited and it felt natural to talk to the guy who brought me here. To be honest, I was half-convinced this was his idea of a prank and already had a little curse prepared—»

«Hey!» Zorian protested. «That’s totally illegal!»

«— but I guess it won’t be necessary now, and that’s probably for the best,» Tinami continued blithely, like she was not interrupted at all. She took a deep breath. «I’m Tinami Aope, by the way.»

30 minutes later, Zorian found himself unceremoniously booted out of the room so they could have some privacy. Ungrateful scum, the both of them. He considered spying on them with a scrying spell but considering their conversation mostly consisted of Tinami fawning over Novelty and the young aranea feeling very smug about the attention, he really wasn’t losing much. He remained close by for another half an hour, in case of possible problems springing about, but after a while it became obvious he wasn’t needed (nor much wanted) and entered the room to tell them he was going for a walk.

The moment he was far enough from Tinami that he could no longer feel her on the very edge of his mind sense he found a quiet corner and shrouded it in some basic anti-divination wards.

«You can come out now,» he said to no one in particular. The matriarch promptly stepped out of the nearby shadowed corner, fading into visibility. The trick was somehow less impressive now that he could duplicate the feat and become invisible himself. «So?»

[She is neither a time traveler nor is she connected to the invasion in any way,] the matriarch said. [And as far as she knows, neither is her family.]

Zorian nodded. He had expected that — the Aope were part of Eldemar’s ruling elite and tied far too tightly into its power-structure to participate in a wild stunt like this invasion, and Tinami was too genuine to his senses to be constantly pretending — but it was nice to have a confirmation. «You had no problems with her mental defenses?»

[She had them, but they were of the wrong sort, much like the ‘advanced’ ones you demonstrated to Novelty,] the matriarch said. [I’m certain she hadn’t noticed my intrusion, and I’ve done nothing except look so there should be no traces left for anyone to find.]

«There is no way for her to have fooled you?» Zorian asked. «I’ve read plenty of stories where people are pretending to be dominated by a spell cast by the villain, and then surprise him by a stab in the back once they let their guard down.»

[Must be a human mind magic thing. I can’t see that sort of thing happening to a psychic. Well, unless the target has constructed a fake mind on top of their real one and fooled the attacker into thinking it was the target’s actual mind. But that almost never happens. Constructing a fake mind that is actually convincing is really, really hard.]

Zorian blinked. He hadn’t even known that constructing ‘fake minds’ was possible.

«Well, sorry I bothered you with this, I guess,» Zorian said.