He follows her back into the Sanctum - thankfully, the wards don't go off, so he probably hasn't invited a malevolent extraplanar entity in - and back into a reasonable degree of warmth before he lets the portal close. The Cloak shakes a few flakes from its hem, then floats to settle over a nearby settee.
"The books? They are in the sense that I currently possess them. It's part of the collective library of the Masters of the Mystic Arts here on Earth. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme - the leader of them all. And, to finish your query, Earth is in what others might term the Sol System, in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, and what we call the Local Group of galaxies within a currently unnamed universe." Unnamed by the inhabitants, anyway.
"Are you familiar with tea? It consists of dried plant leaves steeped in boiling water, with or without milk and sugar added." Hopefully the language comes with enough concepts familiar to her to allow her a frame of reference. "Or I can try to provide something similar to what you might be used to if you tell me what that is."
Ah, now that is a title. She doesn't need to understand its constituent words perfectly to understand, based on its distribution and weight, that it means something to be the Sorcerer Supreme. Even if he hadn't followed it up with any additional qualifiers on leadership. Honestly, this influx of knowledge might have been overwhelming — but Jasnah finds it near-soothing. She nods, thoughtful, as he continues. The only thing that gives her true pause is the suspicion that she may have somehow left the Cosmere entirely, a feat that she'd only ever discussed as a hypothetical with the only person who might have ever otherwise managed it. Hmm.
"I know tea," she answers — delayed, mostly because she's busy eyeing the shelves, but she soon looks back to him and settles into a firm, standing posture. "And would like some, thank you. Without milk, without sugar."
Jasnah doesn't know this, of course, but tea on Roshar is really just a tisane. Nevertheless, the Connection makes one word rope-up with another and she understands, implicitly, what she's agreeing to. Something brewed, and she knows how she'd prefer something unsweetened. It's unlike her to drink anything she hasn't prepared herself, or hasn't soulcast, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Hm. Alright, time to build a different bridge first.
"Jasnah Kholin," she taps her right palm against her chest. And quite intentionally omits her titles. They won't mean anything here. "Before arriving here, I was in the tower city of Urithiru. The continent of Roshar. The planet Roshar." Not unlike the New York - New York nesting doll he introduced earlier.
Should she continue, like she asked him to continue? She considers for a moment.
"The Rosharan system. In the Cosmere. I — I don't know the galaxy. I don't know what a galaxy is."
Spoiler alert! What she thinks the universe is (the Cosmere) is in fact just a galaxy. But she doesn't know that. Either way, she doesn't seem in the least bit perturbed to admit to her shortfall in this topic.
"Does your spell grant you the ability to read English?" A slight tilt of his head towards the bookshelves. In fact, only about half the books are in some sort of English, and of those, maybe half bear names on the spines (all sorts of spines, bound in cloth and leather and wood and materials slightly more dubious, in all conditions of wear). The study contains the books that are safer to have around the uninitiated; the truly hazardous - by nature or by content - remain at Kamar-Taj.
Without waiting for an answer, he adds, "A galaxy is a group of millions - or more - of stars and their constituent systems." He seats himself on the edge of a red-upholstered armchair and produces a teapot and cups seemingly out of nowhere, though there is a tray on the low wooden table before them waiting to receive them. Perhaps he pulls this trick often enough that it's anticipated beforehand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Jasnah. I assume you're something of a bibliophile?" Because nobody looks at books like that unless they have a burning desire to crack them open. Stephen knows, because it's exactly how he would look put in front of a completely alien library.
"...Historian," she breathes the correction. It's easy and knee-jerk and answered by rote while she's still digesting his description of millions or more stars. It's a lot to think about, realizing that the breadth of her taxonomy might be too narrow to account for reality. Something else to chew on.
"And it wasn't a spell, I simply—" When she turns back, and sees the sudden teapot and cups, she frowns. Again, not with any kind of surprise or horror. She clearly isn't perturbed by the powers she witnesses. But they do furrow a line between her brows. Like she's trying to figure out how they fit together. Strange, new pieces.
He sits; she continues to stand.
"Is this English?" She points at her mouth, indicating the language they're speaking. "If so, then — yes. I'll be able to read it. I suppose you could say I borrowed some Connection. The bits of you that Connect you to your language."
Stephen doesn't expect her to be surprised; someone who routinely travels using magic isn't likely to bat an eyelash at suddenly-materializing beverages. He pours one cup for himself, one for her, and wafts her cup over on a saucer. No comment on her decision to remain standing.
"Borrowed some Connection via touch? Is it proximity-based? And is it limited to only one language?" He assumes that, as a historian, Jasnah already speaks more than one language; so does he, though he reads more than he speaks. Oh, he'd love to stick her in a MRI and see which parts of her brain light up - but magic doesn't always produce quantifiable results like that. And equipment is expensive to use.
"What were you trying to do when you came here?" Because maybe if he has a better idea, he can help her return home.
...He asks a lot of questions. Jasnah isn't bothered, but it does make her wonder whether this is what it's like for other people when they're on the opposite end of one of her barrages. Regardless, she takes a beat to lift the cup from where it floats — leave the saucer — and hold it carefully in her right hand.
She answers in reverse order, like dragging a finger up a card catalogue index from the bottom up.
"I was trying to go somewhere else. It's limited to the local tongue — it's a Connection to place, not strictly to language. If there's more than on common language in," a pause, "New York? I might be able to understand others. And, yes, by touch. Frankly, I wasn't sure it was going to work..."
Jasnah trails off, holding the cup close for warmth but not yet daring to take a sip.
"...Do you rule the city?"
A guess. Not a bad one, incidentally. Just a wrong one. But it tells a lot about where she's come from that she would look around, look at him, and assume ruler.
Years of training as a doctor have left Stephen inclined to gather as much information in any situation as possible, from reading charts to questioning patients - or, in this case, unexpected visitors. He can't diagnose the problem without fully understanding every aspect of it first.
"No, we have a form of elected government in charge here." But he does look faintly amused by the suggestion that he's a ruler. Even now, he can occasionally come off as distant, arrogant, and condescending, which are the traits he associates with nobility (not that he's met any before now). "I just keep it safe." For a given definition of "safe" that doesn't include "a Hulk rampaging a few blocks away", not that he'd been a sorcerer back then.
He takes a sip of tea before it grows much colder. "What is magic like on Roshar? Or whatever you call similar abilities."
He may notice — because she damned well doesn't hide it — the way her interest piques at the mention of an elected government. Jasnah has not introduced herself as such, but she's a rather...recently crowned queen. A last resort after her male relatives had all been killed or refused to inherit. Succession law had to be adapted to allow her reign. And, in the wake of one amendment, she intends to oversee more. If Jasnah Kholin has her way, the Alethi monarchy will be abolished within the year. Ambitious. But maybe there's something to be learned, here...
— She folds the notion, tucks it away, and will follow up on it later.
"Surges," she offers. "We call them Surges. A mishap with the Surge of Transportation landed me here. And then again, the Surge of Transformation with..." A bob of her head. The blood, the spectacle, the temporary quarantine behind yellow ribbon. "What happened earlier. Things aren't working as expected."
It seems other worlds are familiar with the concept of democracy, though he wonders idly what it might be called without the influence of Greek in the language. Magic - not his particular practice, but the general concept - tends to deal quite a lot with language and semantics, and in this case, he's especially interested to know how much ideas translate over this so-called Connection, but it's probably best to delve into that later.
"Transformation," he echoes thoughtfully. "I'm glad your, ah, Surges don't normally involve that much blood. It's a terribly dramatic way to conduct things." To say the least. "And it means no innocent bystanders were harmed - not that I saw evidence of any such thing." He wouldn't be nearly as calm about all of this if she had landed on Earth and started maiming the locals, because starting off with destruction on a smaller scale never bodes well for things on a larger scale. "Are the Surges innate, or can anyone learn to use them?"
Jasnah still hasn't taken a single sip of tea. Ideally, she would use Transformation to cleanse the drink — not because she distrusts Stephen specifically (although she absolutely does not trust him) but because it's half-habit and half-compulsion to Soulcast any food or drink she receives from someone else.
Lightly, carefully, she shifts the cup within her one hand. Wondering how long is just polite enough before she abandons it.
"Surges require a bond. Oaths. The being to whom I've sworn mine isn't here," she surmises, "hence the malfunction."
"That sounds...intimate." There's no better way of putting it, because a connection to another person can't be described as anything else; it doesn't mean it's physically intimate (not that he's judging Jasnah if it is), but it does sound like the sort of thing that lends itself to emotional intimacy. At the very least, it's a form of vulnerability, as Jasnah has just proven. Without one's partner, for lack of a better term, a Surge is impossible. But the flaw in the system is obvious, and there's no real need to point it out.
"Does physical distance affect the bond?" Stephen's back to asking more probing questions now. "If you were on a different continent in the same world, say, would your Surges be as strong as they were if you were next to them?" This might not be pertinent to getting Jasnah back home, but it is very much pertinent to his prying curiosity.
A flicker of a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. He's asking the right questions — the same questions she'd ask, if she was the one interviewing an unexpected interloper claiming the kinds of things she claims.
Her fingertips tap-tap-tap gently against the china cup. How much to share? With Ivory not here at all, presumably still bound back on Roshar, she may as well be sincere in her answer. She can't risk him any more than she already has.
"It does," she confirms. "More than a handful of miles, and the spren — the other involved party — starts to lose the sapience and anchoring in the Physical Realm they receive as their half of the bargain."
With her so, so far...? Storms, she hopes Ivory has taken refuge in the Cognitive Realm.
"Intent affects it too," she adds — eager to explain a little bit more if only because she's reacting so positively to his curiosity. "Break an oath, and you can actually harm them."
Oh, now his interest is piqued. These bond partners sound especially intriguing; entities that require an oath to give them both sapience and physicality sound fascinating. Stephen only regrets that he apparently can't meet Jasnah's.
"What sort of oaths do you swear to them?" He knows something about swearing to incorporeal entities - though the Vishanti are very much sapient, and would be insulted at any implication otherwise, and were once corporeal and chose to give up those forms for greater power. "And if there's a Physical Realm, I assume the counterpart is...spiritual? Mental? We have something similar called the Astral Plane."
Um, okay. Guy's got game. Jasnah abandons propriety altogether and, depositing the cup of untouched tea back on its original tray, she ventures a few steps nearer. Not, like, aggressively close — but equivalent perhaps as if they were sitting at a desk, across from one another. Him, seated on the side of the armchair. Her, standing a few feet back.
Again, she tackles his questions in reverse order. Starting with one of her favourite topics: Realmatic Theory.
"There are three. The Physical Realm — presumably where you and I are now, if Earth follows pattern. Then it's the Cognitive Realm...colloquially known as Shadesmar, where I'm from. A kind of inverse space. Thought and perception. And home to the spren, where they are perfectly self-aware even without a bond. Finally," she nods as though confirming his earlier assumption, "there is the Spiritual. I've not visited. It's — well, that would be a long conversation."
Oh. She's talkative, when the topic appeals to her.
"As for our oaths. Hm." Actually, with a wave of her right hand, she interrupts herself. "Wait. Was that your Astral Plane, earlier? The...reflective, angled space."
"No, that was the mirror dimension. It's - a splinter, I suppose. Not a separate branch of reality in and of itself, just a temporary...dislodging, I guess you could call it. It's not something that can be sustained indefinitely." Though the Ancient One might have been able to sustain it longer than he can, and he's considered fairly proficient. "The Astral Plane is one where you detach your-" soul is such an awkward and spiritually bound term, but it makes for convenient shorthand "-conscious self from your physical form." He suspects that one of Jasnah's other two realms might be something like this, perhaps the Cognitive Realm.
She hums a soft, attentive sound. If she had to guess — and she doesn't mind guessing, even if it risks being wrong — his Astral Plane sounds a lot like the Spiritual Realm. Perhaps? Again, hard to say without having been there herself. It was enough to hear Wit's vague, ominous descriptions of a space where one might fully lose themselves in visions, in memories, in the infinite web of possibilities.
— And she's got another theory or three about the mirror dimension, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
"I was in Shadesmar before I came here — trying to get somewhere else, but that somewhere else isn't keen on visitors. I suspect I got shunted elsewhere as a kind of defense mechanism on the part of that planet."
Not a complaint, just the truth. Although she does add: "Not that I intended that planet any harm, either. I was looking for someone. It doesn't matter. I'm here now."
And she'd like to get back. But there are some early obvious problems. But before he asks another question, her thoughts catch up to the earlier one she'd neglected to answer.
"—The oaths. Ah, they're different for different spren. Different Radiant orders. But the first are always the same."
She waits for some indication he'd like to know. She can share the First Ideal readily. They're no secret, even back home.
"How do you travel through Shadesmar?" This might involve more physics than Stephen typically gets into - he's a doctor, not a physicist - or it might just be Weird Magic Shit (which often operates by its own distinct logic, rather than explicable science, much to Tony Stark's dismay).
Anyway, he assumes that Jasnah can't access that realm now, so it's kind of a moot point, apart from his curiosity (which is significant in and of itself).
At least they're swapping information for information; it would be awkward (but hardly unusual) if Stephen were simply interrogating her on her world's magic. Speaking of which: "And that first oath?"
"Shadesmar?" She rolls the possible answers around the back of her tongue, thinking. "On foot, predominantly."
It's a slightly wry, too-literal answer. A sign (perhaps) that she's starting to shake some of the initial panic of her arrival.
"Shadesmar, or the Cognitive Realm, is the land of thought and perception. Inverse to the physical. Generally speaking, the only way to access it is by something called a Perpendicularity; however, some Radiants have the ability to crossover at will."
A soft, indicative tap of her sleeved hand against her chest. She is one of those Radiants. In fact, the only one. But that's not an important distinction right now.
"...And all Radiants start out with the same First Ideal: Life before death; strength before weakness; journey before destination. If your words are accepted, you gain rudimentary abilities."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 04:44 pm (UTC)"The books? They are in the sense that I currently possess them. It's part of the collective library of the Masters of the Mystic Arts here on Earth. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme - the leader of them all. And, to finish your query, Earth is in what others might term the Sol System, in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, and what we call the Local Group of galaxies within a currently unnamed universe." Unnamed by the inhabitants, anyway.
"Are you familiar with tea? It consists of dried plant leaves steeped in boiling water, with or without milk and sugar added." Hopefully the language comes with enough concepts familiar to her to allow her a frame of reference. "Or I can try to provide something similar to what you might be used to if you tell me what that is."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 05:00 pm (UTC)"I know tea," she answers — delayed, mostly because she's busy eyeing the shelves, but she soon looks back to him and settles into a firm, standing posture. "And would like some, thank you. Without milk, without sugar."
Jasnah doesn't know this, of course, but tea on Roshar is really just a tisane. Nevertheless, the Connection makes one word rope-up with another and she understands, implicitly, what she's agreeing to. Something brewed, and she knows how she'd prefer something unsweetened. It's unlike her to drink anything she hasn't prepared herself, or hasn't soulcast, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Hm. Alright, time to build a different bridge first.
"Jasnah Kholin," she taps her right palm against her chest. And quite intentionally omits her titles. They won't mean anything here. "Before arriving here, I was in the tower city of Urithiru. The continent of Roshar. The planet Roshar." Not unlike the New York - New York nesting doll he introduced earlier.
Should she continue, like she asked him to continue? She considers for a moment.
"The Rosharan system. In the Cosmere. I — I don't know the galaxy. I don't know what a galaxy is."
Spoiler alert! What she thinks the universe is (the Cosmere) is in fact just a galaxy. But she doesn't know that. Either way, she doesn't seem in the least bit perturbed to admit to her shortfall in this topic.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 06:13 pm (UTC)Without waiting for an answer, he adds, "A galaxy is a group of millions - or more - of stars and their constituent systems." He seats himself on the edge of a red-upholstered armchair and produces a teapot and cups seemingly out of nowhere, though there is a tray on the low wooden table before them waiting to receive them. Perhaps he pulls this trick often enough that it's anticipated beforehand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Jasnah. I assume you're something of a bibliophile?" Because nobody looks at books like that unless they have a burning desire to crack them open. Stephen knows, because it's exactly how he would look put in front of a completely alien library.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 06:23 pm (UTC)"And it wasn't a spell, I simply—" When she turns back, and sees the sudden teapot and cups, she frowns. Again, not with any kind of surprise or horror. She clearly isn't perturbed by the powers she witnesses. But they do furrow a line between her brows. Like she's trying to figure out how they fit together. Strange, new pieces.
He sits; she continues to stand.
"Is this English?" She points at her mouth, indicating the language they're speaking. "If so, then — yes. I'll be able to read it. I suppose you could say I borrowed some Connection. The bits of you that Connect you to your language."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 06:37 pm (UTC)"Borrowed some Connection via touch? Is it proximity-based? And is it limited to only one language?" He assumes that, as a historian, Jasnah already speaks more than one language; so does he, though he reads more than he speaks. Oh, he'd love to stick her in a MRI and see which parts of her brain light up - but magic doesn't always produce quantifiable results like that. And equipment is expensive to use.
"What were you trying to do when you came here?" Because maybe if he has a better idea, he can help her return home.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 06:47 pm (UTC)She answers in reverse order, like dragging a finger up a card catalogue index from the bottom up.
"I was trying to go somewhere else. It's limited to the local tongue — it's a Connection to place, not strictly to language. If there's more than on common language in," a pause, "New York? I might be able to understand others. And, yes, by touch. Frankly, I wasn't sure it was going to work..."
Jasnah trails off, holding the cup close for warmth but not yet daring to take a sip.
"...Do you rule the city?"
A guess. Not a bad one, incidentally. Just a wrong one. But it tells a lot about where she's come from that she would look around, look at him, and assume ruler.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 07:10 pm (UTC)"No, we have a form of elected government in charge here." But he does look faintly amused by the suggestion that he's a ruler. Even now, he can occasionally come off as distant, arrogant, and condescending, which are the traits he associates with nobility (not that he's met any before now). "I just keep it safe." For a given definition of "safe" that doesn't include "a Hulk rampaging a few blocks away", not that he'd been a sorcerer back then.
He takes a sip of tea before it grows much colder. "What is magic like on Roshar? Or whatever you call similar abilities."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-19 07:16 pm (UTC)— She folds the notion, tucks it away, and will follow up on it later.
"Surges," she offers. "We call them Surges. A mishap with the Surge of Transportation landed me here. And then again, the Surge of Transformation with..." A bob of her head. The blood, the spectacle, the temporary quarantine behind yellow ribbon. "What happened earlier. Things aren't working as expected."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 10:11 pm (UTC)"Transformation," he echoes thoughtfully. "I'm glad your, ah, Surges don't normally involve that much blood. It's a terribly dramatic way to conduct things." To say the least. "And it means no innocent bystanders were harmed - not that I saw evidence of any such thing." He wouldn't be nearly as calm about all of this if she had landed on Earth and started maiming the locals, because starting off with destruction on a smaller scale never bodes well for things on a larger scale. "Are the Surges innate, or can anyone learn to use them?"
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 10:24 pm (UTC)Jasnah still hasn't taken a single sip of tea. Ideally, she would use Transformation to cleanse the drink — not because she distrusts Stephen specifically (although she absolutely does not trust him) but because it's half-habit and half-compulsion to Soulcast any food or drink she receives from someone else.
Lightly, carefully, she shifts the cup within her one hand. Wondering how long is just polite enough before she abandons it.
"Surges require a bond. Oaths. The being to whom I've sworn mine isn't here," she surmises, "hence the malfunction."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 10:35 pm (UTC)"Does physical distance affect the bond?" Stephen's back to asking more probing questions now. "If you were on a different continent in the same world, say, would your Surges be as strong as they were if you were next to them?" This might not be pertinent to getting Jasnah back home, but it is very much pertinent to his prying curiosity.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 10:41 pm (UTC)Her fingertips tap-tap-tap gently against the china cup. How much to share? With Ivory not here at all, presumably still bound back on Roshar, she may as well be sincere in her answer. She can't risk him any more than she already has.
"It does," she confirms. "More than a handful of miles, and the spren — the other involved party — starts to lose the sapience and anchoring in the Physical Realm they receive as their half of the bargain."
With her so, so far...? Storms, she hopes Ivory has taken refuge in the Cognitive Realm.
"Intent affects it too," she adds — eager to explain a little bit more if only because she's reacting so positively to his curiosity. "Break an oath, and you can actually harm them."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 10:54 pm (UTC)"What sort of oaths do you swear to them?" He knows something about swearing to incorporeal entities - though the Vishanti are very much sapient, and would be insulted at any implication otherwise, and were once corporeal and chose to give up those forms for greater power. "And if there's a Physical Realm, I assume the counterpart is...spiritual? Mental? We have something similar called the Astral Plane."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 11:02 pm (UTC)Again, she tackles his questions in reverse order. Starting with one of her favourite topics: Realmatic Theory.
"There are three. The Physical Realm — presumably where you and I are now, if Earth follows pattern. Then it's the Cognitive Realm...colloquially known as Shadesmar, where I'm from. A kind of inverse space. Thought and perception. And home to the spren, where they are perfectly self-aware even without a bond. Finally," she nods as though confirming his earlier assumption, "there is the Spiritual. I've not visited. It's — well, that would be a long conversation."
Oh. She's talkative, when the topic appeals to her.
"As for our oaths. Hm." Actually, with a wave of her right hand, she interrupts herself. "Wait. Was that your Astral Plane, earlier? The...reflective, angled space."
no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-26 11:21 pm (UTC)— And she's got another theory or three about the mirror dimension, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
"I was in Shadesmar before I came here — trying to get somewhere else, but that somewhere else isn't keen on visitors. I suspect I got shunted elsewhere as a kind of defense mechanism on the part of that planet."
Not a complaint, just the truth. Although she does add: "Not that I intended that planet any harm, either. I was looking for someone. It doesn't matter. I'm here now."
And she'd like to get back. But there are some early obvious problems. But before he asks another question, her thoughts catch up to the earlier one she'd neglected to answer.
"—The oaths. Ah, they're different for different spren. Different Radiant orders. But the first are always the same."
She waits for some indication he'd like to know. She can share the First Ideal readily. They're no secret, even back home.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 06:32 pm (UTC)Anyway, he assumes that Jasnah can't access that realm now, so it's kind of a moot point, apart from his curiosity (which is significant in and of itself).
At least they're swapping information for information; it would be awkward (but hardly unusual) if Stephen were simply interrogating her on her world's magic. Speaking of which: "And that first oath?"
no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 06:48 pm (UTC)It's a slightly wry, too-literal answer. A sign (perhaps) that she's starting to shake some of the initial panic of her arrival.
"Shadesmar, or the Cognitive Realm, is the land of thought and perception. Inverse to the physical. Generally speaking, the only way to access it is by something called a Perpendicularity; however, some Radiants have the ability to crossover at will."
A soft, indicative tap of her sleeved hand against her chest. She is one of those Radiants. In fact, the only one. But that's not an important distinction right now.
"...And all Radiants start out with the same First Ideal: Life before death; strength before weakness; journey before destination. If your words are accepted, you gain rudimentary abilities."
A beat.
"Are your arts unbound by oath or vows?"